George Bancroft

George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian and diplomat. As Secretary of the Navy, he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis]] in [[1845. He is most famous for his monumental history of the United States, based on original research in primary sources, covering ther entire period down to 1787. History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent is available in many editions.

Early life and education

His family had lived in Massachusetts since 1632; his father, Aaron Bancroft, was distinguished as a revolutionary soldier, a leading Unitarian clergyman and author of a popular life of George Washington. Bancroft began his education at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated Harvard College in 1817. He studied at Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin. Bancroft concluded his years of preparation by a European tour, in the course of which he sought out almost every distinguished man in the world of letters, science and art; among others Goethe, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Lord Byron, Barthold Georg Niebuhr, and others. He was most influence by Hegel's philosophy of history.

Career in education and literature

His first position was that of tutor at Harvard. Instinctively a humanist, Bancroft had little patience with the narrow curriculum of Harvard in his day and the rather pedantic spirit with which classical studies were pursued there. Moreover, he had brought from Europe a new manner, imbued with ardent Romanticism and this he wore without ease in the formal, self-satisfied and prim provincial society of New England; the young man's European air was subjected to ridicule, but his politics were sympathetic to Jacksonian democracy.

A little volume of poetry, translations and original pieces, published in 1823 gave its author no fame. As time passed, and custom created familiarity, his style, personal and literary, was seen to be the outward symbol of a firm resolve to preserve a philosophic calm, and of an enormous underlying energy which spent itself in labor. He found the conversational atmosphere of Cambridge uncongenial, and with a friend he established the Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts. This was the first serious effort made in the United States to elevate secondary education to the plane on which it belonged.

In spite of the exacting and severe routine of the Round Hill School, Bancroft contributed frequently to the North American Review and to Walsh's American Quarterly; he also made a translation of Heeren's work on The Politics of Ancient Greece. In 1834 appeared the first volume of the History of the United States, which would appear over the next four decades (1834-74) and established his reputation. The work covers the period from the discovery of the continent to the conclusion of the Revolutionary War in 1782. His other great work is The History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States (1882). His writing is clear and vigorous, and his facts generally accurate, but he is a good deal of a partisan.

His first wife was Sarah Dwight, of a rich family in Springfield, Massachusetts; they married in 1827; she died in 1837 His second wife was Mrs Elizabeth Davis Bliss, a widow with two children to add to his two sons; she bore him a daughter.

Career in politics

His entry into politics came in 1837 with his appointment by Martin Van Buren as Collector of Customs of the Port of Boston. In 1844, he was the Democratic candidate for the governorship of Massachusetts, but he was defeated. In 1845, in recognition for his support at the previous Democratic convention, he entered Polk's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, serving until 1846, when for a month he was acting Secretary of War. During this short period in the cabinet he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, gave the orders which led to the occupation of California, and sent Zachary Taylor into the contested land between Texas and Mexico. He also continued his pleadings for the annexation of Texas, as extending "the area of freedom," and though a Democrat, took high moral ground as to slavery.

He likewise made himself the authority on the Oregon boundary dispute, with the result that in 1846 he was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to London, where he was friends with the historian Macaulay and the poet Hallam. With the election of Whig Zachary Taylor Bancroft returned to New York, withdrew from public life, and wrote his breat histories.

In 1866, Bancroft was chosen by Congress to deliver the special eulogy on Lincoln. He was a backstage advisor to President Andrew Johnson and helped Johnson write major speeches. In 1867 Johnson appointed him minister to Prussia; he served in Berlin until 1874. Then he lived in Washington, D.C., summering at Rose Cliff, Newport, Rhode Island.

His latest official achievements are considered the greatest. In the San Juan arbitration he displayed great versatility and skill, winning his case before the emperor with brilliant ease. The naturalization treaties, named the "Bancroft treaties" in his honor, which he negotiated successively with Prussia and the other north German states were the first international recognition of the right of expatriation, a principle since incorporated in the law of nations.

Several ships have been named USS Bancroft for him. Bancroft was the last surviving member of the Polk cabinet.

Published Works

• Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. (Boston: Little, Brown, and company, numerous editions in 8 or 10 volumes 1854-78). online edition

Bibliography

• Howe, M. A. Dewolfe The Life and Letters of George Bancroft - Vol. 1 (1971 reprint)
• Wish, Harvey. The American Historian: A Social-intellectual History of the Writing of the American Past (1960) ch 5 on Bancroft
• Handlin, Lillian. George Bancroft: The Intellectual as Democrat. (New York, 1984).
• Nye, Russel B. George Bancroft, Brahmin Rebel (New York, 1944).
• Cornell University, Guide to the George Bancroft papers

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