Hartford Convention

Hartford Convention, political assembly representing the Federalist Party of the New England states, called to voice the opposition of the New England Federalists to the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. The convention met at Hartford, Connecticut, on December 14, 1814, and adjourned on January 5, 1815. The New Englanders were unsympathetic to the war because of its crippling effect on their fishing industry and foreign commerce. The object of the convention was to devise means of security and defense against foreign nations and also to safeguard the privileges of the individual states against alleged encroachments of the federal government.

The recommendations of the convention, stated in the form of proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution, were that taxation and representation in each state should be proportionate to the number of its free inhabitants; that no new state should be admitted to the Union except upon a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress; that Congress should not have the power to impose more than a 60-day embargo on ships owned by U.S. citizens; that Congress should not prohibit foreign commerce or declare offensive war except by a two-thirds vote; that no person thereafter naturalized should be entitled to sit in Congress or to hold any civil office in the federal government; that the presidency should not exceed one term; and that the president should never be chosen twice successively from the same state. These recommendations were forgotten when it became known that a peace treaty had been concluded while the convention was in session.

Because the meetings of the convention took place behind closed doors, and because the members were pledged to absolute secrecy, a rumor spread to the effect that the New England states were contemplating secession from the Union. This irreparably damaged the reputation of the Federalist Party, already in disfavor because of its pro-British, aristocratic tendencies. The party did not survive the presidential election of 1816.