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Speaker 1: On this episode of Newtsworld. As part of Founding Fathers Week,

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about the lives and legacies of our original

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Speaker 1: founders and the impact they've had in our country on

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Speaker 1: this episode of Newtsworld. John Hancock was an American founding father, merchant, statesman,

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Speaker 1: and prominent patriot of the American Revolution. He served as

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Speaker 1: President of the Second Continental Congress and was the first

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Speaker 1: and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and perhaps

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Speaker 1: he has remembered best because of his huge signature of

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Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Articles of

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Speaker 1: Confederation and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified

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Speaker 1: the United States Constitution in seventeen eighty eight. Hancock had

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Speaker 1: a fascinating life. He was the son and grandson of ministers.

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Speaker 1: Born January twelfth, seventeen thirty seven, he was sort of

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Speaker 1: destined to become a minister. However, his life changed when

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Speaker 1: Hancock was seven years old after his father died and

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Speaker 1: his mother, brother, and sister went to live with his

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Speaker 1: grandparents in Lexington, Massachusetts. Hancock's stay in Lexington, who was

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Speaker 1: brief as his grandfather sent him to Boston to live

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Speaker 1: with his uncle Thomas and aunt Lydia, who had no

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Speaker 1: children of their own. They wanted him a better schooling

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Speaker 1: to prepare him for Harvard College. His uncle was one

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Speaker 1: of the richest merchants in Boston and lived in a

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Speaker 1: mansion on top of Beacon Hill. Hancock attended Boston Latin

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Speaker 1: School and graduated from Harvard in seventeen fifty four at

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Speaker 1: the age of seventeen. Instead of following his late father

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Speaker 1: and grandfather's footsteps, Hancock returned to his uncles to work

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Speaker 1: in his merchant business, and notice he was graduating younger

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Speaker 1: than many Americans today enter college. When his uncle died

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Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty five, Hancock, who was twenty seven years

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Speaker 1: old at the time, inherited his uncle's entire fortune and

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Speaker 1: the merchant business. Now, Hancock was actually more interested in

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Speaker 1: politics than in business, and in seventeen sixty five he

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Speaker 1: was elected as a Selectman of Boston when the British

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Speaker 1: government passed the Stamp Act. Initially, Hancock was not opposed

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Speaker 1: to the act, but after witnessing the protest in Boston,

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Speaker 1: he changed his mind. He then started participating in the

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Speaker 1: protest by boycotting the importation of British goods and that

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Speaker 1: made him popular with people in Boston. In seventeen sixty six,

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Speaker 1: Samul Ladam has voiced his public support for Hancock, which

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Speaker 1: helped him get elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, that must have been quite a

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Speaker 1: contrast between the oratory of Samuel Adams and the merchant

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Speaker 1: background of Hancock made him quite a pair as allies.

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Speaker 1: When Parliament passed the Towns Enact, colonists began smuggling goods

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Speaker 1: to avoid paying taxes, which caused British ships to illegally

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Speaker 1: search and seize ships. In April seventeen sixty eight, a

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Speaker 1: British customs agent illegally boarded Hancock's boat Liberty, and it

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Speaker 1: tells you a little bit psychologically about where Hancock's coming

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Speaker 1: from that he would name his ship Liberty. Hancock demanded

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Speaker 1: to see warrants authorizing the search, and when the official

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Speaker 1: was unable to produce the documents, he was asked to leave.

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Speaker 1: On May ninth, seventeen sixty eight, Hancock's ship came into

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Speaker 1: port with Madeira wine, and customs officials again visited his boat,

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Speaker 1: but this time they had the proper warrants. The ship

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Speaker 1: was loaded onto the dock, and Hancock paid the customs fee,

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Speaker 1: but the officials thought that his shipment of wine twenty

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Speaker 1: five casks, which was about a quarter of what the

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Speaker 1: ship could hold, seemed too small, and speculated that he

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Speaker 1: had smuggled some of the wine before coming into port.

