that he had hardly established himself in St. Petersburg
before he had made up his mind to leave a place where
he found he had nothing to do and little to enjoy.
He was homesick, too, as a young husband and father
with an affectionate nature like his ought to have
been under these circumstances. He did not regret
having made the experiment, for he knew that he should
not have been satisfied with himself if he had not
made it. It was his first trial of a career in
which he contemplated embarking, and in which afterwards
he had an eventful experience. In his private
letters to his family, many of which I have had the
privilege of looking over, he mentions in detail all
the reasons which influenced him in forming his own
opinion about the expediency of a continued residence
at St. Petersburg, and leaves the decision to her
in whose judgment he always had the greatest confidence.
No unpleasant circumstance attended his resignation
of his secretaryship, and though it must have been
a disappointment to find that the place did not suit
him, as he and his family were then situated, it was
only at the worst an experiment fairly tried and not
proving satisfactory. He left St. Petersburg
after a few months’ residence, and returned to
America. On reaching New York he was met by the
sad tidings of the death of his first-born child,
a boy of great promise, who had called out all the
affections of his ardent nature. It was long before
he recovered from the shock of this great affliction.
The boy had shown a very quick and bright intelligence,
and his father often betrayed a pride in his gifts
and graces which he never for a moment made apparent
in regard to his own.
Among the letters which he wrote from St. Petersburg
are two miniature ones directed to this little boy.
His affectionate disposition shows itself very sweetly
in these touching mementos of a love of which his
first great sorrow was so soon to be born. Not
less charming are his letters to his mother, showing
the tenderness with which he always regarded her,
and full of all the details which he thought would
entertain one to whom all that related to her children
was always interesting. Of the letters to his
wife it is needless to say more than that they always
show the depth of the love he bore her and the absolute
trust he placed in her, consulting her at all times
as his nearest and wisest friend and adviser,—one
in all respects fitted “To warn, to comfort,
and command.”
I extract a passage from one of his letters to his
mother, as much for the sake of lending a character
of reality to his brief residence at St. Petersburg
as for that of the pleasant picture it gives us of
an interior in that Northern capital.