OBITUARY NOTICES. 
447 
of the Supreme Court—Mr. Justice Field alone dissenting— 
wherein the Court asserted the right of the Government to 
make its notes a legal tender in payment of private debts- 
“ This opinion,” Mr. Bancroft declared, “ if it should be ac¬ 
cepted as a law, would be a death blow to the Constitution.” 
His last published address was delivered in the same year 
before the American Historical Association of which he was 
president. 
The seventeen years which Mr. Bancroft spent in Wash¬ 
ington and Newport were the ideal years of a scholar and 
a distinguished citizen. Always a worker, he still found 
abundant time in later life for social intercourse. He rose 
early and kept his secretary always diligently employed, but 
his afternoons and evenings w r ere given up to his friends and 
visitors, and to his flowers and daily exercise. Foreign vis¬ 
itors to this country and members of the foreign legations 
were frequent callers at his house, and he had cordial rela¬ 
tions with successive administrations. 
In personal appearance Mr. Bancroft was slender and of 
medium height. In his later years he had abundant white 
hair and a long white beard, which gave him the appearance 
of greater height than he possessed. 
His figure was familiar to many in Washington, as he 
appeared almost daily in the pleasant weather upon horse¬ 
back, erect and handsome as a knight of old. 
Few great Americans have lived through such an ideal 
old age. 
Many of our eminent scholars and statesmen have spent 
their later years struggling with waning powers and disease 
and pain. 
It was Mr. Bancroft’s happy fortune to retain his health 
and the almost full possession of his powers, and to be able 
to enjoy life and to be a delight to his wide circle of friends 
to the very last. 
Joseph B. Marvin. 
