Continental Congress: First Continental Congress

Indignation against England's colonial policy reached fever pitch in the colonies after the passage (1774) of the Intolerable Acts, and the Sons of Liberty and the committees of correspondence promoted the idea of an intercolonial assembly similar to the one held (1765) at the time of the Stamp Act.

The First Continental Congress (Sept. 5–Oct. 26, 1774) was made up of delegates from all the colonies except Georgia. It met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, and Peyton Randolph was chosen to preside. The meeting's general purpose was to express colonial grievances against British policy, and only a few radical members considered the possibility of breaking with England. The plan of Joseph Galloway for reconciling Great Britain and the colonies under a new imperial scheme was introduced but rejected.

The session's most important act was the creation of the Continental Association, which forbade importation and use of British goods and proposed prohibition of colonial exports. Several petitions of grievances, written principally by John Dickinson, were sent to the king, and the meeting was adjourned until May 10, 1775.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Postwar Continental Congress
• The Second Continental Congress
• First Continental Congress
• Bibliography

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