Raymond, Rossiter W. (Rossiter Worthington), 1840-1918
timately 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." 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
