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The Continental Congress wrote the Declaration. Is its modern descendent living up?
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+ By
Sam Gringlas
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., looks out a window at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 2, 2026.
− Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics The Continental Congress wrote the Declaration. Is its modern descendent living up? The Second Continental Congress produced the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. Its legacy can also be seen in the Congress we know today. But is the legislative branch living up to the aspirations of that era? Politics The Continental Congress wrote the Declaration. Is its modern descendent living up? July 2, 20264:42 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Sam Gringlas The Continental Congress wrote the Declaration. Is its modern descendent living up? Listen · 4:16 4:16 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5871170/nx-s1-9834673" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript The Second Continental Congress produced the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. Its legacy can also be seen in the Congress we know today. But is the legislative branch living up to the aspirations of that era? Sponsor Message
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The Second Continental Congress produced the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. Another part of its legacy is the legislative branch we know today. But is Congress living up to the aspirations of that era? Here's NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas.
+ Kriston Jae Bethel for NPR hide caption
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− SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: At the National Archives, visitors stream into its rotunda to view the country's most cherished documents.
+ As soon as the National Archives in Washington opens to the public, visitors stream into its rotunda to view the country's most cherished documents.
"Oh my word," a tank-topped tourist says as he gets his first look at the Declaration of Independence, produced 250 years ago by the Second Continental Congress.
The Declaration is not the only legacy of the Continental Congress.
− Oh, my word, a tank-topped tourist says, getting his first look at the declaration.
+ Another is the legislative branch we know today.
− In a vault a few floors above, I meet archivist Jane Fitzgerald.
+ And as the nation celebrates its semiquincentennial, it has also sparked conversations on Capitol Hill about whether the modern Congress is living up to the aspirations of that era.
− JANE FITZGERALD: So I've pulled a few of the rough journals.
+ In a vault a few floors above the rotunda, archivist Jane Fitzgerald has selected a lesser known set of records to study, the rough journals of the Second Continental Congress.
− GRINGLAS: These are the journals of the Second Continental Congress.
+ Politics The majority of Americans are proud but worry about direction of the country Between 1775 and 1781, Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Second Continental Congress, kept meticulous daily records of resolutions, motions and correspondence.
Like the entry for June 11, 1776 when a committee of five was appointed to draft the declaration.
− They kept meticulous records in neat cursive, like the entry for June 11, 1776, when a committee was appointed to draft the declaration.
+ Their names are scrawled on the page in Thomson's neat cursive: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman.
− FITZGERALD: (Reading) Mr.
+ Fitzgerald flips to July 2, when the Congress voted for independence.
− Thomas Jefferson, Mr.
+ A page later is the entry noting the vote to adopt the Declaration of Independence.
− John Adams, Mr. Benjamin Franklin...
+ The date scrawled atop that page: July 4, 1776.
− GRINGLAS: Fitzgerald flips ahead to...
+ These marbled logbooks do not contain the soaring prose of their famous cousin in the rotunda downstairs, but they are like a first rough draft of history, showing this early assembly at work as delegates slowly coalesced around independence.
− FITZGERALD: July 2, 1776.
+ "The hard work of the members of the Continental Congress, through their motions, through their committees, made the Declaration of Independence come alive on the parchment," Fitzgerald says.
− GRINGLAS: ...When the Congress voted for independence.
FITZGERALD: (Reading) That these united colonies are and of right, ought to be free and independent states.
GRINGLAS: Fitzgerald says these logbooks show this early assembly at work, slowly coalescing around independence.
+ Jay Wyatt, the director for legislative archives, unpacks another faded document, this one written by Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut, who served in the Continental Congress and later the U.S.
− Archivist Jay Wyatt unpacks another faded document.
+ Senate.
− JAY WYATT: You are looking at handwritten amendments to the Bill of Rights.
GRINGLAS: Wyatt says the Bill of Rights was the seminal product of that first session of the U.S.
+ Wyatt says the Bill of Rights was the seminal product of that first session of the U.S.
− On these pages, you can see a through line between the Continental Congress and its modern descendant.
+ On these pages, you can see a throughline between the Continental Congress and its modern descendant.
− WYATT: The end product has the consent of the people, and that is, I think, an idea that is put forward in the Declaration, and it is worked and refined until you get to the Bill of Rights.
+ "It shows that the end product has the consent of the people, an idea that is put forward in the Declaration and worked and refined all the way until you get to the Bill of Rights," Wyatt says.
− GRINGLAS: Yale University historian Joanne Freeman says the trajectory between these two bodies was not a given. At first, people's colonies, in many ways, felt like their countries.
+ Yale University history professor Joanne Freeman says the trajectory between these two bodies was not a given — and not just because of the long odds of a ragtag continental army defeating a global power.
− JOANNE FREEMAN: Southerners seem to dress very loudly.
+ At first, Freeman says, "People's colonies in many ways felt like their country.
− The Northerners all seem like sticks in the mud, and they're all dressed in brown.
GRINGLAS: When the Continental Congress convened, it was more like a temporary union of allies responding to crisis.
+ You have people noting the Southerners seem to dress very loudly, the Northerners have no sense of humor, they are sticks in the mud, all dressed in brown."
The entry for July 4, 1776 in one of the journals from the Second Continental Congress reports the approval of the Declaration of Independence.
− But the war required raising money and dealing with foreign powers.
