****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Many people believe that secession first came from South Carolina in 1832 and the rest of the south in 1860. However, as Richard Buel demonstrates in this very detailed account quoting richly from primary sources, the first time a threat to maintaining a United States came from Massachusetts and other New England states in the years leading up to the War of 1812.The argument about war and peace leading up to 1812 involved two sides, Federalists and Republicans, who saw themselves as standing up for the future of the United States. How they were meet this end, however, led to major disagreements. Republicans maintained neutrality in the ongoing war between England and France, Federalists believed that England was a much larger threat, and that measures Republicans were taking were making things worse.While the Republicans resorted to the malicious, though still all too common, charge of "moral treason" in describing Federalist actions (think "with us or against us" or "swift-boating"), many Federalist leaders did do all they could do within the law to obstruct the government's war effort. This culminated in the 1814 Hartford Convention, where Connecticut and Massachusetts declared outright opposition to the ongoing war effort. The fact that this news hit the national scene as the exact same time as both news of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent at favorable US terms and Jackson's victory at New Orleans shows how misguided the Federalist cause was.This is an eye-opening book about the formation of the early republic. I highly recommend this detailed account of the government's trials and tribulations as it tries to survive.
