Perhaps
it is all right, and typical of the truth. If we may trust tradition,
and unpublished letters, and a few witnesses in print, there was quite
as much difference between the actual man, and his historical aspect, as
between the manuscript signature and the engraved one. One of his
associates, both in political life and permanent renown, is said to have
characterized him as a "man without a head or heart." We, of an after
generation, should hardly be entitled, on whatever evidence, to assume
such ungracious liberty with a name that has occupied a lofty position
until it, has grown almost sacred, and which is associated with memories
more sacred than itself, and has thus become a valuable reality to our
countrymen, by the aged reverence that clusters round about it.
Nevertheless, it may be no impiety to regard Hancock not precisely as a
real personage, but as a majestic figure, useful and necessary in its
way, but producing its effect far more by an ornamental outside than by
any intrinsic force or virtue. The page of all history would be half
unpeopled if all such characters were banished from it.
From General Warren we have a letter dated January 14, 1775, only a few
months before he attested the sincerity of his patriotism, in his own
blood, on Bunker Hill.
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