Hancock. [Applause.] You have placed them the highest and properly;
for they were the two, the only two, excepted from the proclamation of
mercy, when Governor Gage issued his anathema against them and their
fellow patriots. These men, thus excepted from the saving grace of the
crown, now occupy the highest place in Faneuil Hall, and thus are
consecrated highest in the reverence of the people of Boston.
[Applause.] This is one of the instances in which we find tradition
more reliable than history; for tradition has borne the name of Samuel
Adams to the remotest corner of our territory, placed it among the
household words taught to the rising generation, and there in the new
States intertwined with our love of representative liberty, it is a
name as sacred among us as it is among you of New England. [Applause.]

We remember how early he saw the necessity of _community
independence_. How, through the dim mists of the future, and in
advance of his day, he looked forward to the proclamation of that
independence by Massachusetts; how he steadily strove, through good
report and evil report, with the same unwavering purpose, whether in
the midst of his fellow citizens, cheered by their voices, or whether
isolated, a refugee, hunted as a criminal, and communing with his own
heart, now under all circumstances his eve was still fixed upon his
first, last hope, the community independence of Massachusetts! And
when we see him, at a later period, the leader in that correspondence
which waked the feelings of the other colonies and brought into
fraternal association the people of Massachusetts with the people of
other colonies--when we see his letters acknowledging the receipt of
the rice of South Carolina, the flour, the pork, the money of
Virginia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and others, contributions
of affection to relieve Boston of the sufferings inflicted upon her
when her port was closed by the despotism of the British crown--we