Second continental congress

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Second Continental Congress voting on independence. Painting by Robert Edge Pine , 1784–1788
Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was here that the United States declared independence on July 4, 1776.
Signing of the declaration of independence. Painting by John Trumbull , 1819

The Second Continental Congress was a gathering of delegates appointed by the regional assemblies of the Thirteen Colonies in British North America in the summer of 1775. The second continental congress existed from May 10, 1775 to March 1, 1781. It met at different locations. From 1775 Congress prepared the American Revolution against England. On July 6, 1775, the Congress justified in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms - giving the reasons and need to take up arms the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War . The Continental Army was created, of which George Washington was appointed commander in chief, and its own currency , the continental dollar . On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence , written by Thomas Jefferson , was presented. The first to sign was John Hancock , President of the Continental Congress . The second continental congress consisted of 56 members. However, only the 13 colonies were entitled to vote. The conditions for the congress were created by the First Continental Congress , which had met from September 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774. This decided to convene a second continental congress in the following year. 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. The Second Continental Congress was the Konföderationskongress (Congress of the Confederation) replaced, the instituted on 1 March 1781st

Meetings of the Second Continental Congress

  • May 10, 1775 - December 12, 1776, Pennsylvania State House , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • December 20, 1776 - February 27, 1777, Henry Fite House, Baltimore Maryland
  • March 5, 1777 - September 18, 1777, Pennsylvania State House, Philadelphia
  • September 27, 1777 (one day only), Court House, Lancaster Pennsylvania
  • September 30, 1777 - June 27, 1778, Court House, York Pennsylvania
  • July 2, 1778 - July 20, 1778, College Hall, Philadelphia
  • July 23, 1778 - March 1, 1781, Pennsylvania State House, Philadelphia

literature

  • Edmund C. Burnett: The Continental Congress . Greenwood Publishing ,, ISBN 0-8371-8386-3 .
  • H. James Henderson: Party Politics in the Continental Congress . Rowman & Littlefield, Boston, ISBN 0-8191-6525-5 .
  • Merrill Jensen: New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation, 1781–1789 . Knopf, New York 1950.
  • Andrew C. McLaughlin: A Constitutional History of the United States 1935, ISBN 978-1-931313-31-5 .
  • Lynn Montross: The Reluctant Rebels; the Story of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 . Barnes & Noble, New York, ISBN 0-389-03973-X .
  • Richard B. Morris: The Forging of the Union, 1781-1789 . Harper & Row, New York 1987, ISBN 0-06-091424-6 .
  • Richard B. Morris: The Confederation Period and the American Historian . In: William and Mary Quarterly . 13, No. 2, 1956, pp. 139-156. doi : 10.2307 / 1920529 .
  • Jack N. Rakove: The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress . Knopf, New York 1979, ISBN 0-394-42370-4 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Charles Thomson: Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. Retrieved November 17, 2007 .