John Hancock – Christian Piety and Virtue are Important to the Order and Happiness of a State
My Notes
Below is an excerpt from John Hancock’s Inaugural address as Governor of Massachusetts in 1780. The first part of the address, which I have not quoted, he addresses the need for Massachusetts to offer more help in the war efforts. This sounds so familiar to our situations today.
Mr. Hancock then talks about the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial powers. He points to this a good reason to support independence with vigor.
Next he turns his address to the need to support Christian morals (piety and virtue). I like the statement, “I [...] earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement that shall not infringe the rights of conscience.” This is a good example of how our founders believed in encouraging the Christian religion but that it should not be coerced by law and force. People must maintain their rights of conscience.
Then he gives a talk on the importance of observing the Sabbath day. This is “greatly conducive to the order and benefit of civil society.”
In the last paragraph quoted below, Mr. Hancock stresses the importance of manners and how they “depend much upon the public institutions of religion and the good education of youth.”
Quotes I Like from John Hancock
Excerpt from the Inaugural address of
John Hancock as Governor of Massachusetts, 1780[...]
You are fully sensible, Gentlemen, that the separation which the Constitution has made between the legislative and judicial powers, and that just degree of independence it has given to the latter, is one of the surest guards to the person, property, and liberties of the subjects of this Commonwealth, and accordingly you are, I am thoroughly persuaded, heartily disposed to support this independence, and the honor and vigor, of the supreme judicial department in its whole constitutional extent.Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement that shall not infringe the rights of conscience, which I rejoice to see established by the Constitution on so broad a basis; and if anything can be further done on the same basis for the relief of the public teachers of religion and morality, an order of men greatly useful to their country, and who have particularly suffered in the defence of its rights by the depreciation of currency; as also for the relief of widows and orphans, many of whom have been distressed in the same way, and who are particularly committed by Heaven to the protection of civil rulers, I shall most readily concur with you in every such measure.
A due observation of the Lord’s Day is not only important to internal religion, but greatly conducive to the order and benefit of civil society. It speaks to the senses of mankind, and, by a solemn cessation from their common affairs, reminds them of a Deity and their accountableness to the great Lord of all. Whatever may be necessary to the support of such an institution, in consistence with a reasonable personal liberty, deserves the attention of civil government.
Manners, by which not only the freedom, but the very existence of the republics, are greatly affected, depend much upon the public institutions of religion and the good education of youth; in both these instances our fathers laid wise foundations, for which their posterity have had reason to bless their memory. The public schools, and our university at Cambridge, very early founded by them, have been no small support to the cause of liberty, and given no dishonorable distinction to our country. The advantages they are still capable of affording to the present and future generations are unspeakable. I cannot therefore omit warmly to commend them to your care and patronage.
[...]Abram English Brown. John Hancock: His Book. Appendex V. Lee and Shepard. 1898
Brief Biography
John Hancock, a Delegate from Massachusetts; born in Quincy, Norfolk County, Mass., January 12, 1737; pursued classical studies; was graduated from Harvard College in 1754; a selectman of Boston several terms; member of the provincial legislature 1766-1772; president of the Provincial Congress in 1774; Member of the Continental Congress 1775-1778 and served as President of the Congress from May 24, 1775, to October 1777; first signer of the Declaration of Independence; served as senior major general of Massachusetts Militia during the Revolutionary War; member of the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1780; Governor of Massachusetts 1780-1785; was again elected President of the Continental Congress on November 23, 1785, but resigned May 29, 1786, not having served on account of illness; again Governor of Massachusetts from 1787 until his death in Quincy, Mass., October 8, 1793; interment in Old Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Mass.
