CORRESPONDENCE, COMMITTEES OF

groups appointed by the legislatures in the 13 British American colonies to provide colonial leadership and aid intercolonial cooperation. Samuel Adams organized the first group at Boston in November 1772, and within three months 80 others had been formed locally in Massachusetts. In March 1773 Virginia organized legislative standing committees for intercolonial correspondence, with Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry among their 11 members. The committees played a major role in promoting colonial unity and in summoning in September 1774 the First Continental Congress (see Continental Congress), a majority of whose delegates were committee members.