Much was said and written, at the time, concerning the policy of adding the vast regions of Louisiana, to the already immense and but half-tenanted territories of the United States. As the warmth of controversy however subsided, and party considerations gave place to more liberal views, the wisdom of the measure began to be generally conceded. It soon became apparent to the meanest capacity, that, while nature had placed a barrier of desert to the extension of our population in the west, the measure had made us the masters of a belt of fertile country, which, in the revolutions of the day, might have become the property of a rival nation. It gave us the sole command of the great thoroughfare of the interior, and placed the countless tribes of savages, who lay along our borders, entirely within our control; it reconciled conflicting rights, and quieted national distrusts; it opened a thousand avenues to the inland trade, and to the waters of the Pacific; and, if ever time or necessity shall require a peaceful division of this vast empire, it assures us of a neighbour that will possess our language, our religion, our institutions, and it is also to be hoped, our sense of political justice. (Chapter 1)

Basic set up:

Cooper's novel begins by telling the tale of Ishmael (no, not that Ishmael) and his family making their way out west, into the American frontier, where they intend to settle. This excerpt from Chapter 1 gives us a little background by referring to the U.S.'s purchase of the Louisiana territories from the French in 1803.

Cooper's novel is about the American conquest of the western frontier. And the novel opens by describing that time when America was expanding westward, right after purchasing a huge chunk of territory from the French (the "Louisiana Purchase").

The frontier is not only a landscape in Cooper's novel; it's an idea. For American Romantic writers like Cooper, the frontier represented possibility, freedom, and a unique aspect of American identity.

The narrator of this passage talks about "us" a lot. He (or she) says: "It soon became apparent to the meanest capacity…[that] the measure had made us the masters of a belt of fertile country. It gave us the sole command of the great thoroughfare of the interior." The narrator, in other words, is clearly positioning him or herself as an American.

The narrator's point of view suggests how central the frontier became to the American identity during this period. The frontier belonged to "us," it allowed "us" to expand our territory, to gain mastery over it. This emphasis on the American frontier, in other words, reflects one of the ways in which American Romanticism differed from British Romanticism. There are no frontiers in Europe. Only in America, baby.