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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: James Fenimore Cooper
+       American Men of Letters
+
+Author: Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2006 [EBook #19463]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+The original spelling has been retained.]
+
+
+
+
+                         AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS.
+
+                                Edited By
+
+                          CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
+
+
+
+
+                    [Illustration: J. Fenimore Cooper]
+
+
+
+
+                         AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS.
+
+                          JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.
+
+                                   By
+
+                          THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY,
+           Professor Of English In The Sheffield Scientific School,
+                               Yale College.
+
+
+
+
+                                 BOSTON:
+                     HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.
+                 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street.
+                    The Riverside Press, Cambridge.
+                                  1884.
+
+
+
+                             Copyright, 1882,
+                         By THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY
+
+                         _All rights reserved._
+
+                   _The Riverside Press, Cambridge_:
+             Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+
+When Cooper lay on his death-bed he enjoined his family to permit no
+authorized account of his life to be prepared. A wish even, that was
+uttered at such a time, would have had the weight of a command; and
+from that day to this pious affection has carried out in the spirit as
+well as to the letter the desire of the dying man. No biography of
+Cooper has, in consequence, ever appeared. Nor is it unjust to say
+that the sketches of his career, which are found either in magazines
+or cyclopćdias, are not only unsatisfactory on account of their
+incompleteness, but are all in greater or less degree untrustworthy in
+their details.
+
+It is a necessary result of this dying injunction that the direct and
+authoritative sources of information contained in family papers are
+closed to the biographer. Still it is believed that no facts of
+importance in the record of an eventful and extraordinary career have
+been omitted or have even been passed over slightingly. A large part
+of the matter contained in this volume has never been given to the
+public in any form: and for that reason among others no pains have
+been spared to make this narrative absolutely accurate, so far as it
+goes. Correction of any errors, if such are found, will be gratefully
+welcomed.
+
+
+
+
+JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.                                             (p. 001)
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+1789-1820.
+
+
+In one of the interior counties of New York, less than one hundred and
+fifty miles in a direct line from the commercial capital of the Union,
+lies the village of Cooperstown. The place is not and probably never
+will be an important one; but in its situation and surroundings nature
+has given it much that wealth cannot furnish or art create. It stands
+on the southeastern shore of Otsego Lake, just at the point where the
+Susquehanna pours out from it on its long journey to the Chesapeake.
+The river runs here in a rapid current through a narrow valley, shut
+in by parallel ranges of lofty hills. The lake, not more than nine
+miles in length, is twelve hundred feet above tide-water. Low and
+wooded points of land and sweeping bays give to its shores the
+attraction of continuous diversity. About it, on every side, stand
+hills, which slope gradually or rise sharply to heights varying from
+two to five hundred feet. Lake, forest, and stream unite to form a
+scene of quiet but picturesque beauty, that hardly needs the
+additional charm of romantic association which has been imparted to
+it.
+
+Though it was here that the days of Cooper's childhood were        (p. 002)
+passed, it was not here that he was born. When that event took place
+the village had hardly even an existence on paper. Cooper's father, a
+resident of Burlington, New Jersey, had come, shortly after the close
+of the Revolutionary War, into the possession of vast tracts of land,
+embracing many thousands of acres, along the head-waters of the
+Susquehanna. In 1786 he began the settlement of the spot, and in 1788
+laid out the plot of the village which bears his name, and built for
+himself a dwelling-house. On the 10th of November, 1790, his whole
+family--consisting, with the servants, of fifteen persons--reached the
+place. The future novelist was then a little less than thirteen months
+old, for he had been born at Burlington on the 15th of September of
+the year before. His father had determined to make the new settlement
+his permanent home. He accordingly began in 1796, and in 1799
+completed, the erection of a mansion which bore the name of Otsego
+Hall. It was then and remained for a long time afterward the largest
+private residence in that portion of the State. When in 1834 it came
+into the hands of the son, it still continued to be the principal
+dwelling in the flourishing village that had grown up about it.
+
+On his father's side Cooper was of Quaker descent. The original
+emigrant ancestor had come over in 1679, and had made extensive
+purchases of land in the province of New Jersey. In that colony or in
+Pennsylvania his descendants for a long time remained. Cooper himself
+was the first one, of the direct line certainly, that ever even
+revisited the mother-country. These facts are of slight importance in
+themselves. In the general disbelief, however, which fifty years ago
+prevailed in Great Britain, that anything good could come out of   (p. 003)
+this western Nazareth. Cooper was immediately furnished with an
+English nativity as soon as he had won reputation. The same process
+that gave to Irving a birthplace in Devonshire, furnished one also to
+him in the Isle of Man. When this fiction was exploded, the fact of
+emigration was pushed merely a little further back. It was transferred
+to the father, who was represented as having gone from Buckinghamshire
+to America. This latter assertion is still to be found in authorities
+that are generally trustworthy. But the original one served a useful
+purpose during its day. This assumed birthplace in the Isle of Man
+enabled the English journalists that were offended with Cooper's
+strictures upon their country to speak of him, as at one time they
+often did, as an English renegade.
+
+His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Fenimore, and the family to
+which she belonged was of Swedish descent. Cooper himself was the
+eleventh of twelve children. Most of his brothers and sisters died
+long before him, five of them in infancy. His own name was at first
+simply James Cooper, and in this way he wrote it until 1826. But in
+April of that year the Legislature of New York passed an act changing
+the family name to Fenimore-Cooper. This was done in accordance with
+the wish of his grandmother, whose descendants in the direct male line
+had died out. But he seldom employed the hyphen in writing, and
+finally gave up the use of it altogether.
+
+The early childhood of Cooper was mainly passed in the wilderness at
+the very time when the first wave of civilization was beginning to
+break against its hills. There was everything in what he saw and heard
+to impress the mind of the growing boy. He was on the border, if   (p. 004)
+indeed he could not justly be said to be in the midst of mighty and
+seemingly interminable woods which stretched for hundreds of miles to
+the westward. Isolated clearings alone broke this vast expanse of
+foliage, which, covering the valleys and clinging to the sides and
+crowning the summits of the hills, seemed to rise and fall like the
+waves of the sea. The settler's axe had as yet scarcely dispelled the
+perpetual twilight of the primeval forest. The little lake lay
+enclosed in a border of gigantic trees. Over its waters hung the
+interlacing branches of mighty oaks and beeches and pines. Its surface
+was frequented by flocks of wild, aquatic birds,--the duck, the gull,
+and the loon. In this lofty valley among the hills were also to be
+found, then as now, in fullest perfection, the clear atmosphere, the
+cloudless skies, and the brilliant light of midsummer suns, that
+characterize everywhere the American highlands. More even than the
+beauty and majesty of nature that lay open to the sight was the
+mystery that constantly appealed to the imagination in what might lie
+hidden in the depths of a wilderness that swept far beyond glance of
+eye or reach of foot. This, indeed, may have affected the feelings of
+only a few, but there were numerous interests and anxieties which all
+had in common. The little village had early gone through many of the
+trials which mark the history of most of the settlements in regions to
+which few travelers found their way and commerce seldom came. Remote
+from sources of supply, and difficult of access, it had known the time
+when its population, scanty as it was, suffered from the scarcity of
+food. Sullivan's successful expedition against the Six Nations did not
+suffice to keep it from the alarm of savage attack that never came.
+The immense forest shutting in the hamlet on every side had        (p. 005)
+terrors to some as real as were its attractions to others. Its
+recesses were still the refuge of the deer; but they were also the
+haunt of the wildcat, the wolf, and the bear. All these characteristics
+of his early home made deep impression upon a nature fond of
+adventure, and keenly susceptible to the charm of scenery. When
+afterward in the first flush of his fame Cooper set out to revive the
+memory of the days of the pioneers, he said that he might have chosen
+for his subject happier periods, more interesting events, and possibly
+more beauteous scenes, but he could not have taken any that would lie
+so close to his heart. The man, indeed, never forgot what had been
+dear to the boy; and to the spot where his earliest years were spent
+he returned to pass the latter part of his life.
+
+The original settlement, moreover, was composed of a more than usually
+singular mixture of the motley crowd that always throngs to the
+American frontier. The shock of convulsions in lands far distant
+reached even to the highland valley shut in by the Otsego hills.
+Representatives of almost every nationality in Christendom and
+believers in almost every creed, found in it an asylum or a home. Into
+this secluded haven drifted men whose lives had been wrecked in the
+political storms that were then shaking Europe. Frenchmen, Dutchmen,
+Germans, and Poles, came and tarried for a longer or shorter time.
+Here Talleyrand, then an exile, spent several days with Cooper's
+father, and, true to national instinct, wrote, according to local
+tradition, complimentary verses, still preserved, on Cooper's sister.
+An ex-captain of the British army was one of the original merchants of
+the place. An ex-governor of Martinique was for a time the village (p. 006)
+grocer. But the prevailing element in the population were the men of
+New England, born levelers of the forest, the greatest wielders of the
+axe the world has ever known. Over the somewhat wild and turbulent
+democracy, made up of materials so diverse, the original proprietor
+reigned a sort of feudal lord, rather by moral qualities than by any
+conceded right.
+
+Cooper's early instruction was received in the village school, carried
+on in a building erected in 1795, and rejoicing in the somewhat
+pretentious name of the Academy. The country at that time, however,
+furnished few facilities for higher education anywhere; on the
+frontier there were necessarily none. Accordingly Cooper was early
+sent to Albany. There he entered the family of the rector of St.
+Peter's Church, and became, with three or four other boys, one of his
+private pupils. This gentleman, the son of an English clergyman, and
+himself a graduate of an English university, had made his ways to
+these western wilds with a fair amount of classical learning, with
+thorough methods of study, and as it afterwards turned out, Cooper
+tells us, with another man's wife. This did not, however, prevent him
+from insisting upon the immense superiority of the mother-country in
+morals as well as manners. A man of ability and marked character, he
+clearly exerted over the impressionable mind of his pupil a greater
+influence than the latter ever realized. He was in many respects,
+indeed, a typical Englishman of the educated class of that time. He
+had the profoundest contempt for republics and republican institutions.
+The American Revolution he looked upon as only a little less monstrous
+than the French, which was the sum of all iniquities. Connection with
+any other church than his own was to be shunned, not at all        (p. 007)
+because it was unchristian, but because it was ungentlemanly and low.
+But whatever his opinions and prejudices were, in the almost absolute
+dearth then existing in this country of even respectable scholarship,
+the opportunity to be under his instruction was a singular advantage.
+Unfortunately it did not continue as long as it was desirable. In 1802
+he died. It had been the intention to fit Cooper to enter the junior
+class of Yale College; that project had now to be abandoned.
+Accordingly he became, at the beginning of the second term of its
+freshman year, a member of the class which was graduated in 1806. He
+was then but a mere boy of thirteen, and with the exception of the
+poet Hillhouse, two weeks his junior, was the youngest student in the
+college.
+
+Cooper himself informs us that he played all his first year, and
+implies that he did little study during those which followed. To a
+certain extent the comparative excellence of his preparation turned
+out a disadvantage; the rigid training he had received enabled him to
+accomplish without effort what his fellow-students found difficult.
+Scholarship was at so low an ebb that the ability to scan Latin was
+looked upon as a high accomplishment; and he himself asserts that the
+class to which he belonged was the first in Yale College that had ever
+tried it. This may be questioned; but we need not feel any distrust of
+his declaration, that little learning of any kind found its way into
+his head. Least of all will he be inclined to doubt it whom extended
+experience in the class-room has taught to view with profoundest
+respect the infinite capability of the human mind to resist the
+introduction of knowledge.
+
+Far better than study, Cooper liked to take solitary walks about   (p. 008)
+the wooded hills surrounding New Haven, and the shores of the bay upon
+which it lies. These nursed the fondness for outdoor life and scenery
+which his early associations had inspired. In these communings with
+nature, he was unconsciously storing his mind with impressions and
+images, in the representation and delineation of which he was afterward
+to attain surpassing excellence. But the study of scenery, however
+desirable in itself, cannot easily be included in a college
+curriculum. No proficiency in it can well compensate for failure in
+studies of perhaps less intrinsic importance. The neglect of these
+latter had no tendency to recommend him to the regard of those in
+authority. Positive faults were in course of time added to negative. A
+frolic in which he was engaged during his third year was attended by
+consequences more serious than disfavor. It led to his dismissal. The
+father took the boy's side, and the usual struggle followed between
+the parents and those who, according to a pretty well worn-out
+educational theory, stand to the student in place of parents. In this
+particular case the latter triumphed, and Cooper left Yale. In spite
+of his dismissal he retained pleasant recollections of some of his old
+instructors; and with one of them, Professor Silliman, he kept up in
+later years friendly personal relations and occasional correspondence.
+
+It had been a misfortune for the future author to lose the severe if
+somewhat wooden drill of his preparatory instructor. It was an
+additional misfortune to lose the education, scanty and defective as
+it then was, which was imparted by the college. It might not and
+probably would not have contributed anything to Cooper's intellectual
+development in the way of accuracy of thought or of statement. It  (p. 009)
+would not in all probability have added materially to his stock of
+knowledge. But with all its inefficiency and inadequacy, it would very
+certainly have had the effect of teaching him to aim far more than he
+did at perfection of form. He possibly gained more than he lost by
+being transferred at so early an age to other scenes. But the lack of
+certain qualities in his writings, which educated men are perhaps the
+only ones to notice, can be traced pretty directly to this lack of
+preliminary intellectual drill.
+
+His academical career having been thus suddenly cut short, he entered
+in a little while upon one better suited to his adventurous nature.
+Boys are sent to sea, he tells us in one of his later novels, for the
+cure of their ethical ailings. This renovating influence of ocean life
+he had at any rate a speedy opportunity to try. It was decided that he
+should enter the navy. The position of his father, who had been for
+several years a representative in Congress, and was a leading member
+of the Federalist party, naturally held out assurances that the son
+would receive all the advancement to which he would be legitimately
+entitled. At that time no naval school existed. It was the custom, in
+consequence, for boys purposing to fit themselves for the position of
+officers to serve a sort of apprenticeship in the merchant marine.
+Accordingly in the autumn of 1806, Cooper was placed on board a vessel
+that was to sail from the port of New York with a freight of flour to
+Cowes and a market. The ship was named the Sterling, and was commanded
+by Captain John Johnston, of Wiscasset, Maine, who was also part owner.
+Cooper's position and prospects were well known; but he was employed
+regularly before the mast and was never admitted to the cabin. The (p. 010)
+vessel cleared from the port of New York on the 16th of October. The
+passage was a long and stormy one; forty days went by before land was
+seen after it had once been left behind. The ship reached the other
+side just at the time when the British Channel was alive with vessels
+of war in consequence of one of the periodical anticipations of
+invasions from France. It went to London, and stayed for some time
+there discharging its cargo and taking in new. Cooper embraced the
+opportunity to see all the sights he could of the great metropolis.
+"He had a rum time of it in his sailor rig," said afterward one of his
+shipmates, "but hoisted in a wonderful deal of gibberish, according to
+his own account of the cruise."
+
+The Sterling sailed with freight in January, 1807, for the Straits of
+Gibraltar. It took on board a cargo of barilla at Aguilas and Almeria,
+and returned to England, reaching the Thames in May. Both going and
+coming the voyage was a stormy one, and during it several of the
+incidents occurred that Cooper worked up afterward into powerful
+passages in his sea novels. In London the vessel lay several weeks,
+discharging its cargo and taking in more, which this time consisted of
+dry goods. Towards the end of July, it left London for America, and
+reached Philadelphia on the 18th of September, after another long and
+stormy passage of fifty-two days.
+
+This was Cooper's introduction to sea life. During the year he had
+spent in the merchant vessel he had seen a good deal of hard service.
+His preparatory studies having been completed after a fashion, he now
+regularly entered the navy. His commission as midshipman bears (p. 011)
+date the 1st of January, 1808. On the 24th of the following February
+he was ordered to report to the commanding naval officer at New York.
+But the records of the government give little information as to the
+duties to which he was assigned during the years he remained in its
+service. The knowledge we have of his movements comes mainly from what
+he himself incidentally discloses in published works or letters of a
+later period. The facts we learn from all sources together, are but
+few. He served for a while on board the Vesuvius in 1808. During that
+year it seemed as if the United States and Great Britain were about to
+drift into war. Preparations of various kinds were made; and one of
+the things ordered was the dispatch to Lake Ontario of a party, of
+which Cooper was one, under the command of Lieutenant Woolsey. The
+intention was to build a brig of sixteen guns to command that inland
+water; and the port of Oswego, then a mere hamlet of some twenty
+houses, was the place selected for its construction. Around it lay a
+wilderness, thirty or forty miles in depth. Here the party spent the
+following winter, and during it the Oneida, as the brig was called,
+was finished. Early in the spring of 1809 it was launched. By that
+time, however, the war-cloud had blown over, and the vessel was not
+then used for the purpose for which it had been constructed. More
+permanent results, however, were accomplished than the building of a
+ship. The knowledge and experience which Cooper then gained was
+something beyond and above what belonged to his profession. It is to
+his residence on the shores of that inland sea that we owe the vivid
+picture drawn of Lake Ontario in "The Pathfinder" and of the
+wilderness which then surrounded it on every side.
+
+After the completion of the Oneida, Cooper accompanied Lieutenant  (p. 012)
+Woolsey on a visit to Niagara Falls. The navy records show that on the
+10th of June, 1809, he was left by his commander in charge of the
+gunboats on Lake Champlain. They further reveal the fact that on the
+27th of September of this same year he was granted a furlough to make
+a European voyage. This project for some reason was given up, as on
+the 13th of November, 1809, he was ordered to the Wasp, then under the
+command of Lawrence, who afterwards fell in the engagement between the
+Shannon and the Chesapeake. To this officer, like himself a native of
+Burlington, he was very warmly attached. The next notice of him
+contained in the official records is to the effect that on the 9th of
+May, 1810, permission was granted him to go on furlough for twelve
+months. Whether he availed himself of it is not known. An event soon
+occurred, however, that put an end to his naval career as effectively
+as one had previously been put to his collegiate. An attachment had
+sprung up some time before between him and a Miss DeLancey. On the 1st
+of January, 1811, the couple were married at Mamaroneck, Westchester
+County, New York. Cooper was then a little more than twenty-one years
+old; the bride lacked very little of being nineteen.
+
+His wife belonged to a Huguenot family, which towards the end of the
+seventeenth century had fled from France, and had finally settled in
+Westchester. During the Revolutionary War the DeLanceys had taken the
+side of the crown against the colonies. Several of them held positions
+in the British army. John Peter DeLancey, whose daughter Cooper had
+married, had been himself a captain in that service. After the
+recognition of American independence he went to England, but,      (p. 013)
+having resigned his commission, returned in 1789 to this country, and
+spent the remainder of his life at his home in Mamaroneck. The fact
+that his kinsmen by marriage had belonged to the defeated party in the
+Revolutionary struggle led Cooper in his writings to treat the Tories,
+as they were called, with a fairness and generosity which in that day
+few were disposed to show, at least in print. This tenderness is
+plainly to be seen in "The Spy," written at the beginning of his
+career; it is still more marked in "Wyandotte," produced in the latter
+part of it, when circumstances had made him profoundly dissatisfied
+with much that he saw about him. One of the last, though least heated,
+of the many controversies in which he was engaged was in regard to the
+conduct on a particular occasion of General Oliver DeLancey, a cousin
+of his wife's father. This officer was charged unjustly, as Cooper
+believed, with the brutal treatment of the American General Woodhull,
+who had fallen into his hands. The discussion in regard to this point
+was carried on in the "New York Home Journal" in the early part of
+1848.
+
+It seldom falls to the lot of the biographer to record a home life
+more serene and happy than that which fell to the share of the man
+whose literary life is the stormiest to be found in the history of
+American men of letters. Cooper, like many persons of fiery temperament
+and strong will, was very easily managed through his affections. In
+theory he maintained the headship of man in the household in the
+extremest form. He gives in several of his works no uncertain
+indication of his views on that point. This only serves to make more
+conspicuous the fact, which forces itself repeatedly upon the
+attention, that his movements were largely, if not mainly,         (p. 014)
+by his wife. This becomes noticeable at the very beginning of their
+union. She was unwilling to undergo the long and frequent separations
+from her husband that the profession of a naval officer would demand.
+Accordingly, he abandoned the idea of continuing in it. The acceptance
+of his resignation bears date the 6th of May, 1811. He had then been
+regularly in the service a little less than three years and a half.
+
+After quitting the navy Cooper led for a long time a somewhat unsettled
+life. For about a year and a half he resided at Heathcote Hall,
+Mamaroneck, the residence of his wife's father. He then rented a small
+cottage in the neighborhood, and in this remained about a year. His
+early home, however, was the spot to which his heart turned. To
+Cooperstown, in consequence, he went back in 1814, taking up his
+residence at a place outside the village limits, called Fenimore. He
+purposed to devote his attention to agriculture, and accordingly began
+at this spot the building of a large stone farm house. While it was in
+process of construction his wife, anxious to be near her own family,
+persuaded him to go back to Westchester. Thither in 1817 he went,
+leaving his dwelling at Fenimore unfinished, and in 1823 it was
+completely destroyed by fire. In Westchester, a few months after his
+return, he took up his residence, in the town of Scarsdale, on what
+was called the Angevine farm, from the name of a French family that
+had occupied it for several generations. The site of his dwelling was
+a commanding one, and gave from the south front an extensive view of
+the country about it and of Long Island Sound. It remained his home
+until the literary profession, upon which he unexpectedly entered, (p. 015)
+forced him to leave it for New York city.
+
+Great changes had occurred during these years, or were occurring, in
+his personal surroundings. His father had died in 1809, and his mother
+in 1817. Before 1820 five daughters had been born to him. The first of
+these did not live to the age of two years; but the others all reached
+maturity. The second, Susan Augusta, herself an authoress, became in
+his later years his secretary and amanuensis, and would naturally have
+written his life, had not his unfortunate dying injunction stood in
+the way. A son, Fenimore, born at Angevine, in 1821, died early, and
+his youngest child, Paul, now a lawyer at Albany, was not born until
+after his removal to New York city. Surrounded by his growing family,
+he led for the two or three years following 1817 a life that gave no
+indication of what was to be his career. His thoughts were principally
+directed to improving the little estate that had come into his
+possession. He planted trees, he built fences, he drained swamps, he
+planned a lawn. The one thing which he did not do was to write.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.                                                        (p. 016)
+
+1820-1822.
+
+
+Cooper had now reached the age of thirty. Up to this time he had
+written nothing, nor had he prepared or collected any material for
+future use. No thought of taking up authorship as a profession had
+entered his mind. Even the physical labor involved in the mere act of
+writing was itself distasteful. Unexpectedly, however, he now began a
+course of literary production that was to continue without abatement
+during the little more than thirty years which constituted the
+remainder of his life.
+
+Seldom has a first work been due more entirely to accident than that
+which he composed at the outset of his career. In his home at Angevine
+he was one day reading to his wife a novel descriptive of English
+society. It did not please him, and he suddenly laid down the book and
+said, "I believe I could write a better story myself." Challenged to
+make good his boast, he sat down to perform the task, and wrote out a
+few pages of the tale he had formed in his mind. The encouragement of
+his wife determined him to go on and complete it, and when completed
+the advice of friends decided him to publish it. Accordingly, on the
+10th of November, 1820, a novel in two volumes, entitled "Precaution,"
+made its appearance in New York. In this purely haphazard way did the
+most prolific of American authors begin his literary life.
+
+The work was brought out in a bad shape, and its typographical     (p. 017)
+defects were unconsciously exaggerated by Cooper in a revised edition
+of it, which was published after his return from Europe. In the
+preface to the latter he said that no novel of modern times had ever
+been worse printed than was this story as it originally appeared. The
+manuscript, he admitted, was bad; but the proof-reading could only be
+described as execrable. Periods turned up in the middle of sentences,
+while the places where they should have been knew them not. Passages,
+in consequence, were rendered obscure, and even entire paragraphs
+became unintelligible. A careful reading of the edition of 1820 will
+show something to suggest, but little to justify, these sweeping
+assertions. But the work has never been much read even by the admirers
+of the author; and it is a curious illustration of this fact, that the
+personal friend, who delivered the funeral discourse upon his life and
+writings, avoided the discussion of it with such care that he was
+betrayed into exposing the lack of interest he sought to hide. Bryant
+confessed he had not read "Precaution." He had merely dipped into the
+first edition of it, and had been puzzled and repelled by the
+profusion of commas and other pauses. The non-committalism of cautious
+criticism could hardly hope to go farther. Punctuation has had its
+terrors and its triumphs; but this victory over the editor of a daily
+newspaper must be deemed its proudest recorded achievement. The poet
+went on to say that to a casual inspection the revised edition, which
+Cooper afterward brought out, seemed almost another work. The
+inspection which could come to such a conclusion must have been of
+that exceedingly casual kind which contents itself with contemplating
+the outside of a book, and disdains to open it. As a matter of     (p. 018)
+fact the changes made hardly extended beyond the correction of some
+points of punctuation and of some grammatical forms; it was in a few
+instances only that the construction of the sentences underwent
+transformation. Not an incident was altered, not a sentiment modified.
+
+Such ignorance on the part of a contemporary and personal friend, if
+it proves nothing else, shows certainly the little hold this novel has
+had upon the public taste. Nevertheless, the first work of any
+well-known author must always have a certain interest belonging to it,
+entirely independent of any value the work may have in itself. In this
+case, moreover, the character of the tale and the circumstances
+attending its production are of no slight importance, when taken in
+connection with the literary history of the times. It was accident
+that led to the selection of the subject; but as things then were,
+Cooper was not unlikely, in any event, to have chosen it or one very
+similar. The intellectual dependence of America upon England at that
+period is something that it is now hard to understand. Political
+supremacy had been cast off, but the supremacy of opinion remained
+absolutely unshaken. Of creative literature there was then very little
+of any value produced: and to that little a foreign stamp was
+necessary, to give currency outside of the petty circle in which it
+originated. There was slight encouragement for the author to write;
+there was still less for the publisher to print. It was indeed a
+positive injury ordinarily to the commercial credit of a bookseller to
+bring out a volume of poetry or of prose fiction which had been
+written by an American; for it was almost certain to fail to pay
+expenses. A sort of critical literature was struggling, or rather  (p. 019)
+gasping, for a life that was hardly worth living; for its most marked
+characteristic was its servile deference to English judgment and dread
+of English censure. It requires a painful and penitential examination
+of the reviews of the period to comprehend the utter abasement of mind
+with which the men of that day accepted the foreign estimate upon
+works written here, which had been read by themselves, but which it
+was clear had not been read by the critics whose opinions they echoed.
+Even the meekness with which they submitted to the most depreciatory
+estimate of themselves was outdone by the anxiety with which they
+hurried to assure the world that they, the most cultivated of the
+American race, did not presume to have so high an opinion of the
+writings of some one of their countrymen as had been expressed by
+enthusiasts, whose patriotism had proved too much for their
+discernment. Never was any class so eager to free itself from charges
+that imputed to it the presumption of holding independent views of its
+own. Out of the intellectual character of many of those who at that
+day pretended to be the representatives of the highest education in
+this country, it almost seemed that the element of manliness had been
+wholly eliminated; and that along with its sturdy democracy, whom no
+obstacles thwarted and no dangers daunted, the New World was also to
+give birth to a race of literary cowards and parasites. With such a
+state of feeling prevalent, a work of fiction that concerned America
+might seem to have small chance of success with Americans themselves.
+It would not, therefore, have been strange, under any circumstances,
+that in beginning his career as an author Cooper should have chosen to
+write a tale of English social life. The fact that he knew         (p. 020)
+personally nothing about what he was describing was in itself no
+insuperable objection. That ignorance was then and has since been
+shared by many novelists on both sides of the water, who have treated
+of the same subject. Relying upon English precedent, he might in fact
+feel that he was peculiarly fitted for the task. He had cruised a few
+times up and down the British channel, he had caught limited views of
+British manners and customs by walking on several occasions the length
+of Fleet Street and the Strand. Knowledge of America equivalent to
+this would then have been regarded in England as an ample equipment
+for an accurate treatise upon the social life of this country, and
+even upon its existing political condition and probable future.
+
+But much more than the choice of a foreign subject did the pretense of
+foreign authorship prove the servility of feeling prevailing at that
+time among the educated classes. This was in the first place, to be
+sure, the result of the freak that led Cooper originally to begin
+writing a novel; but it was a freak that would never have been carried
+out, after publication had been decided upon, had he not been fully
+aware of the fact that the least recommendation of a book to his
+countrymen would be the knowledge that it was composed by one of
+themselves. "Precaution" was not merely a tale of English social life,
+it purported to be written by an Englishman; and it was so thoroughly
+conformed to its imaginary model that it not only reëchoed the cant of
+English expression, but likewise the expression of English cant. To
+talk about dissenters and the establishment was natural and proper
+enough in a work written ostensibly by the citizen of a country in
+which there was a state church. But Cooper went much farther than  (p. 021)
+this in the reflections and moral observations which are scattered up
+and down the pages of this novel. These represent fairly views widely
+held at the time in America, and may not impossibly express the
+personal opinions he himself then entertained. He speaks in one place,
+in his assumed character of an Englishman, of the solidity and purity
+of our ethics as giving a superior tone to our moral feelings as
+contrasted with the French. He goes out of his way to compliment
+George III. One of the personages in the novel was tempted to admit
+something to his credit that he did not deserve. The love of truth,
+however, finally prevailed. But it was not because the man himself had
+any innate love of truth, but because "he had been too much round the
+person of our beloved monarch not to retain all the impressions of his
+youth." Passages such as these are remarkable when we consider the
+sentiments in regard to England that Cooper subsequently came to
+express. If they do not show with certainty his opinions at that time,
+they do show the school in which he had been brought up: they mark
+clearly the extent and violence of the reaction which in after years
+carried him to the opposite extreme.
+
+In its plan and development "Precaution" was a compromise between the
+purely fashionable novel and that collection of moral disquisitions of
+which Hannah More's Coelebs was the great exemplar, and still remained
+the most popular representative. As in most tales of high life, nobody
+of low condition plays a prominent part in the story, save for the
+purpose of setting off the dukes, earls, baronets, generals, and
+colonels that throng its pages. A novelist in his first production
+never limits his creative activity in any respect; and Cooper,     (p. 022)
+moreover, knew the public well enough to be aware that a fictitious
+narrative which aimed to describe aristocratic society might perhaps
+succeed without much literary merit, but would be certain to fail
+without an abundance of lords. The leading characters, however,
+whether of higher or lower degree, are planned upon the moral model.
+They either preach or furnish awful examples. It would certainly be
+most unfair to an author to judge him, as in this case, by a work
+which he had begun without any view to publication, and which he
+afterward learned to think and to speak of slightingly. Still, though,
+compared with many of his writings, "Precaution" is a novel of little
+worth, it is, in some respects, a better guide to the knowledge of the
+man than his better productions. The latter give evidence of his
+powers; in this are shown certain limitations of his nature and
+beliefs. Peculiarities, both of thought and feeling, which in his
+other writings are merely suggested, are here clearly revealed. Some
+of them will appear strange to those whose conception of his character
+is derived from facts connected with his later life, or whose
+acquaintance with his works is limited to those most celebrated.
+
+Cooper was, by nature, a man of deep religious feeling. This disposition
+had been strengthened by his training. But there is something more
+than deep religious feeling exhibited in his first novel. There runs
+through it a vein of pietistic narrowness, which seems particularly
+unsuited to the man whom popular imagination, investing him somewhat
+with the characteristics of his own creations, has depicted as a
+ranger of the forests and a rover of the seas. Yet the existence of
+this vein is plainly apparent, though all his surroundings would (p. 023)
+seem to have been unfavorable to its birth and development. He shared,
+to its fullest extent, in the jealousy which at that time, far more
+than now, prevailed between the Middle States and New England. He was
+strongly attached to the Episcopal Church, and he had, or fancied he
+had, a keen dislike to the Puritans and their manners and creeds. To
+these "religionists," as he was wont to call them, he attributed a
+great deal that was ungraceful in American life, and a good deal that
+was disgraceful. But the Puritan element is an irrepressible and
+undying one in English character. It can be found centuries before it
+became the designation of a religious body. It can be traced, under
+various and varying appellations, through every period of English
+history. It is not the name of a sect, it is not the mark of a creed;
+it is the characteristic of a race. It is, therefore, never long put
+under ban before it comes back, and takes its turn in ruling manners
+and society. The revolt against it in the eighteenth century had
+stripped from religion everything in the shape of sentiment, and left
+it merely a business. The reaction which brought the Puritan element
+again to the front was so intensified by hostility to what were called
+French principles that the minor literature of the latter half of the
+reign of George III. exhibits a cant of intolerance from which many of
+its greatest writers were rarely great enough to be wholly free. This
+influence is clearly visible in the earliest work of Cooper. There is
+no charge, probably, he would have denied sooner or disliked more, but
+in his nature he was essentially a Puritan of the Puritans. Their
+faults and their virtues, their inconsistencies and their contradictions,
+were his. Their earnestness, their intensity, their narrowness, their
+intolerance, their pugnacity, their serious way of looking at      (p. 024)
+human duties and responsibilities, all these elements corresponded
+with elements in his own character. His, also, were their lofty ideas
+of personal purity and of personal obligation, extending not merely to
+the acts of the life, but to the thoughts of the heart. Like them,
+moreover, he was always disposed to appeal directly to the authority
+of the Supreme Being. Like them, he had perfect confidence in the
+absolute knowledge he possessed of what that Being thought and wished.
+Like them, he considered any controverted question as settled, if he
+could once bring to bear upon the point in dispute a text beginning,
+"Thus saith the Lord." No rational creature, certainly, would think of
+contesting a view of the Creator, or acting contrary to a command
+coming unmistakably from Him. But at this very point the difficulty
+begins; and in nothing did Cooper more resemble the Puritans than in
+his incapacity to see that there was any difficulty at all. It never
+occurred to him that there might possibly be a vast difference between
+what the Lord actually said and what James Fenimore Cooper thought the
+Lord said. It is hardly necessary to add, however, that this
+characteristic of mind has its advantages as well as disadvantages.
+
+It was not unnatural, accordingly, that "Precaution" should exemplify
+in many cases that narrowness of view which seeks to shape narrow
+rules for the conduct of life. For its sympathy with this, one of the
+most distinguishing and disagreeable features of Puritanism, the novel
+has an interest which could never be aroused by it as a work of art.
+Extreme sentiments are often expressed by the author in his own
+person, though they are usually put into the mouths of various actors
+in the story. Their especial representative is a certain Mrs.      (p. 025)
+Wilson, who was clearly a great favorite of her creator, though to the
+immense majority of men she would seem as disagreeably strong-minded
+as most of Cooper's female characters are disagreeably weak-minded.
+This lady is the widow of a general officer, who, the reader comes
+heartily to feel, has, most fortunately for himself, fallen in the
+Peninsular war. From her supreme height of morality she sweeps the
+whole horizon of human frailties and faults, and looks down with a
+relentless eye upon the misguided creatures who are struggling with
+temptations to which she is superior, or are under the sway of beliefs
+whose folly or falsity she has long since penetrated. In her, indeed,
+there is no weak compromise with human feelings. The lesson meant to
+be taught by the novel is the necessity of taking precaution in regard
+to marriage. One point insisted upon again and again is the requirement
+of piety in the husband. It is the duty of a Christian mother to guard
+against a connection with any one but a Christian for her daughters:
+for throughout the whole work the sovereign right of the parent over
+the child is not merely implied, it is directly asserted. "No really
+pious woman," says Mrs. Wilson, "can be happy unless her husband is in
+what she deems the road to future happiness herself." When she is met
+by the remark that the carrying out of this idea would give a deadly
+blow to matrimony, she rises to the occasion by replying that "no man
+who dispassionately examines the subject will be other than a Christian,
+and rather than remain bachelors they would take even that trouble."
+Nor in this was the author apparently expressing an opinion which he
+did not himself hold in theory, however little he might have regarded
+it in practice. He takes up the same subject in another place,     (p. 026)
+when speaking in his own person. "Would our daughters," he says,
+"admire a handsome deist, if properly impressed with the horror of his
+doctrines, sooner than they would now admire a handsome Mohammedan?"
+On the matter of Sunday observance the narrowest tenets of Puritanism
+were preached, and the usual ignorance was manifested that there were
+two sides to the question. Some of the incidents connected with this
+subject are curious. One of the better characters in the novel asks
+his wife to ride out on that day, and she reluctantly consents. This
+brings at once upon the stage the inevitable Mrs. Wilson, who always
+stands ready to point a moral, though she can hardly be said to adorn
+the tale. She draws from the transaction the lesson that it is a
+warning against marrying a person with a difference of views. In this
+particular instance the respect of the man for religion had been
+injurious to his wife, because "had he been an open deist, she would
+have shrunk from the act in his company on suspicion of its
+sinfulness." It is justice to add that many of these extreme opinions,
+at least in the extreme form stated in this work, the author came
+finally to outgrow if in fact he held them seriously then.
+
+There are certain other peculiarities of Cooper's beliefs that
+"Precaution" exemplifies. He has been constantly criticised for the
+unvarying and uninteresting uniformity of his female characters. This
+is hardly just; but it is just in the sense that there was only one
+type which he ever held up to admiration. Others were introduced, but
+they were never the kind of women whom he delighted to honor. Of
+female purity he had the highest ideal. Deference for the female sex
+as a sex he felt sincerely and expressed strongly. Along with      (p. 027)
+this he seemed to have the most contemptible opinion of the ability of
+the female individual to take care of herself. On the other hand, if
+she had the requisite ability, the greater became his contempt; for
+helplessness, in his eyes, was apparently her chiefest charm. The
+Emily Moseley of his first novel is the prototype of a long line of
+heroines, whose combination of propriety and incapacity places them at
+the farthest possible remove from the heroic. She is worthy of special
+mention here, only because in this novel he describes in detail the
+desirable qualities, which in the others are simply implied. He
+furnishes us, moreover, with the precise training to which she had
+been subjected by her aunt, Mrs. Wilson. Accordingly, we learn both
+what, in Cooper's eyes, it was incumbent for a woman to be, and what
+she ought to go through in order to be that woman. A few sentences
+taken at random will show the character of this heroine. She was
+artless, but intelligent; she was cheerful, but pious; she was familiar
+with all the attainments suitable to her sex and years. Her time was
+dedicated to work which had a tendency to qualify her for the duties
+of this life and fit her for the life hereafter. She seldom opened a
+book unless in search of information. She never read one that
+contained a sentiment dangerous to her morals, or inculcated an
+opinion improper for her sex. She never permitted a gentleman to ride
+with her, to walk with her, to hold with her a tęte-ŕ-tęte. Nor was
+this result achieved with difficulty. Though she was natural and
+unaffected, the simple dignity about her was sufficient to forbid any
+such request, or even any such thought in the men who had the
+pleasure, or, as the reader may think, the grief, of her           (p. 028)
+acquaintance. In short, she was not merely propriety personified; she
+was propriety magnified and intensified. This particular heroine, who
+could not consistently have read the book in which her own conduct is
+described, finally disappears as the wife of an equally remarkable
+earl. Her story, as it is told, however, strikingly exemplifies the
+carelessness in working up details which is one of Cooper's marked
+defects. The novel received its name, as has already been implied,
+because it aimed to set forth the desirability of precaution in the
+choice of husband or wife. What it actually taught, however, was its
+undesirability. The misunderstandings, the crosses, the distresses, to
+which the lovers were subjected in the tale all sprang from excess of
+care, and not from lack of it; from exercising precaution where
+precaution did nothing but harm.
+
+The work excited but little attention in this country. In the following
+year it was printed in England by Colburn, and was there noticed
+without the slightest suspicion of its American authorship. In some
+quarters it received fairly favorable mention. It could not be hid,
+however, that the novel, as regarded the general public, had been a
+failure. Still, it was not so much a failure that the author's friends
+did not think well of it and see promise in it. They urged him to
+renewed exertions. He had tried the experiment of depicting scenes he
+had never witnessed, and a life he had never led. He had, in their
+opinion, succeeded fairly well in describing what he knew nothing
+about; they were anxious that he should try his hand at the representation
+of manners and men of which and whom he knew something. Especially was
+it made a matter of reproach that he, in heart and soul an         (p. 029)
+American of the Americans, should have gone to a foreign land to fill
+the imagination of his countrymen with pictures of a social state
+alien both in feeling and fact to their own. This was an appeal of a
+kind that was certain to touch Cooper sensibly; for with him love of
+country was not a sentiment, it was a passion. As a sort of atonement,
+therefore, for his first work, he determined to inflict, as he phrased
+it, a second one upon the world. Against this there should be no
+objection on the score of patriotism. He naturally turned for his
+subject to the Revolution, with the details of which he was familiar
+by his acquaintance with the men who had shared prominently in its
+conduct, and had felt all the keenness of a personal triumph in its
+success. The very county, moreover, in which he had made his home was
+full of recollections. Westchester had been the neutral ground between
+the English forces stationed in New York and the American army encamped
+in the highlands of the Hudson. Upon it more, perhaps, than upon any
+other portion of the soil of the revolted colonies had fallen the
+curse of war in its heaviest form. Back and forth over a large part of
+it had perpetually ebbed and flowed the tide of battle. Not a road was
+there which had not been swept again and again by columns of infantry
+or squadrons of horse. Every thicket had been the hiding-place of
+refugees or spies; every wood or meadow had been the scene of a
+skirmish; and every house that had survived the struggle had its tale
+to tell of thrilling scenes that had taken place within its walls.
+These circumstances determined Cooper's choice of the place and
+period. Years before, while at the residence of John Jay, his host had
+given him, one summer afternoon, the account of a spy that had     (p. 030)
+been in his service during the war. The coolness, shrewdness,
+fearlessness, but above all the unselfish patriotism, of the man had
+profoundly impressed the Revolutionary leader who had employed him.
+The story made an equally deep impression upon Cooper at the time. He
+now resolved to take it as the foundation of the tale he had been
+persuaded to write. The result was that on the 22d of December, 1821,
+the novel of "The Spy" was quietly advertised in the New York papers
+as on that day published.
+
+The reader, however, would receive a very wrong idea of the feelings
+with which the author began and ended this work of fiction, should he
+stop short with the account that has just been given. The circumstances
+attending its composition and publication are, as a matter of fact,
+almost as remarkable as the story itself. They certainly present a
+most suggestive picture of the literary state of America at that time.
+Cooper, for his part, had not the slightest anticipation of the effect
+that it was going to have upon his future. In writing it he was
+carrying out the wishes of his friends full as much as his own. Nor,
+apparently, did they urge the course upon him because they conceived
+him capable of accomplishing anything very great or even very good.
+They felt that he could produce something that was not discreditable,
+and that was all that could reasonably be expected of an American.
+There was no other novelist in the field. Charles Brockden Brown had
+been dead several years. Irving and Paulding were writing only short
+sketches. John Neal, indeed, in addition to the poems, tragedies,
+reviews, newspaper articles, indexes, and histories he was turning out
+by wholesale, had likewise perpetrated a novel; but it was never known
+enough to justify the mention of it as having been forgotten.      (p. 031)
+Here, consequently, was a vacant place that ought to be filled. Cooper
+was never the man who would be eager to take a place because there was
+no one else to occupy it; and the way he went at the task he had
+undertaken gives indirectly a clear insight into an American author's
+feelings sixty years ago. He entered upon the work not merely without
+the expectation of success, but almost without the hope of it. The
+novel was written very hastily; the sheets passed into the hands of
+the type-setter with scarcely a correction; and so little heart had he
+in the task that the first volume was printed several months before he
+felt any inducement to write a line of the second. The propriety of
+abandoning it entirely, under the apprehension of its proving a serious
+loss, was debated. "Should chance," he said, in a later introduction
+to the book, "throw a copy of this prefatory notice into the hands of
+an American twenty years hence, he will smile to think that a
+countryman hesitated to complete a work so far advanced, merely
+because the disposition of the country to read a book that treated of
+its own familiar interests was distrusted." In this respect the
+difficulty of his position was made more prominent by its contrast
+with that of the great novelist who was then occupying the attention
+of the English-speaking world. Scott, in writing "Waverley," could
+take for granted that there lay behind him an intense feeling of
+nationality, which would show itself not in noisy boastfulness, but in
+genuine appreciation; that with the matter of his work his countrymen
+would sympathize, whatever might be their opinion as to its execution.
+No such supposition could be made by Cooper; no such belief inspired
+him to exertion. He might hope to create interest; he could not    (p. 032)
+venture to assume its existence. One other incident connected with
+the composition of this work marks even more plainly the almost
+despairing attitude of his mind. While the second volume was slowly
+printing, he received an intimation from his publisher that the work
+might grow to a length that would endanger the profits. The author
+hereupon adopted a course which is itself a proof of how much stranger
+is fact than fiction. To placate the publisher and set his mind at
+rest, the last chapter was written, printed, and paged, not merely
+before the intervening chapters had been composed, but before they had
+been fully conceived. It was fair to expect failure for a work which
+no bookseller had been found willing to undertake at his own risk, and
+which the author himself set about in a manner so perfunctory. The
+indifference and carelessness displayed, he said afterward, were
+disrespectful to the public and unjust to himself; yet they give, as
+nothing else could, a vivid picture of the literary situation in
+America at that time.
+
+The reluctance and half-heartedness with which Cooper began and completed
+this work stand, indeed, in sharpest contrast to the existing state of
+feeling, when it is only the prayers of friends and the tears of
+relatives that can prevent most of us from publishing some novel we
+have already written. But almost as it were by accident he had struck
+into the vein best fitted for the display of his natural powers. In it
+he succeeded with little effort, where other men with the greatest
+effort might have failed. The delicate distinctions that underlie
+character where social pressure has given to all the same outside, it
+was not his to depict. Still less could he unfold the subtle       (p. 033)
+workings of motives that often elude the observation of the very
+persons whom they most influence. Such a power is essential to the
+success of him who seeks to delineate men as seen in conventional
+society; and largely for the lack of it his first novel had been a
+failure. It was only at rare intervals, also, that he showed that
+precision of style and pointed method of statement which, independent
+of the subject, interest the reader in men and things that are not in
+themselves interesting. It was the story of adventure, using adventure
+in its broadest sense, that he was fitted to tell: and fortunately for
+him Walter Scott, then in the very height of his popularity, had made
+it supremely fashionable. In this it is only needful to draw character
+in bold outlines; to represent men not under the influence of motives
+that hold sway in artificial and complex society, but as breathed upon
+by those common airs of reflection and swept hither and thither by
+those common gales of passion that operate upon us all as members of
+the race. It is not the personality of the actors to which the
+attention is supremely drawn, though even in that there is ample field
+for the exhibition of striking characterization. It is the events that
+carry us along; it is the catastrophe to which they are hurrying that
+excites the feelings and absorbs the thoughts. There can be no greater
+absurdity than to speak of this kind of story, as is sometimes done,
+as being inferior in itself to those devoted exclusively to the
+delineation of manners or character, or even of the subtler motives
+which act upon the heart and life. As well might one say that the
+"Iliad" is a poem of inferior type to the "Excursion." Again, it is
+only those who think it must be easy to write what it is easy to read
+who will fall into the mistake of fancying that a novel of         (p. 034)
+adventure which has vitality enough to live does not owe its existence
+to the arduous, though it may be largely unconscious, exercise of high
+creative power. No better correction for this error can be found than
+in looking over the names of the countless imitators of Scott, some of
+them distinguished in other fields, who have made so signal a failure
+that even the very fact that they attempted to imitate him at all has
+been wholly forgotten.
+
+"The Spy" appeared almost at the very close of 1821. It was not long
+before its success was assured. Early in 1822 the newspapers were able
+to assert that it had met with a sale unprecedented in the annals of
+American literature. What that phrase meant is partly indicated by the
+fact that it had then been found necessary to publish a second edition.
+In March a third edition was put to the press; and in the same month
+the story was dramatized and acted with the greatest success. Still in
+the abject dependence upon foreign estimate which was the preëminent
+characteristic of a large portion of the educated class of that day,
+many felt constrained to wait for the judgment that would come back
+from Europe before they could venture to express an opinion which they
+had the presumption to call their own. Contemporary newspapers more
+than once mention the relief that was afforded to many when Cooper was
+spoken of in several of the English journals as "a distinguished
+American novelist." This, it has been implied, was then a condition of
+the public mind that no writer could dare wholly to disregard. When
+the project of abandoning this novel, already half printed, was under
+discussion, the principal reason that finally decided the author   (p. 035)
+to persevere was the fact that his previous work had received a respectful
+notice in a few English periodicals. It was thought, in consequence,
+that in his new venture he would be secure from loss. Still, it is due
+to his countrymen to say that it was to them alone he owed his first
+success. In later years the declaration was often made that he would
+never have been held in honor at home, had it not been for foreign
+approbation. The assertion he himself indignantly denied. "This work,"
+he said afterward, in speaking of "The Spy," "most of you received
+with a generous welcome that might have satisfied any one that the
+heart of this great community is sound." Certain it is that the
+success of the novel was assured in America some time before the
+character of its reception in Europe was known.
+
+The printed volume was offered to the London publisher Murray, and for
+terms he was referred to Irving, who was then in England. Murray gave
+the novel for examination to Gifford, the editor of the "Quarterly."
+By his advice it was declined,--a result that might easily have been
+foretold from the hostility of the man to this country. He had made
+his review an organ of the most persistent depreciation and abuse of
+America and everything American. A new writer from this side of the
+ocean was little likely to meet with any favor in his sight, especially
+when his subject was one that from its very nature could not be
+flattering to British prejudices. Murray having refused, another
+publisher was found in Miller, who had also been the first to bring
+out Irving's "Sketch Book." Early in 1822 the work appeared in England.
+There its success was full as great as it had been in America. This novel,
+in fact, made Cooper's reputation both at home and abroad. It is   (p. 036)
+important to bear this in mind, because it is a common notion that it
+was his delineations of Indian life that brought him his European
+fame. They established it, but they did not originate it. "The Spy"
+was a tale of a war, which in character was not essentially different
+from any other war. So far as the story painted the incidents of a
+struggle in which the English had been unsuccessful, it could have no
+right to expect favor from the English public unless there was merit
+in the execution of the work independent of the subject. The interest
+with which it was read by a people who could not fail to find portions
+of it disagreeable, who were moreover accustomed to look with contempt
+upon everything of American origin, was the best proof that a novelist
+had arisen whose reputation would stretch beyond the narrow limits of
+nationality. This was even more strikingly seen, when it came to be
+translated. If the English opinion was favorable, the French might
+fairly be called enthusiastic. A version was made into that tongue in
+the summer of 1822, by the translator of the Waverley Novels. In the
+absolute ignorance that existed as to its authorship, the work was
+ascribed by several of the Parisian papers to Fanny Wright, who
+subsequently achieved a fame of her own as a champion of woman's
+privileges and denouncer of woman's wrongs. In spite of its anonymous
+character and of some extraordinary blunders in translation, it was
+warmly received in France. From that country its reputation in no long
+space of time spread in every direction; translations followed one
+after another into all the cultivated tongues of modern Europe; and in
+all it met the same degree of favor. Nor has lapse of time shaken
+seriously its popularity. The career of success, which began sixty (p. 037)
+years ago, has suffered vicissitudes, but never suspension; and to
+this hour, whatever fault may be found with the work as a whole, the
+name of Harvey Birch is still one of the best known in fiction. No
+tale produced during the present century has probably had so extensive
+a circulation; and the leading character in it has found admirers
+everywhere and at times imitators. Of this latter statement a striking
+illustration is given in the memoirs of Gisquet, a prefect of the French
+police under Louis Philippe. In his chapter on the secret agents
+employed by him during his administration, he tells the story of one
+who by the information he imparted rendered important services in
+preventing the outbreak of civil war. He thus describes the motives
+which led the man to pursue the course he did. "Struck with the reading,"
+he writes, "of one of Cooper's novels called 'The Spy,' he aspired to
+the sort of ambition which distinguished the hero of that work, and
+was desirous of playing in France the part which Cooper has assigned
+to Harvey Birch during the American war of independence.... Harvey
+Birch--for he adopted this name in all his reports--never belied his
+professions of fidelity. He rendered services which would have merited
+a competent fortune; but when the term of them ended, he contented
+himself with asking for a humble employment, barely enough to supply
+his daily necessities." The belief in the reality of the hero has,
+indeed, been part of the singular fortune of the book. In his account
+of Nicaragua, published in 1852, Mr. E. G. Squier furnished incidentally
+interesting testimony to the truth of this statement as well as to the
+wide circulation of the tale itself. At La Union, the port of San Miguel,
+he stayed at the house of the commandant of the place. His         (p. 038)
+apartments he found well stocked with books, and among them was this
+particular novel. "The 'Espy,'" he went on to say, "of the lamented
+Cooper, I may mention, seems to be better known in Spanish America
+than any other work in the English language. I found it everywhere;
+and when I subsequently visited the Indian pueblo of Conchagua, the
+first alcalde produced it from an obscure corner of the cahildo, as a
+very great treasure. He regarded it as veritable history, and thought
+'Seńor Birch' a most extraordinary personage and a model guerillero."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.                                                       (p. 039)
+
+1822-1826.
+
+
+Cooper would have been more or less than mortal if the unexpected
+success achieved by "The Spy" had not incited him to renewed effort.
+It definitely determined his career, though at the time he did not
+know it. As yet he was not sure in his own mind whether the favor his
+book had met was the result of a lucky hit or was due to the display
+of actual power. There can be no question as to the honesty of his
+assertion when he published his third novel, that it depended upon
+certain contingencies whether it would not be the last. But from this
+time on he wrote incessantly. From 1820 to 1830, including both years,
+he brought out eleven works. In many respects this was the happiest
+period of his literary life as well as the most successful. During it
+he produced many of his greatest creations. One decided failure he
+made; but with this exception if each new story did not seem to exhibit
+any new power, it at least gave no sign of weakness, or misdirection
+of energy. This period is in fact so supremely the creative one of
+Cooper's life as regards the conception of character and scene that
+nearly all he did demands careful examination.
+
+He first set about a task that lay near his heart. This was to describe
+the scenes, the manners and customs of his native land, especially of
+the frontier life in which he had been trained. In 1823,           (p. 040)
+accordingly, appeared "The Pioneers," itself the pioneer of the five
+famous stories, which now go collectively under the name of the
+"Leather-Stocking Tales." It was a vivid and faithful picture of the
+sights he had seen and the men he had met in the home of his childhood,
+where as a boy he had witnessed the struggles which attend the conquest
+of man over nature. In it appear in comparatively rude outlines the
+personages whose names and exploits his pen was afterwards to make
+famous throughout the civilized world. They are in this work of a far
+less lofty type than in those which followed. "The Pioneers," in
+truth, though not a poor story, is much the poorest of the series of
+which it forms a part. The almost loving interest he took in the
+matter about which he was writing tempted the author to indulge his
+recollections at the expense of his judgment. His first novel, he said
+in the prefatory address to the publisher which appeared in this one,
+had been written to show that he could write a grave tale, and it was
+so grave that no one would read it; the second was written to overcome
+if possible the neglect of the public; but the third was written
+exclusively to please himself. The story as a story suffered in
+consequence from the very fascination which the subject had for his
+mind. So subordinate was it made, especially in the first half, to the
+description of the scenes, that the details at times become wearisome
+and the interest often flags.
+
+The expectation with which the appearance of this work was awaited is
+a striking proof of the impression that the previous novel had made.
+It was to have been brought out as early as the autumn of 1822. But
+during the summer of that year the yellow fever ravaged New York   (p. 041)
+and largely broke up for a time all kinds of business, including
+printing. Causes beyond control still further delayed the publication,
+and it was not until the first of February, 1823, that the book appeared.
+The public curiosity, however, had been fully excited. Extracts from
+it--according to a custom then prevalent in England--had been
+furnished in advance to some of the newspapers, and though these were
+not the most striking passages, they served to direct attention and
+awaken expectation. At the close of January, announcement of the
+precise date of publication was made. Success was certain from the
+start; but the degree of it outran all anticipation. The evening
+papers of the first of February were able to state that up to twelve
+o'clock that day there had been sold three thousand five hundred
+copies. Even at this period, with a population more than five times as
+numerous, such a half day's sale, under similar circumstances, would
+be remarkable. It is little wonder, therefore, that the newspapers of
+that period felt that only largeness of type and profusion of
+exclamation points could suitably record such a success.
+
+"The Pioneers" was the first work to display a peculiarity of the author's
+character, which came afterwards into marked prominence. Cooper in a
+sense belonged to the school of Scott; and he was so far from denying
+it that in one place he speaks of himself as being nothing more than a
+chip from the former's block. But his life would have been far happier
+and his success much greater had he followed in one respect the example
+of him he called his master. Scott ordinarily did not read criticisms
+upon his own writings; and when he did, he was careful not to let his
+equanimity be seriously disturbed even by the severest attacks.    (p. 042)
+of this was no doubt due to prudence; but a good deal of it to contempt.
+For of all the rubbish that time shoots into the wallet of oblivion,
+contemporary criticism runs about the least chance of being rescued
+from the forgetfulness into which it has been thrust. This is a result
+entirely independent of its goodness or badness. If the criticism is
+both destructive and just, the very death of the subject against which
+it is directed causes it to perish in the ruin it has brought about.
+If it is unjust, it is certain to be speedily forgotten, unless he who
+suffers from it takes the pains to perpetuate its memory, or some later
+investigator drags it from its obscurity for the sake of pointing out
+its absurdity. The creative literature of the past is the utmost the
+present can be expected to read. Its critical literature, however
+celebrated in its day, is looked upon with contempt, or at best with a
+patronizing approval, by the following age, which is always confident
+that it at least has reached the supreme standard of correct taste,
+and asks no aid in making up its judgments from those who have gone
+before. But the philosophy which shows this to be true never lessened
+one iota the pain which the man of sensitive nature suffers. The
+extent to which Cooper was affected by hostile criticism is something
+remarkable, even in the irritable race of authors. He manifested under
+it the irascibility of a man not simply thin-skinned, but of one whose
+skin was raw. Meekness was never a distinguishing characteristic of
+his nature; and attack invariably stung him into defiance or
+counter-attack. Unfriendly insinuations contained in obscure journals
+could goad him into remarks upon them, or into a reply to them, which
+at this date is the only means of preserving the original charge.  (p. 043)
+It was in his prefaces that he was apt to express his resentment most
+warmly, for he well knew that this was the one part of a book which
+the reviewer is absolutely certain to read. In these he frequently
+took occasion to point out to the generation of critical vipers the
+various offenses of which they were guilty, the stupidities that
+seemed to belong to their very nature, and that utter lack of literary
+skill which prevented them from giving a look of sense to the most
+plausible nonsense they concocted. By Cooper, indeed, the preface was
+looked upon not as a place to conciliate the reader, but to hurl scorn
+at the reviewer. In his hands it became a trumpet from which he blew
+from time to time critic-defying strains, which more than made up in
+vigor for all they lacked in prudence. This characteristic was early
+manifested. In the short preface to the second edition of "The Spy,"
+he could not refrain from referring to the friends who had given him
+good advice, and who had favored him with numberless valuable hints,
+by the help of which the work might be made excellent. But it is the
+letter to the publisher, with which "The Pioneers" originally opened,
+that was the first of his regular warlike manifestoes. Though not very
+long, two thirds of it was devoted to the men who had publicly found
+fault with his previous works. He pointed out their discrepancies in
+taste and the metaphysical obscurity of their opinions. At the
+conclusion he wrote a sentence which some of them never forgot. He
+told his publisher that to him alone he should look for the only true
+account of the reception of his book. "The critics," said he in
+continuation, "may write as obscurely as they please, and look much
+wiser than they are; the papers may puff and abuse as their        (p. 044)
+changeful humors dictate; but if you meet me with a smiling face I
+shall at once know that all is essentially well."
+
+Little notice, however, was taken at the time of Cooper's preference
+of the public opinion which showed itself in buying his books, to that
+which made it its chief aim to teach him how they ought to be written.
+The country was too pleased with him and too proud of him to pay any
+special attention to these momentary ebullitions of dissatisfaction.
+On his part so great had now become his literary activity, that before
+"The Pioneers" was published he had set to work upon a new novel, of a
+kind of which he can justly be described as the creator, and in which
+he was to be followed by a host of imitators.
+
+At a dinner party in New York in 1822, at which Cooper was present,
+the authorship of the Waverley Novels, still a matter of some
+uncertainty, came up for discussion. In December of the preceding year
+"The Pirate" had been published. The incidents in this story were
+brought forward as a proof of the thorough familiarity with sea-life
+of him, whoever he was, that had written it. Such familiarity Scott
+had never had the opportunity to gain in the only way it could be
+gained. It followed, therefore, that the tale was not of his composition.
+Cooper, who had never doubted the authorship of these novels, did not
+at all share in this view. The very reasons that made others feel
+uncertain led him to be confident. To one like him whose early life
+had been spent on top-gallant yards and in becketing royals, it was
+perfectly clear that "The Pirate" was the work of a landsman and not
+of a sailor. Not that he denied the accuracy of the descriptions so
+far as they went. The point that he made was that with the same    (p. 045)
+materials far greater effects could and would have been produced,
+had the author possessed that intimate familiarity with ocean-life
+which can be his alone whose home for years has been upon the waves.
+He could not convince his opponents by argument. He consequently
+determined to convince them by writing a sea-story.
+
+We who are familiar with the countless hosts of novels of this nature
+that have swarmed and are still swarming from the press, cannot realize
+the apparent peril which at that time existed in this undertaking. No
+work of the kind, such as he now projected, had ever yet been
+published. Sailors, indeed, had been introduced into fiction, notably
+by Smollett, but in no case had there been exhibited the handling and
+movements of vessels, and the details of naval operations. During the
+last half-century we have been so surfeited with the sea-story in
+every form, that most of us have forgotten the fact of its late
+origin, and that it is to Cooper that it owes its creation. That he
+created it was not due to any encouragement from others. He had plenty
+of judicious friends to warn him from the undertaking. Sailors, he was
+told, might understand and appreciate it, but no one else would.
+Minute detail, moreover, was necessary to render it intelligible to
+seamen, and to landsmen it would be both unintelligible and
+uninteresting on account of the technicalities which must inevitably
+be found in minute detail. A reputation already well established would
+be sunk in the treacherous element he was purposing to describe.
+Cooper persisted in his purpose, but he could not fail to be disturbed
+by the unfavorable auguries that met him on every side. These naturally
+had the more weight, as they came from men who were attached to    (p. 046)
+him personally, and who were honestly solicitous for his fame. He was at
+one time almost inclined to give up the project. But a critical English
+friend to whom he submitted a portion of the manuscript was delighted
+with it. In this man's judgment and taste Cooper felt so great confidence
+that he was induced to persevere. Moreover, to try the effect upon the
+more peculiar public of seamen, he read an extract to one of his old
+shipmates, who was also a relative. This was the account of the
+war-vessel working off shore in a gale. The selection was certainly a
+happy one. The literature of the sea presents no more thrilling chapter
+than that which, describing the passage of the great frigate through
+the narrow channel, gives every detail with such vividness and power
+that the most unimaginative cannot merely see ship, shore, and foaming
+water, but almost hear the roaring of the wind, the creaking of the
+cordage, and the dashing of the waves against the breakers. As he read
+on the listener's interest kept growing until he was no longer able to
+remain quiet. Rising from his seat he paced up and down the room
+furiously until the chapter was finished. Then half ashamed of the
+excitement into which he had been betrayed, he avenged himself just as
+if he were a professional reviewer by indulging in a bit of special
+criticism: "It's all very well," he burst out, "but you have let your
+jib stand too long, my fine fellow." For once Cooper heeded advice. "I
+blew it out of the bolt-rope," said he, "in pure spite;" and blown out
+of the bolt-rope the jib appears in the tale.
+
+He now felt reasonably confident of success, and any doubt that might
+have lingered in his mind was at once swept away by the favorable
+reception the work met when it came out. Its publication was for   (p. 047)
+a while delayed. Early in the summer of 1823 the first volume had been
+finished and a portion of the second, but any further progress was checked
+for the time by an affliction that then befell the author. On the 5th of
+August his youngest child, Fenimore, then little less than two years old,
+died at the family residence in Beach Street, New York, and this calamity
+was followed by illness of his own. "The Pilot," in consequence, though
+bearing the date of 1823, was not actually furnished to the trade until
+the 7th of January, 1824. Its success, both in this country and in
+Europe, was instantaneous. Far-sighted men saw at once that a new
+realm had been added to the domain of fiction. "The Pilot" is indeed
+not only the first of Cooper's sea-stories in point of time, but if we
+regard exclusively the excellence of detached scenes, it may perhaps
+be justly styled the best of them all. At any rate its place in the
+highest rank of this species of fiction cannot be disputed, and in
+spite of the multitude of similar works that have followed in its wake
+and which have had their seasons of temporary popularity, its hold
+upon the public has never been lost.
+
+Cooper was without question exceptionally fortunate in the materials
+with which he had to deal. He was never under the necessity of getting
+up with infinite toil what the modern novelist terms his local coloring.
+This existed for him ready made. He had only to call to mind the men he
+had himself met, the hazards he had run, the life he had lived, to be
+furnished with all the incidents and scenes and characters that were
+capable of being wrought into romance. His descriptions both of forest
+and of sea have all that vividness and reality which cannot well be given
+save by him who has threaded at will every maze of the one and     (p. 048)
+tossed for week after week upon the billows of the other. Moreover, in
+this particular case, while he satisfied his patriotic feeling in the
+choice of the time, he displayed great judgment in the selection of
+the hero. The pilot, though never named, we know to be the extraordinary
+and daring adventurer, John Paul Jones, and the period is of course
+the American Revolution. In his literary art, likewise, Cooper has never
+been equaled by his imitators. Provided he could create the desired
+effect, he dared to let the reader remain in ignorance of the details
+he introduced. Enough of technicality was brought in to satisfy the
+professional seaman, but not so much as to distract the attention of
+the landsman from the main movement of the story. Contented with this
+the author did not seek to explain to the latter what he could not
+well understand without having served personally before the mast. From
+this rule he never varied, save in the few cases where the interest of
+the tale could be better served by imparting information than by
+withholding it. He had a full artistic appreciation of the impressiveness
+of the unknown. For, in stories of this kind, the vagueness of the
+reader's knowledge adds to the effect upon his mind, because, while he
+sees that mighty agencies are at work in perilous situations, his very
+ignorance of their exact nature deepens the feeling of awe they are of
+themselves calculated to produce. The wise reticence of Cooper in this
+respect can be seen by contrasting it with the prodigality of information,
+contained in more than one modern sea-novel, in which the whole action
+of the story is arrested to explain a technical operation with the result
+that the ordinary reader finds the explanation more unintelligible than
+the technical operation itself.
+
+Still, in spite of the excellence of the tales which had followed  (p. 049)
+it, "The Spy" continued with the majority of readers to be the most popular
+of his works. This fact, coupled with his intense love of country, led
+him to turn once more for a subject to his native land and to the period
+in the description of which he had won his first fame. He formed, in
+fact, a plan of writing a series of works of fiction, the scenes of
+which should be laid in the various colonies that had shared in the
+Revolutionary struggle. In pursuance of this scheme, his next work was
+projected. In February, 1825, appeared "Lionel Lincoln, or the Leaguer
+of Boston." The first edition had a preliminary title-page, which
+contained the inscription, "Legends of the Thirteen Republics,"
+followed by this quotation from Hamlet--
+
+  "I will fight with him upon this theme
+  Until my eyelids will no longer wag."
+
+When the plan he had conceived was given up, this addition naturally
+disappeared with it. Nothing that industry could do was spared by Cooper
+to make this work a success. On this account as well as for its
+reception by the public it stands in marked contrast to "The Spy." In
+the preparation of it he studied historical authorities, he read state
+papers, he pored over official documents of all kinds and degrees of
+dreariness. To have his slightest assertions in accordance with fact,
+he examined almanacs, and searched for all the contemporary reports as
+to the condition of the weather. He visited Boston in order to go over
+in person the ground he was to make the scene of his story. As a result
+of all this labor he has furnished us an admirable description of the
+engagement at Concord Bridge, of the running fight of Lexington,   (p. 050)
+and of the battle of Bunker's Hill. Of the last, it is, according to
+the sufficient authority of Bancroft, the best account ever given. At
+this point praise must stop. New England was always to Cooper an
+ungenial clime, both as regards his creative activity and his critical
+appreciation. The moment he touched its soil, his strength seemed to
+abandon him. Whatever excellencies this particular work displayed,
+they were not the excellencies of a novel. Accuracy of detail, even in
+historical romance, is only a minor virtue. The modern reader is,
+indeed, often inclined to doubt whether it is a virtue at all now that
+modern research is constantly showing that so much we have been wont
+to look upon as fact is nothing more than fable. So superior is the
+imagination of man turning out to his memory that one is tempted to
+fancy that instead of going to history for our fiction we shall yet
+have to turn about and go to fiction for our history.
+
+"Lionel Lincoln" is certainly one of Cooper's most signal failures. In
+writing it he had attempted to do what it did not lie in the peculiar
+nature of his powers to accomplish. It is the story of crime long hidden
+from the knowledge of men, but dogging with unceasing activity the
+memories of those concerned in it. But the secret chambers of the soul
+into which the guilty man never looks willingly, Cooper could neither
+enter himself nor lay bare to others. Remorse that gnaws incessantly at
+every activity of the spirit, the consciousness of sin that haunts the
+heart and hangs like a burden upon the life, can never well be depicted
+save by him whose words suggest more than they reveal. Cooper was not
+a writer of this kind. He belonged to that class of literary artists
+who convey their precise meaning by exactness and fullness of      (p. 051)
+detail. The vagueness and indefiniteness with which this story abounds
+is not, therefore, that impressive obscurity which springs from the
+mysterious; it is, on the contrary, the obscurity of the unintelligible
+and absurd. In all of Cooper's novels, it is a fault that the
+characters are often represented as acting without sufficient motive.
+In the story of adventure this can be pardoned, or at least overlooked;
+for freak plays an important part in determining the movements of many
+of us. It is not so, however, in tales containing a plot similar to
+that of "Lionel Lincoln." The mind revolts at finding the actors in
+the drama represented as having committed monstrous crimes, without
+any reason that is worth mentioning. This radical defect in the plan
+is not counterbalanced by any felicity in the execution. Many of the
+incidents are more than improbable, they are impossible. The style,
+likewise, is labored, and the conversations combine the two undesirable
+peculiarities of being both stilted and dull. The characters, female
+or male, are in no case successfully drawn. The inferior ones, introduced
+to amuse, serve only to depress the reader. The hero in the course of
+the tale does several absurd things; but he finally surpasses himself
+by hurrying away from the woman he loves, without her knowledge,
+immediately after he has been joined to her in marriage. The
+representation of the half-witted Job--a character upon which the
+author clearly labored hard--neither arouses interest nor touches the
+heart. It is, indeed, impossible to feel much sympathy with one
+particular imbecile, no matter how patriotic, in a story where most of
+the actors are represented as acting like idiots.
+
+Nevertheless, his reputation and the real excellence of the battle (p. 052)
+battle scenes, saved this work from seeming at the time so much of a
+failure as it actually was. Certainly whatever loss of credit he may
+have sustained as the result of writing "Lionel Lincoln," was much
+more than made up by the success of the tale that followed. In 1824 he
+had gone on an excursion to Saratoga, Lake George, and Lake Champlain,
+with a small party of English gentlemen. One of these was Mr. Stanley,
+the future Lord Derby. As they reached Glens Falls and were examining
+the caverns made by the river at that spot, Mr. Stanley told Cooper
+that here ought to be laid the scene of a romance. In reply, the
+novelist assured him that a book should be written in which these
+caverns should have a place. The promise was fulfilled. On the 4th of
+February, 1826, "The Last of the Mohicans" made its appearance. It was
+composed the previous year in a little cottage then situated in a
+quiet, open country, on which now stands the suburban village of
+Astoria. A severe illness attacked Cooper during its progress; but
+whatever effect it had upon his physical frame, it certainly did not
+impair in the slightest his intellectual force. The success of the
+work was both instantaneous and prodigious. Owing, perhaps, to the
+novelty of the scenes and characters, it was even greater in Europe
+than in America. But there was no lack of appreciation in his own
+land. In the estimation of his countrymen, the novel at once took its
+place at the head of his productions. An incidental fact will not only
+make clear its success, but the state of the book trade at that time.
+The demand for the work soon became so great and so persistent, that
+in April it was decided to stereotype it.
+
+It deserved fully the success it gained. Of all the novels written (p. 053)
+by Cooper, "The Last of the Mohicans" is the one in which the interest
+not only never halts, but never sinks. It is, indeed, an open question,
+whether a higher art would not have given more breathing-places in this
+exciting tale, in which the mind is hurried without pause from
+sensation to sensation. But this is a fault, if it be a fault, which
+the reader will always forgive, whatever the critic may say. The
+latter, indeed, can see much to blame if he look at the work purely as
+an artistic creation. He can find improbability of action,
+insufficiency of motive, and feebleness of outline in many of the
+leading characters. But these are minor drawbacks. They sink into
+absolute insignificance when compared with the wealth of power
+displayed. As they are unable to retard the unflagging interest with
+which the story is read, so they do not essentially modify the
+estimation of it after it has been read.
+
+In this work two great achievements were accomplished by Cooper. The
+first was the idealization of the white hunter whom he had described
+in "The Pioneers." No one can read the two novels in succession without
+seeing at once how much Leather-Stocking has gained in dignity. In
+thought and feeling and habits he is essentially the same; but there
+was given to his character a poetic elevation which raised it at once
+to the front rank of the creations of the imagination, and will make
+it imperishable with English literature. As he appears in "The Pioneers"
+he is merely an old man who has made his home in the hills in advance
+of the tide of settlement. He is the solitary hunter who views with
+dislike clearings and improvements, who cannot breathe freely in streets,
+who hates the sight of masses of men, who looks with especial loathing
+upon the civilization whose first work is to fell the trees he has (p. 054)
+learned to love, whose first exercise of power is to draw the network
+of the law around the freedom and irresponsibility of forest life.
+Though full of a simple and somewhat sententious morality, he is
+querulous, irritable, ignorant. But in "The Last of the Mohicans,"
+while the man continues the same, the aspect he presents is wholly
+different. All that is weak in his character is in the background; all
+that is best and strongest comes to the front. He is in the prime of
+life. Ignorant he still remains of the ways of the world as found in
+the settlements; but there is no trace of discontent or fretfulness.
+He has full room for the exercise of his native virtues, and in the
+character of the acute and daring scout he finds no superior. To him
+forest and sky are an open book. Knowledge is conveyed to his ears in
+every sound that breaks the stillness of the summer woods; and to his
+eyes scarred rock and riven pine and the deserted nest of the eagle
+have made the paths of the wilderness as plain as the broadest highway.
+Nor are his moral qualities inferior to his purely professional. His
+coolness never deserts him, his resources never fail him, and along
+with the versatility that is never at a loss in the presence of the
+unexpected is the resolution that never flinches at the approach of
+the perilous.
+
+This delineation has always met with unqualified praise. But the
+idealization of the Indian character as seen in Chingachcook and Uncas
+has been the subject of much controversy. This is not the place to
+express an opinion upon the truth of the representation. It is enough
+to say here that the view Cooper took was not hastily formed, nor was
+it the result of accidental prejudices. He studied all the sources of
+information accessible at that time which threw light upon the     (p. 055)
+Indian character. He visited the deputations from the various tribes
+that passed through the state of New York on their way to the national
+capital. In some instances he followed them to Washington. It is
+obvious that to a man of his poetic temperament they may have appeared
+in a different light from what they did to the ordinary government
+agent. Certainly he never found reason to modify his views, though he
+was familiar with the criticism made upon them. Toward the close of
+his life he took occasion to reaffirm them. It is also to be added
+that if he gave especial prominence to certain virtues, real or
+imaginary, of the Indian race, he was equally careful not to pass over
+their vices. Most of the warriors he introduces are depicted as
+crafty, bloodthirsty, and merciless. But whether his representation be
+true or false, it has from that time to this profoundly affected
+opinion. Throughout the whole civilized world the conception of the
+Indian character, as Cooper drew it in "The Last of the Mohicans" and
+still further elaborated it in the later "Leather-Stocking Tales," has
+taken permanent hold of the imaginations of men. Individuals may cast
+it off; but in the case of the great mass it stands undisturbed by
+doubt or unshaken by denial. This much can be said in its favor
+irrespective of the question of its accuracy. If Cooper has given to
+Indian conversation more poetry than it is thought to possess, or to
+Indian character more virtue, the addition has been a gain to
+literature, whatever it may have been to truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.                                                        (p. 056)
+
+1826-1830.
+
+
+With the publication of "The Last of the Mohicans," Cooper's popularity
+was at its height. His countrymen were proud of him, proud that he had
+chosen his native land as the scene of his stories, proud that he had in
+consequence extended among all cultivated peoples its fame as well as his
+own. His works were more than read. They were in most cases dramatized
+and acted as soon as published. Artists vied in making incidents depicted
+in them the subjects of their paintings. Poems, founded upon them or
+connected in some way with them, made their appearance in the newspapers.
+If in many cases these things were in themselves of no value, they at
+least served to show the widespread popular interest which his writings
+had aroused. Moreover, his reputation was far from being limited to his
+own land. No other American, before or since, has enjoyed so wide a
+contemporary popularity. Irving may have been on the whole a greater
+favorite in England; but if so, it was largely due to the fact that the
+subjects upon which he was employed were of special interest to English
+readers, and his manner of treating them was flattering to English
+prejudices. But the Continental fame of Cooper was unrivaled, and
+indeed could fairly be said to hold its own with that of Walter Scott.
+Long before he went to Europe himself, his works appeared          (p. 057)
+simultaneously in America, England, and France. They were speedily
+translated into German and Italian, and in most instances soon found
+their way into the other cultivated tongues of Europe. Everywhere his
+ability had been recognized by those whose approbation, if it could
+not confer immortality, was certain to bring with it temporary applause.
+The admiration expressed for him was far less marked in England than
+upon the Continent; but even there it could often be termed cordial.
+It came, too, from those who, whatever estimation we may give to their
+praise, did not praise lightly. From Miss Edgeworth he received
+personally a tribute to his success in delineating the characters in
+which her own reputation had been largely won. On reading "The Spy,"
+she sent him a message, that she liked Betty Flanigan particularly,
+and that no Irish pen could have drawn her better. Scott had been much
+struck by the scenes and personages depicted in "The Pilot," the novel
+he first read, and predicted at once the success of the sea-story and
+of its creator. Many there were, even in England, who looked upon
+Cooper as being equal to the great master of historical romance. "Have
+you read the American novels?" wrote in November, 1824, Mary Russell
+Mitford to a friend. "In my mind they are as good as anything Sir Walter
+ever wrote. He has opened fresh ground, too (if one may say so of the sea).
+No one but Smollett has ever attempted to delineate the naval character;
+and then his are so coarse and hard. Now this has the same truth and power
+with a deep, grand feeling.... Imagine the author's boldness in taking
+Paul Jones for a hero, and his power in making one care for him! I envy
+the Americans their Mr. Cooper.... There is a certain Long Tom who (p. 058)
+appears to me the finest thing since Parson Adams." Subsequently, in
+July, 1826, she spoke thus of "The Last of the Mohicans," in a letter
+to Haydon: "I like it," she wrote, "better than any of Scott's, except
+the three first and 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian.'" The praise, indeed,
+given both then and at a later period, may often seem extravagant. In
+a passage written in 1835, Barry Cornwall, not merely content with
+putting Cooper at the head of all American authors, added that he may
+"dare competition with almost any writer whatever."
+
+It need hardly be said that opinions such as these were not to be found
+generally in the English literary periodicals. Cooper's name was not
+even mentioned in the great reviews until his fame had been secured
+without their aid. The success which he won in Great Britain was not
+due in the slightest to the professional critics. These men fancied
+they had exhausted the power of panegyric when they went so far as to
+term him the American Scott. This fact was triumphantly paraded at a
+later period by a writer in Blackwood, presumably Wilson, as one of
+the convincing proofs of the untruthfulness of the charge made by
+Barry Cornwall, that authors from this country were treated with
+systematic unfairness in English reviews. "Were we ever unjust to
+Cooper?" he asked. "Why, people call him the American Scott." This
+sort of patting on the back was thought a proud illustration of the
+generosity of the British character, and as putting the recipient of
+it under obligations of everlasting gratitude.
+
+There is no doubt, indeed, that the reputation of Cooper suffered all
+his life by the constant comparison that was made between him and  (p. 059)
+the great Scotch writer. It was to a certain extent inevitable; but it
+was none the less unfortunate. He could never be judged by what he did;
+it was always by the fanciful test of how some one else would have done
+it. This was even more true of his own country than of England. Scott's
+popularity was greater here than it was anywhere else. There was a
+feeling akin almost to moral reprobation expressed against any one who
+should presume to fancy that the best work of any native author could
+equal the poorest that Scott put forth. The Continental opinion which
+at that time often reckoned the American novelist as equal, if not
+superior to his British contemporary, seemed to men here like a
+profanation. It was, indeed, so said in direct terms.
+
+Comparison with Scott, therefore, always put the one compared at a great
+disadvantage. This, however, is a method of judging that is necessary
+to some and easy to all. Genuine appreciation demands study and thought.
+For these comparison is a cheap substitute. To call Cooper the American
+Scott in compliment in the days of his popularity, and in derision in the
+days of his unpopularity, was a method of criticism which enabled men to
+praise or undervalue without taking the trouble to think. Stories were
+invented and set in circulation of how he himself rejoiced in being so
+designated. Great, accordingly, was the indignation felt and expressed
+by these gentry at the presumption of the American author, when at a
+later period he asserted that so far from taking pride in the title,
+it merely gave him just as much gratification as any nickname could
+give a gentleman.
+
+It would be, moreover, far from truth to say that in this most     (p. 060)
+prosperous portion of his career his popularity was unmixed in his own
+country. Even then his success had aroused a good deal of envy. In 1823
+he was attacked, in common with many prominent citizens of New York,
+in a satire called "Gotham and the Gothamites." This was the work of a
+man of the name of Judah, who, in 1822, had published a dramatic poem
+styled "Odofried the Outcast." The title was ominous of the fate which
+the production met. The author naturally felt that the age was
+unappreciative. To relieve his mind he wrote eleven or twelve hundred
+lines of fresh drivel, in which he assailed everything and everybody.
+The satire was of that dreadful kind which requires notes and commentaries
+to point out who is hit and what is meant; and the annotation, as is
+usual in such cases, took up much more space than the text. This
+work--for which the author was sent to jail, though a lunatic asylum
+would have been a far fitter place--is only of interest here because
+it bears direct and positive evidence to the fact that at this time
+Cooper was the most widely read of American authors.
+
+But jealousy of his fame could be found among men of much higher
+pretensions than this wretched poetaster. "The North American Review"
+had at that time been ponderously revolving through space for several
+years. It was then a periodical respectable, classical, and dull, all
+three in an eminent degree. Towards Cooper it struggled in a feeble
+way to be just, but for all that it was the exponent of a distinctly
+unfriendly feeling. Among individuals a conspicuous representative of
+this hostility was the poet Percival. He could not endure the reputation
+which the novelist had acquired. Percival was a man of a good deal of
+ability, of a great deal of knowledge, and of an inexhaustible     (p. 061)
+capacity of spinning out verse, never rising much above, nor falling
+much below mediocrity, which, if mere quantity were the only element
+to be considered, would have justified him in contracting to produce
+enough to constitute of itself a national literature. As he invariably
+proved himself entirely destitute of common sense in his ordinary
+conduct, he was led to fancy that he was not merely a man of ability,
+but a man of genius; and during the whole of his life he perpetually
+posed as that most intolerable of literary nuisances, a man of
+unappreciated genius. In spite of the fact that he had been hospitably
+entertained and befriended by Cooper, he could not be satisfied, because
+their common publisher looked upon the latter as the "greatest literary
+genius in America." The reception given by the public to the "long, dirty,
+straggling tales" of the novelist disgusted him. "I ask nothing," he wrote
+in April, 1823, "of a people who will lavish their patronage on such a
+vulgar book as "The Pioneers." They and I are well quit. They neglect me,
+and I despise them." In a later letter he returned to this work. "It might
+do," he said, "to amuse the select society of a barber's shop or a
+porter-house. But to have the author step forward on such stilts and claim
+to be the lion of our national literature, and fall to roaring himself and
+set all his jackals howling (S. C. & Co.) to put better folks out of
+countenance--why 'tis pitiful, 'tis wondrous pitiful at least for the
+country that not only suffers it but encourages it." Percival, indeed, his
+biographer tells us, was subsequently urged to contribute to "The North
+American Review" a critical article on "The Prairie," in which simple
+justice was to be done to Cooper--which phrase had, of course, its (p. 062)
+usual meaning, that injustice was to be done him. The poet's customary
+indecision prevailed, however; the country was spared this exhibition
+of spiteful incapacity, and the novelist was left to stumble along in
+uncertainty as to his precise position among men of letters.
+
+Not but there were plenty of men anxious to show it. Especially was this
+true of that class which looked upon it as the supreme effort of critical
+judgment to exaggerate the value of everything written in Europe and
+depreciate everything of native origin. There was a prevailing belief
+among those who mistook their own individual impotence for the incapacity
+of a whole people, that nothing good could come out of America. Many
+showed their faith by their conduct. In 1834, Cooper himself said that
+he knew of several instances in which persons had not read anything he
+had written for the avowed reason that nothing worth reading could be
+written by one of their countrymen. To all of these it was a subject of
+some perplexity and of more annoyance that his works should be, if
+anything, more popular in Europe than they were in his native land. To
+account for this fact various sage reasons were early suggested and are
+still occasionally heard. One of these has always been particularly
+common. This was that it was the novelty of the scenes and characters
+depicted that attracted attention and not the ability shown in depicting
+them. At any rate, they wished it understood that if he satisfied the
+European, he did not satisfy the native world: for if creative power had
+been denied us, we could at least show that as a compensation we had
+been supplied with a double portion of refined taste. Speaking in behalf
+of the American people, these critics expressed anxiety that       (p. 063)
+neither at home nor abroad should Cooper be regarded as obtaining the
+unqualified admiration or attaining the lofty ideal of "all of us."
+Against any such impression they entered their humble protest. All that
+lay in their power should be done to counteract it. This is no one-sided
+statement of opinions then expressed. These very sentiments in almost
+these very words can be found in reviews of that period.
+
+Cooper at the time of writing his first novel was dwelling at Angevine.
+When the success of the second made it probable that he would continue
+for a while his career as an author, and possibly devote his life to it,
+the necessity arose of changing his residence. His country home was
+about five and twenty miles from the city, but twenty-five miles in
+those days of limited mail facilities and limited means of communication
+was a distance not to be tolerated. Accordingly, in 1822 he moved into
+New York. Either there or in its suburbs he dwelt until his departure
+for Europe. Here his youngest child, Paul, was born in 1824, and here,
+as has already been mentioned, his infant son Fenimore died. His talents
+and his reputation gave him at once a leading position in society. Nor
+were his associates inferior men. He founded a club which included on
+its rolls the residents of New York then best known in literature and
+law, science and art. The names of many will be even more familiar to
+our ears than they were to those of their contemporaries. All forms of
+intellectual activity were represented. To this club belonged, among
+others, Chancellor Kent the jurist; Verplanck, the editor of Shakespeare;
+Jarvis the painter; Durand the engraver; DeKay the naturalist; Wiley the
+publisher; Morse the inventor of the electric telegraph; Halleck and
+Bryant, the poets. It was sometimes called after the name of its   (p. 064)
+founder; but it more commonly bore the title of the "Bread and Cheese
+Lunch." It met weekly, and Cooper, whenever he was in the city, was
+invariably present. More than that, he was the life and soul of it.
+Though kept up for a while after his departure from the country, it was
+only a languishing existence it maintained, and even this speedily ended
+in death.
+
+His pecuniary situation had been largely improved by his literary
+success. The pressure upon his means had in fact been one of the main
+reasons, if not the main reason, that had led him to contemplate
+pursuing a literary life. The property left by his father had gradually
+dwindled in value, partly through lack of careful uninterrupted
+management. His elder brothers, on whom the administration of the estate
+had successively devolved, had died. The result was, that he found
+himself without the means which in his childhood he might justly have
+looked forward to possessing. So far from being a man of wealth he was
+in the earlier part of his literary career a poor man. From any
+difficulties, however, into which he may have fallen he was more than
+retrieved by the success of what he wrote. Precisely what was the sale
+of his books, or how much he received for their sale, it would be hard
+and perhaps impossible now to tell. He was careless himself about
+preserving any records of such facts. But, besides this natural
+indifference, he seemed to resent any public reference to the price paid
+him for his writings as an unauthorized intrusion into his personal
+affairs. Allusions even to the amount of his receipts he apparently
+regarded as springing not so much from a feeling of pride in his
+success, as from a desire to represent him as being under great    (p. 065)
+obligations to his countrymen. In some instances he was certainly correct
+in so regarding it. On one occasion after his return from Europe, he
+denied the truth of an assertion made in a newspaper, as to the amount
+he derived from the sale of each of his novels. "It remains for the
+public to decide," said he, "whether it will tolerate or not this
+meddling with private interests by any one who can get the command of a
+little ink and a few types." In the prefatory address to the publisher
+which appeared in the first edition of "The Pioneers," he made the
+statement, that the success of "The Spy," should always remain a secret
+between themselves. This reticence and dislike of publicity continued
+throughout the whole of his career. It extended to everything connected
+with his writings. Our knowledge on these points is, therefore, both
+scanty and uncertain. The size of the editions has never been given to
+the public. The sale of "The Pioneers" on the morning of its publication
+has already been noticed; and there are contemporary newspaper
+statements to the effect that the first edition of "The Red Rover"
+consisted of five thousand copies, and that this was exhausted in a few
+days. But it is only from incidental references of this kind, which can
+rarely be relied upon absolutely, that we at this late day are able to
+gain any specific information whatever.
+
+He was unquestionably helped in the end, however, by what in the
+beginning threatened to be a serious if not insuperable obstacle. He was
+unable to get any one concerned in the book trade to assume the risk of
+bringing out "The Spy." That had to be taken by the author himself. In
+the case of this novel, we know positively that Cooper was not only the
+owner of the copyright, but of all the edition; that he gave       (p. 066)
+directions as to the terms on which the work was to be furnished to the
+booksellers, while the publishers, Wiley & Halsted, had no direct
+interest in it, and received their reward by a commission. It is evident
+that under this arrangement his profits on the sale were far larger than
+would usually be the case. Whether he followed the same method in any of
+his later productions, there seems to be no means of ascertaining. Wiley,
+however, until his death, continued to be his publisher. "The Last of
+the Mohicans" went into the hands of Carey & Lea of Philadelphia; and
+this firm, under various changes of name, continued to bring out the
+American edition of his novels until the year 1844. It was from the
+sales in this country that most of the income from his books was derived.
+England, indeed, brought him a large sum, at least up to the passage of
+the copyright law of 1838; but he gained little pecuniary benefit from
+the wide circulation of his works on the European continent, whatever
+may have been the renown. In regard to France, he said in 1834 after his
+return, that he had paid in taxes to the government of that country,
+during his different residences in it, considerably more money than was
+obtained from the sales of the sheets of fourteen books. In Germany,
+where his writings had an immense circulation, his receipts were still
+less.
+
+But whatever may have been the precise amount acquired by the sale of
+his works, it was sufficient to pay off heavy debts incurred by others,
+but which he was compelled to assume, to put him in an independent
+position and justify him in determining to fulfill a long-cherished
+desire of spending some time in Europe. Accordingly on the 1st     (p. 067)
+of June, 1826, he sailed with his family--consisting, with the servants,
+of ten persons--from the port of New York. On the 5th of November, 1833,
+he landed there on his return. His original intention was to be gone for
+but five years. To the fixing of this particular time he was apparently
+influenced by a remark of Jefferson, that no American should remain away
+for a longer period from the country, because if he did, so rapid were
+the changes, its facts would have got wholly beyond his knowledge. His
+absence actually extended to a little less than seven years and a half.
+Most of this time was spent in France. From Henry Clay, then Secretary
+of State, he had received the appointment of consul at Lyons. He had
+asked for it, because he did not wish to have the appearance of
+expatriating himself; for as the service was then conducted, such a post
+involved no duties and brought in no returns. His commission bears date
+the 10th of May, 1826. Even this nominal position he gave up after
+holding it between two and three years. No resignation of his is on file
+in the State Department; but a successor was appointed on the 15th of
+January, 1829. He threw up the place because he had come to entertain
+the conviction that gross abuses existed in the system of foreign
+appointments, and it became him to set an example of the principles he
+professed.
+
+It may be well at this point to furnish an outline sketch of his various
+residences in Europe. The voyage from America lasted about a month; and
+after staying a few days in England he passed over to France, on the
+soil of which he first set foot on the 18th of July, 1826. Either in
+Paris or its immediate neighborhood he remained until February, 1828,
+when he crossed over to England. Leaving London early in June,     (p. 068)
+he went back to France by the way of Holland and Belgium. In July, 1828,
+he left Paris for Switzerland, and took up his residence near Berne.
+After spending some weeks in making excursions from that point, he
+crossed the Alps in October by the Simplon Pass. The following winter
+and spring he spent in Florence and its vicinity. In the summer of 1829
+he sailed down the Italian coast to Naples, and after staying a few
+weeks in that city, made a home for himself and his family at Sorrento
+for nearly three months. The winter of 1829-30 he spent in Rome. In the
+spring of 1830 he went to Venice. From that place he journeyed to Munich
+by the Tyrol, and finally settled down in Dresden. From his temporary
+home in Saxony, however, the July revolution speedily drew him to Paris,
+and that city he made mainly his residence from that time until his
+return to America in 1833. There he was, and there he stood his ground
+during the terrible cholera ravages of 1832. Occasional expeditions he
+made, and of one in particular, up the Rhine and in Switzerland, he has
+published a full account.
+
+It was eminently characteristic of Cooper, that though he brought with
+him letters of introduction, he found himself unwilling to deliver a
+single one of them. Yet, certainly, if any American could be pardoned
+the use of a custom that has been so much abused, he was the man. But
+after he had resided quietly in France for a few weeks, he happened to
+attend a diplomatic dinner given by the United States minister to
+Canning, then on a visit to Paris. This was the occasion of making his
+presence known to those who had long before made the acquaintance of his
+writings. He was at once sought out and welcomed by the most       (p. 069)
+distinguished men of the most brilliant capital in the world. The
+polish, the grace, the elegance, and the wit of French social life made
+upon him an impression which he not only never forgot, but which he was
+afterwards in the habit of contrasting with the social life of England
+and America, to the manifest disadvantage of both, and with the certain
+result of provoking the hostility of each. He himself says very little
+of the reception he met; but we know from other sources how cordial and
+even deferential it was. He was not a man, indeed, to enjoy being
+lionized, to be set up, as he expressed it, at a dinner-table as a piece
+of luxury, like strawberries in February or peaches in April. But he was
+in a capital where attention is always paid to ability, though rarely
+with noisy demonstration. He received his full share of it. Without
+mentioning numerous other evidences, the conspicuous position he held is
+evident from the way Scott speaks of him in his diary. He mentions
+meeting him one evening at the Princess Galitzin's in November, 1826.
+"Cooper was there," said he, "so the Scotch and American lions took the
+field together."
+
+But of all the countries in which he resided he grew to be fondest of
+Italy. This was partly due to the fact that there he could indulge to
+the full extent two passions that had come to be a part of his
+nature--the love of fine skies, and of beautiful scenery. His feelings
+in regard to this country and to France he expressed on one occasion
+with a courtliness that was wholly free from the insincerity of the
+courtier's art. In November, 1830, shortly after his return to Paris
+from Germany, he was presented to the royal family. The Queen of Louis
+Philippe, who was the daughter of Ferdinand I., of the Two         (p. 070)
+Sicilies, asked him of all the lands visited by him which he most
+preferred. "That in which your majesty was born," was the reply, "for
+its nature, and that in which your majesty reigns for its society."
+There was not in this the slightest compliment, if by compliment
+anything is meant inconsistent with the severest truth. "Switzerland,"
+he said afterward, "is the country to astonish and sometimes to delight;
+but Italy is the land to love." During the nearly two years he remained
+there, its scenery, its climate, its recollections, and also its people,
+were constantly gaining a hold upon his heart. No country did he ever
+leave with so much regret; and when he came to take his final departure,
+his feelings were such as are experienced by him who is on the point of
+bidding farewell to a much-loved home. When he passed into the valley of
+the Adige on his journey to the Tyrol, in 1830, he reversed the usual
+practice of the traveler who has his eyes fixed only on what is to come.
+He turned around to cast a last lingering glance at the land he was
+about to leave behind. Italy was the only country, his wife told him,
+that she had ever known him to quit looking over the shoulder. His
+regard for the people was, perhaps, intensified by the reaction against
+the estimation in which he had been wont to hold them. "The
+vulgar-minded English,"--he said in one of those deliciously irritating
+and double-acting sentences he was afterward in the habit of frequently
+uttering--"talk of the damned Italians, and the vulgar-minded American,
+quite in rule, imitates his great model." Certainly his prejudices
+against the inhabitants of that country were soon swept away. He
+contrasted them favorably with all their neighbors. They were      (p. 071)
+more gracious than the English, more sincere than the French, and
+infinitely more refined than the Germans. In grace of mind, and in love,
+and even knowledge of the arts, a large portion of the common Italians
+were, in his opinion, as much superior to the Anglo-Saxons as
+civilization is to barbarism. He came in time to have a sort of fondness
+even for the professional mendicants. He furnishes us a curious picture
+of the beggars who assembled about his residence daily in Sorrento, to
+whom he invariably gave a grano apiece. The company, starting out from
+one or two, had been steadily reinforced by recruits from far and near,
+till it ran up to the neighborhood of a hundred men, who regularly
+presented themselves for their pittance. There is no more graphic
+description in his writings than his account of the scene which took
+place when a new-comer among the beggars had the indiscretion, on
+receiving his grano, to wish the giver only a hundred years of life; the
+indignation of the king of the gang at this exhibition of black
+ingratitude; the tumult with which the blunder was corrected, and the
+shouts and outcries with which the pitiful hundred was changed into a
+thousand years, and long ones at that.
+
+During this time his literary activity was unceasing. Before the close
+of 1830 he had completed four novels: "The Prairie," "The Red Rover,"
+"The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," and "The Water Witch,"--all of which were
+devoted to the delineation of scenes and characters belonging to his
+native land. Before he started for Europe he had begun a new Indian
+story. This was finished during his early residence in Paris. He had
+felt it to be a hazardous venture to bring into "The Last of the
+Mohicans" the personages who had been previously drawn in "The     (p. 072)
+Pioneers." But so great had been his success, and so strongly had the
+characters taken hold of him, that he determined to renew the experiment
+for a third time. Leather-Stocking, accordingly, was introduced as
+living in extreme old age on the Western prairies, and the book ends
+with his death. The idea of transferring the home of the worn-out hunter
+to these vast solitudes was suggested, it is fair to infer from Cooper's
+own words, by the actual career of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer.
+The simple story of this man's life was sufficiently remarkable; but in
+the exaggerated accounts of it that were then current, he was
+represented as having emigrated, in his ninety-second year, to an estate
+three hundred miles west of the Mississippi, because he found a
+population of ten to the square mile inconveniently crowded.
+
+On the 17th of May, 1827, "The Prairie" was published. It did not meet
+with the extraordinary success of "The Last of the Mohicans," nor has it
+ever been as great a favorite with the general public. It was written in
+a far more quiet and subdued vein. It never keeps up that prolonged
+strain upon the feelings which characterizes the work that preceded it,
+and which while a defect in the eyes of some is to most readers its
+special charm. There are, indeed, in many of Cooper's stories,
+situations more thrilling and scenes more stirring than can be found in
+"The Prairie," though in it there is no lack of these. But of all his
+tales it is much the most poetical. Man sinks into insignificance in the
+presence of these mighty solitudes; for throughout the whole book the
+immensity of nature hangs over the spirit like a pall. Nor were the
+characters of the principal personages out of harmony with the atmosphere
+that envelopes the scenes described. In the lonely hunter, now     (p. 073)
+nearing his grave, there is a pathetic grandeur, which is a natural
+development, and not an artificial addition. Though he has hurried as
+far away as possible from the din of the settlements, he is no longer
+querulous and irritable as in his old age in the Otsego hills. He has
+learned to recognize the inevitable. While he does not cease to regret,
+he has ceased to denounce. He knows that the majestic solitude of nature
+will not long remain undisturbed, nor its more majestic silence unbroken;
+for in every wind that blows from the East he hears the sound of axes and
+the crash of falling trees that herald the march of civilization across
+the continent. He sorrows at the ruin impending on all that is dearest to
+his heart; but he awaits it in dignified submission. In fine contrast to
+him stands the man who has likewise sought the solitude of the wilderness,
+not because he loves the beauty and the majesty of primeval nature, but
+because he hates the restraints that human society has thrown about the
+indulgence of human passions. Criticism has rarely done justice to the
+skill and power with which Cooper has drawn the squatter of the prairies,
+who holds that land should be as free as air; who has traveled hundreds of
+miles beyond the Mississippi to reach a place where title-deeds are not
+registered and sheriffs make no levies; who neither fears God nor regards
+man; to whom the rule of the rifle is the supremest law; and yet who, with
+all his detestation of the safeguards which society has erected for its
+security, has a moral code and a rough wild justice of his own.
+
+"The Prairie" was followed by "The Red Rover," which came out on the 9th
+of January, 1828. During the years that followed the publication   (p. 074)
+of "The Pilot," the reputation of that work had been steadily increasing.
+Time had more than confirmed the first favorable impression. Not only
+had any lingering prejudice against the sea-story as a story been
+entirely swept away, but tales of this kind were beginning to be the
+fashion. Imitators were springing up everywhere. It was natural, therefore,
+for Cooper to turn his attention once more to a kind of fiction to the
+composition of which he himself had originally opened the way. After
+leaving the navy he had become one of the owners of a whaling vessel,
+and in it had made one or two voyages to Newport. In the harbor of that
+place he fixed the introduction of his new story of the sea. He had
+taken up his residence during the summer of 1827 in the little hamlet of
+St. Ouen on the Seine, not far from Paris. There, in the space of three
+or four months, "The Red Rover" was written. From the date of its
+appearance to the present time it has always been justly one of the most
+popular of his productions, and perhaps, considered as a whole, stands
+at the head of his sea-tales.
+
+On the 6th of November, 1829, succeeded an Indian story of King Philip's
+war, under the name of "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish." The fanciful title
+puzzled, and did not altogether please, the public. As a matter of fact
+it was used only in this country. In England the novel was called "The
+Borderers;" in France "The Puritans of America, or the Valley of
+Wish-ton-Wish." This work was begun during his residence in Switzerland
+in 1828, and was completed at Florence. It has never been popular,
+particularly in America. The tale is a tragic one throughout, and the
+prevailing air of sombreness is rarely lightened by any success in the
+management of minor incidents. The introduction too was marked by  (p. 075)
+one of Cooper's besetting faults, intolerable prolixity. But the main
+cause of his failure lay in his inability to delineate the Puritan
+character. It was not knowledge that was wanting, it was sympathy; or
+perhaps it is better to say that it was his lack of sympathy which
+prevented his having any genuine knowledge. He tried in all honesty to
+depict the men who had founded New England, the men of hard heads and
+iron hearts, in whom piety and pugnacity were, as in himself, so
+intimately blended that the transition from the one to the other is a
+vanishing line whose discovery defies the closest scrutiny. Paradoxical
+as the assertion may seem, he was too much like the Puritans to do them
+justice. His character was essentially the same as their own; but the
+influences under which he had been trained were altogether different.
+Upon their manners, their ideas, and even their appearance he had early
+learned to look with aversion; and he had not the power to project his
+mind out of the circle of notions and prejudices in which he had been
+brought up. The very name of the Reverend Meek Wolf which he bestowed in
+this story upon his clergyman, revealed of itself the existence of
+feelings which put him at once out of that pale of sympathetic thought,
+which enables the novelist or historian to look with the insight of the
+spirit upon men and motives which his intellect acting by itself would
+prompt him to distrust and dislike.
+
+To this tale succeeded "The Water Witch." This was begun at Sorrento and
+finished at Rome, a city which he subsequently used often to speak of as
+the precise moral antipodes of the capital of the New World, in the
+harbor of which he had laid much of the scene of this story. It    (p. 076)
+was not till he reached Dresden, however, that he was enabled to have
+it put in print. On the 11th of December, 1830, it made its appearance
+in this country. With it ended for a time his fictions that dealt with
+American life and manners. He now turned to new fields and wrote with
+different aims.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During all these years his popularity had continued unabated, though his
+last two novels could hardly be said to have met with the favor which
+had been accorded to most of those which had preceded them. It is
+certainly a convincing proof of the wide reputation he had gained before
+he went to Europe, that five editions of "The Prairie," the first work
+he wrote after his arrival, were arranged to be published at the same
+time. Two were to come out in Paris, one in French and one in English;
+one in London; one in Berlin; and one in Philadelphia. But even this
+success was soon surpassed. It is hard to credit the accounts that are
+given on unimpeachable testimony. One statement, however, is too
+important to be overlooked, coming from the source it does. In the
+controversy going on in this country in 1833, in regard to the part
+Cooper had taken in the finance discussion, which will be mentioned in
+its proper place, Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph,
+published a letter in defense of his absent friend. In it he bore
+witness in the following words to the popularity of the novelist in the
+Old World: "I have visited, in Europe, many countries," said he, "and
+what I have asserted of the fame of Mr. Cooper I assert from personal
+knowledge. In every city of Europe that I visited the works of Cooper
+were conspicuously placed in the windows of every bookshop. They   (p. 077)
+are published as soon as he produces them in thirty-four different
+places in Europe. They have been seen by American travelers in the
+languages of Turkey and Persia, in Constantinople, in Egypt, at
+Jerusalem, at Ispahan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.                                                         (p. 078)
+
+1830.
+
+
+The month of December, 1830, which saw the publication of "The Water
+Witch," closed the first and far the most fortunate decade of Cooper's
+literary life. In the decade which followed began that career of
+controversy which lasted, with little intermission, until his death. By
+it his reputation and his fortunes were profoundly affected. It worked a
+complete revolution both in the sentiments with which he regarded others,
+and in the sentiments with which others regarded him. The most intense
+lover of his country, he became the most unpopular man of letters to
+whom it has ever given birth. For years a storm of abuse fell upon him,
+which for violence, for virulence, and even for malignity, surpassed
+anything in the history of American literature, if not in the history of
+literature itself. Nor did the effect of this disappear with his life.
+The misrepresentations and calumnies, which were then set in motion,
+have not ceased to operate even at this day. Full as marked, still, was
+the influence which the controversies, in which he was engaged, had upon
+his literary reputation. A direct result of them at the time was not
+only to impair the estimation in which his previous writings had been
+held, but to cause the later productions of his pen to be treated with
+systematic injustice. Both in England and America the effect of this
+hostile criticism has not yet died away.
+
+On the other hand, it was no one-sided contest that took place.    (p. 079)
+If Cooper was attacked, he, in turn, did his part in attacking. No man
+has ever criticised his own country more unsparingly, and in some
+instances more unjustly, than did he, who, in foreign lands, had been
+its stoutest and most pronounced defender. Nor, in the controversies
+that followed his return from Europe, did one side conduct itself with
+perfect righteousness, and the other with deliberate villainy. Had the
+parties but seen fit to act in this manner, the duties of a biographer
+would have been sensibly lightened. A fair and dispassionate account of
+the circumstances that led to the unpopularity which clouded, though it
+could hardly be said to darken, Cooper's later life, demands a full and
+careful examination of many facts which, in some instances, seem to have
+no relation to the subject. Especially is a knowledge of the European
+estimate of America during the period that the novelist resided abroad a
+matter of first importance. But even of as great importance is a
+knowledge of certain traits of his character and of certain sentiments
+which he strongly felt, and of certain beliefs which he earnestly held.
+To bring out these points clearly, it is necessary for a while to arrest
+the progress of the narrative.
+
+It is to be remarked at the outset that the first impression which Cooper
+made upon strangers was rarely in his favor. To this we have the
+concurrent testimony of those who knew him slightly, and of those who
+knew him well. It was due to a variety of causes. He had infinite pride,
+and there was in his manner a self-assertion that often bordered, or seemed
+to border, upon arrogance. His earnestness, moreover, was often mistaken
+for brusqueness and violence; for he was, in some measure, of that (p. 080)
+class of men who appear to be excited when they are only interested. The
+result was that at first he was apt to repel rather than attract. Without
+referring to other evidence, we need here only to quote the guarded
+statement of one of his warmest friends in describing the beginning of
+their acquaintance. "I remember," says Bryant, "being somewhat startled,
+coming, as I did, from the seclusion of a country life, with a certain
+emphatic frankness in his manner which, however, I came at last to like
+and to admire." But besides this he had other characteristics which, to
+the majority of men, could not be agreeable. Thoroughly grounded in his
+own convictions, positive and uncompromising in the expression of them,
+he had no patience with those--and the number is far from being a small
+one--who embrace their views loosely, hold them halfheartedly, or defend
+them ignorantly. The opinions of such he was not content, like most men of
+ability, with quietly and unobtrusively despising. The contempt he felt he
+did not pay sufficient deference to human nature to hide. It was inevitable
+that the self-love of many should be offended by the arbitrariness and
+imperiousness with which he overrode their opinions, and still more by
+the unequivocal disdain manifested for them. It must be conceded, also,
+that to those for whom he felt indifference or dislike, he had in no
+slight degree that capacity of making himself disagreeable which
+reaches, and then only in rare instances, the ripened perfection of
+offensiveness in him who has breathed from earliest youth the social air
+of England. These were traits that were sure to make him enemies in
+private life. In public life, moreover, the ardor of his temperament was
+such as to hurry him into controversy; and the number of those     (p. 081)
+hostile to him on personal grounds, was always liable to receive
+accessions from men who had never seen him face to face. No gage of
+battle could be thrown down which he did not stand ready to take up.
+Opposition only inflamed him; it never daunted him. He had not the
+slightest particle of that prudence which teaches a man to keep out of
+contests in which he can gain no advantage, or in which success will be
+only a little less disastrous than defeat. It hardly needs to be said
+that a politic line of conduct is usually the very last which a person
+of such a temperament follows. But when to all these characteristics is
+added a peculiar sensitiveness to criticism, it is evident that if
+proper opportunities are offered, personal unpopularity will be certain
+to result from the ample materials existing for its development.
+
+Against this view of his character, it is fair to add here that he had
+many qualities which would tend to bring about an entirely opposite
+result. He was more than ordinarily generous; and gave with a liberality
+that went at times beyond what most men would look upon as prudence. He
+was prompt to relieve merit that stood in need of help. Many cases of
+this kind there are unpublished and unknown out of a very small circle;
+for Cooper was not one to let his left hand know what his right hand was
+doing. One fact, however, has been so often mentioned, that it is
+violating no sanctity of private life to repeat it here. He was the
+first to discover the excellence of Greenough and to make that sculptor
+known to his countrymen. "Fenimore Cooper saved me from despair," wrote
+the latter in 1833, "after my second return to Italy. He employed me as
+I wished to be employed; and has up to this moment been a          (p. 082)
+father to me in kindness." To this generosity, it is to be added that
+his sense of personal honor was of the loftiest kind. It was sometimes,
+indeed, carried to an extreme almost Quixotic; so that men morally
+fat-witted could not even comprehend his principles of action, and men
+who contented themselves with conventional morality resented his
+assertion of them as a reflection upon themselves. His loyalty to those
+who had become dear to him was, moreover, just as conspicuous as his
+loyalty to what he deemed right. It withstood every chance of change,
+every accident of time and circumstance, and only gave way on absolute
+proof of unworthiness. Intimate acquaintance was sure to bring to Cooper
+respect, admiration, and finally affection. Few men have stood better
+than he that final test of excellence which rests upon the fact that
+those who knew him best loved him most. Yet even these were often forced
+to admit, that it was necessary to know him well to appreciate how
+generous, how true, and how lofty-minded he was.
+
+Besides these traits of character, it is important to understand some of
+Cooper's political and social opinions. He was an aristocrat in feeling,
+and a democrat by conviction. To some this seems a combination so
+unnatural that they find it hard to comprehend it. That a man whose
+tastes and sympathies and station connect him with the highest class,
+and to whom contact with the uneducated and unrefined brings with it a
+sense of personal discomfort and often of disgust, should avow his
+belief in the political rights of those socially inferior, should be
+unwilling to deny them privileges which he claims for himself, is
+something so appalling to many that their minds strive vainly to grasp
+it. But this feeling was so thoroughly wrought into Cooper's       (p. 083)
+nature that he almost disliked those of his countrymen whom he found not
+to share in it. "I confess," he wrote at the time when he was generally
+denounced as an aristocrat, "that I now feel mortified and grieved when
+I meet with an American gentleman who professes anything but liberal
+opinions as respects the rights of his fellow-creatures." He went on to
+explain that by liberal opinions he meant "the generous, manly
+determination to let all enjoy equal political rights, and to bring
+those to whom authority is necessarily confided under the control of the
+community they serve." He despised the cant that the people were their
+own worst enemies. So far from it, he believed in widening the
+foundations of society by making representation as real as possible, and
+thereby giving to every interest in the state its fair measure of power;
+for no government, in his eyes, could ever be just or pure in which the
+governors have interests distinct from those of the governed. These
+opinions he put sometimes in an extreme form. "I have never yet been in
+a country," he said, "in which what are called the lower orders have not
+clearer and sounder views than their betters, of the great principles
+which ought to predominate in the control of human affairs." At the same
+time his belief in democracy was not in the least one of unmixed
+admiration. He was far from looking upon it as a perfect form of
+government. It was only the one that, taking all things into
+consideration, was attended with fewer evils and greater advantages than
+any other. It had faults and dangers peculiar to itself. His liberal
+opinions, he took frequent care to say, had nothing in common with the
+devices of demagogues who teach the doctrine, that the voice of    (p. 084)
+the people is the voice of God; that the aggregation of fallible parts,
+acting, too, with diminished responsibilities, forms an infallible whole.
+
+Along with this clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages
+of democracy there was mingled, however, a weakness of feeling on the
+subject of position, which occasionally degenerated into an almost
+ridiculous pettiness. This was especially true of his later life. His
+utterances were sometimes so apparently contradictory, however, that it
+is hard to tell whether justice has been done to his real meaning on
+account of the difficulty of ascertaining what his real meaning was. But
+he spoke often of "the gentry of America," as if there were or could be
+here a class of gentlemen outside and independent of those engaged in
+professions or occupations. He seemed at times to attach that supreme
+importance to descent which we are usually accustomed to see exhibited
+in this country only by those who have little or nothing else to boast
+of. His contempt of trade and of those employed in it had frequently
+about its expression a spice of affectation. Moreover, he subjected
+himself to much misrepresentation and ill-will by the manner in which he
+lectured his countrymen on the distinctions that must prevail in
+society. There are certain things which are everywhere recognized and
+quietly accepted: they only become offensive when proclaimed. A man may
+unhesitatingly acquiesce in his inferiority, socially, to one who is
+politically only his equal; but he will very naturally resent a
+reference, by the latter, to the fact of his social inferiority. A good
+deal of Cooper's later writings was deformed by solemn commonplaces on
+the inevitable necessity of the existence of class distinctions. This
+drew upon him the condemnation of many who did not look upon the   (p. 085)
+expression of such views as an offense against truth, but as an offense
+against good manners. To correct the folly of fools was itself folly; and
+wise men, no matter what their station in life, did not thank him for
+the instruction, the very giving of which implied an insult to their
+intelligence. His remarks on the subject were never heeded, if indeed
+they were ever read, by those for whom they were specially designed. But
+to his enemies they furnished ample opportunities for misrepresentation
+and abuse.
+
+But any account of Cooper would be of slight value that failed to take
+notice of his love of country. No other man of letters has there been in
+America, or perhaps in any other land, to whom this has been a passion
+so absorbing. It entered into the very deepest feelings of his heart.
+Even in the storm of calumny, which fell upon him in his later years, if
+the flame of his patriotism seemed at times to die away, any little
+circumstance was sure to revive it at once. No proclaimer of "manifest
+destiny" ever had more faith than he in the imperial greatness and
+grandeur to which the republic was to attain. All that in vulgar minds
+took the shape of braggart boasting, was in his idealized and glorified
+by his lofty conception of the majestic part which his country was to
+play in deciding the destinies of mankind. In spite of short-comings he
+deplored, of perils that he feared, firm in his heart was the conviction
+that here was to be the home of the great new race that was to rule the
+world. Other lands might look to the future with hope or doubt; his own
+was as sure of it as if it lay already in its grasp. This was a
+confidence that survived all changes, and despised all forebodings. The
+question of slavery certainly disturbed him, but it did not shake  (p. 086)
+his trust. The prophecies of the dissolution of the Union, current
+in Europe, he laughed to scorn. Even in the days of nullification his
+faith never wavered one jot. To no one, more justly than to him, could
+perpetual thanks have been voted, because he never despaired of the
+republic.
+
+Cooper's lofty views of his country he soon found were essentially
+different from those entertained abroad. The knowledge of America even
+now possessed in Europe is not burdensomely great. But in 1830 its
+ignorance was prodigious; and the nearest approach to interest was
+usually the result of something of that same vague fear which haunted
+the citizens of the Roman Empire at the possible perils to civilization
+that might lie hid in the boundless depths of the German forests. On the
+Continent the ignorance was greater than it was in England, and Cooper
+had plenty of opportunities of witnessing the exhibition of it. In the
+case of the common people he was amused by it. That the whites who had
+emigrated to America had not yet become entirely black; that it was
+reasonable to expect that time, while it could not restore their original
+hue to these deteriorated Europeans tanned to ebony, might in the
+revolution of the suns elevate them to a fair degree of civilization;
+these, and similar sage opinions, did not disturb him when uttered by the
+philosophers of the lower classes. Yet their ignorance, great as it was,
+he found not to surpass materially that of men who ought to have known
+better, so long as they pretended to know at all. That the colonies had
+been settled by convicts, was a common impression among the best educated.
+While residing in Paris Cooper had the gratification of having his country
+quoted in the French Chamber of Deputies as an example of the      (p. 087)
+possibility of forming respectable communities by the transportation of
+criminals. Even men who sympathized with republican institutions, he
+informs us, did not think of denying the fact; they denied merely the
+inference. The brilliant publicist, Paul Courier, had asserted it would
+be as unjust to reproach the modern Romans with being descendants of
+ravishers and robbers, as it would be to reproach the Americans with
+being descendants of convicts. All could not be expected, however, to be
+so liberal as this constitutional reformer. The gross vices which in
+foreign opinion distinguished the inhabitants of the United States, were
+held to be the natural consequences of their settlement by felons.
+Cooper subsequently took care to furnish the sons of the Puritans with
+all needful information as to the light in which their fathers were
+viewed in Europe. At the time, however, it was far different. Keenly
+sensitive to his country's honor, and knowing the morals of his
+countrymen to be far higher than those of the men of any other land,
+derogatory statements of this kind were galling in the extreme.
+
+But it was the English opinion that Cooper resented most bitterly. This
+was partly because he believed from the community of origin and speech
+it ought to be better informed, and partly because he looked upon it as
+responsible for many of the absurd and erroneous impressions that
+prevailed in the rest of Europe. His feelings were rendered still keener
+by the direct contact with English prejudice which he had personally
+during his residence abroad. The attitude of the Continent towards
+America was that of supreme ignorance and indifference. But there was at
+the time something besides that in the attitude of England, so far (p. 088)
+certainly as it was represented by its periodical literature. In the
+most favorable cases it was supercilious and patronizing, an attitude
+which never permits the nation criticising to understand the nation
+criticised. There was never any effort to penetrate into the real nature
+of the social and political movements that were taking place on this
+side of the water. Men were contented with the examination of mere
+external phenomena, which, whether good or bad in themselves, belonged
+to a period of growth and were certain to pass away. Not the slightest
+sympathy existed with the feelings and aspirations of a people closely
+allied in blood and speech, and the lack of desire involved the lack of
+ability to enter into the spirit of their institutions. There was no
+idea that there could be other types of character than those found on
+British soil, or any room or reason for the play of other social and
+political forces than were at work in British communities.
+
+At the time, however, that Cooper took up his residence in Europe there
+was more than supercilious indifference in the character of English
+criticism. There was steady misrepresentation and abuse, due in a few
+cases to design, in more to ignorance, in most to that disposition on
+the part of all men to believe readily what they wish ardently. It made
+little difference whether the writer were Whig or Tory. If anything the
+open dislike of the latter was preferable to the patronizing regard of
+the former. In 1804 the poet Moore visited America. He wrote home a
+number of poetical epistles, in which he told his friends that he had
+found us old in our youth and blasted in our prime. The demon gold was
+running loose; everything and everybody was corrupt; truth,        (p. 089)
+conscience, and virtue were regularly made matters of barter and sale. A
+succession of English travelers repeated from year to year the same
+dismal story, and their statements were caught up and paraded and dwelt
+upon in the English periodical press. In "The Quarterly Review," in
+particular, our condition was constantly held up as an awful example of
+the results of democratic institutions and universal suffrage. Certain
+facts and predictions had been repeated so often that they came to be
+accepted and believed by all. We spoke a dialect of the English tongue;
+our manners were bad, if we could be said to have any at all; loyalty we
+could know nothing about, because we had no king; religion we were
+entirely devoid of, because there was no established church; the
+federation was steadily tending towards monarchy; the wealthy were
+longing to be nobles; and the Union could not last above a quarter of a
+century. Worse than all, intrigue and bribery were sapping the national
+life; or to use a still favorite phrase of the newspapers, though the
+repetition of a hundred years has now made it somewhat stale, corruption
+was preying upon the vitals of the republic.
+
+There is not the slightest exaggeration in these statements. Their truth
+any one familiar with the periodical literature of that period will
+least of all doubt. There was a perfect agreement between those who
+visited us and described us and those who drew their description from
+their imaginations. Nothing distinguished the English traveler or the
+English reviewer so much as his piety, and his profound conviction that
+religion could not exist where it was not carefully watched over by an
+established church. Besides this inevitable moral destitution, we  (p. 090)
+were irreclaimably given over to vulgarity. Manners there could not be
+in a land abandoned to an unbridled democracy. In the most praiseworthy
+instances even, men lacked that repose, that fine tact, which were found
+universally in the higher orders in the mother country. The defect was
+ineradicable, according to most; for it had its baleful origin in
+popular institutions themselves. In justice it must be added that there
+were some who, in consequence of the American passion for traveling,
+entertained a mild hope that in time this rudeness would wear away, and
+this total ignorance of good breeding would be enlightened by the polish
+and refinement that would be picked up from the quantity to be found
+scattered about foreign courts. The published correspondence of that
+period is delicious in its frankness. The Englishman, writing to his
+American friend, never descends from his lofty position of censor both
+of great and petty morals. The inferiority of manners in this country is
+a point insisted upon by the former with an assiduity and assurance that
+are sufficient of themselves to make clear how high was the breeding to
+which he himself had attained. It makes little difference who write the
+letters. They all express the same sentiments. They all offer advice as
+to the best method America can take to retrieve the good opinion of
+Europe which it has lost. They are careful to say that they entertain
+the kindest of feelings to the United States; that they neglect no
+occasion of doing justice to the good and wise that had found there a
+home. Unfortunately these are few in number; and with a lofty sense of
+justice they never fail to express disapprobation in strong terms of the
+vast amount to be condemned in a land which had fallen under the sway
+of a reckless democracy and a godless church. One English          (p. 091)
+gentleman in the British military service, after being some time in this
+country, writes, after his return, to an American friend, and thus
+cheerfully records his impressions. "The frightful effects produced by
+an unrestrained democracy," he says, "the demoralizing effects produced
+by universal suffrage never appeared to me so odious as they do now by
+contrast with the good breeding, the order and mutual support which all
+give to each other in this country, from the highest to the lowest."
+This letter belongs to the year 1839, and it only continues a line of
+remark common for the half-century previous. Everything that came from
+America, if praised at all, was praised with a qualification. Not a
+compliment could be uttered of an individual without an implied
+disparagement of the land that gave him birth. The record of every man
+who was well received in English society will bear out this assertion.
+Scott wrote to Southey in 1819, that Ticknor was "a wondrous fellow for
+romantic lore and antiquarian research, _considering his country_." Even
+words of genuine affection were often accompanied with an impertinence
+which has a delightfulness of its own from the utter unconsciousness on
+the part of the writer or speaker of having said anything out of the
+way. They were compliments of the kind which intimated that the person
+addressed was a sort of redeeming feature in a wild waste of desert.
+"You have taught us," writes in 1840 Mrs. Basil Montagu to Charles
+Sumner, "to think much more highly of your country--from whom we have
+hitherto seen no such men."
+
+There is nothing to be gained in raking over at this day the ashes of
+dead controversies and revilings. Americans no longer read the     (p. 092)
+writings of the kind described, and Englishmen have largely forgotten
+that they were ever written. The new commentators on our habits and
+customs have taken up a new line of remark, and the new prophets of woe
+foresee an entirely new class of calamities. But it has been necessary
+to revive here the memory of the old charges and forebodings, in order
+to show the state of feeling that would be developed by them in a man of
+a peculiarly sensitive and proud nature, such as was the subject of this
+biography. Rubbish as they may seem now, they were to the men of that
+time a grievous sore. Whatever may have been Cooper's feelings previously,
+it was not until after he had resided for a while in Europe that any
+hostility towards England is seen in his works. But there it soon began
+to manifest itself, though at first rather in the way of defense than
+attack. As time went on it increased rather than diminished. It largely
+affected his own fortunes by the personal hostility it provoked in
+return. To some extent, without doubt, his oft-repeated declaration was
+true, that in the dependence then existing here upon foreign opinion,
+every American author held his reputation at the mercy of the British
+reviewer. It would be unjust to say that it seemed at one period almost
+as if Cooper had sworn towards England undying hate. But it is certainly
+a fact that he gave utterance to his inmost feelings when he described
+it as a country that cast a chill over his affections, a country that
+all men respected but that few men loved. Yet he had been brought up in
+the school of the Federalist party, in which admiration for the
+literature, policy, and morals of the motherland was taught as a duty;
+in which every door was thrown open to visitors from England as an act
+of hospitality due to kinsmen separated merely by the accident of  (p. 093)
+position. He himself tells us how, an ardent boy of seventeen, he leaped
+for the first time upon the soil of Great Britain, feeling for it a love
+almost as devoted as that which he bore the land of his birth, and
+looking upon every native of it in the light of a brother. It did not
+take him long to find out that the fancied tie of kinship was not
+recognized, that it was even despised; and that if he made friends, it
+must be in spite of his country, and not because of it. His connection
+with the navy had also led him to be keenly sensitive to the injustice
+and indignities connected with the impressment of seamen. In his first
+voyage in a merchant ship he had seen two native Americans taken from
+the vessel and forced into the British service. His own captain even had
+on one occasion been seized, though speedily liberated. There had also
+been an attempt to press a Swede belonging to the crew, on the ground
+that his country and England were in alliance, and the latter had
+therefore a right to his help. These were not the acts to inspire
+devotion towards the people who committed or who authorized them. The
+keen resentment Cooper felt for the wrongs then perpetrated upon the
+American marine he afterward expressed in his novels of "Wing-and-Wing"
+and "Miles Wallingford." He never forgot those early experiences. When
+he came to reside in Europe he was as little disposed to forgive the
+depreciation of his country which he imputed, whether justly or
+unjustly, to English influence. Distrust became dislike, and dislike
+deepened into hostility.
+
+There is little doubt that with a man of Cooper's nature the revulsion
+from his original feelings would tend to swing him to the opposite
+extreme; that, as a consequence of that, he would often fancy      (p. 094)
+insult where none was intended, and impute to design conduct that was
+the result of chance or even of personal timidity. But making full
+allowance for this inevitable source of error, there was plenty of
+reason furnished for offense to a man whose personal pride was equal to
+that of the whole British aristocracy, and whose pride in his country
+exceeded even his personal pride. The ignorant criticism which amused
+most Americans was apt to make him indignant. No compliment, in
+particular, could be paid with safety to him individually at the expense
+of his country. This was a practice, however, which the Englishmen of
+that day seemed to regard as the consummate crown of adulation.
+Depreciation of America of any sort he resented at once. If conversation
+touched upon matters discreditable to the United States--which was far
+from being an uncommon topic--it was very much his practice, instead of
+listening to it patiently, to bring up matters discreditable to Great
+Britain. There was unquestionably ample material on both sides with
+which each could blacken the other. But while this tended to make the
+conversation less monotonous, it likewise tended to make the converser
+less popular. Cooper lost early by his bearing in English society much
+of the favor which he had won from his writings. To this we have
+positive evidence. It is specifically mentioned in the sketch of his
+life, which along with his portrait appeared in 1831 in Colburn's "New
+Monthly Magazine." The article went on, after mentioning this fact, to
+pay a tribute to his somewhat aggressive patriotism. "Yet he seems," it
+said, "to claim little consideration on the score of intellectual
+greatness; he is evidently prouder of his birth than of his genius; and
+looks, speaks, and walks as if he exulted more in being recognized (p. 095)
+as an American citizen than as the author of 'The Pilot' and 'The Prairie.'"
+
+To a man whose heart was thus full of the future glories of the
+republic, the indifference and neglect with which it was regarded could
+not but be galling. Still this was nothing to the positive contempt
+which often manifested itself in social slights that could be felt but
+could not well be resented. This was especially noticeable in the case
+of the legations, the conduct of which was largely under the control of
+the home government. The English policy was here in marked contrast to
+that of Russia, which, even at that early day, cultivated almost
+ostentatiously friendship with America. Between the legations of these
+two countries there was always the best of understandings. The direct
+contrary often prevailed between the ministers of Great Britain and of
+the United States. The influence of the former was frequently thought to
+be exerted to the social injury of the latter. Whether true or false,
+this was generally believed. Cooper certainly credited it and looked
+forward to the time when the whole attitude of England would be altered.
+We were then less than twelve millions in population; but the day would
+come when we should be fifty millions. The existing state of things
+would then be changed. You and I may not live to see it, he wrote
+substantially to his friends, but our sons and grandsons will. They may
+not like us any better, but they will take care to hide their feelings.
+Strong resentment sometimes drove him into taking up positions he would
+not in his cooler moments have maintained. "As one citizen of the
+republic," he wrote, "however insignificant, I have no notion of being
+blackguarded and vituperated half a century and then cajoled       (p. 096)
+into forgetfulness at the suggestion of fear and expediency, as
+circumstances render our good-will of importance." Not one of these
+slights and insults would he have the fifty millions forget. He did not
+bear in mind that fifty millions could not afford to remember. It was
+like asking the man of middle life to revenge upon the sons the
+indignities which the boy had received from the fathers.
+
+Cooper's residence in England was only for a few months during the first
+half of the year 1828. With his feelings towards that country and with
+the feeling entertained in it toward his own, nothing could have made
+his stay highly pleasant. But it is one of the numerous minor falsehoods
+that came to be connected with his life, that it was unpleasant. On the
+contrary, his company was sought by many of the most distinguished men,
+though in accordance with his usual custom he carried no letters of
+introduction. At a later period he said that in no country had he been
+personally so well treated as in England; he was as strongly convinced
+as his worst enemy, that as an author he had been extolled there beyond
+his merits; nor had he failed to receive quite as much substantial
+remuneration as he could properly lay claim to. But the social
+atmosphere there prevailing was not the atmosphere he loved. The poet
+Moore relates in his diary a story told him by Sydney Smith of the
+"touchiness" of "the Republican"--so the American novelist is styled--as
+evinced by the indignation of the latter at the conduct of Lord Nugent.
+This nobleman, it appears, invited Cooper to take a walk with him to a
+certain street. Arriving there he unceremoniously entered the      (p. 097)
+house of a friend and left his companion to make his way back alone.
+Cooper's resentment of the treatment may have been unwisely shown; for
+though often termed an aristocrat, he never exhibited in the slightest
+degree that reticence which is or is supposed to be the peculiar
+characteristic of aristocracy. But few would now be found to deny that
+his indignation was both natural and just, and that the act of Lord
+Nugent was the act of a boor and not of a gentleman. It was certainly
+unreasonable to expect that a society which could rejoice in this method
+of rebuking republican pretension could itself be agreeable to a
+republican. Cooper could not but be offended by the prejudices he found
+existing against his country and the dislike usually felt and sometimes
+expressed for it. The only man he met whom he thought well informed
+about America was Sir James Mackintosh. The ignorance of some of his
+friends was so great that even to him it caused amusement rather than
+anger. Many readers will have heard of the practice of "gouging," with
+which, according to the veracious English traveler of early days, the
+native American gave the charm of diversity and diversion to a life
+whose serious thoughts were wholly absorbed in the acquisition of pelf.
+Some will remember the definition given of it in Grose's "Dictionary of
+the Vulgar Tongue:" "to squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb; a cruel
+practice used by the Bostonians in America." A curious illustration of
+the belief in this myth occurred to Cooper. One of his friends in
+England was an amiable and pleasant man of letters, named William
+Sotheby, little heard of in these days; and even in his own days he had
+to endure the double degradation of being called a small poet by the
+small poets themselves. He was at this time an old gentleman of    (p. 098)
+over seventy, and was preparing to make a creditable close to his
+career by performing the task, which seems to assume the shape of a duty
+to every literary Englishman of leisure, of translating the Iliad and
+the Odyssey. Not unnaturally he was more familiar with the way the wrath
+of Achilles manifested itself than with the shape taken by the wrath of
+the men of his race beyond the sea. On one occasion he condoled with
+Cooper because of the quarrelsomeness and fighting prevalent in America,
+making during this expression of his sympathy an obvious allusion to
+gouging. It was useless to attempt setting him right. His interest in
+ancient fiction had not been so absorbing as to close his mind to the
+acquisition of modern fact; and to Cooper's denial of what he had
+implied he listened with a polite but incredulous smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.                                                        (p. 099)
+
+1828-1833.
+
+
+Misrepresentation and abuse of his native land it was not in Cooper's
+nature to bear in silence. His resentment for the imputations cast upon
+his country began to show itself soon after he had taken up his
+residence abroad. In "The Red Rover," which appeared in 1827, there are
+satirical references to the benevolence and piety of the moral
+missionaries which England had sent among us, and to the correctness and
+wisdom of current foreign opinion. In the next novel, "The Wept of
+Wish-ton-Wish," his feelings are still more fully expressed. In this
+work he puts into the mouth of one of the characters, a physician, an
+elaborate disquisition upon the degeneracy of man in America. In the
+course of it the leech informs his opponent that the science and wisdom
+and philosophy of Europe had been exceedingly active in the
+investigation of this matter of colonial inferiority, that they had
+proved to their own perfect satisfaction, which was the same thing as
+disposing of the question without appeal, that man and beast, plant and
+tree, hill and dale, lake, pond, sun, air, fire, and water were all
+wanting in some of the perfectness of the old regions. It was plain we
+could never hope to reach the exalted excellence they enjoy; and while
+he respected the patriotism that held the contrary view, he could not,
+out of deference to it, afford to doubt what had been demonstrated (p. 100)
+by science and collected by learning.
+
+It was not in this indirect way, however, that he could content himself
+with defending his country. No sooner had he lived in Europe long enough
+to become acquainted with the erroneous impressions there prevalent, in
+regard to America, than he set out to prepare a work which should expose
+their falsity. In it he determined to lay the precise facts before a
+public which was indisposed to believe anything to the credit, and
+disposed to believe everything to the discredit of democratic institutions.
+On the face of it, this was a futile undertaking, no matter how
+praiseworthy its motive. Nations, no more than individuals, are
+convinced by what other nations say of themselves; it is only by what
+they do. In this particular case the difficulty was rendered more
+insurmountable by the fact that these erroneous impressions prevailed
+among those who did not care enough about the matter to investigate it
+seriously, and who would be certain in most cases to refrain from
+investigating it at all, had they a suspicion that their preconceived
+beliefs would be overthrown or even shaken, as a result of their
+examination. The question naturally arises, whether such men could be
+convinced by facts and arguments, and if so, whether they were worth the
+trouble of convincing. Why grudge the adherents of a dying cause the
+dismal enjoyment they receive from contemplating the ruin that is always
+being wrought, or is always to be wrought, by Democracy to Democracy?
+Experience led Cooper subsequently to see the uselessness of the
+experiment he, in this instance, tried. When asked at a later period why
+some efforts were not made to correct the false notions prevalent  (p. 101)
+in Europe in regard to America, he answered with perfect truth then,
+that no favorable account would be acceptable; that it would not be
+enough to confess our real faults, but we should be required to confess
+the precise faults that, according to the opinions of that quarter of
+the world, we were morally, logically, and politically bound to possess.
+By the wide circulation of his fictions he, in truth, did more to remove
+wrong impressions, dissipate prejudices, and open the eyes of Europe to
+a knowledge of American life and manners, than could have been
+accomplished by the longest and most ponderous array of indisputable
+facts.
+
+Facts, however, he at this time purposed to furnish. Accordingly, on the
+13th of August, 1828, appeared a work entitled, "Notions of the
+Americans, Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor." Whatever its actual
+success, it was a relative failure. Cooper himself tells us that it
+occasioned him a heavy pecuniary loss. Manner and matter, both
+foredoomed it to the fate which it met. The plan of it was an unfortunate
+one as well as a purely artificial one. The views and observations and
+statements of fact are put into the mouth of a European traveling
+bachelor, a member of a club of cosmopolites, who, in consequence of
+meeting an American, named Cadwallader, is persuaded to visit and see
+for himself the new world. Arriving there he writes letters to his
+friends, giving an account of his impressions. The fiction of foreign
+authorship was the first mistake. It could not mislead any one, nor was
+it intended to mislead any one. But a grave didactic treatise which was
+designed to convey a truthful impression, lost something and gained
+nothing by being connected with any artifice, even though not meant to
+impose upon the reader. Nor was the work interesting to one not    (p. 102)
+specially interested in the subject. To the American it gave the
+strongest assurances of loyalty to republican institutions on the part
+of her most widely-known man of letters; but it added little or nothing
+to the information of which he was already in possession. On the other
+hand, the laudatory style in which this country was invariably spoken of
+was certain to be offensive to those whom it was the design of the work
+to enlighten. The weight of matter, moreover, was not rendered any more
+endurable by lightness of treatment. At the present day the work is
+chiefly interesting for the keen observations that are found in it, and
+for its remarks upon the future of the country rather than upon its then
+existing state. Cooper's predictions were concerned with the minutest,
+as well as the greatest subjects. They ranged all the way from the
+indefinite assurance, that New York must eventually become the
+gastronomic capital of the globe, to the precise statement, as to the
+exact number of the population there would be in the United States fifty
+years from the time in which he was writing. This last prophecy, it is
+to be said, has turned out singularly true. He fixed the number at fifty
+millions. That this was no chance guess, but a carefully worked out
+computation, is evident from the fact that he repeats it several times
+in this work and occasionally in later ones. He, moreover, assigned
+definitely forty-three millions to the whites and seven millions to the
+blacks.
+
+It is not for an American to find fault with the laudatory tone of a
+work which reflects the ardent love of country felt by the writer. Yet
+in many respects it is a singular production. In manner it is calm,
+grave, almost philosophical; there is not the slightest effort at  (p. 103)
+fine writing; the tone can never be said to be even fervid. Yet it
+must be confessed that not in the most exalted of Fourth of July
+orations does the national eagle scream with a shriller note, or wing
+his way with a more unflagging flight. Any one who formed his notions of
+this country exclusively from this book, would be sure to fancy that
+here at last paradise was reopening to the children of a fallen race.
+After this remark, it may seem ridiculous, and yet it is perfectly just
+to say, that Cooper, so far from giving way to exaggeration in his
+assertions, kept himself well within the bounds of the truth. In the
+exercise of that duty which presses heavily upon every reviewer, to
+seem, if not to be wiser than his author, many of the English
+periodicals, even those most favorable to America, undertook to doubt
+his statements of fact, to sneer at his prophecies of the future as
+ludicrous exaggerations, and to term them striking and whimsical
+instances of Yankee braggadocio, and of the love of building castles in
+the air. Cooper could not well overstate the material prosperity and
+progress of the country, nor the inability of men trained under
+different conditions either to believe it or to comprehend it. Reality
+soon outran some of his most daring anticipations. His most extravagant
+statements were speedily more than confirmed by the operation of
+agencies whose mighty results he could not foresee, because, when he
+wrote, the agencies themselves did not exist. He had carefully guarded
+himself in one instance, by saying that he did not expect that the
+Northwest would be settled within an early period. The precaution was
+unnecessary. He had been brought up in a town, founded in the
+wilderness, at a distance of less than one hundred and fifty miles (p. 104)
+from the commercial capital of the republic. He lived long enough to see
+the frontiers of civilization pushed one thousand miles west of the line
+it had held in his boyhood's home.
+
+Any wrong impression, therefore, which the work conveyed was not due to
+the spirit of braggadocio pervading it, as asserted and commented upon
+by the English reviewers. No false statement was made intentionally;
+there were very few that were made mistakenly. But though Cooper
+purposed to tell nothing but truth about his country, he did not feel
+himself under obligation to tell all the truth. The attention was almost
+exclusively directed to that side of the national character which lent
+itself most readily to favorable treatment. What was unfavorable was
+either omitted altogether, or was very lightly passed over. One letter
+alone, and that not a long one, was devoted to slavery. It is plain that
+he was annoyed by it; to some extent, in spite of his confidence,
+disquieted by it, though the dangers he feared were not the dangers that
+actually came. Even at that early day there was enough to trouble the
+lover of his country in the criticism it encountered, for the glaring
+contrast between its professions of liberty and its practice; but far
+more in the dimly-seen shape of that gigantic struggle which, though
+itself vague and undefined, was already beginning to cast its lowering
+shadow over the future of the republic. So in a similar manner the
+literature, architecture, and art of America were passed over in a few
+pages, while letter after letter was given up to a description of its
+progress in wealth and comfort. Yet no one knew better than Cooper,--at
+a later period he took care his countrymen should not forget it,--that
+of all standards by which to test national glory, the material     (p. 105)
+standard is in itself the lowest and most vulgar; and that the
+difference in real greatness between two places can never be measured by
+the comparative amount of sugar, or salt, or flour sold in each. Yet he
+remembered then, what later he seemed to forget, that the necessity of
+conquering the continent, of making it inhabitable for man, was at the
+time and must continue long to remain a very positive hindrance to the
+development of literary and artistic ability, because by the immense
+rewards it offered it attracted to the development of material resources
+the intellect and vigor of the entire land.
+
+Cooper tells us, as has been said, that he lost money on this work. But
+there was something more than pecuniary failure that attended it. There
+were in it statements which met with disfavor at home. More important
+than these, however, were remarks that aroused personal hostility
+abroad. He made several references, in particular, to the people of
+England, and they were not of a kind to conciliate regard for himself
+and his work. In one place he spoke of the society of that country as
+being more repulsive, artificial, and cumbered, and, in short, more
+absurd and frequently less graceful than that of any other European
+nation. Theoretically, the English care nothing for foreign opinion.
+They have said it so often among themselves that most of them look upon
+it as a point which has been settled by the consent of mankind. But like
+many other beliefs it has become an article of faith without having
+become an article of practice. To this extent it is true that they care
+nothing for the remarks of obscure men of which they never hear. On the
+other hand, no nation is more sensitive to contemporary foreign opinion,
+coming from writers of distinction. There will be plenty of        (p. 106)
+instances furnished in this one biography to prove fully this assertion.
+Cooper's attack was never forgotten or forgiven. From this time there
+was a distinctly hostile feeling manifested toward him in many of the
+English periodicals. Even before his next work appeared, London
+correspondents of American newspapers announced that it was going to be
+severely criticised, inasmuch as the novelist had made himself unpopular
+in England by the comments made and the views put forth in the "Notions
+of the Americans." If this were not true, it was at least believed to be
+true. Certainly the fact of hostility steadily increasing from this
+period, on the part of the British press, cannot be denied, whatever we
+may think of the causes that brought it about. Nor did it stop short
+with depreciation of his works. Literary criticism, even if based merely
+upon personal dislike, can always resort with safety to the cheap
+defense that it is honest. But there were reviewers who went farther,
+who framed for Cooper imaginary feelings and then proceeded to assail
+him for having them. He was accused, especially, of pluming himself
+highly upon the title of the "American Scott." Hazlitt, for instance,
+seeing him strutting, as he terms it, in the streets of Paris, was
+enabled to detect by the way the novelist walked the way he felt upon
+this special matter, and afterward to state the conclusion at which he
+had arrived as a positive fact. Similar specimens of fine critical
+insight into Cooper's motives and sentiments can be found scattered up
+and down the pages of English journals.
+
+At the time he was bringing out "The Water Witch" in Germany, the
+revolution in France took place that resulted in the expulsion of  (p. 107)
+the Bourbons and the calling of Louis Philippe to the throne. Paris
+became at once the Mecca to which the lovers of liberty throughout
+Europe resorted. Thither Cooper hastened from his home in Dresden. He
+reached the city in August, 1830. There he watched with the profoundest
+interest the political movements that were going on about him. The
+reactionary tendencies that early began to manifest themselves in the
+rule of the Citizen King, brought to him the same disappointment and the
+same disgust that it did to all the ardent republicans of the Old World.
+There is much in what he says to remind the reader of the feelings
+expressed by Heine, who had likewise hurried to Paris after the July
+revolution, and who was venting his indignation and contempt in the
+columns of the Augsburg "Allgemeine Zeitung." Occasional passages bear
+even a close similarity. Cooper on one occasion describes Louis Philippe
+walking about among his subjects wearing a white hat, carrying a red
+umbrella, and evidently laboring to act in an easy and affable manner.
+"In short," he said in a phrase that might have been written by the
+great German, "he was condescending with all his might."
+
+Close upon the revolution in France followed the revolt of Poland. The
+insurrection lasted about ten months, and during its progress the
+feelings of Cooper were profoundly stirred in behalf of that people.
+With this his personal friendship with the Polish poet, Mickiewicz, had
+probably a great deal to do; for at Rome a close intimacy had sprung up
+between him and that author. At a meeting, held in Paris on the 4th of
+July, 1831, at which Cooper presided, a sum of money was contributed to
+aid the revolters in their struggle. He presided also at other     (p. 108)
+meetings to advance the same cause, and acted as chairman of a committee
+to raise funds to assist the Polish soldiers who were fighting for
+independence, and when this failed, to relieve the exiles in their
+distress. Two addresses to the American people signed by him in his
+official capacity--one written in July, 1831, and the other in June,
+1832--appeared in the American papers of those years; and the fervor
+that characterizes them both leaves little doubt as to their authorship.
+
+Into the great struggle going on in Europe, either openly or silently
+between aristocracy and democracy, he now, indeed, threw himself with
+his whole heart. In certain respects this was a disadvantage. Whenever
+Cooper's feelings on political subjects were aroused, his literary work
+betrayed the obtrusion of interests more dominating than those which
+belong to it legitimately. This was manifested in the three tales which
+followed. In them the scene of action was not only transferred to
+European soil, but a direct attempt was avowedly made to apply American
+principles to European facts. These novels were "The Bravo," which
+appeared November 29, 1831; "The Heidenmauer," which appeared September
+25, 1832; and "The Headsman," which appeared October 18, 1833. The
+purpose of all these was the direct exaltation of republican
+institutions, and likewise the exposure of those which paraded in the
+garb of liberty without possessing its reality. The scenes of two were
+accordingly laid in the aristocratic cities of Venice and of Berne. The
+first of the three is generally spoken of as the best, especially by
+those who have read none of them at all. Little difference will be
+found, as a matter of fact, between "The Bravo" and "The Headsman" (p. 109)
+as regards literary merit. "The Heidenmauer" is, however, distinctly
+inferior, and is in truth one of the most tedious novels that Cooper
+ever wrote. All were, however, animated by the same spirit. They all
+assailed oligarchical, and lauded democratic institutions. They were
+full of denunciations of the accommodating stupidity of patricians who
+were never able to see anything beneficial to the interests of the state
+in what was injurious to the interests of their own order. In
+particular, the doctrine was held up to derision, that while to the
+ignorant and the low there was ample power given to suffer, there was no
+power given to understand; and that consequently it was their duty
+always to obey and never to criticise.
+
+In writing this series Cooper was undertaking what was on the face of it
+a hazardous experiment. The peril was not, as thoughtless criticism has
+had it, in transferring his scenes and characters to a foreign soil.
+Human nature suffers no material change in passing from America to
+Europe. The danger lay in the fact that these were novels written with a
+purpose. The story was not told for its own sake, but for the sake of
+enforcing certain political opinions. It required, therefore, unusual
+skill in its construction and in the management of its details. For
+whatever may be the exact truth contained in the doctrine of art for
+art's sake, this is certainly clear, that in a work of fiction designed
+to advance successfully any cause, or support any theory, the didactic
+element must be made entirely subordinate to the purely creative
+element. Otherwise we impart to the novel the tediousness of a homily
+without its accepted authority. Art must be wooed as a mistress; she can
+never be commanded as a slave. He, therefore, who seeks to press   (p. 110)
+fiction into a work so foreign to its nature as the inculcation of
+political opinions, must, if he hopes to succeed, make the story suggest
+the lesson without conveying it obtrusively. Above all is there need of
+delicate touch and skillful handling, if the aim be to affect those who
+are prejudiced against the views expressed, or whose interests are
+involved in the fate of those attacked. But Cooper's was never a
+delicate touch. What he thought he never insinuated; what he believed
+himself he never allowed to make its way indirectly into the minds of
+others. He always uttered it boldly, and sometimes offensively.
+Effective this assuredly is in compositions of a certain class; but it
+is entirely out of place in a work of fiction. In the case of these
+particular novels the purpose is avowed openly and repeatedly. Cooper,
+indeed, takes care never to let it escape the reader's attention. He may
+almost be said to stand by his shoulder to jog him if he once happens to
+forget that the story has a moral. American institutions, especially,
+were constantly held up as models in which the best results were seen,
+and which it was the policy of all other countries to imitate. The
+course taken was a mark of patriotism; but it was not the way to gain
+converts. It is, in truth, the misfortune of the novelist, burdened with
+a moral purpose, that the reader usually feels the burden and is not
+affected by the moral. It was not by methods like these that Scott threw
+about chivalry and aristocracy that glamour which outlasts the most
+minute acquaintance with the reality, and influences the imagination in
+spite of the protest of the judgment.
+
+But another result that followed from writing novels with a purpose, had
+a more direct influence upon his reputation. It made it impossible (p. 111)
+that his work should any longer be criticised fairly. This was
+immediately seen in the case of "The Bravo." This novel had far more
+success in Europe than in America. But the success was not of a
+legitimate kind. Parties were at once arrayed for it or against it, not
+because it was a good or bad production from a literary point of view,
+but according as men sympathized with or were hostile to the political
+principles it advocated. It was not the merit of the work that came
+under consideration, but the merit of the cause. This at once destroyed
+almost entirely the value of any criticism which the story received.
+
+A little while before "The Bravo" appeared, Cooper was unwillingly led
+to take part in a controversy which, according to his own view, was the
+remote cause of the hostility he afterwards encountered in his own land.
+It was at the time that the movement began on the part of Louis Philippe
+to separate himself from the liberals, of whom Lafayette was the chief
+representative. A discussion had arisen, in the French Chamber of
+Deputies, on the desirability of a reduction in the expenses of
+government. It gave rise to a controversy which extended much beyond the
+body in which it originated. Lafayette had advocated greater economy. In
+the course of the debate mentioned, he had referred to the United States
+as being a country which was cheaply governed, and at the same time well
+governed. The periodical press at once took up the question. M. Saulnier,
+one of the editors of the "Revue Britannique," came out with an article,
+the direct object of which was to prove that a government of three
+powers, such as was the limited monarchy recently established, was not
+so expensive as that of a republic. In particular, he claimed that (p. 112)
+the tax levied per head on the citizens of France was less than that
+similarly levied on the citizens of the United States. This was a direct
+attack upon Lafayette, who had for forty years been maintaining that the
+government of this country was the cheapest known. The attention of
+Cooper was called to this article, and he was asked to reply. He
+declined. A little later it was made clear to him that the object with
+which it was written was to injure Lafayette. The matter then assumed
+another aspect. To that statesman Cooper was bound by ties of intimate
+personal friendship and by a common love of this country. At a public
+dinner, which had been given to Lafayette on the 8th of December, 1830,
+by the Americans in Paris, Cooper had presided, and in a speech of
+marked fervor and ability, he had dwelt upon the debt due from the
+United States to the gallant Frenchman, who had ventured fortune and
+life to aid a nation struggling against great odds to be free. It was
+not in his nature to have his deeds give the lie to his words. The fact
+above mentioned at once overcame his reluctance to engage in the
+controversy. Accordingly in December, 1831, appeared a "Letter to
+General Lafayette," preceded by a letter from Lafayette to himself,
+dated the 22d of November. This was a pamphlet of fifty pages, in which
+he went into the subject of the cost of the United States government. It
+produced an immediate reply from M. Saulnier, who went over the ground
+again, and with a fine air of candor affected to revise his previous
+statements. As a result he made the cost of the American government a
+little larger than he had done before. To this Cooper replied in a series
+of letters published in the "National." The controversy would      (p. 113)
+have ended sooner than it did, had it not been for the appearance
+of a fresh actor on the scene. This was a certain Mr. Leavitt Harris. He
+nominally belonged to New Jersey, but a large share of his life had been
+spent in Russia, and his political notions had apparently become
+acclimated to that region. He wrote an article on the subject in the
+shape of a letter to M. Francois Delassert, the vice-president of the
+Chamber of Deputies. In it he took ground opposite to that taken by
+Cooper, controverted his facts, and denied his inferences. So great
+weight was attached to it by the French government party that it was
+published as a supplementary number of the "Revue Britannique." Mr.
+Harris had once been left as _chargé d'affaires_ at St. Petersburg
+during the absence of John Adams at the peace negotiations at Ghent. His
+letter was accordingly dwelt upon as the production of an American who
+had been intrusted by his government with high diplomatic position. We
+who know out of what stuff our foreign agents are sometimes made, would
+not be likely to attach much weight to the mere fact. But to a foreign
+nation the opinion of an official seemed naturally more trustworthy than
+that of a private citizen.
+
+To the letter of Mr. Harris, Cooper replied on the 3d of May, 1832. This
+closed the discussion, at least so far as he was concerned.[1] But the
+controversy was followed by circumstances of a mortifying character. After
+the return to America of the United States minister, William       (p. 114)
+C. Rives, Mr. Harris was nominated by the President, and confirmed by
+the Senate early in March, 1833, as _chargé d'affaires_; and this office
+he held until the arrival of Edward Livingston, who was appointed
+minister on the 3d of May of the same year. Previously to this
+discreditable act, the Department of State had committed one of
+imbecility. It had issued a circular to the different local authorities
+of the Union with avowed reference to the finance controversy. Its
+purport was a request for them to furnish information in regard to the
+amount of public expenditures over which they had control. Against this
+course Cooper protested at once in a long and vigorous letter to the
+American people, written on the 10th of December, 1832, from Vevay,
+Switzerland, and first printed in the Philadelphia "National Gazette."
+He took the ground that in such a discussion local burdens ought not to
+be included. It was, in fact, by confusing various kinds of taxation,
+and taxation for various objects, that the French government party had
+been able to make any showing for their own side. The letter was widely
+circulated, and seems to have served its purpose in suppressing the
+information that had been asked.
+
+                   [Footnote 1: I express no opinion on the merits of
+                   this controversy, for I have seen very slight
+                   summaries only of the articles that appeared in the
+                   _Revue Britannique_. But it is proper to say that it
+                   was the opinion of the French liberals, that Cooper
+                   utterly demolished his antagonists in the
+                   controversy.]
+
+Unfortunately it was not the administration alone that displayed a lack
+of proper sentiment in this controversy. It is far from being a
+creditable thing in the history of the country that Cooper was subjected
+to constant attack, and even abuse, in the American newspapers, for his
+conduct in this finance discussion. He had been particularly careful to
+confine his remarks to the cost of government in the United States. He
+had not touched at all upon the cost of government in France. Yet he
+was charged with having overstepped the reserve imposed upon       (p. 115)
+foreigners, and of having attacked the administration of a friendly
+country. The accusation was constantly made against him that he went
+about "flouting his Americanism throughout Europe," and in this
+particular case that he had overrated the importance of the controversy,
+and also the importance of the part he had taken in it. He had, in fact,
+aroused the hostility of that section of Americans, insignificant in
+number and ability, but sometimes having social position, who prefer the
+conveniences of despotism to the inconveniences of liberty. To such men
+Cooper's intense nationality was a standing reproach. His reputation,
+moreover, made their own littleness especially conspicuous. Depreciation
+of him, and of his rank as a man of letters, was a necessity of their
+case. As they did not express openly their real feelings, they carried
+on at advantage a war against a man who never had the prudence to hide
+what he thought. Yet among the better class of Americans abroad,
+Cooper's attachment to his native land received the recognition it
+merited. "Cooper's new book, 'The Bravo,'" wrote Horatio Greenough, from
+Paris, to Rembrandt Peale, in November, 1831, "is taking wonderfully
+here. If you could transfuse a little of that man's love of country and
+national pride into the leading members of our high society, I think it
+would leaven them all."
+
+But the attacks in the American newspapers made a painful impression
+upon a mind that was morbidly sensitive to criticism even from the most
+insignificant of men. For an act of generous patriotism for which he
+deserved the thanks of all his countrymen he had received vilification
+from many of them. These things embittered him. They made him
+distrustful of the spirit that prevailed in his own land. He       (p. 116)
+began to fancy that the country had gone back instead of forward in
+national feeling during the years of his absence. He had determined to
+return, because he was unwilling to have his children brought up on
+foreign soil and under foreign influences. But for himself he resolved
+to abandon literature. As soon as he had finished the manuscript he had
+in hand, he would give up all further thought of writing. "The quill and
+I are divorced," he wrote to Greenough in June, 1833, "and you cannot
+conceive the degree of freedom, I could almost say of happiness, I feel
+at having got my neck out of the halter." Longings for his old sea-life
+often came over him. "You must not be surprised," he wrote,
+half-jestingly, to the same friend, "if you hear of my sailing a sloop
+between Cape Cod and New York." But he had no definite plans marked out.
+The only thing about which his mind was made up was not to write any
+more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.                                                       (p. 117)
+
+1833-1838.
+
+
+On the fifth of November, 1833, Cooper landed at New York. For a few
+winters that followed he made that city his place of residence. The
+summers he spent in Cooperstown. To this village he paid a visit in
+June, 1834, after having been away from it entirely for about sixteen
+years. The recollections of his early life had always endeared it to his
+memory, and in it he now determined to take up his permanent abode.
+Accordingly he acquired possession of his father's old place, which for
+a long period had remained unoccupied. The house had received from the
+inhabitants the name of Templeton Hall, with a direct reference to "The
+Pioneers." Everything about it was rapidly hastening to ruin. Cooper at
+once began repairs upon it, and after these had been fully completed he
+made it his only residence. It was in this little village, upon the
+shore of the lake which his pen has made famous, that he spent the
+remainder of his life. There he wrote nearly all the works which he
+produced after his return to his native land. Its seclusion and quiet
+gave him ample opportunities for undisturbed literary exertion; the
+beauty of the surroundings ministered constantly to his passion for
+scenery; and of the world outside he saw sufficient to satisfy his
+wishes in the frequent journeys which business compelled him to make to
+the great cities.
+
+Yet, though his latter days were spent in the country, the life    (p. 118)
+he led henceforward deserves anything but the name of a pastoral. With
+the return from Europe begins the epic period of Cooper's career. The
+next ten years, in particular, were years of battle and storm. He had
+been criticised harshly and unjustly; he came back prepared and disposed
+to criticise. His feelings found expression at once. The America to
+which he had returned seemed to him much worse than that from which he
+had gone. In his opinion nearly everything had deteriorated. Manners,
+morals, the whole spirit of the nation, struck him as being on a lower
+level. Yet the change was not really in the people; it was in himself.
+The country had been moving on in the line of its natural bustling
+development; he, on the contrary, had been going back in sentiment. In
+one particular there was a certain justification for the dislike
+expressed by him for the novel things he saw. The business of the entire
+land was in a feverish condition. The Erie Canal, completed the year
+before his departure for Europe, had opened an unbroken water way from
+the Atlantic sea-board to the farthest shores of the great lakes. To
+this stimulus to population and trade was added the expected stimulus of
+the railroad system, then in its infancy. Both together were disclosing,
+though more to the imagination than to the eye, the wealth that lay hid
+in the unsettled regions of the West. They were active agents,
+therefore, in creating one of those periods of speculative prosperity
+which are sure to recur when any new and unforeseen avenue to sudden
+fortune is laid open. The immense field for endeavor revealed by the
+prospective establishment of flourishing communities reacted unfavorably
+upon the intellectual movement which had begun in a feeble way     (p. 119)
+to show itself twenty years before. The attraction of mighty enterprises
+which held out to the hope promises of the highest temporal triumphs,
+was a competition that mere literary and scholastic pursuits, with their
+doubtful success and precarious rewards, could not well maintain. The
+country certainly went back for a time in higher things in consequence
+of that rapid material progress which drew to its further development
+the youthful energy and ability of the entire land. To make money and to
+make it rapidly seemed to be the one object of life.
+
+Such a fever of speculative prosperity wholly absorbing the thoughts and
+activities of men in the acquisition of wealth, would have been viewed
+by Cooper at any time with indifference, even if it did not inspire
+disgust. But a greater change than he knew had come over him. It is
+clear that he had now grown largely out of sympathy with the energy and
+enterprise which were doing so much to build up the prosperity and power
+of his country. His nature had come into a profound sympathy with the
+quiet, the culture, and the polish of the lands he had left behind. His
+spirit could no longer be incited by the romance that lay hid in the
+fiery energies of trade. In the tumultuousness of the life about him, he
+could see little but a restless and vulgar exertion for the creation of
+wealth. The perpetual bustle and change were not to his taste. He spoke
+of it afterwards, in one of his works, with a certain grim humor
+peculiarly his own. America he said, was a country for alibis. The whole
+nation was in motion; and everybody was everywhere, and nobody was
+anywhere.
+
+Feelings of this kind had begun to come over him long before his   (p. 120)
+return from abroad. He had been affected by his surroundings to an
+extent of which he was only vaguely conscious. While in Europe he
+admitted that he found growing in his nature a strong distaste for the
+common appliances of common life. He had not been long in Florence
+before these sentiments found utterance. "I begin to feel," he wrote, "I
+could be well content to vegetate here for one half of my life, to say
+nothing of the remainder." He drew sharp distinctions between commercial
+towns and capitals. Even in Italy, Leghorn with its growing trade, its
+bales of merchandise, its atmosphere filled with the breath of the salt
+sea mixed with the smell of pitch and tar, seemed mean and vulgar after
+the refinement and world-old beauty of Florence. He acknowledged that
+the languor and repose of towns which glory simply in their collections
+and recollections, were far more suited to his feelings than the
+activity and tumult of towns whose glory lies in their commercial
+enterprises. This preference is not uncommon among cultivated men. But
+it is too much to ask of a nation that it shall exist for the sake of
+gratifying the ćsthetic emotions of travelers. The process of achieving
+greatness can never be so agreeable to the looker-on as the sight of
+greatness achieved; but it is unhappily often the case that many things,
+which the visitor regards as a charm, the native feels to be a reproach.
+
+Besides the change of view in himself, there were some actual changes in
+the country that were not temporary in their nature. The constitution of
+society had altered at home during his residence abroad, or was rapidly
+altering. The influence of the old colonial aristocracy was fast dying
+out. New men were pushing to the wall the descendants of the       (p. 121)
+families that had flourished before the Revolution, and had sought after
+it to keep up distinctions and exclusiveness which the very success of
+the struggle in which they had been concerned doomed to an early decay.
+This was especially noticeable in New York. In such a city social rank
+must tend, in the long run, to wait upon wealth. The result may be
+delayed, it cannot be averted. Wealth, too, in most cases, will find its
+way to the hands of those carrying on great commercial undertakings.
