In Congress Assembled

Debating and Deciding in an Evolving Context, 1775-1776

First Continenal Congress• Met from Sept. 5 to October 26, 1774, in Carpenter’s Hall• 55 delegates attended at one time or another, with Peyton Randolph

and, then, Henry Middleton presiding.• Galloway’s Plan of Union—Failed 6 to 5• Suffolk Resolves 1. boycott British imports, curtail exports, and

refuse to use British products; 2. ignore the punitive measures taken against Massachusetts since the Boston Tea Party; 3. support a colonial government in Massachusetts free of royal authority until the Intolerable Acts were repealed; 4. urge the colonies to raise militia of their own.

• Continental Association—passed October 20.• Called for a 2d Continental Congress to meet on May 10, 1775

Continental Association• " To obtain redress of these grievances (specified in a preamble),

which threaten destruction to the lives, liberty, and property of his majesty's subjects, in North America, we are of opinion, that a non-important, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement, faithfully adhered to, will prove the most speedy, effectual, and peaceable measure: and, therefore, we do, for ourselves, and the inhabitants of the several colonies, whom we represent, firmly agree and associate, under the sacred ties of virtue, honour and love of our country.”

• Grievances: the deprivation of the right to a jury trial; the prosecution in England for crimes committed in America; and the various penalizing acts specifically targeted upon the citizens of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Colony

• King is still the father of his people and the assembled delegates, with a few exceptions, such as Patrick Henry, were still loyal subjects.

Worcester Declaration of Independence

“… you are to consider the people of this province absolved, on their part, from the obligation therein contained [the 1691 Massachusetts charter], and to all intents and purposes reduced to a state of nature; and you are to exert yourself in devising ways and means to raise from the dissolution of the old constitution, as from the ashes of the Phenix, a new form, wherein all officers shall be dependent on the suffrages of the people, whatever unfavorable constructions our enemies may put upon such procedure.” Instructions to Timothy Bigelow of Oct. 4, 1774.

in the wee hours of the morning of September 6, 1774, seven months before the first shots were fired at Concord and Lexington . . . 4,622 militiamen from 37 Worcester County towns in Massachusetts marched to Main Street in the town of Worcester, determined to shut down the courthouse before the new Crown-controlled courts could open to sit for a new session.

The Tyranny of Events

• Paul Revere’s Ride

• Battles at Lexington Green and Concord’s North Bridge, April 19, 1775. British losses 73 KIA, 174 wounded, 26 missing.

The first of four engravings by Amos Doolittle from 1775. Doolittle visited the battle sites and interviewed soldiers and witnesses. Contains controversial elements, possibly inaccuracies. Fire from the militia may have occurred but is not depicted.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;Here once the embattled farmers stood;And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,And Time the ruined bridge has sweptDown the dark stream that seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,We set to-day a votive stone,That memory may their deeds redeem,When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dareTo die, and leave their children free, --Bid Time and Nature gently spareThe shaft we raised to them and Thee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1837

2d Continental Congress

• Met May 10, 1775, through March 1, 1781.• It would Declare Independence, serve as

the defacto government of the nascent United States, create the Continental Army, and draft the Articles of Confederation.

• 65 members from 13 colonies• When it first met, however, its membership

was divided on course of action.