The Hartford Convention was in 1814 and not in 1812. The New England states got together to seriously discuss seceding from the union because they felt the war was injurous to there economy. They had many genuine gripes. The North did not offer up any ground troups for the war of 1812 because they refused to. The U.S. Constitution does not provide for a member state to leave because the right to do so is already granted in the Declaration of Independance. Our nation was built on secessionist movements. Secesion means nothing more than a formal withdrawl from a society. Such as a political society. The conventionists in 1814 Hartford were many of those who seceded from their political union with Great Britain during the American Revolution. They were also in attendance when each state decided for its self weather to secede from the Union under the Articles of Confederation. It took 3 years to do but 2 seperate democracies existed in piece for those three years (1787-1790) without anyone forcing another to stay or go. Each State had the right to choose. When all 13 states seceded from the union under the Articles of Confederation, they effectively abolished a government as an inherited right given by the Declaration of Independance. As each state that seceded from the union (one at a time and not all at once) under the Articles of Confederation, that state effectively abolished that form of government for that state. As long as there was at least one State to perpetuate that form of government, that government would live on but it is no longer considered a Union. It would just be a singular political entity of its own. It is still a fully sanctioned and recognized form of governement. It was a States right to secede from the Articles of Confederacy, if it so choosed. The Declaration of Independance generated that precise political spirt of secession. To abolish a govenment and form a new one. A right to declare political freedom. The "perpetual union" phrase used in the Articles of Confederation was a sore spot for the 13 States because it was interpreted as an "inescapable union" or never ending. This is what they already went through with Great Britain. They had to fight to escape that union and they did not want to ever have a repeat of that. The result, was that they chose not to recycle the "perpetual union" phrase for reuse in the U.S. Constitution. It made no difference 72 years later though as the Southern States during the Civil War noticed that the "perpetual union" phrase was reinstated, while the Declaration of Independence was nulified by Abe Lincoln. The right to declare political freedom was no longer an American thing to do because it was an anit-Northern thing to do. Northerners considering themselves to be the only "real Americans." We regognized the right of Texas to secede from Mexico. Again another example of how our country was formed from secesionist movements. The rights of secesion were taught at West Point Academy in New York as part of the curriculum, starting in the 1820's. Those Northern men at the Hartford Convention in 1814 knew that secession was not illegal. They had already done it two times previously when they met at Hartford in 1814.