(NEW YORK PROVINCIAL CONGRESS) | Contemporary clerical copy of the "Report of Committee for preparing Plan of Accommodation between Great Britain & the Colonies," ca. 27 June 1775

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

(NEW YORK PROVINCIAL CONGRESS)

Contemporary clerical copy of the "Report of Committee for preparing Plan of Accommodation between Great Britain & the Colonies," ca. 27 June 1775

2 1/2 pages (12 5/8 x 8 in.; 321 x 202 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper, [New York City], docketed on verso of second leaf [docket used as title above]; light browning, short fold separations — accompanied by: a contemporary manuscript listing of "Delegates in Congress at Philadelphia 1774" (in a different hand from the above report), 2 pages (13 1/8 x 8 1/4 in.; 334 x 218 mm) on a single leaf of laid paper; browned, fold separations, some marginal chips and repairs. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

"Britain ought to regulate the Trade of the whole Empire for the general benefit of the whole and not for the Separate Interest of any particular part."

Just a year before the Continental Congress declared Independence from Great Britain, there was no consensus among the thirteen Colonies that this was the right step to take. Several Mid-Atlantic states, including New York, advocated a cautious approach towards independence and may even have harbored hopes for an equitable reconciliation with Britain.

That conciliatory perspective is reflected in this remarkable document, a contemporary copy of a "Plan of Accommodation between Great Britain and America" adopted by the First New York Provincial Congress, which was convened in New York City on May 22, 1775, with Peter Van Brugh Livingston presiding. The New York plan, was intended as a guide to its delegates to the Continental Congress. While the plan calls for the repeal of unconstitutional laws affecting the colonies and insists on the rights of the colonies to self-taxation and freedom of worship, it also recognizes Great Britain's right to regulate imperial trade and pledges to contribute to the costs of defending the Empire. It is intriguing to think that this very copy may have been sent to one of New York's congressional delegates then meeting in Philadelphia: John Alsop, George Clinton, James Duane, William Floyd, John Jay, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston, Robert R. Livingston Jr., Lewis Morris, or Henry Wisner.

The full text reads, "Your Committee appointed to prepare a Plan of Accommodation between Great Britain and America do report

"That all the Statutes and Parts of Statutes of the British Parliament which are held up for Repeal by the late Continental Congress in the Association dated the twentieth Day of October 1774 and all the Statutes of the British Parliament passed since that Day restraining the Trade and Fishery of Colonies on this Continent ought to be repealed.

"That from the Necessity of the Case Britain ought to regulate the Trade of the whole Empire for the general benefit of the whole and not for the Separate Interest of any particular part—&

"That from the natural Right of Property the Powers of taxation ought to be confined to the Colony Legislatures respectively. Therefore

"That the Monies raised as Duties upon the Regulations of Trade ought to be paid into the respective Colony Treasuries and be subject to the Disposal of their Assemblies.

"That in this Colonies whose Representatives in general Assembly are now chosen for a greater Term than three Years such Assemblies for the future ought in their Duration not to exceed that Term.

"That the Colonists are ready & willing to support the Civil Government within the respective Colonies and on proper Requisitions to assist in the general Defence of the Empire in as ample Manner as their respective Abilities will admit of.

"That if Objections be made that a Resort to Variety of Colony Legislatures for general Aids is inconvenient and that large unappropriated Grants to the Crown from America would endanger the Liberties of the Empire, then

"The Colonies are ready and willing to assent to a Continental Congress deputed by the several Colonies to meet with a President appointed by the Crown for the purpose of raising and apportioning their general Aids upon Application made by the Crown according to the Advice of the British Parliament to be judged of by the said Congress.

"And as the free enjoyment of the Rights of Conscience is of all others the most valuable branch of human Liberty, and the indulgence and establishment of Popery all along the interior confines of the old Protestant Colonies tends not only to obstruct their growth but weaken their security That neither the Parliament of great Britain nor any other Earthy Legislature or Tribunal ought Or can of Right interfere or interpose in any wise howsoever in the Religious and Ecclesiastical Concerns of the Colonies.

"That the Colonies respectively are entitled to free and exclusive Power of Legislation within themselves respectively in all Cases of Internal Polity whatsoever subject only to the Negative of their Sovereign in such manner as has been heretofore accustomed.

"Resolved that no one Article of the aforegoing Report be considered as preliminary to another so as to preclude an Accommodation without such Article and that no part of the said Report be deemed binding or obligatory upon the Representatives of this Colony in Continental Congress."

Adding to the intrigue that this manuscript may have belonged to one of New York's delegates to the Continental Congress is the list of "Delegates in Congress at Philadelphia 1774" that accompanies it. The roster includes only those delegates who attended the first session, September 5 to October 26, 1774, and so the Georgia delegation is not referenced. The New York Delegates on the list are Isaac Low, John Alsop, James Duane, Philip Livingston, John Jay, William Floyd, Henry Wisner, and John Haring. Of these, Alsop, Duane, Floyd, Jay, Livingston, and Wisner also attended the summer 1775 session of the Continental Congress.