to see it. But no one offered to buy it. If the line of high art he had
chosen had not supported him in England, it was tantamount to starvation
in the rawer atmosphere of America. Even in Boston, mellowed though it
was by culture, the classical was at a discount. Almost penniless, and
fretting under his disappointment, he went to Concord, New Hampshire,
and contrived to earn a living by painting cabinet portraits. Was this
the end of his ambitious dreams?

Money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him
follow up his aspirations. Love may have been a still stronger motive
for its acquisition. So he tried his hand at invention, and, in
conjunction with his brother Sidney, produced what was playfully
described as 'Morse's Patent Metallic Double-Headed Ocean-Drinker and
Deluge-Spouter Pump-Box.' The pump was quite as much admired as the
'Jupiter,' and it proved as great a failure.

Succeeding as a portrait painter, he went, in 1818, on the invitation
of his uncle, Dr. Finley, to Charleston, in South Carolina, and opened a
studio there. After a single season he found himself in a position to
marry, and on October 1, 1818, was united to Lucretia P. Walker, of
Concord, New Hampshire, a beautiful and accomplished lady. He thrived so
well in the south that he once received as many as one hundred and fifty
orders in a few weeks; and his reputation was such that he was honoured
with a commission from the Common Council of Charleston to execute a
portrait of James Monroe, then President of the United States. It was
regarded as a masterpiece. In January, 1821, he instituted the South
Carolina Academy of Fine Arts, which is now extinct.

After four years of life in Charleston he returned to the north with
savings to the amount of L600, and settled in New York. He devoted