Albany Congress in the United States

The Albany Congress, also known as the Albany Conference, was an assembly of representatives of the seven northern British-American colonies (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland), called together in 1754 by the British government to consult in regard to the threatening French war. It met 19 June, and two plans were proposed: (1) A league with the Five Nations, which was carried out; (2) a proposal offered by Franklin for a political union. In this a common president was proposed, and a great council representing the different colonies. The president was to be appointed by the Crown; to be also commander-in-chief, to commission all civil officers and appoint all military ones and have a veto on the council. The council was to consist of three-year members, two to seven from each colony; not to be adjourned or dissolved or kept over six weeks in session against its will; it could lay taxes, maintain troops, build forts, nominate civil officers, manage Indian affairs and authorize new settlements; and its acts were to be valid unless vetoed within three years by the Crown. This plan was rejected by the British Crown because it gave too much power to the colonies and by the colonies because it gave too much power to the Crown. The significance of this congress lies in the fact that it stimulated the union of the colonies which was afterward accomplished.

See Also

• Continental Congress
• Stamp Act 1765
• Declaration of Independence
• Jacob Leisler

Further Reading

• Alden, John R. “The Albany Congress and the Creation of the Indian Superintendencies,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Sep., 1940), pp. 193–210
• Bonomi, Patricia, A Factious People, Politics and Society in Colonial America, 1971,
• McAnear, Beverly. “Personal Accounts of the Albany Congress of 1754,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Mar., 1953), pp. 727–746
• Timothy J. Shannon, Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2000)
• Brands, H.W. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (2002)
• Konkle, Burton Alva. (1932). Benjamin Chew 1722-1810: Head of the Pennsylvania Judiciary System under Colony and Commonwealth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 63.
• Smith, William (1972). In Michael Kammen. The History of the Province of New-York. Vol. 2, A Continuation, 1732-1762. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 157, 161.
• J. R. Brodhead, History of the State of New York (vol. 2, New York, 1871)
• E. B. O’Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New York (vol. 2, Albany, 1850)