Continental Congress

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Continental Congress First Continental Congress  → Declaration and Resolves  → Continental Association  → First Petition to the King Second Continental Congress  → Olive Branch Petition  → Declaration of the Causes...  → Declaration of Independence  → Articles of Confederation Confederation Congress  → Northwest Ordinance Members  → List of delegates  → Presidents

The Continental Congress resulted from the American Revolution and was the de facto first national government of the United States. It was a provisional government without a legal basis and was completely dependent on the colonies for political direction, funding and other resources. It comprised two successive bodies of representatives of provinces of the Thirteen Colonies in 18th century British North America. The colonies all became states in 1776 when they rejected colonial status:

• The First Continental Congress met from September 5, 1774, to October 26, 1774.
• The Second Continental Congress met from May 10, 1775, to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781.

Upon the ratification of the Articles, the Continental Congress was succeeded by the first legislative or de jure federal government of the United States:

• The Congress of the Confederation or the United States in Congress Assembled ran from March 1, 1781, until a more effective federal government under the Constitution became operative on March 4, 1789. The membership of the Second Continental Congress automatically carried over to the Congress of the Confederation.

Initially formed to coordinate a common American response to the Intolerable Acts, and assert the colonist's rights as Englishmen, the Continental Congress rapidly evolved from a de facto to a de jure governing body of a new nation as the dispute with the British government escalated into the American Revolutionary War. Once the Declaration of Independence was ratified (July 4, 1776) the Congress served as the governing body of the United States of America, organized as a new national legislature, which made war and peace.

[edit] Notable dates

First Congress

• October 14, 1774, adoption of the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
• October 20, 1774, creation of the Continental Association
• October 25, 1774, signing of the first Petition to the King

Second Congress

• July 6, 1775, Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
• July 8, 1775, signing of the second petition to the king (the Olive Branch Petition)
• July 2, 1776, adoption of the resolution of independence (the Lee Resolution), asserting the independence of the colonies from Britain
• July 4, 1776, approval of final text of the United States Declaration of Independence
• August 2, 1776 Declaration of Independence signed by Congress
• November 15, 1777 Articles of Confederation
• March 1, 1781 Ratification of the Articles of Confederation.
• September 17, 1787 Adoption of Constitution

[edit] Bibliography

• Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. (1854–78), vol. 4–10 online edition
• Miller, John C. Triumph of Freedom, 1775–1783 (1948) online edition
• Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution (1943) online edition
• Journals of the Continental Congress September 5, 1774 to March 2, 1789 online

v • d • e President of the Continental Congress President of First Continental Congress Peyton Randolph  · Henry Middleton President of Second Continental Congress Peyton Randolph  · John Hancock  · Henry Laurens  · John Jay  · Samuel Huntington President of the United States in Congress Assembled Samuel Huntington  · Thomas McKean  · John Hanson  · Elias Boudinot  · Thomas Mifflin  · Richard Henry Lee  · John Hancock  · David Ramsay (for John Hancock)  · Nathaniel Gorham (for John Hancock)  · Nathaniel Gorham  · Arthur St. Clair  · Cyrus Griffin