The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington

by Brad Meltzer

Once you have an army, you need someone to lead it. Choosing who among them should command this new army will be the next critical task. There are several candidates. But one clearly stands out: How about the guy from Virginia who showed up in the uniform?

In other words, the British plan to send out of the city individuals who are known to be afflicted with smallpox, with the purpose of spreading the virus through the Continental army’s encampments.

Remarkably, the Continental army remains the most integrated fighting force in American history until the Vietnam War.

forces. These German mercenaries, generally known as Hessians, are seasoned and well-armed fighters. With these reinforcements added to their already vast army and navy, the British commanders—Gen. William Howe and his brother, Adm. Richard Howe—are preparing one of the largest and most powerful expeditionary forces in history. All this immense firepower will be directed at one city, on a skinny island, surrounded by waterways, with no navy to defend it. “I fear for you and my other New York friends,” a London resident writes to an acquaintance in Manhattan, “for I expect your city will be laid in ashes.”

Later in the war, British counterfeiting of Continental currency will become so effective that in some regions of the colonies, half the money in circulation is fake.

Then, on the morning of Friday, June 28, 1776—at almost the same hour that Thomas Hickey is approaching the gallows—Adams presents Jefferson’s legendary first draft of this document to the Continental Congress.

The young rifleman recounts what happens next: “[I] was upstairs in an out-house and spied as I peeped out the bay something resembling a wood of pine trees trimmed … I could not believe my eyes.” What McCurtin actually sees are vertical masts, basically a forest of them, spread wide across the harbor. As he describes further, “In about ten minutes the whole bay was full of ship[s] as ever it could be. I declare that I thought all London was afloat.” This first wave of General Howe’s fleet is between forty and fifty ships, sailing just above Sandy Hook, and east of Staten Island. Soon, everyone in the area can see them. In New York City, everyone promptly begins to panic.

A few more tense days pass, and more ships continue to pour into the harbor. Washington sends messages to the Continental Congress with regular updates: 110 ships, now 150, now over 200. Meanwhile, Washington tries to put his army on a footing for the impending battle. On July 2, he writes a general order to be read to all troops. It’s about as rousing a call to arms as could be put into words: The time is now near at hand, which must probably determine whether Americans are to be … consigned to a state of wretchedness, from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice, but a brave resistance or the most abject submission. This is all that we can expect. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.… These are the words. These words are why they are fighting. These words are worth not just fighting for, but dying for. The reading continues, even as the light begins to fade. Soon the officer gets to the final sentence: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” By every account from witnesses and participants in this extraordinary gathering, when those final words are spoken the entire crowd of more than ten thousand soldiers lets out a massive cheer.