Today in 1814, delegates from every New England state but Maine (which was not yet a state of its own, but still part of Massachusetts) met at the Old State House in Hartford to take action against what they saw as the federal government’s misguided and inept handling of the War of 1812.

While the War of 1812 was officially a war against Great Britain, the young United States was, in reality, fighting on three fronts: to the north against British-held Canada, to the east against Britain and its mighty navy, and to the west against British-allied Native Americans along the American frontier.  The New England states were thus threatened by British invasion attempts and coastal harassment on two fronts, in addition to a crippling regional economic downturn caused by embargoes and sanctions enacted under the Democratic-Republican presidential administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.  Unsurprisingly, the opposition Federalist party felt that, by 1814, it was time for the New England states to gather together to discuss their collective grievances against the Madison administration’s handling of the war — and so, on December 15, 1814, twenty-six delegates from across New England met in Hartford to do just that.

As soon as the Hartford Convention was announced, rumors began swirling about the nefarious aims of the Federalist delegates, who did themselves no favors by maintaining strict secrecy concerning the closed-door discussions of the three-week event.  While the pro-Federalist papers of Connecticut, like the Connecticut Courant, which fully supported the Hartford Convention, declaring, “Our [New England] sovereignty is invaded. Our rights are trampled underfoot,” other newspapers outside the Northeast accused the delegates of planning a traitorous coup against the Madison administration, or drafting a plan of secession from the Union.  Despite many delegates’ vocal denials of these radical plots, the accusations of treasonous behavior stuck; widely-circulated political cartoons mocked the delegates as self-interested cowards who were willing to leap back into the arms of King George III.

In early January, the Federalist delegates released an official “Report and Resolutions of the Hartford Convention.” The report contained four resolutions condemning the Madison administration’s handling of the War and a handful of proposed Constitutional amendments in keeping with the interests of the New England states — amendments like the repeal of the infamous 3/5 clause that inflated the congressional representation of the slaveholding Southern states.  Nowhere in the report was there any mention of secession; while the idea was likely discussed at the Convention in some capacity (making it the first time secession from the Union was seriously considered in American history), the delegates refused to officially endorse it.  Detractors also pointed to a clause at the end of the report hinting that another such convention might be called if New England’s regional concerns were not addressed as proof that secession was still under active consideration by the Federalist party.

The intrigue and drama surrounding the Hartford Convention soon came to an abrupt end, however, as news about the war-ending Treaty of Ghent and General Andrew Jackson’s rout of British troops at New Orleans spread across the United States in mid-January — at almost the exact time the convention’s report was released.  The War of 1812 was suddenly over, and the grumbling Federalists looked like fools who had decisively chosen the “wrong” side of the debate over the war.  The Federalist Party never recovered from the blow its reputation suffered after the Hartford Convention, leading to an era of political dominance by the Democratic-Republican party for most of the early 19th century.  A massive political gamble at the Old State House resulted in a seismic political power shift that reverberated through the country — on this day in Connecticut history.

Further Reading

Kim Sheridan, “The Hartford Convention,” connecticuthistory.org

Matthew Warshauer, “The ‘Notorious’ Hartford Convention,” Connecticut Explored