War in the Shadows
Students of insurgencies have long understood the need to
deprive the insurgents of external support. Throughout history, few insurgencies or rebellions have succeeded without external assistance, which can take various forms, including moral support, funding, training, weapons, equipment, supplies, political backing, and military support.
Early in the insurgency that would erupt into rebellion after Lexington and Concord, the Americans set up a way to maintain dialogue and coordination among the colonies and later states. It quickly became evident that America would need to reach across the Atlantic as well. Winning over Americans was just one part of the complex struggle now underway. Securing support in Britain and building alliances with sympathetic countrymen would also be crucial for gaining recognition for the new nation. Additionally, the European powers would provide fertile ground for support if properly “tilled.”
A Secret Committee
By the time the Second Continental Congress met in
Philadelphia in 1775, this need for international support resulted in the
formation of the Committee of Secret Correspondence via two resolutions of 29
November:
RESOLVED, That a committee...would be appointed for the
sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in Great Britain, and other
parts of the world, and that they lay their correspondence before Congress when
directed.
RESOLVED, That this Congress will make provision to
defray all such expenses as they may arise by carrying on such correspondence,
and for the payment of such agents as the said Committee may send on this
service.
Due to the secret nature of the work involved, the members soon added the word “Secret” to its name. The committee received considerable authority from Congress to perform multiple functions: public and secret diplomacy, intelligence gathering, and public relations/influencing opinion. In many ways, it operated as both the State Department and the CIA. It served as the Continental Congress’s eyes and ears in Europe and would soon become its arm in that region.
First Members
Congress effectively selected the initial members of the committee, bringing together notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Johnson, John Dickinson, John Jay, and Robert Morris. Additional members were included later, such as James Lovell, a former schoolmaster, Bunker Hill veteran (arrested by the British for spying), and member of Congress, who developed the committee’s first codes and ciphers. One can surmise that Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who represented the American colonies with the British government for many years, provided a wealth of ideas and actions drawn from his experience abroad. John Jay and likely the others had experience organizing secret meetings and activities on the path to rebellion while surrounded by loyalists eager to root them out.
The Committee at Work
Tactics and Tradecraft
It is a tribute to the American leaders of the era that they were quick to learn and adopt the most sophisticated techniques and practices long utilized by the great powers of Europe. They used clandestine agents abroad, conducted covert operations, created codes and ciphers, employed propaganda, and executed covert postal surveillance of both official and private mail. They utilized open-source intelligence by purchasing foreign publications, which they analyzed. Most notably, they established an elaborate communication system that employed various couriers. Another crucial innovation was the creation of a maritime capability independent of the Continental Navy, intended for smuggling, moving agents, managing correspondence, and intercepting British ships.
First Actions
The committee acted swiftly. They began regular correspondence with English Whigs and Scots who supported the ideas, if not all the actions, of the Americans. The experienced and worldly Benjamin Franklin was the most active, reaching out to a diverse range of contacts he had cultivated in Britain and Europe in a sophisticated effort to garner sympathy for the patriot cause.
Franklin initiated secret correspondence with Spain through Don Gabriel de Bourbon, a member of the Spanish royal family and an associate of Franklin. He subtly hinted at the advantages that an American alliance might yield for Spain.
Agents at Home
But curiously, it was France that reached out first, dispatching Julien Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir to Philadelphia to assess the feasibility of covert aid and political involvement support.
In December 1775, committee members Benjamin Franklin and John Jay held a secret meeting with the French intelligence agent de Bonvouloir, who was disguised as a Flemish merchant.
Franklin and Jay wanted to know if France would assist America and at what cost. They emphasized an urgent need for arms and munitions, which would be exchanged for American tobacco, rice, and other crops. De Bonvouloir advised that the French government should avoid any involvement in transactions with the rebels. Instead, private merchants would be utilized.
Father of American Counterintelligence - John Jay
Franklin assured de Bonvouloir that America would not reconcile with Britain and that once it declared independence, France should form an alliance. This marked the beginning of a long-term campaign to bring not only French aid but also French arms into the struggle.
