Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California/Volume 8/Hubert Howe Bancroft His Work and His Method
HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT: HIS WORK AND HIS METHOD.
ROCKWELL D. HUNT.
At the 1911 meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft was honored by being elected to the office of President. In view of this recognition, and also of the fact that Mr. Bancroft rounds out his four score years on the 5th of May, 1912, it may be appropriate for the Historical Society of Southern California to pause in its annual meeting in order freshly to bring to memory the leading events of this interesting life, review the stages of development of that unique library known as the Bancroft Collection, and briefly consider the methods employed in bringing to early completion the thirty-nine stout volumes comprising the History of the Pacific States, the main body of his works.
In this paper much use has been made of Bancroft's supplemental volume entitled Literary Industries, which—we are assured—was written with his own hand. It is intended that the extracts introduced from this volume, with less frequent quotations from other volumes, shall serve to reflect somewhat of the author's style as well as to supply something of the flavor of the atmosphere (if one may so speak) in which the work that bears his name was done. The page references in parenthesis, unless otherwise indicated, are to the volume Literary Industries.
BIOGRAPHY.
Bancroft was born in Granville, Ohio, on the 5th of May, 1832. He came of good New England stock, he himself informing us that his great-great-grandfather came over from London in 1632. His father was born in Granville, Massachusetts, in 1799; his mother, born the same year, was a native of Vermont. The marriage was celebrated Feb. 21, 1822; and a golden wedding was held in their son's house in San Francisco in 1872. Bancroft tells us that he was born "into an atmosphere of pungent and invigorating puritanism," - an atmosphere which he certainly succeeded in escaping in after years. As a boy he worked hard on a farm, passing a childhood that was not "particularly happy; or if it was, its sorrows are deeper graven on my memory than its joys." (73.) A timid youth, "I threw around myself (he says) a wall of solitude within which admittance was given by few." (75)
His education was limited; indeed, so far as his school life is concerned, we should say he fell considerably short of adequate preparation for a modern college. Like so many other boys, he worked during the summer months and attended school in the winter. He hated grammar, but progressed far enough to get a smattering of Latin and Greek, and an introduction to the higher mathematics, which he greatly enjoyed. At the age of fifteen he was offered the choice of preparing for college or entering the book-store of his brother-in-law, Geo. H . Derby. Possessed of aspirations to be a scholar, and passionately fond of music, "without stopping to count the cost, childlike I struck at once for the prize. If self-devotion and hard study could win, it should be mine. So I chose the life of a student and spent another year in preparing for college." (98) But the allurements of active business and city life proved too great for him; so he decided to quit his studies and enter the book-store. "Nor am I disposed to cavil over the wisdom of my final choice." (104)
At about August 1, 1848, at the age of sixteen, he left Granville for Buffalo, where he entered the service of his relative. This he regards as his "starting out in life." (110) After six months, during which time he was "stubborn and headstrong, impatient under correction," he was discharged. Then he determined to start in business for himself; this he did by becoming, on a limited scale, a book drummer, setting out with horse, wagon, and some cases of books. His unexpected success had the effect of inspiring in the Buffalo firm a deeper respect and greater confidence; "and just as my mind was made up to enter school for the winter I was summoned back to Buffalo," where "I was to enter the store as a recognized clerk, and was to receive a salary of $100 a year." (112) Young Bancroft now began to look upon himself as "quite a man," relaxed from his puritanical ideas, and—to quote his exact words—"I do not think I ever held myself in higher estimation before or since." (112)
In March, 1850, Bancroft's father set out for the gold fields of California, but Hubert was busy with "flirtations, oyster suppers, and dancing parties." (117) In 1852 he was sent out, in company with George L. Kenny, to found a branch house in California. Sacramento was at first decided upon as the best field for a small bookshop. His plans and purposes, however, were quickly at an end because of the death of Derby. Going to San Francisco, the future writer of history sought work for six months without success, then determined to try his fortune at Crescent City.
