John Hancock
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Object type: Print
Date: 1776
Artist: Unidentified Artist
Copy after: John Singleton Copley, 3 Jul 1738 - 9 Sep 1815
Sitter: John Hancock, 12 Jan 1737 - 8 Oct 1793
Medium: Relief cut
Dimensions: Image: 7.5 × 6.2 cm (2 15/16 × 2 7/16")
Book closed (image on cover): 18.5 × 11 cm (7 5/16 × 4 5/16")
Credit line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Alternative titles: Bickerstaff's Boston Almanac for the year of our Redemption, 1777
Topics: Business and Finance
Merchants
Illustration
Government
Businessperson
Portraits
Governors
Colonial statesman
Statesman
Men
Signer of Declaration
Public officers
Politics
B I C K E R S T A F F's B O S T O N A L M A N A C K,
For the YEAR of our REDEMPTION, 1777.
Being the First Year of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,
And the First after LEAP YEAR.
Calculated for the Meridian of Boston, Lat. 42° 25' N.
On the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq. By a LADY.
W ITH great respected Names we'll thine enroll, And fame shall waft the list from Pole to Pole ; The Friend to LIBERTY and VIRTUE's CAUSE, True to our FAITH, our FREEDOM, and our LAWS. E'en in this factious and degenerate age, Sharpen'd with all the gall of party-rage, Malice, in vain, at him her shaft let fly, Th' envenom'd arrow pass'd unheeded by : For see around with wings unsullied spread, Fame watchful hovers o'er her Fav'rite's head, While VIRTUE reigns triumphant in his heart, And mocks with conscious smiles the Tory's art ; Around her throne her fav'rite handmaids move, Candor, benevolence, and social love, Their kindest rays in his mild aspect shine, And from each virtuous mind applauses win. That such he is, his foes must own, is true, And rev'rence VIRTUES that they never knew.
our Winter doom, to account us of
THIS month the Sun unto the Goat doth come,
As counsels cautious, and his measures wise; The Prince a Father, and the Land his Child. Each solemn bound, by each his separate law, The first to rule, and these to stand in awe. As high his office, and reviv'd his place; His legal justice, or his legal grace. Alike their pattern, guardian, and their head; Nor knows superior but the laws he made. To these engag'd, alike subjected both, Plighted their faith, and forfeited their troth, The compact mutual, and confirm'd by each, In oath to HIM from whom the supple's deriv'd, And but by HIM, can neither be deriv'd. Alike expos'd, proportion'd to their place: To grief, destruction, ruin, or disgrace. The same their Lord, the same determin'd end; Mutual to love, and mutual to defend. From violence deriv'd, as issue of its cause, Strength to the throne, and power to the laws. O eternal strife! that serves no just regard, And final love that meets its own reward. Had Britain always such superiors known And none but such should mount Britannia's throne. Ne'er had she seen the horrors of such fights, The laws in fetters, or herself in chains! Ne'er had her sons their Sovereign withstood,
Her slain'd her rivals with a life, or with blood. But draw the veil, and leave to other climes, To learn instruction, or repeat the crimes. Our contest this; O might it never cease, But with our lives, or with their dying peace! Divine contention! that her laws inspire, And marks her genius as it fans her fire. Ambitious both, till both recal'd above, With mutual zeal their mutual faith to prove, The last their Homage and the first his Love! But for the rest—the People's sacred RIGHT, Preserve, COLUMBANS! O preserve and fight! By various tempests to her harbor guide, Thy smile her strength, thy providence her pride. Her LIBERTIES secure, her foes defy'd. At length secur'd, the CONGRESS sceptre's given, Glorious of her sons, and such the choice of Heav'n.
IN compliance with a Resolve of the G. Assembly McClean & Co. give 3 cp. lb. for white lin. & 10. lin. rags 1 1/2 cop. lb. coarse and check do 2 cop. canvas, 1/2 cp. junk.