New England and the Bavarian Illuminati Vernon Stauffer 2337 downloads.pdf

The Project Gutenberg eBook of New England and the
Bavarian Illuminati
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: New England and the Bavarian Illuminati

Author: Vernon Stauffer

Release date: November 17, 2017 [eBook #55983]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55983

Credits: Produced by David Tipple, Mary Glenn Krause, Eric
Lehtonen,
University of Toronto's Robarts Library and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW ENGLAND
AND THE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI ***

Transcriber‘s Notes

A small number of obvious typos have been corrected. Except for this, the spelling and
punctuation of the book have not been changed.
The footnotes have been renumbered from 1 to 988 and placed at the end of the text.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE
BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI

BY

VERNON STAUFFER, A. M.
Dean and Professor of New Testament and Church History
Hiram College

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN THE

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

NEW YORK
1918

COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY
VERNON STAUFFER

To
J. E., R. W., AND R. F.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 9

CHAPTER I
THE UNDERMINING OF PURITAN STANDARDS AND INSTITUTIONS
1. Rapid Disintegration of Puritanism after the 13
Revolution
2. Ominous Discontent with the Standing Order 33
3. Alarms due to the Spread of Religious Radicalism 66
and Scepticism

CHAPTER II
POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS AND HYSTERIA
1. The Situation prior to 1798 103
2. The Situation from 1798 to 1800 122

CHAPTER III
THE EUROPEAN ORDER OF THE ILLUMINATI
1. The Rise and the Disappearance of the Order 142
2. The Legend of the Order and its Literary 186
Communication to New England

CHAPTER IV
THE ILLUMINATI AGITATION IN NEW ENGLAND
1. Morse Precipitates the Controversy 229
2. Inconclusive Developments of Morse’s Second 261
Formal Deliverance
3. Morse Submits his Inept Documentary Evidence 287

4. Freemasonry’s Embarrassment and Protest 321
5. Attempts of Democrats to Fix the Countercharge of 345
Illuminism upon the Federalists
BIBLIOGRAPHY 361

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The obligations incurred in the preparation of the following study are
much too numerous and varied to admit of adequate notice. Special mention
must, however, be made of my indebtedness to the staffs of the following
libraries: The Boston Athenaeum, Congregational, Masonic (Boston),
American Antiquarian Society, Connecticut Historical Society, New York
Historical Society, Library of Congress, the public libraries of the cities of
Boston and New York, the library of Hiram College, and the university
libraries of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. In addition to the many courtesies
received from these sources, I have had valuable assistance from the
following persons: Mr. Newton R. Parvin, grand secretary of the Grand
Lodge of Iowa, A. F. & A. M., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whose warm personal
interest in my investigation has found expression in the loan of many
valuable volumes; Mr. Worthington C. Ford, of the Massachusetts
Historical Society, who besides opening freely to me the unpublished
treasures of the Society, has given me the benefit of peculiarly stimulating
suggestions; Mr. Walter C. Green, librarian of Meadville Theological
School, who has most generously met all my drafts upon his patience and
time; and Professor Guy Stanton Ford, of the University of Minnesota, who
has made it possible for me to use his copy of Forestier’s Les Illuminés de
Bavière et la Franc-Maçonnerie allemande, without which in this war
period, with its partial stoppage of the inflow of European literature, my
chapter on “The European Order of the Illuminati” could scarcely have
been written.
My greatest debt is to Professor William Walker Rockwell, of Union
Theological Seminary, who from the day that he suggested the theme not
only has followed the progress of the work with unwearied interest, but at

many points has guided my efforts and helped me to avoid numerous
pitfalls. Whatever excellencies the study contains are due to Professor
Rockwell’s stimulating criticism; the faults are altogether chargeable to me.
There remains to acknowledge my obligation and express my best
thanks to my colleagues, Professors Ralph Hinsdale Goodale, Lee Edwin
Cannon, and John Samuel Kenyon, and to Miss Bertha Peckham, Registrar
of Hiram College, who have greatly assisted me by correcting copy, reading
proof, and otherwise helping to see the work through the press. To my wife
a special obligation is due because of the benefits derived from her critical
insight and heartening sympathy throughout the performance of the task.
V. S
HIRAM, OHIO.

INTRODUCTION

Few if any periods in our national history have been marked by a greater
variety of clashing interests than the closing decade of the eighteenth
century. Owing in part to inexperience in grappling with the problems of
government, in part to widely belligerent and irreconcilable elements
among the people, in part to grave international complications and
concerns, and in part, confessedly, to rumors and excitements for which, as
events proved, no adequate grounds existed, the lives of the people of New
England were tossed rudely about on rough currents and counter-currents of
mingled hope and anguish. To a dispassionate observer (if anywhere on the
green earth at the close of the eighteenth century such an individual might
have been found) it must have seemed as though the citizens of New
England were as so many bits of wood, bobbing up and down on waters
excessively choppy but otherwise motionless. The agitation, however, was
not merely superficial; issues and movements of the most profound
significance were pouring their impetuous torrents through channels freshly
cut and steadily deepened by new streams of human interest which the
erection of the national government, in particular, had started on their
tortuous ways.
The development of this thesis calls for an evaluation of the more
significant elements and forces which gave to the period the characteristic
temper of nervous excitability by which it was stamped. The profound spirit
of apprehension, amounting to positive distress, with which for many a
thoughtful religious patriot of New England the eighteenth century closed,
constitutes a phenomenon as impressive as it is curious. To isolate that
spirit, to analyze it, to explain its genesis and its development, to take
account of its attachments and antipathies with respect to the special interest

under consideration,—this must be regarded as no inconsiderable portion of
the general task.
On the morning of May 9, 1798, in the pulpit of the New North Church
in Boston, and on the afternoon of the same day in his own pulpit at
Charlestown, the occasion being that of the national fast, the Reverend
Jedediah Morse[1] made a sensational pronouncement. He first discussed
with his hearers “the awful events” which the European Illuminati had
precipitated upon an already distracted world, and then proceeded solemnly
to affirm that the secret European association had extended its operations to
this side of the Atlantic and was now actively engaged among the people of
the United States, with a view to the overthrow of their civil and religious
institutions. In the eyes of the distinguished clergyman, the matter was of
such serious moment that he felt moved to remark:

I hold it a duty, my brethren, which I owe to God, to the cause
of religion, to my country and to you, at this time, to declare to
you, thus honestly and faithfully, these truths. My only aim is
to awaken in you and myself a due attention, at this alarming
period, to our dearest interests. As a faithful watchman I would
give you warning of your present danger.[2]

Morse’s warning by no means fell upon deaf ears. The “due attention” he
claimed for the alarm which he that day sounded was promptly and
generally accorded. Soon ministers were preaching, newspaper editors and
contributors writing and clearheaded statesmen like Oliver Wolcott,
Timothy Pickering, John Adams, and even the great Washington, inquiring,
and voicing their serious concern over the secret presence in America of
those conspirators whose greatest single achievement, a multitude had come
to believe, was the enormities of the French Revolution.

It is true that before two years had passed men generally began to admit
the baseless nature of the alarm that Morse had sounded. None the less one
may not dismiss the incident with the light and easy judgment that it
signified nothing more than the absurd fears of a New England clergyman
who, under the strain of deep political and religious concern, and after a
hasty reading of the latest volume of religious and political horrors that had
just arrived from Europe,[3] rushed into his pulpit and gave utterance to
preposterous statements which his imagination for the moment led him to
believe were justified. The episode has considerably larger and more
important bearings. No man could possibly have awakened such wide-
spread concern as the minister of Charlestown succeeded in awakening if it
had not been true that significant concurrent and related circumstances gave
both setting and force to the alarm which with such stout conviction he
sounded.
What previous influences and events had tended to predispose the public
mind favorably to Morse’s alarm? What was the peculiar combination and
cast of events which gave the notion of a conspiracy against religion and
government in Europe and in America a clear semblance of truth? In what
ways, and to what extent, did the alarm affect the lives and the institutions
of the people of New England? Finally, what were the grounds, real or
imaginary, upon which the charge of an Illuminati conspiracy rested? To
answering these questions the following pages are devoted.

CHAPTER I
THE UNDERMINING OF PURITAN STANDARDS AND INSTITUTIONS

1. RAPID DISINTEGRATION OF PURITANISM AFTER THE REVOLUTION

Back of the War of Independence was the less absorbing but scarcely
less harrowing contest of the French and Indian War. Thus for a period of
fully thirty years the people of New England had been subjected to the
rough and unsettling experiences of military life. This consideration, taken
in connection with the fact that a growing declension from the standards of
the Puritan fathers had been the occasion of increasing comment and
concern from the middle of the seventeenth century on,[4] will make
explicable the fact that the average citizen of New England emerged from
the Revolutionary struggle with the edge of his conscience dulled. The
secularizing spirit of the post-Revolutionary period, when questions of
national organization and unity, of the rehabilitation of commerce and
industry, and of international relations and policies were foremost in the
thought of the day, left marks upon the human spirit over which stern and
rigorous adherents to the old order wept copiously and long. For one thing,
the lives of the men and women of New England were never again to be as
barren of diversified interests as they had been in the past. The successful
issue of the struggle for political independence had so enlarged the mind of
the common man that he of necessity entertained considerations of private
desire and of public policy which he formerly would have rejected entirely.
The avenue of retreat to the ancient simplicity and seclusion was forever
closed.
The soundness of this estimate of the rapid disintegration of Puritanism
will be apparent if the changing attitude of the people on the subject of
theatrical entertainments is considered.[5] As early as the year 1750 the

General Court of Massachusetts had found it necessary to enact legislation
to prevent stage-plays and other theatrical entertainments.[6] That Puritan
standards dominated the situation at the time is evidenced both by the
reasons advanced by the framers of the law for its enactment and by the
stringent penalties attached to it. The justification of the measure was found
in the economic waste, the discouraging effect upon industry and frugality,
and the deleterious effect upon morality and religion which stage-plays
were believed to exercise. The penalties imposed called for a fine of twenty
pounds upon any owner of property who permitted his property to be used
for such purposes, while a fine of five pounds was to be assessed upon any
actor or spectator found in attendance upon or participating in any such
exercises where more than twenty persons were assembled together.[7] How
meekly the craving for pleasurable excitement bowed its head in
submission, there is no evidence to show; but it is very clear that as the
century drew toward its close the people of Massachusetts began to
manifest a decidedly intractable spirit with respect to legislative control of
their amusements and pleasures.
The days of the Revolution supplied thrills of their own, and the
colonists gave themselves in devotion to their great task-at-arms, with little
desire for the amenities of life. Accordingly, when the Continental
Congress, on October 16, 1778, passed a resolution deprecating every
species of public entertainment which would be likely to divert the minds of
the people from the considerations of public defence and the safeguarding
of their liberties,[8] there was nothing singular about the episode, and we
may believe readily that the people of New England, fortified by their grim
spirit of determination and their long tradition of self-denial, in no sense fell
short of the general standard. But by the year 1790 the people living in and
about Boston had come to a very different state of mind. In that year by
petition to the General Court they sought to have the prohibitory act of 1750

revoked.[9] The incident has importance because it registers a determined
effort to feed desires whose hunger-pains had grown insistent.
The history of this particular effort to remove legislative restrictions in
the way of harmless amusements is illuminating. The petition referred to
received scant consideration at the hands of the legislators of
Massachusetts. The following year certain gentlemen of Boston, to the
number of thirty-nine, presented a memorial to the selectmen of that city,
requesting that a vote of the citizens be taken on the questions of permitting
the erection and use of a building for theatrical entertainments, and the
issuing of instructions to Boston’s representatives in the legislature calling
for the repeal of the obnoxious law. Apparently the plebiscite was not taken;
but the general question was debated in town meeting. A committee was
appointed to prepare instructions. The committee reported favorably
concerning the proposed instructions to Boston’s representatives in the
legislature, and these representatives later undertook the task of bringing a
majority of the members of the General Court to the more liberal point of
view; not, however, with immediate success. Meanwhile, to the scandal of
Governor John Hancock, and doubtless many another advocate of decency
and order, theatrical entertainments, “under the Stile & Appellation of
Moral Lectures,”[10] flourished openly in Boston.[11]
It was during the progress of the debate in the legislature over the
proposed repeal of the law against theatrical entertainments that John
Gardiner, one of Boston’s representatives in that body, delivered himself of
sentiments touching what he styled “the illiberal, unmanly, and despotic
act” of 1750. His speech gave evidence of how fresh and independent the
judgments of some minds had come to be. Addressing the presiding officer,
Gardiner said:

Sir! I really and truly venerate; I would rather say, I
sincerely and almost enthusiastically admire the many great
and splendid virtues of our renowned puritan ancestors … ; but
still, Sir, they were only men; and, like all other men, were
fallible; liable to frailties, to prejudices, and to error. Some
errors, and some unjust prejudices, they undoubtedly had.
Would to God a veil was drawn over all their absurd prejudices
which, like spots in the sun, tend in some small degree to
bedarken and obscure the otherwise truly-resplendent glories of
their character. One of these prejudices, in my opinion, was
their inveterate opposition and abhorrent aversion to the
theatre.[12]

That Gardiner was the spokesman of a very considerable number of
citizens is demonstrated by the fact that on March 28, 1793, a bill drawn to
take the place of the older legislation against theatrical amusements and
granting specifically to the people of Boston the right to erect a theatre and
to have “stage plays performed under certain regulations and restrictions,”
was enacted by the legislature of Massachusetts.[13] It is very evident that
public sentiment had veered round to a radically new and different view
respecting the place and function of the theatre. So much so, indeed, that
some who sought to shape the thought and determination of the times
recommended the establishment of the theatre as the only possible way of
drawing the desires and interests of the people away from grosser and more
injurious excitements toward which, it was believed, an alarming growth of
frivolity and lack of moral concern was rapidly sweeping the people of New
England.[14]
This alleged declension of morals may be more vitally viewed from the
standpoint of the subject of intemperance. Convivial habits were a fixed

part of the New England character, and the sin of drunkenness was as old as
the settlement of the country. The practice of brewing was numbered among
the employments of the first settlers.[15] Rum was generally used by the
people, and the commercial life of the colonies was inextricably woven
with its importation and exportation.[16] Cider was the native New England
beverage.[17] The importation of wine was large from the first.[18] A general
tendency in the direction of increased habits of drinking was to be expected.
[19]

The period of the Revolution made its own special contribution to the
gravity of the case. The soldiers of the Continental armies received regular
rations of liquor,[20] and at the expiration of the war carried back to their
respective communities the habits of intemperance which in many cases
their army life had strengthened. Rum was more and more coming to be
regarded as one of the necessities of life;[21] and with the revival of industry
and commerce after the war the business of distilling mounted rapidly to
amazing proportions.[22]
A growing uneasiness over the social and economic consequences
involved in the spread of alcoholism is apparent. Under the date of July 29,
1789, the Reverend Jeremy Belknap, minister of the church in Long Lane,
Boston, is found writing thus to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Philadelphia’s
celebrated physician and early apostle of temperance reform:

With respect to spirituous liquors I believe some good has been
done, but much more remains to be done. The distilleries here
are so ready a source of gain, that, till the auri sacra fames
shall cease to be a ruling passion, I fear there will no end be put
to them. The demand from abroad I am told increases,
particularly from the north of Europe, & while the stills are
kept going there will be a large home consumption. In an

excursion of about 80 miles into the country a few weeks since,
I met many loads of pot & pearl ashes coming down, & on my
return the teams which I met were loaded with dry fish,
hogsheads of salt, & barrels of rum. The thirst for spirits in the
back country is so ardent, that in the fall & winter they will sell
their wheat for this sort of pay, & then in the spring and
summer following go 40 or 50 miles after bread. However, we
do what we can by way of precept & example, & we do not
intend to be discouraged.[23]

The correspondence which the Reverend Bulkley Olcott, minister of the
church in Charlestown, New Hampshire, had with Belknap is of like
import.[24] He had tried to obtain accurate statistical information from the
Excise Master as to the quantity of spirituous liquors consumed in his
county, and had not succeeded. However, it is a matter of his personal
knowledge that many good estates have been squandered through drinking,
and much time, labor, and health, and many lives destroyed in the same
way. He recognizes that many concurring circumstances come to the aid of
spirituous liquors in working fatal results; still the general abuse of drink is
declared to be one of the heaviest and most threatening evils under which
the country groans.
The taverns of the day on all public occasions,[25] and frequently in the
ordinary course of their business, were filled with gambling, carousing,
drinking crowds. The extent to which the great occasions of state were
seized upon as opportunities for open and shameless drinking had become a
scandal. The custom of granting a certain allowance of rum per day to
laborers was honored in at least some sections of the country.[26] Accidental
deaths due to drunkenness, and cases of suicide and insanity traceable to the
same cause, were frequently reported.[27] All classes of society, young and

old, rich and poor, men and women, fell victims to the great scourge. The
colleges were not immune. At Yale, wine and liquors were kept in the
rooms of many of the students and intemperance was one of the commonest
of student faults.[28] Clergymen, though generally restraining themselves
from gross indulgence, were accustomed to feel that the spirit of
conviviality and the discussion of the affairs of church and state went hand
in hand;[29] and now and then the bounds of propriety were overstepped.
Other unfavorable aspects of the situation may be found in the habits of
card-playing and gambling which everywhere prevailed, and in the frequent
allusions to instances of social vice and illegitimacy with which the pages
of the diary of such a careful observer as the Reverend William Bentley
were laden.[30]
The opinion that the social life of the period was desperately unsound
was accepted without question by many a so-called interpreter of the times.
The observations which President Timothy Dwight, of Yale, made in his
Century Sermon[31] expressed the views of many minds. Dating “the first
considerable change in the religious character of the people of this country”
with the beginning of the French and Indian War,[32] he continued:

The officers and soldiers of the British armies, then employed
in this country, although probably as little corrupted as those of
most armies, were yet loose patterns of opinion and conduct,
and were unhappily copied by considerable numbers of our
own countrymen, united with them in military life. These, on
their return, spread the infection through those around them.
Looser habits of thinking began then to be adopted, and were
followed, as they always are, by looser conduct. The American
war increased these evils. Peace had not, at the commencement
of this war, restored the purity of life which existed before the

preceding war. To the depravation still remaining was added a
long train of immoral doctrines and practices, which spread
into every corner of the country. The profanation of the
Sabbath, before unusual, profaneness of language,
drunkenness, gambling, and lewdness were exceedingly
increased; and, what is less commonly remarked, but is perhaps
not less mischievous than any of them, a light, vain method of
thinking concerning sacred things and a cold, contemptuous
indifference toward every moral and religious subject.[33]

But this sweeping judgment of Yale’s president, together with the
specific explanation of the situation which he offered, are to be checked up
by other and less pessimistic considerations. That there was much
pertaining to the customs and manners of the times to be deplored, is not to
be denied. On the other hand, that society in New England, as the
eighteenth century drew toward its close, was actually lapsing from
soundness and virtue to the extent that its fundamental views and habits
were being altered, is far from clear. Observers who spoke to the contrary
listened chiefly to the murmurs of the shallows and were unresponsive to
the deeps.
The fact is, new ideals and new forces were working upward in the
common life of the age. The new sense of freedom which the War of
Independence ushered in, the steadily growing prosperity of the people, the
development of social intimacies as the population of the country increased,
the intrusion and growing influence of foreign ideas and customs, the
steadily diminishing domination of the clergy—these all tended to
inaugurate a new order which clashed more or less violently with the old.
The memories of the old Puritan régime were still sufficiently vivid to make
every lapse from liberty into license appear ominous in the extreme.

A general relaxing of social customs expressed itself in manifold ways
over all those areas where actual stagnation had not come to pass; but this
loosening was by no means characterized by deep-seated coarseness or
general immorality.[34] The people had begun to claim for themselves some
relaxation, and hence to amuse and satisfy themselves in the light of their
enlarged conceptions of the freedom and privileges of life. On the whole,
their enjoyments and amusements were such as characterize a state of
healthy-mindedness at a time of marked transition.
In the main, the condition of the people was deplorable for what they
lacked in the way of incitements to pleasurable and helpful social and
cultural employments rather than because of what they possessed.[35] When
it is recalled how considerable was the dearth of material for mental
occupation; how undeveloped, for example, were music and painting;[36]
how the newspapers and magazines of the day supplied little or nothing of a
constructive or inspiring character; how science was almost totally
undeveloped,[37] libraries few in number and destitute of stimulating
material, the colleges for the most part mooning the years away over insipid
and useless abstractions and dogmatic formulations, the wonder is that the
rebound against Puritanism, in this period of intense political excitement
and the growing secularization of thought, was not tenfold more violent and
subversive than it was.[38]
The impression communicated by this view is heightened when it is
recalled that the struggle for political independence not only had affected
profoundly the status of the people of New England with respect to both
their internal and their external relations; it had also made substantial and
significant modifications in the very constitution of society itself. When the
reorganization of affairs after the Revolutionary struggle was over, it
became increasingly apparent that the control of the forces and institutions
of society in New England was in the hands of new leaders and arbiters.

The aristocracy of unquestioned conservatism which had all society under
its thumb before the Revolution, had been swept away generally in the
flood of that epochal event. Up from the small towns and villages of the
country to the great centers, to Boston particularly, came a small army,
made up largely of squires and gentry,[39] to establish a new but less secure
sovereignty, to assume control of the social and political forces of the day,
and, more or less unaware of the precise significance of the turn of events,
to measure its strength against those new forces of democracy which in
New England, as no place else in the nation, were to find themselves
compelled to fight a long and stubborn battle to secure their emancipation.
Assuming without question the direction of affairs, this new aristocracy,
after the fashion of the old leaders who were gone, addressed itself to the
task of social, political, and religious control.[40] Manifestly the situation
was big with possibilities with respect to the effect to be produced upon the
thought and habits of the people. There they dwelt in their spacious houses,
[41]
these modern aristocrats and autocrats of fashion and custom, by no
means rolling in luxury and idleness, yet claiming and enjoying a degree of
relaxation and social pleasure vastly more lavish than that accorded to their
plebeian neighbors, occupying themselves with their parties, their weddings
and dances,[42] their refinements of dress[43] and behavior, but with little or
no disposition to abandon themselves to scandalous conduct.
The constant challenge of the political necessities of the times, it may be
urged, was altogether too compelling to admit of any such looseness. Still,
one cannot scan the newspapers of the period, or read the story of the social
commerce of the times as it pieces itself together out of the private records
and correspondence of the day, or listen even to the pulpit’s copious flood
of denunciations,[44] without a feeling of mingled admiration and
astonishment that in an age everywhere characterized by upheaval and
ferment there was really as little of shameless and wanton conduct in New

England as the records of the period reveal. It cannot but be viewed as a
notable tribute to the essential soundness and nobility of that type of moral
and religious culture which Puritanism had supplied from the first that the
New England character should be able to pass through a period of profound
social readjustment, of the discarding of old value judgments and the
adoption of new, such as came near the close of the eighteenth century, and
this without serious loss of moral power and prestige. Manifestly, whatever
hollowness and insincerity Puritanism may have developed in other lands
and times, it did not so cramp and fetter the human spirit in New England as
to render it incapable of self-guidance when the old restraints and
limitations were no more.[45]
Now that its controlling spirit of gravity and provincialism was being
replaced by a general temper of comparative light-heartedness and open-
mindedness, of unaffected enjoyment of the good things of life, of the
acceptance of standards far more natural than those of the earlier day, the
transition was accomplished with a relative absence of accompanying
instances of moral lapse and disaster nothing less than remarkable. A
considerable amount of the boisterousness and heat of the day over which
clerical Jeremiahs and others of like conservative leanings ceased not to
pour out their complaints,[46] is explicable on the ground of the growing
habit of the mass of the people to exercise the rights of citizenship through
direct participation in the affairs of the day. For far more significant than
any evidence of moral blindness and perversity on the part of the people in
general is the fact that a great, crowding, hungry democracy was knocking
at the gates of the old aristocratic régime and insistently urging the
consideration of its rights.

2. OMINOUS DISCONTENT WITH THE STANDING ORDER

The general impression of a revolt against morality and religion in New
England near the close of the eighteenth century was deepened by the
bitterness of spirit which marked the last stages of the long struggle waged
by dissenters to cut the bond between church and state.[47] The
Congregational Church was one of the fundamental institutions of New
England, and from the first the sword of the magistrate had been invoked to
enforce conformity to its worship and polity. Strange enough seem the
terms “Establishment” and “Standing Order”[48] in the history of a people
whose forefathers came to America in quest of religious freedom. The
freedom sought, however, was to be construed as loyalty to a new order
rather than as the embodiment of tolerance. Thus it happened that for two
whole centuries the battle on behalf of the rights of dissent had to be waged
in New England.[49] To have this struggle construed by the aggrieved
representatives of the Establishment as the crowning expression of what
they had come to regard as the deep-seated and widespread irreligion of the
age, was not the least of the bitter taunts which dissenters had to bear.

(a) Massachusetts

In Massachusetts the eighteenth century dawned with some faint
promise of a kindlier day. The Charter of 1691 granted full liberty of
conscience to all Christians except Roman Catholics.[50] The practical
effects of this apparently sweeping reform were largely nullified, however,
when in the following year the General Court made it obligatory for each
town to have a minister for whose support all its inhabitants should be
taxed.[51] With the removal of all bonds upon conscience and of all religious
restrictions upon the right of suffrage on the one hand, but with the
principle of enforced support of the institutions of religion on the other, the
hallowed union of church and state in Massachusetts obviously stood in no
immediate danger. The slight modifications speedily made in the law of

1692 did not touch the principle of taxation in the interests of religious
worship.[52]
A measure of relief came to the Episcopalians in 1727,[53] and to the
Quakers and Baptists in 1728,[54] in the form of exemption laws. In the case
of the Baptists the exemption granted was not absolute, but only for a
limited period of years. With the expiration of this period the struggle for
relief of necessity had to be renewed.[55] The rights of dissent had begun to
receive some recognition, but the limitations embodied in the foregoing
legislation bore convincing testimony of a grudging temper of mind which
would yield no ground without strong pressure.
The spirit of excitement and controversy which characterized the revival
of religion of the third and fourth decades of the eighteenth century (i. e.,
the Great Awakening) led to new complications and difficulties. Stirred by
the revival, itinerant preachers, some of them of little learning and of less
tact, invaded parishes of their clerical brethren without their consent, and
presumed to censure the ministers and congregations that had not yielded to
the emotional impulses of the revival.[56] A clash of parties followed,
producing new antipathies and cleavages. Many who were in sympathy
with the revival withdrew from orthodox congregations to organize new
churches, nominally Baptist, with a view to obtaining exemption from the
obligation to support the state church. To meet this evasion in 1752 the
General Court of Massachusetts passed an act which provided

That no person for the future shall be so esteemed an
A(n)nabaptist as to have his poll or polls and estate exempted
from paying a proportionable part of the taxes that shall be
raised in the town or place where he or they belong, but such
whose names shall be contained in the lists taken by the
assessors, as in said act provided, or such as shall produce a

certificate, under the hands of the minister and of two principal
members of such church, setting forth that they conscientiously
believe such person or persons to be of their perswasion, and
that he or they usually and frequently attend the publick
worship in such church on Lord’s days.[57]

A further provision of the act denied to Baptist ministers and their
parishioners the right of furnishing the required certificates unless three
other Baptist churches previously should have certified that the persons
granting the certificates were regarded as members of that body.[58] To
make the situation more galling, if that were possible, certificates so
obtained had to be lodged annually with the town clerk before the time to
pay the rates arrived.
From every point of view this legislation was objectionable to the
Baptists. Their protest was instant and vigorous.[59] It was decided to send
one of their number as agent to England, to carry their case before the
government of the mother country.[60] A sharp remonstrance, so plain in its
language that its signers came very near being taken into custody, was
drawn up and presented to the General Court at Boston.[61] But great as was
the sense of injustice under which the Baptists smarted, the operations of
the act appear to have been most severe in the case of those who had drawn
off from the orthodox churches on account of the disturbances created by
the Great Awakening. The position of these Separatists[62] was peculiarly
vulnerable. Baptist leaders found themselves embarrassed when called upon
to certify to the Baptist affiliations of the Separatists; such a distasteful
judgment of the motives and scruples of others was to be avoided wherever
possible.[63] On the other hand, if the Separatists sought to set up churches
and establish ministers of their own, they were confronted by the fact that a
second Congregational church could not be formed in a parish without

legislative permission, and the orthodox party usually showed itself capable
of forestalling all such sanction on the part of the state. It was left,
therefore, to the Separatists either for conscience’ sake to bear the double
burden of taxation,[64] or to seek a permanent religious home in one of the
recognized dissenting bodies.[65]
Five years later, when the exemption law of 1752 expired and with it the
exemption laws that previously had been passed for the relief of the
Quakers, a new law was enacted governing both sects.[66] Henceforth a
Baptist who desired exemption must have his name upon a list to be
presented annually to the assessor and signed by the minister and three
principal members of the Baptist congregation to which the applicant
belonged, with the accompanying certification that the applicant was
recognized as a conscientious and faithful Baptist. Quakers were placed
under the same regulations. For thirteen years this law was in operation,
with manifold instances of distress resulting, particularly in the case of
Baptists.[67] Through difficulty in obtaining the certificates, goods were
seized, expensive and otherwise irritating court trials were held, and not a
few victims, either because of poverty or on account of conscientious
scruples, found their way to prison. In some instances, despite the fact that
the certificates were duly obtained and presented, they were waved aside
and the payment of the tax required or the process of distraint invoked.[68] It
is little wonder that the feeling in the minds and hearts of New England
Baptists that there was a spirit of iniquity back of the oppressive measures
of the Standing Order, came to have all the significance of a settled
conviction.[69]
Further modifications in the exemption laws, made in 1770, were so
slight, leaving as they did the certificate principle practically untouched,[70]
that Baptist opposition was aroused even more deeply and the
determination struck deeper root to push the battle for religious freedom to

a decision. The times also were propitious. The near approach of the
Revolutionary struggle focused attention upon the subject of tyranny and
caused acts of oppression, whether civil or ecclesiastical in character, to
stand out in a new relief before the eye of the public. That dissenters were
quick to see the bearing of political events will appear from the following
pithy comments in the address which the Committee of Grievances[71] drew
up late in 1774 and presented to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts:

It seems that the two main rights which all America are
contending for at this time, are,—Not to be taxed where they
are not represented, and—To have their causes tried by
unbiased judges. And the Baptist churches in this province as
heartily unite with their countrymen in this cause, as any
denomination in the land; and are as ready to exert all their
abilities to defend it. Yet only because they have thought it to
be their duty to claim an equal title to these rights with their
neighbors, they have repeatedly been accused of evil attempts
against the general welfare of the colony; therefore, we have
thought it expedient to lay a brief statement of the case before
this assembly…. Great complaints have been made about a tax
which the British parliament laid upon paper; but you require a
paper tax of us annually. That which has made the greatest
noise, is the tax of three pence a pound upon tea; but your law
of last June laid a tax of the same sum every year upon the
Baptists in each parish, as they would expect to defend
themselves against a greater one…. All America is alarmed at
the tea tax; though, if they please, they can avoid it by not
buying tea; but we have no such liberty. We must either pay the
little tax, or else your people appear even in this time of

extremity determined to lay the great one upon us. But these
lines are to let you know, that we are determined not to pay
either of them; not only upon your principle of not being taxed
where we are not represented, but also because we dare not
render homage to any earthly power, which I and many of my
brethren are fully convinced belongs only to God. We can not
give the certificates you require, without implicitly allowing to
men that authority which we believe in our conscience belongs
only to God. Here, therefore, we claim charter rights, liberty of
conscience.[72]

As the event proved, the Revolutionary period brought little legislative
relief to dissenters in Massachusetts. Wherever the distractions of the war
did not interrupt the ordinary course of ecclesiastical affairs, the state
church continued to assert its time-honored prerogatives. The new
constitution of the commonwealth which was adopted in 1780 gave
conclusive proof that the Standing Order still had the situation well in hand.
That instrument contained a bill of rights which reaffirmed the authority of
the legislature to authorize and require the various towns and parishes “to
make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the
public worship of God”;[73] affirmed also that the legislature had authority
to enjoin attendance upon public worship; that towns and parishes were to
have the right to elect their ministers and make contracts with them for their
support; and that moneys, in the form of rates paid by the people in the
support of public worship, were to be applied according to the preference of
the rate-payer, “provided, there be any [minister] on whose instructions he
attends”; otherwise the minister selected by the town or parish was to
receive the benefit of the tax.[74] There is no difficulty in discerning here the

outlines of the old ideal of a state church. The day of deliverance for dissent
was not yet.[75]
What did take place during the Revolutionary period to promote the
cause of religious freedom and to hasten the day of its triumph was the
publication of various pamphlets and treatises devoted to the cause of
toleration or championing the closely allied cause of democracy in church
and state.[76] Several of these[77] were from the pen of the indomitable Isaac
Backus, whose unwearied advocacy of the rights of the individual
conscience was exceeded by none. The likeness of the struggle which
dissenters were making for freedom of conscience to that which the
colonists were making for civil liberty was a favorite notion of this doughty
penman; and such an argument presented when the imaginations of his
countrymen were stirred by the political situation, could not fail of its
appeal. Three years before the war broke out, in his Appeal to the Public for
Religious Liberty, Backus had drawn for the benefit of the public a sharp
distinction between the spheres of ecclesiastical and civil governments. The
former was armed only with light and truth, and was commissioned to “pull
down the strongholds of iniquity,” to gather into Christ’s church those who
were willing to be governed by His teachings, and to exclude those who
would not be so governed; while the latter “is armed with the sword to
guard the peace and to punish those who violate the same.”[78] In his
Government and Liberty Described, and Ecclesiastical Tyranny Exposed,
published in 1778, he attacked the notion of men “assuming a power to
govern religion, instead of being governed by it,” and asserted that the
essence of true religion is a voluntary obedience to God.[79] Here was
strong meat for a people for whom the word freedom was rapidly coming to
have an enlarged signification.
The most convincing exposition of the democratic tendencies of the age
came from another quarter, and in a sense belonged to the past. Spurred by

the fact that at the beginning of the century a resolute effort had been made,
both in Massachusetts and Connecticut, to obtain more compact and rigid
ecclesiastical control,[80] the Reverend John Wise, of Ipswich,
Massachusetts, in 1710 had issued a satirical tract entitled, The Churches’
Quarrel Espoused, and later, in 1717, a more serious production entitled, A
Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches. In 1772 a
new edition of these tracts, published by subscription, came from the
Boston press.[81] The enduring quality of the task Wise had performed is
shown by the fact that, while these two slight volumes had been conceived
as a protest against the encroachments of ecclesiastical tyranny in the first
two decades of the century, they now, a half-century later, served equally
well to voice the deep passions and impulses of a people who for the
moment were engrossed in the concerns of civil government.[82] Wise
rejected the ideals of monarchy and aristocracy for the church, and took his
stand upon the proposition that democracy alone stands the test of reason
and revelation.[83] Of all systems, democracy alone cherishes the precious
interests of man’s original liberty and equality. It alone serves effectually to
restrain the disposition to prey and embezzle, and to keep the administration
of government firmly fixed upon the main point, “the peculiar good and
benefit of the whole.” “It is as plain as daylight, there are no species of
government like a democracy to attain this end.”[84]
Such literary assaults upon the usurpations of government, upon the
violation of individual rights, and upon obstructions erected in the path of
democracy, were frontal. As has been said, they were also happily timed.
The oppressed would have to content themselves a little longer with a type
of toleration which seemed but the shadow of genuine freedom; but the
broad dissemination of such principles as those proclaimed by Backus and
Wise had had the effect of altering appreciably the spirit of the times.

