The Second War with England, Vol. 2 of 2

by Joel Tyler Headley

Harrison Gray Otis and John Cabot, were leaders of the Massachusetts delegation.

Dec. 15.

No body of men ever assembled under such universal execration and odium as did these delegates. Except the few Federalist journals in New England, the entire press of the nation denounced them, one and all, as traitors.

George Cabot being elected President, and Timothy Dwight, Secretary, the Convention proceeded to deliberate on the momentous questions they had proposed to discuss, with closed doors. Madison was in trepidation and could speak of nothing but the Convention, and sent Colonel Jesup to watch it. To prevent his design from being suspected, he directed this gallant officer to make Hartford a recruiting station.

Jesup had had interviews with Governor Tompkins, to ascertain what aid he could afford in case it became necessary to resort to force. He was satisfied that the treasonable designs of the delegates had been much exaggerated, but he wished to be prepared for any emergency, and having arranged his plans, quietly awaited the result of their deliberations. He was in constant correspondence with Monroe, Secretary of War, and did much towards allaying the fears of the President, and promised if open treason exhibited itself, to crush it and its authors, with one decisive blow. Ingratiating himself with some of the delegates of the Convention and with the authorities of Hartford by his conciliatory and agreeable manner; and winning the respect of all by his prudent conduct, he soon became convinced that a resolution for disunion, if offered, could not be carried.

At length, after three weeks of secret session, this dreaded Convention, on whose mysterious sittings the eyes of the nation had been turned, adjourned, and every one waited with anxiety to hear the decision to which it had come. The shadowy forms of disunion and treason had so long been seen presiding over its labors, that some monstrous birth was expected. But nature moved on in her accustomed courses, and no shock was felt by the republic, and instead of a shell flung into the Union, rending it asunder, there appeared a long and heavy document containing the collective wisdom of these twenty-six men. After going over the transgressions of the administration, from first to last, it passed to the defects of the Constitution. It modestly remarked that the enumeration of all the improvements of which this instrument was susceptible, and the proposal of all the amendments necessary to make it perfect, was a task which the Convention had "not thought proper to assume." After paying this flattering testimony to the grand and glorious intellects who framed the Constitution, it proceeded to mention six amendments on which there should be immediate action. The first related to the apportionment of representation among the slave States. The second to the admission of new States, restricting the powers of Congress in this respect, in order to keep down western influence. The third, to the right to pass restrictive and embargo acts, and carry on offensive war. The fifth, to exclude foreigners from holding places of honor, trust or profit under Government, and the last to limiting the Presidential office to one term.

Resolutions and recommendations in accordance with these sentiments, were sent to the separate states represented in that Convention.

Delegates were also appointed to repair to Washington to remonstrate with the President, some say to threaten him, and insist on his resignation. No treason appeared in all this, but the serious discussion of the question of disunion in the preamble, and the hypothetical cases put, in which such a step would be justifiable, showed that it had been mooted and seriously entertained by some of the members.

The tone of the paper was bad, egotistical, and mutinous. It endeavored to arraign the states of New England against the government—urged them to resist forcible drafts and conscriptions, and raise armies of their own to co-operate each with the other in time of need.

This exposé, however, did not satisfy the Democrats, who insisted that some deep-laid scheme was back of all this—that the secret records of the Convention would disclose blacker transactions than had yet seen the light, and from that time on, those twenty delegates have been stigmatized as traitors. They, on the other hand, have defended themselves from the aspersion, and declared that they were governed by the highest patriotic motives and love to the union.