The First Continental Congress, Part I

On September 5, 1774, fifty delegates from eleven colonies crowded into the long room of Philadelphia’s City Tavern to commence a Continental Congress, to address what the colonies might do to fight the British Intolerable Acts. Those Acts had been wreaking havoc since the spring, exacerbating the harm done by the earlier Navigation Acts that crippled American commerce.

The delegates chose the crowded room to have less chance of being overheard by those already calling them traitors just for meeting together, but soon moved to the larger Carpenter’s Hall and were joined by delegates from a twelfth colony. Georgia chose not to attend, because it did not want to challenge Great Britain, a stance replicated by the colonies of North and South Florida, Nova Scotia, and two other Canadian areas.

Most delegates were rich men who had inherited their wealth.

Most delegates were rich men who had inherited their wealth. Only Ben Franklin of Pennsylvania and Roger Sherman of Connecticut could be called self-made. They were almost all veterans of colonial legislatures, used to the ways of politics and power, and fairly conservative. Some had attended the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, which had succeeded in getting that hated act rescinded.

Of the more radical delegates – Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina – only Henry proposed independence, and the idea was quickly voted down and he was relegated to a secondary committee where he couldn’t do much damage.

The delegates were determined to be fair to one another, and to not impose the tyranny of the majority, which occurs when a narrow majority forces its will on a considerable fraction that is in the minority. When they disagreed over whether to accept the legitimacy of the earlier British Navigation Acts and reject the later ones, and the sentiment was five colonies for and five against – the vote was not held at all. Rather, the delegates sought another, less divisive way of dealing with the problem.

What rights did the colonists have? Thomas Jefferson, who was ill and had returned to Monticello, sent along his “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” in which he claimed the rights as those enjoyed by the British, including free trade, which he described as a “natural” right. One malicious result of British regulation, he added, was slavery, and so “the abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies where it was unhappily introduced.” His anti-slavery notion was shunted aside in Philadelphia but the delegates liked a lot of what Jefferson wrote about their having the same rights as their overlords.

The question of what, precisely, to do about that was answered by Paul Revere, in a long-distance ride bringing the “Suffolk Resolves,” which the Massachusetts colonial legislature had just approved, to the anger of British General Gage and other British-appointed officials. First adopted by the county of Suffolk a year earlier, it mirrored material from Committees of Correspondence of Middlesex, Essex, and Worcester counties, it had urged all counties to close their courts and refuse to prosecute people for violations of the Intolerable and Navigation Acts.

The Resolves were quietly radical: boycott British imports and refuse to use British products; ignore and not obey the hated acts; demand resignations from colonists appointed under the acts; refuse to pay taxes unless the Massachusetts Government Act (over-riding the colonial legislature) was rescinded; and to raise a militia to defend the colonists from the British, should that become necessary.

Would the Continental Congress endorse the Suffolk Resolves? Delegate John Adams wrote in his diary, “This is one of the happiest days of my life. In Congress we had generous, noble sentiments, and manly eloquence. This day convinced me that America will support Massachusetts or perish with her.”

Early in October the Congress adopted the Suffolk Resolves and lay the groundwork for a more formal boycott and non-importation act, and the sending of a last-ditch olive branch letter directly to King George III. They put off the most important votes for the last week of the meeting.

Next: What the First Continental Congress finally agreed upon in October 1774, and its revolutionary consequences.

Salisbury resident Tom Shachtman has written many books, including three about the Revolutionary Era.