From Forrest McDonald’s Alexander Hamilton: A Biography (1982 paperback edition, p. 359), writing about the attempt by the New England Federalists to secede from the union after Jefferson’s election in 1800: “Northern Federalists, convinced that Jefferson and the Republicans would destroy everything they held dear, had regarded the Louisiana Purchase as the last straw: it fundamentally altered the constitutional compact . . . . Under the leadership of [U.S. Senator from Massachussetts] Timothy Pickering, New England Federalists decided that the only way to save the Union was to leave it — to secede and form a separate country of which … Continue reading Not All Secessionists Are Created Equal