Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-10-31
Ql'lDBio @ SStatesrtr1rarrI,
The Horrors of BancrOfd'S History
qh I7ui OF the United States. a.u sd oI
IIFrOm the New York World.l 2

The Horrors of EsancrOff's History
| nj 7ui Of Ihe United States. ..u sd nr
-as lIH 0EFrom the New York Worldl PEI 'mi1
Mr.. Bancroft's work is rather declama-
| tion than history. True, he states many
| historical facts, but their setting is not
narrative, tits declamatory rhetoric. A re-
mark made by him in his second volume,
in connection with the writingsof William
Penn, is characteristic expression of the
idea which has presided over the compost
tion of his history. "Penn,h says Mr..
Bancroft, too often forgot that style is the
| gossamer on which the seeds Of truth float
through the worldp Mr.. Bancroft has
| spent his life in weaving clouds Of this kind
Of gossamer, Of texture so light that it
ought to be able to- float great deal of
| truth. His historical facts are frequently
so ecipsed by their downy piniOns that
nothing is visible but the rhetorical gossa-
mer. We do notdispute that this is always
snowy, and often very pretty; our objec-
tion to it is that it is not history, that the
| beautiful--if any body chooses to think
them beautiful-feats of Mr.. Bancroft's
Imagination are not the deeds of our fore
fathers about which we crave information.
| In the earlier volumes we sometimes meet
a dozen consecutive pages of the merest
defamation, orit anybody pleases, of dec,
grafton. When the North river was dis
covered by Hendrick Hudson, its shores
were covered with forests. This is one of
Mr.. Bancroft's "secds of truth" which,
being true of the whole continent up to
the time discovered, did not perhaps re-
qure repetition from each particular local
ity. But in Mr.. Bancroft this seed Of truth
requires two pages Of gossamer to "flOat
| it through the world" 'Sombre forests"
be says, ''shed a melancholy grandeur over
| the useless magniticence of nature aud hid
/ in their deep shades the rich soil which the
sun had never warmed" Knowing that
the shores of the Hudson were originally
wooded, we hardly need the historians as
| sstance to discover that the soil was shaded;
but when he had kindly told us this, was
| IL necessary for him to add, for our in
| formation, that the shade kept out the sun
| and prevented its warming the soil? He
| proceeds to communicate the following use
| fill results of historical research: mo AK
| bad leveled the giant progeny of the crowd
| ed groves" lit would Oe difficult to dispute
the veracity of the historian on this point,
| if we accept his previous statement that
the sun had never penetrated the soil. Tin
which the fantastic forms of withered limbs,
that had been blasted and riven by light
| ming. cOntrasted strangely with the verdant
u
All of which valuable information is, no
doubt the result of deep historical research!
But let us attend further to the gossamer
on which Mr.. Bancroft floats this small
seed of truth. ''Hhe wanton grapevine,
seeming by its own power to have sprung
from the earth, and to have fastenedits
leafy coils on the top of the tallest forest
tree, swung in the air with every breeze,
like the loosened shrouds of ship" Pretty
as this kind of writing may be, readers
would hardly pardon us if we copied the
| whole two pages in which Mr.. Bancroft
| floats so tritc truth as that the banks of
the Hudson were forest-clad in the year
1909. We will skip much and Gull one or
| two more sentences. "The ground was
strewn with the ruin of former forests,
over which prOtusion of wild flowers
wasted their freshness in mockery of the
gloonl." Itbeing pretty well ascertained
that the life of trees is not eternal, Mr.. Ban
croft is very considerate in aiding us to
draw the conclusion that the superannuated
trees fall down and moulder, and furnish
nutriment to wild flowers. "The spotted
deer couched among the thickets; but not
to hide, for there was no pursuer."' 1t
seems that the wolves and Indians OF that
| day did not like .venison. Such writing
would perhaps be deemed admirable, if iT
were the product of school girls fancy /;
butts it history? 'vf' r-ru
Mr.. Bancroft devotes twenty-four pages
| (332.356, Vol. Ii) to turgd defamation
about George Fox and the Quakers. The
seeds Of truth, which it takes all this goS-
samer to float might have been comprised
in half page. In those itwenty-four gos-
samer pages we learn, among other new
and surprising truths, that "the little
child, as it begins to pratue, makes in
| quiries which the most profound philos-
opher cannot solves" that '"the infidel
rejected religion, the Quaker cherished it
as his life;" that "their matches, they were
wont to say, are registered in heaven" !"
that the Quaker is but a pilgrim on
earth, and life is but the ship that bears him
to the haven p that "God, the searcherot
hearts, is the witness to his sineerity;" that
"the Quaker never employed force to eff
feet q Social revolution or reiorm;" that
''the moral power Of ideas is constantly ef-
fectipg changes and improvements in So
ciety - that "even Aristotle, so many
centuries ago, recognized the upward ten
dency of human affairs" that 'the inner
light knows no distinction of seX;n that
Z" with God a thousand years are as one
day;" and multitude of other truths
equally novel, and equally forming part
of the history of the United States. In the
same volume, Mr.. Bancroft has a portrait
of Franklin, extending to several pages, in
which we are told that "his mind was like
a mirror, in which the universe, as 10 re-
Gected itself, revealed her laws;" that "his
hope was steadfast, like the hope which
rests on the Rock of Ages, and his conduct
as unerring as though the light that led
| him was light from heaven;' that "he,
froF ha nj oht