With that in mind, here's some info that hasn't been perverted by contemporary wantabe authors as to some of the American History and the Revolutionary War.
The Encyclopedia Americana: a library of universal knowledge? - Page 407
Encyclopedias and dictionaries - 1918
COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE, in American Revolutionary history, public functionaries of a type first appearing in England, created by the parliamentary party of the 17th century in their struggles with the Stuarts. In 1763, when the English government attempted to enforce the .trade and navigation acts in America after the Peace of Paris, the colonial leaders advised the merchants to hold meetings and appoint committees to memorialize the legislature and correspond with each other to forward a union of interests.
This was done in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York 1763-64. On 13 June 1764 the Massachusetts General Court appointed a committee to communicate to other colonial governments its instructions to its agent in London, to protest against the Sugar Act and the proposed Stamp Act. When the latter was passed in 1765, the Sons of Liberty formed committees of correspondence to organize resistance. Samuel Adams, during the decade 1764-74, constantly urged the adoption of this plan by the patriots of every town and county in each colony, and moved the general court to that effect in 1770- 71.
A few public bodies in the country appointed such committees, but there was no general concert. The payment of judges' salaries by the royal government in 1772 was seized upon by Adams as a fresh incitement, at first with scant effect, but on 21 November a slender town meeting at Faneuil Hall, Boston, appointed a correspondence committee of 21 to communicate with other Massachusetts towns concerning infringements of popular rights.
It consisted of the foremost popular leaders — Adams, Otis, Warren, Quincy, etc.— and until late in 1774 (see COMMITTEES OF SAFETY) remained the real executive of the town and largely of the province. A report of its first meeting was printed and sent to all the towns and to other provinces, and in a few weeks 80 Massachusetts towns had appointed similar committees, many more doing so in a short time.
No fresh places in other colonies joined, though the report was printed in their newspapers. But the royal commission to investigate the burning of the Go-spec in Rhode Island and send the culprits to England for trial effected Adams' purpose—'curiously, not in Rhode Island itself, but in Virginia, where the House of Burgesses, on 12 March 1773, appointed a committee of 11 to communicate with
other colonies on the doings of the administration, especially in Rhode Island, and report.
The plans were characteristically different, the Massachusetts being by the town voters, the Virginia by the legislature, but the latter was immediately effective in eliciting response. Committees were appointed by Rhode Island
7 May, Connecticut 21 May, New Hampshire 27 May, Massachusetts 28 May, South Carolina
8 July, This threat of united opposition daunted the government; the Caspée prosecutions were not pressed, and the commission found adversely to its commander.
There be- in^ nothing more to do, the legislative committees stopped for the time, after exchanging proceedings. The Boston committee alone continued its political activities, and the tea question (see BOSTON TEA PARTY) soon revived the others. The Boston committee, followed by that of Connecticut, sent out circulars urging the defeat of British purposes; and the former, by legal town-meeting, was made the executive of Boston. It called the committees of five surrounding towns into consultation, and sat "like a little Senate," Hutchinson said. Under its direction the tea was thrown into the harbor.
The Tea Act roused the remaining colonies : Georgia in September, Maryland ana Delaware in October, North Carolina in December, New York and New Jersey in February, chose legis- tive 'committees of correspondence ; and new municipalities joined the movement — several in New Hampshire and Rhode Island and the city of New York. After the Boston Port Bill came into effect the Boston committee invited those of eight other towns to meet in Faneuil Hall, and the meeting sent circulars to the other colonies recommending suspension of trade with Great Britain, while the legislative committee was directed by the House to send copies of the Port Bill to other colonies and call attention to it as an attempt to suppress American liberty.
The organization of the committees was at once enormously extended; almost every town, city or county had one, though a few dismissed theirs in fear of the coming storm. The Boston opposition attempted this, but were crushingly defeated. In the middle and southern colonies the committees were empowered, by the terms of their appointment, to elect deputies to meet with those of other committees, to consult on measures for the public good. The history of the committees from this time on is the history of the preliminaries of the Revolution. Consult Frothingham, 'Rise of the Republic* (1872) ; Howard, 'Preliminaries of the Revolution' (1905).
COMMITTEES OF SAFETY, in American Revolutionary history, these were a later outcome of the committees of correspondence (q.v.). In Massachusetts, as affairs drew toward a crisis, it became usual for towns to appoint three committees, of correspondence, of inspection and of safety.
The first was to keep the community informed of dangers either legislative or executive, and concert measures of public good; the second to watch for violations of non-importation agreements, or attempts of loyalists to evade them ; the third to act as general executive while the legal authority was in abeyance. In February 1776 these were regularly legalized by the General Court ; but consolidated into one, called the «Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety,» to be elected annually by the towns.
This possessed all the powers of the other three, but in addition was empowered to notify the proper authorities of all violation of any of the acts, resolves or recommendations of the legislature; also to send for persons and papers, call out the militia, take charge of confiscated property and prisoners of war, and carry out the laws against Tories. An appeal lay from them to the legislature, but was not often thought judicious. Previous to this, however, in October 1774, the first Provisional Congress of Massachusetts had appointed a provincial committee of safety, with 11 members, to act as the general executive of the province; and in the next few weeks it made arrangements to raise and support an army.
On 9 Feb. 1775 the second Provincial Congress constituted five members a permanent executive, and instructed it to "alarum, muster and cause to be assembled with the utmost expedition, and completely armed, accoutred, and supplied, such and so many of the militia of the province as they shall judge necessary," such levy to be made when the committee thought a forcible attempt was to be made to carry out the Boston Port Bill. It was this committee's decision to take possession of Charlestown and Dorchester Heights, on the rumor that Gage was to have heavy reinforcements and occupy them, which led to the battle of Bunker Hill.
New York had also a committee of safety, of 100 men, but it is characteristic of the undeveloped politics of the time that several of these were conservatives who afterward joined the British side. Partly from this, and partly from the unwieldy size of the committee, an inner committee was formed consisting entirely of Sons of Liberty, and directed its operations. At the news of the battle of Lexington, they called a public meeting in New York at the city hall, and secured the arms and ammunition in the arsenal.
John Lamb and Isaac Sears led the action, arrested all British vessels about to sail for Boston, locked up the custom-house, and discharged the cargo of a vessel detained by British authorities as loaded with supplies for the patriots, formed a military company, armed it from the arsenal, surprised and captured the chief depot of British stores at Turtle Bay, and when the British commander ordered his men to join the army in Boston, refused to allow them to take any arms but those in their hands.
Otherwise they were to be allowed to embark unmolested. The more ardent members were displeased at this, but kept the letter of the promise and no more. The muskets being carried in wagons, they confiscated them as not "in the hands," the soldiers declaring that they should not be used against their brethren in Boston. Consult for the functions of the committees, Sparks, 'Life of Gouverneur Morris,' (Vol. I, Chap. 2), and Hunt, A., 'Provincial Committees of Safety' (1904). |
