The political and financial opinions of Peter Cooper. With an autobiography of his early life

Preface

The " opinions," financial and political, formed by Mr. Peter Cooper and given in the following pages, have been the result of much anxious thought, reading, and reflection during the last five years,. under the pressure laid on every thoughtful mind and patriotic heart by the current events of the times. These events, confessedly, both in politics and in finance, have been disastrous and unhappy upon the interests and prosperity of the American people. Men have been divided as to the true reasons of this unhappy state of facts, but still all are agreed that such facts exist, and the causes of our political and financial troubles should be dispassionately inquired into, and the remedies should be applied speedily ; for we are fast drifting, as a nation, into anarchy and ruin. The republic is in danger, and it behooves every man to be at his post as a citizen and a voter. The questions involved are very simple, and with a little reflection and true patriotism, the simple ideas involved in the public policy of this government can be understood by every intelligent

voter.

Methods of administration are sometimes very difficult to determine, and require large experience and great knowledge of affairs. But the principles of public policy on which parties are formed, are generally very simple, and can be understood by the average American mind, if men would but use their own reason, and not pin their faith to party leaders whose interest it may be to mislead the people. Mr. Cooper has a hearty faith in the good sense and patriotism of the American people, when questions affecting the safety and honor of the republic are fairly put before them. He, himself, has only a common education, a common sense, and an earnest American patriotism to bring to bear on these questions of public policy. He, therefore, appeals to the American people from the common standpoint of thought and feeling which belongs to all, and gives his views in a plain and hearty manner, 44 with good will to all, and with malice toward none."

Above all, Mr. Cooper desires three principles of political and financial prosperity to be made an essential part of the Constitution and laws of the xepublic, in order to secure it permanence and happiness :

First, A tariff not simply for revenue, but made discriminating and helpful

IV PREFACE.

to all the industries of the country, where the raw material and the labor can be furnished by our own people.

Second, A national paper currency, issued solely by the Government, and made the only legal tender, receivable for all taxes and dues, and fundable at any time for an equitable rate of interest, by being made interconvertible with the bonds of the Government.

The volume of this currency must be determined by law, as per capita.

The value of this currency is determined by the rate of interest given by the interconvertible bond, and by its indispensable use for paying all debts, taxes, and dues that can be collected by law.

The convertibility of this paper currency is secured by bonds " as good as gold," and by keeping its volume and its value at that point where its unit measure, or standard of value, requires it to represent a certain amount of weight and fineness in gold or silver, " dollar for dollar.' 1 ' 1 In other words, we want, as far as possible, an unfluctuating currency, both in volume and value; but Mr. Cooper thinks that such a currency cannot be obtained by making coin the sole legal tender and money of the country, and paper merely its representative. This paper can be made to represent all values directly, and not circuitously, through coin, by being made to represent the highest and most indispensable use of money — namely, to pay taxes, dues, debts, and to command interest, or secure an income. What can any " bullionist" desire of good money more than this — that it should be as " good as gold," and accomplish all that money is used for ?

This is what Mr. Cooper desires to accomplish for our " national currency."

Thirdly, Mr. Cooper earnestly desires a " civil service " divorced from party politics, and organized for the public service, as are the departments of the army or navy, purely on personal qualification and thorough fitness. The offices to be held during good behavior, on moderate salaries, but pensions provided for all disqualified by age or sickness, and a provision made for the widows and orphans.

These are the simple principles of administration which Mr. Cooper offers as his thorough and warm convictions. He hopes to make this little book one of the most useful, as it may be the last of those contributions to the welfare and progress of his beloved country, to which his best hopes and efforts have been devoted through a long life of eighty-seven years.

J. C. ZACHOS, Editob.

New York, July 28, 1877.

A SKETCH OF THE

EARLY DAYS AND BUSINESS LIFE

OF

PETER COOPER.

An Autobiography.

