The committees of correspondence was the brainchild of Boston patriot Samuel Adams, intended to establish an underground network of communication among patriot leaders in the Thirteen Colonies via letter writing. The purpose of the Committees of Correspondence was to inform, unite, and coordinate colonial efforts to counter onerous laws enacted by British Parliament and gain public support for independence. The Maryland Committee of Correspondence was instrumental in setting up the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia. These served an important role in the American Revolution, by disseminating the colonial interpretation of British actions between the colonies and to foreign governments. The committees of correspondence rallied opposition on common causes and established plans for collective action, and so the group of committees was the beginning of what later became a formal political union among the colonies.