Continental Congress Resolves to Put Colonies in State of Defense

Continental Congress Resolves to Put Colonies in State of Defense

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to coordinate the actions of the American colonies in the continuing crisis with Great Britain. News from Massachusetts of the battles of April 19 at Lexington and Concord, and allegations of atrocities committed by British troops retreating from those engagements to Boston, angered moderate delegates and drove even conservatives like John Dickinson of Pennsylvania to despair of the possibilities of reconciliation. Five days later, on May 15, the congress took an important step toward a total military rebellion against Great Britain, resolving that “these colonies be immediately put in a state of defence.”

Congress advised the colonies to prepare their militia units, in which all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 50 were supposed to serve. The Philadelphia delegates offered a general plan for the most efficient organization of militia companies, the combination of these smaller groups into battalions and regiments, and the proper allocation of officers throughout the structure. The congressional directive granted company-size elements the power to select their own leaders, and authorized proindependence groups to appoint regimental officers on the provincial level.

In a decision of even greater importance, the Philadelphia assembly took steps to establish an intercolonial Continental army. John Adams of Massachusetts offered the forces besieging the British troops in Boston as the nucleus of the Continental army, and the congress on June 14, 1775, resolved to raise six additional companies in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to assist in the New England operations. The delegates requested the colonies to raise specified numbers of troops and authorized them to appoint officers up to the rank of colonel.

Congress reserved for itself the power to choose generals in the Continental army and decided immediately to name a commander in chief. George Washington was the leading candidate for the post. Forty-three years of age, the Virginian had gained military experience in the French and Indian War, serving for a time as an American aide-de-camp to the ill-fated General Edward Braddock. The fact that Washington was one of the wealthiest men in America made him attractive to conservatives. In politics he was a moderate, acceptable to both radicals and conservatives. On June 15, 1775, Thomas Johnson of Maryland nominated Washington as commander in chief. John Adams, New England's radical spokesman, seconded the selection in the hope of enlisting southern support for beleaguered Massachusetts, and the delegates gave their unanimous consent.

Washington, who attended the session in his Virginia militia uniform, accepted the post. He made a modest speech to the congress, and offered to serve without salary. The new commander then prepared to depart for Massachusetts to join the colonial soldiers encircling Boston, where the British troops had taken refuge. On June 17, 1775, the congress named a number of other generals, including Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam as major generals. The delegates also designated Horatio Gates as adjutant general, James Warren of Massachusetts as paymaster general of the main army, and Jonathan Trumbull Jr. as paymaster of the forces in New York. The congress then deferred to Washington for the selection of officers for the posts of quartermaster general and commissary of artillery.

Aware of the vulnerability of the provincial legislatures to the powers of the royal governors, the congress on July 18, 1775, advised the colonies to appoint extralegal committees of safety to supervise matters relating to defense during the recesses of the colonial assemblies. The provinces quickly responded, and the committees of safety became strong bodies, which sometimes operated in arbitrary ways to obtain the cooperation of the reluctant. At the same time, the Continental Congress reminded the colonies to ensure the safety of their harbors and seacoasts.

Congress next faced the problem of raising money for the defenses. Gouverneur Morris of New York was most active in developing a plan to issue paper money, which the delegates adopted on June 22, 1775. According to the proposal, the congress was to issue not more than $2 million in bills of credit backed by Spanish milled dollars. The confederated colonies then pledged to redeem them within seven years, with each colony paying a share of the debt proportionate to the size of its population.

As subsidiary measures to secure the American military position, the congress took action to improve relations with the colonies' Canadian and Native American neighbors, to establish a post office, and to set up a military hospital. The congress on May 29, 1775, requested the “oppressed inhabitants of Canada” to extend cooperation to American efforts to preserve liberty. On July 13 the delegates appointed commissioners to secure treaties of neutrality with the tribes in the northern and middle colonies, and on July 19 designated other negotiators to deal with the tribes in the south. On July 26 the congress named Benjamin Franklin postmaster general and authorized the erection of a string of stations from New England to Georgia that would offer the ways and means “for the speedy and secure conveyance of Intelligence from one end of the Continent to the other.” Finally, on July 27 the assembly made provisions for a hospital establishment, including a director-general and chief physician, four surgeons, one apothecary, two storekeepers, one nurse to every ten sick, 20 surgeons' mates, and occasional laborers. Benjamin Church of Boston, who later proved to be an informer for the British, became the director-general and chief physician.

Before adjourning on August 2, 1775, the delegates issued two important declarations. Much to the distress of the radicals, the congress on July 5 adopted the Olive Branch Petition, designed by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania as a final plea for reconciliation between England and its colonies. The petition, which King George III eventually refused to receive, restated the Americans' grievances, professed the colonists' attachment to the crown, and begged that the monarch prevent further hostile action until a peaceable solution could be achieved. On July 6 the assemblage endorsed a “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms,” a statement drafted by John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, which rejected independence as a goal but presented the colonial point of view in the most forceful manner:

We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.…Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable.…With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.

The words of this declaration were to be more prophetic than those of the Olive Branch Petition. Lexington and Concord became not isolated incidents but the first battles of the American Revolution, a protracted war between the united colonies and Great Britain. Fortunately for the Americans, the actions taken by the Second Continental Congress proved a solid foundation on which they were able to construct a lasting triumph and a new nation.