Agents Abroad
Franklin and Jay were encouraged by French interest in the American cause. In early March 1776, the Secret Committee appointed Connecticut lawyer Silas Deane as a special envoy to negotiate with the French government in Paris. His mission was to secure covert aid and gain political support through Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, Louis XVI’s Foreign Minister. Vergennes expertly handled both public and secret diplomacy for the French king, managing them with a steady hand.
The committee eventually included an American living in London, Arthur Lee, a member of the famed Lee family of Virginia. Lee had contact with the French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a polymath, playwright, clockmaker, and diplomat who was also a secret French agent. Using a letter sent by the committee, Lee provided Beaumarchais with information about American successes—much of which was propaganda intended to influence French thinking. Interestingly, people today might recognize Beaumarchais not for his devotion to freedom (and money-making) but for composing the Figaro plays: Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable. These later became adaptations as operas that are still enjoyed today.
But Beaumarchais was a champion of the American cause and needed no exaggerated reports to ignite his passion for freedom. While working with Deane back in Paris, he helped influence French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, and King Louis XVI to provide the colonies with clandestine shipments of gunpowder and war materials. This support was critical in the early years of what had now become a war. The vehicle for this effort was the front company Rodrigue y Hortalez (R&H), chartered as a Spanish trading company. R&H served as the means of shipping surplus French arms and munitions to the West Indies, primarily to the Dutch colony Saint Eustatius, where American agricultural products were exchanged for the war goods.
Deane was responsible for the earliest aid to America’s struggling army as a result of his efforts. In addition to arranging for clandestine shipments (R&H was just one covert operation), he recruited French officers, made introductions, sought out ships for privateering, and promoted the American cause among the French cognoscenti. Some of the officers he recruited included the Marquis de Lafayette, Baron Johann de Kalb, Thomas Conway, Casimir Pulaski, and Baron von Steuben—a who's who of ex-pat freedom fighters.
The American commissioners in Paris navigated a whirlwind of intrigue as they wooed and charmed the French while fending off Sir William Eden’s British secret service. Eden had sent an American named Paul Wentworth to Paris when Silas Deane arrived. Deane was familiar with Wentworth, and soon he was reporting on Deane’s activities and later, Franklin’s. Wentworth also recruited Edward Bancroft, the secretary of the American Commission.
But Lee was now in Paris. So was Benjamin Franklin himself, who had sailed for France in December 1776. Throughout 1777, the full-court press was on. The British and French were opening the American commission's mail through various clandestine operations. Servants and friends were recruited to spy, influence, and report. Bancroft provided insider information to Wentworth and Eden. And so it went. Meanwhile, Franklin charmed everyone in sight, was the toast of Paris, and continued to wield influence. He knew that every word and gesture reached Versailles and London, and every step he took reflected that awareness.
What's in a Name?
The Committee of Secret Correspondence became the Committee of Foreign Affairs in April 1777 but retained its intelligence functions. As the first American government agency for both foreign intelligence and diplomatic representation, it essentially served as the forerunner of the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as today's Congressional intelligence oversight committees. Despite the name change, the Foreign Affairs Committee continued to play a crucial role for Congress, acting as the eyes and ears of the nation in Europe.
Note: Perhaps to confuse the British, Congress created a separate "Secret Committee" in 1775 to acquire supplies, which, by its nature, required concealment from British eyes and ships. Many of its members also served on the Committee of Secret Correspondence. It became the Committee of Commerce around the same time that its 'sister" committee was renamed the Committee of Foreign Affairs.
Payoff
The Committee of Secret Correspondence/Secret/Foreign Affairs Committee’s efforts paid off significantly when an American army, equipped with arms and munitions covertly provided by France, forced the surrender of a British army at Saratoga in October 1777. No one in France could remember the last time a British army surrendered to the French. The long and winding road to a treaty with France had now become a superhighway. However, the committee was not finished. The details of an alliance, future loans to America, and the foundation for negotiations and peace were all tasks to be accomplished by the committee. The capitals of Europe were also a target as the commission aimed to enlist the Netherlands, Prussia, Spain, and Russia to the cause. But those are stories for another time.
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