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View Full Version : Good Morning...Give us your John Hancock



Okla-homey
1/12/2006, 07:10 AM
January 12, 1737: John Hancock is born in Quincy Massachusetts.

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The signature of John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence is the most flamboyant and easily recognizable of all. It is perhaps no surprise that the story of his part in the revolution is equally engaging. Few figures were more well known or more popular than John Hancock.

He played an instrumental role, sometimes by accident, and other times by design, in coaxing the American Revolution into being. He was orphaned as a child, and adopted by a wealthy merchant uncle who was childless. Hancock attended Harvard College for a business education and graduated at the age of 17. He apprenticed to his Uncle as a clerk and proved so honest and capable that, in 1760 at age 23, he was sent on a business mission to England. There he witnessed the coronation of George III and engaged some of the leading businessmen of London.

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In 1763, his uncle died and John Hancock inherited what was said to be the largest fortune in New England. This placed him in a society of men who consisted mainly of loyalists, suspected by the working population because of their great affluence and social power. Hancock, however, soon became very involved in revolutionary politics and his sentiments were, early on and clearly, for independence from Great Britain.

He was in company with the Adams' and other prominent leaders in the republican movement in New England. He was elected to the Boston Assembly in 1766, and was a member of the Stamp Act Congress. In 1768 his sloop Liberty was impounded by customs officials at Boston Harbor, on a charge of running contraband goods.

A large group of private citizens stormed the customs post, burned the government boat, and beat the officers, causing them to seek refuge on a ship off shore. Soon afterward, Hancock abetted the Boston Tea Party. The following year he delivered a public address to a large crown in Boston, commemorating the Boston Massacre.

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Famous painting of the signing of the Declaration by artist John Trumbull. Hancock is the d00d standing behind the president's desk to Ben Franklin's left. If you look closely, you'll note Thos. Jefferson is standing on John Adams' foot.

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The image is reproduced on the back of the two dollar bill too.

In 1774, Hancock was elected to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and simultaneously to the Continental Congress. When Peyton Randolph resigned in 1776, Hancock assumed the position of President of the Continental Congress. When the Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Hancock signed his name boldly and much larger than any other signer. On signing the Declaration he commented, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them double their reward." This really was a ballsy thing to do because all these signer d00ds were toast if the Brits caught them. He is alleged to have said "I sign largely so King George may read my name without his spectacles" but that's prolly a myth.

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Hancock retired from the Congress in 1777 due to problems with gout, but continued public service in his native state by participating in the formation of its constitution. He was then elected as governor of Massachusetts, an office he held for five years, declining reelection, but was again elected in 1787. He served in that office until his death in 1793.

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Buried in Boston in the same graveyard as Paul Revere, Crispus Attucks and prominent brewer-patriot...

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The dignity and character of John Hancock, celebrated by friend and enemy alike, did not suffer for his love of public attention. He was a populist in every sense, who held great confidence in the ability of the common man. He also displayed a pronounced contempt for unreasoned authority.

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The 100 story John Hancock Tower helps define the Chicago Skyline.

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85Sooner
1/12/2006, 09:42 AM
we need some politicians like him today instead of the losers in washington today.

Taxman71
1/12/2006, 09:43 AM
Fascinating how men who had everything were willing to lose everything for independence....as opposed to just their stock options in publicly-held corporations.