Today's section of Scorpions in a Bottle commences chapter 5, on the Britannic Design, the legislation that reshapes Britain's North American colonies into the Confederation of North America.
* * *
While the Four Viceroys were working to restore the authority of the Crown in the Thirteen Colonies, and Greene’s followers were making the Wilderness Walk to Jefferson, the North ministry faced the task of putting the Carlisle proposals into effect. The chief obstacle to North’s efforts was the King himself.
Throughout the American Crisis, King George had been the
strongest advocate of using harsh measures to bring the colonists to heel. Lord
North had been personally unhappy with the hard line taken against the American
colonists, but he had believed it was his duty as leader of the government to
defer to the monarch’s wishes. It was only with the outbreak of the Rebellion
that it became clear to North that the King’s judgment was faulty, and that it
would be necessary to defy the monarch if he hoped to restore the colonies to
British rule. [1]
The success of the Carlisle Commission in the face of the
King’s displeasure encouraged North trust his own judgment. Despite demands
from the King’s allies in Parliament for widespread reprisals against the
colonists, North pursued his own policy of reconciliation. In an address before
the House of Lords on November 12, 1778, he said, “Mistakes have been made in
these chambers, as they have been in Boston and Philadelphia, but it will do
little good to dwell on them. Instead, we must seek ways to preserve old
institutions, and this will involve a serious reconsideration of the nature of
our government, and of its relations with our North American brothers.” [2]
Several members of North’s government, notably Lord Germain,
refused to support his “brotherhood policy” and resigned their Cabinet posts.
North took advantage of Germain’s departure to bring the Marquess of
Rockingham, a noted reconciliationist, into his government as Secretary of
State for America. Lord Germain, meanwhile, became the leader of the “King’s
friends,” who opposed North’s lenient policies towards the Americans.
Rockingham’s instructions to the Carlisle Commission and the
Four Viceroys encouraged them to do everything in their power to “encourage a
spirit of Forgiveness in our Friends, and restrain the impulse towards
Vengefulness.” Rockingham also instructed that no further rebel leaders should
be arrested for treason and sent to London for trial. Since the end of the
Rebellion, ten of the most notorious rebels had arrived and were being tried:
Hancock, the two Adams cousins, and Robert Treat Paine from Massachusetts;
Washington, Jefferson, Henry, and Richard Henry Lee from Virginia; Roger
Sherman from Connecticut; and the pamphleteer Thomas Paine from Pennsylvania.
Lord North was forced to navigate a precarious middle path
between the radicals, led by John Wilkes, and the reactionaries, led by Lord
Germain. The need to oversee the restoration of order in North America, as well
as the growing financial crisis in Britain due to the costs of the Rebellion,
delayed work on drafting a final settlement for the American colonies. [5] In
addition, Rockingham believed that it would be best to allow the passions
inflamed by the treason trials to cool.
It was not until the early months of 1780 that the North
ministry was able to devote its attention to the North American settlement. On
the advice of Rockingham, North invited several American reconciliationists to
London to consult on drafting the settlement, including Galloway and Dickinson.
As he had proposed at the secret Cabinet meeting of February 1778, North chose
Galloway’s Plan of Union as the template for a government for the North
American colonies. However, the events of 1775-78 led to significant changes to
Galloway’s initial plan.
Fearing that the creation of a single unified government for
all thirteen colonies would increase the likelihood of a future second
Rebellion, North proposed that three separate governments be established: one
for the Southern colonies, one for the Middle colonies, and one for the New
England colonies. Each regional confederation of colonies would be governed by
a council chosen by the colonial governments for three-year terms and a
governor-general appointed by the Crown. On the contentious issue of
Parliamentary taxation, North agreed to compromise on the principle of
Parliamentary supremacy by granting the councils the power to veto tax bills
with a two-thirds supermajority.
Drawing on Franklin’s 1754 Plan of Union, each confederation
would have the power to treat with the Indians: making war and peace, and
regulating trade and purchases of land. It would also have the power to
legislate for the colonies and levy taxes on them. Any legislation passed by a
confederation government could be vetoed by Parliament within three years of
its passage. Each council would include representatives from the other two confederations,
and each would send nonvoting representatives to Parliament.
In order to resolve any issues that might arise between the
confederations, there would be an annual meeting of the three councils, during
which they would function as a Grand Council for all the colonies. The question
of a permanent meeting place for the Grand Council proved to be a difficult
one. Philadelphia would have been the logical choice, but the association of
the city with the Continental Congress made it unacceptable to the North
ministry. Thomas Moffat of Rhode Island suggested New York City, but this was
rejected by the Southerners, who were led by John Connolly of Virginia and Robert
Wells of South Carolina. Wells’ suggestion that a new capital be built on the
Potomac River was rejected by the Northerners.
The issue was resolved by Connolly, who proposed
Pittsborough, Pennsylvania as a compromise. Although the city had been founded
just 20 years earlier, its location at the forks of the Ohio River made
Pittsborough an attractive choice. The Ohio country was already being opened to
settlement before the outbreak of the Rebellion, and it was clear that new
colonies would soon be planted west of the Appalachian Mountains. It is likely
that Connolly’s suggested was also motivated by the fact that he owned
considerable land in western Pennsylvania that would gain in value once the
North American capital was established there.
Unusually, the bill that the North ministry sent to the
Commons for consideration was not given the straightforward descriptive name
that was common for Parliamentary legislation at the time. The working title
had been the North American Government Act, but at Dickinson’s suggestion the
bill was given the name “The Britannic Design.” In the working draft of the
Design, the union of colonies was referred to as the Confederations of North
America. However, an error in the final draft of the Design left the final S
off of Confederations, and this was never corrected. The new colonial union was
known thereafter as the Confederation of North America.
The polarized state of opinion in Britain was reflected in
the reaction to the Design when details of the legislation reached the public.
The May 10, 1780 issue of Lloyd’s Evening
Post denounced the Design: “Having expended so much blood and treasure in
bringing the rebels to heel, are we now to grant them all they demand short of
independence itself?” Lord Germain spoke out against the Design in a speech to
the House of Lords, calling it “infamous” and “an insult to the many brave men
who gave their lives to preserve our Constitution.”
By contrast, Edmund Burke praised the Design, saying, “Lord
North has seen the wisdom of granting a generous peace to the Americans. This
act will do more to ensure comity between England and America than a thousand hangings could have done.” The Courant and
Westminster Chronicle, which had been highly critical of the North
ministry’s handling of the American Crisis, described the Design as
“well-conceived to end the troubles which have afflicted relations with the
Americans.” [6]
Despite the opposition of Germain and the other allies of
the King, it soon became clear that the Design had broad support in both
houses. Nevertheless, in the course of the Parliamentary debate on the bill, it
underwent several modifications. Most importantly, a number of members, mainly
in the House of Lords, feared that the proposed New England confederation would
be too likely to rise in rebellion again. Since the middle colonies were
regarded as more loyalist, it was decided to combine them with the New
England colonies to produce an enlarged Northern Confederation with its capital
at New York City. The Southern Confederation would include all the colonies
south of Pennsylvania and the Delaware colony, and its capital would be
Norfolk, which had been Clinton’s headquarters since the end of the Rebellion.
Sir Guy Carleton, the Governor of Quebec, arrived in London
during the debate over the Design. He proposed that his colony should also be
included in the Design, to act as a further loyalist counterweight to the
rebellious Thirteen Colonies. In order to prevent the Quebec Council from being
outvoted by the councils of the other two confederations during Grand Council
meetings, it was further decided to create two additional loyalist colonies
from the territory of Quebec. The lands of the Ohio country that had been added to the colony by
the 1774 Quebec Act were separated, and after some debate were given the name
Indiana after the Indians who made up most of its inhabitants at the time. Its
capital would be the French settlement of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River,
later renamed Fort Radisson. The lands north and west of Lake Superior were also
separated and given the name Manitoba. Due to the lack of white settlers in the
proposed Confederation of Manitoba, the western half of Rupert’s Land was also
added, over the objections of Hudson’s Bay Company, which held title to the
area. To satisfy the Company’s shareholders, it was agreed that the Company
would be compensated for any cultivable land that was sold to prospective
settlers. Eventually, the eastern half of Rupert’s Land was ceded to Quebec
under the same terms. The capital of Manitoba would be the Company headquarters
at York Factory on the coast of Hudson Bay, later renamed North City.
Franklin’s original Plan of Union had included an executive
called the president-general who would be appointed by the Crown, and whose
assent would be required for any legislation passed by the Grand Council. With
the number of confederations increased to five, it was decided that a similar
executive would be required to oversee annual meetings of the Grand Council in
Pittsborough, and to serve as a permanent representative of the British
government. With the Four Viceroys in control of the North American colonies,
the new executive was named the Viceroy. It was widely expected that Burgoyne
would be named to the post, which prompted the King to raise him to the Peerage
as Duke of Albany, a name that commemorated his decisive victory in the
Rebellion. [7]
Additional minor modifications were made to the Britannic
Design to secure passage by Parliament. The confederation councils were limited
to no more than twenty members, the supermajority required to veto
Parliamentary taxation was increased from two-thirds to three-quarters, and the
office of Lieutenant-Viceroy was created. With the final provisions of the
Design now fixed, Lord North’s allies in the Commons spent two months
maneuvering past the obstructions raised by the King’s allies, gaining final
passage on January 9, 1781. A last-ditch effort by Lord Germain to block passage
in the Lords was frustrated by Lord Shelburne, and the Britannic Design was
sent to the King for his assent on January 23. Rumors filled London that the
King would refuse his assent, or even that he might abdicate.
Reportedly, it was Lord Germain himself who convinced the King that he would do
more harm to the Constitution by his refusal to act than by giving his assent
to the Design, and he finally agreed on January 26.
----
1. Winthrop Wadsworth. King
George III and Lord North: The Struggle for the American Soul (London,
1971), pp. 401-12.
2. Henry Collins. Lord
North and the Rise of Parliament (New York, 1956), p.98.
3. Warner Jones. In
Defense of Liberty: The 1778 Treason
Trials (Mexico City, 1966).
4. Governor Theodorick Bland of Virginia, who had served
under Washington in the Rebellion, personally interceded to allow him to serve
out his sentence under house arrest at his Mount Vernon plantation. Washington remained
there until his death in 1793. William Branch Bruce. The Life of Governor Theodorick Bland of Virginia (Norfolk, 1891),
pp. 227-29.
5. Since the attempt to raise revenue in the American
colonies had provoked the Rebellion, the North ministry gave up on this
approach. Instead, it was decided that some of the cost of the Rebellion would
be made up by ceding the Floridas back to Spain in return for a payment by the
Spanish of £5 million.
6. Sharon
Poorman. Designing the Design: Lord North,
John Dickinson, and the Drafting of the Britannic Design (New York, 2013).
7. Sir Guy
Carleton was named Baron Dorchester at the same time.