Glenn Vance

Members of the Second Continental Congress

The First Con­ti­nen­tal Con­gress did a few things, like draft the Arti­cles of Asso­ci­a­tion¹ and to pro­vide for a Sec­ond Con­ti­nen­tal Con­gress to meet on May 10, 1775, but the big news from the Sec­ond Con­ti­nen­tal Con­gress was that they began debat­ing a res­o­lu­tion in favor of inde­pen­dence, which was approved on July 2, 1776 and signed 2 days later. Big news indeed.

And yeah, you know some of these men, but what about the other men? Here they are, the mem­bers of the Sec­ond Con­ti­nen­tal Con­gress -²

From New Cas­tle, Kent, and Sus­sex, on Delaware
George Read
Cae­sar Rod­ney
Thomas McKean

From the Province of Penn­syl­va­nia
George Cly­mer
Ben­jamin Franklin
Robert Mor­ris
John Mor­ton
Ben­jamin Rush
George Ross
James Smith
James Wil­son
George Taylor

From the Province of Mass­a­chu­setts Bay
John Adams
Samuel Adams
John Han­cock
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry

From the Province of New Hamp­shire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whip­ple
Matthew Thornton

From the Colony of Rhode Island and Prov­i­dence Plan­ta­tions
Stephen Hop­kins
William Ellery

From the Province of New York
Lewis Mor­ris
Philip Liv­ingston
Fran­cis Lewis
William Floyd

From the Province of Geor­gia
But­ton Gwin­nett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

From the Colony and Domin­ion of Vir­ginia
Richard Henry Lee
Fran­cis Light­foot Lee
Carter Brax­ton
Ben­jamin Har­ri­son
Thomas Jef­fer­son
George Wythe
Thomas Nel­son, Jr.

From the Province of North Car­olina
William Hooper
John Penn
Joseph Hewes

From the Province of South Car­olina
Edward Rut­ledge
Arthur Mid­dle­ton
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Thomas Hey­ward, Jr.

From the Province of New Jer­sey
Abra­ham Clark
John Hart
Fran­cis Hop­kin­son
Richard Stock­ton
John Witherspoon

From the Con­necti­cut Colony
Samuel Hunt­ing­ton
Roger Sher­man
William Williams
Oliver Wol­cott
From Mary­land
Charles Car­roll
Samuel Chase
Thomas Stone
William Paca

1. The Arti­cles of Asso­ci­a­tion were peti­tions of griev­ances against Great Britain by the Thir­teen Colonies and a com­pact among them to col­lec­tively impose eco­nomic sanc­tions to pres­sure a res­o­lu­tion. The Arti­cles were drafted by the First Con­ti­nen­tal Con­gress in 1774 and were an impor­tant for­ma­tive doc­u­ment in the his­tory of the United States that per­haps has­tened the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion, though they were intended instead to alter Britain’s poli­cies towards the colonies with­out sev­er­ing alle­giance. [↩]
2. The list of these men can be found pretty much any­where on the Inter­net, but my list came from ushistory.org. [↩]

07. February 2007 by Glenn Vance
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