Second Congress Meets: Colonies Unite Against Britain

Delegates from twelve colonies gathered at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, three weeks after British soldiers and colonial militiamen had exchanged fire at Lexington and Concord. The Second Continental Congress convened without a clear mandate, without legal authority, and without consensus on whether to seek reconciliation with Britain or prepare for independence. Over the next sixteen months, it became the government of a revolution. The First Continental Congress had met the previous fall and adopted a boycott of British goods. Most delegates expected the boycott to produce negotiations. The bloodshed in Massachusetts changed everything. By May, colonial militias were besieging British troops in Boston, and the delegates arriving in Philadelphia faced a war that had started without their authorization. The Congress included some of the most talented political minds in the colonies. John and Samuel Adams came from Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania, George Washington from Virginia. New members included Thomas Jefferson, who arrived in June, and John Hancock, who was elected president of the Congress after Peyton Randolph returned to Virginia. The body had no constitutional basis, no power to tax, and no ability to enforce its resolutions. Nevertheless, the Congress began acting as a national government almost immediately. On June 14, it created the Continental Army. On June 15, it appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief, choosing a Virginia planter to lead what was still largely a New England army, a political calculation designed to ensure Southern support for the war. Washington departed for Boston within days. The Congress also issued paper money, established a postal system, created a committee to negotiate with foreign powers, and sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III as a last attempt at reconciliation. The king refused to receive it and declared the colonies in open rebellion. By July 1776, the Congress had moved from reluctant war management to declaring independence, creating a new nation through an act of collective political will that had no precedent in the modern world.