The close of the struggle for political freedom gave early proof that the
cause of religious toleration had passed into a new stage. Dissent had grown
in numbers and influence.[85] Distant voices, too, were being heard.
Virginia’s noble example in adopting the Act Establishing Religious
Freedom had given a practical demonstration of the complete severance of
church and state. The impression created by this determination of the issue
of religious freedom on the broadest possible basis had been profound
throughout the country. When the Constitution of the United States was
before the people of Massachusetts for ratification, in the fall and winter of
1787–88, they found in it a single provision concerning religion. Article VI
provided: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any
office or public trust in the United States.” So far had the eyes of dissenters
in Massachusetts been opened to dangers lurking in legislative measures
that a large proportion of the Baptist delegates in the state constitutional
convention voted against the adoption of the instrument.[86] Besides, their
hearts were set on some broad and yet specific guarantee of religious
freedom under which their liberties would be safe. The First Amendment to
the Constitution, which Congress proposed in 1789, seemed to fulfil their
desire. It provided that “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” With the
adoption of this law by the majority of the states, the principle of full liberty
of mind, conscience, and worship, had been written finally into the law of
the land.
Yet this pronouncement of the national government could not bring to a
full end the long struggle which had been waged. Only the sphere of the
federal government was involved, and individual states were still free to
deal with the institutions of religion and the rights of individuals as they
might feel disposed, as long as the national welfare was not involved.[87]
What actually happened in Massachusetts is well expressed by Isaac

Backus: “The amendment about liberty of conscience is kept out of
sight.”[88] The goods of Baptists continued to be levied upon to meet the
ministerial tax.[89] Dissensions continued to arise in parishes over the
settlement and support of ministers, dissenting minorities usually contesting
the right of the majority to saddle upon them clergymen for whose
ministrations they had no desire.[90] The annoyances and disabilities that
dissenters and disaffected members of the Establishment suffered were
clearly not so numerous nor so severe as they had been in the past;[91] none
the less they were able to keep alive the impression that nothing but a spirit
of bigotry and obdurate tyranny could explain the prolonged attitude and
policy of the Standing Order.[92]

(b) Connecticut

Before directing attention to the effect which this weakening of the
forces of ecclesiastical domination had upon the minds of the leaders of the
Establishment, it will be necessary to review briefly the course which
affairs took in Connecticut.[93]
Despite the fact that the founding of Connecticut had directly resulted
from the ecclesiasticism of Massachusetts, the forces of ecclesiastical
tyranny proved to be more strongly entrenched in Connecticut than in the
parent state.[94] This was due in part to the homogeneity of the population,
[95] but more largely to the degree of oversight of the religious life of the

people, unusual even for Puritan New England, which the General Court of
Connecticut exercised from the first.[96] In this connection it is to be
observed that the impulses that lay back of the oppression of dissenters in
Connecticut were not the same as those that shaped the situation in
Massachusetts. The founders of Connecticut were out of sympathy with the
theocratic ideal that prevailed in the mother colony; they frowned upon the

harsh measures of repression which the authorities of Massachusetts
adopted.[97] They held before them the ideal of a state wherein the
maintenance of religion and the exercise of individual freedom should not
be incompatible.
Yet as the event proved, the hand of religious tyranny fell heavily upon
their posterity.[98] This happened, not because they were disposed to
exercise harsher repressive measures than their fathers in curbing dissent,
but because, in their extraordinary devotion to the churches of their own
order, in their extreme care and watchfulness to strengthen them and to
safeguard the whole range of their interests, they came into open conflict
with the interests of dissenting bodies.[99] As early as 1669 the
Congregational church was formally adopted as the state church.[100] From
that day forward an intimate and intense paternalism characterized the
attitude of the civil government toward the Establishment. Its most serious
and permanent, as well as its lighter and occasional concerns, all were
provided for with equal constancy. Contingencies of every description were
either prudently anticipated or, arising suddenly, received the immediate
and painstaking attention of the magistrates.[101]
The following list, though far from complete, will serve to illustrate this
point. Without the consent of the General Court, churches could not be
organized,[102] nor bonds be severed between pastors and their flocks.[103]
The formation of new parishes and the fixing of their limits,[104] the calling
of new ministers,[105] the determination of the time at which arrearages in
ministers’ salaries must be paid fully,[106] the fixing of the location of new
houses of worship,[107] the disposition of cases of discipline appealed from
the decisions of local church courts,[108] the settlement of the question as to
who were to be permitted to receive the Lord’s Supper,[109] the proffer of
counsel concerning the behavior offended members were expected to
manifest toward pastors for whom they entertained no affection nor

respect[110]—these all were regarded as part of the proper business of the
General Court.
The dangers inherent in such a system are not difficult to divine. The
churches themselves upon which such paternal legislative care was imposed
generally found their affairs taken out of their hands. Civil authority
disciplined them and their members, and made independent ecclesiastical
rule little more than a fiction. Again, the committal of the political
government to a particular type of religious polity and worship aroused
antagonisms in the minds of men who hated the palest shadow of the
principle that the religion of a prince or government must be the religion of
the people. However tolerant toward non-conformity such a state may show
itself to be—and none will deny that Connecticut rose to comparatively
high levels of justice in this regard[111]—the favoritism of government puts
dissent at a disadvantage; and when narrow and intolerant men are at the
helm of state, disadvantage passes rapidly into positive deprivation and
injury. Once more, so close an alliance between politics and religion as the
Standing Order in Connecticut represented, invites similar combinations on
the part of men, some of whom have political and some religious objects to
serve, and who, therefore, in the presence of a common foe gladly make
common cause. All of which we shall see illustrated later.
Another general aspect of the situation in Connecticut concerns the
development of synodical government within the Congregational church. At
the beginning of the eighteenth century, out of a sense of the decay of
religion in New England, as evidenced by the loosening of discipline and
the weakening of ministerial influence,[112] the clergy of Massachusetts
attempted to buttress church government and ministerial authority through
the “Proposals of 1705.” These provided for the grouping of ministers in
Associations which were to function in the following ways: pastors were to
adopt their advice in all difficult cases; ministerial candidates were to be

examined and licensed by them; pastorless, or “bereaved” churches were to
be urged to apply to them for candidates; they were also to exercise a
general oversight of religion, and to inquire into charges made against the
character, conduct, or faith of any of their members. The “Proposals” also
made provision for Standing Councils to be made up of delegates from
these Ministerial Associations and lay members of the churches. These
Standing Councils were “to consult, advise, and determine all affairs that
shall be proper matter for the consideration of an ecclesiastical council
within their respective limits.” Their judgments were to be accepted as final
and obedience was to be enforced on penalty of forfeiting church-
fellowship.[113] This bold step in the direction of bringing the churches of
Massachusetts under more rigorous ecclesiastical control was not destined
to succeed. Liberalizing elements stirred up powerful opposition, the
legislature failed to give to the “Proposals” its support, and the movement
fell through.[114]
A very different situation developed in Connecticut. The yearning for the
strengthening of church government in the interests of a general
improvement of religion was if anything stronger in that commonwealth;
and a propitious hour for the inauguration of such a movement came when,
in 1707, the most influential minister of the colony, Gurdon Saltonstall, of
New London, was raised to the governor’s chair. The following May the
General Court issued the call for the famous Saybrook Synod.[115] Ministers
and messengers of the churches were to assemble in their respective county
towns, “on the last Monday in June next … to consider and agree upon
those methods and rules for the management of ecclesiastical discipline
which by them shall be judged agreeable and conformable to the word of
God.”[116] By these county councils ministers and delegates were to be
chosen to meet at Saybrook, at the commencement of the “infant college”
(i. e., Yale), there “to compare the results of the ministers of the several

counties, and out of them and from them to draw a form of ecclesiastical
discipline which by two or more persons delegated by them shall be offered
to this Court … to be considered of and confirmed by them.”[117]
The directions of the General Court were complied with. The doctrinal
results of the Saybrook Synod are no part of our concern; but this is not so
with regard to its ecclesiastical formulations. The principles contained in
the “Proposals of 1705” were accepted and worked out in more complete
detail. Churches were to be grouped in Consociations, one or more in each
county as the churches might determine. Cases of discipline too difficult of
management in local congregations were to be heard and determined by
these Consociations. Refusal to answer to the summons of a Consociation,
or to submit to its decision, incurred excommunication, whether a church or
a pastor might be the guilty party. All matters relating to the installation,
ordination, and dismissal of ministers were to be submitted by the churches
to these Consociations. In like manner the ministers of the various counties
were to be grouped together in Associations to consult concerning the
affairs of the church, provide ministerial licensure, examine complaints, and
make recommendations to the legislature concerning the settlement of
pastors with “bereaved” churches.[118]
The result of the deliberations of the Saybrook Synod was laid duly
before the sessions of the General Court, in October, 1708, and formally
adopted by that body in the following terms:

This Assembly do declare their great approbation of such a
happy agreement, and do ordain that all the churches within
this government that are or shall be thus united in doctrine,
worship, and discipline, be, and for the future shall be owned
and acknowledged established by law. Provided always, that
nothing herein shall be intended and construed to hinder or

prevent any society or church that is or shall be allowed by the
laws of this government, who soberly differ or dissent from the
united churches hereby established, from exercising worship
and discipline in their own way, according to their consciences.
[119]

This reëstablishment of the Congregational church in Connecticut
determined the course of events, as far as the religious interests of the
commonwealth were concerned, for a hundred years to come. By this it is
not meant that the ecclesiastical system which was thus worked out and
imposed upon the churches of the colony continued to operate in full force
for that period; the Saybrook Platform was abrogated in 1784. But the
Congregational church in Connecticut, by the act of 1708, “attained the
height of its security and power,”[120] and, as one of the chief consequences
of the act, ministerial domination was accorded a recognition and support,
the tradition of which outlived by at least a quarter of a century the system
by which it had been so firmly established.
Thus to the paternalism of the state the authority and sense of
importance of the clergy had been added. These principles established, it
was to be expected that the religious history of Connecticut during the
eighteenth century would reveal the following characteristics and
tendencies: a disposition on the part of the state to treat the clergy of the
Establishment as the pillars of conservative thought and custom; and a
disposition on the part of the clergy to exercise a controlling hand over all
the religious activities of the people, as well as to react violently against all
radical impulses and movements which appeared to endanger centralization
of government, whether ecclesiastical or political. Certainly these were the
tendencies, expressed in the attitude of mind and the activities of the

Standing Order, with which the forces of non-conformity and democracy
had to contend throughout the whole of the century.
We may now turn to take a brief survey of the more important events in
the course of this conflict. The concluding statement of the act whereby the
Connecticut General Court adopted the recommendations of the Saybrook
Synod,[121] gave evidence of a tender regard for the consciences and rights
of dissenters which subsequent occurrences far from justified. The fact is,
the act of reëstablishment did not stand alone. Earlier in the same year
(1708) the General Court had written into the law of the colony another
statute whose provisions were in no way affected by the later act. For the
worthy object of granting liberty of worship to sober dissenters, a liberty
which they were to be permitted to enjoy “without let, or hindrance or
molestation,” it was provided that dissenting congregations were to qualify
(i. e., obtain license) under the law.[122] It was likewise provided that this
permission to qualify should in no way operate to the prejudice of the rights
and privileges of the churches of the Establishment, or “to the excusing any
person from paying any such minister or town dues, as are now, or shall
hereafter be due from them.”[123] This double burden of obtaining license
and supporting the state church was not to be borne easily. An agitation to
obtain relief promptly began.[124]
After two decades of effort the Episcopalians were the first to meet with
any measure of success. Henceforth their rate money was to be spent in the
support of their own ministers and they were no longer to be required to
help build meeting-houses for the state church.[125] Two years later, relief
was granted to Baptists and Quakers. The exemption laws passed in their
behalf, however, made necessary the presentation of certificates vouching
for the claims of the holders that they were conscientious supporters of the
principles and faithful attendants upon the worship of one or the other of
these bodies.[126]

The introduction of the custom of requiring certificates encountered the
same sense of injustice and bitter resentment that dissenters in
Massachusetts manifested. Besides, the exemption laws just referred to
failed to operate in a uniform and equitable manner. Episcopalians and
Baptists, particularly, found frequent occasion to complain of the
miscarriage of this legislation and to groan under the double burden of
taxation from which they had obtained no actual relief.[127]
But as in Massachusetts, so in Connecticut, the greatest hardships befell
the Separatists who went out from the fold of the orthodox church. Unable
to achieve within the Establishment that reformation of doctrine, polity, and
spiritual life which they deemed requisite, they associated themselves
together in churches committed to their own convictions. Opposition
confronted them at every turn. Obstructions were thrown in the way of their
efforts to obtain legal permission to constitute their churches; the civil
power persisted in treating them as law-breakers and incorrigibles; their
ministers were drastically dealt with by Consociations which regarded them
as wicked men filled with the spirit of insubordination.[128] A group of laws
as severe and intolerant as any the statute books of Connecticut ever
contained were enacted in 1742–43 to curb and if possible to eradicate the
Separatist defection.[129] Ordained ministers were forbidden to preach
outside the bounds of their parishes unless expressly invited so to do.[130]
Ministerial Associations were restrained from licensing candidates to
preach outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Association granting
licensure.[131] Ministers of the Establishment were empowered to lodge
certificates with society clerks, attesting that men had entered their parishes
and preached therein without first having received permission. No provision
for ascertaining the facts in such cases was contemplated by the law.
Justices of the peace were forbidden to sign a warrant authorizing the
collection of a minister’s rates until they were assured that no such

certificate had been lodged against the clergyman involved.[132] Heavy
bonds were to be imposed upon ministers from outside the colony who
might venture to preach within its limits without invitation, with the added
provision that such men were to be treated as vagrants and bundled out of
the colony as speedily as possible.[133] Ministers who had not been
graduated from Yale or Harvard, or some other Protestant college or
university, were debarred from all benefits of ministerial support as
provided by law.[134]
The climax of the high-handed measures of the supporters of the
Establishment was doubtless reached in this legislation. A retrograde
movement in the cause of religious toleration set in,[135] the direct effects of
which were not quickly overcome. Henceforth dissenters were to be
annoyed and hampered as they had not been before. The necessity of
appearing in person before the General Court when seeking exemption from
ecclesiastical burdens,[136] the embarrassments and hardships that
dissenting ministers suffered in their efforts to supply religious counsel to
their people,[137] the growing aversion of the General Court to granting
permission to unorthodox and dissenting groups to organize,[138] all serve to
indicate the strength of the reaction that had set in.
The impressions produced by this excess were even more significant
than the direct results, deplorable as the latter were.[139] In the middle of the
eighteenth century the Standing Order in Connecticut had gained for
themselves an unenviable record for bigotry and persecution from which
the events of the latter half of the century by no means cleared them.
For a quarter of a century following the enactment of the legislative
measures just considered, no advance step, general in its nature, was taken.
Here and there a little larger measure of freedom was doled out to this or
that aggrieved dissenting minister or church; but the situation as a whole
was not materially changed. “Restriction was the rule, freedom the

exception, and government the absolute and irresponsible dispenser of
both.”[140] Finally, in 1778 some evidence that a change in sentiment was
under way appeared in the fact that Separatists were exempted from taxes to
support the state church. Six years later, in 1784, more satisfactory proof
was forthcoming. That year, by the passing of an act entitled, “An Act for
Securing the Rights of Conscience in Matters of Religion, to Christians of
Every Denomination in this State,”[141] the General Court tacitly abrogated
the Saybrook Platform and set the institutions of religion in Connecticut
upon a new base. The act declared

That no Persons in this State, professing the Christian Religion,
who soberly and conscientiously dissent from the Worship and
Ministry by Law established in the Society wherein they dwell,
and attend public Worship by themselves shall incur any
Penalty for not attending the Worship and Ministry so
established, on the Lord’s Day, or on account of their meeting
together by themselves on said Day, for public Worship in a
Way agreeable to their consciences.

It was further declared that Christians of every Protestant denomination,
“whether Episcopal Church, of those Congregationalists called Separates,
or of the people called Baptists, or Quakers, or any other Denomination
who shall have formed themselves in distinct Churches or Congregations,”
and who helped to maintain their worship, were to be exempted from the
support of any other church than their own. Further, all such dissenting
congregations were to enjoy the same power and privileges in the support
of their ministry, and in the building and repairing of their houses of
worship, as those churches which were established by law. Such persons as

did not belong to any of these dissenting bodies were to be taxed for the
support of the state church.[142]
The spirit of toleration had traveled far; but that the struggle for
complete religious freedom was yet by no means won will immediately
appear from the following restrictions: (1) Protestants only were
contemplated as beneficiaries under the act; (2) the principle of taxation for
the support of the state church was retained; (3) the obligation to support
some form of Christian worship was required; (4) the benefits of that
provision of the act which guaranteed to dissenters exemption from
ecclesiastical taxation were to be available only on the condition that a
certificate, signed by an officer of a dissenting congregation, should be
deposited with the clerk of the state church near which the dissenter lived.
A formidable number of the objectionable features of the older
legislation were thus retained. The state church was still in existence.
Taxation for the support of religion was still the law of the commonwealth.
Dissenters were still compelled to put themselves to the trouble and
humiliation of obtaining the detested certificates. Besides, the ghost of
religious persecution was not yet laid. Goods and chattels of the religiously
indifferent, or of conscientious dissenters, continued to be seized and sold
by officers of the law, to discharge unsatisfied levies made for the support
of the Establishment.[143]
The principle of requiring certificates proved to be the chief bone of
contention between the Standing Order and dissenters as the century drew
to its close. The rapid growth of dissenting bodies in the period following
the Revolution, aided as they were by a zeal for proselyting on the part of
their leaders and by a set of the public mind decidedly favorable to their
propaganda because of their democratic leanings, was met by
corresponding anxiety and sternness on the part of the supporters of the
Establishment. Confusing, as they habitually did, the interests of the state

church with the cause of religion, the representatives of the Standing Order
led themselves to believe that a contagion of irreligion was spreading
alarmingly, and therefore restrictive religious legislation was in order.[144]
In line with this conviction, in May, 1791, the legislature enacted a law
requiring dissenters to have their certificates signed by at least one, and
preferably two, civil officers, instead of as provided in the act of 1784. This
law proved peculiarly distasteful to dissenters.[145] A powerful opposition
developed; and the authorities, made aware of the fact that they had over-
reached themselves, six months later withdrew the obnoxious act,
substituting for it another which permitted each dissenter to write and sign
his own certificate, but requiring him, as before, to file it with the clerk of
the state church near which he lived.[146] The momentary wrath of
dissenters was thus mollified; however, the retention of the certificate
principle continued to gall and to excite them. A disagreeable discussion
dragged itself along, marked by acrimony, pettiness, and personal attacks on
both sides; by a consolidation of the forces and interests of dissenters and
Republicans on the one hand, and a growing sense of injured innocence and
of concern for the fate of religion on the part of the Standing Order.[147]

(c) Summary

By way of summary, a few general comments, based upon the situation
in Massachusetts and Connecticut jointly considered, are now in order.
Looking back upon the activities of the Standing Order after the lapse of
something more than a century, we see that they were zealously contending
for an ideal which had won their whole allegiance—a body politic
safeguarded and made secure by a state church. To prevent deterioration of
the state and its people the bulwark of a religion established by law seemed
imperative.[148] The interests involved were far too serious to put them at
the mercy of a voluntary support of the institutions of religion.[149]

Moreover, an established church seemed to this group of men no necessary
enemy of non-conformity. The degree of toleration possible under an
establishment of religion was deemed sufficient actually to favor the growth
of sects, and at the same time to make the sway of orthodoxy secure.[150]
How, then, were men of such opinions to interpret the ever-growing
agitation for a larger measure of toleration, accompanied as it was by an
ever-growing resentment toward the political influence and activities of the
Standing Order, as anything other than a covert attack upon religion itself?
These bitter complainings over the religious measures adopted by
government, these flauntings of authority through stubborn refusal or
passive resistance to the payment of ecclesiastical rates, these unrelenting
efforts to dispossess the clergy of the Establishment of their traditional
honors and emoluments—what were they all but so many proofs of the
impiety of the age and an abominable conspiracy to drive pure religion
from the land? As the representatives of the Standing Order saw the
situation, the church was obviously in grave danger and to steady the
tottering ark of the Lord was the most imperative duty of the hour.
On the other hand, in the light of the growing liberality of the times, it
was impossible for the forces of dissent to be patient with such men. They
were men of the past, callously unresponsive to the spirit of the new age.
They were an embittered minority, exerting themselves to keep a struggling
and confident majority a little longer under their thumb. They were
mischievous meddlers in the affairs of others, using religion as a cloak to
hide their social and political self-seeking. As for the cry, “The church is in
danger!”, that was to be regarded as the most signal proof of the hypocrisy
of those who raised it.[151]

3. ALARMS DUE TO THE SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS RADICALISM AND SCEPTICISM

During the eighteenth century the progress of religious thought in New
England in the direction of liberal positions was marked. Near the
beginning of the century, in his Ratio Disciplinae, Cotton Mather was able
to speak confidently of the solid and compact character of religious opinion
in his generation, and felt free to dispose of the subject with a few general
statements regarding the universal adherence of the churches of New
England to the orthodox standards of the mother country. He made the
added comment: “I can not learn, That among all the Pastors of Two
Hundred Churches, there is one Arminian: much less Arian, or a
Gentilist.”[152] At the end of the century, it is very certain that no such all-
inclusive generalization, by the widest stretch of the imagination, would
have been possible. Indeed, when a noted Philadelphia minister of the day,
the Reverend Ashbel Green, visited New England in 1791, he found an
aptitude for polemical discussion on the part of the clergy which impressed
him as most extraordinary. Through his contact with the Boston Ministerial
Association he encountered “Calvinists, Universalists, Arminians, Arians,”
and at least one “Socinian,” all participating in pleasant social intercourse,
despite their radical differences of religious opinion. To the mind of the
visiting Philadelphia clergyman the situation was explicable only on the
basis of an extreme laxness in the matter of religious sentiments and
doctrines, a judgment which obviously requires some modification in view
of the predilection for doctrinal controversy which he himself remarked.
[153]

From the days of the Great Awakening, the lines of doctrinal cleavage
had grown increasingly distinct in the religious thought of New England.
Apart from those effects of the revival which already have been noted,[154]
it may be said that the one really permanent result of that notable wave of
religious enthusiasm was the polemical controversy which it precipitated.
[155] The question concerning the “means of grace,” around which the

controversy in its initial stage raged,[156] became larger and more
complicated by virtue of the massive system of theology which Jonathan
Edwards developed upon the fundamental notion of the utter worthlessness
of man, due to his depravity and consequent helplessness.
Into the metaphysical subtleties of the Edwardean system we are not
called to go; it is sufficient to observe that the reaction against such a
conception of human nature was bound to be marked in the midst of an age
generally responsive to enthusiasms born of fresh conceptions of the
essential dignity and worth of man. The virtue of humility was destined to
divest itself of much of that abject quality with which the whole Calvinistic
theology had clothed it, and to accommodate itself to candid and
unblushing convictions of human endowments, abilities, excellencies, and
prospects, because of which it would be impossible to retain the traditional
contempt for human nature.[157]
The reaction against the Edwardean theology was fruitful in the
encouragement of liberal notions along other closely related lines. The bold
necessitarianism of that system could not but produce an effect generally
favorable to the promotion of man’s confidence in himself, in the midst of
an age characterized by prodigious political initiative and love of liberty,
and by conceptions of the Deity which stressed the very vastness of those
reaches of space stretching between God and the world. The heavy
emphasis which the new theological system laid upon the notion of the
divine sovereignty, true as it was in spirit to the traditional Puritan interest
in the cause of theocracy, was doomed to find itself belated within an age
beginning to glow with humanitarian passion and with enthusiasm for the
ideal of democracy; and, positively considered, to give impulse in the
general direction just noted. The very heat and intensity of the controversy
which, from the middle of the century on, filled New England with its din
and confusion, in itself bore witness to the degree of pressure which the

more secularized notions of human worth and destiny had begun to exert.
That a system so staggering in its assumptions, so all but invulnerable in its
logical self-consistency, and withal so inexorable in its demands upon the
human spirit for the abandonment of all thought of independent ability and
worth, having been brought to close quarters with more or less vague and
undefined, but none the less vital human interests and passions, should tend
to give rise to a variety of radical opinions and judgments, was to be
expected. And thus it operated,[158] not, to be sure, without the assistance of
significant concurrent causes.
The wash of the wave of the great deistic controversy on the other side
of the Atlantic was not without its effect upon the religious thought of New
England. The direct evidence of this is, however, much more elusive than
one might at first suppose.[159] That the reading public was acquainted with
the writings of the great English deists, Herbert, Chubb, Shaftesbury,
Tindal, Wollaston, Toland, Hume, is clear from references to their works
which appear with considerable frequency in the private and public records
of the day; but invariably these references are made in a more or less casual
manner, and, for the most part, in connection with sweeping generalizations
made by the clergy respecting the prevailing scepticism of the age. Apart
from such allusions and the appearance of titles in the lists of booksellers
who were advertising their stocks in the newspapers, it would be difficult to
cite specific evidence, Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason alone excepted, to the
effect that the impact of English deism upon the thought of New England
was anything like direct.
The amount of independent literary expression which the doctrines of
deism obtained in New England was practically negligible.[160] The quality
was even less noteworthy. Ethan Allen’s Reason the Only Oracle of Man,
[161]
published in 1784, was perhaps the only production of native orig into
which anything like general attention was accorded; and the evident

inability of this work to root itself deeply in the thought of the people,
despite the prestige due to the author’s Revolutionary record, was
demonstrated the moment Paine’s more serious work began to circulate in
this country. The crudeness of Allen’s style, coupled with the ferocity of his
onslaught on the advocates and absurdly credulous devotees of
supernaturalism, as Allen regarded the orthodox party of his day, went far
toward determining the attitude of contempt and high-minded scorn with
which his work was generally treated, when leaders of conservative thought
deigned to notice it at all.[162]
But Thomas Paine’s attack upon the foundations of supernaturalism was
by no means taken lightly. From the time of its arrival in this country, the
Age of Reason produced an amount of excited comment which gave to its
appearance and circulation all the elements of a sensation.[163] The natural
interest of the public in the appearance of the production was admittedly
great; but at least a partial explanation of the attention which the book
received is to be found in the fact that its author was able to effect plans to
have the work published cheaply abroad and extensively circulated in this
country.[164] In any event, whatever may have been the precise influences
which promoted the distribution and perusal of the book, the Age of Reason
aroused an immediate public interest, chiefly antagonistic, the like of which
probably had been accorded to no other volume circulated in America
before its day. The bumptious and militant nature of its deism, as well as its
raw and unceremonious ridicule of much that passed in the thought of the
times for essential orthodoxy, drew popular attention from the worthier and
more exalted passages in the volume,[165] and irritated the opposition
beyond control. A vociferous chorus of hostile criticism arose.[166]
Clergymen poured out the vials of their wrath and execration, despite their
evident desire to appear undisturbed; newspaper editors and contributors
gave voluminous expression to their sense of chagrin and pained

disappointment that so scandalous and impious a publication should be in
circulation;[167] observers of and participants in the college life of the day
felt called upon to lament the extent to which unsettling opinions of the
nature of those expressed by Paine had laid hold of the imaginations and
altered the convictions of youthful minds.[168] The impression that Paine
had aided and abetted the cause of impiety and irreligion was general.[169]
It was not the doctrinal controversies of the period, however, nor yet the
intrusion of the principles of natural religion, by which the unsettling
tendencies of the times were believed to be promoted most directly and
powerfully. In the judgment of practically every leader of conservative
thought in New England, and of all America for that matter, that unholy
preëminence belonged to the effect produced upon the public mind in this
country by the French Revolution, and more especially the impious
principles of infidelity and atheism by which, they concluded, that colossal
overturning of institutions was stimulated and guided. No single
phenomenon of our national history stands out in sharper relief than the
impression which the great European convulsion made, first upon the
imaginations and later upon the political and religious ideals of the citizens
of this young republic in the West, who followed the earlier fortunes of the
French Revolutionary cause with breathless interest and concern. The
memory of the recent struggle of the American colonists for independence,
for the happy issue of which France had made such timely and substantial
contributions, in itself supplied a pledge of profound sympathy for that
country. That the spark of revolution had been communicated originally by
America to France was, moreover, one of the favorite conceits of the day.
Gratitude, the bonds of political friendship and alliance, the supposed
similarity of popular enthusiasms and passions—all the essential factors
requisite for the development of a spirit of tender and affectionate regard
were clearly present.

Thus it happened that from the hour when the first rumblings of the
impending European revolution were heard on this side of the Atlantic, the
citizens of these states evinced an earnest and sympathetic concern;[170] and
as the revolutionary drama unfolded through its earlier scenes the
enthusiasm and lively sympathy of the people grew apace. The atmosphere
was electric. Anticipations of citizens ran high. Liberty was again in travail.
[171] The institutions of freedom were about to descend upon another nation.

The shackles of political and ecclesiastical tyranny were being torn from the
limbs of twenty-five millions of slaves.[172] Having revolutionized France,
America’s ideals might be expected to leaven the whole of Europe.[173] The
millennium could not be far away. Admiration for the French cause and
devotion to it swept all before them. So much so that when, in the autumn
and winter of 1792–93, the thrilling news of the successes achieved by the
French armies in repelling the invaders of the new republic began to arrive
in America, a wave of irresistible and uncontrolled enthusiasm swept over
the land.[174] The “French Frenzy,” with its maudlin outbursts of professed
attachment for the great watchwords of the Revolution—Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity—with its pageants and civic feasts, its cockades and liberty caps,
its ribald singing of republican songs and dramatic intertwinings of the
standards of the two sister republics, deserves a place altogether by itself as
an extraordinary expression of the public mind.
To this wild riot of tumultuous and spectacular enthusiasm an effectual
check was soon to be given. With the execution of Louis XVI, in January,
1793, the admiration of the more thoughtful observers of the Revolution,
who had accustomed themselves to pass soberly but apologetically over the
earlier excesses of the revolutionists as unavoidable concomitants of a
struggle necessarily desperate in its character,[175] received a rude shock.
[176]
The brutal death of a monarch whose personal services on behalf of
their own cause during the days of deep necessity had been considerable,

brought home to American citizens their first clear conviction respecting the
excessively bloody and relentless spirit of the forces in control of the
Revolution. The day of disillusionment had dawned. Leaders of thought
made no effort to conceal their sense of mingled horror and regret. The
amount of popular sympathy for the cause of the Revolution was still too
great to allow anything approaching a general condemnation; but none the
less a decided chill was felt.[177]
The murder of the king soon enough appeared to Americans a mere
incident in a wild orgy of unbridled violence and blood-letting. A stream of
information concerning the swift march of events in France, mostly having
to do with enormities and excesses which gave all too patent proof of the
fury of the currents of passion upon which the participants in the
Revolution were being tossed, began to pour its waters through the channels
of public utterance and discussion in America. The atrocities of the Reign of
Terror brought fully home to the American public, to the conservative-
minded particularly, the conviction that the Revolution had become diverted
from its original principles and aims, and had descended to the plane of
brutal despotism, reprehensible both in principle and practice above
anything the eyes of men had ever beheld.[178] The leaders of the
Revolution clearly were not the high-minded patriots and emancipators
their admirers on this side of the ocean had adjudged them to be. The terms
“assassin,” “savage,” “monster,” “regicide,” began to be employed as the
only fit terms whereby to characterize the leading figures in an awful
spectacle of butchery and rapine.[179]
But not until the religious aspects of the French Revolution are
considered, is the deep revulsion of feeling which took place in New
England completely laid bare. This feature of the situation had been
regarded with deep solicitude from the beginning;[180] and as time went on
through the cloud of confusion raised by the dust and smoke of the political

developments of the Revolution, it became increasingly clear to the
conservative class in New England that an alliance between the forces of
anarchy and impiety had been effected. What else could explain the rapid
development of a fierce reforming spirit, which in turn, within the space of
not more than two or three years at the most, stood forth as a spirit of overt
persecution in the handling of all ecclesiastical affairs? The vociferous
affirmation of deistical and atheistical principles on the part of
Revolutionary leaders in the councils of clubs and in sessions of the
National Assembly, the reiteration and growing boldness of the demand for
the elimination of the ancient system of religious faith, the successive
efforts to supplant that system, first with the cult of Reason and later with
the cult of the Supreme Being,—how were these to be construed other than
as the expressions and performances of men who were bent upon the utter
abolition of the Christian faith? There was wanting in New England, of
course, intimate knowledge of the true state of French religious affairs and
of the reactionary spirit displayed by the higher clergy and their devotion to
the cause of monarchy. Little was known of the growing sense of
resentment felt by a people who had begun to contemplate frankly the
burdens which had been imposed upon them under the ancient régime, the
multiplication of religious offices and establishments, the absorption of the
land into vast ecclesiastical estates, and the indifference of the spiritual
guides of the nation to private and public distress. It was hardly to be
expected that spectators as far removed from the scene as the shores of New
England would be able to interpret correctly the essential spirit of a people
who had grown weary of the abuses of a religious system in whose
principles and purer forms they still believed, despite the momentary
violence of their leaders.[181]
By the year 1794 the belief that the revolutionists in France had added
atheism to their program of anarchy was well established in New England.

The difficulty of weighing this opinion exactly is greatly enhanced on
account of the political handling which the situation received. Over the
question of foreign alliances the Federalists and Republicans had split
violently in 1793. The war which had broken out between England and
France, regarded from any point of view, was of vast consequence in the
eyes of the citizens of this young nation, just beginning to cope with the
problems of diplomacy and international relations. The outbreak of
hostilities between the two European nations with which the United States
had had and must continue to have its most intimate and important
intercourse forced an alignment among its citizens so sharp and decisive as
to constitute the outstanding political feature of the country for years to
come.[182] For reasons which we shall not now pause to consider,
Federalists championed the cause of England in the European conflict, and
Republicans the cause of France. Seizing upon the issue of “French
infidelity,” Federalist editors were disposed to see in it the gravest peril by
which the American people were threatened. The anti-religious spirit of the
French Revolutionary leaders represented a danger-point of infection
against which every citizen must needs be warned. On the other hand,
Republican editors felt it incumbent upon them to do their utmost to
minimize the genuineness and importance of all such damaging views of
the case.[183]
But considerations of party advantage fall far short of furnishing a full
explanation of the general sense of alarm the people of New England
experienced on account of the open hostility to religion which they saw
manifest in France. Out of France came a series of reports which taken
together were calculated to raise their fears to the highest pitch. The
confiscation of the property of the church, the abolition of religious vows,
the promulgation of the “Civil Constitution of the Clergy,”[184] the
banishment of non-juror priests, the infamy of the Goddess of Reason, the

abolition of the Christian Sabbath, the secularization of festivals[185]—here
were evidences of impiety as shameless as they were shocking.[186] Such
principles and measures appeared as so many deadly thrusts at the Christian
faith. It was difficult, if not impossible, for the most sympathetic admirers
of France to find a way to explain this ominous cast of events.[187]
How thoroughly the fear of “French infidelity” had gripped the
imaginations of men in New England will appear more clearly if the
following considerations are weighed. The presumption that the intimate
relations which Americans had been having with the people of France had
produced a serious blight of morals and religion among the former, seemed
to find its justification in the currents of skepticism and irreverence which,
by common consent, had set in among the youth of the land. This phase of
the situation as reflected in conditions within the colleges was held to be
particularly deplorable. It was the settled conviction of President Dwight of
Yale that “the infidelity of Voltaire and his coadjutors” had a special
attractiveness for youth, for reasons which do not impress one as being
highly charitable, to say the least:

Youths particularly, who had been liberally educated, and who
with strong passions, and feeble principles, were votaries of
sensuality and ambition, delighted with the prospect of
unrestrained gratification, and panting to be enrolled with men
of fashion and splendour, became enamored of these new
doctrines. The tenour of opinion, and even of conversation, was
to a considerable extent changed at once. Striplings, scarcely
fledged, suddenly found that the world had been involved in a
general darkness, through the long succession of the preceding
ages; and that the light of wisdom had just begun to dawn upon
the human race. All the science, all the information, which had

been acquired before the commencement of the last thirty or
forty years, stood in their view for nothing…. Religion they
discovered on the one hand to be a vision of dotards and
nurses, and on the other a system of fraud and trick, imposed
by priestcraft for base purposes upon the ignorant multitude.
Revelation they found was without authority, or evidence; and
moral obligation a cobweb, which might indeed entangle flies,
but by which creatures of a stronger wing nobly disdained to be
confined.[188]

This somewhat theoretical view of the case was not unsupported by
tangible evidence. The students of Yale were sceptical.[189] In the religious
discussions of the lecture-rooms the cause of infidelity stood high in student
favor.[190] Of seventy-six members of the class that graduated in 1802 only
one was a professed Christian at the time of matriculation.[191] At the time
President Dwight entered upon the leadership of the college, the college
church was practically extinct.[192] Altogether the situation was highly
alarming to the friends of Christianity.[193]
The condition of affairs at Harvard showed little if any improvement.
When William Ellery Channing matriculated in that institution in 1794 he
found the thought and principles of the students on a lower level than they
ever before had reached.[194] The French Revolution, which generally
throughout the country had shown itself to be contaminating, already had
left its marks deep upon the life of the college. The old loyalties were
shaken; conversation had become bold and daring in tone; the foundations
upon which morals and religion had been built in the past were now
believed to be seriously undermined.[195]
On the part of men who held themselves responsible for the education of
youth, everywhere the feeling prevailed that a popular mood of skepticism

had developed for which the precepts and example of the French were
chiefly responsible.
With the clergy—and in their state of mind we are interested especially
—this feeling was hardly less than an obsession. The special conservators
of the moral and religious health of the people, they had long been
concerned over the possible effects of radical French political and religious
notions; and when they seemed to see the triumph of those notions in the
excesses of the French Revolution, their sense of alarm was intense. It was,
of course, the exhibition of violent hostility to organized Christianity in
France which the Revolutionists were making, over which their hands were
flung high in horror.
The clergy of New England, like the majority of their fellow-
countrymen, in the beginning had not adopted an attitude of hostility toward
the French upheaval. There was that in the earlier struggles of the French
people to tear the yoke of despotism from their necks which appealed
mightily to the sympathies of the clerical heart. It was not without some
travail of spirit that clergymen arrived at the conclusion that their sympathy
and enthusiasm for the French Revolution had been misplaced.[196] Two
factors contributed to this result. In the first place, the changed complexion
of the Revolution; in the second place, the new party alignments at home
which brought the orthodox clergy, almost to a man, into the Federalist
camp.
Which of these two factors was the more decisive in its power of control
over the clerical mind, it would be difficult to say. As a matter of fact, the
two influences were interrelated to an extraordinary degree. Political
alignments, as we have seen, were interwoven closely with the question of
foreign alliances. Conversely, the status of foreign affairs was bound to
react strongly upon the judgments of clergymen with whom patriotic
concerns were second in importance only to the interests of religion. Be that

as it may, the years 1793 and 1794 saw the Federalist clergy in New
England rapidly veering round to the fixed position of vehement
antagonism to French principles. The following is a brief account of the
course they pursued.
On the occasion of the annual fast in Massachusetts, April 11, 1793, the
Reverend David Tappan, professor of divinity in Harvard College, preached
a sermon that indicated the trend of a clerical mind.[197] In language not
unmarked by vagueness, he called upon his hearers to bear witness to the
present corrupted state of religion, due to the bold advance and rapid
diffusion of “sceptical, deistical, and other loose and pernicious
sentiments.” Waxing more confident, he continued: “May I not add that a
species of atheistical philosophy, which has of late triumphantly reared its
head in Europe, and which affects to be the offspring and the nurse of sound
reason, science, and liberty, seems in danger of infecting some of the more
sprightly and free-thinking geniuses of America.”[198]
Something more than a year later, a pulpit deliverance was made at
Medford, Massachusetts, on the occasion of the annual state Thanksgiving,
which supplied ample evidence that clerical fears were rapidly gathering
force. Medford’s minister, the Reverend David Osgood,[199] was heard in a
vigorous discussion of the leading political and religious concerns of the
day.[200] First taking occasion to eulogize the Federal government by way of
atonement for the failure of Governor Samuel Adams to make reference to
the same in his Thanksgiving proclamation, the reverend gentleman
thereupon launched into a vehement denunciation of the Democratic
Societies,[201] because of their subservience to foreign emissaries, and
because of the outrageous activities of Minister Genet. Not content with
this, he proceeded to lay heavy emphasis upon the ferocious zeal and
desperate fury which the French were manifesting in their attacks upon the
institutions of religion, the far-reaching import of which, he declared, was

already apparent in the fact that, under the power of their blind devotion to
the French cause, not a few American citizens were casting off their
allegiance to the Christian religion.[202]
The notes of warning sounded by Osgood in this sermon were both clear
and loud. They fell on numerous sympathetic and responsive ears.
Committed promptly to type, the sermon passed rapidly through six
editions, a sufficient proof of the extent of the sensation which it produced.
Its author’s reputation was established; but beyond this, and what is more to
the point, the shibboleths of future clerical pronouncements had been
uttered. Henceforth the public utterances of the Federal clergy were to be
characterized by a violent antagonism to the French Revolution and the
spread of French influence in America.[203]
The chorus of clerical complaint on account of the dangers that
threatened the cause of religion, either because of the progress of the
Revolution abroad or the overt and secret diffusion of infidel principles at
home, grew steadily in volume. One or two added instances of this type of
pulpit utterance will suffice.
Tappan was again heard from, in February, 1795, on the day set for the
observance of the national thanksgiving.[204] He dealt with the political
situation at length, and emphasized particularly the destructive effects of
French influence. Before his sermon was committed to the hands of the
printer, Tappan was made acquainted with the fact that the minister of
Rowley, the Reverend Ebenezer Bradford, had made certain apologetic
comments, on the occasion of the national thanksgiving, respecting the
importance of French success to the peace and tranquility of America, and
the propriety of seeking the reason for the recent insurrection in western
Pennsylvania in “impolitic laws” rather than in French influence exerted
through Democratic Clubs,[205] as Federalists had made bold to claim.[206]
To these observations Tappan made the following sharp retort:

The destructive effects of them [i. e., secret political clubs] in
France have been noticed in the preceding discourse. Their
unhappy influence in this country is sufficiently exemplified in
that spirit of falsehood, of party and faction, which some of
them, at least, assiduously and too successfully promote, and
especially in the late dangerous and expensive western
insurrection, which may be evidently traced, in a great degree,
to the inflammatory representations and proceedings of these
clubs, their abettors and friends.[207]

Medford’s minister acquitted himself with something more than his
customary fiery earnestness on the occasion of this same national festival.
Mounting his pulpit, he pictured to his hearers “the reign of a ferocious and
atheistical anarchy in France,” whose authors had “formed the design of
bringing other nations to fraternize with them in their infernal principles
and conduct.”[208] Their emissaries, Osgood argued, have spread themselves
abroad and entered into every country open to them. In Geneva these
abandoned creatures have been “horribly successful in overthrowing a free
government but lately established, and in bringing on, in imitation of what
had happened in their own country, one revolution after another.” The same
identical agents have found their way into the United States and have begun
here their poisonous fraternizing system.[209] The sermon as a whole could
scarcely have been more violent in tone. It is very clear that Osgood had
resolved to do what he could to rouse the country.
As a direct result of this kind of pulpit utterance—a result that doubtless
had much to do with persuading the clergy that an alarming decline of
religion was under way in New England—the charge of “political
preaching” rapidly developed into one of the standing accusations of the
day. The bitterness of party strife grew apace. Opposition to Federalist

measures of government, such as Jay’s Treaty and the handling of
diplomatic relations with France, mounted steadily higher. In consequence,
the Federal clergy found themselves drawn farther and farther into the
maelstrom of political discussion. Out of this developed the sentiments
entertained by the opposition that the clergy were the tools of the
Federalists, and that public occasions were eagerly pounced upon by them
and used to promote the cause of party advantage.
This shaft struck home; and yet not so much in the nature of a personal
affront as an added proof that a state of deep impiety had settled down upon
the land. Well might the clergy lament, not that they had been so foully
slandered, but that they were called upon to reckon with a people who had
drifted out so far upon the sea of irreverence and disrespect. To illustrate:
The Reverend Jeremy Belknap was before the convention of the clergy of
Massachusetts, in May, 1796, to preach the convention sermon. His mind
turned to this new burden which had lately fallen on the already heavily-
laden shoulders of the ministry. Thus he sought to mollify the wounded
feelings of his brethren:

Another of the afflictions to which we are exposed, is the
resentment of pretended patriots, when we oppose their views
in endeavoring to serve our country. There is a monopolizing
spirit in some politicians, which would exclude clergymen
from all attention to matters of state and government; which
would prohibit us from bringing political subjects into the
pulpit, and even threaten us with the loss of our livings if we
move at all in the political Sphere. But, my brethren, I consider
politics as intimately connected with morality, and both with
religion. … How liberal are some tongues, some pens, and
some presses, with their abuse, when we appear warm and

zealous in the cause of our country! When we speak or write in
support of its liberties, its constitution, its peace and its honor,
we are stigmatized as busy-bodies, as tools of a party, as
meddling with what does not belong to us, and usurping
authority over our brethren.[210]

