Happy 250th! For an interesting wrinkle to the whole thing, check out the exciting discovery below. 👇🏻

Hoover Research Fellow @jgienapp.bsky.social was part of a team of scholars that authenticated recently discovered documents written by John Dickinson in 1775 that revealed the Founding Father's previously unknown efforts to prevent the American Revolution.

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of this,” says @jgienapp.bsky.social. “This is a very serious attempt by arguably the leading politician in America at the time to broker a peace and prevent the American Revolution from happening that we’ve never known about before.”

Before the U.S. Constitution there was the Articles of Confederation, the drafting of which began before independence was even declared. Listen to me and Jane Calvert of @jdproject.bsky.social discuss it with @lizcovart.bsky.social on @bfworld.bsky.social. benfranklinsworld.com/episode-445-...

On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress held a vote on whether to declare independence from Great Britain. John Dickinson, who had spoken eloquently against it the day before, knew how the vote would go.

On this day in 1776, driven by conscience, John Dickinson gave his final speech against declaring independence. He was willing to ruin his reputation to save his country. Explaining that he wasn't opposed to independence per se, just the timing, he reiterated his concerns that America wasn't ready.

and, most remarkably, 7) protection women's religious liberty and freedom of public speech. Hear about these things and more on this episode of Ben Franklin's World with Jane Calvert and Jonathan Gienapp:

2) that only Congress could declare war; 3) no government officer could accept gifts from foreign leaders or heads of state; 4) no standing army; 6) a query suggesting slavery ought to be abolished;

In June 1776, John Dickinson made the most revolutionary contribution to the American Revolution. He wrote a draft of the Articles of Confederation intended to protect Americans' most basic rights. Among the key provisions were 1) a strong central government to which the states would be subordinate;

What better as an inaugural post than to announce the publication of an article in the NYT about the work of the John Dickinson Writings Project and the discovery of several remarkable new Dickinson documents?

One of the most incredible things I have ever worked on: Recently discovered documents, written by John Dickinson in 1775, that reveal his secret and previously unknown efforts to prevent the American Revolution. Now featured in the New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/u...

woah. as i like to say, one has to make room for both T Paine & J Dickinson. JD was at every major deliberation from the stamp act congress thru 87, yet refused to sign the declaration. a man running PA and DE at the same time cannot be called unrepresentative. the revolution was big & complex.

In honor of the last regular decision day of this appalling #SCOTUS term, @talkingpointsmemo.com has an adapted excerpt from my forthcoming book, The Political Supreme Court. Put it in your pocket for the next time someone tells you the justices are apolitical or calling balls & strikes.

Amazing research! Come for the efforts to prevent the Revolution, stay for the ALEC-style 18th century legislative lobbying (including a draft bill)

Major props to the WMQ team, led by @juliagaffield.bsky.social and Meg Musselwhite, who moved heaven and earth to get the documents online by today. The WMQ has been amazing from start to finish. @oieahc.bsky.social

Amazing find. Come for the fascinating glimpse into the mind of John Dickinson as the colonies careened toward war with the mother country. Stay for the little page-turney sound thing that the OI reader does when you "flip" through the electronic pages.💾

Hey, I saw "1776" - I already knew about Dickinson

And it's a fantastic example of *what scholarship can do.* Long after the misc in DC for the 4th comes down, the WMQ essays will tell us about the ongoing work of understanding this period. Love that @oieahc.bsky.social put the docs on the OI Reader. Dickinson _Letters_ @jcblibrary.bsky.social.

This is an incredible story, a view via letters in the summer and fall of 1775 into just how determined Dickinson was (and surely reflecting others) to prevent revolution. Noting Dickinson's 1767-68 series _Letters from A Farmer_ arguing against colonial taxation was reprinted in London in 1774.

Another sneak peek at what's coming in the July issue of the William and Mary Quarterly!

Cool documents found in the attic story about the coming of the American Revolution

This is so cool!!

Always to the right; never to the left indeed?

This is an amazing find. Interesting to me since my step-mother was a Dickinson descendant who, by family tradition, still used it as her middle name and who had 18th century paintings of relatives.

My annual re-watching of 1776 is going to hit harder this year.

A fascinating (and cool) find—and a great read. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/u...

Breaking news from 1775! For serious readers, the William and Mary Quarterly will soon make these documents and a scholarly Forum on them openly available online for 30 days in its July 2026 issue. Stay tuned. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/u...

One of the most incredible things I have ever worked on: Recently discovered documents, written by John Dickinson in 1775, that reveal his secret and previously unknown efforts to prevent the American Revolution. Now featured in the New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/u...

And no one can explain this hyper-scholastic debate better than @jgienapp.bsky.social.

America turns 250 in 2026, but how should we understand the Constitution drafted so long ago? Read Constitutional Originalism and History on Process blog: https://ow.ly/aQU650ZcrXY

This was one of the first books about the American Revolution I read in college. It was like opening an entirely new door and I devoured it like I would a novel.

Deeply saddened to learn of Gordon Wood's passing. Few have had an equal impact on the study of the American Founding, or on my own intellectual development. No book is more responsible for making me a historian of early constitutional history than Wood's *The Creation of the American Republic*.

@jgienapp.bsky.social wrote a fantastic essay to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gordon Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The book, along with Bailyn’s “Ideological Origins,” set the terms of debate for the next decades. Link to the essay in the next post:

little league baseball and the battle against originalism!! really looking forward to digging into this. @jgienapp.bsky.social

Pleased to post my draft article, “Discovering the Historical Anglo-American Constitution.” I study the history of birthright citizenship from the 1100s to the 1700s. The English common-law rule of natural-born subjects was always tied to territory and jurisdiction. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"I mentioned earlier that there are two big problems with the unitary executive theory. The second one is that regardless of its pedigree, it is so broad that it can’t actually be implemented consistently." - @jessewegman.bsky.social @brennancenter.org www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

4/22 webinar: In an era of polarized historical memory, how can colleges and universities teach history in ways that strengthen democratic culture? Join Mary Clark, Suzanne Marchand, Jeffrey Collins, and Hoover's @jgienapp.bsky.social for "Historical Thinking and Democratic Citizenship". RSVP ⤵️

Honestly still in shock by its placement, but my article (and job talk paper), “Indigenous Constitutionalism,” is officially out in the Harvard Law Review. A brief thread on this project🧵 harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...

Had a lovely chat this morning with a university physicist who assured me that law professors trying to compare themselves to Einstein and others to Sir Isaac Newton are not even right about their condescending insult.

New at Can We Still Govern?: @unlawfulentries.bsky.social puts yesterday's oral arguments about birthright citizenship into historical perspective, noting how the Fourteenth Amendment took aim at internal migration laws that restricted movement. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rememberin...

Not sure whether this is apt or terrible timing but here’s the official cover of my book due out with @uncpress.bsky.social W. Hodding Carter III imprint this fall. 🎉

After years of research, Daphna Renan & I are thrilled to announce preorders of SUPREMACY. Why is US democracy so broken? One reason is we've wrongly accepted that 9 justices have the final say over the Constitution. This book traces how that happened—& how we can reclaim power to govern ourselves.