The Continental Congress

After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts of 1774 — called the Intolerable Acts in the colonies — closing Boston’s port and placing Massachusetts under tighter British control. Protest groups such as the Sons of Liberty called for a boycott, but merchants were reluctant to join unless all the colonies agreed on terms and enforcement. Colonial legislatures therefore sent delegates to a general congress. It met in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, with every colony except Georgia represented.

The Congress had no legal authority of its own. Its power came from the colonial assemblies and conventions that sent delegates and from local committees that enforced its decisions. On October 20, 1774, it adopted the Articles of Association, a boycott of British goods to begin December 1 unless the Coercive Acts were repealed. It also petitioned King George III, addressed the people of Britain and the colonies, and agreed to reconvene in May 1775.

By then fighting had begun at Lexington and Concord. The Second Continental Congress created the Continental Army and appointed George Washington to command it, while still sending the king the conciliatory Olive Branch Petition in July 1775 — which he refused to receive. As British authority collapsed, Congress became the de facto national government: it issued paper money, sent diplomats to Europe, negotiated the French alliance, and, in July 1776, declared independence.

Congress governed without a constitution until the Articles of Confederation, which it adopted in 1777, finally took effect when Maryland ratified in March 1781. Its weakness during the war — dependent on the states for money and soldiers — shaped the debates that later produced the Constitution. Many of the men who served in it, among them Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, and Madison, went on to lead the new republic.