14 - John Hancock- The Picturesque Patriot by Lorenzo Sears

This captivating biography delves into the life of John Hancock, one of the most influential figures in American history. As a Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and a key Patriot of the American Revolution, Hancocks story is one of resilience and leadership. The author skillfully narrates Hancocks journey from his childhood and education to his significant political and military contributions, providing a comprehensive look at the man behind the iconic signature. - Summary by GoodReads

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter thirteen of John Hancock, The Picturesque Patriot by Lorenzo Sears.
This liverbox recording is in the public domain. In the
Second Continental Congress, the Fellow Pilgrims arrived in Philadelphia on
the day that the Second Congress assembled May tenth, seventeen
seventy five, a few hours after the surrender of Tykwonderoga,

(00:25):
of which Hancock would not hear for eight days. Did
you remember that it was also Dorothy Quincy's twenty eighth birthday?
Doubtless there were numerous distractions in Carpenter's Hall. He met
their men, whose names were familiar in all the land,
as distinguished in their several provinces as his own in Massachusetts,

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Franklin Washington, Richard, Henry, Lee, Peyton, Randolph, to be joined
later by Patrick, Henry Clinton, Jay Livingston, and others of
like eminence. Hancock's fame had preceded him as the loser
of the Sloop Liberty and as the one wealthy aristocrat
who had sacrificed much for the cause of the colonies,

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a leader and chairman of the Massachusetts Congress, the co
partner of Samuel Adams, in exclusion from Royal clemency, and
with him the object of pursuit in order to arrest
by the King's officers. For those reasons, and for the
distinction of his personal presence, from which the elegance of
his attire did not detract, he was a conspicuous figure

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in the Assembly. Not even Sam Adams in his new suit,
about which he had so many scruples as to whether
its costs should be defrayed by the province, to which
he finally assented, Not even the incendiary himself was so
noticeable as his companion. But Adams had no jealousy of
Hancock's exterior brilliance, and when Randolph was called home to

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preside over the Virginia Legislature, leaving vacant the Presiding Officer's chair,
Adams was ready to nominate his colleague to the presidency
of Congress, and with John Adams to solicit votes for him.
His election on the sixteenth day of the session was
considered a rebuke to George the Third and his parliament,
and as an indication of general sympathy with the Boston Patriot,

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who had forsaken the loyalist position to which he had
been committed by political and social associations. A great honor
had been bestowed upon him in fitting recognition of his
sacrifices to the cause of protests and revolt. Hitherto he
had accepted promotion gracefully, if not as a matter of

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course in his own province. But now he was embarrassed
by the magnitude of the distinction conferred upon him, and
his usual self composure did not return until Benjamin Harrison
had conducted him to the chair a miss general acclamation, saying,
as he left him there, we will show Great Britain
how much we value her proscription. If Hancock had not

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already proved his ability as a parliamentarian, neither of the
Adamses would have risked his reputation as an adviser by
advocating his election. But his experience and success as moderator
in Boston town meetings and as president of the Massachusetts
Provincial Congress warranted his recommendation by his friends, as his
re election by the Congress afterward was an endorsement of

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their advocacy. The task before him was a severe test
of his fitness, since it was no ordinary body over
which he was called to preside. Men were in it
who were of greater ability than himself, leaders in provinces
which had jealousies and prejudices, men of widely divergent views
in politics, religion, and in regard to the attitude to

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be assumed towards the mother country and directly opposed to
his own, and the Massachusetts delegations holding. Even if there
had been the semblance of harmony, there was no supreme
authority vested in the Assembly itself. It was doubtful whether
or not their sense of oppressure by England was equal
to their affection for her, and independence did not seem

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to all to be the only means of securing their
inherited rights. The old was better than the untried and
dangerous new. The main business of the majority was to
consult on possibilities of consolidation, since refusal to trade with
Great Britain was their only means of practical protest against
its oppressive acts. They were merely deputies from twelve separate

