Patriot Spy Stories

George Washington and His Anti-Spy Network

America’s First Counterintelligence Agency (1776–1778)

Introduction

During the American Revolution, George Washington fought a two-front war: one on the battlefield, and another in the shadows. The second war—an invisible conflict of spies, double agents, intercepted letters, and secret oaths—was as vital to the cause of independence as any musket volley at Saratoga or Yorktown.

In response to growing Loyalist plots and British espionage in New York, the Revolutionary government created a remarkable institution: the Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies, later reorganized as the Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. These bodies formed the first organized counterintelligence system on American soil, operating with Washington’s encouragement and Governor George Clinton’s authority.

What follows is the story of the Committee, the Commission, the men who served on them, and how their work laid intellectual foundations for the modern Secret Service and FBI.

The Threat Within: Why a Committee Was Needed

By late 1776, New York was in crisis. British forces held New York City. Loyalists in the Hudson Valley openly aided enemy troops, harbored spies, and plotted uprisings behind Patriot lines. General Washington urged the state to confront the internal threat swiftly and decisively.

On September 21, 1776, the New York Provincial Convention created the:

Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies

The Committee was empowered to:

• Investigate suspected Loyalists and British agents
• Issue warrants and conduct interrogations
• Seize papers, correspondence, and supplies
• Call upon militia detachments
• Confine, parole, or exile dangerous individuals
• Operate with secrecy when necessary

Its mandate authorized it “to do every act and thing whatsoever” to protect the liberty of the state.

This was the first formal American body whose sole purpose was internal security and counterintelligence.

The Committee Members: America’s First Intelligence Officials

The Committee was composed of leading New York patriots—several of whom would later become national figures.
Original members included:

• John Jay – future Chief Justice of the United States
• William Duer – financier and aide to General Schuyler
• Charles DeWitt – legislator, constitution signer
• Leonard Gansevoort – merchant and political organizer
• Zephaniah Platt – founder of Plattsburgh
• Nathaniel Sackett – merchant and master recruiter; later personally hired by Washington for espionage
• Pierre Van Cortlandt – added shortly after; later New York’s first Lieutenant Governor

Others, such as Lewis Morris and John Ten Broeck, served as additional quorum members.

These men operated primarily from Fishkill and Poughkeepsie, working closely with Washington’s generals in the Hudson Highlands.

From Committee to Commission

On February 11, 1777, the Provincial Convention dissolved the Committee to allow its members to devote themselves to constitutional debate. In its place, the Convention created the:

Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies

The first commissioners were:

• Egbert Benson – later NY Attorney General
• Jacobus Swartwout – militia colonel
• Melancton Smith – influential merchant and political leader

They were soon joined by:

• Peter Cantine Jr.
• Joseph Strang

The Commission met almost daily from February 1777 through September 1778, arresting spies, intercepting letters, examining prisoners, tendering oaths of allegiance, and coordinating intelligence among counties.

Its minutes—hundreds of pages long—are the richest record of internal Revolutionary security ever compiled.

Working With George Washington’s Intelligence System

While the Commission handled domestic threats, General Washington managed external and strategic espionage. His famed Culper Spy Ring—organized by Benjamin Tallmadge—operated behind British lines, feeding intelligence from New York City.

Together, Washington’s field spies and the state’s Commission formed a two-tiered intelligence structure:

• Strategic Intelligence: Culper spies gathering enemy movements
• Counterintelligence: Committee/Commission rooting out internal plots, traitors, counterfeiters, saboteurs, and British sympathizers

Washington personally recruited Nathaniel Sackett, a Committee member, to coordinate espionage early in the war—proof that he trusted New York’s apparatus and saw counterintelligence as essential to victory.

How Long They Operated

Together, they operated for nearly two years, forming the heart of Revolutionary War counterintelligence.

Legacy: The Roots of the Secret Service and FBI

Although the Committee and Commission disbanded after 1778, their influence lived on.

Secret Service (1865)

Originally created to combat widespread Civil War counterfeiting, the Secret Service inherited the Commission’s responsibility for:

• Protecting the national financial system
• Guarding key political figures
• Conducting homeland security operations

Its early counterintelligence work resembled the Revolutionary investigations of forged passes, counterfeit currency, and internal plots.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (1908)

When the FBI emerged to handle interstate crime, sedition, and national security threats, it revived functions first modeled during the Revolution:

• Domestic counterintelligence
• Surveillance and informant networks
• Anti-subversion operations
• Coordination between states and federal authorities

The Commission’s blend of investigation, intelligence, and security oversight foreshadowed the FBI’s mission more than a century later.

Conclusion: The First Guardians of American Liberty

In log cabins, tavern rooms, and makeshift headquarters across the Hudson Valley, the members of the Committee and Commission waged an unseen war to protect the Revolution from within.
Their work—arresting spies, dismantling networks, and intercepting treasonous correspondence—ensured the fragile new nation survived its earliest and most perilous years.

Every modern federal agent walking the halls of the Secret Service or FBI inherits, in part, the legacy of Jay, Sackett, Benson, and the other patriots who defended liberty in America’s first great intelligence struggle.

These were Washington’s unseen soldiers—and the nation endures because of them.

Bibliography

Barck, Dorothy C., ed. Minutes of the Committee and of the First Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York, December 11, 1776–September 23, 1778. 2 vols. New York: New York Historical Society, 1924–1925.

Flick, Alexander C. Loyalism in New York During the American Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 1901.

Force, Peter, ed. American Archives: Fourth and Fifth Series. Washington, DC: M. St. Clair Clarke and Peter Force, 1837–1853.

Ford, Worthington C., ed. The Writings of George Washington. 14 vols. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1889.

Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety, and Council of Safety of the State of New York, 1775–1777. Albany: Thurlow Weed, 1842.

Paltsits, Victor H., ed. Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York: Albany County Sessions, 1778–1781. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1909.

Sullivan, James, ed. Minutes of the Albany Committee of Correspondence, 1775–1778. 2 vols. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1923.

Tallmadge, Benjamin. Memoir of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge. New York: Thomas Holman, 1858.

Washington, George. The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741–1799. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/collections/george-washington-papers/.

Van Doren, Carl. Secret History of the American Revolution. New York: Viking Press, 1941.

Rose, Alexander. Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring. New York: Bantam, 2006.

Kilmeade, Brian, and Don Yaeger. George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution. New York: Sentinel, 2013.