First Continental Congress
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The First Continental Congress was a body of some 55 representatives appointed by the legislatures of twelve North American colonies of Great Britain in 1774. Like the Stamp Act Congress, which was formed by colonials to respond to the unpopular Stamp Act, the First Continental Congress was formed largely in response to the so-called Intolerable Acts. The Congress was planned through the permanent committees of correspondence, which kept the local colonial governments in communication with one another as their common opposition to Britain grew. They chose the meeting place to be Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Carpenters' Hall, which was both centrally located and one of the leading cities in the colonies.
The Congress met from September 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774. From September 5 through October 21, 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.
The Congress had two primary accomplishments. First, the Congress drafted the Articles of Association on October 20, 1774. The Articles formed a compact among the colonies to boycott British goods, and to cease exports to Britain as well if the "Intolerable Acts" were not repealed. The boycott was successfully implemented, but its potential at altering British colonial policy was cut off by the outbreak of open fighting in 1775.
Its second accomplishment 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, letters of invitation were sent to Quebec, Saint John's Island, Nova Scotia, Georgia, East Florida, and West Florida. Only Georgia would ultimately send delegates.
Delegates to the First Continental Congress
- New Hampshire
- * Nathaniel Folsom
- * John Sullivan
- Massachusetts
- * John Adams
- * Samuel Adams
- * Thomas Cushing
- * Robert Treat Paine
- Rhode Island
- * Stephen Hopkins
- * Samuel Ward
- Connecticut
- * Silas Deane
- * Eliphalet Dyer
- * Roger Sherman
- New York
- * City and County of Albany, City and County of New York, County of Duchess, and County of West Chester
- ** John Alsop
- ** James Duane
- ** John Jay
- ** Philip Livingston
- ** Isaac Low
- * County of Kings
- ** Simon Boerum
- * County of Orange
- ** John Haring
- ** Henry Wisner
- * County of Suffolk
- ** William Floyd
- New Jersey
- * Stephen Crane
- * John De Hart
- * James Kinsey
- * William Livingston
- * Richard Smith
- Pennsylvania
- * Edward Biddle
- * John Dickinson
- * Joseph Galloway
- * Charles Humphreys
- * Thomas Mifflin
- * John Morton
- * Samuel Rhoads
- * George Ross
- New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware
- * Thomas McKean
- * George Read
- * Caesar Rodney
- Maryland
- * Samuel Chase
- * Robert Goldsborough
- * Thomas Johnson
- * William Paca
- * Matthew Tilghman
- Virginia
- * Richard Bland
- * Benjamin Harrison V
- * Patrick Henry
- * Richard Henry Lee
- * Edmund Pendleton
- * Peyton Randolph
- * George Washington
- North Carolina
- * Richard Caswell
- * Joseph Hewes
- * William Hooper
- South Carolina
- * Christopher Gadsden
- * Thomas Lynch, Jr.
- * Henry Middleton
- * Edward Rutledge
- * John Rutledge
See also
- Articles of Confederation
- Galloway's Plan of Union
- History of the United States (1776-1789)
- List of Continental Congress Delegates
- President of the Continental Congress
Further reading
External links
- [The Continental Congress - History, Declaration and Resolves, Resolutions and Recommendations]
- [Full text of Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789]
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