CHAPTER VIII.

SEVENTH ADMINISTRATION, 1813-1817.

James Madison, President.

Elbridge Gerry, Vice-President.

XIIIth and XIVth Congresses.

I. CONGRESS met May 24th, 1813, having been XIIIth Congress, summoned by the President Extra Session. to a Special Session to consider the difficulties encountered in raising money for the War. The President's Message also mentioned the proffered mediation of the Czar of Russia, which England afterward declined. In the House Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was chosen Speaker, and the vote (89 to 54) represents the Administration majority. The Republican majority in the Senate was weakened by a faction opposed to the Administration. The business of. this Session was mainly routine. Congress adjourned August 2d.

2. The Dislike to the War and its management became more apparent as it went on. The Connecticut Legislature had declared it to be the solemn and deliberate opinion of the people of that State that the war was unnecessary. So notorious was the general feeling of the Eastern States that England had endeavored to mark the political di

vision between New England and the rest of the Union by exempting Massachusetts (which included the present State of Maine) Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, from the blockade of the Atlantic Coast.

3. Congress met XIIIth Congress, Ist Session.

December 6th, 1813. This Session was also occupied chiefly with routine busi

ness, and in efforts to improve the condition of the finances. Illicit trade from the New England coast to the English ships had become so common that a New Embargo Act was passed, applying to all vessels, large or small. Congress adjourned April 18th, 1814. In August occurred the sack and burning of Washington by an English expeldition, an affair almost equally disgraceful to both nations.'

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4. Congress met September 19th, 1814. Ne goXIIIth Congress, tiations for Peace had 2d Session. been begun in August. ⠀⠀⠀ Napoleon was, for the time, overthrown, and American Government was anxious for almost any honorable peace, in preference to continuing the war with England. The Orders in Council had been revoked long before, and the America missioners were instructed not to insist up other object of the war, the abandonment rights of search and impressment. The demands rose as those of the United St

1 The President barely escaped capture.

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on the

of the

English ates fell.

1813.]

Opposition to the War.

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England now insisted that an independent Indian nation should be organized between Canada and the United States, and that the United States should maintain no fleet or military posts on the Great Lakes.

5. The publication of these conditions in October again roused the war feeling of the Republicans, and some of their leaders began to meditate measures which the strict constructionist principles of the party could not justify. The Secretary of War proposed the increase of the army by a draft, or conscription. The Secretary of the Navy proposed to introduce the English system of impressment of seamen. To Republicans generally such measures seemed unconstitutional, and they were rejected, though strongly urged by the Administration. Fresh discontent was excited by a bill offered in the Senate, allowing officers of the army to enlist minors over 18 years old without consent of their parents or guardians. The Connecticut Legislature ordered the Governor to resist the execution of these and similar measures, if they should become laws.

6. The commercial distress in New England, the possession by the enemy of a large part of the District of Maine, the fear of their advance along the coast, and the apparent neglect of the Federal Government to provide any adequate means of resistance, had led the Legislature of Massachusetts, in October, to invite the other New England States

to send delegates to Hartford, Connecticut, "to confer upon the subject of their public grievances." Delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and from parts of Vermont and New Hampshire, met at Hartford in December and remained in session for three weeks. In their Report to their State Legislatures they reviewed the state of the country, the origin and management of the war, and the strong measures lately proposed in Congress, and recommended several Amendments to the Constitution, chiefly with intent to restrict the powers of Congress over commerce, and to prevent naturalized citizens from holding office. In default of the adoption of these Amendments, another convention was advised, “in order to decide on the course which a crisis so momentous might seem to demand.”

mate.

7. This was the famous Hartford Convention. The peace which closely followed its adjournment removed all necessity or even desire for another session of it. Its objects seem to have been legitiBut the unfortunate secrecy of its proceed. ings, and its somewhat ambiguous language, roused a popular suspicion, sufficient for the political ruin of its members, that a dissolution of the Union had been proposed, perhaps resolved upon, in its meetings. Some years afterward those concerned in it were compelled in self-defense to publish its journal, in order to show that no treasonable design was officially proposed. It was then, however, too late,

1814.] Extinction of the Federal Party.

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for the popular opinion had become fixed. Neither the Federal party which originated, nor the Federalist politicians who composed the assembly were ever freed from the stigma left by the mysterious Hartford Convention.

8. In February, 1815, the welcome and unexpected news of Peace reached Congress. It was welcome to the Administration, whose inexperience in the conduct of the war had involved it in great financial straits, to the Federalists, who considered the war iniquitous, and even to the war party, who had begun to anticipate a single contest with England. Therefore the peace, which actually secured not one of the objects for which war had been declared, occasioned rejoicings which would have been more appropriate for a more successful termination of the war. The rest of this Session was necessarily spent in the active reduction of government to a peace establishment, with the exception of the navy, and in the reduction of expenses. The Acts which had been necessary in preparing for or carrying on the war were repealed. Congress adjourned March 3d, 1815.

9. The close of the war marks the final Extinction of the Federal Party. The few remaining Federalists from this time began to desist from any united party action. The whole people composed one party whose principles were neither those of the original Federal, nor those of the original Republican party, but a combination of both. The