444 
GEORGE BANCROFT. 
increased until the attendance reached several hundred. 
The teachers secured a beautiful estate near Northampton, 
Massachusetts, where they established a delightful students’ 
home, in which study was combined with healthful bucolic 
occupations and amusements. Farm life and long rambles 
were combined with thorough mental training. Pupils 
came from all parts of the country, many of them from the 
Southern States, and many men of note there obtained their 
early education. Though an excellent school, it was not 
financially profitable to its founders, and in 1830 Mr. Ban¬ 
croft abandoned the enterprise. 
During his stay at Round Hill Mr. Bancroft, always an 
industrious student, did much literary work. He contrib¬ 
uted to the North American Review, and translated Heeren’s 
“ Politics of Ancient Greece ” and “ Jacob’s Latin Reader.” 
He also delivered an oration in Boston advocating universal 
suffrage and Democracy. 
After leaving Round Hill he was elected, without his 
knowledge, to the State legislature, but declined the position. 
He also declined a nomination to the State senate. In 1831 
he published a paper on “ The Bank of the United States ” 
and another on “ The Documentary History of the Revolu¬ 
tion.” He likewise prepared at this time the address to the 
people of Massachusetts for the young men’s Democratic 
convention. He was in politics a Democrat, and always 
possessed in a high degree that democratic instinct which 
De Tocqueville emphasizes as the foremost characteristic of 
the American citizen. 
In 1834 appeared the first volume of his great work, ‘“'The 
History of the United States.” In 1835 he took up his resi¬ 
dence at Springfield, Massachusetts. The second volume of 
his history appeared in 1837 and the third in 1840. From 
1838 to 1841 he was collector of the port of Boston, having 
been appointed to that position by President Van Buren. 
In 1844 he was the Democratic candidate for governor of 
Massachusetts, but was defeated, though he received a large 
vote. 
