They say:
"If the Union be destined to dissolution by reason of the
multiplied abuses of bad administration, it should, if possible,
be the work of peaceable times and deliberate consent. Some _new
form of confederacy_ should be substituted among those States
which shall intend to maintain a federal relation to each other.
Events may prove that the causes of our calamities are deep and
permanent. They may be found to proceed, not merely from the
blindness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of party
spirit, or the confusion of the times; but they may be traced to
implacable combinations of individuals or of States to
monopolize power and office, and to trample without remorse upon
the rights and interests of commercial sections of the Union.
Whenever it shall appear that the causes are radical and
permanent, a separation by equitable arrangement will be
preferable to an alliance by constraint among nominal friends,
but real enemies."
The omission of the single word "commercial," which does not affect the
principle involved, is the only modification necessary to adapt this
extract exactly to the condition of the Southern States in 1860-'61.
The obloquy which has attached to the members of the Hartford Convention
has resulted partly from a want of exact knowledge of their proceedings,
partly from the secrecy by which they were veiled, but mainly because it
was a recognized effort to paralyze the arm of the Federal Government
while engaged in a war arising from outrages committed upon American
seamen on the decks of American ships.
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