MAY 23, 1821--DECEMBER 17, 1824
Accompanies Mr. Silliman to the Berkshires.--Takes his wife and daughter
to Concord, New Hampshire.--Writes to his wife from Boston about a
bonnet.--Goes to Washington, D.C.--Paints large picture of House of
Representatives.--Artistic but not financial success.--Donates five
hundred dollars to Yale.--Letter from Mr. DeForest.--New York
"Observer."--Discouragements.--First son born.--Invents marble-carving
machine.--Goes to Albany.--Stephen Van Rensselaer.--Slight encouragement
in Albany.--Longing for a home.--Goes to New York.--Portrait of
Chancellor Kent.--Appointed attaché to Legation to Mexico.--High hopes.--
Takes affecting leave of his family.--Rough journey to Washington.--
Expedition to Mexico indefinitely postponed.--Returns North.--Settles in
New York.--Fairly prosperous.
Much as Morse longed for a permanent home, where he could find continuous
employment while surrounded by those he loved, it was not until many
years afterwards and under totally different circumstances that his dream
was realized. For the present the necessity of earning money for the
support of his young family and for the assistance of his ageing father
and mother drove him continually forth to new fields, and on May 23,
1821, which must have been only a few weeks after his return from the
South, he writes to his wife from Pittsfield, Massachusetts:--
"We are thus far on our tour safe and sound. Mr. Silliman's health is
very perceptibly better already. Last night we lodged at Litchfield; Mr.
Silliman had an excellent night and is in fine spirits.
"At Litchfield I called on Judge Reeves and sat a little while.... I
called at Mr. Beecher's with Mr. Silliman and Judge Gould; no one at
home. Called with Mr. Silliman at Dr. Shelden's, and stayed a few
moments; sat a few moments also at Judge Gould's.
"I was much pleased with the exterior appearance of Litchfield; saw at a
distance Edwards's pickerel pond.
"We left at five this morning, breakfasted at Norfolk, dined at
Stockbridge. We there left the stage and have hired a wagon to go on to
Middlebury, Vermont, at our leisure. We lodge here to-night and shall
probably reach Bennington, Vermont, to-morrow night.
"I have made one slight pencil sketch of the Hoosac Mountain. At
Stockbridge we visited the marble quarries, and to-morrow at Lanesborough
shall visit the quarries of fine white marble there.
"I am much delighted with my excursion thus far. To travel with such a
companion as Mr. Silliman I consider as highly advantageous as well as
gratifying."
This is all the record I have of this particular trip. The Mr. Beecher
referred to was the father of Henry Ward Beecher.
Later in the summer he accompanied his wife and little daughter to
Concord, New Hampshire, and left them there with her father and mother.
Writing to her from Boston on his way back to New Haven, he says in
characteristically masculine fashion:--
"I have talked with Aunt Bartlett about getting you a bonnet. She says
that it is no time to get a fashionable winter bonnet in Boston now, and
that it would be much better if you could get it in New York, as the
Bostonians get their fashions from New York and, of course, much later
than we should in New Haven. She thinks that white is better than blue,
etc., etc., etc., which she can explain to you much better than I can.
She is willing, however, to get you any you wish if you still request it.
She thinks, if you cannot wait for the new fashion, that your black
bonnet put into proper shape with black plumes would be as _tasty_ and
fashionable as any you could procure. I think so, too. You had better
write Aunt particularly about it."
While Morse had conscientiously tried to put the best of himself into the
painting of portraits, and had succeeded better than he himself knew, he
still longed for wider fields, and in November, 1821, he went to
Washington, D.C., to begin a work which he for some time had had in
contemplation, and which he now felt justified in undertaking. This was
to be a large painting of the House of Representatives with many
portraits of the members. The idea was well received at Washington and he
obtained the use of one of the rooms at the Capitol for a studio, making
it easy for the members to sit for him. It could not have been all plain
sailing, however, for his wife says to him in a letter of December 28,
1821: "Knowing that perseverance is a trait in your character, we do not
any of us feel surprised to hear you have overcome so many obstacles. You
have undertaken a great work.... Every one thinks it must be a very
popular subject and that you will make a splendid picture of it."
