The Legend of John Maynard, ?The Helmsman of Lake Erie,? in the

T H E L E G E N D O F J O H N M A Y N A R D,
“THE HELMSMAN OF LAKE ERIE,”
IN THE BACKDROP OF THE YEAR 1845:
THE JACKSON – ELLIOTT – COOPER CONNECTION
BY
N O R M A N B A R RY
INTRODUCTION
The intent of this essay is to take a close look at the year 1845 to see if it might provide
hints as to the creation of the legend of John Maynard. As Lake Erie plays a central role, its
maritime history will be examined. Particularly Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who was
crowned with the sobriquet, “The Hero of Lake Erie,” and the Battle of Lake Erie [September
10, 1813] during the War of 1812, must receive special consideration. The conflagration of the
steamboat Erie [August 9, 1841], which has so often been associated with the legend of John
Maynard, is an additional piece of the puzzle. The roles played by “Old Hickory,” a dying
Andrew Jackson [b. March 15, 1767 – d. June 8, 1845], by Perry’s rival Commodore Jesse Duncan
Elliott [b. July 14, 1782 – d. December 10, 1845], and by America’s paramount naval historian in the
1840’s, James Fenimore Cooper [b. September 15, 1789 – d. September 14, 1851], constitute the
interlinking themes of this historical investigation.
I.
WHY 1845? – WHY NOT 1841?
On August 9, 1841, at 8:10 p.m., the steamboat Erie on the Buffalo-Detroit run, caught fire
just eight miles before its first destination, Dunkirk, New York. The flames spread so fast that
passengers and crew were either caught in a blazing inferno or had to commit their lives to the
bosom of a turbulent lake. Over half the men, women and children on board the Erie, many
of them newly arrived emigrants, reportedly from Germany and Switzerland, were either
burned to death or drowned. Apart from two initial and incomplete lists of casualties in the
first days immediately following the conflagration, an update or final inventory of those lost
and saved was never made. Whether the emigrants on board were indeed from Germany and
Switzerland, or perhaps exclusively from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, has never
been conclusively established. Although no eye-witnesses could substantiate the rumor, it
was believed that the steersman of the Erie, a man named Luther Fuller, remained resolutely
at his post until consumed by the flames.

Four years later, on August 30, 1845, a sketch entitled “Helmsman of Lake Erie” [1]
appeared in the Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, at the time, was the second largest city in the
United States. Within only three days, hardly sufficient time for pirating an article, it also
appeared, in a slightly altered form, in Madison, Wisconsin Territory in the Wisconsin Argus.
Madison, at the time, was a very small frontier community in what was then regarded as “the
West.”
Although the plot of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie” has neither a Luther Fuller as its
helmsman nor a steamer named the Erie, we do find a resolute steersman, this time named
John Maynard, who is able to steer his ship, christened the Jersey, to the saving shore.
Everyone, apart from the heroic helmsman, is saved. What attracted greatest attention was
that the Jersey, like the Erie, had departed from Buffalo Harbor and had caught fire en route
to Erie, Pennsylvania, which was apparently the Buffalo – Detroit run. As the loss of the Erie
was the most spectacular disaster on Lake Erie prior to “The Helmsman,” and as there had
indeed been a rumor of a heroic helmsman, reported as fact in several isolated instances, in
1841 newspapers, there seemed to be an historic link, which – to many – was sufficient
explanation to account for the anonymous tale.
Due to a later abridged version and the “poetic license” a poet or writer is bound to make
use of, the roots of the legend in later renderings became impossible to identify. This was in
great part due to the draconian removal of the “harbor scene,” which contained the essential
setting (time and place of the event, destination and the name of the steamer). Indeed, by
1860, the original 1845 text had already been significantly shortened and altered by the
rendering effectively used by the gifted orator John Bartholomew Gough at his numerous and
full-house Temperance Meetings in both the United States and Britain.
This article will focus upon those events of 1845 and those prior to that date in American
history which provided impulses leading to the creation of the sketch and the legend. What
researchers have thus far ignored, is the simple question, “Why 1845? – why not 1841?”
Why, if the Erie and her wheelsman Luther Fuller are the essential subject matter, was there a
delay of four whole years? Why the creation of John Maynard or a ship strangely named the
Jersey? And why, above all, were so many details of the loss of the Erie turned upside down?
The underlying premise in this investigation is that the year 1845 must be seen as the catalyst,
and not 1841. This strongly suggests that the subject matter and intent of the anonymous
author were not centered upon 1841, but upon something quite different.
II.
THE ERIE VS. THE JERSEY:
FACT VS. FICTION
That the steamer named the Jersey in “The Helmsman of Lake Erie” is by no means
identical to the ill-fated Erie can be seen in the following comparison:
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i) The Setting: Month and Hour
The Erie sank in the night of August 9 th to the 10 th after a vain attempt to drag the hull
ashore by the De Witt Clinton. “The Helmsman” is set “on a pleasant May morning.” The
fire that envelops the Jersey did not break out in the evening as on the Erie, and there is no
comment about Lake Erie being rough as was the case on August 9 th , 1841. Indeed the Lake
was so rough that a number of women and children were so seasick as to be incapacitated
when disaster struck. Although there could be warm May months, shipping on Lake Erie was
traditionally from June to December. Ice extending into May (generally only the first half)
was a traditional problem at Buffalo Harbor. [2]
What was the destination of the Jersey?
ii) The Destination: Coordinates on the Lake
“It drew towards four in the afternoon, and the steamer which had hitherto been
keeping the middle of the lake, stood southward; Erie [i.e., Erie, Pennsylvania], the place
to which it was bound, lying on the southern side.”
“The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” lines 41-45.
What was the destination of the Erie?
“The Erie left port at ten minutes past 4. P.M., on Monday last; wind was fresh from
south and west; the lake was rough; laid our course for Dunkirk [i.e., Dunkirk, New York];
at ten minutes past 8 o’clock the same evening, heard a cry of fire; we were about
three [=an illegible “8” was most likely transcribed as a “3”] miles from Silver creek landing at
this time; was standing on the forward part of the promenade deck, some ten yards
from the wheelsman. First saw fire coming out back of the escape pipe; saw fire
before I saw smoke, the hold of the Erie was 11 feet deep; the fire was eleven feet
below me; we were seven or eight miles from shore; the wind was abating, but the sea
was rough. – Captain T. J. Titus’s testimony during the Coroner’s Inquest at Buffalo on
Wednesday afternoon, August 11, 1841.
The final destination of the Erie was Chicago. After being underway from Buffalo for not
quite four hours and putting 33 miles behind her (a little over 8 miles an hour), fire broke out.
At that time, the Erie was heading for Dunkirk, New York, her first landing point. Dunkirk is
52.8 miles away from Erie, Pennsylvania. The disaster occurred off Silver Creek, New York,
or 9.8 miles before reaching Dunkirk. Although the Erie was also expected to make port at
Erie, Pennsylvania, at the time the disaster occurred, Erie, Pennsylvania, was not of
immediate interest.
iii) Who was on board?
The Erie had a large number of immigrant families on board. Although they spoke German,
it is far from clear whether they were in fact Germans or Swiss from the German-speaking
part of Switzerland. In any event, they were referred to sometimes as Swiss and sometimes
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as German. The large contingent of German-speaking Europeans on board the Erie is not to
be found in “The Helmsman.” The motifs of “immigration from Europe” and “moving out
West” are missing in the sketch. Particularly the plight of women immigrants is not referred
to. The women often had specie sewn into their skirts. This unfortunately meant that, once in
the water, there was little hope of their survival.
iv) What was the cause of the fire?
The cause of the blaze on board the Jersey was that “some sparks had fallen on a bundle of
tow” [“The Helmsman,” lines 78-79]. “Tow” would appear to be “short broken fiber removed from
flax, hemp or jute” [Webster’s Unabridged 3 rd International, 1965]. Apart from negligence on
behalf of the crew, the immediate cause of the Erie’s blaze was apparently turpentine placed
directly above the hot boiler deck. When the demijohns containing up to ten gallons each
exploded, the flames raced savagely through the freshly painted ship.
v) What efforts were made to put out the fire?
The fire on the Erie spread so fast that no attempts were made to extinguish it. The Erie,
like the Lexington in Long Island Sound five years earlier, was equipped with a fire engine for
putting out the flames. [3] Tragically, in both cases, the fire engine could not be used as the
blaze had already enveloped it. In stark contrast to both the Erie and the Lexington, we find
two well-ordered lines formed on the Jersey with buckets of water passed in an attempt to
douse the flames with the suggestion made that “for some few moments, it seemed as if the
flames were subdued” [“The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” lines 90-92].
vi) What safety measures were provided for passengers and crew?
The Erie was equipped with only three lifeboats, sadly insufficient to save such a large
number of passengers. The Jersey, it may be recalled, had not one lifeboat on board.
According to the wheelsman, “it had been left at Buffalo to be mended” [“The Helmsman of Lake
Erie,” lines 101-102]. As the engine of the Erie could not – due to the fire in the engine room –
initially be stopped, lifeboats lowered prematurely into the lake were quickly swamped.
Apparently a great number of passengers did not know how to swim. As a result, the task of
getting non-swimmers into the water while the steamer was still in motion must have
constituted a nightmare. As Lake Erie had been quite rough that day, many of the women and
children, as mentioned earlier, were seasick and thus in no condition to try to save themselves.
Planks (granted notoriously difficult to cling to and presupposing the ability to swim) had also
not been set aside in sufficient quantity for an emergency. There was simply no time to
prepare planks as in “The Helmsman of Lake Erie”:
“The sailors were sawing planks on which to lash the women.” (lines 135-136)
Life vests are strangely deleted in “The Helmsman.” In the Erie disaster they did play a
role, often in a negative sense. – Most of the steamer’s provision of life vests went up in the
flames. Rumors have it, however, that most of the ship’s vests may have been unsafe from
the start because they were often used as “pincushions”[4] by women passengers who did not
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ealize that they were destroying their best chance of survival in an emergency. As will be
seen shortly, private life vests had consequently become increasingly popular.
vii) “Full Speed Ahead!” vs. An Immediate Halt
In the “Helmsman of Lake Erie,” we read, “The engineer put on his utmost steam” [lines
124-125]. This naturally explains why the “heroic wheelsman” was absolutely necessary in
order for the Jersey to reach the saving shore. In the actual historical event, the situation was
reversed. The flames were spreading too fast. There was not enough time to reach shore.
Increasing the ship’s speed would only reduce the passengers’ and crew’s chances of survival.
Captain Titus’s immediate reaction was to tell his 1 st engineer, Edgar Clemens, to stop the
engines immediately. Captain Titus wanted the ship to be brought to a halt so that the flames
would not be fanned by her ongoing motion and so that it would be easier for passengers and
crew to disembark into the lake:
In “The Helmsman,” the womenfolk have enough time to ask John Maynard how long it
will take to reach shore. Maynard’s response of forty minutes is based on an assumption that
the engine would continue functioning the whole way, which was not the case with the Erie.
“I finally, concluded to stop the engine; thought of the Lexington [conflagration of 1840],
and the necessity of stopping the headway of the Erie; our chance would be better if
that was done.” Captain Titus’s testimony before the Coroner’s Jury, August 11, 1841.
The captain’s good intentions were frustrated because the flames had engulfed the boiler
room. His 1 st engineer Edgar Clemens was unable to turn off the engines. Yet two statements
were made by the 1 st engineer indicating that the Erie could first be throttled and then brought
to a stop. First, Clemens was successful in “pulling the pin out of the throttle lever”:
“….pulled pin out of throttle lever; effect to shut off steam, make her run slower…”
Clemens’ testimony at the Coroner’s Inquest, Commercial Advertiser
and Journal, August 17, 1841, p. 2, c. 2.
Secondly, Edgar Clemens, during his testimony before the Coroner’s Jury, pointed out that
the steamer was equipped with a safety mechanism that, in the event of fire, would stop the
engines within fifteen minutes:
“We ordinarily carry 18 to 20 inches of steam, at this time 17 inches; safety valve
weighted for 20 inches, would expand in 15 minutes by such a fire, so as to stop
engine; if the boiler had burst, I should have known it; it could not have been the
case.” Edgar Clemens’ testimony, ibid.
The safety valve Clemens referred to may well explain the engine “inexplicably” coming to a
halt “shortly afterwards.” [5]
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viii) A Dutiful Pilot Will Remain at His Post as Long as the Ship is Moving
The Jersey sailed “full steam ahead” to the saving shore. Inasmuch as his ship was still
moving, it was Maynard’s duty to remain at his post. But what about Luther Fuller of the
Erie? It was clear from the beginning that the shore could not be reached. At first, the ship
only moved slower, with no hope of reaching shore. Then, suddenly, she halted. At this
point, the pilot was no longer duty-bound to remain at his post.
ix) Luther Fuller vs. John Maynard
Fuller’s body was never recovered. There was also no death certificate establishing his
demise in 1841. In “The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” John Maynard’s body was recovered
and given a proper burial as the Jersey had “struck” [land]: “His body sleeps in peace by the
green side of Lake Erie” [lines 177-178].
The fate of the wheelsman of the Erie is far from clear. He was quickly cut off from view
due to the smoke. There was also no opportunity for the frightened womenfolk to ply him
with questions. A dialogue between Fuller and Capt. Titus did not take place as Capt. Titus
could neither see nor hear his wheelsman. Although Capt. Titus assumed that Fuller had died
in the flames, it was only his opinion, not what he saw. Indeed, Fuller is only mentioned
during the Coroner’s Inquest because Titus himself volunteered the information, not because a
member of the Coroner’s Committee had inquired about Fuller. It should be noted at this
point that the Coroner’s Inquest first convened only two days after the conflagration to
investigate the question of liability for the loss of the Erie. It is quite possible that Fuller’s
assumed death was put forward by Titus as justification for his disembarking from the
burning ship when he did – it being the captain’s duty to be the last to leave.
If Fuller had truly been regarded as a hero by passengers and crew, one would think that
someone besides Captain Titus would have stepped forward and expressed his heartfelt
gratitude. Yet no one did step forward. Not one eyewitness account can be found. The
accolades of praise were directed at passengers who attempted to save their fellows. Captain
Titus’s testimony was based only on the belief that Fuller had sacrificed himself. It is perhaps
no mere coincidence that immediately following Captain Titus’s testimony, Luther Fuller was
suddenly listed among the “lost.”
There is much about Luther Fuller that has not been unearthed and probably never will be.
Certainly the unconfirmed rumors that he not only survived the tragedy but also, in later life,
became dissolute and an alcoholic living under an assumed name fail to correspond with the
notion of a heroic helmsman. Also, it has been alleged that, decades later in 1901, he died in
an almshouse completely destitute. Whether this portrayal can be allowed credence has never
been established with certainty, although one Theodor Fontane scholar, George Salomon [6],
at least made the attempt to reestablish Fuller’s reputation as the dying wheelsman and the
historical core behind the legend. At the very least, what should become clear from the
controversy is that Luther Fuller was definitely not an elderly man but quite young, definitely
under thirty years of age, inasmuch as it was (theoretically) possible for him to survive
another six decades. Also, as a young man, it is not likely that he would have been so wellknown
as one of long experience: “He [=”Old John Maynard”] was known from one end of Lake
Erie to the other” [lines 57-59]. The (perhaps unfairly leveled) objections to his character also
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suggest that Fuller hardly fits into the framework of a man who was known to be deeply
religious: “The secret of his [=John Maynard’s] honesty to his neighbors, was his love of God”
[lines 60-61].
xi) Nautical Practices in “The Helmsman” vs. the Reality of the Erie
Upon departing from Buffalo harbor, a signal flag for departure called the “Blue Peter” is
flying. The necessity of explaining to the reader what the signal flag was used for [lines 12-13]
suggests that most American readers back then had never heard of – or seen – such a flag.
When disaster strikes, “the American flag was run up, and reversed, in token of distress”
[lines125-126]. Nowhere in the testimony delivered before the Coroner’s Jury in Buffalo was
any mention made of reversing the flag. The reason is simple: there was not enough time and
the flames themselves provided a sufficient “signal.”
Then the fascinating practice of tossing water on the sails “to make them hold the wind” is
mentioned [lines 127-128]. This would have been the last thing that Captain Titus of the Erie
would have desired. After all, he was desperate to bring his craft to a standstill so as to stop
fanning the flames with her forward movement.
xii) In a Nutshell
In summary, it may be concluded that there are some likenesses between the Erie and the
Jersey, but that the anonymous writer was clearly not attempting to provide an historically
accurate depiction of the Erie tragedy. Instead, he was bent upon creating suspense by adding
convincing, if misleading, nautical data and rewriting the event to create a moving story. By
tipping us off that the name of the ship was the Jersey, the destination Erie, Pennsylvania, and
the pilot John Maynard, who would save all the passengers and crew of an otherwise doomed
ship, the anonymous 1845 author was using the 1841 tragedy as a convenient foil or stage
prop for more important matters.
III.
A POEM ABOUT A SURVIVOR AND HIS LIFE PRESERVER
Although the Erie’s life preservers were either destroyed by the fire or had already been
rendered useless by their indiscriminate use as pincushions, some of the passengers had had
the foresight to take their own personal life preservers with them. This detail is often
neglected in the newspaper coverage of the disaster in the months of August and September
1841.
A Mrs. Lynde from Milwaukee, for example, was the only woman survivor. A life
preserver, her own, although losing air, was instrumental in her being rescued. The dramatic
episodes involving life preservers include what happened to Mrs. Lynde’s husband, who also
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had his own personal life preserver and was wearing it when he disembarked from the ship.
His body was afterwards found without the life preserver, whereas a fellow passenger, who
was saved, strangely happened to be wearing Mr. Lynde’s life preserver![7] Needless to say,
Mrs. Lynde was devastated and left in a state of shock.
The importance of a life preserver, and not one supplied by the steamer, which might be
defective, is exemplified in the following poem, composed on August 10 th , 1842, exactly one
year to the day after the protagonist of the poem, a survivor of the Erie, was rescued:
survivors were returned to land on August 10 th , 1841. This is the only known poem which
deals with the 1841 Erie tragedy.
Supplement to the Courant
(Hartford, Connecticut)
September 3, 1842
Vol. VII, No. 18
p. 3137 c. 1
Poetry.
__
THE LIFE PRESERVER.
He came—the loved of many hearts,
From Erie’s distant shore.
To his own loved New England vale,
His childhood’s home of yore.
And there was joy, ‘mid a kindred band,
And thankful hearts swelled high—
As they greeted him, from the stranger land
The tear fell silently.
FOR THE SUPPLEMENT
The years in passing had set their seal,
And his face had a manlier hue,
They knew he had come to the home of his birth
With his heart all warm and true;
And they kissed his cheek, and they felt his hair,
And they hung upon his arm:
And o’er and o’er, they pronounced his name
As it had been a charm.
They asked of his journeyings far and near,
Of his perils by land and Lake
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And one, (as they listened, intent to hear,)
Of the Life Preserver spake,
From the pocket he drew it around his form,
And told of its power to save;
And they begged that without it he never again
Would venture the perilous wave;
But still as they searched around and around,
And examined his robe with care,
Another talisman they found
For the HOLY BIBLE was there;
And then the incense of hearts arose
On their holiest altar burned,
As they thought how his heart in a distant land
To his fathers’ God was turned;
And they lifted the prayer to Him who gave,
That the HOLY BOOK might be
His LIFE PRESERVER o’er the wave
Of Life’s dark, troubled sea.
- Andover, Conn., August 10 th 1842
The poem provides insight into several marked characteristics of the times that we today
are apt to forget.
Firstly, distance. The reference in the first stanza to Lake Erie’s “distant shore” may seem
strange to us today. But back then, travelling time by train from Buffalo to Albany, and then
by boat to Boston, was at least 36 hours non-stop. If a traveller indeed negotiated the journey
in this record time, the achievement was generally greeted with a sense of awe and
astonishment.
The reason behind the family reunion only gradually becomes clear to the reader. We are
told that the native son has been away for years. The joy in seeing him, in kissing his cheek,
in pronouncing his name again and again can, on the one hand, be understood in terms of the
lengthy absence. It can also be appreciated because a cherished son had not been taken from
them but was miraculously – with God’s helping hand – restored to his birthplace. The life
preserver, which his family exhort him always to wear, and which he provides as the reason
for his survival, is his own. The deep core of Christian faith that moves the reader at the close
of this poem, “how his heart in a distant land / To his fathers’ God was turned,” transforms
the title “Life Preserver” into a metaphor of God’s saving hand in “life’s dark, troubled sea,”
through which the devout Christian, armed with the Holy Book, must navigate.
The poem “Life Preserver” is not concerned with the course of events leading to the
destruction of the Erie. Its only hero is the native son who has returned to New England.
There is no mention of the victims, the horror, the flames, or a “heroic helmsman.” It does
throw light on a practice generally not reported: that some passengers, not trusting the quality
or condition of life preservers provided by steamers, actually took their own with them on
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oard. In this case, as in the case of Mrs. Lynde, personal, privately owned life preservers
were crucial.
IV.
THE DEATH OF THE “THE OLD HERO” ON JUNE 8 TH , 1845
Luther Fuller, the young “helmsman” of the Erie, may indeed have been heroic. Yet a
legend did not grow up around his person. Even the editor of the Buffalo Commercial
Advertiser confused Fuller with Jerome McBride, the wheelsman who was off duty at the
time and who had died of his severe burns. The fact that there was not one eyewitness who
could attest to Fuller’s heroism no doubt prevented the growth of a “Fuller legend.” Only
four years had passed, but Fuller’s name had been forgotten….
What could breathe new life into a tragedy, and then turn the worst tragedy on Lake Erie
up to 1845 into a soul-stirring event of salvation through the self-sacrifice of the “Old Hero”?
A perusal of newspapers in the year 1845 immediately reveals a marked event which
moved the hearts and minds of the American nation throughout June, July, August and into
the fall of 1845. It was the death of the greatest American of that day and age, the man who
had become a legend long before his death: General Andrew Jackson, the “Old Hero,” “Old
Hickory,” the “Hero of New Orleans.” On June 8 th , 1845, at the age of 78, the life of the
greatest democrat America had ever known expired. His mortal remains were placed beside
those of his prematurely deceased wife in the garden at his home at the Hermitage in
Tennessee. The orations delivered in New York City and the nation’s capital honoring
Jackson’s life and accomplishments were in many instances not in print until mid-July and
later. Poems eulogizing Jackson, were published throughout the summer and into September.
The amazing temporal proximity of Jackson’s death and the advent of “The Helmsman of
Lake Erie” provides justification for a closer look at the two events.
What does the anonymous sketch tell us about Maynard? Five striking aspects are his age,
appearance, widespread popularity, honesty, and his strong faith in God:
“Old John Maynard was at the wheel; a bluff, weather-beaten sailor, tanned by many a
summer day, and by many a winter tempest. [lines 45-49] . . . . . . He was known from
one end of the Lake Erie to the other, by the name of honest John Maynard; and the
secret of his honesty to his neighbors, was his love of God.” [lines 57-61]
Due to his youth, Fuller was obviously neither “weather-beaten” nor well-known from “one
end of Lake Erie to the other.” Nowhere do we find mention of Fuller’s “honesty to his
neighbors” or his “love of God.” As a result of partial deletions in a later version of the 1845
“Helmsman” sketch, the helmsman’s age is not relevant in John Bartholomew Gough’s,
Horatio Alger, Jr.’s, the anonymous Josephine’s, Ada Linden’s [8] or Theodor Fontane’s
renderings. Only Benjamin French’s 1845 ballad, composed only a few days after the
anonymous sketch appeared in the Baltimore Sun and also entitled “The Helmsman of Lake
Erie,” speaks of “the brave old pilot.” In the late summer of 1845, “Old John Maynard” and
the departed soul of Andrew Jackson seem akin to one another in more ways than one.
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The notion of being “old” deserves comment. Jackson had not grown “old,” but had been
regarded as such even when he became President back at the age of 61:
“…and on February 11 [1829] the President-to-be finally arrived. People noted him as
a tall, gaunt man, his face wrinkled with pain and age, his thick gray hair turning
snow-white. His eyes were sad and heart empty from the recent death of his wife, and
his right hand ached from the hard grips of admirers along the way.”
– Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945),
p. 6
Sixteen years later, in the year 1845, the death of America’s greatest hero of that day and
age dominated the press. Although Jackson died on Sunday evening, June 8 th , at 6 p.m., and
“The Helmsman” was first published August 30 th in Baltimore [9], the slow communications
system back then (telegraph links were only in the planning stage), resulted in delayed
coverage even of the great orations provided by the Hon. B. F. Butler at the State Funeral in
New York City on June 24 th (not published, for example, until July 8 th in Bennington,
Vermont [ J12] ) and George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, at the nation’s capital on June
27 th (not published until July 16 & 23 in Wellsborough, Pennsylvania [ J15 ] ). The upshot of
the relatively slow spread of the news, was that literary pieces paying homage to “Old
Hickory,” or inspired by his death, did not, in some cases, appear until early September.
V.
GANSEVOORT MELVILLE’S DESCRIPTION OF ANDREW JACKSON
As Jackson’s health had been deteriorating for some time, the question of when the “Hero of
New Orleans” would expire had occupied the minds of Americans for over a year prior to his
death. One of the greatest political orators of the North was Gansevoort Melville, Herman
Melville’s elder brother, who tragically died in London in 1846 at the age of 32 [M7-M9] .
This talented young man whose death represented a great loss to the country, had paid the Old
Hero a visit at the Hermitage in Tennessee. His description of Jackson, delivered at a political
rally of the democracy for Polk’s candidacy in Newark, New Jersey in November of 1844 still
rings true:
“With the snows of seventy-seven winters on his brow, and the thoughts and
struggles of a thousand ordinary lives having left their traces on his form, daily
awaiting his summons to the grave, his memory, not only of events long since
transpired, but of those of the most recent date, is as tenacious and ready—his
judgment as clear—his will as strong—his affections as warm—his patriotism as
ardent as they ever were. When Andrew Jackson dies, he will not drivel his path to
the grave like a slobbering dotard, as the whig press falsely call him; but when HE
dies—when the great soul within shall have utterly consumed its outer tenement of
clay—why, then, a MAN will die!” – The New York Herald, Nov. 5, 1844, p.2, c. 3: [ M4 ]
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VI.
“HELMSMAN” METAPHOR
“THE HELMSMAN OF LAKE ERIE” is a title open to interpretation. “Steersman,” “wheel- or
wheelsman,” and “pilot” are the terms used in the August 1841 papers when referring to
young Luther Fuller of the Erie. “Helmsman” is not used. The word “helmsman,” on the
other hand, can be a metaphor with a decidedly political connotation. Recall the activities of
the passengers in the second paragraph of “The Helmsman”: conversation, calculation of
business gains, reading a good book or “composing themselves to sleep.” If engaged in
conversation, the topic was “politics”. The following excerpt is from 1828:
“Resolved, That we will, in an honorable and fearless manner, exert every nerve to
place the farmer of Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, at the helm of our national vessel,
having the utmost confidence in his ability to bring the gallant ship off the rocks and
quick sands on which she has been laboring for the past four years, under the
management of that unskillful helmsman, John Quincy Adams, and his mad-brained
pilot, Henry Clay, who prayed for war, for pestilence, for famine, or any scourge,
rather than the power should fall into the hands of a Military Chieftain.”
- Ira K. Morris, The Morris’s History of Staten Island, New York, Vol. II, (West New
Brighton, Staten Island, published by the Author, 1900), p. 244.
In the year 1836, Andrew Jackson is referred to by Martin Van Buren as
“…the helmsman of the ship, without whose quick eye and strong arm, she must have
yielded to the tempest.”
–The Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, Pa., March 29, 1836, Vol. I, No. 27 (New Series), p.
4, c.5.
Finally, even after Jackson’s death, in the eloquent and soul-stirring oration provided by
George Bancroft, delivered roughly two months prior to publication of “The Helmsman of
Lake Erie,” the metaphor was yet again applied to the “Old Hero:”
“Fortunately for the country, and fortunately for mankind, Andrew Jackson was at the
helm of State, the representative of the principles that were to allay excitement, and to
restore the hopes of peace and freedom.”
The JACKSON FUNERAL OBSEQUIES at Washington. Mr.George Bancroft’s Oration,
Pronounced from the Eastern Portico of the Capitol, June 27, 1845 [ J15: p. 33 ]
VII.
TWO ORATIONS AS A BLUEPRINT FOR CREATING THE LEGEND OF JOHN MAYNARD
The Eulogy during the State Funeral in New York City was pronounced by the Hon.
Benjamin F. Butler (1795 – 1858) on June 24 th . Butler had been the Attorney General of the
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United States under Jackson. In 1845, he was the United States District Attorney for Southern
New York. Mr. George Bancroft (1800 – 1891), American historian par excellence, was
Secretary of the Navy (a title worthy of emphasis) in 1845. Bancroft delivered an
incomparable oration “from the Eastern Portico of the Capitol, June 27, 1845.”
It was Bancroft who established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in October of
that year. Both Butler and Bancroft were Jacksonian democrats (as, of course, was
Gansevoort Melville).
i) The Way They Died
The words these two men pronounced in honor of the “illustrious dead” [i.e., Jackson] are
reflected in the very choice of words used in “The Helmsman.”
What was said about Maynard’s death?
“THE HELMSMAN” [lines: 174-177]:
“He had died [1] the death of a Christian hero—I had almost said,
of [2] a martyr;
What was said about Jackson’s death?
[3] his spirit was commended into his Father’s hands…
[My bold-faced italics for comparison]
BUTLER [“Eulogy” in New York, June 24 th ]:
[1] “Jackson was a Christian and he died a Christian death.”
[2] “In notes as melodious and sublime as those which wafted to the
skies, by the aid of Milton’s immortal genius, the departing spirit of the
Hebrew Martyr, —the chorus of American sympathy sends up from our
JACKSON’s bed of death, its pæan of mournful exultation.”
[3] “His great soul has ascended to its Author; his venerable form
has shrunk into the grave.”
ii) The Pain They Could Endure
BANCROFT [“The Jackson Funeral Obsequies at Washington,” June 27”]
“And having borne his testimony to immortality, he bowed his mighty head,
and, without a groan [10] the spirit of the greatest man of his age escaped
to the bosom of his God.”
13

