1814] Treaty of Ghent 365 had ceased to be an issue of vital moment since the fall of Napoleon. The successes of the American cruisers had contributed materially toward the settlement of the questions of impressment, the right of search, and blockades; they never again became serious in the sense that they were before 1812. The British commissioners at Ghent had contended that the fishery privileges accorded to the citizens of the United States in the treaty of 1783 had terminated the moment war had broken out between the two nations. The Americans declared, on the contrary, that the articles in that treaty relating to the fisheries, having once gone into operation, were not affected by a subsequent war, any more than were the provisions relating to boundaries. On the other hand, they argued that the clause in the earlier treaty, granting the free use of the Mississippi to British subjects (p. 229), had ceased to operate the moment war began. As no agreement could be reached on these points, further consideration of them was deferred until a more convenient opportunity. The news of the conclusion of peace and of Jackson's victory at New Orleans reached Washington at almost the same moment. The Republican party at once regained its former place in the people's esteem. To this consummation also the Federalists strongly contributed by a most inopportune display of hostility to the administration and to its policy. 247. The Hartford Convention, 1814, 1815. Six days Discontent before Jackson repelled Pakenham's last assault at New in New England, Orleans, the Hartford Convention adjourned. To under- 1812-14. stand this movement, we must examine at some length the course pursued by Massachusetts during the war. In the first place, it must be understood that New England had borne its full share in the conflict, notwithstanding the great unpopularity of the war in that section and the contest over the militia. To make this fact clear, it is only necessary to compare the parts borne by Virginia. and by Massachusetts. The latter contained, according to the census of 1810, about seven hundred thousand inhabit Opposition to the administration, 1813-14. ants; Virginia is credited in the same census with nine hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants, of whom five hundred and fifty thousand were negro slaves. In accordance with the federal ratio (p. 261), Virginia sent to Congress twenty-three members, Massachusetts twenty. The latter state furnished four times as much money for the support of the conflict as Virginia, and contributed more men to the armies of the United States during the war apart from sailors on national vessels and in privateers — than did the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina combined. On the other hand, the government withdrew its garrisons from the Massachusetts seaboard forts and harassed what was left of her commerce with an embargo. The leading men of New England had no confidence whatever in the Southern and Western politicians who guided. the policy of the government. They felt keenly the slights put upon New England, and resented the acts of the administration, many of which were of doubtful constitutionality, to say the least. They had recourse to the precedents of pre-revolutionary times, and followed in the footsteps of the leaders of the Republican party in 1798–99. The legislatures of Connecticut and Massachusetts passed laws Idirectly in conflict with the act of Congress providing for the enlistment of minors, and subjected to fine and imprisonment those engaged in carrying the law into practice. On February 18, 1813, a committee of the Massachusetts legislature reported that "the sovereignty reserved to the states [in the Constitution] was reserved to protect the citizens from acts of violence by the United States. . . . We spurn the idea that the sovereign state of Massachusetts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation. When the national compact is violated, and the citizens of the state are oppressed by cruel and unauthorized law, this legislature is bound to interpose its power and wrest from the oppressor its victim." The campaign of 1814 brought no relief to New England; the British, 1815] Results of the War 367 who in the earlier years of the war had forborne to attack that section, now waged active hostilities on the New England coast. They seized the eastern towns in Maine, levied contributions on many seaboard places, and bombarded Stonington in Connecticut. October of that year found the New Englanders in a sterner frame of mind than before. The legislature of Massachusetts suggested that a conference of delegates of the New England states should be summoned, to propose such measures as were "not repugnant to their obligations as members of the Union.' The conference, or convention, as it was ordinarily termed, The was held at Hartford (December, 1814, to January, 1815). Hartford It adopted resolutions suggesting that the New Englanders 1814-15. should be permitted to defend themselves and should Schouler's therefore retain a reasonable portion of the federal taxes assessed upon them. It also suggested certain amendments to the Constitution, and laid down the constitutional doctrines applicable to the matter in language which must have sounded most