Hancock

“ Hancock was one of those who, by her courtesies to the officers and ladies of the British army when Burgoyne was under the convention of surrender, made Cambridge a brilliant center of hospitality and fashion. She was the daughter of Edmund Quincy, of Massachusetts, and was born in 1750. At the age of twenty-four she married John Hancock, one of the great men of the age, and, aided by the lustre of his fortunes, she became a leader in society, filling her station with rare dignity and grace. ”

“ Movement was cramped. “Ah, then I’ve had a stroke,” he thought, as Hancock pressed him, ever so gently, back into the big chair. “Do not get up,” he said soothingly but with authority; “sit where you are and rest. You must take it very easy for a bit; like all clever men who have overworked{200}——”
“I’ll get in the moment he turns,” thought Leidall. “I did it badly before. It must be through the back of his head, of course, where the spine runs up into the brain,” and he waited till Hancock should turn. But Hancock never turned. ”

“ That's why I'm so annoyed with Hancock. I don't mind his calling himself a priest, though clergyman was always good enough for dear old Weeks—who, after all, was a canon—and I don't mind his vestments. He can wrap himself up in a Union Jack if he likes—it doesn't worry me. But when it comes to having old Burdock put on trestles in the south aisle, with candles round him, and Hubbard from the 'Red Cow' and Duggins's boy praying over him half the night, I think it's time to draw the line. The people don't like it, you know—as least, the older generation don't. ”

“ Hancock had stood planted before her in laughing admiration, waiting for the next thing that she might say. How could he of all men in the world be taken out of himself by an effective trick? He had laughed more spontaneously than Miriam had ever seen him do. What was this effective thing? An appearance of animation. That it seemed, could make any man, even Mr. Hancock, if it were free from any suggestion of loudness or vulgarity, stand gaping and disarmed. ”

“ Remember him, my children, as one of the strong men of our country.”
“Here is one whose looks show a very different character,” observed Laurence, turning to the portrait of John Hancock. “I should think, by his splendid dress and courtly aspect, that he was one of the king’s friends.”
“There never was a greater contrast than between Samuel Adams and John Hancock,” said Grandfather. “Yet they were of the same side in politics, and had an equal agency in the Revolution. Hancock was born to the inheritance of the largest fortune in New England. His tastes and habits were aristocratic. ”

“ Hancock was in many respects the ideal soldier of the Northern armies. He was quick, energetic and resourceful, reckless of his own safety, a strict disciplinarian, a painstaking and hard-working officer. It was on the field of battle, and when the fighting was fiercest, that his best qualities came to the front. He was a born commander of men, and it is doubtful if any other officer in the Northern army could get more fighting and more marching out of his men. Grant said of him, “Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. ”

“ After graduating from Harvard in 1754, he entered the mercantile house of his uncle, Thomas Hancock of Boston, who had adopted him, and on whose death, in 1764, he fell heir to a large fortune and a prosperous business. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston, and from 1766 to 1772 was a member of the Massachusetts general court. An event which is thought to have greatly influenced Hancock’s subsequent career was the seizure of the sloop “Liberty” in 1768 by the customs officers for discharging, without paying the duties, a cargo of Madeira wine consigned to Hancock. ”

“ The very earth round about was in the chaos of roaring battle. Hancock had taken twenty guns with their horses, and about thirty battle flags. It was a tremendous capture, if he could hold his ground. No officer of the Union army ever showed to better advantage. The world may well forgive the touch of vanity and bluster in the undaunted Hancock, as he sent this despatch to Grant: "I have used up Johnson and am going into Hill." He found, however, that he should have terrible work even to keep the gain that he had made. ”

“ In a medical sense his lordship is dying now.'
That was Hancock. He gained his reputation by a carefully cultivated habit of jumping at conclusions. The average doctor hums and haws, and tells you nothing. Hancock neither hums nor haws, but tells you everything; or pretends to. He must have been right--or have managed to pass for right--pretty frequently, or he would hardly occupy the position which he does. He is well on the shady side of eighty--hale, hearty, and, what is surprising, still in fashion.
Foster was the first to speak. ”

“ Despite these unconcerned exclamations, the thought of ringing up and interrogating his man occurred to him as he turned away, still laughing; but it was too early in the morning for Hancock to be astir, and he wasn't "going to wake the beggar; hardly worth while, hanged if it is!" ”

“ Lee threw A. P. Hill's corps between Warren and Hancock's advancing division. Hancock entrenched himself along-the railroad which he was destroying.
Hill trained his artillery on these trenches and charged them with swift desperation late in the afternoon. The Union lines were broken and crushed and the men fled in panic. In vain "Hancock the Superb," who had seen his soldiers fall but never fail, tried to rally them. In agony he witnessed their utter rout. His trenches were taken, his guns captured and turned in a storm of death on his fleeing men. ”

“ Hancock reconnoitred his front on the morning of the 10th, with the view of forcing a crossing, if it was found that an advantage could be gained. The enemy was found strongly intrenched on the high ground overlooking the river, and commanding the Wooden Bridge with artillery. Anderson's left rested on the Po, where it turns south; therefore, for Hancock to cross over—although it would bring him to the same side of the stream with the rest of the army—would still farther isolate him from it. The stream would have to be crossed twice in the face of the enemy to unite with the main body. ”

“ The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front. Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directly upon the main position of the South. He had half the Army of the Potomac, and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnside were advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer and fiercer grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held the fatal hill at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now, poured in regiment after regiment. ”