“THE HELMSMAN”:
[He] “bore the agony without a scream or groan.”
Other quotations make the point even more poignantly:
BANCROFT [ibid.]:
BUTLER [ibid.]:
BUTLER [ibid.]:
BANCROFT [ibid.]:
“None equaled him in power of endurance—and the private soldiers, as they
found him passing through them on the march, exclaimed, “he is as tough as
the hickory.” Yes,” they cried to one another, “there goes Old Hickory!”
“History does not describe the man that equaled him in firmness of nerve.”
“When his exhausted system, under the excess of pain, sunk, for a moment,
from debility, ‘Do not weep,’ said he to his adopted daughter; ‘my sufferings
are less than those of Christ upon the cross…”
“He commits without a murmur or a sigh, his immortal spirit to the God of his
salvation, his perishing body to the dust whence it came!”
iii) It Matters Little Where Their Bodies Are Laid
“It matters little where his body is laid, whose memory is enshrined in all our
hearts; the monument of whose fame is the Country that he has saved; the
inscription of whose greatness are the praises of the World.”
“The simplicity of his life, the calm dignity of his death, are exemplified by the
humility of his grave.”
“His body has its fit resting place in the great central valley of the Mississippi;
his spirit rests upon our whole territory; it hovers over the vales of Oregon,
and guards, in advance, the frontier of Del Norte.”[ =the Rio Grande]
The parallels in the two texts are striking. Butler’s own statement that it “matters little
where his [Jackson’s] body is laid,” snaps the physical fetters of a single resting place while
14

allowing a writer to consider other contexts for the Old Hero’s departed spirit. The general
tenor of this message, in which an actual place of interment and gravestone are reinterpreted
figuratively, is also reflected in the article in the Wisconsin Argus entitled “General Jackson
Is Dead” of July 1 st , 1845 (the news taking three weeks to reach Madison):
“The memory of Jackson belongs to his country. Her history will contain the
record of his valuable services, his sterling patriotism―and a nation’s
gratitude will be his monument.”
The motif of “gratitude” for the Helmsman’s sacrifice is the heart and soul of the legend of
John Maynard.
iv) Bluff John Maynard, Bluff Andrew Jackson
John Maynard is said to be “bluff.” Although “bluff” can be used in a negative sense, the
usage here is, to quote from the OED, “good-naturedly blunt, frank, or plain-spoken; rough
and hearty; usually giving the notion of personal power or energy exhibiting itself in an abrupt
but good-natured way.” When accosted by the women on board the burning Jersey with their
anxious questions, Maynard could immediately point out that “if there was a little less talking
and a little more praying, it would be the better for us, and none the worse for the boat” [lines
107-110]. (It should be pointed out that the Luther Fuller of the Erie did not converse with the
womenfolk.) Bancroft, in his General Order of June 16 [J6] says:
“Of a vehement will, he was patient in council, deliberating long, hearing all
things; yet in the moment of action deciding rapidly. Of a noble nature, and
incapable of disguise, his thoughts lay open to all around him, and won their
confidence by his ingenuous frankness.”
Jackson”s “vehement will” and “plain-spokenness” made him a strong president. According
to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., “Jackson certainly made the presidency more powerful than it
had ever been before. He used the veto power, for example, more than all his predecessors
put together.” [11]
v) Keeping “Bad Company”
According to “The Helmsman”, Old John Maynard was
“cast often enough into bad company [my italics] – he tried, at least, and
generally succeeded, in saying or doing something for its good.” [lines 55-57]
What was this “bad company?” Was it the unpropertied masses struggling for advancement
yet viewed with suspicion by “the powers that be?” As Bancroft stated,
15

“He [Jackson] was ever, by his votes and opinions, found among those who
had confidence in humanity; and in the great division of minds, this child of
the woodlands, this representative of forest life in the west, was found
modestly and firmly on the side of freedom. It did not occur to him to doubt
the right of man to the free development of his powers; it did not occur to him
to place a guardianship over the people; it did not occur to him to seek to give
durability to popular institutions, by giving to government a strength
independent of the popular will.” [J15: p.26 ]
Jackson opened the door to immigration and settlement of the West. Indeed, he may be
viewed as the vanguard of “Manifest Destiny.” He distrusted moneyed interests and sought to
protect the “little man,” who opened up the “West” and became the bulwark of civilization.
On June 8 th , 1845, a man who had already become a legend in his own lifetime and who
was revered by a grateful nation died a Christian death. On August 30 th , 1845, in the
Baltimore Sun, the “Old Hero” was resurrected to die yet again – a Christian martyr. What
was behind it?
VIII.
IN SEARCH OF THE ALLEGORY’S ANCHOR
Yet one aspect is missing in this consideration of Jackson as the resurrected helmsman of
Lake Erie. Where is the “Lake Erie component” necessary for displacing the Old General, the
President, the Old Hero, from the Hermitage in Tennessee to “the green side of Lake Erie”
[line 178] ? Just because George Bancroft, happened to be Secretary of the Navy and delivered
the Eulogy in Washington, D.C., where is the clear-cut connection with Lake Erie? Shall we
look at naval history? And just because Jackson’s mortal remains were symbolically
represented in New York during the State Funeral by a Golden Urn [J14, p. 23] (although his
body had already been placed in a double coffin at the Hermitage), surely this can hardly
justify displacing him onto a Lake Erie steamer to be roasted alive. Only if a convincing link
between Jackson and Lake Erie can be found, will it be possible to build a case Jackson’s
death for an implicit allegorical adaptation of Jackson as the brave helmsman of Lake Erie.
America’s naval history on Lake Erie was crowned with a glorious victory against the
British fleet during the War of 1812 (a misnomer as the war was not over until the Peace of
1815 was signed). The Battle of Lake Erie was decisively won by Commodore Oliver Hazard
Perry (1785-1819), often entitled “THE HERO OF LAKE ERIE.” Yet Perry was not the only
legendary figure instrumental in achieving victory over the British fleet. Perry’s second in
command, Jesse Duncan Elliott (1782-1845), played an essential role in achieving victory.
Unfortunately, the question which of the two heroes had been most instrumental in winning
the battle coupled with subsequent suspicions that the victory had not been portrayed in the
proper light, led to acrimony and accusations that were never completely resolved during the
lifetime of either man. The contest for the title of “THE HERO OF LAKE ERIE” was still being
waged even after Perry’s premature death due to yellow fever on August 23 rd , 1819. When
Elliott died on December 10 th , 1845, after a severe illness of over five months, there were still
some federalist and whig critics who would posthumously and most unfairly label him a
16

