September 3, 2025 • 32 mins
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
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter fifteen, Part two of John Hancock, The Picturesque Patriot
by Lorenzo Sears. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
President of Congress.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
In a fortnight from the date of his last letter
to his wife, he was on his way toward Boston
and wrote the following letter to her dover within sixty
miles of Hartford, Saturday, one o clock eight November seventeen
seventy seven. My dear, I am thus far on my
(00:34):
journey to meet you. Thank luck for it. I have
gone through many difficulties on the road, but that I
shall not mind. The remembrance of these difficulties will vanish
when I have the happiness of seeing you.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I am still obliged.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
To have my foot wrapped up in bays, but I
brave all these things. I hire this person to carry
you this letter in confidence it will meet you at Hartford.
I shall get along as as fast as I can,
but having a party of light horse with me, I
do not travel so fast as I otherwise should.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What if you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Should, on Monday morning set out to meet me on
the Lichfield Road, and then if I am not able
to reach Hartford that day, I shall have the satisfaction
of seeing.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You on the road.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
If you think the ride will be too much, I
would not have you undertake it. But I hope you
will not ride many miles before we shall meet. As
I trust mister Bantis with you. My regards to him,
my best wishes attend him. Remember me to Missus Collier,
for I suppose you are there. I am sorry I
cannot take Fairfield in my way, but I crossed so
(01:41):
high up it was not possible. I have much to
say but refer all to the happy time when I
shall be with you. God bless you, my dear girl,
and believe me with sincere affection yours forever, John Hancock,
Missus mcdagell this moment comes into the tavern and is
going to dine with us, according to his requests and arrangements.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
His wife met him on the.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Road, as implied in a paragraph in a Hartford newspaper
of November nineteen. On Friday last passed through this town,
escorted by a party of light dragoons, the Honorable John Hancock,
President of the American Congress, with his lady on his
way to Boston after an absence on public business of
more than two and a half years, but the wife
(02:28):
came without the child, who had died during the summer
stay in Massachusetts. It was safe traveling in New England
after the Hudson River was crossed, the British being occupied elsewhere.
But the official station of the President of Congress and
the sentiment of the time, together with its agreement with
Hancock's own sense of his position, required a display commensurate
(02:49):
with its importance. This was confirmed by the cordial demonstrations
of welcome which attended his arrival home, as reported in
the Pennsylvania Ledger. This day arrived at Bossons in Massachusetts,
under an escort of American Light dragoons. The Honorable John Hancock, Esquire,
President of the American Congress and first Major General of
(03:10):
the militia of that state. By his coming to town
sooner than was expected, he avoided some public marks of
respect which would otherwise have been paid him. His arrival
was made known by ringing the bells, the discharge of
thirteen cannon of Colonel Craft's Park of Artillery on the Common,
the cannon and the fortress on Fort Hill, and the
(03:30):
shipping in the harbor. The Independent and Light Infantry companies
paid him their military salutes, He received the compliments of
gentlemen of all orders, and every indication was given of
the sense the public has of his important services to
the American cause. Hancock was not so puffed up by
his exalted station in Congress as to despise the position
(03:53):
of moderator in a town meeting which was called soon
after his arrival home, to which he was unanimously chicken,
as also at another meeting a week later. At the
first one, held on December eighth, the thanks of that
town were voted him for the donation of one hundred
and fifty cords of wood to the poor.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
In the time of distress.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
In the first month of the new year, seventeen seventy eight,
a meeting of the state representatives was held when the
Articles of Confederation in Perpetual Union between the United States
of America, which had been framed by Congress, came up
for discussion and ratification. Massachusetts was specially favored in having
Hancock in the chair to set forth reasons why this
(04:36):
and that provision had been inserted. It is not improbable
that his return had been timed with reference to this
action of his native state, which he would wish to
have concurrent with the final decisions of Congress, a result
not to be secured in some states with ready unanimity,
nor without a repetition of congressional debates. John Adams might
(04:58):
have had another explanation Hancock's return, like the one he
recorded in his diary the year before. Mister Hancock told
c W yesterday that he had determined to go to
Boston in April. Missus Hancock was not willing to go
till May, but mister Hancock.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Was determined upon April.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Perhaps the choice of a governor may come on in May.
What aspiring little creatures we are, How subtle, sagacious and
judicious this passion is, how clearly it sees its object,
how constantly it pursues it, and what wise plans it
devises for obtaining it. It is not always easy to
reconcile the sentiments of John Adams about John Hancock at
(05:38):
different times. William Cunningham in seventeen ninety one reminds Adams that,
on one occasion in his own house, you turned yourself
towards your front door, and, pointing to a spot in view,
you laughingly exclaimed, yes, there is the place where the
great John Hancock was born John Hancock, a man without
(05:59):
head and without heart, the mere shadow of a man,
and yet a governor of old Massachusetts. But in a
letter to Judge Tudor June fifth, eighteen thirteen, Adams wrote,
the two young men whom I have known to enter
the stage of life with the most luminous, unclouded prospects
and the best founded hopes were James Otis and John Hancock.
(06:22):
They were both essential to the revolution, and both fell
sacrifices to it. They were the first movers, the most constant, steady,
persevering springs agents, and most disinterested sufferers, and firmest pillars
of the whole revolution. And in a letter to Reverend
Jedediah Morse d d. In eighteen eighteen, he wrote of
(06:47):
mister Hancock's life character, generous nature, great and distinguished sacrifices,
and important services.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
If I had forces, I.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Should be glad to write a volume. But this I
hope will be done by some younger and abler hand.
Hancock was living when the invidious remark was made to Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
He had been dead.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Twenty and twenty five years, respectively when the letters were
penned by Adams. An instance of the adjustments which time
often makes. An English author thinks that he was to
some degree actuated by a malevolent feeling towards Hancock, and
declares that he was mentally and morally incapable of discerning
(07:29):
high merit in anyone but himself. A pleasant contrast to
the sneering insinuations of John Adams is revealed in the
letter of Washington to Hancock on the eve of his departure,
in reply to one from the latter containing a notice
of his intention to retire from the chairmanship. It was
similar to that which he had laid before Congress, containing
(07:51):
this additional sentence, as Congress will doubtless proceed to appoint
a successor in my stead on him, therefore will devolve
the business of the chair. The politeness and attention I
have ever experienced from you in the course of our
correspondence will always be the source of the most pleasing
satisfaction to me. Washington thereupon wrote Headquarters twenty two October
(08:18):
seventeen seventy seven, Dear sir, it gives me real pain
to learn that the declining state of your health, owing
to your unwearied attention to public business, and the situation
of your private affairs, oblige you to relinquish the station,
though but for a time which you have long filled
with acknowledged propriety motives as well of a personal as
(08:42):
of a general concern, make me regret the necessity that
compels you to retire, and to wish your absence from
office may be of as short duration as possible in
the progress of that intercourse which has necessarily subsisted between us.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
The manner in which you have cann inducted.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
It on your part, accompanied with every expression of politeness
in regard to me, gives you a claim to my
warmest acknowledgments. I am not so well informed of the
situation of things up the North River as to be
able to give you any satisfactory advice about your route.
