Hooper

ment permitted him to maintain a house in
Washington renowned for its hospitality, and
there he shared an intimacy with virtually every
man of prominence in the Capital.

After the war, Hooper was a consistent advo-
cate of the steady contraction of the greenbacks
until parity with gold should be established. He
was prominent in framing the currency act of
1873 and invariably stood in defense of "sound"
money measures. His influence, however, was
waning as new leaders arose in the House.
Moreover there were rumblings in his own dis-
trict that the wealthy merchant was somewhat
disdainful of popular sentiment. Hooper himself
felt that his health was declining and decided
that his seventh term in Congress should be his
last But before he could return to private life
death intervened and he passed away while he
was still in Washington.

[Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of
Samuel Hooper,.. . Delivered in the Senate and House
of Representatives, Feb. 20, 1875 (1875) ; C. H. Pope
and Thos. Hooper, Hooper Geneal (1908) ; Biog. Dir.
Am. Cong. (1928) ; N. Y. Times, Feb. 14, 1875; N. Y.
Tribune, Boston Morning Jour., Feb. 15, 1875.]

P.H.B—k.

HOOPER, WILLIAM (June 17, 1742-Oct.
14, 1790), signer of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, was a native of Boston, Mass., the eld-
est child of the Rev. William and Mary (Dennie)
Hooper, Receiving his preparatory education at
the Boston Latin School, he entered the sopho-
more class of Harvard College and was gradu-
ated in 1760. The following year he began to
study law under James Otis, and it is likely that
it was through his association with the latter that
he became indoctrinated with the liberal ideas
which shaped his future, for his family remained
intensely loyal to England throughout the Revo-
lution. Admitted to the bar, Hooper went in
1764 to Wilmington, N. C., where he found an
atmosphere of advanced liberalism and a most
congenial community. He was a man of great
personal beauty, grace and charm of manner, and
of brilliant and cultivated mind, and he quickly
came into high favor among the planters and
lawyers of the Lower Cape Fear. In 1767 he
married Anne Clark, the daughter of Thomas
Clark, one of the early settlers of Wilmington.
As deputy attorney-general, he incurred the ha-
tred of the Regulators, by whom he was roughly
treated, and in 1771 he was a member of Tryon's
military expedition against them. In 1773 he
was elected to the Assembly from the borough of
Campbellton, and by election from New Hanover
County, he remained a member until the royal
government was overthrown. There he quickly
achieved a place of leadership in the popular
party. He was placed on the Committee of Cor-

Hooper

respondence, and when the Boston Port Bill was
passed, he led the movement to send relief. He
also presided over the meeting which appointed
a committee to call the first Provincial Congress
and was elected to all five of the congresses. In
all but the last, which he did not attend, he was
an active leader. By the first, he was elected to
the Continental Congress and remained a mem-
ber of that body until 1777, serving on many im-
portant committees and taking part in the de-
bates. John Adams classed him as an orator
with Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry (C.
F. Adams, The Works of John Adams, II, 1850,
396). Before he entered Congress, Hooper had
foreseen the struggle with England and had writ-
ten to James Iredell on Apr. 26, 1774: "They
[the colonies] are striding fast to independence,
and ere long will build an empire upon the ruins
of Great Britain" (G. J. McRee, Life and Cor-
respondence of James Iredell, 1,1857, 197). He
was absent when independence was voted but he
returned in time to sign the Declaration.

On Apr. 29, 1777, Hooper resigned from Con-
gress and retired to "Finian," his home on Ma-
sonboro Sound near Wilmington. He was eager
to restore his fortune, ruined by his public serv-
ice, and he began to practise law again. He was
also borough member of the House of Commons
from 1777 to 1782. Then the impending capture
of Wilmington forced him to flee, and he left his
family in Wilmington in preference to exposing
them to danger from the British. The period
which followed was one of great distress of mind
and body. His family was finally restored to
him, but much of his property was destroyed and
he had become dangerously ill with malaria. In
1782 he moved to Hillsboro and two years later
he was again in the House of Commons. He
was a strong advocate of gentle dealing with
the Loyalists and was opposed to the rapid rise
in power of the democratic masses. He was an
advocate of the Federal Constitution and al-
though he was defeated in his attempt to be a
delegate to the Hillsboro convention, he lived to
see the Constitution ratified. Hooper was never
a popular leader, the coldness with which he
viewed the crowd prevented that. He was essen-
tially an aristocrat, cultivated, fearless, aloof
from all save the intimates whom he loved and
who loved him. Lacking somewhat in strength
of character, he succumbed to the blows of per-
sonal ill fortune, and after several years of pain-
ful decline, he died in Hillsboro.

[Address by E. A. Alderman . .. on the Life of Wm.
Hooper, "The Prophet of Am. Independence" (1894) ;
J. S. Jones, A Defence of the Revolutionary Hist, of
the State of N. C. (1834) ; S. A. AsHe, Biog. Hist, of
N. C., vol. VII (1908); Mag. of Hist., Nov.-Dec. 1916;

204