Noah Webster’s friends tried to broaden the scheme for a convention. They proposed a state-wide convention in Massachusetts. Federalist Party leaders knew the Massachusetts senate would never approve of a convention. It had a Democratic-Republican majority.[1]
Instead, they backed DeWitt Clinton as a “peace party” candidate. Clinton had pledged to seek peace if elected. In September 1812, Federalists met in a clandestine convention to propose Clinton.[2]
The movement toward a peace party and a peace candidate failed when Clinton was narrowly defeated by James Madison. Clinton needed just nineteen more electoral votes. Had Pennsylvania supported Clinton, he would have won.[3]
This was the fourth time Federalists supported a candidate who was defeated. Working with the moderate Federalists within the Massachusetts state government brought no results. Federalists opposing Madison, the war and the use of Massachusetts’ state militia for national defense had to look outside the state government.[4]
Next: How the Embargo of 1813 Affected New England’s Federalists
Look for it Monday, July 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) 310-312.
[2] Banner, To the Hartford Convention 311-2.
[3] Banner, To the Hartford Convention, 312-3.
[4] Banner, To the Hartford Convention, 313-4.
