of New England was in terror.

Governor Strong called

the legislature together, and laid before them the state of the country. The general sentiment was that the New England States ought to combine, utterly abandoned as they were by the national government, to save themselves by their own force and resources from becoming a conquered country. The legislature was resolved that a common cause should be made among all the New England maritime states, and that, to effect this object, delegates should be invited. to assemble at Hartford on the 15th of December following, and that reports should be made to the legislatures of their respective states.1

At the appointed time, the convention met at Hartford, and comprised twenty-six federal delegates, of whom twelve were from Massachusetts, seven from Connecticut, four from Rhode Island, two from New Hampshire, and one from Vermont. The convention was in session from the 15th of December, 1814, to the 5th of January following, and all of its proceedings were conducted with closed doors. In accordance with the sentiments expressed in the call for the convention, the members were enjoined not to propose measures "repugnant to their obligations as members of the Union;" and after deliberating for twenty days, the convention published an address to the people. After recapitulating the evils which the war had brought upon the people, this address expresses the sentiments of the members upon other wrongs; such as the enlistment of minors and apprentices, the national government assuming to command the state militia, and especially the proposed system of conscription for both army and navy. Strange propositions for a government professedly waging war to

Resolves of the Gen. Court, for Oct 1814. Bradford, iii. 211–212.

protect its seamen from impressment! "The conscription of the father, with the seduction of the son, renders complete the power of the national executive over the male population of the country, thus destroying the most important relations of society." "A free constitution, administered by great and incomparable statesmen, realized the fondest hopes of liberty and independence, under Washington and his measures. The arts flourished, the comforts of life were universally diffused, nothing remained but to reap the advantages and cherish the resources flowing from this policy." "Our object is to strengthen and perpetuate the union of these states, by removing the causes of jealousies."

In furtherance of such views, the address proposed amendments to the constitution, among others, to equalize the representation in the lower House of Congress, by basing it on free population; against embargoes and nonintercourse laws; and to make the president ineligible for a second term. These amendments were never adopted by the states.

The Hartford convention was for many years a rich and inexhaustible fund of abuse and crimination, notwithstanding that its twenty-six members were as wise, as loyal, and as patriotic as the average of the legislators and politicians of that day or since. Those persons who knew the least of the causes which led to the convention, and nothing of the motives of those who were its members, were the most busy and the most malignant calumniators. By these persons the secrecy of the convention was construed to mean most treasonable designs; but to the opponents of the administration, who knew the men there assembled, and knew also that they could listen to no counsels, nor propose nor adopt any measure inconsistent with duty, self-respect, and

sober wisdom, the secrecy was in no wise alarming, but on the contrary, satisfying and consolatory.

After receiving and adopting the report of the convention, the legislature of Massachusetts sent Harrison Gray Otis, Thomas H. Perkins, and William Sullivan as commissioners to Washington, to request the consent of the general Congress to the measures recommended by the convention. The commissioners arrived in Washington about the middle of February, 1815, "one day after the news of peace had reached that city."

Universal and unalloyed joy followed the tidings that a peace had been negotiated with Great Britain. In Boston, especially, the news "gave great joy to every patriot." A procession was formed, a banquet was given in Faneuil Hall, and in the evening the town was illuminated. The victory at New Orleans, on the 8th of the month preceding, was the crowning event of the war, and was everywhere applauded.

The conflict being ended, the citizens of the United States returned to their peaceful avocations. In Massachusetts, every effort was made to increase the industrial resources of the state. Before the year closed, thirty-four new manufacturing companies were incorporated for the manufacture of woollen and cotton cloths, and several large mills were erected. "As a consequence of these changes, and of the development of the mechanical and agricultural resources of the state, railroads radiate in every direction; the commerce of the state encircles the globe; towns have become cities, and villages towns; our people are eminently an industrial people; with the increase of wealth and of the comforts of life, the arts and the sciences have been successfully cultivated; the press, the great engine of civ

1 Otis's Letters, 38.

ilization, is actively at work for the enlightenment of the public; our manners and customs have been ameliorated and improved; the interests of religion and morality are fostered; and the progress of society, and its intellectual advancement, have kept pace with its secondary and temporal advancement."

The administration of Governor Strong closed in 1816. His successor was John Brooks, a revolutionary patriot, who had been a member of the convention for adopting the federal constitution, a representative and senator in the state legislature, and a member of the Council under Governor Strong. Without high pretensions to intellectual distinction, he was a man of practical wisdom, sound judgment, and of a pure and elevated mind. It may be said, also, that no man was more than he esteemed and respected. He was a federalist, but no one was more attached to republican principles, and no one more readily subscribed to the doctrine that civil and political power emanate from the people. Remarkably conciliating and popular, he secured the confidence of both parties, and was for seven years successively chosen chief magistrate of the state.

The two principal events of his long administration were the erection of the District of Maine into a separate state, and the revision of the state constitution. Petitions for the separation of the District of Maine were first preferred to the legislature of Massachusetts in 1816, and a convention was appointed to be holden at Brunswick. This convention voted in favor of the step, but the separation was not effected until 1820, at which time Maine was erected into a distinct and independent commonwealth, and was admitted into the American Union.

1 Barry, iii. 421.

In accordance with the votes of the people, a convention of nearly five hundred men assembled in Boston in November, 1820, for the purpose of revising the constitution of the state. The venerable John Adams, then in his eightyfifth year, was called to preside; but, owing to the infirmities of age, Chief Justice Isaac Parker was chosen in his place. The sessions of the convention continued for about seven weeks, during which time amendments, embodied in fourteen articles, were proposed, and afterwards submitted to the people. Only nine of these amendments were ul timately approved. These were as follows: "That the governor should have five days, while the General Court was in session, to consider and object to any bill presented to him for signature; that the legislature should have power to constitute municipal or city governments in any town containing at least twelve thousand inhabitants, reserving the power to annul any by-laws made by such governments; that all male persons of the age of twenty-one years, who had resided in the state for one year, and for six months within the town in which they claimed a right to vote, and who had paid a tax assessed upon them within two years, should have and enjoy the right of suffrage; that, in the election of military officers, those under twentyone years of age, who were regular members of a company, should have a right to vote; that notaries public should be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the Council, in the same manner and for the same time as justices of the peace, which was for the term of seven years; that no county attorney, clerk of a court, sheriff, register of probate, or register of deeds, should, at the same time, be a member of the Congress of the United States, and that no judge of the Court of Common Pleas should hold