coward. And even in the not very distant past, there have been scholars who have seriously
questioned Elliott’s “state of mind” and actually suspected he “had a screw loose!” [12]
The naval history of Lake Erie had been ruthlessly fought for thirty-two years at the time
the “Helmsman” appeared. The notion of a “new history” of Lake Erie, one rewritten with a
“new hero,” a different hero – the greatest hero America could offer – in the person of her
dying General and ex-President, who, his supporters felt represented the savior of both his
Nation and its hallowed Constitution, this “Old Hero,” would serve to transcend the rancor of
decades and represent a remarkable literary achievement resting on a firm historical
foundation. This was not a subject for an Englishman. It would require a steadfast
Jacksonian democrat with a keen sense of naval history, who, overcome by the watershed of
Jackson’s death in the year 1845, was bent on driving away the storms of the past that had
raged over Lake Erie’s history with a mighty crucifix symbolic of Old Hickory’s endurance,
humanity, Christian charity and sacrifice. “The Helmsman,” a Lake Erie allegory, was
written sometime between July and early August of 1845. Even at this time, Elliott, only 63
years of age, was bracing for the end in December.
Yet to be established is the link between Elliott and Jackson. Elliott, together with Perry,
contended for the title “HERO OF LAKE ERIE.” Jackson was the “HERO OF NEW ORLEANS” in
the same war with Britain. Elliott’s sympathies were strongly Jacksonian. And Elliott
received staunch support from both Jackson and Martin Van Buren (Secretary of State and
later Vice President under Jackson before becoming President in his own right).
The remission of Elliott’s sentence in 1840 and his reinstatement in the Navy was President
Van Buren’s decision. (One can picture Jackson discreetly conferring his paternal blessing in
the background.) The “sentence” had been based on three rather amazing charges: 1) use of
the lash as punishment [13], 2) rendering the venerable Old Ironsides unfit for action by
turning her into a stables for breeding jackasses, in which Elliott was speculating, and 3)
coercing his men to contribute towards a “service of plate to adorn his sideboard.” Needless
to say, Van Buren regarded the charges as spurious.
The degree to which Elliott idolized Jackson can be appreciated by his decision in 1834,
when in command of the famed USS Constitution, that icon of American history, otherwise
known as “Old Ironsides,” to place a carved wooden head of Jackson on the brow of the ship
(which Elliott paid for out of his own pocket without coercing his crew), to symbolize
allegorically the man who had saved the Constitution of his country. Elliott’s symbolic act
created a storm of controversy. That the head was afterwards in the dark of a rainy night
sawed off by whig pranksters did not reflect well upon Jackson’s political opponents [ E16-
E17, E25 ].
IX.
A MAVERICK WITH HIS HEAD HELD HIGH
The vilification of Elliott by the whig press and by charges designed to dismantle his
reputation assumed a political hue and went far beyond an appraisal of Elliott’s heroism or
alleged cowardice during the Battle of Lake Erie [ E18 & E22 ]. In spite of the never-ending
charges brought against him, Elliott was singularly successful in maintaining his stature and
17

composure throughout his life. He received military mourning at the order of none other than
George Bancroft upon his death on December 10 th , 1845:
“The flags of the navy-yard and vessels in commission will be hoisted at half-mast,
and thirteen minute guns fired at noon on the day after the receipt of this order.
Officers of the navy and marine corps will wear crape on the left arm for thirty days
[E38 ].”
That Elliott moved in august circles can be seen in the “pickpocket” article of 1845 [ E29 ].
On March 4, 1845, while attending the inauguration ceremony of James K. Polk as the 11 th
President and third Democrat (after Jackson and Van Buren) to hold this office, his pocket
was picked. Among the purloined articles was a lock of Jackson’s hair, given him as a
memento. “Another was a letter from Mrs. Madison enclosing a lock of Mr. Madison’s hair.”
(James Madison had been President during the War of 1812.) Elliott begged the thief to
return the relics so dear to his heart and stated that the thief was welcome to the money.
In February 1845, the United States Senate approved Elliott “relief” for outlays of money to
entertain various high-ranking individuals (including the King and Queen of Greece) while he
was Commander of the Mediterranean Squadron sailing Old Ironsides “from the year 1835 to
1839.” [E27 & E28]
To suggest that Elliott had a “screw loose” would be tantamount to asserting that those who
associated with and supported Commodore Elliott were also mentally unstable. Neither
absurdity need be seriously entertained.
X.
THE SPARK THAT STARTED IT ALL
Elliott attracted national attention and the praise of Congress as a young naval officer in his
daring exploit in October 1812, when, in a surprise attack against the British, with 102 men
under his command, he took two former American ships on Lake Erie, the brig Adams and the
schooner the Caledonia.
“Lieutenant Elliott captured 58 men in the raid, including three commissioned officers,
and also released twenty-seven Americans found on board [the Caledonia]. Elliott
lost one man killed and four wounded.” [ E2 ].
In other words, even before the untried Perry, three years younger than Elliott [E4 & E7-8], was
placed in command of the Lake Erie fleet (which at that time did not exist), Elliott had already
seen combat with singular success. Also, it was Elliott who had first conceived of the notion
of an American fleet on Lake Erie. As might be expected, the constellation Perry – Elliott
was destined to be a powder keg.
18

Before a simplified sketch of the Battle of Lake Erie is provided, some word should be
prefaced regarding the status of “honor” and “reputation” in the early 19 th century. It will be
recalled that dueling was an effective and quick method of settling differences. Jackson, for
instance, had to put up with a bullet lodged close to his heart for the last 39 years of his life.
The bullet was the result of a duel. Fear of having one’s character impugned was rampant in
the days of the Early Republic. It will be noticed that even the dying Jackson, less than one
month before his death, was careful to place his papers in safe hands that they could be used
should an attempt be made to assail the integrity of his character after his death. [ J2 ].
Elliott’s concern for his reputation was well-founded and hardly exceptional in the years of
the Early Republic. Perry turned down Elliott’s challenge to a duel in 1818, a little more than
one year before Perry’s untimely death due to yellow fever during a mission to Venezuela.
Although, immediately following the victory over the British fleet in the Battle of Lake
Erie, Perry had written a positive assessment of his second in command, Elliott quickly
sensed that Perry was hedging in his praise. Nonetheless, both Perry and Elliott, were equally
rewarded by Congress with a golden medallion bearing their respective effigies, and the very
same prize money ($7,140 each). Only as an afterthought did Congress then award Perry an
additional $5000 [ E26 ]. That the second in command should have received such honors was
exceptional and no doubt a blow to the Commanding Officer’s pride.
So what went wrong? It may be recalled that Perry, in command of the Lawrence, had
engaged in combat with the British Detroit, but was soon assaulted by the Queen Charlotte as
well. Elliott, who was the commander of the Niagara, was supposed to have engaged the
Queen Charlotte in “close action,” but had also received instructions to “hold the line.” The
Queen Charlotte and the Hunter joined the Detroit in giving the Lawrence a proper pounding
and rendering her useless while the Niagara seemed to be disinterestedly looking on from a
safe distance together with the smaller vessels of the American fleet. The implicit accusation
of cowardice to engage the enemy and to come to the immediate relief of the Lawrence, was
the crux of the accusation Perry later leveled against Elliott, while claiming that he had falsely
presented Elliott in a positive light (i.e., that Perry had “screened” Elliott [ E11: p. 16] ) so as
not to spoil the splendid victory that had so nearly slipped through their fingers). An added
rub in Perry being forced to leave the Lawrence and paddle to the Niagara, was the famous
saying by Capt. James Lawrence, after whom the Lawrence was named: “Don’t give up the
ship!” When Perry was brought on board the Niagara, rumor has it that he made some
statement to the effect that all was lost, but that Elliott cheerfully responded that the day could
yet be saved (no doubt through Elliott’s intervention) [ E13: p. 22]. The Niagara was then
placed under Perry’s command and Elliott rallied the smaller vessels placing them in close
action against the British fleet. The activity (this time coordinated) soon shattered the English
fleet and led to an unprecedented American victory.
The seeds of discord had been planted on a day marking America’s greatest naval victory
up to that time. The accusations arising from the Perry faction were that Elliott had failed to
join the fray when it was incumbent upon him. Also, there seemed to be backbiting intrigues
against Perry on the part of Elliott to undermine his commanding officer’s reputation.
Whether these intrigues were real or imagined is beside the point. Here, again, there was a
question of honor – this time, Perry’s honor seemed at stake.
But what about Perry himself? If Elliott had truly failed to do his duty, why not press
charges? Why the reluctance, on the one hand, to condemn where condemnation was due,
and the temerity, on the other, to allow the undeserving to share in the honors of the day?
Was this only “good old navy tradition” on days crowned with the laurels of victory?
19

The question of whether Perry had irresponsibly advanced too far ahead of his own
squadron and exposed his vessel to an unnecessary three-pronged attack should only be
expressed in a muted whisper [ E19 ]. The question of whether Perry had failed to provide
proper lines of communication for a concerted attack can be considered more readily. If help
was needed, why the hesitancy to send a signal? With regard to these awkward issues, Elliott
received a strong ally from an unexpected quarter: none other than the famous American
author of the frontier and the sea, a gifted writer of fiction who became America’s paramount
naval expert, James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). Cooper’s definitive Naval History with
its controversial chapter on the Battle of Lake Erie [ E25 ] created an uproar in the 1840’s [14].
XI.
THE WAR OF THE HISTORIANS AS WAGED FROM 1839 TO 1845
In 1997, Hugh Egan of Ithaca College published an essay entitled “Enabling and Disabling
the Lake Erie Discussion: James Fenimore Cooper and Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
Respond to the Perry/Elliott Controversy.” [15] In the appendix following his essay, a
chronology is added providing dates of exchanges between Cooper and Mackenzie on the
Battle of Lake Erie. Those exchanges, beginning in May 1839 with the publication of
Cooper’s Naval History and extending to 1844, lead up to the death of the “Old Hero”
(Jackson) and publication of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie.” Egan’s chronology is a clear
statement of the intensity of the debate, which was actually gaining in momentum in spite of
an event in the year 1813.
As late as November 1845, Cooper was even planning to lecture on the subject of the
allegorical “figure head” of Jackson on The USS Constitution. And where of all places? In
the lion’s den of Boston, home of the whig press and Elliott’s worst enemies! In his letter to
Cooper on November 19 th , Richard Henry Dana (1787–1879) of Boston, American poet and
essayist, wisely urged Cooper not to press the issue of the “figure head” so as not to arouse
added animosity. [16]
Thus the stormy history of Lake Erie had reached a culmination of ferocity by the year
1845.
20

XII.
A PROPER RESTING PLACE, OR “HOW TO CALM THE STORM”
Finally, there was the episode with the sarcophagus [ E30-32 ]. Elliott had discovered an
ancient marble sarcophagus for a Roman king or emperor while in Syria. He took it back
with him and gave it to the National Institute in Washington, D.C., under the condition that it
be used as the final resting place for Andrew Jackson. Naturally, the issue became acute
immediately before Jackson’s death. In April 1845, the Old Hero balked and rejected the
affectionate and well-meaning offer of his old friend, pointing out that his republican
sympathies would in no way condone such an “imperial” interment. Jackson specified that he
wished his mortal remains to be laid to rest, without “pomp or parade”, beside his beloved
wife at his farm at the Hermitage in Tennessee. The issue of the sarcophagus was a subject of
daily debate both prior to and throughout the summer following Jackson’s death. It was even
pointed out in Butler’s Eulogy during the State Funeral [ J12: p. 20 ] and in poetry [ J1 & J3 ] that
the whole question of where Jackson’s mortal remains were to be deposited was irrelevant
because his “shrine” lived in the hearts of all Americans [ J12. p. 20].
It is truly exceptional that a living ex-President (or anyone else, for that matter) should have
the question of where his mortal remains shall be deposited thrust upon him from an outside
source. That such was the case and that the “sarcophagus” was a “hot potato” in the press can
be readily appreciated. The issue of the sarcophagus gave rise to the question of location,
concomitant with questions regarding the immediate importance versus ultimate irrelevance
of location. Latent in this journalistic controversy was the real literary possibility of
dislodging Jackson from his beloved Hermitage and catapulting his person into a fictional
Lake Erie setting. The Jackson – Lake Erie linkage could only arise through Elliott, whose
name was inextricably inextricably linked with Lake Erie. The literary license of placing the
“Old Hero” (alias John Maynard) on Lake Erie stems from Elliott’s well-intended yet sadly
tactless gesture of friendship. The Erie of 1841 was thus used as a simplified foil, upon
which much greater issues than the death (or possible death) of a young wheelman were
brought into play. The four-year hiatus between the Erie and John Maynard is thus no
accident. “The Helmsman” required the proper Hero and found him in the person of
America’s greatest hero of that day and age. The unholy history of Lake Erie was to be
placed on a Christian pedestal with the Spirit of “the Democracy” and Old Hickory setting
things right. “The Helmsman of Lake Erie” was thus an implicit ALLEGORY OF LAKE ERIE,
a sophisticated literary achievement, in no way a mere recapitulation of Erie incidents turned
upside down for a Hollywood ending, but an attempt to “lay to rest” one of the blackest
chapters in American naval history [17] that had tarnished the honor of what an “American
Hero” was meant to convey. The notion of rewriting that history so as to blot out the
controversy of the two contending heroes of Lake Erie by superimposing the yet greater
legend of Andrew Jackson, the Old Helmsman, whose secret, his love of God, would save his
passengers and put things right on Lake Erie, was an ambitious literary undertaking. The link
between Elliott and Jackson established the link to Lake Erie. The allegory had already begun
when Elliott placed the carved head of Jackson on the USS Constitution. It continued with
Jackson’s rejection of Elliott’s gift of a sarcophagus and the general reception of the press and
poetry that neither a shrine nor a particular location for Jackson’s mortal remains was
necessary as he would live on in the hearts of all Americans, and his spirit would continue to
watch over and protect his country. “The Helmsman” was thus a literary-journalistic
experiment, the awesome attempt to rewrite Lake Erie history with a hero every American
and indeed every human being could identify with.
21

XIII.
WHO IS JOHN MAYNARD?
The fascinating question asked by Theodor Fontane in his famous ballad published in 1886,
“John Maynard,” is a brain-teaser. A speculative interpretation based on the notion of
multiple legends superimposed in the form of an allegory could, for example, assume the
following form:
The British officer who did in Edward Teach, commonly known as the pirate Blackbeard,
was Lieutenant Robert Maynard. Even Benjamin Franklin as a child of twelve wrote a
jubilant ballad on this feat. [18] Blackbeard had terrorized the Atlantic coast of the colonies
before Maynard lopped off his head and turned it over to the authorities in Virginia for his
reward.
Yet another approach common to allegories, (Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan readily
comes to mind) is simply a consideration of a basic virtue that stands out in a person’s
character. The name “Maynard,” viewed etymologically, is a combination of courage and
strength: Iron or Stout Heart [19].
But what about John? Who was he? A double hero with a deeply religious bent requires
yet another actor. Here, the Bible may offer a tip: “I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to
bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire [Matthew, 3:11]. The
conflagration of the Jersey, an act of baptism with fire? [20] John, the child of the
wilderness, “was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel” [Luke: 2:80]. The
“deserts” (i.e., “wilderness”) were also the home of Jackson.
Certainly all of these associations have their validity, yet no single allusion is sufficient to
provide a satisfactory answer. The possibility of borrowing the surname from an earlier story
is taken up in my article on Martha Russell’s sketch entitled “Lucy Maynard,” published in
April 1844. [21] For a study of the roots of a national legend, another article considering
Cooper’s stay in Switzerland and his novel The Headsman; or The Abbaye des Vignerons is
in preparation.
XIV.
THE LOGIC OF OUR MORAL WORLD AS VIEWED BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
The disastrous moral implications of a good man’s actions not bearing fruit and multiplying
in further acts of goodness constituted a moral consideration entertained by Nathaniel
Hawthorne in 1844, when he wrote a short story entitled “A Good Man’s Miracle:”
22

“In every good action there is a divine quality, which does not end with the completion
of that particular deed, but goes on to bring forth good works in an infinite series.”
Hawthorne then proceeds to elaborate on the development of Sunday schools in Britain and
the United States as a result of one man’s decision (Mr. Robert Raikes) to take kids off the
streets of London on Sunday and provide them with the moral fabric to make something of
their lives. What about the alleged act of heroism of Luther Fuller of the Erie? A man cannot
simply sacrifice himself in vain. There must be “an infinite series” of good works brought
forth as a result! In other words, the Erie’s passengers and crew (like children on the streets
of London) must necessarily be saved. The natural impulse to make reality conform to the
righteousness of our moral conception of the world and our deeply felt sense of justice no
doubt compelled the author of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie” to provide for the proper
outcome of an action that contains “a divine quality.”
The last moments of ANDREW JACKSON:
XV.
A NEW KIND OF HERO
“How unlike those usually assigned by Poetry and Romance to their fabled heroes!
And yet, in sober judgment of enlightened reason, not less sublime and heroic, than if
passed on the field of battle and in the chariot of victory. The greatest of all triumphs
is that which is achieved over the last enemy; and this through the faith that is in Jesus,
Jackson was enabled to achieve. The fires of the last day shall consume the laurel
wreaths of earth; most of them, indeed, will have withered ere it comes; and all ever
worn or won in the tide of time, would furnish no compensation for the loss of a single
soul. But the chaplet awarded to the faithful soldier of the cross, shall be a crown of
glory ‘that fadeth not away.’ [ J12: Butler’s Eulogy, pp. 19-20 ]
The “laurel wreaths of earth” in the above passage were awarded to those heroes of the
past. Here the names Perry and Elliott come to mind. Yet those wreaths will be as nothing
when “the fires of the last day” (John’s reference to baptism by fire) shall come and show the
hollowness of their victories as compared with those of the “faithful soldier of the cross.”
Butler, in the Eulogy delivered in New York City, sees in Jackson a new kind of hero, one
whose final foe is the Shadow of Death, which, through his steadfast faith, is overcome.
Here, again, the seeds of the legend of John Maynard were planted in the imagination of the
anonymous 1845 author.
What about this “new hero?” Did he jar men’s minds? Did anyone venture a comment?
Benjamin B. French (1800 – 1870), in 1845 the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives
in the nation’s capital, composed the first ballad of John Maynard only a few days after
“Helmsman of Lake Erie” was published in the Baltimore Sun. The final stanza of French’s
ballad claims for Maynard “the richest meed of fame” and cynically suggests that military
23

heroes (a Napoleon, for example, or even a Perry?) only use their soldiers as cannon-fodder
for their own selfish purposes:
Build high a monument to him,
Let not his humble name
Perish, for he has nobly earned
The richest meed of fame!
Ye give them monuments who send
Their millions to the grave!
Then build JOHN MAYNARD one, who died
A hundred lives to save! [22]
In 1854, in the shortened 1845 version printed by Harper’s New Monthly Magazine [23],
upon which John Bartholomew Gough would later base his own prose rendering of “John
Maynard,” an editorial comment was used by way of introduction:
“THERE seems somehow to be a great difference in the world’s estimation
between a civil and a military Hero. But some deeds have been recorded of
noble heroism in private, unmilitary station, which have not been excelled on
the hardest-fought field that ever tasked the strategy or tested the bravery of the
most renowned of the world’s great generals.”
Then, in a concluding statement, the following was added:
“Better than fame won at the cannon’s mouth in the ardor of conquest; far
better than battle ‘for that which perisheth,’ is the lasting renown of this soldier
of Humanity.”
XVI.
WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD LITERATURE?
The sad fate of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie” has been, ironically, its genesis. It
underwent a number of radical transformations both in prose and verse in the course of the
19 th century. These transformations led to the German ballad by a giant of German literature,
Theodor Fontane. Fontane’s ballad, “John Maynard,” published in 1886, has remained part
of the German school curriculum to this very day. The upshot of these stages in the literary
processing of the original 1845 text was to discredit the origins and praise the progress in its
“development.” Not one serious attempt was made to discover the author. George Salomon,
the prominent Maynard researcher in the 1960’s, did mention Dickens before dismissing him
as a possibility. Two reasons were given for rhetorically rejecting Dickens: 1) the alleged
“superiority” of Dickens’ style and 2) the impossibility that Dickens would write an
anonymous sketch at the height of his popularity. An American author was regarded by
Salomon as unlikely due to two reasons: 1) the introductory explanation of the fame of the
24

