Many historians of the American Revolution have noted the importance of the leadership of the revolutionary movement exercised by the Whigs of Massachusetts and those of Virginia. They provided leadership during the ten years of agitation against British measures that began with the resistance to the Stamp Act of 1765. After the convening of the Continental Congress in September 1774, a vigorous alliance between New England and the Southern colonies provided the most active Whig leadership within the Continental Congress. But how, in the wake of the Townshend Act but before the first meeting of the Continental Congress, that is, in the crucial 'quiet time' of 1771-1773, did an active communications link become forged between the political leadership of Boston and Virginia? The chart at the right traces the steps by which detailed news of Boston measures (forming a committee of correspondence, publishing the Votes and Proceedings, provoking the Governor in a debate, etc.) spread to Viriginia, encouraging that colony to develop important initiatives of its own (most importantly, Virginia's appeal to the Speakers of the 12 other colonial assemblies to form a committee of correspondence so that they could align their measures of political resistance.) Within this context the leader of the Whigs in each province, Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams, began their private correspondence on the public political crisis. It offers a leading instance of the trusted communication so essential to revolution.