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80: [Joseph Galloway’s Plan of Union] - Donald S. Lutz, Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History [1998]

Edition used:

Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History, ed. Donald S. Lutz (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1998).

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


80

[Joseph Galloway’s Plan of Union]

The abbreviated text is taken from W. C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1904), 49–51.

1774

Even though it was never ratified by the colonial legislatures, the Albany Plan of Union, adopted by the Albany Congress in 1754, continued to influence the thinking of American nationalists. In Galloway’s Plan, as in the Albany Plan of Union, the appointed executive is termed a “President General” and the legislature is termed a “Grand Council.” The Grand Council is to meet at least once a year, and its members serve three-year terms. Indeed, if one excludes the provisions dealing with the President General, Galloway’s Plan is more or less adopted as the core of the Articles of Confederation—often word for word. The Galloway Plan lists the colonies in the same order as do the Albany Plan of Union and the Articles of Confederation but leaves blank the number of representatives allocated to each. The Articles, however, will use the same range of representation as the Albany Plan, between two and seven representatives, and comprise the same total number of representatives—forty-eight. The pedigree of the Articles of Confederation in Galloway’s Plan and Galloway’s Plan in the Albany Plan of Union will be clear to any careful reader. Most interesting is that even though Tories like Galloway did not want to break with Britain, they still supported the right of Americans to their own representative bodies. Galloway’s Plan would have created what he calls “a British and American legislature” by construing the American legislature as “an inferior and distinct branch of the British legislature” that would nevertheless “hold and exercise all the like rights, liberties, and privileges, as are held and exercised by and in the House of Commons of Great-Britain.” This exceedingly clever structure would have thus made the American Grand Council a part of the British Parliament, inferior to the British part of Parliament in theory but in fact fully capable of making policy for the colonies. The legislature of each colony, in turn, would be free to make policy on matters not delegated to the Grand Council. The differences between Galloway’s Plan and the Articles of Confederation served to make the latter too weak and ineffective. In sum, Galloway’s federal structure might well have been the precise formulation that would have kept America in the British Empire, at least for a while longer, and created a national government strong enough to preclude the need for the Constitution of 1787. The Continental Congress chose to largely adopt, but weaken, Galloway’s proposal. Still, his Plan stands as an important document in the colonial background to the U.S. Constitution.

A Plan of a proposed Union between Great Britain and the Colonies

That a British and American legislature, for regulating the administration of the general affairs of America, be proposed and established in America, including all the said colonies; within, and under which government, each colony shall retain its present constitution, and powers of regulating and governing its own internal police, in all cases what[so]ever.

That the said government be administered by a President General, to be appointed by the King, and a grand Council, to be chosen by the Representatives of the people of the several colonies, in their respective assemblies, once in every three years.

That the several assemblies shall choose members for the grand council in the following proportions, viz.

New Hampshire.Delaware Counties.
Massachusetts-Bay.Maryland.
Rhode Island.Virginia.
Connecticut.North Carolina.
New-York.South-Carolina.
New-Jersey.Georgia.
Pennsylvania.

Who shall meet at the city of [   ] for the first time, being called by the President-General, as soon as conveniently may be after his appointment.

That there shall be a new election of members for the Grand Council every three years; and on death, removal or resignation of any member, his place shall be supplied by a new choice, at the next sitting of the Assembly of the Colony he represented.

That the Grand Council shall meet once in every year, if they shall think it necessary, and oftener, if occasions shall require, at such time and place as they shall adjourn to, at the last preceding meeting, or as they shall be called to meet at, by the President-General, on any emergency.

That the Grand Council shall have power to choose their Speaker, and shall hold and exercise all the rights, liberties and privileges, as are held and exercised by and in the House of Commons of Great-Britain.

That the President-General shall hold his office during the pleasure of the King, and his assent shall be requisite to all acts of the Grand Council, and it shall be his office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution.

That the President-General, by and with the advice and consent of the Grand-Council, hold and exercise all the legislative rights, powers, and authorities, necessary for regulating and administering all the general police and affairs of the colonies, in which Great-Britain and the colonies, or any of them, the colonies in general, or more than one colony, are in any manner concerned, as well civil and criminal as commercial.

That the said President-General and the Grand Council, be an inferior and distinct branch of the British legislature, united and incorporated with it, for the aforesaid general purposes ...

Bibliography

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