DR. THOMAS COOPER. 287 



endeavored to reconcile the Mosaic history with geology, 

 but this gave great offence to Dr. Cooper, who in a letter 

 to me protested against my views, both scientific and moral, 

 and he even wrote a considerable book, principally in op- 

 position to me indeed, but still more to vituperate Moses 

 or the author of the Pentateuch, whoever he might be. In 

 the last letter which I received from him he reviled the 

 Scriptures, especially of the Old Testament, pronouncing 

 them in all respects an unsupported and, in some respects, 

 a most detestable book. To this letter I made no reply, 

 feeling that it was such a violation of gentlemanly courtesy 

 when writing to one whose sentiments he knew to be so 

 opposite to his own, that I thought it better to drop the 

 correspondence, and I never heard from him again. While 

 presiding over the College at Columbia, S. C., he made 

 no secret of his infidelity, and the community in South 

 Carolina was divided into supporters and opponents of Dr. 

 Cooper, until he was constrained to resign. One of his 

 college faculty, Professor Gibbs, informed me that as he 

 Professor Gibbs was passing the college grounds on 

 Sabbath morning on his way to church, he met Dr. Cooper 

 going to work in his laboratory, who said to him, " Come 

 along with me and learn something that is true and worth 

 knowing." When Dr. Cooper resigned his place, some of 

 the first gentlemen General Hayne, General Hamilton, 

 and, I believe, Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina, consulted 

 me to know whether I would accept the Presidency of the 

 College. If I had felt no other reason for declining, I 

 should have been very reluctant to sow in a field which had 

 been so ill prepared to receive good seed. I was unwilling, 

 moreover, to become a member of a community where slavery 

 was established. The only reason, however, which I as- 

 signed for declining the overture was, that I feared I should 

 not be able to give them satisfaction. I would not forget 

 the friendly maxim " Nil de mortuis nisi bonum." Dr. 

 Cooper was, I have understood, much esteemed by those 