Writing to his wife he says:--
"I am up at daylight, have my breakfast and prayers over and commence the
labors of the day long before the workmen are called to work on the
Capitol by the bell. This I continue unremittingly till one o'clock, when
I dine in about fifteen minutes and then pursue my labors until tea,
which scarcely interrupts me, as I often have my cup of tea in one hand
and my pencil in the other. Between ten and eleven o'clock I retire to
rest. This has been my course every day (Sundays, of course, excepted)
since I have been here, making about fourteen hours' study out of the
twenty-four.
"This you will say is too hard, and that I shall injure my health. I can
say that I never enjoyed better health, and my body, by the simple fare I
live on, is disciplined to this course. As it will not be necessary to
continue long so assiduously I shall not fail to pursue it till the work
is done.
"I receive every possible facility from all about the Capitol. The
doorkeeper, a venerable man, has offered to light the great chandelier
expressly for me to take my sketches in the evening for two hours
together, for I shall have it a candlelight effect, when the room,
already very splendid, will appear ten times more so."
On the 2d of January, 1822, he writes: "I have commenced to-day taking
the likenesses of the members. I find them not only willing to sit, but
apparently esteeming it an honor. I shall take seventy of them and
perhaps more; all if possible. I find the picture is becoming the subject
of conversation, and every day gives me greater encouragement. I shall
paint it on part of the great canvas when I return home. It will be
eleven feet by seven and a half feet.... It will take me until October
next to complete it."
The room which he painted was then the Hall of Representatives, but is
now Statuary Hall. As a work of art the painting is excellent and is
highly esteemed by artists of the present day. It contains eighty
portraits.
His high expectations of gaining much profit from its exhibition and of
selling it for a large sum were, however, doomed to disappointment. It
did not attract the public attention which he had anticipated and it
proved a financial loss to him. It was finally sold to an Englishman, who
took it across the ocean, and it was lost sight of until, after
twenty-five years, it was found by an artist friend, Mr. F.W. Edmonds, in
New York, where it had been sent from London. It was in a more or less
damaged condition, but was restored by Morse. It eventually became the
property of the late Daniel Huntington, who loaned it to the Corcoran
Gallery of Art in Washington, where it now hangs.[1]
[Footnote 1: This painting has recently been purchased by the Trustees of
the Corcoran Gallery.]
I find no more letters of special interest of the year 1822, but Mr.
Prime has this to record: "In the winter of 1822, notwithstanding the
great expenses to which Mr. Morse had been subjected in producing this
picture, and before he had realized anything from its exhibition, he made
a donation of five hundred dollars to the library fund of Yale College;
probably the largest donation in proportion to the means of the giver
which that institution ever received."
The corporation, by vote, presented the thanks of the board in the
following letter:--
YALE COLLEGE,
December 4th, 1822.
DEAR SIR,--I am directed by the corporation of this college to present to
you the thanks of the board for your subscription of five hundred dollars
for the enlargement of the library. Should this example of liberality be
generally imitated by the friends of the institution, we should soon have
a library creditable to the college and invaluable to men of literary and
philosophic research.
With respectful and grateful acknowledgment,
Your obedient servant,
JEREMAIAH DAY.
While he was at home in New Haven in the early part of 1823 he sought
orders for portraits, and that he was successful in at least one instance
is evidenced by the following letter:--
Mr. D.C. DeForest's compliments to Mr. Morse. Mr. DeForest desires to
have his portrait taken such as it would have been six or eight years
ago, making the necessary calculation for it, and at the same time making
it a good likeness in all other respects.
This reason is not to make himself younger, but to appear to children and
grandchildren more suitably matched as to age with their mother and
grandmother.
If Mr. Morse is at leisure and disposed to undertake this work, he will
please prepare his canvas and let me know when he is ready for my
attendance.
NEW HAVEN,
30th March, 1823.
Whether Morse succeeded to the satisfaction of Mr. DeForest does not
appear from the correspondence, but both this portrait and that of Mrs.
