Cooper may have overestimated the value of mere talk. As I have already
told, it was his first notion that conversation and discussion were the
chief things required in education. He came to see that study,
instruction, and training were equally essential, but he never
surrendered his faith in free speech; and the great hall was at the
service of all sects, parties, and classes, religious, philosophical,
political, scientific, literary, or philanthropic. It has been the scene
of many memorable meetings and addresses. But nothing in its history has
been more useful and noteworthy than the series of free popular lectures
which were given, as part of the operations of the Cooper Union, within
its walls. These lectures began in 1868, and continued until they were
adopted by the city as part of the general scheme of free lectures which
has been so successful during the last few years. In awarding due praise
to the promoters and managers of this plan, it should not be forgotten
that the Cooper Union inaugurated it, and maintained it for many years,
during which the free Saturday night popular lectures in its great hall
were the only ones of their kind. They covered many sciences and arts,
chronicles of travel and themes of history and literature. The most
eminent authors, teachers, investigators, travelers, and orators of the
generation were comprised in the list of lecturers; and many of them
performed this service without other reward than the consciousness of
contributing to a noble charity, and the evident gratitude of the vast
and eagerly attentive audience.
Mr. Cooper loved to attend these Saturday evening lectures, and an
arm-chair was always ready for him on the platform. Many a speaker on
that platform has been surprised by an untimely outburst of applause and
has turned to discover the cause in the entrance of the beloved founder.
Often the subject of the evening was beyond his experience or knowledge,
but that made no difference in his respectful attention, or in the
benign satisfaction with which he contemplated the attentive audience,
and realized that they were receiving benefit. I have often felt that
the scene exhibited almost every Saturday night for many years during
the latest period of his life could be equaled only by the spectacle
presented at Ephesus, where the aged St. John the Divine fronted the
congregation of loving believers, always with his one last message,
"Little children, love one another."
But sometimes the old man would be intensely interested and aroused by
the lecture. I remember such an occasion, when I was myself the
lecturer, and had been laying down, with due scientific decorum and
diagrams, the "law of storms." At the close of the lecture, Mr. Cooper
arose, advanced to the front, and gave a vivid and animated description
of a whirlwind which he had witnessed some seventy years before, which
was received with rapt attention and tremendous applause. The lecture
was undoubtedly eclipsed in interest by this unexpected after-piece; but
the lecturer was amply compensated by his triumph in having thus
stirred the spirit and aroused the recollections of the dear old
founder.
With regard to the various schools and classes of the Cooper Union, it
must suffice to say briefly that under the elastic and comprehensive
plan of the deed of trust, two objects were constantly kept in view by
the trustees. In the first place, a complete four years' course was
always maintained, for the benefit of those who could afford the time
and who felt the need of such training. In the second place, classes
were instituted in such special departments as were most likely to be
useful and most evidently in demand; and with regard to these the demand
and the evidence of usefulness were followed as guides in determining
the extent of the facilities offered, up to the capacity and means of
the institution.
De Morgan, in his "Budget of Paradoxes," tells of an old fellow who,
wishing to have a chair that would fit him perfectly, sat for a while on
a mass of shoemaker's wax, which he then carried to a worker in wood,
and instructed him to "make a seat like that!" This homely illustration
indicates the manner in which the special classes of the Cooper Union
have been established, enlarged, and regulated, to meet the evident
demands of its constituency. It is pleasant to know that the future
means and sphere of the institution will be enlarged under the same wise
management.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Not all of this amount is represented in permanent endowments, since
large contributions to cover deficits in annual income as compared with
current expenses, or for special repairs and alterations, do not appear
under that head. According to the balance-sheet of January 1, 1900, the
total assets consist of $1,075,428.62, the appraised value of the
building, furniture, and apparatus; and $947,021.39 in cash on hand or
investments,--making a total of $2,022,450.01. Of the invested sum
$953,159.30 is in "special endowments," of which the income only can be
expended. This fund comprises $200,000 from Peter Cooper and $340,000
from the family of the late William Cooper, his brother; the remainder
is made up of smaller gifts (the chief of which are a bequest of $30,000
from Wilson G. Hunt, one of the original trustees, and $10,000 each from
Mary Stuart, J. Pierpont Morgan, Morris K. Jesup, and John E. Parsons),
and one of $300,000 made in December, 1899, by Andrew Carnegie. In
addition to the aggregate thus made up Hon. Edward Cooper, the son, and
Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, the son-in-law of Peter Cooper, have undertaken to
furnish a further income of $10,000 per annum; and finally, according to
the 41st Annual Report of the Trustees (May, 1900), the Cooper Union, as
residuary legatee under the will of the late John Holstead, will
ultimately receive between $200,000 and $300,000.
These recent additions to the endowment of the institution will enable
the trustees to enlarge its usefulness in many ways, and especially
(being no longer dependent for annual income upon rents) to utilize the
whole of the building for educational purposes. Yet the total endowment
will still be modest, as compared with that of many similar institutions
of later origin.
