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diff --git a/26498-h/26498-h.htm b/26498-h/26498-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..271650e --- /dev/null +++ b/26498-h/26498-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3620 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Peter Cooper, by Rossiter W. Raymond. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Cooper, by Rossiter W. Raymond + +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: Peter Cooper + The Riverside Biographical Series, Number 4 + +Author: Rossiter W. Raymond + +Release Date: August 31, 2008 [EBook #26498] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER COOPER *** + + + + +Produced by Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + +<h3>The Riverside Biographical Series</h3> + +<h3>NUMBER 4</h3> + + +<h1>PETER COOPER</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>ROSSITER W. RAYMOND</h2> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> + +<div class='bbox'> +<h3>The Riverside Biographical Series</h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of books"> +<tr><td align='right'>1.</td><td align='left'>ANDREW JACKSON, by <span class="smcap">W. G. Brown</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>2.</td><td align='left'> JAMES B. EADS, by <span class="smcap">Louis How</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>3.</td><td align='left'> BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by <span class="smcap">Paul E. More</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>4.</td><td align='left'> PETER COOPER, by <span class="smcap">R. W. Raymond</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>5.</td><td align='left'> THOMAS JEFFERSON, by <span class="smcap">H. C. Merwin</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>6.</td><td align='left'> WILLIAM PENN, by <span class="smcap">George Hodges</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>7.</td><td align='left'> GENERAL GRANT, by <span class="smcap">Walter Allen</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>8.</td><td align='left'> LEWIS AND CLARK, by <span class="smcap">William R. Lighton</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>9.</td><td align='left'> JOHN MARSHALL, by <span class="smcap">James B. Thayer</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>10.</td><td align='left'> ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by <span class="smcap">Chas. A. Conant</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>11.</td><td align='left'> WASHINGTON IRVING, by <span class="smcap">H. W. Boynton</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>12.</td><td align='left'> PAUL JONES, by <span class="smcap">Hutchins Hapgood</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>13.</td><td align='left'> STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, by <span class="smcap">W. G. Brown</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>14.</td><td align='left'> SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, by <span class="smcap">H. D. Sedgwick</span>, Jr.</td></tr> +</table></div><div class='center'><br /> </div> +<div class="hang1">Each about 140 pages, 16mo, with photogravure +portrait, 65 cents, <i>net;</i> <i>School Edition</i>, each, +50 cents, <i>net</i>.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston and New York</span><br /></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 314px;"> +<img src="images/portrait.jpg" width="314" height="500" alt="(signed) Peter Cooper" title="(signed) Peter Cooper" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>PETER COOPER</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>ROSSITER W. RAYMOND<br /><br /></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 161px;"> +<img src="images/emblem.png" width="161" height="200" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><br /> +<small>BOSTON AND NEW YORK</small><br /> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /> +<b>The Riverside Press Cambridge</b><br /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class='copyright'> +COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY ROSSITER W. RAYMOND.<br /> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED<br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><small>CHAP.</small></td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ancestry</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Boyhood and Youth</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Business Ventures</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Inventions</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Tom Thumb</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Municipal Affairs</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art </span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">National Politics</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The End</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">During</span> the last decade of Peter Cooper's +life, the writer of this biographical sketch +enjoyed some degree of intimacy with him, +as professional adviser and traveling companion, +and also, incidentally, as consulting +engineer of the firm of Cooper and Hewitt, +and manager of a department in the Cooper +Union. This circumstance, together with +the preference kindly expressed by Mr. +Cooper's family, doubtless influenced the selection +of the writer for the honorable task +of preparing this book,—a task which was +welcome as a labor of love, though the execution +of it has been hindered and impaired +by the demands of other duties. The real +difficulty has been to compress within the +prescribed limits a story covering so many +years and so many topics, yet not possessing +those features of dramatic action or adventure +which could be treated briefly, with +picturesque effect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Cooper's family has kindly furnished +abundant material for this work, including, +besides his own published utterances, the +notes of the stenographer to whom Mr. +Cooper, in the last years of his life, dictated +his "reminiscences." The use which has +been made of these will be evident to the +reader. Beyond an occasional revelation of +the character of the speaker, or a side-light +thrown upon the manners and conditions of +our early national life, they have not furnished +valuable data; and the study of +them suggests an observation which may be +heeded with advantage in similar cases hereafter, +though it comes too late to be useful in +this instance, namely, that the recollections +of old people with retentive memories, like +Peter Cooper, may be invaluable, if they +are intelligently aroused and guided; but if +the speakers (as in his case) are left to their +own initiative, they are too likely to furnish +superfluous accounts of events already described +more accurately in authentic contemporaneous +records.</p> + +<p>It has not been practicable to preserve,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> +in the treatment of the subject, a strictly +chronological order. As the titles of the +several chapters indicate, the different lines +of Mr. Cooper's activity have been considered, +to some extent, separately, so that +their periods overlap each other.</p> + +<p>This sketch of Mr. Cooper's career furnishes +the elements of an analysis, which I +introduce here, as a guide in the interpretation +of what is to follow.</p> + +<p>1. The time of his birth and the prophetic +anticipations of his parents profoundly +influenced his ambition to do something +great for his fellow-citizens of the +republic whose life began so nearly with +his own.</p> + +<p>2. The atmosphere surrounding his youth +was one of unlimited and audacious adventure. +New institutions, a virgin continent, +the ardent desire to be independent of the +Old World, and a profound belief in the +destiny of America, all combined to stimulate +endeavor. What Peter Cooper said of +himself as an apprentice was true of the typical +young American of his time: "I was always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +planning and contriving, and was never +satisfied unless I was doing something difficult—something +that had never been done +before, if possible."</p> + +<p>3. The new freedom and the vast opportunity +presented in the young republic encouraged, +to a degree not paralleled before +or since, that change of occupation which, +with all its drawbacks, had the one great +merit that it educated men to various activities. +It was no disgrace to an American +to go into one business after another, seeking +the one which would prove most profitable +and agreeable. Thus, Peter Cooper +worked successively as a hatter, a coach-builder, +a machinist, a machine-maker, a +grocer, an iron-worker, and a glue-manufacturer, +achieving success in every occupation, +but abandoning each for something more +promising, and learning in each something +which promoted his success in the next.</p> + +<p>4. At every stage of his progress, he followed +the ideal of personal independence, +the honest acquisition of property, the establishment +of a home, and the rearing of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> +family. These were the first duties and the +dearest wishes—no matter what greater +things might lie beyond. And he profoundly +realized that temperance, industry, +frugality, and patience were the necessary +preliminaries to any longed-for achievement. +As he says, he had first to spend thirty +years in getting a start; then to spend another +thirty years in accumulating the means +for further advance into the wider sphere of +his aspirations. And during each stage of +this process, he was patient, as well as hopeful, +neither wasting his energies in visionary +schemes nor allowing the eddies of daily +toil to divert the current of his deeper purposes.</p> + +<p>5. At every stage, however, he found +himself hindered by lack of thorough knowledge. +He invented perpetually and profusely; +but some of his most cherished inventions +did not find practical recognition, +because he had attempted the premature or +the impossible. His guiding principle, of +trying to do something that had never been +done before, is not an adequate substitute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +for a scientific knowledge of what can be, +and now needs to be, done. He found himself +often too far in advance of his generation. +Moreover, he found that the lack of +education crippled him in the attempt to +make other men understand and appreciate +his fruitful ideas. This is true of all really +great "self-made men." They may have +achieved success and fame in spite of early +disadvantages; they may, perhaps, recognize +the fact that such disadvantages, necessitating +a stern struggle, have sifted out, +by natural selection, the possessors of genius +and sterling character; but not one of them +fails to lament the lack of that early training +which would have made him still more successful +than he is; and not one of them +fails to desire, for his children and the coming +generation of his fellows, the early advantages +which were denied to himself.</p> + +<p>6. This experience it was which gave +form to the aspirations and purposes of +Peter Cooper. As an apprentice, he resolved +to do something for the benefit of +apprentices—to found some institution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +which should supplement the deficiencies of +early education, furnishing to virtuous, industrious, +and ambitious youths the means +of progress, and attracting the thoughtless +or indolent into the same ascending road. +How this conception came to be both modified +and realized will be seen in later pages. +At this point it is sufficient to note that +the plan was originally not only philanthropic, +but patriotic and practical. It contemplated +the benefit, through means adapted +to their special condition, of Americans of +that class to which Peter Cooper himself belonged.</p> + +<p>Some further observations concerning the +secret of the universal esteem and affection +enjoyed by Mr. Cooper will be reserved for +the closing chapter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PETER COOPER</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>ANCESTRY</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Obadiah Cooper</span>, who, with his two +brothers, came from England to the colony +of New York about 1662, belonged, as we +may infer with confidence, to that sturdy +class of republican yeomanry which found +the restored reign of the Stuarts intolerable. +He settled at Fishkill-on-the-Hudson; and +his son Obadiah—whom tradition declares +to have been the fourth white man child +born in what is now Dutchess County—was +the great-grandfather of Peter Cooper. In +1720 an Obadiah of the next generation +followed, and of his son John, born in 1755, +Peter Cooper was the fifth child.</p> + +<p>John Cooper came of age in the year of +the Declaration of Independence. In the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +issue between the British government and +the American colonies his choice could not +be doubtful. He followed the traditions of +his family. Indeed, it is now well established +and universally admitted that the +patriots of the American Revolution were +not in fact arrayed against England. They +were engaged in a struggle which was but a +part of the great conflict waged against shortsighted +and obstinate tyranny by Englishmen +on both sides of the ocean, and in which +the victory for liberty was won on this +side sooner than on the other. What the +Coopers and their kind achieved here was +applauded openly in the mother country by +the descendants of a common ancestry as a +triumph for the common cause. The use of +foreign mercenaries under British commanders +in this country was the direct result of +the impossibility of inducing Englishmen to +enlist for service against their American +kinsmen. Hence when John Cooper, of +Fishkill, abandoned in 1776 the business he +had just established as a hatter, and became +sergeant in a company of "minute-men," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +was but pursuing the course indicated both +by his own convictions and by the history of +his fathers and the sympathies of the party +in England to which they had belonged. It +was Freedom's battle "handed down from +sire to son."</p> + +<p>He served subsequently for two years in +the Continental line, and for the last four +years of the war as a lieutenant in the +New York militia, actively employed in the +perilous service of protecting life, property, +and the public stores in the zone of debatable +territory,—the "bloody ground" +which surrounded the British lines in New +York. At the close of the war, New York +having been evacuated by the enemy, Lieutenant +John Cooper retired to civil life, and +resumed business as a hatter in that city,—a +worthy example of that American citizen +soldiery which has always been equally ready +to leave the ways of peace for its country's +defense, and to return to them when the +exigency had passed.</p> + +<p>It was in 1779, during his military service, +that John Cooper married Margaret, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +daughter of John Campbell, a deputy quartermaster-general +in the Continental army, and a +trusted agent of Washington. The outbreak +of hostilities in 1776 had found John Campbell +a prosperous merchant and owner of +real estate in New York city. He at once +lent to the Revolutionary government eleven +hundred guineas,—the whole of his ready +money,—entered the service, was made +deputy quartermaster-general, and was directed +to superintend the hasty evacuation +of the city by the Whig inhabitants, and to +protect them and their property as far as +possible. Lingering too long to assist some +of the laggards, he was captured by the forces +landed from the British fleet, but was subsequently +released; and he made a temporary +home at Fishkill while actively engaged in +establishing the lines by which the British +army, though holding the city and commanding +its access to the sea, was practically besieged. +General Campbell served throughout +the war, and after hostilities had ceased +commanded the troops at West Point until +they were finally disbanded in 1785.