What's in a name? HANNIBAL

In a scholarly note, John Allen told us that no one knows why Hannibal, Missouri was so named. But that leads us to another question: why did the parents of Hannibal Hamlin give him that first, un-Christian name? He was born in Paris Hill. Maine in 1809 (here we go again: presumably some hone-sick Frenchman named Paris Hill). With a short interruption as governor of Maine, he served in the US Senate and was a vocal abolitionist. He was Vice President in Lincoln's first term, but in the second was dropped in favor of Andrew Johnson. He was appointed minister to Spain /1881-2). Did he leave any interesting dispatches about that country? Did he visit Saguntum, which Hannibal conquered in 219 BC? Hannibal, the Carthaginian who swore eternal hatred of Rome, fought the Romans in the Second Punic War, made peace with it, became chief magistrate of Carthage, where he made important reforms and was hailed as a great reformer, but then fled and committed suicide to avoid being taken prisoner by the Romans. Why on earth would nice American parents name their son after him?

Let me fly this kite. The Virginian slave owners who dominated the American Revolution took Rome as their model. The Northern slavery-hating Masons (of whom Hannibal Hamlin was one) therefore chose Carthage as their model. The Masons had a whole mythology about ancient Egypt, to which Carthage was the successor. Is Hannibal a footnote to it?. Can any WAISer provide informed comment on this theory?