In the autumn of 1841, Mr. Motley received the appointment of Secretary
of Legation to the Russian Mission, Mr. Todd being then the Minister.
Arriving at St. Petersburg just at the beginning of winter, he found the
climate acting very unfavorably upon his spirits if not upon his health,
and was unwilling that his wife and his two young children should be
exposed to its rigors. The expense of living, also, was out of
proportion to his income, and his letters show 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