Aprovincial congress was an extralegalgeneral convention orrepresentative assembly patterned aftercoloniallower houses formed in ten of thethirteen Colonies during theAmerican Revolution to initiate self-rule. Some were referred to as provincial congresses while others used different terms. The provincial congresses were generally replaced or renamed when the tenBritish colonies declared themselvessovereign states.[1]
Colonial government in America was a system of governance modeled after the British government of the time, with the king corresponding tothe governor, theHouse of Commons to thecolonial assembly, and theHouse of Lords to thegovernor's council.[2] Colonial assemblies, based on theirrights as Englishmen, did not accept that theBritish Parliament in which they had no representatives had authority over them to impose taxes (or certain other laws), and that it was the colonial assembly’s duty to decide what should be imposed on their fellow colonists (theMassachusetts Circular Letter was an example of that argument). Legally, the crown governor's authority was unassailable, but assemblies began to resist efforts by some governors and royal officials to enforce acts of Parliament or to raise local taxes that governors demanded. In resisting that authority, assemblies increasingly depended on arguments based uponnatural rights and the common welfare, giving life to the notion that governments derived, or ought to derive, their authority from theconsent of the governed.[3]
Committees of correspondence were formed as shadow governments in the Thirteen colonies during the American Revolution.[4] During theFirst Continental Congress (in 1774),committees of inspection were formed to enforce theContinental Association trade boycott with Britain in response to the British Parliament’sIntolerable Acts. By 1775, the committees had become counter-governments that gradually replaced royal authority and took control of local governments. Known as the Committees of Safety, they regulated the economy, politics, morality, and militia of their individual communities.[5] After the BritishProclamation of Rebellion and the King’s speech before Parliament (27 October 1775)[6] the colonies moved towards independence.
Provisional governments began tocreate new state constitutions and governments.Committees of safety were a later outcome of the committees of correspondence. Committees of safety were executive bodies that governed duringadjournments of, were created by, and derived their authority from provincial assemblies or congresses.[7]
In some colonies there were little or no changes to their assemblies until statehood. They had no need of a provisional legislative body since their governors did not dissolve or prevent the legislative assemblies from meeting. This was the case in theCharter colonies with more autonomy, such asConnecticut andRhode Island, which elected colonial governors who were aligned with their assemblies. (Connecticut GovernorJonathan Trumbull and Rhode Island GovernorNicholas Cooke served as both the last colonial governors and first state governors.) TheDelaware Colony was aproprietary colony under GovernorJohn Penn of theProvince of Pennsylvania, which included the “Lower Counties of the Delaware", but it maintained a separateDelaware assembly. It was generally allowed more independence of action in their colonial assembly than in other colonies.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1904)."Committees of Correspondence".Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. 5. Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1904)."Committees of Safety".Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. 5.
