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James Fenimore Cooper.
In James Fenimore Cooper (1949), James Grossman devoted some four pages to the relationship of Cooper and Edward
Mr. E. R. Mason, of Binghamton, N.Y., has kindly placed the following letter at our disposal:
Hall, Cooperstown, Jan. 12, 1850.
Dear Sir:
During the last session, a law granting a pension to Edward Myers. passed to Hou. Rep., but was not taken up in the Senate. Myers was the old seaman whose life and services I have recorded in "Ned Myers." I feel quite confident of the justice of his claims, having the facts from eye-witnesses, as well as from his commander, the late Comm. Chauncey. There is no doubt that his energy, coolness, and skill were the principal means of saving some ten or twelve lives, the night he received the hurt for which the pension is asked.
Alas! Poor Myers can now never be benefited by the grant. He died of dropsy a few weeks since, leaving a widow and several children. The arrears of this pension is all he had to bequeath. He made a will leaving everything to his wife during her life, and then to the children.
I do not know whether the law will have to be taken up again in the House, but I suppose a claim once looked into, and in-so-much granted, will be regarded as sacred. May I ask your good offices in this matter. It is for a widow and orphans that the grant will now be made.
It might interest them were this letter shown to Messrs. Calhoun, Cass, Seward, Cooper, and others of the Senate. I think I can safely say that the claimant well deserved all his family will get, and more too.
I remain very truly
Yours,
J. Fenimore Cooper.
D.S. Dickinson, Esquire,
U. S. Senate.
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