July 9, 2025 • 30 mins
The lives of these men are essential to understanding the American form of government and our ideals of liberty. The Founding Fathers all played key roles in the securing of American independence from Great Britain and in the creation of the government of the United States of America.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
On this episode of Newtsworld. As part of Founding Fathers Week,
I'm talking about the lives and legacies of our original
founders and the impact they've had in our country on
this episode of Newtsworld. John Hancock was an American founding father, merchant, statesman,
(00:23):
and prominent patriot of the American Revolution. He served as
President of the Second Continental Congress and was the first
and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and perhaps
he has remembered best because of his huge signature of
the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Articles of
Confederation and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified
(00:48):
the United States Constitution in seventeen eighty eight. Hancock had
a fascinating life. He was the son and grandson of ministers.
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Born January twelfth, seventeen thirty seven, he was sort of
destined to become a minister. However, his life changed when
Hancock was seven years old after his father died and
his mother, brother, and sister went to live with his
grandparents in Lexington, Massachusetts. Hancock's stay in Lexington, who was
brief as his grandfather sent him to Boston to live
(01:34):
with his uncle Thomas and aunt Lydia, who had no
children of their own. They wanted him a better schooling
to prepare him for Harvard College. His uncle was one
of the richest merchants in Boston and lived in a
mansion on top of Beacon Hill. Hancock attended Boston Latin
School and graduated from Harvard in seventeen fifty four at
(01:54):
the age of seventeen. Instead of following his late father
and grandfather's footsteps, Hancock returned to his uncles to work
in his merchant business, and notice he was graduating younger
than many Americans today enter college. When his uncle died
in seventeen sixty five, Hancock, who was twenty seven years
old at the time, inherited his uncle's entire fortune and
(02:18):
the merchant business. Now, Hancock was actually more interested in
politics than in business, and in seventeen sixty five he
was elected as a Selectman of Boston when the British
government passed the Stamp Act. Initially, Hancock was not opposed
to the act, but after witnessing the protest in Boston,
he changed his mind. He then started participating in the
(02:40):
protest by boycotting the importation of British goods and that
made him popular with people in Boston. In seventeen sixty six,
Samul Ladam has voiced his public support for Hancock, which
helped him get elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
And by the way, that must have been quite a
contrast between the oratory of Samuel Adams and the merchant
(03:03):
background of Hancock made him quite a pair as allies.
When Parliament passed the Towns Enact, colonists began smuggling goods
to avoid paying taxes, which caused British ships to illegally
search and seize ships. In April seventeen sixty eight, a
British customs agent illegally boarded Hancock's boat Liberty, and it
(03:25):
tells you a little bit psychologically about where Hancock's coming
from that he would name his ship Liberty. Hancock demanded
to see warrants authorizing the search, and when the official
was unable to produce the documents, he was asked to leave.
On May ninth, seventeen sixty eight, Hancock's ship came into
port with Madeira wine, and customs officials again visited his boat,
(03:48):
but this time they had the proper warrants. The ship
was loaded onto the dock, and Hancock paid the customs fee,
but the officials thought that his shipment of wine twenty
five casks, which was about a quarter of what the
ship could hold, seemed too small, and speculated that he
had smuggled some of the wine before coming into port.
(04:09):
A month later, on June ninth, seventeen sixty eight, Thomas Kirk,
the customs official who boarded Hancock's boat a month earlier,
changed his initial story and accused Hancock of offering him
a bribe. He claimed that Hancock offered him several casks
of wine if he told the British government that his
ship only contained twenty five casks, so that he could
(04:30):
avoid paying the fee. He insisted that he did not
take the bribe, but Hancock's captain, John Marshall, had threatened
him if he ever told the truth. John Harrison, the
official collector of the port, brought Kirk's statement to the
commissioners and wanted to place the King's mark on Hancock's
boat waiting for legal proceedings. Controller Benjamin Hallowell, however, urged
(04:53):
him to seize the boat instead, so Harrison endicted a
crew another smuggler, Daniel Malcolm and and a handful of
men saw Harrison boarding the boat and argued that they
should at least wait for Hancock to arrive first. A
fight broke out between the men, but Harrington and his
crew still managed to bring Hancock's boat onto the side
(05:13):
of their boat, capturing it. Hallowell, Harrison and his son
fled the fight on the wharf with scrapes and bruises.
An angry crowd began to assemble. When word of Hancock's
boat being seized got out, A crowd about three thousand
men began to search the city for Harrison and Hollowell.
When they couldn't find him, they shattered the windows of
(05:34):
their houses instead. The following month, assioub was filed against
Hancock for the sum of nine thousand pounds for the
smuggling of wine. Being unable to negotiate this himself, Hancock
enlisted John Adams to defend him in court. That's a
cousin to Samuel Adams. They were both deeply involved in
seeking freedom. In his defense, John Adams questioned the validity
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of the case as it denied Hancock the right of
a jury trial, and according to Adams, it repealed the
magna carta as far as America is concerned degrading Hancock
below the rank of an Englishman. This is a theme
that goes through again and again with the founding fathers.
