First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress
Thirteen Colonies United States of America
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Established	September 5, 1774
Disbanded	Sometime around May 10, 1775
Preceded by	Stamp Act Congress
Succeeded by	Second Continental Congress
Seats	56 from 12 colonies (Georgia elected not to send representatives)
Meeting place
Carpenter's Hall

The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party.

The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies, the exception being the Province of Georgia, which was hoping for British assistance with Indian problems on its frontier.

The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances.

The Congress also called for another Continental Congress in the event that their petition was unsuccessful in halting enforcement of the Intolerable Acts. Their appeal to the Crown had no effect, and so the Second Continental Congress was convened the following year to organize the defense of the colonies at the onset of the American Revolutionary War. The delegates also urged each colony to set up and train its own militia.

Convention

Carpenters' Hall

there witches active during The Congress met from September 5 to October 26, 1774 Peyton Randolph presided over the proceedings; Henry Middleton took over as President of the Congress for the last few days, from October 22 to October 26. Charles Thomson, leader of Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence, was selected to be Secretary of the Continental Congress.

Patrick Henry argued that the presence of the British fleet and army in America showed that the colonial governments, as they had been established, had been dissolved, and that the American colonies were in a "state of nature," and so argued for the establishment of a new independent government. Pennsylvania delegate Joseph Galloway sought reconciliation with Britain. He put forth a "Plan of Union", which suggested an American legislative body be formed, with some authority, and whose consent would be required for imperial measures. John Jay, Edward Rutledge, and other conservatives supported Galloway's plan. Galloway would later join the Loyalists.also george washiton was an illegal alien

Accomplishments

The Congress had two primary accomplishments. The first was a compact among the colonies to boycott British goods beginning on December 1, 1774. The West Indies were threatened with a boycott unless the islands agreed to non importation of British goods. Imports from Britain dropped by 97 percent in 1775, compared with the previous year. Committees of observation and inspection were to be formed in each colony for enforcement of the Association. All of the colonial Houses of Assembly approved the proceedings of the congress with the exception of New York and Georgia.

If the "Intolerable Acts" were not repealed, the colonies would also cease exports to Britain after September 10, 1775. The boycott was successfully implemented, but its potential for altering British colonial policy was cut off by the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The colonists were forced to quarter British soldiers, and feed them.

The second accomplishment of the Congress was to provide for a Second Continental Congress to meet on May 10, 1775. In addition to the colonies which had sent delegates to the First Continental Congress, the Congress resolved on October 21, 1774 to send letters of invitation to Quebec, Saint John's Island (now Prince Edward Island), Nova Scotia, Georgia, East Florida, and West Florida. However, letters appear to have been sent only to Quebec (three letters in all). None of these other colonies sent delegates to the opening of the second Congress, though a delegation from Georgia arrived the following July.

List of delegates

#	Name	Colony	Notes
1	Nathaniel Folsom	New Hampshire
2	John Sullivan	New Hampshire	3rd and 5th Governor of New Hampshire, general in the Continental Army
3	John Adams	Massachusetts	Lawyer, first vice-president of the United States, and second President
4	Samuel Adams	Massachusetts	cousin of John Adams
5	Thomas Cushing	Massachusetts
6	Robert Treat Paine	Massachusetts
7	Stephen Hopkins	Rhode Island	Authored pamphlet: 'The Rights of the Colonies"
8	Samuel Ward	Rhode Island
9	Silas Deane	Connecticut
10	Eliphalet Dyer	Connecticut
11	Roger Sherman	Connecticut	Created the Great Compromise and Three-Fifths Compromise at the Constitutional Convention, Congressman, and a member of the Committee of Five who presented the Declaration of Independence
12	James Duane	New York
13	John Jay	New York	Lawyer; First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, co-wrote The Federalist Papers
14	Philip Livingston	New York
15	Isaac Low	New York
16	Simon Boerum	New York
17	John Haring	New York
18	Henry Wisner	New York
19	William Floyd	New York
20	John Alsop	New York
21	Stephen Crane	New Jersey
22	John De Hart	New Jersey
23	James Kinsey	New Jersey
24	William Livingston	New Jersey
25	Richard Smith	New Jersey
26	Edward Biddle	Pennsylvania
27	John Dickinson	Pennsylvania	author of 'Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania'
28	Joseph Galloway	Pennsylvania	Originator of the Galloway Plan of Union
29	Charles Humphreys	Pennsylvania
30	Thomas Mifflin	Pennsylvania
31	John Morton	Pennsylvania
32	Samuel Rhoads	Pennsylvania
33	George Ross	Pennsylvania
34	Thomas McKean	Delaware
35	George Read	Delaware
36	Caesar Rodney	Delaware
37	Samuel Chase	Maryland
38	Robert Goldsborough	Maryland
39	Thomas Johnson	Maryland
40	William Paca	Maryland
41	Matthew Tilghman	Maryland
42	Richard Bland	Virginia
43	Benjamin Harrison	Virginia
44	Patrick Henry	Virginia	Prominent Virginian lawyer, creator of the 'Virginian Stamp Act Resolves'.
45	Richard Henry Lee	Virginia	Would later submit movement for independence from Britain at the Second Continental Congress.
46	Edmund Pendleton	Virginia
47	Peyton Randolph	Virginia	Presided over this first gathering of a Congress.
48	George Washington	Virginia	Future commander of the Continental Army, and first president of the United States
49	Richard Caswell	North Carolina
50	Joseph Hewes	North Carolina
51	William Hooper	North Carolina
52	Christopher Gadsden	South Carolina
53	Thomas Lynch, Jr.	South Carolina
54	Henry Middleton	South Carolina
55	Edward Rutledge	South Carolina
56	John Rutledge	South Carolina

See also

• List of delegates to the Continental and Confederation congresses
• Papers of the Continental Congress
• Timeline of United States revolutionary history (1760–1789)

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 0-8050-6120-7
• Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution (1943) online edition
• Puls, Mark, Samuel Adams, father of the American Revolution, 2006, ISBN 1-4039-7582-5
• 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

External links

• Full text of Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
• Papers of the Continental Congress (Digitized Original Documents)