First Continental Congress: September 24, 1774

Congress turned to the Report of the First Committee.  The objective expressed by the delegates who wrote the Report was reconciliation with Britain. John Jay, a member of the Committee, mentions this in a letter to John Vardill.

Link to date-related documents.

Journals of the Continental Congress [Edited]

The Congress debated the Report of the First Committee.  No record of the debate exists.  But we know the ending; the delegates petitioned for reconciliation. 

The Congress resolved, after some debate, that they “do confine themselves, at present, to the consideration of such rights only as have been infringed by acts of the British parliament since the year 1763, postponing the further consideration of the general state of American rights to a future day.”

The Committee appointed to state the rights &c. brought in a report of the infringements and violations of American rights, which being read–upon motion,

Resolved, That the consideration of the report be referred until Monday and that the Congress in the meanwhile deliberate on the means most proper to be pursued for a restoration of our rights.

After some debate on the subject, the Congress adjourned.

John Jay to John Vardill (Professor, King’s College, New York)

The Indignation of all Ranks of People is very much roused by the Boston & Canada Bills. God knows how the Contest will end. I sincerely wish it may terminate in a lasting Union with Great Britain. I am obliged to be very reserved on this Subject by the Injunction of Secrecy laid on all the Members of the Congress, and though I am aware of the Confidence I might repose in your Prudence, I must nevertheless submit to the Control of Honor perhaps on this occasion too delicate. By the next opportunity I hope I shall be able to be more explicit.

Edited with commentary by Gordon Lloyd.