The First and Second Continental Congress

Commander- in-chief George Washington

The First and Second Continental Congress

• Among the delegates at the Continental Congress were many familiar faces and a few new ones, including Thomas Jefferson, a plantation owner and lawyer from Virginia, gifted with one of the most imaginative and analytical minds of his time.

• All the delegates carried news of the enthusiasm for war that raged in their home provinces and agreed that defense was the first issue on their agenda.

• This a picture of Thomas Jefferson.

• This call for democratically elected local committees in each community had important political ramifications.

• The following year, these groups, known as committees of Observation and Safety, took over the function of local government throughout the colonies.

• After one of the first debates, the delegates passed a Declaration of Resolves, in which they asserted that all the colonists sprang from a common tradition and enjoyed rights guaranteed "by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts" of their provinces.

• They organized militia companies, called extralegal courts and combined to form colony wide congresses or conventions.

• On May 15, the Second Continental Congress resolved to put the colonies in the state of defense, but the delegates were divided on how to do it.

• Before the Second Continental Congress adjourned at the beginning of August, the delegates appointed commissioners to negotiate with the Indian nations in an attempt to keep them out of the conflict.

• The committees also scrutinized the activities of fellow citizens, suppressed the expression of Loyalist opinion form the pulpit or press, and practiced other forms of coercion.

• They lacked the power and the funds to immediately raise and supply an army.

• The Colonies stretched from New Hampshire to South Carolina.

• They also reinstated Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general to keep the mails moving and protect the communication among the colonies.

• Georgia, unrepresented at the first session of the continental Congress remained absent at the opening of the second.

• Many of the delegates were conservatives.

• The delegates wished to avoid war and favored a policy of economic coercion, but Christopher Gadsden wanted to attack British forces in Boston.

• Georgia was the newest mainland colony, it depended heavily on British subsides and its leaders were very cautious. In 1775, the political balance shifted to the radicals and by the end of the summer Georgia had delegates in Philadelphia.

• He was the only delegate who favored attacking the British.

• After debate and deliberation, John Adams made the practical proposal that the delegates simply designate as a Continental Army the militia forces besieging Boston.

• Throughout most of the colonies, the committees formed a bridge between the old colonial administrations and the revolutionary governments organized over the next few years.

• On July 5, 1775, the delegates passed the Olive branch petition, written by John Dickinson, in which they professed their attachment to King George and begged him to prevent further hostilities.

• On June 14, the Congress resolved the supplement the New England militiamen with six companies of expert riflemen raised in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

• The next day they approved a Declaration of the causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms , written by Jefferson and Dickinson.

• Community Militia companies mobilized throughout the colonies.

• To enforce these sanctions, the Continental Congress urged that "a committee be chosen in every county, city, and town, by those who are qualified to vote for representatives in the legislature."

• The delegates adopted a harder tone, resolving "to die freeman rather than to live slaves."

• Committees began to link localities together in the cause of a wider American community and it was at this point in history that people started to refer to the colonies as the "states."

• At Boston, thousands of militiamen from Massachusetts and the surrounding provinces besieged the city, leaving the British no escape but by sea; their siege would last for nearly a year.

• The people who are elected are supposed to oversee the conduct of all people in their community.

• During its first session in the spring of 1775, the Continental Congress begun to move cautiously down the path toward independence.

The First Continental Congress

• It was a meeting of delegates from most of the colonies held in 1774 in response to the Coercive Acts.

• Few would admit, even to themselves, however, that this was their goal.

• Some of the most important leaders in the North America were present including John and Samuel Adams, the radicals of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Christopher Gadsden.

• The delegates agreed that in order to emphasize their national aspiration, they had to select a man from the south to command these New England forces.

• Thirteen Acts of Parliament were declared in violation of these rights and they were passed in 1763 or later.

The Second Continental Congress

• All eyes turned to George Washington and he was elected to be commander-in-chief by a unanimous vote.

• The colonists made a set of sanctions and pledged they would enforce them until the acts were repealed.

• The members of the Second Continental Congress, which opened on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, represented twelve of the British colonies on the mainland of North America.

• While this is going on the Committee of Correspondence received a letter, reporting the violence in Massachusetts.

• These sanctions would include non importation and non consumption of British goods. They also prohibited the export of colonial commodities to Britain or its other colonies.

• On June 22, in a highly significant move, the Congress voted to finance the army with an issue of $2 million in bills of credit, backed by the good faith of the Confederated Colonies.

• Thus began the long and complicated process of financing the Revolution.