218 Trumbull Gallery of Paintings in Yale College. 
ters, in the several compositions for which they were intended, 
he afterwards travelled through various parts of the country from 
New Hampshire to South Carolina, in search of others; and in 
1794, had nearly completed the collection of portraits, views of 
places, and all the various materials necessary to the execution of 
his entire plan. 
During this period the work attracted much attention, and was 
generally approved. All saw the correctness of the portraits ; 
many knew the accuracy of the circumstances recorded: and it 
was proposed to employ the artist to execute the entire series for 
the nation. This proposal failed to be carried into effect; not 
through any opposition from any quarter to the propriety and fit- 
ness of the object, but because the nation then possessed no build- 
ing proper to receive and preserve such works; and because 
doubts existed then, as they have since, in the minds of some 
gentlemen, whether Congress possessed the right of appropriating 
the public money to such purposes. 
In the mean time the French Revolution had commenced, and 
its subsequent convulsions diverted the attention of all mankind, 
during many years, from the Fine Arts, and from all the works 
and thoughts of peace ; and the further prosecution of this object 
was suspended, until the government of the United States, in the 
year 1816, were pleased to pass a resolution, authorizing the artist 
to execute four of the subjects for the nation ;—just thirty years 
after he had painted the battle of Bunker’s Hill. 
The attention of the artist was exclusively devoted to the exe- 
cution of this honorable commission, until it was completed, when 
he resumed the small set of these then unfinished studies; and 
although the lapse of near forty years might have been expected 
to have impaired his sight in a degree which would have pre 
vented the possibility of finishing such small works, yet, by the 
blessing of God, he has acomplished his original purpose to the 
extent, and with the degree of success which is now submitted 
to public examination. 
used * CATALOGUE, &C. 
* No. 1—Tar Doxe or Wewuineron. Painted from a bust ; 
itis recognized as a good likeness by English gentlemen and 
—ae nted with the features of the Duke. : 
