Young Penn then spent time traveling in Europe and in service to the King in England before turning to the ministry. His devotion to Quakerism led to a break with his father and to problems with civil authorities.
Despite his troubles, Penn maintained a friendship with James, Duke of York and received a massive land grant from Charles II in , which gave him possession of much of present-day Pennsylvania , Delaware and New Jersey. He arrived at the new colony in and set about meticulous planning for the city of Philadelphia.
Penn was generally successful in maintaining good relations with neighboring Indian tribes and governed the colony effectively for two years. Learn more about the different ways you can partner with the Bill of Rights Institute. The Bill of Rights Institute engages, educates, and empowers individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exist in a free society. In , tensions on the American frontier were high because European rivals France and Great Britain were nearly at war over their competing imperial claims in North America.
Meanwhile, a group of Mohawk Indians traveled to New York City, where they declared an end to the alliance between the British colonies and Iroquois nations. The Mohawks were the easternmost nation in the Iroquois Confederacy the other five nations in the confederacy were the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. They were also key players in the Covenant Chain, the alliance that kept the peace between the Iroquois and the northern British colonies.
Albany had long served as the geographic center of the Covenant Chain, and it had hosted many previous intercolonial treaty conferences. This one, which eventually became known as the Albany Congress, was different because of the unprecedented number of colonies represented and because of the urgency of the situation.
Britain could not afford to go to war against France if the Iroquois were not willing at least to remain neutral. The colonial delegates turned their attention first to renewing the Covenant Chain, which involved exchanging speeches with the Iroquois and providing them with presents.
The Crown and colonial governments donated trade goods as material evidence of British regard for their Indian allies. In addition to conducting their business with the Iroquois, the delegates addressed the issue of intercolonial union.
Unity among the colonies was an elusive goal because of their many political, economic, religious, and cultural differences. The political cartoon showed a snake cut into several pieces, which Franklin used to warn his readers about the dangers of division in the face of French encroachments on British claims to the Ohio Valley.
Note that some of the Colonies are not listed, because Franklin lumped the New England Colonies together, and excluded Georgia and Delaware, the latter of which was then part of Pennsylvania. Other delegates also arrived in Albany ready to discuss forging such a union to counter the growing threat on the frontier. Other colonial governments were more suspicious of any plans that might limit their autonomy, however, so most of the delegates arrived in Albany either without authorization to discuss union or with express instructions not to do so.
The Albany Plan of Union was a creative response to the problems facing the colonies on the eve of the French and Indian War, but it failed to impress the colonial governments or policymakers in Britain. When the delegates carried the plan back to their home governments, they found their efforts greeted mostly by indifference or hostility.
None of the colonial assemblies endorsed it. During the Revolutionary era, creating an American political union again became important, but patriots did not cite the Albany Plan as an influence when they attended the Stamp Act Congress , adopted the Articles of Confederation , or ratified the Constitution Despite his presence in the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, Franklin never explicitly linked the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution to the Albany Plan either.
Rather, in his Autobiography , he postulated that had the Albany Plan been adopted in , it might have very well prevented the crisis that drove the colonies and Britain apart a generation later. Some historians have argued that the Albany Plan is evidence of American Indian influence on the ideas that have shaped U. With the French and Indian War looming, the need for cooperation was urgent, especially for colonies likely to come under attack or invasion. Prior to the Albany Congress, a number of intellectuals and government officials had formulated and published several tentative plans for centralizing the colonial governments of North America.
Imperial officials saw the advantages of bringing the colonies under closer authority and supervision, while colonists saw the need to organize and defend common interests. One figure of emerging prominence among this group of intellectuals was Pennsylvanian Benjamin Franklin. Earlier, Franklin had written to friends and colleagues proposing a plan of voluntary union for the colonies.
The Albany Congress began on June 19, , and the commissioners voted unanimously to discuss the possibility of union on June The union committee submitted a draft of the plan on June 28, and commissioners debated aspects of it until they adopted a final version on July Although only seven colonies sent commissioners, the plan proposed the union of all the British colonies except for Georgia and Delaware.
The colonial governments were to select members of a "Grand Council," while the British Government would appoint a "president General.
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