is fact gives their support of the right of secession the
greater significance.

The celebrated Hartford Convention assembled in December, 1814. It
consisted of delegates chosen by the Legislatures of Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut, with an irregular or imperfect
representation from the other two New England States, New Hampshire and
Vermont,[26] convened for the purpose of considering the grievances
complained of by those States in connection with the war with Great
Britain. They sat with closed doors, and the character of their
deliberations and discussions has not been authentically disclosed. It
was generally understood, however, that the chief subject of their
considerations was the question of the withdrawal of the States they
represented from the Union. The decision, as announced in their
published report, was adverse to the expediency of such a measure at
that time, and under the then existing conditions; but they proceeded to
indicate the circumstances in which a dissolution of the Union might
become expedient, and the mode in which it should be effected; and their
theoretical plan of separation corresponds very nearly with that
actually adopted by the Southern States nearly fifty years afterward.
They say:

"If the Union be destined to dissolution by reason of the
multiplied abuses of bad administration, it should, if possible,
be the work of peaceable times and deliberate consent. Some _new
form of confederacy_ should be substituted among those States
which shall intend to maintain a federal relation to each other.
Events may prove that the causes of our calamities are deep and
permanent. They may be found to proceed, not merely from the
blindness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of party
spirit, or the confusion of the times; but they may be traced to
implacable combinations of individuals or of States to
monopolize power and office, and to trample without remorse upon
the rights and interests of commercial sections of the Union.
Whenever it shall appear that the causes are radical and
permanent, a separation by equitable arrangement will be
preferable to an alliance by constraint among nominal friends,
but real enemies."

The omission of the single word "commercial," which does not affect the
principle involved, is the only modification necessary to adapt this
extract exactly to the condition of the Southern States in