There he became bookkeeper and seller for Mr. Fairfield, and was so greatly prospered that by practicing frugality he was, at the end of eighteen months, recipient of $250 per month. He engaged in private business there, remaining in all two and a half years. But he places a very low estimate on the experience. "The two and a half years I spent in Crescent City were worse than thrown away, although I did accumulate some $6000 or $8000. (139) He explains that he read little but trashy novels, and spent much time at cards and billiards.
After three years in California, young Bancroft, in November, 1855, sailed for his eastern home, where, tiring of visiting in a few months, his sister (Mrs. Derby) asked him to take her money, amounting to $5500, and use it as he thought best. This offer decided him to enter business in San Francisco; so after establishing credit relations with the leading publishing houses of the East, he returned to California, late in 1856.
Engaging a room near the corner of Montgomery and Merchant Street, he began business under the firm name of H. H. Bancroft & Co. At first he made money slowly; but his store expanded and the magnitude of his business increased.
During his eastern trip of 1859, Mr. Bancroft married Miss Emily Ketchum, a devout young woman of Buffalo. In 1862 he took a hurried trip to Europe, and it was then, he declares, "that ambition became fired, and ideas came rushing in on me faster than I could handle them." (155) In 1866-67 he spent a year in Europe with his wife, returning to San Francisco in the autumn of 1868.
His business assuming larger proportions, he soon moved to Market Street, where he had succeeded in obtaining seven lots together (three on Market Street, four on Stevenson). Here was one of the chief turning points of his life. Occasional breaking away from business, thus giving his thoughts time to form for themselves new channels, had tended to make him master of his affairs and not their slave. Building on the new Market Street site began in 1869. But before the stone structure was completed Bancroft was brought suddenly to the lowest state of depression by the death of his wife, in December of the same year. "Other men's wives had died before, and left them, I suppose, as crushed as I was, but mine had never died, and I knew not what it was to disjoin and bury that part of myself. ... It is not a very pleasant sensation, that of being entirely alone in the universe, that of being on not very good terms with the invisible, and caring little or nothing for the visible. Oh the wearisome sun !' I cried, 'will it never cease shining?' Will the evening never cease its visitation, or the river its flow ? Must the green grass always grow, and must birds always sing? True, I had my little daughter; God bless her! But when night after night she sobbed herself to sleep upon my breast, it only made me angry that I could not help her. Behold the quintessence of folly! to mourn for that which is inevitable to all, to be incensed at inexorable fate, to remain for years sullen over the mysterious ways of the unknowable." (158)
The building was completed in April, 1870, and the Bancroft business rapidly became one of the most extensive of its kind. But years of trial followed hard upon growing prosperity. The effects of the opening of the Pacific Railway, of a series of dry winters and hard years for California, brought on all but a general collapse. "In time, however, with smoothness and regularity, my work assumed shape, part of it was finished and praised ; letters of encouragement came pouring in like healthful breezes to the heated brow; I acquired a name, and all men smiled upon me. Then I built Babylonian towers, and climbing heavenward peered into paradise." (167)
In the meantime the Bancroft Library had risen to worthy proportions and the bookseller had launched upon a literary enterprise quite unparalleled in the history of letters. Mr. Bancroft has told us with much particularity the story of the growth of his unique library in his Literary Industries; (173) - but to speak of that at this point would be a digression.
Nevertheless the latter half of Bancroft's life is so completely absorbed in his literary labors that little remains to be said of his biography apart from them. He began publishing in 1875, declining, the same year the Republican nomination for Congress. Said he: "There were ten thousand ready to serve their country where there was not one to do my work in case I should abandon it." (577)
On October 12, 1876 , he was married to Matilda Coley Griffing, who was thenceforth the companion not only of his bosom, but of his literary activities as well. After the second marriage he philosophizes in this strain: "It has been elsewhere intimated that no one is competent to write a book who has not already written several books. The same observation might be not inappropriately applied to marriage. No man - I will not say woman - is really in the fittest condition to marry who has not been married before. For obvious reasons, a middle-aged man ought to make a better husband than a very young man." (458)
The historical work of H. H. Bancroft required the best part of the energies of thirty years. After adding to the series of thirty-nine volumes "The Chronicles of the Builders," this indefatigable worker entered upon another literary enterprise, of little pretension to history, but more to art, "The Book of the Fair." This has been followed by still other volumes of later date.
