The second Congress met, on the 10th of May, 1775. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was chosen president. Being obliged soon to return to Virginia, as speaker of the Virginia Assembly, John Hancock, one of the most illustrious sons of Massachusetts, succeeded him in the chair. There was still a lingering attachment for the mother country, which was ever affectionately called _Home_. All wished for reconciliation. Though a “humble and dutiful” petition to the king was moved and carried, many of the members regarded it as entirely futile, and somewhat humiliating. John Adams, of Massachusetts, vigorously opposed it as an imbecile measure. A federal union was formed, which leagued the colonies together in a military confederacy. Each colony regulated its own internal affairs. The congress of their delegates was vested with the power of making peace or war, and of legislating on all matters which involved the common security. The enlistment of troops was authorized, forts were ordered to be reared and garrisoned, and notes, to the amount of three million dollars, were voted to be issued, on the pledged faith of the Confederacy, and bearing the inscription of “The United Colonies.” Washington was appointed chairman of the committee on military affairs. The infinitely important question agitated all hearts, Who should fill the responsible post of commander-in-chief of the united colonial armies? General Charles Lee, an Englishman by birth, and a rough soldier, trained amid the rudeness of camps, was a prominent candidate. He was a veteran fighter, and had obtained great renown, for his reckless courage on some of the most bloody fields of European warfare. It does not seem, however, that Lee thought of seeking the office. When informed that his name had been proposed as a candidate, he wrote to Edmund Burke: “To think myself qualified for the most important charge that was ever committed to mortal man is the last stage of presumption. Nor do I think that the Americans would, or ought to confide in a man, let his qualifications be ever so great, who has no property among them. It is true I most devoutly wish them success, in the glorious struggle; that I have expressed my wishes both in writing and _viva voce_. But my errand to Boston was only to see a people in so singular circumstances.” It would seem, from John Adams’ diary, that he was the first to propose Washington. There was an army of about ten thousand men encamped around Boston. They were nearly all New Englanders. It seemed a little discourteous to go to Virginia to find a commander. But Mr. Adams rose in his place and, in a few forcible words, proposed that Congress should adopt the army at Cambridge, and appoint George Washington, of Virginia, General-in-Chief.