What was the First Continental Congress?

The First Continental Congress was a meeting of 56 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies that convened at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774 to coordinate a unified response to Britain's Coercive Acts. Only Georgia stayed away, partly because it depended on British troops to fight the Creek Confederacy on its frontier. Massachusetts called for an intercolonial congress in June 1774 and the other colonies agreed within weeks, choosing delegates through provincial conventions, committees of correspondence, or sitting assemblies.

Notable delegates included John Adams and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia, John Jay of New York, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was elected president and Charles Thomson of Pennsylvania served as secretary, a role he held in successor congresses for fifteen years.

Delegates debated whether to defy Britain head on or to seek reconciliation. Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania proposed a Plan of Union that would have created an American grand council inside the British Empire, but the plan was rejected by a single vote and stricken from the record. The Congress instead endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, drafted by Joseph Warren and rushed from Massachusetts by Paul Revere on September 16, 1774. The Resolves declared the Coercive Acts unconstitutional, called for organized colonial militias, and urged economic warfare.

On October 14, 1774 the Congress adopted the Declaration and Resolves, listing rights based on the laws of nature, the British constitution, and colonial charters, and demanding repeal of 13 acts of Parliament passed since 1763. Five days later the Congress created the Continental Association, a system of nonimportation, nonconsumption, and eventually nonexportation of British goods enforced by elected committees of inspection in every county. The Congress also sent petitions to the king, addresses to the British people, and addresses to the people of Quebec asking them to join the resistance.

Before adjourning, the Congress agreed to reconvene on May 10, 1775 if Britain refused to redress grievances. Britain rejected the petitions, fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, and the Second Continental Congress assembled on schedule in May to take over war making and ultimately declare independence. The First Continental Congress proved that the colonies could act jointly, established the practice of meeting in Philadelphia, and built the network of committees that became the wartime apparatus.