Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party in 1774 by passing several laws that became known in America as the Intolerable Acts.  One law closed Boston Harbor until Bostonians paid for the destroyed tea.  Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave added powers to the post of governor of Massachusetts.  Those powers in effect made him a dictator.  The American colonists were very angered by these forceful acts.   In response to these actions and laws, the colonist banded together to fight back.  Several committees of colonists called for a convention of delegates from the colonies to organize resistance to the Intolerable Acts.  The convention was later to be called the Continental Congress.

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts.  Representatives attended from all the colonies except Georgia.  The leaders included Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia.  The Congress voted to cut off colonial trade with Great Britain unless Parliament abolished the Intolerable Acts.  It approved resolutions advising the colonies to begin training their citizens for war.   They also attempted to define America's rights, place limits on Parliament's power, and agree on tactics for resisting the aggressive acts of the English Government.  It also set up the Continental Association to enforce an embargo against England.  By the time the first meeting of the Continental Congress ended, hostilities had begun  between Britain and the colonies.

Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress October 14, 1774

The Resolutions and Recommendations of Congress May 10-15, 1776

Farrand's Record (The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787) 3 volumes
One of the great scholarly efforts of the early twentieth century was Max Farrand's gathering of the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention. Published in 1911, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 contained the materials necessary for a study of the workings of the Constitutional Convention. Farrand's Records remains the single best source for discussions of the Constitutional Convention.

Journals of the Continental Congress 34 volumes
The Journals of the Continental Congress are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as kept by the office of its secretary, Charles Thomson. The Journals were printed contemporaneously in different editions and in several subsequent reprint editions.

Thomas Jefferson Papers
The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents ranging in date from 1606 to 1827. Correspondence, memoranda, notes, and drafts of documents make up two-thirds of the Papers. Jefferson's two administrations as president from 1801 to 1809 are well-documented, as are his activities as a delegate to the second Continental Congress, his drafting of the Declaration of Independence in June-July 1776, his service as governor of Virginia, 1779-81, his return to Congress as a representative, 1783-84, and his appointment as minister plenipotentiary in Europe and then minister to the Court of Louis XVI, 1784-89. Correspondence, drawings, maps, and notes document the building of Washington, D.C. Some of Jefferson's legal and literary commonplace books, miscellaneous bound volumes of notes and extracts, and manuscript volumes relating to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Virginia history were part of the personal library he sold to Congress in 1815 and are included in this collection.

George Washington Papers
The online version of the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress offers access to the complete collection from the Library's Manuscript Division. This consists of approximately 65,000 items (176,000 pages). Correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries and journals, reports, notes, financial account books, and military papers accumulated by George Washington from 1741 through 1799 are organized into 8 Series, which will be published successively.