JOHN HANCOCK.

JOHN HANCOCK was born at Braintree, near the present village of Quincy, Massachusetts, on the twenty-third of January, 1737. His father, who bore the same name, was a clergyman of the strictest integrity and piety, and from his devotion to his theological duties and the elevation of his fellow-men, gained an eminent position in the affections of his people. This virtuous and benevolent man died in 1744, leaving his young son in the charge of a paternal relative, residing at Lexington. In this position he acquired the rudiments of an education, and early in 1745 entered the Boston Latin School, which was at that time under the charge of Master John Lovell.* On graduating at Harvard College, in the summer of 1754, his uncle, Thomas Hancock, a merchant of great fortune and influence, took him under his patronage, and placed him in his counting-house, that he might add to his academic knowledge "a thorough understanding of the world of mercantile business." In 1760 he was sent to London, and sailed in company with Thomas Pownal, who, about that time, was recalled from the government of the colony of New Jersey. While in England he was present at the funeral of George II., and subsequently witnessed the coronation of his successor. Soon after his return to America, his uncle and patron died,† leaving him his immense estate, which at that time was the most considerable in the province. This sudden possession of wealth turned the eyes of the whole community towards him; his conduct under this trying prosperity secured universal esteem and good will. It made him neither giddy, arrogant, nor profligate; he continued his course of regularity, industry and moderation. Great numbers of people received employment at his hands, and in all his commercial transactions, he exhibited that fair and liberal character

* MASTER JOHN LOVELL was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on the 10th of June, 1710. He entered the public Latin school at the age of seven years, and graduated at Harvard College in 1728. The next year he became usher of the Latin school, and in 1734 was appointed its principal, which position he retained until the dispersion of the school, on the commencement of the siege of Boston, in April, 1775. He was a scholar of "ripe parts and a solid judgment," a severe disciplinarian, yet a gay, humorous, and agreeable companion. Among the numerous occasional pamphlets which appeared from his pen, was the oration pronounced on the 14th of March, 1742, on the death of Peter Faneuil, the liberal donor of the hall that now bears his name. This discourse was the first production, that afterward appeared in print, delivered in that hall. Master Lovell also contributed Nos. 2, 25, 26, and 27, to the Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis, &c., which was published at Cambridge in 1761. Being an ardent loyalist, he sought the protection of the British, and accompanied them to Halifax, in 1776, where he remained in obscurity until his death, in 1778. His son, MASTER JAMES LOVELL, was an early and firm supporter of the rights of the colonies during the revolution, and for his patriotic zeal was confined in prison by General Gage, and subsequently carried as a prisoner to Halifax, where he met his "refugee father and tory." On his return to Boston he was elected to the Continental Congress, in which body he rendered the most eminent services. Before the establishment of the present constitution of Massachusetts, he was collector of the port of Boston, and afterwards was appointed naval officer of Boston and Charlestown, in which station he remained until his death, in July, 1814.-Life of Arthur Lee: Allen's Biographical Dictionary.

The subjoined announcement of the death of this gentleman, appeared in the New York Mercury, of the thirteenth of August, 1764:

"Boston, August 6th.-Wednesday last, August 1st, about noon, the honorable THOMAS HANCOCK, Esq., one of his Majesty's Council for this province, was seized with an apoplexy, just as he was entering the Council Chamber, and expired about three o'clock, P. M., at his seat, to which he was carried soon after he was taken with the fit. He died in the 62d year of his age, and was one of the most noted merchants in New England. His remains are to be interred this afternoon, at half-past four."

The death of his widow is thus noticed in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, of May 7th, 1776: "New Haven, May 1st.A few days since, died suddenly, in Fairfield, Conn., Mrs.——— HANCOCK, relict of the late Hon. Thomas Hancock, of

Boston."

which commonly distinguishes the extensive and affluent merchant.* The natural influence which he acquired from his habits and his possessions, rendered him extremely popular, and he was often called upon to act in the affairs of the town. In 1766, Hancock, with James Otis, Samuel Adams and Thomas Cushing, was elected to the General Assembly of his native province. In this position he rendered signal services, and by the boldness of his patriotism, excited the esteem and admiration of his fellow-countrymen. He was placed on the most important committees, and generally occupied the chair in the deliberations of those bodies. At one time he was elected speaker of the Assembly, but the royal governor, who was jealous of the liberal principles he avowed, declined to acknowledge his appointment.

