e judges were
threatened with impeachment should they dare accept a penny from the
royal treasury. The turmoil was increased next year by the discovery in
London of the package of letters which were made to support the unjust
charge against Hutchinson and some of his friends that they had
instigated and aided the most extreme measures of the ministry.

[Sidenote: Committees of Correspondence.]

In the autumn of 1772 Hutchinson refused to call an extra session of the
assembly to consider what should be done about the judges. Samuel Adams
then devised a scheme by which the towns of Massachusetts could consult
with each other and agree upon some common course of action in case of
emergencies. For this purpose each town was to appoint a standing
committee, and as a great part of their work was necessarily done by
letter they were called "committees of correspondence." This was the
step that fairly organized the Revolution. It was by far the most
important of all the steps that preceded the Declaration of
Independence. The committees did their work with great efficiency and
the governor had no means of stopping it. They were like an invisible
legislature that was always in session and could never be dissolved; and
when the old government fell they were able to administer affairs until
a new government could be set up. In the spring of 1773 Virginia carried
this work of organization a long step further, when Dabney Carr
suggested and carried a motion calling for committees of correspondence
between the several colonies. From this point it was a comparatively
short step to a permanent Continental Congress.

It happened that these preparations were made just in time to meet the
final act of aggression which brought on the Revolutionary War. The
Americans had thus far successfully resisted the Townshend acts and
secured the repeal of all the duties except on tea. As for tea they had
plenty, but not from England; they smuggled it from Holland in spite of
custom-houses and search-warrants. Clearly unless the Americans could be
made to buy tea from England and pay the duty on it, the king must own
himself defeated.

[Sidenote: Tea ships sent by the king, as a challenge.]

Since it appeared that they could not be forced into doing this, it
remained to be seen if they could be tricked into doing it. A truly
ingenious scheme was devised. Tea sent by the East India Company to
America had formerly paid a duty in some Britis