unpleasantly familiar to Jefferson and Madison: "In cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infractions of the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a state and liberties of the people; it is not only the right but the duty of such a state to interpose its authority for their protection. . . . When emergencies occur which are beyond the reach of the judicial tribunals, . . . states which have no common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own decisions" (compare p. 308). ... It was always the fate of the Federalist party to propose action either too early or too late. The commissioners sent to Washington to arrange for a reasonable division of the proceeds of the federal taxes reached the capital to find peace declared. They hastened home amid the jeerings of the Republican press. Convention. United States, II, 469-476. war. 248. Results of the War. The war cost the American Cost of the people the lives of thirty thousand men, and as many more were wholly or partly incapacitated from leading happy, Results of the war. Schouler's United States, II, 492, 501; Johnston's Orations, I, 219. New economic conditions. vigorous lives. The national debt rose by leaps and bounds, until in 1816 it amounted to one hundred and twenty-seven million dollars; about one hundred millions of this sum was an absolute increase of the debt. The actual money cost of the war was much greater, and was probably not less than two hundred million dollars. On the other side of the account, there was absolutely nothing material to show for this great expenditure of human life, this amount of human suffering, and this mass of treasure. Indirectly and unconsciously there was a gain not to be measured in human lives or in dollars: the American people ceased to be provincial and began to appreciate its oneness, it began to feel and to act as a nation. Before this time American politics had been dominated by European politics, there had been British parties and parties favoring France. The War of 1812, and the economic changes consequent on the restoration of peace in Europe, completely changed these conditions. Northern capitalists competing with the manufacturers of Britain forgot their former friendships; on the other hand, the cotton planters of the South found in the British manufacturers their best customers; they, too, became oblivious of their former hatred of all things British. Furthermore, the pressure of the conflict compelled the federal government to adopt. measures which even Hamilton would have feared to suggest, while the Federalists, soon to disappear as a party, became the champions of strict construction. In this way democracy and nationalism grew together. The War of 1812 has been often and truly called the Second War of Independence, which should be understood to mean not merely independence of other nations, but of the conditions. of colonial life. 249. Altered Industrial Conditions, 1816. On the return of peace it at once became evident that new economic forces had come into existence. These new factors in national progress were to exert a powerful influence on the course of politics and to determine the positions to be assumed 1816] Early Tariff Legislation 369 by political leaders. It will be well to consider this subject with some care. During the period of commercial restriction and of war, the Northern capitalists had been obliged to find new means of employment for their idle funds, which could no longer be profitably invested in the shipping interests. They turned their attention to manufacturing enterprises and established the textile industries of the North. As soon as peace was concluded, British manufacturers sought to regain their former profitable markets in the United States. They sent immense quantities of goods to the American ports, and the Northern manufacturers saw the markets for their cottons, woolens, and iron rapidly slipping from them. They could not return to the shipowning industry to advantage, as the general peace which now prevailed brought their vessels. into competition with those of all the maritime nations of Europe. They appealed to Congress for aid in the shape of a protective tariff, which would preserve the home market to them. One result of this appeal was the Tariff Act of 1816. A more important outcome of this change in the economic development of the country was the extinction of the Federalist party. It was now powerless to aid the Northern mill owners in securing the requisite legislation; they turned for aid to the Republicans, and the Federalist party, abandoned in the house of its friends, disappeared as a political organization. 250. Early Tariff Legislation, 1789-1815. —The act for Protection raising revenue, passed in 1789, had for one object "the 1789-1815. protection of manufacturers," but the rates levied in that act were too low to give an effective stimulus to young industries. It should also be said that the country was not then prepared for the establishment of manufacturing enterprises on an extended scale. Subsequent acts had increased the rates of taxation on imports, and had thereby given added protection. This was especially true of a law passed in 1812 for doubling all the duties; but these later acts were designed to provide revenue whatever protection |