Chapter I. The Early Days And Business Life Of Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper was bom in the city of New York, February 12th, 1791. He comes from a family distinguished for their unwavering devotion to the, cause of American Independence. His maternal grandfather, John Cambell, was Alderman of New York, and Deputy Quartermaster during the war. He sacrificed a large fortune in the cause of his country's freedom, and had nothing but a large quantity of " Continental money," as an acknowledgment. Mr. Cooper often laughs at this " paper payment," but says, " it was precious stuff, after all, for it was an essential means of our gaining our Independence." He thinks it very unfair and illogical, however, to quote "Continental money,'* and " French assignats," against his theory of a national paper legal tender, for both the former were allowed to remain irredeemable and inconvertible (the land conversion being made impossible), whereas he desires a currency which is both a legal tender and interconvertible into Government bonds at the will of the holder. His father was lieutenant in the patriot army, and at the close of the war returned to New York, where he engaged in business.

The early part of Mr. Cooper's life is best told in -his own simple and conversational language, obtained in many conversations with the author, and characterized by that homely directness of statement of facts, which like Defoe's " Robinson Crusoe," gives wonderful charm to the life and character that pervade the facts.

HIS FATHER AND MOTHER.

" My father, after the Revolutionary war, had done a successful business in the manufacture of hats in the City of New York ; and when I was about three years old, he, like many others, became enamoured with a country life, and bought a place at Peekskill, built a store there, carried on the business of a country store-keeper, and built a church. He found plenty of custom all over the country that would buy on credit, and it was not more than two or three years before he found that nearly all of his property was in the hands of other people, and 1 that it was impossible for him to collect it. He believed devoutly that I should ' come to something ; ' for he named me Peter, after the great Apostle, and maintained that he was told to do so in a sort of ' waking vision.' My mother was an excellent woman, and did the best she could with a large family, narrow circumstances, and a changing home.

" My father followed the business of a hatter, and the first I remember was being utilized in this business by being set to pull the hair out of rabbit skins, when my head was just above the table. I remained in this business until I could make every part of a hat. My father finally sold out his hatter's business to my eldest brother, by a former wife, and commenced the brewing of ale in the town of Peekskill. It was my business to deliver the kegs of ale to the different places in town and country where it had been sold. Finding this a ' slow business ' my father bought a place at Catskill, where he commenced again the hatter's business, and also that of making bricks. I was made useful in this business in carrying and handling the bricks for the drying process.

" My father at length finding that his business at Catskill did not answer his expectations, sold out and removed to Brooklyn, 1ST. Y.

" Here I worked again at the hatter's business with my father until again he sold out and bought some property in Newburg, N. Y.,. on which he erected a brewery. At this business I continued with my father until I was seventeen.

"The only time I ever trusted to chance for any profit, was about this time, when I got a very wholesome lesson. I had earned about ten dollars beyond my immediate wants, which I invested, by the advice of a relative, in lottery tickets, all which, fortunately for me, drew blanks. This impressed upon me the folly of looking to games of chance for any source of gain or livelihood.

HIS APPRENTICESHIP.

" In my seventeenth year I entered as apprentice to the coach -making business. I remained in this four years, till I was of age, and had thoroughly learned the business. During my apprenticeship I received twenty-five dollars a year for my services; to this sum I added something by working at night at coach carving, and such other work as I could get. My grandmother gave me the use of a room, in one of her rear buildings on Broadway, where I spent much of my time in nightly work, instead of going with other apprentices who too often went with loose companions and contracted habits that proved their ruin. One such example impressed itself very strongly on my mind at that time.

It was that of a young man who literally rotted and died of disease before he was sixteen years of age.

"During my apprenticeship I made for my employer a machine for mortising the hubs of carriages, which proved very profitable to him, and was, perhaps, the first of its kind used in this country.

" When I was twenty-one years old, my employer offered to build me a shop and set me up in business, but as I always had a horror of being burdened with debt, and having no capital of my own, I declined his kind offer.

THE MACHINE FOR SHEARING CLOTH.

" As soon as I was of age I went to the town of Hempstead, L. I., to see my brother. Here I was persuaded to work for a man at the making of machines for shearing cloth. I continued at this for three years, for a dollar and fifty cents a day, which was regarded as very large wages at that time. I saved enough at the end of my engagement to buy the right of the State of New York for a machine for shearing cloth, and I commenced the manufacture of these machines on my own account. This business proved very successful. The first money I received for the sale of my machines was from Mr. Vassar, of Poughkeepsie, who afterwards founded that noble institution for female education, called the Yassar College, at Poughkeepsie. My sales to Mr. Yassar also included one of the patent rights for the county in which he resided. This put in my possession so large an amount of money according to my ideas at that time, about five hundred dollars, that I was very much elated and rejoiced at what I considered my great good fortune. But my joy was soon turned to mourning. On my return from Poughkeepsie I visited my father, who lived then at Newburg. I found the family in the deepest affliction on account of the pressure of debts which my father was unable to pay. The money I had just received for my machines enabled me to pay the most pressing of these debts, and left me barely the means to purchase materials to commence the making of new machines. Besides this, I became surety for my father for debts not yet matured, which I paid as they fell due, and in consequence of this my. father never had the mortification of failing in business. The same is true in my own affairs, notwithstanding some public statements made to the contrary by persons ignorant of the facts.

