Word: hancockers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...came the so-called Boston Massacre, possibly instigated by Samuel Adams, and Hancock headed the citizens' committee that persuaded Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson to remove most troops from Boston. Yet in 1772 Hancock was made captain of the Independent Company of Cadets, also known as the "Governor's Own." He outfitted himself and his men with bright new uniforms, and he liked to appear on horseback at the head of his troop on the King's birthday. Then, on the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, he publicly denounced the British with Ciceronian fervor: "Ye dark, designing...
Status and radicalism are not at all contradictory in Boston. At the Merchants Club, Hancock drank and debated with Attorney James Otis Jr., who first argued in court in 1761 against the constitutionality of general search warrants known as writs of assistance (John Adams believes that "American independence was then and there born"). At a Masonic lodge, Hancock encountered both Otis and Samuel Adams, an inept businessman but master polemicist and organizer of the Sons of Liberty. These three soon became leaders in the resistance to the Stamp Act. Declared Hancock: "I will not be a slave. I have...
...Hancock's wealth paid for the enthusiasm of the waterfront bravos who rallied round the Rebel leaders. On one occasion, he provided ? 1,000 for the care and feeding of the mob. In 1766 Hancock won a seat in the state legislature as the protégé of Samuel Adams, who had been elected the previous year (Otis had been there since 1761). From then on, his political star kept rising...
...public idol of the most radical state, Hancock was easily elected President of the Congress (after his predecessor, Peyton Randolph, decided to return to Virginia). Although the job involves mostly paper work, Hancock has often served skillfully in mediating differences among the delegations. With similar skill, he conducted a long and arduous courtship of the very social Dorothy Quincy, whom he married last August during the congressional recess...
...Declaration of Independence is a triumph not only for Hancock but for the whole Boston delegation; yet their triumph is shadowed by the absence of James Otis. Accused of treason by the British customs commissioners in 1769, he publicly denounced them as liars. One of them attacked him with a cutlass and delivered such a severe blow to the head that Otis has since lost his reason. He was awarded ?2,000 in damages, but has never successfully resumed his career. He now lives in retirement, with intermittent spells of insanity...