A couple of years later another staunch clerical supporter of Federalist
policies, the Reverend John Thornton Kirkland, minister of the New South
Church in Boston, came somewhat closer to the main point. The spirit of
the times, he urged, had greatly changed, and that for the worse. Clergymen
now were being severely censured for what only a few years earlier they
had been warmly commended for as constituting a peculiar merit. The
leaders of the American Revolution, for example, had praised the clergy for
throwing the weight of their influence into the political scale, recognizing
that there exists a moral and religious as well as a civil obligation on the
part of ministers to warn the people of the dangers which threaten their
liberty and happiness. But now, however, at a time when the dearest
interests of religion and patriotism, of church and state, are fiercely assailed
and imperiled, the clergy are met with calumny and insult when they
venture to speak out. Only the debasement of morals and piety could
explain so lamentable a transformation.[211]
A growing sensitiveness to the objections of Republican partisans that
they were stepping aside from the legitimate responsibilities of their calling
and prostituting the functions of their sacred office to unworthy ends, is
apparent on the part of the clergy;[212] but when the very slander and abuse
which they suffered supplied added evidence, if that were needed, that the
institutions of religion and of government were being rapidly undermined,
there could be no damping of their spirit nor turning back from the

performance of a service, however unappreciated, to which by tradition and
by present necessity they believed themselves bound.
Thus matters stood with the clergy of the Standing Order in New
England at the close of the eighteenth century. Whether they were mistaken
or not, a state of general irreligion seemed to them to have been ushered in.
On all sides the positions of traditional orthodoxy were being called in
question. The cause of revealed religion had found new enemies, and the
cause of natural religion new agencies for its promotion. The French
Revolution had given a terrifying exhibition of what might be expected to
happen to a nation in which radical and sceptical opinions were allowed to
have complete expression. As for the progress of impiety at home, the youth
of the land were contaminated, the state of public morals was unsound,
opposition to measures of government was increasing in power and
virulence, the institutions of religion were commanding less and less
respect, the clergy were treated with a coldness and criticalness of spirit
they had never faced before. Seeking for the causes of this baneful
condition of affairs, the clergy believed they were to be found mainly in the
dissemination of revolutionary opinions issuing from France, but in part
also in native tendencies to exalt reason and throw off the restraints of
government in church and state.
Before taking leave of the subject, a few final illustrations may be
considered by way of fixing upon the mind the strength of this general
impression which the New England clergy entertained.
On the occasion of the general fast, May 4, 1797, at West Springfield,
Massachusetts, the Reverend Joseph Lathrop preached a sermon to which
he gave the expressive title, God’s Challenge to Infidels to Defend Their
Cause.[213] The inspiration of the discourse was drawn from the conviction
that “this is a day when infidelity appears with unusual boldness, and
advances with threatening progress, to the hazard of our national freedom

and happiness, as well as to the danger of our future salvation.”[214]
According to this interpreter of the signs of the times, the dissemination of
infidelity was to be regarded as the outstanding fact in the life of America,
as well as in the life of the world.
An unusually lugubrious view of the situation was that taken by the
Reverend Nathan Strong, in the sermon which he preached, April 6, 1798,
on the occasion of the Connecticut state fast. In the eyes of this modern
Jeremiah, the situation was desperate almost beyond remedy:

There are dark and ominous appearances. I do not mean the
wrath and threatening of any foreign nations whatever, for if
we please God and procure him on our side, we may bless his
providence, and hear human threatenings without emotion. But
the dark omens are to be found at home. In our hearts, in our
homes, in our practice, and in a licentious spirit disposed to
break down civil and religious order. In affecting to depend on
reason in the things of religion, more than the word of God; so
as to reject all evangelical holiness, faith in Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and the ministrations of the spirit in the heart. In
substituting anarchy and licentiousness, in the room of rational
and just liberty. In supposing that freedom consists in men’s
doing what is right in their own eyes; even though their eyes
look through the mist of wicked ambition and lust. Here is our
real danger, and these are the omens that augur ill to us.[215]

Far less subjective in its analysis was the sermon which the now
celebrated minister of Medford, the Reverend David Osgood, preached not
many days later, on the occasion of the national fast.[216] Once more the
eyes of his hearers were invited to contemplate the horrible spectacle

abroad. It had now become certain that the legislators of France had
abolished the Christian religion. Preposterous indeed was the idea of those
who supposed that they were engaged in anything so beneficent as
“stripping the whore of Babylon, pulling down the man of sin, destroying
popery,”[217] and making way for the introduction of the millennium. That
which they had set their hearts upon was to bring it to pass that Christ and
His religion should no longer be remembered upon the earth. The French
republicans were so many infernals who had broken loose from the pit
below.[218] Their profession of principles of liberty and philanthropy were
deceptive in the highest degree. They sought to fraternize with other nations
merely to seduce them. Their emissaries employed the arts of intrigue and
corruption, they were charged to stir up factions, seditions, rebellions, so as
to disorganize established governments and make them more readily the
prey of the infamous French government.[219]
That these were not the pulpit utterances of men of peculiarly morbid
dispositions, who stood apart from the main currents of thought and life in
their day, would seem to be proved by the following instances of formal
declarations issued by associations of churches.
On the 17th of May, 1798, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States, then in session in the city of Philadelphia,
issued an address to the members of its various congregations scattered
throughout the country, urging attention to the extraordinarily gloomy
aspect of affairs. The situation was interpreted as follows:

The aspect of divine providence, and the extraordinary
situation of the world, at the present time, indicate that a
solemn admonition, by the ministers of religion and other
church officers in General Assembly convened, has become our
indispensable duty. When formidable innovations and
convulsions in Europe threaten destruction to morals and
religion; when scenes of devastation and bloodshed,
unexampled in the history of modern nations, have convulsed
the world; and when our own country is threatened with similar
calamities, insensibility in us would be stupidity; silence would
be criminal. The watchmen on Zion’s walls are bound by their
commission to sound a general alarm, at the approach of
danger. We therefore desire to direct your awakened attention,
towards that bursting stream, which threatens to sweep before
it the religious principles, institutions, and morals of our
people. We are filled with a deep concern and an awful dread,
whilst we announce it as our real conviction, that the eternal
God has a controversy with our nation, and is about to visit us
in his sore displeasure. A solemn crisis has arrived, in which we
are called to the most serious contemplation of the moral
causes which have produced it, and the measures which it
becomes us to pursue.[220]

As to the “moral causes” referred to, the address proceeds to define them
as “a general defection from God and corruption of the public principles
and morals,” the evidences whereof are such as a general dereliction of
religious principle and practice, a departure from the faith and simple purity
of manners for which the fathers were remarkable, a visible and prevailing

impiety, contempt for the laws and institutions of religion, and “an
abounding infidelity.”[221]
The same year, on May 31, the Congregational clergy of Massachusetts,
assembled in annual convention, “without a dissenting vote” adopted an
address to their churches, wherein they expressed their deep sorrow and
concern on account of “those atheistical, licentious and disorganizing
principles which have been avowed and zealously propagated by the
philosophers and politicians of France; which have produced the greatest
crimes and miseries in that unhappy country, and like a mortal pestilence
are diffusing their baneful influence even to distant nations.”[222] A year
later the same body of clergy, again assembled in their annual convention,
formulated and later published an address similar in tone, but strongly
emphasizing the American aspects of the case. The growing disbelief and
contempt of the Gospel are loudly lamented; the lack of exemplary piety
and morality even among the members of churches, and the dissipation,
irreligion, and licentiousness prevalent among the youth of the day, are
accounted to be of so much weight as to constitute a national apostasy. “The
voice of God to us in these events,” continues the address, “is emphatically
this: Come out of the infidel, antichristian world, my people; that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”[223]
To a very considerable number of earnest lovers of religion in New
England and elsewhere throughout the nation, the century’s sun seemed to
be setting amid black and sullen clouds of the most ominous character.

CHAPTER II
POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS AND HYSTERIA
1. THE SITUATION PRIOR TO 1798

Party history in New England, as elsewhere throughout the Union, began
with the inauguration of the new government in 1789.[224] Such differences
of opinion concerning matters of public policy as had previously existed
were confined to unorganized groups whose leaders depended chiefly on
the devotion of their personal following to mould popular opinion. But the
setting up of the Federal government and the fixing of national standards
brought to light issues which challenged fundamental conceptions and
interests, and a definite rift in public sentiment was not long in appearing.
By 1793 the main line of political cleavage was plainly visible. The
Federalists, who stood for the importance of a strong central government,
found themselves confronted with an organized opposition to which in time
the terms Anti-Federalists, Republicans, and Democrats were applied.[225]
In 1793 the war between England and France came into American
politics, providing issues for party controversy for years to come. The
sympathies of the Federalists, who numbered in their ranks the conservative
and aristocratic elements in the population, inclined strongly toward
England; whereas the sympathies of Republicans, who attracted to their
standard the radicals of the country concerned in the democratization of
government, were disposed with equal warmth toward France.
The promulgation of the Neutrality Proclamation[226] of President
Washington, April 22, 1793, seemed to settle the question of foreign
alliances before the matter had become acute. On the whole, the response
which New England gave to the President’s proclamation was gratifying.

Messages of cordial approval came pouring in from many quarters.[227] The
majority of the people rejoiced in the course of prudence and foresight
which the national government had been led to pursue.
Still New England was not wholly satisfied. The sentiments of all her
people had not been served. An opposition of respectable proportions
developed. The columns of the public press carried numerous articles[228]
voicing various degrees of hostility to the President’s cause of neutrality
and affording ample evidence that instead of solidifying the sentiments of
the people on the subject of foreign alliances, the proclamation had the
effect of widening the breach between the political forces of the country.
This aspect of the case was much aggravated by two important
circumstances, one of which developed simultaneously with the publication
of the proclamation of neutrality, and the other came to light soon after.
These two circumstances were the coming of Genet and the rise of the
Democratic Societies.
In no part of the country was the news of the arrival of the French
minister received with less suspicion than in New England.[229] Republican
newspapers were, of course, loud in their exclamations of satisfaction over
the word that came out of the south concerning the arrival and subsequent
activities of the amazing French diplomat, so young, so ardent, so eloquent,
and so absurd. Editors of Federalist journals, while in no mood to be swept
off their feet by the latest excitement of the hour, yet showed no disposition
to cavil or express distrust.
Such, however, were the exceptional performances of this altogether
exceptional diplomat, who insisted on comporting himself more like a ruler
of the people of this nation than an accredited representative to their
government, that the day of revulsion and deep resentment could not long
be postponed.[230]

The stir created by the activities of Genet, great as it was, soon was
swallowed up in the excitement produced by the sudden emergence of a
new factor in American politics; viz., indigenous political organizations that
were secret. Coincident with the arrival of Genet, and with a view to
capitalizing the state of public feeling that his arrival and reception brought
to a head, there sprang up in various parts of the country a group of
organizations devoted to the propagation of ultra-democratic ideals. These
Democratic Societies, or Clubs, were destined to exert a degree of baneful
influence upon political feeling out of all proportion to their actual number
and weight.[231] Needless to say, the excited state of public feeling, together
with the total unfamiliarity of American citizens with political agencies of a
secret character, were responsible for this result. The embarrassments under
which the French cause in America momentarily suffered on account of
reports concerning the multiplied atrocities of the Reign of Terror and the
swelling tide of popular resentment because of the indiscretions of Minister
Genet, might induce the judgment that the times were unpropitious for the
development of organizations whose sympathy for the principles of the
French Revolution was notorious.[232] But there was another side to the
situation. The heated public discussions provoked by Madison’s
Commercial Resolutions, Clark’s Non-Intercourse Resolution, and the
appointment of John Jay as Minister Extraordinary to Great Britain, set free
such a torrent of anti-British feeling that the spirit of republicanism lifted its
head with renewed vigor and stimulated a public sentiment decidedly
favorable to the rapid formation and spread of the new organizations. From
the day that the first of these sinister Societies was established, and its
statement of principles blazoned forth in a multitude of newspapers
throughout the country,[233] the public mind found itself wrought upon by a
new species of excitement, by suggestions of tricks and plots, by appeals to

passion and unreasoning fear, all conspiring to inject into the national spirit
an element of haunting suspicion from which it was not soon to be cleared.
The fact that at least five of these Democratic Societies were located in
New England strongly suggests the immediate concern which the people of
that section were bound to have because of these unexpected and ominous
secret political associations.[234] The creation of the Boston Society became
at once the occasion of virulent opposition and infuriated comment.
Organized in the late fall of 1793[235] under the innocent title, the
Constitutional Club, the principles and alliances of the organization became
quickly known, with the result that the already agitated waters of local party
feeling were disturbed beyond all previous experience. Citizens whose
sympathies were fully with the conduct of affairs under the Federalist
régime were quick to believe that henceforth they might expect to be
threatened, brow-beaten, and checkmated in a ruthless and scandalous
fashion because of the activities of this pernicious Club.[236] They
anticipated an amount of secret and dastardly political interference on the
part of the Club, because of which the lives of their public officials would
be filled with distraction and the minds of decent men aspiring to public
office would be thrown into a state of disinclination and repugnance.
Nor in this did they prove to be false prophets. Newspaper innuendoes,
sharp and poisonous as deadly arrows, were let fly with abandon; town
meetings were disturbed and the opponents of democracy and French
republicanism put to rout; the public mind was so altered that Democrats
who sought to deprive Federalists of their hold upon the “Boston Seat” in
the legislature were completely successful in their efforts. In these and
similar ways the citizens of Boston were given tangible proofs of how
effective an instrument of political action such an organization as the
Constitutional Club could be.[237]

The address which President Washington delivered before both houses
of Congress, November 19, 1794, wherein he traced a causal connection
between the Democratic Societies and the Whiskey Rebellion,
characterizing the former as “self-created societies” which had “assumed a
tone of condemnation” of measures adopted by the government, being
actuated by “a belief that, by a more formal concert” they would be able to
defeat those measures,[238] proved to be a mortal blow to these secret
organizations, and in New England, as elsewhere throughout the country,
had consequences beyond the disappearance of the Clubs. Eagerly and with
unconcealed joy, Federalist editors and orators seized upon the President’s
denunciation and turned it to immediate political account.[239] A flood of
condemnation and answering vituperation was instantly released. The
champions of Federalism were at pains to secure publication of the
discussions which took place in the national congress respecting the precise
character of the response to be made to the President’s address, with special
reference to his condemnation of the Democratic Clubs.[240] They were at
equal pains, also, to lay hold of the President’s pregnant phrase, “self-
created societies,” and turn it to account: that phrase should be regarded as
a designation equally applicable to the odious Jacobin Clubs of France.[241]
Henceforth the whole democratic faction might reasonably be expected to
work under cover “to unhinge the whole order of government, and
introduce confusion, so that union, the constitution, the laws, public order
and private right would be all the sport of violence or chance.”[242]
Mortified and discomfited Republican editors made such response as
they could. The members of the Clubs were declared to be independent
citizens who were acting within their rights in so banding together. They
were “proceeding in the paths of patriotic virtue with a composure and
dignity which become men engaged in such important and timely services”;
[243] whereas their opponents were men who hungered for the loaves and

fishes of the government and who shared the secret fear that they would be
discovered or have their plans deranged.[244]
The continual harping of the Federalist press on the phrase “self-created
societies” particularly touched the raw. Was not the Society of the
Cincinnati self-created? And are not many of the members of that
organization war-worn soldiers of the American Republic? In a state of
society in which we see such veterans toiling for their daily sustenance,
while other men, enjoying the hard-earned property of the former, riot in all
the luxuries of life, how can one but exclaim, O Tempora! O Mores![245]
The national congress, moreover, might well be expected to be engaged in
much more serious and timely business than to be burdening its sessions
with discussions respecting the affairs of private societies.[246]
The hostile attitude that the Federalist clergy took toward the
Democratic Societies gave special irritation to the editors of the
Independent Chronicle. Because he ventured in his thanksgiving sermon of
November 20 (1794) to denounce all Constitutional Societies, the rector of
the Episcopal congregation in Boston was held up to ridicule in the columns
of the Chronicle as a “ci-devant lawyer” and “a certain Episcopalian
‘thumper of the pulpit drum,’” whose pastoral care many of his substantial
members had already renounced because of his injection of political
discussion into the sacred sphere of the pulpit; while others had given
evidence of their disposition to follow the example of the more courageous
members of the flock, “if virulence is to take the place of religion.”[247] But
the Reverend David Osgood, Medford’s “monk,” on account of his more
extended and violent treatment of the Democratic Societies in his
thanksgiving day sermon,[248] gave much deeper offence. That he should
have represented these organizations as controlled by the same principles as
the incendiary French Jacobin Clubs, and as set to watch the Federal
government and plot its overthrow through the support of pernicious and

inveterate faction, was more than ardent democratic patriots could endure.
“A Friend to the Clergy and an Enemy to Ecclesiastical Presumption,”
together with “A Friend of Decency and Free Inquiry,” sought entrance to
the willing columns of the Chronicle in order to express their contempt for
“a Rev. gentleman” who could lend himself to the peddling of such illiberal
sentiments and could show himself capable of acting in a manner
unbecoming the character of a Christian and a gentleman, and also in order
to draw conclusions derogatory to his reputation as a scholar.[249] The
castigations of “Stentor” were not less caustic. The red-hot anathemas of the
Reverend Parson Osgood, whining preacher of politics that he was, had no
other effect than to singe and sear the reputation of their author. “On the
Constitutional Society their influence has been as small as though they had
been issued in the form of a BULL from the Chancery of the Pope.”[250]
Thus were protracted for a time the frantic efforts of Democratic editors
and scribblers to repair the damage which “the clownish Bishop of
Medford”[251] and his clerical confederates were supposed to have effected.
[252]
But the main injury had by no means come from that quarter. Such was
the veneration for the name and person of the great Washington throughout
New England that few men had the hardihood to launch their resentment
and abuse against him; yet it was his hand, and none other, that wrote the
word Ichabod across the brow of these secret political associations. From
the day that his address reproaching them was made, their doom was sealed.
That doom might tarry for a season, but it could not long be averted. The
apologists and defenders of these organizations which the presidential
censure had made odious, might fiercely exert themselves to show how
innocent they were of the offences charged and how unimpaired in
usefulness they remained after the thrust had been made. This was but
whistling to keep up their courage. The prestige of the Societies had been
effectually destroyed by the President’s denunciation; in a surprisingly short

time these ambitious and troublemaking organizations sank into desuetude
and were lost to view.
The deep impression they had made upon the public mind was, however,
much less readily effaced. That impression resolved itself into a memory
most unpleasant and disturbing. For us the significance of these
organizations is found chiefly in the fact that, appearing at a time when the
two great opposing political parties were developing, and having
vehemently espoused the cause of France in a rabidly democratic spirit,
they consequently added enormously to the passion and the suspicion of the
day. To the Federalists they were dangerous intruders, groups of
unprincipled demagogues organized for unpatriotic purposes, working in
the dark, ashamed to stoop at nothing in the way of duplicity and
subterfuge, of deception and intrigue, if by any means the vicious designs
of their hearts could be furthered. Thus they not only helped to make the
strife of parties vituperative and bitter; in addition they made familiar to the
thought of a great body of citizens in America the idea that the intrigues of
secret organizations must needs be reckoned with as one of the constant
perils of the times. Henceforth it would be easier to fill the public mind with
uneasiness and gloomy forebodings on account of the supposed presence of
hidden hostile forces working beneath the surface of the nation’s life.
Should inexperienced and unsuspecting souls profess their incredulity, the
appeal to the example of the Democratic Societies might be expected to go
far toward dissolving all indifference and trusting unconcern.[253]
To trace in detail the increasingly bitter party strife in New England
would not only call for the canvassing of material already well known, but
would lead us far afield from the special object of this investigation. Only
the main features of the case need to be noted.
The temporary check the Democrats suffered on account of the
suppression of the secret political clubs was soon removed by the wave of

anti-British sentiment that swept the country upon the publication of the
treaty which John Jay negotiated between Great Britain and the United
States, late in the autumn of 1794.[254]
The truth is, nothing less than a howl of rage went up from the throats of
the people of the United States, and the voices of the men of New England
were by no means lost in the chorus.[255] Nothing that could have been said
to inflame the blind and passionate anger of the people was omitted. The
United States, it was asserted, had been resolved back into the colonies of
Great Britain.[256] The Senate had bargained away the blood-bought
privileges of the people for less than the proverbial mess of pottage. It had
signed the death-warrant of the country’s trade and entailed beggary on its
inhabitants and their posterity forever.[257] The people’s cause had been
most perfidiously betrayed. The trading class, whose pecuniary interests
would be jeopardized if England were to be left free to prey upon our
commerce, especially if the way should remain open for the two countries
to drift into actual war, might show itself disposed to make a choice of the
lesser of two evils and accept the treaty; but the great mass of the people
were indignantly hostile, it must be added, to the point of unreason.[258]
The promulgation of the treaty by Washington, February 29, 1796, as the
law of the land, had the effect of bringing to a close a period of agitation
which deeply affected the national life.[259] For one thing, the violence of
party spirit had been so augmented that henceforth there were to be no
limits to which men would not go in the expression of their antipathies and
prejudices. Even the great Washington had not been able to escape the
venom of the tongue of the partisan in the controversy which had raged
over the treaty.[260] A condition of the public mind which not only permitted
but supported the burning in effigy of its public servants; which consented
to brutal campaigns of newspaper calumniation, so unrestrained and
indecent that the reader looks back upon them with shame; to the

circulation of incendiary handbills and scurrilous pamphlets; to
participation in lawless gatherings in which riotous utterances of the most
violent character were freely made and disgraceful actions taken[261]—this
could not possibly make for a wholesome discipline of the passions of the
people.[262]
For another thing, the spirit of devotion to the cause of France had been
greatly refreshed and quickened by the agitation over the treaty. From the
moment that information concerning the nature of the treaty began to
circulate, the cry of “British faction” was taken up by the Democrats and
used with telling effect. That the treaty was an infamous instrument
arranged for no other purpose than to injure the French cause was generally
believed.[263] From beginning to end, Democrats could find nothing in the
treaty which had not been directly inspired by hostility to France. Apart
from the damage that would ensue to American commerce, the treaty would
work for the elevation of monarchical and the undoing of republican
principles.[264] Once again George the Third had become the master of the
citizens of America, and thus the great accomplishments of the American
Revolution had been made to count for nought. British gold had succeeded
in effecting the betrayal of the republican cause in this country, and thus had
worked itself into a strategic position where it could more easily strangle
the life out of the spirit of republicanism in Europe, now so sorely beset in
France.[265]
One other by-product of the agitation that arose over the treaty has been
dwelt upon at length in another connection, but it should be adverted to
briefly here. It was inevitable that a discussion so vital, so heated, and so
protracted as that of which we have just been taking account, should draw
into it those guardians of morals and mentors of public spirit in New
England, the Federalist clergy.[266] The disturbance of the public mind over
the treaty had been marked by two features full of grave import in the

clerical view: vicious attacks upon the officers and measures of the existing
government, and a reinvigorated crying-up of French political and religious
notions.
The offices of government were all, or nearly all, in the hands of
Federalists. This being the case, their occupants were doomed to be the
chief targets of resentment and villification by men who found such a
measure of government as Jay’s Treaty obnoxious in the extreme. But if
officers of government were to be pilloried in the stocks of public slander
and abuse, how then was the government itself to command the respect and
obedience of its citizens? The Federalist clergy of New England saw the
pathway of duty shining clear: they must hold up the hands of government
at any hazard. Hence it happened that the outcry against “political
preaching” grew rapidly in volume from 1795 on.[267]
As for the renewed zeal of the Democrats in the interests of French
revolutionary ideals, that found a special point of interest and concern for
the Federalist clergy in the prominence which the rapid growth of
republicanism secured for Thomas Jefferson. An ardent friend of the French
Revolution, a lover of French philosophy, the enemy of religious
intolerance, in personal faith a deist—were not these sufficient to damn the
man as an unbeliever and an atheist in the eyes of New England clergymen,
to whom the faintest breath of rationalism was abhorrent and the very
notion of toleration suspect? Accordingly the New England clergy launched
a fierce attack upon him as the arch-apostle of the cause of irreligion and
free-thought.[268] In language carefully guarded, his name usually being
omitted, Jefferson was pointed out as the leader of the hosts of infidelity
whose object was the extermination of the institutions of religion and the
inauguration of an era wherein every man should think and do that which
was right in his own eyes.[269]

2. THE SITUATION FROM 1798 TO 1800

Very few of the events in our national affairs which link together the
history of the last decade of the eighteenth century are significant for our
purpose. Having sought to discover the chief occasions for the apprehension
and distress which weighed upon the minds of the citizens of New England,
we may now proceed to focus attention exclusively upon the last three years
of the century, within which developed that special disturbance of the
public mind with which we are primarily concerned.
And first let it be said, we are approaching a period of as intense strain
and nervous excitability as this nation in all its history has known. When
Thomas Jefferson, in November, 1796, wrote Edward Rutledge of his deep
personal satisfaction that he had escaped the presidency, he may have been
influenced by unworthy but certainly not by imaginary constraints. “The
newspapers,” so his letter runs, “will permit me to plant my corn, peas, &c.,
in hills or drills as I please … while our Eastern friend will be struggling
with the storm which is gathering over us; perhaps be shipwrecked in it.
This is certainly not a moment to covet the helm.”[270] Never has a defeated
candidate for the presidency had more solid grounds for the justification of
his fears, or shall we say, his hopes? The severe strain of domestic strife
was about to be enormously augmented by a series of untoward and
alarming events in the field of foreign relations, certain of which must
receive our particular attention.
The complete change in the character of the relations between the United
States and France is for us a matter of the first importance. The publication
of the treaty negotiated between the United States and Great Britain by Jay
produced definitive results as respects the attitude of France. With some
reason that instrument was interpreted as inimical to the interests of the
latter country, and the government and people of this nation were not long
left in doubt of the fact.[271] By the employment toward her former ally of a
policy of coercion, of which two chief instruments were the destruction of

American commerce upon the high seas and the overbearing and insolent
conduct of diplomatic negotiations, France speedily addressed herself to the
task of attempting to gain by pressure what she conceived she had lost in
the way of prestige and material advantage. The result was, to the
discomfiture and disgrace of the Democrats in particular and to the alarm of
the country in general, that the United States was made aware of the fact
that its government was being driven into a corner from which, as far as a
human mind could foresee, the only avenue of honorable escape would be
recourse to arms.
The damage which American commerce sustained at the hands of French
privateers is rendered appreciable when the following circumstances are
taken into account. Within the year following the publication of the
extraordinary decrees against the commerce of neutral nations, which the
French Directory promulgated, beginning with June, 1796, something over
three hundred American vessels had been captured. The crippling blow to
American commerce was by no means the sole consideration in the case. In
numerous instances the crews of captured vessels were treated in such an
outrageous and brutal manner as to inflame and gall the American spirit
beyond endurance. On account of abuses which American shipping and
commerce had suffered previously, by virtue of methods adopted by
England and France to gain control of the seas, the strain imposed upon the
nation had been severe; but now that a sweeping and utterly ruthless policy
of commerce-destruction had been inaugurated by the French, forbearance
was no longer possible. In his maiden speech in the national congress,
Harrison Gray Otis, Massachusetts’ gifted young representative, put the
case with dramatic eloquence:

If any man doubted of the pernicious measures of the French
nation, and of the actual state of our commerce, let him inquire

of the ruined and unfortunate merchant, harassed with
prosecutions on account of revenue, which he so long and
patiently toiled to support. If any doubted of its effects upon
agriculture, let him inquire of the farmer whose produce is
falling and will be exposed to perish in his barns. Where … are
your sailors? Listen to the passing gale of the ocean, and you
will hear their groans issuing from French prison-ships.[272]

It was not to be expected that a deeply injured people, to whose just
sense of wrong and indignation the youthful Federalist orator had given
such exact expression, could long be restrained from acts of reprisal and
war.
To the sense of injustice was added the burden of fear. The idea began to
take possession of the minds of leaders of thought in America that France
had darker and more terrible purposes in her councils than the blighting of
American commerce in retaliation for the treaty-alliance which had recently
been concluded with Great Britain; she sought war, war which would
supply to her the opportunity to visit upon this nation the same
overwhelming disasters which her armies had heaped upon the nations of
Europe. The French, it was believed, were busy with schemes for
employing the world in their favor and were drunk with the vision of
universal dominion.[273] The true explanation of French violence and
arrogance was to be sought in her aims at universal empire.[274] Her
ravenous appetite could not be satisfied; she had resolved to make of the
United States another mouthful.[275] What reason had the citizens of this
country to claim exemption from the general deluge? Having fastened the
chains of slavery upon nation after nation in Europe, the generals of France
were now planning fresh triumphs; with our armies of the Mississippi and
Ohio, of the Chesapeake and Delaware, her forces would contest the field

on American soil.[276] Had not her geographers already partitioned the
country according to the new system of government which would here be
imposed?[277] Did not her agents and spies fill the land, constantly exerting
themselves to thwart the purposes of the American government and to
render fruitless its policies of administration?[278]
Such fears may not be brushed aside as silly and chimerical, in view of
the steady stream of information which came across the Atlantic,
announcing the downfall of one nation after another as the result of French
intrigue and the prowess of French arms.[279] Besides, there was probably
not a solitary Federalist leader in the United States who did not believe that
French ministers and agents were in secret league with influential
representatives of the Democratic party.
The bullying treatment which the French Directory accorded the
ministers and envoys of this nation added much to the heat as well as to the
dark suspicions which characterized public feeling in America. A
government which boldly assumed to treat with impudent indifference and
coldness one accredited minister of the United States, while at the same
time it lavished the most extravagant expressions of friendship upon
another whose disappointed executive had reluctantly summoned him
home,[280] was obviously pursuing a course so high-handed and insolent as
to stir the last dormant impulse of national honor. But the hot flame of
public indignation which burst forth in this country when it became known
that its Minister Plenipotentiary, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, after months
of painful embarrassment and hazard, marked by neglect, evasions, and
threats of arrest, was returning home, defeated in purpose, was as nothing to
the lava-like stream of infuriated anger which swept through the land when
it became known how treacherously the three envoys of the national
government, Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, had been used.

By common consent the publication of the X.Y.Z. despatches, early in
April, 1798, put the top sheaf upon a long series of intolerable actions
which this nation had suffered at the hands of the government of France.
Like a flash it was made clear that not mere whimsicality and offended
hauteur were at the bottom of the unsatisfactory dealings which our
ministers had had with the French: we had sent our ambassadors to
negotiate with men who knew how to add bribery to threats. Though the
government of France might seek to save its face on the pretext that the
mysterious French emissaries had acted without proper warrant, yet back of
the negotiators was Talleyrand, and back of Talleyrand the Directory. The
revulsion of feeling in the United States was complete. All innocent
delusions were shattered; all veils torn away. What the French government
desired in its negotiations was not political sympathy, not commercial
cooperation, not a fraternal alliance between two sister republics in order
that the flame of liberty might not perish from the earth; what it desired was
money—money for the pockets of the Directory and its tools, “for the
purpose of making the customary distribution in diplomatic affairs,” money
for the public treasury that the Directory might find itself in a position to
give a “softening turn” to certain irritating statements of which President
Adams had delivered himself in his message to the Fifth Congress.[281]
The passion for war with France became the one passion of the hour.
Only abandoned men, men whose desire for “disorganization” was the one
yearning of their hearts, were unresponsive to the spirit of militant
patriotism which swayed the people’s will:[282] such at least was the
confident and boastful view of Federalist leaders, and for once they were
able to gauge accurately the depth and power of the currents of popular
sympathy. That hour had passed when men could say, as Jefferson had but a
brief day before President Adams turned over to Congress the astounding
despatches, “The scales of peace & war are very nearly in equilibrio.”[283]

The heavy weight of the despatches had sent the bowl of war to the bottom
with a resounding thud.
So it seemed at the moment; and yet, though there has seldom been an
hour in our national history when all purely factional counsels were more
effectually hushed and when the war fever mounted higher, an amazing
period of uncertainty and of conflicting impulses and passions immediately
set in.
Addresses and memorials to the President came pouring in, pledging to
the government the full confidence of its citizens and unswerving loyalty
and support. Volunteer military companies sprang into existence in every
quarter over night. War vessels were purchased, or their construction
provided for, by public subscription and presented to the government. The
white cockade, new emblem of an aroused public spirit, generally appeared.
The fierce slogan, “Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute!” and
the tuneful strains of “Hail Columbia” and “Adams and Liberty” went
ringing through the land. Within a brief period of little more than three
months, Congress passed no less than twenty acts for the strengthening of
the national defence.[284]
This was one side of the matter; there was another, as events soon made
clear. The President, it appeared, was not at one with the more ardent
leaders in his own political camp, whose resolution for war was unbounded;
he exhibited an attitude of indifference to the whole notion of open war
with France that became increasingly manifest as the weeks went by. The
President would temporize; he would try to avoid the crisis by sending new
commissioners to France to reestablish friendly relations. Against such a
policy many of his advisers protested furiously. Besides, the problem of
supplying the army with leaders who should serve with Washington had
resulted in an unseemly struggle as to whether this or that patriot should
stand next to the great hero of Mount Vernon. The President’s policy of

conciliation took on the appearance of shameless procrastination;[285] the
imbroglios of the Federalist leaders aroused public suspicion, and invited to
the garnished hearth the spirits of confusion and clamor.
Those evil spirits, however, which most effectively coöperated to make
the last state worse than the first came as the result of the extraordinarily
stupid and blundering measures which the Federalists adopted to curb the
activities of resident aliens and the abuse of free speech. Beginning with the
Naturalization Act of June 18, 1798, there followed in quick succession
three other repressive measures, the Act Concerning Aliens of June 25, the
Act Respecting Alien Enemies of July 6, and the Act for the Punishment of
Certain Crimes against the United States (the Sedition Act) of July 14.[286]
The purpose of these famous acts has already been indicated; the impulse
out of which they grew is not so easily determined. Was it that the heads of
the national government really anticipated danger on account of the
presence of a multitude of foreigners and the unlicensed freedom of action
and public utterance which thus far had been allowed?[287] Was it that the
memory of more than four years of biting satire and vicious calumny which
the opposition had visited upon the heads of Federalist leaders had filled the
latter with longings for revenge? Or was it that, conscious of their
undisputed control of national affairs and carried away by the sense of their
power, the Federalist leaders proposed to show how strong and effective a
centralized government could become? No single alternative, doubtless,
suggests the full truth. No matter; the effect which these measures produced
is, with us, the main point, and to that we turn.
No milder word than maddening will adequately describe the effect of
these measures. All the old wounds were opened, all the old antipathies
aggravated. Editors and pamphleteers, statesmen and demagogues, tore at
each others’ throats as they had never done before and have never done
since. A veritable “reign of terror” filled the land.[288] Insult and violence

were everywhere. Mobs tore down liberty-poles which Federalist hands had
erected and put in their place other poles bearing symbols of defiance to
“British faction” and tyrannous Federal government; or the action was
reversed, with Federalist mobs tearing down the standards of the
opposition. White cockades were snatched from the hats of men who
supported the government, and once more the black cockade blossomed
forth. Toasts were drunk over tavern bars and on public occasions to the
confusion of the British Eagle or the Gallic Cock; to the health and
prosperity of the Federal government or to the downfall of tyrants; to the
alien and sedition laws, with the fervent wish that “like the sword of Eden
[they] may point everywhere to guard our country against intrigue from
without and faction from within”;[289] or to “freedom of speech, trial by
jury, and liberty of the press,”[290] according as the adherents of one faction
or the other were assembled for patriotic or convivial purposes. Raucous
and ribald outbreaks of party feeling burst out in the theaters to the
interruption of performances, the confusion of performers, and the breaking
of not a few heads. Such was the lighter and more ludicrous aspect of
affairs.
But beneath this effervescence honest and whole-hearted antagonism to
the odious legislation surged in countless breasts. In the power of an anger
which scorned all frivolous and tawdry action, men declared their deep and
irrevocable opposition to such measures of government. That respectable
and well-meaning aliens, from lack either of inclination or opportunity to
become citizens, should be expelled from the country, or remaining here
should become the targets of suspicion and the victims of political
oppression; that opposition to government must henceforth wear a muzzle,
with a heavy bludgeon meanwhile held menacingly over its head; that the
damage done by favored partisan scribblers was not to be repaired by
answering opponents; and all this under the guise of laws which, whatever

their intention, operated to the enormous disadvantage of one of the two
great political bodies of the day—these were things not to be endured by
men to whom liberty was the very breath of life.
The actual amount of personal injury inflicted by the operation of the
alien and sedition laws was not enormous, though certainly not negligible.
A considerable body of aliens fled the country, either during the period
when the alien laws were pending or immediately after they went into
effect.[291] Probably something more than a score of individuals were
arrested under the sedition law, less than half of whom were compelled to
stand trial.[292] But once again popular judgment was based upon qualitative
rather than quantitative grounds. The popular sense of personal liberty had
been outraged by these acts.[293] The Federalist leaders by their precipitate
and inconsiderate action had very much overshot the mark and were about
to bring their house tumbling down about their heads. As for the opposition,
those of its leaders whose highest political interest was party advantage
lived to bless the day when, blinded by hysteria or lust of power, the
Federalist party made the alien and sedition acts the law of the land. Six
months after these unsavory measures were passed, discerning Democrats
were able to rejoice that this body of legislation was operating as a powerful
sedative to quiet the inflammation which that “God-send” to the Federalists,
the X.Y.Z. despatches, had incited.[294] By their own blunder in party
strategy the Federalists had alienated the sympathies of the people and
given to the ground-swell of republican principles a tremendous impetus
which carried them to a speedy triumph.
Once again our special interest must be allowed to center upon a
secondary element in the situation, i. e., the over-wrought tension of nerves
because of which the most fantastic and unlikely of happenings seemed
wholly within the circle of reason and probability. The circumstances which
have just been considered were, in the main, upon the surface. As such they

were capable of being evaluated and weighed. But who was to say that they
were not attended by subterranean influences and designs? Affairs
everywhere, be it remembered, were moving with incredible swiftness. In
every quarter the beleaguered forces of conservatism found themselves
surrounded and hemmed in by radical elements which manifested a spirit of
militancy and a resolute will to conquer. With the European situation to lend
strong emphasis to the suggestion of sinister tendencies and secret
combinations, it cannot be thought extraordinary that here in America,
where traditional opinions and institutions were as certainly being
undermined, the conviction should take root that beneath all this commotion
over foreign and domestic policies secret forces must be at work, perfecting
organizations, promoting conspiracies, and ready at any hour to leap forth
into the light to throttle government and order.
There is, of course, no desire to make it appear that apprehensions
concerning hidden designs and movements were generally shared by the
citizens of the United States. There was then, as there has always been, a
very large body of citizens whose faith in the stability and high destiny of
the nation made them immune to such fears; calm and philosophic souls
who were equally unmoved by the rant of the demagogue or the distracted
mood of the self-deceived alarmist. Their sympathy for and their faith in the
democratic tendencies of the age inhibited every impulse to despair. But
there were also other men, as has been the case in every deeply agitated
generation, who were fully persuaded that they were able to catch deeper
tones than their neighbors, to whom the gift had been given to read the
signs of the times more accurately than their fellows. For them the
conclusion was inescapable that no postulate which did not leave room for
secret combinations was adequate to explain the peculiar cast of events in
the United States at the end of the eighteenth century. To dismiss the case of
such men with the casual judgment that they were temperamentally

susceptible to such impressions, is to rule out of account the extraordinary
character of the age to which they belonged. Apropos of this observation,
the two following items are deserving of notice.
Some time previous to the celebration of the national fast of 1798, three
anonymous letters were flung into President Adams’ house, announcing a
plot to burn the city of Philadelphia on the day of the approaching fast.
Convinced that the matter was of moment, the President made the contents
of the letters publicly known. As a result, many people of the city packed
their most valuable belongings and prepared to make a quick departure in
the event that the threats made should come to fulfilment.[295] Was this a
mere “artifice to agitate the popular mind,” the work of “war men” who
were restless and impatient for an immediate declaration of hostilities
against France? Quite possibly. Such, at least, was the private opinion of
Thomas Jefferson.[296] But who was to know? The true lay of the land was
not easily to be discovered in the midst of an age when, in the language of a
contemporary, “all the passions of the human heart are in a ferment, and
every rational being from the throne to the cottage is agitated by the
picturesque circumstances of the day.”[297]
Alexander Hamilton left among his manuscripts certain comments which
he had made upon the character and import of the French Revolution.
Before we turn to consider the European Illuminati and the outcry against
its alleged presence in the United States, we may, by perusing this
document, throw a little added light upon the gnawings of anxiety and fear
which were felt at the time by very rational gentlemen in America.

