Conscriptions.
In October, 1814, the
acting Secretary of War (
James Monroe) proposed vigorous measures for increasing the army and giving it material strength.
Volunteering had ceased, and lie proposed to raise, by conscription or draft, sufficient to fill the existing ranks of the army to the full amount of 62,448 men; also an additional regular force of 40,000 men, to be locally employed for the defence of the frontiers and sea-coast.
Bills for this purpose were introduced into Congress (Oct. 27, 1814); and this and other war measures were more favorably received than usual because of the waning prospect of peace with
Great Britain, excepting on terms humiliating to the
United States.
The proposition to raise a large force by conscription brought matters to a crisis in
New England.
Because of the unpatriotic course of the peace faction in
New England, the
President insisted upon the exclusive control of all military movements there, while States in other portions of the
Union were left to act, in the matter of local defences, wholly at the discretion of the
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local governors.
The clamor raised against the measure of conscription became more and more intense; and radical and indiscreet men of the opposition proposed the secession of the
New England States from the
Union as a cure for existing evils.
Thoughtful men pondered the situation of affairs with great anxiety, and the famous gathering of representatives of the
New England States known as the
Hartford convention (q. v.) was the result.
