Hitherto, the intercolonial wars had originated in European quarrels; now, the causes of dispute existed in the colonies themselves, and were derivable from the growing importance of these American possessions to the mother-countries; the approaching war, in consequence, assumed an interest to the colonies which no former war had possessed. It was now, therefore, proposed by the British cabinet that a union should be formed among the colonies for their mutual protection and support, and that the friendship of the Six Nations should be immediately secured. Accordingly a congress was convened at Albany, in June, 1754, at which delegates appeared from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut; Delaney, governor of New York, being the president. A treaty of peace was signed with the Six Nations, and the convention entered upon the subject of the great union, a plan for which had been drawn up by Benjamin Franklin, the delegate from Pennsylvania, and which was carefully discussed, clause by clause, in the assembly. Both William Penn, in 1697, and Coxe in his “Carolana,” had proposed a similar annual congress of all the colonies for the regulation of trade, and these were the bases of Franklin’s plan of union. This plan proposed the establishment of a general government in the colonies, the administration of which should be placed in the hands of a governor-general appointed by the crown, and a council of forty-eight members, representatives of the several provinces, “having the power to levy troops, declare war, raise money, make peace, regulate the Indian trade and concert all other measures necessary for the general safety; the governor-general being allowed a negative on the proceedings of the council, and all laws to be ratified by the king.” This plan was signed by all the delegates excepting the one from Connecticut, who objected to a negative being allowed to the governor-general, on the 4th of July, the day on which Fort Necessity was surrendered, and the very day twenty-two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.