Facts, numerous and unequivocal, demonstrate that the
present AERA is among the most extraordinary which have
occurred in the history of human affairs. Opinions, for a long
time, have been gradually gaining ground, which threaten the

foundations of religion, morality and society. An attack was
first made upon the Christian revelation, for which natural
religion was offered as a substitute. The Gospel was to be
discarded as a gross imposture, but the being and attributes of
God, the obligations of piety, even the doctrine of a future state
of rewards and punishments, were to be retained and cherished.
In proportion as success has appeared to attend the plan, a
bolder project has been unfolded. The very existence of a Deity
has been questioned and in some instances denied. The duty of
piety has been ridiculed, the perishable nature of man asserted,
and his hopes bounded to the short span of his earthly state.
DEATH has been proclaimed an ETERNAL SLEEP; “the
dogma of the immortality of the soul a cheat, invented to
torment the living for the benefit of the dead.” Irreligion, no
longer confined to the closets of conceited sophists, nor to the
haunts of wealthy riot, has more or less displayed its hideous
front among all classes….
A league has at length been cemented between the apostles
and disciples of irreligion and anarchy. Religion and
government have both been stigmatized as abuses; as
unwarrantable restraints upon the freedom of man; as causes of
the corruption of his nature, intrinsically good; as sources of an
artificial and false morality which tyrannically robs him of the
enjoyments for which his passions fit him, and as clogs upon
his progress to the perfection for which he is destined….
The practical development of this pernicious system has
been seen in France. It has served as an engine to subvert all
her ancient institutions, civil and religious, with all the checks
that served to mitigate the rigor of authority; it has hurried her

headlong through a rapid succession of dreadful revolutions,
which have laid waste property, made havoc among the arts,
overthrown cities, desolated provinces, unpeopled regions,
crimsoned her soil with blood, and deluged it in crime, poverty,
and wretchedness; and all this as yet for no better purpose than
to erect on the ruins of former things a despotism unlimited and
uncontrolled; leaving to a deluded, an abused, a plundered, a
scourged, and an oppressed people, not even the shadow of
liberty to console them for a long train of substantial
misfortunes, or bitter suffering.
This horrid system seemed awhile to threaten the subversion
of civilized society and the introduction of general disorder
among mankind. And though the frightful evils which have
been its first and only fruits have given a check to its progress,
it is to be feared that the poison has spread too widely and
penetrated too deeply to be as yet eradicated. Its activity has
indeed been suspended, but the elements remain, concocting
for new eruptions as occasion shall permit. It is greatly to be
apprehended that mankind is not near the end of the
misfortunes which it is calculated to produce, and that it still
portends a long train of convulsion, revolution, carnage,
devastation, and misery.
Symptoms of the too great prevalence of this system in the
United States are alarmingly visible. It was by its influence that
efforts were made to embark this country in a common cause
with France in the early period of the present war; to induce
our government to sanction and promote her odious principles
and views with the blood and treasure of our citizens. It is by
its influence that every succeeding revolution has been

approved or excused; all the horrors that have been committed
justified or extenuated; that even the last usurpation, which
contradicts all the ostensible principles of the Revolution, has
been regarded with complacency, and the despotic constitution
engendered by it slyly held up as a model not unworthy of our
imitation.
In the progress of this system, impiety and infidelity have
advanced with gigantic strides. Prodigious crimes heretofore
unknown among us are seen….[298]

CHAPTER III
THE EUROPEAN ORDER OF THE ILLUMINATI

1. THE RISE AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ORDER

That great European movement in the direction of the secularization of
thought to which the expressive term, the Aufklärung or Enlightenment, has
been applied, and which reached its apogee in the latter half of the
eighteenth century, encountered a stubborn opposition in southern Germany
in the electorate of Bavaria. The pivot of Bavarian politics, particularly
from the beginning of the sixteenth century, had been the alliance which
had been effected between the clerical party and the civil power. The
counter reformation which followed in the wake of the Lutheran movement
was able to claim the field in Bavaria without the necessity of a combat.
In the third quarter of the eighteenth century Bavaria was a land where
sacerdotalism reigned supreme. Religious houses flourished in abundance;
the number of priests and nuns was incredibly large.[299] So easy were the
ways of life in that fertile country that a lack of seriousness and intensity of
feeling among the masses flung open the door for superstitious practices
which made the popular religion little better than gross fetichism. So-called
“miraculous” images were commonly paraded through the streets;
innumerable statues and sacred relics were exposed to the gaze of crowds of
the faithful; the patronage of the saints was assiduously solicited. Among
the educated there was a widespread conviction that the piety of the people
was ignorant and that their trustful attitude made them the prey of many
impostors.
The degree of power to which the representatives of the Society of Jesus
had been able to attain in Bavaria was all but absolute.[300] Members of the
order were the confessors and preceptors of the electors; hence they had a

direct influence upon the policies of government. The censorship of religion
had fallen into their eager hands, to the extent that some of the parishes
even were compelled to recognize their authority and power. To exterminate
all Protestant influence and to render the Catholic establishment complete,
they had taken possession of the instruments of public education. It was by
Jesuits that the majority of the Bavarian colleges were founded, and by
them they were controlled. By them also the secondary schools of the
country were conducted.[301]
The prevailing type of education in Bavaria had little more to commend
it than the popular type of religion.[302] The pedagogical aim of the Jesuits
was the development of the memory with scant regard for other faculties of
the mind. To learn the catechism, or in the case of advanced pupils to
receive unquestioningly the dogmatic instruction offered by clerical
pedagogues, was the ideal honored throughout the Bavarian schools. Books
which bore the slightest taint of Protestant influence, or which in any other
way gave evidence of a liberalizing spirit, were ruthlessly banned.[303]
Such were the conditions of life under which the great mass of the
people lived. There was, however, a relatively small group of cultivated
people in Bavaria who, despite the clerical oppression and bigotry from
which they suffered, had contrived to share in the liberalizing spirit of the
larger world. The censorship exerted by the Jesuits had found no adequate
means to guard against the broadening influences of travel or of contact
with travelers from other lands, or even to prevent the introduction of all
contraband journals and books. The effect of the former had been to create a
humiliating and galling sense of inferiority on the part of liberal-minded
Bavarians,[304] while the latter had served to stimulate a thirst for the new
knowledge which the rationalism of the age made available. To this small
group of discontented and ambitious spirits the ancient faith had ceased to
be satisfactory, and the burden of clericalism had become insufferable.

The University of Ingolstadt, established in 1472, was destined to
become a rallying point for these radical tendencies. In the middle of the
sixteenth century the Jesuits had gained control of its faculties of
philosophy and theology, and for two centuries thereafter the university had
been counted upon as the chief fortress of clericalism in Bavaria.[305] By the
middle of the eighteenth century the deadening effect of the rigorous
censorship exerted by the Jesuits had produced its full fruitage at Ingolstadt.
The university had fallen into a state of profound decadence.[306]
With the accession of Maximilian Joseph[307] as elector, in 1745, the
breath of a new life soon stirred within its walls. For the position of curator
of the university the elector named a well-known and resolute radical of the
day, Baron Johann Adam Ickstatt, and charged him with the responsibility
of reorganizing the institution upon a more liberal basis.[308] Measures were
adopted promptly by the latter looking to the restoration of the prestige of
the university through the modernization of its life. The ban was lifted from
books whose admission to the library had long been prohibited, chairs of
public law and political economy were established, and recruits to the
faculty were sought in other universities.[309]
It was, of course, not to be expected that the clerical party, whose power
in the university, as has been intimated, was particularly well entrenched in
the faculties of philosophy and theology, would retire from the field without
a struggle.[310] A sharp contest arose over the introduction of non-Catholic
books, into which the elector himself was drawn, and which in addition to
the substantial victory that Ickstatt won, had the further effect of aligning
the two parties in the university squarely against each other.[311] It was only
a few years after this episode, when the Jesuits were still chafing under the
sharp setback which their policies had suffered, that the name of Adam
Weishaupt first appeared (in 1772) on the roll of the faculty of the
university as professor extraordinary of law.

Weishaupt (born February 6, 1748; died November 18, 1830) entered
upon his professional career at Ingolstadt after an educational experience
which had made him a passionate enemy of clericalism. His father having
died when the son was only seven, his godfather, none other than Baron
Ickstatt, compelled doubtless by the necessities of the case, had turned the
early training of the boy over to the Jesuits. The cramming process through
which he thus passed was destined to prove unusually baneful in his
case[312] on account of certain influences which penetrated his life from
another quarter. Accorded free range in the private library of his godfather,
the boy’s questioning spirit was deeply impressed by the brilliant though
pretentious works of the French “philosophers” with which the shelves
were plentifully stocked.[313] Here was food for the fires of imagination just
beginning to flame up in this unsophisticated and pedantic youth. Here,
also, were ready solvents for the doubts with which his experience with
Jesuit teachers had filled his mind. The enthusiasm of the most susceptible
of neophytes seized him: he would make proselytes, he would deliver
others from their bondage to outworn beliefs, he would make it his duty to
rescue men from the errors into which the race had long been plunged.[314]
His object in life thus early determined, he threw himself with great zeal
into the study of law, economics, politics, history, and philosophy. He
devoured every book which chanced to fall into his hands.[315]
After graduating from the University of Ingolstadt in 1768, he served for
four years in the capacity of tutor and catechist until his elevation to the
rank of assistant instructor took place. The favor he was permitted to enjoy
as the protégé of Ickstatt[316] brought him more rapid advancement than that
to which his native abilities entitled him. In 1773 he was called to the chair
of canon law, which for a period of ninety years had been held by
representatives of the Jesuits.[317] Two years later, when he was but twenty-
seven years of age, he was made dean of the faculty of law. Such a rapid

improvement in his professional standing proved far from salutary. The
young man’s vanity was immensely flattered and his reforming resolution
unduly encouraged. His sense of personal worth as the leader of the liberal
cause in the university quite outran his merit.[318]
Meantime the Jesuits, observing with deep resentment Weishaupt’s
meteoric rise,[319] together with a growing disposition on his part to voice
unrestrained criticism of ecclesiastical intolerance and bigotry, entered into
intrigues to checkmate his influence and undermine his position.[320] The
payment of his salary was protested and the notion that he was a dangerous
free-thinker industriously disseminated.[321] On his part, Weishaupt did not
scruple to furnish Ickstatt’s successor, Lori, with secret reports calculated to
put the Jesuit professors in the university in an unfavorable light.[322] A
disagreeable squabble resulted, marked on the one hand by clerical jealousy
and pettiness and on the other by Weishaupt’s imprudence of speech[323]
and indifference to considerations of professional honor.
The effect of this unseemly strife upon Weishaupt was to establish firmly
in his mind the conviction that as the university’s most influential leader
against the cause of ecclesiastical obscurantism he was being made a martyr
for free speech.[324] In no way disposed to be sacrificed to the animosity of
enemies whose power he greatly over-estimated, he arrived at the
conclusion that a general offensive against the clerical party ought
immediately to be undertaken. A secret association was needed which,
growing more and more powerful through the increase of its members and
their progress in enlightenment, should be able to outwit the manœuvres of
the enemies of reason not only in Ingolstadt but throughout the world. Only
by a secret coalition of the friends of liberal thought and progress could the
forces of superstition and error be overwhelmed. Over the scheme of such
an association consecrated to the cause of truth and reason, the self-esteem

of Weishaupt kindled anew as he contemplated none other than himself at
its head.[325]
His imagination having taken heat from his reflections upon the
attractive power of the Eleusinian mysteries and the influence exerted by
the secret cult of the Pythagoreans, it was first in Weishaupt’s thought to
seek in the Masonic institutions of the day the opportunity he coveted for
the propagation of his views. From this original intention, however, he was
soon diverted, in part because of the difficulty he experienced in
commanding sufficient funds to gain admission to a lodge of Masons, in
part because his study of such Masonic books as came into his hands
persuaded him that the “mysteries” of Freemasonry were too puerile and
too readily accessible to the general public to make them worth while.[326]
He deemed it necessary, therefore, to launch out on independent lines. He
would form a model secret organization, comprising “schools of wisdom,”
concealed from the gaze of the world behind walls of seclusion and
mystery, wherein those truths which the folly and egotism of the priests
banned from the public chairs of education might be taught with perfect
freedom to susceptible youths.[327] By the constitution of an order whose
chief function should be that of teaching, an instrument would be at hand
for attaining the goal of human progress, the perfection of morals and the
felicity of the race.[328]
On May 1, 1776, the new organization was founded, under the name of
the Order of the Illuminati,[329] with a membership of five all told. The
extremely modest beginning of the order in respect to its original
membership was more than matched by the confusion which existed in
Weishaupt’s mind as to the precise form which the organization had best
take. Only three elementary grades, or ranks, had been worked out by him,
and these only in a crude and bungling fashion, when the enterprise was
launched. A feverish regard for action had full possession of the founder of

the order; the working-out of his hazy ideas of organization might wait for
quieter days.[330]
Out of the voluminous and rambling expositions which Weishaupt at
various times made of the three primary grades, viz., Novice, Minerval, and
Illuminated Minerval, the following brief descriptions are extracted.
To the grade of Novice youths of promise were to be admitted,
particularly those who were rich, eager to learn, virtuous, and docile,
though firm and persevering.[331] Such were to be enrolled only after their
imaginations and desires had been artfully aroused by suggestions
concerning the advantages to be derived from secret associations among
like-minded men, the superiority of the social state over that of nature, the
dependence of all governments upon the consent of the governed, and the
delight of knowing and directing men.[332] Once enrolled, the instruction of
each Novice was to be in the hands of his enroller, who kept well hidden
from his pupil the identity of the rest of his superiors. Such statutes of the
order as he was permitted to read impressed upon the mind of the Novice
that the particular ends sought in his novitiate were to ameliorate and
perfect his moral character, expand his principles of humanity and
sociability, and solicit his interest in the laudable objects of thwarting the
schemes of evil men, assisting oppressed virtue, and helping men of merit
to find suitable places in the world.[333] Having had impressed upon him the
necessity of maintaining inviolable secrecy respecting the affairs of the
order, the further duties of subordinating his egoistic views and interests
and of according respectful and complete obedience to his superiors were
next enjoined. An important part of the responsibility of the Novice
consisted in the drawing-up of a detailed report (for the archives of the
order), containing complete information concerning his family and his
personal career, covering such remote items as the titles of the books he
possessed, the names of his personal enemies and the occasion of their

enmity, his own strong and weak points of character, the dominant passions
of his parents, the names of their parents and intimates, etc.[334] Monthly
reports were also required, covering the benefits the recruit had received
from and the services he had rendered to the order.[335] For the building-up
of the order the Novice must undertake his share in the work of recruitment,
his personal advancement to the higher grades being conditioned upon the
success of such efforts.[336] To those whom he enrolled he became in turn a
superior; and thus after a novitiate presumably two years in length,[337] the
way was open for his promotion to the next higher grade.
The ceremony of initiation through which the Novice passed into the
grade Minerval was expected to disabuse the mind of the candidate of any
lingering suspicion that the order had as its supreme object the subjugation
of the rich and powerful, or the overthrow of civil and ecclesiastical
government.[338] It also pledged the candidate to be useful to humanity; to
maintain a silence eternal, a fidelity inviolable, and an obedience implicit
with respect to all the superiors and rules of the order; and to sacrifice all
personal interests to those of the society.[339] Admitted to the rank of
Minerval, the candidate received into his hands the printed statutes of the
order, wherein he learned that in addition to the duties he had performed as
novice, his obligations had been extended with special reference to his
studies.[340] These were to be more highly specialized, and the fruits of his
researches from time to time turned over to the superiors. In the prosecution
of difficult labors of this character, he was to be free to call to his assistance
other Minervals in his district.[341] He might also count upon the assistance
of his superiors in the form of letters of recommendation in case he
undertook travels in the pursuit of his studies; and should he form the
resolve to publish his material, the order pledged itself to protect him
against the rapacity of booksellers who might show themselves disposed to

overcharge him for the works he wished to consult, as well as to render
assistance in attracting the attention of the public to his work.[342]
In the assemblies of this grade the Minerval for the first time came into
contact with the members of the order. In other words, his life within the
society actually began.[343] The thirst for the sense of secret association
with men of like interests and aims, which the members long novitiate had
developed, began to find its satisfaction.[344] Ordinary Minervals and
“illuminated” Minervals mingled together in these assemblies[345] and
mutually devoted their deliberations to the affairs of the order.
To the grade Illuminated Minerval were admitted those Minervals who
in the judgment of their superiors were worthy of advancement. Elaborate
initiatory ceremonies fixed in the candidates mind the notions that the
progressive purification of his life was to be expected as he worked his way
upward in the order,[346] and that the mastery of the art of directing men
was to be his special pursuit as long as he remained in the new grade. To
accomplish the latter, i. e., to become an expert psychologist and director of
men’s consciences, he must observe and study constantly the actions,
purposes, desires, faults, and virtues of the little group of Minervals who
were placed under his personal direction and care.[347] For his guidance in
this difficult task a complicated mass of instructions was furnished him.[348]
In addition to their continued presence in the assemblies of the
Minervals, the members of this grade came together once a month by
themselves, to hear reports concerning their disciples, to discuss methods of
accomplishing the best results in their work of direction and to solicit each
other’s counsel in difficult and embarrassing cases.[349] In these meetings
the records of the assemblies of the Minervals were reviewed and rectified
and afterwards transmitted to the superior officers of the order.
Such, in brief, was the system of the Illuminati as it came from the brain
of Weishaupt, its founder. By means of such an organization he proposed to

effect nothing less than the redemption of the world. In its assemblies the
truths of human equality and fraternity were to be taught and practised.[350]
Its members were to be trained to labor for the welfare of the race; to strive
for a civilization, not like that of the present, which left men savage and
ferocious under its thin veneer, but one which would so radically change
their moral dispositions as to put all their desires under the control of reason
—the supreme end of life, which neither civil nor religious institutions had
been able to secure.[351] The study of man was to be made at once so
minute, so comprehensive, and so complete[352] that two immense
advantages would result: first, the acquisition of the art of influencing
favorably the wills of one’s fellows, thus making social reformation
possible; and second, self-knowledge.[353] That is to say, the thorough
scrutiny of the instincts, passions, thoughts, and prejudices of others, which
the order imposed upon him, would react in turn upon the member’s
judgment of his own personal life. As a result his conscience would be
subjected to frequent examination, and the faults of his life might be
expected to yield to correction. From both of these advantages, working
together, a moral transformation of the whole of society would result, thus
securing the state of universal well-being.[354]
But this conception of the order as essentially an instrument of social
education requires to be balanced by another, viz., its anticlericalism. Its
founder professed that at the time when the idea of the order was taking
shape in his mind he was profoundly influenced by the persecutions which
honest men of unorthodox sentiments had been compelled to suffer on
account of their views.[355] Considerations growing out of his own personal
embarrassments and imagined peril on account of his clashings with the
Jesuits were also admittedly weighty in his thought.[356] It is therefore to be
regarded as a substantial element in his purpose to forge a weapon against

the Jesuits, and in a larger sense to create a league defensive and offensive
against all the enemies of free thought.[357]
Accordingly, the expression of utterances hostile to Christian dogmas
was early heard within the assemblies of the order,[358] and only the
difficulty experienced in working out the supreme grade of the order
inhibited Weishaupt’s intention of converting it into a council of war to
circumvent and overwhelm the advocates of supernaturalism and the
enemies of reason.[359] The pure religion of Christ, which, doctrinally
conceived, had degenerated into asceticism and, from the institutional
standpoint,[360] had become a school of fanaticism and intolerance, was
pronounced a doctrine of reason, converted into a religion for no other
purpose than to make it more efficacious.[361] To love God and one’s
neighbor was to follow in the way of redemption which Jesus of Nazareth,
the grand master of the Illuminati, marked out as constituting the sole road
which leads to liberty.[362]
The objects of the order were such as to appeal to the discontented
elements in a country suffering from intellectual stagnation due to
ecclesiastical domination.[363] Despite this fact, its growth during the first
four years of its existence was anything but rapid. By that time four centers
of activity, in addition to Ingolstadt, had been established, and a total of
possibly sixty members recruited.[364] While its visionary founder
considered that a solid basis for encouragement had been laid,[365] as a
matter of fact at the termination of the period just indicated the organization
was seriously threatened with failure. Fundamental weaknesses had
developed from within. Chief among these was the tension which existed
almost from the first between Weishaupt and the men whom he associated
with him in the supreme direction of the affairs of the order.[366] The thirst
for domination, which was native to the soul of Weishaupt, converted the
order into a despotism against which men who had been taught by their

leader that they shared with him the innermost secrets of the organization,
rebelled. The result was the constant breaking-out of a spirit of
insubordination and a series of quarrels between the founder and his
associates which rendered the future progress of the order very precarious.
[367]
The extreme poverty of the organization constituted another serious
obstacle to its rapid growth. With a view to demonstrating the genuine
disinterestedness of the society, an effort had been made from the beginning
to emphasize the financial interests of the order as little as possible.[368] The
rules of the organization were far from burdensome in this regard, and it is
by no means surprising that many of the proposed measures of the leaders
in the interests of a more extensive and effective propaganda proved
abortive for the very practical reason that funds were not available to carry
them into effect.[369]
A decidedly new turn in the wheel of fortune came some time within the
compass of the year 1780,[370] with the enrollment of Baron Adolf Franz
Friederich Knigge[371] as a member.
In the recruiting of this prominent North German diplomat Weishaupt
and his associates found the resourceful and influential ally for which the
organization had waited, a man endowed with a genius for organization and
so widely and favorably connected that the order was able to reap an
immense advantage from the prestige which his membership bestowed
upon it. Two weighty consequences promptly followed as the result of
Knigge’s advent into the order. The long-sought higher grades were worked
out, and an alliance between the Illuminati and Freemasonry was effected.
[372]

Such was the confidence which Knigge’s presence immediately inspired
in Weishaupt and his associates that they hailed with enthusiasm his
admission to the order, and gladly abandoned to him the task of perfecting
the system, their own impotence for which they had been forced to admit.

[373]
Manifesting a zeal and competency which fully justified the high
regard of his brethren, Knigge threw himself into the task of elaborating and
rendering compact and coherent the childish ideas of organization which
Weishaupt had evolved.
The general plan of the order was so shaped as to throw the various
grades or ranks into three principal classes.[374] To the first class were to
belong the grades Minerval and Illuminatus Minor; to the second,[375]
(1) the usual three first grades of Masonry, Apprentice, Fellow, and Master,
(2) Illuminatus Major, and (3) Illuminatus Dirigens, or Scottish Knight; and
to the third class were reserved the Higher Mysteries, including (a) the
Lesser Mysteries, made up of the ranks of Priest and Prince, and (b) the
Greater Mysteries, comprising the ranks of Magus and King.[376]
A detailed description of the various grades of Knigge’s system would
far outrun the reader’s interest and patience.[377] The present writer
therefore will content himself with making such comments as seem best
suited to supply a general idea of the revised system.
The grade Novice (a part of the system only in a preparatory sense) was
left unchanged by Knigge, save for the addition of a printed communication
to be put into the hands of all new recruits, advising them that the Order of
the Illuminati stands over against all other forms of contemporary
Freemasonry as the one type not degenerate, and as such alone able to
restore the craft to its ancient splendor.[378] The grade Minerval was
reproduced as respects its statutes but greatly elaborated in its ceremonies
under the influence of Masonic usages with which Knigge was familiar.[379]
The grade Illuminatus Minor was likewise left identical with Weishaupt’s
redaction, save in unimportant particulars as to special duties and in the
working-out and explanation of its symbolism.[380]
The three symbolic grades of the second class seem to have been devised
solely for the purpose of supplying an avenue whereby members of the

various branches of the great Masonic family could pass to the higher
grades of the new order.[381] Membership in these grades was regarded as a
mere formality, the peculiar objects and secrets of the order having, of
course, to be apprehended later.
A candidate for admission to the grade of Illuminatus Major was first to
be subjected to a rigorous examination as respects his connections with
other secret organizations and his objects in seeking advancement. His
superiors being satisfied upon these points, it was provided that he should
be admitted to the grade by means of a ceremonial highly Masonic in its
coloring. His special duties were four in number: (1) to prepare a detailed
analysis of his character, according to specific instructions furnished him;
(2) to assist in the training of those members of the order who were charged
with the responsibility of recruiting new members; (3) to put his talents and
his social position under tribute for the benefit of the order, either by
himself stepping into places of honor which were open or by nominating for
such places other members who were fitted to fill them; and (4) to
coöperate with other members of his rank in the direction of the assemblies
of the Minervals.[382]
Advanced to the grade of Illuminatus Dirigens, or Scottish Knight, the
member bound himself with a written oath to withhold his support from
every other system of Masonry, or from any other secret society, and to put
all his talents and powers at the disposition of the order.[383] His obligations
in this rank were purely administrative in their character. The inferior
grades of the order were territorially grouped together into prefectures, and
upon these the authority of the Illuminatus Dirigens was imposed. Each
Illuminatus Dirigens had a certain number of Minerval assemblies and
lodges assigned to him, and for the welfare of these he was responsible to
the superiors of the order. The members of this grade constituted the

“Sacred Secret Chapter of the Scottish Knights,” from which issued the
patents of constitution for the organization of new lodges.[384]
To the first grade of the third class, that of Priest,[385] were admitted only
such members as, in the grade Minerval, had given proof of their zeal and
advancement in the particular sciences which they had chosen.[386] The
initiatory ceremonies of the grade emphasized the wholly unsatisfactory
character of existing political and religious systems and sounded the
candidate’s readiness to serve the order in its efforts to lead the race away
from the vain inventions of civil constitutions and religious dogmas from
which it suffered.[387] Relieved entirely of administrative responsibilities,
the members of this grade devoted themselves exclusively to the instruction
of their subordinates in the following branches of science: physics,
medicine, mathematics, natural history, political science, the arts and crafts,
and the occult sciences. In brief, the final supervision of the teaching
function of the order was in their hands, subject only to the ultimate
authority of their supreme heads.[388]
Knigge’s statutes provided that only a very small number of members
were to be admitted to the grade of Prince.[389] From this group the highest
functionaries of the order were to be drawn: National Inspectors,
Provincials,[390] Prefects, and Deans of the Priests. Over them, in turn, at
the apex of the system and as sovereign heads of the order, ruled the
Areopagites.[391]
So much for the external structure of the system which Knigge reshaped.
With respect to the aims and principles of the order the modifications
introduced by him were considerable, although scarcely as comprehensive
as in the former case.[392] In certain instances the ideas of Weishaupt were
retained and developed;[393] in others significant alterations were made or
new ideas introduced. Of the new ideas the two following were
unquestionably of greatest weight:[394] the notion of restricting the field of

recruiting solely to the young was abandoned, and this phase of the
propaganda was widened so as to include men of experience whose wisdom
and influence might be counted upon to assist in attaining the objects of the
order;[395] the policy was adopted that henceforth the order should not
occupy itself with campaigns against particular political and religious
systems, but that its energies should be exerted against superstition,
despotism, and tyranny.[396] In other words, the battle for tolerance and
enlightenment should be waged along universal and not local lines.
Accordingly, the esoteric teaching of the order, under Knigge’s revision,
was reserved to the higher grades.
The progress of the order from 1780 on[397] was so rapid as to raise
greatly the spirits of its leaders. The new method of spreading Illuminism
by means of its affiliation with Masonic lodges promptly demonstrated its
worth. Largely because of the fine strategy of seeking its recruits among the
officers and other influential personages in the lodges of Freemasonry, one
after another of the latter in quick succession went over to the new system.
[398]
New prefectures were established, new provinces organized, and
Provincials began to report a steady and copious stream of new recruits.[399]
From Bavaria into the upper and lower Rhenish provinces the order spread
into Suabia, Franconia, Westphalia, Upper and Lower Saxony, and outside
of Germany into Austria[400] and Switzerland. Within a few months after
Knigge rescued the order from the moribund condition in which he found it,
the leaders were able to rejoice in the accession of three hundred members,
many of whom by their membership immensely enhanced the prestige of
the order. Students, merchants, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, judges,
professors in gymnasia and universities, preceptors, civil officers, pastors,
priests—all were generously represented among the new recruits.[401]
Distinguished names soon appeared upon the rosters of the lodges of the
new system. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, Duke Ernst of Gotha, Duke

Karl August of Saxe-Weimar, Prince August of Saxe-Gotha, Prince Carl of
Hesse, Baron Dalberg,[402] the philosopher Herder, the poet Goethe,[403] the
educationist Pestalozzi,[404] were among the number enrolled. By the end of
1784 the leaders boasted of a total enrollment of between two and three
thousand members,[405] and the establishment of the order upon a solid
foundation seemed to be fully assured.[406]
But just at the moment when the prospects were brightest, the knell of
doom suddenly sounded.[407] Dangers from within and from without, with
bewildering celerity and concurrence, like a besom of destruction swept
from the earth the order which Adam Weishaupt, with such exaggerated
anticipations, had constituted out of a little group of obscure students at
Ingolstadt, on May Day, 1776.
The internal difficulties were of the nature of dissensions among the
chiefs. The old jealousies that existed between Weishaupt and the
Areopagites[408] before Knigge reconstructed the order were not eradicated
by the introduction of the new system, and in course of time they flamed
forth anew.[409] But ugly in temper and subversive of discipline and order as
these petty contentions were, they were of little importance as compared
with the fatal discord which arose between Weishaupt and Knigge. The
spirit of humility that the former manifested in 1780, when in desperation
he turned to Knigge for assistance, did not long continue. Aroused by the
danger of seeing his personal control of the order set aside and himself
treated as a negligible factor, Weishaupt sought opportunities of asserting
his prerogatives, and the ambition of Knigge being scarcely less selfish than
that of Weishaupt, the two men quarreled repeatedly and long.[410] So bitter
and implacable the spirit of the two became that in the end, exercising a
discretion dictated by despair rather than generosity, Knigge withdrew from
the field, leaving Weishaupt in undisputed possession of the coveted
headship of the order.

But the fruits of his victory the latter had little chance to enjoy.[411] On
June 22, 1784, Carl Theodore[412] launched the first of his edicts against all
communities, societies, and brotherhoods in his lands which had been
established without due authorization of law and the confirmation of the
sovereign.[413] The edict, to be sure, was general in its character, and the
Bavarian Illuminati were glad to believe that their system was not specially
involved: by lying low for a season the squall would speedily blow over and
the activities of the order might safely be resumed.[414] These anticipations,
however, were doomed to disappointment. Having surrendered himself
completely to the spirit of reaction, and spurred by reports of the covert
disobedience of the order which his entourage spread before him,[415] the
Bavarian monarch, on March 2 of the following year, issued another edict
that specifically designated the Illuminati as one of the branches of
Freemasonry, all of which were severely upbraided for their failure to yield
implicit obedience to the will of the sovereign as expressed in the previous
edict, and a new ban, more definite and sweeping in its terms than the
former, was thereby proclaimed.[416]
A fixed resolution on the part of the government to give full force to the
provisions of the interdict left no room for evasion.[417] In response to the
call of its enemies, former members of the order who, either because of
scruples of conscience or for less honorable reasons, had withdrawn from
its fellowship, came forward to make formal declarations respecting their
knowledge of its affairs.[418] In this direct manner the weapons needed for
the waging of an effective campaign against the society were put into the
government’s hands.[419] Judicial inquiries were inaugurated, beginning at
Ingolstadt.[420] Measures of government, all aimed at nothing short of the
complete suppression and annihilation of the order, followed one another in
rapid succession. Officers and soldiers in the army were required to come
forward and confess their relations with the Illuminati, under promise of

immunity if ready and hearty in their response, but under pain of disgrace,
cassation, or other punishment if refractory.[421] Members and officers of
consular boards were subjected to similar regulations.[422] Officers of state
and holders of ecclesiastical benefices who were found to have connections
with the order were summarily dismissed from their posts.[423] Professors in
universities and teachers in the public schools suffered a like fate.[424]
Students who were recognized as adepts were dismissed, and in some cases
were banished from the country.[425]
As a system the order was shattered, but its supporters were not wholly
silenced. Weishaupt particularly, from his place of security in a neighboring
country, lifted his voice against the men who had betrayed the order and the
government which had ruined it. Taking recourse to his pen, with incredible
rapidity he struck off one pamphlet and volume after another,[426] in a
feverish effort, offensive and defensive, to avert if possible total disaster to
the cause which, despite all his frailties, he truly loved. The one clear result
of his polemical efforts was to draw the fire of those who defended the
denunciators of the afflicted order and who supported the clerical party and
the government. A war of pamphlets developed, the noise and vehemence of
which were destined to add, if possible, to the embarrassment and pain of
those members of the order who still remained in Bavaria. Once more the
suspicions of the government were aroused; a search was made by the
police for further evidence, and in the month of October, 1786, at Landshut,
in the house of Xavier Zwack,[427] one of the order’s most prominent
leaders, decisive results were achieved. A considerable number of books
and papers were discovered,[428] the latter containing more than two
hundred letters that had passed between Weishaupt and the Areopagites,
dealing with the most intimate affairs of the order, together with tables
containing the secret symbols, calendar, and geographical terms belonging
to the system, imprints of its insignia, a partial roster of its membership, the

statutes, instruction for recruiters, the primary ceremony of initiation, etc.
[429]

Here was the complete range of evidence the authorities had long waited
for. Out of the mouths of its friends, the accusations which its enemies
made against the order were to be substantiated. By the admissions of its
leaders, the system of the Illuminati had the appearance of an organization
devoted to the overthrow of religion and the state, a band of poisoners and
forgers, an association of men of disgusting morals and depraved tastes.
The publication of these documents amounted to nothing less than a
sensation.[430] New measures were forthwith adopted by the government.
Leading representatives of the order, whose names appeared in the telltale
documents, were placed under arrest and formally interrogated. Some of
these, like the treasurer, Hertel, met the situation with courage and dignity,
and escaped with no further punishment than a warning to have nothing to
do with the organization in the future under fear of graver consequences.
[431]
Others, like the poltroon Mändl,[432] adopted the course of making
monstrous “revelations” concerning the objects and practices of the order.
Still others, like Massenhausen, against whom the charge of poison-mixing
was specifically lodged,[433] sought safety in flight.
As a final blow against the devastated order, on August 16, 1787, the
duke of Bavaria launched his third and last edict against the system.[434]
The presentments of the former interdicts were reëmphasized, and in
addition, to give maximum force to the sovereign’s will, criminal process,
without distinction of person, dignity, state, or quality, was ordered against
any Illuminatus who should be discovered continuing the work of
recruiting. Any so charged and found guilty were to be deprived of their
lives by the sword; while those thus recruited were to have their goods
confiscated and themselves to be condemned to perpetual banishment from
the territories of the duke.[435] Under the same penalties of confiscation and

banishment, the members of the order, no matter under what name or
circumstances, regular or irregular, they should gather, were forbidden to
assemble as lodges.[436]
The end of the order was at hand. So far as the situation within Bavaria
was concerned, the sun of the Illuminati had already set.[437] It remained for
the government to stretch forth its hand as far as possible, to deal with those
fugitives who, enjoying the protection of other governments, might plot and
contrive to rebuild the ruined system. Accordingly, Zwack, who had sought
asylum first in the court of Zweibrücken and had later obtained official
position in the principality of Salm-Kyburg, was summoned by the duke of
Bavaria to return to that country. The summons was not accepted,[438] but
the activities of Zwack as a member of the Illuminati, as the event proved,
were over. Count (Baron) Montgelas, whose services on behalf of the order
do not appear to have been significant, but who, upon the publication of the
correspondence seized in the residence of Zwack, had likewise sought the
protection of the duke of Zweibrücken, found the favor of that sovereign
sufficient to save him from the power of the Bavarian monarch.[439] As for
Weishaupt, whose originary relation to the order the Bavarian government
had discovered in the secret correspondence just referred to, his presence in
Gotha, outside Bavarian territory but in close proximity to the Bavarian
possessions, added greatly to the concern of Carl Theodore.[440] Efforts
were made by the latter to counteract any possible influence he might exert
to rehabilitate the Illuminati system.[441] They were as futile as they were
unnecessary. Broken in spirit, making no effort to regain the kingdom
which his vanity insisted he had lost, contenting himself with the
publication of various apologetic writings,[442] permitted for a considerable
period to enjoy the bounty of his generous patron, Duke Ernst of Gotha, he
sank slowly into obscurity.[443]

As for the fortunes of the order outside of Bavaria, the measures adopted
by the government of that country proved decisive. Here and there,
especially in the case of Bode,[444] a Saxon Illuminatus, efforts were made
to galvanize the expiring spirit of the order, but wholly without result.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: The amount of literature, chiefly polemical in character,
which has sprung up about the subject of the European Illuminati is astonishingly large.
Wolfstieg, Bibliographie der Freimaurerischen Literatur, vol. ii, pp. 971–979, lists
ninety-six separate titles of principal works, not counting translations, new editions, etc.
In the same volume (pp. 979–982) he lists the titles of one hundred and fourteen
“kleinere Schriften”. In addition, he also lists (ibid., p. 982) three titles of books
occupied with the statutes of the order, and the titles of five principal works devoted to
the order’s ritual (ibid., p. 983), together with the titles of nine smaller works likewise
occupied (ibid.). No student penetrates far into the study of the general topic without
being made aware that not only were contemporary apologists and hostile critics stirred
to a fierce heat of literary expression, but that a swarm of historians, mostly of inferior
talents, have been attracted to the subject.
In view of the thoroughgoing work which bibliographers like Wolfstieg have
performed, no necessity arises to repeat the task. For the benefit of the student who may
wish to acquaint himself at first hand with the principal sources of information
respecting the order, the following abbreviated list has been compiled. For convenience
the titles are grouped in three principal divisions.
I. Apologetic writings.
Weishaupt, Apologie der Illuminaten, Frankfort and Leipzig, 1786.
Vollständige Geschichte der Verfolgung der Illuminaten
“
in Bayern, I, Frankfort and Leipzig, 1786.
Das verbesserte System der Illuminaten mit allen seinen
“ Graden und Einrichtungen, Frankfort and Leipzig,
1787.
Kurze Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten, Frankfort
“
and Leipzig, 1787
Nachtrag zur Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten, Frankfort
“
and Leipzig, 1787.
Bassus, Vorstellung denen hohen Standeshäuptern der Erlauchten
Republik Graubünden, Nuremberg, 1788.
Knigge, Philo’s endliche Erklärung and Antwort auf verschiedene
Anforderungen und Fragen, Hanover, 1788.
II. Documents of the order, published by the Bavarian government or otherwise, and
hostile polemics.

Einige Originalschriften des Illuminaten Ordens, Munich, 1787.
Nachtrag von weiteren Originalschriften, Munich, 1787.
Der ächte Illuminat, oder die wahren, unverbesserten Rituale der Illuminaten,
Edessa (Frankfort-on-the-Main), 1788.
Cosandey, Renner, and Grünberger, Drei merkwürdige Aussagen die innere
Einrichtung des Illuminatenordens, Munich, 1786.
Same (with Utzschneider), Grosse Absichten des Ordens der Illuminaten mit
Nachtrag, I, II, III, Munich, 1786.
Der neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus and Philo, Munich, 1793.
Illuminatus Dirigens, oder Schottischer Ritter, Ein Pendant, etc., Munich, 1794.
III. Historical treatments of the precise character and significance of the order.
Mounier, De l’influence attribuée aux philosophes, aux franc-maçons et aux
illuminés, sur la révolution de France, Tübingen, 1801.
Mounier, J. J., On the Influence attributed to Philosophers, Freemasons, and to the
Illuminati, on the Revolution of France…. Translated from the Manuscript, and
corrected under the inspection of the author, by J. Walker, London, 1801.
Engel, Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens, Berlin, 1906.
Forestier, Les Illuminés de Bavière et la Franc-Maçonnerie allemande, Paris, 1915.

