What states did John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson represent?
~None. In the days Continental Congress, there were no states – or nations – in North America. There were colonies, governed by Great Britain. The Continental Congress was an illegal ‘legislature’ and neither governed not represented the colonies or the colonists as a simple matter of law. In any case, in 1776 only about 20% of the colonists favored independence and separation from Great Britain. At the height of the movement, only about 1/3 of them did. That is why those lovers of liberty and the consent of the governed never put the proposition of independence, separation and rebellion to the people for vote when they ratified the Lee Resolution, by which they purported to declare independence on July 2, 1776. After independence was granted in 1783 by the British via the Treaty of Paris, thirteen separate and distinct nations were created. The formed an international alliance under the Articles of Confederation, but they retained their sovereign independence. The treaty was replaced
