
The Hartford Convention began on December 15, 1814 and
lasted nearly three weeks. There were
representatives from Connecticut, Massachusetts (the largest delegation), New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
They urged several constitutional amendments that they felt would
strengthen their regions’ influence.
Secession was discussed.
But timing is everything.
The War of 1812 ended almost immediately after the convention and the
Federalists, already dwindling in number, were discredited. The Hartford Convention sounded the death
knell for the nation’s first ruling political party. Their last presidential candidate competed in
1816 and he was soundly defeated.
Theodore Dwight, a prominent Federalist and journalist,
served as the convention’s secretary. He
later wrote a defensive account of the proceedings. He said, for example, that
“the Hartford Convention, from the time of its coming together to the present
hour, has been the general topic of reproach and calumny, as well as of the
most unfounded and unprincipled misrepresentation and falsehood.” Not surprisingly, he was critical of
Democratic-Republicans Jefferson and Madison.
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