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Speaker 1: A month later, on June ninth, seventeen sixty eight, Thomas Kirk,

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Speaker 1: the customs official who boarded Hancock's boat a month earlier,

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Speaker 1: changed his initial story and accused Hancock of offering him

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Speaker 1: a bribe. He claimed that Hancock offered him several casks

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Speaker 1: of wine if he told the British government that his

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Speaker 1: ship only contained twenty five casks, so that he could

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Speaker 1: avoid paying the fee. He insisted that he did not

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Speaker 1: take the bribe, but Hancock's captain, John Marshall, had threatened

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Speaker 1: him if he ever told the truth. John Harrison, the

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Speaker 1: official collector of the port, brought Kirk's statement to the

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Speaker 1: commissioners and wanted to place the King's mark on Hancock's

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Speaker 1: boat waiting for legal proceedings. Controller Benjamin Hallowell, however, urged

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Speaker 1: him to seize the boat instead, so Harrison endicted a

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Speaker 1: crew another smuggler, Daniel Malcolm and and a handful of

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Speaker 1: men saw Harrison boarding the boat and argued that they

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Speaker 1: should at least wait for Hancock to arrive first. A

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Speaker 1: fight broke out between the men, but Harrington and his

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Speaker 1: crew still managed to bring Hancock's boat onto the side

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Speaker 1: of their boat, capturing it. Hallowell, Harrison and his son

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Speaker 1: fled the fight on the wharf with scrapes and bruises.

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Speaker 1: An angry crowd began to assemble. When word of Hancock's

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Speaker 1: boat being seized got out, A crowd about three thousand

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Speaker 1: men began to search the city for Harrison and Hollowell.

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Speaker 1: When they couldn't find him, they shattered the windows of

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Speaker 1: their houses instead. The following month, assioub was filed against

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Speaker 1: Hancock for the sum of nine thousand pounds for the

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Speaker 1: smuggling of wine. Being unable to negotiate this himself, Hancock

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Speaker 1: enlisted John Adams to defend him in court. That's a

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Speaker 1: cousin to Samuel Adams. They were both deeply involved in

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Speaker 1: seeking freedom. In his defense, John Adams questioned the validity

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Speaker 1: of the case as it denied Hancock the right of

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Speaker 1: a jury trial, and according to Adams, it repealed the

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Speaker 1: magna carta as far as America is concerned degrading Hancock

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Speaker 1: below the rank of an Englishman. This is a theme

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Speaker 1: that goes through again and again with the founding fathers.

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Speaker 1: They saw themselves as Englishmen, and the British people had

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Speaker 1: come to believe that they had certain rights which the

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Speaker 1: government could not infringe on, and the right to trial

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Speaker 1: was one of them. Adams is weaving back into British

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Speaker 1: history to claim the rights of an Englishman, not of

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Speaker 1: an American colonist. Adam's defense was successful, and on March

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Speaker 1: twenty fifth, the case was dropped and the record read,

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Speaker 1: quote the Advocate General praise leave to retract this information,

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Speaker 1: and says our Sovereign Lord, the King will prosecute no

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Speaker 1: further hero On September fourteenth, seventeen sixty eight, Hancock, with

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Speaker 1: Joseph Jackson, John Ruddick, John Rowe, and Samuel Palmerton wrote

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Speaker 1: a letter in response to the Town and Acts quote,

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Speaker 1: you are already too well acquainted with the melancholy and

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Speaker 1: very alarming circumstances to which this province, as well as

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Speaker 1: American General is now reduced taxes equally detrimental to the

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Speaker 1: commercial interests of the parent country and her colonies are

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Speaker 1: imposed upon the people without their consent, taxes designed for

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Speaker 1: the support of the civil government the colonies, in a

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Speaker 1: manner clearly unconstitutional and contrary to that in which till

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Speaker 1: of late government has been supported by the free gift

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Speaker 1: of the people. In American assemblies or parliaments, as also

