Bancroft, George (1800-1891)

History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent

Boston

Little, Brown, and Co

1858

"His faculties were so well balanced and combined, that his constitution, free from excess, was tempered evenly with all the elements of activity, and his mind resembled a well-ordered commonwealth."

His faculties were so well balanced and combined, that his constitution, free from excess, was tempered evenly with all the elements of activity, and his mind resembled a well-ordered commonwealth: his passions, which had the intensest vigour, owned allegiance to reason; and, with all the fiery quickness of his spirit, his impetuous and massive will was held in check by consummate judgment. He had in his composition a calm which gave him, in moments of highest excitement, the power of self-control, and enabled him [End Page 396] to excel in patience, even when he had most cause for disgust. Washington was offered a command when there was little to bring out the unorganized resources of the continent but his own influence, and authority was connected with the people by the most frail, most attenuated, scarcely-discernible threads; yet, vehement as was his nature, impassioned as was his courage, he so restrained his ardour, that he never failed continuously to exert the attracting power of that influence, and never exerted it so sharply as to break its force.
(pp. 396-7)

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Bancroft, George. History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent. Vol. VII. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1858. <Link to "Making of America Books">

03/16/2009