Joseph Galloway

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Joseph Galloway (ca. 1731-1803), colonial American politician and lawyer, became a prominent loyalist at the outbreak of the American Revolution.

Joseph Galloway was born in Maryland. When he inherited his father's property, he moved to Philadelphia, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1749. He soon became one of the most prominent and wealthy lawyers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. His marriage in 1753 to Grace Growden enhanced his social and financial position and gave him entrée to politics.

Elected in 1756 to the Pennsylvania Assembly, Galloway joined Benjamin Franklin's battle against the Penns' proprietary rule of the colony. When Franklin went to England to plead this cause, Galloway became spokesman of the "Popular party" (Philadelphia Quakers and their merchant allies).

Galloway was no democrat; his conservatism appeared in his public defense of the Stamp Act in 1765. Decrying the "spirit of disloyalty against the Crown" shown in the public riots after the Stamp Act, he proposed as alternatives a union of the Colonies and an American voice in the management of the empire.

As speaker of the Assembly from 1766 to 1774, Galloway tried to keep Pennsylvania out of colonial resistance to Parliament's imperial program. He was opposed by his bitter enemy, John Dickinson, spokesman of the Proprietary party. In 1774 both attended the First Continental Congress. Galloway introduced a sweeping plan to reorganize the empire that called for an American "Grand Council" elected by the colonial legislatures and possessing wide powers over intercolonial political affairs, a president general appointed by the Crown, and a mutual veto by Parliament and the Council over legislation passed by either affecting the Colonies. The plan was acceptable to many moderates. Had Galloway been more astute politically and secured Dickinson's support, it might have passed. Instead it was expunged from the official published proceedings of the Congress.

Embittered, Galloway declined to serve in the Second Congress and, fearing for his safety, fled to the British camp in New Brunswick. He returned to Philadelphia with Gen. William Howe's army in September 1777 and became civil governor of the city under British occupation. When Howe abandoned Philadelphia, Galloway sailed for England with him. His wife remained behind to save their property, but the Pennsylvania Assembly declared Galloway a traitor, confiscated his estate, and sequestered that of his wife. Galloway's petitions to return after the Revolution were denied, and he was never reunited with his wife.

In England, Galloway pled the loyalist cause for restitution from the Crown. His Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Rebellion (1780) provides a loyalist interpretation of the Revolution. He died on Aug. 29, 1803, a pensioner of the Crown and an object of scorn to his countrymen.

Further Reading

Oliver C. Kuntzleman, Joseph Galloway: Loyalist (1941), is an inadequate biography of Galloway. His politics is treated satisfactorily in Theodore G. Thayer, Pennsylvania Politics and the Growth of Democracy, 1740-1776 (1953). The Galloway-Dickinson rivalry is covered by David L. Jacobson, John Dickinson and the Revolution in Pennsylvania, 1764-1776 (1965). See also Julian P. Boyd, Anglo-American Union: Joseph Galloway's Plans to Preserve the British Empire, 1774-1788 (1941), and William H. Nelson, The American Tory (1962).

Additional Sources

Ferling, John E., The Loyalist mind: Joseph Galloway and the American Revolution, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.

For other persons named Joseph Galloway, see Joseph Galloway (disambiguation).

Joseph Galloway.

Joseph Galloway (1731 – August 10, 1803) was an American Loyalist during the American Revolution, after serving as delegate to the First Continental Congress from Pennsylvania.

He was born near West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and moved with his father to Pennsylvania in 1749, where he received a liberal schooling. He studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practice in Philadelphia. Galloway was a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from 1757 to 1775 and served as Speaker of the House from 1766 to 1774.

Galloway was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774, where he proposed a compromise plan for Union with Great Britain which would provide the colonies with their own parliament subject to the Crown. He signed the nonimportation agreement, but was opposed to independence of the Thirteen colonies and remained loyal to the King. Ferling (1977) argues that Galloway's conduct was motivated partly by opportunism, and partly by genuine philosophical principles. A resident of cosmopolitan Philadelphia and an associate of Benjamin Franklin, Galloway was throughout his career a British-American nationalist, believing that the British Empire offered a citizen greater liberties than any nation on earth. Galloway urged reform of the imperial administration and was critical of the trade laws, the Stamp Act of 1765, and the Townshend Acts enacted in 1767; and as early as 1765 he had a conciliatory plan to end the disputes between London and the colonies. He basically believed that the British had the right to tax and govern the colonies, they should keep peace, and the British helps the colonies to survive and flourish. (although he did also believe the colonies' words should be heard)

In December of 1776, Galloway joined the British General Howe and accompanied him on his capture of Philadelphia. During the British occupation, he was appointed Superintendent of Police, and headed the civil government. He had a reputation as a highly efficient administrator, but one who repeatedly interfered in military affairs. He aggressively organized the Loyalists in the city, but was dismayed when the British army decided to abandon the city. When the British army withdrew, he went with them, and, in 1778, he moved to London. He was influential in convincing the British that a vast reservoir of Loyalist support could be tapped by aggressive leadership, thus setting up the British invasion of the South. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania convicted him of treason and confiscated his estates.

He died in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on August 29, 1803.

Galloway Township, New Jersey, may have been named for him, although there is another possible source of the name.^[1]

References

1. ^ History of Galloway Township, accessed July 4, 2006

Further reading

• Ferling, John H. The Loyalist Mind: Joseph Galloway and the American Revolution 1977, Pennsylvania State Univ Press; ISBN 0-271-00514-9.
• Newcomb, Benjamin H. Franklin and Galloway: A Political Partnership. Yale U. Press., 1972.

External links

• Galloway’s Plan for Union at the University of Chicago website
• Joseph Galloway at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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