British had taken possession of Castine,
Me., a land and naval force was sent up
the Penobscot River to capture or destroy
the corvette John Adams, which had fled
up the river to the town of Hampden.
The commander of the John Adams, Capt.
C. Morris, was warned of his danger, and
he notified Gen. John Blake, commander of
the 10th division of Massachusetts militia.
The British force consisted of two sloops-
of-war, a tender, a large transport, and
nine launches, commanded by Commodore
Barrie, and 700 soldiers, led by Lieu-
tenant-Colonel St. John. The expedition
sailed on Sept. 1, 1814, and the next
morning General Gosselin took possession
of Belfast, on the western shore of Penob-
scot Bay, at the head of 600 troops. The
expedition landed some troops at Frank-
fort, which marched up the western side
of the river. The flotilla, with the re-
mainder, sailed on, and arrived near
Hampden at five o'clock in the evening,
when the troops and about eighty
mariners were landed and bivouacked.
They found the militia assembling to re-
sist them. Meanwhile Captain Morris
had taken out of the John Adams nine
short 18-pounders, and mounted them on
a high bank, in charge of Lieutenant
Wadsworth. With the remainder of his
guns, he took position on the wharf with
about 200 seamen and marines, prepared
to defend his crippled ship to the last
extremity. She had been much damaged
by striking a rock when she entered
Penobscot Bay, and had run up to Hamp-
den to avoid capture. The British de-
tachment landed at Frankfort, and moved
forward cautiously, in a dense fog, to
join the other invaders, with a vanguard
of riflemen. Blake had sent a body of mi-
litia to confront the invaders. These were
suddenly attacked, when they broke and
fled in every direction, leaving Blake and
his officers alone. This panic imperilled
the force that was to defend the John
Adams, when Morris, seeing no other
means for the salvation of his troops but
in flight, ordered his guns to be spiked
and the vessel set on fire. This was done,
and the men under Morris fled northward.
With Blake and his officers and a bare
remnant of his command, Morris retreated
to Bangor, and thence made his way over-
land to Portland. The British took posses-
sion of Hampden, and a part of their force,
500 strong, pushed on to Bangor with their
vessels. They met a flag of truce with a
message from the magistrates of Bangor
asking terms of capitulation. Nothing
was granted excepting respect for private
property. They entered the town, when
Commodore Barrie gave notice that per-
sons and property should be protected if
supplies were cheerfully furnished. This
promise was speedily broken. The sailors
were given license to plunder as much as
they pleased. Many stores were robbed
of everything valuable. The leader of the
land troops tried to protect private prop-
erty. The British remained in Bangor
thirty-one hours, quartered on the inhabi-
HAMPTON
tants, who were compelled to sign a parole New Orleans when the war broke out in
as prisoners of war. General Blake was 1812, and was put in command of the
compelled to sign the same, and 190 citi- Army of the North, with headquarters on
zcns were thus bound. Having despoiled the borders of Lake Champlain. In that
post he gained no
honors, and his career
there was chiefly mark-
ed by disobedience to
the orders of his su-
periors. In April, 1814,
he resigned his com-
mission, and left the
army. He was an ex-
tensive land and slave
owner in South Caro-
lina and Louisiana
He died in Columbia,
S. C, Feb. 4, 1835.
See Chateaugay, Bat-
tle of; Champlain, Lake.
Hampton, Wade, military oflicer; born
in Charleston, S. C, March 28, 1818;
grandson of the preceding; graduated
at the South Carolina College; served
in both branches of the State legis-
OLD MEIiTlMMIor-
the inhabitants of property valued at over
$20,000, and burned several vessels, the
marauders departed, to engage in similar
work at Hampden (Sept. 5). Barrie al-
lowed the sailors to commit the most wan-
ton acts of destruction. They desolated
the village meeting - house, tore up the lature. In 1860 he was considered one o f
Bible and psalm-books in it, and demol-
ished the pulpit and pews. As at Havre-
the richest planters in the South, and
owned the largest number of slaves. When
de-Grace, they wantonly butchered cattle the Civil War opened he raised and par-
and hogs, and compelled the selectmen to tially equipped the Hampton Legion, of
sign a bond to guarantee the delivery of which he became commandant. He was
vessels then at Hampden at Castine. The
speedy return of peace cancelled the bond.