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colonies without authority to legislate for one another, without executive
powers or officers without credit to borrow money or right
to lay attacks, representing the chaotic opinions of four races,
and hampered by the sentiments or instructions of their several constituencies.
All that could keep centrifugal forces from scattering these twelve

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units was the pressure of royal encroachment without and the
central attraction of freedom from British rule within. Even then,
indecision and wavering prevailed. For weeks Conservatism ruled, and what
progress was made was like that of cattle holding back
against a downhill force of gravity, to many, seeming a

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veritable desensus of vernie to a civil purgatory. The chairman
of this heterogeneous and non commissioned assemblage had to deal
fairly and courteously with men from all along the coast.
Whatever his own predilections were, and they were strong. The hesitation, timorousness,
and sometimes the Tory bias of here one and there

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another must have ruffled the spirit of a man who,
to clear out British invaders, could say, burn Boston and
make John Hancock a pauper. He must have chafed inwardly.
When after war had broken out, men were so blinded
by the hope of reconciliation that no measure for the
prosecution of hostilities could be carried unanimously until a second

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petition to the camping had met with rebuff His own
delegation even could not urge immediate and drastic action. Because
the people of Massachusetts were regarded by the lower colonies
as radicals in politics and fanatics in religion. Yet there
was a growing admiration of their conduct under the tyranny

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of the Port Bill, and of their bravery at Lexington
and conquered. It was no slight responsibility for the President
to appoint acceptable committees on so important matters as the
Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and a treaty with France.
Whoever may have advised he himself had to bear the

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inevitable censure from some sources of criticism. Wisdom in the
chair or behind it must have dictated the choice of Jefferson,
John Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Livingston to formulate the declaration. Jefferson,
at the head of this committee had succeeded Peyton Randolph
being sent to rival and supplant Richard Henry Lee, who

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was not agreeable to most of his colleagues from Virginia,
although a masterly orator and debater and the mover of
the declaration. But Jefferson, who seldom opened his lips in.
Congress held a facile pen, and John Adams, who was
next on the committee, would not undertake to compose the document,
having no opinion of his own literary style. Accordingly, Jefferson

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drew up the declaration and reported it to the committee,
two of whom Adams and Franklin suggested a few changes,
and Congress cut out about a quarter of it, including
the condemnation of Negro slavery, obliterating as Adams thought, the
best of it, and leaving objectionable portions. The committees on
Articles of Confederation and on the Treaty with France were

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equally well chosen, Samuel Adams being the principal member of
the first and Franklin of the second. There were other
committees to appoint and debates to be listened to. An
unruffled Maine, for example, on the question of building an
American fleet, which must have appealed to Hancock, as chairman
of the Committee on Naval Armament, whose ships were rotting

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at his own wharf, blockaded by British men of war.
Did he keep his countenance when a member exclaimed, it
is the maddest idea in the world. We should have
to mortgage the whole continent. To do it, two swift
sailing vessels for gaining intelligence are sufficient. Then, on Monday
September twenty fifth, seventeen seventy five, there was a debate

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which showed that methods of getting rich in wartime were
not the invention of contractors. In the Civil and Spanish
Wars of later date, there was an uneasiness among some
of the members concerning a contract with Willing and Morris
for powder by which that firm would make a clear
profit of twelve thousand pounds at least. Livingstone said he

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would never vote to ratify the contract. Willing, a member
of Congress, said he would leave it to his part
partner to explain. Johnson said a hundred tons were needed
and Congress was to pay the first cost only. Zubly
remarked sarcastically, we are highly favored. Fourteen pounds of barrel

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we are to give if we get the powder, and
the same if we don't get it. Persons enough will
supply the powder at fifteen pounds and run all risks.
Dyer observed, there are not ten men in my colony
with so much money as will be made clear by
this contract. And Ross applied. What has this to do
with the present debate whether Connecticut men are worth so

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much or no? There are no men there whose capital
or credit is equal to such contracts. And John Hancock,
bland and quiet, as became his position as President of Congress,
could recall an order given three years before by himself
an apprehensive times for forty half barrels of powder. Let
it be good his capital and credit were equal to

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any army contract. These profits might have reimbursed him for
losses at the beginning of hostilities. The record shows that
he spoke but once in these September days, when Lynch
inquired whether Captain Dean, whose vessel was taken up Block Island,
was not carrying supplies to the enemy, and Lee thought
such conduct detestable parricide. Hancock remarked, Dean belongs to Boston.

