John Jay Virginia........... May 10, 1775. Massachusetts............. May 24, 1775. Samuel Huntington.............. Connecticut......... ..... September 28, 1779. Thomas McKean.................. Delaware ... July 10, 1781. Maryland.. New Jersey................. November 4, 1782. Pennsylvania John Hanson...................... Elias Boudinot..... Thomas Mifflin....................... Richard Henry Lee............... Virginia.... Nathaniel Gorham....... Arthur St. Clair Cyrus Griffin... November 3, 1783. November 30, 1784. SESSIONS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. The sessions of the Continental Congress were commenced as follows:September 5, 1774, also May 10, 1775, at Philadelphia; December 20, 1776, at Baltimore; March 4, 1777, at Philadelphia; September 27, 1777, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania; September 30, 1777, at York, Pennsylvania; July 2, 1778, at Philadelphia; June 30, 1783, at Princeton, New Jersey; November 26, 1783, at Annapolis, Maryland; November 1, 1784, at Trenton, New Jersey; January 11, 1785, at New York, which, from that time, continued to be the place of meeting until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. From 1781 to 1788, Congress met annually on the first Monday in November, pursuant to the articles of confederation. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America. ARTICLE I. SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. SECT. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free per sons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall |