A movement among officers within the Continental Army in the winter of 1782-83 to pressure Congress into honoring earlier agreements of pensions and back pay. It is named for Newburgh, New York, the town in which Commander in Chief George Washington's headquarters were located. Some members of Congress used the alarm the conspiracy generated to lend urgency to calls for strengthening the national government. Lacking wide-spread support and repudiated by Washington in a powerful address, the conspiracy collapsed in March, 1783.
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