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He came from the West Indies and was seized here
and released. He loaded with flour and went out. He
did not spare a boston man when he was suspected
of giving aid and comfort to the British. And so
the debates went on with acrimony, often with appeals for unanimity, concession,
and compromise, as Livingstone said, we are between hawk and Buzzard.

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We puzzle ourselves between the commercial and warlike opposition. The
battle between these forces had to be fought out before
the greater War with Great Britain. As for Hancock himself,
he had decided did the conflict between his commercial interests
and liberty long before he came to the Congress. Therefore
he must have watched with interest, if not in patience,

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the slow conversion of one deputy after another to the
side of freedom. They were not all merchants and importers,
very few, in fact, but all were affected by commerce.
In a day when agriculture as a means of prosperity
was lying far inland as an undeveloped source of wealth,
foreign trade was the chief reliance of the seaboard on

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which the inland counties depended, as well as the tidewater
towns of such foreign trade. Hancock was the principal representative,
another reason why he should preside over the Confederated Council.
There was another issue made paramount for a while, which
must have vexed the soul of an advanced patriot like Hancock.

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What proved to be a measure of imbecility a second
petition to the King clogged for a time every effort
of Congress toward ultimate independence. A certain contingent caused motions
to be made, and tedious debates for appointing committees to
draw up declarations of the causes, motives and objects of

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taking up arms, all to delay the declaration of independence. Meanwhile,
a new England army was waiting before Boston for countenance, encouragement, acceptance, arms, pay,
and even clothing, while their officers were sending letters to
the Massachusetts delegation urging in pathetic terms the impossibility of

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keeping the militia together without the assistance of Congress. Jealousy
in this body bristled in every direction, a Southern party
against a Northern, a Royalist against the patriot. The loyalist
was constantly demanding one more appeal to the King's sense
of justice, which some believed was dimmed by the unwisdom

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of his favorite counselors. When Jay's motion, second in by Dickenson,
was at length passed to present a humble and dutiful
petition to His Majesty for the promotion of a most
desirable reconciliation, Congress weakened the spirit of resolution to resist,
which was making for independence. This gave the king time

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to collect and forward his forces, and the several colonies,
in a half hearted way, were directed to prepare for
a doubtful alternative, as it was very uncertain whether their
earnest endeavors to accommodate the unhappy differences between Great Britain
and the colonies by conciliatory measures would be successful. This

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hes infancy, delay and parleying could not have been otherwise
than exasperating to a determined chairman, who was nevertheless obliged
to preserve a neutral attitude during the protracted discussion. There
was one of the above jealousies, however, which proved too
much for Hancock's equanimity. From composite motives, the southern colonies

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had aspired to furnish a commander in chief for the
northern forces already in the field, possibly because the one
man recognized by everyone as equal to the situation was
a Virginian general. Artemus Ward, who was holding chief command,
was unfitted by age for the position, and Joseph Warren
explained to Samuel Adams that a recent resolve of the

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provincial Congress to assume the direction of the army was
to be understood as an intimation to the Continental Congress
to appoint a generalissimo. When this proposition was discussed in Philadelphia,
Hancock was among the candidates. His knowledge of military affairs
was limited to tactics sufficient to lead his company about

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the streets as an escort to the provincial governors, or
in the field exercises of a general training day. To
suppose that he could fill a post of greater authority
was an instance of a very common delusion, namely, that
one is peculiarly qualified for something he is least fitted for.

