Talk:Committee of safety (American Revolution)

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Comments[edit]

Well, sort of, maybe, but the exerpt from Harpers is at least an oversimplification, and in places is just simply incorrect. I'm not sure if I can fix this. Here is what I Think, and Know, and think I know, and maybe if somebody else gets back here before I, you can fix it instead of me: At the beginning the "Revolutionary Committees" are almost better called "Soviets", since they are about the same kind of thing as the early WW1 era Russian Soviets which we translate as committees, and they as we in the 1770s had a committee or soviet for almost any function of government that could be separated and put under a group of interested citizens. If they didn't start out that way at their formation they do eventually wind up reporting to (or perhaps even actually forming anew from their own members) the Colonial Legislatures.

The committees had various titles, and each place often had several committees: viz: Safety, Observation and Inspection, and Correspondence, were common and fairly standard.

Safety wasn't always the first committee formed, in educated areas the committees were sometimes begun with a Committee of Correspondence.

Safety was the police committee, and if the selectmen (or in larger jurisdictions legislature or county authority) and the militia didn't come up on the same side then the Committee of Safety came into existence.

The present article is forgetting about the "Committee of Observation and Inspection" which was for seeing what was what (I guess spying was part of this), this was especially important in areas of divided sympathies and places with lots of British Troops.

In some colonies each city county and colony tended to have these and on each level. DE, MA, NY, NJ, and PA all seem to have had more than just a Committee of Safety and on more than just colony level. Many of the members of these committees were the Selectmen or other colonial officials, and if this was universal enough the committees reported to these govt bodies. In MA you should be able to find this stuff in the minutes of the selectmen for the various towns. So, Committee of Safety is not so much the government, as just a part of it. When a former Colonial Official viz: somebody like Benjamin Franklin was head of the Committee of Safety that committee may have looked like and acted as the govt.

I guess that my solution would be something like an article entitled American Government in the Pre-presidential Era:Local Government during the American RevolutionJohn5Russell3Finley 17:05, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion of Bias[edit]

It seems to me that the provided quote takes a heavily biased stance. Specifically when it says "restraining evil disposed persons" I'm not sure that it is presenting appropriate encylopedic content (which is ironic since it's a quote from an encyclopedia). This article should be rewritten to have a neutral point of view and perhaps simply reference the quoted content. Mrobfire 16:30, 5 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure that was fairly normal parlance for the time (1770s). 68.39.174.238 19:12, 25 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Since, there has not been any discussion recently... I have removed the POV content, since I do not think it added anything to the article. BradMajors 15:38, 23 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If there is no objection I will be removing the non-neutral POV tag. BradMajors 18:06, 6 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

non-neutral POV tag removed. BradMajors 21:03, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Add this to the First Continental Congress article.

What did the committee more closely correspond to - the colonial governor's council or the assembly?[edit]

Hi, I wondered what relationship the committee of safety bore to the assembly or to the council, did it replace one or other? Also, were there state committees of safety and city/town committees, and if so, what relationship did each bear to the other? Thanks RWIR (talk) 07:06, 27 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Council of safety[edit]

(doesn't answer the above). Need to have material and citation which shows that the Council of Safety for the state seemed to oversee the local committees of safety.. See Mount Independence (Vermont). Student7 (talk) 17:32, 8 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]