Thus, the First Continental Congress was called to order on September 5th, Georgia was the only colony that did not send representatives. It was decided that each colony would be allotted one secret ballot. Negotiations did not necessarily come easily. While many of the delegates were known for their debate and leadership skills, each colony was accustomed to debating in independent environments at home in their individual colonies.
Therefore, some degree of distrust and discomfort was present. Furthermore, while each representative believed in the heinous and unjust nature of the Intolerable Acts , they differed with respect to proper solutions. Some preferred more defensive and potentially violent courses of action, such as the Suffolk Resolves, while others believed in peaceful protest like the Declaration of Rights.
Despite these difficulties, the delegates overcame such obstacles and produced several highly significant results of the First Continental Congress. Initially, Joseph Galloway proposed a plan of union with Britain that offered a form of peaceful reconciliation. Galloway proposed that the colonies create a form of government to act in conjunction with that of the British, with a colonial parliament and leaders elected by Britain. This would offer the colonists their own representation while remaining loyal to England.
This plan was ultimately rejected when the Suffolk Resolves were presented, a much more drastic proposal. Proposed on September 9th, , by Dr. Joseph Warren and accepted by Congress on September 17th, this plan encouraged Massachusetts to protest the Intolerable Acts by stockpiling military supplies, operating an independent government, boycotting British goods, and announcing no allegiance to Britain and a king who failed to consider the wishes of the colonists. Meanwhile, Congress drafted the Olive Branch Petition, which attempted to suggest means of resolving disputes between the colonies and Great Britain.
As British authority crumbled in the colonies, the Continental Congress effectively took over as the de facto national government, thereby exceeding the initial authority granted to it by the individual colonial governments. However, the local groups that had formed to enforce the colonial boycott continued to support the Congress.
The Second Congress continued to meet until March 1, , when the Articles of Confederation that established a new national government for the United States took effect. As the de facto national government, the Continental Congress assumed the role of negotiating diplomatic agreements with foreign nations. The British Parliament banned trade with the colonies and authorized the seizure of colonial vessels on December These actions served to further erode the positions of anti-independence moderates in Congress and bolster those of pro-independence leaders.
On April 6, , Congress responded to Parliament's actions by opening American ports to all foreign ships except British vessels. Reports from American agent Arthur Lee in London also served to support the revolutionary cause. With a peaceful resolution increasingly unlikely in , Congress began to explore other diplomatic channels and dispatched congressional delegate Silas Deane to France in April of The delegates from Virginia showed up to the Continental Congress united, and refused to waiver on the issue of delaying the ban on exports to Britain.
The idea of using non-importation as leverage was neither new nor unexpected. Prior to the Continental Congress, eight colonies had already endorsed the measure and merchants had been warned against placing any orders with Britain, as a ban on importation was likely to pass. Some colonies had already created their own associations to ban importation and, in some cases, exportation. Many delegates felt that using the Continental Association as leverage would be impractical without explicit demands and a plan of redress.
However, Congress struggled to come up with a list of rights, grievances, and demands. Furthermore, to only repeal laws that were unfavorable to the delegates without a list of rights would be a temporary fix to the larger issue of continued British abuse. To address these issues, Congress formed a Grand Committee. All debate was stalled for weeks while a statement of American rights was debated at length.
Producing this statement required answering constitutional questions that had been asked for over a century. However, other delegates were opposed to giving Britain explicit rights to colonial trade. The Plan of Union called for the creation of a Colonial Parliament that would work hand-in-hand with the British Parliament.
The British monarch would appoint a President General and the colonial assemblies would appoint delegates for a three-year term. In , the new U. Constitution went into effect and the Continental Congress adjourned forever and was replaced by the U. Although the Continental Congress did not function well in a time of peace, it had helped steer the nation through one of its worst crises, declared its independence and helped to win a war to secure that independence.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. As a political activist and state legislator, he spoke out against British efforts to tax the colonists, and pressured merchants to boycott British products. He also He was a gifted orator and major figure in the American Revolution. His rousing speeches—which included a speech to the Virginia legislature in which he famously declared, American Revolution leader John Hancock was a signer of the Declaration of Independence in and a governor of Massachusetts.
The colonial Massachusetts native was raised by his uncle, a wealthy Boston merchant. When his uncle died, Hancock inherited his lucrative Skirmishes between British troops and colonial When armed conflict between bands of American colonists and British soldiers began in April , the Americans were ostensibly fighting only A member of a committee of five that also included John Adams of Thomas Jefferson , author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U.
Over a period of 15 years, from to , the Continental Congress underwent a profound evolution. He was an impassioned champion of a strong federal government, and played a key role in defending
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