, 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 labour, "ohne Hast, aber auch ohne Rast." He
found the conventional atmosphere of Cambridge uncongenial, and with a
friend he established the Round Hill school at Northampton, Mass. This was
the first serious effort made in the United States to elevate secondary
education to the plane on which it belonged.

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 under pressure
from the family of his first wife, who were ardent Whigs, he 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
appointees 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 established 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 continued 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 minister 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 1866 he 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. Thenceforward he
lived in Washington and Newport, dying at Washington on the 17th of January
1891. His latest official achievements were the greatest. In the San Juan
arbitration he displayed great versatility and skill, winning his case
before the emperor with brilliant ease. Th