Samuel Austin Allibone

“ Ticknor, during his connection with the university, gave long and elaborate courses of lectures on French and Spanish literature. He also entered into a critical analysis of such writers as Dante, Goethe, Milton, and Shakespeare. The audience of the lectures, instead of being confined to students, was increased by persons without the walls of the college, who were attracted not merely by the interest of the subject, but by the skill of the critic, his luminous and often eloquent diction, and his impressive delivery. ”

“ Bancroft is eminently a philosophical historian. He brings the wealth of a most varied learning in systems of thought and in the political and moral history of mankind to illustrate the early experiences of his country. ”

“ Prescott freely availed himself.
Prosper Merimée says of Prescott: “Of a just and upright spirit, he had a horror of paradox. He never allowed himself to be drawn away by it. and often condemned himself to long investigation to refute even the most audacious assertions. His criticism, full at once of good sense and acuteness, was never deceived in the choice of documents, and his discernment is as remarkable as his good faith. ”

“ Ticknor's work has the most successfully combined popularity of style with sound criticism and extensive research within its own department. The edition that was published in England met with the most cordial reception from the scholars of that country, while in Germany and in Spain translations soon appeared, under the auspices of eminent men of letters, who have added to the value of their labors by their own annotations. Although purporting to be simply a history of literature, the work exhibits vividly the social civilization of the peninsula ”

“ Ticknor entered the office of a lawyer in Boston, and after the usual term of preparation was admitted to the bar in 1813. But he was satisfied that his vocation, or at least his taste, lay in the direction of letters rather than of law. His father's circumstances were, fortunately, such as to enable the young student to consult his taste in the selection of his profession. In 1815 he went to Europe for study. Two years he passed at Göttingen, attending the lectures of the university and devoting himself to philological studies, especially to the ancient classics. ”

“ While still minister at Berlin he rendered important services in the settlement with Great Britain of the northwestern boundary of the United States. In the reference to the king of Prussia, which was proposed by Mr. Bancroft, the argument of the United States, and the reply to the argument of Great Britain, were written, every word of them, by Mr. Bancroft. Great Britain had long refused to concede that her emigrants to the United States, whether from Great Britain or Ireland, might throw off allegiance to their mother country and become citizens of the United States. ”

“ Finally, he had greatly extended the range of intellectual culture among the students at the university, where literary instruction had hitherto been confined to the classics. Mr. Ticknor was a founder of the Boston public library, and president of its board of trustees in 1864-'6, and gave to it his Spanish library. Mr. Ticknor spent three years in his second visit to Europe, and after his return set about the preparation of his great work. At the close of 1849 the “History of Spanish Literature” made its appearance in England and the United States. ”

“ A history of the United States by an American writer possesses a claim upon our attention of the strongest character. It would do so under any circumstances; but when we add that the work of Mr. Bancroft is one of the ablest of that class which has for years appeared in the English language ”

“ The second William's son, William Hickling, historian, b. in Salem, Mass., 4 May, 1796; d. in Boston, Mass., 28 Jan., 1859, was graduated at Harvard in 1814, and would have devoted himself to the law but for the results of an act of folly on the part of an undergraduate, who threw at random a large, hard piece of bread, which struck one of Prescott's eyes and practically destroyed it. His other eye was soon sympathetically affected, and the youthful student was now obliged to turn his back upon the sun, and at a later period for many months to remain in a darkened room. ”

“ We know few modern historic works in which the author has reached so high an elevation at once as an historical inquirer and an historical writer. The great conscientiousness with which he refers to his authorities, and his careful criticism, give the most decisive proofs of his comprehensive studies. ”

“ Among his other speeches and addresses may be mentioned a lecture on “The Culture, the Support, and the Object of Art in a Republic,” in the course of the New York historical society in 1852; one on “The Office, Appropriate Culture, and Duty of the Mechanic”; and to the “American Cyclopædia” Mr. Bancroft contributed a biography of Jonathan Edwards. Among those the least satisfied with the historian have been some of the descendants of eminent patriots (Greene, Reed, Rush, and others) , whose merits have not, in the opinions of his censors, been duly recognized by Mr. Bancroft. ”

“ Prescott he is an old soldier, and will fight as long as a drop of blood remains in his veins.” Early in 1777 he resigned and returned home, but in autumn of that year he joined the northern army under Gen. Horatio Gates as a volunteer, and was present at Saratoga. After this battle he returned home and sat in the legislature of Massachusetts for several years. He wrote “A Letter from a Veteran to the Officers of the Army encamped at Boston” (Boston, 1774) . See Samuel Swett's “History of Bunker Hill Battles” (Boston, 1827; new ed., with notes, 1835) . ”

“ In 1777 he was elected a member of the supreme executive council of the state, in 1778 he was appointed third major-general of militia in the commonwealth, and in 1781 he became second major-general, but soon afterward he resigned. ”

“ The illustration on page 109 represents the statue by Story erected on Bunker Hill in 1881, on which occasion an oration was delivered by Robert C. Winthrop.—His brother, Oliver, soldier, b. in Groton, Mass., 27 April, 1731; d. there, 17 Nov., 1804, was graduated at Harvard in 1750, and practised medicine in his native town. Before the Revolution he was successively major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel in the militia, early in 1776 he was appointed a brigadier-general of militia for the county of Middlesex, and became a member of the board of war. ”

“ Seeing what had been done, they accepted the school, which was in full operation, and granted money for the repairs of the buildings. Mr. Bancroft was also influential in obtaining additional appropriations for the Washington observatory and in introducing some new professors of great merit into the corps of instructors, and he suggested a method by which promotion should depend, not on age alone, but also on experience and capacity; but this scheme was never fully developed or applied. While secretary of the navy Mr. ”