in whose keeping they have been so long, was equally so. This alone has saved the collection from being scattered or destroyed. The Austin Papers go to the University of Texas by the will of Colonel Bryan. They are now stored in the capitol building in the city of Austin, but it is expected that they will be transferred to the university within the next two months.

Besides the various collections I have named, there are many others of less importance or concerning which I know too little to speak. Such are the Lamar Papers, now temporarily stored in the State library of Texas, and the Rusk and Burnet Papers in the possession of Dr. V. O. King, of Austin.

In conclusion let me say that I have had to deal briefly with a large subject, relative to the various phases of which my information is very unequal. I believe, therefore, that as to any omissions or shortcomings in the matter of proportion I can properly ask for indulgence.

XII.-COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE OF THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTION.

By EDWARD D. COLLINS, Ph. D.,

BARTON LANDING, VT.

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE OF THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTION.

By Dr. EDWARD D. COLLINS.

MASSACHUSETTS DISCOVERS A METHOD OF COLONIAL SELFGOVERNMENT.

Jared Sparks, in his Life of Gouverneur Morris, has comprehensively summarized the conditions through which the committee systems of the American Revolution sprang into efficiency:

And here it must be kept in mind that wherever the power of Great Britain was thrown off or disavowed, all political control passed by its natural course into the hands of the people. No man or body of men had authority to command any other body of men or individual; equality of rights produced an equality of condition, and the structure of government could only be raised on the strength of powers delegated anew to certain persons for this special purpose by the willing voice of the people, whom circumstances had made the sole arbiters of their own political destiny. Hence the primary movement was to bring the people to understand their interests and act in concert, and the first means used to attain this end was the establishment of committees of correspondence in different parts of the country. These committees were chosen in towns, counties, parishes, districts, or smaller neighborhoods. They were intrusted with certain powers, which enabled them to correspond with each other and to represent in some sort the political views and objects of their constituents. So necessary was this system in itself, and so well adapted to promote the general welfare, that it was acceded to everywhere, and in a short time committees were so universally appointed throughout the colonies that the friends of liberty had speedy and direct channels opened with each other in every part of the continent. This increased their mutual intelligence, gave them confidence and encouragement, harmonized their sentiments, and sowed the seeds of union. @

The conjuncture of political exigency and colonial environment produced organization of a peculiar type. Indeed, so

a Sparks, Gouverneur Morris, I, 30, ff.

controlling was the geographical situation alone that this type necessarily reappeared in every plan for any kind of union. Here were local groups, widely separated. Unity of purpose might be affirmed among them, but it could not be carried to fruition without correspondence and cooperative effort by sympathetic nucleii in the individual colonies. The moment this becomes apparent examples of corresponding committees abound. Peters's early scheme for a confederation of the British colonies in 1754 was based upon this principle." Among the religiously inclined it appeared in a desire of communion between the churches. Merchants saw in this method a weapon for securing release from certain restrictive laws of trade. All protracted relations between the colonies and their colonial agents in England were based upon correspondence. Legislatures were wont to communicate their acts to sister assemblies. Secret societies found it desirable and convenient to disseminate their sentiments by correspondence. To cite such instances in a society whose individual members base a considerable portion of their daily activities in the employment of the same principle in the conduct of their various interests, political, religious, mercantile, and social, seems trivial. These earlier illustrations would not be worth recall

a Peters outlined the system that was applied in the choice of Assembly Committees of Correspondence twenty years later. "That the Legislature of Each Colony appoint a Committee of Union, whose business it shall be to correspond with all the other Committees,-to appoint the times & Places of Meeting in each Division, and to propose to their Respective Governments the Heads of such matters as shall be judg'd necessary to be immediately done, &c., as there may be more branches of Business assigned them.

That Delegates of the Committees of each Division shall have one annual Stated time of Meeting, and others occasionally, as in their Correspondencies they shall find it necessary. The place to be previously agreed upon by them." Am. Hist. Leaflets, No. 14, p. 6. In the later period there was an extension and distribution of functions, to suit the changed conditions, especially local needs.

b Suggestions of Dr. Mayhew to James Otis, June 8, 1766. Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution, p. 44.

Merchants in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island in protest against the sugar act, and other restrictive trade measures. Frothingham calls attention to the suggestion of the Boston Evening Post, of November 21 and 28, 1763. Rise of the Republic, 162–163. The committee chosen in 1770 to correspond with Franklin, agent to England, was also to communicate with the speakers of the several assemblies. Henry E. McCulloh, provincial agent of North Carolina, wrote from London, June 10, 1771, to the "Committee of Correspondence" in North Carolina (Col. Rec., N. C., IX, pp. 10-12).

P There was an official appointment of a committee of correspondence-on the motion of S. Adams, says Wells-by the general court of Massachusetts, June 13, 1764, to act in the recess of the court, cooperate with the other governments to obtain a repeal of the sugar act, prevent a stamp act, etc. The Massachusetts Circular Letter of 1768 is, of course, a development of the same idea.

f The Sons of Liberty put the plan in operation, even announcing their committees of correspondence in the newspapers (see action of Providence in Boston Gazette, August 12, 1765).