In March 1783, the biggest threat to the new republic came from George Washington’s own unpaid officers camped at Newburgh, New York. Congress was broke under the Articles of Confederation, and nationalists including Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton saw the army’s anger as leverage to win federal taxing power.

This episode follows the anonymous letter tied to Horatio Gates’s aide John Armstrong, Washington’s move to reschedule the officers’ meeting, and the dramatic scene at the Temple when he put on his reading glasses and said he had gone gray and nearly blind in their service. We also cover the settlement that followed and the unequal treatment of Black veterans like Jehu Grant and Jeffrey Brace.

• Why Robert Morris stopped army pay and how officers threatened Congress in their memorial
• Washington’s refusal of Hamilton’s suggestion to use the army’s anger as political pressure
• How rescheduling the meeting took momentum away from the plotters
• The debate over whether the reading glasses moment was sincere or staged
• How the episode set the precedent of civilian control over the military