DeForest now hang in the galleries of the Yale School of the Fine Arts,
and are here reproduced so that the reader may judge for himself.
[Illustration: MR. D.C. DE FOREST MRS. D.C. DE FOREST
From "Thistle Prints." Copyright Detroit Publishing Co.
From a painting by Morse now in the Gallery of the Yale School of the
Fine Arts]
On the 17th of May, 1828, the first number of the New York "Observer" was
published. While being a religious newspaper the prospectus says it
"contains also miscellaneous articles and summaries of news and
information on every subject in which the community is interested."
This paper was founded and edited by the two brothers Sidney E. and
Richard C. Morse, who had abandoned respectively the law and the
ministry. It was very successful, and became at one time a power in the
community and is still in existence.
The editorial offices were first established at 50 Wall Street, but later
the brothers bought a lot and erected a building at the corner of Nassau
and Beekman Streets, and that edifice had an important connection with
the invention of the telegraph. On the same site now stands the Morse
Building, a pioneer sky-scraper now sadly dwarfed by its gigantic
neighbors.
The year 1823 was one of mingled discouragement and hope. Compelled to
absent himself from home for long periods in search of work, always
hoping that in some place he would find enough to do to warrant his
bringing his family and making for them a permanent home, his letters
reflect his varying moods, but always with the underlying conviction that
Providence will yet order all things for the best. The letters of the
young wife are pathetic in their expressions of loneliness during the
absence of her husband, and yet of forced cheerfulness and submission to
the will of God.
On the 17th of March, 1823, another child was born, a son, who was named
for his maternal grandfather, Charles Walker. The child was at first very
delicate, and this added to the anxieties of the fond mother and father,
but he soon outgrew his childish ailments.
Morse's active mind was ever bent on invention, and in this year he
devised and sought to patent a machine for carving marble statues,
"perfect copies of any model." He had great hopes of pecuniary profit
from this invention and it is mentioned many times in the letters of this
and the following year, but he found, on enquiry, that it was not
patentable, as it would have been an infringement on the machine of
Thomas Blanchard which was patented in 1820.
So once more were his hopes of independence blasted, as they had been in
the case of the pump and fire-engine. He longed, like all artists, to be
free from the petty cares and humiliations of the struggle for existence,
free to give full rein to his lofty aspirations, secure in the confidence
that those he loved were well provided for; but, like most other
geniuses, he was compelled to drink still deeper of the bitter cup, to
drain it to the very dregs.
In the month of August, 1823, he went to Albany, hoping through his
acquaintance with the Patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, to establish
himself there. He painted the portrait of the Patroon, confident that, by
its exhibition, he would secure other orders. In a letter to his wife he
says:--
"I have found lodgings--a large front room on the second story,
twenty-five by eighteen feet, and twelve feet high--a fine room for
painting, with a neat little bedroom, and every convenience, and board,
all for six dollars a week, which I think is very reasonable. My landlord
is an elderly Irish gentleman with three daughters, once in independent
circumstances but now reduced. Everything bears the appearance of
old-fashioned gentility which you know I always liked. Everything is neat
and clean and genteel.... Bishop Hobart and a great many acquaintances
were on board of the boat upon which I came up to this city.
"I can form no idea as yet of the prospect of success in my profession
here. If I get enough to employ me I shall go no farther; if not, I may
visit some of the smaller towns in the interior of the State. I await
with some anxiety the result of experiments with my machine. I hope the
invention may enable me to remain at home."
"_16th of August._ I have not as yet received any application for a
portrait. Many tell me I have come at the wrong time--the same tune that
has been rung in my ears so long. I hope the right tune will come by and
by. The winter, it is said, is the proper season, but, as it is better in
the South at that season and it will be more profitable to be there, I
shall give Albany a thorough trial and do my best. If I should not find
enough to employ me here, I think I shall return to New York and settle
there. This I had rather not do at present, but it may be the best that I
can do. Roaming becomes more and more irksome. Imperious necessity alone
drives me to this course. Don't think by this I am faint-hearted; I shall
persevere in this course, painful as is the separation from my family,
until Providence clearly points out my duty to return."
