One of the most distinhuished personages of the War of Independence was John Hancock, who was born near the village of Quincy, in Massachusetts, in the year 1737. His father and grandfather were both ministers of the gospel. His father is represented as a pious, industrious, and faithful pastor; a friend of the poor, and a patron of learning. He died while John was quite an infant, and left him to the care of a paternal uncle, who cherished him with great affection. This relative was a merchant in Boston, who had ammassed a large fortune, and after giving John a collrgiate education at Harvard Collage (where at the age of seventeen years, in 1754, he graduated) he took him into his counting-room as clerk. His abilities proved such, that, in 1760, he sent him on a business mission to England, where he was present at the funeral rites of George III. Soon after his return to America, his uncle died, and left him at the age of twenty-six, in possesion of a princely fortune - one of the largest in the Province of Massachusetts.
He soon relinquished his commercial pursuits, and became an active politician, always taking sides with those whose sentiments were liberal and democratic. He was soon noticed and appreciated by his townsmen in Boston, and was chosen by them as one of its selectmen, an office of much consideration in those days. In 1766, he was chosen a representative for Boston in the General Provincial Assembly, where he had for his colleagues some of the most active patriots of the day, such as Samuel Adams, James Otis, and Thomas Cushing.
| 1One of the earliest acts of open resistence was on the occasion of the seizure of the Sloop Liberty, belonging to Mr. Hancock, by the Custom House officers, under the plea that she was loaded with goods contrary to the revenue laws. The people were greatly exasperated; they beat the officers with clubs, and obliged them to fly to Castly William, at the entrance of Boston harbor, for safety. They also burned the Collector's boat, and commited other acts of violence. These transactions gave the royal governor an exuse he wished for to introduce British troops into the city. This measur exited the indignation of the people to the highest pitch, and almost daily quarels took place between the citizens and the soldiers, which finally resulted in the death of three Americans, in March, 1770, by shots from soldier's muskets - an event known as the Boston Massacre. |
| 2The terms of the general pardon offered in 1775, John Hancock and Samuel Adams were excluded as arch rebels. The night preceding the battle of Lexington, Hancock and Adams lodged together, in that village. An armed party was sent by Governor Gage to arrest the, and they narrowly escaped, for as the soldiers entered one door, they went through another. |
| 3Governor Bernard had tried in vain to win him from the cause of the patriots. In 1767, before his election to the council, he had complimented him with a Lieutenant's commission, but Hancock, seeing clearly the nefarious design which it but half concealed, tore up the commission in the pressence of people. |
| 4The ravages of the gout, which was a disease hereditary in his family, made serious inroads upon his general health while engaged in the arduous services of public station. |
| 5He was married in 1773, to Miss Quincy, a relative of the Adams' by whom he had only one son. He died in youth, and consequently Hancock left no heir to perpetuate his name. |
| 6The theory prevailed to a great extent in New England, that all having contributed to defend the national property, they all had an equal right to possession, thus regarding the matter in the light of personal and individual interest rather than in that of general welfare. Popular excitements occured. In Exeter, in New Hampshire, a mob made prisoners of the members of the general assembly. In Massachusetts, an insurrectionary movement led by Daniel Shay, (known as Shay's insurection) was so extensive, that four thousand militia were called out to suppress it. |
Years before Mr. Hancock entered upon public life, the tyranous measures of the British cabinet had exited the fears of the American colonies, and aroused a sentiment of resistance that long burned in the people's hearts before it burst forth into a flame of rebellion.
These feelings were familiar to the bosum of young Hancock, for he imbibed the principles of liberty with the breath of his infancy, and when the circumstances called for a manifestation thereof, they exhibited the sturdy vigor of maturity.
When Parliment adopted those obnoxious measures toward America, which immediatly succeeded the odious Stamp Act, Mr. Hancock was a member of the Provincial Assembly, and, in union with those patriots before named, and others, he determined not to submit to them. He was one of the first who proposed and adopted non-importation measures, a system which gradually spread to the other colonies, and produced a powerful effect upon the home government. Open resistence at length became common, and the name of Hancock figures conspicuously in the commotions that agitated Boston for more than eight years.1 He became a popular leader and drew upon himself the direst wrath of the offended royalty.2
At the time of the Boston Massacre, and during the commotion known as the Tea Riot, Mr. Hancock was bold and active; and in March, 1774, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Massacre, he boldly delivered an oration, in which he spoke in most indignant terms of the acts and measures of the British Government.
In 1767, Mr. Hancock was elected a member of the Executive Council, but the choice was so displeasing to the governor, that he rejected him. He was again and again elected, and as often rejected, and this served to increase his popularity among the people. At last the governor, for reasons not easily divined, sanctioned his appointment, and received him into the Council.3
In 1774, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts unanimously elected Hancock their president. The same year he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress; and was re-elected to the same station in 1775. When, during the summer of that year, Peyton Randolph left the presidential chair of that body, John Hancock was elected to the station, - a gift the most exalted, possessed by the American people. In that office he labored ardously, and filled that chair on the ever memorable fourth of July, 1776. As President, he first signed the Declaration of Independence, and with his name alone, it first went to the world. His bold signature, the very index of his character, has always exited the admiration of the beholder.
Mr. Hancock resigned the office of President of Congress in 1777, owing to the precarious state of his health4 and the calls of his private affairs, which had been necesarily much neglected, and he hoped to pass the remainder of his life in the retirement of the domestic circle.5 But that pleasure he was not long suffered to enjoy by his fellow citizens. He was elected a member of the Convention of Massachusetts to form a Constitution for the government of that commonwealth. Therein he was assiduous as usual, and upon him was first conferred the honor, under the instrument of their adoption, of being Governor of the Province, or State. He was the first whohad this dignity conferred by the voluntary suffrages of the people. He held the office five consecutive years, by annual election. For two years he declined the honor, but again accepted it, and held the office until his death in 1793.
He was governor during that period of confusion which followed the adoption of th Federal Constitution, and its final ratification by several States, and his wisdom and firmness proved greatly salutary in restraining those lawless acts which a spirit of disaffection toward the general government had engendered in New England, and particularly in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.6 Of course his character and motives were aspersed by the interested, but when the agitation ceased, and the clouds passed away, his virtues and exalted character shone with a purer lustre than before.
He was elected a member of the Convention of Massachusetts to act on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and was chosen president of that body; but sickness prevented his attendence until the last week of the session. He voted for the adoption of the constitution, and by his influence, a majority voted with him.
Mr. Hancock continued a popular leader until the time of his death, and no one could successfully contend with him for office. He was not a man of extraordinary talent, but was possesed of that tact and peculiar genious fitted for the era in which he lived. He was beloved by all his contemporaries, and posterity venerates his name, as a benafactor of his country. He died on the eight of October, 1793, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of the SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: the DECLARATION HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED; AND A SKETCH OF THE LEADING EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE ADOPTION OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, AND OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. BY B. J. LOSSING, 1848.
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