George Bancroft

“ Among the historians who have attained a high and deserved reputation in the United States, within the last few years, we are inclined to yield the first place to George Bancroft. His great work on the history of the United States has been brought down from the commencement of American colonization to the opening of the Revolutionary War, to which subject it is understood that he intends devoting the three succeeding volumes. His researches in the public offices of England, while he was Minister of the United States at the Court of St. ”

“ No American, of acknowledged superiority, has yet equalled George Bancroft in the breadth of his theme, the extent of time and place covered, the variety of character, circumstance, and nationality concerned, the corresponding research, the sparkling story, and the philosophic analysis of his National History.
Prescott, the prince of scholars and gentlemen, matchless in the department he chose, was rather a biographer than a historian. ”

“ He thus bequeathed literary tastes to his thirteen children; and though only one of these reached public eminence, yet three of the daughters were prominent for many years in Worcester, being in charge of a school for girls, and highly esteemed; while another sister was well known in Massachusetts and at Washington as the wife of Governor (afterwards Senator) John Davis.
George Bancroft was fitted for college at Exeter Academy, where he was especially noted for his fine declamation. He entered Harvard College in 1813, taking his degree in 1817. ”

“ BANCROFT, GEORGE (1800–1891) , American historian and statesman, was born in Worcester, Mass., on the 3rd of October 1800. His family had been in America since 1632, and his father, Aaron Bancroft, was distinguished as a revolutionary soldier, clergyman and author. The son was educated at Phillips Academy, Exeter, at Harvard University, at Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin. At Göttingen he studied Plato with Heeren, New Testament Greek with Eichhorn and natural science with Blumenbach. ”

“ President Arthur once said that the President is “permitted to accept the invitations of members of the cabinet, supreme court judges, and—Mr. George Bancroft.”
Bancroft was born in Massachusetts in 1800 and died in Washington in 1891. Having graduated from Harvard in 1817, he went to Göttingen on funds subscribed by Harvard and its friends. Back in America in 1822 with a doctor’s degree, he settled for a year at Harvard as tutor in Greek. He brought home from Europe many affectations of manner and such marked eccentricities that his influence at Harvard was undermined ”

“ That touch creates us,—then we begin to be,—thereby we are beings of reality and inheritors of eternity." Now he so far emerged from his solitude as to look about for some livelihood which would make marriage possible. Appointed by George Bancroft to be weigher and gauger at the Boston Custom House early in 1839, he served there two years and then entered the community at Brook Farm, not because he was a communist or a transcendentalist but because he was a lover who hoped that the experiment would help him to become a husband. ”

“ But we cannot help ourselves. We cannot contend with those who can write history in this style. Our only defence is not to read. A more effectual security would be, not to buy. In that case they would not write; and we should not only avoid being led into error, but might escape the injury of being misrepresented to others. But Mr. Bancroft's book is in print, and we must abide the mortification of having all who may read it, think of our ancestors as he has represented them. We have comfort in believing that they will not be very numerous.
THE WRITINGS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON ”

“ Bancroft had two enthusiasms which made him a great historian— an enthusiasm for truth which spared no labor and left no stores of information unsearched, and an enthusiastic love of country. He believed that the great emotions and motives which move a free people are the noble, not the mean motives. He has written and interpreted the history of the United States in that faith. ”

“ The conflict between the friends and opponents of slavery was also a prominent feature of President Folk's administration, and was being constantly waged on the floor of congress. During the second session of the 39th congress the house attached the Wilmot proviso to a bill appropriating $3,000,000 for the purchase of territory from Mexico, as it had been appended to one appropriating $2,000,000 for the same purpose at the previous session. ”

“ Bancroft at the age of more than ninety years removes one of the few men in private life who can be ranked as personages. He was, perhaps, the only person in private life whose death would have received a semi-public recognition from any of the rulers of Europe. ”

“ After the close of the war Bancroft became principally concerned in dyeing and calico printing, in which he made important discoveries. In 1786 an act of parliament secured him special rights of importing and using a certain kind of oak bark in calico-printing, but in 1799 a bill which had passed the House of Commons, for extending his rights for seven years, failed to pass the Lords, in consequence of the opposition of many northern calico-printers. Bancroft was bitterly disappointed, as he considered be had exercised his rights liberally ”

“ Of all his chapters that on Washington was most attractive to me and it is quite the equal of Mr. Everett's oration, that yielded a large sum of money, that the orator applied to the purchase of Mount Vernon. Mr. Bancroft aimed to illustrate his history by an exhibition of philosophy. This feat in literature can be accomplished successfully only by a great mind. First the events, then the reasons for or sources of, then the consequences, then the wisdom or unwisdom of the human agencies that have had part in weaving the web, are all to be considered. ”

“ Bancroft's death. He said that the presence of a visitor acted in this way as a stimulant, but that he had not lately shown much intelligence in the family, seeming lost and feeble.
CHAPTER XIX VISITS TO ENGLAND [1860, 1868, 1871] I was born within a mile of the spot where the War of the Revolution began. My ancestors and other kindred on both sides took an active and prominent part in the struggle with England. I am descended from the early Puritans of Massachusetts in every line of descent. ”

“ Not in vain has LINCOLN lived, for he has helped to make this republic an example of justice, with no caste but the caste of humanity. ”

“ Brave men and also experienced men are with us and us to them if we have this help. I am not a visionary. Many of your compatriots amongst the most enlightened, the best thinkers, the highest in rank and in influence, see like I do. ”

