I'm sorry, meant to say the Continental Congress. Prior to their formation and decision of war and revolution, the milita's "wars," can best be described as riots and a good portion of the population still hoped for re-unification, simply with representation in parliment. My point is, a small group of the population can manipulate and control the events, especially when basically every media tycoon in the world attends these events.
But it's not like the Continental Congress was a secret. Those who attended the first one were delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies (Georgia didn't send any delegates), and those delegates were picked by the legislature of each colony.
The 2 aren't comparable