Events in New England, summer/fall 1814
Events in New England, summer/fall 1814
In 1814, with increasing availabilities of British ships, the blockade extends north to New England, for the first time.
Due to the blockade, Nantucket was on the edge of starvation. Admiral Hotham agreed to let them import goods if they declared themselves neutral, which included paying no taxes to US government, surrender warlike stores, and supply British ships. Nantucket agreed and became neutral on 10 May [OTL it was 23 August]. Towns around Cape Cod were assessed 'contributions' e.g. $4000 for Brewster, $1200 for Eastham.
Soon, goods are flowing to Nantucket. The MA government can claim with a straight face, that trade from Nantucket to the mainland is internal, intrastate trade, and isn't due customs. This is such a good deal for Nantucket, that Martha's Vineyard and then Cape Cod want to get in on the act. (The Cape Cod towns in particular would rather earn money than have it extorted!) Boston merchants would LOVE to make the same deal, but they can't get away with it. The British have enough force to plausibly maintain a threat on isolated islands, and even a peninsula, but one of the biggest and best defended cities in the US? Still, they're supplying the goods that the smaller places are trading, and, at the moment, there are no customs duty whatsoever on their trading, so the Boston merchants can still make a good profit.
The rest of New England is jealous. The rest of the US is furious.
Rhode Island is really annoyed that the Boston merchants are making all that money, and they aren't. So, when Admiral Warren approaches Rhode Island, they are ready to listen. They have to agree that no Customs duties or taxes will flow to the US federal government. Ports and ships flying the Pinetree flag will be allowed commerce and freedom from the blockade. Rhode Island debates this, but agrees on 15 June. Both as colony and then state, she was always the maverick of the bunch, so tends to view this as being patriotic to 'The State' (RI), rather than traitorous to 'The (United) States'. Rhode Island is still collecting duties, but they're now flowing to the State government, rather than the US, and being used to upgrade her defences, etc. Nominally, Rhode Island declares
force majeur (i.e. 'he held a gun to my head') and that the customs are 'being held in trust' for the US when the war is over, but a) no one really believes that, especially anyone out of state, and b) in the meantime, US federal income has just dropped some more.
Britain was considering invading eastern Maine at this point, [OTL they did so on 5 July], but here, with New England looking like it's about to fall over like dominoes, just makes the same offer to the Mainers that they did to Rhode Island. Maine accepts. (Yes, I know that Maine is not a separate state, but part of Massachusetts. However, they are isolated from the rest of Massachusetts by the British blockade, and know darn well they would have been invaded if they didn't agree. Unlike Rhode Island, they really CAN claim
force majeur legitimately.) Still, not having to use those troops for the invasion and occupation duty mean that they are available for use elsewhere.
Similarly, New Hampshire makes similar arrangements for her port towns (mainly Portsmouth NH), in August, so they don't lose trade to Maine.
Connecticut would dearly love to pull the same trick, but can't, as there are too many US federal troops in New York state right up against her border, and the US makes it clear that Connecticut WILL suffer consequences if she tries it. However, quiet unofficial negotiations happen. As a result ships from Connecticut (especially New London harbour in the east) sail to Providence harbour and conduct business (supposedly doing “internal trade” - isn't Rhode Island part of the US?), Rhode Island passes on to Connecticut a cut of the proceeds, not labelled as customs duties, oh no, that would be treasonous, but as 'a friendly contribution of one state to a neighbour in need'. Those Connecticut ships, of course, just happen to be flying the Pinetree flag if RN blockade ships come by.
By mid-October 1814, Massachusetts has had enough, and even though the fiction is totally, blatantly threadbare, makes the same arrangements for her ports (e.g. Boston) in the main part of the state. Moreover, Massachusetts and the other New England states assemble some of their militias and, now that they are not needed to defend against the British, march them into Connecticut to face off against the New York militia, enabling Connecticut to cut the same deal with the Brits later that month.
[Note that this happens directly after the New London Convention, see below.]
