https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/bold-meeting-250-years-ago-continental-congress-set-america-in-motion-180984908/At a Bold Meeting 250 Years Ago, the Continental Congress Set America in MotionWhile far less famous than the coalition that met in 1775, this group of founders found agreement in their disagreements and laid the groundwork for a revolutionAlexis Coe
September/October 2024
“I feel myself unequal to this business” confessed John Adams, of the “grand scene open before me—a Congress.” In the fall of 1774, Adams and 55 other delegates journeyed all manner of distances by foot, horseback and carriage to Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. Before now, few of “the wisest men upon the continent,” as Adams described the delegates in his diary, had ever left their colonies or collaborated with one another, but there was power in numbers—or, at least, they had seen there was weakness without them.
In March 1774, British Parliament punished the Massachusetts colony for the Boston Tea Party with the Coercive Acts, which closed the Port of Boston, reduced Massachusetts’ powers of self-government, provided for quartering troops in the Colonies and permitted royal officers accused of crimes to be tried in England. In so doing, these measures stirred sympathy for Massachusetts, and the other colonies sent aid, including desperately needed food, and planned, for the first time, to consider a coordinated response, at great risk to all. Indeed, though Georgia had sent aid to Boston, the Southern colony sent no delegates to Philadelphia, fearing Parliament would retaliate by withholding military aid amid Georgia’s conflict with several Indian tribes.
From the start, the Virginia delegation was remarkably dominant: George Washington, the future general of the yet-to-be-formed Continental Army, arrived with Patrick Henry, while Peyton Randolph, a Virginian agricultural magnate, was elected president of the Congress on the first day.
Though leaders sought to transcend inter-colonial rivalries—“I am not a Virginian, but an American,” Henry dramatically announced on September 6, 1774, in Carpenters’ Hall—unity was an immediate challenge. The delegates agreed on certain measures, like a boycott of British goods, but they disagreed about larger goals,
in particular whether they should advocate for an entirely new system of government in the Colonies.More at URL above...
