It is March 26th. Welcome to Episode 85 of History in a Year. Today, an entire American political party commits spectacular political suicide. While Andrew Jackson is winning the war in New Orleans, the politicians in New England are threatening to tear the country apart. We explore the secretive, disastrous meeting of the Federalist Party at the Hartford Convention. We examine their legitimate grievances over the destroyed northern economy, their radical threats of secession, and how their perfectly timed complaints turned them into national traitors overnight, destroying the party forever and ushering in the “Era of Good Feelings.”
STEPHEN:
Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH:
Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH:
And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
It is March 26th. Welcome to Episode 85. Yesterday, we watched Andrew Jackson completely crush the British Army at the Battle of New Orleans, making him the most famous man in America.
LEAH:
But while Andrew Jackson was fighting for the United States in the South, a massive political crisis was boiling over in the North.
STEPHEN:
To understand what happens today, we have to remember how much the northern states absolutely despised the War of 1812.
LEAH:
They called it “Mr. Madison’s War.” The entire New England economy was built on shipping and maritime trade. When Thomas Jefferson and James Madison passed their massive embargoes, and then declared war on the greatest navy on Earth, they effectively bankrupted their own citizens in the North.
STEPHEN:
For three years, the merchants in Boston and Rhode Island watched their ships rot at the docks. To make matters worse, the federal government was basically refusing to protect the New England coastline from British raids, telling the states they had to pay for their own defense militias.
LEAH:
By late 1814, the New England politicians—who were almost all members of the conservative Federalist Party—had finally had enough.
STEPHEN:
In December 1814, twenty-six Federalist delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont met in secret in Hartford, Connecticut. This became known as the Hartford Convention.
LEAH:
Because the meetings were held behind closed doors, wild rumors immediately started flying around the country. People believed the Federalists were actively plotting treason.
STEPHEN:
There was a very real, very vocal faction of extreme radicals at the convention who actually did want to secede from the United States and negotiate a separate peace treaty with Great Britain.
LEAH:
But the moderate Federalists managed to take control of the meeting. They voted down secession, but they did draft a fierce list of grievances and constitutional amendments that they wanted to force down James Madison’s throat.
STEPHEN:
They wanted to abolish the 3/5ths Compromise, which they felt gave the Southern slave-owning states an unfair lock on the presidency.
LEAH:
They demanded a two-thirds supermajority vote in Congress before the government could declare war or restrict trade.
STEPHEN:
And they wanted to limit the President to a single term, and make it illegal for two Presidents in a row to come from the same state—which was a direct attack on the “Virginia Dynasty” of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.
LEAH:
The Federalists printed up their demands, and they sent a delegation of three men riding down to Washington D.C. to deliver this massive political ultimatum directly to President Madison.
STEPHEN:
If Madison refused to accept their terms, the Federalists heavily implied that New England might actually leave the Union.
LEAH:
The delegation rode into Washington D.C. in February 1815. They were feeling incredibly confident. They thought they had the President cornered.
STEPHEN:
But they were about to walk into the worst possible buzzsaw in American political history.
LEAH:
Because they arrived in the capital at the exact same moment that two other pieces of news arrived.
STEPHEN:
First, the news broke that Andrew Jackson had just miraculously slaughtered the British at New Orleans.
LEAH:
And just days later, a ship arrived from Europe carrying the signed Treaty of Ghent.
STEPHEN:
The war was over! The United States had survived! The entire country was instantly swept up in a massive, overwhelming tidal wave of patriotism and national pride. People were dancing in the streets, lighting off fireworks, and celebrating the “victory” over the British Empire.
LEAH:
And standing right in the middle of this massive, patriotic street party were the three Federalist delegates from Hartford, holding a piece of paper complaining about how terrible the country was and threatening to quit.
STEPHEN:
They looked absolutely ridiculous. And worse, they looked like traitors.
LEAH:
The Democratic-Republican newspapers absolutely crucified them. They published scathing political cartoons showing the Federalists trying to jump into the arms of the British King.
STEPHEN:
The Federalists were literally laughed out of Washington D.C. They packed their bags and rode back to New England in utter disgrace.
LEAH:
And that was it. The Hartford Convention was the fatal blow to the Federalist Party—the party of Alexander Hamilton and George Washington.
STEPHEN:
They were permanently branded as unpatriotic elitists who had actively rooted against the United States during a war. The party completely collapsed and never won another national election.
LEAH:
With the Federalists dead, the United States was left with only one political party. The intense, bitter partisan warfare that had defined the last twenty years just vanished.
STEPHEN:
Join us tomorrow for Episode 86. The Era of Good Feelings. President James Monroe takes office and goes on a massive goodwill tour of the country. We explore this bizarre, brief period of one-party rule, the illusion of national unity, and how the cracks were already starting to form under the surface over the terrifying issue of slavery.
LEAH:
I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.