As Mr. Hancock became more deeply identified with the political concerns of the country, the enmity of the ministerial party towards him increased both in the Colonies and Great Britain. His ships were seized, and he was called upon to produce excessive bail. In the fall of the year 1768, the sloop Liberty arrived from Madeira, with a cargo of wines, and was unloaded in the night, without paying the duties imposed by the offensive acts of Parliament, which the patriots had determined to resist. For this opposition the vessel was seized by the officers of the customs, and carried under the guns of an armed ship that lay in the harbor. This measure so exasperated the people that they pursued the officers, and after driving them on board their vessels, seized the boat of the collector and burnt it; finally destroying the houses of some of the most prominent adherents of the ministry. Mr. Hancock being the owner of the vessel, was prosecuted and fined "ninety or a hundred thousand pounds sterling." To prevent a recurrence of similar scenes, the governor of the province introduced several regiments of royal troops into the town and quartered them upon the inhabitants. This measure irritated the colonists, and finally led to the affair of the evening of the fifth of March, 1770, known as the Boston massacre, in which a party of the soldiers killed a number of the citizens, who had collected to manifest their indignation against them. The day succeeding the massacre, a town meeting convened, and Mr. Hancock, with others, was appointed to request the governor to order the removal of the troops from the town. This the governor declined, on the plea of insufficient authority; but subsequently, through the instrumentality of Mr. Hancock, they were removed, and all further acts of violence prevented.

In 1774 Mr. Hancock delivered the oration commemorative of the massacre. This effort was spirited and pathetic. The younger Adams, who was present on the occasion, thus alludes to it in his diary: "The composition, the pronunciation, the action, all exceeded the expectation of every body. They exceeded even mine, which were very considerable. Many of the sentiments came with great propriety from him. His invective, particularly, against a preference

By the following advertisement, which may be found in the Boston Evening Post, of December 25th, 1764, the reader will ascertain the character of Mr. Hancock's commercial business:

**To be sold by John Hancock, at his store No. 4, at the east end of Faneuil Hall market, a general assortment of English and India goods; also choice Newcastle coals, and Irish butter, cheap for cash. Said Hancock desires those persons who are still indebted to the estate of the late Hon. Thomas Hancock, Esq., deceased, to be speedy in paying their respective balances, to prevent trouble. N. B.-In the Lydia, Capt. Scott, from London, came the following packages: I. W. No. 1, a trunk; No. 2, a small parcel. The owner, by applying to John Hancock, and paying freight, may have his goods." Tudor's Life of James Otis, page 262. Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. 8, pp. 297-298.

"At the time of this prosperity," says John Adams, "I was one day walking in the mall, and accidentally met Samuel Adams. In taking a few turns together, we came in full view of Mr. Hancock's house. Mr. Adams, pointing to the stone building, said, 'This town has done a wise thing to-day.' 'What?' 'They have made that young man's fortune their

own.'

His prophecy was literally fulfilled; for no man's property was ever more entirely devoted to the public. The town had that day chosen Mr. Hancock into the legislature of the province. The quivering anxiety of the public, under the fearful looking for of the vengeance of the king, ministry, and parliament, compelled him to a constant attendance in the House; his mind was soon engrossed by public cares, alarms, and terrors; his business was left to subalterns; his private affairs neglected, and continued to be so to the end of his life. If his fortune had not been very large, he must have died is poor as Mr. S. Adams or Mr. Gerry."-John Adams to William Tudor, June 1st, 1817. Life and Works of John Adams, vol. 10, page 260.

Life and Works of John Adams, vol. 2, page 215.

