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The Continental Congress established the Committee of Secret Correspondence to communicate with sympathetic Britons and other Europeans early in the American Revolution. The committee coordinated diplomatic functions for the Continental Congress and directed transatlantic communication and public relations.

Of the initial members of the committee, Benjamin Franklin was the most active. Drawing on his extensive European contacts, he began a campaign to rally international support of the American cause. On December 12, 1775, Franklin wrote to Don Gabriel de Bourbon, a prince of the Spanish royal family and one of Franklin's scholarly associates. In his letter, Franklin strongly hinted at the advantages of a Spanish alliance with the American revolutionaries. Franklin dispatched similar letters to American sympathizers in France. He sent these letters through associates whom he trusted to protect the communications from interception by the British.

Franklin, the only member with experience in foreign affairs, dominated the Committee, corresponding with friends in Europe and sounding out the possibility of an alliance with America. The French soon dispatched Julien Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir to America to examine the feasibility of covert aid and political support, and the Committee sent its own secret agent, Silas Deane, to France for the same purposes in April 1776. Franklin himself left for Paris in late 1776 on his famous, and ultimately successful, mission to forge an alliance with France.

Thereafter, the Committee continued to correspond with Lee in London, and, after Congress appointed them in the fall of 1776, also with the commissioners in France. As the British Navy tightened its blockade, however, communication became increasingly difficult, especially after British forces seized Philadelphia in 1777. Once France formally signed an alliance with the United States in 1778, communications improved. With the alliance also came more duties for the Committee and the appointment of French Minister to the United States, Conrad-Alexandre Gérard de Rayneval.

====Committee resolved disputes between American foreign agents in Europe====

====Conclusion====

The Committee continued to coordinate communication between Congress and diplomats in Europe and sent more representatives to other European courts to encourage their assistance to the American cause. However, by 1780, an overworked Congress had many more duties, and members of the Committee for Foreign Affairs had begun to neglect their duties. Committee member James Lovell wrote to Arthur Lee and John Jay suggesting that Congress establish a Department of Foreign Affairs to handle the day-to-day business of foreign diplomacy. Congressman James Duane also agreed. The committee members brought the suggestion before Congress, and Congress ultimately decided to create a committee for the establishment of executive departments. Congress finally agreed to establish departments on February 6, 1781, but it was not until August 10 that the new Confederation Congress elected Robert Livingston as Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

* Republished from [https://history.state.gov/| Office of the Historian, United States Department of State] and [https://www.cia.gov/news-information| CIA News and & Information]