inferior. It was entirely behind the fortunes of the country and still
cherished prejudices against democracy that the very stupidest of
European conservatives had begun to lay aside. The newspaper (p. 173)
press he had assailed with a pungency and vigor which it in vain sought
to rival. He was spattered by it, however, with almost every opprobrious
term that belongs to the vocabulary of wrath and abuse. Invention was
tasked to furnish discreditable reasons for all that he said and did.
That inexhaustible capacity of devising base motives for conduct, which
is an especial attribute of mean minds, had now opportunity to put forth
its full powers in the way of insinuation and assertion. It did not go
unimproved. A common charge brought against him after the publication of
the "Letter to His Countrymen" was that it had been written for the sake
of gaining office. It was even said that Van Buren had a hand in it.
Then and afterward, the Whig newspapers represented Cooper as seeking
the position of Secretary of the Navy. Denial availed him nothing. It
would certainly have not been at all to his discredit to have desired
the place; for he knew a great deal about the navy, and its interests
were very dear to his heart. For these very reasons his appointment to
it would have been in violation of the traditional policy of the
government. It was probably never once contemplated by any
administration, as it was certainly never asked by Cooper himself.

The two extracts that have already been given are doubtless sufficient
to satisfy any curiosity that may exist in regard to the way in which he
was spoken of by the press of America. Yet coarse as was its
vituperation, it was surpassed by that of Great Britain. Englishmen may
have felt, and have felt justly, that Cooper took an unfair view of
their social life and political institutions. National character sweeps
through a range so vast that a man will usually be able to find in it
what he goes to seek. Even under the most favorable conditions (p. 174)
the tastes of a coterie or the habits of a class are made the standard
by which to estimate the tastes and habits of a whole people. Certain it
is that the view of any nation is to be distrusted which is not taken
from a station of good-will. But granting that Cooper was unjust in his
observations, there was nothing he said which afforded the least excuse
for the coarse personality with which he was followed from the time he