It is generally believed that this was the only rhetorical effort made by Mr. Hancock. There is in the Library of the New York Historical Society a very curious pamphlet, purporting to be a "Speech of his Excellency John Hancock, President of Congress at Philadelphia." It is in French, and bears the date of 1776. Its origin and history are not known to me, nor have I ever met with any notice of it elsewhere.

of riches to virtue, came from him with a singular dignity and grace." In the month of Octo. ber of this year, Hancock was elected President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, and in the following year succeeded Peyton Randolph in the presidency of the Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia. He signed the Declaration of Independence, and the force with which he made that signature, shows "that it was never intended to be erased." Continuing in Congress until 1779, he resigned, on account of ill health, and returned to his home at Boston. In 1780 he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, and occupied the gubernatorial chair until 1785, when he was succeeded by Mr. Bowdoin, for two years. He was again elected governor in 1787, and continued in office during the remainder of his life. His exertions in favor of the adoption of the Federal Constitution in his native State, were untiring and effective. As chief magistrate of the State, he submitted the constitution to the legislature and urged the formation of the convention which met in January, 1788. It has been observed says Sullivan, that the adoption of this instrument in Massachusetts may have depended on Governor Hancock. He had been absent some days from illness. On resuming his place, he remarked on the difference of opinion which prevailed in the convention, as he had seen from the papers, and proposed that the constitution should be adopted; but that the adoption should be accompanied by certain amendments, to be submitted to Congress and to the States. He expressed his belief that it would be safe to adopt the constitution, under the expectation that the amendments would be ratified. The discussion appears then to have turned on the probability of obtaining such ratification. It cannot be assumed, for certainty, that this measure of Hancock's secured the adoption, but it is highly probable.*

During the latter years of Governor Hancock's life, he was severely afflicted with the gout, and to a great degree unable to perform the duties of his station. On the eighth of October, 1793, he died, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. To record with precision the virtues of his mind, says a contemporary,-the philanthropy of his heart-his patriotism or his usefulness, were to insult the judgment of every American. If we ascend into the Senate of the Union, we there find his name first on that Magna Charta which ascertained, vindicated and declared the INDEPENDENCE of America—and the repeated suffrages of his fellow-citizens to sustain the office of chief magistrate of this commonwealth, show how highly he was esteemed as capable to guard their rights in the cabinet of Massachusetts. If we search our municipal records, we shall often see him sustaining with honor the most arduous and important stations. Look we into the temples of the Most High, we shall there view numerous marks of his charity and benevolence. But if we explore the hearts of the indigent and distressed-the widow and the orphan-we shall there see those lively emotions which emphatically say, Our friend and our supporter is gone! The pen of the ready writer will do honor to his services and to his memory; but the sorrow visible in the countenance of every description of citizens, is a better testimony to his exalted character than the sublimest effusions of the most polished writer.t

*The convention may have been influenced by another circumstance. About this time a great meeting of mechanics was held at the Green Dragon tavern, situated in what is now part of Union Street, and westerly of the Baptist meetinghouse. The tavern and the street were thronged. At this meeting resolutions were passed, with unanimity and acclamation, in favor of the adoption. But, notwithstanding Hancock's conciliatory proposal, and this expression of public feeling, the constitution was adopted by a small majority of nineteen out of three hundred and fifty-five votes.-Sullivan's Familiar Letters on Public Characters, pp. 64-65.

This eulogium is taken from a "broadside" in the possession of the editor, containing an account of the "character and funeral procession of our late, excellent, and worthy GOVERNOR HANCOCK," published a short time after his decease.

THE BOSTON MASSACRE.

This oration was delivered at Boston, Massa- | chusetts, on the fifth of March, 1774, the anniversary of the "horrid massacre" which took place in the year 1770.*

MEN, BRETHREN, FATHERS AND FELLOWCOUNTRYMEN: The attentive gravity, the venerable appearance of this crowded audience; the dignity which I behold in the countenances of so many in this great assembly; the solemnity of the occasion upon which we have met together, joined to a consideration of the part I am to take in the important business of this day, fill me with an awe hitherto unknown, and heighten the sense which I have ever had, of my unworthiness to fill this sacred desk. But, allured by the call of some of my respected fellow-citizens, with whose request it is always my greatest pleasure to comply, I almost forgot my want of ability to perform what they required. In this situation I find my only support in assuring myself that a generous people will not severely censure what they know was well intended, though its want of merit should prevent their being able to applaud it. And I pray that my sincere attachment to the interest of my country, and the hearty detestation of every design formed against her liberties, may be admitted as some apology for my appearance in this place.

