THE ILLUMINATI AGITATION IN NEW ENGLAND
1. MORSE PRECIPITATES THE CONTROVERSY
The fast day proclamation of President John Adams, issued March 23,
1798, expressed unusual solemnity and concern. Therein the United
States was represented as “at present placed in a hazardous and
afflictive position.”[610] The necessity of sounding a loud call to
repentance and reformation was declared to be imperative, and the
people were fervently urged to implore Heaven’s mercy and benediction
on the imperiled nation.
On the day appointed, the 9th of May, among the multitude of pastors
who appeared before their assembled flocks and addressed them on topics
of national and personal self-examination, was the Reverend Jedediah
Morse. The deliverance which he made to his people[611] was destined to
have far more than a passing interest and effect. He took for his text
fragments of the language that King Hezekiah addressed to the prophet
Isaiah, as found in II Kings 19: 3, 4: “This is a day of trouble,
and of rebuke (or reviling), and blasphemy.... Wherefore lift up thy
prayer for the remnant that is left.” Then the well-known minister of
Charlestown proceeded to suggest a parallel between the desperate state
of affairs within the little kingdom of Judah when the Assyrians, fresh
from their triumph over the armies of Egypt, renewed their insolent
and terrifying campaign against the city of Jerusalem, and the unhappy
and perilous condition of affairs within the United States.[612]
From this general observation Morse proceeded to take specific account
of the circumstances that made the period through which the nation was
passing “_a day of trouble_, of _reviling and blasphemy_.” The main
source from which the _day of trouble_ had arisen, as the President’s
fast day proclamation had indicated, was the very serious aspect of our
relations with France, owing to the unfriendly disposition and conduct
of that nation. Here, and not elsewhere, was to be found the occasion
of the unhappy divisions that existed among the citizens of the United
States, disturbing their peace, and threatening the overthrow of the
government itself.[613] The settled policy of the French government,
that of attempting the subjugation of other countries by injecting
discord and division among their citizens before having recourse to
arms, had been faithfully adhered to with respect to America.
Their too great influence among us has been exerted vigorously,
and in conformity to a deep-laid plan, in cherishing party spirit,
in vilifying the men we have, by our free suffrages, elected to
administer our Constitution; and have thus endeavoured to destroy
the confidence of the people in the constituted authorities, and
divide them from the government.[614] They have abused our honest
friendship for their nation, our gratitude for their assistance in
our revolution and our confidence in the uprightness and sincerity
of their professions of regard for us; and, by their artifices and
intrigues, have made these amiable dispositions in the unsuspecting
American people, the vehicles of their poison.[615]
Emboldened by its knowledge of the power which the French party in
America has acquired, Morse continued, the government of France has
shown itself disposed to adopt an increasingly insolent tone toward
the government of this nation. The insurrections which the government
of France has fomented here, its efforts to plunge the United States
into a ruinous war, its spoliation of our commerce upon the high seas,
its insufferable treatment of our ministers and commissioners as shown
in the lately published state papers[616]—these all tend to show how
resolute and confident in its determination to triumph over us the
French government has become.[617]
If, said Morse, a contributory cause for the present “hazardous and
afflictive position” of the country is sought, it will readily be
found in “the astonishing increase of irreligion.”[618] The evidence
of this, in turn, is to be found, not only in the prevailing atheism
and materialism of the day, and all the vicious fruits which such
impious sentiments have borne, but as well in the slanders with which
newspapers are filled and the personal invective and abuse with which
private discussion is laden, all directed against the representatives
of government, against men, many of whom have grown gray in their
country’s service and whose integrity has been proved incorruptible.
It is likewise to be discovered in the reviling and abuse which,
coming from the same quarter, has been directed against the clergy,
who, according to their influence and ability, have done what they
could to support and vindicate the government. Nothing that the clergy
has done has been of such a character as to provoke this treatment.
And how “can _they_ be your friends who are continually declaiming
against the Clergy, and endeavouring by all means—by falsehood and
misrepresentation, to asperse their characters, and to bring them and
their profession into disrepute?”[619]
When the question is raised respecting the design and tendency of
these things, their inherent and appalling impiety is immediately
disclosed. They give “reason to suspect that there is some secret plan
in operation, hostile to true liberty and religion, which requires
to be aided by these vile slanders.”[620] They cannot be regarded as
mere excrescences of the life of the times; they are not detached
happenings; they go straight down to the roots of things; they are
deadly attacks upon the civil and religious institutions whose
foundations were laid by our venerable forefathers. They mean that all
those principles and habits which were formed under those institutions
are to be brought into contempt and eventually swept aside, in order to
give a clear field “for the spread of those disorganizing opinions, and
that atheistical philosophy, which are deluging the Old World in misery
and blood.”[621]
That this preparatory work has begun, that progress in the direction
of its fatal completion has been made, that what is now going on in
America is part of the same deep-laid and extensive plan which has
been in operation in Europe for many years—these, Morse continued,
are reasonable and just fears in the light of the disclosures made
“in a work written by a gentleman of literary eminence in Scotland,
within the last year, and just reprinted in this country, entitled,
‘Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments
of Europe’.”[622] The following facts are brought to the light of
day in this volume: For more than twenty years past a society called
THE ILLUMINATED has been in existence in Germany; its express aim
is “to root out and abolish Christianity, and overthrow all civil
government”;[623] it approves of such atrocious principles as the
right to commit self-murder and the promiscuous intercourse of the
sexes, while it condemns the principles of patriotism and the right to
accumulate private property;[624] in the prosecution of its infamous
propaganda it aims to enlist the discontented, to get control of all
such cultural agencies as the schools, literary societies, newspapers,
writers, booksellers, and postmasters;[625] it is bent upon insinuating
its members into all positions of distinction and influence, whether
literary, civil, or religious.[626]
Practically all of the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of
Europe have already been shaken to their foundations by this terrible
organization; the French Revolution itself is doubtless to be traced
to its machinations; the successes of the French armies are to be
explained on the same ground.[627] The Jacobins are nothing more
nor less than the open manifestation of the hidden system of the
Illuminati.[628] The order has its branches established and its
emissaries at work in America.[629] Doubtless the “Age of Reason”
and the other works of that unprincipled author are to be regarded
as part of the general plan to accomplish universal demoralization:
the fact that Paine’s infamous works have been so industriously and
extensively circulated in this country would seem to justify fully
this conclusion.[630] The affiliated Jacobin Societies in America have
doubtless had as the object of their establishment the propagation of
“the principles of the illuminated mother club in France.”[631]
Before making room for the admonitions which Morse based upon this
exposition of the underlying significance of “this ... day of trouble,
... rebuke ... and blasphemy,” his treatment of the Masonic bearings
of the subject should be noticed. As delivered by Morse, the fast
day sermon of May 9, 1798, contained no reference to the relations
alleged to exist between the Order of the Illuminati and the lodges
of Freemasonry. The Charlestown pastor’s silence upon this important
phase of the matter is best explained in the light of the pains which
he took, when the sermon was committed to type, to handle this delicate
and embarrassing aspect of the case.[632]
Extended foot notes dealing with the omitted topic and expressive
of great reserve and caution comprise a substantial part of the
printed sermon. In these Morse repeated the charge which Robison had
made before him that the Order of the Illuminati had had its origin
among the Freemasons, but hastened to add that this was because of
corruptions which had crept into Freemasonry, so that Illuminism must
be viewed as “a vile and pestiferous _scion_ grafted on the stock of
simple Masonry.”[633] As if further to ward off the blows of incensed
and resentful members of the craft, Morse proceeded to dilate upon the
artifice which men of wicked purpose commonly resort to in attempting
“to pervert and bend into a subserviency to their designs ancient and
respectable institutions.”[634] The Illuminati, it is suggested, may
thus have taken advantage of the schisms and corruptions with which
European Masonry has been cursed, and have employed many members of the
lodges to serve as “secret conductors of their poisonous principles”:
the high estimation in which the order of Masonry is generally held may
be construed as making such a presumption probable.[635] And in this
country, if one may base his judgment upon the considerations that the
immortal Washington stands at the head of the Masonic fraternity in
America and that the Masons of New England “have ever shown themselves
firm and decided supporters of civil and religious order,” then it may
safely be assumed that the leaven of Illuminism has not found its way
into the American lodges, at least not into the lodges of the Eastern
States.[636] If it _should_ be found true that some of the branches
of Masonry have been corrupted and perverted from their original
design, need _that_ circumstance occasion more serious humiliation and
embarrassment than Christians face as they contemplate the apostasies
of which certain churches in Christendom have been guilty?[637]
Finally, the readers are urged to keep in mind that Robison’s book has
been commended, not because of its animadversions upon Freemasonry,
but for the reason that “it unveils the dark conspiracies of the
_Illuminati_ against civil government and Christianity, ... and
because it is well calculated to excite in this country a just alarm
for the safety and welfare of our civil and religious privileges,
by discovering to us the machinations which are deployed to subvert
them.”[638]
Thus having canvassed the situation abroad and at home, the sermon drew
toward its close in the following manner:
By these awful events—this tremendous shaking among the nations
of the earth, God is doubtless accomplishing his promises, and
fulfilling the prophecies. This wrath and violence of men against
all government and religion, shall be made ultimately, in some
way or other, to praise God. All corruptions, in religion and
government, as dross must, sooner or later, be burnt up. The
dreadful fire of _Illuminatism_ may be permitted to rage and
spread for this purpose.... But while we contemplate these awful
events in this point of view, let us beware, in our expressions
of approbation, of blending the _end_ with the _means_. Because
atheism and licentiousness are employed as _instruments_, by divine
providence, to subvert and overthrow popery and despotism, it does
not follow that atheism and licentiousness are in themselves good
things, and worthy of our approbation. While the storm rages, with
dreadful havoc in Europe, let us be comforted in the thought,
that God directeth it, and that he will, by his power and wisdom,
so manage it, as to make it accomplish his own gracious designs.
While we behold these scenes acting abroad and at a distance from
us, let us be concerned for our own welfare.... We have reason to
tremble for the safety of our political, as well as our religious
ark. Attempts are making, and are openly, as well as secretly,
conducted, to undermine the foundations of both. In this situation
of things, our duty is plain, and lies within a short compass.[639]
With one heart, as citizens to cleave to the national government and as
Christians to be alert to the open and secret dangers which threaten
the church, these, according to the last word of the preacher, were the
paramount concerns of the hour.
Such was Jedediah Morse’s fast day sermon of May 9, 1798. Such at least
it was when it came from the press; surely not even by the widest
stretch of the imagination an epoch-making sermon; not even notable,
except when viewed from a single angle. Nothing could be clearer than
that the sermon moved, for the most part, well within the circle of
conventional ideas to which on state occasions the minds of the clergy
of New England generally made response. But for the introduction of one
element it is safe to say the deliverance of Charlestown’s minister
would have passed for one of the ordinary “political sermons” of the
day, and so have accomplished nothing perhaps beyond helping to swell
the chorus of protests from disgusted Democrats against “political
preaching.” That element, needless to say, was _Illuminism_.