[8] Old New Yorkers will be reminded of the closing lines of Fitz-Greene
Halleck's poem,--
"And there is music twice a week
On Scudder's balcony."
[9] There may have been more than a mere sentimental regret in his mind
at that time; for his inventive intuition had struck out half a century
before an idea to which the slow thought of his fellows had not yet
attained,--the plan of utilizing roofs for the purpose of giving to all
classes an ownership of free air and far distance and boundless sky as
complete as any landowner could command by fencing off a mountain for
his own pleasure. As he looked down upon the vast wilderness of roofs
and thought of the multitude laboring beneath them or trudging through
the streets ("up one canyon and down another," as old Jim Bridger the
scout said in St. Louis), ignorant of the upper sphere within reach, he
might well have felt that one part of his original scheme would still be
a physical and moral boon to the metropolis. In fact the disappearance
of the "vacant lots," so numerous in his youth, and so freely available
as informal parks and playgrounds, had created new necessity for air and
space. Whether he consciously recalled the hanging gardens of Babylon,
or the flat roofs universally utilized for social and domestic purposes
in eastern and southern countries, I do not know. At all events he had
seized upon a similar idea, and now--nearly a score of years after his
death--we are waking up to its value. Even the Cooper Union building
some day, after more pressing needs of equipment shall have been
satisfied, may be crowned with its garden of rest and outlook.
[10] Of the original board, Peter Cooper was the first to pass away. Mr.
Hunt and Mr. Tiemann have since died, and Mr. R. Fulton Cutting has been
elected a trustee. The other vacancies have not been filled.
VIII
NATIONAL POLITICS
PETER COOPER'S prominent activity in national politics belongs to two
periods,--that of the war for the Union, and that of the subsequent
controversies over questions of financial policy.
As has been explained, he felt his life to be peculiarly identified with
that of the nation born with him; and the idea that this nation should
be destroyed in the midst of its triumphant progress was profoundly
abhorrent to him. Like many other patriots, he was ready to save the
Union by a compromise, if that were practicable. He advocated the
purchase and liberation by the government of all the slaves in the
United States; he promoted a "peace conference" on the very eve of the
war. But when South Carolina had formally seceded and the gauntlet had
been cast at the feet of national authority, his course was not
uncertain. He was a representative of the New York Chamber of Commerce
in the deputation of thirty leading citizens of New York which visited
Washington in order to discover what plan Mr. Buchanan (then still
President) had in view. They got no satisfaction from the President, but
assured themselves of the firm loyalty of Mr. Seward, then Senator from
New York.
A few weeks later the bombardment of Fort Sumter put an end to all
projects of compromise. At the memorable mass meeting held in Union
Square, New York, shortly after the receipt of this news, Peter Cooper,
then seventy years old, was among the first to mount the platform. His
familiar white hairs and kindly face were recognized by the crowd, which
vociferously called for a speech from him. Stepping to the front, he
uttered a few ringing sentences which sounded the keynote of the
meeting. I quote but one or two:--
"We are contending with an enemy not only determined on our destruction
as a nation, but to build on our ruins a government devoted with all its
power to maintain, extend, and perpetuate a system in itself revolting
to all the best feelings of humanity,--an institution that enables
thousands to sell their own children into hopeless bondage.
"Shall it succeed? You say 'No!' and I unite with you in your decision.
We cannot allow it to succeed. We should spend our lives, our property,
and leave the land itself a desolation before such an institution should
triumph over the free people of this country. . . .
"Let us, therefore, unite to sustain the government by every means in
our power, to arm and equip in the shortest possible time an army of the
best men that can be found in the country."
From that day on his patriotism never doubted or faltered. When the war
loan was announced he was the first man at the door of the subtreasury
in New York waiting to make payment over the counter of all the money
he had been able to collect without 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
than to question the wisdom of measures taken for that purpose. Two
things are certain: first, that Mr. Cooper's motives in his later
political course were thoroughly pure and unselfish; and secondly, that
his utterances and publications in this connection show him to be
dealing with subjects which he did not understand. This statement is
made without regard to the merits of the controversy, or the strength of
the arguments contributed to it by others. The simple truth is that Mr.
Cooper was too old to make original investigation of such questions,
intelligently weighing all the modern conditions of industry and
commerce, in which he was no longer an active participant. He accepted
in 1876 the nomination of the Greenback party for the presidency; but
the issue was already practically dead, and he received but 81,740 votes
out of a total of 8,412,833 cast. Undaunted by this defeat, he continued
to utter his views. Those who wish to study them in detail may consult
the volume "Ideas for a Science of Good Government in Addresses,
Letters, and Articles on a Strictly National Currency, Tariff, and Civil
Service," which he issued at the age of ninety-two, in the last year of
his life. His own summary of his position, given on page 212 of this
book, shows that he desired a national legal-tender paper currency,
irredeemable in coin, but "interconvertible" with government bonds, and
regulated by law as to volume per capita; a "discriminating" protective
tariff, "helpful to all the industries of the country, where the raw
material and the labor can be furnished by our own people;" and a civil
service divorced from party politics, based on personal fitness, with
tenure of office during good behavior, moderate salaries, and pensions
for the aged and sick, and provision for widows and orphans.
