new Constitutional government took over; only one member was present at said meeting, Philip Pell, an ardent Anti-Federalist and opponent of the Constitution, who was accompanied by the Congressional secretary. Pell oversaw the meeting and adjourned the Congress sine die. Presiding officer The Continental Congress was presided over by a president (referred to in many official records as President of the United States in Congress Assembled), who was a member of Congress elected by the other delegates to serve as a neutral discussion moderator during meetings. Elected to a non-renewable one-year term, this person also chaired the Committee of the States when Congress was in recess and performed other administrative functions. He was not, however, an executive in the way the later President of the United States is a chief executive since all of the functions he executed were under the direct control of Congress. There were 10 presidents of Congress under the Articles. The first, Samuel Huntington, had been serving as president of the Continental Congress since September 28, 1779. Meeting sites The Second Continental Congress was meeting at the Old Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time the Articles of Confederation entered into force on March 1, 1781, but left after an anti-government protest by several hundred soldiers of the Continental Army in June 1783. Congress moved its meeting site successively to Princeton, New Jersey; Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey, and then in January 1785 New York City, which remained the seat of government for several years. List of sessions See also Committee of the States Founding Fathers of the United States History of the United States (1776–1789) List of delegates to the Continental Congress Notes References Bibliography External links Major documents from the Congress, including journals, letters, debates, via Library of Congress Journals of the Continental Congress 1774–1789 Third History of the government of the United States 1780s in the United States 1781 establishments in the United States 1789 disestablishments in the United States Defunct unicameral legislatures History of New York City History of Philadelphia History of Trenton, New Jersey Pennsylvania in the American Revolution