The public sanction which Morse gave to the charge that the Illuminati
were responsible for the afflictions of both the Old World and the
New was a new note on this side of the Atlantic. Sounded in New
England at a time when Europe was in convulsion and when the shift
from traditional social, political, and religious positions in America
was extremely rapid in its movement, this new alarm could not fail
to arrest attention. We have seen that the air of New England was
already surcharged with notions of implacable hostility to the forces
in control of church and state,[640] and with gloomy forebodings born
of surmises of intrigue and conspiracy.[641] The hour was electric.
The hard-pressed forces of religious and political conservatism were
bound to receive the new Shibboleth with unquestioning and eager
joy. Henceforth their arsenal would be enlarged to include a new
weapon. They would be able to point to the villainies, impieties, and
blood-lettings in Europe, to the flauntings, contumelies, and crafty
counter-manœuverings which the clergy and the heads of government had
to suffer in America, and assert that back of all these and binding
all together into a single vicious whole was a conspiracy whose object
was nothing less than the complete overthrow of civil government and
orthodox Christianity. To be able to brand political and religious
radicalism with a word as detestable as this new word “Illuminism”
which had just come across the Atlantic, should indeed prove sufficient
to damn that cause.
The immediate effect produced by the sermon fell considerably short of
a sensation. For one thing the subject of the Illuminati was new and
unfamiliar in New England. Much more significant, however, is the fact
that at the time the sermon came to public attention, the long-expected
X. Y. Z. despatches were passing through the newspaper presses of the
country and inflaming the national spirit to an incredible degree.
In view of the fact that innumerable public assemblies were being
held and innumerable patriotic addresses drawn up and presented to
the President, all inspired by the prospect of and the demand for
an immediate rupture with France, it is not surprising that the
minister of Charlestown did not succeed in creating a more instant and
widespread alarm than he did.
However, he had no reason to be disappointed. The spark which he had
communicated to the tinder might seem to smoulder for a season,[642]
but in due course it was bound to burst into flame. That Morse was
himself well content with the degree of interest which the public
manifested in his disclosure of the “conspiracy” is evident from
the following letter that he addressed to Oliver Wolcott, within a
fortnight of the date of the national fast:
Charlestown, May 21, 1798.
_Dear Sir_,
I enclose for your acceptance my Fast Sermon, & one on the death of
my worthy friend Judge Russell, both whh. together with one other
occasional discourse, besides two common sermons, I was obliged to
compose after my return from Phila., and under the disadvantage
of general fatigue.—I owe you and myself this apology.—The fast
discourse was received with very unexpected approbation—& with no
opposition even in Charlestown, whose citizens many of them have
been the most violently opposed to the measures of Govt. & the most
enthusiastic in favor of France.—This same discourse delivered
two months ago would have excited such a flame, as would in all
probability have rendered my situation extremely unpleasant, if not
unsafe.—I hope it has done some good, & that it may have a chance
of doing more, however small, I have permitted its publication....
The fast was celebrated in this quarter with unexpected solemnity
& unanimity. Its effects, I hope & believe will be great both as
respects our civil & religious interests.... Your friend, JED^H
MORSE.[643]
To HONORABLE OLIVER WOLCOTT,
Comptroller of the Treasury.
Here and there Morse’s sermon promptly became the occasion of public
comment. To illustrate: The Reverend John Thayer, beloved and trusted
shepherd of the Catholic flock in Boston, following the patriotic
example of the Protestant clergy, preached a sermon on the occasion
of the national fast appropriate to the solemnity of the day.[644]
In the published text of this sermon Thayer took occasion to commend
Morse “for his interesting abridgement of the infernal society of the
Illuminati.”[645] For the most part, however, the comment of the clergy
was reserved for subsequent occasions when the clerical mind should
have had opportunity to inform itself more fully concerning the matter.
As for the newspapers, they began to pay their respects to Morse’s
sensational utterance soon after the latter’s fast day sermon came from
the press. Thus “An American” contributed an article of generous length
and of somewhat hostile tone to the _Independent Chronicle_ of May 24
(1798), calling upon Morse to substantiate more fully the charge he had
made. This pseudonymous contributor professed to have experienced great
astonishment upon reading Morse’s sermon and finding that Robison’s
_Proofs_ alone had been relied upon as a source of information and
authority. So serious a matter seemed to demand fuller evidence.
Thinking that perhaps Dr. Morse had been imposed upon and that the work
in question was possibly apocryphal, the writer had been constrained
to search through foreign literary journals with a view to discovering
how the “performance” attributed to Robison was regarded abroad. Thus
employed he had come across an article in _The Critical Review, or
Annals of Literature_, London, 1797, wherein he found severe strictures
upon Robison’s volume. In view of this, “since the _Doctors_ of Europe
and America differ so widely in their estimation of its importance,”
but a single course of honor and obligation would seem to be open
to Dr. Morse. Having stood sponsor for the authenticity of such an
extraordinary publication, he should now submit to the public decided
proofs of the authority and correctness of the book in question.[646]
To this sharp challenge of “An American,” Morse was not indifferent.
Replying to his critic in a subsequent issue of the _Chronicle_,[647]
he expressed the hope that the public would not form its judgment
respecting Robison’s volume before reading the same, or at least
not until it shall have heard further from its “humble servant,
Jedidiah Morse.” Meantime, if his readers shall be pleased to peruse
the observations clipped from the _New York Spectator_ by which his
(Morse’s) letter to the _Chronicle_ is accompanied they will learn that
“there is at least _one_ other person in the United States who has
_read this_ work, [and] whose opinion of it accords with” his own.[648]
A few days later, through the columns of the same paper,[649] Morse
replied at greater length to the criticisms which “An American” had
brought to public attention. That he had not “too hastily recommended
Professor Robison’s late work” Morse regards as sufficiently
demonstrated by the fact that he had had a copy of the book in his
possession since the middle of the previous April. This he had
examined with care, and he had satisfied himself that it was entitled
to the recommendation he had given it in his fast day sermon. So far
as the hostile criticism of the authors of _The Critical Review_ is
concerned, he has no doubt that their _caricature_ of Robison’s book
is to be construed as expressive of their determination to destroy
its reputation and thus prevent its circulation, since it probably
exposed and thwarted their favorite schemes. Besides, over against the
contemptuous estimate that the authors of _The Critical Review_ had
seen fit to place upon Robison’s volume, Morse was able to oppose a
very different judgment. _The London Review_ of January, 1798, extracts
from which he was glad to be permitted to offer in evidence,[650]
placed an estimate upon Robison’s book which was both accurate and
just. From this “An American” will be able to gather that “‘the
Doctors in Europe and America’” do not “differ so widely in their
estimation” of the importance of Robison’s volume as had been asserted.
The observations that Morse is now offering to the public, it is his
expectation, will serve to effect his personal justification; but if
doubts still remain in the minds of any, he can only recommend as the
best and perhaps the only sure means of dissolving them that such
persons read _Proofs of a Conspiracy_ for themselves.[651]
With respect to the inception of the Illuminati agitation in New
England, the utterances of two other clergymen require attention.
One of these, the Reverend David Tappan, professor of divinity at
Harvard, in a discourse[652] delivered before the senior class of
that institution on the 19th of June, 1798, cautioned the young
people before him who were about to quit the life of the college to
guard against the dangers of speculative principles, the pleasures
of idleness and vicious indulgence, the degrading tendency of
selfish sentiments, _and_ “a more recent system, which ... has for
its ostensible object THE REGENERATION OF AN OPPRESSED WORLD TO THE
BLISSFUL ENJOYMENT OF EQUAL LIBERTY.” This “more recent system,” Tappan
explained, was the philosophy of the Order of the Illuminati.[653]
Drawing, as he professed, upon Morse’s fast day discourse and upon
President Dwight’s sermons on _infidel philosophy_,[654] Tappan
essayed a sketch of the objects and operations of the Illuminati, from
the time of the founding of the order by Weishaupt to its supposed
connections with the French Revolution, and the successes which it
had enabled the French armies to accomplish through its intrigues “in
various and distant parts of the world.” The conspiracy, it is true,
might not be as extensive in its scope as had been claimed; but even
so, the _undoubted_ aspects of the situation were sufficient to afford
ground for most grave apprehension. “If these and similar facts,” the
clergyman continued, “do not evince so early and broad a system of
wickedness as this writer[655] supposes (the truth of which in _all_
its extent the speaker is not prepared to support), yet they indicate a
real and most alarming plan of hostility against the dearest interests
of man.”[656]
The question of the general credibility of the claims which Robison had
made, as well as the implication of the Masons in the “conspiracy,”
came in for special consideration by Tappan when his sermon was
prepared for publication.[657] Concerning the former, the observation
is made that the ridicule and incredulity which have opposed themselves
to the report of a scheme so novel, extravagant, and diabolical,
were to have been expected. At any rate, much of the opposition has
come from men whose wishes and opinions have been offended, or from
those who have shown themselves to be ardent friends of political
and religious innovation. And with regard to the Masons, it is urged
that the displeasure which certain worthy members of that fraternity
have expressed against Robison ought not to be permitted to become
so violent as to render impossible a candid and thorough examination
of the proofs he has submitted. Robison’s _opinion_ respecting the
universal frivolity or mischievous tendency of the assemblies of the
European Masons may be incorrect and injurious, and at the same time
the leading facts upon which he founds that opinion may be true. To
manifest a willingness to investigate with candor the proofs that
have been presented, while continuing to hold in esteem “the approved
characters of the principal Masons in this country, especially in the
Eastern States,” this, Tappan advises, represents the middle course
that his readers should attempt to steer.[658]
Thus it will appear that Tappan became an echo of Morse. As for Timothy
Dwight, the contribution he made to the awakening of public interest
in the subject of Illuminism requires somewhat stronger statement. In
the person of the president of Yale this new idea of a definite and
deep-laid conspiracy against religion and civil government encountered
a highly sensitized mind. Upon the subjects of infidelity and the
general irreligious tendencies of the times, Dwight had been speaking
frequently and for years from his lecture-desk in the classroom and
from his pulpit in the church. It is safe to say that among all the
men of New England no man’s spirit was more persistently haunted by
the fear that the forces of irreligion were in league to work general
ruin to the institutions of society than his. When, therefore, on
the occasion of the Fourth of July, 1798, the people of New Haven
assembled to do honor to the day in listening to a sermon by the
honored president of their college, it was to be expected that if the
latter had any new information to impart or any new pronouncement to
make respecting malign efforts that were making to plunge the world
into irremediable scepticism and anarchy, he would seize the occasion
that the day offered to arouse in his hearers a sense of the new perils
which threatened. And President Dwight _had_ new information and a new
pronouncement to offer.
