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The Report and Resolutions of the Hartford Convention (January 4, 1815)

The dissatisfaction of the New England Federalists with Republican policies and the War of 1812 culminated in the Hartford Convention on December 1814.  The Convention was attended by delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.  The resolutions of the convention arrived in Washington, D.C. just after the news of General Andrew JacksonĖs victory at New Orleans and the Treaty of Ghent.  As you read, consider the complaints and proposals of the New England Federalists who met at Hartford.  Why do they support such proposals?  And, think about how these proposals might have been viewed by an American people proud of their victory in the War of 1812.
 

First - ... [certain states have collectively acted] by exciting local jealousies and ambition so as to secure popular leaders in one section of the Union, the control of public affairs....

Fourthly - The abolition of existing taxes, requisite to prepare the country for those changes to which nations are always exposed...

Fifthly - the influence of patronage in the distribution of offices, which in these states has been almost invariably made among men the least entitled to such distinction...

Sixthly - The admission of new states into the Union formed at pleasure in the western region, has destroyed the balance of power which existed among the original States....

Seventhly - The easy admission of naturalized foreigners, to places of trust, honor or profit, operating as an inducement to the malcontent subjects on the Old World to come to these States....

Eighthly -Hostility to Great Britain, and partiality to the late government of France....

Lastly and principally - A visionary and superficial theory in regard to commerce, accompanied by a real hatred but a feigned regard to its interests, and a ruinous perseverance in efforts to render it an instrument of coercion and war....

Therefore resolved...

That it be and is hereby recommended... to authorize an immediate and earnest application to be made to the government of the United States, requesting their consent to some arrangement, whereby the said states may separately or in concert, be empowered to assume upon themselves the defense of their territory against the enemy.

That the following amendments of the constitution of the United States be recommended to the states....

First.  Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states... according to their respective number of free persons... excluding Indians not taxed, and all other persons....

Second.  No new state shall be admitted into the Union by Congress... without the concurrence of two thirds of both houses.

Third.  Congress shall not have the power to lay any embargo on the ships or vessels of the citizens of the United States... for more than sixty days....

Fifth.  Congress shall not make or declare war... without the concurrence of two thirds of both houses....

Seventh.  The same person shall not be elected president of the United States a second time; nor shall the president be elected from the same state two terms in succession....
 

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