ART. V.-Biography of the Signers to the Declaration of

Independence. 9 vols. 8vo. Philadelphia: 1827.

WE mentioned, in the initial article of our first number, that it was our intention to resume the subject of American Biography, so as to illustrate every principal walk of American life, by traits of some of the individuals distinguished in each. In preparing to execute this task for the present number, we discovered, however, that it would not be immediately practicable, owing to the extent of the subject, the abundance of the materials, and the space which might be required for other literary contributions. We have, in consequence, resolved to postpone it for a more convenient occasion; or rather, to attempt it now, in a qualified way, with a restriction which will render it more suitable to our limits, and probably, more acceptable to our readers. Since the appearance of our first article, the three last volumes of the Biography of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, have been issued, making the whole number nine, and completing a mass of interesting information which deserves to be specially reviewed, in order to render more widely known a work so worthy of repute and perusal; and to revive or establish in the memories of those, who, from its costly character, or any other cause, may not be able to procure it for themselves-the names and general merits of patriots, now universally acknowledged as creditors of their country, for a peculiar and immense debt of gratitude and veneration.

Confining ourselves, then, to this work as a text-book at least, we shall notice the whole list of Signers to the immortal Declaration, although not in the order in which they are presented, which is not, indeed, uniformly that of the signatures to the original instrument,-merely, we presume, because the materials could not be regularly collected. In pursuing the plan just indicated, we deem it allowable to avail ourselves of other sources than the contents of these volumes; and may, accordingly, blend with our abstracts, circumstances and opinions drawn from different biographical publications and manuscripts lying within our reach. Here and there, too, we shall probably venture to dwell on other revolutionary names, consecrated by similar excellence in the same career, and by a close personal union with the Signers. That union was not merely an illustration of the poet's aphorism

"Great minds, by instinct, to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn."

The attachments of the revolutionary worthies, between themselves, and to distant advocates of the American cause, were, for

the most part, formed in the first stages of the dispute with the mother country, and occasioned by grateful patriotism on one side particularly, and the purest sympathies for liberty in general, mutually cherished and communicated. The characters, the numbers, and the zeal of the European philanthropists and politicians, even in the countries subject to absolute monarchy, who extended their esteem and counsel to the principal agents, or perseveringly applauded and vindicated the ends, of our Revolution, reflect additional effulgence upon the objects of their enlightened and generous favour.

Of the first six volumes of the Biography of the Signers, we expressed an opinion in the article which we have mentioned above: to the three last, as literary performances, may be ascribed similar merits and demerits. The work has had three successive editors; the first, a very respectable scholar, whose professional duties, as an able and favourite preceptor of youth, compelled him to relinquish the undertaking after he had completed two volumes; the second, a gentleman of uncommon natural parts and the keenest literary diligence, but who fell by the hand of death, in one of his distant journeys for the collection of materials: the third, who has zealously finished the task, is a fluent and elegant writer, from whose pen we may expect many other valuable contributions to American literature. The publisher, in the advertisement which he has prefixed to the seventh volume, has candidly stated the obstacles to speedy and perfect execution, and preferred a claim for the work, with regard to the essential value of its contents, which is, we think, indisputable, except in the phrase "history of our country.'

"The materials for such a work (says the advertisement) are procured alone by patience, by research and by time; family records are dispersed with the va rious changes of fortune and residence which are so frequent in our country; and above all, there exists too often a reluctance or negligence in communicating those incidents, which can only be preserved in the recollections of domestic life, but which, when they relate to such men, become a fair portion of the general history of our country. It is believed that all the material facts in these volumes are authentic: certainly every effort has been used to make them so; public documents, where necessary, have been carefully referred to, and much, indeed some entire lives, have been derived from those private sources, which may be considered as the most accurate. Some of the sketches are necessarily less perfect than was desirable, and occasional repetitions of historical events were not to be avoided; but it may be confidently stated, that in no work hitherto presented to the American public, is there so various and interesting a mass of information, public and private, relating to the history of our country and the distinguished men by whom its annals are adorned."

