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GEORGE BANCROFT.*
Pon many years previous to his death in January, 1891, George Bancroft, statesman, scholar, and historian, occupied a unique position in the social and public life of Washington. His invitations were the only ones, besides those of the Cabinet and the Judges of the Supreme Court, which etiquette and custom allowed the President toaccept. He was admitted by special vote • to the floor of the Senate. His seat at functions and commemorations was among the great officers of State, and when he died, full of years and honour, the flags on the chief buildings in all the cities traversed by the funeral cortege were placed at half-mast by order of the Government. It was a striking tribute on the part of democracy to force of character, simplicity of life, and public service undis- tinguished by any remarkable achievement in the sphere of action; nor can it be altogether accounted for by Bancroft's literary reputation, great as that was among his fellow- countrymen. The story told by Mr. De ,Wolfe Howe in his very excellent and readable biography, and the liberal, the rather too liberal, extracts from Bancroft's correspondence, will help to explain the mingled veneration and affection in which the aged historian was held during the Indian summer of his days. Born in the last year of the eighteenth century, he was the most striking of all the links with the past, with names, both in Europe and America, that had long become a memory.. Bancroft survived Abraham Lincoln by a quarter of a century, yet when he delivered the memorial address on the martyred President before the House of Repre- sentatives in February, 1866, men could recall how he bad been selected to pronounce the official eulogy over Andrew Jackson in 1845. As a lad he had mingled in the best intellectual society of the Germany of Goethe and the Humboldts. He had known the English statesmen of the early Victorian era, and the Ministers of the citizen-King. As Secretary of the Navy under Polk be had shared responsi- bility for the Mexican War and the absorption of California in the Union. He had represented his country with dis- tinction in London and Berlin, where the courtesies of Monarchs had only served to fan the ardour of his Republicanism. He was a corresponding member of the Institute of France and of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences. And his History of the United States, with all its blemishes, had been an intense gratification to the pride of his fellow-citizens, and one of the earliest and most solid accomplishments witch brought European reputation for an American'Inan of letters.
Old age had softened those angularities and asperities which Mr. Howe, most wisely, makes no effort to conceal. The most obstinate of controversialists, he revised and softened in the later editions of his History the phrases and judgments that had given offence: And one who even among the members of his family had been "disposed to insist upon a reciprocity of sentiment and expression illustrating rather the principle of quid pro quo than that of the highest generosity" became a Model of that mellow, kindly tolerance which is born of years and experience. His hospitable board at Washington knew no distinction of nationality or politics. On one occasion when half-a-dozen among the guests had been invited on the express grounds of being "Presidential aspirants," Mr. Thomas Bayard called out to General Sherman from the far end of the table: " Is that a story about the Confederates P "—" It is a story," was the answer, "about the rebels who may also have been confederated."—" Fill your glasses, gentlemen," interposed their host. "Let us drink to the memory of dead Confederates who are no longer rebels." "After all," he added in an aside to Dr. Weir Mitchell, who tells the story, "it was a civil war, and it is time to begin to be charitable in the use of labels."
* 71te Life and Lettere of George Bancroft. By M. A. De Wolfe Howe. Illustrated. 2 vole. London: liodder and Stoughton. Elea not.] George Bancroft's public life may be said to have begun with the publication of the first volume of his History in 1834. He came of sturdy and pious New England stock, though his maternal grandfather, Judge Chandler, had earned the opprobrious epithet of " Tory John" during the Revolution, and had died in London under the allegiance of King George. A son of the manse, young Bancroft had nothing to rely upon but his own abilities and untiring industry. " Time was," he wrote in after years, " when seventeen hours' work a day had nothing to me appalling." A brilliant career at Harvard induced some friends, assisted by the University authorities,- to send him abroad " to pursue his theological studies." During his residence at Gettingen,•where he took the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in September, 1820, he not only perfected himself in the German language, and followed a severe course of study in Hebrew and the classics, but was admitted to the intimacy of most of the intellectual giants of the Fatherland. His copious correspondence during this period gives a most delightful picture of University life, and abounds in vignettes of the great figures in the golden age of German scholarship. Eicliborn, Wolf, Schlegel, Schleiermacher admitted him to their acquaintance, and a fortunate introduction brought him to the house of the sage of Weimar.
On his return to America Bancroft at first adopted teaching as a profession, and though lie never entered the ministry, he would occupy on occasion the Unitarian pulpits in his neigh- bourhood. Gradually literature absorbed more and more of his time, and be consecrated himself to that monumental work with which his name will always be associated. Of Bancroft as an historian, apart from his merits as a man of letters, one can only write in terms of strictly modified eulogy. According to his lights, he was an ardent seeker after truth; sparing neither pains nor expense in the accumulation of manuscript material, he ransacked the archives of Europe and the United States, and unearthed much valuable information from private sources. But to impartiality and to a fair estimate of the quarrel between the Colonies and the Mother- country he can make no claim. "Your history is the best book ever written from the democratic point of view," von Ranke assured him, somewhat to his chagrin; his best friends warned him against allowing the partisan spirit to creep into his work ; and the Tory dogs have an uncommonly bad time of it from beginning to end And Mr. Howe admits frankly the justice of a graver charge brought against him in the American Nation :—" When he quotes a• contemporary document or letter, it is impossible to tell without careful verifying, whether what he gives us between the quotation marks is precisely what should be there, or whether it is a compilation, rearrangement, selection, or even a series of mere paraphrases of his own."