" So far from ever hjwing failed in business, I do not remember the week or month when every man who has ever worked for me did not get his pay when it was due. This is strictly true, through a business life of more than sixty years, in which I have had at times, as many aa twenty-five hundred people in my employment.

" The coach-making business, I never followed after serving out my apprenticeship. But soon after I commenced the manufacture of machines for shearing cloth, I made an improvement that enabled me to sell these machines as fast as I could make them. At this time they were in great demand, in consequence of the war of 1812 with England, which stopped our commerce with that country. At the close of the war, however, this business lost its value, and I gave it up.

" It is worth while to mention here that the principle and method of my machine for shearing cloth was precisely the one now used so largely in mowing and reaping machines ; and this was so obvious that a gentleman seeing my machine at work suggested that a similar machine might be made for mowing grass, and asked me to make for him a model for this purpose. This was operated for the purpose of cutting the grass in his yard, and proved entirely successful, long before any machine for mowing had been invented or patented by others.

COMMENCES MERCANTILE BUSINESS.

" After some three years' continuance in this business of manufacture, I bought a twenty-years' lease of two houses and six lots of ground where the ' Bible House ' now stands, opposite the Cooper Union. On this ground I erected four wooden dwelling-houses. I was engaged at this time in the grocery business, in which I continued for three years.

u Soon after this, I purchased a glue factory, with all its- stock and buildings, on a lease of twenty-one years, for three acres of ground, on what was then known as the '"old middle road," between Thirty-first and Thirty-fourth streets. Here I continued to manufacture glue, oil, whiting, prepared chalk, and isinglass to the end of my lease. I then bought ten acres of ground on Maspeth avenue, Brooklyn, where the business has continued to the present time.

" What I made by building machines and in the grocery business had enabled me to pay for the glue factory on the day of the purchase.

THE BALTIMORE RAILROAD AND THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN THE COUNTRY.

** In 1828 I purchased three thousand acres of land within the city limits of Baltimore for one hundred and five thousand dollars ($105,000). On a part of that property, I erected the Canton Iron Works, which, afterwards, 1 sold to Mr. Abott, of Baltimore. I was drawn into this speculation in Baltimore, by two men who represented that they had large means, and we bought together three thousand acres of land in the city of Baltimore for one hundred and five thousand dollars ($105,000), taking the whole shore from Fell's Point dock for three miles. After paying my part of the money, I soon found that I had paid all that had been paid upon the property, and that I was even paying the board of the two men who had agreed to take part in the purchase. Finding that to be the situation, I was compelled to say to them that they must pay their part or sell out, or buy me out. Neither of them having the ability to buy, I finally succeeded in getting them to state a price ; one offered to go out for ten thousand dollars ($10,000), the other for a smaller sum; which offers I accepted and bought them out.

"When we first purchased the property it was in the midst of a great excitement created by a promise of the rapid completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which had been commenced by a subscription of five dollars per share. In the course of the first year's operations they had spent more than the five dollars per share. But the road had to make so many short turns in going around points of rocks that they found they could not complete the road without a much larger sum than they had supposed would be necessary ; while the many short turns in the road seemed to render it entirely useless for locomotive purposes. The principal stockholders had become so discouraged that they said, they would not pay any more, and would lose all they had already paid in. After conversing with them, I told them that if they would hold on a little while, I would put a small locomotive on the road, which I thought would demonstrate the practicability of using steam-engines on the road, even with all the short turns in it. I got up a small engine for that purpose, and put it on the road, and invited the stockholders to witness the experiment. After a great deal of trouble and difficulty in accomplishing the work, the stockholders came, and thirty-six men were taken into a car, and, with six men on the locomotive, which carried its own fuel and water, and having to go up hill eighteen feet to a mile, and turn all the short turns around the points of rocks, we succeeded in making the thirteen miles, on the first passage out, in one hour and twelve minutes ; and we returned frori Ellicott's Mills to Baltimore in fifty-seven minutes.

