lives. In the case of Cooper, the result of the whole political development was to drive him from England, where he might have served usefully as a citizen, to another land. One of his friends urged that he bear with his countrymen a few years more and remain to help "stem the torrent of folly.""" Perhaps he might have done so had he not been one of those who cannot rest from travel.

It seems improbable that the failure of Cooper's firm played any direct part in causing his emigration. When he sailed for America in August, 1793, Baker, Teasdale, Bridges, and Cooper were at least solvent, but in November, when he was yet exploring the United States, a sale of the property of the firm was announced "by order of the trustees." "100 Apparently there was not technical bankruptcy, but a sale was forced by the creditors. The long lists of bankrupts in the newspapers and numerous references there to economic distress indicate that 1793 was a bad year, especially among calico-printers.101 It was generally felt that the stagnation of trade was due to the war, and it was said that the large unemployment led many to join the army. Cooper's forebodings about the results of war were to this extent justified, but probably he had not reckoned on the loss of his own fortune. He seems to have saved something from the wreckage, for he had means to invest in a land scheme in Pennsylvania

99 Felix Vaughan, writing after Booth's conviction. Jerrold, "Thomas Walker the Elder," Original, pp. 86-7.

100 The first announcement of the sale was made in the Manchester Chronicle, Nov. 9, 1793, and numerous announcements were made early in 1794; cf. an announcement of a meeting of the creditors, Manchester Mercury, Feb. 25, 1794. Part of the sale seems to have been made by the firm itself, ibid., March 4. The name of the firm has not been found on any list of bankrupts during the period and the term "bankrupt" was not used in any of the advertisements.

101 Cf. a communication to the Manchester Chronicle, April 20, 1793; Jno. Reilly, History of Manchester, pp. 279-80; Prentice, Historical Sketches,

and was able at least to establish his family comfortably there.102 His days of financial independence, however, were over; and financial necessities were destined in America somewhat to restrict his freedom of action and at times even to teach him prudence.

The end of the first great period in the life of Thomas Cooper found him disillusioned and somewhat baffled, momentarily defeated, but not yet discouraged. He had not found among his own countrymen or among the seemingly more congenial spirits across the channel that concern or reverence which he himself so strongly felt for eternal truth. Free inquiry was discouraged, his own convictions were misinterpreted, reform was blocked by what he regarded as stupid conservatism or perverted to intolerable anarchy and tyranny, human interest was flagrantly belittled or disregarded. So this knight-errant of freedom and humanity turned toward a new land, where, as fate would have it, he was to struggle against one tyranny or another for almost half a century.

102 See below, p. 80.

PART TWO: PENNSYLVANIA

CHAPTER III

ENGLISH REFUGEES AND AMERICAN

FEDERALISTS, 1794-1799

To the liberty-loving spirit of Thomas Cooper reactionary England had become a veritable house of bondage, and revolutionary France, however admirable in republican theory, was best observed from afar. America appeared as a land of promise. He had no thought to pause and rust unburnished; it was not yet too late to seek another world. He first came to the United States, not as an immigrant or a political adventurer but as a visitor and investigator, seeking first-hand acquaintance with the land which he hoped would serve him and his persecuted English friends as a haven of refuge and would offer free play to talents now unappreciated.

In August, 1793, when he was not yet thirty-four years old, he embarked for America in company with two of Joseph Priestley's sons and a portion of his own family, and in February of the following year he left New York to return to England to fetch the rest of his family to what he now judged to be in reality as well as reputation a land of freedom. During this visit he spent a considerable time in New York and even longer in Pennsylvania, and made a prospecting trip into the regions of the upper Susquehanna where ultimately he settled. Information

1 Some Information respecting America (referred to hereafter as America), preface; Rutt, Life of Priestley, II, 205.

2 America, letter IV.