The total loss of property at Hampden by
the hands of the marauders, exclusive of a
very valuable cargo on board the schooner
Commodore Decatur, was estimated at
$44,000. When a committee at Hampden
waited upon Barrie and asked for the com-
mon safeguards of humanity, he replied:
" I have none for you ; my business is to
burn, sink, and destroy" — the cruel order
issued by Admiral Cochrane.
Hampton, Wade, military officer: born
in South Carolina in 17.14; was distin-
guished as a partisan officer under Sumter
and Marion in the Revolution; and was #
twice a member of Congress — from 170;) to WADg hamkton.
1797, and from 1803 to 1805. In October,
1808, he was commissioned a colonel in the wounded in the first battle of Bull Run,
United States army; in ISO!) brigadier- and at Gettysburg was wounded three
general, and March 2, 1813, major-general, times. On May 11, 1804, he was pro-
[mperious and overbearing in his nature moted to major-general, and in August of
and deportment, he was constantly quar- the same year became commander-in-chief
relling with his subordinates. He was of all the Confederate cavalry in northern
superseded by Wilkinson in command at Virginia. One of his most exciting raids
234
HAMPTON
was that upon General Grant's commis-
sariat, when he captured about 2,500 head
of cattle. Shortly before General Lee's
surrender he was promoted to lieutenant-
general. After the war he became con-
spicuous as an advocate of the policy of
conciliation between the North and South.
In 1876 and 1878 he was elected governor
of South Carolina, and in 1878 and 1884
United States Senator, and in 1893 was
appointed United States commissioner of
railroads. He died on April 11, 1902.
Hampton, a village near the end of the
peninsula between the York and James
rivers, Virginia. An armed sloop was
driven ashore there by a gale in October,
1775. The villagers took out her guns and
munitions of war, and then burned her,
making her men prisoners. Dunmore at
once blockaded the port. The people
called to their aid some Virginia regulars
and militia. Dunmore sent some tenders
close into Hampton Roads to destroy the
village. The military marched out to op-
pose them; and when they came within
gunshot distance George Nicholas, who
commanded the Virginians, fired his mus-
ket at one of the tenders. This was the
first gun fired at the British in Virginia.
It was followed by a volley. Boats sunk
in the channel retarded the British ships,
and, after a sharp skirmish the next day,
Oct. 27, the blockaders were driven away.
One of the tenders was taken, with its
armament and seamen, and several of the
British were slain. The Virginians did
not lose a man. This was the first battle
of the Revolution in Virginia.
In 1813 the British, exasperated by
their repulse at Craney Island, proceeded
to attack the village of Hampton. It was
defended at the time by about 450
Virginia soldiers, commanded by Maj.
Stapleton Crutchfield. They were chiefly
militia infantry, with a few artillery-
men and cavalry. They had a heavy bat-
tery to defend the water-front of the camp
and village, composed of four 6, two 12,
and one 18 pounder cannon, in charge
of Sergt. William Burke. Early on the
morning of June 25, about 2,500 British
land-troops, under Gen. Sir Sidney Beck-
v/ith (including rough French prisoners,
called Chasseurs Britanniques) , landed
under cover of the guns of the Mohawk,
behind a wood, about 2 miles from Hamp-
- _ , j w -,y
235
HAMPTON— HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE
ton. Most of the inhabitants fled; the
few who could not were willing to trust
to the honor and clemency of the British,
if they should capture the place. As they
moved upon the village, Crutchfield and
his men — infantry, artillery, and cavalry
— fought the invaders gallantly; but at
length overwhelming numbers, failure of
gunpowder, volleys of grape-shot, and
flights of Congreve rockets, compelled the
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
Americans, who were partially outflanked,
to break and flee in the direction of
Yorktown. Thus ended a sharp battle,
in which the British lost, in killed,
wounded, and missing, about fifty men,
and the Americans about thirty. Of
eleven missing Americans, ten had fled
to their homes. The victorious British
now entered the village, and Cockburn,
who had come on shore, and was in chief
command, gave the place up to pillage
and rapine. The atrocities committed
upon the defenceless inhabitants, par-
ticularly the women, were deeply deplored
and condemned by the British authorities
and writers. Cockburn, who was the
chief instigator of them, covered his name
with dishonor by the act. The British
officers who tried to palliate the offence
by charging the crimes upon the French-
men, were denounced by the most respect-
able British writers. A commission, ap-
pointed to investigate the matter, said, in
their report, " The sex hitherto guarded
by the soldiers' honor escaped not the
assaults of superior force."
On the night of Aug. 7, 1861, this vil-
lage, then containing about 500 houses,
was set on fire by order of the Confederate
General Magruder, and all but the court-
house and seven or eight other buildings
were consumed. National troops had
occupied Hampton after the battle of
Big Bethel (q. v.), but had just been
withdrawn. Among other buildings de-
stroyed at that time was the ancient St.
John's Church, in the suburbs of the vil-
lage. It was the third oldest house of
worship in Virginia. The earliest in-
scription found in its graveyard was 1701.
Before the Revolution the royal arms,
handsomely carved, were upon the steeple.
It is said that, soon after the Declara-
tion of Independence, the steeple was
shattered by lightning, and the insignia
of royalty hurled to the ground. The
church was in a state of good preserva-
tion, and was used as a place of worship:
according to the ritual of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in America, until 1861.
Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute, an institution organized by
Gen. Samuel C. Armstrong (q. v.) for
the education of colored youth, in Hamp-
ton, Va. It was opened in 1S68, is non-
sectarian and co-educational ; and now,
under an arrangement with the national
government, gives instruction to Indian
youth as well as colored. The develop-
ment of the institute is due, in a large
measure, to the students themselves.
Nearly all the buildings have been erect-
ed by the students, who also worked out
the timber, baked the bricks, and per-
formed other technical work. At the
end of 1900 the institute reported eighty
professors and instructors, 1,017 students,
1,061 graduates, 11,000 volumes in the
library, and $889,500 in productive
funds. The president was the Rev. II. B.
Frissell, D.D.
Hampton Roads, a noted channel con-
necting the estuary of the James River
with Chesapeake Bay, south of Fort Mon-
roe. It was the scene of the fight between
the Monitor and Mep.rimac (q. v.) in
1862, and the rendezvous of the inter-
national war-vessels that took part in the
Columbus celebration at New York in
1S92.
Hampton Roads Conference. In Jan-
nary, 1865, Francis P. Blair twice visited
Richmond, Va., to confer with Jefferson
236
HANAFOBD— HANCOCK
Davis. He believed that a suspension of
hostilities, and an ultimate settlement by
restoration of the Union, might be brought
about, by the common desire, North and"
South, to enforce the Monroe doctrine
against the French in Mexico. Out of Mr.
Blair's visits grew a conference, held on
a vessel in Hampton Roads, Feb. 3, 1865,
between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward on
one side, and Messrs. A. H. Stephens,
It. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell
on the other. It was informal, and no
basis for negotiation was reached.
Hanaford, Phebe Anne, author; born
in Nantucket, Mass., May 6, 1829; was
ordained to the ministry of the Universal-
ist Church in 1868, being the first woman
to assume the clerical office in that Church.
Her publications include Abraham Lin-
coln; Field, Gunboat, Hospital, and
Prison; Women of the Century; Life of
George Peabody, etc.
HANCOCK, JOHN
Hancock, John, statesman; born in declined. After Washington's arrival,
Quincy, Mass., Jan. 12, 1737; gradu- Hancock sent him an invitation to come
ated at Harvard in 1754; and, becoming and dine with him and his family in-
a merchant with his uncle, inherited that formally that day at the close of the
gentleman's large fortune and extensive public reception ceremonies. It was ac-
business. He was one of the most active cepted by Washington, with a full per-
of the Massachusetts " Sons of Liberty " suasion that the governor would call
(q. v.), and, with Samuel Adams, was upon him before the dinner-hour. But
outlawed by Gage in June, 1775. Han- Hancock had conceived the notion that
cock was a member of the Provincial As- the governor of a State, within his own
sembly in 1766, and was chosen president domain, was officially superior to the
of the Provincial Congress in October, President of the United States when he
1774. He was a delegate to the
first Continental Congress, and con-
tinued in that body until 1778. As
president of Congress, he first placed
his bold signature to the Declara-
tion of Independence. In February,
1778, he was appointed first major-
general of the Massachusetts mili-
tia, and took part in Sullivan's
campaign in Rhode Island in August
following. He was a member of the
Massachusetts State convention in
1780, and governor of the State
from 1780 to 1785, and from 1787
till his death in Quincy, Oct. 8, 1793.
