In  1768,  an  act  of  assembly  was  passed  naming  Benjamin  Franklin,  agent

for  one  year  from  June  of  that  year,  and  appointing  a  joint  committee  of

the  legislative  branches  to  be  a  committee  of  correspondence.  §ome  idea

of  the  importance  of  this  committee  may  be  gathered  from  the  prevision


made  by  the /General  X^ssembiy  for  salaries  to  the  clerk  and  messenger  of
the  committee.  "^   Franklin  was  re-appointed  agent  from  June,  l770to  ^une,
1771;  and  1m   November,  1773,  he  was  again  appointed  agent  for  the  term  of

one  year,  the  comiaittee  of  correspondence  being  again  named  in  each  of

154
these  acts  constituting  him  agent  for  the  colony.   Not  only  was  Franklin

1^8  Smith,  South  Carolina  as  a  Royal  Province,  p.  162,  note  3,  "This  com-
mittee, revived  from  time  to  time,  was  continued  in  existence  until
the  Revolution,  During  the  last  few  years  of  the  colonial  period,  how-
ever, its  members  were  nearly  all  drawn  from  the  lower  house  and  it
was  entirely  under  their  control.   ¥?hen  the  colonies  began  to  appoint
cor.inittees  to  correspond  with  one  another  in  1773,  the  South  Carolina
assembly  found  it  unnecessary  to  appoint  a  new  committee  and  simrly
utilized  this. "

1"^9  Georgia,  Colonial  Records,  vol  xviii,  pp.  481,482,483.
150  Ibid,    T5p.    536,537,538.
151  Ibid,    pp.    580,581,582.
152  Ibid,   vol.    xix,    Dart    i,    np.    I2,l3,i^,
15p    Ibid,    pp.     Iii9,    485.