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Speaker 1: for the maintenance of a large standing army, not for

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Speaker 1: the defense of new acquired territories, but for the old colonies,

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Speaker 1: and in a time of peace. The decent, humble and

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Speaker 1: truly loyal applications and petitions from the representatives province for

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Speaker 1: the redress of these heavy and very threatening grievances have

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Speaker 1: hitherto been ineffectual, being assured from authentic intelligence that they

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Speaker 1: have not yet reached the Royal ear. The only effect

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Speaker 1: of transmitting these applications, hitherto perceivable has been a mandate

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Speaker 1: from one of His Majesty's Secretary's of State to the

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Speaker 1: Governor of this province to dissolve the General Assembly, merely

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Speaker 1: because the late House representatives refuse to rescind a resolution

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Speaker 1: of a former House which implied nothing more than a

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Speaker 1: right in the American subjects to unite in humble and

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Speaker 1: dutiful petitions to their gracious sovereign when they found themselves aggrieved.

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Speaker 1: This is a right naturally inherent in every man and

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Speaker 1: expressly recognized at the Glorious Revolution as the birthright of

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Speaker 1: an Englishman. Let me point out that the Glorious Revolution

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Speaker 1: is of course the return of Protestant monarchy. As women

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Speaker 1: and Mary come from Holland in sixteen eighty eight. It's

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Speaker 1: a decisive moment in British history and leads directly to

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Speaker 1: the whole concept of natural rights. And what they're saying

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Speaker 1: here is we're Englishmen. You owe us these rights. You

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Speaker 1: are stepping upon our natural right here. This is all

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Speaker 1: going to echo into Thomas Jefferson's Declaration Independence. Also, notice

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Speaker 1: there's this constant effort to draw a distinction between the

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Speaker 1: bad government and the good King. There's a very important

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Speaker 1: psychological goal here of trying to make sure that people

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Speaker 1: understand that they're loyal to the king, they're just angry

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Speaker 1: at the government. Now. Of course, the government and king

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Speaker 1: in England see it differently, because the government see itself

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Speaker 1: as the king and the king sees himself as the government.

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Speaker 1: And this is why historically it's very hard to petition

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Speaker 1: the king without looking like you're engaged in treason, which

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Speaker 1: is the refusal to be loyal to your sovereign. Hi,

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Speaker 1: this is newt. In my new book, March the Majority,

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Speaker 1: The Real Story of the Republican Revolution, I offer strategies

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Speaker 1: and insights for everyday citizens and for season politicians. It's

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Speaker 1: both a guide for political success and for winning back

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Speaker 1: the Majority. In twenty twenty four, March to the Majority

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Speaker 1: outlines the sixteen year campaign to write the Contract with America.

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Speaker 1: Explains how we elected the first Republican House majority in

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Speaker 1: forty years in how we worked with President Bill Clinton

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Speaker 1: to pass major reforms, including four consecutive balance budgets. March

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Speaker 1: to the Majority tells the behind the scenes story of

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Speaker 1: how we got it done. Go to gingrishtree sixty dot

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Speaker 1: com slash book and order your copy now. Order it

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Speaker 1: today at Gingrishtree sixty dot com slash book now. They

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Speaker 1: go on to say, this dissolution your sensible has taken place.

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Speaker 1: The governors publicly and repeatedly declared that he cannot call

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Speaker 1: another Assembly, and the Secretary of State for the American Department,

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Speaker 1: in one of his letters communicated to the Late House,

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Speaker 1: has been pleased to say that proper care will be

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Speaker 1: taken for the support of the dignity of government, the

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Speaker 1: meaning of which is too plain to mean misunderstood. In

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Speaker 1: other words, the British officials are now saying to the

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Speaker 1: American colonists, we will take care of things, We will

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Speaker 1: raise money, we will decide how to spend it. You

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Speaker 1: have no rights. They go on to say, quote the

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Speaker 1: concern and perplexity into which these things have thrown the