They saw themselves as Englishmen, and the British people had
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come to believe that they had certain rights which the
government could not infringe on, and the right to trial
was one of them. Adams is weaving back into British
history to claim the rights of an Englishman, not of
an American colonist. Adam's defense was successful, and on March
twenty fifth, the case was dropped and the record read,
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quote the Advocate General praise leave to retract this information,
and says our Sovereign Lord, the King will prosecute no
further hero On September fourteenth, seventeen sixty eight, Hancock, with
Joseph Jackson, John Ruddick, John Rowe, and Samuel Palmerton wrote
a letter in response to the Town and Acts quote,
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you are already too well acquainted with the melancholy and
very alarming circumstances to which this province, as well as
American General is now reduced taxes equally detrimental to the
commercial interests of the parent country and her colonies are
imposed upon the people without their consent, taxes designed for
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the support of the civil government the colonies, in a
manner clearly unconstitutional and contrary to that in which till
of late government has been supported by the free gift
of the people. In American assemblies or parliaments, as also
for the maintenance of a large standing army, not for
the defense of new acquired territories, but for the old colonies,
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and in a time of peace. The decent, humble and
truly loyal applications and petitions from the representatives province for
the redress of these heavy and very threatening grievances have
hitherto been ineffectual, being assured from authentic intelligence that they
have not yet reached the Royal ear. The only effect
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of transmitting these applications, hitherto perceivable has been a mandate
from one of His Majesty's Secretary's of State to the
Governor of this province to dissolve the General Assembly, merely
because the late House representatives refuse to rescind a resolution
of a former House which implied nothing more than a
right in the American subjects to unite in humble and
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dutiful petitions to their gracious sovereign when they found themselves aggrieved.
This is a right naturally inherent in every man and
expressly recognized at the Glorious Revolution as the birthright of
an Englishman. Let me point out that the Glorious Revolution
is of course the return of Protestant monarchy. As women
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and Mary come from Holland in sixteen eighty eight. It's
a decisive moment in British history and leads directly to
the whole concept of natural rights. And what they're saying
here is we're Englishmen. You owe us these rights. You
are stepping upon our natural right here. This is all
going to echo into Thomas Jefferson's Declaration Independence. Also, notice
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there's this constant effort to draw a distinction between the
bad government and the good King. There's a very important
psychological goal here of trying to make sure that people
understand that they're loyal to the king, they're just angry
at the government. Now. Of course, the government and king
in England see it differently, because the government see itself
(09:34):
as the king and the king sees himself as the government.
And this is why historically it's very hard to petition
the king without looking like you're engaged in treason, which
is the refusal to be loyal to your sovereign. Hi,
(10:01):
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go on to say, this dissolution your sensible has taken place.
The governors publicly and repeatedly declared that he cannot call
another Assembly, and the Secretary of State for the American Department,
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in one of his letters communicated to the Late House,
has been pleased to say that proper care will be
taken for the support of the dignity of government, the
meaning of which is too plain to mean misunderstood. In
other words, the British officials are now saying to the
American colonists, we will take care of things, We will
raise money, we will decide how to spend it. You
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have no rights. They go on to say, quote the
concern and perplexity into which these things have thrown the
people have been greatly aggravated by a late declaration of
his excellency, Governor Bernard, that one or more regiments may
soon be expected in this province. The design of these
troops is, in every one's apprehension, nothing short of enforcing
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by military power the execution of acts of Parliament in
the forming of which the colonies have not and cannot
have any constitutional influence. This is one of the greatest
distress to which a free people can be reduced. Notice
what they're saying here. The very fact that the British
ship concluded that they have to oppress the Americans. They
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can't really negotiate with them, they can't reason with them.
So they're going to send an army, and that army
is going to in fact live in Boston and is
going to impose the will of the British government no
matter what the local folks think. This is the sort
of thing which began to move in a direction where
suddenly they create the Committee of the Boston Sons of Liberty,
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which included John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, James Otis.
The group's amazing. This is the beginning of real patriotism
defining itself more and more and more isolated from the
British seventeen sixty nine, the Committee of the Boston Sons
of Liberty. Notice again, liberty is a huge word in
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this period. Eighteen forty, an older man was asked, why
did you fight the revolution? They were looking for this
stamp act or the tax on tea or whatever. He said,
you know, we aim to be free, and they aimed
that we shouldn't. And that's what it was all about.
And that's why liberty is such an important word here,
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because they're coming back again and again the idea we
are a free people. You were about to take away
our freedom, So in their mind they've already got the freedom.
They're not fighting for freedom, they're fighting against the oppression
which would take away freedom. So this continues to move
in the same direction. By December seventeen seventy, the Massachusetts
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House represented wrote a letter which Hancock again signed, to
Benjamin Franklin, appointing him an agent at the Court of
Great Britain. This is the first letter of Franklin, the
only one known to have survived. Franklin is asked by
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to go to London to represent them.
He goes to London. He's initially very well received. Gradually,
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the longer he's there, the more he realizes he will
never be an Englishman. They will never accept him into
their circle. He will always be a colonist, no matter
how bright he is, no matter how renowned he is
as a scientist, no matter how wealthy he is. He
just isn't them. Somebody once wrote, Franklin left America as
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an Englishman and returned as an American. This is the
person who the Massachusetts House is asking. Since you're already
there anyway, would you also represent us? And they explain
them what they're worried about. Quote the House representatives of
this province, after appointing you their agent at the Quarter
of Great Britain, directed us to correspond with you in
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the recess of the Court upon matters that concern the
interest of the province in general. There is nothing that
will more promote the true interest to this party, as
well as Great Britain herself, than a happy settlement of
the disputes that have too long subsisted between the their
country and the colonies. These are justly tenacious of their
(15:03):
constitutional natural rights, and will never willingly part with them,
and it certainly can never be for the advantage of
the nation to force them away. Great Britain can lose
nothing that she ought to retain by restoring the colonies
to the state they were in before passing the obnoxious
Stamp Act, and we are persuaded if that is done,
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they will no further contend this. We think it necessary
early to inform you of as our own opinion is.
