During its winter session, from January 26 to March 4, 1809, the Massachusetts legislature passed three resolutions:
- They denounced the Enforcement Act as “unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional, and not legally binding on the citizens of this state.” They opposed resistance by force.
- They resolved to “co-operate with any of the other states, in all legal and constitutional measures, for procuring such amendments to the constitution of the United States as shall be judged necessary…to give the commercial states their fair and just consideration in the government of the union.
- Working together, moderates Harrison Gray Otis, as president of the Senate, and Timothy Bigelow, as speaker of the House, urged cooperation in New England “to preserve inviolate the Union of the States.”[1]
Federalists in Massachusetts expected that another New England state would call for the convention. Despite their plans, no other state responded.
In Congress, Democratic-Republicans were concerned about the agitation and protests in New England. On March 1, 1809, three days before Jefferson left office, they garnered the votes to repeal the Embargo and the Enforcement Acts. Congress replaced those acts with an unenforceable Non-Intercourse Act.
Next: How Mathew Carey Reacted
Look for it Monday, April 21
[1] James M. Banner, Jr. To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts 1789-1815 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970) 305.
