Phila 30 Novr 1775
Sir,
We have the honor to be appointed by the Congress a Committee of Correspondence with the friends of America on the other side of the - .1 Our institution is with design to preserve secresy, & thereby secure our friends, who we suppose may be endangered and alarmed by the late proclamation.2 It is considered as of the utmost consequence to the cause of Liberty, that an intercourse should be kept up, and we shall be obliged by your sentiments of the most probable and secure method of effecting it. If any should be certainly resolved on which you may think much concerns America to be apprised of, we shall consider it within the power of our appointment to pay the expence of an Express Boat, if you can provide one under proper cautions.
We are Sir your most obd. servants.3
Transcription, University of Virginia Library. In the hand of Richard Henry Lee.
1 John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, John Jay, and Thomas Johnson were appointed on November 29 to correspond "with our friends in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world." JCC, 3:392. Additional inforrnation on the selection of the committee is available in the autobiography of John Adams, who reported that soon after it was formed John Jay came to him to apologize for his "being omitted in the Choice of the two great Secret Committees of Commerce and Correspondence." "He said in express terms," Adams explained, "that my Character stood very high with the Members, and he knew there was but one Thing which prevented me from being universally acknowledged to be the first Man in Congress, and that was this, there was a great Division in the House, and two Men had effected it, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee, and as I was known to be very intimate with those two Gentlemen, many others were jealous of me." Adams, Diary (Butterfield), 3:340 - 41.
2 On November 13 Congress appointed a committee consisting of Richard Henry Lee, William Livingston, and James Wilson to respond to "sundry illegal ministerial proclamations that have lately apppeared in America." The committee’s report, a "declaration" focusing upon the royal proclamation of August 23, 1775, was submitted on November 29, adopted on December 6, and subsequently distributed in the form of a broadside. See Am. Archives, 4th ser. 3:24 - 41; and JCC, 3:353, 392, 409 - 12, 513.
3 Lee added the following note at the bottom of this document, probably sometime after September 29, 1779, when William Carmichael was elected secretary to the minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty with Spain. See JCC, 15:1127. "Copy of a letter from the Committee of Secret Correspondence to Dr. Lee soon after the first institution of this Committee - its members then were Mr. Harrison, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Jay. The correspondence here requested was entered upon by Dr. Lee, and one of his dispatches being committed to the care of Mr. Carmichael, he with Mr. Deane in concert opened, and detained this dispatch for two years and made use of its contents to create enemies to Dr. Lee Dr. Franklin knew of this proceedure and expressed not his disapprobation, but on the contrary continued the patron, friend, and intimate of Mr. Deane. The Congress being made thoroughly acquainted with this whole proceedure, instead of censuring the authors of an injury done to their pledged faith, were not only silent, but rewarded Mr. Deane, and advanced Mr. Carmichael to an office of high trust."