The Continental Congress gathering to sign the US Declaration of Independence on 2 July 1776
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the nascent United States during the American Revolution. From 1774 to 1781, Congress convened several times to protest against King George III of Great Britain's tyranny, and the Third Continental Congress lasted from 1776 until the end of the war, while the previous two had lasted for just one year each. Congress had several presidents during the war, with some including Peyton Randolph, John Hancock, and Elias Boudinot.
History[]
Benjamin Franklin was the man who invented the idea of holding a congress of delegates from across the Thirteen Colonies, having held the Congress of Albany in 1754 during the French and Indian War to unite the colonies together in their struggle against France. In 1774, the colonies each sent delegates to Philadelphia not to fight against France, but now to protest against Great Britain's "taxation without representation" policies in the Americas. The Congress was held again in 1775 after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War to extend the Olive Branch Petition to King George III of Great Britain, but King George refused to ratify it. As a result, the war dragged on for several more years, and the nascent USA had a third Continental Congress from 1776 to 1781 to politically lead the country during its war for independence. It was Congress that represented the American people during the war, and it elected George Washington as commander-in-chief in 1775 - Washington would prove to be a great general whose victory at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 persuaded the British to seek peace. The British ultimately made peace with the United States at the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the war. The Congress no longer had any use, and it was replaced with the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation until the US Constitution was signed in 1789. The Continental Congress would be the first incarnation of the US Congress, established by the Constitution.