Continental Congress

Congress voting independence.jpg
Continental Congress
First Continental Congress
  • Declaration and Resolves
  • Continental Association
  • First Petition to the King
Second Continental Congress
Confederation Congress
  • Northwest Ordinance
  • Land Ordinance of 1784
  • Land Ordinance of 1785
Members
  • List of delegates
  • Presidents

The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution. The Congress met from 1774 to 1789 in three incarnations.

Contents

First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress, which met briefly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1774, consisted of fifty-six delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States of America. Most of the delegates were not yet ready to break away from Great Britain, but they wanted the British King and Parliament to act more fairly. Convened in response to the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament in 1774, the delegates organized an economic boycott of Great Britain in protest and petitioned the king for a redress of grievances.

Second Continental Congress

By the time the Second Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775 in Philadelphia, shooting in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) had begun. Moderates in the Congress still hoped that the colonies could be reconciled with Great Britain, but a movement towards independence steadily gained ground. Congress established the Continental Army (June 1775), coordinated the war effort, issued a Declaration of Independence in July 1776, and designed a new government in the Articles of Confederation, which were ratified in 1781.

Confederation Congress

The ratification of the Articles of Confederation gave the Congress a new name: the Congress of the Confederation, which met from 1781 to 1789. The Confederation Congress helped guide the United States through the final stages of the war, but in peacetime the Congress declined in importance. Under the Articles, the Confederation Congress had little power to compel the individual states to comply with its decisions. Increasingly, delegates elected to the Congress declined to serve, the leading men in each state preferred to serve in state government, and the Congress had difficulty establishing a quorum. When the Articles were replaced by the United States Constitution, the Confederation Congress was superseded by the United States Congress.

Timeline

1774
1775
1776
1777
1778
1781
1783
1784
1785

January 11: Congress reconvenes in New York City, first at City Hall, then at Fraunces Tavern.

1787
1788
1789

See also

Notes

  1. Burnett, Continental Congress, 726.

References

Further reading

External links