page_title: Thomas Hickey (soldier)
section_title: Fraunces' petition to Congress
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Hickey (soldier) / Assassination plot / Fraunces' petition to Congress
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Samuel Fraunces (circa-1770-1785), unknown artist.[1]
context_page_description: Thomas Hickey was a Continental Army soldier in the American Revolutionary War, and the first person to be executed by the Continental Army for "mutiny, sedition, and treachery".
  Born in Ireland, Hickey came to America as a soldier in the British Army and fought as personal assistant to Major General William Johnson in the Seven Years' War, but later joined the Patriot cause when the American Revolution broke out. He became part of the Life Guard, which protected General George Washington, his staff, and the Continental Army's payroll. Hickey was jailed for passing counterfeit money. He was later tried and executed for mutiny and sedition, and he may have been involved in an assassination plot against Washington in 1776.
  Washington made a general announcement:
  The unhappy fate of Thomas Hickey, executed this day for mutiny, sedition, and treachery, the General hopes will be a warning to every soldier in the Army to avoid those crimes, and all others, so disgraceful to the character of a soldier, and pernicious to his country, whose pay he receives and bread he eats.
context_section_description: In a March 5, 1785, sworn petition to the U.S. Congress, Samuel Fraunces claimed that it was he who discovered the assassination plot, that he was falsely accused of being part of it and was jailed until his name was cleared. He wrote (in the third person):
  That he [Fraunces] was the Person that first discovered the Conspiracy which was formed in the Year 1776 against the Life of his Excellency General Washington and that the Suspicions Which were Entertained of his agency in that Important Discovery occasioned [sic, occasioned] a public Enquiry after he was made a Prisoner on which the want of positive Proof alone preserved his Life.
  Congress' response to Fraunces' petition downplayed the plot but accepted his role as "instrumental in discovering and defeating" it. For debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, Congress awarded him £2000, a later payment covered accumulated interest, and Congress paid $1,625 to lease his tavern for two years to house federal government offices.
caption: Portrait of Samuel Fraunces, unknown artist, circa 1770–85, Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York City
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