Great Lakes, which, according to Salomon, Americans would have been aware of [24], and 2)
the use of “waistcoat” instead of the familiar American use of “vest” [25]. As a result, James
Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville or Nathaniel Hawthorne were not even considered. And,
of course, it is definitely the question of authorship that constitutes the final piece of the
puzzle.
It should be pointed out that already in the first days of publication in 1845, two initial
judgments were forthcoming. The Editor of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser on
September 12, 1845, stated quite matter-of-factly, “The story is well told.” The Editor of the
Baltimore Sun on September 5, 1845, in his preface to Benjamin B. French’s ballad, called
the prose sketch published on August 30 in its pages “a very thrilling narrative…most worthy
to be thus [in the form of Benjamin B. French’s ballad] commemorated.” And on November
28, 1845, the Norfolk Democrat (in Dedham, Massachusetts) had the following to say:
“We do not know who wrote the subjoined, nor where it first appeared; but we
are sure the reader will agree with us that it is a most powerful narrative of a
deed that should not be forgotten. In all the qualities of true glory, the
‘Helmsman of Lake Erie’ stands far beyond the crowd of heroes who, in
blood-stained laurel, fill the niches of fame.”
The genesis of the legend, as treated by Benjamin B. French, John Bartholomew Gough,
Horatio Alger, Jr., the anonymous “Josephine,” in Britain, Ada Linden and Theodor Fontane
in Germany, also suggests that there was indeed something of literary substance to build on.
If the complexity of the historical currents underlying the sketch were indeed consciously
interwoven to create the legend, only a writer of stature, who was well-acquainted with the
American scene and with naval history, could claim authorship.
The notion that “literature” is in a constant state of progressive development, thus justifying
our forgetting the “old” and embracing the “new,” is erroneous thinking. Today we can be
proud that Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is regarded as a monument of 19 th century
allegorical literature, greatly influenced by his friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne when the
two great writers resided in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Of course, Moby-Dick
was a flop in the 19 th century, and Melville only gained fame posthumously. Nineteenthcentury
literature (and not merely in the United States) has all too often been neglected. The
few works that critics regard as of “lasting” significance make up a tiny fraction of the poetic
and literary testimony of the century. Were all the others flops? Let us hope that more
Melvilles may be resurrected from their Rip van Winkle existence.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Great Stone Face” (in 1850) is a clear example of political
allegory in its chastisement of the Whig politician, Daniel Webster (1882-1852). James
Fenimore Cooper’s final tale in 1850, “The Lake Gun,” also was levelled against envisioned
demagogues such as the politician and statesman William Henry Seward (1801-1872). Both
Hawthorne (1804-1864) and Cooper (1789-1851), together with young Herman Melville
(1819-1891), were not above penning their veiled messages of political discontent into their
fiction. Naturally the “deeper meaning” of such works need not be grasped in order for them
to be enjoyed. Yet it is there, waiting for the critical reader to ask the right questions, which
point to the right answers. “The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” too, can and has been enjoyed
without a consideration of the naval history of Lake Erie and the incongruency of a contesting
25

civilian hero even though, prior to publication, there already had been two heroes hotly
contesting the title “HERO OF LAKE ERIE” for thirty-two years.
XVII.
Talent, Knowledge, Opportunity, Contacts, Political Leanings, Religiosity
and a Clue or Two:
James Fenimore Cooper
The question, Who was the anonymous author of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie?,” can
only be answered if approached from a number of angles. Criteria such as talent, knowledge,
motive, circle of friends, political leanings, historical context, and religiosity limit the field of
potential writers considerably. In this paper it has to this writer’s mind become ever more
evident that only one candidate stands out for serious consideration: James Fenimore Cooper,
America’s first professional writer.
Looking for a “clue,” we should first cast a glance at the name of the ship. The Jersey is a
strange name for a Lake Erie steamer that never sailed on Lake Erie. Could the name of the
ship be seen as a sort of “signature” or “hallmark,” used either consciously or unconsciously
by the anonymous writer?
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was born in Burlington, New Jersey. [26] Although
he admittedly grew up in Cooperstown, New York, a frontier community established by his
father, his sense of allegiance to and identification with New Jersey, his place of birth and the
home of his ancestors, can be seen in the following quote from a letter written by Cooper
from Paris, May 25 th , 1831 to Richard (Dick) Cooper, Cooperstown (From Correspondence of
James Fenimore-Cooper, vol. I , p. 229):
“It is odd enough that I had a visit, when in Tuscany, from an officer of one of
our frigates who told me he was born in Cooperstown. This is probably the
first male native who ever found his way into Italy, for you will remember that
I am a Jersey-man born, and both William and Paul are New Yorkers.”
The fact that Cooper had not grown up in New Jersey, did in no way diminish his
emotional attachment. Indeed, both New Jersey and Pennsylvania stood high in Cooper’s
estimation as the home of his ancestors. Robert W. Neeser, in his essay entitled “Cooper's
Sea Tales” made the following point:
“Personally, I have always Liked the "Water Witch" or the "Skimmer of the
Seas" [published in 1830] the best for the opening scenes are laid on a part of
the coast of New Jersey with which I am familiar, and Cooper appears to have
been unusually well informed of the continual changes wrought in this tongue
of sand "by the unremitting and opposing actions of the waves on one side, and
of the currents of the different rivers, that empty their waters into the bay, on
the other," this referring, of course, to Sandy Hook.” [27]
26

That Cooper was hardly ignorant of some of the more salient features of New Jersey, the State
in which he was born, becomes clear in Neeser’s passage.
In the year 1845, Cooper was extremely active in producing two novels, Satanstoe and The
Chainbearer. Consequently, a common objection to Cooper creating “The Helmsman” was
that he “simply did not have enough time.” This writer suspects, however, that Cooper was
not too busy to conjure up a short sketch and send it on its way, even if such a relatively
“clipped” product was uncharacteristic of Cooper, who generally produced much lengthier
pieces. On the other hand, a sketch such as “The Helmsman,” from Cooper’s perspective,
could be viewed as a thrilling scene, in which Cooper was always in his element.
Between 1842 and 1845, Cooper was also completing his Lives of Distinguished
American Naval Officers (published in March and May 1846, copyrighted in 1845, and
begun in 1842). Included in the “sketches” (some nearly 100 pages in length) is “Oliver
Hazard Perry” [vol. II, pp. 146-243], together with The Battle of Lake Erie and Jesse Duncan
Elliott’s role. In other words, Cooper was continually active in his consideration of
America’s naval history in the years up to 1845, even though he was working on his novels.
The little word “Jersey” is to be found repeatedly in a number of his novels. In The
Redskins (published in July 1846), there is one passage (Ch. III, p. 53) that strikes this writer as
exceptional:
“The packet has a reasonably short passage, as we were twenty-nine days from
land to land. It was a pleasant afternoon in May when the hummock-like
heights of Neversink were seen from the deck; and an hour later we came in
sight of the tower-resembling sails of the coasters which were congregating in
the neighborhood of the low point of land that is very appropriately called
Sandy Hook. [Here the reader will recall Neeser’s observation regarding Sandy Hook in
the “Water-Witch.”] The light-houses rose out of the water soon after, and objects
on the shore of New Jersey next came gradually out of the misty background,
until we got near enough to be boarded, first by the pilot, and next by the newsboat;
the first preceding the last, for a wonder, news usually being far more
active, in this good republic, than watchfulness to prevent evil.” [28]
The “pleasant afternoon in May” in The Redskins seems quite close to the “pleasant May
morning” in the first line of “The Helmsman.” The shore of New Jersey can be made out
long before anything else becomes visible. The New Jersey Highlands, harbinger of America
for all mariners, and referred to as Neversink (“Will they never sink?”), can be made out from
afar. Then, as the vessel approaches the shore of New Jersey, the fog lifts dramatically. The
pilot, allegorically symbolizing “watchfulness to prevent evil,” steps on board. And finally,
Cooper’s animosity towards the Press is revealed in his innuendo that, unlike the pilot (i.e.,
the Helmsman), it woefully lacks the moral integrity to be watchful and prevent evil.
During the Jacksonian Age, a sense of political kinship with the Old Hero was the rule
rather than the exception among America’s writers. Allen M. Axelrad stated the following
about Cooper’s attraction to Jackson:
“Cooper thought the legislature was the center of their [demagogues’] political power,
so he was anxious about legislative infringement on executive rights. To counter the
threat of aristocracy he advocated a powerful executive: a strong president such as
27

Andrew Jackson. The office and the man, he hoped, would have the strength to
withstand the intrigues of aristocratic demagogues.” [29]
In the election campaign of 1844 between Henry Clay and James Polk, Cooper took a
lively interest:
“In the campaign of 1844, he [Cooper] attended his first political meeting in twenty-five
years, ‘and if anything could bring me on the stump,’ he declared vigorously, ‘it would
be to help put down the bold and factious party that is now striving to place Mr. Clay
in the chair of state.’ He denounced the Whig party as ‘much the falsest and most
dangerous association of the sort that has appeared in the country in my day.’” [30]
- Cooper to C.A. Secor, et al., September 8, 1844, The Campaign, September 21, 1844.
“The Helmsman of Lake Erie” is exceptional for its strong reliance on faith as the mainstay
of its protagonist. This would presuppose a writer of equal religious bent. [31] Donald A.
Ringe offers a fascinating statement on this account:
“We have long been aware that Cooper’s religious position was unusual among
American writers. As long ago as 1952 Howard Mumford Jones observed that Cooper
‘was the only American novelist of international stature to take Christianity seriously
both as personal motive and as social force.’ Six years later, Charles A. Brady went
even further to say that Cooper was ‘the only major nineteenth-century creative
writer–short of the great Russians–to work within a specifically religious dimension.’
Jones and Brady are right.”
A few lines further, Ringe adds:
“Yet another aspect of Cooper’s religion can be found in the doctrine of Providence:
the belief that the hand of God actively guides both the individual person and the
entire nation. This concept had also had a long history in America by the time Cooper
began to write.”
Here the notion of the “helmsman,” as both head of state and pilot, wedded allegorically in
the 1845 sketch, does not seem incongruous with Cooper’s religious views. And finally,
Ringe makes the following statement about Cooper’s “much neglected maritime novels”:
“If we take a ship at sea to represent society in miniature, we quickly perceive that, as
early as The Pilot (1824), Cooper showed in the character of John Paul Jones the need
for competent authority to direct a ship, especially in times of crisis, and by
implication, society as well.” [32]
No other American writer was in a better position to understand the tug of war of the past on
Lake Erie, one of the darkest chapters in America’s naval history. Coupled with this, he was
obviously qualified as a gifted narrative writer with a quick mind, a man capable of reworking
history with a questioning “But what if?” Finally, he was well-acquainted with the players in
28

his drama and knew many of them personally. That Cooper had every reason to remain
anonymous, given the vituperative onslaught he had endured since publication of his Naval
History, is clear. It should also be explicitly stated that attacks upon Cooper himself (not
simply his writings) by the American press did not begin in 1839, but much earlier. Finally,
it is indisputable that no writer of Cooper’s caliber was so emotionally involved in the history
of Lake Erie as was James Fenimore Cooper.
The fact that Cooper was still intent on lecturing on the Jackson figure head in November
of 1845, demonstrates that the imagery of Jackson, guiding the “ship of state,” elevated from
a mere “figure head” to the allegorical “Helmsman,” was still of central importance in
Cooper’s mind.
Cooper not only was familiar with George Bancroft’s eulogy, but was also his friend. In his
correspondence, the following letter establishes this:
Mr. Bancroft is here with his family. I believe one of his children is unwell. I
have been asked by Ingersoll to meet him at dinner, but could not on account of
clearing off my work. He is to pass an hour with me to-morrow morning.
Letter dated Oct. 11, 1845 to Mrs. Cooper, Cooperstown. (Correspondence of
James Fenimore-Cooper, vol. 2,, p. 553.)
And then, of course, there was Commodore Elliott. Two letters from Elliott, dated January
9 th , 1845, and January 13 th , 1845, establish just how grateful Elliott was for Cooper’s
intercession. In the first letter, Elliott has succeeded in having a commemorative medal struck
by Congress in honor of Cooper’s “Disinterested Vindication of His Brother Sailor, Jesse D.
Elliott.” [Cf. Illustration at end of article] In the second letter, Elliott – who was apparently not
joking – offers Cooper “the Navy office.” [33]. His references to General Jackson and
President Polk point out that Elliott was held in high esteem and wielded no little influence.
Also, Elliott’s less-than-serious remark about “adopting” Cooper’s whole family can only be
viewed as marking a deep friendship between the two men:
Letter from Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott / Navy Yard, Phila., Jany. 13, 1835:
Dear Sir
Every days experience satisfies me of the propriety of having the medal struck
of you. Cooper, answer me right to the point, I am urged to take a position at
Washington, how would you like to fill the Navy office?
I have a letter of Congratulation from Genl. Jackson saying no Man on earth
rejoices more than he that I am in full possession of my honors and long may
live to carry the stars and stripes successfully through every clime and sea, that
Mr. Polk is my warmest friend, and the old man [Jackson] sends me a lock of
his hair to be divided in my family and as I want you to allow me to adopt
yours I send a portion for them and for your good Sister Mrs. Pomeroy. [34]
From Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott, Navy Yard, Phila, Jany. 13, 1845
(Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper, vol. 2, p. 531.)
29

Following Jackson’s death, Elliott’s health began to deteriorate. Whether the cause was the
painful loss of Elliott’s “Defender of the USS Constitution,” must remain conjecture.
Needless to say, on August 19, in his letter to William Branford Shubrick, Cooper mentions
both Bancroft and Elliott. Of Elliott, whose health was failing and who would die on
December 10, Cooper says the following:
“You send me news of Elliott. I had supposed him convalescent. Old officers,
however, are some times killed off in service before the breath has left their bodies.”
The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper: vol. v, p. 52.
And on November 30 th :
“Elliott is here, and in an advanced dropsy, not only of the body and limbs, but of the
heart and chest. He cannot survive, I should think, though he seems to think he may. I
have seen his wife, and thanked her for the ‘few little matters.’ Elliott, himself,
believes he is getting better.” Ibid., vol. v, p. 100
The final visit was on December 5, 1845, five days before Elliott’s death:
“Poor Elliott can not last long. I went to see him to-day and found him sensibly
weaker. It was plain that his family consider his case desperate. He made some
allusions again to his end, and I believe he thinks he has no chance in this world. He
looks like an emaciated, white-headed, old man of seventy.” Ibid., vol. v, p. 106
Elliott’s undying gratitude that Cooper had restored his honor can best be appreciated by
Cooper’s short statement in a letter to his son:
“I am writing on Gen. Jackson’s desk.”
The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper: vol. v, p. 145, “To
Paul Fenimore Cooper, Heads, 26 th May, 1846.”
Elliott had acquired Andrew Jackson’s desk, presented to Jackson by the citizens of Boston,
and, in his will, bequeathed it to the man who, more than any other, had had the courage and
stamina to delve into the facts behind the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, and to defend his
findings, no matter how unpopular they may have been. We may assume that the Bostonian
desk used by Old Hickory and Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott was put to good use during
the five remaining years of Cooper’s relatively short life.
30

A copy of the letter dated January 4 th , 1846, from Washington L. Elliott, son of the deceased
Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott, informing Cooper of Commodore Elliott’s bequest.
Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
31

Certainly Cooper had personally lived the drama of Lake Erie. Who else could better tackle
its story?
Both scans are courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
32

[Postmarked “Buffalo, N.Y., July 1 / STEAM-BOAT”]
Although there is no confirmation in his letters and journals that he ever attempted a sketch
of the character of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” some material has admittedly not survived
or was intentionally destroyed. Perhaps the letter head of the stationery Cooper chose for a
letter to his wife while travelling the Buffalo-Detroit run by steamer [35], was a secret
intimation of an anonymous sketch he had done not quite three years earlier:
Cooper wrote these lines to his wife from “Canada, off Buffaloe. Friday, June 30 th 1848:”
Dearest,
Five days trial, and no verdict, again. We have gained ground, however. Got all
the law settled on our side, and see our way clear.
I am well. Went to Kalamazoo last Saturday, and left Detroit yesterday. I shall
pass Sunday at Geneva, and be home on Tuesday.
Ogden’s testimony is improving, though he would thrust in opinions with his facts,
and it was these opinions that did the mischief.
I am in good spirits, and shall go to work as usual.
Yours tenderly
J. Fenimore Cooper
33