"This locomotive was built to demonstrate that cars could be drawn around short curves, beyond anything believed in at that time to be possible. The success of this locomotive also answered the question of the possibility of building railroads in a country scarce of capital, and with immense stretches of very rough country to pass, in order to connect commercial centres, without the deep cuts, the tunnelling, and levelling which short curves might avoid. My contrivance saved this road from bankruptcy.

THE»IRON WORKS.

"The discouragement and stoppage of progress in improvement in the city of Baltimore that had been occasioned by the state of things in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad- made it difficult to do anything with the property before mentioned but to keep it ; and in order to make it pay something towards meeting the cost, taxes, etc.,T determined to build iron works upon it. I had four or five hundred tons of iron ore raised, dug, etc., at Lazaretto Point, and I determined to cut the wood off of the property, which was being stolen in every direction, and to burn it into charcoal, and use it up in making charcoal iron. For which purpose I built a rolling-mill, which I afterwards sold to Mr. Abbot. In my efforts to make iron, T had to commence to burn the wood into charcoal, and in order to do that, I erected large kilns, twenty-five feet in diameter, twelve feet high, circular in form, hooped around with iron at the top, arched over so as to make a tight place in which to put the wood, with single bricks left out in different places in order to smother the fire out when the* wood was sufficiently burned. •

A NARROW ESCAPE.

11 After having burned the coal in one of these kilns very perfectly, and believing the fire entirely smothered out, we attempted to take the coal out of the kiln ; but when we had got it about half-way out, the coal itself took fire, and the men, after carrying water for some time to extinguish it, gave up in despair. I then went myself to the door of the kiln to see if anything more could be done, and just as I entered the door the gas itself took fire, and enveloped me in a sheet of flame.

" I had to run some ten feet to get out, and in doing so my eyebrows and whiskers were burned, and my fur hat was scorched down to the body of the fur. How I escaped I know not. I seemed to be literally blown out by the explosion, and I narrowly escaped with my Life.

riKST GREAT SUCCESSFUL OPERATION.

" After seeing the difficulties that attended the making of iron there, I determined, having so large a property on my hands, to sell it for what I could get, and at the first oft'er made. I succeeded in getting an offer of nearly what it had cost me from two men from Boston, Amos Binney and Edmund Monroe. They formed out of the property what is now known as the Canton Co. I took a considerable portion of my pay in stock, at forty-four dollars the share— par value one hundred dollars. I reserved the iron works sold to Mr. Abbot ; and, as good luck would have it, the stock commenced rising almost at once, as soon as it was put into form, and continued to go up in the market until it attained the enormous figure of two hundred and thirty dollars per share. This enabled me to sell out my stock to a very great advantage, so that I made money by the operation.

" I then returned to my old business in New York, and after one or two years, built the iron factory in Thirty-third street near Third avenue. I leased it to a man who had it for one or two years and failed, and I had to take it off his hands. I turned it into a rolling mill for rolling iron and making wire, and ran it for some years.

" I then removed it to Trenton, N. J., where T bought water power to carry the works on, and enlarged the works by building a mill and a wire factory. A few years later I built three large blast furnaces at Phillipsburg, the largest then known, near Easton, Penn.; bought the Andover mines, and built a railroad through a rough country for eight miles, to bring the ore down to the furnaces, at the rate of 40,000 tons a year. After running the works for several years I was induced to form them into a company called the Trenton Iron Works, including the rolling-mills and the blast furnaces, and 11,000 acres known as the Kingwood property. I had built a second rolling-mill and wire factory in Trenton, which was also included in the company. I sold one half of these works in the formation of the company. This continued for a number of years, when a division was made, and the company took one part of the property, the blast furnaces, and I took the rolling-mills and the Ringwood property. This property is still in the family. •

" During all this time I had continued the manufacture of glue, isinglass, oil, prepared chalk, Paris white, and also the grinding of white lead, and fulling of buckskins, for the manufacture of buckskin leather. " It was in one of those mills above mentioned, that the first iron beams were rolled, now so much used in fire-proof buildings. In planning the building of the Cooper Union I desired to make it fire-proof as far as possible, and found no such iron beams could be obtained. I determined to have them rolled at one of my mills ; but found, in the end, that the necessary experiments and suitable machinery had cost me seventy-five thousand dollars. It has proved, however, . a profitable business since."

