JOHN HANCOCK

Thoughtful life of the all-but-forgotten Founding Father.

John Hancock may be best remembered for what historian Randall calls “his large, flamboyant signature on the Declaration of Independence”—if, that is, he is remembered at all, for just 15-odd years after Hancock’s death in 1793, John Adams would lament that he was “buried in oblivion.” Hancock’s many contributions to the revolutionary cause included using much of his significant fortune, earned as the head of Boston’s leading mercantile concern, to finance the military; he also helped push the Constitution through, argued over “by paragraphs, until every member shall have had opportunity fully to express his sentiments,” after helping offset contending state interests in the fight over the Articles of Confederation. Randall reminds readers that the years immediately after the war ended were fraught: Frontier rebellions broke out over taxations and pensions for military service, and, briefly, “Pennsylvania and Connecticut had actually gone to war” over territorial issues. A Federalist but also a pragmatist, Hancock championed nine “Conciliatory Amendments” that led to the Bill of Rights, to which he added the 10th, which reserved to the states any “powers not expressly delegated to Congress.” As well, apart from serving as a well-liked governor of Massachusetts, Hancock—serving his own interests to be sure, but also with an eye on the larger U.S. economy—helped restore postwar trade with Britain. For all that, Randall notes, Hancock weathered numerous controversies, mostly financial; he was also the subject of a possible canard that Randall corrects—namely, that he wished to be commander of the Continental Army and resented George Washington for being selected for the post, when in fact, Randall writes, Hancock suffered so badly from gout that it is unlikely that he “would have accepted a position that would require long days on horseback.”

A solid addition to the literature of the American Revolution.