User:Baduttonpstcc/sandbox

The Second Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies in America which united in the American Revolutionary War. It convened on May 10, 1775 with representatives from 12 of the colonies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord, succeeding the First Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774. The Second Congress functioned as a de facto national government at the outset of the Revolutionary War by raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and writing treatises such as the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and the Olive Branch Petition. There were two main groups represented in the Second Continental Congress, the conservatives led by John Jay and John Dickinson, and the radicals led by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The conservatives still believed that the relationship with the British was still able to be mended and the radicals were focused on breaking off from British rule.