Account of a Meeting with Isaac Briggs, 26 February 1816
Account of a Meeting with Isaac Briggs
[26 February 1816]
“I then made a visit to the President, who received me and entertained and instructed me, as has always been his custom, in a free, social and friendly conversation. The subject was American Manufactures, for the effectual protection of which he is a decided advocate. He began by again praising my pamphlet in high and strong terms.1 He then, in a very luminous manner, exhibited the present state and held up a prospective view of Britain, France and Europe generally, and the countries around the Mediterranean, the Black, and the Caspian, Sea—and also of Mexico & S. America, as impressively pointing the United States to a course of policy—the only wise one, easy and obvious now, and for which the present moment is auspicious—but if we suffer the present occasion to pass unimproved, it may never hereafter be in our power to regain the advantage.”
Extract from MS (MdHi: Briggs-Stabler Papers). From the letter Briggs commenced to his wife and children on 26 Feb. 1816.
1. Briggs referred to his Statements and Remarks, Addressed to Thomas Newton, Chairman of the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures, on the Subject of Agriculture, Ma[n]ufactures, and Commerce (Washington, D.C., 1816; 37087). Briggs also called on JM on 6 Feb. 1816, on which occasion JM “told me he had read my piece—that he was much pleased with it, and thought the statistical views, I had given, very important” (Briggs to Hannah Briggs, 7 Feb. 1816 [MdHi: Briggs-Stabler Papers]).