The subject which he chose to discuss on that Independence Day, and
the text upon the elucidation of which he relied for the illumination
of the subject, were in themselves calculated to excite concern. These
were respectively, THE DUTY OF AMERICANS AT THE PRESENT CRISIS, and
“Behold I come as a thief: Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth
his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” (Revelation
xvi: 16.)[659] Having first explained the setting of the text,
President Dwight then proceeded to define the thesis of his sermon in
the following manner: “From this explanation it is manifest that the
prediction consists of two great and distinct parts: _the preparation
for the overthrow of the Antichristian empire; and the embarkation of
men in a professed and unusual opposition to God, and to his kingdom,
accomplished by means of false doctrines, and impious teachers_.”[660]
The first of these predictions, it was asserted, had been fulfilled
in the repressive and secularizing measures that during the century
had operated to weaken greatly the Catholic hierarchy and its chief
political supports among the states of Europe.[661] The second was
experiencing a fulfilment not less remarkable in the open and
professed war against God and his kingdom, in which Voltaire, Frederick
II, the Encyclopedists, and the Societies of the Illuminati had
confederated.[662]
This systematical design to destroy Christianity, which Voltaire and
his accomplices formed, found its first expressions in the compilation
of the _Encyclopédie_, the formation of a new sect of philosophers to
engineer the assaults upon the church, the prostitution of the French
Academy to the purposes of this sect, and the dissemination of infidel
books and other publications, all of which were so prepared “as to
catch the feelings, and steal upon the approbation, of every class
of men.”[663] Eventually the labors of this group of men and their
disciples were widened so as to include not only religion but morality
and civil government as well, with the object in view of unhinging
“gradually the minds of men, and destroying their reverence for
everything heretofore esteemed sacred.”[664]
Simultaneously the Masonic Societies of France and Germany had been
drawn away from the pursuit of the objects of friendly and convivial
intercourse for which they were originally instituted, to the
employment of their secret assemblies in the discussion of “every
novel, licentious, and alarming opinion”[665] that innovators and other
restless spirits might choose to advance. Thus,
Minds already tinged with philosophism were here speedily blackened
with a deep and deadly die; and those which came fresh and innocent
to the scene of contamination became early and irremediably
corrupted.... In these hot beds were sown the seeds of that
astonishing Revolution, and all its dreadful appendages, which now
spreads dismay and horror throughout half the globe.[666]
The Society of the Illuminati, springing up at this time and
professing itself to be a higher order of Freemasonry, availed itself
of the secrecy, solemnity, and mysticism of Masonry, of its system
of correspondence, to teach and propagate doctrines calculated to
undermine and destroy all human happiness and virtue. Thus God’s being
was derided, while government was pronounced a curse, civil society an
apostasy of the race, the possession of private property a robbery,
chastity and natural affection groundless prejudices, and adultery,
assassination, poisoning and other infernal crimes not only lawful but
even virtuous.[667] To crown all, the principle that the end justifies
the means was made to define the sphere of action for the members of
the order.
The triumphs of this system of falsehood and horror, Dwight continued,
have already been momentous. In Germany “the public faith and morals
have been unhinged; and the political and religious affairs of that
empire have assumed an aspect which forebodes its total ruin.”[668]
In France the affairs of the people have been controlled by the
representatives of this hellish society. Not only this, but by means
of the establishment of the order in those countries which France
has opposed, the French government has been able to triumph in its
military campaigns and to overthrow religion and governments in the
countries which have been attacked. Neither England nor Scotland have
escaped the foul contagion; and private papers of the order, seized
in Germany, testify to the fact that several such societies had been
erected in America prior to the year 1786.[669]
When the preacher passed to the head of _improvement_, it was therefore
natural that he should prescribe as one of the “duties” that especially
needed to be observed, the breaking off all connection with such
enemies as had been mentioned. The language in which this particular
duty was enforced certainly did not lack boldness and vigor.
The sins of these enemies of Christ, and Christians, are of numbers
and degrees which mock account and description. All that the malice
and atheism of the Dragon, the cruelty and rapacity of the Beast,
and the fraud and deceit of the false Prophet, can generate or
accomplish, swell the list. No personal or national interest of man
has been uninvaded; no impious sentiment, or action, against God
has been spared; no malignant hostility against Christ, and his
religion, has been unattempted. Justice, truth, kindness, piety,
and moral obligation universally have been, not merely trodden
under foot, ... but ridiculed, spurned, and insulted, as the
childish bugbears of drivelling idiocy. Chastity and decency have
been alike turned out of doors; and shame and pollution called out
of their dens to the hall of distinction and the chair of state....
For what end shall we be connected with men of whom this is the
character and conduct? Is it that we may assume the same character,
and pursue the same conduct? Is it that our churches may become
temples of reason, our Sabbath a decade, and our psalms of praise
Marsellois [_sic_] hymns? ... Is it that we may see the Bible
cast into a bonfire, the vessels of the sacramental supper borne
by an ass in public procession, and our children, either wheedled
or terrified, uniting in the mob, chanting mockeries against
God, and hailing in the sounds of _Ca ira_ the ruin of their
religion, and the loss of their souls? ... Shall we, my brethren,
become partakers of these sins? Shall we introduce them into our
government, our schools, our families? Shall our sons become the
disciples of Voltaire, and the dragoons of Marat; or our daughters
the concubines of the Illuminati?[670]
With equally fiery speech, all doubting Thomases are urged to
... look for conviction to Belgium; sunk into the dust of
insignificance and meanness, plundered, insulted, forgotten, never
to rise more. See Batavia wallowing in the same dust; the butt of
fraud, rapacity, and derision, struggling in the last stages of
life, and searching anxiously to find a quiet grave. See Venice
sold in the shambles, and made the small change of a political
bargain. Turn your eyes to Switzerland, and behold its happiness
and its hopes, cut off at a single stroke, happiness erected with
the labour and the wisdom of three centuries; hopes that not long
since hailed the blessings of centuries yet to come. What have they
spread but crimes and miseries; where have they trodden but to
waste, to pollute, and to destroy?[671]
From these excerpts and this extended survey of President Dwight’s
sermon it will readily appear that his espousal of the notion that the
Illuminati were immediately responsible for the riotous overturnings
and bitter woes of the age was as unequivocal as it was vigorous. To
this view of things he boldly committed himself, and that on a great
national anniversary occasion when public interest was bound to be
peculiarly alert. Moreover, the crisis through which his country
was passing had seemed to him to require that his countrymen should
especially be put on their guard respecting this new peril which
threatened. Though he had been silent respecting personal observations
and evidence of his own bearing on the operations of this infamous
organization in the United States, nevertheless he had given his
hearers to understand that he accepted at its face value Robison’s
statement regarding the existence of the Order of the Illuminati
in this country. Here, then, was a man high in the councils of the
church,[672] of education, and the state, lending the full weight of
his personality and his office to this fresh and startling explanation
of the true cause of the agitations and disorders of the day.[673] The
undoubted effect was to give more solid standing to the sensational
charge that Jedediah Morse had made.
But preachers were not the only public characters who early caught up
and echoed the new alarm. Orators, too, lent the aid of their voices in
an effort to persuade the people that their liberties and institutions
were in danger of a deadly thrust from this new quarter. A number of
these, on the Fourth of July just referred to, delivered themselves of
sentiments similar to those which President Dwight expressed. Thus at
Sharon, Connecticut, the orator of the day, a certain John C. Smith,
supplied a new thrill to his patriotic address by informing his hearers
that the French Revolution was the result
chiefly of _a combination long since founded in Europe, by Infidels
and Atheists, to root out and effectually destroy Religion and
Civil Government_,—not this or that creed of religion,—not this or
that form of government,—in this or that particular country,—but
all religion,—all government,—and that through the world.[674]
At Hartford, Theodore Dwight, brother to Yale’s president, publicly
averred it was a fact well ascertained that the French Revolution
“was planned by a set of men whose avowed object was the overthrow
of Altars and Thrones, that is, the destruction of all Religion and
Government.”[675] At the midnight orgies of the “modern Illuminati”
the plan had been conceived and nourished. For six years past, the
orator declared, the government of France has been directed by men who
have been schooled in that society of demons.[676] In the same city,
and on the same occasion, another voice was raised to declaim against
the reckless impiety of French partisans in the United States.[677]
These conspiring men, so this orator somewhat vaguely declared, are
said to have substituted the wild dogmas of infidel philosophy for the
benevolent principles of Christianity. They have adopted “a philosophy
originating in wickedness, founded in error, and subversive of the
peace and happiness of society.”[678]
From this early handling of the subject by clergymen and orators,
we are now called away to consider a significant exposition of the
matter in the columns of a Boston newspaper. To the issue of the
_Massachusetts Mercury_ of July 27, 1798, “Censor” contributed an
article that was destined to have important bearings on the course
of public discussion. Professing a spirit of reasonable moderation,
“Censor” offered the practical suggestion that the time had come
to inquire what evidence Professor Robison possessed respecting
the authenticity of his sources. “At this distance,” he urged, “it
is impossible to decide on the truth of his assertions, or the
respectability of his testimonies.” Yet the writer had had his
attention drawn to certain evidences of prejudice, misrepresentation,
and unrestrained imagination on the part of Robison which tended to
destroy confidence in his judgment. Dr. Morse, too, he continued,
on the unsupported assertion of an individual three thousand miles
distant, to the effect that several lodges of the Illuminati had been
established in America prior to ’86, in his fast sermon had seen fit to
declare that the Illuminati were here, that they had made considerable
progress among us, and that to them were to be traced the torrent of
irreligion and the abuse of everything good and praiseworthy which
threatens to overwhelm the world. For all these assertions, “Censor”
inquired, where were the evidences?[679]
The tone of “Censor’s” article was decidedly hostile. The spirit of
cynicism and distrust had lifted its head, not apologetically but
boldly. The evidence in the case was called for. To Jedediah Morse,
original and chief sponsor for the outcry against the Illuminati,
it must have seemed clear that the obligation of meeting the issue
thus joined rested squarely upon his own shoulders. Nor was he minded
to evade responsibility. And thus it happened that the columns of
the _Massachusetts Mercury_, for some weeks to come,[680] carried a
succession of articles over Morse’s signature, all laboring to prove
that the judgment their author had passed upon Robison’s volume had
not been hasty, but was well grounded in reason. To these articles,
rambling and inconclusive as they were, we must now devote attention.