I should rather apprehend it might be unsafe for you
(09:20):
to travel that way at this time, and would recommend,
if you can do it without any material inconvenient, that
you should defer your journey till there is some change
in affairs there, or till they have taken a more
settled form. If you should, however, resolve to proceed immediately,
and will be pleased to signify the time an escort
(09:41):
of horse will meet you at Bethlehem to accompany you
to General Putnam's camp, where you will be furnished with
another escort in the further prosecution of your journey. I
am extremely obliged to you for your polite tender of
services during your attended residence at Boston, and shall always
be happy when leisure an opportunity permit. If you will
(10:02):
give me the pleasure of hearing from you, I have
the honor to be et cetera. On one occasion, at
least it appears by the foregoing letter, Safety demanded the
attendance of a troop, which Hancock's mallingerers attributed to.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
His love of display.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Some of them illustrated the partisan's spleen of the day
by saying that tavern keepers had to pursue the company
to get pay for their entertainment, which assertion bears the
myth mark of a fragment left on the highway by
some bankrupt circus, rather than a part of the itinerary
of John Hancock traveling at the country's expense or his own.
(10:39):
Of course, the chief value of the two letters is
their testimony to the cordial relations existing between the two
principal officials, civil and military, in a time when there
were jealousies, rivalries, and ploddings enough to imperil the cause
for which all pretended to be working, and that more
than once came near ruining it. As in the instances
(11:02):
of General Charles Lee's disloyalty, the Conway cabals scheming against Washington,
and Arnold's treason. There was nothing in the attitude of
these two principles beyond a stately ceremoniousness characteristic of the
age in which they lived and the caste to which
they belonged. The anniversary of the massacre was to be
(11:24):
kept in Boston for five years more before it should
be superseded by the national celebration.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Of the fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
On its eighth return seventeen seventy eight, Jonathan William Austin
was the orator at the Old Brick Meetinghouse. John Hancock
presided as the foremost citizen at the Fanuel Hall meeting,
recalling his own performance four years earlier. Four days later,
he took the chair at the annual election of town officers,
(11:53):
but was called to the House of Representatives on the
following day.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
On the twenty.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Seventh, he was again presiding as if there were no
other man in Boston who could satisfy its people, And
when on May twenty seven, seven men were to be
chosen to represent the town in the General Court, Hancock
received three hundred and thirty five votes, the largest number
given any candidate. His popularity was undiminished, and his usefulness
(12:19):
at home unimpaired.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
By his malady.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
To all appearances, he had now been absent from Congress
six months, with what rest from parliamentary practice his townsmen
would allow him, and his own willingness to be employed.
An additional reason for his prolonged stay may be found
in the expected arrival of another child, who was born
May twenty first and named John George Washington, an intended
(12:43):
compliment to the commander in chief to which he could
have not been insensible, and an evidence of Hancock's continued
regard for him. The former President was soon back in
Congress as a deputy, and on the twenty third of
June was writing to his wife from Yorktown, whither the
d Deputies had taken themselves after the occupation of Philadelphia
(13:03):
by Sir William Howe. Yorktown June twenty third, seventeen seventy eight,
my dearest Dolly. Mister Taylor, having agreeably to his wish,
been charged with some dispatches for our commissioners in France,
sets off for Boston immediately, and to sail from thence
as soon as the packet is ready by him. I
(13:25):
embrace the opportunity of writing you, although I wrote you
two letters the day before yesterday, and this is my
seventh letter, and not one word have I heard from
you since your departure from Boston. I am as well
as the peculiar situation of this place will admit, but
I can, by no means injustice to myself continue long
(13:46):
under such disagreeable circumstances.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I mean, in point of living.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The mode is so very different from what I have
always been accustomed to that to continue it long would
prejudice my health exceedingly. This moment the post arrived, and
to my very great surprise and disappointment, not a single
line from Boston. I am not disposed to resent, but
it feels exceedingly hard to be slighted and neglected by
(14:11):
those from whom I have a degree of right to
expect a different conduct. I would have hired anyone to
have sent a few lines just to let me know
the state of your health. But I must endeavor not
to be so anxious and be as easy as some
others seem to be. I will expect no letters, nor
write any, and then there will be no disappointment. So
(14:33):
much for that to be serious, I shall write no
more till I hear from you. This is agreeable to
my former promise. It really is not kind when you
must be sensible that I must have been very anxious
about you, and the little one devote a little time
to write me. It will please me much to hear
of you. I am sure you are disposed to oblige me,
(14:55):
and pray I may not be disappointed in my opinion
of your disposition. I hope this will meet you tolerably
recovered from your late confinement. I wish to hear of
your being below stairs and able to take care of
our dear little one. I am much concerned about your
improving the fine season in riding. I am sorry I
(15:17):
did not take hired horses and leave you mine, but
I beg you to spare no cost in riding for
the establishment and continuance.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Of your health.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Hire horses whenever you are disposed to ride. Be as
frugal and prudent in other matters as is consistent with
our situation.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I wish to know every occurrence since my departure.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Pray be particular as to your health in your letters,
and give me an exact state of little John. Does
Missus Brackett intend continuing with you? I beg she may
at least until my return. My love to her, Pray
her to take great care of the little fellow. As
soon as the city of Phyla is cleansed, I judge
(15:58):
Congress will remove thither. And as soon as we have
got over the important business now before Congress, I shall
solicit leave to return home, as it will not be
necessary for so many of our members to be here.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
But of this more hereafter.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
As I have wrote so many letters and see no returns,
and as I am called to attend Congress, I must
refer you to mister Taylor for every particular relative to
our situation. My regards to mister and missus Bant, my
brother and sister, and indeed to all friends as if.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Named remember me.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
To Spriggs and Harry, and to all in the family.
