HARTFORD CONVENTION (ante). To the. brief statement, under this head may be added .from the journal of the assembly (not published until 1833) some further facts, premising, however, that much of the odium thrown upon the convention was undeserved, and mainly the offspring of partisan malignity. The controlling idea of the body was the preservation of those state rights for• which their opponents, the democrats, were then and have ever since been loudly clamoring. The men composing the convention were among the best and most intelligent citizens, but all were fed eralists. The war with England had destroyed the prosperity of the eastern states, yet they made no opposition to the war, as was untruly charged. In fact the war was over, for the peace of Ghent was agreed upon before the convention got fairly to work. though the fact was unknown, and the battle of New Orleans was fought nearly two weeks after the treaty was signed. The federalists, at whose head once stood George had greatly declined, and had no real strength in the nation. The com plaints of the convention were: That the New Emdand states were deprived of their militia while their sea-coast was left at the mercy of the English enemy; that some check ought to lie put upon the almost arbitrary pbwers of the general goverment; but the acts of the three states calling the convention were to be " not repugnant to their obligations as members of the union." So said Massachusetts, and Connecticut and Rhode Island agreed. There is no ground for the charge that the convention was or intended to be disloyal. The main propositions are stated (see Hartford Convention, ante), and amount to this: That the people of a state ought not to be subject to draft or conscription " not authorized by the federal constitution." That the general govern
ment ought to empower the states to defend their own territory against foreign enemy. That the legislatures of the three states should authorize their governors to make detachments of militia or farm corps which should be ready for service in the state. or, on the application of a governor, to assist in defense in other states. The convention's views on amending the federal constitution savored of that nativism that afterwards developed into a great but short-liVed American party. They held that no person not then naturalized should afterwards be eligible for a member of congress, or hold any civil office under the authority of the United States. Their one term for president had long been popular with nearly half of the voters in the union, though they went a step further and wished to provide that a state should not furnish two presidents in suc cession. They would require a vote of two-thirds of each house of congress for the admission of a new state, and would have representatives and direct taxes apportioned (as they now are) on the basis of the number of free persons in a state. This was of course aimed at the southern states, where the slaves were counted in a two-thirds ratio as representative people. The convention, with a view to the great commercial interest of the eastern states, desired that a vote of two-thirds in congress should be necessary to declare war or interdict commerce, except in case of an actual invasion. The convention met Dec. 15, 1814, and adjournechIan. 5, 1815. There were 12 dele gates from Massachusetts, 7 from Connecticut, 3 from Rhode Island, 2 from part of New Hampshire, and 1 from a county in Vermont—m all 25 persons.