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is easy to imagine how the young lieutenant +and the daughter of the commander +who must have been frequently brought into +personal relations with him may have met +and loved and wedded in the midst of those +troublous times, but the romance would have +no special bearing on this history. It is +enough to say that by this marriage the best +blood of England and Scotland—of servants +of God and lovers of freedom—was +blended in the nine children, seven sons +and two daughters, of whom Peter Cooper—born +February 12, 1791, in Little Dock +(now Water) Street, New York—was the +fifth.</p> + +<p>John Cooper was not characteristically a +seer of visions or a dreamer of dreams. On +the contrary, the accounts of him which +have come down to us describe him as a +stalwart athlete, who "could lift a barrel +of cider from the ground and put it in a +wagon," and who once, being cornered and +attacked by a bull, seized the animal's nose +with one hand and so battered its head with +a stone that it was glad to turn and fly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +Yet he came of a race that believed in Divine +guidance; and on one occasion at least +he acted upon that belief in a matter then +deemed more important, perhaps, than now. +The incident can be given best in the words +of Peter Cooper himself, who wrote:—</p> + +<p>"My father used to tell me how he came +to call me Peter. When I was born he became +strongly impressed with the idea that +I would some day have more than ordinary +fame, and what name he should give me was +a matter of serious and frequent thought. +While walking on Broadway one dark night +it seemed as though a voice spoke to him in +a clear and distinct manner: 'Call him +Peter!' That seeming voice settled my +name. My father said that he felt that I +was to be of great good in some way; and +his remarks, with my mother's, concerning +their aspirations and hopes for me acted as a +stimulus and made me anxious to fulfill their +wishes, and not disappoint them."</p> + +<p>If names were to be characteristic of individual +careers, it might be better to imitate +some Indian tribes, and to give the permanent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +name only after the career, or at +least the character, of its recipient had been +indicated by his acts. In this instance the +subsequent life of the son did not in any +peculiar way imitate that of the Apostle +Peter. Evidently not that particular name, +but the simple fact that an eminent name, +thus suggested and not already familiar in his +family, had been given to him, produced +upon his mind the effect to which he testifies.</p> + +<p>But why should practical John Cooper +be disposed to anticipate a special distinction +for the infant who was the fifth of his +numerous progeny? From the standpoint +of the modes of thought of the godly patriots +of that generation, and of their ancestors, +the English Puritans and the Scotch Covenanters, +it is scarcely hazardous to assume +that current public affairs largely affected +such domestic choices. Peter Cooper's birth +was practically simultaneous with the launching +of that Ship of State, the "Union, strong +and great," in which all patriots had embarked +"their hopes, triumphant o'er their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +fears." To his veteran-soldier father he +was the first child of the new era; and the +dreams that were dreamed over him were +doubtless connected with that glorious future +which had just dawned upon the federated +republic. The choice of an unfamiliar, non-hereditary +name, however suggested, symbolized +the break between the old time and +the new.</p> + +<p>Above all, this incident produced in the +son thus christened the profoundest effects, +the deepest motives, that can inspire a boyish +soul,—the belief in a beneficent mission, +the yearning to discover it, the resolve to +execute it, and the conviction that it was to +be directly connected with the prosperity +and progress of the great nation, the life of +which began with his own.</p> + +<p>The naming of Peter Cooper thus strikes +the keynote, or, more accurately, the triple +chord, of his life. For he was first of all an +American, keenly aware of the opportunities +offered by the free institutions of his country +to individual ambition, industry, and +genius, and of his own personal ability to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +make use of these opportunities. Secondly, +he was a lover of his fellow men, determined +to employ for their benefit the means +and powers which he felt himself able to +accumulate by thought, toil, and frugal economy. +Thirdly, he was even in his philanthropy +essentially still an American, intent +most of all upon the welfare of those classes +of his countrymen with whose struggles and +needs his own early life had made him familiar. +In other words, while his philanthropy +covered a world-wide range, his peculiar mission, +as he conceived it, was indissolubly blent +with the success of the republic of which he +was one of the earliest-born sons.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h3>BOYHOOD AND YOUTH</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> a meeting of friends, gathered February +12, 1882, to celebrate his ninety-first birthday +anniversary, Mr. Cooper, after expressing +his thanks for their congratulatory good +wishes, and observing that in his case "length +of days had not yet resulted in weariness of +spirit," added this review of his life:—</p> + +<p>"Looking back, I can see that my career +has been divided into three eras. During +the first thirty years I was engaged in getting +a start in life; during the second thirty +years I was occupied in getting means for +carrying out the modest plan which I had +long formed for the benefit of my fellow +men; and during the last thirty years I have +devoted myself to the execution of these +plans. This work is now done."</p> + +<p>Accepting this division of his career, as +convenient, though not strictly accurate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +(since the processes described really overlapped +instead of separately succeeding one +another), we may consider first Mr. Cooper's +means and method of achieving personal +success; and in this survey the conditions of +his boyhood and early youth are primarily +important.</p> + +<p>While he was still very young, the family +removed from a temporary residence of three +years in New York city to Peekskill, where +he remained until, at the age of seventeen, +he returned to New York as an apprentice, +to be, thenceforward, dependent upon his +own exertions for a living.</p> + +<p>The intervening period was spent in ways +characteristic of the period and of the individual. +He attended school for three or +four "quarters," of which period, according +to his later recollection, "probably half was +occupied by 'half-day' school." Outside of +this scanty formal instruction, there is +ample evidence that he developed body and +mind in varied work and play. He bore to +the end of life the scars of youthful escapades, +witnessing the adventurous spirit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +his boyhood. When only four years old, +he climbed about the framework of a new +house, and fell, head downward, upon an +iron kettle, cutting his forehead to the bone. +Later on, he was accidentally cut with a knife +in the hands of a playmate. Later still, he +cut himself dangerously with an axe. Again, +he fell from a high tree, holding an iron +hook with which he had been reaching for +cherry-bearing branches, and managed to +hook out one of his teeth. At another time +he went for the nest of a hanging-bird, and +had the fact that it was a hornet's nest indelibly +impressed on his memory. Of course, +he was nearly drowned three times,—such +youngsters always have such escapes. In +short, he was a thorough boy, adventuring +all things, daunted by nothing, and protected +from the results of his reckless endeavors +by that Providence which watches +over small boys.</p> + +<p>But such a temperament finds play in +useful work also. The boy learned every +department of the hat-making business, beginning, +when he was very young, with pulling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +the fur from the skins of rabbits. And, +while assisting his mother in doing the +family washing, he made what was, perhaps, +his first invention,—a mechanical arrangement +for pounding the soiled linen. Again, +after carefully dissecting an old shoe, to learn +how it was put together, he determined to +make shoes and slippers for the family, and +succeeded in turning out products of manufacture +which were said to be as good as +those to be found, at that day, in the regular +trade.</p> + +<p>He constructed a toy wagon, sold it for +six dollars, managed to gather four dollars +more, invested the ten dollars in lottery +tickets, and drew only blanks, of which experience +he said many years later, "I consider +it one of the best investments of my life; for +I then learned that it was not my <i>forte</i> to +make money at games of chance."</p> + +<p>When he was between thirteen and fourteen +years old, his father built a large malt-house +at Newburg, and the son loaded with +his own hands and carted to the site selected +all the stone for the building. Collecting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +wild honey and shooting game in the forests +around Peekskill were additional employments +which combined pleasure with profit. +But this life did not satisfy the ambition of +the youth; and in 1808, at the age of seventeen, +he left the paternal roof and apprenticed +himself for four years to John Woodward, +a leading coach-builder in New York, +whose shop was located on the corner of +Broadway and Chambers Street, then the +northerly edge of the city, opposite a vegetable +garden, the remnants of which, after +the occupation of a large portion by city, +county, and national buildings, now constitute +the City Hall Park. The terms of his +employment were his board and a salary of +twenty-five dollars a year,—out of which he +managed not only to pay all obligations, but +also to lay by a little money. During this +period he not only mastered the details of +the trade, but learned in his hours of leisure +other branches, such as ornamental wood-carving, +and made several inventions, one of +which was a machine for mortising hubs,—an +operation performed by hand up to that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +time. Another invention over which the +young apprentice dreamed, and of which he +laboriously constructed a model, was an apparatus +for utilizing, in the running of machinery, +the swift current of the tide in the +East River.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h3>BUSINESS VENTURES</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> the end of his apprenticeship, his employer +offered to set him up in business as +a coach-builder, lending him the necessary +capital. Many years later, Mr. Cooper told +the story thus:—</p> + +<p>"I was about to accept his generous offer, +when an incident occurred which changed +my decision. Mr. Woodward had just completed +one of the finest coaches ever built in +New York, for a gentleman who was supposed +to be one of the richest men in the +city. But a day or two before the coach +was to be delivered the gentleman died, and +it was then found that he was insolvent. +This made me hesitate. If I should accept +my employer's kind offer and have such a +misfortune happen to me in the sale of an +elegant and expensive coach, I should consider +myself a slave for life, since the law of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +imprisonment for debt had not then been +abolished. So I changed my plans, and +went to Hempstead, Long Island, to visit my +brother."</p> + +<p>The visit to Hempstead became a prolonged +residence. He obtained work at +$1.50 a day (then regarded as high wages) +in a factory making machines for shearing +cloth, and after nearly three years had +saved enough money to purchase the right +for the State of New York to a patented +machine for that purpose. He used to tell, +in his old age, of his elation when he effected +his first sale of a county-right, for which he +received five hundred dollars from Mr. Vassar, +of Poughkeepsie, afterwards the founder +of Vassar College.</p> + +<p>The manufacture and sale of the new +shearing-machine, into which Mr. Cooper +introduced many additional improvements, +was a prosperous business, especially during +the war of 1812, when domestic woolen +goods were in great demand. He married, +December 18, 1813, Sarah Bedell, a lady of +Huguenot descent, who made for him a happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +home during fifty-seven years.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> He bought +a house in Hempstead, expecting to remain +there; and in the household, as in business, +he gave rein to his ardent and versatile inventive +faculty. One of his domestic contrivances +rocked the cradle, fanned away +the flies, and played a lullaby to the baby. +He sold the patent in Connecticut to a +Yankee peddler for a horse and wagon, and +the peddler's stock, including a hurdy-gurdy. +Another invention was a machine for mowing +grass, constructed on the principle of his +cloth-shearing machine.</p> + +<p>But after the war, the domestic woolen +mills were shut down, and there was no sale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +for Mr. Cooper's machines. So he first +turned his factory into a furniture shop, and +then, selling it for what he could get, he +moved to New York, and started in the +grocery business, buying for this purpose a +long lease of the ground where the Bible +House now stands, opposite the Cooper +Union on Ninth Street. Upon this ground +he erected several buildings, one of which +he used as his office. The business was +profitable; but the real foundation of Mr. +Cooper's wealth was laid when, at the age +of thirty-three, he purchased a glue factory, +situated where the Park Avenue Hotel now +stands, and established himself as a glue +manufacturer. The business speedily acquired +and held for half a century practically +the whole trade of the country in glue +and isinglass,—a monopoly fairly earned by +the cheapness and excellence of its product.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cooper's inventions improved the +quality and reduced the cost of his product, +while his energy, industry, and frugality +steadily increased his surplus cash, and enabled +him, without borrowing capital, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +extend his sphere of operations. For many +years, he carried on his glue business without +bookkeeper, agent, or salesman. Dawn +found him at the suburban factory (on what is +now Thirty-Second Street) lighting the fires +and preparing for the day's work; at noon, +he drove in his buggy to the city, where he +made his own sales and purchases; and all +his evenings he spent at home, making up +his accounts, answering his correspondents, +studying out new inventions, or talking and +reading to his wife and children.</p> + +<p>By these simple, old-fashioned methods he +built up a business and accumulated a fortune +too large to be thus administered. It would +have been impossible for one head to carry the +details of work and management, for one pair +of eyes to superintend each part of the work, +or for one pair of feet, however tireless, to +travel all the ways which lead to and from a +great modern industrial establishment. Still +less could financial direction and protection be +compassed by the simple scheme which Mr. +Cooper, in his old age, recalled with pride. +"I used," he said once, "to pay all my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +debts every Saturday night; and I knew +that what I had left was my own!" This +could not have been strictly true; but it +doubtless expressed an old man's memory of +the way he began, and the principles he had +followed, with that horror of debt which +dated from the time when debtors could be +put in jail. Fortunately for Mr. Cooper, his +son Edward, and his son-in-law, Abram S. +Hewitt, were at hand to undertake the management +of his business enterprises at the +time when his own simple methods would +have proved inadequate, so that his inventive +genius, adventurous courage, and, above +all, intense philanthropy, were backed with +ample means.