Beginning on December 15, 1814, delegates from the five New England states, representing the Federalist Party, met in Hartford, Connecticut, to discuss their grievances against the national government. The convention was primarily a protest of the War of 1812 (1812-15), and much has been made of the fact that the delegates discussed secession. Although the convention did not endorse such a drastic step, it still made its mark by suggesting amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would have strengthened states' rights. The convention ended on January 5, 1815.

Many New Englanders had opposed the war from its very beginning, and by 1814, with no real military gains and several reverses, many had become convinced that the war was a mistake that sacrificed the country's commercial interests for the benefit of those in the South and the West. Concerned that the Democratic-Republican Party would ignore the plight of New England, drive the nation into bankruptcy, and lose a futile war, several Federalist Party leaders in Massachusetts issued a call for a convention to address regional grievances. In December, 26 Federalists representing Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, sent by their state legislatures, and New Hampshire and Vermont, chosen by the Federalist Party, met in Hartford, Connecticut. George Cabot, a moderate from Massachusetts presided, while Theodore Dwight served as secretary of the convention.

The convention's underlying aim was to protect the New England states against apparent violations by the federal government. The meetings were held in absolute secrecy, and although the moderates prevailed, some extremists proposed secession from the United States, while others suggested a separate peace between New England and Great Britain. Neither proposal gained the convention's support, but the delegates did produce a final report that was critical of James Madison and the war. The convention also recommended several constitutional amendments that would remedy the New Englanders' political problems. Disgusted with the three-fifths clause, which gave slaveholders more congressmen than the New Englanders believed they deserved, the convention urged that taxation and representation in each state should be proportionate to its free population. Also, annoyed with foreign-born officeholders such as Albert Gallatin among the Jeffersonians, they wanted the Constitution to stipulate that no naturalized citizens should be allowed to hold office in the federal government. Distressed over the apparent lock on the presidency by the Virginia dynasty, the convention wanted guarantees that the presidency should not exceed one term and that the president should never be chosen twice successively from the same state. Finally, in the hope that the New England delegation in Congress could protect its commercial interests, they wanted an amendment stating that Congress could not interfere with foreign commerce or declare an offensive war except by a two-thirds vote.

Unfortunately for the Federalist Party, the timing of the Hartford Convention could not have been worse. Although the outlook for the war appeared bleak that fall, with the nation on the brink of bankruptcy and no real military gains in the face of many losses, including the burning of Washington, D.C., the situation miraculously turned around--just as the convention's representatives reached the nation's burnt-out capital--with the arrival of the news of Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans (January 7, 1815) and word of the Treaty of Ghent (1814). Newspapers supporting the Democratic-Republican Party portrayed the Hartford Convention as a betrayal of the United States. The convention became a fiasco for the Federalist Party and signaled the decline of its national prominence over the next few years.

Bibliography:

James Banner, Jr., To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789-1815 (New York: Knopf, 1970).

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