Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals In Two Volumes, Volume I.

ter from Leslie.-Goes to New Hampshire to paint portraits.-Concord.-Meets Miss Lucretia Walker.-Letters to his parents concerning her.-His parents reply.-Engaged to Miss Walker.-His parents approve

.-Winter in Charleston, South Carolina.-John A. Alston.-Succe

is easy to picture the joy of that occasion, and to imagine the many heart-to-hea

r such large historical paintings as it was his ambition to produce. He was asked by a certain Mr. Joseph Delaplaine, of Philadelphia, to paint a portrait of ex-President John Adams for half price, the p

aits, for, in the following summer, he started on a painting tour through Ne

er, I shall quote from a letter written

April

el which sails to-morrow morning. I wrote Leslie by New P

you will have received notice, before this reaches you, that the Philadelphia Academy of

y; I find it is all forced. They can talk, and talk, and say what a fine thing it would be, but nothing is done. I find by experience that what you have often observed to me with respect to settling in Boston is well founded. I think it will be the last in the arts, though, without doubt, it is capable of being the fi

curred to make him alter all his plans.

nces; but I cannot forget them. If you had failings of the same kind and I could recollect any instances where you had spoken pettishly or ill-natured to me, our accounts would then have been balanced, they would have called for mutual forgetfulness and forgiveness; but when, on reflecti

wers this frank appe

ed to give you uneasiness. Be assured that they never were remembered by me a moment after, nor did they ever in the slightest degree diminish my regard or weaken my confidence in the sincerity of your friendship or the goodness of your heart. Besides, the consciousness of warmt

recollect that I considered the "Dead Man" (from the untoward fate he had hitherto experienced) almost literally as a caput mortuum, you may easily believe that I was most agreeably surprised to hear of the sal

writes: "Mr. West said your picture would have been more li

ie of September 6, 1816, oc

custom of the Greek nobility to strip and exhibit themselves naked to the artists in various attitudes, that they might have an opportunity of studying fine form. Accordingly those public

figure, but was found practising having the head of the Dying Gladiator, the body of the Hercules, one leg of the Apollo, and the other of the Dancing Faun, turned the wrong way. Lord Mulgra

rney, but it was characteristic of his buoyant and yet conscientious nature that, having once made up his mind to give up,

rk, by putting the best of himself into it, raised it to a very high plane; for many of his portraits are now held b

e writes to his pare

psh

Pond is very beautiful, though seen on a dull day. I think that one or two elegan

ce, I shall be able to find some. My stay in this place depends on that

r Contoocook Falls yesterday. I go this morning with Dr. McFarland to see some views. Colonel Kent's family are ver

August

re engaged and many more talked of. I think I shall get along well. I believe I could make an independent fortune in a few y

its in eight days; but, perhaps, on account of the very modest pr

recall his recent assertions concerning "Mrs

August

Next day after to-morrow I shall have received one hundred dollars, which I think i

and of an excellent disposition. This is her character in town. I have enquired particularly of Dr. McFarland respecting the family, and his answer is every way satisfactory, except that the

but I think I might

e continually falling in love in this way, but I have a dread o

n. But all this is thinking aloud to you; I make you my confi

ou and me, for it all may come to not

be to his glory and the good of his Kingdom, He will frustrate all; that, if He grants me prosperity, He will grant me a heart to use it aright; and,

our prayers, and especially in r

ise parents, they did not scoff. His mother wrote on August 23, 1816, in answer: "With respect to the other confidential matter, I hope the Lord will direct you to a proper choice. We

r own judgment. Be not hasty in entering into any engagement; enquire with caution and delicacy; do everything that is honorable and gentlemanly respecting yourself and those concerned. 'Pause,

ctions may be gathered from the follo

September

t 29. I leave town to-morrow morning, probably for H

ved just one hundred dollars in Concord. The last I took for ten dol

pen-hearted. Wherever I have enquired concerning her I have invariably heard the same character of-"remarkably amiable, modest, and of a sweet disposition." When you learn that this is the case I think you will not accuse me of being hasty in bringing the

so hasty. I have not yet mentioned it to her parents; she requested me to defer it till next summer, or till I see her again,

l wretch I have been. Pray for me that I may have a grateful heart, for I

his characteristic lett

at Concord.... So far as we can judge from your representations (which are all we have to judge from), we cannot refuse you our approbation, and we hope that the course

ed with the state of the business, as she is

state of the business. I feel some degree of awkwardness as it respects that part of the affair; I don't know the manner in which it ought to be done. I wish you would

and, for the first time, mentions the young lady

ia must have had some conversation with her mother on the subject, for she told me one day, when I asked her what her mother thought of my constant visits, that her mother said she 'didn't think I

ry in Concord. I meet with no success

's letters in spite of their great seriousness, as witness

r yourself and those you love a maintenance, as neither of you can subsist long upon air

nd that, if you and she form a connection for life, some five or six years hence, you may

ght to suppose we should be anxious to know. All you have told us is that she is handsome and amiab

rothers and sisters has she? How old are they? Is she healthy? How old are her parents?