</p> + +<p>In this account of his business ventures +(though of much later date than those already +mentioned) the part played by Peter +Cooper in the development of the American +iron industry and in the construction of the +first transatlantic submarine telegraph may +be recorded.</p> + +<p>The manufacture of iron was one of the +early industries of the American colonies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +and after the Revolution it was prosecuted +with increased activity in small and primitive +establishments. With its development +into scientific forms on a large scale Mr. +Cooper was both directly and indirectly connected. +His Ringwood estate in New Jersey +had been the scene of the operations of the +Ringwood Company in 1740, and of its successors,—Hasenclever +(1764) and Erskine +(1771); and the Durham furnace, on the +Delaware River in Pennsylvania (on the site +of the Durham Iron Works of Cooper & +Hewitt), made its first blast in 1727. Mr. +Cooper himself was engaged in 1830 in the +manufacture of charcoal iron near Baltimore, +and in 1836, together with his brother +Thomas, he operated a rolling-mill in New +York (on Thirty-Third Street, near Third +Avenue). At this mill anthracite was used +for puddling in 1840. In 1845 the business +was removed to Trenton, N. J.; and in +the new rolling-mill—then the largest in +the United States—built at Trenton for +the manufacture of rails, the first iron beams +for buildings were rolled in 1854. By the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +erection of blast furnaces at Phillipsburg +and Ringwood, N. J., and Durham, Pa., and +the addition of wire mills, bridge shop, chain +shop, etc., to the works at Trenton, the purchase +of iron and coal lands, and the development +of numerous mines, the firm of Cooper +& Hewitt achieved high rank among the +ironmasters of America; and the Iron and +Steel Institute of Great Britain conferred +upon Peter Cooper in 1879 the "Bessemer +gold medal" for his services in the development +of the American iron trade. In 1890 +the same honor was given to Mr. Abram S. +Hewitt in recognition of the experiments at +Phillipsburg as early as 1856 to test the +new invention of Bessemer, of his introduction +of the open-hearth steel process into the +United States, and of other services rendered +to the steel industry,—in all of which he +may be said to have followed, with the advantages +of a wider culture and ampler +means, the example set by Mr. Cooper.</p> + +<p>One of the boldest yet wisest and most +profitable operations of Mr. Cooper was his +investment in the Atlantic cable enterprise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +of Cyrus Field. He was already past middle +age when this audacious scheme began +to be dreamed of. In 1842 Morse had laid +down an experimental cable from Castle +Garden to Governor's Island in New York +harbor, and claimed as a practical inference +that a telegraphic communication on his +plan could "with certainty be established +across the Atlantic."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In 1851 the first +cable was laid between France and England, +and others rapidly followed on ocean lines +over short distances. The principle was +thus established, and the doubts as to its +practical application to a line of at least +twenty-five hundred miles were of such a +character as to seem more serious to scientific +men than to American capitalists of Mr. +Cooper's type. In March, 1854, the New +York, Newfoundland, & London Telegraph +Company was organized, and Mr. Cooper +became (and remained for twenty trying +years) its president. There was little difficulty +in raising the money for the eighty-five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +miles of cable which were to be laid +under the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or in obtaining +from the British colonies favorable +charters granting exclusive privileges, land +grants, and even subsidies. Yet the construction +of the land line across Newfoundland +to the terminus at Heart's Content +proved difficult and costly, and the St. Lawrence +cable was lost in laying. Yet additional +capital was subscribed; and a couple +of years later the Newfoundland line, the +St. Lawrence cable, and another submarine +link of thirteen miles across the Straits of +Northumberland had been successfully finished. +Nothing remained to be done <i>except</i> +the procuring of means and the devising of +successful methods for the installation of the +Atlantic cable itself, without which all this +preliminary expenditure would have been +thrown away.</p> + +<p>The capital estimated as necessary for +making and laying the cable was raised by +Mr. Field in England, where the Atlantic +Telegraph Company was formed to construct +and operate the line under concessions from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +the parent Newfoundland company. All +classes in England felt a sentimental interest +in the romantic enterprise; and the +subscribers to the new stock included such +men as Thackeray and others of equal note, +outside of business circles altogether.</p> + +<p>The company proceeded with vigor,—secured +from the governments of Great Britain +and the United States guaranties of +subsidies and the free use of ships for laying +the cable; contracts for the cable and its insulating +covering were executed; and by the +end of July, 1857, the British Agamemnon +and the American Niagara had each twelve +hundred and fifty miles of it on board. +In August they connected the two halves of +it in mid-Atlantic, and in September the +shore end was landed at Heart's Content.</p> + +<p>The sequel is familiar history. A few +messages had been sent and received, when +the current grew weaker and weaker, and at +last failed entirely. The result was a strong +reaction in popular sentiment. It was even +questioned whether any messages had actually +crossed the Atlantic. Fortunately this doubt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +could be conclusively disproved,—especially +in England, where it was known that the +British government had wired by the cable +before its failure news of great political importance. +The British company indeed courageously +proceeded to make another cable; +but when this parted in mid-ocean during +the process of laying it even British tenacity +of purpose was daunted, and for some two +years the enterprise seemed to be dead. +Meanwhile public opinion on this side was +far more unfavorable, and the parent company +found itself without means or credit. +To retain its privileges it must pay additional +money, and to make those privileges +worth anything capital must be raised for +a third attempt to lay the transatlantic +line.</p> + +<p>Without describing in detail the difficulties +and anxieties of this period, it may be +said that the intelligent courage of Peter +Cooper saved the enterprise, while it secured +to him a large pecuniary reward; for he +perceived that the real problem had been +solved by the first apparent failure; that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +the failure of a cable in use or the loss of a +cable in laying it were mere incidental misfortunes +which more thorough precautions +and better luck would preclude; and he +backed with his own faith and money the +undaunted enthusiasm and persuasive eloquence +of Mr. Field, whose expenses he paid +for another journey to England, and who +succeeded at last in raising there the funds +for the third and successful attempt. Moreover +Mr. Cooper upheld the credit of the +Newfoundland company, personally paying +the drafts drawn upon it, and taking its +bonds as his security. It is too much to say +that the Atlantic cable would never have +been laid, but there can be no doubt that +the enterprise would have been long suspended, +without this timely aid. The third +cable was a success; the lost second was recovered +and made useful; and now the thing +is easy which thus seemed so problematical. +If Peter Cooper received in the end a handsome +sum from this investment, who could +grudge him the wealth so acquired?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h3>INVENTIONS</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> inventions projected, though in many +instances not perfected or successfully introduced, +by Mr. Cooper constitute a long list +and cover a wide field. A few of them may +be mentioned here, in addition to those to +which allusion has been made already. It +will be seen that even those which failed of +commercial success generally contained the +germs of future mechanical progress, and +bore witness to the extraordinary vigor and +versatility of his genius.</p> + +<p>When the Erie Canal was approaching +completion it occurred to Mr. Cooper that +canal boats might be propelled by the power +of water drawn from a higher level and +moving a series of endless chains along the +canal. After some preliminary experiments +he built a flat-bottomed scow, arranged a +water wheel to utilize the tidal current in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +the East River, and actually achieved a trial +trip of two miles and return, in which Governor +Clinton and other invited guests took +part. The governor was so well pleased +that he paid Mr. Cooper eight hundred dollars +for the first chance to purchase the +right of applying the method on the new +canal. But the scheme failed for the reason +(as Mr. Cooper explained half a century +later) that the right of way for the Erie +Canal had been secured from the farmers of +the State by representing to them the profit +which they would realize from selling forage, +etc., for the use of canal boats, which were +to be drawn by horses or mules. The introduction +of mechanical power would destroy +these inducements, and the plan was +abandoned,—though Mr. Cooper had demonstrated +its feasibility by running his +endless chain on the East River for ten days +and carrying hundreds of passengers over +the trial route. It is not likely that such a +use of water power on the Erie Canal would +have proved practicable on a large scale; +but the endless chain, which Mr. Cooper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +apparently considered as a minor feature +only, has been adopted since, and lies at the +basis of the famous Belgian system of river +and canal transportation.</p> + +<p>In 1824 the wave of enthusiastic sympathy +for the Greeks which swept over the +country upon receipt of the tidings of their +revolt against Turkish tyranny stimulated +Mr. Cooper to invent a torpedo boat, to be +steered from the shore by "two steel wires, +like the reins of a horse." But on the trial +trip of the boat a ship crossed and broke the +wires when about six of their total length of +ten miles had been let out. The delay made +the invention too late for use by the Greeks, +and it was not further pursued.</p> + +<p>About 1835 the subject of aerial navigation +had in the United States one of its +periodical revivals. Mr. Cooper, believing +that a motive power developed from materials +of small weight was essential to the solution +of the problem, resolved to employ the explosive +force of chloride of nitrogen,—one +of the most dangerous compounds known to +chemists. The result of his experiments in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +this direction was an explosion which blew +his apparatus to pieces, and nearly cost the +audacious inventor an eye. In fact, though +the organ was saved from total destruction, +it was permanently injured.</p> + +<p>The conveyance of freight by aerial cables—a +method now widely used—was practiced +by Mr. Cooper at an early day. The +use of elevators in buildings was foreseen +and provided for by him in the erection of +the Cooper Union building, and in that +building also he introduced for the first time +iron beams as part of a fire-proof construction. +In these and other inventions his prophetic +intuitions were illustrated.</p> + +<p>But such intuitions do not fully take the +place of scientific training; and one of the +inventions of Peter Cooper—which he considered +for many years, and possibly to the +very last, as his crowning achievement—was +a curious example of misdirected ingenuity. +It is worthy of notice here, however, for +another reason, namely, because of its accidental +association with one of its inventor's +most remarkable triumphs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a young apprentice he had studied the +steam engine, and had resolved that he would +improve it by doing away with the crank. +To his mind this was a source of great loss +of power, and he believed that, if he could +transform the rectilinear motion of the piston +rod directly into rotary motion without the +intervention of the crank, he would effect a +notable economy.</p> + +<p>Now, there is no such loss of power through +the crank as he imagined, nor is it likely that +any other device for obtaining rotary from +rectilinear motion will be found superior to +that which Watt devised. But Peter Cooper +assailed this fancied evil with undoubting +confidence, both as to its existence and as to +his ability to do away with it. The result +was an invention for which he received, +April 28, 1828, letters patent of the United +States. At that early day patents were +comparatively few,—so few that this one +bears no number; and the duties of general +administration did not prevent the highest +officials from attending to details. This +patent, issued to Peter Cooper, of New York,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +was personally signed by John Quincy Adams, +President; countersigned by Henry +Clay, Secretary of State; transmitted to +William Wirt, Attorney-General; examined, +approved, and signed by him, and returned +to the Department of State for final delivery +to the patentee. It grants for fourteen +years to the said Peter Cooper, his heirs, administrators, +and assignees the exclusive right +to make, use, or license others to use, the +described improvement in the method of effecting +rotary motion directly from the alternate +rectilinear motion of a steam piston. +Evidently these distinguished statesmen—Adams, +Clay, and Wirt—were not experts +in mechanics, or at least did not undertake +to hinder by technical criticism the experiments +of American ambition; and there was +no trained corps of patent-examiners to decide +upon the novelty, practicability, and +usefulness of any proposed improvement in +the arts. Probably the government shared +at that time the dominant American feeling +of unconquerable youth, ready to attack all +problems, especially those which previous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +experience had pronounced insoluble, and to +determine the impossible by attempting it. +This spirit has in fact more or less dominated +the United States Patent Office down to the +present time. With all its present equipment +of examiners, trained in theory and +versed in technical literature, it still concerns +itself chiefly in the consideration of a proposed +invention with the question of novelty, +rather than that of feasibility or value; and +the effect has been that, while thousands of +patents are granted for absurd, unnecessary, +or inoperative devices, the net result of the +encouragement thus given to individual ingenuity +and audacity is a catalogue of great +inventions unmatched in the history of any +other nation.</p> + +<p>The patent of Peter Cooper, which now +lies before me,—a time-stained parchment +bearing the great seal of the United States +and the autographs of the famous men named +above,—is accompanied by no drawings; +but it contains a detailed specification which +shows that the invention consisted in an arrangement +by which, at each forward movement,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +a prolongation of the piston rod clawed +into an endless chain, which was pulled back +by the return stroke. This chain passed +around a wheel, to which it consequently +imparted a rotary motion.