Do let me have frequent letters. You will oblige me much.
My best wishes ever attend you for the highest felicity,
and I am with the utmost affection and love yours forever,
John Hancock. The important business before Congress which he mentions
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in this letter had brought him back as a delegate,
as Henry Lawrence of South North Carolina had been elected
president in his place on November one, seventeen seventy seven,
after his departure from Boston. Tidings of the treaty with
France had been received in April seventeen seventy eight, Lord
North's Alive Branch Commission, granting all that the colonies had
(17:17):
originally claimed, had arrived to divide and divert the colonials,
to which Congress replied in effect that when the King
and Parliament should be disposed to put an end to
the war, they would attend to his proposals as an
independent nation. The embassy failing, the war went on, although
desertions and financial troubles were disheartening its supporters, and in
(17:39):
both the Army and Congress, intriguers were attempting to supplant
Washington their only hope. In the midst of the general
darkness the sky cleared over Philadelphia when after the famous
farewell banquet to loyalist friends in which Major andre figured,
General Clinton led the British Army out toward New York,
(17:59):
and the America and Army took its place on June eighteenth.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Under Arnold's command.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Then a part of Congress was glad to get back
to its old quarters on July first, but a week later,
in the lack of a quorum, President Lawrence congratulated Washington
upon his success at the Battle of Monmouth ten days before.
On the seventh, however, a sufficient number assembled to pass
commendatory resolutions for Washington's activity and pursuit and general efficiency
(18:28):
in battle in gaining an important victory. They might have added,
despite the treacherous retreat of General Lee, by which the
partial victory came near being turned into a defeat, as
it happened, by the personal valor of the commander, the
fielders recovered, and another impulse given to the rising tide
of confidence. According to his intention expressed in the last
(18:53):
letter to his wife, Hancock left for home soon after
the return of Congress to Philadelphia surely found less interest
in its proceedings than when he was chairman of a
deliberative body whose distinction for ability and wisdom was greater
than it had lately been, and some of whose members
had not been contributing to the success of the cause
(19:14):
by their disloyalty to the commander in chief. It is
more than probable, too, that absence from home, the infrequency
of his wife's letters, the comparative solitude of his longings,
and the impaired condition of his health made longer residents
in Philadelphia less endurable than formerly. On his arrival in
(19:35):
Boston the first week in August, he was chosen moderator
of a town meeting which had a matter to consider,
second in importance to none that had arisen since the
declaration of independence. He was also chosen chairman of a
committee appointed to consider the question and reported a future meeting.
This question was, in brief, what answer shall we returned
(19:56):
to loyalists who were seeking to return to Boston, and
what policy should be pursued towards them in the future.
It could not be expected that Tories would obtain mercy
at the hands of the Whigs during the war, nor
that the hatred and prejudiced against them would die out
in that generation, or even the traditional stigma of their
position in the next. From the patriot's side, they were
(20:19):
regarded as a part of the royal forces, fighting with
the King against their countrymen and the liberties which had
been allowed them by previous monarchs, and later against the
independence which a growing majority was trying to secure. It
was of no avail to remind Whigs that before seventeen
seventy every inhabitant of the land was a Tory, some
(20:40):
grumbling against the throne and ministry, according to the right
and habit of true Britons everywhere, But for five years
from that time, having no thought of more than a
reform of recent legislation and the repeal of the new
King's oppressive enactments, Neither was it to any purpose to
remind Whigs that Tories belonged to the conservative party of wealth, influence,
(21:03):
prosperity and respectability, which had more to lose than the
shifty populace without property or business interests, who had formed
the rank and file of the revolutionary movement at first,
as distinguished from the solid men, who preferred to endure
minor ills if thereby they should escape the greater ones
which they foresaw in the breaking up of stable foundations,
(21:27):
all at once or by rapid transfer. These colonial upper
class people became political criminals and enemies to the leaders
of revolt, and especially to their followers, who were always
ready for rough methods of converting the aristocracy to their
own side, even though at an occasional and material profit
to themselves. In theory, a republic was better than a
(21:50):
monarchy liberty and dependence. Why should not everybody strike for freedom?
Tories answered, because your republic is as uncertain as the future,
with drawbacks that are now unthought of but sure to appear. Moreover,
a war of indefinite duration and uncertain outcome lies between
you and possible achievement or probable failure. With all that
(22:13):
this means to rebels, we prefer to pay a threepenny
tax and continued loyal citizens of an empire which, in
the long run has held a foremost place among the
nations of the earth. Accordingly, they were at first counted
as aliens by the insurgent class, than as enemies, and
by the issue of the war they became outcasts. To
(22:35):
be sure, their negative attitude at first did not continue,
but changed into a hostile disposition in retaliation for persecutions inflicted.
There is not much to say for the credit of
either party in a civil war which went on within
the war with Great Britain. If the Tories had seen
the crown triumph, their treatment of the rebels, as they
(22:55):
called the Whigs might have been no better than they
themselves received. The human nature of a single race is
not changed by party names or the fortune of war. Therefore,
it is an interesting speculation to conjecture what a victorious
Tory party would have done with defeated patriots. It is
safe to say that Samuel Adams and John Hancock would
(23:16):
have been sent to England for trial, if not for
execution as traitors, but towards the people at large. There
was a growing spirit of conciliation as the war went on,
for reasons which cannot be detailed here. It is unfortunate
that it cannot be said with equal truth that as
the Patriot cause looked more hopeful, and even when independence
(23:37):
was assured, the hostility towards resident or banished loyalists was diminished.
