George Bancroft

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George Bancroft, photograph by Mathew Brady (credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Oct. 3, 1800, Worcester, Mass., U.S. — died Jan. 17, 1891, Washington, D.C.) U.S. historian. Bancroft was educated at Harvard and several German universities. He was minister to England (1846 – 49), Prussia (1867 – 71), and the German empire (1871 – 74). He was the first scholar to plan a comprehensive study of the U.S. from the colonial days through the end of the Revolutionary War. His 10-volume History of the United States (1834 – 40, 1852 – 74) reflected his belief that the U.S. represented humanity's closest approximation yet to the perfect state and earned him his reputation as the "father of U.S. history."

For more information on George Bancroft, visit Britannica.com.

Appointed James K. Polk's first secretary of the U.S. Navy in March 1845, Bancroft initiated a number of important reforms of the naval service during his seventeen months in office. The most important of these was the establishment of a permanent naval academy for the education and training of young officers. In a feat of administrative legerdemain, Bancroft found funds, teachers, and a site for a school without resort to Congress. It opened 10 October 1845 with lawmakers agreeing to fund the new academy the following year. Bancroft took other steps to rehabilitate an officer corps grown moribund in the decades following the War of 1812. He argued for promotions based on merit rather than seniority; he sought legislation for removing old and unfit officers from the ranks; and he ordered candidates for certain officers' grades to demonstrate their fitness for appointment by passing examinations. Though not all of Bancroft's attempts at reform met with success, his efforts laid the foundation for a better‐trained, more professional officer corps. Bancroft also provided vigorous and able direction of the navy's initial efforts during the Mexican War. On his orders, navy squadrons blockaded Mexico, occupied several Pacific Coast towns, and provided valuable assistance to American land forces. In September 1846, Bancroft left the secretaryship to become minister to Great Britain.

[See also Academies, Service: U.S. Naval Academy.]

Bibliography

• Mark Anthony deWolf Howe, Life and Letters of George Bancroft, 2 vols., 1908.
• Lilian Handlin, George Bancroft: The Intellectual as Democrat, 1984

Bancroft, George (1800-91) navy secretary, scholar, and diplomat, born in Worcester, Massachusetts. As the secretary of the navy under President James K. Polk (1845-46), Bancroft was a founder of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and tried to streamline the navy department. Bancroft was instrumental in the acquisition of California, ordering the Pacific Naval Squadron in June 1845 to occupy San Francisco and other ports in case of war.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

George Bancroft (1800-1891) was an eminent American historian and a diplomat and politician. He also founded the U.S. Naval Academy.

George Bancroft was born in Worcester, Mass., on Oct. 3, 1800. His father was a Unitarian minister. At 17 George went from Harvard to the University of Göttingen, Germany, where he received his doctorate in 1820. Returning in 1822 to America, he briefly joined the Harvard faculty, teaching Greek.

Unable to reform Harvard's teaching methods, Bancroft left to found (with J. G. Cogswell) a progressive school at Northampton, Mass. For 11 years the Round Hill School was a model of advanced pedagogy, attracting wide attention. For much of his life Bancroft was important in acquainting Americans with German culture.

Bancroft had left the school in 1831, having been drawn to politics and history. To the dismay of fellow intellectuals he ardently supported Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. In 1837 he was named collector of the Port of Boston. Now high in the councils of the Democratic party, he was appointed secretary of the Navy by President James Polk. Bancroft instituted reforms in the service and founded the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.

From 1846 to 1849 Bancroft was minister to England, where he gathered additional materials to continue the history he had been working on for many years. The first volume of Bancroft's History of the United States from the Discovery of the Continent appeared in 1834. In the next 40 years nine more volumes were published, carrying the narrative to the close of the American Revolution.

In his first volume Bancroft stated his main theme, which, with variations, echoed throughout the history: "The spirit of the colonies demanded freedom from the beginning." Like his fellow romantic historians John Lothrop Motley and William Prescott, Bancroft believed that liberty and progress had found their highest fulfillment in the United States.

Bancroft's writing was at its best in detailing the events during the 2 years leading up to July 4, 1776. In these pages he evoked with great skill the spirit of the Revolution. From 1849 to 1867 Bancroft remained busy at his history. In 1867 President Andrew Johnson, indebted to Bancroft as ghost writer, named him minister to Berlin, where he remained until 1874, delighting in the company of Bismarck and distinguished German historians.

After Bancroft's diplomatic career ended, he published the two-volume History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America (1882). Now past 80 he continued to write in the spirit of his youth. It was his "loud and uncritical Americanism" which repelled some of his contemporaries as well as later critics. His scholarship was not impeccable, his prose too lush. Yet he performed a remarkable pioneer service in organizing the materials of American history, giving it coherence and a foundation on which later scholars built. One of them said that they could see farther because they stood on his shoulders.

Fame and wealth from his histories came to the vigorous little man who stood tall in his country's esteem. His many admirers joined in mourning his death, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 17, 1891.

Further Reading

The best biography of Bancroft is Russel B. Nye, George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel (1944). Chapters on Bancroft appear in Michael Kraus, The Writing of American History (1953), and in William T. Hutchinson, ed., The Marcus W. Jernegan Essays in American Historiography, selection by Watt Stewart (1958). John S. Bassett, The Middle Group of American Historians (1917), and John F. Jameson, The History of Historical Writing in America (1891), are critical of Bancroft's work. An excellent analysis of Bancroft's writing is in David Levin, History as Romantic Art: Bancroft, Prescott, Motley and Parkman (1959).

Additional Sources

Handlin, Lilian, George Bancroft, the intellectual as Democrat, New York: Harper & Row, 1984.

(1800-1891), historian, politician, diplomat. Bancroft won both popular success and critical acclaim with the 1834 publication of the first volume of his History of the United States of America. The tenth volume (1874) brought the narrative up through the success of the American Revolution. None of his other works has the stature of the History; his last, Martin Van Buren (1889), is little more than a campaign biography published forty-five years too late, and his first, Poems (1823), demonstrates only that Bancroft was wise to choose history as his muse.

As a politician, Bancroft was a Jacksonian Democrat; as a historian, he believed in progress, Providence, and an innate American will to liberty and self-government. His convictions found expression in rhetorical set pieces scattered throughout the History and also affected its structure, as Bancroft concentrated on those features of the colonial era that prefigured later events. Beliefs so in tune with the romantic nationalism of the Jacksonian era helped make him a best-seller in his own century but have led some modern readers, less receptive to historical presentism and purple prose, to underestimate his virtues as a historian.

In 1820, Bancroft, a graduate of Harvard, was one of the first Americans to obtain a doctorate in Germany, where he studied at Göttingen under the historian August Heeren who thought that history was a science and must always be based on primary sources. Bancroft's books reflect his mastery of primary sources, with later editions including European sources to which he gained access as a diplomat.

Although his father was a prominent Unitarian minister in Massachusetts, Bancroft himself was not a success in the pulpit in his few trials after his return from Germany. After a brief career as a schoolmaster, he devoted himself primarily to history and politics. His popularity as a historian helped make him an asset to his party, and his involvement with public affairs helped enrich his understanding of politics past. Bancroft held the important patronage post of collector of the Port of Boston (1838-1840) and played an important role in the nomination of James K. Polk in 1844. As secretary of the navy (1845-1846) under Polk, he helped establish the U.S. Naval Academy. He was especially happy as U.S. minister to Great Britain (1846-1849) and Prussia (1867-1874). During the Civil War, he was a War Democrat and supported Lincoln in 1864. He delivered the memorial oration on Lincoln to a joint session of Congress in 1866.

Bancroft received many honors: he was granted floor privileges in the U.S. Senate in 1879 and was elected president of the fledgling American Historical Association in 1886. Nevertheless, he was something of an anachronism as both statesman and scholar in his later years. His real place is with an earlier period, when historical scholarship was still a branch of literature. His special gift was for the narrative synthesis needed to make a long and complicated story into an intelligible whole.

Bibliography:

Russel B. Nye, George Bancroft, Brahmin Rebel (1944; reprint, 1972).

Author:

Robert H. Canary

See also History and Historians; Literature.

Quotes:

"Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God himself, were it possible."

"Avarice is the vice of declining years."

"By common consent gray hairs are a crown of glory; the only object of respect that can never excite envy."

"The public is wiser than the wisest critic."

"In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person."

"Beauty is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Like truth and justice it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law it is a companion of the soul."