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Speaker 1: people have been greatly aggravated by a late declaration of

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Speaker 1: his excellency, Governor Bernard, that one or more regiments may

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Speaker 1: soon be expected in this province. The design of these

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Speaker 1: troops is, in every one's apprehension, nothing short of enforcing

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Speaker 1: by military power the execution of acts of Parliament in

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Speaker 1: the forming of which the colonies have not and cannot

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Speaker 1: have any constitutional influence. This is one of the greatest

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Speaker 1: distress to which a free people can be reduced. Notice

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Speaker 1: what they're saying here. The very fact that the British

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Speaker 1: ship concluded that they have to oppress the Americans. They

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Speaker 1: can't really negotiate with them, they can't reason with them.

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Speaker 1: So they're going to send an army, and that army

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Speaker 1: is going to in fact live in Boston and is

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Speaker 1: going to impose the will of the British government no

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Speaker 1: matter what the local folks think. This is the sort

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Speaker 1: of thing which began to move in a direction where

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Speaker 1: suddenly they create the Committee of the Boston Sons of Liberty,

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Speaker 1: which included John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, James Otis.

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Speaker 1: The group's amazing. This is the beginning of real patriotism

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Speaker 1: defining itself more and more and more isolated from the

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Speaker 1: British seventeen sixty nine, the Committee of the Boston Sons

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Speaker 1: of Liberty. Notice again, liberty is a huge word in

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Speaker 1: this period. Eighteen forty, an older man was asked, why

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Speaker 1: did you fight the revolution? They were looking for this

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Speaker 1: stamp act or the tax on tea or whatever. He said,

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Speaker 1: you know, we aim to be free, and they aimed

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Speaker 1: that we shouldn't. And that's what it was all about.

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Speaker 1: And that's why liberty is such an important word here,

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Speaker 1: because they're coming back again and again the idea we

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Speaker 1: are a free people. You were about to take away

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Speaker 1: our freedom, So in their mind they've already got the freedom.

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Speaker 1: They're not fighting for freedom, they're fighting against the oppression

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Speaker 1: which would take away freedom. So this continues to move

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Speaker 1: in the same direction. By December seventeen seventy, the Massachusetts

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Speaker 1: House represented wrote a letter which Hancock again signed, to

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin, appointing him an agent at the Court of

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Speaker 1: Great Britain. This is the first letter of Franklin, the

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Speaker 1: only one known to have survived. Franklin is asked by

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Speaker 1: the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to go to London to represent them.

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Speaker 1: He goes to London. He's initially very well received. Gradually,

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Speaker 1: the longer he's there, the more he realizes he will

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Speaker 1: never be an Englishman. They will never accept him into

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Speaker 1: their circle. He will always be a colonist, no matter

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Speaker 1: how bright he is, no matter how renowned he is

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Speaker 1: as a scientist, no matter how wealthy he is. He

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Speaker 1: just isn't them. Somebody once wrote, Franklin left America as

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Speaker 1: an Englishman and returned as an American. This is the

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Speaker 1: person who the Massachusetts House is asking. Since you're already

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Speaker 1: there anyway, would you also represent us? And they explain

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Speaker 1: them what they're worried about. Quote the House representatives of

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Speaker 1: this province, after appointing you their agent at the Quarter

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Speaker 1: of Great Britain, directed us to correspond with you in

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Speaker 1: the recess of the Court upon matters that concern the

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Speaker 1: interest of the province in general. There is nothing that

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Speaker 1: will more promote the true interest to this party, as

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Speaker 1: well as Great Britain herself, than a happy settlement of

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Speaker 1: the disputes that have too long subsisted between the their

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Speaker 1: country and the colonies. These are justly tenacious of their

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Speaker 1: constitutional natural rights, and will never willingly part with them,

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Speaker 1: and it certainly can never be for the advantage of

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Speaker 1: the nation to force them away. Great Britain can lose

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Speaker 1: nothing that she ought to retain by restoring the colonies

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Speaker 1: to the state they were in before passing the obnoxious

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Speaker 1: Stamp Act, and we are persuaded if that is done,

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Speaker 1: they will no further contend this. We think it necessary

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Speaker 1: early to inform you of as our own opinion is.

