The Townshend Acts and the committees of correspondence

After a century and a half of salutary neglect of its North American colonies, Britain sought to impose tighter control over them.

After the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763, leaving the British Empire in financial distress, the British Parliament sought to fill its coffers by taxing the colonies.${}^1$‍ The Stamp Act, which levied taxes on all printed material in the North American colonies, had provoked so much unrest that Britain was ultimately forced to repeal it. At the same time, however, the British Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted Britain’s ultimate right of control over the colonies. The repeal of the Stamp Act stopped the protests and rioting, and the colonists did not at first oppose the Declaratory Act—until the British began to enforce it.${}^2$‍

In 1767, Charles Townshend, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, imposed a series of new taxes designed to raise revenue. All imports of glass, lead, paint, and tea were to be taxed, new customs officials were to be sent to the colonies to collect, and courts of admiralty were created to prosecute violators and smugglers. These actions became known as the Townshend Acts, and they unleashed another wave of protest in the colonies.

The acts renewed a fierce debate over whether the British Parliament had the right to tax the North American colonies solely for the purpose of raising revenue. The colonists protested, “no taxation without representation,” arguing that the British Parliament did not have the right to tax them because they lacked representation in the legislative body. They asserted that only colonial assemblies elected by themselves should have the power to impose taxes.

The British responded with the theory of virtual representation, which held that the members of British Parliament were duty-bound to protect the interests of British citizens and subjects alike, including the colonists. When the colonial assemblies of New York and Massachusetts denied Parliament’s right of taxation and urged the other colonies to resist, the Crown-appointed governors of the colonies dissolved the assemblies, touching off a struggle between executive authorities and the representatives of the people.

Colonists organized boycotts of British goods to pressure Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts. As British customs officials arrived to collect taxes and prosecute smugglers, colonial opposition intensified, resulting in street demonstrations and protests that sometimes turned violent.

The Townshend Acts were especially reviled in Boston, where the Customs Board was headquartered. Merchants in Boston signed a nonimportation agreement, which suspended all imports of British goods. Merchants in New York and Philadelphia followed with their own nonimportation pledges. The British responded by sending naval and military officials to Boston to enforce the Acts, setting the stage for the Boston Massacre in 1770.

Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who had been appointed by the Crown, sought to compose a faction of pro-British Loyalist officials and thereby widen support for Britain’s mercantilist taxation policies. In 1772, Boston revolutionary Samuel Adams responded by urging Massachusetts to employ a committee of correspondence to contact townspeople and stay apprised of events occurring at town meetings throughout the area. The purpose of such a committee was to rally opposition to British policies, to educate the townspeople of Massachusetts about their constitutional rights and the British threats to those rights, and to encourage townspeople to become more politically active. By 1774, every colonial assembly had created a committee of correspondence.${}^3$‍

Adams’s effort was successful. The committee forged unity among the towns and intensified their resistance to British rule. This burgeoning republican spirit would flower as the revolutionary crisis unfolded. Although pro-British Loyalists like Governor Hutchinson claimed that the committees deceived naïve country dwellers into fomenting rebellion, in reality, the people of Massachusetts were engaging with political ideals and debating the proper form, function, and scope of government. The ideology of republicanism was taking root in the critical colony of Massachusetts, which would prove a leader in the American Revolution.${}^4$‍

In your own words, explain the role and function of the committees of correspondence.

Why do you think Massachusetts became a leader in the American Revolution?

What was the most consequential outcome of the Townshend Acts?