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SATURDAY, November 16, 1793.
THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE
A N P
of the STATE .
FREEDOM of the PRESS and T RIAL by JURY shall remain inviolate. Conflitulion of Georgia.
AUGUSTA: Printed by JO H N E. SMITH, Printer to the State,* Essays, Articles of Intelligence, Au ver
tifements, &c. will be gratefully received, and every hnd of Printing performed, [.Price Three Dollars per annum.}
11111 —^1,111.1,
BOSTON, Ottobv ix.
His Excellency John Hancock, Efquin, Gover
nor and Commander in Chief of the commonwealth
of Maffachufelts , is no more f
HE closed an aftive and ufeful life, on the morn
ing of the Btn instant. The most fedulcus
attention to,public business, for upwards of thirty
years, imperceptibly wafted an originally delicate
constitution; and the almost unremitting pains of
excruciating distemper, loosed the {lender cord of
existence, at the too early peiiod of $7 years, de
voted to the bed interests of his fellow men. The
late worthy chief magistrate, was diftinguiftied
from his childhood by a peculiar suavity of dis
position, and delicacy of manners, which ever ren
dered him easy of access to the poorest of the poor.
His compairions at school, his fellows at the uni
versity, Rill recoiled!, with pleasurable emotions,
a thousand instances of generous beneficence,
which rendered him the objeft of their warmest
aflfeftions, veneration and refpeft; nor did he
<ceafc to remember, in a more elevated station, the
dafs mates of his early hours, and the friends of
Ifs juvenile moments.
TJte bleflings of an ample fortune, to which
pjancock fuccceded in the dawn of youth,
were debated to die noblest purposes of philan
thropy. The fens and daughters of poverty pre
ftnted themtHves before the gate of hofpitaHty at
the riling of the’ fun. The hungry were not sent
empty away. The father!*!* and the widow en
circled the dome of fcenevokr.ee, tvhen the even
ing (hades of declining came crt. These alio
rife up and catt'fWwrit blefteD- -Their united
tears, the tears of gratitude, watered the footfteps
of the dear departed; and as the dew of Heaven,
they rest on the tomb of the much loved dead.
—One amiable trait in the char after of the rever
ed deceased, merits more than human eulogy.
Whilst many of the children cf affluence gave the
mite of charity to the virtuous poor, and confined .
their beneficence to the meritorious fubjeft, the
condemned criminal in the dungeon, hath pana
ken of Mr. Hancock’s bounty; and, as governor
of Mafiachufetts, the guilty culprit, an outcast
from social intercourse, hath eaten of ue abun
dance which his liberality provided, and, on the .
day of thanfgiving, remembered hisrrvfery no j
more. In one word, he contemplated human ;
nature as the prey of varionsrinfirmities. He re- !
membered that himfelf alio sojourned in a vale 0, |
tears; and all the physical, moral, and artificial ;
evils of time, it was his to leffert : n every poftible j
degree, by the most assiduous eftorts of ever ac- j
tive goodness.
On the milder virtues of humanity, the corner |
Rone of patriotism is based. The genius of the
relative charities builds the temple of social policy.
Art affeftionate husband, kind mailer, ana honeit {
citizen, will ever deserve the confidence or his j
country. At the dawn of the late important con- 1
test between Great Britain and her then provinces,
Mr. Hancock was looked up to as the friend of an
injured people. Private virtue had already lafured
general esteem. The voluntary fufFrages of un
fctmht freemen appointed him, without personal
felicitation, to the most honorable employments
He was frequently nominated to municipal uufts
of importance, where he difeharged the meumoent
duties of his station with chearful alacrity and in
variable fidelity. As the representative of his
native town in the great and general of tU
ancient colony, he spurned fff TT „ r
nacing power, and greatly difdamed the meaner
decided part which Mr. Hancock
took in the interests of his country, ude
of his fortune as a man, and the weight of his m
f.ucncc as a patriot, drew down upon his head the
whole vengeance of the Bntifh govemniera The
harpies of the royal revenue rr.ade illegal seizure,
-of his maritime property, to avast amount. Tl
GEORGIA.
v:..; ■ —if m wjmm -I #
king’s governors treated him with every fpeciesof
official insult, and the crown at length proferibed
him as unworthy the tender mercies of the wick
ed. Amid these trying (cents, where property
was engulphed in the vortex of oppreiuon, and
life rendered precarious by the mandate of tyran
ny, the man of the people li.Vened to no other
voice than the voice of his peers, and to this he
rendered implicit obedience, at the probable ex
pence of fortune, at the positive rifque of exist
ence.
Called upon by the fathers of the town to Com
memorate the yet unforgotten sth of March,
twice he afeended the hallowed temple of his
God, and combined the energy of a Demofthefps
with the graces of a Tully, whilst the fatal influence
of Handing armies, the awful eftefts of a profligate
military, and the eternal principal of right, thun
dered from his tongue.—Attentive friends hung
in mature on the finifhed periods of eloquence,
and wanderii 4 foes have wept, to hear nini clofc
foo soon.
The many important services which he rendered
to his native place, to the province and common
wealth of Maflachufeits to the anion at large, and
to the cause of liberty, and of man in every clime,
where the clarion of freedom l has founded the
charge against defpotilm, would have eternized the •
name of Hancock, if he had not been the president
of that illustrious body, who, on the 4th of July,
J 776, absolved America from all future allegiance
to the parent ftatc, and pronounced the United
! States free, sovereign and independent: But this
memorable aft, to w;hich • his signature is affixed,
as the prime magistrate of thirteen confederated
republics, absorbs every other deed of political
life, in :he superior glories of that immortalizing
moment; and hereafter the kingdoms of the elder
world (ball oppofc the name of this illustrious pa
triot, and the mapia chart aof human nature, to j
which it is attached, against the armed satellites
of defnotic power, who (hall tremble as they read, i
The enlightened sons of Maflfachuietts, her hardy •
yeomanry, and industrious artizans, having com
pleted that constitution which is the blessing ol !
present generations, and will command the admira- j
tion of posterity, unanimoufty placed their poli- j
tical father and approved friend in the chair 01
government, to which he was repeatedly eh fted
and re-cleftcd by a decided majority of unpurchaicd
votes. S .
