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The Gaspee attack began the consolidation of the sundry colonies into a union of states.
Historians often credit the Gaspee Affair with consolidating the various
American radical groups in the sundry colonies into a formidable union, leading
to the Continental Congress. The first step in this consolidation was the
Committees of Correspondence which were formed to exchange information and urge
united action by the colonies. No less a person than Thomas Jefferson wrote of the inspiration
that the Gaspee Affair lent to the formation of these committees.
 In the notes drafted
for his autobiography Jefferson wrote the English response to the Gaspee attack
started him on the path of unity, 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." This autobiographical note clearly
establishes the link between the Gaspee and the colonies Committees of
Correspondence (as does also the correspondence of Samuel Adams on the subject, who
claimed the same distinction of originating the idea). A transcription of this
note follows below.
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In
May,2 1769, a meeting of the General Assembly was called by the Govr., Ld.
Botetourt. I had then become a member; and to that meeting became known the
joint resolutions & address of the Lords & Commons of 1768--9, on the
proceedings in Massachusetts. Counter-resolutions, & an address to the King, by
the H. of Burgesses were agreed to with little opposition, & a spirit manifestly
displayed of considering the cause of Massachusetts as a common one. The
Governor dissolved us: but we met the next day in the Apollo [room] of the
Raleigh tavern, formed ourselves into a voluntary convention, drew up articles
of association against the use of any merchandise imported from Gr. Britain,
signed and recommended them to the people, repaired to our several counties, &
were re elected without any other exception than of the very few who had
declined assent to our proceedings.
Nothing of
particular excitement occurring for a considerable time our countrymen seemed to
fall into a state of insensibility to our situation. The duty on tea not yet
repealed & the Declaratory act of a right in the British parl to bind us by
their laws in all cases whatsoever, still suspended over us. But a court of
inquiry held in R. Island in 1762 [sic, but the slip of Jefferson is dated
to be for biography of events in 1772, so it is clear he is referring to the Gaspee inquiry]
with a power to send persons to England to be tried for offences committed
here was considered at our session of the spring of 1773. as demanding
attention. Not thinking our old & leading members up to the point of
forwardness & zeal which the times required, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis L.
Lee, Mr. Carr & 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, & to produce an unity
of action: and for this purpose that a commee of correspondce in each colony
would be the best instrument for intercommunication: and that their first
measure would probably be to propose pose 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
which may be seen in Wirt pa 87. The consulting members proposed to me to move
them, but I urged that it should be done by Mr. Carr, my friend & brother in
law, then a new member to whom I wished an opportunity should be given of making
known to the house his great worth & talents. It was so agreed; he moved them,
they were agreed to nem. con. and a commee of correspondence appointed of whom
Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. The Govr. (then Ld. Dunmore)
dissolved us, but the commee met the next day, prepared a circular letter to the
Speakers of the other colonies, inclosing to each a copy of the resolns and left
it in charge with their chairman to forward them by expresses.
The origination of
these commees of correspondence between the colonies has been since claimed for
Massachusetts, and Marshall II. 151, has given into this error, altho' the very
note of his appendix to which he refers, shows that their establmt was confined
to their own towns. This matter will be seen dearly stated in a letter of Samuel
Adams Wells to me of Apr. 2, 1819, and my answer of May 12. I was corrected by
the letter of Mr. Wells in the information I had given Mr. Wirt, as stated in
his note, pa. 87, that the messengers of Massach. & Virga crossed each other on
the way bearing similar propositions, for Mr. Wells shows that Mass. did not
adopt the measure but on the receipt of our proposn delivered at their next
session. Their message therefore which passed ours, must have related to
something else, for I well remember P. Randolph's informing me of the crossing
of our messengers. [Notes and Emphasis Added.]
Source:
This is a transcription from the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Manuscript Division at the Library
of Congress, which contains the handwritten paper item cataloged as -
Thomas Jefferson, July 27, 1821, Autobiography Draft Fragment, January 6 through
July 27.
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Further as to the importance of the Gaspee Affair in the start of unified
American actions, see the following description by Professor Lawrence S.
Kaplan, Colonies Into Nation, pp 65-71 (Macmillan Company, New York,
1972)].
Patrolling the waters of Narragansett Bay, a notorious center of smuggling,
the Gaspee had a reputation for excessive zeal in exposing violations of
the Navigation laws. When it ran aground near Providence it was not surprising
that it received unwanted attention from hostile Rhode Islanders who promptly
set upon the vessel. The ship was burned, the commander wounded, and royal
authority in the person of royal officers was grievously affronted. The
outrageous assault was all the more galling because of the subsequent
false arrest of the unfortunate British commander by civil authorities, and the
inability of anyone to identify the American culprits behind the action. As
everyone knew, they were leading men of business in Providence.
Essentially the incident was not different from a number of other clashes in
the preceding decade; and essentially British response was similar to earlier
responses. In the first instance the colonial provoked by a British regulation
and recognizing limitations in local British power strikes out at an exposed
extension of authority. In the latter Britain promises punishment which she is
unable to deliver. The major difference on this occasion [Gaspee] was in the
aftermath of the affair. In the past the colonies had spoken vaguely of future
concert against British policy, but never fulfilled their pledges. This time
Samuel Adams and his network of colleagues in other colonies established a
continental Committee of Correspondence with the objective of circulating
information quickly about future British abuses and of addressing the world with
a single American voice. The Gaspee affair revealed how much the
events of the previous decade had radicalized the colonies. [Bold face emphasis supplied.]
Reaction to news of a royal commission interfering in the Rhode Island case
was immediate. The commission became a court of the inquisition in the rhetoric
of its opponents, who claimed that its purpose was to compel Americans to bow
before alien and illegal jurisdictions, Anticipating the summoning of troops in
January, 1773, in consequence of the investigation, the Boston Gazette
conjured up slaughter worse than the Boston Massacre, and asked itself how long
the patience of the colonies would Iast before an effective riposte was made. It
came within two months as Virginia, spurred by Richard Henry Lee, took the
initiative and appointed a standing committee of eleven to keep watch over the
acts of Parliament and to correspond with the other colonies. The motion of the
young Virginian found a response first in Boston and then within a year in all
the colonies except Pennsylvania, which delayed the appointment of a committee
until after the Boston Port Bill had passed in 1774.
While a Continental Congress would soon overshadow the Committees of
Correspondence, they symbolized a spirit of union which had not been present in
the previous crises. Here were permanent units different from the ad hoc basis
of the Stamp Act Congress or from the unstructured reactions to the Circular
Letter. New leaders emerged inside and outside the legislatures who could give
currency to the language of conditional independence. Not only did the Boston
Gazette deny Britain's right to make laws for the colonies but it warned
that "if Britons continue their endeavors much longer to subject us to their
government and taxation, we shall become a separate state." And the
state would be strong enough to be a "guardian of the rights of
mankind throughout the world," according to the Providence Gazette in
1773. Certainly it would be confident enough to dispatch its own ambassador to
Parliament, if not to the Court of St. James.
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