THE LAYING OP THE OCEAN CABLE. f

A very interesting episode in Mr. Cooper's life was the interest he took, and the personal efforts he made in behalf of that most important and difficult of modern enterprises, the laying of an ocean cable.

It is hot too much to say, that to the perseverance, energy, and unconquerable faith of Mr. Cooper and two or three others, whom he mentions, we owe that great gift to modern progress and civilization.

I have often heard the narrative from his lips, and give it very much in his own words :

" It is now twenty years since I became the President of the North American Telegraph Company, when it controlled more than one-half of all the lines then in the country ; also President of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company.

" An attempt had been made to put a line of telegraph across Newfoundland, on which some work had been done. Cyrus W. Field, Moses Taylor, Marshal O. Roberts, Wilson G. Hunt, and myself completed that work across the island of Newfoundland, and then laid a cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, intending it as the beginning of a line from Europe to Amex-ica by telegraphic communication. After one form of diffiulty after another had been surmounted, we found that more than ten years had passed before we got a cent in return, and we had been spending money the whole time. We lost the first cable laid, which cost some three or four hundred thousand dollars, at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which loss was occasioned by the seeming determination of the captain of the ship that towed our vessel across the Gulf to have his own way, in opposition to the directions of Mr. Buchanan, who directed him to keep a certain flag in sight as far as he could see it, in connection with a certain mark on the top of a mountain, which was visible nearly half way across the Gulf.

" We had hired a vessel at seven hundred and fifty dollars a day, ami we directed the steamer Adger to go to Cane Ray, and tow the vessel across the Gulf, in order to lay the cable. We went to Port Basque, and found the vessel had not arrived. We accordingly anchored in

Port Basque until she did arrive, which was two days later. On her arrival, the captain was directed to take our vessel in tow, and carry her up to Cape Ray, where we had already prepared a telegraph house, from which to commence laying the cable. On this telegraph house we placed a flag-staff, which was to be kept in line by the steamer, as she crossed the Gulf, with a certain very excellent landmark on the top of a mountain some three, four, or five miles distant — a landmark which seemed to be made on purpose for our use.

" We had an accident at starting. We joined the ends of the cable and brought one end into the telegraph house, and made everything ready to take the vessel in tow. The captain was then directed to bring his steamer in line, take the vessel in tow, and carry her across the Gulf. In doing that he ran his steamer into the vessel, carried away her shrouds and quarter-rail, and almost ruined our enterprise the first thing, dragging the cable over the stern of the vessel with such force as to break the connection ; and we were obliged to cut the cable and splice it again. The captain of the steamer had failed entirely in trying to get hold of the vessel ; and after we had mended the cable, and got everything ready for a second attempt, he was again ordered to take the vessel in tow. We had provided ourselves with two large cables, two hundred feet long and four inches in diameter, as tow-lines, so as to be sure of having sufficient strength to tow the vessel in all kinds of weather; but the captain of the steamer so managed matters, in his second attempt to take the vessel in tow, as to get this cable entangled in the steamer's wheel, and he hallooed to the captain of the vessel to let his cable slip, in order to get this unentangled. At this, the captain of the vessel let go his cable and lost his anchor and one of our big cables, for we had to cut it, in order to disentangle it from the wheel. After that was got loose thex - e was the vessel without an anchor, and she was going rapidly down upon a reef of rocks, with a strong wind against her. It was only with the greatest difficulty that we could get the captain of the Adger to go to her relief, and save her from being dashed on the rocks, with her forty men on board. We had to expostulate with the captain of the steamer until the vessel was within two ' or three hundred feet of the rocks, before he would consent to attempt her rescue ; and by the merest good luck, we got out a rope to her and saved her from going on the rocks, when she was so close to the shore that we could almost have thrown a line there.

" The captain of th%s+eamer, however, got hold of the vessel at last, and brought her back tocher place in the harbor, where we had to renew the connection of our cable, and prepare again to start.

" The third attempt to take hold of the vessel was successful, and on a beautiful'moming we started to lay the cable across the Gulf.