[156] MS. [157] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 101, 102. [158] Now in the library of Cornell University. [159] MS. [160] _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 150, note. [161] MS. [162] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 168. [163] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1742. [164] _Ibid._ 170. CHAPTER X THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER Several of the famous men of the Revolution, whose distinction is now exclusively that of civilians, are supposed to have cherished very decided military aspirations; to have been rather envious of the more vivid renown acquired by some of their political associates who left the senate for the field; and, indeed, to have made occasional efforts to secure for themselves the opportunity for glory in the same pungent and fascinating form. A notable example of this class of Revolutionary civilians with abortive military desires, is John Hancock. In June, 1775, when Congress had before it the task of selecting one who should be the military leader of the uprisen colonists, John Hancock, seated in the president's chair, gave unmistakable signs of thinking that the choice ought to fall upon himself. While John Adams was speaking in general terms of the military situation, involving, of course, the need of a commander-in-chief, Hancock heard him "with visible pleasure;" but when the orator came to point out Washington as the man best fitted for the leadership, "a sudden and striking change" came over the countenance of the president. "Mortification and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them;"[165] and it is probable that, to the end of his days, he was never able entirely to forgive Washington for having carried off the martial glory that he had really believed to be within his own reach. But even John Adams, who so pitilessly unveiled the baffled military desires of Hancock, was perhaps not altogether unacquainted with similar emotions in his own soul. Fully three weeks prior to that notable scene in Congress, in a letter to his wife in which he was speaking of the amazing military spirit then running through the continent, and of the military appointments then held by several of his Philadelphia friends, he exclaimed in his impulsive way, "Oh that I were a soldier! I will be."[166] And on the very day on which he joined in the escort of the new generals, Washington, Lee, and Schuyler, on their first departure from Philadelphia for the American camp, he sent off to his wife a characteristic letter revealing something of the anguish with which he, a civilian, viewed the possibility of his being at a disadvantage with these military men in the race for glory:--