After his acquittal Stuart lived in Edinburgh, at 2 North Charlotte Street off Charlotte Square and in Fifeshire at Hillside, "the grounds of which he greatly beautified", until 1828, when, his affairs being embarrassed, he resigned the collectorship of the widows' fund and went to America. Leaving Liverpool on 16 July 1828, he reached New York on 23 August. He sailed from America on 17 April 1831, and landed at Deal on 25 May. In 1833 he published "Three Years in North America" (2 vols.), an account of his travels, which attracted considerable attention. Two more editions appeared in the following year. Stuart displayed a strong bias in favour of the Americans, and he was involved in a controversy with Sir John Lambert and a Major Pringle regarding his account of the operations and conduct of the British army during the American campaign of 1814–15.