Dickinson has correctly been called the "Penman of the Revolution" by later historians. But his activities extended fortwo decades into the life of the new republic, years in which Dickinson's contributions were many. Dickinson's career began with his election to the Assembly in the Lower Counties (of Delaware) in 1759. Then, as a Pennsylvania legislater, he represented that colony at the Stamp Act Congress and later, until July 1776, in the Continental Congress. In 1767 as the "farmer" he became America's first native political hero: the outstanding harbinger of American protest against arbitrary British measures and a true defender of liberty. Patience Wright modeled him in wax: Paul Revere engraved his likeness copied from an earlier Philadelphia print.