Committees of correspondence were emergency provisional governments set up in the Thirteen Colonies in response to British policies leading up to the American Revolution. The exchange of ideas, information and debate between different committees of correspondence helped organize and mobilize patriotic resistance in communities throughout the colonies and built the foundations for the Continental Congress.
Formation of Committees of Correspondence
Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who had been appointed by the Crown, sought to compose a faction of pro-British Loyalist officials and thereby widen support for Britain’s taxation policies. In 1772, Boston revolutionary Samuel Adams responded by urging Massachusetts to employ a committee of correspondence to contact townspeople and stay apprised of events occurring at town meetings throughout the area. The purpose of such a committee was to rally opposition to British policies, to educate the townspeople of Massachusetts about their constitutional rights and the British threats to those rights, and to encourage townspeople to become more politically active. By 1774, every colonial assembly had created a committee of correspondence.