The Continental Congress

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the first Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which claimed that Americans could not submit to specific British Acts that were considered intolerable and set up a boycott on British goods. The author relates that the Declaration of Independence, written mainly by Thomas Jefferson, included a list of grievances against England's colonial policy; its preamble was a statement of a political philosophy based on natural rights and was a declaration of war against England. The paper stresses that the formation of the Continental Congress taught the delegates that they could meet and cooperate to further their common aims to defy Parliament's claim to unlimited powers over British America.

From the Paper:

"One of the keys to understanding the Continental Congress's impact on the future of the colonies and the road to revolution is to understand the core belief system that many of the delegates held to. General Gage, commander of the British troops in America, wrote this about the delegates, "[t]hey are of various characters and opinions, but it's to be feared in general, that the spirit of Democracy, is strong amongst them." An example that illustrates this clearly was their arguments against the Stamp Act. Instead of arguing that the act served a wrong purpose, they argued that it was unconstitutional, and contrary to their rights. This spirit of freedom and liberty that existed in the colonies and the Continental Congress could use this vehicle of assembly to voice these beliefs."

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