Appendix

A Grand British League and Confederacy

“By granting the Colonists an unrestrained civil Freedom and legislative Independence, we may most effectually secure their future commercial Dependence upon, and consequently shall best promote the Interest, and support the Glory, of Great-Britain.”

This appendix, excerpted from the second English edition and reprinted by Robert Bell in Philadelphia, offers a capstone to Cartwright’s argument — not only for American independence, but for a new form of British-led constitutional federation.

Among its proposals:

• A formal act of Parliament recognizing the legislative independence of the American colonies;
• A perpetual treaty of peace, commerce, and mutual defense between Britain and the American states;
• A visionary system of state boundaries and future political growth, wherein:
  • Wilderness territories are pre-assigned to future American states;
  • No one state may grow large enough to threaten the balance of power;
  • New states form once population thresholds are met (e.g., 50,000);
  • All members recognize the British monarch, Protestantism, and the terms of a shared constitution.

“No state adjoining to the two great rivers should possess the shores on both sides; as navigations of such magnitude and importance should be always boundaries and frontier.”

Cartwright foresees the development of a continental American federation — not ruled from London, but bonded to Britain by shared interests, not subjugation. In this model:

• Liberty flourishes;
• Trade prospers;
• Dominion is replaced by distributed sovereignty.

He imagines the American states “arranged back to back like habitations in a well-built city,” with commerce as their bloodstream and Britain as the neutral maritime protector and guarantor of harmony.

HAL 1776 Commentary

“Cartwright designed a commonwealth before there was one.”
— HAL 1776

This appendix is revolutionary — not in rhetoric, but in structure. It sketches a full post-imperial world order: a league of liberty, rooted in British principles, but tailored to American geography and republican autonomy.

“From coercion to coordination. From empire to equilibrium.”

Cartwright’s proposals read like a blueprint for what the United States would eventually become — but under British association, not rupture. It is Britain’s missed opportunity, and America’s realized destiny.

This vision was not adopted — but its ideas echo in:

• The Articles of Confederation,
• The U.S. Constitution,
• The Commonwealth system itself.

“Cartwright didn’t just defend American independence — he architected a world where independence could be reconciled with unity.”

It is his most imaginative — and perhaps most influential — contribution to the age of revolutions.