In his prime, Mr. Bancroft, in person, was tall, stalwart, and endowed with an iron constitution which has survived shocks other- wise crushing. I would call him a moody man, deeply morose at times, with a far from optimistic view of life, partly induced, no doubt, by extraordinary drafts upon his nervous system and fierce buffetings of his soul, and partly, perhaps, by the innumerable shafts of criticism that have been aimed at his work.
the writings of hubert howe Bancroft.
1. Native Races of the Pacific States, five vols. 1. Wild Tribes; 2. Civilized Nations ; 3. Myths and Languages ; 4. Antiquities ; 5. Primitive History. II. History of Central America, three vols. 1 . 1501-1530; 2. 1530-1800; 3. 1801-1887 . III. History of Mexico, six vols. 1. 1516-1521; 2. 1521-1600; 3. 1600 -1803; 4. 1804-1824; 5. 1824-1861 ; 6. 1861-1887. IV. History of the North Mexican States (and Texas), two vols. 1. 1531 -1800; 2. 1801-1889 . V. History of Arizona and New Mexico, one vol., 1 530 -1888. VI . History of California, seven vols. 1. 1542 -1800; 2. 1801-1824; 3. 1824 -1840; 4. 1840-1845; 5. 1846-1848; 6. 1848-1859; 7. 1860-1890 . VII. His- tory of Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, one vol. , 15 4 0 -1888 . VIII. History of Utah, one vol. , 15 40-1886. IX. History of the North- west Coast, two vols. 1. 1543 -1800; 2. 1800 -1846 . X . History of Oregon, two vols. 1. 1834-1848 ; 2. 1848-1888. XI. History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, one vol., 1845-1889 . XII. History of British Columbia, one vol., 1792-1887. XIII. History of Alaska, 1730-1885 , one vol. XIV . Supplemental Works, six vols. 1. California Pastoral, 1769 -1848; 2. California Inter Pocula, 1848-1856; 3 - 4. Popular Tribunals, two vols.; 5. Essays and Miscellany ; 6. Literary Industries. XV. Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth (Biographical section of the History, complete in seven vols.) . XVI. The Book of the Fair. A history and description of the Columbian Exposition, in 1000 large and richly illustrated pages. XVII. The Book of Wealth. Companion to Book of the Fair. XVIII. The New Pacific. XIX. Some Cities and San Francisco.
The five volumes of "Native Races" were completed October 15, 1875. These volumes, which contain some of Bancroft's best work, may be considered as introductory to the great central work, "The History of the Pacific States," brought to completion in 1890 in twenty-eight volumes. Following the central work (not always chronologically) appeared the supplemental volumes. "The Chronicles of the Builders" made their appearance because of the necessity forced upon the author's mind of some method whereby the men who had made the country what it is should receive more adequate treatment than appeared possible in the History,—or, as the critic would say, more plausibly, because of expectation of gain from a commercial venture. "The Chronicles" have already become so scarce that second-hand dealers are hardly able to supply the demand even at very high prices.
THE PACIFIC OR BANCROFT LIBRARY.
Inception. The inception of the famous Bancroft Library dates back to 1859. Wm. H. Knight, who was then in Bancroft's service as editor of statistical works relative to the Pacific coast, was requested to clear the shelves around his desk to receive every book in the store having reference to this country. Looking through his stock he was agreeably surprised to find some fifty or seventy-five volumes. There was no fixed purpose at this time to collect a library. Noticing accidentally some old pamphlets in an antiquarian book-store, he bethought him to add these to his nucleus; then looked more attentively through other stores and stalls in San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland and Victoria, purchasing a copy of every book relating to his great and growing subject. During his next visit to the eastern states, without special pains or search, he secured whatever fell under his observation in second-hand stores of New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
He had collected in all not far from a thousand volumes and had begun to feel satisfied. "When, however, (he declares) I visited London and Paris, and rummaged the enormous stocks of second-hand books in the hundreds of stores of that class, my eyes began to open. . . . And so it was, when the collection had reached one thousand volumes I fancied I had them all; when it had grown to five thousand, I saw it was but begun." (177) Finally, special journeys were made to all parts of Europe, as well as the Americas, in the interest of his collection. "And not only was every nook and corner of the world thus ramsacked, but whole libraries were purchased as opportunity offered." While his vague ideas of materials for writing a history gradually assumed more definite form, Bancroft had as yet no idea of writing a history himself. As the collecting proceeded his subject enlarged, until the territory covered was the entire western part of North America from Panama to Alaska, including the Rocky Mountain region, all Central America and Mexico, or about one-twelfth of the earth's entire surface.
