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THE CHAINBEARER

OR

THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS

BY J. FENIMORE COOPER


    "O bid our vain endeavors cease,
    Revive the just designs of Greece;
    Return in all thy simple state,
    Confirm the tale her sons relate."

    COLLINS


    NEW YORK
    JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY
    150 Worth Street, corner Mission Place

    TROW'S
    PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
    NEW YORK.


[Illustration: "She held up the trap, and I descended into the hole that
answered the purpose of a cellar."]




PREFACE.


The plot has thickened in the few short months that have intervened
since the appearance of the first portion of our Manuscripts, and
bloodshed has come to deepen the stain left on the country by the
wide-spread and bold assertion of false principles. This must long since
have been foreseen; and it is perhaps a subject of just felicitation,
that the violence which has occurred was limited to the loss of a single
life, when the chances were, and still are, that it will extend to civil
war. That portions of the community have behaved nobly under this sudden
outbreak of a lawless and unprincipled combination to rob, is
undeniable, and ought to be dwelt on with gratitude and an honest pride;
that the sense of right of much the larger portion of the country has
been deeply wounded, is equally true; that justice has been aroused, and
is at this moment speaking in tones of authority to the offenders, is
beyond contradiction; but, while all this is admitted, and admitted not
altogether without hope, yet are there grounds for fear, so reasonable
and strong, that no writer who is faithful to the real interests of his
country ought, for a single moment, to lose sight of them.

High authority, in one sense, or that of political power, has pronounced
the tenure of a durable lease to be opposed to the spirit of the
institutions! Yet these tenures existed when the institutions were
formed, and one of the provisions of the institutions themselves
guarantees the observance of the covenants under which the tenures
exist. It would have been far wiser, and much nearer to the truth, had
those who coveted their neighbors' goods been told that, in their
attempts to subvert and destroy the tenures in question, they were
opposing a solemn and fundamental provision of law, and in so much
opposing the institutions. The capital error is becoming prevalent,
which holds the pernicious doctrine that this is a government of men,
instead of one of principles. Whenever this error shall so far come to a
head as to get to be paramount in action, the well-disposed may sit down
and mourn over, not only the liberties of their country, but over its
justice and its morals, even should men be nominally so free as to do
just what they please.

As the Littlepage Manuscripts advance, we find them becoming more and
more suited to the times in which we live. There is an omission of one
generation, however, owing to the early death of Mr. Malbone Littlepage,
who left an only son to succeed him. This son has felt it to be a duty
to complete the series by an addition from his own pen. Without this
addition, we should never obtain views of Satanstoe, Lilacsbush,
Ravensnest, and Mooseridge, in their present aspect; while with it we
may possibly obtain glimpses that will prove not only amusing but
instructive.

There is one point on which, as editor of these Manuscripts, we desire
to say a word. It is thought by a portion of our readers, that the first
Mr. Littlepage who has written, Cornelius of that name, has manifested
an undue asperity on the subject of the New England character. Our reply
to this charge is as follows: In the first place, we do not pretend to
be answerable for all the opinions of those whose writings are submitted
to our supervision, any more than we should be answerable for all the
contradictory characters, impulses, and opinions that might be exhibited
in a representation of fictitious characters, purely of our own
creation. That the Littlepages entertained New York notions, and, if the
reader will, New York prejudices, may be true enough; but in pictures of
this sort, even prejudices become facts that ought not to be altogether
kept down. Then, New England has long since anticipated her revenge,
glorifying herself and underrating her neighbors in a way that, in our
opinion, fully justifies those who possess a little Dutch blood in
expressing their sentiments on the subject. Those who give so freely
should know how to take a little in return; and that more especially,
when there is nothing very direct or personal in the hits they receive.
For ourselves, we have not a drop of Dutch or New England blood in our
veins, and only appear as a bottle-holder to one of the parties in this
set-to. If we have recorded what the Dutchman says of the Yankee, we
have also recorded what the Yankee says, and that with no particular
hesitation, of the Dutchman. We know that these feelings are by-gones;
but our Manuscripts, thus far, have referred exclusively to the times in
which they certainly existed, and that, too, in a force quite as great
as they are here represented to be.

We go a little farther. In our judgment the false principles that are to
be found in a large portion of the educated classes, on the subject of
the relation between landlord and tenant, are to be traced to the
provincial notions of those who have received their impressions from a
state of society in which no such relations exist. The danger from the
anti-rent doctrines is most to be apprehended from these false
principles; the misguided and impotent beings who have taken the field
in the literal sense, not being a fourth part as formidable to the right
as those who have taken it in the moral. There is not a particle more of
reason in the argument which says that there should be no farmers, in
the strict meaning of the term, than there would be in that which said
there should be no journeymen connected with the crafts; though it would
not be easy to find a man to assert the latter doctrine. We dare say, if
there did happen to exist a portion of the country in which the
mechanics were all "bosses," it would strike those who dwelt in such a
state of society, that it would be singularly improper and
anti-republican for any man to undertake journeywork.

On this subject we shall only add one word. The column of society must
have its capital as well as its base. It is only perfect while each part
is entire, and discharges its proper duty. In New York the great
landholders long have, and do still, in a social sense, occupy the place
of the capital. On the supposition that this capital is broken and
hurled to the ground, of what material will