George Bancroft George Bancroft ( October 3 , 1800 – January 17 , 1891 ) was an American historian and statesman who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state and at the national level . During his tenure as U . S . Secretary of the Navy , he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845 . Among his best - known writings is the magisterial series , " History of the United States , from the Discovery of the American Continent " . Early life and education . His family had been in Massachusetts Bay since 1632 , and his father , Aaron Bancroft , was distinguished as a revolutionary soldier , a leading Unitarian clergyman and author of a popular life of George Washington . Bancroft was born in Worcester , and began his education at Phillips Exeter Academy and entered Harvard College at thirteen years of age . At age 17 , he graduated from Harvard and went to study in Germany . Abroad , he studied at Heidelberg , Göttingen and Berlin . At Göttingen he studied Plato with Arnold Heeren ; history with Heeren and Gottlieb Jakob Planck ; Arabic , Hebrew , New Testament Greek and scripture interpretation with Albert Eichhorn ; natural science with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach ; German literature with Georg Friedrich Benecke ; French and Italian literature with Artaud and Bunsen ; and classics with Georg Ludolf Dissen . In 1820 , he received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen . Bancroft capped off his education with a European tour , in the course of which he sought out almost every distinguished man in the world of letters , science and art , including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Wilhelm von Humboldt , Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , Lord Byron , Barthold Georg Niebuhr , Christian Charles Josias Bunsen , Friedrich Karl von Savigny , Varnhagen von Ense , Victor Cousin , Benjamin Constant and Alessandro Manzoni . Career in education and literature . Bancroft ' s father had devoted his son to the work of the ministry . While the young man delivered several sermons shortly after his return from Europe in 1822 which produced a favorable impression , the love of literature proved the stronger attachment . His first position was that of tutor of Greek at Harvard . Instinctively a humanist , Bancroft had little patience with the narrow curriculum of Harvard in his day and the rather pedantic spirit with which classical studies were pursued there . Moreover , he had brought from Europe a new manner , imbued with ardent Romanticism and this he wore without ease in the formal , self - satisfied and prim provincial society of New England ; the young man ' s European air was subjected to ridicule , but his politics were sympathetic to Jacksonian democracy . A little volume of poetry , translations and original pieces , published in 1823 gave its author no fame . As time passed , 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 labor . He found the conversational atmosphere of Cambridge uncongenial , and with Joseph Cogswell he established the Round Hill School at Northampton , Massachusetts . This was the first serious effort made in the United States to elevate secondary education to the plane on which it belonged . In spite of the exacting and severe routine of the Round Hill School , Bancroft contributed frequently to the " North American Review " and to Walsh ' s " American Quarterly " ; he also made a translation of Heeren ' s work on " The Politics of Ancient Greece " . In 1826 he published an oration in which he advocated universal suffrage and the foundation of the state on the power of the whole people . In 1830 , without his knowledge , he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature , but refused to take his seat , and the next year he declined a nomination , though certain to have been elected , for the state senate . In 1834 appeared the first volume of the " History of the United States " , which would appear over the next four decades ( 1834 – 74 ) and established his reputation . In 1835 , he moved to Springfield , Massachusetts , where he completed the second volume of his history . The year of his move , he also drafted an address to the people of Massachusetts at the request of the Young Men ' s Democratic Convention . Family . His first wife was Sarah Dwight , of a rich family in Springfield , Massachusetts ; they married in 1827 but she died in 1837 . His second wife was Mrs Elizabeth Davis Bliss , a widow with two children to add to his two sons ; she bore him a daughter . Historian . Bancroft , having trained in the leading German universities , was an accomplished scholar , whose magisterial " History of the United States , from the Discovery of the American Continent " covered the new nation in depth down to 1789 . Bancroft was imbued with the spirit of Romanticism , emphasizing the emergence of nationalism and republican values , and rooting on every page for the Patriots . His masterwork started appearing in 1834 , and he constantly revised it in numerous editions . Along with John Gorham Palfrey ( 1796 – 1881 ) , he wrote the most comprehensive history of colonial America . Billias argues Bancroft played on four recurring themes to explain how America developed its unique values : providence , progress , patria , and pan - democracy . " Providence " meant that destiny depended more on God than on human will . The idea of " progress " indicated that through continuous reform a better society was possible . " Patria " ( love of country ) was deserved because America ' s spreading influence would bring liberty and freedom to more and more of the world . " Pan - democracy " meant the nation - state was central to the drama , not specific heroes or villains . Vitzthum argues that Bancroft was the historian as artist and philosopher . He used past events to exemplify his moral vision , based on his