The twelve letters were widely read and reprinted throughout the Thirteen Colonies, and were important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts in the run-up to the American Revolution.

[2] The twelve letters are written in the voice of a fictional farmer, who is described as modest but learned, an American Cincinnatus, and the text is laid out in a highly organized pattern "along the lines of ancient rhetoric".

This view was captured by Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, which stated that "there is and must be in all [forms of government] a supreme, irresistible, absolute, uncontrolled authority, in which the jura summi imperii, or the rights of sovereignty, reside".

[5]: 202–203  In the aftermath of the British victory over France in the Seven Years' War, in 1763, Britain decided to permanently station troops in North America and the West Indies.

Having a specie-based currency, facing a large national debt and opposition to additional taxes in England, British officials looked to their North American colonies to enable financing the upkeep of these troops.

[1]: 155–163 John Dickinson, a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer and member of the Pennsylvania assembly,[1] took part in the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, and drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances.

[1] Though in reality, Dickinson had little to do with farming by 1767,[1] the first letter introduces the author as "a farmer settled after a variety of fortunes, near the banks of the river Delaware, in the province of Pennsylvania."

[5]: 216–217  After the publication of Dickinson's Letters, American colonists' views on the constitutional order in the British Empire rapidly changed, and were marked by an increasing rejection of Parliamentary power over the colonies.

[8]: 114–115  However, the letters warned against separation from Great Britain, and predicted tragedy for the colonies, should they become independent:[6]: 71 Torn from the body, to which we are united by religion, liberty, laws, affections, relations, language, and commerce, we must bleed at every vein.

In his letters, Dickinson foresaw the possibility of future conflict between the colonies and Great Britain, but cautioned against the use of violence, except as a last resort:[6]: 71 If at length it becomes undoubted that an inveterate resolution is formed to annihilate the liberties of the governed, the English history affords frequent examples of resistance by force.

[6]: 71  In order to secure the repeal of the Townshend duties, Dickinson recommended further petitions, and proposed putting pressure on Britain by reducing imports, both through frugality and the purchase of local manufactures.

"[15][5] Such comparisons led the English Tory writer Samuel Johnson to ask in his 1775 pamphlet, Taxation no Tyranny, "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?

The farmer—described as a man of genteel poverty, indifferent to riches—would have evoked classical allusions familiar to many English and colonial readers of the time: Cincinnatus,[2] the husbandman of Virgil's Georgics and the Horatian maxim, aurea mediocratis (the golden mean).

[1][17] The letters likely reached a larger audience than any previous political writings in the colonies, and were unsurpassed in circulation until the publication of Paine's Common Sense in 1776.

[4]: 329  Dickinson was not the first to raise the regulation–revenue distinction; he drew on arguments that Daniel Dulany had made during the Stamp Act Crisis in his popular pamphlet, Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies.

[12]: 35–36  However, Dickinson expressed the theory more clearly than his predecessors,[5]: 215  and this constitutional interpretation quickly became widespread throughout the colonies, forming the basis for many protests against the Townshend Acts.

Benjamin Franklin, then living in London, wrote of the practical difficulty of distinguishing between regulation and revenue-raising,[4]: 333 [2]: 39  and criticized what he called the "middle doctrine" of sovereignty.

[4]: 330–331 [19] Franklin nevertheless arranged for the letters to be published in London on 1 June 1768,[20] and informed the English public that Dickinson's views were generally held by Americans.

[4]: 342–343  Dickinson's connections with political leaders throughout the colonies, including Richard Henry Lee in Virginia and Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina, helped ensure the wide publication of his letters.

[4]: 333  "The farmer" was the subject of numerous official tributes throughout the colonies, such as a paean written by the town of Boston on the suggestion of Samuel Adams,[4]: 327 [17] and was sometimes compared to Whig heroes such as William Pitt and John Wilkes.

"[4]: 348–349 [14] Dickinson's central constitutional argument about the distinction between regulation and revenue-raising was adopted by Whigs throughout the colonies, and was influential in the formulation of subsequent protests against the Townshend Acts, such as the Massachusetts Circular Letter, written by James Otis and Samuel Adams in 1768.

[5]: 227  However, by this point, after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the drawing up of the Articles of Confederation, this compromise position of divided sovereignty within the British Empire was no longer viable.