The first in the series of Lives, is that of JOHN HANCOCK, president of the congress that signed and issued the Declaration of Independence. Whoever has looked at Trumbull's picture of that assembly, as it received the draft of the sacred instrument, must have in his mind's eye, the noble stature and air, and the

firm attitude and countenance, of the magnanimous patriot. He was the son and grandson of worthy clergymen, but owed his liberal education at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1754, to the bounty of an uncle, who adopted him in his childhood, on the death of his parent. That uncle, an eminent and very opulent merchant of Boston, abundantly earned the tribute which has been paid to his memory in some of the biographical compilations, by the general usefulness and dignity of his life, and his large bequests to learned and charitable institutions. The adopted nephew, after serving as a clerk in the counting-house of his benefactor, visited England, where he was present at the coronation of George III., as little prescient as the monarch himself, of the decisive part which he was destined to act in relation to the throne. On the sudden demise of the uncle, in 1764, he stepped into his vast fortune and extensive business; both of which he managed with a degree of judgment, sedulousness, munificence, and modesty, that soon dissipated all the vague regrets and sinister anticipations, to which the merits of his predecessor, and his own youth and comparative obscurity, naturally gave birth. His opulence, affability, and good sense, designated him in the first instance for municipal offices, from which he speedily ascended to the provincial legislature. Mr. Tudor, in his Life of James Otis, relates, that on the day of Hancock's election into that body, Samuel Adams, walking in the mall of Boston with John Adams, pointed to Hancock's dwelling, and said, "This town has done a wise thing to-day. They have made that young man's fortune their own." The prophecy, adds the biographer, was literally fulfilled; "for no man's property was ever more profusely devoted to the public." Hancock associated himself, with intense zeal and invariable resolution, against the royal governor and the British ministry, to Samuel Adams, Otis, and Cushing; and became as prominent and obnoxious in the eyes of the British authorities, as those intrepid and indefatigable leaders.

In the proclamation which general Gage issued after the battle of Lexington, and a few days before that of Bunker's hill, offering pardon to all the rebels, two only were excepted-Samuel Adams and John Hancock, "whose offences," said the governor, "are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment." A learned member of the British parliament averred, in a set speech, that it was not with America that England had to contend, but with Hancock and his crew. Such denunciations gave special notoriety, abroad, to the two unpardonable rebels, and in the colonies exalted them to the utmost height of fame and honour. They were regarded as the twin sponsors and champions of the common cause of resistance to tyranny; and ought to have been, in their personal relations, like Pylades and Orestes; but it is mentioned in most of

the biographical sketches, that in the legislature they had fallen into altercations, which produced a temporary schism in the party they headed, and a long personal estrangement between themselves. In fact, they differed so widely in their modes of being, and general dispositions, that their concurrence in political measures may be interpreted into one of the most cogent proofs of the energy of their patriotism. Hancock resembled Cimon of Athens in some of his qualities and habits; he was a magnificent liver, lavishly bountiful, and splendidly hospitable. Samuel Adams had neither the means nor the inclination to indulge himself, or others, in the arts of social elegance and the varieties of refined luxury; he studied, on all occasions, simplicity and frugality; and in tracing his character and career, we are reminded of the severest of the ancient republicans, or of the boldest and most rigid of the English Puritans,-some of those whom Sir Walter Scott has introduced into his Peveril of the Peak. The contrast is well exhibited in the following passage of the Bioraphy:

"Of these two popular leaders, the manners and appearance were in direct opposition, notwithstanding the conformity of their political principles, and their equal devotion to the liberties and independence of their country. Mr. Adams was poor, and in his dress and manners, simple and unadorned. Hancock, on the other hand, was numbered with the richest individuals of his country. His equipage was splendid and magnificent; and such as at present is unknown in America. His apparel was sumptuously embroidered with gold and silver and lace, and all the decorations fashionable amongst men of fortune of that day; he rode, especially upon public occasions, with six beautiful bays, and with servants in livery. He was graceful and prepossessing in manners, and very passionately addicted to what are called the elegant pleasures of life, to dancing, music, concerts, routs, assemblies and parties, rich wines, social dinners and festivities; all which the stern republican virtues of Mr. Adams regarded with indifference, if not with contempt."

