after arrived, tempest-tost, in Boston. prehending the mass of the people, The entertainments, indeed, of Han- as distinguished from the wealthy and cock became proverbial. Though him- educated classes, the democracy of the self worn by the gout, the disease was State, was opposed to it. There were no obstacle to his encouragement of also elements of dissent growing out of good living. His habits of expense the disaffection of the recent Shay's were also carried out in other things, rebellion and the separation of the particularly in his dress. In a day of State of Maine then in progress. Hanelegance among gentlemen, he par- cock and Samuel Adams, both of exticularly affected splendor. His equip-traordinary popularity, were looked to age, especially on public occasions, was in the Convention as the head of the full of state; he rode with six fine formidable opposition in that body. horses and servants in livery. His Five States only as yet had accepted entertainments, election and other, were the Constitution-Delaware, Pennsyl in proportion; costly and prodigal. vania, New Jersey, Georgia and ConHe was liberal in his gifts; even necticut. The votes of New York, munificent to the building and decora- Maryland and Virginia, it was thought, tions of the Brattle street church. would be influenced by the decision of Massachusetts. Madison wrote to Washington from New York, full of doubt and alarm. "A rejection of the new form by that State," replied Washington, "would invigorate the opposition, not only in New York, but in all those which are to follow; at the same time, it would afford materials for the minority, in such as have actually agreed to it, to blow the trumpet of discord more loudly." In the autumn of 1779, Hancock, impelled by ill health, resigned his seat in Congress, when he was succeeded in the Presidency by Henry Laurens, of South Carolina. The same year also saw him sitting a member of the Massachusetts Convention, at Cambridge, for the formation of a State Constitution. On the adoption of that instrument, Hancock was chosen Governor, and was annually thereafter elected to the office, with the exception of the term of Governor Bowdoin, in 1786, during the remainder of his life. One of the most important events of Hancock's public career, was his Presidency of the Massachusetts State Convention, on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which met in Boston in January, 1788. The resolution of this body was watched with much anxiety, for there were many popular elements at work in Massachusetts against the adoption. The Anti-Federal party com Three weeks elapsed of the session of the Convention, during which the country was in suspense, before Hancock, who was suffering from the gout, made his appearance in that body. He then descended as the deus ex machinâ to solve the knotty problem, and bring order out of confusion. He came armed with a set of "Conciliatory Resolutions," as they were called, embracing the provisions, as the declaration “that all powers not expressly delegated to Congress, are reserved to the several States," and the enunciation of the have the credit of the measure. It right of trial by jury, afterwards would appear, from the recent review adopted among the Amendments to of the matter by Mr. Theophilus Parthe Constitution. Hancock introduced sons, to have been the work of the the resolutions in a flowing speech; Federalists among themselves. The they were referred to a Committee, original draft of the resolutions was and saved the Constitution, which was found with Hancock's papers, in the now finally passed by a vote of one handwriting of Chief Justice Parsons.1 hundred and eighty-seven to one hundred and sixty-eight-Hancock and Adams voting in the affirmative. This happy turn in the Convention gave Hancock great popularity. In the words of a ballad of the time, in thirteen verses, the number of the States, to the tune of Yankee Doodle: "Then 'Squire Hancock, like a man "He made a woundy Fed'ral speech, "The question being outright put, "The other party, seeing then The people were against 'em, Hancock, who appears, with some rubs, to have retained his popularity to the last, died in office as Governor of Massachusetts, October 8, 1793, in his fifty-seventh year. Let John Adams sum up the career of the thriving, attentive merchant, the devoted patriot and prosperous politician, whose popularity outlived so many hazards of party: "Mr. Hancock had a delicate constitution. He was very infirm; a great part of his life was passed in acute pain. He inherited from his father, though one of the most amiable and beloved of men, a certain sensibil ity, a keenness of feeling, or, in more familiar language, a peevishness of temper, that sometimes disgusted and af flicted his friends. Yet it was astonishing with what patience, perseverance, and punctuality, he attended to business to the last. Nor were his talents or attainments inconsiderable. They were far superior to many who have been much more celebrated. He had a great deal of political sagacity and penetration into men. He was by no means a contemptible scholar or orator. Compared with Washington, Lincoln, or Knox, he was learned." " To be sure there were some shrug gings and winkings of the Essex Junto, who were in the secret of this sudden conversion of Hancock to Federalism, Memoir of Chief Justice Parsons, by his son, Theophilus but it was understood that he should 1 See an interesting account of this whole affair in the Parsons, p. 56-76. "Letter to William Tudor, Adams' Works, X. 261. THIS distinguished major-general of | French war, with its border Indian conthe Revolution was one of the earliest, flicts, inuring the body to hardships, as well as ablest supporters of the popu- and practising wit and intellect in cunlar cause. Born, according to some ac- ning military devices, while it imparted counts, in England, about the year confidence, grew the soldiers who were 1730, he was brought to South Caro- to cope with the trained warriors of the lina at an early age, and is first heard old world. "The best part of courage," of on the page of history in that period says Emerson, somewhere, "is having of the Seven Years' War, when the co- done the thing before." The truth of lony became entangled in that vexatious the aphorism is abundantly shown in and formidable contest with the Chero- the war of the Revolution, when the kees, destined to develop so much of the old military men brought to the service military talent of her sons. Moultrie, the skill and resolution of their former then in early manhood, appeared in valor. arms, especially distinguishing himself So Moultrie, with Laurens, Marion, in the adventurous closing campaign and others, was ready to unsheathe marked by the bloody field of Etchoee, his sword at the first note of warnwhere Marion, a lieutenant under his command, gained his first brilliant laurels, at the head of a forlorn hope, in charging the well chosen, strongly defended Indian position. "General Marion and myself," says Moultrie, in his "Memoirs of the Revolution in the South," when he has occasion to speak of the subsequent partisan service of that military chieftain, "entered the field of Mars together in an expedition against the Cherokee Indians, under the command of Colonel James Grant, in 1761; when I had the honor to command a light infantry company, in a provincial regiment." Out of that old ing from Massachusetts. In that memorable Provincial Congress of South Carolina, which met at Charleston, in January, 1775, assembling so much of the worth of the province, that body, whose roll includes so many honorable names-Rutledge, Pinckney, Laurens, Huger, Legaré, Gadsden, Middleton, Marion, Lowndes, and a host of others— Colonel William Moultrie was present as a delegate from the parish of St. Helena. In the war measures which ensued, he was chosen colonel of the second regiment of infantry, and employed himself diligently in the collec tion of ammunition and the erection of |