V.

First Continental Congress

Protests grew stronger as other colonies also felt threatened and came to the defense of Massachusetts. Groups called Committees of Correspondence organized communication networks to publicize British actions and encourage demonstrations of defiance. Soon these committees and some colonial legislatures issued a call for an all-colony congress to discuss other appropriate responses to Britain’s actions. The Continental Congress first met in Philadelphia from September to the end of October 1774. This body did not plan for war; instead, it debated the extent to which the colonies should carry their resistance to Great Britain. The First Continental Congress passed a resolution on October 14 called the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which denied the power of Parliament to tax the colonies and presented the king of England with a list of grievances. On October 20 the congress also set up a Continental Association, composed of committees from each colony, to enforce the boycott of British imports and institute a ban on exports if Parliament did not repeal the Intolerable Acts.

Representatives to the Continental Congress declared that they had written both measures as loyal Englishmen. In the first document, they expressed the hope that 'their fellow subjects in Great Britain' would restore the relationship they had previously held with the colonies. The resolution for the Continental Association opened with the phrase 'We, his majesty's most loyal subjects….' Between 1765 and the beginning of 1775 the story of the resistance movement remains focused on colonial protest and actions taken as British subjects. The movement of events did not follow a single line of progression. Instead, there was give-and-take, with both sides never quite understanding one another. After the First Continental Congress, however, events took a dramatic turn that transformed these professions of loyalty into charges that the king and Parliament had no right to interfere in colonial affairs.