An original MS. journal of the congress is noted in the Carter-Brown Catalogue, iii. no. 1,067. The proceedings have been printed in O’Callaghan’s Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii. 545; in the N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 853; in Pennsylvania Col. Records, vi. 57; and in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, xxv. p. 5, but this last lacks the last day’s proceedings. Cf. rough drafts of plans in Mass. Hist. Coll., vii. 203, and Penna. Archives, ii. 197; also see Penna. Col. Rec., v. 30-97. There are some contemporary extracts from the proceedings of the congress of 1754 in a volume of Letters and Papers, iv. (1721-1760), in Mass. Hist. Soc. Library.
We have four accounts of the congress from those who were members.[1557]
Pownall read (July 11, 1754) at the congress a paper embracing “Considerations towards a general plan of measures for the colonies,” which is printed in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 893, and in Penna. Archives, 2d ser., vi. 197.
At the same time William Johnson brought forward a paper suggesting “Measures necessary to be taken with the Six Nations for defeating the designs of the French.” It is printed in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 897; Penna. Archives, 2d ser., vi. 203.
Shirley (Oct. 21, 1754) wrote to Morris, of Pennsylvania, urging him to press acquiescence in the plan of union. (Penna. Archives, ii. 181.)
Shirley’s own comments on the Albany plan are found in his letter, dated Boston, Dec. 24, 1754, and directed to Sir Thos. Robinson, which is printed in the Penna. Archives, 2d ser., vi. 213, and in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 930. During this December Franklin was in Boston, and Shirley showed to him the plan, which the government had proposed, looking to taxing the colonies for the expense of maintaining the proposed union. Franklin met the scheme with some letters, afterwards brought into prominence when taxation without representation was practically enforced. These Franklin letters were printed in a London periodical in 1766, and again in Almon’s Remembrancer in 1776. They can best be found in Sparks’s ed. of Franklin’s Works, vol. iii. p. 56.[1558]
Livingston’s references to the congress are in his Review of Military Operations (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., vii. 76, 77).
A list of the delegates to the congress is given in Franklin’s Works, iii. 28, in Foster’s Stephen Hopkins, ii. 226, and elsewhere.
The report of the commissioners on the part of Rhode Island is printed in the R. I. Col. Records, v. 393. The report of the commissioners of Connecticut, with the reasons for rejecting the plan of the congress, is in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., vii. 207, 210.