COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE
It would not be difficult to prove that the initiative step in the final struggle was first taken by the Carolinas and by Virginia and that the people of Boston and of other cities in New England moved rather in response to pressure from without than at their own suggestion. The men who became the leaders in the general movement afterwards were beyond question both sincere and patriotic from the beginning, but the people of New England were not, at that time, so near a unit in sentiment as were those of Virginia and of North and South Carolina.
The history of those times has yet to be written in which due credit must be given to Virginia. Instead of that Colony appearing simply as a supporter and abettor of the acts of Massachusetts, the position hitherto allotted her, she should be accredited, as she deserves, with the leadership. No one more fully appreciated this fact than Bancroft who, notwithstanding his changes of opinion on many other points with each edition of his book, both mentions and accredits nearly every circumstance. But this is done often with faint praise and with the context not always fairly placed, while the deeds of the Bostonian are invariably made most prominent. It is therefore impossible, for the most part, for any one but an expert to arrive at any other impression than that suggested by the bias of the author.
A committee was proposed and organized in Boston, November 3rd, 1772, by Samuel Adams, for the purpose of communicating with the people in the neighboring towns. In March, 1773, Dabney Carr, a young man of great promise, offered certain resolutions in the Legislature of Virginia embodying a plan of Intercolonial Committees of Correspondence, by means of which all portions of the country could be brought into closer relation. This organization was perfected by Richard Henry Lee, who soon became its chief organizer owing to the untimely death of Mr. Carr. The existence of this organization was of incalculable benefit to the cause of the Colonies, and it alone, moreover, made possible a favorable termination to the Revolution. Bancroft, in one portion of his history, pays full tribute to Dabney Carr and writes, regarding the organization, that “In this manner, Virginia laid the foundation of our Union; Massachusetts organized a province, Virginia promoted a confederacy.” And yet, from other portions of Bancroft’s work the only inference suggested is, that to Samuel Adams alone is due the credit for this work; and indeed this is the general impression held, to a great extent to-day, by those who are familiar with our history, as it is written.
The “broadside” here reproduced was issued by the Boston Committee and is signed with the autograph signature of the secretary. The mere fact of this issue, in Boston, of the Virginia Resolutions, urging that the other Colonies should communicate directly with the Virginia Committee, proves that the one in Boston had been simply a local affair up to that date and that the proposed general organization did not originate there.