It may easily be imagined, that a person of so serious and thoughtful a disposition could not have failed at some period of his life, to turn his attention to the important subject of religion. While in college, and during the ensuing years, he had studied deeply the works of the great English theologians, and when the Unitarian Church was established in New-York, he united himself with it.
His other occupations did not prevent him from entering into literary pursuits. In 1820 he pronounced a discourse before the Historical Society of New-York, and in 1824, one at the opening of the New-York Athenæum, both of which are considered to have unusual merit; he was in the habit of contributing to the North American Review, and also translated the Code Napoleon. Unfortunately, this manuscript and some other interesting papers were soon after destroyed by fire. In 1826 he published the life of William Pinkney, whom he had known in Washington, and for whom he had the highest regard and admiration. This he afterwards abridged for Sparks's American Biography. His familiarity with the French language, laws, and customs, led to an intimacy with most of the exiles whom the downfall of Napoleon brought to this country. Count Réal, the minister of police under the empire, Count Regnault, the most brilliant orator of that time, General Bernard and Prince Achille Murat, all considered him as a friend, and retained as long as they lived a warm recollection of the kind welcome they had found at his house.
In 1827 he was appointed by President Adams, Chargè d'Affaires to Denmark, and charged with negotiations the object of which was to obtain an indemnity for the American vessels seized during the last war between France and England. He embarked in July for England, where he had the satisfaction of again seeing the friends whose kindness had made his first visit to that country so pleasant, and also of meeting some of the most distinguished literary and legal characters of the day. Among the former, was Dr. Bowring, with whom he afterwards became intimate, and who was indeed one of the warmest friends he had in Europe.
Although the first few months passed in Copenhagen were not without the trials attendant on a removal to a foreign home, and in this instance were still more overshadowed by the news of his father's death, and by the illness and death of his wife's brother, who had gone with them, Mr. Wheaton soon became acclimated, formed pleasant acquaintances among his colleagues and among the Danes, who are remarkably kind and hospitable to foreigners, and availed himself of the resources the country offered to one of his tastes. The letter to Judge Story, of which we give a fac-simile, will show his first impressions of Copenhagen.
The climate of Denmark is damp like that of England, and its verdure quite as beautiful. Copenhagen is prettily situated, and contains as many objects of interest as any city of the size in Europe. It has fine palaces, a military and a naval academy, admirable hospitals, an extensive public library, a valuable collection of Northern antiquities, a good gallery of pictures, and fine public walks. The vicinity of the capital, although level, is highly cultivated, and affords a number of charming residences. The most pleasant of these are situated on the Strandvei, a road which runs along the shore of the Baltic to the Dyr-Hange, a fine park well stocked with deer, which is a favorite place of resort during the summer season to the Danes, who enjoy out-of-door life as much as the inhabitants of a Southern clime. Many of the houses which stand at intervals along the pleasant Strandvei are rented by their proprietors to foreigners. Of one of those occupied by Mr. Wheaton and his family, we engrave a cut, from a view painted by an artist of the country. It stood, and still stands, at some distance from the road, with a green lawn before it, and surrounded by lilacs, laburnums and beech-trees, whose white bark and light green leaves give a peculiar character to the scenery of Denmark. From the windows of the house the blue waves of the Baltic, studded with every variety of sail, may be seen, and in clear weather the opposite coast of Sweden is discernible. The road is enlivened by the brilliant equipages of the Royal family and nobility, by the Holstein-wagen, long open carriages which contain ten persons, two only being seated abreast, and much used for parties of pleasure, and by the women from the neighboring fishing villages, with their green petticoats and red boddices, carrying large baskets of fish to the city.
At the time of Mr. Wheaton's arrival in Denmark, Count Schimmelmann occupied the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. This nobleman was possessed of great talents and worth, and for nearly thirty years was employed in the service of his government. Although a great part of his income was derived from his estates in the Danish West Indies, it was chiefly by his influence that the emancipation of the negroes was effected. He was a generous patron of art and science, and one of the earliest friends of Niebuhr. By such a man Mr. Wheaton could not fail to be appreciated; and although the business transacted between them was of a delicate, and to the Danish government, which had been greatly impoverished by the war, of a trying nature, these meetings were always pleasant to both. The negotiations were terminated in 1831, by the signature of a convention, by which the American government obtained nearly all it had demanded.
While thus engaged, Mr. Wheaton had not neglected the literary pursuits to which, in moments of leisure, he always turned with pleasure. He prepared himself by the study of the languages, literature, and history of Northern Europe, for writing a work which was published in London, in 1831, under the title of History of the Northmen. At that period, Scandinavia was a new, and almost untrodden field, but although much has since been added to the information we then possessed respecting its history and antiquities, this work is still considered very valuable by those who take an interest in the subject to which it relates. It was translated into French in 1842, and a new edition of it being desired in this country, Mr. Wheaton undertook the task of preparing it, but did not live to complete it.
In the course of these studies he became acquainted with the most distinguished literary characters of Denmark, such as Bask, Rafn, Finn-Magnusen, the poet Ohlenschläger, Münter, Bishop of Zealand, and others. We must not omit to add Madame Frederika Brun, the sister of Münter, and herself a poetess of celebrity, whose splendid mansion in Copenhagen and charming country-seat of Fredericksdal, were for many years the resort of the most distinguished persons in Denmark.
It was in 1835 that he bade adieu to the country where nine pleasant years had been passed, and where his amiable disposition, high integrity and talents, had won him many friends. For more than a quarter of a century, our country had had no representative in Prussia; but our increased trade with Germany rendering it important that we should renew our relations with that country, he was appointed by President Jackson, Minister Resident to the court of Prussia. On his arrival in Berlin, his new colleagues took pleasure in pointing out to him the house which had been the residence of his predecessor, John Quincy Adams, so long before.
Mr. Ancillon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was the descendant of a Huguenot family, who, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sought an asylum in Germany, and is even better known as a philosophical writer and historian, than as a statesman. To him Mr. Wheaton presented his credentials, and as the King, Frederick William III., and his ministers, soon after left Berlin, according to custom, for the summer months, he devoted the interval to visiting the Rhenish provinces, in order to examine their resources and report to Government concerning them. During the ensuing summers he made excursions into different parts of Germany with the same object. In his private letters, he speaks with delight of the beauty and fertility of the country, to which historical associations gave additional charm in his eyes. In a dispatch, he says: "Having diligently explored every state and every province, comprehended in the Customs-Association, with the view of studying their economical resources, I have been forcibly struck with the vast variety and rich productions with which Heaven has endowed this beautiful and highly favored land. Its fields teem with luxuriant harvests of grain and fruit, the hillsides are clad with vineyards yielding the most exquisite wines, the mountains contain inexhaustible treasures of useful minerals, whilst the valleys are filled with health-giving fountains of salubrious waters. When we add to these productions of nature and of agricultural labor, the vast variety of useful and ornamental fabrics, furnished by the persevering and patient industry of the German people, and their extensive consumption of the peculiar staple productions of the New World, we must be convinced of the great and increasing importance of the constituent elements of German commerce, of the valuable exchange it offers to the trade of other countries, and of the benefits which may be derived to our own country, from cultivating and extending the commercial relations between the United States and Germany."