New England Act of 1841

The New England Act of 1841 officially the New England Government and Soverignty Act was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which seperated the Federal Commonwealth of New England from the United Provinces. The New England Act also served as the consitution of New England until 1904, when it became a part of the United States. Parliament drafted the New England Act, following the Hartford Convention, where the New England states sought to leave the United Provinces and form their own government. The legislation created a federal parliamentary system of government for New England. This made the government of New England closer to that of the United Kingdom, than other British dominions such as Virginia. At the Hartford Convention, delegates agreed that the presidential system used by the United Provinces was ineffective, and thus sought a new government for the new dominion. Very few demands were laid out in the Hartford Convention, allowing for Parliament to draft nearly all of the New England Act.

The passage of the New England Act was not very well received in the United Provinces, who saw that Parliament was illegally intervening in their domestic affairs. The passage polarized the dominion, which led to many of the Great Plains and Great Lakes provinces to seek their own government. Both regions, along with New York left the United Provinces in 1842, following an unpopular President-General election. Some have blamed the collapse of the United Provinces on the passage of the New England Act, as for the first time, a non-southern region gained sovereignty.