See more famous quotes by George Bancroft

• Born: Sep 30, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Died: Oct 02, 1956 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '20s-'30s
• Major Genres: Drama, Western
• Career Highlights: Stagecoach, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Underworld
• First Major Screen Credit: The Journey's End (1921)

Biography

This article is about the historian and statesman. For the actor see George Bancroft (actor)

George Bancroft
17th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office March 11, 1845 – September 9, 1846
Preceded by	John Y. Mason
Succeeded by	John Y. Mason
Born	October 3, 1800(1800-10-03) Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 17, 1891 (aged 90) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Sarah Dwight Elizabeth Davis Bliss
Alma mater	Harvard University University of Gottingen
Profession	Politician, writer and historian

Bancroft's bookplate and signature. "Eis phaos" is Greek for "Towards the Light"

George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian and statesman who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state and at the national level. During his tenure as U.S. Secretary of the Navy, he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845. Among his best-known writings is the magisterial series, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career in education and literature 3 Career in politics 4 Namesakes and Monuments 5 Published Works 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

Early life and education

His family had been in Massachusetts Bay since 1632, and his father, Aaron Bancroft, was distinguished as a revolutionary soldier, a leading Unitarian clergyman^[1] and author of a popular life of George Washington. Bancroft was born in Worcester, and began his education at Phillips Exeter Academy and entered Harvard College at thirteen years of age. At age 17, he graduated from Harvard and went to study in Germany. Abroad, he studied at Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin. At Göttingen he studied Plato with Arnold Heeren, New Testament Greek with Albert Eichhorn and natural science with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. In 1820, he received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen.

Bancroft capped off his education with 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, Byron, Niebuhr, Bunsen, Savigny, Cousin, Constant and Manzoni.

Bancroft's father 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.

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 but 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

George Bancroft in his office (c. 1889)

His entry into politics came in 1837 with his appointment by Martin Van Buren as Collector of Customs of the Port of Boston. In this position, two of Bancroft's appointees were Orestes Brownson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. 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, opposed 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 lived in constant companionship with the historian Macaulay and the poet Hallam. With the election of Zachary Taylor his post was not renewed; on his return to the United states in 1849 he withdrew from public life, residing in New York and writing history.

In April 1864, at Bancroft's request, President Lincoln wrote out what would become the fourth of five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address. Mr. Bancroft planned to include this copy in "Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors," which he planned to sell at a Soldiers' and Sailors' Sanitary Fair in Baltimore.

In 1866, Bancroft was chosen by Congress to deliver the special eulogy on Lincoln; and in 1867 he was appointed minister to Berlin, where he remained until his resignation in 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.

Namesakes and Monuments

Bancroft Tower

The United States Navy has named several ships USS Bancroft, as well as the fleet ballistic missile submarine USS George Bancroft (SBN-643), after Bancroft, and the mid-19th century United States Coast Survey schooner USCS Bancroft also was named for him. The dormitory at the United States Naval Academy, Bancroft Hall, is named after him as well.

In and around Worcester, Massachusetts, Bancroft's birthplace, many streets, businesses and monuments bear his name:

• Bancroft School, Worcester MA.
• Bancroft School of Massage Therapy, Worcester, MA.
• Bancroft Hall at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH.
• Bancroft Tower, which was erected in honor of him on Bancroft Tower Road Worcester, MA.
• Bancroft Commons, an apartment building in downtown Worcester, MA.
• Bancroft Motors, now owned by HARR Motor Company.
• Bancroft Street, Gardner, MA.
• Bancroft Street, Worcester, MA.

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

Notes

1. ^ He served as president of the American Unitarian Association from 1825 to 1836.

References

•  "Bancroft, George". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 
• 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

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Bancroft

• Obituary at New York Times site
• George Bancroft at Find a Grave

Military offices
Preceded by John Y. Mason	United States Secretary of the Navy 1845–1846	Succeeded by John Y. Mason
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Louis McLane	U.S. Minister to Britain 1846 – 1849	Succeeded by Abbott Lawrence

v • d • e United States Secretaries of the Navy Cabinet Level Stoddert • Smith • Hamilton • Jones • Crowninshield • S Thompson • Southard • Branch • Woodbury • Dickerson • Paulding • Badger • Upshur • Henshaw • Gilmer • Mason • Bancroft • Mason • Preston • Graham • Kennedy • Dobbin • Toucey • Welles • Borie • Robeson • R Thompson • Goff • Hunt • Chandler • Whitney • Tracy • Herbert • Long • Moody • Morton • Bonaparte • Metcalf • Newberry • Meyer • Daniels • Denby • Wilbur • Adams • Swanson • Edison • Knox • Forrestal Dept. of Defense Sullivan • Matthews • Kimball • Anderson • Thomas • Gates • Franke • Connally • Korth • Nitze • Ignatius • Chafee • Warner • Middendorf • Claytor • Hidalgo • Lehman • Webb • Ball • Garrett • O'Keefe • Dalton • Danzig • England • Winter • Mabus