From literature Bancroft drifted into. politics. He became an uncompromising supporter of Andrew Jackson, that roughest of rough diamonds, and he never lost his admiration for " old Hickory." His ardent championship of Polk's candidature for the Presidency in 1844 was rewarded by a seat in the Cabinet, where, as Secretary of the Navy, he practically founded the famous Academy at Annapolis. Two years later he was appointed Minister to England at a period , when the relations between thd two countries were in no very, healthy condition. The social side of his mission has been charmingly told in the recently published letters of his wife, and, without compromising one jot of his native independence, he developed unexpected powers of tact and administration. It was fortunate, perhaps, that the Whigs were in office, with traditions inherited from the days of Fox and North, but Bancroft conceived a strong personal liking for Sir Robert Peel. His literary credentials gave him the entree to the best intellectual society of the day, and he was more fortunate than his predecessor, Edward Everett, in obtaining an honorary D.C.L. degree at Oxford without a riot in the Sheldonian. His letters home are unconsciously amusing for their placid assumption of the evils of monarchy and an hereditary terri- torial aristocracy, and he is surprised at the manner in which those with whom he is brought in contact " keep down their envy at our prosperity, their consciousness that we are going forward full of hope, while their future is clouded." Yet he admits that "'to have • resided here has been an immense advantage. The constant enjoyment of the most refined and cultured society, the change of scene, the opportunities of
observing statesmen and institutions, Lords, commoners, and ministers, have at once instructed me, and have soothed and benefited me, when I most needed it."
Bancroft resided in New York, busy at his History, from 1849 to 1867, but making an occasional appearance, with no conspicuous success, in the political arena. Needless to say, he was, when the crisis came, a vehement Northerner and a convinced Abolitionist. But it is remarkable to see how deeply he shared in, and even exaggerated, the prevalent depreciation of Lincoln on his first assumption of office. This misunderstanding was of no long duration, and he good- humouredly recalls an incident which could not have been altogether flattering to his vanity r-
"Last night I went to the President's reception. He took me by one of his hands, and trying to recall my name, he waved the other a foot and a half above his head, and cried out; greatly to the amusement of the bystanders : 'Hold on—I know you : you are—History, History of the United States—Mr.—Mr. Bancroft, Mr. George Bancroft,' and seemed disposed to give me a hearty welcome—expressing a wish to see me some day apart from the crowd."
And towards the most prominent member of Lincoln's Cabinet his feelings-underwent a similar change. In December, 1861, he records how " I talked also with Seward, who looked dirty, rusty, vulgar, and low; used such words as hell and damn, and spoke very loud. I think better of Mrs. Lincoln for her excessive dislike to him." A few weeks later Bancroft is writing to Seward as to a confidential and highly trusted friend.
From 1867 to 1874 Bancroft filled the post of Minister at Berlin. No better choice could have been made. His early associations with Germany, and his complete command of the German language, rendered him persona gratissinia in the highest places, and the Teutonic temperament had a profound fascination for him. During those momentary years when the Franco-Prussian War was maturing he was thrown into
close intimacy both with Moltke and Bismarck. He nege- tinted some useful Treaties, and he more than upheld the
dignity of his office; but his partisanship during the invasion of France was somewhat too. pronounced, and gained him the distinction of an attack in sonorous verse from the pen of Victor Hugo. Bismarck had succeeded completely in " putting the comether over him," and in the light of modern knowledge one reads with a smile the following words addressed to the Iron Chancellor :—" It is indeed a great happiness to survive till these times, when three or four men who loved nothing so much as peace, and after long and hard service were only seeking to close their career in tranquillity, win during a war of defence more military glory than the wildest imagination conceived of."
Bancroft's final years brought in their train all that the heart of man could desire,—honour, reverence, troops of friends. It was high time that an authorised and authorita- tive biography should be written of one who had come to be regarded by the last generation of Americans as a national institution, and the work has been accomplished in excellent taste and with no small literary skilL There are, however, some glaring mistakes in the transcription of letters which should be remedied with the least possible delay. At p. 22 of the first volume "constancy and parsing" should obviously be " construing." In Vol. II., p. 147, " overvalued" should be " overruled," at p. 148 Major " Amor" is clearly " Anson," and at 'p. 169 " book " is given instead of " bouquet." These instances are taken at random, and they are a blot on a work which is a valuable contribution to American literature.
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