Work and Ideology of John

Work and Ideology of John Hancock Born on the 12th of January, 1773, in Massachusetts, John Hancock was one of the founding fathers of our country and his signature on the Declaration of Independence seems to communicate to us through the centuries. He was raised in a family of clergymen until the age of seven, when after his father's death, he was adopted by his rich uncle. Life changed dramatically for the boy who inherited the entire estate of his merchant uncle at the age of twenty-eight.

He uncle, Thomas Hancock, was "one of the richest men in the American colonies" (Ransom, Parlin, 2004). The biographies of John Hancock are inconclusive because the materials based on his life achievements are subjective and highly questionable when it comes to their scientific methods.

John Adams, his contemporary is supposed to have said at some point: "the life of John Hancock will never be written," although he also has added a few years later, aside political differences: "If I had the forces, I should be glad to write a volume of Mr. Hancock's life, character and generous nature " (Sears, 1912).

After having written a summary of Hancock's life, James Truslow Adams concluded in his essay in Harper that the reasons which led to his biography to never be written are due to the fact that "there was no Hancock"(Proctor, 1977). James Truslow Adams was also the one who wrote an entry on Hancock in the Dictionary of American Biography and left his mark on the memory of the man who first signed the Declaration of Independence.

Historians and others who considered Hancock's achievements as a Boston aristocrat and the first governor of the Common Wealth of Massachusetts, ten times reelected, main contributor to the revolutionary cause, were mostly fueled by his own interests as a business-man and his love of popularity, are neglecting the ends of his deeds (Sears, 1912).

Sears finds that first and foremost, Hancock must remain the our nations memory because of "his large contributions to the revolutionary cause; his skillful guidance of discordant statesmen into agreement in a critical time; his efficient service in retaining the French good-will when its threatened loss would have entailed eventual defeat a Yorktown; his influence in securing the ratification of the Constitution by Massachusetts, and in consequence by a majority of the states" (Sears, 1912).

Sears goes as far as claiming that without John Hancock, the outcome of the American Revolution might have been different. John Hancock was an extraordinary personality who became involved on the fight for freedom and who risked everything for this cause. He was a bright businessman and a clever politician who enjoyed the privileges of being one of the wealthiest men in Massachusetts, but who was also deeply involved in his community's life and profoundly interested in the fate of his fellow countrymen.

"Though reared in the lap of luxury, he had been rocked in the cradle of liberty and prized the cause of the colonists too high to abandon it for an oppressive monarchy"(Musick, 1898). One of the lessons John Hancock taught to the American people was that one has to pay his debts to his motherland. Clever business men, bright artists, sportsmen who worked hard and went through difficulties in order to make their fortune will always turn their eyes to the country that made everything possible and pay the tribute.

John Hancock could have remained the wealthy aristocrat from Boston who was already courted by the British politicians who could have easily satisfied his vanity through.