The nationalism of George Bancroft

154 Pages·08.221 MB·English

by  Lindop, Edmund Frank, Jr

THE NATIONALISM OF G-EORG-E BANCROFT
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of History
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts In History
by
Edmund Frank Lindop, Jr.
August 1950
UMI Number: EP59630
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This thesis, written hy
.....E tound _ J£r ank„ Mndop.*... Jr .........
under the guidance of hlJSL... Faculty Committee,
and approved hy all its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
Graduate Study and Research in partial fulfill­
ment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in History.......
D«^...4UgU.8.ta....l95Q.
Faculty Committee
K
Chairman
PREFACE
The rise of nationalism has been one of the most sig­
nificant characteristics of modern history* In the United
States a large number of men and women have helped to shape
the character and to promote the growth of a national spirit#
The purpose of this paper is to study the role played by
G-eorge Bancroft in the story of American nationalism.
. In the nineteenth century Bancroft occupied a promin­
ent position In the American scene, both as a man of public
affairs and as an historian# Bancroft knew personally, and
often intimately, a great many of the important personali­
ties of his age, both in America and abroad, and he advised
practically every President from Jackson through Cleveland
on important state matters. His long and colorful public
career was highlighted by a cabinet office in Polk*s ad­
ministration and by opportunities to represent his country
as minister to London from 1846 through 1849 and as minister
to Berlin from 1867 through 1874.
As an historian Bancroft made the first serious.at­
tempt to tell the story of the American republic on a truly
comprehensive, all-inclusive scale* His History of the
United States from the Discovery of the Continent was ex­
tremely popular with the readers of his age, and millions of
young American students in the years 1840 to 1890 learned
iv
their American history primarily from the pages of Bancroft.
Consequently, the influence that Bancroft wielded
over both the affairs and the minds of Americans was con­
siderable, and it is the aim of this paper to study in what
ways and to what degree such influence was nationalistic.
The first chapter traces the early development of the
various facets of Bancroft1s nationalism. Chapters two,
three, and four reveal the ways in which Bancroft applied
his nationalistic philosophy to his activities in public af­
fairs. In chapter five Bancrofts major writings are
analyzed from the standpoint of their references to national­
ism, and the critical reception of his works is discussed.
The Investigation of the many significant phases of
nationalism is still today virtually a virgin field for
historical scholarship. If this paper encourages others to
pursue studies that will shed light on the phenomenal devel­
opment of nationalism in this and in other countries, the
author will feel that his efforts have been worthwhile.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE.........: ................................. Ill
CHAPTER
X. THE EARLX DEVELOPMENT OF BANCROFT'S
NATIONALISM ................................ 1
II. BANCROFT'S NATIONALISM AND THE FLOURISHING
FORTIES.................................... 27
III. BANCROFT'S NATIONALISM AND THE WAR BETWEEN
THE STATES . 57
IV. BANCROFT'S NATIONALISTIC ACTIVITIES WHILE
MINISTER TO BERLIN, 1867-187^ 83
V. THE NATIONALISM <?F BANCROFT, THE HISTORIAN . . 103
VI. CONCLUSIONS.................................. 135
BIBLIOGRAPHX ..................... 140
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF BANCROFT'S NATIONALISM
When young George Bancroft was graduated from Harvard
University in 181?> the fashion of sending promising American
students abroad to continue their studies was just beginning
to prevail- Edward Everett, George Ticknor, and Joseph Green
Cogswell were the pioneer Harvard graduates who traveled to
Germany to study under the coterie of brilliant professors in
German universities. When each of these young men returned
to America his foreign scholarship bore such rich fruit that
President John Kirkland of Harvard was anxious to find other
promising young students who could not only gain priceless
training abroad, but who could also interpret European
thought and culture to America-^ Such a student, thought
President Kirkland, was George Bancroft, the scholarly son
of a prominent Unitarian minister- The youth had expressed
his desire to follow in his father's footsteps and become an
accomplished theologian, so President Kirkland arranged for
