New England and the Bavarian Illuminati

by Vernon Stauffer

[785] Ibid.

[786] Morse’s Sermon, p. 46.

[787] Ibid., pp. 46 et seq.

[788] Ibid., p. 47.

[789] Ibid.

[790] Ibid.

[791] Naturally, Morse had not failed to make use of his European authorities in preparing his sermon for the eyes of the general public. There was, of course, no new evidence to be derived from this source.

[792] Morse’s Sermon, p. 48. The immediate source from which Morse obtained the documents of which he made such large and confident use in this sermon, constitutes an interesting subject of inquiry. Happily that source is fully disclosed in the following extract from a letter which Morse addressed to Wolcott, Dec. 6, 1799:

… I wish all the evidence whh can be procured to substantiate the truth of what I have published. As the documents came through your hands, I have thought it proper to apply to you on the subject, as well as for evidence as for your advice as to the manner of exhibiting it.—I wish only to be assisted in defending myself to the satisfaction of candid & good men.” (Wolcott Papers, vol. viii, 30.)

The canniness of Oliver Wolcott’s Federalism is quite as much illuminated by this letter as is Jedediah Morse’s caution and generosity in assuming responsibility for the publication of the documents referred to. That Wolcott had been instrumental in furnishing Morse’s quiver with the arrows which Morse discharged from his bow on the occasion of the 1799 fast, was soon suspected in Democratic circles. Cf. Aurora, Feb. 14, 1800. (In this connection it may be remarked that Wolcott was not the only New England Federalist who came into possession of portions of the correspondence of Wisdom Lodge. The Pickering MSS., vol. xlii, 37, presents a copy of another letter which in this instance was sent by the Portsmouth lodge to the lodge Verity and Union, in Philadelphia. The letter bears date of April 12, 1798. Its value for the purposes of this investigation is nil. How it came to be in Pickering’s possession is not known. The implication is strong that the Federalists were eager to exploit the documents to the utmost.)