During the war, every species of intimidation had been used
to bring them into the Patriot ranks, indignities not usually
practiced in dignified warfare had been thrust upon them. Eighty
five thousand had been driven into Canadian exile aloneuse size
(24:00):
other thousands who had fled to other British possessions, leaving
houses and lands, business and friends. Confiscation allowed exile with
poverty and distress in strange and inhospitable regions. The Acadian story,
which excites American sympathy, has at least the mitigating feature
of removal southward to gentler climes, while the colonial dispersion
(24:24):
was chiefly into northern latitudes, which our Saxon ancestors used
to designate as the domain of a chili goddess with
a name which, by a singular inversion of meeting and
the addition of one letter, now belongs to a.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Place of fiery torment.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So the exiles themselves used to place in the same
category hell Hull and Halifax. Nor did the British troops
have a better opinion of the chief city, which they
called a cursed, cold, wintry place, even yet April eighteenth
nothing to eat and less to drink. However, they had
(25:01):
only two months of it, for on June seventh they
embarked for New York, but the fifteen hundred refugees were
left in Canada to shift for themselves in suffering in privation,
wherever they could find a foothold. After two years, they
were now asking to be allowed to return to their
beloved Boston. In the words of one of their number,
they had been loath to quit this shore, and will
(25:23):
be loathed while there is a glibbering hope of returning
to their beloved abode in peace and credit. Their appeal
was now before Hancock and his committee to consider and
report to the legislature. The consideration was deliberate, and the
report delayed, but when at length it was made, the
form of it.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Was as follows.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Resolved that the inhabitants of this town will exert themselves
to the utmost in supporting the Civil Magistrate in the
execution of this law against the Tories, That those professed
enemies to our rights and liberties, the first fomenters of
our present troubles, who have left this country and aided
the British Tyrant in his worse than savage measures to
(26:03):
deprive Americans of everything that ought to be held dear
and sacred by any people, may not return and enjoy
in common the fruits of what our immortal patriots have
toiled and bled to procure us, and in some future
time to be again the base and cursed instruments of
British seducers in involving a happy people in confusion and bloodshed,
(26:25):
in order to realize the reward and private advantages held
out to such traitors by the enemies of America. This reply,
which is in the style of Hancock, seems like a
harsh answer to his old acquaintances now in the desolate
places of Nova Scotia. But the case against Tories as
a body is not overstated. As early as the spring
(26:49):
of seventeen seventy five, there was an association of loyalists
in Massachusetts for mutual defense against the rebels. After the
Lexington affair, those in Boston formed themselves into a vol
volunteer corps and insisted on staying in town to stand
between the colonials and the British troops. They had opposed
sending provisions to the besieged inhabitants, had urged the British
(27:11):
government to strong action and the soldiery to violence against
the Whigs. While they denounced Gage's activity, it was worse
in New York, where Tories constituted half the population. There
was a body of militia in that state which at
one time numbered five eight hundred and fifty five men,
and in the country at large there were at least
fifty thousand of them in arms during the war at
(27:33):
one time. In another they enlisted freely in the British
Army and Navy, and furnished supplies to the enemy when
the American troops found it difficult to obtain them. Contemptible
acts of partisan warfare may be passed over, since their
patriot foes repaid them in their own coin. Their hostility
was even more fractricidal than that of the British against
(27:54):
men of their own race, because they were fighting against
their own country and often neighbours and relatives, and protracting
a war which would have been ended sooner if they
had not held out encouragement to the Crown and Parliament.
By constant misrepresentation from the beginning to the end of
the strife, Franklin considered them as the main cause of
(28:14):
its continuance, by making the ministry believe that the rebellion
was by a few men of no account, and that
the majority were ready to submit, they themselves being, as
they said, four fifths of the entire population.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It was in the midst of the.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
War, and with such facts before them, that Hancock and
his friends considered the exile's requests to return. If the
contest had been finished. With the result that followed five
years later, this committee might have been asked, which of
the two general methods of victors towards the vanquished they
were going to put themselves on record as pursuing the
(28:49):
generous or its opposite. Not much mercy has ever been
expected from savage tribes in their brutish warfare, and no
great favor between different races in ancient times, especially towards
rebellious provinces, but between factions of the same race, citizens
of the same country, neighbours in the same town, and
(29:10):
members of the same families. It is reasonable to look
for lenity from the party which has the constellations of victory,
and whose overlooking of mistaken views and misplaced hopes could
not affect the outcome of the strife. Since this was
not over, and thousands of tories were in arms hoping
for the downfall of the patriot cause, exiled bands or
(29:32):
individuals could not be permitted to return with safety to
the general welfare, however they might behave in a single state.
Other states, where they were making more trouble, as in
the South, would not thank Massachusetts for what might be
called giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The disturbing
faction was less dangerous where it had betaken itself, although
(29:53):
less comfortable. If they had been allowed to return, they
would have found Boston what they feared it would be
for them without the present of the British forces, worse
than Halifax and the two other places in the triple
alliteration above mentioned. Reproach and scorn would have been the
least of their sufferings. There are sons and daughters associations
(30:14):
of this and that colonial order in the commendable desire
to commemorate noble service in war and peace. But the
great multitude of loyalists, of whom Washington said that they
had a right to choose their side, who at first
were guilty of nothing more than a fidelity to the
home government and the Empire of which they were citizens,
and later of living or dying for it.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Of this large body and.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Respectable in British eyes, there was no disposition to perpetrate
the name and memory, unless in Canada it stood for
what was to pass away. Here it resisted the coming
of a better kingdom. It fell with the old domination
and oppression, and the new order could not forget or
forgive its hostility to republican prince in a democratic state.
(31:02):
Considering these and other aspects of one of the most
vexatious problems that confronted the fathers, Hancock and his compatriots
cannot be blamed for a seeming hard heartedness in turning
a deaf ear to the entreaties of their former neighbors
and friends to be allowed to return to their homes
in the midst of hostilities. When these ceased, conditions were
(31:24):
changed and generosity could prevail with greater safety, although it
can be said with less profit to holders of confiscated
estates brought low. Yet, the best terms that Great Britain
could secure for its loyal colonists when terms of peace
were agreed upon, were that Congress should recommend leniency to
the several states in their treatment of tories. For its
(31:47):
own part, the Home Government employed as many as it could,
and for the temporary support of the unemployed, it expended
over forty thousand pounds sterling annually before the end of
the war. Afterwards, additional burdens were ungrudgingly assumed for the
expatriated five hundred acres of land to each family, building materials, tools.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And even food.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
In this way, nearly nine million dollars were spent in
Canada before seventeen eighty seven. In addition, some nineteen million
dollars were paid for losses of property by the well
to do on their claims for forty millions. Among these
were governors, judges, counselors, commissioners, college presidents, and clergymen. After
(32:31):
all that was done for them, they were dissatisfied and unhappy.
