[Delhi Rebels]

Ask the liberal New England Federalist dinosaur forebears of the radical abolitionist looney tunes who convened the Hartford Convention at Hartford, CT in 1814-1815 DURING the War of 1812 to discuss secession and re-establishing their ties (at least commercially: $, $ and $$$ being their primary concern like the Whigs and today's hereditary GOP-E who are their successors) with old Brittania.

I think you're badly overstating the influence of the secessionist movement at the Hartford Convention. But regardless, it's interesting to note that at least one prominent Richmond looked at the extremist minority's proposal for secession and called on the federal government to take whatever steps were necessary to "save the Union".

Richmond Enquirer

[BlackElk]

An interesting find but the Richmond Enquirer and the Commonwealth of Virginia were not identical--- the first was a private newspaper (I gather) and the latter an actual government which reclaimed its sovereignty by secession under quite different circumstances.

In the War of 1812, the USA was invaded by Great Britain which, apparently, had not gotten over its loss of "the colonies" and wanted a re-run of the previous war (and got a re-run of the result), sacked our Capitol, burned the White House, but had to agree to peace (Treaty of Ghent signed by the Brits but not yet ratified by our Congress) even before learning of Andrew Jackson's massacre of the Brit Army under General Edward Pakenham (Wellington's brother-in-law) at the Battle of New Orleans. Pakenham's grape shot-riddled corpse stuffed into a whiskey barrel and preserved by being packed in the remaining whiskey, had not yet arrived at the home of the widow Pakenham.