Excerpt from John Trumbull

The original IN the possession OF prof. B. Silliman, new haven.taken, and the British were overrunning the Southern States almost without Opposition. This news was a coup de grace to my commercial projects, for my funds consisted in public securities of Congress, the value of which was annihilated by adversity. Before leaving America, Trumbull had been advised by a Mr. Temple, consul-general of Great Britain in New York previous to the commencement of hostilities, and who, married to an American lady, was regarded as a neutral, to go to London to study art. This gentleman, moreover, as he was a man of influence in England, relieved him of any fears of being molested there on account Of his having been a rebel officer. Accordingly, he proceeded at once to Paris, where he found Dr. Franklin, who gave him a letter to Benjamin West, in London, then in high favor with the Court and King, and to whom he soon delivered it. West received Trumbull kindly, and set him to work. He began with copying West's copy of Raphael's Madonna a'ella Seggiola, and Gilbert Stuart, then also a pupil of West, showed him how to mix and apply his colors. Perhaps this initiation into the mysteries of the palette was more useful to him than West's, for Stuart's instinct for color must have been worth more as a guide than any of their master's precepts. West was pleased with the copy. He pronounced Trumbull intended for a painter, and with this stimulant I devoted myself to art.

Trumbull, however, was not to remain tranquilly at work. About this time news arrived Of the capture and death of Major André, which produced great excitement against Americans in England. He states in his Memoirs that the strongest feeling against him came from Loyalists, that is to say, some of his own countrymen, who had carefully watched my conduct from the day of my arrival, and now thought themselves certain of putting an end to my unintelligible security and protection. Through the agency of one of these, Sir Benjamin Thompson, after wards Count Rumford, Trumbull was arrested and incarcerated. West, Copley, Charles James Fox, and other pro-minent men, interested themselves in the case, and finally, after an imprison ment of seven months, during which he copied a Correggio from a copy made by West (now in New Haven), he was released. His freedom was owing to the clemency and magnanimity of George III., through the good Offices of Edmund Burke, on West and Copley becoming surety for him, coupled with the condition Of leaving the kingdom in thirty days. After a short journey on the Continent, and a longer one on the sea, he reached his native land at the end of the year. There is no doubt that his bearing and language on being examined after his arrest had an effect in relation to his freedom. I am an American. My name is Trumbull. I am a son of him whom you call the rebel Governor of Connecticut. I have served in the rebel American army. I have had the honor of being an aide-de-camp to him whom you call the rebel General Washington. These two always have in their power a greater number of your friends prisoners than you have Of theirs I am entirely in your power; treat me as you please, always remembering that as I may be treated so will your friends in America be treated by mine.

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