</p> + +<p>Engineers do not need to be told that +this cumbrous arrangement could not successfully +replace the crank, even if such a +replacement were desirable. Yet the inventor +constructed a working-machine, and +satisfied himself, by a "duty trial" of some +sort, that it "saved two fifths of the steam." +His discovery, however, was not hailed with +immediate recognition by the mechanical +public; and its author, undisturbed in his +faith, bided his time.</p> + +<p>This, by the way, points to a characteristic +of Peter Cooper, differentiating him +from the numerous enthusiasts whom prudent +men are accustomed to avoid. He +was not a man "of one idea." His fertile +and ingenious mind threw out its suggestions +in every direction, into fields untrodden +by experience; but when any such plan +failed of acceptance, he turned, with undiminished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +courage and hope, to something +else, remaining, nevertheless, still steadfast +in his former conception, and ready to seize +any opportunity for its realization.</p> + +<p>Thus it came to pass that Mr. Cooper's +abortive improvement upon the steam engine +was the source of his fame as the +builder of the first American locomotive, as +the following chapter will explain.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h3>THE TOM THUMB</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the specification of the patent secured +in 1828 by Mr. Cooper for an improved +steam engine, he took pains to declare the +suitability of his invention as a motor for +"land carriages." No doubt he had heard +of Stephenson's "Rocket," if not of the +engine built by Blenkinsop in 1813, the +sight of which in operation caused Stephenson +to resolve that he would "make a better." +The famous competitive trial of the +Rocket, the Novelty, the Sanspareil, and +the Perseverance, on a two-mile section of +the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, took +place in October, 1827, at which time Peter +Cooper must have been perfecting the application +for his patent.</p> + +<p>But other circumstances played their part +in the result which we are about to consider.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +Some time before 1830 Mr. Cooper had +been drawn into a land speculation at Canton, +in the suburbs of Baltimore. Failing +of support from his partners, he had been +obliged to buy them out, and to assume the +whole burden of the enterprise. Just at +that time there was great popular expectation +of the future importance of Baltimore. +A little earlier, there had been general despair +among the merchants of that city. +New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were +seeking the trade of the region beyond the +Alleghanies,—then "the West," but now +the centre of the population of the United +States. New York flanked the mountains +with her Erie Canal; Philadelphia got at +last a practicable, though less satisfactory, +water line; but Baltimore, though nearest +of all to the longed-for market, found, +through careful examination by eminent +engineers, that no canal was practicable for +her, at a cost within her means. In 1824 +and 1825 the consequent general despondency +concerning the future of the city was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +so strong that Baltimore merchants began +to move to New York and Philadelphia.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>But at this period the world began to +hear of railways. A well-known merchant +of Baltimore, returning from England, described +with enthusiasm the coal trains, +drawn by the cumbrous ante-Stephenson +engines, which he had seen there. The +idea of a tramway (with or without steam +motors) found ready acceptance in a community +both enterprising and desperate. A +town meeting, held in 1826, to consider +Western communications, resulted in an application +to the Maryland legislature, and +the incorporation, in March, 1827, of the +Baltimore and Ohio,—the first railroad +company thus created in the United States +for purposes of general transportation,—the +leader of that vast multitude of similar enterprises, +the history of which is the history +of our nation's marvelous commercial progress.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +By the legislative charter, the city +of Baltimore and the State of Maryland +were authorized to subscribe to the company's +stock.</p> + +<p>In the address already cited, Mr. Latrobe, +an eye-witness, says of the scenes +which followed:—</p> + +<p>"Then came a scene which almost beggars +description. By this time, public excitement +had gone beyond fever heat and +reached the boiling point. Everybody +wanted stock. The number of shares subscribed +were to be apportioned, if the limit +of the capital should be exceeded; and +every one set about obtaining proxies. Parents +subscribed in the names of their children, +and paid the dollar on each share that +the rules prescribed. Before even a survey +had been made, the possession of stock in +any quantity was regarded as a provision +for old age; and great was the scramble to +obtain it. The excitement in Baltimore +roused public attention elsewhere; and a +railroad mania began to pervade the land."</p> + +<p>The proposed railroad was to pass through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +Mr. Cooper's Canton property, which he +had already begun to develop, "so that it +should pay the taxes," by building upon it +charcoal kilns, after a design of his own, +with the purpose of turning the forest into +charcoal, and, by means of this fuel, smelting +the iron ore which the land contained. +What was the immediate commercial outcome +of this enterprise is not recorded. +Mr. Cooper's characteristic recollection, more +than sixty years later, was that, "with the +exception of a dangerous explosion," which +nearly cost him his life, the charcoal kilns +were "a great success!"</p> + +<p>But the great value of the property was +expected to be realized through the new +railroad; and this expectation suffered a +serious blow when the horse cars failed to +pay expenses; the operation of the line was +suspended; the directors lost faith in the +enterprise; and many of the principal stockholders +declared that they would rather lose +the investment made so far than "throw +good money after bad." For the hope that +the new agency of steam might help them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +out was blighted by the news from England +that Stephenson had said that steam could +not be used as a motive power on a road +having curves of less than 900 feet radius; +and this road had, at Point of Rocks, a necessary +curve with a radius of only 150 feet!</p> + +<p>The situation presented exactly the sort +of challenge calculated to arouse the courage +and ingenuity of Peter Cooper, besides +appealing to another of his personal characteristics, +namely, his undying and unalterable +faith in his own ideas and conclusions, +whether they had achieved recognition or +not. He could lay aside a scheme which +had not found immediate and successful application, +and turn his attention, with undiminished +vivacity, to something else; but +he never owned to a real defeat. And now +the problem presented at Baltimore seemed +to him a providential call for his intervention. +If the English engineers could not +run their locomotives around sharp curves, +it must be because they persisted in using +the vicious crank, which he had already superseded +by his (temporarily unappreciated)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +invention! And, with unshaken faith in +that device, he informed the Baltimore and +Ohio directors (to use the words in which, +long afterwards, he told the story) that he +thought he "could knock together a locomotive +which would get a train around the +Point of Rocks."</p> + +<p>It is a curious circumstance that, ever +since that day, the characteristic difference +between English and American locomotives +has been the ability of the latter to pass +curves of shorter radius than the former +can safely follow. The reason, as all railway +engineers know, is that the usual English +construction involves a rigid frame, +while the American has a movable truck or +"bogie" under the front part of the engine. +This solution of the problem was not +reached by Mr. Cooper. What he, in fact, +accomplished was simply a piece of audacity, +which encouraged the enterprise of his countrymen, +by proving that the dictum of limited +experience abroad was not conclusive. +Two features of his Baltimore experiment +were characteristic of him. The first was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +that he undertook it, not merely in order to +vindicate his invention, but to effect a practical +result, namely, to make his land speculation +pay. And the second was that when +he found it difficult to operate his pet invention +in this experiment, he laid it aside +at once,—without losing an atom of faith +in it, but also without persisting (as a typical +enthusiast would have done) in risking +upon the vindication of his personal opinion +in one matter the success of another undertaking, +more immediately important.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cooper's own recollection of this +event deserves to be told in his own words. +He says:<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>—</p> + +<p>"I came back to New York for a little +bit of a brass engine of mine—about one +horse power (it had a 3½ in. cylinder and +14 in. stroke)—and carried it back to Baltimore. +I got some boiler iron and made a +boiler about as high as an ordinary wash +boiler; and then how to connect the boiler +with the engine I didn't know. I couldn't +find any iron pipes. The fact was that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +there were none for sale in this country. +So I took two muskets, broke off the wooden +parts, and used the barrels for tubing, one +on one side and the other on the other side +of the boiler. I went into a coach-maker's +shop and made this locomotive, which I +called the Tom Thumb, because it was so +insignificant. I didn't intend it for actual +service, but only to show the directors what +could be done. I meant to test two things: +first, I meant to show that short turns could +be made; and secondly, that I could get +rotary motion without the use of a crank. +I effected both of these things very nicely. +I changed the movement from a reciprocating +to a rotary motion.</p> + +<p>"I got up steam one Saturday night. +The president of the road and two or three +other gentlemen were there. We got on +the truck and went out two or three miles. +All were delighted; for it opened new possibilities +for the railroad. I put up the locomotive +for the night in a shed, and invited +the company to ride to Ellicott's Mills +on Monday. Monday morning, what was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +my chagrin to find that some scamp had +been there, and chopped off all the copper +from the engine,—doubtless in order to sell +it to some junk dealer!</p> + +<p>"It took me a week or more to repair the +machine; then some one got in and broke a +piece out of the wheel, in experimenting +with it; and then two wheels, cast one after +the other, were damaged by the carelessness +of the turner. I was thoroughly disgusted +and discouraged; but, being determined +that I would not be balked entirely, I +changed the engine so that the power could +be applied through the ordinary connection +with a crank.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>"At last all was ready; and, on a Monday, +we started,—six in the engine, and thirty-six +on the car which I took in tow. We +went up an average grade of eighteen feet +to the mile; made the thirteen miles to +Ellicott's Mills in one hour and twelve minutes; +and came back in fifty-seven minutes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +The result of that experiment was that the +bonds of the railroad company were sold at +once, and there was no longer any doubt as +to the success of the road."</p> + +<p>The Tom Thumb continued for several +weeks to make trips to Ellicott's Mills; and +on one occasion (September 18, 1830) ran a +race from Riley House into Baltimore (about +nine miles) with a light car, drawn on a +parallel track by a gray horse noted for speed +and endurance. The contest was planned +by the stagecoach proprietors of Baltimore, +with the view of demonstrating that nothing +could be gained by the substitution of steam +for horse power on the railroad. The gray +horse won the race, but not until after the +Tom Thumb had passed him, and only by +reason of a temporary breakdown of the +machine, which caused a delay too great to +be subsequently made up. Mr. Cooper's +characteristic recollection of the event, as +given fifty-five years later, was that "they +tried a little race one day, but it didn't +amount to anything. It was rather funny; +and the locomotive got out of gear."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Latrobe says of the Tom Thumb:—</p> + +<p>"The machine was not larger than the +hand cars used by workmen to transfer themselves +from place to place; and as the speaker +now recalls its appearance, the only wonder +is that so apparently insignificant a contrivance +should ever have been regarded as +competent to the smallest results. But Mr. +Cooper was wiser than many of the wisest +around him. His engine could not have +weighed a ton; but he saw in it a principle +which the forty-ton engines of to-day have +but served to develop and demonstrate. +The boiler of Mr. Cooper's engine was not +as large as the kitchen boiler attached to +many a range in modern mansions. It was +of about the same diameter, but not much +more than half as high. It stood upright +in the car, and was filled above the furnace, +which occupied the lower section, with vertical +tubes. The cylinder was but three +and one half inches in diameter; and speed +was got up by gearing. No natural draft +could have been sufficient to get up steam +in so small a boiler; and Mr. Cooper used,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +therefore, a blowing apparatus, driven by a +drum, attached to one of the car wheels, over +which passed a cord, that, in its turn, worked +a pulley on the shaft of the blower. The contrivance +for dispensing with a crank, though +its general appearance is recollected, the +speaker cannot describe with any accuracy; +nor is it important,—it came to nothing. . . .</p> + +<p>"In a patent case, tried many years +afterwards, the boiler of Mr. Cooper's engine +became, in some connection which has been +forgotten, important as a piece of evidence. +It was hunted for, and found among some +old rubbish at Mount Clare. It was difficult +to imagine that it had even generated +steam enough to drive a coffee mill, much +less that it had performed the feats here +narrated."</p> + +<p>After this experimental demonstration, +the Tom Thumb retired into honorable +but obscure repose in its maker's warehouse +at New York, from which it emerged, fifty +years later, to take part in the centennial +celebration of the beginning of the commercial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +history of Baltimore (that place having +been made a port of entry in 1780). According +to a contemporary report of the festival, +"in the vast procession, Mr. Cooper and his +little Tom Thumb locomotive were the two +most conspicuous objects, and received all +the honors which could be paid by a quarter +of a million of enthusiastic people."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h3>MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Peter Cooper's</span> acquaintance with the +affairs of New York city ranged from the +time when, as a child, he was taken by his +mother to see the last remaining fragments +of the stockade erected by the early inhabitants +for protection against the Indians, to +the full metropolitan glory of the decade of +his death. This wonderful municipal history +is too commonly regarded from a special +standpoint, as if it were but the record of a +continually renewed and often unsuccessful +struggle against corrupt and incompetent +city government. Contests of this kind, +under democratic institutions, always occupy +more space in the press, and make more +noise in public oratory, than the quiet but +steady progress of commercial undertakings, +and the labors of unselfish citizens for education, +art, and social improvement, which go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +on beneath the turbulent surface. Americans +have long suffered under the unjust imputation +of peculiar devotion to "the almighty +dollar." The fact is that in no other country +do individuals give so much or do so much +without pecuniary reward—whether for +personal friendship or for public spirit—as +in the United States. The munificence of +private benefactions and endowments, far +surpassing the government support given in +other nations to similar institutions, furnish +an abundant proof of the first half of this +proposition; while the other half is proved +by the innumerable boards, committees, and +other organized bodies, to which active business +men give time and thought without remuneration.