The bibliophile reached the settled determination to make his collection as complete as it was possible to make it. Neither time, nor money, nor personal attention would be spared. Agents were appointed in all the leading book marts of the world; no book must be lost because of its high price; no opportunity was to be missed to obtain everything in existence on the subject. By buying up at auction in European cities individual collections, and even libraries, the Bancroft Library was enriched beyond measure. In 1869, we are told, Mr. Bancroft found in his possession, including pamphlets, about 16,000 volumes. These were lodged on the fifth floor of the Market Street building, the original home of the library having been a corner of the second story of the building on Merchant Street.
Bancroft now decided to begin literary work, but the collecting went rapidly forward without interruption. Trembling for the safety of the library through fear of fire, he lent a willing ear to his nephew's proposal to absorb the fifth floor for the purposes of the manufacturing department, of which he had charge. He would erect on some convenient spot a fireproof library building. Among the places considered were Oakland, San Rafael, Sonoma, San Mateo, and Menlo Park ; but after a careful canvass and consideration, he selected the well known site on Valencia Street, near its junction with Mission. The library was moved to the building Oct. 9, 1881. There the library stood for years, quite alone in its grandeur.
As the work of writing proceeded, the library was the recipient of a continuous stream of materials both new and old; and yet more was required. Archives were copied, rare documents were purchased, dictations from hundreds of pioneers were taken, precious collections of family papers were begged, borrowed, - and some say stolen. The best exposition of the contents of the library is in the author's "Essays and Miscellany," where four chapters are devoted to literature, as follows: (XV.) Literature of Central America; (XVI.) Literature of Colonial Mexico; (XVII.) Literature of Mexico during the Present Century; (XVIII.) Early California Literature. From an interesting pamphlet, "Evolution of a Library," I extract the following definite claims for the Bancroft Library:
- "In this Valencia Street building is the largest collection of American historical data in the world.
- "This collection contains more of original American historical data than all the libraries in America put together.
- "Without this collection no other collection can ever hope to equal it.
- "No collection of equal magnitude was ever before made by a single individual or within a single life time, at such cost of time and money, or with equal care, thoroughness, and discrimination.
- "No state or nation in the world had its early annals so gathered and preserved as has thus been done by Mr. Bancroft for the states and nations of western North America.
- "The peculiar conditions under which this collection was made having passed away, it can never be duplicated."
When the question of State purchase was taken up the Bancroft Library was said to contain from 50,000 to 60,000 volumes of books, pamphlets, maps and manuscripts; Prof. Rowell, Librarian of the State University, after careful personal examination, estimated the number at 40,000 as a total. For many years the collection had been offered for sale, Mr. Bancroft holding it at $250,000 , which is but a fractional part of the original cost and yet doubtless above the then market price, which Prof. Rowell estimated at about $140,000 , if the complete subject index be included. In 1887 a bill was presented in the State Legislature to purchase the library for the State for $250,000 . Great scandal arising, the proposition was quickly defeated. Some years later the Chicago University thought of buying it. Naturally there was strong sentiment against permitting the Library to be removed from California and the Pacific States.
In 1905 Doctor Reuben G. Thwaites, Librarian of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and one of the foremost book experts in America, was invited to examine the Bancroft Library, "with a view to ascertaining its condition and, so far as may be, its marketable value." In his report Mr. Thwaites characterizes this wonderful collection of documents, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, and other materials, estimating the total value at up- wards of $300,000. The report itself was published November 14, 1905, as a twenty-page pamphlet.
