ioning the legislature to pass a law that judges should
discharge their duties impartially, and juries be composed of honest and
intelligent men." This profound suggestion marks pretty plainly the
intellectual grade to which most of the writers of these paragraphs had
attained. Before it could be acted upon another suit had been decided.
In the September term of the Supreme Court held at Cooperstown, a
further verdict of two hundred dollars was awarded. In the following
month a new suit was begun.

Weed had fought his fight manfully. But the business of publishing
libelous paragraphs at these rates, low as they were, was ceasing to be
either pleasant or profitable. Besides his own counsel fees, the adverse
verdicts carried with them heavy costs. He concluded to let the liberty
of the press take care of itself. Accordingly, on the 14th of December,
1842, he published, though with a grumbling comment, a retraction of all
his previous statements. It had been previously submitted to the eminent
lawyer, Daniel Cady, and by him approved. It withdrew, first, the
allegations contained the previous year in a specific article in the
paper. "On a review of the matter and a better knowledge of the facts,"
were the words of the retraction, "I feel it to be my duty to withdraw
the injurious imputations it contains on the character of Mr. (p. 196)
Cooper. It is my wish that this retraction should be as broad as the
charges. The 'Albany Evening Journal' having also contained various
other articles reflecting on Mr. Cooper's character, I feel it due to
that gentleman to withdraw every charge that injuriously affects his
character."

The course of instruction had been protracted and expensive, but the
lesson had been learned at last. The independence of the press had been
crushed by the domineering despot of Cooperstown. The controversy
threatened to break out again in 1845, but it seems never to have got
beyond words. There is a comic element introduced into the whole affair
by the fact that the editor of the "Journal" was a profound and even
bigoted admirer of his adversary's novels. So fond was he of quoting
from them, that according to Greeley, jokers at that time gravely
affirmed that Weed had never read but three authors,--Shakespeare,
Scott, and Cooper. In the very heat of the controversy he was said to
have sat up all night reading "The Pathfinder," which had come out a
little while before. Greeley also asserts that the par