XVIII.
MELANCTHON TAYLOR WOOLSEY AND GUERT TEN EYCK:
TWO DAREDEVILS IN SATANSTOE
In mid-1805, Cooper, the youngest and most playful of his class, was sacked from Yale in
his third year for damaging university property and frightening a rival student with a
gunpowder prank (the student’s dormitory door was blown open, the victim apparently
unscathed). By 1806, Cooper had left this episode behind him and had gone to sea in a
merchant ship. Two years later, he was to become a midshipman on Lake Ontario. It was
there, at the harbor of Oswego on the south shore of Lake Ontario, that Cooper was to
encounter his young commanding officer, the dashing twenty-seven-year-old Lieutenant
Melancthon Taylor Woolsey. First, a new brig christened the Oneida was built to fortify
American defenses against the British on the lake. Then, “late in June, 1809 [36],”Cooper, not
yet twenty, and his commanding officer embarked, not on a “marine campaign,” as Cooper’s
daughter tactfully related years later, but on a pleasure trip to Niagara Falls. What is
abundantly clear from Susan Fenimore Cooper’s remarks is that “the young midshipman from
the Otsego Hills” had the time of his life:
“In the year 1808, several young officers of the navy, under the command of
Lieutenant Woolsey, were ordered from New York to the shores of Lake Ontario, for
the purpose of building a small vessel-of-war. Among these officers was Mr. Cooper,
then a midshipman in the service. Their road beyond Utica lay for many a mile
through the forest, the whole region to the northward of the Mohawk having scarcely
yet thrown off the character of a wilderness. The mouth of the Oswego River was their
destination; here they remained for some time, until the Oneida, a brig mounting
sixteen guns, was built and launched. The whole party enjoyed extremely this marine
campaign, with its wild coloring of frontier life, and none more so than the young
midshipman from the Otsego Hills. [My emphasis] During leisure hours, they roamed
through the forest, or explored the shores of the lake. On one occasion they were
ordered to Buffalo; they went by land through what is now the heart of a populous
country, but was then a wilderness.” - Susan Fenimore Cooper, Pages and Pictures from the
Writings of James Fenimore Cooper, with Notes by Susan Fenimore Cooper (New York:
W.A. Townsend and Co., 1861), p. 308.
In January 1845, Graham’s Magazine put out a biography of Melancthon Taylor Woolsey
written by Cooper. The article was later integrated into Cooper’s Naval Biography, published
under the title Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers in 1846.
Who was Woolsey? Cooper often began a biography with a consideration of parentage.
Woolsey’s mother was “a lady of the well-known family of Livingston, and a daughter of a
divine of eminence.” [37] The Livingstons and the Rensselaers held vast estates and were
attacked by the so-called “Anti-Renters” in the conflict between owners of large tracts of land
and their tenants in New York state in the mid-1840’s. This conflict served as the background
to The Littlepage Manuscripts, a trilogy of which Satanstoe was the first – and from a
literary standpoint, the very best – installment. On January 22 nd , 1845, Cooper wrote to the
34

publisher Richard Bentley that Satanstoe “is now far advanced, and will go to press in a few
days.” [38]
Woolsey’s father, Melancthon L. Woolsey, was a collector of Plattsburg, on Lake
Champlain. Plattsburg (now spelled with an “h” at the end) was famous as the scene of the
Battle of Plattsburg Bay in 1814, a signal victory for Americans in the War of 1812, which
rendered British claims to exclusive control of the Great Lakes vacuous while guaranteeing
the young Republic exclusive control of Lake Champlain. As late as October 30, 1845,
Cooper was willing to give an “extempore address on the Battle of Plattsburg Bay, or the
Forty Days before Tripoli, or the Battle of Lake Erie.” [39]
The nearly simultaneous completion of both the article on Woolsey in Graham’s Magazine
and of the novel Satanstoe, together with the obvious fact that Woolsey represented an
important chapter in young Cooper’s “rites of passage,” must awaken suspicions that the
strongly autobiographical Satanstoe might contain the “ghost of Woolsey” lurking in its
pages.[40] The references which follow are aimed to illustrate the family resemblance
between the major hero of Satanstoe, Guert Ten Eyck, and young Cooper’s commanding
officer on Lake Ontario, Melancthon L. Woolsey. Parallels between a novel by Cooper and
the Lake Ontario excursion with Woolsey to Niagara Falls have already been documented:
“It was this tough progress up the lake [=Lake Ontario] that formed the ultimate basis of
the long run of Jasper Western’s cutter, the Scud, back along the ‘outline of unbroken
forest’ fringing the Ontario shore in The Pathfinder….”
– Wayne Franklin, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years, p. 120.
That his youthful impressions during the 1809 voyage on Lake Ontario, with his visit to the
“Cataract,” as the Falls were often called, had left their mark, and were revived in even
greater glory much later in life, is suggested by his daughter Susan:
“On this expedition Mr. Cooper saw Niagara for the first time. He was struck with the
grandeur of the cataract; but he felt its sublime character far more deeply at a later day
[41], when visiting the same ground, after his return from Europe.”
Susan Fenimore Cooper, Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore
Cooper, p. 309.
The undisputed giant of Satanstoe is Guert Ten Eyck, who is portrayed as twenty-five years
old, four years Corny Littlepage’s senior. In 1809, young Cooper was not quite twenty, and
his commanding officer was all of twenty-seven. Deep bonds of friendship developed both in
Satanstoe between Corny and Guert, as was also the case with young Cooper and Melancthon
in the years 1808 to 1809. That both Guert and Melancthon were both manly, out-going, funloving
and up to innocent mischief (as was young Cooper) explains in part their enormous
popularity and the fact that they could evoke a strong sense of devotion and admiration in
their friends.
In Lives, Cooper wrote (no doubt with a reminiscing smile):
“In that day, lieutenants were frequently very young men, and it sometimes happened
that their frolics partook more of the levity of youth than is now apt to occur, in
officers of rank.” – Lives, Vol. II, “Melancthon Taylor Woolsey,” pp. 120-121
35

Just as Woolsey could claim illustrious parentage linked to the Anti-Rent conflict, Guert, too,
was not of humble origins:
“When it was through, the oldest of the Dutchmen – a fine, daredevil, roystering
fellow of four or five-and-twenty, whose dress and mien, however denoted a person of
the upper class….” Satanstoe (Cooper Edition/SUNY), Ch. XI, p. 152
An amazing aspect of the fictional character of Guert Ten Eyck is the features shared with
Cooper’s non-fictional “comrade in arms,” Melancthon Taylor Woolsey. Apart from
Woolsey’s parentage with links to Cooper’s obsession with the “Anti-Rent War,” and with the
War of 1812 (Plattsburg), which secured the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, their relative
same age, the bonds of friendship, the admiration that the fictional character inspired in
Corny, and Woolsey inspired in Cooper, provide striking parallels.
Woolsey was “of an athletic frame and manly habits.” [42] Guert struck a positive note on
Corny in the following passage – Corny’s unqualified admiration, Guert’s talents both as a
soldier and a leader (a “Woolsey” backflash), and Guert’s own physical prowess are all
lumped together:
“Guert marched next to the Indian, and I [=Corny] was third in line. How often, that
busy day, did I gaze at my file-leader [=Guert], in admiration of his figure and mien!
Nature appeared to have intended him for a soldier. Although so powerful, his frame
was agile – a particular in which he differed from Dirck….”
Satanstoe (Cooper Edition/SUNY), Ch. XXIV, pp. 350-351
The tragic love story between Guert and Mary Wallace deserves mention. Guert is cut
down in the prime of his manhood, leaving Mary, who has only been completely convinced of
her love for Guert shortly before his death. She resolves to live the life of Guert’s widow,
even though they never married:
“No, Anne, my fate is sealed for this world,” said Mary Wallace, “and I shall live
Guert’s widow, as faithfully and devotedly, as if the marriage vow had been
pronounced.” Satanstoe (Cooper Edition/SUNY), Ch. XXX, p. 440
Melanchthon Taylor Woolsey had already died in 1838. His widow is mentioned in the
final paragraph of – shall we say? – Cooper’s eulogy of his old friend. Her fate does not
sound much better than that of Mary Wallace:
“The widow of Com. Woolsey still lives. She has several children, and we regret to
say, like those of her sex who survive the public servants of this country, she is left
with few of the world’s goods to console her.”
Lives, Vol. II, p. 145
36

Interestingly, the highlights of Cooper’s article on Woolsey in Graham’s Magazine, and
later in the Woolsey chapter in Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, have more
to do with a series of anecdotes and adventures related by Cooper of his outing to Niagara
Falls than with the actual career of Woolsey, who – Cooper morosely comments – “passed the
flower of his days on Lake Ontario” [43] in relative isolation rather than advancing in his
profession, as his capabilities so clearly warranted.
When relating his good times with Woolsey, Cooper breaks completely from the sober and
rather monotonous style of, for example, his pedantically objective Naval History. Instead,
the reader senses that Cooper is reliving some very important and happy moments of his early
life in a style refreshingly similar to the best of Corny’s easy-going, chatty, unencumbered,
first-person narration in Satanstoe, a style – it should be remembered – that is not often
associated with Cooper, although Miles Wallingford in Afloat and Ashore or, The
Adventures of Miles Wallingford is an enjoyable prelude to Corny Littlepage. Just as young
Cooper was “at some foolery or other” when addressing a quack physician as “Hippocrates”
simply to reveal the impostor’s ignorance of the name and all it stood for, or – another
example, “drop[ping] snow-balls and other ‘cooling ingredients’ by means of the chimney,
into the doctor’s mess” [44], so, too, Woolsey was also a daredevil, who achieved his greatest
triumphs, not necessarily in naval combat but in procuring all the sumptuous ingredients for
proper feasting:
“The living was excellent, salmon, bass, venison in season, rabbits, squirrels, wildgeese,
ducks, &c., abounding. The mess, however, pronounced cranberries the staple
commodity of the region. They were uniformly served three times a day, and with
venison, ducks, &c., made a delicious accompaniment. Woolsey was a notable
caterer, keeping his mess in abundance.” Lives, Vol. II, p. 128
Guert, too, applied his energies in the “culinary spirit” of Woolsey:
“Guert did little besides shoot and fish, keeping our larder well supplied with trout,
pigeons, squirrels, and such other game as the season would allow, occasionally
knocking over something in the shape of poor venison.”
Satanstoe (Cooper Edition/SUNY), Ch. XXI, p. 305
One of Woolsey’s greater “triumphs” was the strategic acquisition of a sheep for his
starving sailors, including young Cooper, from a reluctant rural wench, who only “wavered”
after he began flattering her on her lovely offspring, who – in reality – were filthy brats:
“…Woolsey commenced an attack on the lady, by paying compliments to her fine
children, three as foul little Christians as one could find on the frontier. This threw the
mother off her guard, and she wavered. At this unguarded moment, the man [=the
lady’s husband] accepted the half eagle, about five times the value of the wether, as
sheep sold at that season, in the settled parts of the country, uttered a faint, “Well,
captain, since you wish it—” and a signal from Woolsey caused the animal’s throat to
be cut incontinently. At the next moment the woman changed her mind; but it was too
37

late, the wether bleeding to death. Notwithstanding all this, the woman refused to be
pacified until Woolsey made her a present of the skin and fleece, when the carcass was
borne off in triumph.” Lives, Vol. II, p. 133
Guert develops an ingenious plan to have Corny and Parson Worden, two innocents with no
idea of the scope of Guert’s cunning, keep Doortje, the Mayor of Albany’s personal cook,
distracted from her kitchen while making off with the hot meal that had already been prepared
for the good mayor and his guests:
“Mr. Worden now began a grave and serious lecture on the sin of stealing, holding the
confounded Doortje in discourse quite three minutes. In vain the cook protested that
she had taken nothing…..At length we heard a shrill whistle from the alley, the signal
of success, when Mr. Worden wished Doortje a solemn good-night, and walked away
with all the dignity of a priest.” Satanstoe (Cooper Edition/SUNY), Ch. XII, p. 178
When the City Constable appears to take Guert and his accomplices to account, Guert points
out that in the Albany “poultry wars” (or, more accurately, “supper wars”), it is no problem
for him to sequester the Mayor of Albany’s dinner with impunity because:
“There is no great danger, however, as you will see, when I come to explain matters.
You must know that the Mayer’s wife was a Schuyler, and my mother has some of the
same blood in her veins, and we count cousins as far as you can see, in Albany. It is
just supping with one’s relatives, a little out of the common way, as you will perceive,
gentlemen.” Satanstoe (Cooper Edition/SUNY), Ch. XIII, p. 182
Here again, the question of “blood lines” is decisive and will save the day. The fun-loving
and mischievous Woolsey, the spitting image of Satanstoe’s Guert Ten Eyck, is reworked by
Cooper into one of his finest heroes.
Of course, one might ask why Albany with its Dutch heritage and with Guert, the
quintessential Dutchman in Satanstoe, should play such a prominent role. In 1831, writing
from Paris, Cooper confirms the importance of Albany in his “earliest years:”
“…Albany was to me, a town of excellent social feeling and friendly connexions. I
could not visit my own County without passing it, and I always entered it with
pleasure, and left it with regret. My father died in Albany, at the inn of Stewart Lewis,
in 1809, and my eldest brother Richard Fenimore Cooper, in his own house. [45] So
you see, dear Sir, that Albany is a name I love for a multitude of associations that are
connected with my earliest years.” Letter # 240. To William Sprague; from Paris, Nov. 15 th ,
1831, in Letters and Journals, vol. II, p. 155.
What lurks behind the ominous name Satanstoe?[46] Cooper calls it a “Neck” in the shape
of an “inverted toe.” Why inverted?
“(the devil being supposed to turn every thing with which he meddles, upside-down)”
Satanstoe (Cooper Edition), Ch. I, p. 9
38

Cooper seems bent on standing a number of details from his youth on their head, i.e.,
“playing the devil,” to come to grips with his own life as it turned out and with the lives of
others over which he had no control. America’s maritime historian, the author of Satanstoe,
the first of his anti-rent trilogy, is up to more than railing against Anti-Renters. His tale is
more subtle, his purpose nobler in resurrecting the places, people, and past he loved so dearly.
Of his dear friend Guert, Corny writes:
“Thus prematurely, terminated the earthly career of as manly a spirit as ever dwelt in
human form. That it had imperfections my pen has not concealed, but the long years
that have since passed away, have not served to obliterate the regard so noble a
temperament could not fail to awaken.”
Satanstoe (Cooper Edition), Ch. I, p. 9
Or was Cooper not writing about Guert at all? In Lives, Cooper penned the following
eulogy of Woolsey:
“A better-hearted man never lived. All who sailed with him loved him, and he had
sufficient native mind, and sufficient acquired instruction, to command the respect of
many of the strongest intellects of the service.” Lives, Vol. II, p. 145
XIX.
DEADLY SILENCE VS. SCATHING CRITICISM
It may be thought strange, or nothing less than amazing, that the most prominent American
writer of his day and age should possibly have found himself in a position in which he would
find it preferable to refrain from the use of his own household name and humbly seek to dash
off an anonymous anecdote for vulgar newspaper consumption.
In Cooper’s case, it should, however, be pointed out that during the last ten years of his
relatively short life (he passed away on the eve of his 62 nd birthday), even reviews of his
works had been, to an astonishing degree, banned from the American press (and not merely
the Whig press) because Cooper had won so many law suits against individual newspapers
that had been critical of him. Of the two works that are of greatest interest to a Maynard
researcher, due to their publication in 1845, we read:
“Neither Satanstoe nor The Chainbearer, two of Cooper’s finest works, seems to
have been accorded even one literary notice.”
George Dekker and John P. McWilliams, Editors, Fenimore Cooper. The
Critical Heritage (London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan, 1973, p. 22).
Cooper’s own comments on May 9 th , 1846, exemplify his deep dissatisfaction not only with
American newspapers but also with America:
“B & S [=Burgess & Stringer] say they have not sold the first editions of Satanstoe and
Chainbearer.
39

I make no doubt you can do much better, as the press is a solid phalanx against me,
and I am unpopular with the country, generally – Indeed, were it not for the
convenience of correcting proof sheets, I would not publish in this country at all. I
have a work in contemplation, that will be secured here, to cut off the profits of
pirates, but which I do not mean to publish in America, at all, any farther than may be
necessary to secure the copy right. If they will not pay, they ought not to read.
If I were fifteen years younger, I would certainly go abroad, and never return. I can
say with Woolsey [Cf. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in Shakespeare’s King Henry the Eighth, III, ii],
“if I had served my god with half the zeal I’ve served my country” it would have been
better for me. You and I have committed the same error; have been American –
whereas our cue was to be European, which would have given us success at home.
The time was, when these things pained me, but every interest seems so much upside
down, here, that another feeling has taken the place of even regret.”
Letters and Journals, Vol. V, pp. 131-132, Letter # 859 To James Kirke
Paulding, from Hall, Cooperstown, May 9 th 1846.
In other words, had Cooper attached his name to a literary sketch for general newspaper
distribution, it may well have been rejected on the spot, or, if printed, could subsequently have
been torn to ribbons.
A second point worthy of consideration is that Cooper was always willing to experiment
with new approaches to literature. And shorter pieces, though hardly characteristic of Cooper,
were embarked upon in the final years of his life: e.g., a three-act play in the form of a
comedy, entitled Upside Down; or, Philosophy in Petticoats (only a remnant of the original
1850 play has been recovered), and a short story, “The Lake Gun.” Of the latter short
allegorical sketch published five years after “The Helmsman,” Cooper wrote:
“I am finishing off the ‘Lake Gun’ which earns the $100, that lies untouched in my
trunk. I should like to work at this rate, the year round. I believe this miscellan[e?]ous
writing pays the best, just now” [47]
(The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, James
Franklin Beard, Ed., The Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1968, Vol.
VI., p. 239, Letter to Mrs. Cooper, Monday, Nov. 25 th , 1850)
Upside Down was poorly attended. Cooper’s own assessment of the reason for its failure is
illuminating:
“I am not surprised at the thinness of the house. I was afraid that the use of my name
would produce this effect [my emphasis], it having been for years a part of a concerted
plan [Cooper’s emphasis] among the news paper men and the leaders of the Whigs, with
here and there an exception, to put me down by apparent neglect. I have been
distinctly notified of the existence of such a plan, and have had proof of its being
carried out in several instances.”
(The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, ibid., vol. VI, p. 198,
Letter to James Henry Hackett, Sunday, June 30 th 1850).
40

Yet the estrangement of the American press from Cooper [48] was long-term and had
already begun in the early 1830’s when the Whigs had successfully gained control of the
American press:
“Especially would he [=Cooper] fail of support in a nation in which after 1830 the press
was notoriously under the control of the Whig party. The most outspoken Democratic
magazine [=United States Magazine and Democratic Review, I (October, 1837), 13] lamented in
1837, one of Cooper’s hardest years, that ‘the anti-democratic cause possesses at least
two-thirds of the press of the country.’ In Cooper’s own state [=New York], this
domination was more complete than in the nation.”
Dorothy Waples, The Whig Myth of James Fenimore Cooper [New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1938), p. 61.
Apart from Cooper’s political affiliation, at least part of the controversy may also have
boiled down to misconceptions on the part of American reviewers as to what constituted good
literature:
“…one concludes that American reviewers became critical of Cooper’s novels because
they felt that treating serious political questions in a romance was an artistic sin.
Nearly every journal-review of Cooper’s novels from 1830 to 1841 condemns Cooper,
not because he is a republican, but because he is obtruding political matters upon the
apolitical purity of the historical romance.”
Fenimore Cooper: The Critical Heritage, “Introduction,” edited by George
Dekker and John P. McWilliams, p. 15.
XX.
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF LEGENDS
The research presented in this essay began with the question why “The Helmsman of Lake
Erie” was published four years after the loss of the Erie. Is the legend of John Maynard of
broader scope than an isolated steamboat disaster? To answer this question, special attention
has been placed upon the ongoing controversy of Lake Erie’s naval history in the persons of
Perry and Elliott, which, through Cooper’s intercession as America’s maritime historian, fired
an ongoing debate extending far beyond 1841 and the conflagration of the Erie.
Although the Buffalo, New York – Erie, Pennsylvania run on Lake Erie is directly cited
(Detroit is not mentioned) in “The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” there is little in the way of
historical detail to identify the ill-starred Erie with the Jersey, even though the Erie was the
most spectacular example of a steamer on fire on Lake Erie prior to 1845, and caught fire
some fifty miles from Erie. The circumstances surrounding the fate and actual identity of the
young steersman of the Erie, Luther Fuller, shrouded as they are in mystery, are just as
inconclusive from an historical point of view.
41

