James Madison Papers

To James Madison from Isaac Munroe, 13 August 1824

From Isaac Munroe

Patriot office,
Baltimore
, August 13, 1824.

Sir,

Circumstances growing out of the present contest for the Presidency, has caused a republication by me of the celebrated embargo letter of Mr. Adams, to which he has added an Appendix. Presuming it would not be unacceptable to you I have taken the liberty to enclose you a copy.1 I am zealously engaged in promoting the election of Mr. Adams, believing in so doing I am rendering a service to our common country. Though no philosopher I am opposed to the “blood and carnage” candidate on the one side & the robbers of the People’s rights on the other. Wishing you great individual happiness & that your fame may be imperishable, I am very respectfully

Isaac Munroe2

RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.

1John Quincy Adams, A Letter to Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, … on the Present State of Our National Affairs, with Remarks upon Mr. T. Pickering’s Letter, to the Governor of the Commonwealth. … With an Appendix, Written July, 1824 (Baltimore, 1824; Shoemaker description begins Richard H. Shoemaker, comp., A Checklist of American Imprints for 1820–1829 (11 vols.; New York, 1964–72). description ends 15026). For a discussion of the context in which this pamphlet was written, see Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, 144–49.

2Isaac Munroe (ca. 1784–1859) had been co-owner of the Boston Patriot until 1814, when he moved to Baltimore and became publisher of the Baltimore Patriot & Mercantile Advertiser. He edited that paper until a few years before his death. Munroe was a firm supporter of JM’s administrations and served in the Maryland militia during the British attack on Baltimore in 1814 (New York Herald, 25 Dec. 1859; Brigham, American Newspapers description begins Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690–1820 (2 vols.; Worcester, Mass., 1947). description ends , 1:245, 332; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County [2 vols.; 1881; reprint, Baltimore, 1971], 2:612).

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