JOINT RESOLUTIONS. 903
Kentucky asserted, in legislative resolves, their
doctrine of State sovereignty, which was affirmed
again in 1799. In 1800, the Republican party of
that day came into power by a large majority on
that issue, with Jefferson as President.
In the year 1814, during the war with Great
Britain, the doctrine of State Sovereignty was em-
phatically asserted by the New England States.
The Legislature of Massachusetts appointed twelve
delegates from that State to meet and confer with
delegates from the other New England States, or
any other, upon the subject of their public griev-
ances and concerns, &c., Connecticut appointed
seven delegates and Rhode Island four, by their
respective Legislatures, who met with the Massa-
chusetts delegates at Hartford, Connecticut, in
December, 1814. Three persons from New Hamp-
shire and one from Vermont appeared as delegates
chosen by local Conventions in those States, and
were admitted as members. After a secret session.
of three weeks they published a report, from which
the following extracts are taken :
History of the Hartford Convention, by the Sec-
retary, 355.
Whenever it shall appear that these causes are
radical and permanent, a separation, by equitable
arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by
constraint among nominal friends but real ene-
mies, inflamed by mutual hatred and jealousy, and
inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and ag-
ression from abroad. But a severance of the
Union by one or more States against the will of
the rest, and especially in a time of war, can be
justified only by absolute necessity, 359. The
power of compelling the militia and other citizens
of the United States, by a forcible draft or con-
scription, to serve in the regular armies, as pro-
posed in a late official letter of the Secretary of
War, is not delegated to Congress by the Consti-
tution, and the exercise of it would be not less
dangerous to their liberties than hostile to the
sovereignty of the States.
In this whole series of devices and measures for
raising men, this Convention discern a total dis-
regard of the Constitution and a disposition to vi- |
Report of the
Committee. |
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