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Nasutter's super crepidam is a precept that is by no
means applicable to a cobbler alone in his aspirations toward
a field of higher criticism. Moreover, Hancock had already been
elevated to as supreme a height as was possible to
an American citizen before the United States could offer him
their presidency. If the office of Commander in chief had

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pointed to a military dictatorship beyond a crowd of raw recruits,
it might have been more alluring, but it did not. Nevertheless,
the President of Congress was disappointed that he was not
nominated for the position, and chagrined that his friend and
colleague John Adams proposed a Virginian and that Samuel Adams

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seconded the nomination. In his own account of the election,
John Adams said that Washington was in the minds of
so many of the staunchest members that nothing could be
done short of conceding to them. Mister Hancock himself had
an ambition to be appointed commander in chief. Whether he
thought an election a compliment due him and intended to

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have the honor of declining it, or whether he would
have accepted it, I know not to the compliment. He
had some pretensions, for at that time his exertions, sacrifices,
and general merits in the cause of his country had
been incomparably greater than those of Colonel Washington. But the
delicacy of his health and his entire want of experience

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in actual service, though an excellent militia officer, were decisive
objections to him in my mind. In canvassing this subject
out of doors, I found too that even among the
delegates of Virginia there were difficulty. The apostolical reasonings among themselves,
which should be greatest, were not less energetic among the

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saints of the ancient Dominion than they were among us
of New England. In several conversations I found more than
one cool about the appointment to Washington, and particularly mister Pendleton,
was very full and clear against it. After conferring with
Samuel Adams, who said nothing, he made a short speech
on the distresses of the army, at the danger of

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its dissolution, the anxiety of the people, and closed with
a motion for the adoption of the army at Cambridge,
and that a gentleman from Virginia be appointed as commander
in chief, whose skill, experience as an officer, independent fortune,
great talents, and excellent character would command the approbation of
all America and unite the exertions of all the colonies

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better than any other person in the Union. Mister Washington,
who happened to sit near the door, as soon as
he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty,
darted into the library room. Mister Hancock, who was our President,
which gave me an opportunity to observe his countenance while
I was speaking on the state of colonies the army
at Cambridge, and the enemy heard me with visible pleasure.

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But when I came to describe Washington for the commander,
I never remarked a more sudden and striking change of countenance.
Mortification and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his face
could exhibit them. Mister Samuel Adams seconded the motion, and
that did not soften the President's physiognomy at all. Whatever

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feeling Hancock may have betrayed when he was surprised by
his colleague's advocacy of a Virginian, he had so far
recovered the next day as to write Elbridge Jerry that
Washington was a fine man. Austin, in his Life of Jerry,
adds that neither Hancock nor General Ward was ever afterward

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very cordial to Washington. The fondness of Hancock for popularity
and consequent advancement was his principal weakness, which, like vanity,
another of his foibles, is so common that it may
be called one of the venial faults. If not a
motive to exertion in the lack of nobler incitements, it
certainly tends to promote kindly treatment of all who may

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be useful upon occasion, and is better than some other
forms of ambition. Yet no one would say that Hancock
would be likely to make all the sacrifices that he
did merely for the rewards that the Patriot Party had
it in their power to confer up to the Declaration
of Independence, and even later for those who were looking
for political preferment would side with the Crown, which would

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have made it more profitable for Adams and Hancock to
abandon a doubtful alliance than to become entangled in it.
It would have been a royal economy to purchase their
neutrality at any price, if it could have been bought. Therefore,
while Hancock was undoubtedly gratified by popular adulation and promotion,
his love of these tokens of respect should not be

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made to obscure deeper and better springs of devotion to
a noble cause. These were shown when on the tenth
of July he wrote Washington, I must beg the favor
that you will reserve some birth for me in such
department as you may judge proper, for I am determined
to act under you, if it be to take a
firelock and join the ranks as a volunteer. He may

