"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