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Thomas Cooper (October 22, 1759 – May 11, 1839) was an Anglo-American economist, college president and political philosopher. Cooper was described by Thomas Jefferson as "one of the ablest men in America" and by John Adams as "a learned ingenious scientific and talented madcap." Dumas Malone stated that "modern scientific progress would have been impossible without the freedom of the mind which he championed throughout life."〔Quoted in Cohen (2000)〕 His ideas were taken very seriously in his own time: there were substantial reviews of his writings, and some late eighteenth-century critics of materialism directed their arguments against Cooper, rather than against the better-known Joseph Priestley. ==Early life in Europe== Cooper was born in Westminster, England. He attended University College, Oxford, but did not graduate, supposedly refusing the religious test. He then studied law at the Inner Temple, medicine and the natural sciences. He travelled the northern court circuit for a few years; it is unclear in the records whether he practised as a qualified barrister. At the same period he went into the calico printing business at Raikes near Bolton, Lancashire. Cooper took on a prominent role in the reforming politics of the time. In early 1790 he took part in the campaign by Dissenters for greater religious tolerance. His approach was considered too extreme by some, and he shed much moderate support after a meeting in Cheshire. Edmund Burke mentioned Cooper in the House of Commons in March of that year.〔Graham, p. 150.〕 In October 1790 the Manchester Constitutional Society was set up, with Cooper, author of ''Letters on the Slave Trade'' (1787), and other members such as Thomas Walker, noted as radicals and abolitionists.〔 The Constitutional Society had members in common with the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. But in July 1791 the Priestley Riots took place, driving Joseph Priestley from his home. The whole radical group resigned ''en masse'', in 1791, when the Literary and Philosophical Society refused to send Priestley a message of sympathy.〔Eric Robinson, ''An English Jacobin: James Watt, Junior, 1769-1848'', Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 11, No. 3 (1955), pp. 349-355, at p. 351. Published by: Cambridge University Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3021128〕 In the rapid developments stemming from the French Revolution, Cooper was sent to Paris in 1792 with James Watt Jr., by the Constitutional Society of Manchester. They travelled with an introduction from Walker to political circles through Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, and another to a man of science, Antoine Lavoisier, from Priestley. Cooper was for some purposes a representative of the British democratic clubs to those of France, but the situation on both sides of the Channel was by now becoming complex. The Manchester group favoured the Jacobins in the emerging split with the Girondins. Edmund Burke again censured Cooper in the House of Commons, and Cooper replied with a vehement pamphlet.〔Graham, p. 261.〕 Cooper came to represent the Society for Constitutional Information (SCI) alone, in dealings with the Jacobins. The Whig Friends of the People took steps to exclude him, out of concerns that its membership should not overlap with that of the more radical SCI: Burke had called the Manchester reformist group "some of the worst men in the kingdom" to score a political point off Charles Grey, who had been instrumental in setting up the Friends in April 1792.〔Graham, p. 303, p. 307 and p. 311.〕 While in France Cooper learned the process of obtaining chlorine from sea salt. He tried to apply this knowledge on his return to England to bleaching of textiles, but was unsuccessful. By 1793, Cooper became disillusioned with the violent course of events in France. Both he and Watt later represented themselves as always favouring moderate elements (which is doubted now by scholars). But Cooper was in some danger of prosecution at home because of his views. He ruled out France as a destination, and made a preliminary journey to the United States in early 1794.〔Graham, pp. 511–3.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Cooper (U.S. politician)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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