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The Congress was planned through the permanent [[committee of correspondence|committees of correspondence]]. They chose the meeting place to be [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] in [[Carpenters' Hall]], which was both centrally located and one of the leading cities in the colonies. The Congress was held in <nowiki>1774.</nowiki>
The Congress was planned through the permanent [[committee of correspondence|committees of correspondence]]. They chose the meeting place to be [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] in [[Carpenters' Hall]], which was both centrally located and one of the leading cities in the colonies. The Congress was held in <nowiki>1774.</nowiki>


==ight|150px|[[Carpenters' Hall]]]]
==Convention==
[[Image:Carpenter's Hall HABS PA,51-PHILA,229-3.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Carpenters' Hall]]]]
The Congress met from 5 September to 26 October 1774. From 5 September through 21 October, [[Peyton Randolph]] presided over the proceedings; [[Henry Middleton]] took over as [[President of the Continental Congress|President of the Congress]] for the last few days, from 22 October to 26 October. [[Charles Thomson]], leader of Philadelphia [[Sons of Liberty]], was selected to be Secretary of the Continental Congress.<ref>{{cite book |title=Jefferson's America, 1760-1815 |author=Risjord, Norman K. |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2002 |pages=p. 114}}</ref>
The Congress met from 5 September to 26 October 1774. From 5 September through 21 October, [[Peyton Randolph]] presided over the proceedings; [[Henry Middleton]] took over as [[President of the Continental Congress|President of the Congress]] for the last few days, from 22 October to 26 October. [[Charles Thomson]], leader of Philadelphia [[Sons of Liberty]], was selected to be Secretary of the Continental Congress.<ref>{{cite book |title=Jefferson's America, 1760-1815 |author=Risjord, Norman K. |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2002 |pages=p. 114}}</ref>


===]] to
===Galloway's Plan of Union===
[[Patrick Henry]] already considered government dissolved, and was seeking a new system.<ref name="greene">{{cite book |title=The Foundations of American Nationality |author=Greene, Evarts Boutell |publisher=American Book Company. |year=1922 |pages=p. 434}}</ref> Pennsylvania delegate [[Joseph Galloway]] sought reconciliation with Britain. He put forth a "[[Galloway's Plan of Union|Plan of Union]]", which suggested an American legislative body be formed, with some authority, and whose consent would be required for imperial measures.<ref name="greene"/> [[John Jay]], [[Edward Rutledge]] and other conservatives supported Galloway's plan.<ref>{{cite book |title=Great Debates in American Hist: From the Debates in the British Parliament on the Colonial Stamp |author=Miller, Marion Mills |publisher=Current Literature Pub.
Co |year=1913 |pages=p. 91}}</ref>

===Accomplishments===
The Congress had two primary accomplishments. First, the Congress drafted the [[Articles of Association]] on 20 October 1774. The Articles formed a compact among the colonies to boycott British goods beginning on 1 December 1774.<ref name="kramnick">{{cite book |author=Kramnick, Isaac (ed); Thomas Paine |title=Common Sense |publisher=Penguin Classics |year=1982 |pages=p. 21}}</ref> The West Indies were threatened with a boycott unless the islands agreed to nonimportation of British goods.<ref>Ketchum, pg. 262</ref> Imports from Britain dropped by 97 percent in 1775, compared with the previous year.<ref name="kramnick"/> Committees of observation were to be formed in each colony for enforcement of the Articles. All the colony's Houses of Assembly approved the proceedings of the congress with the exception of [[Province of New York|New York]].<ref>Launitz-Schurer pg. 144</ref>

If the “Intolerable Acts” were not repealed, the colonies would also cease exports to Britain after 10 September 1775.<ref name="kramnick"/> The boycott was successfully implemented, but its potential for altering British colonial policy was cut off by the outbreak of the [[American Revolutionary War]] in 1775.

The second accomplishment of the Congress was to provide for a [[Second Continental Congress]] to meet on 10 May 1775. In addition to the colonies which had sent delegates to the First Continental Congress, letters of invitation were sent to [[Province of Quebec (1763-1791)|Quebec]], [[Prince Edward Island|Saint John's Island]], Nova Scotia, [[Province of Georgia|Georgia]], [[East Florida]], and [[West Florida]]. None of these sent delegates to the opening of the second Congress, though a delegation from Georgia arrived the following July.<ref>{{cite book| title=Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789| editor=Worthington C. Ford, ''et al.'' (ed.)| pages=2:192–193| url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc00266))}}</ref>


==Colonies and delegates==
==Colonies and delegates==

Revision as of 15:31, 21 February 2008

The First Continental Congress was a body of representatives appointed by the legislatures of twelve North American colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1774. It met briefly then set up its successor, the Second Continental Congress, which organized the Americans into war against Britain. The two bodies together comprise the Continental Congress. The First Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia in 1774, with 55 members representing all American colonies except Georgia.

Background

Like the Stamp Act Congress, which was formed by American colonists to respond to the unpopular Stamp Act, the First Continental Congress was formed largely in response to the Intolerable Acts.

The idea of a continental congress first appeared in a letter written and published by Samuel Adams on 27 September 1773.[1] In May 1774, New York City's Committee of Fifty-One, called for a continental congress when it issued a declaration: "Upon these reasons we conclude that a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies in general is of the utmost moment; that it ought to be assembled without delay, and some unanimous resolutions formed in this fatal emergency".[2]

The Congress was planned through the permanent committees of correspondence. They chose the meeting place to be Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Carpenters' Hall, which was both centrally located and one of the leading cities in the colonies. The Congress was held in 1774.

==ight|150px|Carpenters' Hall]] The Congress met from 5 September to 26 October 1774. From 5 September through 21 October, Peyton Randolph presided over the proceedings; Henry Middleton took over as President of the Congress for the last few days, from 22 October to 26 October. Charles Thomson, leader of Philadelphia Sons of Liberty, was selected to be Secretary of the Continental Congress.[3]

===]] to

Colonies and delegates

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Puls, pg. 139
  2. ^ Launitz-Schurer, pg. 114
  3. ^ Risjord, Norman K. (2002). Jefferson's America, 1760-1815. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. p. 114. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

References

  • Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. (1854-78), vol 4-10 online edition
  • Burnett, Edmund C. (1975) [1941]. The Continental Congress. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0-8371-8386-3.
  • Henderson, H. James (2002) [1974]. Party Politics in the Continental Congress. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8191-6525-5.
  • Launitz-Schurer, Loyal Whigs and Revolutionaries, The making of the revolution in New York, 1765-1776, 1980, ISBN 0-8147-4994-1
  • Ketchum, Richard, Divided Loyalties, How the American Revolution came to New York, 2002, ISBN 0805061207
  • Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution (1943) online edition
  • Puls, Mark, Samuel Adams, father of the American Revolution, 2006, ISBN 1403975825
  • Montross, Lynn (1970) [1950]. The Reluctant Rebels; the Story of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-389-03973-X.

Primary sources

  • Peter Force, ed. American Archives, 9 vol 1837-1853, major compilation of documents 1774-1776. online edition
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