Hartford Convention or Leap No Leap
The New England states, out of concern for the state of the union and for their own safety as they suffered the burden of the War of 1812, decided to convene at the Hartford Convention in 1814. Some of the people that attended this convention were radicals who desired that New England secede from the nation. The creator of this piece, William Charles, depicts this with Federalist Thomas Pickering praying for the New England states to secede from the union and make the leap into the arms of King George III, rejoining Great Britain. Even though in reality the radicals were reined in by more experienced and cooler heads at the convention, most of the country saw the convention as secessionist and treasonous and it would lead to the death of the Federalist Party.
"Although some New England extremists called for making a separate peace with England and for secession from the Union, most Federalist leaders... were more cautious. Federalists such as Harrison Gray Otis of Massachusetts came to realize that the calling of the convention of New England states to express their grievances... might be the best way of moderating the extremism in the region."1
Not all New England states sent delegates either. The New York Federalists who opposed the war (and had their own pro-war Federalists) were against secession as a means of terminating the cause of their calamities. They did not send a delegation to the convention in fear that they might be association with treason and more Republican electoral wins but William Coleman did go forward as an observer.2 New York Federalists were rewarded by this by having their assembly drop from a thirty-two Republican majority to just two as the Federalists gained seats in the 1815 election.
The Federalists were concerned about how the state of the war was affecting New England and how Madison's government had been mistreating them before and during the war. The Hartford Convention wrote up a report and they sent it to Congress. Theodore Lyman wrote an account of the Hartford Convention to defend those involved in it. In his account he mentions the Federalist rationale, "It will be expedient to prepare a general statement of the unconstitutional attempts of the executive government... to infringe upon the rights of the individual states... and also to recommend the legislatures of the states, the adoption of the most effective and decisive measures, to protect the militia and the states from the usurpations contained in these procedings [Bills and acts passed by congress]".3 They arrived just as news of the Treaty of Ghent ending the war as well as Andrew Jackson's victory in New Orleans had gotten to Congress. This was humiliating and made them seem ridiculous and treasonous. The Hartford delegation went home quickly right after this.
The demands that they had were:
An end to hostilities with Great Britain
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
No trade embargo to last for more than 60 days
Two-thirds congressional majority to declare war and to admit new states
Removal of the Three-Fifths Clause
One-term limit for presidents
Prohibit naturalized citizens from federal office
Prohibit the election of presidents from the same state in two successive terms
"News of it [Jackson's victory] thoroughly discredited the report of the Hartford Convention, which many thought was a treasonous act. The Federalists were scorned and ridiculed, and they never recovered politically".4
1Proper Citation:
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of liberty: A history of the early republic, 1789-1815. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
2Proper Citation:
Onondaga Register, 28 December 1814; Ebenezer Baldwin to Simeon Baldwin, 29 October, 6, 15 November 1814, 7 January 1815, Baldwin Family Papers, Yale
3Proper Citation for this URL:
Lyman, Theodore. Gale Primary Sources. Accessed September 21, 2024. https://go-gale-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/ps/i.do?p=MOML&u=msu_law&id=GALE%7CF0105083978&v=2.1&it=r&aty=ip. “A short account of the Hartford Convention : taken from official documents, and addressed to the fair minded and the well disposed : to which is added an attested copy of the secret journal of that body”.
4Proper Citation:
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of liberty: A history of the early republic, 1789-1815. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.