In Canada, they were wretched. In England, they were disregarded
and thrown back upon the companionship of.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
The lower classes. There was little left for.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Them but to drag out a lonely existence to the
end of their days.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
End of Chapter fifteen, Part two
Chapter fifteen, Part two of John Hancock, The Picturesque Patriot
by Lorenzo Sears. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
President of Congress.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
In a fortnight from the date of his last letter
to his wife, he was on his way toward Boston
and wrote the following letter to her dover within sixty
miles of Hartford, Saturday, one o clock eight November seventeen
seventy seven. My dear, I am thus far on my
(00:34):
journey to meet you. Thank luck for it. I have
gone through many difficulties on the road, but that I
shall not mind. The remembrance of these difficulties will vanish
when I have the happiness of seeing you.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I am still obliged.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
To have my foot wrapped up in bays, but I
brave all these things. I hire this person to carry
you this letter in confidence it will meet you at Hartford.
I shall get along as as fast as I can,
but having a party of light horse with me, I
do not travel so fast as I otherwise should.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What if you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Should, on Monday morning set out to meet me on
the Lichfield Road, and then if I am not able
to reach Hartford that day, I shall have the satisfaction
of seeing.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You on the road.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
If you think the ride will be too much, I
would not have you undertake it. But I hope you
will not ride many miles before we shall meet. As
I trust mister Bantis with you. My regards to him,
my best wishes attend him. Remember me to Missus Collier,
for I suppose you are there. I am sorry I
cannot take Fairfield in my way, but I crossed so
(01:41):
high up it was not possible. I have much to
say but refer all to the happy time when I
shall be with you. God bless you, my dear girl,
and believe me with sincere affection yours forever, John Hancock,
Missus mcdagell this moment comes into the tavern and is
going to dine with us, according to his requests and arrangements.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
His wife met him on the.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Road, as implied in a paragraph in a Hartford newspaper
of November nineteen. On Friday last passed through this town,
escorted by a party of light dragoons, the Honorable John Hancock,
President of the American Congress, with his lady on his
way to Boston after an absence on public business of
more than two and a half years, but the wife
(02:28):
came without the child, who had died during the summer
stay in Massachusetts. It was safe traveling in New England
after the Hudson River was crossed, the British being occupied elsewhere.
But the official station of the President of Congress and
the sentiment of the time, together with its agreement with
Hancock's own sense of his position, required a display commensurate
(02:49):
with its importance. This was confirmed by the cordial demonstrations
of welcome which attended his arrival home, as reported in
the Pennsylvania Ledger. This day arrived at Bossons in Massachusetts,
under an escort of American Light dragoons. The Honorable John Hancock, Esquire,
President of the American Congress and first Major General of
(03:10):
the militia of that state. By his coming to town
sooner than was expected, he avoided some public marks of
respect which would otherwise have been paid him. His arrival
was made known by ringing the bells, the discharge of
thirteen cannon of Colonel Craft's Park of Artillery on the Common,
the cannon and the fortress on Fort Hill, and the
(03:30):
shipping in the harbor. The Independent and Light Infantry companies
paid him their military salutes, He received the compliments of
gentlemen of all orders, and every indication was given of
the sense the public has of his important services to
the American cause. Hancock was not so puffed up by
his exalted station in Congress as to despise the position
(03:53):
of moderator in a town meeting which was called soon
after his arrival home, to which he was unanimously chicken,
as also at another meeting a week later. At the
first one, held on December eighth, the thanks of that
town were voted him for the donation of one hundred
and fifty cords of wood to the poor.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
In the time of distress.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
In the first month of the new year, seventeen seventy eight,
a meeting of the state representatives was held when the
Articles of Confederation in Perpetual Union between the United States
of America, which had been framed by Congress, came up
for discussion and ratification. Massachusetts was specially favored in having
Hancock in the chair to set forth reasons why this
(04:36):
and that provision had been inserted. It is not improbable
that his return had been timed with reference to this
action of his native state, which he would wish to
have concurrent with the final decisions of Congress, a result
not to be secured in some states with ready unanimity,
nor without a repetition of congressional debates. John Adams might
(04:58):
have had another explanation Hancock's return, like the one he
recorded in his diary the year before. Mister Hancock told
c W yesterday that he had determined to go to
Boston in April. Missus Hancock was not willing to go
till May, but mister Hancock.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Was determined upon April.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Perhaps the choice of a governor may come on in May.
What aspiring little creatures we are, How subtle, sagacious and
judicious this passion is, how clearly it sees its object,
how constantly it pursues it, and what wise plans it
devises for obtaining it. It is not always easy to
reconcile the sentiments of John Adams about John Hancock at
(05:38):
different times. William Cunningham in seventeen ninety one reminds Adams that,
on one occasion in his own house, you turned yourself
towards your front door, and, pointing to a spot in view,
you laughingly exclaimed, yes, there is the place where the
great John Hancock was born John Hancock, a man without
(05:59):
head and without heart, the mere shadow of a man,
and yet a governor of old Massachusetts. But in a
letter to Judge Tudor June fifth, eighteen thirteen, Adams wrote,
the two young men whom I have known to enter
the stage of life with the most luminous, unclouded prospects
and the best founded hopes were James Otis and John Hancock.
(06:22):
They were both essential to the revolution, and both fell
sacrifices to it. They were the first movers, the most constant, steady,
persevering springs agents, and most disinterested sufferers, and firmest pillars
of the whole revolution. And in a letter to Reverend
Jedediah Morse d d. In eighteen eighteen, he wrote of
(06:47):
mister Hancock's life character, generous nature, great and distinguished sacrifices,
and important services.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
If I had forces, I.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Should be glad to write a volume. But this I
hope will be done by some younger and abler hand.
Hancock was living when the invidious remark was made to Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
He had been dead.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Twenty and twenty five years, respectively when the letters were
penned by Adams. An instance of the adjustments which time
often makes. An English author thinks that he was to
some degree actuated by a malevolent feeling towards Hancock, and
declares that he was mentally and morally incapable of discerning
(07:29):
high merit in anyone but himself. A pleasant contrast to
the sneering insinuations of John Adams is revealed in the
letter of Washington to Hancock on the eve of his departure,
in reply to one from the latter containing a notice
of his intention to retire from the chairmanship. It was
similar to that which he had laid before Congress, containing
(07:51):
this additional sentence, as Congress will doubtless proceed to appoint
a successor in my stead on him, therefore will devolve
the business of the chair. The politeness and attention I
have ever experienced from you in the course of our
correspondence will always be the source of the most pleasing
satisfaction to me. Washington thereupon wrote Headquarters twenty two October
(08:18):
seventeen seventy seven, Dear sir, it gives me real pain
to learn that the declining state of your health, owing
to your unwearied attention to public business, and the situation
of your private affairs, oblige you to relinquish the station,
though but for a time which you have long filled
with acknowledged propriety motives as well of a personal as
(08:42):
of a general concern, make me regret the necessity that
compels you to retire, and to wish your absence from
office may be of as short duration as possible in
the progress of that intercourse which has necessarily subsisted between us.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
The manner in which you have cann inducted.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
It on your part, accompanied with every expression of politeness
in regard to me, gives you a claim to my
warmest acknowledgments. I am not so well informed of the
situation of things up the North River as to be
able to give you any satisfactory advice about your route.
