. American lands and letters. which makes him boil over intohis most exuberant utterances ; and if he catch arhetorical fall, it is oftenest from an over-eager stepin his march to the music of American freedom. Of the larger and generally recognized qualitiesof Bancrofts history, of the wide and untiringresearch involved, of its painstaking, conscien-tious balancing of authorities, and of the earnest,unshrinking Americanism which warms it throughand through, it is unnecessary to sjjeak. Mr. Bancroft was twice married; first in 1827 —his wife surviving only a few years — and again, ifI do not m
. American lands and letters. which makes him boil over intohis most exuberant utterances ; and if he catch arhetorical fall, it is oftenest from an over-eager stepin his march to the music of American freedom. Of the larger and generally recognized qualitiesof Bancrofts history, of the wide and untiringresearch involved, of its painstaking, conscien-tious balancing of authorities, and of the earnest,unshrinking Americanism which warms it throughand through, it is unnecessary to sjjeak. Mr. Bancroft was twice married; first in 1827 —his wife surviving only a few years — and again, ifI do not mistake, during his incumbency of theFederal office in Boston. Both marriages, as oneof his biographers* says with a i)leasant euphuism, * No proper or extended biography of Bancroft has beenpublished. I am indebted for most of the facts cited toTliomas A\)p\Qton (Old and JVeiv)., Sloane, Austin, Scott, andDr. AUiljone, in his Encycloiiasdia, or his later notes in theAmerican Encyclopedia of Biography. GEORGE BANCROFT. 49. George Bancroft in 1854. From the crayon portrait by Satnuel Laiurence (considered by Mr. John C. Bancroft the best portrait extant of his father). contributed to liis happiness, and to his sources ofmaterial comfort. Certain it is that the losses ofRound Hill did not weigh permanently upon him, 50 AMERICAN LANDS &- LETTERS. nor did he ever stand largely in need of revenuefrom professional work or from his books. It was early in the forties that he left Bostonand established liis roof-tree in New York. Forwhat cause a Harvard scholar and a Massachusettsman — both of whose wives had been accomplishedand cultivated New Englanders, and who washimself still deeply enlisted in historic labors—should forego the literary opportunities of Cam-bridge for the surge and clatter of the Manhattancapital, made a puzzle for a good many inquisitivefolk. It was a puzzle that it would be impertinentin us, writing so far after date, to attempt tosolve. Yet it may be whis
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