Second Continental Congress

4 Key excerpts on "Second Continental Congress"

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  eBook - PDF

  Foundations of American Political Thought

  Readings and Commentary

  • Alin Fumurescu, Anna Marisa Schön(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress read “That the inhabitants of the English colonies in North-America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following RIGHTS [. . .].” It was a declaration neither fully republican nor fully liberal; neither fully conservative nor fully revolutionary. The First Continental Congress officially ended on October 26, 1774, and the Second opened May 10, 1775. Formally, it stayed in existence until it became the permanent organ of the newly created national government under the Articles of Confederation, although the use of the title “Continental Congress” persisted throughout the Confederation period, until the second Constitution went into effect in 1789. It was a period of dramatic shifts in opinions. Even as the evolutions of 1775 and 1776 pushed the delegates closer and closer to accepting the idea of a union, their fears about the impossibility of bridging the divisions between the colonies grew stronger.

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  Landmark Legislation 1774-2012

  Major U.S. Acts and Treaties

  • Stephen W. Stathis(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • CQ Press

    (Publisher)

  Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to March 2, 1781 United States in Congress Assembled March 2, 1781, to October 10, 1788 First Continental Congress—September 5, 1774, to October 26, 1774 Second Continental Congress—May 10, 1775, to March 2, 1781 United States in Congress Assembled—March 2, 1781, to October 10, 1788

  Historical Background

  Most of the delegates who assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1774, for the First Continental Congress were instructed to focus on the redress of specific grievances against the Crown. As representatives of Great Britain’s North American colonies, most thought that they could quickly “reestablish satisfactory, if not harmonious, relations with England.” The delegates “were established social, economic, and political leaders in their home colonies, and most had served in colonial legislatures that had struggled successfully to overturn earlier programs and policies of the king and Parliament. Most assumed their earlier experiences of successful conflict resolution within the existing imperial structure would be repeated.”1 The colonies had balked for more than a decade at policies designed to reduce British war debt, cover the expenses of an expanding empire, and “rationalize” the historically loose and ad hoc relationship between Britain and her North American colonies. The purpose of the Philadelphia assemblage was neither revolution nor independence from England.

  The need, however, for an ongoing representative assembly quickly became clear. Over the next fifteen years, Congress (as the First Continental Congress, 1774; the Second Continental Congress, 1775–1781; and the United States in Congress Assembled, 1781–1788) would serve as the sole organ of American government. Congress was responsible for setting war aims, organizing and provisioning the army and navy, conducting foreign relations, and settling, when possible, squabbles between states. While victory in the American Revolution cannot be properly attributed to Congress, its contributions were indispensable. It articulated, nurtured, and sustained committed patriots, who were often a minority; it supported the armies, however unevenly; and it bound the states, albeit loosely.

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  American History through Its Greatest Speeches

  A Documentary History of the United States [3 volumes]

  • Jolyon P. Girard, Darryl Mace, Courtney Michelle Smith, Jolyon P. Girard, Darryl Mace, Courtney Michelle Smith(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • ABC-CLIO

    (Publisher)

  The “Declarations and Resolves” reflects the debates the delegates had during the course of the congress. It also shows both the determination and the reluctance of the delegates who gathered in Philadelphia in 1774. Instead of seeking reconciliation with Great Britain, the delegates remained determined to assert their rights and to relate how the British government systematically violated those rights. At the same time, however, the delegates remained reluctant to assert a firm declaration of independence from Great Britain. The language used in the “Declarations and Resolves” does show that the delegates had begun to think of themselves as Americans. The First Continental Congress, therefore, represented an important step in the movement toward independence. It brought delegates together from all but one of the colonies and gave the delegates an opportunity to promote collective action against Great Britain. While the delegates refrained from severing ties with Great Britain, they gained valuable experience that helped to promote a sense of “Americanness” in the colonies.

  Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament, claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of America by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath, in some acts, expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various presences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies, established a board of commissioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county:

  And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependant on the crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times of peace: And whereas it has lately been resolved in parliament, that by force of a statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and tried there upon accusations for treasons and misprisions, or concealments of treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute, such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned:

  And whereas, in the last session of parliament, three statutes were made; one entitled, “An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading, or shipping of goods, wares and merchandise, at the town, and within the harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay in New England;” another entitled, “An act for the better regulating the government of the province of Massachusetts-Bay in New England;” and another entitled, “An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England;” and another statute was then made, “for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec, etc.” All which statutes are impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most dangerous and destructive of American rights:

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  Revolutionary Negotiations

  Indians, Empires, and Diplomats in the Founding of America

  • Leonard J. Sadosky(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • University of Virginia Press

    (Publisher)

  ∑ Even if the majority of Congress was not willing to consider formal independence in July 1775—a reality to which the Olive Branch Petition’s calls for reconciliation certainly testified—many of the leaders of the Ameri-can resistance were pushing Congress to get the American colonies to begin to think and act like sovereign states. This process would both continue and accelerate through 1775 and into 1776. While the Declaration of Inde-pendence is (quite rightly) seen as a turning point in the process of the 62 Revolutionary Negotiations American colonies moving from their status as British provinces to becom-ing fully sovereign participants in the Westphalian system, it was also one episode in a larger continuum. When Delegate Richard Henry Lee pro-posed on 7 June 1776 that Congress draft a declaration of independence, he simultaneously called for the Thirteen Colonies to draft a plan of con-federation and to also consider measures for making foreign alliances. Po-tential articles of confederation were drafted and debated by Congress in July and August (and ultimately tabled until the following year), while a ‘‘Plan of Treaties’’ (drafted by John Adams himself) was approved in Sep-tember 1776. The Declaration of Independence was but one pillar among many in the construction of the foundation of the sovereign United States. And American sovereignty was not the product of a singular event, but the product of a process that took a year and a half to unfold. The story of the eighteen months between Lexington and the so-called ‘‘Model Treaty’’ is a crucial one. It would be a mistake to read the year and a half between the convening of the Second Continental Congress and the approval of the Plan of Treaties as an inevitable and unbroken march toward an independent United States. While some men (and women) agreed with John Adams and quickly wished for American independence, many were reluctant to break with the king and Parliament.

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