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have been disappointed, as he had reason to be chagrined
by the desertion of his colleagues, with whatever good reason
on their part. But this humble offer of service was sincere,
unreserved and unconditional. Washington's reply after eleven days was courteous,
but not encouraging. I am particularly to acknowledge that part

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of your favor of the tenth instant, wherein you do
me the honor of determining to join the armony under
my command. I need certainly to make no professions of
the pleasure I shall have in seeing you. At the
same time, I have to regret that so little is
in my power to offer to Colonel Hancock's merits and
worth his acceptance. I shall be happy in every opportunity

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to show you the regard and esteem with which I am, Sir,
your most obedient and very humble servant. A word should
be added with regard to the way that Washington took
his nomination to the position of commander in chief. After
speaking of Hancock's momentary discomfiture and Washington's surprise. John Adams

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records that it was on a succeeding day that he
was formally nominated, as I remember, by Thomas Johnson of Maryland.
After the first ballot, it was found that he was
unanimously elected, and on the morning of the next day,
it fell to Hancock, as President to communicate to him
officially and verbally the notice of his election. He signified

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his acceptance in a short and appropriate reply. In it,
his modesty was equalled by his generosity in refusing the
pay of five hundred dollars per month which had been voted,
and accepting renuneration for his expenses only. On the nineteenth
of June, two months after the Battle of Lexington and Conquered,
Hancock signed Washington's commission to be General and Commander in

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Chief of the Army of the United Colonies. On his
way to Cambridge to take charge of the troops, he
wrote Hancock from New York a week later that, by
the advice of many members of Congress, who judged it
necessary that he should avail himself of information, he had
taken the liberty to open a letter in the hands
of a messenger to Congress, and had learned particulars of

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the Battle of Bunkers Hill. In a second letter to
the President, written as it happened on the same day
that Hancock was writing to solicit service under him, Washington
informs Congress of his arrival in Cambridge on July three,
after a fatiguing journey of seventeen days, retarded by necessary
attention to the successive civilities which accompanied me in my

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whole route. Massachusetts sent two men to the state border
at Springfield to provide honorable escort throughout the hundred miles
to Cambridge, and to receive bills for entertainment. At the end.
General Ward gave orders for the honorable reception of the
Commander in chis Chief, without however, any expenditure of powder.

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They had other uses for an article of which they
were deplorably short, as Washington found upon his arrival. Ten
days later, he sent another letter to President Hancock in
which he proposed to divide the army into three divisions,
and the head of each will be a general officer.
But there is no intimation that the President of Congress
was contemplated for one of these positions. On the next day,

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and with the above letter, he forwarded to Colonel Hancock
the one already cited, acknowledging his offer of services but
politely declining them. And then, on the fourth of August,
in another communication to the President he is much honored
by the confidence reposed in him of appointing the several
officers recommended in mind of the tenth Ultimo, and shall

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endeavor to select such persons as are best qualified to
fill these important posts. By this time, Hancock must have
concluded that his chances of military service and promotion refew
He may have consoled himself with the reflection that his
parliamentary gifts were greater than most mens, and that his
presidency of Congress was next in distinction, if not equal

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to the Commander in Chief's position, since this advisory body
was constantly dictating military affairs while these letters were passing
between the two, A minor tribute was paid Hancock by
the General Assembly of Massachusetts, which on the nineteenth of
July had succeeded to the third and last Provincial Congress,
the presidency of which he had continued to hold while

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in Philadelphia. Elected as one of the representatives from Suffolk County,
he was immediately chosen by the Assembly as one of
eighteen councilors, his own name heading the list. This board
was to act as an upper house of the legislature
and also as an executive power, there being as yet
no governor. The duties of this body furnished deployment for

