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diff --git a/26498.txt b/26498.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..656aba8 --- /dev/null +++ b/26498.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2482 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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.) + + + + + + + + + +The Riverside Biographical Series + +NUMBER 4 + + +PETER COOPER + +BY + +ROSSITER W. RAYMOND + + + + + +=The Riverside Biographical Series= + + 1. ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. BROWN. + 2. JAMES B. EADS, by LOUIS HOW. + 3. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by PAUL E. MORE. + 4. PETER COOPER, by R. W. RAYMOND. + 5. THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. MERWIN. + 6. WILLIAM PENN, by GEORGE HODGES. + 7. GENERAL GRANT, by WALTER ALLEN. + 8. LEWIS AND CLARK, by WILLIAM R. LIGHTON. + 9. JOHN MARSHALL, by JAMES B. THAYER. + 10. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by CHAS. A. CONANT. + 11. WASHINGTON IRVING, by H. W. BOYNTON. + 12. PAUL JONES, by HUTCHINS HAPGOOD. + 13. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, by W. G. BROWN. + 14. SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, by H. D. SEDGWICK, Jr. + + Each about 140 pages, 16mo, with photogravure + portrait, 65 cents, _net_; _School Edition_, each, + 50 cents, _net_. + + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + + + + + +[Illustration: (signed) Peter Cooper] + + + + +PETER COOPER + +BY + +ROSSITER W. RAYMOND + +[Illustration] + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + =The Riverside Press Cambridge= + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY ROSSITER W. RAYMOND. + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + PREFACE vii + I. ANCESTRY 1 + II. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 10 + III. BUSINESS VENTURES 16 + IV. INVENTIONS 29 + V. THE TOM THUMB 38 + VI. MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS 52 + VII. THE COOPER UNION FOR THE + ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART 64 + VIII. NATIONAL POLITICS 96 + IX. THE END 104 + + + + +PREFACE + + +DURING 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. + +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. + +It has not been practicable to preserve, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 planning and contriving, and was +never satisfied unless I was doing something difficult--something that +had never been done before, if possible." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +Some further observations concerning the secret of the universal esteem +and affection enjoyed by Mr. Cooper will be reserved for the closing +chapter. + + + + + +PETER COOPER + + + + +I + +ANCESTRY + + +OBADIAH COOPER, 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. + +John Cooper came of age in the year of the Declaration of Independence. +In the 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 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." + +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. + +It was in 1779, during his military service, that John Cooper married +Margaret, the 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. + +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. + +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. 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:-- + +"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." + +If names were to be characteristic of individual careers, it might be +better to imitate some Indian tribes, and to give the permanent 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + + + + +II + +BOYHOOD AND YOUTH + + +AT 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:-- + +"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." + +Accepting this division of his career, as convenient, though not +strictly accurate (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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 _forte_ to make money at games of chance." + +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 +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 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. + + + + +III + +BUSINESS VENTURES + + +AT 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:-- + +"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 imprisonment for debt had not then been +abolished. So I changed my plans, and went to Hempstead, Long Island, to +visit my brother." + +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. + +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 home during +fifty-seven years.[1] 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. + +But after the war, the domestic woolen mills were shut down, and there +was no sale 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +The manufacture of iron was one of the early industries of the American +colonies, 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 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. + +One of the boldest yet wisest and most profitable operations of Mr. +Cooper was his investment in the Atlantic cable enterprise 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."[2] 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 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 _except_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 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 +_Reminiscences_:-- + +"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." + +[2] Letter of Morse to the Secretary of the Treasury in the autumn of +1843. + + + + +IV + +INVENTIONS + + +THE 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 courage and hope, to something else, +remaining, nevertheless, still steadfast in his former conception, and +ready to seize any opportunity for its realization. + +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. + + + + +V + +THE TOM THUMB + + +IN 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. + +But other circumstances played their part in the result which we are +about to consider. 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 so strong that Baltimore +merchants began to move to New York and Philadelphia.[3] + +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. By +the legislative charter, the city of Baltimore and the State of Maryland +were authorized to subscribe to the company's stock. + +In the address already cited, Mr. Latrobe, an eye-witness, says of the +scenes which followed:-- + +"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." + +The proposed railroad was to pass through 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!" + +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 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! + +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) 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." + +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 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. + +Mr. Cooper's own recollection of this event deserves to be told in his +own words. He says:[4]-- + +"I came back to New York for a little bit of a brass engine of +mine--about one horse power (it had a 3 1/2 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 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. + +"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 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! + +"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.[5] + +"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. 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." + +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." + +Mr. Latrobe says of the Tom Thumb:-- + +"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, 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. . . . + +"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." + +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 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." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] 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. + +[4] Manuscript of his _Reminiscences_. + +[5] 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. + + + + +VI + +MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS + + +PETER COOPER'S 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 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. + +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 that +without this support, innocently given and deceitfully misused, the +schemers for private gain could not have achieved their periodical and +temporary successes. + +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.