To recap: On October 17, 1814 the legislature in Massachusetts invited New England states to a convention in Hartford on December 15. They responded. Connecticut named seven delegates. Rhode Island appointed four delegates. Democratic-Republicans blocked attempts to appoint delegates in New Hampshire. Vermont voted with unanimity to turn down the invitation.[1] Eventually two Federalist counties from New Hampshire sent two delegates, and a Federalist county in Vermont sent one.
Elections in New England followed that autumn. During the previous term, in 1812, New England states sent eleven Democratic-Republicans to Congress, and thirty Federalists. In 1814, New Englanders were clear. They voted for thirty-nine Federalist Congressmen and only two Democratic-Republicans. As Henry Adams reported, “President Madison might safely assume that no man voted for Federalist Congressmen in November, 1814, unless he favored the project of a New England Convention.”[2]
President Madison was known for his even-tempered responses to difficulties. The defeat of American forces at Bladensburg and his flight from the White House, before British troops invaded Washington had taken their toll. A visitor to Madison on October 14 reported:
“I called on the President. He looks miserably shattered and woe-be-gone. In short, he looked heart-broken. His mind is full of New England sedition…I denied the probability…that the yeomanry of the North could be induced to place themselves under the power and protection of England…[he] convinced me that his heart and mind were painfully full of the subject.”[3]
William Wirt
Next: How Governor Strong Responded to British Conditions for Peace
Look for it Monday, November 3
[1] Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc, 1986) 1068.
[2] Adams, History of the United States…James Madison, 1068.
[3] Adams, History of the United States…James Madison, 1070.