</p> + +<p>This spirit has never been wholly missed +in public affairs, even in the city of New +York, so often charged with the lack of it. +All the great features of its municipal progress, +even those which have been, at some +stage, tainted with lamentable corruption, +have been originated or supported by unselfish +public spirit. It might even be said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +that without this support, innocently given +and deceitfully misused, the schemers for +private gain could not have achieved their +periodical and temporary successes.</p> + +<p>Peter Cooper was an illustrious example +of good citizenship in this respect. First +elected to public office as "assistant alderman," +in 1828, he turned his attention immediately +upon the subject most important +to the growth and welfare of a city, yet +most likely to be neglected until it is forced +upon the community as an unwelcome necessity,—namely, +the water supply. Up to +that time, New York had depended upon +the springs of Manhattan Island, some of +which supplied water, conveyed through the +streets by means of wooden pipes (bored +logs), while most of them were utilized by +means of pumps only, to which the inhabitants +sent for their supply.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> +<p>Mr. Cooper induced the water committee, +of which he had been appointed a +member, to visit Philadelphia and inspect +the works by which the water of the Schuylkill +was raised to a high reservoir, and +thence distributed in iron pipes throughout +that city, and then to examine the Croton +and Bronx rivers, for the purpose of ascertaining +what these streams could supply. +The season being dry, the rivers were so low +that Mr. Cooper was not satisfied of their +capacity to furnish the needed quantity; so +he investigated further, on his own account, +the watershed (then a wilderness) of the +Hackensack River in New Jersey, and subsequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +submitted to the board of aldermen +plans and models, illustrating a scheme +for the supply of water to New York from +that region, by means of pipes laid under +the North River.</p> + +<p>To the end of his life, Mr. Cooper adhered +to his preference for this method of +conveying water across river channels, as +compared with elevated aqueducts, like the +"high bridge" subsequently constructed +across the Harlem River. And in this particular, +his intuitive engineer's judgment was +not at fault, although the classic example +of the Romans, who spent untold labor +and time in building aqueducts, where buried +conduits would have been both cheaper +and better, still dominated the professional +world. But Peter Cooper furnished another +example of his practical wisdom, by sacrificing +his superior theory for the sake of the +useful result contemplated. Thorough study +showed that, although the Croton region +could not be relied upon at all times for an +immediately adequate water supply, yet its +average through the year was sufficient for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +the purpose, so that the creation, by means +of higher dams, of large storage reservoirs, +would solve the pressing problem. This plan +was ultimately adopted, and has been pursued +with suitable enlargements, ever since. +Peter Cooper was made chairman of the +water committee,—a position which he +retained until some years after the Croton +system was completed.</p> + +<p>In the procurement of iron pipes for the +system of distribution, and their proper testing +before acceptance, his integrity and intelligence +were specially effective in protecting +the interests of the city, by securing the +best material at the lowest cost. While Mr. +Cooper was a strong "protectionist," favoring +the encouragement of American industries, +he never recognized any distinctions +among Americans. In his patriotic thought, +the unit to be regarded was not the city or +the State of New York, but the United +States of America; and he earnestly opposed +the contention of the New York iron founders, +that contracts for the pipe of the Croton +system ought not to be made with inhabitants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +of another State. His arguments prevailed; +and the pipe was ordered from a +Philadelphia manufacturer, who offered a +better article at a lower price.</p> + +<p>During Mr. Cooper's official service, and +not without his active aid and advice (though +his personal attention was mainly given to +the water department), the beginnings of an +organized police and fire service were established. +When he was first elected to office +the city was guarded by watchmen, who +served four hours every night for seventy-five +cents. Every householder was expected +to have leathern buckets in his hall, and in +case of an alarm of fire to throw them into +the street, so that the citizens voluntarily +running to the rescue could form a line to +the nearest pump, and, passing the water by +means of the buckets, supply the tank of the +small hand-engine, which then squirted it +upon the burning building. It is needless to +detail here the steps by which out of this +crude beginning the present effective New +York Fire Department has been perfected. +Suffice it to say that the beginning itself was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +promoted, and its future importance was +foreseen, by Peter Cooper and his public-spirited +colleagues.</p> + +<p>But a still more profoundly important +element of municipal and national progress, +in which the participation of Peter Cooper +was active and influential, was the free +public school system in New York. This +system was originally planted by the great +mayor and governor, De Witt Clinton, to +whom the State is indebted for the Erie +Canal, and for many other plans and impulses +scarcely less significant. While Clinton +was an advocate of universal suffrage, +he perceived the danger of granting this +power to an ignorant and largely foreign +population; and in 1805 he secured a charter +for "The Society for Establishing a +Free School in the City of New York for +the Education of Such Poor Children as do +not Belong to, or are not Provided for by, +Any Religious Society."</p> + +<p>The appeal of this society to "the affluent +and charitable of every denomination of +Christians" was liberally answered, and by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +December, 1809, a school capable of accommodating +five hundred children had been +erected upon a purchased site. This was +the beginning in New York city of the free +school system, over which for twenty-five +years De Witt Clinton presided. During that +period the schools, supported by generous +private contributions, and also after a while +by a state tax, steadily increased in number, +efficiency, and public favor. Peter Cooper +had been always a zealous supporter of these +schools, but not until 1838 did he become—by +election as a trustee of the Free +School Society—officially connected with +them. It was a critical period in their history. +The original national debt of the +Union had been recently extinguished, and +a considerable surplus had been returned to +the contributing States, of which New York +devoted its share to educational purposes, +thus largely increasing the fund for the city. +In 1822, sixteen years before, the common +council had made the free schools "unsectarian," +excluding from the benefits of the +fund all institutions of denominational character.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +The various sects had submitted reluctantly +to this decision so long as the fund +was too small to be divided among them; +but its sudden enlargement encouraged an +attempt to secure appropriations for parochial +schools.</p> + +<p>In his first annual message Governor +Seward recommended to the legislature the +establishment of schools in which the children +of foreigners might be "instructed by +teachers speaking the same language with +themselves and professing the same faith." +The Roman Catholic community, acting at +once upon this suggestion, sent a deputation +to the New York common council demanding +for their schools "a pro rata share" of +the educational fund, to which as taxpayers +they contributed.</p> + +<p>In the resistance made to this claim by +the Free School Society Mr. Cooper took a +prominent and ardent part. The advocates +of unsectarian public schools were victorious; +but the controversy continued to agitate the +State until the passage by the legislature in +1842 of an act establishing in New York<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +city a new board of education to control +the schools supported from the funds of the +State, and at the same time forbidding the +support from this fund of schools in which +"any religious sectarian doctrine or tenet +shall be taught, inculcated, or practiced." +The Free School Society, resenting and distrusting +this new (and in some respects +complicated) arrangement, continued its +separate activity for eleven years; but in +1853, the unsectarian character of the public +schools of New York having been established +beyond question, the society and +the board of education were by common +consent amalgamated by statute. At the +final meeting of the society Peter Cooper +delivered the valedictory address, the language +of which indicates that not without +apprehension did he contemplate the surrender +of the public schools to the exclusive +control of a body of officials likely to be +more or less influenced by partisan or political +considerations.</p> + +<p>Yet his characteristic common sense came +again in this instance to the front. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +moral which he drew from his doubts and +fears was that "the stewardship we are about +to resign is not a reprieve from the responsibilities +of the future." And in obedience to +this conviction he accepted, with fourteen of +his old colleagues, membership in the board +of education, of which he served for two years +as vice-president, resigning in January, 1855, +at which time he had formed and begun to +carry out the great plan of an institution for +free popular education with which his name +is now forever associated.</p> + +<p>Many years later Mr. Cooper became the +president of the Citizens' Association of +New York, which he supported with untiring +enthusiasm and lavish expenditure, and which +in its day did good work in securing for the +city an efficient fire department, boards of +health, docks, and education, and an improved +charter. Mr. Cooper retired in 1873, +and the association died soon after, to be +revived in other organizations, which have +from time to time continued the perennial +battle for good government in New York +begun by him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h3>THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> many respects the industrial conditions +under which Peter Cooper began his career +had been revolutionized before he finished +it. The apprentice system has well-nigh +passed away; and the old freedom with +which an intelligent, industrious, and ambitious +young man could turn from one occupation +to another, seeking that road which +offered greatest promise of preferment, is +greatly hampered by the modern regime of +"organized labor," which, whatever its advantages, +presents its own peculiar perils +for the workingman. But it remains forever +true that under either of these systems, +or any others that can be evolved or invented, +knowledge is power, and the bestowal of it +is the one gift which neither pauperizes the +recipient nor injures the community.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a struggling young apprentice, Peter +Cooper regarded with intense sympathy the +needs and limitations of the class to which +he belonged. But his notion of a remedy +was not that of paternal legislation, or belligerent +organization, or social reconstruction. +To his conception the atmosphere of +personal liberty and responsibility furnished +by the new democratic republic, offering free +scope to individual endeavor and rewarding +individual merit, was the best that could be +asked.</p> + +<p>What he dreamed of doing was simply to +assist these social conditions by providing +for those who were handicapped by circumstances +the means of power and opportunity, +to be utilized by their own assiduity. +This plan included not only what he then +thought to be the most effective system +for intellectual improvement, but also provision +for such innocent entertainment as +would supersede the grosser forms of recreation, +which involved the waste of money and +health.</p> + +<p>Walking up the Bowery Road—then the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +stage route to Boston, but now a crowded +down-town street—he selected in the suburbs +of the city the site for his great institution; +and, as he accumulated the necessary +funds, he bought at intervals lot after lot at +the intersection of Third and Fourth Avenues, +until he had acquired the entire block, +paying for his latest purchases (made after +the neighborhood had been solidly built up +and had become a centre of business) very +high prices compared with those he had paid +at the beginning. At last (in 1854) he +commenced the erection of a six-story fire-proof +building of stone, brick, and iron. This +work occupied several years, and during its +progress a period of great financial distress +threatened to interrupt it. But he persisted +in the undertaking, at great risk to his private +business; and the building was finished at a +cost (including that of the land) of more +than six hundred and thirty thousand dollars. +Subsequent gifts from Mr. Cooper, +together with the legacy provided by his +will, and doubled by his heirs, and still later +donations from his family and immediate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +relatives, make up a total of more than +double that amount.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> +<p>Up to the time when the building was +completed Mr. Cooper had taken little advice +as to the details of his project. Its outlines +in his mind were those which he had conceived +a quarter-century before, and though +he was doubtless conscious that new social +and industrial conditions had intervened +which would require some modifications of +his plan, he had not formulated such changes.</p> + +<p>The classes which he wished especially +to reach were those who, being already engaged +in earning a living by labor, could +scarcely be expected to take regular courses +in instruction; and the idea of such instruction +appears to have been at the beginning +subordinate in his mind. He had a strong +impression that young mechanics and apprentices, +instead of wasting their time in +dissipation, should improve their minds during +the intervals of labor; and not unnaturally +his first thought as to the means of +such improvement turned to those things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +which had aroused and stimulated his own +mind. Probably he did not realize that the +mass of men were not like himself, and that +something more than mere suggestion or opportunity +would be required to develop the +mental powers and enlarge the knowledge of +the average workingman. However that +may be, the original vague design of Mr. +Cooper was something like this:—</p> + +<p>There was in the city of New York a +famous collection of curiosities known as +Scudder's Museum. Barnum's Museum +afterwards took its place; but that, too, has +long since disappeared; and the small so-called +museums now scattered through the +city but faintly remind old inhabitants of +the glories of Scudder's or Barnum's in their +prime. These establishments contained all +sorts of curiosities, arranged without much +reference to scientific use,—wax-works, historical +relics, dwarfs, giants, living and +stuffed animals, etc. There was also a +lecture-room, devoted principally to moral +melodrama; and on an upper floor a large +room was occupied by the cosmorama,—an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +exhibition of pictures, usually of noteworthy +scenery, foreign cities, etc., which +were looked at through round holes, enhancing +the effect of their illumination.