Unitarian faith in progress . The history of America exemplified the gradual unfolding of God ' s purpose for mankind - the development of religious and political liberty . The tone of moral certainty made his volumes popular , in combination with their grand artistic sweep , intensity , and coherence . Bancroft was an indefatigable researcher who had a thorough command of the sources , but his rotund romantic style and enthusiastic patriotism annoyed later generations of scientific historians , who did not assign his books to students . Furthermore , scholars of the " Imperial School " after 1890 took a much more favorable view of the benign intentions of the British Empire than he did . Career in politics . His entry into politics came in 1837 with his appointment by Martin Van Buren as Collector of Customs of the Port of Boston . In this position , two of Bancroft ' s appointees were Orestes Brownson and Nathaniel Hawthorne . In 1844 , he was the Democratic candidate for the governorship of Massachusetts , but he was defeated . In 1845 , in recognition for his support at the previous Democratic convention , he entered Polk ' s cabinet as Secretary of the Navy , serving until 1846 , when for a month he was acting Secretary of War . During his short period in the cabinet , he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , gave the orders which led to the occupation of California , and sent Zachary Taylor into the contested 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 , opposed slavery . The Naval Academy was devised and completely set at work by Bancroft alone , who received for the purpose all the appropriations for which he asked . Congress had never been willing to establish a naval academy . Bancroft studied the law to ascertain the powers of the Secretary of the Navy , and found that he could order the place where midshipmen should wait for orders . He could also direct the instructors to give lessons to them at sea , and by law they had power to follow them to the place of their common residence on shore . With a close economy , the appropriation of the year for the naval service met the expense , and the secretary of war ceded an abandoned military post to the navy . So when Congress came together they found the midshipmen that were not at sea comfortably housed at Annapolis , protected from the dangers of idleness and city life , and busy at a regular course of study . Seeing what had been done , Congress accepted the school , which was in full operation , and granted money for the repairs of the buildings . Bancroft introduced some new professors of great merit into the corps of instructors , and he suggested a method by which promotion should depend , not on age alone , but also on experience and capacity ; but this scheme was never fully developed or applied . Bancroft was also influential in obtaining additional appropriations for the United States Naval Observatory . He likewise made himself the authority on the Oregon boundary dispute , with the result that in 1846 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to London , where he lived in constant companionship with the historian Macaulay and the poet Hallam . With the election of Zachary Taylor his post was not renewed ; on his return to the United States in 1849 he withdrew from public life , residing in New York and writing history . While in New York , Bancroft acted as a founding member of the American Geographical Society and served as the society ' s first president for nearly three years ( Feb . 21 , 1852 — Dec . 7 , 1854 ) . In April 1864 , at Bancroft ' s request , President Lincoln wrote out what would become the fourth of five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address . Mr . Bancroft planned to include this copy in " Autograph Leaves of Our Country ' s Authors , " which he planned to sell at a Soldiers ' and Sailors ' Sanitary Fair in Baltimore . Bancroft was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1863 . 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 . Then he lived in Washington , D . C . , summering at Rose Cliff , Newport , Rhode Island . His latest official achievements are considered the greatest . In the San Juan arbitration he displayed great versatility and skill , winning his case before the emperor with brilliant ease . The naturalization treaties , named the " Bancroft treaties " in his honor , which he negotiated successively with Prussia and the other north German states were the first international recognition of the right of expatriation , a principle since incorporated in the law of nations . He died in 1891 . He had been the last surviving member of the Polk cabinet . Works . His minor publications include : Among his other speeches and addresses may be mentioned a lecture on “ The Culture , the Support , and the Object of Art in a Republic , ” in the course of the New York Historical Society in 1852 ; and one on “ The Office , Appropriate Culture , and Duty of the Mechanic . ” Bancroft contributed a biography of Jonathan Edwards to the " American Cyclopædia " . Namesakes and Monuments . The United States Navy has named several ships USS " Bancroft " , as well as the fleet ballistic missile submarine USS " George Bancroft " ( SBN - 643 ) , after Bancroft , and the mid - 19th century United States Coast Survey schooner USCS " Bancroft " also was named for him . The dormitory at the United States Naval Academy , Bancroft Hall , is named after him as well . Bancroft is one of 23 famous names on the $ 1 Educational currency note of 1896 . The name of Bancroft is found atop one of several marble pillars in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the United States Library of Congress in Washington , DC . It is believed this is attributed to George Bancroft . In and around Worcester , Massachusetts , Bancroft ' s birthplace , many streets , businesses and monuments bear his name :