First Continental Congress

Prior to that, the attitude was, "If you don't like our denomination, fine, start your own colony." [laughs] It was one denomination per colony.

And so they had a motion at the First Continental Congress to h- to have prayer, and the delegate from South Carolina, Rutledge, and the delegate from New York, Jay, said, "Uh, we don't want to hear a prayer from another denomination." John Adams writes, "We were so divided in our religious sentiments that we couldn't join together in the same act of worship." Sam Adams stands up, he goes, "I'm no bigot.

I can hear a prayer of any man of piety who at the same time is a patriot of our country." And so they have the Reverend Jacob Duché, they have the prayer, they're kneeling and they're crying and...

So America started with Christians that didn't always agree doctrinally on everything, but we all loved Jesus.

This is September of 1774.

So they get together in the First Continental Congress.

That was a motion made where they said, hey, why don't we get all the delegates together from all 13 colonies and let's talk about if we should join and work together.

And so in May of 1774, and it was suggested at that point in time, that they open with prayer.

The Application of Tests of Allegiance As the successive steps were taken in the direction of independent government, the Patriots devised and applied tests designed to discover who were for and who were against the new nation in the process of making.

When the First Continental Congress agreed not to allow the importation of British goods, it provided for the creation of local committees to enforce the rules.

Such agencies were duly formed by the choice of men favoring the scheme, all opponents being excluded from the elections.

before these bodies those who persisted in buying british goods were summoned and warned or punished according to circumstances as soon as the new state constitutions were put into effect local committees set to work in the same way to ferret out all who were not outspoken in their support of the new order of things these patriot agencies bearing different names in different sections were sometimes ruthless in their methods they called upon all men to sign the test of loyalty frequently known as the association test Those who refused were promptly branded as outlaws, while some of the more dangerous were thrown into jail.

On the Patriot side, there is the testimony of a careful and informed observer, John Adams, who asserted that two-thirds of the people were for the American cause and not more than one-third opposed a revolution at all stages.

On behalf of the Loyalists, or Tories as they were popularly known, extravagant claims were made.

Joseph Galloway, who had been a member of the First Continental Congress and had fled to England when he saw its temper, testified before a committee of parliament in 1779 that not one-fifth of the American people supported the insurrection and that, quote, many more than four-fifths of the people prefer a union with Great Britain upon constitutional principles to independence, end quote.

At the same time, General Robertson, who had lived in America 24 years, declared that, quote, more than two-thirds of the people would prefer the king's government to the Congress's tyranny, end quote.

The Application of Tests of Allegiance As the successive steps were taken in the direction of independent government, the Patriots devised and applied tests designed to discover who were for and who were against the new nation in the process of making.

When the First Continental Congress agreed not to allow the importation of British goods, it provided for the creation of local committees to enforce the rules.

Such agencies were duly formed by the choice of men favoring the scheme, all opponents being excluded from the elections.

Before these bodies, those who persisted in buying British goods were summoned and warned or punished according to circumstances.

On the Patriot side, there is the testimony of a careful and informed observer, John Adams, who asserted that two-thirds of the people were for the American cause and not more than one-third opposed a revolution at all stages.

On behalf of the Loyalists, or Tories as they were popularly known, extravagant claims were made.

Joseph Galloway, who had been a member of the First Continental Congress and had fled to England when he saw its temper, testified before a committee of parliament in 1779 that not one-fifth of the American people supported the insurrection and that, quote, many more than four-fifths of the people prefer a union with Great Britain upon constitutional principles to independence, end quote.

At the same time, General Robertson, who had lived in America 24 years, declared that, quote, more than two-thirds of the people would prefer the king's government to the Congress's tyranny, end quote.

The Application of Tests of Allegiance As the successive steps were taken in the direction of independent government, the Patriots devised and applied tests designed to discover who were for and who were against the new nation in the process of making.

When the First Continental Congress agreed not to allow the importation of British goods, it provided for the creation of local committees to enforce the rules.

Such agencies were duly formed by the choice of men favoring the scheme, all opponents being excluded from the elections.

before these bodies those who persisted in buying british goods were summoned and warned or punished according to circumstances as soon as the new state constitutions were put into effect local committees set to work in the same way to ferret out all who were not outspoken in their support of the new order of things these patriot agencies bearing different names in different sections were sometimes ruthless in their methods they called upon all men to sign the test of loyalty frequently known as the association test Those who refused were promptly branded as outlaws, while some of the more dangerous were thrown into jail.

On the Patriot side, there is the testimony of a careful and informed observer, John Adams, who asserted that two-thirds of the people were for the American cause and not more than one-third opposed a revolution at all stages.

On behalf of the Loyalists, or Tories as they were popularly known, extravagant claims were made.

Joseph Galloway, who had been a member of the First Continental Congress and had fled to England when he saw its temper, testified before a committee of parliament in 1779 that not one-fifth of the American people supported the insurrection and that, quote, many more than four-fifths of the people prefer a union with Great Britain upon constitutional principles to independence, end quote.

At the same time, General Robertson, who had lived in America 24 years, declared that, quote, more than two-thirds of the people would prefer the king's government to the Congress's tyranny, end quote.