HARTFORD CONVENTION, of 1814; a gathering of New England Federalists to dis cuss measures for securing New England in terests against the South and West, especially in relation to the War of 1812. The convention opposed the war on several grounds — the vital objection being that it was destroying all Amer ican commerce in order to punish Great Britain for crippling a part of it. It was believed by the delegates that the agricultural States were sacrificing New England, whose life-blood was commerce, from ignorance mingled with sec tional malice (see EMBARGO). All through the war, the New England Federalists, impover ished and excluded from the national councils. harassed and hampered the government in con ducting it; the government retorted by leaving the whole section to its fate; the British in flamed the discord by exempting the New Eng land coast from blockade, and the government countered by laying a new embargo which did the same work All the New England States and New York were swept by the Federalists on this issue. In November 1813 the governor of Vermont recalled a brigade of militia from garrison duty; the government threatened prosecution, the Massachusetts legislature threatened to use the State power to support him. In the autumn of 1814 the destruction of New England industries had become intolerable; the coast was unde fended, the British were occupying that of eastern Maine, and Congress was proposing a conscription so severe as to enlist minors with out the consent of their parents; whereupon the Connecticut legislature ordered the governor to call a special session to protect its citizens if the measure were adopted. On 18 October the Massachusetts legislature proposed a con vention of the New England States, to take ac tion "not repugnant to their obligations as members of the Union,° and "lay the founda tion of a radical reform in the national com pact° through a future national convention. Connecticut and Rhode Island accepted the proposal with similar qualification; New Hamp shire was divided politically, and Vermont was excited over Macdonough's victory at Platts burg, but certain counties sent delegates. The war was a growing and alarming failure. Eng land was demanding the renunciation of the whole Northwest as the price of peace; national bonds were at 25 per cent discount. The gov ernment sent a regular army officer to oversee the convention and use force if it attempted disunion; deputed secret agents to see if it was true that there was a plot to make New England an English grand duchy under a prince of the blood; and appointed the succeed ing 12th of January a national fastday. The
convention met at Hartford, Conn., 15 Dec. 1814, with 12 delegates from Massachusetts, 7 from Connecticut, 4 from Rhode Island, 2 from New Hampshire and 1 from Vermont,— 26 in all. George Cabot of Massachusetts was chosen president, and Theodore Dwight of Connecticut secretary. A secret session of three weeks was held and a report to the New England legislatures prepared. On 5 Jan. 1815 the convention adjourned. The report stated the before-mentioned grievances, and charged the government with making naturalizations too easy and with destroying the balance of sections by forming new States at will out of the Western territory; but denied any present intention to dissolve the Union. It was proposed that Congress should confide the defense of each State to the State itself, and return a share of its taxes for the purpose; and recommended seven changes in the Constitution, namely, abolition of the three fifths slave representation, the requirement of a two-thirds vote for the admission of new States, the limitation of embargoes to 60 days, the requirement of a two-thirds vote to sanction the prohibition of commercial intercourse, or to declare war or hostilities, except in case of in vasion; the exclusion of naturalized foreigners from civil offices or a seat in Congress, and prohibition of a President's re-election. They proposed also that two Presidents in succession should never be elected from the same State. They also recommended that another conven tion should be held at Boston the following June if affairs did not mend or the amendments were rejected. The Massachusetts and Con necticut legislatures adopted the report and sent commissioners to Washington; but before they arrived a satisfactorypeace was made, all disasters forgotten in the blaze of the battle of New Orleans, and the promoters of the con vention detested as traitors preparing to secede. They were in fact killed for public life. But in 1819 Cabot deposited the journal of the con vention with the Massachusetts secretary of state as a permanent testimony that nothing treasonable was attempted; in 1833 Dwight wrote its history. Consult Cabot's 'Life and Letters,) ed. by Lodge (1877).