“You will certainly have the blues when you first arrive, but the longer you stay abroad the more severe will be the disease.  Excuse my predictions....  The Georgia affair is settled after a fashion; not so the nullifiers; they are infatuated.  Disagreeable as it will be, they will be put down with disgrace to them.”

In another letter to Mr. Cooper, dated February 28, 1833, he writes in the same vein:—­

“The South Carolina business is probably settled by this time by Mr. Clay’s compromise bill, so that the legitimates of Europe may stop blowing their twopenny trumpets in triumph at our disunion.  The same clashing of interests in Europe would have caused twenty years of war and torrents of bloodshed; with us it has caused three or four years of wordy war and some hundreds of gallons of ink; but no necks are broken, nor heads; all will be in statu ante bello in a few days....

“My dear sir, you are wanted at home.  I want you to encourage me by your presence.  I find the pioneer business has less of romance in the reality than in the description, and I find some tough stumps to pry up and heavy stones to roll out of the way, and I get exhausted and desponding, and I should like a little of your sinew to come to my aid at such times, as it was wont to come at the Louvre....

“There is nothing new in New York; everybody is driving after money, as usual, and there is an alarm of fire every half-hour, as usual, and the pigs have the freedom of the city, as usual; so that, in these respects at least, you will find New York as you left it, except that they are not the same people that are driving after money, nor the same houses burnt, nor the same pigs at large in the street....  You will all be welcomed home, but come prepared to find many, very many things in taste and manners different from your own good taste and manners.  Good taste and good manners would not be conspicuous if all around possessed the same manners.”

CHAPTER XXII

1833—­1836

Still painting.—­Thoughts on art.—­Picture of the Louvre.—­Rejection as painter of one of the pictures in the Capitol.—­John Quincy Adams.—­James Fenimore Cooper’s article.—­Death blow to his artistic ambition.—­ Washington Allston’s letter.—­Commission by fellow artists.—­Definite abandonment of art.—­Repayment of money advanced.—­Death of Lafayette.—­ Religious controversies.—­Appointed Professor in University of City of New York.—­Description of first telegraphic instrument.—­Successful experiments.—­Relay.—­Address in 1853.