"The Bancroft Library, (to quote from the Report of the Secretary to the Regents of the University of California, year ending June 30, 1906) incomparably superior to any other existing collection as a mine of primary historical material for all western America, a collection which could not even remotely be imitated, at no matter what cost, was acquired by the University on November 24, 1905 , at a cost of $250,000. Of this amount Mr. H. H. Bancroft, whose ingenuity, perseverance and skill created this collection, donated $100,000. Of the remaining $150,000, $50,000 was paid by the regents on November 24, 1905; $50,000 is to be paid November 24, 1906, and the remaining $50,000 in November 1907." (Report, p. 20.)
On June 11, 1907 , the regents of the University approved the Constitution of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, submitted by the Bancroft Library Commission, thus making the Library itself "the indispensable nucleus of a great research library, like that of the British Museum," which has for its object "the promotion of the study of the political, social, commercial, and the industrial history, and the ethnology, geography, and literature of the Pacific Coast of America, and the publication of monographs, historical documents, and other historical material relating thereto.[1]
Bancroft's method of writing.
Standing before the 39 rather sumptuous volumes of the Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, after eliminating the Biographical section and later volumes, occupying some yards of shelving and weighing some hundreds of pounds, one is apt to inquire, How has this been done ? and, What in truth is this, once done ? The name Bancroft on each and every volume inspires a wholesome respect for this same Bancroft; but how is this respect transformed into worship when we open the volumes and are confronted with lists of authorities consulted ad infinitum! For who less than a god can accomplish such things?
How these results were accomplished can be told only in part in this paper. Given a fireproof building full of books and papers and manuscripts ; given also a man with some means and fair experience in buying and selling books - an artisan, as he early calls himself - the problem is to produce - create, manufacture, write - the complete history of the peoples of one-twelfth of the earth's surface. The heterogeneous mass of raw material must first of all be reduced to homegeneity before it can be utilized. "On my shelves (says the master) were tons of unwinnowed material for histories unwritten and sciences undeveloped. In the present shape it was of little use. . . Facts were too scattered; indeed, mingled and hidden as they were in huge masses of débris, the more one had of them the worse one was off." (231) After some failures and frequent discussions, he determined "to have the whole library indexed as one would index a book." More expensive failures. In the perfected system forty or fifty leading subjects were selected, such as Antiquities, Biography, Mining, etc., which should em- brace all relevant knowledge, and these formed the basis of the index.[2]
By this simple device, carried out to three or more sub-topics, the student gains access at once to all sources of information on the given subject. "The cost of this index was about $35,000, but its value is not to be measured by money." (241) It went a great way in bringing the entire library completely under the command of the author and his corps of assistants. Instead of "toiling through a thousand folios in search of possible information," the student finds the title and page and each authority ready. It was found "that by constant application, eight hours a day, it would take 400 years to go through the library in a superficial way.* The index thus prepared has subsequently been found rather seriously defective, and a complete new index has been made since the Collection was acquired by the University of California. However it will be recalled that library science was in its infancy when Bancroft undertook the work.
Bancroft's great plan unfolded itself gradually. Otherwise, he informs us, he would have lacked courage to undertake so vast a work. "At the beginning of my literary pilgrimage I did little but flounder in a slough of despond." (235) "It was because I was led on by my fate, following blindly in paths where there was no returning, that I finally became so lost in my labors that my only way out was to finish them. ... I cannot but feel that in this great work I was but the humble instrument of some power mightier than I, call it fate, providence, environment, or what you will." (3)
His first intention had been to publish a bibliography of the Pacific Coast, but before that year (1870) ended his passionate fondness for writing had found expression in quite a pile of manu- script. "Literature is my love, a love sprung from my brain, no less my child than the offspring of my body." The plan of an encyclopedia of the Pacific States was proposed by several. This task Bancroft did not fancy, but finally consented to superintend such a work.