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Congress is livid. Furious. [/FONT]
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On the other hand, New England is furious, too. They never wanted the war in the first place, and they have suffered badly from loss of trade. They have paid most of the taxes raised for the war (most of the customs duties were from New England trade, for instance), and, near the beginning of the war as many men from Massachusetts joined the army as any other state except New York (which was rather more populous). But New England is being painted as traitors by much of the rest of the country and the Federalist party that many of them belong to is being tarred with the same brush. More and viler rhetoric is flowing in Congress and in newspapers, and the New Englanders decide that something needs to be done. Massachusetts invites fellow New England states to a 'Convention' to discuss matters pertaining New England's best interests, and how to best 1) stop the war, 2) improve New England's reputation, 3) guarantee their influence in the future of the United States.[/FONT]
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After some discussion, the Convention is called in New London, Connecticut in late September 1814. [this is analogous to the Hartford that happened in Hartford, CT 3 months later iOTL]. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island send official delegates, Vermont sends a couple of 'observers' and allows some counties to send their own delegations. [OTL, the Battle of Plattsburgh was a major US victory right next to Vermont, and Governor Chittendon didn't want to push things Here, 'neutrality' is serving Vermont well, and while he still doesn't dare officially support the convention, he can move slightly in that direction.] New Hampshire, with a largely Republican council, and scared of the possible results, refuses to have anything to do with the convention. However, a couple of counties send their own delegates and are seated.[/FONT]
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So 12 delegates from Massachusetts, 7 from Connecticut, 4 from Rhode Island, 3 each from Vermont and New Hampshire counties, for a total of 29 delegates. Plus the two official 'observers' from the Vermont state government. [/FONT]
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Three of the delegates from Massachusetts, namely George Cabot, Nathan Dane and Timothy Pickering had been part of the Essex Junto which had worked for secession of New England from the United States in 1804.[/FONT]
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The Convention produces multiple documents and resolutions. 1) To help stop the war, they refuse to contribute any taxes or customs duties to the Federal government that would be used for making war. Some taxes (approximately a normal peacetime share) they are prepared to pay, if arrangements can be made. They also offer their good offices to be a friendly broker between the US Federal government and Britain. 2) to improve their reputation, they prepare a series of statements and documents outlining their grievances, and pleading their case. As is obvious even to the delegates assembled, this isn't going to do MUCH good, but they have to try. 3) They produce a list of constitutional amendments that they believe are necessary. [/FONT]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Convention said:
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These attempted to combat the policies of the ruling Republicans by:[/FONT]
- Prohibiting any trade embargo lasting over 60 days;
- Requiring a two-thirds Congressional majority for declaration of offensive war, admission of a new state, or interdiction of foreign commerce;
- Removing the three-fifths representation advantage of the South;
- Limiting future Presidents to one term;
- Requiring each President to be from a different state than his predecessor. (This provision was aimed directly at the ruling Virginia Dynasty.)
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[These amendments are the same as the ones from OTL's Hartford Convention.][/FONT]
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A sixth amendment, requiring that all holders of major Federal offices be natural born citizens was suggested, but not required.[/FONT]
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In addition, they demand that there be at least legislation (if not an actual constitutional amendment) to clarify the use of militias, which would state that they are to be State controlled, not Federal controlled.[/FONT]
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The inspired leadership of Timothy Pickering, whose credentials in the cabinets of George Washington and John Adams as Postmaster General, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and then later as Senator and currently Congressman gave him serious credibility, led the convention to a united position. These amendments must be passed OR ELSE. (Or else 'what' wasn't stated, and an explicit threat secession would probably not have passed the convention, at that point, but given the history of the Essex Junto, it wasn't hard to guess.)[/FONT]
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[Note that a large majority of New Englanders want to remain within the United States at this point. Similarly, it's only a few the most radical Warhawks that think that New England should be turfed out. OTOH, we have a situation somewhat like the recent Czechoslovakia – where the majority wanted the country to stay together, but the Slovaks and Czechs had such differing ideas as to what the united country should look like that it just fell apart. Again, they had a Slovak nationalist running their negotiations who insisted on a harder line than many of his countrymen would have demanded. Same here with our New Englanders. The divorce won't be quite as Velvet as Czechoslovakia's, but it won't be the (first) American Civil War, either.][/FONT]