s. You see your mother has not lived twenty-seven ye

y answered in a letter which

816, he writes fro

as Concord. I think I shall be tempted to stay a week or two there.... I do not like Windsor very much. It is

MONT, Septem

eauty and, particularly, for her disposition; and this I have heard without there being the slightest suspicion of any attachment, or even acquaintance, between us. This augurs well most certainly. I know she is conside

portrait to do before I leave it.... I should have business, I presume, to l

at Dartmouth College, as large as life, with all the portraits of the trustees, overseers, officers of college, and students; and, if I finish it next week, to ask five thousand dollars for it and then come home in a coach and six

wspaper, the "Boston Recorder," founded and edited by him. It was one of the first of t

ful progress, he writes next fr

ged than I can do. I painted seven portraits at Windsor, one for my board and lodging at the inn, and one for ten dollars, very small, to be sent in a letter to

ord, so that I shall not probably

world. I think I can, with industry, average from two to three thousand do

October

. I painted four portraits altogether in Hanover, and have many engaged

ow you will love her. She has consented that I should inform her parents of our attachment. I have, accordingly, just sent a letter to her

to say: "I have Lucretia's parents' entire approbation." Everything successful! Praise be to the giver of every go

ker from a girl friend

u, for I have heard that several have become candidates for your affections, but that you remained unmoved until Mr. M.,

me a successful suitor, I have made some enquiries concerning him, and find he is possessed of every excellent and

r, for we find no more letters until the 14th of Dece

e thinks I shall meet with encouragement, and, on the strength of this, I have taken lodgings and a room at Mrs. Hinge's in Jaffrey Street; a very excellent and central situation.... I shall commence on Monday mornin

e piston-pump," from which they hoped great things. Edwards, always more or less of a wag, proposed

s written endorsement, and Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, thus recommends it: "Having examined the model of a fire-engine invented by Mr. Morse, with pistons of a

ncée, many long references are made to this pump and to the varying success in introducing it into general use.

meeting with success in his profession. Miss Walker was also there visiting

his parents, naturally, wishing to make the acquaintance of the yo

le necessity (shall I say) of postponing my return ... in consequence of a press of business. I shall have three begun to-night; one sat yesterday (a large one), and tw

time completely stopped me. Since I wrote I have taken a first sitting of a fourth (large),

acter to realize the depth of his religious convictions, I

the Revival, how many are admitted ne

t occasioned this was an occurrence on the evening of Sunday before last. I heard the bell ring for lecture and concluded

, and the singing the finest I have heard in Portsmouth. I was struck with the contrast it made to Mr. Putnam's sacramental lecture; fifteen or sixteen persons thinly scattered over the hous

te of society here but almost gave up as hopeless. I told him he never should yield a post like this to the Devil without a struggle; and, at any rate, I told him that the few Christians that th

bly led through Concord, and the pure love of the young people for each other increased as the months rolled by. I shall not profane the sacredness of this love by introducing any of the

e. He painted many portraits in Concord, Hanover, and other places, and finally concluded to venture on a trip to Charlesto

s arrival to his parents: "I find myself in a new climate, the weather warm as our Ma

d by Morse, aroused the enthusiasm of the Charlestonians, and orders began to pour in, so that in a few weeks he was engaged to paint one hundred and fifty portraits at sixty dollars each. Quite an advance over the me

th. I will pay you most willingly the two hundred dollars you require for it, and will consider myself a gainer by the bargain. I shall expect you to decorate this picture with the most superb landscape you are cap

he Judgment of Jupiter." Mr. Alston prized this picture highly during his lifetime, but after his death it was sold and for many years was lost sight of. It was purchased long afterwa

what he called a "peripneumony," which, from the description, must have been the term used in t

had carried with him in an unfinished state, and in painting such others as he could procure commissions for

ley, writing to hi

ge and happy meeting with your affectionate parents at your own home, came safe to hand in due ti

ub or two or you will be too much in the clouds and forget that you are

during your absence. I will perform the office of him who was placed near t

o much haste and his draperies are not well done. He must be more attentive or he will lose his reputa

requested you to draw his brother Thomas twenty years younger than he really was, so as to be a companion to his ow

es, and threw himself with enthusiasm into the painting of portraits. He had an added incentive, for he wished to marry at once, and his parents and those of his fian

1818, the following not

Concord: "Married in t

Samuel F.B. Morse (the

er, daughter of Ch

er the young man wr

s I ever travelled, all uphill and down and very rocky, and no tavern on the road. We enquired at New Ipswich our best route to Northampton, where we intended to go to meet Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius, but we found on enquiry that there were nothing but cr

me by Tuesday noon, probably to dinner. We are both well and send a great deal of love to you all. Mr. and Mrs. Walker wish me to p