Jct7nes Femmore Cooper

fair, in which the tawdry finery of ladies of easy virtue, is
exposed, in the same stall, and in close proximity to the greasy
vestments of the pauper." By the end of the century New
York will take its place among the capitals of the first rank.
It may take longer "to collect the accessories of a first-class
place," but even now the new buildings that are being
erected are fit for a great city. New York will be at the head
of a great commercial civilization, and it is the immediate
and distant prospects of this civilization which Cooper
briefly surveys in his introduction.

Writing in the false security born of the Compromise of
1850, Cooper is certain that the slavery dispute is not very
serious and that disunion is not a great risk. "The slave inter-
est is now making its final effort for supremacy, and men
are deceived by the throes of a departing power. The insti-
tution of domestic slavery cannot last. It is opposed to the
spirit of the age. . . ." (The same conclusion about the
manorial leases had made him angry.) Calhoun's doctrines,
of states' rights extending even into the territories, and of a
balance of power between North and South guaranteed by
the Constitution, are refuted in a quiet, authoritative tone,
as if logic could put an end to the dispute. Cooper's only
anger is against the abolitionists and "dissolute politicians,
who care only for the success of parties, and who make a
stalking-horse of philanthropy. . . ." But for their agitation
well-intentioned Southerners might "be induced to adopt a
wiser mode of procedure. . . ."

Cooper, concluding from his clear-sighted evaluation of
the relative strength of the opposing forces that they are
not likely to fight, makes the common-sense mistake of not
reckoning sufficiently on the possibilities of madness in

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