ar, from a Chicago paper, was published, in order that Cooper
might see "what right-minded and unprejudiced people say and think of
him far away in the boundless West."

The appeal was to deaf ears. Neither contracted East nor boundless (p. 194)
West affected Cooper's resolution. As fast as the articles were
republished, they were carefully examined, and prosecutions begun
against the "Evening Journal" for those of them containing libelous
matter. By the middle of December five suits had been commenced, and
more were under consideration. A little later, if contemporary newspaper
reports can be trusted, the number had swelled to seven. The editor
began to appreciate the difficulty and danger of the situation. His
courage, however, did not falter. In fact he looked upon himself as
manfully standing in the gap for freedom of speech. "These suits," he
said "will determine whether an Independent Press is to be protected in
the free exercise of honest opinion, or whether it is to be overawed and
silenced by the persecutions of an inflated, litigious, soured novelist,
who, in his better days by the favor of the Press, made the money with
which he now seeks to oppress its conductors, and sap its independence."
He did not purpose to flinch from his duty. Accordingly he announced
that he should continue publishing these attacks until Cooper ceased
prosecuting.

In this determination he was encouraged by the result of two suits tried
in April, 1842, in the Otsego County Court. Though he was beaten in
both, the verdict was for small amounts. In one case it was fifty-five
dollars, in the other eighty-seven dollars. This convinced the press
that the tide was turning. Again the country newspapers were filled with
libelous paragraphs. Again the novelist was denounced for his heartless
abuse of his country, and his soulless and contemptible vanity. Again
these strictures were carefully collected from every quarter, no matter
how insignificant, and republished in the columns of the "Evening (p. 195)
Journal." But these cheerful anticipations were speedily dissipated.
Another suit, tried at Fonda in the Supreme Court in May, 1842, resulted
in a verdict of three hundred and twenty-five dollars for the plaintiff.
The country papers were indignant. One of the editors sagely suggested
that "if judge and jury are to carry on this war on the press to gratify
individual malignity much further, it would be well for all editors to
unite in petit