gard to appear in that light. He was assailed largely by the men who
had toadied to a hostile feeling which he himself had confronted. His
criticism of America was sometimes just, sometimes unjust. It was in a
few instances as full of outrageous misrepresentation as any which he
had resented in others. Even when right, it was often wrongly delivered.
But in no case did it spring from indifference or dislike. The (p. 237)
very loftiness of his aspirations for his country, the very vividness of
his conception of what he trusted she was to be, made him far more than
ordinarily sensitive to what she was, which fell short of his ideal.
Every indignity offered to her he felt as a personal blow; every stain
upon her honor as a personal disgrace. He had no fear as to the material
greatness of her future. What he could not bear was that the slightest
spot should soil the garments of her civilization. It was for her
character, her reputation, that he most cared. It is not necessary to
maintain that he was as wise as he was patriotic. Had he been in a
position where he wielded political power, his impulsive and fiery
temperament might very probably have made him an unsafe adviser. His
whole idea of foreign policy, as connected with war, may be summed up in
the statement that the nation should be as ready to resent a wrong done
to ourselves as to repair a wrong done to others. Nothing could be
better doctrine in theory. Unfortunately, the nation in all such cases
is itself both party and judge, and the question of right becomes, in
consequence, a hard one to decide as a matter of fact. Cooper's intense
convictions would therefore have been likely to have led the country
into war, had he had the control of events,--and war, too, at a time
when under the agencies of peace it was daily gathering strength to meet
a coming drain upon its resources in a conflict which but few were then
far-sighted enough to see would squander wealth as lavishly as it wasted
blood. Had it rested with him, it is quite clear that no Ashburton
treaty would have been signed. There is a striking passage printed to
this day in italics, which he puts into the mouth of Leather-Stocking in
the novel of "The Deerslayer." Its point is made specially (p. 238)
prominent when it is remembered that this work was written while the
controversy was going on between Great Britain and the United States in
regard to the Northeastern boundary. "I can see no great diff