the OlLine Rebel:
"Secession was never in question.
It certainly wasn’t when New England griped about leaving in 1815." Northern Federalists who threatened secession because of the Democrats' Embargo on trade with Brits, those Federalist secessionists were a minority at the 1814 Hartford Convention, and their threats were not included in its final report.
However, those threats produced at least two significant results:
- They caused President Madison (Dem-VA) to move US Army troops off the frontier with Canada into position near New England in case of rebellion.
- They convinced many old Federalists (notably John Quincy Adams) to abandon their old party and join their friends among Jefferson's Democrats.
This contributed largely to the collapse of the old Federalist party and a several years long "era of good feelings" under President Monroe.
Talk of secession in 1814 was considered treasonous then, just as it was in 1860.
No, it wasn’t. Secession wasn’t in question. Whether it was wise or nice was.
And no qualms about secession within a state when it came to parting out West Virginia during the CW. But now we’re told that’s not “allowed”.