Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/777

Rh United States, and settled in Northumberland, Pa., where he practised law. He became a strong democrat, and violently attacked the administration of John Adams in the Reading &ldquo;Advertiser&rdquo; of 26 Oct., 1799. This led to his being tried for libel under the sedition act, and he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, with a fine of $400. In 1806 he was appointed a land commissioner and succeeded in overcoming the difficulties with the Connecticut claimants in Luzerne county. Later he was made judge, but, becoming obnoxious to the members of his own party, he was removed in 1811 on a charge of arbitrary conduct. From 1811 till 1814 he held the chair of chemistry in Dickinson college, Carlisle, and from 1816 till 1821 filled a similar place in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1819 he was called to the College of South Carolina in Columbia, of which, from 1820 till 1834, he was president, and at the same time professor of chemistry and political economy. On his retirement in 1840 the revision of the statutes of the state was confided to him. President Cooper was eminent for his versatility and the extent of his knowledge. In philosophy he was a materialist, in religion a free-thinker, and in the nullification contest an ultra state-rights man. He was a vigorous pamphleteer in various political contests, and a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines. From 1812 till 1814 he edited two of the five volumes of &ldquo;The Emporium of Arts and Sciences&rdquo; in Philadelphia, and also Thomas Thomson's &ldquo;System of Chemistry&rdquo; (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1818). He published &ldquo;Letters on the Slave-Trade&rdquo; (London, 1787); &ldquo;Tracts, Ethical, Theological, and Political&rdquo; (1790); &ldquo;Information concerning America&rdquo; (1790); &ldquo;Account of the Trial of Thomas Cooper, of Northumberland&rdquo; (Philadelphia, 1800); &ldquo;The Bankrupt Law of America Compared with that of England&rdquo; (1801); &ldquo;Introductory Lecture at Carlisle College&rdquo; (1812); &ldquo;An English Version of the Institutes of Justinian&rdquo; (1812); &ldquo;Tracts on Medical Jurisprudence&rdquo; (1819); and &ldquo;Elements of Political Economy&rdquo; (Charleston, 1826).

COOPER, Thomas Apthorpe, actor, b. in London, England, in 1776; d. in Bristol, Pa., 21 April, 1849. He received a good education, and, on the death of his father, was adopted by Thomas Holcroft and William Godwin. His first appearance on the stage was with Stephen Kemble's company in Edinburgh, and later he acted at Covent Garden, London, with great success as Hamlet and Macbeth. In December, 1796, he made his first appearance in Philadelphia as Macbeth at the Chestnut street theatre, and in August of the following year played in the Greenwich street theatre, New York, as Pierre in &ldquo;Venice Preserved.&rdquo; He returned to England in 1802, and for several years held a foremost rank on the English stage. In 1804 he returned to New York and soon afterward, for a long time, became lessee of the Park theatre. Later he again visited England, but soon returned to the United States, where he continued to play until advanced in years. His daughter having married the son of President Tyler, he held various public offices, among which were that of military storekeeper in Frankford, Pa., during 1841, and later the office of surveyor to the ports of New York and Philadelphia. Cooper had great natural endowments of person and voice, but did not excel as a student. His acting was of the school of John Philip Kemble, whom he bid fair to rival in his early days.

COOPER, William, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1694 ; d. there, 13 Dec, 1743. He was graduated at Harvard in 1712, and his leisure dur- ing his college years was given to the study of the Bible. After his graduation, being then only eighteen years of age, he continued his studies until 1715, when he began to preach. In August of that year he was invited to become the col- league of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman, but his ordination was deferred until 23 May, 1716. He continued with the Brattle street Congregational church until his death. In 1737 he was chosen to the presidency of Harvard, but declined it. lie participated actively in the great revival of 1740, and said, toward the close of his career, that "since the year 1740 more people had sometimes come to him in concern about their souls in one week than in the preceding twenty- four years of his ministry," In 1742 he became involved with the Rev. Jonathan Ashley, of Deerfield, in a dis- pute concerning the revival, and a long newspa- per and pamphlet controversy ensued. Besides numerous published sermons, he was the author of "A Tract defending Inoculation for the Small- Pox" (1720), and " The Doctrine of Predestination unto Life indicated in Four Sermons " (Boston, 1740; London, 1765).— His son, William, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1720; d. there, 28 Nov., 1809, was distinguished for his patriotic services during the revolutionary war, and for forty-nine years was town clerk of Boston. — Another son, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Boston, 28 March, 1725; d. there, 29 Dec, 1783, studied at the grammar-school in Boston, and was graduated at Harvard in 1743, He studied theology and became his father's suc- cessor and an associate to the veneral)le Dr. Col- man. He was elected to the colleagvie postorate on 31 Dec, 1744, and ordained on 21 May, 1746. His ministry with the Brattle street church con- tinued until his death. In 1767 he was elected a member of the Harvard corporation, in which office he remained during his lifetime, and in 1774 was chosen president ; but, like his father, he pre- ferred the active duties of the ministry. He took a prominent part in politics, and in 1754 published " The Crisis," a pamphlet in opposition to the ex- cise act, then in contemplation. From the time of the stamp-act some of the best political articles in the " Boston Gazette " were written by him. The letters of Gov. Hutchinson were sent to him by Dr. Franklin, with an injunction not to allow their publication. These he placed in the hands of a friend, whose disregard of the prohibition, though a breach of confidence involving serious conse- quences, was a great public benefit. In the spring of 1775, with other distinguished patriots, he was lampooned by the British officers in an oration de- livered on State street. Afterward he made him- self particularly obnoxious to the authorities, in consequence of which he withdrew from Boston just before the battle of Lexington. From April, 1775, till March, 1776, his church was used as a barracks for the British troops. Dr. Cooper was the intimate friend of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who, during their residence in France, i"ecommended to his care many of the prominent French visitors to America. He was also an es- teemed correspondent of distinguished Europeans, and in 1767 was honored by the University of Edinburgh with the degree of D. D. He was a member of several religious and scientific socie- ties, and was the first president of the American academy of science and arts. Besides his political writings he j^ublislied numerous sermons. His " Discourse on the Commencement of the New Constitution of Massachusetts " (1780) is the most finished of all his literary productions. Bold text