+That this class would eventually become a controlling one in society, if
+not the controlling one, was inevitable. It was not likely that men, who
+were bent on the conquest of the continent, who revolved even in their
+dreams all forms of the adventurous and the perilous, whose enterprise
+stopped short only with the impossible, would be content long to submit
+to a fictitious superiority on the part of those whose thoughts were so
+taken up with the consideration of what their fathers had been or had
+done that they forgot to be or to do anything themselves. Yet the latter
+composed no small share of the class with which Cooper's early
+associations had lain. He naturally sympathized with them rather than
+with those who were displacing them. Trade began to seem to him vulgar,
+and it was doubtless true that many engaged in it, who had become
+rapidly rich, were vulgar enough. But he made no distinction. He longed
+for the restoration of a state of things that had gone forever by. He
+was disposed to feel dissatisfaction with much that was taking place,
+not because it came into conflict with his judgment, but because it
+jarred upon his tastes and prejudices.
+
+A residence in Europe for a few years had, indeed, done for him    (p. 122)
+what the coming-on of old age does for most. He had become the eulogist
+of times past. The views which he expressed in private and in public,
+during the decade that followed his return to America, were not of the
+kind to make him popular with his countrymen. The manners of the people
+were, according to him, decidedly worse than they were twenty or thirty
+years before. The elegant deportment of women had been largely
+supplanted by the rattle of hoydens and the giggling of the nursery. The
+class of superior men of the quiet old school were fast disappearing
+before the "wine-discussing, trade-talking, dollar-dollar set" of the
+day. Under the blight of this bustling, fussy, money-getting race of
+social Vandals, simplicity of manners had died out, or was dying out.
+The architecture of the houses, like the character of the society, was
+more ambitious than of old, but in far worse taste; in a taste, in fact,
+which had been corrupted by uninstructed pretension. The towns were
+larger, but they were tawdrier than ever. The spirit of traffic was
+gradually enveloping everything in its sordid grasp. There had taken
+place a vast expansion of mediocrity, well enough in itself, but so
+overwhelming as nearly to overshadow everything that once stood out as
+excellent.
+
+In most of these remarks I am giving Cooper's sentiments, as far as
+possible, in his own words. They stung the national vanity to the quick.
+The bitter resentment they evoked at the time could hardly be understood
+now; and a great deal of wrath was then kindled at what would meet with
+assent, at the present day, on account of its justice, or excite
+amusement on account of its exaggeration. Thurlow Weed, in 1841,
+expressed a general sentiment about Cooper, with much affluence of
+capital letter and solemnity of exclamatory punctuation. "He has   (p. 123)
+disparaged, American Lakes," wrote that editor, "ridiculed American
+Scenery, burlesqued American Coin, and even satirized the American
+Flag!" Cooper could hardly have expected his strictures to be received
+with applause, but he was clearly surprised at the outcry they awoke.
+Yet he had had plenty of opportunities to learn that other countries
+were as sensitive to criticism as his own. One singular illustration of
+this feeling had been exhibited at Rome. He had completed his novel of
+"The Water Witch" and wished to print and publish it in that city. The
+manuscript was accordingly sent to the censor. It was kept for days,
+which grew to weeks. It was at last returned with refusal, unless it
+were subjected to thorough revision. Almost on the opening page occurred
+a highly objectionable paragraph. "It would seem," Cooper had written,
+"that as nature has given its periods to the stages of animal life, it
+has also set limits to all moral and political ascendency. While the
+city of the Medici is receding from its crumbling walls, like the human
+form shrinking into 'the lean and slippered pantaloon,' the Queen of the
+Adriatic sleeping on her muddy isles, and Rome itself is only to be
+traced by fallen temples and buried columns, the youthful vigor of
+America is fast covering the wilds of the West with the happiest fruits
+of human industry." This passage, the censor quietly but severely
+pointed out, laid down a principle that was unsound, and supported it by
+facts that were false. A rigid pruning could alone make the work worthy
+of a license. The consequence was that Cooper carried the manuscript
+with him to Germany, and it was first published in Dresden, in a land
+where men were not sensitive to anything that might be said, at any rate
+about Italy.
+
+But the personal unpopularity he brought upon himself by his       (p. 124)
+censorious remarks will not wholly account for the unpopularity as a
+writer, which it was his fortune, in no short time, to acquire. There
+were other agencies at work besides those which affected the feeling
+towards him as a man. Throughout the English-speaking world there had
+been a literary reaction. Men had begun to tire of the novel of
+adventure. It was not that it had lost its hold upon the public; it had
+lost the supreme hold which for twenty years it had maintained. The
+mighty master was dead; to some extent his influence had died before
+him. The later work he did, had in several instances detracted from,
+rather than added to the fame he had won by the earlier. Cooper's own
+ventures in the field of foreign fiction, whatever their absolute merit,
+could not be compared with those in which he had drawn the life of the
+ocean, or the streams and forests of his native land. But outside of any
+effect produced by poorer production, there could be no doubt of the
+fact of a change in the public taste. The hero of action had gone by. In
+his place had come the hero of observation and reflection, who did not
+do great things, but who said good things. The exquisite and the
+sentimentalist were the fashion, to be speedily followed, according to
+the law of reaction, by the boor and the satirist. At the time when
+Cooper returned from Europe, Bulwer was the popular favorite. Both in
+England and America he was styled the prince of living novelists; and
+nowhere was enthusiasm, in his behalf, crazier than in this country. The
+revolution in taste, moreover, worked directly in his favor in more ways
+than one. Scott and Cooper's heroes, whether intelligent or not, were
+invariably moral. But of this sort of men readers were tired. No   (p. 125)
+character could please highly the popular palate in which there was
+not a distinct flavor of iniquity. More ability and less morality was
+the opinion generally entertained, though probably not often expressed.
+Hence it was not unnatural that the sentimental dandies and high-toned
+villains of Bulwer's earlier novels should have been the heroes to
+captivate all hearts.
+
+The comparatively low estimate into which the novel of adventure had
+sunk, undoubtedly had a marked effect upon Cooper's reputation. Some of
+his later work is superior to his earlier from the artistic point of
+view. Yet it was never received with the same praise, at least in
+English-speaking countries. More than that, the criticism it received
+was often excessively depreciatory; nor was this all due to personal
+unpopularity, though a good deal of it certainly was. He simply wrote in
+a style which the age had temporarily left behind, and fancied it had
+outgrown. All that Cooper had to do, all that under any circumstances he
+could do, was to keep on producing the best that lay in his power; sure
+to find a certain body of readers in sympathy with him; sure also that
+some time in the future the revolution of taste would bring him into
+fashion if he had written anything that really deserved to live.
+
+These facts and considerations must, however, be borne in mind in order
+to understand the gradual growth of the ill-feeling that sprang up
+between Cooper and his countrymen. To the change of view in himself and
+to the change of taste in the public, were soon added special
+circumstances that tended to bring about or increase alienation. But
+there did not exist toward him, when he came back from Europe, any
+hostility on the part of his countrymen. Circumstances had led him (p. 126)
+to suspect such a feeling; but it was mainly the creation of a nature
+that was morbidly sensitive to criticism. He was not, to be sure, the
+popular idol at his return that he had been at his departure. But this
+decline, outside of the causes already mentioned, was due to ignorance
+rather than dislike. A new generation had, during his absence, come on
+the scene of active life. To it the influence of his personal presence
+was unknown. He had been away so long that many looked upon him with the
+indifference with which foreigners are regarded by the majority; on the
+other hand, the fact of his being a native prevented others from feeling
+that interest in him which a foreigner has to some. Whatever hostility
+actually existed sprang mainly from causes creditable to himself. If
+Cooper disliked England for its depreciation of America, he hated with a
+hatred akin to loathing, the recreant Americans who mistook the relation
+they bore to their native land, and apologized for its character and
+existence, instead of apologizing for their own. For these men he made
+no effort to hide the contempt he felt. This class, far larger then in
+numbers than now, came mainly from the great cities. Many of them had
+wealth and social position to make up for their lack of ability; some of
+them were attached to the legations. They naturally resented the low
+opinion entertained and expressed of them by their countryman, and had
+doubtless done him some harm, though far less than he supposed. Besides
+these, however, there were certainly a pretty large number by whom his
+aggressive patriotism was felt to be a positive bore. To this feeling
+there had been a good deal of expression given in the newspaper press.
+Cooper, who never could learn how little effect of itself hostile  (p. 127)
+criticism has upon the reputation of a popular writer, gave to these
+attacks far more weight than they deserved.
+
+It was, therefore, with exaggerated and unnecessary feelings of distrust
+that he had returned to his native land. He looked for indifference and
+aversion. Men seldom fail to find in such cases what they expect. He was
+present at a reception given, a few days after his return, to Commodore
+Chauncey. Men whom he knew, but had not seen for years, did not come up
+to speak with him; those who did, addressed him as if he had been gone
+from the city a few weeks. So much was he chilled by this apparent
+coldness that he left the room before the dinner was half over. He did
+not appreciate his own reserve of manner. The indifference which he
+found was, in many cases, due not to any lack of cordiality in others,
+but to hesitation at the way in which advances would be received by
+himself. There was a brusqueness in his address, an apparent assumption
+in his manner, which had nothing consonant to them in his feelings. But
+it was only those who knew him intimately that could venture, after long
+separation, to break in upon this seeming unsociableness and hauteur.
+
+On Monday, May 29 1826, just before his departure for Europe, a dinner
+had been given to Cooper at the City Hotel by the club which he had
+founded. It partook almost of the nature of an ovation. Chancellor Kent
+had presided. De Witt Clinton, the governor of the state, General Scott,
+and many others conspicuous in public life, had honored it with their
+presence. Charles King, the editor of the "New York American," and
+subsequently president of Columbia College, had addressed him in a
+speech full of the heartiest interest in his future and of pride   (p. 128)
+in his past. The Chancellor had voiced the general feeling by toasting
+him as the "genius which has rendered our native soil classic ground,
+and given to our early history the enchantment of fiction." No one, in
+fact, had ever left the country with warmer wishes or more enthusiastic
+expressions of admiration and regard. It was but little more than a week
+after his return when another invitation to a public dinner was offered
+him by some of the most prominent citizens of New York. In this they
+expressly asserted that he had won their esteem and affection, not
+merely by his talents, but by his manly defense, while abroad, of the
+institutions of his country. The invitation seemed to surprise Cooper as
+well as the language in which it was couched. He thanked the proposers
+warmly, but he declined it. The refusal was perhaps unavoidable. If so,
+it was unfortunate; if not, it was a mistake. Had the dinner taken
+place, it would have shown him the estimation in which he was really
+held, and would have modified or destroyed any prejudices entertained
+towards him by others, if any such existed.
+
+Up to this period in his public career, Cooper had certainly not done
+anything to undermine his popularity. He now entered upon a line of
+conduct which it is charity to call blundering. He began, or at any rate
+pursued, a controversy, in which nothing was to be gained and everything
+to be risked, if not actually lost. He not only set himself to defend a
+course that needed no defense, he replied to attacks, real or imaginary,
+which could only be raised into importance by receiving from him notice.
+These attacks were a criticism on "The Bravo" which had appeared in the
+"New York American;" a criticism on his later writings which was found
+in the columns of the "New York Commercial Advertiser;" and an     (p. 129)
+editorial article in the "New York Courier and Enquirer." He could not
+have done a more foolish thing. He knew perfectly well that no writer
+could be written down save by himself. He has quoted the very remark.
+But a hundred similar sayings, condensing in a line the wisdom of ages,
+could never have kept him quiet when an attack was made upon himself. A
+popular writer has always immense odds in his favor in any controversy
+he may have with inferior men. He is ordinarily sure of the verdict of
+posterity, for his is likely to be the only side that will reach its
+ears. Even during his own time there will always be a large body of
+admirers who will defend him with more fervor, and advocate his cause
+with more effect than he has it in his own power to do. But it can and
+will be done only in the case that he does little or nothing himself. If
+Cooper had lost any ground in the estimation of the public, all he had
+to do, in order to regain it, was to remain quiet. The one thing that
+Cooper could not do was to remain quiet. He determined to set himself
+right before his countrymen. He speedily had full opportunity to
+ascertain the results that are pretty sure to follow experiments of this
+kind.
+
+In June, 1834, appeared Cooper's "Letter to His Countrymen." Its
+publication was no sudden freak, for the year before he had announced
+the preparation of it. The work is a thin octavo of a little more than
+one hundred pages; but the damage it wrought him was out of all
+proportion to its size. The first half of it was taken up with a reply
+to the comments and criticisms made in the New York journals already
+mentioned. This was of itself sufficiently absurd, for it revived what
+had already been forgotten, and gave importance to some things     (p. 130)
+had not been worth reading, let alone remembering. But to this
+blundering was added a wrongheadedness, of which Cooper's later life was
+to afford numerous illustrations. The article from the "Courier and
+Enquirer" is quoted in full in the book. Some of its statements are
+inaccurate; but no one can read it now without seeing at once that it
+was written in a spirit that was the very reverse of hostile. To attack
+a powerful journal for comments clearly dictated by friendly feeling,
+betrayed more than a lack of prudence; it betrayed a lack of common
+sense. Moreover, there were other serious defects in the Letter. He
+criticised at some length certain forms of expression used by one of his
+assailants. Cooper's remarks on language are almost invariably marked by
+the pretension and positiveness that characterize the writers on usage
+who are ignorant of their ignorance; but in this case they are in
+addition frequently puerile. His personal references were not especially
+objectionable. But the best that can be asserted of them is, that he
+said with good taste what it would have been better taste not to say at
+all. He, however, so contrived to state his position that he laid
+himself open to the charge that he looked upon the unfavorable opinion
+expressed of "The Bravo" as being instigated by the French government,
+and that, in consequence, the ill reception here accorded to his book
+was not due necessarily to any inferiority in the work itself, but to
+the machinations of foreign political enemies. He did not so mean it. He
+meant to imply that there was no limit to the volunteer baseness of men
+who stand ready to gratify power by doing for it what it would gladly
+have done, but would never ask to have done. But the other was a   (p. 131)
+natural inference, and it was used against him with marked effect.
+
+Worse even than all this, he succeeded in accomplishing in the latter
+half of his Letter. A most exciting controversy was going on at the time
+between the President and the Senate of the United States. The
+bitterness had been aggravated into fury by the removal of the deposits.
+The Senate had passed a resolution declaring the conduct of the
+President unconstitutional. Against this resolution Jackson had
+published a protest. The whole country was in a flame. Into the purely
+personal controversy in which he was engaged, Cooper lugged in a
+discussion of the political question that was agitating the nation. He
+remarked, in the course of it, that if the Union were ever destroyed by
+errors or faults of an internal origin, it would not be by executive but
+by legislative usurpation. In order apparently to have neither of the
+two parties in full sympathy with him, he criticised the appointing
+power of the President, and his action in filling embassies. It is by
+the most strained interpretation of the danger to our institutions from
+imitation of those found in foreign countries, that the political
+discussion was dragged into this production. The force of folly could
+hardly go farther.
+
+The inevitable result followed. The work pleased nobody, and irritated
+nearly everybody. Three influential journals were at once made open and
+active enemies, and in their wake followed a long train of minor
+newspapers. More than that was effected. The Letter called down upon him
+the wrath of a great political party, which in the North embraced a
+large majority of the educated class; and its hostility followed him
+relentlessly to the grave. Unwise as the work was, however, there  (p. 132)
+was nothing in it to justify the abuse that in consequence fell upon its
+author. To his statement of the danger of legislative usurpation Caleb
+Cushing made a dignified, though somewhat rhetorical reply; but while
+controverting his opinions, he spoke of Cooper personally with great
+respect. But such was not the treatment he generally received. The
+language with which he was assailed was of the most insulting and
+grossly abusive kind. In those days it was called appalling severity. It
+reads now like very dreary and very vulgar billingsgate. One example
+will suffice. The "New York Mirror" was then supposed to be the leading
+literary paper in New York. It was nominally edited by Morris, Willis,
+and Fay, though the two last were at that time in Europe. Morris is
+still remembered by two or three songs he wrote. Besides being an
+editor, he held the position of general of militia; accordingly he was
+often styled by his admirers, "he of the sword and pen," which was just
+and appropriate to this extent, that he did as much execution with the
+one as with the other. His paper intimated that Cooper was willing to
+transform himself into a baboon for the sake of abusing America, and
+that his inordinate ambition prompted him to distance all competitors,
+whether the race were fame or shame. It is proper to add that the tone
+of the "Mirror" in regard to Cooper was radically changed after the
+return of Willis from Europe.
+
+In his Letter Cooper announced publicly, what he had long before said to
+his friends, that he had made up his mind to abandon authorship. Such
+resolutions are mainly remarkable for the fact that they are never kept.
+But the howl of denunciation that immediately arose would never have
+suffered him to keep still. From this time dates the beginning of  (p. 133)
+the long and gallant fight he carried on with the American people.
+Gallant it certainly was, whatever may be thought of its wisdom; for it
+was essentially the fight of one man against a nation. In politics he
+had joined the Democratic party, but with some of their tenets he was
+not in the slightest sympathy. He was, for example, a fierce
+protectionist, and neglected no opportunity to cover with ridicule the
+doctrine of free trade. But though practically standing alone, his
+courage never faltered. The storm of obloquy that fell upon him made him
+in his turn bitter and unjust in many things he said; but it never once
+daunted his spirit or shook his resolution. On the contrary, it almost
+seems as if he were aiming at unpopularity; at any rate he could not be
+accused of seeking the favor of the public. Its acts he criticised, its
+opinions he defied. His literary reputation and the sale of his works
+were seriously affected by the course of conduct he pursued and the
+hostility it provoked. But he was of that nature that if the certain
+result of following the path he had marked out for himself had been the
+hatred of the world, he would never have once deviated from it the
+breadth of a hair.
+
+He was not a man to remain on the defensive. He at once began
+hostilities. His first attempt was unfortunate enough. This was the
+satirical novel called "The Monikins," which was published on the 9th of
+July, 1835. Of all the works written by Cooper this is most justly
+subject to the criticism conveyed in the German idiom, that "it does not
+let itself be read." To the immense majority of even the author's
+admirers, it has been from the very beginning a sealed book. It is
+invariably dangerous to assert a negative. But if a personal reference
+may be pardoned, I am disposed to say, that of the generation that (p. 134)
+has come upon the stage of active life since Cooper's death, I am
+the only person who has read this work through. The knowledge of it
+possessed by his contemporaries did not, in many cases, approach to the
+dignity of being even second-hand. The accounts of it that have come
+under my own notice, seem often to have been gathered from reviews of it
+which had themselves been written by men who had never read the
+original. It is no difficult matter to explain the neglect into which it
+immediately sank. The work was a satire mainly upon certain of the
+social and political features to be found in England and America,
+designated respectively as Leaphigh and Leaplow; though one or two
+things characteristic of France were transferred to the former country.
+But satire Cooper could not write. The power of vigorous invective he
+had in a marked degree. But the wit which plays while it wounds, which
+while saying one thing means another, which deals in far-off suggestion
+and remote allusion, this was something entirely unsuited to the
+directness and energy of his intellect. Moreover, some of his most
+marked literary defects were seen here exaggerated and unrelieved. In
+many of his novels there is prolixity in the introduction. Still in
+these it is often compensated by descriptions of natural scenery so
+life-like and so enthusiastic that even the most _blasé_ of novel
+readers is carried along in a state of what may be called endurable
+tediousness. But in "The Monikins" the introductory tediousness is
+unendurable. It is not until we are nearly half-way into the work and
+have actually entered upon the voyage to the land of the monkeys, that
+the dullness at all disappears. After the country of Leaphigh is reached
+the story is far less absurd and more entertaining; though         (p. 135)
+Cooper's descriptions are of the nature of caricature rather than of
+satire. There are, however, many shrewd and caustic remarks scattered up
+and down the pages of the latter part of the work, but they will never
+be known to anybody, for nobody will read the book through.
+
+The work fell perfectly dead from the press. But its failure had not the
+least effect in deterring Cooper from continuing in the course upon
+which he had started. During the years 1836, 1837, and 1838, he
+published ten volumes of travels. In these he repeated, with emphasis,
+everything that he had uttered privately or had implied in his previous
+publications. The first of these works was entitled "Sketches of
+Switzerland." It was divided into two parts. The first, which was
+published on May 21, 1836, gave an account of his residence and
+excursions in that country during the summer and autumn of 1828. The
+second part, which appeared October 8, 1836, was largely taken up with
+accounts of matters and things in Paris during the winter of 1831-32, a
+journey up the Rhine, and a second visit to Switzerland. These two parts
+made four volumes. The remaining six had the general title of "Gleanings
+in Europe," and two each were devoted to France, England, and Italy. The
+first of these was published March 4, 1837; the second September 2 of
+the same year; and the third, May 26, 1838. They were written in the
+form of letters, and were pretty certainly made up from letters actually
+written or memoranda taken at the time. But they were likewise largely
+interspersed with the expression of views and feelings that he had
+learned to adopt and cherish since his return to his native land.
+
+In the case of England and America, in particular, his remarks     (p. 136)
+may have been full of light, but they did not exhibit sweetness.
+Probably no set of travels was ever more elaborately contrived to arouse
+the wrath of readers in both countries, nor one that more successfully
+fulfilled its mission. His keen observation let no striking traits
+escape notice. The individual Englishmen he meets and describes could
+furnish entertainment only to men that were not themselves Englishmen.
+There is, for instance, the sea-captain who endeavors to compensate for
+his lack of energy by giving his passenger an account of the marvelous
+riches of the nobility and gentry. Even more graphically drawn is the
+islander he met in the Bernese Oberland, who appeared to regard the peak
+of the Jungfrau with contempt, as if it did very well for Switzerland;
+and who, when his attention was called to a singularly beautiful effect
+upon a mountain top, began to tell how cheap mutton was in
+Herefordshire. Nor were many of his general remarks flattering. As one
+descended in the social scale he thought the English the most artificial
+people on earth. Large numbers of them mistook a labored, feigned,
+heartless manner for high-breeding. The mass of them acted in society
+like children who have had their hair combed and faces washed, to be
+shown up in the drawing-room. They were conventional everywhere. The
+very men whom he met after his arrival in the streets of Southampton,
+all looked as if they had been born with hat-brushes and clothes-brushes
+in their hands. As a race, moreover, they had special defects. They
+lacked delicacy and taste in conferring obligations or paying
+compliments. They were utterly indifferent to the feelings of others.
+There was a national propensity to blackguardism; and the English press,
+in particular, calumniated its enemies, both political and         (p. 137)
+personal, with the coarsest vituperation.
+
+These were not the sort of remarks to draw favorable notices from
+British periodicals. Cooper soon had an opportunity to verify, in his
+own experience, the truth of the last of his observations that have been
+cited. Harsh, however, as was his language about England, it bore little
+comparison to the severity with which he expressed himself about
+America. The attacks on the newspaper press belong not here, but to the
+account of the war he waged with it. The omission, however, will hardly
+be noticed in the multitude of other matters he found to criticise.
+Manners, customs, society, were touched throughout with an unsparing
+hand. Common crimes, he admitted, were not so general with us as in
+Europe, though mainly because we were exempt from temptation, but
+uncommon meannesses did abound in a large circle of our population. Our
+two besetting sins were canting and hypocrisy. We had far less publicity
+in our pleasures than other nations; yet we had scarcely any domestic
+privacy on account of the neighborhood. The whole country was full of a
+village-like gossip which caused every man to think that he was a judge
+of character, when he was not even a judge of facts. In most matters we
+were humble imitators of the English. All their mistakes and
+misjudgments we adopted except such as impaired our good opinion of
+ourselves. It was a consequence that all their errors about foreign
+countries had become our errors also. In a few cases, indeed, we were
+compelled to be American; but whenever there was a tolerable chance we
+endeavored to become second-class English. Wherever making money was in
+view, we had but one soul and that was inventive enough; but when  (p. 138)
+it came to spending it we did not know how to set about it except
+by routine. No people traveled as much as we; none traveled with so
+little enjoyment or so few comforts. Taste and knowledge and tone were
+too little concentrated anywhere, too much diffused everywhere, to make
+head against the advances of an overwhelming mediocrity. Of society
+there was but little; for what it suited the caprice of certain people
+to call such was little more than the noisy, screeching, hoydenish
+romping of both sexes. The taint of provincialism was diffused over all
+feelings and beliefs. Of arts and letters the country possessed none or
+next to none. Moreover, there was no genuine sympathy with either. To
+all this dismal prospect there was slight hope of improvement, because
+there was a disposition to resent any intimation that we could be better
+than we were at present.
+
+It would be a gross error to infer the general character of Cooper's
+travels from these extracts. They are gathered together from ten
+volumes, without any of the attendant statements by which they are there
+in many cases modified. Equally erroneous would it be to suppose that he
+did not find much to praise as well as to condemn in both England and
+America. These extracts, however, explain the almost savage vituperation
+with which Cooper was thenceforth followed in the press of the two
+countries. The works themselves met with a very slight sale: none of
+them ever passed into a second edition. Men were not likely to read with
+alacrity, however much they might with profit, unfavorable opinions
+entertained of themselves. Cooper himself could not have hoped for much
+success for his strictures. In fact, he expressly declared the contrary.
+The most he should expect, he said, would be the secret assent of  (p. 139)
+the wise and good, the expressed censure of the numerous class of the
+vapid and ignorant, the surprise of the mercenary and the demagogue, and
+the secret satisfaction of the few who should come after him who would
+take an interest in his name.
+
+Notwithstanding the ferocious criticism with which they were assailed at
+the time and the forgetfulness into which they have now fallen, Cooper's
+accounts of the countries in which he lived are among the best of their
+kind. Books of travel are from their very nature of temporary interest.
+It requires peculiar felicity of manner to make up long for the fresher
+matter about foreign lands which newer books contain. Striking
+descriptions and acute observations will still, however, reward the
+reader of Cooper's sketches. There are often displayed in them a vigor
+and a political sagacity which of themselves would justify his being
+styled the most robust of American authors. Pointed assertions are
+scattered up and down his pages. Could, for instance, one of the dangers
+of a democracy be more clearly and ill-naturedly put than by his
+statement, that the whole science of government in what are called free
+states, is getting to be a strife in mystification, in which the great
+secret is to persuade the governed that he is in fact the governor? His
+books, moreover, while they reflect his prejudices, show an honest
+desire to be just. He undoubtedly preferred the Continent to England.
+But in his account of that country, while he had the unfairness of
+dislike, he never had the unfairness of intentional misrepresentation.
+There is nothing of that exulting yell with which the British traveler
+of those days fell foul of some specimen of American ill-breeding or
+American bumptiousness. Nor did he fail to pay a high tribute to   (p. 140)
+what was best in English society or English character. The gentlemen
+of that country, in appearance, in attainments, in manliness, and he was
+inclined to add in principles, he placed at the head of their class in
+Christendom. His censure of America and the Americans was not at all in
+the nature of indiscriminate abuse. The fault he found with his
+countrymen was based mainly upon their mistaken opinion of themselves
+and of their advantages and disadvantages. You boast, he practically
+said to them, of the superiority of your scenery, in which you are not
+to be compared with Europe; but you constantly abuse your climate which
+is equal to, if not finer, than that of any region in the Old World. You
+stand up manfully for your manners and tastes, which you ought to
+correct; but you are incessantly apologizing for your institutions of
+which you ought to be proud. The defects imputed in Europe to the
+inhabitants of the United States, such as the want of morals, honesty,
+order, decency, liberality, and religion, were not at all our defects.
+These, in fact were, as the world goes, the strong points of American
+character. On the other hand, those on which we prided ourselves,
+intelligence, taste, manners, education as applied to all beyond the
+base of society, were the very points upon which we should do well to be
+silent. This is certainly not an extreme position. But men are far more
+affected by the blame bestowed upon their foibles than by the praise
+given to their virtues; and both in England and America the censures
+were remembered and the commendations forgotten. Other circumstances
+also came in now to add to his unpopularity in his own country. A local
+quarrel in which he accidently became concerned, was followed by   (p. 141)
+consequences which affected his estimation throughout the whole land;
+but the details of this will require a separate chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.                                                      (p. 142)
+
+1837-1838.
+
+
+Three miles from Cooperstown, on the western side of Otsego Lake, a low,
+wooded point of land projects for some distance into the water. It
+combines two characteristics of an attractive resort: beauty of scenery
+and easiness of access. On these accounts Cooper's father had refused to
+sell it when he disposed of his other lands. He had, in fact, specially
+reserved it for his own use, and for that of his descendants. In 1808, a
+year before his death, he drew up his will. In it he made a particular
+devise of this spot. "I give and bequeath," ran the words of the
+document, "my place, called Myrtle Grove, on the west side of the Lake
+Otsego, to all my descendants in common until the year 1850; then to be
+inherited by the youngest thereof bearing my name." Two small buildings
+had been successively erected by him on the spot. The first he tore down
+himself, but the second was set on fire after his death, by the
+carelessness of trespassers using it, and burned to the ground. Shortly
+after 1821, the only representative of the family living in Cooperstown
+who was of proper age to be consulted, gave his consent, so far as he
+was concerned, to the erection of a new building by the community. From
+that time the Point came to be a place of general resort. To it fishing
+and picnic parties were in the habit of repairing. An impression   (p. 143)
+sprang up, moreover, that the spot was public property. This impression
+in the course of years advanced to the dignity of positive assertion. It
+became in time a universally accepted belief in the minds of the
+citizens that the place belonged to them. It then only remained to
+furnish the explanation of how it had happened to come into their
+possession. This was no difficult achievement. The story was soon
+generally received that Cooper's father, instead of permitting the
+public to use the Point, had actually made a gift of it to the public.
+
+When Cooper took up his summer residence in the village, after his
+return from Europe, he found the notion prevalent that the place in
+question belonged to the community. As executor of his father's will he
+took pains to correct the error. He informed his fellow-citizens that
+the Point was private property, and not public; and that while he had no
+desire to prevent them from resorting to it, he was determined to insist
+upon the recognition of the real ownership. He might as well have talked
+to the winds. The community did not bother itself about examining the
+question of title. It had been in the habit of using the Point without
+asking any one's consent, and the Point it purposed to keep on using in
+the same way.
+
+Matters reached a crisis in 1837. The building erected on the spot had
+become dilapidated. Workmen were sent out to repair it, without going
+through the formality of consulting the owners of the property. A tree
+was also cut down, which, on account of certain associations connected
+with his father, Cooper valued particularly. This was not the way to win
+over to the view of the community the executor of the property. He sent
+a card at once to the editor of the Democratic newspaper of the    (p. 144)
+village, stating that the Point was private property, and cautioning
+the public against injuring the trees. Nothing, however, was said about
+trespassing. The card came too late for publication that week and before
+another number of the paper appeared, rumor of its existence had got
+about. Its reported character created ill-feeling, and messages and even
+threats were sent to Cooper on the subject. These had the effect which
+might have been expected. He withdrew the original card and published in
+its stead a simple, ordinary notice of warning against trespassing on
+the Point, with a few additional facts. The notice, which is dated July
+22, 1837, reads as follows:--
+
+"The public is warned against trespassing on the Three Mile Point, it
+being the intention of the subscriber rigidly to enforce the title of
+the estate, of which he is the representative, to the same. The public
+has not, nor has it ever had, any right to the same beyond what has been
+conceded by the liberality of the owners."
+
+The notice was signed by Cooper as the executor of his father's estate.
+Great was the excitement in the village when it was published. A
+hand-bill was immediately put into circulation calling a meeting of the
+citizens, to take into consideration the propriety of defending their
+rights against the arrogant claims and assumed authority of "one J.
+Fenimore Cooper." The meeting was accordingly held. There was little
+difference of sentiment among those present. All were animated,
+according to the newspaper reports, by the determination to use the
+Three Mile Point without being indebted to the liberality of Cooper or
+any one else. Stirring speeches were made. Two or three persons were
+anxious to delay any action until the question of title had been   (p. 145)
+examined. This proposition was deemed by the immense majority of those
+present to have a truckling character, and consequently met with no
+favor. The meeting, accordingly, found immediate relief for its feelings
+in the usual American way, by passing a series of resolutions. The vigor
+of these was out of all proportion to the sense. The disposition to defy
+Cooper shot, in some instances, indeed, beyond its proper mark, and
+extended even to the rules of grammar. After reciting in a preamble the
+facts as they understood them, the citizens present went on to express
+their determination and opinions as follows:--
+
+"Resolved, By the aforesaid citizens that we will wholly disregard the
+notice given by James F. Cooper, forbidding the public to frequent the
+Three Mile Point.
+
+"Resolved, That inasmuch as it is well known that the late William
+Cooper intended the use of the Point in question for the citizens of
+this village and its vicinity, we deem it no more than a proper respect
+for the memory and intentions of the father, that the son should
+recognize the claim of the citizens to the use of the premises, even had
+he the power to deny it.
+
+"Resolved, That we will hold his threat to enforce title to the
+premises, as we do his whole conduct in relation to the matter, in
+perfect contempt.
+
+"Resolved, That the language and conduct of Cooper, in his attempts to
+procure acknowledgements of 'liberality,' and his attempt to force the
+citizens into asking his permission to use the premises, has been such
+as to render himself odious to a greater portion of the citizens of this
+community.
+
+"Resolved, That we do recommend and request the trustees of the Franklin
+Library, in this village, to remove all books, of which Cooper is  (p. 146)
+the author, from said library.
+
+"Resolved also, That we will and do denounce any man as sycophant, who
+has, or shall, ask permission of James F. Cooper to visit the Point in
+question.
+
+"Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the
+chairman and secretary, and published in the village papers."
+
+Whatever else these proceedings show, they make it clear that the people
+of Cooperstown had not well improved the opportunity afforded by his
+residence among them, of becoming well acquainted with the character of
+their distinguished townsman. Still there was knowledge enough about him
+to make the officers of the meeting unwilling to publish the resolutions
+as they had been ordered. He was not a man to be trifled with; and no
+one cared to make himself personally responsible for what had been said.
+As a matter of fact the secretary of the meeting furnished Cooper with a
+copy of the resolutions; and it was the latter that first caused them to
+be printed. But the story of the meeting speedily found its way into the
+newspapers. In the accounts of the proceedings that were in circulation,
+it was said that a resolution had been passed that the works of the
+novelist should be taken from the library and publicly burned. This was
+caught up by the press and repeated everywhere throughout the country.
+To this day the baseless tradition lingers in Cooperstown itself, that
+this act was not only determined upon but actually done. The matter
+doubtless was discussed among the other sage proposals that were brought
+forward at this meeting; and it may be true, as was afterwards
+suspected, that the original resolution on this point was modified
+before it was allowed to go out to the public.
+
+Under the circumstances only one result was possible. The          (p. 147)
+community were very speedily satisfied that they did not own the Point,
+and were equally convinced that their prospect of obtaining possession
+of it by clamor was far from good. Two letters, marked by anything but
+timidity or amiability, Cooper wrote to the Democratic newspaper of the
+village. In them he gave fully all the facts in the case. To the
+assertion paraded in many of the Whig journals of the state, that this
+meeting showed the spirit of the people in Cooperstown, he made an
+indignant reply. Such a remark, he said, was a libel on the character of
+the place. The meeting, he declared, was not composed of a fourth part
+of the population, or a hundredth part of the respectability of the
+village. The resolutions he described as being the work of presuming
+boys, who swagger of time immemorial; of strangers who had lived but a
+brief time in the county; and of a few disreputable persons who, bent on
+construing liberty entirely on their own side, interposed against
+palpable rights and sacred family feelings their gossiping facts, their
+grasping rapacity, and their ruthless disposition to destroy whatever
+they could not control. "There is but one legal public," he defiantly
+concluded his first letter, "and that acts under the obligation of
+precise oaths, through prescribed forms, and on constitutional
+principles. Let 'excitement' be flourished as it may, this is the only
+public to which I shall submit the decision of my rights. So far as my
+means allow, insult shall be avenged by the law, violence repelled by
+the strong hand, falsehood put to shame by truth, and sophistry exposed
+by reason."
+
+It is perfectly clear that on the merits of this controversy Cooper was
+wholly in the right. The bluster of these resolutions exhausted    (p. 148)
+all the courage of his opponents. The question of ownership was at once
+settled definitely and forever. No one on the spot ever questioned the
+point any farther, though the original falsehood was steadily repeated
+by newspapers at a distance, and apparently never once contradicted
+after its untruth had been shown. Some may think the result might have
+been reached by milder means, but the spirit shown at the meeting
+renders this more than doubtful. Cooper even had to pay for the
+insertion of his letters in the village newspaper. Unfortunately the
+ill-feeling aroused did not stop here. It gave rise to what may be
+described as a semi-political controversy--that is, a controversy in
+which one party attacks a man, and the party to which he belongs does
+not think it expedient or worth while to defend him. The libel suits to
+which it directly or indirectly led with the Whig newspapers of the
+state will demand a separate chapter. Before they were well under way,
+however, the novelist made up his mind to right himself in another
+manner, and brought out a work of fiction which seemed expressly
+contrived to meet the thought of the sacred writer who wished his
+adversary had written a book.
+
+Cooper determined to write a story in which he would set forth the
+principles involved in the controversy about the Point. There is perhaps
+no subject that cannot be made interesting by the right treatment. But
+he was now in a state of mind that would not have permitted him to
+discuss any matter of this nature in the spirit that belongs to the
+composition of a work of the imagination. The dispute had embittered his
+feelings already sore. It had tended to give him a still more distorted
+view of the country to which he had come back. So completely had   (p. 149)
+his feelings swung around that he now had an eye for little but the
+worst features of the national character. Passion had largely unbalanced
+his judgment. Ancient fable has pointed out the danger of falling under
+the fascinations of the sirens; but even that seems preferable to
+becoming bewitched by the furies.
+
+Still he could not well make a book out of this one event. It could be
+used to suit all his purposes, however, by being introduced as an
+incident of an ordinary tale. In this way his side of the story would
+travel as far as the false assertions about his conduct in the matter
+which had been circulated not only over America but over Europe. He also
+set out to bring together in the work he was contemplating all the
+things that he looked upon with disapprobation and dislike in the social
+life of this country. His original intention was to begin a story with
+the landing here of an American family long resident in Europe. Happily
+he was induced to give an account of the voyage home, and this in the
+end necessitated the division of the work into two parts. Accordingly on
+the 16th of August, 1837, appeared the novel of "Homeward Bound,"
+followed in November of the same year by its sequel, entitled "Home as
+Found." The leading characters are the same in both tales, but the
+events are entirely unlike. The scene of the first is laid wholly on the
+water. In its movement, its variety of incidents, and the spirit and
+energy with which they are told, it is one of the best of Cooper's
+sea-novels. Nor is this estimate seriously impaired by the fact that it
+is in some places marred by controversial discussions on liberty and
+equality, and by the withering exposure of views that no man maintained
+whose opinions were worth regarding. But these are only occasional (p. 150)
+blemishes. They do not materially interfere with the progress of the
+story, which moves on with little variation of interest to the end. On
+the other hand, the characters are generally as uninteresting as the
+events are exciting. The chief ones among them have all reached that
+supreme refinement which justifies them in feeling and decisively
+pronouncing that whatever is done by anybody but themselves is coarse.
+But in this work the personages are so subordinate to the scenes that
+any failure in representing the former is more than counterbalanced by
+the success shown in depicting the latter.
+
+The reverse was the fact when the sequel followed. In this the
+characters and their views became prominent, and the events were of
+slight importance. "Home as Found" was far poorer than "Homeward Bound"
+was good. Never was a more unfortunate work written by any author. This
+is the fact, whether it be looked at from the literary or the popular
+point of view. For the latter it is enough to say that the opinions
+about America which have already been given in the account of his
+European travels were more than reënforced. He said again what he had
+said before, and he took pains to add a great deal that had been left
+unsaid. The new matter surpassed in the energy of invective the old, and
+its attack was more concentrated. There were in the novel, to be sure,
+the remarks that had now got to be habitual with Cooper upon the
+provincialism of the whole country; but it was upon New York city that
+the vials of his wrath were especially poured. The town, according to
+the view here expressed of it, was nothing more than a huge expansion of
+commonplace things. It was a confused and tasteless collection of
+flaring red brick houses, martin-box churches, and colossal        (p. 151)
+taverns. But the assault made upon its external appearance bore no
+comparison to that upon its internal life. The city in a moral sense
+resembled, according to Cooper, a huge encampment. It stood at the
+farthest remove from the intellectual supremacy and high tone of a
+genuine capital as distinguished from a great trading port. In its
+gayeties he saw little better than the struggles of an uninstructed
+taste, if indeed that could properly be styled gay which was only a
+strife in prodigality and parade. The conversation of the elders was
+entirely about the currency, the price of lots, and the latest
+speculations in towns. The younger society was made up of babbling
+misses, who prattled as waters flow, without consciousness of effort,
+and of whiskered masters who fancied Broadway the world; and the two
+together looked upon the flirtations of miniature drawing-rooms as the
+ideal of human life in its loftiest aspects. Upon the _literati_ the
+attack was even more savage. He described this appellation as being
+given to the most incorrigible members of the book clubs of New York.
+These had been laboriously employed in puffing each other into celebrity
+for many weary years, but still remained just as vapid, as conceited, as
+ignorant, as imitative, as dependent, and as provincial as ever.
+
+It is not an easy matter to condense the bitterness of two volumes into
+a few sentences. Enough has been given, however, to show the character
+of the strictures. Whatever may be thought of their justice, few will be
+disposed to deny their vigor. But Cooper, unfortunately for himself, was
+not satisfied with demolishing what seemed poor in his eyes. He
+undertook the business of reconstruction, and set up an ideal of how
+things ought to be. His main agents in this work were the members  (p. 152)
+of the Effingham family, whom he had brought over from Europe in
+"Homeward Bound." In these and the train dependent upon them, we were to
+find realized that pure and perfect social state which he contemplated
+in his own mind. To them were added a few survivors from the old
+families, as he termed them, which after a manner had ridden out the
+social gale that had made shipwreck of so many of their original
+companions. Out of these materials Cooper attempted to build his ideal
+framework of a life in which men thought rationally and lived nobly. It
+was here he made his mistake, and it was a signal one. His inability to
+portray the higher types of character was an absolute bar to success.
+This was largely due to his inability to catch and reproduce the tone of
+polished conversation. Never was his weakness in this respect more
+painfully manifested than in "Home as Found." He could appreciate such
+conversation; he could bear a part in it; but he could not represent it.
+His characters taken from low life, whatever critics may say, have
+usually a marked individuality. But whenever Cooper sought to draw the
+men and women of cultivated society he achieved at best a doubtful
+success. In this instance he tried to make them and their words and
+deeds the vehicle of reproof and satire. His failure was absolute.
+Modern culture, we all know, consists largely in the most refined method
+of finding fault. But this his ideal family had not reached. An
+essentially coarse method of finding fault was the only one to which it
+had attained. Never, indeed, was a more bumptious, conceited, and
+disagreeable set of personages created by an author, under the
+impression that they were the reverse. The simple-minded,          (p. 153)
+thoughtful, and upright Mr. Effingham can speedily be dismissed as
+merely a mild type of bore. Not so with his daughter Eve, and his cousin
+John Effingham. The latter plays the part of critic of his country and
+countrymen. It seems hardly possible that in this narrow-minded,
+disagreeable, and essentially vulgar character, Cooper could have
+fancied he was creating anything but a contemptible boor. The contrast
+between what is said of him, and what is said by him, almost reaches the
+comic. We read constantly of his caustic satire; we find little of it in
+his conversation. His fine face is, according to the author, always
+expressing contempt and sarcasm; but the examples of these that are
+shown in his speeches are usually specimens of that forcible-feeble
+straining to be severe which marks the man of violent temper and feeble
+intellect. As represented, he has neither the feeling, the instincts,
+nor the manners of a gentleman. He so much dislikes untruth that he
+insinuates to a guest, very broadly as well as very unjustly, that he is
+lying. In short, he is one of those rude and vulgar men who fancy that
+they are frank simply because they are brutal. No civilized society
+would long tolerate the presence, if even the existence, of such an
+animal as he is here represented to be.
+
+Even he, however, shines by comparison with the heroine. Of her we hear
+no end of praise. Her delicacy, her plastic simplicity, the simple
+elegance of her attire, her indescribable air of polish, her surpassing
+beauty and modesty of mien, are referred to again and again. She is
+simple, she is feminine, she is dignified. To men her smiles are faint
+and distant. Across her countenance no unworthy thought has ever left a
+trace. Once and once only did she fail to keep up to the high      (p. 154)
+level of deportment which she ordinarily maintained. On one occasion
+"her little foot moved" in spite of the fact that "she had been
+carefully taught, too, that a ladylike manner required that even this
+beautiful portion of the female frame should be quiet and unobtrusive."
+Something, however, must always be pardoned to human nature; and Cooper
+doubtless felt that it would not do to make his heroine absolutely free
+from frailty. As a sort of foil to her was introduced her cousin Grace
+Van Cortlandt. She, to be sure, had not had the advantage of foreign
+travel; but there was a redeeming feature in her case. She belonged to
+an old family. She was saved in consequence from being entirely
+submerged in that sweltering, foaming tide of mediocrity, which called
+itself New York society. Belonging to an old family did not, however,
+preserve her from being provincial. She is taken along with the rest to
+Templeton. On her way thither she is steadily snubbed by the masculine
+element of the party, and henpecked by the feminine. The reader comes in
+time to have the sincerest pity for this unfortunate girl, who is made
+to pay very dearly for the misfortune of being akin to a family whose
+members had become too superior to be gracious and too polished to be
+polite.
+
+In the composition of this work Cooper seems to have lost all sense of
+the ridiculous. The personages whom he wished to make particularly
+attractive are uniformly disagreeable. A French governess appears in the
+story, who is simply insufferable. He brings in an American woman, Mrs.
+Bloomfield, as a representative, according to him, of that class which
+equals, if it does not surpass, in the brilliancy of its conversation
+the best to be found in European salons. She is introduced discoursing
+on the civilization of the country in a way that would speedily    (p. 155)
+empty any of the parlors of her native land. Indeed, throughout the work
+the characters converse as no rational beings ever conversed under any
+sort of provocation. But it is in the speeches of the heroine that the
+language reaches its highest development. She can emphatically be said
+to talk like a book. She does not guess, she hazards conjectures. She
+playfully addresses her father as "thoughtless, precipitate parent."
+When she is asked what she thinks of the country now that an attempt was
+made to take possession of the Point, she describes her character, as
+drawn in this novel, as no words of another can. "Miss Effingham," she
+says, "has been grieved, disappointed, nay, shocked, but she will not
+despair of the republic." Indeed the only person in the work who has any
+near kinship to humanity is one of the inferior characters, named
+Aristobulus Bragg. He is the more attractive because he says bright
+things unconsciously; while the heavy characters say heavy things under
+the impression that they are light.
+
+This book had a profound influence upon Cooper's fortunes. From
+beginning to end it was a blunder. It cannot receive even the negative
+praise of being a work in which the best of intentions was marred by the
+worst of taste. Its spirit was a bad spirit throughout. It was dreadful
+to think some of the things found in it; but it was more dreadful to say
+them. There was a great deal of truth in its pages, but if the views
+expressed in it had been actually inspired, the attitude and tone the
+author assumed would have prevented his making a convert. To some extent
+this had been true of "Homeward Bound." Greenough expostulated with
+Cooper, after reading that novel. "I think," he wrote from         (p. 156)
+Florence, "you lose hold on the American public by rubbing down their
+shins with brickbats as you do." The most surprising thing connected
+with "Home as Found," however, is Cooper's unconsciousness, not of the
+probability, but of the possibility, that he would be charged with
+drawing himself in the character of Edward Effingham, and to some extent
+in that of John Effingham. The sentiments advanced were his sentiments,
+the acts described were in many cases his acts. The absence in a foreign
+land, the return to America, the scene laid at Templeton, with a direct
+reference to "The Pioneers," the account of the controversy about the
+Three Mile Point,--all these fixed definitely the man and the place.
+Variations in matters of detail would not disturb the truth of the
+general resemblance. Still Cooper not only did not intend to represent
+himself, he was unaware that he had done so. Nearly three years after in
+the columns of a weekly newspaper he stoutly defended himself against
+the imputation. It was useless. From this time forward the name of
+Effingham was often derisively applied to him in the controversies in
+which he was engaged.
+
+It was not merely the intemperate spirit exhibited, which destroyed the
+effect of the shrewd and just comments often appearing in "Home as
+Found." This was full as much impaired by the display of personal
+weaknesses. Cooper's foible about descent he could not help exposing. No
+thoughtful man denies the desirability of honorable lineage, or
+undervalues the possession of it; but not for the reasons for which the
+novelist regarded it and celebrated it. There was much in this single
+story to justify Lowell's sarcasm, uttered ten years later, that   (p. 157)
+Cooper had written six volumes to prove that he was as good as a
+lord. He traces his families up to remote periods in the past. He
+thereby shows their superiority to the newly-created family of the
+English baronet who is brought into the tale. It was to correct the
+erroneous impression, prevalent in Europe, that there was no stability,
+no permanent respectability in the society of this country, that he
+enlarged upon the date to which ancestry could be traced. The difficulty
+was to persuade anybody that the men who took the pains to look up their
+forefathers had any superiority to those who shared in the general
+indifference as to who their forefathers were. He went farther than this
+in some instances, and expressly implied that blood and birth were
+necessary to gentility. This was provincialism pushed to an extreme.
+Whatever we may think of its actual value, English aristocracy resembles
+in this gold and silver, that it has an accepted value independent of
+the character of its representatives. It is, therefore, current
+throughout the civilized world; whereas American aristocracy is like
+local paper money: worth nothing except in its own country, and even
+there receiving little recognition or circulation outside of the
+immediate neighborhood in which it is found. Still, the subject of blood
+and birth is a solemn one to those who believe in it, and they are
+absolutely incapable of comprehending the feelings of a world of
+scoffers, or, if they do, impute them to imperfect mental or spiritual
+development. On this point Cooper had the misfortune to say what some
+think but dare not express.
+
+The wrath aroused, especially in New York city, by this particular
+novel, had about it something both fearful and comic. In one       (p. 158)
+respect Cooper had the advantage, and his critics all felt it. His work
+was certain to be translated into all the principal languages of modern
+Europe. The picture he drew of New York society would be the one that
+foreigners would naturally receive as genuine. By them it would be
+looked upon as the work of a man familiar with what he was describing,
+the work of a man, moreover, who had been well known in European circles
+for his intense Americanism. It was vain to protest that it was a
+caricature. The protest would not be heeded even if it were heard. His
+enemies might rage; but they were powerless to influence foreign
+opinion, and they felt themselves so. Rage they certainly did; and if
+the assault made upon him had been as effective as it was violent,
+little would have been left of his reputation. Even as late as 1842,
+during the progress of the libel suits, some one took the pains to
+produce a novel in two volumes called "'The Effinghams, or Home as I
+Found It,' by the Author of the 'Victims of Chancery.'" The whole aim of
+this tale was to satirise Cooper. Mere malignity, however, has little
+vitality; and in spite of the fact that the work was widely praised by
+the journals for its "sound American feeling," and for its hits at "the
+conceited, disappointed, and Europeanized writer of 'Home as Found,'" it
+passed so speedily to the paper-makers that antiquarian research would
+now be tasked to find a copy. About the contemporary newspaper notices
+there was a certain tiger-like ferocity which almost justified much that
+Cooper said in denunciation of the American press. A specimen, though a
+somewhat extreme one, of a good deal of the sort of criticism to which
+the novelist was subjected, can be found in the "New Yorker" for the
+1st of December, 1838. This journal was edited by Horace Greeley,  (p. 159)
+but the article in question came probably from the pen of Park Benjamin.
+It defended Cooper from the charge of vilifying his country in order to
+make his works salable in England, but it defended him in this way. No
+motive of that kind was necessary to be supposed. He had an inborn
+disposition to pour out his bile and vent his spleen. "He is as proud of
+blackguarding," the article continued, "as a fishwoman of Billingsgate.
+It is as natural to him as snarling to a tom-cat, or growling to a
+bull-dog.... He is the common mark of scorn and contempt of every
+well-informed American. The superlative dolt!" In this refined and
+chastened style did the defenders of American cultivation preserve its
+reputation from its traducer.
+
+Criticism of the kind just quoted, hurts only the man who utters it and
+the community which tolerates it. It injured the reputation of the
+country far more than the work could that it criticised. "Home as
+Found," as a matter of fact, was prevented from doing any harm, partly
+by its excessive exaggeration but more by its excessive poorness. As a
+story it stood in marked contrast to its immediate predecessor. It was
+as difficult to accompany Cooper on land as it had been to abandon him
+when on the water. The tediousness of the tale is indeed something
+appalling to the most hardened novel-reader. The only interest it can
+possibly have at this day is from the opportunity it affords of studying
+one phase of the author's character, and of accounting for much of the
+bitter hostility with which he was assailed.
+
+While he was lecturing his countrymen on manners, his own were spoken of
+in turn in a way that gave especial delight to the enemies he had  (p. 160)
+made by his criticisms. In 1837 Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott"
+was appearing. In the diary of that novelist were some references to the
+American author. "This man," he said, describing his first interview,
+"who has shown so much genius, has a good deal of the manners, or want
+of manners, peculiar to his countrymen." Cooper's personal acquaintance
+with Scott had begun in 1826, just after the latter had set about his
+gigantic effort to pay off the load of debt in which he had involved
+himself. The American novelist had made then an attempt to secure for
+the man he regarded as his master some adequate return from the vast
+sale of his works in the United States. In this he had been foiled. In
+the "Knickerbocker Magazine" for April, 1838, he gave an account of
+these fruitless negotiations. In a later number of the same year he
+reviewed Lockhart's biography. This work is well known as one of the
+most entertaining in our literature. But on its appearance it gave a
+painful shock to the admirers of the great author by the revelations it
+made of practices which savored more of the proverbial canniness of the
+Scotchman than of the lofty spirit of the man of honor. Equally
+surprising was the unconsciousness of the biographer, that there was
+anything discreditable in what he disclosed. Cooper criticised Scott's
+conduct in certain matters with a good deal of severity. In regard to
+some points he took extreme, and what might fairly be deemed Quixotic
+ground. Yet the general justice of his article will hardly be denied now
+by any one who is fully cognizant of the facts. Nor, indeed, was it
+then. "I have just read," wrote Charles Sumner from London to Hillard,
+in January, 1839, "an article on Lockhart's 'Scott,' written by    (p. 161)
+Cooper in the "Knickerbocker," which was lent me by Barry Cornwall.
+I think it capital. I see none of Cooper's faults; and I think a proper
+castigation is applied to the vulgar minds of Scott and Lockhart.
+Indeed, the nearer I approach the circle of these men the less disposed
+do I find myself to like them." Sumner subsequently wrote, that Procter
+fully concurred in the conclusions advanced in the review. But these
+were not the prevalent opinions, in this country at least. Great was the
+outcry against Cooper for writing this article; great the outcry against
+the "Knickerbocker" for printing it. The latter was severely censured
+for its willingness to prostitute its columns to the service of the
+former in his slanderous "attempts to vilify the object of his impotent
+and contemptible hatred." Americans who were averse to Scott's being
+honestly paid proved particularly solicitous that he should not be
+honestly criticised. They showed themselves as little scrupulous in
+defending him after he was dead as they had been in plundering him while
+he was living.
+
+Cooper had previously aroused the resentment of many because he had
+failed to express gratification or delight at being termed "the American
+Scott." He had then been assured again and again that there was no
+danger of the title being applied to him in future; that in ten years
+their names would never be coupled together, and that he himself would
+be totally forgotten. It could hardly have been deemed a compliment in a
+land where scarcely a petty district can exist peacefully and
+creditably, with a hill three thousand feet in height, which is not in
+time rendered disreputable by being saddled with the pretentious name of
+"The American Switzerland." Personal malice alone, however, could
+impute his disclaimer either to malice or to envy. His own         (p. 162)
+estimate of his relations to the British novelist, he had given many
+times; and indirectly at that very time in his account in the first
+"Knickerbocker" article, of his interview with Sir Walter Scott. The
+latter had been so obliging, he observed, as to make him a number of
+flattering speeches, which he, however, did not repay in kind. His
+reserve he thought Scott did not altogether like. In this he was
+probably mistaken, but the reason he gave for his own conduct savored
+little of feelings of envy or rivalry. "As Johnson," he wrote, "said of
+his interview with George the Third, it was not for me to bandy
+compliments with my sovereign." No attention was paid to these and
+similar utterances of a man whom his bitterest enemies never once dared
+to charge with saying a word he did not mean.
+
+Few at this day will be disposed to deny the justice of a good deal of
+the criticism that Cooper passed upon his country and his countrymen.
+Even now, though many of his strictures are directed against things that
+no longer exist, there is still much in his writings that can be read
+with profit. The essential justice of what he said is not impaired by
+the fact that he was usually indiscreet and intemperate in the saying of
+it. Nor were his motives of a low kind. He loved his country, and
+nothing lay dearer to his heart than to have her what she ought to be.
+The people were the source of power; and it was his cardinal principle
+that power ought always to be censured rather than flattered. It needed
+to be told the truth, however unwelcome; and in his eyes, that man was
+no true patriot who was not willing to encounter unpopularity, if it
+came in the line of duty. At the same time, while doing full justice to
+the purity of his motives, we cannot shut our eyes to the defects  (p. 163)
+of his method. His abilities, his reputation, his acquaintance with
+foreign lands, gave him inestimable advantages for influencing his
+countrymen, and of educating them in matters where they stood sadly in
+need of it. But the spirit in which he went to work deprived him of the
+legitimate influence he should have exerted. Excitement, and passion,
+and indignation led him often to say the wrong thing. More often they
+caused him to say the right thing in the wrong way. Nor did he escape
+the special temptation which speedily besets him who starts out to tell
+his fellow-men unpleasant truths. Duty of this kind soon begins to have
+a peculiar fascination of its own. The careful reader cannot fail to see
+that in process of time the more disagreeable was the truth the more
+delightful it became to Cooper to tell it. Most unreasonable it
+certainly was to expect that constant fault-finding would be looked upon
+as a proof of special attachment. The means, moreover, were not always
+adapted to the end. Men may possibly be lectured to some extent into the
+acquisition of the virtues, but they never can be bullied into the
+graces.
+
+Besides all this, in a great deal of Cooper's criticism there were
+fundamental defects. He constantly confounded the unimportant and the
+temporary with the important and the permanent. Many of his most violent
+strictures are devoted to points of little consequence, and the feeling
+expressed is out of all proportion to the significance of the matter
+involved. Nothing, for instance, seemed to irritate him more than the
+preference given by many of his countrymen to the scenery of America
+over that of Europe. Especially was he indignant with the          (p. 164)
+"besotted stupidity" that could compare the bay of New York with that of
+Naples. He returned to this topic in book after book. Yet of all the
+harmless exhibitions of mistaken judgment, that which prefers the
+scenery of one's own land is what a wise man would be least disposed to
+find fault with; certainly what he would think least calculated to
+inspire the wrath of a Juvenal. Cosmopolitanism is well enough in its
+way. But that ability to see things exactly as they are, which enables a
+man to criticise his mother with the same impartiality with which he
+does any other woman, can hardly be thought to mark a high development
+of his loftier feelings, however creditable it may be to the judicial
+tone of his mind. Undue preference of the scenery of one's own country
+is an amiable weakness at which the philosopher may smile, but the
+patriot can afford to rejoice.
+
+There was, moreover, a certain vagueness about much of Cooper's
+criticism that deprived it of effect. No more striking illustration of
+this could be found than his constant charge of provincialism made
+against this country. He repeated it in season and out of season. For
+several years he hardly published a work which did not contain a number
+of references to it or assertions of its existence. Provincial enough we
+certainly were then, if looked at from the point of view of the present
+time. We in turn may seem so to our descendants. This possibility shows
+at once the somewhat unreal nature of the accusation. Provincialism,
+like vulgarity, is a term that defies exact explanation. It is the
+indefinite and, therefore, unanswerable charge that men constantly bring
+against those whose standard of living and thinking is different from
+their own. It depends upon the point of view of the speaker full   (p. 165)
+as much as upon the conduct and opinions of those spoken of. It
+changes as manners change. Nations not only impute it to one another,
+but even to themselves at different periods of their history. Made by
+itself, therefore, it means nothing. Without a specific description of
+what in particular is meant by provincialism, the charge cannot and
+ought not to have any weight with those against whom it is directed.
+
+Certain incidental facts mentioned in these observations bring also to
+light another marked defect of Cooper's course. This was not in his
+views but in his method of enforcing them. He could not refrain from the
+constant repetition of the same censures. He had never learned literary
+self-restraint; that special criticisms, in order to have their full
+weight, must not be forced too often upon the attention, and especially
+at unseasonable times. The mind revolts at having the same exhibition of
+personal feeling thrust upon it in the most uncalled-for manner and in
+the most unexpected places. Even when originally disposed to agree with
+the view expressed, it will, out of a pure spirit of contradiction, take
+the side opposed to that which is enforced with exasperating frequency.
+The fullest sympathizer is sure to get tired of this everlasting slaying
+of the slain. A similar effect is, indeed, likely to be produced upon
+the victim of the criticism. Instead of being stirred to reflection,
+repentance, or even indignation, he simply becomes bored. After a man
+has been told a hundred times that he is provincial, the remark ceases
+to be exciting. The things, therefore, that Cooper said incidentally are
+even now the only ones that make any deep impression upon the mind. Like
+all men, sensitive to the national honor, he felt keenly the       (p. 166)
+refusal of Congress to pass a copyright law. It led him to say twice,
+but both times very quietly, that in spite of loud profession there was
+little genuine sympathy in this country with art, or scholarship, or
+letters. The absence of all heat and excitement gives to the remark a
+weight that never belongs to his violent utterances and fierce
+denunciations. We may hope that we have gained since his time; but even
+at this day we have little to boast of, if the average cultivation of
+the people, as well as its average morality, finds expression in the
+laws. The record in these matters of the highest legislative body in the
+land is still the most discreditable of that of any nation in
+Christendom. To gratify the greed of a few traders, it has never refused
+to lay heavy burdens upon scholarship and letters. It has steadily
+imposed duties on the introduction of everything that could facilitate
+the acquisition of learning, and further the development of art. It has
+persistently stabbed literature under the pretence of encouraging
+intelligence. It has never once been guilty of the weakness of yielding
+for a moment to the virtuous impulse that would even contemplate the
+enactment of a copyright law. If it ever does pass one, it will do so,
+not because foreign authors have rights, but because native publishers
+have quarrels. Thus consistent in its unwillingness to do an honest
+thing from an honest motive, it will even then grant to selfishness what
+has been invariably denied to justice.
+
+There were other than faults of view or faults of statement that mark
+Cooper's writings at this time. The two novels published during the year
+1838 show a radical change in the attitude he assumed to his art. What
+had been indicated in the stories whose scenes were laid in        (p. 167)
+Europe, was now carried out completely. He may have been unconscious of
+the difference of his point of view, but none the less did it exist. The
+novel was no longer something in which he could embody his conceptions
+of beauty fairer, or truth higher than could actually be found in
+nature. It no longer served him as a refuge from the din of a clamorous,
+or the hostility of a censorious world. It became a sort of fortress,
+from the secure position of which he was enabled to deal out annoyance
+and defiance to his foes. He had not now so much a story to tell as a
+sermon to preach; and with him, as with many others, to preach meant to
+denounce. His spirit for a time became captive to the prejudices and the
+heated feelings which had been aroused by the sense of the injustice
+with which he had been treated. Though he at intervals worked himself
+out of this state of mind, upon much of his later work rested the shadow
+of the prison-house which he, for a season, had made his abiding-place.
+The result was that a good deal of what he afterwards wrote was marred
+by the obtrusion of personal likes and dislikes, and the taint of
+controversial discussion. These things rarely concerned the story in
+which they appeared, and they inspired hostility to the writer. Cooper,
+indeed, never learned to appreciate the fact that a reader has rights
+which an author is bound to respect. By dragging in irrelevant
+discussions, moreover, he was taking the surest way to lose the audience
+he most sought to influence. A little reflection would have taught him
+that there was little use in a prophet's crying in the wilderness,
+unless he can succeed in gathering the people together.
+
+While, therefore, there can be no justification for the ferocity with
+which Cooper was assailed, there was some palliation. His course   (p. 168)
+from his return to the country had been wanting in prudence, and at
+times in common sense. He had plunged at once as a combatant into one of
+the bitterest political controversies that ever agitated the republic.
+Hard blows were given and taken. He could scarcely expect that, in the
+heat of the strife, regard would in all cases be paid to the proprieties
+and even the decencies of private life. There was much in his later
+productions, moreover, to alienate many who were honestly disposed to
+admire him as a writer. Politics we could get at all times and from
+everybody. If, again, we were hopelessly provincial, if we were
+irreclaimably given over to vulgarity, we could find out all about it
+from the latest English traveler, or the review of his work that had
+appeared in the latest English periodicals. But by Cooper the life of
+the wilderness and of the sea had been told as by no other writer. Over
+the fields and forests and streams of his native land he had thrown the
+glamour of romantic association and lofty deeds. There was something
+unpleasant in witnessing a man who could do this turning his attention
+to the discussion of points of etiquette and manners. Beside the waste
+of power, which is something always disagreeable to contemplate, the
+subject itself could hardly be called an attractive one. It was a sandy
+desert to travel over at best. But even those who thought it a thing
+worth while to do once, could hardly help feeling surprise at the spirit
+which could induce a man to go over it again and again, enlarge upon its
+discomforts, its perpetual sameness and barrenness, and point out its
+incapacity of being made much better. There were even worse things than
+this. It could scarcely fail to inspire a sentiment almost like disgust
+to have the creator of Leather-Stocking argue with heat the        (p. 169)
+question whether it is right for a lady to come into a drawing-room at a
+party without leaning upon the arm of a gentleman; or discourse solemnly
+upon the proper way of eating eggs, and announce oracularly that all who
+were acquainted with polite society would agree in denouncing the
+wine-glass or egg-glass as a vulgar substitute for the egg-cup.
+Questions like these are usually left to those who have the taste to
+delight in them and the mental elevation to grasp the difficulties
+involved in them. They were the more disagreeable when met with in
+Cooper, because in addition to the pettiness of the subject, there was
+an apparent unconsciousness on his part that the limits of his own
+preferences and conclusions were not necessarily those of the human
+mind.
+
+Cooper indeed exemplified in his literary career a story he was in the
+habit of telling of one of his early adventures. While in the navy he
+was traveling in the wilderness bordering upon the Ontario. The party to
+which he belonged came upon an inn where they were not expected. The
+landlord was totally unprepared, and met them with a sorrowful
+countenance. There was, he assured them, absolutely nothing in his house
+that was fit to eat. When asked what he had that was not fit to eat, he
+could only say in reply that he could furnish them with venison,
+pheasant, wild duck, and some fresh fish. To the astonished question of
+what better he supposed they could wish, the landlord meekly replied,
+that he thought they might have wanted some salt pork. The story was
+truer of Cooper himself than of his innkeeper. Nature he could depict,
+and the wild life led in it, so that all men stood ready and eager to
+gaze on the pictures he drew. He chose too often to inflict upon them,
+instead of it, the most commonplace of moralizing, the stalest     (p. 170)
+disquisitions upon manners and customs, and the driest discussions of
+politics and theology.
+
+But the moral injury which Cooper received from these controversial
+discussions and their results was far greater than the intellectual.
+They swung him off the line of healthful activity. They perverted his
+judgment. He looked upon the social and political movements that were
+going on about him with the eye of an irritated and wronged man. Years
+did not bring to him the philosophic mind, but the spirit of the
+opinionated partisan and the heated denouncer. He fixed his attention so
+completely on the tendencies to ill that manifested themselves in the
+social state, that he often became blind to the counterbalancing
+tendencies to good. Hence his later judgments were frequently one-sided
+and partial. He too often took up the rôle of prophesying disasters that
+never came to pass. Moreover, this habit of looking at one side not only
+narrowed his mental vision, but turned it in the direction of petty
+objects. No reader of his later novels can fail to see how often he
+excites himself over matters of no serious moment; or which, whether
+serious or slight, are utterly out of place where they are. By many of
+these exhibitions the indifferent will be amused, but the admirers of
+the man will feel pained if not outraged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.                                                        (p. 171)
+
+1837-1842.
+
+
+By the end of 1837 Cooper had pretty sedulously improved every
+opportunity of making himself unpopular. His criticisms had been
+distributed with admirable impartiality. Few persons or places could
+complain that they had been overlooked. The natural satisfaction that
+any one would have felt in contemplating the punishment inflicted upon
+his friend or neighbor, was utterly marred by the consideration of the
+outrage done to himself. There was scarcely a class of Cooper's
+fellow-citizens whose susceptibilities had not been touched, or whose
+wrath had not been kindled by something he had said either in public or
+in private, and by his saying it repeatedly. The sons of the Puritans he
+had exasperated by styling them the grand inquisitors of private life,
+and by asserting that a low sort of tyranny over domestic affairs was
+the direct result of their religious polity. He had roused the
+resentment of the survivors of the old Federalist party by declaring
+that its design during the war of 1812 had been disunion, and that in
+secret many of them still longed for a restoration of monarchy, and
+sighed for ribbons, stars, and garters. He had not conciliated the party
+with which he was nominally allied by his incessant attacks upon the
+doctrine of free-trade. He had made Boston shudder to its remotest
+suburbs, by stating again and again in the strongest terms that    (p. 172)
+it was in the Middle States alone that the English language was spoken
+with purity. The New England capital he had further described as a
+gossiping country town with a tone of criticism so narrow and vulgar as
+scarcely to hide the parochial sort of venom which engendered it. He had
+charged upon New Yorkers that their lives were spent in the constant
+struggle for inordinate and grasping gain; that to talk of dollars was
+to them a source of endless enjoyment; and that their society had for
+its characteristic distinction the fussy pretension and swagger that
+usually mark the presence of lucky speculators in stocks. He had
+attributed to the whole trading class a jealous and ferocious
+watchfulness of the pocket, and a readiness to sacrifice at any time the
+honor of the country for the sake of personal profit. To the native
+merchants he had denied the name of real merchants. They were simply
+factors, mere agents, who were ennobled by commerce, but who did not
+themselves ennoble it. The foreign traders resident here fared no
+better. They had never read the Constitution of the country they had
+made their home, and were incapable of understanding it if they should
+read it. Always judging of American facts in accordance with the
+antiquated notions in which they had been brought up, they were largely
+responsible for the erroneous opinions entertained and blundering
+prophecies made in Europe in regard to the condition and future of the
+United States. The educated class, above all, he had denounced for its
+indomitable selfishness and its hatred of the rights of those socially
+inferior. It was entirely behind the fortunes of the country and still
+cherished prejudices against democracy that the very stupidest of
+European conservatives had begun to lay aside. The newspaper       (p. 173)
+press he had assailed with a pungency and vigor which it in vain sought
+to rival. He was spattered by it, however, with almost every opprobrious
+term that belongs to the vocabulary of wrath and abuse. Invention was
+tasked to furnish discreditable reasons for all that he said and did.
+That inexhaustible capacity of devising base motives for conduct, which
+is an especial attribute of mean minds, had now opportunity to put forth
+its full powers in the way of insinuation and assertion. It did not go
+unimproved. A common charge brought against him after the publication of
+the "Letter to His Countrymen" was that it had been written for the sake
+of gaining office. It was even said that Van Buren had a hand in it.
+Then and afterward, the Whig newspapers represented Cooper as seeking
+the position of Secretary of the Navy. Denial availed him nothing. It
+would certainly have not been at all to his discredit to have desired
+the place; for he knew a great deal about the navy, and its interests
+were very dear to his heart. For these very reasons his appointment to
+it would have been in violation of the traditional policy of the
+government. It was probably never once contemplated by any
+administration, as it was certainly never asked by Cooper himself.
+
+The two extracts that have already been given are doubtless sufficient
+to satisfy any curiosity that may exist in regard to the way in which he
+was spoken of by the press of America. Yet coarse as was its
+vituperation, it was surpassed by that of Great Britain. Englishmen may
+have felt, and have felt justly, that Cooper took an unfair view of
+their social life and political institutions. National character sweeps
+through a range so vast that a man will usually be able to find in it
+what he goes to seek. Even under the most favorable conditions     (p. 174)
+the tastes of a coterie or the habits of a class are made the standard
+by which to estimate the tastes and habits of a whole people. Certain it
+is that the view of any nation is to be distrusted which is not taken
+from a station of good-will. But granting that Cooper was unjust in his
+observations, there was nothing he said which afforded the least excuse
+for the coarse personality with which he was followed from the time he
+published his volumes on England. The remarks of the ordinary journals
+can be dismissed without comment. But brutal vituperation was found in
+abundance in periodicals which claimed to be the representatives of the
+highest cultivation and refinement. According to "Blackwood's Magazine,"
+Cooper was a vulgar man, who from having been bred to the sea had been
+enabled to give some striking descriptions of sea-affairs, and in
+consequence had unluckily imagined himself a universal genius. It went
+on to add, that on the strength of the trifling reputation he had
+acquired by stories descriptive of American life, he had come to Europe,
+and had since been partly traveling on the Continent to pick up
+materials for novels, and partly residing in England, actively employed
+in the effort to introduce himself into society. In this it admitted he
+might have been partially successful, for the English were a very
+yielding people and did not take much trouble to resist attempts of this
+kind. "Blackwood," however, was outdone in this rowdy style of reviewing
+by "Fraser's Magazine." From that periodical we learn that Cooper was "a
+passable scribbler of passable novels," a "bilious braggart," a "liar,"
+a "full jackass," "a man of consummate and inbred vulgarity," "a bore of
+the first magnitude in society," who went about fishing for        (p. 175)
+introductions. "But this," it concluded, speaking of his England, "was
+his last kick, and we shall not disturb his dying moments." Two years
+later the magazine seemed to think he had some power of kicking left,
+for it returned to the charge in consequence of his review of Lockhart's
+"Life of Scott." In this article he was called a "spiteful miscreant,"
+an "insect," a "grub," a "reptile." The "Quarterly Review" was as
+virulent and violent as the magazines, but the attack was more skillful
+as well as longer and more elaborate. By garbling extracts it cleverly
+insinuated a good deal more than it said, and it so contrived to put
+several things that the reader could hardly fail to draw inferences
+which the writer must have known to be false. Even these attacks were
+equaled if not surpassed at a later period by the "London Times." A
+nominal review in that journal of "Eve Effingham," as "Home as Found"
+was entitled in England, was really devoted to personal vituperation of
+the novelist. It ended with the assertion that he was more vulgar than
+ever, and was the most "affected, offensive, envious, and
+ill-conditioned" of authors. Altogether Cooper must have been impressed
+with the effectiveness of the blow which he had struck by the violence
+with which it was resented. It seems hard to believe that remarks such
+as have been quoted should have been thought to establish anything but
+the vulgarity of the men who wrote them. Yet they apparently answered
+their purpose. The very latest notice of Cooper's life which has
+appeared in Great Britain, characterizes his work on England as an
+"outburst of vanity and ill-temper." It certainly contained some
+ill-judged remarks which have been made the most of by his enemies; but
+this estimate, like many other assertions in the same sketch, was  (p. 176)
+not got from reading the work itself, but from what British periodicals
+had said about it.
+
+Such was the kind of criticism that the novelist now mainly received in
+the two great English-speaking countries. These flowers of invective do
+not constitute an anthology which an Englishman or American of today can
+read with pleasure, or contemplate with pride. It was the comments made
+by his countrymen that naturally touched Cooper most nearly. His nature
+was of a kind to feel keenly, and resent warmly insinuations and charges
+that impugned the purity of his motives. Nor was his a disposition to
+rest quiet under attack or to assume merely the defensive. He retorted
+in letters, in works of fiction, and in books of travel. Finally he
+resorted to libel suits. Never, indeed, was a fiercer fight carried on
+by an individual against a power more mighty than Cooper carried on with
+the press. It had a thousand tongues, he had but one; but it often
+seemed as if his one had the force of a thousand. The epithets he
+applied to newspapers were not of the kind with which they were in the
+habit of celebrating themselves. Their enterprise in obtaining news he
+described as a mercenary diligence in the collection and diffusion of
+information, whether true or false. Nor were his comments upon those
+concerned in carrying them on more favorable. What we should call a
+reporter he, on one occasion, mildly spoke of as a "miscreant who
+pandered for the press." In the last novel he wrote, he energetically
+termed this whole class the funguses of letters who flourished on the
+dunghill of the common mind; and that in their view the sole use for
+which the universe was created was to furnish paragraphs for
+newspapers. Men in the higher grades of the profession fared       (p. 177)
+little better. Against the political journals, in particular, he brought
+the charge that under the pretence of serving the public they were
+mainly used to aid the ambition or gratify the spite of their editors.
+
+Even as early as 1832, Cooper had awakened the indignation of the press
+by an incidental remark made in the introduction to "The Heidenmauer."
+He was describing a journey through a part of Belgium in which the Dutch
+troops had been operating the week before his arrival. They had been
+reported as having committed unusual excesses. Of these excesses he said
+he could find no trace. He went on to add a sentence which has
+apparently only a slight connection with what had gone before. "Each
+hour, as life advances," he wrote, "am I made to see how capricious and
+vulgar is the immortality conferred by a newspaper." This remark was
+warmly resented. It was asserted to be a declaration, not merely of
+indifference to the opinion of the press, but of a preference on his
+part of its censure to its praise. Its business, therefore, was to see
+that his wishes should be carried out.
+
+After the controversy in regard to the Three Mile Point, the attacks of
+the Whig journals increased in bitterness. The state of mind it caused
+in Cooper can be seen in a little volume, published by him in April,
+1838, entitled "The American Democrat." This work is made up of a
+singular mixture of abstract discussions on liberty and equality, on the
+nature of parties, on forms of government, and of remarks on national
+habits and manners. It is not an interesting hook. Yet it is fair to say
+of it, that it is animated throughout by a lofty patriotism, and it
+manifests a clear view of the dangers and duties of a democracy,   (p. 178)
+with its comparative advantages and disadvantages. But it likewise
+exhibited some of the most uncompromising traits of the author's
+character. In writing it, he was not aiming at popularity; it might not
+be much out of the way to say that he was aiming at unpopularity. The
+doctrine with which he sets out is, that in this country power rests
+with the people, and power ought always to be chidden rather than
+commended. He was accordingly liberal in criticism. But the value of
+what he said was largely impaired, if not wholly destroyed by the
+one-sidedness of view and tendency to over-statement into which his
+ardor of feeling now habitually hurried him. In nothing is this
+extravagance more strikingly seen than in the comments in this work upon
+the press. There was a great deal of truth in what he said; but the
+justice of some of his views was deprived of any effect by the
+exaggeration and consequent injustice of others. The substance of his
+remarks was that there were more newspapers in this country than in
+Europe, but they were generally of a lower character. The multiplication
+of them was due to the fact that little capital was required in their
+creation, and little intelligence employed in their management. Their
+number was, therefore, not a thing to be boasted of but rather to be
+sorrowed over, since the quality diminished in an inverse ratio to the
+quantity. Nor was there anything in the methods employed by the press
+that justified any exultation in its prosperity. It tyrannized over
+public men, over letters, over the stage, over even private life. Under
+the pretence of preserving public morals, it corrupted them to the core.
+Under the semblance of maintaining liberty, it was gradually
+establishing a despotism as rude, as grasping, and as vulgar as    (p. 179)
+that of any state known. It loudly professed freedom of opinion, but
+exhibited no tolerance. It paraded patriotism, but never sacrificed
+interest. But its great fundamental failing was the untrustworthiness of
+its statements. It existed to pervert truth. Its conductors were mainly
+political adventurers. They were unscrupulous, but they were not so
+utterly ignorant that they failed to see the necessity of occasionally
+making correct assertions. It was, however, this mixture of fact with
+fiction that was the chief cause of the evil influence exerted. The
+result of it all was that the entire nation, in a moral sense, breathed
+an atmosphere of falsehood. He concluded his indictment by declaring
+that the American press would seem to have been expressly devised by the
+great agent of mischief, to depress and destroy all that was good, and
+to elevate and advance all that was evil.
+
+This style of remark was certainly not designed to win newspaper favor
+or support. But he went even farther in his novels of "Homeward Bound"
+and "Home as Found." In those two works he drew the portrait of an
+American editor in the person of Steadfast Dodge of the Active Inquirer.
+All the baser qualities of human nature were united in this ideal
+representative of the press. He was a sneak, a spy, a coward, a
+demagogue, a parasite, a lickspittle, a fawner upon all from whom he
+hoped help, a slanderer of all who did not care to endure his society.
+Such a picture did not rise even to the dignity of caricature. Nor is it
+relieved either in this work or elsewhere by others drawn favorably. The
+reader of Cooper will search his writings in vain for a portrait which
+any member of the editorial profession would be glad to recognize as his
+own.
+
+All this was vigorous enough, but it could hardly be called        (p. 180)
+profitable. Cooper had now cultivated to perfection the art of saying
+injudicious things as well as the art of saying things injudiciously.
+His ability in hitting upon the very line of remark that would still
+further enrage the hostile, and irritate the indifferent and even the
+friendly, assumed almost the nature of genius. The power of his attacks
+could not be gainsaid. But while they inspired his opponents with
+respect, they filled his friends with dismay. He was soon in a singular
+position. He enjoyed at one and the same time the double distinction of
+being reviled in England for his aggressive republicanism, and of being
+denounced in America for aping the airs of the English aristocracy. It
+hardly seemed a favorable time for beginning hostilities in a new field.
+Yet it was then that he entered upon his famous legal war with the Whig
+newspapers of the state of New York.
+
+A detailed account of the libel suits instituted by Cooper would form
+one of the most striking chapters in the history of the American press;
+and for some reasons it is to be regretted that the plan he had of
+writing a full account of them was never carried out. Here only a slight
+summary can be given. It is well to say at the outset that many
+assertions ordinarily made about them are utterly false. For certain of
+these prevalent misconceptions Greeley is responsible. He spoke of these
+trials with some fullness in commenting upon libel suits in his
+"Recollections of a Busy Life." But Greeley's life was too busy for him
+always to recollect accurately. While he had not the slightest intention
+to say anything untrue, what he said was in some instances of this
+character; though more often it was misleading rather than false.  (p. 181)
+But outside of what Greeley has written, there are several erroneous
+assertions current. One of the most common of these is the statement
+that Cooper's success in them was mainly due to the application of the
+law maxim, that the greater the truth the greater the libel. There was
+never any ground for even an insinuation of this kind. Cooper, when his
+attention was called to it, treated it with contempt. "The pretense," he
+wrote in 1845, "that our courts have ever overruled that the truth is
+not a complete defense in a libel suit in the civil action, can only
+gain credit with the supremely ignorant." In criminal indictments the
+New York statute of 1805 had expressly declared that the truth might be
+pleaded in evidence by the defense. The Constitution of 1821 made this
+provision part of the fundamental law, and it was adopted from that into
+the Constitution of 1846. The assertion owed its origin wholly to the
+effort of beaten parties to explain their defeat on some other ground
+than that they had been found guilty of the offense with which they had
+been charged.
+
+A more preposterous statement even than this was that the question
+involved in these suits was the right of editors to criticise the
+productions of authors. In not one of these trials was the literary
+judgment passed by the reviewer mentioned as having the slightest
+bearing on the case. It ought not to be necessary to say that it was the
+attack upon the character of the man that alone came under the
+consideration of the courts, and not that upon the character of the
+book. The impudent pretense was, however, set up at the time that the
+press had a right to go behind the writer's work, and assail him
+himself. "Does an author," said "The New Yorker" in February,      (p. 182)
+1837, "subject himself to personal criticism by submitting a work to the
+public? If he makes his work the channel of disparagement upon masses of
+men, he does."
+
+The most marked feature of these trials is that Cooper fought his battle
+single-handed. With a very few exceptions,--notably the "Albany Argus"
+and the "New York Evening Post,"--the press of the party with which he
+was nominally allied, remained neutral. Some of them were even hostile;
+for the novelist's criticism of editors had known no distinction of
+politics. On the other hand, the press of the opposition party was
+united. From East to West they bore down upon Cooper with a common cry.
+No event in his life showed more plainly the fearless and uncompromising
+nature of the man; nor again did anything else he was concerned in mark
+more clearly his versatility and vigor. In these trials he was assisted
+by his nephew, Richard Cooper, who was his regular counsel. But outside
+of him, in the civil suits, he had very rarely any help, and in most of
+them he argued his own cause. Wherever he appeared in person he seems to
+have come off uniformly victorious. Nor were his victories won over
+inferior opponents. The reputation of the lawyer is under ordinary
+conditions limited necessarily to a small circle. Even in that,
+considering the amount of intellectual acuteness and power displayed, it
+is an exceedingly transitory reputation. But the men against whom Cooper
+was pitted stood in the very front rank of their profession. They were
+leaders of the bar in the greatest state in the Union. Nor have times so
+far swept by that their names are not still remembered; and stories are
+still told of their achievements by those who have taken their     (p. 183)
+places. Cooper, not a lawyer by profession, met these men on their own
+ground and defeated them. It was not long, indeed, after these suits
+were instituted, that it was claimed by his friends, and often conceded
+by his foes, that he was the one man in the country best acquainted with
+the law of libel. Our surprise at his success is increased by the fact
+that he was not only unpopular himself, but he was engaged in an
+unpopular cause. The verdicts he won were usually small in amount, but
+they were wrung from reluctant juries, and frequently in the face of
+bitter prejudices that had to be overcome before he could hope for a
+fair consideration of his own side.
+
+At the outset the editorial fraternity were disposed to take these libel
+suits jocularly. They were looked upon as a gigantic joke. Nor did this
+feeling die out when the first trial resulted in Cooper's favor. It was
+proposed that the newspapers throughout the country should contribute
+each one dollar to a fund to be called "The Effingham Libel Fund," out
+of which all damages awarded the novelist were to be paid. Every
+additional suit was welcomed with a shout. As time went on this
+insolence gave way to apprehension. In nearly every case the plaintiff
+was coming off successful. The comments of the press began to assume an
+expostulatory tone. Cooper was gravely informed that were he to be tried
+in the High Court of Public Opinion--this imaginary tribunal was usually
+made imposing by dignifying its initial letters--for his libels upon his
+country and his countrymen, the damages he would have to pay would not
+only sweep away the amounts given him by the results in the regular
+courts, but even the profits that had accrued from the sale of his
+novels. These remonstrances were often animated also by a          (p. 184)
+new-born zeal for his literary fame. He was told he was his own greatest
+enemy. He was doing himself irreparable injury by the course he was
+taking. He was so acting as to lose the reputation he had early won.
+This feeling naturally increased in intensity as suits continued to be
+decided in his favor. The newspapers at last rose to the full
+appreciation of the situation. The liberty of the press was actually in
+danger. The trials were said to be conducted in defiance of law as well
+as justice. The judges belonged to the Democratic party, and they
+wrested the statutes from their true intent in order to oppress the Whig
+editor. There came finally to be something exquisitely absurd in the
+utterances of the journals on the subject of these suits. One would
+fancy from reading them that the plaintiff was a monster resembling the
+bloodthirsty ogre of a fairy tale, bullying judges, overawing juries,
+maliciously bent on crushing the free-born American who should have the
+temerity to express an unfavorable opinion of his writings. Coriolanus,
+indeed, never fluttered the dove-cotes in Corioli more effectively than
+for some years Cooper did the Whig newspaper offices of the state of New
+York.
+
+The origin of the suits was as follows: An account of the circumstances
+connected with the Three Mile Point controversy appeared, immediately
+after they had taken place, in the "Norwich Telegraph," a paper
+published in the neighboring county of Chenango. The article began with
+a reference to Cooper. "This gentleman," it said, "not satisfied with
+having drawn upon his head universal contempt from abroad, has done the
+same thing at Cooperstown where he resides." In this spirit it     (p. 185)
+went on to give its report of the events told in the preceding chapter.
+"So stands the matter at present," it closed its account, "Mr. J. F. C.
+threatening the citizens on the one hand, and being derided and despised
+by them on the other." In conclusion it called upon the "Otsego
+Republican," the Whig newspaper of Cooperstown, to furnish all the facts
+in the case.
+
+The latter journal was edited by a man named Barber. He was not slow to
+comply with the request, and in one of the numbers of August, 1837, he
+republished the article of the "Chenango Telegraph" with additional
+assertions of his own. The latter belonged more to the realm of fiction
+than of fact. Three Mile Point he declared had been reserved expressly
+for the use of the inhabitants of Cooperstown by the father of the
+novelist. When the notice was published depriving them of their rights,
+a meeting had been called which had been largely attended. The room was
+crowded with the industry, intelligence, and respectability of the
+village. Powerful addresses were made and a series of resolutions were
+passed. These expressed the feelings of all present. "The remarks," the
+newspaper continued, "were of a lucid character, and the resolutions,
+full, pungent, and yet respectful."
+
+Two days after this article had appeared, the editor received a letter
+from Cooper's counsel which was to the effect that he would be
+prosecuted for libel unless he retracted his statements. On his side the
+novelist undertook to make perfectly clear to him that his assertions
+were untrue; but he expected, after the real facts had been set before
+him and fully examined, that he would take back what he had said. "No
+atonement," the letter concluded, "will be accepted, that is not first
+approved of by the plaintiff in the suit." Barber was not          (p. 186)
+disposed either to retract or to investigate the accuracy of the facts
+he had stated. He published the letter, however, with the usual solemn
+declaration that seems to be kept in type in all newspaper offices, that
+in doing what he had done he had been actuated solely by the noblest
+motives; that he had not published anything libellous; that if in
+anything he had been misinformed, he held himself always ready to make
+the proper correction. "In conclusion," he said, "not being sensible of
+having injured Mr. Cooper, we consider that we have no atonement to
+offer." Under these circumstances the suit went on. It did not come to
+final trial until May, 1839, at the Montgomery circuit of the Supreme
+Court. Joshua A. Spencer was the principal lawyer for the defense, while
+Cooper conducted his own case. The jury returned a verdict of four
+hundred dollars for the plaintiff. Eventually the editor sought to evade
+in various ways the payment of the whole award, and did succeed in
+evading the payment of a good part of it. A terrible outcry was,
+however, raised against Cooper because the sheriff levied upon some
+money that had been carefully laid away and locked up by Barber in a
+trunk.
+
+With this begins the famous series of suits that occupied no small share
+of the few following years of the author's life. At the time the first
+one was decided, another was pending against the editor of the "Chenango
+Telegraph." The leading Whig newspapers naturally took the side of their
+associates. For a time they had a good deal to say about the greatest
+slanderer of the whole profession pouncing upon one of the fraternity
+least able to defend himself, simply because in a moment of haste and
+excitement he had been guilty of what they were pleased to call    (p. 187)
+a technical libel. It did not seem to occur to them, that any one
+could be so foolhardy as to make them the object of attack. They did not
+have to wait long to discover that the influence wielded by a journal
+was no protection. Besides the newspapers already mentioned, Cooper
+prosecuted the "Oneida Whig," published at Utica. This suit was tried in
+April, 1842. Though successful in it, the damages awarded were slight,
+being but seventy dollars. A suit, tried little more than six months
+before against the "Evening Signal," of New York city, edited by Park
+Benjamin, had resulted in the recovery of a larger sum. The amount in
+this case was three hundred and seventy-five dollars. With these
+exceptions his suits were directed against the "Courier and Enquirer,"
+edited by James Watson Webb; "the Albany Evening Journal," edited by
+Thurlow Weed; the "Tribune," edited by Horace Greeley, and the
+"Commercial Advertiser," edited by William Leet Stone. These were the
+leading Whig journals in the state, and among the most influential in
+the whole country. It could not be said that Cooper hesitated about
+flying at high game.
+
+In the controversy with Webb, Cooper had the least success. This was
+partly due to the fact that it was not a civil action that was brought
+against the former, but a criminal indictment. Juries might make editors
+pay for the privilege of expressing their feelings of contempt or hate,
+but they were not inclined to send them to prison. The indictment in
+this case was based upon a criticism of "Home as Found." The review,
+which was of several columns in length, had appeared in the "Courier and
+Enquirer" of November 22, 1838. There was very little in the way of
+hostile insinuation and assertion and personal depreciation that   (p. 188)
+could not be found in this article and in some which followed. The
+attack was moreover a skillful one. It was directed largely against
+those points where Cooper had fairly laid himself open to ridicule.
+Especially was this the case in the matter of descent and family. Webb
+represented the novelist as the son of a humble hawker of fish through
+the streets of Burlington, who had afterward become a respectable though
+not a first-class wheelwright. By probity, industry, and enterprise he
+had finally risen to wealth and position. The maternal grandmother of
+the author had, according to this same story, for more than twenty years
+occupied a stall and sold fresh vegetables in the Philadelphia market,
+and was remarkable for the superior quality of the articles she kept.
+Webb praised the father at the expense of the son. The former had never
+been ashamed of his humble origin. On the contrary, he was justly proud
+of the intelligence and ability which, unaided by any mere external
+advantages, had raised him to a station in life so much higher than he
+at first held. Of such a career any child had a right to be proud. These
+were statements that could not well be resented, conceding that they
+were injurious, nor could they well be corrected, conceding that they
+were untrue. Webb, who had recently returned from Europe, asserted,
+moreover, that he had been present at a dinner-party in London, where
+"Home as Found" came under discussion. On that occasion he had fallen
+into a conversation about it with "a nobleman of distinction." The
+latter informed him that Cooper's attack upon English society had
+materially injured the sale of his works in that country, and it was
+evident that he was now seeking to regain the ground and the       (p. 189)
+market he had lost, by praising everything English at the expense of
+everything American; but as his base motives were now fully understood,
+no one was led astray. The reported conversation carries internal
+evidence of its authenticity. It required a very noble lord to impute to
+a well-known writer motives so very noble; and none but an Englishman
+could have appreciated so fully the eternal conditions of success in the
+English market. These remarks of Webb's are, however, merely incidental.
+His direct personal attack on Cooper rivaled that of the British
+periodicals in ferocity. "We may and do know him," said he in the only
+extract for which there is room, "as a base-minded caitiff who has
+traduced his country for filthy lucre and low-born spleen; but time only
+can render harmless abroad the envenomed barb of the slanderer who is in
+fact a traitor to national pride and national character."
+
+For this article Webb was indicted by the grand jury of Otsego County,
+in February, 1839. In June of the same year a second indictment was
+found against him for saying that the first was secured by political
+trickery. The trial, for various reasons, did not come off until
+November, 1841. Webb made a public retraction of the statements upon
+which the second indictment was found; and this was accepted on the part
+of the prosecution. On the trial for the first indictment the jury
+disagreed. The defendant objected to Cooper's summing up the case, and
+this objection the court sustained. It was a wise policy: for the trials
+in the civil suits showed that the novelist was full as effective in
+addressing a jury orally as he ever was in addressing the public in his
+most successful stories. One amusing feature of this case was that the
+two volumes of "Home as Found" were read to the jury from          (p. 190)
+beginning to end by the plaintiffs counsel, Ambrose L. Jordan.
+
+Cooper was not discouraged by the ill result of this trial. The
+indictment was still pressed. A second trial took place at Cooperstown
+in June, 1843. Again the jury disagreed. A third trial is reported to
+have taken place and to have resulted in the acquittal of Webb; but I
+find no account of it in the newspapers to which I have had access.
+
+The suits brought against the "Albany Evening Journal" were, however,
+the most striking in this whole contest. They show, too, more clearly
+than the others, the spirit and methods with which it was waged on both
+sides. Some features are especially marked. One is the illustration
+furnished of the onslaughts that were made upon the novelist's character
+and reputation, not from any real ill-will, but from pure wantonness or
+at least very slight political hostility. Another is the jaunty
+superciliousness with which the conductors of the press at first
+affected to treat the threats of prosecution. More noteworthy than
+anything else, however, is the view given of the deliberate manner in
+which Cooper began these suits, and the relentless tenacity with which
+he followed them up. The "Evening Journal," of which Thurlow Weed was
+then the head, partly from the political skill of its editor, and partly
+from its being the organ of the party at the state capital, was, at that
+time, the most influential Whig journal in New York. Weed published in
+it, in two different numbers of August, 1837, the articles which had
+appeared in the "Chenango Telegraph" and the "Otsego Republican" about
+the Three Mile Point controversy. He accompanied them with some comments
+of his own in regard to Cooper. "He was, as is known," said he in  (p. 191)
+his second notice, "pretty generally despised abroad. He is now
+equally distinguished at home." The editor then went on to speak of the
+act of meanness, as he termed it, which had excited the contempt of the
+novelist's neighbors; and that the more precise account now furnished by
+the "Otsego Republican" would rather increase than diminish the measure
+of scorn that had been aroused. Much was Weed's surprise when, on the
+18th of April, 1840, he received a letter from Cooper's counsel
+requiring a retraction of what had been said in 1837, and a further
+statement that it must be made within a certain time or a suit for libel
+would be begun. He treated this notice cavalierly. He was amused by it
+even more than he was astonished. As it had taken three years for Cooper
+to bring the suit, he concluded that he would take three weeks at any
+rate to reply to the demand for a retraction. A second letter from
+Cooper's counsel, dated the 4th of May, met with the same neglect.
+Accordingly on the 25th of that month he had the pleasure of announcing
+that he had been sued for libel by "Mr. John Effingham."
+
+The case after being put off once on a very frivolous pretext, came to
+trial at the Montgomery circuit of the Supreme Court, held at Fonda, in
+November, 1841. When it was called Weed was not present, nor was counsel
+for him. Cooper consented to have the case go over for a day. It was
+then called again. Nothing was seen of the defendant, nothing had been
+heard from him. The case was accordingly sent to the jury with a speech
+from the plaintiff's counsel. A verdict of four hundred dollars was
+returned. Weed arrived at Fonda the evening of that day, and wrote
+anonymously to the "New York Tribune" an account of what had taken (p. 192)
+place. In some of its details it was more entertaining than accurate.
+The reason he gave for his absence from the trial was that he had been
+kept at home by severe illness in his family. But the result enabled him
+to notice in this manner the sum awarded by the jury.
+
+"This meagre verdict under the circumstances is a severe and mortifying
+rebuke to Cooper, who had everything his own way.
+
+"The value of Mr. Cooper's character, therefore, has been judicially
+determined.
+
+"It is worth exactly four hundred dollars."
+
+For the publication of this letter a suit was immediately begun against
+the "Tribune." But though he wrote for that journal an amusing account
+of the trial, in his own paper Weed gave vent to the anger which the
+result had excited. The verdicts gained in his various cases by "this
+man Cooper," he said, had made "deep inroads upon a fame once bright and
+enviable, but now sadly dim and dilapidated." He then recited in full
+the misdeeds of the novelist. "For all this," concluded the aggrieved
+editor, "connected with the attempt to deprive the citizens of a social
+privilege with which they were invested by his honored father, we said
+Mr. Cooper was despised. And for this he prosecuted us. And now having
+again said it he may again prosecute us, if he wants and thinks he can
+obtain four hundred dollars more."
+
+Weed did not appreciate the fact that he was not dealing with a
+politician, but with a man indifferent to or rather contemptuous of
+popular clamor. His challenge was immediately accepted. Early in
+December, 1841, he was able to announce the fact that he had been  (p. 193)
+sued again. "The sheriff," he said, "has served another writ upon
+us for an alleged libel upon Cooper. It remains to be seen how much
+longer courts and juries will sanction this legal persecution of a man,
+who after libeling his country and calumniating his countrymen, seeks to
+muzzle a free press." The jocular tone used at first had all vanished.
+Instead it was replaced by a fierce spirit of wrathfulness and defiance.
+During the whole of December, 1841, Weed kept constantly republishing
+extracts from other newspapers reflecting upon and attacking Cooper's
+character and conduct. These were, he said, "sharp rebukes" of the
+novelist's "ridiculous and unworthy attempt to disgrace his own country
+to gain the favor and smiles of the nobility abroad." Some of these
+newspaper comments furnish very amusing reading now, especially as the
+impunity of most of the writers was due to their insignificance. "We
+rejoice," said one of them, "to witness the spirit of independence
+manifested by the conductors of the press. It proves their incorruptible
+integrity and their love of principle, their firm hostility to foreign
+notions, and their detestation of the man who seeks to ape the high and
+aristocratic manners of English nobility." These valorous declarations
+came mainly from the country papers of the state of New York, for the
+"Evening Journal" was the Triton of these minnows. Weed, however,
+eagerly reproduced everything that came from outside. One article, in
+particular, from a Chicago paper, was published, in order that Cooper
+might see "what right-minded and unprejudiced people say and think of
+him far away in the boundless West."
+
+The appeal was to deaf ears. Neither contracted East nor boundless (p. 194)
+West affected Cooper's resolution. As fast as the articles were
+republished, they were carefully examined, and prosecutions begun
+against the "Evening Journal" for those of them containing libelous
+matter. By the middle of December five suits had been commenced, and
+more were under consideration. A little later, if contemporary newspaper
+reports can be trusted, the number had swelled to seven. The editor
+began to appreciate the difficulty and danger of the situation. His
+courage, however, did not falter. In fact he looked upon himself as
+manfully standing in the gap for freedom of speech. "These suits," he
+said "will determine whether an Independent Press is to be protected in
+the free exercise of honest opinion, or whether it is to be overawed and
+silenced by the persecutions of an inflated, litigious, soured novelist,
+who, in his better days by the favor of the Press, made the money with
+which he now seeks to oppress its conductors, and sap its independence."
+He did not purpose to flinch from his duty. Accordingly he announced
+that he should continue publishing these attacks until Cooper ceased
+prosecuting.
+
+In this determination he was encouraged by the result of two suits tried
+in April, 1842, in the Otsego County Court. Though he was beaten in
+both, the verdict was for small amounts. In one case it was fifty-five
+dollars, in the other eighty-seven dollars. This convinced the press
+that the tide was turning. Again the country newspapers were filled with
+libelous paragraphs. Again the novelist was denounced for his heartless
+abuse of his country, and his soulless and contemptible vanity. Again
+these strictures were carefully collected from every quarter, no matter
+how insignificant, and republished in the columns of the "Evening  (p. 195)
+Journal." But these cheerful anticipations were speedily dissipated.
+Another suit, tried at Fonda in the Supreme Court in May, 1842, resulted
+in a verdict of three hundred and twenty-five dollars for the plaintiff.
+The country papers were indignant. One of the editors sagely suggested
+that "if judge and jury are to carry on this war on the press to gratify
+individual malignity much further, it would be well for all editors to
+unite in petitioning the legislature to pass a law that judges should
+discharge their duties impartially, and juries be composed of honest and
+intelligent men." This profound suggestion marks pretty plainly the
+intellectual grade to which most of the writers of these paragraphs had
+attained. Before it could be acted upon another suit had been decided.
+In the September term of the Supreme Court held at Cooperstown, a
+further verdict of two hundred dollars was awarded. In the following
+month a new suit was begun.
+
+Weed had fought his fight manfully. But the business of publishing
+libelous paragraphs at these rates, low as they were, was ceasing to be
+either pleasant or profitable. Besides his own counsel fees, the adverse
+verdicts carried with them heavy costs. He concluded to let the liberty
+of the press take care of itself. Accordingly, on the 14th of December,
+1842, he published, though with a grumbling comment, a retraction of all
+his previous statements. It had been previously submitted to the eminent
+lawyer, Daniel Cady, and by him approved. It withdrew, first, the
+allegations contained the previous year in a specific article in the
+paper. "On a review of the matter and a better knowledge of the facts,"
+were the words of the retraction, "I feel it to be my duty to withdraw
+the injurious imputations it contains on the character of Mr.      (p. 196)
+Cooper. It is my wish that this retraction should be as broad as the
+charges. The 'Albany Evening Journal' having also contained various
+other articles reflecting on Mr. Cooper's character, I feel it due to
+that gentleman to withdraw every charge that injuriously affects his
+character."
+
+The course of instruction had been protracted and expensive, but the
+lesson had been learned at last. The independence of the press had been
+crushed by the domineering despot of Cooperstown. The controversy
+threatened to break out again in 1845, but it seems never to have got
+beyond words. There is a comic element introduced into the whole affair
+by the fact that the editor of the "Journal" was a profound and even
+bigoted admirer of his adversary's novels. So fond was he of quoting
+from them, that according to Greeley, jokers at that time gravely
+affirmed that Weed had never read but three authors,--Shakespeare,
+Scott, and Cooper. In the very heat of the controversy he was said to
+have sat up all night reading "The Pathfinder," which had come out a
+little while before. Greeley also asserts that the paragraphs which
+appeared in the "Evening Journal" were merely designed as gentle
+reminders to the novelist of the folly of the course he was pursuing.
+This might find belief in a society in which telling a man that he was
+an object of universal contempt would be deemed an expression of
+friendly interest in his welfare. When he says, in addition, that there
+was no shred, no spice of malice in these assaults, he takes away the
+sole ground on which a plea of palliation can be brought. If not due to
+that they had not even the poor excuse of weak human nature. They were
+the wanton acts of a man who attacks another, not from             (p. 197)
+indignation or wrath, but from the mere desire of inflicting annoyance
+or pain.
+
+The controversy with the "Commercial Advertiser" belongs not here but to
+the account of the "Naval History." It has already been said that the
+"Tribune" had been sued for the publication of Thurlow Weed's letter
+describing the trial at Fonda in November, 1841. In December, 1842, this
+case came off at Ballston. Greeley assumed the conduct of the defense.
+He was unsuccessful. The jury brought in against him a verdict of two
+hundred dollars and costs. "We went back to dinner," he wrote, "took the
+verdict in all meekness, took a sleigh and struck a bee-line for New
+York." No sooner had he reached the city than he published a most
+entertaining account of the whole trial. It filled eleven columns of the
+"Tribune," and the demand for it became so great that it was found
+necessary to publish it in pamphlet form. For some expressions in it
+Cooper began another suit. In this instance Greeley gave up the plan of
+defending himself and intrusted the conduct of his side to Seward. The
+case dragged on for years in the New York courts, and, so far as I have
+been able to discover, had not been brought to a final trial before the
+plaintiff's death.
+
+By the end of 1843, Cooper had pretty well reduced the press to silence,
+so far as comments on his character were concerned. It was
+insignificance or remoteness alone that protected the libeler. The
+leading newspapers of the state, however much they might abuse his
+writings, learned to be very cautious of what they said of him
+personally. But it was a barren victory he had won. He had lost far more
+than he had gained. That such would be the result, he knew, while  (p. 198)
+he was engaged in the controversy. It affected, at the time, his literary
+reputation, and, as a result, the sale of his writings; and since his
+death it has been a principal agency in keeping alive a distorted and
+fictitious view of his personal character. A common impression came to
+be of him something like the description which Greeley's lawyers gave of
+the estimation in which he was held in Otsego County, in some legal
+papers bearing the date of July, 1845. This was to the effect that he
+had acquired and had among his neighbors "the reputation of a proud,
+captious, censorious, arbitrary, dogmatical, malicious, illiberal,
+revengeful, and litigious man." This one-sided and hostile view of a
+strongly-marked character had just enough of truth in it to cause it to
+be widely received as an accurate and complete picture. In a similar way
+the notion became current that he sought to ape the manners of the
+English aristocracy. Whatever Cooper's foibles were, they were none of
+them imported. He was too proud in feeling and too self-centred in
+opinion ever to think of aping anything or anybody. But on these points
+the prejudices and misrepresentations of that day have lasted down to
+this.
+
+The account given makes it clear that the occasion of bringing the first
+of these libel suits was accidental. But as time went on the prosecution
+of them assumed to Cooper the shape of a duty. When once it had taken on
+that character, no possible degree of unpopularity or odium could have
+prevented him from persisting in his course. He treated with disdain the
+common arguments used to persuade him to abandon them. To one of these
+he referred directly in a novel published in 1844. He was insisting upon
+the superiority of the past to the present, a sentiment which      (p. 199)
+became a favorite burden of his latter-day utterances. "The public sense
+of right," he said, "had not become blunted by familiarity with abuses,
+and the miserable and craven apology was never heard for not enforcing
+the laws that nobody cared for what the newspapers say." He certainly
+had some justification for the hardest things he thought and said of the
+press. The newspapers which circulated the false reports about his
+father's disposition of the property at Three Mile Point never corrected
+them after the precise facts had been published. Many of them continued
+to repeat the original statements after they must have known them to be
+untrue. Nor did they stop here. As the British press had in his case
+done all it could to justify the charge Cooper made against it of
+ferocious blackguardism of personal and political foes, so many of the
+American editors seemed anxious to realize, so far as it lay in their
+power, the picture that had been drawn of them in the character of
+Steadfast Dodge. Papers containing offensive paragraphs about Cooper
+were carefully sent, not directed to him personally, but to his wife and
+daughters. The fear of punishment is the only motive by which those who
+commit acts of this kind can possibly be influenced. On the other hand,
+it is an idle claim that the character of the press has been elevated by
+libel suits that Cooper or any one else has ever brought. Such
+prosecutions may be both justifiable and necessary; but the agencies
+that form and build up intelligence and taste and high principle are not
+of this negative and restraining character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.                                                         (p. 200)
+
+1839-1843.
+
+
+On the 10th of May, 1839, appeared Cooper's "History of the United
+States Navy." The work was one which he had long contemplated writing.
+As far back as 1825 there were newspaper reports that he had the
+undertaking in mind. He himself, in his parting speech at the dinner
+given him in May, 1826, just before his departure for Europe, had
+publicly announced his determination of devoting himself to this subject
+during his absence abroad. "Encouraged by your kindness," he said, "I
+will take this opportunity of recording the deeds and sufferings of a
+class of men to which this nation owes a debt of lasting gratitude--a
+class of men among whom, I am always ready to declare, not only the
+earliest, but many of the happiest days of my youth have been passed."
+The necessity of providing for his family and of paying off debts
+incurred by others, but for which he was responsible, had prevented the
+immediate carrying out of this resolution. But it had always been in his
+thoughts. The delay in the preparation probably added to the value of
+the history; but its reception would unquestionably have been far
+different had it been brought out in the height of his popularity.
+
+It was a work which for many reasons it was a hard task to make
+accurate, and a still harder one to make interesting. With slight
+exceptions the history could be little more than a record of       (p. 201)
+detached combats; and a string of episodes, no matter how brilliant, can
+never have the attraction which belongs to unity and grandeur of
+movement. These last can alone characterize the operations of great
+fleets.
+
+Still, for the writing of this history Cooper was peculiarly fitted. He
+had belonged to the navy in his early life. He had never ceased to feel
+the deepest interest in its reputation and prosperity. He had
+contributed to the "Naval Magazine," a periodical published during 1836
+and 1837, a series of papers connected with the improvement of its
+condition. He was, moreover, on terms of intimacy with many of the
+officers who had won for it distinction; and through them he had access
+to sources of information that could not be gained from written
+authorities. He had, besides, the characteristic of loving truth for its
+own sake, and the disposition to endure any amount of drudgery and
+encounter any sort of toil in order to secure it. To this were added the
+special qualifications of the historical eye, which enabled him to seize
+the important facts in an infinite mass of detail, and the power of
+describing vividly what he saw clearly. Under such circumstances it was
+reasonable to expect that his work would satisfy all fair-thinking men.
+It is, perhaps, correct to say that it did so. But it also gave rise to
+a controversy which stretched over a longer period and surpassed, in the
+bitter feelings it aroused, any of the wars in which the navy itself had
+ever been engaged.
+
+There were special difficulties to be encountered with readers on both
+sides of the ocean. On the one hand, Englishmen had usually forgotten to
+remember that during the war of 1812 there was any naval combat of
+importance fought except between the Shannon and the Chesapeake;   (p. 202)
+and even at this day it would be difficult to find in an English writer
+any account of the naval operations of that war in which that particular
+engagement does not play the principal part. If any other was forced
+upon their attention it had become an article of their creed that an
+American frigate was little else than a line-of-battle ship disguised.
+Moreover, the effective force of the American vessel was, according to
+their theory, made up of deserters from the British service. These two
+explanations of any failure were often combined. It is in this way
+Captain Brenton, one of their naval historians, calmly shows how it was
+that the Constitution happened to capture the Guerričre. "We may justly
+say," he concludes his account, "it was a large British frigate taking a
+small one." On her part America was not to be outdone in her estimate of
+national prowess. It had become matter of firm faith with the
+inhabitants of the United States that their side had suffered no losses
+worth mentioning during the war of 1812; that the American vessel had
+been invariably successful, whenever there was any approach to equality
+of force; and that in every case it was the superior seamanship,
+courage, and skill of their officers and men that had decided the result
+in their favor, and not superiority in weight of metal.
+
+Neither of these beliefs was of a kind likely to influence Cooper. He
+had got to that point of feeling in which he looked upon the public
+opinion of both England and America with a good deal of contempt. It was
+not to pamper the vanity or flatter the prejudices of either that he
+wrote, but to state the truth. For this he neglected nothing that lay in
+his power. He studied public documents of every kind, official     (p. 203)
+reports, all the printed and manuscript material to which he could get
+access. From officers of the navy who had shared in the actions
+described he gathered much information which they alone were able to
+communicate. In one sense he was fully satisfied with what he had done.
+He did not pretend that in a work which involved the examination and
+sifting of an almost infinite number of details he had not made some
+errors. It was only that he had made none intentionally, and that he had
+put forth his most strenuous exertions to have what he wrote entirely
+free from mistake. Nor is it possible for any unprejudiced mind to read
+the history now and not feel the truth of the assertion. Its accuracy
+and honesty have sometimes been flippantly questioned, but usually by
+men who have not spent as many days in the study of the subject as
+Cooper did months. During his lifetime imputations were made in a few
+cases upon the correctness of his statements. They met then, however, so
+speedy and effectual a refutation that it was not thought worth while to
+repeat the criticisms until he was in his grave. Cooper might be wrong
+in his conclusions; but it was rarely safe to quarrel with his facts.
+There is more, however, in this history than freedom from intentional
+perversion of the truth. There are throughout the whole of it the
+calmness, the judicial spirit, the absence of partisanship which may not
+of themselves add anything to the interest of the narrative, but are
+worth everything for the impression of truthfulness it makes.
+
+Impartiality is a quality, however, little apt to be commended where our
+own feelings and interests are concerned. Still, the general fairness of
+the work was admitted in England, with the qualification, of       (p. 204)
+course that a perfectly trustworthy history could not come from this
+side of the water. A few malignant attacks were made upon it. One of
+these, which appeared in the "United Service Journal" for November and
+December, 1839, is of the nature of a prolonged roar rather than a
+criticism; but it is worth noticing for the incidental evidence it
+furnishes of the intense rancor felt towards Cooper by many in England
+on account of his strictures upon that country in the two volumes
+devoted to it in his "Gleanings in Europe." The writer made the then
+usual profession of faith, that the work referred to had been completely
+crushed by the "Quarterly;" moreover, that the novelist had been
+convicted by it of the blackest ingratitude for traducing the nation
+which, we learn from this notice, had fostered his talents for romance.
+No critic of Cooper, either in Europe or in this country, it is to be
+remarked here, ever seemed willing to concede that the author had any
+hand in gaining his own reputation. In America the newspapers constantly
+assured him that it was due entirely to them. Great Britain assumed that
+it was to her generous appreciation alone that he was known in either
+hemisphere. The European main-land was not behind the island in this
+feeling. "Undoubtedly," wrote Balzac, "Cooper's renown is not due to his
+countrymen nor to the English: he owes it mainly to the ardent
+appreciation of France." This sentiment of the novelist's obligation to
+Great Britain was uppermost in the heart of the reviewer in the "United
+Service Journal." An uneasy impression, however, weighed upon his mind
+lest Cooper, who had now suffered annihilation several times without
+injury, might have survived the particular one inflicted by the    (p. 205)
+"Quarterly." He honestly confessed, therefore, that he had waited
+some months before criticising the "Naval History," so that he might not
+look at it with a jaundiced or malignant eye in consequence of his
+recollections of the previous work on England.
+
+It is not worth while to take any further notice of this article, in
+which wretched criticism was put into still poorer English. But there
+was one of these reviews to which Cooper felt it incumbent on him to
+reply. This appeared in the "Edinburgh" for April, 1840. It was
+studiously fair in tone. It commended the American author's work in many
+respects. While doing so, however, it attacked him for having made no
+use of the "Naval History of Great Britain" by William James, a history
+which it spoke of in a gushing way as approaching "as nearly to
+perfection in its own line as any historical work perhaps ever did." It
+also labored heavily to break the force of some of Cooper's statements
+by charging him with making assertions without evidence or against
+evidence. James was a veterinary surgeon who had come to this country
+before the war of 1812 to practice his profession. After the breaking
+out of hostilities he left it, or rather, as he says, "escaped from it,
+before being taken prisoner into the interior"--whatever that may mean.
+In the early part of "the steelyard and arithmetical war," as Cooper
+phrased it, which has raged with extreme violence ever since the peace
+of Ghent, James bore a gallant and conspicuous part. He published a
+pamphlet on the subject, which, in 1817, came out expanded into a
+volume. In it he showed conclusively that his countrymen had been
+utterly wrong in supposing that they had met with any naval reverses
+during the war of 1812. The falsity of this assumption he          (p. 206)
+satisfactorily established by explaining that the Americans were the
+most inveterate liars upon the face of the earth. By their deceptive and
+fraudulent accounts they had beguiled the English, a self-distrustful
+and self-depreciating people, into believing that they had been
+defeated, where they had really been victorious. Heroes, indeed, can be
+overcome by sufficient odds; and James was always prepared with ample
+explanations to account for failure in special cases. He also convicted
+the officers of the American navy not merely of lying in their official
+reports--which was a duty expected of them both by government and
+people--but of cowardice in action, of misconduct in their operations,
+and of brutality toward enemies whom the chance of war threw into their
+power. A work like this not merely filled a gap in historical
+literature, it supplied a national want. It was accordingly received
+with such favor that its author went on to produce a history of the
+British navy from 1793 to the accession of George IV. In this he
+embodied his previous narrative; and a grateful people has never ceased
+to cherish a work which showed it that it had succeeded where previously
+it had been laboring under the impression that it had failed.
+
+For James and his history Cooper had unbounded contempt. This
+horse-doctor, as he termed him, he looked upon as being as well fitted
+to describe a naval engagement as the proverbial horse-marine would be
+to take part in one. Besides being incapable, he regarded him as
+eminently dishonest; as vaunting impartiality while elevating
+discreditable and improbable hearsay into positive assertion, and
+fortifying his falsehoods by a pretentious parade of figures and
+official documents. It is hardly going too far to say that, in     (p. 207)
+Cooper's opinion, the remarks of James on American affairs combined all
+possible forms of misstatement from undesigned misrepresentation to
+deliberate falsehood. There may be difference of opinion on this point;
+on another there can be none. The period covered by the British writer
+is on the whole the most glorious in the long and brilliant naval
+history of the greatest maritime power the world has ever known. Never
+was there a greater contrast between the spirit with which things were
+done and the spirit with which they were told. In no other history known
+to man does tediousness assume proportions more appalling, do figures
+seem more juiceless, do the stories of heroic achievement furnish less
+inspiration than in this of James. If it be true, as some modern writers
+say, that history to be of value must be void of interest, it may be
+conceded that this particular work is entitled to that praise of
+perfection accorded it by the Edinburgh Reviewer.
+
+The judgment that held up such a history as a model was not likely to
+impress a man, who was still under the sway of the old-fashioned notion,
+that there was no absolutely necessary connection between dullness and
+accuracy. To this particular criticism Cooper replied in the "Democratic
+Review" for May and June, 1842. In the first article he exposed the
+ignorance and dishonesty of James. In the second he devoted himself to
+the assertions of the "Edinburgh." The game was hardly worth the candle.
+His arguments could not reach the men who alone needed to know them. In
+international quarrels of any kind there are few who read both sides.
+The feeling exists that it is not safe to contaminate the purity of
+one's faith in his country by the doubts that might arise from     (p. 208)
+merely fancying that an opponent has reasons for his course worth
+considering. So it was in this case. Few people in the United States saw
+the "Edinburgh Review," none believed what it said. In England fewer
+knew even of the existence of the "Democratic Review."
+
+The controversy that arose in this country was on an entirely different
+ground. It was one that could hardly have been foreseen. The personal
+hostility which Cooper had succeeded in drawing upon himself was never
+so conspicuously shown as in the treatment which his "Naval History"
+underwent. At first, indeed, it was received with general favor, though
+by many it was thought to give too much credit to the English. In a
+short time, however, attacks were made upon it so virulent, so
+causeless, and withal so simultaneous, that the mere fact would of
+itself afford reason for the suspicion that they were concerted. This
+was practically the case. A certain amount of preliminary detail will
+make the circumstances clear. The controversy was entirely about the
+account of a particular action in the war of 1812, and a work containing
+over fifty chapters was absolutely condemned as partisan and worthless
+for what was found on a few pages of one chapter.
+
+The battle of Lake Erie was fought and won by Commodore Perry on the
+10th of September, 1813. It presented the peculiarity that the Lawrence,
+the flagship of the victorious squadron, had struck to the enemy in the
+course of the engagement. There was a feeling prevalent among many at
+the time that Elliott, the second in rank, had not been cordial in his
+support of his commander, and had left him to bear for a long while the
+brunt of the fight without hastening in his vessel, the Niagara,   (p. 209)
+to his help. This was, in particular, the general belief among those on
+board the Lawrence. Perry did not sanction this view at first. Urged by
+good-nature, according to the theory of his friends, he praised
+Elliott's conduct in his official report. He went even farther in a
+letter of the 19th of September. This was in reply to a note from
+Elliott stating that rumors were current that the Lawrence had been
+sacrificed because of the lack of proper exertion on the part of the
+second in command. "I am indignant," wrote Perry, "that any report
+should be in circulation prejudicial to your character as respects the
+action of the 10th instant. It affords me pleasure that I have it in my
+power to assure you that the conduct of yourself, officers, and crew was
+such as to merit my warmest approbation. And I consider the circumstance
+of your volunteering and bringing the smaller vessels up to close action
+as contributing largely to our victory." Such was the situation at the
+time. A few years later, however, a bitter quarrel sprang up between
+Perry and Elliott, which apparently owed a good deal of its rancor to
+the exertions of good-natured friends of both in communicating to each
+remarks made, or supposed to be made, by the other. An envenomed
+correspondence took place in 1818. It led to Elliott's challenging
+Perry, and Perry preferring charges against Elliott for his conduct at
+the battle of Lake Erie. In the letter accompanying the charges he gave
+as his reason for changing his opinion as to the behavior of his second
+in command, that he had been put into possession of fresh facts. The
+government took no action in the matter, and in the following year Perry
+died. In 1834 Elliott became the mark of hostility of the Whig press on
+account of his putting the figure of Andrew Jackson at the         (p. 210)
+figure-head of the Constitution, the war-ship of which he was in
+command. The old scandal about his conduct at Erie was revived. Elliott
+did more than defend himself. A life of him was published in 1835,
+written by another, but from materials evidently that he himself had
+furnished. It claimed that the success of the battle of Lake Erie was
+mainly due to his efforts. It naturally produced a feeling of intense
+bitterness among Perry's friends and relatives. This was the way matters
+stood at the time that the "Naval History" was brought out.
+
+Cooper entered upon the account of the battle of Lake Erie with the
+common prejudice against Elliott. Nor were efforts lacking to keep it
+alive and strengthen it, when it was reported in naval circles that he
+had begun to be uncertain about the justice of his original impressions.
+Captain Matthew Perry, the brother of the Commodore, forwarded him all
+the sworn documentary evidence that made against Elliott. He neglected
+to send any that was given in his favor. Cooper was not the man to be
+satisfied with this way of writing history. As he examined the subject
+more and more, he was struck by the conflicting character of the
+testimony, and the doubt that overhung the whole question. He came
+finally to the conclusion that it was not a matter he could settle, or,
+perhaps, any one. He accordingly contented himself with giving as
+accurate an account of the battle of Lake Erie as he could without
+entering at all into the details of the controversy. He made not the
+slightest effort to detract from the praise due to Perry, and, indeed,
+paid the highest tribute to his skill and conduct. Nor did he give to
+Elliott any prominence whatever.
+
+
+He had committed, however, the unpardonable sin. He had refused    (p. 211)
+to attack Elliott. He had preferred to accept Perry's original account
+of the battle, written within five days after it had taken place, to the
+view he took of it not only five years later, but also after a bitter
+personal quarrel had sprung up between him and his former second in
+command. While Cooper had made no special mention of the latter, he had
+spoken of him respectfully. There was a general feeling that Elliott
+ought to have been attacked. He was a very unpopular man, and, perhaps,
+deservedly so; while Perry was both a popular favorite and a popular
+hero. The refusal of Cooper to join in the general denunciation brought
+down upon him, not only those who honestly believed him in the wrong,
+but the whole horde of his own personal enemies who knew little and
+cared less about this particular subject. In the long list of
+controversies which the student of literature is under the necessity of
+examining, none seems so uncalled for and so discreditable to the
+assailants as this. For it is to be borne in mind that the historian had
+not made the slightest attempt to injure Perry in the popular
+estimation, or to elevate the subordinate at the expense of the
+commander. Yet assertions of this kind were constantly bandied about,
+though it would not have taken five minutes reading of the work to have
+shown their falsity. Cooper was frequently spoken of by the press as the
+detractor of American fame and the slanderer of American character,
+because he refused to say, on one-sided evidence, that an officer of the
+United States navy had been willing to sacrifice his superior in a hotly
+contested battle and imperil the result for the sake of ministering to
+his own personal ambition, or of gratifying a feeling of personal  (p. 212)
+dislike and envy, of the existence of which at the time there was no proof.
+
+Space here exists to notice only the elaborate attacks to which Cooper
+himself felt constrained to reply. The first of these appeared in four
+numbers of the "New York Commercial Advertiser" during June, 1839. The
+articles were written by William A. Duer, who had lately been president
+of Columbia College. They purported to be a review of the "Naval
+History," but nothing whatever was said about that work beyond the few
+pages in which the battle of Lake Erie is described. They were,
+moreover, so personal in their nature and contained imputations so gross
+on his character, that Cooper began a libel suit against the journal in
+which they were published. This finally resulted in one of the most
+extraordinary trials that has ever been recorded in merely literary
+annals. The attack in the "Commercial Advertiser" was followed by a
+similar one in the "North American Review." This was written, however,
+with more decency, though it again devoted itself mainly to the battle
+of Lake Erie. It was the work of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a naval
+author, who by three books of travel had gained at the time some
+literary notoriety. But the notoriety never rose to reputation; and the
+history which preserves his name at all, preserves it in connection with
+an event it were well for his memory to have eternally forgotten. It is
+to be added that he was the brother-in-law of Captain Matthew Perry, and
+that Duer was his uncle. Hardly had his broadside been delivered, when
+another attack appeared. The victor of Lake Erie had come from Rhode
+Island, and Rhode Island rushed to the fray, not to defend her son--for
+he had not been attacked--but to build up his reputation by        (p. 213)
+ruining that of his enemy. Tristam Burges, when the biography of
+Elliott, already referred to, had appeared, had delivered a lecture on
+the battle of Lake Erie before the Rhode Island Historical Society. It
+was not printed at the time; but no sooner was Cooper's work published
+than, at the request of Perry's friends and relatives, it was brought
+out with documents appended. The lecture reads very much like a stump
+speech of the extreme florid type. It is needless to say that in it
+Elliott got his full deserts for betraying his commander. It made no
+direct reference to Cooper, but the whole object was to discredit the
+account of the battle which he had given.
+
+Even this was not all. Mackenzie prepared a life of Perry, which was
+published early in 1841. In it he attacked Elliott with great
+bitterness, and was careful to give in an appendix all the sworn
+testimony on one side, and leave out all the sworn testimony on the
+other. The biography met with general favor. It was styled a noble work,
+and the courage manifested by the author in assailing an unpopular man
+and celebrating a popular hero was, for some reason hard now to be
+understood, highly commended on all sides. The intense partisanship of
+the biography can be read on almost every page. But it was warmly
+welcomed everywhere, for Elliott had few friends even in his own
+profession. The "North American Review" for July, 1841, in an article
+written by the late Admiral Charles H. Davis, congratulated the navy on
+now having a work which gave a true and faithful report of the battle of
+Lake Erie, and stigmatized Cooper's account as false in spirit,
+statement, and comment.
+
+This was, indeed, the general charge. For a while Cooper was       (p. 214)
+under as heavy a bombardment as Perry himself had been in his flagship.
+That his feelings were outraged by the injustice of it there can be no
+question, but it never daunted his spirit. Yet he took not the slightest
+step without being sure of his ground. He went over the evidence again
+and again. He talked with officers of the navy who held views opposed to
+his own; though he said afterward he rarely found that they knew
+anything about the matter beyond common report. With the exception of a
+few newspaper articles, however, he published nothing directly in reply
+until four years after his history was published. In the mean while he
+pressed the suit against William L. Stone, the editor of the "Commercial
+Advertiser." That paper at first took the prosecution in the jocular and
+insolent way then common with the press. Under an announcement of "Stand
+Clear," it informed its readers early in August, 1839, that "the
+interesting Mr. J. Effingham Fenimore Cooper is to bring a libel suit
+against us. None will approach it in interest, importance, or
+amusement." The editor was telling more truth than he thought. No
+action, however, was taken by Cooper for nearly a year to carry out his
+expressed intention. But he could always be depended upon. His suits,
+though sometimes long in coming, were sure to come at last. Great was
+the surprise of the editor when, in May, 1840, a process was served upon
+him for a libel printed eleven months before. He was indignant that the
+prosecutor had waited so long. A demurrer was filed and argued in July,
+1840, at the Utica term of the Supreme Court. The decision was against
+the defendant. Things now began to look more serious; for while the
+importance of the suit was increasing, its amusement was diminishing.
+It, however, hung on in the courts for a year and a half longer.   (p. 215)
+The defendant was naturally unwilling to hasten a trial which was almost
+certain to end in an adverse verdict. Negotiations between the parties
+in the autumn of 1841 resulted in a novel agreement. Cooper did not care
+for damages. It was not money he sought; it was to vindicate the truth
+of his history and his character as an historian. When, therefore, his
+adversary suggested that an ordinary jury of twelve men could not well
+pass upon a question involving the value of conflicting evidence, and
+minute technical detail, he seized upon the occasion to arrange that it
+should be tried before a body of referees, consisting of three
+distinguished lawyers. The proposal was accepted. Never was the eternal
+question between author and reviewer settled in a more singular and a
+more thorough way. For the referees were to decide, not merely upon
+legal points, but upon moral ones. They were to decide whether the
+author had written a truthful account of the battle of Lake Erie, and
+whether he had written it in a spirit of truth. On the other hand, they
+were to decide whether the reviewer had written matter libelous enough
+to justify a verdict from a jury, and whether in the treatment of the
+subject for which he criticised the history he had been just and
+impartial. If the decision were in favor of the author the defendant was
+not to pay more than two hundred and fifty dollars besides the costs. In
+any case the beaten party was to publish the full text of the decision,
+at his own expense, in the cities of New York, Albany, and Washington.
+The referees agreed upon were Samuel Steevens, named by Cooper; Daniel
+Lord, Jr., named by Stone; and Samuel A. Foot, chosen by mutual consent.
+The attendance of many witnesses was rendered unnecessary by the   (p. 216)
+stipulation that a vast mass of documentary testimony in possession
+of Cooper should be taken in evidence.
+
+The referees met in the United States court room in New York city, on
+the afternoon of Monday, May 16, 1842. A large crowd was in attendance.
+Public interest had been aroused, not only by the question involved and
+the novel character of the suit, but by the fact that the historian was
+to assume the principal conduct of his own side. The trial lasted for
+five days. After the opening speeches had been made, the taking of oral
+testimony began. Among the witnesses for the defense were Sands,
+Mackenzie, and Paulding, all officers of the navy. They were examined in
+reference to Cooper's account of the battle of Lake Erie and the
+diagrams by which he represented the positions of the vessels during the
+engagement. Their views were in all respects opposed to the theory of
+operations which he had assumed. After the taking of the oral testimony
+was ended and certain legal questions had been argued, the summing up
+was begun by William W. Campbell of Otsego, the leading lawyer for the
+defense. His speech was exceedingly able and effective. Men who were
+present at the proceedings asserted, when it was finished, that there
+was no possible way in which its reasoning could be shaken, still less
+overthrown. At eight o'clock on Thursday evening Cooper began summing up
+for the prosecution, and continued until ten. On Friday he resumed his
+argument at four in the afternoon, and six hours had passed before he
+concluded. His conduct of the case from the beginning had excited
+surprise and admiration. Friends and foes alike bore witness to the
+signal ability he had displayed throughout; but his closing speech (p. 217)
+made an especially profound impression. Its interest, its ingenuity, and
+its effectiveness were conceded by the defendant himself. It was for a
+long time after spoken of as one of the finest forensic displays that
+had ever been witnessed at the New York bar. Among those present at the
+trial was Henry T. Tuckerman, who has left us an account of the
+circumstances and of the bearing of the man. "A more unpopular cause,"
+he wrote, "never fell to the lot of a practiced advocate; for the hero
+of Lake Erie was and had long been one of the most cherished of American
+victors. We could not but admire the self-possession, coolness, and
+vigor with which the author, on this occasion, played the lawyer. Almost
+alone in his opinion,--the tide of public sentiment against his theory
+of the battle, and the popular sympathy wholly with the received
+traditions of that memorable day,--he stood collected, dignified,
+uncompromising; examined witnesses, quoted authorities, argued nautical
+and naval precedents with a force and a facility which would have done
+credit to an experienced barrister. On the one hand, his speech was a
+remarkable exhibition of self-esteem, and on the other, a most
+interesting professional argument; for when he described the battle, and
+illustrated his views by diagrams, it was like a chapter in one of his
+own sea-stories, so minute, graphic, and spirited was the picture he
+drew. The dogmatism was more than compensated for by the picturesqueness
+of the scene; his self-complacency was exceeded by his wonderful
+ability. He quoted Cooper's 'Naval History' as if it were 'Blackstone;'
+he indulged in reminiscences; he made digressions and told anecdotes; he
+spoke of the manoeuvres of the vessels, of the shifting of the wind, of
+the course of the fight, like one whose life had been passed on    (p. 218)
+the quarter-deck. No greater evidence of self-reliance, of indifference
+to the opinion of the world, and to that of his countrymen in
+particular, of the rarest descriptive talent, of pertinacity, loyalty to
+personal conviction, and a manly, firm, yet not unkindly spirit, could
+be imagined than the position thus assumed, and the manner in which he
+met the exigency. As we gazed and listened, we understood clearly why,
+as a man, Cooper had been viewed from such extremes of prejudice and
+partiality; we recognized at once the generosity and courage, and the
+willfulness and pride of his character: but the effect was to inspire a
+respect for the man, such as authors whose errors are moral weaknesses
+never excite."
+
+On the 16th of June the referees rendered their decision on the eight
+points submitted to them for adjudication. In regard to five of these
+they were all in full agreement; but in three instances one of the
+referees dissented from certain portions of the report made by the other
+two.
+
+The first point was whether, according to the evidence and the rules of
+the law the plaintiff would be entitled to the verdict of a jury in an
+ordinary suit for libel. They agreed that he would, and accordingly
+awarded the damages that had been fixed by the original stipulation.
+
+The second point was whether in writing his account of the battle of
+Lake Erie, Cooper had faithfully fulfilled his obligations as an
+historian. The majority of the referees decided that he had so done. Mr.
+Foot dissented to this extent, that Cooper had intended to do so, but
+that from error of judgment or from some cause not impugning the   (p. 219)
+purity of his motives, he had failed in one specified point. This was
+that the narrative gave the impression that Elliott's conduct in the
+battle had met with universal approbation, which it had not. The
+arbitrator added, however, that this was the only particular in which it
+appeared to him that the historian had failed in fulfilling the high
+trust he had taken upon himself.
+
+The third point was whether the narrative of the battle of Lake Erie was
+true or not in its essential facts, and if untrue, in what particulars.
+The majority decided that it was true. Mr. Foot dissented on the same
+point, to the same extent, and for the same reason, for which he had
+dissented from the second.
+
+The fourth point was whether the account of the battle was written in a
+spirit of impartiality and justice. They all agreed that it was so
+written.
+
+The fifth point was whether the writer of the criticism, upon which the
+suit was founded, had faithfully fulfilled the office of a reviewer. If
+not they were to give the facts upon which their conclusion was based.
+They unanimously agreed that the writer had not faithfully discharged
+his obligations as a reviewer; that he had indulged in personal
+imputations; that he was guilty of misquotations which materially
+changed the meaning; that his statements were incorrect in several
+particulars; and that his charge that Cooper had given to Elliott equal
+credit with Perry in the conduct of the battle was untrue. This last
+assertion, they add, was made after a careful examination by them of the
+history itself.
+
+The sixth point was whether the review was true or not in its essential
+facts; and if untrue, in what particulars. They all agreed that    (p. 220)
+it was untrue, and gave the particulars.
+
+The seventh point was whether the review was written in a spirit of
+impartiality and justice. The majority decided that it was not so
+written. Here again Mr. Foot made a partial dissent. He considered the
+review to have been written under the influence of a wakeful
+sensibility, inconsiderately and unnecessarily aroused in defense of the
+reputation of a beloved and deceased friend.
+
+The eighth point was to settle which of the two parties should be
+required to publish the full text of the decision at his own expense in
+newspapers published in New York, Washington, and Albany. The referees
+agreed that this was to be done by the defendant.
+
+Thus ended this suit. For Cooper the result was a great personal
+triumph. He had had to contend with the prejudices of a nation. For
+months and years he had been persistently assailed with all the weapons
+that unscrupulous partisanship or unreasoning family affection could
+wield. He had been compelled to identify his own cause with that of a
+man who, in addition to unpopularity with members of his own profession,
+had drawn upon himself the hostility of a political party. He had been
+under the necessity of controverting, in some particulars, a generally
+accepted belief. Against him had been arrayed two of the ablest lawyers
+of the bar. Naval officers of reputation had on the witness stand
+criticised his theory of the battle and contradicted his statements. He
+had been assisted in the conduct of the case by his nephew; but outside
+of this he had received help from no one. Sympathy with him, there was
+little; desire for his success, there was less; and the referees   (p. 221)
+could hardly fail to feel to some extent the influence that pervaded
+the whole country. In the face of all these odds he had fought the
+battle and won it. He had wrung respect and admiration from a hostile
+public sentiment which he had openly and contemptuously defied. Upon the
+essential matters in dispute the verdict of three men, of highest rank
+in their profession and skilled in the weighing of conflicting evidence,
+had been entirely in his favor.
+
+Cooper followed up his victory by a pamphlet which appeared in August,
+1843, entitled, "The Battle of Lake Erie: or, Answers to Messrs. Burges,
+Duer, and Mackenzie." In this he went fully over the ground. No reply
+was made to it; there was in fact none to be made. The popular tradition
+could best be maintained by silence. Silence at any rate during his
+lifetime was preserved, and silence in cases where it would have been
+creditable to have said something. It certainly affords justification
+additional to that already given, for the contemptuous opinion expressed
+by Cooper of the American press, that the newspapers which had been
+loudest in the denunciation of his history, never so much as alluded to
+the result of the trial brought to test authoritatively the fairness and
+impartiality of the narrative for which he had been condemned.
+
+After reading patiently all that has been written on both sides of this
+question, it seems to me that not only was the verdict of the
+arbitrators a just one, but that Cooper was right in the view he took.
+Still, where evidence is conflicting there is ample room for difference
+of opinion; and in regard to the conduct of Elliott at Lake Erie the
+evidence is diametrically opposed. The only secure method, therefore, of
+obtaining and maintaining a comfortable bigotry of belief on the   (p. 222)
+subject is to read carefully the testimony on one side and to despise
+the other so thoroughly as to refrain from even looking at it. This was
+then and has since been the course followed by the thick and thin
+partisans of Perry. But whether the conclusion be right or not at which
+Cooper arrived, there was never the slightest justification for the
+gross abuse to which he was subjected. He had everything to gain by
+falling in with the popular tradition and attacking Elliott. Nothing but
+lofty integrity and love of truth could have made him take the course he
+did. If a mistake at all, it was a mistake of judgment. But the charges
+brought against him were based in most instances upon deliberate
+misrepresentation of what he had said. This was especially true of the
+criticisms of Duer and Mackenzie. The perversion of meaning of one of
+his foot-notes is a striking instance of the unscrupulous nature of
+these attacks. In this Cooper had spoken of the vulgar opinion which
+celebrated as an act of special gallantry Perry's passing in an open
+boat from one ship to another as being the very least of his merits;
+that the same thing was done in the same engagement by others, including
+Elliott; that there was personal risk everywhere; and that Perry's real
+merit was his indomitable resolution not to be conquered, and the manner
+in which he sought new modes of victory when old ones failed. If this be
+depreciatory, it is depreciatory to say that greater honor is due to him
+who manifests the skill and fertility of resource of a commander than to
+him who exhibits the mere valor of a soldier. But in Duer's review of
+the "Naval History," and Mackenzie's "Life of Perry," the purport of the
+note was entirely changed. The concluding portion was dishonestly  (p. 223)
+omitted, and a paragraph that gave to the victor of Lake Erie credit for
+generalship rather than soldiership was converted into an assertion that
+the risk he had run was of slight consequence.
+
+This controversy brought in its train another libel suit. To the editor
+of the "Commercial Advertiser" the result had caused deep mortification.
+The reviewer also was naturally dissatisfied with a decision which left
+upon him the stigma of a libeler. He offered, if the case could be
+brought before a common jury for another trial, to pay double the amount
+of damages awarded, provided the result was against him. With such an
+arrangement Mr. Stone declined to have anything to do. He had had, he
+said, annoyance enough already with the suit. But he was tempted in a
+moment of vexation to indulge in remarks which implied that Cooper was
+in a hurry to get the sum awarded, with the object of putting it into
+Wall Street "for shaving purposes." The insinuation was uncalled for and
+unjustifiable; and as the editor subsequently admitted that it was only
+made in jest, it may be imputed to his credit that he had the grace to
+be ashamed of it. A libel suit, however, followed. It was at first
+decided in Cooper's favor. It was then carried up to the Court of
+Errors, and in December, 1845, more than a year after Mr. Stone's death,
+that tribunal reversed the decision. The result of the trial was hailed
+with the keenest delight by the Whig press of the state. "The Great
+Persecutor," as he was sometimes styled, had been finally foiled. "The
+rights of the press," said one of the newspapers, "are at last
+triumphant over the tyranny of courts and the vile constructions of the
+law of libel." The value of the victory, however, was largely lessened
+by the little respect in which the Court of Errors was held. This  (p. 224)
+tribunal, which consisted in the majority of cases of the Chancellor and
+of the members of the state Senate, was swept away by the Constitution
+of 1846. Its influence had gone long before. Cooper was doubtless giving
+expression to the general feeling as well as venting his own indignation
+at this particular decision when he spoke of it, as he did a little
+later, as a "pitiful imitation of the House of Lords' system," by which
+a body of "small lawyers, country doctors, merchants, farmers," with
+occasionally a man of ability, were constituted the highest tribunal in
+the state.
+
+Two other results followed incidentally this controversy about the
+battle of Lake Erie. One had the nature of comedy, the other partook
+rather of that of tragedy. Perry, as has been said, was a Rhode
+Islander, and many of the men he had with him had come from that state.
+Tristam Burges, in his lecture, had, in many instances, allowed his
+eloquence to get the better of his sense. In the preface to it, when
+published, he abandoned the latter altogether. He twice asserted, and
+gave his reasons for it, that "the fleet and battle of Erie" were to be
+regarded "as a part of the maritime affairs of Rhode Island."
+Apparently, however, the whole state took the same view. There seemed to
+be a feeling prevalent in it that its own reputation lay in destroying
+the reputation of Perry's second in command. In 1845 Elliott had a medal
+struck in honor of Cooper. It bore on one side the head of the author
+surrounded by the words, "The Personification of Honor, Truth, and
+Justice." At the suggestion of John Quincy Adams copies were sent to the
+various historical societies of the country. That statesman himself
+undertook their transmission. Accordingly one was forwarded among  (p. 225)
+the rest to the Rhode Island Society. It reached its destination in
+March. It threw that body into a tumult of excitement. The trustees
+reflected upon it anxiously. They referred it to a committee. After
+prolonged brooding the committee gave birth to a preamble and two
+resolutions. These were reported to the Society at the meeting of the
+10th of September. In one of the resolutions the letter of Adams was
+embodied, and he was thanked for the care and attention he had displayed
+in the discharge of the trust committed to him by Commodore Elliott. The
+second resolution recited substantially that Cooper had not been
+conducting himself properly in the matter, and had published opinions
+which the Society could not adopt or sanction. It therefore declined to
+accept the medal in his honor, and directed the president to transmit it
+to Adams with the request to return it to Commodore Elliott. Vigorous as
+this action may now seem, it did not then come up to the level of
+offended justice. There was to be no tampering with iniquity, even in
+high places. Elliott was not to succeed in his impudent effort to skulk
+behind the character of Adams, nor was Adams to escape reproof for the
+base uses to which he had allowed himself to be put. A motion was
+accordingly made to strike out the resolution conveying to that
+statesman the thanks of the Society. It was carried unanimously. The
+medal was accordingly returned to him with the request that he send it
+to Elliott with an attested copy of the resolution. Adams's conception
+of an Historical Society was different from that then entertained in
+Rhode Island. He clearly thought it no part of their business to be
+officially engaged in upholding the reputation of favorite sons,   (p. 226)
+or defending the character of heroes. His reply was curt, not to say
+tart. "I decline the office," he wrote, "requested of me by the
+Historical Society of Rhode Island, and hold the medal and the copy of
+the resolution, which they request me to transmit to Commodore Elliott,
+to be delivered to any person whom they, or you by their direction, may
+authorize to receive them."
+
+Cooper apparently said nothing about this action at the time. He had
+before been solemnly warned by the Providence newspapers not to risk a
+controversy with Burges, or, as they more graphically expressed it, not
+to "get into the talons of the bald-headed eagle of Rhode Island." The
+threatened danger, however, had not deterred him from exposing the
+absurdities into which even eagles fall when they use their pinions for
+writing and not for flying. Not even did he have the fear of the
+Historical Society itself before his eyes. In 1850 he took occasion to
+pay his respects to that body. He was then bringing out a revised
+edition of his novels. In the preface to "The Red Rover," he mentioned
+the stone tower at Newport, and referred to the way in which he had been
+assailed for his irreverence in calling it a mill. He repeated this
+assertion as to its character. He expressed his belief that the building
+was more probably built upon arches to defend grain from mice than men
+from savages. "We trust," he added, "this denial of the accuracy of what
+may be a favorite local theory will not draw upon us any new evidence of
+the high displeasure of the Rhode Island Historical Society, an
+institution which displayed such a magnanimous sense of the right, so
+much impartiality, and so profound an understanding of the laws of
+nature and of the facts of the day, on a former occasion when we   (p. 227)
+incurred its displeasure, that we really dread a second encounter with
+its philosophy, its historical knowledge, its wit, and its signal love
+of justice. Little institutions, like little men, very naturally have a
+desire to get on stilts; a circumstance that may possibly explain the
+theory of this extraordinary and very useless fortification. We prefer
+the truth and common sense to any other mode of reasoning, not having
+the honor to be an Historical Society at all." No reply, at least no
+public reply, came from that quarter during his life, to the views he
+had expressed. It was only when he was unable to defend himself that he
+was again assailed. In February, 1852, an account of the battle of Lake
+Erie was delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society by Usher
+Parsons, who had been assistant surgeon on board the Lawrence. His
+testimony had been somewhat severely criticised by Cooper. Now that the
+latter was in his grave he took occasion to cast imputations upon the
+motives of the historian, and asperse the honesty of his statements.
+Parsons added nothing new of moment to the discussion, for what he said
+was merely a rehash, made in a very bungling way, of the old facts and
+assertions. But the spirit in which he wrote and the insinuations in
+which he indulged furnish ample justification for the low opinion which
+Cooper held of the evidence he had previously given.
+
+With the parting shot in the preface to "The Red Rover," the
+controversy, on Cooper's part, concluded. He had, however, been
+concerned in another matter, in which the fortunes of his own work and
+the fortunes of one of its critics were strangely blended. In 1841 an
+abridged edition of his "Naval History" was brought out in one     (p. 228)
+volume. The publisher was desirous of having it included in the list of
+books purchased for the district school libraries of New York. With this
+object in view he offered it, without Cooper's knowledge, to the
+Secretary of State, John C. Spencer, who was also superintendent of
+public instruction. To him was confided, by virtue of his office, the
+selection of the works which should constitute these libraries. He
+rejected the proposal with uncomplimentary brevity. He would have
+nothing to do, he informed the publisher, with so partisan a
+performance. Soon after this he emphasized his opinion of its
+partisanship by directing the purchase of Mackenzie's "Life of Perry"--a
+work which was almost avowedly one-sided. There was a retribution almost
+poetical in the tragedy that followed; for the same lack of mental
+balance and judgment that had been exhibited in this biography of Perry
+was to show itself under circumstances peculiarly harrowing. In October,
+1841, Spencer joined the administration of John Tyler as Secretary of
+War. In December, 1842, Mackenzie, then in command of the United States
+brig Somers, gave a still further proof of his impartiality by hanging
+on the high seas Spencer's son, an acting midshipman, for alleged
+mutiny. It was done without even going through the formality of a trial.
+It was an act of manslaughter, not committed, indeed, from any feeling
+of malice, but merely from the same lack of judgment that he had
+displayed in the literary controversy in which he had been engaged.
+Mackenzie was brought before a naval court-martial, and succeeded with
+some difficulty in securing an acquittal. In 1844 the proceedings of the
+trial were published, and annexed to them was an elaborate review of the
+case by Cooper. It was written in a calm and temperate tone, but   (p. 229)
+it practically settled the question of the character of the act.
+
+Cooper's interest in the navy led him also to write a series of lives of
+officers who had been prominent in its history. The first of these
+appeared originally in "Graham's Magazine" for October, 1842, and the
+others are scattered through the volumes of that year and the years
+succeeding. In 1846 they were published in book form. Among them was a
+life of Perry. In this he took occasion to reaffirm what he had
+previously said about the battle of Lake Erie. But the injustice which
+had been done to him did not lead him to treat with injustice the man
+whose life he was writing, though it was impossible for him to say what
+would be satisfactory to Perry's partisans without falsifying what he
+believed to be the truth.
+
+In spite of the numerous attacks made upon it the "Naval History" was
+successful, as success is measured in technical works of this kind. A
+second edition, revised and corrected, appeared in April, 1840, and in
+1847 a third edition was published. At the time of his death Cooper was
+projecting a continuation of it, and had gathered together materials for
+that purpose. The original work ended with the close of the last war
+with Great Britain. He intended to bring it down to the end of the
+Mexican War. This was done by another after his death. In 1853 a new
+edition of the "Naval History" appeared with a continuation prepared by
+the Reverend Charles W. McHarg. The matter that Cooper had collected
+was used, but there was very little in what was added that was of his
+own composition. Of the original work, it is safe to say, that for the
+period which it covers it is little likely to be superseded as the (p. 230)
+standard history of the American navy. Later investigation may show
+some of the author's assertions to be erroneous. Some of his conclusions
+may turn out as mistaken as have his prophecies about the use of steam
+in war vessels. But such defects, assuming that they exist, are more
+than counterbalanced by advantages which make it a final authority on
+points that can never again be so fully considered. Many sources of
+information which were then accessible no longer exist. The men who
+shared in the scenes described, and who communicated information
+directly to Cooper, have all passed away. These are losses that can
+never be replaced, even were it reasonable to expect that the same
+practical knowledge, the same judicial spirit, and the same power of
+graphic description could be found united again in the same person.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.                                                        (p. 231)
+
+1840-1850.
+
+
+No man could go through the conflicts which Cooper had been carrying on
+for so many years unharmed or unscarred. For the hostility entertained
+and expressed toward him in England he cared but little. But though too
+proud to parade his sufferings, the injustice done him in his own land
+aroused in his heart an indignation which had in it, however, as much
+pain as anger. He could not fail to see that he was in a false position,
+that his motives were misunderstood where even they were not
+deliberately misrepresented. The generation which had shared in his
+early triumphs and had gloried in his early fame had largely passed
+away. From some who survived he had been parted by a separation bitterer
+than that of death. To the new generation that had come on he appeared
+only as the captious and censorious critic of his country. His works
+were read in every civilized country. To many men they had brought all
+the little knowledge they possessed of America; to certain regions they
+could almost be said to have first carried its name. But the land which
+he loved with a passionate fervor seemed largely to have disowned him.
+It would be vain to deny his sensitiveness to this hostility. Traces of
+his secret feeling crop out unexpectedly in his later works. They reveal
+phases of his character which would never be inferred from his acts;
+they show the existence of sentiments which he would never have    (p. 232)
+directly avowed. "There are men," says the hero of "Afloat and Ashore,"
+"so strong in principle as well as in intellect, I do suppose, that they
+can be content with the approbation of their own consciences, and who
+can smile at the praise or censure of the world alike: but I confess to
+a strong sympathy with the commendation of my fellow-creatures, and a
+strong distaste for their disapprobation." Especially marked is the
+reference to himself in the words he puts into the mouth of Columbus in
+his "Mercedes of Castile." "Genoa," says the navigator, "hath proved but
+a stern mother to me: and though nought could induce me to raise a hand
+against her, she hath no longer any claim on my services.... One cannot
+easily hate the land of his birth, but injustice may lead him to cease
+to love it. The tie is mutual, and when the country ceases to protect
+person, property, character, and rights, the subject is liberated from
+all his duties."
+
+It was the attacks connected with the controversy about the "Naval
+History" that more than anything else embittered Cooper's feelings. He
+had striven hard to write a full and trustworthy account of the
+achievements of his country upon the sea. Because he had refused to
+pervert what he deemed the truth to the gratification of private spite,
+he had been assailed with a malignity that had hardly stopped short of
+any species of misrepresentation. Rarely has devotion to the right met
+with a worse return. The reward of untiring industry, of patriotic zeal,
+and of conscientious examination of evidence, was little else than
+calumny and abuse. He felt so keenly the treatment he had received that
+he regretted having ever written the "Naval History" at all. In    (p. 233)
+a published letter of the early part of 1843 he expressed himself on
+the matter in words that come clearly from the depths of a wounded
+spirit. "Were the manuscript of what has been printed," he wrote, "now
+lying before me unpublished, I certainly should throw it into the fire
+as an act of prudence to myself and of justice to my children." In his
+triumphant reply to Burges, Duer, and Mackenzie, while he showed the
+haughty disdain he felt for the popular clamor which had condemned him
+without knowledge, he did not seek to hide the bitterness it had caused.
+"This controversy," he said, "was not of my seeking; for years have I
+rested under the imputations that these persons have brought against me,
+and I now strike a blow in behalf of truth, not from any deference to a
+public opinion that in my opinion has not honesty enough to feel much
+interest in the exposure of duplicity and artifice, but that my children
+may point to the facts with just pride that they had a father who dared
+to stem popular prejudice in order to write truth."
+
+It is in these last lines that Cooper unconsciously revealed the
+strength which enabled him to go through this roar of hostile criticism
+and calumny without having his whole nature soured. One great resource
+he possessed, and its influence cannot be overestimated. In the closest
+and dearest relations of life with which happiness is connected far more
+intimately than with the most prosperous series of outward events, he
+was supremely fortunate. In his own home his lot was favored beyond that
+of most men. However violent the storm without, there he could always
+find peace and trust and affection. The regard, indeed, felt for him by
+the female members of his family, may justly be termed devotion.   (p. 234)
+Towards all women he exhibited deference almost to the point of
+chivalry. But in the case of those of his own household there was
+mingled with it a tenderness which called forth in return that ardent
+attachment which strong natures alone seem capable of inspiring. This
+deference and tenderness were the more conspicuous by contrast with his
+opinions. These would fill with wrath unspeakable the advocates of
+women's rights. Nor was he at all particular about mincing their
+expression. He sometimes gave utterance to them in the most extreme
+form. He even made his sentiments more emphatic by putting them into the
+mouths of his female characters. "There is," says the governess in "The
+Red Rover," "no peace for our feeble sex but in submission; no happiness
+but in obedience." In his last novel he denounced furiously the law that
+gave to the wife control over her own property, and predicted, as a
+consequence, all sorts of disasters to the family that have never come
+to pass. All this was eminently characteristic. But like many strong men
+tenacious of acknowledged superiority he was content with the mere
+concession. That granted, he would yield to submission infinitely more
+than recognized equality could have a right to expect or could hope to
+gain. We may think what we please of his views about women; there can be
+but one opinion as to his conduct towards them.
+
+A characteristic instance of the wantonness with which Cooper's acts and
+motives were deliberately misrepresented during this period occurred in
+1841. In that year came out a work, which had, in its day, some little
+notoriety, but has long ago passed to the limbo of forgotten things. It
+was called "The Glory and Shame of England." The very title shows that
+this production was maliciously calculated to make the British     (p. 235)
+lion lash his tail with frenzy: and if we can trust its author, Mr. C.
+Edwards Lester, it met with fierce opposition from British residents in
+this country and their sympathizers. In an introductory letter addressed
+to the Reverend J. T. Headley, he told the story of the experiences his
+agents had undergone in securing subscriptions. In the course of it he
+made the following allusion to Cooper. "Already," he wrote, "have
+several educated and highly respectable young men engaged (with
+unprecedented success) in procuring subscribers for this work been
+rudely driven from the houses of Englishmen for crossing their threshold
+with the prospectus. And I blush (but not for myself or my country) to
+say that one of our celebrated authors, whose partiality for
+Republicanism has been more than doubted, threatened to kick one of
+these young men out of his house (castle) if he did not instantly leave
+it; exclaiming, 'Why have you the impudence to hand me that prospectus?
+I understand what the GLORY of England means; but as for the SHAME of
+England, there is no such thing. The shame is all in that base
+Democracy, which makes you presume to enter a gentleman's house to ask
+him to subscribe for such a work.'"
+
+This statement was widely copied in the newspapers. But the falsity of
+the fabrication soon became too apparent for even the journals most
+hostile to Cooper to endure. They made a vain effort to get from the
+author a confirmation of his story: but though he did not venture to
+repeat the lie manfully, he equivocated about it in a sneaking way. The
+newspapers, feeling, perhaps, that it was undesirable to arm the book
+agent with new terrors, credited at once the denial the story had
+received, and took back all imputations based upon it,--a          (p. 236)
+proceeding which ought to have shown Cooper that they were not so
+utterly given over to the father of all evil as he fancied them. But the
+author of this impudent falsehood never withdrew it, nor did the
+publishers of the volume, in which it was contained, disavow it. The
+extract given above is taken from an edition which bears the date of
+1845.
+
+It is plain that these calumnious attacks sprang largely from Cooper's
+personal unpopularity. It is equally plain that his personal
+unpopularity was mainly due to the censorious tone he had assumed in the
+criticism of his country and his countrymen. It may accordingly be said
+that, in one sense, he deserved all that he received. He had pursued a
+certain line of conduct. He had no reason to complain that it had been
+followed by the same results here that would have followed similar
+conduct anywhere. In fact, while his censure of England had been far
+lighter than that of America, the language used about him in the former
+country had been far more vulgar and abusive than that used in the
+latter. But there were facts in his career which his countrymen were
+bound to bear in mind, but which, on the contrary, they strove hard to
+forget, and sometimes to pervert. He had been the uncompromising
+defender of his native land in places where it cost reputation and
+regard to appear in that light. He was assailed largely by the men who
+had toadied to a hostile feeling which he himself had confronted. His
+criticism of America was sometimes just, sometimes unjust. It was in a
+few instances as full of outrageous misrepresentation as any which he
+had resented in others. Even when right, it was often wrongly delivered.
+But in no case did it spring from indifference or dislike. The     (p. 237)
+very loftiness of his aspirations for his country, the very vividness of
+his conception of what he trusted she was to be, made him far more than
+ordinarily sensitive to what she was, which fell short of his ideal.
+Every indignity offered to her he felt as a personal blow; every stain
+upon her honor as a personal disgrace. He had no fear as to the material
+greatness of her future. What he could not bear was that the slightest
+spot should soil the garments of her civilization. It was for her
+character, her reputation, that he most cared. It is not necessary to
+maintain that he was as wise as he was patriotic. Had he been in a
+position where he wielded political power, his impulsive and fiery
+temperament might very probably have made him an unsafe adviser. His
+whole idea of foreign policy, as connected with war, may be summed up in
+the statement that the nation should be as ready to resent a wrong done
+to ourselves as to repair a wrong done to others. Nothing could be
+better doctrine in theory. Unfortunately, the nation in all such cases
+is itself both party and judge, and the question of right becomes, in
+consequence, a hard one to decide as a matter of fact. Cooper's intense
+convictions would therefore have been likely to have led the country
+into war, had he had the control of events,--and war, too, at a time
+when under the agencies of peace it was daily gathering strength to meet
+a coming drain upon its resources in a conflict which but few were then
+far-sighted enough to see would squander wealth as lavishly as it wasted
+blood. Had it rested with him, it is quite clear that no Ashburton
+treaty would have been signed. There is a striking passage printed to
+this day in italics, which he puts into the mouth of Leather-Stocking in
+the novel of "The Deerslayer." Its point is made specially         (p. 238)
+prominent when it is remembered that this work was written while the
+controversy was going on between Great Britain and the United States in
+regard to the Northeastern boundary. "I can see no great difference,"
+says Leather-Stocking, "atween givin' up territory afore a war, out of a
+dread of war, or givin' it up after a war, because we can't help
+it--onless it be that the last is most manful and honorable."
+
+The features of Cooper's personal character, as well as his prejudices
+and limitations, are always to be kept in mind because they explain much
+that is defective in his art, and account for much of his unpopularity.
+Some of them became unpleasantly conspicuous in the writings of his
+later years. In 1840 he entered upon a new period of creative activity
+which lasted until 1850. Between and including those years he brought
+out seventeen works of fiction. Eleven of them were written during the
+first half of this period ending with 1845, and even these did not
+constitute the whole of what he then wrote. This fertility is made the
+more remarkable by the fact that during this same time he was engaged in
+the special controversy about the battle of Lake Erie, not to speak of
+his standing quarrel with the press and his running fight of libel suits
+in which he was not only plaintiff, but did the main work of the
+prosecution.
+
+It is possible that his unpopularity stirred him to unwonted exertion.
+There is certainly no question that the years from 1840 to 1845
+inclusive, are, as a whole, the supreme creative period of Cooper's
+career. Its production does not dwarf his early achievement in vigor or
+interest; but it does often show a far higher mastery of his art. Two of
+the works then written mark the culmination of his powers. These   (p. 239)
+were the Leather-Stocking tales called "The Pathfinder" and "The
+Deerslayer." The former appeared on the 14th of March, 1840, the latter
+on the 27th of August, 1841. They complete the circle of these stories;
+for others which he contemplated writing he unfortunately never executed.
+Still the series was a perfect one as it was left. The life of
+Leather-Stocking was now a complete drama in five acts, beginning with
+the first war-path in "The Deerslayer," followed by his career of
+activity and of love in "The Last of the Mohicans" and "The Pathfinder,"
+and his old age and death in "The Pioneers" and "The Prairie."
+
+"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" stand at the head of Cooper's
+novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works which
+contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and scenes even
+more thrilling. Not one can be compared with either of them as a
+finished whole. For once, whether from greater care or happier
+inspiration, Cooper discarded those features of his writings in which he
+had either failed entirely, or achieved, at the most, slight success.
+The leading characters belonged to the class which he drew best, so far
+as he was a delineator of character at all. Here were no pasteboard
+figures like Heywood in "The Last of the Mohicans," or Middleton in "The
+Prairie." Here were no supernumeraries dragged in, in a vain effort to
+amuse, as the singing-master in the former of these same stories, or the
+naturalist in the latter. Humor, Cooper certainly had; but it is the
+humor that gleams in fitful flashes from the men of earnest purposes and
+serious lives, and gives a momentary relief to the sternness and
+melancholy of their natures. The power of producing an entire      (p. 240)
+humorous creation he had not at all, and almost the only thing that mars
+the perfectness of "The Pathfinder" is the occasional effort to make one
+out of Muir, the character designed to play the part of a villain. But
+the defects in both these tales are comparatively slight. The plot in
+each is simple, but it gives plenty of room for the display of those
+qualities in which Cooper excelled. The scene of the one was laid on
+Lake Ontario and its shores; the other, on the little lake near which he
+had made his home; and the whole atmosphere of both is redolent of the
+beauty and the wildness of nature.
+
+These works were a revelation to the men who had begun to despair of
+Cooper's ever accomplishing again anything worthy of his early renown.
