na By the morning of Monday, September 5, 1774, most of the delegates to the Continental Congress had arrived in Philadelphia. North Carolina would present its credentials nine days later. Georgia wouldn't join for a year. Some members had been in the city for several days, eager to meet and evaluate their colleagues from the other colonies. A few, such as Sam and John Adams of Massachusetts, were already well known by reputation. In contrast, Joseph Galloway, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and Peyton Randolph, the Speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, were best known because of their elective positions. The most famous American, however, was not there that morning. Benjamin Franklin was still living in London where he had already served for 15 years as an agent for several of the colonies.
The 43 men who did gather that cool, damp morning at Smith's City Tavern (Philadelphia's newest and finest) were well aware that they were about to take a fateful step into history. The King himself had denounced their gathering. Parliament could easily decide to use the full weight of the British Empire against them as it had recently done to the colony of Massachusetts. The path ahead was perilous. No one dared to utter the word “independence,” and few would have identified with such a cause. Some of the more conservative delegates were there expressly to sidetrack any discussion of the issue if it should arise. What they all agreed on was the critical need for immediate reform in the British Government's relationship with its American colonies. These men took their rights and their status as British citizens very seriously. They prayed that their King and his government would do so, as well.
As John Adams recorded in his diary: “At Ten, The Delegates all met at the City Tavern, and walked to the Carpenters Hall” three blocks away. It was the closer of the two meeting places that had been offered to the delegates for their deliberations. The other, the Pennsylvania State House, was two blocks further west. Even before Congress officially opened, the political tug of war had begun. Adams and others feared that if they accepted the State House they might also be pressured into accepting their host, Speaker Galloway, as their first elected leader. Since Galloway was known to have loyalist tendencies, many of the delegates wanted to avoid such a trap.
If a tavern closer to the State House had been selected as the gathering place that morning, the course of American history might well have been altered. Instead, when the delegates inspected Carpenters Hall “The General Cry was, that this was a good Room, and the question was put, whether We were satisfied with this Room, and it passed in the Affirmative.” But, “A very few were for the Negative and they were chiefly from Pennsylvania and New York.”
Once the meeting hall had been selected, the first order of business was to elect one individual to preside over their deliberations and to represent the body as a whole. As the oldest and largest of the 13 colonies, Virginia held the unique distinction of being first among equals. Even though Town Meetings in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had earlier endorsed the idea of holding a continent wide meeting, it was Virginia that had issued the call for the colonies to convene a Congress. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the delegates turned to Virginia when selecting their first leader. John Adams and other savvy New England delegates also realized that a truly united response to the crisis at home demanded visible leadership from other regions, especially the South.
It was equally obvious which member of Virginia's delegation would receive this honor. In each of the colonies, the Speaker of the House was the highest elected official. Even though the Virginia delegation included six other distinguished members (Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Edmund Pendleton and George Washington) there was no question that Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, headed their delegation. Fortunately, he was a man of great distinction and extensive government experience.
Thomas Lynch, Sr. of South Carolina made the nomination. Adams recorded that historic moment: “Then Mr. Lynch arose, and said there was a Gentleman present who had presided with great Dignity over a very respectable Society, greatly to the Advantage of America, and he therefore proposed that the Hon. Peyton Randolph Esqr., one of the Delegates from Virginia, and the late Speaker of their House of Burgesses, should be appointed Chairman and he doubted not it would be unanimous.--The Question was put and he was unanimously chosen. Mr. Randolph then took the Chair...”
In his “Notes of Debates,” New York Delegate James Duane described what happened next: “A question was then put what Title the Convention should assume & it was agred that it should be called the Congress. Another Question was put what shoud [sic] be the Stile of Mr Randolph & it was agreed that he should be called the President.”