Joseph Galloway in the United States

Galloway, Joseph (1731_1803)

Joseph Galloway, (1731-1803), American lawyer and politician, one of the
most prominent of the Loyalists, was born in West River, Anne Arundel
county, Maryland, in 1731. He early removed to Philadelphia, where he
acquired a high standing as a lawyer. From 1756 until 1774 (except in
1764) he was one of the most influential members of the Pennsylvania
Assembly, over which he presided in 1766-1773. During this period, with
his friend Benjamin Franklin, he led the opposition to the Proprietary
government, and in 1764 and 1765 attempted to secure a royal charter for
the province. With the approach of the crisis in the relations between
Great Britain and the American colonies he adopted a conservative
course, and, while recognizing the justice of many of the colonial
complaints, discouraged radical action and advocated a compromise.

As a member of the First Continental Congress, he introduced (28th September
1774) a “Plan of a Proposed Union between Great Britain and the
Colonies,” and it is for this chiefly that he is remembered. It provided
for a president-general appointed by the crown, who should have supreme
executive authority over all the colonies, and for a grand council,
elected triennially by the several provincial assemblies, and to have
such “rights, liberties and privileges as are held and exercised by and
in the House of Commons of Great Britain”; the president-general and
grand council were to be “an inferior distinct branch of the British
legislature, united and incorporated with it.” The assent of the grand
council and of the British parliament was to be “requisite to the
validity of all … general acts or statutes,” except that “in time of
War, all bills for granting aid to the crown, prepared by the grand
council and approved by the president-general, shall be valid and passed
into a law, without the assent of the British parliament.” The
individual colonies, however, were to retain control over their strictly
internal affairs.

The measure was debated at length, was advocated by such influential members as John Jay and James Duane of New York and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, and was eventually defeated only by
the vote of six colonies to five. Galloway declined a second election to
Congress in 1775, joined the British army at New Brunswick, New Jersey
(December 1776), advised the British to attack Philadelphia by the
Delaware, and during the British occupation of Philadelphia (1777-1778)
was superintendent of the port, of prohibited articles, and of police of
the city. In October 1778 he went to England, where he remained until
his death at Watford, Hertfordshire, on the 29th of August 1803. After
he left America his life was attainted, and his property, valued at
L40,000, was confiscated by the Pennsylvania Assembly, a loss for which
he received a partial recompense in the form of a small parliamentary
pension. He was one of the clearest thinkers and ablest political
writers among the American Loyalists, and, according to Prof. Tyler,
“shared with Thomas Hutchinson the supreme place among American
statesmen opposed to the Revolution.”

Among his pamphlets are _A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of
Great Britain and the Colonies_ (1775); _Historical and Political
Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Rebellion_
(1780); _Cool Thoughts on the Consequences to Great Britain of
American Independence_ (1780); and _The Claim of the American
Loyalists Reviewed and Maintained upon Incontrovertible Principles of
Law and Justice_ (1788).

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica (1911)

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, as a “conservative political leader, Joseph Galloway long sought compromise with England. At the first continental congress (1774) he proposed establishment of an “inferior and distinct” branch of Parliament in America.”

Resources

Further Reading

Thomas Balch (Ed.), _The Examination of Joseph Galloway by a Committee of the House of Commons_ (Philadelphia, 1855); Ernest H.
Baldwin, _Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician_ (New Haven, 1903);
and M.C. Tyler, _Literary History of the American Revolution_ (2
vols., New York, 1897)