All of this notwithstanding, legends can consist of fragments, whether true or false. What is
obvious from the beginning is that the writer is not intent upon singling out a particular
conflagration or helmsman. As such, even though the tale is tied to Lake Erie, it possesses a
universality extending beyond the apparent origins of any single event.
The year 1845 was a traumatic year for America. The nation lost one of her greatest
presidents and generals, Andrew Jackson. It has been argued that “The Helmsman” was in
large part a reaction to that watershed in American history.
Interestingly, the notion of “a single nautical occurrence” as a basis for a “work of the
imagination” (such as “The Helmsman”) was ruled out by Cooper in his 1850 Preface (his
third) to The Red Rover (1828):
“The history of this country has very little to aid the writer of fiction, whether the
scene be laid on land or on the water. With the exception of the well-known, though
meager incidents connected with the life of the Kidd [49], indeed, it would be very
difficult to turn to a single nautical occurrence [my emphasis] on this part of the
continent, in the hope of conferring on such a work of the imagination any portion of
that particular charm which is derived from facts clouded a little by time.”
James Fenimore Cooper, Sea Tales: The Pilot, The Red Rover (New York: Library
of America, 1991), p. 429.
The dichotomy between a hero on the battlefield and a hero in civilian life was strongly felt
by several editors who put out the “Helmsman” sketch. The excoriation of military generals
who use their soldiers as cannon fodder versus praise for a civilian who has the courage to
sacrifice his life for others is to be found in Benjamin B. French’s ballad in the concluding
stanza. The surprise that Lake Erie had been chosen as the setting was great, given the simple
fact that Perry was generally known – perhaps mistakenly – as “The Hero of Lake Erie.”
This paper has argued that a broader view of the history of Lake Erie is necessary to place
“The Helmsman” in the proper perspective. The title “The Hero of Lake Erie” is what is at
stake. If the acrimony and calumny engendered by the Perry-Elliott dispute, in which Cooper
was the central figure, only led to repeated attacks by critics, why not fight on a different
battleground and in the way Cooper knew best?
Just as Jackson in retirement was regarded as the “Father of the Nation,” as deeply revered
as General Washington before him, his strong belief in the validity of his faith helped him to
endure severe pain in his final years and to welcome the redemption he felt his faith provided.
This is a movement away from Jackson’s military past and towards an ex-president in civilian
life whose “love of God” [“Helmsman,” line 61] was obvious to all around him.
The close links of friendship between Jackson and Elliott, Elliott’s allegorical “figure head”
of Jackson on the USS Constitution, Eliott’s proposed gift of a sarcophagus and the resulting
controversy over where the Old Hero should be laid to rest, all of these factors point to a
political allegory of the first rank. James Fenimore Cooper’s objective Naval History of 1839
lent added support to Elliott’s cause and was tenaciously defended by Cooper in the years
leading up to Jackson’s death. A pamphlet, “The Battle of Lake Erie,” to stave off attack,
42

was published by Cooper in July 1843 [50], and Lives of Distinguished American Naval
Officers published in 1846, contained a reprint of Cooper’s 1843 biography of Perry in
Graham’s Magazine, again not retracting a word Cooper had already written in defense of
Elliott.
The conflagration of the Erie in 1841 played a subsidiary role in understanding the
historical substance behind the tale but obligingly delivered its structure in an historically
imperfect but imaginative form. [51] The naval history of the United States on Lake Erie was
a major force behind the conception of the 1845 sketch. Yet other considerations must also
receive their due: particularly Cooper’s preoccupation not just with America’s naval past but
with his own. The autobiographical intensity of Satanstoe with its Woolsey-like daredevil
Guert Ten Eyck is a case in point. Whether Lake Erie as in the Perry-Elliott controversy, or
Lake Ontario as in the overlapping characters of Melancthon Taylor Woolsey and Guert Ten
Eyck, the history of the Great Lakes and Cooper’s own experiences were very much on
Cooper’s mind in the year 1845.
Finally, the obvious should not be ignored. The ill-defined dividing line between the
guileless, religious, and simple-minded Natty Bumppo of Cooper’s Leather-Stocking tales
and John Maynard, the honest old helmsman of Lake Erie, suggests a character type that
Cooper had enjoyed working with since the appearance of The Pioneers in 1823.
The motives?
To blot out the legacy of hubris and acrimony deriving from the naval (hence “military”)
heroes of the past on Lake Erie while creating a new caliber of Hero, one whose only desire
was the well-being and salvation of his “passengers and crew” (symbolic of the American
nation), one who regarded fame on this earth as frivolous compared with the blessings of
immortality his Redeemer had promised him, a hero for all Americans – a national hero.
What we find in “The Helmsman” of 1845 is realistic description of the tumult of the
Buffalo harbor scene, the activity of the passengers, the injection of dramatic irony in the
misleadingly “pleasant May morning” that leaves passengers and crew unsuspecting but alerts
the reader to the horrors to come [52], the professional measures taken in a nautical setting to
meet the emergency of a ship on fire, the panic-stricken women questioning the helmsman of
the extent of the danger, the sparse narrative with the captain’s all-important question –
“Could you hold on five minutes longer?” with the pregnant response “I’ll try, sir” [53] –
followed up with the moving description of a dying hero determined to do just that –
essential ingredients that could fire Cooper’s poetic imagination and lead to a masterpiece.
Instead of accusing Cooper of being unable to write a short story or sketch, critics should
take a closer look at his thrilling tales in the form of scenes in his novels. The “sleigh ride on
the Hudson” in Satanstoe is a case in point. It is often regarded as Cooper’s finest single
episode [54] in the form of a thrilling tale. Both it and “The Helmsman” exhibit a kinship in
buildup, tone and elements. For an in-depth comparison of shared elements in the two tales,
the reader is encouraged to consult Section IX (“A Thrilling Tale of a Floating Bridge”) in
“The Author's Signature: The Good Ship Jersey in ‘The Helmsman of Lake Erie,’ and the
Significance of the Geography of New Jersey in the Works of James Fenimore Cooper.”
All too often it is said that Cooper availed himself of a “long-winded” and “antiquated”
style. Yet working with an episode fraught with danger, Cooper’s poetic imagination could
excel in creating a lively tale of suspense.
43

“The Helmsman of Lake Erie” represents the conjunction of Literature, History, Legend,
and Religion. The original 1845 text, in spite of all the alterations and draconian abridgments
it has been subjected to, has left ripples in the Western World to this very day. Given
Cooper’s unique position as a maritime expert, novelist, essayist and defender of American
values and society, and – whether he wanted to be or not – an outspoken partisan of Elliott’s
(for he was convinced by his own researches that Elliott had been maligned), Cooper’s
handwriting and signature cannot be misconstrued.
Admittedly a complex writer, Cooper was sadly underestimated both in the 19 th and 20 th
centuries, and subjected to malicious and unfair criticism by those who had yet to understand
the forms great literature could assume. In many ways there is a European aspect in the way
he saw the world:
“That America is the greatest country of ancient, or modern times, I shall not deny.
Every body says it, and what every body says, must be true. Nevertheless, I will
venture to hint, that, cæteris paribus, and where there is a disposition to think at all,
the intellectual existence of every American who goes to Europe, is more than doubled
in its intensity. This is the country of action, not of thought, or speculation. Men
follow out their facts to results, instead of reasoning them out. Then, the multiplicity
of objects and events that exist in the old countries to quicken the powers of the mind,
has no parallel here. It is owing to this want of the present and the past, which causes
the American, the moment he becomes speculative, to run into the future.”
Afloat and Ashore or, The Adventures of Miles Wallingford – Cooper
Edition/AMS, Pt. 2, Ch. XXX, pp. 424-425
Such a writer as Cooper, with a strong sense both of history and his own life story, will
combine both the present and the past in his works. When writing in 1845, he will look back
further than four years, and will instead consider historical currents that can include whole
generations. And, when forging new tales, he may think to himself:
“A History ought to be a matter of fact, though, like most men, it is seldom what it
ought to be.” - Cf. Annotation 12
In “The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” history was made to be as it ought to be.
NORMAN BARRY, BAD SCHUSSENRIED, GERMANY
JULY 2008,
UPDATED JANUARY 2010
44

ANNOTATIONS:
So as to facilitate access to source material, the author has compiled three folders or
files. The reader is encouraged to peruse this material in the belief that it can provide
additional help in coming to grips with the issues.
a) E : The Jesse Duncan Elliott File
b) J : The Death of General Andrew Jackson
c) M : The Gansevoort Melville Folder
The reference [E20] in blue, for example, will be to Text 20 in the Elliott file.
Abbreviations referring to the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper, referred to in this
article as the Cooper Edition, which is still in progress:
a) AMS: AMS Press, Inc. [AMS Studies in the Nineteenth Century, Brooklyn, N.Y.]
b) SUNY: State University of New York Press [Albany, N.Y.]
1 For the sake of brevity, the anonymous sketch entitled “The Helmsman of Lake
Erie” will often be referred to as “[The] Helmsman.” For the original 1845 text with
“A” and “B” variations highlighted and lines numbered, cf.
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/Numbered.pdf
Although the Baltimore Sun’s title deleted the initial definite article, most of
sketches printed subsequently begin with “The….”
The anonymous “Helmsman” sketch generally received front-page coverage without
any introductory statement. Although both the Baltimore Sun (Aug. 30, 1845 – “B”
textual variation) and the Wisconsin Argus (Sept. 2, 1845 – “A” textual variation)
placed “[The] Helmsman of Lake Erie” on the front page beneath what I shall term
the “Poem[s] of the Day,” the sketch was seldom deemed as complete “make-believe.”
The Pittsfield Sun (Sept. 4, 1845, an “A2” textual variation), also gave front-page
coverage to the tale, placing it in the “MISCELLANEOUS” section in the center of
the page. Interestingly, the number of Welshmen in the United States (70,000) was
also tossed into this column.
Only one instance – and with a time-lapse of nine years – of “a mere creation of some
one’s fantasy” has been located – yet even this significant instance was quickly
qualified and ultimately rejected at the end of the article: cf. The Portage County
Advocate, Ravenna, Ohio, Sept. 13, 1854,
http://homepage.mac/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/PCA.pdf , which considers reports
from the Philadelphia Evening Post, the Buffalo Express, and the Cleveland Herald
before reaching its own conclusions.
45

What has struck this writer time and again while looking at 19th-century newspapers
is what may be termed "anecdotal reporting," in which an alleged news item is cast
in the form of a sketch, often with dialogue, and leads up to a moral or an example
of how the reader can achieve moral progress. This “literary-journalistic” and - it
would seem – “moralistic” – approach to an event, whether real or fictitious, is
foreign to today’s newspaper reader. The British Workman (No. 107, Nov. 1863),
containing the John Bartholomew Gough rendering of “John Maynard,” is a
spectacular British example of anecdotal reporting. Not one “news item,” in the
current sense, can be found in its pages.
The Wisconsin Argus, in particular, devoted nearly the whole front page to anecdotal
reporting. The Baltimore Sun inserted a repetition of “THE SUN” as a divider
between its “Poetry Section” and “Helmsman of Lake Erie,” and continued with an
additional column of anecdotal reporting before reverting, without any clear
sectional transition, to what may nowadays be called “news.”
What to us today would obviously be deemed a mere anecdote, was - back then -
a means of conveying events, often with a strong didactic touch. It seems reasonable
to assert that the writer’s true purpose was hardly a sober description of an event, but
– much more important – the moral "lesson" which could be drawn from that
event.
2 For problems with ice and with water level, see Norman Barry, "Navigation and
Winter Ice on Lake Erie from 1821 to 1845, with References to Water Levels” (With
an Appendix of Newspaper Clippings dealing with Lake Erie and Buffalo Harbor):"
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/PleasantMM.pdf.
As the water level in 1841 was exceptionally low, the harbor could not be entered.
Vessels were, as in “The Helmsman,” required to ride at anchor outside the harbor
and to load and unload with small boats. The editor of the 1845 Buffalo Commercial
Advertiser did not consider the unusual conditions in 1841 when stating, as a general
rule, that vessels at Buffalo had no need to ride at anchor because the harbor facilities
were sufficient.
3 Dennis McBride’s testimony before the Coroner’s Jury of August 13, 1841, as reported
in The Weekly Herald (New York City), August 21, 1841, p. 396, c. 6:
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/1841l.pdf
“Says there was a fire engine on board, kept forward the wheel house; says the
engine was in order; saw it used on Friday before the fire; thinks the engine was
enveloped in flames in half a minute after the fire broke out; it can be got ready for
use in a moment.”
Wm. Hughes’ testimony before the Coroner’s in The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser
and Journal, August 14, 1841, p. 2, c. 1:
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/1841f.pdf
46

“The flames came up in a large body through the scuttle instantaneously; jumped
forward and informed the captain of the fire; then ran to the passage way and
called below for the men to get the buckets and rig the engine immediately; ran to
the fire engine and found the flames coming fiercely from below, high as the
walking-beam; ran forward to clear away the small boats.”
4 Cf. “Life Preservers and Pincushions,” The Baltimore Sun, August 9, 1856, p.1 ,
c.3: http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/LPs.pdf
5 Although the testimony at the Coroner’s Inquest was ambiguous as to the exact minute
or precise time when the engine first slowed down and finally stopped, the question
asked in the Weekly Herald (New York City) is based on the assumption that the
steamer had in fact stopped shortly after the fire broke out:
“What caused the stopping of the engine so soon after the fire broke out? The
engineer, it will be remembered could not stop it, when ordered to do so.”
- The Weekly Herald, New York, August 21 st , 1841, Vol. V, No. 48, p. 396,
column 3.
6 The articles by George Salomon can be accessed online at Anne Huberman’s John
Maynard Home Page:
a) George Salomon, “Who Is John Maynard?” in Fontane Blätter (Potsdam, East
Germany), Heft 2, 1965, pp. 25-40: Translated into English by Norman Barry
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/SalomonEnglish.pdf
b) George Salomon, “John Maynard of Lake Erie: The Genesis of a Legend” in
Niagara Frontier, Autumn 1964, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 73-86 & p. 104.
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/LegendGenesis.pdf
c) For a translation of Norman Barry’s own updated article on John Maynard in the
Fontane Blätter (the only comprehensive treatment of the genesis of the Maynard
legend in a German journal since Salomon’s 1965 article in Germany), cf. Norman
Barry, “Fontane’s ‘John Maynard:’ Newly discovered Source Material” in Fontane
Blätter (Potsdam, Germany), 85/2008, pp. 150-170.
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/SourcesEng.pdf
47

7 [Untitled], From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser of Aug. 14 as found in The
Weekly Herald, New York City, August 21st, 1841, p. 396, c. 4 :
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/1841q.pdf
8 Cf. Norman Barry, “The Triangle: Three German Lake Erie Ballads. Is Emil
Rittershaus the Catalyst behind Ada Linden’s and Theodor Fontane’s ‘John
Maynard’ Ballads?”
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/TriangleEng.pdf
Ada Linden is a pseudonym for Luise Förster. She was born on October 1 st , 1847.
Both Theodor Fontane’s and Ada Linden’s “John Maynard” ballads were influenced
by the poet Emil Ritterhaus. Credit goes to Anne Huberman for immediately
drawing attention to Ada Linden’s “John Maynard.” Cf.
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/TextualVar.pdf
For an English translation by the author, cf.
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/ADA_TR.pdf
9 The possibility that another newspaper had published an issue containing “The
Helmsman of Lake Erie” a week earlier than the Saturday, August 30 th issue of The
Baltimore Sun cannot be completely ruled out. If, however, The Baltimore Sun
should stand as the first source of the prose sketch, it must be assumed that the
anonymous author would also have sent copies directly to The Wisconsin Argus
(Madison, Wisconsin Territory, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 1845) and The Pittsfield Sun
(Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Thursday, Sept. 4 1845) as there was simply insufficient
time for one newspaper to “borrow” or “pilfer” from the other. The concept of
selection by the author rather than pirating in the very first days following publication
is particularly attractive as the Baltimore Sun exhibits the “B” textual variation,
whereas both the Wisconsin Argus and the Pittsfield Sun (only two days apart from
each other) are of the “A” variety, suggesting separate distribution, hence selection.
The question as to why such places as Madison and Pittsfield were “elected” remains
one of the more fascinating mysteries involving distribution. The exact number of
newspapers that printed the sketch between 1845 and 1860 has yet to be definitively
determined but exceeds thirty different newspapers. This, of course, may well be only
the tip of the iceberg.
10 The significance of Bancroft’s “without a groan” may have been a signal catalyst
triggering the creation of “The Helmsman.” The Cooperian motif of “dying like a
Christian” and enduring pain finds a worthy representative in the person of the dying
Jackson, who, deeply religious in his later years, places his faith in his Redeemer.
Jackson’s death could only serve to inspire James Fenimore Cooper, who was well
acquainted with the deaths of “Old Heroes” in his works of fiction. Cf. Norman
Barry, “ ‘The Helmsman of Lake Erie’ in Light of the Role Played by Religion in
the Fictional Writing of James Fenimore Cooper or, The Secret Why the Good
Man, When Dying, Does Not Groan:”
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/MARTYRSDEATH.pdf
48

11 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (New York: Book-of-the-Month
Club, Inc., originally Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1945), p.
276.
12 Cf. Lawrence J. Friedman and David Curtis Skaggs, “Jesse Duncan Elliott and
the Battle of Lake Erie: The Issue of Mental Stability,” Journal of the Early
Republic, 10 (Winter 1990), p. 494 (quoting Samuel Eliot Morison). Although the
article establishes that Commodore Elliott’s mental makeup was no different than that
of other American naval officers of his day and age, it becomes quite clear that up to
the end of the twentieth century Commodore Elliott was still a highly controversial
figure among naval historians.
Cf. David Curtiss Skaggs, “Aiming at the Truth: James Fenimore Cooper and the
Battle of Lake Erie,” The Journal of Military History, 59 (April 1995), pp. 237-256.
A fascinating and rewarding portrayal of both Cooper and the Battle of Lake Erie.
The introductory quote on p. 237 deserves requoting:
“A History ought to be a matter of fact, though, like most men, it is seldom
what it ought to be. I aimed at truth in mine, and I believe I am nearer to it,
than most historians, though I fear some mistakes must exist. At all events, I
knew too much to swallow all the stuff that has been in circulation, and have
purified the accounts of battles, from a vast deal of exaggerated nonsense.”
James Franklin Beard, ed., The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, 6
vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960-1968, vol. 3, p. 378: Letter
527. To Daniel Dewey Barnard; From Otsego Hall, Cooperstown, May 22d, 1839.
13 Cf. James D. Wallace (Boston College), “Cooper on Corporal Punishment,”
Presented at the Cooper Panel of the 1997 Conference of the American Literature
Association in Baltimore : http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/ala/1997alawallace.html
. To find out what Cooper, a navy expert, thought of corporal
punishment, the following excerpt from Wallace’s essay is helpful:
“The suspicion that Myers' view regarding flogging was closer to Cooper's own
than that of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. is confirmed by the new preface that
Cooper wrote in 1849 for The Pilot. There he alludes to the reform movement
(by then on the brink of success) as misguided at best:
‘It is not easy to make the public comprehend all the necessities
of a service afloat. With several hundred rude beings confined
within the narrow limits of a vessel, men of all nations and of
the lowest habits, it would be to the last degree indiscreet, to
commence their reformation by relaxing the bonds of discipline,
under the mistaken impulses of a false philanthropy. It has a
lofty sound, to be sure, to talk about American citizens being too
good to be brought under the lash, upon the high seas; but he
must have a very mistaken notion who does not see that tens of
49

thousands of these pretending persons on shore, even, would be
greatly benefited by a little judicious flogging.’”
The Pilot – Cooper Edition/SUNY, Preface (1849), pp. 7-8
14 Cf. Robert D. Madison (United States Naval Academy), “Cooper and the Sea: A
Bibliographic Note,” The American Neptune, Vol. 57, No. 4, Fall 1997, pp. 371-372:
“In 1839 Cooper published the first of several editions of The History of the
Navy of the United States of America, a life-long work which had been in
Cooper's mind since his review of Thomas Clark's Naval History in the
Literary and Scientific Repository in 1821. Cooper's own naval history opened
a decade of intense naval writing that was to include "The Edinburgh Review
on James's Naval Occurrences and Cooper's Naval History" (1842), The
Battle of Lake Erie (1843), Ned Myers (1843), "An Elaborate Review" in
Proceedings of the Naval Court Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell
Mackenzie (1844), and Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers
(published 1846, from sketches written 1842-1846). Two other pieces
apparently begun during this period were published posthumously: "Old
Ironsides" (1853) and "The Battle of Plattsburg Bay"(1869).”
http://www.oneonta.edu/external/cooper/articles/other/1997othermadison2.html
With regard to Cooper’s Lives of Distinguished American
Naval Officers, although published in 1846, it was copyrighted in 1845.
Consequently, it is probable that the work was completed by 1845 unless
copyrighted before completion.
15 Hugh Egan (Ithaca College), “Enabling and Disabling the Lake Erie Discussion:
James Fenimore Cooper and Alexander Slidell Mackenzie Respond to the
Perry/Elliott Controversy.” Originally published in The American Neptune (Vol. 57,
No. 4, Fall 1997) (pp. 343-350):
http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/other/1997other-egan.html On p. 4
(Internet): “Mackenzie was related by marriage to the Perry clan and was, like Cooper
himself, something of a sailor-author. Cooper had served three years in the Navy
(1808-1811), stationed on Lake Ontario;…”
With regard to Cooper and Lake Ontario, the following article is a “must”: Robert
D. Madison (Northwestern University) with Mary K. Madison (Northeastern
University), “Guides in the Wilderness: An Extract, Glossary, and Chart of Cooper’s
Fictional and Factual Boat Journeys on Lake Ontario.” Presented at the 4 th Cooper
Seminar, James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art at the State University of
New York College at Oneonta, July, 1982:
http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/suny/1982suny-madison2.html
16 James Fenimore Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper, edited by
his grandson James Fenimore Cooper, vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press),
1922), pp. 556-557.
50