Bancroft to go first to GSttingen, and his letter of Intro­
duction' to Professor Eichhom instructed him that he wished
Bancroft "to attend especially to philology, the ancient
•^ee Orie William Long, Literary Pioneers (Cambridge,
Mass., 1935)t for a detailed account of the studies of the
Americans in German universities.
2
languages and Oriental literature, that he may be qualified
o
to pursue theological studies to the greatest benefit.”
Bancroft^ first impressions of G-ottingen were acute­
ly distasteful. Of the G-erman students he wrote, 111 remem­
ber even now the first time that I saw a party of them
collected, and I believed never to have seen any of my
fellow beings so rough, uncivilized, and without cultiva­
tion.”^ His distaste sank to utter disgust when he found
that his fellow theological students were the most poorly
behaved of the lot, and this opinion never changed in his
two years at G-ottingen, for he concluded, upon leaving that
institution, that ”the class of men for whom I have the least
respect, . . . who appear to me to have the least moral feel­
ing, G-od forgive me if I am uncharitable, are the students
<i h
of theology.11
The intense moral and religious consciousness that
was to become such a prominent factor in the nationalism of
the mature Bancroft was firmly established in his youth, so
2
M. A. DeWolfe Howe, The Life and Letters of George
Bancroft (2 vols., New York, 1908), I, 33™ (Hereinafter
cited as Howe.)
3
From Journal of April 1^, 1819> as quoted in Long,
on. cit., p. 11^.
k
From Journal of August 19> 1821, as quoted in Long,
op. cit., p. 130.
3
it was not unusual for him to regard his fellow students
with a contemptuous attitude. As early as 1821, for example,
Bancroft expressed the doctrine of self-reliance and its
ultimate dependence on G-od with such striking clarity that
one authority has even favorably compared it to similar
statements of Emerson twenty years later.5 Bancroft wrote
to a friend:
1 Tis but within a few months, that I have learnt
the necessity of self reliance. . . • For our faith
and our virtue we must not depend on any external im­
pulse, but draw it from a source, which is always ours.
. . . The precept Be perfect as G-od is perfect, con­
tains in itself the very essence of morals and re­
ligion. . . . Such are the principles. to which I have
been led; and now for the first time I feel myself in­
dependent . ® .
In the same letter Bancroft explained his philosophy
of life and described his dreams of futurity, writing that
“there are three things that I covet much; yea four that I
vehemently long for. Virtue, a life of study, and cheerful­
ness. If to these be added the calm and pure delights of
friendship, what more do I need to be perfectly happy?”^
Bancroft was sorely disappointed in his teachers at
Gottingen, for, like his fellow students, they failed to
■^Russel B. Nye, “The Religion of George Bancroft,”
Journal of Religion, XIX (July, 1939)> 222.
6Howe, I, 110-13.
7Ibld., 113-
k
live in accordance with his preconceived moral standards.
Consequently, Bancroft tended to turn his hack on his pro­
fessors. BI know of no man in Gottingen,0 he wrote, “whom
I can honor with my whole heart and reason. I know of no man
with whom I can actually interchange ideas, no man in whose
Q
vicinity I seem to breathe purity.” Bancroft, yearning for
lofty, morally inspired teaching, claimed that he "never
heard anything like moral or religious feeling manifested in
their theological lectures. They neither begin with (rod nor
go on with Him, and there is a great deal more religion im
a few lines of Xenophon than in a whole course of Eichhorn.
In spite of the fact that neither students nor pro­
fessors at Gottingen could please Bancroft, he did not look
upon his years at that institution as futile. As early as
1819 he wrote, “What have I done since coming to Germany? I
8
From Journal of January 9, 1819 > as quoted in Long,
00. cit., p. 113*
^From Journal of January 15 1820, as quoted in Long,
1
op. cit., p. 120. Eichhorn also disappointed Bancroft in his
approach to history. The young American, writing a few years
after his German college experiences, claimed that Eichhorn1 s
works .on modern Europe were not only lacking in eloquence but
also in 11 philosophic Instructions which the revolutions of
the world might teach." Furthermore, the highly patriotic
Bancroft charged that Eichhorn1 s account “of our late war
with the English, seems to have been derived mainly from the
coloured statements of English writers. Eichhorn has mis­
taken the whole character and the issue of the contest.11
(Bancroft, “Dwight’s Travels in Germany,“ American Quarterly
Review, VI C September , 1829], 198."J