And Governor Plummer, of New Hampshire, declared in 1805 that it was the purpose of certain distinguished New Englanders “to dissolve the Union.”
James Millhouse, U. S. Senator from Connecticut, said: “The Eastern States must and will dissolve the Union and form a separate government of their own, and the sooner they do it the better.”
Jonah Quincy, on the floor of Congress: “I am compelled to declare, as my deliberate opinion, that if this bill (to admit Louisiana) passes, the bonds of the Union are virtually dissolved; that the States which compose it are hereby freed from the moral obligations, and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some to prepare definitely for the separation, amicably, if we can; forcibly, if we must.” When he was called to order for this by Poindexter, of Mississippi, who proposed a vote of censure by the House, the House sustained Quincy and let him proceed.
Julian Hawthorne, in his “History of the United States,” says: “In the War of 1812, our antagonists were many. First, we had to fight the New England Federalists.” Again, he says: “Connecticut went so far as to raise a separate army for the defense of her own domain—whether against England or America might be left to decide.” (U. S. History, p. 709.) And again, he tells that by a system of blue light signals the New England Federalists kept the English fleet informed of the plan of our troops, thereby greatly aiding the enemy and embarrassing our movements. “Thus,” he says, “the Blue Light Federalists secured for themselves a place of infamy in our annals.”
The Supreme Court of Massachusetts declared that no power was given to the President or to Congress to declare war or to levy troops; that only to the States did they belong; and thereupon the Governor of that State refused the request of the President for its quota to defend their coast. When the New England members who voted for the War of 1812 returned home, they were reviled, denounced and one of them actually kicked and cuffed by a mob in historic Plymouth. The Federalists of New England prevented the Government’s every effort to raise money or troops. Finally, on December 15, 1814, when Jackson was moving heaven and earth to save New Orleans, a New England Convention, “summoned by State authority, assembled at Hartford, Connecticut, whose object was to secure armed resistance and overthrow of the Union.... This convention was attended by twenty-six delegates, all respectable, cultivated gentlemen.” (Hawthorne’s U. S. History, p. 731.) “It was composed of twelve delegates from Massachusetts, seven from Connecticut, four from Rhode Island (appointed by the legislatures of these States), and two from New Hampshire, and one from Vermont (appointed by counties), all Federalists.... Its proceedings were carried on in secret, and the convention was suspected at the time of treason.” (Cent. Dict., Vol. IX., p. 484.) In their declaration this convention said: “But in cases of deliberate, dangerous and palpable infraction of the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and liberties of a people, it is not only the right but the duty of such a State to interpose its authority for their protection in the manner best calculated to secure that end. When emergencies occur which are either beyond the reach of the judicial tribunals or too pressing to admit of the delay incident to their forms, States which have no common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own decisions.” (Niles Register, Vol. VII., p. 306.)
This was the view taken by the Southern States when they seceded in 1861, and which the great Civil War decided in the negative forever, not as a question of right nor of wrong, but as a policy of a majority of the people of this country, in arms assembled and on the field of battle.
“Whatever may have been the sins of New England, secession was not one,” says our correspondent. In proving that our friend is mistaken in his facts, I take the liberty also of defending New England as to his assertion that this was a sin. It certainly was not a sin. The New England States had this right, as did every State up to its final settlement by arms in 1861-5. It were no more a sin then than for New England to vote for McKinley and the gold standard in 1896, or for the South to vote for Bryan and silver. There can be no sin in a mere question of national policy by any people or peoples. “Not all of New England favored the War of 1812, but that is not secession,” he adds, as the gist of his argument.
That is true—neither did all the South favor secession in 1860-61. Perhaps it may be interesting to relate here that Tennessee, on the only vote taken by her as to whether it should be secession or not, voted by nearly 60,000 majority against secession. Afterwards, Governor Harris and the Legislature declared her out of the Union. Perhaps it may be still more of interest when I say that although the South sent fully 600,000 troops into the war to battle for States’ rights, she sent nearly 400,000 to fight on the other side. But everybody knows that a majority of the Southern people were for seceding and the foundation of our esteemed correspondent’s argument is gone when I assert, as I can prove, that from the election of Jefferson to the Battle of New Orleans, the majority of the people of New England, as voiced in the Federalist vote, were opposed to the policy of Jefferson, to War of 1812, and but for the Treaty of Ghent and the Battle of New Orleans would have voted to secede. In conclusion, let me say, those questions are all settled—“those far-off, old, unhappy days.” But the truth, at all times, should be precious, for among its many crowning glories, it teaches us that man is not very different from his neighbor after all. In 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish War, and when the United States troops had rendezvoused on Chickamauga battlefield, before marching into Cuba, Tennessee unveiled her statue erected to both her soldiers of the Blue and the Gray who died there. The writer was asked to read the dedicatory poem. On the stage were General Wheeler, General Stewart and many distinguished soldiers of both armies. And thus was the poem read:
REUNITED.