Second Continental Congress Facts & Worksheets

• The other colonies spoke up for their rights, but they were divided between those who sought equal representation in the legislature and those who were more extreme and wanted to secede. Virginia’s delegation was composed of a very even mix of individuals, and not by chance, they were among the most famous men in America: Colonel George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Colonel Benjamin Harrison, Richard Bland and Peyton Randolph, who would be elected president of the convention right away.
• It was not clear what the body wanted to do, but with the kind of leadership that was present, a core set of responsibilities was accomplished. Everyone agreed that the king and parliament needed to be informed about the colonies’ problems, and that the body needed to do everything possible to communicate these issues to the people of America and the rest of the world. There was a lot of talking and arguing in the first few weeks. Until now, the colonies had always acted as separate entities. There was a lot of distrust to go over. Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania’s ‘A Plan of Union of Great Britain and the Colonies’ was the first thing everyone thought about. 
• Most members thought the proposal was highly appealing, as it called for a Grand Council that would be elected by the people and represent the interests of all the colonies. It would be like the English Parliament on a continental level. A President General, chosen by the crown, would stand in front of this to show that the king had power in America. The attempt to make peace in Boston failed because of conflict. The arrival of the Suffolk County (Boston) resolves just before the voting on the Plan of Union caused it to be thrown out by a small margin.
• The Declaration and Resolves set the direction of the conference on 14 October. They were a set of rules that all the colonies agreed on. If England did not address these complaints, Congress voted to convene again the following year. The Association appeared a few days later, on the 20th. It was based on the Virginia Association and other groups that came after it. This was an agreement not to buy English goods, to establish methods for policing and regulating the colonies’ opposition to Great Britain, and to maintain open lines of communication. It would go into effect on 1 December 1774, unless parliament decided to get rid of the Intolerable Acts.

WARTIME GOVERNMENT

• In April 1775, war broke out between Britain and its North American colonies in the Lexington and Concord area of Massachusetts. In the summer of 1775, delegates from all Thirteen Colonies convened in Philadelphia to discuss how to conduct the war and what kind of government would replace British control. The most important thing to do was to work on the war. It was not cohesive, and there were not many commanders who could have led the numerous armed groups, which at this stage were primarily composed of local militias. 
• But it required a president to manage the war effort. Peyton Randolph was re-elected to that position on 10 May 1775, but he had to quit two weeks later because he was sick. John Hancock, a rich Boston merchant who had long been seen as the face of the Patriot movement, took his place. Charles Thomson, who was born in Ireland and lived in Pennsylvania, was confirmed as the secretary of the Continental Congress. He retained this position for the entire time Congress was in session.
• There were 56 representatives from 12 of the Thirteen Colonies in the rest of the Congress at first. Georgia did not send any delegates to the First Congress, but it did send delegates to the Second Congress in July 1775, bringing the total number of members of Congress to about sixty. The number of delegates in Congress changed over time as some were voted in and out, died or departed on their own. However, there were typically around sixty delegates present at any given time. Between 1774 and 1789, 342 people were members of the Continental Congress and its successor, the Congress of the Confederation.
• The Siege of Boston began in May 1775. About 15,000 New England militiamen had trapped a British army in Boston. On 15 May 1775, Congress passed a resolution that put the other colonies on alert and instructed them to prepare their own militias for war. At the same time, it raised many rifle companies from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to help the New England army outside of Boston. In June, Congress adopted the New England army and made it the Continental Army. Washington, who had fought in the French and Indian War (1754–1763), was chosen to lead a committee that would write the rules and regulations for Congress’s new army. 
• Many delegations believed that it was still feasible to make peace with Britain. Congress passed the Olive Branch Petition on 5 June 1775. The Olive Branch Petition was a document drafted by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, expressing the colonists’ desire for reconciliation with Great Britain and urging King George III to prevent further conflict. Despite its plea for peace, the petition ultimately failed, as the king rejected it and declared the colonies in rebellion. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania wrote the petition, which stated that the colonies wished to remain loyal to the king and seek a peaceful resolution to the difficulties caused by Parliament. 
• On 22 June 1775, Congress resolved to print $2,000,000 worth of bills to fund the war. This initiated the production of Continental currency in the form of paper notes, which proved to be a poor decision. Paul Revere carved the plates for the first banknotes, and Congress set up the Bank of North America in Philadelphia to print them. In October 1775, Congress also agreed to construct a Continental Navy. In December 1775, two months later, they agreed to build 13 frigates. As Congress feverishly scrambled to assemble a war ministry from scratch, the war was worsening. Congress officially invited the British Province of Quebec (Canada) to join the rebellion as the 14th colony after hearing about these victories. 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

• By December 1775, the Americans knew that the monarch had called them rebels and that additional British soldiers were on their way to hurt them. A month earlier, it would have been impossible for the colonists to be completely free from Britain, but many of them came to terms with the notion that it might be their only option. Thomas Paine, a journalist and pamphleteer, wrote the influential pamphlet ‘Common Sense’, which was published in January 1776, fuelling the public’s desire for independence.
• The document provided various reasons for severing ties with the British Crown and concluded with the words, ‘Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream’. A group in Congress, led by the Adamses of Massachusetts (a faction of John Adams) and the Lees of Virginia (a faction of Richard Henry Lee), began to push the other delegates to support independence. One of their points was that the European nations, especially France, would not help the uprising with troops until the colonies were free from British rule. In the spring of 1776, Congress began preparing the colonies for independence. After a lot of arguing, Congress approved in early April, allowing everyone in the world to trade with the colonies, except for Britain. Then, on 10 May, it passed a resolution saying that any colony whose government didn’t support independence should form one that did.