When the 13 American colonies decided to form a proper Constitution, the single largest question which confronted them was how their legislature should be organized.

This question was really the crux of the entire Constitutional Convention,

and if it couldn't be resolved, it was likely there would be no Constitution at all.

Once it was resolved, Congress evolved with its own set of rules and traditions.

Many of the key elements of the

United States Congress are in fact not required by the Constitution at all.

Learn more about how the United States Congress came to be on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. The To understand how today's United States Congress came to be, we first have to look at what came before it. The first thing that could

be considered a deliberative body of the 13 original colonies would be the

first Continental Congress held in 1774. The delegates met in Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia. This was held during

the run-up to the Revolutionary War and it consisted of 12 of the 13 colonies. The only colony

which did not send representatives was Georgia

and that was because loyalists outnumbered patriots due to British protection from armed

incursions from the South. The first Continental Congress was really more of an airing of grievances than anything else.

The biggest thing that they passed was an agreement between the colonies to boycott British goods.

They also agreed to meet the next year if their demands were not met, and they also sent invitations to some other British colonies in North America, including

Quebec, Georgia, East and West Florida, and Nova Scotia.

The British did not respond to the colonist demands, so the next year

they met once again. The Second Continental Congress sat in session from 1775 to

1871 during the entirety of the American Revolution.

If you ever hear anyone talk generically about the Continental Congress,

odds are that they're talking about the Second Continental Congress.

...