First continental congress

The First Continental Congress was an assembly of delegates appointed by the regional assemblies of the Thirteen Colonies in British North America in 1774. He only met briefly and then prepared his successor, the Second Continental Congress , which organized the American War of Independence . The two assemblies together form the Continental Congress , which acted as the first de facto government in the United States . The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and had 56 members representing all colonies except Georgia .

background

Like the Stamp Act Congress , which gathered American colonists to oppose the Stamp Act , the occasion for the First Continental Congress was in response to the British Crown's Intolerable Acts . The congress was planned with the help of the correspondence committees , and Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia was chosen as the venue due to the city's central location and the leading role of the city in the American independence movement .

Assembly

Carpenters' Hall

The Congress met from September 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774. From September 5 to October 21, Peyton Randolph chaired the session. Henry Middleton has served as President of the Continental Congress for the last five days . Charles Thomson , leader of the Philadelphia-based Sons of Liberty , was elected Secretary of Congress and was responsible for the written record of all meetings.

During its meeting, the congress achieved two major successes. The first was the draft of the Association Articles on October 20, 1774. With these articles, the colonies jointly undertook to boycott British goods from December 1, 1774 . As a result, the total volume of imports from Great Britain decreased by 97 percent in 1775. If the Intolerable Acts were not repealed, the colonies would no longer deliver goods to Great Britain after September 10, 1775.

The second success of the congress was the preparation of the Second Continental Congress, which was to meet on May 10, 1775. In addition to the colonies that had already participated in the First Continental Congress, Québec , Saint John's Island , Nova Scotia , Georgia , East Florida and West Florida were also invited to participate. None of the colonies contacted sent delegates at the beginning of the Second Continental Congress, but Georgia participated from the following July.

Colonies and Delegates

New Hampshire Colony Nathaniel Folsom John Sullivan Province of Massachusetts Bay John Adams Samuel Adams Thomas Cushing Robert Treat Paine Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Stephen Hopkins Samuel Ward Colony of Connecticut Silas Deane Eliphalet Dyer Roger Sherman Province of New York City and County of Albany , City and County of New York , Dutchess County, and Westchester Counties John Alsop James Duane John Jay Philip Livingston Isaac Low Kings County Simon Boerum Orange County John Haring Henry Wisner Suffolk County William Floyd Province of New Jersey Stephen Crane John De Hart James Kinsey William Livingston Richard Smith

Province of Pennsylvania Edward Biddle John Dickinson Joseph Galloway Charles Humphreys Thomas Mifflin John Morton Samuel Rhoads George Ross New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware Thomas McKean George Read Caesar Rodney Province of Maryland Samuel Chase Robert Goldsborough Thomas Johnson William Paca Matthew Tilghman Colony and Dominion of Virginia Richard Bland Benjamin Harrison V Patrick Henry Richard Henry Lee Edmund Pendleton Peyton Randolph George Washington Province of North Carolina Richard Caswell Joseph Hewes William Hooper Province of South Carolina Christopher Gadsden Thomas Lynch Jr. Henry Middleton Edward Rutledge John Rutledge

Remarks

1. ↑ Thomas Paine: Common Sense . 1776 ( gutenberg.org ).
2. ^ Charles Thomson: Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. Retrieved November 17, 2007 . 

literature

• Edmund C. Burnett: The Continental Congress . Greenwood Publishing, 1941, ISBN 0-8371-8386-3 .
• H. James Henderson: Party Politics in the Continental Congress . Rowman & Littlefield, 1974, ISBN 0-8191-6525-5 .
• John C. Miller: Origins of the American Revolution . Ed .: Brown Little. Boston 1943 ( questia.com ).
• Lynn Montross: The Reluctant Rebels; the Story of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 . Barnes & Noble, New York 1950, ISBN 0-389-03973-X .

Web links

• Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 - Minutes of the Continental Congress
• Papers of the Continental Congress (Engl.)