Albany Congress
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The Albany Congress was a meeting of representatives of seven of the British North American colonies in 1754 (specifically, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island). Representatives met daily at Albany, New York from June 19 to July 11 to discuss better relations with the Indian tribes and common defensive measures against the French. They did conclude a treaty with the tribes represented, but the treaty failed to secure peace with all the Native American tribes during the French and Indian War. The Congress is notable for producing Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan of Union, an early attempt to form a union of the colonies. Part of the Plan was used in writing the Articles of Confederation, which kept the States together from 1781 until the Constitution.
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[edit] Indian Negotiations
About forty representatives of the Iroquois Confederation attended the conference, with Chief Hendrick of the Mohawk as their main spokesman. They concluded a treaty to ensure peaceful relations but the results were mixed. During the French and Indian War, the Iroquois confederation was divided. The Mohawks sided with the British while the Onondaga took the French side. Outside of the general treaty, the Indians also sold land in the Wyoming Valley to John Lydius of Connecticut and also to Conrad Weiser of Pennsylvania. This began the confusion of land titles that ultimately resulted in the Pennamite Wars.
[edit] Plan of Union
Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the seven colonies that greatly exceeded the scope of the congress. However, after considerable debate, and modifications proposed by Thomas Hutchinson who would later become Governor of Massachusetts, it was passed unanimously. The plan was submitted as a recommendation but was rejected by both King George II and the legislatures of the individual seven colonies since it would remove some of their existing powers.
The Union was planned to include all the British North American colonies, except Delaware and Georgia. The plan called for a single executive (President-General) to be appointed by the King, who would be responsible for Indian relations, military preparedness, and execution of laws regulating various trade and financial activities. It called for a Grand Council to be selected by the colonial legislatures where the number of delegates would be based on the taxes paid by each colony. Even though rejected, some features of this plan were later adopted in the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
Benjamin Franklin said of the plan in 1789:
| On Reflection it now seems probable, that if the foregoing Plan or some thing like it, had been adopted and carried into Execution, the subsequent Separation of the Colonies from the Mother Country might not so soon have happened, nor the Mischiefs suffered on both sides have occurred, perhaps during another Century. For the Colonies, if so united, would have really been, as they then thought themselves, sufficient to their own Defence, and being trusted with it, as by the Plan, an Army from Britain, for that purpose would have been unnecessary: The Pretences for framing the Stamp-Act would not then have existed, nor the other Projects for drawing a Revenue from America to Britain by Acts of Parliament, which were the Cause of the Breach, and attended with such terrible Expence of Blood and Treasure: so that the different Parts of the Empire might still have remained in Peace and Union. |
[edit] Participants
In addition to the Iroquois, twenty-one representatives of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire attended the Congress. James DeLancey, acting Governor of New York, as host governor, was the Chairman. Peter Wraxall served as Secretary to the Congress.
Delegates included:
- Connecticut: William Pitkin, Roger Wolcott, Elisha Williams, John Lydius
- Maryland: Abraham Barnes, Benjamin Tasker
- Massachusetts: Thomas Hutchinson
- New Hampshire: Meshech Weare, Theodore Atkinson
- New York: James Delancey, William Johnson, Philip Livingston
- Pennsylvania: Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin, Conrad Weiser
- Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins
[edit] See also
- Dominion of New England; a prior colonial unification by King James II.
- History of the United States Constitution
- Join or Die
[edit] External links
- The Albany Congress of 1754, prints and drawings from the Emmet Collection of Manuscripts Etc. Relating to American History in the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.
