Second Continental Congress Dbq

In May of 1776 a resolution was passed at the Virginia Convention in Williamsburg that asked the thirteen American colonies to declare the United Colonies free and independent from the British crown. At the second continental congress the resolution passed and on June 11, 1776 a five-man committee led by Thomas Jefferson was established to write the Declaration of Independence. On July 4, 1776 the members of the second continental congress signed into existence one of the most influential documents in history.

            In May of 1766 Jefferson met with the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to discuss whether or not the states should regard themselves as part of the British Empire. The manner was debated by a group of radicals such as Jefferson and the Adams

In comparing Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists, The Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Constitution, it is evident that the basis of all three documents is the idea that all human beings possess God-given fundamental rights and that government is created to protect those rights. The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, is the first of the three documents penned. This is important because it defined the rights of liberty and equality of all American citizens as outlined in John Locke’s natural law thesis (Martin, page 113). In addition to providing an itemized account of the grievances colonist’s held against King George III of England, it served to justify the colonist’s quest for independence and separation from British rule. The Declaration of Independence conveyed to the crown that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, which among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Founders’ of the New World understood that their pursuit of liberties and autonomy specified in the Declaration of Independence could not come to fruition without instituting decrees. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution, was written to replace the Articles of Confederation with a better defined series of stringent laws that would legally uphold the freedoms and privileges established in the Declaration of Independence. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in

Members of the First Continental Congress did not suffer from lack of communication, as “The first few weeks were consumed in discussion and debate. The colonies had always, up to this time, acted as independent entities.” With that many delegates had to overcome distrust and learn to work as a whole body rather than individuals with different agendas.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress got together to form a document known as the Declaration of Independence. Written by American colonists, it did not want to be under British rule no more. The document also stated the rights of humans, but some of the main ones were the equality of men and also, the unalienable rights that the people of the United States were given as citizens. The Declaration of Independence has the main rights that modern citizens need now-a-day, but some can argue that the Preamble to the United States Constitution was made in order to form a more perfect union, making it the more compelling document. The Declaration of Independence, in comparison to the Preamble, is the most compelling document in today's day and age.

During the last decade of the eighteenth century, the Federalists were in control of the country and its policies. They passed laws to make a strong central government and some of them even desired for there to be a kind of landowner aristocracy. Their power soon began to erode from within as different factions headed by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton greatly weakened the party's effectiveness and power. They alienated themselves in the eyes of the population by passing the Alien and Sedition acts. This led to the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800, who described his election as a second revolution. Jefferson and his supporters were now able to try to bring about their dream of making America an agrarian republic of small

On June 7,1776 delegates (members) from the thirteen American colonies came together and met at the Pennsylvania State House that is now called Independence Hall. The men that joined in this undertaking were the men that formed the Second Continental Congress. The American people were already rebelling against King George the Third. This forced the hand of the Congress to decide whether or not the people of America should be a new country by declaring independence. This decision may have been debatably the most important in the world’s history or at least in the Revolution.

Second Continental Congress (May 1775) - The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 1774, also in Philadelphia. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States.[1]

The First Continental Congress was called into session in 1774. The Congress did not encourage independence. Instead, they wanted to show England how to fix the wrongs that had been imposed on the colonists. They hoped that this would unify the colonies and grant them a voice in parliament. The congress wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which consisted of American complaints that they addressed to the King. The delegates stayed loyal to King George III and made it clear that they were anymore for Parliament.

2nd Continental Congress: In May 1775, the delegation approved the movement that America would receive complete freedom from England. The main topics covered were to reach an agreement, have no shooting in Boston, and that the repealing of the Coercive Acts be commenced. It was denied by the king.

The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The men who attended were, for the most part, the same men who had appeared in the first Continental Congress. “The Adamses and the Livingstons, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Peyton Randolph, Jay Henry, Washington, and Lee were there, as also Franklin” (Fiske 132). The objectives of Congress were better understood in the Second Continental Congress, so more was accomplished (Burnett 65). The main goal of the Second Continental Congress was to restore harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies. Ideas that sprang from this were the establishment of rights and liberties, the repeal of the acts that Britain placed on the colonies, and the establishment of peace, welfare, and security in the colonies.

After the American Revolutionary War, the men in the Second Continental Congress were faced with a monumental challenge, creating a document that would democratically frame the new United States government in the spirit of liberty and freedom. While they spent much time and effort writing and ratifying this document, they were hindered by past experiences and prejudices against their previous mother country, Great Britain. The memories of imperial Britain, still fresh in the minds of the ex-colonists, caused them to include certain concepts of the Articles of Confederation that would prove detrimental to the functionality of the federal government. Although the American people desired to retain state sovereignty, they fashioned a form of government that bestowed excessive powers to the states, so severely that the national government could not effectively govern them

Jefferson began the document by explaining that the rights of the Americans had been brutally molested by the unjust King of Britain. Following this accusation, he provided evidence of this abuse by listing not just a mere handful, but 27 grievances that the King had inflicted against the colonies. Lastly, the conclusion of this article publishes and declares that the United Colonies have the right to be freed from the British and that they have the right to govern themselves as any free country does. The strategic organization of the Declaration of Independence allowed the colonies to be powerfully represented by such a clear and prudently worded

The year 1776 ignited the colonial rebellion from Great Britain, with colonists from the newly formed United States demanding their individual and colony’s rights. They advocated for representation, their individual rights, and the issue of sovereignty. With the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, individual rights overall were thought to be “protected” in the newly liberated Unites States. Yet the continued limiting of women’s rights, treatment of the mentally handicapped and emancipated slaves, the individual liberties colonists believed they would gain from Britain was only for certain individuals, not all. The colonists believed that they would advance their individual rights and freedoms with their independence from Britain; though the reality was that the struggles of individual liberties continued throughout the next 100 years in different classes of citizens despite their gaining of independence from Britain.

In this essay I explain the evolution of American attitudes and ideologies—apropos of Britain—from 1764 to 1776. I do so by, first, beginning with providing the context and explaining the state of the relationship between America and Britain throughout the course of the years 1764 to 1774, which in turn, consequently lead up to and instigated the creation of Thomas Jefferson’s 1774 piece entitled A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Next, second, I situate and analyze this very piece, that being: Thomas Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which is was a tract written before the Declaration of Independence, in which Thomas Jefferson (under his own personal authority/discretion) lays out—for the delegates of the First Continental Congress—a set of grievances directly against the King of England and his corresponding Parliament, and moreover, ultimately radically forewarns and threatens specifically the King of England to fundamentally change, alter, and lessen Britain’s stronghold on America or else something will be done on behalf of America. Finally, third, I reach to and evaluate another subsequent document, that being: the Committee of Five/Continental Congress’ 1776 Declaration of Independence, which is a statement written by the so-called “Committee of Five” (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston) and the Continental Congress, which was to be adopted by the newly formed United States of