He was president of the State con-
vention that adopted the national
Constitution. Hancock's residence
was in a fine stone mansion on
Beacon street, fronting the Common.
It was built by his uncle, Thomas
Hancock.
In the autumn of 1789 President
Washington made a tour through
portions of the New England States.
He arrived at Boston on Saturday, Oct. came into it. He had laid his plans for
24. Hancock, who was then governor, asserting his superiority by having Wash-
had invited the President to lodge at ington visit him first, and to this end sent
his house in Boston, which the latter him the invitation to lodge and dine with
237
JOHN HANCOCK.
HANCOCK, JOHN
him. At near the time for dinner, as the venerable appearance of this crowded
President did not appear, the governor audience; the dignity which I behold
evidently felt some misgivings, for he sent in the countenances of so many in
his secretary to the President with an this great assembly; the solemnity of the
occasion upon which we have
^s^ ggasss met together, joined to a con-
sideration of the part I am to
take in the important business
of this day, fill me with an awe
hitherto unknown; and height-
en the sense which I have ever
had of my unworthiness to fill
this sacred desk; but allured
by the call of some of my re-
spected fellow - citizens, with
whose request it is always my
greatest pleasure to comply, I
almost forgot my want of
ability to perform what they
required. In this situation I
find my only support in assur-
ing myself that a generous peo-
ple will not severely censure
what they know was well in-
tended, though its want of merit
excuse that he was too ill to call upon should prevent their being able to ap-
his excellency in person. The latter di- plaud it. And I pray that my sincere at-
vined the nature of the " indisposition," tachment to the interest of my country,
and dined at his own lodgings at the and hearty detestation of every design
RANcnCK S HOrSK, BOSTON.
Widow Ingersoll's with a single guest.
That evening the governor, feeling uneasy,
sent his lieutenant and two of his council
to express his regret that his illness had
not allowed him to call upon the Presi-
dent. " J informed them expressly," says
formed against her liberties, may be sub-
mitted as some apology for my appearance
in this place.
I have always, from my earliest youth,
rejoiced in the felicity of my fellow-men;
and have ever considered it as the indis-
Washington in his diary, "' that I should pensable duty of every member of society
not see the governor except at my lodg-
ings." That message led Hancock to visit
the President next day, and repeat in per-
son the insufficient excuse for his own folly.
Arraignment of Great Britain. — As
before stated, Hancock and Samuel Adams
were both elected members of the Pro-
vincial Congress at Concord early in 1774.
On March 5 of that year Hancock deliv-
ered the following oration in Boston,
to promote, as far as in him lies, the pros-
perity of every individual, but more espe-
cially of the community to which he be-
longs, and also as a faithful subject of
the state, to use his utmost endeavors to
detect, and, having detected, strenuously
to oppose every traitorous plot which its
enemies may devise for its destruction.
Security to the persons and properties of
the governed is so obviously the design
which was the principal cause of his being and end of civil government, that to at-
outlawed, together with Samuel Adams, by tempt a logical proof of it would be like
General Gage, early in the following year, burning tapers at noonday, to assist the
The British expedition to Concord in April, sun in enlightening the world; and it can-
1775, which led to the battle of Lexington, not be either virtuous or honorable to
was undertaken to secure the arrest of attempt to support a government of which
both Hancock and Samuel Adams: this is not the great and principal basis;
and it is to the last degree vicious and in-
Men, Brethren, Fathers, and Fellow- famous to attempt to support a govern-
Countrymen, — The attentive gravity, the ment which manifestly tends to render
238
HANCOCK, JOHN
the persons and properties of the governed to subjugate with a cruelty and haughti-
insecure. Some boast of being friends to ness which too often buries the honor-
government; I am a friend to righteous able character of a soldier in the dis-
government founded upon the principles graceful name of an unfeeling ruffian,
of reason and justice; but I glory in pub- The troops, upon their first arrival, took
licly avowing my eternal enmity to tyran- possession of our Senate-house, and
ny. Is the present system, which the Brit- pointed their cannon against the judg-
ish administration have adopted for the ment hall, and even continued them there
government of the colonies, a righteous while the supreme court of judicature
government, or is it tyranny? Here suf- for this province was actually sitting
fer me to ask (and would to Heaven there upon the lives and fortunes of the King's
could be no answer) what tenderness, what subjects. Our streets nightly resounded
regard, respect, or consideration has Great with the noises of riot and debauchery;
Britain shown, in their late transactions, our peaceful citizens were hourly ex-
for the security of the persons or proper- posed to shameful insults, and often felt
ties of the inhabitants of the colonies; the effects of their violence and outrage.
