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...

but, he chose the hard way and put the ideal of freedom over anything else.
Every American citizen is today happy to live in the wealthiest and most democratic country in the world because of those who believed in freedom and took action. Every American is capable of showing his gratitude to his country by doing the smallest thing for his community and by teaching history to his or her children.

Musick, J.R. 1898. John Hancock: A Character Sketch. The University Association. Original from the University of Michigan. Available at http://books.google.com/books?id=UU6cOeOx9HMC

Proctor, D.J. 1977. John Hancock: New Soundings on an Old Barrel. The Journal of American History, Vol. 64, No. 3

Ransom, C.F., Parlin, 2004.T. John Hancock. Lerner Publications

Sears. L. 1912. John Hancock, the Picturesque Patriot: The Picturesque Patriot. Little, Brown, and Company. Original from the University of California