The Republican journal., 1913-02-20
New England and the North
ern Confederacy.
BY FRANK w. GOWEN.

BY FRANK w. GOWEN.
The great issue of the right of nulli-
fcation and secession based on the State
sovereignty idea was not alone confined
to the Southern States. AS early as
1904 these theories or ideas were so
strong in New England that an attempt
was made to separate this section of our
country from the Union and form it into
Northern Confederacy, with Boston the
capital of the Confederacy, as Richmond
was the capital of the Southern Confed-
eracy over half a century later in our
history. Our New England States re-
garded themselves as sovereign, and the
spirit of notification continued to agitate
the minds of the people for many years,
as it did in other sections of our country;
but in this paper l shall confine myself
on this subject to New England, but will
advocated right up to the Civil War
which bathed our land in blood and set
tied for all time the great issue of State
sovereignty by establishing our National
government as supreme over all the
States; and, thank God, no longer can a
State or States refuse to send troops to
the seat of war, as in the case of Massa-
chusetts, Connecticut and Vermont in
the war of 1872; or nullify Congressional
enactments or separate themselves from
the government of the United States.
The bitter hatred of jefferson and his
party of Democracy, which Hamilton
styled as a ''loathsome disease" and
their views on State sovereignty were the
principal causes which led the New Eng
land Federalists. under the leadership of
such eminent men as Fisher Ames, Tim
othy Pickering, George Cabot, Governor
Roger Griswold and many others,~to de-
sire separation from the Union. The
election of jefferson to the Presidency
in 1904 was bitter political pill to the
Federalist secessionists of New England.
carrying every State as ne did in the
/ Union, except Connecticut and Delaware,
and have read somewhere that Picker
ing was even in tears. | know, he wrote !:
Il am in despair, but separation will
come. The British provinces, even with
the consent of Great Britain, will be-
come members of the Northern Confed-
eracy.'
-Four and eight years later the State
rights doctrine was again vigorously up
held on account Of the ''impost embargo
act of 1903 and the unpopular war of
1872. Because of this war the trade and
commerce of New England suffered seri-
ously and financial ruin stared the people
in the face. Like the people of Prussia,
who found themselves in great financial
calamities after the conquest Of Napo-
leon, so the people of the New England
States found themselves in great fnan-
cial adversely. Webster, then in his
young manhood, opposed the war of 1912
with all his power and eloquence. and
even threatened that the New England
States would interfere in separation
from the Union; but in justice to him it
should be said that he shrank from such
a separation and in after years denied,
in his great debate with Hayne in the
Senate, the right of notification and Sc
cession.
AS write l am reminded of quite a
coincidence from the fact that Hon.
Alexander H. Stephens, among all the
Confederate statesmen one of the ablest,
was born during this war year of 1872
and the greater part of his life covered
the years, or rather the period, of disunion
agitation in our government. AS the
war continued, and times grew harder
with deprecated paper currency, the
people grew more algry and denounced
"Mr. Madison's War" with severity. In
fact, the anger of the people grew so in
tense that the legislatures of the New
England States also passed resolutions
denouncing the war, and these senti-
ments were largely shared by the people
in the Province of Maine. whose rugged
coast, by a blow from its own govern
ment, was paralyzed as to shipping and
commerce and exposed to the attacks of
the British. Thus the Province of Maine
and the entire New England States were
in turmoil such as Alexander Johnston
in his History of Political Parties"
says ''the political history of the United
States had not hitherto Witnessed" and
it can be said that among the most fear
less and outspoken for a separation from
the Union were the people in the Prov
ince of Maine. Probably no more bitter
words were ever uttered against Presi-
dent, and especially against Elbridge
Gerry of Massachusetts, Vice President
under Madison, and for disunion, than
those uttered by the early Federalists in