of
national prowess. It had become matter of firm faith with the
inhabitants of the United States that their side had suffered no losses
worth mentioning during the war of 1812; that the American vessel had
been invariably successful, whenever there was any approach to equality
of force; and that in every case it was the superior seamanship,
courage, and skill of their officers and men that had decided the result
in their favor, and not superiority in weight of metal.

Neither of these beliefs was of a kind likely to influence Cooper. He
had got to that point of feeling in which he looked upon the public
opinion of both England and America with a good deal of contempt. It was
not to pamper the vanity or flatter the prejudices of either that he
wrote, but to state the truth. For this he neglected nothing that lay in
his power. He studied public documents of every kind, official (p. 203)
reports, all the printed and manuscript material to which he could get
access. From officers of the navy who had shared in the actions
described he gathered much information which they alone were able to
communicate. In one sense he was fully satisfied with what he had done.
He did not pretend that in a work which involved the examination and
sifting of an almost infinite number of details he had not made some
errors. It was only that he had made none intentionally, and that he had
put forth his most strenuous exertions to have what he wrote entirely
free from mistake. Nor is it possible for any unprejudiced mind to read
the history now and not feel the truth of the assertion. Its accuracy
and honesty have sometimes been flippantly questioned, but usually by
men who have not spent as many days in the study of the subject as
Cooper did months. During his lifetime imputations were made in a few
cases upon the correctness of his statements. They met then, however, so
speedy and effectual a refutation that it was not thought worth while to
repeat the criticisms until he was in his grave. Cooper might be wrong
in his conclusions; but it was rarely safe to quarrel with his facts.
There is more, however, in this history than freedom from intentional
perversion of the truth. There are throughout the whole of it the
calmness, the judicial spirit, the absence of partisanship which may not
of themselves add anything to the interest of the narrative, but are
worth everything for the impression of truthfulness it makes.

Impartiality is a qualit