GEORGE BANCROFT. 359 



The stirring events in which Bancroft as a member of Polk's 

 Cabinet participated were of momentous consequence to liis coun- 

 try. Every believer in what was then termed the ''manifest 

 destiny " of the country was compelled to admit that it was true 

 statesmanship to seize the opportunity for gaining the magnificent 

 territory offered for our control by the republic of Texas. Every 

 antislavery man felt that Texas would not have been annexed, 

 except that it would add another slaveholding State. Whether to 

 sacrifice an opportunity which might not occur again, or to take 

 the chances of a future adjustment of the powers of the two sections, 

 was the question which antislavery men were forced to solve. To 

 most Northerners the overwhelming antislavery sentiment in the 

 North made the solution of the problem easy; but to an antislavery 

 Democrat holding an office of power, the position was a difficult 

 one. Mr. Bancroft was a Democrat, an ardent lover of his coun- 

 try, and an antislavery man. Bev. Dr. Hale is authority for the 

 statement that, while his confirmation as Secretary of the Navy was 

 before the Senate, he was approached by a Senator on the subject 

 of slavery, and in reply to questions as to his views he said that 

 he was an antislavery man, and if he were to go tlirough the 

 Senate he must go erect and not on his knees. The annexation 

 of Texas carried with it a possibility of war with Mexico. The 

 general opinion at that time was that the days of Mexico's occu- 

 pation of Upper California were numbered, and it was feared that 

 England would take possession whenever opportunity offered. That 

 it would be in the interest of civilization if the United States 

 should by any chance secure this territory, there was no doubt 

 in any person's mind. It was under these circumstances that 

 Bancroft, to quote the language of Von Holtz, "never wearied 

 of impressing this one precept upon Sloat, Stockton, and Biddle. 

 See to it that as soon as practicable Upper California at least be in 

 our hands, in order that we may retain it if peace is concluded upon 

 the basis of uti possidetis.^ ^ The same author measures tlie situ- 

 ation in the United States at that time in the following language: 

 "After its territory had once been extended thus far to the West, 

 it w^as a proper, nay, an inevitable thought, that its banner must 

 overshadow the entire continent, in its whole extent from ocean to 

 ocean." 



In 1846, Bancroft was transferred from the Cabinet to the Court 

 of St. James. During the three years that he remained in London 

 as Minister Plenipotentiary, he negotiated a postal treaty between 



