End of the Second Continental Congress
- When
- 1775–1776
- Where
- Independence Hall, Philadelphia; Philadelphia meeting site of the Second Continental Congress; Seat of the Second Continental Congress
- Episodes
- 4
The Second Continental Congress, convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, functioned as the de facto government of the rebelling colonies, created the Continental Army, and declared independence in July 1776. The supplied passages do not state a specific end date for the session that began in 1775, so the legacy claim of a 582-day session ending December 12, 1776 cannot be confirmed.
Episodes
- Convening in Philadelphia
Delegates from twelve colonies met in Independence Hall on May 10, 1775, after war had already begun at Lexington and Concord.
- Creation of the Continental Army
On June 14, 1775, the Congress voted to form the Continental Army from militia around Boston, naming Washington commanding general the next day.
- Georgia Joins the Congress
Georgia, absent at first, endorsed the Congress in July 1775 and adopted the continental ban on trade with Britain.
- Adoption of Independence
With all thirteen colonies represented, the Congress approved the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and agreed to the Declaration of Independence two days later.
Background and detail
Background. The Second Continental Congress succeeded the First Continental Congress, which had met in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774. It began convening in present-day Independence Hall in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, with representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord fought on April 19, 1775.
Wartime Governance and Independence. At the outset of the Revolutionary War, the Congress acted as the de facto federation government, raising militias, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and issuing petitions including the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and the Olive Branch Petition. It first named the union the United Colonies of North America, renaming it the United States of America in 1776.
The Question of the Session's End. The passages describe the Congress as sitting from 1775 to 1781 and record its later relocations to Baltimore and York, but none supplies a date on which the session beginning May 10, 1775 ended, nor a total of 582 days. The December 12, 1776 endpoint in the legacy record is therefore unsupported and is treated as unresolved.
People involved
- George Washington · Commanding general of the Continental Army, named by the Congress on June 15, 1775
- Richard Henry Lee · Delegate who offered the independence resolution before the Congress on June 7, 1776
Sources
- Second Continental Congress Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-05
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.