(October 3, 1800–January 17, 1891), was a historian, diplomat and educator. He served as Secretary of Navy under President Polk, 1845–46, directing the establishment of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, as well as the Naval Observatory at Washington, D.C. He served as U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1846–49; and later Germany.
In 1834, he published the first volume of his ten-volume History of the United States, (1834–1876). This was the first comprehensive history of America written from its beginnings to the ratification of the Constitution. For more than 50 years it was the best-known and most widely read history of America. In 1882, he published the History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States; and in 1885 he published History of the United States from the Discovery of America to the Inauguration of Washington.
In his History of the United States, Volume I, 1834, George Bancroft explained:
Puritanism had exalted the laity. … For him the wonderful counsels of the Almighty had appointed a Saviour; for him the laws of nature had been compelled and consulted, the heavens had opened, the earth had quaked, the Sun had veiled his face, and Christ had died and risen again.2167
From his address entitled, “The Progress of Mankind,” published in his work Literary and Historical Miscellanies, George Bancroft declared:
For the regeneration of the world it was requisite that the Divine Being should enter the abodes and hearts of men and dwell there; that a belief in Him should be received which would include all truth respecting His essence; that He should be known, not as a distant Providence of boundless power and uncertain and inactive will, but as God present in the flesh. …
Amid the deep sorrows of humanity during the sad conflict which was protracted during centuries for the overthrow of the past and the reconstruction of society, the consciousness of an incarnate God carried peace into the bosom of humanity. …
This doctrine once communicated to man, was not to be eradicated. It spread as widely, as swiftly, and as silently as the light, and the idea of GOD WITH US dwelt and dwells in every system of thought that can pretend to vitality; in every oppressed people, whose struggles to be free have the promise of success; in every soul that sighs for redemption.2168
At the time of the Revolution, a full two-thirds of the population of America, estimated at 3,000,000 people, had been trained in the teachings of John Calvin: 900,000 were of Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin, 600,000 were Puritan English, 400,000 were German or Dutch Reformed, the Episcopalians had a Calvinistic confession in their Thirty-nine Articles, in addition to the numerous French Huguenots who had come to the western world.2169 George Bancroft expressed:
He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows little of the origin of American liberty.2170