2 We are not insensible of the fact that the origin of the Congress of the Continent, which was assembled at Philadelphia, in 1774, has been variously stated, by many of those who have preceded us ; and we are equally sensible of the other fact, that individuals, in different Colonies, ■without any connection with each other, had suggested, theoretically, that such a Congress would be useful for various limited and, generally, local purposes, previously to that more general and practical proposition which was made by the Committee of Correspondence in New Tork, on the occasion under consideration.

The Town of Providence, in Town-meeting, May 17, 1774, was, probably, the first organized body which recommended a Congress of the several Colonies, for general purposes ; but it only requested the Deputies of the Town, in the approaching General Assembly, to " use their influ- " ence," in that body, not yet assembled, "for promoting a Congress, as soon "as maybe, of the Representatives of the General Assemblies of the "several Colonies and Provinces in North America," for the general purposes of the whole number, (Proceedings of the Town-Meeting, reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 333 ;) and the Committee of Correspondence of Philadelphia, in its reply to the Committee of Correspondence of Boston, dated "Philadelphia, May 21, 1774," compared the proposition of Boston, to enter into au Association of Non- Exportation and Non-Intercourse, with the proposition of New-York, to convene a Congress of the Colonies, without determining which of the two it would approve, (Letter, dated as above stated,) leaving the subject undecided, until the eighteenth of June, when the Congress was determined on, by a Meeting of the Citizens, without the intervention of the Committee, (Proceedings of the Meeting, reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 426, 427.)