ABOUT five years ago the late Mrs. John C. Bancroft
entrusted to me the private papers of her father-in-law
that I might prepare the biography now presented.
They were so numerous that the task of drawing forth
from the mass of written words some semblance of the
man whom they concerned seemed at first to offer
nothing but difficulties. Yet it soon appeared that Mr.
Bancroft himself had done much to simplify his biogra-
pher's work. The correspondence was, for the most
part, well arranged; and, best of all, I found that Mr.
Bancroft had secured many of his own early letters from
their recipients, and had followed the practice of pre-
serving copies of most of the letters written during his
active life. When the source of manuscript material
in the following pages is not specifically noted, it may
therefore be understood to lie in the papers placed at
my disposal.

In one of the multitude of letters not used, I find Mr.
Bancroft exclaiming, "Oh! these children and biog-
raphers who cannot leave in the dark what belongs
there." What does belong there, and what does not?

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