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CHAPTER 7 Hammering Out a Federal Republic, 1787%u20131820 279Federalists Oppose the War American military setbacks increased opposition to the war in New England. In 1814, Massachusetts Federalists called for a convention %u201cto lay the foundation for a radical reform in the National Compact.%u201d When New England Federalists met in Hartford, Connecticut, some delegates proposed secession, but most wanted to revise the Constitution. To end Virginia%u2019s domination of the presidency, the Hartford Convention proposed a constitutional amendment limiting the office to a single four-year term and rotating it among citizens from different states. The convention also suggested amendments restricting commercial embargoes to sixty days and requiring a two-thirds majority in Congress to declare war, prohibit trade, or admit a new state to the Union.As a minority party, the Federalists could prevail only if the war continued to go badly%u2014a very real prospect. The war had cost $88 million, raising the national debt to $127 million. And now, as Albert Gallatin warned Henry Clay in May 1814, Britain%u2019s triumph over Napoleon in Europe meant that a %u201cwell organized and large army is [now ready] . . . to act immediately against us.%u201d When an attack from Canada came in the late summer of 1814, only an American naval victory on Lake Champlain stopped the British from marching down the Hudson River Valley. A few months later, thousands of seasoned British troops landed outside New Orleans, threatening American control of the Mississippi River. With the nation politically divided and under attack from north and south, Gallatin feared that %u201cthe war might prove vitally fatal to the United States.%u201dWashington, D.C., Burns, 1814 This chaotic image depicts the events of August 24, 1814, when British forces under the command of Major-General Robert Ross captured Washington, D.C. Ross and his men, with three cannons captured from American forces, command the heights above the city (right). The American flotilla (foreground) is defeated and the dockyard and arsenal are in flames. In the background, more of the city is burning, including a bridge over the Potomac River, the War Office, the Treasury, the Senate building, and the White House (center, far background). Ross%u2019s army then proceeded to Baltimore, where American forces at Fort McHenry held out against them. A lawyer named Francis Scott Key, observing the fort%u2019s bombardment, dashed off a poem entitled %u201cDefense of Fort McHenry.%u201d Later set to music, it came to be known as %u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.%u201d Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31113.exam tipEvaluate the role of the War of 1812 in light of the continuing issue of regional interests trumping national concerns.%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.