The Spy | Page 3

the world's great romancers.
There is abundant reason, therefore, why Americans of the present day
should know James Fenimore Cooper. He has many a good story of the
wilderness and the sea to tell to those who enjoy tales of adventure. He
gives a vivid, but faithful picture of American frontier life for those
who can know its stirring events and its hardy characters only at second
hand. He holds a peculiarly important place in the history of American
literature, and has done much to extend the reputation of American
fiction among foreigners.

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
The author has often been asked if there were any foundation in real
life for the delineation of the principal character in this book. He can
give no clearer answer to the question than by laying before his readers
a simple statement of the facts connected with its original publication.
Many years since, the writer of this volume was at the residence of an
illustrious man, who had been employed in various situations of high
trust during the darkest days of the American Revolution. The
discourse turned upon the effects which great political excitement
produces on character, and the purifying consequences of a love of
country, when that sentiment is powerfully and generally awakened in a
people. He who, from his years, his services, and his knowledge of men,
was best qualified to take the lead in such a conversation, was the
principal speaker. After dwelling on the marked manner in which the

great struggle of the nation, during the war of 1775, had given a new
and honorable direction to the thoughts and practices of multitudes
whose time had formerly been engrossed by the most vulgar concerns
of life, he illustrated his opinions by relating an anecdote, the truth of
which he could attest as a personal witness.
The dispute between England and the United States of America, though
not strictly a family quarrel, had many of the features of a civil war.
The people of the latter were never properly and constitutionally
subject to the people of the former, but the inhabitants of both countries
owed allegiance to a common king. The Americans, as a nation,
disavowed this allegiance, and the English choosing to support their
sovereign in the attempt to regain his power, most of the feelings of an
internal struggle were involved in the conflict. A large proportion of the
emigrants from Europe, then established in the colonies, took part with
the crown; and there were many districts in which their influence,
united to that of the Americans who refused to lay aside their allegiance,
gave a decided preponderance to the royal cause. America was then too
young, and too much in need of every heart and hand, to regard these
partial divisions, small as they were in actual amount, with indifference.
The evil was greatly increased by the activity of the English in profiting
by these internal dissensions; and it became doubly serious when it was
found that attempts were made to raise various corps of provincial
troops, who were to be banded with those from Europe, to reduce the
young republic to subjection. Congress named an especial and a secret
committee, therefore, for the express purpose of defeating this object.
Of this committee Mr.----, the narrator of the anecdote, was chairman.
In the discharge of the novel duties which now devolved on him,
Mr.---- had occasion to employ an agent whose services differed but
little from those of a common spy. This man, as will easily be
understood, belonged to a condition in life which rendered him the least
reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character. He was poor, ignorant,
so far as the usual instruction was concerned; but cool, shrewd, and
fearless by nature. It was his office to learn in what part of the country
the agents of the crown were making their efforts to embody men, to
repair to the place, enlist, appear zealous in the cause he affected to

serve, and otherwise to get possession of as many of the secrets of the
enemy as possible. The last he of course communicated to his
employers, who took all the means in their power to counteract the
plans of the English, and frequently with success.
It will readily be conceived that a service like this was attended with
great personal hazard. In addition to the danger of discovery, there was
the daily risk of falling into the hands of the Americans themselves,
who invariably visited sins of this nature more severely on the natives
of the country than on the Europeans who fell into their hands. In fact,
the agent of Mr. ---- was several times arrested by the local authorities;
and, in one instance, he was actually condemned by his exasperated
countrymen to the gallows.