“ The sincere attachment that you and me have for these principles of pure democracy which, for the happiness of humanity, triumphed and are in full and effective operation in the United States, embolden me to ask you to deploy all the means which are within your reach to have them also prevail in the two Canadas. ”

“ Then, inspired by Thee, he uttered those words of power which changed three millions of slaves into men—the great act which has rendered his name forever illustrious and secured the triumph of our cause. We think of him almost as the prophet of his era. Thou didst make that honest, great-hearted man the central figure of his age, setting upon goodness, upon moral grandeur, the seal of Thine approval and the crown of victory. ”

“ GRAY, Chaplain of the Senate:
God of a bereaved nation, from Thy high and holy Habitation look down upon us and suitably impress us to-day, with a sense that God only is great. Kings and Presidents die; but Thou, the Universal Ruler, livest to roll on thine undisturbed affairs forever, from Thy Throne. A wail has gone up from the heart of the nation to heaven—O, hear, and pity, and assuage, and save. We pray that Thou wilt command thy blessing now, which is life forevermore, upon the family of the President dead ”

“ When they learned that their leaders were to be captured for this alleged offence, they went in crowd to their residences to tell them: "We are all together equally at fault or excusable, we do not want that you be captured." ”

“ Influential men were rejecting in crowds the commissions which they had previously received from the governors and were ready to exert the new voluntary jurisdiction that the election and the confidence of their fellow-citizens were going to confer to them. ”

“ The American society is moulded differently than that of Europe. By all the natural laws, we are detached from Europe and attached to the United States, and our unanimous wishes call this union. We are a great number of Canadians that sudden violences from the government moved away from their native land, and have taken refuge in your hospital homes. Our dispersion, far from discouraging us, makes us understand that we are stronger and how much the English domination is weak and more precarious than we thought. ”

“ If we do not obtain the help we wish for, if new unexpected disasters took away our hope to help the cause of Canada from this side of the ocean, it would perhaps be useful for me or some other refugee, to pass to Europe to be in frequent contact with Hume, O'Connell, Roebuck, etc., and other friends who would seek to slow down the flood of evils that aristocratic pride and ministerial revenges prepare us. ”

“ I am so attached to republicanism such as it was understood and taught by Thomas Jefferson and his school, of which I believe Martin Van Buren is one of worthiest followers, that I think that one cannot use too much art and care in the conduct of this business so that the powerful party which is unfortunately opposed to you remain unaware that in these first moments, some of the close friends of your excellent president share and support these feelings and these actions. ”

“ Many people are, but they must find elsewhere the gratification they seek. Whoever wishes at any time absolutely to escape anecdotage, homely detail, and piquant gossip, has it always in his power to do so; he can read Bancroft’s three volumes on the Colonial period and dwell among abstractions.
Even if not at this stage of his career the most human of writers, Bancroft is a comforting historian to return to, after having dwelt for a while with those who instruct us how low and mercenary in motive, how impervious to liberal ideas, were the men who planted English civilization in America. ”

“ If the Alien Bill passes, our American friends must mind their p’s and q’s, for if they praise the “model republic” too loudly, they may be packed off at any time, particularly if they have “long beards,” for it seems to be an axiom here that beards, mustaches, and barricades are cousins-german at least. . . . Mr. Bancroft goes to Paris on Monday, the 17th, to pass the Easter holidays. He will go on with his manuscripts, and at the same time witness the elections and meeting of the Convention.
To W. D. B. London, April 19, 1848. ”

“ And he treated me to as wild a theory as Charlie had cherished: told me that the great cocottes who make heaps of money took as much care of themselves as gentlemen. "Go with a common prostitute and you'll catch something; go with a real topnotcher and she's sure to be all right!' And perfectly at ease he went to work with a will.
Bancroft's way of learning French even was totally different from mine: he went at the grammar and syntax and mastered them: he could write excellent French at the end of four months; but spoke it very haltingly and with a ferocious American accent. ”

“ When I had the honour to see you, only a few months ago in Montreal, I was far from foreseeing that in such a near future my fellow-citizens in great number and myself would be the objects, almost the victims of as violent and unjust a persecution, from the immoral English government, as that which we now experience. Appearances are against us. They expose us to public censure. We seem to be a troop of gloomy and imprudent conspirators, of fugitives already dispersed and punished, who have plotted against a government too powerful to ever have anything to fear from our efforts. ”

“ Eight hundred well-armed men were employed for this service, for the apprehension, will it say, of a dozen individuals. No, the government wanted to begin the civil war to strike of terror, in the long run, a people that impatiently support the degradation which is inseparably attached to the colonial regime, such as England understands it and exploits it, a people which aspires to share the happy fate that was given to you by English insolence, the courageous virtues, the patriotic sacrifices of the wise men and the heroes of 1776 and a little help from abroad. ”

“ The world was beautiful in the old days and human life was vivid. Ought we to deny to all this a warm and graphic setting forth? If we do we shall do it to our cost. Is it the proper attitude of the historian simply to write, without thought of anything so irrelevant as a reader? Bancroft was a pioneer, breaking the way ponderously perhaps, but he delved faithfully. If the orotund rolls too sonorously in his periods it was an excess in which his age upheld him. He was a good path-breaker and ought not to be lightly esteemed by those who now go to and fro with ease through the roads he opened. ”

“ We must carry out the purchase of ten thousand muskets, twenty pieces of artillery, ammunition and enough to pay the food of the volunteers who will make use of these during four months, so that our chances of success be almost infallible. ”