First Continental Congress
Twelve colonies sent delegates to Philadelphia in September 1774 to decide what to do about Boston. The occasion was the Coercive Acts, passed after the destruction of the tea: the port of Boston closed until the East India Company was paid, the Massachusetts charter altered so that the council was appointed rather than elected, town meetings restricted, royal officials accused of capital crimes tried in England, and troops quartered. The intention was to isolate Massachusetts and the effect was the opposite. Fifty-six delegates met at Carpenters' Hall — Georgia stayed away, being dependent on troops against the Creek. They were not revolutionaries. The most radical proposal on the table was Galloway's plan for an American parliament under the crown, which was defeated by one vote and struck from the record. What they agreed was the Continental Association: a boycott of British imports from December, of exports from the following September, and enforcement by committees of inspection elected in every county and town — which is the significant part, since those committees became the working government of the colonies within a year. They also endorsed the Suffolk Resolves declaring the Coercive Acts void, and petitioned the king. The session lasted seven weeks and agreed to meet again in May if the grievances were not redressed. Parliament rejected the petition, Lexington and Concord were fought in April 1775, and the Second Congress met on schedule. The Association is the part most worth noticing. It created an enforcement apparatus of elected committees in almost every community, which functioned as courts of opinion, and by the time fighting began the royal governors had discovered that their instructions no longer reached anyone.
- Year: 1774 CE
- Category: Political