We have reason to think that there are persons on
both sides the Atlantic, whose interest it may be to
keep alive a spirit of discord, who are continually insinuating
the men of power, that such a concession of the
part of Great Britain will only serve to increase our claims,
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and there would be no end of them which we believe,
and may even venture to assure you, is that the
least color of foundation and truth. In other words, the
founding fathers, generally speaking, and Hancock was a key member
of this, are not asking to leave Great Britain. They're
not moving towards independence. What they want is their rights
to be respected, their role to raise taxes on themselves
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in the spirit of the Magna Carta, to be accepted,
to negotiate with the British government as equals, and not
in any way to move towards independence. Now, the fact is,
Hancock is faced with the Boston Tea Party coming up.
He's faced with growing public anger, and there's actually not
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certain that Hancock was involved in planning the Boston Tea Party,
which is when a group of Americans dressed as Indians
broke into a British ship and threw tea into the
Boston harbor in order that it not be available to
sell because they did not want to pay the tax
on tea. Hancock the most he said that we know publicly,
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he told the crowd, let every man do what is
right in his own eyes. So he's not saying he's
going to participate, but he's also not saying you shouldn't
know it, And that very same evening, the crowd went
into the Boston Harbor addressed as Native Americans, boarded the
ship dumped three hundred and forty two chests of tea
into the harbor. Tea back then was expensive. So this
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is a substantial hit on the East India Company and
a direct defiance of the British government. Now, Hancock never
talked about it other than this comment that night before
it happened. Now, though, also as a part of this
growing separation, there was an annual commemoration of the Boston Massacre,
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which in seventeen seventy one British soldiers who were rattled
shot and killed several Massachusetts colonists. And so Hancock was
chosen on March fifth, seventeen seventy four to read the
third annual oration to commemorate the Boston Massacre. So he
really is beginning to lay the case out here as
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a public figure. He says in his oration quote, is
the present system which the British administration have adopted for
the government of the colonies a righteous government? 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
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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 to ever have,
full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind
the colonies in all cases whatever they have exercised this
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pretended right by imposing attacks upon us without our consent.
And notice this is not the heart of it, Lest
we should sow some reluctance at parting with our property.
Our 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 truth of
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George third have crossed the wide Atlantic not to engage
an enemy, but to assist a band of traders in
trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal
subjects in America, those rights and liberties which is a
father he ought ever to regard, and as a king
he has bound in honor to defend from violation, even
at the risk of his unlet notice what he's now
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starting to say. Hancock is saying, if you help enforce
this law. Notice the word he uses, band of traders.
You are a trader to America. You're a trader to
our rights under the Constitution. And therefore the division is
getting deeper and deeper. That year, he's elected as a
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delegate to the first Continental Congress, called to bring together
the colonies to talk about what's going on. And he's
also faced with the fact that living in Boston is
less and less safe because the British could come and
arrest him at any time. So Hancock moves to his
grandfather's home in Lexington, and on April eighteenth, seventeen seventy five,
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doctor Joseph Warren got news that British troops were heading
toward Lexington. Warren sent three writers, the most famous of
them Paul Revere, to warn people. Revere warned Hancock and
Adams of the incoming troops and suggested they flee before
the British reached Lexington. This is the first real moment
of violence, because what had happened was the American militia
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had been practicing and this is one of the great
differences and the courses behind the whole notion of the
Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. The British
Army was very good at putting down peasant revolts. They'd
put down revolts in England, in Scotland, and Wales in Ireland,
and so they marched out of Boston, assuming this would
be just like all those other peasant revolts. But they
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had a problem. They were now faced with a free
people who had weapons and who had been practicing, and
also people who frankly went deer hunting and generally actually
provisioned their houses by their effectiveness as hunters. The result
was a disaster for the British Army. They were shot
at all the way back to Boston. They took a
substantial number of casualties. Suddenly, what was then called the
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shot heard around the world. The Americans stood up and said,
if you try to take our weapons, we will shoot you.
Across all of the colonies, people were shaken because suddenly
this was a real fight. This wasn't just words. The
British Army had attempted to do something which would have
stripped the Americans of their ability to be free. Shortly
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After that, Hancock was elected President of the Second Continental Congress.
He is a significant figure in the development of the
ideas and the movement that leads to American freedom. As President,
he presided during the discussion on the appointment of the
Commander in Chief of the Continent Army. Now, this is
a very interesting moment in American history. They need an
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army in order to stand up to the British. However,
that army is going to be in Boston. It's going
to be largely New England, and they have to find
a way to unite all of the colonies into this
fight and not just have it be a New England fight. Now,
one of the great moments of theater, there's a very
tall man walking around wearing the University the unit form
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of a Virginia Militia officer, Colonel Washington, who says to everybody, Oh,
I don't know why you would think of me as
the commander. I'm not sure I could be the commander.
I'm not really sure I could do the job. But
he's the only guy at the whole place wearing a uniform.
And it's just one of those things about Washington, who's
very understudied, but very strategic. So of course they picked Washington.
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And now you have this Virginian going to Boston to
lead a largely new England army. Remember, the accents were
wildly different, and there was this whole sense of getting
used to each other. Washington does a brilliant job throughout
the Revolutionary War. Hancock takes the wealth he had inherited
and he'd grown with his own businesses, and he helped
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fund the army. I mean, Hancock is genuinely putting his life,
his liberty, and his fortune to the fight for freedom.
He oversaw the Declaration of Independence on July fourth, seventeen
seventy six. In his most famous single moment, John Hancock
was the first to sign the document. He had a
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large cursive signature and said, there, John Bull can read
my name without spectacles. He may double his reward when
he sang as John bullmant England. The King can see
clearly that Hancock has signed the Declaration Independance, and the
King then wants to double the reward for cat Killingham.
That's fine, and that's where the term John Hancock meaning
(24:03):
signature comes from, because he deliberately went out of his way,
almost as a Propaganda Act. Two days later, on July sixth,
Hancock writes Washington, instructing him to read the Declation of
Independence to his troops. And this is an important thing
to remember about the American Revolution. This was an informed military.
Again and again Washington, who's a master at this, make
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sure that they understand why they're fighting, They understand what
the situation is, and they are reminded that they have
a moral cause. That's a key part of it. Now.
I think Hamilton felt that this was a duty. They
were doing, working and doing everything they can as a team.
And so you have militia coming from all over, you
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have people showing up on a regular basis, and you
begin to really see that there's going to be an
American force, not a Massachusetts force or Virginia force, but
a genuinely Amrian force. Hancock stays as President of Congress
until seventeen seventy seven, when he resigns as president. He
(25:07):
had his chance as a military leader. He led five
thousand Massachusetts soldiers to attempt to recapture Newport, Rhode Island
in seventeen seventy eight. The mission ultimately was a failure,
but he went back home and in seventeen eighty he
helped frame the Massachusetts Constitution and was elected as the
first Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Member, we are
(25:28):
still fighting at this point, and he's now the governor
of the commonwealth. Where you could argue the fight started.
In seventeen eighty eight, delegates elected Hancock to serve as
president of the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention. Unfortunately, he had gout,
which is a recurring eilement for Hancock, and which he
probably tried to solve by drinking port which made the
(25:49):
gout worse. But he was prevented from attending the debates
until January thirtieth. At that point, he did everything he
could to help make sure that the majority would be
in favor of ratifying the constitution. In fact, he felt
so deeply that on the morning of January thirtieth, wrapped
in blankets, he was carried into the convention and attended
(26:12):
the debates for the first time. He was absolutely in
favor of the new system. This is a quote from
Henry Van Shack, who was actually in attendance, who writes
Governor Hancock had come to the convention and declared himself
decidedly in favor of the system, which had an amazing
influence over a great number of wavering members. Ill health
(26:35):
had prevented the governor's attendants in convention before. The opposition
took advantage of this and industriously reported that his Excellency
was opposed to the Constitution and advised and to reject it.
There's room to conjecture that the Governor would not have
come out so soon if it had not been for
those reports, as he was extremely unwell at the time
he went out. A day later, on January thirty first,
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Hancock read from a speech prepared by the Federal's Caucus
supporting the signing of the Constitution. And I think it's
very important to realize here's a guy who has personally
spent his money helping fight the war, who has taken
great risk, who has been persecuted by the British, and
he is committed to working on the Constitution getting it approved.
(27:21):
And at that point, I think he has had a
major role because Massachusetts, which is one of the biggest
colonies in both population and wealth, having endorsed the Constitution
is a major step in the right direction, and it's
not decisive. It's very likely if Hancock had come out
against the Constitution that it might have lost. It only
(27:43):
wins in the Massachusetts convention by one eighty seven to
one sixty eight, so there's a pretty narrow margin that
it wouldn't have taken much to have turned it into
a defeat. In seventy eighty nine, Hancock's a candidate in
the first US presidential election, but only received four electoral
votes out of total of one thirty eight. George Washington
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garnered sixty nine votes. John Adams captured thirty six votes,
earning the two men the presidency and vice presidency. Back then,
you all ran on one ticket and the number one
or two people got to be president and vice president.
That changed after Adams and Jefferson had to suffer each
other and realized that it was crazy to have a
system where you were not elected as a ticket. After
(28:26):
the adoption of the constitution, Hancock was elected for a
final time as governor, and he kept getting elected until
his death. On October twenty fourth, seventeen eighty nine, President
Washington and a tour of the Eastern States arrived in Boston,
where the whole town, minus Hancock, went out to greet him.
Hancock believed that his Governor Washington should come to him. However,
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soon after he realized this was a mistake, he visited
Washington and claimed that an illness kept him from arriving sooner.
On October eighth, seventeen ninety three, Hancock, while still in office,
died at the age of fifty six and received one
of the largest state funerals from his longtime friend Samuel Adams.
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John Hancock is one of the people upon whom America stands.
It was his commitment, his courage, his belief in liberty,
his willingness to risk everything and literally to spend his
fortune to help us become free, which has helped make
America the country it is. And that is why he's
one of the immortals as we look at the Founding Fathers.
(29:32):
Thank you for listening. You can read more about John
Hancock and get links to my other Founding Father's episodes
on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld is
produced by Gingish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer
is Guernsey Sloan and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The
artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special
(29:54):
thanks to the team at ginglishtree sixty. If you've been
enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and
both rate us with five stars and give us a
review so all this can learn what it's all about.
Right now, listeners of newts World consign up for my
three freeweekly columns at gingrishthree sixty dot com slash newsletter.
I'm Newt Gingrish. This is neut World
On this episode of Newtsworld. As part of Founding Fathers Week,
I'm talking about the lives and legacies of our original
founders and the impact they've had in our country on
this episode of Newtsworld. John Hancock was an American founding father, merchant, statesman,
(00:23):
and prominent patriot of the American Revolution. He served as
President of the Second Continental Congress and was the first
and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and perhaps
he has remembered best because of his huge signature of
the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Articles of
Confederation and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified
(00:48):
the United States Constitution in seventeen eighty eight. Hancock had
a fascinating life. He was the son and grandson of ministers.
