Beware adulation of wealth

Portrait of John Hancock by the famed painter John Singleton Copley, c. 1770–1772

“Despise the glare of wealth. {P}eople who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue.’’

— John Hancock (1737-1793) was a very wealthy Boston merchant (mostly from maritime trade) and prominent patriot before, during and after the American Revolution. He was president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term "John Hancock" has become a synonym in the United States for one's signature.

Hancock's signature as it appears on the final copy of the Declaration of Independence

Hancock's memorial in Boston's Granary Burying Ground, dedicated in 1896.