[6] + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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 of +another State. His arguments prevailed; and the pipe was ordered from a +Philadelphia manufacturer, who offered a better article at a lower +price. + +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 promoted, +and its future importance was foreseen, by Peter Cooper and his +public-spirited colleagues. + +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." + +The appeal of this society to "the affluent and charitable of every +denomination of Christians" was liberally answered, and by 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. +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Yet his characteristic common sense came again in this instance to the +front. The 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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] 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. + + + + +VII + +THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART + + +IN 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. + +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. + +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. + +Walking up the Bowery Road--then the 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 relatives, make +up a total of more than double that amount.[7] + +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. + +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 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:-- + +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 exhibition of +pictures, usually of noteworthy scenery, foreign cities, etc., which +were looked at through round holes, enhancing the effect of their +illumination. + +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. + +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. + +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 _about_ +things unless it is combined with the disposition and the apparatus for +_studying_ 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 handicrafts, where the practitioners of +each could meet and "exchange views." + +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. + +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 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,[8] 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. + +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 perfect solution of what was +supposed to be a difficult problem they had accomplished anything +extraordinary. + +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 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!"[9] But such regrets did +not occupy his mind. He 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. + +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." + +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 _one_ "piece or parcel," his to dedicate +forever. + +The delivery of this deed to the board of 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 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. + +The letter shows some traces still of his original plan. Thus, he +writes:-- + +"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." + +Other characteristic paragraphs are here quoted,--the whole letter being +too long for full republication. + +"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. + +"In order to better the condition of women and to widen the sphere of +female employment, I have provided seven rooms to 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. + +"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. . . . + +"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. . . . + +"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 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." . . . + +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:-- + +"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, 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." + +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. + +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. 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.[10] + +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. + +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 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 of the +"collector," has plundered the volumes of the plates which once adorned +them. + +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. + +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:-- + +"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." + +It seems then, after all, that Peter Cooper's faith in the people was +justified. + +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 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 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 sort of thing to please +Peter Cooper to the bottom of his soul." + +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 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. + +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 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." + +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 compensated by his triumph in having thus +stirred the spirit and aroused the recollections of the dear old +founder. + +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. + +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 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] 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. + +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. + +[8] Old New Yorkers will be reminded of the closing lines of Fitz-Greene +Halleck's poem,-- + + "And there is music twice a week + On Scudder's balcony." + +[9] 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 canyon 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. + +[10] 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. + + + + +VIII + +NATIONAL POLITICS + + +PETER COOPER'S 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. + +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 +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. + +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:-- + +"We are contending with an enemy not 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. + +"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. . . . + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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:-- + +"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." + +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 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 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 personal fitness, with +tenure of office during good behavior, moderate salaries, and pensions +for the aged and sick, and provision for widows and orphans. + + + + +IX + +THE END + + +IN 1874, at the age of eighty-three, Mr. Cooper said at a reception +given in his honor:-- + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"While I have always recognized that the object of business is to make +money in an 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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +On the day of his funeral New York city presented an almost unexampled +spectacle. All Soul's Unitarian Church, in which his 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. + +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. + +If we seek, without affectionate prejudice, 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. + + "Who gives himself with his gift, feeds three: + Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me!" + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +The original text had the list of books first and then the first title +page. These were reversed so that the title occurs first in this +edition. + +Page xii, "8" changed to "6" (6. This experience) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Cooper, by Rossiter W. 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