led law. In 1849 he was admitted to the bai\ and began practice in Shelbyville. He was elected to the state legislature in 1853, and again in 1857. In April, 1862, he was appointed judge of the 7th judicial circuit in Tennessee, an office which he retained until 1866, when for a year he was pro- fessor in the law-school at Lebanon, Tenn. Sub- sequently he settled in Nashville, and resumed his practice. He was elected to the state senate in 1869, and in 1870 was chosen as a Democrat to the U. S. senate, serving from 4 March, 1871, till 3 March, 1877.
COOPER, James, senator, b. in Frederick coun-
ty, Md., 8 May, 1810; d. in Camp Chase, near Co-
lumbus, Ohio, 28 March, 1863. He studied at St.
Mary's college, and was graduated at Washington
college, Pa., in 1832, after which he studied law
with Thaddeus Stevens. In 1834 he was admitted
to the bar, and began to practise in Gettysburg,
Pa. He was elected to congress as a Whig, and
served for two terms, from 2 Dec, 1839, till 3
March, 1843. He was a member of the state legis-
lature during the years 1843, 1844, 1846, and 1848,
and its speaker in 1847. In 1848 he was made at-
torney-general of Pennsylvania, and he was elected
to the IJ. S. senate as a" Whig, holding office from
3 Dec, 1849, till 3 March, 1855. On the expiration
of his term he settled in Philadelphia, and later in
Frederick City, Md. Soon after the beginning of
the civil war he took command of all the volun-
teers in Maiyland, and organized them into regi-
ments. On 17 May, 1861, he was made brigadier-
general in the volunteer service, his appointment
being among the first that were made during the
war. Later he was placed in command of Camp
Chase, where he served until his death.
COOPER, James B., naval officer, b. in Bucks
county, Pa., 6 March, 1753 ; d. in Haddonfield,
N. J., 5 Feb., 1854. He served during the revo-
lutionary war as captain in Lee's legion, and was
actively engaged in the contests at Stony Point,
Paulus Hook, Guilford Court-House, and Eutaw
Springs. In 1812 he entered the navy as master,
and served in that capacity during the war. He
was promoted to lieutenant in April, 1822, and be-
came commander in September, 1841. — His son,
Benjamin, naval officer, b. in New Jersey about
1793 ; d. in Brooklyn, L. 1., 1 June, 1850. He was
appointed to the U. S. navy as midshipman on 16
Jan., 1809, and served with distinction during the
war of 1812. He fought bravely under Capt.
James Lawrence on the " Hornet," in her action
with the " Peacock " in February, 1813, and was
made lieutenant in December, 1814. Later he was
again promoted, and attained the grade of captain
in February, 1828.
COOPER, James Fenimore, author, b. in Burlington, N. J., 15 Sept., 1789; d. in Cooperstown,
N. Y., 14 Sept., 1851. On his father's side
he was descended from James Cooper, of Stratford-on-Avon,
England, who emigrated to America in
1679 and made extensive purchases of land from
the original proprietaries in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. He and his immediate descendants were
Quakers, and for a long time many of them
remained on the lands thus acquired. His mother,
Elizabeth Fenimore, was of Swedish descent, and
this name too is of frequent occurrence among the
Society of Friends in the old Quaker settlements.
Cooper was the eleventh of twelve children, most
of whom died early. Soon after the conclusion
of the revolutionary war William Cooper became
the owner of a tract of land, several thousand
acres in extent, within the borders of New York
state and lying along the head-waters of the
Susquehanna
river. He encouraged the settlement of
this tract as early as 1786, and by 1788 had selected
and laid out the site of Cooperstown, on the
shore of Otsego lake. A dwelling-house was erected,
and in the autumn of 1790 the formidable task
was undertaken of transporting a company of
fifteen persons, including servants, from the
comparative civilization of New Jersey to the wilderness
of central New York. The journey was
accomplished on 10 Nov., and for six years the
family lived in the log-house originally constructed
for their domicile. In 1796 Mr. Cooper
determined to make his home permanently in the
town he had founded, which by that time promised
to become a thriving settlement. He began
the construction of a mansion, completed in 1799,
which he named Otsego Hall, and which was for
many years the manor-house of his own possessions,
and by far the most spacious and stately
private residence in central New York. To every
reader that has fallen under the spell of Cooper's
Indian romances, the surroundings of his boyhood
days are significant. The American frontier
prior to the 19th century was very different
from that which exists at present. Then the foremost
pioneers of emigration had barely begun to
push their way westward through the Mohawk
valley, the first available highway to the west.
Out of the forest that bordered the shores of Otsego
lake and surrounded the little settlement,
Indians came for barter, or possibly with hostile
intent, and until young Cooper was well advanced
toward manhood the possibility of an Indian raid
was by no means remote. The Six Nations were
still strong enough to array a powerful band of
warriors, and from their chieftains Cooper, no
doubt, drew the portraits of the men that live in his
pages. Such surroundings could not but stimulate
a naturally active imagination, and the
mysterious influence of the wilderness, augmented
subsequently by the not dissimilar influence of the
sea, pervaded his entire life.
The wilderness was his earliest and most potent teacher, after that the village school, and then private instruction in the family of the Rev. J. Ellison, the English rector of St. Peter's Episcopal church in Albany. This gentleman was a graduate of an English university, an accomplished scholar, and an irreconcilable monarchist. It is to be feared that the free air of the western continent did not altogether counteract the influence of his tutor during the formative period of the young American's mind. As an instructor, however, Ellison was, undeniably, well equipped, and such teachers were, in those days, extremely rare. His death, in 1802, interrupted Cooper's preparatory studies, but he was already fitted to join the freshman class at Yale in the beginning of its second term, January, 1803. According to his own account, he learned but little at college. Indeed, the thoroughness of his preparation in the classics under Ellison made it so easy for him to maintain a fair standing in his class that he was at liberty to pass his time as pleased him best. His love for out-of-door life led him to explore the rugged hills northward of New Haven, and the equally picturesque shores of Long Island sound probably gave him his first intimate acquaintance with the ocean. No doubt all this was, to some extent, favorable to the development of his sympathy with nature; but it did not improve his standing with the college authorities. Gradually he became wilder in his defiance of the academic restraints, and was at last expelled, during his third year. Perhaps, if the faculty could have foreseen the brilliant career of