2. THE LEGEND OF THE ORDER AND ITS LITERARY COMMUNICATION TO NEW
ENGLAND

Although the Order of the Illuminati was dead, the world had yet to
reckon with its specter. So intense and widespread was the fear which the
order engendered, so clearly did the traditionalists of the age see in its
clientele the welding together into a secret machine of war of the most
mischievous and dangerous of those elements which were discontented with
the prevailing establishments of religion and civil government, that it was
impossible that its shadow should pass immediately.[445]
The emergence of the order had attracted public attention so abruptly
and sharply, and its downfall had been so violent and so swift, that public
opinion lacked time to adjust itself to the facts in the case. In Bavaria,
particularly, the enemies of the order were unable to persuade themselves
that the machinations of the Illuminati could safely be regarded as wholly
of the past.[446] The documents of the order were appealed to, to supply
proof that its leaders had made deliberate calculations against the day of

possible opposition and temporary disaster and with satanic cunning had
made their preparations to wring victory out of apparent defeat.[447]
Besides, the depth of the governments suspicions and hostility was such
that additional, though needless measures of state[448] kept very much alive
in that country the haunting fear of the continued existence of the order.
Outside of Bavaria numerous factors contributed to create the same
general impression in the public mind. Among these were the efforts of the
Rosicrucians to play upon the fears that the Illuminati had awakened, the
mistaken connections which, in the Protestant world, were commonly made
between the members of the Order of the Illuminati and the representatives
and promoters of the Aufklärung, and the emergence of the German Union.
To each of these in turn a word must be devoted.
Following the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, members of that order
in considerable numbers, attracted by the rapid growth and the pretentious
occultism of the Rosicrucians,[449] had united with the latter system.[450]
The result was the infusion of a definite strain of clericalism into the order
of the Rosicrucians and, in consequence, a renewal of the attack upon the
Illuminati. In Prussia, where the Rosicrucians had firmly established
themselves in Berlin, King Frederick William II was under the influence of
Wöllner, one of his ministers and a leading figure in the Rosicrucian
system.[451] Through the latter’s relations with Frank, who at the time stood
at the head of the Rosicrucian order in Bavaria, the Prussian monarch was
easily persuaded that the operations of the Illuminati had not only been
extended to his own territories, but throughout all Germany.[452]
Encouraged by Wöllner, Frederick William took it upon himself to warn
neighboring monarchs respecting the peril which he believed threatened, a
course which bore at least one definite result in the measures taken by the
elector of Saxony to investigate the situation at Leipzig where, according to
the king of Prussia, a meeting of the chiefs of the Illuminati had been

effected.[453] Thus the notion that the order of the Illuminati was still in
existence was accorded the sanction of influential monarchs.
The disposition of orthodox Protestants to confuse the advocates of
rationalism with the membership of the Illuminati finds its suggestion of
plausibility at a glance and stands in little need of specific historical proof.
The general effect of the undermining of traditional faiths, for which the
dominating influences of the period of the Aufklärung were responsible,
was to create the impression among the more simple-minded and credulous
elements in the Protestant world that a vast combination of forces was at
work, all hostile to the Christian religion and all striving to supplant faith by
reason. So vast and significant a movement of thought naturally enough
tended to engender various suspicions, and among these is to be numbered
the naïve conviction that the order which the Bavarian government had felt
compelled to stamp out, on account of its alleged impiety and its immoral
and anarchical principles, was but a local expression of the prevailing
opposition to the established systems and orthodox doctrines of the age.[454]
The excitement occasioned by the appearance of the German Union (Die
Deutsche Union), on account of its definite connections with one of the
former leaders[455] of Weishaupt’s system and the unsavory private
character and avowed unscrupulous designs of its originator, gave still more
specific force to the Illuminati legend. Charles Frederick Bahrdt,[456] a
disreputable doctor of theology, in 1787, at Halle, proposed to reap
advantage from the ruin of Weishaupt’s system and to recruit among its
former members the supporters of a new league, organized to accomplish
the enlightenment of the people principally by means of forming in every
city secret associations of men[457] who were to keep in correspondence
with similar groups of their brethren and who, by the employment of
reading-rooms, were to familiarize the people with those writings which
were specially calculated to remove popular prejudices and superstitions,

and to break the force of appeals to tradition. Further, these associations
were to supply financial assistance to writers who enlisted in the Union’s
campaign, and to fill the palms of booksellers who for the sake of a bribe
showed themselves willing to prevent the sale of the works of authors who
withheld their coöperation.[458]
As an organization the German Union scarcely emerged from the stage
of inception; but the absurd policy of publicity pursued by its founder gave
to the project a wide airing and provoked hostile writings[459] that added
immensely to the importance of the matter. The new system was boldly
denounced as continuing the operations of the odious order dissolved in
Bavaria, with a shrewd change of tactics which substituted “innocent”
reading-rooms for the novitiate of Weishaupt’s organization, and thus, it
was urged, the way was opened for the exertion of a really powerful
influence upon the thought of the German people.[460]
By such means, and in such widely diverse and irrational ways, the
popular belief in the survival of the defunct Order of the Illuminati was kept
alive and supplied with definite points of attachment; but it remained for the
French Revolution, in all the rapidity and vastness of its developments and
in the terrifying effects which its more frightful aspects exercised upon its
observers, to offer the most exciting suggestions and to stimulate to the
freest play the imaginations of those who were already persuaded that the
secret associations that plagued Bavaria still lived to trouble the earth.[461]
The supposed points of connection between the Order of the Illuminati
and the French Revolution were partly tangible, though decidedly elusive,
[462] but much more largely of the nature of theories framed to meet the

necessities of a case which in the judgment of dilettante historians
positively required the hypothesis of a diabolical conspiracy against thrones
and altars (i. e., the civil power and the church), though the labors of
Hercules might have to be exceeded in putting the same to paper.

Of the exiguous resources of interpreters of the Revolution who made
serious efforts to trace its impious and anarchical principles and its savage
enormities to their lair in the lodges of the Illuminati, the following are
perhaps the only ones worthy of note.
The public discussion of the affairs and principles of Weishaupt’s
organization, to which attention has already been called in various
connections, continued with unabated zeal even beyond the close of the
eighteenth century. At the very hour when the Revolution was shocking the
world by its lapse from its original self-control into its horrible massacres,
execution of monarchs, guillotine-lust, and ferocious struggles between
parties, new pamphlets and reviews bearing on the demolished order’s
constitution and objects found their way into the channels of public
communication. Conspicuous among these were the following: Die
neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten Orden, jetzt
zum ersten Mal gedruckt und zur Beherzigung bei gegenwärtigen
Zeitläuften herausgegeben,[463] and Illuminatus Dirigens oder Schottischer
Ritter,[464] announced as a continuation of the former. These works,
published at the instigation of the authorities at Munich, attracted public
attention anew to the most extreme religious and social doctrines[465] of the
order. Thus the revolutionary character of Illuminism received heavy
emphasis[466] synchronously with contemporary events of the utmost
significance to the imperilled cause of political and religious conservatism.
In Austria an independent literary assault upon Illuminism developed. At
Vienna, Leopold Hoffman,[467] editor of the Wiener Zeitschrift, fully
convinced that the Order of the Illuminati had exercised a baneful effect
upon Freemasonry, to which he was devoted, abandoned his chair of
language and German literature at the University of Vienna to dedicate his
talents and his journal to the overthrow of Illuminated Freemasonry.[468]
Finding a zealous collaborator in a certain Dr. Zimmerman, a physician of

Hannover, a radical turned an extreme conservative by the developments of
the French Revolution, the two labored energetically to stigmatize the
Illuminati as the secret cause of the political explosion in France.
The discontinuance of the Wiener Zeitschrift in 1793 by no means
marked the end of the campaign. A deluge of pamphlets[469] had been
precipitated, all based upon the assumption that the order Weishaupt had
founded had subsided only in appearance. Declamation did not wait upon
evidence. It was alleged that the lower grades of the Illuminati had been
dissolved, but the superior grades were still practised. Under cover of
correspondence, recruits of the system were now being sought.
Freemasonry was being subjugated by Illuminism only that it might be
forced to serve the ends of its conqueror. Journalists partial to the interests
of the Aufklärung had been enlisted for the same purpose. The German
Union was thus only one of the enterprises fostered by the Illuminati to
further their designs. The dogmas of the order had been spread secretly in
France by means of the clubs of that country, and the effectiveness of the
propaganda was being vividly demonstrated in the horrors of the
Revolution. Unless German princes should promptly adopt rigorous
measures against the various agents and enterprises of the order in their
territories, they might confidently expect similar results to follow.[470]
Much more of like character was foisted upon the reading public. As for
contemporary historians who searched for specific evidence of an alliance
between the Illuminati of Germany and the Revolutionists in France, their
energies were chiefly employed in the development of a clue which had as
its kernel the supposed introduction of Illuminism into France at the hands
of the French revolutionary leader, Mirabeau, and the German savant, Bode.
[471] Unfolded, this view of the case may be stated briefly as follows:

Mirabeau, during his residence at Berlin, in the years 1786 and 1787, came
into touch with the Illuminati of that city and was received as an adept into

the order. Upon his return to Paris he made the attempt to introduce
Illuminism into that particular branch of Masonry of which he was also a
member, the Philalèthes or Amis Réunis.[472] To give force to his purpose,
he called upon the Illuminati in Berlin to send to his assistance two talented
and influential representatives of the order. The men chosen by the
Illuminati-circle in Berlin, Bode and von dem Busche,[473] arrived in Paris
in the early summer of 1787. To conceal their purpose from prying eyes,
they spread the report that they had come from Germany to investigate the
subjects of magnetism and the extent of the influence exerted by the Jesuits
upon the secret societies of the age. Meantime, the lodges of the
Philalèthes, and through them the French Masonic lodges in general, were
inoculated with the principles of Illuminism. French Freemasonry thus
became committed to the project of forcing the overthrow of thrones and
altars. So transformed, these lodges created secret committees who busied
themselves with plans for the precipitation of a great revolutionary
movement. To these committees belonged the subsequent leaders and
heroes of the French Revolution—de Rochefoucauld, Condorcet, Pétion,
the Duke of Orléans (Grand Master of French Masonry), Camille-
Desmoulins, Danton, Lafayette, de Leutre, Fauchet, et al. Through these
and their associates the connection between the lodges of Illuminated
French Freemasonry and the powerful political clubs of the country was
effected. Thus Illuminism was able to inspire Jacobinism. Finally, on the 14
of July, 1789, the revolutionary mine was sprung, and the great secret of the
Illuminati became the possession of the world.[474]
At every point this fantastic exposition suffered the fatal defect of a lack
of historical proof. Even the specific assertions of its inventors which were
most necessary to their hypothesis were disproved by the facts brought to
light by more cautious and unbiased investigators who followed. E. g., the
idea of Mirabeau’s intimate connection with the program of the Order of the

Illuminati and his profound faith in it as the best of all instruments for the
work of social amelioration is rendered untenable the moment the rash and
unrepublican temper of his spirit is called seriously to mind.[475] Again, the
real object of Bode’s visit to Paris, a matter of vital importance in the
Illuminati-French Revolution hypothesis, was not to communicate
Illuminism to French Freemasons, but to attend an assembly of
representatives of the Philalèthes, called to consider the results of an
inquiry previously undertaken, respecting the occult interests and
tendencies of that order. Convinced that that branch of French Masonry was
yielding to an inordinate passion for the occult sciences, Bode had been
prevailed upon by German Masons, von dem Busche[476] among the
number, to make a journey to Paris to warn his French brethren of their
mistake. A subsidiary personal interest in the newly-discovered “science” of
animal magnetism[477] helped to form his decision to make the trip.[478]
The much more important contention that the Illuminati were
instrumental in starting the French Revolution, shows a lack of historical
perspective that either leaves out of account or obscures the importance of
the economic, social, political, and religious causes, tangible and overt,
though complex, that rendered the Revolution inevitable.
Yet the legend of Illuminism as the responsible author of the French
Revolution found numerous vindicators and interpreters,[479] to the efforts
of two of which, because of their intimate relation to the interests of the
investigation in hand, our attention in the remainder of this chapter is to be
confined.
In the year 1797 there appeared at Edinburgh, Scotland, a volume
bearing the following title: Proofs of a Conspiracy against All the Religions
and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of the Free
Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies.[480] Its author, John Robison,
[481] an English savant and Freemason, whose position in the academic

world entitled his statements to respect, had had his curiosity regarding the
character and effects of continental Freemasonry greatly stimulated by a
stray volume of the German periodical, Religions Begebenheiten,[482] which
came under his notice in 1795, and in which he found expositions of
Masonic systems and schisms so numerous and so seriously maintained by
their advocates as to create deep wonderment in his mind.[483] Bent upon
discovering both the occasion and the significance of this tangled mass,
Robison obtained possession of other volumes of the periodical
mentioned[484] and set himself the task of elucidating the problem presented
by Masonry’s luxuriant growth and its power of popular appeal.
The conclusions Robison came to are best stated in his own words:

I have found that the covert of a Mason Lodge had been
employed in every country for venting and propagating
sentiments in religion and politics, that could not have
circulated in public without exposing the author to great
danger. I found, that this impunity had gradually encouraged
men of licentious principles to become more bold, and to teach
doctrines subversive of all our notions of morality—of all our
confidence in the moral government of the universe—of all our
hopes of improvement in a future state of existence—and of all
satisfaction and contentment with our present life, so long as
we live in a state of civil subordination. I have been able to
trace these attempts, made, through a course of fifty years,
under the specious pretext of enlightening the world by the
torch of philosophy, and of dispelling the clouds of civil and
religious superstition which keep the nations of Europe in
darkness and slavery. I have observed these doctrines gradually
diffusing and mixing with all the different systems of Free

Masonry; till, at last, AN ASSOCIATION HAS BEEN
FORMED for the express purpose of ROOTING OUT ALL
THE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS, AND
OVERTURNING ALL THE EXISTING GOVERNMENTS
OF EUROPE. I have seen this Association exerting itself
zealously and systematically, till it has become almost
irresistible: And I have seen that the most active leaders in the
French Revolution were members of this Association, and
conducted their first movements according to its principles, and
by means of its instructions and assistance, formally requested
and obtained: And, lastly, I have seen that this Association still
exists, still works in secret, and that not only several
appearances among ourselves show that its emissaries are
endeavouring to propagate their detestable doctrines, but that
the Association has Lodges in Britain corresponding with the
mother Lodge at Munich ever since 1784 …. The Association
of which I have been speaking is the order of ILLUMINATI,
founded, in 1775 [sic], by Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of
Canon-law in the University of Ingolstadt, and abolished in
1786 by the Elector of Bavaria, but revived immediately after,
under another name, and in a different form, all over Germany.
It was again detected, and seemingly broken up; but it had by
this time taken so deep root that it still subsists without being
detected, and has spread into all the countries of Europe.[485]

The “proofs” to which Robison appealed to support these conclusions
betrayed the same lack of critical mind[486] with which all the advocates of
the Illuminati-French Revolution hypothesis are to be charged. Only the
more significant elements are here brought under survey.[487]

That inclination for a multiplication of the degrees and an elaboration of
the ceremonies of simple English Freemasonry which Robison found
operative among French Freemasons from the beginning of the eighteenth
century on,[488] had resulted in making the lodges attractive to those
elements in France whose discontent over civil and ecclesiastical
oppressions had grown great.[489] Under the pressure imposed upon private
and public discussion by the state and by the church, men of letters, avocats
au parlement, unbeneficed abbés, impecunious youths, and self-styled
philosophers thronged the halls of the lodges, eager to take advantage of the
opportunity their secret assemblies afforded to discuss the most intimate
concerns of politics and religion.[490] Despite the wide contrariety of minor
views thus represented, one general idea and language, that of
“cosmopolitanism,” was made familiar to a multitude of minds. Worse still,
the popular interest of the period in mysticism, theosophy, cabala, and
genuine science was appealed to, in order to provide a more numerous
clientele among whom might be disseminated the doctrines of atheism,
materialism, and discontent with civil subordination.[491] Thus the Masonic
lodges in France were made the “hot-beds, where the seeds were sown, and
tenderly reared, of all the pernicious doctrines which soon after choaked
every moral or religious cultivation, and have made … Society worse than a
waste ….”[492]
The introduction of French Freemasonry into Germany, according to
Robison, was followed by similar results.[493] Thither, as to France, simple
English Freemasonry had first gone, and because of its exclusive emphasis
upon the principle of brotherly love the Germans had welcomed it and
treated it with deep seriousness;[494] but the sense of mystery and the taste
for ritualistic embellishments which the advent of French Masonry
promoted, speedily changed the temper of the German brethren.[495] A
reckless tendency to innovation set in. The love of stars and ribbons,[496]

and the desire to learn of ghost-raising, exorcism, and alchemy,[497] became
the order of the day. Rosicrucianism flourished,[498] rival systems appeared,
and questions of precedency split German Freemasonry into numerous
fiercely hostile camps.[499]
Meantime, on account of the propaganda carried on by the Enlighteners,
[500]
a revolution of the public mind took place in Germany, marked by a
great increase of scepticism, infidelity, and irreligion, not only among the
wealthy and luxurious but among the profligate elements in the lower
classes as well.[501] Rationalistic theologians, aided and abetted by
booksellers and publishers and by educational theorists,[502] coöperated to
make the ideas of orthodox Christianity distasteful to the general public.[503]
To give effect to this campaign of seduction, the lodges of Freemasonry
were invaded and their secret assemblies employed to spread free-thinking
and cosmopolitical ideas.[504] Thus German Freemasonry became
impregnated with the impious and revolutionary tendencies of French
Freemasonry.[505]
At such an hour, according to Robison, Weishaupt founded his Order of
the Illuminati.[506] Employing the opportunities afforded him by his
connections with the Masons,[507] he exerted himself to make disciples and
to lay the foundations of an “Association … which, in time, should govern
the world,”[508] the express aim of which “was to abolish Christianity and
overturn all civil government.”[509]
To accomplish this end a most insinuating pedagogy was adopted,[510]
the members were trained to spy upon one another,[511] and hypocrisy
which did not stop short of positive villainy was practised.[512] As a fitting
climax to a program that involved the complete subversion of existing
moral standards, women were to be admitted to the lodges.[513]

Following an analysis of the grades of the order,[514] lifted little if any
above the general plane of ineptitude upon which the author moved,
Robison incorporated into his history of the Bavarian Illuminati a table of
the lodges that had been established prior to 1786.[515] Drawing professedly
upon the private papers of the order as published by the Bavarian
government, he worked out a list which included five lodges in Strassburg;
four in Bonn; fourteen in Austria; “many” in each of the following states,
Livonia, Courland, Alsace, Hesse, Poland, Switzerland, and Holland; eight
in England; two in Scotland; and “several” in America.[516]
The suppression of the Illuminati by the Bavarian government was
regarded by Robison as merely “formal” in its nature:[517] the evil genius of
the banned order speedily reappeared in the guise of the German Union.[518]
Into the discussion of the German Union Robison read the “proofs” of an
enterprise truly gigantic both as to its proportions and its baneful influence.
The illuminated lodges of Freemasonry were declared to have given way to
reading societies wherein the initiated, i. e., the members of the Union,
actively employed themselves, apparently to accomplish the noble ends of
enlightening mankind and securing the dethronement of superstition and
fanaticism,[519] but actually to secure the destruction of every sentiment of
religion, morality and loyalty.[520] The higher mysteries of Bahrdt’s silly
and abortive project were declared to be identical with those of Weishaupt’s
order: natural religion and atheism were to be substituted for Christianity,
and political principles equally anarchical with those of the Illuminati were
fostered.[521]
Although Robison confessed himself driven to pronounce Bahrdt’s
enterprise “coarse, and palpably mean,”[522] and although the archives and
officers of the Union were held to be “contemptible,”[523] none the less an
elaborate though most disjointed tale was unfolded by him. This involved
the organization of the German literati and the control of the book trade,

with a view to forming taste and directing public opinion;[524] and the
establishment of reading societies to the number of eight hundred or more,
[525]
among whose members were to be circulated such books as were
calculated to fortify the mind against all disposition to be startled on
account of the appearance of “doctrines and maxims which are singular, or
perhaps opposite to those which are current in ordinary societies.”[526] Thus
it would be possible “to work in silence upon all courts, families, and
individuals in every quarter, and acquire an influence in the appointment of
court-officers, stewards, secretaries, parish-priests, public teachers, or
private tutors.”[527]
Robison was unable to present anything beyond the most tenuous
“proofs” that a direct relation existed between Weishaupt’s system and
Bahrdt’s enterprise;[528] still he did not hesitate to affirm that, on account of
the emergence of the latter, it had been made clear that the suppression of
the Illuminati had been futile.[529] “Weishaupt and his agents were still busy
and successful.”[530]
Arriving finally at the subject of the French Revolution, Robison
devoted something more than sixty pages to an effort to connect the system
of Weishaupt with the great European debacle. Approaching the matter with
unconcealed dubiety,[531] he found his confidence and boldness growing as
he proceeded. Relying chiefly upon such uncritical and promiscuous
sources as the Religions Begebenheiten, the Wiener Zeitschrift, and the
Magazin des Literatur et Kunst (sic), and a work entitled Mémoires
Posthumes de Custine, he sought a point of direct contact between the
Illuminati and the French revolutionary movement by stressing the
enlistment of Mirabeau,[532] the mission of Bode and von Busche,[533] and
the instructions which, he alleged, were given by the latter to the Amis
Réunis and the Philalèthes through their chief lodges at Paris.[534]

The mission of Bode and von Busche, according to Robison, had been
undertaken at the request of Mirabeau and the Abbé Perigord[535]
(Talleyrand). When Weishaupt’s plan was thus communicated to the two
French lodges mentioned, “they saw at once its importance, in all its
branches, such as the use of the Masonic Lodges, to fish for Minervals—the
rituals and ranks to entice the young, and to lead them by degrees to
opinions and measures which, at first sight, would have shocked them.”[536]
By the beginning of 1789 the lodges of the Grand Orient[537] had received
the secrets of the Illuminati.[538] The Duke of Orléans, who had been
“illuminated” by Mirabeau,[539] and whose personal political ambitions
were strongly stressed by Robison,[540] gave hearty support to the
enterprise; and thus in a very short time the Masonic lodges of France were
converted into a set of secret affiliated societies, all corresponding with the
mother lodges of Paris, and ready to rise instantly and overturn the
government as soon as the signal should be given.[541] The political
committees organized in each of these “illuminated” lodges familiarized not
only their brethren but, through them, the country in general, with the secret
revolutionary program.[542] Thus it happened that the “stupid Bavarians”
became the instructors of the French “in the art of overturning the world”;
[543] and thus, also, it happened that “the whole nation changed, and
changed again, and again, as if by beat of drum.”[544]
Such in its main outlines and in its “principal links” of evidence is the
Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of
Europe. Yet to obtain a just appraisal of the book it must not be overlooked
that its author wrote an additional one hundred and fifty pages, not of
“proofs” but of argument, partly to defend errors of judgment he may have
committed in his treatment of the subject, but chiefly to persuade his fellow
countrymen that the principles of Illuminism were false and to urge them to
turn a deaf ear to these doctrines.

We turn now to consider another and much more elaborate exposition of
the Illuminati-French Revolution legend. Almost at the moment of the
appearance of Robison’s book, there appeared in French, at London and
Hamburg, a far more finished production, devoted to the same thesis and
bearing the title, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du Jacobinisme.[545] Its
author, the Abbé Barruel,[546] who had been trained as a Jesuit, enjoying
literary talents much superior to those of Robison and relying upon
documentary evidence more copious if not more convincing, defined his
purpose in the following manner:

We shall show that with which it is incumbent on all nations
and their chiefs to be acquainted: we shall demonstrate that,
even to the most horrid deeds perpetrated during the French
Revolution, everything was foreseen and resolved on, was
combined and premeditated: that they were the offspring of
deep-thought villainy, since they had been prepared and were
produced by men, who alone held the clue of those plots and
conspiracies, lurking in the secret meetings where they had
been conceived, and only watching the favorable moment of
bursting forth. Though the events of each day may not appear
to have been combined, there nevertheless existed a secret
agent and a secret cause, giving rise to each event, and turning
each circumstance to the long-sought-for end. Though
circumstances may often have afforded the pretense of the
occasion, yet the grand cause of the revolution, its leading
features, its atrocious crimes, will still remain one continued
chain of deep-laid and premeditated villainy.[547]

The amazing breadth of Barruel’s canvass, as well as the naiveté of the
artist, are immediately disclosed in his foreword respecting the “triple
conspiracy” which he proposes to lay bare.[548] To present this “triple
conspiracy” in his own words will do more than define the abbé’s
conception of his task: its transparent incoordination will make it apparent
that much of the work of examination that might otherwise seem to be
called for is futile.

1st. Many years before the French Revolution, men who
styled themselves Philosophers conspired against the God of
the Gospel, against Christianity, without distinction of worship,
whether Protestant or Catholic, Anglican or Presbyterian. The
grand object of this conspiracy was to overturn every altar
where Christ was adored. It was the conspiracy of the
Sophisters[549] of Impiety, or the ANTICHRISTIAN
CONSPIRACY.
2dly. This school of impiety soon formed the Sophisters of
Rebellion: these latter, combining their conspiracy against
kings with that of the Sophisters of Impiety, coalesce with that
ancient sect whose tenets constituted the whole secret of the
Occult-Lodges of Free-Masonry, which long since, imposing
on the credulity of its most distinguished adepts, only initiated
the chosen of the elect into the secret of their unrelenting hatred
for Christ and kings.
3dly. From the Sophisters of Impiety and Rebellion arose
Sophisters of Impiety and Anarchy. These latter conspire not
only against Christ and his altars, but against every religion
natural or revealed: not only against kings, but against every

government, against all civil society, even against all property
whatsoever.
This third sect, known by the name of Illumines, coalesced
with the Sophisters conspiring against Christ, coalesced with
the Sophisters who, with the Occult Masons, conspired against
both Christ and kings. It was the coalition of the adepts of
impiety, of the adepts of rebellion, and the adepts of anarchy,
which formed the CLUB of the JACOBINS…. Such was the
origin, such the progress of that sect, since become so
dreadfully famous under the name JACOBIN. In the present
Memoirs each of these three conspiracies shall be treated
separately; their authors unmasked, the object, means, coalition
and progress of the adepts shall be laid open.[550]

The sole proposition which Barruel proposed to maintain is thus made
clear enough. All the developments of the French Revolution were to be
explained on the basis of the following postulate: The Encyclopedists,
Freemasons, and Bavarian Illuminati, working together, not unconsciously
but with well-planned coördination, produced the Jacobins, and the
Jacobins in turn produced the Revolution. Over all, embracing all, the word
“conspiracy” must needs be written large.
The first volume of the Memoirs was devoted to the conspiracy of the
philosophers. Voltaire, D’Alembert, Frederick II, and Diderot—“Voltaire
the chief, D’Alembert the most subtle agent, Frederick the protector and
often the adviser, Diderot the forlorn hope”[551]—these were the men who
originally leagued themselves together “in the most inveterate hatred of
Christianity.”[552] Bringing out into bold relief the most malignant and
brutal of the anticlerical and anti-Christian utterances of Voltaire and his
friends,[553] as well as all available evidence of a crafty strategy on the part

of the conspirators to avoid detection of their plan,[554] Barruel was
emboldened to affirm a desperate plan to overturn every altar where Christ
was adored, whether in London, Geneva, Stockholm, Petersburg, Paris,
Madrid, Vienna, or Rome, whether Protestant or Catholic.[555]
The first definite step in this campaign of the philosophers is declared to
have been the publication of L’Encyclopédie;[556] the second, the
suppression of the Jesuits and the widespread elimination of religious
houses;[557] and the third, the capture of the French Academy by the
philosophers and the diversion of its honors to impious writers.[558]
The foregoing were measures which primarily concerned “the chiefs,” or
“better sort.”[559] Efforts to extend the conspiracy to the hovel and the
cottage were also made. Accordingly, appeals to toleration, reason, and
humanity became the order of the day.[560] These were intended to impress
the populace and, by a show of sympathy with those who complained of
their condition, prepare the way for the days of rebellion, violence, and
murder which were yet to come.[561] Free schools were established, directed
by men who, privy to the great conspiracy, became zealous corrupters of
youth.[562] All was carefully calculated and planned to render possible the
full fruitage of the designs of the conspirators when the harvest day should
come.
Having thus dealt with the conspiracy against altars, Barruel turned in
his second volume to consider the plot against thrones. The great inspirers
of this covert attack upon monarchy were Voltaire, Montesquieu, and
Rousseau. Voltaire, though by nature a friend of kings, whose favor and
caresses were his delight, yet, since he found them standing in the way of
his efforts to extirpate Christianity, was led to oppose them, and to
substitute the doctrines of equality of rights and liberty of reason for his
earlier emphasis upon loyalty to sovereigns.[563] Unwittingly, through his
Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu had helped on the anti-monarchical resolution

by his heavy emphasis upon the essential differences between monarchies
and democracies, thus for the first time suggesting to the French people that
they lived under a despotic government and helping to alienate them from
their king.[564] As for Rousseau, in his Social Contract he had widened the
path which Montesquieu had opened.[565] His doctrines had the effect of
placing monarchy in an abhorrent light. They filled the minds of the people
with a passion for Liberty and Equality.
The systems of Montesquieu and Rousseau, particularly, induced the
Sophisters of Impiety to combine the task of overthrowing monarchy with
the task of overthrowing religion.[566] A sweeping attempt to popularize the
leveling principles embodied in those two systems immediately developed.
A flood of antimonarchical writings appeared,[567] governments were
sharply criticized, despotism was roundly denounced, the minds of the
people were agitated and inflamed, and the notion of revolution was
rendered familiar both by precept and example.[568]
Some powerful secret agency was needed, however, to promote this vast
conspiracy. The lodges of Freemasonry suggested a tempting possibility.
The members of the craft gave ample evidence that they were susceptible.
[569] The occult lodges,[570] moreover, already had traveled far toward the

goal of revolution. All their protests to the contrary, their one secret was:
“Equality and Liberty; all men are equals and brothers; all men are
free.”[571] Surely it would not be difficult for the enemies of thrones and
altars to reach the ears of men who cherished such a secret, and to convert
their lodges into council-chambers and forums for the propagation of the
doctrines of impiety and rebellion.
An alliance was speedily consummated,[572] and a fresh torrent of
declamation and calumnies, all directed against the altar and the throne,
began to pour through these newly discovered subterranean channels.[573]
The Grand Orient constituted a central committee which as early as 1776

instructed the deputies of the lodges throughout France to prepare the
brethren for insurrection.[574] Condorcet and Sieyès placed themselves at
the head of another lodge, to which the Propaganda was to be traced.[575] In
addition, a secret association bearing the title Amis des Noirs created a
regulating committee, composed of such men as Condorcet, the elder
Mirabeau, Sieyès, Brissot, Carra, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Clavière,
Lepelletier de Saint-Fargeau, Valade, La Fayette, and Bergasse.[576] This
regulating committee was also in intimate correspondence with the French
lodges of Freemasonry. Thus a powerful secret organization was at hand,
composed of not less than six hundred thousand members all told, at least
five hundred thousand of whom could be fully counted upon to do the
bidding of the conspirators, “all zealous for the Revolution, all ready to rise
at the first signal and to impart the shock to all other classes of the
people.”[577]
However, all these machinations might have come to naught had it not
been for the encouragement and direction supplied by the Illuminati. In the
latter Barruel saw the apotheosis of infamy and corruption.[578] With
diabolical ingenuity the chiefs of the Illuminati succeeded in evolving an
organization which put into the hands of the conspirators, i. e., the
philosophers and Freemasons, the very instrument they needed to give full
effect to their plans. The superiority of that organization was to be seen in
its principles of general subordination and the gradation of superiors, in the
minute instructions given to adepts and officers covering every conceivable
responsibility and suggesting infinite opportunities to promote the order’s
welfare, and in the absolute power of its general.[579] Thus was built up a
hierarchy of savants, an association held under a most rigid discipline, a
formidable machine capable of employing its maximum power as its
governing hand might direct.[580] With the close of the third volume Barruel

considers that he has been able to present a “complete academy of
Conspirators.”[581]
Barruel’s last volume, the most formidable of all, was devoted by its
author to the forging of the final link in his chain: the coalescence of the
conspiring philosophers, Freemasons, and Illuminati into the Jacobins. To
establish a connection between the “illuminated” Masons and the
immediate “authors and abettors of the French Revolution,”[582] i. e., the
Jacobins, Barruel had recourse to the familiar inventions of the
reappearance of the Bavarian Illuminati after its suppression,[583] the rise
and corrupting influence of the German Union,[584] that treacherous
“modification of Weishaupt’s Minerval schools,”[585] and, particularly, the
pretended mission of Bode and von Busche to Paris.[586]
With respect to this last invention, no more worthy of our comment than
the others except for the fact that it was supposed to supply the direct point
of contact between the conspirators and the French Revolution, Barruel was
obliged to admit that he was unable to place before his readers evidence of
the precise character of the negotiations that took place between the
deputation from Berlin and the French lodges:[587] “facts” would have to be
permitted to speak for themselves.[588] These “facts” were such as the
following: the lodges of Paris were rapidly converted into clubs, with
regulating committees and political committees;[589] the resolutions of the
regulating committees were communicated through the committee of
correspondence of the Grand Orient to the heads of the Masonic lodges
scattered throughout France;[590] the day of general insurrection was thus
fixed for July 14, 1789;[591] on the fatal day the lodges were dissolved, and
the Jacobins, suddenly throwing off their garments of secrecy and
hypocrisy, stood forth in the clear light of day.[592]
His last two hundred pages were devoted by Barruel to arguments
shaped chiefly to show that the principles of the Revolutionary leaders were

identical with the principles of the illuminated lodges;[593] that the
successes of the Revolutionary armies, of Custine beyond the Rhine,[594] of
Dumouriez in Belgium,[595] of Pichegru in Holland,[596] and of Bonaparte in
Italy, in Malta, and in Egypt,[597] were explicable only on the ground of
treacherous intrigues carried on by the agents of Illuminism; and that no
country, moreover, need flatter itself it would escape the seductions and
plots of the conspirators. The dragon’s teeth of revolution were already
sown in Switzerland, in Sweden, in Russia, in Poland, in Austria, in Prussia,
and in America.[598] With Barruel’s comment upon America,[599] our
discussion of the Memoirs of Jacobinism may well come to a close.

As the plague flies on the wings of the wind, so do their
triumphant legions infect America. Their apostles have infused
their principles into the submissive and laborious negroes; and
St. Domingo and Guadaloupe have been converted into vast
charnel houses for their inhabitants. So numerous were the
brethren in North America, that Philadelphia and Boston
trembled, lest their rising constitution should be obliged to
make way for that of the great club; and if for a time the
brotherhood has been obliged to shrink back into their hiding
places, they are still sufficiently numerous to raise collections
and transmit them to the insurgents of Ireland;[600] thus
contributing toward that species of revolution which is the
object of their ardent wishes in America.[601] God grant that the
United States may not learn to their cost, that Republics are
equally menaced with Monarchies; and that the immensity of
the ocean is but a feeble barrier against the universal
conspiracy of the Sect!

NOTE: The literary relationship between the works of Robison and
Barruel is of sufficient interest and significance to warrant some comment.
Robison’s volume was published before its author saw Barruel’s
composition in its French text.[602] Later, Robison was moved to rejoice that
Barruel had confirmed his main positions and contentions. A few things in
the Memoirs of Jacobinism, however, impress him as startling. He
confesses that he had never before heard the claim seriously made that
“irreligion and unqualified Liberty and Equality are the genuine and
original Secrets of Free Masonry, and the ultimatum of a regular progress
through all its degrees.”[603] He is driven to assert that this is not the secret

of Masonry as he has learned it from other sources. Robison also recognizes
differences in the two works respecting the exposition of certain Masonic
degrees. For his part he is not willing to admit that his sources are
unreliable.[604]
Barruel, on the other hand, did not get sight of Robison’s volume until
just as his third volume was going to press.[605] He comments in part as
follows: “Without knowing it, we have fought for the same cause with the
same arms, and pursued the same course; but the Public are on the eve of
seeing our respective quotations, and will observe a remarkable difference
between them.”[606] That difference Barruel attempts to explain on the
ground that Robison had adopted the method of combining and condensing
his quotations from his sources. Besides, he thinks his zealous confederate
“in some passages … has even adopted as truth certain assertions which the
correspondence of the Illuminées evidently demonstrate to have been
invented by them against their adversaries, and which,” he continues, “in
my Historical Volume I shall be obliged to treat in an opposite sense.”[607]
Barruel also differs with Robison respecting the time of the origin of
Masonry.[608] But all such matters are of slight consequence; all suggestions
of opposition and disagreement between Robison and Barruel are brushed
aside by him in the following summary fashion: “ … It will be perceived
that we are not to be put in competition with each other; Mr. Robison taking
a general view while I have attempted to descend into particulars: as to the
substance we agree.”[609]
It was one of the most confident boasts of the supporters of the idea of a
“conspiracy against thrones and altars” that these two writers, Robison and
Barruel, had worked at the same problem without the knowledge of each
other’s effort, and thus following independent lines of investigation, had
reached the same conclusion. The merit of the claim may safely be left to
the reader’s judgment.

CHAPTER IV
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,
JEDH 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.

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]

3. MORSE SUBMITS HIS INEPT DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

The national skies had by no means cleared of threatening clouds when,
in the early spring of 1799, the time arrived for President Adams to issue his
annual fast day proclamation. In the view of the nations chief executive the
questions of the hour were still of great urgency and it was a season of
imminent danger.[763] Accordingly, in appointing Thursday, April 25, as the
day for the people of the nation to perform acts of solemn humiliation,
fasting and prayer, he justified in part the issuance of the proclamation on
the following grounds:

The most precious interests of the people of the United States
are still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious
acts of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination among
them of those principles, subversive of the foundations of all

religious, moral, and social obligations, that have produced
incalculable mischief and misery in other countries.[764]

Seldom, if ever, has a presidential proclamation breathed deeper concern
for the moral and religious interests of the people.[765] Its challenge to
citizens who were already of fearful heart was unmistakable.
To the observance of this fast day the Reverend Jedediah Morse must
have turned in no ordinary frame of mind. A spirit of exultation possessed
him. It is impossible to read the sermon which on that occasion he delivered
before his people in the Charlestown meeting house and avoid the
impression that to Morse personally the day had been anticipated as one of
triumph rather than of humiliation.[766] Not that in any sense he was out of
sympathy with the objects for which the day had been set apart, or with the
President’s extremely solemn language in proclaiming the fast; but it was
given him, as he believed, to make before his people a pronouncement of
such a startling and convincing character as would perform for the country
at large that great and needed service which for months he had been eager
to accomplish. Incidentally, the scoffers who had sought to cry down the
alarm which a year before he had sounded should be put to rout. Timid
apologists for the outcry against the Illuminati were about to see their case
tremendously strengthened. Honest doubters, by the overwhelming weight
of the evidence which was about to be spread before them, would be forced
to acknowledge the folly of their distrust.
The text that Morse employed for the occasion directly echoed a
sentiment in the President’s proclamation, and besides was well suited to
the purpose in view. From the Hebrew Psalms he selected the following
passage: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”—
Psalm xi:3. With this text he proposed to make an effective appeal. The
Psalm from which it was taken was composed by David while he was in

great peril and distress from the persecuting hand of Saul; while, too, he
was hard pressed to find a way of escape out of the destructive snares set by
his enemies, whose secret machinations involved both his character and his
life, and not only this, but the foundations of his country.[767] What word
would better fit the circumstances of the present hour? Have not the
enemies of David, of Christ his Antitype, and of the Church … ever
possessed similar dispositions, … had in view similar designs, and in like
circumstances, … adopted and pursued the same means of gratifying the
former, and of accomplishing the latter?”[768] Might it not be said that “the
present situation is uncommonly critical and perilous?” Do not all persons
of reflection agree upon that judgment, even though their opinions
regarding the sources and degrees of the dangers may vary greatly?[769]
The “foundations” alluded to in the text were, of course, the foundations
of religion and government.[770] This exegesis paved the way for the
following statement:

With all the frankness and plainness becoming an honest and
faithful watchman, I intend, my brethren, to lay before you
what I humbly conceive to be our real and most alarming
dangers; those which have a malign aspect, both on our
religious and our political welfare. Believing, as I firmly do,
that the foundations of all our most precious interests are
formidably assailed, and that the subtil and secret assailants are
increasing in number, and are multiplying, varying, and
arranging their means of attack, it would be criminal in me to
be silent. I am compelled to sound the alarm, and I will do it, so
far as God shall enable me, with fidelity.[771]

Having thus prepared the minds of his auditors for the portentous
revelation, Morse quickly descended to particulars.
It may as well be said plainly, he continued, that the passage in the
President’s fast day proclamation respecting the hostile designs, insidious
arts, and demoralizing principles of a certain foreign nation, referred to
France.[772] Did any one ask for proofs that the President’s statement was
true? The proofs were so abundant and so evident that the difficulty was to
know where to begin. The war upon the defenceless commerce of the
United States; the inhuman and savage treatment of those citizens of this
country who have been so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of France’s
minions by whom they have been so grossly insulted, beaten, wounded and
thrust into loathsome prisons and dungeons, even murdered; the recent plot
of the French Directory to invade the southern states from St. Domingo,
using an army of blacks to effect an invasion, and by these attempting to
excite to insurrection the blacks of this country;[773] here, surely, were
ample proofs of the hostile and detestable designs of the French government
against our own.[774]
But there was another matter. The disclosure that had recently been
made regarding the secret machinations of the French on the Island of St.
Domingo, focused attention upon a matter of the most serious moment. The
most vigorous, active, and united measures must immediately be adopted to
arouse from their slumber the citizens of this country, that they may give
due attention to a particular aspect of the insidious and seductive activities
of the French in the United States, of which, Morse averred, he stood
prepared to speak with the utmost definiteness.[775] Continuing:

It has long been suspected that secret societies, under the
influence and direction of France, holding principles
subversive of our religion and government, existed somewhere

in this country. This suspicion was cautiously suggested from
this desk, on the day of the late National Fast, with the view to
excite a just alarm, and to put you on your guard against their
secret artifices. Evidence that this suspicion was well founded
has since been accumulating, and I have now in my possession
complete and indubitable proof that such societies do exist, and
have for many years existed, in the United States. I have, my
brethren, an official, authenticated list of the names, ages,
places of nativity, professions, &c. of the officers and members
of a Society of Illuminati (or as they are now more generally
and properly styled Illuminees) consisting of one hundred
members, instituted in Virginia, by the Grand Orient of
FRANCE. This society has a deputy, whose name is on the list,
who resides at the Mother Society in France, to communicate
from thence all needful information and instruction. The date of
their institution is 1786, before which period, it appears from
the private papers of the European Societies already published,
(according to Professor Robison), that several societies had
been established in America. The seal and motto of this society
correspond with their detestable principles and designs. The
members are chiefly Emigrants from France and St. Domingo,
with the addition of a few Americans, and some from almost all
the nations of Europe. A letter which enclosed this list, an
authentic copy of which I also possess, contains evidence of a
society of like nature, and probably of more ancient date, at
New-York, out of which have sprung fourteen others, scattered
we know not where over the United States. Two societies of the
same kind, but of an inferior order, have been instituted by the
society first mentioned, one in Virginia, the other at St.

