Background
James Cooper was born on May 08, 1810 in Frederick County, Maryland, United States.
lawyer military politician Soldier
James Cooper was born on May 08, 1810 in Frederick County, Maryland, United States.
Cooper entered Mount St. Mary’s College, Emmitsburg in 1829. Three years later he was graduated from Washington and Jefferson College, after which he entered the law office of Thaddeus Stevens at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar in 1834.
From 1844 to 1848 Cooper was in the state legislature and he became speaker of the Assembly in 1847. He was an aggressive candidate against General Irvin for the Whig nomination for governor but was not successful. In 1848, he was appointed attorney-general of the state by Governor Johnston, in which position he served until the legislature met in January 1849, when he appeared again as a representative from Adams County and was again chosen speaker. In this year he was elected United States senator. His health prevented him from taking an active part in the work of the Senate during the latter half of his single term.
At the outbreak of the Civil War he became a member of the Brengle Home Guard of Frederick, Maryland, where he had returned to reside at the close of his senatorial term. He was authorized by the War Department to raise and organize a regiment of infantry in Maryland. On May 17, 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier-general in the volunteer service and was placed in command of Camp Wallace near Columbus, Ohio, which had been established by General Lew Wallace as a camp for paroled soldiers organized for service against, the Indians in the Northwest. Later he was made commander of Camp Chase, near Columbus, where he died.
James Cooper was a member of the Whig Party. He opposed the bill in 1853 granting federal aid for a Pacific railroad on the ground that the bill conferred too extensive powers on a corporation. He spoke against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill on February 27, 1854.