The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-03-11

islature to the convention. and if nothing
unconstitutional, disloyal, or tending TO dis
union, was in fact done (all which is mani
fest of record there remains no pretext for
impeaching the members of the convention
by imputing to them covert and nefarlous
designs, except the uncharitable one, that
the characters of the men justify the belief,
that they cherished in their hearts wishes,
and intentions, to do, what they had no au-
thority to execute, and what in fact they
did not attempt. On this head, to the peo-
pie of New England who were acquainted
with these characters, no explanation is
necessary For the information of Others,
! it behoves those of US who were members
to speak without reference to ourselves.
| With this reserve we may all be permitted
to say. without fear of contradiction, that
| they fairly represented whatever of moral,
| intellectual, or patriotic worth, is to be
| found in the character of the New England
community that they retained all the per-
sonal consideration and confidence, which
are enjoyed by the best citizens, those who
deceased, TO the hour of their death, and
those who survive, to the present time. For
the satisfaction of those who look TO self
I love, and to private interest, as springs of
human action, it may be added, that among
| the mass of citizens, friends, and connexions,
( WHOM Iney represented, were many whose
fortunes were principally vested in the pub
lie funds, to whom the disunion of the
States would have been ruin. Tha: con-
vention may be said to have originated
with the people. Measures for relief had
I been demanded from immense numbers, in
counties and towns, in all parts of the State
long before it was organized. Its main
and avowed object was the defence Of this
part Of The country against the common enemy.
The war then wore its most threatening as
pect. New England was destitute Of ma
tional troops; her treasures exhausted;
her taxes drawn into the national Golfers.
The proceedings and report of the con-
vention, were in conformity with this OBJ
iect. The burden of that report consisted
in recommending an application to Congress
to permit the States to provide for their
own defence, and to be UNIDENTIFIED for the
expense, by reimbursement, in some shape,
! from the National Government, of, at least,
a portion of their olcn moneg. This conven-
! ton adjourned early in January. On tie
9th of the same month, an act of Congress
was passed, which gave TO the State Gov
ernments, the very power which was sought
by Massachusetts viz-that of "raising,
organizing and offering" state troops, " to
be employed in the State raising the same,
or in an adjoining State" and providing
for their pay and subsistence. This we
repeat was the most important object aim
ed at by the institution of the convention,
and by the report of that body. Had this
act of Congress passed, before the act of
Massachusetts, for organizing the conven-
ton, that contention ntuer tOolld haze eriSt-
! ed. Had such an act been anticipated by
the convention, or passed before its adjourn
meDt, that assembly would have considered
| its commission as in great measure, super
seeded. For although it prepared and re-
ported sundry amendments to the constltu-
i t:~--c .La TTnitaA States, to DO submitted
to all the States, and might even, II Know
ing of this act of Congress, have persisted
in doing the same thing; yet, as this pIopo-
sal for amendments could have been accom-
plished in other modes, they could have
had no special motive for so doing, but what
arose from their being together; and from
the consideration which might be hoped for,
as to. their propositions, from that clfcum-
stance. 1t is thus matter of absolute de-
monstration, to all who do not usurp the
privilege of the sEARCHER Of hearts that the
design of the Hartford convention and its
doings were not only constitutional and lau-
dable, but sanctioned by an act of Con-
gress, passed after the report was published,
not indeed with express reference TO it, but
with its principal features, and thus admit
ting the reasonableness of its general tenor,
! and principal object. 1t is indeed griev-
GUS to perceive Mr.. Adams Condescending
10 intimate that the Convention was adj
journed to Boston, and in a strain of rhetor-
ical pathos connecting his imaginary plot,
then at least in the thirteenth year of its
age, with the catastrophe" which awaited
the ultimate proceedings of the convention.
| That assembly adjourned aoithoutt day, after
making ats report. 1t was ipso facto dissolv-
ed, like other Committees. One of its res
olutions did indeed purport that if the ap-
plication of these States to the government
of the United States, recommended In q
! foregoing reSOLttion) should be unsuccessful,
and peace should not be concluded, and the
defence Of these States should be neglected as
At has been, since the commencement of the
war, it will be, in the opinion of this Con-
yention, expedent for the Legislature of
the several States, to appoint delegates 10
another ConVention to meet at Boston on
| the third Tuesday of June next, with such
| powers and instructions as the exigency of
a crisis, so momentuous, may require" On
| this it is to be observed,
First, That the Convention contemplated
in the foregoing resolution never was APP
pointed, and never could have been, accord
ing to the terms of that resolution; be-
cause, as is shown above, the object of the
intended application to Congress had been
attained. And, Secondly, the contingent
ces mentioned in that resolution had occur
red, the question of forming such a new
Convention, and the appointment of the
delegates, must have gone into the hands of
new assemblies; because all the Legisla-
lures of the New England states would
| have been dissolved. and there would have