+ Sam Gringlas/NPR hide caption
The National Archives houses the rough journals of the Second Continental Congress, kept by its secretary, Charles Thomson, between 1775 and 1781.
− The Congress struggled to meet those demands but did represent glimmers of a fledgling government.
+ Sam Gringlas/NPR hide caption
And, of course, there were more fundamental divides, including over slavery, that would not be resolved by the Continental Congress or by its successors for many years.
− And though its delegates were not popularly elected, they did encourage town halls for regular people to debate independence.
+ When the First Continental Congress convened in 1774, Freeman says it was more like a temporary union of allies responding to a crisis than a national legislature, of which colonists would have been deeply skeptical.
− FREEMAN: Now, would Congress have acted without them?
+ But the war effort required raising money, dealing with foreign powers and recruiting troops, says Jack Rakove, a history professor emeritus at Stanford University.
− Probably.
+ He says the weak Continental Congress struggled to meet those demands, but it did represent the glimmers of a fledgling government.
"It had no real precedent in American history," Rakove says.
− But one of the things that was very different is that the public came first and foremost.
+ "So it is the basis of a national government, but a national government of a very strange and anomalous kind."
While delegates were not popularly elected, they were concerned with public opinion, encouraging local town halls where regular people could debate whether they were willing to fight for independence.
− GRINGLAS: Freeman says this moment also previewed what role a Congress could serve.
+ "Now would Congress have acted without them? Probably," Freeman says. "But one of the things that was different was the public was first and foremost."
This idea of a government close to the people, albeit at that time a very narrow segment of them, became foundational. Freeman says this moment also previewed the role a Congress could serve.
− FREEMAN: It's in that clashing and negotiating that you get something bigger than any one person or any one state.
+ "The clashing and the interaction and negotiating, it's in that stuff that you get something bigger than any one person or state or interest, and that's true throughout," she says.
− GRINGLAS: Much of this early clashing took place at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
+ The U.S.
− Today, it's in Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle's district.
+ Congress is now much bigger, more diverse and more reflective of the nation.
− Boyle thinks the founders would be dismayed by today's divided politics.
+ It is also extremely polarized.
− That's one reason he's organizing a bipartisan congressional visit today to Independence Hall.
+ That is one reason Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, organized a July 2 bipartisan Congressional delegation to Independence Hall, which sits inside his district.
− BRENDAN BOYLE: From the most conservative Republican to the most progressive Democrat, to return to the room where it all began and remind ourselves that we are the inheritors of this great tradition.
+ Boyle says it is only the second formal gathering of Congress at this site in Philadelphia since the U.S. Capitol relocated from the adjoining Congress Hall to Washington, D.C. in 1800.
− GRINGLAS: Boyle says Congress is not always succeeding at safeguarding that inheritance, as the legislative branch has ceded so much authority to the president.
+ Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., gives remarks during a ceremonial gathering of members of Congress at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 2, 2026. Kriston Jae Bethel for NPR hide caption
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries returns to his seat after delivering remarks during a ceremonial gathering of members of Congress at Independence Hall. Kriston Jae Bethel for NPR hide caption
He says the idea was for, "the most conservative Republican to the most progressive Democrat, to return to the room where it all began and remind ourselves that we are the inheritors of this great tradition."
In an interview last week ahead of the event, Boyle said Congress is not always succeeding at safeguarding that inheritance, as the legislative branch has ceded so much of its Constitutional authority to the president.
− BOYLE: Our Founders would be surprised and alarmed that this current Congress has not jealously guarded its prerogatives.
+ History How America has celebrated milestone birthdays, from world fairs to the World Cup Congress in recent years has given presidents broad leeway to wage war and has increasingly declined to assert its power of the purse when the executive branch has attempted to act unilaterally.
− GRINGLAS: I met Boyle in the Capitol rotunda to gaze up at the iconic John Trumbull painting. It shows the Second Continental Congress receiving the draft declaration.
+ "I do think our founders would be surprised and alarmed that this current Congress has not jealously guarded its prerogatives as the legislative branch, not just in the last two years but over the last 25 years," he says.
− BOYLE: I feel awe and I feel pride.
+ The festivities in Philadelphia will include the burial of a time capsule.
− And I also feel a certain burden to live up to what those Founders intended 250 years ago.
+ Another has been sealed for burial on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers also reflected on their place in the history of the institution.
− GRINGLAS: Boyle says Congress is facing all kinds of questions about what the country needs, but he says other generations have wrestled with these questions, too, and have still kept pushing closer to the ideals of the Revolution.
+ Congress is still grappling with versions of some of the same questions those early congresses faced, like the scope of government and what fair representation means.
− Sam Gringlas, NPR News, Washington.
+ "The Congressional Time Capsule is a reflection of our faith in the future of this grand experiment in self-governance, faith that this moment is worth preserving, and faith that the great American story will endure for another 250 years," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at a ceremony last month.
− (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Copyright © 2026 NPR.
+ One of the larger-than-life artworks in the Capitol Rotunda is the iconic painting by John Trumball, which is supposed to show the moment the Second Continental Congress received the draft of the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in the summer of 1776.
Tourists visit the U.S.
− All rights reserved.
+ Capitol appear under John Trumbull's larger-than-life painting depicting the moment the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress.
− Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
+ Ted Shaffrey/AP hide caption
Gazing up at the painting of that historic place in his district, Boyle says he feels awe and pride.
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+ "I also feel a certain burden to live up to what those founders intended 250 years ago."
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