Within weeks of George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789, a conspiracy was hatched to destroy the newly created Republic, to kill it before it could even take root.  Led by Thomas Jefferson (freshly arrived from Paris where he helped organize the French Revolution) and Jefferson's lap-dog James Madison, this treasonous enterprise aimed to overturn the Constitution ratified by the states only one year earlier.  They came close to succeeding and were stopped only through the efforts and courage of Washington himself.

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