Newt Gingrich (29:27)
That year he's elected as a delegate to the first Continental Congress. Called to bring together the colonies to talk about what's going on. And he's also faced with the fact that living in Boston is less and less safe because the British could come and arrest him at any time. So Hancock moves to his grandfather's home in Lexington. And on April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren got news that British troops were heading toward Lexington. Warren sent three riders, the most famous of them Paul Revere, to warn people. Revere warned Hancock and Adams of the incoming troops and suggested they flee before the British reach Lexington. This is the first real moment of violence because what had happened was the American militia had been practicing and this is one of the great differences and of course, behind the whole notion of the second Amendment and the right to bear arms. The British army was very good at putting down peasant revolts. They put down revolts in England, in Scotland, in Wales, in Ireland. And so they marched out of Boston assuming this would be just like all those other peasant revolts. But they had a problem. They were now faced with a free people who had weapons and who had been practicing and also people who frankly went deer hunting and generally actually provisioned their houses by their effectiveness as hunters. The result was a disaster for the British army. They were shot at all the way back to Boston. They took a substantial number of casualties. Suddenly, what was then called the shot heard round the world, the Americans stood up and said, if you try to take our weapons, we will shoot you. Across all of the colonies, people were shaken because suddenly this was a real fight. This wasn't just words. The British army had attempted to do something which would have stripped the Americans of their ability to be free. Shortly after that, Hancock was elected President of the Second Continental Congress. He is a significant figure in the development of the ideas and the movement that leads to American freedom. As President, he presided during the discussion on the appointment of commander in chief for the Continental Army. Now this is a very interesting moment in American history. They need an army in order to stand up to the British. However, that army is going to be in Boston. It's going to be largely New England. And they have to find a way to unite all of the colonies into this fight and not just have it be a New England fight. Now, one of the great moments of theater, there's a very tall man walking around wearing the uniform of a Virginia militia officer, Colonel Washington, who says to everybody, oh, I don't know why you would think of me as the commander. I'm not sure I could be the commander. I'm not really sure I could do the job. But he's the only guy at the whole place wearing a uniform. And it's just one of those things about Washington, who's very understudied but very strategic. So of course, they pick Washington. And now you have this Virginian going to Boston to lead a largely New England army. Remember, the accents were wildly different, and there was this whole sense of getting used to each other. Washington does a brilliant job. Throughout the Revolutionary War, Hancock takes the wealth he had inherited, and he'd grown with his own businesses, and he helped fund the army. I mean, Hancock is genuinely putting his life, his liberty and his fortune to the fight for freedom. He oversaw the Declaration of independence. On July 4, 1776, in his most famous single moment, John Hancock was the first to sign the document. He had a large cursive signature and said there, john Bull can read my name without spectacles. He may double his reward. What he's saying is John Bull meant England. The king can see clearly that Hancock has signed the Declaration of Independence, and the king then wants to double the reward for killing him. That's fine. And that's where the term John Hancock, meaning signature, comes from, because he deliberately went out of his way almost as a propaganda act. Two days later, on July 6, Hancock writes Washington instructing him to read the Declaration of Independence to his troops. And this is an important thing to remember about the American Revolution. This was an informed military again and again. Washington, who's a master at this, makes sure that they understand why they're fighting, they understand what the situation is, and they are reminded that they have a moral cause. That's a key part of it. Now, I think Hamilton felt that this was a duty they were doing, working and doing everything they can as a team. And so you have militia coming from all over, you have people showing up on a regular basis, and you begin to really see that there's going to be an American force, not a Massachusetts force or a Virginia force, but a genuinely American force. Hancock stays as president of Congress until 1777, when he resigns as president. He had his chance as a military leader. He led 5,000 Massachusetts soldiers to attempt to recapture Newport, Rhode island, in 1778. The mission ultimately was a failure, but he went back home. And in 1780, he helped frame the Massachusetts Constitution and was elected as the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Remember, we are still fighting at this point, and he's now the governor of the Commonwealth. Where you could argue the fight started. In 1788. Delegates elected Hancock to serve as president of the Massachusetts ratifying convention. Unfortunately, he had gout, which is a recurring ailment for Hancock and which he probably tried to solve by drinking port, which made the gout worse. But he was prevented from attending the debates until January 30th. At that point, he did everything he could to make sure that the majority would be in favor of ratifying the Constitution. In fact, he felt so deeply that on the morning of January 30, wrapped in blankets, he was carried into the convention and attended the debates for the first time. He was absolutely in favor of the new system. This is a quote from Henry Van Schaak, who was actually in attendance, who writes, governor Hancock had come to the convention and declared himself decidedly in favor of the system, which had an amazing influence over a great number of wavering members. Ill health had prevented the governor's attendance in convention before the opposition took advantage of this and industriously reported that His Excellency was opposed to the Constitution and advised him to reject it. There's room to conjecture that the Governor would not have come out so soon if it had not been for those reports, as he was extremely unwell at the time he went out. And a day later, on January 31, Hancock read from a speech prepared by the Federalist Caucus supporting the signing of the Constitution. And I think it's very important to realize here's a guy who has personally spent his money helping fight the war, who has taken great risks, who has been persecuted by the British, and he is committed to working on the Constitution, getting it approved. And at that point, I think he has had a major role because Massachusetts, which is one of the biggest colonies in both population and wealth, having endorsed the Constitution is a major step in the right direction. And it's not decisive. It's very likely, if Hancock had come out against the Constitution, that it might have lost. It only wins in the Massachusetts convention by 187 to 168. So there's a pretty narrow margin there. It wouldn't have taken much to have turned it into a defeat in 1789. Hancock's a candidate in the first US presidential election, but only received four electoral votes out of a total of 138. George Washington garnered 69 votes. John Adams captured 36 votes, earning the two men the presidency and vice presidency. Back then, you all ran on one ticket and the number one in two people got to be president and vice president. That changed after Adams and Jefferson had to suffer each other and realized that it was crazy to have a system where you were not elected as a ticket. After the adoption of the Constitution, Hamlet Hancock was elected for a final time as governor, and he kept getting elected until his death. On October 24, 1789, President Washington, in a tour of the eastern states, arrived in Boston, where the whole town minus Hancock went out to greet him. Hancock believed that his governor Washington should come to him. However, soon after he realized this was a mistake. He visited Washington and claimed that an illness kept him from arriving sooner. On October 8, 1793, Hancock, while still in office, died at the age of 56 and received one of the largest state funerals from his longtime friend Samuel Adams. John Hancock is one of the people upon whom America stands. It was his commitment, his courage, his belief in liberty, his willingness to risk everything and literally to spend his fortune to help us become free, which has helped make America the country it is. And that is why he's one of the immortals as we look at the Founding Fathers. Thank you for listening. You can read more about John Hancock and get links to my other Founding Fathers episodes on our show page@newtsworld.com Newts World is produced by Gingrich360 and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Garnesy Sloan and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at Gingrich360. If you've been enjoying Newts World, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of Newtsworld can sign up for my three free weekly columns at Gingrich360.com Newsletter. I'm not Newt Gingrich. This is Newt's World.
