Albany Congress (redirected from Plan of Union)

Albany Congress, 1754, meeting at Albany, N.Y., of commissioners representing seven British colonies in North America to treat with the Iroquois, chiefly because war with France impended. A treaty was concluded, but the Native Americans of Pennsylvania were resentful of a land purchase made by that colony at Albany and allied themselves with the French in the ensuing French and Indian War. The meeting was notable as an example of cooperation among the colonies, but Benjamin Franklin's Plan of Union for the colonies, though voted upon favorably at Albany, was refused by the colonial legislatures (and by the crown) as demanding too great a surrender of their powers.

Bibliography

See R. Newbold, Albany Congress and the Plan of Union of 1754 (1955).

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Albany Congress

“Join, or Die,” the first known American cartoon, published by Benjamin Franklin in his …

(credit: The Granger Collection, New York)

Conference convened by the British Board of Trade in 1754 at Albany, N.Y. They advocated a union of the British colonies in North America, in part to secure a defensive union against the French before the outbreak of the French and Indian War. In addition to colonial delegates, several representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy were present. Delegates including Benjamin Franklin supported a plan to unify the seven colonies, but it was never adopted. The plan became a model for proposals made during the American Revolution.