+They were pure works of art. No moral was everlastingly perking itself
+in the reader's face, no labored lecture to prove what was self-evident
+interrupted the progress of the story. There is scarcely an allusion to
+any of the events which had checkered the novelist's career. References
+to contemporary occurrences are so slight that they would pass unheeded
+by any one whose attention had not been called beforehand to their
+existence. These works showed what Cooper was capable of when he gave
+full play to his powers, and did not fancy he was writing a novel when
+he was indulging in lectures upon manners and customs. "It is beautiful,
+it is grand," said Balzac to a friend, speaking of "The Pathfinder."
+"Its interest is tremendous. He surely owed us this masterpiece after
+the last two or three rhapsodies he has been giving us. You must read
+it. I know no one in the world, save Walter Scott, who has risen to that
+grandeur and serenity of colors." "Never," he said in another      (p. 241)
+place, "did the art of writing tread closer upon the art of the pencil.
+This is the school of study for literary landscape-painters." Cooper
+himself, if contemporary reports are to be trusted, was at the time in
+the habit of saying that the palm of merit in his writings lay between
+this novel and "The Deerslayer." He certainly reckoned them the best of
+the five stories which have the unity of a common interest by having the
+same hero, and these five he put at the head of his performances. "If
+anything from the pen of the writer of these romances," he said, toward
+the close of his life, "is at all to outlive himself, it is
+unquestionably the series of 'The Leather-Stocking Tales.' To say this
+is not to predict a very lasting reputation for the series itself, but
+simply to express the belief that it will outlast any or all of the
+works from the same hand."
+
+But at this time no work of his was treated fairly by the American
+press. His name was rarely mentioned save in censure or derision. Both
+"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" on their first appearance were
+violently assailed. It is giving praise to a good deal of the
+contemporary criticism passed upon them to call it merely feeble and
+senseless. Much of it was marked by a malignity which fortunately was as
+contemptible intellectually as it was morally. Still, neither this
+hostile criticism nor Cooper's own personal unpopularity hindered the
+success of the books. He says, to be sure, in the preface to the revised
+edition of the Leather-Stocking tales which came out towards the end of
+his life, that probably not one in ten of those who knew all about the
+three earlier works of the series had any knowledge of the existence of
+the two last. This assertion seems exaggerated. It certainly struck many
+with surprise at the time it was made; for both "The Pathfinder"   (p. 242)
+and "The Deerslayer" had met with a large sale.
+
+Between the publication of these two novels appeared, on the 24th of
+November, 1840, "Mercedes of Castile." The subject of this was the first
+voyage of Columbus. It had several very obvious defects. It was marred
+by that prolixity of introduction which was a fault that ran through the
+majority of Cooper's tales. The reader meets with as many
+discouragements and rebuffs and turnings aside in getting under way as
+did the great navigator the story celebrates. There was, moreover, an
+excess of that cheap moralizing, that dwelling upon commonplace truths,
+which was another of Cooper's besetting sins. The only effect these
+discourses have upon the reader is to make him feel that while virtue
+may be a very good thing, it is an excessively tedious thing. As a
+novel, "Mercedes of Castile" must be regarded as a failure. On the other
+hand, as a story of the first voyage of Columbus, told with the special
+knowledge of a seaman, the accuracy of an historian, and with something
+of the fervor of a poet, it will always have a peculiar interest of its
+own.
+
+Two sea-stories followed "The Deerslayer." The first of these, entitled
+"The Two Admirals," was published in April, 1842, and the second in
+November of the same year. Cooper was at this time engaged in the
+hottest of his fight with the American press and people. Publicly and
+privately he was expressing his contempt for nearly everything and
+everybody. He, in turn, was undergoing assaults from every quarter. It
+is, therefore, a singular illustration of the love of country which
+burned in him with an intense, even when hidden, flame, that in    (p. 243)
+in the midst of his greatest unpopularity he was unwilling to desert his
+own flag for that of the land to which he was forced to go for material.
+Yet there was every inducement. He wished to do what had never before
+been done in fiction. His aim was to describe the evolutions of fleets
+instead of confining himself to the movements of single vessels. But no
+American fleet had ever been assembled, no American admiral had ever
+trod a quarter-deck. In order, therefore, to describe operations on a
+grand scale he had to have recourse to the history of the
+mother-country; but he purposely put the scene in "The Two Admirals" in
+a period when the states were still colonies. This novel takes a very
+high place among the sea-stories, so long as the action is confined to
+the water. But it suffers greatly from the carelessness and the
+incompleteness with which the details are worked out.
+
+In "Wing-and-Wing," which followed it, the fortune of a French privateer
+is told. The scene is laid in the Mediterranean, and the time is the end
+of the last century. Though inferior in power to some of his other
+sea-stories, it is far from being a poor novel; and it was, in fact, one
+of the author's favorites. But its greatest interest is in the view it
+gives of a tendency in Cooper's character which was constantly becoming
+more pronounced. The Puritanic narrowness of the very deep and genuine
+religious element in his nature was steadily increasing as time went on.
+In "Precaution" it has been already observed that the doctrine had been
+laid down by one of the characters that there should be no marriage
+between Christians and non-Christians. In "Wing-and-Wing" this doctrine
+was fully carried out. The heroine is a devout Roman Catholic. She loves
+devotedly the hero, the captain of the French privateer. She       (p. 244)
+trusts in his honor; she admires his abilities and character; she is
+profoundly affected by the fervor of the affection he bears to herself.
+But he is an infidel. He is too honest and honorable to pretend to
+believe and think differently from what he really believes and thinks.
+As she cannot convert him, she will not marry him: and in the end
+succeeds indirectly, by her refusal, in bringing about his death. It
+never seemed to occur to Cooper that the course of conduct he was
+holding up as praiseworthy, in his novels, could have little other
+effect in real life than to encourage hypocrisy where it did not produce
+misery. The man who, for the sake of gaining a great prize, changes his
+religious views is sure to have his sincerity distrusted by others. That
+can be borne. But he is equally certain to feel distrust of himself. He
+cannot have that perfect confidence in his own convictions, or even in
+his own character, that would be the case had no considerations of
+personal advantage influenced him in the slightest in the decision he
+had made, or the conclusions to which he had come. Even he who believes
+in this course of action as something to be quietly adopted might wisely
+refuse to proclaim it loudly as a rule for the conduct of life.
+
+The next important work that followed was "Wyandotte; or the Hutted
+Knoll." It was published on the 5th of September, 1843. The story, as a
+whole, was a tragic one. In spite of the fact that the events occur in
+the place and time where some of the author's greatest successes had
+been achieved, this novel is inferior to all his others that deal with
+the same scenes. Certain manifestations of his feelings and certain
+traits of character indicated, rather than expressed, in the tales
+immediately preceding, were in this one distinctly revealed. His   (p. 245)
+dislike of the newspapers and the critics has been so often referred
+to that it needs hardly to be said that in all the writings of this
+period these offenders were soundly castigated. Especially was this true
+of the preface. It was there, if anywhere, that Cooper was apt to
+concentrate all the ill-humor he felt--his wrath against the race and
+his scorn of the individual. But the two feelings that henceforth became
+conspicuously noticeable in nearly all his writings were his regard for
+the Episcopal church and his dislike of New England. They manifest
+themselves sometimes deliciously, sometimes disagreeably. In the midst
+of a story remote as possible from the occurrences of modern life,
+suddenly turn up remarks upon the apostolic origin of bishops, or the
+desirability of written prayers, and the need of a liturgy. The
+impropriety of their introduction, from a literary point of view, Cooper
+never had sufficient delicacy of taste to feel. Less excusable were the
+attacks he made upon those whose religious views differed from his own.
+The insults he sometimes offered to possible readers were as needless as
+they were brutal. In one of his later novels he mentioned "the rowdy
+religion--half-cant, half-blasphemy, that Cromwell and his associates
+entailed on so many Englishmen." There is little reason to doubt that
+under proper conditions Cooper could easily have developed into a
+sincere, narrow-minded, and ferocious bigot.[2]
+
+                   [Footnote 2: Poe wrote a review of _Wyandotte_ which
+                   appeared in _Graham's Magazine_ for November, 1843.
+                   As notices of Cooper's novels then went, this may be
+                   regarded as a favorable one, though in it the critic
+                   took occasion to divide works of fiction into two
+                   classes: one of a popular sort which anybody could
+                   write, and the other of a kind intrinsically more
+                   worthy and artistic, and capable of being produced
+                   only by the few. At the head of the former class he
+                   placed Cooper, but had the grace not to include his
+                   own name in the latter class which he had created for
+                   himself. The reader will be edified to learn from a
+                   life of Poe, written by John H. Ingram (2 vols.,
+                   London, 1880), that the writing of this review was an
+                   act of heroic and even desperate hardihood. Poe, it
+                   seems, had before valorously depreciated Halleck; but
+                   his crowning act of courage is introduced with the
+                   statement that "he dared all _published_ opinion, and
+                   in the very teeth of Cooper's supreme popularity
+                   ventured upon saying" the remarks which have already
+                   been referred to, and which are quoted in full by the
+                   biographer, to whom is also to be given the credit of
+                   the italicized word in the foregoing quotation. No
+                   small share of the common belief in regard to
+                   Cooper's character and career is based upon
+                   assertions about as trustworthy as this.]
+
+Full as marked and even more persistent were his attacks upon      (p. 246)
+New England. There was little specially characteristic of that portion
+of the country with which he did not find fault. New England cooking of
+the first class was inferior to that of the second class in the Middle
+States. The New Yorker of humble life, not of Yankee descent, spoke the
+language better than thousands of educated men in New England. This
+dislike kept steadily increasing. As late as 1844, if he sent his heroes
+to college at all, he sent them to Yale; after that year he transferred
+them to Princeton. With all this there is constantly seen going on a
+somewhat amusing struggle between his dislike and the thorough honesty
+of his nature, which forced him to admit in the men of New England
+certain characteristics of a high order. Their frugality, their
+enterprise, their readiness of resource, he could not deny. Still, he
+continued to imply that these qualities were used pretty generally for
+selfish ends. In his later works, in consequence, his villains were very
+apt to be New Englanders. They were not villains of a romantic type.
+They were mean rather than vicious; crafty rather than bold; given to
+degrading but at the same time cheap excesses. The first of these  (p. 247)
+these special representatives of the New England character is the
+powerful but somewhat unpleasant creation of Ithuel Bolt in
+"Wing-and-Wing," who finds a fitting sequel to a life passed largely in
+committing acts of doubtful morality in becoming a deacon in a
+Congregational church. After him follows a succession of personages who
+represent nearly every conceivable shade of craft, meanness, and
+dishonesty that is consistent with the respect of the Puritan community
+about them, and with a high position in the religious society of which
+they form a part.
+
+There was, it must be admitted, some justification for Cooper's feelings
+towards New England on the score of retaliation. He had been criticised
+from the beginning in that part of the country with a severity that
+often approached virulence. He had been denied there the possession of
+qualities which the rest of the world agreed in according him.
+Cultivated society has always been afflicted with a class too
+superlatively intellectual to enjoy what everybody else likes. Of these
+unhappy beings New England has had the misfortune to have perhaps more
+than her proper share. It was hardly in human nature that the
+disparagement he received from these should not have influenced his
+feelings towards the region which had given them birth and
+consideration.
+
+It is pleasant to turn aside from these scenes and sayings which show
+the least amiable side of a nature essentially noble, and pass to one of
+the little incidents that are strikingly characteristic of the man. On
+board the Sterling, the merchantman on which Cooper's first voyage was
+made, was a boy younger than himself. His name was Ned Myers. This
+person had spent his life on the sea. He had belonged to seventy-two
+crafts, exclusive of prison-ships, transports, and vessels in      (p. 248)
+which he had merely made passages. According to his own calculation he
+had been twenty-five years out of sight of land. After this long and
+varied career he had finally landed in that asylum for worn-out
+mariners, the "Sailors' Snug Harbor." From here, late in 1842, he wrote
+to Cooper, asking him if he were the one with whom he had served in the
+Sterling. Cooper, who never forgot a friend, sent him a reply,
+beginning: "I am your old shipmate, Ned," and told him when and where he
+could be found in New York. There in a few months they met after an
+interval of thirty-seven years. Cooper took the battered old hulk of a
+seaman up to Cooperstown in June, 1843, and entertained him for several
+weeks. While the two were knocking about the lake, and the latter was
+telling his adventures, it occurred to the former to put into print the
+wandering life the sailor had led. Between them the work was done that
+summer, and in November, 1843, "Ned Myers; or, Life before the Mast" was
+published. This work has often been falsely spoken of as a novel. It is,
+on the contrary, a truthful record, so far as dependence can be placed
+upon the word or the memory of the narrator. "This is literally," said
+Myers, "my own story, logged by an old shipmate."
+
+In 1842 Cooper had entered into an engagement to write regularly for
+"Graham's Magazine." This periodical, which had been formed not long
+before by the union of two others, had rapidly risen to high reputation,
+and claimed a circulation of thirty thousand copies. In the first four
+numbers of 1843 Cooper published the shortest of his stories. It was
+entitled "The Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief." For some reason
+not easy to explain, this has never been included in the regular   (p. 249)
+editions of his novels. In it he made in some measure another effort to
+reproduce the social life of New York city. The previous failure was
+repeated. An air of ridiculous unreality is given to this part of the
+story in which the impossible talk of impossible people is paraded as a
+genuine representation of what takes place in civilized society. The
+autobiographical form which he had first adopted in this tale he
+continued in the two series of "Afloat and Ashore." These appeared
+respectively in June and in December, 1844. They are essentially one
+novel, though the second part goes usually in this country under the
+title of "Miles Wallingford," the name of its hero; and in Europe under
+that of "Lucy Harding," the name of its heroine.
+
+This work, the first part more particularly, is a delightful story of
+adventure. As usual there are startling incidents, perilous situations,
+and hairbreadth escapes enough to furnish sufficient materials for a
+dozen ordinary fictions. Yet the probabilities are better preserved than
+in many of Cooper's novels where the events are far fewer, as well as
+far less striking. But it is interesting, not merely for the incidents
+it contains, but for the revelation it makes of the man who wrote it.
+Expressions of personal feeling and opinion turn up unexpectedly
+everywhere, and make slight but constantly recurring eddies in the
+stream of the story. Everything is to be found here which he had ever
+discussed before. The inferiority of the bay of New York to that of
+Naples; the miserable cooking and gross feeding of New England; the
+absolute necessity of a liturgy in religious worship; the contempt he
+felt for the misguided beings who presume to deny the existence of (p. 250)
+bishops in the primitive church; his aversion to paper money; his
+disdain for the shingle palaces of the Grecian temple school; his scorn
+of the idea that one man is as good as another; these and scores of
+similar utterances arrest constantly the reader's attention. But they do
+not jar upon his feelings as in many other of his writings. They are
+essentially different in tone. There runs through this series a vein of
+ill-natured amiability or amiable ill-nature--it is hard to say which
+phrase is more appropriate--which gives to the whole what
+horticulturists call a delicate sub-acid flavor. The roar of contempt
+found in previous writings subsided in these into a sort of prolonged
+but subdued growl. But it is a case in which the reader feels that it is
+eminently proper that the writer should growl. It is the old man of
+sixty-five telling the tale of his early years. His preferences for the
+past do not irritate us, they entertain us. It is right that the world
+about him should seem meaner and more commonplace than it did in the
+fever-fit of youth and love, when it was joy merely to live. The work,
+moreover, has another characteristic that gives it a whimsical
+attractiveness. It is a tale of the good old times when New York had
+still some New York feeling left; when her old historic names still
+carried weight and found universal respect, and her old families still
+ruled society with a despotic sway; and especially before the whole
+state had been overrun by the lank, angular, loose-jointed, slouching,
+shrewd, money-worshiping sons of the Puritans, whose restless activity
+had triumphed over the slow and steady respectability of the original
+settlers. The scene of this story, so far as it is laid on land, is
+mainly in the river counties; but in spite of that fact it is difficult
+not to think that some recollections of the writer's own youth     (p. 251)
+were not mingled in certain portions of it. Especially is it a hard task
+not to fancy that in the heroine, Lucy Harding, he was drawing, in some
+slight particulars at least, the picture of his own wife, and telling
+the story of his early love.
+
+The delineation of the New York life of the past which he had in some
+measure accomplished in these volumes, he now continued more fully in
+certain works which took up successive periods in the history of the
+state. The idea of writing them was suggested by events that were taking
+place at the time. The troubles which arose in certain counties of New
+York after the death, in 1839, of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon,
+were now culminating in a series of acts of violence and bloodshed,
+perpetrated usually by men disguised as Indians. The questions involved
+had likewise become subjects of fierce political controversy. Cooper,
+who saw in the conduct of the tenants and their supporters a dangerous
+invasion of the rights of property, plunged into the discussion of the
+matter with all the ardor of his fiery temperament. He worked himself
+into the highest state of excitement over the proceedings. It was his
+interest in this matter that led him to compose the three works which
+are collectively called the Anti-rent novels. These purport to be the
+successive records of the Littlepage family, and each is in the form of
+an autobiography. They cover a period extending from the first half of
+the eighteenth century down to the very year in which he was writing.
+
+It was about this time that Cooper's reputation touched the lowest
+point to which it has ever fallen, so far, at least, as it depends
+upon the opinion of critics and of men of letters. He was now      (p. 252)
+reaping the fruits of the various controversies in which he had been
+engaged, and of all the hostility which he had succeeded in inspiring.
+The two anti-rent novels which appeared in 1845 were "Satanstoe,"
+published in June, and "The Chainbearer," published in November. They
+may have had a large sale. But there is scarcely a review of the period
+in which they are even mentioned. Even the newspapers contain merely the
+barest reference to their existence. It is perhaps partly due to this
+contemporary silence that these two stories are among the least known
+and least read of Cooper's productions. Moreover, they are constantly
+misjudged. The tone which pervades the concluding novel of the series is
+taken as the tone which pervades the two which preceded it. This is an
+injustice as well as a mistake. In no sense is "Satanstoe," in
+particular, a political novel. There is no reference to anti-rentism in
+it save in the preface. Its only connection with the subject is the
+account it gives of the manner in which the great estates were
+originally settled. On the other hand it is a picture of colonial life
+and manners in New York during the middle of the eighteenth century,
+such as can be found drawn nowhere else so truthfully and so vividly. It
+takes rank among the very best of Cooper's stories. The characters are,
+to a certain extent, the same as in "Afloat and Ashore;" the main
+difference being, that in the one the events take place principally on
+land, and in the other on water. Even those majestic first families,
+whom he had celebrated before, loom up in these pages with renewed and
+increasing grandeur. But the story is throughout told in a graphic and
+spirited manner, and as it approaches the end and details the scenes
+that follow Abercrombie's repulse at Lake George in 1758, it       (p. 253)
+becomes intensely exciting. The villain of the tale is, of course, a New
+Englander, in this instance a long, ungainly pedagogue from Danbury,
+Connecticut. He does not, however, blossom out into the full perfection
+of his rascality until he makes his appearance in "The Chainbearer," the
+next novel of the series. This tale, though decidedly inferior to
+"Satanstoe," contains passages of great interest. The description,
+especially, of the squatter family and the life led by it, is one of
+Cooper's most powerfully drawn pictures.
+
+It has been the misfortune of this series that the member of it which
+has attracted most attention is "The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin,"
+which came out in July, 1846. This is one of three or four books which,
+in a certain way, give one a high idea of Cooper's power in the fact
+that his reputation has been able to survive them. If he had been
+anxious to help the anti-renters and hurt the patroon, he could hardly
+have done better than to write this book. As a story it has no merit.
+The incidents told in it are absurd. It is full, moreover, of the
+arguments that irritate but do not convince; and is liberally supplied,
+in addition, with prophecies that have never been realized. Everything
+that was disagreeable in Cooper's manner and bungling in his art, was
+conspicuous in this work. His dislikes were not uttered pleasantly, as
+in "Afloat and Ashore," but with an ill-nature that often bordered upon
+ferocity. A tone of pretension ran through the whole, a constant
+reference to what men think who had seen the world, with the implied
+inference that those who disagreed with the author in opinion had not
+seen the world. The feeling of the reader is, that if this extravagance
+and over-statement be the result of travel, men had better stay    (p. 254)
+at home. Nor did Cooper refrain from dragging in everything with which
+he had found fault before. We are not even spared the everlasting
+reference to the bays of New York and of Naples. The work is what he
+himself would have called provincial in the worst sense of that word.
+Even more than its spirit was its matter extraordinary for a work of
+fiction. Part of it is little else than a controversial tract on the
+superiority of Episcopacy; and the temper in which it is written could
+hardly have been grateful to any but an opponent of that church.
+"Satanstoe" is full of many of Cooper's likes and dislikes, but there
+can be no greater contrast conceived than between the tone which
+pervades that delightful creation, and the boisterous brawling of "The
+Redskins".
+
+With the publication of this series Cooper's career as a creator of
+works of imagination practically closed. He wrote several novels
+afterward, but not one of them did anything to advance his reputation.
+Some of them tended to lower it. This was not due to failure of power,
+but to its misdirection. The didactic element in his nature had now
+gained complete mastery over the artistic. The interest, such as it is,
+which belongs to his later stories, is rarely a literary interest. Not
+one of them has the slightest pretension to be termed a work of art.
+There are, at times, passages in them that thrill us, and scenes that
+display something of his old skill in description. But these are
+recollections rather than new creations. Cooper's fame would not have
+been a whit lessened, if every line he wrote after "The Chainbearer" had
+never seen the light.
+
+The works that came out during the remaining years of his life     (p. 255)
+were "The Crater," published October 12, 1847; "Jack Tier," published
+March 21, 1848; "The Oak Openings," published August 24 of the same
+year; "The Sea Lions," published April 10, 1849, and "The Ways of the
+Hour," published April 10, 1850. Of these "Jack Tier" originally made
+its appearance in "Graham's Magazine" during the years 1845-1847, under
+the title of "The Islets of the Gulf," and strictly stands first in the
+order of time. It shares with "The Crater" the distinction of being one
+of the two best of these later stories. It may be fair to mention that
+Bryant saw in it as much spirit, energy, invention, and life-like
+presentation of objects and events as in anything the author ever wrote.
+This will seem exaggerated praise when one reads it in connection with
+"The Red Rover," of which it is in some respects a feeble reflection. It
+was hard for Cooper to be uninteresting when once fairly launched upon
+the waves. Without denying the existence in "Jack Tier" of passages of
+marked power, no small share of it was merely a reproduction of what had
+been done and better done before. The old woman who is constantly
+misusing nautical terms is the most palpable imitation of the admiral's
+widow in "The Red Rover." It is a cheap expedient at best, and must at
+any time be used with extreme moderation. Above all, it is a device
+which is abused the very moment it is repeated. As displayed in "Jack
+Tier," it is simply unendurable. Cooper's silly people, in facts are apt
+to be silly not only beyond human experience but almost beyond human
+conception. The tragedy, moreover, with which this novel ends is
+intended to be terrible, while as a matter of fact it is merely
+grotesque and absurd. The tale reaches a sudden but necessary conclusion
+because nearly all the characters are disposed of at once by       (p. 256)
+drowning or killing. There is scarcely any one left to carry on the
+action of the story.
+
+"The Crater," which in one sense followed and in another preceded "Jack
+Tier," has a very special interest to the student of Cooper's character.
+He had now lived for so long a time a life remote from the real clash of
+conflicting views that he had finally reached that satisfied state of
+opinion which thinks the little circle in which it moves is the proper
+orbit for the revolution of thought of the whole race. As he advanced in
+years he narrowed instead of broadening. The intensity of his faith
+coupled with his energy of expression makes this fact very conspicuous;
+and in "The Crater" the reader is alternately attracted by the shrewd
+and keen remarks of the writer, and repelled by his illiberality. The
+novel tells the tale of a shipwrecked mariner cast away on a reef not
+laid down in any chart and unknown to navigators. This barren spot he
+makes bud and blossom as the rose. To the new Utopia he has created in
+the bosom of the Pacific he brings a body of emigrants. Their
+proceedings are entertainingly told. But the history of the decline of
+the colony from its primitive state of happiness and perfection, which
+is designed to furnish a warning, tends instead to fill the irreverent
+with amusement. While under the control of its founder and governor, who
+combined all the virtues, it is represented as enjoying peace and
+prosperity. Demagogism had no control. The reign of gossip had not
+begun. The great discovery had not been made that men were merely
+incidents of newspapers. Care was taken that the children should not
+imbibe any false principles, that is, any principles which the     (p. 257)
+ruling powers thought false. The schools did not furnish much instruction,
+but owing to this considerate watchfulness they were innocent if they
+were inefficient. Still this ingenious arrangement for stopping the
+progress of the human mind could not work forever. From the start there
+was a dangerous element, though in this case the colonists had not come
+from New England but from the Middle States. Very speedily that innate
+depravity of the human heart which does not like to hear a clergyman
+read prayers, which looks with suspicion upon a liturgy, began to
+manifest itself. This, however, was kept under control until the arrival
+of new colonists. This Eden was then invaded not by one serpent only,
+but by several. Four of them were clergymen; one a Presbyterian, one a
+Methodist, one a Baptist, and one a Quaker. This was too much for the
+solitary Episcopalian who had previously been on the ground, and who is
+represented as combining a weak physical constitution with a very strong
+conception of his apostolic authority as a divine. It must be conceded
+that for a population of about five hundred souls the supply of
+spiritual teachers was ample. With them came also a lawyer and an
+editor. The seeds of dissolution were at once sown. The colonists became
+ungrateful, and began to inquire not only into the conduct of their
+governor, but even into the title by which he held some of his lands. He
+finally left the spot in disgust, and having first taken the precaution
+to dispose of his property at a good price, returned to his native
+country. A natural yearning to see the community he had established led
+the discoverer to revisit, after a few months, the scene of his trials.
+He sailed to the spot but he could not find it. A convulsion of nature
+similar to that which had raised the reef above the level of the   (p. 258)
+waves had sunk it again out of sight. Ungrateful colonists,
+clergymen, editor, and lawyer, had all perished.
+
+In June, 1847, Cooper made a trip to the West, and went as far as
+Detroit. One result of this journey was the novel of "The Oak Openings;
+or, the Bee-Hunter." This must be looked upon as a decided failure. The
+desire to lecture his fellow-men on manners had now given place to a
+desire to edify them; and he was no more successful in the one than he
+had been in the other. In this instance the issue of the story depends
+on the course of an Indian who is converted to Christianity by
+witnessing the way in which a self-denying Methodist missionary meets
+his death. The whole winding-up is unnatural, and the process of turning
+the organizing chief of a great warlike confederacy into a Sunday-school
+hero is only saved from being commonplace by being absurd. Far more
+singular, however, was the central idea of "The Sea Lions," the story
+that followed. This is certainly one of the most remarkable conceptions
+that it ever entered into the mind of a novelist to create. It shows the
+intense hold religious convictions were taking of Cooper's feelings, and
+to what extremes of opinion they were carrying him. In "Wing-and-Wing"
+the hero had been discarded because he was a thorough infidel. But
+Cooper's sentiments had now moved a long distance beyond this
+milk-and-water way of dealing with religious differences. In "The Sea
+Lions" the hero merely denied the divinity of Christ, while he professed
+to hold him in reverence as the purest and most exalted of men. But if
+there was any one point on which the heroine was sound and likewise
+inflexible, it was the doctrine of the Trinity. Whatever else she  (p. 259)
+doubted, she was absolutely sure of the incarnation. She would not
+unite herself with one who presumed to "set up his own feeble
+understanding of the nature of the mediation between God and man in
+opposition to the plainest language of revelation as well as to the
+prevalent belief of the Church." In this case the hero is converted,
+apparently by spending a winter in the Antarctic seas. An important
+agent in effecting this change of belief is a common seaman who improves
+every occasion to drop into the conversation going on, some unexpected
+Trinitarian remark. When the master has almost against hope saved his
+vessel, and in the thankfulness of his heart invokes blessing on the
+name of God, Stimson is on hand at his elbow to add, "and that of his
+only and _true_ Son." This novel is, indeed, a further but unneeded
+proof of how little Cooper was able to project himself out of the circle
+of his own feelings, or to aid any cause which he had near to his heart.
+He had had much to say about New England cant. Yet in this work he can
+find no words sufficiently strong to praise what he calls the zealous
+freedom and Christian earnestness of one of the most offensive canters
+that the whole range of fiction presents. It would be unjust to deny
+that when in "The Sea Lions" Cooper abandons his metaphysics and turns
+to his real business, that he creates a powerful story. One may almost
+be said at times to feel the cold, the desolation, the darkness, and the
+gloom of an Antarctic winter confronting and overshadowing the spirit.
+But there can be little that is more tedious than the dry chaff of
+theological discussion which is here threshed for us over and over
+again. Believers in the Trinity had as little reason as believers in
+Episcopacy to rejoice in Cooper's advocacy of their faith. There   (p. 260)
+was nothing original in his views; there was nothing pointed or
+forcible in his statement of them. He meant to inculcate a lesson, and
+the only lesson that can possibly be drawn is the sufficiently absurd
+one that dwellers in the chilly spiritual clime of Unitarianism can be
+cured of their faith in that icy creed by being subjected to the horrors
+of a polar winter. Far more clearly does the novel show the falling-off
+in his artistic conceptions and the narrowing process his opinions were
+undergoing. At the rate this latter was taking place it seems probable
+that had he lived to write another novel on a theme similar to this, his
+hero would have been compelled to abandon his belief in Presbyterianism,
+Congregationalism, Methodism, or some other ism before he would be found
+worthy of being joined in the marriage relation to his Episcopalian
+bride.
+
+The "Ways of the Hour" was the last work that Cooper published.
+Everything he now wrote was written with a special object. The design of
+this was to attack trial by jury; but he was not prevented by that fact
+from discussing several other matters that were uppermost in his mind.
+The incidents of the story utterly destroyed the effectiveness of the
+lesson that it was intended to convey. It would be dignifying too much
+many of the events related in it to say that they are improbabilities:
+they are simply impossibilities. The "Ways of the Hour" was, however,
+like the preceding novels, often full of suggestive remarks, on many
+other points than trial by jury. It showed in numerous instances the
+working of an acute, vigorous, and aggressive intellect. The good
+qualities it has need not be denied: only they are not the good
+qualities that belong to fiction.
+
+The  pecuniary profits that his works brought him during this      (p. 261)
+latter period of his life there are, perhaps, no means of ascertaining.
+Much of the literary activity of his last years was due to necessity
+rather than to inspiration. He had been concerned for a long time in
+company with a number of men of business in a series of cotton
+speculations, and in others connected with Western lands. In both cases
+the ventures were unprofitable, and the desire of retrieving his losses
+was one of the causes that led to this constant literary production.
+There were other circumstances, too, besides his mere unpopularity that
+had tended to reduce the amount gained from what he wrote. After 1838,
+the income received from England naturally fell off, in consequence of
+the change in the law of copyright. The act of Parliament passed in that
+year provided that no foreign author outside of British dominions should
+have copyright in those dominions unless the country to which he
+belonged gave copyright to the English author. No fault can be found
+with this legislation on the score of justice. The value of anything
+produced by a citizen of the United States fell at once as a necessary
+consequence of the want of protection against piracy. The British
+publisher, not from any motive of mere personal gain, but from an
+unselfish desire by retaliatory proceedings to bring about a better
+state of things, went speedily to work to plunder the American author
+who favored international copyright in order to show his disgust at the
+conduct of the American publisher who opposed it. As a matter of fact
+Cooper's novels were from that time published in Great Britain, in cheap
+form, and sold at a cheap price. Such reprints could not but lower the
+amount which could be offered for his work. Newspaper reports, the (p. 262)
+correctness of which can neither be affirmed nor denied, frequently
+mention that for the copyright of each of his earlier novels he was in
+the habit of receiving a thousand guineas. We know positively that for
+his later tales, as fast as they were written, Bentley, his London
+publisher, usually paid him three hundred pounds each.
+
+In America circumstances of another kind contributed to reduce the
+profits from his works. Most of them were published at a price that
+would have required an immense sale to make them remunerative at all. It
+was about 1840 that two weekly newspapers in New York, "The New World,"
+and "The Brother Jonathan," had begun the practice of reprinting in
+their columns the writings of the most popular novelists which were then
+coming out in England. As soon as these were finished they were brought
+out in parts and sold at a small price. This piracy was so successful
+that imitators sprang up everywhere. The large publishing houses were
+soon obliged to follow in the wake of the newspaper establishments. The
+reign of the so-called "cheap and nasty" literature began. The
+productions of the greatest foreign novelists were sold for a song. The
+native writer was subjected to a competition which forced him at once to
+lower his price or to go unread. Beginning with "Wing-and-Wing," the
+rate at which Cooper's works were published furnishes a striking
+commentary upon the cheap professions of sympathy with letters current
+in this country, indicates suggestively the inspiriting inducements held
+out by the law-making power to enter upon the career of authorship, and
+shows with disgraceful clearness how utterly the interests of the men
+engaged in the creation of literature had been subordinated to the (p. 263)
+greed of those who traded in it. The barest recital of the facts
+makes evident the nature of the encouragement given. "Wing-and-Wing" was
+published at twenty-five cents a volume. So were "Wyandotte," "The
+Redskins," "The Crater," "Jack Tier," "The Oak Openings," and "The Sea
+Lions." The four volumes of the series "Afloat and Ashore" were
+published at thirty-seven and a half cents each; and at the same rate
+"Satanstoe" came out, and also "Ned Myers." It was not till Cooper's
+last work appeared that the price went up as high as a dollar and
+twenty-five cents. This was in one volume; but it is to be kept in mind,
+in considering these prices, that in America his novels regularly
+appeared in two.
+
+One further experiment Cooper made in a new field; and with it the
+record of his literary life closes. In the year 1850 he tried the stage.
+On the 18th of June a comedy written by him was brought out at Burton's
+Theatre, New York. It was entitled, "Upside Down; or, Philosophy in
+Petticoats." For the three nights following the 18th it was acted, and
+was then withdrawn. It has never been played since, nor has it been
+published.
+
+All these years he spent his time mainly in his home at Cooperstown.
+There, besides the pleasure he found in the improvement of the extensive
+grounds about his house, he gave full vent to that latent passion for
+wasting money in agricultural operations, which seems to be one of the
+most widely-extended peculiarities of the English race. On the eastern
+shore of the lake, about a mile from the village, he bought a farm of
+about two hundred acres which he called the "Châlet." The view from it
+was exceedingly beautiful, looking as it did down the Valley of    (p. 264)
+the Susquehanna. The farm, too, had its picturesque and poetical
+features; but unhappily it was little adapted to practical agriculture.
+It stood on a hill-side, the abruptness of which was only occasionally
+relieved by a few acres of level land. Much of it was still covered with
+the original forest; and a good deal of the cleared land was full of
+stumps. To superintend the removal of these latter was one of Cooper's
+chief relaxations from mental labor. It is a desirable thing to do, but
+it has never been found pecuniarily profitable in itself. To this place
+Cooper daily drove in the summer season, and spent two or three hours
+directing the operations that were going on, finding constantly new ways
+to spend money, and doubtless pleasing himself occasionally with the
+fancy that the farm would at some time pay expenses. And in the best
+sense it did pay expenses. It gave regular diversion to his life; it
+ministered constantly to his enjoyment of the beautiful in scenery; and
+it occupied his thoughts with perpetual projects of improvement for
+which its character furnished unlimited opportunities. He had bought it
+for pleasure and not for profit; and in that it yielded him a full
+return for the money invested.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.                                                       (p. 265)
+
+1850-1851.
+
+
+Cooper, at the time he published his last novel, was more than sixty
+years of age; but as yet he showed no traces of physical or intellectual
+decay. His literary activity remained unabated, though he was now
+purposing to direct it to other fields than that of fiction. A decided
+change was likewise taking place in the estimation in which he was held
+by the public. He had not become popular, to be sure; but he had become
+less unpopular. There was, moreover, a feeling pretty generally
+prevalent that he had been hardly used; that in many respects he had
+been a wronged and persecuted man. The ranks of those who had remained
+faithful to him during all these years of obloquy were beginning to be
+largely swelled from the newer generation which had neither part in, nor
+knowledge of, the bitter controversies in which he had been concerned.
+His friends were purposing to give a public dinner in his honor in order
+to show their regard for him as a man, and their appreciation of the
+credit his writings had brought to his country. Before this project
+could be carried into effect, the illness had overtaken him which ended
+in death.
+
+On the other hand time had, in some respect, mollified his own feelings.
+Many things had occurred to make him more gentle and forbearing. Much of
+this was certainly due to the increasing strength of his           (p. 266)
+religious convictions, which as has been noticed, steadily deepened
+during his last years. It is clear from much that appears in his later
+novels that these had, to some extent, been perverted from their
+legitimate effect, and had made him at intervals illiberal and even
+bitter. But they had brought calm to an excitable nature, and healing to
+a spirit which had been sometimes sorely wounded. In 1851 he carried out
+a plan long before determined upon. In March of that year he became a
+communicant in the Episcopal church, and in the following July was
+confirmed by his brother-in-law, Bishop DeLancey.
+
+In the summer of 1850 he was in New York city. "At this time," says
+Bryant, "his personal appearance was remarkable. He seemed in perfect
+health, and in the highest energy and activity of his faculties. I have
+scarcely seen any man at that period of life on whom his years sat more
+lightly." But even then the disease which was to destroy him was lurking
+in his system. In the beginning of April, 1851, he came again to New
+York partly for medical advice, and his changed appearance struck all
+his friends with surprise and sorrow. The digestive organs were
+impaired, the liver was torpid, and a general feebleness had taken the
+place of the vigor for which he had previously been distinguished.
+He remained several weeks in the city and then returned to Cooperstown.
+That place he never left again. The disease made rapid advances, and at
+last became a confirmed dropsy. In the latter part of August his old and
+intimate friend, Dr. Francis, of New York, went up to Cooper's country
+home to make a full examination of his condition. He found him worse, if
+anything, than he expected. There was, in fact, little hope of     (p. 267)
+recovery. The physician told him frankly of the danger he was in, and of
+the possibilities of restoration to health that still existed. Though
+his own perception of his condition was too clear to make the
+announcement a shock, it could not have been other than a
+disappointment. He had many projects still unfulfilled. Plans of new
+works were in his mind; and one of them on the "Towns of Manhattan,"
+partly written, was at that very time in press. But he met the news as
+bravely as he had the various troubles of his eventful life. After Dr.
+Francis' departure the malady steadily increased, and it soon became
+evident that expectation of recovery must be given up. During all these
+days he was quiet and cheerful, and his last hours were full of peace
+and hope. On Sunday, the 14th of September, 1851, at half-past one in
+the afternoon, he died. Had he lived one day longer he would have been
+sixty-two years old. In a little more than four months his wife followed
+him to the grave. They lie side by side in the grounds of Christ's
+Church at Cooperstown.
+
+His property was found, at his death, to be much impaired in value.
+Enough was left to insure the family a competency, but it became
+necessary to give up the mansion where so many years of his life had
+been passed. The dwelling went, accordingly, into other hands, and it
+was not a long while after that it burned down. Part of the grounds have
+since become public property, and that which is not so employed is
+little better than a waste.
+
+The death of men of letters did not excite at that time the attention
+which interest or fashion pays to it now. Cooper's relations, too, with
+many, had been of so strained a nature that it was hardly to be    (p. 268)
+expected that his loss should arouse universal regret. Yet it was
+felt on all hands that a great man had fallen. On the 25th of September,
+a few days after his death, a meeting was held in the City Hall, New
+York, with the intent to make a suitable demonstration of respect to his
+memory. Washington Irving presided, and a committee of prominent men of
+letters was appointed to carry into effect the measures for which the
+gathering had been called. A discourse on the life, genius, and writings
+of the dead author was fixed upon to be given by his intimate friend,
+William Cullen Bryant. On the 25th of February, 1852, this address was
+delivered at Metropolitan Hall before the most cultivated audience the
+city could boast. With a singular ineptitude, not generally appreciated
+at the time, Daniel Webster was selected to preside. He had nothing to
+say, and he said it wretchedly. It was doubtful if he had ever read a
+single work of the novelist. That, at least, is a natural inference from
+his speech, which, furthermore, is little else than a collection of
+dreary platitudes. It was after this fashion that he paid his respects
+to the man whose memory they had come together to honor. "As far as I am
+acquainted," he remarked, "with the writings of Mr. Cooper, they uphold
+good sentiments, sustain good morals, and maintain just taste; and after
+saying this I have next to add, that all his writings are truly
+patriotic and American throughout and throughout." This did not even
+reach the respectability of commonplace, and the commonplaces to which
+Webster soared in other parts of his speech did not have the poor merit
+of being sonorous. Still he looked so majestic and imposing that most of
+his audience were profoundly impressed by the justness and value   (p. 269)
+of his observations. Any failure, however, on his part in the matter of
+what he said, was more than made up by the address delivered by Byrant.
+It is not very long; it contains a few errors of fact, especially in the
+dates; but it is not only the most eloquent tribute that has been paid
+to the dead author, it has also remained during all these years the
+fullest account of the life he lived, and the work he did.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+More than sixty years have gone by since Cooper began to write; more
+than thirty since he ceased to live. If his reputation has not
+advanced during the period that has passed since his death, it has
+certainly not receded. Nor does it seem likely to undergo much change
+in the future. The world has pretty well made up its mind as to the
+value of his work. The estimate in which it is held will not be
+materially raised or lowered by anything which criticism can now
+utter. This will itself be criticised for being too obvious; for it
+can do little but repeat, with variation of phrase, what has been
+constantly said and often better said before. There is, however, now a
+chance of its meeting with fairer consideration. The cloud of
+depreciation which seems to settle upon the achievement of every man
+of letters soon after death, it was Cooper's fortune to encounter
+during life. This was partly due to the literary reaction which had
+taken place against the form of fiction he adopted, but far more to
+the personal animosities he aroused. We are now far enough removed
+from the prejudices and passions of his time to take an impartial view
+of the man, and to state, without bias for or against him, the
+conclusions to which the world has very generally come as to his
+merits and defects as a writer.
+
+At the outset it is to be said that Cooper is one of the people's  (p. 270)
+novelists as opposed to the novelists of highly-cultivated men. This
+does not imply that he has not been, and is not still, a favorite with
+many of the latter. The names of those, indeed, who have expressed
+excessive admiration for his writings far surpass in reputation and even
+critical ability those who have spoken of him depreciatingly. Still the
+general statement is true that it is with the masses he has found favor
+chiefly. The sale of his works has known no abatement since his death.
+It goes on constantly to an extent that will surprise any one who has
+not made an examination of this particular point. His tales continue to
+be read or rather devoured by the uncultivated many. They are often
+contemptuously criticised by the cultivated few, who sometimes affect to
+look upon any admiration they may have once had for them as belonging
+exclusively to the undisciplined taste of childhood.
+
+This state of things may be thought decisive against the permanent
+reputation of the novelist. The opinion of the cultivated few, it is
+said, must prevail over that of the uncultivated many. True as this is
+in certain cases, it is just as untrue in others. It is, in fact, often
+absurdly false when the general reading public represents the
+uncultivated many. On matters which come legitimately within the scope
+of their judgment the verdict of the great mass of men is infinitely
+more trustworthy than that of any small body of men, no matter how
+cultivated. Of plenty of that narrow judgment of select circles which
+mistakes the cackle of its little coterie for the voice of the world,
+Cooper was made the subject, and sometimes the victim, during his
+lifetime. There were any number of writers, now never heard of, who
+were going to outlive him, according to literary prophecies then   (p. 271)
+current, which had everything oracular in their utterance except
+ambiguity. Especially is this true of the notices of his stories of the
+sea. As I have turned over the pages of defunct criticism, I have come
+across the names of several authors whose tales descriptive of ocean
+life were, according to many contemporary estimates, immensely superior
+to anything of the kind Cooper had produced or could produce. Some of
+these writers enjoyed for a time high reputation. Most of them are now
+as utterly forgotten as the men who celebrated their praises.
+
+But however unfair as a whole may be the estimate of cultivated men in
+any particular case, their adverse opinion is pretty certain to have a
+foundation of justice in its details. This is unquestionably true in the
+present instance. Characteristics there are of Cooper's writings which
+would and do repel many. Defects exist both in manner and matter. Part
+of the unfavorable judgment he has received is due to the prevalence of
+minor faults, disagreeable rather than positively bad. These, in many
+cases, sprang from the quantity of what he did and the rapidity with
+which he did it. The amount that Cooper wrote is something that in
+fairness must always be taken into consideration. He who has crowded
+into a single volume the experience of a life must concede that he
+stands at great advantage as regards matters of detail, and especially
+as regards perfection of form, with him who has manifested incessant
+literary activity in countless ways. It was the immense quantity that
+Cooper wrote and the haste and inevitable carelessness which wait upon
+great production, that are responsible for many of his minor faults.
+Incongruities in the conception of his tales, as well as in their  (p. 272)
+execution, often make their appearance. Singular blunders can be found
+which escaped even his own notice in the final revision he gave his works.
+In "Mercedes of Castile," for instance, the heroine presents her lover
+on his outward passage with a cross framed of sapphire stones. These,
+she tells him, are emblems of fidelity. When she comes to inquire about
+them after his return she speaks of them as turquoise. Again, in "The
+Deerslayer" three castles of a curious set of chessmen are given in one
+part of the story to the Indians. Later on, two other castles of the
+same set make their appearance. This is a singular mistake for Cooper to
+overlook, for chess was a game of which he was very fond.
+
+In the matter of language this rapidity and carelessness often
+degenerated into downright slovenliness. It was bad enough to resort to
+the same expedients and to repeat the same scenes. Still from this
+charge few prolific novelists can be freed. But in Cooper there were
+often words and phrases which he worked to death. In "The Wept of
+Wish-ton-Wish" there is so perpetual a reference to the quiet way in
+which the younger Heathcote talks and acts that it has finally anything
+but a quieting effect upon the reader's feelings. In "The Headsman of
+Berne," "warm" in the sense of "well-to-do," a disagreeable usage at
+best, occurs again and again, until the feeling of disagreeableness it
+inspires at first becomes at last positive disgust. This trick of
+repetition reaches the climax of meaninglessness in "The Ways of the
+Hour." During the trial scene the judge repeats on every pretext and as
+a part of almost every speech, the sentence "time is precious;" and it
+is about the only point on which he is represented as taking a clear and
+decided stand.
+
+There were other faults in the matter of language that to some     (p. 273)
+will seem far worse. I confess to feeling little admiration for that
+grammar-school training which consists in teaching the pupil how much
+more he knows about our tongue than the great masters who have moulded
+it; which practically sets up the claim that the only men who are able
+to write English properly are the men who have never shown any capacity
+to write it at all; and which seeks, in a feeble way, to cramp usage by
+setting up distinctions that never existed, and laying down rules which
+it requires uncommon ignorance of the language to make or to heed. Still
+there are lengths to which the most strenuous stickler for freedom of
+speech does not venture to go. There are prejudices in favor of the
+exclusive legitimacy of certain constructions that he feels bound to
+respect. He recognizes, as a general rule, for instance, that when the
+subject is in the singular it is desirable that the verb should be in
+the same number. For conventionalities of syntax of this kind Cooper was
+very apt to exhibit disregard, not to say disdain. He too often passed
+the bounds that divide liberty from license. It scarcely needs to be
+asserted that in most of these cases the violation of idiom arose from
+haste or carelessness. But there were some blunders which can only be
+imputed to pure unadulterated ignorance. He occasionally used words in
+senses unknown to past or present use. He sometimes employed grammatical
+forms that belong to no period in the history of the English language. A
+curious illustration of a word combining in itself both these errors is
+_wists_, a verb, in the third person, singular. If this be anything it
+should be _wist_, the preterite of _wot_, and should have accordingly
+the meaning "knew." Cooper uses it in fact as a present with the   (p. 274)
+sense of "wishes." Far worse than occasional errors in the use of words
+are errors of construction. His sentences are sometimes involved in the
+most hopeless way, and the efforts of grammar to untie the knot by any
+means known to it serve only to make conspicuous its own helplessness.
+
+All this is, in itself, of slight importance when set off against
+positive merits. But it is constantly forced upon the reader's attention
+by the fact that Cooper himself was exceedingly critical on points of
+speech. He was perpetually going out of his way to impart bits of
+information about words and their uses, and it is rare that he blunders
+into correct statement or right inference. He often, indeed, in these
+matters carried ignorance of what he was talking about, and confidence
+in his own knowledge of it to the extremest verge of the possible. He
+sometimes mistook dialectic or antiquated English for classical, and
+laboriously corrected the latter by putting the former in parentheses by
+its side. In orthography and pronunciation he had never got beyond that
+puerile conception which fancies it a most creditable feature in a word
+that its sound shall not be suggested by anything in its spelling. In
+the case of proper names this was more than creditable; it was
+aristocratic. So in "The Crater" great care is taken to tell us that the
+hero's name, though written Woolston, was pronounced Wooster; and that
+he so continued to sound it in spite of a miserable Yankee pedagogue who
+tried hard to persuade him to follow the spelling. So, again, in "The
+Ways of the Hour" we are sedulously informed that Wilmeter is to be
+pronounced Wilmington. But absurdities like these belonged not so much
+to Cooper as to the good old times of gentlemanly ignorance in     (p. 275)
+which he lived. In his etymological vagaries, however, he sometimes left
+his age far behind. In "The Oak Openings" he enters upon the discussion
+of the word "shanty." He finds the best explanation of its origin is to
+suppose it a corruption of _chičnté_, a word which he again supposed
+might exist in Canadian French, and provided it existed there, he
+further supposed that in that dialect it might mean "dog-kennel." The
+student of language, much hardened to this sort of work on the part of
+men of letters, can read with resignation "this plausible derivation,"
+as it is styled. Cooper, however, not content with the simple glory of
+originating it, actually uses throughout the whole work _chičnté_
+instead of "shanty." This rivals, if it does not outdo, the linguistic
+excesses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
+
+There are imperfections far more serious than these mistakes in
+language. He rarely attained to beauty of style. The rapidity with which
+he wrote forbids the idea that he ever strove earnestly for it. Even the
+essential but minor grace of clearness is sometimes denied him. He had
+not, in truth, the instincts of the born literary artist. Satisfied with
+producing the main effect, he was apt to be careless in the consistent
+working out of details. Plot, in any genuine sense of the word "plot,"
+is to be found in very few of his stories. He seems rarely to have
+planned all the events beforehand; or, if he did, anything was likely to
+divert him from his original intention. The incidents often appear to
+have been suggested as the tale was in process of composition. Hence the
+constant presence of incongruities with the frequent result of bringing
+about a bungling and incomplete development. The introduction of certain
+characters is sometimes so heralded as to lead us to expect from   (p. 276)
+them far more than they actually perform. Thus, in "The Two Admirals,"
+Mr. Thomas Wychecombe is brought in with a fullness of description that
+justifies the reader in entertaining a rational expectation of finding
+in him a satisfactory scoundrel, capable, desperate, full of resources,
+needing the highest display of energy and ability to be overcome. This
+reasonable anticipation is disappointed. At the very moment when
+respectable determined villainy is in request, he fades away into a
+poltroon of the most insignificant type who is not able to hold his own
+against an ordinary house-steward.
+
+The prolixity of Cooper's introductions is a fault so obvious to every
+one that it needs here reference merely and not discussion. A similar
+remark may be made as to his moralizing, which was apt to be cheap and
+commonplace. He was much disposed to waste his own time and to exhaust
+the patience of his reader by establishing with great fullness of
+demonstration and great positiveness of assertion the truth of
+principles which most of the human race are humbly content to regard as
+axioms. A greater because even a more constantly recurring fault is the
+gross improbability to be found in the details of his stories. There is
+too much fiction in his fiction. We are continually exasperated by the
+inadequacy of the motive assigned; we are irritated by the unnatural if
+not ridiculous conduct of the characters. These are perpetually doing
+unreasonable things, or doing reasonable things at unsuitable times.
+They take the very path that must lead them into the danger they are
+seeking to shun. They engage in making love when they ought to be flying
+for their lives. His heroes, in particular, exhibit a capacity for going
+to sleep in critical situations, which may not transcend           (p. 277)
+extraordinary human experience, but does ordinary human belief. Nor is
+improbability always confined to details. It pervades sometimes the
+central idea of the story. In "The Bravo," for instance, the hero is the
+most pious of sons, the most faithful of friends, the most devoted of
+lovers. The part he has to play in the tale is to appear to be a
+cutthroat of the worst type, without doing a single thing to merit his
+reputation. It is asking too much of human credulity to believe that a
+really good man could long sustain the character of a remorseless
+desperado by merely making faces. This improbability, moreover, is most
+marked in the tales which are designed to teach a lesson. A double
+disadvantage is the result. The story is spoiled for the sake of the
+moral; and the moral is lost by the grossly improbable nature of the
+story. In the last novel Cooper wrote this is strikingly seen. He who
+can credit the possibility of the events occurring that are told in "The
+Ways of the Hour" must give up at the same time his belief in the maxim
+that truth is stranger than fiction.
+
+It has now become a conventional criticism of Cooper that his characters
+are conventional. Such a charge can be admitted without seriously
+disparaging the value of his work. In the kind of fiction to which his
+writings belong, the persons are necessarily so subordinate to the
+events that nearly all novelists of this class have been subjected to
+this same criticism. So regularly is it made, indeed, that Scott when he
+wrote a review of some of his own tales for the "Quarterly" felt obliged
+to adopt it in speaking of himself. He describes his heroes as amiable,
+insipid young men, the sort of pattern people that nobody cares a
+farthing about. Untrue as this is of many of Scott's creations,    (p. 278)
+it is unquestionably true of the higher characters that Cooper
+introduces. They are often described in the most laudatory terms; but it
+is little they do that makes them worthy of the epithets with which they
+are honored. Their talk is often of a kind not known to human society.
+One peculiarity is especially noticeable. A stiffness, not to say an
+appearance of affectation is often given to the conversation by the use
+of _thou_ and _thee_. This was probably a survival in Cooper of the
+Quakerism of his ancestors; for he sometimes used it in his private
+letters. But since the action of his stories was in nearly all cases
+laid in a period in which the second person singular had become obsolete
+in ordinary speech, an unnatural character is given to the dialogue,
+which removes it still farther from the language of real life.
+
+His failure in characterization was undoubtedly greatest in the women he
+drew. Cooper's ardent admirers have always resented this charge. Each
+one of them points to some single heroine that fulfills the highest
+requirements that criticism could demand. It seems to me that close
+study of his writings must confirm the opinion generally entertained.
+All his utterances show that the theoretical view he had of the rights,
+the duties, and the abilities of women, were of the most narrow and
+conventional type. Unhappily it was a limitation of his nature that he
+could not invest with charm characters with whom he was not in moral and
+intellectual sympathy. There was, in his eyes, but one praiseworthy type
+of womanly excellence. It did not lie in his power to represent any
+other; on one occasion he unconsciously satirized his inability even to
+conceive of any other. In "Mercedes of Castile" the heroine is     (p. 279)
+thus described by her aunt: "Her very nature," she says, "is made up of
+religion and female decorum." It is evident that the author fancied that
+in this commendation he was exhausting praise. These are the sentiments
+of a man with whom devoutness and deportment have become the culminating
+conception of the possibilities that lie in the female character. His
+heroines naturally conformed to his belief. They are usually spoken of
+as spotless beings. They are made up of retiring sweetness, artlessness,
+and simplicity. They are timid, shrinking, helpless. They shudder with
+terror on any decent pretext. But if they fail in higher qualities, they
+embody in themselves all conceivable combinations of the proprieties and
+minor morals. They always give utterance to the most unexceptionable
+sentiments. They always do the extremely correct thing. The dead
+perfection of their virtues has not the alloy of a single redeeming
+fault. The reader naturally wearies of these uninterestingly discreet
+and admirable creatures in fiction as he would in real life. He feels
+that they would be a good deal more attractive if they were a good deal
+less angelic. With all their faultlessness, moreover, they do not attain
+an ideal which is constantly realized by their living, but faulty sisters.
+They do not show the faith, the devotion, the self-forgetfulness, and
+self-sacrifice which women exhibit daily without being conscious that
+they have done anything especially creditable. They experience, so far
+as their own words and acts furnish evidence of their feelings, a sort
+of lukewarm emotion which they dignify with the name of love. But they
+not merely suspect without the slightest provocation, they give up the
+men to whom they have pledged the devotion of their lives, for reasons
+for which no one would think of abandoning an ordinary             (p. 280)
+acquaintance. In "The Spy" the heroine distrusts her lover's integrity
+because another woman does not conceal her fondness for him. In "The
+Heidenmauer" one of the female characters resigns the man she loves
+because on one occasion, when heated by wine and maddened by passion, he
+had done violence to the sacred elements. There was never a woman in
+real life, whose heart and brain were sound, that conformed her conduct
+to a model so contemptible. It is just to say of Cooper that as he
+advanced in years he improved upon this feeble conception. The female
+characters of his earlier tales are never able to do anything
+successfully but to faint. In his later ones they are given more
+strength of mind as well as nobility of character. But at best, the
+height they reach is little loftier than that of the pattern woman of
+the regular religious novel. The reader cannot help picturing for all of
+them the same dreary and rather inane future. He is as sure, as if their
+career had been actually unrolled before his eyes, of the part they will
+perform in life. They will all become leading members of Dorcas
+societies; they will find perpetual delight in carrying to the poor
+bundles of tracts and packages of tea; they will scour the highways and
+by-ways for dirty, ragged, hatless, shoeless, and godless children, whom
+they will hale into the Sunday-school; they will shine with unsurpassed
+skill in the manufacture of slippers for the rector; they will exhibit a
+fiery enthusiasm in the decoration and adornment of the church at
+Christmas and Easter festivals. Far be the thought that would deny
+praise to the mild raptures and delicate aspirations of gentle natures
+such as Cooper drew. But in novels, at least, one longs for a      (p. 281)
+ruddier life than flows in the veins of these pale, bleached-out
+personifications of the proprieties. Women like them may be far more
+useful members of society than the stormier characters of fiction that
+are dear to the carnal-minded. They may very possibly be far more
+agreeable to live with; but they are not usually the women for whom men
+are willing or anxious to die.
+
+These are imperfections that have led to the undue depreciation of
+Cooper among many highly cultivated men. Taken by themselves they might
+seem enough to ruin his reputation beyond redemption. It is a proof of
+his real greatness that he triumphs over defects which would utterly
+destroy the fame of a writer of inferior power. It is with novels as
+with men. There are those with great faults which please us and impress
+us far more than those in which the component parts are better balanced.
+Whatever its other demerits, Cooper's best work never sins against the
+first law of fictitious composition, that the story shall be full of
+sustained interest. It has power, and power always fascinates, even
+though accompanied with much that would naturally excite repulsion or
+dislike. Moreover, poorly as he sometimes told his story, he had a story
+to tell. The permanence and universality of his reputation are largely
+due to this fact. In many modern creations full of subtle charm and
+beauty, the narrative, the material framework of the fiction, has been
+made so subordinate to the delineation of character and motive, that the
+reader ceases to feel much interest in what men do in the study which is
+furnished him of why they do it. In this highly-rarefied air of
+philosophic analysis, incident and event wither and die. Work of this
+kind is apt to have within its sphere an unbounded popularity; but its
+sphere is limited, and can never include a tithe of that vast      (p. 282)
+public for which Cooper wrote and which has always cherished and kept
+alive his memory, while that of men of perhaps far finer mould has quite
+faded away.
+
+It is only fair, also, to judge him by his successes and not by his
+failures; by the work he did best, and not by what he did moderately
+well. His strength lies in the description of scenes, in the narration
+of events. In the best of these he has had no superior, and very few
+equals. The reader will look in vain for the revelation of sentiment, or
+for the exhibition of passion. The love-story is rarely well done; but
+the love-story plays a subordinate part in the composition. The moment
+his imagination is set on fire with the conception of adventure,
+vividness and power come unbidden to his pen. The pictures he then draws
+are as real to the mind as if they were actually seen by the eye. It is
+doubtless due to the fact that these fits of inspiration came to him
+only in certain kinds of composition, that the excellence of many of his
+stories lies largely in detached scenes. Still his best works are a
+moving panorama, in which the mind is no sooner sated with one picture
+than its place is taken by another equally fitted to fix the attention
+and to stir the heart. The genuineness of his power, in such cases, is
+shown by the perfect simplicity of the agencies employed. There is no
+pomp of words; there is an entire lack of even the attempt at
+meretricious adornment; there is not the slightest appearance of effort
+to impress the reader. In his portrayal of these scenes Cooper is like
+nature, in that lie accomplishes his greatest effects with the fewest
+means. If, as we are sometimes told, these things are easily done, the
+pertinent question always remains, why are they not done.
+
+Moreover, while in his higher characters he has almost             (p. 283)
+absolutely failed, he has succeeded in drawing a whole group of
+strongly-marked lower ones. Birch, in "The Spy," Long Tom Coffin and
+Boltrope in "The Pilot," the squatter in "The Prairie," Cap in "The
+Pathfinder," and several others there are, any one of which would be
+enough of itself to furnish a respectable reputation to many a novelist
+who fancies himself far superior to Cooper as a delineator of character.
+He had neither the skill nor power to draw the varied figures with which
+Scott, with all the reckless prodigality of genius, crowded his canvas.
+Yet in the gorgeous gallery of the great master of romantic fiction,
+alive with men and women of every rank in life and of every variety of
+nature, there is, perhaps, no one person who so profoundly impresses the
+imagination as Cooper's crowning creation, the man of the forests. It is
+not that Scott could not have done what his follower did, had he so
+chosen; only that as a matter of fact he did not. Leather-Stocking is
+one of the few original characters, perhaps the only great original
+character, that American fiction has added to the literature of the
+world.
+
+The more uniform excellence of Cooper, however, lies in the pictures he
+gives of the life of nature. Forest, ocean, and stream are the things
+for which he really cares; and men and women are the accessories,
+inconvenient and often uncomfortable, that must be endured. Of the
+former he speaks with a loving particularity that lets nothing escape
+the attention. Yet minute as are often his descriptions, he did not fall
+into that too easily besetting sin of the novelist, of overloading his
+picture with details. To advance the greater he sacrificed the less.
+Cooper looked at nature with the eye of a painter and not of a     (p. 284)
+photographer. He fills the imagination even more than he does the sight.
+Hence the permanence of the impression which he leaves upon the mind.
+His descriptions, too, produce a greater effect at the time and cling
+longer to the memory because they fall naturally into the narrative, and
+form a real part in the development of the story; they are not merely
+dragged in to let the reader know what the writer can do. "If Cooper,"
+said Balzac, "had succeeded in the painting of character to the same
+extent that he did in the painting of the phenomena of nature, he would
+have uttered the last word of our art." This author I have quoted
+several times, because far better even than George Sand, or indeed any
+who have criticised the American novelist, he seems to me to have seen
+clearly wherein the latter succeeded and wherein he failed.
+
+To this it is just to add one word which Cooper himself would have
+regarded as the highest tribute that could be paid to what he did.
+Whatever else we may say of his writings, their influence is always a
+healthy influence. Narrow and prejudiced he sometimes was in his
+opinions; but he hated whatever was mean and low in character. It is
+with beautiful things and with noble things that he teaches us to
+sympathize. Here are no incitements to passion, no prurient suggestions
+of sensual delights. The air which breathes through all his fictions is
+as pure as that which sweeps the streets of his mountain home. It is as
+healthy as nature itself. To read one of his best works after many of
+the novels of the day, is like passing from the heated and stifling
+atmosphere of crowded rooms to the purity, the freedom, and the
+boundlessness of the forest.
+
+In these foregoing pages I have attempted to portray an author     (p. 285)
+who was something more than an author, who in any community would have
+been a marked man had he never written a word. I have not sought to hide
+his foibles and his faults, his intolerance and his dogmatism, the
+irascibility of his temperament, the pugnacity of his nature, the
+illiberality and injustice of many of his opinions, the unreasonableness
+as well as the imprudence of the course he often pursued. To his friends
+and admirers these points will seem to have been insisted upon too
+strongly. Their feelings may, to a certain extent, be just. Cooper is,
+indeed, a striking instance of how much more a man loses in the
+estimation of the world by the exhibition of foibles, than he will by
+that of vices. In this work one side of the life he lived--the side he
+presented to the public--is the only one that, owing to circumstances,
+could be depicted. It does not present the most attractive features of
+his character. That exclusiveness of temperament which made him
+misjudged by the many, endeared him only the more to the few who were in
+a position to see how different he was from what he seemed. In nothing
+is the essential sweetness of Cooper's nature more clearly shown than in
+the intense affection he inspired in the immediate circle which
+surrounded him or that was dependent upon him. He could not fail to feel
+keenly at times how utterly his character and motives were
+misapprehended and belied. "As for myself," says the hero of "Miles
+Wallingford," "I can safely say that in scarce a circumstance of my
+life, that has brought me the least under the cognizance of the public,
+have I ever been judged justly. In various instances have I been praised
+for acts that were either totally without any merit, or at least the
+particular merit imputed to them; while I have been even           (p. 286)
+persecuted for deeds that deserved praise."
+
+His faults, in fact, were faults of temper rather than of character.
+Like the defects of his writings, too, they lay upon the surface, and
+were seen and read of all men. But granting everything that can be urged
+against him, impartial consideration must award him an ample excess of
+the higher virtues. His failings were the failings of a man who
+possessed in the fullest measure vigor of mind, intensity of conviction,
+and capability of passion. Disagree with him one could hardly help; one
+could never fail to respect him. Many of the common charges against him
+are due to pure ignorance. Of these, perhaps, the most common and the
+most absolutely baseless is the one which imputes to him excessive
+literary vanity. Pride, even up to the point of arrogance, he had; but
+even this was only in a small degree connected with his reputation as an
+author. In the nearly one hundred volumes he wrote, not a single line
+can be found which implies that he had an undue opinion of his own
+powers. On the contrary, there are many that would lead to the
+conclusion that his appreciation of himself and of his achievement was
+far lower than even the coldest estimate would form. The prevalent
+misconception on this point was in part due to his excessive
+sensitiveness to criticism and his resentment of it when hostile. It was
+partly due, also, to a certain outspokenness of nature which led him to
+talk of himself as freely as he would talk of a stranger. But his whole
+conduct showed the falseness of any such impression. From all the petty
+tricks to which literary vanity resorts, he was absolutely free. He
+utterly disdained anything that savored of manoeuvring for reputation.
+He indulged in no devices to revive the decaying attention of the  (p. 287)
+public. He sought no favors from those who were in a position to confer
+the notoriety which so many mistake for fame. He went, in fact, to the
+other extreme, and refused an aid that he might with perfect propriety
+have received. In the early period of his literary career he wrote a
+good deal for the "New York Patriot," a newspaper edited by his intimate
+friend, Colonel Gardiner. He objected to the publication in it of a
+favorable notice, which had been prepared of "The Pioneers," because by
+the fact of being an occasional contributor he was indirectly connected
+with the journal. Accordingly the criticism was not inserted. It would
+not have been possible for him to offer to review his own works, as
+Scott both offered to do and did of the "Tales of My Landlord," in the
+"Quarterly." Nor would he have acceded to a request to furnish a review
+of any production of his own, as Irving did, in the same periodical, of
+his "Conquest of Granada." No publisher who knew him, even slightly,
+would have ventured to make him a proposition of the kind. I am
+expressing no opinion as to the propriety of these particular acts; only
+that Cooper, constituted as he was, could not for a moment have
+entertained the thought of doing them.
+
+The fearlessness and the truthfulness of his nature are conspicuous in
+almost every incident of his career. He fought for a principle as
+desperately as other men fight for life. The storm of detraction through
+which he went never once shook the almost haughty independence of his
+conduct, or swerved him in the slightest from the course he had chosen.
+The only thing to which he unquestioningly submitted was the truth. His
+loyalty to that was of a kind almost Quixotic. He was in later     (p. 288)
+years dissatisfied with himself, because, in his novel of "The Pilot,"
+he had put the character of Paul Jones too high. He thought that the
+hero had been credited in that work with loftier motives than those by
+which he was actually animated. Feelings such as these formed the
+groundwork of his character, and made him intolerant of the devious ways
+of many who were satisfied with conforming to a lower code of morality.
+There was a royalty in his nature that disdained even the semblance of
+deceit. With other authors one feels that the man is inferior to his
+work. With him it is the very reverse. High qualities, such as these, so
+different from the easy-going virtues of common men, are more than an
+offset to infirmities of temper, to unfairness of judgment, or to
+unwisdom of conduct. His life was the best answer to many of the charges
+brought against his country and his countrymen; for whatever he may have
+fancied, the hostility he encountered was due far less to the matter of
+his criticisms than to their manner. Against the common cant, that in
+republican governments the tyranny of public sentiment will always bring
+conduct to the same monotonous level, and opinion to the same
+subservient uniformity, Democracy can point to this dauntless son who
+never flinched from any course because it brought odium, who never
+flattered popular prejudices, and who never truckled to a popular cry.
+America has had among her representatives of the irritable race of
+writers many who have shown far more ability to get on pleasantly with
+their fellows than Cooper. She has had several gifted with higher
+spiritual insight than he, with broader and juster views of life,  (p. 289)
+with finer ideals of literary art, and, above all, with far greater
+delicacy of taste. But she counts on the scanty roll of her men of
+letters the name of no one who acted from purer patriotism or loftier
+principle. She finds among them all no manlier nature, and no more
+heroic soul.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.                                                          (p. 290)
+
+PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COOPER'S WRITINGS.
+
+
+The following list embraces the first editions of Cooper's works;
+articles contributed to magazines; and two or three of the most
+important communications sent to the newspapers. The titles of his
+works, as published in England, were sometimes different from the titles
+used in the United States; and whenever this is the case the former are
+subjoined. It is also to be remarked that Cooper's works were sometimes
+published earlier in Europe than they were in America; but the dates
+given in this biography belong exclusively to the publication of his
+works in this country. With the exception of No. 45 and of No. 67, all
+his tales were originally published in two volumes in America; with the
+exception of No. 45 they were originally published in three volumes in
+England. First editions of many of his novels are now rarely to be found
+in libraries; and the titles given have in several cases, in
+consequence, been taken from contemporary book notices and not from
+personal examination. The titles are given in the order of publication
+of the writings.
+
+ 1. Precaution; a Novel. 2 vols. New York: A. T. Goodrich & Co., 1820.
+
+      The English edition appeared in March, 1821.
+
+
+ 2. The Spy; a Tale of the Neutral Ground. By the Author of Precaution.
+    2 vols. New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1821.
+
+      The English edition appeared in March, 1822.
+
+
+ 3. The Pioneers; or the Sources of the Susquehanna. A Descriptive (p. 291)
+    Tale. By the Author of Precaution. 2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley,
+    1823.
+
+      The English edition appeared in March, 1823.
+
+
+ 4. The Pilot; A Tale of the Sea. By the Author of The Pioneers, etc.
+    2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley, 1823.
+
+      The first edition bears the imprint of 1823, but was not actually
+      published until early in January, 1824.
+
+
+ 5. Lionel Lincoln; or the Leaguer of Boston. By the Author of The
+    Pioneers, Pilot, etc. 2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley, 1825.
+
+
+ 6. The Last of the Mohicans. A Narrative of 1757. By the Author of
+    The Pioneers. 2 vols. Philadelphia: H. C. Carey & I. Lea, 1826.
+
+
+ 7. The Prairie; a Tale. By the Author of The Pioneers and The Last of
+    the Mohicans. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1827.
+
+
+ 8. The Red Rover; a Tale. By the Author of The Pilot, etc., etc.
+    2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828.
+
+
+ 9. Notions of the Americans; Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor.
+    2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828.
+
+
+10. The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish; a Tale. By the Author of The Pioneers,
+    Prairie, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1829.
+
+      In England this was published under the title of "The Borderers;
+      or the Wept of Wish-ton-Wish." It has also been published with the
+      title of "The Heathcotes."
+
+
+11. The Water-Witch; or the Skimmer of the Seas. A Tale. By the Author
+    of The Pilot, Red Rover, etc., etc., etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1830.
+
+
+12. The Bravo; a Tale. By the Author of The Spy, The Red Rover, The
+    Water Witch, etc., etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1831.
+
+
+13. Letter of J. Fenimore Cooper to Gen. Lafayette on the Expenditure
+    of the United States of America. 50 pp.                        (p. 292)
+    Paris: Baudry's Foreign Library, 1831.
+
+
+14. The Heidenmauer; or the Benedictines. A Legend of the Rhine.
+    By the Author of The Prairie, Red Rover, Bravo, etc., etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832.
+
+
+15. Letter to the American Public.
+
+      Dated Vevay, Canton de Vaud, Oct. 1, 1832; first published in
+      Philadelphia National Gazette, Dec. 6. The subject is the
+      Expenses' Controversy. It occupies about two columns.
+
+
+16. The Headsman; or the Abbaye des Vignerons. A Tale. By the Author of
+    The Bravo, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard,
+    1833.
+
+
+17. A Letter to His Countrymen. By J. Fenimore-Cooper. 116 pp.
+    New York: John Wiley, 1834.
+
+
+18. The Monikins; edited by the Author of The Spy. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835.
+
+
+19. Comparative Resources of the American Navy.
+
+      In Naval Magazine, vol. i, No. 1, January, 1836, pp. 19-33.
+
+
+20. Hints on Manning the Navy, etc., etc.
+
+      In Naval Magazine, vol. i., No. 2, March, 1836, pp. 176-191.
+      This was published the following May in pamphlet form by the
+      "Committee of Publication for the Naval Magazine."
+
+
+21. Sketches of Switzerland. By an American. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1836.
+
+      The English title was "Excursions in Switzerland."
+
+
+22. Sketches of Switzerland. By an American. Part Second. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1836.
+
+      The English title was "A Residence in France; with an Excursion up
+      the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland."
+
+23. Gleanings in Europe. By an American. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+    Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1837.
+
+      This work is devoted to France. Its English title is         (p. 293)
+      "Recollections of Europe."
+
+
+24. Gleanings in Europe. England; by an American. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1837.
+
+      This was published in England under the title of "England; with
+      Sketches of Society in the Metropolis."
+
+
+25. Letter to the Editors of the Knickerbocker. (On the relations
+    between himself and Sir Walter Scott, etc.)
+
+      In Knickerbocker Magazine, vol. xi., April, 1838, pp. 380-386.
+
+
+26. Gleanings in Europe. Italy; by an American. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1838.
+
+      Published in England under the title of "Excursions in Italy."
+
+
+27. The American Democrat; or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations
+    of the United States of America. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Pp. 192.
+    Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney, 1838.
+
+
+28. The Chronicles of Cooperstown. Pp. 100. Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney,
+    1838.
+
+      Published anonymously. Republished at Albany in 1862 with additional
+      notes and details bringing the events down to that year. The
+      republication is entitled "A Condensed History of Cooperstown; with
+      a Biographical Sketch of J. Fenimore Cooper. By Rev. T. S. Livermore,
+      A. M." It is a volume of 276 pages, and contains Bryant's funeral
+      discourse on Cooper, with much other matter. The "Chronicles of
+      Cooperstown" extend from page 9 to page 86 inclusive.
+
+
+29. Homeward Bound; or the Chase. A Tale of the Sea. By the Author of
+    The Pilot, The Spy, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &
+    Blanchard, 1838.
+
+
+30. Review of the "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+    By J. G. Lockhart."
+
+      In Knickerbocker Magazine, October, 1838, vol. xii., pp.
+      349-366.
+
+
+31. Home as Found. By the Author of Homeward Bound, The Pioneers,  (p. 294)
+    etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1838.
+
+      In England published under the title of "Eve Effingham; or Home."
+
+
+32. The History of the Navy of the United States of America.
+    By J. Fenimore Cooper. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1839.
+
+
+33. Letters in "Cooperstown Freeman's Journal," July 1st and July 8th,
+    1839.
+
+      A reply to the criticism upon his Naval History, or rather upon his
+      account of the battle of Lake Erie, which had appeared in the
+      New York Commercial Advertiser in June, 1839. The first letter
+      occupies two columns, the second more than three.
+
+
+34. The Pathfinder; or the Inland Sea. By the Author of The Pioneers,
+    Last of the Mohicans, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard,
+    1840.
+
+
+35. Mercedes of Castile; or the Voyage to Cathay. By the Author of The
+    Bravo, The Last of the Mohicans, etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1840.
+
+      The English title was "Mercedes of Castile. A Romance of the
+      Days of Columbus."
+
+
+36. History of the Navy of the United States of America. Abridged in
+      one volume. Pp. 447. Philadelphia: Thomas Cowperthwait & Co., 1841.
+
+
+37. The Deerslayer; or the First War Path. A Tale. By the Author of The
+    Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1841.
+
+
+38. "Home as Found. Lost Chapter." Preceded by a "Preface," and a
+    "Letter to the Editor." In the "Brother Jonathan" newspaper of
+    January 1, 1842.--Followed by a Letter to the Editor, from Cooper,
+    on "The Effingham Matter," in same paper for February 12, 1842,
+    and by two articles on "The Effingham Controversy," in the numbers
+    for March 26, 1842, and April 9, 1842.
+
+
+39. The Two Admirals; a Tale. By the Author of The Pilot, Red      (p. 295)
+      Rover, Water Witch, Homeward Bound, etc., etc. 2 vols.
+      Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842.
+
+
+40. Edinburgh Review on James' Naval Occurrences and Cooper's Naval
+    History.
+
+      In the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, vol. x.,
+      for May and June, 1842. First article, pp. 409-435; second
+      article, pp. 515-541.
+
+
+41. Richard Somers.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for October, 1842.
+
+
+42. William Bainbridge.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for November, 1842.
+
+
+43. The Wing-and-Wing; or Le Feu-Follet. A Tale. By the Author of
+    The Pilot, Red Rover, Two Admirals, Homeward Bound, etc., etc.
+    2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842.
+
+      In England this was published under the title "The Jack
+      o' Lantern (Le Feu-Follet); or the Privateer."
+
+
+44. Richard Dale.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for December, 1842.
+
+
+45. Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for January, February, March, and April, 1843.
+      It came out in March among the publications of the "Brother
+      Jonathan" newspaper office, and was then entitled "Le Mouchoir;
+      an Autobiographical Romance." The English title was "The French
+      Governess; or the Embroidered Handkerchief."
+
+
+46. Oliver Hazard Perry.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for May and June, 1843.
+
+
+47. John Paul Jones.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for July and August, 1843.
+
+
+48. The Battle of Lake Erie; or Answers to Messrs. Burges, Duer, and
+    Mackenzie. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Pp. 118. Cooperstown: H. & E.
+    Phinney, 1843.
+
+
+49. Wyandotte; or the Hutted Knoll. A Tale. By the Author of The
+    Pathfinder, Deerslayer, Last of the Mohicans, Pioneers,        (p. 296)
+    Prairie, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1843.
+
+
+50. Ned Myers; or a Life before the Mast. Edited by J. Fenimore Cooper.
+    Pp. 232. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1843.
+
+
+51. John Shaw.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for March, 1844.
+
+
+52. John Barry.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for June, 1844.
+
+
+53. Afloat and Ashore; or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford. By the
+    Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, The Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Published by the Author, 1844.
+
+
+54. Proceedings of the Naval Court Martial in the Case of Alexander
+    Slidell Mackenzie, a Commander in the Navy of the United States,
+    etc., including the Charges and Specifications of Charges, preferred
+    against him by the Secretary of the Navy. To which is annexed an
+    Elaborate Review. By James Fennimore Cooper. Pp. 344. New York:
+    Henry G. Langley, 1844. (Cooper's review extends from page 263 to
+    page 344 inclusive. The spelling of the name was due to the
+    publisher.)
+
+
+55. Afloat and Ashore; or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford. By the
+    Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, etc. Vols. 3 & 4. Published for the
+    Author. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1844.
+
+      This second series of Afloat and Ashore goes in this country under
+      the name of "Miles Wallingford." In England it was published as
+      "Lucy Hardinge."
+
+
+56. John Templer Shubrick.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for December, 1844.
+
+
+57. Melancthon Taylor Woolsey.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for January, 1845.
+
+
+58. Edward Preble.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for May and June, 1845.
+
+
+59. Satanstoe; or the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the        (p. 297)
+    Colony. 2 vols. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1845.
+
+
+60. The Chainbearer; or the Littlepage Manuscripts. Edited by the Author
+    of Satanstoe, Spy, Pathfinder, Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols.
+    New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co, 1846.
+
+
+61. Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers. By J. Fenimore Cooper.
+    Author of The Spy, The Pilot, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart,
+    1846. Also, 2 vols. Auburn: Derby & Jackson, 1846.
+
+      Volume I. contains, in the following order: Bainbridge (No. 42),
+      Somers (No. 41), Shaw (No. 51), Shubrick (No. 56), Preble (No. 58).
+
+      Volume II. contains: Jones (No. 47), Woolsey (No. 57), Perry
+      (No. 46), and Dale (No. 44); Barry (No. 52) was not included.
+
+
+62. The Redskins; or Indian and Injin. Being the conclusion of the
+    Littlepage Manuscripts. By the Author of The Pathfinder, Deerslayer,
+    Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols. New York: Burgess & Stringer, 1846.
+
+      In England the title of this work was "Ravensnest; or the Redskins."
+
+
+63. The Islets of the Gulf; or Rose Budd.
+
+      Begun in Graham's Magazine for November, 1846, and continued through
+      every succeeding number until March, 1848, in which month it was
+      concluded. It was published in book form March 21, 1848, by Burgess,
+      Stringer & Co., as "Jack Tier; or the Florida Reefs." In England
+      the title was "Captain Spike; or the Islets of the Gulf."
+
+
+64. The Crater; or Vulcan's Peak. A Tale of the Pacific. By the Author
+    of Miles Wallingford, The Red Rover, The Pilot, etc., etc. 2 vols.
+    New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1847.
+
+      The English title was "Mark's Reef; or the Crater." Jack Tier; or
+      the Florida Reefs, 1848. See No. 63.
+
+
+65. The Oak Openings; or the Bee Hunter. By the Author of The      (p. 298)
+    Pioneers, Last of the Mohicans, Pathfinder, Deerslayer, etc., etc.
+    2 vols. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1848.
+
+      The English title was "The Bee Hunter; or the Oak Openings."
+
+
+66. The Sea Lions; or the Lost Sealers. By the Author of The Crater, etc.
+    2 vols. New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1849.
+
+
+67. The Ways of the Hour; a Tale. By the Author of The Spy, The Red Rover,
+    etc., etc. 1 vol. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1850.
+
+
+POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATIONS.
+
+
+68. Old Ironsides.
+
+      In Putnam's Magazine, vol. i., No. v., May, 1853, pp. 473-487; and
+      in No. vi., June, 1853, pp. 593-607.
+
+      This is a history of the United States frigate Constitution.
+
+
+69. Fragments from a Diary of James Fenimore Cooper.
+
+      In Putnam's Magazine, new series, vol. i., February, 1868, pp.
+      167-172; and June, 1868, pp. 730-737.
+
+
+70. The Battle of Plattsburgh Bay.
+
+      In January, 1869, of Putnam's Magazine, vol. iii., new series,
+      pp. 49-59.
+
+      A note to this article says that it was prepared as a lecture to
+      be delivered before the New York Historical Society. The records
+      of that Society, however, contain no reference to any lecture
+      delivered by Cooper.
+
+
+71. The Eclipse.
+
+      In Putnam's Magazine, new series, vol. iv., for September, 1869,
+      pp. 352-359. Written about 1831, and gives an account of the
+      eclipse of the sun in June, 1806.
+
+
+Besides these there are numerous letters written to the newspapers, and
+in particular the letters written to the Paris journal, the "National,"
+in 1833. During Cooper's life it was frequently said that he was engaged
+in preparing a work on the Middle States of the Union; but no      (p. 299)
+trace of such a production was found among his papers. A work of his on
+"The Towns of Manhattan" was partly finished and in press at the time of
+his death; but the portion printed was entirely destroyed by fire. Part
+of the manuscript, however, was recovered. On the 4th of August, 1841,
+Cooper also delivered an address before the Literary Societies of Hobart
+College, Geneva, N. Y.; but this he himself burned on the day it was
+delivered.
+
+A few works have been wrongly attributed to him. One of these is "The
+Cruise of the Somers; illustrative of the Despotism of the Quarter Deck;
+and of the Unmanly Conduct of Commander Mackenzie." New York: 1844.
+Another is "Elinor Wyllys; or the Young Folk of Longbridge."
+Philadelphia: 1846. Of this novel Cooper was the nominal editor, and to
+it he contributed a short preface. A third work, which has been falsely
+attributed to him, is entitled "The Republic of the United States; its
+Duties to Itself, and its Responsible Relations to other Countries." New
+York: 1848.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.                                                             (p. 300)
+
+
+Adams, John, 113.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, 224-226.
+
+"Afloat and Ashore," 232, 249-253, 263, 296.
+
+Albany, N. Y., 6, 15.
+
+"Albany Argus," 182.
+
+"Albany Evening Journal," Cooper's libel suits with, 187, 190-196.
+
+America, intellectual dependence of,
+  on England in 1820 and later, 18-21, 34, 35, 62, 92;
+  literary state of, in 1820, 30-32.
+
+"American Scott, The," Cooper so termed, 58, 106;
+  his feelings about it, 59, 161.
+
+"American Democrat, The," 177-179, 293.
+
+Angevine, 14-16, 63.
+
+Anti-Rent Novels, The, 251-254.
+
+Ashburton Treaty, 237.
+
+"Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung," 107.
+
+"Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief," 249, 293.
+
+
+Bainbridge, Commodore William, 295, 297.
+
+Balzac, Honoré de, Criticisms of Cooper, 204, 240, 284.
+
+Barry Cornwall. See _Procter_.
+
+Barry, John, 296, 297.
+
+Benjamin, Park, 159; Cooper's libel suit with, 187.
+
+Bentley, London publisher of Cooper's later works, 262.
+
+"Blackwood's Magazine," 58;
+  abuse of Cooper, 174.
+
+Berne, Cooper's residence near, 68.
+
+Boone, Daniel, 72.
+
+"Borderers, The" (English title), 291.
+
+Boston, Cooper's criticism of, 171, 172.
+
+Bostonians practice "gouging," 97.
+
+"Bravo, The," 108-111, 115, 128, 130, 277, 291.
+
+Bread and Cheese Club, founded by Cooper, 63;
+  its members, 63;
+  gives dinner to Cooper, 127.
+
+Brenton's, Captain Edward Pelham, "Naval History of Great Britain," 202.
+
+British press, Cooper's opinion of, 106, 136, 137;
+  its attacks upon Cooper, 138, 173-176, 199, 236.
+
+"Brother Jonathan, The," newspaper, 262, 294, 295.
+
+Brown, Charles Brockden, 30.
+
+Bryant, William Cullen, 17, 63, 80, 266;
+  delivers funeral oration on Cooper, 268.
+
+Bulwer, Sir Edward Lytton, 124, 125.
+
+Burges, Tristam, 213, 221, 224, 226, 233, 295.
+
+Burlington, N. J., 2, 12.
+
+Burton's Theatre, Cooper's comedy acted at, 263.
+
+
+Campbell, Judge William W., 216.
+
+Canning, George, 68.
+
+"Captain Spike" (English title), 297.
+
+Carey and Lea, publishers, 66.
+
+"Chainbearer, The," 252-254, 297.
+
+Châlet, The, Cooper's farm, near Cooperstown, 263.
+
+Champlain, Lake, 12.
+
+Chauncey, Commodore Isaac, 127.
+
+Chesapeake, American man-of-war, 202.
+
+"Chronicles of Cooperstown, The," 293.
+
+Clay, Henry, 67.
+
+Clinton, DeWitt, 127.
+
+"Coelebs," Hannah More's, 21.
+
+Colburn, London publisher, 28, 94.
+
+"Comparative Resources of the American Navy," 292.
+
+Constitution, ship-of-war, 210, 298.
+
+Cooper, Fenimore, 15, 63.
+
+Cooper, J. F.: born at Burlington, 2;
+  removed to Cooperstown, 2;
+  early education, 6;
+  at Albany, 6;
+  at Yale College, 7;
+  dismissed from college, 8;
+  serves before the mast, 9, 10;
+  enters navy as midshipman, 11;
+  his service, 11;
+  marries, 12;
+  resigns position in the navy, 14;
+  residences from 1811 to 1822, 14, 15;
+  his children, 15;
+  begins literary life, 16;
+  moves into New York city, 63;
+  founds the Bread and Cheese club, 63;
+  has family name changed to Fenimore-Cooper, 3;
+  is given a public dinner, 127;
+  sails for Europe, 67;
+  made consul at Lyons, 67;
+  residences in France, England, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, 67, 68;
+  cordial reception in Paris, 68, 69;
+  wide extent of his reputation, 56-58, 77;
+  returns to America, 117;
+  refuses a public dinner, 128;
+  resides in New York city, 117;
+  buys his father's house in Cooperstown and makes it his permanent
+    home, 117;
+  has a controversy with citizens of Cooperstown, 142-148;
+  brings a number of newspaper libel suits, 180-197;
+  engages unsuccessfully in business operations, 261;
+  his farm, 263, 264;
+  becomes a communicant in the Episcopal Church, 266;
+  his death, 267;
+  funeral oration over, delivered by Bryant, 268;
+  happiness of his home life, 13, 14, 233, 234, 285;
+  wide circulation of his works, 37, 56, 76, 270;
+  pecuniary profits from their sale, 64-66, 261-263;
+  his success as a lawyer, 182, 189, 216-218, 220;
+  his sensitiveness to criticism, 41-44, 286;
+  defects of his literary art, 50, 51;
+  failure in characterization, 152, 155, 277, 278;
+  female characters, 26-28, 153, 154, 278-281;
+  success in characters from low life, 53-55, 72, 73, 152, 283;
+  fondness for commonplace, 84, 242, 276;
+  prolixity of his introductions, 75, 134, 242, 276;
+  improbability and carelessness in the details of his
+    stories, 51, 53, 276, 277;
+  carelessness in the development of the plot, 28, 271, 272, 275, 276;
+  criticism on language and carelessness in use of it, 130, 272-275;
+  his humor, 119, 239, 240;
+  his fondness for natural scenery, and success in
+    description, 8, 69, 134, 168, 169, 240, 241, 264, 282-284;
+  his political opinions, 82-84, 108, 109;
+  his imperiousness of manner, 79, 80, 286;
+  his pugnacity, 24, 75, 80, 81, 146, 147, 285;
+  his generosity, 81, 82;
+  his patriotism, 49, 85, 86, 94, 110, 115, 128, 231, 237, 238, 243;
+  depth and narrowness of religious feeling, 22-26, 75, 243, 256,
+    258-261, 266;
+  high sense of honor, 82, 286;
+  love of truth, 202, 203, 222, 232, 287, 288.
+
+Cooper, Paul, 15, 63.
+
+Cooper, Richard, 182, 185, 220.
+
+Cooper, Susan Fenimore, 15.
+
+Cooper, William, Cooper's father, 2, 3, 9, 142-145, 188, 192.
+
+Cooperstown, situation of, 1, 3, 4;
+  when founded, 2;
+  original population of, 5;
+  Cooper's residences in, 2, 3, 14, 117;
+  his controversy with citizens of, 142-148;
+  farm near, 263, 264;
+  his death at, 266, 267;
+  the Chronicles of, 293.
+
+"Cooperstown Freeman's Journal," democratic newspaper, 143, 144;
+  Cooper's letters to, 147, 148, 294.
+
+Copyright, international, Cooper's feelings in regard to, 166;
+  pecuniary loss sustained by the lack of one, 261.
+
+Copyright law, English, of, 1838, 66, 261.
+
+Courier, Paul, liberal sentiments about America, 87.
+
+Court of Errors, The, of New York, 228, 229.
+
+"Crater, The," 255-258, 274, 297.
+
+Cushing, Caleb, replies to Cooper, 132.
+
+
+Dale, Richard, 295, 297.
+
+Davis, Admiral Charles H., 213.
+
+"Deerslayer, The," 239-242, 272, 294.
+
+DeKay, James E., 63.
+
+DeLancey family, 12, 13.
+
+DeLancey, Susan Augusta, 12-14, 16, 70, 233, 234;
+  married to Cooper, 12;
+  her death, 267.
+
+DeLancey, William H., bishop of Western New York, 266.
+
+Democratic party, Cooper nominally belonging to, 133, 171.
+
+"Democratic Review," 207, 208, 295.
+
+Derby, Lord, 52.
+
+"Diary of James Fenimore Cooper, Fragments from," 298.
+
+Dresden, Saxony, Cooper's residence at, 68, 107, 123.
+
+Duer, William Alexander, Cooper's controversy with, 212, 221-223, 233, 295.
+
+Durand, Asher B., the engraver, 63.
+
+
+"Eclipse, The," 298.
+
+Edgeworth, Maria, 57.
+
+"Edinburgh Review, The," 205-208, 295.
+
+Elliott, Commodore Jesse, 208-213, 222;
+  has a medal struck in honor of Cooper, 224-226.
+
+"Encyclopedia Britannica," notice of Cooper's life in, 175.
+
+England, Cooper's residence in, 68, 96;
+  feeling of, towards America, 87-98;
+  criticism of, by Cooper, 105, 130, 137;
+  his work on, 135, 293;
+  hostility expressed for Cooper in, 92, 106, 138, 173-176.
+
+Effingham, name applied to Cooper, 156, 158, 183, 191, 294.
+
+Episcopal Church, Cooper's attachment to, 23, 245, 249, 254, 257, 259,
+  260, 266.
+
+Erie Lake, Battle of, controversy in regard to, 208-227, 294.
+
+European ignorance of America, 86-88, 100, 101.
+
+"Eve Effingham" (English title), 294.
+
+"Excursions in Italy" (English title), 293.
+
+"Excursions in Switzerland" (English title), 292.
+
+Expenses' Controversy, The, 76, 111-115, 292.
+
+
+Fay, Theodore S., 132.
+
+Federalist Party, 9, 171;
+  Cooper brought up in, 92;
+  feeling of, towards England, 92, 93.
+
+Fenimore family, 3, 188.
+
+Fenimore, near Cooperstown, Cooper's residence at, 14.
+
+Fenimore-Cooper, family name changed to, 3.
+
+Florence, Cooper's residence at, 68, 74, 120.
+
+Foot, Samuel A., 215-221.
+
+France, Cooper's work on, 135, 292, 293.
+
+Francis, Dr. John W., 266, 267.
+
+"Fraser's Magazine," its attack on Cooper, 174-175.
+
+Free trade, Cooper's hostility to, 133, 171.
+
+"French Governess, The" (English title), 295.
+
+French opinion of Cooper, 36, 204.
+
+French social life, Cooper's opinion of, 69.
+
+
+Galitzin, Princess, 69.
+
+Gardner, Colonel Charles K., 287.
+
+Gifford, William, editor of "The Quarterly," 35.
+
+Gisquet, French prefect of police, 37.
+
+"Gleanings in Europe," 135-140, 204, 292, 293.
+
+Glens Falls, 52.
+
+"Glory and Shame of England," attack on Cooper in, 234, 235.
+
+"Gotham and the Gothamites," 60.
+
+Gouging, prevalence of, in America, 97;
+  practiced by Bostonians, 97.
+
+"Graham's Magazine," 229, 245, _note_, 248, 255, 295-297.
+
+Greeley, Horace, 159, 180, 181, 187;
+  Cooper's libel suits with, 197, 198.
+
+Greenough, Horatio, 81, 115-116, 155.
+
+Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 97.
+
+
+Halleck, Fitzgreene, 63, 246, _note_.
+
+Harris, Leavitt, 113, 114.
+
+Haydon, Benjamin Robert, 58.
+
+Hazlitt, William, 106.
+
+Headley, Rev. J. T., 235.
+
+"Headsman, The," 108, 109, 272, 292.
+
+"Heathcotes, The" (English title), 291.
+
+"Heidenmauer, The," 108, 109, 280, 292.
+
+Heine, 107.
+
+Hillard, George S., 160.
+
+Hillhouse, James A., 7.
+
+"Hints on Manning the Navy," 292.
+
+Hobart College, Cooper's address at, 299.
+
+"Home as Found," 149, 150-159, 294.
+
+"Home as Found, Lost Chapter of," 294.
+
+"Homeward Bound," 149, 150, 152, 155, 293.
+
+
+Impressment of American seamen, 93.
+
+Indian character, Cooper's view of, 54, 55.
+
+Ingram's, John H., "Life of Poe," 246, _note_.
+
+Irving, Washington, 3, 35, 56, 268, 287.
+
+"Islets of the Gulf, The." See "_Jack Tier_."
+
+Italy, Cooper's work on, 135, 293;
+  attachment of Cooper to, 69-71.
+
+
+"Jack o' Lantern, The" (English title), 295.
+
+Jackson, President Andrew, 131, 210.
+
+"Jack Tier," 255, 256, 263, 297.
+
+James's, William, "Naval History of Great Britain," 205-207, 295;
+  Cooper's opinion of, 206, 207.
+
+Jarvis, John Wesley, 63.
+
+Jay, John, 29.
+
+Jefferson, Thomas, 67.
+
+Jones, John Paul, 48, 57, 288, 295, 297.
+
+Jordan, Ambrose C., 190.
+
+Judah, Samuel B. H., 60.
+
+Jury, trial by, 260.
+
+
+Kent, Chancellor James, 63, 127.
+
+King, Charles, 127.
+
+"Knickerbocker Magazine," 160, 161, 293.
+
+
+Lafayette, 111, 112.
+
+"Last of the Mohicans, The," 52-55, 56, 58, 66, 71, 72, 239, 291.
+
+Lawrence, Captain James, 12.
+
+"Leather-Stocking Tales, The," 40, 55, 239;
+  Cooper's opinion of, 241.
+
+Leghorn, 120.
+
+Lester, C. Edwards, 235, 236.
+
+"Letter to General Lafayette," 112, 291.
+
+"Letter to his Countrymen," 129-132, 292.
+
+"Letter to the American Public," 114, 292.
+
+Libel suits, Cooper's, with the Otsego "Republican," 185, 186;
+  with the Norwich "Telegraph," 184, 186;
+  with the Oneida "Whig," 187;
+  with the New York "Evening Signal," 187;
+  with the New York "Courier and Enquirer," 187-190;
+  with the Albany "Evening Journal," 187, 190, 196;
+  with the New York "Tribune," 187, 197;
+  with the New York "Commercial Advertiser," 187, 197, 212, 214-221,
+    223-224.
+
+"Lionel Lincoln," 49-52, 291.
+
+Livermore, Rev. T. S., 293.
+
+Livingston, Edward, 114.
+
+Lockhart's, John Gibson, "Life of Scott," 160, 161, 293.
+
+London, Cooper's residence in, 68, 96-98.
+
+"London Times," its attack on Cooper, 175.
+
+Lord, Daniel, Jr., 215-221.
+
+Louis Philippe, 69, 107.
+
+Lowell, James Russell, 156.
+
+"Lucy Harding" (English title), 249, 296; 251.
+
+Lyons, Cooper consul at, 67.
+
+
+Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, 212, 213, 216, 221, 222, 233, 295.
+
+Mackintosh, Sir James, 97.
+
+Mamaroneck, N. Y., 12, 13, 14.
+
+Man, Isle of, Cooper reported birthplace in, 3.
+
+"Mark's Reef" (English title), 297.
+
+McHarg, Rev. C. W., 229.
+
+"Mercedes of Castile," 232, 242, 272, 278.
+
+Mickiewicz, Adam, 107.
+
+Miller, London publisher, 35.
+
+"Miles Wallingford," 93, 249, 285, 296.
+
+Mitford, Mary Russell, 57.
+
+"Monikins, The," 133-135.
+
+Montagu, Mrs. Basil, 91.
+
+Moore, Thomas, 88, 96.
+
+More, Hannah, 21.
+
+Morris, George P., 132.
+
+Morse, S. F. B., 63, 76.
+
+Murray, John, London publisher, 35.
+
+
+Naples, Cooper's residence at, 68.
+
+Naples, bay of, compared with that of New York, 164, 249, 254.
+
+"National" (Paris), 113, 298.
+
+"Naval Magazine," 201, 292.
+
+"Naval History of the United States," 200-230, 232, 233, 294.
+
+"Naval Officers, Lives of," 228, 229, 297.
+
+Neal, John, 30.
+
+Ned Myers, 247, 248, 263, 296.
+
+New England, Cooper's dislike of, 245, 246, 247, 249, 250, 253, 257, 259;
+  Cooper's unpopularity in, 50, 247.
+
+New Haven, 8.
+
+"New Monthly Magazine, Colburn's," sketch of Cooper in, 94.
+
+Newport, 74; stone tower at, 226.
+
+"New World, The," newspaper, 262.
+
+New York (city), Cooper's residences in, 15, 47, 63, 67, 117;
+  Cooper's criticism of society in, 150, 151, 158, 249;
+  social life in, 121;
+  Cooper's prophecy about, 102.
+
+"New York American," 127, 128.
+
+"New York Commercial Advertiser," 129;
+  Cooper's libel suits with, 187, 212, 214-221, 223, 224.
+
+"New York Courier and Enquirer," 129, 130;
+ Cooper's libel suits with, 187-190.
+
+"New York Evening Post," 182.
+
+"New York Evening Signal," Cooper's libel suit with, 187.
+
+New York Historical Society, 298.
+
+"New York Home Journal," 13.
+
+"New York Mirror," 132.
+
+"New York Patriot," 287.
+
+"New York Tribune," Cooper's libel suits with, 187, 192, 197.
+
+"New Yorker, The," 158, 182.
+
+Newspapers, Cooper's attacks on, 43, 176-180;
+  libel suits with, 180-199.
+
+"North American Review, The," 60, 61, 212, 213.
+
+"Norwich Telegraph," Cooper's libel suit with, 184, 185.
+
+"Notions of the Americans," 101-106, 291.
+
+Nugent, Lord, 96.
+
+
+"Oak Openings, The," 255, 258, 263, 275, 297.
+
+"Odofried the Outcast," 60.
+
+Old Ironsides, 298.
+
+"Oneida Whig, The," Cooper's libel suit with, 187.
+
+Ontario, Lake, 11, 169, 240.
+
+Otsego Hall, Cooper's residence, 2, 117, 267.
+
+Otsego Lake, 1, 4, 117, 142, 240.
+
+"Otsego Republican," Cooper's libel suit with, 185, 186.
+
+
+Paris, Cooper's residence at, 67-69, 107.
+
+Parsons, Usher, 227.
+
+"Pathfinder, The," 11, 239-242, 283, 294.
+
+Paulding, James Kirke, 30.
+
+Paulding, Hiram, 216.
+
+Peale, Rembrandt, 115.
+
+Percival, James G., 60-62.
+
+Perry, Captain Matthew, 210, 212.
+
+Perry, Commodore Oliver H., 208-229, 295, 297.
+
+"Philadelphia National Gazette," 114, 292.
+
+"Pilot, The," 44-48, 57, 74, 95, 283-288, 291.
+
+"Pioneers, The," 39-44, 61, 65, 72, 117, 156, 239, 287, 291.
+
+Piracy of books, 261, 262.
+
+Plattsburgh Bay, Battle of, 298.
+
+Poe, Elgar A., 245, 246, _note_.
+
+Poland, revolt of, 107;
+  Cooper's efforts to aid, 108.
+
+"Prairie, The," 61, 71, 73, 76, 95, 239, 283, 291.
+
+Preble, Edward, 296, 297.
+
+"Precaution," 16-28, 243.
+
+Price of Cooper's later novels, 262, 263.
+
+Princeton College, 246.
+
+Procter, Bryan Waller, 58, 161.
+
+Provincialism of America, 138, 150, 164, 165, 168.
+
+Puritanism, 23-29, 75, 243.
+
+"Putnam's Magazine," 298.
+
+
+"Quarterly Review, The," 35, 277, 287;
+  its attacks on America, 89;
+  its attack on Cooper, 205.
+
+
+"Ravensnest" (English title), 297.
+
+"Recollections of Europe" (English title), 293.
+
+"Redskins, The," 253, 254, 263, 297.
+
+"Red Rover, The," 65, 73, 99, 226, 227, 255, 291.
+
+Reporters of newspapers, Cooper's attack on, 176.
+
+"Residence in France" (English title), 292.
+
+Revolution of 1830, French, 106, 107.
+
+"Revue Britannique," 111-113.
+
+Rhode Island Historical Society, 213;
+  refuses to accept the Cooper medal, 224-227.
+
+Rives, William C., 114.
+
+Rome, Cooper's residence at, 68, 75.
+
+Russia, early cordial relations of, with the United States, 93.
+
+
+Sand, George, 284.
+
+"Satanstoe," 252, 253, 254, 263, 296.
+
+Saulnier, M., 111, 112.
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 31, 33, 41, 44, 56-59, 91, 110, 124, 277, 278, 283, 287;
+  his mention of Cooper, 69, 160;
+  Lockhart's life of, 159-161.
+
+Scott, General Winfield, 127.
+
+"Sea Lions, The," 255, 258-260, 263, 298.
+
+Sea novel, Cooper's creation of, 44-47, 57, 74.
+
+Shannon, English ship-of-war, 12, 202.
+
+Shanty, Cooper's derivation of, 275.
+
+Shaw, John, 290, 297.
+
+Shubrick, John Templer, 296, 297.
+
+Silliman, Professor Benjamin, 8.
+
+"Sketches of Switzerland," 135-140, 292.
+
+Slavery, Cooper's feelings toward, 85, 104.
+
+Smith, Sydney, 96.
+
+Smollett, Tobias G., 45, 57.
+
+Somers, American man-of-war, 228.
+
+Somers, Richard, 295, 297.
+
+Sorrento, Cooper's residence at, 68, 71, 75.
+
+Sotheby, William, 97, 98.
+
+Southey, Robert, 91.
+
+Spencer, John C., 228.
+
+Spencer, Joshua A., 186.
+
+"Spy, The," 13, 30-38, 43, 49, 57, 65, 66, 280, 283, 290.
+
+Squier, E. G., 37.
+
+Steevens, Samuel, 215-221.
+
+Sterling, merchant ship, 9, 10, 247, 248.
+
+Stone, William Leet, Cooper's libel suits against, 187, 214-221, 223, 224.
+
+Sumner, Charles, 91, 160.
+
+Susquehanna River, 1, 2, 264.
+
+
+Talleyrand visits Cooper's father, 5.
+
+Three Mile Point Controversy, The, 142-148, 156.
+
+Ticknor, George, 91.
+
+Tories of American Revolution, Cooper's treatment of, 13.
+
+"Towns of Manhattan, The," 266, 299.
+
+Tuckerman, Henry T., his account of a trial scene, 217, 218.
+
+"Two Admirals, The," 242, 243, 276, 295.
+
+Tyler, John, President, 228.
+
+
+"United Service Journal," its criticism of Cooper's Naval History, 204,
+  205.
+
+"Upside Down," Cooper's comedy, 263.
+
+
+Van Rensselaer, Stephen, the patroon, 251.
+
+Verplanck, Gulian Crommelin, 63.
+
+Vesuvius, American man-of-war, 11.
+
+
+"Water Witch, The," 75, 76, 78, 106, 291;
+  refused publication in Rome, 123.
+
+Waverley Novels, 31, 44.
+
+"Ways of the Hour, The," 255, 260, 263, 272, 274, 277, 298.
+
+Webster, Daniel, 268.
+
+Weed, Thurlow, 122, 190;
+  Cooper's libel suits against, 187, 190-196;
+  admiration for Cooper's novels, 196.
+
+"Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, The," 74, 99, 272, 291.
+
+Westchester County, New York, 12, 14, 29.
+
+Whig party, its hostility to Cooper 131.
+
+Whig press, attacks on Cooper, 147, 148, 158, 159, 173, 177, 180, 184,
+  185, 199, 211, 235, 241.
+
+Wiley, John, publisher, 63, 66.
+
+Willis, N. P., 132.
+
+Wilson, John, 58.
+
+"Wing-and-Wing," 93, 243, 244, 247, 262, 295.
+
+Woolsey, Melancthon Taylor, 11, 296, 297.
+
+Wright, Fanny, 36.
+
+"Wyandotte," 13, 244, 245, 263, 295.
+
+
+Yale College, 246;
+  Cooper's connection with, 7-9.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ***
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of James Fenimore Cooper by Thomas R. Lounsbury</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: James Fenimore Cooper
+       American Men of Letters
+
+Author: Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2006 [EBook #19463]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p>[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+The original spelling has been retained.]</p>
+
+<h1><i>American Men of Letters.</i></h1>
+
+<h3>Edited By</h3>
+
+<h3>CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="550" height="740" alt="Cooper" title="">
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="550" height="101" alt="Signature" title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h2><i>American Men of Letters.</i></h2>
+
+<h1>JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.</h1>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+
+<h2>THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY,<br>
+Professor Of English In The Sheffield Scientific School,<br>
+Yale College.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="100" height="101" alt="arms" title="">
+</div>
+
+
+<h3>BOSTON:<br>
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.<br>
+New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street.<br>
+The Riverside Press, Cambridge.<br>
+1884.</h3>
+
+
+
+<h3>Copyright, 1882,<br>
+By THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY</h3>
+
+<h3><i>All rights reserved.</i></h3>
+
+<h3><i>The Riverside Press, Cambridge</i>:<br>
+Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton &amp; Co.</h3>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When Cooper lay on his death-bed he enjoined his family to permit no
+authorized account of his life to be prepared. A wish even, that was
+uttered at such a time, would have had the weight of a command; and
+from that day to this pious affection has carried out in the spirit as
+well as to the letter the desire of the dying man. No biography of
+Cooper has, in consequence, ever appeared. Nor is it unjust to say
+that the sketches of his career, which are found either in magazines
+or cyclopćdias, are not only unsatisfactory on account of their
+incompleteness, but are all in greater or less degree untrustworthy in
+their details.</p>
+
+<p>It is a necessary result of this dying injunction that the direct and
+authoritative sources of information contained in family papers are
+closed to the biographer. Still it is believed that no facts of
+importance in the record of an eventful and extraordinary career have
+been omitted or have even been passed over slightingly. A large part
+of the matter contained in this volume has never been given to the
+public in any form: and for that reason among others no pains have
+been spared to make this narrative absolutely accurate, so far as it
+goes. Correction of any errors, if such are found, will be gratefully
+welcomed.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>JAMES
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span>
+FENIMORE COOPER.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter I.</h2>
+
+<h3>1789-1820.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In one of the interior counties of New York, less than one hundred and
+fifty miles in a direct line from the commercial capital of the Union,
+lies the village of Cooperstown. The place is not and probably never
+will be an important one; but in its situation and surroundings nature
+has given it much that wealth cannot furnish or art create. It stands
+on the southeastern shore of Otsego Lake, just at the point where the
+Susquehanna pours out from it on its long journey to the Chesapeake.
+The river runs here in a rapid current through a narrow valley, shut
+in by parallel ranges of lofty hills. The lake, not more than nine
+miles in length, is twelve hundred feet above tide-water. Low and
+wooded points of land and sweeping bays give to its shores the
+attraction of continuous diversity. About it, on every side, stand
+hills, which slope gradually or rise sharply to heights varying from
+two to five hundred feet. Lake, forest, and stream unite to form a
+scene of quiet but picturesque beauty, that hardly needs the
+additional charm of romantic association which has been imparted to
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Though it was here that the days of Cooper's childhood were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span>
+passed, it was not here that he was born. When that event took place
+the village had hardly even an existence on paper. Cooper's father, a
+resident of Burlington, New Jersey, had come, shortly after the close
+of the Revolutionary War, into the possession of vast tracts of land,
+embracing many thousands of acres, along the head-waters of the
+Susquehanna. In 1786 he began the settlement of the spot, and in 1788
+laid out the plot of the village which bears his name, and built for
+himself a dwelling-house. On the 10th of November, 1790, his whole
+family--consisting, with the servants, of fifteen persons--reached the
+place. The future novelist was then a little less than thirteen months
+old, for he had been born at Burlington on the 15th of September of
+the year before. His father had determined to make the new settlement
+his permanent home. He accordingly began in 1796, and in 1799
+completed, the erection of a mansion which bore the name of Otsego
+Hall. It was then and remained for a long time afterward the largest
+private residence in that portion of the State. When in 1834 it came
+into the hands of the son, it still continued to be the principal
+dwelling in the flourishing village that had grown up about it.</p>
+
+<p>On his father's side Cooper was of Quaker descent. The original
+emigrant ancestor had come over in 1679, and had made extensive
+purchases of land in the province of New Jersey. In that colony or in
+Pennsylvania his descendants for a long time remained. Cooper himself
+was the first one, of the direct line certainly, that ever even
+revisited the mother-country. These facts are of slight importance in
+themselves. In the general disbelief, however, which fifty years ago
+prevailed in Great Britain, that anything good could come out
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span>
+of this western Nazareth. Cooper was immediately furnished with
+an English nativity as soon as he had won reputation. The same process
+that gave to Irving a birthplace in Devonshire, furnished one also to
+him in the Isle of Man. When this fiction was exploded, the fact of
+emigration was pushed merely a little further back. It was transferred
+to the father, who was represented as having gone from Buckinghamshire
+to America. This latter assertion is still to be found in authorities
+that are generally trustworthy. But the original one served a useful
+purpose during its day. This assumed birthplace in the Isle of Man
+enabled the English journalists that were offended with Cooper's
+strictures upon their country to speak of him, as at one time they
+often did, as an English renegade.</p>
+
+<p>His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Fenimore, and the family to
+which she belonged was of Swedish descent. Cooper himself was the
+eleventh of twelve children. Most of his brothers and sisters died
+long before him, five of them in infancy. His own name was at first
+simply James Cooper, and in this way he wrote it until 1826. But in
+April of that year the Legislature of New York passed an act changing
+the family name to Fenimore-Cooper. This was done in accordance with
+the wish of his grandmother, whose descendants in the direct male line
+had died out. But he seldom employed the hyphen in writing, and
+finally gave up the use of it altogether.</p>
+
+<p>The early childhood of Cooper was mainly passed in the wilderness at
+the very time when the first wave of civilization was beginning to
+break against its hills. There was everything in what he saw and heard
+to impress the mind of the growing boy. He was on the border,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span>
+if indeed he could not justly be said to be in the midst of
+mighty and seemingly interminable woods which stretched for hundreds
+of miles to the westward. Isolated clearings alone broke this vast
+expanse of foliage, which, covering the valleys and clinging to the
+sides and crowning the summits of the hills, seemed to rise and fall
+like the waves of the sea. The settler's axe had as yet scarcely
+dispelled the perpetual twilight of the primeval forest. The little
+lake lay enclosed in a border of gigantic trees. Over its waters hung
+the interlacing branches of mighty oaks and beeches and pines. Its
+surface was frequented by flocks of wild, aquatic birds,--the duck,
+the gull, and the loon. In this lofty valley among the hills were also
+to be found, then as now, in fullest perfection, the clear atmosphere,
+the cloudless skies, and the brilliant light of midsummer suns, that
+characterize everywhere the American highlands. More even than the
+beauty and majesty of nature that lay open to the sight was the
+mystery that constantly appealed to the imagination in what might lie
+hidden in the depths of a wilderness that swept far beyond glance of
+eye or reach of foot. This, indeed, may have affected the feelings of
+only a few, but there were numerous interests and anxieties which all
+had in common. The little village had early gone through many of the
+trials which mark the history of most of the settlements in regions to
+which few travelers found their way and commerce seldom came. Remote
+from sources of supply, and difficult of access, it had known the time
+when its population, scanty as it was, suffered from the scarcity of
+food. Sullivan's successful expedition against the Six Nations did not
+suffice to keep it from the alarm of savage attack that never came.
+The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span>
+immense forest shutting in the hamlet on every side had
+terrors to some as real as were its attractions to others. Its
+recesses were still the refuge of the deer; but they were also the
+haunt of the wildcat, the wolf, and the bear. All these
+characteristics of his early home made deep impression upon a nature
+fond of adventure, and keenly susceptible to the charm of scenery.
+When afterward in the first flush of his fame Cooper set out to revive
+the memory of the days of the pioneers, he said that he might have
+chosen for his subject happier periods, more interesting events, and
+possibly more beauteous scenes, but he could not have taken any that
+would lie so close to his heart. The man, indeed, never forgot what
+had been dear to the boy; and to the spot where his earliest years
+were spent he returned to pass the latter part of his life.</p>
+
+<p>The original settlement, moreover, was composed of a more than usually
+singular mixture of the motley crowd that always throngs to the
+American frontier. The shock of convulsions in lands far distant
+reached even to the highland valley shut in by the Otsego hills.
+Representatives of almost every nationality in Christendom and
+believers in almost every creed, found in it an asylum or a home. Into
+this secluded haven drifted men whose lives had been wrecked in the
+political storms that were then shaking Europe. Frenchmen, Dutchmen,
+Germans, and Poles, came and tarried for a longer or shorter time.
+Here Talleyrand, then an exile, spent several days with Cooper's
+father, and, true to national instinct, wrote, according to local
+tradition, complimentary verses, still preserved, on Cooper's sister.
+An ex-captain of the British army was one of the original merchants of
+the place. An ex-governor of Martinique was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span>
+for a time the
+village grocer. But the prevailing element in the population were the
+men of New England, born levelers of the forest, the greatest wielders
+of the axe the world has ever known. Over the somewhat wild and
+turbulent democracy, made up of materials so diverse, the original
+proprietor reigned a sort of feudal lord, rather by moral qualities
+than by any conceded right.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper's early instruction was received in the village school, carried
+on in a building erected in 1795, and rejoicing in the somewhat
+pretentious name of the Academy. The country at that time, however,
+furnished few facilities for higher education anywhere; on the
+frontier there were necessarily none. Accordingly Cooper was early
+sent to Albany. There he entered the family of the rector of St.
+Peter's Church, and became, with three or four other boys, one of his
+private pupils. This gentleman, the son of an English clergyman, and
+himself a graduate of an English university, had made his ways to
+these western wilds with a fair amount of classical learning, with
+thorough methods of study, and as it afterwards turned out, Cooper
+tells us, with another man's wife. This did not, however, prevent him
+from insisting upon the immense superiority of the mother-country in
+morals as well as manners. A man of ability and marked character, he
+clearly exerted over the impressionable mind of his pupil a greater
+influence than the latter ever realized. He was in many respects,
+indeed, a typical Englishman of the educated class of that time. He
+had the profoundest contempt for republics and republican
+institutions. The American Revolution he looked upon as only a little
+less monstrous than the French, which was the sum of all iniquities.
+Connection
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span>
+with any other church than his own was to be
+shunned, not at all because it was unchristian, but because it was
+ungentlemanly and low. But whatever his opinions and prejudices were,
+in the almost absolute dearth then existing in this country of even
+respectable scholarship, the opportunity to be under his instruction
+was a singular advantage. Unfortunately it did not continue as long as
+it was desirable. In 1802 he died. It had been the intention to fit
+Cooper to enter the junior class of Yale College; that project had now
+to be abandoned. Accordingly he became, at the beginning of the second
+term of its freshman year, a member of the class which was graduated
+in 1806. He was then but a mere boy of thirteen, and with the
+exception of the poet Hillhouse, two weeks his junior, was the
+youngest student in the college.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper himself informs us that he played all his first year, and
+implies that he did little study during those which followed. To a
+certain extent the comparative excellence of his preparation turned
+out a disadvantage; the rigid training he had received enabled him to
+accomplish without effort what his fellow-students found difficult.
+Scholarship was at so low an ebb that the ability to scan Latin was
+looked upon as a high accomplishment; and he himself asserts that the
+class to which he belonged was the first in Yale College that had ever
+tried it. This may be questioned; but we need not feel any distrust of
+his declaration, that little learning of any kind found its way into
+his head. Least of all will he be inclined to doubt it whom extended
+experience in the class-room has taught to view with profoundest
+respect the infinite capability of the human mind to resist the
+introduction of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Far <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span>
+better than study, Cooper liked to take solitary walks
+about the wooded hills surrounding New Haven, and the shores of the
+bay upon which it lies. These nursed the fondness for outdoor life and
+scenery which his early associations had inspired. In these communings
+with nature, he was unconsciously storing his mind with impressions
+and images, in the representation and delineation of which he was
+afterward to attain surpassing excellence. But the study of scenery,
+however desirable in itself, cannot easily be included in a college
+curriculum. No proficiency in it can well compensate for failure in
+studies of perhaps less intrinsic importance. The neglect of these
+latter had no tendency to recommend him to the regard of those in
+authority. Positive faults were in course of time added to negative. A
+frolic in which he was engaged during his third year was attended by
+consequences more serious than disfavor. It led to his dismissal. The
+father took the boy's side, and the usual struggle followed between
+the parents and those who, according to a pretty well worn-out
+educational theory, stand to the student in place of parents. In this
+particular case the latter triumphed, and Cooper left Yale. In spite
+of his dismissal he retained pleasant recollections of some of his old
+instructors; and with one of them, Professor Silliman, he kept up in
+later years friendly personal relations and occasional correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a misfortune for the future author to lose the severe if
+somewhat wooden drill of his preparatory instructor. It was an
+additional misfortune to lose the education, scanty and defective as
+it then was, which was imparted by the college. It might not and
+probably would not have contributed anything to Cooper's intellectual
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span>
+development in the way of accuracy of thought or of
+statement. It would not in all probability have added materially to
+his stock of knowledge. But with all its inefficiency and inadequacy,
+it would very certainly have had the effect of teaching him to aim far
+more than he did at perfection of form. He possibly gained more than
+he lost by being transferred at so early an age to other scenes. But
+the lack of certain qualities in his writings, which educated men are
+perhaps the only ones to notice, can be traced pretty directly to this
+lack of preliminary intellectual drill.</p>
+
+<p>His academical career having been thus suddenly cut short, he entered
+in a little while upon one better suited to his adventurous nature.
+Boys are sent to sea, he tells us in one of his later novels, for the
+cure of their ethical ailings. This renovating influence of ocean life
+he had at any rate a speedy opportunity to try. It was decided that he
+should enter the navy. The position of his father, who had been for
+several years a representative in Congress, and was a leading member
+of the Federalist party, naturally held out assurances that the son
+would receive all the advancement to which he would be legitimately
+entitled. At that time no naval school existed. It was the custom, in
+consequence, for boys purposing to fit themselves for the position of
+officers to serve a sort of apprenticeship in the merchant marine.
+Accordingly in the autumn of 1806, Cooper was placed on board a vessel
+that was to sail from the port of New York with a freight of flour to
+Cowes and a market. The ship was named the Sterling, and was commanded
+by Captain John Johnston, of Wiscasset, Maine, who was also part
+owner. Cooper's position and prospects were well known; but he was
+employed regularly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span>
+before the mast and was never admitted to
+the cabin. The vessel cleared from the port of New York on the 16th of
+October. The passage was a long and stormy one; forty days went by
+before land was seen after it had once been left behind. The ship
+reached the other side just at the time when the British Channel was
+alive with vessels of war in consequence of one of the periodical
+anticipations of invasions from France. It went to London, and stayed
+for some time there discharging its cargo and taking in new. Cooper
+embraced the opportunity to see all the sights he could of the great
+metropolis. "He had a rum time of it in his sailor rig," said
+afterward one of his shipmates, "but hoisted in a wonderful deal of
+gibberish, according to his own account of the cruise."</p>
+
+<p>The Sterling sailed with freight in January, 1807, for the Straits of
+Gibraltar. It took on board a cargo of barilla at Aguilas and Almeria,
+and returned to England, reaching the Thames in May. Both going and
+coming the voyage was a stormy one, and during it several of the
+incidents occurred that Cooper worked up afterward into powerful
+passages in his sea novels. In London the vessel lay several weeks,
+discharging its cargo and taking in more, which this time consisted of
+dry goods. Towards the end of July, it left London for America, and
+reached Philadelphia on the 18th of September, after another long and
+stormy passage of fifty-two days.</p>
+
+<p>This was Cooper's introduction to sea life. During the year he had
+spent in the merchant vessel he had seen a good deal of hard service.
+His preparatory studies having been completed after a fashion, he now
+regularly entered the navy. His commission as midshipman bears
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span>
+date the 1st of January, 1808. On the 24th of the following
+February he was ordered to report to the commanding naval officer at
+New York. But the records of the government give little information as
+to the duties to which he was assigned during the years he remained in
+its service. The knowledge we have of his movements comes mainly from
+what he himself incidentally discloses in published works or letters
+of a later period. The facts we learn from all sources together, are
+but few. He served for a while on board the Vesuvius in 1808. During
+that year it seemed as if the United States and Great Britain were
+about to drift into war. Preparations of various kinds were made; and
+one of the things ordered was the dispatch to Lake Ontario of a party,
+of which Cooper was one, under the command of Lieutenant Woolsey. The
+intention was to build a brig of sixteen guns to command that inland
+water; and the port of Oswego, then a mere hamlet of some twenty
+houses, was the place selected for its construction. Around it lay a
+wilderness, thirty or forty miles in depth. Here the party spent the
+following winter, and during it the Oneida, as the brig was called,
+was finished. Early in the spring of 1809 it was launched. By that
+time, however, the war-cloud had blown over, and the vessel was not
+then used for the purpose for which it had been constructed. More
+permanent results, however, were accomplished than the building of a
+ship. The knowledge and experience which Cooper then gained was
+something beyond and above what belonged to his profession. It is to
+his residence on the shores of that inland sea that we owe the vivid
+picture drawn of Lake Ontario in "The Pathfinder" and of the
+wilderness which then surrounded it on every side.</p>
+
+<p>After
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span>
+the completion of the Oneida, Cooper accompanied
+Lieutenant Woolsey on a visit to Niagara Falls. The navy records show
+that on the 10th of June, 1809, he was left by his commander in charge
+of the gunboats on Lake Champlain. They further reveal the fact that
+on the 27th of September of this same year he was granted a furlough
+to make a European voyage. This project for some reason was given up,
+as on the 13th of November, 1809, he was ordered to the Wasp, then
+under the command of Lawrence, who afterwards fell in the engagement
+between the Shannon and the Chesapeake. To this officer, like himself
+a native of Burlington, he was very warmly attached. The next notice
+of him contained in the official records is to the effect that on the
+9th of May, 1810, permission was granted him to go on furlough for
+twelve months. Whether he availed himself of it is not known. An event
+soon occurred, however, that put an end to his naval career as
+effectively as one had previously been put to his collegiate. An
+attachment had sprung up some time before between him and a Miss
+DeLancey. On the 1st of January, 1811, the couple were married at
+Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. Cooper was then a little
+more than twenty-one years old; the bride lacked very little of being
+nineteen.</p>
+
+<p>His wife belonged to a Huguenot family, which towards the end of the
+seventeenth century had fled from France, and had finally settled in
+Westchester. During the Revolutionary War the DeLanceys had taken the
+side of the crown against the colonies. Several of them held positions
+in the British army. John Peter DeLancey, whose daughter Cooper had
+married, had been himself a captain in that service. After the
+recognition of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span>
+American independence he went to England,
+but, having resigned his commission, returned in 1789 to this country,
+and spent the remainder of his life at his home in Mamaroneck. The
+fact that his kinsmen by marriage had belonged to the defeated party
+in the Revolutionary struggle led Cooper in his writings to treat the
+Tories, as they were called, with a fairness and generosity which in
+that day few were disposed to show, at least in print. This tenderness
+is plainly to be seen in "The Spy," written at the beginning of his
+career; it is still more marked in "Wyandotte," produced in the latter
+part of it, when circumstances had made him profoundly dissatisfied
+with much that he saw about him. One of the last, though least heated,
+of the many controversies in which he was engaged was in regard to the
+conduct on a particular occasion of General Oliver DeLancey, a cousin
+of his wife's father. This officer was charged unjustly, as Cooper
+believed, with the brutal treatment of the American General Woodhull,
+who had fallen into his hands. The discussion in regard to this point
+was carried on in the "New York Home Journal" in the early part of
+1848.</p>
+
+<p>It seldom falls to the lot of the biographer to record a home life
+more serene and happy than that which fell to the share of the man
+whose literary life is the stormiest to be found in the history of
+American men of letters. Cooper, like many persons of fiery
+temperament and strong will, was very easily managed through his
+affections. In theory he maintained the headship of man in the
+household in the extremest form. He gives in several of his works no
+uncertain indication of his views on that point. This only serves to
+make more conspicuous the fact, which forces itself repeatedly upon
+the attention,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span>
+that his movements were largely, if not
+mainly, controlled by his wife. This becomes noticeable at the very
+beginning of their union. She was unwilling to undergo the long and
+frequent separations from her husband that the profession of a naval
+officer would demand. Accordingly, he abandoned the idea of continuing
+in it. The acceptance of his resignation bears date the 6th of May,
+1811. He had then been regularly in the service a little less than
+three years and a half.</p>
+
+<p>After quitting the navy Cooper led for a long time a somewhat
+unsettled life. For about a year and a half he resided at Heathcote
+Hall, Mamaroneck, the residence of his wife's father. He then rented a
+small cottage in the neighborhood, and in this remained about a year.
+His early home, however, was the spot to which his heart turned. To
+Cooperstown, in consequence, he went back in 1814, taking up his
+residence at a place outside the village limits, called Fenimore. He
+purposed to devote his attention to agriculture, and accordingly began
+at this spot the building of a large stone farm house. While it was in
+process of construction his wife, anxious to be near her own family,
+persuaded him to go back to Westchester. Thither in 1817 he went,
+leaving his dwelling at Fenimore unfinished, and in 1823 it was
+completely destroyed by fire. In Westchester, a few months after his
+return, he took up his residence, in the town of Scarsdale, on what
+was called the Angevine farm, from the name of a French family that
+had occupied it for several generations. The site of his dwelling was
+a commanding one, and gave from the south front an extensive view of
+the country about it and of Long Island Sound. It remained his home
+until
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span>
+the literary profession, upon which he unexpectedly
+entered, forced him to leave it for New York city.</p>
+
+<p>Great changes had occurred during these years, or were occurring, in
+his personal surroundings. His father had died in 1809, and his mother
+in 1817. Before 1820 five daughters had been born to him. The first of
+these did not live to the age of two years; but the others all reached
+maturity. The second, Susan Augusta, herself an authoress, became in
+his later years his secretary and amanuensis, and would naturally have
+written his life, had not his unfortunate dying injunction stood in
+the way. A son, Fenimore, born at Angevine, in 1821, died early, and
+his youngest child, Paul, now a lawyer at Albany, was not born until
+after his removal to New York city. Surrounded by his growing family,
+he led for the two or three years following 1817 a life that gave no
+indication of what was to be his career. His thoughts were principally
+directed to improving the little estate that had come into his
+possession. He planted trees, he built fences, he drained swamps, he
+planned a lawn. The one thing which he did not do was to write.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER II.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1820-1822.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Cooper had now reached the age of thirty. Up to this time he had
+written nothing, nor had he prepared or collected any material for
+future use. No thought of taking up authorship as a profession had
+entered his mind. Even the physical labor involved in the mere act of
+writing was itself distasteful. Unexpectedly, however, he now began a
+course of literary production that was to continue without abatement
+during the little more than thirty years which constituted the
+remainder of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Seldom has a first work been due more entirely to accident than that
+which he composed at the outset of his career. In his home at Angevine
+he was one day reading to his wife a novel descriptive of English
+society. It did not please him, and he suddenly laid down the book and
+said, "I believe I could write a better story myself." Challenged to
+make good his boast, he sat down to perform the task, and wrote out a
+few pages of the tale he had formed in his mind. The encouragement of
+his wife determined him to go on and complete it, and when completed
+the advice of friends decided him to publish it. Accordingly, on the
+10th of November, 1820, a novel in two volumes, entitled "Precaution,"
+made its appearance in New York. In this purely haphazard way did the
+most prolific of American authors begin his literary life.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span>
+work was brought out in a bad shape, and its
+typographical defects were unconsciously exaggerated by Cooper in a
+revised edition of it, which was published after his return from
+Europe. In the preface to the latter he said that no novel of modern
+times had ever been worse printed than was this story as it originally
+appeared. The manuscript, he admitted, was bad; but the proof-reading
+could only be described as execrable. Periods turned up in the middle
+of sentences, while the places where they should have been knew them
+not. Passages, in consequence, were rendered obscure, and even entire
+paragraphs became unintelligible. A careful reading of the edition of
+1820 will show something to suggest, but little to justify, these
+sweeping assertions. But the work has never been much read even by the
+admirers of the author; and it is a curious illustration of this fact,
+that the personal friend, who delivered the funeral discourse upon his
+life and writings, avoided the discussion of it with such care that he
+was betrayed into exposing the lack of interest he sought to hide.
+Bryant confessed he had not read "Precaution." He had merely dipped
+into the first edition of it, and had been puzzled and repelled by the
+profusion of commas and other pauses. The non-committalism of cautious
+criticism could hardly hope to go farther. Punctuation has had its
+terrors and its triumphs; but this victory over the editor of a daily
+newspaper must be deemed its proudest recorded achievement. The poet
+went on to say that to a casual inspection the revised edition, which
+Cooper afterward brought out, seemed almost another work. The
+inspection which could come to such a conclusion must have been of
+that exceedingly casual kind which contents itself with contemplating
+the outside of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span>
+book, and disdains to open it. As a matter
+of fact the changes made hardly extended beyond the correction of some
+points of punctuation and of some grammatical forms; it was in a few
+instances only that the construction of the sentences underwent
+transformation. Not an incident was altered, not a sentiment modified.</p>
+
+<p>Such ignorance on the part of a contemporary and personal friend, if
+it proves nothing else, shows certainly the little hold this novel has
+had upon the public taste. Nevertheless, the first work of any
+well-known author must always have a certain interest belonging to it,
+entirely independent of any value the work may have in itself. In this
+case, moreover, the character of the tale and the circumstances
+attending its production are of no slight importance, when taken in
+connection with the literary history of the times. It was accident
+that led to the selection of the subject; but as things then were,
+Cooper was not unlikely, in any event, to have chosen it or one very
+similar. The intellectual dependence of America upon England at that
+period is something that it is now hard to understand. Political
+supremacy had been cast off, but the supremacy of opinion remained
+absolutely unshaken. Of creative literature there was then very little
+of any value produced: and to that little a foreign stamp was
+necessary, to give currency outside of the petty circle in which it
+originated. There was slight encouragement for the author to write;
+there was still less for the publisher to print. It was indeed a
+positive injury ordinarily to the commercial credit of a bookseller to
+bring out a volume of poetry or of prose fiction which had been
+written by an American; for it was almost certain to fail to pay
+expenses. A sort of critical literature was struggling, or rather
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span>
+gasping, for a life that was hardly worth living; for its most
+marked characteristic was its servile deference to English judgment
+and dread of English censure. It requires a painful and penitential
+examination of the reviews of the period to comprehend the utter
+abasement of mind with which the men of that day accepted the foreign
+estimate upon works written here, which had been read by themselves,
+but which it was clear had not been read by the critics whose opinions
+they echoed. Even the meekness with which they submitted to the most
+depreciatory estimate of themselves was outdone by the anxiety with
+which they hurried to assure the world that they, the most cultivated
+of the American race, did not presume to have so high an opinion of
+the writings of some one of their countrymen as had been expressed by
+enthusiasts, whose patriotism had proved too much for their
+discernment. Never was any class so eager to free itself from charges
+that imputed to it the presumption of holding independent views of its
+own. Out of the intellectual character of many of those who at that
+day pretended to be the representatives of the highest education in
+this country, it almost seemed that the element of manliness had been
+wholly eliminated; and that along with its sturdy democracy, whom no
+obstacles thwarted and no dangers daunted, the New World was also to
+give birth to a race of literary cowards and parasites. With such a
+state of feeling prevalent, a work of fiction that concerned America
+might seem to have small chance of success with Americans themselves.
+It would not, therefore, have been strange, under any circumstances,
+that in beginning his career as an author Cooper should have chosen to
+write a tale of English social life. The fact
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span>
+that he knew
+personally nothing about what he was describing was in itself no
+insuperable objection. That ignorance was then and has since been
+shared by many novelists on both sides of the water, who have treated
+of the same subject. Relying upon English precedent, he might in fact
+feel that he was peculiarly fitted for the task. He had cruised a few
+times up and down the British channel, he had caught limited views of
+British manners and customs by walking on several occasions the length
+of Fleet Street and the Strand. Knowledge of America equivalent to
+this would then have been regarded in England as an ample equipment
+for an accurate treatise upon the social life of this country, and
+even upon its existing political condition and probable future.</p>
+
+<p>But much more than the choice of a foreign subject did the pretense of
+foreign authorship prove the servility of feeling prevailing at that
+time among the educated classes. This was in the first place, to be
+sure, the result of the freak that led Cooper originally to begin
+writing a novel; but it was a freak that would never have been carried
+out, after publication had been decided upon, had he not been fully
+aware of the fact that the least recommendation of a book to his
+countrymen would be the knowledge that it was composed by one of
+themselves. "Precaution" was not merely a tale of English social life,
+it purported to be written by an Englishman; and it was so thoroughly
+conformed to its imaginary model that it not only reëchoed the cant of
+English expression, but likewise the expression of English cant. To
+talk about dissenters and the establishment was natural and proper
+enough in a work written ostensibly by the citizen of a country in
+which there was a state church. But Cooper went much farther than
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span>
+this in the reflections and moral observations which are
+scattered up and down the pages of this novel. These represent fairly
+views widely held at the time in America, and may not impossibly
+express the personal opinions he himself then entertained. He speaks
+in one place, in his assumed character of an Englishman, of the
+solidity and purity of our ethics as giving a superior tone to our
+moral feelings as contrasted with the French. He goes out of his way
+to compliment George III. One of the personages in the novel was
+tempted to admit something to his credit that he did not deserve. The
+love of truth, however, finally prevailed. But it was not because the
+man himself had any innate love of truth, but because "he had been too
+much round the person of our beloved monarch not to retain all the
+impressions of his youth." Passages such as these are remarkable when
+we consider the sentiments in regard to England that Cooper
+subsequently came to express. If they do not show with certainty his
+opinions at that time, they do show the school in which he had been
+brought up: they mark clearly the extent and violence of the reaction
+which in after years carried him to the opposite extreme.</p>
+
+<p>In its plan and development "Precaution" was a compromise between the
+purely fashionable novel and that collection of moral disquisitions of
+which Hannah More's C&oelig;lebs was the great exemplar, and still
+remained the most popular representative. As in most tales of high
+life, nobody of low condition plays a prominent part in the story,
+save for the purpose of setting off the dukes, earls, baronets,
+generals, and colonels that throng its pages. A novelist in his first
+production never limits his creative activity in any respect; and
+Cooper,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span>
+moreover, knew the public well enough to be aware
+that a fictitious narrative which aimed to describe aristocratic
+society might perhaps succeed without much literary merit, but would
+be certain to fail without an abundance of lords. The leading
+characters, however, whether of higher or lower degree, are planned
+upon the moral model. They either preach or furnish awful examples. It
+would certainly be most unfair to an author to judge him, as in this
+case, by a work which he had begun without any view to publication,
+and which he afterward learned to think and to speak of slightingly.
+Still, though, compared with many of his writings, "Precaution" is a
+novel of little worth, it is, in some respects, a better guide to the
+knowledge of the man than his better productions. The latter give
+evidence of his powers; in this are shown certain limitations of his
+nature and beliefs. Peculiarities, both of thought and feeling, which
+in his other writings are merely suggested, are here clearly revealed.
+Some of them will appear strange to those whose conception of his
+character is derived from facts connected with his later life, or
+whose acquaintance with his works is limited to those most celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper was, by nature, a man of deep religious feeling. This
+disposition had been strengthened by his training. But there is
+something more than deep religious feeling exhibited in his first
+novel. There runs through it a vein of pietistic narrowness, which
+seems particularly unsuited to the man whom popular imagination,
+investing him somewhat with the characteristics of his own creations,
+has depicted as a ranger of the forests and a rover of the seas. Yet
+the existence of this vein is plainly apparent, though all his
+surroundings would
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span>
+seem to have been unfavorable to its
+birth and development. He shared, to its fullest extent, in the
+jealousy which at that time, far more than now, prevailed between the
+Middle States and New England. He was strongly attached to the
+Episcopal Church, and he had, or fancied he had, a keen dislike to the
+Puritans and their manners and creeds. To these "religionists," as he
+was wont to call them, he attributed a great deal that was ungraceful
+in American life, and a good deal that was disgraceful. But the
+Puritan element is an irrepressible and undying one in English
+character. It can be found centuries before it became the designation
+of a religious body. It can be traced, under various and varying
+appellations, through every period of English history. It is not the
+name of a sect, it is not the mark of a creed; it is the
+characteristic of a race. It is, therefore, never long put under ban
+before it comes back, and takes its turn in ruling manners and
+society. The revolt against it in the eighteenth century had stripped
+from religion everything in the shape of sentiment, and left it merely
+a business. The reaction which brought the Puritan element again to
+the front was so intensified by hostility to what were called French
+principles that the minor literature of the latter half of the reign
+of George III. exhibits a cant of intolerance from which many of its
+greatest writers were rarely great enough to be wholly free. This
+influence is clearly visible in the earliest work of Cooper. There is
+no charge, probably, he would have denied sooner or disliked more, but
+in his nature he was essentially a Puritan of the Puritans. Their
+faults and their virtues, their inconsistencies and their
+contradictions, were his. Their earnestness, their intensity, their
+narrowness, their intolerance,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span>
+their pugnacity, their
+serious way of looking at human duties and responsibilities, all these
+elements corresponded with elements in his own character. His, also,
+were their lofty ideas of personal purity and of personal obligation,
+extending not merely to the acts of the life, but to the thoughts of
+the heart. Like them, moreover, he was always disposed to appeal
+directly to the authority of the Supreme Being. Like them, he had
+perfect confidence in the absolute knowledge he possessed of what that
+Being thought and wished. Like them, he considered any controverted
+question as settled, if he could once bring to bear upon the point in
+dispute a text beginning, "Thus saith the Lord." No rational creature,
+certainly, would think of contesting a view of the Creator, or acting
+contrary to a command coming unmistakably from Him. But at this very
+point the difficulty begins; and in nothing did Cooper more resemble
+the Puritans than in his incapacity to see that there was any
+difficulty at all. It never occurred to him that there might possibly
+be a vast difference between what the Lord actually said and what
+James Fenimore Cooper thought the Lord said. It is hardly necessary to
+add, however, that this characteristic of mind has its advantages as
+well as disadvantages.</p>
+
+<p>It was not unnatural, accordingly, that "Precaution" should exemplify
+in many cases that narrowness of view which seeks to shape narrow
+rules for the conduct of life. For its sympathy with this, one of the
+most distinguishing and disagreeable features of Puritanism, the novel
+has an interest which could never be aroused by it as a work of art.
+Extreme sentiments are often expressed by the author in his own
+person, though they are usually put into the mouths of various actors
+in the story.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span>
+Their especial representative is a certain
+Mrs. Wilson, who was clearly a great favorite of her creator, though
+to the immense majority of men she would seem as disagreeably
+strong-minded as most of Cooper's female characters are disagreeably
+weak-minded. This lady is the widow of a general officer, who, the
+reader comes heartily to feel, has, most fortunately for himself,
+fallen in the Peninsular war. From her supreme height of morality she
+sweeps the whole horizon of human frailties and faults, and looks down
+with a relentless eye upon the misguided creatures who are struggling
+with temptations to which she is superior, or are under the sway of
+beliefs whose folly or falsity she has long since penetrated. In her,
+indeed, there is no weak compromise with human feelings. The lesson
+meant to be taught by the novel is the necessity of taking precaution
+in regard to marriage. One point insisted upon again and again is the
+requirement of piety in the husband. It is the duty of a Christian
+mother to guard against a connection with any one but a Christian for
+her daughters: for throughout the whole work the sovereign right of
+the parent over the child is not merely implied, it is directly
+asserted. "No really pious woman," says Mrs. Wilson, "can be happy
+unless her husband is in what she deems the road to future happiness
+herself." When she is met by the remark that the carrying out of this
+idea would give a deadly blow to matrimony, she rises to the occasion
+by replying that "no man who dispassionately examines the subject will
+be other than a Christian, and rather than remain bachelors they would
+take even that trouble." Nor in this was the author apparently
+expressing an opinion which he did not himself hold in theory, however
+little he might have regarded
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span>
+it in practice. He takes up
+the same subject in another place, when speaking in his own person.
+"Would our daughters," he says, "admire a handsome deist, if properly
+impressed with the horror of his doctrines, sooner than they would now
+admire a handsome Mohammedan?" On the matter of Sunday observance the
+narrowest tenets of Puritanism were preached, and the usual ignorance
+was manifested that there were two sides to the question. Some of the
+incidents connected with this subject are curious. One of the better
+characters in the novel asks his wife to ride out on that day, and she
+reluctantly consents. This brings at once upon the stage the
+inevitable Mrs. Wilson, who always stands ready to point a moral,
+though she can hardly be said to adorn the tale. She draws from the
+transaction the lesson that it is a warning against marrying a person
+with a difference of views. In this particular instance the respect of
+the man for religion had been injurious to his wife, because "had he
+been an open deist, she would have shrunk from the act in his company
+on suspicion of its sinfulness." It is justice to add that many of
+these extreme opinions, at least in the extreme form stated in this
+work, the author came finally to outgrow if in fact he held them
+seriously then.</p>
+
+<p>There are certain other peculiarities of Cooper's beliefs that
+"Precaution" exemplifies. He has been constantly criticised for the
+unvarying and uninteresting uniformity of his female characters. This
+is hardly just; but it is just in the sense that there was only one
+type which he ever held up to admiration. Others were introduced, but
+they were never the kind of women whom he delighted to honor. Of
+female purity he had the highest ideal. Deference for the female sex
+as a sex
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span>
+he felt sincerely and expressed strongly. Along
+with this he seemed to have the most contemptible opinion of the
+ability of the female individual to take care of herself. On the other
+hand, if she had the requisite ability, the greater became his
+contempt; for helplessness, in his eyes, was apparently her chiefest
+charm. The Emily Moseley of his first novel is the prototype of a long
+line of heroines, whose combination of propriety and incapacity places
+them at the farthest possible remove from the heroic. She is worthy of
+special mention here, only because in this novel he describes in
+detail the desirable qualities, which in the others are simply
+implied. He furnishes us, moreover, with the precise training to which
+she had been subjected by her aunt, Mrs. Wilson. Accordingly, we learn
+both what, in Cooper's eyes, it was incumbent for a woman to be, and
+what she ought to go through in order to be that woman. A few
+sentences taken at random will show the character of this heroine. She
+was artless, but intelligent; she was cheerful, but pious; she was
+familiar with all the attainments suitable to her sex and years. Her
+time was dedicated to work which had a tendency to qualify her for the
+duties of this life and fit her for the life hereafter. She seldom
+opened a book unless in search of information. She never read one that
+contained a sentiment dangerous to her morals, or inculcated an
+opinion improper for her sex. She never permitted a gentleman to ride
+with her, to walk with her, to hold with her a tęte-ŕ-tęte. Nor was
+this result achieved with difficulty. Though she was natural and
+unaffected, the simple dignity about her was sufficient to forbid any
+such request, or even any such thought in the men who had the
+pleasure, or, as the reader
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span>
+may think, the grief, of her
+acquaintance. In short, she was not merely propriety personified; she
+was propriety magnified and intensified. This particular heroine, who
+could not consistently have read the book in which her own conduct is
+described, finally disappears as the wife of an equally remarkable
+earl. Her story, as it is told, however, strikingly exemplifies the
+carelessness in working up details which is one of Cooper's marked
+defects. The novel received its name, as has already been implied,
+because it aimed to set forth the desirability of precaution in the
+choice of husband or wife. What it actually taught, however, was its
+undesirability. The misunderstandings, the crosses, the distresses, to
+which the lovers were subjected in the tale all sprang from excess of
+care, and not from lack of it; from exercising precaution where
+precaution did nothing but harm.</p>
+
+<p>The work excited but little attention in this country. In the
+following year it was printed in England by Colburn, and was there
+noticed without the slightest suspicion of its American authorship. In
+some quarters it received fairly favorable mention. It could not be
+hid, however, that the novel, as regarded the general public, had been
+a failure. Still, it was not so much a failure that the author's
+friends did not think well of it and see promise in it. They urged him
+to renewed exertions. He had tried the experiment of depicting scenes
+he had never witnessed, and a life he had never led. He had, in their
+opinion, succeeded fairly well in describing what he knew nothing
+about; they were anxious that he should try his hand at the
+representation of manners and men of which and whom he knew something.
+Especially was it made a matter of reproach that he, in heart
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span>
+and soul an American of the Americans, should have gone to a
+foreign land to fill the imagination of his countrymen with pictures
+of a social state alien both in feeling and fact to their own. This
+was an appeal of a kind that was certain to touch Cooper sensibly; for
+with him love of country was not a sentiment, it was a passion. As a
+sort of atonement, therefore, for his first work, he determined to
+inflict, as he phrased it, a second one upon the world. Against this
+there should be no objection on the score of patriotism. He naturally
+turned for his subject to the Revolution, with the details of which he
+was familiar by his acquaintance with the men who had shared
+prominently in its conduct, and had felt all the keenness of a
+personal triumph in its success. The very county, moreover, in which
+he had made his home was full of recollections. Westchester had been
+the neutral ground between the English forces stationed in New York
+and the American army encamped in the highlands of the Hudson. Upon it
+more, perhaps, than upon any other portion of the soil of the revolted
+colonies had fallen the curse of war in its heaviest form. Back and
+forth over a large part of it had perpetually ebbed and flowed the
+tide of battle. Not a road was there which had not been swept again
+and again by columns of infantry or squadrons of horse. Every thicket
+had been the hiding-place of refugees or spies; every wood or meadow
+had been the scene of a skirmish; and every house that had survived
+the struggle had its tale to tell of thrilling scenes that had taken
+place within its walls. These circumstances determined Cooper's choice
+of the place and period. Years before, while at the residence of John
+Jay, his host had given him, one summer afternoon, the account of a
+spy that had
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span>
+been in his service during the war. The
+coolness, shrewdness, fearlessness, but above all the unselfish
+patriotism, of the man had profoundly impressed the Revolutionary
+leader who had employed him. The story made an equally deep impression
+upon Cooper at the time. He now resolved to take it as the foundation
+of the tale he had been persuaded to write. The result was that on the
+22d of December, 1821, the novel of "The Spy" was quietly advertised
+in the New York papers as on that day published.</p>
+
+<p>The reader, however, would receive a very wrong idea of the feelings
+with which the author began and ended this work of fiction, should he
+stop short with the account that has just been given. The
+circumstances attending its composition and publication are, as a
+matter of fact, almost as remarkable as the story itself. They
+certainly present a most suggestive picture of the literary state of
+America at that time. Cooper, for his part, had not the slightest
+anticipation of the effect that it was going to have upon his future.
+In writing it he was carrying out the wishes of his friends full as
+much as his own. Nor, apparently, did they urge the course upon him
+because they conceived him capable of accomplishing anything very
+great or even very good. They felt that he could produce something
+that was not discreditable, and that was all that could reasonably be
+expected of an American. There was no other novelist in the field.
+Charles Brockden Brown had been dead several years. Irving and
+Paulding were writing only short sketches. John Neal, indeed, in
+addition to the poems, tragedies, reviews, newspaper articles,
+indexes, and histories he was turning out by wholesale, had likewise
+perpetrated a novel; but it was never known enough
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span>
+to justify the mention of it as having been forgotten. Here,
+consequently, was a vacant place that ought to be filled. Cooper was
+never the man who would be eager to take a place because there was no
+one else to occupy it; and the way he went at the task he had
+undertaken gives indirectly a clear insight into an American author's
+feelings sixty years ago. He entered upon the work not merely without
+the expectation of success, but almost without the hope of it. The
+novel was written very hastily; the sheets passed into the hands of
+the type-setter with scarcely a correction; and so little heart had he
+in the task that the first volume was printed several months before he
+felt any inducement to write a line of the second. The propriety of
+abandoning it entirely, under the apprehension of its proving a
+serious loss, was debated. "Should chance," he said, in a later
+introduction to the book, "throw a copy of this prefatory notice into
+the hands of an American twenty years hence, he will smile to think
+that a countryman hesitated to complete a work so far advanced, merely
+because the disposition of the country to read a book that treated of
+its own familiar interests was distrusted." In this respect the
+difficulty of his position was made more prominent by its contrast
+with that of the great novelist who was then occupying the attention
+of the English-speaking world. Scott, in writing "Waverley," could
+take for granted that there lay behind him an intense feeling of
+nationality, which would show itself not in noisy boastfulness, but in
+genuine appreciation; that with the matter of his work his countrymen
+would sympathize, whatever might be their opinion as to its execution.
+No such supposition could be made by Cooper; no such belief inspired
+him to exertion. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span>
+might hope to create interest; he could
+not venture to assume its existence. One other incident connected with
+the composition of this work marks even more plainly the almost
+despairing attitude of his mind. While the second volume was slowly
+printing, he received an intimation from his publisher that the work
+might grow to a length that would endanger the profits. The author
+hereupon adopted a course which is itself a proof of how much stranger
+is fact than fiction. To placate the publisher and set his mind at
+rest, the last chapter was written, printed, and paged, not merely
+before the intervening chapters had been composed, but before they had
+been fully conceived. It was fair to expect failure for a work which
+no bookseller had been found willing to undertake at his own risk, and
+which the author himself set about in a manner so perfunctory. The
+indifference and carelessness displayed, he said afterward, were
+disrespectful to the public and unjust to himself; yet they give, as
+nothing else could, a vivid picture of the literary situation in
+America at that time.</p>
+
+<p>The reluctance and half-heartedness with which Cooper began and
+completed this work stand, indeed, in sharpest contrast to the
+existing state of feeling, when it is only the prayers of friends and
+the tears of relatives that can prevent most of us from publishing
+some novel we have already written. But almost as it were by accident
+he had struck into the vein best fitted for the display of his natural
+powers. In it he succeeded with little effort, where other men with
+the greatest effort might have failed. The delicate distinctions that
+underlie character where social pressure has given to all the same
+outside, it was not his to depict. Still less could
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span>
+he
+unfold the subtle workings of motives that often elude the observation
+of the very persons whom they most influence. Such a power is
+essential to the success of him who seeks to delineate men as seen in
+conventional society; and largely for the lack of it his first novel
+had been a failure. It was only at rare intervals, also, that he
+showed that precision of style and pointed method of statement which,
+independent of the subject, interest the reader in men and things that
+are not in themselves interesting. It was the story of adventure,
+using adventure in its broadest sense, that he was fitted to tell: and
+fortunately for him Walter Scott, then in the very height of his
+popularity, had made it supremely fashionable. In this it is only
+needful to draw character in bold outlines; to represent men not under
+the influence of motives that hold sway in artificial and complex
+society, but as breathed upon by those common airs of reflection and
+swept hither and thither by those common gales of passion that operate
+upon us all as members of the race. It is not the personality of the
+actors to which the attention is supremely drawn, though even in that
+there is ample field for the exhibition of striking characterization.
+It is the events that carry us along; it is the catastrophe to which
+they are hurrying that excites the feelings and absorbs the thoughts.
+There can be no greater absurdity than to speak of this kind of story,
+as is sometimes done, as being inferior in itself to those devoted
+exclusively to the delineation of manners or character, or even of the
+subtler motives which act upon the heart and life. As well might one
+say that the "Iliad" is a poem of inferior type to the "Excursion."
+Again, it is only those who think it must be easy to write what it is
+easy to read who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span>
+will fall into the mistake of fancying that
+a novel of adventure which has vitality enough to live does not owe
+its existence to the arduous, though it may be largely unconscious,
+exercise of high creative power. No better correction for this error
+can be found than in looking over the names of the countless imitators
+of Scott, some of them distinguished in other fields, who have made so
+signal a failure that even the very fact that they attempted to
+imitate him at all has been wholly forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>"The Spy" appeared almost at the very close of 1821. It was not long
+before its success was assured. Early in 1822 the newspapers were able
+to assert that it had met with a sale unprecedented in the annals of
+American literature. What that phrase meant is partly indicated by the
+fact that it had then been found necessary to publish a second
+edition. In March a third edition was put to the press; and in the
+same month the story was dramatized and acted with the greatest
+success. Still in the abject dependence upon foreign estimate which
+was the preëminent characteristic of a large portion of the educated
+class of that day, many felt constrained to wait for the judgment that
+would come back from Europe before they could venture to express an
+opinion which they had the presumption to call their own. Contemporary
+newspapers more than once mention the relief that was afforded to many
+when Cooper was spoken of in several of the English journals as "a
+distinguished American novelist." This, it has been implied, was then
+a condition of the public mind that no writer could dare wholly to
+disregard. When the project of abandoning this novel, already half
+printed, was under discussion, the principal reason that finally
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span>
+decided the author to persevere was the fact that his previous
+work had received a respectful notice in a few English periodicals. It
+was thought, in consequence, that in his new venture he would be
+secure from loss. Still, it is due to his countrymen to say that it
+was to them alone he owed his first success. In later years the
+declaration was often made that he would never have been held in honor
+at home, had it not been for foreign approbation. The assertion he
+himself indignantly denied. "This work," he said afterward, in
+speaking of "The Spy," "most of you received with a generous welcome
+that might have satisfied any one that the heart of this great
+community is sound." Certain it is that the success of the novel was
+assured in America some time before the character of its reception in
+Europe was known.</p>
+
+<p>The printed volume was offered to the London publisher Murray, and for
+terms he was referred to Irving, who was then in England. Murray gave
+the novel for examination to Gifford, the editor of the "Quarterly."
+By his advice it was declined,--a result that might easily have been
+foretold from the hostility of the man to this country. He had made
+his review an organ of the most persistent depreciation and abuse of
+America and everything American. A new writer from this side of the
+ocean was little likely to meet with any favor in his sight,
+especially when his subject was one that from its very nature could
+not be flattering to British prejudices. Murray having refused,
+another publisher was found in Miller, who had also been the first to
+bring out Irving's "Sketch Book." Early in 1822 the work appeared in
+England. There its success was full as great as it had been in
+America. This novel, in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span>
+fact, made Cooper's reputation both
+at home and abroad. It is important to bear this in mind, because it
+is a common notion that it was his delineations of Indian life that
+brought him his European fame. They established it, but they did not
+originate it. "The Spy" was a tale of a war, which in character was
+not essentially different from any other war. So far as the story
+painted the incidents of a struggle in which the English had been
+unsuccessful, it could have no right to expect favor from the English
+public unless there was merit in the execution of the work independent
+of the subject. The interest with which it was read by a people who
+could not fail to find portions of it disagreeable, who were moreover
+accustomed to look with contempt upon everything of American origin,
+was the best proof that a novelist had arisen whose reputation would
+stretch beyond the narrow limits of nationality. This was even more
+strikingly seen, when it came to be translated. If the English opinion
+was favorable, the French might fairly be called enthusiastic. A
+version was made into that tongue in the summer of 1822, by the
+translator of the Waverley Novels. In the absolute ignorance that
+existed as to its authorship, the work was ascribed by several of the
+Parisian papers to Fanny Wright, who subsequently achieved a fame of
+her own as a champion of woman's privileges and denouncer of woman's
+wrongs. In spite of its anonymous character and of some extraordinary
+blunders in translation, it was warmly received in France. From that
+country its reputation in no long space of time spread in every
+direction; translations followed one after another into all the
+cultivated tongues of modern Europe; and in all it met the same degree
+of favor. Nor has lapse of time shaken seriously its
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span>
+popularity. The career of success, which began sixty years ago, has
+suffered vicissitudes, but never suspension; and to this hour,
+whatever fault may be found with the work as a whole, the name of
+Harvey Birch is still one of the best known in fiction. No tale
+produced during the present century has probably had so extensive a
+circulation; and the leading character in it has found admirers
+everywhere and at times imitators. Of this latter statement a striking
+illustration is given in the memoirs of Gisquet, a prefect of the
+French police under Louis Philippe. In his chapter on the secret
+agents employed by him during his administration, he tells the story
+of one who by the information he imparted rendered important services
+in preventing the outbreak of civil war. He thus describes the motives
+which led the man to pursue the course he did. "Struck with the
+reading," he writes, "of one of Cooper's novels called 'The Spy,' he
+aspired to the sort of ambition which distinguished the hero of that
+work, and was desirous of playing in France the part which Cooper has
+assigned to Harvey Birch during the American war of independence....
+Harvey Birch--for he adopted this name in all his reports--never
+belied his professions of fidelity. He rendered services which would
+have merited a competent fortune; but when the term of them ended, he
+contented himself with asking for a humble employment, barely enough
+to supply his daily necessities." The belief in the reality of the
+hero has, indeed, been part of the singular fortune of the book. In
+his account of Nicaragua, published in 1852, Mr. E. G. Squier
+furnished incidentally interesting testimony to the truth of this
+statement as well as to the wide circulation of the tale itself. At La
+Union, the port of San Miguel,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span>
+he stayed at the house of the
+commandant of the place. His apartments he found well stocked with
+books, and among them was this particular novel. "The 'Espy,'" he went
+on to say, "of the lamented Cooper, I may mention, seems to be better
+known in Spanish America than any other work in the English language.
+I found it everywhere; and when I subsequently visited the Indian
+pueblo of Conchagua, the first alcalde produced it from an obscure
+corner of the cahildo, as a very great treasure. He regarded it as
+veritable history, and thought 'Seńor Birch' a most extraordinary
+personage and a model guerillero."</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER III.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1822-1826.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Cooper would have been more or less than mortal if the unexpected
+success achieved by "The Spy" had not incited him to renewed effort.
+It definitely determined his career, though at the time he did not
+know it. As yet he was not sure in his own mind whether the favor his
+book had met was the result of a lucky hit or was due to the display
+of actual power. There can be no question as to the honesty of his
+assertion when he published his third novel, that it depended upon
+certain contingencies whether it would not be the last. But from this
+time on he wrote incessantly. From 1820 to 1830, including both years,
+he brought out eleven works. In many respects this was the happiest
+period of his literary life as well as the most successful. During it
+he produced many of his greatest creations. One decided failure he
+made; but with this exception if each new story did not seem to
+exhibit any new power, it at least gave no sign of weakness, or
+misdirection of energy. This period is in fact so supremely the
+creative one of Cooper's life as regards the conception of character
+and scene that nearly all he did demands careful examination.</p>
+
+<p>He first set about a task that lay near his heart. This was to
+describe the scenes, the manners and customs of his native land,
+especially of the frontier life in which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span>
+he had been
+trained. In 1823, accordingly, appeared "The Pioneers," itself the
+pioneer of the five famous stories, which now go collectively under
+the name of the "Leather-Stocking Tales." It was a vivid and faithful
+picture of the sights he had seen and the men he had met in the home
+of his childhood, where as a boy he had witnessed the struggles which
+attend the conquest of man over nature. In it appear in comparatively
+rude outlines the personages whose names and exploits his pen was
+afterwards to make famous throughout the civilized world. They are in
+this work of a far less lofty type than in those which followed. "The
+Pioneers," in truth, though not a poor story, is much the poorest of
+the series of which it forms a part. The almost loving interest he
+took in the matter about which he was writing tempted the author to
+indulge his recollections at the expense of his judgment. His first
+novel, he said in the prefatory address to the publisher which
+appeared in this one, had been written to show that he could write a
+grave tale, and it was so grave that no one would read it; the second
+was written to overcome if possible the neglect of the public; but the
+third was written exclusively to please himself. The story as a story
+suffered in consequence from the very fascination which the subject
+had for his mind. So subordinate was it made, especially in the first
+half, to the description of the scenes, that the details at times
+become wearisome and the interest often flags.</p>
+
+<p>The expectation with which the appearance of this work was awaited is
+a striking proof of the impression that the previous novel had made.
+It was to have been brought out as early as the autumn of 1822. But
+during the summer of that year the yellow fever ravaged New
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span>
+York and largely broke up for a time all kinds of business, including
+printing. Causes beyond control still further delayed the publication,
+and it was not until the first of February, 1823, that the book
+appeared. The public curiosity, however, had been fully excited.
+Extracts from it--according to a custom then prevalent in England--had
+been furnished in advance to some of the newspapers, and though these
+were not the most striking passages, they served to direct attention
+and awaken expectation. At the close of January, announcement of the
+precise date of publication was made. Success was certain from the
+start; but the degree of it outran all anticipation. The evening
+papers of the first of February were able to state that up to twelve
+o'clock that day there had been sold three thousand five hundred
+copies. Even at this period, with a population more than five times as
+numerous, such a half day's sale, under similar circumstances, would
+be remarkable. It is little wonder, therefore, that the newspapers of
+that period felt that only largeness of type and profusion of
+exclamation points could suitably record such a success.</p>
+
+<p>"The Pioneers" was the first work to display a peculiarity of the
+author's character, which came afterwards into marked prominence.
