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Collection A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774 to 1875

Journals of the Continental Congress

The Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1789) contain the records of the daily proceedings of the Continental Congress, and include the text of ordinances, such as the Northwest Ordinance, reports to Congress, and correspondence with the colonies, states, foreign powers, and others.

title page of volume one

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About This Collection

The First Continental Congress met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, in Philadelphia. The Second Continental Congress met from May 10, 1775, to March 2, 1789, in Philadelphia. This complete edition of the journals, published by the Library of Congress from 1904 to 1937, is based on the manuscript Journals and other manuscript records of the Continental Congresses in the Library's Manuscript Division. Further information on how this edition was assembled and notes explaining features introduced by the editors are in the prefatory notes to volume 1 and volume 2.

Browsing the Journals of the Continental Congress

This collection includes 34 volumes. Researchers can browse and download full PDF volumes or read entries by clicking through the image gallery.

Search Functions in the Journals of the Continental Congress

Alternatively, researchers can search the full text of this collection by entering keywords in the search bar at the upper-right corner of this page. For example, a search for “George Clinton” (with quotation marks included in the search) will retrieve several results from across the Century of Lawmaking collections, including the Journals of the Continental Congress.

To view the results in the Journals, scroll down to the results from Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 and select the drop-down menu next to “Resources.” This drop-down menu will display three options for each volume, as described below:

  • The first option will list the number of pages where the search term was found in each volume. After clicking on this option, the researcher will be directed to a gallery displaying only those pages containing their search term. To read the full text and locate search terms, select an image from the results list. Here is an example of the results retrieved when searching for “George Clinton” in Journals of the Continental Congress, volume 2.
  • The second option reads “Images with Text.” Selecting this choice will present the researcher with a two-panel display of the volume's first page. The right-hand panel will display a scan of the page from the relevant volume and the text on that page will be visible on the left-hand panel. Researchers can use the navigation buttons at the top of the screen to jump to different pages. Here is an example of how volume 2 of Journals of the Continental Congress appears when this option is selected.
  • Selecting the third option, “PDF,” will take the researcher to a searchable PDF of the full volume. Researchers can look for specific words or phrases within the volume by selecting the magnifying glass at the upper-left corner of the screen. To view volume 2 of Journals of the Continental Congress in PDF, click here.

Further Assistance

If you have a question about navigating the Journals of the Continental Congress, please contact the Law Library of Congress through our Ask A Librarian service.