COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ALBANY PLAN OF UNION OF 1754 AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DOCUMENT 0F 1776
The Albany Plan of Union was a proposal to craft an amalgamated government for the thirteen colonies, proposed by Benjamin Franklin, formerly a representative from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress in 1754. In contrast, the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence document in 1776 described why the thirteen colonies at conflict with the kingdom of Great Britain considered themselves as independent self-governing states, no longer under British rule. (Holcombe, 1998). Given those mentioned above, the two documents differed in several ways, including; The Albany Plan of Union advocated for an overall government managed by a president-general chosen and buoyed by the crown, a grand council too made up of representatives nominated by the colonial assemblies. A fundamental similarity of the two proposals is that these thirteen states took a joint first step towards creating a union of the colonies under one government for protection and other everyday essential purposes. Secondly, both documents proposed for the assertion of powers that involved treaty-making, raising an army and naval forces. The colonists were not ready to unite in 1754 since the proposals by the Albany Plan of Union failed to address their key concerns and grievances, for instance, failure to uphold the unalienable human rights among them life, liberty, and property by the British empire. In 1776, however, the British Empire had been indifferent to the voice of justice and, therefore, united, they stood against a common enemy.
References
Holcombe, R. G. (1998). Constitutional theory and the constitutional history of colonial America. The Independent Review, 3(1), 21-36.