Federalist Opposition to the War of 1812
Just as during the Embargo Act of 1807, the Federalists pursued resistance and civil disobedience. Federalists even got termed “Blue Lights” from the alleged beliefs that Federalists in the coasts of New England were turning on blue lights to send signals to British ships to help them. As the war raged on, Federalists grew more anti-war, and at the same time more unpopular throughout the rest of the country.
"Federalists everywhere... passionately spoke out against the conflict, so clogging 'the wheels of war'... 'Blue light' Federalists... discouraged enlistments in the army, thwarted subscriptions to the war loans, urged the withholding of federal taxes, and plotted secession from the Union. They bought British government bonds at a discount and sent specie to Canada to pay for smuggled goods. The Federalist governors in New England even refused... requisition of their state militias. The governor of Massachusetts actually entered into secret negotiations with the British, offering part of Maine in return for an end to the war".1
Yet, it should be taken into account that these measures undertaken by the Federalists were not with the objective of destroying the Union. Harrison Gray Otis (who would attend the Hartford Convention), defends Federalist actions and the future convention by stating, "It is only contended, that the distance is immeasurable between a general discontent with the course of affairs, manifested by an ardent opposition... and a dispositon to dissolve the bonds which hold together the political fabric"2. He emphasizes just because the people are unhappy does not mean that they seek to tear asunder the union. In a popular form of government, people have the right to make their word heard and the active Federalist opposition is how they did it. Otis also mentions those British politicians who sought peace during the American Revolutionary crisis who got criticized as traitors, drawing the comparison to the Federalists of his time. "Opposition in peace and in war, is the growth & sometimes the blemish, of popular governments. When Chatham, Barre, Burke, and Fox... put forth the energies of their mighty minds, and defended the rights of the American colonies, they were charged with promoting a separation of the Empire... Stigmatise the advocates for her interests as the apostles of sedition and of a dismemberment of the empire!".3
In contrast, there were some Federalists that did not oppose the war but supported it. A group of New York pro-war Federalists led by Oliver Wolcott Jr., Gulian C. Verplanck, Hugh Maxwell, and Thomas Morris formed the American Federalist party and ran a separate assembly slate in New York. These pro-war Federalists were called the "Coodies" after a pseudonym of Verplanck. The War of 1812 was creating division not only between Republicans and Federalists, but within the Federalists themselves. Showing how unpopular their opposition to the War of 1812 was.4
1Proper citation
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of liberty: A history of the early republic, 1789-1815. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
2Proper citation:
“Letters Developing the Character and Views of the Hartford Convention : By ‘One of the Convention’ ...” Gale Primary Sources. Accessed September 21, 2024. https://go-gale-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ps/i.do?p=SABN&u=msu_main&id=GALE%7CCY0100923137&v=2.1&it=r&aty=ip.
3Proper citation:
Ibid
4Proper citation:
"Republican Meeting at the Capitol, April 14, 1814" Broadside, New York Historical Society; Albany Argus, January-April 14, 1814. "Notes and Resolutions of Republican Meeting at the Capitol, April 14, 1814" Reel 2, Martin Van Buren Papers, Library of Congress