(01:11):
Born January twelfth, seventeen thirty seven, he was sort of
destined to become a minister. However, his life changed when
Hancock was seven years old after his father died and
his mother, brother, and sister went to live with his
grandparents in Lexington, Massachusetts. Hancock's stay in Lexington, who was
brief as his grandfather sent him to Boston to live
(01:34):
with his uncle Thomas and aunt Lydia, who had no
children of their own. They wanted him a better schooling
to prepare him for Harvard College. His uncle was one
of the richest merchants in Boston and lived in a
mansion on top of Beacon Hill. Hancock attended Boston Latin
School and graduated from Harvard in seventeen fifty four at
(01:54):
the age of seventeen. Instead of following his late father
and grandfather's footsteps, Hancock returned to his uncles to work
in his merchant business, and notice he was graduating younger
than many Americans today enter college. When his uncle died
in seventeen sixty five, Hancock, who was twenty seven years
old at the time, inherited his uncle's entire fortune and
(02:18):
the merchant business. Now, Hancock was actually more interested in
politics than in business, and in seventeen sixty five he
was elected as a Selectman of Boston when the British
government passed the Stamp Act. Initially, Hancock was not opposed
to the act, but after witnessing the protest in Boston,
he changed his mind. He then started participating in the
(02:40):
protest by boycotting the importation of British goods and that
made him popular with people in Boston. In seventeen sixty six,
Samul Ladam has voiced his public support for Hancock, which
helped him get elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
And by the way, that must have been quite a
contrast between the oratory of Samuel Adams and the merchant
(03:03):
background of Hancock made him quite a pair as allies.
When Parliament passed the Towns Enact, colonists began smuggling goods
to avoid paying taxes, which caused British ships to illegally
search and seize ships. In April seventeen sixty eight, a
British customs agent illegally boarded Hancock's boat Liberty, and it
(03:25):
tells you a little bit psychologically about where Hancock's coming
from that he would name his ship Liberty. Hancock demanded
to see warrants authorizing the search, and when the official
was unable to produce the documents, he was asked to leave.
On May ninth, seventeen sixty eight, Hancock's ship came into
port with Madeira wine, and customs officials again visited his boat,
(03:48):
but this time they had the proper warrants. The ship
was loaded onto the dock, and Hancock paid the customs fee,
but the officials thought that his shipment of wine twenty
five casks, which was about a quarter of what the
ship could hold, seemed too small, and speculated that he
had smuggled some of the wine before coming into port.
(04:09):
A month later, on June ninth, seventeen sixty eight, Thomas Kirk,
the customs official who boarded Hancock's boat a month earlier,
changed his initial story and accused Hancock of offering him
a bribe. He claimed that Hancock offered him several casks
of wine if he told the British government that his
ship only contained twenty five casks, so that he could
(04:30):
avoid paying the fee. He insisted that he did not
take the bribe, but Hancock's captain, John Marshall, had threatened
him if he ever told the truth. John Harrison, the
official collector of the port, brought Kirk's statement to the
commissioners and wanted to place the King's mark on Hancock's
boat waiting for legal proceedings. Controller Benjamin Hallowell, however, urged
(04:53):
him to seize the boat instead, so Harrison endicted a
crew another smuggler, Daniel Malcolm and and a handful of
men saw Harrison boarding the boat and argued that they
should at least wait for Hancock to arrive first. A
fight broke out between the men, but Harrington and his
crew still managed to bring Hancock's boat onto the side
(05:13):
of their boat, capturing it. Hallowell, Harrison and his son
fled the fight on the wharf with scrapes and bruises.
An angry crowd began to assemble. When word of Hancock's
boat being seized got out, A crowd about three thousand
men began to search the city for Harrison and Hollowell.
When they couldn't find him, they shattered the windows of
(05:34):
their houses instead. The following month, assioub was filed against
Hancock for the sum of nine thousand pounds for the
smuggling of wine. Being unable to negotiate this himself, Hancock
enlisted John Adams to defend him in court. That's a
cousin to Samuel Adams. They were both deeply involved in
seeking freedom. In his defense, John Adams questioned the validity
(05:58):
of the case as it denied Hancock the right of
a jury trial, and according to Adams, it repealed the
magna carta as far as America is concerned degrading Hancock
below the rank of an Englishman. This is a theme
that goes through again and again with the founding fathers.
They saw themselves as Englishmen, and the British people had
(06:18):
come to believe that they had certain rights which the
government could not infringe on, and the right to trial
was one of them. Adams is weaving back into British
history to claim the rights of an Englishman, not of
an American colonist. Adam's defense was successful, and on March
twenty fifth, the case was dropped and the record read,
(06:40):
quote the Advocate General praise leave to retract this information,
and says our Sovereign Lord, the King will prosecute no
further hero On September fourteenth, seventeen sixty eight, Hancock, with
Joseph Jackson, John Ruddick, John Rowe, and Samuel Palmerton wrote
a letter in response to the Town and Acts quote,
(07:01):
you are already too well acquainted with the melancholy and
very alarming circumstances to which this province, as well as
American General is now reduced taxes equally detrimental to the
commercial interests of the parent country and her colonies are
imposed upon the people without their consent, taxes designed for
(07:22):
the support of the civil government the colonies, in a
manner clearly unconstitutional and contrary to that in which till
of late government has been supported by the free gift
of the people. In American assemblies or parliaments, as also
for the maintenance of a large standing army, not for
the defense of new acquired territories, but for the old colonies,
(07:44):
and in a time of peace. The decent, humble and
truly loyal applications and petitions from the representatives province for
the redress of these heavy and very threatening grievances have
hitherto been ineffectual, being assured from authentic intelligence that they
have not yet reached the Royal ear. The only effect
(08:05):
of transmitting these applications, hitherto perceivable has been a mandate
from one of His Majesty's Secretary's of State to the
Governor of this province to dissolve the General Assembly, merely
because the late House representatives refuse to rescind a resolution
of a former House which implied nothing more than a
right in the American subjects to unite in humble and
(08:28):
dutiful petitions to their gracious sovereign when they found themselves aggrieved.
