BANCROFT, GEORGE (1800-1891), American historian and statesman, was born in Worcester, Mass., on Oct. 3, i800. His family had been in America since 1632, and his father, Aaron Bancroft, was distinguished as a revolutionary soldier, clergy man and author. The son was educated at Phillips academy, Exeter, at Harvard university, at Heidelberg, Gottingen and Berlin. At Gottingen he studied Plato with Heeren, New Testa ment Greek with Eichhorn and natural science with Blumenbach. His heart was in the work of Heeren, easily the greatest of his torical critics then living, and the forerunner of the modern school; it was from this master that Bancroft caught his enthusiasm for minute painstaking erudition. Bancroft's father was a Unita rian, and he had devoted his son to the work of the ministry; but the young man's first experiments at preaching, shortly after his return from Europe in 1822, were unsatisfactory. His first posi tion was that of tutor in Harvard. Instinctively a humanist, he had little patience with the nar row curriculum of Harvard in his day and the rather pedantic spirit with which classical studies were there pursued. He found the conventional 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 edu cation to its rightful plane.
Although born into a Whig family, yet Bancroft's studies carried him irresistibly into the Democratic party. While a teacher in his own school he was elected to the state legislature as a Democrat, but refused to serve. In 1831 he likewise declined the nomination of the Massachusetts Democrats for secretary of state. By this time he was influential in the councils of his party, and President Van Buren appointed him collector of the port of Boston, a position which he filled with success. Two of his ap pointees were Orestes Brownson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1844 he was the Democratic candidate for the governorship, but he was defeated. In 1845 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 estab lished the naval academy at Annapolis, gave the orders which led to the occupation of California, and sent Zachary Taylor into the debatable land between Texas and Mexico. He also con tinued 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 North-Western Boundary question. In 1846 he was sent as min ister to London, where he lived in constant companionship with Macaulay and Hallam. On his return in 1849 he withdrew from public life, residing in New York. In 1867 he was appointed min ister to Berlin, where he remained until his resignation in Thenceforward he lived in Washington and Newport, dying at Washington on Jan. 17, 1891. His latest official achievements were the greatest. In the San Juan arbitration he displayed great versatility and skill, winning his case before Emperor William I. of Germany, who acted as arbitrator, with brilliant ease. The naturalization treaties which he negotiated successively with Prussia and the other north German states were the first inter national recognition of the right of expatriation, a principle since incorporated in the law of nations.
In spite of the exacting routine of the Round Hill school, Ban croft 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 ap peared the first volume of the History of the United States. The second followed in 1837, and others as the exigencies of public life permitted. Supplementary to the first volume was an article published by him in the North American Review for 1835 on "The Documentary History of the Revolution." This article not merely brought the new method to the notice of the reading public, but revealed to it the wealth of material available. The nature and extent of his studies, the solidity of his work, and the philosophic spirit which animates both, explain the enthusiasm with which . the earlier volumes of Bancroft were received. Their sale at home was very large ; they were reprinted in England and translated immediately into Danish, Italian, German and French. The latest volumes were considered by all competent judges quite as important as their' predecessors.
As Heeren's pupil, he laid enormous stress on the importance of original authorities. In dealing with documentary evidence he sought to apply very stringent rules :—(1) Carefully distinguish between original authority and historical memorials or aids ; for example, between a fact recorded at first- or second-hand knowl edge, and a decision of principle by authority. (2) Represent every man from his own standpoint; judge him from your own. His collections of original materials were vast ; beginning with his residence in England, he brought together at enormous pains and expense the authenticated copies of archives, family papers, and personal journals written by historic personages, which now con stitute an invaluable treasure in the New York public library. They are from every land and from every people with which American origins are connected.
Bancroft's imagination and enthusiasm were alike exuberant. His pages abound in fine and acute insight. His generalizations are vivid and enlightening. He spared no pains to acquire true style, frequently rewriting his chapters, and sometimes testing passages of philosophy and description in eight different forms. Yet to a certain extent he lacked the representative power and often failed to conceal his art, many pages ringing with artificial tones. But, after making all allowances, it remains true that he had a perfect sense of proportion, sound maxims and thorough common sense. He was of that greatest human type : a man of the present, valuing justly the past and no dreamer. In the nature and extent of his studies, in the solidity of his work, and in the philosophic spirit which animated his life he ranks as the foremost historian of the United States, and as an American his torian second to none of his European contemporaries in the same line. He displayed the heroic, epic value of American history, its unity with the great central stream, and dispelled for ever the extravagant conceptions of a sentimental world just emerging from the visionary philosophy of the i8th century.