+Cooper in a sense belonged to the school of Scott; and he was so far
+from denying it that in one place he speaks of himself as being
+nothing more than a chip from the former's block. But his life would
+have been far happier and his success much greater had he followed in
+one respect the example of him he called his master. Scott ordinarily
+did not read criticisms upon his own writings; and when he did, he was
+careful not to let his equanimity be seriously disturbed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span>
+even by the severest attacks. Much of this was no doubt due to
+prudence; but a good deal of it to contempt. For of all the rubbish
+that time shoots into the wallet of oblivion, contemporary criticism
+runs about the least chance of being rescued from the forgetfulness
+into which it has been thrust. This is a result entirely independent
+of its goodness or badness. If the criticism is both destructive and
+just, the very death of the subject against which it is directed
+causes it to perish in the ruin it has brought about. If it is unjust,
+it is certain to be speedily forgotten, unless he who suffers from it
+takes the pains to perpetuate its memory, or some later investigator
+drags it from its obscurity for the sake of pointing out its
+absurdity. The creative literature of the past is the utmost the
+present can be expected to read. Its critical literature, however
+celebrated in its day, is looked upon with contempt, or at best with a
+patronizing approval, by the following age, which is always confident
+that it at least has reached the supreme standard of correct taste,
+and asks no aid in making up its judgments from those who have gone
+before. But the philosophy which shows this to be true never lessened
+one iota the pain which the man of sensitive nature suffers. The
+extent to which Cooper was affected by hostile criticism is something
+remarkable, even in the irritable race of authors. He manifested under
+it the irascibility of a man not simply thin-skinned, but of one whose
+skin was raw. Meekness was never a distinguishing characteristic of
+his nature; and attack invariably stung him into defiance or
+counter-attack. Unfriendly insinuations contained in obscure journals
+could goad him into remarks upon them, or into a reply to them, which
+at this date is the only means
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span>
+of preserving the original
+charge. It was in his prefaces that he was apt to express his
+resentment most warmly, for he well knew that this was the one part of
+a book which the reviewer is absolutely certain to read. In these he
+frequently took occasion to point out to the generation of critical
+vipers the various offenses of which they were guilty, the stupidities
+that seemed to belong to their very nature, and that utter lack of
+literary skill which prevented them from giving a look of sense to the
+most plausible nonsense they concocted. By Cooper, indeed, the preface
+was looked upon not as a place to conciliate the reader, but to hurl
+scorn at the reviewer. In his hands it became a trumpet from which he
+blew from time to time critic-defying strains, which more than made up
+in vigor for all they lacked in prudence. This characteristic was
+early manifested. In the short preface to the second edition of "The
+Spy," he could not refrain from referring to the friends who had given
+him good advice, and who had favored him with numberless valuable
+hints, by the help of which the work might be made excellent. But it
+is the letter to the publisher, with which "The Pioneers" originally
+opened, that was the first of his regular warlike manifestoes. Though
+not very long, two thirds of it was devoted to the men who had
+publicly found fault with his previous works. He pointed out their
+discrepancies in taste and the metaphysical obscurity of their
+opinions. At the conclusion he wrote a sentence which some of them
+never forgot. He told his publisher that to him alone he should look
+for the only true account of the reception of his book. "The critics,"
+said he in continuation, "may write as obscurely as they please, and
+look much wiser than they are; the papers may puff and abuse
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span>
+as their changeful humors dictate; but if you meet me with a smiling
+face I shall at once know that all is essentially well."</p>
+
+<p>Little notice, however, was taken at the time of Cooper's preference
+of the public opinion which showed itself in buying his books, to that
+which made it its chief aim to teach him how they ought to be written.
+The country was too pleased with him and too proud of him to pay any
+special attention to these momentary ebullitions of dissatisfaction.
+On his part so great had now become his literary activity, that before
+"The Pioneers" was published he had set to work upon a new novel, of a
+kind of which he can justly be described as the creator, and in which
+he was to be followed by a host of imitators.</p>
+
+<p>At a dinner party in New York in 1822, at which Cooper was present,
+the authorship of the Waverley Novels, still a matter of some
+uncertainty, came up for discussion. In December of the preceding year
+"The Pirate" had been published. The incidents in this story were
+brought forward as a proof of the thorough familiarity with sea-life
+of him, whoever he was, that had written it. Such familiarity Scott
+had never had the opportunity to gain in the only way it could be
+gained. It followed, therefore, that the tale was not of his
+composition. Cooper, who had never doubted the authorship of these
+novels, did not at all share in this view. The very reasons that made
+others feel uncertain led him to be confident. To one like him whose
+early life had been spent on top-gallant yards and in becketing
+royals, it was perfectly clear that "The Pirate" was the work of a
+landsman and not of a sailor. Not that he denied the accuracy of the
+descriptions so far as they went. The point
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span>
+that he made was
+that with the same materials far greater effects could and would have
+been produced, had the author possessed that intimate familiarity with
+ocean-life which can be his alone whose home for years has been upon
+the waves. He could not convince his opponents by argument. He
+consequently determined to convince them by writing a sea-story.</p>
+
+<p>We who are familiar with the countless hosts of novels of this nature
+that have swarmed and are still swarming from the press, cannot
+realize the apparent peril which at that time existed in this
+undertaking. No work of the kind, such as he now projected, had ever
+yet been published. Sailors, indeed, had been introduced into fiction,
+notably by Smollett, but in no case had there been exhibited the
+handling and movements of vessels, and the details of naval
+operations. During the last half-century we have been so surfeited
+with the sea-story in every form, that most of us have forgotten the
+fact of its late origin, and that it is to Cooper that it owes its
+creation. That he created it was not due to any encouragement from
+others. He had plenty of judicious friends to warn him from the
+undertaking. Sailors, he was told, might understand and appreciate it,
+but no one else would. Minute detail, moreover, was necessary to
+render it intelligible to seamen, and to landsmen it would be both
+unintelligible and uninteresting on account of the technicalities
+which must inevitably be found in minute detail. A reputation already
+well established would be sunk in the treacherous element he was
+purposing to describe. Cooper persisted in his purpose, but he could
+not fail to be disturbed by the unfavorable auguries that met him on
+every side. These naturally had the more weight, as they came from men
+who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span>
+were attached to him personally, and who were honestly
+solicitous for his fame. He was at one time almost inclined to give up
+the project. But a critical English friend to whom he submitted a
+portion of the manuscript was delighted with it. In this man's
+judgment and taste Cooper felt so great confidence that he was induced
+to persevere. Moreover, to try the effect upon the more peculiar
+public of seamen, he read an extract to one of his old shipmates, who
+was also a relative. This was the account of the war-vessel working
+off shore in a gale. The selection was certainly a happy one. The
+literature of the sea presents no more thrilling chapter than that
+which, describing the passage of the great frigate through the narrow
+channel, gives every detail with such vividness and power that the
+most unimaginative cannot merely see ship, shore, and foaming water,
+but almost hear the roaring of the wind, the creaking of the cordage,
+and the dashing of the waves against the breakers. As he read on the
+listener's interest kept growing until he was no longer able to remain
+quiet. Rising from his seat he paced up and down the room furiously
+until the chapter was finished. Then half ashamed of the excitement
+into which he had been betrayed, he avenged himself just as if he were
+a professional reviewer by indulging in a bit of special criticism:
+"It's all very well," he burst out, "but you have let your jib stand
+too long, my fine fellow." For once Cooper heeded advice. "I blew it
+out of the bolt-rope," said he, "in pure spite;" and blown out of the
+bolt-rope the jib appears in the tale.</p>
+
+<p>He now felt reasonably confident of success, and any doubt that might
+have lingered in his mind was at once swept away by the favorable
+reception the work met when
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span>
+it came out. Its publication was
+for a while delayed. Early in the summer of 1823 the first volume had
+been finished and a portion of the second, but any further progress
+was checked for the time by an affliction that then befell the author.
+On the 5th of August his youngest child, Fenimore, then little less
+than two years old, died at the family residence in Beach Street, New
+York, and this calamity was followed by illness of his own. "The
+Pilot," in consequence, though bearing the date of 1823, was not
+actually furnished to the trade until the 7th of January, 1824. Its
+success, both in this country and in Europe, was instantaneous.
+Far-sighted men saw at once that a new realm had been added to the
+domain of fiction. "The Pilot" is indeed not only the first of
+Cooper's sea-stories in point of time, but if we regard exclusively
+the excellence of detached scenes, it may perhaps be justly styled the
+best of them all. At any rate its place in the highest rank of this
+species of fiction cannot be disputed, and in spite of the multitude
+of similar works that have followed in its wake and which have had
+their seasons of temporary popularity, its hold upon the public has
+never been lost.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper was without question exceptionally fortunate in the materials
+with which he had to deal. He was never under the necessity of getting
+up with infinite toil what the modern novelist terms his local
+coloring. This existed for him ready made. He had only to call to mind
+the men he had himself met, the hazards he had run, the life he had
+lived, to be furnished with all the incidents and scenes and
+characters that were capable of being wrought into romance. His
+descriptions both of forest and of sea have all that vividness and
+reality which cannot well be given save by him who has threaded
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span>
+at will every maze of the one and tossed for week after week upon
+the billows of the other. Moreover, in this particular case, while he
+satisfied his patriotic feeling in the choice of the time, he
+displayed great judgment in the selection of the hero. The pilot,
+though never named, we know to be the extraordinary and daring
+adventurer, John Paul Jones, and the period is of course the American
+Revolution. In his literary art, likewise, Cooper has never been
+equaled by his imitators. Provided he could create the desired effect,
+he dared to let the reader remain in ignorance of the details he
+introduced. Enough of technicality was brought in to satisfy the
+professional seaman, but not so much as to distract the attention of
+the landsman from the main movement of the story. Contented with this
+the author did not seek to explain to the latter what he could not
+well understand without having served personally before the mast. From
+this rule he never varied, save in the few cases where the interest of
+the tale could be better served by imparting information than by
+withholding it. He had a full artistic appreciation of the
+impressiveness of the unknown. For, in stories of this kind, the
+vagueness of the reader's knowledge adds to the effect upon his mind,
+because, while he sees that mighty agencies are at work in perilous
+situations, his very ignorance of their exact nature deepens the
+feeling of awe they are of themselves calculated to produce. The wise
+reticence of Cooper in this respect can be seen by contrasting it with
+the prodigality of information, contained in more than one modern
+sea-novel, in which the whole action of the story is arrested to
+explain a technical operation with the result that the ordinary reader
+finds the explanation more unintelligible than the technical operation
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>Still, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span>
+in spite of the excellence of the tales which had
+followed it, "The Spy" continued with the majority of readers to be
+the most popular of his works. This fact, coupled with his intense
+love of country, led him to turn once more for a subject to his native
+land and to the period in the description of which he had won his
+first fame. He formed, in fact, a plan of writing a series of works of
+fiction, the scenes of which should be laid in the various colonies
+that had shared in the Revolutionary struggle. In pursuance of this
+scheme, his next work was projected. In February, 1825, appeared
+"Lionel Lincoln, or the Leaguer of Boston." The first edition had a
+preliminary title-page, which contained the inscription, "Legends of
+the Thirteen Republics," followed by this quotation from Hamlet--</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">
+  "I will fight with him upon this theme<br>
+  Until my eyelids will no longer wag."
+</p>
+
+<p>When the plan he had conceived was given up, this addition naturally
+disappeared with it. Nothing that industry could do was spared by
+Cooper to make this work a success. On this account as well as for its
+reception by the public it stands in marked contrast to "The Spy." In
+the preparation of it he studied historical authorities, he read state
+papers, he pored over official documents of all kinds and degrees of
+dreariness. To have his slightest assertions in accordance with fact,
+he examined almanacs, and searched for all the contemporary reports as
+to the condition of the weather. He visited Boston in order to go over
+in person the ground he was to make the scene of his story. As a
+result of all this labor he has furnished us an admirable description
+of the engagement at Concord Bridge, of the running fight of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span>
+Lexington, and of the battle of Bunker's Hill. Of the last, it is,
+according to the sufficient authority of Bancroft, the best account
+ever given. At this point praise must stop. New England was always to
+Cooper an ungenial clime, both as regards his creative activity and
+his critical appreciation. The moment he touched its soil, his
+strength seemed to abandon him. Whatever excellencies this particular
+work displayed, they were not the excellencies of a novel. Accuracy of
+detail, even in historical romance, is only a minor virtue. The modern
+reader is, indeed, often inclined to doubt whether it is a virtue at
+all now that modern research is constantly showing that so much we
+have been wont to look upon as fact is nothing more than fable. So
+superior is the imagination of man turning out to his memory that one
+is tempted to fancy that instead of going to history for our fiction
+we shall yet have to turn about and go to fiction for our history.</p>
+
+<p>"Lionel Lincoln" is certainly one of Cooper's most signal failures. In
+writing it he had attempted to do what it did not lie in the peculiar
+nature of his powers to accomplish. It is the story of crime long
+hidden from the knowledge of men, but dogging with unceasing activity
+the memories of those concerned in it. But the secret chambers of the
+soul into which the guilty man never looks willingly, Cooper could
+neither enter himself nor lay bare to others. Remorse that gnaws
+incessantly at every activity of the spirit, the consciousness of sin
+that haunts the heart and hangs like a burden upon the life, can never
+well be depicted save by him whose words suggest more than they
+reveal. Cooper was not a writer of this kind. He belonged to that
+class of literary artists who convey their precise meaning by
+exactness and fullness
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span>
+of detail. The vagueness and
+indefiniteness with which this story abounds is not, therefore, that
+impressive obscurity which springs from the mysterious; it is, on the
+contrary, the obscurity of the unintelligible and absurd. In all of
+Cooper's novels, it is a fault that the characters are often
+represented as acting without sufficient motive. In the story of
+adventure this can be pardoned, or at least overlooked; for freak
+plays an important part in determining the movements of many of us. It
+is not so, however, in tales containing a plot similar to that of
+"Lionel Lincoln." The mind revolts at finding the actors in the drama
+represented as having committed monstrous crimes, without any reason
+that is worth mentioning. This radical defect in the plan is not
+counterbalanced by any felicity in the execution. Many of the
+incidents are more than improbable, they are impossible. The style,
+likewise, is labored, and the conversations combine the two
+undesirable peculiarities of being both stilted and dull. The
+characters, female or male, are in no case successfully drawn. The
+inferior ones, introduced to amuse, serve only to depress the reader.
+The hero in the course of the tale does several absurd things; but he
+finally surpasses himself by hurrying away from the woman he loves,
+without her knowledge, immediately after he has been joined to her in
+marriage. The representation of the half-witted Job--a character upon
+which the author clearly labored hard--neither arouses interest nor
+touches the heart. It is, indeed, impossible to feel much sympathy
+with one particular imbecile, no matter how patriotic, in a story
+where most of the actors are represented as acting like idiots.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, his reputation and the real excellence of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span>
+the
+battle scenes, saved this work from seeming at the time so much of a
+failure as it actually was. Certainly whatever loss of credit he may
+have sustained as the result of writing "Lionel Lincoln," was much
+more than made up by the success of the tale that followed. In 1824 he
+had gone on an excursion to Saratoga, Lake George, and Lake Champlain,
+with a small party of English gentlemen. One of these was Mr. Stanley,
+the future Lord Derby. As they reached Glens Falls and were examining
+the caverns made by the river at that spot, Mr. Stanley told Cooper
+that here ought to be laid the scene of a romance. In reply, the
+novelist assured him that a book should be written in which these
+caverns should have a place. The promise was fulfilled. On the 4th of
+February, 1826, "The Last of the Mohicans" made its appearance. It was
+composed the previous year in a little cottage then situated in a
+quiet, open country, on which now stands the suburban village of
+Astoria. A severe illness attacked Cooper during its progress; but
+whatever effect it had upon his physical frame, it certainly did not
+impair in the slightest his intellectual force. The success of the
+work was both instantaneous and prodigious. Owing, perhaps, to the
+novelty of the scenes and characters, it was even greater in Europe
+than in America. But there was no lack of appreciation in his own
+land. In the estimation of his countrymen, the novel at once took its
+place at the head of his productions. An incidental fact will not only
+make clear its success, but the state of the book trade at that time.
+The demand for the work soon became so great and so persistent, that
+in April it was decided to stereotype it.</p>
+
+<p>It deserved fully the success it gained. Of all the novels
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span>
+written by Cooper, "The Last of the Mohicans" is the one in which the
+interest not only never halts, but never sinks. It is, indeed, an open
+question, whether a higher art would not have given more
+breathing-places in this exciting tale, in which the mind is hurried
+without pause from sensation to sensation. But this is a fault, if it
+be a fault, which the reader will always forgive, whatever the critic
+may say. The latter, indeed, can see much to blame if he look at the
+work purely as an artistic creation. He can find improbability of
+action, insufficiency of motive, and feebleness of outline in many of
+the leading characters. But these are minor drawbacks. They sink into
+absolute insignificance when compared with the wealth of power
+displayed. As they are unable to retard the unflagging interest with
+which the story is read, so they do not essentially modify the
+estimation of it after it has been read.</p>
+
+<p>In this work two great achievements were accomplished by Cooper. The
+first was the idealization of the white hunter whom he had described
+in "The Pioneers." No one can read the two novels in succession
+without seeing at once how much Leather-Stocking has gained in
+dignity. In thought and feeling and habits he is essentially the same;
+but there was given to his character a poetic elevation which raised
+it at once to the front rank of the creations of the imagination, and
+will make it imperishable with English literature. As he appears in
+"The Pioneers" he is merely an old man who has made his home in the
+hills in advance of the tide of settlement. He is the solitary hunter
+who views with dislike clearings and improvements, who cannot breathe
+freely in streets, who hates the sight of masses of men, who looks
+with especial loathing upon the civilization whose first
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span>
+work is to fell the trees he has learned to love, whose first exercise
+of power is to draw the network of the law around the freedom and
+irresponsibility of forest life. Though full of a simple and somewhat
+sententious morality, he is querulous, irritable, ignorant. But in
+"The Last of the Mohicans," while the man continues the same, the
+aspect he presents is wholly different. All that is weak in his
+character is in the background; all that is best and strongest comes
+to the front. He is in the prime of life. Ignorant he still remains of
+the ways of the world as found in the settlements; but there is no
+trace of discontent or fretfulness. He has full room for the exercise
+of his native virtues, and in the character of the acute and daring
+scout he finds no superior. To him forest and sky are an open book.
+Knowledge is conveyed to his ears in every sound that breaks the
+stillness of the summer woods; and to his eyes scarred rock and riven
+pine and the deserted nest of the eagle have made the paths of the
+wilderness as plain as the broadest highway. Nor are his moral
+qualities inferior to his purely professional. His coolness never
+deserts him, his resources never fail him, and along with the
+versatility that is never at a loss in the presence of the unexpected
+is the resolution that never flinches at the approach of the perilous.</p>
+
+<p>This delineation has always met with unqualified praise. But the
+idealization of the Indian character as seen in Chingachcook and Uncas
+has been the subject of much controversy. This is not the place to
+express an opinion upon the truth of the representation. It is enough
+to say here that the view Cooper took was not hastily formed, nor was
+it the result of accidental prejudices. He studied all the sources of
+information accessible at
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span>
+that time which threw light upon
+the Indian character. He visited the deputations from the various
+tribes that passed through the state of New York on their way to the
+national capital. In some instances he followed them to Washington. It
+is obvious that to a man of his poetic temperament they may have
+appeared in a different light from what they did to the ordinary
+government agent. Certainly he never found reason to modify his views,
+though he was familiar with the criticism made upon them. Toward the
+close of his life he took occasion to reaffirm them. It is also to be
+added that if he gave especial prominence to certain virtues, real or
+imaginary, of the Indian race, he was equally careful not to pass over
+their vices. Most of the warriors he introduces are depicted as
+crafty, bloodthirsty, and merciless. But whether his representation be
+true or false, it has from that time to this profoundly affected
+opinion. Throughout the whole civilized world the conception of the
+Indian character, as Cooper drew it in "The Last of the Mohicans" and
+still further elaborated it in the later "Leather-Stocking Tales," has
+taken permanent hold of the imaginations of men. Individuals may cast
+it off; but in the case of the great mass it stands undisturbed by
+doubt or unshaken by denial. This much can be said in its favor
+irrespective of the question of its accuracy. If Cooper has given to
+Indian conversation more poetry than it is thought to possess, or to
+Indian character more virtue, the addition has been a gain to
+literature, whatever it may have been to truth.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1826-1830.</h3>
+
+
+<p>With the publication of "The Last of the Mohicans," Cooper's
+popularity was at its height. His countrymen were proud of him, proud
+that he had chosen his native land as the scene of his stories, proud
+that he had in consequence extended among all cultivated peoples its
+fame as well as his own. His works were more than read. They were in
+most cases dramatized and acted as soon as published. Artists vied in
+making incidents depicted in them the subjects of their paintings.
+Poems, founded upon them or connected in some way with them, made
+their appearance in the newspapers. If in many cases these things were
+in themselves of no value, they at least served to show the widespread
+popular interest which his writings had aroused. Moreover, his
+reputation was far from being limited to his own land. No other
+American, before or since, has enjoyed so wide a contemporary
+popularity. Irving may have been on the whole a greater favorite in
+England; but if so, it was largely due to the fact that the subjects
+upon which he was employed were of special interest to English
+readers, and his manner of treating them was flattering to English
+prejudices. But the Continental fame of Cooper was unrivaled, and
+indeed could fairly be said to hold its own with that of Walter Scott.
+Long before he went to Europe himself, his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span>
+works appeared
+simultaneously in America, England, and France. They were speedily
+translated into German and Italian, and in most instances soon found
+their way into the other cultivated tongues of Europe. Everywhere his
+ability had been recognized by those whose approbation, if it could
+not confer immortality, was certain to bring with it temporary
+applause. The admiration expressed for him was far less marked in
+England than upon the Continent; but even there it could often be
+termed cordial. It came, too, from those who, whatever estimation we
+may give to their praise, did not praise lightly. From Miss Edgeworth
+he received personally a tribute to his success in delineating the
+characters in which her own reputation had been largely won. On
+reading "The Spy," she sent him a message, that she liked Betty
+Flanigan particularly, and that no Irish pen could have drawn her
+better. Scott had been much struck by the scenes and personages
+depicted in "The Pilot," the novel he first read, and predicted at
+once the success of the sea-story and of its creator. Many there were,
+even in England, who looked upon Cooper as being equal to the great
+master of historical romance. "Have you read the American novels?"
+wrote in November, 1824, Mary Russell Mitford to a friend. "In my mind
+they are as good as anything Sir Walter ever wrote. He has opened
+fresh ground, too (if one may say so of the sea). No one but Smollett
+has ever attempted to delineate the naval character; and then his are
+so coarse and hard. Now this has the same truth and power with a deep,
+grand feeling.... Imagine the author's boldness in taking Paul Jones
+for a hero, and his power in making one care for him! I envy
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span>
+the Americans their Mr. Cooper.... There is a certain Long Tom who
+appears to me the finest thing since Parson Adams." Subsequently, in
+July, 1826, she spoke thus of "The Last of the Mohicans," in a letter
+to Haydon: "I like it," she wrote, "better than any of Scott's, except
+the three first and 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian.'" The praise, indeed,
+given both then and at a later period, may often seem extravagant. In
+a passage written in 1835, Barry Cornwall, not merely content with
+putting Cooper at the head of all American authors, added that he may
+"dare competition with almost any writer whatever."</p>
+
+<p>It need hardly be said that opinions such as these were not to be
+found generally in the English literary periodicals. Cooper's name was
+not even mentioned in the great reviews until his fame had been
+secured without their aid. The success which he won in Great Britain
+was not due in the slightest to the professional critics. These men
+fancied they had exhausted the power of panegyric when they went so
+far as to term him the American Scott. This fact was triumphantly
+paraded at a later period by a writer in Blackwood, presumably Wilson,
+as one of the convincing proofs of the untruthfulness of the charge
+made by Barry Cornwall, that authors from this country were treated
+with systematic unfairness in English reviews. "Were we ever unjust to
+Cooper?" he asked. "Why, people call him the American Scott." This
+sort of patting on the back was thought a proud illustration of the
+generosity of the British character, and as putting the recipient of
+it under obligations of everlasting gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt, indeed, that the reputation of Cooper suffered all
+his life by the constant comparison that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span>
+was made between
+him and the great Scotch writer. It was to a certain extent
+inevitable; but it was none the less unfortunate. He could never be
+judged by what he did; it was always by the fanciful test of how some
+one else would have done it. This was even more true of his own
+country than of England. Scott's popularity was greater here than it
+was anywhere else. There was a feeling akin almost to moral
+reprobation expressed against any one who should presume to fancy that
+the best work of any native author could equal the poorest that Scott
+put forth. The Continental opinion which at that time often reckoned
+the American novelist as equal, if not superior to his British
+contemporary, seemed to men here like a profanation. It was, indeed,
+so said in direct terms.</p>
+
+<p>Comparison with Scott, therefore, always put the one compared at a
+great disadvantage. This, however, is a method of judging that is
+necessary to some and easy to all. Genuine appreciation demands study
+and thought. For these comparison is a cheap substitute. To call
+Cooper the American Scott in compliment in the days of his popularity,
+and in derision in the days of his unpopularity, was a method of
+criticism which enabled men to praise or undervalue without taking the
+trouble to think. Stories were invented and set in circulation of how
+he himself rejoiced in being so designated. Great, accordingly, was
+the indignation felt and expressed by these gentry at the presumption
+of the American author, when at a later period he asserted that so far
+from taking pride in the title, it merely gave him just as much
+gratification as any nickname could give a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>It would be, moreover, far from truth to say that in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span>
+this
+most prosperous portion of his career his popularity was unmixed in
+his own country. Even then his success had aroused a good deal of
+envy. In 1823 he was attacked, in common with many prominent citizens
+of New York, in a satire called "Gotham and the Gothamites." This was
+the work of a man of the name of Judah, who, in 1822, had published a
+dramatic poem styled "Odofried the Outcast." The title was ominous of
+the fate which the production met. The author naturally felt that the
+age was unappreciative. To relieve his mind he wrote eleven or twelve
+hundred lines of fresh drivel, in which he assailed everything and
+everybody. The satire was of that dreadful kind which requires notes
+and commentaries to point out who is hit and what is meant; and the
+annotation, as is usual in such cases, took up much more space than
+the text. This work--for which the author was sent to jail, though a
+lunatic asylum would have been a far fitter place--is only of interest
+here because it bears direct and positive evidence to the fact that at
+this time Cooper was the most widely read of American authors.</p>
+
+<p>But jealousy of his fame could be found among men of much higher
+pretensions than this wretched poetaster. "The North American Review"
+had at that time been ponderously revolving through space for several
+years. It was then a periodical respectable, classical, and dull, all
+three in an eminent degree. Towards Cooper it struggled in a feeble
+way to be just, but for all that it was the exponent of a distinctly
+unfriendly feeling. Among individuals a conspicuous representative of
+this hostility was the poet Percival. He could not endure the
+reputation which the novelist had acquired. Percival was a man of a
+good deal of ability,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span>
+of a great deal of knowledge, and of
+an inexhaustible capacity of spinning out verse, never rising much
+above, nor falling much below mediocrity, which, if mere quantity were
+the only element to be considered, would have justified him in
+contracting to produce enough to constitute of itself a national
+literature. As he invariably proved himself entirely destitute of
+common sense in his ordinary conduct, he was led to fancy that he was
+not merely a man of ability, but a man of genius; and during the whole
+of his life he perpetually posed as that most intolerable of literary
+nuisances, a man of unappreciated genius. In spite of the fact that he
+had been hospitably entertained and befriended by Cooper, he could not
+be satisfied, because their common publisher looked upon the latter as
+the "greatest literary genius in America." The reception given by the
+public to the "long, dirty, straggling tales" of the novelist
+disgusted him. "I ask nothing," he wrote in April, 1823, "of a people
+who will lavish their patronage on such a vulgar book as "The
+Pioneers." They and I are well quit. They neglect me, and I despise
+them." In a later letter he returned to this work. "It might do," he
+said, "to amuse the select society of a barber's shop or a
+porter-house. But to have the author step forward on such stilts and
+claim to be the lion of our national literature, and fall to roaring
+himself and set all his jackals howling (S. C. &amp; Co.) to put better
+folks out of countenance--why 'tis pitiful, 'tis wondrous pitiful at
+least for the country that not only suffers it but encourages it."
+Percival, indeed, his biographer tells us, was subsequently urged to
+contribute to "The North American Review" a critical article on "The
+Prairie," in which simple justice was to be done to Cooper--which
+phrase <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span>
+had, of course, its usual meaning, that injustice was
+to be done him. The poet's customary indecision prevailed, however;
+the country was spared this exhibition of spiteful incapacity, and the
+novelist was left to stumble along in uncertainty as to his precise
+position among men of letters.</p>
+
+<p>Not but there were plenty of men anxious to show it. Especially was
+this true of that class which looked upon it as the supreme effort of
+critical judgment to exaggerate the value of everything written in
+Europe and depreciate everything of native origin. There was a
+prevailing belief among those who mistook their own individual
+impotence for the incapacity of a whole people, that nothing good
+could come out of America. Many showed their faith by their conduct.
+In 1834, Cooper himself said that he knew of several instances in
+which persons had not read anything he had written for the avowed
+reason that nothing worth reading could be written by one of their
+countrymen. To all of these it was a subject of some perplexity and of
+more annoyance that his works should be, if anything, more popular in
+Europe than they were in his native land. To account for this fact
+various sage reasons were early suggested and are still occasionally
+heard. One of these has always been particularly common. This was that
+it was the novelty of the scenes and characters depicted that
+attracted attention and not the ability shown in depicting them. At
+any rate, they wished it understood that if he satisfied the European,
+he did not satisfy the native world: for if creative power had been
+denied us, we could at least show that as a compensation we had been
+supplied with a double portion of refined taste. Speaking in behalf of
+the American people, these critics expressed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span>
+anxiety that
+neither at home nor abroad should Cooper be regarded as obtaining the
+unqualified admiration or attaining the lofty ideal of "all of us."
+Against any such impression they entered their humble protest. All
+that lay in their power should be done to counteract it. This is no
+one-sided statement of opinions then expressed. These very sentiments
+in almost these very words can be found in reviews of that period.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper at the time of writing his first novel was dwelling at
+Angevine. When the success of the second made it probable that he
+would continue for a while his career as an author, and possibly
+devote his life to it, the necessity arose of changing his residence.
+His country home was about five and twenty miles from the city, but
+twenty-five miles in those days of limited mail facilities and limited
+means of communication was a distance not to be tolerated.
+Accordingly, in 1822 he moved into New York. Either there or in its
+suburbs he dwelt until his departure for Europe. Here his youngest
+child, Paul, was born in 1824, and here, as has already been
+mentioned, his infant son Fenimore died. His talents and his
+reputation gave him at once a leading position in society. Nor were
+his associates inferior men. He founded a club which included on its
+rolls the residents of New York then best known in literature and law,
+science and art. The names of many will be even more familiar to our
+ears than they were to those of their contemporaries. All forms of
+intellectual activity were represented. To this club belonged, among
+others, Chancellor Kent the jurist; Verplanck, the editor of
+Shakespeare; Jarvis the painter; Durand the engraver; DeKay the
+naturalist; Wiley the publisher; Morse the inventor of the electric
+telegraph; Halleck and Bryant, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span>
+poets. It was sometimes
+called after the name of its founder; but it more commonly bore the
+title of the "Bread and Cheese Lunch." It met weekly, and Cooper,
+whenever he was in the city, was invariably present. More than that,
+he was the life and soul of it. Though kept up for a while after his
+departure from the country, it was only a languishing existence it
+maintained, and even this speedily ended in death.</p>
+
+<p>His pecuniary situation had been largely improved by his literary
+success. The pressure upon his means had in fact been one of the main
+reasons, if not the main reason, that had led him to contemplate
+pursuing a literary life. The property left by his father had
+gradually dwindled in value, partly through lack of careful
+uninterrupted management. His elder brothers, on whom the
+administration of the estate had successively devolved, had died. The
+result was, that he found himself without the means which in his
+childhood he might justly have looked forward to possessing. So far
+from being a man of wealth he was in the earlier part of his literary
+career a poor man. From any difficulties, however, into which he may
+have fallen he was more than retrieved by the success of what he
+wrote. Precisely what was the sale of his books, or how much he
+received for their sale, it would be hard and perhaps impossible now
+to tell. He was careless himself about preserving any records of such
+facts. But, besides this natural indifference, he seemed to resent any
+public reference to the price paid him for his writings as an
+unauthorized intrusion into his personal affairs. Allusions even to
+the amount of his receipts he apparently regarded as springing not so
+much from a feeling of pride in his success, as from a desire to
+represent him as being under
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span>
+great obligations to his
+countrymen. In some instances he was certainly correct in so regarding
+it. On one occasion after his return from Europe, he denied the truth
+of an assertion made in a newspaper, as to the amount he derived from
+the sale of each of his novels. "It remains for the public to decide,"
+said he, "whether it will tolerate or not this meddling with private
+interests by any one who can get the command of a little ink and a few
+types." In the prefatory address to the publisher which appeared in
+the first edition of "The Pioneers," he made the statement, that the
+success of "The Spy," should always remain a secret between
+themselves. This reticence and dislike of publicity continued
+throughout the whole of his career. It extended to everything
+connected with his writings. Our knowledge on these points is,
+therefore, both scanty and uncertain. The size of the editions has
+never been given to the public. The sale of "The Pioneers" on the
+morning of its publication has already been noticed; and there are
+contemporary newspaper statements to the effect that the first edition
+of "The Red Rover" consisted of five thousand copies, and that this
+was exhausted in a few days. But it is only from incidental references
+of this kind, which can rarely be relied upon absolutely, that we at
+this late day are able to gain any specific information whatever.</p>
+
+<p>He was unquestionably helped in the end, however, by what in the
+beginning threatened to be a serious if not insuperable obstacle. He
+was unable to get any one concerned in the book trade to assume the
+risk of bringing out "The Spy." That had to be taken by the author
+himself. In the case of this novel, we know positively that Cooper was
+not only the owner of the copyright,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span>
+but of all the edition;
+that he gave directions as to the terms on which the work was to be
+furnished to the booksellers, while the publishers, Wiley &amp; Halsted,
+had no direct interest in it, and received their reward by a
+commission. It is evident that under this arrangement his profits on
+the sale were far larger than would usually be the case. Whether he
+followed the same method in any of his later productions, there seems
+to be no means of ascertaining. Wiley, however, until his death,
+continued to be his publisher. "The Last of the Mohicans" went into
+the hands of Carey &amp; Lea of Philadelphia; and this firm, under various
+changes of name, continued to bring out the American edition of his
+novels until the year 1844. It was from the sales in this country that
+most of the income from his books was derived. England, indeed,
+brought him a large sum, at least up to the passage of the copyright
+law of 1838; but he gained little pecuniary benefit from the wide
+circulation of his works on the European continent, whatever may have
+been the renown. In regard to France, he said in 1834 after his
+return, that he had paid in taxes to the government of that country,
+during his different residences in it, considerably more money than
+was obtained from the sales of the sheets of fourteen books. In
+Germany, where his writings had an immense circulation, his receipts
+were still less.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever may have been the precise amount acquired by the sale of
+his works, it was sufficient to pay off heavy debts incurred by
+others, but which he was compelled to assume, to put him in an
+independent position and justify him in determining to fulfill a
+long-cherished desire of spending some time in Europe. Accordingly on
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span>
+the 1st of June, 1826, he sailed with his family--consisting,
+with the servants, of ten persons--from the port of New York. On the
+5th of November, 1833, he landed there on his return. His original
+intention was to be gone for but five years. To the fixing of this
+particular time he was apparently influenced by a remark of Jefferson,
+that no American should remain away for a longer period from the
+country, because if he did, so rapid were the changes, its facts would
+have got wholly beyond his knowledge. His absence actually extended to
+a little less than seven years and a half. Most of this time was spent
+in France. From Henry Clay, then Secretary of State, he had received
+the appointment of consul at Lyons. He had asked for it, because he
+did not wish to have the appearance of expatriating himself; for as
+the service was then conducted, such a post involved no duties and
+brought in no returns. His commission bears date the 10th of May,
+1826. Even this nominal position he gave up after holding it between
+two and three years. No resignation of his is on file in the State
+Department; but a successor was appointed on the 15th of January,
+1829. He threw up the place because he had come to entertain the
+conviction that gross abuses existed in the system of foreign
+appointments, and it became him to set an example of the principles he
+professed.</p>
+
+<p>It may be well at this point to furnish an outline sketch of his
+various residences in Europe. The voyage from America lasted about a
+month; and after staying a few days in England he passed over to
+France, on the soil of which he first set foot on the 18th of July,
+1826. Either in Paris or its immediate neighborhood he remained until
+February, 1828, when he crossed over
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span>
+to England. Leaving
+London early in June, he went back to France by the way of Holland and
+Belgium. In July, 1828, he left Paris for Switzerland, and took up his
+residence near Berne. After spending some weeks in making excursions
+from that point, he crossed the Alps in October by the Simplon Pass.
+The following winter and spring he spent in Florence and its vicinity.
+In the summer of 1829 he sailed down the Italian coast to Naples, and
+after staying a few weeks in that city, made a home for himself and
+his family at Sorrento for nearly three months. The winter of 1829-30
+he spent in Rome. In the spring of 1830 he went to Venice. From that
+place he journeyed to Munich by the Tyrol, and finally settled down in
+Dresden. From his temporary home in Saxony, however, the July
+revolution speedily drew him to Paris, and that city he made mainly
+his residence from that time until his return to America in 1833.
+There he was, and there he stood his ground during the terrible
+cholera ravages of 1832. Occasional expeditions he made, and of one in
+particular, up the Rhine and in Switzerland, he has published a full
+account.</p>
+
+<p>It was eminently characteristic of Cooper, that though he brought with
+him letters of introduction, he found himself unwilling to deliver a
+single one of them. Yet, certainly, if any American could be pardoned
+the use of a custom that has been so much abused, he was the man. But
+after he had resided quietly in France for a few weeks, he happened to
+attend a diplomatic dinner given by the United States minister to
+Canning, then on a visit to Paris. This was the occasion of making his
+presence known to those who had long before made the acquaintance of
+his writings. He was at once sought out
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span>
+and welcomed by the
+most distinguished men of the most brilliant capital in the world. The
+polish, the grace, the elegance, and the wit of French social life
+made upon him an impression which he not only never forgot, but which
+he was afterwards in the habit of contrasting with the social life of
+England and America, to the manifest disadvantage of both, and with
+the certain result of provoking the hostility of each. He himself says
+very little of the reception he met; but we know from other sources
+how cordial and even deferential it was. He was not a man, indeed, to
+enjoy being lionized, to be set up, as he expressed it, at a
+dinner-table as a piece of luxury, like strawberries in February or
+peaches in April. But he was in a capital where attention is always
+paid to ability, though rarely with noisy demonstration. He received
+his full share of it. Without mentioning numerous other evidences, the
+conspicuous position he held is evident from the way Scott speaks of
+him in his diary. He mentions meeting him one evening at the Princess
+Galitzin's in November, 1826. "Cooper was there," said he, "so the
+Scotch and American lions took the field together."</p>
+
+<p>But of all the countries in which he resided he grew to be fondest of
+Italy. This was partly due to the fact that there he could indulge to
+the full extent two passions that had come to be a part of his
+nature--the love of fine skies, and of beautiful scenery. His feelings
+in regard to this country and to France he expressed on one occasion
+with a courtliness that was wholly free from the insincerity of the
+courtier's art. In November, 1830, shortly after his return to Paris
+from Germany, he was presented to the royal family. The Queen of Louis
+Philippe, who was the daughter of Ferdinand I., of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span>
+the Two
+Sicilies, asked him of all the lands visited by him which he most
+preferred. "That in which your majesty was born," was the reply, "for
+its nature, and that in which your majesty reigns for its society."
+There was not in this the slightest compliment, if by compliment
+anything is meant inconsistent with the severest truth. "Switzerland,"
+he said afterward, "is the country to astonish and sometimes to
+delight; but Italy is the land to love." During the nearly two years
+he remained there, its scenery, its climate, its recollections, and
+also its people, were constantly gaining a hold upon his heart. No
+country did he ever leave with so much regret; and when he came to
+take his final departure, his feelings were such as are experienced by
+him who is on the point of bidding farewell to a much-loved home. When
+he passed into the valley of the Adige on his journey to the Tyrol, in
+1830, he reversed the usual practice of the traveler who has his eyes
+fixed only on what is to come. He turned around to cast a last
+lingering glance at the land he was about to leave behind. Italy was
+the only country, his wife told him, that she had ever known him to
+quit looking over the shoulder. His regard for the people was,
+perhaps, intensified by the reaction against the estimation in which
+he had been wont to hold them. "The vulgar-minded English,"--he said
+in one of those deliciously irritating and double-acting sentences he
+was afterward in the habit of frequently uttering--"talk of the damned
+Italians, and the vulgar-minded American, quite in rule, imitates his
+great model." Certainly his prejudices against the inhabitants of that
+country were soon swept away. He contrasted them favorably with all
+their neighbors. They were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span>
+more gracious than the English,
+more sincere than the French, and infinitely more refined than the
+Germans. In grace of mind, and in love, and even knowledge of the
+arts, a large portion of the common Italians were, in his opinion, as
+much superior to the Anglo-Saxons as civilization is to barbarism. He
+came in time to have a sort of fondness even for the professional
+mendicants. He furnishes us a curious picture of the beggars who
+assembled about his residence daily in Sorrento, to whom he invariably
+gave a grano apiece. The company, starting out from one or two, had
+been steadily reinforced by recruits from far and near, till it ran up
+to the neighborhood of a hundred men, who regularly presented
+themselves for their pittance. There is no more graphic description in
+his writings than his account of the scene which took place when a
+new-comer among the beggars had the indiscretion, on receiving his
+grano, to wish the giver only a hundred years of life; the indignation
+of the king of the gang at this exhibition of black ingratitude; the
+tumult with which the blunder was corrected, and the shouts and
+outcries with which the pitiful hundred was changed into a thousand
+years, and long ones at that.</p>
+
+<p>During this time his literary activity was unceasing. Before the close
+of 1830 he had completed four novels: "The Prairie," "The Red Rover,"
+"The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," and "The Water Witch,"--all of which were
+devoted to the delineation of scenes and characters belonging to his
+native land. Before he started for Europe he had begun a new Indian
+story. This was finished during his early residence in Paris. He had
+felt it to be a hazardous venture to bring into "The Last of the
+Mohicans" the personages who had been previously drawn
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span>
+in
+"The Pioneers." But so great had been his success, and so strongly had
+the characters taken hold of him, that he determined to renew the
+experiment for a third time. Leather-Stocking, accordingly, was
+introduced as living in extreme old age on the Western prairies, and
+the book ends with his death. The idea of transferring the home of the
+worn-out hunter to these vast solitudes was suggested, it is fair to
+infer from Cooper's own words, by the actual career of Daniel Boone,
+the Kentucky pioneer. The simple story of this man's life was
+sufficiently remarkable; but in the exaggerated accounts of it that
+were then current, he was represented as having emigrated, in his
+ninety-second year, to an estate three hundred miles west of the
+Mississippi, because he found a population of ten to the square mile
+inconveniently crowded.</p>
+
+<p>On the 17th of May, 1827, "The Prairie" was published. It did not meet
+with the extraordinary success of "The Last of the Mohicans," nor has
+it ever been as great a favorite with the general public. It was
+written in a far more quiet and subdued vein. It never keeps up that
+prolonged strain upon the feelings which characterizes the work that
+preceded it, and which while a defect in the eyes of some is to most
+readers its special charm. There are, indeed, in many of Cooper's
+stories, situations more thrilling and scenes more stirring than can
+be found in "The Prairie," though in it there is no lack of these. But
+of all his tales it is much the most poetical. Man sinks into
+insignificance in the presence of these mighty solitudes; for
+throughout the whole book the immensity of nature hangs over the
+spirit like a pall. Nor were the characters of the principal
+personages out of harmony with the atmosphere that envelopes
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span>
+the scenes described. In the lonely hunter, now nearing his grave,
+there is a pathetic grandeur, which is a natural development, and not
+an artificial addition. Though he has hurried as far away as possible
+from the din of the settlements, he is no longer querulous and
+irritable as in his old age in the Otsego hills. He has learned to
+recognize the inevitable. While he does not cease to regret, he has
+ceased to denounce. He knows that the majestic solitude of nature will
+not long remain undisturbed, nor its more majestic silence unbroken;
+for in every wind that blows from the East he hears the sound of axes
+and the crash of falling trees that herald the march of civilization
+across the continent. He sorrows at the ruin impending on all that is
+dearest to his heart; but he awaits it in dignified submission. In
+fine contrast to him stands the man who has likewise sought the
+solitude of the wilderness, not because he loves the beauty and the
+majesty of primeval nature, but because he hates the restraints that
+human society has thrown about the indulgence of human passions.
+Criticism has rarely done justice to the skill and power with which
+Cooper has drawn the squatter of the prairies, who holds that land
+should be as free as air; who has traveled hundreds of miles beyond
+the Mississippi to reach a place where title-deeds are not registered
+and sheriffs make no levies; who neither fears God nor regards man; to
+whom the rule of the rifle is the supremest law; and yet who, with all
+his detestation of the safeguards which society has erected for its
+security, has a moral code and a rough wild justice of his own.</p>
+
+<p>"The Prairie" was followed by "The Red Rover," which came out on the
+9th of January, 1828. During the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span>
+years that followed the
+publication of "The Pilot," the reputation of that work had been
+steadily increasing. Time had more than confirmed the first favorable
+impression. Not only had any lingering prejudice against the sea-story
+as a story been entirely swept away, but tales of this kind were
+beginning to be the fashion. Imitators were springing up everywhere.
+It was natural, therefore, for Cooper to turn his attention once more
+to a kind of fiction to the composition of which he himself had
+originally opened the way. After leaving the navy he had become one of
+the owners of a whaling vessel, and in it had made one or two voyages
+to Newport. In the harbor of that place he fixed the introduction of
+his new story of the sea. He had taken up his residence during the
+summer of 1827 in the little hamlet of St. Ouen on the Seine, not far
+from Paris. There, in the space of three or four months, "The Red
+Rover" was written. From the date of its appearance to the present
+time it has always been justly one of the most popular of his
+productions, and perhaps, considered as a whole, stands at the head of
+his sea-tales.</p>
+
+<p>On the 6th of November, 1829, succeeded an Indian story of King
+Philip's war, under the name of "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish." The
+fanciful title puzzled, and did not altogether please, the public. As
+a matter of fact it was used only in this country. In England the
+novel was called "The Borderers;" in France "The Puritans of America,
+or the Valley of Wish-ton-Wish." This work was begun during his
+residence in Switzerland in 1828, and was completed at Florence. It
+has never been popular, particularly in America. The tale is a tragic
+one throughout, and the prevailing air of sombreness is rarely
+lightened by any success in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span>
+management of minor
+incidents. The introduction too was marked by one of Cooper's
+besetting faults, intolerable prolixity. But the main cause of his
+failure lay in his inability to delineate the Puritan character. It
+was not knowledge that was wanting, it was sympathy; or perhaps it is
+better to say that it was his lack of sympathy which prevented his
+having any genuine knowledge. He tried in all honesty to depict the
+men who had founded New England, the men of hard heads and iron
+hearts, in whom piety and pugnacity were, as in himself, so intimately
+blended that the transition from the one to the other is a vanishing
+line whose discovery defies the closest scrutiny. Paradoxical as the
+assertion may seem, he was too much like the Puritans to do them
+justice. His character was essentially the same as their own; but the
+influences under which he had been trained were altogether different.
+Upon their manners, their ideas, and even their appearance he had
+early learned to look with aversion; and he had not the power to
+project his mind out of the circle of notions and prejudices in which
+he had been brought up. The very name of the Reverend Meek Wolf which
+he bestowed in this story upon his clergyman, revealed of itself the
+existence of feelings which put him at once out of that pale of
+sympathetic thought, which enables the novelist or historian to look
+with the insight of the spirit upon men and motives which his
+intellect acting by itself would prompt him to distrust and dislike.</p>
+
+<p>To this tale succeeded "The Water Witch." This was begun at Sorrento
+and finished at Rome, a city which he subsequently used often to speak
+of as the precise moral antipodes of the capital of the New World, in
+the harbor of which he had laid much of the scene
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span>
+of this
+story. It was not till he reached Dresden, however, that he was
+enabled to have it put in print. On the 11th of December, 1830, it
+made its appearance in this country. With it ended for a time his
+fictions that dealt with American life and manners. He now turned to
+new fields and wrote with different aims.</p>
+
+<p>       *       *       *       *       *</p>
+
+<p>During all these years his popularity had continued unabated, though
+his last two novels could hardly be said to have met with the favor
+which had been accorded to most of those which had preceded them. It
+is certainly a convincing proof of the wide reputation he had gained
+before he went to Europe, that five editions of "The Prairie," the
+first work he wrote after his arrival, were arranged to be published
+at the same time. Two were to come out in Paris, one in French and one
+in English; one in London; one in Berlin; and one in Philadelphia. But
+even this success was soon surpassed. It is hard to credit the
+accounts that are given on unimpeachable testimony. One statement,
+however, is too important to be overlooked, coming from the source it
+does. In the controversy going on in this country in 1833, in regard
+to the part Cooper had taken in the finance discussion, which will be
+mentioned in its proper place, Morse, the inventor of the electric
+telegraph, published a letter in defense of his absent friend. In it
+he bore witness in the following words to the popularity of the
+novelist in the Old World: "I have visited, in Europe, many
+countries," said he, "and what I have asserted of the fame of Mr.
+Cooper I assert from personal knowledge. In every city of Europe that
+I visited the works of Cooper were conspicuously placed in the
+windows <span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span>
+of every bookshop. They are published as soon as he
+produces them in thirty-four different places in Europe. They have
+been seen by American travelers in the languages of Turkey and Persia,
+in Constantinople, in Egypt, at Jerusalem, at Ispahan."</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1830.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The month of December, 1830, which saw the publication of "The Water
+Witch," closed the first and far the most fortunate decade of Cooper's
+literary life. In the decade which followed began that career of
+controversy which lasted, with little intermission, until his death.
+By it his reputation and his fortunes were profoundly affected. It
+worked a complete revolution both in the sentiments with which he
+regarded others, and in the sentiments with which others regarded him.
+The most intense lover of his country, he became the most unpopular
+man of letters to whom it has ever given birth. For years a storm of
+abuse fell upon him, which for violence, for virulence, and even for
+malignity, surpassed anything in the history of American literature,
+if not in the history of literature itself. Nor did the effect of this
+disappear with his life. The misrepresentations and calumnies, which
+were then set in motion, have not ceased to operate even at this day.
+Full as marked, still, was the influence which the controversies, in
+which he was engaged, had upon his literary reputation. A direct
+result of them at the time was not only to impair the estimation in
+which his previous writings had been held, but to cause the later
+productions of his pen to be treated with systematic injustice. Both
+in England and America the effect of this hostile criticism has not
+yet died away.</p>
+
+<p>On <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span>
+the other hand, it was no one-sided contest that took
+place. If Cooper was attacked, he, in turn, did his part in attacking.
+No man has ever criticised his own country more unsparingly, and in
+some instances more unjustly, than did he, who, in foreign lands, had
+been its stoutest and most pronounced defender. Nor, in the
+controversies that followed his return from Europe, did one side
+conduct itself with perfect righteousness, and the other with
+deliberate villainy. Had the parties but seen fit to act in this
+manner, the duties of a biographer would have been sensibly lightened.
+A fair and dispassionate account of the circumstances that led to the
+unpopularity which clouded, though it could hardly be said to darken,
+Cooper's later life, demands a full and careful examination of many
+facts which, in some instances, seem to have no relation to the
+subject. Especially is a knowledge of the European estimate of America
+during the period that the novelist resided abroad a matter of first
+importance. But even of as great importance is a knowledge of certain
+traits of his character and of certain sentiments which he strongly
+felt, and of certain beliefs which he earnestly held. To bring out
+these points clearly, it is necessary for a while to arrest the
+progress of the narrative.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be remarked at the outset that the first impression which
+Cooper made upon strangers was rarely in his favor. To this we have
+the concurrent testimony of those who knew him slightly, and of those
+who knew him well. It was due to a variety of causes. He had infinite
+pride, and there was in his manner a self-assertion that often
+bordered, or seemed to border, upon arrogance. His earnestness,
+moreover, was often mistaken for brusqueness and violence; for he was,
+in some measure, of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span>
+that class of men who appear to be
+excited when they are only interested. The result was that at first he
+was apt to repel rather than attract. Without referring to other
+evidence, we need here only to quote the guarded statement of one of
+his warmest friends in describing the beginning of their acquaintance.
+"I remember," says Bryant, "being somewhat startled, coming, as I did,
+from the seclusion of a country life, with a certain emphatic
+frankness in his manner which, however, I came at last to like and to
+admire." But besides this he had other characteristics which, to the
+majority of men, could not be agreeable. Thoroughly grounded in his
+own convictions, positive and uncompromising in the expression of
+them, he had no patience with those--and the number is far from being
+a small one--who embrace their views loosely, hold them halfheartedly,
+or defend them ignorantly. The opinions of such he was not content,
+like most men of ability, with quietly and unobtrusively despising.
+The contempt he felt he did not pay sufficient deference to human
+nature to hide. It was inevitable that the self-love of many should be
+offended by the arbitrariness and imperiousness with which he overrode
+their opinions, and still more by the unequivocal disdain manifested
+for them. It must be conceded, also, that to those for whom he felt
+indifference or dislike, he had in no slight degree that capacity of
+making himself disagreeable which reaches, and then only in rare
+instances, the ripened perfection of offensiveness in him who has
+breathed from earliest youth the social air of England. These were
+traits that were sure to make him enemies in private life. In public
+life, moreover, the ardor of his temperament was such as to hurry him
+into controversy; and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span>
+the number of those hostile to him on
+personal grounds, was always liable to receive accessions from men who
+had never seen him face to face. No gage of battle could be thrown
+down which he did not stand ready to take up. Opposition only inflamed
+him; it never daunted him. He had not the slightest particle of that
+prudence which teaches a man to keep out of contests in which he can
+gain no advantage, or in which success will be only a little less
+disastrous than defeat. It hardly needs to be said that a politic line
+of conduct is usually the very last which a person of such a
+temperament follows. But when to all these characteristics is added a
+peculiar sensitiveness to criticism, it is evident that if proper
+opportunities are offered, personal unpopularity will be certain to
+result from the ample materials existing for its development.</p>
+
+<p>Against this view of his character, it is fair to add here that he had
+many qualities which would tend to bring about an entirely opposite
+result. He was more than ordinarily generous; and gave with a
+liberality that went at times beyond what most men would look upon as
+prudence. He was prompt to relieve merit that stood in need of help.
+Many cases of this kind there are unpublished and unknown out of a
+very small circle; for Cooper was not one to let his left hand know
+what his right hand was doing. One fact, however, has been so often
+mentioned, that it is violating no sanctity of private life to repeat
+it here. He was the first to discover the excellence of Greenough and
+to make that sculptor known to his countrymen. "Fenimore Cooper saved
+me from despair," wrote the latter in 1833, "after my second return to
+Italy. He employed me as I wished to be employed; and has up to this
+moment been
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span>
+a father to me in kindness." To this generosity,
+it is to be added that his sense of personal honor was of the loftiest
+kind. It was sometimes, indeed, carried to an extreme almost Quixotic;
+so that men morally fat-witted could not even comprehend his
+principles of action, and men who contented themselves with
+conventional morality resented his assertion of them as a reflection
+upon themselves. His loyalty to those who had become dear to him was,
+moreover, just as conspicuous as his loyalty to what he deemed right.
+It withstood every chance of change, every accident of time and
+circumstance, and only gave way on absolute proof of unworthiness.
+Intimate acquaintance was sure to bring to Cooper respect, admiration,
+and finally affection. Few men have stood better than he that final
+test of excellence which rests upon the fact that those who knew him
+best loved him most. Yet even these were often forced to admit, that
+it was necessary to know him well to appreciate how generous, how
+true, and how lofty-minded he was.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these traits of character, it is important to understand some
+of Cooper's political and social opinions. He was an aristocrat in
+feeling, and a democrat by conviction. To some this seems a
+combination so unnatural that they find it hard to comprehend it. That
+a man whose tastes and sympathies and station connect him with the
+highest class, and to whom contact with the uneducated and unrefined
+brings with it a sense of personal discomfort and often of disgust,
+should avow his belief in the political rights of those socially
+inferior, should be unwilling to deny them privileges which he claims
+for himself, is something so appalling to many that their minds strive
+vainly to grasp it. But this feeling was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span>
+so thoroughly
+wrought into Cooper's nature that he almost disliked those of his
+countrymen whom he found not to share in it. "I confess," he wrote at
+the time when he was generally denounced as an aristocrat, "that I now
+feel mortified and grieved when I meet with an American gentleman who
+professes anything but liberal opinions as respects the rights of his
+fellow-creatures." He went on to explain that by liberal opinions he
+meant "the generous, manly determination to let all enjoy equal
+political rights, and to bring those to whom authority is necessarily
+confided under the control of the community they serve." He despised
+the cant that the people were their own worst enemies. So far from it,
+he believed in widening the foundations of society by making
+representation as real as possible, and thereby giving to every
+interest in the state its fair measure of power; for no government, in
+his eyes, could ever be just or pure in which the governors have
+interests distinct from those of the governed. These opinions he put
+sometimes in an extreme form. "I have never yet been in a country," he
+said, "in which what are called the lower orders have not clearer and
+sounder views than their betters, of the great principles which ought
+to predominate in the control of human affairs." At the same time his
+belief in democracy was not in the least one of unmixed admiration. He
+was far from looking upon it as a perfect form of government. It was
+only the one that, taking all things into consideration, was attended
+with fewer evils and greater advantages than any other. It had faults
+and dangers peculiar to itself. His liberal opinions, he took frequent
+care to say, had nothing in common with the devices of demagogues who
+teach the doctrine, that the voice of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span>
+people is the
+voice of God; that the aggregation of fallible parts, acting, too,
+with diminished responsibilities, forms an infallible whole.</p>
+
+<p>Along with this clear understanding of the advantages and
+disadvantages of democracy there was mingled, however, a weakness of
+feeling on the subject of position, which occasionally degenerated
+into an almost ridiculous pettiness. This was especially true of his
+later life. His utterances were sometimes so apparently contradictory,
+however, that it is hard to tell whether justice has been done to his
+real meaning on account of the difficulty of ascertaining what his
+real meaning was. But he spoke often of "the gentry of America," as if
+there were or could be here a class of gentlemen outside and
+independent of those engaged in professions or occupations. He seemed
+at times to attach that supreme importance to descent which we are
+usually accustomed to see exhibited in this country only by those who
+have little or nothing else to boast of. His contempt of trade and of
+those employed in it had frequently about its expression a spice of
+affectation. Moreover, he subjected himself to much misrepresentation
+and ill-will by the manner in which he lectured his countrymen on the
+distinctions that must prevail in society. There are certain things
+which are everywhere recognized and quietly accepted: they only become
+offensive when proclaimed. A man may unhesitatingly acquiesce in his
+inferiority, socially, to one who is politically only his equal; but
+he will very naturally resent a reference, by the latter, to the fact
+of his social inferiority. A good deal of Cooper's later writings was
+deformed by solemn commonplaces on the inevitable necessity of the
+existence of class distinctions. This drew upon him the condemnation
+of many who did
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span>
+not look upon the expression of such views
+as an offense against truth, but as an offense against good manners.
+To correct the folly of fools was itself folly; and wise men, no
+matter what their station in life, did not thank him for the
+instruction, the very giving of which implied an insult to their
+intelligence. His remarks on the subject were never heeded, if indeed
+they were ever read, by those for whom they were specially designed.
+But to his enemies they furnished ample opportunities for
+misrepresentation and abuse.</p>
+
+<p>But any account of Cooper would be of slight value that failed to take
+notice of his love of country. No other man of letters has there been
+in America, or perhaps in any other land, to whom this has been a
+passion so absorbing. It entered into the very deepest feelings of his
+heart. Even in the storm of calumny, which fell upon him in his later
+years, if the flame of his patriotism seemed at times to die away, any
+little circumstance was sure to revive it at once. No proclaimer of
+"manifest destiny" ever had more faith than he in the imperial
+greatness and grandeur to which the republic was to attain. All that
+in vulgar minds took the shape of braggart boasting, was in his
+idealized and glorified by his lofty conception of the majestic part
+which his country was to play in deciding the destinies of mankind. In
+spite of short-comings he deplored, of perils that he feared, firm in
+his heart was the conviction that here was to be the home of the great
+new race that was to rule the world. Other lands might look to the
+future with hope or doubt; his own was as sure of it as if it lay
+already in its grasp. This was a confidence that survived all changes,
+and despised all forebodings. The question of slavery certainly
+disturbed him,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span>
+but it did not shake his trust. The
+prophecies of the dissolution of the Union, current in Europe, he
+laughed to scorn. Even in the days of nullification his faith never
+wavered one jot. To no one, more justly than to him, could perpetual
+thanks have been voted, because he never despaired of the republic.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper's lofty views of his country he soon found were essentially
+different from those entertained abroad. The knowledge of America even
+now possessed in Europe is not burdensomely great. But in 1830 its
+ignorance was prodigious; and the nearest approach to interest was
+usually the result of something of that same vague fear which haunted
+the citizens of the Roman Empire at the possible perils to
+civilization that might lie hid in the boundless depths of the German
+forests. On the Continent the ignorance was greater than it was in
+England, and Cooper had plenty of opportunities of witnessing the
+exhibition of it. In the case of the common people he was amused by
+it. That the whites who had emigrated to America had not yet become
+entirely black; that it was reasonable to expect that time, while it
+could not restore their original hue to these deteriorated Europeans
+tanned to ebony, might in the revolution of the suns elevate them to a
+fair degree of civilization; these, and similar sage opinions, did not
+disturb him when uttered by the philosophers of the lower classes. Yet
+their ignorance, great as it was, he found not to surpass materially
+that of men who ought to have known better, so long as they pretended
+to know at all. That the colonies had been settled by convicts, was a
+common impression among the best educated. While residing in Paris
+Cooper had the gratification of having his country quoted in the
+French Chamber
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span>
+of Deputies as an example of the possibility
+of forming respectable communities by the transportation of criminals.
+Even men who sympathized with republican institutions, he informs us,
+did not think of denying the fact; they denied merely the inference.
+The brilliant publicist, Paul Courier, had asserted it would be as
+unjust to reproach the modern Romans with being descendants of
+ravishers and robbers, as it would be to reproach the Americans with
+being descendants of convicts. All could not be expected, however, to
+be so liberal as this constitutional reformer. The gross vices which
+in foreign opinion distinguished the inhabitants of the United States,
+were held to be the natural consequences of their settlement by
+felons. Cooper subsequently took care to furnish the sons of the
+Puritans with all needful information as to the light in which their
+fathers were viewed in Europe. At the time, however, it was far
+different. Keenly sensitive to his country's honor, and knowing the
+morals of his countrymen to be far higher than those of the men of any
+other land, derogatory statements of this kind were galling in the
+extreme.</p>
+
+<p>But it was the English opinion that Cooper resented most bitterly.
+This was partly because he believed from the community of origin and
+speech it ought to be better informed, and partly because he looked
+upon it as responsible for many of the absurd and erroneous
+impressions that prevailed in the rest of Europe. His feelings were
+rendered still keener by the direct contact with English prejudice
+which he had personally during his residence abroad. The attitude of
+the Continent towards America was that of supreme ignorance and
+indifference. But there was at the time something besides that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span>
+in the attitude of England, so far certainly as it was
+represented by its periodical literature. In the most favorable cases
+it was supercilious and patronizing, an attitude which never permits
+the nation criticising to understand the nation criticised. There was
+never any effort to penetrate into the real nature of the social and
+political movements that were taking place on this side of the water.
+Men were contented with the examination of mere external phenomena,
+which, whether good or bad in themselves, belonged to a period of
+growth and were certain to pass away. Not the slightest sympathy
+existed with the feelings and aspirations of a people closely allied
+in blood and speech, and the lack of desire involved the lack of
+ability to enter into the spirit of their institutions. There was no
+idea that there could be other types of character than those found on
+British soil, or any room or reason for the play of other social and
+political forces than were at work in British communities.</p>
+
+<p>At the time, however, that Cooper took up his residence in Europe
+there was more than supercilious indifference in the character of
+English criticism. There was steady misrepresentation and abuse, due
+in a few cases to design, in more to ignorance, in most to that
+disposition on the part of all men to believe readily what they wish
+ardently. It made little difference whether the writer were Whig or
+Tory. If anything the open dislike of the latter was preferable to the
+patronizing regard of the former. In 1804 the poet Moore visited
+America. He wrote home a number of poetical epistles, in which he told
+his friends that he had found us old in our youth and blasted in our
+prime. The demon gold was running loose; everything and everybody
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span>
+was corrupt; truth, conscience, and virtue were regularly made
+matters of barter and sale. A succession of English travelers repeated
+from year to year the same dismal story, and their statements were
+caught up and paraded and dwelt upon in the English periodical press.
+In "The Quarterly Review," in particular, our condition was constantly
+held up as an awful example of the results of democratic institutions
+and universal suffrage. Certain facts and predictions had been
+repeated so often that they came to be accepted and believed by all.
+We spoke a dialect of the English tongue; our manners were bad, if we
+could be said to have any at all; loyalty we could know nothing about,
+because we had no king; religion we were entirely devoid of, because
+there was no established church; the federation was steadily tending
+towards monarchy; the wealthy were longing to be nobles; and the Union
+could not last above a quarter of a century. Worse than all, intrigue
+and bribery were sapping the national life; or to use a still favorite
+phrase of the newspapers, though the repetition of a hundred years has
+now made it somewhat stale, corruption was preying upon the vitals of
+the republic.</p>
+
+<p>There is not the slightest exaggeration in these statements. Their
+truth any one familiar with the periodical literature of that period
+will least of all doubt. There was a perfect agreement between those
+who visited us and described us and those who drew their description
+from their imaginations. Nothing distinguished the English traveler or
+the English reviewer so much as his piety, and his profound conviction
+that religion could not exist where it was not carefully watched over
+by an established church. Besides this inevitable moral destitution,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span>
+we were irreclaimably given over to vulgarity. Manners there
+could not be in a land abandoned to an unbridled democracy. In the
+most praiseworthy instances even, men lacked that repose, that fine
+tact, which were found universally in the higher orders in the mother
+country. The defect was ineradicable, according to most; for it had
+its baleful origin in popular institutions themselves. In justice it
+must be added that there were some who, in consequence of the American
+passion for traveling, entertained a mild hope that in time this
+rudeness would wear away, and this total ignorance of good breeding
+would be enlightened by the polish and refinement that would be picked
+up from the quantity to be found scattered about foreign courts. The
+published correspondence of that period is delicious in its frankness.
+The Englishman, writing to his American friend, never descends from
+his lofty position of censor both of great and petty morals. The
+inferiority of manners in this country is a point insisted upon by the
+former with an assiduity and assurance that are sufficient of
+themselves to make clear how high was the breeding to which he himself
+had attained. It makes little difference who write the letters. They
+all express the same sentiments. They all offer advice as to the best
+method America can take to retrieve the good opinion of Europe which
+it has lost. They are careful to say that they entertain the kindest
+of feelings to the United States; that they neglect no occasion of
+doing justice to the good and wise that had found there a home.
+Unfortunately these are few in number; and with a lofty sense of
+justice they never fail to express disapprobation in strong terms of
+the vast amount to be condemned in a land which had fallen under the
+sway of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span>
+a reckless democracy and a godless church. One
+English gentleman in the British military service, after being some
+time in this country, writes, after his return, to an American friend,
+and thus cheerfully records his impressions. "The frightful effects
+produced by an unrestrained democracy," he says, "the demoralizing
+effects produced by universal suffrage never appeared to me so odious
+as they do now by contrast with the good breeding, the order and
+mutual support which all give to each other in this country, from the
+highest to the lowest." This letter belongs to the year 1839, and it
+only continues a line of remark common for the half-century previous.
+Everything that came from America, if praised at all, was praised with
+a qualification. Not a compliment could be uttered of an individual
+without an implied disparagement of the land that gave him birth. The
+record of every man who was well received in English society will bear
+out this assertion. Scott wrote to Southey in 1819, that Ticknor was
+"a wondrous fellow for romantic lore and antiquarian research,
+<i>considering his country</i>." Even words of genuine affection were often
+accompanied with an impertinence which has a delightfulness of its own
+from the utter unconsciousness on the part of the writer or speaker of
+having said anything out of the way. They were compliments of the kind
+which intimated that the person addressed was a sort of redeeming
+feature in a wild waste of desert. "You have taught us," writes in
+1840 Mrs. Basil Montagu to Charles Sumner, "to think much more highly
+of your country--from whom we have hitherto seen no such men."</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing to be gained in raking over at this day the ashes of
+dead controversies and revilings. Americans
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span>
+no longer read
+the writings of the kind described, and Englishmen have largely
+forgotten that they were ever written. The new commentators on our
+habits and customs have taken up a new line of remark, and the new
+prophets of woe foresee an entirely new class of calamities. But it
+has been necessary to revive here the memory of the old charges and
+forebodings, in order to show the state of feeling that would be
+developed by them in a man of a peculiarly sensitive and proud nature,
+such as was the subject of this biography. Rubbish as they may seem
+now, they were to the men of that time a grievous sore. Whatever may
+have been Cooper's feelings previously, it was not until after he had
+resided for a while in Europe that any hostility towards England is
+seen in his works. But there it soon began to manifest itself, though
+at first rather in the way of defense than attack. As time went on it
+increased rather than diminished. It largely affected his own fortunes
+by the personal hostility it provoked in return. To some extent,
+without doubt, his oft-repeated declaration was true, that in the
+dependence then existing here upon foreign opinion, every American
+author held his reputation at the mercy of the British reviewer. It
+would be unjust to say that it seemed at one period almost as if
+Cooper had sworn towards England undying hate. But it is certainly a
+fact that he gave utterance to his inmost feelings when he described
+it as a country that cast a chill over his affections, a country that
+all men respected but that few men loved. Yet he had been brought up
+in the school of the Federalist party, in which admiration for the
+literature, policy, and morals of the motherland was taught as a duty;
+in which every door was thrown open to visitors from England as an act
+of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span>
+hospitality due to kinsmen separated merely by the
+accident of position. He himself tells us how, an ardent boy of
+seventeen, he leaped for the first time upon the soil of Great
+Britain, feeling for it a love almost as devoted as that which he bore
+the land of his birth, and looking upon every native of it in the
+light of a brother. It did not take him long to find out that the
+fancied tie of kinship was not recognized, that it was even despised;
+and that if he made friends, it must be in spite of his country, and
+not because of it. His connection with the navy had also led him to be
+keenly sensitive to the injustice and indignities connected with the
+impressment of seamen. In his first voyage in a merchant ship he had
+seen two native Americans taken from the vessel and forced into the
+British service. His own captain even had on one occasion been seized,
+though speedily liberated. There had also been an attempt to press a
+Swede belonging to the crew, on the ground that his country and
+England were in alliance, and the latter had therefore a right to his
+help. These were not the acts to inspire devotion towards the people
+who committed or who authorized them. The keen resentment Cooper felt
+for the wrongs then perpetrated upon the American marine he afterward
+expressed in his novels of "Wing-and-Wing" and "Miles Wallingford." He
+never forgot those early experiences. When he came to reside in Europe
+he was as little disposed to forgive the depreciation of his country
+which he imputed, whether justly or unjustly, to English influence.
+Distrust became dislike, and dislike deepened into hostility.</p>
+
+<p>There is little doubt that with a man of Cooper's nature the revulsion
+from his original feelings would tend to swing him to the opposite
+extreme; that, as a consequence
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span>
+of that, he would often
+fancy insult where none was intended, and impute to design conduct
+that was the result of chance or even of personal timidity. But making
+full allowance for this inevitable source of error, there was plenty
+of reason furnished for offense to a man whose personal pride was
+equal to that of the whole British aristocracy, and whose pride in his
+country exceeded even his personal pride. The ignorant criticism which
+amused most Americans was apt to make him indignant. No compliment, in
+particular, could be paid with safety to him individually at the
+expense of his country. This was a practice, however, which the
+Englishmen of that day seemed to regard as the consummate crown of
+adulation. Depreciation of America of any sort he resented at once. If
+conversation touched upon matters discreditable to the United
+States--which was far from being an uncommon topic--it was very much
+his practice, instead of listening to it patiently, to bring up
+matters discreditable to Great Britain. There was unquestionably ample
+material on both sides with which each could blacken the other. But
+while this tended to make the conversation less monotonous, it
+likewise tended to make the converser less popular. Cooper lost early
+by his bearing in English society much of the favor which he had won
+from his writings. To this we have positive evidence. It is
+specifically mentioned in the sketch of his life, which along with his
+portrait appeared in 1831 in Colburn's "New Monthly Magazine." The
+article went on, after mentioning this fact, to pay a tribute to his
+somewhat aggressive patriotism. "Yet he seems," it said, "to claim
+little consideration on the score of intellectual greatness; he is
+evidently prouder of his birth than of his genius; and looks,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span>
+speaks, and walks as if he exulted more in being recognized as an
+American citizen than as the author of 'The Pilot' and 'The Prairie.'"</p>
+
+<p>To a man whose heart was thus full of the future glories of the
+republic, the indifference and neglect with which it was regarded
+could not but be galling. Still this was nothing to the positive
+contempt which often manifested itself in social slights that could be
+felt but could not well be resented. This was especially noticeable in
+the case of the legations, the conduct of which was largely under the
+control of the home government. The English policy was here in marked
+contrast to that of Russia, which, even at that early day, cultivated
+almost ostentatiously friendship with America. Between the legations
+of these two countries there was always the best of understandings.
+The direct contrary often prevailed between the ministers of Great
+Britain and of the United States. The influence of the former was
+frequently thought to be exerted to the social injury of the latter.
+Whether true or false, this was generally believed. Cooper certainly
+credited it and looked forward to the time when the whole attitude of
+England would be altered. We were then less than twelve millions in
+population; but the day would come when we should be fifty millions.
+The existing state of things would then be changed. You and I may not
+live to see it, he wrote substantially to his friends, but our sons
+and grandsons will. They may not like us any better, but they will
+take care to hide their feelings. Strong resentment sometimes drove
+him into taking up positions he would not in his cooler moments have
+maintained. "As one citizen of the republic," he wrote, "however
+insignificant, I have no notion of being blackguarded and vituperated
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span>
+half a century and then cajoled into forgetfulness at the
+suggestion of fear and expediency, as circumstances render our
+good-will of importance." Not one of these slights and insults would
+he have the fifty millions forget. He did not bear in mind that fifty
+millions could not afford to remember. It was like asking the man of
+middle life to revenge upon the sons the indignities which the boy had
+received from the fathers.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper's residence in England was only for a few months during the
+first half of the year 1828. With his feelings towards that country
+and with the feeling entertained in it toward his own, nothing could
+have made his stay highly pleasant. But it is one of the numerous
+minor falsehoods that came to be connected with his life, that it was
+unpleasant. On the contrary, his company was sought by many of the
+most distinguished men, though in accordance with his usual custom he
+carried no letters of introduction. At a later period he said that in
+no country had he been personally so well treated as in England; he
+was as strongly convinced as his worst enemy, that as an author he had
+been extolled there beyond his merits; nor had he failed to receive
+quite as much substantial remuneration as he could properly lay claim
+to. But the social atmosphere there prevailing was not the atmosphere
+he loved. The poet Moore relates in his diary a story told him by
+Sydney Smith of the "touchiness" of "the Republican"--so the American
+novelist is styled--as evinced by the indignation of the latter at the
+conduct of Lord Nugent. This nobleman, it appears, invited Cooper to
+take a walk with him to a certain street. Arriving there he
+unceremoniously entered the house
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span>
+of a friend and left his
+companion to make his way back alone. Cooper's resentment of the
+treatment may have been unwisely shown; for though often termed an
+aristocrat, he never exhibited in the slightest degree that reticence
+which is or is supposed to be the peculiar characteristic of
+aristocracy. But few would now be found to deny that his indignation
+was both natural and just, and that the act of Lord Nugent was the act
+of a boor and not of a gentleman. It was certainly unreasonable to
+expect that a society which could rejoice in this method of rebuking
+republican pretension could itself be agreeable to a republican.
+Cooper could not but be offended by the prejudices he found existing
+against his country and the dislike usually felt and sometimes
+expressed for it. The only man he met whom he thought well informed
+about America was Sir James Mackintosh. The ignorance of some of his
+friends was so great that even to him it caused amusement rather than
+anger. Many readers will have heard of the practice of "gouging," with
+which, according to the veracious English traveler of early days, the
+native American gave the charm of diversity and diversion to a life
+whose serious thoughts were wholly absorbed in the acquisition of
+pelf. Some will remember the definition given of it in Grose's
+"Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:" "to squeeze out a man's eye with
+the thumb; a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America." A
+curious illustration of the belief in this myth occurred to Cooper.
+One of his friends in England was an amiable and pleasant man of
+letters, named William Sotheby, little heard of in these days; and
+even in his own days he had to endure the double degradation of being
+called a small poet by the small poets themselves. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> was at
+this time an old gentleman of over seventy, and was preparing to make
+a creditable close to his career by performing the task, which seems
+to assume the shape of a duty to every literary Englishman of leisure,
+of translating the Iliad and the Odyssey. Not unnaturally he was more
+familiar with the way the wrath of Achilles manifested itself than
+with the shape taken by the wrath of the men of his race beyond the
+sea. On one occasion he condoled with Cooper because of the
+quarrelsomeness and fighting prevalent in America, making during this
+expression of his sympathy an obvious allusion to gouging. It was
+useless to attempt setting him right. His interest in ancient fiction
+had not been so absorbing as to close his mind to the acquisition of
+modern fact; and to Cooper's denial of what he had implied he listened
+with a polite but incredulous smile.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1828-1833.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Misrepresentation and abuse of his native land it was not in Cooper's
+nature to bear in silence. His resentment for the imputations cast
+upon his country began to show itself soon after he had taken up his
+residence abroad. In "The Red Rover," which appeared in 1827, there
+are satirical references to the benevolence and piety of the moral
+missionaries which England had sent among us, and to the correctness
+and wisdom of current foreign opinion. In the next novel, "The Wept of
+Wish-ton-Wish," his feelings are still more fully expressed. In this
+work he puts into the mouth of one of the characters, a physician, an
+elaborate disquisition upon the degeneracy of man in America. In the
+course of it the leech informs his opponent that the science and
+wisdom and philosophy of Europe had been exceedingly active in the
+investigation of this matter of colonial inferiority, that they had
+proved to their own perfect satisfaction, which was the same thing as
+disposing of the question without appeal, that man and beast, plant
+and tree, hill and dale, lake, pond, sun, air, fire, and water were
+all wanting in some of the perfectness of the old regions. It was
+plain we could never hope to reach the exalted excellence they enjoy;
+and while he respected the patriotism that held the contrary view, he
+could not, out of deference to it, afford to doubt what had
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span>
+been demonstrated by science and collected by learning.</p>
+
+<p>It was not in this indirect way, however, that he could content
+himself with defending his country. No sooner had he lived in Europe
+long enough to become acquainted with the erroneous impressions there
+prevalent, in regard to America, than he set out to prepare a work
+which should expose their falsity. In it he determined to lay the
+precise facts before a public which was indisposed to believe anything
+to the credit, and disposed to believe everything to the discredit of
+democratic institutions. On the face of it, this was a futile
+undertaking, no matter how praiseworthy its motive. Nations, no more
+than individuals, are convinced by what other nations say of
+themselves; it is only by what they do. In this particular case the
+difficulty was rendered more insurmountable by the fact that these
+erroneous impressions prevailed among those who did not care enough
+about the matter to investigate it seriously, and who would be certain
+in most cases to refrain from investigating it at all, had they a
+suspicion that their preconceived beliefs would be overthrown or even
+shaken, as a result of their examination. The question naturally
+arises, whether such men could be convinced by facts and arguments,
+and if so, whether they were worth the trouble of convincing. Why
+grudge the adherents of a dying cause the dismal enjoyment they
+receive from contemplating the ruin that is always being wrought, or
+is always to be wrought, by Democracy to Democracy? Experience led
+Cooper subsequently to see the uselessness of the experiment he, in
+this instance, tried. When asked at a later period why some efforts
+were not made to correct the false notions prevalent in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span>
+Europe in regard to America, he answered with perfect truth then, that
+no favorable account would be acceptable; that it would not be enough
+to confess our real faults, but we should be required to confess the
+precise faults that, according to the opinions of that quarter of the
+world, we were morally, logically, and politically bound to possess.
+By the wide circulation of his fictions he, in truth, did more to
+remove wrong impressions, dissipate prejudices, and open the eyes of
+Europe to a knowledge of American life and manners, than could have
+been accomplished by the longest and most ponderous array of
+indisputable facts.</p>
+
+<p>Facts, however, he at this time purposed to furnish. Accordingly, on
+the 13th of August, 1828, appeared a work entitled, "Notions of the
+Americans, Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor." Whatever its actual
+success, it was a relative failure. Cooper himself tells us that it
+occasioned him a heavy pecuniary loss. Manner and matter, both
+foredoomed it to the fate which it met. The plan of it was an
+unfortunate one as well as a purely artificial one. The views and
+observations and statements of fact are put into the mouth of a
+European traveling bachelor, a member of a club of cosmopolites, who,
+in consequence of meeting an American, named Cadwallader, is persuaded
+to visit and see for himself the new world. Arriving there he writes
+letters to his friends, giving an account of his impressions. The
+fiction of foreign authorship was the first mistake. It could not
+mislead any one, nor was it intended to mislead any one. But a grave
+didactic treatise which was designed to convey a truthful impression,
+lost something and gained nothing by being connected with any
+artifice, even though not meant to impose upon the reader.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span>
+Nor was the work interesting to one not specially interested in the
+subject. To the American it gave the strongest assurances of loyalty
+to republican institutions on the part of her most widely-known man of
+letters; but it added little or nothing to the information of which he
+was already in possession. On the other hand, the laudatory style in
+which this country was invariably spoken of was certain to be
+offensive to those whom it was the design of the work to enlighten.
+The weight of matter, moreover, was not rendered any more endurable by
+lightness of treatment. At the present day the work is chiefly
+interesting for the keen observations that are found in it, and for
+its remarks upon the future of the country rather than upon its then
+existing state. Cooper's predictions were concerned with the minutest,
+as well as the greatest subjects. They ranged all the way from the
+indefinite assurance, that New York must eventually become the
+gastronomic capital of the globe, to the precise statement, as to the
+exact number of the population there would be in the United States
+fifty years from the time in which he was writing. This last prophecy,
+it is to be said, has turned out singularly true. He fixed the number
+at fifty millions. That this was no chance guess, but a carefully
+worked out computation, is evident from the fact that he repeats it
+several times in this work and occasionally in later ones. He,
+moreover, assigned definitely forty-three millions to the whites and
+seven millions to the blacks.</p>
+
+<p>It is not for an American to find fault with the laudatory tone of a
+work which reflects the ardent love of country felt by the writer. Yet
+in many respects it is a singular production. In manner it is calm,
+grave, almost
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span>
+philosophical; there is not the slightest
+effort at fine writing; the tone can never be said to be even fervid.
+Yet it must be confessed that not in the most exalted of Fourth of
+July orations does the national eagle scream with a shriller note, or
+wing his way with a more unflagging flight. Any one who formed his
+notions of this country exclusively from this book, would be sure to
+fancy that here at last paradise was reopening to the children of a
+fallen race. After this remark, it may seem ridiculous, and yet it is
+perfectly just to say, that Cooper, so far from giving way to
+exaggeration in his assertions, kept himself well within the bounds of
+the truth. In the exercise of that duty which presses heavily upon
+every reviewer, to seem, if not to be wiser than his author, many of
+the English periodicals, even those most favorable to America,
+undertook to doubt his statements of fact, to sneer at his prophecies
+of the future as ludicrous exaggerations, and to term them striking
+and whimsical instances of Yankee braggadocio, and of the love of
+building castles in the air. Cooper could not well overstate the
+material prosperity and progress of the country, nor the inability of
+men trained under different conditions either to believe it or to
+comprehend it. Reality soon outran some of his most daring
+anticipations. His most extravagant statements were speedily more than
+confirmed by the operation of agencies whose mighty results he could
+not foresee, because, when he wrote, the agencies themselves did not
+exist. He had carefully guarded himself in one instance, by saying
+that he did not expect that the Northwest would be settled within an
+early period. The precaution was unnecessary. He had been brought up
+in a town, founded in the wilderness, at a distance of less than
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span>
+one hundred and fifty miles from the commercial capital of the
+republic. He lived long enough to see the frontiers of civilization
+pushed one thousand miles west of the line it had held in his
+boyhood's home.</p>
+
+<p>Any wrong impression, therefore, which the work conveyed was not due
+to the spirit of braggadocio pervading it, as asserted and commented
+upon by the English reviewers. No false statement was made
+intentionally; there were very few that were made mistakenly. But
+though Cooper purposed to tell nothing but truth about his country, he
+did not feel himself under obligation to tell all the truth. The
+attention was almost exclusively directed to that side of the national
+character which lent itself most readily to favorable treatment. What
+was unfavorable was either omitted altogether, or was very lightly
+passed over. One letter alone, and that not a long one, was devoted to
+slavery. It is plain that he was annoyed by it; to some extent, in
+spite of his confidence, disquieted by it, though the dangers he
+feared were not the dangers that actually came. Even at that early day
+there was enough to trouble the lover of his country in the criticism
+it encountered, for the glaring contrast between its professions of
+liberty and its practice; but far more in the dimly-seen shape of that
+gigantic struggle which, though itself vague and undefined, was
+already beginning to cast its lowering shadow over the future of the
+republic. So in a similar manner the literature, architecture, and art
+of America were passed over in a few pages, while letter after letter
+was given up to a description of its progress in wealth and comfort.
+Yet no one knew better than Cooper,--at a later period he took care
+his countrymen should not forget it,--that of all standards by which
+to test national glory, the material standard
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span>
+is in itself
+the lowest and most vulgar; and that the difference in real greatness
+between two places can never be measured by the comparative amount of
+sugar, or salt, or flour sold in each. Yet he remembered then, what
+later he seemed to forget, that the necessity of conquering the
+continent, of making it inhabitable for man, was at the time and must
+continue long to remain a very positive hindrance to the development
+of literary and artistic ability, because by the immense rewards it
+offered it attracted to the development of material resources the
+intellect and vigor of the entire land.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper tells us, as has been said, that he lost money on this work.
+But there was something more than pecuniary failure that attended it.
+There were in it statements which met with disfavor at home. More
+important than these, however, were remarks that aroused personal
+hostility abroad. He made several references, in particular, to the
+people of England, and they were not of a kind to conciliate regard
+for himself and his work. In one place he spoke of the society of that
+country as being more repulsive, artificial, and cumbered, and, in
+short, more absurd and frequently less graceful than that of any other
+European nation. Theoretically, the English care nothing for foreign
+opinion. They have said it so often among themselves that most of them
+look upon it as a point which has been settled by the consent of
+mankind. But like many other beliefs it has become an article of faith
+without having become an article of practice. To this extent it is
+true that they care nothing for the remarks of obscure men of which
+they never hear. On the other hand, no nation is more sensitive to
+contemporary foreign opinion, coming from
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span>
+writers of
+distinction. There will be plenty of instances furnished in this one
+biography to prove fully this assertion. Cooper's attack was never
+forgotten or forgiven. From this time there was a distinctly hostile
+feeling manifested toward him in many of the English periodicals. Even
+before his next work appeared, London correspondents of American
+newspapers announced that it was going to be severely criticised,
+inasmuch as the novelist had made himself unpopular in England by the
+comments made and the views put forth in the "Notions of the
+Americans." If this were not true, it was at least believed to be
+true. Certainly the fact of hostility steadily increasing from this
+period, on the part of the British press, cannot be denied, whatever
+we may think of the causes that brought it about. Nor did it stop
+short with depreciation of his works. Literary criticism, even if
+based merely upon personal dislike, can always resort with safety to
+the cheap defense that it is honest. But there were reviewers who went
+farther, who framed for Cooper imaginary feelings and then proceeded
+to assail him for having them. He was accused, especially, of pluming
+himself highly upon the title of the "American Scott." Hazlitt, for
+instance, seeing him strutting, as he terms it, in the streets of
+Paris, was enabled to detect by the way the novelist walked the way he
+felt upon this special matter, and afterward to state the conclusion
+at which he had arrived as a positive fact. Similar specimens of fine
+critical insight into Cooper's motives and sentiments can be found
+scattered up and down the pages of English journals.</p>
+
+<p>At the time he was bringing out "The Water Witch" in Germany, the
+revolution in France took place
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span>
+that resulted in the
+expulsion of the Bourbons and the calling of Louis Philippe to the
+throne. Paris became at once the Mecca to which the lovers of liberty
+throughout Europe resorted. Thither Cooper hastened from his home in
+Dresden. He reached the city in August, 1830. There he watched with
+the profoundest interest the political movements that were going on
+about him. The reactionary tendencies that early began to manifest
+themselves in the rule of the Citizen King, brought to him the same
+disappointment and the same disgust that it did to all the ardent
+republicans of the Old World. There is much in what he says to remind
+the reader of the feelings expressed by Heine, who had likewise
+hurried to Paris after the July revolution, and who was venting his
+indignation and contempt in the columns of the Augsburg "Allgemeine
+Zeitung." Occasional passages bear even a close similarity. Cooper on
+one occasion describes Louis Philippe walking about among his subjects
+wearing a white hat, carrying a red umbrella, and evidently laboring
+to act in an easy and affable manner. "In short," he said in a phrase
+that might have been written by the great German, "he was
+condescending with all his might."</p>
+
+<p>Close upon the revolution in France followed the revolt of Poland. The
+insurrection lasted about ten months, and during its progress the
+feelings of Cooper were profoundly stirred in behalf of that people.
+With this his personal friendship with the Polish poet, Mickiewicz,
+had probably a great deal to do; for at Rome a close intimacy had
+sprung up between him and that author. At a meeting, held in Paris on
+the 4th of July, 1831, at which Cooper presided, a sum of money was
+contributed to aid the revolters in their struggle. He presided
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span>
+also at other meetings to advance the same cause, and acted as
+chairman of a committee to raise funds to assist the Polish soldiers
+who were fighting for independence, and when this failed, to relieve
+the exiles in their distress. Two addresses to the American people
+signed by him in his official capacity--one written in July, 1831, and
+the other in June, 1832--appeared in the American papers of those
+years; and the fervor that characterizes them both leaves little doubt
+as to their authorship.</p>
+
+<p>Into the great struggle going on in Europe, either openly or silently
+between aristocracy and democracy, he now, indeed, threw himself with
+his whole heart. In certain respects this was a disadvantage. Whenever
+Cooper's feelings on political subjects were aroused, his literary
+work betrayed the obtrusion of interests more dominating than those
+which belong to it legitimately. This was manifested in the three
+tales which followed. In them the scene of action was not only
+transferred to European soil, but a direct attempt was avowedly made
+to apply American principles to European facts. These novels were "The
+Bravo," which appeared November 29, 1831; "The Heidenmauer," which
+appeared September 25, 1832; and "The Headsman," which appeared
+October 18, 1833. The purpose of all these was the direct exaltation
+of republican institutions, and likewise the exposure of those which
+paraded in the garb of liberty without possessing its reality. The
+scenes of two were accordingly laid in the aristocratic cities of
+Venice and of Berne. The first of the three is generally spoken of as
+the best, especially by those who have read none of them at all.
+Little difference will be found, as a matter of fact, between "The
+Bravo" and "The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span>
+Headsman" as regards literary merit. "The
+Heidenmauer" is, however, distinctly inferior, and is in truth one of
+the most tedious novels that Cooper ever wrote. All were, however,
+animated by the same spirit. They all assailed oligarchical, and
+lauded democratic institutions. They were full of denunciations of the
+accommodating stupidity of patricians who were never able to see
+anything beneficial to the interests of the state in what was
+injurious to the interests of their own order. In particular, the
+doctrine was held up to derision, that while to the ignorant and the
+low there was ample power given to suffer, there was no power given to
+understand; and that consequently it was their duty always to obey and
+never to criticise.</p>
+
+<p>In writing this series Cooper was undertaking what was on the face of
+it a hazardous experiment. The peril was not, as thoughtless criticism
+has had it, in transferring his scenes and characters to a foreign
+soil. Human nature suffers no material change in passing from America
+to Europe. The danger lay in the fact that these were novels written
+with a purpose. The story was not told for its own sake, but for the
+sake of enforcing certain political opinions. It required, therefore,
+unusual skill in its construction and in the management of its
+details. For whatever may be the exact truth contained in the doctrine
+of art for art's sake, this is certainly clear, that in a work of
+fiction designed to advance successfully any cause, or support any
+theory, the didactic element must be made entirely subordinate to the
+purely creative element. Otherwise we impart to the novel the
+tediousness of a homily without its accepted authority. Art must be
+wooed as a mistress; she can never be commanded as a slave. He,
+therefore, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span>
+seeks to press fiction into a work so foreign
+to its nature as the inculcation of political opinions, must, if he
+hopes to succeed, make the story suggest the lesson without conveying
+it obtrusively. Above all is there need of delicate touch and skillful
+handling, if the aim be to affect those who are prejudiced against the
+views expressed, or whose interests are involved in the fate of those
+attacked. But Cooper's was never a delicate touch. What he thought he
+never insinuated; what he believed himself he never allowed to make
+its way indirectly into the minds of others. He always uttered it
+boldly, and sometimes offensively. Effective this assuredly is in
+compositions of a certain class; but it is entirely out of place in a
+work of fiction. In the case of these particular novels the purpose is
+avowed openly and repeatedly. Cooper, indeed, takes care never to let
+it escape the reader's attention. He may almost be said to stand by
+his shoulder to jog him if he once happens to forget that the story
+has a moral. American institutions, especially, were constantly held
+up as models in which the best results were seen, and which it was the
+policy of all other countries to imitate. The course taken was a mark
+of patriotism; but it was not the way to gain converts. It is, in
+truth, the misfortune of the novelist, burdened with a moral purpose,
+that the reader usually feels the burden and is not affected by the
+moral. It was not by methods like these that Scott threw about
+chivalry and aristocracy that glamour which outlasts the most minute
+acquaintance with the reality, and influences the imagination in spite
+of the protest of the judgment.</p>
+
+<p>But another result that followed from writing novels with a purpose,
+had a more direct influence upon his reputation.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span>
+It made it
+impossible that his work should any longer be criticised fairly. This
+was immediately seen in the case of "The Bravo." This novel had far
+more success in Europe than in America. But the success was not of a
+legitimate kind. Parties were at once arrayed for it or against it,
+not because it was a good or bad production from a literary point of
+view, but according as men sympathized with or were hostile to the
+political principles it advocated. It was not the merit of the work
+that came under consideration, but the merit of the cause. This at
+once destroyed almost entirely the value of any criticism which the
+story received.</p>
+
+<p>A little while before "The Bravo" appeared, Cooper was unwillingly led
+to take part in a controversy which, according to his own view, was
+the remote cause of the hostility he afterwards encountered in his own
+land. It was at the time that the movement began on the part of Louis
+Philippe to separate himself from the liberals, of whom Lafayette was
+the chief representative. A discussion had arisen, in the French
+Chamber of Deputies, on the desirability of a reduction in the
+expenses of government. It gave rise to a controversy which extended
+much beyond the body in which it originated. Lafayette had advocated
+greater economy. In the course of the debate mentioned, he had
+referred to the United States as being a country which was cheaply
+governed, and at the same time well governed. The periodical press at
+once took up the question. M. Saulnier, one of the editors of the
+"Revue Britannique," came out with an article, the direct object of
+which was to prove that a government of three powers, such as was the
+limited monarchy recently established, was not so expensive as
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span>
+that of a republic. In particular, he claimed that the tax levied
+per head on the citizens of France was less than that similarly levied
+on the citizens of the United States. This was a direct attack upon
+Lafayette, who had for forty years been maintaining that the
+government of this country was the cheapest known. The attention of
+Cooper was called to this article, and he was asked to reply. He
+declined. A little later it was made clear to him that the object with
+which it was written was to injure Lafayette. The matter then assumed
+another aspect. To that statesman Cooper was bound by ties of intimate
+personal friendship and by a common love of this country. At a public
+dinner, which had been given to Lafayette on the 8th of December,
+1830, by the Americans in Paris, Cooper had presided, and in a speech
+of marked fervor and ability, he had dwelt upon the debt due from the
+United States to the gallant Frenchman, who had ventured fortune and
+life to aid a nation struggling against great odds to be free. It was
+not in his nature to have his deeds give the lie to his words. The
+fact above mentioned at once overcame his reluctance to engage in the
+controversy. Accordingly in December, 1831, appeared a "Letter to
+General Lafayette," preceded by a letter from Lafayette to himself,
+dated the 22d of November. This was a pamphlet of fifty pages, in
+which he went into the subject of the cost of the United States
+government. It produced an immediate reply from M. Saulnier, who went
+over the ground again, and with a fine air of candor affected to
+revise his previous statements. As a result he made the cost of the
+American government a little larger than he had done before. To this
+Cooper replied in a series of letters published in the "National."
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span>
+The controversy would have ended sooner than it did, had it
+not been for the appearance of a fresh actor on the scene. This was a
+certain Mr. Leavitt Harris. He nominally belonged to New Jersey, but a
+large share of his life had been spent in Russia, and his political
+notions had apparently become acclimated to that region. He wrote an
+article on the subject in the shape of a letter to M. Francois
+Delassert, the vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies. In it he
+took ground opposite to that taken by Cooper, controverted his facts,
+and denied his inferences. So great weight was attached to it by the
+French government party that it was published as a supplementary
+number of the "Revue Britannique." Mr. Harris had once been left as
+<i>chargé d'affaires</i> at St. Petersburg during the absence of John Adams
+at the peace negotiations at Ghent. His letter was accordingly dwelt
+upon as the production of an American who had been intrusted by his
+government with high diplomatic position. We who know out of what
+stuff our foreign agents are sometimes made, would not be likely to
+attach much weight to the mere fact. But to a foreign nation the
+opinion of an official seemed naturally more trustworthy than that of
+a private citizen.</p>
+
+<p>To the letter of Mr. Harris, Cooper replied on the 3d of May, 1832.
+This closed the discussion, at least so far as he was
+concerned.<a id="notetag001" name="notetag001"></a><a href="#note001">[1]</a>
+But the controversy was followed by circumstances of a mortifying
+character. After the return to America of the United States minister,
+William <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span>
+C. Rives, Mr. Harris was nominated by the President,
+and confirmed by the Senate early in March, 1833, as <i>chargé
+d'affaires</i>; and this office he held until the arrival of Edward
+Livingston, who was appointed minister on the 3d of May of the same
+year. Previously to this discreditable act, the Department of State
+had committed one of imbecility. It had issued a circular to the
+different local authorities of the Union with avowed reference to the
+finance controversy. Its purport was a request for them to furnish
+information in regard to the amount of public expenditures over which
+they had control. Against this course Cooper protested at once in a
+long and vigorous letter to the American people, written on the 10th
+of December, 1832, from Vevay, Switzerland, and first printed in the
+Philadelphia "National Gazette." He took the ground that in such a
+discussion local burdens ought not to be included. It was, in fact, by
+confusing various kinds of taxation, and taxation for various objects,
+that the French government party had been able to make any showing for
+their own side. The letter was widely circulated, and seems to have
+served its purpose in suppressing the information that had been asked.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately it was not the administration alone that displayed a
+lack of proper sentiment in this controversy. It is far from being a
+creditable thing in the history of the country that Cooper was
+subjected to constant attack, and even abuse, in the American
+newspapers, for his conduct in this finance discussion. He had been
+particularly careful to confine his remarks to the cost of government
+in the United States. He had not touched at all upon the cost of
+government in France. Yet he was charged with having overstepped the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span>
+reserve imposed upon foreigners, and of having attacked the
+administration of a friendly country. The accusation was constantly
+made against him that he went about "flouting his Americanism
+throughout Europe," and in this particular case that he had overrated
+the importance of the controversy, and also the importance of the part
+he had taken in it. He had, in fact, aroused the hostility of that
+section of Americans, insignificant in number and ability, but
+sometimes having social position, who prefer the conveniences of
+despotism to the inconveniences of liberty. To such men Cooper's
+intense nationality was a standing reproach. His reputation, moreover,
+made their own littleness especially conspicuous. Depreciation of him,
+and of his rank as a man of letters, was a necessity of their case. As
+they did not express openly their real feelings, they carried on at
+advantage a war against a man who never had the prudence to hide what
+he thought. Yet among the better class of Americans abroad, Cooper's
+attachment to his native land received the recognition it merited.
+"Cooper's new book, 'The Bravo,'" wrote Horatio Greenough, from Paris,
+to Rembrandt Peale, in November, 1831, "is taking wonderfully here. If
+you could transfuse a little of that man's love of country and
+national pride into the leading members of our high society, I think
+it would leaven them all."</p>
+
+<p>But the attacks in the American newspapers made a painful impression
+upon a mind that was morbidly sensitive to criticism even from the
+most insignificant of men. For an act of generous patriotism for which
+he deserved the thanks of all his countrymen he had received
+vilification from many of them. These things embittered him. They made
+him distrustful of the spirit that prevailed in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span>
+his own
+land. He began to fancy that the country had gone back instead of
+forward in national feeling during the years of his absence. He had
+determined to return, because he was unwilling to have his children
+brought up on foreign soil and under foreign influences. But for
+himself he resolved to abandon literature. As soon as he had finished
+the manuscript he had in hand, he would give up all further thought of
+writing. "The quill and I are divorced," he wrote to Greenough in
+June, 1833, "and you cannot conceive the degree of freedom, I could
+almost say of happiness, I feel at having got my neck out of the
+halter." Longings for his old sea-life often came over him. "You must
+not be surprised," he wrote, half-jestingly, to the same friend, "if
+you hear of my sailing a sloop between Cape Cod and New York." But he
+had no definite plans marked out. The only thing about which his mind
+was made up was not to write any more.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1833-1838.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the fifth of November, 1833, Cooper landed at New York. For a few
+winters that followed he made that city his place of residence. The
+summers he spent in Cooperstown. To this village he paid a visit in
+June, 1834, after having been away from it entirely for about sixteen
+years. The recollections of his early life had always endeared it to
+his memory, and in it he now determined to take up his permanent
+abode. Accordingly he acquired possession of his father's old place,
+which for a long period had remained unoccupied. The house had
+received from the inhabitants the name of Templeton Hall, with a
+direct reference to "The Pioneers." Everything about it was rapidly
+hastening to ruin. Cooper at once began repairs upon it, and after
+these had been fully completed he made it his only residence. It was
+in this little village, upon the shore of the lake which his pen has
+made famous, that he spent the remainder of his life. There he wrote
+nearly all the works which he produced after his return to his native
+land. Its seclusion and quiet gave him ample opportunities for
+undisturbed literary exertion; the beauty of the surroundings
+ministered constantly to his passion for scenery; and of the world
+outside he saw sufficient to satisfy his wishes in the frequent
+journeys which business compelled him to make to the great cities.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span>
+though his latter days were spent in the country, the
+life he led henceforward deserves anything but the name of a pastoral.
+With the return from Europe begins the epic period of Cooper's career.
+The next ten years, in particular, were years of battle and storm. He
+had been criticised harshly and unjustly; he came back prepared and
+disposed to criticise. His feelings found expression at once. The
+America to which he had returned seemed to him much worse than that
+from which he had gone. In his opinion nearly everything had
+deteriorated. Manners, morals, the whole spirit of the nation, struck
+him as being on a lower level. Yet the change was not really in the
+people; it was in himself. The country had been moving on in the line
+of its natural bustling development; he, on the contrary, had been
+going back in sentiment. In one particular there was a certain
+justification for the dislike expressed by him for the novel things he
+saw. The business of the entire land was in a feverish condition. The
+Erie Canal, completed the year before his departure for Europe, had
+opened an unbroken water way from the Atlantic sea-board to the
+farthest shores of the great lakes. To this stimulus to population and
+trade was added the expected stimulus of the railroad system, then in
+its infancy. Both together were disclosing, though more to the
+imagination than to the eye, the wealth that lay hid in the unsettled
+regions of the West. They were active agents, therefore, in creating
+one of those periods of speculative prosperity which are sure to recur
+when any new and unforeseen avenue to sudden fortune is laid open. The
+immense field for endeavor revealed by the prospective establishment
+of flourishing communities reacted unfavorably upon
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> the
+intellectual movement which had begun in a feeble way to show itself
+twenty years before. The attraction of mighty enterprises which held
+out to the hope promises of the highest temporal triumphs, was a
+competition that mere literary and scholastic pursuits, with their
+doubtful success and precarious rewards, could not well maintain. The
+country certainly went back for a time in higher things in consequence
+of that rapid material progress which drew to its further development
+the youthful energy and ability of the entire land. To make money and
+to make it rapidly seemed to be the one object of life.</p>
+
+<p>Such a fever of speculative prosperity wholly absorbing the thoughts
+and activities of men in the acquisition of wealth, would have been
+viewed by Cooper at any time with indifference, even if it did not
+inspire disgust. But a greater change than he knew had come over him.
+It is clear that he had now grown largely out of sympathy with the
+energy and enterprise which were doing so much to build up the
+prosperity and power of his country. His nature had come into a
+profound sympathy with the quiet, the culture, and the polish of the
+lands he had left behind. His spirit could no longer be incited by the
+romance that lay hid in the fiery energies of trade. In the
+tumultuousness of the life about him, he could see little but a
+restless and vulgar exertion for the creation of wealth. The perpetual
+bustle and change were not to his taste. He spoke of it afterwards, in
+one of his works, with a certain grim humor peculiarly his own.
+America he said, was a country for alibis. The whole nation was in
+motion; and everybody was everywhere, and nobody was anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Feelings of this kind had begun to come over him long
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> before
+his return from abroad. He had been affected by his surroundings to an
+extent of which he was only vaguely conscious. While in Europe he
+admitted that he found growing in his nature a strong distaste for the
+common appliances of common life. He had not been long in Florence
+before these sentiments found utterance. "I begin to feel," he wrote,
+"I could be well content to vegetate here for one half of my life, to
+say nothing of the remainder." He drew sharp distinctions between
+commercial towns and capitals. Even in Italy, Leghorn with its growing
+trade, its bales of merchandise, its atmosphere filled with the breath
+of the salt sea mixed with the smell of pitch and tar, seemed mean and
+vulgar after the refinement and world-old beauty of Florence. He
+acknowledged that the languor and repose of towns which glory simply
+in their collections and recollections, were far more suited to his
+feelings than the activity and tumult of towns whose glory lies in
+their commercial enterprises. This preference is not uncommon among
+cultivated men. But it is too much to ask of a nation that it shall
+exist for the sake of gratifying the ćsthetic emotions of travelers.
+The process of achieving greatness can never be so agreeable to the
+looker-on as the sight of greatness achieved; but it is unhappily
+often the case that many things, which the visitor regards as a charm,
+the native feels to be a reproach.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the change of view in himself, there were some actual changes
+in the country that were not temporary in their nature. The
+constitution of society had altered at home during his residence
+abroad, or was rapidly altering. The influence of the old colonial
+aristocracy was fast dying out. New men were pushing to the wall
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span>
+the descendants of the families that had flourished before the
+Revolution, and had sought after it to keep up distinctions and
+exclusiveness which the very success of the struggle in which they had
+been concerned doomed to an early decay. This was especially
+noticeable in New York. In such a city social rank must tend, in the
+long run, to wait upon wealth. The result may be delayed, it cannot be
+averted. Wealth, too, in most cases, will find its way to the hands of
+those carrying on great commercial undertakings. That this class would
+eventually become a controlling one in society, if not the controlling
+one, was inevitable. It was not likely that men, who were bent on the
+conquest of the continent, who revolved even in their dreams all forms
+of the adventurous and the perilous, whose enterprise stopped short
+only with the impossible, would be content long to submit to a
+fictitious superiority on the part of those whose thoughts were so
+taken up with the consideration of what their fathers had been or had
+done that they forgot to be or to do anything themselves. Yet the
+latter composed no small share of the class with which Cooper's early
+associations had lain. He naturally sympathized with them rather than
+with those who were displacing them. Trade began to seem to him
+vulgar, and it was doubtless true that many engaged in it, who had
+become rapidly rich, were vulgar enough. But he made no distinction.
+He longed for the restoration of a state of things that had gone
+forever by. He was disposed to feel dissatisfaction with much that was
+taking place, not because it came into conflict with his judgment, but
+because it jarred upon his tastes and prejudices.</p>
+
+<p>A residence in Europe for a few years had, indeed, done
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> for
+him what the coming-on of old age does for most. He had become the
+eulogist of times past. The views which he expressed in private and in
+public, during the decade that followed his return to America, were
+not of the kind to make him popular with his countrymen. The manners
+of the people were, according to him, decidedly worse than they were
+twenty or thirty years before. The elegant deportment of women had
+been largely supplanted by the rattle of hoydens and the giggling of
+the nursery. The class of superior men of the quiet old school were
+fast disappearing before the "wine-discussing, trade-talking,
+dollar-dollar set" of the day. Under the blight of this bustling,
+fussy, money-getting race of social Vandals, simplicity of manners had
+died out, or was dying out. The architecture of the houses, like the
+character of the society, was more ambitious than of old, but in far
+worse taste; in a taste, in fact, which had been corrupted by
+uninstructed pretension. The towns were larger, but they were tawdrier
+than ever. The spirit of traffic was gradually enveloping everything
+in its sordid grasp. There had taken place a vast expansion of
+mediocrity, well enough in itself, but so overwhelming as nearly to
+overshadow everything that once stood out as excellent.</p>
+
+<p>In most of these remarks I am giving Cooper's sentiments, as far as
+possible, in his own words. They stung the national vanity to the
+quick. The bitter resentment they evoked at the time could hardly be
+understood now; and a great deal of wrath was then kindled at what
+would meet with assent, at the present day, on account of its justice,
+or excite amusement on account of its exaggeration. Thurlow Weed, in
+1841, expressed a general sentiment about Cooper, with much affluence
+of capital letter
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span>
+and solemnity of exclamatory punctuation.
+"He has disparaged, American Lakes," wrote that editor, "ridiculed
+American Scenery, burlesqued American Coin, and even satirized the
+American Flag!" Cooper could hardly have expected his strictures to be
+received with applause, but he was clearly surprised at the outcry
+they awoke. Yet he had had plenty of opportunities to learn that other
+countries were as sensitive to criticism as his own. One singular
+illustration of this feeling had been exhibited at Rome. He had
+completed his novel of "The Water Witch" and wished to print and
+publish it in that city. The manuscript was accordingly sent to the
+censor. It was kept for days, which grew to weeks. It was at last
+returned with refusal, unless it were subjected to thorough revision.
+Almost on the opening page occurred a highly objectionable paragraph.
+"It would seem," Cooper had written, "that as nature has given its
+periods to the stages of animal life, it has also set limits to all
+moral and political ascendency. While the city of the Medici is
+receding from its crumbling walls, like the human form shrinking into
+'the lean and slippered pantaloon,' the Queen of the Adriatic sleeping
+on her muddy isles, and Rome itself is only to be traced by fallen
+temples and buried columns, the youthful vigor of America is fast
+covering the wilds of the West with the happiest fruits of human
+industry." This passage, the censor quietly but severely pointed out,
+laid down a principle that was unsound, and supported it by facts that
+were false. A rigid pruning could alone make the work worthy of a
+license. The consequence was that Cooper carried the manuscript with
+him to Germany, and it was first published in Dresden, in a land where
+men were not sensitive to anything that might be said, at any rate
+about Italy.</p>
+
+<p>But <span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span>
+the personal unpopularity he brought upon himself by his
+censorious remarks will not wholly account for the unpopularity as a
+writer, which it was his fortune, in no short time, to acquire. There
+were other agencies at work besides those which affected the feeling
+towards him as a man. Throughout the English-speaking world there had
+been a literary reaction. Men had begun to tire of the novel of
+adventure. It was not that it had lost its hold upon the public; it
+had lost the supreme hold which for twenty years it had maintained.
+The mighty master was dead; to some extent his influence had died
+before him. The later work he did, had in several instances detracted
+from, rather than added to the fame he had won by the earlier.
+Cooper's own ventures in the field of foreign fiction, whatever their
+absolute merit, could not be compared with those in which he had drawn
+the life of the ocean, or the streams and forests of his native land.
+But outside of any effect produced by poorer production, there could
+be no doubt of the fact of a change in the public taste. The hero of
+action had gone by. In his place had come the hero of observation and
+reflection, who did not do great things, but who said good things. The
+exquisite and the sentimentalist were the fashion, to be speedily
+followed, according to the law of reaction, by the boor and the
+satirist. At the time when Cooper returned from Europe, Bulwer was the
+popular favorite. Both in England and America he was styled the prince
+of living novelists; and nowhere was enthusiasm, in his behalf,
+crazier than in this country. The revolution in taste, moreover,
+worked directly in his favor in more ways than one. Scott and Cooper's
+heroes, whether intelligent or not, were invariably moral. But of this
+sort <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span>
+of men readers were tired. No character could please
+highly the popular palate in which there was not a distinct flavor of
+iniquity. More ability and less morality was the opinion generally
+entertained, though probably not often expressed. Hence it was not
+unnatural that the sentimental dandies and high-toned villains of
+Bulwer's earlier novels should have been the heroes to captivate all
+hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The comparatively low estimate into which the novel of adventure had
+sunk, undoubtedly had a marked effect upon Cooper's reputation. Some
+of his later work is superior to his earlier from the artistic point
+of view. Yet it was never received with the same praise, at least in
+English-speaking countries. More than that, the criticism it received
+was often excessively depreciatory; nor was this all due to personal
+unpopularity, though a good deal of it certainly was. He simply wrote
+in a style which the age had temporarily left behind, and fancied it
+had outgrown. All that Cooper had to do, all that under any
+circumstances he could do, was to keep on producing the best that lay
+in his power; sure to find a certain body of readers in sympathy with
+him; sure also that some time in the future the revolution of taste
+would bring him into fashion if he had written anything that really
+deserved to live.</p>
+
+<p>These facts and considerations must, however, be borne in mind in
+order to understand the gradual growth of the ill-feeling that sprang
+up between Cooper and his countrymen. To the change of view in himself
+and to the change of taste in the public, were soon added special
+circumstances that tended to bring about or increase alienation. But
+there did not exist toward him, when he came back from Europe, any
+hostility on the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span>
+part of his countrymen. Circumstances had
+led him to suspect such a feeling; but it was mainly the creation of a
+nature that was morbidly sensitive to criticism. He was not, to be
+sure, the popular idol at his return that he had been at his
+departure. But this decline, outside of the causes already mentioned,
+was due to ignorance rather than dislike. A new generation had, during
+his absence, come on the scene of active life. To it the influence of
+his personal presence was unknown. He had been away so long that many
+looked upon him with the indifference with which foreigners are
+regarded by the majority; on the other hand, the fact of his being a
+native prevented others from feeling that interest in him which a
+foreigner has to some. Whatever hostility actually existed sprang
+mainly from causes creditable to himself. If Cooper disliked England
+for its depreciation of America, he hated with a hatred akin to
+loathing, the recreant Americans who mistook the relation they bore to
+their native land, and apologized for its character and existence,
+instead of apologizing for their own. For these men he made no effort
+to hide the contempt he felt. This class, far larger then in numbers
+than now, came mainly from the great cities. Many of them had wealth
+and social position to make up for their lack of ability; some of them
+were attached to the legations. They naturally resented the low
+opinion entertained and expressed of them by their countryman, and had
+doubtless done him some harm, though far less than he supposed.
+Besides these, however, there were certainly a pretty large number by
+whom his aggressive patriotism was felt to be a positive bore. To this
+feeling there had been a good deal of expression given in the
+newspaper press. Cooper, who never could learn how
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span>
+little
+effect of itself hostile criticism has upon the reputation of a
+popular writer, gave to these attacks far more weight than they
+deserved.</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, with exaggerated and unnecessary feelings of
+distrust that he had returned to his native land. He looked for
+indifference and aversion. Men seldom fail to find in such cases what
+they expect. He was present at a reception given, a few days after his
+return, to Commodore Chauncey. Men whom he knew, but had not seen for
+years, did not come up to speak with him; those who did, addressed him
+as if he had been gone from the city a few weeks. So much was he
+chilled by this apparent coldness that he left the room before the
+dinner was half over. He did not appreciate his own reserve of manner.
+The indifference which he found was, in many cases, due not to any
+lack of cordiality in others, but to hesitation at the way in which
+advances would be received by himself. There was a brusqueness in his
+address, an apparent assumption in his manner, which had nothing
+consonant to them in his feelings. But it was only those who knew him
+intimately that could venture, after long separation, to break in upon
+this seeming unsociableness and hauteur.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, May 29 1826, just before his departure for Europe, a dinner
+had been given to Cooper at the City Hotel by the club which he had
+founded. It partook almost of the nature of an ovation. Chancellor
+Kent had presided. De Witt Clinton, the governor of the state, General
+Scott, and many others conspicuous in public life, had honored it with
+their presence. Charles King, the editor of the "New York American,"
+and subsequently president of Columbia College, had addressed him in a
+speech full of the heartiest interest in his future and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> of
+pride in his past. The Chancellor had voiced the general feeling by
+toasting him as the "genius which has rendered our native soil classic
+ground, and given to our early history the enchantment of fiction." No
+one, in fact, had ever left the country with warmer wishes or more
+enthusiastic expressions of admiration and regard. It was but little
+more than a week after his return when another invitation to a public
+dinner was offered him by some of the most prominent citizens of New
+York. In this they expressly asserted that he had won their esteem and
+affection, not merely by his talents, but by his manly defense, while
+abroad, of the institutions of his country. The invitation seemed to
+surprise Cooper as well as the language in which it was couched. He
+thanked the proposers warmly, but he declined it. The refusal was
+perhaps unavoidable. If so, it was unfortunate; if not, it was a
+mistake. Had the dinner taken place, it would have shown him the
+estimation in which he was really held, and would have modified or
+destroyed any prejudices entertained towards him by others, if any
+such existed.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this period in his public career, Cooper had certainly not done
+anything to undermine his popularity. He now entered upon a line of
+conduct which it is charity to call blundering. He began, or at any
+rate pursued, a controversy, in which nothing was to be gained and
+everything to be risked, if not actually lost. He not only set himself
+to defend a course that needed no defense, he replied to attacks, real
+or imaginary, which could only be raised into importance by receiving
+from him notice. These attacks were a criticism on "The Bravo" which
+had appeared in the "New York American;" a criticism on his later
+writings which was found in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span>
+the columns of the "New York
+Commercial Advertiser;" and an editorial article in the "New York
+Courier and Enquirer." He could not have done a more foolish thing. He
+knew perfectly well that no writer could be written down save by
+himself. He has quoted the very remark. But a hundred similar sayings,
+condensing in a line the wisdom of ages, could never have kept him
+quiet when an attack was made upon himself. A popular writer has
+always immense odds in his favor in any controversy he may have with
+inferior men. He is ordinarily sure of the verdict of posterity, for
+his is likely to be the only side that will reach its ears. Even
+during his own time there will always be a large body of admirers who
+will defend him with more fervor, and advocate his cause with more
+effect than he has it in his own power to do. But it can and will be
+done only in the case that he does little or nothing himself. If
+Cooper had lost any ground in the estimation of the public, all he had
+to do, in order to regain it, was to remain quiet. The one thing that
+Cooper could not do was to remain quiet. He determined to set himself
+right before his countrymen. He speedily had full opportunity to
+ascertain the results that are pretty sure to follow experiments of
+this kind.</p>
+
+<p>In June, 1834, appeared Cooper's "Letter to His Countrymen." Its
+publication was no sudden freak, for the year before he had announced
+the preparation of it. The work is a thin octavo of a little more than
+one hundred pages; but the damage it wrought him was out of all
+proportion to its size. The first half of it was taken up with a reply
+to the comments and criticisms made in the New York journals already
+mentioned. This was of itself sufficiently absurd, for it revived what
+had already been
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span>
+forgotten, and gave importance to some
+things that had not been worth reading, let alone remembering. But to
+this blundering was added a wrongheadedness, of which Cooper's later
+life was to afford numerous illustrations. The article from the
+"Courier and Enquirer" is quoted in full in the book. Some of its
+statements are inaccurate; but no one can read it now without seeing
+at once that it was written in a spirit that was the very reverse of
+hostile. To attack a powerful journal for comments clearly dictated by
+friendly feeling, betrayed more than a lack of prudence; it betrayed a
+lack of common sense. Moreover, there were other serious defects in
+the Letter. He criticised at some length certain forms of expression
+used by one of his assailants. Cooper's remarks on language are almost
+invariably marked by the pretension and positiveness that characterize
+the writers on usage who are ignorant of their ignorance; but in this
+case they are in addition frequently puerile. His personal references
+were not especially objectionable. But the best that can be asserted
+of them is, that he said with good taste what it would have been
+better taste not to say at all. He, however, so contrived to state his
+position that he laid himself open to the charge that he looked upon
+the unfavorable opinion expressed of "The Bravo" as being instigated
+by the French government, and that, in consequence, the ill reception
+here accorded to his book was not due necessarily to any inferiority
+in the work itself, but to the machinations of foreign political
+enemies. He did not so mean it. He meant to imply that there was no
+limit to the volunteer baseness of men who stand ready to gratify
+power by doing for it what it would gladly have done, but would never
+ask to have done. But the other was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span>
+a natural inference, and
+it was used against him with marked effect.</p>
+
+<p>Worse even than all this, he succeeded in accomplishing in the latter
+half of his Letter. A most exciting controversy was going on at the
+time between the President and the Senate of the United States. The
+bitterness had been aggravated into fury by the removal of the
+deposits. The Senate had passed a resolution declaring the conduct of
+the President unconstitutional. Against this resolution Jackson had
+published a protest. The whole country was in a flame. Into the purely
+personal controversy in which he was engaged, Cooper lugged in a
+discussion of the political question that was agitating the nation. He
+remarked, in the course of it, that if the Union were ever destroyed
+by errors or faults of an internal origin, it would not be by
+executive but by legislative usurpation. In order apparently to have
+neither of the two parties in full sympathy with him, he criticised
+the appointing power of the President, and his action in filling
+embassies. It is by the most strained interpretation of the danger to
+our institutions from imitation of those found in foreign countries,
+that the political discussion was dragged into this production. The
+force of folly could hardly go farther.</p>
+
+<p>The inevitable result followed. The work pleased nobody, and irritated
+nearly everybody. Three influential journals were at once made open
+and active enemies, and in their wake followed a long train of minor
+newspapers. More than that was effected. The Letter called down upon
+him the wrath of a great political party, which in the North embraced
+a large majority of the educated class; and its hostility followed him
+relentlessly to the grave. Unwise as the work was, however, there
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span>
+was nothing in it to justify the abuse that in consequence fell
+upon its author. To his statement of the danger of legislative
+usurpation Caleb Cushing made a dignified, though somewhat rhetorical
+reply; but while controverting his opinions, he spoke of Cooper
+personally with great respect. But such was not the treatment he
+generally received. The language with which he was assailed was of the
+most insulting and grossly abusive kind. In those days it was called
+appalling severity. It reads now like very dreary and very vulgar
+billingsgate. One example will suffice. The "New York Mirror" was then
+supposed to be the leading literary paper in New York. It was
+nominally edited by Morris, Willis, and Fay, though the two last were
+at that time in Europe. Morris is still remembered by two or three
+songs he wrote. Besides being an editor, he held the position of
+general of militia; accordingly he was often styled by his admirers,
+"he of the sword and pen," which was just and appropriate to this
+extent, that he did as much execution with the one as with the other.
+His paper intimated that Cooper was willing to transform himself into
+a baboon for the sake of abusing America, and that his inordinate
+ambition prompted him to distance all competitors, whether the race
+were fame or shame. It is proper to add that the tone of the "Mirror"
+in regard to Cooper was radically changed after the return of Willis
+from Europe.</p>
+
+<p>In his Letter Cooper announced publicly, what he had long before said
+to his friends, that he had made up his mind to abandon authorship.
+Such resolutions are mainly remarkable for the fact that they are
+never kept. But the howl of denunciation that immediately arose would
+never have suffered him to keep still. From this time
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span>
+dates
+the beginning of the long and gallant fight he carried on with the
+American people. Gallant it certainly was, whatever may be thought of
+its wisdom; for it was essentially the fight of one man against a
+nation. In politics he had joined the Democratic party, but with some
+of their tenets he was not in the slightest sympathy. He was, for
+example, a fierce protectionist, and neglected no opportunity to cover
+with ridicule the doctrine of free trade. But though practically
+standing alone, his courage never faltered. The storm of obloquy that
+fell upon him made him in his turn bitter and unjust in many things he
+said; but it never once daunted his spirit or shook his resolution. On
+the contrary, it almost seems as if he were aiming at unpopularity; at
+any rate he could not be accused of seeking the favor of the public.
+Its acts he criticised, its opinions he defied. His literary
+reputation and the sale of his works were seriously affected by the
+course of conduct he pursued and the hostility it provoked. But he was
+of that nature that if the certain result of following the path he had
+marked out for himself had been the hatred of the world, he would
+never have once deviated from it the breadth of a hair.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a man to remain on the defensive. He at once began
+hostilities. His first attempt was unfortunate enough. This was the
+satirical novel called "The Monikins," which was published on the 9th
+of July, 1835. Of all the works written by Cooper this is most justly
+subject to the criticism conveyed in the German idiom, that "it does
+not let itself be read." To the immense majority of even the author's
+admirers, it has been from the very beginning a sealed book. It is
+invariably dangerous to assert a negative. But if a personal reference
+may <span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span>
+be pardoned, I am disposed to say, that of the
+generation that has come upon the stage of active life since Cooper's
+death, I am the only person who has read this work through. The
+knowledge of it possessed by his contemporaries did not, in many
+cases, approach to the dignity of being even second-hand. The accounts
+of it that have come under my own notice, seem often to have been
+gathered from reviews of it which had themselves been written by men
+who had never read the original. It is no difficult matter to explain
+the neglect into which it immediately sank. The work was a satire
+mainly upon certain of the social and political features to be found
+in England and America, designated respectively as Leaphigh and
+Leaplow; though one or two things characteristic of France were
+transferred to the former country. But satire Cooper could not write.
+The power of vigorous invective he had in a marked degree. But the wit
+which plays while it wounds, which while saying one thing means
+another, which deals in far-off suggestion and remote allusion, this
+was something entirely unsuited to the directness and energy of his
+intellect. Moreover, some of his most marked literary defects were
+seen here exaggerated and unrelieved. In many of his novels there is
+prolixity in the introduction. Still in these it is often compensated
+by descriptions of natural scenery so life-like and so enthusiastic
+that even the most <i>blasé</i> of novel readers is carried along in a
+state of what may be called endurable tediousness. But in "The
+Monikins" the introductory tediousness is unendurable. It is not until
+we are nearly half-way into the work and have actually entered upon
+the voyage to the land of the monkeys, that the dullness at all
+disappears. After the country of Leaphigh is reached the story is far
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span>
+less absurd and more entertaining; though Cooper's
+descriptions are of the nature of caricature rather than of satire.
+There are, however, many shrewd and caustic remarks scattered up and
+down the pages of the latter part of the work, but they will never be
+known to anybody, for nobody will read the book through.</p>
+
+<p>The work fell perfectly dead from the press. But its failure had not
+the least effect in deterring Cooper from continuing in the course
+upon which he had started. During the years 1836, 1837, and 1838, he
+published ten volumes of travels. In these he repeated, with emphasis,
+everything that he had uttered privately or had implied in his
+previous publications. The first of these works was entitled "Sketches
+of Switzerland." It was divided into two parts. The first, which was
+published on May 21, 1836, gave an account of his residence and
+excursions in that country during the summer and autumn of 1828. The
+second part, which appeared October 8, 1836, was largely taken up with
+accounts of matters and things in Paris during the winter of 1831-32,
+a journey up the Rhine, and a second visit to Switzerland. These two
+parts made four volumes. The remaining six had the general title of
+"Gleanings in Europe," and two each were devoted to France, England,
+and Italy. The first of these was published March 4, 1837; the second
+September 2 of the same year; and the third, May 26, 1838. They were
+written in the form of letters, and were pretty certainly made up from
+letters actually written or memoranda taken at the time. But they were
+likewise largely interspersed with the expression of views and
+feelings that he had learned to adopt and cherish since his return to
+his native land.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of England and America, in particular, his remarks
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span>
+may have been full of light, but they did not exhibit sweetness.
+Probably no set of travels was ever more elaborately contrived to
+arouse the wrath of readers in both countries, nor one that more
+successfully fulfilled its mission. His keen observation let no
+striking traits escape notice. The individual Englishmen he meets and
+describes could furnish entertainment only to men that were not
+themselves Englishmen. There is, for instance, the sea-captain who
+endeavors to compensate for his lack of energy by giving his passenger
+an account of the marvelous riches of the nobility and gentry. Even
+more graphically drawn is the islander he met in the Bernese Oberland,
+who appeared to regard the peak of the Jungfrau with contempt, as if
+it did very well for Switzerland; and who, when his attention was
+called to a singularly beautiful effect upon a mountain top, began to
+tell how cheap mutton was in Herefordshire. Nor were many of his
+general remarks flattering. As one descended in the social scale he
+thought the English the most artificial people on earth. Large numbers
+of them mistook a labored, feigned, heartless manner for
+high-breeding. The mass of them acted in society like children who
+have had their hair combed and faces washed, to be shown up in the
+drawing-room. They were conventional everywhere. The very men whom he
+met after his arrival in the streets of Southampton, all looked as if
+they had been born with hat-brushes and clothes-brushes in their
+hands. As a race, moreover, they had special defects. They lacked
+delicacy and taste in conferring obligations or paying compliments.
+They were utterly indifferent to the feelings of others. There was a
+national propensity to blackguardism; and the English press, in
+particular, calumniated its
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span>
+enemies, both political and
+personal, with the coarsest vituperation.</p>
+
+<p>These were not the sort of remarks to draw favorable notices from
+British periodicals. Cooper soon had an opportunity to verify, in his
+own experience, the truth of the last of his observations that have
+been cited. Harsh, however, as was his language about England, it bore
+little comparison to the severity with which he expressed himself
+about America. The attacks on the newspaper press belong not here, but
+to the account of the war he waged with it. The omission, however,
+will hardly be noticed in the multitude of other matters he found to
+criticise. Manners, customs, society, were touched throughout with an
+unsparing hand. Common crimes, he admitted, were not so general with
+us as in Europe, though mainly because we were exempt from temptation,
+but uncommon meannesses did abound in a large circle of our
+population. Our two besetting sins were canting and hypocrisy. We had
+far less publicity in our pleasures than other nations; yet we had
+scarcely any domestic privacy on account of the neighborhood. The
+whole country was full of a village-like gossip which caused every man
+to think that he was a judge of character, when he was not even a
+judge of facts. In most matters we were humble imitators of the
+English. All their mistakes and misjudgments we adopted except such as
+impaired our good opinion of ourselves. It was a consequence that all
+their errors about foreign countries had become our errors also. In a
+few cases, indeed, we were compelled to be American; but whenever
+there was a tolerable chance we endeavored to become second-class
+English. Wherever making money was in view, we had but one soul and
+that was inventive enough;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span>
+but when it came to spending it
+we did not know how to set about it except by routine. No people
+traveled as much as we; none traveled with so little enjoyment or so
+few comforts. Taste and knowledge and tone were too little
+concentrated anywhere, too much diffused everywhere, to make head
+against the advances of an overwhelming mediocrity. Of society there
+was but little; for what it suited the caprice of certain people to
+call such was little more than the noisy, screeching, hoydenish
+romping of both sexes. The taint of provincialism was diffused over
+all feelings and beliefs. Of arts and letters the country possessed
+none or next to none. Moreover, there was no genuine sympathy with
+either. To all this dismal prospect there was slight hope of
+improvement, because there was a disposition to resent any intimation
+that we could be better than we were at present.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a gross error to infer the general character of Cooper's
+travels from these extracts. They are gathered together from ten
+volumes, without any of the attendant statements by which they are
+there in many cases modified. Equally erroneous would it be to suppose
+that he did not find much to praise as well as to condemn in both
+England and America. These extracts, however, explain the almost
+savage vituperation with which Cooper was thenceforth followed in the
+press of the two countries. The works themselves met with a very
+slight sale: none of them ever passed into a second edition. Men were
+not likely to read with alacrity, however much they might with profit,
+unfavorable opinions entertained of themselves. Cooper himself could
+not have hoped for much success for his strictures. In fact, he
+expressly declared the contrary. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span>
+most he should expect,
+he said, would be the secret assent of the wise and good, the
+expressed censure of the numerous class of the vapid and ignorant, the
+surprise of the mercenary and the demagogue, and the secret
+satisfaction of the few who should come after him who would take an
+interest in his name.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the ferocious criticism with which they were assailed
+at the time and the forgetfulness into which they have now fallen,
+Cooper's accounts of the countries in which he lived are among the
+best of their kind. Books of travel are from their very nature of
+temporary interest. It requires peculiar felicity of manner to make up
+long for the fresher matter about foreign lands which newer books
+contain. Striking descriptions and acute observations will still,
+however, reward the reader of Cooper's sketches. There are often
+displayed in them a vigor and a political sagacity which of themselves
+would justify his being styled the most robust of American authors.
+Pointed assertions are scattered up and down his pages. Could, for
+instance, one of the dangers of a democracy be more clearly and
+ill-naturedly put than by his statement, that the whole science of
+government in what are called free states, is getting to be a strife
+in mystification, in which the great secret is to persuade the
+governed that he is in fact the governor? His books, moreover, while
+they reflect his prejudices, show an honest desire to be just. He
+undoubtedly preferred the Continent to England. But in his account of
+that country, while he had the unfairness of dislike, he never had the
+unfairness of intentional misrepresentation. There is nothing of that
+exulting yell with which the British traveler of those days fell foul
+of some specimen of American ill-breeding or American
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span>
+bumptiousness. Nor did he fail to pay a high tribute to what was best
+in English society or English character. The gentlemen of that
+country, in appearance, in attainments, in manliness, and he was
+inclined to add in principles, he placed at the head of their class in
+Christendom. His censure of America and the Americans was not at all
+in the nature of indiscriminate abuse. The fault he found with his
+countrymen was based mainly upon their mistaken opinion of themselves
+and of their advantages and disadvantages. You boast, he practically
+said to them, of the superiority of your scenery, in which you are not
+to be compared with Europe; but you constantly abuse your climate
+which is equal to, if not finer, than that of any region in the Old
+World. You stand up manfully for your manners and tastes, which you
+ought to correct; but you are incessantly apologizing for your
+institutions of which you ought to be proud. The defects imputed in
+Europe to the inhabitants of the United States, such as the want of
+morals, honesty, order, decency, liberality, and religion, were not at
+all our defects. These, in fact were, as the world goes, the strong
+points of American character. On the other hand, those on which we
+prided ourselves, intelligence, taste, manners, education as applied
+to all beyond the base of society, were the very points upon which we
+should do well to be silent. This is certainly not an extreme
+position. But men are far more affected by the blame bestowed upon
+their foibles than by the praise given to their virtues; and both in
+England and America the censures were remembered and the commendations
+forgotten. Other circumstances also came in now to add to his
+unpopularity in his own country. A local quarrel in which he
+accidently
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span>
+became concerned, was followed by consequences
+which affected his estimation throughout the whole land; but the
+details of this will require a separate chapter.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1837-1838.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Three miles from Cooperstown, on the western side of Otsego Lake, a
+low, wooded point of land projects for some distance into the water.
+It combines two characteristics of an attractive resort: beauty of
+scenery and easiness of access. On these accounts Cooper's father had
+refused to sell it when he disposed of his other lands. He had, in
+fact, specially reserved it for his own use, and for that of his
+descendants. In 1808, a year before his death, he drew up his will. In
+it he made a particular devise of this spot. "I give and bequeath,"
+ran the words of the document, "my place, called Myrtle Grove, on the
+west side of the Lake Otsego, to all my descendants in common until
+the year 1850; then to be inherited by the youngest thereof bearing my
+name." Two small buildings had been successively erected by him on the
+spot. The first he tore down himself, but the second was set on fire
+after his death, by the carelessness of trespassers using it, and
+burned to the ground. Shortly after 1821, the only representative of
+the family living in Cooperstown who was of proper age to be
+consulted, gave his consent, so far as he was concerned, to the
+erection of a new building by the community. From that time the Point
+came to be a place of general resort. To it fishing and picnic parties
+were in the habit of repairing. An impression sprang
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> up,
+moreover, that the spot was public property. This impression in the
+course of years advanced to the dignity of positive assertion. It
+became in time a universally accepted belief in the minds of the
+citizens that the place belonged to them. It then only remained to
+furnish the explanation of how it had happened to come into their
+possession. This was no difficult achievement. The story was soon
+generally received that Cooper's father, instead of permitting the
+public to use the Point, had actually made a gift of it to the public.</p>
+
+<p>When Cooper took up his summer residence in the village, after his
+return from Europe, he found the notion prevalent that the place in
+question belonged to the community. As executor of his father's will
+he took pains to correct the error. He informed his fellow-citizens
+that the Point was private property, and not public; and that while he
+had no desire to prevent them from resorting to it, he was determined
+to insist upon the recognition of the real ownership. He might as well
+have talked to the winds. The community did not bother itself about
+examining the question of title. It had been in the habit of using the
+Point without asking any one's consent, and the Point it purposed to
+keep on using in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>Matters reached a crisis in 1837. The building erected on the spot had
+become dilapidated. Workmen were sent out to repair it, without going
+through the formality of consulting the owners of the property. A tree
+was also cut down, which, on account of certain associations connected
+with his father, Cooper valued particularly. This was not the way to
+win over to the view of the community the executor of the property. He
+sent a card at once to the editor of the Democratic newspaper
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span>
+of the village, stating that the Point was private property, and
+cautioning the public against injuring the trees. Nothing, however,
+was said about trespassing. The card came too late for publication
+that week and before another number of the paper appeared, rumor of
+its existence had got about. Its reported character created
+ill-feeling, and messages and even threats were sent to Cooper on the
+subject. These had the effect which might have been expected. He
+withdrew the original card and published in its stead a simple,
+ordinary notice of warning against trespassing on the Point, with a
+few additional facts. The notice, which is dated July 22, 1837, reads
+as follows:--</p>
+
+<p>"The public is warned against trespassing on the Three Mile Point, it
+being the intention of the subscriber rigidly to enforce the title of
+the estate, of which he is the representative, to the same. The public
+has not, nor has it ever had, any right to the same beyond what has
+been conceded by the liberality of the owners."</p>
+
+<p>The notice was signed by Cooper as the executor of his father's
+estate. Great was the excitement in the village when it was published.
+A hand-bill was immediately put into circulation calling a meeting of
+the citizens, to take into consideration the propriety of defending
+their rights against the arrogant claims and assumed authority of "one
+J. Fenimore Cooper." The meeting was accordingly held. There was
+little difference of sentiment among those present. All were animated,
+according to the newspaper reports, by the determination to use the
+Three Mile Point without being indebted to the liberality of Cooper or
+any one else. Stirring speeches were made. Two or three persons were
+anxious to delay any action until the question of title had been
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span>
+examined. This proposition was deemed by the immense majority of
+those present to have a truckling character, and consequently met with
+no favor. The meeting, accordingly, found immediate relief for its
+feelings in the usual American way, by passing a series of
+resolutions. The vigor of these was out of all proportion to the
+sense. The disposition to defy Cooper shot, in some instances, indeed,
+beyond its proper mark, and extended even to the rules of grammar.
+After reciting in a preamble the facts as they understood them, the
+citizens present went on to express their determination and opinions
+as follows:--</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved, By the aforesaid citizens that we will wholly disregard the
+notice given by James F. Cooper, forbidding the public to frequent the
+Three Mile Point.</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved, That inasmuch as it is well known that the late William
+Cooper intended the use of the Point in question for the citizens of
+this village and its vicinity, we deem it no more than a proper
+respect for the memory and intentions of the father, that the son
+should recognize the claim of the citizens to the use of the premises,
+even had he the power to deny it.</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved, That we will hold his threat to enforce title to the
+premises, as we do his whole conduct in relation to the matter, in
+perfect contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved, That the language and conduct of Cooper, in his attempts to
+procure acknowledgements of 'liberality,' and his attempt to force the
+citizens into asking his permission to use the premises, has been such
+as to render himself odious to a greater portion of the citizens of
+this community.</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved, That we do recommend and request the trustees of the
+Franklin Library, in this village, to remove all
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span>
+books, of
+which Cooper is the author, from said library.</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved also, That we will and do denounce any man as sycophant, who
+has, or shall, ask permission of James F. Cooper to visit the Point in
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the
+chairman and secretary, and published in the village papers."</p>
+
+<p>Whatever else these proceedings show, they make it clear that the
+people of Cooperstown had not well improved the opportunity afforded
+by his residence among them, of becoming well acquainted with the
+character of their distinguished townsman. Still there was knowledge
+enough about him to make the officers of the meeting unwilling to
+publish the resolutions as they had been ordered. He was not a man to
+be trifled with; and no one cared to make himself personally
+responsible for what had been said. As a matter of fact the secretary
+of the meeting furnished Cooper with a copy of the resolutions; and it
+was the latter that first caused them to be printed. But the story of
+the meeting speedily found its way into the newspapers. In the
+accounts of the proceedings that were in circulation, it was said that
+a resolution had been passed that the works of the novelist should be
+taken from the library and publicly burned. This was caught up by the
+press and repeated everywhere throughout the country. To this day the
+baseless tradition lingers in Cooperstown itself, that this act was
+not only determined upon but actually done. The matter doubtless was
+discussed among the other sage proposals that were brought forward at
+this meeting; and it may be true, as was afterwards suspected, that
+the original resolution on this point was modified before it was
+allowed to go out to the public.</p>
+
+<p>Under <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span>
+the circumstances only one result was possible. The
+community were very speedily satisfied that they did not own the
+Point, and were equally convinced that their prospect of obtaining
+possession of it by clamor was far from good. Two letters, marked by
+anything but timidity or amiability, Cooper wrote to the Democratic
+newspaper of the village. In them he gave fully all the facts in the
+case. To the assertion paraded in many of the Whig journals of the
+state, that this meeting showed the spirit of the people in
+Cooperstown, he made an indignant reply. Such a remark, he said, was a
+libel on the character of the place. The meeting, he declared, was not
+composed of a fourth part of the population, or a hundredth part of
+the respectability of the village. The resolutions he described as
+being the work of presuming boys, who swagger of time immemorial; of
+strangers who had lived but a brief time in the county; and of a few
+disreputable persons who, bent on construing liberty entirely on their
+own side, interposed against palpable rights and sacred family
+feelings their gossiping facts, their grasping rapacity, and their
+ruthless disposition to destroy whatever they could not control.
+"There is but one legal public," he defiantly concluded his first
+letter, "and that acts under the obligation of precise oaths, through
+prescribed forms, and on constitutional principles. Let 'excitement'
+be flourished as it may, this is the only public to which I shall
+submit the decision of my rights. So far as my means allow, insult
+shall be avenged by the law, violence repelled by the strong hand,
+falsehood put to shame by truth, and sophistry exposed by reason."</p>
+
+<p>It is perfectly clear that on the merits of this controversy Cooper
+was wholly in the right. The bluster of these
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span>
+resolutions
+exhausted all the courage of his opponents. The question of ownership
+was at once settled definitely and forever. No one on the spot ever
+questioned the point any farther, though the original falsehood was
+steadily repeated by newspapers at a distance, and apparently never
+once contradicted after its untruth had been shown. Some may think the
+result might have been reached by milder means, but the spirit shown
+at the meeting renders this more than doubtful. Cooper even had to pay
+for the insertion of his letters in the village newspaper.
+Unfortunately the ill-feeling aroused did not stop here. It gave rise
+to what may be described as a semi-political controversy--that is, a
+controversy in which one party attacks a man, and the party to which
+he belongs does not think it expedient or worth while to defend him.
+The libel suits to which it directly or indirectly led with the Whig
+newspapers of the state will demand a separate chapter. Before they
+were well under way, however, the novelist made up his mind to right
+himself in another manner, and brought out a work of fiction which
+seemed expressly contrived to meet the thought of the sacred writer
+who wished his adversary had written a book.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper determined to write a story in which he would set forth the
+principles involved in the controversy about the Point. There is
+perhaps no subject that cannot be made interesting by the right
+treatment. But he was now in a state of mind that would not have
+permitted him to discuss any matter of this nature in the spirit that
+belongs to the composition of a work of the imagination. The dispute
+had embittered his feelings already sore. It had tended to give him a
+still more distorted view of the country to which he had come back. So
+completely
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span>
+had his feelings swung around that he now had an
+eye for little but the worst features of the national character.
+Passion had largely unbalanced his judgment. Ancient fable has pointed
+out the danger of falling under the fascinations of the sirens; but
+even that seems preferable to becoming bewitched by the furies.</p>
+
+<p>Still he could not well make a book out of this one event. It could be
+used to suit all his purposes, however, by being introduced as an
+incident of an ordinary tale. In this way his side of the story would
+travel as far as the false assertions about his conduct in the matter
+which had been circulated not only over America but over Europe. He
+also set out to bring together in the work he was contemplating all
+the things that he looked upon with disapprobation and dislike in the
+social life of this country. His original intention was to begin a
+story with the landing here of an American family long resident in
+Europe. Happily he was induced to give an account of the voyage home,
+and this in the end necessitated the division of the work into two
+parts. Accordingly on the 16th of August, 1837, appeared the novel of
+"Homeward Bound," followed in November of the same year by its sequel,
+entitled "Home as Found." The leading characters are the same in both
+tales, but the events are entirely unlike. The scene of the first is
+laid wholly on the water. In its movement, its variety of incidents,
+and the spirit and energy with which they are told, it is one of the
+best of Cooper's sea-novels. Nor is this estimate seriously impaired
+by the fact that it is in some places marred by controversial
+discussions on liberty and equality, and by the withering exposure of
+views that no man maintained whose opinions were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span>
+worth
+regarding. But these are only occasional blemishes. They do not
+materially interfere with the progress of the story, which moves on
+with little variation of interest to the end. On the other hand, the
+characters are generally as uninteresting as the events are exciting.
+The chief ones among them have all reached that supreme refinement
+which justifies them in feeling and decisively pronouncing that
+whatever is done by anybody but themselves is coarse. But in this work
+the personages are so subordinate to the scenes that any failure in
+representing the former is more than counterbalanced by the success
+shown in depicting the latter.</p>
+
+<p>The reverse was the fact when the sequel followed. In this the
+characters and their views became prominent, and the events were of
+slight importance. "Home as Found" was far poorer than "Homeward
+Bound" was good. Never was a more unfortunate work written by any
+author. This is the fact, whether it be looked at from the literary or
+the popular point of view. For the latter it is enough to say that the
+opinions about America which have already been given in the account of
+his European travels were more than reënforced. He said again what he
+had said before, and he took pains to add a great deal that had been
+left unsaid. The new matter surpassed in the energy of invective the
+old, and its attack was more concentrated. There were in the novel, to
+be sure, the remarks that had now got to be habitual with Cooper upon
+the provincialism of the whole country; but it was upon New York city
+that the vials of his wrath were especially poured. The town,
+according to the view here expressed of it, was nothing more than a
+huge expansion of commonplace things. It was a confused and tasteless
+collection of flaring red brick houses,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span>
+martin-box churches,
+and colossal taverns. But the assault made upon its external
+appearance bore no comparison to that upon its internal life. The city
+in a moral sense resembled, according to Cooper, a huge encampment. It
+stood at the farthest remove from the intellectual supremacy and high
+tone of a genuine capital as distinguished from a great trading port.
+In its gayeties he saw little better than the struggles of an
+uninstructed taste, if indeed that could properly be styled gay which
+was only a strife in prodigality and parade. The conversation of the
+elders was entirely about the currency, the price of lots, and the
+latest speculations in towns. The younger society was made up of
+babbling misses, who prattled as waters flow, without consciousness of
+effort, and of whiskered masters who fancied Broadway the world; and
+the two together looked upon the flirtations of miniature
+drawing-rooms as the ideal of human life in its loftiest aspects. Upon
+the <i>literati</i> the attack was even more savage. He described this
+appellation as being given to the most incorrigible members of the
+book clubs of New York. These had been laboriously employed in puffing
+each other into celebrity for many weary years, but still remained
+just as vapid, as conceited, as ignorant, as imitative, as dependent,
+and as provincial as ever.</p>
+
+<p>It is not an easy matter to condense the bitterness of two volumes
+into a few sentences. Enough has been given, however, to show the
+character of the strictures. Whatever may be thought of their justice,
+few will be disposed to deny their vigor. But Cooper, unfortunately
+for himself, was not satisfied with demolishing what seemed poor in
+his eyes. He undertook the business of reconstruction, and set up an
+ideal of how things
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span>
+ought to be. His main agents in this
+work were the members of the Effingham family, whom he had brought
+over from Europe in "Homeward Bound." In these and the train dependent
+upon them, we were to find realized that pure and perfect social state
+which he contemplated in his own mind. To them were added a few
+survivors from the old families, as he termed them, which after a
+manner had ridden out the social gale that had made shipwreck of so
+many of their original companions. Out of these materials Cooper
+attempted to build his ideal framework of a life in which men thought
+rationally and lived nobly. It was here he made his mistake, and it
+was a signal one. His inability to portray the higher types of
+character was an absolute bar to success. This was largely due to his
+inability to catch and reproduce the tone of polished conversation.
+Never was his weakness in this respect more painfully manifested than
+in "Home as Found." He could appreciate such conversation; he could
+bear a part in it; but he could not represent it. His characters taken
+from low life, whatever critics may say, have usually a marked
+individuality. But whenever Cooper sought to draw the men and women of
+cultivated society he achieved at best a doubtful success. In this
+instance he tried to make them and their words and deeds the vehicle
+of reproof and satire. His failure was absolute. Modern culture, we
+all know, consists largely in the most refined method of finding
+fault. But this his ideal family had not reached. An essentially
+coarse method of finding fault was the only one to which it had
+attained. Never, indeed, was a more bumptious, conceited, and
+disagreeable set of personages created by an author, under the
+impression that they were the reverse. The simple-minded,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span>
+thoughtful, and upright Mr. Effingham can speedily be dismissed as
+merely a mild type of bore. Not so with his daughter Eve, and his
+cousin John Effingham. The latter plays the part of critic of his
+country and countrymen. It seems hardly possible that in this
+narrow-minded, disagreeable, and essentially vulgar character, Cooper
+could have fancied he was creating anything but a contemptible boor.
+The contrast between what is said of him, and what is said by him,
+almost reaches the comic. We read constantly of his caustic satire; we
+find little of it in his conversation. His fine face is, according to
+the author, always expressing contempt and sarcasm; but the examples
+of these that are shown in his speeches are usually specimens of that
+forcible-feeble straining to be severe which marks the man of violent
+temper and feeble intellect. As represented, he has neither the
+feeling, the instincts, nor the manners of a gentleman. He so much
+dislikes untruth that he insinuates to a guest, very broadly as well
+as very unjustly, that he is lying. In short, he is one of those rude
+and vulgar men who fancy that they are frank simply because they are
+brutal. No civilized society would long tolerate the presence, if even
+the existence, of such an animal as he is here represented to be.</p>
+
+<p>Even he, however, shines by comparison with the heroine. Of her we
+hear no end of praise. Her delicacy, her plastic simplicity, the
+simple elegance of her attire, her indescribable air of polish, her
+surpassing beauty and modesty of mien, are referred to again and
+again. She is simple, she is feminine, she is dignified. To men her
+smiles are faint and distant. Across her countenance no unworthy
+thought has ever left a trace. Once and once only did she fail to keep
+up to the high level of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span>
+deportment which she ordinarily
+maintained. On one occasion "her little foot moved" in spite of the
+fact that "she had been carefully taught, too, that a ladylike manner
+required that even this beautiful portion of the female frame should
+be quiet and unobtrusive." Something, however, must always be pardoned
+to human nature; and Cooper doubtless felt that it would not do to
+make his heroine absolutely free from frailty. As a sort of foil to
+her was introduced her cousin Grace Van Cortlandt. She, to be sure,
+had not had the advantage of foreign travel; but there was a redeeming
+feature in her case. She belonged to an old family. She was saved in
+consequence from being entirely submerged in that sweltering, foaming
+tide of mediocrity, which called itself New York society. Belonging to
+an old family did not, however, preserve her from being provincial.
+She is taken along with the rest to Templeton. On her way thither she
+is steadily snubbed by the masculine element of the party, and
+henpecked by the feminine. The reader comes in time to have the
+sincerest pity for this unfortunate girl, who is made to pay very
+dearly for the misfortune of being akin to a family whose members had
+become too superior to be gracious and too polished to be polite.</p>
+
+<p>In the composition of this work Cooper seems to have lost all sense of
+the ridiculous. The personages whom he wished to make particularly
+attractive are uniformly disagreeable. A French governess appears in
+the story, who is simply insufferable. He brings in an American woman,
+Mrs. Bloomfield, as a representative, according to him, of that class
+which equals, if it does not surpass, in the brilliancy of its
+conversation the best to be found in European salons. She is
+introduced discoursing on
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span>
+the civilization of the country in
+a way that would speedily empty any of the parlors of her native land.
+Indeed, throughout the work the characters converse as no rational
+beings ever conversed under any sort of provocation. But it is in the
+speeches of the heroine that the language reaches its highest
+development. She can emphatically be said to talk like a book. She
+does not guess, she hazards conjectures. She playfully addresses her
+father as "thoughtless, precipitate parent." When she is asked what
+she thinks of the country now that an attempt was made to take
+possession of the Point, she describes her character, as drawn in this
+novel, as no words of another can. "Miss Effingham," she says, "has
+been grieved, disappointed, nay, shocked, but she will not despair of
+the republic." Indeed the only person in the work who has any near
+kinship to humanity is one of the inferior characters, named
+Aristobulus Bragg. He is the more attractive because he says bright
+things unconsciously; while the heavy characters say heavy things
+under the impression that they are light.</p>
+
+<p>This book had a profound influence upon Cooper's fortunes. From
+beginning to end it was a blunder. It cannot receive even the negative
+praise of being a work in which the best of intentions was marred by
+the worst of taste. Its spirit was a bad spirit throughout. It was
+dreadful to think some of the things found in it; but it was more
+dreadful to say them. There was a great deal of truth in its pages,
+but if the views expressed in it had been actually inspired, the
+attitude and tone the author assumed would have prevented his making a
+convert. To some extent this had been true of "Homeward Bound."
+Greenough expostulated with Cooper, after
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span>
+reading that
+novel. "I think," he wrote from Florence, "you lose hold on the
+American public by rubbing down their shins with brickbats as you do."
+The most surprising thing connected with "Home as Found," however, is
+Cooper's unconsciousness, not of the probability, but of the
+possibility, that he would be charged with drawing himself in the
+character of Edward Effingham, and to some extent in that of John
+Effingham. The sentiments advanced were his sentiments, the acts
+described were in many cases his acts. The absence in a foreign land,
+the return to America, the scene laid at Templeton, with a direct
+reference to "The Pioneers," the account of the controversy about the
+Three Mile Point,--all these fixed definitely the man and the place.
+Variations in matters of detail would not disturb the truth of the
+general resemblance. Still Cooper not only did not intend to represent
+himself, he was unaware that he had done so. Nearly three years after
+in the columns of a weekly newspaper he stoutly defended himself
+against the imputation. It was useless. From this time forward the
+name of Effingham was often derisively applied to him in the
+controversies in which he was engaged.</p>
+
+<p>It was not merely the intemperate spirit exhibited, which destroyed
+the effect of the shrewd and just comments often appearing in "Home as
+Found." This was full as much impaired by the display of personal
+weaknesses. Cooper's foible about descent he could not help exposing.
+No thoughtful man denies the desirability of honorable lineage, or
+undervalues the possession of it; but not for the reasons for which
+the novelist regarded it and celebrated it. There was much in this
+single story to justify Lowell's sarcasm, uttered ten years
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span>
+later, that Cooper had written six volumes to prove that he was as
+good as a lord. He traces his families up to remote periods in the
+past. He thereby shows their superiority to the newly-created family
+of the English baronet who is brought into the tale. It was to correct
+the erroneous impression, prevalent in Europe, that there was no
+stability, no permanent respectability in the society of this country,
+that he enlarged upon the date to which ancestry could be traced. The
+difficulty was to persuade anybody that the men who took the pains to
+look up their forefathers had any superiority to those who shared in
+the general indifference as to who their forefathers were. He went
+farther than this in some instances, and expressly implied that blood
+and birth were necessary to gentility. This was provincialism pushed
+to an extreme. Whatever we may think of its actual value, English
+aristocracy resembles in this gold and silver, that it has an accepted
+value independent of the character of its representatives. It is,
+therefore, current throughout the civilized world; whereas American
+aristocracy is like local paper money: worth nothing except in its own
+country, and even there receiving little recognition or circulation
+outside of the immediate neighborhood in which it is found. Still, the
+subject of blood and birth is a solemn one to those who believe in it,
+and they are absolutely incapable of comprehending the feelings of a
+world of scoffers, or, if they do, impute them to imperfect mental or
+spiritual development. On this point Cooper had the misfortune to say
+what some think but dare not express.</p>
+
+<p>The wrath aroused, especially in New York city, by this particular
+novel, had about it something both fearful and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span>
+comic. In one
+respect Cooper had the advantage, and his critics all felt it. His
+work was certain to be translated into all the principal languages of
+modern Europe. The picture he drew of New York society would be the
+one that foreigners would naturally receive as genuine. By them it
+would be looked upon as the work of a man familiar with what he was
+describing, the work of a man, moreover, who had been well known in
+European circles for his intense Americanism. It was vain to protest
+that it was a caricature. The protest would not be heeded even if it
+were heard. His enemies might rage; but they were powerless to
+influence foreign opinion, and they felt themselves so. Rage they
+certainly did; and if the assault made upon him had been as effective
+as it was violent, little would have been left of his reputation. Even
+as late as 1842, during the progress of the libel suits, some one took
+the pains to produce a novel in two volumes called "'The Effinghams,
+or Home as I Found It,' by the Author of the 'Victims of Chancery.'"
+The whole aim of this tale was to satirise Cooper. Mere malignity,
+however, has little vitality; and in spite of the fact that the work
+was widely praised by the journals for its "sound American feeling,"
+and for its hits at "the conceited, disappointed, and Europeanized
+writer of 'Home as Found,'" it passed so speedily to the paper-makers
+that antiquarian research would now be tasked to find a copy. About
+the contemporary newspaper notices there was a certain tiger-like
+ferocity which almost justified much that Cooper said in denunciation
+of the American press. A specimen, though a somewhat extreme one, of a
+good deal of the sort of criticism to which the novelist was
+subjected, can be found in the "New Yorker" for the 1st
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> of
+December, 1838. This journal was edited by Horace Greeley, but the
+article in question came probably from the pen of Park Benjamin. It
+defended Cooper from the charge of vilifying his country in order to
+make his works salable in England, but it defended him in this way. No
+motive of that kind was necessary to be supposed. He had an inborn
+disposition to pour out his bile and vent his spleen. "He is as proud
+of blackguarding," the article continued, "as a fishwoman of
+Billingsgate. It is as natural to him as snarling to a tom-cat, or
+growling to a bull-dog.... He is the common mark of scorn and contempt
+of every well-informed American. The superlative dolt!" In this
+refined and chastened style did the defenders of American cultivation
+preserve its reputation from its traducer.</p>
+
+<p>Criticism of the kind just quoted, hurts only the man who utters it
+and the community which tolerates it. It injured the reputation of the
+country far more than the work could that it criticised. "Home as
+Found," as a matter of fact, was prevented from doing any harm, partly
+by its excessive exaggeration but more by its excessive poorness. As a
+story it stood in marked contrast to its immediate predecessor. It was
+as difficult to accompany Cooper on land as it had been to abandon him
+when on the water. The tediousness of the tale is indeed something
+appalling to the most hardened novel-reader. The only interest it can
+possibly have at this day is from the opportunity it affords of
+studying one phase of the author's character, and of accounting for
+much of the bitter hostility with which he was assailed.</p>
+
+<p>While he was lecturing his countrymen on manners, his own were spoken
+of in turn in a way that gave especial delight
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span>
+to the
+enemies he had made by his criticisms. In 1837 Lockhart's "Life of Sir
+Walter Scott" was appearing. In the diary of that novelist were some
+references to the American author. "This man," he said, describing his
+first interview, "who has shown so much genius, has a good deal of the
+manners, or want of manners, peculiar to his countrymen." Cooper's
+personal acquaintance with Scott had begun in 1826, just after the
+latter had set about his gigantic effort to pay off the load of debt
+in which he had involved himself. The American novelist had made then
+an attempt to secure for the man he regarded as his master some
+adequate return from the vast sale of his works in the United States.
+In this he had been foiled. In the "Knickerbocker Magazine" for April,
+1838, he gave an account of these fruitless negotiations. In a later
+number of the same year he reviewed Lockhart's biography. This work is
+well known as one of the most entertaining in our literature. But on
+its appearance it gave a painful shock to the admirers of the great
+author by the revelations it made of practices which savored more of
+the proverbial canniness of the Scotchman than of the lofty spirit of
+the man of honor. Equally surprising was the unconsciousness of the
+biographer, that there was anything discreditable in what he
+disclosed. Cooper criticised Scott's conduct in certain matters with a
+good deal of severity. In regard to some points he took extreme, and
+what might fairly be deemed Quixotic ground. Yet the general justice
+of his article will hardly be denied now by any one who is fully
+cognizant of the facts. Nor, indeed, was it then. "I have just read,"
+wrote Charles Sumner from London to Hillard, in January, 1839, "an
+article on Lockhart's 'Scott,' written by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span>
+Cooper in the
+"Knickerbocker," which was lent me by Barry Cornwall. I think it
+capital. I see none of Cooper's faults; and I think a proper
+castigation is applied to the vulgar minds of Scott and Lockhart.
+Indeed, the nearer I approach the circle of these men the less
+disposed do I find myself to like them." Sumner subsequently wrote,
+that Procter fully concurred in the conclusions advanced in the
+review. But these were not the prevalent opinions, in this country at
+least. Great was the outcry against Cooper for writing this article;
+great the outcry against the "Knickerbocker" for printing it. The
+latter was severely censured for its willingness to prostitute its
+columns to the service of the former in his slanderous "attempts to
+vilify the object of his impotent and contemptible hatred." Americans
+who were averse to Scott's being honestly paid proved particularly
+solicitous that he should not be honestly criticised. They showed
+themselves as little scrupulous in defending him after he was dead as
+they had been in plundering him while he was living.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper had previously aroused the resentment of many because he had
+failed to express gratification or delight at being termed "the
+American Scott." He had then been assured again and again that there
+was no danger of the title being applied to him in future; that in ten
+years their names would never be coupled together, and that he himself
+would be totally forgotten. It could hardly have been deemed a
+compliment in a land where scarcely a petty district can exist
+peacefully and creditably, with a hill three thousand feet in height,
+which is not in time rendered disreputable by being saddled with the
+pretentious name of "The American Switzerland." Personal malice alone,
+however, could impute
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span>
+his disclaimer either to malice or to
+envy. His own estimate of his relations to the British novelist, he
+had given many times; and indirectly at that very time in his account
+in the first "Knickerbocker" article, of his interview with Sir Walter
+Scott. The latter had been so obliging, he observed, as to make him a
+number of flattering speeches, which he, however, did not repay in
+kind. His reserve he thought Scott did not altogether like. In this he
+was probably mistaken, but the reason he gave for his own conduct
+savored little of feelings of envy or rivalry. "As Johnson," he wrote,
+"said of his interview with George the Third, it was not for me to
+bandy compliments with my sovereign." No attention was paid to these
+and similar utterances of a man whom his bitterest enemies never once
+dared to charge with saying a word he did not mean.</p>
+
+<p>Few at this day will be disposed to deny the justice of a good deal of
+the criticism that Cooper passed upon his country and his countrymen.
