Frakcje Kongresu Kontynentalnego lat 1774-1783

The problem of the existence of political fractions in the Continental Congress in the years 1774-1783, unresearched until now in American historiography, is worthy of being studied. On the basis of an analysis of votings of its delegates who have participated in the debates at Philadelphia it is possible to come to the conclusion that such fractions already existed at that time. It is most likely that they were similar to those from the Jeffersonian period, when the differences among the delegates contributed to the origin of the party system. The fraction of the radicals and that of the conservatives name to being in the years 1774-1783. An organization of the radicals can be traced back to the debates of the First Congress in 1774, although it did not have any stronger coordination of political activities. The sources being at historians’ disposal are scarce. Nonetheless, they enable them to get an idea about the organization and the tactics applied by the groupings which endeavored to exert their impact on the activites and on the politics of the Continental Congress. The results of votings give an evidence to the fact that the delegates voted according to their conviction or according to the region they have belonged. There have existed already certain rules of cooperation among the delegates. In most of the cases, the delegates from the New England and those from the South (from Virginia at the first place) cooperated with each other on the one hand, and the delegates from the middle provinces with the delegates from the part of the conservative South on the other. The same opinions, expressed by votings, reflected real common opinions which were rather independent from the economic position of the delegates, The differences among the participants at the Congress depended on their opinions, on the issues under consideration and not on the instructions they have been given in their respective provinces. From all that it follows that better organized and unified fractions which could have had clearly defined goals and political tactics of their own did not exist during the period under research Nevertheless, the fractions emerging in the years 1774-1783 give an evidence of great economic and political differences which existed in the new American State and on the internal struggle among the delegates for the future shape of the USA.