</p> + +<p>Peter Cooper doubtless often lingered in +these museums, receiving the inspiration +which came from visions of a world much +wider than his individual horizon, from the +curious and wonderful works of nature, and +from the works of man in former times and +in foreign lands. From the queer mechanical +devices exhibited by inventors to the +"Happy Family" and the cosmorama, everything +was full to his quick sympathy of intellectual, +moral, or sentimental suggestion; +and no doubt he felt, after an hour of such +combined wonder and reflection, a satisfying +sense of time well spent.</p> + +<p>He wished that this means of mental improvement +and recreation combined might +be freely afforded to those whose scanty +earnings would not permit them otherwise to +make frequent use of it, and he resolved +that the museum and the cosmorama should +be included in his institution.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another agency of which Mr. Cooper had +made fruitful use, and the efficacy of which +he highly appreciated, was conversation and +debate. If people could be brought together +and made to talk he thought they would +learn a great deal from each other. In this +he had undoubtedly grasped one of the great +principles of progress. To meet and interchange +our ideas of books and by personal +discussions is indeed the mightiest factor of +modern improvement. But the mere meeting +to talk <i>about</i> things unless it is combined +with the disposition and the apparatus +for <i>studying</i> things is but barter without +production, and may degenerate to a barren +exchange of words, as unprofitable as that +described in the Yankee proverb, "swapping +jackknives in a garret." This aspect of the +truth Mr. Cooper doubtless came to appreciate; +but at the outset, habituated as he +was to get ideas from everybody he met and +everything he saw, it seemed to him that +free discussions would be an unmixed benefit +to all, and he resolved that his institution +should contain rooms, devoted to the several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +handicrafts, where the practitioners of each +could meet and "exchange views."</p> + +<p>It was also his intention that the lower +part of the building he erected should be occupied +by stores and offices, the annual rent of +which should pay the running expenses of the +institution. In the course of time the Cooper +Union came to need for full efficiency both +more money than this source would supply +and more room than was left to it after subtracting +the rooms thus rented. These needs +have now been met in some measure by further +endowments, so that before long the +whole building will be devoted to educational +uses. But the wisdom, at that time, of Mr. +Cooper's plan has been vindicated by the +great work done with the modest means +thus provided.</p> + +<p>The building of the Cooper Union represented +his original ideas. Above the shops +and offices to be rented was an immense +room intended for the museum. A large +part of the building was cut up into small +meeting-rooms for the conferences of the +trades; in an upper story another great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +room was provided for the cosmorama; and +the flat roof was to be safely inclosed with a +balustrade, so that on pleasant days or evenings +the frequenters of the institution might +sit or promenade there, partake of harmless +refreshments, listen to agreeable music,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and +enjoy the magnificent prospect of the city +below,—the heights beyond the East River +on one side, the Hudson on the other, and +the magnificent island-studded harbor.</p> + +<p>A noteworthy feature of this scheme was +the complete obliteration of all distinctions +of class, creed, race, or sex among its beneficiaries. +It is a significant fact that through +nearly half a century, while these distinctions +have been the subjects of vehement and sometimes +bitter social and political discussion, the +Cooper Union has gone quietly on educating +its thousands of pupils without the least embarrassment +in its discipline, and apparently +without even the consciousness on the part +of its founder or its trustees that in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +perfect solution of what was supposed to be +a difficult problem they had accomplished +anything extraordinary.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Cooper, consulting with wise +and practical advisers, addressed himself at +last to the final arrangement of details, he +surrendered one after another many parts of +his youthful design. The name, "The Cooper +Union for the Advancement of Science and +Art," epitomized this change. His primary +purpose was unchanged; but he perceived +that systematic education would be of more +value to the class he sought to aid than mere +amusement or miscellaneous talk. The great +free reading-room of the Cooper Union was +substituted for the museum; the conversation +parlors for the various trades became +class-rooms for instruction; the cosmorama +yielded to lecture-halls and laboratories; and +the roof was abandoned to the weather. To +all these changes, and to many other novelties +adopted afterwards, Mr. Cooper was +reconciled by one conclusive argument; +namely, the proof afforded by their results +that the Cooper Union was giving to the working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +classes that which they needed most and +most desired. Now and then perhaps a sigh +might escape him for the dream of his youth. +I remember one occasion when I accompanied +him to the roof of the building, where +some new construction was going on which +he wished to inspect. The old man stood +for some time admiring the view in all directions, +and at last, recalling how he had once +imagined happy crowds enjoying the delights +of that "roof-garden," and casting a mournful +glance at the central spot where the band +was to have been, he said, "Sometimes I +think my first plan was the best!"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> But +such regrets did not occupy his mind. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +was satisfied to know that the institution he +had founded, building better than he knew, +had proved its fitness by its success in the +eager and grateful use made of it by those +for whose benefit it was intended and in the +actual evidences of such benefit. Every year +managers of the different departments took +pains to report to him instances in which +students already earning wages had increased +their earnings through the added knowledge +or skill acquired in the evening classes; and +this was the feature of the annual statements +upon which he dwelt with the greatest satisfaction.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> +<p>The charter of the Cooper Union was +finally adopted in its present form by the +legislature of the State of New York, +April 13, 1859; and the deed of trust, executed +in compliance therewith, on the 29th +day of the same month, by Peter Cooper +and his wife, Sarah, conveyed to the board +of trustees the title to "all that piece and +parcel of land bounded on the west by +Fourth Avenue, on the north by Astor +Place, on the east by Third Avenue, and on +the south by Seventh Street, . . . to be forever +devoted to the advancement of science +and art, in their application to the varied and +useful purposes of life."</p> + +<p>Even through this dry legal phraseology, +it is not difficult to discern the frank and +simple joy of the patient enthusiast, who +was at last able to speak of the land which +he had laboriously acquired, lot by lot, +through many years, and the building which +he had raised, stone by stone, through many +more, as <i>one</i> "piece or parcel," his to dedicate +forever.</p> + +<p>The delivery of this deed to the board of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +trustees was accompanied with a long letter, +setting forth the wishes, hopes, and plans +of the grantor, in the formal and diffuse +rhetoric peculiar to his generation, and, perhaps, +too much contemned by ours. To say +the least, we are no more warranted in despising +the utterances of noble, self-sacrificing +philanthropists, because they are clothed in +phrases now deemed verbose and stilted, +than we would be in disparaging the deeds +of historic heroes, because they wore armor +now antiquated and struck their doughty +blows with weapons obsolete. When Peter +Cooper wrote, in the letter now before me, +"The great object I desire to accomplish by +the establishment of an institution devoted +to the advancement of science and art is to +open the volume of nature by the light of +truth—so unveiling the laws and methods +of Deity that the young may see the beauties +of creation, enjoy its blessings, and learn to +love the Being 'from whom cometh every +good and perfect gift,'"—he was not guilty +of cant, because cant is the use of language +expressing an emotion which the user does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +not really feel. And the same may be said of +the elaborate additional exposition, contained +in this letter, of the writer's faith in God and +man, and of his confident hope in the future +of his race, and particularly of his country.</p> + +<p>The letter shows some traces still of his +original plan. Thus, he writes:—</p> + +<p>"In order most effectually to aid and +encourage the efforts of youth to obtain useful +knowledge, I have provided the main +floor of the large hall on the third story for +a reading-room, literary exchange, and scientific +collections—the walls around that floor +to be arranged for the reception of books, +maps, paintings, and other objects of interest. +And when a sufficient collection of the works +of art, science, and nature can be obtained, +I propose that glass cases shall be arranged +around the walls of the gallery of the said +room, forming alcoves around the entire +floor for the preservation of the same. In +the window spaces I propose to arrange such +cosmoramic and other views as will exhibit +in the clearest and most forcible light the +true philosophy of life."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>Other characteristic paragraphs are here +quoted,—the whole letter being too long +for full republication.</p> + +<p>"To manifest the deep interest and sympathy +I feel in all that can advance the happiness +and better the condition of the female +portion of the community, and especially of +those who are dependent on honest labor for +support, I desire the trustees to appropriate +two hundred and fifty dollars yearly to assist +such pupils of the female school of design +as shall, in their careful judgment, by their +efforts and sacrifices in the performance of +duty to parents or to those that Providence +has made dependent on them for support, +merit and require such aid. My reason for +this requirement is not so much to reward +as to encourage the exercise of heroic virtues +that often shine in the midst of the +greatest suffering and obscurity without so +much as being noticed by the passing +throng.</p> + +<p>"In order to better the condition of women +and to widen the sphere of female employment, +I have provided seven rooms to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +be forever devoted to a female school of +design, and I desire the trustees to appropriate +out of the rents of the building fifteen +hundred dollars annually towards meeting +the expenses of said school.</p> + +<p>"It is the ardent wish of my heart that +this school of design may be the means of +raising to competence and comfort thousands +of those that might otherwise struggle +through a life of poverty and suffering. . . .</p> + +<p>"Desiring, as I do, to use every means to +render this institution useful through all +coming time, and believing that editors of +the public press have it in their power to +exert a greater influence on the community +for good than any other class of men of +equal number, it is therefore my sincere +desire that editors be earnestly invited to +become members of the society of arts to +be connected with this institution. . . .</p> + +<p>"It is my desire, also, that the students +shall have the use of one of the large rooms +(to be assigned by the trustees) for the purpose +of useful debates. I desire and deem +it best to direct that all these lectures and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +debates shall be exclusive of theological and +party questions, and shall have for their +constant object the causes that operate +around and within us, and the means necessary +and most appropriate to remove the +physical and moral evils that afflict our city, +our country, and humanity." . . .</p> + +<p>Other paragraphs indicate his plan that +the students shall, in the first instance, frame +the rules which shall control the discipline +of the institution. Thus he says:—</p> + +<p>"It is my desire, and I hereby ordain, +that a strict conformity to rules deliberately +formed by a vote of the majority of the +students, and approved by the trustees, shall +forever be an indispensable requisite for +continuing to enjoy the benefits of this institution. +I now most earnestly entreat each +and every one of the students of this institution, +through all coming time, to whom I +have intrusted this great responsibility of +framing laws for the regulation of their conduct +in their connection with the institution, +and by which any of the members may lose +its privileges, to remember how frail we are,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +and how liable to err when we come to sit +in judgment on the faults of others, and +how much the circumstances of our birth, +our education, and the society and country +where we have been born and brought up, +have had to do in forming us and making us +what we are."</p> + +<p>In this scheme Mr. Cooper anticipated +the plan of self-government now followed in +some of our colleges; and while he expected +too much of the students of the +Cooper Union, and was himself afterwards +obliged to consent to the restriction of their +autonomy, it may be fairly said that the +spirit of his hope and exhortation has never +ceased to be felt; and, to the great honor +of the Cooper Union, it may be recorded +that questions of discipline have been well-nigh +unknown within its walls.</p> + +<p>This noble trust was accepted by a body +of men who have discharged it with unwearied +fidelity, zeal and wisdom. The +original board consisted of Mr. Cooper, his +son Edward Cooper, his son-in-law Abram +S. Hewitt, and John E. Parsons, Wilson G.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +Hunt, and Daniel F. Tiemann. Three of +these, Messrs. Cooper, Hewitt, and Tiemann, +have been mayors of the city of New York. +All of them were well-known and eminent +citizens, burdened with the duties of active +business; and the time they gave so freely +to the management of the Cooper Union was +not the superfluity of leisure. The difficulty +with "business men" too often is, that, +when nominally charged with the administration +of organized charities, they slight +the work because they have not time to attend +to it. But the United States can show +not a few instances in which the affairs of +religious, educational, or benevolent institutions +are carefully managed by the active +directors of great private enterprises; and +their management, when it is thus thorough, +is generally much better than that of literary +or philanthropic amateurs. This is conspicuously +shown in the history of the Cooper +Union.