out business disaster. "In those days,"
says a friend, "whenever he had nothing else to do, he would go down to
the recruiting office and put in a substitute." It is estimated that he
must have sent, first and last, about a score of soldiers to serve for
him under the flag.

From the first he urged the emancipation and enlistment of the Southern
negroes,--a policy which was ultimately adopted with successful results;
and when in 1864, at the darkest hour of the struggle, there was danger
of a fatal compromise, he actively promoted that great mass meeting in
the hall of the Cooper Union which marked the turning-point of the
struggle, carried the State of New York for Lincoln, and secured the
triumph of the Union.

After the war was over he presided at another meeting, called to favor
aid to the disabled soldiers of the nation; and the following paragraph
quoted from his remarks on that occasion forms a fitting close to this
brief notice of his patriotic activity:--

"If we required a stronger stimulus to urge us to perform our duty, we
have only to turn our thoughts back to that fearful day when the armies
of rebellion had entered Pennsylvania with the intent to subjugate the
North to their domination. Had they been successful, they would have
gloried in making us pay for the loss of their slaves and the expenses
of their war. I trust that the government will not hesitate to tax my
property and the property of every other man enough to provide for the
comfort of our disabled soldiers and the families dependent on them for
support."

In the financial controversies which accompanied and followed the period
of "reconstruction" after the war, and were involved in the payment and
adjustment of the national debt, Mr. Cooper appeared as an advocate of
the "Greenback" party, and did not seem to realize that this was a
complete reversal of his earlier position as a "hard-money" Democrat. I
think the clue to this change may be found in his recollection of the
war waged by Andrew Jackson on the United States Bank, and a vague
feeling that the national banking system instituted by Secretary Chase
was open to similar objections. To this may be added his growing
inclination in favor of "paternal government,"--which in a man so
thoroughly self-supporting and self-reliant can be explained only by the
fact that his personal philanthropy overbalanced his political
philosophy; that he became more anxious to relieve the distress he saw