[tylermagnan]

It was mentioned that at the first continental congress, the delegates from the colonies outside Virginia and Massachusetts were not enthusiastic about independence. I suspect a lot of them were wary of the fact that Virginia and Massachusetts would likely hold the most political power in a new independent state. Is there any evidence that this was the case? It seems that people at that time were more aware of the dangers of the oppressed becoming the oppressors than they are now. Perhaps this is due to the string of revolutions in Europe that ended poorly.

[tylermagnan]

Actually, I guess my timeline is off. The European revolutions I was thinking of happened after the American and French revolutions. I suppose there were still plenty of previous ones they could point to as having bad results.

[gutzmank]

Congressmen from several other states mentioned the idea that the New England states (what they called “the eastern states”) tended to cooperate in Congress. Some of them decided to oppose this tendency. Although Virginia and Massachusetts provided most of the radical delegates to the First Continental Congress, I’m not aware of anyone saying what you suspect.

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