Timothy Pickering and John Lowell were absent from the convention. The convention’s delegates were selected by state legislatures. Timothy Pickering represented Massachusetts nationally in the House of Representatives. In Washington he was noted for his obstructionism of the war with Britain.
John Lowell, Jr. was a political writer who promoted Federalist ideals. He was the son of Judge John Lowell. Wealthy and philanthropic, he founded the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Athenaeum. He is best remembered for his pamphlet “Mr. Madison’s War; a Dispassionate Inquiry into the Reasons alleged by Madison for declaring an Offensive and Ruinous War against Great Britain” published in 1812. He earned the nicknames “Crazy Jack,” or “The Boston Rebel,” from Democratic-Republicans for his attacks on Madison and the war.[1] He was not part of the Massachusetts legislature, where the impetus for the Hartford Convention originated. He confessed to Timothy Pickering “I gave great offence during the sitting of our legislature by openly opposing the calling a convention.” He was concerned the convention would not go far enough.[2]
[1] Samuel Eliot Morison, ”Our Most Unpopular War,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, V. 80. (1968) 48-9.
[2]John Lowell to Timothy Pickering, 3 December 1814, Henry Adams (ed.) Documents relating to New-England Federalism 1800-1815, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1877) 413.
