“The Hartford Convention, or Leap No Leap”
Etching and aquatint by William Charles [Samuel Kennedy], December 1814 - Frame: 11⅜ x 16 inches; sight: 6¼ x 9 inches
 
A celebrated political satire issued in response to the Hartford Convention of December 1814, the controversial gathering of New England Federalists convened to protest the War of 1812 and the policies of the Madison administration. William Charles’s composition transforms contemporary suspicion into biting caricature, depicting New England poised to leap from a cliff into the waiting arms of George III, while leading Federalists, including Timothy Pickering, appear as willing instruments of British sympathy.
 
Issued shortly before news of the Treaty of Ghent and Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans rendered the convention politically disastrous, the print captures the moment the Federalist Party’s opposition to the war was recast as political self-destruction. The Hartford Convention marked the effective collapse of the party as a national force, and few images more vividly record the rise of a more assertive American nationalism in the closing months of the war.
 
Condition: Very fine; an excellent example.