The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry was formed.
A very famous National Guard unit, at one time it was mostly made up members of Philadelphia's social elite. It is still in existence.
The troop was originally called Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia.
Last edition:
You get the drill. Residents of Yorktown boarded the British ship Virginia and dumped two half-chests of tea into the York River.
Last edition:
Tea boldly brought into the harbor, was in turn tossed into the harbor at Charleston.
Last edition:
A boycott of British goods went into effect in Virginia.
Last edition:
Fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina, met and agreed to uphold the non-importation resolves passed in August 1774 by the North Carolina Provincial Congress in what is known as the Edenton Tea Party.
Last edition:
The Congress met according to adjournment, and resuming the consideration of the subject under debate, came into the following Resolutions:
Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British Parliament, claiming a power of right to bind the people of America, by statute, in all cases whatsoever, hath, in some Acts, expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various pretences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these Colonies, established a Board of Commissioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of Courts of Admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a County:
And whereas, in consequence of other Statutes, Judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent on the Crown alone for their salaries, and Standing Armies kept in times of peace: And it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that by force of a Statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, Colonists may be transported to England, and tried there upon accusations for treason, and misprisions, or concealments of treasons committed in the Colonies, and by a late Statute, such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned:
And whereas, in the last session of Parliament, three Statutes were made, one, entituled "An Act to discontinue, in such manner, and for such time, as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of Goods, Wares, and Merchandise, at the Town, and within the Harbour of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America;" another, entituled "An Act for the better regulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England;" and another, entituled "An Act for the impartial administration of Justice in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England;" and another Statute was then made "for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec," &c. All which statutes are impolitick, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most dangerous and destructive of American rights:
And whereas, Assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable Petitions to the Crown for redress, have been repeatedly treated with contempt by his Majesty's Ministers of State:
The good people of the several Colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of Parliament and Administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed Deputies to meet and sit in General Congress, in the City of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establishment as that their religion, laws, and liberties may not be subverted: Whereupon the Deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these Colonies, taking into their most serious consideration the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first place, as Englishmen, their ancestors in like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their rights and liberties, declare,
That the inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English Constitution, and the several Charters or Compacts, have the following Rights:
Resolved, N. C. D. 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty, and property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either without their consent.
Resolved, N. C. D. 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these Colonies, were at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural born subjects, within the Realm of England.
Resolved, N. C. D. 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy.
Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English Liberty, and of all free Government, is a right in the people to participate in their Legislative Council: and as the English Colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances cannot be properly represented in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several Provincial Legislatures, where their right of Representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their Sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both Countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such Acts of the British Parliament, as are, bona fide, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole Empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of Taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America, without their consent.
Resolved, N. C. D. 5. That the respective Colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law.
Resolved, 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of their Colonization; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances.
Resolved, N. C. D. 7. That these, his Majesty's Colonies, are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by Royal Charters, or secured by their several codes of Provincial Laws.
Resolved, N. C. D. 8. That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and Petition the King; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory Proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal.
Resolved, N. C. D. 9. That the keeping a Standing Army in these Colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the Legislature of that Colony, in which such Army is kept, is against law.
Resolved, N. C. D. 10. It is indispensably necessary to good Government, and rendered essential by the English Constitution, that the constituent branches of the Legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of Legislative power in several Colonies, by a Council appointed, during pleasure, by the Crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American Legislation.
All and each of which the aforesaid Deputies, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their Representatives in their several Provincial Legislatures.
In the course of our inquiry we find many infringements and violations of the foregoing Rights, which from an ardent desire, that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such Acts and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which demonstrate a system formed to enslave America.
Resolved, N. C. D. That the following Acts of Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the Colonists; and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary in order to restore harmony between Great Britain and the American Colonies, viz:
The several Acts of 4 George III. ch. 15, and ch. 34. 5 George III. ch. 25. 6 George III. ch. 52. 7 George III. ch. 41, and ch. 46. 8 George III. ch. 22, which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, extend the powers of the Admiralty Courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial by jury, authorize the Judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American rights.
