The foregoing Reply having been read several times and duly considered; it was moved and the Question accordingly put Whether the same be satisfactory to the Town; which passed in the Negative Nem. Con. And thereupon—
Resolved as the Opinion of the Inhabitants of this Town that they have ever had, and ought to have, a right to Petition the King or his Representatives for the Redress of such Grievances as they feel or for preventing of such as they have reason to apprehend, and to communicate their Sentiment to other Towns.
It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams, That a Committee of Correspondence be appointed to consist of twenty-one Persons—to state the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several Towns in this Province and to the World as the sense of this Town, with the Infringements and Violations thereof that have been, or from time to time may be made—Also requesting of each Town a free communication of their Sentiments on this Subject—And the Question being accordingly put—Passed in the Affermative. Nem. Con.—Also Voted, that Then the Meeting was dissolved. This was the most important step in America between the Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress. Cf. American History and Government, § 140. Ford's Writings of Jefferson, I is, 7, 8. Not thinking our old and leading members up to the point of forwardness and zeal which the times required, Mr. Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis L. Lee, Mr. Carr and myself agreed to meet in the evening in a private room of the Raleigh, to consult on the state of things. There may have been a member or two more whom I do not recollect. We were all sensible that the most urgent of all measures was that of coming to an understanding with all the other colonies, to consider the British claims as a common cause to all, and to produce a unity of action; and for this purpose that a committee of correspondence in each colony would be the best instrument for intercommunication; and that their first measure would probably be, to propose a meeting of deputies from every colony, at some central place, who should be charged with the direction of the measures which should be taken by all. We therefore drew up the resolutions. The consulting members proposed to me to move them, but I urged that it should be done by Mr. Carr, my friend and brother in law, then a member, to whom I wished an opportunity should be given of making known to the house his great worth and talents. It was so agreed; he moved them. They were agreed to nem. con., and a committee of correspondence appointed, of whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman.123. Creation of Standing Intercolonial Committees of Correspondence, 1773
a. Jefferson's Account of the Origin of the Movement (written at a Later Date)
b. The Action, of the Virginia Burgesses