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Speaker 1: We have reason to think that there are persons on

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Speaker 1: both sides the Atlantic, whose interest it may be to

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Speaker 1: keep alive a spirit of discord, who are continually insinuating

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Speaker 1: the men of power, that such a concession of the

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Speaker 1: part of Great Britain will only serve to increase our claims,

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Speaker 1: and there would be no end of them which we believe,

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Speaker 1: and may even venture to assure you, is that the

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Speaker 1: least color of foundation and truth. In other words, the

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Speaker 1: founding fathers, generally speaking, and Hancock was a key member

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Speaker 1: of this, are not asking to leave Great Britain. They're

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Speaker 1: not moving towards independence. What they want is their rights

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Speaker 1: to be respected, their role to raise taxes on themselves

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Speaker 1: in the spirit of the Magna Carta, to be accepted,

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Speaker 1: to negotiate with the British government as equals, and not

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Speaker 1: in any way to move towards independence. Now, the fact is,

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Speaker 1: Hancock is faced with the Boston Tea Party coming up.

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Speaker 1: He's faced with growing public anger, and there's actually not

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Speaker 1: certain that Hancock was involved in planning the Boston Tea Party,

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Speaker 1: which is when a group of Americans dressed as Indians

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Speaker 1: broke into a British ship and threw tea into the

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Speaker 1: Boston harbor in order that it not be available to

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Speaker 1: sell because they did not want to pay the tax

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Speaker 1: on tea. Hancock the most he said that we know publicly,

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Speaker 1: he told the crowd, let every man do what is

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Speaker 1: right in his own eyes. So he's not saying he's

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Speaker 1: going to participate, but he's also not saying you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: know it, And that very same evening, the crowd went

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Speaker 1: into the Boston Harbor addressed as Native Americans, boarded the

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Speaker 1: ship dumped three hundred and forty two chests of tea

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Speaker 1: into the harbor. Tea back then was expensive. So this

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Speaker 1: is a substantial hit on the East India Company and

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Speaker 1: a direct defiance of the British government. Now, Hancock never

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Speaker 1: talked about it other than this comment that night before

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Speaker 1: it happened. Now, though, also as a part of this

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Speaker 1: growing separation, there was an annual commemoration of the Boston Massacre,

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Speaker 1: which in seventeen seventy one British soldiers who were rattled

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Speaker 1: shot and killed several Massachusetts colonists. And so Hancock was

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Speaker 1: chosen on March fifth, seventeen seventy four to read the

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Speaker 1: third annual oration to commemorate the Boston Massacre. So he

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Speaker 1: really is beginning to lay the case out here as

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Speaker 1: a public figure. He says in his oration quote, is

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Speaker 1: the present system which the British administration have adopted for

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Speaker 1: the government of the colonies a righteous government? Or is

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Speaker 1: it tyranny? Here? Suffer me to ask, and would to

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Speaker 1: heaven there could be an answer. What tenderness, what regard,

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Speaker 1: respect or consideration has Great Britain shown in their late

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Speaker 1: transactions for the security of the persons or properties of

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Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the colonies, Or rather, what have they

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Speaker 1: omitted doing to destroy that security? They have declared that

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Speaker 1: they have ever had, and of right ought to ever have,

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Speaker 1: full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind

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Speaker 1: the colonies in all cases whatever they have exercised this

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Speaker 1: pretended right by imposing attacks upon us without our consent.

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Speaker 1: And notice this is not the heart of it, Lest

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Speaker 1: we should sow some reluctance at parting with our property.

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Speaker 1: Our fleets and armies are sent to enforce their mad pretensions.