Expressing first his gratitude that Professor Robison’s _Proofs of a
Conspiracy_ had attracted the attention of so large and respectable
a portion of the community, Morse thereupon professed surprise that
his own commendation of that work in his late fast day sermon should
have exposed him to the necessity of vindicating both the author of
the _Proofs_ and his own composition.[681] He had assumed that every
reader of Robison’s production would be impressed as he had been with
the evidence of the author’s talents, views, candor, and integrity. The
sensitiveness and irritation which members of the Masonic fraternity
had shown had also astonished him. His hope had been that the notes
by which his published fast day sermon had been accompanied would
forestall censure from that quarter. However the necessity to vindicate
Professor Robison and his book had been imposed upon him, and that he
would proceed to do. He would first introduce extracts from his fast
day sermon to show that he had recommended Robison’s book, not because
of any observations unfavorable to the Masons which it contained,
but for the sole reason that it exposed the dark conspiracies of the
Illuminati against civil government and Christianity.[682]
The vindication of Professor Robison’s character and reputation as
a man and writer was next undertaken. These points Morse considered
to be fully established by the positions that Robison occupied as
Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Professor of Natural
Philosophy in one of the best universities of the world. If further
proof should be required, the contributions that Robison had made to
the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ certainly vouched for his respectability
and prominence. Beyond this Morse could go no further than to add
that private advices which had come to him from one of his foreign
correspondents, the Reverend Dr. Erskine, of Edinburgh, fully confirmed
the reputation of the Scotch professor.[683]
But since it was likely to be remarked in this instance that “great men
are not always wise,” Morse proposed to deal next with the marks of the
book’s credibility. As to _external_ marks, the approbation and support
of the book by very respectable men in England and Scotland, and its
approval and recommendation by clergymen and laymen of discernment
and ability in America, he argued, were to be weighed as impressive
considerations.[684] If by way of rejoinder it should be urged that
the English reviewers were not of one mind respecting the merits of
the book, then his reply would be that having read on both sides of
the controversy that had been waged in the English journals, he had
been forced to the conclusion that “the balance of _candor_ and _truth_
are [_sic_] clearly on the side of those who are in favor of Professor
Robison, and give credit to his work.”[685]
Respecting the favorable reception which the book had been accorded
in America, he was glad to be privileged to point to the sentiments
of Professor Tappan,[686] President Dwight,[687] and Theodore Dwight,
Esq.[688] It is true that in America the book had excited warm, even
virulent opposition; but certainly it had received respectable support,
“such as ought to exempt any person from the charge of _weakness_ or
_credulity_ who believes it authentic.”[689]
An effort to marshal the _internal_ evidence of the book’s credibility
is next promised by Morse.[690] This anticipation remained a promise,
however, for the disingenuous reason that Morse offered that a book
which has met such a flattering reception as Robison’s _Proofs_
absolves its friends and supporters of the necessity of defending its
contents as well as the authenticity of the documents from which it has
been drawn. The burden of proof rests upon those who have nothing to
offer against the work in question but bold assertions, contemptuous
sneers, and vilifying epithets.[691] Professor Robison’s critics have
failed to take sufficient account of the fact that he was engaged in a
delicate and arduous undertaking. He was attempting to unveil a deep
and dark conspiracy.[692] It is not pretended that all the links in
the chain of evidence have been discovered; nor is it claimed that
there has been an entire absence of confusion, disconnection, and
imperfection in the work of ferreting out the conspiracy. But certainly
enough has been accomplished to merit confidence in the effort, and
to justify serious alarm on the part of the friends of the civil and
religious interests of the country.[693]
This, it need scarcely be said, did not amount to a satisfactory
handling of the case. In truth, from the standpoint of the main issue
involved, _viz._, the reliability of Robison’s “proofs,” it was little
more than so much dust thrown into the air. Evidence had been asked
for. In its place arguments, and it must be confessed very inconclusive
arguments at that, were submitted. The vital questions in the case
had scarcely been touched. Were the Illuminati still in existence?
If so, did they actually aim at the universal overthrow of religion
and civil government? Was the French Revolution the result of their
machinations? More momentous still to the interests of Americans, had
the net of conspiracy been thrown over this country, with the result
that nefarious secret organizations were at work among her people,
corrupting them and plotting the downfall of their institutions? No
definite, independent word had yet been spoken in America in answer
to these questions. Thus far the issue was joined over the merits or
demerits of a _book_,[694]—a book that had recently come across the
Atlantic and whose readers in America, according as they were credulous
or incredulous, boldly asserted or as vehemently denied that the
questions which have just been propounded should be answered in the
affirmative.
Thus matters stood in the early fall of 1798. The newspapers generally
had begun to take hold of the subject, and the volume of public
discussion steadily increased. But as to progress in the clarifying of
the fundamental questions at issue, no advance was made. No additional
facts were forthcoming; no new light was shed. The alarm that Morse
and his allies had raised may be said to have been something like a
ship which has been able to make its way out as far as the harbor
mouth, but lingers there becalmed, waiting for a favoring gale to
speed it on its way. Or was it that the winds were ample, but wholly
unfavorable? In the late summer and the fall of 1798 practically every
other public interest in New England was eclipsed by two surpassingly
important concerns: the bitter agitation over the Alien and Sedition
Acts, and the distress and terror of the people over the ravages of an
epidemic of yellow fever which was sweeping the towns and cities of the
Atlantic seaboard, extending well up along the New England coast.
FOOTNOTES:
[610] _The Works of John Adams_, vol. ix, pp. 169 _et seq._
[611] _Cf. supra_, p. 10.
[612] _A Sermon, Delivered at the New North Church in Boston, in the
morning, and in the afternoon at Charlestown, May 9th, 1798, being
the day recommended by John Adams, President of the United States of
America, for solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer._ By Jedidiah
Morse, D. D., minister of the congregation in Charlestown, Boston,
1798, pp. 5–12.
[613] _Ibid._, p. 13.
[614] Morse was one of those New England clergymen whose earlier
enthusiasm for the French Revolution had been pronounced. In a sermon
preached on the occasion of the national thanksgiving of 1795, he
confessed his profound interest in the French cause, on account of
what that people had accomplished in breaking the chains of civil and
ecclesiastical tyranny. At the same time he voiced his concern because
a spirit of _vandalism_ had lately arisen in France, by which all the
salutary results of the Revolution were gravely imperiled. Still, his
hopes for the recovery of the nation’s self-control were strong. _Cf._
_The Present Situation of Other Nations of the World, Contrasted with
our Own. A Sermon, delivered at Charlestown, in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, February 19, 1795; being the day recommended by George
Washington, President of the United States of America, for Publick
Thanksgiving and Prayer._ By Jedidiah Morse, D. D., minister of the
congregation in Charlestown, Boston, 1795, pp. 10–16. _Cf._ also the
Preface to Morse’s _Fast Day Sermon_ of April 25, 1799.
[615] Morse, _Sermon on the National Fast_, May 9, 1798, p. 13.
[616] The X. Y. Z. despatches.
[617] Morse, _Sermon on the National Fast_, May 9, 1798, pp. 14 _et
seq._
[618] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 17.
[619] _Ibid._, p. 19.
[620] _Ibid._, p. 20.
[621] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 20.
[622] Morse’s first acquaintance with Robison’s volume is thus
explained by him: “The first copies which were sent to America,
arrived at Philadelphia and New York, at both which places the
re-printing of it was immediately undertaken, and the Philadelphia
edition was completed ready for sale in the short space of 3 _weeks_.
This was about the middle of April. Happening at this time to be in
Philadelphia, and hearing the work spoken of in terms of the highest
respect by men of judgment, one of them went so far as to pronounce
it the most interesting work that the present century had produced;
I was induced to procure a copy, which I brought home with me....”
(_Independent Chronicle_, June 14, 1798.) In Sprague’s _Life of
Jedediah Morse_, pp. 233 _et seq._, it is affirmed that Dr. Erskine,
one of Morse’s Scottish correspondents, wrote Morse in January, 1797,
informing him of the alarm which had sprung up in Europe with respect
to the “conspiracy”, and calling attention to Robison’s volume which
was then being prepared for the press.
[623] Morse, _Sermon on the National Fast_, May 9, 1798, p. 21.
[624] _Ibid._
[625] _Ibid._, pp. 22 _et seq._
[626] _Ibid._, p. 23.
[627] _Ibid._
[628] _Ibid._, p. 24.
[629] Robison’s reference to the “several” societies established in
America previous to 1786 (_cf. supra_, p. 210) is specifically referred
to. _Cf._ _Sermon on the National Fast_, May 9, 1798, p. 23.
[630] _Ibid._, p. 24.
[631] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 24.
[632] Morse had been at pains in his sermon to recommend Robison’s
volume as throwing a flood of light upon “the causes which have brought
the world into its present disorganized state.” (_Ibid._, pp. 24 _et
seq._) Later it must have occurred to him that the silence he had
maintained in the pulpit respecting Masonry’s part in the conspiracy
was bound to be noticed by all who upon his recommendation read
Robison’s volume.
[633] _Ibid._, p. 21.
[634] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 21.
[635] _Ibid._, p. 22.
[636] _Ibid._, pp. 21, 22. For the time being Morse was content to
follow the example of Robison. The latter, in his discussion of English
Freemasonry, made a fairly sharp distinction between the English
system and the Masonic systems of the continent. That distinction, on
the whole, was decidedly favorable to English Freemasonry. By every
consideration of precedent and prudence Morse must have felt strongly
impelled to pursue the same course.
[637] _Ibid._, p. 22.
[638] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 25.
[639] _Ibid._, pp. 25 _et seq._
[640] _Cf. supra_, ch. i, 2.
[641] _Cf. supra_, pp. 125 _et seq._
[642] The editor of as loyal and resourceful a Federalist sheet as
the _Columbian Centinel_, for example, insisted upon treating as a
whole the performances of the clergy on the occasion of the national
fast, and refused to make discriminations with respect to the special
import or merit of any particular minister’s performance: “Wednesday
last was observed throughout the United States as a day of Fasting
and Prayer. (Within the sphere of our information we can say, that on
no occasion were there ever exhibited more moral patriotism, and more
ardent devotion.) The Clergy on this occasion came forward with a zeal
which added greatly to the high character they have long enjoyed, as
Patriots. We could instance numerous traits of Federalism, which would
do them honour; but when all of them are entitled to praise, it would
be invidious to make distinctions.” (_Columbian Centinel_, May 12,
1798.)
[643] _Wolcott Papers_, viii, 23.
[644] _A Discourse, Delivered at the Roman Catholic Church in Boston
on the 9th of May, 1798._ ... By the Reverend John Thayer, Catholic
Missioner, Boston, 1798.
[645] _Ibid._, p. 23.
[646] _Op. cit._
[647] _Independent Chronicle_, May 31, 1798.
[648] _Ibid._ The “observations” referred to really threw no new light
upon the situation. They amounted to nothing more than proof of the
fact that the editor of the _New York Spectator_ had accepted the idea
of the Illuminati conspiracy. This being the case he was anxious to
warn his readers that if they would escape from the designs of the
French government they must make their choice, and that speedily,
between “INDEPENDENCE and SUBMISSION.”
[649] _Independent Chronicle_, June 14, 1798.
