Note 81 — BOOK III. GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT ISSUES. (continued 3)
Reading edition
It appears at p. 6 of the “Account” that by a vote of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, (260 to 290) delegates to this convention were ordered to be appointed to consult upon the subject “of their public grievances and concerns,” and upon “the best means of preserving their resources,” and for procuring a revision of the constitution of the United States, “more effectually to secure the support and attachment of all the people, by placing all upon the basis of fair representation.”
The convention assembled at Hartford on the 15th December, 1814. On the next day it was
Resolved, That the most inviolable secrecy shall be observed by each member of this convention, including the secretary, as to all propositions, debates, and proceedings thereof, until this injunction shall be suspended or altered.
On the 24th of December, the committee appointed to prepare and report a general project of such measures as may be proper for the convention to adopt, reported among other things,—
“1. That it was expedient to recommend to the legislatures of the states the adoption of the most effectual and decisive measures to protect the militia of the states from the usurpations contained in these proceedings.” [The proceedings of Congress and the executive, in relation to the militia and the war.]
“2. That it was expedient also to prepare a statement, exhibiting the necessity which the improvidence and inability of the general government have imposed upon the states of providing for their own defence, and the impossibility of their discharging this duty, and at the same time fulfilling the requisitions of the general government, and also to recommend to the legislatures of the several states to make provision for mutual defence, and to make an earnest application to the government of the United States, with a view to some arrangement whereby the state may be enabled to retain a portion of the taxes levied by Congress, for the purpose of self-defence, and for the reimbursement of expenses already incurred on account of the United States.
“3. That it is expedient to recommend to the several state legislatures certain amendments to the constitution, viz.,—
“That the power to declare or make war, by the Congress of the United States, be restricted.
“That it is expedient to attempt to make provision for restraining Congress in the exercise of an unlimited power to make new states, and admit them into the Union.
“That an amendment be proposed respecting slave representation and slave taxation.”
On the 29th of December, 1814, it was proposed “that the capacity of naturalized citizens to hold offices of trust, honor, or profit ought to be restrained,” &c.
The subsequent proceedings are not given at large. But it seems that the report of the committee was adopted, and also a recommendation of certain measures (of the character of which we are not informed) to the states for their mutual defence; and having voted that the injunction of secrecy, in regard to all the debates and proceedings of the convention, (except so far as relates to the report finally adopted,) be continued, the convention adjourned sine die, but as was supposed, to meet again when circumstances should require it.