"_August 22._ I have something to do. I have one portrait in progress and
the promise of more. One hundred dollars will pay all my expenses here
for three months, so that the two I am now painting will clear me in that
respect and all that comes after will be clear gain. I am, therefore,
easier in my mind as to this. The portrait I am now painting is Judge
Moss Kent, brother of the Chancellor. He says that I shall paint the
Chancellor when he returns to Albany, and his niece also, and from these
particulars you may infer that I shall be here for some little time
longer, just so long as my good prospects continue; but, should they
fail, I am determined to try New York City, and sit down there in my
profession permanently. I believe I have now attained sufficient
proficiency to venture there. My progress may be slow at first, but I
believe it will be sure. I do not like going South and I have given up
the idea of New Orleans or any Southern city, at least for the present.
Circumstances may vary this determination, but I think a settlement in
New York is more feasible now than ever before. I shall be near you and
home in cases of emergency, and in the summer and sickly season can visit
you at New Haven, while you can do the same to me in New York until we
live again at New Haven altogether. I leave out of this calculation the
_machine for sculpture_. If that should entirely succeed, my plans would
be materially varied, but I speak of my present plan as if that had
failed."
"_August 24._ I finished Mr. Kent's picture yesterday and received the
money for it.... Mr. Kent is very polite to me, and has introduced me to
a number of persons and families, among others to the Kanes--very wealthy
people--to Governor Yates, etc. Mr. Clinton's son called on me and
invited me to their house.... I have been introduced to Señor Rocafuerto,
the Spaniard who made so excellent a speech before the Bible Society last
May. He is a very handsome man, very intelligent, full of wit and
vivacity. He is a great favorite with the ladies and is a man of wealth
and a zealous patriot, studying our manners, customs, and improvements,
with a view of benefiting his own countrymen in Peru.... I long to be
with you again and to see you all at _home_. I fear I dote on _home_ too
much, but mine is such an uncommon home, such a delightful home, that I
cannot but feel strongly my privation of its pleasures."
"_August 27._ My last two letters have held out to you some encouraging
prospects of success here, but now they seem darkened again. I have had
nothing to do this week thus far but to wait patiently. I have advertised
in both of the city papers that I should remain one week to receive
applications, but as yet it has produced no effect....
"Chancellor Kent is out of town and I was told yesterday would not be in
until the end of next month. If I should have nothing to do in the mean
time it is hardly worth while to stay solely for that. Many have been
talking of having their portraits painted, but there it has thus far
ended. I feel a little perplexed to know what to do. I find nothing in
Albany which can profitably employ my leisure hours. If there were any
pictures or statuary where I could sketch and draw, it would be
different.... I have visited several families who have been very kind to
me, for which I am thankful....
"I shall leave Albany and return to New York a week from to-day if there
is no change in my prospects.... The more I think of making a push at New
York as a permanent place of residence in my profession, the more proper
it seems that it should be pretty soon. There is now no rival that I
should fear; a few more years may produce one that would be hard to
overcome. New York does not yet feel the influx of wealth from the
Western canal but in a year or two she will feel it, and it will be
advantageous to me to be previously identified among her citizens as a
painter.
"It requires some little time to become known in such a city as New York.
Colonel T---- is growing old, too, and there is no artist of education
sufficiently prominent to take his place as President of the Academy of
Arts. By becoming more known to the New York public, and exerting my
talents to discover the best methods of promoting the arts and writing
about them, I may possibly be promoted to his place, where I could have a
better opportunity of doing _something for the arts in our country_, the
object at which I aim."
"_September 3._ I have nothing to do and shall pack up on the morrow for
New York unless appearances change again. I have not had full employment
since I have been in Albany and I feel miserable in doing nothing. I
shall set out on Friday, and perhaps may go to New Haven for a day or two
to look at you all."
He did manage to pay a short visit to his home, and then he started for
New York by boat, but was driven by a storm into Black Rock Harbor and
continued his journey from there by land. Writing home the day after his
arrival he says: "I have obtained a place to board at friend Coolidge's
at two dollars and twenty-five cents a week, and have taken for my studio
a fine room in Broadway opposite Trinity Churchyard, for which I am to
pay six dollars and fifty cents a week, being fifty cents less than I
expected to pay."
