La convenzione di Hartford del 1814

Abstract

This article explores the import of the Hartford Convention of 1814 both in the War of 1812 and in the early Republic. The Jeffersonian doctrine of 1798 was exhumed by the New England Federalists in 1814 after long years during which Jefferson's embargo and then "Madison's war" had caused great tension between that section and the federal government, dominated by the Virginia dynasty. Delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire met on December 15 in Hartford, CT to discuss exceptional measures. From a political point of view the Convention was an absolute failure: its conclusion had the misfortune of falling right at the time when Jackson reported victory in New Orleans and the terms of the Treaty of Ghent were already discussed in the press. However it demonstrated that those who felt themselves under the heel of other States, which were favored by the federal government, did not perceive the Union as a benefit for all. In extreme cases no Constitutional remedy, even the dissolution of the Union, was excluded a priori. The Northern politicians, in dire straits due to a war that damaged their vital interests, articulated what would become the political creed of the South in the ensuing years.