This is a right naturally inherent in every man and
expressly recognized at the Glorious Revolution as the birthright of
an Englishman. Let me point out that the Glorious Revolution
is of course the return of Protestant monarchy. As women
(08:48):
and Mary come from Holland in sixteen eighty eight. It's
a decisive moment in British history and leads directly to
the whole concept of natural rights. And what they're saying
here is we're Englishmen. You owe us these rights. You
are stepping upon our natural right here. This is all
going to echo into Thomas Jefferson's Declaration Independence. Also, notice
(09:13):
there's this constant effort to draw a distinction between the
bad government and the good King. There's a very important
psychological goal here of trying to make sure that people
understand that they're loyal to the king, they're just angry
at the government. Now. Of course, the government and king
in England see it differently, because the government see itself
(09:34):
as the king and the king sees himself as the government.
And this is why historically it's very hard to petition
the king without looking like you're engaged in treason, which
is the refusal to be loyal to your sovereign. Hi,
(10:01):
this is newt. In my new book, March the Majority,
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(10:22):
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(10:43):
today at Gingrishtree sixty dot com slash book now. They
go on to say, this dissolution your sensible has taken place.
The governors publicly and repeatedly declared that he cannot call
another Assembly, and the Secretary of State for the American Department,
(11:05):
in one of his letters communicated to the Late House,
has been pleased to say that proper care will be
taken for the support of the dignity of government, the
meaning of which is too plain to mean misunderstood. In
other words, the British officials are now saying to the
American colonists, we will take care of things, We will
raise money, we will decide how to spend it. You
(11:27):
have no rights. They go on to say, quote the
concern and perplexity into which these things have thrown the
people have been greatly aggravated by a late declaration of
his excellency, Governor Bernard, that one or more regiments may
soon be expected in this province. The design of these
troops is, in every one's apprehension, nothing short of enforcing
(11:50):
by military power the execution of acts of Parliament in
the forming of which the colonies have not and cannot
have any constitutional influence. This is one of the greatest
distress to which a free people can be reduced. Notice
what they're saying here. The very fact that the British
ship concluded that they have to oppress the Americans. They
(12:11):
can't really negotiate with them, they can't reason with them.
So they're going to send an army, and that army
is going to in fact live in Boston and is
going to impose the will of the British government no
matter what the local folks think. This is the sort
of thing which began to move in a direction where
suddenly they create the Committee of the Boston Sons of Liberty,
(12:33):
which included John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, James Otis.
The group's amazing. This is the beginning of real patriotism
defining itself more and more and more isolated from the
British seventeen sixty nine, the Committee of the Boston Sons
of Liberty. Notice again, liberty is a huge word in
(12:54):
this period. Eighteen forty, an older man was asked, why
did you fight the revolution? They were looking for this
stamp act or the tax on tea or whatever. He said,
you know, we aim to be free, and they aimed
that we shouldn't. And that's what it was all about.
And that's why liberty is such an important word here,
(13:16):
because they're coming back again and again the idea we
are a free people. You were about to take away
our freedom, So in their mind they've already got the freedom.
They're not fighting for freedom, they're fighting against the oppression
which would take away freedom. So this continues to move
in the same direction. By December seventeen seventy, the Massachusetts
(13:37):
House represented wrote a letter which Hancock again signed, to
Benjamin Franklin, appointing him an agent at the Court of
Great Britain. This is the first letter of Franklin, the
only one known to have survived. Franklin is asked by
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to go to London to represent them.
He goes to London. He's initially very well received. Gradually,
(14:00):
the longer he's there, the more he realizes he will
never be an Englishman. They will never accept him into
their circle. He will always be a colonist, no matter
how bright he is, no matter how renowned he is
as a scientist, no matter how wealthy he is. He
just isn't them. Somebody once wrote, Franklin left America as
(14:20):
an Englishman and returned as an American. This is the
person who the Massachusetts House is asking. Since you're already
there anyway, would you also represent us? And they explain
them what they're worried about. Quote the House representatives of
this province, after appointing you their agent at the Quarter
of Great Britain, directed us to correspond with you in
(14:43):
the recess of the Court upon matters that concern the
interest of the province in general. There is nothing that
will more promote the true interest to this party, as
well as Great Britain herself, than a happy settlement of
the disputes that have too long subsisted between the their
country and the colonies. These are justly tenacious of their
(15:03):
constitutional natural rights, and will never willingly part with them,
and it certainly can never be for the advantage of
the nation to force them away. Great Britain can lose
nothing that she ought to retain by restoring the colonies
to the state they were in before passing the obnoxious
Stamp Act, and we are persuaded if that is done,
(15:25):
they will no further contend this. We think it necessary
early to inform you of as our own opinion is.
