New York
by James Fenimore Cooper
{Text transcribed and annotated by Hugh MacDougall, Founder and Secretary/Treasurer of the James Fenimore Cooper Society, who will appreciate corrections and comments at jfcooper@wpe.com. All material not from Cooper's text is enclosed in {curly} brackets.
{Introductory Note: In 1851, just before his death on the eve of his 62nd birthday, James Fenimore Cooper was working a history of New York City, for which he planned the title of "The Towns of Manhattan." Cooper never completed it, and most of the parts of the manuscript that he did complete were destroyed in a fire at the printers after his death. The Introduction to the work, however, survived, and was published during the Civil War in "The Spirit of the Age" (New York: April 5-15, 1864), a fund-raising publication of the American Sanitary Commission (predecessor of the American Red Cross). Substantial excerpts were reprinted, as "James Fenimore Cooper on Secession and States Rights" in the "Continental Monthly: Devoted to Literature and National Policy," Vol. 6, No. 1 (July 1864), pp. 79-83.
The "Spirit of the Age"text was much later reprinted in book form under the title of "New York" (New York: William Farquhar Payson, 1930) in a limited edition of 750 copies, with an introduction by Dixon Ryan Fox, and was later re-issued in facsimile form (Folcroft: PA., Folcroft Library Editions, 1973) in a limited edition of 100 copies -- from which this text is taken.
{A few other surviving fragments from "The Towns of Manhattan" were compiled in James F. Beard, Jr., "The First of Greater New York: Unknown Portions of Fenimore Cooper's Last Work" (New York Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, pp. 109-45, April 1953).
{The text has been transcribed as written, except that because of the limitations of the Gutenberg format, occasional words in italics have been transcribed in ALL CAPITALS. Annotations (identified by {curly} brackets, have been occasionally added--identifying allusions, translating foreign terms, and correcting a few obvious typographical errors.
{Introduction from "The Spirit of the Fair" (April 5, 1864):
{Unpublished MS. of James Fenimore Cooper.
{Our national novelist died in the autumn of 1850 [sic]; previous to his fatal illness he was engaged upon a historical work, to be entitled "The Men [sic] of Manhattan," only the Introduction to which had been sent to the press: the printing office was destroyed by fire, and with it the opening chapters of this work; fortunately a few pages had been set up, and the impression sent to a literary gentleman, then editor of a popular critical journal, and were thus saved from destruction: to him we are indebted for the posthumous articles of Cooper, wherewith, by a coincidence as remarkable as it is auspicious, we now enrich our columns with a contribution from the American pioneer in letters. In discussing the growth of New York and speculating on her future destiny, the patriotic and sagacious author seems to have anticipated the terrible crisis through which the nation is now passing; there is a prescience in the views he expresses, which is all the more impressive inasmuch as they are uttered by a voice now silenced for ever. They have a solemn interest, and were inspired by a genuine sympathy in the progress and prosperity of the nation. It should be remembered that, when these observations were written, the public mind had been and was still highly excited by the "Compromise Measures"--the last vain expedient to propitiate the traitors who have since filled the land with the horrors of civil war.}
NEW YORK
THE increase of the towns of Manhattan, as, for the sake of convenience, we shall term New York and her adjuncts, in all that contributes to the importance of a great commercial mart, renders them one of the most remarkable places of the present age. Within the distinct recollections of living men, they have grown from a city of the fifth or sixth class to be near the head of all the purely trading places of the known world. That there are sufficient causes for this unparalleled prosperity, will appear in the analysis of the natural advantages of the port, in its position, security, accessories, and scale.
