Read For want of a nail, up until a company making a nuclear weapon it is pretty good. It also works as a good example for what can occur after the revolution is won. The more radicals would move south, or west, while the conservative factions stay in the Northeast.
The walk out is a good idea. I had a similar experince in university. We all had to argue the points for our state as to why we should join the United States, and ratify the constitution, but the instructor at the same time wanted us to get the best position possible for our state. Anything from Virginia having the military, to New York not having to have elections with in it's state.
So my idea was simply to create a new nation, centered around Rhode Island. I hoped people would throw options out to keep me in, but it was the opposite. Out of the 12 other groups, I got four to join me an we set up the New England Confederation, where each state got a single vote, and interestingly enough South Carolina and Georgia created their own constitution as well so that agriculture would be the only export allowed to be regulated by the government.