We have reason to think that there are persons on
both sides the Atlantic, whose interest it may be to
keep alive a spirit of discord, who are continually insinuating
the men of power, that such a concession of the
part of Great Britain will only serve to increase our claims,
(15:46):
and there would be no end of them which we believe,
and may even venture to assure you, is that the
least color of foundation and truth. In other words, the
founding fathers, generally speaking, and Hancock was a key member
of this, are not asking to leave Great Britain. They're
not moving towards independence. What they want is their rights
to be respected, their role to raise taxes on themselves
(16:10):
in the spirit of the Magna Carta, to be accepted,
to negotiate with the British government as equals, and not
in any way to move towards independence. Now, the fact is,
Hancock is faced with the Boston Tea Party coming up.
He's faced with growing public anger, and there's actually not
(16:30):
certain that Hancock was involved in planning the Boston Tea Party,
which is when a group of Americans dressed as Indians
broke into a British ship and threw tea into the
Boston harbor in order that it not be available to
sell because they did not want to pay the tax
on tea. Hancock the most he said that we know publicly,
(16:50):
he told the crowd, let every man do what is
right in his own eyes. So he's not saying he's
going to participate, but he's also not saying you shouldn't
know it, And that very same evening, the crowd went
into the Boston Harbor addressed as Native Americans, boarded the
ship dumped three hundred and forty two chests of tea
into the harbor. Tea back then was expensive. So this
(17:12):
is a substantial hit on the East India Company and
a direct defiance of the British government. Now, Hancock never
talked about it other than this comment that night before
it happened. Now, though, also as a part of this
growing separation, there was an annual commemoration of the Boston Massacre,
(17:32):
which in seventeen seventy one British soldiers who were rattled
shot and killed several Massachusetts colonists. And so Hancock was
chosen on March fifth, seventeen seventy four to read the
third annual oration to commemorate the Boston Massacre. So he
really is beginning to lay the case out here as
(17:53):
a public figure. He says in his oration quote, is
the present system which the British administration have adopted for
the government of the colonies a righteous government? 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
(18:16):
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 to ever have,
full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind
the colonies in all cases whatever they have exercised this
(18:38):
pretended right by imposing attacks upon us without our consent.
And notice this is not the heart of it, Lest
we should sow some reluctance at parting with our property.
Our 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 truth of
(19:00):
George third have crossed the wide Atlantic not to engage
an enemy, but to assist a band of traders in
trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal
subjects in America, those rights and liberties which is a
father he ought ever to regard, and as a king
he has bound in honor to defend from violation, even
at the risk of his unlet notice what he's now
(19:22):
starting to say. Hancock is saying, if you help enforce
this law. Notice the word he uses, band of traders.
You are a trader to America. You're a trader to
our rights under the Constitution. And therefore the division is
getting deeper and deeper. That year, he's elected as a
(19:58):
delegate to the first Continental Congress, called to bring together
the colonies to talk about what's going on. And he's
also faced with the fact that living in Boston is
less and less safe because the British could come and
arrest him at any time. So Hancock moves to his
grandfather's home in Lexington, and on April eighteenth, seventeen seventy five,
(20:19):
doctor Joseph Warren got news that British troops were heading
toward Lexington. Warren sent three writers, the most famous of
them Paul Revere, to warn people. Revere warned Hancock and
Adams of the incoming troops and suggested they flee before
the British reached Lexington. This is the first real moment
of violence, because what had happened was the American militia
(20:43):
had been practicing and this is one of the great
differences and the courses behind the whole notion of the
Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. The British
Army was very good at putting down peasant revolts. They'd
put down revolts in England, in Scotland, and Wales in Ireland,
and so they marched out of Boston, assuming this would
be just like all those other peasant revolts. But they
(21:06):
had a problem. They were now faced with a free
people who had weapons and who had been practicing, and
also people who frankly went deer hunting and generally actually
provisioned their houses by their effectiveness as hunters. The result
was a disaster for the British Army. They were shot
at all the way back to Boston. They took a
substantial number of casualties. Suddenly, what was then called the
(21:29):
shot heard around the world. The Americans stood up and said,
if you try to take our weapons, we will shoot you.
Across all of the colonies, people were shaken because suddenly
this was a real fight. This wasn't just words. The
British Army had attempted to do something which would have
stripped the Americans of their ability to be free. Shortly
(21:50):
After that, Hancock was elected President of the Second Continental Congress.
He is a significant figure in the development of the
ideas and the movement that leads to American freedom. As President,
he presided during the discussion on the appointment of the
Commander in Chief of the Continent Army. Now, this is
a very interesting moment in American history. They need an
(22:13):
army in order to stand up to the British. However,
that army is going to be in Boston. It's going
to be largely New England, and they have to find
a way to unite all of the colonies into this
fight and not just have it be a New England fight. Now,
one of the great moments of theater, there's a very
tall man walking around wearing the University the unit form
(22:37):
of a Virginia Militia officer, Colonel Washington, who says to everybody, Oh,
I don't know why you would think of me as
the commander. I'm not sure I could be the commander.
I'm not really sure I could do the job. But
he's the only guy at the whole place wearing a uniform.
And it's just one of those things about Washington, who's
very understudied, but very strategic. So of course they picked Washington.
(23:01):
And now you have this Virginian going to Boston to
lead a largely new England army. Remember, the accents were
wildly different, and there was this whole sense of getting
used to each other. Washington does a brilliant job throughout
the Revolutionary War. Hancock takes the wealth he had inherited
and he'd grown with his own businesses, and he helped
(23:22):
fund the army. I mean, Hancock is genuinely putting his life,
his liberty, and his fortune to the fight for freedom.
