War Years
After the war began, the provincial congress established a number of committees to manage the rebel activity to the province, starting with the need to supply and arm the nascent Continental Army that besieged Boston after the April 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord. Pursuant to recommendations of the Second Continental Congress, it in 1775 declared that a quorum of the council (which under the colonial charter acted as governor in the absence of both the governor and lieutenant governor) would be sufficient to make executive decisions. Although the assembly adjourned from time to time, the council remained in continuous session until the new state constitution was introduced in 1780.
This arrangement was only marginally satisfactory, and led to calls for a proper constitution as early as 1776. By 1778 these calls had widened, particularly in Berkshire County, where a protest in May of that year prevented the Superior Court from sitting.
These calls for change led to a failed proposal for a constitution produced by the congress in 1778, and then a successful constitutional convention that produced a constitution for the state in 1780. The provisional government came to an end with elections in October 1780.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts Provincial Congress
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