<P> Despite pleas in the New England press for secession and a separate peace, most of the delegates taking part in the Hartford Convention were determined to pursue a moderate course . Only Timothy Bigelow of Massachusetts apparently favored extreme measures, and he did not play a major role in the proceedings . </P> <P> The final report addressed issues related to the war and state defense; and it recommended several amendments to the Constitution dealing with "the overrepresentation of white southerners in Congress, the growing power of the West, the trade restrictions and the war, the influence of foreigners (like Albert Gallatin), and the Virginia dynasty's domination of national politics". </P> <P> Massachusetts and Connecticut endorsed the report, but the war ended as the delegates were returning to Washington, effectively quashing any good impact the report might have had . Generally, the Hartford Convention was a "victory for moderation", but the timing of events caused the convention to be castigated (by the Jeffersonians) as "a synonym for disloyalty and treason"; all which became a major factor in the sharp decline of the Federalist Party . </P> <P> By the late 1830s tensions between north and south, already aggravated over tariff disputes, begin to rise ominously over slavery and related issues . Many northerners, especially New Englanders, saw themselves as political victims of conspiracies between slaveholders and western expansionists . They viewed the movements to annex Texas and to make war on Mexico as fomented by slaveholders bent on dominating western expansion--and thereby the national destiny--with' slave' states and a' slave' national economy . </P>

Who was the first state to secede the usa