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| -Land of the Free |
| The Albany Plan: Benjamin Franklin's Forgotten Call for Colonial Unity |
| 2024-09-26 |
| [TAC] On May 9, 1754 — just about a month before the Albany Congress was set to meet — Benjamin Franklin published his famous Join or Die political cartoon in The Pennsylvania Gazette, symbolizing his now long-forgotten call for a colonial union. Although it was rejected in the coming months, Franklin believed the plan could have radically changed the course of American history. As he wrote in 1789, had his plan been accepted the Colonies would have been "sufficient to their own Defence," rendering "an Army from Britain," as "unnecessary." As a result, Franklin noted, there would have been no excuses for the Stamp Act and the many other revenue-raising internal taxes to follow either: "The Pretences for framing the Stamp-Act would then not 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" In the decade following the 1740s, Indian tribes loosely allied with France attacked a number of colonial settlements, primarily in New England and western New York. At the same time, the British colonies had formed an alliance with the Six Nations — or the Iroquois Confederation — primarily centered in present-day upstate New York, but also extending further south and west. By the early 1750s, however, the peace was tense, at best. In 1751 Franklin wrote to James Parker, suggesting that "securing the Friendship of the Indians is of the greatest Consequence to these Colonies." He opined that a formal Union of the colonies was needed to get the job done, "so as to form a Strength that the Indians may depend on for Protection, in Case of a Rupture with the French; or apprehend great Danger from, if they should break with us." He also lamented the possibility that "ten or a Dozen English Colonies" might reject such a plan, despite the fact that the six nations had formed a Union and "that it has subsisted Ages."... |
| Posted by:DooDahMan |