The Albany Parliament of 1754

In July 1754 a parliament was convened at Albany, New York, under the auspices of Fairfax and Vernon’s Interim Emergency Council, with a view to arranging a stable form of government for the future. Benjamin Franklin was given the job of setting the agenda for debate, and employed as his secretary a young lawyer, Benjamin Chew (now Chief Lord Justice Chew, Baron Cliveden). He proposed three points for acceptance by the Parliament.

1) Government.
That a government be formed under a new monarch, Lord Thomas Fairfax, and the crown be passed to his designated and legal heirs in perpetuity – with Parliament to decide the succession if there was no clear designated heir. That the new monarch would be aided by a Privy Council of Crown Ministers, to be appointed as he saw fit, and that the monarch have the authority to propose and, with Parliament’s assent, establish any institutions or committees he saw fit. That a new and enduring parliament be established of two distinct house – the House Of Lords composed of the kingdom’s nobility and a House Of Commons composed of representative Members to be elected by the populace, one for each County. Eligible voters for the Commons would comprise all free men, regardless of race or creed, who were over 21 years of age and owned land of at least 50 acres or worth at least £220 ($22,000 or about one year’s earnings at Wealth: Comfortable), or other property to the same value. That the Crown would propose new legislation but that the majority assent of both Houses would be required before any proposal could become Law. That taxation and the appropriation of funds for the Crown and any of its organisations would be the remit of the Commons. That the final arbiter of interpretation of the Law would be the House Of Lords, which would form a committee of Lords who were also lawyers as the Law Lords Council. That Council would hear most appeals and would appoint judges and justices of the peace throughout the kingdom as its sole purview.

2) Slavery.
That slavery and debt-indenture be abolished throughout the kingdom, both for humanitarian reasons and for economic ones relating to the well-being of the entire kingdom. The population of the kingdom was lacking enough that every man needs must be free to pursue his own career, and thus establish an overall larger market for labor and goods. Furthermore, the armed forces of the nation would need every able bodied man they could convince to take the King’s shilling, for the security and defense of the realm.

3) The Iroquois Six Nations
That previous treaties with the Iroquis Nations be honored in perpetuity by the Crown, by granting them the lands around and immediately to the South of the Great lakes, vacated by the French after the Gomorrah Event, as their own lands under protection of the Crown, and that the new Haudenosaunee Protectorate be afforded the rights of representation by one MP for each of the Five Nations in the House Of Commons, as well as the right to volunteer for His Majesty’s Armed Forces and to hold rank or commissions therein.

The Parliament eventually accepted all three of these proposals, after great debate, and further decided that the city of Philadelphia would henceforth be the capital of the new nation, and the site of future Parliaments. The first round of voting was held two years later and on 1st May 1757 the new parliament was inaugurated in that city and the coronation of King Henry IXth was held. A nation had been born from the ashes.