GEORGE BANCROFT
One of the most delightful friendships of my life was with
George Bancroft, the famous historian. I never knew him
until I went to Washington in 1877. But we established at
once, as a matter of course, the relation of an intimate friendship.
He was born in Worcester, to which he was much attached, though
he had spent little of his life there after he had left college.
Mrs. Bancroft had known my oldest brother and sister intimately,
when she lived in Boston. I had learned from Mr. Emerson,
who rarely gave his praise lightly, as well as from my own
study, to value Mr. Bancroft very highly as a historian,
which he soon found out.
I almost always found him waiting for me on the doorstep
of my dwelling when I came from church the first Sunday after
I reached Washington, at the beginning of a session. I have
enjoyed many hours at his table, rendered delightful by the
conversation of the eminent guests whom he gathered there,
but by no conversation more delightful than his own.
Mr. 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. I believe his work will endure so long as
the love of liberty shall endure. I gave my estimate of him
at a meeting of the American Antiquarian Society, of which
we were both chosen Vice-Presidents, in October, 1880, just
after the completion of his eightieth year and of his "History
of the United States," as follows:
"It is not usual to discuss the report of the committee to
propose a list of officers. But one of the names reported
gives special interest to the occasion. On the third of this
month of October, our honored associate Mr. Bancroft completed
his eightieth year. At the same time he completed his 'History
of the United States' to the formation of the Federal Constitution.
"This Society, while it is national and continental in the
scope of its investigations, strikes down its roots into the
soil of this locality, where its founder dwelt, and where its
collections are kept.
"For both these reasons we cherish our relations to Mr. Bancroft.
He was born within a few rods of this spot. He is descended
by the mother's side from an old Worcester County family who
were conspicuous in the administration of its public affairs
long before the Revolution. His father was one of the six
persons who petitioned for the act of incorporation of this
Society, and one of its first members. His brother by marriage,
Governor Davis, was your predecessor in the President' chair.
"These reasons would be enough to induce us to value our relation.
But he has filled a highly honorable and conspicuous place
in public life. He is, I believe, the senior person living
who has been a member of the Cabinet. He is the senior among
living persons who have filled important diplomatic stations.
He has represented the United States at Berlin and at St. James.
"His history is, and doubtless will be, the great standard
authority upon the important period which it covers. He
is the only person living whose judgment would change the
place in public estimation held by any of the great statesmen
of the Revolutionary times. He has had the rare good fortune
among men of letters, to have proposed to himself a great
task, requiring a lifetime for its accomplishment, the successful
achievement of which is enough to make any life illustrious,
and to have lived to complete it with powers of body and mind
undiminished. It is his fate to know, while alive, the estimate
in which he will be held by posterity. In his case, that
knowledge can be only a source of pleasure and satisfaction.
"In this Mr. Bancroft resembles Gibbon. We all remember
Gibbon's delightful account of the completion of his great
work.
"In another thing, alone among great historians, Mr. Bancroft
resembles Gibbon. As an artist he has accomplished that most
difficult task of composing a history made up of many separate
threads, which must keep on side by side, yet all be subordinate
to one main and predominant stream. But his narrative never
loses its constant and fascinating interest. No other historian,
I believe, except Gibbon, has attempted this without becoming
insufferably dull.
"Mr. Bancroft tells the story of thirteen States, separate,
yet blending into one National life. It is one of the most
wonderful things in our history, that the separate States
having so much in common, have preserved so completely, even
to the present time, their original and individual characteristics.
Rhode Island, held in the hollow of the hand of Massachusetts;
Connecticut, so placed that one would think it would become
a province of New York; Delaware, whose chief city is but
twenty-five miles from Philadelphia, yet preserve their distinctive
characteristics as if they were states of the continent of
Europe, whose people speak a different language. This shows
how perfectly state rights and state freedom are preserved
in spite of our National union, how little the power at the
centre interferes with the important things that affect the
character of a people. Why is it that little Delaware remains
Delaware in spite of Pennsylvania, and little Rhode Island
remains Rhode Island notwithstanding her neighbor Massachusetts?
What makes the meadow flower its bloom unfold?
Because the lovely little flower is free
Down to its roots, and in that freedom bold.
And so the grandeur of the forest tree
Comes, not from casting in a formal mould,
But from its own divine vitality.
"But Mr. Bancroft is more fortunate than Gibbon. Gibbon wrote
of decline, of decay, of dissolution, and death; of the days,
to use his own words, 'when giants were becoming pigmies.'
Bancroft tells the story of birth, and growth, and youth,
and life. His name is to be inseparably associated with a
great and interesting period in the world's history; with
what in the proud imagination of his countrymen must ever
be the greatest and most interesting of all periods, when
pigmy villages were becoming giant States. I am sure that
it is a delight to this assembly of distinguished scholars,
assembled near his birthplace, to send him, at the completion
of his great work, and of his eightieth year, their cordial
salutation."
I went to see Mr. Bancroft on the evening of the last Sunday
in December, 1890. He was sitting in his library up stairs.
He received me in his usual emphatic manner, taking both my
hands and saying, "My dear friend, how glad I am to see you!"
He was alone. He evidently knew me when I went in, and inquired
about Worcester, as he commonly did, and expressed his amazement
at its remarkable growth.
I stayed with him about twenty or thirty minutes. The topics
of our conversation were, I believe, suggested by me, and
the whole conversation was one which gave evidence of full
understanding on his part of what we were talking about. It
was not merely an old man's memory of the past, but the fresh
and vigorous thought on new topics which were suggested to
him in the course of the conversation. I think he exhibited
a quickness and vigor of thought and intelligence and spoke
with a beauty of diction that no man I know could have surpassed.
I asked him if he could account for the interest in historical
study among the older Harvard graduates, and mentioned the
fact that the principal historians of this country, including
himself, Prescott, Sparks, Motley, Palfrey and Parkman, were
all Harvard men and were eminent at a time when there were
scarcely any other eminent historical scholars in America.
He did not directly answer this question, but said that his
own inclination toward history, he thought, was due very much
to the influence of his father. He said his father would
have been a very eminent historian, if he had had material
at his command, and that he had a remarkably judicious mind.
He spoke of some clergymen, especially the Unitarian clergymen,
so many of whom belonged to Harvard at his time. He said
he had little sympathy for the Unitarianism of his day, "for
its theology, no; for its spirituality, yes."
He asked me about the Election Bill pending in the Senate.
I spoke of the great storm of abuse I had had to encounter
for advocating it, but said I thought on the whole the feeling
between the different sections of the country and different
political parties was better than it ever had been before
in this country, and much better than that which now existed
between different political parties in foreign countries.
He cordially agreed to this, and made some observations which
I do not now recall, but which were interesting and bright.
After we had talked together for some time, he said: "My
memory is very poor: I cannot remember your first name."
I said: "It is the same as yours, Mr. Bancroft--George."
He paused a moment with an amused and puzzled look, and said:
"What is your last name?" He had evidently known me very
well during most of the preceding part of the interview.
I told his son about this conversation the day after Mr.
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.