In the weeks before the Hartford Convention, George Cabot and Harrison Gray Otis did not know that Governor Caleb Strong sent an emissary to Halifax, Nova Scotia. In November, 1814, his representative approached General Sir John Sherbrooke. Governor Strong wanted protection in case he came into direct conflict with President Madison. On November 20 Sherbrooke wrote to the Colonial Secretary hoping the British could gain from the dissolution of the United States. The Secretary, Lord Bathurst, replied from London on December 13, 1814. He expected that Madison would sign the peace treaty, but if the war continued, he gave Sherbrooke permission to sign a separate peace treaty with New England and offer the region logistical support—but not troops.[1]
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[1] Samuel Eliot Morison, “Our Most Unpopular War,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series V. 80 (1968) 48, Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010) 415.