“ Having reached the summit of the hill, we come abreast of the five-and-a-half-acre pasture of Governor John Hancock, the first signer of the immortal Declaration of American Independence, extending from Mount Vernon Street to Joy Street, and northerly to Derne Street, embracing the Capitol lot, and also the reservoir lot, for which last two he paid, in 1752, the modest sum of eleven hundred dollars! It is now worth a thousand times as much. ”

“ As he was the only “field officer” at Fort Inge, it is unnecessary to say he was the commandant of the cantonment.
These gentlemen were conversing as freely as if all were subalterns of equal rank—the subject of the discourse being the incidents of the day.
“Now tell us, major!” said Hancock: “you must know. Where did the girl gallop to?”
“How should I know?” answered the officer appealed to. “Ask her cousin, Mr Cassius Calhoun.”
“We have asked him, but without getting any satisfaction. It’s clear he knows no more than we. ”

“ He let it be known that Hancock was the richest man in New England, perhaps in America, and a power in every emergency.
John Hancock was given the office of presiding officer, the place of honor.
The thought never occurred to him that the man on the floor is the man who acts, and the individual in the chair is only a referee, an onlooker of the contest. When a man is chosen to preside he is safely out of the way, and no one knew this better than that clear-headed man, wise as a serpent, Samuel Adams. ”

“ During the second day’s battle he commanded the left centre of the Union army, and after General Sickles had been wounded, the whole of the left wing. In the third day’s battle he commanded the left centre, upon which fell the full brunt of Pickett’s charge, one of the most famous incidents of the war. Hancock’s superb presence and power over men never shone more clearly than when, as the 150 guns of the Confederate army opened the attack he calmly rode along the front of his line to show his soldiers that he shared the dangers of the cannonade with them. ”

“ Hancock, had killed an immense number of pheasants upon his lordship's manors; but at the same time this worthy intelligencer took care not to state where, and upon what manor we had been sporting. The old earl, who was the most tenacious, perhaps, about his game of any man in England, no sooner got the letter than he came post from town, in a great passion; and when he arrived at Tottenham, he immediately summoned all his keepers, to demand an account of their conduct for suffering his game to be destroyed in such a way. ”

“ His uncle was indeed such a strong Conservative that he was unwilling to have his adopted son show any leaning to the radical party. But when on the first of August, 1764, Thomas Hancock died of apoplexy, leaving his Beacon Hill mansion and fifty thousand dollars to his widow, Lydia Hancock, and to John his warehouses, ships, and the residue of his estate, in the twinkling of an eye the young man became a prominent factor in the business world of the day, as the sole owner of an extensive export and import trade. ”

“ But, unhappily, honor does not fill the basket, nor warm the body, nor pay the rent, nor satisfy the tax-gatherer. It is a nice, nice thing to have,—there's no use denying it,—but I think my dear general would have given it all, every bit, for one good, remunerative law case.
General Hancock.
Firmly fortified, as he persuaded himself, against ever again indulging in the fascinations of politics, his admiration for his old foe at Sharpsburg drew him into the Hancock campaign.
General Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg and Antietam, was worth every effort of every Democrat in the country. ”

“ John Hancock and Samuel Adams hear the drumbeat; Hancock seizes his gun.
“This is no place for you; you must go to a place of safety,” said Reverend Mr. Clark.
“Never will I turn my back to the redcoats,” said Hancock.
“The country will need your counsels. Others must meet the enemy face to face,” was the calm, wise reply of the patriotic minister.
Other friends expostulate; they cross the road and enter a thick wood crowning the hill.
“Stand your ground. If war is to come, let it begin here. Don’t fire till you are fired upon,” said Captain John Parker, walking along the lines of his company. ”

“ Hancock. "How can you say such wicked things?"
This roused the girl.
"They are not wicked!" she said hotly. "It is very cruel of you to say so. I had a long talk, two talks, with daddy about it. He agrees with me. He was very sorry, but he agrees."
It is hard to convey exactly the impression made on Mrs. Hancock's mind. If Elizabeth had confessed to a systematic course of burglary or murder she would not have been more shocked, nor would she have been more shocked if her niece had announced her intention of appearing at dinner without shoes and stockings. ”

“ Hancock, in full pontificals, attended by a thurifer and two torch-bearers. The effect was a little marred by the rain, which had extinguished the candles, but the village seemed to look upon it as an excellent show nevertheless. A massive man, dressed with great correctness in a black frock coat and tall hat, and accompanied by a woman in handsome mourning and furs, was sympathetically commented on. This was Haviland Burdock of silk-stocking fame, the younger son of the deceased. A vast number of white wreaths were then handed out, and greeted with murmurs of admiration and approval. ”

“ We reached the Rapidan in the evening, crossed over at Germania Ford and went into camp.
[Pg 160] May 6. We started before daylight and at eight o’clock reported to General Hancock, who had just been pushing Lee’s right flank back. We were placed on the left of Hancock’s corps. About ten o’clock, the 21st was sent to make a reconnaissance. We formed a line at right angles to Hancock’s line of battle, well out in front of it, and swept clear along past the whole front. This was a hazardous and mighty unpleasant thing to do and we lost some men in doing it. ”

“ Excuse my language Miss Hens’n. Ah! Here’s the great man. Good morning Hancock. How are you? D’they know you’re down?”
Mr. Hancock murmured his greetings and sat down opposite Miriam with a grave preoccupied air.
“Busy?” asked Mr. Orly turning to face his partner.
“Yes—fairly” said Mr. Hancock pleasantly.
“Wonderful man.... Ley’s gone off like a bee in a gale. D’they know Hancock’s down Nelly?”
Miriam glanced at Mr. Hancock wishing he could lunch in peace. He was tired. Did he too feel oppressed with the gas and the pale madder store cupboards? ... glaring muddy hot pink? ”