tion, and every day gives me greater encouragement. I shall
paint it on part of the great canvas when I return home. It will be
eleven feet by seven and a half feet.... It will take me until October
next to complete it."

The room which he painted was then the Hall of Representatives, but is
now Statuary Hall. As a work of art the painting is excellent and is
highly esteemed by artists of the present day. It contains eighty
portraits.

His high expectations of gaining much profit from its exhibition and of
selling it for a large sum were, however, doomed to disappointment. It
did not attract the public attention which he had anticipated and it
proved a financial loss to him. It was finally sold to an Englishman, who
took it across the ocean, and it was lost sight of until, after
twenty-five years, it was found by an artist friend, Mr. F.W. Edmonds, in
New York, where it had been sent from London. It was in a more or less
damaged condition, but was restored by Morse. It eventually became the
property of the late Daniel Huntington, who loaned it to the Corcoran
Gallery of Art in Washington, where it now hangs.[1]

[Footnote 1: This painting has recently been purchased by the Trustees of
the Corcoran Gallery.]

I find no more letters of special interest of the year 1822, but Mr.
Prime has this to record: "In the winter of 1822, notwithstanding the
great expenses to which Mr. Morse had been subjected in producing this
picture, and before he had realized anything from its exhibition, he made
a donation of five hundred dollars to the library fund of Yale College;
probably the largest donation in proportion to the means of the giver
which that institution ever received."

The corporation, by vote, presented the thanks of the board in the
following letter:--

YALE COLLEGE,
December 4th, 1822.

DEAR SIR,--I am directed by the corporation of this college to present to
you the thanks of the board for your subscription of five hundred dollars
for the enlargement of the library. Should this example of liberality be
generally imitated by the friends of the institution, we should soon have
a library creditable to the college and invaluable to men of literary and
philosophic research.

With respectful and grateful acknowledgment,

Your obedient servant,
JEREMAIAH DAY.

While he was at home in New Haven in the early part of 1823 he sought
orders for portraits, and that he was successful in at least one instance
is evidenc