The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington

by Brad Meltzer

Tonight, among the soldiers accompanying Washington, a few are dressed differently from the rest, in short blue-and-white coats with brass buttons. They’re known as the “Life Guards,” an elite group of specially trained soldiers handpicked to serve as Washington’s bodyguards. He takes particular pride in these men, whom he trusts above all others.

It’s not just Washington’s appearance that makes him stand out, though. The Congress is full of highly educated talkers who use ornate, flowery language. Washington never went to college. He speaks simply or, more often, he listens. As the other delegates compete to talk as much as possible, Washington exerts a gravity and power by withholding opinions. He has, as John Adams later puts it, the “gift of silence.” But when he does speak, the words have conviction.

Loyalists—the name given to those who live in the colonies but still support the Crown, and who oppose the colonies’ rebellion.*

Seriously? I’m reading a book about a secret plot to kill /kidnap George Washington and I need a definition of “loyalist?”

This is the army, and these are the men, with whom Washington is supposed to fight against the biggest, most powerful, most feared military in the world.

His Excellency depends upon the Colonels for good men, such as they can recommend for their sobriety, honesty, and good behavior; he wishes them to be from five feet, eight inches high, to five feet, ten inches; handsomely and well made, and as there is nothing in his eyes more desirable, than cleanliness in a soldier, he desires that particular attention may be made, in the choice of such men, as are neat, and spruce.

In official army documents, this group of soldiers is given the name “the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard.” Sometimes they are also referred to as “His Excellency’s Guards,” the “Generals’ Guard,” or “Washington’s Bodyguards.” Among the soldiers, however, one simple appellation soon becomes most common: the Life Guards.

Also accompanying Washington on his journey, and never far from his person or his belongings, are several soldiers from his newly formed Life Guards. They guard the army’s war chest—an actual wooden chest containing money and top-secret documents—and most important, they guard General Washington himself.

The members of Washington’s entourage know that in any village, any town, or any farmhouse, an assassin or deadly enemy could be lurking. One musket, one bayonet, one dagger could instantly destroy their leader. The Life Guards’ sworn duty is to prevent this. From here forward, one or more of them will accompany him everywhere

But in some ways, it is Washington’s Life Guards who should get the credit—an elite force, specially trained, and prepared at any moment to lay down their lives for their leader.

However, the Virginian had one very notable quality: He was good with his pen.

That summer of 1776 in New York City, as he was forced to prepare for the first major British attack, Washington would, in many ways, be given his first epic tests of the war. In those trying months, he was working to get his ill-equipped new army into fighting shape. He had to contend with the deadly plot against him, including from his own men. And he experienced a near-cataclysmic defeat in the first full-scale battle of the war.

Washington’s enduring reputation as a great military leader is not based on his technical skill as a tactician. He would win a few impressive battles, but overall he lost more than he won. What made him great—at least in the particular circumstances of the Revolutionary War—was his sheer staying power, his total devotion to his army, his relentless sense of duty, and a stubborn refusal to ever give up.