[650] The extracts in question boldly championed Robison’s cause,
and while admitting that all the tenets and secret manoeuvers of the
Illuminati could not be said to have been fully brought to light, Morse
did not hesitate to draw the following summary conclusion: “There
is however sufficient known to call forth the indignation of every
person who professes to be a friend to religion or virtue, and to put
every one on their guard who knows and respects the rights of private
property, and of good government.” (_Ibid._)
[651] _Ibid._
[652] _A Discourse delivered in the Chapel of Harvard College, June 19,
1798, Occasioned by the Approaching Departure of the Senior Class from
the University._ By David Tappan, D. D., Hollis Professor of Divinity
in said College, Boston, 1798.
[653] _Ibid._, pp. 4–13.
[654] As far as the present writer has been able to discover, President
Dwight did not deal publicly with the Illuminati charge until a little
later. Tappan’s reference must therefore be to general discussions of
infidelity, a favorite topic with Yale’s president, as we have seen.
[655] The reference is to Robison. Whether or not Tappan had personally
read Robison’s volume at this time is not altogether clear. The general
impression created by his sermon is that he had.
[656] _Cf._ Tappan’s _Sermon_, p. 19.
[657] _Ibid._, pp. 15 _et seq._ (foot note).
[658] _Cf._ Tappan’s _Sermon_, pp. 15 _et seq._ (foot note).
[659] _THE DUTY OF AMERICANS IN THE PRESENT CRISIS. Illustrated in
a Discourse, Preached on the Fourth of July, 1798_; by the Reverend
Timothy Dwight, D. D., President of Yale-College; at the request of the
citizens of New-Haven. New-Haven, 1798.
[660] _Ibid._, p. 8.
[661] The elaboration of this point necessarily led to some emphasis
upon the spirit of irreligion and savage persecution that had thus
manifested itself, and this in turn necessitated an effort to find a
way out of the embarrassment of seeming to approve this persecution.
The following ingenious foot note appended to the text of the published
sermon admirably illustrates the inventive resourcefulness of many
a New England clergyman of the day who found it necessary to rescue
himself from such an _impasse_ as Dwight’s method of exegesis produced:
“In the mention of all these evils brought on the Romish Hierarchy, I
beg it may be remembered, that I am far from justifying the iniquitous
conduct of their persecutors. I know not that any person holds it, and
all other persecutions, more in abhorrence. Neither have I a doubt of
the integrity and piety of multitudes of the unhappy sufferers. In my
view they claim, and I trust will receive, the commiseration, and, as
occasion offers, the kind offices of all men possessed even of common
humanity.” (_Ibid._, p. 9.) The truth is that in some cases Protestant
clergymen in New England, out of their concern for Christianity in
general, went so far as to deprecate the persecutions which Roman
Catholicism suffered.
[662] Dwight offered as his sources of authority Robison’s _Proofs_ and
an article on Barruel’s _Memoirs of Jacobinism_ which he had discovered
in the _British Critic_.
[663] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, p. 11.
[664] _Ibid._
[665] _Ibid._
[666] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, pp. 11, 12.
[667] _Ibid._, p. 12.
[668] _Ibid._, p. 13.
[669] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, p. 15.
[670] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, pp. 20, 21.
[671] _Ibid._, p. 22.
[672] The commanding position that Dwight occupied in the Standing
Order, as well as the unenviable distinction which in the eyes of the
opposition belonged to him, is certified to by the fact that he was
commonly referred to as “Pope Dwight.” _Cf._ Beecher, _Autobiography,
Correspondence, etc._, vol. i, p. 289. _Cf._ Stiles, _Diary_, vol. ii,
p. 531.
[673] The _Connecticut Journal_ of July 11, 1798, comments as follows
upon New Haven’s celebration of the previous Fourth: “The exercises
of the day at the Meeting-house were a Sermon by President Dwight,
from the 16th chapter of Revelations, 15th verse, accompanied with
prayers. An Oration by Noah Webster, jun., Esq., and sundry pieces
of excellent music. We forbare [_sic_] to remark particularly on the
Sermon and Oration, as the public eye will be speedily gratified in
perusing them.... We shall only say that an enlightened audience,
composed of the citizens of New-Haven, the members of our university,
and many clergymen, civilians, and other respectable inhabitants from
the adjacent towns, listened with profound attention while Doct. Dwight
and Mr. Webster exposed to their view, in a feeling manner, those
principles of modern philosophy which desolate Europe, and threaten the
universe with mighty evils.”
[674] _An Oration, pronounced at Sharon, on the Anniversary of American
Independence, 4th of July, 1798._ By John C. Smith, Litchfield, (n.
d.), pp. 6 _et seq._ _Cf. ibid._, pp. 7 _et seq._
[675] _Theodore Dwight: An Oration spoken at Hartford, in the State of
Connecticut, on the Anniversary of American Independence, July 4th,
1798._ Hartford, 1798, p. 23.
[676] _Ibid._ On a later page, in commenting upon Robison’s reference
in his _Proofs of a Conspiracy_ to the lodges of the Illuminati which
had been established in America, Dwight said: “I know not who belonged
to that society in this country; but if I were about to make proselytes
to illuminatism in the United States, I should in the first place apply
to Thomas Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, and their political associates.”
(_Ibid._, p. 30.) This early use of the outcry against the Illuminati
for political purposes was prophetic.
[677] _An Oration on Party Spirit, Pronounced before the Connecticut
Society of Cincinnati, convened at Hartford, for the celebration of
American Independence, on the 4th of July, 1798._ By Thomas Day, (n.
d.), p. 15.
[678] _Ibid._
[679] That “Censor’s” tone of moderation was assumed and not genuine
is further evinced by his assertion of contempt for Robison’s _absurd_
supposition that the Illuminati had kindled the French Revolution and
for his “unjustifiable attacks upon certain worthy characters.” If
the Illuminati had never existed the Revolution would have occurred
on account of the arbitrary and excessive despotism of the old
French government, the insupportable weight of taxation, the luxury
and dissipation of the nobility and clergy, the prohibition of free
religious and political discussion, and the dissemination of liberal
sentiments during the previous fifty years. That Robison, without
sufficient warrant, should have attacked such characters as “the worthy
La Fayette,” “the venerable Duke de Rochefoucault,” Dr. Priestley,
_et al._, caused his book to appear as one born of “incorrigible
prejudices, acting upon an inflamed imagination.” As for the author of
the fast day sermon, he may judge for himself whether he was too hasty
in recommending such a book to the public. The times may be full of
peril, but surely this does not justify those who terrify their fellow
citizens by means of groundless alarms. One’s fellow citizens also need
to be put on their guard against the danger of becoming “the dupes of
every foolish tale which the prejudices or ignorance of Europeans may
fabricate.” Such were further comments by “Censor.” _Cf._ Day, _op.
cit._
[680] These articles began in the issue of the _Mercury_ for August 3,
and were continued through the issues of August 10, 14, 17, 21, 28,
and 31. Because of an effort which the Reverend Josiah Bartlett made
to absolve the Masons of this country of the suspicion that had been
cast upon them, they found a certain continuation in the issues of the
_Mercury_ for September 7, 14, 18, 21; but these are reserved for the
special treatment of the Masonic aspects of the case. _Cf. infra_, pp.
330 _et seq._
[681] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Aug. 3, 1798.
[682] _Ibid._
[683] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Aug. 3, 1798.
[684] _Ibid._, Aug. 10.
[685] _Ibid._ In this connection Morse seeks to extract comfort from
the fact that the editors of the _British Critic_, having compared
Robison’s _Proofs_ and Barruel’s _Memoirs of Jacobinism_, have recorded
their verdict that the two works are highly confirmatory of each other,
“barring certain unimportant particulars.” He likewise observes that
the marks of precipitation and certain faults of style and expression
which some of the impartial English reviewers have been able to point
out, have yet not been allowed to alter their judgment that the book
as a whole is a credit to its author, and contains much valuable
information. The clamor that has arisen against the book, Morse
insists, is to be traced to the hostility of men who have been incensed
because their secrets have been exposed. At this point it may be said
in passing that Morse allowed himself to be drawn into the expression
of a sentiment, gratuitous in its nature, which served to precipitate
the very thing he had been anxious to avoid, _viz._, a break with the
Masons. Irritated by his critics, he wrote: “The Free Masons can not be
angry with him [Robison].... If therefore any are really angry here, it
must be because he has touched and exposed their secret friends.”
[686] The reference is to Professor Tappan’s sermon before the senior
class of Harvard. _Cf. supra_, pp. 244 _et seq._
[687] In this instance the reference is not to President Dwight’s
Fourth of July sermon: that sermon had not yet been seen by Morse; but
to an allusion made by Dwight to Robison’s book in a note appended to
the following pamphlet: _The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy.
Two Discourses, to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate, in Yale
College, September 9, 1797_.... New-Haven, 1798. _Cf._ _Massachusetts
Mercury_, Aug. 17, 1798.
[688] Theodore Dwight’s Fourth of July oration is referred to. _Cf.
supra_, pp. 246 _et seq._
[689] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Aug. 17, 1798.
[690] _Ibid._, Aug. 21, 1798.
[691] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Aug. 21, 1798. Morse’s article in this
issue of the _Mercury_, perhaps more discursive and less convincing
than anything he had previously written on the general subject, at
various points descends to the level of abuse, in which Robison’s
hostile English reviewers, the Reverend William Bentley (for reasons
that will appear later), and “Censor” are made to share.
[692] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Aug. 28, 1798. In explanation of the
delicacy and difficulty of such a task as Robison’s, Morse offered to
his readers the following: “The schemes and views of Conspirators are
often veiled in language and signs intelligible only to themselves;
they correspond under fictitious names; their papers are sparingly
multiplied, artfully detached, and most cautiously concealed.”
(_Ibid._) The apologetic motive is evident.
[693] _Ibid._ With a “summary account” of the documents upon which
Robison had relied in the composition of his book and of which Morse
had no first-hand knowledge, and with an examination of the alleged
differences between the accounts of the “conspiracy” by Robison and
Barruel (_cf. ibid._, Aug. 31, 1798), Morse’s prolix discussion of
the subject came to a close. During the time that his articles were
in process of publication, “Censor” contributed a fresh article to
the _Mercury_, admitting that his faith in the existence of the
European Illuminati was growing, but still protesting that Robison
was to be regarded as extremely blameworthy on account of the false
and calumnious attacks that he had made on worthy private characters
in his _Proofs_. _Cf._ the _Massachusetts Mercury_ of August 28 for
this article by “Censor.” What degree of unmixed comfort this may have
afforded Morse, we may guess.
[694] As yet Barruel’s _Memoirs of Jacobinism_ was known to Americans
only in the literature of English reviews.
2. INCONCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF MORSE’S SECOND FORMAL DELIVERANCE
With the approach of the anniversary thanksgiving in Massachusetts,
late in November, 1798, public discussion of the Illuminati broke
out afresh. Once more the columns of the _Massachusetts Mercury_
became the chief medium of communication. Stirred, it appears, by the
announcement from abroad that the first three volumes of the Abbé
Barruel’s _Memoirs of Jacobinism_ had been translated into English, a
contributor to the _Mercury_ took occasion to comment at length on the
marvelous corroboratory evidence which that work was about to supply
to the English reading public with respect to the great and terrible
conspiracy which Professor Robison had laid bare.[695]
This advance commendation of Barruel’s composition was not destined to
be received with unanimous approval. “A Friend to Truth” was unable to
restrain the impulse to exclaim:
The paper signed “A Customer” could find but one man contemptible
enough to write it. It has his ignominy and his guilt.... No excuse
can be made for the late publication. If Barruel’s work be not yet
in America, why not wait till it comes?... The public are cautioned
against all anonymous defamers, from whom our Country has suffered
its greatest evils.[696]
Time and space were claimed by this writer to call attention also to
alleged discrepancies of a serious nature between Robison’s account of
the rise of the Illuminati and its early relations with Freemasonry and
the account of the same matters by Barruel, as reflected in English
reviews of the latter’s work. Quite incidentally “A Friend to Truth”
threw out the suggestion that Robison was not always in command of his
reason.[697]
Such an indecisive passage at arms obviously called for further
hostilities. The aspersion upon Robison’s sanity must immediately be
branded as infamous, and the charge that Barruel had contradicted
Robison boldly pronounced a lie.[698] “Trepidus” felt drawn to enter
the combat at this juncture, with satire as his principal weapon. He
knew of nothing so amazing and so wonderful as the discoveries which
Mr. Robison and his commentators had made respecting the achievements
of the Illuminati in America.[699] Surely there was nothing half so
dreadful about the Catalinarian conspiracy, the Sicilian Vespers, the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, or the Gunpowder Plot. But he, too, had
a mysterious cabal to expose. The people who were vulgarly called
“Quakers,” but who had assumed the suspicious name of “Friends,” were
they not conspirators?
The Illuminati esteem all ecclesiastical establishments profane,
irreligious, and tyrannical; so do the Quakers. They hold also
the obligations of brotherly love and universal benevolence.
The Quakers not only profess these Atheistical principles, but
actually reduce them to practice. The Illuminati hold the enormous
doctrine of the Equality of mankind. So do these Quakers. They,
like the Illuminati, have a general correspondence through all
their meetings, delegates constantly moving, and one day, at every
quarterly meeting, set apart for _private business_; and I engage
to prove at the bar of any tribunal in the United States, that
these Friends, these men so horribly distinguished for benevolence
and philanthropy, (Ah! philanthropy!) have held, and do still hold
a constant correspondence with their nefarious accomplices in
Europe.... _Awake, arise, or be forever fallen!_[700]
These, however, were the sentiments of mere scribblers. Such were
able to handle the subject seriously or lightly according as their
sympathies or their prejudices were most appealed to. It was evident
that in either case such men charged themselves with no personal
responsibility to get at the precise facts. What was needed was the
testimony and counsel of one who, recognizing the gravity of the
interests involved and having accumulated and weighed the evidence,
should be able to speak the language of enlightened conviction, backed
by the force of a position among his fellow citizens which would
entitle his words to respect. An attempt to meet that need was about to
be made, how successfully we shall soon be in a position to judge.
On the day of the anniversary thanksgiving referred to in the
beginning of this chapter, the Reverend Jedediah Morse was again
before his people in his Charlestown pulpit, to speak to them under
the inspiration of another high occasion in the commonwealth’s life.
Of what would he speak? The day had, of course, its own definite
suggestions. Governor Increase Sumner, in appointing it, apparently
had felt that Massachusetts’ measure of providential mercies had been
well filled.[701] The earth had yielded a sufficient supply for the
wants of the people, and the efforts of industrious husbandmen had
been well rewarded. The state’s fisheries had been prospered, and its
commerce, although much interrupted by the violence and rapacity of
unreasonable men, had been generally attended with success. Order and
tranquillity had continued to reign in the commonwealth, and although a
mortal contagious disease had been permitted for a time to afflict the
city of Boston, yet Providence had been pleased to set bounds to the
progress of the plague, and once more the voice of health and plenty
was generally heard. The constitutions of civil government were still
enjoyed; the life and usefulness of the nation’s chief magistrate had
been spared and continued; and despite the past impenitence of the
people, they were still indulged with the Christian religion.[702]
Would these considerations engage the thought of the minister
of Charlestown and inspire his tongue to speak the language of
thanksgiving and praise? Only in part.[703] Morse’s mind was occupied,
not so much with the thought of mercies bestowed as with that of perils
to be faced. Passing lightly over the more favorable and reassuring
aspects of the state of public affairs, he seized upon various items in
the governor’s proclamation to point out those untoward elements in the
situation which seemed to him to supply ample warrant for alarm.
The proclamation of the governor had referred to the uninterrupted
order and tranquillity of the state. True; this was a mercy with which,
under the favor of Providence, the people of Massachusetts had been
blessed. Yet, unhappily, serious differences in political and religious
opinions had been permitted to exist. Men might call these differences
a mere war of words; but words are often calculated to bring on a
more serious conflict. Such party zeal and animosities as had been
raging would now somewhat abate, let it be hoped, and thus the heat of
battle would be found to be past. But undeniably the crisis had been
grave.[704]
The “Constitutions of Civil Government” were still enjoyed; but they
had been, and still were seriously threatened. The main sources from
which such dangers issue deserved to be pointed out. The vices and
demoralizing principles of the people generally, their selfish spirit
as conspicuously expressed in their insatiable ardor to become rich,
the spread of infidel and atheistical principles in all parts of the
country, the increase of luxury, extravagance, and dissipation, the
spirit of insubordination to civil authority,—these constituted the
perils against which the most powerful precautions must be taken.[705]
The people of the United States were not sufficiently aroused to a
sense of the high importance of the experiment of free government
which they were making before the eyes of the world. Unless prompt
reformation took place, they must make their choice between a voluntary
increase in the power of government on the one hand, and revolution,
anarchy, and military despotism on the other.[706]
The real nub of the matter, however, was yet to be considered.
“The blessings of good government have been most imminently and
immediately endangered by _foreign intrigue_.”[707] Enlarging upon
this proposition, Morse argued that for twenty years and more foreign
intrigue had been the bane of the country’s independence, peace, and
prosperity. By it, insidious efforts had been made to diminish the
nation’s limits, its importance, and its resources. By it, national
prejudices had been kept alive. By it, efforts had been made to render
efficient government impossible.[708] This spirit, which in other
nations had brought about their downfall and left them, like the
republics of Europe, prostrate at the feet of France,[709] had thus far
been thwarted here only by means of the administration of government,
wise, firm, dignified, and “supported by the enlightened and ardent
patriotism of the people, seasonably manifested, with great unanimity,
from all quarters of the Union, in patriotic addresses, in a voluntary
tender of military services, and liberal means of naval defence.”[710]
As to the country’s continued indulgence with the Christian
religion,[711] it should be said that this blessing was regularly
recognized in the governor’s proclamation, and always called
for loudest praise. However, at that particular hour there were
extraordinary reasons why the praise of citizens should be unusually
fervent; for were not those times
... when secret and systematic means have been adopted and pursued,
with zeal and activity, by wicked and artful men, in foreign
countries, to undermine the foundations of this Religion, and to
overthrow its Altars, and thus to deprive the world of its benign
influence on society, and believers of their solid consolations
and animating hopes; when we know that these impious conspirators
and philanthropists have completely effected their purposes in a
large portion of Europe, and boast of their means of accomplishing
their plan in all parts of Christendom, glory in the certainty of
their success, and set opposition at defiance; when we can mark
the progress of these enemies of human happiness among ourselves,
in the corruption of the principles and morals of our youth; the
contempt thrown on Religion, its ordinances and ministers; in the
increase and boldness of infidelity, and even of Atheism?[712]
The foregoing abstract takes account of all the important points in
the text of Morse’s anniversary thanksgiving sermon. The reader will
not need instruction as to the commonplace character of Morse’s pulpit
performance. The distinguishing character of the production, however,
is not to be sought in the sermon proper, but in the astonishing array
of supplementary material by which it was accompanied when it appeared
in its printed form. This material consisted of numerous foot notes
and a bulky appendix of some fifty pages. The foot notes frequently
commented upon passages in the works of Robison and Barruel. Since they
throw no light upon the fundamental questions at issue, we may pass
them by. One, however, was unique; and because of its suggestiveness
for the future trend of public discussion respecting the Illuminati, it
must be cited in full.
The probable existence of Illuminism in this country was asserted
in my Fast Discourse of May last. The following fact, related by a
very respectable divine, while it confirms what is above asserted,
shews that my apprehensions were not without foundation. “In the
northern parts of this state [Massachusetts] as I am well informed,
there has lately appeared, and still exists under a licentious
leader, a company of beings who discard the principles of religion,
and the obligations of morality, trample on the bonds of matrimony,
the separate rights of property, and the laws of civil society,
spend the sabbath in labour and divertion, as fancy dictates; and
the nights in riotous excess and promiscuous concubinage, as lust
impels. Their number consists of about forty, some of whom are
persons of reputable abilities, and once, of decent characters.
That a society of this description, which would disgrace the
natives of Caffraria, should be formed in this land of civilization
and Gospel light, is an evidence that the devil is at this time
gone forth, having great influence, as well as great wrath.” _Cf._
a Sermon on “the Dangers of the times, especially from a lately
discovered Conspiracy against Religion and Government. By Rev.
Joseph Lathrop, D. D., of West Springfield.”[713]
This foot note speaks for itself. The Appendix, or supplement of
Morse’s sermon, was made up of a curious mixture of heterogeneous
documents, such as an original survey of the history of the United
States from the time that the Federal government was established,
extracts from the confidential correspondence which passed between
French agents in this country and the French government,[714] and
extracts from the correspondence of various public characters in the
United States, all tending to enforce the point that from the beginning
of the relations between our government and that of France, the
controlling aim and spirit of the latter had been to work despicable
and ruinous intrigue.[715]
All of this, it may be said, was fairly typical of the pabulum which
Federalist leaders were regularly serving up to the people in 1798,
and signified little or nothing concerning the existence of French
conspirators wearing the Illuminati brand who may, or may not, have
been at work in America at the time.
One section of the Appendix, however, supplied some evidence of a
definite effort to leave generalities and deal intimately with the
point at issue. In this section[716] Morse sought to connect the
Illuminati with “the Jacobin Clubs instituted by Genet.”[717] Like
their sister organizations in France they had been constituted after
the manner and with the principles of the European Illuminati. The fact
that the members of these American organizations have been the leading
disseminators of the _principles_ of Illuminism in this country, as
well as the circulators of all those publications, like Paine’s _Age
of Reason_, whose object is to discredit and throw contempt upon
the Christian religion, clearly fixes their status as “the apostles
of Illuminism.”[718] Frowned upon by the Federal government, these
American organizations have ceased to act openly; “but, like their
parent society in Bavaria which, when suppressed under one form, was
soon revived again under the name of the German Union,”[719] so their
offspring in the United States now hypocritically mask themselves under
the name of The American Society of United Irishmen.[720]
Taken by itself, it would be impossible to state how favorably
this presentation of the case against Illuminism impressed the
public mind.[721] But as a matter of fact, on the occasion of the
Massachusetts anniversary thanksgiving referred to, Morse was by no
means compelled to bear his testimony alone. By the time that occasion
came round, the subject of Illuminism had solicited the attention
and concern of the Federalist clergy generally; on which account
it happened that a considerable amount of clerical artillery was
unlimbered and trained upon the new foe.
At Haverhill, the Reverend Abiel Abbott, in language emphatic, if
somewhat high-flown, voiced his alarm:
Upon the authority of a respectable writer in Europe and of
corroboratory testimonies, it is now generally believed that the
present day is unfolding a design the most extensive, flagitious,
and diabolical, that human art and malice have ever invented. Its
object is the total destruction of all religion and civil order.
If accomplished, the earth can be nothing better than a sink
of impurities, a theatre of violence and murder, and a hell of
miseries. Its origination was in Germany; its hot-bed now is Paris.
Its nursing fathers are the French Government; its apostles are
their generals and armies. Its fruits have been seen in France;
Christianity expelled; its priesthood seized and murdered, or
hunted down in neutral countries and demanded of their hospitable
protectors at the peril of war and ruin.—And now, were our first
magistrate an Illuminatus, a conspirator in league with the horde
in Europe, the grand master of the demoralizers in America,
how soon might the American republic have been degraded to the
deplorable state of the French?[722]
At Deerfield, the Reverend John Taylor dwelt upon “the good effect ...
produced upon the public mind by the fortunate discovery of a secret
conspiracy in Europe, against all the religions and governments on
earth.”[723] One of the evidences of this salutary impression, he
said, was to be found in the fact that even the confirmed infidels
in America had been shocked.[724] At Andover, the Reverend Jonathan
French did not consider his full duty discharged when he had uttered
a general warning against men of treachery, slander, and falsehood in
the nation, men who have spared no pains in fomenting difficulties and
divisions.[725] He believed it to be incumbent upon him to strike out
at that “envenomed serpent in the grass,” France, whose tools, said he,
were here, according to two writers of eminence and credit, Professor
Robison and the Abbé Barruel.[726] The works of these two authors,
French’s hearers were informed, “ought to rouse the attention, awaken
the vigilance, and excite the endeavors of every friend to religion, to
develop the dark designs, and to guard against the baneful influence
of all such dangerous secret machinations.”[727] Through the pulpit
ministrations of the Reverend Joseph Eckley, auditors at the Old South
Church in Boston had their attention drawn to the same topic, although
the language employed by this clergyman was somewhat less specific than
that which has just been noted.[728]
Other pastors, while refraining from definite reference to the
Illuminati, took occasion to exploit the subject of French intrigue,
with a view to awakening in their hearers a keen sense of instant
alarm. Of such, the efforts of the Reverend Nathan Strong, pastor of
the North Presbyterian Church in Hartford,[729] and the Reverend Henry
Cumings, pastor of the church in Billerica, deserve mention. Strong
contended that foreign influence, if not promptly checked, would work
here the same havoc it had wrought in France, _i. e._, the demoralizing
principles of infidelity and political engagements and alliances would
chain the people of the United States to “a burning pile”;[730] and
Cumings developed the idea that the war impending between this country
and France possibly amounted to an act of intervention on the part of
God to rescue the United States as a brand from the burning.[731] By
the breaking out of war a providential check would be put
... to that alarming inundation of impiety and infidelity, which,
having overwhelmed a great part of Europe, has lately rolled
its swelling waves across the Atlantic ... threatening our
happy country with an universal devastation of every religious
sentiment, moral principle, and rational enjoyment, together with
the consequent introduction of that wretched unhallowed philosophy
which degrades a man to a level with the beasts that perish,”[732]
_etc._
On the whole, the idea of secret and systematic plottings against
the liberties and institutions of the people of the United States was
extensively promoted by clerical agency during the autumn and winter of
1798–99. For it is not to be lost sight of that such pulpit utterances
as have just been noticed were considerably more than _mere_ pulpit
pronouncements. Issued from the presses of New England, these sermons
were scattered widely through the country[733] and, no doubt, were
widely read. Some representatives of the clergy, as we have seen, spoke
out with distinctness regarding the Illuminati, asserting that this
organization would have to be reckoned with by their fellow citizens.
Others committed themselves no farther than to emphasize foreign
intrigue of the French stripe, and to characterize it as a vital thrust
at the country’s peace and prosperity. The total effect was to invite
a general airing of the issue which Jedediah Morse had raised in his
fast day sermon of May 9, 1798, and to render imperative a sifting of
evidence.
The part played by the newspapers is less easily interpreted, since
it calls for the survey of a much less solid body of opinion. Some
journals adopted an attitude of discreet silence, apparently waiting
for the mists which enveloped the subject to clear. Others opened their
columns impartially to champions and antagonists, willing to be used to
let light in upon a dark and perplexing matter. The policy (the word
seems strangely out of place in connection with the average New England
newspaper of the period) of several of these journals can best be
stated in terms of their own behavior.
The course pursued by the _Columbian Centinel_[734] left nothing to be
desired as respects impartiality. As early as August 11, 1798, there
appeared in this paper the following sarcastic “epistles”:
Epistle from Professor Robison, in Scotland, to Professor Morse, in
America:
“_Dear Brother_,
Will you scratch my back?
Yours affectionately,
J. ROBISON.”
Another Epistle, from Professor Morse, in America, to Professor
Robison, in Scotland:
“_Dear Brother_,
I’ll scratch your back, if you will scratch my elbow.
Yours affectionately,
JED. MORSE.”
A few weeks later there appeared in the same paper an article whose
author professed that having read “The Cannibals’ Progress, the
Freemason’s illuminati, and some other documents of the French nation,”
he had been brought round to the conclusion that the depravity of the
human race was astounding. He could no longer doubt that the conspiracy
against religions and governments was not only deeply laid, but was
likewise spreading far and wide. He was convinced that the proofs of
its existence in America were to be observed generally throughout
the country, “in every society where there is the least prospect
of success, in misleading and dividing our citizens.”[735] To this
another contributor was given opportunity to respond with an expression
of sentiments intended to sweep the views of the former aside as
inordinately nonsensical and silly.[736]
After the autumn crop of thanksgiving sermons had revived interest
in the subject of the Illuminati, the _Centinel_ published one
article which really shed a modicum of light upon the subject. This
consisted of a letter which had originally been received in England
from Germany, together with certain observations from the pen of the
anonymous contributor who offered it in evidence.[737] The letter
bore the signature of one Augustus Böttiger, who identified himself
as “Counsellor of the Upper Consistory, and Provost of the College
of Weimar.”[738] It concerned itself with the amused astonishment
with which, according to its author, Professor Robison’s _Proofs
of a Conspiracy_ had been received in Germany, in view of the fact
that from 1790 on every interest in the Illuminati had ceased in
that country. The Freemasons of Germany, Böttiger asserted, had had
absolutely nothing to do with Illuminism from the date mentioned. In
the observations which accompanied this letter the information was
advanced that in England all public interest in Illuminism had likewise
died out, owing to the contemptuous estimate which the people of that
country had come to place upon the works of Robison and Barruel.[739]
In the heat which had arisen over the subject of Illuminism it was
impossible that this bit of evidence should pass without being sharply
challenged. A rough and scurrilous rejoinder to these productions
appeared in the _Centinel_ of January 19, 1799. Questions were boldly
raised concerning the identity of the addressee of the Böttiger letter;
how the letter had chanced to find its way to America; where it had
been translated; what were the religious and political sentiments of
the author; who was the person that penned the remarks by which it
had been accompanied in the _Centinel_; how the latter had come into
possession of his pretentious stock of information respecting the state
of public opinion in England, _et cetera, et cetera_. Neither the
writer nor his friends were favorably impressed. “The naked declaration
of an unknown paragraphist, probably enough an emigrant illuminatist,
will not be sufficient with enlightened Americans to convict Professor
Robison or Abbé Barruel of criminality or even of error in their
publications.”[740]
Another newspaper that sought to hold to a noncommittal course was
the _Massachusetts Mercury_, as might have been anticipated in view
of circumstances already related. After the generous hearing which
this journal, in the summer and fall of 1798, accorded to both sides
in the controversy, a marked diminution of its interest for a season
is noticeable. A search through its files for the winter of 1798–99
discloses nothing more than an occasional article bearing on the
subject. One of these came to light in the issue of December 7.[741]
“Anti-Illuminism” solicited the public ear that he might testify to the
change that had taken place in his personal convictions. An examination
of Robison’s volume and reflection upon the amount of abuse which
that author had been compelled to suffer had persuaded him that there
was positive truth in the charge of conspiracy that had been made. He
was now certain that the Masons were not the harmless persons he had
formerly believed them to be. The vociferous attempt which had been
made to vindicate American Freemasonry impressed him as decidedly
premature. It was clear to him that _all_ secret societies were
dangerous.
It might have been expected that a Democratic sheet as violent and
aggressive as the _Independent Chronicle_ would range itself squarely
against the alarmists, and seek, if not by argument at least by
unlicensed vituperation, to distract the public interest. But as a
matter of fact, the _Chronicle_ elected to adopt a very different
attitude.[742] Morse and his associates in the special cause which
he and they were pleading should be treated with contemptuous
indifference. The _bête noire_ of the editors of the _Chronicle_ was
“political preaching.” This new agitation over Illuminism, for which
the clergy were chiefly responsible, was but one other proof of their
incorrigible impertinence in turning aside from their legitimate
functions. In displaying “his over-heated zeal ... in silly tales about
the ‘illuminati’,”[743] Morse was but holding true to type.[744]
At Hartford, next to Boston the main center of the Illuminati agitation
in New England, two papers, the _American Mercury_ and the _Connecticut
Courant_, assisted materially in giving publicity to the controversy.
The former at first gave some evidence of a disposition to treat
Morse’s presentation of the case with respect. Extracts from the
latter’s fast day sermon of May 9, 1798, were given to this journal’s
readers;[745] and the annual poem which at the beginning of the new
year (1799) it furnished to its patrons, testified to the widespread
interest that the general public in Connecticut had come to have in the
subject of the Illuminati.[746] It was not long after this, however,
that Elisha Babcock, editor of the _Mercury_, found reason to become
rabidly hostile to Morse and his agitation.[747]
As for the _Connecticut Courant_, its behavior was precisely what one
should expect from a journal breathing always a spirit of arrogant
and unreasoning Federalism. Quick to take advantage of any new issue
which gave promise of offering discomfiture to the Democrats, and
all too often impatient to the point of exasperation over so slight
a question as the essential soundness of the facts involved, from
the first day that it was made aware of the agitation against the
Illuminati, the _Courant_ gave every encouragement to the men who were
trying to awaken the people of the country to a sense of the gravity
of the peril that threatened. The books, pamphlets, sermons, orations,
and leading newspaper contributions that appeared upon the subject,
these the _Courant_ urged upon the attention of its readers, and gave
such assistance as it was able in the exposition of their respective
merits.[748]
The political possibilities in the situation supplied the chief, if
not the only animus for this playing-up of the case by the _Courant_.
