step in transitioning from a colony to a commonwealth. Biographer Smith indicates Harrison was probably in the minority, though he was named to a committee to carry the resolution into effect. He was also re-elected as a delegate to the new session of the Continental Congress. Second Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence When the Second Continental Congress convened in May 1775, Harrison took up residence in north Philadelphia with two roommates—his brother-in-law Peyton Randolph and George Washington. The two men left him to reside alone when Randolph suddenly died, and Washington assumed command of the Continental Army. Harrison was kept busy with the issues of funding and supplying Washington's army and corresponded with him at length. In the spring of 1775, an effort was made in Congress to seek reconciliation with the King of Britain through the Olive Branch Petition, authored by John Dickinson. A heated debate ensued with Dickinson's remark that he disapproved of only one word in the petition: "Congress." Harrison angrily rose from his seat and replied, "There is but one word in the paper, Mr. President, of which I do approve, and that is the word 'Congress.'" The petition passed and was submitted to the Crown but remained unread by the king as he formally declared that the colonists were traitors. In November 1775, Harrison was appointed to a select committee to review the army's needs. He went to Cambridge, Massachusetts with Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Lynch to assess the needs, as well as the morale, of the forces. After a 10-day inspection, the committee concluded that the pay for the troops should be improved and that the ranks should be increased to over 20,000 men. Harrison then returned to Philadelphia to work closely with fellow delegates for the defense of his state as well as South Carolina, Georgia, and New York. Harrison attended until the session's end in July 1776, frequently serving as chair of the Committee of the Whole. As such, he presided over the final debates of the Lee Resolution offered by Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee. This was the Congress' first expression of its objective of freedom from the Crown. Harrison oversaw the final debates and amendments of the Declaration of Independence. The Committee of Five presented Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration on June 28, 1776, and the Congress resolved on July 1 that the Committee of the Whole