In 1840, he addressed antislavery meetings in Massachusetts and was elected a delegate to the London antislavery conference of that year.[3] He remained in England after the close of the conference. His The Glory and Shame of England, published in New York in 1841, criticized England's antislavery professions. In 1842, President Tyler appointed Lester United States Consul at Genoa.
Books
The Life of Vespucius (1845; new edition, 1905)
The Artist, The Merchant, and the Statesman of the age of the Medici and of Our own Times (two volumes, 1845)
Sam Houston and His Republic (1846)
The Artists of America: a series of biographical sketches of American Artists (1846)