I should rather apprehend it might be unsafe for you
(09:20):
to travel that way at this time, and would recommend,
if you can do it without any material inconvenient, that
you should defer your journey till there is some change
in affairs there, or till they have taken a more
settled form. If you should, however, resolve to proceed immediately,
and will be pleased to signify the time an escort
(09:41):
of horse will meet you at Bethlehem to accompany you
to General Putnam's camp, where you will be furnished with
another escort in the further prosecution of your journey. I
am extremely obliged to you for your polite tender of
services during your attended residence at Boston, and shall always
be happy when leisure an opportunity permit. If you will
(10:02):
give me the pleasure of hearing from you, I have
the honor to be et cetera. On one occasion, at
least it appears by the foregoing letter, Safety demanded the
attendance of a troop, which Hancock's mallingerers attributed to.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
His love of display.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Some of them illustrated the partisan's spleen of the day
by saying that tavern keepers had to pursue the company
to get pay for their entertainment, which assertion bears the
myth mark of a fragment left on the highway by
some bankrupt circus, rather than a part of the itinerary
of John Hancock traveling at the country's expense or his own.
(10:39):
Of course, the chief value of the two letters is
their testimony to the cordial relations existing between the two
principal officials, civil and military, in a time when there
were jealousies, rivalries, and ploddings enough to imperil the cause
for which all pretended to be working, and that more
than once came near ruining it. As in the instances
(11:02):
of General Charles Lee's disloyalty, the Conway cabals scheming against Washington,
and Arnold's treason. There was nothing in the attitude of
these two principles beyond a stately ceremoniousness characteristic of the
age in which they lived and the caste to which
they belonged. The anniversary of the massacre was to be
(11:24):
kept in Boston for five years more before it should
be superseded by the national celebration.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Of the fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
On its eighth return seventeen seventy eight, Jonathan William Austin
was the orator at the Old Brick Meetinghouse. John Hancock
presided as the foremost citizen at the Fanuel Hall meeting,
recalling his own performance four years earlier. Four days later,
he took the chair at the annual election of town officers,
(11:53):
but was called to the House of Representatives on the
following day.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
On the twenty.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Seventh, he was again presiding as if there were no
other man in Boston who could satisfy its people, And
when on May twenty seven, seven men were to be
chosen to represent the town in the General Court, Hancock
received three hundred and thirty five votes, the largest number
given any candidate. His popularity was undiminished, and his usefulness
(12:19):
at home unimpaired.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
By his malady.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
To all appearances, he had now been absent from Congress
six months, with what rest from parliamentary practice his townsmen
would allow him, and his own willingness to be employed.
An additional reason for his prolonged stay may be found
in the expected arrival of another child, who was born
May twenty first and named John George Washington, an intended
(12:43):
compliment to the commander in chief to which he could
have not been insensible, and an evidence of Hancock's continued
regard for him. The former President was soon back in
Congress as a deputy, and on the twenty third of
June was writing to his wife from Yorktown, whither the
d Deputies had taken themselves after the occupation of Philadelphia
(13:03):
by Sir William Howe. Yorktown June twenty third, seventeen seventy eight,
my dearest Dolly. Mister Taylor, having agreeably to his wish,
been charged with some dispatches for our commissioners in France,
sets off for Boston immediately, and to sail from thence
as soon as the packet is ready by him. I
(13:25):
embrace the opportunity of writing you, although I wrote you
two letters the day before yesterday, and this is my
seventh letter, and not one word have I heard from
you since your departure from Boston. I am as well
as the peculiar situation of this place will admit, but
I can, by no means injustice to myself continue long
(13:46):
under such disagreeable circumstances.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I mean, in point of living.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The mode is so very different from what I have
always been accustomed to that to continue it long would
prejudice my health exceedingly. This moment the post arrived, and
to my very great surprise and disappointment, not a single
line from Boston. I am not disposed to resent, but
it feels exceedingly hard to be slighted and neglected by
(14:11):
those from whom I have a degree of right to
expect a different conduct. I would have hired anyone to
have sent a few lines just to let me know
the state of your health. But I must endeavor not
to be so anxious and be as easy as some
others seem to be. I will expect no letters, nor
write any, and then there will be no disappointment. So
(14:33):
much for that to be serious, I shall write no
more till I hear from you. This is agreeable to
my former promise. It really is not kind when you
must be sensible that I must have been very anxious
about you, and the little one devote a little time
to write me. It will please me much to hear
of you. I am sure you are disposed to oblige me,
(14:55):
and pray I may not be disappointed in my opinion
of your disposition. I hope this will meet you tolerably
recovered from your late confinement. I wish to hear of
your being below stairs and able to take care of
our dear little one. I am much concerned about your
improving the fine season in riding. I am sorry I
(15:17):
did not take hired horses and leave you mine, but
I beg you to spare no cost in riding for
the establishment and continuance.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Of your health.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Hire horses whenever you are disposed to ride. Be as
frugal and prudent in other matters as is consistent with
our situation.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I wish to know every occurrence since my departure.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Pray be particular as to your health in your letters,
and give me an exact state of little John. Does
Missus Brackett intend continuing with you? I beg she may
at least until my return. My love to her, Pray
her to take great care of the little fellow. As
soon as the city of Phyla is cleansed, I judge
(15:58):
Congress will remove thither. And as soon as we have
got over the important business now before Congress, I shall
solicit leave to return home, as it will not be
necessary for so many of our members to be here.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
But of this more hereafter.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
As I have wrote so many letters and see no returns,
and as I am called to attend Congress, I must
refer you to mister Taylor for every particular relative to
our situation. My regards to mister and missus Bant, my
brother and sister, and indeed to all friends as if.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Named remember me.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
To Spriggs and Harry, and to all in the family.