IX
THE END
IN 1874, at the age of eighty-three, Mr. Cooper said at a reception
given in his honor:--
"When I was born, New York contained 27,000 inhabitants. The upper
limits of the city were at Chambers Street. Not a single free school,
either by day or night, existed. General Washington had just entered
upon his first term as President of the United States, the whole annual
expenditures of which did not exceed $2,500,000, being about sixty cents
per head of the population. Not a single steam engine had yet been built
or erected on the American continent; and the people were clad in
homespun, and were characterized by the simple virtues and habits which
are usually associated with that primitive garb. I need not tell you
what the country now is, and what the habits and the garments of its
people now are, or that the expenditure, per capita, of the general
government has increased fifteen-fold. But I have witnessed and taken a
deep interest in every step of the marvellous development and progress
which have characterized this century beyond all the centuries which
have gone before.
"Measured by the achievements of the years I have seen, I am one of the
oldest men who have ever lived; but I do not feel old, and I propose to
give you the receipt by which I have preserved my youth.
"I have always given a friendly welcome to new ideas, and I have
endeavored not to feel too old to learn; and thus, though I stand here
with the snows of so many winters upon my head, my faith in human
nature, my belief in the progress of man to a better social condition,
and especially my trust in the ability of men to establish and maintain
self-government, are as fresh and as young as when I began to travel the
path of life.
"While I have always recognized that the object of business is to make
money in an honorable manner, I have endeavored to remember that the
object of life is to do good. Hence I have been ready to engage in all
new enterprises, and, without incurring debt, to risk in their promotion
the means which I had acquired, provided they seemed to me calculated to
advance the general good. This will account for my early attempt to
perfect the steam engine, for my attempt to construct the first American
locomotive, for my connection with the telegraph in a course of efforts
to unite our country with the European world, and for my recent efforts
to solve the problem of economical steam navigation on the canals; to
all of which you have so kindly referred. It happens to but few men to
change the current of human progress, as it did to Watt, to Fulton, to
Stephenson, and to Morse; but most men may be ready to welcome laborers
to a new field of usefulness, and to clear the road for their progress.
"This I have tried to do, as well in the perfecting and execution of
their ideas as in making such provision as my means have permitted for
the proper education of the young mechanics and citizens of my native
city, in order to fit them for the reception of new ideas, social,
mechanical, and scientific--hoping thus to economize and expand the
intellectual as well as the physical forces, and provide a larger fund
for distribution among the various classes which necessarily make up the
total of society. If our lives shall be such that we shall receive the
glad welcome of 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' we shall then
know that we have not lived in vain."
For nine years after this utterance he continued the peaceful and happy
life which it describes. When the end came, it was quiet and painless.
Surrounded by his children and grandchildren, and whispering with almost
his last breath the desire for an increase of his bequest to that other
well-beloved child, the Cooper Union, he "fell on sleep," April 4, 1883.
On the day of his funeral New York city presented an almost unexampled
spectacle. All Soul's Unitarian Church, in which his body was
deposited, early in the morning was thronged with a mighty multitude,
passing in procession to look upon the beloved face. Eighteen young men
from the Cooper Union surrounded it, as a guard of honor. A body of 3500
students of that institution, of both sexes, marched by, casting flowers
upon the coffin, and followed by delegations from all the municipal and
charitable organizations of the city, and by uncounted multitudes, whose
relation to the beloved philanthropist was not official or
representative, but simply personal.
The busiest streets of New York, through which the funeral procession
passed on its way to Greenwood Cemetery, beyond the East River, were
closed to business and hung in black. The flags on all public buildings,
and on the ships in the harbor, were at half-mast. The bells of all
churches were tolled. The whole city mourned, as it had not done since,
eighty years before, the funeral procession of George Washington moved
through its streets.
If we seek, without affectionate prejudice, to discover the cause of
this universal grief, affection, and admiration, we shall find, I think,
that it lies chiefly in two circumstances; namely, the character of
Peter Cooper as a lover of his kind, and the opportunity afforded him by
his long life, not only to prove that character, but to become
personally known to many thousands of those whom he sought unselfishly
to serve. Few persons except military commanders have such an
opportunity. The philanthropists who labor in secret, no matter with
what noble motive, and do not come face to face with their
beneficiaries, may win the applause of posterity, but cannot expect to
receive the immediate and personal affection of their contemporaries.
Least of all do posthumous gifts arouse this sentiment. Peter Cooper,
above all other claims to renown and gratitude, identified himself with
his philanthropy, and was known where he was loved.
"Who gives himself with his gift, feeds three:
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me!"
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
The original text had the list of books first and then the first title
page. These were reversed so that the title occurs first in this
edition.
Page xii, "8" changed to "6" (6. This experience)