A lengthy excerpt from Dana’s letter to Cooper follows. The letter clearly reflects
the charged atmosphere of the year 1845.
J. F. Cooper, Esq.
FROM RICHARD HENRY DANA
Boston, November 10, 1845
My dear Sir―
. . . .
I will speak as “frankly” as you ask me to do. I can only give you my
general impressions, being too little in the world to have any distinct
knowledge of particulars as respects feelings, opinions, or rather notions, afloat
here or elsewhere. You must consider that Perry being a New Englander and
from a State [Rhode Island] bordering close to us, and one with which we were
in intimate relation, it almost necessarily followed that our people should take a
peculiar pride in his success ― something beyond that merely of being a
fellow-countryman; ―they felt and claimed the honor of near relationship.
After the peace he visited Boston, and through all the attentions paid to him
bore himself modestly. He was a young man also, and, as I remember him,
with a mild expression of countenance, which you know is particularly
pleasing in military men in civil life.
In consequence of this and of the stories then current, a contrary feeling
towards Elliott may of course have been stronger here than elsewhere. When
some few years back E. came here he came among a people more or less
prejudiced against him; and the first act done under him (and, as understood, by
him) at our navy-yard, was to put the figure head of Jackson (a man then
generally most heartedly hated here) upon Old Ironsides, our Old Ironsides,
born among us and one of us: it was felt as if it were a personal insult to us.
Looking at both instances, you see how naturally the state of feeling prevailing
here was produced, seeming to grow up unconsciously out of the run of
circumstances.
I have very little belief that people have been saying―we won’t read
Cooper―our “minds are made up.” And I much doubt whether they have read
more of Mackenzie and your opponents than they have of what you have
written. I suppose their reading to have been principally confined to the
newspapers, and what may have appeared in our Monthly Rev s
etc., among other articles. I have gotten this impression―for it is nothing
more―I scarcely know how; and I have another still stronger, that as concerns
you personally, if there is any ill feeling, it is very slight and confined to the
most ignorant, and entirely unworthy of your notice.
Now, as to your lecturing on the subject. I do not see how one situated as
you are could come here and lecture upon the matter without appearing to take
advantage of your place as lecturer to turn what should be a mere public affair
at such a time into something personal to yourself. It seems to me that on all
such occasions the true course is for a man to avoid all that may even appear to
bear upon himself. Allow me to ask would it not be calling out towards you a
deeper feeling of respect to make no allusion to this subject, than you could
possibly excite even by a defense of your ground that should be conclusive to
the minds of your audience?
51

Besides, were you to take a contrary course, some would say, let us hear the
other side; and your antagonists might claim a right to be heard, and the
lecture-room would be turned into a battle-ground.
17 James Fenimore Cooper, Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers
(Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1846), vol. 2, p. 204. [“Entered according to Act of
Congress, in the year 1845, by Carey & Hart, in the Clerk’s Office of the District
Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.”]:
“Though victory crowned the efforts of the Americans, the commanding
vessel, the Lawrence, struck her flag to the enemy, while the Niagara, a vessel
every way her equal in force, did not get her full share of the combat until near
its close. Nothing is more certain than that both peculiarities might have
occurred without blame being properly attached to any one; but nothing was
more natural than that such circumstances should lead to accusations,
recriminations, and quarrels. Most of the officers were exceedingly young
men, and, while some of the Niagara were indiscreet in accusing those who
surrendered the Lawrence of having tarnished the luster of the day, those of the
Lawrence retorted by accusing the Niagara of not having properly supported
them. When this business of recrimination commenced, or which party was the
aggressor, it would now most probably be in vain to ask; but the result has been
one of the most protracted and bitter controversies that has ever darkened the
pages of the history of the American marine; and a controversy to which
political malignancy has endeavored to add its sting [my emphasis].”
18 H. W. Brands, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
(New York: Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., 2000; paperback edition
(New York: Anchor Books, March 2002), p. 23 & p. 720 (footnote to p. 23).
19 The signal expression “Iron Heart” is from a poem entitled “Andrew Jackson” by C.
D. Stuart, originally published in the Albany Journal. Reprinted in The Wisconsin
Argus (Madison, Wisconsin Territory), September 2, 1845, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Whole No. 55), p.
1, c. 1. The poem was composed in Boston on July 13, 1845. The poem is in the same
issue and on the same page as the “Helmsman of Lake Erie.”
20 Cf. Gansevoort Melville speaking out for the candidacy of “Young Hickory:” “…we
will give him [=James K. Polk] a name such as Andrew Jackson in the baptism of fire
and blood at New-Orleans; we will rechristen him [my emphasis]. Hereafter he shall be
known by the name that we now give him – it is, Young Hickory. (Here the cheering
was deafening, and continued for some moments. A voice, ‘you’re a good twig of Old
52

Hickory, too!’ – laughter and renewed cheering).” - The Pittsfield Sun (Pittsfield, Mass.),
June 13, 1844, vol. XLIV, no. 2282, p. 2, c. 2-3.
21 Cf. Norman Barry, “The Surname Maynard in the Context of the Tales of the Two
Lucys: Miss Martha Russell’s ‘Lucy Maynard’ and Lucy Hardinge in James Fenimore
Cooper’s Afloat and Ashore or, The Adventures of Miles Wallingford”:
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/Lucy.pdf
22 Benjamin B. French, Baltimore Sun, September 5, 1845, p. 1, c. 3
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/FrenchBalt.pdf . Reprinted
in The Albany Argus (day in early September 1845 unknown); The Cleveland Plain
Dealer, September 10, 1845, p. 3, c. 2; The Jeffersonian Republican (New Orleans),
September 16, 1845, p. 2, c. 4; and The Barre Gazette (Barre, Worchester County,
Massachusetts) October 10, 1845, p.1, c.1.
23 Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 49 (New York City, Harper & Bros.,
June 1854), pp. 565-566 (“Editor’s Drawer”): Cf. “Appendix”,
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/TwoMissingLinks.pdf
24 The opening lines of the sketch were also thought to indicate a product of foreign
extraction inasmuch as an American in 1841 (or 1845) would “obviously” be
sufficiently familiar with the fame of America’s Great Lakes:
“You know, I dare say, that Erie is one of the sea-lakes for which America is so
famous; and as you stand on its shore, and see the green waves dashing in one after
another, you might well think you were looking A: at / B: on the A: green / B:great ocean
itself.” “The Helmsman of Lake Erie,” lines 3-9
“A”-reading: Wisconsin Argus, Sept. 2, 1845;
“B”-reading: Baltimore Sun, August 30, 1845.
Cooper’s Pathfinder: or, the Inland Sea was published in 1840. A striking passage on
the Great Lakes for uninformed Americans which even provides a parenthetical
introduction with “you must know” [instead of “You know, I dare say,” as in “The Helmsman”]
deserves mention:
“These great lakes, you must know, make a chain, the water passing out of one
into the other, until it reaches Lake Erie, which is a sheet off here to the
westward, as large as Ontario itself. Well, out of Erie the water comes, until it
reaches a low mountain like, over the edge of which [i.e., Niagara Falls!] it
passes”
That the matter-of-fact statement is not regarded by all as common knowledge, can be
seen in Master Cap’s immediate reaction:
53

“I should like to know how the devil it can do that?”
The Pathfinder: or, The Inland Sea – Library of America, Ch. XII, p.185 in
James Fenimore Cooper, The Leatherstocking Tales, Vol. II; Cooper
Edition/SUNY: p. 179.
25 Although Salomon was correct that “vest” is often preferred to “waistcoat,” he ignored
the fact that American writers in the first half of the 19 th century often availed
themselves of British words and expressions. W. C. Bryant’s “Discourse on the Life,
Genius, and Writings of James Fenimore Cooper,” paying tribute to the man who
had passed away five months earlier, was delivered at Metropolitan Hall, N.Y.
February 25, 1852. With regard to Cooper’s very first novel, Precaution, Bryant
noted:
“It had, however, the honor of being adopted by the country whose manners it
described, and, being early republished in Great Britain, passed from the first
for an English novel.” Precaution – Michigan Historical Reprint Series, p. 7
Cooper provides a spectacular anecdote of a “waistcoat” in his Lives of Distinguished
Naval Officers, published less than a year after “The Helmsman of Lake Erie:”
“In the campaign in which Quebec was taken, Mr. [Edward] Preble served as
captain. On the Plains of Abraham, he was quite near Wolfe when he fell, and
he was wounded himself in the course of the celebrated battle. In that day,
waistcoats were worn with flaps that descended some distance down the thigh,
and a bullet struck Capt. Preble, penetrated this part of the dress, and entered
the flesh, carrying with it, however, so much of his different garments that the
wounded officer was enabled to extract the lead himself, by pulling upon the
cloth.” Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, vol. 1, p. 172,
March and May 1846
That Cooper took a keen interest in changing fashions can be seen in the following
citation from Gleanings in Europe: France, not published till 1837:
“It is impossible for me to say what changes the revolution, and the wars, and
the new notions, may have produced in France, but there is no sufficient reason
for believing that the present cropped and fringeless, bewhiskered, and laceless
generation of France differs more from their be-wigged, belaced, and powdered
predecessors, than the men and women of any other country differ from their
particular ancestors. Boys wore cocked hats, and breeches, and swords, in
America, previously to the revolution; and our immediate fathers flourished in
scarlet coats, powder, ruffled fingers, and embroidered waistcoats.”
Gleanings in Europe: France – Cooper Edition/SUNY, Letter
XIV, “To James Stevenson, Esquire, Albany,” p. 171)
54

Even towards the end of his life, in his final novel, Ways of the Hour, both
“waistcoat” and a jab at newspapermen were fair game:
“You cannot expect that a lady of fashion, who plays on the harp and talks
French, will show her pretty face to be gazed at by common folk,” rejoined a
shabby-genteel sort of personage, out of whose waistcoat-pocket obtruded the
leaves of a small notebook, and the end of a gold pen. This man was a
reporter, rendered malignant by meeting with opposition to his views of
imagining that the universe was created to furnish paragraphs for newspapers.
He was a half-educated European, who pronounced all his words in a sort of
boarding-school dialect, as if abbreviation offended a taste ‘sicken’d over by
learning.’” Ways of the Hour, Ch. XIX, p. 314, 1850
The “waistcoat-pocket” of 1850, was nothing new for Cooper. Already in 1821, in his
first great success, The Spy, a quote can be found:
“The boy arriving with a ring, Caesar placed it carefully in the pocket of his
waistcoat next to his heart,…” The Spy – Michigan Historical Reprint Series, p.
337 (last page of Ch. XXI), Dec. 1821
26 For an in-depth consideration of the impact of New Jersey upon Cooper and his
writing, cf. Norman Barry, “The Author's Signature: The Good Ship Jersey in
‘The Helmsman of Lake Erie,’ and the Significance of the Geography of New
Jersey in the Works of James Fenimore Cooper:”
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/Jersey.pdf
27 Robert W. Neeser (Secretary of the Naval Society, New York City), “Cooper’s Sea
Tales.” Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association,
Vol. XVI, pp. 63-68, 1917. Cf.
http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/nyhistory/1917nyhistory-neeser.html
28 Cf. J. Fenimore Cooper, The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: BEING THE
CONCLUSION OF THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS. (New York: Burgess &
Stringer, 1846), Ch. III, p. 53. Reprinted in Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprints,
ISBN 143044861X.
29 Allen M. Axelrad (California State University at Fullerton), “‘Aristocracy
forsooth!…the Blackguard is the Aristocrat’: James Fenimore Cooper on Congress
and Capitalism,” Presented at the 10 th Cooper Seminar, James Fenimore Cooper: His
Country and His Art at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, July
1995. http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/suny/1995suny-axelrad.html
55

30 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson, Annotation 11 , p. 379.
31 For a look at the religious character of Cooper’s heroes, cf. Norman Barry, “ ‘The
Helmsman of Lake Erie’ in Light of the Role Played by Religion in the Fictional
Writing of James Fenimore Cooper or, The Secret Why the Good Man,
When Dying, Does Not Groan:”
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/MARTYRSDEATH.pdf
32 Donald A. Ringe (University of Kentucky), “Cooper Today: A Partisan View”,
Presented at the 7 th Cooper Seminar, James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His
Art at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, July 1989.
http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/suny/1989suny-ringe.html
33 Elliott’s notion of handing Cooper the Navy Office had been entertained before.
Whether, in 1836, Elliott was also “pulling strings” is, however, not clear:
436. To Mrs. Cooper Astor House – July 1 st 1836
“A foolish paragraph is going the rounds that I want to be Secretary of the
Navy. I have caused it to be contradicted, though I fear some of the officers
are making a little influence to that effect, else it is not easy to see whence the
report should have come [Ftn. 1]”
[Ftn. 1] “Mr. Cooper called upon us this morning, in consequence of a
rumor pointing him out as an applicant for the office of Secretary of the
Navy. He requests us, in his name, to pronounce the report entirely
destitute of foundation. Mr. C. stated expressly, that he had neither
applied for, nor was desirous of obtaining, any office of a political
character. This explicit disclaimer of the intention imputed to him, of
course, sets the matter at rest.”
(The New York Journal of Commerce, 30 June 1836) The Letters
and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. III, p. 223 & p. 225
(ftn.)
34 The importance of a lock of Jackson’s hair in Cooper’s day and age can be seen in
Cooper’s treatment of the locket Miles Wallingford gives to Lucy Hardinge in
56

Cooper’s mammoth novel Afloat and Ashore or, The Adventures of Miles
Wallingford, written between December 1843 and August 1844:
“I could see that Lucy was delighted with her locket. It was a very pretty
ornament, in the first place, and it had her own hair, that of Grace, Rupert, and
my own, very prettily braided together, so as to form a wreath, made like rope,
or a grummet, encircling a combination of letters that included all our initials.
In this there was nothing that was particular, while there was much that was
affectionate.” Cooper Edition/ AMS, Pt. 1, Ch. VIII, p. 119
When, towards the end of the two-part novel, both Lucy and Miles have confessed
their true feelings for one another, Miles’s reaction is revealing:
“She [=Lucy] drew the locket I had given her from her dress, and placed it in my
hands, still warm from lying near her heart! I had no choice, but to kiss Lucy
again, or to kiss this locket; and I did both, by way of leaving no further
grounds for self-reproach. I say, kiss her again, for, to own the truth, I had
already done so many times in that interview.”
Cooper Edition/ AMS, Pt. 2, Ch. XXVIII, p. 382.
35 Cooper’s description of this visit to Buffalo and Niagara Falls is in Chapter 30
of Oak Openings (published in August 1848, pp. 565-567/582), with a
reference to a former visit to Niagara, which Cooper states was “thirty-eight”
years earlier:
“Quitting our own quiet and secluded abode in the mountains, in the pleasant
month of June, and in this current year of 1848, we descended into the valley
of the Mohawk, got into cars, and went flying by rails toward the setting sun.
Well could we remember the time when an entire day was required to pass
between that point on the Mohawk where we got on the rails, and the little
village of Utica. On the present occasion, we flew over the space in less than
three hours, and dined in a town of some fifteen thousand souls.
We reached Buffalo, at the foot of Lake Erie, in about twenty hours after we
had entered the cars. This journey would have been the labor of more than a
week, at the time in which the scene of this tale occurred. Now, the whole of
the beautiful region, teeming with its towns and villages, and rich with the
fruits of a bountiful season, was almost brought into a single landscape by the
rapidity of our passage.
At Buffalo, we turned aside to visit the cataract. Thither, too, we went on rails.
Thirty-eight years had passed since we had laid eyes on this wonderful fall of
water. [My emphasis] In the intervening time we had traveled much, and had
visited many of the renowned falls of the old world, to say nothing of the great
number which are to be found in other parts of our own land. Did this visit,
then, produce disappointment? Did time, and advancing years, and feelings that
had been deadened by experience, contribute to render the view less striking,
less grand, in any way less pleasing than we had hoped to find it? So far from
this, all our expectations were much more than realized. In one particular,
touching which we do not remember ever to have seen anything said, we were
57