Considerable interest was taken in the projected work, and a pros- pectus was printed. But meantime he went on writing, for he could not do otherwise. "Whoever has lived, laboring under the terrible pressure of the cacoethes scribendi without promising him- self to write a dozen books for every one accomplished I" (226) Interest in the cyclopedia waned, and an incident in the summer of 1871 brought him to the decision to aim high. He was roused from his lethargy by the remark of an influential lady who con- fronted him with the words: "The next ten years will be the best of your life; what are you going to do with them?" (227) From that day there was less wavering.
The magnitude of Bancroft's self-imposed task was such as to render ordinary methods of history writing absolutely inadequate. Clearly some co-operative system must be devised. The work must be the joint result of many hands and many brains. It will be well to notice a few of the numerous assistants employed in the library. Of the more responsible laborers there were about twenty, while there were probably 600 in all in the library; during thirty years the number seldom fell below twelve, and sometimes ran as high as fifty.
2 Literary Industries, 233.
Henry L. Oak, a Dartmouth graduate and school teacher, be- came general librarian and perhaps chief of all Bancroft's assistants and advisers. A native of Sweden whom the master calls Wm. Nemos, showed special predilection for linguistics and the more abstruse subjects. He had pursued studies in mathematics and philosophy and in part prepared for Upsala University. Thomas Savage, late custodian of the library, was for many years the master's main reliance on Spanish-American affairs. He possessed a thorough knowledge of the Spanish. Frances F. Victor was surpassed by none "in ability, conscientiousness, and never-ceasing interest and faithfulness." (261) Ivan Petroff proved of great value in preparing Russian matter; Cerruti abstracted much material by fair means and by foul, from prominent families. And other names, simply to mention a few - for unfortunately they are strangers in the world of letters - include Walter M. Fisher, T. A. Harcourt, A. Goldschmidt, J. J. Peatfield, Alfred Bates, Alfred Kemp, and others. It would be extremely difficult to find one man who wrote on Bancroft's works whose name would carry the real authority of a history specialist.
There is no way of determining what work was done by individual collaborators, and of course it is impossible to tell just what historical work is from the hand of the chief of staff. The real writers are for most part unknown people, - I will not call them, with one critic, "a horde of hack writers." Yet the editor, who had once owned himself an artisan, with very doubtful mod- esty remarks in another connection; "The best brains of the best men were poor enough for me, and I wanted no secondary interest or efforts." (577) He early took an aversion to female helpers (except Frances Victor), and in a burst of characteristic style he thus expatiates : "Hard work, the hardest of work is not for frail and tender woman. It were a sin to place it on her. Give her a home, with bread and babies, love her, treat her kindly, give her all the rights she desires, even the defiling right of suffrage if she can enjoy it, and she will be your sweetest, loveliest, purest, and most devoted companion and slave. But lifelong application, involving lifelong self-denial, involving constant pressure on the brain, constant tension on the sinews, is not for women, but for male philosophers or - fools. So long since I forswore petticoats in my library; breeches are sometimes bad enough, but when un- befitting they are disposed of somewhat more easily." " I have today nothing to show for thousands of dollars paid out for futile attempts of female writers." (236)
Mr. Bancroft has left us a detailed account of his method of writing history. "An investigator (he urges) should have before him all that has been said upon his subject; he will then make such use of it as his judgment dictates." (179) So far as possible all the material was brought together within instant and con- stant reach, "so that I could place before me on my table the in- formation lodged in the British Museum beside that contained in the archives of Mexico and compare both with what Spain and California could yield, and not be obliged in the midst of my investigations to go from one library to another note-taking. " (470) Mr. Bancroft had bought every book - solid or trashy - on his subject. We are assured that "the task of making references as well as of taking out material was equivalent to five times the labor of writing, . .. for example, in taking out the material for California history alone, eight men were employed for six years; for making the references merely, for the History of Mexico, without taking out any of the required information, five men were steadily employed for a period of ten years." (582)
The system of note-taking was perfected by Nemos. "The first step for a beginner was to make references, in books given him for that purpose, to the information required, giving the place where found and the nature of the facts therein mentioned; after this he would take out the information in the form of notes. By this means he would learn how to classify and how duly to condence. . . . The notes were written on half sheets of legal paper, one following another, without regard to length or subject. . . . The notes when separated and arranged were filed by means of paper bags, on which were marked subject and date, and the bags num- bered chronologically and entered in a book." The assistants' duty was so to reduce the mass of notes and references as to lay the subject matter before the editor "weeded of all superfluities and repetitions, .. . . yet containing every fact, however minute."