Domingo. How many of equal rank they have established
among us I am not informed.
You will perceive, my brethren, from this concise statement
of facts, that we have in truth secret enemies, not a few
scattered through our country; how many and, except in three
or four instances, in what places we know not; enemies whose
professed design is to subvert and overturn our holy religion
and our free and excellent government. And the pernicious
fruits of their insidious and secret efforts, must be visible to
every eye not obstinately closed or blinded by prejudice.
Among these fruits may be reckoned our unhappy and
threatening political divisions; the increasing abuse of our wise
and faithful rulers; the virulent opposition to some of the laws
of our country, and the measures of the Supreme Executive; the
Pennsylvania insurrection; the industrious circulation of
baneful and corrupting books, and the consequent wonderful
spread of infidelity, impiety, and immorality; the arts made use
of to revive ancient prejudices, and cherish party spirit, by
concealing or disguising the truth, and propagating falsehoods;
and lastly, the apparent systematic endeavours made to destroy,
not only the influence and support, but the official existence of
the Clergy.[776]

The remainder of the sermon is void of originality and interest. Its
utterances pale into insignificance alongside of the sensational and
emphatic statements just recorded.[777]
When the sermon came from the printer’s hands it contained the
“complete and indubitable proof” that Morse had proudly told his hearers

was in his possession. This “proof” was in the form of documents,
conspicuous among which was the following letter:

A L’Ot∴ de Portsmouth, En Virginie le 17. du
5e. m. en L’an de la V∴ L∴ 5798.⁄:
La R∴ L∴ Pte∴ Fse∴ réguliérement constitué
sous le titre distinctif de la Sagesse No. 2660,
par le G∴
La T∴ R∴ L∴ L’union-française No. 14.
constituée par le G∴ Ot∴ de New-York.
S∴ F∴ V∴
TT∴ CC∴ & RR∴ FF∴
La Planche dont vous nous avez favorisés en date du 16e. du
2e. mois de la presénte année Mque∴, ne nous est parvenuë que
depuis peu de jours; Elle a été mise sous les yeux de notre R∴
L∴ en sa séance extraordinaire du 14e. du présent.
Nous vous félicitons TT∴ CC∴ FF∴ des nouvelles
Constitutions que vous avez obténuës du G∴ Ot∴ de New-
York. Nous avons ferons en consequénce un plaisir & un devoir
d’entretenir avec votre R∴ L∴ la correspondence la plus
fraternelle, comme avec toutes les LL∴ réguliére qui voudront
bien vous favoriser de la leur.
C’est a ce titre que nous croyons devoir vous donner
Connoissance de l’éstablissement de deux nouveaux attellieres
maçoniques réguliérement constitués et installés au rite français
par notre R∴ L∴ provincialle, L’un depuis plus d’un an sous le
titre de L’amitiê à L’Ot∴ de Petersburg, en Virginie; l’autre,

plus récent, sous le titre de la Parfaite-Egalité à L’Ot∴ du Port
de Paix isle St. Domingue.
Nous vous remettons cy-joint quelques exemplaires de notre
Tableau de cette année que notre L∴ vous prie d’agréer en
retour de ceux qu’elle a reçu de la votre avec reconnoissance.
Puisse la G∴ A∴ de l’U∴ bénir vos travaux et les couronner
de toutes sortes de succés! C’est dans ces sentiments que nous
avons la faveur d’être,
P∴ L∴ N∴ M∴ Q∴ V∴ S∴ C∴
TT∴ CC∴ et TT∴ RR∴ FF∴
Votre très affectionés F∴
Par Mandement de la T∴
R∴ L∴ Pte∴ de la Sagesse.
Guieu,
Sécrétaire.[778]

Following this letter and its translation appeared a list of the officers and
members, resident and non-resident, of Wisdom Lodge, Portsmouth,
Virginia, with explanatory data in each instance, covering such points as
age, place of birth, profession, etc., the whole concluding with a
representation of the seal of Wisdom Lodge and the following motto:
Amplius Homines oculis quam auribus credunt. Iter longum est per
precepta, breve et efficax per exempla.[779]
Upon these documents Morse saw fit to make and publish certain
“Explanatory Remarks,”[780] of which the following is the gist.
The Lodge Wisdom in Portsmouth, Virginia, is seen to be a branch of the
Grand Orient of France. Its members consist chiefly of foreigners, that is to
say, Frenchmen,—Frenchmen who come either from France or from the
West India possessions of that country. From the seal it appears that

Wisdom Lodge was established as early as 1786. It is also, as its number
shows, “the TWO THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTIETH branch from the
original stock.”[781] It further appears that there is a sister lodge in the city
of New York, styled the Grand Orient of New York. The latter, from the
name and number of the lodges it has instituted, is quite likely the first and
principal branch that the Mother Club in France has established in America.
This New York lodge has established the French lodge, Union, to which the
letter from the lodge Wisdom was addressed. As to the other thirteen
branches from the parent stock, for the present there could be nothing more
than conjecture as to their location.[782]
The documents also show that an intimate correspondence is maintained
between the lodges in America and those in St. Domingo; also between the
American lodges and the Grand Orient in France. It further appears that
Wisdom Lodge has a regular deputy in the membership of the Grand Orient
of France. Lists of names are exchanged between the two societies, so that
their members may be fully known to each other.[783]
Masons to whom these documents issuing from Wisdom Lodge have
been shown declare that the organization is not truly Masonic. The titles of
its officers, its seal and motto, they affirm, are not regular. Thus the lodge in
Portsmouth has been pronounced spurious by well-informed Masons.[784]
Wisdom Lodge, it appears, has one hundred members. Counting all the
others referred to in the documents, there are seventeen lodges in all.
Assuming that these have an equal number of members, it may be said that
there are at least seventeen hundred Illuminati in the United States, all
bound together by oath and intimate correspondence.[785] Beyond these
there are to be considered, of course, the many thousands of Frenchmen
scattered through the United States, all perhaps “combined and organized
(with other foreigners and some disaffected and unprincipled Americans) in
these societies, … regularly instructed and directed by their masters in

France, and … systematically conducting the plan of revolutionizing this
country.”[786]
The principles and objects of this organization may be partly deduced
from the motto and seal of Wisdom Lodge. The literal rendering of the
former is not so significant as its spirit, which is best expressed in the
following liberal translation: “Men more readily believe what they see than
what they hear. They are taught slowly by precept, but the effect of
example is sudden and powerful.”[787] From this it may be inferred that the
organization was formed, “not for speculation, but for activity.” Precepts
are scorned; actions are accepted as the only quick method of teaching
mankind and of producing a change in their opinions. The change in
opinions which the organization contemplates must have to do with
government and religion. It cannot have to do with the minds of its
members, for the society is secret and designs to work secretly. “The
changes which they can produce by secret influence and intrigue, the novel
arts which they can thus exhibit before the eyes of men, are doubtless to be
the efficaceous means of teaching men the new system of philosophy,
which sets at defiance, and contemns all old and settled opinions, by which
the government of nations and the conduct of individuals have heretofore
been directed.”[788]
As to the organization’s seal, no description can do it justice.[789] A view
of its square and compass, pillars, and skull and cross-bones best indicates
its horrid nature.[790]
Fortified by these documents, and flanked by the testimonies of Robison
and Barruel,[791] Morse concluded his presentment in the following
energetic manner:

That there are branches and considerably numerous too, of this
infernal association in this country we have now full proof.

That they hold and propagate similar doctrines and maxims of
conduct is abundantly evident from what is passing continually
before our eyes. They even boast that their plans are deeply and
extensively laid, and cannot be defeated, that success is certain.
If then, Americans, we do not speedily take for our motto,
Vigilance, Union and Activity, and act accordingly, we must
expect soon to fall victims to the arts and the arms of that
nation, “on the title page of whose laws, as well as on its
standards, is written the emphatic and descriptive motto
HAVOC AND SPOIL AND RUIN ARE OUR GAIN.”[792]

Here, at last, was something reasonably concrete. After a full year,
devoted mostly to the reiteration of vague suspicions and generalities, of
reckless affirmations and denials, here was something which had the value
of a definite point at which a rational investigation of the subject could
begin, should any course so practical as this be thought of. The hour for the
introduction of something tangible in the way of evidence had fully come,
in any event. This was evidenced by the fact that in connection with the
celebration of the national fast other clergymen, for the most part, had held
back, apparently unwilling to commit themselves further on the subject of
the Illuminati until clearer proof should be at hand.[793] This did not signify
that public interest in the subject had abated; it was rather in suspense.[794]
With the appearance of Morse’s third and last sermon dealing with the
Illuminati,[795] the public discussion of the subject became immediately
possessed of a new energy. In a letter to Wolcott, bearing date of June 5,
1799, Morse observed to his friend, “I expect that I have disturbed a
hornet’s nest.”[796] There can be no doubt that, diction conceded, this was
an apt estimate of the situation. In view of the experiences which were
ahead of him, it was well that Morse found his serenity of mind such as to

enable him to complete the remark just recorded, by adding, “Happily, I am
fearless of their stings.”[797]
The breaking-out of a heated newspaper discussion supplied the
principal evidence that Morse’s fast day sermon of 1799 inaugurated a new
stage in the Illuminati agitation.
The Independent Chronicle, aware of the fact that something tangible
was now before the public, something which might perhaps seriously
influence the popular judgment, promptly abandoned its contemptuous and
indiscriminative policy[798] and violently assailed Morse for his latest
performance. The author of the fast sermon was sharply taken to task for
handling the Illuminati matter as he did. If, in his judgment, there was
substantial justification for the charges he had made, why then did he not
submit the evidence to President Adams, or lay it before some other proper
official of the government, instead of retailing “the alarming narrative in a
nine-penny sermon?”[799] If it was true that there was a society plotting the
overthrow of our government and Morse could throw any light whatever on
the persons involved, what sense was there in treating the subject “in so
loose a manner as to render it only subservient to a second or third edition
of a political fulmination?”[800] Morse could have only political ends in
view. His “plot” was another Federalist scheme. He wished to excite
jealousies against a certain class of citizens,[801] i. e., the Democrats. Or,
was it to be inferred from the way he handled “the trifling story of the
Illuminati,” that he desired to incense and greatly anger the people of this
country against France?[802] This suspicion would seem to be justified by
the fact that Morse had preached and published a number of sermons, in all
of which he had anathematized the French nation as the authors of the
diabolical system of Illuminatism.[803] But whatever were the motives
which animated him, his statements were not to be trusted. He had forfeited
the right to be taken seriously.[804]

During the two or three months that followed the celebration of the
national fast, a copious flood of contributed articles poured through the
columns of the Chronicle.[805] “A Friend to a Real Clergyman, and an
Enemy to Bigotry,” “Bunker Hill,” “Credulity,” “Daniel,” et al., all made
their offerings to the airing of what the opposition unanimously agreed
should be styled “the preposterous documents of Morse.” If a friend and
supporter of the Charlestown pastor ventured to express his respect for the
arguments of that gentleman, he had little to hope for in the face of the
withering fire of sarcasm, ridicule, denial, and defiance that the opposition
steadily maintained. Thus, for example, when “Senex,” an old contributor to
the Chronicle, made public profession of the fact that Morse’s evidence had
seriously shaken his earlier distrust of the “Illuminati conspiracy,”[806]
“Credulity” hastened to “pooh-pooh” such anxious fears, and to insist that
they were unworthy of a sensible man. Morse’s declarations on the subject
of Illuminism deserved only to be laughed at. They were certainly utterly
out of reason.[807]
The American Mercury was another newspaper that rallied to the effort
to break down any favorable impressions which Morse’s latest deliverance
upon the subject of Illuminism may have made upon the public mind. The
respectfully attentive and receptive attitude of this journal during the earlier
stages of the agitation has already been noted.[808] The appearance of the
fast day sermon converted this into a spirit of violent antagonism. Morse’s
latest sermon was pronounced absurd. “His history of the Lodge of Wisdom
is equally fabulous with his story of the ship Ocean,”[809] was the judgment
of Editor Babcock.[810] A few weeks later the Mercury gave to its readers an
article that had first seen the light in the Farmer’s Weekly Museum,[811] a
New Hampshire publication. How roughly Morse and the documentary
proofs which he had recently laid before the public were handled in this
article, the following excerpts will suggest:

Every person who had an opportunity of perusing the sermons
which have been published by Dr. Morse, within the space of
two years past, must be sensible how great have been his
efforts and exertions, to sound an alarm amongst the people,
and to create in the public mind the highest degree of
astonishment…. From the assurance with which the Dr. speaks
of his discovery and the great utility which must result from it
to mankind, one would imagine that his name would be
enrolled among the worthies of his day, as the greatest
ornament of our country, and the glory of human nature…. He
will undoubtedly do more honour to himself and his profession,
to return again to his old business, “of writing geography,” and
not thus attempt to agitate the public mind, with such alarming
discoveries of Illuminatism.
For trifles, light as air, are to the
suspicious,
Strong as proofs of holy writ.[812]

Meanwhile the supporters of Morse were not idle, although it must be
admitted that as far as the press was concerned the amount of sympathy and
support that Morse received from that quarter was by no means
commensurate to the weight of criticism with which his opponents sought
to crush him. Extracts from his recent fast sermon appeared in such papers
as the Massachusetts Mercury[813] and the Salem Gazette;[814] and with
characteristic loyalty to every interest which in any way might be able to
serve the cause of Federalism, the Connecticut Courant proclaimed its

complete satisfaction with Morse’s production in the following reckless
fashion:

This sermon is worthy the attention of every inhabitant in the
United States on every account, as it contains an authentic
letter from the Grand Lodge of Illuminated Free Masons in
France, to the Grand Lodge of the Illuminated Free Masons in
the United States, together with a list of about one hundred
members—their names—birthplace—age—places of
residence, and occupation. Every person who does not wish to
be blind to his own destruction, will undoubtedly furnish
himself with this document; since it establishes beyond a doubt
the existence of that infernal club in the very heart of our
country.[815]

A larger measure of support of Morse and his cause came from the
public declaimers, who, on the occasion of the Fourth of July following,
regaled their audiences with discursive observations on the state of national
affairs. All over New England citizens were solemnly urged to take serious
account of the conspiracy that recently had been partially dragged into the
light.
At Ridgefield, Connecticut, the declaration was made that America had
been caught in the meshes of the net which the Illuminati had attempted to
cast over all the nations.[816] At New Haven it was asserted that the societies
of Illuminism, having wrought fearful havoc and ruin in Europe, were now
known to be extensively engaged in communicating infection and death to
the citizens and institutions of this nation.[817] At Hartford the society of the
Illuminati and the occult lodges of Freemasonry were represented as having
“exhausted the powers of the human mind, in inventing and combining a

series of dread mysteries, unhallowed machinations, and disastrous plots,”
with the dissemination of the principles of Voltaire and his school as the
main objective in view.[818] At Boston direct connections were made
between the secret affiliated societies which the virtuous frown of
Washington drove into their lurking-places and the newly discovered
organizations which had just been found to be “busily engaged in sapping
the foundations of society, and may ere long spring a mine, which shall
blow up our Constitution and Liberties.”[819] At Portland, Maine, the
unwilling prostitution of the Masonic lodges in Europe to the purposes of
the Illuminati was pointed out as amounting to a threat against the
institutions of America.[820] At Byfield[821] and Roxbury,[822]
Massachusetts, similar warnings were heard.
To a certain extent, the general employment of this anniversary of
national independence to arouse the country against the machinations of the
Illuminati was due to an event, long anticipated, that had occurred shortly
before. Less than a month prior to July 4, 1799, Barruel’s Memoirs of
Jacobinism made its first appearance in New England.[823] The hopes of the
supporters of the agitation were immediately raised.
Before the publication of the documents which Morse gave to the world
in his fast sermon of 1799, Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy constituted
the chief if not the sole resource of the friends of the agitation. Barruel had
been appealed to, but only in the form of such scanty excerpts from his
writings as percolated to America through the fingers of his English
reviewers and, as we have seen, in settings which provided ammunition for
both sides in the controversy. Now the hour had come when the supporters
of the Illuminati alarm in New England were to be privileged to make a full
and free appeal to their second great ally from abroad.[824]
The facts regarding the nature of the reception accorded Barruel’s
composition in New England are meagre in the extreme. In this very

circumstance, one may suppose, is found the best of all evidences that the
book failed to fulfil the hopes of its friends. It is true that within seven
weeks after the public announcement of the fact that the Memoirs of
Jacobinism were ready for distribution at Hartford, one of Morse’s
correspondents at that place was able to assure him that “the facts … in
Du Pan, Robison, and Barruel have got into every farm house” in that
section of the country.[825] It is also true that in order to insure a wide
reading of what were supposed to be the more significant portions of
Barruel’s voluminous work, an abridgment of it was undertaken and
published in the columns of such leading papers as the Connecticut
Courant[826] and the Massachusetts Mercury.[827] Nevertheless, the
inference is unavoidable that at the most the cause of the agitators received
only a momentary quickening from this quarter. If anything, the very
flatness of the reception accorded Barruel’s work served to quiet the public
mind in New England on the subject of Illuminism. The precious conceit
which the supporters of the charge of an American conspiracy of the
Illuminati had imported from abroad, viz., that the two “great” European
writers on the subject of Illuminism, Robison and Barruel, while working
independently had unearthed the same set of facts and arrived at the same
conclusion as to their import, fell quickly enough to the ground. Whatever
the facts might be regarding the situation in Europe, it speedily became
clear that Barruel had no clear and steady light to throw upon the situation
in America, and even those who hoped most from the publication of the
Memoirs of Jacobinism were soon forced to admit that the American
reading public had little taste for the prolix romancings of the French abbé.
[828]

Early in the fall of 1799 a new twist was given to the controversy. This
developed out of an episode that for the time at least seriously embarrassed
the personal integrity of Morse, and enveloped the issue generally in such a

cloud of pettiness and disagreeable suspicions that the entire subject of
Illuminism assumed an unsavory aspect, with the result that the public was
all the more easily persuaded to turn to other and more fruitful topics.
Compressed as much as the interests of clarity will allow, the facts were as
follows.
The American Mercury of September 26, 1799, published an article
asserting that in his efforts to substantiate his charges against the Illuminati,
Morse had addressed a letter of inquiry to Professor Ebeling[829] of
Hamburg, Germany, to which the latter made response that Robison’s
Proofs of a Conspiracy had no standing in Europe; that it was regarded
there as a farrago of falsehoods, written by its author to obtain bread rather
than in the hope that it would be believed.[830] It was further asserted that
Ebeling’s letter to Morse gave Robison an unsavory character; he was said
to have lived too fast for his income, to be in trouble with the civil
authorities in his native country, and to have been expelled from a Masonic
lodge in Edinburgh on account of unworthy conduct.[831] This being the true
state of affairs, why, it was urged, ought not “the terrible subject of
illumination” to be dismissed forthwith as a wretched mass of absurdities?
Let Morse publish the letter that he had received from Ebeling and the
public would express itself quickly enough as to the silliness of the
Illuminati conspiracy.[832]
Morse’s rejoinder was spirited. He demanded the name of the author of
the article in the Mercury and vigorously protested that the Ebeling letter
referred to was a fabrication.[833] Denied the comfort of immediate attention
and satisfaction,[834] he addressed the editor again and with even greater
vehemence, insisting that the editor publicly brand the article referred to as
“without foundation and a tissue of the most vile and calumnious
falsehoods.” But for the one consideration that the letter which he had
actually received from Professor Ebeling was private, he averred that he

stood ready to spread it before the public gaze.[835] As a guarantee of its
character, however, he stood prepared to furnish the affidavits of Professors
David Tappan and Eliphalet Pearson of Harvard, to whom he had submitted
the letter of Ebeling for their inspection, and who were ready to depose that
it was in no sense like the letter whose contents had been given to the public
by the American Mercury.[836]
By the time these noisy verbal hostilities had taken place, the leading
newspaper partisans on both sides of the controversy had accepted the
responsibility of advising the public regarding the new issue. The
Connecticut Courant roundly denounced the unprincipled editor of the
American Mercury for having printed such a monstrous fabrication as its
account of the Ebeling-Morse letter,[837] and later, on Morse’s behalf,
undertook to say that while the communication which Morse had received
from Ebeling contained denials of the authenticity of many of the facts
alleged in the Proofs of a Conspiracy, at the same time it was destitute of
even the most distant suggestion of moral or other delinquencies on the part
of Robison.[838] The Columbian Centinel regarded itself in duty bound to
spread before its readers the indignant communication that Morse had sent
to the editor of the American Mercury, for the reason that it believed Morse
had been most shamefully treated in the matter.[839] As for the
Massachusetts Mercury, one of its contributors felt moved to observe that
the account of the Ebeling-Morse letter which the American Mercury had
published was nothing less than a consummate piece of pure villainy,
intended to ruin Mr. Robison’s character; certainly no candid American
would pay the slightest attention to it until the person who was responsible
for the publication came forward and gave the public his name.[840]
On the other side, such rampant Democratic journals as the Bee and the
Aurora came ardently to the support of the American Mercury and directed
a searching cross-fire against Morse and his friends. Since the days of

Salem witchcraft, the former observed, no subject had so much affected the
minds of a certain class of people in New England as this pretended
Illuminati conspiracy.[841] Because of the way in which preachers, orators,
essayists, and newsmongers generally had declaimed upon the subject, a
mist had overspread the public mind. Ebeling’s letter to Morse, however,
had given a fatal blow to the strife. It was now to be expected that the
impressions made upon the minds of numerous over-credulous citizens by
an insidious and designing set of men would be fully eradicated.[842] To
give full force to these observations, the Bee published the text of the letter
which, it averred, Morse had received from Ebeling.[843] This characterized
Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy as ridiculous and filled with statements
many of which were faulty and others totally erroneous. Its author had
composed the book in the interests of party and with a special animus
against all men who asserted the use of reason in the sphere of theology.
The authorities to which Robison appealed were declared to be
questionable, and Robison’s own standing as a historian was pronounced to
be such that it was impossible to take his work seriously.[844]
The Aurora steered a similar course. Drawing upon the Bee, the text of
the alleged Ebeling-Morse letter was printed[845] and the accompanying
comment made that this effectually disposed of the Illuminati.[846] It was
now fully apparent that Morse had seized upon the idea of a conspiracy
against religion and the state in order to further selfish and partisan ends.
He and Dr. Dwight, who were at the head of the clerical systems in
Massachusetts and Connecticut respectively, were exhausting all the means
in their power to exalt Federalism and to obtain a religious establishment
which would deliver the consciences and purses of the nation into the hands
of their party.[847] The rancor that these two men had recently stirred up
against the respectable fraternity of Freemasons was due solely to their
bigotry.[848]

Meantime a certain shrewd and none too scrupulous Democratic
clergyman in Massachusetts was deriving such satisfaction as he could out
of Morse’s discomfiture and bitter resentment. The letter that the Bee and
the Aurora published as a letter from Ebeling to Morse was in fact a letter
from Ebeling to William Bentley,[849] inveterate hater of Morse.[850]
Ebeling, it appears, had written the letters to Bentley and to Morse at
about the same time.[851] A little after the receipt of his letter, Bentley had
learned from Ebeling that Doctors Pearson, Tappan, and Morse all were
inquiring of Ebeling concerning Robison’s standing as a historian, and that
the Hamburg professor had addressed Morse at length upon the subject.[852]
Further, he received clear hints from Ebeling as to the precise nature of the
communications to Morse.[853] Bentley, therefore, had substantial reasons
for believing that he was in full possession of the information that Ebeling
had furnished Morse regarding the subsidence of the Illuminati craze in
Europe and the unfavorable opinions of Robison that were entertained on
the other side of the Atlantic. It certainly was not to his credit, however, that
he should permit a letter which he himself had received from Ebeling to be
published as a communication from Ebeling to Morse.[854]
Under the circumstances, Morse was placed in a position of
embarrassment and humiliation from which he found it impossible wholly
to extricate himself.[855] What is more to the point, the cause which in his
misguided zeal he had been promoting was thus made to suffer an
irreparable blow. With his personal integrity under grave suspicion and his
main European ally held up to public ridicule and scorn, even Morse’s
obdurate spirit must have foreseen that the collapse of the agitation which
he had fostered could not long be deferred. Even without this tumble into
the slough of suspicion and contempt, time must soon have brushed aside as
groundless the alarm that Morse had sounded. It is not difficult to imagine,

however, that time might have found ways less vindictive and scurvy to
dispose of the excited clamor of Morse.
Driven to undertake some further effort at self-justification,[856] the
belated idea came to Morse to investigate the lodge Wisdom at Portsmouth,
Virginia. Accordingly he addressed a letter to Josiah Parker, member of
Congress for Virginia, soliciting information from Parker respecting the
Portsmouth lodge. Parker responded to the effect that he had lived in
Portsmouth until he went to Congress in 1789; that the lodge Wisdom was
regarded in that city as a reputable Masonic society, made up of a few
worthy people, mostly French; that some of its members were personally
known to the writer to be men warmly attached to the cause of the
government; that a good many Frenchmen had been admitted to the lodge
about the time of the insurrection on the island of St. Domingo, but that the
most of these were not now in America; that some of the Frenchmen whose
names Morse had incorporated in his fast sermon of April 25, 1799, as
members of Wisdom Lodge, were known to Parker to be honest and
industrious men; in a word, that he, Parker, considered the lodge in question
as entirely harmless as far as fomenting hostility to the institutions of the
country was concerned.[857]
The receipt of Parker’s letter left Morse without further resource.
Promptly he wrote his friend and adviser, Oliver Wolcott, soliciting his
counsel as to whether it would be better for him to remain silent and let
matters take their course or whether he would better offer to the public such
explanations and observations as he could.[858] The nature of Wolcott’s
counsel is unknown; but Morse, in any event, came to the conclusion that
there was no further action he could take in the case, and his advocacy of
the idea of an Illuminati conspiracy against religion and the government
ceased. Henceforth, the reverberations of the controversy, with a single
exception, were to be of the nature of jibes and flings on the part of irritated

and disgusted Democrats who adopted the position that the controversy
over the Illuminati had been introduced into American politics to serve
purely partisan ends.
In 1802, the Reverend Seth Payson,[859] minister of the Congregational
church at Rindge, New Hampshire, made an effort to revive the agitation. In
a volume[860] characterized by dismal mediocrity Payson fulminated against
the public stupor that, he admitted, had taken the place of the sense of alarm
that the discovery of the Illuminati conspiracy had originally caused.[861]
Payson’s book was nothing more than a revamping of the earlier literature,
European and American, on the subject. There is no evidence that it made
the slightest impression on the country.

4. FREEMASONRY’S EMBARRASSMENT AND PROTEST

Freemasonry in New England, as throughout the United States in
general, was very far from being in a favorable condition when the
Illuminati controversy broke out. Like every other institution in the country,
it had suffered greatly on account of the American Revolution. The
membership of its lodges was depleted, and its affairs generally left in a
chaotic condition. In the period of reconstruction which followed the
Revolution, Masonry experienced the same difficulty in rebuilding its
organizations and investing them with a fair degree of importance in the
public eye as other social institutions of the times. To no little extent, this
was due to internal dissensions and disintegrating tendencies generally. In
the main these dissensions developed out of efforts which were made to
create grand lodges of native origin, endowed with powers of sovereignty,
to take the place in the system of American Masonry that formerly had been
accorded to the grand lodges of England and Scotland. The spirit of
independence communicated by the revolutionary struggle had to be

reckoned with by Masonic leaders in their efforts to give unity and solidity
to the system.[862]
But other concerns than those of organization engaged the attention of
those who sought the rehabilitation of the institution. In the literature of the
times appears more than one stinging reference to the reproach under which
Freemasonry rested on account of the low standards of conduct by which
the private lives of its members and its assemblies were marked.
Coarseness, profligacy, boisterousness, and conviviality, which in the latter
case did not stop short of drunken revels, were common indictments
brought against the lodges by friend and foe alike.[863] It cannot be doubted
that a considerable amount of the kind of rude and unlicensed behavior that
displayed itself about many a New England tavern of the period was
likewise to be observed in connection with the private and public
performances of the craft.
To this must be added another and, from our special point of view, more
serious criticism. The spirit of democracy, it should not be forgotten, was
working itself out in the common life of the times in manifold ways. The
idea of human equality had become the very touchstone of life. New
applications of this conception were constantly being made. In such a day it
was inevitable that the secret and exclusive character of the assemblies and
practices of Freemasonry should make that institution widely suspected.
Members of the fraternity were freely accused of supporting an institution
that failed to respond to the spirit of the times.[864] As a result of the stir
occasioned by Washington’s bold denunciation of “self-created societies,”
in 1794, this charge of dangerous and unjustifiable secrecy became a more
powerful weapon in the hands of Freemasonry’s enemies, whose blows
were by no means easy to avoid.
That a retrograde movement was on in the ranks of American Masonry
at the time the Illuminati controversy broke out is, however, by no means to

be inferred. In most particulars, the faults and weaknesses which have been
noted represented common faults and weaknesses of the times. On the
whole, as the eighteenth century drew to its close, Freemasonry in this
country appeared to be slowly working its way up out of the state of
disorganization and weakness by which its progress had been retarded
during the two decades that followed the Revolutionary War. It was in a day
characterized by earnest and worthy striving, though not without its tokens
of popular suspicion, that the accusation of an alliance with the odious
Illuminati fell as a black shadow across its path.
The response which Massachusetts Masonry made to the aspersions of
Robison and his supporters[865] on this side of the ocean was promptly
forthcoming. On June 11, 1798, the Grand Lodge of that state drew up an
address to President Adams, from which the following generous extract is
taken:

Sir:—
Flattery, and a discussion of political opinions, are
inconsistent with the principles of this ancient Fraternity; but
while we are bound to cultivate benevolence, and extend the
arm of charity to our brethren of every clime, we feel the
strongest obligations to support the civil authority which
protects us. And when the illiberal attacks of a foreign
enthusiast, aided by the unfounded prejudices of his followers,
are tending to embarrass the public mind with respect to the
real views of our society, we think it our duty to join in full
concert with our fellow-citizens, in expressing gratitude to the
Supreme Architect of the Universe, for endowing you with the
wisdom, patriotic firmness and integrity, which has
characterized your public conduct.

While the Independence of our country and the operation of
just and equal laws have contributed to enlarge the sphere of
social happiness, we rejoice that our Masonic brethren,
throughout the United States, have discovered by their conduct
a zeal to promote the public welfare, and that many of them
have been conspicuous for their talents and unwearied
exertions. Among these your venerable successor is the most
illustrious example; and the memory of our beloved Warren,
[866]
who from the chair of this Grand Lodge, has often urged
the members to the exercise of patriotism and philanthropy, and
who sealed his principles with his blood; shall ever animate us
to a laudable imitation of his virtues.[867]

In addition to this formal action taken by the Grand Lodge, prominent
Massachusetts Masons began at once to employ such public occasions as
the calendar and special events of the order supplied, to refute the charge
that Masonry was in league with Illuminism. Preëminent among these
apologists were the Reverend William Bentley and the Reverend Thaddeus
Mason Harris.[868]
On the occasion of the Masonic festival of St. John the Baptist, June 25,
1798, Bentley delivered a charge before Morning Star Lodge, at Worcester,
Massachusetts.[869] The clergy, he maintained,—not all the clergy, to be
sure, but particularly those representatives of the clergy “who ply the
shuttle-cock of faith, with the dexterity of expert gamesters, and have the
art of making the multitude fly with its feathers,”—are responsible for this
new out-cry against the order.[870] It is the state of affairs in Europe that has
caused general attention to be drawn to the order. During the century
Masonry has flourished there in a remarkable way. In the midst of an age
full of apprehension respecting everything that suggests political

association, this rapid progress of Freemasonry, the character of its
members, the coincidence of its designs, and its secrecy, have quite
naturally conspired to give some appearance of danger. Yet no discoveries
have been made which can fairly impeach the fraternity.[871] As for the
principles and work of Weishaupt, these ought not to be condemned
outright, solely on the testimony of Robison.[872] “We must leave Robison
to an inquisitive public,” Bentley concluded, and “forgive a worthy divine
who has noticed the book, and has made our order ridiculous.”[873]
Somewhat later in the year Harris delivered a number of addresses, in
connection with the consecration of various lodges, in which he paid
sufficient attention to the new issue that had been raised to make it clear
that Masonic circles were greatly disturbed.[874] To Harris, this last assault
upon the good name of Masonry was a most unreasonable performance; yet
all he felt prepared to do was to enter a general denial, couched in a
bombastic, windy style of utterance, of which the following is typical:

How much … are we surprised to find opposers to an
association whose law is peace, and whose whole disposition is
love; which is known to discourage by an express prohibition
the introduction and discussion of political or religious topics
in its assemblies; and which forbids in the most positive and
solemn manner all plots, conspiracies, and rebellions. But,
notwithstanding the ignorant mistake, and the prejudiced
censure the society, we are persuaded that its real character is
too well known, and its credit is too well supported, to be
injured by their misrepresentations, or destroyed by their
invectives. When they charge us with demoralizing principles,
we will tell them that some of the most orthodox and
respectable Clergymen are of our order; and when they impute

to us disorganizing attempts, we will remind them that
Washington is our patron and friend.[875]

Much more of like character issued from this source.[876] We shall see,
however, that the keen invective and unrestrained sarcasm of Bentley, rather
than the platitudes of the amiable Harris, were needed to put Masonry’s
case before the public in an effective manner.
On the same occasion that the “Author of the Worcester Charge”[877]
made his first formal answer to Robison and Morse, at least two other
addresses were delivered, each of which require a word. One of these,
mirabile dictu! was by Jedediah Morse.[878] Morse’s “sermon” was dull and
insipid enough. There was much talk about the cultivation and diffusion of
the love of country, the duty of essaying the rôle of the peacemaker, and the
wickedness of spreading base slanders and exciting unreasonable prejudices
among one’s fellows; but no discussion of the subject of Illuminism was
attempted. All that was said was in entire good spirit, and but one
consideration entitles Morse’s performance to mention: the fact that its
setting as well as its substance gave evidence of its author’s earnest desire
not to see the gulf widen between him and his Masonic neighbors.
The other address was different. Masonic Brother Charles Jackson,
addressing the members and friends of St. Peter’s Lodge, Newburyport,
Massachusetts, showed no disposition to mince words with respect to the
detractors of Freemasonry.[879] Robison was reprobated by him for
launching “illiberal sarcasms” against the fraternity,[880] and particularly for
making out the Masonic lodges to be “hot-beds of sedition and impiety,”
which the orator indignantly averred they were not.[881] It was granted that
certain profligate and abandoned characters, as Robison claimed, had
assumed the cloak of Masonry, with a view of shrouding their infernal plans
under pretences of philanthropy and benevolence; but these men soon threw

off this cloak, and there was no reason why Masonry should be sacrificed
on their account.[882] The charges of atheism and unpatriotic spirit among
the members of the fraternity were repelled with equal warmth by Jackson.
As with Harris, these calumnies were countered, the charge of atheism by
the fact that many of the clergy were members of the order, and the charge
of unpatriotic spirit by the fact that Washington was the “illustrious brother”
of American Masons.[883]
To a very limited extent the press was resorted to, in order that New
England Masonry might have a chance to square itself before the public.
The call for specific evidence that was made upon Morse, as voiced in the
Massachusetts Mercury of July 27, 1798, and Morse’s prolix but ineffective
effort to meet the situation this created, have already been noticed.[884] In
the course of the newspaper discussion referred to, the name of another
prominent Mason of Massachusetts, the Reverend Josiah Bartlett, was
drawn into the controversy.[885] To Morse’s somewhat unmanly plaint that
“by necessary implication” he had been accused by the Massachusetts
Masons before the President as being under the influence of unfounded
prejudices, Bartlett made the conciliatory, though artful, response that the
address of the Grand Lodge, to which Morse referred, was designed merely
as a manly avowal of the true principles of Freemasonry. It was not
necessary to believe, he continued, that they were influenced by irritation or
resentment in making the Address, nor that Dr. Morse had hostile designs in
the delivery and publication of his fast sermon.[886]
Such language, however, was much too mild and unduly exonerative for
the “Author of the Worcester Charge.” His aroused spirit required that
censure should be imposed. Morse had been guilty of a base injustice; it
was right that this fact should frankly be published to the world.
Accordingly, the Massachusetts Mercury of August 10, 1798, contained a

vigorous statement of the case of Masonry against Morse, from Bentley’s
pen. The following will suffice to indicate the author’s spirit:

The notice taken of the American Geographer in the late
Charge,[887] was on account of his zeal, in his public character,
to give authority to a wicked and mischievous Book. That he
did not understand the Charge he has proved in his attempt to
apply it, and that he should not understand it, is easy to be
conceived from the Strictures already published upon his
Compilations, and from opinions of him, both at home and
abroad. On a proper occasion, these opinions may be collected
and published.[888]

Still refusing to depart from the pathway of amiability and clerical
courtesy, Bartlett returned to the discussion of the subject of Illuminism in
its relation to American Freemasonry, in the Mercury of September 7, 1798.
In cumbrous sentences the appearance of Robison’s book in this country
was reviewed; the best of motives were imputed to its author and his
supporters in America; but stress, very gentle stress, to be sure, was laid
upon the question whether the Illuminati, in any form or other, had branches
in this country. “If,” Bartlett urged, “there is any citizen in the United States
who can prove this, it is a duty which he really owes to God and his
country, to come forward, ‘as a faithful watchman,’ with his documents.”
As for himself, he was fully persuaded that if the Masonic institution could
be implicated fairly in the conspiracy, then the doors of every lodge ought
to be flung wide open, and Masonry henceforth held in just derision and
contempt.[889]
This seemed to open the way for such a polite and harmless handling of
the subject as Morse coveted. In like spirit he replied to the foregoing.[890]

He rejoiced in the candid utterances of his worthy friend. Bartlett’s
acceptance of the existence of the Illuminati persuaded him to hope that
opposition to Robison would now soon cease. Had the latter’s work not
been opposed in the first place, he entertained no doubt that Freemasonry in
the United States would not have been injured. While disclaiming all
intention of pursuing a controversial course, he would, however, undertake
an investigation to determine whether or not there were societies of the
Illuminati in this country.[891]
A belated promise, to say the least, and one that found a certain belated
fulfilment in Morse’s fast sermon of the following spring.[892] Before
turning to consider the effect of that sermon on Masonic thought, one other
Masonic disclaimer of 1798 requires attention.
On October 23, the Grand Lodge of Vermont drew up an address to the
President somewhat similar to the one which earlier in the year their
Massachusetts brethren had presented.[893] Beginning with the familiar
observation that Masonic principles forbade the introduction of political
subjects into the discussions of the order, but that the serious cast of
national affairs was such as to justify the present action, the address
proceeded to notice the “slanders” that were in circulation respecting the
order and to profess the ardent attachment of Vermont Masons to the cause
of the government. The idea that Masons were capable of faction was
repudiated with energy. An individual Mason here and there might possibly
sell his birthright for a mess of pottage, or betray his country for paltry pelf;
but as a body the Masonic fraternity stood committed to support the
government. All should be risked in its maintenance and defence.[894]
The language of the address could hardly have been warmer. On the
other hand, the President’s response was cold, or, if not that, at least
puzzling.[895] Asserting first that he had ever esteemed the societies of
Freemasons in this country as not only innocent of base designs but actually

useful, he seemed to dispel all the comfort which the reading of that
assurance was calculated to impart by adding the following:

The principle, not to introduce politics in your private
assemblies, and the other principle, to be willing subjects to the
government, would, if observed, preserve such societies from
suspicion. But it seems to be agreed, that the society of Masons
have discovered a science of government, or art of ruling
society, peculiar to themselves, and unknown to all the other
legislators and philosophers of the world; I mean not only the
skill to know each other by marks or signs that no other
persons can divine, but the wonderful power of enabling and
compelling all men, and I suppose all women, at all hours, to
keep a secret. If this art can be applied, to set aside the ordinary
maxims of society, and introduce politics and disobedience to
government, and still keep the secret, it must be obvious that
such science and such societies may be perverted to all the ill
purposes which have been suspected. The characters which
compose the lodges in America are such as forbid every
apprehension from them, and they will best know whether any
dangers are possible in other countries as well as in this…. I
say cordially with you—let not the tongue of slander say, that
Masons in America are capable of faction. I am very confident
it can not be said by any one with truth of the Masons of
Vermont.[896]

Was the President ironical or frank? He had intimated that the Masons
were capable of corruption: did he, or did he not think they were guiltless
of the charge of conspiracy that had recently been lodged against them?

