State Documents on Federal Relations/36n

by Herman V. Ames

Massachusetts and the Call of the Hartford Convention.

October, 1814.

During the summer of 1814 New England, which hitherto had been spared by the British, was threatened with a general invasion, and the enemy actually occupied a portion of the Maine coast. The Federal Government still left New England to defend herself, and withheld supplies for the maintenance of the militia. In this crisis, Governor Strong, of Massachusetts, assembled the General Court in Special Session, October 5, 1814. That body acted promptly, passing an act authorizing the raising of a military corps of ten thousand men for the defence of the State (Laws of Mass., 1812–15, 575–578), and adopting the Report and Resolutions of its Committee, recommending the assembling of a Convention of Delegates of the New England States, thus acting on the suggestion first proposed by the Joint Committee in their Report in the preceding February. (Cf. Ante, No. 34.) The minority in both the Senate and the House filed protests. Extracts from the Report and the Call for the Convention to be held in Hartford, December 15, 1814, follow.

References: Sources. The texts are in Resolves of Mass., 1814, 567–571; also in Niles, VII, 149–153; the Circular Letter is in Dwight, 342, 343. For other documents including the Protests of the Minority of the Senate and of the House, cf. Niles, VII, 113, 114, 148–155, 180, 181. Report and Resolution of the General Assembly of Connecticut appointing seven delegates to the Convention is in Dwight, 344–350; also in Niles, VII, 164, 165. In the Connecticut Historical Society there are two contemporary prints of the same; the one, To the Honorable the General Assembly, now in Session. Large folio, broadside. (New Haven: Hudson and Woodward, 1814), attested in ink by Thomas Day, Secretary of State; the other, Report | Of the Committee | To whom was referred His | Excellency's Speech, etc. | Hudson & Woodward, Printers, | Church Street, New Haven.^[1] | Octavo. pp. 8. The text of the report and resolutions of Rhode Island, which follow, are also found in Niles, VII, 180, 181. The report adopted by the Vermont Legislature, although Federalist, that it was inexpedient to accept the invitation, is given in Assembly Journal of 1814, 76, 84, 129; Records of Governor and Council, VI, 94, 463. Letter of Madison, on conduct of New England States, Nov. 25, 1814, Works, II, 593. General references: Adams, VIII, 222–228; Dwight, 337–351; Hildreth, VI, 531–535; McMaster, IV, 246–248; Schouler, II, 424, 425; Von Hoist, 258–262.

1. I am indebted to Mr. Albert C. Bates, Librarian, for these references.