Why Mathew Carey was Alarmed that Secession and Civil War were Imminent

In an influential Democratic-Republican newspaper, the Aurora, William Duane favored use of federal forces in New England.

Mathew Carey, alarmed that secession was imminent, read everything he could on the history of civil wars.  He found that citizens were “indifferent” or “blind” in the period before the outbreak of war.

“I had devoured…nearly all the Histories of Civil Wars to be found in the Library – Divilla’s of France – Guichardini and Machivel[li]’s of Italy, Clarendon’s of England, & various others.  I say, on what is the Same thing in its results, I fancied I saw a Strong family likeness between the embrio of the Civil Wars by which the fairest portions of the earth have been ravaged.  I found the same dull indifference or willful blindness that characterised the mass of our citizens and our rulers, pourtrayed in those countries, where they were on the verge of an explosion.  I shuddered at the dire infatuation that So universally prevailed, and which I could not help regarding as the harbinger of impending destruction.”^[1]

                                                                             Mathew Carey

Carey estimated he wrote at least a dozen letters to President Madison urging him to do something to prevent a crisis.  He reasoned that a few radicals proposed secession, but most New Englanders wanted to stay in the Union.  He suggested that Madison write a pamphlet countering the arguments of the radical Federalists in Boston.  He offered to print and distribute it using his own funds.   He proposed forming a Washington Union Society, and bringing Federalists into Madison’s administration.  Madison stubbornly ignored all of Carey’s suggestions.^[2]

Next:  How Napoleon lured Madison into a trap.

Look for it Monday, January 14.