When John Dickinson left Congress, unwilling to sign the Declaration of Independence, he said that he would join the fight against the British, nevertheless. He was sworn in as a Colonial officer by Delaware's Colonel McKean, Delaware being the Pennsylvania lawyer's home state. He lead a regiment that was to go into battle with the British in Northern New Jersey. But when the Delaware State Legislature heard what he had done, they recalled his commission. He retired to his estate, and was to never again lead troops into battle, but he remained loyal to the cause of American Independence, and became one of the shining lights of the Constitutional Convention when it met in 1787.