One could not be absolutely sure from what he had written. What the
Masons of Vermont may have felt when the ambiguous response of the
President was before them, we have no means of knowing; but there was
one Mason in Massachusetts who read the response of the President to the
address of the Vermont Masons, and who was displeased. In the view of
William Bentley, the President had done anything but assist the cause of
Masonry in the hour of its embarrassment. He has left us the record of his
impressions in the following form:

The address to General Washington,[897] as brother, must have
the best effect, because he gives his own testimony, that he is a
stranger to any ill designs of our institution.[898] But the replies
of President Adams, such as he was indeed obliged to offer,
have only left us where he found us, if in so happy a condition.
His answers are candid, but he could know nothing. His answer
to Massachusetts Grand Lodge insinuates his hopes. To
Maryland, he seems to express even his fears.[899] To Vermont,
he says, he believes the institution has been useful But while he
expressed a confidence in the American lodges, he consents to
hold our lodges capable of corruption. His words are, “Masons
will best know whether any dangers are possible in other
countries, as well as in this.”[900]

We have seen that the most appreciable and positive of all the evidence
that the champions of the charge of Illuminism brought against the Masons
was that which Morse embodied in his fast sermon in the spring of 1799.
For once the tiresome reiterations of the theorist and the reporter of other
men’s suspicions were laid aside. For once a straight thrust was made at a
definite point in the armor of American Masonry. The effect which Morse’s

sermon produced on the minds of New England Masons naturally
stimulates inquiry.
Contrary to what might very properly be supposed, the literature of
contemporary New England Freemasonry fails to yield full and convincing
evidence as to the precise character of this reaction. A few formal public
statements were made on the part of representatives of the craft, or in one or
two instances by men who were sufficiently close to the institution to be
used on occasions when Masonry threw wide its doors of seclusion that the
profane might draw near. Some of these must be noticed.
Far removed from the chief centers of the agitation, at Portland, Maine,
Masonic Brother Amos Stoddard addressed the craft, on the occasion of the
festival of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1799.[901] Stoddard did not balk at
the admission that the fraternity “have, unfortunately, tolerated the
Illuminati.”[902] But there was this to be said by way of exculpation: the
Illuminati were not legitimate Masons.[903] “To propagate their
revolutionary poison, and to protract the period of detection” (sic), they
attached themselves to Freemasonry and called themselves by its name. In
this way the world had been deceived. But the main citadel of Masonry had
not capitulated; only a section of the fraternity had been taken by treachery.
[904]
A temporary wound, undeniably, had been inflicted; but no lasting hurt
would come to the craft.[905]
At Reading, Massachusetts, on the same occasion, Caleb Prentiss, a non-
Mason, told the members and friends of Mt. Moriah Lodge that the lodges
were under suspicion as they had never been before.[906] The eyes of the
world were now turned upon Masonry. The suspicion that nefarious
conspiracies had been formed or countenanced within the lodges was well
fixed in the public mind. Masons would need to walk with more than
ordinary circumspection. They must sedulously keep themselves spotless
from the imputation of such designs, that the craft be not blamed. By

striving to show themselves to be lovers of God and mankind, friends of
religion, friends of their country, and firm and study supporters of the
latter’s civil constitution, government, and laws, they would be able to
vindicate the principles, professions, and constitutions of true ancient
Masonry.[907]
At Ashby, New Hampshire, on the same festival day, an assembly of
Masons and their friends listened to a discourse which by way of
concessions to the opponents of Masonry outstripped anything that went
before or followed after.[908] The Reverend Seth Payson, that fatuous
aspirant to literary fame who elected to be a tardy echo of the speculations
of Robison, Barruel, and Morse,[909] informed his auditors that while
Masonry in its essential principles and constitution had shown itself to be
useful to society, unhappily its name, veil of secrecy, symbols, and
associative principles had been seized by a body of men in Europe, in order
to mask their hellish purposes of eradicating from the human mind “all
belief of a God, of a governing providence, of the immortality of the soul,
and a future state,—to extinguish every principle of natural and revealed
religion and moral sentiments, and to demolish every government but its
own.”[910] In all its horrid appendages, the French Revolution was the result
of this conspiracy. This “vine of Sodom” was transplanted to the United
States: witness the opposition which in this country developed against those
“eminent benefactors to mankind in general,” Drs. Robison, Morse, et al.
[911] Without the faithful researches of Morse, in particular, a very much

more serious infection of the Masonic body assuredly would have occurred.
[912]

Such isolated and generally indefinite utterances, it may be urged, are
scarcely to be trusted as offering an accurate reflection of the state of the
Masonic mind. They do not, however, stand altogether alone. From various
and perhaps more solid sources, the evidence is forthcoming that the year

1799 was a year of deep anxiety and concern on the part of the Masons of
New England.
The diary of William Bentley supplies some evidence to this effect.[913]
His disgust was great that the clergy continued to agitate concerning the
pernicious principles and influence of Weishaupt, and that with equal
pertinacity the press kept the affairs of that individual and his minions
before the public.[914] The equally candid acknowledgments of other
Masons are even more to the point. One spokesman for Rhode Island
Masonry made public admission that the fraternity was suffering keenly
from “a temporary odium.”[915] Another in Massachusetts uttered the
complaint that the industrious zeal of the unprincipled defamer had
involved the craft in most serious embarrassment.[916] Some were driven to
take refuge in the consolation that the lodges of the Illuminati were bastard
organizations, and therefore Freemasonry could not justly be anathematized
on their account.[917]
When the skies had cleared, as we have seen they soon did, and Masons
began to take stock of the experience through which their institution had
passed, their admissions of what the agitation had cost the order were even
more significant. One confessed that Masonry had started back affrighted at
the hideous spectre of Illuminism, and that the joy that filled the lodges
because they were no longer suspected as “hot-beds of sedition” and
“nurseries of infidelity” was very great.[918] Another likewise rejoiced in
spirit that the dark period of suspicion and calumny through which the order
has been passing was now over, and that political agitation against the
institution was at an end.[919] Another admitted that after the lapse of a half
dozen years it was difficult to plant a new lodge in one of the most cultured
of New England’s communities, on account of the influence exerted by the
works of Robison and Barruel.[920] Still another confessed that the
Illuminati controversy had cost the fraternity dearly in the matter of

membership; a serious defection had resulted, representing many
desertions.[921]
The various causes that contributed to bring about a collapse of the
agitation over Illuminism have elsewhere received attention and for the
most part require no special comment in this connection. One of these,
however, was of such a nature that it has been reserved for brief exposition
at this point.
The death of Washington, while confessedly an event of national
significance, and, as such, shared as the common bereavement of all the
citizens of the country, nevertheless assumed a very special importance in
the eyes of Masons and exerted an immediate and weighty influence upon
the fortunes of the order.
One who turns the pages of the black-bordered newspapers of the day,
all sharing in the universal lamentation and doing their utmost to set before
their readers the last detail regarding the closing hours in the great man’s
life and the arrangement and disposition of affairs in connection with his
obsequies, is likely to find himself amazed because the Masons found it
possible to figure in the circumstances as conspicuously and largely as they
did. The Masons were in evidence, in very conspicuous evidence, it must be
said, in all that pertained to the funeral rites of the nation’s first chief. Not
only was this true of the funeral ceremonies proper; in innumerable places
where mourning assemblies gathered to pay respect to the memory of
Washington, Masons claimed and were accorded the places of honor in the
processions and concourses that marked these outpourings of popular
sorrow.
It cannot be doubted that American Freemasons, while sincere in their
expressions of sorrow on account of Washington’s death, none the less
found a peculiar comfort of soul in being able at such a time to point to the
fallen hero as their “brother.” At an hour when the tongue of scandal and

the finger of suspicion were still active they esteemed it an opportunity not
to be despised to be able to stand before the country and proudly say,
“Washington was of us.”
That this is not idle fancy the following utterances will help to make
clear. At Middletown, Connecticut, a few days after Washington’s death, a
Masonic oration was pronounced in connection with the observance of the
festival of St. John the Evangelist.[922] The orator, who recognized the
season as one of unremitting calumny of Freemasonry,[923] sought refuge
from the strife of tongues for himself and his brethren by urging the
following sentiment:

If what Barruel has suggested of our institution is true; if it is
among US that Jesus Christ is daily sacrificed, and all religion
scoffed at; if our principles and doctrines, either in theory or
practice, have a tendency to destroy the bonds of nature and of
government; how could Washington, that Perfect Man, when
his feet were stumbling upon the dark mountains of death, say,
“I am ready to die,” until he had warned the world to beware of
the Masonic institution and its consequences? He was a
thorough investigator, and a faithful follower of our doctrines.
[924]

To this must be added the somewhat different apologetic of a prominent
Massachusetts Mason. Speaking at Dorchester, at a Masonic service in
Washington’s memory, the Reverend Thaddeus Mason Harris
acknowledged the value of Washington’s connection with American
Freemasonry in these words:

The honor thus conferred upon us has been peculiarly
serviceable at the present day, when the most unfounded
prejudices have been harbored against Freemasonary, and the
most calumnious impeachments brought forward to destroy it.
But our opposers blushed for the censures when we reminded
them that Washington loved and patronized the institution.[925]

Washington’s Masonic career, Masonry’s uncontested claim to the right
to be first among those who mourned at his burial,—these constituted a
part, and a very substantial part of the demurrer which Freemasonry offered
at the bar of public judgment in answer to its accusers. It is very certain that
after the reinstatement in public favor which American Masonry was
accorded when Washington was buried, the voice of censure was less and
less disposed to be heard.[926]

NOTE.—The fiction of an alliance between American Freemasonry and the Illuminati
had a curious revival in connection with the antimasonic excitement which swept the
United States from 1826 to about 1832. The mysterious abduction of William Morgan
had the effect of arousing the country to the peril of secret societies, the Masons
particularly. The Antimasonic party for this and other reasons sprang into existence, and
an elaborate political propaganda and program were attempted. See McCarthy, Charles,
The Antimasonic Party: a Study of Political Antimasonry in the United States, 1827–
1840. In Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1902, vol. i, pp. 365–
574. In connection with the Antimasonic conventions that were held in various states,
efforts were made to establish a connection between American Masonry and Illuminism.
Thus, in the state convention held in Massachusetts in 1828–1829, a committee was
appointed “to inquire how far Freemasonry and French Illuminism are connected.” This
committee brought in a report establishing to the satisfaction of the convention that there
was a direct connection between the two systems, and resulting in the passing of the
following resolution: “Resolved, on the report of the Committee appointed to inquire
how far Free Masonry and French Illuminism are connected, That there is evidence of an
intimate connexion between the higher orders of Free Masonry and French Illuminism.”
Cf. An Abstract of the Proceedings of the Anti-Masonic State Convention of
Massachusetts, held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Dec. 30 and 31, 1829, and Jan. 1, 1830.

Boston, 1830, p. 5. On the ground that the length of the committee’s report made it
inadvisable, the publishing committee deemed it inexpedient to print the “evidence.”
The Vermont Antimasonic state convention of 1830 wrestled with the same question.
Its committee brought in a report so naively suggestive as to merit notice. Citing the
agitation that arose on account of the literary efforts of “Robison and Barruel in Europe,
and Morse, Payson, and others in America,” the committee expressed its judgment that
those works “called Masonry in question in a manner which if assumed on any other
topic, would have called forth disquisition and remark on the subject matter of these
writings from every editor in the union; yet the spirit of inquiry, which these able
performances were calculated to raise, was soon and unaccountably quelled—the press
was mute as the voice of the strangled sentinel and the mass of the people kept in
ignorance that an alarm on the subject of Masonry had ever been sounded, or even that
these works had ever existed.” See Proceedings of the Anti-Masonic State Convention,
holden at Montpelier, June 23, 24, & 25, 1830. Reports and Addresses. Middlebury,
1830.
An exploration of the literature of the Antimasonic party yields nothing more
significant. This literature as listed by McCarthy may be found on pp. 560–574 of the
Report of the American Historical Association for 1902, vol. i.

5. ATTEMPTS OF DEMOCRATS TO FIX THE COUNTERCHARGE OF ILLUMINISM UPON
THE FEDERALISTS

By 1798 and 1799 the alignment of political parties in New England had
arrived at such a stage that the suspicion of political jockeying to obtain
party advantage was well grounded in the minds of leaders in both camps.
This self-conscious and determined party spirit had been greatly promoted
by the employment of electioneering methods.[927] The general public had
not yet become accustomed to the precise significance of the broadside, the
political pamphlet, and the newspaper canard; and these all, in a copious
stream, had begun to flow from the country’s presses. Party leaders,
however, who knew the purposes of their own minds if not those of the
opposition, were quick to scent anything that savored of political
buncombe.
Coincident with the breaking out of the controversy over the Illuminati,
a number of tales of plots or conspiracies were foisted upon the public.[928]

One of these concerned a band of conspirators who were alleged to be
agents of the French Directory, and who, with their secret documents
concealed in the false bottom of two tubs, had taken ship from Hamburg to
work sedition in this country.[929] Another concerned the operations of a
tailor in the city of Philadelphia, of whom the report spread that he was
engaged in making immense quantities of uniforms for French soldiers; and
if for French soldiers, for whom could they be intended but for some French
army which must be planning an invasion of the United States? A third tale
had to do with the massacre which, rumor had it, had taken place on the
good American ship Ocean, involving the brutal butchery of her entire crew
by the French.[930]
All these preposterous “plots” were promptly exploded, and in due
course all were traced to Federalist sources. The general effect upon the
opposition scarcely needs to be stated. Such silly tales, said one Democrat,
discredit everything that the Federalists affirm to be true.[931] They all had
been artfully concocted and employed, said another, “to excite an
indignation which might be played off for the purposes of party.”[932] They
were so many alarm-bells, a third said,[933] rung, we may add, to frighten
the people into running to prop up the bowing walls and tottering pillars of
the doomed temple of Federalism.
This mood of scepticism, imbedded as it was in a more serious mood of
indignation arising from the rebuffs and discomfitures that citizens of
democratic tastes and principles had long suffered at the hands of Federalist
bigotry and intolerance, rendered it inevitable that the charge of Illuminism
should be suspect from the first. One has but to recall that the year in which
the controversy over the Illuminati broke out has still its characterization in
political annals as “the reign of terror,” to appreciate fully the statement that
has just been made.

Beginning with 1799 a small group of pamphlets appeared, dedicated by
their authors to an effort to convert the charge of Illuminism into a political
boomerang, to be employed as a weapon against the Federalists.
Conspicuous among these, and perhaps first in point of time, was A View of
the New England Illuminati,[934] an anonymous composition, but one whose
authorship was soon traced to the Reverend John Cosens Ogden,[935] an
Episcopal clergyman.
Ogden wielded the pen of a ready and discursive writer, the latter more
especially. To follow him step by step as he ranged from Barruel and
Robison to meetings of New England ministers, from meetings of New
England ministers to ecclesiastical usurpations, from ecclesiastical
usurpations to the French Revolution, from the French Revolution to high-
handed measures taken by New England college presidents, and so on ad
infinitum, and the while to take equal account of all he touched upon, would
be a formidable and, we may believe, largely unprofitable exercise. And
yet, through a good deal of Ogden’s pamphlet the spirit of ecclesiastical and
political dissent finds a certain earnest and even vivid expression.
It is true, said Ogden at the outset, that New England had its Illuminati.
They were not, however, such as Robison and Barruel would represent them
to be. The New England societies of the Illuminati were the monthly
meetings of the clergy.[936] The work they did and the influence they
exerted were so like the work and influence of the societies of which
Robison and Barruel wrote that they deserved to be styled the New England
Illuminati: readers could judge for themselves as to the appositeness of the
title thus bestowed.[937] Their confederacy had been so successful that
certain opulent and leading laymen, who supremely desired to perpetuate
the union of church and state in New England, had lent to these clerical
organizations their fostering care and support.[938] At these monthly clubs,
the political issues of the times were discussed and prayers and orations

filled with invectives against those who had not adopted the creeds and
politics of the members were delivered.[939]
That which first gave offence to these clubs was the establishment of
universal religious toleration in Canada and the petition of the
Episcopalians inhabiting the colonies—now the United States—to their
brethren in England, that a Protestant bishop might be granted them who
would live in their midst.[940] To defeat these measures, the New England
Illuminati were indefatigably busy; and when they discovered that they
were foiled in their efforts, they languished for a season,[941] until the
French Revolution stirred them to new life.
When the Revolution began in France, these New England Illuminated
Clubs redoubled their energies. They prayed, they exhorted, they wrote and
printed numerous dissertations and prophecies, all emphasizing the import
of the Revolution as signalizing the overthrow of the Church of Rome,
which was Antichrist, and of the Pope, who was the Beast of the
Apocalypse, preparatory to the fulfilment of the eternal decree respecting
the Millennium.[942] Everything that the clergy did at this time smacked
loudly of their excessive interest in French affairs. In order more fully to
influence public opinion they took the colleges into their confederacy, and
soon teachers and pupils were busy disseminating throughout the land
principles and prejudices favorable to the Revolution in France.[943]
Nothing was omitted that might have been done to cement an attachment to
the cause of the Revolution.
The fluctuating events of the European wars and the uncertain issue of
French affairs soon cooled the ardor of these clerico-political societies.[944]
For these men were not sincere in their devotion to France. They were not
genuine supporters of the rights of man. They repudiated their former
interest in French politics and turned fiercely upon those who maintained
their interest in the principles of the Revolution. These men had but one

interest. What they desired was power, a millennium in which the money
and liberties of all men should be laid at the feet of the colleges and of the
Illuminati Clubs.[945]
Such was the general indictment that Ogden drew. This attended to, he
proceeded to file a bill of particulars.
The clergy, who constituted the predominating element in these New
England Illuminati Clubs, from the first had occupied a position of
commanding influence in New England. But the clergy from the first had
steadily kept the people at a distance.[946] They courted the rich and
schemed to obtain political influence. They united to themselves a
formidable body from among the laity, who looked to them for votes and
preferments. They freely wielded the weapons of ecclesiastical censure and
discipline in efforts to coerce those who would not sell their consciences for
gold or political honors.[947] In the army and the navy their sons and
favorites received promotion; and in the distribution of college diplomas,
because of the same influence, men were honored who could not construe
the Latin parchments they received.[948]
Nominations to magistracies had been handed about by the arrogant
members of these Illuminated Clubs, and good men of the opposition had
been denounced by them at the polls.[949] By the same forces the public
press had been deprived of its freedom and the channels of public
communication diverted to serve unworthy ends.[950] Missionaries had been
sent to frontier communities in the various states, not to propagate religion,
but to extend the influence and to increase the power of the societies whose
agents they were.[951] The destruction of dissenting bodies had been aimed
at and the cause of universal liberty of conscience spurned as an odious
thing.[952]
In their efforts to control the instruments of education, the
representatives of these Illuminated Clubs had manifested the same illiberal

and contracted policy. Public attention had artfully been withdrawn from
the schools of the yeomanry and centered upon the colleges which the
Illuminati controlled.[953] Some of these institutions had shown themselves
subservient in the extreme. The clergy and corporation of Yale had been so
narrow as to cause philanthropists to turn the gifts they intended for that
institution into other channels, to Harvard particularly.[954] At Dartmouth a
spirit quite as contemptible had prevailed.[955] Fortunately the school at
Cambridge had escaped from the clutches of these bigoted men. Columbia,
too, had recently been placed upon a more liberal foundation, but not
without having incurred the hostility of the Illuminati.[956] Everywhere,
indeed, that the Edwardean theology was not permitted to flourish
unmolested, there the hostility of the New England Illuminati was felt.[957]
Venerable, learned, and experienced Catholic, Episcopal, and Baptist
clergymen were roughly thrust aside at the seats of learning where these
men had control, and dapper young parsons “with neat gowns and bands,
and degrees of Doctor of Divinity, bought and obtained by the influence of
rich merchants”[958] were permitted to supersede them.
There was no place into which the influence of these men had gone
where contentions and persecutions had not followed.[959] But few
interruptions of the public tranquility had occurred that could not be traced
directly to their door. No hand of sympathy or conciliation had ever been
held out by them to the opposition.[960] Should some political despot enlist
these men under his banner, disaster would overtake our religion,
government, liberty, and property; anarchy and destruction would
overspread a land saved by the valor of freemen, by the blood of the fathers.
[961]

What, therefore, was to be done with such contumacious and intolerable
men? Ogden’s answer sounds surprisingly moderate, in view of the extent
to which the iron of bitterness had entered his soul:

If the New-England Illuminati proceed unheeded and
uncontrolled, this nation will constantly experience the
pernicious effects of discord and popular discontent. Wars at
home, tumults abroad, the degradation of legislatures, judges
and jurors, will be our daily portion…. To dissolve or abolish
those societies or clubs would not be to infringe upon the rights
of conscience: to counteract them is to establish law and peace.
[962]

Such was Ogden’s effort to brand the Standing Order of New England
with the hateful mark of the Illuminati.[963] His endeavor was supplemented
by the oratorical and literary effusions of Connecticut’s most shrewd and
impudent Democrat, Abraham Bishop, of New Haven. In the course of a
year, beginning with September, 1800, Bishop delivered, and later
expanded and printed, three orations,[964] in each of which he drew heavily
upon his by no means meagre resources of logic, wit, irony, and boldness,
to arraign Connecticut Federalism as a hideous conspiracy against the peace
of the state and the liberties of the people.
The first of these orations had something of a history, not very
extraordinary to be sure, and yet unique enough to throw some light upon
the mettle of the man and the nature of the opposition that inflamed his
passion. The Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College appointed Bishop its
orator for the year 1800, in connection with the commencement exercises of
the college, then held in the month of September. Exercising the traditional
right of selecting his own subject, Bishop elected to prepare an oration on
“The Extent and Power of Political Delusion,” instead of writing on
“broken glass, dried insects, petrifactions, or any such literary themes,” as
he afterwards intimated the Federalists doubtless had expected.[965] The
labor of composition completed, Bishop showed his manuscript to the

secretary of the society, only to be informed later that on account of the
political character of his effort his appointment as orator had been rescinded
by the society. Not to be routed by any such expert generalship on the part
of the enemy, Bishop rallied his Democratic friends, procured a hall, and on
the evening of the Phi Beta Kappa exercises, held forth in the presence of
an audience of very gratifying proportions.[966]
And what had Abraham Bishop to say on “The Extent and Power of
Political Delusion” which in the view of the Phi Beta Kappas amounted to
an abuse of “the confidence of the Society, … involving the members in
that political turmoil which disgraces our country”?[967] Much in every way.
He devoted several scores of pages to an exposition of the delusive arts of
the “friends of order,” which, being interpreted, meant the knavery of the
Federalists throughout the country in general and in Connecticut in
particular. The major portion of his “argument” need not detain us, since
Bishop ran the full gamut of political crimination, charging upon the
Federalists an amount of deception and chicanery truly appalling. One item
only is of interest to us. Among the endless “delusions” that he cited as
evidence of the hypocrisy of the Federalists was the clergy’s habit of
waiving the sacerdotal functions, descending from their high seats made
venerable by the respect of the people for religion, and imposing upon their
auditories political sermons based upon texts drawn from Robison and
Barruel.[968] Happily, he continued, the people were able to penetrate this
stratagem, along with the rest.

Robison and Barruel can deceive us no more. The 17
sophistical work-shops of Satan have never been found: not
one illuminatus major or minor has been discovered in
America, though their names have been published, and though

their existence here is as clearly proved as was their existence
in Europe.[969]

But Bishop’s thought upon the subject of the Illuminati had not yet fully
ripened.[970] The circumstances under which this virgin effort of his was
executed added considerably to his reputation; so much so that when at the
end of the following winter the Democrats of Wallingford adopted the
irreverent suggestion of holding a public thanksgiving to celebrate the
election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency, Bishop was asked to be one
of the mouthpieces of their joy on that occasion. The ground over which
Bishop traveled in the Wallingford oration was much the same as before.
Again the “friends of order” were arraigned for their impostures and their
oppressions. Such were “blind guides,” “a generation of vipers,” dispensers
of hypocrisy to children in their cradles, “arch impostors and prime
movers” of iniquitous works.[971] They were great sticklers for “steady
habits”; but what meant their cry of “steady habits” but mortal hostility to
republicanism in every form?[972]
These self-styled “friends of order,” it should not be forgotten, were not
the people. They were the commercial aristocrats who insisted that ours was
a blessed government because they were all becoming rich, plus the clergy,
the bench, the bar, and the office-seeking and office-holding” class in
general.[973] They united church and state, made religion play a game
against civil rights, and strove to make the object of the American
Revolution appear impossible of full realization.[974] Affecting to respect
and serve the rights of man, they imposed upon the people the funding
system, the alien and sedition acts, and the unwarranted enlargement of the
navy.[975] They stirred up the animosity of the people against the French,
excited the X. Y. Z. mania, and scattered over the country the “arabian tales
of Robison and Barruel.”[976] With respect to religion, they had developed

more hypocrisy in New England than existed in any other equal portion of
the globe.[977] They had cried aloud that atheism prevailed in New England
and infidel books were plentiful; but neither atheists nor infidel publications
were actually to be found, unless in the latter case the writings of Robison
and Barruel and the sermons preached against infidelity were to be called
such.[978] The grave fault of the clerical “friends of order” was that they had
not preached the Gospel. Instead, they had insulted the intelligence of the
people by revamping the fables of a Scotch monarchist and a Catholic abbé.
They imputed infidelity to the Democrats, while they themselves caused
infidelity to abound. They directed all their darts of “democratic infidels”
and “infidel philosophy” against one man, Thomas Jefferson, and in this
way caused their enemies to blaspheme and say, “Where is your God?”[979]
And so on through a hundred pages less one. In a tirade of such
interminable length the idea of a Federalist conspiracy against the best
interests of the people of New England was worked out in more than ample
detail. All that was needed was to apply the term “Illuminati,” and the
catalogue of incriminations would be complete. This application Bishop
proceeded to make in his third oration, which appeared sometime within the
year 1802.
Bishop’s last effort surpassed all that he had previously achieved in the
way of boldfaced and reckless assertion. Constant reiteration and an
awkward effort to fashion his composition on the form that Robison and
Barruel supplied him, gave to the pamphlet abundant suggestions of
insincerity and political rant. The union of church and state in New England
was presented as a constant, powerful, and efficient enemy against
Christianity and the government of the United States.[980] Thus the true
Illuminatists were the political clergy and the Federalist leaders.[981] The
charge of infidel conspiracy brought against the Democrats a few years
previous constituted nothing more nor less than a specious accusation

brought forward “to prostrate the public mind.”[982] Robison and Barruel
were miserable mixtures of falsehood and folly.[983] The Federalists were
well aware of this when they launched their charge of infidel philosophy
against Thomas Jefferson and the party that supported him. The Federalists
were simply desperate. They were determined to go to any lengths to keep
Jefferson out of the presidency. All their works were saturated with
sacrilege and impiety. Their public fasts were kept for political purposes.
[984] Their cry, “The church is in danger!” was hollow and insincere.[985]

Their praise of the Federal administration had no other object than to effect
the abasement of the Democrats.[986] Their “Church and State Union” freely
sacrificed the highest interests of religion and government to the cause of
party.[987]
A more extended report of Bishop’s waspish and bitter harangue would
neither strengthen his indictment nor elucidate his “proofs.” His pamphlet
has significance only as an outburst of triumphant but still indignant New
England Democracy as it reflected upon the exasperating obstacles which
the opposition had thrust in its way as it had pressed forward to power.
Nothing could be clearer than that the word “Illuminati” had lost all serious
and exact significance and had become a term for politicians to conjure
with;[988] or if not that, to give point to the general charge of calloused
villainy which Democrats lodged against Federalists at the turn of the
eighteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
In addition to the principal works made use of in this investigation and listed below,
special bibliographies may be found on pages 75–76, dealing with answers to Thomas
Paine’s Age of Reason, and on pages 185–186, dealing with the European Illuminati. The
sections devoted to sermons, orations and addresses, and pamphlets contain only such
titles as indicate significant sources; titles of less important compositions of this character
will be found in the text or in the foot notes.

MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS
Bentley MSS., American Antiquarian Society Collection.
Ebeling MSS., Harvard University Collection.
Ford Collection, New York Public Library.
Pickering Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society Collection.
Wolcott Papers, Connecticut Historical Society Collection.

NEWSPAPERS
American Mercury, Hartford.
Aurora General Advertiser, Philadelphia.
Columbian Centinel, Boston.
Commercial Advertiser, New York.
Connecticut Courant, Hartford.
Connecticut Journal, New Haven.
Constitutional Telegraph, Boston.
Independent Chronicle, Boston.
Massachusetts Mercury, Boston.
Massachusetts Spy, Worcester.
Newburyport Herald, Newburyport, Mass.
Porcupine’s Gazette, Philadelphia.
Russell’s Gazette, Boston.
Salem Gazette, Salem, Mass.
The Bee, New London, Conn.
Western Star, Stockbridge, Mass.

COLLECTED WORKS
Adams, John, Works … with a life of the author, notes and illustrations, (ed. by Charles
Francis Adams). 10 vols. Boston, 1850–56.

Ames, Fisher, Works, with a selection from his speeches and correspondence, (ed. by Seth
Ames). 2 vols. Boston, 1854.
Hamilton, Alexander, Works, (ed. by Henry Cabot Lodge). 9 vols. New York and London,
1886–7.
Jefferson, Thomas, Writings, (col. and ed. by Paul Leicester Ford). 10 vols. New York and
London, 1892–99.
Paine, Thomas, Writings, (col. and ed. by Moncure Daniel Conway). 4 vols. New York,
1902–8.
Washington, George, Writings, (ed. by Jared Sparks). 12 vols. Boston, 1837.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, BIOGRAPHIES, AND DIARIES
Beecher, Lyman, Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., (ed. by Charles Beecher). 2 vols.
New York, 1864–5.
Bentley, William, Diary. 4 vols. Salem, 1905–11.
Bernard, John, Retrospections of America, 1797–1811. New York, 1887.
Breck, Samuel, Recollections, with Passages from his Note-Books, 1771–1862, (ed. by
Horace Elisha Scudder). Philadelphia, 1877.
Channing, William Ellery, Memoir, with Extracts from his Correspondence and
Manuscripts. 3 vols. Boston, 1848.
Christie, Francis A., The Diary of an Old New England Minister. In Harvard Theological
Review, January, 1916, pp. 84–107.
Conway, Moncure Daniel, The Life of Thomas Paine. 2 vols. New York and London, 1893.
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, with
Annals of the College History. 6 vols. New York (vol. vi, New Haven), 1885–1912.
Field, David Dudley, Brief Memoirs of the Members of the Class Graduated at Yale
College in September, 1802. Printed for private distribution, 1863.
Gibbs, George, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams. 2 vols.
New York, 1846.
Green, Ashbel, Life, (ed. by Joseph J. Jones). New York, 1849.
Hovey, Alvah, A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Rev. Isaac Backus. Boston, 1858.
Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist. 2 vols.
Boston and New York, 1913.
Morse, Edward Lind, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals. Boston and New
York, 1914.
Morse, John Torrey, John Quincy Adams. Boston, 1882.
Sprague, William Buel, Annals of the American Pulpit. 9 vols. New York, 1857–69.
Sprague, William Buel, The Life of Jedidiah Morse. New York, 1874.
Stiles, Ezra, Literary Diary, (ed. by Franklin Bowditch Dexter). 3 vols. New York, 1901.
Willard, Sidney, Memories of Youth and Manhood. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1855.

TRAVELS

Brissot de Warville, J. P., New Travels in the United States of America, performed in 1788.
Second edition, corrected. London, 1794.
Dwight, Timothy, Travels: In New-England and New-York. 4 vols. New-Haven, 1821–2.
La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de, Travels through the
United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada, in the
Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. (Tr.) 4 vols. London, 1799.
Weld, Isaac, Jun., Travels through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada, during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. London, 1799.

HISTORIES

A. General
Channing, Edward, A History of the United States. Volumes i-iv published. New York,
1905–17.
Hildreth, Richard, The History of the United States of America. 6 vols. New York, 1856.
Macdonald, William, Documentary Source Book of American History, 1608–1898. New
York, 1908.
McMaster, John Bach, A History of the People of the United States. 8 vols. New York,
1883–1913.
Palfrey, John G., A Compendious History of New England, etc. 4 vols. Boston, 1873.

B. Special
Aulard, A., Le culte de la Raison et de l’Être suprême. Paris, 1904.
Aulard, A., The French Revolution: a Political History, 1789–1804. (Tr. from the French).
4 vols. New York, 1910.
Baldwin, Ebenezer, Annals of Yale College, in New Haven, Connecticut, from its
foundation, to the year 1831, etc. New Haven, 1831.
Bassett, John Spencer, The Federalist System, 1789–1801. New York and London, 1906.
Bishop, James Leander, A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860. 3 vols.
Philadelphia, 1861–66.
Byington, Ezra Hoyt, The Puritan in England and New England. Boston, 1896.
Clark, Victor Selden, History of Manufactures in the United States, 1607–1860.
Washington, 1916.
Duhr, Bernhard, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge im
16. Jahrhundert. Freiburg, 1907.
Duniway, Clyde Augustus, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts.
New York, 1906.
Dunlap, William, History of the American Theatre. 2 vols. London, 1833.
Dutton, Samuel W. S., The History of the North Church in New Haven. New Haven, 1842.
Earl, Alice Morse, Stage-Coach and Tavern Days. New York, 1900.
Engel, Leopold, Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Bayerns.
Berlin, 1906.
Fiske, John, A Century of Science and Other Essays. Boston, 1899.

Forestier, R. Le, Les Illuminés de Bavière et la Franc-Maçonnerie allemande. Paris, 1915.
Hatch, Louis Clinton, The Administration of the American Revolutionary Army. New York,
1904.
Hazen, Charles Downer, Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution.
Baltimore, 1897.
Johnson, Allen, Union and Democracy. Boston, New York, and Chicago, 1915.
Johnston, Alexander, American Political History, 1763–1876. 2 vols. New York and
London, 1905.
Johnston, Alexander, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy. Boston and
New York, 1891.
Lipowsky, Felix Joseph, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern. 2 vols. München, 1816.
Love, William DeLoss, The Colonial History of Hartford, gathered from the original
records. Hartford, 1914.
Love, William DeLoss, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England. Boston and
New York, 1895.
Luetscher, George Daniel, Early Political Machinery in the United States. Philadelphia,
1903.
Madden, Richard Robert, The United Irishmen, Their Lives and Their Times. 12 vols. New
York, 1910.
Morse, Anson Ely, The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to the Year 1800. Princeton,
1909.
Mounier, Jean-Jacques, De l’influence attribuée aux Philosophes, aux Francs-Maçons et
aux Illuminés sur la Révolution Française. Paris, 1822.
One Hundred Years of Temperance. New York, 1886.
Parker, Edwin Pond, History of the Second Church of Christ in Hartford, 1670–1892.
Hartford, 1892.
Quincy, Josiah, The History of Harvard University. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1840.
Riley, Isaac Woodbridge, American Philosophy: The Early Schools. New York, 1907.
Riley, Isaac Woodbridge, American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism. New York,
1915.
Robinson, William Alexander, Jeffersonian Democracy in New England. New Haven,
1916.
Ruttenber, E. M., History of the County of Orange, with a History of the Town and City of
Newburgh … Newburgh, N. Y., 1875.
Sawyer, Timothy Thompson, Old Charlestown: Historical, Biographical, Reminiscent.
Boston, 1902.
Seilhamer, George O., History of the American Theatre. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1888–91.
Sierke, Eug., Schwärmer und Schwindler zu Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1874.
Sketches of Yale College, with numerous anecdotes … New York, 1843.
Sloane, William Milligan, The French Revolution and Religious Reform. New York, 1901.
Snow, Caleb H., A History of Boston, the Metropolis of Massachusetts, from its origin to
the present period … Boston, 1825.

The Proceedings of the Society of United Irishmen of Dublin. Philadelphia, 1795.
Treudley, Mary, The United States and Santo Domingo, 1789–1866. (Doctoral dissertation,
Clark University). Reprinted from The Journal of Race Development, vol. vii, No. 1,
July, 1916.
Weeden, William Babcock, Early Rhode Island: A Social History of the People. New York,
1910.
Weeden, William Babcock, Economic and Social History of New England, 1620–1789.
2 vols. Boston and New York, 1890.
Winsor, Justin (editor), The Memorial History of Boston, including Suffolk County,
Massachusetts, 1630–1880. 4 vols. Boston, 1880–1.

C. Ecclesiastical.
Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America, May 17, 1798. Philadelphia, 1798.
Backus, Isaac, A History of New England. With Particular Reference to the Denomination
of Christians called Baptists. (2nd edition). 2 vols. Newton, Mass., 1871.
Beardsley, Eben Edwards, The History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. 2 vols.
New York, 1866.
Blake, S. Leroy, The Separates or Strict Congregationalists of New England. Boston,
1902.
Burrage, Henry Sweetser, A History of the Baptists in New England. Philadelphia, 1894.
Buck, Edward, Massachusetts Ecclesiastical Law. Boston, 1866.
Christie, Francis A., The Beginnings of Arminianism in New England. In Papers of the
American Society of Church History, Second Series, vol. iii, New York and London,
1912, pp. 151–172.
Cobb, Sanford Hoadley, The Rise of Religious Liberty in America. New York, 1902.
Cooke, George Willis, Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and Development.
Boston, 1902.
Dexter, Henry Martyn, The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as seen in
its literature. New York, 1880.
Dorchester, Daniel, Christianity in the United States from the First Settlement down to the
Present Time. Revised edition. New York, 1895.
Ford, David Barnes, New England’s Struggles for Religious Liberty. Philadelphia, 1896.
Foster, Frank Hugh, A Genetic History of the New England Theology. Chicago, 1907.
Goddard, Harold Clarke, Studies in New England Transcendentalism. New York, 1908.
Greene, Maria Louise, The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut. Boston and
New York, 1905.
Hayward, John, The Religious Creeds and Statistics of Every Christian Denomination in
the United States and British Provinces. Boston, 1836.
Herzog, J. J. and Plitt, G. L., Real-Encyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche.
2. Aufl. 18 vols. Leipzig, 1877–1888.
Herzog, J. J. and Hauck, A., Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. 3
Aufl. 24 vols. Leipzig, 1896–1913.

