The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies
that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
early in the American Revolution. It was called "The passage of the Coercive Acts" by the
British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea
Party. The Congress was attended by 56 delegates
appointed by the legislatures of the thirteen colonies which were hoping for British assistance
with Native American 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
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.
The delegates who attended the Congress were not of one one mind concerning why they were
there. Conservatives, such as Joseph Galloway, John Dickinson, John Jay, and Edward Rutledge,
believed their task to be the forging of common policies to pressure Parliament to rescind
its unreasonable acts. Their ultimate goal was to develop a reasonable solution to the
difficulties and bring about reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain. Radicals,
such as Patrick Henry, Roger Sherman, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, believed their task
to be the development of a decisive statement of the rights and liberties of the Colonies.
While some wished to go farther, their ultimate goal was to end the perceived abuses of parliamentary
authority, and to retain, in the empire and under the king if possible, the constitutional
rights which were claimed on the basis of the colonial charters and the English constitution.
Among the radicals, Sherman denied altogether the legislative authority of Parliament and
Henry was of the opinion that the Congress needed to develop a completely new system
of governance, independent from Great Britain, for the existing colonial governments were
already dissolved. To counter these ideas, Galloway put forward a "Plan of Union", which
suggested an American legislative body be formed, with some authority, and whose consent
would be required for imperial measures. Declaration and Resolves
In the end, the voices of reconciliation and compromise carried the day. Rather than precipitate
rebellion by calling for independence, the First Continental Congress, in its Declaration
and Resolves, passed and signed the Continental Association, which called for a boycott of
British goods to take effect in December 1774. It requested that local Committees of Safety
enforce the boycott and regulate local prices for goods. These resolutions adopted by the
Congress did not acknowledge the legal power of Parliament even to regulate trade, but
consented, nonetheless, to the operation of acts for that purpose. Furthermore, they did
not repudiate control by the royal prerogative, which was explicitly acknowledged in the Petition
to the King a few days later. 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 nonimportation 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 .
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, Nova Scotia, Georgia, East Florida, and West Florida. However,
letters appear to have been sent only to Quebec. 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
See also List of delegates to the Continental and Confederation
congresses Papers of the Continental Congress
Timeline of United States revolutionary history Notes
References Bancroft, George. History of the United States
of America, from the discovery of the American continent., vol 4-10 online edition
Burnett, Edmund C. [1941]. The Continental Congress. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0-8371-8386-3.
Henderson, H. James [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
online edition Puls, Mark, Samuel Adams, father of the American
Revolution, 2006, ISBN 1-4039-7582-5 Montross, Lynn [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