he use of the inhabitants of Cooperstown by the father of the
novelist. When the notice was published depriving them of their rights,
a meeting had been called which had been largely attended. The room was
crowded with the industry, intelligence, and respectability of the
village. Powerful addresses were made and a series of resolutions were
passed. These expressed the feelings of all present. "The remarks," the
newspaper continued, "were of a lucid character, and the resolutions,
full, pungent, and yet respectful."

Two days after this article had appeared, the editor received a letter
from Cooper's counsel which was to the effect that he would be
prosecuted for libel unless he retracted his statements. On his side the
novelist undertook to make perfectly clear to him that his assertions
were untrue; but he expected, after the real facts had been set before
him and fully examined, that he would take back what he had said. "No
atonement," the letter concluded, "will be accepted, that is not first
approved of by the plaintiff in the suit." Barber was not (p. 186)
disposed either to retract or to investigate the accuracy of the facts
he had stated. He published the letter, however, with the usual solemn
declaration that seems to be kept in type in all newspaper offices, that
in doing what he had done he had been actuated solely by the noblest
motives; that he had not published anything libellous; that if in
anything he had been misinformed, he held himself always ready to make
the proper correction. "In conclusion," he said, "not being sensible of
having injured Mr. Cooper, we consider that we have no atonement to
offer." Under these circumstances the suit went on. It did not come to
final trial until May, 1839, at the Montgomery circuit of the Supreme
Court. Joshua A. Spencer was the principal lawyer for the defense, while
Cooper conducted his own case. The jury returned a verdict of four
hundred dollars for the plaintiff. Eventually the editor sought to evade
in various ways the payment of the whole award, and did succeed in
evading the payment of a good part of it. A terrible outcry was,
however, raised against Cooper because the sheriff levied upon some
money that had been carefully laid away and locked up by Barber in a
trunk.

With this begins the famous series of suits that occupied no small share
of the few following years of the author's life. At the time the first
one was decided, another was pending a