Lightning Man_ The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse - Kenneth Silverman [36]
Lafayette had moved on to Washington. Before going there to paint him, Finley made a quick trip to New Haven, apparently arriving about two weeks after the birth of his second son, named James Edward Finley. When he reached Washington, around February 8, there was no time to lose, for Lafayette was scheduled to leave soon on a triumphal southern tour, taking him as far as New Orleans.
On first shaking hands with Lafayette, Finley saw a tall man with a florid complexion who walked with a slight limp. He was professionally pleased by the nobility of Lafayette’s massive face, and personally overawed: “This is the man now before me, the very man … who spent his youth, his fortune, and his time, to bring about (under Providence) our happy Revolution; the friend and companion of Washington, the terror of tyrants, the firm and consistent supporter of liberty … this is the man, the very identical man!” They breakfasted together, and Lafayette introduced Finley to his son as, inevitably, “the son of the geographer.” Finley started on the full-length portrait by making an oil study of Lafayette’s face. But after three days of sittings he felt he had not done the general justice, and asked to have another few sittings when Lafayette returned to New York from his tour of the South.
Finley’s presence in Washington allowed him to witness a historic political event—the debates in the House to resolve the contest for the presidency between John Quincy Adams and Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. In the recent election Jackson had won a majority of the popular vote, but fell short of a majority in electoral votes. In such a case, the Constitution provided for the president to be chosen by the House of Representatives, voting by states. In what became infamously known as the “corrupt bargain,” the Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, threw his support and the vote of Kentucky to Adams, electing him president—and later receiving from Adams an appointment as Secretary of State.
Finley not only heard the debates in the House, but also attended President Monroe’s levee the evening after the decisive balloting. In a large crowd that included Lafayette, he looked on as Jackson shook the hand of President-elect Adams and cordially congratulated him on his victory. For some Americans, Jackson was the hero of the War of 1812, a man of the people; others saw him as a hotheaded brawler, a potential Napoleon. To Finley it seemed that in bearing his defeat manfully, Jackson showed a “nobleness of mind” that commanded respect. Actually, the enraged Jackson believed that Adams and Clay had stolen the presidency from him.
Excited at being in the Washington whirl, Finley sent Lucrece a lengthy account of these events. But there was no reply. Instead, he received a letter from Jedediah. “My Affectionately-Beloved Son,” it began. “My heart is in pain and deeply sorrowful, while I announce to you the sudden and unexpected death of your dear and deservedly-loved wife.”
Just twenty-five years old, Lucrece had died in New Haven three weeks after giving birth—only a few days after Finley’s visit. While painting Lafayette and hearing the House debates, he had been unaware of her passing. As Jedediah described it to him, Lucrece was about to take to her bed in the late afternoon, still convalescing from her delivery. She spoke cheerfully of before long joining Finley in New York. Stepping into bed, she struggled momentarily then fell back on her pillow: “her eyes were immediately fixed, the paleness of death overspread her countenance, and in five minutes more, without the slightest motion, her mortal life terminated.” All attempts to revive her failed. She apparently suffered a heart attack, what Jedediah called an “affection of the heart.”
Finley