The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-09-27
SAINT PAUL. FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER p, 1861

of militia towards the defense of the mara~
time frontier" The hostility to the govern
ment thus commenced was continued during
the war, not only obstructing the raising of
armies necessary to successful prosecution
of the war, but also impairing the national
credit, and bankruptiug the public trea-
sury.
The inability of the government thus
occasioned, to provide adequately for the
national defence, was one of the chief COM
plants of the Hartford Convention, and
was made the ground for demand upon
the government to permit the States of
New England, which had been so disloyal,
to provide from their quota of the war tax,
for the support of their own troops; and
for their own defence-a military separation
from the Union.
The city council of Hartford determined to
| put what obstacle in the way OF it [recruiting1
they legally might, enacted a local ordinance
forbidding the marching and parading of
|
flags, in fine, the opening of any recruiting
station. except within certain limits, excluding
| the most pOpuOus parts of the tOwn."-Hil.
dreth's History of the United States, vol. 8,
page SAG.
The foregoing fact, quoted from an anti.
democratic author, illustrates the violence
of party feeling among the federalists in
New England, during the war of 1872.
From the same respectable author, whose
sympathies we're altogether on the side of
the New England federalists, defending
them against tha charge made at the time
of secret treason" the following extract
is also quoted (vol. 3, p. 547-8.)
The idea of a convention 1.-THE Hartford Con-
ventionl of twenty-six respectable gentlemen,
for the most part. with large stakes in the
community, met publicly to plot treason with
closed doors, and putting the president, his
cabinet and the great war party of the Union
into bodily terror, seems to us at the present
time little ridiculous. Yet in the helpless
and doubtful position in which that party and
their president then stood, the indications of
public opinion afforded by the Federalist press
Of New England, and especially of Boston,
might well serve to inspire very serious appre.
| tensions.
Numerous articles in those papers both pre-
ceding and pending its sitting seemed plainly
to indicate the existence of a vehement and
| perhaps numerous party, whose only appre-
| hensiOn seemed to be that the convention
would not go far enongh. These articles called
loud and long for relief; and the measure which
they evidently contemplated, was withdrawal,
| by separate peace, from war into which New
England had been thrust against her interests
and her protestations, leaving Virginia and the
war States to fight it out at their own expense
and to their hearts content. Little was said
on that point, yet such withdrawal must ma
turally have involved the separation of New
| England from the Union, the dread of which
weighed SO heavily on Madison's mind
The foregoing testimony from an elabo-
rate historian and apolOgist of theHartford
Convention, shows how imminent was the
danger of actual rebellion, although that
assembly which was an official representa-
tion of New England, was not guilty, tech
nically, of any overt act ::of treason. The
members were not young and rash enough
to risk the penalty of that crime, and they
were not sufficiently patriotic to counsel
loyal support of the government, in the hour
of its peril.
Unlike the secessionists of the South,
the Hartford Conventionists proceeded with
caution and delberation. IT," says their
report, the Union be destined to disso-
luton by reason of the multiplied abuses of
bad administrations, it should, If possible,
be the work of peaceabe times and delib-
crate consent" And again: " But sew
erance of the Union, by one or more States
against the will of the rest, and especially
in time of war, can be justified only by ab-
solute necessity. These are among the prin-
cipal objections against precipatate measures
tending to disunite the States, and when
examined in connection with the farewell ad
dress of the father of his country, they must
it is believed, be deemed conclusive"
The reference of the Hartford Convention
to the Farewell Address" of the Father
OF his Country, as an argument against
"precipitate measures, I" is an example of the
uses treason makes of patriotism.
Incipient rebellion, although active and
violent in promulgating grievances and ex-
citing resistance, is always profuse in It's
protestations Of loyalty and seeks rather to
provoke than make the first actual assault,
SO as to secure, in appearance at least, the
strong position Of self-defence.
This was the policy Of the Hartford Con-
vention as the whole tenor and drift of its
report clearly indicates and as is sufficient
Iy shown by the conclusion of that docu.
ment, which is as follows:
The number of those who perceive and are
ready to retrace errors, must, it is believed,