The numerous authors referred to were divided into three or more classes, "according to the value of the authority; the first class comprising original narratives and reports; the second, such as were based partly on the first, yet possessed certain original facts or thoughts ; the third, those which were merely copied from others, or presented brief and hasty compilations." (567) By further comparison and refinement of matter the editor was shown which authors confirmed and which contradicted any statement" and thus enabled more safely to draw conclusions. He was thus not compelled to spend time in studying any but the best authorities.
The aim was to have the work in his hands in as advanced a state as possible. Several volumes and parts of volumes the author worked out with great toil alone, "not trusting any one even to take out the material in the rough." It is said that "the entire series, notes and text, was compared with the original authorities by still other men, after the work had been put into type, but be- fore the pages were stereotyped."
Since so much depends upon the literary staff in such a work of co-operation it is of supreme importance that every responsible assistant should be thoroughly capable and absolutely honest. The chief experienced much trouble in securing able men, but pro- fessed to use scrupulous care. "Hence, I say, love of truth for truth's sake must be to every one of these men as the apple of his eye." (246) How unfortunate, then, that persons of no name or literary standing should be intrusted with so important a work. Not that all his assistants were either incapable or untruthful, although I have been informed that certain of them were newspaper reporters who had been discharged for incompetence and lying. Again, when we are made acquainted with Mr. Bancroft's methods of securing family papers, the query becomes pertinent; - is conscience requisite to history writing? Note, for example, how "Gen." Cerruti secures material, according to Bancroft's own statement: "With equal grace he could simulate virtue or wink at vice. Hence, like Catiline planning his conspiracy, he made himself a favorite with the best and the basest. This unprincipled Italian, who prac- ticed lying as a fine art, was directed to open correspondence with General Vallejo, with instructions to use his own judgment, for Vallejo's papers were greatly desired. If "the lie did good service" (425) in furthering Cerruti's projects in Bancroft's behalf, is it entirely unreasonable to venture the suggestion that it likewise furthered Cerruti's mercenary projects in his own evil behalf, all unsuspected by the master? There is a very damaging report that some of Bancroft's staff "faked" wantonly, and at least it would be difficult to deny that there were chances without number.
A uniform and dignified style is precluded by the very methods employed, if indeed, all style and real coherency are not rendered impossible. The semi-occasional bursts of exalted expression some- times remind one of the "purple patch" of the Ars Poética, and not infrequently they are followed by a reckless leyity that causes one deep regret. In addition to the serious defects inevitable to the best co-operative writing, such as uneven style and the want of a steady purpose in an organic narration proceeding from the ground plan of a consistent philosophy of history, the writing in Bancroft's works abounds in idiosyncracies, crudities and hasty compositions ill-suited to sober history.
THE WORK COMPLETED.
Mr. Bancroft accomplished a herculean labor in bringing to com- pletion the thirty-nine volumes of his Works. To do this required the expenditure of a fortune of money and twenty-five years of such patient devotion and infinite toil as few men can boast. Over- whelmed by the magnitude of his task he had "sat for days and brooded, heart-sick and discouraged."
"If but one copy of Mr. Bancroft's books had been made [it is claimed] the cost of it would be, in time and money, a million of dollars." It was without much doubt the severest labor of its kind ever undertaken by a private individual. But it was accomplished in time to permit the author to turn his hand and brain to other and lighter work. And who is there that now regrets the creation of these volumes?
