o did not care to endure his society.
Such a picture did not rise even to the dignity of caricature. Nor is it
relieved either in this work or elsewhere by others drawn favorably. The
reader of Cooper will search his writings in vain for a portrait which
any member of the editorial profession would be glad to recognize as his
own.

All this was vigorous enough, but it could hardly be called (p. 180)
profitable. Cooper had now cultivated to perfection the art of saying
injudicious things as well as the art of saying things injudiciously.
His ability in hitting upon the very line of remark that would still
further enrage the hostile, and irritate the indifferent and even the
friendly, assumed almost the nature of genius. The power of his attacks
could not be gainsaid. But while they inspired his opponents with
respect, they filled his friends with dismay. He was soon in a singular
position. He enjoyed at one and the same time the double distinction of
being reviled in England for his aggressive republicanism, and of being
denounced in America for aping the airs of the English aristocracy. It
hardly seemed a favorable time for beginning hostilities in a new field.
Yet it was then that he entered upon his famous legal war with the Whig
newspapers of the state of New York.

A detailed account of the libel suits instituted by Cooper would form
one of the most striking chapters in the history of the American press;
and for some reasons it is to be regretted that the plan he had of
writing a full account of them was never carried out. Here only a slight
summary can be given. It is well to say at the outset that many
assertions ordinarily made about them are utterly false. For certain of
these prevalent misconceptions Greeley is responsible. He spoke of these
trials with some fullness in commenting upon libel suits in his
"Recollections of a Busy Life." But Greeley's life was too busy for him
always to recollect accurately. While he had not the slightest intention
to say anything untrue, what he said was in some instances of this
character; though more often it was misleading rather than false. (p. 181)
But outside of what Greeley has written, there are several erroneous
assertions current. One of the most common of these is the statement
that Cooper's success in them was mainly due to the application of the
law maxim, that the greater the truth the greater the libel. There was
never any ground for even an insinuation o