Its chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, were two leading Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a great landowner of Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore.

It was not easy to represent as the liberator of the Catholic Canadians the Congress which had denounced in scathing terms the concessions in the Quebec Act to the Catholic Church.

Franklin was a master of conciliation, but before he achieved anything a dramatic event happened.

On the 6th of May, British ships arrived at Quebec.

The inhabitants rushed to the ramparts.