+Even now, though many of his strictures are directed against things
+that no longer exist, there is still much in his writings that can be
+read with profit. The essential justice of what he said is not
+impaired by the fact that he was usually indiscreet and intemperate in
+the saying of it. Nor were his motives of a low kind. He loved his
+country, and nothing lay dearer to his heart than to have her what she
+ought to be. The people were the source of power; and it was his
+cardinal principle that power ought always to be censured rather than
+flattered. It needed to be told the truth, however unwelcome; and in
+his eyes, that man was no true patriot who was not willing to
+encounter unpopularity, if it came in the line of duty. At the same
+time, while doing full justice to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span>
+purity of his motives,
+we cannot shut our eyes to the defects of his method. His abilities,
+his reputation, his acquaintance with foreign lands, gave him
+inestimable advantages for influencing his countrymen, and of
+educating them in matters where they stood sadly in need of it. But
+the spirit in which he went to work deprived him of the legitimate
+influence he should have exerted. Excitement, and passion, and
+indignation led him often to say the wrong thing. More often they
+caused him to say the right thing in the wrong way. Nor did he escape
+the special temptation which speedily besets him who starts out to
+tell his fellow-men unpleasant truths. Duty of this kind soon begins
+to have a peculiar fascination of its own. The careful reader cannot
+fail to see that in process of time the more disagreeable was the
+truth the more delightful it became to Cooper to tell it. Most
+unreasonable it certainly was to expect that constant fault-finding
+would be looked upon as a proof of special attachment. The means,
+moreover, were not always adapted to the end. Men may possibly be
+lectured to some extent into the acquisition of the virtues, but they
+never can be bullied into the graces.</p>
+
+<p>Besides all this, in a great deal of Cooper's criticism there were
+fundamental defects. He constantly confounded the unimportant and the
+temporary with the important and the permanent. Many of his most
+violent strictures are devoted to points of little consequence, and
+the feeling expressed is out of all proportion to the significance of
+the matter involved. Nothing, for instance, seemed to irritate him
+more than the preference given by many of his countrymen to the
+scenery of America over that of Europe. Especially was he indignant
+with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span>
+the "besotted stupidity" that could compare the bay of
+New York with that of Naples. He returned to this topic in book after
+book. Yet of all the harmless exhibitions of mistaken judgment, that
+which prefers the scenery of one's own land is what a wise man would
+be least disposed to find fault with; certainly what he would think
+least calculated to inspire the wrath of a Juvenal. Cosmopolitanism is
+well enough in its way. But that ability to see things exactly as they
+are, which enables a man to criticise his mother with the same
+impartiality with which he does any other woman, can hardly be thought
+to mark a high development of his loftier feelings, however creditable
+it may be to the judicial tone of his mind. Undue preference of the
+scenery of one's own country is an amiable weakness at which the
+philosopher may smile, but the patriot can afford to rejoice.</p>
+
+<p>There was, moreover, a certain vagueness about much of Cooper's
+criticism that deprived it of effect. No more striking illustration of
+this could be found than his constant charge of provincialism made
+against this country. He repeated it in season and out of season. For
+several years he hardly published a work which did not contain a
+number of references to it or assertions of its existence. Provincial
+enough we certainly were then, if looked at from the point of view of
+the present time. We in turn may seem so to our descendants. This
+possibility shows at once the somewhat unreal nature of the
+accusation. Provincialism, like vulgarity, is a term that defies exact
+explanation. It is the indefinite and, therefore, unanswerable charge
+that men constantly bring against those whose standard of living and
+thinking is different from their own. It depends upon the point
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span>
+of view of the speaker full as much as upon the conduct and
+opinions of those spoken of. It changes as manners change. Nations not
+only impute it to one another, but even to themselves at different
+periods of their history. Made by itself, therefore, it means nothing.
+Without a specific description of what in particular is meant by
+provincialism, the charge cannot and ought not to have any weight with
+those against whom it is directed.</p>
+
+<p>Certain incidental facts mentioned in these observations bring also to
+light another marked defect of Cooper's course. This was not in his
+views but in his method of enforcing them. He could not refrain from
+the constant repetition of the same censures. He had never learned
+literary self-restraint; that special criticisms, in order to have
+their full weight, must not be forced too often upon the attention,
+and especially at unseasonable times. The mind revolts at having the
+same exhibition of personal feeling thrust upon it in the most
+uncalled-for manner and in the most unexpected places. Even when
+originally disposed to agree with the view expressed, it will, out of
+a pure spirit of contradiction, take the side opposed to that which is
+enforced with exasperating frequency. The fullest sympathizer is sure
+to get tired of this everlasting slaying of the slain. A similar
+effect is, indeed, likely to be produced upon the victim of the
+criticism. Instead of being stirred to reflection, repentance, or even
+indignation, he simply becomes bored. After a man has been told a
+hundred times that he is provincial, the remark ceases to be exciting.
+The things, therefore, that Cooper said incidentally are even now the
+only ones that make any deep impression upon the mind. Like all men,
+sensitive to the national honor,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span>
+he felt keenly the refusal
+of Congress to pass a copyright law. It led him to say twice, but both
+times very quietly, that in spite of loud profession there was little
+genuine sympathy in this country with art, or scholarship, or letters.
+The absence of all heat and excitement gives to the remark a weight
+that never belongs to his violent utterances and fierce denunciations.
+We may hope that we have gained since his time; but even at this day
+we have little to boast of, if the average cultivation of the people,
+as well as its average morality, finds expression in the laws. The
+record in these matters of the highest legislative body in the land is
+still the most discreditable of that of any nation in Christendom. To
+gratify the greed of a few traders, it has never refused to lay heavy
+burdens upon scholarship and letters. It has steadily imposed duties
+on the introduction of everything that could facilitate the
+acquisition of learning, and further the development of art. It has
+persistently stabbed literature under the pretence of encouraging
+intelligence. It has never once been guilty of the weakness of
+yielding for a moment to the virtuous impulse that would even
+contemplate the enactment of a copyright law. If it ever does pass
+one, it will do so, not because foreign authors have rights, but
+because native publishers have quarrels. Thus consistent in its
+unwillingness to do an honest thing from an honest motive, it will
+even then grant to selfishness what has been invariably denied to
+justice.</p>
+
+<p>There were other than faults of view or faults of statement that mark
+Cooper's writings at this time. The two novels published during the
+year 1838 show a radical change in the attitude he assumed to his art.
+What had been indicated in the stories whose scenes were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span>
+laid in Europe, was now carried out completely. He may have been
+unconscious of the difference of his point of view, but none the less
+did it exist. The novel was no longer something in which he could
+embody his conceptions of beauty fairer, or truth higher than could
+actually be found in nature. It no longer served him as a refuge from
+the din of a clamorous, or the hostility of a censorious world. It
+became a sort of fortress, from the secure position of which he was
+enabled to deal out annoyance and defiance to his foes. He had not now
+so much a story to tell as a sermon to preach; and with him, as with
+many others, to preach meant to denounce. His spirit for a time became
+captive to the prejudices and the heated feelings which had been
+aroused by the sense of the injustice with which he had been treated.
+Though he at intervals worked himself out of this state of mind, upon
+much of his later work rested the shadow of the prison-house which he,
+for a season, had made his abiding-place. The result was that a good
+deal of what he afterwards wrote was marred by the obtrusion of
+personal likes and dislikes, and the taint of controversial
+discussion. These things rarely concerned the story in which they
+appeared, and they inspired hostility to the writer. Cooper, indeed,
+never learned to appreciate the fact that a reader has rights which an
+author is bound to respect. By dragging in irrelevant discussions,
+moreover, he was taking the surest way to lose the audience he most
+sought to influence. A little reflection would have taught him that
+there was little use in a prophet's crying in the wilderness, unless
+he can succeed in gathering the people together.</p>
+
+<p>While, therefore, there can be no justification for the ferocity with
+which Cooper was assailed, there was some palliation.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span>
+His
+course from his return to the country had been wanting in prudence,
+and at times in common sense. He had plunged at once as a combatant
+into one of the bitterest political controversies that ever agitated
+the republic. Hard blows were given and taken. He could scarcely
+expect that, in the heat of the strife, regard would in all cases be
+paid to the proprieties and even the decencies of private life. There
+was much in his later productions, moreover, to alienate many who were
+honestly disposed to admire him as a writer. Politics we could get at
+all times and from everybody. If, again, we were hopelessly
+provincial, if we were irreclaimably given over to vulgarity, we could
+find out all about it from the latest English traveler, or the review
+of his work that had appeared in the latest English periodicals. But
+by Cooper the life of the wilderness and of the sea had been told as
+by no other writer. Over the fields and forests and streams of his
+native land he had thrown the glamour of romantic association and
+lofty deeds. There was something unpleasant in witnessing a man who
+could do this turning his attention to the discussion of points of
+etiquette and manners. Beside the waste of power, which is something
+always disagreeable to contemplate, the subject itself could hardly be
+called an attractive one. It was a sandy desert to travel over at
+best. But even those who thought it a thing worth while to do once,
+could hardly help feeling surprise at the spirit which could induce a
+man to go over it again and again, enlarge upon its discomforts, its
+perpetual sameness and barrenness, and point out its incapacity of
+being made much better. There were even worse things than this. It
+could scarcely fail to inspire a sentiment almost like disgust to have
+the creator of Leather-Stocking
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span>
+argue with heat the question
+whether it is right for a lady to come into a drawing-room at a party
+without leaning upon the arm of a gentleman; or discourse solemnly
+upon the proper way of eating eggs, and announce oracularly that all
+who were acquainted with polite society would agree in denouncing the
+wine-glass or egg-glass as a vulgar substitute for the egg-cup.
+Questions like these are usually left to those who have the taste to
+delight in them and the mental elevation to grasp the difficulties
+involved in them. They were the more disagreeable when met with in
+Cooper, because in addition to the pettiness of the subject, there was
+an apparent unconsciousness on his part that the limits of his own
+preferences and conclusions were not necessarily those of the human
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper indeed exemplified in his literary career a story he was in the
+habit of telling of one of his early adventures. While in the navy he
+was traveling in the wilderness bordering upon the Ontario. The party
+to which he belonged came upon an inn where they were not expected.
+The landlord was totally unprepared, and met them with a sorrowful
+countenance. There was, he assured them, absolutely nothing in his
+house that was fit to eat. When asked what he had that was not fit to
+eat, he could only say in reply that he could furnish them with
+venison, pheasant, wild duck, and some fresh fish. To the astonished
+question of what better he supposed they could wish, the landlord
+meekly replied, that he thought they might have wanted some salt pork.
+The story was truer of Cooper himself than of his innkeeper. Nature he
+could depict, and the wild life led in it, so that all men stood ready
+and eager to gaze on the pictures he drew. He chose too often to
+inflict upon them, instead
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span>
+of it, the most commonplace of
+moralizing, the stalest disquisitions upon manners and customs, and
+the driest discussions of politics and theology.</p>
+
+<p>But the moral injury which Cooper received from these controversial
+discussions and their results was far greater than the intellectual.
+They swung him off the line of healthful activity. They perverted his
+judgment. He looked upon the social and political movements that were
+going on about him with the eye of an irritated and wronged man. Years
+did not bring to him the philosophic mind, but the spirit of the
+opinionated partisan and the heated denouncer. He fixed his attention
+so completely on the tendencies to ill that manifested themselves in
+the social state, that he often became blind to the counterbalancing
+tendencies to good. Hence his later judgments were frequently
+one-sided and partial. He too often took up the rôle of prophesying
+disasters that never came to pass. Moreover, this habit of looking at
+one side not only narrowed his mental vision, but turned it in the
+direction of petty objects. No reader of his later novels can fail to
+see how often he excites himself over matters of no serious moment; or
+which, whether serious or slight, are utterly out of place where they
+are. By many of these exhibitions the indifferent will be amused, but
+the admirers of the man will feel pained if not outraged.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1837-1842.</h3>
+
+
+<p>By the end of 1837 Cooper had pretty sedulously improved every
+opportunity of making himself unpopular. His criticisms had been
+distributed with admirable impartiality. Few persons or places could
+complain that they had been overlooked. The natural satisfaction that
+any one would have felt in contemplating the punishment inflicted upon
+his friend or neighbor, was utterly marred by the consideration of the
+outrage done to himself. There was scarcely a class of Cooper's
+fellow-citizens whose susceptibilities had not been touched, or whose
+wrath had not been kindled by something he had said either in public
+or in private, and by his saying it repeatedly. The sons of the
+Puritans he had exasperated by styling them the grand inquisitors of
+private life, and by asserting that a low sort of tyranny over
+domestic affairs was the direct result of their religious polity. He
+had roused the resentment of the survivors of the old Federalist party
+by declaring that its design during the war of 1812 had been disunion,
+and that in secret many of them still longed for a restoration of
+monarchy, and sighed for ribbons, stars, and garters. He had not
+conciliated the party with which he was nominally allied by his
+incessant attacks upon the doctrine of free-trade. He had made Boston
+shudder to its remotest suburbs, by stating again and again in the
+strongest
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span>
+terms that it was in the Middle States alone that
+the English language was spoken with purity. The New England capital
+he had further described as a gossiping country town with a tone of
+criticism so narrow and vulgar as scarcely to hide the parochial sort
+of venom which engendered it. He had charged upon New Yorkers that
+their lives were spent in the constant struggle for inordinate and
+grasping gain; that to talk of dollars was to them a source of endless
+enjoyment; and that their society had for its characteristic
+distinction the fussy pretension and swagger that usually mark the
+presence of lucky speculators in stocks. He had attributed to the
+whole trading class a jealous and ferocious watchfulness of the
+pocket, and a readiness to sacrifice at any time the honor of the
+country for the sake of personal profit. To the native merchants he
+had denied the name of real merchants. They were simply factors, mere
+agents, who were ennobled by commerce, but who did not themselves
+ennoble it. The foreign traders resident here fared no better. They
+had never read the Constitution of the country they had made their
+home, and were incapable of understanding it if they should read it.
+Always judging of American facts in accordance with the antiquated
+notions in which they had been brought up, they were largely
+responsible for the erroneous opinions entertained and blundering
+prophecies made in Europe in regard to the condition and future of the
+United States. The educated class, above all, he had denounced for its
+indomitable selfishness and its hatred of the rights of those socially
+inferior. It was entirely behind the fortunes of the country and still
+cherished prejudices against democracy that the very stupidest of
+European conservatives had begun to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span>
+lay aside. The newspaper
+press he had assailed with a pungency and vigor which it in vain
+sought to rival. He was spattered by it, however, with almost every
+opprobrious term that belongs to the vocabulary of wrath and abuse.
+Invention was tasked to furnish discreditable reasons for all that he
+said and did. That inexhaustible capacity of devising base motives for
+conduct, which is an especial attribute of mean minds, had now
+opportunity to put forth its full powers in the way of insinuation and
+assertion. It did not go unimproved. A common charge brought against
+him after the publication of the "Letter to His Countrymen" was that
+it had been written for the sake of gaining office. It was even said
+that Van Buren had a hand in it. Then and afterward, the Whig
+newspapers represented Cooper as seeking the position of Secretary of
+the Navy. Denial availed him nothing. It would certainly have not been
+at all to his discredit to have desired the place; for he knew a great
+deal about the navy, and its interests were very dear to his heart.
+For these very reasons his appointment to it would have been in
+violation of the traditional policy of the government. It was probably
+never once contemplated by any administration, as it was certainly
+never asked by Cooper himself.</p>
+
+<p>The two extracts that have already been given are doubtless sufficient
+to satisfy any curiosity that may exist in regard to the way in which
+he was spoken of by the press of America. Yet coarse as was its
+vituperation, it was surpassed by that of Great Britain. Englishmen
+may have felt, and have felt justly, that Cooper took an unfair view
+of their social life and political institutions. National character
+sweeps through a range so vast that a man will usually be able to find
+in it what he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span>
+goes to seek. Even under the most favorable
+conditions the tastes of a coterie or the habits of a class are made
+the standard by which to estimate the tastes and habits of a whole
+people. Certain it is that the view of any nation is to be distrusted
+which is not taken from a station of good-will. But granting that
+Cooper was unjust in his observations, there was nothing he said which
+afforded the least excuse for the coarse personality with which he was
+followed from the time he published his volumes on England. The
+remarks of the ordinary journals can be dismissed without comment. But
+brutal vituperation was found in abundance in periodicals which
+claimed to be the representatives of the highest cultivation and
+refinement. According to "Blackwood's Magazine," Cooper was a vulgar
+man, who from having been bred to the sea had been enabled to give
+some striking descriptions of sea-affairs, and in consequence had
+unluckily imagined himself a universal genius. It went on to add, that
+on the strength of the trifling reputation he had acquired by stories
+descriptive of American life, he had come to Europe, and had since
+been partly traveling on the Continent to pick up materials for
+novels, and partly residing in England, actively employed in the
+effort to introduce himself into society. In this it admitted he might
+have been partially successful, for the English were a very yielding
+people and did not take much trouble to resist attempts of this kind.
+"Blackwood," however, was outdone in this rowdy style of reviewing by
+"Fraser's Magazine." From that periodical we learn that Cooper was "a
+passable scribbler of passable novels," a "bilious braggart," a
+"liar," a "full jackass," "a man of consummate and inbred vulgarity,"
+"a bore of the first magnitude in society," who went about
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span>
+fishing for introductions. "But this," it concluded, speaking of his
+England, "was his last kick, and we shall not disturb his dying
+moments." Two years later the magazine seemed to think he had some
+power of kicking left, for it returned to the charge in consequence of
+his review of Lockhart's "Life of Scott." In this article he was
+called a "spiteful miscreant," an "insect," a "grub," a "reptile." The
+"Quarterly Review" was as virulent and violent as the magazines, but
+the attack was more skillful as well as longer and more elaborate. By
+garbling extracts it cleverly insinuated a good deal more than it
+said, and it so contrived to put several things that the reader could
+hardly fail to draw inferences which the writer must have known to be
+false. Even these attacks were equaled if not surpassed at a later
+period by the "London Times." A nominal review in that journal of "Eve
+Effingham," as "Home as Found" was entitled in England, was really
+devoted to personal vituperation of the novelist. It ended with the
+assertion that he was more vulgar than ever, and was the most
+"affected, offensive, envious, and ill-conditioned" of authors.
+Altogether Cooper must have been impressed with the effectiveness of
+the blow which he had struck by the violence with which it was
+resented. It seems hard to believe that remarks such as have been
+quoted should have been thought to establish anything but the
+vulgarity of the men who wrote them. Yet they apparently answered
+their purpose. The very latest notice of Cooper's life which has
+appeared in Great Britain, characterizes his work on England as an
+"outburst of vanity and ill-temper." It certainly contained some
+ill-judged remarks which have been made the most of by his enemies;
+but this estimate, like many other assertions in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span>
+the same
+sketch, was not got from reading the work itself, but from what
+British periodicals had said about it.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the kind of criticism that the novelist now mainly received
+in the two great English-speaking countries. These flowers of
+invective do not constitute an anthology which an Englishman or
+American of today can read with pleasure, or contemplate with pride.
+It was the comments made by his countrymen that naturally touched
+Cooper most nearly. His nature was of a kind to feel keenly, and
+resent warmly insinuations and charges that impugned the purity of his
+motives. Nor was his a disposition to rest quiet under attack or to
+assume merely the defensive. He retorted in letters, in works of
+fiction, and in books of travel. Finally he resorted to libel suits.
+Never, indeed, was a fiercer fight carried on by an individual against
+a power more mighty than Cooper carried on with the press. It had a
+thousand tongues, he had but one; but it often seemed as if his one
+had the force of a thousand. The epithets he applied to newspapers
+were not of the kind with which they were in the habit of celebrating
+themselves. Their enterprise in obtaining news he described as a
+mercenary diligence in the collection and diffusion of information,
+whether true or false. Nor were his comments upon those concerned in
+carrying them on more favorable. What we should call a reporter he, on
+one occasion, mildly spoke of as a "miscreant who pandered for the
+press." In the last novel he wrote, he energetically termed this whole
+class the funguses of letters who flourished on the dunghill of the
+common mind; and that in their view the sole use for which the
+universe was created was to furnish paragraphs for newspapers.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span>
+Men in the higher grades of the profession fared little better.
+Against the political journals, in particular, he brought the charge
+that under the pretence of serving the public they were mainly used to
+aid the ambition or gratify the spite of their editors.</p>
+
+<p>Even as early as 1832, Cooper had awakened the indignation of the
+press by an incidental remark made in the introduction to "The
+Heidenmauer." He was describing a journey through a part of Belgium in
+which the Dutch troops had been operating the week before his arrival.
+They had been reported as having committed unusual excesses. Of these
+excesses he said he could find no trace. He went on to add a sentence
+which has apparently only a slight connection with what had gone
+before. "Each hour, as life advances," he wrote, "am I made to see how
+capricious and vulgar is the immortality conferred by a newspaper."
+This remark was warmly resented. It was asserted to be a declaration,
+not merely of indifference to the opinion of the press, but of a
+preference on his part of its censure to its praise. Its business,
+therefore, was to see that his wishes should be carried out.</p>
+
+<p>After the controversy in regard to the Three Mile Point, the attacks
+of the Whig journals increased in bitterness. The state of mind it
+caused in Cooper can be seen in a little volume, published by him in
+April, 1838, entitled "The American Democrat." This work is made up of
+a singular mixture of abstract discussions on liberty and equality, on
+the nature of parties, on forms of government, and of remarks on
+national habits and manners. It is not an interesting hook. Yet it is
+fair to say of it, that it is animated throughout by a lofty
+patriotism, and it manifests a clear view of the dangers and duties of
+a democracy, with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span>
+its comparative advantages and
+disadvantages. But it likewise exhibited some of the most
+uncompromising traits of the author's character. In writing it, he was
+not aiming at popularity; it might not be much out of the way to say
+that he was aiming at unpopularity. The doctrine with which he sets
+out is, that in this country power rests with the people, and power
+ought always to be chidden rather than commended. He was accordingly
+liberal in criticism. But the value of what he said was largely
+impaired, if not wholly destroyed by the one-sidedness of view and
+tendency to over-statement into which his ardor of feeling now
+habitually hurried him. In nothing is this extravagance more
+strikingly seen than in the comments in this work upon the press.
+There was a great deal of truth in what he said; but the justice of
+some of his views was deprived of any effect by the exaggeration and
+consequent injustice of others. The substance of his remarks was that
+there were more newspapers in this country than in Europe, but they
+were generally of a lower character. The multiplication of them was
+due to the fact that little capital was required in their creation,
+and little intelligence employed in their management. Their number
+was, therefore, not a thing to be boasted of but rather to be sorrowed
+over, since the quality diminished in an inverse ratio to the
+quantity. Nor was there anything in the methods employed by the press
+that justified any exultation in its prosperity. It tyrannized over
+public men, over letters, over the stage, over even private life.
+Under the pretence of preserving public morals, it corrupted them to
+the core. Under the semblance of maintaining liberty, it was gradually
+establishing a despotism as rude, as grasping, and as vulgar as
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span>
+that of any state known. It loudly professed freedom of opinion,
+but exhibited no tolerance. It paraded patriotism, but never
+sacrificed interest. But its great fundamental failing was the
+untrustworthiness of its statements. It existed to pervert truth. Its
+conductors were mainly political adventurers. They were unscrupulous,
+but they were not so utterly ignorant that they failed to see the
+necessity of occasionally making correct assertions. It was, however,
+this mixture of fact with fiction that was the chief cause of the evil
+influence exerted. The result of it all was that the entire nation, in
+a moral sense, breathed an atmosphere of falsehood. He concluded his
+indictment by declaring that the American press would seem to have
+been expressly devised by the great agent of mischief, to depress and
+destroy all that was good, and to elevate and advance all that was
+evil.</p>
+
+<p>This style of remark was certainly not designed to win newspaper favor
+or support. But he went even farther in his novels of "Homeward Bound"
+and "Home as Found." In those two works he drew the portrait of an
+American editor in the person of Steadfast Dodge of the Active
+Inquirer. All the baser qualities of human nature were united in this
+ideal representative of the press. He was a sneak, a spy, a coward, a
+demagogue, a parasite, a lickspittle, a fawner upon all from whom he
+hoped help, a slanderer of all who did not care to endure his society.
+Such a picture did not rise even to the dignity of caricature. Nor is
+it relieved either in this work or elsewhere by others drawn
+favorably. The reader of Cooper will search his writings in vain for a
+portrait which any member of the editorial profession would be glad to
+recognize as his own.</p>
+
+<p>All <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span>
+this was vigorous enough, but it could hardly be called
+profitable. Cooper had now cultivated to perfection the art of saying
+injudicious things as well as the art of saying things injudiciously.
+His ability in hitting upon the very line of remark that would still
+further enrage the hostile, and irritate the indifferent and even the
+friendly, assumed almost the nature of genius. The power of his
+attacks could not be gainsaid. But while they inspired his opponents
+with respect, they filled his friends with dismay. He was soon in a
+singular position. He enjoyed at one and the same time the double
+distinction of being reviled in England for his aggressive
+republicanism, and of being denounced in America for aping the airs of
+the English aristocracy. It hardly seemed a favorable time for
+beginning hostilities in a new field. Yet it was then that he entered
+upon his famous legal war with the Whig newspapers of the state of New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>A detailed account of the libel suits instituted by Cooper would form
+one of the most striking chapters in the history of the American
+press; and for some reasons it is to be regretted that the plan he had
+of writing a full account of them was never carried out. Here only a
+slight summary can be given. It is well to say at the outset that many
+assertions ordinarily made about them are utterly false. For certain
+of these prevalent misconceptions Greeley is responsible. He spoke of
+these trials with some fullness in commenting upon libel suits in his
+"Recollections of a Busy Life." But Greeley's life was too busy for
+him always to recollect accurately. While he had not the slightest
+intention to say anything untrue, what he said was in some instances
+of this character; though more often it was misleading rather
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span>
+than false. But outside of what Greeley has written, there are
+several erroneous assertions current. One of the most common of these
+is the statement that Cooper's success in them was mainly due to the
+application of the law maxim, that the greater the truth the greater
+the libel. There was never any ground for even an insinuation of this
+kind. Cooper, when his attention was called to it, treated it with
+contempt. "The pretense," he wrote in 1845, "that our courts have ever
+overruled that the truth is not a complete defense in a libel suit in
+the civil action, can only gain credit with the supremely ignorant."
+In criminal indictments the New York statute of 1805 had expressly
+declared that the truth might be pleaded in evidence by the defense.
+The Constitution of 1821 made this provision part of the fundamental
+law, and it was adopted from that into the Constitution of 1846. The
+assertion owed its origin wholly to the effort of beaten parties to
+explain their defeat on some other ground than that they had been
+found guilty of the offense with which they had been charged.</p>
+
+<p>A more preposterous statement even than this was that the question
+involved in these suits was the right of editors to criticise the
+productions of authors. In not one of these trials was the literary
+judgment passed by the reviewer mentioned as having the slightest
+bearing on the case. It ought not to be necessary to say that it was
+the attack upon the character of the man that alone came under the
+consideration of the courts, and not that upon the character of the
+book. The impudent pretense was, however, set up at the time that the
+press had a right to go behind the writer's work, and assail him
+himself. "Does an author," said "The New
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span>
+Yorker" in
+February, 1837, "subject himself to personal criticism by submitting a
+work to the public? If he makes his work the channel of disparagement
+upon masses of men, he does."</p>
+
+<p>The most marked feature of these trials is that Cooper fought his
+battle single-handed. With a very few exceptions,--notably the "Albany
+Argus" and the "New York Evening Post,"--the press of the party with
+which he was nominally allied, remained neutral. Some of them were
+even hostile; for the novelist's criticism of editors had known no
+distinction of politics. On the other hand, the press of the
+opposition party was united. From East to West they bore down upon
+Cooper with a common cry. No event in his life showed more plainly the
+fearless and uncompromising nature of the man; nor again did anything
+else he was concerned in mark more clearly his versatility and vigor.
+In these trials he was assisted by his nephew, Richard Cooper, who was
+his regular counsel. But outside of him, in the civil suits, he had
+very rarely any help, and in most of them he argued his own cause.
+Wherever he appeared in person he seems to have come off uniformly
+victorious. Nor were his victories won over inferior opponents. The
+reputation of the lawyer is under ordinary conditions limited
+necessarily to a small circle. Even in that, considering the amount of
+intellectual acuteness and power displayed, it is an exceedingly
+transitory reputation. But the men against whom Cooper was pitted
+stood in the very front rank of their profession. They were leaders of
+the bar in the greatest state in the Union. Nor have times so far
+swept by that their names are not still remembered; and stories are
+still told of their achievements by those who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span>
+have taken
+their places. Cooper, not a lawyer by profession, met these men on
+their own ground and defeated them. It was not long, indeed, after
+these suits were instituted, that it was claimed by his friends, and
+often conceded by his foes, that he was the one man in the country
+best acquainted with the law of libel. Our surprise at his success is
+increased by the fact that he was not only unpopular himself, but he
+was engaged in an unpopular cause. The verdicts he won were usually
+small in amount, but they were wrung from reluctant juries, and
+frequently in the face of bitter prejudices that had to be overcome
+before he could hope for a fair consideration of his own side.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset the editorial fraternity were disposed to take these
+libel suits jocularly. They were looked upon as a gigantic joke. Nor
+did this feeling die out when the first trial resulted in Cooper's
+favor. It was proposed that the newspapers throughout the country
+should contribute each one dollar to a fund to be called "The
+Effingham Libel Fund," out of which all damages awarded the novelist
+were to be paid. Every additional suit was welcomed with a shout. As
+time went on this insolence gave way to apprehension. In nearly every
+case the plaintiff was coming off successful. The comments of the
+press began to assume an expostulatory tone. Cooper was gravely
+informed that were he to be tried in the High Court of Public
+Opinion--this imaginary tribunal was usually made imposing by
+dignifying its initial letters--for his libels upon his country and
+his countrymen, the damages he would have to pay would not only sweep
+away the amounts given him by the results in the regular courts, but
+even the profits that had accrued from the sale of his novels. These
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span>
+remonstrances were often animated also by a new-born zeal for
+his literary fame. He was told he was his own greatest enemy. He was
+doing himself irreparable injury by the course he was taking. He was
+so acting as to lose the reputation he had early won. This feeling
+naturally increased in intensity as suits continued to be decided in
+his favor. The newspapers at last rose to the full appreciation of the
+situation. The liberty of the press was actually in danger. The trials
+were said to be conducted in defiance of law as well as justice. The
+judges belonged to the Democratic party, and they wrested the statutes
+from their true intent in order to oppress the Whig editor. There came
+finally to be something exquisitely absurd in the utterances of the
+journals on the subject of these suits. One would fancy from reading
+them that the plaintiff was a monster resembling the bloodthirsty ogre
+of a fairy tale, bullying judges, overawing juries, maliciously bent
+on crushing the free-born American who should have the temerity to
+express an unfavorable opinion of his writings. Coriolanus, indeed,
+never fluttered the dove-cotes in Corioli more effectively than for
+some years Cooper did the Whig newspaper offices of the state of New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>The origin of the suits was as follows: An account of the
+circumstances connected with the Three Mile Point controversy
+appeared, immediately after they had taken place, in the "Norwich
+Telegraph," a paper published in the neighboring county of Chenango.
+The article began with a reference to Cooper. "This gentleman," it
+said, "not satisfied with having drawn upon his head universal
+contempt from abroad, has done the same thing at Cooperstown where he
+resides." In this spirit
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span>
+it went on to give its report of
+the events told in the preceding chapter. "So stands the matter at
+present," it closed its account, "Mr. J. F. C. threatening the
+citizens on the one hand, and being derided and despised by them on
+the other." In conclusion it called upon the "Otsego Republican," the
+Whig newspaper of Cooperstown, to furnish all the facts in the case.</p>
+
+<p>The latter journal was edited by a man named Barber. He was not slow
+to comply with the request, and in one of the numbers of August, 1837,
+he republished the article of the "Chenango Telegraph" with additional
+assertions of his own. The latter belonged more to the realm of
+fiction than of fact. Three Mile Point he declared had been reserved
+expressly for the use of the inhabitants of Cooperstown by the father
+of the novelist. When the notice was published depriving them of their
+rights, a meeting had been called which had been largely attended. The
+room was crowded with the industry, intelligence, and respectability
+of the village. Powerful addresses were made and a series of
+resolutions were passed. These expressed the feelings of all present.
+"The remarks," the newspaper continued, "were of a lucid character,
+and the resolutions, full, pungent, and yet respectful."</p>
+
+<p>Two days after this article had appeared, the editor received a letter
+from Cooper's counsel which was to the effect that he would be
+prosecuted for libel unless he retracted his statements. On his side
+the novelist undertook to make perfectly clear to him that his
+assertions were untrue; but he expected, after the real facts had been
+set before him and fully examined, that he would take back what he had
+said. "No atonement," the letter concluded, "will be accepted, that is
+not first approved
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span>
+of by the plaintiff in the suit." Barber
+was not disposed either to retract or to investigate the accuracy of
+the facts he had stated. He published the letter, however, with the
+usual solemn declaration that seems to be kept in type in all
+newspaper offices, that in doing what he had done he had been actuated
+solely by the noblest motives; that he had not published anything
+libellous; that if in anything he had been misinformed, he held
+himself always ready to make the proper correction. "In conclusion,"
+he said, "not being sensible of having injured Mr. Cooper, we consider
+that we have no atonement to offer." Under these circumstances the
+suit went on. It did not come to final trial until May, 1839, at the
+Montgomery circuit of the Supreme Court. Joshua A. Spencer was the
+principal lawyer for the defense, while Cooper conducted his own case.
+The jury returned a verdict of four hundred dollars for the plaintiff.
+Eventually the editor sought to evade in various ways the payment of
+the whole award, and did succeed in evading the payment of a good part
+of it. A terrible outcry was, however, raised against Cooper because
+the sheriff levied upon some money that had been carefully laid away
+and locked up by Barber in a trunk.</p>
+
+<p>With this begins the famous series of suits that occupied no small
+share of the few following years of the author's life. At the time the
+first one was decided, another was pending against the editor of the
+"Chenango Telegraph." The leading Whig newspapers naturally took the
+side of their associates. For a time they had a good deal to say about
+the greatest slanderer of the whole profession pouncing upon one of
+the fraternity least able to defend himself, simply because in a
+moment of haste and excitement he had been guilty of what they were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span>
+pleased to call a technical libel. It did not seem to occur
+to them, that any one could be so foolhardy as to make them the object
+of attack. They did not have to wait long to discover that the
+influence wielded by a journal was no protection. Besides the
+newspapers already mentioned, Cooper prosecuted the "Oneida Whig,"
+published at Utica. This suit was tried in April, 1842. Though
+successful in it, the damages awarded were slight, being but seventy
+dollars. A suit, tried little more than six months before against the
+"Evening Signal," of New York city, edited by Park Benjamin, had
+resulted in the recovery of a larger sum. The amount in this case was
+three hundred and seventy-five dollars. With these exceptions his
+suits were directed against the "Courier and Enquirer," edited by
+James Watson Webb; "the Albany Evening Journal," edited by Thurlow
+Weed; the "Tribune," edited by Horace Greeley, and the "Commercial
+Advertiser," edited by William Leet Stone. These were the leading Whig
+journals in the state, and among the most influential in the whole
+country. It could not be said that Cooper hesitated about flying at
+high game.</p>
+
+<p>In the controversy with Webb, Cooper had the least success. This was
+partly due to the fact that it was not a civil action that was brought
+against the former, but a criminal indictment. Juries might make
+editors pay for the privilege of expressing their feelings of contempt
+or hate, but they were not inclined to send them to prison. The
+indictment in this case was based upon a criticism of "Home as Found."
+The review, which was of several columns in length, had appeared in
+the "Courier and Enquirer" of November 22, 1838. There was very little
+in the way of hostile insinuation and assertion and personal
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span>
+depreciation that could not be found in this article and in some which
+followed. The attack was moreover a skillful one. It was directed
+largely against those points where Cooper had fairly laid himself open
+to ridicule. Especially was this the case in the matter of descent and
+family. Webb represented the novelist as the son of a humble hawker of
+fish through the streets of Burlington, who had afterward become a
+respectable though not a first-class wheelwright. By probity,
+industry, and enterprise he had finally risen to wealth and position.
+The maternal grandmother of the author had, according to this same
+story, for more than twenty years occupied a stall and sold fresh
+vegetables in the Philadelphia market, and was remarkable for the
+superior quality of the articles she kept. Webb praised the father at
+the expense of the son. The former had never been ashamed of his
+humble origin. On the contrary, he was justly proud of the
+intelligence and ability which, unaided by any mere external
+advantages, had raised him to a station in life so much higher than he
+at first held. Of such a career any child had a right to be proud.
+These were statements that could not well be resented, conceding that
+they were injurious, nor could they well be corrected, conceding that
+they were untrue. Webb, who had recently returned from Europe,
+asserted, moreover, that he had been present at a dinner-party in
+London, where "Home as Found" came under discussion. On that occasion
+he had fallen into a conversation about it with "a nobleman of
+distinction." The latter informed him that Cooper's attack upon
+English society had materially injured the sale of his works in that
+country, and it was evident that he was now seeking to regain the
+ground and the market
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span>
+he had lost, by praising everything
+English at the expense of everything American; but as his base motives
+were now fully understood, no one was led astray. The reported
+conversation carries internal evidence of its authenticity. It
+required a very noble lord to impute to a well-known writer motives so
+very noble; and none but an Englishman could have appreciated so fully
+the eternal conditions of success in the English market. These remarks
+of Webb's are, however, merely incidental. His direct personal attack
+on Cooper rivaled that of the British periodicals in ferocity. "We may
+and do know him," said he in the only extract for which there is room,
+"as a base-minded caitiff who has traduced his country for filthy
+lucre and low-born spleen; but time only can render harmless abroad
+the envenomed barb of the slanderer who is in fact a traitor to
+national pride and national character."</p>
+
+<p>For this article Webb was indicted by the grand jury of Otsego County,
+in February, 1839. In June of the same year a second indictment was
+found against him for saying that the first was secured by political
+trickery. The trial, for various reasons, did not come off until
+November, 1841. Webb made a public retraction of the statements upon
+which the second indictment was found; and this was accepted on the
+part of the prosecution. On the trial for the first indictment the
+jury disagreed. The defendant objected to Cooper's summing up the
+case, and this objection the court sustained. It was a wise policy:
+for the trials in the civil suits showed that the novelist was full as
+effective in addressing a jury orally as he ever was in addressing the
+public in his most successful stories. One amusing feature of this
+case was that the two volumes of "Home as Found" were read
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span>
+to the jury from beginning to end by the plaintiffs counsel, Ambrose
+L. Jordan.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper was not discouraged by the ill result of this trial. The
+indictment was still pressed. A second trial took place at Cooperstown
+in June, 1843. Again the jury disagreed. A third trial is reported to
+have taken place and to have resulted in the acquittal of Webb; but I
+find no account of it in the newspapers to which I have had access.</p>
+
+<p>The suits brought against the "Albany Evening Journal" were, however,
+the most striking in this whole contest. They show, too, more clearly
+than the others, the spirit and methods with which it was waged on
+both sides. Some features are especially marked. One is the
+illustration furnished of the onslaughts that were made upon the
+novelist's character and reputation, not from any real ill-will, but
+from pure wantonness or at least very slight political hostility.
+Another is the jaunty superciliousness with which the conductors of
+the press at first affected to treat the threats of prosecution. More
+noteworthy than anything else, however, is the view given of the
+deliberate manner in which Cooper began these suits, and the
+relentless tenacity with which he followed them up. The "Evening
+Journal," of which Thurlow Weed was then the head, partly from the
+political skill of its editor, and partly from its being the organ of
+the party at the state capital, was, at that time, the most
+influential Whig journal in New York. Weed published in it, in two
+different numbers of August, 1837, the articles which had appeared in
+the "Chenango Telegraph" and the "Otsego Republican" about the Three
+Mile Point controversy. He accompanied them with some comments of his
+own in regard to Cooper.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span>
+"He was, as is known," said he in
+his second notice, "pretty generally despised abroad. He is now
+equally distinguished at home." The editor then went on to speak of
+the act of meanness, as he termed it, which had excited the contempt
+of the novelist's neighbors; and that the more precise account now
+furnished by the "Otsego Republican" would rather increase than
+diminish the measure of scorn that had been aroused. Much was Weed's
+surprise when, on the 18th of April, 1840, he received a letter from
+Cooper's counsel requiring a retraction of what had been said in 1837,
+and a further statement that it must be made within a certain time or
+a suit for libel would be begun. He treated this notice cavalierly. He
+was amused by it even more than he was astonished. As it had taken
+three years for Cooper to bring the suit, he concluded that he would
+take three weeks at any rate to reply to the demand for a retraction.
+A second letter from Cooper's counsel, dated the 4th of May, met with
+the same neglect. Accordingly on the 25th of that month he had the
+pleasure of announcing that he had been sued for libel by "Mr. John
+Effingham."</p>
+
+<p>The case after being put off once on a very frivolous pretext, came to
+trial at the Montgomery circuit of the Supreme Court, held at Fonda,
+in November, 1841. When it was called Weed was not present, nor was
+counsel for him. Cooper consented to have the case go over for a day.
+It was then called again. Nothing was seen of the defendant, nothing
+had been heard from him. The case was accordingly sent to the jury
+with a speech from the plaintiff's counsel. A verdict of four hundred
+dollars was returned. Weed arrived at Fonda the evening of that day,
+and wrote anonymously to the "New
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span>
+York Tribune" an account
+of what had taken place. In some of its details it was more
+entertaining than accurate. The reason he gave for his absence from
+the trial was that he had been kept at home by severe illness in his
+family. But the result enabled him to notice in this manner the sum
+awarded by the jury.</p>
+
+<p>"This meagre verdict under the circumstances is a severe and
+mortifying rebuke to Cooper, who had everything his own way.</p>
+
+<p>"The value of Mr. Cooper's character, therefore, has been judicially
+determined.</p>
+
+<p>"It is worth exactly four hundred dollars."</p>
+
+<p>For the publication of this letter a suit was immediately begun
+against the "Tribune." But though he wrote for that journal an amusing
+account of the trial, in his own paper Weed gave vent to the anger
+which the result had excited. The verdicts gained in his various cases
+by "this man Cooper," he said, had made "deep inroads upon a fame once
+bright and enviable, but now sadly dim and dilapidated." He then
+recited in full the misdeeds of the novelist. "For all this,"
+concluded the aggrieved editor, "connected with the attempt to deprive
+the citizens of a social privilege with which they were invested by
+his honored father, we said Mr. Cooper was despised. And for this he
+prosecuted us. And now having again said it he may again prosecute us,
+if he wants and thinks he can obtain four hundred dollars more."</p>
+
+<p>Weed did not appreciate the fact that he was not dealing with a
+politician, but with a man indifferent to or rather contemptuous of
+popular clamor. His challenge was immediately accepted. Early in
+December, 1841,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span>
+he was able to announce the fact that he had
+been sued again. "The sheriff," he said, "has served another writ upon
+us for an alleged libel upon Cooper. It remains to be seen how much
+longer courts and juries will sanction this legal persecution of a
+man, who after libeling his country and calumniating his countrymen,
+seeks to muzzle a free press." The jocular tone used at first had all
+vanished. Instead it was replaced by a fierce spirit of wrathfulness
+and defiance. During the whole of December, 1841, Weed kept constantly
+republishing extracts from other newspapers reflecting upon and
+attacking Cooper's character and conduct. These were, he said, "sharp
+rebukes" of the novelist's "ridiculous and unworthy attempt to
+disgrace his own country to gain the favor and smiles of the nobility
+abroad." Some of these newspaper comments furnish very amusing reading
+now, especially as the impunity of most of the writers was due to
+their insignificance. "We rejoice," said one of them, "to witness the
+spirit of independence manifested by the conductors of the press. It
+proves their incorruptible integrity and their love of principle,
+their firm hostility to foreign notions, and their detestation of the
+man who seeks to ape the high and aristocratic manners of English
+nobility." These valorous declarations came mainly from the country
+papers of the state of New York, for the "Evening Journal" was the
+Triton of these minnows. Weed, however, eagerly reproduced everything
+that came from outside. One article, in particular, from a Chicago
+paper, was published, in order that Cooper might see "what
+right-minded and unprejudiced people say and think of him far away in
+the boundless West."</p>
+
+<p>The appeal was to deaf ears. Neither contracted East
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span>
+nor
+boundless West affected Cooper's resolution. As fast as the articles
+were republished, they were carefully examined, and prosecutions begun
+against the "Evening Journal" for those of them containing libelous
+matter. By the middle of December five suits had been commenced, and
+more were under consideration. A little later, if contemporary
+newspaper reports can be trusted, the number had swelled to seven. The
+editor began to appreciate the difficulty and danger of the situation.
+His courage, however, did not falter. In fact he looked upon himself
+as manfully standing in the gap for freedom of speech. "These suits,"
+he said "will determine whether an Independent Press is to be
+protected in the free exercise of honest opinion, or whether it is to
+be overawed and silenced by the persecutions of an inflated,
+litigious, soured novelist, who, in his better days by the favor of
+the Press, made the money with which he now seeks to oppress its
+conductors, and sap its independence." He did not purpose to flinch
+from his duty. Accordingly he announced that he should continue
+publishing these attacks until Cooper ceased prosecuting.</p>
+
+<p>In this determination he was encouraged by the result of two suits
+tried in April, 1842, in the Otsego County Court. Though he was beaten
+in both, the verdict was for small amounts. In one case it was
+fifty-five dollars, in the other eighty-seven dollars. This convinced
+the press that the tide was turning. Again the country newspapers were
+filled with libelous paragraphs. Again the novelist was denounced for
+his heartless abuse of his country, and his soulless and contemptible
+vanity. Again these strictures were carefully collected from every
+quarter, no matter how insignificant, and republished in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span>
+the
+columns of the "Evening Journal." But these cheerful anticipations
+were speedily dissipated. Another suit, tried at Fonda in the Supreme
+Court in May, 1842, resulted in a verdict of three hundred and
+twenty-five dollars for the plaintiff. The country papers were
+indignant. One of the editors sagely suggested that "if judge and jury
+are to carry on this war on the press to gratify individual malignity
+much further, it would be well for all editors to unite in petitioning
+the legislature to pass a law that judges should discharge their
+duties impartially, and juries be composed of honest and intelligent
+men." This profound suggestion marks pretty plainly the intellectual
+grade to which most of the writers of these paragraphs had attained.
+Before it could be acted upon another suit had been decided. In the
+September term of the Supreme Court held at Cooperstown, a further
+verdict of two hundred dollars was awarded. In the following month a
+new suit was begun.</p>
+
+<p>Weed had fought his fight manfully. But the business of publishing
+libelous paragraphs at these rates, low as they were, was ceasing to
+be either pleasant or profitable. Besides his own counsel fees, the
+adverse verdicts carried with them heavy costs. He concluded to let
+the liberty of the press take care of itself. Accordingly, on the 14th
+of December, 1842, he published, though with a grumbling comment, a
+retraction of all his previous statements. It had been previously
+submitted to the eminent lawyer, Daniel Cady, and by him approved. It
+withdrew, first, the allegations contained the previous year in a
+specific article in the paper. "On a review of the matter and a better
+knowledge of the facts," were the words of the retraction, "I feel it
+to be my duty to withdraw
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span>
+the injurious imputations it
+contains on the character of Mr. Cooper. It is my wish that this
+retraction should be as broad as the charges. The 'Albany Evening
+Journal' having also contained various other articles reflecting on
+Mr. Cooper's character, I feel it due to that gentleman to withdraw
+every charge that injuriously affects his character."</p>
+
+<p>The course of instruction had been protracted and expensive, but the
+lesson had been learned at last. The independence of the press had
+been crushed by the domineering despot of Cooperstown. The controversy
+threatened to break out again in 1845, but it seems never to have got
+beyond words. There is a comic element introduced into the whole
+affair by the fact that the editor of the "Journal" was a profound and
+even bigoted admirer of his adversary's novels. So fond was he of
+quoting from them, that according to Greeley, jokers at that time
+gravely affirmed that Weed had never read but three
+authors,--Shakespeare, Scott, and Cooper. In the very heat of the
+controversy he was said to have sat up all night reading "The
+Pathfinder," which had come out a little while before. Greeley also
+asserts that the paragraphs which appeared in the "Evening Journal"
+were merely designed as gentle reminders to the novelist of the folly
+of the course he was pursuing. This might find belief in a society in
+which telling a man that he was an object of universal contempt would
+be deemed an expression of friendly interest in his welfare. When he
+says, in addition, that there was no shred, no spice of malice in
+these assaults, he takes away the sole ground on which a plea of
+palliation can be brought. If not due to that they had not even the
+poor excuse of weak human nature. They were the wanton
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span>
+acts
+of a man who attacks another, not from indignation or wrath, but from
+the mere desire of inflicting annoyance or pain.</p>
+
+<p>The controversy with the "Commercial Advertiser" belongs not here but
+to the account of the "Naval History." It has already been said that
+the "Tribune" had been sued for the publication of Thurlow Weed's
+letter describing the trial at Fonda in November, 1841. In December,
+1842, this case came off at Ballston. Greeley assumed the conduct of
+the defense. He was unsuccessful. The jury brought in against him a
+verdict of two hundred dollars and costs. "We went back to dinner," he
+wrote, "took the verdict in all meekness, took a sleigh and struck a
+bee-line for New York." No sooner had he reached the city than he
+published a most entertaining account of the whole trial. It filled
+eleven columns of the "Tribune," and the demand for it became so great
+that it was found necessary to publish it in pamphlet form. For some
+expressions in it Cooper began another suit. In this instance Greeley
+gave up the plan of defending himself and intrusted the conduct of his
+side to Seward. The case dragged on for years in the New York courts,
+and, so far as I have been able to discover, had not been brought to a
+final trial before the plaintiff's death.</p>
+
+<p>By the end of 1843, Cooper had pretty well reduced the press to
+silence, so far as comments on his character were concerned. It was
+insignificance or remoteness alone that protected the libeler. The
+leading newspapers of the state, however much they might abuse his
+writings, learned to be very cautious of what they said of him
+personally. But it was a barren victory he had won. He had lost far
+more than he had gained. That such
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span>
+would be the result, he
+knew, while he was engaged in the controversy. It affected, at the
+time, his literary reputation, and, as a result, the sale of his
+writings; and since his death it has been a principal agency in
+keeping alive a distorted and fictitious view of his personal
+character. A common impression came to be of him something like the
+description which Greeley's lawyers gave of the estimation in which he
+was held in Otsego County, in some legal papers bearing the date of
+July, 1845. This was to the effect that he had acquired and had among
+his neighbors "the reputation of a proud, captious, censorious,
+arbitrary, dogmatical, malicious, illiberal, revengeful, and litigious
+man." This one-sided and hostile view of a strongly-marked character
+had just enough of truth in it to cause it to be widely received as an
+accurate and complete picture. In a similar way the notion became
+current that he sought to ape the manners of the English aristocracy.
+Whatever Cooper's foibles were, they were none of them imported. He
+was too proud in feeling and too self-centred in opinion ever to think
+of aping anything or anybody. But on these points the prejudices and
+misrepresentations of that day have lasted down to this.</p>
+
+<p>The account given makes it clear that the occasion of bringing the
+first of these libel suits was accidental. But as time went on the
+prosecution of them assumed to Cooper the shape of a duty. When once
+it had taken on that character, no possible degree of unpopularity or
+odium could have prevented him from persisting in his course. He
+treated with disdain the common arguments used to persuade him to
+abandon them. To one of these he referred directly in a novel
+published in 1844. He was insisting upon the superiority of the past
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span>
+to the present, a sentiment which became a favorite burden of
+his latter-day utterances. "The public sense of right," he said, "had
+not become blunted by familiarity with abuses, and the miserable and
+craven apology was never heard for not enforcing the laws that nobody
+cared for what the newspapers say." He certainly had some
+justification for the hardest things he thought and said of the press.
+The newspapers which circulated the false reports about his father's
+disposition of the property at Three Mile Point never corrected them
+after the precise facts had been published. Many of them continued to
+repeat the original statements after they must have known them to be
+untrue. Nor did they stop here. As the British press had in his case
+done all it could to justify the charge Cooper made against it of
+ferocious blackguardism of personal and political foes, so many of the
+American editors seemed anxious to realize, so far as it lay in their
+power, the picture that had been drawn of them in the character of
+Steadfast Dodge. Papers containing offensive paragraphs about Cooper
+were carefully sent, not directed to him personally, but to his wife
+and daughters. The fear of punishment is the only motive by which
+those who commit acts of this kind can possibly be influenced. On the
+other hand, it is an idle claim that the character of the press has
+been elevated by libel suits that Cooper or any one else has ever
+brought. Such prosecutions may be both justifiable and necessary; but
+the agencies that form and build up intelligence and taste and high
+principle are not of this negative and restraining character.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER X.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1839-1843.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the 10th of May, 1839, appeared Cooper's "History of the United
+States Navy." The work was one which he had long contemplated writing.
+As far back as 1825 there were newspaper reports that he had the
+undertaking in mind. He himself, in his parting speech at the dinner
+given him in May, 1826, just before his departure for Europe, had
+publicly announced his determination of devoting himself to this
+subject during his absence abroad. "Encouraged by your kindness," he
+said, "I will take this opportunity of recording the deeds and
+sufferings of a class of men to which this nation owes a debt of
+lasting gratitude--a class of men among whom, I am always ready to
+declare, not only the earliest, but many of the happiest days of my
+youth have been passed." The necessity of providing for his family and
+of paying off debts incurred by others, but for which he was
+responsible, had prevented the immediate carrying out of this
+resolution. But it had always been in his thoughts. The delay in the
+preparation probably added to the value of the history; but its
+reception would unquestionably have been far different had it been
+brought out in the height of his popularity.</p>
+
+<p>It was a work which for many reasons it was a hard task to make
+accurate, and a still harder one to make interesting. With slight
+exceptions the history could be
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span>
+little more than a record of
+detached combats; and a string of episodes, no matter how brilliant,
+can never have the attraction which belongs to unity and grandeur of
+movement. These last can alone characterize the operations of great
+fleets.</p>
+
+<p>Still, for the writing of this history Cooper was peculiarly fitted.
+He had belonged to the navy in his early life. He had never ceased to
+feel the deepest interest in its reputation and prosperity. He had
+contributed to the "Naval Magazine," a periodical published during
+1836 and 1837, a series of papers connected with the improvement of
+its condition. He was, moreover, on terms of intimacy with many of the
+officers who had won for it distinction; and through them he had
+access to sources of information that could not be gained from written
+authorities. He had, besides, the characteristic of loving truth for
+its own sake, and the disposition to endure any amount of drudgery and
+encounter any sort of toil in order to secure it. To this were added
+the special qualifications of the historical eye, which enabled him to
+seize the important facts in an infinite mass of detail, and the power
+of describing vividly what he saw clearly. Under such circumstances it
+was reasonable to expect that his work would satisfy all fair-thinking
+men. It is, perhaps, correct to say that it did so. But it also gave
+rise to a controversy which stretched over a longer period and
+surpassed, in the bitter feelings it aroused, any of the wars in which
+the navy itself had ever been engaged.</p>
+
+<p>There were special difficulties to be encountered with readers on both
+sides of the ocean. On the one hand, Englishmen had usually forgotten
+to remember that during the war of 1812 there was any naval combat of
+importance fought
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span>
+except between the Shannon and the
+Chesapeake; and even at this day it would be difficult to find in an
+English writer any account of the naval operations of that war in
+which that particular engagement does not play the principal part. If
+any other was forced upon their attention it had become an article of
+their creed that an American frigate was little else than a
+line-of-battle ship disguised. Moreover, the effective force of the
+American vessel was, according to their theory, made up of deserters
+from the British service. These two explanations of any failure were
+often combined. It is in this way Captain Brenton, one of their naval
+historians, calmly shows how it was that the Constitution happened to
+capture the Guerričre. "We may justly say," he concludes his account,
+"it was a large British frigate taking a small one." On her part
+America was not to be outdone in her estimate of national prowess. It
+had become matter of firm faith with the inhabitants of the United
+States that their side had suffered no losses worth mentioning during
+the war of 1812; that the American vessel had been invariably
+successful, whenever there was any approach to equality of force; and
+that in every case it was the superior seamanship, courage, and skill
+of their officers and men that had decided the result in their favor,
+and not superiority in weight of metal.</p>
+
+<p>Neither of these beliefs was of a kind likely to influence Cooper. He
+had got to that point of feeling in which he looked upon the public
+opinion of both England and America with a good deal of contempt. It
+was not to pamper the vanity or flatter the prejudices of either that
+he wrote, but to state the truth. For this he neglected nothing that
+lay in his power. He studied public
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span>
+documents of every kind,
+official reports, all the printed and manuscript material to which he
+could get access. From officers of the navy who had shared in the
+actions described he gathered much information which they alone were
+able to communicate. In one sense he was fully satisfied with what he
+had done. He did not pretend that in a work which involved the
+examination and sifting of an almost infinite number of details he had
+not made some errors. It was only that he had made none intentionally,
+and that he had put forth his most strenuous exertions to have what he
+wrote entirely free from mistake. Nor is it possible for any
+unprejudiced mind to read the history now and not feel the truth of
+the assertion. Its accuracy and honesty have sometimes been flippantly
+questioned, but usually by men who have not spent as many days in the
+study of the subject as Cooper did months. During his lifetime
+imputations were made in a few cases upon the correctness of his
+statements. They met then, however, so speedy and effectual a
+refutation that it was not thought worth while to repeat the
+criticisms until he was in his grave. Cooper might be wrong in his
+conclusions; but it was rarely safe to quarrel with his facts. There
+is more, however, in this history than freedom from intentional
+perversion of the truth. There are throughout the whole of it the
+calmness, the judicial spirit, the absence of partisanship which may
+not of themselves add anything to the interest of the narrative, but
+are worth everything for the impression of truthfulness it makes.</p>
+
+<p>Impartiality is a quality, however, little apt to be commended where
+our own feelings and interests are concerned. Still, the general
+fairness of the work was admitted
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span>
+in England, with the
+qualification, of course that a perfectly trustworthy history could
+not come from this side of the water. A few malignant attacks were
+made upon it. One of these, which appeared in the "United Service
+Journal" for November and December, 1839, is of the nature of a
+prolonged roar rather than a criticism; but it is worth noticing for
+the incidental evidence it furnishes of the intense rancor felt
+towards Cooper by many in England on account of his strictures upon
+that country in the two volumes devoted to it in his "Gleanings in
+Europe." The writer made the then usual profession of faith, that the
+work referred to had been completely crushed by the "Quarterly;"
+moreover, that the novelist had been convicted by it of the blackest
+ingratitude for traducing the nation which, we learn from this notice,
+had fostered his talents for romance. No critic of Cooper, either in
+Europe or in this country, it is to be remarked here, ever seemed
+willing to concede that the author had any hand in gaining his own
+reputation. In America the newspapers constantly assured him that it
+was due entirely to them. Great Britain assumed that it was to her
+generous appreciation alone that he was known in either hemisphere.
+The European main-land was not behind the island in this feeling.
+"Undoubtedly," wrote Balzac, "Cooper's renown is not due to his
+countrymen nor to the English: he owes it mainly to the ardent
+appreciation of France." This sentiment of the novelist's obligation
+to Great Britain was uppermost in the heart of the reviewer in the
+"United Service Journal." An uneasy impression, however, weighed upon
+his mind lest Cooper, who had now suffered annihilation several times
+without injury, might have survived the particular one inflicted
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span>
+by the "Quarterly." He honestly confessed, therefore, that he had
+waited some months before criticising the "Naval History," so that he
+might not look at it with a jaundiced or malignant eye in consequence
+of his recollections of the previous work on England.</p>
+
+<p>It is not worth while to take any further notice of this article, in
+which wretched criticism was put into still poorer English. But there
+was one of these reviews to which Cooper felt it incumbent on him to
+reply. This appeared in the "Edinburgh" for April, 1840. It was
+studiously fair in tone. It commended the American author's work in
+many respects. While doing so, however, it attacked him for having
+made no use of the "Naval History of Great Britain" by William James,
+a history which it spoke of in a gushing way as approaching "as nearly
+to perfection in its own line as any historical work perhaps ever
+did." It also labored heavily to break the force of some of Cooper's
+statements by charging him with making assertions without evidence or
+against evidence. James was a veterinary surgeon who had come to this
+country before the war of 1812 to practice his profession. After the
+breaking out of hostilities he left it, or rather, as he says,
+"escaped from it, before being taken prisoner into the
+interior"--whatever that may mean. In the early part of "the steelyard
+and arithmetical war," as Cooper phrased it, which has raged with
+extreme violence ever since the peace of Ghent, James bore a gallant
+and conspicuous part. He published a pamphlet on the subject, which,
+in 1817, came out expanded into a volume. In it he showed conclusively
+that his countrymen had been utterly wrong in supposing that they had
+met with any naval reverses during the war of 1812. The falsity of
+this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span>
+assumption he satisfactorily established by explaining
+that the Americans were the most inveterate liars upon the face of the
+earth. By their deceptive and fraudulent accounts they had beguiled
+the English, a self-distrustful and self-depreciating people, into
+believing that they had been defeated, where they had really been
+victorious. Heroes, indeed, can be overcome by sufficient odds; and
+James was always prepared with ample explanations to account for
+failure in special cases. He also convicted the officers of the
+American navy not merely of lying in their official reports--which was
+a duty expected of them both by government and people--but of
+cowardice in action, of misconduct in their operations, and of
+brutality toward enemies whom the chance of war threw into their
+power. A work like this not merely filled a gap in historical
+literature, it supplied a national want. It was accordingly received
+with such favor that its author went on to produce a history of the
+British navy from 1793 to the accession of George IV. In this he
+embodied his previous narrative; and a grateful people has never
+ceased to cherish a work which showed it that it had succeeded where
+previously it had been laboring under the impression that it had
+failed.</p>
+
+<p>For James and his history Cooper had unbounded contempt. This
+horse-doctor, as he termed him, he looked upon as being as well fitted
+to describe a naval engagement as the proverbial horse-marine would be
+to take part in one. Besides being incapable, he regarded him as
+eminently dishonest; as vaunting impartiality while elevating
+discreditable and improbable hearsay into positive assertion, and
+fortifying his falsehoods by a pretentious parade of figures and
+official documents. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span>
+is hardly going too far to say that,
+in Cooper's opinion, the remarks of James on American affairs combined
+all possible forms of misstatement from undesigned misrepresentation
+to deliberate falsehood. There may be difference of opinion on this
+point; on another there can be none. The period covered by the British
+writer is on the whole the most glorious in the long and brilliant
+naval history of the greatest maritime power the world has ever known.
+Never was there a greater contrast between the spirit with which
+things were done and the spirit with which they were told. In no other
+history known to man does tediousness assume proportions more
+appalling, do figures seem more juiceless, do the stories of heroic
+achievement furnish less inspiration than in this of James. If it be
+true, as some modern writers say, that history to be of value must be
+void of interest, it may be conceded that this particular work is
+entitled to that praise of perfection accorded it by the Edinburgh
+Reviewer.</p>
+
+<p>The judgment that held up such a history as a model was not likely to
+impress a man, who was still under the sway of the old-fashioned
+notion, that there was no absolutely necessary connection between
+dullness and accuracy. To this particular criticism Cooper replied in
+the "Democratic Review" for May and June, 1842. In the first article he
+exposed the ignorance and dishonesty of James. In the second he
+devoted himself to the assertions of the "Edinburgh." The game was
+hardly worth the candle. His arguments could not reach the men who
+alone needed to know them. In international quarrels of any kind there
+are few who read both sides. The feeling exists that it is not safe to
+contaminate the purity of one's faith in his country by the doubts
+that might
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span>
+arise from merely fancying that an opponent has
+reasons for his course worth considering. So it was in this case. Few
+people in the United States saw the "Edinburgh Review," none believed
+what it said. In England fewer knew even of the existence of the
+"Democratic Review."</p>
+
+<p>The controversy that arose in this country was on an entirely
+different ground. It was one that could hardly have been foreseen. The
+personal hostility which Cooper had succeeded in drawing upon himself
+was never so conspicuously shown as in the treatment which his "Naval
+History" underwent. At first, indeed, it was received with general
+favor, though by many it was thought to give too much credit to the
+English. In a short time, however, attacks were made upon it so
+virulent, so causeless, and withal so simultaneous, that the mere fact
+would of itself afford reason for the suspicion that they were
+concerted. This was practically the case. A certain amount of
+preliminary detail will make the circumstances clear. The controversy
+was entirely about the account of a particular action in the war of
+1812, and a work containing over fifty chapters was absolutely
+condemned as partisan and worthless for what was found on a few pages
+of one chapter.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of Lake Erie was fought and won by Commodore Perry on the
+10th of September, 1813. It presented the peculiarity that the
+Lawrence, the flagship of the victorious squadron, had struck to the
+enemy in the course of the engagement. There was a feeling prevalent
+among many at the time that Elliott, the second in rank, had not been
+cordial in his support of his commander, and had left him to bear for
+a long while the brunt of the fight without hastening in his vessel,
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span>
+Niagara, to his help. This was, in particular, the
+general belief among those on board the Lawrence. Perry did not
+sanction this view at first. Urged by good-nature, according to the
+theory of his friends, he praised Elliott's conduct in his official
+report. He went even farther in a letter of the 19th of September.
+This was in reply to a note from Elliott stating that rumors were
+current that the Lawrence had been sacrificed because of the lack of
+proper exertion on the part of the second in command. "I am
+indignant," wrote Perry, "that any report should be in circulation
+prejudicial to your character as respects the action of the 10th
+instant. It affords me pleasure that I have it in my power to assure
+you that the conduct of yourself, officers, and crew was such as to
+merit my warmest approbation. And I consider the circumstance of your
+volunteering and bringing the smaller vessels up to close action as
+contributing largely to our victory." Such was the situation at the
+time. A few years later, however, a bitter quarrel sprang up between
+Perry and Elliott, which apparently owed a good deal of its rancor to
+the exertions of good-natured friends of both in communicating to each
+remarks made, or supposed to be made, by the other. An envenomed
+correspondence took place in 1818. It led to Elliott's challenging
+Perry, and Perry preferring charges against Elliott for his conduct at
+the battle of Lake Erie. In the letter accompanying the charges he
+gave as his reason for changing his opinion as to the behavior of his
+second in command, that he had been put into possession of fresh
+facts. The government took no action in the matter, and in the
+following year Perry died. In 1834 Elliott became the mark of
+hostility of the Whig press on account of his putting the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span>
+figure of Andrew Jackson at the figure-head of the Constitution, the
+war-ship of which he was in command. The old scandal about his conduct
+at Erie was revived. Elliott did more than defend himself. A life of
+him was published in 1835, written by another, but from materials
+evidently that he himself had furnished. It claimed that the success
+of the battle of Lake Erie was mainly due to his efforts. It naturally
+produced a feeling of intense bitterness among Perry's friends and
+relatives. This was the way matters stood at the time that the "Naval
+History" was brought out.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper entered upon the account of the battle of Lake Erie with the
+common prejudice against Elliott. Nor were efforts lacking to keep it
+alive and strengthen it, when it was reported in naval circles that he
+had begun to be uncertain about the justice of his original
+impressions. Captain Matthew Perry, the brother of the Commodore,
+forwarded him all the sworn documentary evidence that made against
+Elliott. He neglected to send any that was given in his favor. Cooper
+was not the man to be satisfied with this way of writing history. As
+he examined the subject more and more, he was struck by the
+conflicting character of the testimony, and the doubt that overhung
+the whole question. He came finally to the conclusion that it was not
+a matter he could settle, or, perhaps, any one. He accordingly
+contented himself with giving as accurate an account of the battle of
+Lake Erie as he could without entering at all into the details of the
+controversy. He made not the slightest effort to detract from the
+praise due to Perry, and, indeed, paid the highest tribute to his
+skill and conduct. Nor did he give to Elliott any prominence whatever.</p>
+
+
+<p>He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span>
+had committed, however, the unpardonable sin. He had
+refused to attack Elliott. He had preferred to accept Perry's original
+account of the battle, written within five days after it had taken
+place, to the view he took of it not only five years later, but also
+after a bitter personal quarrel had sprung up between him and his
+former second in command. While Cooper had made no special mention of
+the latter, he had spoken of him respectfully. There was a general
+feeling that Elliott ought to have been attacked. He was a very
+unpopular man, and, perhaps, deservedly so; while Perry was both a
+popular favorite and a popular hero. The refusal of Cooper to join in
+the general denunciation brought down upon him, not only those who
+honestly believed him in the wrong, but the whole horde of his own
+personal enemies who knew little and cared less about this particular
+subject. In the long list of controversies which the student of
+literature is under the necessity of examining, none seems so uncalled
+for and so discreditable to the assailants as this. For it is to be
+borne in mind that the historian had not made the slightest attempt to
+injure Perry in the popular estimation, or to elevate the subordinate
+at the expense of the commander. Yet assertions of this kind were
+constantly bandied about, though it would not have taken five minutes
+reading of the work to have shown their falsity. Cooper was frequently
+spoken of by the press as the detractor of American fame and the
+slanderer of American character, because he refused to say, on
+one-sided evidence, that an officer of the United States navy had been
+willing to sacrifice his superior in a hotly contested battle and
+imperil the result for the sake of ministering to his own personal
+ambition, or of gratifying a feeling of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span>
+personal dislike and
+envy, of the existence of which at the time there was no proof.</p>
+
+<p>Space here exists to notice only the elaborate attacks to which Cooper
+himself felt constrained to reply. The first of these appeared in four
+numbers of the "New York Commercial Advertiser" during June, 1839. The
+articles were written by William A. Duer, who had lately been
+president of Columbia College. They purported to be a review of the
+"Naval History," but nothing whatever was said about that work beyond
+the few pages in which the battle of Lake Erie is described. They
+were, moreover, so personal in their nature and contained imputations
+so gross on his character, that Cooper began a libel suit against the
+journal in which they were published. This finally resulted in one of
+the most extraordinary trials that has ever been recorded in merely
+literary annals. The attack in the "Commercial Advertiser" was
+followed by a similar one in the "North American Review." This was
+written, however, with more decency, though it again devoted itself
+mainly to the battle of Lake Erie. It was the work of Alexander
+Slidell Mackenzie, a naval author, who by three books of travel had
+gained at the time some literary notoriety. But the notoriety never
+rose to reputation; and the history which preserves his name at all,
+preserves it in connection with an event it were well for his memory
+to have eternally forgotten. It is to be added that he was the
+brother-in-law of Captain Matthew Perry, and that Duer was his uncle.
+Hardly had his broadside been delivered, when another attack appeared.
+The victor of Lake Erie had come from Rhode Island, and Rhode Island
+rushed to the fray, not to defend her son--for he had not been
+attacked--but to build
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span>
+up his reputation by ruining that of
+his enemy. Tristam Burges, when the biography of Elliott, already
+referred to, had appeared, had delivered a lecture on the battle of
+Lake Erie before the Rhode Island Historical Society. It was not
+printed at the time; but no sooner was Cooper's work published than,
+at the request of Perry's friends and relatives, it was brought out
+with documents appended. The lecture reads very much like a stump
+speech of the extreme florid type. It is needless to say that in it
+Elliott got his full deserts for betraying his commander. It made no
+direct reference to Cooper, but the whole object was to discredit the
+account of the battle which he had given.</p>
+
+<p>Even this was not all. Mackenzie prepared a life of Perry, which was
+published early in 1841. In it he attacked Elliott with great
+bitterness, and was careful to give in an appendix all the sworn
+testimony on one side, and leave out all the sworn testimony on the
+other. The biography met with general favor. It was styled a noble
+work, and the courage manifested by the author in assailing an
+unpopular man and celebrating a popular hero was, for some reason hard
+now to be understood, highly commended on all sides. The intense
+partisanship of the biography can be read on almost every page. But it
+was warmly welcomed everywhere, for Elliott had few friends even in
+his own profession. The "North American Review" for July, 1841, in an
+article written by the late Admiral Charles H. Davis, congratulated
+the navy on now having a work which gave a true and faithful report of
+the battle of Lake Erie, and stigmatized Cooper's account as false in
+spirit, statement, and comment.</p>
+
+<p>This was, indeed, the general charge. For a while Cooper
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span>
+was
+under as heavy a bombardment as Perry himself had been in his
+flagship. That his feelings were outraged by the injustice of it there
+can be no question, but it never daunted his spirit. Yet he took not
+the slightest step without being sure of his ground. He went over the
+evidence again and again. He talked with officers of the navy who held
+views opposed to his own; though he said afterward he rarely found
+that they knew anything about the matter beyond common report. With
+the exception of a few newspaper articles, however, he published
+nothing directly in reply until four years after his history was
+published. In the mean while he pressed the suit against William L.
+Stone, the editor of the "Commercial Advertiser." That paper at first
+took the prosecution in the jocular and insolent way then common with
+the press. Under an announcement of "Stand Clear," it informed its
+readers early in August, 1839, that "the interesting Mr. J. Effingham
+Fenimore Cooper is to bring a libel suit against us. None will
+approach it in interest, importance, or amusement." The editor was
+telling more truth than he thought. No action, however, was taken by
+Cooper for nearly a year to carry out his expressed intention. But he
+could always be depended upon. His suits, though sometimes long in
+coming, were sure to come at last. Great was the surprise of the
+editor when, in May, 1840, a process was served upon him for a libel
+printed eleven months before. He was indignant that the prosecutor had
+waited so long. A demurrer was filed and argued in July, 1840, at the
+Utica term of the Supreme Court. The decision was against the
+defendant. Things now began to look more serious; for while the
+importance of the suit was increasing, its amusement was diminishing.
+It, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span>
+however, hung on in the courts for a year and a half
+longer. The defendant was naturally unwilling to hasten a trial which
+was almost certain to end in an adverse verdict. Negotiations between
+the parties in the autumn of 1841 resulted in a novel agreement.
+Cooper did not care for damages. It was not money he sought; it was to
+vindicate the truth of his history and his character as an historian.
+When, therefore, his adversary suggested that an ordinary jury of
+twelve men could not well pass upon a question involving the value of
+conflicting evidence, and minute technical detail, he seized upon the
+occasion to arrange that it should be tried before a body of referees,
+consisting of three distinguished lawyers. The proposal was accepted.
+Never was the eternal question between author and reviewer settled in
+a more singular and a more thorough way. For the referees were to
+decide, not merely upon legal points, but upon moral ones. They were
+to decide whether the author had written a truthful account of the
+battle of Lake Erie, and whether he had written it in a spirit of
+truth. On the other hand, they were to decide whether the reviewer had
+written matter libelous enough to justify a verdict from a jury, and
+whether in the treatment of the subject for which he criticised the
+history he had been just and impartial. If the decision were in favor
+of the author the defendant was not to pay more than two hundred and
+fifty dollars besides the costs. In any case the beaten party was to
+publish the full text of the decision, at his own expense, in the
+cities of New York, Albany, and Washington. The referees agreed upon
+were Samuel Steevens, named by Cooper; Daniel Lord, Jr., named by
+Stone; and Samuel A. Foot, chosen by mutual consent. The attendance of
+many witnesses was rendered
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span>
+unnecessary by the stipulation
+that a vast mass of documentary testimony in possession of Cooper
+should be taken in evidence.</p>
+
+<p>The referees met in the United States court room in New York city, on
+the afternoon of Monday, May 16, 1842. A large crowd was in
+attendance. Public interest had been aroused, not only by the question
+involved and the novel character of the suit, but by the fact that the
+historian was to assume the principal conduct of his own side. The
+trial lasted for five days. After the opening speeches had been made,
+the taking of oral testimony began. Among the witnesses for the
+defense were Sands, Mackenzie, and Paulding, all officers of the navy.
+They were examined in reference to Cooper's account of the battle of
+Lake Erie and the diagrams by which he represented the positions of
+the vessels during the engagement. Their views were in all respects
+opposed to the theory of operations which he had assumed. After the
+taking of the oral testimony was ended and certain legal questions had
+been argued, the summing up was begun by William W. Campbell of
+Otsego, the leading lawyer for the defense. His speech was exceedingly
+able and effective. Men who were present at the proceedings asserted,
+when it was finished, that there was no possible way in which its
+reasoning could be shaken, still less overthrown. At eight o'clock on
+Thursday evening Cooper began summing up for the prosecution, and
+continued until ten. On Friday he resumed his argument at four in the
+afternoon, and six hours had passed before he concluded. His conduct
+of the case from the beginning had excited surprise and admiration.
+Friends and foes alike bore witness to the signal ability he had
+displayed throughout; but
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span>
+his closing speech made an
+especially profound impression. Its interest, its ingenuity, and its
+effectiveness were conceded by the defendant himself. It was for a
+long time after spoken of as one of the finest forensic displays that
+had ever been witnessed at the New York bar. Among those present at
+the trial was Henry T. Tuckerman, who has left us an account of the
+circumstances and of the bearing of the man. "A more unpopular cause,"
+he wrote, "never fell to the lot of a practiced advocate; for the hero
+of Lake Erie was and had long been one of the most cherished of
+American victors. We could not but admire the self-possession,
+coolness, and vigor with which the author, on this occasion, played
+the lawyer. Almost alone in his opinion,--the tide of public sentiment
+against his theory of the battle, and the popular sympathy wholly with
+the received traditions of that memorable day,--he stood collected,
+dignified, uncompromising; examined witnesses, quoted authorities,
+argued nautical and naval precedents with a force and a facility which
+would have done credit to an experienced barrister. On the one hand,
+his speech was a remarkable exhibition of self-esteem, and on the
+other, a most interesting professional argument; for when he described
+the battle, and illustrated his views by diagrams, it was like a
+chapter in one of his own sea-stories, so minute, graphic, and
+spirited was the picture he drew. The dogmatism was more than
+compensated for by the picturesqueness of the scene; his
+self-complacency was exceeded by his wonderful ability. He quoted
+Cooper's 'Naval History' as if it were 'Blackstone;' he indulged in
+reminiscences; he made digressions and told anecdotes; he spoke of the
+man&oelig;uvres of the vessels, of the shifting of the wind, of the
+course
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span>
+of the fight, like one whose life had been passed on
+the quarter-deck. No greater evidence of self-reliance, of
+indifference to the opinion of the world, and to that of his
+countrymen in particular, of the rarest descriptive talent, of
+pertinacity, loyalty to personal conviction, and a manly, firm, yet
+not unkindly spirit, could be imagined than the position thus assumed,
+and the manner in which he met the exigency. As we gazed and listened,
+we understood clearly why, as a man, Cooper had been viewed from such
+extremes of prejudice and partiality; we recognized at once the
+generosity and courage, and the willfulness and pride of his
+character: but the effect was to inspire a respect for the man, such
+as authors whose errors are moral weaknesses never excite."</p>
+
+<p>On the 16th of June the referees rendered their decision on the eight
+points submitted to them for adjudication. In regard to five of these
+they were all in full agreement; but in three instances one of the
+referees dissented from certain portions of the report made by the
+other two.</p>
+
+<p>The first point was whether, according to the evidence and the rules
+of the law the plaintiff would be entitled to the verdict of a jury in
+an ordinary suit for libel. They agreed that he would, and accordingly
+awarded the damages that had been fixed by the original stipulation.</p>
+
+<p>The second point was whether in writing his account of the battle of
+Lake Erie, Cooper had faithfully fulfilled his obligations as an
+historian. The majority of the referees decided that he had so done.
+Mr. Foot dissented to this extent, that Cooper had intended to do so,
+but that from error of judgment or from some cause not
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span>
+impugning the purity of his motives, he had failed in one specified
+point. This was that the narrative gave the impression that Elliott's
+conduct in the battle had met with universal approbation, which it had
+not. The arbitrator added, however, that this was the only particular
+in which it appeared to him that the historian had failed in
+fulfilling the high trust he had taken upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>The third point was whether the narrative of the battle of Lake Erie
+was true or not in its essential facts, and if untrue, in what
+particulars. The majority decided that it was true. Mr. Foot dissented
+on the same point, to the same extent, and for the same reason, for
+which he had dissented from the second.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth point was whether the account of the battle was written in
+a spirit of impartiality and justice. They all agreed that it was so
+written.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth point was whether the writer of the criticism, upon which
+the suit was founded, had faithfully fulfilled the office of a
+reviewer. If not they were to give the facts upon which their
+conclusion was based. They unanimously agreed that the writer had not
+faithfully discharged his obligations as a reviewer; that he had
+indulged in personal imputations; that he was guilty of misquotations
+which materially changed the meaning; that his statements were
+incorrect in several particulars; and that his charge that Cooper had
+given to Elliott equal credit with Perry in the conduct of the battle
+was untrue. This last assertion, they add, was made after a careful
+examination by them of the history itself.</p>
+
+<p>The sixth point was whether the review was true or not in its
+essential facts; and if untrue, in what particulars. They
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span>
+all agreed that it was untrue, and gave the particulars.</p>
+
+<p>The seventh point was whether the review was written in a spirit of
+impartiality and justice. The majority decided that it was not so
+written. Here again Mr. Foot made a partial dissent. He considered the
+review to have been written under the influence of a wakeful
+sensibility, inconsiderately and unnecessarily aroused in defense of
+the reputation of a beloved and deceased friend.</p>
+
+<p>The eighth point was to settle which of the two parties should be
+required to publish the full text of the decision at his own expense
+in newspapers published in New York, Washington, and Albany. The
+referees agreed that this was to be done by the defendant.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended this suit. For Cooper the result was a great personal
+triumph. He had had to contend with the prejudices of a nation. For
+months and years he had been persistently assailed with all the
+weapons that unscrupulous partisanship or unreasoning family affection
+could wield. He had been compelled to identify his own cause with that
+of a man who, in addition to unpopularity with members of his own
+profession, had drawn upon himself the hostility of a political party.
+He had been under the necessity of controverting, in some particulars,
+a generally accepted belief. Against him had been arrayed two of the
+ablest lawyers of the bar. Naval officers of reputation had on the
+witness stand criticised his theory of the battle and contradicted his
+statements. He had been assisted in the conduct of the case by his
+nephew; but outside of this he had received help from no one. Sympathy
+with him, there was little; desire for his success, there was less;
+and the referees could
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span>
+hardly fail to feel to some extent
+the influence that pervaded the whole country. In the face of all
+these odds he had fought the battle and won it. He had wrung respect
+and admiration from a hostile public sentiment which he had openly and
+contemptuously defied. Upon the essential matters in dispute the
+verdict of three men, of highest rank in their profession and skilled
+in the weighing of conflicting evidence, had been entirely in his
+favor.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper followed up his victory by a pamphlet which appeared in August,
+1843, entitled, "The Battle of Lake Erie: or, Answers to Messrs.
+Burges, Duer, and Mackenzie." In this he went fully over the ground.
+No reply was made to it; there was in fact none to be made. The
+popular tradition could best be maintained by silence. Silence at any
+rate during his lifetime was preserved, and silence in cases where it
+would have been creditable to have said something. It certainly
+affords justification additional to that already given, for the
+contemptuous opinion expressed by Cooper of the American press, that
+the newspapers which had been loudest in the denunciation of his
+history, never so much as alluded to the result of the trial brought
+to test authoritatively the fairness and impartiality of the narrative
+for which he had been condemned.</p>
+
+<p>After reading patiently all that has been written on both sides of
+this question, it seems to me that not only was the verdict of the
+arbitrators a just one, but that Cooper was right in the view he took.
+Still, where evidence is conflicting there is ample room for
+difference of opinion; and in regard to the conduct of Elliott at Lake
+Erie the evidence is diametrically opposed. The only secure method,
+therefore, of obtaining and maintaining a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span>
+comfortable
+bigotry of belief on the subject is to read carefully the testimony on
+one side and to despise the other so thoroughly as to refrain from
+even looking at it. This was then and has since been the course
+followed by the thick and thin partisans of Perry. But whether the
+conclusion be right or not at which Cooper arrived, there was never
+the slightest justification for the gross abuse to which he was
+subjected. He had everything to gain by falling in with the popular
+tradition and attacking Elliott. Nothing but lofty integrity and love
+of truth could have made him take the course he did. If a mistake at
+all, it was a mistake of judgment. But the charges brought against him
+were based in most instances upon deliberate misrepresentation of what
+he had said. This was especially true of the criticisms of Duer and
+Mackenzie. The perversion of meaning of one of his foot-notes is a
+striking instance of the unscrupulous nature of these attacks. In this
+Cooper had spoken of the vulgar opinion which celebrated as an act of
+special gallantry Perry's passing in an open boat from one ship to
+another as being the very least of his merits; that the same thing was
+done in the same engagement by others, including Elliott; that there
+was personal risk everywhere; and that Perry's real merit was his
+indomitable resolution not to be conquered, and the manner in which he
+sought new modes of victory when old ones failed. If this be
+depreciatory, it is depreciatory to say that greater honor is due to
+him who manifests the skill and fertility of resource of a commander
+than to him who exhibits the mere valor of a soldier. But in Duer's
+review of the "Naval History," and Mackenzie's "Life of Perry," the
+purport of the note was entirely changed. The concluding portion
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span>
+was dishonestly omitted, and a paragraph that gave to the victor
+of Lake Erie credit for generalship rather than soldiership was
+converted into an assertion that the risk he had run was of slight
+consequence.</p>
+
+<p>This controversy brought in its train another libel suit. To the
+editor of the "Commercial Advertiser" the result had caused deep
+mortification. The reviewer also was naturally dissatisfied with a
+decision which left upon him the stigma of a libeler. He offered, if
+the case could be brought before a common jury for another trial, to
+pay double the amount of damages awarded, provided the result was
+against him. With such an arrangement Mr. Stone declined to have
+anything to do. He had had, he said, annoyance enough already with the
+suit. But he was tempted in a moment of vexation to indulge in remarks
+which implied that Cooper was in a hurry to get the sum awarded, with
+the object of putting it into Wall Street "for shaving purposes." The
+insinuation was uncalled for and unjustifiable; and as the editor
+subsequently admitted that it was only made in jest, it may be imputed
+to his credit that he had the grace to be ashamed of it. A libel suit,
+however, followed. It was at first decided in Cooper's favor. It was
+then carried up to the Court of Errors, and in December, 1845, more
+than a year after Mr. Stone's death, that tribunal reversed the
+decision. The result of the trial was hailed with the keenest delight
+by the Whig press of the state. "The Great Persecutor," as he was
+sometimes styled, had been finally foiled. "The rights of the press,"
+said one of the newspapers, "are at last triumphant over the tyranny
+of courts and the vile constructions of the law of libel." The value
+of the victory, however, was largely lessened by the little respect
+in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span>
+which the Court of Errors was held. This tribunal, which
+consisted in the majority of cases of the Chancellor and of the
+members of the state Senate, was swept away by the Constitution of
+1846. Its influence had gone long before. Cooper was doubtless giving
+expression to the general feeling as well as venting his own
+indignation at this particular decision when he spoke of it, as he did
+a little later, as a "pitiful imitation of the House of Lords'
+system," by which a body of "small lawyers, country doctors,
+merchants, farmers," with occasionally a man of ability, were
+constituted the highest tribunal in the state.</p>
+
+<p>Two other results followed incidentally this controversy about the
+battle of Lake Erie. One had the nature of comedy, the other partook
+rather of that of tragedy. Perry, as has been said, was a Rhode
+Islander, and many of the men he had with him had come from that
+state. Tristam Burges, in his lecture, had, in many instances, allowed
+his eloquence to get the better of his sense. In the preface to it,
+when published, he abandoned the latter altogether. He twice asserted,
+and gave his reasons for it, that "the fleet and battle of Erie" were
+to be regarded "as a part of the maritime affairs of Rhode Island."
+Apparently, however, the whole state took the same view. There seemed
+to be a feeling prevalent in it that its own reputation lay in
+destroying the reputation of Perry's second in command. In 1845
+Elliott had a medal struck in honor of Cooper. It bore on one side the
+head of the author surrounded by the words, "The Personification of
+Honor, Truth, and Justice." At the suggestion of John Quincy Adams
+copies were sent to the various historical societies of the country.
+That statesman himself undertook their transmission. Accordingly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span>
+one was forwarded among the rest to the Rhode Island Society. It
+reached its destination in March. It threw that body into a tumult of
+excitement. The trustees reflected upon it anxiously. They referred it
+to a committee. After prolonged brooding the committee gave birth to a
+preamble and two resolutions. These were reported to the Society at
+the meeting of the 10th of September. In one of the resolutions the
+letter of Adams was embodied, and he was thanked for the care and
+attention he had displayed in the discharge of the trust committed to
+him by Commodore Elliott. The second resolution recited substantially
+that Cooper had not been conducting himself properly in the matter,
+and had published opinions which the Society could not adopt or
+sanction. It therefore declined to accept the medal in his honor, and
+directed the president to transmit it to Adams with the request to
+return it to Commodore Elliott. Vigorous as this action may now seem,
+it did not then come up to the level of offended justice. There was to
+be no tampering with iniquity, even in high places. Elliott was not to
+succeed in his impudent effort to skulk behind the character of Adams,
+nor was Adams to escape reproof for the base uses to which he had
+allowed himself to be put. A motion was accordingly made to strike out
+the resolution conveying to that statesman the thanks of the Society.
+It was carried unanimously. The medal was accordingly returned to him
+with the request that he send it to Elliott with an attested copy of
+the resolution. Adams's conception of an Historical Society was
+different from that then entertained in Rhode Island. He clearly
+thought it no part of their business to be officially engaged in
+upholding the reputation of favorite sons,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span>
+or defending the
+character of heroes. His reply was curt, not to say tart. "I decline
+the office," he wrote, "requested of me by the Historical Society of
+Rhode Island, and hold the medal and the copy of the resolution, which
+they request me to transmit to Commodore Elliott, to be delivered to
+any person whom they, or you by their direction, may authorize to
+receive them."</p>
+
+<p>Cooper apparently said nothing about this action at the time. He had
+before been solemnly warned by the Providence newspapers not to risk a
+controversy with Burges, or, as they more graphically expressed it,
+not to "get into the talons of the bald-headed eagle of Rhode Island."
+The threatened danger, however, had not deterred him from exposing the
+absurdities into which even eagles fall when they use their pinions
+for writing and not for flying. Not even did he have the fear of the
+Historical Society itself before his eyes. In 1850 he took occasion to
+pay his respects to that body. He was then bringing out a revised
+edition of his novels. In the preface to "The Red Rover," he mentioned
+the stone tower at Newport, and referred to the way in which he had
+been assailed for his irreverence in calling it a mill. He repeated
+this assertion as to its character. He expressed his belief that the
+building was more probably built upon arches to defend grain from mice
+than men from savages. "We trust," he added, "this denial of the
+accuracy of what may be a favorite local theory will not draw upon us
+any new evidence of the high displeasure of the Rhode Island
+Historical Society, an institution which displayed such a magnanimous
+sense of the right, so much impartiality, and so profound an
+understanding of the laws of nature and of the facts
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span>
+of the
+day, on a former occasion when we incurred its displeasure, that we
+really dread a second encounter with its philosophy, its historical
+knowledge, its wit, and its signal love of justice. Little
+institutions, like little men, very naturally have a desire to get on
+stilts; a circumstance that may possibly explain the theory of this
+extraordinary and very useless fortification. We prefer the truth and
+common sense to any other mode of reasoning, not having the honor to
+be an Historical Society at all." No reply, at least no public reply,
+came from that quarter during his life, to the views he had expressed.
+It was only when he was unable to defend himself that he was again
+assailed. In February, 1852, an account of the battle of Lake Erie was
+delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society by Usher Parsons,
+who had been assistant surgeon on board the Lawrence. His testimony
+had been somewhat severely criticised by Cooper. Now that the latter
+was in his grave he took occasion to cast imputations upon the motives
+of the historian, and asperse the honesty of his statements. Parsons
+added nothing new of moment to the discussion, for what he said was
+merely a rehash, made in a very bungling way, of the old facts and
+assertions. But the spirit in which he wrote and the insinuations in
+which he indulged furnish ample justification for the low opinion
+which Cooper held of the evidence he had previously given.</p>
+
+<p>With the parting shot in the preface to "The Red Rover," the
+controversy, on Cooper's part, concluded. He had, however, been
+concerned in another matter, in which the fortunes of his own work and
+the fortunes of one of its critics were strangely blended. In 1841 an
+abridged edition of his "Naval History" was brought out
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span>
+in
+one volume. The publisher was desirous of having it included in the
+list of books purchased for the district school libraries of New York.
+With this object in view he offered it, without Cooper's knowledge, to
+the Secretary of State, John C. Spencer, who was also superintendent
+of public instruction. To him was confided, by virtue of his office,
+the selection of the works which should constitute these libraries. He
+rejected the proposal with uncomplimentary brevity. He would have
+nothing to do, he informed the publisher, with so partisan a
+performance. Soon after this he emphasized his opinion of its
+partisanship by directing the purchase of Mackenzie's "Life of
+Perry"--a work which was almost avowedly one-sided. There was a
+retribution almost poetical in the tragedy that followed; for the same
+lack of mental balance and judgment that had been exhibited in this
+biography of Perry was to show itself under circumstances peculiarly
+harrowing. In October, 1841, Spencer joined the administration of John
+Tyler as Secretary of War. In December, 1842, Mackenzie, then in
+command of the United States brig Somers, gave a still further proof
+of his impartiality by hanging on the high seas Spencer's son, an
+acting midshipman, for alleged mutiny. It was done without even going
+through the formality of a trial. It was an act of manslaughter, not
+committed, indeed, from any feeling of malice, but merely from the
+same lack of judgment that he had displayed in the literary
+controversy in which he had been engaged. Mackenzie was brought before
+a naval court-martial, and succeeded with some difficulty in securing
+an acquittal. In 1844 the proceedings of the trial were published, and
+annexed to them was an elaborate review of the case by Cooper. It was
+written in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span>
+a calm and temperate tone, but it practically
+settled the question of the character of the act.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper's interest in the navy led him also to write a series of lives
+of officers who had been prominent in its history. The first of these
+appeared originally in "Graham's Magazine" for October, 1842, and the
+others are scattered through the volumes of that year and the years
+succeeding. In 1846 they were published in book form. Among them was a
+life of Perry. In this he took occasion to reaffirm what he had
+previously said about the battle of Lake Erie. But the injustice which
+had been done to him did not lead him to treat with injustice the man
+whose life he was writing, though it was impossible for him to say
+what would be satisfactory to Perry's partisans without falsifying
+what he believed to be the truth.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the numerous attacks made upon it the "Naval History" was
+successful, as success is measured in technical works of this kind. A
+second edition, revised and corrected, appeared in April, 1840, and in
+1847 a third edition was published. At the time of his death Cooper
+was projecting a continuation of it, and had gathered together
+materials for that purpose. The original work ended with the close of
+the last war with Great Britain. He intended to bring it down to the
+end of the Mexican War. This was done by another after his death. In
+1853 a new edition of the "Naval History" appeared with a continuation
+prepared by the Reverend Charles W. McHarg. The matter that Cooper
+had collected was used, but there was very little in what was added
+that was of his own composition. Of the original work, it is safe to
+say, that for the period which it covers it is little likely to be
+superseded as
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span>
+the standard history of the American navy.
+Later investigation may show some of the author's assertions to be
+erroneous. Some of his conclusions may turn out as mistaken as have
+his prophecies about the use of steam in war vessels. But such
+defects, assuming that they exist, are more than counterbalanced by
+advantages which make it a final authority on points that can never
+again be so fully considered. Many sources of information which were
+then accessible no longer exist. The men who shared in the scenes
+described, and who communicated information directly to Cooper, have
+all passed away. These are losses that can never be replaced, even
+were it reasonable to expect that the same practical knowledge, the
+same judicial spirit, and the same power of graphic description could
+be found united again in the same person.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>1840-1850.</h3>
+
+
+<p>No man could go through the conflicts which Cooper had been carrying
+on for so many years unharmed or unscarred. For the hostility
+entertained and expressed toward him in England he cared but little.
+But though too proud to parade his sufferings, the injustice done him
+in his own land aroused in his heart an indignation which had in it,
+however, as much pain as anger. He could not fail to see that he was
+in a false position, that his motives were misunderstood where even
+they were not deliberately misrepresented. The generation which had
+shared in his early triumphs and had gloried in his early fame had
+largely passed away. From some who survived he had been parted by a
+separation bitterer than that of death. To the new generation that had
+come on he appeared only as the captious and censorious critic of his
+country. His works were read in every civilized country. To many men
+they had brought all the little knowledge they possessed of America;
+to certain regions they could almost be said to have first carried its
+name. But the land which he loved with a passionate fervor seemed
+largely to have disowned him. It would be vain to deny his
+sensitiveness to this hostility. Traces of his secret feeling crop out
+unexpectedly in his later works. They reveal phases of his character
+which would never be inferred from his acts; they show the existence
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span>
+of sentiments which he would never have directly avowed.
+"There are men," says the hero of "Afloat and Ashore," "so strong in
+principle as well as in intellect, I do suppose, that they can be
+content with the approbation of their own consciences, and who can
+smile at the praise or censure of the world alike: but I confess to a
+strong sympathy with the commendation of my fellow-creatures, and a
+strong distaste for their disapprobation." Especially marked is the
+reference to himself in the words he puts into the mouth of Columbus
+in his "Mercedes of Castile." "Genoa," says the navigator, "hath
+proved but a stern mother to me: and though nought could induce me to
+raise a hand against her, she hath no longer any claim on my
+services.... One cannot easily hate the land of his birth, but
+injustice may lead him to cease to love it. The tie is mutual, and
+when the country ceases to protect person, property, character, and
+rights, the subject is liberated from all his duties."</p>
+
+<p>It was the attacks connected with the controversy about the "Naval
+History" that more than anything else embittered Cooper's feelings. He
+had striven hard to write a full and trustworthy account of the
+achievements of his country upon the sea. Because he had refused to
+pervert what he deemed the truth to the gratification of private
+spite, he had been assailed with a malignity that had hardly stopped
+short of any species of misrepresentation. Rarely has devotion to the
+right met with a worse return. The reward of untiring industry, of
+patriotic zeal, and of conscientious examination of evidence, was
+little else than calumny and abuse. He felt so keenly the treatment he
+had received that he regretted having ever written the "Naval History"
+at all.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span>
+In a published letter of the early part of 1843 he
+expressed himself on the matter in words that come clearly from the
+depths of a wounded spirit. "Were the manuscript of what has been
+printed," he wrote, "now lying before me unpublished, I certainly
+should throw it into the fire as an act of prudence to myself and of
+justice to my children." In his triumphant reply to Burges, Duer, and
+Mackenzie, while he showed the haughty disdain he felt for the popular
+clamor which had condemned him without knowledge, he did not seek to
+hide the bitterness it had caused. "This controversy," he said, "was
+not of my seeking; for years have I rested under the imputations that
+these persons have brought against me, and I now strike a blow in
+behalf of truth, not from any deference to a public opinion that in my
+opinion has not honesty enough to feel much interest in the exposure
+of duplicity and artifice, but that my children may point to the facts
+with just pride that they had a father who dared to stem popular
+prejudice in order to write truth."</p>
+
+<p>It is in these last lines that Cooper unconsciously revealed the
+strength which enabled him to go through this roar of hostile
+criticism and calumny without having his whole nature soured. One
+great resource he possessed, and its influence cannot be
+overestimated. In the closest and dearest relations of life with which
+happiness is connected far more intimately than with the most
+prosperous series of outward events, he was supremely fortunate. In
+his own home his lot was favored beyond that of most men. However
+violent the storm without, there he could always find peace and trust
+and affection. The regard, indeed, felt for him by the female members
+of his family, may justly be termed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span>
+devotion. Towards all
+women he exhibited deference almost to the point of chivalry. But in
+the case of those of his own household there was mingled with it a
+tenderness which called forth in return that ardent attachment which
+strong natures alone seem capable of inspiring. This deference and
+tenderness were the more conspicuous by contrast with his opinions.
+These would fill with wrath unspeakable the advocates of women's
+rights. Nor was he at all particular about mincing their expression.
+He sometimes gave utterance to them in the most extreme form. He even
+made his sentiments more emphatic by putting them into the mouths of
+his female characters. "There is," says the governess in "The Red
+Rover," "no peace for our feeble sex but in submission; no happiness
+but in obedience." In his last novel he denounced furiously the law
+that gave to the wife control over her own property, and predicted, as
+a consequence, all sorts of disasters to the family that have never
+come to pass. All this was eminently characteristic. But like many
+strong men tenacious of acknowledged superiority he was content with
+the mere concession. That granted, he would yield to submission
+infinitely more than recognized equality could have a right to expect
+or could hope to gain. We may think what we please of his views about
+women; there can be but one opinion as to his conduct towards them.</p>
+
+<p>A characteristic instance of the wantonness with which Cooper's acts
+and motives were deliberately misrepresented during this period
+occurred in 1841. In that year came out a work, which had, in its day,
+some little notoriety, but has long ago passed to the limbo of
+forgotten things. It was called "The Glory and Shame of England." The
+very title shows that this production was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span>
+maliciously
+calculated to make the British lion lash his tail with frenzy: and if
+we can trust its author, Mr. C. Edwards Lester, it met with fierce
+opposition from British residents in this country and their
+sympathizers. In an introductory letter addressed to the Reverend J.
+T. Headley, he told the story of the experiences his agents had
+undergone in securing subscriptions. In the course of it he made the
+following allusion to Cooper. "Already," he wrote, "have several
+educated and highly respectable young men engaged (with unprecedented
+success) in procuring subscribers for this work been rudely driven
+from the houses of Englishmen for crossing their threshold with the
+prospectus. And I blush (but not for myself or my country) to say that
+one of our celebrated authors, whose partiality for Republicanism has
+been more than doubted, threatened to kick one of these young men out
+of his house (castle) if he did not instantly leave it; exclaiming,
+'Why have you the impudence to hand me that prospectus? I understand
+what the <span class="smcap">Glory</span> of England means; but as for the
+<span class="smcap">Shame</span> of England,
+there is no such thing. The shame is all in that base Democracy, which
+makes you presume to enter a gentleman's house to ask him to subscribe
+for such a work.'"</p>
+
+<p>This statement was widely copied in the newspapers. But the falsity of
+the fabrication soon became too apparent for even the journals most
+hostile to Cooper to endure. They made a vain effort to get from the
+author a confirmation of his story: but though he did not venture to
+repeat the lie manfully, he equivocated about it in a sneaking way.
+The newspapers, feeling, perhaps, that it was undesirable to arm the
+book agent with new terrors, credited at once the denial the story had
+received, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span>
+took back all imputations based upon it,--a
+proceeding which ought to have shown Cooper that they were not so
+utterly given over to the father of all evil as he fancied them. But
+the author of this impudent falsehood never withdrew it, nor did the
+publishers of the volume, in which it was contained, disavow it. The
+extract given above is taken from an edition which bears the date of
+1845.</p>
+
+<p>It is plain that these calumnious attacks sprang largely from Cooper's
+personal unpopularity. It is equally plain that his personal
+unpopularity was mainly due to the censorious tone he had assumed in
+the criticism of his country and his countrymen. It may accordingly be
+said that, in one sense, he deserved all that he received. He had
+pursued a certain line of conduct. He had no reason to complain that
+it had been followed by the same results here that would have followed
+similar conduct anywhere. In fact, while his censure of England had
+been far lighter than that of America, the language used about him in
+the former country had been far more vulgar and abusive than that used
+in the latter. But there were facts in his career which his countrymen
+were bound to bear in mind, but which, on the contrary, they strove
+hard to forget, and sometimes to pervert. He had been the
+uncompromising defender of his native land in places where it cost
+reputation and regard to appear in that light. He was assailed largely
+by the men who had toadied to a hostile feeling which he himself had
+confronted. His criticism of America was sometimes just, sometimes
+unjust. It was in a few instances as full of outrageous
+misrepresentation as any which he had resented in others. Even when
+right, it was often wrongly delivered. But in no case did it spring
+from indifference
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span>
+or dislike. The very loftiness of his
+aspirations for his country, the very vividness of his conception of
+what he trusted she was to be, made him far more than ordinarily
+sensitive to what she was, which fell short of his ideal. Every
+indignity offered to her he felt as a personal blow; every stain upon
+her honor as a personal disgrace. He had no fear as to the material
+greatness of her future. What he could not bear was that the slightest
+spot should soil the garments of her civilization. It was for her
+character, her reputation, that he most cared. It is not necessary to
+maintain that he was as wise as he was patriotic. Had he been in a
+position where he wielded political power, his impulsive and fiery
+temperament might very probably have made him an unsafe adviser. His
+whole idea of foreign policy, as connected with war, may be summed up
+in the statement that the nation should be as ready to resent a wrong
+done to ourselves as to repair a wrong done to others. Nothing could
+be better doctrine in theory. Unfortunately, the nation in all such
+cases is itself both party and judge, and the question of right
+becomes, in consequence, a hard one to decide as a matter of fact.
+Cooper's intense convictions would therefore have been likely to have
+led the country into war, had he had the control of events,--and war,
+too, at a time when under the agencies of peace it was daily gathering
+strength to meet a coming drain upon its resources in a conflict which
+but few were then far-sighted enough to see would squander wealth as
+lavishly as it wasted blood. Had it rested with him, it is quite clear
+that no Ashburton treaty would have been signed. There is a striking
+passage printed to this day in italics, which he puts into the mouth
+of Leather-Stocking in the novel of "The Deerslayer."
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span>
+Its
+point is made specially prominent when it is remembered that this work
+was written while the controversy was going on between Great Britain
+and the United States in regard to the Northeastern boundary. "I can
+see no great difference," says Leather-Stocking, "atween givin' up
+territory afore a war, out of a dread of war, or givin' it up after a
+war, because we can't help it--onless it be that the last is most
+manful and honorable."</p>
+
+<p>The features of Cooper's personal character, as well as his prejudices
+and limitations, are always to be kept in mind because they explain
+much that is defective in his art, and account for much of his
+unpopularity. Some of them became unpleasantly conspicuous in the
+writings of his later years. In 1840 he entered upon a new period of
+creative activity which lasted until 1850. Between and including those
+years he brought out seventeen works of fiction. Eleven of them were
+written during the first half of this period ending with 1845, and
+even these did not constitute the whole of what he then wrote. This
+fertility is made the more remarkable by the fact that during this
+same time he was engaged in the special controversy about the battle
+of Lake Erie, not to speak of his standing quarrel with the press and
+his running fight of libel suits in which he was not only plaintiff,
+but did the main work of the prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that his unpopularity stirred him to unwonted exertion.
+There is certainly no question that the years from 1840 to 1845
+inclusive, are, as a whole, the supreme creative period of Cooper's
+career. Its production does not dwarf his early achievement in vigor
+or interest; but it does often show a far higher mastery of his art.
+Two of the works then written mark
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span>
+the culmination of his
+powers. These were the Leather-Stocking tales called "The Pathfinder"
+and "The Deerslayer." The former appeared on the 14th of March, 1840,
+the latter on the 27th of August, 1841. They complete the circle of
+these stories; for others which he contemplated writing he
+unfortunately never executed. Still the series was a perfect one as it
+was left. The life of Leather-Stocking was now a complete drama in
+five acts, beginning with the first war-path in "The Deerslayer,"
+followed by his career of activity and of love in "The Last of the
+Mohicans" and "The Pathfinder," and his old age and death in "The
+Pioneers" and "The Prairie."</p>
+
+<p>"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" stand at the head of Cooper's
+novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works which
+contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and scenes even
+more thrilling. Not one can be compared with either of them as a
+finished whole. For once, whether from greater care or happier
+inspiration, Cooper discarded those features of his writings in which
+he had either failed entirely, or achieved, at the most, slight
+success. The leading characters belonged to the class which he drew
+best, so far as he was a delineator of character at all. Here were no
+pasteboard figures like Heywood in "The Last of the Mohicans," or
+Middleton in "The Prairie." Here were no supernumeraries dragged in,
+in a vain effort to amuse, as the singing-master in the former of
+these same stories, or the naturalist in the latter. Humor, Cooper
+certainly had; but it is the humor that gleams in fitful flashes from
+the men of earnest purposes and serious lives, and gives a momentary
+relief to the sternness and melancholy of their natures. The power of
+producing
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span>
+an entire humorous creation he had not at all, and
+almost the only thing that mars the perfectness of "The Pathfinder" is
+the occasional effort to make one out of Muir, the character designed
+to play the part of a villain. But the defects in both these tales are
+comparatively slight. The plot in each is simple, but it gives plenty
+of room for the display of those qualities in which Cooper excelled.
+The scene of the one was laid on Lake Ontario and its shores; the
+other, on the little lake near which he had made his home; and the
+whole atmosphere of both is redolent of the beauty and the wildness of
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>These works were a revelation to the men who had begun to despair of
+Cooper's ever accomplishing again anything worthy of his early renown.
+They were pure works of art. No moral was everlastingly perking itself
+in the reader's face, no labored lecture to prove what was
+self-evident interrupted the progress of the story. There is scarcely
+an allusion to any of the events which had checkered the novelist's
+career. References to contemporary occurrences are so slight that they
+would pass unheeded by any one whose attention had not been called
+beforehand to their existence. These works showed what Cooper was
+capable of when he gave full play to his powers, and did not fancy he
+was writing a novel when he was indulging in lectures upon manners and
+customs. "It is beautiful, it is grand," said Balzac to a friend,
+speaking of "The Pathfinder." "Its interest is tremendous. He surely
+owed us this masterpiece after the last two or three rhapsodies he has
+been giving us. You must read it. I know no one in the world, save
+Walter Scott, who has risen to that grandeur and serenity of colors."
+"Never," he said in another
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span>
+place, "did the art of writing
+tread closer upon the art of the pencil. This is the school of study
+for literary landscape-painters." Cooper himself, if contemporary
+reports are to be trusted, was at the time in the habit of saying that
+the palm of merit in his writings lay between this novel and "The
+Deerslayer." He certainly reckoned them the best of the five stories
+which have the unity of a common interest by having the same hero, and
+these five he put at the head of his performances. "If anything from
+the pen of the writer of these romances," he said, toward the close of
+his life, "is at all to outlive himself, it is unquestionably the
+series of 'The Leather-Stocking Tales.' To say this is not to predict
+a very lasting reputation for the series itself, but simply to express
+the belief that it will outlast any or all of the works from the same
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>But at this time no work of his was treated fairly by the American
+press. His name was rarely mentioned save in censure or derision. Both
+"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" on their first appearance were
+violently assailed. It is giving praise to a good deal of the
+contemporary criticism passed upon them to call it merely feeble and
+senseless. Much of it was marked by a malignity which fortunately was
+as contemptible intellectually as it was morally. Still, neither this
+hostile criticism nor Cooper's own personal unpopularity hindered the
+success of the books. He says, to be sure, in the preface to the
+revised edition of the Leather-Stocking tales which came out towards
+the end of his life, that probably not one in ten of those who knew
+all about the three earlier works of the series had any knowledge of
+the existence of the two last. This assertion seems exaggerated. It
+certainly struck many with surprise
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span>
+at the time it was made;
+for both "The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" had met with a large
+sale.</p>
+
+<p>Between the publication of these two novels appeared, on the 24th of
+November, 1840, "Mercedes of Castile." The subject of this was the
+first voyage of Columbus. It had several very obvious defects. It was
+marred by that prolixity of introduction which was a fault that ran
+through the majority of Cooper's tales. The reader meets with as many
+discouragements and rebuffs and turnings aside in getting under way as
+did the great navigator the story celebrates. There was, moreover, an
+excess of that cheap moralizing, that dwelling upon commonplace
+truths, which was another of Cooper's besetting sins. The only effect
+these discourses have upon the reader is to make him feel that while
+virtue may be a very good thing, it is an excessively tedious thing.
+As a novel, "Mercedes of Castile" must be regarded as a failure. On
+the other hand, as a story of the first voyage of Columbus, told with
+the special knowledge of a seaman, the accuracy of an historian, and
+with something of the fervor of a poet, it will always have a peculiar
+interest of its own.</p>
+
+<p>Two sea-stories followed "The Deerslayer." The first of these,
+entitled "The Two Admirals," was published in April, 1842, and the
+second in November of the same year. Cooper was at this time engaged
+in the hottest of his fight with the American press and people.
+Publicly and privately he was expressing his contempt for nearly
+everything and everybody. He, in turn, was undergoing assaults from
+every quarter. It is, therefore, a singular illustration of the love
+of country which burned in him with an intense, even when hidden,
+flame, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span>
+that in the midst of his greatest unpopularity he was
+unwilling to desert his own flag for that of the land to which he was
+forced to go for material. Yet there was every inducement. He wished
+to do what had never before been done in fiction. His aim was to
+describe the evolutions of fleets instead of confining himself to the
+movements of single vessels. But no American fleet had ever been
+assembled, no American admiral had ever trod a quarter-deck. In order,
+therefore, to describe operations on a grand scale he had to have
+recourse to the history of the mother-country; but he purposely put
+the scene in "The Two Admirals" in a period when the states were still
+colonies. This novel takes a very high place among the sea-stories, so
+long as the action is confined to the water. But it suffers greatly
+from the carelessness and the incompleteness with which the details
+are worked out.</p>
+
+<p>In "Wing-and-Wing," which followed it, the fortune of a French
+privateer is told. The scene is laid in the Mediterranean, and the
+time is the end of the last century. Though inferior in power to some
+of his other sea-stories, it is far from being a poor novel; and it
+was, in fact, one of the author's favorites. But its greatest interest
+is in the view it gives of a tendency in Cooper's character which was
+constantly becoming more pronounced. The Puritanic narrowness of the
+very deep and genuine religious element in his nature was steadily
+increasing as time went on. In "Precaution" it has been already
+observed that the doctrine had been laid down by one of the characters
+that there should be no marriage between Christians and
+non-Christians. In "Wing-and-Wing" this doctrine was fully carried
+out. The heroine is a devout Roman Catholic. She loves devotedly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span>
+the hero, the captain of the French privateer. She trusts in his
+honor; she admires his abilities and character; she is profoundly
+affected by the fervor of the affection he bears to herself. But he is
+an infidel. He is too honest and honorable to pretend to believe and
+think differently from what he really believes and thinks. As she
+cannot convert him, she will not marry him: and in the end succeeds
+indirectly, by her refusal, in bringing about his death. It never
+seemed to occur to Cooper that the course of conduct he was holding up
+as praiseworthy, in his novels, could have little other effect in real
+life than to encourage hypocrisy where it did not produce misery. The
+man who, for the sake of gaining a great prize, changes his religious
+views is sure to have his sincerity distrusted by others. That can be
+borne. But he is equally certain to feel distrust of himself. He
+cannot have that perfect confidence in his own convictions, or even in
+his own character, that would be the case had no considerations of
+personal advantage influenced him in the slightest in the decision he
+had made, or the conclusions to which he had come. Even he who
+believes in this course of action as something to be quietly adopted
+might wisely refuse to proclaim it loudly as a rule for the conduct of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>The next important work that followed was "Wyandotte; or the Hutted
+Knoll." It was published on the 5th of September, 1843. The story, as
+a whole, was a tragic one. In spite of the fact that the events occur
+in the place and time where some of the author's greatest successes
+had been achieved, this novel is inferior to all his others that deal
+with the same scenes. Certain manifestations of his feelings and
+certain traits of character indicated, rather than expressed, in the
+tales immediately preceding,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span>
+were in this one distinctly
+revealed. His dislike of the newspapers and the critics has been so
+often referred to that it needs hardly to be said that in all the
+writings of this period these offenders were soundly castigated.
+Especially was this true of the preface. It was there, if anywhere,
+that Cooper was apt to concentrate all the ill-humor he felt--his
+wrath against the race and his scorn of the individual. But the two
+feelings that henceforth became conspicuously noticeable in nearly all
+his writings were his regard for the Episcopal church and his dislike
+of New England. They manifest themselves sometimes deliciously,
+sometimes disagreeably. In the midst of a story remote as possible
+from the occurrences of modern life, suddenly turn up remarks upon the
+apostolic origin of bishops, or the desirability of written prayers,
+and the need of a liturgy. The impropriety of their introduction, from
+a literary point of view, Cooper never had sufficient delicacy of
+taste to feel. Less excusable were the attacks he made upon those
+whose religious views differed from his own. The insults he sometimes
+offered to possible readers were as needless as they were brutal. In
+one of his later novels he mentioned "the rowdy religion--half-cant,
+half-blasphemy, that Cromwell and his associates entailed on so many
+Englishmen." There is little reason to doubt that under proper
+conditions Cooper could easily have developed into a sincere,
+narrow-minded, and ferocious
+bigot.<a id="notetag002" name="notetag002"></a><a href="#note002">[2]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>Full <span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span>
+as marked and even more persistent were his attacks upon
+New England. There was little specially characteristic of that portion
+of the country with which he did not find fault. New England cooking
+of the first class was inferior to that of the second class in the
+Middle States. The New Yorker of humble life, not of Yankee descent,
+spoke the language better than thousands of educated men in New
+England. This dislike kept steadily increasing. As late as 1844, if he
+sent his heroes to college at all, he sent them to Yale; after that
+year he transferred them to Princeton. With all this there is
+constantly seen going on a somewhat amusing struggle between his
+dislike and the thorough honesty of his nature, which forced him to
+admit in the men of New England certain characteristics of a high
+order. Their frugality, their enterprise, their readiness of resource,
+he could not deny. Still, he continued to imply that these qualities
+were used pretty generally for selfish ends. In his later works, in
+consequence, his villains were very apt to be New Englanders. They
+were not villains of a romantic type. They were mean rather than
+vicious; crafty rather than bold; given to degrading but
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> at
+the same time cheap excesses. The first of these special
+representatives of the New England character is the powerful but
+somewhat unpleasant creation of Ithuel Bolt in "Wing-and-Wing," who
+finds a fitting sequel to a life passed largely in committing acts of
+doubtful morality in becoming a deacon in a Congregational church.
+After him follows a succession of personages who represent nearly
+every conceivable shade of craft, meanness, and dishonesty that is
+consistent with the respect of the Puritan community about them, and
+with a high position in the religious society of which they form a
+part.</p>
+
+<p>There was, it must be admitted, some justification for Cooper's
+feelings towards New England on the score of retaliation. He had been
+criticised from the beginning in that part of the country with a
+severity that often approached virulence. He had been denied there the
+possession of qualities which the rest of the world agreed in
+according him. Cultivated society has always been afflicted with a
+class too superlatively intellectual to enjoy what everybody else
+likes. Of these unhappy beings New England has had the misfortune to
+have perhaps more than her proper share. It was hardly in human nature
+that the disparagement he received from these should not have
+influenced his feelings towards the region which had given them birth
+and consideration.</p>
+
+<p>It is pleasant to turn aside from these scenes and sayings which show
+the least amiable side of a nature essentially noble, and pass to one
+of the little incidents that are strikingly characteristic of the man.
+On board the Sterling, the merchantman on which Cooper's first voyage
+was made, was a boy younger than himself. His name was Ned Myers. This
+person had spent his life on the sea. He had belonged to seventy-two
+crafts, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span>
+exclusive of prison-ships, transports, and vessels
+in which he had merely made passages. According to his own calculation
+he had been twenty-five years out of sight of land. After this long
+and varied career he had finally landed in that asylum for worn-out
+mariners, the "Sailors' Snug Harbor." From here, late in 1842, he
+wrote to Cooper, asking him if he were the one with whom he had served
+in the Sterling. Cooper, who never forgot a friend, sent him a reply,
+beginning: "I am your old shipmate, Ned," and told him when and where
+he could be found in New York. There in a few months they met after an
+interval of thirty-seven years. Cooper took the battered old hulk of a
+seaman up to Cooperstown in June, 1843, and entertained him for
+several weeks. While the two were knocking about the lake, and the
+latter was telling his adventures, it occurred to the former to put
+into print the wandering life the sailor had led. Between them the
+work was done that summer, and in November, 1843, "Ned Myers; or, Life
+before the Mast" was published. This work has often been falsely
+spoken of as a novel. It is, on the contrary, a truthful record, so
+far as dependence can be placed upon the word or the memory of the
+narrator. "This is literally," said Myers, "my own story, logged by an
+old shipmate."</p>
+
+<p>In 1842 Cooper had entered into an engagement to write regularly for
+"Graham's Magazine." This periodical, which had been formed not long
+before by the union of two others, had rapidly risen to high
+reputation, and claimed a circulation of thirty thousand copies. In
+the first four numbers of 1843 Cooper published the shortest of his
+stories. It was entitled "The Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief."
+For some reason not
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span>
+easy to explain, this has never been
+included in the regular editions of his novels. In it he made in some
+measure another effort to reproduce the social life of New York city.
+The previous failure was repeated. An air of ridiculous unreality is
+given to this part of the story in which the impossible talk of
+impossible people is paraded as a genuine representation of what takes
+place in civilized society. The autobiographical form which he had
+first adopted in this tale he continued in the two series of "Afloat
+and Ashore." These appeared respectively in June and in December,
+1844. They are essentially one novel, though the second part goes
+usually in this country under the title of "Miles Wallingford," the
+name of its hero; and in Europe under that of "Lucy Harding," the name
+of its heroine.</p>
+
+<p>This work, the first part more particularly, is a delightful story of
+adventure. As usual there are startling incidents, perilous
+situations, and hairbreadth escapes enough to furnish sufficient
+materials for a dozen ordinary fictions. Yet the probabilities are
+better preserved than in many of Cooper's novels where the events are
+far fewer, as well as far less striking. But it is interesting, not
+merely for the incidents it contains, but for the revelation it makes
+of the man who wrote it. Expressions of personal feeling and opinion
+turn up unexpectedly everywhere, and make slight but constantly
+recurring eddies in the stream of the story. Everything is to be found
+here which he had ever discussed before. The inferiority of the bay of
+New York to that of Naples; the miserable cooking and gross feeding of
+New England; the absolute necessity of a liturgy in religious worship;
+the contempt he felt for the misguided beings who presume to deny the
+existence of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span>
+bishops in the primitive church; his aversion
+to paper money; his disdain for the shingle palaces of the Grecian
+temple school; his scorn of the idea that one man is as good as
+another; these and scores of similar utterances arrest constantly the
+reader's attention. But they do not jar upon his feelings as in many
+other of his writings. They are essentially different in tone. There
+runs through this series a vein of ill-natured amiability or amiable
+ill-nature--it is hard to say which phrase is more appropriate--which
+gives to the whole what horticulturists call a delicate sub-acid
+flavor. The roar of contempt found in previous writings subsided in
+these into a sort of prolonged but subdued growl. But it is a case in
+which the reader feels that it is eminently proper that the writer
+should growl. It is the old man of sixty-five telling the tale of his
+early years. His preferences for the past do not irritate us, they
+entertain us. It is right that the world about him should seem meaner
+and more commonplace than it did in the fever-fit of youth and love,
+when it was joy merely to live. The work, moreover, has another
+characteristic that gives it a whimsical attractiveness. It is a tale
+of the good old times when New York had still some New York feeling
+left; when her old historic names still carried weight and found
+universal respect, and her old families still ruled society with a
+despotic sway; and especially before the whole state had been overrun
+by the lank, angular, loose-jointed, slouching, shrewd,
+money-worshiping sons of the Puritans, whose restless activity had
+triumphed over the slow and steady respectability of the original
+settlers. The scene of this story, so far as it is laid on land, is
+mainly in the river counties; but in spite of that fact it is
+difficult not to think that some recollections
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span>
+of the
+writer's own youth were not mingled in certain portions of it.
+Especially is it a hard task not to fancy that in the heroine, Lucy
+Harding, he was drawing, in some slight particulars at least, the
+picture of his own wife, and telling the story of his early love.</p>
+
+<p>The delineation of the New York life of the past which he had in some
+measure accomplished in these volumes, he now continued more fully in
+certain works which took up successive periods in the history of the
+state. The idea of writing them was suggested by events that were
+taking place at the time. The troubles which arose in certain counties
+of New York after the death, in 1839, of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the
+patroon, were now culminating in a series of acts of violence and
+bloodshed, perpetrated usually by men disguised as Indians. The
+questions involved had likewise become subjects of fierce political
+controversy. Cooper, who saw in the conduct of the tenants and their
+supporters a dangerous invasion of the rights of property, plunged
+into the discussion of the matter with all the ardor of his fiery
+temperament. He worked himself into the highest state of excitement
+over the proceedings. It was his interest in this matter that led him
+to compose the three works which are collectively called the Anti-rent
+novels. These purport to be the successive records of the Littlepage
+family, and each is in the form of an autobiography. They cover a
+period extending from the first half of the eighteenth century down to
+the very year in which he was writing.</p>
+
+<p>It was about this time that Cooper's reputation touched the lowest
+point to which it has ever fallen, so far, at least, as it depends
+upon the opinion of critics and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span>
+of men of letters. He was
+now reaping the fruits of the various controversies in which he had
+been engaged, and of all the hostility which he had succeeded in
+inspiring. The two anti-rent novels which appeared in 1845 were
+"Satanstoe," published in June, and "The Chainbearer," published in
+November. They may have had a large sale. But there is scarcely a
+review of the period in which they are even mentioned. Even the
+newspapers contain merely the barest reference to their existence. It
+is perhaps partly due to this contemporary silence that these two
+stories are among the least known and least read of Cooper's
+productions. Moreover, they are constantly misjudged. The tone which
+pervades the concluding novel of the series is taken as the tone which
+pervades the two which preceded it. This is an injustice as well as a
+mistake. In no sense is "Satanstoe," in particular, a political novel.
+There is no reference to anti-rentism in it save in the preface. Its
+only connection with the subject is the account it gives of the manner
+in which the great estates were originally settled. On the other hand
+it is a picture of colonial life and manners in New York during the
+middle of the eighteenth century, such as can be found drawn nowhere
+else so truthfully and so vividly. It takes rank among the very best
+of Cooper's stories. The characters are, to a certain extent, the same
+as in "Afloat and Ashore;" the main difference being, that in the one
+the events take place principally on land, and in the other on water.
+Even those majestic first families, whom he had celebrated before,
+loom up in these pages with renewed and increasing grandeur. But the
+story is throughout told in a graphic and spirited manner, and as it
+approaches the end and details the scenes that follow Abercrombie's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span>
+repulse at Lake George in 1758, it becomes intensely
+exciting. The villain of the tale is, of course, a New Englander, in
+this instance a long, ungainly pedagogue from Danbury, Connecticut. He
+does not, however, blossom out into the full perfection of his
+rascality until he makes his appearance in "The Chainbearer," the next
+novel of the series. This tale, though decidedly inferior to
+"Satanstoe," contains passages of great interest. The description,
+especially, of the squatter family and the life led by it, is one of
+Cooper's most powerfully drawn pictures.</p>
+
+<p>It has been the misfortune of this series that the member of it which
+has attracted most attention is "The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin,"
+which came out in July, 1846. This is one of three or four books
+which, in a certain way, give one a high idea of Cooper's power in the
+fact that his reputation has been able to survive them. If he had been
+anxious to help the anti-renters and hurt the patroon, he could hardly
+have done better than to write this book. As a story it has no merit.
+The incidents told in it are absurd. It is full, moreover, of the
+arguments that irritate but do not convince; and is liberally
+supplied, in addition, with prophecies that have never been realized.
+Everything that was disagreeable in Cooper's manner and bungling in
+his art, was conspicuous in this work. His dislikes were not uttered
+pleasantly, as in "Afloat and Ashore," but with an ill-nature that
+often bordered upon ferocity. A tone of pretension ran through the
+whole, a constant reference to what men think who had seen the world,
+with the implied inference that those who disagreed with the author in
+opinion had not seen the world. The feeling of the reader is, that if
+this extravagance and over-statement be
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span>
+the result of
+travel, men had better stay at home. Nor did Cooper refrain from
+dragging in everything with which he had found fault before. We are
+not even spared the everlasting reference to the bays of New York and
+of Naples. The work is what he himself would have called provincial in
+the worst sense of that word. Even more than its spirit was its matter
+extraordinary for a work of fiction. Part of it is little else than a
+controversial tract on the superiority of Episcopacy; and the temper
+in which it is written could hardly have been grateful to any but an
+opponent of that church. "Satanstoe" is full of many of Cooper's likes
+and dislikes, but there can be no greater contrast conceived than
+between the tone which pervades that delightful creation, and the
+boisterous brawling of "The Redskins".</p>
+
+<p>With the publication of this series Cooper's career as a creator of
+works of imagination practically closed. He wrote several novels
+afterward, but not one of them did anything to advance his reputation.
+Some of them tended to lower it. This was not due to failure of power,
+but to its misdirection. The didactic element in his nature had now
+gained complete mastery over the artistic. The interest, such as it
+is, which belongs to his later stories, is rarely a literary interest.
+Not one of them has the slightest pretension to be termed a work of
+art. There are, at times, passages in them that thrill us, and scenes
+that display something of his old skill in description. But these are
+recollections rather than new creations. Cooper's fame would not have
+been a whit lessened, if every line he wrote after "The Chainbearer"
+had never seen the light.</p>
+
+<p>The works that came out during the remaining years of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> his
+life were "The Crater," published October 12, 1847; "Jack Tier,"
+published March 21, 1848; "The Oak Openings," published August 24 of
+the same year; "The Sea Lions," published April 10, 1849, and "The
+Ways of the Hour," published April 10, 1850. Of these "Jack Tier"
+originally made its appearance in "Graham's Magazine" during the years
+1845-1847, under the title of "The Islets of the Gulf," and strictly
+stands first in the order of time. It shares with "The Crater" the
+distinction of being one of the two best of these later stories. It
+may be fair to mention that Bryant saw in it as much spirit, energy,
+invention, and life-like presentation of objects and events as in
+anything the author ever wrote. This will seem exaggerated praise when
+one reads it in connection with "The Red Rover," of which it is in
+some respects a feeble reflection. It was hard for Cooper to be
+uninteresting when once fairly launched upon the waves. Without
+denying the existence in "Jack Tier" of passages of marked power, no
+small share of it was merely a reproduction of what had been done and
+better done before. The old woman who is constantly misusing nautical
+terms is the most palpable imitation of the admiral's widow in "The
+Red Rover." It is a cheap expedient at best, and must at any time be
+used with extreme moderation. Above all, it is a device which is
+abused the very moment it is repeated. As displayed in "Jack Tier," it
+is simply unendurable. Cooper's silly people, in facts are apt to be
+silly not only beyond human experience but almost beyond human
+conception. The tragedy, moreover, with which this novel ends is
+intended to be terrible, while as a matter of fact it is merely
+grotesque and absurd. The tale reaches a sudden but necessary
+conclusion because nearly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span>
+all the characters are disposed of
+at once by drowning or killing. There is scarcely any one left to
+carry on the action of the story.</p>
+
+<p>"The Crater," which in one sense followed and in another preceded
+"Jack Tier," has a very special interest to the student of Cooper's
+character. He had now lived for so long a time a life remote from the
+real clash of conflicting views that he had finally reached that
+satisfied state of opinion which thinks the little circle in which it
+moves is the proper orbit for the revolution of thought of the whole
+race. As he advanced in years he narrowed instead of broadening. The
+intensity of his faith coupled with his energy of expression makes
+this fact very conspicuous; and in "The Crater" the reader is
+alternately attracted by the shrewd and keen remarks of the writer,
+and repelled by his illiberality. The novel tells the tale of a
+shipwrecked mariner cast away on a reef not laid down in any chart and
+unknown to navigators. This barren spot he makes bud and blossom as
+the rose. To the new Utopia he has created in the bosom of the Pacific
+he brings a body of emigrants. Their proceedings are entertainingly
+told. But the history of the decline of the colony from its primitive
+state of happiness and perfection, which is designed to furnish a
+warning, tends instead to fill the irreverent with amusement. While
+under the control of its founder and governor, who combined all the
+virtues, it is represented as enjoying peace and prosperity.
+Demagogism had no control. The reign of gossip had not begun. The
+great discovery had not been made that men were merely incidents of
+newspapers. Care was taken that the children should not imbibe any
+false principles, that is, any principles which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span>
+the ruling
+powers thought false. The schools did not furnish much instruction,
+but owing to this considerate watchfulness they were innocent if they
+were inefficient. Still this ingenious arrangement for stopping the
+progress of the human mind could not work forever. From the start
+there was a dangerous element, though in this case the colonists had
+not come from New England but from the Middle States. Very speedily
+that innate depravity of the human heart which does not like to hear a
+clergyman read prayers, which looks with suspicion upon a liturgy,
+began to manifest itself. This, however, was kept under control until
+the arrival of new colonists. This Eden was then invaded not by one
+serpent only, but by several. Four of them were clergymen; one a
+Presbyterian, one a Methodist, one a Baptist, and one a Quaker. This
+was too much for the solitary Episcopalian who had previously been on
+the ground, and who is represented as combining a weak physical
+constitution with a very strong conception of his apostolic authority
+as a divine. It must be conceded that for a population of about five
+hundred souls the supply of spiritual teachers was ample. With them
+came also a lawyer and an editor. The seeds of dissolution were at
+once sown. The colonists became ungrateful, and began to inquire not
+only into the conduct of their governor, but even into the title by
+which he held some of his lands. He finally left the spot in disgust,
+and having first taken the precaution to dispose of his property at a
+good price, returned to his native country. A natural yearning to see
+the community he had established led the discoverer to revisit, after
+a few months, the scene of his trials. He sailed to the spot but he
+could not find it. A convulsion of nature similar to that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span>
+which had raised the reef above the level of the waves had sunk it
+again out of sight. Ungrateful colonists, clergymen, editor, and
+lawyer, had all perished.</p>
+
+<p>In June, 1847, Cooper made a trip to the West, and went as far as
+Detroit. One result of this journey was the novel of "The Oak
+Openings; or, the Bee-Hunter." This must be looked upon as a decided
+failure. The desire to lecture his fellow-men on manners had now given
+place to a desire to edify them; and he was no more successful in the
+one than he had been in the other. In this instance the issue of the
+story depends on the course of an Indian who is converted to
+Christianity by witnessing the way in which a self-denying Methodist
+missionary meets his death. The whole winding-up is unnatural, and the
+process of turning the organizing chief of a great warlike confederacy
+into a Sunday-school hero is only saved from being commonplace by
+being absurd. Far more singular, however, was the central idea of "The
+Sea Lions," the story that followed. This is certainly one of the most
+remarkable conceptions that it ever entered into the mind of a
+novelist to create. It shows the intense hold religious convictions
+were taking of Cooper's feelings, and to what extremes of opinion they
+were carrying him. In "Wing-and-Wing" the hero had been discarded
+because he was a thorough infidel. But Cooper's sentiments had now
+moved a long distance beyond this milk-and-water way of dealing with
+religious differences. In "The Sea Lions" the hero merely denied the
+divinity of Christ, while he professed to hold him in reverence as the
+purest and most exalted of men. But if there was any one point on
+which the heroine was sound and likewise inflexible, it was the
+doctrine of the Trinity. Whatever else
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span>
+she doubted, she was
+absolutely sure of the incarnation. She would not unite herself with
+one who presumed to "set up his own feeble understanding of the nature
+of the mediation between God and man in opposition to the plainest
+language of revelation as well as to the prevalent belief of the
+Church." In this case the hero is converted, apparently by spending a
+winter in the Antarctic seas. An important agent in effecting this
+change of belief is a common seaman who improves every occasion to
+drop into the conversation going on, some unexpected Trinitarian
+remark. When the master has almost against hope saved his vessel, and
+in the thankfulness of his heart invokes blessing on the name of God,
+Stimson is on hand at his elbow to add, "and that of his only and
+<i>true</i> Son." This novel is, indeed, a further but unneeded proof of
+how little Cooper was able to project himself out of the circle of his
+own feelings, or to aid any cause which he had near to his heart. He
+had had much to say about New England cant. Yet in this work he can
+find no words sufficiently strong to praise what he calls the zealous
+freedom and Christian earnestness of one of the most offensive canters
+that the whole range of fiction presents. It would be unjust to deny
+that when in "The Sea Lions" Cooper abandons his metaphysics and turns
+to his real business, that he creates a powerful story. One may almost
+be said at times to feel the cold, the desolation, the darkness, and
+the gloom of an Antarctic winter confronting and overshadowing the
+spirit. But there can be little that is more tedious than the dry
+chaff of theological discussion which is here threshed for us over and
+over again. Believers in the Trinity had as little reason as believers
+in Episcopacy to rejoice in Cooper's advocacy of their faith.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span>
+There was nothing original in his views; there was nothing
+pointed or forcible in his statement of them. He meant to inculcate a
+lesson, and the only lesson that can possibly be drawn is the
+sufficiently absurd one that dwellers in the chilly spiritual clime of
+Unitarianism can be cured of their faith in that icy creed by being
+subjected to the horrors of a polar winter. Far more clearly does the
+novel show the falling-off in his artistic conceptions and the
+narrowing process his opinions were undergoing. At the rate this
+latter was taking place it seems probable that had he lived to write
+another novel on a theme similar to this, his hero would have been
+compelled to abandon his belief in Presbyterianism, Congregationalism,
+Methodism, or some other ism before he would be found worthy of being
+joined in the marriage relation to his Episcopalian bride.</p>
+
+<p>The "Ways of the Hour" was the last work that Cooper published.
+Everything he now wrote was written with a special object. The design
+of this was to attack trial by jury; but he was not prevented by that
+fact from discussing several other matters that were uppermost in his
+mind. The incidents of the story utterly destroyed the effectiveness
+of the lesson that it was intended to convey. It would be dignifying
+too much many of the events related in it to say that they are
+improbabilities: they are simply impossibilities. The "Ways of the
+Hour" was, however, like the preceding novels, often full of
+suggestive remarks, on many other points than trial by jury. It showed
+in numerous instances the working of an acute, vigorous, and
+aggressive intellect. The good qualities it has need not be denied:
+only they are not the good qualities that belong to fiction.</p>
+
+<p>The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span>
+pecuniary profits that his works brought him during this
+latter period of his life there are, perhaps, no means of
+ascertaining. Much of the literary activity of his last years was due
+to necessity rather than to inspiration. He had been concerned for a
+long time in company with a number of men of business in a series of
+cotton speculations, and in others connected with Western lands. In
+both cases the ventures were unprofitable, and the desire of
+retrieving his losses was one of the causes that led to this constant
+literary production. There were other circumstances, too, besides his
+mere unpopularity that had tended to reduce the amount gained from
+what he wrote. After 1838, the income received from England naturally
+fell off, in consequence of the change in the law of copyright. The
+act of Parliament passed in that year provided that no foreign author
+outside of British dominions should have copyright in those dominions
+unless the country to which he belonged gave copyright to the English
+author. No fault can be found with this legislation on the score of
+justice. The value of anything produced by a citizen of the United
+States fell at once as a necessary consequence of the want of
+protection against piracy. The British publisher, not from any motive
+of mere personal gain, but from an unselfish desire by retaliatory
+proceedings to bring about a better state of things, went speedily to
+work to plunder the American author who favored international
+copyright in order to show his disgust at the conduct of the American
+publisher who opposed it. As a matter of fact Cooper's novels were
+from that time published in Great Britain, in cheap form, and sold at
+a cheap price. Such reprints could not but lower the amount which
+could be offered for his work. Newspaper reports,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span>
+the
+correctness of which can neither be affirmed nor denied, frequently
+mention that for the copyright of each of his earlier novels he was in
+the habit of receiving a thousand guineas. We know positively that for
+his later tales, as fast as they were written, Bentley, his London
+publisher, usually paid him three hundred pounds each.</p>
+
+<p>In America circumstances of another kind contributed to reduce the
+profits from his works. Most of them were published at a price that
+would have required an immense sale to make them remunerative at all.
+It was about 1840 that two weekly newspapers in New York, "The New
+World," and "The Brother Jonathan," had begun the practice of
+reprinting in their columns the writings of the most popular novelists
+which were then coming out in England. As soon as these were finished
+they were brought out in parts and sold at a small price. This piracy
+was so successful that imitators sprang up everywhere. The large
+publishing houses were soon obliged to follow in the wake of the
+newspaper establishments. The reign of the so-called "cheap and nasty"
+literature began. The productions of the greatest foreign novelists
+were sold for a song. The native writer was subjected to a competition
+which forced him at once to lower his price or to go unread. Beginning
+with "Wing-and-Wing," the rate at which Cooper's works were published
+furnishes a striking commentary upon the cheap professions of sympathy
+with letters current in this country, indicates suggestively the
+inspiriting inducements held out by the law-making power to enter upon
+the career of authorship, and shows with disgraceful clearness how
+utterly the interests of the men engaged in the creation of literature
+had been subordinated to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span>
+the greed of those who traded in
+it. The barest recital of the facts makes evident the nature of the
+encouragement given. "Wing-and-Wing" was published at twenty-five
+cents a volume. So were "Wyandotte," "The Redskins," "The Crater,"
+"Jack Tier," "The Oak Openings," and "The Sea Lions." The four volumes
+of the series "Afloat and Ashore" were published at thirty-seven and a
+half cents each; and at the same rate "Satanstoe" came out, and also
+"Ned Myers." It was not till Cooper's last work appeared that the
+price went up as high as a dollar and twenty-five cents. This was in
+one volume; but it is to be kept in mind, in considering these prices,
+that in America his novels regularly appeared in two.</p>
+
+<p>One further experiment Cooper made in a new field; and with it the
+record of his literary life closes. In the year 1850 he tried the
+stage. On the 18th of June a comedy written by him was brought out at
+Burton's Theatre, New York. It was entitled, "Upside Down; or,
+Philosophy in Petticoats." For the three nights following the 18th it
+was acted, and was then withdrawn. It has never been played since, nor
+has it been published.</p>
+
+<p>All these years he spent his time mainly in his home at Cooperstown.
+There, besides the pleasure he found in the improvement of the
+extensive grounds about his house, he gave full vent to that latent
+passion for wasting money in agricultural operations, which seems to
+be one of the most widely-extended peculiarities of the English race.
+On the eastern shore of the lake, about a mile from the village, he
+bought a farm of about two hundred acres which he called the "Châlet."
+The view from it was exceedingly beautiful, looking as it did down the
+Valley <span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span>
+of the Susquehanna. The farm, too, had its
+picturesque and poetical features; but unhappily it was little adapted
+to practical agriculture. It stood on a hill-side, the abruptness of
+which was only occasionally relieved by a few acres of level land.
+Much of it was still covered with the original forest; and a good deal
+of the cleared land was full of stumps. To superintend the removal of
+these latter was one of Cooper's chief relaxations from mental labor.
+It is a desirable thing to do, but it has never been found pecuniarily
+profitable in itself. To this place Cooper daily drove in the summer
+season, and spent two or three hours directing the operations that
+were going on, finding constantly new ways to spend money, and
+doubtless pleasing himself occasionally with the fancy that the farm
+would at some time pay expenses. And in the best sense it did pay
+expenses. It gave regular diversion to his life; it ministered
+constantly to his enjoyment of the beautiful in scenery; and it
+occupied his thoughts with perpetual projects of improvement for which
+its character furnished unlimited opportunities. He had bought it for
+pleasure and not for profit; and in that it yielded him a full return
+for the money invested.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span></h2>
+
+<h2>1850-1851.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Cooper, at the time he published his last novel, was more than sixty
+years of age; but as yet he showed no traces of physical or
+intellectual decay. His literary activity remained unabated, though he
+was now purposing to direct it to other fields than that of fiction. A
+decided change was likewise taking place in the estimation in which he
+was held by the public. He had not become popular, to be sure; but he
+had become less unpopular. There was, moreover, a feeling pretty
+generally prevalent that he had been hardly used; that in many
+respects he had been a wronged and persecuted man. The ranks of those
+who had remained faithful to him during all these years of obloquy
+were beginning to be largely swelled from the newer generation which
+had neither part in, nor knowledge of, the bitter controversies in
+which he had been concerned. His friends were purposing to give a
+public dinner in his honor in order to show their regard for him as a
+man, and their appreciation of the credit his writings had brought to
+his country. Before this project could be carried into effect, the
+illness had overtaken him which ended in death.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand time had, in some respect, mollified his own
+feelings. Many things had occurred to make him more gentle and
+forbearing. Much of this was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span>
+certainly due to the increasing
+strength of his religious convictions, which as has been noticed,
+steadily deepened during his last years. It is clear from much that
+appears in his later novels that these had, to some extent, been
+perverted from their legitimate effect, and had made him at intervals
+illiberal and even bitter. But they had brought calm to an excitable
+nature, and healing to a spirit which had been sometimes sorely
+wounded. In 1851 he carried out a plan long before determined upon. In
+March of that year he became a communicant in the Episcopal church,
+and in the following July was confirmed by his brother-in-law, Bishop
+DeLancey.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1850 he was in New York city. "At this time," says
+Bryant, "his personal appearance was remarkable. He seemed in perfect
+health, and in the highest energy and activity of his faculties. I
+have scarcely seen any man at that period of life on whom his years
+sat more lightly." But even then the disease which was to destroy him
+was lurking in his system. In the beginning of April, 1851, he came
+again to New York partly for medical advice, and his changed
+appearance struck all his friends with surprise and sorrow. The
+digestive organs were impaired, the liver was torpid, and a general
+feebleness had taken the place of the vigor for which he had
+previously been distinguished. He remained several weeks in the city
+and then returned to Cooperstown. That place he never left again. The
+disease made rapid advances, and at last became a confirmed dropsy. In
+the latter part of August his old and intimate friend, Dr. Francis, of
+New York, went up to Cooper's country home to make a full examination
+of his condition. He found him worse, if anything, than he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span>
+expected. There was, in fact, little hope of recovery. The physician
+told him frankly of the danger he was in, and of the possibilities of
+restoration to health that still existed. Though his own perception of
+his condition was too clear to make the announcement a shock, it could
+not have been other than a disappointment. He had many projects still
+unfulfilled. Plans of new works were in his mind; and one of them on
+the "Towns of Manhattan," partly written, was at that very time in
+press. But he met the news as bravely as he had the various troubles
+of his eventful life. After Dr. Francis' departure the malady steadily
+increased, and it soon became evident that expectation of recovery
+must be given up. During all these days he was quiet and cheerful, and
+his last hours were full of peace and hope. On Sunday, the 14th of
+September, 1851, at half-past one in the afternoon, he died. Had he
+lived one day longer he would have been sixty-two years old. In a
+little more than four months his wife followed him to the grave. They
+lie side by side in the grounds of Christ's Church at Cooperstown.</p>
+
+<p>His property was found, at his death, to be much impaired in value.
+Enough was left to insure the family a competency, but it became
+necessary to give up the mansion where so many years of his life had
+been passed. The dwelling went, accordingly, into other hands, and it
+was not a long while after that it burned down. Part of the grounds
+have since become public property, and that which is not so employed
+is little better than a waste.</p>
+
+<p>The death of men of letters did not excite at that time the attention
+which interest or fashion pays to it now. Cooper's relations, too,
+with many, had been of so
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span>
+strained a nature that it was
+hardly to be expected that his loss should arouse universal regret.
+Yet it was felt on all hands that a great man had fallen. On the 25th
+of September, a few days after his death, a meeting was held in the
+City Hall, New York, with the intent to make a suitable demonstration
+of respect to his memory. Washington Irving presided, and a committee
+of prominent men of letters was appointed to carry into effect the
+measures for which the gathering had been called. A discourse on the
+life, genius, and writings of the dead author was fixed upon to be
+given by his intimate friend, William Cullen Bryant. On the 25th of
+February, 1852, this address was delivered at Metropolitan Hall before
+the most cultivated audience the city could boast. With a singular
+ineptitude, not generally appreciated at the time, Daniel Webster was
+selected to preside. He had nothing to say, and he said it wretchedly.
+It was doubtful if he had ever read a single work of the novelist.
+That, at least, is a natural inference from his speech, which,
+furthermore, is little else than a collection of dreary platitudes. It
+was after this fashion that he paid his respects to the man whose
+memory they had come together to honor. "As far as I am acquainted,"
+he remarked, "with the writings of Mr. Cooper, they uphold good
+sentiments, sustain good morals, and maintain just taste; and after
+saying this I have next to add, that all his writings are truly
+patriotic and American throughout and throughout." This did not even
+reach the respectability of commonplace, and the commonplaces to which
+Webster soared in other parts of his speech did not have the poor
+merit of being sonorous. Still he looked so majestic and imposing that
+most of his audience were profoundly impressed by the justness
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span>
+and value of his observations. Any failure, however, on his part
+in the matter of what he said, was more than made up by the address
+delivered by Byrant. It is not very long; it contains a few errors of
+fact, especially in the dates; but it is not only the most eloquent
+tribute that has been paid to the dead author, it has also remained
+during all these years the fullest account of the life he lived, and
+the work he did.</p>
+
+<p>       *       *       *       *       *</p>
+
+<p>More than sixty years have gone by since Cooper began to write; more
+than thirty since he ceased to live. If his reputation has not
+advanced during the period that has passed since his death, it has
+certainly not receded. Nor does it seem likely to undergo much change
+in the future. The world has pretty well made up its mind as to the
+value of his work. The estimate in which it is held will not be
+materially raised or lowered by anything which criticism can now
+utter. This will itself be criticised for being too obvious; for it
+can do little but repeat, with variation of phrase, what has been
+constantly said and often better said before. There is, however, now a
+chance of its meeting with fairer consideration. The cloud of
+depreciation which seems to settle upon the achievement of every man
+of letters soon after death, it was Cooper's fortune to encounter
+during life. This was partly due to the literary reaction which had
+taken place against the form of fiction he adopted, but far more to
+the personal animosities he aroused. We are now far enough removed
+from the prejudices and passions of his time to take an impartial view
+of the man, and to state, without bias for or against him, the
+conclusions to which the world has very generally come as to his
+merits and defects as a writer.</p>
+
+<p>At <span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span>
+the outset it is to be said that Cooper is one of the
+people's novelists as opposed to the novelists of highly-cultivated
+men. This does not imply that he has not been, and is not still, a
+favorite with many of the latter. The names of those, indeed, who have
+expressed excessive admiration for his writings far surpass in
+reputation and even critical ability those who have spoken of him
+depreciatingly. Still the general statement is true that it is with
+the masses he has found favor chiefly. The sale of his works has known
+no abatement since his death. It goes on constantly to an extent that
+will surprise any one who has not made an examination of this
+particular point. His tales continue to be read or rather devoured by
+the uncultivated many. They are often contemptuously criticised by the
+cultivated few, who sometimes affect to look upon any admiration they
+may have once had for them as belonging exclusively to the
+undisciplined taste of childhood.</p>
+
+<p>This state of things may be thought decisive against the permanent
+reputation of the novelist. The opinion of the cultivated few, it is
+said, must prevail over that of the uncultivated many. True as this is
+in certain cases, it is just as untrue in others. It is, in fact,
+often absurdly false when the general reading public represents the
+uncultivated many. On matters which come legitimately within the scope
+of their judgment the verdict of the great mass of men is infinitely
+more trustworthy than that of any small body of men, no matter how
+cultivated. Of plenty of that narrow judgment of select circles which
+mistakes the cackle of its little coterie for the voice of the world,
+Cooper was made the subject, and sometimes the victim, during his
+lifetime. There were any number of writers, now never heard of, who
+were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span>
+going to outlive him, according to literary prophecies
+then current, which had everything oracular in their utterance except
+ambiguity. Especially is this true of the notices of his stories of
+the sea. As I have turned over the pages of defunct criticism, I have
+come across the names of several authors whose tales descriptive of
+ocean life were, according to many contemporary estimates, immensely
+superior to anything of the kind Cooper had produced or could produce.
+Some of these writers enjoyed for a time high reputation. Most of them
+are now as utterly forgotten as the men who celebrated their praises.</p>
+
+<p>But however unfair as a whole may be the estimate of cultivated men in
+any particular case, their adverse opinion is pretty certain to have a
+foundation of justice in its details. This is unquestionably true in
+the present instance. Characteristics there are of Cooper's writings
+which would and do repel many. Defects exist both in manner and
+matter. Part of the unfavorable judgment he has received is due to the
+prevalence of minor faults, disagreeable rather than positively bad.
+These, in many cases, sprang from the quantity of what he did and the
+rapidity with which he did it. The amount that Cooper wrote is
+something that in fairness must always be taken into consideration. He
+who has crowded into a single volume the experience of a life must
+concede that he stands at great advantage as regards matters of
+detail, and especially as regards perfection of form, with him who has
+manifested incessant literary activity in countless ways. It was the
+immense quantity that Cooper wrote and the haste and inevitable
+carelessness which wait upon great production, that are responsible
+for many of his minor faults. Incongruities in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span>
+the
+conception of his tales, as well as in their execution, often make
+their appearance. Singular blunders can be found which escaped even
+his own notice in the final revision he gave his works. In "Mercedes
+of Castile," for instance, the heroine presents her lover on his
+outward passage with a cross framed of sapphire stones. These, she
+tells him, are emblems of fidelity. When she comes to inquire about
+them after his return she speaks of them as turquoise. Again, in "The
+Deerslayer" three castles of a curious set of chessmen are given in
+one part of the story to the Indians. Later on, two other castles of
+the same set make their appearance. This is a singular mistake for
+Cooper to overlook, for chess was a game of which he was very fond.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of language this rapidity and carelessness often
+degenerated into downright slovenliness. It was bad enough to resort
+to the same expedients and to repeat the same scenes. Still from this
+charge few prolific novelists can be freed. But in Cooper there were
+often words and phrases which he worked to death. In "The Wept of
+Wish-ton-Wish" there is so perpetual a reference to the quiet way in
+which the younger Heathcote talks and acts that it has finally
+anything but a quieting effect upon the reader's feelings. In "The
+Headsman of Berne," "warm" in the sense of "well-to-do," a
+disagreeable usage at best, occurs again and again, until the feeling
+of disagreeableness it inspires at first becomes at last positive
+disgust. This trick of repetition reaches the climax of
+meaninglessness in "The Ways of the Hour." During the trial scene the
+judge repeats on every pretext and as a part of almost every speech,
+the sentence "time is precious;" and it is about the only point on
+which he is represented as taking a clear and decided stand.</p>
+
+<p>There <span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span>
+were other faults in the matter of language that to
+some will seem far worse. I confess to feeling little admiration for
+that grammar-school training which consists in teaching the pupil how
+much more he knows about our tongue than the great masters who have
+moulded it; which practically sets up the claim that the only men who
+are able to write English properly are the men who have never shown
+any capacity to write it at all; and which seeks, in a feeble way, to
+cramp usage by setting up distinctions that never existed, and laying
+down rules which it requires uncommon ignorance of the language to
+make or to heed. Still there are lengths to which the most strenuous
+stickler for freedom of speech does not venture to go. There are
+prejudices in favor of the exclusive legitimacy of certain
+constructions that he feels bound to respect. He recognizes, as a
+general rule, for instance, that when the subject is in the singular
+it is desirable that the verb should be in the same number. For
+conventionalities of syntax of this kind Cooper was very apt to
+exhibit disregard, not to say disdain. He too often passed the bounds
+that divide liberty from license. It scarcely needs to be asserted
+that in most of these cases the violation of idiom arose from haste or
+carelessness. But there were some blunders which can only be imputed
+to pure unadulterated ignorance. He occasionally used words in senses
+unknown to past or present use. He sometimes employed grammatical
+forms that belong to no period in the history of the English language.
+A curious illustration of a word combining in itself both these errors
+is <i>wists</i>, a verb, in the third person, singular. If this be anything
+it should be <i>wist</i>, the preterite of <i>wot</i>, and should have
+accordingly the meaning "knew." Cooper uses
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span>
+it in fact as a
+present with the sense of "wishes." Far worse than occasional errors
+in the use of words are errors of construction. His sentences are
+sometimes involved in the most hopeless way, and the efforts of
+grammar to untie the knot by any means known to it serve only to make
+conspicuous its own helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>All this is, in itself, of slight importance when set off against
+positive merits. But it is constantly forced upon the reader's
+attention by the fact that Cooper himself was exceedingly critical on
+points of speech. He was perpetually going out of his way to impart
+bits of information about words and their uses, and it is rare that he
+blunders into correct statement or right inference. He often, indeed,
+in these matters carried ignorance of what he was talking about, and
+confidence in his own knowledge of it to the extremest verge of the
+possible. He sometimes mistook dialectic or antiquated English for
+classical, and laboriously corrected the latter by putting the former
+in parentheses by its side. In orthography and pronunciation he had
+never got beyond that puerile conception which fancies it a most
+creditable feature in a word that its sound shall not be suggested by
+anything in its spelling. In the case of proper names this was more
+than creditable; it was aristocratic. So in "The Crater" great care is
+taken to tell us that the hero's name, though written Woolston, was
+pronounced Wooster; and that he so continued to sound it in spite of a
+miserable Yankee pedagogue who tried hard to persuade him to follow
+the spelling. So, again, in "The Ways of the Hour" we are sedulously
+informed that Wilmeter is to be pronounced Wilmington. But absurdities
+like these belonged not so much to Cooper as to the good old times of
+gentlemanly ignorance in which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span>
+he lived. In his etymological
+vagaries, however, he sometimes left his age far behind. In "The Oak
+Openings" he enters upon the discussion of the word "shanty." He finds
+the best explanation of its origin is to suppose it a corruption of
+<i>chičnté</i>, a word which he again supposed might exist in Canadian
+French, and provided it existed there, he further supposed that in
+that dialect it might mean "dog-kennel." The student of language, much
+hardened to this sort of work on the part of men of letters, can read
+with resignation "this plausible derivation," as it is styled. Cooper,
+however, not content with the simple glory of originating it, actually
+uses throughout the whole work <i>chičnté</i> instead of "shanty." This
+rivals, if it does not outdo, the linguistic excesses of the sixteenth
+and seventeenth centuries.</p>
+
+<p>There are imperfections far more serious than these mistakes in
+language. He rarely attained to beauty of style. The rapidity with
+which he wrote forbids the idea that he ever strove earnestly for it.
+Even the essential but minor grace of clearness is sometimes denied
+him. He had not, in truth, the instincts of the born literary artist.
+Satisfied with producing the main effect, he was apt to be careless in
+the consistent working out of details. Plot, in any genuine sense of
+the word "plot," is to be found in very few of his stories. He seems
+rarely to have planned all the events beforehand; or, if he did,
+anything was likely to divert him from his original intention. The
+incidents often appear to have been suggested as the tale was in
+process of composition. Hence the constant presence of incongruities
+with the frequent result of bringing about a bungling and incomplete
+development. The introduction of certain characters is
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span>
+sometimes so heralded as to lead us to expect from them far more than
+they actually perform. Thus, in "The Two Admirals," Mr. Thomas
+Wychecombe is brought in with a fullness of description that justifies
+the reader in entertaining a rational expectation of finding in him a
+satisfactory scoundrel, capable, desperate, full of resources, needing
+the highest display of energy and ability to be overcome. This
+reasonable anticipation is disappointed. At the very moment when
+respectable determined villainy is in request, he fades away into a
+poltroon of the most insignificant type who is not able to hold his
+own against an ordinary house-steward.</p>
+
+<p>The prolixity of Cooper's introductions is a fault so obvious to every
+one that it needs here reference merely and not discussion. A similar
+remark may be made as to his moralizing, which was apt to be cheap and
+commonplace. He was much disposed to waste his own time and to exhaust
+the patience of his reader by establishing with great fullness of
+demonstration and great positiveness of assertion the truth of
+principles which most of the human race are humbly content to regard
+as axioms. A greater because even a more constantly recurring fault is
+the gross improbability to be found in the details of his stories.
+There is too much fiction in his fiction. We are continually
+exasperated by the inadequacy of the motive assigned; we are irritated
+by the unnatural if not ridiculous conduct of the characters. These
+are perpetually doing unreasonable things, or doing reasonable things
+at unsuitable times. They take the very path that must lead them into
+the danger they are seeking to shun. They engage in making love when
+they ought to be flying for their lives. His heroes, in particular,
+exhibit a capacity for going to sleep in critical situations,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span>
+which may not transcend extraordinary human experience, but does
+ordinary human belief. Nor is improbability always confined to
+details. It pervades sometimes the central idea of the story. In "The
+Bravo," for instance, the hero is the most pious of sons, the most
+faithful of friends, the most devoted of lovers. The part he has to
+play in the tale is to appear to be a cutthroat of the worst type,
+without doing a single thing to merit his reputation. It is asking too
+much of human credulity to believe that a really good man could long
+sustain the character of a remorseless desperado by merely making
+faces. This improbability, moreover, is most marked in the tales which
+are designed to teach a lesson. A double disadvantage is the result.
+The story is spoiled for the sake of the moral; and the moral is lost
+by the grossly improbable nature of the story. In the last novel
+Cooper wrote this is strikingly seen. He who can credit the
+possibility of the events occurring that are told in "The Ways of the
+Hour" must give up at the same time his belief in the maxim that truth
+is stranger than fiction.</p>
+
+<p>It has now become a conventional criticism of Cooper that his
+characters are conventional. Such a charge can be admitted without
+seriously disparaging the value of his work. In the kind of fiction to
+which his writings belong, the persons are necessarily so subordinate
+to the events that nearly all novelists of this class have been
+subjected to this same criticism. So regularly is it made, indeed,
+that Scott when he wrote a review of some of his own tales for the
+"Quarterly" felt obliged to adopt it in speaking of himself. He
+describes his heroes as amiable, insipid young men, the sort of
+pattern people that nobody cares a farthing about. Untrue as this
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span>
+is of many of Scott's creations, it is unquestionably true of the
+higher characters that Cooper introduces. They are often described in
+the most laudatory terms; but it is little they do that makes them
+worthy of the epithets with which they are honored. Their talk is
+often of a kind not known to human society. One peculiarity is
+especially noticeable. A stiffness, not to say an appearance of
+affectation is often given to the conversation by the use of <i>thou</i>
+and <i>thee</i>. This was probably a survival in Cooper of the Quakerism of
+his ancestors; for he sometimes used it in his private letters. But
+since the action of his stories was in nearly all cases laid in a
+period in which the second person singular had become obsolete in
+ordinary speech, an unnatural character is given to the dialogue,
+which removes it still farther from the language of real life.</p>
+
+<p>His failure in characterization was undoubtedly greatest in the women
+he drew. Cooper's ardent admirers have always resented this charge.
+Each one of them points to some single heroine that fulfills the
+highest requirements that criticism could demand. It seems to me that
+close study of his writings must confirm the opinion generally
+entertained. All his utterances show that the theoretical view he had
+of the rights, the duties, and the abilities of women, were of the
+most narrow and conventional type. Unhappily it was a limitation of
+his nature that he could not invest with charm characters with whom he
+was not in moral and intellectual sympathy. There was, in his eyes,
+but one praiseworthy type of womanly excellence. It did not lie in his
+power to represent any other; on one occasion he unconsciously
+satirized his inability even to conceive of any other. In "Mercedes of
+Castile" the heroine is thus
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span>
+described by her aunt: "Her
+very nature," she says, "is made up of religion and female decorum."
