CHAPTER IV

THEILLUMINATIAGITATION INNEWENGLAND

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 thearmies 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, ofreviling and blasphemy.” The main source from which theday of troublehad 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 “cantheybe 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 wereformed 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 THEILLUMINATEDhas been in existence in Germany; its express aim is “to root out and abolish Christianity, and overthrow allcivil 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 havedoubtless 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 pestiferoussciongrafted 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 ofwicked 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 itshouldbe found true that some of the branches of Masonry have been corrupted and perverted from their original design, needthatcircumstance 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 conspiraciesof theIlluminatiagainst 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 ofIlluminatismmay 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 theendwith themeans. Because atheism and licentiousness are employed asinstruments, 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 secretdangers 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, wasIlluminism.

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 unquestioningand 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 toburst 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,JEDHMORSE.[643]TOHONORABLEOLIVERWOLCOTT,Comptroller of the Treasury

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,

JEDHMORSE.[643]

TOHONORABLEOLIVERWOLCOTT,

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 theIndependent Chronicleof 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’sProofsalone 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 anarticle inThe Critical Review, or Annals of Literature, London, 1797, wherein he found severe strictures upon Robison’s volume. In view of this, “since theDoctorsof 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 theChronicle,[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 theNew York Spectatorby which his (Morse’s) letter to theChronicleis accompanied they will learn that “there is at leastoneother person in the United States who hasread thiswork, [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 latework” 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 ofThe Critical Reviewis concerned, he has no doubt that theircaricatureof 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 ofThe Critical Reviewhad seen fit to place upon Robison’s volume, Morse was able to oppose a very different judgment.The London Reviewof 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 readProofs of a Conspiracyfor 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 objectTHE 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 oninfidel 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, theundoubtedaspects 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 inallits 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’sopinionrespecting 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 theprincipal 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 Dwighthadnew 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 OFAMERICANS AT THE PRESENT CRISIS, and “BeholdI 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 afulfilment 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 theEncyclopédie, 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 earlyand 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 escapedthe 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 ofimprovement, 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 ofCa irathe ruin of their religion, and the loss of their souls? … Shall we, my brethren, become partakersof 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 ofhis 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 theday, a certain John C. Smith, supplied a new thrill to his patriotic address by informing his hearers that the French Revolution was the result

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