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The book won the 2025 Order of the Coif Book Award from the Association of American Law Schools. orderofthecoif.org/book-award

Oh wonderful!

Thanks, Nate! I hope you enjoy.

Well put, Jack.

This was, without question, one of the most exciting things I have ever worked on. I'm thrilled that the whole forum is now available for all to read.

It was a privilege to work with the remarkable WMQ team @oieahc.bsky.social, led by editors @juliagaffield.bsky.social and Meg Musselwhite, who did so much to improve every aspect of the forum. The journal lived up to its legendary reputation for rigorous editorial attention.

Finally, my own essay, "Drawing Lines: John Dickinson's Gambit and the Ambiguities of Federal Union." It traces continuities between Dickinson’s draft legislation which aimed to preserve the British Empire and similar attempts to hold together the new American federal union thereafter.

Next comes Jane E. Calvert, "John Dickinson versus John Adams in the Second Continental Congress: Debunking the Myth of Adams's 'piddling Genius' Letter." It contends that Dickinson’s letters undermine John Adams’s later influential account of the proceedings of the Second Continental Congress.

Then William B. Ewald, "John Dickinson's Apotropaic Comma." It argues that Dickinson used ambiguous wording and punctuation—in particular, a clever comma—in his draft act to overcome the fact that British leaders and American colonists were committed to irreconcilable constitutional principles.

Then David Como, "The Olive Branch and the Rod: John Dickinson's Project in British Context." It situates Dickinson’s peace bid in the context of contemporary British politics and previous failed reconciliation attempts.

The forum then features five scholarly essays that place the documents in context and interpret their significance. The first is by Jack N. Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social, "John Dickinson and the Politics of Conscience." It argues that Dickinson was driven by a principled disagreement with Congress.

The transcriptions and annotations were then completed by the remarkable team at the John Dickinson Writings Project: Director Jane Calvert, Associate Editor Ian Iverson, and Assistant Editors Abigail Mortell, Ian Tonat, and Daniel Bottino. Their work was essential to this project.

The initial transcriptions were done by Donovan Rees, a specialist at London rare book and manuscript dealers Bernard Quaritch Ltd., who brought the documents to light after they were identified among the papers of a branch of the Barclay family. The discovery was chronicled in the New York Times.

The Founding Father Who Sought a Last-Minute Deal to Avert the RevolutionRecently discovered documents reveal a back-channel attempt by a leader of the Continental Congress to make peace. (He did not succeed.)www.nytimes.com

Then onto the star of the show, the documents themselves: two letters and a draft act that Dickinson sent to the banker David Barclay Jr. in London in mid-1775. The letters warned that America was on the brink. The enclosed draft legislation was written for Parliament to adopt to end the crisis.

The forum begins with an Introduction to the documents by me and Jane Calvert (director of the John Dickinson Writings Project @jdproject.bsky.social and expert on all things Dickinson).

More on the documents discovery here:

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

Thank you for your superb work.

These are good readings. As you detect, a lot of nuance here. The documents are rich!

I love the little page-turney sound thing.