Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Monroe, James, 1758-1831 [Fragment]

Order a pdf of this item here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09135 Author/Creator: Monroe, James, 1758-1831 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph manuscript Date: August 1807 Pagination: 1 p. : Order a Copy

Unsigned fragment. "It would be dishonourable, and might be ruinous if without a redress of our wrongs war did not promptly follow the expiration of the embargo. No other alternative is left to our choice. Every other expedient has been tried and failed...We cannot retrace our steps and abandon, perhaps forever, our most important rights...It would be folly in the extreme to attempt to disguise from ourselves the true character of the present embargo. It is not an engine to be wielded in negotiation. From the privations to which it may expose the belligerents nothing ought to be expected. If relied on in that sense only, it is known that it would fail. It is a measure of precaution, intended principally as a warning to our own people of the nature of the crisis which has arrived, & of the consequences into which it may lead..."

Monroe, James, 1758-1831

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources