Nicholas Geffroy

The letter detailed accusations against many citizens and office-holders, and insisted that "A purification is necessary, & we cannot be purified unless you cleanse the Augean Stable completely."

The United States Senator Christopher Ellery, a local resident, vouched for its authenticity and apparently impounded the letter for return to Jefferson.

Ellery in turn accused Congressman John Rutledge Jr. of South Carolina, also then resident in Newport, of having forged this and another letter from Geffroy.

As noted in that article, although Geffroy possessed some mastery of spoken English, it was doubted that he could write, "with any degree of correctness, a single sentence of the language."

In another curious incident recorded by Channing, "a sudden and most malignant disease appeared in the house of Mr. Nicholas Geffroy... supposed to have originated from some foul substances thrown upon the ground occupied by Mr.