Committees of Correspondence served as the main instruments of united resistance against Britain in the pre-Revolutionary War era. The number of committees catapulted after colonists heard about the Coercive Acts – passed in March of 1774 – which penalized the city of Boston because of the Boston Tea Party. My research examines the developments of legitimacy and political mobilization in the context of the New York City committee system in response to the Coercive Acts. Conservatives and radicals alternated control of the New York City extralegal system from May 1774 to April 1775. During this period, conservatives and radicals alternated control of the committee system. The city experienced tension between political invention and the striving for the appearance of legality and institutional continuity, which established a new political culture. To achieve this seemingly difficult equilibrium, radicals upended traditional government and the initially conservative controlled extralegal system by relying on common New Yorkers, which demonstrates how successful revolutions require the incorporation of people outside conventional methods, such as elections. Radicals turned street demonstrations and broadsides into requisites for how revolutions receive authorization. Moreover, radicals utilized political mobilization, which led to their success in achieving legitimacy for and democratizing the New York City committee system. Grappling with concepts such as political mobilization of common and laboring New Yorkers and the legitimacy of extralegal committees from May 1774 to April 1775, these mere eleven months provide considerable insight into the revolutionary movement and New York’s role during this transformative period.