For a few unhappy months, bodily lndnpcntr
on triumphed over the servant o( his country.
He was neceffitatcd to withdraw from his station at
the helm. Without presuming to question the >
ab lities of the pilot who facceeded, we arc au
thoriied to fay that the political hemisphere was .
soon over(hadowcd by brooding tempests fraught •
1 with civil anarchy; and whilst we chearfullv re- ,
I cognize the talents of a Lincoln, who terminated j
I this war of elements without the efTution of human
i blood, we are bound in duty to remark, that up
on his excellency’s assumption of the fuereme
command, he bent every eftort of a philanthropic
mind to clofc the wounds of a bleeding republic,
and irftantlv smoothed the rough waves of eppo
fition, by the lenient oil of unbounded mercy.
Indeed, he was the Trajan if America, who
counted every day loft was not marked by
aftive goodness, and thousands of nis momentan y
deluded fellow citizens in the weftern counties,
dwell with transport on his name.—Hancock and
humanity are fynonimous. Os an immense fortune,
he has made the noblest facriiices. Seminaries
dedicated to science, temples inferibed to religion,
bear honorable witness of his munificence. Our
eallic brethern were distinguished by the pcliteit
attentions, at the expence of decreasing affluence ;
and many individuals, who seized the oppor.un.ty
of a fluctuating currency, to pay haru money
bonds, have efrefted their dishonest purpefes, at
the loss of thousands to this patriotic magistrate,
who nobly refolvrl to support the credit of hi?
country, though he funk every farthing of his
own patrimony. It would give us pleasure to am
plify the detail: but this delightful taflc we mult
resign to the appointed orator, who, furmfhed
with authentic documents, and guided by sacred
truth, (hall eulogize the full, the belt of men.
One remark, however, presents itfelf to view.
It would lx* unpardonable to pass it over in silence.
Whillt Great Britain dwells with enthusiasm on
the death of Chatham, who expired amid his fel
low peers, in making one glorious effort to save
his country from inpending ruin, let Massachusetts
remember, and to the latest posterity be it known,
that governor Hancock met his constituents in ge
neral assembly convened, when he was unable to
articulate except a few broken, pathetic Sentences;
and there delivered to the senate and niprefenta
tives, through the medium of his secretary, the la!l
political legacy of the dying patriot, replete with
sentiments, which deserve to be engraven on the
pillars of time, and pregnant with lolemn politi
cal truths, which yet a very little while, and
their force (hall he felt, from New-Hampshire to
Georgia. This last afferiing fccne, we flatter
curfelves, will be entrusted to the pencil of a
j Trumbull. It beams with brighter glories than
J the death orChatham. He fell inverted with royal
honors, poor, pitiful emblems of his having de
ferred the cause *jf the people. Hancock expired,
in defending the rights of Massachusetts, of the
union, perhaps, in advocating the mighty caufp
ofuniverfal democracy. s
In the beautiful language of the son of Sirach,
it remains to be added*
“He was honored in his generation, lie was
the glory of his times: His body (hall be buried
in puicc, but his name fhail live forever.’*
Yes ! v
Till the lafl herald of departing time y
Commands, thou fun retire—thou moon, turn
j pale—
j Solo ng, [hall Hancock's praise, in frains sublime,
On wings'of winged winds triumphant fail.
j Fo y him y a nation’s grateful tears are jhed ;
This vafl republic weeps the man they lov’d ;
Wide human nature mourns the glorious dead ;
By present, and by future worlds approv’d.
Ah! jhall the narrow grave confrx the frfl of men ,
Or f ulptur’d marble hind him in the tomb ?
Sure, no t ’lis writ by fate’s eternal pen y
Tit* a whole, universe is virtue’s home—
Where, in the bosom of their peers y they refl —
On earth rever’d ; in Heaven forever blefl.
TVyOTICE is hereby given to all Angular
i JL \ the heirs and creditors of Benjamin Ratclift,
i late of the county of Burke, deceased, that on the
third Monday in December next, all the personal
i ertate of the said Ratclift will be exposed to pub
lic sale, for ready money, for the benefit of the
| said heirs and creditors, in pursuance of the statute
in such cases made and provided.
JAMES BABCOCK, Adm’r of the
Nov. io, 1793- said ejlate,
GEORGIA. 1 By Lewis Gardner, Esq.
L. S. > Regijler of Probats for the
Columbia County. \ county aforefaid.
WHEREAS Thomas Greer y jun. hceth applied
to me for letters of admiviflration 'on the
estate and e/feds of Thomas Greer y late of thiscoun~
ty , deceased:
THESE are therefore, to cite and admonijh all
and fmgular the kindred and cteditors of the said
deceased, to be and appear at my ojfwe, on the ji th
day of December nyxt, to Jhew cause, if any thrv
have, why letters of adorn, rdf ration Jhould not be
granted.
GIVEN under my hand and. feat, at my o f.ee,
the i uhday of Fiov*mber, in the year of our
Lori , ?79j; and in the \9.th year of the
independence if the United Stales of America*
[VOL. VIII. No. y,