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Speaker 1: The town of Boston, ever faithful to the British Crown,

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Speaker 1: has been invested by a British fleet. The truth of

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Speaker 1: George third have crossed the wide Atlantic not to engage

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Speaker 1: an enemy, but to assist a band of traders in

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Speaker 1: trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal

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Speaker 1: subjects in America, those rights and liberties which is a

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Speaker 1: father he ought ever to regard, and as a king

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Speaker 1: he has bound in honor to defend from violation, even

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Speaker 1: at the risk of his unlet notice what he's now

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Speaker 1: starting to say. Hancock is saying, if you help enforce

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Speaker 1: this law. Notice the word he uses, band of traders.

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Speaker 1: You are a trader to America. You're a trader to

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Speaker 1: our rights under the Constitution. And therefore the division is

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Speaker 1: getting deeper and deeper. That year, he's elected as a

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Speaker 1: delegate to the first Continental Congress, called to bring together

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Speaker 1: the colonies to talk about what's going on. And he's

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Speaker 1: also faced with the fact that living in Boston is

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Speaker 1: less and less safe because the British could come and

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Speaker 1: arrest him at any time. So Hancock moves to his

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Speaker 1: grandfather's home in Lexington, and on April eighteenth, seventeen seventy five,

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Speaker 1: doctor Joseph Warren got news that British troops were heading

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Speaker 1: toward Lexington. Warren sent three writers, the most famous of

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Speaker 1: them Paul Revere, to warn people. Revere warned Hancock and

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Speaker 1: Adams of the incoming troops and suggested they flee before

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Speaker 1: the British reached Lexington. This is the first real moment

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Speaker 1: of violence, because what had happened was the American militia

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Speaker 1: had been practicing and this is one of the great

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Speaker 1: differences and the courses behind the whole notion of the

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Speaker 1: Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. The British

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Speaker 1: Army was very good at putting down peasant revolts. They'd

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Speaker 1: put down revolts in England, in Scotland, and Wales in Ireland,

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Speaker 1: and so they marched out of Boston, assuming this would

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Speaker 1: be just like all those other peasant revolts. But they

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Speaker 1: had a problem. They were now faced with a free

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Speaker 1: people who had weapons and who had been practicing, and

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Speaker 1: also people who frankly went deer hunting and generally actually

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Speaker 1: provisioned their houses by their effectiveness as hunters. The result

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Speaker 1: was a disaster for the British Army. They were shot

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Speaker 1: at all the way back to Boston. They took a

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Speaker 1: substantial number of casualties. Suddenly, what was then called the

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Speaker 1: shot heard around the world. The Americans stood up and said,

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Speaker 1: if you try to take our weapons, we will shoot you.

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Speaker 1: Across all of the colonies, people were shaken because suddenly

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Speaker 1: this was a real fight. This wasn't just words. The

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Speaker 1: British Army had attempted to do something which would have

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Speaker 1: stripped the Americans of their ability to be free. Shortly

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Speaker 1: After that, Hancock was elected President of the Second Continental Congress.

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Speaker 1: He is a significant figure in the development of the

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Speaker 1: ideas and the movement that leads to American freedom. As President,

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Speaker 1: he presided during the discussion on the appointment of the

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Speaker 1: Commander in Chief of the Continent Army. Now, this is

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Speaker 1: a very interesting moment in American history. They need an

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Speaker 1: army in order to stand up to the British. However,

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Speaker 1: that army is going to be in Boston. It's going

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Speaker 1: to be largely New England, and they have to find

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Speaker 1: a way to unite all of the colonies into this

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Speaker 1: fight and not just have it be a New England fight. Now,

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Speaker 1: one of the great moments of theater, there's a very

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Speaker 1: tall man walking around wearing the University the unit form

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Speaker 1: of a Virginia Militia officer, Colonel Washington, who says to everybody, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I don't know why you would think of me as

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Speaker 1: the commander. I'm not sure I could be the commander.

