The session of 20 Dec. 1776 has been hesi tantly called the third Continental Congress; for the delegates were selected entirely by the. State legislatures, and the body as a whole had a title more definite and regular, though not in reality more legal. But in fact, the second Con gress, from the opening on 10 May 1775, was, a continuing body in perpetual session; with no definite term of sitting or terms of member ship; the State legislatures which had selected members did not specifically send new ones for the new session, but each chose them for such terms as it pleased— Congress exercising no right of control in this matter—and recalled them at will. Each State had but one vote, all being thus equal, as in the Senate, where each has two; but in the Senate the members have individual votes. This provision in the Con tinental Congress was avowedly made only be cause a census could not then be talcen to ascer tain the relative populations. As under the Confederation, the Congress dealt wi,th States, not individuals; and much of the impotence with which it is reproached in the Revolution was involved in this, though not all of its follies are thus excusable. Some of its worst perform
ances, however—as the misdealing with the officers which drove some of them from the service permanently and others temporarily, and deeply injured the cause—were directly due to the tenacious individuality of the States, which claimed their share of the military patronage then as thev do of the civil patronage now.
A history of the Congress is a history of the country during its lifetime; but some of its migrations are significant of military reverses and recoveries. From 20 Dec. 1776 to 4 March.
1777 it sat at Baltimore; 4 March to 18 Sept. 1777, at Philadelphia; 27 Sept. 1777, at Lancas ter, Pa.; 30 Sept. 1777 to 27 June 1778, at York, Pa.; 2 July 1778 to 21 June 1783, at Philadel phia. But before this it had ceased to be the Continental Congress, and had become the Con gress of the Confederation, on 2 March 1781, after the ratification of the Articles bv Mary land. Consult Histories of the United States by Bancroft, Hildreth, Schouler, Von Hoist, etc.; Fiske,