Congress of Alexandria

The Congress or Council of Alexandria was a 1755 meeting of Major-General Edward Braddock, commander-in-chief of the British Army in North America and governors of five of the constituent colonies.

The governors rebuffed the request demanding prior funding from the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Sir William Johnson of New York, who was also present at the meeting, was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs and commissioned a major-general.

The Congress of Alexandria is sometimes noted as the beginning of intercolony dialogue and of the political tension between the colonies and Britain over issues of taxation.

Ten years before the Stamp Act of 1765, Braddock wrote from Carlyle House to Thomas Robinson, a British official that "I cannot but take the liberty to represent to you the necessity of laying a tax upon all his Majesty's dominions in America, agreeably to the result of Council, for reimbursing the great sums that must be advanced for the service and interest of the colonies in this important crisis.