or rather, what have they omitted to de- But this was not all; as though they
stroy that security? They have declared thought it not enough to violate our civil
that they have ever had, and of right right they endeavored to deprive us of
ought to have, full power to make laws the enjoyment of our religious privileges;
of sufficient validity to bind the colonies to vitiate our morals and thereby render
in all cases whatever; they have exercised us deserving of destruction. Hence the
this pretended right by imposing a tax rude din of arms which broke in upon
upon us without our consent; and lest we your solemn devotions in your temples,
should show some reluctance at parting on that day hallowed by heaven, and set
with our property, her fleets and armies apart by God himself for his peculiar
are sent to enforce their mad pretensions, worship. Hence, impious oaths and
The town of Boston, ever faithful to the blasphemies so often tortured your un-
British crown, has been invested by a accustomed ear. Hence, all the arts
British fleet; the troops of George III. which idleness and luxury could invent
have crossed the wide Atlantic, not to were used to betray your youth of one
engage an enemy, but to assist a band of sex into extravagance and effeminacy, and
traitors in trampling on the rights and the other to infamy and ruin; and did
liberties of his most loyal subjects in they not succeed but too well? Did not
America — those rights and liberties which, a reverence for religion sensibly decay?
as a father, he ought ever to regard, and Did not our infants almost learn to lisp
as a king, he is bound, in honor, to defend out curses before they knew their horrid
from violations, even at the risk of his import? Did not our youth forget they
own life. were Americans, and, regardless of the
Let not the history of the illustrious admonitions of the wise and aged, ser-
House of Brunswick inform posterity vilely copy from their tyrants those vices
that a king descended from that glorious which finally must overthrow the empire
monarch, George II., once sent his of Great Britain? And must I be corn-
British subjects to conquer and enslave pelled to acknowledge that even the
his subjects in America, but be perpetual noblest, fairest part of all the lower
infamy entailed upon that villain who creation did not entirely escape the
dared to advise his master to such exec- cursed snare? When virtue has once
rable measures; for it was easy to fore- erected her throne within the female
see the consequences which so naturally breast, it is upon so solid a basis that
followed upon sending troops into Amer- nothing is able to expel the heavenly in-
ica, to enforce obedience to acts of the habitant. But have there not been some,
British Parliament, which neither God few indeed, I hope, whose youth and in-
ner man ever empowered them to make, experience have rendered them a prey to
It was reasonable to expect that troops, wretches, whom, upon the least reflection,
who knew the errand they were sent upon, they would have despised and hated as
would treat the people whom they were foes to God and their country? I fear
239
HANCOCK, JOHN-
there have been some unhappy instances; and the affrighted stars that hurried
or why have I seen an honest father through the sky, can witness that we fear
clothed with shame, or why a virtuous not death. Our hearts which, at the
mother drowned in tears? recollection, glow with rage that four re-
But I forbear, and come reluctantly to volving years have scarcely taught us to
the transaction of that dismal night, when restrain, can witness that we fear not
in such quick succession we felt the ex- death; and happy it is for those who
tremes of grief, astonishment and rage; dared to insult us that their naked bones
when Heaven, in anger, for a dreadful mo- are not piled up an everlasting monument
ment suffered hell to take the reins; when of Massachusetts bravery. But they re-
Satan with his chosen band opened the tired, they fled, and in that flight they
sluices of New England's blood, and sacri- found their only safety. We then ex-
legiously polluted our land with the dead pected that the hand of public justice
bodies of her guiltless sons. Let this sad would soon inflict that punishment upon
tale of death never be told without a tear; the murderers which, by the laws of God
let not the heaving bosom cease to burn and man, they had incurred. But let the
with a manly indignation at the barbarous unbiased pen of a Robertson, or perhaps
story, through the long tracts of future of some equally famed American, conduct
time; let every parent tell the shameful this trial before the great tribunal of
story to his listening children till tears of succeeding generations. And though the
pity glisten in their eyes, and boiling pas- murderers may escape the just resent-