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> +<p>This is not the place for a detailed account +of the development of the Cooper +Union, or even of its present scope and prospective +operations. Such an account would +worthily occupy a separate volume; for the +institution, in the hands of its wise directors, +was a pioneer and model in many respects +in which later enterprises, with larger +means, have, perhaps, surpassed it. I must +content myself here with brief mention of a +few particulars.</p> + +<p>The immense free reading-room, with its +average daily attendance of nearly 1500 to +2000 persons, was Mr. Cooper's special +delight; and well it might be so; for the +sight is one almost without a parallel—not +in the architecture, size, or furnishing of the +place, but in the extent and constancy of its +use by the public. Entrance is free to all +who are not unclean, intoxicated, or disorderly. +In the main, the privileges thus given +are not abused, but occasionally the evils almost +inseparable from so large an attendance +have been felt. At one time, the curator +earnestly represented to the trustees the necessity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +of doing something to check the mutilation +of books—a practice which public +librarians know well as one of their most +troublesome foes. It appeared that some +unknown persons, who combined a love of +the beautiful in language with a barbaric +ignorance of it in conduct, were accustomed +to slash out with their penknives favorite +passages of poetry for preservation, treating +in this matter newspapers and books alike. +It was found difficult to keep whole the volumes +of Tennyson and Longfellow. But a +more frequent and injurious practice was +the cutting out of plates from illustrated +books. This was not for love of art, as the +other for love of poetry. The object was to +sell such engravings for two or three cents +each to the print-shops in the city, where +they were bought by refined amateurs, for +the purpose of "illustrating" special volumes. +This fashionable hobby has been the +indirect cause of the ruin of many a choice +book; and buyers of fine old editions are well +aware that they must look well to their bargains, +lest they find that the thief, at the bidding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +of the "collector," has plundered the volumes +of the plates which once adorned them.</p> + +<p>When this subject came up for discussion +in the board of trustees, Mr. Cooper was +so full of pity for the poor fellows, who +were obliged to sell stolen engravings at +two cents a piece to keep body and soul +together, that he could scarcely be brought +to take a severe view of the offense. Nor +was he willing (and in this his fellow-trustees +agreed with him) to impose any restriction +or censorship upon admittance to the +reading-room. Even if the books suffered, +the room must continue to be free. The +great mass of well-behaved people must not +be annoyed by measures intended to exclude +a few rogues. The result vindicated the +sagacity, as well as the charity, of this view. +The officers in charge, not being permitted +to adopt any sweeping measures of prevention, +simply redoubled their vigilance, and +finally caught one or two offenders and +"made examples of them;" and the nuisance +was immediately abated, though perhaps not +entirely and permanently abolished.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>The report of 1900, after mentioning the +great (legitimate) wear and tear of the +books, of which 12,000 had to be re-bound, +adds:—</p> + +<p>"The decorum of the visitors has been +excellent, and it is remarkable, in view of +such a very large number of persons visiting +the room, that so few mutilations and +injuries occur to the periodicals and books, +and that so few books, probably not more +than half a dozen in the course of a year, +and those of small consequence, are stolen."</p> + +<p>It seems then, after all, that Peter Cooper's +faith in the people was justified.</p> + +<p>The great hall in the basement is another +noteworthy feature, and worthy of +wider imitation than it has yet received. +Such a hall, if located upstairs in such a +building, would have been open to three objections: +it would have monopolized, for occasional +use only, space which was required +for constant use; it would have been intolerably +noisy, by reason of the roar and rattle +in the streets which surround the building +on all sides; and it would have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +dangerous, as all such places are, when great +audiences must make their exit by going +down stairs. Nothing has ever been invented +that will prevent people from being +crushed and trampled when they are crowding +down a stairway. In all these respects, +the great hall of the Cooper Union is admirable. +It occupies space not otherwise valuable. +It is quiet, and acoustically perfect. +The means of exit and entrance are ample +and safe. Even in case of an unreasoning +panic, there is little danger that a crowd, +tumbling up the stone stairways to the +street, would cause the horrible maiming +and killing which so often attend the efforts +of a frightened multitude to get down. Finally, +the ventilation is excellent, for the +simple reason that natural or automatic ventilation +of such a large, low basement room +could not be expected, and consequently +mechanical ventilation by means of a large +fan, run by steam power, was provided. The +efficiency of this system has sometimes been +severely tested. On one occasion, during +a scientific lecture, the experimental illustrations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +of which were on a large and imposing +scale, the learned professor on the platform +had the misfortune to crack an immense +glass jar, in which he was exhibiting the +brilliant combustion of phosphorus in oxygen +gas. The white fumes of phosphorous +acid floated out into the air, and began to +diffuse themselves through the hall towards +the ventilation outlets at the sides and rear. +To one who knew the irritating nature of +these fumes it seemed inevitable that the +hall must be emptied of its crowded audience +in a few minutes. Already coughing +had begun on the front seats, when Mr. +Hewitt, who was seated on the platform, +quickly rose, and pulling a cord, reversed +the currents of ventilation and opened a +new outlet into the street, behind and above +the platform. The curling clouds of vapor +paused, wheeled, and retreated, and in another +minute the air was perfectly pure. +The lecturer had not even been interrupted. +It was a beautiful and timely "experiment" +not on the programme, and, to use the words +of one who was present, "It was just the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +sort of thing to please Peter Cooper to the +bottom of his soul."</p> + +<p>The great hall was dedicated from the +beginning to free speech. Peter Cooper +may have overestimated the value of mere +talk. As I have already told, it was his +first notion that conversation and discussion +were the chief things required in education. +He came to see that study, instruction, and +training were equally essential, but he never +surrendered his faith in free speech; and +the great hall was at the service of all sects, +parties, and classes, religious, philosophical, +political, scientific, literary, or philanthropic. +It has been the scene of many memorable +meetings and addresses. But nothing in its +history has been more useful and noteworthy +than the series of free popular lectures which +were given, as part of the operations of the +Cooper Union, within its walls. These lectures +began in 1868, and continued until +they were adopted by the city as part of the +general scheme of free lectures which has +been so successful during the last few years. +In awarding due praise to the promoters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +and managers of this plan, it should not be +forgotten that the Cooper Union inaugurated +it, and maintained it for many years, during +which the free Saturday night popular +lectures in its great hall were the only ones +of their kind. They covered many sciences +and arts, chronicles of travel and themes of +history and literature. The most eminent +authors, teachers, investigators, travelers, +and orators of the generation were comprised +in the list of lecturers; and many of them +performed this service without other reward +than the consciousness of contributing to a +noble charity, and the evident gratitude of +the vast and eagerly attentive audience.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cooper loved to attend these Saturday +evening lectures, and an arm-chair was +always ready for him on the platform. +Many a speaker on that platform has been +surprised by an untimely outburst of applause +and has turned to discover the cause in the +entrance of the beloved founder. Often +the subject of the evening was beyond his +experience or knowledge, but that made no +difference in his respectful attention, or in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +the benign satisfaction with which he contemplated +the attentive audience, and realized +that they were receiving benefit. I have +often felt that the scene exhibited almost +every Saturday night for many years during +the latest period of his life could be equaled +only by the spectacle presented at Ephesus, +where the aged St. John the Divine fronted +the congregation of loving believers, always +with his one last message, "Little children, +love one another."</p> + +<p>But sometimes the old man would be intensely +interested and aroused by the lecture. +I remember such an occasion, when I was myself +the lecturer, and had been laying down, +with due scientific decorum and diagrams, the +"law of storms." At the close of the lecture, +Mr. Cooper arose, advanced to the +front, and gave a vivid and animated description +of a whirlwind which he had witnessed +some seventy years before, which was +received with rapt attention and tremendous +applause. The lecture was undoubtedly +eclipsed in interest by this unexpected +after-piece; but the lecturer was amply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +compensated by his triumph in having thus +stirred the spirit and aroused the recollections +of the dear old founder.</p> + +<p>With regard to the various schools and +classes of the Cooper Union, it must suffice +to say briefly that under the elastic and +comprehensive plan of the deed of trust, +two objects were constantly kept in view by +the trustees. In the first place, a complete +four years' course was always maintained, +for the benefit of those who could afford the +time and who felt the need of such training. +In the second place, classes were instituted +in such special departments as were most +likely to be useful and most evidently in demand; +and with regard to these the demand +and the evidence of usefulness were followed +as guides in determining the extent of the +facilities offered, up to the capacity and +means of the institution.</p> + +<p>De Morgan, in his "Budget of Paradoxes," +tells of an old fellow who, wishing +to have a chair that would fit him perfectly, +sat for a while on a mass of shoemaker's +wax, which he then carried to a worker in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +wood, and instructed him to "make a seat +like that!" This homely illustration indicates +the manner in which the special classes +of the Cooper Union have been established, +enlarged, and regulated, to meet the evident +demands of its constituency. It is +pleasant to know that the future means and +sphere of the institution will be enlarged +under the same wise management.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h3>NATIONAL POLITICS</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Peter Cooper's</span> prominent activity in +national politics belongs to two periods,—that +of the war for the Union, and that of +the subsequent controversies over questions +of financial policy.</p> + +<p>As has been explained, he felt his life to be +peculiarly identified with that of the nation +born with him; and the idea that this nation +should be destroyed in the midst of its triumphant +progress was profoundly abhorrent +to him. Like many other patriots, he was +ready to save the Union by a compromise, if +that were practicable. He advocated the +purchase and liberation by the government +of all the slaves in the United States; he +promoted a "peace conference" on the very +eve of the war. But when South Carolina +had formally seceded and the gauntlet had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +been cast at the feet of national authority, his +course was not uncertain. He was a representative +of the New York Chamber of Commerce +in the deputation of thirty leading +citizens of New York which visited Washington +in order to discover what plan Mr. +Buchanan (then still President) had in +view. They got no satisfaction from the +President, but assured themselves of the +firm loyalty of Mr. Seward, then Senator +from New York.</p> + +<p>A few weeks later the bombardment of +Fort Sumter put an end to all projects of +compromise. At the memorable mass meeting +held in Union Square, New York, shortly +after the receipt of this news, Peter Cooper, +then seventy years old, was among the first +to mount the platform. His familiar white +hairs and kindly face were recognized by the +crowd, which vociferously called for a speech +from him. Stepping to the front, he uttered +a few ringing sentences which sounded the +keynote of the meeting. I quote but one or +two:—</p> + +<p>"We are contending with an enemy not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +only determined on our destruction as a nation, +but to build on our ruins a government +devoted with all its power to maintain, extend, +and perpetuate a system in itself revolting +to all the best feelings of humanity,—an +institution that enables thousands to +sell their own children into hopeless bondage.</p> + +<p>"Shall it succeed? You say 'No!' and +I unite with you in your decision. We cannot +allow it to succeed. We should spend +our lives, our property, and leave the land +itself a desolation before such an institution +should triumph over the free people of this +country. . . .</p> + +<p>"Let us, therefore, unite to sustain the +government by every means in our power, to +arm and equip in the shortest possible time +an army of the best men that can be found +in the country."</p> + +<p>From that day on his patriotism never +doubted or faltered. When the war loan +was announced he was the first man at the +door of the subtreasury in New York waiting +to make payment over the counter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +all the money he had been able to collect +without business disaster. "In those days," +says a friend, "whenever he had nothing +else to do, he would go down to the recruiting +office and put in a substitute." It is +estimated that he must have sent, first and +last, about a score of soldiers to serve for him +under the flag.</p> + +<p>From the first he urged the emancipation +and enlistment of the Southern negroes,—a +policy which was ultimately adopted with +successful results; and when in 1864, at the +darkest hour of the struggle, there was danger +of a fatal compromise, he actively promoted +that great mass meeting in the hall of +the Cooper Union which marked the turning-point +of the struggle, carried the State of +New York for Lincoln, and secured the triumph +of the Union.</p> + +<p>After the war was over he presided at another +meeting, called to favor aid to the disabled +soldiers of the nation; and the following +paragraph quoted from his remarks on that +occasion forms a fitting close to this brief +notice of his patriotic activity:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"If we required a stronger stimulus to +urge us to perform our duty, we have only +to turn our thoughts back to that fearful +day when the armies of rebellion had entered +Pennsylvania with the intent to subjugate +the North to their domination. Had they +been successful, they would have gloried in +making us pay for the loss of their slaves +and the expenses of their war. I trust that +the government will not hesitate to tax my +property and the property of every other +man enough to provide for the comfort of +our disabled soldiers and the families dependent +on them for support."