![]() ![]() The colonists' resistance to the Stamp Act served as a catalyst for subsequent acts of resistance. Subsequently, under pressure from British companies hurt by the embargo, the government of Prime Minister Lord Rockingham and King George III relented, and the Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766. It issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which it sent to Parliament. To present a united front in their opposition, delegates from several provinces met in the Stamp Act Congress, which convened in New York City from October 7 through 25, 1765. The act provoked the ire of merchants in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, who responded by placing an embargo on British imports until the Stamp Act was repealed. ![]() In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act requiring that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. Though participants did not meet in person, the intermittent activation of committees of correspondence during times of crisis would further bring the colonies together. Though this idea was rejected, Franklin and others continued to argue that the colonies should act more cohesively. Among the delegates was Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, who proposed that the colonies join in a confederation. Known as the Albany Congress, it met in Albany, New York from June 18 to July 11, 1754, and representatives from seven colonies attended. The idea of a congress of British American Colonies was first broached in 1754 at the start of the French and Indian War, which started as the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France. The delegates to the Continental and Confederation congresses had extensive experience in deliberative bodies, with "a cumulative total of nearly 500 years of experience in their Colonial assemblies, and fully a dozen of them had served as speakers of the houses of their legislatures." Background Printed contemporaneously, the Journals of the Continental Congress contain the official congressional papers, letters, treaties, reports and records. Much of what is known today about the daily activities of these congresses comes from the journals kept by the secretary for all three congresses, Charles Thomson. The Congress of Confederation was also established in Philadelphia and later moved to New York City which served as the U.S. ![]() This unicameral governing body would convene in eight sessions before adjourning in 1789, when the 1st United States Congress under the new Constitution of the United States took over the role as the nation's legislative branch of government.īoth the First and Second Continental Congresses convened in Philadelphia, though with the city's capture during the Revolutionary War, the Second Congress was forced to meet in other locations for a time. In March 1781, the nation's first Frame of Government, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, came into force, at which time the body became what later was called the Congress of the Confederation. The Second Continental Congress served as the provisional government of the U.S. After peace was not forthcoming, the same congress drafted and adopted the Independence resolution and the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, proclaiming that the former colonies were now independent sovereign states. Soon after meeting, this second Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III while also selecting George Washington as the head of the new Continental Army. The Second Continental Congress convened in 1775 in the wake of the breakout of hostilities in Massachusetts. It met for about six weeks and sought to repair the fraying relationship between Britain and the colonies, while asserting the rights of colonists, proclaiming and passing the Continental Association (a unified trade embargo against Britain), and calling for a second congress. The First Continental Congress was called in 1774 in response to growing tensions between the colonies culminating in the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament. Thus, the term covers the three congressional bodies of the Thirteen Colonies and the new United States that met between 17. The term "Continental Congress" most specifically refers to the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and, at the time, was also used to refer to the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789, which operated as the first national government of the United States until being replaced under the Constitution of the United States. The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ![]()
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