Antiwar Movement

An American Perspective Most of those opposed to the war were from the Northeastern region of the United States. They included: the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut who refused to cooperate with President Madison's call to man the coastal defenses; New England financiers who refused to lend money to the federal government (although they were lending money to Britain); and the Vermont and New York farmers who showed their resistance to the war by selling crucial supplies to the British Army in Canada. Most New Englanders, along with like-minded thinkers such as Congressman John Randolph, believed that the war movement was primarily fueled by a Republican desire to expand American territory northwards into Canada. Randolph cried out in the House of Representatives, "Agrarian cupidity, not maritime rights urges the war... Ever since the report of the Committee on Foreign relations came into the House, we have heard but one word - like the whip-poor-will, but one monotonous tone - Canada! Canada! Canada!" President Madison was very concerned by the deep rift in Congress between representatives from the South and West who generally supported war, and those from New England who were adamantly opposed to it. Madison attempted to bridge by the gap by appointing New Englanders to key military commands. For instance, William Hull was appointed brigadier general of the Army of the Northwest based partly on his performance during the Revolutionary War, and the fact that he hailed from the recalcitrant state of Massachusetts. But such diplomatic gestures bore little fruit. Opposition to the war grew, and the resentment intensified until it climaxed with the Hartford Convention in 1814 where New Englanders debated whether or not to remain in the Union.