When New England Wanted to Secede

By Robert McNamara, June 17, 2013

Movements to oppose the federal government have a long history in America. And one of the first was building momentum 200 years ago in the New England states, where opposition to the War of 1812 was strong.   As the war dragged on, costing money and cramping trade, New Englanders became increasingly outraged. Massachusetts refused to put its militia under federal control, and the federal government retaliated by refusing to reimburse the state for war costs.

The simmering crisis became more dramatic when legislatures from New England states sent representatives to the Hartford Convention at the end of 1814. What the conventioneers did not know was that the Treaty of Ghent was being signed in Europe and the war was ending anyway.

Fearing insurrection, the federal government sent a regiment of troops to Hartford. And with the proceedings of the meeting being kept secret, rumors spread.
The New England states, of course, did not secede from the Union. The meeting was widely mocked, and scathing political cartoons depicted New Englanders wanting to leap back into the arms of the British king.

And while the Hartford Convention is not widely remembered today, it was in some ways an inspiration for the Nullification Crisis and the Secession Crisis that led to the Civil War…..ThisAppeared Here…..