JOHN HANCOCK

Braintree, Massachusetts
January 12, 1737−October 8, 1793
Did He Really Say That?

John Hancock is best known for his exaggerated signature on the Declaration of Independence. But he earned the right to do that. Hancock was a successful merchant and the president of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777, when the document was adopted. Later, he served as the first governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1780–1785 and 1787–1793, and served as the inspiration for an insurance company.

Me, in Politics?

As a young man, John Hancock was not interested in politics. Running a business was his primary interest. After graduating from Harvard in 1754, Hancock began an apprenticeship at his uncle’s retail and shipping business, which he inherited in 1764. By then he was increasingly opposed to the growing number of British acts aimed at raising tax revenues from the colonists.

In 1764, Hancock cofounded the local Society to Encourage Trade. Subsequently, he was elected to one of Boston’s seven selectmen seats in 1765. When news of the impending Stamp Act reached the colonies, Hancock seemed uninterested. He had other problems to deal with: His balance sheet was a mess, he had very little cash, and his suppliers refused to let him operate on credit.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“I SELDOM MEDDLE WITH POLITICKS, & INDEED HAVE NOT TIME NOW TO SAY ANYTHING ON THAT HEAD.”

—JOHN HANCOCK

By the time the Stamp Act became effective, Hancock owed one supplier alone £19,000. American trade was stagnant, and merchants vigorously protested the Stamp Act. At this point, his financial distress was great enough that Hancock joined the growing number of protesters. Samuel Adams befriended Hancock, supported his bid for selectman, introduced him to members of the patriot clubs, and invited him to a few secret meetings. Suddenly, John found himself in a position to exert influence. Other merchants looked to him for guidance.

Meddling in Politics Becomes a Passion

Hancock informed his agents in London that he would no longer import British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed, which it was, on March 18, 1766.

Hancock became an active leader in the fight against British taxation policies. Tensions came to a head on June 10, 1768, when British commissioners seized his sloop Liberty, alleging that he had not paid taxes on his entire cargo of wine.

A mob assembled on the wharf to support Hancock. As the drama played out, the mob became more agitated and rowdy. Patriots seized a boat owned by one of the commissioners and burned it near Hancock’s mansion as their leaders urged the crowd to “take up arms and be free.” Hancock helped disperse the crowd before it became more riled. The Liberty affair bolstered his growing popularity.

The war between Hancock and the customs commissioners was not over. On November 3, 1768, he was arrested for smuggling. John Adams defended Hancock in court. Despite irregular proceedings by the prosecution, Hancock was acquitted and became more of a public hero than ever.

The stress of the court proceedings over his arrest for smuggling and the public horror over the Boston Massacre convinced him that inflammatory politics were not the best way to fight British taxation policies—until Britain passed the Tea Act of 1773.

The Last Straw

The tea tax was Parliament’s effort to save the faltering East India Company, an English joint stock firm, by selling its tea in Boston at a bargain price. Bostonians protested the act by dressing up as Indians and dumping the tea into the harbor on the night of December 16, 1773. Hancock did not play a direct role in the protest. He did attend a meeting earlier that night at which he spoke and told everyone there to do what they thought was right.

Tensions in Boston ran high. In 1775, General Thomas Gage, the new military royal governor of Massachusetts, ordered his soldiers to fortify the town’s defenses and canceled a General Assembly meeting of the Provincial Congress slated to convene in nearby Salem.

Defiant congressional delegates met anyway. They established the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, charged with forming a 15,000-man army and securing supplies, arms, and artillery. Hancock, convinced war was imminent, settled his debts with his London agent, and went into the revolution still cash poor, but ready for action.

FEDERAL FACTS

British troops received copies of a handbill that identified the troublemakers who were responsible for inciting public sentiment against the British government. The handbill included Hancock’s name.

Hancock was reelected to the Provincial Congress and selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. His activities set him even more firmly in the sights of the occupying British forces. General Thomas Gage ordered the seizure of the Boston Safety Committee’s munitions. The stage for war was set.

REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS

Hancock was so busy that he postponed his marriage to Dorothy Quincy, a young lady of prominent social stature selected for him by his Aunt Lydia. He wrote to Dorothy to explain his attentions were required elsewhere and promised to “return as soon as possible,” hoping she would not be “saucy” when he did. They married eventually.

Hancock was elected president of the Second Continental Congress. He successfully walked the fine line between the radicals who desired independence and moderates who favored reconciliation. In the process, he incurred the enmity of John Adams and Samuel Adams, who tried to curtail his growing power and influence. They believed that Hancock’s vanity and lavish lifestyle did not set a good example for people who were struggling to establish a new country and sacrificing material goods and personal wealth in the process.

FEDERAL FACTS

When John Hancock volunteered to be commander in chief of the Continental Army, John Adams and Samuel Adams supported George Washington. By 1776, the rift deepened between Hancock and the Adamses. The cousins tried to undermine any future Hancock planned in Massachusetts politics by securing a coalition that excluded him and attacked his allies and associates.

Hancock learned by May 1776 that he had been deliberately excluded from the Massachusetts lower house and the Governor’s Council. Seeing the mood of the times and the radicals moving into popular sentiment, he became an ardent convert to the cause of independence.

Hancock’s father-in-law, Edmund Quincy, advised him after the British left Boston that “Nothing will answer the end so well as a Declaration to all the world for absolute Independency.” Hancock took that advice, as his large signature on the Declaration demonstrates. While he is purported to have said, “There, I guess King George will be able to read that” about his signature, there is no definitive proof that he actually uttered those words or anything like them.

FEDERAL FACTS

The Declaration of Independence was signed starting on August 2, 1776; not all fifty-six signers were present that day. There was some rhyme and reason to the order in which the delegates signed the document. John Hancock signed first because he was the president of the Congress. The other fifty-five delegates signed by state, arranged from the northernmost state (New Hampshire) to the southernmost (Georgia).

Return to Massachusetts

After Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, Hancock returned to Boston to renew his political aspirations and earn some money. He feared that he might be attacked en route from Philadelphia to Boston. So, in a typical example of the Hancock extravagances that riled John and Samuel Adams, he requested an armed escort from George Washington, who provided him with fifteen horsemen.

Shortly after his return, Hancock was elected as governor of Massachusetts by a landslide. Hancock spent his gubernatorial career largely as a figurehead, with enough sense to let the powers of the legislature have their way.

Hancock served additional terms as governor of Massachusetts and was elected to the Massachusetts convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution. He had hopes of serving as the first president of the United States, but realized the national political current would not support him.

His career ended prematurely. Hancock was fifty-six years old when he died, ending his career as a master politician. His place in history will always rest on his large signature on the Declaration of Independence.