each colony, contrary to the provisions of the constitution, to defend itself on a sudden emergency at the expense of the union. Dr. Franklin's plan was premature. The colonies did not as yet feel the necessity of union in order to protect themselves against what they regarded as unjustifiable oppression on the part of the mother country, and they were therefore unwilling to make what they were pleased to call the concessions contained in the Albany plan. The home authorities, on the other hand, were apparently not ready to consolidate their colonial empire in America, and in any event they were likewise unwilling to make the concessions to self-government recommended in the Albany plan. As Dr. Franklin himself said, "the Crown disapproved it, as having too much Weight in the Democratic Part of the Constitution; and every Assembly as having allowed too much to Prerogative. So it was totally rejected." Many years after the Albany Convention, and two years after the adoption of the Constitution of the more perfect Union, the venerable Dr. Franklin recurred to the Albany plan and thus expressed himself concerning the results which in his opinion would have followed, had his plan of Union been adopted: On Reflection it now seems probable, that if the foregoing Plan or some thing like it had been adopted and carried into Execution, the subsequent Separation of the Colonies from the Mother Country might not so soon have happened, nor the Mischiefs suffered on both sides have occurred perhaps during another Century. For the Colonies, if so united, would have really been, as they then thought themselves, sufficient to their own Defence, and being trusted with it, as by the Plan, an Army from Britain, for that purpose would have been unnecessary; 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 Act of Parliament, which were the Causes of the Breach & attended with such terrible Expense of Blood and Treasure; so that the different Parts of the Empire might still have remained in Peace and Union.1 By 1754 events were moving rapidly. The man who was destined to lead the Revolutionary armies was already in the field as a subaltern in the French and Indian War, which is the name by which the Seven Years' War of Europe is known in America. Franklin, who was to render hardly less distinguished service to his age, typified American thinking at its best. The conquest of Canada had given Great Britain an unbroken domain from the Gulf of Mexico northward. The Treaty of Peace had left a clear title to the territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, with only Spain to the west of that water. The times seemed ripening for a uniform system of government. There was no longer a formidable enemy threatening the existence of the colonies from without; the home authorities felt that henceforth 1 A. H. Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. iii, p. 226 note. they were to have a free hand in moulding the colonies to their will, and the servants of the Crown had begun to put the imperial house in order. Views Imperial Without indulging in criticism of the Crown and its advisors, and without The Two commendation of the colony and its advocates, it was not unreasonable, from and Colonial the standpoint of the mother country, that the colonies should be subjected to a centralized control, that they should contribute to their own support, that they should be made to feel that they were an integral portion of the empire, and that therefore they should assume their share of the imperial burden, to be determined by the imperial, not by the colonial, authorities. Nor were the views of the colonists unreasonable from their own point of view, in that they had opened up and settled the New World, that they had brought with them the common law and the rights of Englishmen, that they were not only inherently entitled to the blessings of local government, but that they deserved such government by the services they had rendered, and that, while far from unwilling to perform their full duty to the empire, they nevertheless believed that the money raised by taxing them should be spent in America in accordance with their judgment and that they themselves should determine what their contributions should be, instead of having them determined by authorities across the seas, before whom they were not represented, and whose action they could neither influence nor control. The home government looked at the colonies from the standpoint of the past, as though they existed for the benefit of the home country and that the home authorities were naturally superior to them. The colonies, on the other hand, looked at their relations with the mother country from the standpoint of the future, in which they were to be integral parts of a great empire and in the economy of which they were to be practically self-governing dominions, united by language, tradition, and enlightened interest, but in which there was to be no mark or suggestion of inferiority. The new wine broke the old bottles. It was foreseen that the adoption of a Declaration of Independence would Foresight necessitate some form of general government, because, in the opinion of the colonists, such a Declaration would break the bonds of allegiance to England, create of the erstwhile colonies free and independent States, and in the absence of a superior they would be obliged to devise some form of agreement and cooperation; otherwise their efforts would be unavailing. It was further foreseen by some in the Congress that the resort to arms would lead inevitably to independence, and that some agreement upon a union and a method of government should precede any declaration as it would inevitably have to follow it. The shrewdest mind in the country, and therefore in the Congress, was, it need hardly be said, Benjamin Franklin, and he was ready with a "plan" in 1775 as he had been ready with a plan of union twenty-one years earlier at the first Congress of the colonies at Albany. Therefore, on July 21, 1775, he Dr. Franklin's laid his second plan before Congress, providing for a union of the colonies, soon to be independent States.1 But the Congress, apparently, did not then measure aright the consequences of standing by Massachusetts in its armed resistance. Dr. Franklin's plan provided for the union of the colonies for purposes of resistance against Great Britain, but apparently contemplated the possibility of a redress of grievances and a reconciliation with the mother country, whereupon the colonies were to "return to their former connexion and friendship with Britain." It was, however, foreseen by the venerable statesman, because of his intercourse with British men of affairs and his knowledge of the British people, that the reconciliation might not take place, and the last clause of his plan therefore runs: "But on Failure thereof this Confederation is to be perpetual." 