The Albany Plan of Union 1754
Looming French and Indian War Fosters British Colonial Unity
Dec 26, 2007
Colonial Governor Robert Dinwiddie, in defense of Virginia’s territorial claims, sent George Washington to Fort LeBoeuf to demand that the French evacuate the Ohio River Valley. They refused! When the French captured the fort that Virginia was building at the confluence of the Monongahela, Ohio, and Allegheny Rivers, it spelled trouble all along the disputed border. New France would ally with several Indian tribes, including the Abenakis and Ottowas. These allies would be the chiseled heads of the French arrow aimed at the heart of Great Britain’s colonial possessions in a conflict that was to be called the French and Indian War in North America.
The Albany Congress
Foreseeing this new rendition of a very old conflict, the most unlikely group of people called for a congress of American representatives to meet at Albany, NY. They met from June 19 - July 11, 1754. This dubious collection of officials were the Royal Governors, urged on by George Montagu Dunk, Earl of Halifax and President of the Board of Trade in Great Britain. While all thirteen colonies were invited, only New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland attended. Interestingly enough, one major contributor, that was left out of the Continental Congress 20 years later, were the Six Nations of the Iroquois. The Iroquois were the impetus for this congress. The Board of Trade wanted to make sure that this influential group of Native Americans would not take up the hatchet against the British.
Ben Franklin's Plan For Central Government
On his way to the congress, Ben Franklin drew up a plan for the unification all of the colonies under one central government that would be responsible for Indian Affairs and mutual defense. There was a great deal of enthusiasm for the plan and it was argued for vociferously by none other than Thomas Hutchinson, the future Governor of Massachusetts who would become most well known for his opposition to Colonial Independence. The general plan, which included a Grand Council of all of the colonies and a President General was approved by the congress.
A Plan Before It's Time
In practice this Albany Plan of Union was buried by both the colonial assemblies as giving up to much power to a central control. What they reallly feared was that a central or federalo government would be as tyrannical as a monarch. The British King and Parliament, along with the British Royal Governors rejected it because they thought they would be giving upp too much power and control. However, the proverbial American unification genie was now out of the bag. After the colonies survived this final onslaught of French imperial design, they would ever so slowly cultivate these seeds of union into the tender shoots of the Articles of Confederation that would pave the way for the Constitution of the United States.
Sources
The American Revolution By John Fiske, 1891, Houghton, Mifflin and Company
A Few Acres of Snow by Robert Leckie, 1999, John Wylie and Sons
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