Lauer, Paul E., Church and State in New England. In Johns Hopkins University Studies in
Historical and Political Science, Tenth Series, ii-iii, Baltimore, 1892, pp. 83–188.
Reed, Susan Martha, Church and State in Massachusetts, 1691–1740. Urbana, Ill., 1914.
In University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, iii, 4.
Swift, Lindsay, The Massachusetts Election Sermons. In Publications of the Colonial
Society of Massachusetts, i, Transactions, 1892–94, pp. 388–451. Reprinted as Swift,
Lindsay, The Massachusetts Election Sermons: An Essay in Descriptive Bibliography.
Cambridge, 1897.
Walker, Williston, The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism. New York, 1893.
Walker, Williston, A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States. New
York, 1894. (American Church History Series).

D. Masonic

(See also Masonic material listed under Sermons, Orations and Addresses, and
Miscellaneous Works)
An Abstract of the Proceedings of the Anti-Masonic State Convention of Massachusetts,
held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Dec. 30 and 31, 1829, and Jan. 1, 1830. Boston, 1830.
By-Laws of King Solomon’s Lodge, Charlestown, etc. Boston, 1885.
By-Laws of St. John’s Lodge, adopted May 15, A. L. 5843. Boston, 1844.
By-Laws of Tyrian Lodge of Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons, Gloucester. Salem,
1874.
Hayden, Sidney, Washington and His Masonic Compeers. New York, 1867.
Heard, J. A., A Historical Account of Columbian Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of
Boston, Mass. Boston, 1856.
Historical Sketch and Centennial Anniversary of Washington Lodge A. F. & A. M.,
Roxbury, Mass. Roxbury, 1896.
Mackey, Albert Gallatin, The History of Free Masonry. 7 vols. New York, 1898.
McCarthy, Charles, The Anti-Masonic Party, 1827–1840. In Annual Report of the
American Historical Association, 1902, pp. 365–574.
Myers, E. M., History of Free Masonry and Its Progress in the United States. Petersburg,
Va., 1887.
Proceedings of the Anti-Masonic State Convention [Vermont], holden at Montpelier,
June 23, 24 & 25, 1830. Reports and Addresses. Middlebury, 1830.
Sachse, Julius Friederich, Washington’s Masonic Correspondence. Philadelphia, 1915.
Storer, E. G., (compiler), The Records of Free Masonry in the State of Connecticut, etc.
2 vols. New Haven, 1859–61.
Surette, L. A., By-Laws of Corinthian Lodge, of Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons, of
Concord, Mass. Concord, 1859.
Waterman, T., (compiler), By-Laws of St. Andrew’s Royal Arch Chapter, Boston. Boston,
1859.

PUBLIC AND OTHER RECORDS

American State Papers, Class I: Foreign Relations, 1789–1828. 6 vols. Washington, 1832–
1859.
Annual Reports of American Historical Association, for 1894, 1896, 1902, and 1912.
Washington.
Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut in America. Hartford, 1786.
Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 13 vols. Boston, 1890–1898.
Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. 5 vols.
Boston, 1869–1886.
Benton, Thomas Hart, Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
16 vols. New York, 1857–61.
Charter Granted by Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary, to the Inhabitants of
Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. Boston, 1726.
Charters and “Acts and Laws” of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, with Appended Acts
and Laws. Boston, 1726–35.
Connecticut, Colonial Records of, (ed. by C. J. Hoadly and J. Hammond Trumbull).
15 vols. Hartford, 1894–5.
Connecticut Historical Society Collections. 8 vols. Hartford, 1860–1902.
Dedham Historical Register. 14 vols. Dedham, Mass., 1890–1902.
Essex Institute [Salem, Mass.], Historical Collections. 53 vols. Salem, 1859–1917.
Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from November 28th, 1780, to
February 28th, 1807, etc. 3 vols. Boston, 1801–7.
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792–1918. 74 vols. Boston.
New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers. 6 vols. New Haven, 1865–1900.
The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, etc. (Gales and
Seaton). 42 vols. Washington, 1834–56.
United States Statutes at Large.

SERMONS
Abbot, Abiel, A Memorial of Divine Benefits. In a sermon, delivered at Exeter, on the 15th,
and at Haverhill, on the 29th of November, 1798, days of public thanksgiving, in New-
Hampshire and Massachusetts. Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1798.
Bartlett, Josiah, A Discourse on the Origin, Progress and Design of Free Masonry.
Delivered at the meeting-house in Charlestown, in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, on the Anniversary of St. John the Baptist, June 24, A. D. 1793. Boston,
1793.
Belknap, Jeremy, A Sermon, delivered before the convention of the clergy of
Massachusetts, in Boston, May 26, 1796. Boston, 1796.
Bradford, Ebenezer, The Nature and Manner of Giving Thanks to God, Illustrated. A
sermon, delivered on the day of the national thanksgiving, February 19, 1795. Boston,
1795.
Clark, Abraham L., The Secrets of Masonry Illustrated and Explained; in a discourse,
preached at South-Kingston, before the Grand Lodge of the State of Rhode-Island, etc.,
September 3d, A. L. 5799. Providence, 1799.

Cumings, Henry, A Sermon preached at Billerica, November 29, 1798, being the day of the
anniversary thanksgiving throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston,
1798.
Cummings, Abraham, The Present Times Perilous. A sermon, preached at Sullivan, on the
national fast, April 25, 1799. (n. d.).
Dana, Daniel, Two Sermons, delivered April 25, 1799; the day recommended by the
President of the United States for national humiliation, fasting and prayer.
Newburyport, 1799.
Dana, Joseph, A Sermon, delivered February 19, 1795, being a day of general
thanksgiving throughout the United States of America. Newburyport, 1795.
Dwight, Timothy, The Duty of Americans in the Present Crisis. Illustrated in a discourse,
preached on the Fourth of July, 1798 … at the request of the citizens of New-Haven.
New-Haven, 1798.
Dwight, Timothy, A Discourse on some events of the last century, delivered in the Brick
Church in New Haven, on Wednesday, January 7, 1801. New Haven, 1801.
Eckley, Joseph, A Discourse, delivered on the public thanksgiving day, November 29,
1798. Boston, 1798.
Emmons, Nathaniel, A Discourse, delivered on the national fast, April 25, 1799.
Wrentham, Mass., 1799.
French, Jonathan, A Sermon, delivered on the anniversary thanksgiving, November 29,
1798, with some additions in the historical part. Andover, 1799.
Harris, William, A Sermon delivered at Trinity Church in Boston, before the annual
convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, on Tuesday, the 28th
of May, 1799. Boston, 1799.
Kirkland, John Thornton, A Sermon, delivered on the 9th of May, 1798. Being the day of a
national fast, recommended by the President of the United States. Boston, 1798.
Lathrop, Joseph, 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. Springfield, September,
1798.
Miller, Samuel, A Discourse delivered in the New Presbyterian Church, New York: before
the Grand Lodge of the State of New York…. June 24th, 1795. 1795.
Morse, Jedidiah, 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. Boston, 1795.
Morse, Jedidiah, 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. Boston, 1798.
Morse, Jedediah, A Sermon delivered before the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at a public installation of the officers
of Corinthian Lodge, at Concord … June 25, 1798. (n. d.)

Morse, Jedediah, 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. Boston, 1798.
Morse, Jedediah, A Sermon, Exhibiting the Present Dangers, and Consequent Duties of the
Citizens of the United States of America. Delivered at Charlestown, April 25, 1799, the
day of the national fast. Charlestown, 1799.
[Osgood, David], The Wonderful Works of God are to be remembered. A sermon delivered
on the day of the annual thanksgiving, November 20, 1794. Boston, 1794.
Osgood, David, A Discourse, delivered February 19, 1795. The day set apart by the
President for a general thanksgiving throughout the United States. Boston, 1795.
Osgood, David, Some facts evincive of the atheistical, anarchical, and in other respects,
immoral principles of the French republicans, stated in a sermon delivered on the 9th
of May, 1798. Boston, 1798.
Osgood, David, The Devil let loose; or the Wo occasioned to the inhabitants of the earth
by his wrathful appearance among them. Delivered on the day of the national fast,
April 25, 1799. Boston, 1799.
Packard, Hezekiah, Federal Republicanism, displayed in two discourses, preached on the
day of the state fast at Chelmsford, and on the day of the national fast at Concord, in
April, 1799. Boston, 1799.
Payson, Seth, A Sermon, at the consecration of the Social Lodge in Ashby, and at the
installation of its officers, June 24, A. D. 1799. Amherst, N. H., 1800.
Prentiss, Caleb, A Sermon delivered before Mount Moriah Lodge; at Reading in the County
of Middlesex; at the celebration of St. John; June 24th, A. D. 1799. Leominster (Mass.)
… Anno Lucis 5799.
[Sherman, Josiah], A Sermon to Swine: From Luke xv: 16 … Containing a concise, but
sufficient answer to General Allen’s Oracles of Reason. Litchfield, 1787.
Strong, Nathan, A Sermon, preached on the state fast, April 6th, 1798. Published at the
request of the hearers. Hartford, 1798.
Strong, Nathan, Political Instruction from the Prophecies of God’s Word,—a sermon
preached on the state thanksgiving, Nov. 29, 1798. Hartford, 1798.
Tappan, David, A Sermon delivered to the first congregation in Cambridge, and a religious
society in Charlestown, April 11, 1793. Boston, 1793.
Tappan, David, Christian Thankfulness explained and enforced. A sermon delivered at
Charlestown, in the afternoon of February 19, 1795. Boston, 1795.
Tappan, David, A Discourse delivered in the Chapel of Harvard College, June 19, 1798,
occasioned by the approaching departure of the Senior Class from the University.
Boston, 1798.
Taylor, John, A Sermon, delivered on the day of public thanksgiving, at Deerfield; Nov. 29,
’98. Greenfield, (n. d.).
Thayer, John, A Discourse, delivered at the Roman Catholic Church in Boston on the 9th
of May, 1798, a day recommended by the President for humiliation and prayer
throughout the United States. Boston, 1798.

Weld, Ezra, A Discourse, delivered April 25, 1799; being the day of fasting and prayer
throughout the United States of America. Boston, 1799.

ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES
Beedé, Thomas, An Oration, delivered at Roxbury, July 4, 1799. In commemoration of
American Independence. Boston, 1799.
Bentley, William, A Charge delivered before the Morning Star Lodge, in Worcester,
Massachusetts, upon the festival of Saint John the Baptist, June 25, A. L. 1798.
Worcester, June A. L. 1798.
Bishop, Abraham, Connecticut Republicanism. An Oration on the Extent and Power of
Political Delusion. Delivered in New-Haven, on the evening preceding the public
commencement, September, 1800. Philadelphia, 1800.
Bishop, Abraham, Oration delivered at Wallingford, on the 11th of March, 1801, before the
Republicans of the State of Connecticut, and their general thanksgiving for the election
of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency and of Aaron Burr to the Vice Presidency of the
United States of America. New-Haven, 1801.
Bishop, Abraham, Proofs of a Conspiracy, against Christianity, and the Government of the
United States; exhibited in several views of the union of church and state in New-
England. Hartford, 1802.
Brown, William, An Oration spoken at Hartford … on the anniversary of American
Independence, July 4th, A. D. 1799. Hartford, 1799.
Collins, Alexander, A Masonic Oration, pronounced on the festival of St. John the
Evangelist, December 26, 1799…. In Middletown. Middletown, 1800.
Crawford, John, An Address, delivered at the Grand Convention of the Free Masons of the
State of Maryland; held on the 10th May, 1802,—in which the observance of secrecy is
vindicated, and the principal objections of Professor Robison against the institution,
are candidly considered. Baltimore, 1802.
Dwight, Theodore, An Oration spoken at Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, on the
anniversary of American Independence, July 4th, 1798. Hartford, 1798.
Edmond, David, An Oration delivered at Ridg[e]field on the Fourth of July, 1799, before a
large concourse of people, assembled to commemorate their National Independence.
Danbury, MDCCXCIX.
Gardiner, John, Esq., The Speech of, delivered in the House of Representatives. On
Thursday, the 26th of January, 1792…. Boston, 1792.
[Harris, Thaddeus Mason], The Fraternal Tribute of Respect paid to the Masonic
Character of Washington, in the Union Lodge, in Dorchester, January 7th, A. L. 1800.
Charlestown, 1800.
Hodge, Michael, An Oration pronounced before the Right Worshipful Master & Brethren
of St. Peter’s Lodge, at the Episcopal Church in Newburyport, on the festival of St.
John the Baptist, June 24th, 1802. Newburyport, … 1802.
Lewis, Zechariah, An oration, on the Apparent and the Real Political Situation of the
United States, pronounced before the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, assembled
at New-Haven, … July 4th, 1799. New-Haven, 1799.

Lisle, Henry Maurice, An Address, delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, on
the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Dec. 27th, A. L. 1805…. Boston, 1805.
Jackson, Charles, An Oration, delivered before the Right Worshipful Master and Brethren
of St. Peter’s Lodge, at the Episcopal Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on the
festival of St. John the Baptist; celebrated June 25, 1798. Newburyport, March A. L.
1799.
Lowell, John, Junior, An Oration, pronounced July 4th, 1799, at the request of the
inhabitants of the town of Boston, in commemoration of the anniversary of American
Independence. Boston, 1799.
Mann, James, An Address, delivered December 18, 1799. Before the Brethren of
Montgomery Lodge; at their Masonic Hall in Franklin…. Wrentham, 1800.
Parish, Elijah, An Oration, delivered at Byfield, July 4, 1799. Newburyport, (n. d.).
Smith, John C., An Oration, pronounced at Sharon, on the anniversary of American
Independence, 4th of July, 1798. Litchfield, (n. d.).
Stoddard, Amos, An Oration, delivered in the meeting house of the First Parish in
Portland, Monday, June 24th, 1799 … in celebration of the anniversary festival of St.
John the Baptist…. Portland, 1799.
Stoddard, A[mos], An Oration, delivered before the citizens of Portland … on the Fourth
of July, 1799…. Portland, 1799.

PAMPHLETS
Backus, Isaac, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty. Against the Oppressions of
the Present Day. Boston, 1773.
Backus. Isaac, Government and Liberty Described: and Ecclesiastical Tyranny Exposed.
Boston, 1778.
[Cheetham, James], An Answer to Alexander Hamilton’s letter, concerning the public
conduct and character of John Adams, Esq., President of the United States. By a
Citizen of New York. New York, 1800.
Cobbett, William, A Bone to Gnaw, for the Democrats; or Observations on a Pamphlet
entitled “The Political Progress of Britain”. Philadelphia, 1795.
[Ogden, John Cosens], A View of the New England Illuminati: who are indefatigably
engaged in destroying the religion and government of the United States; under a
feigned regard for their safety—and under an impious abuse of true religion.
(2nd edition). Philadelphia, 1799.
Pseud: Effects of the Stage on the Manners of a People: and the Propriety of Encouraging
and Establishing a Virtuous Theatre. By a Bostonian. Boston, 1792.
[Russell, Jonathan], To the Freemen of Rhode-Island, etc. (n. d.).
[Sullivan, James], The Altar of Baal thrown down: or, the French Nation defended, against
the pulpit slander of David Osgood, A. M., pastor of the church in Medford. Par
Citoyen de Novion. Boston, 1795.
The Pretensions of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency examined and the charges against
John Adams refuted. 1796.
The Rights of the Drama: or, an Inquiry into the Origin, Principles, and Consequences of
Theatrical Entertainments. By Philo Dramatis. 1792.

[Wood, John], A Full Exposition of the Clintonian Faction, and the Society of the
Columbian Illuminati; with an account of the writer of the narrative, and the
characters of his certificate men, as also remarks on Warren’s Pamphlet. By J—— W
——. Newark, 1802.

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
Allen, Ethan, Reason the Only Oracle of Man, etc. Bennington, State of Vermont, 1784.
Aufrere, Anthony, The Cannibal’s Progress; or the Dreadful Horrors of the French
Invasion, etc. (Tr. from the German.) Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, 1798.
Barruel, Augustin, Memoirs of Jacobinism. 4 vols. London, 1797.
Chauncy, Charles, Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England. Boston,
1743.
Chauncy, Charles, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed at in the Scheme of
God. London, 1784.
Cunningham, Abner, Practical Infidelity Portrayed and the Judgments of God made
Manifest. (3rd edition). New York, 1836.
Du Pan, J. Mallet, The History of the Destruction of the Helvetic Union and Liberty.
Boston, 1799.
Dwight, Timothy, Theology: Explained and Defended. 5 vols. Middletown, Conn., 1818.
Eulogium and Vindication of Masonry. Selected (and Improved) from Various Writers.
Philadelphia, 1792.
Evans, Charles, American Bibliography. Vols. i-viii published. Chicago, 1903–15.
Harris, Thaddeus Mason, Discourses, delivered on public occasions, illustrating the
principles, displaying the tendency, and vindicating the design of Freemasonry.
Charlestown, 1801.
Payson, Seth, Proofs of the Real Existence, and Dangerous Tendency, of Illuminism, etc.
Charlestown, 1802.
Robison, John, Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of
Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of the Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading
Societies. (3rd edition). London, 1798.
Stedman (Edmund Clarence) and Mackay (Ellen Hutchinson), A Library of American
Literature. 11 vols. New York, 1888–1890.
The Freemason’s Monitor; or Illustrations of Masonry. In Two Parts. By a Royal Arch
Mason. Albany, 1797.
The Maryland Ahiman Rezon of Free and Accepted Masons …. Baltimore, 1797.
The Vocal Companion, and Masonic Register. Boston, 1802.
Trumbull, James Hamond, List of Books Printed in Connecticut, 1709–1800. Hartford,
1904.
Webster, Noah, The Revolution in France considered in respect to its progress and effects.
New York, 1794.
Wise, John, A Vindication of the Government of New-England Churches, and The
Churches Quarrel Espoused. Boston, 1860.

Wolfstieg, August, Bibliographie der freimaurerischen Literatur. 2 vols. and Register.
1911–13.

VITA

The author was born near New London, Ohio, November 23, 1875. His
early education was obtained in the public schools of New London and
North Fairfield (O.), and in the preparatory department of Hiram College.
Upon completing an undergraduate course in the latter institution in 1901,
he received the degree of A.B. Ten years were thereupon devoted to the
work of the Christian ministry, in pastorates at Cincinnati, Ohio, and
Angola, Indiana. He was in residence at Columbia University and Union
Theological Seminary for the first half of the academic year 1907–8. In
1911 he returned to these institutions, and in 1912 received from the former
the degree of A.M. He completed his residence requirements for the
doctorate in 1913. He worked in the seminars of Professors Shotwell,
Rockwell, and McGiffert, and in addition took courses under Professors
Giddings, Dewey, Robinson, and Monroe. He was called to the position of
Dean and Professor of New Testament and Church History in Hiram
College in 1913, where his professional service continues.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Reverend Jedediah Morse, born at Woodstock, Connecticut,
August 23, 1761, died at New Haven, June 9, 1826, was a man of
note. He was the author of the first American geography and
gazetteer. His connection with the leading public men of his times,
particularly with those of the Federalist party, was both extensive
and intimate. His travels and correspondence in the interests of his
numerous geographical compositions in part promoted this
acquaintance; but his outspoken and unflinching support of the
measures of government during the Federalist regime did even
more to enhance his influence. Morse was graduated from Yale
College in 1783 and settled at Charlestown as minister of the
Congregational church in that place in 1789. His wife was
Elizabeth Ann Breese, granddaughter of Samuel Finley, president
of the College of New Jersey. Quite apart from all other claims to
public recognition, the following inscription, to be found to this
day on a tablet attached to the front of the house in Charlestown
wherein his distinguished son was born, would have rendered the
name of Jedediah Morse worthy of regard:
“Here was born 27th of April, 1791,
Samuel Finley Breese Morse.
Inventor of the Electric Telegraph.”
W. B. Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. ii, pp. 247–
256, contains interesting data concerning Morse’s activities and
personality. Sprague also wrote The Life of Jedidiah Morse, D. D.,
New York, 1874. (Morse’s surname appears in the sources both as
“Jedediah” and “Jedidiah”). Sawyer’s Old Charlestown, etc.,
p. 299, has an engaging account of Morse’s loyalty to the muse of
Federalism, and of the painful, though not serious physical

consequences, in which in at least one instance this involved him.
Cf. also Memorabilia in the Life of Jedediah Morse, D. D., by his
son, Sidney E. Morse. A bibliography of thirty-two titles by Morse
is appended to the sketch in F. B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of
the Graduates of Yale College, vol. iv, pp. 295–304.

[2] 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 Congregational
Church in Charlestown, Boston, 1798, p. 25.

[3] Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and
Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of the
Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, Edinburgh, 1797.

[4] An early and yet typical example of this unfavorable view of
the moral and religious life of the people after the first generation
of the Puritans was gone, may be found in The Result of 1679,—a
document prepared by the Synod in response to directions from the
Massachusetts General Court, calling for answers to the following
questions: “What are the euills that haue provoked the Lord to
bring his judgments on New England? What is to be donn that so
those euills may be reformed?”. The following brief excerpt from
The Result supplies the point of View: “Our Fathers neither sought
for, nor thought of great things for themselves, but did seek first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things
were added to them. They came not into the wilderness to see a
man cloathed in soft raiment. But that we have in too many
respects, been forgetting the Errand upon which the Lord sent us

hither; all the world is witness: And therefore we may not wonder
that God hath changed the tenour of his Dispensations towards us,
turning to doe us hurt, and consuming us after that he hath done us
good. If we had continued to be as once we were, the Lord would
have continued to doe for us, as once he did.” The entire
document, together with much valuable explanatory comment,
may be found in Walker, Creeds and Platforms of
Congregationalism, pp. 421–437. Backus, History of New
England, vol i, pp. 457–461, contains a group of similar laments.

[5] Snow, A History of Boston, p. 333.

[6] Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, vol. ii,
p. 696.

[7] Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of
Massachusetts Bay, vol. iii, pp. 500 et seq. The Preamble of this
Act is highly interesting: “For preventing and avoiding the many
and great mischiefs which arise from publick stage-plays,
interludes and other theatrical entertainments, which not only
occasion great and unnecessary expenses, and discourage industry
and frugality, but likewise tend generally to increase immorality,
impiety and a contempt for religion,—Be it enacted”, etc.

[8] Seilhamer, History of the American Theatre, vol. ii, pp. 51 et
seq.; Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, vol. iv, ch. v: “The
Drama in Boston,” by William W. Clapp, pp. 358 et seq.

[9] Seilhamer, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 13; Dunlap, History of the
American Theatre, vol. i, p. 244; Snow, History of Boston, pp. 333
et seq.

[10] Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1792–
3, pp. 686 et seq.

[11] The public discussion and legislative phase of the situation,
together with the disorders occasioned by the determination of the
supporters of the theatre to serve their enterprise at any cost, are
well covered by Clapp in the chapter already cited in Winsor’s
Memorial History of Boston. Cf. also Seilhamer, vol. iii, pp. 14 et
seq.; Dunlap, vol. i, pp. 242 et seq.; Willard, Memories of Youth
and Manhood, vol. i, pp. 324, 325; Bentley, Diary, vol. i. pp 340,
379, 380, 414, 415, 418, etc.

[12] The Speech of John Gardiner, Esquire, Delivered in the House
of Representatives. On Thursday, the 26th of January, 1792,
Boston, 1792, p. 18. Another publication of the same year, The
Rights of the Drama: or, An Inquiry into the Origin, Principles,
and Consequences of Theatrical Entertainments. By Philo
Dramatis (pseud.), discussed the subject in different vein, but with
the same object in view. In the final chapter on “The Outlines of a
Theatre, it’s Necessary Appendages, a Plan of Regulation,
Calculation of Expenses, Profits, &c.”, doubtless by way of
turning the balance of public judgment in favor of the
establishment of a local theatre, the author suggests that the
following ends may be served: the development of native genius,
and thus the elevation of America to a high rank in the republic of
letters; the reservation of a certain portion of the revenues of the
theatre by the Commonwealth, for the care of the poor of Boston,
or of the state, and for the support of the University at Cambridge
(Harvard), thus easing the burden of taxation. The closing words
of this pamphlet, stripped of their bombast, are not unworthy to

stand with Gardiner’s: “Whenever I consider this subject, and
contemplate the formation of a Theatre, I cannot help feeling a
kind of enthusiasm … I anticipate the time when the Garricks and
Siddons of America shall adorn the Stage, and melt the soul to
pity. But here let me pause.—Let the most rigid Stoic, or the
greatest fanatic in religion, or the most notorious dupe to
prejudice, once hearken to the tale of the tragic muse, whose office
it is to soften, and to subdue the violent passions of the mind, by
painting the real misfortunes and distresses, which accompany our
journey through life; or attend to the laughable follies, and vain
inconsistencies, which daily mark the character of the human
species—the deformity of vice—the excellence of virtue—, and,
from the representation of the lively Comedy, ‘catch the manners
living as they rise,’ and then say, if he can, that lessons of
instruction are unknown to the Drama. If these have no effect, let
him listen, with mute attention, to the occasional symphonies,
which burst from a thousand strings, and accompany, and give life
and animation to the Comic scene—and then, if sunk below the
brute creation, let him be fortified against the impressions of
sensibility. The stoicism of man must surpass our comprehension,
if the dramatic scene can be contemplated without emotion; more
especially when the representation of life and manners is intended
to correct and to enlarge the heart….”

[13] Cf. (Boston) Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser,
Thursday, March 28, 1793.

[14] Pseud.: Effects of the Stage on the Manners of a People: and
the Propriety of Encouraging and Establishing a Virtuous Theatre.
By a Bostonian, Boston, 1792. The author is insipid enough; none

the less the pamphlet is by no means void of a certain practical-
mindedness and good sense as the author argues for the frank
acceptance of the theatre as an institution in the city’s life. The
following constitute his chief contentions: The theatre, in some
form or other, is bound to come, because of the fact that the people
generally are interested in the subject of amusement; the tastes and
appetites of the people already give painful evidence of serious
debasement and corruption; the acceptance of a “Virtuous Theatre”
is the only possible expedient if the people are to be saved from
worse debauchment.
The view taken by the Reverend William Bentley, Salem’s well-
known minister, was less specious, though tinged with a mildly
pessimistic view of popular tastes. Under date of July 31, 1792, he
wrote: “So much talk has been in the Country about Theatrical
entertainments that they have become the pride even of the
smallest children in our schools. The fact puts in mind of the effect
from the Rope flyers, who visited N. England, after whose feats
the children of seven were sliding down the fences & wounding
themselves in every quarter.” Diary, vol. i, p. 384. Later, he wrote:
“The Theatre opened for the first time [in Salem] is now the
subject. The enlightened who have not determined upon its utter
abolition have yet generally agreed that it is too early introduced
into our country.” Ibid., vol. ii, p. 81. Cf. ibid., pp. 258, et seq.,
299, 322. It is clear that Bentley was apprehensive.

[15] Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, vol. i,
pp. 188, 195; Bishop, History of American Manufactures, vol. i,
pp. 245 et seq.

[16] Ibid., p. 250; vol. ii, pp. 501, 502. See also Clark, History of
Manufactures in the United States, p. 480.

[17] Ibid. Bishop notes the fact that in 1721 a small village of forty
houses, near Boston, made 3000 barrels of cider.

[18] Ibid., p. 269; Weeden, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 144, 148 et seq.

[19] The impression that this decline toward a general state of
drunkenness set in early will appear from the following excerpt
taken from the Synod’s report on “The Necessity of Reformation”,
presented to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1679: “VIII.
There is much Intemperance. The heathenish and Idolatrous
practice of Health-drinking is become too general a Provocation.
Dayes of Training, and other publick Solemnityes, have been
abused in this respect: and not only English but Indians have been
debauched, by those that call themselves Christians, who have put
their bottles to them, and made them drunk also. This is a crying
Sin, and the more aggravated in that the first Planters of this
Colony did (as in the Patent expressed) come into this Land with a
design to Convert the Heathen unto Christ…. There are more
Temptations and occasions unto That Sin, publickly allowed of,
than any necessity doth require; the proper end of Taverns, &c.
being to that end only, a far less number would suffice: But it is a
common practice for Town dwellers, yea and Church-members, to
frequent publick Houses, and there to misspend precious Time,
unto the dishonour of the Gospel, and the scandalizing of others,
who are by such examples induced to sin against God.” Cf.
Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, p. 430.

[20] Hatch, The Administration of the American Revolutionary
Army, pp. 89 et seq. The supplies of beer, cider, and rum furnished
the armies were not always held to be adequate. After the battle of
Brandywine, Congress ordered thirty hogsheads of rum distributed
among the soldiers as a tribute to their gallant conduct in that
battle. Cf. One Hundred Years of Temperance, New York, 1886,
article by Daniel Dorchester on “The Inception of the Temperance
Reformation”, p. 113, for comments on the effects of the return of
drunken soldiers to the ranks of citizenship.

[21] Weeden, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 883, supplies the following
concerning the character of the coasting and river trade, which the
exigencies of the war greatly stimulated: “A cargo from Boston to
Great Barrington and Williamstown contained 11 hdds. and 6
tierces of rum, 3 bbls. of wine, 2 do. of brandy, 1/2 bale of cotton,
and 1 small cask of indigo. The proportion of ‘wet goods’ to the
small quantity of cotton and indigo is significant, and indicates the
prevailing appetites”.

[22] In 1783 Massachusetts had no fewer than sixty-three
distilleries. In 1783 this state distilled 1,475,509 gallons of spirits
from foreign, and 11,490 gallons from domestic materials. From
1790 to 1800 in the United States, 23,148,404 gallons of spirits
were distilled from molasses; of this 6,322,640 gallons were
exported, leaving a quantity for home consumption so large as to
supply its own comment. Low grain prices, together with the
difficulty of gaining access to the molasses markets, hastened a
transition to grain distilling near the end of the eighteenth century,
with the result that in 1810 Mr. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury,
reported not less than 9,000,000 gallons of spirits as having been

distilled from grain and fruit in 1801. Bishop, History of American
Manufactures, vol. ii, pp. 30, 65, 83, 152; Clark, History of
Manufactures in the United States, p. 230.

[23] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 6th ser.,
vol. iv, Belknap Papers, pt. iii, p. 440.

[24] Ibid., p. 508.

[25] Diary of William Bentley, vol. ii, p. 92: May 31, 1794: “The
observation of holydays at Election is an abuse in this part of the
Country. Not only at our return yesterday, did we observe crowds
around the new Tavern at the entrance of the Town, but even at this
day, we saw at Perkins’ on the neck, persons of all descriptions,
dancing to a fiddle, drinking, playing with pennies, &c. It is proper
such excesses should be checked.” Cf. also ibid., pp. 58, 363, 410,
444 et seq. Cf. also Earle, Alice Morse, Stage-coach and Tavern
Days, New York, 1900.

[26] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 6th
Series, vol. iv, Belknap Papers, pt. iii, p. 456. Jeremiah Libbey
writes of the situation at Portsmouth, [N. H.?]: “The common
allowance of rum to labourers here is half a pint per day, which has
been the rule or custom as long as I can remember. There are
several persons in this town that are endeavouring to abolish the
custom by giving them more wages in lieu of the allowance, as it
is call’d; but the custom is so rooted that it is very difficult to
break it. The attachment is so great, that in general if you were to
offer double the price of the allowance in money it would not be
satisfactory to the labourers, and altho’ that is the case & it is the
ruin of them and familys in many instances … untill a substitute of

beer or some other drink is introduced in general, it will be
difficult to get over it”.

[27] Diary of William Bentley, vol. i, pp. 167, 175, 217, 218, 244,
247, 248, 255, 256, 281 et seq.

[28] Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher, vol. i,
p. 30.

[29] Ibid., p. 24. The description of the meeting of the
Consociation, pp. 214 et seq., is unusually vivid: “ … the
preparation for our creature comforts in the sitting-room of Mr.
Heart’s house, besides food, was a broad sideboard, covered with
decanters and bottles, and sugar, and pitchers of water. There we
found all the various kinds of liquors then in vogue. The drinking
was apparently universal. This preparation was made by the
society as a matter of course. When the Consociation arrived, they
always took something to drink round; also before public services,
and always on their return. As they could not all drink at once,
they were obliged to stand and wait, as people do when they go to
mill. There was a decanter of spirits also on the dinnertable, to
help digestion, and gentlemen partook of it through the afternoon
and evening as they felt the need, some more and some less; and
the sideboard, with the spillings of water, and sugar, and liquor,
looked and smelled like the bar of a very active grog-shop. None
of the Consociation were drunk; but that there was not, at times, a
considerable amount of exhilaration, I can not affirm.” It was
Beecher’s judgment that “the tide was swelling in the drinking
habits of society.” Ibid., p. 215.

[30] Ibid., vol. i, pp. 133, 138, 163, 255, 256, 371; vol. ii. pp. 294,
328 et seq.

[31] A Discourse on Some Events of the Last Century, delivered in
the Brick Church in New Haven, on Wednesday, January 7, 1801.
By Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College, New Haven, 1801.
Cf. this author’s Travels in New England and New York, vol. iv, pp.
353 et seq.

[32] Dwight’s Century Sermon, p. 18.

[33] Ibid., pp. 18 et seq.

[34] The testimony of a European traveller should prove as
edifying as that of an intimate participant in the country’s life. In
1788, Brissot de Warville visited America. He remarked the
change which had come over the people of New England, of
Boston in particular. The old “Presbyterian austerity, which
interdicted all pleasures, even that of walking; which forbade
travelling on Sunday, which persecuted men whose opinions were
different from their own” was no longer to be encountered. Yet no
evidence of the corruption of morals presented itself to the
distinguished traveller. On the contrary, he remarked the general
wholesomeness and soundness of domestic life, and the general
poise and temperance of a people which, “since the ancient puritan
austerity has disappeared”, was able to play cards without yielding
to the gambling instinct and to enjoy its clubs and parties without
offending the spirit of courtesy and good-breeding. The glow upon
the soul of Brissot as he contemplates the prosperity and
unaffected simplicity of the people of Boston is evident as he
writes: “With what pleasure did I contemplate this town, which

first shook off the English yoke! which, for a long time, resisted all
the seductions, all the menaces, all the horrors of a civil war! How
I delighted to wander up and down that long street, whose simple
houses of wood border the magnificent channel of Boston, and
whose full stores offer me all the productions of the continent
which I had quitted! How I enjoyed the activity of the merchants,
the artizans, and the sailors! It was not the noisy vortex of Paris; it
was not the unquiet, eager mien of my countrymen; it was the
simple, dignified air of men, who are conscious of liberty, and who
see in all men their brothers and their equals. Everything in this
street bears the marks of a town still in its infancy, but which, even
in its infancy, enjoys a great prosperity…. Boston is just rising
from the devastations of war, and its commerce is flourishing; its
manufactures, productions, arts, and sciences, offer a number of
curious and interesting observations.” (Brissot De Warville, New
Travels in the United States of America, pp. 70–82.) Equally
laudatory comment respecting the state of society in Connecticut is
made by Brissot (pp. 108, 109).
John Bernard, the English comedian, who was in this country at
the close of the eighteenth century, found the state of society very
much like that which he had left in his own country. “They wore
the same clothes, spoke the same language, and seemed to glow
with the same affable and hospitable feelings. In walking along the
mall I could scarcely believe I had not been whisked over to St.
James’s Park; and in their houses the last modes of London were
observable in nearly every article of ornament or utility. Other
parts of the state were, however, very different.” (Bernard,
Retrospections of America, 1797–1811, p. 29.) Bernard found in
New England abundant evidences of progress such as he had not

been accustomed to in England, and splendid stamina of character
(p. 30). Nothing, apparently, suggested to him that the people were
not virile and sound.

[35] Bentley, Diary, vol. i, pp. 253 et seq., discusses at length “the
Puerile Sports usual in these parts of New England”. Weeden,
Economic and Social History of New England, vol. ii, p. 696,
comments on the dearth of public amusement. Cf. also ibid.,
p. 864. The changed attitude of the public toward dancing, as
reported by Weeden, pp. 696 and 864, doubtless finds its
explanation in the growing consciousness that the resources in the
way of entertainment deserve to be increased. At the close of the
century, however, dancing was still frowned upon. Bentley, Diary,
vol. ii, pp. 17, 232, 233, 296, 322, 363.

[36] Brissot, New Travels in the United States of America, p. 72:
“Music, which their teachers formerly prescribed as a diabolic art,
begins to make part of their education. In some houses you hear
the forte-piano. This art, it is true, is still in its infancy; but the
young novices who exercise it, are so gentle, so complaisant, and
so modest, that the proud perfection of art gives no pleasure equal
to what they afford.” Cf. also Bentley, Diary, vol. ii, pp. 247 et
seq., 292.

[37] Brissot, New Travels in the United States of America, pp. 86
et seq. Brissot generously explains this fact upon the ground that in
a country so new, whose immediate concerns were so compelling,
and where, also, wealth is not centered in a few hands, the
cultivation of the arts and sciences is not to be expected. On the
side of invention the situation was far from being as bad as a

reading of Brissot might seem to imply. Weeden, Economic and
Social History of New England, vol. ii, pp. 847–858.

[38] Goddard, Studies in New England Transcendentalism, p. 18.
While the passage cited deals with an earlier situation, the general
observation made concerning the well-poised character of the New
England type of mind is as valid for the close of the eighteenth
century as for the corresponding period of the preceding century;
and the failure of New England to take a “plunge … from the
moral heights of Puritanism” is all the more impressive in the later
period in view of the variety and character of the new incitements
and impulses which the people of New England generally felt in
the period following the Revolution.

[39] Conspicuous in this group was the new merchant class. In the
wake of the Revolution came an industrial and commercial revival
which profoundly affected the life of New England. While the
period of the Confederation, on account of its political
disorganization and the chaotic state of public finance and the
currency, was characterized by extreme economic depression, on
the other hand, the adoption of the Constitution communicated to
the centers of industry and commerce a feeling of optimism. The
sense that a federal government had been formed, equal to the task
of guaranteeing to its citizens the rights and privileges of trade,
gave early evidence that the economic impulses of the country had
been quickened notably. Such evidence is too abundant and too
well known either to permit or to require full statement here, but
the following is suggestive: The fisheries of New England, which
had been nearly destroyed during the Revolution, had so far
revived by 1789 that a total of 480 vessels, representing a tonnage

of 27,000, were employed in the industry. At least 32,000 tons of
shipping were built in the United States, a very large part of this in
New England, in 1791. Before the war the largest amount built in
any one year was 26,544 tons. But the record of 1791 was modest.
From 1789 to 1810, American shipping increased from 202,000 to
1,425,000 tons. Because of the federal government’s proclamation
of strict neutrality with regard to the wars abroad, the carrying
trade of the world came largely into the hands of shipowners and
seamen of the United States, with the result that the dockyards and
wharves of New England fairly hummed with activity. The exports
of 1793 amounted to $33,026,233. By 1799 they had mounted to
$78,665,522, of which $33,142,522 was the growth, produce, or
manufacture of the Union. Within a very few years after the
adoption of the Constitution, American merchants had become the
warehousers and distributors of merchandise to all parts of the
world. The wharves of New England were covered with goods
from Europe, the Orient, the West Indies, and from the looms,
shops, and distilleries of the nation. Directed by resourceful and
far-sighted men who had the instinct for commercial expansion,
ships sailed from New England ports for Batavia, Canton,
Calcutta, St. Petersburg, Port Louis. They carried with them
coffee, fish, flour, provisions, tobacco, rum, iron, cattle, horses;
they brought back molasses, sugar, wine, indigo, pepper, salt,
muslins, calicoes, silks, hemp, duck. The situation is dealt with in
detail by Bishop, History of American Manufactures, vol. ii,
pp. 13–82; Clark, History of Manufactures in the United States, pp.
227 et seq.; Weeden, Economic and Social History of New
England, vol. ii, pp. 816–857.