actually astonished at the surpassing glory of Niagara. It was the character of
sweetness, if we can so express it, that glowed over the entire aspect of the
scene. We were less struck with the grandeur of this cataract, than
with its sublime softness and gentleness. To water in agitation, use had so long
accustomed us, perhaps, as in some slight degree to lessen the feeling of awe
that is apt to come over the novice in such scenes; but we at once felt
ourselves attracted by the surpassing loveliness of Niagara. The gulf below
was more imposing than we had expected to see it, but it was Italian in hue and
softness, amid its wildness and grandeur. Not a drop of the water that fell
down that precipice inspired terror; for everything appeared to us to be filled
with attraction and love. Like Italy itself, notwithstanding so much that is
grand and imposing, the character of softness, and the witchery of the gentler
properties, is the power we should ascribe to Niagara, in preference to that of
its majesty. We think this feeling, too, is more general than is commonly
supposed, for we find those who dwell near the cataract playing around it, even
to the very verge of its greatest fall, with a species of affection, as if they had
the fullest confidence in its rolling waters. Thus it is that we see the little
steamer, the Maid of the Mist, paddling up quite near to the green sheet of the
Horse-Shoe itself, and gliding down in the current of the vortex, as it is
compelled to quite the eddies, and come more in a line with the main course of
the stream. Wires, too, are suspended across the gulf below, and men pass it in
baskets. It is said that one of these inventions is to carry human beings over
the main fall, so that the adventurer may hang suspended in the air, directly
above the vortex. In this way do men, and even women, prove their love for
the place, all of which we impute to its pervading character of sweetness and
attraction.
At Buffalo we embarked in a boat under the English flag, which is called the
Canada. This shortened our passage to Detroit by avoiding all the stops at
lateral ports, and we had every reason to be satisfied with our selection. Boat,
commander, and the attendance were such as would have done credit to any
portion of the civilized world. There were many passengers, a motley
collection, as usual, from all parts of the country.”
That Cooper was obliged to go on business involving land holdings [cf. L&J, vol.
V, p. 219] to Michigan and, in particular, to Detroit more than once, is hinted at
in his letter to the Committee of Arrangements of the New-York Historical
Society of October 31 st 1844. Due to an expected engagement “on the 22 nd” [of
November] in Detroit, Cooper was unable to accept an invitation for Nov. 20.
Whether he actually went to Detroit or was able to get out of the trip remains
uncertain as no correspondence has been found between November 20 (a letter
written from Philadelphia) and December 2 nd (one from Cooperstown). [Cf.
Letter #777 in L&J, vol. IV, p. 482]. His interest in Detroit is also reflected in a
letter to Mrs. Cooper, dated July 4 th , 1845: “As yet no news from Detroit, ….”
[Cf. L&J, Letter #811, vol. V, p. 43].
36 Cf. James Fenimore Cooper, Lives of Distinguished American Naval
Officers, 2 vols (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1846): Vol. II, p. 130.
(Henceforth referred to as Lives.) The inclusion of “Woolsey” in Lives,
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involves “no changes of moment” from the original article in Graham’s
Magazine over a year earlier:
“The other numbers shall be sent in a day, or two, though you can print
Dale & Woolsey, if you see fir from Graham. They will contain no
changes of moment.”
The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper in 6 vols. James
Franklin Beard, Ed., (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of
Harvard Univ. Press, 1968): cf. Vol. V., p. 95, Letter # 840. To Carey and
Hart; From Hall, Cooperstown, Nov. 1 /1845.
37 Cf. Lives, Vol. II, p. 113.
38 Cf. The Letters and Journals, Vol. V., pp. 6-7, Letter # 787. To Richard
Bentley; From Otsego Hall, Cooperstown, Jan. 22 nd 1845.
39 Cf. The Letters and Journals, Vol. V., p. 92, Letter # 839. To
Richard Henry Dana; From Hall, Cooperstown, Oct. 30 th , 1845.
40 Although the sources of most of Cooper’s epigraphs have been successfully located,
one aspect of Cooper’s works that has not been sufficiently tackled by critics or analysts
is an interpretation of why Cooper chose a particular epigraph to adorn the beginning of
each chapter and often the beginning of a book. The reader will suspect that more than
“decoration” is involved, yet the meaning or relevance of the epigraph for the chapter in
question may be far from clear.
Satanstoe opens in Chapter One with the following epigraph from Wm.
Shakespeare’s As You Like It, II, iv., 19-21:
“—Look you who comes here:
A young man, and an old, in solemn talk.”
“You who comes here” may be Cooper addressing his reader. Is the young
man the young Cooper, and the old man Cooper himself looking back upon his
youth and attempting to redefine it? The “solemn talk,” in this case, would
then be the “Littlepage Manuscript” we find in Satanstoe.
41 Apart from his 1809 visit to the Falls and the description of his 1848 Lake Erie
voyage in Oak Openings, which apparently mistakenly fixes the first visit at “thirtyeight”
years earlier instead of “thirty-nine,” there is also a realistic fictional account of “A
Tour Westward” in The Travelling Bachelor; or, Notions of the Americans, pp. 241-
242, published in England in June 1828 and in the United states two months later:
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DESCRIPTION OF A TOUR WESTWARD
TO SIR EDWARD WALLER; BART.
&c. &c.
New-York,
AFTER having ascended the Hudson as far as Albany, in company with La Fayette,
and taken our leave of the veteran, our faces were turned west. At that place we saw a
few remaining evidences of the Dutch, in the names and in the construction of a good
many houses; but the city (containing about 16,000 inhabitants) is chiefly modern.
Our route, for sixty or seventy miles, was along one of the great thoroughfares of the
interior, when we inclined to the south, and having traversed a considerable tract of
country to the southward of the beaten track of travellers, we entered the state of
Pennsylvania, west of the Susquehannah, and proceeded to Pittsburgh. Thence we
descended the Alleghany river to the Ohio, made a wide circuit in the state of the same
name, and returned, by way of Lake Erie, to Buffalo (in New-York), which is a
thriving fresh-water lake-port. We spent, of course, a few days examining the mighty
cataract of Niagara, and in visiting the shores of Lake Ontario. On our return east, we
followed the line of the great canal as far as Utica, where we made a diversion
towards the north, for a couple of hundred miles, in order to permit Cadwallader to
visit an estate of which he is proprietor. This duty performed, we made our way along
the skirts of a wild and nearly uninhabited region, to the famous watering places at
Saratoga and Ballstown; passed the Hudson at Troy, and crossing a spur of the Green
Mountains, penetrated Massachusetts by its western border; traversed a small portion
of Connecticut in a new direction; re-entered New-York above the Highlands, through
which we journeyed by land, and regained this city, after an absence of about six
weeks. We must have travelled, by land and water, between twelve and fifteen
hundred miles.
As late as 1850, a bit more than one year before his death, Cooper was again at the
Cataract, this time with his wife and daughter. Susan perhaps surprised her husband
with her girlish delight:
Letter 1085. To William Branford Shubrick
Hall, Cooperstown, July 22d 1850
We – my wife and Charlotte and self – have been nearly across Michigan. We did the
falls effectually. Went in the Maid of the Mist, fairly into the spray of both falls,
sheering the boat within the Horse Shoe. I do not think there is any danger, though
there is a devil of a roaring, nor do I think the boat could be forced against the surges
under the fall. I suppose we must have been thirty fathoms from the falling sheet,
except as we came up in the eddy under Goat Island, where we must have been within
half that distance. We were fairly in the spray, however, which was like rain. The
boat comes up from the Suspension Bridge, a distance of two miles, and the scenery is
beautiful. Table Rock, or what is left of it, is still the best place to see the Falls, but
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the passage in the boat is the most exciting and agreeable. My wife was delighted, and
so far from being afraid, she scampered around the boat with the rest, like a girl of
sixteen. - Letters & Journals, Vol. VI, p. 207
42 Cf. Lives, Vol. II, p. 114.
43 Cf. Lives, Vol. II, p. 144.
44 Cf. Lives, Vol. II, pp. 126-127, footnote.
45 James [Fenimore] Cooper’s father, William Cooper died at the age of fifty-five
on December 22, 1809. His brother Richard Cooper, barely thirty-five years
of age, died on March 8, 1813. Cf. Wayne Franklin, James Fenimore
Cooper: The Early Years, pp. 129-130 and p. 176.
46 Cf. Susan Fenimore Cooper, Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James
Fenimore Cooper, with Notes by Susan Fenimore Cooper (New York:
W.A.Townsend and Co., 1861), p. 353:
“The name of "Satanstoe" was given to this book in a fit of intense
disgust at the unmeaning absurdity of the newly-coined word of "Hurl
Gate," which he often stigmatized as a piece of "canting corruption."
He maintained that the name of Hell-Gate should either be left in its
original form or entirely abandoned for something new; and Hurl-Gate
he conceived a flagrant absurdity, quite unworthy of people of common
sense.”
On p. 10 of Satanstoe, Corny is up in arms because an attempt is being made
by a “Yankee,” of all people, to justify the corrupted form of “Dibbleton:”
“…we are not a people much given to altering the language, any more
than the customs of our ancestors.”
Another possible consideration that may have aided Cooper in arriving at the
combination of “Satan” (for “Devil”) and “Toe” (as an appendage) is to be
found in the Woolsey chapter in the Lives, describing the voyage to Niagara in
June 1809, pages 130 (& 132):
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“Relying on his sails, Woolsey had taken but four men, and this was not
a force to do much with the oars, so that turning to windward was the
business most of the time. Three times the boat beat up to a headland,
called the Devil’s Nose, and twice it was compelled, by the wind and
sea, to bear up, before it could weather it.”
A nose can be “turned up” (or “inverted”) as easily as a toe!
47 The sum of one hundred dollars in the year 1850 seems paltry compared with what
Cooper was raking in back in 1831 while still in Paris:
“You need not hesitate [to accept my invitation to be my copyist in Europe], for I tell you in
confidence, that I have the prospect of receiving this year near or quite twenty
thousand dollars.”
The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, vol. II, p. 159, Letter
241, To Elizabeth Caroline De Lancey, [=Cooper’s sister-in-law]. From
Paris, December 3d, 1831.
48 An additional reason for “going Cooper-bashing” could well be his poetic
portrayal of the North American Indian – who, in Cooper’s works, is every bit as worthy
and human as a “pale face.” A hostile reception on the part of a bigoted Press and a
bigoted society is argued in a provocative article by Barbara Alice Mann entitled
“Race Traitor” in A Historical Guide to James Fenimore Cooper, edited by Leland S.
Person (Oxford & New York, etc.: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 155-186.
Professor Mann also argues that Natty Bumppo may well have been of mixed race, an
assertion this writer finds difficult to reconcile with the question of “honesty to oneself,”
which to Cooper boiled down to “honesty to God.”
In Afloat and Ashore or, The Adventures of Miles Wallingford, there is the tale of an
old Indian chief significantly named Smudge, which takes place on the northwest coast of
America, roughly as far north as present-day British Columbia.
Miles’s first thoughts regarding Smudge:
“Emotion and he, if they had ever been acquainted, now appeared to be utter
strangers to each other; nor, was this apathy in the least like the well known
Stoicism of the American Indian, but had the air of downright insensibility.
Yet this man assuredly had a soul, a spark of the never dying flame that
separates man from all the other beings of earth!”
- Cooper Edition/AMS, Pt. I, Ch. XII, p. 182
By successfully pretending to be ignorant and almost “subhuman,” Smudge, together
with his band of savages, was able to steal the vessel Miles and Moses were on, while
killing the captain. Only with a bit of luck and with Miles’s own cunning was it possible
to recapture the vessel. Miles’s observation while still in captivity is one no one should
ever forget:
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“Unpromising as he [=Smudge] seemed, this fellow had a spirit that fitted him
for great achievements, and which, under other circumstances, might have
made him a hero. He taught me the useful lesson of not judging of men by
their exteriors.” - Cooper Edition/AMS, Pt. I, Ch. XIII, final paragraph
It will be noted that the subsequent hanging of Smudge is linked thematically with the
Somers mutiny affair and the court-martial of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a strong
adherent of the Perry faction and one of Cooper’s most persistent rivals in the Perry-
Elliott dispute. (Cf. Afloat and Ashore or, The Adventures of Miles Wallingford, Cooper
Edition/AMS, Part 1, Historical Introduction by Thomas Philbrick and Marianne Philbrick, p. xiii,
and Explanatory Notes: 219.20-21.
49 Encyclopædia Britannica, Micropædia: “Kidd, William, byname CAPTAIN KIDD (b.
c. 1645, Greenock, Renfrew, Scot. d. May 23, 1701, London), 17 th -century British
privateer and semilegendary pirate who became celebrated in English literature as one of
the most colourful outlaws of all time. Fortune seekers have hunted his buried treasure in
vain throughout the centuries.”
50 For a reader’s reaction to the pamphlet of July 1843, the following letter to
Cooper is quoted in its entirety. It goes without saying that Mr. Sutherland was right as to
“the final judgement of the Country on the matter.”
From Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper, edited by his grandson
James Fenimore Cooper, vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press), 1922),
pp. 507-508:
J. Fenimore Cooper, Esq., Cooperstown
FROM J. SUTHERLAND
Geneva, August 30, 1843
My Dear Cooper,
I have read your Pamphlet on the Battle of Lake Erie. You certainly
place your Adversaries in a very awkward predicament, and fully establish, as
it appears to me, the accuracy of your historical account of that Battle. You
have shown your usual moral courage in undertaking the Vindication of Elliott,
in opposition to the universal Sentiment or feeling of the country. I have no
doubt great injustice has been done him. There is no ground for imputing to
him any want of courage in that affair. But still I have a sort of feeling, that a
man of generous courage, a courage not merely above personal fear, but
animated by generous impulses, would, notwithstanding the order of Battle,
have gone to Perry’s relief sooner than he did.
Your answer to this is that he did not know the crippled condition of the Flag
Ship. If Perry required his more immediate support, he should have ordered it
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y signal. There is great force in this. It is undoubtedly a perfect legal
defense. But still I can not but feel that he must have known, from observing
the superior force which was concentrated upon Perry’s Ship, that he required
support, and that if his Heart had been exactly in the right place, he would have
afforded it much sooner than he did, and I rather think this will be the final
judgement of the Country on the matter.
I am very sincerely and Truly
Yours
J. Sutherland
The question was not so much whether Elliott’s “heart had been in the right place” but
quite simply whether it was true that Elliott had not been “enabled” to engage the enemy
for over one hour (possibly two) due to “a want of wind.” Cooper argues that this was
indeed the case and points to Perry’s own statement on Elliott’s conduct issued
immediately after victory:
“The fact that the gun-boats had been kept astern by the lightness of the wind,
is mentioned by Perry, himself, in his official account of the battle. He also
says, “at half past two, the wind springing up, Capt. Elliott was enabled to
bring his vessel, the Niagara, gallantly into close action,” leaving the
unavoidable inference that a want of wind prevailed at an earlier period of the
engagement.” - Lives, “Oliver Hazard Perry,” vol. 2, p. 180.
51 That there were indeed persons linking the 1841 tragedy of the Erie and Cooperstown,
where James Fenimore Cooper resided, makes authorship by Cooper all the more probable;
America’s leading maritime historian, would take a lively interest in the tragedy. Cf.
Norman Barry, “An Investigation of American Source Material Used by the
GEWERBE-BLATT FÜR SACHSEN in Leipzig, Germany on October 8 th , 1841, under
the Heading ‘Loss of the Steamboat Erie’ ” (January 24, 2009).
http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/SCAEssay.pdf : Cf. Levi Beebe
and Judge Samuel Nelson, pp. 12-18.
Yet another sensational steamboat loss, that of the Swallow on the Hudson River on
April 7 th , 1845, deserves consideration because the tragedy occurred only a few months
before publication of “The Helmsman of Lake Erie” and received, second only to the
Erie, major national newspaper coverage. It is also of great significance in that all three
19 th -century German Lake Erie ballads dealing with the conflagration of a steamer used the
very same name Schwalbe [=Swallow] for their vessels. The question whether there might
also be a hidden link from this quarter not only with the German ballads but also with
the 1845 “Helmsman” is examined in Norman Barry, “The Swallow Revisited” (March
8, 2009): http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/SwallowRevisited.pdf
52 The ominous aspect of the “pleasant May morning” [line 1] is brought home to the
reader in lines 37-40:
“In short, one and all were like men who thought that, let danger come to them
when it might, at least it would not be that day.” - “The Helmsman of Lake Erie”
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53 Cooper, it will be remembered, was very much at home with this response. Consider
the significant passage in The Last of the Mohicans (published in 1826), in which
Cooper even comments on the response. When Uncas discovers “the green riding-veil
of Cora,” who has been abducted by Magua, her father appeals to Uncas for help:
“My child!” said Munro, speaking quickly and wildly; “give me my child!”
“Uncas will try,” was the short and touching answer. [My emphasis]
The Last of the Mohicans in Leatherstocking
Tales, vol. I, Library of America, Ch. 18, p. 682;
Cooper Edition/SUNY: p. 184.
As late as 1844, in Afloat and Ashore or, The Adventures of Miles Wallingford,
the determination to try with all one’s might is clearly evinced in Neb’s response to
the dying Moses Marble’s request to inform his niece and her family of his death:
[Marble:] “It’s easy done, if a man sets about it in the right spirit. All you
have to do is go up to the Cove and say that I prayed to God to bless ‘em all,
before I died – do you think you can remember that?”
[Neb:] “I try, Cap’in Marble, sah – yes, sah, I try all I can [My emphasis],
dough I’m no scholar.” Cooper Edition/AMS: Part 2, Ch. XXX, p. 419
54 Cf. http://homepage.mac.com/joel_huberman/JohnMaynard/Jersey.pdf
It may seem strange that the first truly positive statement regarding Satanstoe and the
“sleigh ride on the Hudson” should come not from America but from France! Yet it
only confirms the severe neglect Cooper was subjected to on “home ground.”
The French reviewer George Sand, the pseudonym of Madame Amandine Dupin,
[1804-1876] “pronounced Satanstoe one of his best novels and singled out for
particular attention the sleigh ride on the river and the description of the sudden thaw
as being
‘all the more thrilling because, thanks to the confidence and clarity of observations, it
is among the most intelligible. These descriptions, in the form of straightforward and
matter- of-fact report, are among Cooper’s finest qualities. One senses there is an
observer who, from his own experience, has tried to give an account of everything, the
effects and the causes, the details and the picture as a whole. Thus one’s interest is
held by the force of truth. The narrator has the calm objectivity of a mirror which
reflects the great crises of nature, without adding any frills out of his own head, and, I
repeat, this course flexibly taken, constitutes at times an important property we
perhaps underestimate a little.’”
Quoted by Kay Seymour House in her “Historical Introduction” to
Satanstoe (Cooper Edition), pp. xxxiii – xxxiv. From: George Sand,
“Fenimore Cooper” in Autour de la Table (Paris, 1856), 261-72 and 281-2,
translated by D.B. Wood and printed in George Dekker and John P.
McWilliams, Fenimore Cooper: The Critical Heritage (London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973), p. 265.
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George Dekker, in his work entitled James Fenimore Cooper, the Novelist (London:
Routledge & Kegal Paul, 1967), p. 226, also emphasizes the exceptional literary
quality of “the sleigh ride:”
“I hope that this discussion of the design of Satanstoe does not make it seem dry,
schematic, relentlessly didactic; for nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only
is the narrative embedded in a rich and fascinating circumstantial reality, but it
contains what is beyond dispute one of Cooper’s greatest action scenes – the sleighride
on the Hudson River ice” [my emphasis].
APPENDIX:
1) COOPER’S REACTION TO THE MEDAL ELLIOTT HAD STRUCK IN HIS HONOR
917. To George Palmer Putnam? Hall, Cooperstown, Dec. 10 th 1847
Sir,
The late Commodore Elliott caused a medal of me to be struck at the mint, shortly after
the decision in my favour by the arbitrators who decided the points referred to them in
connection with the controversy about the Battle of Lake Erie. This medal was made not
only without my concurrence, but contrary to my wishes, as it seemed likely to bring me
into a species of ridicule, as having a medal struck in honour of so trifling an affair. I did
remonstrate with Commodore Elliott on the subject, though my opposition was not as
earnest as it might otherwise have been, as the feeling of gratitude it manifested in
Commodore Elliott was respectable in him. I had no agency whatever in causing this
medal to be struck or presented to any one.
The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. V, p. 249.
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[The American Antiquarian Society]
67