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Collection A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774 to 1875

Journals of the Continental Congress

The Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1791) are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress and include the text of ordinances, such as the Northwest Ordinance, reports to Congress and correspondence with the colonies, states, foreign powers and others.

The First Continental Congress met from September 5 to October 26, 1774. The Second Continental Congress ran from May 10, 1775 to March 2, 1789. The Journals of the Continental Congress are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress and include the text of ordinances, such as the Northwest Ordinance, reports to Congress and correspondence with the colonies, states, foreign powers and others. The Journals were kept by the office of its secretary Charles Thomson.

The Journals were printed contemporaneously in different editions and in several subsequent reprint editions. None of these editions, however, includes the "Secret Journals" (confidential sections of the records), which were not published until 1821.

This complete edition, published by the Library of Congress from 1904 to 1937, is based on the manuscript Journals and other manuscript records of the Continental Congress in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.  Further information on how this edition was assembled and notes explaining features introduced by the editors are in the Prefatory Note to volumes 1 and 2.

If you have a question regarding the Journal of the Confederate Congress, please contact the Law Library of Congress through our Ask A Librarian service.

Bibliographic Record

This collection is available here.