Do let me have frequent letters. You will oblige me much.
My best wishes ever attend you for the highest felicity,
and I am with the utmost affection and love yours forever,
John Hancock. The important business before Congress which he mentions
(16:55):
in this letter had brought him back as a delegate,
as Henry Lawrence of South North Carolina had been elected
president in his place on November one, seventeen seventy seven,
after his departure from Boston. Tidings of the treaty with
France had been received in April seventeen seventy eight, Lord
North's Alive Branch Commission, granting all that the colonies had
(17:17):
originally claimed, had arrived to divide and divert the colonials,
to which Congress replied in effect that when the King
and Parliament should be disposed to put an end to
the war, they would attend to his proposals as an
independent nation. The embassy failing, the war went on, although
desertions and financial troubles were disheartening its supporters, and in
(17:39):
both the Army and Congress, intriguers were attempting to supplant
Washington their only hope. In the midst of the general
darkness the sky cleared over Philadelphia when after the famous
farewell banquet to loyalist friends in which Major andre figured,
General Clinton led the British Army out toward New York,
(17:59):
and the America and Army took its place on June eighteenth.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Under Arnold's command.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Then a part of Congress was glad to get back
to its old quarters on July first, but a week later,
in the lack of a quorum, President Lawrence congratulated Washington
upon his success at the Battle of Monmouth ten days before.
On the seventh, however, a sufficient number assembled to pass
commendatory resolutions for Washington's activity and pursuit and general efficiency
(18:28):
in battle in gaining an important victory. They might have added,
despite the treacherous retreat of General Lee, by which the
partial victory came near being turned into a defeat, as
it happened, by the personal valor of the commander, the
fielders recovered, and another impulse given to the rising tide
of confidence. According to his intention expressed in the last
(18:53):
letter to his wife, Hancock left for home soon after
the return of Congress to Philadelphia surely found less interest
in its proceedings than when he was chairman of a
deliberative body whose distinction for ability and wisdom was greater
than it had lately been, and some of whose members
had not been contributing to the success of the cause
(19:14):
by their disloyalty to the commander in chief. It is
more than probable, too, that absence from home, the infrequency
of his wife's letters, the comparative solitude of his longings,
and the impaired condition of his health made longer residents
in Philadelphia less endurable than formerly. On his arrival in
(19:35):
Boston the first week in August, he was chosen moderator
of a town meeting which had a matter to consider,
second in importance to none that had arisen since the
declaration of independence. He was also chosen chairman of a
committee appointed to consider the question and reported a future meeting.
This question was, in brief, what answer shall we returned
(19:56):
to loyalists who were seeking to return to Boston, and
what policy should be pursued towards them in the future.
It could not be expected that Tories would obtain mercy
at the hands of the Whigs during the war, nor
that the hatred and prejudiced against them would die out
in that generation, or even the traditional stigma of their
position in the next. From the patriot's side, they were
(20:19):
regarded as a part of the royal forces, fighting with
the King against their countrymen and the liberties which had
been allowed them by previous monarchs, and later against the
independence which a growing majority was trying to secure. It
was of no avail to remind Whigs that before seventeen
seventy every inhabitant of the land was a Tory, some
(20:40):
grumbling against the throne and ministry, according to the right
and habit of true Britons everywhere, But for five years
from that time, having no thought of more than a
reform of recent legislation and the repeal of the new
King's oppressive enactments, Neither was it to any purpose to
remind Whigs that Tories belonged to the conservative party of wealth, influence,
(21:03):
prosperity and respectability, which had more to lose than the
shifty populace without property or business interests, who had formed
the rank and file of the revolutionary movement at first,
as distinguished from the solid men, who preferred to endure
minor ills if thereby they should escape the greater ones
which they foresaw in the breaking up of stable foundations,
(21:27):
all at once or by rapid transfer. These colonial upper
class people became political criminals and enemies to the leaders
of revolt, and especially to their followers, who were always
ready for rough methods of converting the aristocracy to their
own side, even though at an occasional and material profit
to themselves. In theory, a republic was better than a
(21:50):
monarchy liberty and dependence. Why should not everybody strike for freedom?
Tories answered, because your republic is as uncertain as the future,
with drawbacks that are now unthought of but sure to appear. Moreover,
a war of indefinite duration and uncertain outcome lies between
you and possible achievement or probable failure. With all that
(22:13):
this means to rebels, we prefer to pay a threepenny
tax and continued loyal citizens of an empire which, in
the long run has held a foremost place among the
nations of the earth. Accordingly, they were at first counted
as aliens by the insurgent class, than as enemies, and
by the issue of the war they became outcasts. To
(22:35):
be sure, their negative attitude at first did not continue,
but changed into a hostile disposition in retaliation for persecutions inflicted.
There is not much to say for the credit of
either party in a civil war which went on within
the war with Great Britain. If the Tories had seen
the crown triumph, their treatment of the rebels, as they
(22:55):
called the Whigs might have been no better than they
themselves received. The human nature of a single race is
not changed by party names or the fortune of war. Therefore,
it is an interesting speculation to conjecture what a victorious
Tory party would have done with defeated patriots. It is
safe to say that Samuel Adams and John Hancock would
(23:16):
have been sent to England for trial, if not for
execution as traitors, but towards the people at large. There
was a growing spirit of conciliation as the war went on,
for reasons which cannot be detailed here. It is unfortunate
that it cannot be said with equal truth that as
the Patriot cause looked more hopeful, and even when independence
(23:37):
was assured, the hostility towards resident or banished loyalists was diminished.
