Who initiated the committee of correspondence?

Answer 1

Samuel Adams of Boston initiated the first Committee of Correspondence in November 1772. He, Dr. Joseph Warren, James Otis and over a dozen other Patriot leaders asked the Boston town meeting to form an official committee in response to the most recent British offense, their wanting to send colonials to England for trial because they had attacked a British customs ship, the HMS Gaspée, that had been trying to enforce the unpopular new trade regulations. The stated purpose of the Boston Committee of Correspondence was to prepare a statement of the rights of the colonists, declare that these rights had been infringed by the British, and send a letter to all the towns of the Province of Massachusetts and "the world", most importantly the other colonies, to tell them of this. The larger purpose of the Committee of Correspondence, though, was to create a system of spreading information about the latest offenses of the British government, to build support for their cause throughout the outlying towns of their own colony and in other colonies as well and to coordinate the responses of the colonists. Because there was no other way to spread news effectively, they wrote letters and pamphlets (the usual way to promote political issues at that time) and sent them out by postal rider or ship.