In the 1830's, when reform was on everybody's lips, Cooper steered the course of a convinced Democrat who, however, was not an egalitarian. Family connexions and literary success introduced him to some of the leading politicians of France and England, as well as America, and his intellectual honesty allowed him to see that political deception was not peculiar to Europe. The American Democrat is essentially a condemnation of cant in American public life. Cooper is the author of The Last of the Mohicans.