On September 5, 1774, 56 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies were sent to meet in Philadelphia. They were the representatives in the First Continental Congress, and they discussed the rights of the settlers. It was the first time that the colonies were organized in this way. The First Continental Congress declared that the inhabitants of the English colonies in America had the right to life, liberty, and property; that their ancestors, who had established the colonies, had the same rights, freedoms, and immunities as the free inhabitants of England; that emigration did not mean that they had lost these rights and that their descendants also had them. It passed resolutions stating that the British Parliament had only the right to regulate trade
