Category:Members of the Second Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress was a representative body which organized the war effort of the American colonies (later the United States) during the American Revolution. It was made up of delegations from each of the thirteen colonies/states; the delegations were not popularly elected, but were chosen by the colonial/state governments which they represented. There was no standard for imposing size requirements on delegations, though each delegation was allowed only one vote.

It met at a number of sites, most famously at Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its first session was convened on May 10, 1775, shortly after hostilities against the British began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

Though not originally a revolutionary body, Congress gradually shifted to a pro-independence stance during its first year in existence. On June 7, 1776, Delegates Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and John Adams of Massachusetts proposed the Lee Resolution, which established that the colonies would consider themselves to be independent states. The Resolution was passed on July 2 by a vote of 12-0 with one abstention (New York, which had no instructions from its legislature on how to vote; on July 9, New York joined the other colonies in supporting independence). Two days later, the delegates signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, and the United States became a sovereign nation.

Congress continued to meet throughout the war, raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, making treaties, and generally serving as the US's national government. After the war it continued to serve as the national government (now called the Congress of the COnfederation, with its earlier sessions also renamed to that title) until the United States Constitution went into effect in 1789, with its responsibilities shifting to those outlined by the much-criticized Articles of Confederation. In all the Congress met in ten sessions for just under fourteen years.

The articles in this category are members of the Continental Congress.