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Speaker 1: I'm not really sure I could do the job. But

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Speaker 1: he's the only guy at the whole place wearing a uniform.

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Speaker 1: And it's just one of those things about Washington, who's

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Speaker 1: very understudied, but very strategic. So of course they picked Washington.

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Speaker 1: And now you have this Virginian going to Boston to

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Speaker 1: lead a largely new England army. Remember, the accents were

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Speaker 1: wildly different, and there was this whole sense of getting

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Speaker 1: used to each other. Washington does a brilliant job throughout

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Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War. Hancock takes the wealth he had inherited

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Speaker 1: and he'd grown with his own businesses, and he helped

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Speaker 1: fund the army. I mean, Hancock is genuinely putting his life,

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Speaker 1: his liberty, and his fortune to the fight for freedom.

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Speaker 1: He oversaw the Declaration of Independence on July fourth, seventeen

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Speaker 1: seventy six. In his most famous single moment, John Hancock

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Speaker 1: was the first to sign the document. He had a

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Speaker 1: large cursive signature and said, there, John Bull can read

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Speaker 1: my name without spectacles. He may double his reward when

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Speaker 1: he sang as John bullmant England. The King can see

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Speaker 1: clearly that Hancock has signed the Declaration Independance, and the

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Speaker 1: King then wants to double the reward for cat Killingham.

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Speaker 1: That's fine, and that's where the term John Hancock meaning

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Speaker 1: signature comes from, because he deliberately went out of his way,

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Speaker 1: almost as a Propaganda Act. Two days later, on July sixth,

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Speaker 1: Hancock writes Washington, instructing him to read the Declation of

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Speaker 1: Independence to his troops. And this is an important thing

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Speaker 1: to remember about the American Revolution. This was an informed military.

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Speaker 1: Again and again Washington, who's a master at this, make

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Speaker 1: sure that they understand why they're fighting, They understand what

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Speaker 1: the situation is, and they are reminded that they have

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Speaker 1: a moral cause. That's a key part of it. Now.

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Speaker 1: I think Hamilton felt that this was a duty. They

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Speaker 1: were doing, working and doing everything they can as a team.

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Speaker 1: And so you have militia coming from all over, you

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Speaker 1: have people showing up on a regular basis, and you

393
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Speaker 1: begin to really see that there's going to be an

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Speaker 1: American force, not a Massachusetts force or Virginia force, but

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Speaker 1: a genuinely Amrian force. Hancock stays as President of Congress

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Speaker 1: until seventeen seventy seven, when he resigns as president. He

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00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 1: had his chance as a military leader. He led five

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Speaker 1: thousand Massachusetts soldiers to attempt to recapture Newport, Rhode Island

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Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy eight. The mission ultimately was a failure,

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Speaker 1: but he went back home and in seventeen eighty he

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Speaker 1: helped frame the Massachusetts Constitution and was elected as the

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Speaker 1: first Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Member, we are

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Speaker 1: still fighting at this point, and he's now the governor

404
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 1: of the commonwealth. Where you could argue the fight started.

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Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty eight, delegates elected Hancock to serve as

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Speaker 1: president of the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention. Unfortunately, he had gout,

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Speaker 1: which is a recurring eilement for Hancock, and which he

408
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 1: probably tried to solve by drinking port which made the

409
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,719
Speaker 1: gout worse. But he was prevented from attending the debates

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Speaker 1: until January thirtieth. At that point, he did everything he

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Speaker 1: could to help make sure that the majority would be

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00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: in favor of ratifying the constitution. In fact, he felt

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Speaker 1: so deeply that on the morning of January thirtieth, wrapped

414
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Speaker 1: in blankets, he was carried into the convention and attended

415
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: the debates for the first time. He was absolutely in

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Speaker 1: favor of the new system. This is a quote from

417
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Speaker 1: Henry Van Shack, who was actually in attendance, who writes

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00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,440
Speaker 1: Governor Hancock had come to the convention and declared himself

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Speaker 1: decidedly in favor of the system, which had an amazing

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Speaker 1: influence over a great number of wavering members. Ill health

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00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 1: had prevented the governor's attendants in convention before. The opposition

422
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 1: took advantage of this and industriously reported that his Excellency

423
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 1: was opposed to the Constitution and advised and to reject it.