+It is evident that the author fancied that in this commendation he was
+exhausting praise. These are the sentiments of a man with whom
+devoutness and deportment have become the culminating conception of
+the possibilities that lie in the female character. His heroines
+naturally conformed to his belief. They are usually spoken of as
+spotless beings. They are made up of retiring sweetness, artlessness,
+and simplicity. They are timid, shrinking, helpless. They shudder with
+terror on any decent pretext. But if they fail in higher qualities,
+they embody in themselves all conceivable combinations of the
+proprieties and minor morals. They always give utterance to the most
+unexceptionable sentiments. They always do the extremely correct
+thing. The dead perfection of their virtues has not the alloy of a
+single redeeming fault. The reader naturally wearies of these
+uninterestingly discreet and admirable creatures in fiction as he
+would in real life. He feels that they would be a good deal more
+attractive if they were a good deal less angelic. With all their
+faultlessness, moreover, they do not attain an ideal which is
+constantly realized by their living, but faulty sisters. They do not
+show the faith, the devotion, the self-forgetfulness, and
+self-sacrifice which women exhibit daily without being conscious that
+they have done anything especially creditable. They experience, so far
+as their own words and acts furnish evidence of their feelings, a sort
+of lukewarm emotion which they dignify with the name of love. But they
+not merely suspect without the slightest provocation, they give up the
+men to whom they have pledged the devotion of their lives, for reasons
+for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span>
+which no one would think of abandoning an ordinary
+acquaintance. In "The Spy" the heroine distrusts her lover's integrity
+because another woman does not conceal her fondness for him. In "The
+Heidenmauer" one of the female characters resigns the man she loves
+because on one occasion, when heated by wine and maddened by passion,
+he had done violence to the sacred elements. There was never a woman
+in real life, whose heart and brain were sound, that conformed her
+conduct to a model so contemptible. It is just to say of Cooper that
+as he advanced in years he improved upon this feeble conception. The
+female characters of his earlier tales are never able to do anything
+successfully but to faint. In his later ones they are given more
+strength of mind as well as nobility of character. But at best, the
+height they reach is little loftier than that of the pattern woman of
+the regular religious novel. The reader cannot help picturing for all
+of them the same dreary and rather inane future. He is as sure, as if
+their career had been actually unrolled before his eyes, of the part
+they will perform in life. They will all become leading members of
+Dorcas societies; they will find perpetual delight in carrying to the
+poor bundles of tracts and packages of tea; they will scour the
+highways and by-ways for dirty, ragged, hatless, shoeless, and godless
+children, whom they will hale into the Sunday-school; they will shine
+with unsurpassed skill in the manufacture of slippers for the rector;
+they will exhibit a fiery enthusiasm in the decoration and adornment
+of the church at Christmas and Easter festivals. Far be the thought
+that would deny praise to the mild raptures and delicate aspirations
+of gentle natures such as Cooper drew. But in novels, at least, one
+longs for a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span>
+ruddier life than flows in the veins of these
+pale, bleached-out personifications of the proprieties. Women like
+them may be far more useful members of society than the stormier
+characters of fiction that are dear to the carnal-minded. They may
+very possibly be far more agreeable to live with; but they are not
+usually the women for whom men are willing or anxious to die.</p>
+
+<p>These are imperfections that have led to the undue depreciation of
+Cooper among many highly cultivated men. Taken by themselves they
+might seem enough to ruin his reputation beyond redemption. It is a
+proof of his real greatness that he triumphs over defects which would
+utterly destroy the fame of a writer of inferior power. It is with
+novels as with men. There are those with great faults which please us
+and impress us far more than those in which the component parts are
+better balanced. Whatever its other demerits, Cooper's best work never
+sins against the first law of fictitious composition, that the story
+shall be full of sustained interest. It has power, and power always
+fascinates, even though accompanied with much that would naturally
+excite repulsion or dislike. Moreover, poorly as he sometimes told his
+story, he had a story to tell. The permanence and universality of his
+reputation are largely due to this fact. In many modern creations full
+of subtle charm and beauty, the narrative, the material framework of
+the fiction, has been made so subordinate to the delineation of
+character and motive, that the reader ceases to feel much interest in
+what men do in the study which is furnished him of why they do it. In
+this highly-rarefied air of philosophic analysis, incident and event
+wither and die. Work of this kind is apt to have within its sphere an
+unbounded popularity; but its sphere
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span>
+is limited, and can
+never include a tithe of that vast public for which Cooper wrote and
+which has always cherished and kept alive his memory, while that of
+men of perhaps far finer mould has quite faded away.</p>
+
+<p>It is only fair, also, to judge him by his successes and not by his
+failures; by the work he did best, and not by what he did moderately
+well. His strength lies in the description of scenes, in the narration
+of events. In the best of these he has had no superior, and very few
+equals. The reader will look in vain for the revelation of sentiment,
+or for the exhibition of passion. The love-story is rarely well done;
+but the love-story plays a subordinate part in the composition. The
+moment his imagination is set on fire with the conception of
+adventure, vividness and power come unbidden to his pen. The pictures
+he then draws are as real to the mind as if they were actually seen by
+the eye. It is doubtless due to the fact that these fits of
+inspiration came to him only in certain kinds of composition, that the
+excellence of many of his stories lies largely in detached scenes.
+Still his best works are a moving panorama, in which the mind is no
+sooner sated with one picture than its place is taken by another
+equally fitted to fix the attention and to stir the heart. The
+genuineness of his power, in such cases, is shown by the perfect
+simplicity of the agencies employed. There is no pomp of words; there
+is an entire lack of even the attempt at meretricious adornment; there
+is not the slightest appearance of effort to impress the reader. In
+his portrayal of these scenes Cooper is like nature, in that lie
+accomplishes his greatest effects with the fewest means. If, as we are
+sometimes told, these things are easily done, the pertinent question
+always remains, why are they not done.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span>
+while in his higher characters he has almost
+absolutely failed, he has succeeded in drawing a whole group of
+strongly-marked lower ones. Birch, in "The Spy," Long Tom Coffin and
+Boltrope in "The Pilot," the squatter in "The Prairie," Cap in "The
+Pathfinder," and several others there are, any one of which would be
+enough of itself to furnish a respectable reputation to many a
+novelist who fancies himself far superior to Cooper as a delineator of
+character. He had neither the skill nor power to draw the varied
+figures with which Scott, with all the reckless prodigality of genius,
+crowded his canvas. Yet in the gorgeous gallery of the great master of
+romantic fiction, alive with men and women of every rank in life and
+of every variety of nature, there is, perhaps, no one person who so
+profoundly impresses the imagination as Cooper's crowning creation,
+the man of the forests. It is not that Scott could not have done what
+his follower did, had he so chosen; only that as a matter of fact he
+did not. Leather-Stocking is one of the few original characters,
+perhaps the only great original character, that American fiction has
+added to the literature of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The more uniform excellence of Cooper, however, lies in the pictures
+he gives of the life of nature. Forest, ocean, and stream are the
+things for which he really cares; and men and women are the
+accessories, inconvenient and often uncomfortable, that must be
+endured. Of the former he speaks with a loving particularity that lets
+nothing escape the attention. Yet minute as are often his
+descriptions, he did not fall into that too easily besetting sin of
+the novelist, of overloading his picture with details. To advance the
+greater he sacrificed the less. Cooper looked at nature with the eye
+of a painter and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span>
+not of a photographer. He fills the
+imagination even more than he does the sight. Hence the permanence of
+the impression which he leaves upon the mind. His descriptions, too,
+produce a greater effect at the time and cling longer to the memory
+because they fall naturally into the narrative, and form a real part
+in the development of the story; they are not merely dragged in to let
+the reader know what the writer can do. "If Cooper," said Balzac, "had
+succeeded in the painting of character to the same extent that he did
+in the painting of the phenomena of nature, he would have uttered the
+last word of our art." This author I have quoted several times,
+because far better even than George Sand, or indeed any who have
+criticised the American novelist, he seems to me to have seen clearly
+wherein the latter succeeded and wherein he failed.</p>
+
+<p>To this it is just to add one word which Cooper himself would have
+regarded as the highest tribute that could be paid to what he did.
+Whatever else we may say of his writings, their influence is always a
+healthy influence. Narrow and prejudiced he sometimes was in his
+opinions; but he hated whatever was mean and low in character. It is
+with beautiful things and with noble things that he teaches us to
+sympathize. Here are no incitements to passion, no prurient
+suggestions of sensual delights. The air which breathes through all
+his fictions is as pure as that which sweeps the streets of his
+mountain home. It is as healthy as nature itself. To read one of his
+best works after many of the novels of the day, is like passing from
+the heated and stifling atmosphere of crowded rooms to the purity, the
+freedom, and the boundlessness of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>In these foregoing pages I have attempted to portray an
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span>
+author who was something more than an author, who in any community
+would have been a marked man had he never written a word. I have not
+sought to hide his foibles and his faults, his intolerance and his
+dogmatism, the irascibility of his temperament, the pugnacity of his
+nature, the illiberality and injustice of many of his opinions, the
+unreasonableness as well as the imprudence of the course he often
+pursued. To his friends and admirers these points will seem to have
+been insisted upon too strongly. Their feelings may, to a certain
+extent, be just. Cooper is, indeed, a striking instance of how much
+more a man loses in the estimation of the world by the exhibition of
+foibles, than he will by that of vices. In this work one side of the
+life he lived--the side he presented to the public--is the only one
+that, owing to circumstances, could be depicted. It does not present
+the most attractive features of his character. That exclusiveness of
+temperament which made him misjudged by the many, endeared him only
+the more to the few who were in a position to see how different he was
+from what he seemed. In nothing is the essential sweetness of Cooper's
+nature more clearly shown than in the intense affection he inspired in
+the immediate circle which surrounded him or that was dependent upon
+him. He could not fail to feel keenly at times how utterly his
+character and motives were misapprehended and belied. "As for myself,"
+says the hero of "Miles Wallingford," "I can safely say that in scarce
+a circumstance of my life, that has brought me the least under the
+cognizance of the public, have I ever been judged justly. In various
+instances have I been praised for acts that were either totally
+without any merit, or at least the particular merit imputed to them;
+while
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span>
+I have been even persecuted for deeds that deserved
+praise."</p>
+
+<p>His faults, in fact, were faults of temper rather than of character.
+Like the defects of his writings, too, they lay upon the surface, and
+were seen and read of all men. But granting everything that can be
+urged against him, impartial consideration must award him an ample
+excess of the higher virtues. His failings were the failings of a man
+who possessed in the fullest measure vigor of mind, intensity of
+conviction, and capability of passion. Disagree with him one could
+hardly help; one could never fail to respect him. Many of the common
+charges against him are due to pure ignorance. Of these, perhaps, the
+most common and the most absolutely baseless is the one which imputes
+to him excessive literary vanity. Pride, even up to the point of
+arrogance, he had; but even this was only in a small degree connected
+with his reputation as an author. In the nearly one hundred volumes he
+wrote, not a single line can be found which implies that he had an
+undue opinion of his own powers. On the contrary, there are many that
+would lead to the conclusion that his appreciation of himself and of
+his achievement was far lower than even the coldest estimate would
+form. The prevalent misconception on this point was in part due to his
+excessive sensitiveness to criticism and his resentment of it when
+hostile. It was partly due, also, to a certain outspokenness of nature
+which led him to talk of himself as freely as he would talk of a
+stranger. But his whole conduct showed the falseness of any such
+impression. From all the petty tricks to which literary vanity
+resorts, he was absolutely free. He utterly disdained anything that
+savored of man&oelig;uvring for reputation. He indulged in no devices to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span>
+revive the decaying attention of the public. He sought no
+favors from those who were in a position to confer the notoriety which
+so many mistake for fame. He went, in fact, to the other extreme, and
+refused an aid that he might with perfect propriety have received. In
+the early period of his literary career he wrote a good deal for the
+"New York Patriot," a newspaper edited by his intimate friend, Colonel
+Gardiner. He objected to the publication in it of a favorable notice,
+which had been prepared of "The Pioneers," because by the fact of
+being an occasional contributor he was indirectly connected with the
+journal. Accordingly the criticism was not inserted. It would not have
+been possible for him to offer to review his own works, as Scott both
+offered to do and did of the "Tales of My Landlord," in the
+"Quarterly." Nor would he have acceded to a request to furnish a
+review of any production of his own, as Irving did, in the same
+periodical, of his "Conquest of Granada." No publisher who knew him,
+even slightly, would have ventured to make him a proposition of the
+kind. I am expressing no opinion as to the propriety of these
+particular acts; only that Cooper, constituted as he was, could not
+for a moment have entertained the thought of doing them.</p>
+
+<p>The fearlessness and the truthfulness of his nature are conspicuous in
+almost every incident of his career. He fought for a principle as
+desperately as other men fight for life. The storm of detraction
+through which he went never once shook the almost haughty independence
+of his conduct, or swerved him in the slightest from the course he had
+chosen. The only thing to which he unquestioningly submitted was the
+truth. His loyalty
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span>
+to that was of a kind almost Quixotic. He
+was in later years dissatisfied with himself, because, in his novel of
+"The Pilot," he had put the character of Paul Jones too high. He
+thought that the hero had been credited in that work with loftier
+motives than those by which he was actually animated. Feelings such as
+these formed the groundwork of his character, and made him intolerant
+of the devious ways of many who were satisfied with conforming to a
+lower code of morality. There was a royalty in his nature that
+disdained even the semblance of deceit. With other authors one feels
+that the man is inferior to his work. With him it is the very reverse.
+High qualities, such as these, so different from the easy-going
+virtues of common men, are more than an offset to infirmities of
+temper, to unfairness of judgment, or to unwisdom of conduct. His life
+was the best answer to many of the charges brought against his country
+and his countrymen; for whatever he may have fancied, the hostility he
+encountered was due far less to the matter of his criticisms than to
+their manner. Against the common cant, that in republican governments
+the tyranny of public sentiment will always bring conduct to the same
+monotonous level, and opinion to the same subservient uniformity,
+Democracy can point to this dauntless son who never flinched from any
+course because it brought odium, who never flattered popular
+prejudices, and who never truckled to a popular cry. America has had
+among her representatives of the irritable race of writers many who
+have shown far more ability to get on pleasantly with their fellows
+than Cooper. She has had several gifted with higher spiritual insight
+than he, with broader and juster views of life,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span>
+with finer
+ideals of literary art, and, above all, with far greater delicacy of
+taste. But she counts on the scanty roll of her men of letters the
+name of no one who acted from purer patriotism or loftier principle.
+She finds among them all no manlier nature, and no more heroic soul.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2>APPENDIX.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span></h2>
+
+<h3>PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COOPER'S WRITINGS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The following list embraces the first editions of Cooper's works;
+articles contributed to magazines; and two or three of the most
+important communications sent to the newspapers. The titles of his
+works, as published in England, were sometimes different from the
+titles used in the United States; and whenever this is the case the
+former are subjoined. It is also to be remarked that Cooper's works
+were sometimes published earlier in Europe than they were in America;
+but the dates given in this biography belong exclusively to the
+publication of his works in this country. With the exception of No. 45
+and of No. 67, all his tales were originally published in two volumes
+in America; with the exception of No. 45 they were originally
+published in three volumes in England. First editions of many of his
+novels are now rarely to be found in libraries; and the titles given
+have in several cases, in consequence, been taken from contemporary
+book notices and not from personal examination. The titles are given
+in the order of publication of the writings.</p>
+
+<p>1. Precaution; a Novel. 2 vols. New York: A. T. Goodrich
+&amp; Co., 1820.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English edition appeared in March, 1821.</p>
+
+<p>2. The Spy; a Tale of the Neutral Ground. By the Author
+of Precaution. 2 vols. New York: Wiley &amp; Halsted,
+1821.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English edition appeared in March, 1822.</p>
+
+
+<p>3. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> Pioneers; or the Sources of the Susquehanna. A
+Descriptive Tale. By the Author of Precaution. 2 vols.
+New York: Charles Wiley, 1823.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English edition appeared in March, 1823.</p>
+
+<p>4. The Pilot; A Tale of the Sea, By the Author of The
+Pioneers, etc. 2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley, 1823.
+The first edition bears the imprint of 1823, but was not
+actually published until early in January, 1824.</p>
+
+<p>5. Lionel Lincoln; or the Leaguer of Boston. By the Author
+of The Pioneers, Pilot, etc. 2 vols. New York:
+Charles Wiley, 1825.</p>
+
+<p>6. The Last of the Mohicans. A Narrative of 1757. By the
+Author of The Pioneers. 2 vols. Philadelphia: H. C.
+Carey &amp; I. Lea, 1826.</p>
+
+<p>7. The Prairie; a Tale. By the Author of The Pioneers
+and The Last of the Mohicans. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Carey, Lea &amp; Carey, 1827.</p>
+
+<p>8. The Red Rover; a Tale. By the Author of The Pilot,
+etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Carey,
+1828.</p>
+
+<p>9. Notions of the Americans; Picked up by a Travelling
+Bachelor. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Carey,
+1828.</p>
+
+<p>10. The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish; a Tale. By the Author
+of The Pioneers, Prairie, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Carey, Lea &amp; Carey, 1829.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In England this was published under the title of "The
+Borderers; or the Wept of Wish-ton-Wish." It has also
+been published with the title of "The Heathcotes."</p>
+
+<p>11. The Water-Witch; or the Skimmer of the Seas. A
+Tale. By the Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, etc.,
+etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey &amp; Lea, 1830.</p>
+
+<p>12. The Bravo; a Tale. By the Author of The Spy, The
+Red Rover, The Water Witch, etc., etc., etc. 2 vols.
+Philadelphia: Carey &amp; Lea, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>13. Letter of J. Fenimore Cooper to Gen. Lafayette on the
+Expenditure
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span>
+of the United States of America. 50 pp.
+Paris: Baudry's Foreign Library, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>14. The Heidenmauer; or the Benedictines. A Legend of
+the Rhine. By the Author of The Prairie, Red Rover,
+Bravo, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey &amp; Lea,
+1832.</p>
+
+<p>15. Letter to the American Public.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">Dated Vevay, Canton de Vaud, Oct. 1, 1832; first published
+in Philadelphia National Gazette, Dec. 6. The subject
+is the Expenses' Controversy. It occupies about two
+columns.</p>
+
+<p>16. The Headsman; or the Abbaye des Vignerons. A Tale.
+By the Author of The Bravo, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1833.</p>
+
+<p>17. A Letter to His Countrymen. By J. Fenimore-Cooper.
+116 pp. New York: John Wiley, 1834.</p>
+
+<p>18. The Monikins; edited by the Author of The Spy. 2
+vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1835.</p>
+
+<p>19. Comparative Resources of the American Navy.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Naval Magazine, vol. i, No. 1, January, 1836, pp.
+19-33.</p>
+
+<p>20. Hints on Manning the Navy, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Naval Magazine, vol. i., No. 2, March, 1836, pp.
+176-191. This was published the following May in pamphlet
+form by the "Committee of Publication for the Naval
+Magazine."</p>
+
+<p>21. Sketches of Switzerland. By an American. 2 vols.
+Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1836.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English title was "Excursions in Switzerland."</p>
+
+<p>22. Sketches of Switzerland. By an American. Part Second.
+2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard,
+1836.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English title was "A Residence in France; with an
+Excursion up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland."</p>
+
+<p>23. Gleanings in Europe. By an American. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1837.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">This
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span>
+work is devoted to France. Its English title is
+"Recollections of Europe."</p>
+
+<p>24. Gleanings in Europe. England; by an American. 2
+vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1837.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">This was published in England under the title of "England;
+with Sketches of Society in the Metropolis."</p>
+
+<p>25. Letter to the Editors of the Knickerbocker. (On the relations
+between himself and Sir Walter Scott, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Knickerbocker Magazine, vol. xi., April, 1838, pp.
+380-386.</p>
+
+<p>26. Gleanings in Europe. Italy; by an American. 2 vols.
+Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1838.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">Published in England under the title of "Excursions in
+Italy."</p>
+
+<p>27. The American Democrat; or Hints on the Social and
+Civic Relations of the United States of America. By
+J. Fenimore Cooper. Pp. 192. Cooperstown: H. &amp; E.
+Phinney, 1838.</p>
+
+<p>28. The Chronicles of Cooperstown. Pp. 100. Cooperstown:
+H. &amp; E. Phinney, 1838.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">Published anonymously. Republished at Albany in 1862
+with additional notes and details bringing the events down
+to that year. The republication is entitled "A Condensed
+History of Cooperstown; with a Biographical Sketch of J.
+Fenimore Cooper. By Rev. T. S. Livermore, A. M." It
+is a volume of 276 pages, and contains Bryant's funeral discourse
+on Cooper, with much other matter. The "Chronicles
+of Cooperstown" extend from page 9 to page 86 inclusive.</p>
+
+<p>29. Homeward Bound; or the Chase. A Tale of the Sea.
+By the Author of The Pilot, The Spy, etc. 2 vols.
+Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1838.</p>
+
+<p>30. Review of the "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter
+Scott, Bart. By J. G. Lockhart."</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Knickerbocker Magazine, October, 1838, vol. xii., pp.
+349-366.</p>
+
+<p>31. Home
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>(p. 294)</span>
+as Found. By the Author of Homeward Bound,
+The Pioneers, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea &amp;
+Blanchard, 1838.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In England published under the title of "Eve Effingham;
+or Home."</p>
+
+<p>32. The History of the Navy of the United States of America.
+By J. Fenimore Cooper. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1839.</p>
+
+<p>33. Letters in "Cooperstown Freeman's Journal," July 1st
+and July 8th, 1839.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">A reply to the criticism upon his Naval History, or rather
+upon his account of the battle of Lake Erie, which had appeared
+in the New York Commercial Advertiser in June,
+1839. The first letter occupies two columns, the second
+more than three.</p>
+
+<p>34. The Pathfinder; or the Inland Sea. By the Author of
+The Pioneers, Last of the Mohicans, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1840.</p>
+
+<p>35. Mercedes of Castile; or the Voyage to Cathay. By the
+Author of The Bravo, The Last of the Mohicans, etc.
+2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1840.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English title was "Mercedes of Castile. A Romance
+of the Days of Columbus."</p>
+
+<p>36. History of the Navy of the United States of America.
+Abridged in one volume. Pp. 447. Philadelphia:
+Thomas Cowperthwait &amp; Co., 1841.</p>
+
+<p>37. The Deerslayer; or the First War Path. A Tale. By
+the Author of The Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers,
+etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1841.</p>
+
+<p>38. "Home as Found. Lost Chapter." Preceded by a
+"Preface," and a "Letter to the Editor." In the
+"Brother Jonathan" newspaper of January 1, 1842.--Followed
+by a Letter to the Editor, from Cooper, on
+"The Effingham Matter," in same paper for February
+12, 1842, and by two articles on "The Effingham Controversy,"
+in the numbers for March 26, 1842, and April
+9, 1842.</p>
+
+
+<p>39. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span>
+Two Admirals; a Tale. By the Author of The Pilot,
+Red Rover, Water Witch, Homeward Bound, etc.,
+etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1842.</p>
+
+<p>40. Edinburgh Review on James' Naval Occurrences and
+Cooper's Naval History.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In the United States Magazine and Democratic Review,
+vol. x., for May and June, 1842. First article, pp. 409-435;
+second article, pp. 515-541.</p>
+
+<p>41. Richard Somers.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for October, 1842.</p>
+
+<p>42. William Bainbridge.
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for November, 1842.</p>
+
+<p>43. The Wing-and-Wing; or Le Feu-Follet. A Tale. By
+the Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, Two Admirals,
+Homeward Bound, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1842.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In England this was published under the title "The Jack
+o' Lantern (Le Feu-Follet); or the Privateer."</p>
+
+<p>44. Richard Dale.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for December, 1842.</p>
+
+<p>45. Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for January, February, March,
+and April, 1843. It came out in March among the publications
+of the "Brother Jonathan" newspaper office, and
+was then entitled "Le Mouchoir; an Autobiographical
+Romance." The English title was "The French Governess;
+or the Embroidered Handkerchief."</p>
+
+<p>46. Oliver Hazard Perry.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for May and June, 1843.</p>
+
+<p>47. John Paul Jones.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for July and August, 1843.</p>
+
+<p>48. The Battle of Lake Erie; or Answers to Messrs. Burges,
+Duer, and Mackenzie. By J. Fenimore Cooper.
+Pp. 118. Cooperstown: H. &amp; E. Phinney, 1843.</p>
+
+<p>49. Wyandotte; or the Hutted Knoll. A Tale. By the
+Author of The Pathfinder, Deerslayer, Last of the Mohicans,
+Pioneers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span>
+Prairie, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+Lea &amp; Blanchard, 1843.</p>
+
+<p>50. Ned Myers; or a Life before the Mast. Edited by J.
+Fenimore Cooper. Pp. 232. Philadelphia: Lea &amp; Blanchard,
+1843.</p>
+
+<p>51. John Shaw.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for March, 1844.</p>
+
+<p>52. John Barry.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for June, 1844.</p>
+
+<p>53. Afloat and Ashore; or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford.
+By the Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, The
+Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Published
+by the Author, 1844.</p>
+
+<p>54. Proceedings of the Naval Court Martial in the Case of
+Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a Commander in the Navy
+of the United States, etc., including the Charges and
+Specifications of Charges, preferred against him by the
+Secretary of the Navy. To which is annexed an Elaborate
+Review. By James Fennimore Cooper. Pp. 344.
+New York: Henry G. Langley, 1844. (Cooper's review
+extends from page 263 to page 344 inclusive. The
+spelling of the name was due to the publisher.)</p>
+
+<p>55. Afloat and Ashore; or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford.
+By the Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, etc.
+Vols. 3 &amp; 4. Published for the Author. New York:
+Burgess, Stringer &amp; Co., 1844.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">This second series of Afloat and Ashore goes in this country
+under the name of "Miles Wallingford." In England
+it was published as "Lucy Hardinge."</p>
+
+<p>56. John Templer Shubrick.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for December, 1844.</p>
+
+<p>57. Melancthon Taylor Woolsey.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for January, 1845.</p>
+
+<p>58. Edward Preble.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Graham's Magazine for May and June, 1845.</p>
+
+<p>59. Satanstoe; or the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of
+the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span>
+Colony. 2 vols. New York: Burgess, Stringer &amp;
+Co., 1845.</p>
+
+<p>60. The Chainbearer; or the Littlepage Manuscripts. Edited
+by the Author of Satanstoe, Spy, Pathfinder, Two
+Admirals, etc. 2 vols. New York: Burgess, Stringer
+&amp; Co, 1846.</p>
+
+<p>61. Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers. By
+J. Fenimore Cooper. Author of The Spy, The Pilot,
+etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey &amp; Hart, 1846. Also,
+2 vols. Auburn: Derby &amp; Jackson, 1846.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">Volume I. contains, in the following order: Bainbridge
+(No. 42), Somers (No. 41), Shaw (No. 51), Shubrick (No.
+56), Preble (No. 58).</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">Volume II. contains: Jones (No. 47), Woolsey (No. 57),
+Perry (No. 46), and Dale (No. 44); Barry (No. 52) was
+not included.</p>
+
+<p>62. The Redskins; or Indian and Injin. Being the conclusion
+of the Littlepage Manuscripts. By the Author of
+The Pathfinder, Deerslayer, Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols.
+New York: Burgess &amp; Stringer, 1846.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In England the title of this work was "Ravensnest; or
+the Redskins."</p>
+
+<p>63. The Islets of the Gulf; or Rose Budd.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">Begun in Graham's Magazine for November, 1846, and
+continued through every succeeding number until March,
+1848, in which month it was concluded. It was published
+in book form March 21, 1848, by Burgess, Stringer &amp; Co., as
+"Jack Tier; or the Florida Reefs." In England the title
+was "Captain Spike; or the Islets of the Gulf."</p>
+
+<p>64. The Crater; or Vulcan's Peak. A Tale of the Pacific.
+By the Author of Miles Wallingford, The Red Rover,
+The Pilot, etc., etc. 2 vols. New York: Burgess,
+Stringer &amp; Co., 1847.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English title was "Mark's Reef; or the Crater."
+Jack Tier; or the Florida Reefs, 1848. See No. 63.</p>
+
+<p>65. The Oak Openings; or the Bee Hunter. By the Author
+of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span>
+The Pioneers, Last of the Mohicans, Pathfinder,
+Deerslayer, etc., etc. 2 vols. New York: Burgess,
+Stringer &amp; Co., 1848.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">The English title was "The Bee Hunter; or the Oak
+Openings."</p>
+
+<p>66. The Sea Lions; or the Lost Sealers. By the Author of
+The Crater, etc. 2 vols. New York: Stringer &amp; Townsend,
+1849.</p>
+
+<p>67. The Ways of the Hour; a Tale. By the Author of The
+Spy, The Red Rover, etc., etc. 1 vol. New York: G.
+P. Putnam, 1850.</p>
+
+
+<h3>POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATIONS.</h3>
+
+<p>68. Old Ironsides.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Putnam's Magazine, vol. i., No. v., May, 1853, pp.
+473-487; and in No. vi., June, 1853, pp. 593-607.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">This is a history of the United States frigate
+Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>69. Fragments from a Diary of James Fenimore Cooper.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Putnam's Magazine, new series, vol. i., February,
+1868, pp. 167-172; and June, 1868, pp. 730-737.</p>
+
+<p>70. The Battle of Plattsburgh Bay.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In January, 1869, of Putnam's Magazine, vol. iii., new series,
+pp. 49-59.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">A note to this article says that it was prepared as a lecture
+to be delivered before the New York Historical Society.
+The records of that Society, however, contain no reference
+to any lecture delivered by Cooper.</p>
+
+<p>71. The Eclipse.</p>
+
+<p class="quotega">In Putnam's Magazine, new series, vol. iv., for September,
+1869, pp. 352-359. Written about 1831, and gives an
+account of the eclipse of the sun in June, 1806.</p>
+
+
+<p>Besides these there are numerous letters written to the
+newspapers, and in particular the letters written to the
+Paris journal, the "National," in 1833. During Cooper's life
+it was frequently said that he was engaged in preparing a
+work
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span>
+on the Middle States of the Union; but no trace of
+such a production was found among his papers. A work of
+his on "The Towns of Manhattan" was partly finished and
+in press at the time of his death; but the portion printed
+was entirely destroyed by fire. Part of the manuscript,
+however, was recovered. On the 4th of August, 1841,
+Cooper also delivered an address before the Literary Societies
+of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y.; but this he himself
+burned on the day it was delivered.</p>
+
+<p>A few works have been wrongly attributed to him. One
+of these is "The Cruise of the Somers; illustrative of the
+Despotism of the Quarter Deck; and of the Unmanly Conduct
+of Commander Mackenzie." New York: 1844. Another
+is "Elinor Wyllys; or the Young Folk of Longbridge."
+Philadelphia: 1846. Of this novel Cooper was the nominal
+editor, and to it he contributed a short preface. A third
+work, which has been falsely attributed to him, is entitled
+"The Republic of the United States; its Duties to Itself,
+and its Responsible Relations to other Countries." New
+York: 1848.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2>INDEX.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Adams, John, <a href="#page113">113</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Adams, John Quincy, <a href="#page224">224-226</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Afloat and Ashore," <a href="#page232">232</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249-253</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Albany, N. Y., <a href="#page006">6</a>,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Albany Argus," <a href="#page182">182</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Albany Evening Journal," Cooper's libel suits with,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190-196</a>.</p>
+
+<p>America, intellectual dependence of, on England in 1820 and later,
+<a href="#page018">18-21</a>,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>;
+  literary state of, in 1820, <a href="#page030">30-32</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"American Scott, The," Cooper so termed, <a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>;
+  his feelings about it, <a href="#page059">59</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"American Democrat, The," <a href="#page177">177-179</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Angevine, <a href="#page014">14-16</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Anti-Rent Novels, The, <a href="#page251">251-254</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Ashburton Treaty, <a href="#page237">237</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung," <a href="#page107">107</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief,"
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Bainbridge, Commodore William,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Balzac, Honoré de, Criticisms of Cooper,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>,
+<a href="#page284">284</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Barry Cornwall. See <a href="#procter"><i>Procter</i>.</a></p>
+
+<p>Barry, John, <a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Benjamin, Park, <a href="#page159">159</a>;
+  Cooper's libel suit with, <a href="#page187">187</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Bentley, London publisher of Cooper's later works,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Blackwood's Magazine," <a href="#page058">58</a>;
+  abuse of Cooper, <a href="#page174">174</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Berne, Cooper's residence near, <a href="#page068">68</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Boone, Daniel, <a href="#page072">72</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Borderers, The" (English title), <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Boston, Cooper's criticism of,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Bostonians practice "gouging," <a href="#page097">97</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo, The,"
+<a href="#page108">108-111</a>,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page284">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Bread and Cheese Club, founded by
+Cooper, <a href="#page063">63</a>;
+  its members, <a href="#page063">63</a>;
+  gives dinner to Cooper, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Brenton's, Captain Edward Pelham, "Naval History of Great Britain,"
+<a href="#page202">202</a>.</p>
+
+<p>British press, Cooper's opinion of,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page136">136</a>,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>;
+  its attacks upon Cooper,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>,
+<a href="#page173">173-176</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother Jonathan, The," newspaper,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Brown, Charles Brockden, <a href="#page030">30</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Bryant, William Cullen,
+<a href="#page017">17</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>;
+  delivers funeral oration on Cooper,
+<a href="#page268">268</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Bulwer, Sir Edward Lytton,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Burges, Tristam,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Burlington, N. J., <a href="#page002">2</a>,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Burton's Theatre, Cooper's comedy acted at,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Campbell, Judge William W., <a href="#page216">216</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Canning, George, <a href="#page068">68</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Spike" (English title), <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Carey and Lea, publishers, <a href="#page066">66</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Chainbearer, The," <a href="#page252">252-254</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Châlet, The, Cooper's farm, near Cooperstown,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Champlain, Lake, <a href="#page012">12</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Chauncey, Commodore Isaac, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Chesapeake, American man-of-war,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Chronicles of Cooperstown, The,"
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Clay, Henry, <a href="#page067">67</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Clinton, DeWitt, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"C&oelig;lebs," Hannah More's, <a href="#page021">21</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Colburn, London publisher,
+<a href="#page028">28</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Comparative Resources of the American Navy,"
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Constitution, ship-of-war,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper, Fenimore,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper, J. F.: born at Burlington, <a href="#page002">2</a>;
+removed to Cooperstown, <a href="#page002">2</a>;
+early education, <a href="#page006">6</a>;
+at Albany, <a href="#page006">6</a>;
+at Yale College, <a href="#page007">7</a>;
+dismissed from college, <a href="#page127">8</a>;
+serves before the mast, <a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>;
+enters navy as midshipman, <a href="#page011">11</a>;
+his service, <a href="#page011">11</a>;
+marries, <a href="#page012">12</a>;
+resigns position in the navy, <a href="#page014">14</a>;
+residences from 1811 to 1822, <a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>;
+his children, <a href="#page015">15</a>;
+begins literary life, <a href="#page016">16</a>;
+moves into New York city, <a href="#page063">63</a>;
+founds the Bread and Cheese club, <a href="#page063">63</a>;
+has family name changed to Fenimore-Cooper, <a href="#page003">3</a>;
+is given a public dinner, <a href="#page127">127</a>;
+sails for Europe, <a href="#page067">67</a>;
+made consul at Lyons, <a href="#page067">67</a>;
+residences in France, England, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany,
+<a href="#page067">67</a>, <a href="#page068">68</a>;
+cordial reception in Paris, <a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>;
+wide extent of his reputation, <a href="#page056">56-58</a>,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>;
+returns to America, <a href="#page117">117</a>;
+refuses a public dinner, <a href="#page128">128</a>;
+resides in New York city, <a href="#page117">117</a>;
+buys his father's house in Cooperstown and makes it his permanent home,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>;
+has a controversy with citizens of Cooperstown,
+<a href="#page142">142-148</a>;
+brings a number of newspaper libel suits,
+<a href="#page180">180-197</a>;
+engages unsuccessfully in business operations,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>;
+his farm, <a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>;
+becomes a communicant in the Episcopal Church, <a href="#page266">266</a>;
+his death, <a href="#page267">267</a>;
+funeral oration over, delivered by Bryant, <a href="#page268">268</a>;
+happiness of his home life, <a href="#page013">13</a>,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page234">234</a>,
+<a href="#page285">285</a>;
+wide circulation of his works, <a href="#page037">37</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page270">270</a>;
+pecuniary profits from their sale,
+<a href="#page064">64-66</a>,
+<a href="#page261">261-263</a>;
+his success as a lawyer,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216-218</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>;
+his sensitiveness to criticism,
+<a href="#page041">41-44</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>;
+defects of his literary art, <a href="#page050">50</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>;
+failure in characterization,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page278">278</a>;
+female characters, <a href="#page026">26-28</a>,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>,
+<a href="#page278">278-281</a>;
+success in characters from low life,
+<a href="#page053">53-55</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a>,
+<a href="#page073">73</a>,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page283">283</a>;
+fondness for commonplace, <a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page242">242</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>;
+prolixity of his introductions,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>,
+<a href="#page242">242</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>;
+improbability and carelessness in the details of his stories,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page053">53</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>;
+carelessness in the development of the plot,
+<a href="#page028">28</a>,
+<a href="#page271">271</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page275">275</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>;
+criticism on language and carelessness in use of it,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272-275</a>;
+his humor, <a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>;
+his fondness for natural scenery, and success in description,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>,
+<a href="#page282">282-284</a>;
+his political opinions,
+<a href="#page082">82-84</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>;
+his imperiousness of manner,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page286">286</a>;
+his pugnacity,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page146">146</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page285">285</a>;
+his generosity, <a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page082">82</a>;
+his patriotism,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page110">110</a>,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>,
+<a href="#page231">231</a>,
+<a href="#page237">237</a>,
+<a href="#page238">238</a>,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>;
+depth and narrowness of religious feeling,
+<a href="#page022">22-26</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>,
+<a href="#page256">256</a>,
+<a href="#page258">258-261</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>;
+high sense of honor, <a href="#page082">82</a>,
+<a href="#page286">286</a>;
+love of truth,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page222">222</a>,
+<a href="#page232">232</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>,
+<a href="#page288">288</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper, Paul,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper, Richard, <a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper, Susan Fenimore, <a href="#page015">15</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper, William, Cooper's father,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142-145</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page192">192</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooperstown, situation of,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>;
+when founded, <a href="#page002">2</a>;
+original population of, <a href="#page005">5</a>;
+Cooper's residences in, <a href="#page002">2</a>,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>;
+his controversy with citizens of, <a href="#page142">142-148</a>;
+farm near, <a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>;
+his death at, <a href="#page266">266</a>,
+<a href="#page267">267</a>;
+the Chronicles of, <a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Cooperstown Freeman's Journal," democratic newspaper,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>;
+Cooper's letters to,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Copyright, international, Cooper's feelings in regard to,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>;
+  pecuniary loss sustained by the lack of one,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Copyright law, English, of, 1838,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Courier, Paul, liberal sentiments about America,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Court of Errors, The, of New York,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>,
+<a href="#page229">229</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Crater, The," <a href="#page255">255-258</a>,
+<a href="#page274">274</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Cushing, Caleb, replies to Cooper, <a href="#page132">132</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Dale, Richard,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Davis, Admiral Charles H., <a href="#page213">213</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Deerslayer, The," <a href="#page239">239-242</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>DeKay, James E., <a href="#page063">63</a>.</p>
+
+<p>DeLancey family, <a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>.</p>
+
+<p>DeLancey, Susan Augusta,
+<a href="#page012">12-14</a>,
+<a href="#page016">16</a>,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page234">234</a>;
+married to Cooper, <a href="#page012">12</a>;
+her death, <a href="#page267">267</a>.</p>
+
+<p>DeLancey, William H., bishop of Western New York,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Democratic party, Cooper nominally belonging to,
+<a href="#page133">133</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Democratic Review,"
+<a href="#page207">207</a>,
+<a href="#page208">208</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Derby, Lord, <a href="#page052">52</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Diary of James Fenimore Cooper, Fragments from,"
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Dresden, Saxony, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Duer, William Alexander, Cooper's controversy with,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221-223</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Durand, Asher B., the engraver,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"Eclipse, The," <a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Edgeworth, Maria, <a href="#page057">57</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Edinburgh Review, The," <a href="#page205">205-208</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Elliott, Commodore Jesse,
+<a href="#page208">208-213</a>,
+<a href="#page222">222</a>;
+has a medal struck in honor of Cooper,
+<a href="#page224">224-226</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Encyclopedia Britannica," notice of Cooper's life in,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>.</p>
+
+
+<p>England, Cooper's residence in,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>;
+  feeling of, towards America,
+<a href="#page087">87-98</a>;
+  criticism of, by Cooper,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>;
+  his work on,
+<a href="#page135">135</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>;
+  hostility expressed for Cooper in,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>,
+<a href="#page173">173-176</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Effingham, name applied to Cooper,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Episcopal Church, Cooper's attachment to,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page245">245</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>,
+<a href="#page257">257</a>,
+<a href="#page259">259</a>,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Erie Lake, Battle of, controversy in regard to,
+<a href="#page208">208-227</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#page266">European ignorance of America,</a>
+<a href="#page086">86-88</a>,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Eve Effingham" (English title),
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Excursions in Italy" (English title),
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Excursions in Switzerland" (English title),
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Expenses' Controversy, The,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111-115</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Fay, Theodore S.,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Federalist Party, <a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>;
+Cooper brought up in, <a href="#page092">92</a>;
+feeling of, towards England,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Fenimore family,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Fenimore, near Cooperstown, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Fenimore-Cooper, family name changed to,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Florence, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page074">74</a>,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Foot, Samuel A.,
+<a href="#page215">215-221</a>.</p>
+
+<p>France, Cooper's work on,
+<a href="#page135">135</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Francis, Dr. John W.,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>,
+<a href="#page267">267</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Fraser's Magazine," its attack on Cooper,
+<a href="#page174">174-175</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Free trade, Cooper's hostility to,
+<a href="#page133">133</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"French Governess, The" (English title),
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>French opinion of Cooper,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>.</p>
+
+<p>French social life, Cooper's opinion of,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Galitzin, Princess, <a href="#page069">69</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Gardner, Colonel Charles K.,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Gifford, William, editor of "The Quarterly,"
+<a href="#page035">35</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Gisquet, French prefect of police,
+<a href="#page037">37</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Gleanings in Europe,"
+<a href="#page135">135-140</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Glens Falls,
+<a href="#page052">52</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Glory and Shame of England," attack on Cooper in,
+<a href="#page234">234</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Gotham and the Gothamites,"
+<a href="#page060">60</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Gouging, prevalence of, in America,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>;
+practiced by Bostonians,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.</p>
+
+
+<p>"Graham's Magazine,"
+<a href="#page229">229</a>,
+<a href="#page245">245</a>, <i>note</i>,
+<a href="#page248">248</a>,
+<a href="#page255">255</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295-297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Greeley, Horace,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>;
+  Cooper's libel suits with,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Greenough, Horatio,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page115">115-116</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,"
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Halleck, Fitzgreene,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>, <i>note</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Harris, Leavitt,
+<a href="#page113">113</a>,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Haydon, Benjamin Robert,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Hazlitt, William,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Headley, Rev. J. T.,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Headsman, The,"
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Heathcotes, The" (English title),
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Heidenmauer, The,"
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>,
+<a href="#page280">280</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Heine, <a href="#page107">107</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Hillard, George S.,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Hillhouse, James A.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Hints on Manning the Navy,"
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Hobart College, Cooper's address at,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Home as Found,"
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150-159</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Home as Found, Lost Chapter of,"
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Homeward Bound,"
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Impressment of American seamen,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Indian character, Cooper's view of,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Ingram's, John H., "Life of Poe,"
+<a href="#page246">246</a>, <i>note</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Irving, Washington,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page268">268</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Islets of the Gulf, The." See
+"<a href="#jacktier"><i>Jack Tier</i></a>."</p>
+
+<p>Italy, Cooper's work on,
+<a href="#page135">135</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>;
+  attachment of Cooper to,
+<a href="#page069">69-71</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Lantern, The" (English title),
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Jackson, President Andrew,
+<a href="#page131">131</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.</p>
+
+<p><a id="jacktier" name="jacktier"></a>
+"Jack Tier,"
+<a href="#page255">255</a>,
+<a href="#page256">256</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>James's, William, "Naval History of Great Britain,"
+<a href="#page205">205-207</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>;
+  Cooper's opinion of,
+<a href="#page206">206</a>,
+<a href="#page207">207</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Jarvis, John Wesley, <a href="#page063">63</a>.
+
+<p>Jay, John, <a href="#page029">29</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#page067">67</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Jones, John Paul,
+<a href="#page048">48</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page288">288</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Jordan, Ambrose C., <a href="#page190">190</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Judah, Samuel B. H.,
+<a href="#page060">60</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Jury, trial by,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Kent, Chancellor James,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page127">127</a>.</p>
+
+<p>King, Charles,
+<a href="#page127">127</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Knickerbocker Magazine,"
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Lafayette,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Last of the Mohicans, The,"
+<a href="#page052">52-55</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence, Captain James,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Leather-Stocking Tales, The,"
+<a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>;
+  Cooper's opinion of,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Leghorn, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Lester, C. Edwards,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Letter to General Lafayette,"
+<a href="#page112">112</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Letter to his Countrymen,"
+<a href="#page129">129-132</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Letter to the American Public,"
+<a href="#page114">114</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Libel suits, Cooper's, with the Otsego "Republican,"
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>;
+  with the Norwich "Telegraph,"
+<a href="#page184">184</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>;
+  with the Oneida "Whig,"
+<a href="#page187">187</a>;
+  with the New York "Evening Signal,"
+<a href="#page187">187;</a>
+  with the New York "Courier and Enquirer,"
+<a href="#page187">187-190</a>;
+  with the Albany "Evening Journal,"
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>;
+  with the New York "Tribune,"
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>;
+  with the New York "Commercial Advertiser,"
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214-221</a>,
+<a href="#page223">223-224</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Lionel Lincoln,"
+<a href="#page049">49-52</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Livermore, Rev. T. S.,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Livingston, Edward,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Lockhart's, John Gibson, "Life of Scott,"
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>,
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>London, Cooper's residence in,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page096">96-98</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"London Times," its attack on Cooper,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Lord, Daniel, Jr.,
+<a href="#page215">215-221</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Louis Philippe,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Lowell, James Russell,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy Harding" (English title),
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page251">251</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Lyons, Cooper consul at,
+<a href="#page067">67</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>,
+<a href="#page222">222</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Mackintosh, Sir James,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Mamaroneck, N. Y.,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Man, Isle of, Cooper reported birthplace in,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Mark's Reef" (English title),
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>McHarg, Rev. C. W.,
+<a href="#page229">229</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercedes of Castile,"
+<a href="#page232">232</a>,
+<a href="#page242">242</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page278">278</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Mickiewicz, Adam, <a href="#page107">107</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Miller, London publisher, <a href="#page035">35</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Miles Wallingford,"
+<a href="#page093">93</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page285">285</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Mitford, Mary Russell,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Monikins, The,"
+<a href="#page133">133-135</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Montagu, Mrs. Basil,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Moore, Thomas,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>.</p>
+
+<p>More, Hannah,
+<a href="#page021">21</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Morris, George P.,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Morse, S. F. B.,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Murray, John, London publisher,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Naples, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Naples, bay of, compared with that of New York,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"National" (Paris),
+<a href="#page113">113</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Naval Magazine,"
+<a href="#page201">201</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Naval History of the United States,"
+<a href="#page200">200-230</a>,
+<a href="#page232">232</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Naval Officers, Lives of,"
+<a href="#page228">228</a>,
+<a href="#page229">229</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Neal, John, <a href="#page030">30</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Ned Myers,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>,
+<a href="#page248">248</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>.</p>
+
+<p>New England, Cooper's dislike of,
+<a href="#page245">245</a>,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page250">250</a>,
+<a href="#page253">253</a>,
+<a href="#page257">257</a>,
+<a href="#page259">259</a>;
+  Cooper's unpopularity in,
+<a href="#page050">50</a>,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>.</p>
+
+<p>New Haven, <a href="#page008">8</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New Monthly Magazine, Colburn's," sketch of Cooper in,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Newport, <a href="#page074">74</a>;
+stone tower at, <a href="#page226">226</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New World, The," newspaper,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>.</p>
+
+<p>New York (city), Cooper's residences in,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page047">47</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page067">67</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>;
+  Cooper's criticism of society in,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>;
+  social life in,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>;
+  Cooper's prophecy about,
+<a href="#page102">102</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York American,"
+<a href="#page127">127</a>,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Commercial Advertiser,"
+<a href="#page129">129</a>;
+  Cooper's libel suits with,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214-221</a>,
+<a href="#page223">223</a>,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Courier and Enquirer,"
+<a href="#page129">129</a>,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>;
+ Cooper's libel suits with,
+<a href="#page187">187-190</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Evening Post," <a href="#page182">182</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Evening Signal," Cooper's libel suit with,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>.</p>
+
+<p>New York Historical Society,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Home Journal," <a href="#page013">13</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Mirror," <a href="#page132">132</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Patriot," <a href="#page287">287</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New York Tribune," Cooper's libel suits with,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page192">192</a>,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"New Yorker, The,"
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Newspapers, Cooper's attacks on,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page176">176-180</a>;
+  libel suits with,
+<a href="#page180">180-199</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"North American Review, The,"
+<a href="#page060">60</a>,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Norwich Telegraph," Cooper's libel suit with,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Notions of the Americans,"
+<a href="#page101">101-106</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Nugent, Lord,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"Oak Openings, The,"
+<a href="#page255">255</a>,
+<a href="#page258">258</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page275">275</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Odofried the Outcast,"
+<a href="#page060">60</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Old Ironsides,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Oneida Whig, The," Cooper's libel suit with,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Ontario, Lake,
+<a href="#page011">11</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Otsego Hall, Cooper's residence,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page267">267</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Otsego Lake,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Otsego Republican," Cooper's libel suit with,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Paris, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page067">67-69</a>,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Parsons, Usher, <a href="#page227">227</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Pathfinder, The,"
+<a href="#page011">11</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239-242</a>,
+<a href="#page283">283</a>,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Paulding, James Kirke, <a href="#page030">30</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Paulding, Hiram, <a href="#page216">216</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Peale, Rembrandt, <a href="#page115">115</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Percival, James G., <a href="#page060">60-62</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Perry, Captain Matthew,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Perry, Commodore Oliver H.,
+<a href="#page208">208-229</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Philadelphia National Gazette,"
+<a href="#page114">114</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Pilot, The,"
+<a href="#page044">44-48</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page074">74</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>,
+<a href="#page283">283-288</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Pioneers, The,"
+<a href="#page039">39-44</a>,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Piracy of books,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Plattsburgh Bay, Battle of,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Poe, Elgar A.,
+<a href="#page245">245</a>,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>, <i>note</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Poland, revolt of, <a href="#page107">107</a>;
+  Cooper's efforts to aid, <a href="#page108">108</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Prairie, The,"
+<a href="#page061">61</a>,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>,
+<a href="#page073">73</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>,
+<a href="#page283">283</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Preble, Edward,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Precaution,"
+<a href="#page016">16-28</a>,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Price of Cooper's later novels,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Princeton College,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>.</p>
+
+<p><a id="procter" name="procter"></a>
+Procter, Bryan Waller,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Provincialism of America,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Puritanism,
+<a href="#page023">23-29</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Putnam's Magazine,"
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"Quarterly Review, The,"
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>;
+  its attacks on America,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>;
+  its attack on Cooper,
+<a href="#page205">205</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"Ravensnest" (English title),
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Recollections of Europe" (English title),
+<a href="#page293">293</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Redskins, The,"
+<a href="#page253">253</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Red Rover, The,"
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page073">73</a>,
+<a href="#page099">99</a>,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>,
+<a href="#page227">227</a>,
+<a href="#page255">255</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Reporters of newspapers, Cooper's attack on,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Residence in France" (English title),
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Revolution of 1830, French,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Revue Britannique,"
+<a href="#page111">111-113</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Rhode Island Historical Society,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>;
+  refuses to accept the Cooper medal,
+<a href="#page224">224-227</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Rives, William C.,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Rome, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Russia, early cordial relations of, with the United States,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Sand, George,
+<a href="#page284">284</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Satanstoe,"
+<a href="#page252">252</a>,
+<a href="#page253">253</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Saulnier, M.,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Scott, Sir Walter,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>,
+<a href="#page033">33</a>,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56-59</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page110">110</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page278">278</a>,
+<a href="#page283">283</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>;
+  his mention of Cooper,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>;
+  Lockhart's life of,
+<a href="#page159">159-161</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Scott, General Winfield,
+<a href="#page127">127</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Sea Lions, The,"
+<a href="#page255">255</a>,
+<a href="#page258">258-260</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Sea novel, Cooper's creation of,
+<a href="#page044">44-47</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page074">74</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Shannon, English ship-of-war,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Shanty, Cooper's derivation of,
+<a href="#page275">275</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Shaw, John,
+<a href="#page290">290</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Shubrick, John Templer,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Silliman, Professor Benjamin,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Sketches of Switzerland,"
+<a href="#page135">135-140</a>,
+<a href="#page292">292</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Slavery, Cooper's feelings toward,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Smith, Sydney,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Smollett, Tobias G.,
+<a href="#page045">45</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Somers, American man-of-war,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Somers, Richard,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Sorrento, Cooper's residence at,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Sotheby, William,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Southey, Robert,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Spencer, John C.,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Spencer, Joshua A.,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Spy, The,"
+<a href="#page013">13</a>,
+<a href="#page030">30-38</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page280">280</a>,
+<a href="#page283">283</a>,
+<a href="#page290">290</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Squier, E. G., <a href="#page037">37</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Steevens, Samuel,
+<a href="#page215">215-221</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Sterling, merchant ship,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>,
+<a href="#page248">248</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Stone, William Leet, Cooper's libel suits against,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214-221</a>,
+<a href="#page223">223</a>,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Sumner, Charles,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Susquehanna River,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Talleyrand visits Cooper's father,
+<a href="#page005">5</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Three Mile Point Controversy, The,
+<a href="#page142">142-148</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Ticknor, George,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Tories of American Revolution, Cooper's treatment of,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Towns of Manhattan, The,"
+<a href="#page266">266</a>,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Tuckerman, Henry T., his account of a trial scene,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Two Admirals, The,"
+<a href="#page242">242</a>,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>,
+<a href="#page287">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Tyler, John, President,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"United Service Journal," its criticism of Cooper's Naval History,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page205">205</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Upside Down," Cooper's comedy,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Van Rensselaer, Stephen, the patroon,
+<a href="#page251">251</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Verplanck, Gulian Crommelin,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Vesuvius, American man-of-war,
+<a href="#page011">11</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>"Water Witch, The,"
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>;
+  refused publication in Rome,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Waverley Novels,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Ways of the Hour, The,"
+<a href="#page255">255</a>,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page274">274</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Webster, Daniel,
+<a href="#page268">268</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Weed, Thurlow,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>;
+  Cooper's libel suits against,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190-196</a>;
+  admiration for Cooper's novels,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, The,"
+<a href="#page074">74</a>,
+<a href="#page099">99</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page291">291</a>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Westchester County, New York,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page029">29</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Whig party, its hostility to Cooper
+<a href="#page131">131</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Whig press, attacks on Cooper,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page173">173</a>,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Wiley, John, publisher,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Willis, N. P.,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson, John,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Wing-and-Wing,"
+<a href="#page093">93</a>,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>,
+<a href="#page244">244</a>,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Woolsey, Melancthon Taylor,
+<a href="#page011">11</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Wright, Fanny, <a href="#page036">36</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"Wyandotte,"
+<a href="#page013">13</a>,
+<a href="#page244">244</a>,
+<a href="#page245">245</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<p>Yale College, <a href="#page246">246</a>;
+  Cooper's connection with,
+<a href="#page007">7-9</a>.</p>
+
+<p><a id="note001" name="note001"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b> I express no opinion on the merits of this controversy,
+for I have seen very slight summaries only of the articles that
+appeared in the <i>Revue Britannique</i>. But it is proper to say that it
+was the opinion of the French liberals, that Cooper utterly demolished
+his antagonists in the controversy.]<a href="#notetag001">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="note002" name="note002"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b> Poe wrote a review of <i>Wyandotte</i> which appeared in
+<i>Graham's Magazine</i> for November, 1843. As notices of Cooper's novels
+then went, this may be regarded as a favorable one, though in it the
+critic took occasion to divide works of fiction into two classes: one
+of a popular sort which anybody could write, and the other of a kind
+intrinsically more worthy and artistic, and capable of being produced
+only by the few. At the head of the former class he placed Cooper, but
+had the grace not to include his own name in the latter class which he
+had created for himself. The reader will be edified to learn from a
+life of Poe, written by John H. Ingram (2 vols., London, 1880), that
+the writing of this review was an act of heroic and even desperate
+hardihood. Poe, it seems, had before valorously depreciated Halleck;
+but his crowning act of courage is introduced with the statement that
+"he dared all <i>published</i> opinion, and in the very teeth of Cooper's
+supreme popularity ventured upon saying" the remarks which have
+already been referred to, and which are quoted in full by the
+biographer, to whom is also to be given the credit of the italicized
+word in the foregoing quotation. No small share of the common belief
+in regard to Cooper's character and career is based upon assertions
+about as trustworthy as this.]<a href="#notetag002">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas R. Lounsbury
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: James Fenimore Cooper
+       American Men of Letters
+
+Author: Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2006 [EBook #19463]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+The original spelling has been retained.]
+
+
+
+
+                         AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS.
+
+                                Edited By
+
+                          CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
+
+
+
+
+                    [Illustration: J. Fenimore Cooper]
+
+
+
+
+                         AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS.
+
+                          JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.
+
+                                   By
+
+                          THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY,
+           Professor Of English In The Sheffield Scientific School,
+                               Yale College.
+
+
+
+
+                                 BOSTON:
+                     HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.
+                 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street.
+                    The Riverside Press, Cambridge.
+                                  1884.
+
+
+
+                             Copyright, 1882,
+                         By THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY
+
+                         _All rights reserved._
+
+                   _The Riverside Press, Cambridge_:
+             Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+
+When Cooper lay on his death-bed he enjoined his family to permit no
+authorized account of his life to be prepared. A wish even, that was
+uttered at such a time, would have had the weight of a command; and
+from that day to this pious affection has carried out in the spirit as
+well as to the letter the desire of the dying man. No biography of
+Cooper has, in consequence, ever appeared. Nor is it unjust to say
+that the sketches of his career, which are found either in magazines
+or cyclopaedias, are not only unsatisfactory on account of their
+incompleteness, but are all in greater or less degree untrustworthy in
+their details.
+
+It is a necessary result of this dying injunction that the direct and
+authoritative sources of information contained in family papers are
+closed to the biographer. Still it is believed that no facts of
+importance in the record of an eventful and extraordinary career have
+been omitted or have even been passed over slightingly. A large part
+of the matter contained in this volume has never been given to the
+public in any form: and for that reason among others no pains have
+been spared to make this narrative absolutely accurate, so far as it
+goes. Correction of any errors, if such are found, will be gratefully
+welcomed.
+
+
+
+
+JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.                                             (p. 001)
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+1789-1820.
+
+
+In one of the interior counties of New York, less than one hundred and
+fifty miles in a direct line from the commercial capital of the Union,
+lies the village of Cooperstown. The place is not and probably never
+will be an important one; but in its situation and surroundings nature
+has given it much that wealth cannot furnish or art create. It stands
+on the southeastern shore of Otsego Lake, just at the point where the
+Susquehanna pours out from it on its long journey to the Chesapeake.
+The river runs here in a rapid current through a narrow valley, shut
+in by parallel ranges of lofty hills. The lake, not more than nine
+miles in length, is twelve hundred feet above tide-water. Low and
+wooded points of land and sweeping bays give to its shores the
+attraction of continuous diversity. About it, on every side, stand
+hills, which slope gradually or rise sharply to heights varying from
+two to five hundred feet. Lake, forest, and stream unite to form a
+scene of quiet but picturesque beauty, that hardly needs the
+additional charm of romantic association which has been imparted to
+it.
+
+Though it was here that the days of Cooper's childhood were        (p. 002)
+passed, it was not here that he was born. When that event took place
+the village had hardly even an existence on paper. Cooper's father, a
+resident of Burlington, New Jersey, had come, shortly after the close
+of the Revolutionary War, into the possession of vast tracts of land,
+embracing many thousands of acres, along the head-waters of the
+Susquehanna. In 1786 he began the settlement of the spot, and in 1788
+laid out the plot of the village which bears his name, and built for
+himself a dwelling-house. On the 10th of November, 1790, his whole
+family--consisting, with the servants, of fifteen persons--reached the
+place. The future novelist was then a little less than thirteen months
+old, for he had been born at Burlington on the 15th of September of
+the year before. His father had determined to make the new settlement
+his permanent home. He accordingly began in 1796, and in 1799
+completed, the erection of a mansion which bore the name of Otsego
+Hall. It was then and remained for a long time afterward the largest
+private residence in that portion of the State. When in 1834 it came
+into the hands of the son, it still continued to be the principal
+dwelling in the flourishing village that had grown up about it.
+
+On his father's side Cooper was of Quaker descent. The original
+emigrant ancestor had come over in 1679, and had made extensive
+purchases of land in the province of New Jersey. In that colony or in
+Pennsylvania his descendants for a long time remained. Cooper himself
+was the first one, of the direct line certainly, that ever even
+revisited the mother-country. These facts are of slight importance in
+themselves. In the general disbelief, however, which fifty years ago
+prevailed in Great Britain, that anything good could come out of   (p. 003)
+this western Nazareth. Cooper was immediately furnished with an
+English nativity as soon as he had won reputation. The same process
+that gave to Irving a birthplace in Devonshire, furnished one also to
+him in the Isle of Man. When this fiction was exploded, the fact of
+emigration was pushed merely a little further back. It was transferred
+to the father, who was represented as having gone from Buckinghamshire
+to America. This latter assertion is still to be found in authorities
+that are generally trustworthy. But the original one served a useful
+purpose during its day. This assumed birthplace in the Isle of Man
+enabled the English journalists that were offended with Cooper's
+strictures upon their country to speak of him, as at one time they
+often did, as an English renegade.
+
+His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Fenimore, and the family to
+which she belonged was of Swedish descent. Cooper himself was the
+eleventh of twelve children. Most of his brothers and sisters died
+long before him, five of them in infancy. His own name was at first
+simply James Cooper, and in this way he wrote it until 1826. But in
+April of that year the Legislature of New York passed an act changing
+the family name to Fenimore-Cooper. This was done in accordance with
+the wish of his grandmother, whose descendants in the direct male line
+had died out. But he seldom employed the hyphen in writing, and
+finally gave up the use of it altogether.
+
+The early childhood of Cooper was mainly passed in the wilderness at
+the very time when the first wave of civilization was beginning to
+break against its hills. There was everything in what he saw and heard
+to impress the mind of the growing boy. He was on the border, if   (p. 004)
+indeed he could not justly be said to be in the midst of mighty and
+seemingly interminable woods which stretched for hundreds of miles to
+the westward. Isolated clearings alone broke this vast expanse of
+foliage, which, covering the valleys and clinging to the sides and
+crowning the summits of the hills, seemed to rise and fall like the
+waves of the sea. The settler's axe had as yet scarcely dispelled the
+perpetual twilight of the primeval forest. The little lake lay
+enclosed in a border of gigantic trees. Over its waters hung the
+interlacing branches of mighty oaks and beeches and pines. Its surface
+was frequented by flocks of wild, aquatic birds,--the duck, the gull,
+and the loon. In this lofty valley among the hills were also to be
+found, then as now, in fullest perfection, the clear atmosphere, the
+cloudless skies, and the brilliant light of midsummer suns, that
+characterize everywhere the American highlands. More even than the
+beauty and majesty of nature that lay open to the sight was the
+mystery that constantly appealed to the imagination in what might lie
+hidden in the depths of a wilderness that swept far beyond glance of
+eye or reach of foot. This, indeed, may have affected the feelings of
+only a few, but there were numerous interests and anxieties which all
+had in common. The little village had early gone through many of the
+trials which mark the history of most of the settlements in regions to
+which few travelers found their way and commerce seldom came. Remote
+from sources of supply, and difficult of access, it had known the time
+when its population, scanty as it was, suffered from the scarcity of
+food. Sullivan's successful expedition against the Six Nations did not
+suffice to keep it from the alarm of savage attack that never came.
+The immense forest shutting in the hamlet on every side had        (p. 005)
+terrors to some as real as were its attractions to others. Its
+recesses were still the refuge of the deer; but they were also the
+haunt of the wildcat, the wolf, and the bear. All these characteristics
+of his early home made deep impression upon a nature fond of
+adventure, and keenly susceptible to the charm of scenery. When
+afterward in the first flush of his fame Cooper set out to revive the
+memory of the days of the pioneers, he said that he might have chosen
+for his subject happier periods, more interesting events, and possibly
+more beauteous scenes, but he could not have taken any that would lie
+so close to his heart. The man, indeed, never forgot what had been
+dear to the boy; and to the spot where his earliest years were spent
+he returned to pass the latter part of his life.
+
+The original settlement, moreover, was composed of a more than usually
+singular mixture of the motley crowd that always throngs to the
+American frontier. The shock of convulsions in lands far distant
+reached even to the highland valley shut in by the Otsego hills.
+Representatives of almost every nationality in Christendom and
+believers in almost every creed, found in it an asylum or a home. Into
+this secluded haven drifted men whose lives had been wrecked in the
+political storms that were then shaking Europe. Frenchmen, Dutchmen,
+Germans, and Poles, came and tarried for a longer or shorter time.
+Here Talleyrand, then an exile, spent several days with Cooper's
+father, and, true to national instinct, wrote, according to local
+tradition, complimentary verses, still preserved, on Cooper's sister.
+An ex-captain of the British army was one of the original merchants of
+the place. An ex-governor of Martinique was for a time the village (p. 006)
+grocer. But the prevailing element in the population were the men of
+New England, born levelers of the forest, the greatest wielders of the
+axe the world has ever known. Over the somewhat wild and turbulent
+democracy, made up of materials so diverse, the original proprietor
+reigned a sort of feudal lord, rather by moral qualities than by any
+conceded right.
+
+Cooper's early instruction was received in the village school, carried
+on in a building erected in 1795, and rejoicing in the somewhat
+pretentious name of the Academy. The country at that time, however,
+furnished few facilities for higher education anywhere; on the
+frontier there were necessarily none. Accordingly Cooper was early
+sent to Albany. There he entered the family of the rector of St.
+Peter's Church, and became, with three or four other boys, one of his
+private pupils. This gentleman, the son of an English clergyman, and
+himself a graduate of an English university, had made his ways to
+these western wilds with a fair amount of classical learning, with
+thorough methods of study, and as it afterwards turned out, Cooper
+tells us, with another man's wife. This did not, however, prevent him
+from insisting upon the immense superiority of the mother-country in
+morals as well as manners. A man of ability and marked character, he
+clearly exerted over the impressionable mind of his pupil a greater
+influence than the latter ever realized. He was in many respects,
+indeed, a typical Englishman of the educated class of that time. He
+had the profoundest contempt for republics and republican institutions.
+The American Revolution he looked upon as only a little less monstrous
+than the French, which was the sum of all iniquities. Connection with
+any other church than his own was to be shunned, not at all        (p. 007)
+because it was unchristian, but because it was ungentlemanly and low.
+But whatever his opinions and prejudices were, in the almost absolute
+dearth then existing in this country of even respectable scholarship,
+the opportunity to be under his instruction was a singular advantage.
+Unfortunately it did not continue as long as it was desirable. In 1802
+he died. It had been the intention to fit Cooper to enter the junior
+class of Yale College; that project had now to be abandoned.
+Accordingly he became, at the beginning of the second term of its
+freshman year, a member of the class which was graduated in 1806. He
+was then but a mere boy of thirteen, and with the exception of the
+poet Hillhouse, two weeks his junior, was the youngest student in the
+college.
+
+Cooper himself informs us that he played all his first year, and
+implies that he did little study during those which followed. To a
+certain extent the comparative excellence of his preparation turned
+out a disadvantage; the rigid training he had received enabled him to
+accomplish without effort what his fellow-students found difficult.
+Scholarship was at so low an ebb that the ability to scan Latin was
+looked upon as a high accomplishment; and he himself asserts that the
+class to which he belonged was the first in Yale College that had ever
+tried it. This may be questioned; but we need not feel any distrust of
+his declaration, that little learning of any kind found its way into
+his head. Least of all will he be inclined to doubt it whom extended
+experience in the class-room has taught to view with profoundest
+respect the infinite capability of the human mind to resist the
+introduction of knowledge.
+
+Far better than study, Cooper liked to take solitary walks about   (p. 008)
+the wooded hills surrounding New Haven, and the shores of the bay upon
+which it lies. These nursed the fondness for outdoor life and scenery
+which his early associations had inspired. In these communings with
+nature, he was unconsciously storing his mind with impressions and
+images, in the representation and delineation of which he was afterward
+to attain surpassing excellence. But the study of scenery, however
+desirable in itself, cannot easily be included in a college
+curriculum. No proficiency in it can well compensate for failure in
+studies of perhaps less intrinsic importance. The neglect of these
+latter had no tendency to recommend him to the regard of those in
+authority. Positive faults were in course of time added to negative. A
+frolic in which he was engaged during his third year was attended by
+consequences more serious than disfavor. It led to his dismissal. The
+father took the boy's side, and the usual struggle followed between
+the parents and those who, according to a pretty well worn-out
+educational theory, stand to the student in place of parents. In this
+particular case the latter triumphed, and Cooper left Yale. In spite
+of his dismissal he retained pleasant recollections of some of his old
+instructors; and with one of them, Professor Silliman, he kept up in
+later years friendly personal relations and occasional correspondence.
+
+It had been a misfortune for the future author to lose the severe if
+somewhat wooden drill of his preparatory instructor. It was an
+additional misfortune to lose the education, scanty and defective as
+it then was, which was imparted by the college. It might not and
+probably would not have contributed anything to Cooper's intellectual
+development in the way of accuracy of thought or of statement. It  (p. 009)
+would not in all probability have added materially to his stock of
+knowledge. But with all its inefficiency and inadequacy, it would very
+certainly have had the effect of teaching him to aim far more than he
+did at perfection of form. He possibly gained more than he lost by
+being transferred at so early an age to other scenes. But the lack of
+certain qualities in his writings, which educated men are perhaps the
+only ones to notice, can be traced pretty directly to this lack of
+preliminary intellectual drill.
+
+His academical career having been thus suddenly cut short, he entered
+in a little while upon one better suited to his adventurous nature.
+Boys are sent to sea, he tells us in one of his later novels, for the
+cure of their ethical ailings. This renovating influence of ocean life
+he had at any rate a speedy opportunity to try. It was decided that he
+should enter the navy. The position of his father, who had been for
+several years a representative in Congress, and was a leading member
+of the Federalist party, naturally held out assurances that the son
+would receive all the advancement to which he would be legitimately
+entitled. At that time no naval school existed. It was the custom, in
+consequence, for boys purposing to fit themselves for the position of
+officers to serve a sort of apprenticeship in the merchant marine.
+Accordingly in the autumn of 1806, Cooper was placed on board a vessel
+that was to sail from the port of New York with a freight of flour to
+Cowes and a market. The ship was named the Sterling, and was commanded
+by Captain John Johnston, of Wiscasset, Maine, who was also part owner.
+Cooper's position and prospects were well known; but he was employed
+regularly before the mast and was never admitted to the cabin. The (p. 010)
+vessel cleared from the port of New York on the 16th of October. The
+passage was a long and stormy one; forty days went by before land was
+seen after it had once been left behind. The ship reached the other
+side just at the time when the British Channel was alive with vessels
+of war in consequence of one of the periodical anticipations of
+invasions from France. It went to London, and stayed for some time
+there discharging its cargo and taking in new. Cooper embraced the
+opportunity to see all the sights he could of the great metropolis.
+"He had a rum time of it in his sailor rig," said afterward one of his
+shipmates, "but hoisted in a wonderful deal of gibberish, according to
+his own account of the cruise."
+
+The Sterling sailed with freight in January, 1807, for the Straits of
+Gibraltar. It took on board a cargo of barilla at Aguilas and Almeria,
+and returned to England, reaching the Thames in May. Both going and
+coming the voyage was a stormy one, and during it several of the
+incidents occurred that Cooper worked up afterward into powerful
+passages in his sea novels. In London the vessel lay several weeks,
+discharging its cargo and taking in more, which this time consisted of
+dry goods. Towards the end of July, it left London for America, and
+reached Philadelphia on the 18th of September, after another long and
+stormy passage of fifty-two days.
+
+This was Cooper's introduction to sea life. During the year he had
+spent in the merchant vessel he had seen a good deal of hard service.
+His preparatory studies having been completed after a fashion, he now
+regularly entered the navy. His commission as midshipman bears (p. 011)
+date the 1st of January, 1808. On the 24th of the following February
+he was ordered to report to the commanding naval officer at New York.
+But the records of the government give little information as to the
+duties to which he was assigned during the years he remained in its
+service. The knowledge we have of his movements comes mainly from what
+he himself incidentally discloses in published works or letters of a
+later period. The facts we learn from all sources together, are but
+few. He served for a while on board the Vesuvius in 1808. During that
+year it seemed as if the United States and Great Britain were about to
+drift into war. Preparations of various kinds were made; and one of
+the things ordered was the dispatch to Lake Ontario of a party, of
+which Cooper was one, under the command of Lieutenant Woolsey. The
+intention was to build a brig of sixteen guns to command that inland
+water; and the port of Oswego, then a mere hamlet of some twenty
+houses, was the place selected for its construction. Around it lay a
+wilderness, thirty or forty miles in depth. Here the party spent the
+following winter, and during it the Oneida, as the brig was called,
+was finished. Early in the spring of 1809 it was launched. By that
+time, however, the war-cloud had blown over, and the vessel was not
+then used for the purpose for which it had been constructed. More
+permanent results, however, were accomplished than the building of a
+ship. The knowledge and experience which Cooper then gained was
+something beyond and above what belonged to his profession. It is to
+his residence on the shores of that inland sea that we owe the vivid
+picture drawn of Lake Ontario in "The Pathfinder" and of the
+wilderness which then surrounded it on every side.
+
+After the completion of the Oneida, Cooper accompanied Lieutenant  (p. 012)
+Woolsey on a visit to Niagara Falls. The navy records show that on the
+10th of June, 1809, he was left by his commander in charge of the
+gunboats on Lake Champlain. They further reveal the fact that on the
+27th of September of this same year he was granted a furlough to make
+a European voyage. This project for some reason was given up, as on
+the 13th of November, 1809, he was ordered to the Wasp, then under the
+command of Lawrence, who afterwards fell in the engagement between the
+Shannon and the Chesapeake. To this officer, like himself a native of
+Burlington, he was very warmly attached. The next notice of him
+contained in the official records is to the effect that on the 9th of
+May, 1810, permission was granted him to go on furlough for twelve
+months. Whether he availed himself of it is not known. An event soon
+occurred, however, that put an end to his naval career as effectively
+as one had previously been put to his collegiate. An attachment had
+sprung up some time before between him and a Miss DeLancey. On the 1st
+of January, 1811, the couple were married at Mamaroneck, Westchester
+County, New York. Cooper was then a little more than twenty-one years
+old; the bride lacked very little of being nineteen.
+
+His wife belonged to a Huguenot family, which towards the end of the
+seventeenth century had fled from France, and had finally settled in
+Westchester. During the Revolutionary War the DeLanceys had taken the
+side of the crown against the colonies. Several of them held positions
+in the British army. John Peter DeLancey, whose daughter Cooper had
+married, had been himself a captain in that service. After the
+recognition of American independence he went to England, but,      (p. 013)
+having resigned his commission, returned in 1789 to this country, and
+spent the remainder of his life at his home in Mamaroneck. The fact
+that his kinsmen by marriage had belonged to the defeated party in the
+Revolutionary struggle led Cooper in his writings to treat the Tories,
+as they were called, with a fairness and generosity which in that day
+few were disposed to show, at least in print. This tenderness is
+plainly to be seen in "The Spy," written at the beginning of his
+career; it is still more marked in "Wyandotte," produced in the latter
+part of it, when circumstances had made him profoundly dissatisfied
+with much that he saw about him. One of the last, though least heated,
+of the many controversies in which he was engaged was in regard to the
+conduct on a particular occasion of General Oliver DeLancey, a cousin
+of his wife's father. This officer was charged unjustly, as Cooper
+believed, with the brutal treatment of the American General Woodhull,
+who had fallen into his hands. The discussion in regard to this point
+was carried on in the "New York Home Journal" in the early part of
+1848.
+
+It seldom falls to the lot of the biographer to record a home life
+more serene and happy than that which fell to the share of the man
+whose literary life is the stormiest to be found in the history of
+American men of letters. Cooper, like many persons of fiery temperament
+and strong will, was very easily managed through his affections. In
+theory he maintained the headship of man in the household in the
+extremest form. He gives in several of his works no uncertain
+indication of his views on that point. This only serves to make more
+conspicuous the fact, which forces itself repeatedly upon the
+attention, that his movements were largely, if not mainly,         (p. 014)
+by his wife. This becomes noticeable at the very beginning of their
+union. She was unwilling to undergo the long and frequent separations
+from her husband that the profession of a naval officer would demand.
+Accordingly, he abandoned the idea of continuing in it. The acceptance
+of his resignation bears date the 6th of May, 1811. He had then been
+regularly in the service a little less than three years and a half.
+
+After quitting the navy Cooper led for a long time a somewhat unsettled
+life. For about a year and a half he resided at Heathcote Hall,
+Mamaroneck, the residence of his wife's father. He then rented a small
+cottage in the neighborhood, and in this remained about a year. His
+early home, however, was the spot to which his heart turned. To
+Cooperstown, in consequence, he went back in 1814, taking up his
+residence at a place outside the village limits, called Fenimore. He
+purposed to devote his attention to agriculture, and accordingly began
+at this spot the building of a large stone farm house. While it was in
+process of construction his wife, anxious to be near her own family,
+persuaded him to go back to Westchester. Thither in 1817 he went,
+leaving his dwelling at Fenimore unfinished, and in 1823 it was
+completely destroyed by fire. In Westchester, a few months after his
+return, he took up his residence, in the town of Scarsdale, on what
+was called the Angevine farm, from the name of a French family that
+had occupied it for several generations. The site of his dwelling was
+a commanding one, and gave from the south front an extensive view of
+the country about it and of Long Island Sound. It remained his home
+until the literary profession, upon which he unexpectedly entered, (p. 015)
+forced him to leave it for New York city.
+
+Great changes had occurred during these years, or were occurring, in
+his personal surroundings. His father had died in 1809, and his mother
+in 1817. Before 1820 five daughters had been born to him. The first of
+these did not live to the age of two years; but the others all reached
+maturity. The second, Susan Augusta, herself an authoress, became in
+his later years his secretary and amanuensis, and would naturally have
+written his life, had not his unfortunate dying injunction stood in
+the way. A son, Fenimore, born at Angevine, in 1821, died early, and
+his youngest child, Paul, now a lawyer at Albany, was not born until
+after his removal to New York city. Surrounded by his growing family,
+he led for the two or three years following 1817 a life that gave no
+indication of what was to be his career. His thoughts were principally
+directed to improving the little estate that had come into his
+possession. He planted trees, he built fences, he drained swamps, he
+planned a lawn. The one thing which he did not do was to write.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.                                                        (p. 016)
+
+1820-1822.
+
+
+Cooper had now reached the age of thirty. Up to this time he had
+written nothing, nor had he prepared or collected any material for
+future use. No thought of taking up authorship as a profession had
+entered his mind. Even the physical labor involved in the mere act of
+writing was itself distasteful. Unexpectedly, however, he now began a
+course of literary production that was to continue without abatement
+during the little more than thirty years which constituted the
+remainder of his life.
+
+Seldom has a first work been due more entirely to accident than that
+which he composed at the outset of his career. In his home at Angevine
+he was one day reading to his wife a novel descriptive of English
+society. It did not please him, and he suddenly laid down the book and
+said, "I believe I could write a better story myself." Challenged to
+make good his boast, he sat down to perform the task, and wrote out a
+few pages of the tale he had formed in his mind. The encouragement of
+his wife determined him to go on and complete it, and when completed
+the advice of friends decided him to publish it. Accordingly, on the
+10th of November, 1820, a novel in two volumes, entitled "Precaution,"
+made its appearance in New York. In this purely haphazard way did the
+most prolific of American authors begin his literary life.
+
+The work was brought out in a bad shape, and its typographical     (p. 017)
+defects were unconsciously exaggerated by Cooper in a revised edition
+of it, which was published after his return from Europe. In the
+preface to the latter he said that no novel of modern times had ever
+been worse printed than was this story as it originally appeared. The
+manuscript, he admitted, was bad; but the proof-reading could only be
+described as execrable. Periods turned up in the middle of sentences,
+while the places where they should have been knew them not. Passages,
+in consequence, were rendered obscure, and even entire paragraphs
+became unintelligible. A careful reading of the edition of 1820 will
+show something to suggest, but little to justify, these sweeping
+assertions. But the work has never been much read even by the admirers
+of the author; and it is a curious illustration of this fact, that the
+personal friend, who delivered the funeral discourse upon his life and
+writings, avoided the discussion of it with such care that he was
+betrayed into exposing the lack of interest he sought to hide. Bryant
+confessed he had not read "Precaution." He had merely dipped into the
+first edition of it, and had been puzzled and repelled by the
+profusion of commas and other pauses. The non-committalism of cautious
+criticism could hardly hope to go farther. Punctuation has had its
+terrors and its triumphs; but this victory over the editor of a daily
+newspaper must be deemed its proudest recorded achievement. The poet
+went on to say that to a casual inspection the revised edition, which
+Cooper afterward brought out, seemed almost another work. The
+inspection which could come to such a conclusion must have been of
+that exceedingly casual kind which contents itself with contemplating
+the outside of a book, and disdains to open it. As a matter of     (p. 018)
+fact the changes made hardly extended beyond the correction of some
+points of punctuation and of some grammatical forms; it was in a few
+instances only that the construction of the sentences underwent
+transformation. Not an incident was altered, not a sentiment modified.
+
+Such ignorance on the part of a contemporary and personal friend, if
+it proves nothing else, shows certainly the little hold this novel has
+had upon the public taste. Nevertheless, the first work of any
+well-known author must always have a certain interest belonging to it,
+entirely independent of any value the work may have in itself. In this
+case, moreover, the character of the tale and the circumstances
+attending its production are of no slight importance, when taken in
+connection with the literary history of the times. It was accident
+that led to the selection of the subject; but as things then were,
+Cooper was not unlikely, in any event, to have chosen it or one very
+similar. The intellectual dependence of America upon England at that
+period is something that it is now hard to understand. Political
+supremacy had been cast off, but the supremacy of opinion remained
+absolutely unshaken. Of creative literature there was then very little
+of any value produced: and to that little a foreign stamp was
+necessary, to give currency outside of the petty circle in which it
+originated. There was slight encouragement for the author to write;
+there was still less for the publisher to print. It was indeed a
+positive injury ordinarily to the commercial credit of a bookseller to
+bring out a volume of poetry or of prose fiction which had been
+written by an American; for it was almost certain to fail to pay
+expenses. A sort of critical literature was struggling, or rather  (p. 019)
+gasping, for a life that was hardly worth living; for its most marked
+characteristic was its servile deference to English judgment and dread
+of English censure. It requires a painful and penitential examination
+of the reviews of the period to comprehend the utter abasement of mind
+with which the men of that day accepted the foreign estimate upon
+works written here, which had been read by themselves, but which it
+was clear had not been read by the critics whose opinions they echoed.
+Even the meekness with which they submitted to the most depreciatory
+estimate of themselves was outdone by the anxiety with which they
+hurried to assure the world that they, the most cultivated of the
+American race, did not presume to have so high an opinion of the
+writings of some one of their countrymen as had been expressed by
+enthusiasts, whose patriotism had proved too much for their
+discernment. Never was any class so eager to free itself from charges
+that imputed to it the presumption of holding independent views of its
+own. Out of the intellectual character of many of those who at that
+day pretended to be the representatives of the highest education in
+this country, it almost seemed that the element of manliness had been
+wholly eliminated; and that along with its sturdy democracy, whom no
+obstacles thwarted and no dangers daunted, the New World was also to
+give birth to a race of literary cowards and parasites. With such a
+state of feeling prevalent, a work of fiction that concerned America
+might seem to have small chance of success with Americans themselves.
+It would not, therefore, have been strange, under any circumstances,
+that in beginning his career as an author Cooper should have chosen to
+write a tale of English social life. The fact that he knew         (p. 020)
+personally nothing about what he was describing was in itself no
+insuperable objection. That ignorance was then and has since been
+shared by many novelists on both sides of the water, who have treated
+of the same subject. Relying upon English precedent, he might in fact
+feel that he was peculiarly fitted for the task. He had cruised a few
+times up and down the British channel, he had caught limited views of
+British manners and customs by walking on several occasions the length
+of Fleet Street and the Strand. Knowledge of America equivalent to
+this would then have been regarded in England as an ample equipment
+for an accurate treatise upon the social life of this country, and
+even upon its existing political condition and probable future.
+
+But much more than the choice of a foreign subject did the pretense of
+foreign authorship prove the servility of feeling prevailing at that
+time among the educated classes. This was in the first place, to be
+sure, the result of the freak that led Cooper originally to begin
+writing a novel; but it was a freak that would never have been carried
+out, after publication had been decided upon, had he not been fully
+aware of the fact that the least recommendation of a book to his
+countrymen would be the knowledge that it was composed by one of
+themselves. "Precaution" was not merely a tale of English social life,
+it purported to be written by an Englishman; and it was so thoroughly
+conformed to its imaginary model that it not only reechoed the cant of
+English expression, but likewise the expression of English cant. To
+talk about dissenters and the establishment was natural and proper
+enough in a work written ostensibly by the citizen of a country in
+which there was a state church. But Cooper went much farther than  (p. 021)
+this in the reflections and moral observations which are scattered up
+and down the pages of this novel. These represent fairly views widely
+held at the time in America, and may not impossibly express the
+personal opinions he himself then entertained. He speaks in one place,
+in his assumed character of an Englishman, of the solidity and purity
+of our ethics as giving a superior tone to our moral feelings as
+contrasted with the French. He goes out of his way to compliment
+George III. One of the personages in the novel was tempted to admit
+something to his credit that he did not deserve. The love of truth,
+however, finally prevailed. But it was not because the man himself had
+any innate love of truth, but because "he had been too much round the
+person of our beloved monarch not to retain all the impressions of his
+youth." Passages such as these are remarkable when we consider the
+sentiments in regard to England that Cooper subsequently came to
+express. If they do not show with certainty his opinions at that time,
+they do show the school in which he had been brought up: they mark
+clearly the extent and violence of the reaction which in after years
+carried him to the opposite extreme.
+
+In its plan and development "Precaution" was a compromise between the
+purely fashionable novel and that collection of moral disquisitions of
+which Hannah More's Coelebs was the great exemplar, and still remained
+the most popular representative. As in most tales of high life, nobody
+of low condition plays a prominent part in the story, save for the
+purpose of setting off the dukes, earls, baronets, generals, and
+colonels that throng its pages. A novelist in his first production
+never limits his creative activity in any respect; and Cooper,     (p. 022)
+moreover, knew the public well enough to be aware that a fictitious
+narrative which aimed to describe aristocratic society might perhaps
+succeed without much literary merit, but would be certain to fail
+without an abundance of lords. The leading characters, however,
+whether of higher or lower degree, are planned upon the moral model.
+They either preach or furnish awful examples. It would certainly be
+most unfair to an author to judge him, as in this case, by a work
+which he had begun without any view to publication, and which he
+afterward learned to think and to speak of slightingly. Still, though,
+compared with many of his writings, "Precaution" is a novel of little
+worth, it is, in some respects, a better guide to the knowledge of the
+man than his better productions. The latter give evidence of his
+powers; in this are shown certain limitations of his nature and
+beliefs. Peculiarities, both of thought and feeling, which in his
+other writings are merely suggested, are here clearly revealed. Some
+of them will appear strange to those whose conception of his character
+is derived from facts connected with his later life, or whose
+acquaintance with his works is limited to those most celebrated.
+
+Cooper was, by nature, a man of deep religious feeling. This disposition
+had been strengthened by his training. But there is something more
+than deep religious feeling exhibited in his first novel. There runs
+through it a vein of pietistic narrowness, which seems particularly
+unsuited to the man whom popular imagination, investing him somewhat
+with the characteristics of his own creations, has depicted as a
+ranger of the forests and a rover of the seas. Yet the existence of
+this vein is plainly apparent, though all his surroundings would (p. 023)
+seem to have been unfavorable to its birth and development. He shared,
+to its fullest extent, in the jealousy which at that time, far more
+than now, prevailed between the Middle States and New England. He was
+strongly attached to the Episcopal Church, and he had, or fancied he
+had, a keen dislike to the Puritans and their manners and creeds. To
+these "religionists," as he was wont to call them, he attributed a
+great deal that was ungraceful in American life, and a good deal that
+was disgraceful. But the Puritan element is an irrepressible and
+undying one in English character. It can be found centuries before it
+became the designation of a religious body. It can be traced, under
+various and varying appellations, through every period of English
+history. It is not the name of a sect, it is not the mark of a creed;
+it is the characteristic of a race. It is, therefore, never long put
+under ban before it comes back, and takes its turn in ruling manners
+and society. The revolt against it in the eighteenth century had
+stripped from religion everything in the shape of sentiment, and left
+it merely a business. The reaction which brought the Puritan element
+again to the front was so intensified by hostility to what were called
+French principles that the minor literature of the latter half of the
+reign of George III. exhibits a cant of intolerance from which many of
+its greatest writers were rarely great enough to be wholly free. This
+influence is clearly visible in the earliest work of Cooper. There is
+no charge, probably, he would have denied sooner or disliked more, but
+in his nature he was essentially a Puritan of the Puritans. Their
+faults and their virtues, their inconsistencies and their contradictions,
+were his. Their earnestness, their intensity, their narrowness, their
+intolerance, their pugnacity, their serious way of looking at      (p. 024)
+human duties and responsibilities, all these elements corresponded
+with elements in his own character. His, also, were their lofty ideas
+of personal purity and of personal obligation, extending not merely to
+the acts of the life, but to the thoughts of the heart. Like them,
+moreover, he was always disposed to appeal directly to the authority
+of the Supreme Being. Like them, he had perfect confidence in the
+absolute knowledge he possessed of what that Being thought and wished.
+Like them, he considered any controverted question as settled, if he
+could once bring to bear upon the point in dispute a text beginning,
+"Thus saith the Lord." No rational creature, certainly, would think of
+contesting a view of the Creator, or acting contrary to a command
+coming unmistakably from Him. But at this very point the difficulty
+begins; and in nothing did Cooper more resemble the Puritans than in
+his incapacity to see that there was any difficulty at all. It never
+occurred to him that there might possibly be a vast difference between
+what the Lord actually said and what James Fenimore Cooper thought the
+Lord said. It is hardly necessary to add, however, that this
+characteristic of mind has its advantages as well as disadvantages.
+
+It was not unnatural, accordingly, that "Precaution" should exemplify
+in many cases that narrowness of view which seeks to shape narrow
+rules for the conduct of life. For its sympathy with this, one of the
+most distinguishing and disagreeable features of Puritanism, the novel
+has an interest which could never be aroused by it as a work of art.
+Extreme sentiments are often expressed by the author in his own
+person, though they are usually put into the mouths of various actors
+in the story. Their especial representative is a certain Mrs.      (p. 025)
+Wilson, who was clearly a great favorite of her creator, though to the
+immense majority of men she would seem as disagreeably strong-minded
+as most of Cooper's female characters are disagreeably weak-minded.
+This lady is the widow of a general officer, who, the reader comes
+heartily to feel, has, most fortunately for himself, fallen in the
+Peninsular war. From her supreme height of morality she sweeps the
+whole horizon of human frailties and faults, and looks down with a
+relentless eye upon the misguided creatures who are struggling with
+temptations to which she is superior, or are under the sway of beliefs
+whose folly or falsity she has long since penetrated. In her, indeed,
+there is no weak compromise with human feelings. The lesson meant to
+be taught by the novel is the necessity of taking precaution in regard
+to marriage. One point insisted upon again and again is the requirement
+of piety in the husband. It is the duty of a Christian mother to guard
+against a connection with any one but a Christian for her daughters:
+for throughout the whole work the sovereign right of the parent over
+the child is not merely implied, it is directly asserted. "No really
+pious woman," says Mrs. Wilson, "can be happy unless her husband is in
+what she deems the road to future happiness herself." When she is met
+by the remark that the carrying out of this idea would give a deadly
+blow to matrimony, she rises to the occasion by replying that "no man
+who dispassionately examines the subject will be other than a Christian,
+and rather than remain bachelors they would take even that trouble."
+Nor in this was the author apparently expressing an opinion which he
+did not himself hold in theory, however little he might have regarded
+it in practice. He takes up the same subject in another place,     (p. 026)
+when speaking in his own person. "Would our daughters," he says,
+"admire a handsome deist, if properly impressed with the horror of his
+doctrines, sooner than they would now admire a handsome Mohammedan?"
+On the matter of Sunday observance the narrowest tenets of Puritanism
+were preached, and the usual ignorance was manifested that there were
+two sides to the question. Some of the incidents connected with this
+subject are curious. One of the better characters in the novel asks
+his wife to ride out on that day, and she reluctantly consents. This
+brings at once upon the stage the inevitable Mrs. Wilson, who always
+stands ready to point a moral, though she can hardly be said to adorn
+the tale. She draws from the transaction the lesson that it is a
+warning against marrying a person with a difference of views. In this
+particular instance the respect of the man for religion had been
+injurious to his wife, because "had he been an open deist, she would
+have shrunk from the act in his company on suspicion of its
+sinfulness." It is justice to add that many of these extreme opinions,
+at least in the extreme form stated in this work, the author came
+finally to outgrow if in fact he held them seriously then.
+
+There are certain other peculiarities of Cooper's beliefs that
+"Precaution" exemplifies. He has been constantly criticised for the
+unvarying and uninteresting uniformity of his female characters. This
+is hardly just; but it is just in the sense that there was only one
+type which he ever held up to admiration. Others were introduced, but
+they were never the kind of women whom he delighted to honor. Of
+female purity he had the highest ideal. Deference for the female sex
+as a sex he felt sincerely and expressed strongly. Along with      (p. 027)
+this he seemed to have the most contemptible opinion of the ability of
+the female individual to take care of herself. On the other hand, if
+she had the requisite ability, the greater became his contempt; for
+helplessness, in his eyes, was apparently her chiefest charm. The
+Emily Moseley of his first novel is the prototype of a long line of
+heroines, whose combination of propriety and incapacity places them at
+the farthest possible remove from the heroic. She is worthy of special
+mention here, only because in this novel he describes in detail the
+desirable qualities, which in the others are simply implied. He
+furnishes us, moreover, with the precise training to which she had
+been subjected by her aunt, Mrs. Wilson. Accordingly, we learn both
+what, in Cooper's eyes, it was incumbent for a woman to be, and what
+she ought to go through in order to be that woman. A few sentences
+taken at random will show the character of this heroine. She was
+artless, but intelligent; she was cheerful, but pious; she was familiar
+with all the attainments suitable to her sex and years. Her time was
+dedicated to work which had a tendency to qualify her for the duties
+of this life and fit her for the life hereafter. She seldom opened a
+book unless in search of information. She never read one that
+contained a sentiment dangerous to her morals, or inculcated an
+opinion improper for her sex. She never permitted a gentleman to ride
+with her, to walk with her, to hold with her a tete-a-tete. Nor was
+this result achieved with difficulty. Though she was natural and
+unaffected, the simple dignity about her was sufficient to forbid any
+such request, or even any such thought in the men who had the
+pleasure, or, as the reader may think, the grief, of her           (p. 028)
+acquaintance. In short, she was not merely propriety personified; she
+was propriety magnified and intensified. This particular heroine, who
+could not consistently have read the book in which her own conduct is
+described, finally disappears as the wife of an equally remarkable
+earl. Her story, as it is told, however, strikingly exemplifies the
+carelessness in working up details which is one of Cooper's marked
+defects. The novel received its name, as has already been implied,
+because it aimed to set forth the desirability of precaution in the
+choice of husband or wife. What it actually taught, however, was its
+undesirability. The misunderstandings, the crosses, the distresses, to
+which the lovers were subjected in the tale all sprang from excess of
+care, and not from lack of it; from exercising precaution where
+precaution did nothing but harm.
+
+The work excited but little attention in this country. In the following
+year it was printed in England by Colburn, and was there noticed
+without the slightest suspicion of its American authorship. In some
+quarters it received fairly favorable mention. It could not be hid,
+however, that the novel, as regarded the general public, had been a
+failure. Still, it was not so much a failure that the author's friends
+did not think well of it and see promise in it. They urged him to
+renewed exertions. He had tried the experiment of depicting scenes he
+had never witnessed, and a life he had never led. He had, in their
+opinion, succeeded fairly well in describing what he knew nothing
+about; they were anxious that he should try his hand at the representation
+of manners and men of which and whom he knew something. Especially was
+it made a matter of reproach that he, in heart and soul an         (p. 029)
+American of the Americans, should have gone to a foreign land to fill
+the imagination of his countrymen with pictures of a social state
+alien both in feeling and fact to their own. This was an appeal of a
+kind that was certain to touch Cooper sensibly; for with him love of
+country was not a sentiment, it was a passion. As a sort of atonement,
+therefore, for his first work, he determined to inflict, as he phrased
+it, a second one upon the world. Against this there should be no
+objection on the score of patriotism. He naturally turned for his
+subject to the Revolution, with the details of which he was familiar
+by his acquaintance with the men who had shared prominently in its
+conduct, and had felt all the keenness of a personal triumph in its
+success. The very county, moreover, in which he had made his home was
+full of recollections. Westchester had been the neutral ground between
+the English forces stationed in New York and the American army encamped
+in the highlands of the Hudson. Upon it more, perhaps, than upon any
+other portion of the soil of the revolted colonies had fallen the
+curse of war in its heaviest form. Back and forth over a large part of
+it had perpetually ebbed and flowed the tide of battle. Not a road was
+there which had not been swept again and again by columns of infantry
+or squadrons of horse. Every thicket had been the hiding-place of
+refugees or spies; every wood or meadow had been the scene of a
+skirmish; and every house that had survived the struggle had its tale
+to tell of thrilling scenes that had taken place within its walls.
+These circumstances determined Cooper's choice of the place and
+period. Years before, while at the residence of John Jay, his host had
+given him, one summer afternoon, the account of a spy that had     (p. 030)
+been in his service during the war. The coolness, shrewdness,
+fearlessness, but above all the unselfish patriotism, of the man had
+profoundly impressed the Revolutionary leader who had employed him.
+The story made an equally deep impression upon Cooper at the time. He
+now resolved to take it as the foundation of the tale he had been
+persuaded to write. The result was that on the 22d of December, 1821,
+the novel of "The Spy" was quietly advertised in the New York papers
+as on that day published.
+
+The reader, however, would receive a very wrong idea of the feelings
+with which the author began and ended this work of fiction, should he
+stop short with the account that has just been given. The circumstances
+attending its composition and publication are, as a matter of fact,
+almost as remarkable as the story itself. They certainly present a
+most suggestive picture of the literary state of America at that time.
+Cooper, for his part, had not the slightest anticipation of the effect
+that it was going to have upon his future. In writing it he was
+carrying out the wishes of his friends full as much as his own. Nor,
+apparently, did they urge the course upon him because they conceived
+him capable of accomplishing anything very great or even very good.
+They felt that he could produce something that was not discreditable,
+and that was all that could reasonably be expected of an American.
+There was no other novelist in the field. Charles Brockden Brown had
+been dead several years. Irving and Paulding were writing only short
+sketches. John Neal, indeed, in addition to the poems, tragedies,
+reviews, newspaper articles, indexes, and histories he was turning out
+by wholesale, had likewise perpetrated a novel; but it was never known
+enough to justify the mention of it as having been forgotten.      (p. 031)
+Here, consequently, was a vacant place that ought to be filled. Cooper
+was never the man who would be eager to take a place because there was
+no one else to occupy it; and the way he went at the task he had
+undertaken gives indirectly a clear insight into an American author's
+feelings sixty years ago. He entered upon the work not merely without
+the expectation of success, but almost without the hope of it. The
+novel was written very hastily; the sheets passed into the hands of
+the type-setter with scarcely a correction; and so little heart had he
+in the task that the first volume was printed several months before he
+felt any inducement to write a line of the second. The propriety of
+abandoning it entirely, under the apprehension of its proving a serious
+loss, was debated. "Should chance," he said, in a later introduction
+to the book, "throw a copy of this prefatory notice into the hands of
+an American twenty years hence, he will smile to think that a
+countryman hesitated to complete a work so far advanced, merely
+because the disposition of the country to read a book that treated of
+its own familiar interests was distrusted." In this respect the
+difficulty of his position was made more prominent by its contrast
+with that of the great novelist who was then occupying the attention
+of the English-speaking world. Scott, in writing "Waverley," could
+take for granted that there lay behind him an intense feeling of
+nationality, which would show itself not in noisy boastfulness, but in
+genuine appreciation; that with the matter of his work his countrymen
+would sympathize, whatever might be their opinion as to its execution.
+No such supposition could be made by Cooper; no such belief inspired
+him to exertion. He might hope to create interest; he could not    (p. 032)
+venture to assume its existence. One other incident connected with
+the composition of this work marks even more plainly the almost
+despairing attitude of his mind. While the second volume was slowly
+printing, he received an intimation from his publisher that the work
+might grow to a length that would endanger the profits. The author
+hereupon adopted a course which is itself a proof of how much stranger
+is fact than fiction. To placate the publisher and set his mind at
+rest, the last chapter was written, printed, and paged, not merely
+before the intervening chapters had been composed, but before they had
+been fully conceived. It was fair to expect failure for a work which
+no bookseller had been found willing to undertake at his own risk, and
+which the author himself set about in a manner so perfunctory. The
+indifference and carelessness displayed, he said afterward, were
+disrespectful to the public and unjust to himself; yet they give, as
+nothing else could, a vivid picture of the literary situation in
+America at that time.
+
+The reluctance and half-heartedness with which Cooper began and completed
+this work stand, indeed, in sharpest contrast to the existing state of
+feeling, when it is only the prayers of friends and the tears of
+relatives that can prevent most of us from publishing some novel we
+have already written. But almost as it were by accident he had struck
+into the vein best fitted for the display of his natural powers. In it
+he succeeded with little effort, where other men with the greatest
+effort might have failed. The delicate distinctions that underlie
+character where social pressure has given to all the same outside, it
+was not his to depict. Still less could he unfold the subtle       (p. 033)
+workings of motives that often elude the observation of the very
+persons whom they most influence. Such a power is essential to the
+success of him who seeks to delineate men as seen in conventional
+society; and largely for the lack of it his first novel had been a
+failure. It was only at rare intervals, also, that he showed that
+precision of style and pointed method of statement which, independent
+of the subject, interest the reader in men and things that are not in
+themselves interesting. It was the story of adventure, using adventure
+in its broadest sense, that he was fitted to tell: and fortunately for
+him Walter Scott, then in the very height of his popularity, had made
+it supremely fashionable. In this it is only needful to draw character
+in bold outlines; to represent men not under the influence of motives
+that hold sway in artificial and complex society, but as breathed upon
+by those common airs of reflection and swept hither and thither by
+those common gales of passion that operate upon us all as members of
+the race. It is not the personality of the actors to which the
+attention is supremely drawn, though even in that there is ample field
+for the exhibition of striking characterization. It is the events that
+carry us along; it is the catastrophe to which they are hurrying that
+excites the feelings and absorbs the thoughts. There can be no greater
+absurdity than to speak of this kind of story, as is sometimes done,
+as being inferior in itself to those devoted exclusively to the
+delineation of manners or character, or even of the subtler motives
+which act upon the heart and life. As well might one say that the
+"Iliad" is a poem of inferior type to the "Excursion." Again, it is
+only those who think it must be easy to write what it is easy to read
+who will fall into the mistake of fancying that a novel of         (p. 034)
+adventure which has vitality enough to live does not owe its existence
+to the arduous, though it may be largely unconscious, exercise of high
+creative power. No better correction for this error can be found than
+in looking over the names of the countless imitators of Scott, some of
+them distinguished in other fields, who have made so signal a failure
+that even the very fact that they attempted to imitate him at all has
+been wholly forgotten.
+
+"The Spy" appeared almost at the very close of 1821. It was not long
+before its success was assured. Early in 1822 the newspapers were able
+to assert that it had met with a sale unprecedented in the annals of
+American literature. What that phrase meant is partly indicated by the
+fact that it had then been found necessary to publish a second edition.
+In March a third edition was put to the press; and in the same month
+the story was dramatized and acted with the greatest success. Still in
+the abject dependence upon foreign estimate which was the preeminent
+characteristic of a large portion of the educated class of that day,
+many felt constrained to wait for the judgment that would come back
+from Europe before they could venture to express an opinion which they
+had the presumption to call their own. Contemporary newspapers more
+than once mention the relief that was afforded to many when Cooper was
+spoken of in several of the English journals as "a distinguished
+American novelist." This, it has been implied, was then a condition of
+the public mind that no writer could dare wholly to disregard. When
+the project of abandoning this novel, already half printed, was under
+discussion, the principal reason that finally decided the author   (p. 035)
+to persevere was the fact that his previous work had received a respectful
+notice in a few English periodicals. It was thought, in consequence,
+that in his new venture he would be secure from loss. Still, it is due
+to his countrymen to say that it was to them alone he owed his first
+success. In later years the declaration was often made that he would
+never have been held in honor at home, had it not been for foreign
+approbation. The assertion he himself indignantly denied. "This work,"
+he said afterward, in speaking of "The Spy," "most of you received
+with a generous welcome that might have satisfied any one that the
+heart of this great community is sound." Certain it is that the
+success of the novel was assured in America some time before the
+character of its reception in Europe was known.
+
+The printed volume was offered to the London publisher Murray, and for
+terms he was referred to Irving, who was then in England. Murray gave
+the novel for examination to Gifford, the editor of the "Quarterly."
+By his advice it was declined,--a result that might easily have been
+foretold from the hostility of the man to this country. He had made
+his review an organ of the most persistent depreciation and abuse of
+America and everything American. A new writer from this side of the
+ocean was little likely to meet with any favor in his sight, especially
+when his subject was one that from its very nature could not be
+flattering to British prejudices. Murray having refused, another
+publisher was found in Miller, who had also been the first to bring
+out Irving's "Sketch Book." Early in 1822 the work appeared in England.
+There its success was full as great as it had been in America. This novel,
+in fact, made Cooper's reputation both at home and abroad. It is   (p. 036)
+important to bear this in mind, because it is a common notion that it
+was his delineations of Indian life that brought him his European
+fame. They established it, but they did not originate it. "The Spy"
+was a tale of a war, which in character was not essentially different
+from any other war. So far as the story painted the incidents of a
+struggle in which the English had been unsuccessful, it could have no
+right to expect favor from the English public unless there was merit
+in the execution of the work independent of the subject. The interest
+with which it was read by a people who could not fail to find portions
+of it disagreeable, who were moreover accustomed to look with contempt
+upon everything of American origin, was the best proof that a novelist
+had arisen whose reputation would stretch beyond the narrow limits of
+nationality. This was even more strikingly seen, when it came to be
+translated. If the English opinion was favorable, the French might
+fairly be called enthusiastic. A version was made into that tongue in
+the summer of 1822, by the translator of the Waverley Novels. In the
+absolute ignorance that existed as to its authorship, the work was
+ascribed by several of the Parisian papers to Fanny Wright, who
+subsequently achieved a fame of her own as a champion of woman's
+privileges and denouncer of woman's wrongs. In spite of its anonymous
+character and of some extraordinary blunders in translation, it was
+warmly received in France. From that country its reputation in no long
+space of time spread in every direction; translations followed one
+after another into all the cultivated tongues of modern Europe; and in
+all it met the same degree of favor. Nor has lapse of time shaken
+seriously its popularity. The career of success, which began sixty (p. 037)
+years ago, has suffered vicissitudes, but never suspension; and to
+this hour, whatever fault may be found with the work as a whole, the
+name of Harvey Birch is still one of the best known in fiction. No
+tale produced during the present century has probably had so extensive
+a circulation; and the leading character in it has found admirers
+everywhere and at times imitators. Of this latter statement a striking
+illustration is given in the memoirs of Gisquet, a prefect of the French
+police under Louis Philippe. In his chapter on the secret agents
+employed by him during his administration, he tells the story of one
+who by the information he imparted rendered important services in
+preventing the outbreak of civil war. He thus describes the motives
+which led the man to pursue the course he did. "Struck with the reading,"
+he writes, "of one of Cooper's novels called 'The Spy,' he aspired to
+the sort of ambition which distinguished the hero of that work, and
+was desirous of playing in France the part which Cooper has assigned
+to Harvey Birch during the American war of independence.... Harvey
+Birch--for he adopted this name in all his reports--never belied his
+professions of fidelity. He rendered services which would have merited
+a competent fortune; but when the term of them ended, he contented
+himself with asking for a humble employment, barely enough to supply
+his daily necessities." The belief in the reality of the hero has,
+indeed, been part of the singular fortune of the book. In his account
+of Nicaragua, published in 1852, Mr. E. G. Squier furnished incidentally
+interesting testimony to the truth of this statement as well as to the
+wide circulation of the tale itself. At La Union, the port of San Miguel,
+he stayed at the house of the commandant of the place. His         (p. 038)
+apartments he found well stocked with books, and among them was this
+particular novel. "The 'Espy,'" he went on to say, "of the lamented
+Cooper, I may mention, seems to be better known in Spanish America
+than any other work in the English language. I found it everywhere;
+and when I subsequently visited the Indian pueblo of Conchagua, the
+first alcalde produced it from an obscure corner of the cahildo, as a
+very great treasure. He regarded it as veritable history, and thought
+'Senor Birch' a most extraordinary personage and a model guerillero."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.                                                       (p. 039)
+
+1822-1826.
+
+
+Cooper would have been more or less than mortal if the unexpected
+success achieved by "The Spy" had not incited him to renewed effort.
+It definitely determined his career, though at the time he did not
+know it. As yet he was not sure in his own mind whether the favor his
+book had met was the result of a lucky hit or was due to the display
+of actual power. There can be no question as to the honesty of his
+assertion when he published his third novel, that it depended upon
+certain contingencies whether it would not be the last. But from this
+time on he wrote incessantly. From 1820 to 1830, including both years,
+he brought out eleven works. In many respects this was the happiest
+period of his literary life as well as the most successful. During it
+he produced many of his greatest creations. One decided failure he
+made; but with this exception if each new story did not seem to exhibit
+any new power, it at least gave no sign of weakness, or misdirection
+of energy. This period is in fact so supremely the creative one of
+Cooper's life as regards the conception of character and scene that
+nearly all he did demands careful examination.
+
+He first set about a task that lay near his heart. This was to describe
+the scenes, the manners and customs of his native land, especially of
+the frontier life in which he had been trained. In 1823,           (p. 040)
+accordingly, appeared "The Pioneers," itself the pioneer of the five
+famous stories, which now go collectively under the name of the
+"Leather-Stocking Tales." It was a vivid and faithful picture of the
+sights he had seen and the men he had met in the home of his childhood,
+where as a boy he had witnessed the struggles which attend the conquest
+of man over nature. In it appear in comparatively rude outlines the
+personages whose names and exploits his pen was afterwards to make
+famous throughout the civilized world. They are in this work of a far
+less lofty type than in those which followed. "The Pioneers," in
+truth, though not a poor story, is much the poorest of the series of
+which it forms a part. The almost loving interest he took in the
+matter about which he was writing tempted the author to indulge his
+recollections at the expense of his judgment. His first novel, he said
+in the prefatory address to the publisher which appeared in this one,
+had been written to show that he could write a grave tale, and it was
+so grave that no one would read it; the second was written to overcome
+if possible the neglect of the public; but the third was written
+exclusively to please himself. The story as a story suffered in
+consequence from the very fascination which the subject had for his
+mind. So subordinate was it made, especially in the first half, to the
+description of the scenes, that the details at times become wearisome
+and the interest often flags.
+
+The expectation with which the appearance of this work was awaited is
+a striking proof of the impression that the previous novel had made.
+It was to have been brought out as early as the autumn of 1822. But
+during the summer of that year the yellow fever ravaged New York   (p. 041)
+and largely broke up for a time all kinds of business, including
+printing. Causes beyond control still further delayed the publication,
+and it was not until the first of February, 1823, that the book appeared.
+The public curiosity, however, had been fully excited. Extracts from
+it--according to a custom then prevalent in England--had been
+furnished in advance to some of the newspapers, and though these were
+not the most striking passages, they served to direct attention and
+awaken expectation. At the close of January, announcement of the
+precise date of publication was made. Success was certain from the
+start; but the degree of it outran all anticipation. The evening
+papers of the first of February were able to state that up to twelve
+o'clock that day there had been sold three thousand five hundred
+copies. Even at this period, with a population more than five times as
+numerous, such a half day's sale, under similar circumstances, would
+be remarkable. It is little wonder, therefore, that the newspapers of
+that period felt that only largeness of type and profusion of
+exclamation points could suitably record such a success.
+
+"The Pioneers" was the first work to display a peculiarity of the author's
+character, which came afterwards into marked prominence. Cooper in a
+sense belonged to the school of Scott; and he was so far from denying
+it that in one place he speaks of himself as being nothing more than a
+chip from the former's block. But his life would have been far happier
+and his success much greater had he followed in one respect the example
+of him he called his master. Scott ordinarily did not read criticisms
+upon his own writings; and when he did, he was careful not to let his
+equanimity be seriously disturbed even by the severest attacks.    (p. 042)
+of this was no doubt due to prudence; but a good deal of it to contempt.
+For of all the rubbish that time shoots into the wallet of oblivion,
+contemporary criticism runs about the least chance of being rescued
+from the forgetfulness into which it has been thrust. This is a result
+entirely independent of its goodness or badness. If the criticism is
+both destructive and just, the very death of the subject against which
+it is directed causes it to perish in the ruin it has brought about.
+If it is unjust, it is certain to be speedily forgotten, unless he who
+suffers from it takes the pains to perpetuate its memory, or some later
+investigator drags it from its obscurity for the sake of pointing out
+its absurdity. The creative literature of the past is the utmost the
+present can be expected to read. Its critical literature, however
+celebrated in its day, is looked upon with contempt, or at best with a
+patronizing approval, by the following age, which is always confident
+that it at least has reached the supreme standard of correct taste,
+and asks no aid in making up its judgments from those who have gone
+before. But the philosophy which shows this to be true never lessened
+one iota the pain which the man of sensitive nature suffers. The
+extent to which Cooper was affected by hostile criticism is something
+remarkable, even in the irritable race of authors. He manifested under
+it the irascibility of a man not simply thin-skinned, but of one whose
+skin was raw. Meekness was never a distinguishing characteristic of
+his nature; and attack invariably stung him into defiance or
+counter-attack. Unfriendly insinuations contained in obscure journals
+could goad him into remarks upon them, or into a reply to them, which
+at this date is the only means of preserving the original charge.  (p. 043)
+It was in his prefaces that he was apt to express his resentment most
+warmly, for he well knew that this was the one part of a book which
+the reviewer is absolutely certain to read. In these he frequently
+took occasion to point out to the generation of critical vipers the
+various offenses of which they were guilty, the stupidities that
+seemed to belong to their very nature, and that utter lack of literary
+skill which prevented them from giving a look of sense to the most
+plausible nonsense they concocted. By Cooper, indeed, the preface was
+looked upon not as a place to conciliate the reader, but to hurl scorn
+at the reviewer. In his hands it became a trumpet from which he blew
+from time to time critic-defying strains, which more than made up in
+vigor for all they lacked in prudence. This characteristic was early
+manifested. In the short preface to the second edition of "The Spy,"
+he could not refrain from referring to the friends who had given him
+good advice, and who had favored him with numberless valuable hints,
+by the help of which the work might be made excellent. But it is the
+letter to the publisher, with which "The Pioneers" originally opened,
+that was the first of his regular warlike manifestoes. Though not very
+long, two thirds of it was devoted to the men who had publicly found
+fault with his previous works. He pointed out their discrepancies in
+taste and the metaphysical obscurity of their opinions. At the
+conclusion he wrote a sentence which some of them never forgot. He
+told his publisher that to him alone he should look for the only true
+account of the reception of his book. "The critics," said he in
+continuation, "may write as obscurely as they please, and look much
+wiser than they are; the papers may puff and abuse as their        (p. 044)
+changeful humors dictate; but if you meet me with a smiling face I
+shall at once know that all is essentially well."
+
+Little notice, however, was taken at the time of Cooper's preference
+of the public opinion which showed itself in buying his books, to that
+which made it its chief aim to teach him how they ought to be written.
+The country was too pleased with him and too proud of him to pay any
+special attention to these momentary ebullitions of dissatisfaction.
+On his part so great had now become his literary activity, that before
+"The Pioneers" was published he had set to work upon a new novel, of a
+kind of which he can justly be described as the creator, and in which
+he was to be followed by a host of imitators.
+
+At a dinner party in New York in 1822, at which Cooper was present,
+the authorship of the Waverley Novels, still a matter of some
+uncertainty, came up for discussion. In December of the preceding year
+"The Pirate" had been published. The incidents in this story were
+brought forward as a proof of the thorough familiarity with sea-life
+of him, whoever he was, that had written it. Such familiarity Scott
+had never had the opportunity to gain in the only way it could be
+gained. It followed, therefore, that the tale was not of his composition.
+Cooper, who had never doubted the authorship of these novels, did not
+at all share in this view. The very reasons that made others feel
+uncertain led him to be confident. To one like him whose early life
+had been spent on top-gallant yards and in becketing royals, it was
+perfectly clear that "The Pirate" was the work of a landsman and not
+of a sailor. Not that he denied the accuracy of the descriptions so
+far as they went. The point that he made was that with the same    (p. 045)
+materials far greater effects could and would have been produced,
+had the author possessed that intimate familiarity with ocean-life
+which can be his alone whose home for years has been upon the waves.
+He could not convince his opponents by argument. He consequently
+determined to convince them by writing a sea-story.
+
+We who are familiar with the countless hosts of novels of this nature
+that have swarmed and are still swarming from the press, cannot realize
+the apparent peril which at that time existed in this undertaking. No
+work of the kind, such as he now projected, had ever yet been
+published. Sailors, indeed, had been introduced into fiction, notably
+by Smollett, but in no case had there been exhibited the handling and
+movements of vessels, and the details of naval operations. During the
+last half-century we have been so surfeited with the sea-story in
+every form, that most of us have forgotten the fact of its late
+origin, and that it is to Cooper that it owes its creation. That he
+created it was not due to any encouragement from others. He had plenty
+of judicious friends to warn him from the undertaking. Sailors, he was
+told, might understand and appreciate it, but no one else would.
+Minute detail, moreover, was necessary to render it intelligible to
+seamen, and to landsmen it would be both unintelligible and
+uninteresting on account of the technicalities which must inevitably
+be found in minute detail. A reputation already well established would
+be sunk in the treacherous element he was purposing to describe.
+Cooper persisted in his purpose, but he could not fail to be disturbed
+by the unfavorable auguries that met him on every side. These naturally
+had the more weight, as they came from men who were attached to    (p. 046)
+him personally, and who were honestly solicitous for his fame. He was at
+one time almost inclined to give up the project. But a critical English
+friend to whom he submitted a portion of the manuscript was delighted
+with it. In this man's judgment and taste Cooper felt so great confidence
+that he was induced to persevere. Moreover, to try the effect upon the
+more peculiar public of seamen, he read an extract to one of his old
+shipmates, who was also a relative. This was the account of the
+war-vessel working off shore in a gale. The selection was certainly a
+happy one. The literature of the sea presents no more thrilling chapter
+than that which, describing the passage of the great frigate through
+the narrow channel, gives every detail with such vividness and power
+that the most unimaginative cannot merely see ship, shore, and foaming
+water, but almost hear the roaring of the wind, the creaking of the
+cordage, and the dashing of the waves against the breakers. As he read
+on the listener's interest kept growing until he was no longer able to
+remain quiet. Rising from his seat he paced up and down the room
+furiously until the chapter was finished. Then half ashamed of the
+excitement into which he had been betrayed, he avenged himself just as
+if he were a professional reviewer by indulging in a bit of special
+criticism: "It's all very well," he burst out, "but you have let your
+jib stand too long, my fine fellow." For once Cooper heeded advice. "I
+blew it out of the bolt-rope," said he, "in pure spite;" and blown out
+of the bolt-rope the jib appears in the tale.
+
+He now felt reasonably confident of success, and any doubt that might
+have lingered in his mind was at once swept away by the favorable
+reception the work met when it came out. Its publication was for   (p. 047)
+a while delayed. Early in the summer of 1823 the first volume had been
+finished and a portion of the second, but any further progress was checked
+for the time by an affliction that then befell the author. On the 5th of
+August his youngest child, Fenimore, then little less than two years old,
+died at the family residence in Beach Street, New York, and this calamity
+was followed by illness of his own. "The Pilot," in consequence, though
+bearing the date of 1823, was not actually furnished to the trade until
+the 7th of January, 1824. Its success, both in this country and in
+Europe, was instantaneous. Far-sighted men saw at once that a new
+realm had been added to the domain of fiction. "The Pilot" is indeed
+not only the first of Cooper's sea-stories in point of time, but if we
+regard exclusively the excellence of detached scenes, it may perhaps
+be justly styled the best of them all. At any rate its place in the
+highest rank of this species of fiction cannot be disputed, and in
+spite of the multitude of similar works that have followed in its wake
+and which have had their seasons of temporary popularity, its hold
+upon the public has never been lost.
+
+Cooper was without question exceptionally fortunate in the materials
+with which he had to deal. He was never under the necessity of getting
+up with infinite toil what the modern novelist terms his local coloring.
+This existed for him ready made. He had only to call to mind the men he
+had himself met, the hazards he had run, the life he had lived, to be
+furnished with all the incidents and scenes and characters that were
+capable of being wrought into romance. His descriptions both of forest
+and of sea have all that vividness and reality which cannot well be given
+save by him who has threaded at will every maze of the one and     (p. 048)
+tossed for week after week upon the billows of the other. Moreover, in
+this particular case, while he satisfied his patriotic feeling in the
+choice of the time, he displayed great judgment in the selection of
+the hero. The pilot, though never named, we know to be the extraordinary
+and daring adventurer, John Paul Jones, and the period is of course
+the American Revolution. In his literary art, likewise, Cooper has never
+been equaled by his imitators. Provided he could create the desired
+effect, he dared to let the reader remain in ignorance of the details
+he introduced. Enough of technicality was brought in to satisfy the
+professional seaman, but not so much as to distract the attention of
+the landsman from the main movement of the story. Contented with this
+the author did not seek to explain to the latter what he could not
+well understand without having served personally before the mast. From
+this rule he never varied, save in the few cases where the interest of
+the tale could be better served by imparting information than by
+withholding it. He had a full artistic appreciation of the impressiveness
+of the unknown. For, in stories of this kind, the vagueness of the
+reader's knowledge adds to the effect upon his mind, because, while he
+sees that mighty agencies are at work in perilous situations, his very
+ignorance of their exact nature deepens the feeling of awe they are of
+themselves calculated to produce. The wise reticence of Cooper in this
+respect can be seen by contrasting it with the prodigality of information,
+contained in more than one modern sea-novel, in which the whole action
+of the story is arrested to explain a technical operation with the result
+that the ordinary reader finds the explanation more unintelligible than
+the technical operation itself.
+
+Still, in spite of the excellence of the tales which had followed  (p. 049)
+it, "The Spy" continued with the majority of readers to be the most popular
+of his works. This fact, coupled with his intense love of country, led
+him to turn once more for a subject to his native land and to the period
+in the description of which he had won his first fame. He formed, in
+fact, a plan of writing a series of works of fiction, the scenes of
+which should be laid in the various colonies that had shared in the
+Revolutionary struggle. In pursuance of this scheme, his next work was
+projected. In February, 1825, appeared "Lionel Lincoln, or the Leaguer
+of Boston." The first edition had a preliminary title-page, which
+contained the inscription, "Legends of the Thirteen Republics,"
+followed by this quotation from Hamlet--
+
+  "I will fight with him upon this theme
+  Until my eyelids will no longer wag."
+
+When the plan he had conceived was given up, this addition naturally
+disappeared with it. Nothing that industry could do was spared by Cooper
+to make this work a success. On this account as well as for its
+reception by the public it stands in marked contrast to "The Spy." In
+the preparation of it he studied historical authorities, he read state
+papers, he pored over official documents of all kinds and degrees of
+dreariness. To have his slightest assertions in accordance with fact,
+he examined almanacs, and searched for all the contemporary reports as
+to the condition of the weather. He visited Boston in order to go over
+in person the ground he was to make the scene of his story. As a result
+of all this labor he has furnished us an admirable description of the
+engagement at Concord Bridge, of the running fight of Lexington,   (p. 050)
+and of the battle of Bunker's Hill. Of the last, it is, according to
+the sufficient authority of Bancroft, the best account ever given. At
+this point praise must stop. New England was always to Cooper an
+ungenial clime, both as regards his creative activity and his critical
+appreciation. The moment he touched its soil, his strength seemed to
+abandon him. Whatever excellencies this particular work displayed,
+they were not the excellencies of a novel. Accuracy of detail, even in
+historical romance, is only a minor virtue. The modern reader is,
+indeed, often inclined to doubt whether it is a virtue at all now that
+modern research is constantly showing that so much we have been wont
+to look upon as fact is nothing more than fable. So superior is the
+imagination of man turning out to his memory that one is tempted to
+fancy that instead of going to history for our fiction we shall yet
+have to turn about and go to fiction for our history.
+
+"Lionel Lincoln" is certainly one of Cooper's most signal failures. In
+writing it he had attempted to do what it did not lie in the peculiar
+nature of his powers to accomplish. It is the story of crime long hidden
+from the knowledge of men, but dogging with unceasing activity the
+memories of those concerned in it. But the secret chambers of the soul
+into which the guilty man never looks willingly, Cooper could neither
+enter himself nor lay bare to others. Remorse that gnaws incessantly at
+every activity of the spirit, the consciousness of sin that haunts the
+heart and hangs like a burden upon the life, can never well be depicted
+save by him whose words suggest more than they reveal. Cooper was not
+a writer of this kind. He belonged to that class of literary artists
+who convey their precise meaning by exactness and fullness of      (p. 051)
+detail. The vagueness and indefiniteness with which this story abounds
+is not, therefore, that impressive obscurity which springs from the
+mysterious; it is, on the contrary, the obscurity of the unintelligible
+and absurd. In all of Cooper's novels, it is a fault that the
+characters are often represented as acting without sufficient motive.
+In the story of adventure this can be pardoned, or at least overlooked;
+for freak plays an important part in determining the movements of many
+of us. It is not so, however, in tales containing a plot similar to
+that of "Lionel Lincoln." The mind revolts at finding the actors in
+the drama represented as having committed monstrous crimes, without
+any reason that is worth mentioning. This radical defect in the plan
+is not counterbalanced by any felicity in the execution. Many of the
+incidents are more than improbable, they are impossible. The style,
+likewise, is labored, and the conversations combine the two undesirable
+peculiarities of being both stilted and dull. The characters, female
+or male, are in no case successfully drawn. The inferior ones, introduced
+to amuse, serve only to depress the reader. The hero in the course of
+the tale does several absurd things; but he finally surpasses himself
+by hurrying away from the woman he loves, without her knowledge,
+immediately after he has been joined to her in marriage. The
+representation of the half-witted Job--a character upon which the
+author clearly labored hard--neither arouses interest nor touches the
+heart. It is, indeed, impossible to feel much sympathy with one
+particular imbecile, no matter how patriotic, in a story where most of
+the actors are represented as acting like idiots.
+
+Nevertheless, his reputation and the real excellence of the battle (p. 052)
+battle scenes, saved this work from seeming at the time so much of a
+failure as it actually was. Certainly whatever loss of credit he may
+have sustained as the result of writing "Lionel Lincoln," was much
+more than made up by the success of the tale that followed. In 1824 he
+had gone on an excursion to Saratoga, Lake George, and Lake Champlain,
+with a small party of English gentlemen. One of these was Mr. Stanley,
+the future Lord Derby. As they reached Glens Falls and were examining
+the caverns made by the river at that spot, Mr. Stanley told Cooper
+that here ought to be laid the scene of a romance. In reply, the
+novelist assured him that a book should be written in which these
+caverns should have a place. The promise was fulfilled. On the 4th of
+February, 1826, "The Last of the Mohicans" made its appearance. It was
+composed the previous year in a little cottage then situated in a
+quiet, open country, on which now stands the suburban village of
+Astoria. A severe illness attacked Cooper during its progress; but
+whatever effect it had upon his physical frame, it certainly did not
+impair in the slightest his intellectual force. The success of the
+work was both instantaneous and prodigious. Owing, perhaps, to the
+novelty of the scenes and characters, it was even greater in Europe
+than in America. But there was no lack of appreciation in his own
+land. In the estimation of his countrymen, the novel at once took its
+place at the head of his productions. An incidental fact will not only
+make clear its success, but the state of the book trade at that time.
+The demand for the work soon became so great and so persistent, that
+in April it was decided to stereotype it.
+
+It deserved fully the success it gained. Of all the novels written (p. 053)
+by Cooper, "The Last of the Mohicans" is the one in which the interest
+not only never halts, but never sinks. It is, indeed, an open question,
+whether a higher art would not have given more breathing-places in this
+exciting tale, in which the mind is hurried without pause from
+sensation to sensation. But this is a fault, if it be a fault, which
+the reader will always forgive, whatever the critic may say. The
+latter, indeed, can see much to blame if he look at the work purely as
+an artistic creation. He can find improbability of action,
+insufficiency of motive, and feebleness of outline in many of the
+leading characters. But these are minor drawbacks. They sink into
+absolute insignificance when compared with the wealth of power
+displayed. As they are unable to retard the unflagging interest with
+which the story is read, so they do not essentially modify the
+estimation of it after it has been read.
+
+In this work two great achievements were accomplished by Cooper. The
+first was the idealization of the white hunter whom he had described
+in "The Pioneers." No one can read the two novels in succession without
+seeing at once how much Leather-Stocking has gained in dignity. In
+thought and feeling and habits he is essentially the same; but there
+was given to his character a poetic elevation which raised it at once
+to the front rank of the creations of the imagination, and will make
+it imperishable with English literature. As he appears in "The Pioneers"
+he is merely an old man who has made his home in the hills in advance
+of the tide of settlement. He is the solitary hunter who views with
+dislike clearings and improvements, who cannot breathe freely in streets,
+who hates the sight of masses of men, who looks with especial loathing
+upon the civilization whose first work is to fell the trees he has (p. 054)
+learned to love, whose first exercise of power is to draw the network
+of the law around the freedom and irresponsibility of forest life.
+Though full of a simple and somewhat sententious morality, he is
+querulous, irritable, ignorant. But in "The Last of the Mohicans,"
+while the man continues the same, the aspect he presents is wholly
+different. All that is weak in his character is in the background; all
+that is best and strongest comes to the front. He is in the prime of
+life. Ignorant he still remains of the ways of the world as found in
+the settlements; but there is no trace of discontent or fretfulness.
+He has full room for the exercise of his native virtues, and in the
+character of the acute and daring scout he finds no superior. To him
+forest and sky are an open book. Knowledge is conveyed to his ears in
+every sound that breaks the stillness of the summer woods; and to his
+eyes scarred rock and riven pine and the deserted nest of the eagle
+have made the paths of the wilderness as plain as the broadest highway.
+Nor are his moral qualities inferior to his purely professional. His
+coolness never deserts him, his resources never fail him, and along
+with the versatility that is never at a loss in the presence of the
+unexpected is the resolution that never flinches at the approach of
+the perilous.
+
+This delineation has always met with unqualified praise. But the
+idealization of the Indian character as seen in Chingachcook and Uncas
+has been the subject of much controversy. This is not the place to
+express an opinion upon the truth of the representation. It is enough
+to say here that the view Cooper took was not hastily formed, nor was
+it the result of accidental prejudices. He studied all the sources of
+information accessible at that time which threw light upon the     (p. 055)
+Indian character. He visited the deputations from the various tribes
+that passed through the state of New York on their way to the national
+capital. In some instances he followed them to Washington. It is
+obvious that to a man of his poetic temperament they may have appeared
+in a different light from what they did to the ordinary government
+agent. Certainly he never found reason to modify his views, though he
+was familiar with the criticism made upon them. Toward the close of
+his life he took occasion to reaffirm them. It is also to be added
+that if he gave especial prominence to certain virtues, real or
+imaginary, of the Indian race, he was equally careful not to pass over
+their vices. Most of the warriors he introduces are depicted as
+crafty, bloodthirsty, and merciless. But whether his representation be
+true or false, it has from that time to this profoundly affected
+opinion. Throughout the whole civilized world the conception of the
+Indian character, as Cooper drew it in "The Last of the Mohicans" and
+still further elaborated it in the later "Leather-Stocking Tales," has
+taken permanent hold of the imaginations of men. Individuals may cast
+it off; but in the case of the great mass it stands undisturbed by
+doubt or unshaken by denial. This much can be said in its favor
+irrespective of the question of its accuracy. If Cooper has given to
+Indian conversation more poetry than it is thought to possess, or to
+Indian character more virtue, the addition has been a gain to
+literature, whatever it may have been to truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.                                                        (p. 056)
+
+1826-1830.
+
+
+With the publication of "The Last of the Mohicans," Cooper's popularity
+was at its height. His countrymen were proud of him, proud that he had
+chosen his native land as the scene of his stories, proud that he had in
+consequence extended among all cultivated peoples its fame as well as his
+own. His works were more than read. They were in most cases dramatized
+and acted as soon as published. Artists vied in making incidents depicted
+in them the subjects of their paintings. Poems, founded upon them or
+connected in some way with them, made their appearance in the newspapers.
+If in many cases these things were in themselves of no value, they at
+least served to show the widespread popular interest which his writings
+had aroused. Moreover, his reputation was far from being limited to his
+own land. No other American, before or since, has enjoyed so wide a
+contemporary popularity. Irving may have been on the whole a greater
+favorite in England; but if so, it was largely due to the fact that the
+subjects upon which he was employed were of special interest to English
+readers, and his manner of treating them was flattering to English
+prejudices. But the Continental fame of Cooper was unrivaled, and
+indeed could fairly be said to hold its own with that of Walter Scott.
+Long before he went to Europe himself, his works appeared          (p. 057)
+simultaneously in America, England, and France. They were speedily
+translated into German and Italian, and in most instances soon found
+their way into the other cultivated tongues of Europe. Everywhere his
+ability had been recognized by those whose approbation, if it could
+not confer immortality, was certain to bring with it temporary applause.
+The admiration expressed for him was far less marked in England than
+upon the Continent; but even there it could often be termed cordial.
+It came, too, from those who, whatever estimation we may give to their
+praise, did not praise lightly. From Miss Edgeworth he received
+personally a tribute to his success in delineating the characters in
+which her own reputation had been largely won. On reading "The Spy,"
+she sent him a message, that she liked Betty Flanigan particularly,
+and that no Irish pen could have drawn her better. Scott had been much
+struck by the scenes and personages depicted in "The Pilot," the novel
+he first read, and predicted at once the success of the sea-story and
+of its creator. Many there were, even in England, who looked upon
+Cooper as being equal to the great master of historical romance. "Have
+you read the American novels?" wrote in November, 1824, Mary Russell
+Mitford to a friend. "In my mind they are as good as anything Sir Walter
+ever wrote. He has opened fresh ground, too (if one may say so of the sea).
+No one but Smollett has ever attempted to delineate the naval character;
+and then his are so coarse and hard. Now this has the same truth and power
+with a deep, grand feeling.... Imagine the author's boldness in taking
+Paul Jones for a hero, and his power in making one care for him! I envy
+the Americans their Mr. Cooper.... There is a certain Long Tom who (p. 058)
+appears to me the finest thing since Parson Adams." Subsequently, in
+July, 1826, she spoke thus of "The Last of the Mohicans," in a letter
+to Haydon: "I like it," she wrote, "better than any of Scott's, except
+the three first and 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian.'" The praise, indeed,
+given both then and at a later period, may often seem extravagant. In
+a passage written in 1835, Barry Cornwall, not merely content with
+putting Cooper at the head of all American authors, added that he may
+"dare competition with almost any writer whatever."
+
+It need hardly be said that opinions such as these were not to be found
+generally in the English literary periodicals. Cooper's name was not
+even mentioned in the great reviews until his fame had been secured
+without their aid. The success which he won in Great Britain was not
+due in the slightest to the professional critics. These men fancied
+they had exhausted the power of panegyric when they went so far as to
+term him the American Scott. This fact was triumphantly paraded at a
+later period by a writer in Blackwood, presumably Wilson, as one of
+the convincing proofs of the untruthfulness of the charge made by
+Barry Cornwall, that authors from this country were treated with
+systematic unfairness in English reviews. "Were we ever unjust to
+Cooper?" he asked. "Why, people call him the American Scott." This
+sort of patting on the back was thought a proud illustration of the
+generosity of the British character, and as putting the recipient of
+it under obligations of everlasting gratitude.
+
+There is no doubt, indeed, that the reputation of Cooper suffered all
+his life by the constant comparison that was made between him and  (p. 059)
+the great Scotch writer. It was to a certain extent inevitable; but it
+was none the less unfortunate. He could never be judged by what he did;
+it was always by the fanciful test of how some one else would have done
+it. This was even more true of his own country than of England. Scott's
+popularity was greater here than it was anywhere else. There was a
+feeling akin almost to moral reprobation expressed against any one who
+should presume to fancy that the best work of any native author could
+equal the poorest that Scott put forth. The Continental opinion which
+at that time often reckoned the American novelist as equal, if not
+superior to his British contemporary, seemed to men here like a
+profanation. It was, indeed, so said in direct terms.
+
+Comparison with Scott, therefore, always put the one compared at a great
+disadvantage. This, however, is a method of judging that is necessary
+to some and easy to all. Genuine appreciation demands study and thought.
+For these comparison is a cheap substitute. To call Cooper the American
+Scott in compliment in the days of his popularity, and in derision in the
+days of his unpopularity, was a method of criticism which enabled men to
+praise or undervalue without taking the trouble to think. Stories were
+invented and set in circulation of how he himself rejoiced in being so
+designated. Great, accordingly, was the indignation felt and expressed
+by these gentry at the presumption of the American author, when at a
+later period he asserted that so far from taking pride in the title,
+it merely gave him just as much gratification as any nickname could
+give a gentleman.
+
+It would be, moreover, far from truth to say that in this most     (p. 060)
+prosperous portion of his career his popularity was unmixed in his own
+country. Even then his success had aroused a good deal of envy. In 1823
+he was attacked, in common with many prominent citizens of New York,
+in a satire called "Gotham and the Gothamites." This was the work of a
+man of the name of Judah, who, in 1822, had published a dramatic poem
+styled "Odofried the Outcast." The title was ominous of the fate which
+the production met. The author naturally felt that the age was
+unappreciative. To relieve his mind he wrote eleven or twelve hundred
+lines of fresh drivel, in which he assailed everything and everybody.
+The satire was of that dreadful kind which requires notes and commentaries
+to point out who is hit and what is meant; and the annotation, as is
+usual in such cases, took up much more space than the text. This
+work--for which the author was sent to jail, though a lunatic asylum
+would have been a far fitter place--is only of interest here because
+it bears direct and positive evidence to the fact that at this time
+Cooper was the most widely read of American authors.
+
+But jealousy of his fame could be found among men of much higher
+pretensions than this wretched poetaster. "The North American Review"
+had at that time been ponderously revolving through space for several
+years. It was then a periodical respectable, classical, and dull, all
+three in an eminent degree. Towards Cooper it struggled in a feeble
+way to be just, but for all that it was the exponent of a distinctly
+unfriendly feeling. Among individuals a conspicuous representative of
+this hostility was the poet Percival. He could not endure the reputation
+which the novelist had acquired. Percival was a man of a good deal of
+ability, of a great deal of knowledge, and of an inexhaustible     (p. 061)
+capacity of spinning out verse, never rising much above, nor falling
+much below mediocrity, which, if mere quantity were the only element
+to be considered, would have justified him in contracting to produce
+enough to constitute of itself a national literature. As he invariably
+proved himself entirely destitute of common sense in his ordinary
+conduct, he was led to fancy that he was not merely a man of ability,
+but a man of genius; and during the whole of his life he perpetually
+posed as that most intolerable of literary nuisances, a man of
+unappreciated genius. In spite of the fact that he had been hospitably
+entertained and befriended by Cooper, he could not be satisfied, because
+their common publisher looked upon the latter as the "greatest literary
+genius in America." The reception given by the public to the "long, dirty,
+straggling tales" of the novelist disgusted him. "I ask nothing," he wrote
+in April, 1823, "of a people who will lavish their patronage on such a
+vulgar book as "The Pioneers." They and I are well quit. They neglect me,
+and I despise them." In a later letter he returned to this work. "It might
+do," he said, "to amuse the select society of a barber's shop or a
+porter-house. But to have the author step forward on such stilts and claim
+to be the lion of our national literature, and fall to roaring himself and
+set all his jackals howling (S. C. & Co.) to put better folks out of
+countenance--why 'tis pitiful, 'tis wondrous pitiful at least for the
+country that not only suffers it but encourages it." Percival, indeed, his
+biographer tells us, was subsequently urged to contribute to "The North
+American Review" a critical article on "The Prairie," in which simple
+justice was to be done to Cooper--which phrase had, of course, its (p. 062)
+usual meaning, that injustice was to be done him. The poet's customary
+indecision prevailed, however; the country was spared this exhibition
+of spiteful incapacity, and the novelist was left to stumble along in
+uncertainty as to his precise position among men of letters.
+
+Not but there were plenty of men anxious to show it. Especially was this
+true of that class which looked upon it as the supreme effort of critical
+judgment to exaggerate the value of everything written in Europe and
+depreciate everything of native origin. There was a prevailing belief
+among those who mistook their own individual impotence for the incapacity
+of a whole people, that nothing good could come out of America. Many
+showed their faith by their conduct. In 1834, Cooper himself said that
+he knew of several instances in which persons had not read anything he
+had written for the avowed reason that nothing worth reading could be
+written by one of their countrymen. To all of these it was a subject of
+some perplexity and of more annoyance that his works should be, if
+anything, more popular in Europe than they were in his native land. To
+account for this fact various sage reasons were early suggested and are
+still occasionally heard. One of these has always been particularly
+common. This was that it was the novelty of the scenes and characters
+depicted that attracted attention and not the ability shown in depicting
+them. At any rate, they wished it understood that if he satisfied the
+European, he did not satisfy the native world: for if creative power had
+been denied us, we could at least show that as a compensation we had
+been supplied with a double portion of refined taste. Speaking in behalf
+of the American people, these critics expressed anxiety that       (p. 063)
+neither at home nor abroad should Cooper be regarded as obtaining the
+unqualified admiration or attaining the lofty ideal of "all of us."
+Against any such impression they entered their humble protest. All that
+lay in their power should be done to counteract it. This is no one-sided
+statement of opinions then expressed. These very sentiments in almost
+these very words can be found in reviews of that period.
+
+Cooper at the time of writing his first novel was dwelling at Angevine.
+When the success of the second made it probable that he would continue
+for a while his career as an author, and possibly devote his life to it,
+the necessity arose of changing his residence. His country home was
+about five and twenty miles from the city, but twenty-five miles in
+those days of limited mail facilities and limited means of communication
+was a distance not to be tolerated. Accordingly, in 1822 he moved into
+New York. Either there or in its suburbs he dwelt until his departure
+for Europe. Here his youngest child, Paul, was born in 1824, and here,
+as has already been mentioned, his infant son Fenimore died. His talents
+and his reputation gave him at once a leading position in society. Nor
+were his associates inferior men. He founded a club which included on
+its rolls the residents of New York then best known in literature and
+law, science and art. The names of many will be even more familiar to
+our ears than they were to those of their contemporaries. All forms of
+intellectual activity were represented. To this club belonged, among
+others, Chancellor Kent the jurist; Verplanck, the editor of Shakespeare;
+Jarvis the painter; Durand the engraver; DeKay the naturalist; Wiley the
+publisher; Morse the inventor of the electric telegraph; Halleck and
+Bryant, the poets. It was sometimes called after the name of its   (p. 064)
+founder; but it more commonly bore the title of the "Bread and Cheese
+Lunch." It met weekly, and Cooper, whenever he was in the city, was
+invariably present. More than that, he was the life and soul of it.
+Though kept up for a while after his departure from the country, it was
+only a languishing existence it maintained, and even this speedily ended
+in death.
+
+His pecuniary situation had been largely improved by his literary
+success. The pressure upon his means had in fact been one of the main
+reasons, if not the main reason, that had led him to contemplate
+pursuing a literary life. The property left by his father had gradually
+dwindled in value, partly through lack of careful uninterrupted
+management. His elder brothers, on whom the administration of the estate
+had successively devolved, had died. The result was, that he found
+himself without the means which in his childhood he might justly have
+looked forward to possessing. So far from being a man of wealth he was
+in the earlier part of his literary career a poor man. From any
+difficulties, however, into which he may have fallen he was more than
+retrieved by the success of what he wrote. Precisely what was the sale
+of his books, or how much he received for their sale, it would be hard
+and perhaps impossible now to tell. He was careless himself about
+preserving any records of such facts. But, besides this natural
+indifference, he seemed to resent any public reference to the price paid
+him for his writings as an unauthorized intrusion into his personal
+affairs. Allusions even to the amount of his receipts he apparently
+regarded as springing not so much from a feeling of pride in his
+success, as from a desire to represent him as being under great    (p. 065)
+obligations to his countrymen. In some instances he was certainly correct
+in so regarding it. On one occasion after his return from Europe, he
+denied the truth of an assertion made in a newspaper, as to the amount
+he derived from the sale of each of his novels. "It remains for the
+public to decide," said he, "whether it will tolerate or not this
+meddling with private interests by any one who can get the command of a
+little ink and a few types." In the prefatory address to the publisher
+which appeared in the first edition of "The Pioneers," he made the
+statement, that the success of "The Spy," should always remain a secret
+between themselves. This reticence and dislike of publicity continued
+throughout the whole of his career. It extended to everything connected
+with his writings. Our knowledge on these points is, therefore, both
+scanty and uncertain. The size of the editions has never been given to
+the public. The sale of "The Pioneers" on the morning of its publication
+has already been noticed; and there are contemporary newspaper
+statements to the effect that the first edition of "The Red Rover"
+consisted of five thousand copies, and that this was exhausted in a few
+days. But it is only from incidental references of this kind, which can
+rarely be relied upon absolutely, that we at this late day are able to
+gain any specific information whatever.
+
+He was unquestionably helped in the end, however, by what in the
+beginning threatened to be a serious if not insuperable obstacle. He was
+unable to get any one concerned in the book trade to assume the risk of
+bringing out "The Spy." That had to be taken by the author himself. In
+the case of this novel, we know positively that Cooper was not only the
+owner of the copyright, but of all the edition; that he gave       (p. 066)
+directions as to the terms on which the work was to be furnished to the
+booksellers, while the publishers, Wiley & Halsted, had no direct
+interest in it, and received their reward by a commission. It is evident
+that under this arrangement his profits on the sale were far larger than
+would usually be the case. Whether he followed the same method in any of
+his later productions, there seems to be no means of ascertaining. Wiley,
+however, until his death, continued to be his publisher. "The Last of
+the Mohicans" went into the hands of Carey & Lea of Philadelphia; and
+this firm, under various changes of name, continued to bring out the
+American edition of his novels until the year 1844. It was from the
+sales in this country that most of the income from his books was derived.
+England, indeed, brought him a large sum, at least up to the passage of
+the copyright law of 1838; but he gained little pecuniary benefit from
+the wide circulation of his works on the European continent, whatever
+may have been the renown. In regard to France, he said in 1834 after his
+return, that he had paid in taxes to the government of that country,
+during his different residences in it, considerably more money than was
+obtained from the sales of the sheets of fourteen books. In Germany,
+where his writings had an immense circulation, his receipts were still
+less.
+
+But whatever may have been the precise amount acquired by the sale of
+his works, it was sufficient to pay off heavy debts incurred by others,
+but which he was compelled to assume, to put him in an independent
+position and justify him in determining to fulfill a long-cherished
+desire of spending some time in Europe. Accordingly on the 1st     (p. 067)
+of June, 1826, he sailed with his family--consisting, with the servants,
+of ten persons--from the port of New York. On the 5th of November, 1833,
+he landed there on his return. His original intention was to be gone for
+but five years. To the fixing of this particular time he was apparently
+influenced by a remark of Jefferson, that no American should remain away
+for a longer period from the country, because if he did, so rapid were
+the changes, its facts would have got wholly beyond his knowledge. His
+absence actually extended to a little less than seven years and a half.
+Most of this time was spent in France. From Henry Clay, then Secretary
+of State, he had received the appointment of consul at Lyons. He had
+asked for it, because he did not wish to have the appearance of
+expatriating himself; for as the service was then conducted, such a post
+involved no duties and brought in no returns. His commission bears date
+the 10th of May, 1826. Even this nominal position he gave up after
+holding it between two and three years. No resignation of his is on file
+in the State Department; but a successor was appointed on the 15th of
+January, 1829. He threw up the place because he had come to entertain
+the conviction that gross abuses existed in the system of foreign
+appointments, and it became him to set an example of the principles he
+professed.
+
+It may be well at this point to furnish an outline sketch of his various
+residences in Europe. The voyage from America lasted about a month; and
+after staying a few days in England he passed over to France, on the
+soil of which he first set foot on the 18th of July, 1826. Either in
+Paris or its immediate neighborhood he remained until February, 1828,
+when he crossed over to England. Leaving London early in June,     (p. 068)
+he went back to France by the way of Holland and Belgium. In July, 1828,
+he left Paris for Switzerland, and took up his residence near Berne.
+After spending some weeks in making excursions from that point, he
+crossed the Alps in October by the Simplon Pass. The following winter
+and spring he spent in Florence and its vicinity. In the summer of 1829
+he sailed down the Italian coast to Naples, and after staying a few
+weeks in that city, made a home for himself and his family at Sorrento
+for nearly three months. The winter of 1829-30 he spent in Rome. In the
+spring of 1830 he went to Venice. From that place he journeyed to Munich
+by the Tyrol, and finally settled down in Dresden. From his temporary
+home in Saxony, however, the July revolution speedily drew him to Paris,
+and that city he made mainly his residence from that time until his
+return to America in 1833. There he was, and there he stood his ground
+during the terrible cholera ravages of 1832. Occasional expeditions he
+made, and of one in particular, up the Rhine and in Switzerland, he has
+published a full account.
+
+It was eminently characteristic of Cooper, that though he brought with
+him letters of introduction, he found himself unwilling to deliver a
+single one of them. Yet, certainly, if any American could be pardoned
+the use of a custom that has been so much abused, he was the man. But
+after he had resided quietly in France for a few weeks, he happened to
+attend a diplomatic dinner given by the United States minister to
+Canning, then on a visit to Paris. This was the occasion of making his
+presence known to those who had long before made the acquaintance of his
+writings. He was at once sought out and welcomed by the most       (p. 069)
+distinguished men of the most brilliant capital in the world. The
+polish, the grace, the elegance, and the wit of French social life made
+upon him an impression which he not only never forgot, but which he was
+afterwards in the habit of contrasting with the social life of England
+and America, to the manifest disadvantage of both, and with the certain
+result of provoking the hostility of each. He himself says very little
+of the reception he met; but we know from other sources how cordial and
+even deferential it was. He was not a man, indeed, to enjoy being
+lionized, to be set up, as he expressed it, at a dinner-table as a piece
+of luxury, like strawberries in February or peaches in April. But he was
+in a capital where attention is always paid to ability, though rarely
+with noisy demonstration. He received his full share of it. Without
+mentioning numerous other evidences, the conspicuous position he held is
+evident from the way Scott speaks of him in his diary. He mentions
+meeting him one evening at the Princess Galitzin's in November, 1826.
+"Cooper was there," said he, "so the Scotch and American lions took the
+field together."
+
+But of all the countries in which he resided he grew to be fondest of
+Italy. This was partly due to the fact that there he could indulge to
+the full extent two passions that had come to be a part of his
+nature--the love of fine skies, and of beautiful scenery. His feelings
+in regard to this country and to France he expressed on one occasion
+with a courtliness that was wholly free from the insincerity of the
+courtier's art. In November, 1830, shortly after his return to Paris
+from Germany, he was presented to the royal family. The Queen of Louis
+Philippe, who was the daughter of Ferdinand I., of the Two         (p. 070)
+Sicilies, asked him of all the lands visited by him which he most
+preferred. "That in which your majesty was born," was the reply, "for
+its nature, and that in which your majesty reigns for its society."
+There was not in this the slightest compliment, if by compliment
+anything is meant inconsistent with the severest truth. "Switzerland,"
+he said afterward, "is the country to astonish and sometimes to delight;
+but Italy is the land to love." During the nearly two years he remained
+there, its scenery, its climate, its recollections, and also its people,
+were constantly gaining a hold upon his heart. No country did he ever
+leave with so much regret; and when he came to take his final departure,
+his feelings were such as are experienced by him who is on the point of
+bidding farewell to a much-loved home. When he passed into the valley of
+the Adige on his journey to the Tyrol, in 1830, he reversed the usual
+practice of the traveler who has his eyes fixed only on what is to come.
+He turned around to cast a last lingering glance at the land he was
+about to leave behind. Italy was the only country, his wife told him,
+that she had ever known him to quit looking over the shoulder. His
+regard for the people was, perhaps, intensified by the reaction against
+the estimation in which he had been wont to hold them. "The
+vulgar-minded English,"--he said in one of those deliciously irritating
+and double-acting sentences he was afterward in the habit of frequently
+uttering--"talk of the damned Italians, and the vulgar-minded American,
+quite in rule, imitates his great model." Certainly his prejudices
+against the inhabitants of that country were soon swept away. He
+contrasted them favorably with all their neighbors. They were      (p. 071)
+more gracious than the English, more sincere than the French, and
+infinitely more refined than the Germans. In grace of mind, and in love,
+and even knowledge of the arts, a large portion of the common Italians
+were, in his opinion, as much superior to the Anglo-Saxons as
+civilization is to barbarism. He came in time to have a sort of fondness
+even for the professional mendicants. He furnishes us a curious picture
+of the beggars who assembled about his residence daily in Sorrento, to
+whom he invariably gave a grano apiece. The company, starting out from
+one or two, had been steadily reinforced by recruits from far and near,
+till it ran up to the neighborhood of a hundred men, who regularly
+presented themselves for their pittance. There is no more graphic
+description in his writings than his account of the scene which took
+place when a new-comer among the beggars had the indiscretion, on
+receiving his grano, to wish the giver only a hundred years of life; the
+indignation of the king of the gang at this exhibition of black
+ingratitude; the tumult with which the blunder was corrected, and the
+shouts and outcries with which the pitiful hundred was changed into a
+thousand years, and long ones at that.
+
+During this time his literary activity was unceasing. Before the close
+of 1830 he had completed four novels: "The Prairie," "The Red Rover,"
+"The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," and "The Water Witch,"--all of which were
+devoted to the delineation of scenes and characters belonging to his
+native land. Before he started for Europe he had begun a new Indian
+story. This was finished during his early residence in Paris. He had
+felt it to be a hazardous venture to bring into "The Last of the
+Mohicans" the personages who had been previously drawn in "The     (p. 072)
+Pioneers." But so great had been his success, and so strongly had the
+characters taken hold of him, that he determined to renew the experiment
+for a third time. Leather-Stocking, accordingly, was introduced as
+living in extreme old age on the Western prairies, and the book ends
+with his death. The idea of transferring the home of the worn-out hunter
+to these vast solitudes was suggested, it is fair to infer from Cooper's
+own words, by the actual career of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer.
+The simple story of this man's life was sufficiently remarkable; but in
+the exaggerated accounts of it that were then current, he was
+represented as having emigrated, in his ninety-second year, to an estate
+three hundred miles west of the Mississippi, because he found a
+population of ten to the square mile inconveniently crowded.
+
+On the 17th of May, 1827, "The Prairie" was published. It did not meet
+with the extraordinary success of "The Last of the Mohicans," nor has it
+ever been as great a favorite with the general public. It was written in
+a far more quiet and subdued vein. It never keeps up that prolonged
+strain upon the feelings which characterizes the work that preceded it,
+and which while a defect in the eyes of some is to most readers its
+special charm. There are, indeed, in many of Cooper's stories,
+situations more thrilling and scenes more stirring than can be found in
+"The Prairie," though in it there is no lack of these. But of all his
+tales it is much the most poetical. Man sinks into insignificance in the
+presence of these mighty solitudes; for throughout the whole book the
+immensity of nature hangs over the spirit like a pall. Nor were the
+characters of the principal personages out of harmony with the atmosphere
+that envelopes the scenes described. In the lonely hunter, now     (p. 073)
+nearing his grave, there is a pathetic grandeur, which is a natural
+development, and not an artificial addition. Though he has hurried as
+far away as possible from the din of the settlements, he is no longer
+querulous and irritable as in his old age in the Otsego hills. He has
+learned to recognize the inevitable. While he does not cease to regret,
+he has ceased to denounce. He knows that the majestic solitude of nature
+will not long remain undisturbed, nor its more majestic silence unbroken;
+for in every wind that blows from the East he hears the sound of axes and
+the crash of falling trees that herald the march of civilization across
+the continent. He sorrows at the ruin impending on all that is dearest to
+his heart; but he awaits it in dignified submission. In fine contrast to
+him stands the man who has likewise sought the solitude of the wilderness,
+not because he loves the beauty and the majesty of primeval nature, but
+because he hates the restraints that human society has thrown about the
+indulgence of human passions. Criticism has rarely done justice to the
+skill and power with which Cooper has drawn the squatter of the prairies,
+who holds that land should be as free as air; who has traveled hundreds of
+miles beyond the Mississippi to reach a place where title-deeds are not
+registered and sheriffs make no levies; who neither fears God nor regards
+man; to whom the rule of the rifle is the supremest law; and yet who, with
+all his detestation of the safeguards which society has erected for its
+security, has a moral code and a rough wild justice of his own.
+
+"The Prairie" was followed by "The Red Rover," which came out on the 9th
+of January, 1828. During the years that followed the publication   (p. 074)
+of "The Pilot," the reputation of that work had been steadily increasing.
+Time had more than confirmed the first favorable impression. Not only
+had any lingering prejudice against the sea-story as a story been
+entirely swept away, but tales of this kind were beginning to be the
+fashion. Imitators were springing up everywhere. It was natural, therefore,
+for Cooper to turn his attention once more to a kind of fiction to the
+composition of which he himself had originally opened the way. After
+leaving the navy he had become one of the owners of a whaling vessel,
+and in it had made one or two voyages to Newport. In the harbor of that
+place he fixed the introduction of his new story of the sea. He had
+taken up his residence during the summer of 1827 in the little hamlet of
+St. Ouen on the Seine, not far from Paris. There, in the space of three
+or four months, "The Red Rover" was written. From the date of its
+appearance to the present time it has always been justly one of the most
+popular of his productions, and perhaps, considered as a whole, stands
+at the head of his sea-tales.
+
+On the 6th of November, 1829, succeeded an Indian story of King Philip's
+war, under the name of "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish." The fanciful title
+puzzled, and did not altogether please, the public. As a matter of fact
+it was used only in this country. In England the novel was called "The
+Borderers;" in France "The Puritans of America, or the Valley of
+Wish-ton-Wish." This work was begun during his residence in Switzerland
+in 1828, and was completed at Florence. It has never been popular,
+particularly in America. The tale is a tragic one throughout, and the
+prevailing air of sombreness is rarely lightened by any success in the
+management of minor incidents. The introduction too was marked by  (p. 075)
+one of Cooper's besetting faults, intolerable prolixity. But the main
+cause of his failure lay in his inability to delineate the Puritan
+character. It was not knowledge that was wanting, it was sympathy; or
+perhaps it is better to say that it was his lack of sympathy which
+prevented his having any genuine knowledge. He tried in all honesty to
+depict the men who had founded New England, the men of hard heads and
+iron hearts, in whom piety and pugnacity were, as in himself, so
+intimately blended that the transition from the one to the other is a
+vanishing line whose discovery defies the closest scrutiny. Paradoxical
+as the assertion may seem, he was too much like the Puritans to do them
+justice. His character was essentially the same as their own; but the
+influences under which he had been trained were altogether different.
+Upon their manners, their ideas, and even their appearance he had early
+learned to look with aversion; and he had not the power to project his
+mind out of the circle of notions and prejudices in which he had been
+brought up. The very name of the Reverend Meek Wolf which he bestowed in
+this story upon his clergyman, revealed of itself the existence of
+feelings which put him at once out of that pale of sympathetic thought,
+which enables the novelist or historian to look with the insight of the
+spirit upon men and motives which his intellect acting by itself would
+prompt him to distrust and dislike.
+
+To this tale succeeded "The Water Witch." This was begun at Sorrento and
+finished at Rome, a city which he subsequently used often to speak of as
+the precise moral antipodes of the capital of the New World, in the
+harbor of which he had laid much of the scene of this story. It    (p. 076)
+was not till he reached Dresden, however, that he was enabled to have
+it put in print. On the 11th of December, 1830, it made its appearance
+in this country. With it ended for a time his fictions that dealt with
+American life and manners. He now turned to new fields and wrote with
+different aims.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During all these years his popularity had continued unabated, though his
+last two novels could hardly be said to have met with the favor which
+had been accorded to most of those which had preceded them. It is
+certainly a convincing proof of the wide reputation he had gained before
+he went to Europe, that five editions of "The Prairie," the first work
+he wrote after his arrival, were arranged to be published at the same
+time. Two were to come out in Paris, one in French and one in English;
+one in London; one in Berlin; and one in Philadelphia. But even this
+success was soon surpassed. It is hard to credit the accounts that are
+given on unimpeachable testimony. One statement, however, is too
+important to be overlooked, coming from the source it does. In the
+controversy going on in this country in 1833, in regard to the part
+Cooper had taken in the finance discussion, which will be mentioned in
+its proper place, Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph,
+published a letter in defense of his absent friend. In it he bore
+witness in the following words to the popularity of the novelist in the
+Old World: "I have visited, in Europe, many countries," said he, "and
+what I have asserted of the fame of Mr. Cooper I assert from personal
+knowledge. In every city of Europe that I visited the works of Cooper
+were conspicuously placed in the windows of every bookshop. They   (p. 077)
+are published as soon as he produces them in thirty-four different
+places in Europe. They have been seen by American travelers in the
+languages of Turkey and Persia, in Constantinople, in Egypt, at
+Jerusalem, at Ispahan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.                                                         (p. 078)
+
+1830.
+
+
+The month of December, 1830, which saw the publication of "The Water
+Witch," closed the first and far the most fortunate decade of Cooper's
+literary life. In the decade which followed began that career of
+controversy which lasted, with little intermission, until his death. By
+it his reputation and his fortunes were profoundly affected. It worked a
+complete revolution both in the sentiments with which he regarded others,
+and in the sentiments with which others regarded him. The most intense
+lover of his country, he became the most unpopular man of letters to
+whom it has ever given birth. For years a storm of abuse fell upon him,
+which for violence, for virulence, and even for malignity, surpassed
+anything in the history of American literature, if not in the history of
+literature itself. Nor did the effect of this disappear with his life.
+The misrepresentations and calumnies, which were then set in motion,
+have not ceased to operate even at this day. Full as marked, still, was
+the influence which the controversies, in which he was engaged, had upon
+his literary reputation. A direct result of them at the time was not
+only to impair the estimation in which his previous writings had been
+held, but to cause the later productions of his pen to be treated with
+systematic injustice. Both in England and America the effect of this
+hostile criticism has not yet died away.
+
+On the other hand, it was no one-sided contest that took place.    (p. 079)
+If Cooper was attacked, he, in turn, did his part in attacking. No man
+has ever criticised his own country more unsparingly, and in some
+instances more unjustly, than did he, who, in foreign lands, had been
+its stoutest and most pronounced defender. Nor, in the controversies
+that followed his return from Europe, did one side conduct itself with
+perfect righteousness, and the other with deliberate villainy. Had the
+parties but seen fit to act in this manner, the duties of a biographer
+would have been sensibly lightened. A fair and dispassionate account of
+the circumstances that led to the unpopularity which clouded, though it
+could hardly be said to darken, Cooper's later life, demands a full and
+careful examination of many facts which, in some instances, seem to have
+no relation to the subject. Especially is a knowledge of the European
+estimate of America during the period that the novelist resided abroad a
+matter of first importance. But even of as great importance is a
+knowledge of certain traits of his character and of certain sentiments
+which he strongly felt, and of certain beliefs which he earnestly held.
+To bring out these points clearly, it is necessary for a while to arrest
+the progress of the narrative.
