Townshend Acts
John Dickinson, a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer and member of the Pennsylvania assembly, took part in the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, and drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. In 1767, following the passage of the Townshend Acts, Dickinson set out in his pseudonymous "Letters" to clarify the constitutional question of Parliament's authority to tax the colonies, and to urge the colonists to take moderate action in order to oppose the Townshend Acts. The "Letters" were first published in the "Pennsylvania Chronicle", and then reprinted in most newspapers throughout the colonies. The "Letters" were also reprinted in London, with a preface written by Benjamin Franklin, and in Paris and Dublin.