Prologue II: The War of Northern Secession
James Madison, 4th President of the United States of America
The outbreak of the Northern Rebellion, as the contemporary Unionist press dubbed the upheaval, was met with anger but little surprise. Since the defeat of John Adams in the 1800 presidential elections, it seemed General Washington’s warning of political and geographic partisanship had slowly come true in the form of a Virginian populist regime opposed by an embittered Federalist minority. While the secession angered many in the southern states, the concept of state sovereignty was a crucial part of Democratic-Republican ideology and President Madison’s mobilisation of federal troops caused consternation in some quarters. The new Commonwealth government, headed provisionally by Timothy Pickering, claimed independence as a legal right laid down by the U.S Constitution. However the rump Congress sitting in Washington D.C agreed with the President’s view that the Boston Convention was the act of special interests in the form of New England bankers and merchants with ties to British financial power. Diehards led by John C. Calhoun went further and claimed the Rebellion was a Westminster-hatched plot, designed to divide and destroy the United States for the benefit of the British Empire.
Regardless, the second half of 1810 proved anti-climactic. New York neutrality and fear of provoking Britain into war caused Madison to be cautious, offering to establish a commission to look over Yankee grievances. This was quickly followed by news Westminster had agreed to exchange ambassadors with Boston, prompting a war hawk landslide in the November elections. Calhoun and his ally Henry Clay, now in control of Congress, pushed through aggressive measures. West Florida, legally a territory of Britain’s ally Spain, was accepted as the Union’s newest state in December, overriding Madison’s veto. The navy was ordered to be alert for British ships operating within American waters, including those of the Commonwealth, effectively denying Boston’s sovereignty. The March following, Congress reconvened to learn federal troops had been massacred at Tippecanoe by Tecumseh’s Indian warriors. Blame was soon laid at Britain’s feet, as survivors claimed large numbers of muskets had been smuggled into the Indiana Territory via the Great Lakes. Although little evidence could be gathered, Madison and Congress were quickly whipped into a frenzy and on 18th March 1811, the United States declared war on Britain and ‘her agents’ operating in the north-eastern states.
By June sporadic fighting had broken out in Upper Canada and between ships along the Atlantic seaboard. Across Rhode Island, upstate New York and eastern Pennsylvania, the respective authorities struggled to maintain order between secessionists and unionists. In September, New York’s unionist Governor, Daniel Tompkins was becoming increasingly isolated. The state’s leading Federalists, Lieutenant-Governor DeWitt Clinton, Senator Rufus King and Aaron Burr, after communication with Boston, back a motion for secession in the state legislature. After months of unrest, an ever deteriorating state of trade and the Democratic-Republican monopoly in Washington only tightening, the moderates finally threw their lot in with the Commonwealth. Tompkins refused to pass the motion and requested federal troops to enter the state to secure the peace. Alone but legitimate, the triumvirate struggled to organise rebellious forces against the Governor as American soldiers entered Albany in October. As Burr and Clinton fled into New England, King stayed at his home. The Senator publicly resisted arrest by soldiers on 3rd October, as a crowd gathered to watch. A stronghold of New England sympathy, the Albany citizens booed the Union troops and pelted them with missiles. Then a shot was fired. Whether from the crowd or the troops it may never be known but soon dozens of muskets were being discharged in the narrow city streets, leaving two soldiers, three civilians, and crucially, Senator King, dead.
The ‘Albany Massacre’ swung the overwhelming majority of New York opinion behind the Secession. Clinton established a government-in-exile, consisting of the majority of the state legislature who had recently fled across the Hudson. Meanwhile Tompkins was widely vilified as the puppet of a military tyranny, with many New Yorkers seeing their property inspected and seized by the advancing Union forces, armed citizens began to resist. The newly raised Army of the Commonwealth by comparison were hailed as liberators. General Pinckney’s men watched York burn in Upper Canada, while their comrades were repulsed at Manchester and Pittsfield, and New York City rioted. By 1812, Hudson Bay was firmly in New England’s control, thanks to the Royal Navy, while upstate New York had become a quagmire. Captain Perry’s defeat on Lake Erie in March crippled the U.S. northern offensive‘s supply lines, forcing Pinckney to retreat into Pennsylvania. The only ray of light for the Union came in the form of General Andrew Jackson, who had repulsed the Anglo-Commonwealth invasion into New Jersey with consummate ease at the Battle of New Brunswick.
By August however, President Madison was forced to flee Washington D.C in the face of a British amphibious assault. As the White House burned, the Unionist cause had reached its lowest ebb. In September, now residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia for precautions, Madison received word from John Quincy Adams, the U.S. ambassador to Russia. Tsar Alexander had offered to mediate a peace, believing Britain’s involvement a needless sideshow to the ongoing war against Napoleon. With word arriving that the Royal Navy planned to target New Orleans, Madison relented. However the President and his supporters had no intention of armistice before the election in November. Despite his unpopularity with the public, he maintained a powerful base led by Henry Clay within the Democratic-Republican Party itself. With the Federalists now synonymous with treason, and the war almost certain to end in defeat, there was also the reality that few others were capable, or even willing, to take on the position in 1812. As such Albert Gallatin led the Union’s delegation in St. Petersburg through drawn out and claustrophobic negotiations in the depths of a fierce Russian winter.
Following Madison’s all but unopposed re-election and a surprise victory from General James Wilkinson at Baton Rouge in January, the Unionists were in a far more talkative mood. Similarly, Napoleon’s reverses in Spain and Russia over the new year had made the Tsar even more adamant that Britain’s focus needed to be in Europe, and he intervened personally to ensure a speedy resolution. Baton Rouge and New Brunswick ensured Britain accepted West Florida, Louisiana and New Jersey all remained within the Union. In turn Washington was willing to recognise the Commonwealth, including New York, as a sovereign nation. The final stage was Westminster’s renunciation of impressment against American seamen, and the abolition of the Embargo Act. On 6th February 1813, the Treaty of St. Petersburg was signed by all parties. The Commonwealth of New England was free.
The Burning of the Capitol, September 1812