2 Notwithstanding the fact that his project was one primarily for colonies, not for States, the union which he proposed was of a very close nature, and would have rested upon the people rather than upon the colonies, although the rights of the colonies as such, or rather of the people within the colonies, were safeguarded. For example, there was to be a general congress, composed of delegates selected by each colony, but the number thereof for each was to depend upon the population of the colony, and a delegate was to be allowed for every five thousand male inhabitants, or, as the good Doctor put it, “male polls between sixteen and sixty years of age." The congress composed in this way would not represent solely the colonies but the people who happened to reside within their territorial limits, and as the Congress was therefore the representative of the people it was natural that the Congress should be empowered to provide for the general welfare and to enact laws for this purpose. It was to be the power and the duty of Congress, by Article V, to pass upon questions of war and peace, to send and to receive ambassadors and to contract alliances, to settle all disputes and differences between the colonies, and, apparently, as an afterthought, for it is in brackets, to bring about “ (the reconciliation with Great Britain)." The Congress also was, in Dr. Franklin's language, to plant new colonies when proper. It was also to make "such general ordinances as, though necessary to the general welfare, particular Assemblies cannot be competent to," and among these he specified "those that may relate to our general commerce, or general currency; the establishment of posts; and the regulation of our common forces." The Congress also was to appoint 'all general officers civil and military, appertaining to the general confederacy, such as general treasurer, secretary, &c." As representation in the Congress was to be based upon population, not upon the colonies as such, it was natural 66 1 Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. vi, p. 420; Sparks, Vol. v, p. 91. that the inhabitants having the largest representation should also bear a larger proportion of the burdens of government. Therefore, charges of war, "and all other general expenses to be incurred for the common welfare" were to be .“defrayed out of a common treasury. . . to be supplied by each colony in proportion to its number of male polls between sixteen and sixty years of age,' and the proportion of each colony was "to be laid and levied by the laws of each colony." As still further showing the continental as distinct from the colonial idea, the quorum of the Congress was to consist of "one half of the members," and in the Congress itself and in the transaction of business each delegate was to "have a vote in all cases." The delegates to the Congress were to be elected annually and to meet at such time and place as should be agreed to in the next preceding Congress by rotation in the different colonies. In addition there was to be an executive council, appointed by the Congress out of its own body, to consist of twelve persons, and which was apparently to represent the Congress during its recess, " to execute what shall have been enjoined thereby; to manage the general Continental business and interests; to receive applications from foreign countries; to prepare matters for the consideration of the Congress; to fill up, pro tempore, continental offices that fall vacant; and to draw on the general treasurer for such moneys as may be necessary for general services, appropriated by the Congress to such services.' It has been stated that the existence of the colonies was recognized, although they were not made the basis of representation and they were apparently to be denied an equal share in providing for the general welfare, for which purpose the plan of government was proposed. Dr. Franklin's further views are set forth in the third Article, which reads: That each Colony shall enjoy and retain as much as it may think fit of its own present Laws, Customs, Rights, Privileges, and peculiar jurisdictions within its own Limits; and may amend its own Constitution as shall seem best to its own Assembly or Convention.1 The plan in all its parts displays not merely a keen and penetrating mind but shows its author to be a resident of a large and populous State, which could safely entrust its interest to a general assembly in the full knowledge that its greatness, its extent and its power would secure it an ample return for the concessions, always more specious than real, of great bodies and of great persons. The little States apparently did not take kindly to the plan of the great Doctor; for although read by its author to the Congress on July 21, 1775, it was neither adopted nor considered. There is no record in the Journal of the Congress of its having been read, and indeed the only testimony we have to that effect is the endorsement in Dr. Franklin's hand that it was read 1 Smyth, ibid., p. 421; Sparks, Vol. v, p. 92. before Congress on the stated date. It is mentioned, however, in this connection, for a twofold reason: to show that in July, 1775, a shrewd man of the world, who had suffered indignities at the hands of the British Government, was contented with a temporary union of the colonies, in the hope of a reconciliation with the mother country instead of advocating separation from Great Britain, and because Dr. Franklin's text seems to have been known to his friend and colleague John Dickinson, who a year later, as chairman of the committee formed for that purpose, prepared and presented a draft of the Articles of Confederation, after the independence of the colonies had been proclaimed. |