He oversaw the Declaration of Independence on July fourth, seventeen
seventy six. In his most famous single moment, John Hancock
was the first to sign the document. He had a
(23:42):
large cursive signature and said, there, John Bull can read
my name without spectacles. He may double his reward when
he sang as John bullmant England. The King can see
clearly that Hancock has signed the Declaration Independance, and the
King then wants to double the reward for cat Killingham.
That's fine, and that's where the term John Hancock meaning
(24:03):
signature comes from, because he deliberately went out of his way,
almost as a Propaganda Act. Two days later, on July sixth,
Hancock writes Washington, instructing him to read the Declation of
Independence to his troops. And this is an important thing
to remember about the American Revolution. This was an informed military.
Again and again Washington, who's a master at this, make
(24:25):
sure that they understand why they're fighting, They understand what
the situation is, and they are reminded that they have
a moral cause. That's a key part of it. Now.
I think Hamilton felt that this was a duty. They
were doing, working and doing everything they can as a team.
And so you have militia coming from all over, you
(24:47):
have people showing up on a regular basis, and you
begin to really see that there's going to be an
American force, not a Massachusetts force or Virginia force, but
a genuinely Amrian force. Hancock stays as President of Congress
until seventeen seventy seven, when he resigns as president. He
(25:07):
had his chance as a military leader. He led five
thousand Massachusetts soldiers to attempt to recapture Newport, Rhode Island
in seventeen seventy eight. The mission ultimately was a failure,
but he went back home and in seventeen eighty he
helped frame the Massachusetts Constitution and was elected as the
first Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Member, we are
(25:28):
still fighting at this point, and he's now the governor
of the commonwealth. Where you could argue the fight started.
In seventeen eighty eight, delegates elected Hancock to serve as
president of the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention. Unfortunately, he had gout,
which is a recurring eilement for Hancock, and which he
probably tried to solve by drinking port which made the
(25:49):
gout worse. But he was prevented from attending the debates
until January thirtieth. At that point, he did everything he
could to help make sure that the majority would be
in favor of ratifying the constitution. In fact, he felt
so deeply that on the morning of January thirtieth, wrapped
in blankets, he was carried into the convention and attended
(26:12):
the debates for the first time. He was absolutely in
favor of the new system. This is a quote from
Henry Van Shack, who was actually in attendance, who writes
Governor Hancock had come to the convention and declared himself
decidedly in favor of the system, which had an amazing
influence over a great number of wavering members. Ill health
(26:35):
had prevented the governor's attendants in convention before. The opposition
took advantage of this and industriously reported that his Excellency
was opposed to the Constitution and advised and to reject it.
There's room to conjecture that the Governor would not have
come out so soon if it had not been for
those reports, as he was extremely unwell at the time
he went out. A day later, on January thirty first,
(26:58):
Hancock read from a speech prepared by the Federal's Caucus
supporting the signing of the Constitution. And I think it's
very important to realize here's a guy who has personally
spent his money helping fight the war, who has taken
great risk, who has been persecuted by the British, and
he is committed to working on the Constitution getting it approved.
(27:21):
And at that point, I think he has had a
major role because Massachusetts, which is one of the biggest
colonies in both population and wealth, having endorsed the Constitution
is a major step in the right direction, and it's
not decisive. It's very likely if Hancock had come out
against the Constitution that it might have lost. It only
(27:43):
wins in the Massachusetts convention by one eighty seven to
one sixty eight, so there's a pretty narrow margin that
it wouldn't have taken much to have turned it into
a defeat. In seventy eighty nine, Hancock's a candidate in
the first US presidential election, but only received four electoral
votes out of total of one thirty eight. George Washington
(28:04):
garnered sixty nine votes. John Adams captured thirty six votes,
earning the two men the presidency and vice presidency. Back then,
you all ran on one ticket and the number one
or two people got to be president and vice president.
That changed after Adams and Jefferson had to suffer each
other and realized that it was crazy to have a
system where you were not elected as a ticket. After
(28:26):
the adoption of the constitution, Hancock was elected for a
final time as governor, and he kept getting elected until
his death. On October twenty fourth, seventeen eighty nine, President
Washington and a tour of the Eastern States arrived in Boston,
where the whole town, minus Hancock, went out to greet him.
Hancock believed that his Governor Washington should come to him. However,
(28:49):
soon after he realized this was a mistake, he visited
Washington and claimed that an illness kept him from arriving sooner.
On October eighth, seventeen ninety three, Hancock, while still in office,
died at the age of fifty six and received one
of the largest state funerals from his longtime friend Samuel Adams.
(29:10):
John Hancock is one of the people upon whom America stands.
It was his commitment, his courage, his belief in liberty,
his willingness to risk everything and literally to spend his
fortune to help us become free, which has helped make
America the country it is. And that is why he's
one of the immortals as we look at the Founding Fathers.
(29:32):
Thank you for listening. You can read more about John
Hancock and get links to my other Founding Father's episodes
on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld is
produced by Gingish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer
is Guernsey Sloan and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The
artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special
(29:54):
thanks to the team at ginglishtree sixty. If you've been
enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and
both rate us with five stars and give us a
review so all this can learn what it's all about.
Right now, listeners of newts World consign up for my
three freeweekly columns at gingrishthree sixty dot com slash newsletter.
I'm Newt Gingrish. This is neut World
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