There has been some increase in the rental price of rooms on Broadway
opposite Trinity Churchyard since that day.
Further on he says:--
"I shall go to work in a few days vigorously. It is a half mile from my
room to the place where I board, so that I am obliged to walk more than
three miles every day. It is good exercise for me and I feel better for
it. I sleep in my room on the floor and put my bed out of sight during
the day, as at Washington. I feel in the spirit of 'buckling down to it,'
and am determined to paint and study with all my might this winter."
The loving wife is distressed at the idea of his sleeping on the floor,
and thus expresses herself in a letter which is dated, curiously enough,
November 31: "You know, dear Finley, I have always set my face as a flint
and have borne my testimony against your sleeping on the floor. Indeed,
it makes my heart ache, when I go to bed in my comfortable chamber, to
think of my dear husband sleeping without a bedstead. Your mother says
she sent one to Richard, which he has since told her was unnecessary as
he used a settee, and which you can get of him. But, if it is in use, do
get one or I shall take no comfort."
Soon after his arrival in New York he began the portrait of Chancellor
Kent, and writing of him he says:--
"He is not a good sitter; he scarcely presents the same view twice; he is
very impatient and you well know that I cannot paint an impatient person;
I must have my mind at ease or I cannot paint.
"I have no more applications as yet, but it is not time to expect them.
All the artists are complaining, and there are many of them, and they are
all poor. The arts are as low as they can be. It is no better at the
South, and all the accounts of the arts or artists are of the most
discouraging nature."
The portrait of the Chancellor seems not to have brought him more orders,
for a little later he writes to his wife: "I waited many days in the hope
of some application in my profession, but have been disappointed until
last evening I called and spent the evening with my friend Mr. Van
Schaick, and told him I had thought of painting some little design from
the 'Sketch Book,' so as not to be idle, and mentioned the subject of
Ichabod Crane discovering the headless horseman.
"He said: 'Paint it for me and another picture of the same size, and I
will take them of you.' So I am now employed....
"_My secret scheme_ is not yet disclosable, but I shall let you know as
soon as I hear anything definite."
Still later he says:--
"I have seen many of the artists; they all agree that little is doing in
the city of New York. It seems wholly given to commerce. Every man is
driving at one object--the making of money--not the spending of it....
"My _secret scheme_ looks promising, but I am still in suspense; you
shall know the moment it is decided one way or the other."
His brother, Sidney Edwards, in a letter to his parents of December 9,
1823, says: "Finley is in good spirits again; not because he has any
prospect of business here, but he is dreaming of the gold mines of
Mexico."
As his _secret_ was now out, he explains it fully in the following letter
to his wife, dated December 21, 1823:--
"My cash is almost gone and I begin to feel some anxiety and perplexity
to know what to do. I have advertised, and visited, and hinted, and
pleaded, and even asked one man to sit, but all to no purpose.... My
expenses, with the most rigid economy, too, are necessarily great; my
rent to-morrow will amount to thirty-three dollars, and I have nothing to
pay it with.
"What can I do? I have been here five weeks and there is not the smallest
prospect _now_ of any difference as to business. I am willing to stay and
wish to stay if there is anything to do. The pictures that I am painting
for Mr. Van Schaick will not pay my expenses if painted here; my rent and
board would eat it all up.
"I have thought of various plans, but what to decide upon I am completely
at a loss, nor can I decide until I hear definitely from Washington in
regard to my Mexico expedition. Since Brother Sidney has hinted it to you
I will tell you the state of it. I wrote to General Van Rensselaer, Mr.
Poinsett, and Colonel Hayne, of the Senate, applying for some situation
in the legation to Mexico soon to be sent thither. I stated my object in
going and my wish to go free of expense and under government protection.
"I received a letter a few days ago from General Van Rensselaer in which
he says: 'I immediately laid your request before the President and
seconded it with my warmest recommendations. It is impossible to predict
the result at present. If our friend Mr. Poinsett is appointed minister,
which his friends are pressing, he will no doubt be happy to have you in
his suite.'
