On July 14, 1754, many of the delegates from seven colonies (New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maryland) who attended the Albany Congress were still on their way home. The Congress was convened by NYS Lt. Gov. James Delancey for the purpose of discussing alignment of the 6 Indian Nations who attended the Congress, should there be a war with the French. But Ben Franklin had his own agenda. He wanted to discuss the “Albany Plan of Union” which would have been the first confederation of the colonies. Prior to the Congress, in May 1754 he published what is considered to be the first political cartoon in America, “Join or Die”. Ben and Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson presented the Albany “Plan of Union” which was adopted on the last day of the Congress, July 10, 1754. It was, in part, modeled after the Iroquois Confederacy. Members of the Confederacy attended and were an integral part of the Congress.
The Congress was held in the Stadt Huys (City Hall)* at the intersection of State and Broadway, about where the SUNY Central Building (a/k/a the D&H Building) is today and there is a plaque, commemorating the Congress and Ben’s Plan.
Ben was persuasive enough to convince the delegates, but not a single colonial assembly approved the plan to unite “under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes”. Most historians agree that even if the Colonies had approved the Union, the British government would have quashed.
20 years later or so the Albany Plan of Union would become the basis for the Articles of Confederation which would bind the Colonies together throughout the Revolution and until 1789 when the Constitution was ratified. During the Revolution, the slogan became “Unite or Die”.
A Resolution of 83rd US Congress, August 1953 officially named Albany as “Birthplace of American Union” and official medals were authorized, created by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
There was a HUGE Citywide Cradle of the Union celebration in June 1954 involving a parade, other festivities and participation by children in all city schools, public, private and parochial. ( We don’t party for our history the way we used to.)
In 1988 a portion of a road in Washington Park was named Albany Plan of Union Avenue and there is a commemorative plaque on a boulder just off the Avenue.
*The Stadt Huys was demolished circa 1836 when a new City Hall was erected in the current location – alas that was destroyed by fire in 1880, and the one that currently exists was constructed.
Copyright 2021 Julie O’Connor
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