With his name that of John Hancock is, as we have seen, closely associated.  The worldly circumstances of the two were very different, for Samuel Adams was always poor, while John Hancock had fallen heir to one of the greatest fortunes in New England.  He was only twenty-seven at the time, and his fortune made a fool of him, as sudden wealth has a way of doing.  It was at this time, being young and impressionable, he met Samuel Adams, a silent and reserved man, fifteen years his senior and regarded by his neighbors as a harmless crank.  But there was something about him which touched Hancock’s imagination—­and touched his pocketbook, too, for about the first thing Adams did was to borrow money from him.

Hancock was no doubt glad to lend the money, for he had more than he knew what to do with, and spent it in such a lavish manner that he was soon one of the most popular men in Boston.  So when one of his ships was seized for smuggling in a cargo of wine, all his friends and employees got together and paraded the streets, and a lot of boys and loafers joined them, for drink was flowing freely, and pretty soon there was a riot, and the troops were called out and fired a volley and killed five men, and the rest of the mob decided that it was time to go home, and went.  And that was the Boston massacre about which you have heard so much that it would almost seem to rank with that of St. Bartholomew.  But, as the Irishman remarked, the man who gets his finger pinched makes a lot more racket than the one who gets his head cut off; and the Boston massacre, for all the hullabaloo that was raised about it, was merely an insignificant street riot.  No doubt Samuel Adams did his full share in fanning that little spark into a conflagration!

For Adams had acquired great influence over Hancock, and that vapid young man was fond of being seen in the company of the older one.  Adams was anxious to secure Hancock for the revolutionary cause, and soon had him so hopelessly entangled that there was no escape for him.  On the anniversary of the Boston massacre, he persuaded Hancock to deliver a revolutionary speech, which he had himself prepared, and after that there was a British order out for Hancock’s arrest; Adams contrived that Hancock should be one of the three delegates from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress—­John and Samuel Adams were the other two—­and Hancock was deeply impressed by the honor; at the second Congress, Adams saw to it that his friend was chosen President.  In consequence, Hancock was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, the incident which is the best known in his career.  He signed the document in great sprawly letters, remarking grandiloquently, as he did so, “I guess King George can read that without spectacles,” and for many years, “John Hancock” was the synonym for a bold signature.  He was afterwards governor of Massachusetts for more than a decade, and on one occasion attempted to snub Washington, with very poor success.  His body lies in the old Granary burying-ground, only a step from that of Samuel Adams.