The opportunity was matchless; the subject enticing. The country was old enough to have a history, but yet the beginnings of things could be found out through research. Had not some one collected documents and manuscripts much would have fallen into certain oblivion. What have we, then, in these works of Hubert Howe Bancroft? Not completed history. Hold the work up before the canons of history writing, and it falls short at sundry vital points. It lacks unity of purpose, sense of proportion, and in numerous places orderly statement of related facts. It admits the trivial and the non-relevant, and for most part it is a heterogeneous mass of raw materials of history which has never been put through the crucible of literary style. In criticising the works of Mr. Ban- croft one should not forget the modest pretensions with which the author entered upon his task, however much he may have over- passed these after experience that led him to more exorbitant claims.1 If the work were thoroughly reliable the historical stu- dent would possess an inexhaustible fund of historical data; unfor- tunately, this has not been fully established.
(i) Thus in the preface to his Native Races (Vol. I, p. ix) we read: "Of the importance of the task undertaken, I need not say that I have formed the highest opinion. At present the few grains of wheat are so hidden by the mountain of chaff as to be of comparatively little benefit to searchers in the various branches of learning; and to sift and select from this mass, to extract from bulky tome and transient journal, from the archives of convent and mission, facts valuable to the scholar and interesting to the general reader; to arrange these facts in a natural order, and to present them in such a manner as to be of practical benefit to inquirers in the various branches of knowledge, is a work of no small importance and responsibility. And though mine is the labor of the artisan rather than that of the artist, a forging of weapons for other hands to wield, a producing of raw materials for skilled mechanics to weave and color at will, yet, in undertaking to bring to light from sources innumerable essential facts, which from the very shortness of life if from no other cause, must otherwise be left out in the physical and social generalizations which occupy the ablest minds, I feel that I engage in no idle pastime." The supplemental volumes, we are told, are the work of Ban- croft's own hands, and these are not altogether void of style. A good example is the brief description of the California pioneers, found in Literary Industries (40).
Other examples tend to eradicate whatever good impressions one might have received. Referring to his removal to New Madrid ; "After three years of ague and earthquake agitations in that un- certain bottom sand-blown land of opossums and puckering persim- mons, fearing lest the very flesh would be shaken from our bones, we all packed ourselves back, and began once more where we left off," etc. (78).
About ten years after the publication of The Native Races, the well-known America of Winsor began to appear, designated as history by a new method. Many of the features claimed for this monumental work were quite surely anticipated by Bancroft, who compares his method to that of Mr. Winsor to the disparagement of the latter, concluding, "but it is the same system of my own, though on a somewhat different plan, in my opinion not nearly so good a one, and one that will not produce the same results." But whereas Winsor "always maintained that a historical student to accomplish anything of value must handle all the books and papers with his own hands," Bancroft had the mass of his work brought to his table in a nearly or quite completed state, and through a double or treble refinement found it necessary to handle only the few books, etc., deemed valuable by clerks; whereas Winsor engaged competent men to write what they were specially qualified to write, Bancroft hired unknown clerks and reporters, wisely withholding from their works names which could carry little or no authority ; whereas, finally, Winsor himself was the foremost student of American history, admittedly capable of writing a critical essay on all the topics treated by his collaborators, Bancroft was a plain business man who had never entered college and who erroneously conceived that a vast library could be reduced to a finished history by an elaborate machinery and mere division of labor. It would be manifestly unfair to compare the Works of Bancroft with the Cambridge Modern History, which under the inspiration and general plans of Lord Acton and a board of three able scholars has recently been brought to completion by "a veritable host of eminent scholars drawn from every portion of the world."
Bancroft truly, completed a stupendous labor: I am far from minimizing its value and importance, - the more I look into it the more I am compelled to respect the audacity that conceived it and the pertinacity that brought it to completion. The author, in collecting his unique and unapproachable library and publishing his massive volumes has conferred a benefit on his Coast and his coun- try that his critics are slow to admit.
But one must be pardoned for regretting that he was not able to leave us some such style as that of Parkman, such dignity as that of Oncken or Winsor, such mastery of his splendid subject as is shown by Gibbon ; one must be pardoned, finally, for regretting that Bancroft should have written so largely without sympathy - and hence perfect understanding - with his subject, as in the case of the aborigines of California, that he should have consented to collect materials by means charged with being questionable if not clearly dishonest, that he should have laid himself open to the suspicion of degrading biography by writing up individuals for money.