The American historical novel (on American themes) before 1860

ERNEST ERWIN LEISY A.B., University of Kansas, 1913 A.M., University of Chicago, 1919
AN ABSTRACT OF A THESIS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 1923
URBANA, ILLINOIS
From the writing of Precaution , Cooper carried over very little save ability to manipulate a story. It taught him nothing in the way of adapting the formula of the current novel to the treatment of native material. He had still to learn to conform to the principles of the Waverley novels and at the same time to find a tractable American theme. What was the nature of the historical novel then current?
These ingredients which Scott had mixed in varying proportions in his different works, it occurred to Cooper, might be adapted to native manners and conditions.
The public veneration for Washington required that he be introduced somehow. In 1780 the patriot army, under General Washington, occupied a line of connecting positions extending from Philadelphia across northern New Jersey, to the fortified post of West Point on the Hudson. Along the Hudson River, the American lines extended to Peekskill, and outposts patrolled the country as far south as Tarrytown. From this point to the channels which separate Manhattan Island from the mainland, a distance of about forty miles, lay the “neutral ground,” the No Man’s Land of the Revolution. It was the object of the patriot army to prevent the British forces from drawing supplies from this region, but Congress would not permit devastation. Consequently, the “neutral ground,” swept by constant raids, and exposed to the unchecked evils of civil war, became the abode of the lawless and adventurous spirits who flourish best in times of upheaval and disorder. The fall of Charleston, the treason of Arnold, and dissensions among officers of the Continental Army made a general disintegration of that military force which was the sole support of the patriot cause seem at hand. The Revolution was in danger, not only from avowed Tories but from lukewarm followers anxious to keep on the winning side. This combination of circumstances suggested to Cooper the military situation in 1780 in the Neutral Ground as the most suitable background for his story.