The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington

By Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch

Macmillan     2019

432 Pages           History

It was “a clandestine plan to strike a knife into the heart of the rebellion.”

Thriller author, Brad Meltzer, became fascinaed with a footnote in a book he was reading. It suggested that there had been a plot to kill George Washington during the Revolutionary War. The act was to happen after the General and his men arrived in New York City in the spring of 1776. Buried in history, this incident became the incentive for Meltzer to talk to a Washington scholar who knew a little bit about the plot but had never researched it. Thus began the journey to The First Conspiracy, a collaboration between Meltzer and documentarian Josh Mensch.

New York was a loyalist stronghold. The governor Williom Tryon was living on a boat in the harbor, waiting for the British forces to arrive in the city, squash the rebellion, and take the country back. To make sure that it was going to happen, the Governor and some of his cronies hatched a plot to recruit some of Washington’s “life guards”—soldiers who were responsible for the General’s safety--to kidnap or kill the General. Indeed, some of them were recruited, including a man named Thomas Hickey. The plot got foiled when a couple of the life guards were jailed for having counterfeit money and told a cellmate about the plot. Hickey was arrested and ultimately hung before an audience of soldiers and New York citizens. The crowd was estimated at 20,000.

Of course there is much more to the story. One of the subplots is about the counterfeiting ring, and another is about a mill foreman from upstate New York who arrives in the city to search for some missing workers who had been recruited by the Loyalists to fight with the British army. The historical information includes a lot of material about the tremendous character of the man who was leading the troops, George Washington. We also learn a lot about the ragtag army that he had to lead to victory.

With Meltzer in the driver’s seat and Mensch doing the research, the story is both a potboiler and a history lesson. For example, we didn’t know that New York City was pretty much a Loyalist hangout. We knew nothing about Governor Tryon nor about the British ships arriving in New York Harbor. There are lots of familiar names, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams among others. (Of course, we all have had our history refresher because of the musical, Hamilton.) Although some of the reviewers felt that the book read too much like a thriller, no one doubted the research that went into finding this lost bit of American history. For example, these “life guards” became the modern Secret Service and its counter intelligence unit. John Jay, in fact, was in charge of a secret intelligence subcommittee that interviewed the plotters and those who turned them in. Most likely the beginnings of the CIA.

Reviewers complained about the cliffhangers that end each chapter, but because my husband and I were reading the book aloud to each other every morning, the cliffhangers just kept us moving ahead, often causing us to remain at the breakfast table a lot longer than we should have.

So, if you love thrillers or history or nonfiction or biography you will love The First Conspiracy. Here is a video of the authors on C-Span.