Committees of Correspondence were formed by colonial leaders to communicate their grievances with British rule. They were prompted by specific events and helped unify the colonies ideologically towards independence. They served as the impetus for the First and Second Continental Congresses, which led to US independence.
Committees of Correspondence were groups formed by legislatures or special organizations to provide a means of communication between the political leaders of the 13 U.S. colonies in the 18th century. Prompted by specific events that violated the freedom of the colonists, the committees would serve as a general sounding board for the colonial leaders’ growing discontent with Britain’s imperial rule.
In 1764, the first of the formal committees of correspondence was formed in Massachusetts in response to the Currency Act, and such committees would become prevalent throughout the colonies over the next decade. The committees’ most important legacy served as the impetus for both the First and Second Continental Congresses, the bodies that would serve as the basis for the first unified, self-governing government in the United States.
When colonists in the United States began to feel uneasy about the limits placed on freedom by British rule, they had little means of communicating this disgust with distant colonies. By forming committees of correspondence, political leaders in the colonies could put the gist of these grievances on paper and then distribute this information to the entire population via horse-drawn couriers or on mail ships. This helped unify the colonies as various incidents began to pile up which eventually led to the colonies taking up arms against their British imperial rulers in the US Revolutionary War.
These committees were often formed by members of the colonial legislature, but were sometimes the result of special organizations formed in secret. The most notable of these groups were the Sons of Liberty, who first rose up in New York City in 1765 in opposition to the Stamp Act. Similar groups arose in Massachusetts, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia.
Committees of Correspondence originally began as a way for colonial leaders to protest specific actions taken by the British such as the Currency Act of 1764, which served as a catalyst for the first committee. Initially, the committees adopted a conservative tone. As outrage grew, they provided a means for distinguished statesmen such as Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson to express their philosophies about the changing tenor of public sentiment. The committees in this way served to unify the colonies ideologically towards the cause of independence.
Ultimately, the Committees of Correspondence were instrumental in aligning colonial forces for the First and Second Continental Congresses that would pave the way for US independence. Ben Franklin used a Committee of Correspondence to argue for colonial leaders to meet for the First Continental Congress in 1774 to address the outrage Britain had heaped upon them. When more trouble and the battles of Lexington and Concord finally led to the Second Continental Congress in 1775, the more radical elements of the committees began to prevail with their advocacy of self-government and freedom from Great Britain.
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