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the returned Congressmen who were members of it throughout the
August recess until the twenty fourth of the month. Meantime,
during the summer and fall, President Hancock was writing to
colonial legislatures and to army officer's letters in which no
note of his disappointment appears, and that were a credit
to his patriotism and sympathy, as for example, one to

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General Schuler in his time of discouragement, and the following
official communications, which are a contrast to his epistles as
a lover. On the fourth of June, he wrote to
the Honorable Assembly of Massachusetts Bay, our affairs are hastening
fast to a crisis, and the approaching campaign will in

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all probability determined forever the fate of America. Such is
the unrelenting spirit which possesses the Tyrant of Britain and
his Parliament, that they have left no measure unassayed, that
had a tendency to accomplish our destruction, intented with having
lined our coasts with ships of war, to starve us

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into a surrender of our liberties, to prevent us from
being supplied with arms and ammunition. They are now about
to pour in a number of foreign troops, who, from
their want of countries and their feelings of sympathy, which
frequently bind together the different parts of the same empire,
will likely to do the business of their masters without

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remorse or compunction. After mentioning the danger from Canada in
the Indians, he goes on to say, in short, on
your exertions at this critical period, together with those of
other colonies in the common cause, the salvation of America
evidently depends our colony. I am persuaded will not be behindhand.

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Let us therefore exert every nerve to distinguish ourselves. I
entreat you to quicken your preparations and to stimulate the
good people of our government. And there is no danger,
notwithstanding the mighty armament with which we are threatened. But
they will be led on to victory, to liberty, and
to happiness. The following letter to the Convention of New

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Jersey is of similar important interest. Philadelphia, July sixteenth, seventeen
seventy six, Gentlemen, Since I had the honor of addressing
on the fourth of June, at which time I transmitted
Sundry resolves of Congress requesting you to call forth your militia.
Our affairs have assumed a much more serious complexion. If

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we turn our attention towards the Northern Department, we behold
an army reduced by sickness and obliged to flee before
an enemy of vastly superior force. If we cast our
eyes to headquarters, we see the British Army reinforced under
Lord Howe, and ready to strike a blow which may
be attended with the most fatal consequences if not timely resisted.

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The situation of our country at this season calls therefore
for all the vigor and wisdom among us, and if
we do not mean to desert her at this alarming crisis,
it is high time to rouse every spark of virtue
and forgetting all inferior considerations, to exert ourselves in a
manner becoming freemen. The intelligence received this day from General

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Washington points out the absolute, the indispensable necessity of sending
forward all the troops that can possibly be collected to
strengthen both the army in New York and that on
this side of Canada. I do therefore, once more, in
the name and by the authority of Congress, beseech and
request you, as you regard the liberties of your country

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and the happiness of posterity, and as you stand engaged
by the most solemn ties of honor to support the
common cause, to strain every nerve to send forward your
militia agreeably to the former requisitions of Congress. This is
a step of such infinite moment that in all humans
probability it will be the salvation of America. And as

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it is the only effectual step that can possibly be
taken at this juncture, you will suffer me again most
ardently to entreat your speedy compliance with it. In short,
the critical period has arrived that will seal the fate
not only of ourselves, but of posterity. Whether they shall
arise the generous heirs of freedom or the dastardly slaves

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of imperious task masters, it is now in your power
to determine, And as freemen, I am sure you will
not hesitate about the choice. I have the honor to
be gentlemen, your most obedient, very humble servant, John Hancock, President.
This may serve as an example of his interest in

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the welfare of the army Philadelphia, June twenty first, seventeen
seventy six. I have only time to observe in general,
that it is total impossible the American troops should be
on a respectable footing, or that they should render any
especial services to their country, unless the United Colonies, on

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their part, will take care to have them well appointed
and equipped with everything necessary for an army. In this
view of the matter, the enclosed resolve respecting the mode
of providing proper clothing for our troops is most certainly
of the greatest importance, and I make no doubt, will
appear in the same light to you and claim your
immediate and closest attention. End of Chapter thirteen.