On this point little room for doubt is left. One contributor who heard
Theodore Dwight’s Fourth of July oration asserted that not till then
had his eyes been opened to see in Mr. Jefferson “anything more than
the foe of certain men, who were in possession of places to which he
might think himself entitled;” but Dwight convinced him that Jefferson
“is the _real Jacobin_, the very child of _modern illumination_, the
foe of man, and the enemy of his country.”[749] Another argued that
the zeal of the Democrats for office was to be treated as a part of
the scheme of Illuminatism in America “to worm its votaries into all
offices of trust, and importance, that the weapon of government,
upon signal given, may be turned against itself.”[750] Still another
contended that the one concern of the Democrats of Connecticut was to
dispense “to the people of this state the _precious doctrines_ of the
Illuminati.”[751]
The contributions to the agitation made by two newspapers that were
published outside of New England but which were extensively circulated
and much quoted in that region, are entitled to consideration at
this point. These were _Porcupine’s Gazette_ and the _Aurora General
Advertiser_, both Philadelphia publications and, it may be remarked in
passing, both tremendously influential throughout the entire country.
William Cobbett, the editor of the former, participated in the
publication of the first American edition of Robison’s _Proofs of
a Conspiracy_. As soon as the book was ready for distribution he
announced the fact in his paper, accompanying the advertisement with
flattering testimonials gleaned from the _London Review_.[752] Later,
he gave to his readers his personal estimate of the merits of Robison’s
production.[753] In his judgment the _Proofs_ was of such great value
that it deserved to be read by every living man. For one thing, “it
unravels everything that appears mysterious in the progress of the
French Revolution.”[754]
In the issue of _Porcupine’s Gazette_ for August 9, 1798, Cobbett
expressed his deep interest in the reports which had come to him
respecting Morse’s fast day sermon and the “Vindication” with which, he
understood, Morse had followed his sermon. He would be grateful to any
gentleman who would send him a copy of the “Vindication,” since there
could be no doubt as to its great public utility. Very promptly his
desire was gratified, and Morse’s articles in vindication of Robison,
which in the summer of that year he contributed to the _Massachusetts
Mercury_, began to be spread before the readers of _Porcupine’s
Gazette_.[755]
Following their publication, other matters appear to have held the
restless attention of Cobbett for a time and no further reference of an
extended character to the affairs of the Illuminati appeared in this
paper until February of the following year.
Upon the receipt of a copy of Morse’s thanksgiving sermon, Cobbett
communicated to his readers the joy he experienced in being able to put
them in possession of extracts from it.[756] Morse’s sermon, in his
judgment, was an extraordinary performance. Of its Appendix he wrote:
“This Appendix is one of the most valuable political tracts that ever
appeared in America, whether we view it as a collection of facts, or
as an address to the reason and feelings of the people.”[757] Of the
sermon as a whole he wrote:
It has gone through two editions, and a third is about to be
commenced. Doctor Morse has long been regarded as a benefactor
to his country; but notwithstanding his former labours have been
of great utility, this last work, I have no hesitation to say,
surpasses them all in this respect; and it must, if there be any
such thing as _national gratitude_ in America, render the author
the object of universal esteem. He has brought to light facts which
people in general never before dreamed of, and however deaf the
middle and southern states may be to his warning voice, New-England
will listen to it.[758]
This was very strong language, providing the personality of William
Cobbett is left out of account! How soothingly it fell upon the ears
of a certain clergyman in New England, which ears, it may be remarked,
were growing accustomed to much less kindly comment, we may leave to
conjecture.
As for Benjamin Franklin Bache, the editor of the _Aurora_[759] and
as militant an advocate of Democratic principles as this country
contained, all such views of the case were so much puerile _fol de
rol_. Robison’s _Proofs_ was a blending of “a most absurd collection
of stories respecting the mystical societies in Germany with some
fragments of histories of French Free Masonry, ... [an] inconsistent
Farrago.”[760] Weak indeed must be the cause of despotism “when its
Satellites can imagine a dissemination of such contemptible mummery
would calumniate the friends of Liberty or paralize their efforts to
explore the _divinity of kings_, or the _dogma of priests_.”[761] The
explanation of Morse’s faith in Robison’s book is to be sought in the
fact that the minister of Charlestown received his doctor’s degree from
the University of Glasgow; and therefore on the principle, “Tickle me
and I’ll scratch you,” the Glasgow professor’s production was entitled
to credit.[762]
FOOTNOTES:
[695] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Nov. 3, 1798: article by “A Customer.”
[696] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Nov. 13, 1798.
[697] _Ibid._
[698] _Ibid._, Nov. 16, 1798. Extracts from Barruel’s _Memoirs_,
garnered from English reviews, were offered in evidence by this writer.
The charge of _contradiction_ was hotly commanded by him to give place
to the darker charge of _designed perversion_ on the part of Robison’s
enemies.
[699] _Ibid._, Nov. 30, 1798.
[700] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Nov. 30, 1798.
[701] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Oct. 26, 1798.
[702] _Ibid._
[703] _A Sermon, Preached at Charlestown, November 29, 1798, on the
Anniversary Thanksgiving in Massachusetts. With an Appendix, designed
to illustrate some parts of the Discourse; exhibiting proofs of the
early existence, progress, and deleterious effects of French intrigue
and influence in the United States._ By Jedediah Morse, D. D., pastor
of the church in Charlestown.... Boston, December, 1798. Two reprints
of the sermon were issued early in the next year.
[704] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 9.
[705] _Ibid._, pp. 10–14.
[706] Morse, _op. cit._, p. 15.
[707] _Ibid._
[708] _Ibid._
[709] _Ibid._, p. 16.
[710] _Ibid._, p. 18.
[711] The sermon was preached in two parts, morning and afternoon,
and concerning Morse’s discussion of the Christian religion this
explanatory mote appears in the printed report: “The last article,
respecting the _Christian Religion_, which constituted the whole of the
forenoon sermon, being a _common_, though always _interesting_ subject,
has been considerably abridged.” (_Ibid._, p. 4.) This is only one of
many marks of the great care Morse took to get the printed report of
the sermon before the public in the most impressive form possible. He
was fully conscious of the fact that he had an allegation to defend as
well as a demurrer to oppose.
[712] Morse, _op. cit._, pp. 20–22.
[713] Morse’s _Anniversary Thanksgiving Sermon_, pp. 22 _et seq._
The sermon of Lathrop referred to bears the following title: _A
Sermon, on the Dangers of the Times, from Infidelity and Immorality;
and especially from a lately discovered Conspiracy against Religion
and Government, delivered at West-Springfield and afterward at
Springfield_. By Joseph Lathrop, D. D., Springfield, September, 1798.
The statement that Morse quotes appears on page 14 of Lathrop’s
sermon. _Cf._ Cunningham, Abner, _Practical Infidelity Portrayed and
the Judgments of God Made Manifest_, (3rd. edition), New York, 1836,
pp. 42–46, where a somewhat similar situation in Orange County, New
York, is referred to, and with suggestions of secret revolutionary
designs not unlike those made by Lathrop. The situation referred to
by Cunningham is also dealt with by F. M. Ruttenber, in his _History
of the County of Orange, with a History of the Town and City of
Newburgh ..._. Newburgh, N. Y., 1875, pp. 164 _et seq._ Woodbridge
Riley’s article on _Early Free-Thinking Societies in America_ (Harvard
Theological Review, July, 1918, pp. 247–284) came to the attention of
the author of this study when the entire dissertation was in page proof.
[714] Some of these dated as far back as 1782, and none of them need
have been disturbing to a calm mind.
[715] The following letter, written by Morse to Timothy Pickering,
throws considerable light upon the sources from which the most of these
documents were derived and the manner and spirit in which they were
compiled.
“Charlestown, Jan. 22^d, 1799.
_Dear Sir_,
I take the liberty to enclose for your acceptance a copy of my
Thanksgiving Discourse. The Appendix contains some documents not before
published. I hope the publication of them, in the manner I have done,
will not be deemed premature. I did it by the advice of some of the
wisest & best informed men in this vicinity.
I think it my duty, confidentially to make known to you the sources
from which I obtained my information, that you may better know how to
appreciate its authenticity. It will rest with you, Sir, to make what
use of it you may think expedient. I wish it may be communicated to the
President.
Mr. J. Jackson, Supervisor, favored me with Mr. Marbois’ Letter, & the
Letter p. 41 whh is from Mr. Adams.—I should not have published the
latter, had it not before appeared in print in a political pamphlet
printed in Phila lately. The member of Congress from whom I derived the
documents contained between pages 43 & 52, is Mr. S. Higginson, who
also wrote the Letters whh follow to page 56. Note E, p. 66 & G, p. 69
& H, p. 70 were furnished (at least the information they contain) by
Mr. G. Cabot. The Letters under Note H, from a diplomatic character
in Europe, are from Mr. K—g—. [Rufus King?] The Emigrant mentioned p.
69—was the Duke de Liancourt, whose name I see in Porcupine’s Gazette
of January 11, as about to revisit this Country. The American was Mr.
G. C. above mentioned. The note concerning Volney, p. 21 was furnished
by Genl. K—x [General Henry Knox?] & Mr. G. C. The fact mentioned p. 68
relative to Paine’s Age of Reason, 15,000 copies of which are asserted
to have been poured into this Country at one time from France, rests
chiefly on the authority of a well written piece published last summer
in Porcupine’s Gazette. I wish, Sir, if you are knowing to the fact, or
can ascertain the truth, you would do me the favor to furnish me with
the evidence. I know not that it will be controverted, but should it be
it is well to have it in my power to substantiate it. I feel prepared
to substantiate all other of my assertions.
I am persuaded, Sir, you will properly appreciate my motives in making
the above communication, as also in publishing the Sermon & Appendix.
I live among a people many of whom err in Sentiment & Conduct through
their want of information. It was especially for their benefit that the
Appendix was compiled. With great and very sincere respect,
I am, Sir, your most Obd. Servt,
JED^H MORSE.”
_Pickering Papers_, vol. xxiv, 29.
[716] Morse’s _Thanksgiving Sermon_, “Note F,” pp. 67 _et seq._
[717] Morse’s _Thanksgiving Sermon_, p. 67. The reference is, of
course, to the Democratic Clubs.
[718] Morse’s _Thanksgiving Sermon_, pp. 68 _et seq._
[719] _Ibid._, p. 67.