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HANCOCK.

JOHN HANCOCK, son of a gentleman of the same name, was born in the year 1737, in the colony of Massachusetts. The habitation of his father was situated near the present village of Quincy, and is now annexed to the estate of John Adams, former president of the United States. This same village gave birth to his friend and colleague, Samuel Adams; and, besides furnishing two of our chief magistrates, may be noted for the production of three of the most distinguished characters of the revolution.

His grandfather, who resided for half a century in the county of Middlesex, and in that part which is since called Lexington, was a clergyman of good reputation. His father was raised to the same profession, and is said to have acquired also, a great ascendant in the esteem and affections of his parishioners. He is especially praised for his devotion to learning; and the literary institutions of his native state have derived several signal benefits from his patronage and benefactions.

In the enumeration of his ancestors, as far back as our information extends, his paternal uncle appears to merit the most conspicuous and grateful recollection. This gentleman, by his industry and a series of prosperous enterprises, from a condition of fortune extremely humble and obscure became the most eminent merchant of New England, and was disVOL. I.-A

tinguished, at the same time, for many patriotic virtues and many excellent qualities of intellect. He sustained some of the highest offices in the government of the town; was for many years a member of his majesty's provincial council; and what is not a usual attribute of his profession, has transmitted the honorable fame of promoting the science and literature of his country. He studied especially the interests of Harvard University, increased its library, founded a professorship; and the name of Hancock, in golden letters, now adorns one of the alcoves of that institution, in testimony of his liberality.

Under the care of this uncle, John Hancock, whose father had died during his infancy, received his entire education. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1754; having performed, we may suppose, the exercises of that institution with the usual celerity and success; though nothing on this subject has come to our notice worthy of being commemorated. Youthful indications are no very positive evidence of the force of intellectual endowments. Precocity of genius, though often a subject of gratulation, is perhaps little more desirable, than that the harvest should yield its fruits in immaturity, or that the buds should expand before the season of vegetation. It is well known that the imputation of dulness, and even of stupidity has been attached, during the rudiments of their education, to some of the brightest ornaments of letters, and that others, now unknown to science, have been lauded for their youthful achievements in the highest strains of admiration.

At the conclusion of his collegiate studies, Mr. Hancock entered as a clerk in the counting house of his uncle, who was then at the height of his commercial prosperity. In 1760, he visited England; was present at the funeral of George II. and at the coronation of his successor. Soon after his

return to America he was invested, by the decease and munificence of his patron, and at the age of twenty-seven years, with a fortune which is said to have been more magnificent than that of any other individual of his native province.

From this preliminary notice, we may now pursue him to the scenes of public life; for his ambition was not long confined to the precincts of the counting house, and his private life may be said to have ended with his minority.

He was first chosen selectman of the town of Boston, an office which he held many years; and was elected, in 1766, with James Otis, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Cushing, a representative to the general assembly of the province.

His introduction to public notice was favoured, with great interest, by his colleague Mr. Adams, which may be taken as no humble evidence of his competency and merit; for that gentleman is described, not only as a man of acute discrimination, but of a chaste and delicate honour, who used not willingly the instrumentality of vice, and who was not deceived by superficial or meretricious pretensions; and though the friendship of these men was on some occasions interrupted, during the heat of political discussion or competition of public honours, their esteem was coexistent with their lives, and their contentions were marked by no injurious or malignant animosity.

The remark, therefore, of some of those cotemporary writers, who have asserted that Hancock attained his distinction in the government, not by personal merit and abilities, but by the influence of illustrious patronage, appears to be entitled to no credit; to such slanders the whole course of his life has furnished an ample and honourable refutation.

As representative of the provincial assembly, his colleagues certainly entertained the highest sense both of the excellence of his principles and abilities; for, as it appears from the

journals of their proceedings, he was nominated to nearly all their important committees; and, notwithstanding the acknowledged dignity of many of his associates, appointed chairman upon deliberations involving the highest interests of the community.

During the first provocations of the British government, by which she excited discontent and opposition in her colonies; such as the imposition of duties upon foreign importations, and other injuries impairing their commercial prosperity, his diligence and talents were also exerted conspicuously. It was by his agency, and that of a few other citizens of Boston, that for the purpose of causing such duties to be revoked, associations were instituted to prohibit the importations of British goods; a policy, which soon afterwards, being imitated in the other colonies, first kindled the apprehensions, and awoke the vigilance of the people to the preservation of their liberties. The agitation occasioned by these measures of opposition were attended indeed, by great excitement, and, in some instances, by acts of dangerous outrage; of which may be mentioned amongst the most conspicuous, the case of Mr. Otis, a gentleman very eminently distinguished, at that time, for various accomplishments, and especially his eloquence, who, at the instigation of a British officer, was assailed with a violence which impaired his reason and accelerated his death.

About the same time, a vessel of Mr. Hancock, being loaded, it was said, in contravention of the revenue laws, was seized by the custom house officers, and carried under the guns of an armed vessel, at that time in the harbour, for security; but the people, exasperated by this offensive exertion of authority, assembled, and pursuing the officers, beat them with clubs, and drove them aboard their vessels, or to a neighbouring castle, where they fled for protection. The

boat of the collector was then burnt in triumph, by the mob, and the houses of some of his most obnoxious adherents were, in the first transports of their popular fury, razed to the ground.

These riotous proceedings were, indeed, reprobated by the legal authorities, and instructions given for the punishment of the offenders, but the passions of the people, nevertheless, retained their excitement, and although the name only of Hancock, was connected with the transaction, he derived from it a great increase of popularity. This occurrence is especially worthy of notice, as being one of those original causes, which precipitated to a crisis, the contentions arising between the colonies and the mother country.

The governor of the province, under pretence of maintaining the order of the town, of protecting the officers of the revenue, and of preventing a recurrence of similar commotions, introduced, soon afterwards into Boston, several regiments of British troops; a measure that more than all others, at this early period of their disaffections, served to irritate the inhabitants and nourish the seeds of rebellion. Those who are bred up to military life, for the most part, assume an imperious superiority over the civil orders of men, and often claim by profession an exemption from the ordinary rules and sensibilities of humanity. In the present instance, they were prepossessed with an insolent contempt of the peo ple amongst whom they were stationed, and by a special discipline, prepared for acts of ferocity and violence. The inhabitants, on the other hand, independent of the feelings inspired by the insulting parade of foreign troops in their city, regarded them, on this occasion, as the instruments of a tyranny, which all the miseries and everlasting infamy of servitude, forbid them to endure; and, under the empire of such sentiments, embittered very frequently by contumelious

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