government of the colonies, a righteous gov ernment-or is it tyranny? Here suffer me to ask, (and would to Heaven there could be an answer,) what tenderness, what regard, respect or consideration has Great Britain shown, in their late transactions, for the security of the persons or properties of the inhabitants of the colonies? Or rather what have they omitted doing to destroy that security? They have declared that they have ever had, and of right ought ever to have, full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind the colonies in all cases whatever. They have exercised this pretended right by imposing a tax upon us without our consent; and lest we should show some reluctance at parting with our property, her fleets and armies are sent to enforce their mad pretensions. The town of Boston, ever faithful to the British Crown, has been invested by a British fleet: the troops of George III. have crossed the wide Atlantic, not to engage an enemy, but to assist a band of traitors in trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal subjects in America-those rights and liberties which, as a father, he ought ever to regard, and as a king, he is bound, in honor, to defend from violation, even at the risk of his own life.

Let not the history of the illustrious house of Brunswick inform posterity, that a king, descended from that glorious monarch, George I have always, from my earliest youth, re- II., once sent his British subjects to conquer joiced in the felicity of my fellow-men; and and enslave his subjects in America. But be have ever considered it as the indispensable perpetual infamy entailed upon that villain duty of every member of society to promote, who dared to advise his master to such execraas far as in him lies, the prosperity of every ble measures; for it was easy to foresee the individual, but more especially of the commu- consequences which so naturally followed upon nity to which he belongs; and also, as a faith-sending troops into America, to enforce obediful subject of the State, to use his utmost endeavors to detect, and having detected, strenuously to oppose every traitorous plot which its enemies may devise for its destruction. Security to the persons and properties of the governed, is so obviously the design and end of civil government, that to attempt a logical proof of it, would be like burning tapers at noonday, to assist the sun in enlightening the world; and it cannot be either virtuous or honorable, to attempt to support a government of which this is not the great and principal basis; and it is to the last degree vicious and infamous to attempt to support a government which manifestly tends to render the persons and properties of the governed insecure. Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. Is the present system, which the British administration have adopted for the

See an account of this affair in the note at page 60.

ence to acts of the British Parliament, which neither God nor man ever empowered them to make. It was reasonable to expect that troops, who knew the errand they were sent upon, would treat the people whom they were to subjugate, with a cruelty and haughtiness which too often buries the honorable character of a soldier in the disgraceful name of an unfeeling ruffian. The troops, upon their first arrival, took possession of our senate-house, and pointed their cannon against the judgment-hall, and even continued them there whilst the supreme court of judicature for this province was actually sitting to decide upon the lives and fortunes of the king's subjects. Our streets nightly resounded with the noise of riot and debauchery; our peaceful citizens were hourly exposed to shameful insults, and often felt the effects of their violence and outrage. But this was not all: as though they thought it not enough to violate our civil rights, they endeavored to deprive us of the enjoyment of our religious privileges to vitiate our morals, and thereby render uf 'eserving of destruction.

Hence the rude din of arms which broke in | But I must not too severely blame a fault, which upon your solemn devotions in your temples, on that day hallowed by Heaven, and set apart by God himself for his peculiar worship. Hence, impious oaths and blasphemies so often tortured your unaccustomed ear. Hence, all the arts which idleness and luxury could invent, were used to betray our youth of one sex into extravagance and effeminacy, and of the other, to infamy and ruin; and did they not succeed but too well? Did not a reverence for religion sensibly decay? Did not our infants almost learn to lisp out curses before they knew their horrid import? Did not our youth forget they were Americans, and regardless of the admonitions of the wise and aged, servilely copy from their tyrants those vices which finally must overthrow the empire of Great Britain? And must I be compelled to acknowledge, that even the noblest, fairest part of all the lower creation, did not entirely escape the cursed snare ? When virtue has once erected her throne within the female breast, it is upon so solid a basis that nothing is able to expel the heavenly inhabitant. But have there not been some, few, indeed, I hope, whose youth and inexperience have rendered them a prey to wretches, whom, upon the least reflection, they would have despised and hated as foes to God and their country? I fear there have been some such unhappy instances, or why have I seen an honest father clothed with shame; or why a virtuous mother drowned in tears?