"Thus the case rests at present. If Mr. Poinsett is appointed I shall
probably go to Mexico, if not, it will be more doubtful.... If I go I
should take my picture of the House of Representatives, which, in the
present state of favorable feeling towards our country, I should probably
dispose of to advantage.
"All accounts that I hear from Mexico are in the highest degree favorable
to my enterprise, and I hear much from various quarters."
As can well be imagined, his wife did not look with unalloyed pleasure on
this plan. She says in a letter of December 25, 1823: "I have felt much
for you, my dearest Finley, in all your trials and perplexities. I was
sorry to hear you had been unsuccessful in obtaining portraits. I hope
you will, ere long, experience a change for the better.... As to the
Mexico plan, I know not what to think of it. How can I consent to have
you be at such a distance?"
However, convinced by her husband that it would be for his best interests
to go, she reluctantly gave her consent and he used every legitimate
effort to secure the appointment. He was finally successful. Mr. Poinsett
was not appointed as minister; this honor was bestowed on the Honorable
Ninian Edwards, of Illinois, but Morse was named as one of his suite.
In a note from the Honorable Robert Young Hayne, who, it will be
remembered, was the opponent of Daniel Webster in the great debates on
States' Rights in the Senate, Morse was thus apprised of his appointment:
"Governor Edwards's suite consists of Mr. Mason, of Georgetown, D.C.,
secretary of the legation; Mr. Hodgson, of Virginia, private secretary;
and yourself, attaché."
Morse had great hopes of increasing his reputation as a painter and of
earning much money in Mexico. He was perfectly frank in stating that his
principal object in seeking an appointment as attaché was that he might
pursue his profession, and, in a letter to Mr. Edwards of April 15, 1824,
he thus explains why he considers this not incompatible with his duties
as attaché: "That the pursuit of my profession will not be derogatory to
the situation I may hold I infer from the fact that many of the ancient
painters were ambassadors to different European courts, and pursued their
professions constantly while abroad. Rubens, while ambassador to the
English court, executed some of his finest portraits and decorated the
ceiling of the chapel of White Hall with some of his best historical
productions."
When it was finally decided that he should go, he made all his
preparations, including a bed and bedding among his impedimenta, being
assured that this was necessary in Mexico, and bade farewell to his
family.
His father, his wife and children, and his sister-in-law accompanied him
as far as New York. Writing of the parting he says: "A thousand affecting
incidents of separation from my beloved family crowded upon my
recollection. The unconscious gayety of my dear children as they
frolicked in all their wonted playfulness, too young to sympathize in the
pangs that agitated their distressed parents; their artless request to
bring home some trifling toy; the parting kiss, not understood as meaning
more than usual; the tears and sad farewells of father, mother, wife,
sister, family, friends; the desolateness of every room as the parting
glance is thrown on each familiar object, and 'farewell, farewell' seemed
written on the very walls,--all these things bear upon my memory, and I
realize the declaration that 'the places which now know us shall know us
no more.'"
[Illustration: LUCRETIA PICKERING WALKER, WIFE OF S.F.B. MORSE, AND TWO
CHILDREN
Painted by Morse]
It must be borne in mind that a journey in those days, even one from New
York to Washington, was not a few hours' ride in a luxurious Pullman, but
was fraught with many discomforts, delays, and even dangers.
As an example of this I shall quote the first part of a letter written by
Morse from Washington to his wife on April 11, 1824:--
"I lose not a moment in informing you of my safe arrival, with all my
baggage, in good order last evening. I was much fatigued, went to bed
early, and this morning feel perfectly refreshed and much better for my
journey.
"After leaving you on Wednesday morning I had but just time to reach the
boat before she started. In the land carriage we occupied three stages
over a very rough road. In crossing a small creek in a ferry-boat the
stage ahead of ours left the boat a little too soon and came near
upsetting in the water, which would have put the passengers into a
dangerous situation. As it was the water came into the carriage and wet
some of the baggage. It was about an hour before they could get the stage
out of the water.
