Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/220

188 England. The delegations elected to Congress, the state officers and the state legislatures, were nearly all Federalist.

The famous Hartford convention met December 15, 1814. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island were represented by delegates appointed by the legislatures of those States, and thus clothed with a certain amount of State authority. The legislature of Vermont refused, and the legislature of New Hampshire failed to appoint delegates; yet the convention decided to admit delegates from these two States, who had been appointed by public meetings. The convention sat with closed doors, and its deliberations were conducted under an injunction of secrecy. Its secret proceedings are still a matter of dispute. Its published report set forth causes of grievance, recognized a public sentiment in New England favoring disunion, but intimated hope of conciliation, and alluded to a severance of the Union &quot; as &quot;to be justified only by absolute necessity.&quot; The report recommended the New England States to pass laws nullifying military conscription by the United States, to enlist State troops subject only to State authority, and to demand that the general government should authorize each State to retain from the Federal revenues &quot;a reasonable portion of the taxes collected from the said States.&quot; If the administration should refuse these demands, the legislatures of the States were advised to call a second convention. The convention adjourned January 5, 1815.

The legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut passed resolutions formally approving the action of the Hartford convention, and appointed commissioners to visit Washington, and to demand compliance with its recommendations. The New England press teemed with abuse of the administration, and applause of the Hart ford convention. A crisis was at hand. The people were aroused, and felt that they had a grievance, al-