great souls only can commit. May that magnificence of spirit which scorns the low pursuits of malice, may that generous compassion which often preserves from ruin, even a guilty villain, for ever actuate the noble bosoms of Americans! But let not the miscreant host vainly imagine that we feared their arms. No: them we despised; we dread nothing but sla very. Death is the creature of a poltroon's brains; 'tis immortality to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of our country. We fear not death. That gloomy night, the pale-faced moon, and the affrighted stars that hurried through the sky, can witness that we fear not death. Our hearts which, at the recollection, glow with rage that four revolving years have scarcely taught us to restrain, can witness that we fear not death; and happy it is for those who dared to insult us, that their naked bones are not now piled up an everlasting monument of Massachusetts' bravery. But they retired, they fled, and in that flight they found their only safety. We then expected that the hand of public justice would soon inflict that punishment upon the murderers, which, by the laws of God and man, they had incurred.* But let the unbiased pen of a Robertson, or perhaps of some equally famed American, conduct this trial before the great tribunal of succeeding generations. And though the murderers may escape the just resentment of an enraged people; though drowsy justice, intoxicated by the poisonous draught prepared for her cup, still nods upon her rotten seat, yet be assured, such complicated crimes will meet their due reward. Tell me, ye bloody butchers! ye villains high and low! ye wretches who contrived, as well as you who executed the inhuman deed! do you not feel the goads and stings of conscious guilt pierce through your savage bosoms? Though some of you may think yourselves exalted to a height that bids defiance to human justice; and others shroud yourselves beneath the mask of hypocrisy, and build your hopes of safety on the low arts of cunning, chicanery and falsehood; yet do you not sometimes feel the gnawings of that worm which never dies? Do not the injured shades of Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, Attucks and Carr, attend you in your solitary walks; arrest you even in the midst of your debaucheries, and fill even your dreams with terror? But if the unappeased manes of the dead should not disturb their murderers, yet surely even your obdurate hearts must shrink, and your guilty blood must chill within your rigid veins, when you behold the miserable Monk, the wretched victim of your savage cruelty. Observe his tottering knees, which scarce sustain his wasted body; look on his haggard eyes; mark well the death-like paleness on his fallen cheek, and tell me, does not the sight plant

But I forbear, and come reluctantly to the transactions of that dismal night, when in such quick succession we felt the extremes of grief, astonishment and rage; when Heaven in anger, for a dreadful moment, suffered hell to take the reins; when Satan with his chosen band opened the sluices of New England's blood, and sacrilegiously polluted our land with the dead bodies of her guiltless sons! Let this sad tale of death never be told without a tear: let not the heaving bosom cease to burn with a manly indignation at the barbarous story, through the long tracts of future time: let every parent tell the shameful story to his listening children until tears of pity glisten in their eyes, and boiling passions shake their tender frames; and whilst the anniversary of that ill-fated night is kept a jubilee in the grim court of pandemonium, let all America join in one common prayer to Heaven, that the inhuman, unprovoked murders of the fifth of March, 1770, planned by Hillsborough, and a knot of treacherous knaves in Boston, and executed by the cruel hand of Preston and his sanguinary coadjutors, may ever stand on history without a parallel. But what, my countrymen, withheld the ready arm of vengeance from executing instant justice on the vile assassins? Perhaps you feared promiscuous carnage might ensue, and that the innocent might share the fate of those who had performed the infernal deed. But were not all See the speeches of John Adams and Josiah Quincy, guilty? Were you not too tender of the lives Jr., at the trial of Preston and the soldiers, in the subseof those who came to fix a yoke on your necks?quent pages of this work.