Frances Fuller Victor

“ Nevertheless, he very cheerfully signed the Oregon treaty or June 15, 1846, which made the forty-ninth parallel the northern boundary of the United States, west as well as east of the Rocky Mountains. As in the case of the Ashburton treaty, both governments were glad to be well rid of the controversy without a war. Perhaps no similar question was ever clothed with the real romance that has clung to and colored the Oregon Question. It less needs the adventitious aids of invention than Any modern history. ”

“ If any man in California who is worth a million of dollars should devote half of it at his death to the establishment of an institution for the development of special talents in the people, the promotion of useful research, the preservation of charities, or the founding of manufactories which should give employment where it is needed, no one would doubt the justice of giving that institution the name of the founder, or of writing him into fame in elaborate biographies ”

“ THE BANCROFT HISTORICAL LIBRARY.
Lofty purposes, great achievements, and grand natural or architectural objects require distance to give them the atmosphere essential to a proper view. A thing which is too recent or of too quick a growth fails to impress us as we are impressed by other things made venerable by time, and about which cluster the accumulated sentiment of passing ages. Could the Alexandrian library have escaped destruction until to-day, the wealth of Christendom could not purchase it. ”

“ The men who made the history of the country, be they ever so humble, have their proper place, and are preserved like flies in amber, for the view of generations yet unborn, who will look upon the pioneers of the Pacific coast with as much wonder as we of the nineteenth century regard the founders of Athens or Rome ”

“ Bancroft and his assistants a labor of love.
As to the motive which prompts this effort, some call it love of fame, but it is, in truth, love of the work. But if it were for fame? It must be good and conscientious work to bring fame. A man has a just right to take to himself credit for having carried to successful completion a noble enterprise; for having done something which in the nature of things must benefit others. ”

“ In all these years that the boundary question had been unsettled at both ends of the line across the continent, the United States had been growing in importance and strength, and were better able to insist upon terms than at the commencement of the controversy. Realizing this fact, Great Britain, while maintaining friendly relations, was sensitive to, and dissatisfied with, the attitude assumed by our plenipotentiaries regarding our pretensions on the Pacific Coast, avoiding a final issue, and depending upon some happy chance to secure the coveted prize of the Oregon territory. ”

“ While it may be true, since the rapid accumulation of money often bewilders the possessor as to its best use, that many of the rich men of California have been selfishly addicted to their own pleasures and to pleasing their personal favorites, still a comparison of the public institutions of California founded or assisted by private means with those of other States of the same age would probably show a creditable munificence on their part. ”

“ The glamour of the gold excitement passed away with the first fifteen years of marvelous growth, and California was simply a new State, with, for a new State, a large class of wealthy men with the habits of men of business everywhere. ”

“ Our colleges, literary and special, our Academy of Science, our State Library, our hospitals, libraries, and Golden Gate Park Conservatory, with many other helps to the public intelligence and happiness, refute at least the charge of parsimony.
Nor is California lacking in literary talent, as the fame of some of our authors who have gone abroad and the conscientious work of many who remain at home suffciently prove. Our scientific men are as alert and enthusiastic as those of the older States ”

“ It is generally thought enough that one generation of men should make a fortune, another should devote themselves to self-culture, and the third should be prepared to contribute something to the world's stock of knowledge. To this rule there have been as many exceptions in California as elsewhere. One of the most notable of these instances of surmounting the obstacles which it usually occupies two generations to remove has been furnished by the founder of the Bancroft Library. ”

“ Both Great Britain and the United States knew the value of the Oregon territory, and that was why it was so difficult for them to come to a settlement. Immediately after the Ashburton treaty, the negotiations concerning the "Oregon Question" were transferred to London, and there remained until 1844, when they were retransferred to Washington. Polk, who was a candidate for the Presidency, made the Oregon boundary the principal issue on which he was elected. It was Polk who set going the cry of "Fifty-four forty or fight," so popular at one time. ”

“ It is a sort of highwayman's spirit which says to a man who is doing all that is possible to earn the praise of his fellow-men, that he shall renounce the pleasure of fame or the profits of his investment, whether it be in money, or the approbation of the public, or both. ”

“ Yet the productions of the world's early brain-workers, which have survived the ravages of barbarian warfare and the vindictiveness of religious persecution-how high they stand! and how crystal clear is our perception of their truths and beauties, seen through the atmosphere of centuries of time, and without the belittling associations of contemporaneous rivalry or each day's needs! ”

“ Do you wish to know about government, soils, climates, agriculture, manufactures, races of man, railroads, routes, Indian affairs, antiquities, church matters, discoveries, explorations, surveys, and a hundred other things—nothing is easier than to get it by the method pursued here. ”

“ It is perhaps sufficient to say that some of the manuscripts in the Central American and Mexican departments of the Bancroft Library were written in Latin nearly four hundred years ago; while aboriginal hieroglyphics are of much earlier date. One of the earliest original manuscripts in Latin is a pastoral letter of Joannes de Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico, who was appointed by Charles V., the date of which is 1534; though this is not the oldest manuscript in the library. ”

“ It recited that, whereas certain stipulations had been agreed upon by the treaty of 1783, concerning the islands that were to belong to the United States, and whereas the several islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, which was part of the Bay of Fundy, and the Island of Menan in the Bay of Fundy, were claimed by the United States, as being within their boundaries, and also claimed by Great Britain, as within the limits of the Province of Nova Scotia, in order to decide the matter two Commissioners shall be appointed, whose decision shall be final and conclusive. ”

“ Upon beginning at the first appearance of Europeans on any part of the coast, he found himself invariably confronted by the aboriginal population, whom he could neither ignore nor properly represent without making a special study of ethnology. ”

“ Bancroft either went himself or sent an assistant to every old mission, and interviewed every prominent family of Spanish or Mexican origin. At some of these places the original documents were easily procured; at others persuasion procured permission to make copies; and at others money proved the open sesame. It was in this personal manner that Judge Hayes, the enthusiastic collector, gathered up the hundred volumes of matter that passed into Mr. Bancroft's hands. ”

“ It is safe to assert that no historical writing was ever done under better conditions. A large corps of readers has gone over the whole collection. Their notes constitute the indexes just mentioned. The secretary, who first reduces the matter contained to something like form, saves the author considerable labor in that part of the work, the plan being one to which all those doing similar work conform, under his direction. ”

“ The historical value of some of these writings is nothing. They only serve to satisfy the curiosity of the reader, to know how certain things were done at a certain period of the world's history, and are simply classed as "rare." ”

“ The more knowledge the interested parties obtained on the subject the more doubtful they were of the point aimed at. Time passed on, and the United States purchased of France, in 1803, the Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi River, extending indefinitely north-westward, and adding a new feature to our boundary, in which Great Britain was interested. ”

“ Croix, mentioned in the said treaty of peace, and forming a part of the boundary therein described, that question shall be referred to the final decision of Commissioners, to be appointed in the following manner, viz.: One Commissioner shall be named by his Majesty, and one by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and the said two Commissioners shall agree on the choice of a third ”