v • d • e Presidents of the American Historical Association A White · Bancroft · Winsor · Poole · CK Adams · Jay · Henry · Angell · H Adams · Hoar · Storrs · Schouler · Fisher · Rhodes · Eggleston · CF Adams · Mahan · Lea · Smith · McMaster · Baldwin · Jameson · G Adams · Hart · Turner · Sloane · Roosevelt · Dunning · McLaughlin · Stephens · Burr · Ford · Thayer · Channing · Jusserand · Haskins · Cheyney · Wilson · Andrews · Munro · Taylor · Breasted · Robinson · Greene · Becker · Bolton · Beard · Dodd · Rostovtzeff · McIlwain · Ford · Larson · Ferguson · Farrand · Thompson · Schlesinger · Neilson · Westermann · Hayes · Fay · Wertenbaker · Latourette · Read · Morison · Schuyler · Randall · Gottschalk · Curti · Thorndike · Perkins · Langer · Webb · Nevins · Bemis · Bridenbaugh · Brinton · Boyd · Lane · Nichols · Holborn · Fairbank · Woodward · Palmer · Potter · Cochran · L White · Hanke · Wright · Morris · Gibson · Bouwsma · Franklin · Pinkney · Bailyn · Craig · Curtin · Link · McNeill · Degler · Davis · Iriye · Harlan · Herlihy · Leuchtenburg · Wakeman · Tilly · Holt · Coatsworth · Bynum · Appleby · Miller · Darnton · Foner · Louis · Hunt · McPherson · Spence · Sheehan · Kerber · Weinstein · Spiegel

v • d • e Cabinet of President James K. Polk (1845-1849) Vice President George M. Dallas (1845-1849) Secretary of State James Buchanan (1845-1849) Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker (1845-1849) Secretary of War William L. Marcy (1845-1849) Attorney General John Y. Mason (1845-1846) • Nathan Clifford (1846-1848) • Isaac Toucey (1848-1849) Postmaster General Cave Johnson (1845-1849) Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft (1845-1846) • John Y. Mason (1846-1849)

v • d • e United States Ambassadors to the United Kingdom Ministers Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James's 1785-1811 John Adams 1785-1788 · Thomas Pinckney 1792-1796 · Rufus King 1796-1803 · James Monroe 1803-1807 · William Pinkney 1808-1811 · Jonathan Russell (chargé d'affaires) 1811-1812 Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James's 1815-1893 John Quincy Adams 1815-1817 · Richard Rush 1818-1825 · Rufus King 1825-1826 · Albert Gallatin 1826-1827 · James Barbour 1828-1829 · Louis McLane 1829-1831 · Martin Van Buren 1831-1832 · Aaron Vail (chargé d'affaires) 1832-1836 · Andrew Stevenson 1836-1841 · Edward Everett 1841-1845 · Louis McLane 1845-1846 · George Bancroft 1846-1849 · Abbott Lawrence 1849-1852 · Joseph R. Ingersoll 1852-1853 · James Buchanan 1853-1856 · George M. Dallas 1856-1861 · Charles Adams, Sr. 1861-1868 · Reverdy Johnson 1868-1869 · John Lothrop Motley 1869-1870 · Robert C. Schenck 1871-1876 · Edwards Pierrepont 1876-1877 · John Welsh 1877-1879 · James Russell Lowell 1880-1885 · Edward J. Phelps 1885-1889 · Robert T. Lincoln 1889-1893 Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James's 1893-present Thomas F. Bayard, Sr. 1893-1897 · John Hay 1897-1898 · Joseph Choate 1899-1905 · Whitelaw Reid 1905-1912 · Walter Page 1913-1918 · John W. Davis 1918-1921 · George Harvey 1921-1923 · Frank B. Kellogg 1924-1925 · Alanson B. Houghton 1925-1929 · Charles G. Dawes 1929-1931 · Andrew W. Mellon 1932-1933 · Robert Bingham 1933-1937 · Joseph P. Kennedy 1938-1940 · John G. Winant 1941-1946 · W. Averell Harriman 1946 · Lewis W. Douglas 1947-1950 · Walter S. Gifford 1950-1953 · Winthrop W. Aldrich 1953-1957 · John Hay Whitney 1957-1961 · David K. E. Bruce 1961-1969 · Walter H. Annenberg 1969-1974 · Elliot L. Richardson 1975-1976 · Anne Armstrong 1976-1977 · Kingman Brewster, Jr. 1977-1981 · John J. Louis, Jr. 1981-1983 · Charles H. Price II 1983-1989 · Henry E. Catto, Jr. 1989-1991 · Raymond G. H. Seitz 1991-1994 · William J. Crowe, Jr. 1994-1997 · Philip Lader 1997-2001 · William S. Farish III 2001-2004 · Robert H. Tuttle 2005-2009 · Louis Susman 2009-

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