On September 27, 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became the temporary seat of the American government. By the end of its only session there, Congress had already decided to move again.
The British were coming
Just over a year after the Declaration of Independence, British forces were closing in on Philadelphia. The city where Congress had declared independence was about to fall into enemy hands.
On September 11, 1777, George Washington’s army suffered a defeat at Brandywine. His soldiers escaped to continue fighting, but the British advance left Congress facing an urgent problem: how to keep governing while staying beyond the enemy’s reach.
Congress had already selected Lancaster as a fallback meeting place. On September 18, the delegates left Philadelphia. Eight days later, British troops occupied the city.
One day in Lancaster
On Saturday, September 27, Congress convened in Lancaster. The meeting is generally placed in the county courthouse, although the surviving documentary evidence does not establish the location conclusively.
That single session is why Lancaster is remembered as America’s capital for one day. In the middle of a war, the seat of government was wherever Congress could safely assemble.
The government kept moving
The business recorded that day concerned military affairs. There was a war to manage, even as the delegates worked out where they could meet next. Before adjourning, Congress chose York, on the far side of the Susquehanna River.
The river offered a barrier between Congress and the British. On September 30, the delegates resumed work in York, where Congress would remain until June 27, 1778. Lancaster’s brief turn was over.
During those months in York, Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, the framework for the nation’s first constitution. Across the Atlantic, American representatives secured a treaty of alliance with France. The government that had fled Philadelphia was still carrying out the work of independence.
A young country and a new flag
Only a few months before the move to Lancaster, Congress had adopted the national flag. Its June 14, 1777, resolution called for thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field.
Today, those thirteen stripes remind us of the founding states. In September 1777, the future of their union was still being fought over. Washington’s army remained in the field, and Congress continued meeting as British troops occupied Philadelphia.
Lancaster’s place in the story lasted only a day. But it gives us a revealing glimpse of the Revolution: delegates finding another place to meet, taking up the day’s business, and making arrangements to keep going.
Independence had been declared. Keeping a country functioning was still a daily task.
This article is part of our We the People series, exploring the dates, documents and symbols that shaped the United States.