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====Committee resolved disputes between American foreign agents in Europe====
The Committee also facilitated decisions to solve infighting among the American commissioners in Europe who clashed on financial matters. Lee suspected the early colonial agent in France, Silas Deane, of financial malfeasance and began a campaign to bring about his recall. Thomas Paine, who had become secretary of the Committee, sympathized with Lee. Paine published anonymous pamphlets in which he claimed that Congress possessed documentation of secret French aid that would affirm Lee’s version of events. French Minister Gérard intervened, explaining to the committee that France could not formally admit to providing such aid without risking war with Britain, which it was not ready to do. Congress passed a resolution denying that there had been French aid on January 12, 1778.
* Article: [https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/secret-committee| Secret Committee of Correspondence/ Committee for Foreign Affairs, 1775–1777] and [https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2011-featured-story-archive/intelligence-and-the-committee-of-secret-correspondence.html| A Look Back ... Intelligence and the Committee of Secret Correspondence]
[[Category:US State Department]] [[Category:Wikis]][[Category:United States History]] [[Category:Colonial American History]] [[Category:18th Century History]] [[Category:Political History]][[Category:Diplomatic History]]
