Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-09-08
5fiscellamu,
The Great Conspiracy of 1776,

OH Tue mOIulBS Vi INC AOtH VI june
1875, Gen. Washington sitting in a house
which stood at the corner of Charlton
and Varick streets in New York, wrote
a letter to Congress, that may be found
in Sparks (v. iii p. 140) in which he
stated that great plot had been discov
cred among the tories in the city that
the Mayor, David Mat hews, was con
cerned in it that it had been traced uI
to Gov. Tryon, then refugee on board
the Duchess of Gordon in the harbor
that a portion of the army had been
tampered with that one of the body
guard, Thomas Hickey, was to be exc
cuted that day for high treason.
The execution of Thomas Hickey took
place at eleven o'clock, in field not far
from Mr.. Fortunes tan yard, near the
present Five Points. The brigades Of
Generals Heath, Spencer, Stirling and
Scott paraded. A guard of twenty men
from each, with fixed bayonets, guarded
the prisoner to the place of execution.
Twenty thousand persons, it is said, wit
messed the hanging of that soldier for
high treason. No execution on the Am
erican continent ever set so many hearts
to quaking as that. Men in New York,
on Long Island, up the Hudson, fed
from their homes in consequence, hiding
in barns, in the woods, in out-of the-way
places.
Yet who knows what for Who can
tell us anything about the conspiracy
alluded to by Washington in his letter
The historians of the revolution have
barrel ly mentioned it. Irving in his life
of Washington dismisses it in para
graph, and yet it was thrilling episode,
and one hundred years ago, this summer
of 1876, it was the all absorbing topic
of the time, especially in New York.
In brief article only an outline of
the conspiracy can be given. New York
city was held by the American troops,
but it was supposed by Washington and
everybody else, that Gen. Howe, upon
the arrival of the troops from England,
would attempt its capture 1t was known
that in New York, on Long Island, in
West Chester and Duchess counties, and
at Albany, and in the Mohawk valley,
large proportion Of the people were to-
ries. 1t was further known that Gov.
Tryon was doing what he could to stim-
ulate the tories to maintain their allegi-
ance to the king; bat not an individual
in Congress, or out of it, no general of
the army, or earnest patriot had suspi-
cion of conspiracy to abduct Washing
ton, Green, the Livingstones, and others
prominent in the American cause. Wash
ington's excessive modesty forbade any
mention in his letter of the contemplated
abduction of his own person, and the
striking of blow which would demor-
alize the patriots,
The discovery of the plot was brought
about in remarkable way. On State
street, near the present battery stood the
Sergeant-at-Arms tavern. A waiter in
the tavern, in the month of May, noticed
that gentlemen came to the Sergeant-at-
Arms and met for consultation by them
selves. They called for glasses of grog,
which they did not drink at the bar, but
which William took to the room in which
they we're assembled They talked in
low tones, and were mostly silent in the
presence of the waiter. They examined
papers and seemed to be associated in
some secret enterprise.
One of the gentlemen was a short,
thick man, who wore a white coat. He
was a hardware merchant, and had
store on Broadway, near the Oswego
market. He made guns and rifles. 1t
was Mr.. Gilbert Forbes, a gentleman
who stood well in the community, but
who was known to be tory.
Another was fat man in blue coat,
Lowery by name, who kept a tavern
near Oswego market Another was land