Also the 12 George III. ch. 24, entituled "An Act for the better securing his Majesty's Dock-yards, Magazines, Ships, Ammunition, and Stores," which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American subject of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage, by authorizing the trial of any person, charged with the committing any offence described in the said Act, out of the Realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in any Shire or County within the Realm.
Also the three Acts passed in the last session of Parliament, for stopping the Port and blocking up the Harbour of Boston, for altering the Charter and Government of the Massachusetts Bay, and that which is entituled "An Act for the better administration of Justice," &c.
Also the Act passed in the same session for establishing the Roman Catholick Religion in the Province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English Laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger, from so total a dissimilarity of Religion, Law, and Government of the neighbouring British Colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France.
Also the Act passed in the same session for the better providing suitable Quarters for Officers and Soldiers in his Majesty's service in North America.
Also, that the keeping a Standing Army in several of these Colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the Legislature of that Colony in which such Army is kept, is against law.
To these grevious Acts and measures Americans cannot submit, but in hopes that their fellow-subjects in Great Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us to that state in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures: 1. To enter into a Non-Importation, Non-Consumption, and Non-Exportatation Agreement or Association. 2. To prepare an Address to the People of Great Britain, and a Memorial to the Inhabitants of British America; and 3. To prepare a loyal Address to his Majesty, agreeable to Resolutions already entered into.
Last edition:
Congress passed a resolution that “a memorial be prepared for the people of British America, stating to them the necessity of a firm, united, and invariable observation of the measures recommended by the Congress, as they tender the invaluable rights and liberties derived to them from the laws and constitution of their country.”
Last edition:
Delegates met in Salem Massachusetts to form an illegal provincial congress to address the issues with the United Kingdom.
Last edition:
Worcester Massachusetts issued instructions to blacksmith Timothy Bigelow, it's representative to a provincial Congress:
You are to consider the people of this province absolved, on their part, from the obligation therein contained, and to all intents and purposes reduced to a state of nature; and you are to exert yourself in devising ways and means to raise from the dissolution of the old constitution, as from the ashes of the Phenix, a new form, wherein all officers shall be dependent on the suffrages of the people, whatever unfavorable constructions our enemies may put upon such procedure.
Last edition:
Congress passed a resolution requesting the preparation of an address to the Crown for the redress of grievances.
And it wasn't even Festivus.
Last edition:
That from and after the first day of December next, there be no importation into British America from Great Britain or Ireland, of any goods, wares or merchandizes whatsoever, or from any other place, of any such goods, wares or merchandizes, as shall have been exported from Great-Britain or Ireland; and that no such goods, wares or merchandizes, imported after the said first day of December next, be used or purchased.
Oh oh.
Tea brought into the harbor at York harbor was seized by men dressed as Native Americans from the vessel that brought it in, but it was not destroyed. Indeed, the protest having been made, the tea was quietly returned.
Last edition:
The First Continental Congress adopted the Suffolk Resolves.
Last edition:
Paul Revere rode to Milton, Massachusetts, to pick up the Suffolk Resolves. He took them to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
Last edition:
Penelope Barker organized 51 women in Edenton, North Carolina to protest taxation without representation.
Last edition:
The First Prayer of the Continental Congress was delivered.
O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!
Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Reverend Jacob Duché
Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a.m.
The effect of this opening prayer was profound.
American Association for State and Local History
It was truly, a major event.
Last edition:
The first Continental Congress convened at Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia. Twelve of the Fourteen (not thirteen) colonies sent delegates. Georgia, which was fearful of war with native tribes, did not participate as it hoped for British assistance in the impending war with those earlier denizens. Quebec had no interest in participating.
Peyton Randolph of Virginia was named President of the First Continental Congress.
Randolph. . . not Washington.
Randolph, not Washington, was the first President of the United States by some measures (and Washington is not the first President under any properly considered measure). He was an American born lawyer who had studied law at the Middle Temple at the Inns of Court in London, becoming a member of the bar in 1743, showing just how unlike the current populist "don't tread on me" crowd these men were.
He died of some sort of seizure in 1775 while dining with Thomas Jefferson. He was 54 years of age.
Signatory page of the three-page Continental Association signed by 53 of the 56 delegates