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Speaker 1: There's room to conjecture that the Governor would not have

425
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Speaker 1: come out so soon if it had not been for

426
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Speaker 1: those reports, as he was extremely unwell at the time

427
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Speaker 1: he went out. A day later, on January thirty first,

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Speaker 1: Hancock read from a speech prepared by the Federal's Caucus

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00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: supporting the signing of the Constitution. And I think it's

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Speaker 1: very important to realize here's a guy who has personally

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Speaker 1: spent his money helping fight the war, who has taken

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Speaker 1: great risk, who has been persecuted by the British, and

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Speaker 1: he is committed to working on the Constitution getting it approved.

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Speaker 1: And at that point, I think he has had a

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Speaker 1: major role because Massachusetts, which is one of the biggest

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00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 1: colonies in both population and wealth, having endorsed the Constitution

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00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 1: is a major step in the right direction, and it's

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00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,479
Speaker 1: not decisive. It's very likely if Hancock had come out

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00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 1: against the Constitution that it might have lost. It only

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00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 1: wins in the Massachusetts convention by one eighty seven to

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Speaker 1: one sixty eight, so there's a pretty narrow margin that

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00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have taken much to have turned it into

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00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: a defeat. In seventy eighty nine, Hancock's a candidate in

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00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: the first US presidential election, but only received four electoral

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00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: votes out of total of one thirty eight. George Washington

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00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 1: garnered sixty nine votes. John Adams captured thirty six votes,

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00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: earning the two men the presidency and vice presidency. Back then,

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00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: you all ran on one ticket and the number one

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00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:16,639
Speaker 1: or two people got to be president and vice president.

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00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 1: That changed after Adams and Jefferson had to suffer each

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00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: other and realized that it was crazy to have a

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Speaker 1: system where you were not elected as a ticket. After

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Speaker 1: the adoption of the constitution, Hancock was elected for a

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Speaker 1: final time as governor, and he kept getting elected until

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00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 1: his death. On October twenty fourth, seventeen eighty nine, President

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00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 1: Washington and a tour of the Eastern States arrived in Boston,

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Speaker 1: where the whole town, minus Hancock, went out to greet him.

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00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 1: Hancock believed that his Governor Washington should come to him. However,

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Speaker 1: soon after he realized this was a mistake, he visited

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00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 1: Washington and claimed that an illness kept him from arriving sooner.

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Speaker 1: On October eighth, seventeen ninety three, Hancock, while still in office,

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Speaker 1: died at the age of fifty six and received one

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00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: of the largest state funerals from his longtime friend Samuel Adams.

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Speaker 1: John Hancock is one of the people upon whom America stands.

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Speaker 1: It was his commitment, his courage, his belief in liberty,

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Speaker 1: his willingness to risk everything and literally to spend his

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Speaker 1: fortune to help us become free, which has helped make

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Speaker 1: America the country it is. And that is why he's

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Speaker 1: one of the immortals as we look at the Founding Fathers.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. You can read more about John

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Speaker 1: Hancock and get links to my other Founding Father's episodes

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00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 1: on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld is

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00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,760
Speaker 1: produced by Gingish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer

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00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 1: is Guernsey Sloan and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The

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00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special

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00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 1: thanks to the team at ginglishtree sixty. If you've been

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00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 1: enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and

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00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 1: both rate us with five stars and give us a

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00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: review so all this can learn what it's all about.

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Speaker 1: Right now, listeners of newts World consign up for my

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Speaker 1: three freeweekly columns at gingrishthree sixty dot com slash newsletter.

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Speaker 1: I'm Newt Gingrish. This is neut World