</p> + +<p>In the financial controversies which accompanied +and followed the period of "reconstruction" +after the war, and were involved +in the payment and adjustment of the national +debt, Mr. Cooper appeared as an advocate +of the "Greenback" party, and did +not seem to realize that this was a complete +reversal of his earlier position as a "hard-money" +Democrat. I think the clue to this +change may be found in his recollection of +the war waged by Andrew Jackson on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +United States Bank, and a vague feeling +that the national banking system instituted +by Secretary Chase was open to similar objections. +To this may be added his growing +inclination in favor of "paternal government,"—which +in a man so thoroughly +self-supporting and self-reliant can be explained +only by the fact that his personal +philanthropy overbalanced his political philosophy; +that he became more anxious to +relieve the distress he saw than to question +the wisdom of measures taken for that purpose. +Two things are certain: first, that +Mr. Cooper's motives in his later political +course were thoroughly pure and unselfish; +and secondly, that his utterances and publications +in this connection show him to be +dealing with subjects which he did not understand. +This statement is made without +regard to the merits of the controversy, or +the strength of the arguments contributed +to it by others. The simple truth is that +Mr. Cooper was too old to make original +investigation of such questions, intelligently +weighing all the modern conditions of industry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +and commerce, in which he was no longer +an active participant. He accepted in 1876 +the nomination of the Greenback party for +the presidency; but the issue was already +practically dead, and he received but 81,740 +votes out of a total of 8,412,833 cast. Undaunted +by this defeat, he continued to utter +his views. Those who wish to study them +in detail may consult the volume "Ideas for +a Science of Good Government in Addresses, +Letters, and Articles on a Strictly National +Currency, Tariff, and Civil Service," which +he issued at the age of ninety-two, in the +last year of his life. His own summary of +his position, given on page 212 of this book, +shows that he desired a national legal-tender +paper currency, irredeemable in coin, but +"interconvertible" with government bonds, +and regulated by law as to volume per capita; +a "discriminating" protective tariff, "helpful +to all the industries of the country, where +the raw material and the labor can be furnished +by our own people;" and a civil service +divorced from party politics, based on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +personal fitness, with tenure of office during +good behavior, moderate salaries, and pensions +for the aged and sick, and provision +for widows and orphans.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1874, at the age of eighty-three, Mr. +Cooper said at a reception given in his +honor:—</p> + +<p>"When I was born, New York contained +27,000 inhabitants. The upper limits of the +city were at Chambers Street. Not a single +free school, either by day or night, existed. +General Washington had just entered upon +his first term as President of the United States, +the whole annual expenditures of which did not +exceed $2,500,000, being about sixty cents +per head of the population. Not a single +steam engine had yet been built or erected +on the American continent; and the people +were clad in homespun, and were characterized +by the simple virtues and habits which +are usually associated with that primitive +garb. I need not tell you what the country +now is, and what the habits and the garments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +of its people now are, or that the +expenditure, per capita, of the general government +has increased fifteen-fold. But I +have witnessed and taken a deep interest in +every step of the marvellous development +and progress which have characterized this +century beyond all the centuries which have +gone before.</p> + +<p>"Measured by the achievements of the +years I have seen, I am one of the oldest +men who have ever lived; but I do not feel +old, and I propose to give you the receipt +by which I have preserved my youth.</p> + +<p>"I have always given a friendly welcome to +new ideas, and I have endeavored not to feel +too old to learn; and thus, though I stand +here with the snows of so many winters +upon my head, my faith in human nature, +my belief in the progress of man to a better +social condition, and especially my trust in +the ability of men to establish and maintain +self-government, are as fresh and as young +as when I began to travel the path of life.</p> + +<p>"While I have always recognized that the +object of business is to make money in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +honorable manner, I have endeavored to +remember that the object of life is to do +good. Hence I have been ready to engage +in all new enterprises, and, without incurring +debt, to risk in their promotion the +means which I had acquired, provided they +seemed to me calculated to advance the general +good. This will account for my early +attempt to perfect the steam engine, for my +attempt to construct the first American +locomotive, for my connection with the telegraph +in a course of efforts to unite our +country with the European world, and for +my recent efforts to solve the problem of +economical steam navigation on the canals; +to all of which you have so kindly referred. +It happens to but few men to change the +current of human progress, as it did to Watt, +to Fulton, to Stephenson, and to Morse; but +most men may be ready to welcome laborers +to a new field of usefulness, and to clear the +road for their progress.</p> + +<p>"This I have tried to do, as well in the +perfecting and execution of their ideas as in +making such provision as my means have permitted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +for the proper education of the young +mechanics and citizens of my native city, in +order to fit them for the reception of new +ideas, social, mechanical, and scientific—hoping +thus to economize and expand the +intellectual as well as the physical forces, +and provide a larger fund for distribution +among the various classes which necessarily +make up the total of society. If our lives +shall be such that we shall receive the glad +welcome of 'Well done, good and faithful +servant,' we shall then know that we have +not lived in vain."</p> + +<p>For nine years after this utterance he +continued the peaceful and happy life which +it describes. When the end came, it was +quiet and painless. Surrounded by his children +and grandchildren, and whispering +with almost his last breath the desire for an +increase of his bequest to that other well-beloved +child, the Cooper Union, he "fell on +sleep," April 4, 1883.</p> + +<p>On the day of his funeral New York city +presented an almost unexampled spectacle. +All Soul's Unitarian Church, in which his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +body was deposited, early in the morning +was thronged with a mighty multitude, passing +in procession to look upon the beloved +face. Eighteen young men from the Cooper +Union surrounded it, as a guard of honor. +A body of 3500 students of that institution, +of both sexes, marched by, casting flowers +upon the coffin, and followed by delegations +from all the municipal and charitable organizations +of the city, and by uncounted multitudes, +whose relation to the beloved philanthropist +was not official or representative, +but simply personal.</p> + +<p>The busiest streets of New York, through +which the funeral procession passed on its +way to Greenwood Cemetery, beyond the +East River, were closed to business and +hung in black. The flags on all public +buildings, and on the ships in the harbor, +were at half-mast. The bells of all churches +were tolled. The whole city mourned, as it +had not done since, eighty years before, the +funeral procession of George Washington +moved through its streets.</p> + +<p>If we seek, without affectionate prejudice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +to discover the cause of this universal grief, +affection, and admiration, we shall find, I +think, that it lies chiefly in two circumstances; +namely, the character of Peter +Cooper as a lover of his kind, and the opportunity +afforded him by his long life, not +only to prove that character, but to become +personally known to many thousands of +those whom he sought unselfishly to serve. +Few persons except military commanders +have such an opportunity. The philanthropists +who labor in secret, no matter with +what noble motive, and do not come face to +face with their beneficiaries, may win the +applause of posterity, but cannot expect to +receive the immediate and personal affection +of their contemporaries. Least of all do +posthumous gifts arouse this sentiment. +Peter Cooper, above all other claims to renown +and gratitude, identified himself with +his philanthropy, and was known where he +was loved.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Who gives himself with his gift, feeds three:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me!"</span><br /> +</div> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Many years after his wife's death, and shortly before +his own, Mr. Cooper dictated the following passage, which +is almost the last in his <i>Reminiscences:</i>—</p> + +<p>"Not only do I think of my wife during my waking +moments; she often comes to me in my dreams, sometimes +once a week, sometimes once in two weeks, and +sometimes at longer intervals. It is one of the greatest +pleasures of my life that I can believe that she has been, +and is now, my guardian angel, and it is one of my happiest +hopes that I shall see that this our world is but +the bud of a being that is to ripen and bear its choicest +fruits in another and a better."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Letter of Morse to the Secretary of the Treasury in +the autumn of 1843.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> These and other statements in this chapter are taken +from a lecture, delivered March 23, 1868, before the +Maryland Institute, by Hon. J. H. B. Latrobe, giving +his personal recollections of the early history of the Baltimore +and Ohio Railroad.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Manuscript of his <i>Reminiscences</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This was the sacrifice of a favorite invention to immediate +practical considerations, which has been mentioned +above as an instance of Mr. Cooper's common +sense.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A curious survival of this state of things is the Manhattan +Company, which secured from the legislature a +perpetual charter, so skillfully framed (by Aaron Burr) +that, although it grants much more extensive powers +than could now be obtained by a corporation, it cannot +be successfully assailed so long as the fundamental condition +is fulfilled,—namely, that the company shall be +prepared to furnish water at all times, on demand. It is +said that, in compliance with this requirement, a small +steam pump is kept continually running, in connection +with a short system of pipes, somewhere near the City +Hall, and that the company stands ready to furnish water +to any applicant—only, the charter does not fix the price +which it may exact! So far as I know, the only use now +made of the extensive powers granted by this famous +charter is the maintenance of the Manhattan Bank. A +few years ago, excavations in lower Broadway brought to +light bored logs, which were supposed to be relics of the +old "Manhattan" system.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Not all of this amount is represented in permanent +endowments, since large contributions to cover deficits in +annual income as compared with current expenses, or for +special repairs and alterations, do not appear under that +head. According to the balance-sheet of January 1, 1900, +the total assets consist of $1,075,428.62, the appraised +value of the building, furniture, and apparatus; and $947,021.39 +in cash on hand or investments,—making a total +of $2,022,450.01. Of the invested sum $953,159.30 is in +"special endowments," of which the income only can be +expended. This fund comprises $200,000 from Peter +Cooper and $340,000 from the family of the late William +Cooper, his brother; the remainder is made up of smaller +gifts (the chief of which are a bequest of $30,000 from +Wilson G. Hunt, one of the original trustees, and $10,000 +each from Mary Stuart, J. Pierpont Morgan, Morris K. +Jesup, and John E. Parsons), and one of $300,000 made in +December, 1899, by Andrew Carnegie. In addition to the +aggregate thus made up Hon. Edward Cooper, the son, +and Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, the son-in-law of Peter Cooper, +have undertaken to furnish a further income of $10,000 +per annum; and finally, according to the 41st Annual +Report of the Trustees (May, 1900), the Cooper Union, +as residuary legatee under the will of the late John +Holstead, will ultimately receive between $200,000 and +$300,000.</p> +<p>These recent additions to the endowment of the institution +will enable the trustees to enlarge its usefulness +in many ways, and especially (being no longer dependent +for annual income upon rents) to utilize the whole of the +building for educational purposes. Yet the total endowment +will still be modest, as compared with that of many +similar institutions of later origin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Old New Yorkers will be reminded of the closing +lines of Fitz-Greene Halleck's poem,—</p> +<div class='poem'> +"And there is music twice a week<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">On Scudder's balcony."</span><br /></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> There may have been more than a mere sentimental +regret in his mind at that time; for his inventive intuition +had struck out half a century before an idea to +which the slow thought of his fellows had not yet attained,—the +plan of utilizing roofs for the purpose of +giving to all classes an ownership of free air and far distance +and boundless sky as complete as any landowner +could command by fencing off a mountain for his own +pleasure. As he looked down upon the vast wilderness +of roofs and thought of the multitude laboring beneath +them or trudging through the streets ("up one cañon +and down another," as old Jim Bridger the scout said in +St. Louis), ignorant of the upper sphere within reach, he +might well have felt that one part of his original scheme +would still be a physical and moral boon to the metropolis. +In fact the disappearance of the "vacant lots," so +numerous in his youth, and so freely available as informal +parks and playgrounds, had created new necessity +for air and space. Whether he consciously recalled the +hanging gardens of Babylon, or the flat roofs universally +utilized for social and domestic purposes in eastern and +southern countries, I do not know. At all events he had +seized upon a similar idea, and now—nearly a score of +years after his death—we are waking up to its value. +Even the Cooper Union building some day, after more +pressing needs of equipment shall have been satisfied, +may be crowned with its garden of rest and outlook.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Of the original board, Peter Cooper was the first to +pass away. Mr. Hunt and Mr. Tiemann have since died, +and Mr. R. Fulton Cutting has been elected a trustee. +The other vacancies have not been filled.</p></div></div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + +<p>The original text had the list of other books on the first page. The first +title page was placed before this list for this html edition. This is also reflected +in the page numbering, [i], [iii], [ii].</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_xii">Page xii</a>, "8" changed to "6"</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Cooper, by Rossiter W. 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