20

Union in November 1789, about seven months after the Gov-
ernment had gone into full operation in all its departments,
and Rhode Island in May, 1790, more than a year after the
organization of the Government. From the date of the or-
ganization of the Government, to the time of their ratifying
the constitution, respectively, North Carolina and Rhode
Island were considered a» foreign nations. This fact is stated
in the preface to an edition of the Federalist, published in
Washington in 1818, thus. "When the constitution was rati-
fied, Rhode Island and North Carolina, from honest but mis-
taken convictions, for a moment withheld their assent. But
when Congress proceeded solemnly to enact that the manu-
factures of those States should be considered as foreign, and
that the Acts laying a duty on goods imported, and on ton-
nage, should extend to them, they hastened, with a discern-
ment quickened by a sense of interest, and at the same time
honorable to their patriotic views, to unite themselves to the
confederation."

Political parties divided under the administration of the
first Adams, upon the constitutionality of the alien and se-
dition laws. In 1798, under the lead of Madison and Jeffer-
son, Virginia and Kentucky asserted, in legislative resolves,
the 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 emphatically asserted by
the New England States. The Legislature of Massachusetts
appointed twelve delegates from that State, to meet and con-
fer with delegates from the other New England States, or
any other, upon the subject of their public grievances and con-
cerns," &c. Connecticut appointed seven delegates and Rhode
Island four, by their respective Legislatures, who met with
the Massachusetts delegates at Hartford, Connecticut, in De-
cember, 1814. Three persons from New Hampshire and one
from Vermont appeared as delegates chosen by local conven-
tions 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 Hartford Convention by the Secretary, 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 enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred and jeal-
osy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and agres-
sion 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."