+
+It is to be remarked at the outset that the first impression which Cooper
+made upon strangers was rarely in his favor. To this we have the
+concurrent testimony of those who knew him slightly, and of those who
+knew him well. It was due to a variety of causes. He had infinite pride,
+and there was in his manner a self-assertion that often bordered, or seemed
+to border, upon arrogance. His earnestness, moreover, was often mistaken
+for brusqueness and violence; for he was, in some measure, of that (p. 080)
+class of men who appear to be excited when they are only interested. The
+result was that at first he was apt to repel rather than attract. Without
+referring to other evidence, we need here only to quote the guarded
+statement of one of his warmest friends in describing the beginning of
+their acquaintance. "I remember," says Bryant, "being somewhat startled,
+coming, as I did, from the seclusion of a country life, with a certain
+emphatic frankness in his manner which, however, I came at last to like
+and to admire." But besides this he had other characteristics which, to
+the majority of men, could not be agreeable. Thoroughly grounded in his
+own convictions, positive and uncompromising in the expression of them,
+he had no patience with those--and the number is far from being a small
+one--who embrace their views loosely, hold them halfheartedly, or defend
+them ignorantly. The opinions of such he was not content, like most men of
+ability, with quietly and unobtrusively despising. The contempt he felt he
+did not pay sufficient deference to human nature to hide. It was inevitable
+that the self-love of many should be offended by the arbitrariness and
+imperiousness with which he overrode their opinions, and still more by
+the unequivocal disdain manifested for them. It must be conceded, also,
+that to those for whom he felt indifference or dislike, he had in no
+slight degree that capacity of making himself disagreeable which
+reaches, and then only in rare instances, the ripened perfection of
+offensiveness in him who has breathed from earliest youth the social air
+of England. These were traits that were sure to make him enemies in
+private life. In public life, moreover, the ardor of his temperament was
+such as to hurry him into controversy; and the number of those     (p. 081)
+hostile to him on personal grounds, was always liable to receive
+accessions from men who had never seen him face to face. No gage of
+battle could be thrown down which he did not stand ready to take up.
+Opposition only inflamed him; it never daunted him. He had not the
+slightest particle of that prudence which teaches a man to keep out of
+contests in which he can gain no advantage, or in which success will be
+only a little less disastrous than defeat. It hardly needs to be said
+that a politic line of conduct is usually the very last which a person
+of such a temperament follows. But when to all these characteristics is
+added a peculiar sensitiveness to criticism, it is evident that if
+proper opportunities are offered, personal unpopularity will be certain
+to result from the ample materials existing for its development.
+
+Against this view of his character, it is fair to add here that he had
+many qualities which would tend to bring about an entirely opposite
+result. He was more than ordinarily generous; and gave with a liberality
+that went at times beyond what most men would look upon as prudence. He
+was prompt to relieve merit that stood in need of help. Many cases of
+this kind there are unpublished and unknown out of a very small circle;
+for Cooper was not one to let his left hand know what his right hand was
+doing. One fact, however, has been so often mentioned, that it is
+violating no sanctity of private life to repeat it here. He was the
+first to discover the excellence of Greenough and to make that sculptor
+known to his countrymen. "Fenimore Cooper saved me from despair," wrote
+the latter in 1833, "after my second return to Italy. He employed me as
+I wished to be employed; and has up to this moment been a          (p. 082)
+father to me in kindness." To this generosity, it is to be added that
+his sense of personal honor was of the loftiest kind. It was sometimes,
+indeed, carried to an extreme almost Quixotic; so that men morally
+fat-witted could not even comprehend his principles of action, and men
+who contented themselves with conventional morality resented his
+assertion of them as a reflection upon themselves. His loyalty to those
+who had become dear to him was, moreover, just as conspicuous as his
+loyalty to what he deemed right. It withstood every chance of change,
+every accident of time and circumstance, and only gave way on absolute
+proof of unworthiness. Intimate acquaintance was sure to bring to Cooper
+respect, admiration, and finally affection. Few men have stood better
+than he that final test of excellence which rests upon the fact that
+those who knew him best loved him most. Yet even these were often forced
+to admit, that it was necessary to know him well to appreciate how
+generous, how true, and how lofty-minded he was.
+
+Besides these traits of character, it is important to understand some of
+Cooper's political and social opinions. He was an aristocrat in feeling,
+and a democrat by conviction. To some this seems a combination so
+unnatural that they find it hard to comprehend it. That a man whose
+tastes and sympathies and station connect him with the highest class,
+and to whom contact with the uneducated and unrefined brings with it a
+sense of personal discomfort and often of disgust, should avow his
+belief in the political rights of those socially inferior, should be
+unwilling to deny them privileges which he claims for himself, is
+something so appalling to many that their minds strive vainly to grasp
+it. But this feeling was so thoroughly wrought into Cooper's       (p. 083)
+nature that he almost disliked those of his countrymen whom he found not
+to share in it. "I confess," he wrote at the time when he was generally
+denounced as an aristocrat, "that I now feel mortified and grieved when
+I meet with an American gentleman who professes anything but liberal
+opinions as respects the rights of his fellow-creatures." He went on to
+explain that by liberal opinions he meant "the generous, manly
+determination to let all enjoy equal political rights, and to bring
+those to whom authority is necessarily confided under the control of the
+community they serve." He despised the cant that the people were their
+own worst enemies. So far from it, he believed in widening the
+foundations of society by making representation as real as possible, and
+thereby giving to every interest in the state its fair measure of power;
+for no government, in his eyes, could ever be just or pure in which the
+governors have interests distinct from those of the governed. These
+opinions he put sometimes in an extreme form. "I have never yet been in
+a country," he said, "in which what are called the lower orders have not
+clearer and sounder views than their betters, of the great principles
+which ought to predominate in the control of human affairs." At the same
+time his belief in democracy was not in the least one of unmixed
+admiration. He was far from looking upon it as a perfect form of
+government. It was only the one that, taking all things into
+consideration, was attended with fewer evils and greater advantages than
+any other. It had faults and dangers peculiar to itself. His liberal
+opinions, he took frequent care to say, had nothing in common with the
+devices of demagogues who teach the doctrine, that the voice of    (p. 084)
+the people is the voice of God; that the aggregation of fallible parts,
+acting, too, with diminished responsibilities, forms an infallible whole.
+
+Along with this clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages
+of democracy there was mingled, however, a weakness of feeling on the
+subject of position, which occasionally degenerated into an almost
+ridiculous pettiness. This was especially true of his later life. His
+utterances were sometimes so apparently contradictory, however, that it
+is hard to tell whether justice has been done to his real meaning on
+account of the difficulty of ascertaining what his real meaning was. But
+he spoke often of "the gentry of America," as if there were or could be
+here a class of gentlemen outside and independent of those engaged in
+professions or occupations. He seemed at times to attach that supreme
+importance to descent which we are usually accustomed to see exhibited
+in this country only by those who have little or nothing else to boast
+of. His contempt of trade and of those employed in it had frequently
+about its expression a spice of affectation. Moreover, he subjected
+himself to much misrepresentation and ill-will by the manner in which he
+lectured his countrymen on the distinctions that must prevail in
+society. There are certain things which are everywhere recognized and
+quietly accepted: they only become offensive when proclaimed. A man may
+unhesitatingly acquiesce in his inferiority, socially, to one who is
+politically only his equal; but he will very naturally resent a
+reference, by the latter, to the fact of his social inferiority. A good
+deal of Cooper's later writings was deformed by solemn commonplaces on
+the inevitable necessity of the existence of class distinctions. This
+drew upon him the condemnation of many who did not look upon the   (p. 085)
+expression of such views as an offense against truth, but as an offense
+against good manners. To correct the folly of fools was itself folly; and
+wise men, no matter what their station in life, did not thank him for
+the instruction, the very giving of which implied an insult to their
+intelligence. His remarks on the subject were never heeded, if indeed
+they were ever read, by those for whom they were specially designed. But
+to his enemies they furnished ample opportunities for misrepresentation
+and abuse.
+
+But any account of Cooper would be of slight value that failed to take
+notice of his love of country. No other man of letters has there been in
+America, or perhaps in any other land, to whom this has been a passion
+so absorbing. It entered into the very deepest feelings of his heart.
+Even in the storm of calumny, which fell upon him in his later years, if
+the flame of his patriotism seemed at times to die away, any little
+circumstance was sure to revive it at once. No proclaimer of "manifest
+destiny" ever had more faith than he in the imperial greatness and
+grandeur to which the republic was to attain. All that in vulgar minds
+took the shape of braggart boasting, was in his idealized and glorified
+by his lofty conception of the majestic part which his country was to
+play in deciding the destinies of mankind. In spite of short-comings he
+deplored, of perils that he feared, firm in his heart was the conviction
+that here was to be the home of the great new race that was to rule the
+world. Other lands might look to the future with hope or doubt; his own
+was as sure of it as if it lay already in its grasp. This was a
+confidence that survived all changes, and despised all forebodings. The
+question of slavery certainly disturbed him, but it did not shake  (p. 086)
+his trust. The prophecies of the dissolution of the Union, current
+in Europe, he laughed to scorn. Even in the days of nullification his
+faith never wavered one jot. To no one, more justly than to him, could
+perpetual thanks have been voted, because he never despaired of the
+republic.
+
+Cooper's lofty views of his country he soon found were essentially
+different from those entertained abroad. The knowledge of America even
+now possessed in Europe is not burdensomely great. But in 1830 its
+ignorance was prodigious; and the nearest approach to interest was
+usually the result of something of that same vague fear which haunted
+the citizens of the Roman Empire at the possible perils to civilization
+that might lie hid in the boundless depths of the German forests. On the
+Continent the ignorance was greater than it was in England, and Cooper
+had plenty of opportunities of witnessing the exhibition of it. In the
+case of the common people he was amused by it. That the whites who had
+emigrated to America had not yet become entirely black; that it was
+reasonable to expect that time, while it could not restore their original
+hue to these deteriorated Europeans tanned to ebony, might in the
+revolution of the suns elevate them to a fair degree of civilization;
+these, and similar sage opinions, did not disturb him when uttered by the
+philosophers of the lower classes. Yet their ignorance, great as it was,
+he found not to surpass materially that of men who ought to have known
+better, so long as they pretended to know at all. That the colonies had
+been settled by convicts, was a common impression among the best educated.
+While residing in Paris Cooper had the gratification of having his country
+quoted in the French Chamber of Deputies as an example of the      (p. 087)
+possibility of forming respectable communities by the transportation of
+criminals. Even men who sympathized with republican institutions, he
+informs us, did not think of denying the fact; they denied merely the
+inference. The brilliant publicist, Paul Courier, had asserted it would
+be as unjust to reproach the modern Romans with being descendants of
+ravishers and robbers, as it would be to reproach the Americans with
+being descendants of convicts. All could not be expected, however, to be
+so liberal as this constitutional reformer. The gross vices which in
+foreign opinion distinguished the inhabitants of the United States, were
+held to be the natural consequences of their settlement by felons.
+Cooper subsequently took care to furnish the sons of the Puritans with
+all needful information as to the light in which their fathers were
+viewed in Europe. At the time, however, it was far different. Keenly
+sensitive to his country's honor, and knowing the morals of his
+countrymen to be far higher than those of the men of any other land,
+derogatory statements of this kind were galling in the extreme.
+
+But it was the English opinion that Cooper resented most bitterly. This
+was partly because he believed from the community of origin and speech
+it ought to be better informed, and partly because he looked upon it as
+responsible for many of the absurd and erroneous impressions that
+prevailed in the rest of Europe. His feelings were rendered still keener
+by the direct contact with English prejudice which he had personally
+during his residence abroad. The attitude of the Continent towards
+America was that of supreme ignorance and indifference. But there was at
+the time something besides that in the attitude of England, so far (p. 088)
+certainly as it was represented by its periodical literature. In the
+most favorable cases it was supercilious and patronizing, an attitude
+which never permits the nation criticising to understand the nation
+criticised. There was never any effort to penetrate into the real nature
+of the social and political movements that were taking place on this
+side of the water. Men were contented with the examination of mere
+external phenomena, which, whether good or bad in themselves, belonged
+to a period of growth and were certain to pass away. Not the slightest
+sympathy existed with the feelings and aspirations of a people closely
+allied in blood and speech, and the lack of desire involved the lack of
+ability to enter into the spirit of their institutions. There was no
+idea that there could be other types of character than those found on
+British soil, or any room or reason for the play of other social and
+political forces than were at work in British communities.
+
+At the time, however, that Cooper took up his residence in Europe there
+was more than supercilious indifference in the character of English
+criticism. There was steady misrepresentation and abuse, due in a few
+cases to design, in more to ignorance, in most to that disposition on
+the part of all men to believe readily what they wish ardently. It made
+little difference whether the writer were Whig or Tory. If anything the
+open dislike of the latter was preferable to the patronizing regard of
+the former. In 1804 the poet Moore visited America. He wrote home a
+number of poetical epistles, in which he told his friends that he had
+found us old in our youth and blasted in our prime. The demon gold was
+running loose; everything and everybody was corrupt; truth,        (p. 089)
+conscience, and virtue were regularly made matters of barter and sale. A
+succession of English travelers repeated from year to year the same
+dismal story, and their statements were caught up and paraded and dwelt
+upon in the English periodical press. In "The Quarterly Review," in
+particular, our condition was constantly held up as an awful example of
+the results of democratic institutions and universal suffrage. Certain
+facts and predictions had been repeated so often that they came to be
+accepted and believed by all. We spoke a dialect of the English tongue;
+our manners were bad, if we could be said to have any at all; loyalty we
+could know nothing about, because we had no king; religion we were
+entirely devoid of, because there was no established church; the
+federation was steadily tending towards monarchy; the wealthy were
+longing to be nobles; and the Union could not last above a quarter of a
+century. Worse than all, intrigue and bribery were sapping the national
+life; or to use a still favorite phrase of the newspapers, though the
+repetition of a hundred years has now made it somewhat stale, corruption
+was preying upon the vitals of the republic.
+
+There is not the slightest exaggeration in these statements. Their truth
+any one familiar with the periodical literature of that period will
+least of all doubt. There was a perfect agreement between those who
+visited us and described us and those who drew their description from
+their imaginations. Nothing distinguished the English traveler or the
+English reviewer so much as his piety, and his profound conviction that
+religion could not exist where it was not carefully watched over by an
+established church. Besides this inevitable moral destitution, we  (p. 090)
+were irreclaimably given over to vulgarity. Manners there could not be
+in a land abandoned to an unbridled democracy. In the most praiseworthy
+instances even, men lacked that repose, that fine tact, which were found
+universally in the higher orders in the mother country. The defect was
+ineradicable, according to most; for it had its baleful origin in
+popular institutions themselves. In justice it must be added that there
+were some who, in consequence of the American passion for traveling,
+entertained a mild hope that in time this rudeness would wear away, and
+this total ignorance of good breeding would be enlightened by the polish
+and refinement that would be picked up from the quantity to be found
+scattered about foreign courts. The published correspondence of that
+period is delicious in its frankness. The Englishman, writing to his
+American friend, never descends from his lofty position of censor both
+of great and petty morals. The inferiority of manners in this country is
+a point insisted upon by the former with an assiduity and assurance that
+are sufficient of themselves to make clear how high was the breeding to
+which he himself had attained. It makes little difference who write the
+letters. They all express the same sentiments. They all offer advice as
+to the best method America can take to retrieve the good opinion of
+Europe which it has lost. They are careful to say that they entertain
+the kindest of feelings to the United States; that they neglect no
+occasion of doing justice to the good and wise that had found there a
+home. Unfortunately these are few in number; and with a lofty sense of
+justice they never fail to express disapprobation in strong terms of the
+vast amount to be condemned in a land which had fallen under the sway
+of a reckless democracy and a godless church. One English          (p. 091)
+gentleman in the British military service, after being some time in this
+country, writes, after his return, to an American friend, and thus
+cheerfully records his impressions. "The frightful effects produced by
+an unrestrained democracy," he says, "the demoralizing effects produced
+by universal suffrage never appeared to me so odious as they do now by
+contrast with the good breeding, the order and mutual support which all
+give to each other in this country, from the highest to the lowest."
+This letter belongs to the year 1839, and it only continues a line of
+remark common for the half-century previous. Everything that came from
+America, if praised at all, was praised with a qualification. Not a
+compliment could be uttered of an individual without an implied
+disparagement of the land that gave him birth. The record of every man
+who was well received in English society will bear out this assertion.
+Scott wrote to Southey in 1819, that Ticknor was "a wondrous fellow for
+romantic lore and antiquarian research, _considering his country_." Even
+words of genuine affection were often accompanied with an impertinence
+which has a delightfulness of its own from the utter unconsciousness on
+the part of the writer or speaker of having said anything out of the
+way. They were compliments of the kind which intimated that the person
+addressed was a sort of redeeming feature in a wild waste of desert.
+"You have taught us," writes in 1840 Mrs. Basil Montagu to Charles
+Sumner, "to think much more highly of your country--from whom we have
+hitherto seen no such men."
+
+There is nothing to be gained in raking over at this day the ashes of
+dead controversies and revilings. Americans no longer read the     (p. 092)
+writings of the kind described, and Englishmen have largely forgotten
+that they were ever written. The new commentators on our habits and
+customs have taken up a new line of remark, and the new prophets of woe
+foresee an entirely new class of calamities. But it has been necessary
+to revive here the memory of the old charges and forebodings, in order
+to show the state of feeling that would be developed by them in a man of
+a peculiarly sensitive and proud nature, such as was the subject of this
+biography. Rubbish as they may seem now, they were to the men of that
+time a grievous sore. Whatever may have been Cooper's feelings previously,
+it was not until after he had resided for a while in Europe that any
+hostility towards England is seen in his works. But there it soon began
+to manifest itself, though at first rather in the way of defense than
+attack. As time went on it increased rather than diminished. It largely
+affected his own fortunes by the personal hostility it provoked in
+return. To some extent, without doubt, his oft-repeated declaration was
+true, that in the dependence then existing here upon foreign opinion,
+every American author held his reputation at the mercy of the British
+reviewer. It would be unjust to say that it seemed at one period almost
+as if Cooper had sworn towards England undying hate. But it is certainly
+a fact that he gave utterance to his inmost feelings when he described
+it as a country that cast a chill over his affections, a country that
+all men respected but that few men loved. Yet he had been brought up in
+the school of the Federalist party, in which admiration for the
+literature, policy, and morals of the motherland was taught as a duty;
+in which every door was thrown open to visitors from England as an act
+of hospitality due to kinsmen separated merely by the accident of  (p. 093)
+position. He himself tells us how, an ardent boy of seventeen, he leaped
+for the first time upon the soil of Great Britain, feeling for it a love
+almost as devoted as that which he bore the land of his birth, and
+looking upon every native of it in the light of a brother. It did not
+take him long to find out that the fancied tie of kinship was not
+recognized, that it was even despised; and that if he made friends, it
+must be in spite of his country, and not because of it. His connection
+with the navy had also led him to be keenly sensitive to the injustice
+and indignities connected with the impressment of seamen. In his first
+voyage in a merchant ship he had seen two native Americans taken from
+the vessel and forced into the British service. His own captain even had
+on one occasion been seized, though speedily liberated. There had also
+been an attempt to press a Swede belonging to the crew, on the ground
+that his country and England were in alliance, and the latter had
+therefore a right to his help. These were not the acts to inspire
+devotion towards the people who committed or who authorized them. The
+keen resentment Cooper felt for the wrongs then perpetrated upon the
+American marine he afterward expressed in his novels of "Wing-and-Wing"
+and "Miles Wallingford." He never forgot those early experiences. When
+he came to reside in Europe he was as little disposed to forgive the
+depreciation of his country which he imputed, whether justly or
+unjustly, to English influence. Distrust became dislike, and dislike
+deepened into hostility.
+
+There is little doubt that with a man of Cooper's nature the revulsion
+from his original feelings would tend to swing him to the opposite
+extreme; that, as a consequence of that, he would often fancy      (p. 094)
+insult where none was intended, and impute to design conduct that was
+the result of chance or even of personal timidity. But making full
+allowance for this inevitable source of error, there was plenty of
+reason furnished for offense to a man whose personal pride was equal to
+that of the whole British aristocracy, and whose pride in his country
+exceeded even his personal pride. The ignorant criticism which amused
+most Americans was apt to make him indignant. No compliment, in
+particular, could be paid with safety to him individually at the expense
+of his country. This was a practice, however, which the Englishmen of
+that day seemed to regard as the consummate crown of adulation.
+Depreciation of America of any sort he resented at once. If conversation
+touched upon matters discreditable to the United States--which was far
+from being an uncommon topic--it was very much his practice, instead of
+listening to it patiently, to bring up matters discreditable to Great
+Britain. There was unquestionably ample material on both sides with
+which each could blacken the other. But while this tended to make the
+conversation less monotonous, it likewise tended to make the converser
+less popular. Cooper lost early by his bearing in English society much
+of the favor which he had won from his writings. To this we have
+positive evidence. It is specifically mentioned in the sketch of his
+life, which along with his portrait appeared in 1831 in Colburn's "New
+Monthly Magazine." The article went on, after mentioning this fact, to
+pay a tribute to his somewhat aggressive patriotism. "Yet he seems," it
+said, "to claim little consideration on the score of intellectual
+greatness; he is evidently prouder of his birth than of his genius; and
+looks, speaks, and walks as if he exulted more in being recognized (p. 095)
+as an American citizen than as the author of 'The Pilot' and 'The Prairie.'"
+
+To a man whose heart was thus full of the future glories of the
+republic, the indifference and neglect with which it was regarded could
+not but be galling. Still this was nothing to the positive contempt
+which often manifested itself in social slights that could be felt but
+could not well be resented. This was especially noticeable in the case
+of the legations, the conduct of which was largely under the control of
+the home government. The English policy was here in marked contrast to
+that of Russia, which, even at that early day, cultivated almost
+ostentatiously friendship with America. Between the legations of these
+two countries there was always the best of understandings. The direct
+contrary often prevailed between the ministers of Great Britain and of
+the United States. The influence of the former was frequently thought to
+be exerted to the social injury of the latter. Whether true or false,
+this was generally believed. Cooper certainly credited it and looked
+forward to the time when the whole attitude of England would be altered.
+We were then less than twelve millions in population; but the day would
+come when we should be fifty millions. The existing state of things
+would then be changed. You and I may not live to see it, he wrote
+substantially to his friends, but our sons and grandsons will. They may
+not like us any better, but they will take care to hide their feelings.
+Strong resentment sometimes drove him into taking up positions he would
+not in his cooler moments have maintained. "As one citizen of the
+republic," he wrote, "however insignificant, I have no notion of being
+blackguarded and vituperated half a century and then cajoled       (p. 096)
+into forgetfulness at the suggestion of fear and expediency, as
+circumstances render our good-will of importance." Not one of these
+slights and insults would he have the fifty millions forget. He did not
+bear in mind that fifty millions could not afford to remember. It was
+like asking the man of middle life to revenge upon the sons the
+indignities which the boy had received from the fathers.
+
+Cooper's residence in England was only for a few months during the first
+half of the year 1828. With his feelings towards that country and with
+the feeling entertained in it toward his own, nothing could have made
+his stay highly pleasant. But it is one of the numerous minor falsehoods
+that came to be connected with his life, that it was unpleasant. On the
+contrary, his company was sought by many of the most distinguished men,
+though in accordance with his usual custom he carried no letters of
+introduction. At a later period he said that in no country had he been
+personally so well treated as in England; he was as strongly convinced
+as his worst enemy, that as an author he had been extolled there beyond
+his merits; nor had he failed to receive quite as much substantial
+remuneration as he could properly lay claim to. But the social
+atmosphere there prevailing was not the atmosphere he loved. The poet
+Moore relates in his diary a story told him by Sydney Smith of the
+"touchiness" of "the Republican"--so the American novelist is styled--as
+evinced by the indignation of the latter at the conduct of Lord Nugent.
+This nobleman, it appears, invited Cooper to take a walk with him to a
+certain street. Arriving there he unceremoniously entered the      (p. 097)
+house of a friend and left his companion to make his way back alone.
+Cooper's resentment of the treatment may have been unwisely shown; for
+though often termed an aristocrat, he never exhibited in the slightest
+degree that reticence which is or is supposed to be the peculiar
+characteristic of aristocracy. But few would now be found to deny that
+his indignation was both natural and just, and that the act of Lord
+Nugent was the act of a boor and not of a gentleman. It was certainly
+unreasonable to expect that a society which could rejoice in this method
+of rebuking republican pretension could itself be agreeable to a
+republican. Cooper could not but be offended by the prejudices he found
+existing against his country and the dislike usually felt and sometimes
+expressed for it. The only man he met whom he thought well informed
+about America was Sir James Mackintosh. The ignorance of some of his
+friends was so great that even to him it caused amusement rather than
+anger. Many readers will have heard of the practice of "gouging," with
+which, according to the veracious English traveler of early days, the
+native American gave the charm of diversity and diversion to a life
+whose serious thoughts were wholly absorbed in the acquisition of pelf.
+Some will remember the definition given of it in Grose's "Dictionary of
+the Vulgar Tongue:" "to squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb; a cruel
+practice used by the Bostonians in America." A curious illustration of
+the belief in this myth occurred to Cooper. One of his friends in
+England was an amiable and pleasant man of letters, named William
+Sotheby, little heard of in these days; and even in his own days he had
+to endure the double degradation of being called a small poet by the
+small poets themselves. He was at this time an old gentleman of    (p. 098)
+over seventy, and was preparing to make a creditable close to his
+career by performing the task, which seems to assume the shape of a duty
+to every literary Englishman of leisure, of translating the Iliad and
+the Odyssey. Not unnaturally he was more familiar with the way the wrath
+of Achilles manifested itself than with the shape taken by the wrath of
+the men of his race beyond the sea. On one occasion he condoled with
+Cooper because of the quarrelsomeness and fighting prevalent in America,
+making during this expression of his sympathy an obvious allusion to
+gouging. It was useless to attempt setting him right. His interest in
+ancient fiction had not been so absorbing as to close his mind to the
+acquisition of modern fact; and to Cooper's denial of what he had
+implied he listened with a polite but incredulous smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.                                                        (p. 099)
+
+1828-1833.
+
+
+Misrepresentation and abuse of his native land it was not in Cooper's
+nature to bear in silence. His resentment for the imputations cast upon
+his country began to show itself soon after he had taken up his
+residence abroad. In "The Red Rover," which appeared in 1827, there are
+satirical references to the benevolence and piety of the moral
+missionaries which England had sent among us, and to the correctness and
+wisdom of current foreign opinion. In the next novel, "The Wept of
+Wish-ton-Wish," his feelings are still more fully expressed. In this
+work he puts into the mouth of one of the characters, a physician, an
+elaborate disquisition upon the degeneracy of man in America. In the
+course of it the leech informs his opponent that the science and wisdom
+and philosophy of Europe had been exceedingly active in the
+investigation of this matter of colonial inferiority, that they had
+proved to their own perfect satisfaction, which was the same thing as
+disposing of the question without appeal, that man and beast, plant and
+tree, hill and dale, lake, pond, sun, air, fire, and water were all
+wanting in some of the perfectness of the old regions. It was plain we
+could never hope to reach the exalted excellence they enjoy; and while
+he respected the patriotism that held the contrary view, he could not,
+out of deference to it, afford to doubt what had been demonstrated (p. 100)
+by science and collected by learning.
+
+It was not in this indirect way, however, that he could content himself
+with defending his country. No sooner had he lived in Europe long enough
+to become acquainted with the erroneous impressions there prevalent, in
+regard to America, than he set out to prepare a work which should expose
+their falsity. In it he determined to lay the precise facts before a
+public which was indisposed to believe anything to the credit, and
+disposed to believe everything to the discredit of democratic institutions.
+On the face of it, this was a futile undertaking, no matter how
+praiseworthy its motive. Nations, no more than individuals, are
+convinced by what other nations say of themselves; it is only by what
+they do. In this particular case the difficulty was rendered more
+insurmountable by the fact that these erroneous impressions prevailed
+among those who did not care enough about the matter to investigate it
+seriously, and who would be certain in most cases to refrain from
+investigating it at all, had they a suspicion that their preconceived
+beliefs would be overthrown or even shaken, as a result of their
+examination. The question naturally arises, whether such men could be
+convinced by facts and arguments, and if so, whether they were worth the
+trouble of convincing. Why grudge the adherents of a dying cause the
+dismal enjoyment they receive from contemplating the ruin that is always
+being wrought, or is always to be wrought, by Democracy to Democracy?
+Experience led Cooper subsequently to see the uselessness of the
+experiment he, in this instance, tried. When asked at a later period why
+some efforts were not made to correct the false notions prevalent  (p. 101)
+in Europe in regard to America, he answered with perfect truth then,
+that no favorable account would be acceptable; that it would not be
+enough to confess our real faults, but we should be required to confess
+the precise faults that, according to the opinions of that quarter of
+the world, we were morally, logically, and politically bound to possess.
+By the wide circulation of his fictions he, in truth, did more to remove
+wrong impressions, dissipate prejudices, and open the eyes of Europe to
+a knowledge of American life and manners, than could have been
+accomplished by the longest and most ponderous array of indisputable
+facts.
+
+Facts, however, he at this time purposed to furnish. Accordingly, on the
+13th of August, 1828, appeared a work entitled, "Notions of the
+Americans, Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor." Whatever its actual
+success, it was a relative failure. Cooper himself tells us that it
+occasioned him a heavy pecuniary loss. Manner and matter, both
+foredoomed it to the fate which it met. The plan of it was an unfortunate
+one as well as a purely artificial one. The views and observations and
+statements of fact are put into the mouth of a European traveling
+bachelor, a member of a club of cosmopolites, who, in consequence of
+meeting an American, named Cadwallader, is persuaded to visit and see
+for himself the new world. Arriving there he writes letters to his
+friends, giving an account of his impressions. The fiction of foreign
+authorship was the first mistake. It could not mislead any one, nor was
+it intended to mislead any one. But a grave didactic treatise which was
+designed to convey a truthful impression, lost something and gained
+nothing by being connected with any artifice, even though not meant to
+impose upon the reader. Nor was the work interesting to one not    (p. 102)
+specially interested in the subject. To the American it gave the
+strongest assurances of loyalty to republican institutions on the part
+of her most widely-known man of letters; but it added little or nothing
+to the information of which he was already in possession. On the other
+hand, the laudatory style in which this country was invariably spoken of
+was certain to be offensive to those whom it was the design of the work
+to enlighten. The weight of matter, moreover, was not rendered any more
+endurable by lightness of treatment. At the present day the work is
+chiefly interesting for the keen observations that are found in it, and
+for its remarks upon the future of the country rather than upon its then
+existing state. Cooper's predictions were concerned with the minutest,
+as well as the greatest subjects. They ranged all the way from the
+indefinite assurance, that New York must eventually become the
+gastronomic capital of the globe, to the precise statement, as to the
+exact number of the population there would be in the United States fifty
+years from the time in which he was writing. This last prophecy, it is
+to be said, has turned out singularly true. He fixed the number at fifty
+millions. That this was no chance guess, but a carefully worked out
+computation, is evident from the fact that he repeats it several times
+in this work and occasionally in later ones. He, moreover, assigned
+definitely forty-three millions to the whites and seven millions to the
+blacks.
+
+It is not for an American to find fault with the laudatory tone of a
+work which reflects the ardent love of country felt by the writer. Yet
+in many respects it is a singular production. In manner it is calm,
+grave, almost philosophical; there is not the slightest effort at  (p. 103)
+fine writing; the tone can never be said to be even fervid. Yet it
+must be confessed that not in the most exalted of Fourth of July
+orations does the national eagle scream with a shriller note, or wing
+his way with a more unflagging flight. Any one who formed his notions of
+this country exclusively from this book, would be sure to fancy that
+here at last paradise was reopening to the children of a fallen race.
+After this remark, it may seem ridiculous, and yet it is perfectly just
+to say, that Cooper, so far from giving way to exaggeration in his
+assertions, kept himself well within the bounds of the truth. In the
+exercise of that duty which presses heavily upon every reviewer, to
+seem, if not to be wiser than his author, many of the English
+periodicals, even those most favorable to America, undertook to doubt
+his statements of fact, to sneer at his prophecies of the future as
+ludicrous exaggerations, and to term them striking and whimsical
+instances of Yankee braggadocio, and of the love of building castles in
+the air. Cooper could not well overstate the material prosperity and
+progress of the country, nor the inability of men trained under
+different conditions either to believe it or to comprehend it. Reality
+soon outran some of his most daring anticipations. His most extravagant
+statements were speedily more than confirmed by the operation of
+agencies whose mighty results he could not foresee, because, when he
+wrote, the agencies themselves did not exist. He had carefully guarded
+himself in one instance, by saying that he did not expect that the
+Northwest would be settled within an early period. The precaution was
+unnecessary. He had been brought up in a town, founded in the
+wilderness, at a distance of less than one hundred and fifty miles (p. 104)
+from the commercial capital of the republic. He lived long enough to see
+the frontiers of civilization pushed one thousand miles west of the line
+it had held in his boyhood's home.
+
+Any wrong impression, therefore, which the work conveyed was not due to
+the spirit of braggadocio pervading it, as asserted and commented upon
+by the English reviewers. No false statement was made intentionally;
+there were very few that were made mistakenly. But though Cooper
+purposed to tell nothing but truth about his country, he did not feel
+himself under obligation to tell all the truth. The attention was almost
+exclusively directed to that side of the national character which lent
+itself most readily to favorable treatment. What was unfavorable was
+either omitted altogether, or was very lightly passed over. One letter
+alone, and that not a long one, was devoted to slavery. It is plain that
+he was annoyed by it; to some extent, in spite of his confidence,
+disquieted by it, though the dangers he feared were not the dangers that
+actually came. Even at that early day there was enough to trouble the
+lover of his country in the criticism it encountered, for the glaring
+contrast between its professions of liberty and its practice; but far
+more in the dimly-seen shape of that gigantic struggle which, though
+itself vague and undefined, was already beginning to cast its lowering
+shadow over the future of the republic. So in a similar manner the
+literature, architecture, and art of America were passed over in a few
+pages, while letter after letter was given up to a description of its
+progress in wealth and comfort. Yet no one knew better than Cooper,--at
+a later period he took care his countrymen should not forget it,--that
+of all standards by which to test national glory, the material     (p. 105)
+standard is in itself the lowest and most vulgar; and that the
+difference in real greatness between two places can never be measured by
+the comparative amount of sugar, or salt, or flour sold in each. Yet he
+remembered then, what later he seemed to forget, that the necessity of
+conquering the continent, of making it inhabitable for man, was at the
+time and must continue long to remain a very positive hindrance to the
+development of literary and artistic ability, because by the immense
+rewards it offered it attracted to the development of material resources
+the intellect and vigor of the entire land.
+
+Cooper tells us, as has been said, that he lost money on this work. But
+there was something more than pecuniary failure that attended it. There
+were in it statements which met with disfavor at home. More important
+than these, however, were remarks that aroused personal hostility
+abroad. He made several references, in particular, to the people of
+England, and they were not of a kind to conciliate regard for himself
+and his work. In one place he spoke of the society of that country as
+being more repulsive, artificial, and cumbered, and, in short, more
+absurd and frequently less graceful than that of any other European
+nation. Theoretically, the English care nothing for foreign opinion.
+They have said it so often among themselves that most of them look upon
+it as a point which has been settled by the consent of mankind. But like
+many other beliefs it has become an article of faith without having
+become an article of practice. To this extent it is true that they care
+nothing for the remarks of obscure men of which they never hear. On the
+other hand, no nation is more sensitive to contemporary foreign opinion,
+coming from writers of distinction. There will be plenty of        (p. 106)
+instances furnished in this one biography to prove fully this assertion.
+Cooper's attack was never forgotten or forgiven. From this time there
+was a distinctly hostile feeling manifested toward him in many of the
+English periodicals. Even before his next work appeared, London
+correspondents of American newspapers announced that it was going to be
+severely criticised, inasmuch as the novelist had made himself unpopular
+in England by the comments made and the views put forth in the "Notions
+of the Americans." If this were not true, it was at least believed to be
+true. Certainly the fact of hostility steadily increasing from this
+period, on the part of the British press, cannot be denied, whatever we
+may think of the causes that brought it about. Nor did it stop short
+with depreciation of his works. Literary criticism, even if based merely
+upon personal dislike, can always resort with safety to the cheap
+defense that it is honest. But there were reviewers who went farther,
+who framed for Cooper imaginary feelings and then proceeded to assail
+him for having them. He was accused, especially, of pluming himself
+highly upon the title of the "American Scott." Hazlitt, for instance,
+seeing him strutting, as he terms it, in the streets of Paris, was
+enabled to detect by the way the novelist walked the way he felt upon
+this special matter, and afterward to state the conclusion at which he
+had arrived as a positive fact. Similar specimens of fine critical
+insight into Cooper's motives and sentiments can be found scattered up
+and down the pages of English journals.
+
+At the time he was bringing out "The Water Witch" in Germany, the
+revolution in France took place that resulted in the expulsion of  (p. 107)
+the Bourbons and the calling of Louis Philippe to the throne. Paris
+became at once the Mecca to which the lovers of liberty throughout
+Europe resorted. Thither Cooper hastened from his home in Dresden. He
+reached the city in August, 1830. There he watched with the profoundest
+interest the political movements that were going on about him. The
+reactionary tendencies that early began to manifest themselves in the
+rule of the Citizen King, brought to him the same disappointment and the
+same disgust that it did to all the ardent republicans of the Old World.
+There is much in what he says to remind the reader of the feelings
+expressed by Heine, who had likewise hurried to Paris after the July
+revolution, and who was venting his indignation and contempt in the
+columns of the Augsburg "Allgemeine Zeitung." Occasional passages bear
+even a close similarity. Cooper on one occasion describes Louis Philippe
+walking about among his subjects wearing a white hat, carrying a red
+umbrella, and evidently laboring to act in an easy and affable manner.
+"In short," he said in a phrase that might have been written by the
+great German, "he was condescending with all his might."
+
+Close upon the revolution in France followed the revolt of Poland. The
+insurrection lasted about ten months, and during its progress the
+feelings of Cooper were profoundly stirred in behalf of that people.
+With this his personal friendship with the Polish poet, Mickiewicz, had
+probably a great deal to do; for at Rome a close intimacy had sprung up
+between him and that author. At a meeting, held in Paris on the 4th of
+July, 1831, at which Cooper presided, a sum of money was contributed to
+aid the revolters in their struggle. He presided also at other     (p. 108)
+meetings to advance the same cause, and acted as chairman of a committee
+to raise funds to assist the Polish soldiers who were fighting for
+independence, and when this failed, to relieve the exiles in their
+distress. Two addresses to the American people signed by him in his
+official capacity--one written in July, 1831, and the other in June,
+1832--appeared in the American papers of those years; and the fervor
+that characterizes them both leaves little doubt as to their authorship.
+
+Into the great struggle going on in Europe, either openly or silently
+between aristocracy and democracy, he now, indeed, threw himself with
+his whole heart. In certain respects this was a disadvantage. Whenever
+Cooper's feelings on political subjects were aroused, his literary work
+betrayed the obtrusion of interests more dominating than those which
+belong to it legitimately. This was manifested in the three tales which
+followed. In them the scene of action was not only transferred to
+European soil, but a direct attempt was avowedly made to apply American
+principles to European facts. These novels were "The Bravo," which
+appeared November 29, 1831; "The Heidenmauer," which appeared September
+25, 1832; and "The Headsman," which appeared October 18, 1833. The
+purpose of all these was the direct exaltation of republican
+institutions, and likewise the exposure of those which paraded in the
+garb of liberty without possessing its reality. The scenes of two were
+accordingly laid in the aristocratic cities of Venice and of Berne. The
+first of the three is generally spoken of as the best, especially by
+those who have read none of them at all. Little difference will be
+found, as a matter of fact, between "The Bravo" and "The Headsman" (p. 109)
+as regards literary merit. "The Heidenmauer" is, however, distinctly
+inferior, and is in truth one of the most tedious novels that Cooper
+ever wrote. All were, however, animated by the same spirit. They all
+assailed oligarchical, and lauded democratic institutions. They were
+full of denunciations of the accommodating stupidity of patricians who
+were never able to see anything beneficial to the interests of the state
+in what was injurious to the interests of their own order. In
+particular, the doctrine was held up to derision, that while to the
+ignorant and the low there was ample power given to suffer, there was no
+power given to understand; and that consequently it was their duty
+always to obey and never to criticise.
+
+In writing this series Cooper was undertaking what was on the face of it
+a hazardous experiment. The peril was not, as thoughtless criticism has
+had it, in transferring his scenes and characters to a foreign soil.
+Human nature suffers no material change in passing from America to
+Europe. The danger lay in the fact that these were novels written with a
+purpose. The story was not told for its own sake, but for the sake of
+enforcing certain political opinions. It required, therefore, unusual
+skill in its construction and in the management of its details. For
+whatever may be the exact truth contained in the doctrine of art for
+art's sake, this is certainly clear, that in a work of fiction designed
+to advance successfully any cause, or support any theory, the didactic
+element must be made entirely subordinate to the purely creative
+element. Otherwise we impart to the novel the tediousness of a homily
+without its accepted authority. Art must be wooed as a mistress; she can
+never be commanded as a slave. He, therefore, who seeks to press   (p. 110)
+fiction into a work so foreign to its nature as the inculcation of
+political opinions, must, if he hopes to succeed, make the story suggest
+the lesson without conveying it obtrusively. Above all is there need of
+delicate touch and skillful handling, if the aim be to affect those who
+are prejudiced against the views expressed, or whose interests are
+involved in the fate of those attacked. But Cooper's was never a
+delicate touch. What he thought he never insinuated; what he believed
+himself he never allowed to make its way indirectly into the minds of
+others. He always uttered it boldly, and sometimes offensively.
+Effective this assuredly is in compositions of a certain class; but it
+is entirely out of place in a work of fiction. In the case of these
+particular novels the purpose is avowed openly and repeatedly. Cooper,
+indeed, takes care never to let it escape the reader's attention. He may
+almost be said to stand by his shoulder to jog him if he once happens to
+forget that the story has a moral. American institutions, especially,
+were constantly held up as models in which the best results were seen,
+and which it was the policy of all other countries to imitate. The
+course taken was a mark of patriotism; but it was not the way to gain
+converts. It is, in truth, the misfortune of the novelist, burdened with
+a moral purpose, that the reader usually feels the burden and is not
+affected by the moral. It was not by methods like these that Scott threw
+about chivalry and aristocracy that glamour which outlasts the most
+minute acquaintance with the reality, and influences the imagination in
+spite of the protest of the judgment.
+
+But another result that followed from writing novels with a purpose, had
+a more direct influence upon his reputation. It made it impossible (p. 111)
+that his work should any longer be criticised fairly. This was
+immediately seen in the case of "The Bravo." This novel had far more
+success in Europe than in America. But the success was not of a
+legitimate kind. Parties were at once arrayed for it or against it, not
+because it was a good or bad production from a literary point of view,
+but according as men sympathized with or were hostile to the political
+principles it advocated. It was not the merit of the work that came
+under consideration, but the merit of the cause. This at once destroyed
+almost entirely the value of any criticism which the story received.
+
+A little while before "The Bravo" appeared, Cooper was unwillingly led
+to take part in a controversy which, according to his own view, was the
+remote cause of the hostility he afterwards encountered in his own land.
+It was at the time that the movement began on the part of Louis Philippe
+to separate himself from the liberals, of whom Lafayette was the chief
+representative. A discussion had arisen, in the French Chamber of
+Deputies, on the desirability of a reduction in the expenses of
+government. It gave rise to a controversy which extended much beyond the
+body in which it originated. Lafayette had advocated greater economy. In
+the course of the debate mentioned, he had referred to the United States
+as being a country which was cheaply governed, and at the same time well
+governed. The periodical press at once took up the question. M. Saulnier,
+one of the editors of the "Revue Britannique," came out with an article,
+the direct object of which was to prove that a government of three
+powers, such as was the limited monarchy recently established, was not
+so expensive as that of a republic. In particular, he claimed that (p. 112)
+the tax levied per head on the citizens of France was less than that
+similarly levied on the citizens of the United States. This was a direct
+attack upon Lafayette, who had for forty years been maintaining that the
+government of this country was the cheapest known. The attention of
+Cooper was called to this article, and he was asked to reply. He
+declined. A little later it was made clear to him that the object with
+which it was written was to injure Lafayette. The matter then assumed
+another aspect. To that statesman Cooper was bound by ties of intimate
+personal friendship and by a common love of this country. At a public
+dinner, which had been given to Lafayette on the 8th of December, 1830,
+by the Americans in Paris, Cooper had presided, and in a speech of
+marked fervor and ability, he had dwelt upon the debt due from the
+United States to the gallant Frenchman, who had ventured fortune and
+life to aid a nation struggling against great odds to be free. It was
+not in his nature to have his deeds give the lie to his words. The fact
+above mentioned at once overcame his reluctance to engage in the
+controversy. Accordingly in December, 1831, appeared a "Letter to
+General Lafayette," preceded by a letter from Lafayette to himself,
+dated the 22d of November. This was a pamphlet of fifty pages, in which
+he went into the subject of the cost of the United States government. It
+produced an immediate reply from M. Saulnier, who went over the ground
+again, and with a fine air of candor affected to revise his previous
+statements. As a result he made the cost of the American government a
+little larger than he had done before. To this Cooper replied in a series
+of letters published in the "National." The controversy would      (p. 113)
+have ended sooner than it did, had it not been for the appearance
+of a fresh actor on the scene. This was a certain Mr. Leavitt Harris. He
+nominally belonged to New Jersey, but a large share of his life had been
+spent in Russia, and his political notions had apparently become
+acclimated to that region. He wrote an article on the subject in the
+shape of a letter to M. Francois Delassert, the vice-president of the
+Chamber of Deputies. In it he took ground opposite to that taken by
+Cooper, controverted his facts, and denied his inferences. So great
+weight was attached to it by the French government party that it was
+published as a supplementary number of the "Revue Britannique." Mr.
+Harris had once been left as _charge d'affaires_ at St. Petersburg
+during the absence of John Adams at the peace negotiations at Ghent. His
+letter was accordingly dwelt upon as the production of an American who
+had been intrusted by his government with high diplomatic position. We
+who know out of what stuff our foreign agents are sometimes made, would
+not be likely to attach much weight to the mere fact. But to a foreign
+nation the opinion of an official seemed naturally more trustworthy than
+that of a private citizen.
+
+To the letter of Mr. Harris, Cooper replied on the 3d of May, 1832. This
+closed the discussion, at least so far as he was concerned.[1] But the
+controversy was followed by circumstances of a mortifying character. After
+the return to America of the United States minister, William       (p. 114)
+C. Rives, Mr. Harris was nominated by the President, and confirmed by
+the Senate early in March, 1833, as _charge d'affaires_; and this office
+he held until the arrival of Edward Livingston, who was appointed
+minister on the 3d of May of the same year. Previously to this
+discreditable act, the Department of State had committed one of
+imbecility. It had issued a circular to the different local authorities
+of the Union with avowed reference to the finance controversy. Its
+purport was a request for them to furnish information in regard to the
+amount of public expenditures over which they had control. Against this
+course Cooper protested at once in a long and vigorous letter to the
+American people, written on the 10th of December, 1832, from Vevay,
+Switzerland, and first printed in the Philadelphia "National Gazette."
+He took the ground that in such a discussion local burdens ought not to
+be included. It was, in fact, by confusing various kinds of taxation,
+and taxation for various objects, that the French government party had
+been able to make any showing for their own side. The letter was widely
+circulated, and seems to have served its purpose in suppressing the
+information that had been asked.
+
+                   [Footnote 1: I express no opinion on the merits of
+                   this controversy, for I have seen very slight
+                   summaries only of the articles that appeared in the
+                   _Revue Britannique_. But it is proper to say that it
+                   was the opinion of the French liberals, that Cooper
+                   utterly demolished his antagonists in the
+                   controversy.]
+
+Unfortunately it was not the administration alone that displayed a lack
+of proper sentiment in this controversy. It is far from being a
+creditable thing in the history of the country that Cooper was subjected
+to constant attack, and even abuse, in the American newspapers, for his
+conduct in this finance discussion. He had been particularly careful to
+confine his remarks to the cost of government in the United States. He
+had not touched at all upon the cost of government in France. Yet he
+was charged with having overstepped the reserve imposed upon       (p. 115)
+foreigners, and of having attacked the administration of a friendly
+country. The accusation was constantly made against him that he went
+about "flouting his Americanism throughout Europe," and in this
+particular case that he had overrated the importance of the controversy,
+and also the importance of the part he had taken in it. He had, in fact,
+aroused the hostility of that section of Americans, insignificant in
+number and ability, but sometimes having social position, who prefer the
+conveniences of despotism to the inconveniences of liberty. To such men
+Cooper's intense nationality was a standing reproach. His reputation,
+moreover, made their own littleness especially conspicuous. Depreciation
+of him, and of his rank as a man of letters, was a necessity of their
+case. As they did not express openly their real feelings, they carried
+on at advantage a war against a man who never had the prudence to hide
+what he thought. Yet among the better class of Americans abroad,
+Cooper's attachment to his native land received the recognition it
+merited. "Cooper's new book, 'The Bravo,'" wrote Horatio Greenough, from
+Paris, to Rembrandt Peale, in November, 1831, "is taking wonderfully
+here. If you could transfuse a little of that man's love of country and
+national pride into the leading members of our high society, I think it
+would leaven them all."
+
+But the attacks in the American newspapers made a painful impression
+upon a mind that was morbidly sensitive to criticism even from the most
+insignificant of men. For an act of generous patriotism for which he
+deserved the thanks of all his countrymen he had received vilification
+from many of them. These things embittered him. They made him
+distrustful of the spirit that prevailed in his own land. He       (p. 116)
+began to fancy that the country had gone back instead of forward in
+national feeling during the years of his absence. He had determined to
+return, because he was unwilling to have his children brought up on
+foreign soil and under foreign influences. But for himself he resolved
+to abandon literature. As soon as he had finished the manuscript he had
+in hand, he would give up all further thought of writing. "The quill and
+I are divorced," he wrote to Greenough in June, 1833, "and you cannot
+conceive the degree of freedom, I could almost say of happiness, I feel
+at having got my neck out of the halter." Longings for his old sea-life
+often came over him. "You must not be surprised," he wrote,
+half-jestingly, to the same friend, "if you hear of my sailing a sloop
+between Cape Cod and New York." But he had no definite plans marked out.
+The only thing about which his mind was made up was not to write any
+more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.                                                       (p. 117)
+
+1833-1838.
+
+
+On the fifth of November, 1833, Cooper landed at New York. For a few
+winters that followed he made that city his place of residence. The
+summers he spent in Cooperstown. To this village he paid a visit in
+June, 1834, after having been away from it entirely for about sixteen
+years. The recollections of his early life had always endeared it to his
+memory, and in it he now determined to take up his permanent abode.
+Accordingly he acquired possession of his father's old place, which for
+a long period had remained unoccupied. The house had received from the
+inhabitants the name of Templeton Hall, with a direct reference to "The
+Pioneers." Everything about it was rapidly hastening to ruin. Cooper at
+once began repairs upon it, and after these had been fully completed he
+made it his only residence. It was in this little village, upon the
+shore of the lake which his pen has made famous, that he spent the
+remainder of his life. There he wrote nearly all the works which he
+produced after his return to his native land. Its seclusion and quiet
+gave him ample opportunities for undisturbed literary exertion; the
+beauty of the surroundings ministered constantly to his passion for
+scenery; and of the world outside he saw sufficient to satisfy his
+wishes in the frequent journeys which business compelled him to make to
+the great cities.
+
+Yet, though his latter days were spent in the country, the life    (p. 118)
+he led henceforward deserves anything but the name of a pastoral. With
+the return from Europe begins the epic period of Cooper's career. The
+next ten years, in particular, were years of battle and storm. He had
+been criticised harshly and unjustly; he came back prepared and disposed
+to criticise. His feelings found expression at once. The America to
+which he had returned seemed to him much worse than that from which he
+had gone. In his opinion nearly everything had deteriorated. Manners,
+morals, the whole spirit of the nation, struck him as being on a lower
+level. Yet the change was not really in the people; it was in himself.
+The country had been moving on in the line of its natural bustling
+development; he, on the contrary, had been going back in sentiment. In
+one particular there was a certain justification for the dislike
+expressed by him for the novel things he saw. The business of the entire
+land was in a feverish condition. The Erie Canal, completed the year
+before his departure for Europe, had opened an unbroken water way from
+the Atlantic sea-board to the farthest shores of the great lakes. To
+this stimulus to population and trade was added the expected stimulus of
+the railroad system, then in its infancy. Both together were disclosing,
+though more to the imagination than to the eye, the wealth that lay hid
+in the unsettled regions of the West. They were active agents,
+therefore, in creating one of those periods of speculative prosperity
+which are sure to recur when any new and unforeseen avenue to sudden
+fortune is laid open. The immense field for endeavor revealed by the
+prospective establishment of flourishing communities reacted unfavorably
+upon the intellectual movement which had begun in a feeble way     (p. 119)
+to show itself twenty years before. The attraction of mighty enterprises
+which held out to the hope promises of the highest temporal triumphs,
+was a competition that mere literary and scholastic pursuits, with their
+doubtful success and precarious rewards, could not well maintain. The
+country certainly went back for a time in higher things in consequence
+of that rapid material progress which drew to its further development
+the youthful energy and ability of the entire land. To make money and to
+make it rapidly seemed to be the one object of life.
+
+Such a fever of speculative prosperity wholly absorbing the thoughts and
+activities of men in the acquisition of wealth, would have been viewed
+by Cooper at any time with indifference, even if it did not inspire
+disgust. But a greater change than he knew had come over him. It is
+clear that he had now grown largely out of sympathy with the energy and
+enterprise which were doing so much to build up the prosperity and power
+of his country. His nature had come into a profound sympathy with the
+quiet, the culture, and the polish of the lands he had left behind. His
+spirit could no longer be incited by the romance that lay hid in the
+fiery energies of trade. In the tumultuousness of the life about him, he
+could see little but a restless and vulgar exertion for the creation of
+wealth. The perpetual bustle and change were not to his taste. He spoke
+of it afterwards, in one of his works, with a certain grim humor
+peculiarly his own. America he said, was a country for alibis. The whole
+nation was in motion; and everybody was everywhere, and nobody was
+anywhere.
+
+Feelings of this kind had begun to come over him long before his   (p. 120)
+return from abroad. He had been affected by his surroundings to an
+extent of which he was only vaguely conscious. While in Europe he
+admitted that he found growing in his nature a strong distaste for the
+common appliances of common life. He had not been long in Florence
+before these sentiments found utterance. "I begin to feel," he wrote, "I
+could be well content to vegetate here for one half of my life, to say
+nothing of the remainder." He drew sharp distinctions between commercial
+towns and capitals. Even in Italy, Leghorn with its growing trade, its
+bales of merchandise, its atmosphere filled with the breath of the salt
+sea mixed with the smell of pitch and tar, seemed mean and vulgar after
+the refinement and world-old beauty of Florence. He acknowledged that
+the languor and repose of towns which glory simply in their collections
+and recollections, were far more suited to his feelings than the
+activity and tumult of towns whose glory lies in their commercial
+enterprises. This preference is not uncommon among cultivated men. But
+it is too much to ask of a nation that it shall exist for the sake of
+gratifying the aesthetic emotions of travelers. The process of achieving
+greatness can never be so agreeable to the looker-on as the sight of
+greatness achieved; but it is unhappily often the case that many things,
+which the visitor regards as a charm, the native feels to be a reproach.
+
+Besides the change of view in himself, there were some actual changes in
+the country that were not temporary in their nature. The constitution of
+society had altered at home during his residence abroad, or was rapidly
+altering. The influence of the old colonial aristocracy was fast dying
+out. New men were pushing to the wall the descendants of the       (p. 121)
+families that had flourished before the Revolution, and had sought after
+it to keep up distinctions and exclusiveness which the very success of
+the struggle in which they had been concerned doomed to an early decay.
+This was especially noticeable in New York. In such a city social rank
+must tend, in the long run, to wait upon wealth. The result may be
+delayed, it cannot be averted. Wealth, too, in most cases, will find its
+way to the hands of those carrying on great commercial undertakings.
+That this class would eventually become a controlling one in society, if
+not the controlling one, was inevitable. It was not likely that men, who
+were bent on the conquest of the continent, who revolved even in their
+dreams all forms of the adventurous and the perilous, whose enterprise
+stopped short only with the impossible, would be content long to submit
+to a fictitious superiority on the part of those whose thoughts were so
+taken up with the consideration of what their fathers had been or had
+done that they forgot to be or to do anything themselves. Yet the latter
+composed no small share of the class with which Cooper's early
+associations had lain. He naturally sympathized with them rather than
+with those who were displacing them. Trade began to seem to him vulgar,
+and it was doubtless true that many engaged in it, who had become
+rapidly rich, were vulgar enough. But he made no distinction. He longed
+for the restoration of a state of things that had gone forever by. He
+was disposed to feel dissatisfaction with much that was taking place,
+not because it came into conflict with his judgment, but because it
+jarred upon his tastes and prejudices.
+
+A residence in Europe for a few years had, indeed, done for him    (p. 122)
+what the coming-on of old age does for most. He had become the eulogist
+of times past. The views which he expressed in private and in public,
+during the decade that followed his return to America, were not of the
+kind to make him popular with his countrymen. The manners of the people
+were, according to him, decidedly worse than they were twenty or thirty
+years before. The elegant deportment of women had been largely
+supplanted by the rattle of hoydens and the giggling of the nursery. The
+class of superior men of the quiet old school were fast disappearing
+before the "wine-discussing, trade-talking, dollar-dollar set" of the
+day. Under the blight of this bustling, fussy, money-getting race of
+social Vandals, simplicity of manners had died out, or was dying out.
+The architecture of the houses, like the character of the society, was
+more ambitious than of old, but in far worse taste; in a taste, in fact,
+which had been corrupted by uninstructed pretension. The towns were
+larger, but they were tawdrier than ever. The spirit of traffic was
+gradually enveloping everything in its sordid grasp. There had taken
+place a vast expansion of mediocrity, well enough in itself, but so
+overwhelming as nearly to overshadow everything that once stood out as
+excellent.
+
+In most of these remarks I am giving Cooper's sentiments, as far as
+possible, in his own words. They stung the national vanity to the quick.
+The bitter resentment they evoked at the time could hardly be understood
+now; and a great deal of wrath was then kindled at what would meet with
+assent, at the present day, on account of its justice, or excite
+amusement on account of its exaggeration. Thurlow Weed, in 1841,
+expressed a general sentiment about Cooper, with much affluence of
+capital letter and solemnity of exclamatory punctuation. "He has   (p. 123)
+disparaged, American Lakes," wrote that editor, "ridiculed American
+Scenery, burlesqued American Coin, and even satirized the American
+Flag!" Cooper could hardly have expected his strictures to be received
+with applause, but he was clearly surprised at the outcry they awoke.
+Yet he had had plenty of opportunities to learn that other countries
+were as sensitive to criticism as his own. One singular illustration of
+this feeling had been exhibited at Rome. He had completed his novel of
+"The Water Witch" and wished to print and publish it in that city. The
+manuscript was accordingly sent to the censor. It was kept for days,
+which grew to weeks. It was at last returned with refusal, unless it
+were subjected to thorough revision. Almost on the opening page occurred
+a highly objectionable paragraph. "It would seem," Cooper had written,
+"that as nature has given its periods to the stages of animal life, it
+has also set limits to all moral and political ascendency. While the
+city of the Medici is receding from its crumbling walls, like the human
+form shrinking into 'the lean and slippered pantaloon,' the Queen of the
+Adriatic sleeping on her muddy isles, and Rome itself is only to be
+traced by fallen temples and buried columns, the youthful vigor of
+America is fast covering the wilds of the West with the happiest fruits
+of human industry." This passage, the censor quietly but severely
+pointed out, laid down a principle that was unsound, and supported it by
+facts that were false. A rigid pruning could alone make the work worthy
+of a license. The consequence was that Cooper carried the manuscript
+with him to Germany, and it was first published in Dresden, in a land
+where men were not sensitive to anything that might be said, at any rate
+about Italy.
+
+But the personal unpopularity he brought upon himself by his       (p. 124)
+censorious remarks will not wholly account for the unpopularity as a
+writer, which it was his fortune, in no short time, to acquire. There
+were other agencies at work besides those which affected the feeling
+towards him as a man. Throughout the English-speaking world there had
+been a literary reaction. Men had begun to tire of the novel of
+adventure. It was not that it had lost its hold upon the public; it had
+lost the supreme hold which for twenty years it had maintained. The
+mighty master was dead; to some extent his influence had died before
+him. The later work he did, had in several instances detracted from,
+rather than added to the fame he had won by the earlier. Cooper's own
+ventures in the field of foreign fiction, whatever their absolute merit,
+could not be compared with those in which he had drawn the life of the
+ocean, or the streams and forests of his native land. But outside of any
+effect produced by poorer production, there could be no doubt of the
+fact of a change in the public taste. The hero of action had gone by. In
+his place had come the hero of observation and reflection, who did not
+do great things, but who said good things. The exquisite and the
+sentimentalist were the fashion, to be speedily followed, according to
+the law of reaction, by the boor and the satirist. At the time when
+Cooper returned from Europe, Bulwer was the popular favorite. Both in
+England and America he was styled the prince of living novelists; and
+nowhere was enthusiasm, in his behalf, crazier than in this country. The
+revolution in taste, moreover, worked directly in his favor in more ways
+than one. Scott and Cooper's heroes, whether intelligent or not, were
+invariably moral. But of this sort of men readers were tired. No   (p. 125)
+character could please highly the popular palate in which there was
+not a distinct flavor of iniquity. More ability and less morality was
+the opinion generally entertained, though probably not often expressed.
+Hence it was not unnatural that the sentimental dandies and high-toned
+villains of Bulwer's earlier novels should have been the heroes to
+captivate all hearts.
+
+The comparatively low estimate into which the novel of adventure had
+sunk, undoubtedly had a marked effect upon Cooper's reputation. Some of
+his later work is superior to his earlier from the artistic point of
+view. Yet it was never received with the same praise, at least in
+English-speaking countries. More than that, the criticism it received
+was often excessively depreciatory; nor was this all due to personal
+unpopularity, though a good deal of it certainly was. He simply wrote in
+a style which the age had temporarily left behind, and fancied it had
+outgrown. All that Cooper had to do, all that under any circumstances he
+could do, was to keep on producing the best that lay in his power; sure
+to find a certain body of readers in sympathy with him; sure also that
+some time in the future the revolution of taste would bring him into
+fashion if he had written anything that really deserved to live.
+
+These facts and considerations must, however, be borne in mind in order
+to understand the gradual growth of the ill-feeling that sprang up
+between Cooper and his countrymen. To the change of view in himself and
+to the change of taste in the public, were soon added special
+circumstances that tended to bring about or increase alienation. But
+there did not exist toward him, when he came back from Europe, any
+hostility on the part of his countrymen. Circumstances had led him (p. 126)
+to suspect such a feeling; but it was mainly the creation of a nature
+that was morbidly sensitive to criticism. He was not, to be sure, the
+popular idol at his return that he had been at his departure. But this
+decline, outside of the causes already mentioned, was due to ignorance
+rather than dislike. A new generation had, during his absence, come on
+the scene of active life. To it the influence of his personal presence
+was unknown. He had been away so long that many looked upon him with the
+indifference with which foreigners are regarded by the majority; on the
+other hand, the fact of his being a native prevented others from feeling
+that interest in him which a foreigner has to some. Whatever hostility
+actually existed sprang mainly from causes creditable to himself. If
+Cooper disliked England for its depreciation of America, he hated with a
+hatred akin to loathing, the recreant Americans who mistook the relation
+they bore to their native land, and apologized for its character and
+existence, instead of apologizing for their own. For these men he made
+no effort to hide the contempt he felt. This class, far larger then in
+numbers than now, came mainly from the great cities. Many of them had
+wealth and social position to make up for their lack of ability; some of
+them were attached to the legations. They naturally resented the low
+opinion entertained and expressed of them by their countryman, and had
+doubtless done him some harm, though far less than he supposed. Besides
+these, however, there were certainly a pretty large number by whom his
+aggressive patriotism was felt to be a positive bore. To this feeling
+there had been a good deal of expression given in the newspaper press.
+Cooper, who never could learn how little effect of itself hostile  (p. 127)
+criticism has upon the reputation of a popular writer, gave to these
+attacks far more weight than they deserved.
+
+It was, therefore, with exaggerated and unnecessary feelings of distrust
+that he had returned to his native land. He looked for indifference and
+aversion. Men seldom fail to find in such cases what they expect. He was
+present at a reception given, a few days after his return, to Commodore
+Chauncey. Men whom he knew, but had not seen for years, did not come up
+to speak with him; those who did, addressed him as if he had been gone
+from the city a few weeks. So much was he chilled by this apparent
+coldness that he left the room before the dinner was half over. He did
+not appreciate his own reserve of manner. The indifference which he
+found was, in many cases, due not to any lack of cordiality in others,
+but to hesitation at the way in which advances would be received by
+himself. There was a brusqueness in his address, an apparent assumption
+in his manner, which had nothing consonant to them in his feelings. But
+it was only those who knew him intimately that could venture, after long
+separation, to break in upon this seeming unsociableness and hauteur.
+
+On Monday, May 29 1826, just before his departure for Europe, a dinner
+had been given to Cooper at the City Hotel by the club which he had
+founded. It partook almost of the nature of an ovation. Chancellor Kent
+had presided. De Witt Clinton, the governor of the state, General Scott,
+and many others conspicuous in public life, had honored it with their
+presence. Charles King, the editor of the "New York American," and
+subsequently president of Columbia College, had addressed him in a
+speech full of the heartiest interest in his future and of pride   (p. 128)
+in his past. The Chancellor had voiced the general feeling by toasting
+him as the "genius which has rendered our native soil classic ground,
+and given to our early history the enchantment of fiction." No one, in
+fact, had ever left the country with warmer wishes or more enthusiastic
+expressions of admiration and regard. It was but little more than a week
+after his return when another invitation to a public dinner was offered
+him by some of the most prominent citizens of New York. In this they
+expressly asserted that he had won their esteem and affection, not
+merely by his talents, but by his manly defense, while abroad, of the
+institutions of his country. The invitation seemed to surprise Cooper as
+well as the language in which it was couched. He thanked the proposers
+warmly, but he declined it. The refusal was perhaps unavoidable. If so,
+it was unfortunate; if not, it was a mistake. Had the dinner taken
+place, it would have shown him the estimation in which he was really
+held, and would have modified or destroyed any prejudices entertained
+towards him by others, if any such existed.
+
+Up to this period in his public career, Cooper had certainly not done
+anything to undermine his popularity. He now entered upon a line of
+conduct which it is charity to call blundering. He began, or at any rate
+pursued, a controversy, in which nothing was to be gained and everything
+to be risked, if not actually lost. He not only set himself to defend a
+course that needed no defense, he replied to attacks, real or imaginary,
+which could only be raised into importance by receiving from him notice.
+These attacks were a criticism on "The Bravo" which had appeared in the
+"New York American;" a criticism on his later writings which was found
+in the columns of the "New York Commercial Advertiser;" and an     (p. 129)
+editorial article in the "New York Courier and Enquirer." He could not
+have done a more foolish thing. He knew perfectly well that no writer
+could be written down save by himself. He has quoted the very remark.
+But a hundred similar sayings, condensing in a line the wisdom of ages,
+could never have kept him quiet when an attack was made upon himself. A
+popular writer has always immense odds in his favor in any controversy
+he may have with inferior men. He is ordinarily sure of the verdict of
+posterity, for his is likely to be the only side that will reach its
+ears. Even during his own time there will always be a large body of
+admirers who will defend him with more fervor, and advocate his cause
+with more effect than he has it in his own power to do. But it can and
+will be done only in the case that he does little or nothing himself. If
+Cooper had lost any ground in the estimation of the public, all he had
+to do, in order to regain it, was to remain quiet. The one thing that
+Cooper could not do was to remain quiet. He determined to set himself
+right before his countrymen. He speedily had full opportunity to
+ascertain the results that are pretty sure to follow experiments of this
+kind.
+
+In June, 1834, appeared Cooper's "Letter to His Countrymen." Its
+publication was no sudden freak, for the year before he had announced
+the preparation of it. The work is a thin octavo of a little more than
+one hundred pages; but the damage it wrought him was out of all
+proportion to its size. The first half of it was taken up with a reply
+to the comments and criticisms made in the New York journals already
+mentioned. This was of itself sufficiently absurd, for it revived what
+had already been forgotten, and gave importance to some things     (p. 130)
+had not been worth reading, let alone remembering. But to this
+blundering was added a wrongheadedness, of which Cooper's later life was
+to afford numerous illustrations. The article from the "Courier and
+Enquirer" is quoted in full in the book. Some of its statements are
+inaccurate; but no one can read it now without seeing at once that it
+was written in a spirit that was the very reverse of hostile. To attack
+a powerful journal for comments clearly dictated by friendly feeling,
+betrayed more than a lack of prudence; it betrayed a lack of common
+sense. Moreover, there were other serious defects in the Letter. He
+criticised at some length certain forms of expression used by one of his
+assailants. Cooper's remarks on language are almost invariably marked by
+the pretension and positiveness that characterize the writers on usage
+who are ignorant of their ignorance; but in this case they are in
+addition frequently puerile. His personal references were not especially
+objectionable. But the best that can be asserted of them is, that he
+said with good taste what it would have been better taste not to say at
+all. He, however, so contrived to state his position that he laid
+himself open to the charge that he looked upon the unfavorable opinion
+expressed of "The Bravo" as being instigated by the French government,
+and that, in consequence, the ill reception here accorded to his book
+was not due necessarily to any inferiority in the work itself, but to
+the machinations of foreign political enemies. He did not so mean it. He
+meant to imply that there was no limit to the volunteer baseness of men
+who stand ready to gratify power by doing for it what it would gladly
+have done, but would never ask to have done. But the other was a   (p. 131)
+natural inference, and it was used against him with marked effect.
+
+Worse even than all this, he succeeded in accomplishing in the latter
+half of his Letter. A most exciting controversy was going on at the time
+between the President and the Senate of the United States. The
+bitterness had been aggravated into fury by the removal of the deposits.
+The Senate had passed a resolution declaring the conduct of the
+President unconstitutional. Against this resolution Jackson had
+published a protest. The whole country was in a flame. Into the purely
+personal controversy in which he was engaged, Cooper lugged in a
+discussion of the political question that was agitating the nation. He
+remarked, in the course of it, that if the Union were ever destroyed by
+errors or faults of an internal origin, it would not be by executive but
+by legislative usurpation. In order apparently to have neither of the
+two parties in full sympathy with him, he criticised the appointing
+power of the President, and his action in filling embassies. It is by
+the most strained interpretation of the danger to our institutions from
+imitation of those found in foreign countries, that the political
+discussion was dragged into this production. The force of folly could
+hardly go farther.
+
+The inevitable result followed. The work pleased nobody, and irritated
+nearly everybody. Three influential journals were at once made open and
+active enemies, and in their wake followed a long train of minor
+newspapers. More than that was effected. The Letter called down upon him
+the wrath of a great political party, which in the North embraced a
+large majority of the educated class; and its hostility followed him
+relentlessly to the grave. Unwise as the work was, however, there  (p. 132)
+was nothing in it to justify the abuse that in consequence fell upon its
+author. To his statement of the danger of legislative usurpation Caleb
+Cushing made a dignified, though somewhat rhetorical reply; but while
+controverting his opinions, he spoke of Cooper personally with great
+respect. But such was not the treatment he generally received. The
+language with which he was assailed was of the most insulting and
+grossly abusive kind. In those days it was called appalling severity. It
+reads now like very dreary and very vulgar billingsgate. One example
+will suffice. The "New York Mirror" was then supposed to be the leading
+literary paper in New York. It was nominally edited by Morris, Willis,
+and Fay, though the two last were at that time in Europe. Morris is
+still remembered by two or three songs he wrote. Besides being an
+editor, he held the position of general of militia; accordingly he was
+often styled by his admirers, "he of the sword and pen," which was just
+and appropriate to this extent, that he did as much execution with the
+one as with the other. His paper intimated that Cooper was willing to
+transform himself into a baboon for the sake of abusing America, and
+that his inordinate ambition prompted him to distance all competitors,
+whether the race were fame or shame. It is proper to add that the tone
+of the "Mirror" in regard to Cooper was radically changed after the
+return of Willis from Europe.
+
+In his Letter Cooper announced publicly, what he had long before said to
+his friends, that he had made up his mind to abandon authorship. Such
+resolutions are mainly remarkable for the fact that they are never kept.
+But the howl of denunciation that immediately arose would never have
+suffered him to keep still. From this time dates the beginning of  (p. 133)
+the long and gallant fight he carried on with the American people.
+Gallant it certainly was, whatever may be thought of its wisdom; for it
+was essentially the fight of one man against a nation. In politics he
+had joined the Democratic party, but with some of their tenets he was
+not in the slightest sympathy. He was, for example, a fierce
+protectionist, and neglected no opportunity to cover with ridicule the
+doctrine of free trade. But though practically standing alone, his
+courage never faltered. The storm of obloquy that fell upon him made him
+in his turn bitter and unjust in many things he said; but it never once
+daunted his spirit or shook his resolution. On the contrary, it almost
+seems as if he were aiming at unpopularity; at any rate he could not be
+accused of seeking the favor of the public. Its acts he criticised, its
+opinions he defied. His literary reputation and the sale of his works
+were seriously affected by the course of conduct he pursued and the
+hostility it provoked. But he was of that nature that if the certain
+result of following the path he had marked out for himself had been the
+hatred of the world, he would never have once deviated from it the
+breadth of a hair.
+
+He was not a man to remain on the defensive. He at once began
+hostilities. His first attempt was unfortunate enough. This was the
+satirical novel called "The Monikins," which was published on the 9th of
+July, 1835. Of all the works written by Cooper this is most justly
+subject to the criticism conveyed in the German idiom, that "it does not
+let itself be read." To the immense majority of even the author's
+admirers, it has been from the very beginning a sealed book. It is
+invariably dangerous to assert a negative. But if a personal reference
+may be pardoned, I am disposed to say, that of the generation that (p. 134)
+has come upon the stage of active life since Cooper's death, I am
+the only person who has read this work through. The knowledge of it
+possessed by his contemporaries did not, in many cases, approach to the
+dignity of being even second-hand. The accounts of it that have come
+under my own notice, seem often to have been gathered from reviews of it
+which had themselves been written by men who had never read the
+original. It is no difficult matter to explain the neglect into which it
+immediately sank. The work was a satire mainly upon certain of the
+social and political features to be found in England and America,
+designated respectively as Leaphigh and Leaplow; though one or two
+things characteristic of France were transferred to the former country.
+But satire Cooper could not write. The power of vigorous invective he
+had in a marked degree. But the wit which plays while it wounds, which
+while saying one thing means another, which deals in far-off suggestion
+and remote allusion, this was something entirely unsuited to the
+directness and energy of his intellect. Moreover, some of his most
+marked literary defects were seen here exaggerated and unrelieved. In
+many of his novels there is prolixity in the introduction. Still in
+these it is often compensated by descriptions of natural scenery so
+life-like and so enthusiastic that even the most _blase_ of novel
+readers is carried along in a state of what may be called endurable
+tediousness. But in "The Monikins" the introductory tediousness is
+unendurable. It is not until we are nearly half-way into the work and
+have actually entered upon the voyage to the land of the monkeys, that
+the dullness at all disappears. After the country of Leaphigh is reached
+the story is far less absurd and more entertaining; though         (p. 135)
+Cooper's descriptions are of the nature of caricature rather than of
+satire. There are, however, many shrewd and caustic remarks scattered up
+and down the pages of the latter part of the work, but they will never
+be known to anybody, for nobody will read the book through.
+
+The work fell perfectly dead from the press. But its failure had not the
+least effect in deterring Cooper from continuing in the course upon
+which he had started. During the years 1836, 1837, and 1838, he
+published ten volumes of travels. In these he repeated, with emphasis,
+everything that he had uttered privately or had implied in his previous
+publications. The first of these works was entitled "Sketches of
+Switzerland." It was divided into two parts. The first, which was
+published on May 21, 1836, gave an account of his residence and
+excursions in that country during the summer and autumn of 1828. The
+second part, which appeared October 8, 1836, was largely taken up with
+accounts of matters and things in Paris during the winter of 1831-32, a
+journey up the Rhine, and a second visit to Switzerland. These two parts
+made four volumes. The remaining six had the general title of "Gleanings
+in Europe," and two each were devoted to France, England, and Italy. The
+first of these was published March 4, 1837; the second September 2 of
+the same year; and the third, May 26, 1838. They were written in the
+form of letters, and were pretty certainly made up from letters actually
+written or memoranda taken at the time. But they were likewise largely
+interspersed with the expression of views and feelings that he had
+learned to adopt and cherish since his return to his native land.
+
+In the case of England and America, in particular, his remarks     (p. 136)
+may have been full of light, but they did not exhibit sweetness.
+Probably no set of travels was ever more elaborately contrived to arouse
+the wrath of readers in both countries, nor one that more successfully
+fulfilled its mission. His keen observation let no striking traits
+escape notice. The individual Englishmen he meets and describes could
+furnish entertainment only to men that were not themselves Englishmen.
+There is, for instance, the sea-captain who endeavors to compensate for
+his lack of energy by giving his passenger an account of the marvelous
+riches of the nobility and gentry. Even more graphically drawn is the
+islander he met in the Bernese Oberland, who appeared to regard the peak
+of the Jungfrau with contempt, as if it did very well for Switzerland;
+and who, when his attention was called to a singularly beautiful effect
+upon a mountain top, began to tell how cheap mutton was in
+Herefordshire. Nor were many of his general remarks flattering. As one
+descended in the social scale he thought the English the most artificial
+people on earth. Large numbers of them mistook a labored, feigned,
+heartless manner for high-breeding. The mass of them acted in society
+like children who have had their hair combed and faces washed, to be
+shown up in the drawing-room. They were conventional everywhere. The
+very men whom he met after his arrival in the streets of Southampton,
+all looked as if they had been born with hat-brushes and clothes-brushes
+in their hands. As a race, moreover, they had special defects. They
+lacked delicacy and taste in conferring obligations or paying
+compliments. They were utterly indifferent to the feelings of others.
+There was a national propensity to blackguardism; and the English press,
+in particular, calumniated its enemies, both political and         (p. 137)
+personal, with the coarsest vituperation.
+
+These were not the sort of remarks to draw favorable notices from
+British periodicals. Cooper soon had an opportunity to verify, in his
+own experience, the truth of the last of his observations that have been
+cited. Harsh, however, as was his language about England, it bore little
+comparison to the severity with which he expressed himself about
+America. The attacks on the newspaper press belong not here, but to the
+account of the war he waged with it. The omission, however, will hardly
+be noticed in the multitude of other matters he found to criticise.
+Manners, customs, society, were touched throughout with an unsparing
+hand. Common crimes, he admitted, were not so general with us as in
+Europe, though mainly because we were exempt from temptation, but
+uncommon meannesses did abound in a large circle of our population. Our
+two besetting sins were canting and hypocrisy. We had far less publicity
+in our pleasures than other nations; yet we had scarcely any domestic
+privacy on account of the neighborhood. The whole country was full of a
+village-like gossip which caused every man to think that he was a judge
+of character, when he was not even a judge of facts. In most matters we
+were humble imitators of the English. All their mistakes and
+misjudgments we adopted except such as impaired our good opinion of
+ourselves. It was a consequence that all their errors about foreign
+countries had become our errors also. In a few cases, indeed, we were
+compelled to be American; but whenever there was a tolerable chance we
+endeavored to become second-class English. Wherever making money was in
+view, we had but one soul and that was inventive enough; but when  (p. 138)
+it came to spending it we did not know how to set about it except
+by routine. No people traveled as much as we; none traveled with so
+little enjoyment or so few comforts. Taste and knowledge and tone were
+too little concentrated anywhere, too much diffused everywhere, to make
+head against the advances of an overwhelming mediocrity. Of society
+there was but little; for what it suited the caprice of certain people
+to call such was little more than the noisy, screeching, hoydenish
+romping of both sexes. The taint of provincialism was diffused over all
+feelings and beliefs. Of arts and letters the country possessed none or
+next to none. Moreover, there was no genuine sympathy with either. To
+all this dismal prospect there was slight hope of improvement, because
+there was a disposition to resent any intimation that we could be better
+than we were at present.
+
+It would be a gross error to infer the general character of Cooper's
+travels from these extracts. They are gathered together from ten
+volumes, without any of the attendant statements by which they are there
+in many cases modified. Equally erroneous would it be to suppose that he
+did not find much to praise as well as to condemn in both England and
+America. These extracts, however, explain the almost savage vituperation
+with which Cooper was thenceforth followed in the press of the two
+countries. The works themselves met with a very slight sale: none of
+them ever passed into a second edition. Men were not likely to read with
+alacrity, however much they might with profit, unfavorable opinions
+entertained of themselves. Cooper himself could not have hoped for much
+success for his strictures. In fact, he expressly declared the contrary.
+The most he should expect, he said, would be the secret assent of  (p. 139)
+the wise and good, the expressed censure of the numerous class of the
+vapid and ignorant, the surprise of the mercenary and the demagogue, and
+the secret satisfaction of the few who should come after him who would
+take an interest in his name.
+
+Notwithstanding the ferocious criticism with which they were assailed at
+the time and the forgetfulness into which they have now fallen, Cooper's
+accounts of the countries in which he lived are among the best of their
+kind. Books of travel are from their very nature of temporary interest.
+It requires peculiar felicity of manner to make up long for the fresher
+matter about foreign lands which newer books contain. Striking
+descriptions and acute observations will still, however, reward the
+reader of Cooper's sketches. There are often displayed in them a vigor
+and a political sagacity which of themselves would justify his being
+styled the most robust of American authors. Pointed assertions are
+scattered up and down his pages. Could, for instance, one of the dangers
+of a democracy be more clearly and ill-naturedly put than by his
+statement, that the whole science of government in what are called free
+states, is getting to be a strife in mystification, in which the great
+secret is to persuade the governed that he is in fact the governor? His
+books, moreover, while they reflect his prejudices, show an honest
+desire to be just. He undoubtedly preferred the Continent to England.
+But in his account of that country, while he had the unfairness of
+dislike, he never had the unfairness of intentional misrepresentation.
+There is nothing of that exulting yell with which the British traveler
+of those days fell foul of some specimen of American ill-breeding or
+American bumptiousness. Nor did he fail to pay a high tribute to   (p. 140)
+what was best in English society or English character. The gentlemen
+of that country, in appearance, in attainments, in manliness, and he was
+inclined to add in principles, he placed at the head of their class in
+Christendom. His censure of America and the Americans was not at all in
+the nature of indiscriminate abuse. The fault he found with his
+countrymen was based mainly upon their mistaken opinion of themselves
+and of their advantages and disadvantages. You boast, he practically
+said to them, of the superiority of your scenery, in which you are not
+to be compared with Europe; but you constantly abuse your climate which
+is equal to, if not finer, than that of any region in the Old World. You
+stand up manfully for your manners and tastes, which you ought to
+correct; but you are incessantly apologizing for your institutions of
+which you ought to be proud. The defects imputed in Europe to the
+inhabitants of the United States, such as the want of morals, honesty,
+order, decency, liberality, and religion, were not at all our defects.
+These, in fact were, as the world goes, the strong points of American
+character. On the other hand, those on which we prided ourselves,
+intelligence, taste, manners, education as applied to all beyond the
+base of society, were the very points upon which we should do well to be
+silent. This is certainly not an extreme position. But men are far more
+affected by the blame bestowed upon their foibles than by the praise
+given to their virtues; and both in England and America the censures
+were remembered and the commendations forgotten. Other circumstances
+also came in now to add to his unpopularity in his own country. A local
+quarrel in which he accidently became concerned, was followed by   (p. 141)
+consequences which affected his estimation throughout the whole land;
+but the details of this will require a separate chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.                                                      (p. 142)
+
+1837-1838.
+
+
+Three miles from Cooperstown, on the western side of Otsego Lake, a low,
+wooded point of land projects for some distance into the water. It
+combines two characteristics of an attractive resort: beauty of scenery
+and easiness of access. On these accounts Cooper's father had refused to
+sell it when he disposed of his other lands. He had, in fact, specially
+reserved it for his own use, and for that of his descendants. In 1808, a
+year before his death, he drew up his will. In it he made a particular
+devise of this spot. "I give and bequeath," ran the words of the
+document, "my place, called Myrtle Grove, on the west side of the Lake
+Otsego, to all my descendants in common until the year 1850; then to be
+inherited by the youngest thereof bearing my name." Two small buildings
+had been successively erected by him on the spot. The first he tore down
+himself, but the second was set on fire after his death, by the
+carelessness of trespassers using it, and burned to the ground. Shortly
+after 1821, the only representative of the family living in Cooperstown
+who was of proper age to be consulted, gave his consent, so far as he
+was concerned, to the erection of a new building by the community. From
+that time the Point came to be a place of general resort. To it fishing
+and picnic parties were in the habit of repairing. An impression   (p. 143)
+sprang up, moreover, that the spot was public property. This impression
+in the course of years advanced to the dignity of positive assertion. It
+became in time a universally accepted belief in the minds of the
+citizens that the place belonged to them. It then only remained to
+furnish the explanation of how it had happened to come into their
+possession. This was no difficult achievement. The story was soon
+generally received that Cooper's father, instead of permitting the
+public to use the Point, had actually made a gift of it to the public.
+
+When Cooper took up his summer residence in the village, after his
+return from Europe, he found the notion prevalent that the place in
+question belonged to the community. As executor of his father's will he
+took pains to correct the error. He informed his fellow-citizens that
+the Point was private property, and not public; and that while he had no
+desire to prevent them from resorting to it, he was determined to insist
+upon the recognition of the real ownership. He might as well have talked
+to the winds. The community did not bother itself about examining the
+question of title. It had been in the habit of using the Point without
+asking any one's consent, and the Point it purposed to keep on using in
+the same way.
+
+Matters reached a crisis in 1837. The building erected on the spot had
+become dilapidated. Workmen were sent out to repair it, without going
+through the formality of consulting the owners of the property. A tree
+was also cut down, which, on account of certain associations connected
+with his father, Cooper valued particularly. This was not the way to win
+over to the view of the community the executor of the property. He sent
+a card at once to the editor of the Democratic newspaper of the    (p. 144)
+village, stating that the Point was private property, and cautioning
+the public against injuring the trees. Nothing, however, was said about
+trespassing. The card came too late for publication that week and before
+another number of the paper appeared, rumor of its existence had got
+about. Its reported character created ill-feeling, and messages and even
+threats were sent to Cooper on the subject. These had the effect which
+might have been expected. He withdrew the original card and published in
+its stead a simple, ordinary notice of warning against trespassing on
+the Point, with a few additional facts. The notice, which is dated July
+22, 1837, reads as follows:--
+
+"The public is warned against trespassing on the Three Mile Point, it
+being the intention of the subscriber rigidly to enforce the title of
+the estate, of which he is the representative, to the same. The public
+has not, nor has it ever had, any right to the same beyond what has been
+conceded by the liberality of the owners."
+
+The notice was signed by Cooper as the executor of his father's estate.
+Great was the excitement in the village when it was published. A
+hand-bill was immediately put into circulation calling a meeting of the
+citizens, to take into consideration the propriety of defending their
+rights against the arrogant claims and assumed authority of "one J.
+Fenimore Cooper." The meeting was accordingly held. There was little
+difference of sentiment among those present. All were animated,
+according to the newspaper reports, by the determination to use the
+Three Mile Point without being indebted to the liberality of Cooper or
+any one else. Stirring speeches were made. Two or three persons were
+anxious to delay any action until the question of title had been   (p. 145)
+examined. This proposition was deemed by the immense majority of those
+present to have a truckling character, and consequently met with no
+favor. The meeting, accordingly, found immediate relief for its feelings
+in the usual American way, by passing a series of resolutions. The vigor
+of these was out of all proportion to the sense. The disposition to defy
+Cooper shot, in some instances, indeed, beyond its proper mark, and
+extended even to the rules of grammar. After reciting in a preamble the
+facts as they understood them, the citizens present went on to express
+their determination and opinions as follows:--
+
+"Resolved, By the aforesaid citizens that we will wholly disregard the
+notice given by James F. Cooper, forbidding the public to frequent the
+Three Mile Point.
+
+"Resolved, That inasmuch as it is well known that the late William
+Cooper intended the use of the Point in question for the citizens of
+this village and its vicinity, we deem it no more than a proper respect
+for the memory and intentions of the father, that the son should
+recognize the claim of the citizens to the use of the premises, even had
+he the power to deny it.
+
+"Resolved, That we will hold his threat to enforce title to the
+premises, as we do his whole conduct in relation to the matter, in
+perfect contempt.
+
+"Resolved, That the language and conduct of Cooper, in his attempts to
+procure acknowledgements of 'liberality,' and his attempt to force the
+citizens into asking his permission to use the premises, has been such
+as to render himself odious to a greater portion of the citizens of this
+community.
+
+"Resolved, That we do recommend and request the trustees of the Franklin
+Library, in this village, to remove all books, of which Cooper is  (p. 146)
+the author, from said library.
+
+"Resolved also, That we will and do denounce any man as sycophant, who
+has, or shall, ask permission of James F. Cooper to visit the Point in
+question.
+
+"Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the
+chairman and secretary, and published in the village papers."
+
+Whatever else these proceedings show, they make it clear that the people
+of Cooperstown had not well improved the opportunity afforded by his
+residence among them, of becoming well acquainted with the character of
+their distinguished townsman. Still there was knowledge enough about him
+to make the officers of the meeting unwilling to publish the resolutions
+as they had been ordered. He was not a man to be trifled with; and no
+one cared to make himself personally responsible for what had been said.
+As a matter of fact the secretary of the meeting furnished Cooper with a
+copy of the resolutions; and it was the latter that first caused them to
+be printed. But the story of the meeting speedily found its way into the
+newspapers. In the accounts of the proceedings that were in circulation,
+it was said that a resolution had been passed that the works of the
+novelist should be taken from the library and publicly burned. This was
+caught up by the press and repeated everywhere throughout the country.
+To this day the baseless tradition lingers in Cooperstown itself, that
+this act was not only determined upon but actually done. The matter
+doubtless was discussed among the other sage proposals that were brought
+forward at this meeting; and it may be true, as was afterwards
+suspected, that the original resolution on this point was modified
+before it was allowed to go out to the public.
+
+Under the circumstances only one result was possible. The          (p. 147)
+community were very speedily satisfied that they did not own the Point,
+and were equally convinced that their prospect of obtaining possession
+of it by clamor was far from good. Two letters, marked by anything but
+timidity or amiability, Cooper wrote to the Democratic newspaper of the
+village. In them he gave fully all the facts in the case. To the
+assertion paraded in many of the Whig journals of the state, that this
+meeting showed the spirit of the people in Cooperstown, he made an
+indignant reply. Such a remark, he said, was a libel on the character of
+the place. The meeting, he declared, was not composed of a fourth part
+of the population, or a hundredth part of the respectability of the
+village. The resolutions he described as being the work of presuming
+boys, who swagger of time immemorial; of strangers who had lived but a
+brief time in the county; and of a few disreputable persons who, bent on
+construing liberty entirely on their own side, interposed against
+palpable rights and sacred family feelings their gossiping facts, their
+grasping rapacity, and their ruthless disposition to destroy whatever
+they could not control. "There is but one legal public," he defiantly
+concluded his first letter, "and that acts under the obligation of
+precise oaths, through prescribed forms, and on constitutional
+principles. Let 'excitement' be flourished as it may, this is the only
+public to which I shall submit the decision of my rights. So far as my
+means allow, insult shall be avenged by the law, violence repelled by
+the strong hand, falsehood put to shame by truth, and sophistry exposed
+by reason."
+
+It is perfectly clear that on the merits of this controversy Cooper was
+wholly in the right. The bluster of these resolutions exhausted    (p. 148)
+all the courage of his opponents. The question of ownership was at once
+settled definitely and forever. No one on the spot ever questioned the
+point any farther, though the original falsehood was steadily repeated
+by newspapers at a distance, and apparently never once contradicted
+after its untruth had been shown. Some may think the result might have
+been reached by milder means, but the spirit shown at the meeting
+renders this more than doubtful. Cooper even had to pay for the
+insertion of his letters in the village newspaper. Unfortunately the
+ill-feeling aroused did not stop here. It gave rise to what may be
+described as a semi-political controversy--that is, a controversy in
+which one party attacks a man, and the party to which he belongs does
+not think it expedient or worth while to defend him. The libel suits to
+which it directly or indirectly led with the Whig newspapers of the
+state will demand a separate chapter. Before they were well under way,
+however, the novelist made up his mind to right himself in another
+manner, and brought out a work of fiction which seemed expressly
+contrived to meet the thought of the sacred writer who wished his
+adversary had written a book.
+
+Cooper determined to write a story in which he would set forth the
+principles involved in the controversy about the Point. There is perhaps
+no subject that cannot be made interesting by the right treatment. But
+he was now in a state of mind that would not have permitted him to
+discuss any matter of this nature in the spirit that belongs to the
+composition of a work of the imagination. The dispute had embittered his
+feelings already sore. It had tended to give him a still more distorted
+view of the country to which he had come back. So completely had   (p. 149)
+his feelings swung around that he now had an eye for little but the
+worst features of the national character. Passion had largely unbalanced
+his judgment. Ancient fable has pointed out the danger of falling under
+the fascinations of the sirens; but even that seems preferable to
+becoming bewitched by the furies.
+
+Still he could not well make a book out of this one event. It could be
+used to suit all his purposes, however, by being introduced as an
+incident of an ordinary tale. In this way his side of the story would
+travel as far as the false assertions about his conduct in the matter
+which had been circulated not only over America but over Europe. He also
+set out to bring together in the work he was contemplating all the
+things that he looked upon with disapprobation and dislike in the social
+life of this country. His original intention was to begin a story with
+the landing here of an American family long resident in Europe. Happily
+he was induced to give an account of the voyage home, and this in the
+end necessitated the division of the work into two parts. Accordingly on
+the 16th of August, 1837, appeared the novel of "Homeward Bound,"
+followed in November of the same year by its sequel, entitled "Home as
+Found." The leading characters are the same in both tales, but the
+events are entirely unlike. The scene of the first is laid wholly on the
+water. In its movement, its variety of incidents, and the spirit and
+energy with which they are told, it is one of the best of Cooper's
+sea-novels. Nor is this estimate seriously impaired by the fact that it
+is in some places marred by controversial discussions on liberty and
+equality, and by the withering exposure of views that no man maintained
+whose opinions were worth regarding. But these are only occasional (p. 150)
+blemishes. They do not materially interfere with the progress of the
+story, which moves on with little variation of interest to the end. On
+the other hand, the characters are generally as uninteresting as the
+events are exciting. The chief ones among them have all reached that
+supreme refinement which justifies them in feeling and decisively
+pronouncing that whatever is done by anybody but themselves is coarse.
+But in this work the personages are so subordinate to the scenes that
+any failure in representing the former is more than counterbalanced by
+the success shown in depicting the latter.
+
+The reverse was the fact when the sequel followed. In this the
+characters and their views became prominent, and the events were of
+slight importance. "Home as Found" was far poorer than "Homeward Bound"
+was good. Never was a more unfortunate work written by any author. This
+is the fact, whether it be looked at from the literary or the popular
+point of view. For the latter it is enough to say that the opinions
+about America which have already been given in the account of his
+European travels were more than reenforced. He said again what he had
+said before, and he took pains to add a great deal that had been left
+unsaid. The new matter surpassed in the energy of invective the old, and
+its attack was more concentrated. There were in the novel, to be sure,
+the remarks that had now got to be habitual with Cooper upon the
+provincialism of the whole country; but it was upon New York city that
+the vials of his wrath were especially poured. The town, according to
+the view here expressed of it, was nothing more than a huge expansion of
+commonplace things. It was a confused and tasteless collection of
+flaring red brick houses, martin-box churches, and colossal        (p. 151)
+taverns. But the assault made upon its external appearance bore no
+comparison to that upon its internal life. The city in a moral sense
+resembled, according to Cooper, a huge encampment. It stood at the
+farthest remove from the intellectual supremacy and high tone of a
+genuine capital as distinguished from a great trading port. In its
+gayeties he saw little better than the struggles of an uninstructed
+taste, if indeed that could properly be styled gay which was only a
+strife in prodigality and parade. The conversation of the elders was
+entirely about the currency, the price of lots, and the latest
+speculations in towns. The younger society was made up of babbling
+misses, who prattled as waters flow, without consciousness of effort,
+and of whiskered masters who fancied Broadway the world; and the two
+together looked upon the flirtations of miniature drawing-rooms as the
+ideal of human life in its loftiest aspects. Upon the _literati_ the
+attack was even more savage. He described this appellation as being
+given to the most incorrigible members of the book clubs of New York.
+These had been laboriously employed in puffing each other into celebrity
+for many weary years, but still remained just as vapid, as conceited, as
+ignorant, as imitative, as dependent, and as provincial as ever.
+
+It is not an easy matter to condense the bitterness of two volumes into
+a few sentences. Enough has been given, however, to show the character
+of the strictures. Whatever may be thought of their justice, few will be
+disposed to deny their vigor. But Cooper, unfortunately for himself, was
+not satisfied with demolishing what seemed poor in his eyes. He
+undertook the business of reconstruction, and set up an ideal of how
+things ought to be. His main agents in this work were the members  (p. 152)
+of the Effingham family, whom he had brought over from Europe in
+"Homeward Bound." In these and the train dependent upon them, we were to
+find realized that pure and perfect social state which he contemplated
+in his own mind. To them were added a few survivors from the old
+families, as he termed them, which after a manner had ridden out the
+social gale that had made shipwreck of so many of their original
+companions. Out of these materials Cooper attempted to build his ideal
+framework of a life in which men thought rationally and lived nobly. It
+was here he made his mistake, and it was a signal one. His inability to
+portray the higher types of character was an absolute bar to success.
+This was largely due to his inability to catch and reproduce the tone of
+polished conversation. Never was his weakness in this respect more
+painfully manifested than in "Home as Found." He could appreciate such
+conversation; he could bear a part in it; but he could not represent it.
+His characters taken from low life, whatever critics may say, have
+usually a marked individuality. But whenever Cooper sought to draw the
+men and women of cultivated society he achieved at best a doubtful
+success. In this instance he tried to make them and their words and
+deeds the vehicle of reproof and satire. His failure was absolute.
+Modern culture, we all know, consists largely in the most refined method
+of finding fault. But this his ideal family had not reached. An
+essentially coarse method of finding fault was the only one to which it
+had attained. Never, indeed, was a more bumptious, conceited, and
+disagreeable set of personages created by an author, under the
+impression that they were the reverse. The simple-minded,          (p. 153)
+thoughtful, and upright Mr. Effingham can speedily be dismissed as
+merely a mild type of bore. Not so with his daughter Eve, and his cousin
+John Effingham. The latter plays the part of critic of his country and
+countrymen. It seems hardly possible that in this narrow-minded,
+disagreeable, and essentially vulgar character, Cooper could have
+fancied he was creating anything but a contemptible boor. The contrast
+between what is said of him, and what is said by him, almost reaches the
+comic. We read constantly of his caustic satire; we find little of it in
+his conversation. His fine face is, according to the author, always
+expressing contempt and sarcasm; but the examples of these that are
+shown in his speeches are usually specimens of that forcible-feeble
+straining to be severe which marks the man of violent temper and feeble
+intellect. As represented, he has neither the feeling, the instincts,
+nor the manners of a gentleman. He so much dislikes untruth that he
+insinuates to a guest, very broadly as well as very unjustly, that he is
+lying. In short, he is one of those rude and vulgar men who fancy that
+they are frank simply because they are brutal. No civilized society
+would long tolerate the presence, if even the existence, of such an
+animal as he is here represented to be.
+
+Even he, however, shines by comparison with the heroine. Of her we hear
+no end of praise. Her delicacy, her plastic simplicity, the simple
+elegance of her attire, her indescribable air of polish, her surpassing
+beauty and modesty of mien, are referred to again and again. She is
+simple, she is feminine, she is dignified. To men her smiles are faint
+and distant. Across her countenance no unworthy thought has ever left a
+trace. Once and once only did she fail to keep up to the high      (p. 154)
+level of deportment which she ordinarily maintained. On one occasion
+"her little foot moved" in spite of the fact that "she had been
+carefully taught, too, that a ladylike manner required that even this
+beautiful portion of the female frame should be quiet and unobtrusive."
+Something, however, must always be pardoned to human nature; and Cooper
+doubtless felt that it would not do to make his heroine absolutely free
+from frailty. As a sort of foil to her was introduced her cousin Grace
+Van Cortlandt. She, to be sure, had not had the advantage of foreign
+travel; but there was a redeeming feature in her case. She belonged to
+an old family. She was saved in consequence from being entirely
+submerged in that sweltering, foaming tide of mediocrity, which called
+itself New York society. Belonging to an old family did not, however,
+preserve her from being provincial. She is taken along with the rest to
+Templeton. On her way thither she is steadily snubbed by the masculine
+element of the party, and henpecked by the feminine. The reader comes in
+time to have the sincerest pity for this unfortunate girl, who is made
+to pay very dearly for the misfortune of being akin to a family whose
+members had become too superior to be gracious and too polished to be
+polite.
+
+In the composition of this work Cooper seems to have lost all sense of
+the ridiculous. The personages whom he wished to make particularly
+attractive are uniformly disagreeable. A French governess appears in the
+story, who is simply insufferable. He brings in an American woman, Mrs.
+Bloomfield, as a representative, according to him, of that class which
+equals, if it does not surpass, in the brilliancy of its conversation
+the best to be found in European salons. She is introduced discoursing
+on the civilization of the country in a way that would speedily    (p. 155)
+empty any of the parlors of her native land. Indeed, throughout the work
+the characters converse as no rational beings ever conversed under any
+sort of provocation. But it is in the speeches of the heroine that the
+language reaches its highest development. She can emphatically be said
+to talk like a book. She does not guess, she hazards conjectures. She
+playfully addresses her father as "thoughtless, precipitate parent."
+When she is asked what she thinks of the country now that an attempt was
+made to take possession of the Point, she describes her character, as
+drawn in this novel, as no words of another can. "Miss Effingham," she
+says, "has been grieved, disappointed, nay, shocked, but she will not
+despair of the republic." Indeed the only person in the work who has any
+near kinship to humanity is one of the inferior characters, named
+Aristobulus Bragg. He is the more attractive because he says bright
+things unconsciously; while the heavy characters say heavy things under
+the impression that they are light.
+
+This book had a profound influence upon Cooper's fortunes. From
+beginning to end it was a blunder. It cannot receive even the negative
+praise of being a work in which the best of intentions was marred by the
+worst of taste. Its spirit was a bad spirit throughout. It was dreadful
+to think some of the things found in it; but it was more dreadful to say
+them. There was a great deal of truth in its pages, but if the views
+expressed in it had been actually inspired, the attitude and tone the
+author assumed would have prevented his making a convert. To some extent
+this had been true of "Homeward Bound." Greenough expostulated with
+Cooper, after reading that novel. "I think," he wrote from         (p. 156)
+Florence, "you lose hold on the American public by rubbing down their
+shins with brickbats as you do." The most surprising thing connected
+with "Home as Found," however, is Cooper's unconsciousness, not of the
+probability, but of the possibility, that he would be charged with
+drawing himself in the character of Edward Effingham, and to some extent
+in that of John Effingham. The sentiments advanced were his sentiments,
+the acts described were in many cases his acts. The absence in a foreign
+land, the return to America, the scene laid at Templeton, with a direct
+reference to "The Pioneers," the account of the controversy about the
+Three Mile Point,--all these fixed definitely the man and the place.
+Variations in matters of detail would not disturb the truth of the
+general resemblance. Still Cooper not only did not intend to represent
+himself, he was unaware that he had done so. Nearly three years after in
+the columns of a weekly newspaper he stoutly defended himself against
+the imputation. It was useless. From this time forward the name of
+Effingham was often derisively applied to him in the controversies in
+which he was engaged.
+
+It was not merely the intemperate spirit exhibited, which destroyed the
+effect of the shrewd and just comments often appearing in "Home as
+Found." This was full as much impaired by the display of personal
+weaknesses. Cooper's foible about descent he could not help exposing. No
+thoughtful man denies the desirability of honorable lineage, or
+undervalues the possession of it; but not for the reasons for which the
+novelist regarded it and celebrated it. There was much in this single
+story to justify Lowell's sarcasm, uttered ten years later, that   (p. 157)
+Cooper had written six volumes to prove that he was as good as a
+lord. He traces his families up to remote periods in the past. He
+thereby shows their superiority to the newly-created family of the
+English baronet who is brought into the tale. It was to correct the
+erroneous impression, prevalent in Europe, that there was no stability,
+no permanent respectability in the society of this country, that he
+enlarged upon the date to which ancestry could be traced. The difficulty
+was to persuade anybody that the men who took the pains to look up their
+forefathers had any superiority to those who shared in the general
+indifference as to who their forefathers were. He went farther than this
+in some instances, and expressly implied that blood and birth were
+necessary to gentility. This was provincialism pushed to an extreme.
+Whatever we may think of its actual value, English aristocracy resembles
+in this gold and silver, that it has an accepted value independent of
+the character of its representatives. It is, therefore, current
+throughout the civilized world; whereas American aristocracy is like
+local paper money: worth nothing except in its own country, and even
+there receiving little recognition or circulation outside of the
+immediate neighborhood in which it is found. Still, the subject of blood
+and birth is a solemn one to those who believe in it, and they are
+absolutely incapable of comprehending the feelings of a world of
+scoffers, or, if they do, impute them to imperfect mental or spiritual
+development. On this point Cooper had the misfortune to say what some
+think but dare not express.
+
+The wrath aroused, especially in New York city, by this particular
+novel, had about it something both fearful and comic. In one       (p. 158)
+respect Cooper had the advantage, and his critics all felt it. His work
+was certain to be translated into all the principal languages of modern
+Europe. The picture he drew of New York society would be the one that
+foreigners would naturally receive as genuine. By them it would be
+looked upon as the work of a man familiar with what he was describing,
+the work of a man, moreover, who had been well known in European circles
+for his intense Americanism. It was vain to protest that it was a
+caricature. The protest would not be heeded even if it were heard. His
+enemies might rage; but they were powerless to influence foreign
+opinion, and they felt themselves so. Rage they certainly did; and if
+the assault made upon him had been as effective as it was violent,
+little would have been left of his reputation. Even as late as 1842,
+during the progress of the libel suits, some one took the pains to
+produce a novel in two volumes called "'The Effinghams, or Home as I
+Found It,' by the Author of the 'Victims of Chancery.'" The whole aim of
+this tale was to satirise Cooper. Mere malignity, however, has little
+vitality; and in spite of the fact that the work was widely praised by
+the journals for its "sound American feeling," and for its hits at "the
+conceited, disappointed, and Europeanized writer of 'Home as Found,'" it
+passed so speedily to the paper-makers that antiquarian research would
+now be tasked to find a copy. About the contemporary newspaper notices
+there was a certain tiger-like ferocity which almost justified much that
+Cooper said in denunciation of the American press. A specimen, though a
+somewhat extreme one, of a good deal of the sort of criticism to which
+the novelist was subjected, can be found in the "New Yorker" for the
+1st of December, 1838. This journal was edited by Horace Greeley,  (p. 159)
+but the article in question came probably from the pen of Park Benjamin.
+It defended Cooper from the charge of vilifying his country in order to
+make his works salable in England, but it defended him in this way. No
+motive of that kind was necessary to be supposed. He had an inborn
+disposition to pour out his bile and vent his spleen. "He is as proud of
+blackguarding," the article continued, "as a fishwoman of Billingsgate.
+It is as natural to him as snarling to a tom-cat, or growling to a
+bull-dog.... He is the common mark of scorn and contempt of every
+well-informed American. The superlative dolt!" In this refined and
+chastened style did the defenders of American cultivation preserve its
+reputation from its traducer.
+
+Criticism of the kind just quoted, hurts only the man who utters it and
+the community which tolerates it. It injured the reputation of the
+country far more than the work could that it criticised. "Home as
+Found," as a matter of fact, was prevented from doing any harm, partly
+by its excessive exaggeration but more by its excessive poorness. As a
+story it stood in marked contrast to its immediate predecessor. It was
+as difficult to accompany Cooper on land as it had been to abandon him
+when on the water. The tediousness of the tale is indeed something
+appalling to the most hardened novel-reader. The only interest it can
+possibly have at this day is from the opportunity it affords of studying
+one phase of the author's character, and of accounting for much of the
+bitter hostility with which he was assailed.
+
+While he was lecturing his countrymen on manners, his own were spoken of
+in turn in a way that gave especial delight to the enemies he had  (p. 160)
+made by his criticisms. In 1837 Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott"
+was appearing. In the diary of that novelist were some references to the
+American author. "This man," he said, describing his first interview,
+"who has shown so much genius, has a good deal of the manners, or want
+of manners, peculiar to his countrymen." Cooper's personal acquaintance
+with Scott had begun in 1826, just after the latter had set about his
+gigantic effort to pay off the load of debt in which he had involved
+himself. The American novelist had made then an attempt to secure for
+the man he regarded as his master some adequate return from the vast
+sale of his works in the United States. In this he had been foiled. In
+the "Knickerbocker Magazine" for April, 1838, he gave an account of
+these fruitless negotiations. In a later number of the same year he
+reviewed Lockhart's biography. This work is well known as one of the
+most entertaining in our literature. But on its appearance it gave a
+painful shock to the admirers of the great author by the revelations it
+made of practices which savored more of the proverbial canniness of the
+Scotchman than of the lofty spirit of the man of honor. Equally
+surprising was the unconsciousness of the biographer, that there was
+anything discreditable in what he disclosed. Cooper criticised Scott's
+conduct in certain matters with a good deal of severity. In regard to
+some points he took extreme, and what might fairly be deemed Quixotic
+ground. Yet the general justice of his article will hardly be denied now
+by any one who is fully cognizant of the facts. Nor, indeed, was it
+then. "I have just read," wrote Charles Sumner from London to Hillard,
+in January, 1839, "an article on Lockhart's 'Scott,' written by    (p. 161)
+Cooper in the "Knickerbocker," which was lent me by Barry Cornwall.
+I think it capital. I see none of Cooper's faults; and I think a proper
+castigation is applied to the vulgar minds of Scott and Lockhart.
+Indeed, the nearer I approach the circle of these men the less disposed
+do I find myself to like them." Sumner subsequently wrote, that Procter
+fully concurred in the conclusions advanced in the review. But these
+were not the prevalent opinions, in this country at least. Great was the
+outcry against Cooper for writing this article; great the outcry against
+the "Knickerbocker" for printing it. The latter was severely censured
+for its willingness to prostitute its columns to the service of the
+former in his slanderous "attempts to vilify the object of his impotent
+and contemptible hatred." Americans who were averse to Scott's being
+honestly paid proved particularly solicitous that he should not be
+honestly criticised. They showed themselves as little scrupulous in
+defending him after he was dead as they had been in plundering him while
+he was living.
+
+Cooper had previously aroused the resentment of many because he had
+failed to express gratification or delight at being termed "the American
+Scott." He had then been assured again and again that there was no
+danger of the title being applied to him in future; that in ten years
+their names would never be coupled together, and that he himself would
+be totally forgotten. It could hardly have been deemed a compliment in a
+land where scarcely a petty district can exist peacefully and
+creditably, with a hill three thousand feet in height, which is not in
+time rendered disreputable by being saddled with the pretentious name of
+"The American Switzerland." Personal malice alone, however, could
+impute his disclaimer either to malice or to envy. His own         (p. 162)
+estimate of his relations to the British novelist, he had given many
+times; and indirectly at that very time in his account in the first
+"Knickerbocker" article, of his interview with Sir Walter Scott. The
+latter had been so obliging, he observed, as to make him a number of
+flattering speeches, which he, however, did not repay in kind. His
+reserve he thought Scott did not altogether like. In this he was
+probably mistaken, but the reason he gave for his own conduct savored
+little of feelings of envy or rivalry. "As Johnson," he wrote, "said of
+his interview with George the Third, it was not for me to bandy
+compliments with my sovereign." No attention was paid to these and
+similar utterances of a man whom his bitterest enemies never once dared
+to charge with saying a word he did not mean.
+
+Few at this day will be disposed to deny the justice of a good deal of
+the criticism that Cooper passed upon his country and his countrymen.
+Even now, though many of his strictures are directed against things that
+no longer exist, there is still much in his writings that can be read
+with profit. The essential justice of what he said is not impaired by
+the fact that he was usually indiscreet and intemperate in the saying of
+it. Nor were his motives of a low kind. He loved his country, and
+nothing lay dearer to his heart than to have her what she ought to be.
+The people were the source of power; and it was his cardinal principle
+that power ought always to be censured rather than flattered. It needed
+to be told the truth, however unwelcome; and in his eyes, that man was
+no true patriot who was not willing to encounter unpopularity, if it
+came in the line of duty. At the same time, while doing full justice to
+the purity of his motives, we cannot shut our eyes to the defects  (p. 163)
+of his method. His abilities, his reputation, his acquaintance with
+foreign lands, gave him inestimable advantages for influencing his
+countrymen, and of educating them in matters where they stood sadly in
+need of it. But the spirit in which he went to work deprived him of the
+legitimate influence he should have exerted. Excitement, and passion,
+and indignation led him often to say the wrong thing. More often they
+caused him to say the right thing in the wrong way. Nor did he escape
+the special temptation which speedily besets him who starts out to tell
+his fellow-men unpleasant truths. Duty of this kind soon begins to have
+a peculiar fascination of its own. The careful reader cannot fail to see
+that in process of time the more disagreeable was the truth the more
+delightful it became to Cooper to tell it. Most unreasonable it
+certainly was to expect that constant fault-finding would be looked upon
+as a proof of special attachment. The means, moreover, were not always
+adapted to the end. Men may possibly be lectured to some extent into the
+acquisition of the virtues, but they never can be bullied into the
+graces.
+
+Besides all this, in a great deal of Cooper's criticism there were
+fundamental defects. He constantly confounded the unimportant and the
+temporary with the important and the permanent. Many of his most violent
+strictures are devoted to points of little consequence, and the feeling
+expressed is out of all proportion to the significance of the matter
+involved. Nothing, for instance, seemed to irritate him more than the
+preference given by many of his countrymen to the scenery of America
+over that of Europe. Especially was he indignant with the          (p. 164)
+"besotted stupidity" that could compare the bay of New York with that of
+Naples. He returned to this topic in book after book. Yet of all the
+harmless exhibitions of mistaken judgment, that which prefers the
+scenery of one's own land is what a wise man would be least disposed to
+find fault with; certainly what he would think least calculated to
+inspire the wrath of a Juvenal. Cosmopolitanism is well enough in its
+way. But that ability to see things exactly as they are, which enables a
+man to criticise his mother with the same impartiality with which he
+does any other woman, can hardly be thought to mark a high development
+of his loftier feelings, however creditable it may be to the judicial
+tone of his mind. Undue preference of the scenery of one's own country
+is an amiable weakness at which the philosopher may smile, but the
+patriot can afford to rejoice.
+
+There was, moreover, a certain vagueness about much of Cooper's
+criticism that deprived it of effect. No more striking illustration of
+this could be found than his constant charge of provincialism made
+against this country. He repeated it in season and out of season. For
+several years he hardly published a work which did not contain a number
+of references to it or assertions of its existence. Provincial enough we
+certainly were then, if looked at from the point of view of the present
+time. We in turn may seem so to our descendants. This possibility shows
+at once the somewhat unreal nature of the accusation. Provincialism,
+like vulgarity, is a term that defies exact explanation. It is the
+indefinite and, therefore, unanswerable charge that men constantly bring
+against those whose standard of living and thinking is different from
+their own. It depends upon the point of view of the speaker full   (p. 165)
+as much as upon the conduct and opinions of those spoken of. It
+changes as manners change. Nations not only impute it to one another,
+but even to themselves at different periods of their history. Made by
+itself, therefore, it means nothing. Without a specific description of
+what in particular is meant by provincialism, the charge cannot and
+ought not to have any weight with those against whom it is directed.
+
+Certain incidental facts mentioned in these observations bring also to
+light another marked defect of Cooper's course. This was not in his
+views but in his method of enforcing them. He could not refrain from the
+constant repetition of the same censures. He had never learned literary
+self-restraint; that special criticisms, in order to have their full
+weight, must not be forced too often upon the attention, and especially
+at unseasonable times. The mind revolts at having the same exhibition of
+personal feeling thrust upon it in the most uncalled-for manner and in
+the most unexpected places. Even when originally disposed to agree with
+the view expressed, it will, out of a pure spirit of contradiction, take
+the side opposed to that which is enforced with exasperating frequency.
+The fullest sympathizer is sure to get tired of this everlasting slaying
+of the slain. A similar effect is, indeed, likely to be produced upon
+the victim of the criticism. Instead of being stirred to reflection,
+repentance, or even indignation, he simply becomes bored. After a man
+has been told a hundred times that he is provincial, the remark ceases
+to be exciting. The things, therefore, that Cooper said incidentally are
+even now the only ones that make any deep impression upon the mind. Like
+all men, sensitive to the national honor, he felt keenly the       (p. 166)
+refusal of Congress to pass a copyright law. It led him to say twice,
+but both times very quietly, that in spite of loud profession there was
+little genuine sympathy in this country with art, or scholarship, or
+letters. The absence of all heat and excitement gives to the remark a
+weight that never belongs to his violent utterances and fierce
+denunciations. We may hope that we have gained since his time; but even
+at this day we have little to boast of, if the average cultivation of
+the people, as well as its average morality, finds expression in the
+laws. The record in these matters of the highest legislative body in the
+land is still the most discreditable of that of any nation in
+Christendom. To gratify the greed of a few traders, it has never refused
+to lay heavy burdens upon scholarship and letters. It has steadily
+imposed duties on the introduction of everything that could facilitate
+the acquisition of learning, and further the development of art. It has
+persistently stabbed literature under the pretence of encouraging
+intelligence. It has never once been guilty of the weakness of yielding
+for a moment to the virtuous impulse that would even contemplate the
+enactment of a copyright law. If it ever does pass one, it will do so,
+not because foreign authors have rights, but because native publishers
+have quarrels. Thus consistent in its unwillingness to do an honest
+thing from an honest motive, it will even then grant to selfishness what
+has been invariably denied to justice.
+
+There were other than faults of view or faults of statement that mark
+Cooper's writings at this time. The two novels published during the year
+1838 show a radical change in the attitude he assumed to his art. What
+had been indicated in the stories whose scenes were laid in        (p. 167)
+Europe, was now carried out completely. He may have been unconscious of
+the difference of his point of view, but none the less did it exist. The
+novel was no longer something in which he could embody his conceptions
+of beauty fairer, or truth higher than could actually be found in
+nature. It no longer served him as a refuge from the din of a clamorous,
+or the hostility of a censorious world. It became a sort of fortress,
+from the secure position of which he was enabled to deal out annoyance
+and defiance to his foes. He had not now so much a story to tell as a
+sermon to preach; and with him, as with many others, to preach meant to
+denounce. His spirit for a time became captive to the prejudices and the
+heated feelings which had been aroused by the sense of the injustice
+with which he had been treated. Though he at intervals worked himself
+out of this state of mind, upon much of his later work rested the shadow
+of the prison-house which he, for a season, had made his abiding-place.
+The result was that a good deal of what he afterwards wrote was marred
+by the obtrusion of personal likes and dislikes, and the taint of
+controversial discussion. These things rarely concerned the story in
+which they appeared, and they inspired hostility to the writer. Cooper,
+indeed, never learned to appreciate the fact that a reader has rights
+which an author is bound to respect. By dragging in irrelevant
+discussions, moreover, he was taking the surest way to lose the audience
+he most sought to influence. A little reflection would have taught him
+that there was little use in a prophet's crying in the wilderness,
+unless he can succeed in gathering the people together.
+
+While, therefore, there can be no justification for the ferocity with
+which Cooper was assailed, there was some palliation. His course   (p. 168)
+from his return to the country had been wanting in prudence, and at
+times in common sense. He had plunged at once as a combatant into one of
+the bitterest political controversies that ever agitated the republic.
+Hard blows were given and taken. He could scarcely expect that, in the
+heat of the strife, regard would in all cases be paid to the proprieties
+and even the decencies of private life. There was much in his later
+productions, moreover, to alienate many who were honestly disposed to
+admire him as a writer. Politics we could get at all times and from
+everybody. If, again, we were hopelessly provincial, if we were
+irreclaimably given over to vulgarity, we could find out all about it
+from the latest English traveler, or the review of his work that had
+appeared in the latest English periodicals. But by Cooper the life of
+the wilderness and of the sea had been told as by no other writer. Over
+the fields and forests and streams of his native land he had thrown the
+glamour of romantic association and lofty deeds. There was something
+unpleasant in witnessing a man who could do this turning his attention
+to the discussion of points of etiquette and manners. Beside the waste
+of power, which is something always disagreeable to contemplate, the
+subject itself could hardly be called an attractive one. It was a sandy
+desert to travel over at best. But even those who thought it a thing
+worth while to do once, could hardly help feeling surprise at the spirit
+which could induce a man to go over it again and again, enlarge upon its
+discomforts, its perpetual sameness and barrenness, and point out its
+incapacity of being made much better. There were even worse things than
+this. It could scarcely fail to inspire a sentiment almost like disgust
+to have the creator of Leather-Stocking argue with heat the        (p. 169)
+question whether it is right for a lady to come into a drawing-room at a
+party without leaning upon the arm of a gentleman; or discourse solemnly
+upon the proper way of eating eggs, and announce oracularly that all who
+were acquainted with polite society would agree in denouncing the
+wine-glass or egg-glass as a vulgar substitute for the egg-cup.
+Questions like these are usually left to those who have the taste to
+delight in them and the mental elevation to grasp the difficulties
+involved in them. They were the more disagreeable when met with in
+Cooper, because in addition to the pettiness of the subject, there was
+an apparent unconsciousness on his part that the limits of his own
+preferences and conclusions were not necessarily those of the human
+mind.
+
+Cooper indeed exemplified in his literary career a story he was in the
+habit of telling of one of his early adventures. While in the navy he
+was traveling in the wilderness bordering upon the Ontario. The party to
+which he belonged came upon an inn where they were not expected. The
+landlord was totally unprepared, and met them with a sorrowful
+countenance. There was, he assured them, absolutely nothing in his house
+that was fit to eat. When asked what he had that was not fit to eat, he
+could only say in reply that he could furnish them with venison,
+pheasant, wild duck, and some fresh fish. To the astonished question of
+what better he supposed they could wish, the landlord meekly replied,
+that he thought they might have wanted some salt pork. The story was
+truer of Cooper himself than of his innkeeper. Nature he could depict,
+and the wild life led in it, so that all men stood ready and eager to
+gaze on the pictures he drew. He chose too often to inflict upon them,
+instead of it, the most commonplace of moralizing, the stalest     (p. 170)
+disquisitions upon manners and customs, and the driest discussions of
+politics and theology.
+
+But the moral injury which Cooper received from these controversial
+discussions and their results was far greater than the intellectual.
+They swung him off the line of healthful activity. They perverted his
+judgment. He looked upon the social and political movements that were
+going on about him with the eye of an irritated and wronged man. Years
+did not bring to him the philosophic mind, but the spirit of the
+opinionated partisan and the heated denouncer. He fixed his attention so
+completely on the tendencies to ill that manifested themselves in the
+social state, that he often became blind to the counterbalancing
+tendencies to good. Hence his later judgments were frequently one-sided
+and partial. He too often took up the role of prophesying disasters that
+never came to pass. Moreover, this habit of looking at one side not only
+narrowed his mental vision, but turned it in the direction of petty
+objects. No reader of his later novels can fail to see how often he
+excites himself over matters of no serious moment; or which, whether
+serious or slight, are utterly out of place where they are. By many of
+these exhibitions the indifferent will be amused, but the admirers of
+the man will feel pained if not outraged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.                                                        (p. 171)
+
+1837-1842.
+
+
+By the end of 1837 Cooper had pretty sedulously improved every
+opportunity of making himself unpopular. His criticisms had been
+distributed with admirable impartiality. Few persons or places could
+complain that they had been overlooked. The natural satisfaction that
+any one would have felt in contemplating the punishment inflicted upon
+his friend or neighbor, was utterly marred by the consideration of the
+outrage done to himself. There was scarcely a class of Cooper's
+fellow-citizens whose susceptibilities had not been touched, or whose
+wrath had not been kindled by something he had said either in public or
+in private, and by his saying it repeatedly. The sons of the Puritans he
+had exasperated by styling them the grand inquisitors of private life,
+and by asserting that a low sort of tyranny over domestic affairs was
+the direct result of their religious polity. He had roused the
+resentment of the survivors of the old Federalist party by declaring
+that its design during the war of 1812 had been disunion, and that in
+secret many of them still longed for a restoration of monarchy, and
+sighed for ribbons, stars, and garters. He had not conciliated the party
+with which he was nominally allied by his incessant attacks upon the
+doctrine of free-trade. He had made Boston shudder to its remotest
+suburbs, by stating again and again in the strongest terms that    (p. 172)
+it was in the Middle States alone that the English language was spoken
+with purity. The New England capital he had further described as a
+gossiping country town with a tone of criticism so narrow and vulgar as
+scarcely to hide the parochial sort of venom which engendered it. He had
+charged upon New Yorkers that their lives were spent in the constant
+struggle for inordinate and grasping gain; that to talk of dollars was
+to them a source of endless enjoyment; and that their society had for
+its characteristic distinction the fussy pretension and swagger that
+usually mark the presence of lucky speculators in stocks. He had
+attributed to the whole trading class a jealous and ferocious
+watchfulness of the pocket, and a readiness to sacrifice at any time the
+honor of the country for the sake of personal profit. To the native
+merchants he had denied the name of real merchants. They were simply
+factors, mere agents, who were ennobled by commerce, but who did not
+themselves ennoble it. The foreign traders resident here fared no
+better. They had never read the Constitution of the country they had
+made their home, and were incapable of understanding it if they should
+read it. Always judging of American facts in accordance with the
+antiquated notions in which they had been brought up, they were largely
+responsible for the erroneous opinions entertained and blundering
+prophecies made in Europe in regard to the condition and future of the
+United States. The educated class, above all, he had denounced for its
+indomitable selfishness and its hatred of the rights of those socially
+inferior. It was entirely behind the fortunes of the country and still
+cherished prejudices against democracy that the very stupidest of
+European conservatives had begun to lay aside. The newspaper       (p. 173)
+press he had assailed with a pungency and vigor which it in vain sought
+to rival. He was spattered by it, however, with almost every opprobrious
+term that belongs to the vocabulary of wrath and abuse. Invention was
+tasked to furnish discreditable reasons for all that he said and did.
+That inexhaustible capacity of devising base motives for conduct, which
+is an especial attribute of mean minds, had now opportunity to put forth
+its full powers in the way of insinuation and assertion. It did not go
+unimproved. A common charge brought against him after the publication of
+the "Letter to His Countrymen" was that it had been written for the sake
+of gaining office. It was even said that Van Buren had a hand in it.
+Then and afterward, the Whig newspapers represented Cooper as seeking
+the position of Secretary of the Navy. Denial availed him nothing. It
+would certainly have not been at all to his discredit to have desired
+the place; for he knew a great deal about the navy, and its interests
+were very dear to his heart. For these very reasons his appointment to
+it would have been in violation of the traditional policy of the
+government. It was probably never once contemplated by any
+administration, as it was certainly never asked by Cooper himself.
+
+The two extracts that have already been given are doubtless sufficient
+to satisfy any curiosity that may exist in regard to the way in which he
+was spoken of by the press of America. Yet coarse as was its
+vituperation, it was surpassed by that of Great Britain. Englishmen may
+have felt, and have felt justly, that Cooper took an unfair view of
+their social life and political institutions. National character sweeps
+through a range so vast that a man will usually be able to find in it
+what he goes to seek. Even under the most favorable conditions     (p. 174)
+the tastes of a coterie or the habits of a class are made the standard
+by which to estimate the tastes and habits of a whole people. Certain it
+is that the view of any nation is to be distrusted which is not taken
+from a station of good-will. But granting that Cooper was unjust in his
+observations, there was nothing he said which afforded the least excuse
+for the coarse personality with which he was followed from the time he
+published his volumes on England. The remarks of the ordinary journals
+can be dismissed without comment. But brutal vituperation was found in
+abundance in periodicals which claimed to be the representatives of the
+highest cultivation and refinement. According to "Blackwood's Magazine,"
+Cooper was a vulgar man, who from having been bred to the sea had been
+enabled to give some striking descriptions of sea-affairs, and in
+consequence had unluckily imagined himself a universal genius. It went
+on to add, that on the strength of the trifling reputation he had
+acquired by stories descriptive of American life, he had come to Europe,
+and had since been partly traveling on the Continent to pick up
+materials for novels, and partly residing in England, actively employed
+in the effort to introduce himself into society. In this it admitted he
+might have been partially successful, for the English were a very
+yielding people and did not take much trouble to resist attempts of this
+kind. "Blackwood," however, was outdone in this rowdy style of reviewing
+by "Fraser's Magazine." From that periodical we learn that Cooper was "a
+passable scribbler of passable novels," a "bilious braggart," a "liar,"
+a "full jackass," "a man of consummate and inbred vulgarity," "a bore of
+the first magnitude in society," who went about fishing for        (p. 175)
+introductions. "But this," it concluded, speaking of his England, "was
+his last kick, and we shall not disturb his dying moments." Two years
+later the magazine seemed to think he had some power of kicking left,
+for it returned to the charge in consequence of his review of Lockhart's
+"Life of Scott." In this article he was called a "spiteful miscreant,"
+an "insect," a "grub," a "reptile." The "Quarterly Review" was as
+virulent and violent as the magazines, but the attack was more skillful
+as well as longer and more elaborate. By garbling extracts it cleverly
+insinuated a good deal more than it said, and it so contrived to put
+several things that the reader could hardly fail to draw inferences
+which the writer must have known to be false. Even these attacks were
+equaled if not surpassed at a later period by the "London Times." A
+nominal review in that journal of "Eve Effingham," as "Home as Found"
+was entitled in England, was really devoted to personal vituperation of
+the novelist. It ended with the assertion that he was more vulgar than
+ever, and was the most "affected, offensive, envious, and
+ill-conditioned" of authors. Altogether Cooper must have been impressed
+with the effectiveness of the blow which he had struck by the violence
+with which it was resented. It seems hard to believe that remarks such
+as have been quoted should have been thought to establish anything but
+the vulgarity of the men who wrote them. Yet they apparently answered
+their purpose. The very latest notice of Cooper's life which has
+appeared in Great Britain, characterizes his work on England as an
+"outburst of vanity and ill-temper." It certainly contained some
+ill-judged remarks which have been made the most of by his enemies; but
+this estimate, like many other assertions in the same sketch, was  (p. 176)
+not got from reading the work itself, but from what British periodicals
+had said about it.
+
+Such was the kind of criticism that the novelist now mainly received in
+the two great English-speaking countries. These flowers of invective do
+not constitute an anthology which an Englishman or American of today can
+read with pleasure, or contemplate with pride. It was the comments made
+by his countrymen that naturally touched Cooper most nearly. His nature
+was of a kind to feel keenly, and resent warmly insinuations and charges
+that impugned the purity of his motives. Nor was his a disposition to
+rest quiet under attack or to assume merely the defensive. He retorted
+in letters, in works of fiction, and in books of travel. Finally he
+resorted to libel suits. Never, indeed, was a fiercer fight carried on
+by an individual against a power more mighty than Cooper carried on with
+the press. It had a thousand tongues, he had but one; but it often
+seemed as if his one had the force of a thousand. The epithets he
+applied to newspapers were not of the kind with which they were in the
+habit of celebrating themselves. Their enterprise in obtaining news he
+described as a mercenary diligence in the collection and diffusion of
+information, whether true or false. Nor were his comments upon those
+concerned in carrying them on more favorable. What we should call a
+reporter he, on one occasion, mildly spoke of as a "miscreant who
+pandered for the press." In the last novel he wrote, he energetically
+termed this whole class the funguses of letters who flourished on the
+dunghill of the common mind; and that in their view the sole use for
+which the universe was created was to furnish paragraphs for
+newspapers. Men in the higher grades of the profession fared       (p. 177)
+little better. Against the political journals, in particular, he brought
+the charge that under the pretence of serving the public they were
+mainly used to aid the ambition or gratify the spite of their editors.
+
+Even as early as 1832, Cooper had awakened the indignation of the press
+by an incidental remark made in the introduction to "The Heidenmauer."
+He was describing a journey through a part of Belgium in which the Dutch
+troops had been operating the week before his arrival. They had been
+reported as having committed unusual excesses. Of these excesses he said
+he could find no trace. He went on to add a sentence which has
+apparently only a slight connection with what had gone before. "Each
+hour, as life advances," he wrote, "am I made to see how capricious and
+vulgar is the immortality conferred by a newspaper." This remark was
+warmly resented. It was asserted to be a declaration, not merely of
+indifference to the opinion of the press, but of a preference on his
+part of its censure to its praise. Its business, therefore, was to see
+that his wishes should be carried out.
+
+After the controversy in regard to the Three Mile Point, the attacks of
+the Whig journals increased in bitterness. The state of mind it caused
+in Cooper can be seen in a little volume, published by him in April,
+1838, entitled "The American Democrat." This work is made up of a
+singular mixture of abstract discussions on liberty and equality, on the
+nature of parties, on forms of government, and of remarks on national
+habits and manners. It is not an interesting hook. Yet it is fair to say
+of it, that it is animated throughout by a lofty patriotism, and it
+manifests a clear view of the dangers and duties of a democracy,   (p. 178)
+with its comparative advantages and disadvantages. But it likewise
+exhibited some of the most uncompromising traits of the author's
+character. In writing it, he was not aiming at popularity; it might not
+be much out of the way to say that he was aiming at unpopularity. The
+doctrine with which he sets out is, that in this country power rests
+with the people, and power ought always to be chidden rather than
+commended. He was accordingly liberal in criticism. But the value of
+what he said was largely impaired, if not wholly destroyed by the
+one-sidedness of view and tendency to over-statement into which his
+ardor of feeling now habitually hurried him. In nothing is this
+extravagance more strikingly seen than in the comments in this work upon
+the press. There was a great deal of truth in what he said; but the
+justice of some of his views was deprived of any effect by the
+exaggeration and consequent injustice of others. The substance of his
+remarks was that there were more newspapers in this country than in
+Europe, but they were generally of a lower character. The multiplication
+of them was due to the fact that little capital was required in their
+creation, and little intelligence employed in their management. Their
+number was, therefore, not a thing to be boasted of but rather to be
+sorrowed over, since the quality diminished in an inverse ratio to the
+quantity. Nor was there anything in the methods employed by the press
+that justified any exultation in its prosperity. It tyrannized over
+public men, over letters, over the stage, over even private life. Under
+the pretence of preserving public morals, it corrupted them to the core.
+Under the semblance of maintaining liberty, it was gradually
+establishing a despotism as rude, as grasping, and as vulgar as    (p. 179)
+that of any state known. It loudly professed freedom of opinion, but
+exhibited no tolerance. It paraded patriotism, but never sacrificed
+interest. But its great fundamental failing was the untrustworthiness of
+its statements. It existed to pervert truth. Its conductors were mainly
+political adventurers. They were unscrupulous, but they were not so
+utterly ignorant that they failed to see the necessity of occasionally
+making correct assertions. It was, however, this mixture of fact with
+fiction that was the chief cause of the evil influence exerted. The
+result of it all was that the entire nation, in a moral sense, breathed
+an atmosphere of falsehood. He concluded his indictment by declaring
+that the American press would seem to have been expressly devised by the
+great agent of mischief, to depress and destroy all that was good, and
+to elevate and advance all that was evil.
+
+This style of remark was certainly not designed to win newspaper favor
+or support. But he went even farther in his novels of "Homeward Bound"
+and "Home as Found." In those two works he drew the portrait of an
+American editor in the person of Steadfast Dodge of the Active Inquirer.
+All the baser qualities of human nature were united in this ideal
+representative of the press. He was a sneak, a spy, a coward, a
+demagogue, a parasite, a lickspittle, a fawner upon all from whom he
+hoped help, a slanderer of all who did not care to endure his society.
+Such a picture did not rise even to the dignity of caricature. Nor is it
+relieved either in this work or elsewhere by others drawn favorably. The
+reader of Cooper will search his writings in vain for a portrait which
+any member of the editorial profession would be glad to recognize as his
+own.
+
+All this was vigorous enough, but it could hardly be called        (p. 180)
+profitable. Cooper had now cultivated to perfection the art of saying
+injudicious things as well as the art of saying things injudiciously.
+His ability in hitting upon the very line of remark that would still
+further enrage the hostile, and irritate the indifferent and even the
+friendly, assumed almost the nature of genius. The power of his attacks
+could not be gainsaid. But while they inspired his opponents with
+respect, they filled his friends with dismay. He was soon in a singular
+position. He enjoyed at one and the same time the double distinction of
+being reviled in England for his aggressive republicanism, and of being
+denounced in America for aping the airs of the English aristocracy. It
+hardly seemed a favorable time for beginning hostilities in a new field.
+Yet it was then that he entered upon his famous legal war with the Whig
+newspapers of the state of New York.
+
+A detailed account of the libel suits instituted by Cooper would form
+one of the most striking chapters in the history of the American press;
+and for some reasons it is to be regretted that the plan he had of
+writing a full account of them was never carried out. Here only a slight
+summary can be given. It is well to say at the outset that many
+assertions ordinarily made about them are utterly false. For certain of
+these prevalent misconceptions Greeley is responsible. He spoke of these
+trials with some fullness in commenting upon libel suits in his
+"Recollections of a Busy Life." But Greeley's life was too busy for him
+always to recollect accurately. While he had not the slightest intention
+to say anything untrue, what he said was in some instances of this
+character; though more often it was misleading rather than false.  (p. 181)
+But outside of what Greeley has written, there are several erroneous
+assertions current. One of the most common of these is the statement
+that Cooper's success in them was mainly due to the application of the
+law maxim, that the greater the truth the greater the libel. There was
+never any ground for even an insinuation of this kind. Cooper, when his
+attention was called to it, treated it with contempt. "The pretense," he
+wrote in 1845, "that our courts have ever overruled that the truth is
+not a complete defense in a libel suit in the civil action, can only
+gain credit with the supremely ignorant." In criminal indictments the
+New York statute of 1805 had expressly declared that the truth might be
+pleaded in evidence by the defense. The Constitution of 1821 made this
+provision part of the fundamental law, and it was adopted from that into
+the Constitution of 1846. The assertion owed its origin wholly to the
+effort of beaten parties to explain their defeat on some other ground
+than that they had been found guilty of the offense with which they had
+been charged.
+
+A more preposterous statement even than this was that the question
+involved in these suits was the right of editors to criticise the
+productions of authors. In not one of these trials was the literary
+judgment passed by the reviewer mentioned as having the slightest
+bearing on the case. It ought not to be necessary to say that it was the
+attack upon the character of the man that alone came under the
+consideration of the courts, and not that upon the character of the
+book. The impudent pretense was, however, set up at the time that the
+press had a right to go behind the writer's work, and assail him
+himself. "Does an author," said "The New Yorker" in February,      (p. 182)
+1837, "subject himself to personal criticism by submitting a work to the
+public? If he makes his work the channel of disparagement upon masses of
+men, he does."
+
+The most marked feature of these trials is that Cooper fought his battle
+single-handed. With a very few exceptions,--notably the "Albany Argus"
+and the "New York Evening Post,"--the press of the party with which he
+was nominally allied, remained neutral. Some of them were even hostile;
+for the novelist's criticism of editors had known no distinction of
+politics. On the other hand, the press of the opposition party was
+united. From East to West they bore down upon Cooper with a common cry.
+No event in his life showed more plainly the fearless and uncompromising
+nature of the man; nor again did anything else he was concerned in mark
+more clearly his versatility and vigor. In these trials he was assisted
+by his nephew, Richard Cooper, who was his regular counsel. But outside
+of him, in the civil suits, he had very rarely any help, and in most of
+them he argued his own cause. Wherever he appeared in person he seems to
+have come off uniformly victorious. Nor were his victories won over
+inferior opponents. The reputation of the lawyer is under ordinary
+conditions limited necessarily to a small circle. Even in that,
+considering the amount of intellectual acuteness and power displayed, it
+is an exceedingly transitory reputation. But the men against whom Cooper
+was pitted stood in the very front rank of their profession. They were
+leaders of the bar in the greatest state in the Union. Nor have times so
+far swept by that their names are not still remembered; and stories are
+still told of their achievements by those who have taken their     (p. 183)
+places. Cooper, not a lawyer by profession, met these men on their own
+ground and defeated them. It was not long, indeed, after these suits
+were instituted, that it was claimed by his friends, and often conceded
+by his foes, that he was the one man in the country best acquainted with
+the law of libel. Our surprise at his success is increased by the fact
+that he was not only unpopular himself, but he was engaged in an
+unpopular cause. The verdicts he won were usually small in amount, but
+they were wrung from reluctant juries, and frequently in the face of
+bitter prejudices that had to be overcome before he could hope for a
+fair consideration of his own side.
+
+At the outset the editorial fraternity were disposed to take these libel
+suits jocularly. They were looked upon as a gigantic joke. Nor did this
+feeling die out when the first trial resulted in Cooper's favor. It was
+proposed that the newspapers throughout the country should contribute
+each one dollar to a fund to be called "The Effingham Libel Fund," out
+of which all damages awarded the novelist were to be paid. Every
+additional suit was welcomed with a shout. As time went on this
+insolence gave way to apprehension. In nearly every case the plaintiff
+was coming off successful. The comments of the press began to assume an
+expostulatory tone. Cooper was gravely informed that were he to be tried
+in the High Court of Public Opinion--this imaginary tribunal was usually
+made imposing by dignifying its initial letters--for his libels upon his
+country and his countrymen, the damages he would have to pay would not
+only sweep away the amounts given him by the results in the regular
+courts, but even the profits that had accrued from the sale of his
+novels. These remonstrances were often animated also by a          (p. 184)
+new-born zeal for his literary fame. He was told he was his own greatest
+enemy. He was doing himself irreparable injury by the course he was
+taking. He was so acting as to lose the reputation he had early won.
+This feeling naturally increased in intensity as suits continued to be
+decided in his favor. The newspapers at last rose to the full
+appreciation of the situation. The liberty of the press was actually in
+danger. The trials were said to be conducted in defiance of law as well
+as justice. The judges belonged to the Democratic party, and they
+wrested the statutes from their true intent in order to oppress the Whig
+editor. There came finally to be something exquisitely absurd in the
+utterances of the journals on the subject of these suits. One would
+fancy from reading them that the plaintiff was a monster resembling the
+bloodthirsty ogre of a fairy tale, bullying judges, overawing juries,
+maliciously bent on crushing the free-born American who should have the
+temerity to express an unfavorable opinion of his writings. Coriolanus,
+indeed, never fluttered the dove-cotes in Corioli more effectively than
+for some years Cooper did the Whig newspaper offices of the state of New
+York.
+
+The origin of the suits was as follows: An account of the circumstances
+connected with the Three Mile Point controversy appeared, immediately
+after they had taken place, in the "Norwich Telegraph," a paper
+published in the neighboring county of Chenango. The article began with
+a reference to Cooper. "This gentleman," it said, "not satisfied with
+having drawn upon his head universal contempt from abroad, has done the
+same thing at Cooperstown where he resides." In this spirit it     (p. 185)
+went on to give its report of the events told in the preceding chapter.
+"So stands the matter at present," it closed its account, "Mr. J. F. C.
+threatening the citizens on the one hand, and being derided and despised
+by them on the other." In conclusion it called upon the "Otsego
+Republican," the Whig newspaper of Cooperstown, to furnish all the facts
+in the case.
+
+The latter journal was edited by a man named Barber. He was not slow to
+comply with the request, and in one of the numbers of August, 1837, he
+republished the article of the "Chenango Telegraph" with additional
+assertions of his own. The latter belonged more to the realm of fiction
+than of fact. Three Mile Point he declared had been reserved expressly
+for the use of the inhabitants of Cooperstown by the father of the
+novelist. When the notice was published depriving them of their rights,
+a meeting had been called which had been largely attended. The room was
+crowded with the industry, intelligence, and respectability of the
+village. Powerful addresses were made and a series of resolutions were
+passed. These expressed the feelings of all present. "The remarks," the
+newspaper continued, "were of a lucid character, and the resolutions,
+full, pungent, and yet respectful."
+
+Two days after this article had appeared, the editor received a letter
+from Cooper's counsel which was to the effect that he would be
+prosecuted for libel unless he retracted his statements. On his side the
+novelist undertook to make perfectly clear to him that his assertions
+were untrue; but he expected, after the real facts had been set before
+him and fully examined, that he would take back what he had said. "No
+atonement," the letter concluded, "will be accepted, that is not first
+approved of by the plaintiff in the suit." Barber was not          (p. 186)
+disposed either to retract or to investigate the accuracy of the facts
+he had stated. He published the letter, however, with the usual solemn
+declaration that seems to be kept in type in all newspaper offices, that
+in doing what he had done he had been actuated solely by the noblest
+motives; that he had not published anything libellous; that if in
+anything he had been misinformed, he held himself always ready to make
+the proper correction. "In conclusion," he said, "not being sensible of
+having injured Mr. Cooper, we consider that we have no atonement to
+offer." Under these circumstances the suit went on. It did not come to
+final trial until May, 1839, at the Montgomery circuit of the Supreme
+Court. Joshua A. Spencer was the principal lawyer for the defense, while
+Cooper conducted his own case. The jury returned a verdict of four
+hundred dollars for the plaintiff. Eventually the editor sought to evade
+in various ways the payment of the whole award, and did succeed in
+evading the payment of a good part of it. A terrible outcry was,
+however, raised against Cooper because the sheriff levied upon some
+money that had been carefully laid away and locked up by Barber in a
+trunk.
+
+With this begins the famous series of suits that occupied no small share
+of the few following years of the author's life. At the time the first
+one was decided, another was pending against the editor of the "Chenango
+Telegraph." The leading Whig newspapers naturally took the side of their
+associates. For a time they had a good deal to say about the greatest
+slanderer of the whole profession pouncing upon one of the fraternity
+least able to defend himself, simply because in a moment of haste and
+excitement he had been guilty of what they were pleased to call    (p. 187)
+a technical libel. It did not seem to occur to them, that any one
+could be so foolhardy as to make them the object of attack. They did not
+have to wait long to discover that the influence wielded by a journal
+was no protection. Besides the newspapers already mentioned, Cooper
+prosecuted the "Oneida Whig," published at Utica. This suit was tried in
+April, 1842. Though successful in it, the damages awarded were slight,
+being but seventy dollars. A suit, tried little more than six months
+before against the "Evening Signal," of New York city, edited by Park
+Benjamin, had resulted in the recovery of a larger sum. The amount in
+this case was three hundred and seventy-five dollars. With these
+exceptions his suits were directed against the "Courier and Enquirer,"
+edited by James Watson Webb; "the Albany Evening Journal," edited by
+Thurlow Weed; the "Tribune," edited by Horace Greeley, and the
+"Commercial Advertiser," edited by William Leet Stone. These were the
+leading Whig journals in the state, and among the most influential in
+the whole country. It could not be said that Cooper hesitated about
+flying at high game.
+
+In the controversy with Webb, Cooper had the least success. This was
+partly due to the fact that it was not a civil action that was brought
+against the former, but a criminal indictment. Juries might make editors
+pay for the privilege of expressing their feelings of contempt or hate,
+but they were not inclined to send them to prison. The indictment in
+this case was based upon a criticism of "Home as Found." The review,
+which was of several columns in length, had appeared in the "Courier and
+Enquirer" of November 22, 1838. There was very little in the way of
+hostile insinuation and assertion and personal depreciation that   (p. 188)
+could not be found in this article and in some which followed. The
+attack was moreover a skillful one. It was directed largely against
+those points where Cooper had fairly laid himself open to ridicule.
+Especially was this the case in the matter of descent and family. Webb
+represented the novelist as the son of a humble hawker of fish through
+the streets of Burlington, who had afterward become a respectable though
+not a first-class wheelwright. By probity, industry, and enterprise he
+had finally risen to wealth and position. The maternal grandmother of
+the author had, according to this same story, for more than twenty years
+occupied a stall and sold fresh vegetables in the Philadelphia market,
+and was remarkable for the superior quality of the articles she kept.
+Webb praised the father at the expense of the son. The former had never
+been ashamed of his humble origin. On the contrary, he was justly proud
+of the intelligence and ability which, unaided by any mere external
+advantages, had raised him to a station in life so much higher than he
+at first held. Of such a career any child had a right to be proud. These
+were statements that could not well be resented, conceding that they
+were injurious, nor could they well be corrected, conceding that they
+were untrue. Webb, who had recently returned from Europe, asserted,
+moreover, that he had been present at a dinner-party in London, where
+"Home as Found" came under discussion. On that occasion he had fallen
+into a conversation about it with "a nobleman of distinction." The
+latter informed him that Cooper's attack upon English society had
+materially injured the sale of his works in that country, and it was
+evident that he was now seeking to regain the ground and the       (p. 189)
+market he had lost, by praising everything English at the expense of
+everything American; but as his base motives were now fully understood,
+no one was led astray. The reported conversation carries internal
+evidence of its authenticity. It required a very noble lord to impute to
+a well-known writer motives so very noble; and none but an Englishman
+could have appreciated so fully the eternal conditions of success in the
+English market. These remarks of Webb's are, however, merely incidental.
+His direct personal attack on Cooper rivaled that of the British
+periodicals in ferocity. "We may and do know him," said he in the only
+extract for which there is room, "as a base-minded caitiff who has
+traduced his country for filthy lucre and low-born spleen; but time only
+can render harmless abroad the envenomed barb of the slanderer who is in
+fact a traitor to national pride and national character."
+
+For this article Webb was indicted by the grand jury of Otsego County,
+in February, 1839. In June of the same year a second indictment was
+found against him for saying that the first was secured by political
+trickery. The trial, for various reasons, did not come off until
+November, 1841. Webb made a public retraction of the statements upon
+which the second indictment was found; and this was accepted on the part
+of the prosecution. On the trial for the first indictment the jury
+disagreed. The defendant objected to Cooper's summing up the case, and
+this objection the court sustained. It was a wise policy: for the trials
+in the civil suits showed that the novelist was full as effective in
+addressing a jury orally as he ever was in addressing the public in his
+most successful stories. One amusing feature of this case was that the
+two volumes of "Home as Found" were read to the jury from          (p. 190)
+beginning to end by the plaintiffs counsel, Ambrose L. Jordan.
+
+Cooper was not discouraged by the ill result of this trial. The
+indictment was still pressed. A second trial took place at Cooperstown
+in June, 1843. Again the jury disagreed. A third trial is reported to
+have taken place and to have resulted in the acquittal of Webb; but I
+find no account of it in the newspapers to which I have had access.
+
+The suits brought against the "Albany Evening Journal" were, however,
+the most striking in this whole contest. They show, too, more clearly
+than the others, the spirit and methods with which it was waged on both
+sides. Some features are especially marked. One is the illustration
+furnished of the onslaughts that were made upon the novelist's character
+and reputation, not from any real ill-will, but from pure wantonness or
+at least very slight political hostility. Another is the jaunty
+superciliousness with which the conductors of the press at first
+affected to treat the threats of prosecution. More noteworthy than
+anything else, however, is the view given of the deliberate manner in
+which Cooper began these suits, and the relentless tenacity with which
+he followed them up. The "Evening Journal," of which Thurlow Weed was
+then the head, partly from the political skill of its editor, and partly
+from its being the organ of the party at the state capital, was, at that
+time, the most influential Whig journal in New York. Weed published in
+it, in two different numbers of August, 1837, the articles which had
+appeared in the "Chenango Telegraph" and the "Otsego Republican" about
+the Three Mile Point controversy. He accompanied them with some comments
+of his own in regard to Cooper. "He was, as is known," said he in  (p. 191)
+his second notice, "pretty generally despised abroad. He is now
+equally distinguished at home." The editor then went on to speak of the
+act of meanness, as he termed it, which had excited the contempt of the
+novelist's neighbors; and that the more precise account now furnished by
+the "Otsego Republican" would rather increase than diminish the measure
+of scorn that had been aroused. Much was Weed's surprise when, on the
+18th of April, 1840, he received a letter from Cooper's counsel
+requiring a retraction of what had been said in 1837, and a further
+statement that it must be made within a certain time or a suit for libel
+would be begun. He treated this notice cavalierly. He was amused by it
+even more than he was astonished. As it had taken three years for Cooper
+to bring the suit, he concluded that he would take three weeks at any
+rate to reply to the demand for a retraction. A second letter from
+Cooper's counsel, dated the 4th of May, met with the same neglect.
+Accordingly on the 25th of that month he had the pleasure of announcing
+that he had been sued for libel by "Mr. John Effingham."
+
+The case after being put off once on a very frivolous pretext, came to
+trial at the Montgomery circuit of the Supreme Court, held at Fonda, in
+November, 1841. When it was called Weed was not present, nor was counsel
+for him. Cooper consented to have the case go over for a day. It was
+then called again. Nothing was seen of the defendant, nothing had been
+heard from him. The case was accordingly sent to the jury with a speech
+from the plaintiff's counsel. A verdict of four hundred dollars was
+returned. Weed arrived at Fonda the evening of that day, and wrote
+anonymously to the "New York Tribune" an account of what had taken (p. 192)
+place. In some of its details it was more entertaining than accurate.
+The reason he gave for his absence from the trial was that he had been
+kept at home by severe illness in his family. But the result enabled him
+to notice in this manner the sum awarded by the jury.
+
+"This meagre verdict under the circumstances is a severe and mortifying
+rebuke to Cooper, who had everything his own way.
+
+"The value of Mr. Cooper's character, therefore, has been judicially
+determined.
+
+"It is worth exactly four hundred dollars."
+
+For the publication of this letter a suit was immediately begun against
+the "Tribune." But though he wrote for that journal an amusing account
+of the trial, in his own paper Weed gave vent to the anger which the
+result had excited. The verdicts gained in his various cases by "this
+man Cooper," he said, had made "deep inroads upon a fame once bright and
+enviable, but now sadly dim and dilapidated." He then recited in full
+the misdeeds of the novelist. "For all this," concluded the aggrieved
+editor, "connected with the attempt to deprive the citizens of a social
+privilege with which they were invested by his honored father, we said
+Mr. Cooper was despised. And for this he prosecuted us. And now having
+again said it he may again prosecute us, if he wants and thinks he can
+obtain four hundred dollars more."
+
+Weed did not appreciate the fact that he was not dealing with a
+politician, but with a man indifferent to or rather contemptuous of
+popular clamor. His challenge was immediately accepted. Early in
+December, 1841, he was able to announce the fact that he had been  (p. 193)
+sued again. "The sheriff," he said, "has served another writ upon
+us for an alleged libel upon Cooper. It remains to be seen how much
+longer courts and juries will sanction this legal persecution of a man,
+who after libeling his country and calumniating his countrymen, seeks to
+muzzle a free press." The jocular tone used at first had all vanished.
+Instead it was replaced by a fierce spirit of wrathfulness and defiance.
+During the whole of December, 1841, Weed kept constantly republishing
+extracts from other newspapers reflecting upon and attacking Cooper's
+character and conduct. These were, he said, "sharp rebukes" of the
+novelist's "ridiculous and unworthy attempt to disgrace his own country
+to gain the favor and smiles of the nobility abroad." Some of these
+newspaper comments furnish very amusing reading now, especially as the
+impunity of most of the writers was due to their insignificance. "We
+rejoice," said one of them, "to witness the spirit of independence
+manifested by the conductors of the press. It proves their incorruptible
+integrity and their love of principle, their firm hostility to foreign
+notions, and their detestation of the man who seeks to ape the high and
+aristocratic manners of English nobility." These valorous declarations
+came mainly from the country papers of the state of New York, for the
+"Evening Journal" was the Triton of these minnows. Weed, however,
+eagerly reproduced everything that came from outside. One article, in
+particular, from a Chicago paper, was published, in order that Cooper
+might see "what right-minded and unprejudiced people say and think of
+him far away in the boundless West."
+
+The appeal was to deaf ears. Neither contracted East nor boundless (p. 194)
+West affected Cooper's resolution. As fast as the articles were
+republished, they were carefully examined, and prosecutions begun
+against the "Evening Journal" for those of them containing libelous
+matter. By the middle of December five suits had been commenced, and
+more were under consideration. A little later, if contemporary newspaper
+reports can be trusted, the number had swelled to seven. The editor
+began to appreciate the difficulty and danger of the situation. His
+courage, however, did not falter. In fact he looked upon himself as
+manfully standing in the gap for freedom of speech. "These suits," he
+said "will determine whether an Independent Press is to be protected in
+the free exercise of honest opinion, or whether it is to be overawed and
+silenced by the persecutions of an inflated, litigious, soured novelist,
+who, in his better days by the favor of the Press, made the money with
+which he now seeks to oppress its conductors, and sap its independence."
+He did not purpose to flinch from his duty. Accordingly he announced
+that he should continue publishing these attacks until Cooper ceased
+prosecuting.
+
+In this determination he was encouraged by the result of two suits tried
+in April, 1842, in the Otsego County Court. Though he was beaten in
+both, the verdict was for small amounts. In one case it was fifty-five
+dollars, in the other eighty-seven dollars. This convinced the press
+that the tide was turning. Again the country newspapers were filled with
+libelous paragraphs. Again the novelist was denounced for his heartless
+abuse of his country, and his soulless and contemptible vanity. Again
+these strictures were carefully collected from every quarter, no matter
+how insignificant, and republished in the columns of the "Evening  (p. 195)
+Journal." But these cheerful anticipations were speedily dissipated.
+Another suit, tried at Fonda in the Supreme Court in May, 1842, resulted
+in a verdict of three hundred and twenty-five dollars for the plaintiff.
+The country papers were indignant. One of the editors sagely suggested
+that "if judge and jury are to carry on this war on the press to gratify
+individual malignity much further, it would be well for all editors to
+unite in petitioning the legislature to pass a law that judges should
+discharge their duties impartially, and juries be composed of honest and
+intelligent men." This profound suggestion marks pretty plainly the
+intellectual grade to which most of the writers of these paragraphs had
+attained. Before it could be acted upon another suit had been decided.
+In the September term of the Supreme Court held at Cooperstown, a
+further verdict of two hundred dollars was awarded. In the following
+month a new suit was begun.
+
+Weed had fought his fight manfully. But the business of publishing
+libelous paragraphs at these rates, low as they were, was ceasing to be
+either pleasant or profitable. Besides his own counsel fees, the adverse
+verdicts carried with them heavy costs. He concluded to let the liberty
+of the press take care of itself. Accordingly, on the 14th of December,
+1842, he published, though with a grumbling comment, a retraction of all
+his previous statements. It had been previously submitted to the eminent
+lawyer, Daniel Cady, and by him approved. It withdrew, first, the
+allegations contained the previous year in a specific article in the
+paper. "On a review of the matter and a better knowledge of the facts,"
+were the words of the retraction, "I feel it to be my duty to withdraw
+the injurious imputations it contains on the character of Mr.      (p. 196)
+Cooper. It is my wish that this retraction should be as broad as the
+charges. The 'Albany Evening Journal' having also contained various
+other articles reflecting on Mr. Cooper's character, I feel it due to
+that gentleman to withdraw every charge that injuriously affects his
+character."
+
+The course of instruction had been protracted and expensive, but the
+lesson had been learned at last. The independence of the press had been
+crushed by the domineering despot of Cooperstown. The controversy
+threatened to break out again in 1845, but it seems never to have got
+beyond words. There is a comic element introduced into the whole affair
+by the fact that the editor of the "Journal" was a profound and even
+bigoted admirer of his adversary's novels. So fond was he of quoting
+from them, that according to Greeley, jokers at that time gravely
+affirmed that Weed had never read but three authors,--Shakespeare,
+Scott, and Cooper. In the very heat of the controversy he was said to
+have sat up all night reading "The Pathfinder," which had come out a
+little while before. Greeley also asserts that the paragraphs which
+appeared in the "Evening Journal" were merely designed as gentle
+reminders to the novelist of the folly of the course he was pursuing.
+This might find belief in a society in which telling a man that he was
+an object of universal contempt would be deemed an expression of
+friendly interest in his welfare. When he says, in addition, that there
+was no shred, no spice of malice in these assaults, he takes away the
+sole ground on which a plea of palliation can be brought. If not due to
+that they had not even the poor excuse of weak human nature. They were
+the wanton acts of a man who attacks another, not from             (p. 197)
+indignation or wrath, but from the mere desire of inflicting annoyance
+or pain.
+
+The controversy with the "Commercial Advertiser" belongs not here but to
+the account of the "Naval History." It has already been said that the
+"Tribune" had been sued for the publication of Thurlow Weed's letter
+describing the trial at Fonda in November, 1841. In December, 1842, this
+case came off at Ballston. Greeley assumed the conduct of the defense.
+He was unsuccessful. The jury brought in against him a verdict of two
+hundred dollars and costs. "We went back to dinner," he wrote, "took the
+verdict in all meekness, took a sleigh and struck a bee-line for New
+York." No sooner had he reached the city than he published a most
+entertaining account of the whole trial. It filled eleven columns of the
+"Tribune," and the demand for it became so great that it was found
+necessary to publish it in pamphlet form. For some expressions in it
+Cooper began another suit. In this instance Greeley gave up the plan of
+defending himself and intrusted the conduct of his side to Seward. The
+case dragged on for years in the New York courts, and, so far as I have
+been able to discover, had not been brought to a final trial before the
+plaintiff's death.
+
+By the end of 1843, Cooper had pretty well reduced the press to silence,
+so far as comments on his character were concerned. It was
+insignificance or remoteness alone that protected the libeler. The
+leading newspapers of the state, however much they might abuse his
+writings, learned to be very cautious of what they said of him
+personally. But it was a barren victory he had won. He had lost far more
+than he had gained. That such would be the result, he knew, while  (p. 198)
+he was engaged in the controversy. It affected, at the time, his literary
+reputation, and, as a result, the sale of his writings; and since his
+death it has been a principal agency in keeping alive a distorted and
+fictitious view of his personal character. A common impression came to
+be of him something like the description which Greeley's lawyers gave of
+the estimation in which he was held in Otsego County, in some legal
+papers bearing the date of July, 1845. This was to the effect that he
+had acquired and had among his neighbors "the reputation of a proud,
+captious, censorious, arbitrary, dogmatical, malicious, illiberal,
+revengeful, and litigious man." This one-sided and hostile view of a
+strongly-marked character had just enough of truth in it to cause it to
+be widely received as an accurate and complete picture. In a similar way
+the notion became current that he sought to ape the manners of the
+English aristocracy. Whatever Cooper's foibles were, they were none of
+them imported. He was too proud in feeling and too self-centred in
+opinion ever to think of aping anything or anybody. But on these points
+the prejudices and misrepresentations of that day have lasted down to
+this.
+
+The account given makes it clear that the occasion of bringing the first
+of these libel suits was accidental. But as time went on the prosecution
+of them assumed to Cooper the shape of a duty. When once it had taken on
+that character, no possible degree of unpopularity or odium could have
+prevented him from persisting in his course. He treated with disdain the
+common arguments used to persuade him to abandon them. To one of these
+he referred directly in a novel published in 1844. He was insisting upon
+the superiority of the past to the present, a sentiment which      (p. 199)
+became a favorite burden of his latter-day utterances. "The public sense
+of right," he said, "had not become blunted by familiarity with abuses,
+and the miserable and craven apology was never heard for not enforcing
+the laws that nobody cared for what the newspapers say." He certainly
+had some justification for the hardest things he thought and said of the
+press. The newspapers which circulated the false reports about his
+father's disposition of the property at Three Mile Point never corrected
+them after the precise facts had been published. Many of them continued
+to repeat the original statements after they must have known them to be
+untrue. Nor did they stop here. As the British press had in his case
+done all it could to justify the charge Cooper made against it of
+ferocious blackguardism of personal and political foes, so many of the
+American editors seemed anxious to realize, so far as it lay in their
+power, the picture that had been drawn of them in the character of
+Steadfast Dodge. Papers containing offensive paragraphs about Cooper
+were carefully sent, not directed to him personally, but to his wife and
+daughters. The fear of punishment is the only motive by which those who
+commit acts of this kind can possibly be influenced. On the other hand,
+it is an idle claim that the character of the press has been elevated by
+libel suits that Cooper or any one else has ever brought. Such
+prosecutions may be both justifiable and necessary; but the agencies
+that form and build up intelligence and taste and high principle are not
+of this negative and restraining character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.                                                         (p. 200)
+
+1839-1843.