Dr. Eliot, in his Biographical Dictionary, remarks, that Hancock and Samuel Adams, though equally zealous in their opposition to the mother country, had originally different views; that Hancock was not against a reconciliation, if Great Britain would repeal all her unjust acts, and respect the rights of her colonies; whereas Adams, who, "from the time of the Stamp Act, saw that hostilities would commence," did not wish that the ancient friendship should be renewed. We apprehend that this statement is erroneous. In a confidential letter to Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, inserted in the second volume of the life of that patriot, and dated at Boston, May, 1768, Adams observes,—

"I pray God that those who conduct the affairs of the nation may be endowed with true wisdom; that all measures destructive to the common interest, may be reversed; that fomenters of division on both sides of the Atlantic, may be detected and punished; that Great Britain and the colonies may thoroughly understand their mutual interest and dependence; that harmony may be cultivated between them, and that they may long flourish in one undivided empire.”

These sentiments were, probably, entertained in the outset,

by almost every American adversary of the Stamp Act, though some of them confidently augured, from the signs of the times, what they then deemed the worst; and most of them were prepared to brave any tragical result in defence of American liberties. As early as 1767, when Governor Bernard tendered Hancock a lieutenancy in his guard, the latter tore up the commission in the presence of many citizens, declaring his determination to hold no office under a man "whose vices and principles he believed to be hostile to the rights of his country." So, from year to year, till and through the Revolution, we find abundant evidence of the same temper and determination, incapable of dismay or pliancy, and the more admirable by reason of the superior wealth and enjoyments which he had at stake. How he estimated the goods of fortune in comparison with the public weal, is finely exemplified in this authentic anecdote:

"During the siege of Boston, General Washington consulted congress upon the propriety of bombarding the town. Mr. Hancock was then president of congress. After General Washington's letter was read, a solemn silence ensued. This was broken by a member making a motion that the house should resolve itself into a committee of the whole, in order that Mr. Hancock might give his opinion upon the subject, as he was so deeply interested, from having all his estate in Boston. After he left the chair, he addressed the chairman of the committee of the whole, in the following words. It is true, sir, nearly all the property I have in the world, is in houses and other real estate in the town of Boston; but if the expulsion of the British army from it, and the liberties of our country, require their being burnt to ashes, issue the orders for that purpose immediately.""

There is a similar trait in the life of General Thomas Nelson, another of the Signers, which is thus related in the seventh volume:

A

"During the siege of Yorktown, General Nelson observing his own house uninjured by the artillery of the American batteries, inquired into the cause. respect for his property, was assigned. Nelson, whose devotion to the common cause was ardent and unbounded, requested that the artillerists would not spare his house more than any other, especially as he knew it to be occupied by the principal officers of the British army. Two pieces were accordingly pointed against it. The first shot went through the house, and killed two of a large company of officers, then indulging in the pleasures of the table. Other balls soon dislodged the hostile tenants.

Hancock was president of the provincial congress of Massachusetts, until he was sent as a delegate from the province to the general congress at Philadelphia, in 1775. The causes and the manner of his installation in the chair of that august assembly, are well told in the life of the Virginia member, Benjamin Harrison:

"Mr. Hancock had just arrived in Philadelphia: he brought with him all the fame which ministerial oppression had conferred, in excluding him by name from the general pardon extended to the rebellious colonists; and he brought with him too, a better claim to distinction in the generosity of his character, and the perfect disinterestedness of his patriotism. The eye of congress was immediately fixed on him as the successor of Mr. Randolph, and he was unanimously VOL. I.-No. 2.

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