During the war, every species of intimidation had been used
to bring them into the Patriot ranks, indignities not usually
practiced in dignified warfare had been thrust upon them. Eighty
five thousand had been driven into Canadian exile aloneuse size
(24:00):
other thousands who had fled to other British possessions, leaving
houses and lands, business and friends. Confiscation allowed exile with
poverty and distress in strange and inhospitable regions. The Acadian story,
which excites American sympathy, has at least the mitigating feature
of removal southward to gentler climes, while the colonial dispersion
(24:24):
was chiefly into northern latitudes, which our Saxon ancestors used
to designate as the domain of a chili goddess with
a name which, by a singular inversion of meeting and
the addition of one letter, now belongs to a.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Place of fiery torment.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So the exiles themselves used to place in the same
category hell Hull and Halifax. Nor did the British troops
have a better opinion of the chief city, which they
called a cursed, cold, wintry place, even yet April eighteenth
nothing to eat and less to drink. However, they had
(25:01):
only two months of it, for on June seventh they
embarked for New York, but the fifteen hundred refugees were
left in Canada to shift for themselves in suffering in privation,
wherever they could find a foothold. After two years, they
were now asking to be allowed to return to their
beloved Boston. In the words of one of their number,
they had been loath to quit this shore, and will
(25:23):
be loathed while there is a glibbering hope of returning
to their beloved abode in peace and credit. Their appeal
was now before Hancock and his committee to consider and
report to the legislature. The consideration was deliberate, and the
report delayed, but when at length it was made, the
form of it.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Was as follows.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Resolved that the inhabitants of this town will exert themselves
to the utmost in supporting the Civil Magistrate in the
execution of this law against the Tories, That those professed
enemies to our rights and liberties, the first fomenters of
our present troubles, who have left this country and aided
the British Tyrant in his worse than savage measures to
(26:03):
deprive Americans of everything that ought to be held dear
and sacred by any people, may not return and enjoy
in common the fruits of what our immortal patriots have
toiled and bled to procure us, and in some future
time to be again the base and cursed instruments of
British seducers in involving a happy people in confusion and bloodshed,
(26:25):
in order to realize the reward and private advantages held
out to such traitors by the enemies of America. This reply,
which is in the style of Hancock, seems like a
harsh answer to his old acquaintances now in the desolate
places of Nova Scotia. But the case against Tories as
a body is not overstated. As early as the spring
(26:49):
of seventeen seventy five, there was an association of loyalists
in Massachusetts for mutual defense against the rebels. After the
Lexington affair, those in Boston formed themselves into a vol
volunteer corps and insisted on staying in town to stand
between the colonials and the British troops. They had opposed
sending provisions to the besieged inhabitants, had urged the British
(27:11):
government to strong action and the soldiery to violence against
the Whigs. While they denounced Gage's activity, it was worse
in New York, where Tories constituted half the population. There
was a body of militia in that state which at
one time numbered five eight hundred and fifty five men,
and in the country at large there were at least
fifty thousand of them in arms during the war at
(27:33):
one time. In another they enlisted freely in the British
Army and Navy, and furnished supplies to the enemy when
the American troops found it difficult to obtain them. Contemptible
acts of partisan warfare may be passed over, since their
patriot foes repaid them in their own coin. Their hostility
was even more fractricidal than that of the British against
(27:54):
men of their own race, because they were fighting against
their own country and often neighbours and relatives, and protracting
a war which would have been ended sooner if they
had not held out encouragement to the Crown and Parliament.
By constant misrepresentation from the beginning to the end of
the strife, Franklin considered them as the main cause of
(28:14):
its continuance, by making the ministry believe that the rebellion
was by a few men of no account, and that
the majority were ready to submit, they themselves being, as
they said, four fifths of the entire population.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It was in the midst of the.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
War, and with such facts before them, that Hancock and
his friends considered the exile's requests to return. If the
contest had been finished. With the result that followed five
years later, this committee might have been asked, which of
the two general methods of victors towards the vanquished they
were going to put themselves on record as pursuing the
(28:49):
generous or its opposite. Not much mercy has ever been
expected from savage tribes in their brutish warfare, and no
great favor between different races in ancient times, especially towards
rebellious provinces, but between factions of the same race, citizens
of the same country, neighbours in the same town, and
(29:10):
members of the same families. It is reasonable to look
for lenity from the party which has the constellations of victory,
and whose overlooking of mistaken views and misplaced hopes could
not affect the outcome of the strife. Since this was
not over, and thousands of tories were in arms hoping
for the downfall of the patriot cause, exiled bands or
(29:32):
individuals could not be permitted to return with safety to
the general welfare, however they might behave in a single state.
Other states, where they were making more trouble, as in
the South, would not thank Massachusetts for what might be
called giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The disturbing
faction was less dangerous where it had betaken itself, although
(29:53):
less comfortable. If they had been allowed to return, they
would have found Boston what they feared it would be
for them without the present of the British forces, worse
than Halifax and the two other places in the triple
alliteration above mentioned. Reproach and scorn would have been the
least of their sufferings. There are sons and daughters associations
(30:14):
of this and that colonial order in the commendable desire
to commemorate noble service in war and peace. But the
great multitude of loyalists, of whom Washington said that they
had a right to choose their side, who at first
were guilty of nothing more than a fidelity to the
home government and the Empire of which they were citizens,
and later of living or dying for it.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Of this large body and.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Respectable in British eyes, there was no disposition to perpetrate
the name and memory, unless in Canada it stood for
what was to pass away. Here it resisted the coming
of a better kingdom. It fell with the old domination
and oppression, and the new order could not forget or
forgive its hostility to republican prince in a democratic state.
(31:02):
Considering these and other aspects of one of the most
vexatious problems that confronted the fathers, Hancock and his compatriots
cannot be blamed for a seeming hard heartedness in turning
a deaf ear to the entreaties of their former neighbors
and friends to be allowed to return to their homes
in the midst of hostilities. When these ceased, conditions were
(31:24):
changed and generosity could prevail with greater safety, although it
can be said with less profit to holders of confiscated
estates brought low. Yet, the best terms that Great Britain
could secure for its loyal colonists when terms of peace
were agreed upon, were that Congress should recommend leniency to
the several states in their treatment of tories. For its
(31:47):
own part, the Home Government employed as many as it could,
and for the temporary support of the unemployed, it expended
over forty thousand pounds sterling annually before the end of
the war. Afterwards, additional burdens were ungrudgingly assumed for the
expatriated five hundred acres of land to each family, building materials, tools.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And even food.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
In this way, nearly nine million dollars were spent in
Canada before seventeen eighty seven. In addition, some nineteen million
dollars were paid for losses of property by the well
to do on their claims for forty millions. Among these
were governors, judges, counselors, commissioners, college presidents, and clergymen. After
(32:31):
all that was done for them, they were dissatisfied and unhappy.
In Canada, they were wretched. In England, they were disregarded
and thrown back upon the companionship of.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
The lower classes. There was little left for.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Them but to drag out a lonely existence to the
end of their days.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
End of Chapter fifteen, Part two
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