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72 town, he is said to have declared, " Burn Boston, and make John Hancock a beggar, if the public good requires it." In the autumn of 1776 congress gave Washington instructions to destroy Boston if it should be necessary to do so in order to dis- lodge the enemy. Mr. Hancock then wrote to that officer to the effect that, although probably the largest property-owner in the city, " he was anxious the thing should be done if it would benefit the cause." John Adams said of his character : " 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 insight into men. He was by no means a contemptible scholar or orator. Compared with Washington, Lincoln, or Knox, he was learned." He received the degree of A. M. from Yale and Princeton in 1769, and that of LL. D. from Brown in 1788, and from Harvard in 1792. The illustration represents the Hancock house, which stood in Beacon street, Boston.

HANCOCK, John, jurist, b. in Jackson county, Ala., 29 Oct., 1824. After two years in the Uni- versity of East Tennessee, Knoxville, he studied law in Winchester, Tenn., was admitted to the bar in 1846, and setted in Texas in 1847. In that year he held the office of state's attorney. He was ap- pointed judge of the district court of the state in 1851, where he served until his resignation in 1855. In 1860-'l he was a member of the legislature, but was expelled on refusing to take the oath of alle- giance to the southern Confederacy. He declined to take arms during the civil war, and, in order to avoid conscription, went to Mexico in 1864, and subsequently to New York and Kentucky. After witnessing Gen. Lee's surrender, he returned to Texas, and took an active part in the restoration of order. He was a member of the State constitu- tional convention in 1866, and was a member of congress from 1872 till 1877, and again in 1881-'3, having been elected as a Democrat. During his term of service he secured the passage of acts changing the manner of issuing rations to Indians on the reservations, so that they were given every seventh day; prohibiting hunting-parties unless accompanied by U. S. troops, thus ending Indian raids from the reservations ; and establishing a military telegraph around the frontiers of Texas.

HANCOCK, Winfleld Scott, soldier, b. in Mont- gomery Square, Montgomery co., Pa., 14 Feb., 1824 ; d. on Governor's Island, New York harbor, 9 Feb., 1886. His grandfather, Richard Hancock, of Scottish birth, was one of the impressed American seamen of the war of 1812 who were incarcerated in Dartmoor prison in England. His father, Ben- jamin Franklin Hancock, was born in Philadel- phia, and when quite a young man was thrown upon his own resources, having displeased his guardian by not marrying in the Society of Friends. He supported himself and wife by teaching while studying law, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and removed to Norristown, where he practised his pro- fession forty years, earning the reputation of a well- read, judicious, and successful lawyer. Winfield S. Hancock had the combined advantages of home in- struction and a course in the Norristown academy and the public high-school. He early evinced a taste for military exercises, and at the age of six- teen entered the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated, 1 July, 1844. He was at once brevetted 2d lieutenant in the 6th infantry, and assigned to duty at Fort Towson, Indian terri- tory. He received his commission as 2d lieuten- ant while his regiment was stationed on the fron- tier of Mexico, where the difficulties that resulted in the Mexican war had already begun. He was ordered to active service in the summer of 1847, joined the army of Gen. Scott in its advance upon the Mexican capital, participated in the four prin- cipal battles of the campaign, and was brevetted 1st lieutenant for gallant and meritorious conduct in those of Contreras and Churubusco. From 1848 till 1855 he served as regimental quartermaster and adjutant, being most of the time stationed at St. Louis. On 7 Nov., 1855, he was appointed assistant Quartermaster with the rank of captain, and or- ered to Fort Myers, Fla., where Gen. William S. Harney was in command of the military forces op- erating against the Seminoles. He served under this officer during the troubles in Kansas in 1857-'8, and afterward accompanied his expedition to Utah, where serious complications had arisen between the Gentiles and the Mormons. From 1859 till 1861 Capt. Hancock was chief quartermaster of the southern district of California. At the beginning of the civil war in 1861 he asked to be relieved from duty on the Pacific coast, and was transferred to more active service at the seat of war. In a let- ter to a friend at this time he said : " My politics are of a practical kind — the integrity of the coun- try, the supremacy of the Federal government, an honorable peace, or none at all." He was commis- sioned a brigadier-general of volunteers by Presi- dent Lincoln, 23 Sept., 1861, and at once bent all his energies to aid in the organization of the Army of the Potomac. During the peninsular campaign under Gen. McClellan he was especially conspicu- ous at the battles of Williamsburg and Frazier's Farm. He took an active part in the subsequent campaign in Maryland, at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, and was assigned to the command of the 1st division of the 2d army corps, on the battle-field, during the second day's fight at Antietam, 17 Sept., 1862. He was soon afterward made a major-general of volunteers, and com- manded the same division in the attempt to storm Marye's Heights, at the battle of Fredericksburg, 13 Dec, 1862. In this assault Gen. Hancock led his men through such a fire as has rarely been en- countered in warfare. He commanded 5,006 men, and left 2,013 of them on the field. In the three days' fight at Chancellorsville, in May, 1863, Han- cock's division took a prominent part. While on the march through western Maryland in pursuit of the invading army of Gen. Lee, on 25 June, he was ordered by the president to assume command of the 2d army corps. On the 27th Gen. Hooker asked to be relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac ; and orders from the war department reached his headquarters near Fred- erick, Md., assigning Maj.-Gen. George G. Meade