[Illustration:  GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.]

A letter, written by him in 1841 to his old “messmate,” Commodore Shubrick, reveals no wane of Cooper’s love for and pride in this sister, and his letter’s “political discovery” reveals that Miss Cooper’s attractions were as fully appreciated by the eminent of her own country as by those of foreign shores.  So comes into these pages a youthful, slender romance of the later hero of Tippecanoe and still later President of the United States.

[Illustration:  WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1800.]

     OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, February, 28, 1841.

I have made a great political discovery lately, which must not go any further than Mrs. Shubrick and Mary.  In 1799, when Congress sat in Philadelphia, my father was a member, as was also General Harrison.  You know I had a sister killed by a fall from a horse in 1800.  This sister passed the Winter in Philadelphia with my father.  Miss Anne Cooper [the author’s daughter] was lately in Philadelphia, where she met Mr. Thomas Biddle, who asked if our family were not Harrison men.  The reason of so singular a question was asked, and Mr. Biddle answered that in 1799 Mr. Harrison was dying with love for Miss Cooper, that he (Mr. Biddle) was his confidant, and that he thinks but does not know that he was refused.  If not refused it was because he was not encouraged to propose, so you see I stand on high grounds and am ready to serve you on occasion.  Don’t let this go any further, however.  I confess to think all the better of the General for this discovery, for it shows that he had forty years ago both taste and judgment in a matter in which men so often fail.  Mary will open her eyes at this somewhat wider than ever, but she must not open her mouth until she gives her allegiance to him who will know all her thoughts.  With best regards

     Yours as ever,

     J. FENIMORE COOPER.

NOTE.—­Later light on the subject reveals Mr. Harrison’s “dying of love” as a hearty admiration and esteem for the rare grace and charm of character, mind, and person possessed by Judge Cooper’s young daughter.

[Illustration:  TALLEYRAND.]

During 1795 many distinguished exiles came to this new-country home, and among those who found their way to Otsego Hall was the Marquis de Talleyrand, who was pleased to write an acrostic on Miss Cooper, then seventeen.  The famous Frenchman’s record, in part, of this visit was “Otsego n’est pas gai.”  Compared to the France of Talleyrand’s day this record was true.  The Otsego Herald’s motto of that time was

     Historic truth our Herald shall proclaim, The Law our guide, the
     public good our aim.

In its issue of October 2, 1795, appeared the celebrated diplomat’s Acrostic.

    Aimable philosophe au printemps de son age,
    Ni les temps, ni les lieus n’alterent son esprit;
    Ne cedent qu’ a ses gouts simples et son etalage,
    Au milieu des deserts, elle lit, pense, ecrit.