Cooper, Thomas. An Exposition of The Doctrines of Calvinism; To which is added, The Calvinist Creed, taken from Fletcher's Logica Genevensis. New-York: Np, 1834. [10675]
This 24 page pamphlet was issued without wrappers. It measures 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches, and the front is soiled. It was sometime folded into fours and apparently wadded into a pocket. There is creasing to many edges and what look like small burn holes in one leaf that affects a few letters; two leaves have burned corners with loss of margin but no loss of text. Perhaps this rare copy was saved from a fire? Fair.
This is an angry, scathing denouncement of Calvinism and of Presbyterians in particular in which the author misrepresents in the vilest manner the doctrines of grace. Although he was himself a scoffer of all religion, he puts forward the views of John Wesley and the Methodists as proofs of his arguments.
Thomas Cooper (1759-1839) b. Westminster, England; d. Columbia, South Carolina. Cooper studied at Oxford without obtaining a degree, and worked as a lawyer and a chemist.
"A philosophical radical, Cooper was discouraged by England's conservative reaction to the French Revolution. He left the country in 1794 and settled in Pennsylvania. There he worked as a lawyer and physician and became associated with Jeffersonian Republican opposition to Federalism." - South Carolina Encyclopedia, online.
Cooper obtained a state judgeship in 1804 but by 1811 he was replaced in that position and he left politics altogether. He taught chemistry in several places before settling in South Carolina in 1820, where he was appointed president of South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina). He became very conservative in his views, and embraced slavery and States' Rights, purchasing two slave families. While not participating in politics himself, Cooper was acknowledged to be the intellectual leader of the South Carolina nullifiers and States' Rights advocates.
"Cooper also established himself as an opponent of religious orthodoxy, which led to confrontation with the state's Presbyterians that played across the pages of pamphlets and newspapers." - ibid.
These religious controversies led to legislative pressure which resulted in his resignation from South Carolina College in 1833. He remained active in writing on chemistry and law, "including the five-volume Statutes at Large of South Carolina (1836-1839)." ibid. He also, as this pamphlet shows, continued his attacks on the Presbyterians who had forced his resignation from the presidency of South Carolina College.
