ich the
_Republican_ added comments of its own, repeating the disproved
statement that the father of the novelist had reserved the Point for the
use of the inhabitants of the village. Cooper promptly notified the
editor of the _Republican_, Andrew M. Barber, that unless the statements
were retracted he would enter suit for libel. Barber refused to retract;
the suit was begun; and in May, 1839, at the final trial, the jury
returned a verdict of four hundred dollars for the plaintiff. The
editor sought to avoid the payment of the whole award, and a great
outcry was raised against Cooper because the sheriff levied upon some
money which Barber had laid away and locked up in a trunk. Cooper sued
also the _Norwich Telegraph_, and when other newspapers took the side of
their associates he entered suit promptly against any that published
libelous statements. In this way one suit led to another, until Cooper
was bringing action against the _Oneida Whig_, published at Utica; the
_Courier and Enquirer_ of New York, edited by James Watson Webb; the
_Evening Signal_ of New York, edited by Park Benjamin; the _Commercial
Advertiser_ of New York, edited by Col. William L. Stone; the _Tribune_,
edited by Horace Greeley; and the _Albany Evening Journal_, edited by
Thurlow Weed. This list includes the leading Whig journals of the time
in the State of New York, which were among the most influential in the
whole country. Col. Stone, Thurlow Weed, and Watson Webb were former
residents of Cooperstown, the two first named having each served an
apprenticeship as printer in the office of the _Freeman's Journal_. Weed
was recognized as the leader of the Whig party in the nation, and his
newspaper was correspondingly important. He was Cooper's most persistent
opponent, and in 1841 the novelist had commenced five suits against him
for various articles published in the _Evening Journal_. It is a curious
fact that Weed was noted as a bigoted admirer of his adversary's novels.
Weed himself afterward related that when about to leave Albany by
stage-coach to attend one of these trials, and inquiring at the
booksellers for some late publication to read on the journey, he was
informed that the only new book was _The Two Admirals_, which had just
been issued. "I took the book," said Weed, "and soon became so absorbed
that I had hardly any time or thought for the trial, through which the
author who charmed me was trying to push me to the wall."

The libel s