After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, a Second Continental Congress met. Colonists were still thinking about the two battles. The Congress met on May 10, 1776, in the State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is now called Indepence Hall.

This second Congress had a few delegates that hadn't been at The First Continental Congress. Some of those new and returning delegates included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and the new president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock. The Congress included sixty-five delegates. Thomas Jefferson was a plantation owner and a lawyer who was well-known as a good writer. Benjamin Franklin wanted independence, but many delegates disagreed. Even after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, they weren't ready to break away from Great Britain.

The day that the Second Continental Congress met, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York.

The Second Continental Congress decided many important things. At the Congress, they decided to completely break away from Great Britain. On May 15, 1776, they decided to officially put the colonies in a state of defense.

Another thing they decided they had to do was to organize the militia of the colonies better. So, they decided to form an army called the American Continental Army. On June 14, 1776, the Congress officially appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. He was elected unanimously. George Washington knew that this army would face great difficulty. He later wrote that Americans were "not then organized as a nation, or known as a people upon the earth. We had no preparation. Money, the nerve of war, was wanting." Great Britain was the most powerful nation on earth. It was a frightening thought that the Continental Army would might need to fight Great Britain.

Image courtesy of ArtToday.

Another thing the Congress discussed was if they were going to print paper money. This passed and paper money started to be printed later in the year. The Second Continental Congress was one of the most important government meetings in the history of the United States of America. It decided some of the most important ideas that the colonists fought for in the Revolutionary War, because, at that meeting, members of the Second Continental Congress wrote and signed The Declaration of Independence.

At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock wrote his name first and biggest on the Declaration of Independence. He said, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them double their reward." He was talking about the reward offered by King George III that was to be given to anyone who could capture one of the Sons of Liberty, especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock.