AN APPEAL TO THE STATE. BY CENSOR. TRUTH IS GREAT, AND IT WILL TRIUMPH

[Columbia, SC?, 1831. Caption title [as issued], 23pp + [1 blank]. Light scattered foxing. Good+ to Very Good.
[bound with] REPLY TO CENSOR, OR AN APPEAL TO THE GOOD SENSE OF THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, BY JUSTICE. Columbia, S.C.: Printed at the Times and Gazette Office. [1831?]. 16pp, foxed moderately, Good+. The two items bound together in attractive modern marbled wrappers.

These are scarce pamphlets on the tumultuous career of Thomas Cooper. During his Presidency of the College of Charleston, Cooper "was the target of clerical attack, chiefly on the part of Presbyterians. The controversy was an episode in the age-long conflict between science and theology, but was accentuated by Cooper's ill-concealed contempt for the clergy as a class. He was nominally successful in the struggle, not so much because of any general acceptance of the principles of biblical criticism and the doctrines of materialism that he championed, but because of his identification with the extreme state-rights party" [DAB].
The first pamphlet is a vitriolic personal attack on Cooper himself and his religious views. The author identifies himself only by saying he is "not a Clergyman-- and, as far as I interfere with politics at all-- I have gone with the State-Right's party." Censor blames Cooper for the "spirit" that "has, of late years, been extending itself over our State, unfriendly to our religious institutions, and insulting to the feelings and opinions which have been rendered sacred to us."
The second pamphlet, with an "Appendix by Anti-Censor," defends Cooper: "If a religious test is made for the Presidency of the South Carolina College, there will be no end to the train of evils it will inevitably produce. A precedent will be thereby established which will one by one take away all the liberties of the people and give them to the priests." Sabin states: "Defense of Dr. Thomas Cooper, President of South Carolina College, attacked on account of his religious opinions. Cooper was tried before a committee of the trustees in 1832 and acquitted, but resigned in 1834."
FIRST EDITIONS. Appeal: II Turnbull 225. Not located on OCLC or the online AAS site as of February 2024.
Reply: II Turnbull 285. OCLC records six locations under two accession numbers as of February 2024. Not at the AAS online site.