+
+
+On the 10th of May, 1839, appeared Cooper's "History of the United
+States Navy." The work was one which he had long contemplated writing.
+As far back as 1825 there were newspaper reports that he had the
+undertaking in mind. He himself, in his parting speech at the dinner
+given him in May, 1826, just before his departure for Europe, had
+publicly announced his determination of devoting himself to this subject
+during his absence abroad. "Encouraged by your kindness," he said, "I
+will take this opportunity of recording the deeds and sufferings of a
+class of men to which this nation owes a debt of lasting gratitude--a
+class of men among whom, I am always ready to declare, not only the
+earliest, but many of the happiest days of my youth have been passed."
+The necessity of providing for his family and of paying off debts
+incurred by others, but for which he was responsible, had prevented the
+immediate carrying out of this resolution. But it had always been in his
+thoughts. The delay in the preparation probably added to the value of
+the history; but its reception would unquestionably have been far
+different had it been brought out in the height of his popularity.
+
+It was a work which for many reasons it was a hard task to make
+accurate, and a still harder one to make interesting. With slight
+exceptions the history could be little more than a record of       (p. 201)
+detached combats; and a string of episodes, no matter how brilliant, can
+never have the attraction which belongs to unity and grandeur of
+movement. These last can alone characterize the operations of great
+fleets.
+
+Still, for the writing of this history Cooper was peculiarly fitted. He
+had belonged to the navy in his early life. He had never ceased to feel
+the deepest interest in its reputation and prosperity. He had
+contributed to the "Naval Magazine," a periodical published during 1836
+and 1837, a series of papers connected with the improvement of its
+condition. He was, moreover, on terms of intimacy with many of the
+officers who had won for it distinction; and through them he had access
+to sources of information that could not be gained from written
+authorities. He had, besides, the characteristic of loving truth for its
+own sake, and the disposition to endure any amount of drudgery and
+encounter any sort of toil in order to secure it. To this were added the
+special qualifications of the historical eye, which enabled him to seize
+the important facts in an infinite mass of detail, and the power of
+describing vividly what he saw clearly. Under such circumstances it was
+reasonable to expect that his work would satisfy all fair-thinking men.
+It is, perhaps, correct to say that it did so. But it also gave rise to
+a controversy which stretched over a longer period and surpassed, in the
+bitter feelings it aroused, any of the wars in which the navy itself had
+ever been engaged.
+
+There were special difficulties to be encountered with readers on both
+sides of the ocean. On the one hand, Englishmen had usually forgotten to
+remember that during the war of 1812 there was any naval combat of
+importance fought except between the Shannon and the Chesapeake;   (p. 202)
+and even at this day it would be difficult to find in an English writer
+any account of the naval operations of that war in which that particular
+engagement does not play the principal part. If any other was forced
+upon their attention it had become an article of their creed that an
+American frigate was little else than a line-of-battle ship disguised.
+Moreover, the effective force of the American vessel was, according to
+their theory, made up of deserters from the British service. These two
+explanations of any failure were often combined. It is in this way
+Captain Brenton, one of their naval historians, calmly shows how it was
+that the Constitution happened to capture the Guerriere. "We may justly
+say," he concludes his account, "it was a large British frigate taking a
+small one." On her part America was not to be outdone in her estimate of
+national prowess. It had become matter of firm faith with the
+inhabitants of the United States that their side had suffered no losses
+worth mentioning during the war of 1812; that the American vessel had
+been invariably successful, whenever there was any approach to equality
+of force; and that in every case it was the superior seamanship,
+courage, and skill of their officers and men that had decided the result
+in their favor, and not superiority in weight of metal.
+
+Neither of these beliefs was of a kind likely to influence Cooper. He
+had got to that point of feeling in which he looked upon the public
+opinion of both England and America with a good deal of contempt. It was
+not to pamper the vanity or flatter the prejudices of either that he
+wrote, but to state the truth. For this he neglected nothing that lay in
+his power. He studied public documents of every kind, official     (p. 203)
+reports, all the printed and manuscript material to which he could get
+access. From officers of the navy who had shared in the actions
+described he gathered much information which they alone were able to
+communicate. In one sense he was fully satisfied with what he had done.
+He did not pretend that in a work which involved the examination and
+sifting of an almost infinite number of details he had not made some
+errors. It was only that he had made none intentionally, and that he had
+put forth his most strenuous exertions to have what he wrote entirely
+free from mistake. Nor is it possible for any unprejudiced mind to read
+the history now and not feel the truth of the assertion. Its accuracy
+and honesty have sometimes been flippantly questioned, but usually by
+men who have not spent as many days in the study of the subject as
+Cooper did months. During his lifetime imputations were made in a few
+cases upon the correctness of his statements. They met then, however, so
+speedy and effectual a refutation that it was not thought worth while to
+repeat the criticisms until he was in his grave. Cooper might be wrong
+in his conclusions; but it was rarely safe to quarrel with his facts.
+There is more, however, in this history than freedom from intentional
+perversion of the truth. There are throughout the whole of it the
+calmness, the judicial spirit, the absence of partisanship which may not
+of themselves add anything to the interest of the narrative, but are
+worth everything for the impression of truthfulness it makes.
+
+Impartiality is a quality, however, little apt to be commended where our
+own feelings and interests are concerned. Still, the general fairness of
+the work was admitted in England, with the qualification, of       (p. 204)
+course that a perfectly trustworthy history could not come from this
+side of the water. A few malignant attacks were made upon it. One of
+these, which appeared in the "United Service Journal" for November and
+December, 1839, is of the nature of a prolonged roar rather than a
+criticism; but it is worth noticing for the incidental evidence it
+furnishes of the intense rancor felt towards Cooper by many in England
+on account of his strictures upon that country in the two volumes
+devoted to it in his "Gleanings in Europe." The writer made the then
+usual profession of faith, that the work referred to had been completely
+crushed by the "Quarterly;" moreover, that the novelist had been
+convicted by it of the blackest ingratitude for traducing the nation
+which, we learn from this notice, had fostered his talents for romance.
+No critic of Cooper, either in Europe or in this country, it is to be
+remarked here, ever seemed willing to concede that the author had any
+hand in gaining his own reputation. In America the newspapers constantly
+assured him that it was due entirely to them. Great Britain assumed that
+it was to her generous appreciation alone that he was known in either
+hemisphere. The European main-land was not behind the island in this
+feeling. "Undoubtedly," wrote Balzac, "Cooper's renown is not due to his
+countrymen nor to the English: he owes it mainly to the ardent
+appreciation of France." This sentiment of the novelist's obligation to
+Great Britain was uppermost in the heart of the reviewer in the "United
+Service Journal." An uneasy impression, however, weighed upon his mind
+lest Cooper, who had now suffered annihilation several times without
+injury, might have survived the particular one inflicted by the    (p. 205)
+"Quarterly." He honestly confessed, therefore, that he had waited
+some months before criticising the "Naval History," so that he might not
+look at it with a jaundiced or malignant eye in consequence of his
+recollections of the previous work on England.
+
+It is not worth while to take any further notice of this article, in
+which wretched criticism was put into still poorer English. But there
+was one of these reviews to which Cooper felt it incumbent on him to
+reply. This appeared in the "Edinburgh" for April, 1840. It was
+studiously fair in tone. It commended the American author's work in many
+respects. While doing so, however, it attacked him for having made no
+use of the "Naval History of Great Britain" by William James, a history
+which it spoke of in a gushing way as approaching "as nearly to
+perfection in its own line as any historical work perhaps ever did." It
+also labored heavily to break the force of some of Cooper's statements
+by charging him with making assertions without evidence or against
+evidence. James was a veterinary surgeon who had come to this country
+before the war of 1812 to practice his profession. After the breaking
+out of hostilities he left it, or rather, as he says, "escaped from it,
+before being taken prisoner into the interior"--whatever that may mean.
+In the early part of "the steelyard and arithmetical war," as Cooper
+phrased it, which has raged with extreme violence ever since the peace
+of Ghent, James bore a gallant and conspicuous part. He published a
+pamphlet on the subject, which, in 1817, came out expanded into a
+volume. In it he showed conclusively that his countrymen had been
+utterly wrong in supposing that they had met with any naval reverses
+during the war of 1812. The falsity of this assumption he          (p. 206)
+satisfactorily established by explaining that the Americans were the
+most inveterate liars upon the face of the earth. By their deceptive and
+fraudulent accounts they had beguiled the English, a self-distrustful
+and self-depreciating people, into believing that they had been
+defeated, where they had really been victorious. Heroes, indeed, can be
+overcome by sufficient odds; and James was always prepared with ample
+explanations to account for failure in special cases. He also convicted
+the officers of the American navy not merely of lying in their official
+reports--which was a duty expected of them both by government and
+people--but of cowardice in action, of misconduct in their operations,
+and of brutality toward enemies whom the chance of war threw into their
+power. A work like this not merely filled a gap in historical
+literature, it supplied a national want. It was accordingly received
+with such favor that its author went on to produce a history of the
+British navy from 1793 to the accession of George IV. In this he
+embodied his previous narrative; and a grateful people has never ceased
+to cherish a work which showed it that it had succeeded where previously
+it had been laboring under the impression that it had failed.
+
+For James and his history Cooper had unbounded contempt. This
+horse-doctor, as he termed him, he looked upon as being as well fitted
+to describe a naval engagement as the proverbial horse-marine would be
+to take part in one. Besides being incapable, he regarded him as
+eminently dishonest; as vaunting impartiality while elevating
+discreditable and improbable hearsay into positive assertion, and
+fortifying his falsehoods by a pretentious parade of figures and
+official documents. It is hardly going too far to say that, in     (p. 207)
+Cooper's opinion, the remarks of James on American affairs combined all
+possible forms of misstatement from undesigned misrepresentation to
+deliberate falsehood. There may be difference of opinion on this point;
+on another there can be none. The period covered by the British writer
+is on the whole the most glorious in the long and brilliant naval
+history of the greatest maritime power the world has ever known. Never
+was there a greater contrast between the spirit with which things were
+done and the spirit with which they were told. In no other history known
+to man does tediousness assume proportions more appalling, do figures
+seem more juiceless, do the stories of heroic achievement furnish less
+inspiration than in this of James. If it be true, as some modern writers
+say, that history to be of value must be void of interest, it may be
+conceded that this particular work is entitled to that praise of
+perfection accorded it by the Edinburgh Reviewer.
+
+The judgment that held up such a history as a model was not likely to
+impress a man, who was still under the sway of the old-fashioned notion,
+that there was no absolutely necessary connection between dullness and
+accuracy. To this particular criticism Cooper replied in the "Democratic
+Review" for May and June, 1842. In the first article he exposed the
+ignorance and dishonesty of James. In the second he devoted himself to
+the assertions of the "Edinburgh." The game was hardly worth the candle.
+His arguments could not reach the men who alone needed to know them. In
+international quarrels of any kind there are few who read both sides.
+The feeling exists that it is not safe to contaminate the purity of
+one's faith in his country by the doubts that might arise from     (p. 208)
+merely fancying that an opponent has reasons for his course worth
+considering. So it was in this case. Few people in the United States saw
+the "Edinburgh Review," none believed what it said. In England fewer
+knew even of the existence of the "Democratic Review."
+
+The controversy that arose in this country was on an entirely different
+ground. It was one that could hardly have been foreseen. The personal
+hostility which Cooper had succeeded in drawing upon himself was never
+so conspicuously shown as in the treatment which his "Naval History"
+underwent. At first, indeed, it was received with general favor, though
+by many it was thought to give too much credit to the English. In a
+short time, however, attacks were made upon it so virulent, so
+causeless, and withal so simultaneous, that the mere fact would of
+itself afford reason for the suspicion that they were concerted. This
+was practically the case. A certain amount of preliminary detail will
+make the circumstances clear. The controversy was entirely about the
+account of a particular action in the war of 1812, and a work containing
+over fifty chapters was absolutely condemned as partisan and worthless
+for what was found on a few pages of one chapter.
+
+The battle of Lake Erie was fought and won by Commodore Perry on the
+10th of September, 1813. It presented the peculiarity that the Lawrence,
+the flagship of the victorious squadron, had struck to the enemy in the
+course of the engagement. There was a feeling prevalent among many at
+the time that Elliott, the second in rank, had not been cordial in his
+support of his commander, and had left him to bear for a long while the
+brunt of the fight without hastening in his vessel, the Niagara,   (p. 209)
+to his help. This was, in particular, the general belief among those on
+board the Lawrence. Perry did not sanction this view at first. Urged by
+good-nature, according to the theory of his friends, he praised
+Elliott's conduct in his official report. He went even farther in a
+letter of the 19th of September. This was in reply to a note from
+Elliott stating that rumors were current that the Lawrence had been
+sacrificed because of the lack of proper exertion on the part of the
+second in command. "I am indignant," wrote Perry, "that any report
+should be in circulation prejudicial to your character as respects the
+action of the 10th instant. It affords me pleasure that I have it in my
+power to assure you that the conduct of yourself, officers, and crew was
+such as to merit my warmest approbation. And I consider the circumstance
+of your volunteering and bringing the smaller vessels up to close action
+as contributing largely to our victory." Such was the situation at the
+time. A few years later, however, a bitter quarrel sprang up between
+Perry and Elliott, which apparently owed a good deal of its rancor to
+the exertions of good-natured friends of both in communicating to each
+remarks made, or supposed to be made, by the other. An envenomed
+correspondence took place in 1818. It led to Elliott's challenging
+Perry, and Perry preferring charges against Elliott for his conduct at
+the battle of Lake Erie. In the letter accompanying the charges he gave
+as his reason for changing his opinion as to the behavior of his second
+in command, that he had been put into possession of fresh facts. The
+government took no action in the matter, and in the following year Perry
+died. In 1834 Elliott became the mark of hostility of the Whig press on
+account of his putting the figure of Andrew Jackson at the         (p. 210)
+figure-head of the Constitution, the war-ship of which he was in
+command. The old scandal about his conduct at Erie was revived. Elliott
+did more than defend himself. A life of him was published in 1835,
+written by another, but from materials evidently that he himself had
+furnished. It claimed that the success of the battle of Lake Erie was
+mainly due to his efforts. It naturally produced a feeling of intense
+bitterness among Perry's friends and relatives. This was the way matters
+stood at the time that the "Naval History" was brought out.
+
+Cooper entered upon the account of the battle of Lake Erie with the
+common prejudice against Elliott. Nor were efforts lacking to keep it
+alive and strengthen it, when it was reported in naval circles that he
+had begun to be uncertain about the justice of his original impressions.
+Captain Matthew Perry, the brother of the Commodore, forwarded him all
+the sworn documentary evidence that made against Elliott. He neglected
+to send any that was given in his favor. Cooper was not the man to be
+satisfied with this way of writing history. As he examined the subject
+more and more, he was struck by the conflicting character of the
+testimony, and the doubt that overhung the whole question. He came
+finally to the conclusion that it was not a matter he could settle, or,
+perhaps, any one. He accordingly contented himself with giving as
+accurate an account of the battle of Lake Erie as he could without
+entering at all into the details of the controversy. He made not the
+slightest effort to detract from the praise due to Perry, and, indeed,
+paid the highest tribute to his skill and conduct. Nor did he give to
+Elliott any prominence whatever.
+
+
+He had committed, however, the unpardonable sin. He had refused    (p. 211)
+to attack Elliott. He had preferred to accept Perry's original account
+of the battle, written within five days after it had taken place, to the
+view he took of it not only five years later, but also after a bitter
+personal quarrel had sprung up between him and his former second in
+command. While Cooper had made no special mention of the latter, he had
+spoken of him respectfully. There was a general feeling that Elliott
+ought to have been attacked. He was a very unpopular man, and, perhaps,
+deservedly so; while Perry was both a popular favorite and a popular
+hero. The refusal of Cooper to join in the general denunciation brought
+down upon him, not only those who honestly believed him in the wrong,
+but the whole horde of his own personal enemies who knew little and
+cared less about this particular subject. In the long list of
+controversies which the student of literature is under the necessity of
+examining, none seems so uncalled for and so discreditable to the
+assailants as this. For it is to be borne in mind that the historian had
+not made the slightest attempt to injure Perry in the popular
+estimation, or to elevate the subordinate at the expense of the
+commander. Yet assertions of this kind were constantly bandied about,
+though it would not have taken five minutes reading of the work to have
+shown their falsity. Cooper was frequently spoken of by the press as the
+detractor of American fame and the slanderer of American character,
+because he refused to say, on one-sided evidence, that an officer of the
+United States navy had been willing to sacrifice his superior in a hotly
+contested battle and imperil the result for the sake of ministering to
+his own personal ambition, or of gratifying a feeling of personal  (p. 212)
+dislike and envy, of the existence of which at the time there was no proof.
+
+Space here exists to notice only the elaborate attacks to which Cooper
+himself felt constrained to reply. The first of these appeared in four
+numbers of the "New York Commercial Advertiser" during June, 1839. The
+articles were written by William A. Duer, who had lately been president
+of Columbia College. They purported to be a review of the "Naval
+History," but nothing whatever was said about that work beyond the few
+pages in which the battle of Lake Erie is described. They were,
+moreover, so personal in their nature and contained imputations so gross
+on his character, that Cooper began a libel suit against the journal in
+which they were published. This finally resulted in one of the most
+extraordinary trials that has ever been recorded in merely literary
+annals. The attack in the "Commercial Advertiser" was followed by a
+similar one in the "North American Review." This was written, however,
+with more decency, though it again devoted itself mainly to the battle
+of Lake Erie. It was the work of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a naval
+author, who by three books of travel had gained at the time some
+literary notoriety. But the notoriety never rose to reputation; and the
+history which preserves his name at all, preserves it in connection with
+an event it were well for his memory to have eternally forgotten. It is
+to be added that he was the brother-in-law of Captain Matthew Perry, and
+that Duer was his uncle. Hardly had his broadside been delivered, when
+another attack appeared. The victor of Lake Erie had come from Rhode
+Island, and Rhode Island rushed to the fray, not to defend her son--for
+he had not been attacked--but to build up his reputation by        (p. 213)
+ruining that of his enemy. Tristam Burges, when the biography of
+Elliott, already referred to, had appeared, had delivered a lecture on
+the battle of Lake Erie before the Rhode Island Historical Society. It
+was not printed at the time; but no sooner was Cooper's work published
+than, at the request of Perry's friends and relatives, it was brought
+out with documents appended. The lecture reads very much like a stump
+speech of the extreme florid type. It is needless to say that in it
+Elliott got his full deserts for betraying his commander. It made no
+direct reference to Cooper, but the whole object was to discredit the
+account of the battle which he had given.
+
+Even this was not all. Mackenzie prepared a life of Perry, which was
+published early in 1841. In it he attacked Elliott with great
+bitterness, and was careful to give in an appendix all the sworn
+testimony on one side, and leave out all the sworn testimony on the
+other. The biography met with general favor. It was styled a noble work,
+and the courage manifested by the author in assailing an unpopular man
+and celebrating a popular hero was, for some reason hard now to be
+understood, highly commended on all sides. The intense partisanship of
+the biography can be read on almost every page. But it was warmly
+welcomed everywhere, for Elliott had few friends even in his own
+profession. The "North American Review" for July, 1841, in an article
+written by the late Admiral Charles H. Davis, congratulated the navy on
+now having a work which gave a true and faithful report of the battle of
+Lake Erie, and stigmatized Cooper's account as false in spirit,
+statement, and comment.
+
+This was, indeed, the general charge. For a while Cooper was       (p. 214)
+under as heavy a bombardment as Perry himself had been in his flagship.
+That his feelings were outraged by the injustice of it there can be no
+question, but it never daunted his spirit. Yet he took not the slightest
+step without being sure of his ground. He went over the evidence again
+and again. He talked with officers of the navy who held views opposed to
+his own; though he said afterward he rarely found that they knew
+anything about the matter beyond common report. With the exception of a
+few newspaper articles, however, he published nothing directly in reply
+until four years after his history was published. In the mean while he
+pressed the suit against William L. Stone, the editor of the "Commercial
+Advertiser." That paper at first took the prosecution in the jocular and
+insolent way then common with the press. Under an announcement of "Stand
+Clear," it informed its readers early in August, 1839, that "the
+interesting Mr. J. Effingham Fenimore Cooper is to bring a libel suit
+against us. None will approach it in interest, importance, or
+amusement." The editor was telling more truth than he thought. No
+action, however, was taken by Cooper for nearly a year to carry out his
+expressed intention. But he could always be depended upon. His suits,
+though sometimes long in coming, were sure to come at last. Great was
+the surprise of the editor when, in May, 1840, a process was served upon
+him for a libel printed eleven months before. He was indignant that the
+prosecutor had waited so long. A demurrer was filed and argued in July,
+1840, at the Utica term of the Supreme Court. The decision was against
+the defendant. Things now began to look more serious; for while the
+importance of the suit was increasing, its amusement was diminishing.
+It, however, hung on in the courts for a year and a half longer.   (p. 215)
+The defendant was naturally unwilling to hasten a trial which was almost
+certain to end in an adverse verdict. Negotiations between the parties
+in the autumn of 1841 resulted in a novel agreement. Cooper did not care
+for damages. It was not money he sought; it was to vindicate the truth
+of his history and his character as an historian. When, therefore, his
+adversary suggested that an ordinary jury of twelve men could not well
+pass upon a question involving the value of conflicting evidence, and
+minute technical detail, he seized upon the occasion to arrange that it
+should be tried before a body of referees, consisting of three
+distinguished lawyers. The proposal was accepted. Never was the eternal
+question between author and reviewer settled in a more singular and a
+more thorough way. For the referees were to decide, not merely upon
+legal points, but upon moral ones. They were to decide whether the
+author had written a truthful account of the battle of Lake Erie, and
+whether he had written it in a spirit of truth. On the other hand, they
+were to decide whether the reviewer had written matter libelous enough
+to justify a verdict from a jury, and whether in the treatment of the
+subject for which he criticised the history he had been just and
+impartial. If the decision were in favor of the author the defendant was
+not to pay more than two hundred and fifty dollars besides the costs. In
+any case the beaten party was to publish the full text of the decision,
+at his own expense, in the cities of New York, Albany, and Washington.
+The referees agreed upon were Samuel Steevens, named by Cooper; Daniel
+Lord, Jr., named by Stone; and Samuel A. Foot, chosen by mutual consent.
+The attendance of many witnesses was rendered unnecessary by the   (p. 216)
+stipulation that a vast mass of documentary testimony in possession
+of Cooper should be taken in evidence.
+
+The referees met in the United States court room in New York city, on
+the afternoon of Monday, May 16, 1842. A large crowd was in attendance.
+Public interest had been aroused, not only by the question involved and
+the novel character of the suit, but by the fact that the historian was
+to assume the principal conduct of his own side. The trial lasted for
+five days. After the opening speeches had been made, the taking of oral
+testimony began. Among the witnesses for the defense were Sands,
+Mackenzie, and Paulding, all officers of the navy. They were examined in
+reference to Cooper's account of the battle of Lake Erie and the
+diagrams by which he represented the positions of the vessels during the
+engagement. Their views were in all respects opposed to the theory of
+operations which he had assumed. After the taking of the oral testimony
+was ended and certain legal questions had been argued, the summing up
+was begun by William W. Campbell of Otsego, the leading lawyer for the
+defense. His speech was exceedingly able and effective. Men who were
+present at the proceedings asserted, when it was finished, that there
+was no possible way in which its reasoning could be shaken, still less
+overthrown. At eight o'clock on Thursday evening Cooper began summing up
+for the prosecution, and continued until ten. On Friday he resumed his
+argument at four in the afternoon, and six hours had passed before he
+concluded. His conduct of the case from the beginning had excited
+surprise and admiration. Friends and foes alike bore witness to the
+signal ability he had displayed throughout; but his closing speech (p. 217)
+made an especially profound impression. Its interest, its ingenuity, and
+its effectiveness were conceded by the defendant himself. It was for a
+long time after spoken of as one of the finest forensic displays that
+had ever been witnessed at the New York bar. Among those present at the
+trial was Henry T. Tuckerman, who has left us an account of the
+circumstances and of the bearing of the man. "A more unpopular cause,"
+he wrote, "never fell to the lot of a practiced advocate; for the hero
+of Lake Erie was and had long been one of the most cherished of American
+victors. We could not but admire the self-possession, coolness, and
+vigor with which the author, on this occasion, played the lawyer. Almost
+alone in his opinion,--the tide of public sentiment against his theory
+of the battle, and the popular sympathy wholly with the received
+traditions of that memorable day,--he stood collected, dignified,
+uncompromising; examined witnesses, quoted authorities, argued nautical
+and naval precedents with a force and a facility which would have done
+credit to an experienced barrister. On the one hand, his speech was a
+remarkable exhibition of self-esteem, and on the other, a most
+interesting professional argument; for when he described the battle, and
+illustrated his views by diagrams, it was like a chapter in one of his
+own sea-stories, so minute, graphic, and spirited was the picture he
+drew. The dogmatism was more than compensated for by the picturesqueness
+of the scene; his self-complacency was exceeded by his wonderful
+ability. He quoted Cooper's 'Naval History' as if it were 'Blackstone;'
+he indulged in reminiscences; he made digressions and told anecdotes; he
+spoke of the manoeuvres of the vessels, of the shifting of the wind, of
+the course of the fight, like one whose life had been passed on    (p. 218)
+the quarter-deck. No greater evidence of self-reliance, of indifference
+to the opinion of the world, and to that of his countrymen in
+particular, of the rarest descriptive talent, of pertinacity, loyalty to
+personal conviction, and a manly, firm, yet not unkindly spirit, could
+be imagined than the position thus assumed, and the manner in which he
+met the exigency. As we gazed and listened, we understood clearly why,
+as a man, Cooper had been viewed from such extremes of prejudice and
+partiality; we recognized at once the generosity and courage, and the
+willfulness and pride of his character: but the effect was to inspire a
+respect for the man, such as authors whose errors are moral weaknesses
+never excite."
+
+On the 16th of June the referees rendered their decision on the eight
+points submitted to them for adjudication. In regard to five of these
+they were all in full agreement; but in three instances one of the
+referees dissented from certain portions of the report made by the other
+two.
+
+The first point was whether, according to the evidence and the rules of
+the law the plaintiff would be entitled to the verdict of a jury in an
+ordinary suit for libel. They agreed that he would, and accordingly
+awarded the damages that had been fixed by the original stipulation.
+
+The second point was whether in writing his account of the battle of
+Lake Erie, Cooper had faithfully fulfilled his obligations as an
+historian. The majority of the referees decided that he had so done. Mr.
+Foot dissented to this extent, that Cooper had intended to do so, but
+that from error of judgment or from some cause not impugning the   (p. 219)
+purity of his motives, he had failed in one specified point. This was
+that the narrative gave the impression that Elliott's conduct in the
+battle had met with universal approbation, which it had not. The
+arbitrator added, however, that this was the only particular in which it
+appeared to him that the historian had failed in fulfilling the high
+trust he had taken upon himself.
+
+The third point was whether the narrative of the battle of Lake Erie was
+true or not in its essential facts, and if untrue, in what particulars.
+The majority decided that it was true. Mr. Foot dissented on the same
+point, to the same extent, and for the same reason, for which he had
+dissented from the second.
+
+The fourth point was whether the account of the battle was written in a
+spirit of impartiality and justice. They all agreed that it was so
+written.
+
+The fifth point was whether the writer of the criticism, upon which the
+suit was founded, had faithfully fulfilled the office of a reviewer. If
+not they were to give the facts upon which their conclusion was based.
+They unanimously agreed that the writer had not faithfully discharged
+his obligations as a reviewer; that he had indulged in personal
+imputations; that he was guilty of misquotations which materially
+changed the meaning; that his statements were incorrect in several
+particulars; and that his charge that Cooper had given to Elliott equal
+credit with Perry in the conduct of the battle was untrue. This last
+assertion, they add, was made after a careful examination by them of the
+history itself.
+
+The sixth point was whether the review was true or not in its essential
+facts; and if untrue, in what particulars. They all agreed that    (p. 220)
+it was untrue, and gave the particulars.
+
+The seventh point was whether the review was written in a spirit of
+impartiality and justice. The majority decided that it was not so
+written. Here again Mr. Foot made a partial dissent. He considered the
+review to have been written under the influence of a wakeful
+sensibility, inconsiderately and unnecessarily aroused in defense of the
+reputation of a beloved and deceased friend.
+
+The eighth point was to settle which of the two parties should be
+required to publish the full text of the decision at his own expense in
+newspapers published in New York, Washington, and Albany. The referees
+agreed that this was to be done by the defendant.
+
+Thus ended this suit. For Cooper the result was a great personal
+triumph. He had had to contend with the prejudices of a nation. For
+months and years he had been persistently assailed with all the weapons
+that unscrupulous partisanship or unreasoning family affection could
+wield. He had been compelled to identify his own cause with that of a
+man who, in addition to unpopularity with members of his own profession,
+had drawn upon himself the hostility of a political party. He had been
+under the necessity of controverting, in some particulars, a generally
+accepted belief. Against him had been arrayed two of the ablest lawyers
+of the bar. Naval officers of reputation had on the witness stand
+criticised his theory of the battle and contradicted his statements. He
+had been assisted in the conduct of the case by his nephew; but outside
+of this he had received help from no one. Sympathy with him, there was
+little; desire for his success, there was less; and the referees   (p. 221)
+could hardly fail to feel to some extent the influence that pervaded
+the whole country. In the face of all these odds he had fought the
+battle and won it. He had wrung respect and admiration from a hostile
+public sentiment which he had openly and contemptuously defied. Upon the
+essential matters in dispute the verdict of three men, of highest rank
+in their profession and skilled in the weighing of conflicting evidence,
+had been entirely in his favor.
+
+Cooper followed up his victory by a pamphlet which appeared in August,
+1843, entitled, "The Battle of Lake Erie: or, Answers to Messrs. Burges,
+Duer, and Mackenzie." In this he went fully over the ground. No reply
+was made to it; there was in fact none to be made. The popular tradition
+could best be maintained by silence. Silence at any rate during his
+lifetime was preserved, and silence in cases where it would have been
+creditable to have said something. It certainly affords justification
+additional to that already given, for the contemptuous opinion expressed
+by Cooper of the American press, that the newspapers which had been
+loudest in the denunciation of his history, never so much as alluded to
+the result of the trial brought to test authoritatively the fairness and
+impartiality of the narrative for which he had been condemned.
+
+After reading patiently all that has been written on both sides of this
+question, it seems to me that not only was the verdict of the
+arbitrators a just one, but that Cooper was right in the view he took.
+Still, where evidence is conflicting there is ample room for difference
+of opinion; and in regard to the conduct of Elliott at Lake Erie the
+evidence is diametrically opposed. The only secure method, therefore, of
+obtaining and maintaining a comfortable bigotry of belief on the   (p. 222)
+subject is to read carefully the testimony on one side and to despise
+the other so thoroughly as to refrain from even looking at it. This was
+then and has since been the course followed by the thick and thin
+partisans of Perry. But whether the conclusion be right or not at which
+Cooper arrived, there was never the slightest justification for the
+gross abuse to which he was subjected. He had everything to gain by
+falling in with the popular tradition and attacking Elliott. Nothing but
+lofty integrity and love of truth could have made him take the course he
+did. If a mistake at all, it was a mistake of judgment. But the charges
+brought against him were based in most instances upon deliberate
+misrepresentation of what he had said. This was especially true of the
+criticisms of Duer and Mackenzie. The perversion of meaning of one of
+his foot-notes is a striking instance of the unscrupulous nature of
+these attacks. In this Cooper had spoken of the vulgar opinion which
+celebrated as an act of special gallantry Perry's passing in an open
+boat from one ship to another as being the very least of his merits;
+that the same thing was done in the same engagement by others, including
+Elliott; that there was personal risk everywhere; and that Perry's real
+merit was his indomitable resolution not to be conquered, and the manner
+in which he sought new modes of victory when old ones failed. If this be
+depreciatory, it is depreciatory to say that greater honor is due to him
+who manifests the skill and fertility of resource of a commander than to
+him who exhibits the mere valor of a soldier. But in Duer's review of
+the "Naval History," and Mackenzie's "Life of Perry," the purport of the
+note was entirely changed. The concluding portion was dishonestly  (p. 223)
+omitted, and a paragraph that gave to the victor of Lake Erie credit for
+generalship rather than soldiership was converted into an assertion that
+the risk he had run was of slight consequence.
+
+This controversy brought in its train another libel suit. To the editor
+of the "Commercial Advertiser" the result had caused deep mortification.
+The reviewer also was naturally dissatisfied with a decision which left
+upon him the stigma of a libeler. He offered, if the case could be
+brought before a common jury for another trial, to pay double the amount
+of damages awarded, provided the result was against him. With such an
+arrangement Mr. Stone declined to have anything to do. He had had, he
+said, annoyance enough already with the suit. But he was tempted in a
+moment of vexation to indulge in remarks which implied that Cooper was
+in a hurry to get the sum awarded, with the object of putting it into
+Wall Street "for shaving purposes." The insinuation was uncalled for and
+unjustifiable; and as the editor subsequently admitted that it was only
+made in jest, it may be imputed to his credit that he had the grace to
+be ashamed of it. A libel suit, however, followed. It was at first
+decided in Cooper's favor. It was then carried up to the Court of
+Errors, and in December, 1845, more than a year after Mr. Stone's death,
+that tribunal reversed the decision. The result of the trial was hailed
+with the keenest delight by the Whig press of the state. "The Great
+Persecutor," as he was sometimes styled, had been finally foiled. "The
+rights of the press," said one of the newspapers, "are at last
+triumphant over the tyranny of courts and the vile constructions of the
+law of libel." The value of the victory, however, was largely lessened
+by the little respect in which the Court of Errors was held. This  (p. 224)
+tribunal, which consisted in the majority of cases of the Chancellor and
+of the members of the state Senate, was swept away by the Constitution
+of 1846. Its influence had gone long before. Cooper was doubtless giving
+expression to the general feeling as well as venting his own indignation
+at this particular decision when he spoke of it, as he did a little
+later, as a "pitiful imitation of the House of Lords' system," by which
+a body of "small lawyers, country doctors, merchants, farmers," with
+occasionally a man of ability, were constituted the highest tribunal in
+the state.
+
+Two other results followed incidentally this controversy about the
+battle of Lake Erie. One had the nature of comedy, the other partook
+rather of that of tragedy. Perry, as has been said, was a Rhode
+Islander, and many of the men he had with him had come from that state.
+Tristam Burges, in his lecture, had, in many instances, allowed his
+eloquence to get the better of his sense. In the preface to it, when
+published, he abandoned the latter altogether. He twice asserted, and
+gave his reasons for it, that "the fleet and battle of Erie" were to be
+regarded "as a part of the maritime affairs of Rhode Island."
+Apparently, however, the whole state took the same view. There seemed to
+be a feeling prevalent in it that its own reputation lay in destroying
+the reputation of Perry's second in command. In 1845 Elliott had a medal
+struck in honor of Cooper. It bore on one side the head of the author
+surrounded by the words, "The Personification of Honor, Truth, and
+Justice." At the suggestion of John Quincy Adams copies were sent to the
+various historical societies of the country. That statesman himself
+undertook their transmission. Accordingly one was forwarded among  (p. 225)
+the rest to the Rhode Island Society. It reached its destination in
+March. It threw that body into a tumult of excitement. The trustees
+reflected upon it anxiously. They referred it to a committee. After
+prolonged brooding the committee gave birth to a preamble and two
+resolutions. These were reported to the Society at the meeting of the
+10th of September. In one of the resolutions the letter of Adams was
+embodied, and he was thanked for the care and attention he had displayed
+in the discharge of the trust committed to him by Commodore Elliott. The
+second resolution recited substantially that Cooper had not been
+conducting himself properly in the matter, and had published opinions
+which the Society could not adopt or sanction. It therefore declined to
+accept the medal in his honor, and directed the president to transmit it
+to Adams with the request to return it to Commodore Elliott. Vigorous as
+this action may now seem, it did not then come up to the level of
+offended justice. There was to be no tampering with iniquity, even in
+high places. Elliott was not to succeed in his impudent effort to skulk
+behind the character of Adams, nor was Adams to escape reproof for the
+base uses to which he had allowed himself to be put. A motion was
+accordingly made to strike out the resolution conveying to that
+statesman the thanks of the Society. It was carried unanimously. The
+medal was accordingly returned to him with the request that he send it
+to Elliott with an attested copy of the resolution. Adams's conception
+of an Historical Society was different from that then entertained in
+Rhode Island. He clearly thought it no part of their business to be
+officially engaged in upholding the reputation of favorite sons,   (p. 226)
+or defending the character of heroes. His reply was curt, not to say
+tart. "I decline the office," he wrote, "requested of me by the
+Historical Society of Rhode Island, and hold the medal and the copy of
+the resolution, which they request me to transmit to Commodore Elliott,
+to be delivered to any person whom they, or you by their direction, may
+authorize to receive them."
+
+Cooper apparently said nothing about this action at the time. He had
+before been solemnly warned by the Providence newspapers not to risk a
+controversy with Burges, or, as they more graphically expressed it, not
+to "get into the talons of the bald-headed eagle of Rhode Island." The
+threatened danger, however, had not deterred him from exposing the
+absurdities into which even eagles fall when they use their pinions for
+writing and not for flying. Not even did he have the fear of the
+Historical Society itself before his eyes. In 1850 he took occasion to
+pay his respects to that body. He was then bringing out a revised
+edition of his novels. In the preface to "The Red Rover," he mentioned
+the stone tower at Newport, and referred to the way in which he had been
+assailed for his irreverence in calling it a mill. He repeated this
+assertion as to its character. He expressed his belief that the building
+was more probably built upon arches to defend grain from mice than men
+from savages. "We trust," he added, "this denial of the accuracy of what
+may be a favorite local theory will not draw upon us any new evidence of
+the high displeasure of the Rhode Island Historical Society, an
+institution which displayed such a magnanimous sense of the right, so
+much impartiality, and so profound an understanding of the laws of
+nature and of the facts of the day, on a former occasion when we   (p. 227)
+incurred its displeasure, that we really dread a second encounter with
+its philosophy, its historical knowledge, its wit, and its signal love
+of justice. Little institutions, like little men, very naturally have a
+desire to get on stilts; a circumstance that may possibly explain the
+theory of this extraordinary and very useless fortification. We prefer
+the truth and common sense to any other mode of reasoning, not having
+the honor to be an Historical Society at all." No reply, at least no
+public reply, came from that quarter during his life, to the views he
+had expressed. It was only when he was unable to defend himself that he
+was again assailed. In February, 1852, an account of the battle of Lake
+Erie was delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society by Usher
+Parsons, who had been assistant surgeon on board the Lawrence. His
+testimony had been somewhat severely criticised by Cooper. Now that the
+latter was in his grave he took occasion to cast imputations upon the
+motives of the historian, and asperse the honesty of his statements.
+Parsons added nothing new of moment to the discussion, for what he said
+was merely a rehash, made in a very bungling way, of the old facts and
+assertions. But the spirit in which he wrote and the insinuations in
+which he indulged furnish ample justification for the low opinion which
+Cooper held of the evidence he had previously given.
+
+With the parting shot in the preface to "The Red Rover," the
+controversy, on Cooper's part, concluded. He had, however, been
+concerned in another matter, in which the fortunes of his own work and
+the fortunes of one of its critics were strangely blended. In 1841 an
+abridged edition of his "Naval History" was brought out in one     (p. 228)
+volume. The publisher was desirous of having it included in the list of
+books purchased for the district school libraries of New York. With this
+object in view he offered it, without Cooper's knowledge, to the
+Secretary of State, John C. Spencer, who was also superintendent of
+public instruction. To him was confided, by virtue of his office, the
+selection of the works which should constitute these libraries. He
+rejected the proposal with uncomplimentary brevity. He would have
+nothing to do, he informed the publisher, with so partisan a
+performance. Soon after this he emphasized his opinion of its
+partisanship by directing the purchase of Mackenzie's "Life of Perry"--a
+work which was almost avowedly one-sided. There was a retribution almost
+poetical in the tragedy that followed; for the same lack of mental
+balance and judgment that had been exhibited in this biography of Perry
+was to show itself under circumstances peculiarly harrowing. In October,
+1841, Spencer joined the administration of John Tyler as Secretary of
+War. In December, 1842, Mackenzie, then in command of the United States
+brig Somers, gave a still further proof of his impartiality by hanging
+on the high seas Spencer's son, an acting midshipman, for alleged
+mutiny. It was done without even going through the formality of a trial.
+It was an act of manslaughter, not committed, indeed, from any feeling
+of malice, but merely from the same lack of judgment that he had
+displayed in the literary controversy in which he had been engaged.
+Mackenzie was brought before a naval court-martial, and succeeded with
+some difficulty in securing an acquittal. In 1844 the proceedings of the
+trial were published, and annexed to them was an elaborate review of the
+case by Cooper. It was written in a calm and temperate tone, but   (p. 229)
+it practically settled the question of the character of the act.
+
+Cooper's interest in the navy led him also to write a series of lives of
+officers who had been prominent in its history. The first of these
+appeared originally in "Graham's Magazine" for October, 1842, and the
+others are scattered through the volumes of that year and the years
+succeeding. In 1846 they were published in book form. Among them was a
+life of Perry. In this he took occasion to reaffirm what he had
+previously said about the battle of Lake Erie. But the injustice which
+had been done to him did not lead him to treat with injustice the man
+whose life he was writing, though it was impossible for him to say what
+would be satisfactory to Perry's partisans without falsifying what he
+believed to be the truth.
+
+In spite of the numerous attacks made upon it the "Naval History" was
+successful, as success is measured in technical works of this kind. A
+second edition, revised and corrected, appeared in April, 1840, and in
+1847 a third edition was published. At the time of his death Cooper was
+projecting a continuation of it, and had gathered together materials for
+that purpose. The original work ended with the close of the last war
+with Great Britain. He intended to bring it down to the end of the
+Mexican War. This was done by another after his death. In 1853 a new
+edition of the "Naval History" appeared with a continuation prepared by
+the Reverend Charles W. McHarg. The matter that Cooper had collected
+was used, but there was very little in what was added that was of his
+own composition. Of the original work, it is safe to say, that for the
+period which it covers it is little likely to be superseded as the (p. 230)
+standard history of the American navy. Later investigation may show
+some of the author's assertions to be erroneous. Some of his conclusions
+may turn out as mistaken as have his prophecies about the use of steam
+in war vessels. But such defects, assuming that they exist, are more
+than counterbalanced by advantages which make it a final authority on
+points that can never again be so fully considered. Many sources of
+information which were then accessible no longer exist. The men who
+shared in the scenes described, and who communicated information
+directly to Cooper, have all passed away. These are losses that can
+never be replaced, even were it reasonable to expect that the same
+practical knowledge, the same judicial spirit, and the same power of
+graphic description could be found united again in the same person.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.                                                        (p. 231)
+
+1840-1850.
+
+
+No man could go through the conflicts which Cooper had been carrying on
+for so many years unharmed or unscarred. For the hostility entertained
+and expressed toward him in England he cared but little. But though too
+proud to parade his sufferings, the injustice done him in his own land
+aroused in his heart an indignation which had in it, however, as much
+pain as anger. He could not fail to see that he was in a false position,
+that his motives were misunderstood where even they were not
+deliberately misrepresented. The generation which had shared in his
+early triumphs and had gloried in his early fame had largely passed
+away. From some who survived he had been parted by a separation bitterer
+than that of death. To the new generation that had come on he appeared
+only as the captious and censorious critic of his country. His works
+were read in every civilized country. To many men they had brought all
+the little knowledge they possessed of America; to certain regions they
+could almost be said to have first carried its name. But the land which
+he loved with a passionate fervor seemed largely to have disowned him.
+It would be vain to deny his sensitiveness to this hostility. Traces of
+his secret feeling crop out unexpectedly in his later works. They reveal
+phases of his character which would never be inferred from his acts;
+they show the existence of sentiments which he would never have    (p. 232)
+directly avowed. "There are men," says the hero of "Afloat and Ashore,"
+"so strong in principle as well as in intellect, I do suppose, that they
+can be content with the approbation of their own consciences, and who
+can smile at the praise or censure of the world alike: but I confess to
+a strong sympathy with the commendation of my fellow-creatures, and a
+strong distaste for their disapprobation." Especially marked is the
+reference to himself in the words he puts into the mouth of Columbus in
+his "Mercedes of Castile." "Genoa," says the navigator, "hath proved but
+a stern mother to me: and though nought could induce me to raise a hand
+against her, she hath no longer any claim on my services.... One cannot
+easily hate the land of his birth, but injustice may lead him to cease
+to love it. The tie is mutual, and when the country ceases to protect
+person, property, character, and rights, the subject is liberated from
+all his duties."
+
+It was the attacks connected with the controversy about the "Naval
+History" that more than anything else embittered Cooper's feelings. He
+had striven hard to write a full and trustworthy account of the
+achievements of his country upon the sea. Because he had refused to
+pervert what he deemed the truth to the gratification of private spite,
+he had been assailed with a malignity that had hardly stopped short of
+any species of misrepresentation. Rarely has devotion to the right met
+with a worse return. The reward of untiring industry, of patriotic zeal,
+and of conscientious examination of evidence, was little else than
+calumny and abuse. He felt so keenly the treatment he had received that
+he regretted having ever written the "Naval History" at all. In    (p. 233)
+a published letter of the early part of 1843 he expressed himself on
+the matter in words that come clearly from the depths of a wounded
+spirit. "Were the manuscript of what has been printed," he wrote, "now
+lying before me unpublished, I certainly should throw it into the fire
+as an act of prudence to myself and of justice to my children." In his
+triumphant reply to Burges, Duer, and Mackenzie, while he showed the
+haughty disdain he felt for the popular clamor which had condemned him
+without knowledge, he did not seek to hide the bitterness it had caused.
+"This controversy," he said, "was not of my seeking; for years have I
+rested under the imputations that these persons have brought against me,
+and I now strike a blow in behalf of truth, not from any deference to a
+public opinion that in my opinion has not honesty enough to feel much
+interest in the exposure of duplicity and artifice, but that my children
+may point to the facts with just pride that they had a father who dared
+to stem popular prejudice in order to write truth."
+
+It is in these last lines that Cooper unconsciously revealed the
+strength which enabled him to go through this roar of hostile criticism
+and calumny without having his whole nature soured. One great resource
+he possessed, and its influence cannot be overestimated. In the closest
+and dearest relations of life with which happiness is connected far more
+intimately than with the most prosperous series of outward events, he
+was supremely fortunate. In his own home his lot was favored beyond that
+of most men. However violent the storm without, there he could always
+find peace and trust and affection. The regard, indeed, felt for him by
+the female members of his family, may justly be termed devotion.   (p. 234)
+Towards all women he exhibited deference almost to the point of
+chivalry. But in the case of those of his own household there was
+mingled with it a tenderness which called forth in return that ardent
+attachment which strong natures alone seem capable of inspiring. This
+deference and tenderness were the more conspicuous by contrast with his
+opinions. These would fill with wrath unspeakable the advocates of
+women's rights. Nor was he at all particular about mincing their
+expression. He sometimes gave utterance to them in the most extreme
+form. He even made his sentiments more emphatic by putting them into the
+mouths of his female characters. "There is," says the governess in "The
+Red Rover," "no peace for our feeble sex but in submission; no happiness
+but in obedience." In his last novel he denounced furiously the law that
+gave to the wife control over her own property, and predicted, as a
+consequence, all sorts of disasters to the family that have never come
+to pass. All this was eminently characteristic. But like many strong men
+tenacious of acknowledged superiority he was content with the mere
+concession. That granted, he would yield to submission infinitely more
+than recognized equality could have a right to expect or could hope to
+gain. We may think what we please of his views about women; there can be
+but one opinion as to his conduct towards them.
+
+A characteristic instance of the wantonness with which Cooper's acts and
+motives were deliberately misrepresented during this period occurred in
+1841. In that year came out a work, which had, in its day, some little
+notoriety, but has long ago passed to the limbo of forgotten things. It
+was called "The Glory and Shame of England." The very title shows that
+this production was maliciously calculated to make the British     (p. 235)
+lion lash his tail with frenzy: and if we can trust its author, Mr. C.
+Edwards Lester, it met with fierce opposition from British residents in
+this country and their sympathizers. In an introductory letter addressed
+to the Reverend J. T. Headley, he told the story of the experiences his
+agents had undergone in securing subscriptions. In the course of it he
+made the following allusion to Cooper. "Already," he wrote, "have
+several educated and highly respectable young men engaged (with
+unprecedented success) in procuring subscribers for this work been
+rudely driven from the houses of Englishmen for crossing their threshold
+with the prospectus. And I blush (but not for myself or my country) to
+say that one of our celebrated authors, whose partiality for
+Republicanism has been more than doubted, threatened to kick one of
+these young men out of his house (castle) if he did not instantly leave
+it; exclaiming, 'Why have you the impudence to hand me that prospectus?
+I understand what the GLORY of England means; but as for the SHAME of
+England, there is no such thing. The shame is all in that base
+Democracy, which makes you presume to enter a gentleman's house to ask
+him to subscribe for such a work.'"
+
+This statement was widely copied in the newspapers. But the falsity of
+the fabrication soon became too apparent for even the journals most
+hostile to Cooper to endure. They made a vain effort to get from the
+author a confirmation of his story: but though he did not venture to
+repeat the lie manfully, he equivocated about it in a sneaking way. The
+newspapers, feeling, perhaps, that it was undesirable to arm the book
+agent with new terrors, credited at once the denial the story had
+received, and took back all imputations based upon it,--a          (p. 236)
+proceeding which ought to have shown Cooper that they were not so
+utterly given over to the father of all evil as he fancied them. But the
+author of this impudent falsehood never withdrew it, nor did the
+publishers of the volume, in which it was contained, disavow it. The
+extract given above is taken from an edition which bears the date of
+1845.
+
+It is plain that these calumnious attacks sprang largely from Cooper's
+personal unpopularity. It is equally plain that his personal
+unpopularity was mainly due to the censorious tone he had assumed in the
+criticism of his country and his countrymen. It may accordingly be said
+that, in one sense, he deserved all that he received. He had pursued a
+certain line of conduct. He had no reason to complain that it had been
+followed by the same results here that would have followed similar
+conduct anywhere. In fact, while his censure of England had been far
+lighter than that of America, the language used about him in the former
+country had been far more vulgar and abusive than that used in the
+latter. But there were facts in his career which his countrymen were
+bound to bear in mind, but which, on the contrary, they strove hard to
+forget, and sometimes to pervert. He had been the uncompromising
+defender of his native land in places where it cost reputation and
+regard to appear in that light. He was assailed largely by the men who
+had toadied to a hostile feeling which he himself had confronted. His
+criticism of America was sometimes just, sometimes unjust. It was in a
+few instances as full of outrageous misrepresentation as any which he
+had resented in others. Even when right, it was often wrongly delivered.
+But in no case did it spring from indifference or dislike. The     (p. 237)
+very loftiness of his aspirations for his country, the very vividness of
+his conception of what he trusted she was to be, made him far more than
+ordinarily sensitive to what she was, which fell short of his ideal.
+Every indignity offered to her he felt as a personal blow; every stain
+upon her honor as a personal disgrace. He had no fear as to the material
+greatness of her future. What he could not bear was that the slightest
+spot should soil the garments of her civilization. It was for her
+character, her reputation, that he most cared. It is not necessary to
+maintain that he was as wise as he was patriotic. Had he been in a
+position where he wielded political power, his impulsive and fiery
+temperament might very probably have made him an unsafe adviser. His
+whole idea of foreign policy, as connected with war, may be summed up in
+the statement that the nation should be as ready to resent a wrong done
+to ourselves as to repair a wrong done to others. Nothing could be
+better doctrine in theory. Unfortunately, the nation in all such cases
+is itself both party and judge, and the question of right becomes, in
+consequence, a hard one to decide as a matter of fact. Cooper's intense
+convictions would therefore have been likely to have led the country
+into war, had he had the control of events,--and war, too, at a time
+when under the agencies of peace it was daily gathering strength to meet
+a coming drain upon its resources in a conflict which but few were then
+far-sighted enough to see would squander wealth as lavishly as it wasted
+blood. Had it rested with him, it is quite clear that no Ashburton
+treaty would have been signed. There is a striking passage printed to
+this day in italics, which he puts into the mouth of Leather-Stocking in
+the novel of "The Deerslayer." Its point is made specially         (p. 238)
+prominent when it is remembered that this work was written while the
+controversy was going on between Great Britain and the United States in
+regard to the Northeastern boundary. "I can see no great difference,"
+says Leather-Stocking, "atween givin' up territory afore a war, out of a
+dread of war, or givin' it up after a war, because we can't help
+it--onless it be that the last is most manful and honorable."
+
+The features of Cooper's personal character, as well as his prejudices
+and limitations, are always to be kept in mind because they explain much
+that is defective in his art, and account for much of his unpopularity.
+Some of them became unpleasantly conspicuous in the writings of his
+later years. In 1840 he entered upon a new period of creative activity
+which lasted until 1850. Between and including those years he brought
+out seventeen works of fiction. Eleven of them were written during the
+first half of this period ending with 1845, and even these did not
+constitute the whole of what he then wrote. This fertility is made the
+more remarkable by the fact that during this same time he was engaged in
+the special controversy about the battle of Lake Erie, not to speak of
+his standing quarrel with the press and his running fight of libel suits
+in which he was not only plaintiff, but did the main work of the
+prosecution.
+
+It is possible that his unpopularity stirred him to unwonted exertion.
+There is certainly no question that the years from 1840 to 1845
+inclusive, are, as a whole, the supreme creative period of Cooper's
+career. Its production does not dwarf his early achievement in vigor or
+interest; but it does often show a far higher mastery of his art. Two of
+the works then written mark the culmination of his powers. These   (p. 239)
+were the Leather-Stocking tales called "The Pathfinder" and "The
+Deerslayer." The former appeared on the 14th of March, 1840, the latter
+on the 27th of August, 1841. They complete the circle of these stories;
+for others which he contemplated writing he unfortunately never executed.
+Still the series was a perfect one as it was left. The life of
+Leather-Stocking was now a complete drama in five acts, beginning with
+the first war-path in "The Deerslayer," followed by his career of
+activity and of love in "The Last of the Mohicans" and "The Pathfinder,"
+and his old age and death in "The Pioneers" and "The Prairie."
+
+"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" stand at the head of Cooper's
+novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works which
+contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and scenes even
+more thrilling. Not one can be compared with either of them as a
+finished whole. For once, whether from greater care or happier
+inspiration, Cooper discarded those features of his writings in which he
+had either failed entirely, or achieved, at the most, slight success.
+The leading characters belonged to the class which he drew best, so far
+as he was a delineator of character at all. Here were no pasteboard
+figures like Heywood in "The Last of the Mohicans," or Middleton in "The
+Prairie." Here were no supernumeraries dragged in, in a vain effort to
+amuse, as the singing-master in the former of these same stories, or the
+naturalist in the latter. Humor, Cooper certainly had; but it is the
+humor that gleams in fitful flashes from the men of earnest purposes and
+serious lives, and gives a momentary relief to the sternness and
+melancholy of their natures. The power of producing an entire      (p. 240)
+humorous creation he had not at all, and almost the only thing that mars
+the perfectness of "The Pathfinder" is the occasional effort to make one
+out of Muir, the character designed to play the part of a villain. But
+the defects in both these tales are comparatively slight. The plot in
+each is simple, but it gives plenty of room for the display of those
+qualities in which Cooper excelled. The scene of the one was laid on
+Lake Ontario and its shores; the other, on the little lake near which he
+had made his home; and the whole atmosphere of both is redolent of the
+beauty and the wildness of nature.
+
+These works were a revelation to the men who had begun to despair of
+Cooper's ever accomplishing again anything worthy of his early renown.
+They were pure works of art. No moral was everlastingly perking itself
+in the reader's face, no labored lecture to prove what was self-evident
+interrupted the progress of the story. There is scarcely an allusion to
+any of the events which had checkered the novelist's career. References
+to contemporary occurrences are so slight that they would pass unheeded
+by any one whose attention had not been called beforehand to their
+existence. These works showed what Cooper was capable of when he gave
+full play to his powers, and did not fancy he was writing a novel when
+he was indulging in lectures upon manners and customs. "It is beautiful,
+it is grand," said Balzac to a friend, speaking of "The Pathfinder."
+"Its interest is tremendous. He surely owed us this masterpiece after
+the last two or three rhapsodies he has been giving us. You must read
+it. I know no one in the world, save Walter Scott, who has risen to that
+grandeur and serenity of colors." "Never," he said in another      (p. 241)
+place, "did the art of writing tread closer upon the art of the pencil.
+This is the school of study for literary landscape-painters." Cooper
+himself, if contemporary reports are to be trusted, was at the time in
+the habit of saying that the palm of merit in his writings lay between
+this novel and "The Deerslayer." He certainly reckoned them the best of
+the five stories which have the unity of a common interest by having the
+same hero, and these five he put at the head of his performances. "If
+anything from the pen of the writer of these romances," he said, toward
+the close of his life, "is at all to outlive himself, it is
+unquestionably the series of 'The Leather-Stocking Tales.' To say this
+is not to predict a very lasting reputation for the series itself, but
+simply to express the belief that it will outlast any or all of the
+works from the same hand."
+
+But at this time no work of his was treated fairly by the American
+press. His name was rarely mentioned save in censure or derision. Both
+"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" on their first appearance were
+violently assailed. It is giving praise to a good deal of the
+contemporary criticism passed upon them to call it merely feeble and
+senseless. Much of it was marked by a malignity which fortunately was as
+contemptible intellectually as it was morally. Still, neither this
+hostile criticism nor Cooper's own personal unpopularity hindered the
+success of the books. He says, to be sure, in the preface to the revised
+edition of the Leather-Stocking tales which came out towards the end of
+his life, that probably not one in ten of those who knew all about the
+three earlier works of the series had any knowledge of the existence of
+the two last. This assertion seems exaggerated. It certainly struck many
+with surprise at the time it was made; for both "The Pathfinder"   (p. 242)
+and "The Deerslayer" had met with a large sale.
+
+Between the publication of these two novels appeared, on the 24th of
+November, 1840, "Mercedes of Castile." The subject of this was the first
+voyage of Columbus. It had several very obvious defects. It was marred
+by that prolixity of introduction which was a fault that ran through the
+majority of Cooper's tales. The reader meets with as many
+discouragements and rebuffs and turnings aside in getting under way as
+did the great navigator the story celebrates. There was, moreover, an
+excess of that cheap moralizing, that dwelling upon commonplace truths,
+which was another of Cooper's besetting sins. The only effect these
+discourses have upon the reader is to make him feel that while virtue
+may be a very good thing, it is an excessively tedious thing. As a
+novel, "Mercedes of Castile" must be regarded as a failure. On the other
+hand, as a story of the first voyage of Columbus, told with the special
+knowledge of a seaman, the accuracy of an historian, and with something
+of the fervor of a poet, it will always have a peculiar interest of its
+own.
+
+Two sea-stories followed "The Deerslayer." The first of these, entitled
+"The Two Admirals," was published in April, 1842, and the second in
+November of the same year. Cooper was at this time engaged in the
+hottest of his fight with the American press and people. Publicly and
+privately he was expressing his contempt for nearly everything and
+everybody. He, in turn, was undergoing assaults from every quarter. It
+is, therefore, a singular illustration of the love of country which
+burned in him with an intense, even when hidden, flame, that in    (p. 243)
+in the midst of his greatest unpopularity he was unwilling to desert his
+own flag for that of the land to which he was forced to go for material.
+Yet there was every inducement. He wished to do what had never before
+been done in fiction. His aim was to describe the evolutions of fleets
+instead of confining himself to the movements of single vessels. But no
+American fleet had ever been assembled, no American admiral had ever
+trod a quarter-deck. In order, therefore, to describe operations on a
+grand scale he had to have recourse to the history of the
+mother-country; but he purposely put the scene in "The Two Admirals" in
+a period when the states were still colonies. This novel takes a very
+high place among the sea-stories, so long as the action is confined to
+the water. But it suffers greatly from the carelessness and the
+incompleteness with which the details are worked out.
+
+In "Wing-and-Wing," which followed it, the fortune of a French privateer
+is told. The scene is laid in the Mediterranean, and the time is the end
+of the last century. Though inferior in power to some of his other
+sea-stories, it is far from being a poor novel; and it was, in fact, one
+of the author's favorites. But its greatest interest is in the view it
+gives of a tendency in Cooper's character which was constantly becoming
+more pronounced. The Puritanic narrowness of the very deep and genuine
+religious element in his nature was steadily increasing as time went on.
+In "Precaution" it has been already observed that the doctrine had been
+laid down by one of the characters that there should be no marriage
+between Christians and non-Christians. In "Wing-and-Wing" this doctrine
+was fully carried out. The heroine is a devout Roman Catholic. She loves
+devotedly the hero, the captain of the French privateer. She       (p. 244)
+trusts in his honor; she admires his abilities and character; she is
+profoundly affected by the fervor of the affection he bears to herself.
+But he is an infidel. He is too honest and honorable to pretend to
+believe and think differently from what he really believes and thinks.
+As she cannot convert him, she will not marry him: and in the end
+succeeds indirectly, by her refusal, in bringing about his death. It
+never seemed to occur to Cooper that the course of conduct he was
+holding up as praiseworthy, in his novels, could have little other
+effect in real life than to encourage hypocrisy where it did not produce
+misery. The man who, for the sake of gaining a great prize, changes his
+religious views is sure to have his sincerity distrusted by others. That
+can be borne. But he is equally certain to feel distrust of himself. He
+cannot have that perfect confidence in his own convictions, or even in
+his own character, that would be the case had no considerations of
+personal advantage influenced him in the slightest in the decision he
+had made, or the conclusions to which he had come. Even he who believes
+in this course of action as something to be quietly adopted might wisely
+refuse to proclaim it loudly as a rule for the conduct of life.
+
+The next important work that followed was "Wyandotte; or the Hutted
+Knoll." It was published on the 5th of September, 1843. The story, as a
+whole, was a tragic one. In spite of the fact that the events occur in
+the place and time where some of the author's greatest successes had
+been achieved, this novel is inferior to all his others that deal with
+the same scenes. Certain manifestations of his feelings and certain
+traits of character indicated, rather than expressed, in the tales
+immediately preceding, were in this one distinctly revealed. His   (p. 245)
+dislike of the newspapers and the critics has been so often referred
+to that it needs hardly to be said that in all the writings of this
+period these offenders were soundly castigated. Especially was this true
+of the preface. It was there, if anywhere, that Cooper was apt to
+concentrate all the ill-humor he felt--his wrath against the race and
+his scorn of the individual. But the two feelings that henceforth became
+conspicuously noticeable in nearly all his writings were his regard for
+the Episcopal church and his dislike of New England. They manifest
+themselves sometimes deliciously, sometimes disagreeably. In the midst
+of a story remote as possible from the occurrences of modern life,
+suddenly turn up remarks upon the apostolic origin of bishops, or the
+desirability of written prayers, and the need of a liturgy. The
+impropriety of their introduction, from a literary point of view, Cooper
+never had sufficient delicacy of taste to feel. Less excusable were the
+attacks he made upon those whose religious views differed from his own.
+The insults he sometimes offered to possible readers were as needless as
+they were brutal. In one of his later novels he mentioned "the rowdy
+religion--half-cant, half-blasphemy, that Cromwell and his associates
+entailed on so many Englishmen." There is little reason to doubt that
+under proper conditions Cooper could easily have developed into a
+sincere, narrow-minded, and ferocious bigot.[2]
+
+                   [Footnote 2: Poe wrote a review of _Wyandotte_ which
+                   appeared in _Graham's Magazine_ for November, 1843.
+                   As notices of Cooper's novels then went, this may be
+                   regarded as a favorable one, though in it the critic
+                   took occasion to divide works of fiction into two
+                   classes: one of a popular sort which anybody could
+                   write, and the other of a kind intrinsically more
+                   worthy and artistic, and capable of being produced
+                   only by the few. At the head of the former class he
+                   placed Cooper, but had the grace not to include his
+                   own name in the latter class which he had created for
+                   himself. The reader will be edified to learn from a
+                   life of Poe, written by John H. Ingram (2 vols.,
+                   London, 1880), that the writing of this review was an
+                   act of heroic and even desperate hardihood. Poe, it
+                   seems, had before valorously depreciated Halleck; but
+                   his crowning act of courage is introduced with the
+                   statement that "he dared all _published_ opinion, and
+                   in the very teeth of Cooper's supreme popularity
+                   ventured upon saying" the remarks which have already
+                   been referred to, and which are quoted in full by the
+                   biographer, to whom is also to be given the credit of
+                   the italicized word in the foregoing quotation. No
+                   small share of the common belief in regard to
+                   Cooper's character and career is based upon
+                   assertions about as trustworthy as this.]
+
+Full as marked and even more persistent were his attacks upon      (p. 246)
+New England. There was little specially characteristic of that portion
+of the country with which he did not find fault. New England cooking of
+the first class was inferior to that of the second class in the Middle
+States. The New Yorker of humble life, not of Yankee descent, spoke the
+language better than thousands of educated men in New England. This
+dislike kept steadily increasing. As late as 1844, if he sent his heroes
+to college at all, he sent them to Yale; after that year he transferred
+them to Princeton. With all this there is constantly seen going on a
+somewhat amusing struggle between his dislike and the thorough honesty
+of his nature, which forced him to admit in the men of New England
+certain characteristics of a high order. Their frugality, their
+enterprise, their readiness of resource, he could not deny. Still, he
+continued to imply that these qualities were used pretty generally for
+selfish ends. In his later works, in consequence, his villains were very
+apt to be New Englanders. They were not villains of a romantic type.
+They were mean rather than vicious; crafty rather than bold; given to
+degrading but at the same time cheap excesses. The first of these  (p. 247)
+these special representatives of the New England character is the
+powerful but somewhat unpleasant creation of Ithuel Bolt in
+"Wing-and-Wing," who finds a fitting sequel to a life passed largely in
+committing acts of doubtful morality in becoming a deacon in a
+Congregational church. After him follows a succession of personages who
+represent nearly every conceivable shade of craft, meanness, and
+dishonesty that is consistent with the respect of the Puritan community
+about them, and with a high position in the religious society of which
+they form a part.
+
+There was, it must be admitted, some justification for Cooper's feelings
+towards New England on the score of retaliation. He had been criticised
+from the beginning in that part of the country with a severity that
+often approached virulence. He had been denied there the possession of
+qualities which the rest of the world agreed in according him.
+Cultivated society has always been afflicted with a class too
+superlatively intellectual to enjoy what everybody else likes. Of these
+unhappy beings New England has had the misfortune to have perhaps more
+than her proper share. It was hardly in human nature that the
+disparagement he received from these should not have influenced his
+feelings towards the region which had given them birth and
+consideration.
+
+It is pleasant to turn aside from these scenes and sayings which show
+the least amiable side of a nature essentially noble, and pass to one of
+the little incidents that are strikingly characteristic of the man. On
+board the Sterling, the merchantman on which Cooper's first voyage was
+made, was a boy younger than himself. His name was Ned Myers. This
+person had spent his life on the sea. He had belonged to seventy-two
+crafts, exclusive of prison-ships, transports, and vessels in      (p. 248)
+which he had merely made passages. According to his own calculation he
+had been twenty-five years out of sight of land. After this long and
+varied career he had finally landed in that asylum for worn-out
+mariners, the "Sailors' Snug Harbor." From here, late in 1842, he wrote
+to Cooper, asking him if he were the one with whom he had served in the
+Sterling. Cooper, who never forgot a friend, sent him a reply,
+beginning: "I am your old shipmate, Ned," and told him when and where he
+could be found in New York. There in a few months they met after an
+interval of thirty-seven years. Cooper took the battered old hulk of a
+seaman up to Cooperstown in June, 1843, and entertained him for several
+weeks. While the two were knocking about the lake, and the latter was
+telling his adventures, it occurred to the former to put into print the
+wandering life the sailor had led. Between them the work was done that
+summer, and in November, 1843, "Ned Myers; or, Life before the Mast" was
+published. This work has often been falsely spoken of as a novel. It is,
+on the contrary, a truthful record, so far as dependence can be placed
+upon the word or the memory of the narrator. "This is literally," said
+Myers, "my own story, logged by an old shipmate."
+
+In 1842 Cooper had entered into an engagement to write regularly for
+"Graham's Magazine." This periodical, which had been formed not long
+before by the union of two others, had rapidly risen to high reputation,
+and claimed a circulation of thirty thousand copies. In the first four
+numbers of 1843 Cooper published the shortest of his stories. It was
+entitled "The Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief." For some reason
+not easy to explain, this has never been included in the regular   (p. 249)
+editions of his novels. In it he made in some measure another effort to
+reproduce the social life of New York city. The previous failure was
+repeated. An air of ridiculous unreality is given to this part of the
+story in which the impossible talk of impossible people is paraded as a
+genuine representation of what takes place in civilized society. The
+autobiographical form which he had first adopted in this tale he
+continued in the two series of "Afloat and Ashore." These appeared
+respectively in June and in December, 1844. They are essentially one
+novel, though the second part goes usually in this country under the
+title of "Miles Wallingford," the name of its hero; and in Europe under
+that of "Lucy Harding," the name of its heroine.
+
+This work, the first part more particularly, is a delightful story of
+adventure. As usual there are startling incidents, perilous situations,
+and hairbreadth escapes enough to furnish sufficient materials for a
+dozen ordinary fictions. Yet the probabilities are better preserved than
+in many of Cooper's novels where the events are far fewer, as well as
+far less striking. But it is interesting, not merely for the incidents
+it contains, but for the revelation it makes of the man who wrote it.
+Expressions of personal feeling and opinion turn up unexpectedly
+everywhere, and make slight but constantly recurring eddies in the
+stream of the story. Everything is to be found here which he had ever
+discussed before. The inferiority of the bay of New York to that of
+Naples; the miserable cooking and gross feeding of New England; the
+absolute necessity of a liturgy in religious worship; the contempt he
+felt for the misguided beings who presume to deny the existence of (p. 250)
+bishops in the primitive church; his aversion to paper money; his
+disdain for the shingle palaces of the Grecian temple school; his scorn
+of the idea that one man is as good as another; these and scores of
+similar utterances arrest constantly the reader's attention. But they do
+not jar upon his feelings as in many other of his writings. They are
+essentially different in tone. There runs through this series a vein of
+ill-natured amiability or amiable ill-nature--it is hard to say which
+phrase is more appropriate--which gives to the whole what
+horticulturists call a delicate sub-acid flavor. The roar of contempt
+found in previous writings subsided in these into a sort of prolonged
+but subdued growl. But it is a case in which the reader feels that it is
+eminently proper that the writer should growl. It is the old man of
+sixty-five telling the tale of his early years. His preferences for the
+past do not irritate us, they entertain us. It is right that the world
+about him should seem meaner and more commonplace than it did in the
+fever-fit of youth and love, when it was joy merely to live. The work,
+moreover, has another characteristic that gives it a whimsical
+attractiveness. It is a tale of the good old times when New York had
+still some New York feeling left; when her old historic names still
+carried weight and found universal respect, and her old families still
+ruled society with a despotic sway; and especially before the whole
+state had been overrun by the lank, angular, loose-jointed, slouching,
+shrewd, money-worshiping sons of the Puritans, whose restless activity
+had triumphed over the slow and steady respectability of the original
+settlers. The scene of this story, so far as it is laid on land, is
+mainly in the river counties; but in spite of that fact it is difficult
+not to think that some recollections of the writer's own youth     (p. 251)
+were not mingled in certain portions of it. Especially is it a hard task
+not to fancy that in the heroine, Lucy Harding, he was drawing, in some
+slight particulars at least, the picture of his own wife, and telling
+the story of his early love.
+
+The delineation of the New York life of the past which he had in some
+measure accomplished in these volumes, he now continued more fully in
+certain works which took up successive periods in the history of the
+state. The idea of writing them was suggested by events that were taking
+place at the time. The troubles which arose in certain counties of New
+York after the death, in 1839, of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon,
+were now culminating in a series of acts of violence and bloodshed,
+perpetrated usually by men disguised as Indians. The questions involved
+had likewise become subjects of fierce political controversy. Cooper,
+who saw in the conduct of the tenants and their supporters a dangerous
+invasion of the rights of property, plunged into the discussion of the
+matter with all the ardor of his fiery temperament. He worked himself
+into the highest state of excitement over the proceedings. It was his
+interest in this matter that led him to compose the three works which
+are collectively called the Anti-rent novels. These purport to be the
+successive records of the Littlepage family, and each is in the form of
+an autobiography. They cover a period extending from the first half of
+the eighteenth century down to the very year in which he was writing.
+
+It was about this time that Cooper's reputation touched the lowest
+point to which it has ever fallen, so far, at least, as it depends
+upon the opinion of critics and of men of letters. He was now      (p. 252)
+reaping the fruits of the various controversies in which he had been
+engaged, and of all the hostility which he had succeeded in inspiring.
+The two anti-rent novels which appeared in 1845 were "Satanstoe,"
+published in June, and "The Chainbearer," published in November. They
+may have had a large sale. But there is scarcely a review of the period
+in which they are even mentioned. Even the newspapers contain merely the
+barest reference to their existence. It is perhaps partly due to this
+contemporary silence that these two stories are among the least known
+and least read of Cooper's productions. Moreover, they are constantly
+misjudged. The tone which pervades the concluding novel of the series is
+taken as the tone which pervades the two which preceded it. This is an
+injustice as well as a mistake. In no sense is "Satanstoe," in
+particular, a political novel. There is no reference to anti-rentism in
+it save in the preface. Its only connection with the subject is the
+account it gives of the manner in which the great estates were
+originally settled. On the other hand it is a picture of colonial life
+and manners in New York during the middle of the eighteenth century,
+such as can be found drawn nowhere else so truthfully and so vividly. It
+takes rank among the very best of Cooper's stories. The characters are,
+to a certain extent, the same as in "Afloat and Ashore;" the main
+difference being, that in the one the events take place principally on
+land, and in the other on water. Even those majestic first families,
+whom he had celebrated before, loom up in these pages with renewed and
+increasing grandeur. But the story is throughout told in a graphic and
+spirited manner, and as it approaches the end and details the scenes
+that follow Abercrombie's repulse at Lake George in 1758, it       (p. 253)
+becomes intensely exciting. The villain of the tale is, of course, a New
+Englander, in this instance a long, ungainly pedagogue from Danbury,
+Connecticut. He does not, however, blossom out into the full perfection
+of his rascality until he makes his appearance in "The Chainbearer," the
+next novel of the series. This tale, though decidedly inferior to
+"Satanstoe," contains passages of great interest. The description,
+especially, of the squatter family and the life led by it, is one of
+Cooper's most powerfully drawn pictures.
+
+It has been the misfortune of this series that the member of it which
+has attracted most attention is "The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin,"
+which came out in July, 1846. This is one of three or four books which,
+in a certain way, give one a high idea of Cooper's power in the fact
+that his reputation has been able to survive them. If he had been
+anxious to help the anti-renters and hurt the patroon, he could hardly
+have done better than to write this book. As a story it has no merit.
+The incidents told in it are absurd. It is full, moreover, of the
+arguments that irritate but do not convince; and is liberally supplied,
+in addition, with prophecies that have never been realized. Everything
+that was disagreeable in Cooper's manner and bungling in his art, was
+conspicuous in this work. His dislikes were not uttered pleasantly, as
+in "Afloat and Ashore," but with an ill-nature that often bordered upon
+ferocity. A tone of pretension ran through the whole, a constant
+reference to what men think who had seen the world, with the implied
+inference that those who disagreed with the author in opinion had not
+seen the world. The feeling of the reader is, that if this extravagance
+and over-statement be the result of travel, men had better stay    (p. 254)
+at home. Nor did Cooper refrain from dragging in everything with which
+he had found fault before. We are not even spared the everlasting
+reference to the bays of New York and of Naples. The work is what he
+himself would have called provincial in the worst sense of that word.
+Even more than its spirit was its matter extraordinary for a work of
+fiction. Part of it is little else than a controversial tract on the
+superiority of Episcopacy; and the temper in which it is written could
+hardly have been grateful to any but an opponent of that church.
+"Satanstoe" is full of many of Cooper's likes and dislikes, but there
+can be no greater contrast conceived than between the tone which
+pervades that delightful creation, and the boisterous brawling of "The
+Redskins".
+
+With the publication of this series Cooper's career as a creator of
+works of imagination practically closed. He wrote several novels
+afterward, but not one of them did anything to advance his reputation.
+Some of them tended to lower it. This was not due to failure of power,
+but to its misdirection. The didactic element in his nature had now
+gained complete mastery over the artistic. The interest, such as it is,
+which belongs to his later stories, is rarely a literary interest. Not
+one of them has the slightest pretension to be termed a work of art.
+There are, at times, passages in them that thrill us, and scenes that
+display something of his old skill in description. But these are
+recollections rather than new creations. Cooper's fame would not have
+been a whit lessened, if every line he wrote after "The Chainbearer" had
+never seen the light.
+
+The works that came out during the remaining years of his life     (p. 255)
+were "The Crater," published October 12, 1847; "Jack Tier," published
+March 21, 1848; "The Oak Openings," published August 24 of the same
+year; "The Sea Lions," published April 10, 1849, and "The Ways of the
+Hour," published April 10, 1850. Of these "Jack Tier" originally made
+its appearance in "Graham's Magazine" during the years 1845-1847, under
+the title of "The Islets of the Gulf," and strictly stands first in the
+order of time. It shares with "The Crater" the distinction of being one
+of the two best of these later stories. It may be fair to mention that
+Bryant saw in it as much spirit, energy, invention, and life-like
+presentation of objects and events as in anything the author ever wrote.
+This will seem exaggerated praise when one reads it in connection with
+"The Red Rover," of which it is in some respects a feeble reflection. It
+was hard for Cooper to be uninteresting when once fairly launched upon
+the waves. Without denying the existence in "Jack Tier" of passages of
+marked power, no small share of it was merely a reproduction of what had
+been done and better done before. The old woman who is constantly
+misusing nautical terms is the most palpable imitation of the admiral's
+widow in "The Red Rover." It is a cheap expedient at best, and must at
+any time be used with extreme moderation. Above all, it is a device
+which is abused the very moment it is repeated. As displayed in "Jack
+Tier," it is simply unendurable. Cooper's silly people, in facts are apt
+to be silly not only beyond human experience but almost beyond human
+conception. The tragedy, moreover, with which this novel ends is
+intended to be terrible, while as a matter of fact it is merely
+grotesque and absurd. The tale reaches a sudden but necessary conclusion
+because nearly all the characters are disposed of at once by       (p. 256)
+drowning or killing. There is scarcely any one left to carry on the
+action of the story.
+
+"The Crater," which in one sense followed and in another preceded "Jack
+Tier," has a very special interest to the student of Cooper's character.
+He had now lived for so long a time a life remote from the real clash of
+conflicting views that he had finally reached that satisfied state of
+opinion which thinks the little circle in which it moves is the proper
+orbit for the revolution of thought of the whole race. As he advanced in
+years he narrowed instead of broadening. The intensity of his faith
+coupled with his energy of expression makes this fact very conspicuous;
+and in "The Crater" the reader is alternately attracted by the shrewd
+and keen remarks of the writer, and repelled by his illiberality. The
+novel tells the tale of a shipwrecked mariner cast away on a reef not
+laid down in any chart and unknown to navigators. This barren spot he
+makes bud and blossom as the rose. To the new Utopia he has created in
+the bosom of the Pacific he brings a body of emigrants. Their
+proceedings are entertainingly told. But the history of the decline of
+the colony from its primitive state of happiness and perfection, which
+is designed to furnish a warning, tends instead to fill the irreverent
+with amusement. While under the control of its founder and governor, who
+combined all the virtues, it is represented as enjoying peace and
+prosperity. Demagogism had no control. The reign of gossip had not
+begun. The great discovery had not been made that men were merely
+incidents of newspapers. Care was taken that the children should not
+imbibe any false principles, that is, any principles which the     (p. 257)
+ruling powers thought false. The schools did not furnish much instruction,
+but owing to this considerate watchfulness they were innocent if they
+were inefficient. Still this ingenious arrangement for stopping the
+progress of the human mind could not work forever. From the start there
+was a dangerous element, though in this case the colonists had not come
+from New England but from the Middle States. Very speedily that innate
+depravity of the human heart which does not like to hear a clergyman
+read prayers, which looks with suspicion upon a liturgy, began to
+manifest itself. This, however, was kept under control until the arrival
+of new colonists. This Eden was then invaded not by one serpent only,
+but by several. Four of them were clergymen; one a Presbyterian, one a
+Methodist, one a Baptist, and one a Quaker. This was too much for the
+solitary Episcopalian who had previously been on the ground, and who is
+represented as combining a weak physical constitution with a very strong
+conception of his apostolic authority as a divine. It must be conceded
+that for a population of about five hundred souls the supply of
+spiritual teachers was ample. With them came also a lawyer and an
+editor. The seeds of dissolution were at once sown. The colonists became
+ungrateful, and began to inquire not only into the conduct of their
+governor, but even into the title by which he held some of his lands. He
+finally left the spot in disgust, and having first taken the precaution
+to dispose of his property at a good price, returned to his native
+country. A natural yearning to see the community he had established led
+the discoverer to revisit, after a few months, the scene of his trials.
+He sailed to the spot but he could not find it. A convulsion of nature
+similar to that which had raised the reef above the level of the   (p. 258)
+waves had sunk it again out of sight. Ungrateful colonists,
+clergymen, editor, and lawyer, had all perished.
+
+In June, 1847, Cooper made a trip to the West, and went as far as
+Detroit. One result of this journey was the novel of "The Oak Openings;
+or, the Bee-Hunter." This must be looked upon as a decided failure. The
+desire to lecture his fellow-men on manners had now given place to a
+desire to edify them; and he was no more successful in the one than he
+had been in the other. In this instance the issue of the story depends
+on the course of an Indian who is converted to Christianity by
+witnessing the way in which a self-denying Methodist missionary meets
+his death. The whole winding-up is unnatural, and the process of turning
+the organizing chief of a great warlike confederacy into a Sunday-school
+hero is only saved from being commonplace by being absurd. Far more
+singular, however, was the central idea of "The Sea Lions," the story
+that followed. This is certainly one of the most remarkable conceptions
+that it ever entered into the mind of a novelist to create. It shows the
+intense hold religious convictions were taking of Cooper's feelings, and
+to what extremes of opinion they were carrying him. In "Wing-and-Wing"
+the hero had been discarded because he was a thorough infidel. But
+Cooper's sentiments had now moved a long distance beyond this
+milk-and-water way of dealing with religious differences. In "The Sea
+Lions" the hero merely denied the divinity of Christ, while he professed
+to hold him in reverence as the purest and most exalted of men. But if
+there was any one point on which the heroine was sound and likewise
+inflexible, it was the doctrine of the Trinity. Whatever else she  (p. 259)
+doubted, she was absolutely sure of the incarnation. She would not
+unite herself with one who presumed to "set up his own feeble
+understanding of the nature of the mediation between God and man in
+opposition to the plainest language of revelation as well as to the
+prevalent belief of the Church." In this case the hero is converted,
+apparently by spending a winter in the Antarctic seas. An important
+agent in effecting this change of belief is a common seaman who improves
+every occasion to drop into the conversation going on, some unexpected
+Trinitarian remark. When the master has almost against hope saved his
+vessel, and in the thankfulness of his heart invokes blessing on the
+name of God, Stimson is on hand at his elbow to add, "and that of his
+only and _true_ Son." This novel is, indeed, a further but unneeded
+proof of how little Cooper was able to project himself out of the circle
+of his own feelings, or to aid any cause which he had near to his heart.
+He had had much to say about New England cant. Yet in this work he can
+find no words sufficiently strong to praise what he calls the zealous
+freedom and Christian earnestness of one of the most offensive canters
+that the whole range of fiction presents. It would be unjust to deny
+that when in "The Sea Lions" Cooper abandons his metaphysics and turns
+to his real business, that he creates a powerful story. One may almost
+be said at times to feel the cold, the desolation, the darkness, and the
+gloom of an Antarctic winter confronting and overshadowing the spirit.
+But there can be little that is more tedious than the dry chaff of
+theological discussion which is here threshed for us over and over
+again. Believers in the Trinity had as little reason as believers in
+Episcopacy to rejoice in Cooper's advocacy of their faith. There   (p. 260)
+was nothing original in his views; there was nothing pointed or
+forcible in his statement of them. He meant to inculcate a lesson, and
+the only lesson that can possibly be drawn is the sufficiently absurd
+one that dwellers in the chilly spiritual clime of Unitarianism can be
+cured of their faith in that icy creed by being subjected to the horrors
+of a polar winter. Far more clearly does the novel show the falling-off
+in his artistic conceptions and the narrowing process his opinions were
+undergoing. At the rate this latter was taking place it seems probable
+that had he lived to write another novel on a theme similar to this, his
+hero would have been compelled to abandon his belief in Presbyterianism,
+Congregationalism, Methodism, or some other ism before he would be found
+worthy of being joined in the marriage relation to his Episcopalian
+bride.
+
+The "Ways of the Hour" was the last work that Cooper published.
+Everything he now wrote was written with a special object. The design of
+this was to attack trial by jury; but he was not prevented by that fact
+from discussing several other matters that were uppermost in his mind.
+The incidents of the story utterly destroyed the effectiveness of the
+lesson that it was intended to convey. It would be dignifying too much
+many of the events related in it to say that they are improbabilities:
+they are simply impossibilities. The "Ways of the Hour" was, however,
+like the preceding novels, often full of suggestive remarks, on many
+other points than trial by jury. It showed in numerous instances the
+working of an acute, vigorous, and aggressive intellect. The good
+qualities it has need not be denied: only they are not the good
+qualities that belong to fiction.
+
+The  pecuniary profits that his works brought him during this      (p. 261)
+latter period of his life there are, perhaps, no means of ascertaining.
+Much of the literary activity of his last years was due to necessity
+rather than to inspiration. He had been concerned for a long time in
+company with a number of men of business in a series of cotton
+speculations, and in others connected with Western lands. In both cases
+the ventures were unprofitable, and the desire of retrieving his losses
+was one of the causes that led to this constant literary production.
+There were other circumstances, too, besides his mere unpopularity that
+had tended to reduce the amount gained from what he wrote. After 1838,
+the income received from England naturally fell off, in consequence of
+the change in the law of copyright. The act of Parliament passed in that
+year provided that no foreign author outside of British dominions should
+have copyright in those dominions unless the country to which he
+belonged gave copyright to the English author. No fault can be found
+with this legislation on the score of justice. The value of anything
+produced by a citizen of the United States fell at once as a necessary
+consequence of the want of protection against piracy. The British
+publisher, not from any motive of mere personal gain, but from an
+unselfish desire by retaliatory proceedings to bring about a better
+state of things, went speedily to work to plunder the American author
+who favored international copyright in order to show his disgust at the
+conduct of the American publisher who opposed it. As a matter of fact
+Cooper's novels were from that time published in Great Britain, in cheap
+form, and sold at a cheap price. Such reprints could not but lower the
+amount which could be offered for his work. Newspaper reports, the (p. 262)
+correctness of which can neither be affirmed nor denied, frequently
+mention that for the copyright of each of his earlier novels he was in
+the habit of receiving a thousand guineas. We know positively that for
+his later tales, as fast as they were written, Bentley, his London
+publisher, usually paid him three hundred pounds each.
+
+In America circumstances of another kind contributed to reduce the
+profits from his works. Most of them were published at a price that
+would have required an immense sale to make them remunerative at all. It
+was about 1840 that two weekly newspapers in New York, "The New World,"
+and "The Brother Jonathan," had begun the practice of reprinting in
+their columns the writings of the most popular novelists which were then
+coming out in England. As soon as these were finished they were brought
+out in parts and sold at a small price. This piracy was so successful
+that imitators sprang up everywhere. The large publishing houses were
+soon obliged to follow in the wake of the newspaper establishments. The
+reign of the so-called "cheap and nasty" literature began. The
+productions of the greatest foreign novelists were sold for a song. The
+native writer was subjected to a competition which forced him at once to
+lower his price or to go unread. Beginning with "Wing-and-Wing," the
+rate at which Cooper's works were published furnishes a striking
+commentary upon the cheap professions of sympathy with letters current
+in this country, indicates suggestively the inspiriting inducements held
+out by the law-making power to enter upon the career of authorship, and
+shows with disgraceful clearness how utterly the interests of the men
+engaged in the creation of literature had been subordinated to the (p. 263)
+greed of those who traded in it. The barest recital of the facts
+makes evident the nature of the encouragement given. "Wing-and-Wing" was
+published at twenty-five cents a volume. So were "Wyandotte," "The
+Redskins," "The Crater," "Jack Tier," "The Oak Openings," and "The Sea
+Lions." The four volumes of the series "Afloat and Ashore" were
+published at thirty-seven and a half cents each; and at the same rate
+"Satanstoe" came out, and also "Ned Myers." It was not till Cooper's
+last work appeared that the price went up as high as a dollar and
+twenty-five cents. This was in one volume; but it is to be kept in mind,
+in considering these prices, that in America his novels regularly
+appeared in two.
+
+One further experiment Cooper made in a new field; and with it the
+record of his literary life closes. In the year 1850 he tried the stage.
+On the 18th of June a comedy written by him was brought out at Burton's
+Theatre, New York. It was entitled, "Upside Down; or, Philosophy in
+Petticoats." For the three nights following the 18th it was acted, and
+was then withdrawn. It has never been played since, nor has it been
+published.
+
+All these years he spent his time mainly in his home at Cooperstown.
+There, besides the pleasure he found in the improvement of the extensive
+grounds about his house, he gave full vent to that latent passion for
+wasting money in agricultural operations, which seems to be one of the
+most widely-extended peculiarities of the English race. On the eastern
+shore of the lake, about a mile from the village, he bought a farm of
+about two hundred acres which he called the "Chalet." The view from it
+was exceedingly beautiful, looking as it did down the Valley of    (p. 264)
+the Susquehanna. The farm, too, had its picturesque and poetical
+features; but unhappily it was little adapted to practical agriculture.
+It stood on a hill-side, the abruptness of which was only occasionally
+relieved by a few acres of level land. Much of it was still covered with
+the original forest; and a good deal of the cleared land was full of
+stumps. To superintend the removal of these latter was one of Cooper's
+chief relaxations from mental labor. It is a desirable thing to do, but
+it has never been found pecuniarily profitable in itself. To this place
+Cooper daily drove in the summer season, and spent two or three hours
+directing the operations that were going on, finding constantly new ways
+to spend money, and doubtless pleasing himself occasionally with the
+fancy that the farm would at some time pay expenses. And in the best
+sense it did pay expenses. It gave regular diversion to his life; it
+ministered constantly to his enjoyment of the beautiful in scenery; and
+it occupied his thoughts with perpetual projects of improvement for
+which its character furnished unlimited opportunities. He had bought it
+for pleasure and not for profit; and in that it yielded him a full
+return for the money invested.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.                                                       (p. 265)
+
+1850-1851.
+
+
+Cooper, at the time he published his last novel, was more than sixty
+years of age; but as yet he showed no traces of physical or intellectual
+decay. His literary activity remained unabated, though he was now
+purposing to direct it to other fields than that of fiction. A decided
+change was likewise taking place in the estimation in which he was held
+by the public. He had not become popular, to be sure; but he had become
+less unpopular. There was, moreover, a feeling pretty generally
+prevalent that he had been hardly used; that in many respects he had
+been a wronged and persecuted man. The ranks of those who had remained
+faithful to him during all these years of obloquy were beginning to be
+largely swelled from the newer generation which had neither part in, nor
+knowledge of, the bitter controversies in which he had been concerned.
+His friends were purposing to give a public dinner in his honor in order
+to show their regard for him as a man, and their appreciation of the
+credit his writings had brought to his country. Before this project
+could be carried into effect, the illness had overtaken him which ended
+in death.
+
+On the other hand time had, in some respect, mollified his own feelings.
+Many things had occurred to make him more gentle and forbearing. Much of
+this was certainly due to the increasing strength of his           (p. 266)
+religious convictions, which as has been noticed, steadily deepened
+during his last years. It is clear from much that appears in his later
+novels that these had, to some extent, been perverted from their
+legitimate effect, and had made him at intervals illiberal and even
+bitter. But they had brought calm to an excitable nature, and healing to
+a spirit which had been sometimes sorely wounded. In 1851 he carried out
+a plan long before determined upon. In March of that year he became a
+communicant in the Episcopal church, and in the following July was
+confirmed by his brother-in-law, Bishop DeLancey.
+
+In the summer of 1850 he was in New York city. "At this time," says
+Bryant, "his personal appearance was remarkable. He seemed in perfect
+health, and in the highest energy and activity of his faculties. I have
+scarcely seen any man at that period of life on whom his years sat more
+lightly." But even then the disease which was to destroy him was lurking
+in his system. In the beginning of April, 1851, he came again to New
+York partly for medical advice, and his changed appearance struck all
+his friends with surprise and sorrow. The digestive organs were
+impaired, the liver was torpid, and a general feebleness had taken the
+place of the vigor for which he had previously been distinguished.
+He remained several weeks in the city and then returned to Cooperstown.
+That place he never left again. The disease made rapid advances, and at
+last became a confirmed dropsy. In the latter part of August his old and
+intimate friend, Dr. Francis, of New York, went up to Cooper's country
+home to make a full examination of his condition. He found him worse, if
+anything, than he expected. There was, in fact, little hope of     (p. 267)
+recovery. The physician told him frankly of the danger he was in, and of
+the possibilities of restoration to health that still existed. Though
+his own perception of his condition was too clear to make the
+announcement a shock, it could not have been other than a
+disappointment. He had many projects still unfulfilled. Plans of new
+works were in his mind; and one of them on the "Towns of Manhattan,"
+partly written, was at that very time in press. But he met the news as
+bravely as he had the various troubles of his eventful life. After Dr.
+Francis' departure the malady steadily increased, and it soon became
+evident that expectation of recovery must be given up. During all these
+days he was quiet and cheerful, and his last hours were full of peace
+and hope. On Sunday, the 14th of September, 1851, at half-past one in
+the afternoon, he died. Had he lived one day longer he would have been
+sixty-two years old. In a little more than four months his wife followed
+him to the grave. They lie side by side in the grounds of Christ's
+Church at Cooperstown.
+
+His property was found, at his death, to be much impaired in value.
+Enough was left to insure the family a competency, but it became
+necessary to give up the mansion where so many years of his life had
+been passed. The dwelling went, accordingly, into other hands, and it
+was not a long while after that it burned down. Part of the grounds have
+since become public property, and that which is not so employed is
+little better than a waste.
+
+The death of men of letters did not excite at that time the attention
+which interest or fashion pays to it now. Cooper's relations, too, with
+many, had been of so strained a nature that it was hardly to be    (p. 268)
+expected that his loss should arouse universal regret. Yet it was
+felt on all hands that a great man had fallen. On the 25th of September,
+a few days after his death, a meeting was held in the City Hall, New
+York, with the intent to make a suitable demonstration of respect to his
+memory. Washington Irving presided, and a committee of prominent men of
+letters was appointed to carry into effect the measures for which the
+gathering had been called. A discourse on the life, genius, and writings
+of the dead author was fixed upon to be given by his intimate friend,
+William Cullen Bryant. On the 25th of February, 1852, this address was
+delivered at Metropolitan Hall before the most cultivated audience the
+city could boast. With a singular ineptitude, not generally appreciated
+at the time, Daniel Webster was selected to preside. He had nothing to
+say, and he said it wretchedly. It was doubtful if he had ever read a
+single work of the novelist. That, at least, is a natural inference from
+his speech, which, furthermore, is little else than a collection of
+dreary platitudes. It was after this fashion that he paid his respects
+to the man whose memory they had come together to honor. "As far as I am
+acquainted," he remarked, "with the writings of Mr. Cooper, they uphold
+good sentiments, sustain good morals, and maintain just taste; and after
+saying this I have next to add, that all his writings are truly
+patriotic and American throughout and throughout." This did not even
+reach the respectability of commonplace, and the commonplaces to which
+Webster soared in other parts of his speech did not have the poor merit
+of being sonorous. Still he looked so majestic and imposing that most of
+his audience were profoundly impressed by the justness and value   (p. 269)
+of his observations. Any failure, however, on his part in the matter of
+what he said, was more than made up by the address delivered by Byrant.
+It is not very long; it contains a few errors of fact, especially in the
+dates; but it is not only the most eloquent tribute that has been paid
+to the dead author, it has also remained during all these years the
+fullest account of the life he lived, and the work he did.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+More than sixty years have gone by since Cooper began to write; more
+than thirty since he ceased to live. If his reputation has not
+advanced during the period that has passed since his death, it has
+certainly not receded. Nor does it seem likely to undergo much change
+in the future. The world has pretty well made up its mind as to the
+value of his work. The estimate in which it is held will not be
+materially raised or lowered by anything which criticism can now
+utter. This will itself be criticised for being too obvious; for it
+can do little but repeat, with variation of phrase, what has been
+constantly said and often better said before. There is, however, now a
+chance of its meeting with fairer consideration. The cloud of
+depreciation which seems to settle upon the achievement of every man
+of letters soon after death, it was Cooper's fortune to encounter
+during life. This was partly due to the literary reaction which had
+taken place against the form of fiction he adopted, but far more to
+the personal animosities he aroused. We are now far enough removed
+from the prejudices and passions of his time to take an impartial view
+of the man, and to state, without bias for or against him, the
+conclusions to which the world has very generally come as to his
+merits and defects as a writer.
+
+At the outset it is to be said that Cooper is one of the people's  (p. 270)
+novelists as opposed to the novelists of highly-cultivated men. This
+does not imply that he has not been, and is not still, a favorite with
+many of the latter. The names of those, indeed, who have expressed
+excessive admiration for his writings far surpass in reputation and even
+critical ability those who have spoken of him depreciatingly. Still the
+general statement is true that it is with the masses he has found favor
+chiefly. The sale of his works has known no abatement since his death.
+It goes on constantly to an extent that will surprise any one who has
+not made an examination of this particular point. His tales continue to
+be read or rather devoured by the uncultivated many. They are often
+contemptuously criticised by the cultivated few, who sometimes affect to
+look upon any admiration they may have once had for them as belonging
+exclusively to the undisciplined taste of childhood.
+
+This state of things may be thought decisive against the permanent
+reputation of the novelist. The opinion of the cultivated few, it is
+said, must prevail over that of the uncultivated many. True as this is
+in certain cases, it is just as untrue in others. It is, in fact, often
+absurdly false when the general reading public represents the
+uncultivated many. On matters which come legitimately within the scope
+of their judgment the verdict of the great mass of men is infinitely
+more trustworthy than that of any small body of men, no matter how
+cultivated. Of plenty of that narrow judgment of select circles which
+mistakes the cackle of its little coterie for the voice of the world,
+Cooper was made the subject, and sometimes the victim, during his
+lifetime. There were any number of writers, now never heard of, who
+were going to outlive him, according to literary prophecies then   (p. 271)
+current, which had everything oracular in their utterance except
+ambiguity. Especially is this true of the notices of his stories of the
+sea. As I have turned over the pages of defunct criticism, I have come
+across the names of several authors whose tales descriptive of ocean
+life were, according to many contemporary estimates, immensely superior
+to anything of the kind Cooper had produced or could produce. Some of
+these writers enjoyed for a time high reputation. Most of them are now
+as utterly forgotten as the men who celebrated their praises.
+
+But however unfair as a whole may be the estimate of cultivated men in
+any particular case, their adverse opinion is pretty certain to have a
+foundation of justice in its details. This is unquestionably true in the
+present instance. Characteristics there are of Cooper's writings which
+would and do repel many. Defects exist both in manner and matter. Part
+of the unfavorable judgment he has received is due to the prevalence of
+minor faults, disagreeable rather than positively bad. These, in many
+cases, sprang from the quantity of what he did and the rapidity with
+which he did it. The amount that Cooper wrote is something that in
+fairness must always be taken into consideration. He who has crowded
+into a single volume the experience of a life must concede that he
+stands at great advantage as regards matters of detail, and especially
+as regards perfection of form, with him who has manifested incessant
+literary activity in countless ways. It was the immense quantity that
+Cooper wrote and the haste and inevitable carelessness which wait upon
+great production, that are responsible for many of his minor faults.
+Incongruities in the conception of his tales, as well as in their  (p. 272)
+execution, often make their appearance. Singular blunders can be found
+which escaped even his own notice in the final revision he gave his works.
+In "Mercedes of Castile," for instance, the heroine presents her lover
+on his outward passage with a cross framed of sapphire stones. These,
+she tells him, are emblems of fidelity. When she comes to inquire about
+them after his return she speaks of them as turquoise. Again, in "The
+Deerslayer" three castles of a curious set of chessmen are given in one
+part of the story to the Indians. Later on, two other castles of the
+same set make their appearance. This is a singular mistake for Cooper to
+overlook, for chess was a game of which he was very fond.
+
+In the matter of language this rapidity and carelessness often
+degenerated into downright slovenliness. It was bad enough to resort to
+the same expedients and to repeat the same scenes. Still from this
+charge few prolific novelists can be freed. But in Cooper there were
+often words and phrases which he worked to death. In "The Wept of
+Wish-ton-Wish" there is so perpetual a reference to the quiet way in
+which the younger Heathcote talks and acts that it has finally anything
+but a quieting effect upon the reader's feelings. In "The Headsman of
+Berne," "warm" in the sense of "well-to-do," a disagreeable usage at
+best, occurs again and again, until the feeling of disagreeableness it
+inspires at first becomes at last positive disgust. This trick of
+repetition reaches the climax of meaninglessness in "The Ways of the
+Hour." During the trial scene the judge repeats on every pretext and as
+a part of almost every speech, the sentence "time is precious;" and it
+is about the only point on which he is represented as taking a clear and
+decided stand.
+
+There were other faults in the matter of language that to some     (p. 273)
+will seem far worse. I confess to feeling little admiration for that
+grammar-school training which consists in teaching the pupil how much
+more he knows about our tongue than the great masters who have moulded
+it; which practically sets up the claim that the only men who are able
+to write English properly are the men who have never shown any capacity
+to write it at all; and which seeks, in a feeble way, to cramp usage by
+setting up distinctions that never existed, and laying down rules which
+it requires uncommon ignorance of the language to make or to heed. Still
+there are lengths to which the most strenuous stickler for freedom of
+speech does not venture to go. There are prejudices in favor of the
+exclusive legitimacy of certain constructions that he feels bound to
+respect. He recognizes, as a general rule, for instance, that when the
+subject is in the singular it is desirable that the verb should be in
+the same number. For conventionalities of syntax of this kind Cooper was
+very apt to exhibit disregard, not to say disdain. He too often passed
+the bounds that divide liberty from license. It scarcely needs to be
+asserted that in most of these cases the violation of idiom arose from
+haste or carelessness. But there were some blunders which can only be
+imputed to pure unadulterated ignorance. He occasionally used words in
+senses unknown to past or present use. He sometimes employed grammatical
+forms that belong to no period in the history of the English language. A
+curious illustration of a word combining in itself both these errors is
+_wists_, a verb, in the third person, singular. If this be anything it
+should be _wist_, the preterite of _wot_, and should have accordingly
+the meaning "knew." Cooper uses it in fact as a present with the   (p. 274)
+sense of "wishes." Far worse than occasional errors in the use of words
+are errors of construction. His sentences are sometimes involved in the
+most hopeless way, and the efforts of grammar to untie the knot by any
+means known to it serve only to make conspicuous its own helplessness.
+
+All this is, in itself, of slight importance when set off against
+positive merits. But it is constantly forced upon the reader's attention
+by the fact that Cooper himself was exceedingly critical on points of
+speech. He was perpetually going out of his way to impart bits of
+information about words and their uses, and it is rare that he blunders
+into correct statement or right inference. He often, indeed, in these
+matters carried ignorance of what he was talking about, and confidence
+in his own knowledge of it to the extremest verge of the possible. He
+sometimes mistook dialectic or antiquated English for classical, and
+laboriously corrected the latter by putting the former in parentheses by
+its side. In orthography and pronunciation he had never got beyond that
+puerile conception which fancies it a most creditable feature in a word
+that its sound shall not be suggested by anything in its spelling. In
+the case of proper names this was more than creditable; it was
+aristocratic. So in "The Crater" great care is taken to tell us that the
+hero's name, though written Woolston, was pronounced Wooster; and that
+he so continued to sound it in spite of a miserable Yankee pedagogue who
+tried hard to persuade him to follow the spelling. So, again, in "The
+Ways of the Hour" we are sedulously informed that Wilmeter is to be
+pronounced Wilmington. But absurdities like these belonged not so much
+to Cooper as to the good old times of gentlemanly ignorance in     (p. 275)
+which he lived. In his etymological vagaries, however, he sometimes left
+his age far behind. In "The Oak Openings" he enters upon the discussion
+of the word "shanty." He finds the best explanation of its origin is to
+suppose it a corruption of _chiente_, a word which he again supposed
+might exist in Canadian French, and provided it existed there, he
+further supposed that in that dialect it might mean "dog-kennel." The
+student of language, much hardened to this sort of work on the part of
+men of letters, can read with resignation "this plausible derivation,"
+as it is styled. Cooper, however, not content with the simple glory of
+originating it, actually uses throughout the whole work _chiente_
+instead of "shanty." This rivals, if it does not outdo, the linguistic
+excesses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
+
+There are imperfections far more serious than these mistakes in
+language. He rarely attained to beauty of style. The rapidity with which
+he wrote forbids the idea that he ever strove earnestly for it. Even the
+essential but minor grace of clearness is sometimes denied him. He had
+not, in truth, the instincts of the born literary artist. Satisfied with
+producing the main effect, he was apt to be careless in the consistent
+working out of details. Plot, in any genuine sense of the word "plot,"
+is to be found in very few of his stories. He seems rarely to have
+planned all the events beforehand; or, if he did, anything was likely to
+divert him from his original intention. The incidents often appear to
+have been suggested as the tale was in process of composition. Hence the
+constant presence of incongruities with the frequent result of bringing
+about a bungling and incomplete development. The introduction of certain
+characters is sometimes so heralded as to lead us to expect from   (p. 276)
+them far more than they actually perform. Thus, in "The Two Admirals,"
+Mr. Thomas Wychecombe is brought in with a fullness of description that
+justifies the reader in entertaining a rational expectation of finding
+in him a satisfactory scoundrel, capable, desperate, full of resources,
+needing the highest display of energy and ability to be overcome. This
+reasonable anticipation is disappointed. At the very moment when
+respectable determined villainy is in request, he fades away into a
+poltroon of the most insignificant type who is not able to hold his own
+against an ordinary house-steward.
+
+The prolixity of Cooper's introductions is a fault so obvious to every
+one that it needs here reference merely and not discussion. A similar
+remark may be made as to his moralizing, which was apt to be cheap and
+commonplace. He was much disposed to waste his own time and to exhaust
+the patience of his reader by establishing with great fullness of
+demonstration and great positiveness of assertion the truth of
+principles which most of the human race are humbly content to regard as
+axioms. A greater because even a more constantly recurring fault is the
+gross improbability to be found in the details of his stories. There is
+too much fiction in his fiction. We are continually exasperated by the
+inadequacy of the motive assigned; we are irritated by the unnatural if
+not ridiculous conduct of the characters. These are perpetually doing
+unreasonable things, or doing reasonable things at unsuitable times.
+They take the very path that must lead them into the danger they are
+seeking to shun. They engage in making love when they ought to be flying
+for their lives. His heroes, in particular, exhibit a capacity for going
+to sleep in critical situations, which may not transcend           (p. 277)
+extraordinary human experience, but does ordinary human belief. Nor is
+improbability always confined to details. It pervades sometimes the
+central idea of the story. In "The Bravo," for instance, the hero is the
+most pious of sons, the most faithful of friends, the most devoted of
+lovers. The part he has to play in the tale is to appear to be a
+cutthroat of the worst type, without doing a single thing to merit his
+reputation. It is asking too much of human credulity to believe that a
+really good man could long sustain the character of a remorseless
+desperado by merely making faces. This improbability, moreover, is most
+marked in the tales which are designed to teach a lesson. A double
+disadvantage is the result. The story is spoiled for the sake of the
+moral; and the moral is lost by the grossly improbable nature of the
+story. In the last novel Cooper wrote this is strikingly seen. He who
+can credit the possibility of the events occurring that are told in "The
+Ways of the Hour" must give up at the same time his belief in the maxim
+that truth is stranger than fiction.
+
+It has now become a conventional criticism of Cooper that his characters
+are conventional. Such a charge can be admitted without seriously
+disparaging the value of his work. In the kind of fiction to which his
+writings belong, the persons are necessarily so subordinate to the
+events that nearly all novelists of this class have been subjected to
+this same criticism. So regularly is it made, indeed, that Scott when he
+wrote a review of some of his own tales for the "Quarterly" felt obliged
+to adopt it in speaking of himself. He describes his heroes as amiable,
+insipid young men, the sort of pattern people that nobody cares a
+farthing about. Untrue as this is of many of Scott's creations,    (p. 278)
+it is unquestionably true of the higher characters that Cooper
+introduces. They are often described in the most laudatory terms; but it
+is little they do that makes them worthy of the epithets with which they
+are honored. Their talk is often of a kind not known to human society.
+One peculiarity is especially noticeable. A stiffness, not to say an
+appearance of affectation is often given to the conversation by the use
+of _thou_ and _thee_. This was probably a survival in Cooper of the
+Quakerism of his ancestors; for he sometimes used it in his private
+letters. But since the action of his stories was in nearly all cases
+laid in a period in which the second person singular had become obsolete
+in ordinary speech, an unnatural character is given to the dialogue,
+which removes it still farther from the language of real life.
+
+His failure in characterization was undoubtedly greatest in the women he
+drew. Cooper's ardent admirers have always resented this charge. Each
+one of them points to some single heroine that fulfills the highest
+requirements that criticism could demand. It seems to me that close
+study of his writings must confirm the opinion generally entertained.
+All his utterances show that the theoretical view he had of the rights,
+the duties, and the abilities of women, were of the most narrow and
+conventional type. Unhappily it was a limitation of his nature that he
+could not invest with charm characters with whom he was not in moral and
+intellectual sympathy. There was, in his eyes, but one praiseworthy type
+of womanly excellence. It did not lie in his power to represent any
+other; on one occasion he unconsciously satirized his inability even to
+conceive of any other. In "Mercedes of Castile" the heroine is     (p. 279)
+thus described by her aunt: "Her very nature," she says, "is made up of
+religion and female decorum." It is evident that the author fancied that
+in this commendation he was exhausting praise. These are the sentiments
+of a man with whom devoutness and deportment have become the culminating
+conception of the possibilities that lie in the female character. His
+heroines naturally conformed to his belief. They are usually spoken of
+as spotless beings. They are made up of retiring sweetness, artlessness,
+and simplicity. They are timid, shrinking, helpless. They shudder with
+terror on any decent pretext. But if they fail in higher qualities, they
+embody in themselves all conceivable combinations of the proprieties and
+minor morals. They always give utterance to the most unexceptionable
+sentiments. They always do the extremely correct thing. The dead
+perfection of their virtues has not the alloy of a single redeeming
+fault. The reader naturally wearies of these uninterestingly discreet
+and admirable creatures in fiction as he would in real life. He feels
+that they would be a good deal more attractive if they were a good deal
+less angelic. With all their faultlessness, moreover, they do not attain
+an ideal which is constantly realized by their living, but faulty sisters.
+They do not show the faith, the devotion, the self-forgetfulness, and
+self-sacrifice which women exhibit daily without being conscious that
+they have done anything especially creditable. They experience, so far
+as their own words and acts furnish evidence of their feelings, a sort
+of lukewarm emotion which they dignify with the name of love. But they
+not merely suspect without the slightest provocation, they give up the
+men to whom they have pledged the devotion of their lives, for reasons
+for which no one would think of abandoning an ordinary             (p. 280)
+acquaintance. In "The Spy" the heroine distrusts her lover's integrity
+because another woman does not conceal her fondness for him. In "The
+Heidenmauer" one of the female characters resigns the man she loves
+because on one occasion, when heated by wine and maddened by passion, he
+had done violence to the sacred elements. There was never a woman in
+real life, whose heart and brain were sound, that conformed her conduct
+to a model so contemptible. It is just to say of Cooper that as he
+advanced in years he improved upon this feeble conception. The female
+characters of his earlier tales are never able to do anything
+successfully but to faint. In his later ones they are given more
+strength of mind as well as nobility of character. But at best, the
+height they reach is little loftier than that of the pattern woman of
+the regular religious novel. The reader cannot help picturing for all of
+them the same dreary and rather inane future. He is as sure, as if their
+career had been actually unrolled before his eyes, of the part they will
+perform in life. They will all become leading members of Dorcas
+societies; they will find perpetual delight in carrying to the poor
+bundles of tracts and packages of tea; they will scour the highways and
+by-ways for dirty, ragged, hatless, shoeless, and godless children, whom
+they will hale into the Sunday-school; they will shine with unsurpassed
+skill in the manufacture of slippers for the rector; they will exhibit a
+fiery enthusiasm in the decoration and adornment of the church at
+Christmas and Easter festivals. Far be the thought that would deny
+praise to the mild raptures and delicate aspirations of gentle natures
+such as Cooper drew. But in novels, at least, one longs for a      (p. 281)
+ruddier life than flows in the veins of these pale, bleached-out
+personifications of the proprieties. Women like them may be far more
+useful members of society than the stormier characters of fiction that
+are dear to the carnal-minded. They may very possibly be far more
+agreeable to live with; but they are not usually the women for whom men
+are willing or anxious to die.
+
+These are imperfections that have led to the undue depreciation of
+Cooper among many highly cultivated men. Taken by themselves they might
+seem enough to ruin his reputation beyond redemption. It is a proof of
+his real greatness that he triumphs over defects which would utterly
+destroy the fame of a writer of inferior power. It is with novels as
+with men. There are those with great faults which please us and impress
+us far more than those in which the component parts are better balanced.
+Whatever its other demerits, Cooper's best work never sins against the
+first law of fictitious composition, that the story shall be full of
+sustained interest. It has power, and power always fascinates, even
+though accompanied with much that would naturally excite repulsion or
+dislike. Moreover, poorly as he sometimes told his story, he had a story
+to tell. The permanence and universality of his reputation are largely
+due to this fact. In many modern creations full of subtle charm and
+beauty, the narrative, the material framework of the fiction, has been
+made so subordinate to the delineation of character and motive, that the
+reader ceases to feel much interest in what men do in the study which is
+furnished him of why they do it. In this highly-rarefied air of
+philosophic analysis, incident and event wither and die. Work of this
+kind is apt to have within its sphere an unbounded popularity; but its
+sphere is limited, and can never include a tithe of that vast      (p. 282)
+public for which Cooper wrote and which has always cherished and kept
+alive his memory, while that of men of perhaps far finer mould has quite
+faded away.
+
+It is only fair, also, to judge him by his successes and not by his
+failures; by the work he did best, and not by what he did moderately
+well. His strength lies in the description of scenes, in the narration
+of events. In the best of these he has had no superior, and very few
+equals. The reader will look in vain for the revelation of sentiment, or
+for the exhibition of passion. The love-story is rarely well done; but
+the love-story plays a subordinate part in the composition. The moment
+his imagination is set on fire with the conception of adventure,
+vividness and power come unbidden to his pen. The pictures he then draws
+are as real to the mind as if they were actually seen by the eye. It is
+doubtless due to the fact that these fits of inspiration came to him
+only in certain kinds of composition, that the excellence of many of his
+stories lies largely in detached scenes. Still his best works are a
+moving panorama, in which the mind is no sooner sated with one picture
+than its place is taken by another equally fitted to fix the attention
+and to stir the heart. The genuineness of his power, in such cases, is
+shown by the perfect simplicity of the agencies employed. There is no
+pomp of words; there is an entire lack of even the attempt at
+meretricious adornment; there is not the slightest appearance of effort
+to impress the reader. In his portrayal of these scenes Cooper is like
+nature, in that lie accomplishes his greatest effects with the fewest
+means. If, as we are sometimes told, these things are easily done, the
+pertinent question always remains, why are they not done.
+
+Moreover, while in his higher characters he has almost             (p. 283)
+absolutely failed, he has succeeded in drawing a whole group of
+strongly-marked lower ones. Birch, in "The Spy," Long Tom Coffin and
+Boltrope in "The Pilot," the squatter in "The Prairie," Cap in "The
+Pathfinder," and several others there are, any one of which would be
+enough of itself to furnish a respectable reputation to many a novelist
+who fancies himself far superior to Cooper as a delineator of character.
+He had neither the skill nor power to draw the varied figures with which
+Scott, with all the reckless prodigality of genius, crowded his canvas.
+Yet in the gorgeous gallery of the great master of romantic fiction,
+alive with men and women of every rank in life and of every variety of
+nature, there is, perhaps, no one person who so profoundly impresses the
+imagination as Cooper's crowning creation, the man of the forests. It is
+not that Scott could not have done what his follower did, had he so
+chosen; only that as a matter of fact he did not. Leather-Stocking is
+one of the few original characters, perhaps the only great original
+character, that American fiction has added to the literature of the
+world.
+
+The more uniform excellence of Cooper, however, lies in the pictures he
+gives of the life of nature. Forest, ocean, and stream are the things
+for which he really cares; and men and women are the accessories,
+inconvenient and often uncomfortable, that must be endured. Of the
+former he speaks with a loving particularity that lets nothing escape
+the attention. Yet minute as are often his descriptions, he did not fall
+into that too easily besetting sin of the novelist, of overloading his
+picture with details. To advance the greater he sacrificed the less.
+Cooper looked at nature with the eye of a painter and not of a     (p. 284)
+photographer. He fills the imagination even more than he does the sight.
+Hence the permanence of the impression which he leaves upon the mind.
+His descriptions, too, produce a greater effect at the time and cling
+longer to the memory because they fall naturally into the narrative, and
+form a real part in the development of the story; they are not merely
+dragged in to let the reader know what the writer can do. "If Cooper,"
+said Balzac, "had succeeded in the painting of character to the same
+extent that he did in the painting of the phenomena of nature, he would
+have uttered the last word of our art." This author I have quoted
+several times, because far better even than George Sand, or indeed any
+who have criticised the American novelist, he seems to me to have seen
+clearly wherein the latter succeeded and wherein he failed.
+
+To this it is just to add one word which Cooper himself would have
+regarded as the highest tribute that could be paid to what he did.
+Whatever else we may say of his writings, their influence is always a
+healthy influence. Narrow and prejudiced he sometimes was in his
+opinions; but he hated whatever was mean and low in character. It is
+with beautiful things and with noble things that he teaches us to
+sympathize. Here are no incitements to passion, no prurient suggestions
+of sensual delights. The air which breathes through all his fictions is
+as pure as that which sweeps the streets of his mountain home. It is as
+healthy as nature itself. To read one of his best works after many of
+the novels of the day, is like passing from the heated and stifling
+atmosphere of crowded rooms to the purity, the freedom, and the
+boundlessness of the forest.
+
+In these foregoing pages I have attempted to portray an author     (p. 285)
+who was something more than an author, who in any community would have
+been a marked man had he never written a word. I have not sought to hide
+his foibles and his faults, his intolerance and his dogmatism, the
+irascibility of his temperament, the pugnacity of his nature, the
+illiberality and injustice of many of his opinions, the unreasonableness
+as well as the imprudence of the course he often pursued. To his friends
+and admirers these points will seem to have been insisted upon too
+strongly. Their feelings may, to a certain extent, be just. Cooper is,
+indeed, a striking instance of how much more a man loses in the
+estimation of the world by the exhibition of foibles, than he will by
+that of vices. In this work one side of the life he lived--the side he
+presented to the public--is the only one that, owing to circumstances,
+could be depicted. It does not present the most attractive features of
+his character. That exclusiveness of temperament which made him
+misjudged by the many, endeared him only the more to the few who were in
+a position to see how different he was from what he seemed. In nothing
+is the essential sweetness of Cooper's nature more clearly shown than in
+the intense affection he inspired in the immediate circle which
+surrounded him or that was dependent upon him. He could not fail to feel
+keenly at times how utterly his character and motives were
+misapprehended and belied. "As for myself," says the hero of "Miles
+Wallingford," "I can safely say that in scarce a circumstance of my
+life, that has brought me the least under the cognizance of the public,
+have I ever been judged justly. In various instances have I been praised
+for acts that were either totally without any merit, or at least the
+particular merit imputed to them; while I have been even           (p. 286)
+persecuted for deeds that deserved praise."
+
+His faults, in fact, were faults of temper rather than of character.
+Like the defects of his writings, too, they lay upon the surface, and
+were seen and read of all men. But granting everything that can be urged
+against him, impartial consideration must award him an ample excess of
+the higher virtues. His failings were the failings of a man who
+possessed in the fullest measure vigor of mind, intensity of conviction,
+and capability of passion. Disagree with him one could hardly help; one
+could never fail to respect him. Many of the common charges against him
+are due to pure ignorance. Of these, perhaps, the most common and the
+most absolutely baseless is the one which imputes to him excessive
+literary vanity. Pride, even up to the point of arrogance, he had; but
+even this was only in a small degree connected with his reputation as an
+author. In the nearly one hundred volumes he wrote, not a single line
+can be found which implies that he had an undue opinion of his own
+powers. On the contrary, there are many that would lead to the
+conclusion that his appreciation of himself and of his achievement was
+far lower than even the coldest estimate would form. The prevalent
+misconception on this point was in part due to his excessive
+sensitiveness to criticism and his resentment of it when hostile. It was
+partly due, also, to a certain outspokenness of nature which led him to
+talk of himself as freely as he would talk of a stranger. But his whole
+conduct showed the falseness of any such impression. From all the petty
+tricks to which literary vanity resorts, he was absolutely free. He
+utterly disdained anything that savored of manoeuvring for reputation.
+He indulged in no devices to revive the decaying attention of the  (p. 287)
+public. He sought no favors from those who were in a position to confer
+the notoriety which so many mistake for fame. He went, in fact, to the
+other extreme, and refused an aid that he might with perfect propriety
+have received. In the early period of his literary career he wrote a
+good deal for the "New York Patriot," a newspaper edited by his intimate
+friend, Colonel Gardiner. He objected to the publication in it of a
+favorable notice, which had been prepared of "The Pioneers," because by
+the fact of being an occasional contributor he was indirectly connected
+with the journal. Accordingly the criticism was not inserted. It would
+not have been possible for him to offer to review his own works, as
+Scott both offered to do and did of the "Tales of My Landlord," in the
+"Quarterly." Nor would he have acceded to a request to furnish a review
+of any production of his own, as Irving did, in the same periodical, of
+his "Conquest of Granada." No publisher who knew him, even slightly,
+would have ventured to make him a proposition of the kind. I am
+expressing no opinion as to the propriety of these particular acts; only
+that Cooper, constituted as he was, could not for a moment have
+entertained the thought of doing them.
+
+The fearlessness and the truthfulness of his nature are conspicuous in
+almost every incident of his career. He fought for a principle as
+desperately as other men fight for life. The storm of detraction through
+which he went never once shook the almost haughty independence of his
+conduct, or swerved him in the slightest from the course he had chosen.
+The only thing to which he unquestioningly submitted was the truth. His
+loyalty to that was of a kind almost Quixotic. He was in later     (p. 288)
+years dissatisfied with himself, because, in his novel of "The Pilot,"
+he had put the character of Paul Jones too high. He thought that the
+hero had been credited in that work with loftier motives than those by
+which he was actually animated. Feelings such as these formed the
+groundwork of his character, and made him intolerant of the devious ways
+of many who were satisfied with conforming to a lower code of morality.
+There was a royalty in his nature that disdained even the semblance of
+deceit. With other authors one feels that the man is inferior to his
+work. With him it is the very reverse. High qualities, such as these, so
+different from the easy-going virtues of common men, are more than an
+offset to infirmities of temper, to unfairness of judgment, or to
+unwisdom of conduct. His life was the best answer to many of the charges
+brought against his country and his countrymen; for whatever he may have
+fancied, the hostility he encountered was due far less to the matter of
+his criticisms than to their manner. Against the common cant, that in
+republican governments the tyranny of public sentiment will always bring
+conduct to the same monotonous level, and opinion to the same
+subservient uniformity, Democracy can point to this dauntless son who
+never flinched from any course because it brought odium, who never
+flattered popular prejudices, and who never truckled to a popular cry.
+America has had among her representatives of the irritable race of
+writers many who have shown far more ability to get on pleasantly with
+their fellows than Cooper. She has had several gifted with higher
+spiritual insight than he, with broader and juster views of life,  (p. 289)
+with finer ideals of literary art, and, above all, with far greater
+delicacy of taste. But she counts on the scanty roll of her men of
+letters the name of no one who acted from purer patriotism or loftier
+principle. She finds among them all no manlier nature, and no more
+heroic soul.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.                                                          (p. 290)
+
+PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COOPER'S WRITINGS.
+
+
+The following list embraces the first editions of Cooper's works;
+articles contributed to magazines; and two or three of the most
+important communications sent to the newspapers. The titles of his
+works, as published in England, were sometimes different from the titles
+used in the United States; and whenever this is the case the former are
+subjoined. It is also to be remarked that Cooper's works were sometimes
+published earlier in Europe than they were in America; but the dates
+given in this biography belong exclusively to the publication of his
+works in this country. With the exception of No. 45 and of No. 67, all
+his tales were originally published in two volumes in America; with the
+exception of No. 45 they were originally published in three volumes in
+England. First editions of many of his novels are now rarely to be found
+in libraries; and the titles given have in several cases, in
+consequence, been taken from contemporary book notices and not from
+personal examination. The titles are given in the order of publication
+of the writings.
+
+ 1. Precaution; a Novel. 2 vols. New York: A. T. Goodrich & Co., 1820.
+
+      The English edition appeared in March, 1821.
+
+
+ 2. The Spy; a Tale of the Neutral Ground. By the Author of Precaution.
+    2 vols. New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1821.
+
+      The English edition appeared in March, 1822.
+
+
+ 3. The Pioneers; or the Sources of the Susquehanna. A Descriptive (p. 291)
+    Tale. By the Author of Precaution. 2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley,
+    1823.
+
+      The English edition appeared in March, 1823.
+
+
+ 4. The Pilot; A Tale of the Sea. By the Author of The Pioneers, etc.
+    2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley, 1823.
+
+      The first edition bears the imprint of 1823, but was not actually
+      published until early in January, 1824.
+
+
+ 5. Lionel Lincoln; or the Leaguer of Boston. By the Author of The
+    Pioneers, Pilot, etc. 2 vols. New York: Charles Wiley, 1825.
+
+
+ 6. The Last of the Mohicans. A Narrative of 1757. By the Author of
+    The Pioneers. 2 vols. Philadelphia: H. C. Carey & I. Lea, 1826.
+
+
+ 7. The Prairie; a Tale. By the Author of The Pioneers and The Last of
+    the Mohicans. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1827.
+
+
+ 8. The Red Rover; a Tale. By the Author of The Pilot, etc., etc.
+    2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828.
+
+
+ 9. Notions of the Americans; Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor.
+    2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828.
+
+
+10. The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish; a Tale. By the Author of The Pioneers,
+    Prairie, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1829.
+
+      In England this was published under the title of "The Borderers;
+      or the Wept of Wish-ton-Wish." It has also been published with the
+      title of "The Heathcotes."
+
+
+11. The Water-Witch; or the Skimmer of the Seas. A Tale. By the Author
+    of The Pilot, Red Rover, etc., etc., etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1830.
+
+
+12. The Bravo; a Tale. By the Author of The Spy, The Red Rover, The
+    Water Witch, etc., etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1831.
+
+
+13. Letter of J. Fenimore Cooper to Gen. Lafayette on the Expenditure
+    of the United States of America. 50 pp.                        (p. 292)
+    Paris: Baudry's Foreign Library, 1831.
+
+
+14. The Heidenmauer; or the Benedictines. A Legend of the Rhine.
+    By the Author of The Prairie, Red Rover, Bravo, etc., etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832.
+
+
+15. Letter to the American Public.
+
+      Dated Vevay, Canton de Vaud, Oct. 1, 1832; first published in
+      Philadelphia National Gazette, Dec. 6. The subject is the
+      Expenses' Controversy. It occupies about two columns.
+
+
+16. The Headsman; or the Abbaye des Vignerons. A Tale. By the Author of
+    The Bravo, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard,
+    1833.
+
+
+17. A Letter to His Countrymen. By J. Fenimore-Cooper. 116 pp.
+    New York: John Wiley, 1834.
+
+
+18. The Monikins; edited by the Author of The Spy. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835.
+
+
+19. Comparative Resources of the American Navy.
+
+      In Naval Magazine, vol. i, No. 1, January, 1836, pp. 19-33.
+
+
+20. Hints on Manning the Navy, etc., etc.
+
+      In Naval Magazine, vol. i., No. 2, March, 1836, pp. 176-191.
+      This was published the following May in pamphlet form by the
+      "Committee of Publication for the Naval Magazine."
+
+
+21. Sketches of Switzerland. By an American. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1836.
+
+      The English title was "Excursions in Switzerland."
+
+
+22. Sketches of Switzerland. By an American. Part Second. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1836.
+
+      The English title was "A Residence in France; with an Excursion up
+      the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland."
+
+23. Gleanings in Europe. By an American. 2 vols. Philadelphia:
+    Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1837.
+
+      This work is devoted to France. Its English title is         (p. 293)
+      "Recollections of Europe."
+
+
+24. Gleanings in Europe. England; by an American. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1837.
+
+      This was published in England under the title of "England; with
+      Sketches of Society in the Metropolis."
+
+
+25. Letter to the Editors of the Knickerbocker. (On the relations
+    between himself and Sir Walter Scott, etc.)
+
+      In Knickerbocker Magazine, vol. xi., April, 1838, pp. 380-386.
+
+
+26. Gleanings in Europe. Italy; by an American. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1838.
+
+      Published in England under the title of "Excursions in Italy."
+
+
+27. The American Democrat; or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations
+    of the United States of America. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Pp. 192.
+    Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney, 1838.
+
+
+28. The Chronicles of Cooperstown. Pp. 100. Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney,
+    1838.
+
+      Published anonymously. Republished at Albany in 1862 with additional
+      notes and details bringing the events down to that year. The
+      republication is entitled "A Condensed History of Cooperstown; with
+      a Biographical Sketch of J. Fenimore Cooper. By Rev. T. S. Livermore,
+      A. M." It is a volume of 276 pages, and contains Bryant's funeral
+      discourse on Cooper, with much other matter. The "Chronicles of
+      Cooperstown" extend from page 9 to page 86 inclusive.
+
+
+29. Homeward Bound; or the Chase. A Tale of the Sea. By the Author of
+    The Pilot, The Spy, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea &
+    Blanchard, 1838.
+
+
+30. Review of the "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+    By J. G. Lockhart."
+
+      In Knickerbocker Magazine, October, 1838, vol. xii., pp.
+      349-366.
+
+
+31. Home as Found. By the Author of Homeward Bound, The Pioneers,  (p. 294)
+    etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1838.
+
+      In England published under the title of "Eve Effingham; or Home."
+
+
+32. The History of the Navy of the United States of America.
+    By J. Fenimore Cooper. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1839.
+
+
+33. Letters in "Cooperstown Freeman's Journal," July 1st and July 8th,
+    1839.
+
+      A reply to the criticism upon his Naval History, or rather upon his
+      account of the battle of Lake Erie, which had appeared in the
+      New York Commercial Advertiser in June, 1839. The first letter
+      occupies two columns, the second more than three.
+
+
+34. The Pathfinder; or the Inland Sea. By the Author of The Pioneers,
+    Last of the Mohicans, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard,
+    1840.
+
+
+35. Mercedes of Castile; or the Voyage to Cathay. By the Author of The
+    Bravo, The Last of the Mohicans, etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1840.
+
+      The English title was "Mercedes of Castile. A Romance of the
+      Days of Columbus."
+
+
+36. History of the Navy of the United States of America. Abridged in
+      one volume. Pp. 447. Philadelphia: Thomas Cowperthwait & Co., 1841.
+
+
+37. The Deerslayer; or the First War Path. A Tale. By the Author of The
+    Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1841.
+
+
+38. "Home as Found. Lost Chapter." Preceded by a "Preface," and a
+    "Letter to the Editor." In the "Brother Jonathan" newspaper of
+    January 1, 1842.--Followed by a Letter to the Editor, from Cooper,
+    on "The Effingham Matter," in same paper for February 12, 1842,
+    and by two articles on "The Effingham Controversy," in the numbers
+    for March 26, 1842, and April 9, 1842.
+
+
+39. The Two Admirals; a Tale. By the Author of The Pilot, Red      (p. 295)
+      Rover, Water Witch, Homeward Bound, etc., etc. 2 vols.
+      Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842.
+
+
+40. Edinburgh Review on James' Naval Occurrences and Cooper's Naval
+    History.
+
+      In the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, vol. x.,
+      for May and June, 1842. First article, pp. 409-435; second
+      article, pp. 515-541.
+
+
+41. Richard Somers.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for October, 1842.
+
+
+42. William Bainbridge.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for November, 1842.
+
+
+43. The Wing-and-Wing; or Le Feu-Follet. A Tale. By the Author of
+    The Pilot, Red Rover, Two Admirals, Homeward Bound, etc., etc.
+    2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1842.
+
+      In England this was published under the title "The Jack
+      o' Lantern (Le Feu-Follet); or the Privateer."
+
+
+44. Richard Dale.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for December, 1842.
+
+
+45. Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for January, February, March, and April, 1843.
+      It came out in March among the publications of the "Brother
+      Jonathan" newspaper office, and was then entitled "Le Mouchoir;
+      an Autobiographical Romance." The English title was "The French
+      Governess; or the Embroidered Handkerchief."
+
+
+46. Oliver Hazard Perry.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for May and June, 1843.
+
+
+47. John Paul Jones.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for July and August, 1843.
+
+
+48. The Battle of Lake Erie; or Answers to Messrs. Burges, Duer, and
+    Mackenzie. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Pp. 118. Cooperstown: H. & E.
+    Phinney, 1843.
+
+
+49. Wyandotte; or the Hutted Knoll. A Tale. By the Author of The
+    Pathfinder, Deerslayer, Last of the Mohicans, Pioneers,        (p. 296)
+    Prairie, etc., etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1843.
+
+
+50. Ned Myers; or a Life before the Mast. Edited by J. Fenimore Cooper.
+    Pp. 232. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1843.
+
+
+51. John Shaw.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for March, 1844.
+
+
+52. John Barry.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for June, 1844.
+
+
+53. Afloat and Ashore; or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford. By the
+    Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, The Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols.
+    Philadelphia: Published by the Author, 1844.
+
+
+54. Proceedings of the Naval Court Martial in the Case of Alexander
+    Slidell Mackenzie, a Commander in the Navy of the United States,
+    etc., including the Charges and Specifications of Charges, preferred
+    against him by the Secretary of the Navy. To which is annexed an
+    Elaborate Review. By James Fennimore Cooper. Pp. 344. New York:
+    Henry G. Langley, 1844. (Cooper's review extends from page 263 to
+    page 344 inclusive. The spelling of the name was due to the
+    publisher.)
+
+
+55. Afloat and Ashore; or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford. By the
+    Author of The Pilot, Red Rover, etc. Vols. 3 & 4. Published for the
+    Author. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1844.
+
+      This second series of Afloat and Ashore goes in this country under
+      the name of "Miles Wallingford." In England it was published as
+      "Lucy Hardinge."
+
+
+56. John Templer Shubrick.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for December, 1844.
+
+
+57. Melancthon Taylor Woolsey.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for January, 1845.
+
+
+58. Edward Preble.
+
+      In Graham's Magazine for May and June, 1845.
+
+
+59. Satanstoe; or the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the        (p. 297)
+    Colony. 2 vols. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1845.
+
+
+60. The Chainbearer; or the Littlepage Manuscripts. Edited by the Author
+    of Satanstoe, Spy, Pathfinder, Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols.
+    New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co, 1846.
+
+
+61. Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers. By J. Fenimore Cooper.
+    Author of The Spy, The Pilot, etc. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart,
+    1846. Also, 2 vols. Auburn: Derby & Jackson, 1846.
+
+      Volume I. contains, in the following order: Bainbridge (No. 42),
+      Somers (No. 41), Shaw (No. 51), Shubrick (No. 56), Preble (No. 58).
+
+      Volume II. contains: Jones (No. 47), Woolsey (No. 57), Perry
+      (No. 46), and Dale (No. 44); Barry (No. 52) was not included.
+
+
+62. The Redskins; or Indian and Injin. Being the conclusion of the
+    Littlepage Manuscripts. By the Author of The Pathfinder, Deerslayer,
+    Two Admirals, etc. 2 vols. New York: Burgess & Stringer, 1846.
+
+      In England the title of this work was "Ravensnest; or the Redskins."
+
+
+63. The Islets of the Gulf; or Rose Budd.
+
+      Begun in Graham's Magazine for November, 1846, and continued through
+      every succeeding number until March, 1848, in which month it was
+      concluded. It was published in book form March 21, 1848, by Burgess,
+      Stringer & Co., as "Jack Tier; or the Florida Reefs." In England
+      the title was "Captain Spike; or the Islets of the Gulf."
+
+
+64. The Crater; or Vulcan's Peak. A Tale of the Pacific. By the Author
+    of Miles Wallingford, The Red Rover, The Pilot, etc., etc. 2 vols.
+    New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1847.
+
+      The English title was "Mark's Reef; or the Crater." Jack Tier; or
+      the Florida Reefs, 1848. See No. 63.
+
+
+65. The Oak Openings; or the Bee Hunter. By the Author of The      (p. 298)
+    Pioneers, Last of the Mohicans, Pathfinder, Deerslayer, etc., etc.
+    2 vols. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co., 1848.
+
+      The English title was "The Bee Hunter; or the Oak Openings."
+
+
+66. The Sea Lions; or the Lost Sealers. By the Author of The Crater, etc.
+    2 vols. New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1849.
+
+
+67. The Ways of the Hour; a Tale. By the Author of The Spy, The Red Rover,
+    etc., etc. 1 vol. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1850.
+
+
+POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATIONS.
+
+
+68. Old Ironsides.
+
+      In Putnam's Magazine, vol. i., No. v., May, 1853, pp. 473-487; and
+      in No. vi., June, 1853, pp. 593-607.
+
+      This is a history of the United States frigate Constitution.
+
+
+69. Fragments from a Diary of James Fenimore Cooper.
+
+      In Putnam's Magazine, new series, vol. i., February, 1868, pp.
+      167-172; and June, 1868, pp. 730-737.
+
+
+70. The Battle of Plattsburgh Bay.
+
+      In January, 1869, of Putnam's Magazine, vol. iii., new series,
+      pp. 49-59.
+
+      A note to this article says that it was prepared as a lecture to
+      be delivered before the New York Historical Society. The records
+      of that Society, however, contain no reference to any lecture
+      delivered by Cooper.
+
+
+71. The Eclipse.
+
+      In Putnam's Magazine, new series, vol. iv., for September, 1869,
+      pp. 352-359. Written about 1831, and gives an account of the
+      eclipse of the sun in June, 1806.
+
+
+Besides these there are numerous letters written to the newspapers, and
+in particular the letters written to the Paris journal, the "National,"
+in 1833. During Cooper's life it was frequently said that he was engaged
+in preparing a work on the Middle States of the Union; but no      (p. 299)
+trace of such a production was found among his papers. A work of his on
+"The Towns of Manhattan" was partly finished and in press at the time of
+his death; but the portion printed was entirely destroyed by fire. Part
+of the manuscript, however, was recovered. On the 4th of August, 1841,
+Cooper also delivered an address before the Literary Societies of Hobart
+College, Geneva, N. Y.; but this he himself burned on the day it was
+delivered.
+
+A few works have been wrongly attributed to him. One of these is "The
+Cruise of the Somers; illustrative of the Despotism of the Quarter Deck;
+and of the Unmanly Conduct of Commander Mackenzie." New York: 1844.
+Another is "Elinor Wyllys; or the Young Folk of Longbridge."
+Philadelphia: 1846. Of this novel Cooper was the nominal editor, and to
+it he contributed a short preface. A third work, which has been falsely
+attributed to him, is entitled "The Republic of the United States; its
+Duties to Itself, and its Responsible Relations to other Countries." New
+York: 1848.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.                                                             (p. 300)
+
+
+Adams, John, 113.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, 224-226.
+
+"Afloat and Ashore," 232, 249-253, 263, 296.
+
+Albany, N. Y., 6, 15.
+
+"Albany Argus," 182.
+
+"Albany Evening Journal," Cooper's libel suits with, 187, 190-196.
+
+America, intellectual dependence of,
+  on England in 1820 and later, 18-21, 34, 35, 62, 92;
+  literary state of, in 1820, 30-32.
+
+"American Scott, The," Cooper so termed, 58, 106;
+  his feelings about it, 59, 161.
+
+"American Democrat, The," 177-179, 293.
+
+Angevine, 14-16, 63.
+
+Anti-Rent Novels, The, 251-254.
+
+Ashburton Treaty, 237.
+
+"Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung," 107.
+
+"Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief," 249, 293.
+
+
+Bainbridge, Commodore William, 295, 297.
+
+Balzac, Honore de, Criticisms of Cooper, 204, 240, 284.
+
+Barry Cornwall. See _Procter_.
+
+Barry, John, 296, 297.
+
+Benjamin, Park, 159; Cooper's libel suit with, 187.
+
+Bentley, London publisher of Cooper's later works, 262.
+
+"Blackwood's Magazine," 58;
+  abuse of Cooper, 174.
+
+Berne, Cooper's residence near, 68.
+
+Boone, Daniel, 72.
+
+"Borderers, The" (English title), 291.
+
+Boston, Cooper's criticism of, 171, 172.
+
+Bostonians practice "gouging," 97.
+
+"Bravo, The," 108-111, 115, 128, 130, 277, 291.
+
+Bread and Cheese Club, founded by Cooper, 63;
+  its members, 63;
+  gives dinner to Cooper, 127.
+
+Brenton's, Captain Edward Pelham, "Naval History of Great Britain," 202.
+
+British press, Cooper's opinion of, 106, 136, 137;
+  its attacks upon Cooper, 138, 173-176, 199, 236.
+
+"Brother Jonathan, The," newspaper, 262, 294, 295.
+
+Brown, Charles Brockden, 30.
+
+Bryant, William Cullen, 17, 63, 80, 266;
+  delivers funeral oration on Cooper, 268.
+
+Bulwer, Sir Edward Lytton, 124, 125.
+
+Burges, Tristam, 213, 221, 224, 226, 233, 295.
+
+Burlington, N. J., 2, 12.
+
+Burton's Theatre, Cooper's comedy acted at, 263.
+
+
+Campbell, Judge William W., 216.
+
+Canning, George, 68.
+
+"Captain Spike" (English title), 297.
+
+Carey and Lea, publishers, 66.
+
+"Chainbearer, The," 252-254, 297.
+
+Chalet, The, Cooper's farm, near Cooperstown, 263.
+
+Champlain, Lake, 12.
+
+Chauncey, Commodore Isaac, 127.
+
+Chesapeake, American man-of-war, 202.
+
+"Chronicles of Cooperstown, The," 293.
+
+Clay, Henry, 67.
+
+Clinton, DeWitt, 127.
+
+"Coelebs," Hannah More's, 21.
+
+Colburn, London publisher, 28, 94.
+
+"Comparative Resources of the American Navy," 292.
+
+Constitution, ship-of-war, 210, 298.
+
+Cooper, Fenimore, 15, 63.
+
+Cooper, J. F.: born at Burlington, 2;
+  removed to Cooperstown, 2;
+  early education, 6;
+  at Albany, 6;
+  at Yale College, 7;
+  dismissed from college, 8;
+  serves before the mast, 9, 10;
+  enters navy as midshipman, 11;
+  his service, 11;
+  marries, 12;
+  resigns position in the navy, 14;
+  residences from 1811 to 1822, 14, 15;
+  his children, 15;
+  begins literary life, 16;
+  moves into New York city, 63;
+  founds the Bread and Cheese club, 63;
+  has family name changed to Fenimore-Cooper, 3;
+  is given a public dinner, 127;
+  sails for Europe, 67;
+  made consul at Lyons, 67;
+  residences in France, England, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, 67, 68;
+  cordial reception in Paris, 68, 69;
+  wide extent of his reputation, 56-58, 77;
+  returns to America, 117;
+  refuses a public dinner, 128;
+  resides in New York city, 117;
+  buys his father's house in Cooperstown and makes it his permanent
+    home, 117;
+  has a controversy with citizens of Cooperstown, 142-148;
+  brings a number of newspaper libel suits, 180-197;
+  engages unsuccessfully in business operations, 261;
+  his farm, 263, 264;
+  becomes a communicant in the Episcopal Church, 266;
+  his death, 267;
+  funeral oration over, delivered by Bryant, 268;
+  happiness of his home life, 13, 14, 233, 234, 285;
+  wide circulation of his works, 37, 56, 76, 270;
+  pecuniary profits from their sale, 64-66, 261-263;
+  his success as a lawyer, 182, 189, 216-218, 220;
+  his sensitiveness to criticism, 41-44, 286;
+  defects of his literary art, 50, 51;
+  failure in characterization, 152, 155, 277, 278;
+  female characters, 26-28, 153, 154, 278-281;
+  success in characters from low life, 53-55, 72, 73, 152, 283;
+  fondness for commonplace, 84, 242, 276;
+  prolixity of his introductions, 75, 134, 242, 276;
+  improbability and carelessness in the details of his
+    stories, 51, 53, 276, 277;
+  carelessness in the development of the plot, 28, 271, 272, 275, 276;
+  criticism on language and carelessness in use of it, 130, 272-275;
+  his humor, 119, 239, 240;
+  his fondness for natural scenery, and success in
+    description, 8, 69, 134, 168, 169, 240, 241, 264, 282-284;
+  his political opinions, 82-84, 108, 109;
+  his imperiousness of manner, 79, 80, 286;
+  his pugnacity, 24, 75, 80, 81, 146, 147, 285;
+  his generosity, 81, 82;
+  his patriotism, 49, 85, 86, 94, 110, 115, 128, 231, 237, 238, 243;
+  depth and narrowness of religious feeling, 22-26, 75, 243, 256,
+    258-261, 266;
+  high sense of honor, 82, 286;
+  love of truth, 202, 203, 222, 232, 287, 288.
+
+Cooper, Paul, 15, 63.
+
+Cooper, Richard, 182, 185, 220.
+
+Cooper, Susan Fenimore, 15.
+
+Cooper, William, Cooper's father, 2, 3, 9, 142-145, 188, 192.
+
+Cooperstown, situation of, 1, 3, 4;
+  when founded, 2;
+  original population of, 5;
+  Cooper's residences in, 2, 3, 14, 117;
+  his controversy with citizens of, 142-148;
+  farm near, 263, 264;
+  his death at, 266, 267;
+  the Chronicles of, 293.
+
+"Cooperstown Freeman's Journal," democratic newspaper, 143, 144;
+  Cooper's letters to, 147, 148, 294.
+
+Copyright, international, Cooper's feelings in regard to, 166;
+  pecuniary loss sustained by the lack of one, 261.
+
+Copyright law, English, of, 1838, 66, 261.
+
+Courier, Paul, liberal sentiments about America, 87.
+
+Court of Errors, The, of New York, 228, 229.
+
+"Crater, The," 255-258, 274, 297.
+
+Cushing, Caleb, replies to Cooper, 132.
+
+
+Dale, Richard, 295, 297.
+
+Davis, Admiral Charles H., 213.
+
+"Deerslayer, The," 239-242, 272, 294.
+
+DeKay, James E., 63.
+
+DeLancey family, 12, 13.
+
+DeLancey, Susan Augusta, 12-14, 16, 70, 233, 234;
+  married to Cooper, 12;
+  her death, 267.
+
+DeLancey, William H., bishop of Western New York, 266.
+
+Democratic party, Cooper nominally belonging to, 133, 171.
+
+"Democratic Review," 207, 208, 295.
+
+Derby, Lord, 52.
+
+"Diary of James Fenimore Cooper, Fragments from," 298.
+
+Dresden, Saxony, Cooper's residence at, 68, 107, 123.
+
+Duer, William Alexander, Cooper's controversy with, 212, 221-223, 233, 295.
+
+Durand, Asher B., the engraver, 63.
+
+
+"Eclipse, The," 298.
+
+Edgeworth, Maria, 57.
+
+"Edinburgh Review, The," 205-208, 295.
+
+Elliott, Commodore Jesse, 208-213, 222;
+  has a medal struck in honor of Cooper, 224-226.
+
+"Encyclopedia Britannica," notice of Cooper's life in, 175.
+
+England, Cooper's residence in, 68, 96;
+  feeling of, towards America, 87-98;
+  criticism of, by Cooper, 105, 130, 137;
+  his work on, 135, 293;
+  hostility expressed for Cooper in, 92, 106, 138, 173-176.
+
+Effingham, name applied to Cooper, 156, 158, 183, 191, 294.
+
+Episcopal Church, Cooper's attachment to, 23, 245, 249, 254, 257, 259,
+  260, 266.
+
+Erie Lake, Battle of, controversy in regard to, 208-227, 294.
+
+European ignorance of America, 86-88, 100, 101.
+
+"Eve Effingham" (English title), 294.
+
+"Excursions in Italy" (English title), 293.
+
+"Excursions in Switzerland" (English title), 292.
+
+Expenses' Controversy, The, 76, 111-115, 292.
+
+
+Fay, Theodore S., 132.
+
+Federalist Party, 9, 171;
+  Cooper brought up in, 92;
+  feeling of, towards England, 92, 93.
+
+Fenimore family, 3, 188.
+
+Fenimore, near Cooperstown, Cooper's residence at, 14.
+
+Fenimore-Cooper, family name changed to, 3.
+
+Florence, Cooper's residence at, 68, 74, 120.
+
+Foot, Samuel A., 215-221.
+
+France, Cooper's work on, 135, 292, 293.
+
+Francis, Dr. John W., 266, 267.
+
+"Fraser's Magazine," its attack on Cooper, 174-175.
+
+Free trade, Cooper's hostility to, 133, 171.
+
+"French Governess, The" (English title), 295.
+
+French opinion of Cooper, 36, 204.
+
+French social life, Cooper's opinion of, 69.
+
+
+Galitzin, Princess, 69.
+
+Gardner, Colonel Charles K., 287.
+
+Gifford, William, editor of "The Quarterly," 35.
+
+Gisquet, French prefect of police, 37.
+
+"Gleanings in Europe," 135-140, 204, 292, 293.
+
+Glens Falls, 52.
+
+"Glory and Shame of England," attack on Cooper in, 234, 235.
+
+"Gotham and the Gothamites," 60.
+
+Gouging, prevalence of, in America, 97;
+  practiced by Bostonians, 97.
+
+"Graham's Magazine," 229, 245, _note_, 248, 255, 295-297.
+
+Greeley, Horace, 159, 180, 181, 187;
+  Cooper's libel suits with, 197, 198.
+
+Greenough, Horatio, 81, 115-116, 155.
+
+Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 97.
+
+
+Halleck, Fitzgreene, 63, 246, _note_.
+
+Harris, Leavitt, 113, 114.
+
+Haydon, Benjamin Robert, 58.
+
+Hazlitt, William, 106.
+
+Headley, Rev. J. T., 235.
+
+"Headsman, The," 108, 109, 272, 292.
+
+"Heathcotes, The" (English title), 291.
+
+"Heidenmauer, The," 108, 109, 280, 292.
+
+Heine, 107.
+
+Hillard, George S., 160.
+
+Hillhouse, James A., 7.
+
+"Hints on Manning the Navy," 292.
+
+Hobart College, Cooper's address at, 299.
+
+"Home as Found," 149, 150-159, 294.
+
+"Home as Found, Lost Chapter of," 294.
+
+"Homeward Bound," 149, 150, 152, 155, 293.
+
+
+Impressment of American seamen, 93.
+
+Indian character, Cooper's view of, 54, 55.
+
+Ingram's, John H., "Life of Poe," 246, _note_.
+
+Irving, Washington, 3, 35, 56, 268, 287.
+
+"Islets of the Gulf, The." See "_Jack Tier_."
+
+Italy, Cooper's work on, 135, 293;
+  attachment of Cooper to, 69-71.
+
+
+"Jack o' Lantern, The" (English title), 295.
+
+Jackson, President Andrew, 131, 210.
+
+"Jack Tier," 255, 256, 263, 297.
+
+James's, William, "Naval History of Great Britain," 205-207, 295;
+  Cooper's opinion of, 206, 207.
+
+Jarvis, John Wesley, 63.
+
+Jay, John, 29.
+
+Jefferson, Thomas, 67.
+
+Jones, John Paul, 48, 57, 288, 295, 297.
+
+Jordan, Ambrose C., 190.
+
+Judah, Samuel B. H., 60.
+
+Jury, trial by, 260.
+
+
+Kent, Chancellor James, 63, 127.
+
+King, Charles, 127.
+
+"Knickerbocker Magazine," 160, 161, 293.
+
+
+Lafayette, 111, 112.
+
+"Last of the Mohicans, The," 52-55, 56, 58, 66, 71, 72, 239, 291.
+
+Lawrence, Captain James, 12.
+
+"Leather-Stocking Tales, The," 40, 55, 239;
+  Cooper's opinion of, 241.
+
+Leghorn, 120.
+
+Lester, C. Edwards, 235, 236.
+
+"Letter to General Lafayette," 112, 291.
+
+"Letter to his Countrymen," 129-132, 292.
+
+"Letter to the American Public," 114, 292.
+
+Libel suits, Cooper's, with the Otsego "Republican," 185, 186;
+  with the Norwich "Telegraph," 184, 186;
+  with the Oneida "Whig," 187;
+  with the New York "Evening Signal," 187;
+  with the New York "Courier and Enquirer," 187-190;
+  with the Albany "Evening Journal," 187, 190, 196;
+  with the New York "Tribune," 187, 197;
+  with the New York "Commercial Advertiser," 187, 197, 212, 214-221,
+    223-224.
+
+"Lionel Lincoln," 49-52, 291.
+
+Livermore, Rev. T. S., 293.
+
+Livingston, Edward, 114.
+
+Lockhart's, John Gibson, "Life of Scott," 160, 161, 293.
+
+London, Cooper's residence in, 68, 96-98.
+
+"London Times," its attack on Cooper, 175.
+
+Lord, Daniel, Jr., 215-221.
+
+Louis Philippe, 69, 107.
+
+Lowell, James Russell, 156.
+
+"Lucy Harding" (English title), 249, 296; 251.
+
+Lyons, Cooper consul at, 67.
+
+
+Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, 212, 213, 216, 221, 222, 233, 295.
+
+Mackintosh, Sir James, 97.
+
+Mamaroneck, N. Y., 12, 13, 14.
+
+Man, Isle of, Cooper reported birthplace in, 3.
+
+"Mark's Reef" (English title), 297.
+
+McHarg, Rev. C. W., 229.
+
+"Mercedes of Castile," 232, 242, 272, 278.
+
+Mickiewicz, Adam, 107.
+
+Miller, London publisher, 35.
+
+"Miles Wallingford," 93, 249, 285, 296.
+
+Mitford, Mary Russell, 57.
+
+"Monikins, The," 133-135.
+
+Montagu, Mrs. Basil, 91.
+
+Moore, Thomas, 88, 96.
+
+More, Hannah, 21.
+
+Morris, George P., 132.
+
+Morse, S. F. B., 63, 76.
+
+Murray, John, London publisher, 35.
+
+
+Naples, Cooper's residence at, 68.
+
+Naples, bay of, compared with that of New York, 164, 249, 254.
+
+"National" (Paris), 113, 298.
+
+"Naval Magazine," 201, 292.
+
+"Naval History of the United States," 200-230, 232, 233, 294.
+
+"Naval Officers, Lives of," 228, 229, 297.
+
+Neal, John, 30.
+
+Ned Myers, 247, 248, 263, 296.
+
+New England, Cooper's dislike of, 245, 246, 247, 249, 250, 253, 257, 259;
+  Cooper's unpopularity in, 50, 247.
+
+New Haven, 8.
+
+"New Monthly Magazine, Colburn's," sketch of Cooper in, 94.
+
+Newport, 74; stone tower at, 226.
+
+"New World, The," newspaper, 262.
+
+New York (city), Cooper's residences in, 15, 47, 63, 67, 117;
+  Cooper's criticism of society in, 150, 151, 158, 249;
+  social life in, 121;
+  Cooper's prophecy about, 102.
+
+"New York American," 127, 128.
+
+"New York Commercial Advertiser," 129;
+  Cooper's libel suits with, 187, 212, 214-221, 223, 224.
+
+"New York Courier and Enquirer," 129, 130;
+ Cooper's libel suits with, 187-190.
+
+"New York Evening Post," 182.
+
+"New York Evening Signal," Cooper's libel suit with, 187.
+
+New York Historical Society, 298.
+
+"New York Home Journal," 13.
+
+"New York Mirror," 132.
+
+"New York Patriot," 287.
+
+"New York Tribune," Cooper's libel suits with, 187, 192, 197.
+
+"New Yorker, The," 158, 182.
+
+Newspapers, Cooper's attacks on, 43, 176-180;
+  libel suits with, 180-199.
+
+"North American Review, The," 60, 61, 212, 213.
+
+"Norwich Telegraph," Cooper's libel suit with, 184, 185.
+
+"Notions of the Americans," 101-106, 291.
+
+Nugent, Lord, 96.
+
+
+"Oak Openings, The," 255, 258, 263, 275, 297.
+
+"Odofried the Outcast," 60.
+
+Old Ironsides, 298.
+
+"Oneida Whig, The," Cooper's libel suit with, 187.
+
+Ontario, Lake, 11, 169, 240.
+
+Otsego Hall, Cooper's residence, 2, 117, 267.
+
+Otsego Lake, 1, 4, 117, 142, 240.
+
+"Otsego Republican," Cooper's libel suit with, 185, 186.
+
+
+Paris, Cooper's residence at, 67-69, 107.
+
+Parsons, Usher, 227.
+
+"Pathfinder, The," 11, 239-242, 283, 294.
+
+Paulding, James Kirke, 30.
+
+Paulding, Hiram, 216.
+
+Peale, Rembrandt, 115.
+
+Percival, James G., 60-62.
+
+Perry, Captain Matthew, 210, 212.
+
+Perry, Commodore Oliver H., 208-229, 295, 297.
+
+"Philadelphia National Gazette," 114, 292.
+
+"Pilot, The," 44-48, 57, 74, 95, 283-288, 291.
+
+"Pioneers, The," 39-44, 61, 65, 72, 117, 156, 239, 287, 291.
+
+Piracy of books, 261, 262.
+
+Plattsburgh Bay, Battle of, 298.
+
+Poe, Elgar A., 245, 246, _note_.
+
+Poland, revolt of, 107;
+  Cooper's efforts to aid, 108.
+
+"Prairie, The," 61, 71, 73, 76, 95, 239, 283, 291.
+
+Preble, Edward, 296, 297.
+
+"Precaution," 16-28, 243.
+
+Price of Cooper's later novels, 262, 263.
+
+Princeton College, 246.
+
+Procter, Bryan Waller, 58, 161.
+
+Provincialism of America, 138, 150, 164, 165, 168.
+
+Puritanism, 23-29, 75, 243.
+
+"Putnam's Magazine," 298.
+
+
+"Quarterly Review, The," 35, 277, 287;
+  its attacks on America, 89;
+  its attack on Cooper, 205.
+
+
+"Ravensnest" (English title), 297.
+
+"Recollections of Europe" (English title), 293.
+
+"Redskins, The," 253, 254, 263, 297.
+
+"Red Rover, The," 65, 73, 99, 226, 227, 255, 291.
+
+Reporters of newspapers, Cooper's attack on, 176.
+
+"Residence in France" (English title), 292.
+
+Revolution of 1830, French, 106, 107.
+
+"Revue Britannique," 111-113.
+
+Rhode Island Historical Society, 213;
+  refuses to accept the Cooper medal, 224-227.
+
+Rives, William C., 114.
+
+Rome, Cooper's residence at, 68, 75.
+
+Russia, early cordial relations of, with the United States, 93.
+
+
+Sand, George, 284.
+
+"Satanstoe," 252, 253, 254, 263, 296.
+
+Saulnier, M., 111, 112.
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 31, 33, 41, 44, 56-59, 91, 110, 124, 277, 278, 283, 287;
+  his mention of Cooper, 69, 160;
+  Lockhart's life of, 159-161.
+
+Scott, General Winfield, 127.
+
+"Sea Lions, The," 255, 258-260, 263, 298.
+
+Sea novel, Cooper's creation of, 44-47, 57, 74.
+
+Shannon, English ship-of-war, 12, 202.
+
+Shanty, Cooper's derivation of, 275.
+
+Shaw, John, 290, 297.
+
+Shubrick, John Templer, 296, 297.
+
+Silliman, Professor Benjamin, 8.
+
+"Sketches of Switzerland," 135-140, 292.
+
+Slavery, Cooper's feelings toward, 85, 104.
+
+Smith, Sydney, 96.
+
+Smollett, Tobias G., 45, 57.
+
+Somers, American man-of-war, 228.
+
+Somers, Richard, 295, 297.
+
+Sorrento, Cooper's residence at, 68, 71, 75.
+
+Sotheby, William, 97, 98.
+
+Southey, Robert, 91.
+
+Spencer, John C., 228.
+
+Spencer, Joshua A., 186.
+
+"Spy, The," 13, 30-38, 43, 49, 57, 65, 66, 280, 283, 290.
+
+Squier, E. G., 37.
+
+Steevens, Samuel, 215-221.
+
+Sterling, merchant ship, 9, 10, 247, 248.
+
+Stone, William Leet, Cooper's libel suits against, 187, 214-221, 223, 224.
+
+Sumner, Charles, 91, 160.
+
+Susquehanna River, 1, 2, 264.
+
+
+Talleyrand visits Cooper's father, 5.
+
+Three Mile Point Controversy, The, 142-148, 156.
+
+Ticknor, George, 91.
+
+Tories of American Revolution, Cooper's treatment of, 13.
+
+"Towns of Manhattan, The," 266, 299.
+
+Tuckerman, Henry T., his account of a trial scene, 217, 218.
+
+"Two Admirals, The," 242, 243, 276, 295.
+
+Tyler, John, President, 228.
+
+
+"United Service Journal," its criticism of Cooper's Naval History, 204,
+  205.
+
+"Upside Down," Cooper's comedy, 263.
+
+
+Van Rensselaer, Stephen, the patroon, 251.
+
+Verplanck, Gulian Crommelin, 63.
+
+Vesuvius, American man-of-war, 11.
+
+
+"Water Witch, The," 75, 76, 78, 106, 291;
+  refused publication in Rome, 123.
+
+Waverley Novels, 31, 44.
+
+"Ways of the Hour, The," 255, 260, 263, 272, 274, 277, 298.
+
+Webster, Daniel, 268.
+
+Weed, Thurlow, 122, 190;
+  Cooper's libel suits against, 187, 190-196;
+  admiration for Cooper's novels, 196.
+
+"Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, The," 74, 99, 272, 291.
+
+Westchester County, New York, 12, 14, 29.
+
+Whig party, its hostility to Cooper 131.
+
+Whig press, attacks on Cooper, 147, 148, 158, 159, 173, 177, 180, 184,
+  185, 199, 211, 235, 241.
+
+Wiley, John, publisher, 63, 66.
+
+Willis, N. P., 132.
+
+Wilson, John, 58.
+
+"Wing-and-Wing," 93, 243, 244, 247, 262, 295.
+
+Woolsey, Melancthon Taylor, 11, 296, 297.
+
+Wright, Fanny, 36.
+
+"Wyandotte," 13, 244, 245, 263, 295.
+
+
+Yale College, 246;
+  Cooper's connection with, 7-9.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas R. Lounsbury
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ***
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