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THOMAS COOPER (1759–1840)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 81 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS See also:COOPER (1759–1840)  , See also:American educationalist and See also:political philosopher, was See also:born in See also:London, See also:England, on the 22nd of See also:October 1759, and educated at See also:Oxford . Threatened with See also:prosecution at See also:home because of his active sympathy with the See also:French Revolution, he emigrated to See also:America about 1793, and began the practice of See also:law in See also:Northumberland See also:county, See also:Pennsylvania . He was See also:president-See also:judge of the See also:Fourth See also:District of Pennsylvania in 18o6–1811 . Like his friend See also:Joseph See also:Priestley, who was then living in Northumberland, he sympathized with the See also:Anti-Federalists, and took See also:part in the agitation against the See also:Sedition See also:Act, and for a newspaper attack in 1799 on President See also:John See also:Adams, See also:Cooper was convicted, fined and imprisoned for See also:libel . Like Priestley, Cooper was very highly esteemed by See also:Thomas See also:Jefferson, who secured for him the See also:appointment as first See also:professor of natural See also:science and law in the University of See also:Virginia—a position which Cooper was forced to resign under the fierce attack made on him by the Virginia See also:clergy . After filling the See also:chair of See also:chemistry in See also:Dickinson See also:College, See also:Carlisle, Pa . (1811–1814), and in the University of Pennsylvania (1818-1819), he became professor of chemistry in See also:South Carolina College, at See also:Columbia; in 1819, and afterwards gave instruction in politicaleconomy also . In r 820 he became acting president of this institution, and was president from 1821 until 1833, when he resigned owing to the opposition within the See also:state to his liberal religious views . In See also:December 1834, owing to continued opposition, he resigned his professorship . He had been formally tried for infidelity in 1832 . He was a born agitator: John Adams described him as " a Iearned, ingenious, scientific and talented madcap." Before his college classes, in public lectures, and in numerous See also:pamphlets, he constantly preached the See also:doctrine of See also:free See also:trade, and tried to show that the protective See also:system was especially burdensome to the South . His remedy was state See also:action .

Each state, he See also:

con-tended, was a See also:sovereign See also:power and was in See also:duty See also:bound to protest against the tyrannical acts of the Federal See also:government . He exercised considerable See also:influence in preparing the See also:people of South Carolina for See also:nullification and See also:secession; in fact he pre-ceded See also:Calhoun in advocating a See also:practical application of the state See also:sovereignty principle . The last years of his See also:life were spent in preparing an edition of the Statutes at Large of the state, which was completed by See also:David See also:James McCord (1797–1855) and published in ten volumes (1836–1841) . Dr Cooper died in Columbia on the , rth of May 1840 . As a philosopher he was a follower of See also:Hartley, See also:Erasmus See also:Darwin, Priestley and See also:Broussais; he was a physiological materialist, and a severe critic of Scotch See also:meta-physics . Among his publications are Political Essays (1800); An See also:English Version of the Institutes of Justinian (1812); Lectures on the Elements of Political See also:Economy (1826); A See also:Treatise on the Law of Libel and the See also:Liberty of the See also:Press (183o); and a See also:translation of Broussaist On Irritation and See also:Insanity (1831), with which were printed his own essays, "The Scripture Doctrine of Material-ism," " View of the Metaphysical and Physiological Arguments in favour of See also:Materialism," and Outline of the Doctrine of the Association of Ideas." See I . See also:Woodbridge See also:Riley, American See also:Philosophy: the See also:Early See also:Schools (New See also:York, 1907) .

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