“The necessity of
procuring good Intelligence is apparent & need not be further urged -- All
that remains for me to add is, that you keep the whole matter as secret as
possible. For upon Secrecy, Success depends in Most Enterprizes of the kind,
and for want of it, they are generally defeated, however well planned &
promising a favourable issue.”
-- George Washington,
July 26, 1777
America
has carried out foreign intelligence activities for well over two centuries. Recognizing
the need for foreign intelligence and foreign alliances, the Second Continental
Congress created the Committee of Correspondence by a resolution of November
29, 1775:
RESOLVED,
That a committee of five 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.
The committee was soon renamed the Committee of Secret
Correspondence.
The Committee of Secret Correspondence
The committee members were Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania,
Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, and Thomas
Johnson of Maryland.
This was America's
first foreign intelligence directorate.
The committee employed secret agents abroad, conducted covert operations,
devised codes and ciphers, funded propaganda activities, authorized the opening
of private mail, acquired foreign publications for use in analysis, established
a courier system, and developed a maritime capability apart from that of the
Navy.
On April 17, 1777, the Committee of Secret Correspondence was renamed the
Committee of Foreign Affairs, but kept with its intelligence function. Matters
of diplomacy were conducted by other committees or by the Congress as a whole.
With the creation of a Department of Foreign Affairs—the
forerunner of the Department of State—on January 10, 1781, correspondence
"for the purpose of obtaining the most extensive and useful information
relative to foreign affairs" was shifted to the new body, whose secretary
was empowered to correspond "with all other persons from whom he may
expect to receive useful information."
The Secret Committee
Even before setting up the Committee of Secret Correspondence, the Second
Continental Congress had created a Secret Committee by a resolution on
September 18, 1775. This committee was given wide powers and large sums of
money to obtain military supplies in secret, and was charged with distributing
the supplies and selling gunpowder to privateers chartered by the Continental
Congress. The committee also took over and administered on a uniform basis the
secret contracts for arms and gunpowder previously negotiated by certain
members of the Congress without the formal sanction of that body. The committee
kept its transactions secret, and destroyed many of its records to assure the
confidentiality of its work.
The Secret Committee employed agents overseas, often in cooperation with the
Committee of Secret Correspondence. It also gathered intelligence about Tory
secret ammunition stores and arranged to seize them. The Secret Committee sent
missions to plunder British supplies in the southern colonies. It arranged the
purchase of military stores through intermediaries so as to conceal the fact
that the Continental Congress was the true purchaser. The Secret Committee used
foreign flags to protect its vessels from the British fleet.
Those appointed to the committee included some of the most influential members
of the Congress: Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Robert Livingston, John
Dickinson, Thomas Willing, Thomas McKean, John Langdon, and Samuel Ward.
The Committee on Spies
On June 5, 1776, the Congress appointed John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Edward
Rutledge, James Wilson, and Robert Livingston "to consider what is proper
to be done with persons giving intelligence to the enemy or supplying them with
provisions." The same committee was charged with revising the Articles of
War in regard to espionage directed against the patriot forces.
The problem was an urgent one. Dr. Benjamin Church, chief
physician of the Continental Army, had already been seized and imprisoned as a
British agent, but there was no civilian espionage act, and military law did
not provide punishment severe enough to afford a deterrent, in the judgment of Patriot leaders.
On November 7, 1775, the Continental Congress added the
death penalty for espionage to the Articles of War, but the clause was not
applied retroactively, and Church remained in jail.
On August 21, 1776, the committee's report was considered by the Continental
Congress, which enacted the first espionage act:
RESOLVED,
That all persons not members of, nor owing allegiance to, any of the United
States of America, as described in a resolution to the Congress of the 29th of
June last, who shall be found lurking as spies in or about the fortification or
encampments of the armies of the United States, or of any of them, shall suffer
death, according to the law and usage of nations, by sentence of a court
martial, or such ether punishment as such court martial may direct.
It was resolved further that the act "be printed at the
end of the rules and articles of war."
On February 27, 1778, the Continental Congress broadened the
law to include any "inhabitants of these states" whose intelligence
activities aided the enemy in capturing or killing Patriots.