"Next came our turn. After travelling a few miles the springs on one side
gave way and let us down, almost upsetting us. We got out without
difficulty and, in a few minutes, by putting a rail under one side, we
proceeded on again, jocosely telling the passengers in the third stage
that it was their turn next.
"When we arrived at the boat in the Delaware to our surprise the third
stage came in with a rail under one side, having met with a similar
accident a few miles after we left them. So we all had our turn, but no
injury to any of us."
His high hopes of success in this enterprise were soon doomed to be
shattered, and once again he was made to suffer a bitter disappointment.
On April 19 he writes: "I am at this moment put into a very embarrassing
state of suspense by a political occurrence which has caused a great
excitement here, and will cause considerable interest, no doubt,
throughout the country. This morning a remonstrance was read in the House
of Representatives from the Honorable Ninian Edwards against Mr.
Crawford, which contains such charges and of so serious a nature as has
led to the appointment of a select committee, with power to send for
persons and papers in order to a full investigation; and I am told by
many members of Congress that Mr. Edwards will undoubtedly be sent for,
which will occasion, of course, a great delay in his journey to Mexico,
if not cause a suspension of his going until the next season."
The Mr. Crawford alluded to was William Harris Crawford, at that time a
prominent candidate for the Presidency in the coming election.
With his customary faith in an overruling Providence, Morse says later in
the same letter: "This delay and suspense tries me more than distance or
even absence from my dear family. If I could be on my way and pursuing my
profession I should feel much better. But all will be for the best;
though things look dark I can and will trust Him who will make my path of
duty plain before me. This satisfies my mind and does not allow a single
desponding thought."
The sending of the legation was indefinitely postponed, and Morse, much
disappointed but resolved not to be overwhelmed by this crushing of his
high hopes, returned to New Haven.
He spent the summer partly at home and partly in Concord, New Hampshire
(where his wife and children had gone to visit her father), and in
Portsmouth, Portland, and Hartford, having been summoned to those cities
by patrons who wished him to paint their portraits.
We can imagine that the young wife did not grieve over the failure of the
Mexican trip. Her letters to her husband at that period are filled with
expressions of the deepest affection, but with an undertone of
melancholy, due, no doubt, to the increasing delicacy of her health,
never very robust.
In the fall of 1824 Morse resolved to make another assault on the purses
of the solid men of New York, and he established himself at 96 Broadway,
where, for a time, he had the satisfaction of having his wife and
children with him. They, however, returned later to New Haven, and on
December 5, 1824, he writes to his wife:--
"I am fully employed and in excellent spirits. I am engaged in painting
the full-length portrait of Mr. Hone's little daughter, a pretty little
girl just as old as Susan. I have made a sketch of the composition with
which I am pleased, and so are the father and mother. I shall paint her
with a cat set up in her lap like a baby, with a towel under its chin and
a cap on its head, and she employed in feeding it with a spoon....
"I am as happy and contented as I can be without my dear Lucrece and our
dear children, but I hope it will not be long before we shall be able to
live together without these separations."
"_December 17, 1824._ I have everything very comfortable at my rooms. My
two pupils, Mr. Agate and Mr. Field, are very tractable and very useful.
I have everything 'in Pimlico,' as mother would say.
"I have begun, and thus far carried on, a system of neatness in my
painting-room which I never could have with Henry. Everything has its
place, and every morning the room is swept and all things put in
order....
"I have as much as I can do in painting. I do not mean by this that I
have the overflow that I had in Charleston, nor do I wish it. A hard
shower is soon over; I wish rather the gentle, steady, continuing rain. I
feel that I have a character to obtain and maintain, and therefore my
pictures must be carefully studied. I shall not by this method paint so
fast nor acquire property so fast, but I shall do what is better, secure
a continuance of patronage and success.
"I have no disposition to be a nine days' wonder, all the rage for a
moment and then forgotten forever; compelled on this very account to
wander from city to city, to shine a moment in one and then pass on to
another."
In a letter of a later date he says:--
"I am going on prosperously through the kindness of Providence in raising
up many friends who are exerting themselves in my favor. My storms are
partly over, and a clear and pleasant day is dawning upon me."