page_0154

313

Jefferson had imbibed his ideas of democracy while representing the
government in France, and it was more extreme than anything that
had previously been thought possible in America. But there was no
grating between the machinery of the general government and that of
the States while he was in office, as he considered that the States were still
sovereign and did nothing to disabuse them of that belief. The federal
government, weak as it was between 1789 and 1800, was weaker still
during the next eight years, because among other reasons Mr Jefferson reduced so much
the effective strength of the army, under the illusion that there never
would be war again, that there was no inducement for officers of merit
either to remain in it or to join it.

This state of things continued through Madison's administration until
the war of 1812, when certain of the Eastern States who had never favored
the war, and were dissatisfied because their shipping interests were
idle and unproductive, in consequence of all commercial ventures with foreign countries being
then impossible, met in Convention at the town of Hartford during
the summer of 1814, with the intention, as was afterwards ascertained
of seceding from the Union and forming a separate Union or confederacy,
under probably the protection of England, if the war should be continued.

The proceedings of the body were secret, and it is denied
by many that secession was contemplated, but a careful inquiry into the
political opinions of Mr Timothy Pickering, one of the principal leaders,
reveals the fact without a shadow of doubt that he was in favor of
a separation from the other States. Before however the dissatisfied States
had had time to openly show their hands, peace was declared at the close
of 1814, and there was no longer any reason for them to continue their delib-
erations.

The Hartford Convention marks an epoch in the history of the country,
as showing that even the New England States considered that they could
withdraw from the Union, if it was to their interests to do so, and it proves
that what has been called the crime of secession came very near
being first put into operation there.

Things went on smoothly enough during the two terms of Mr Monroe;
but after the war of 1812 the New England States had commenced to manu-
facture various articles of prime necessity, and finding it difficult to
compete with similar manufacturers imported from England, there were move-
ments in Congress in the interests of those States towards raising the duties on certain English goods,
so as to create a home market for the home made goods. As soon as
this intention had become apparent there was strong opposition to it on the
part of the southern members. South Carolina took the lead in this, and
the reasoning of her representatives in Congress was that the General
Government had no right to impose duties on imported goods and thus
increase their cost, in order that the New England manufacturer might
sell his goods at a profit, also that the southern planters had developed
their agricultural industries without any assistance in the shape of
a tariff, and had therefore a right to purchase what they required
in the lowest markets. The discussions that were induced by the gradual
increase in the duties on imports, under the leadership of Mr Calhoun,
culminated in nullification, which was nothing more than the putting
into practice the principle enunciated in the Kentucky resolutions which
had been secretly drafted by Mr Jefferson.

A South Carolina convention passed an ordinance of nullification in 1832,
but a conflict was averted by the passage of the Compromise measures of Mr
Clay in Congress, which provided for a decrease in the tariff. That State
found herself alone - no other southern State having even called a convention,
but the general government was still too weak to try conclusions with even