[800] Ibid.
[801] Independent Chronicle, May 30, 1799.
[802] Ibid.
[803] Ibid.
[804] Ibid., June 10, 1799.
[805] Cf. especially the Independent Chronicle of May 9, 13, 16, 20, 27, 30, and June 3, 6, 10, 13, 1799.
[806] Ibid., May 13, 1799.
[807] Independent Chronicle, May 20, 1799.
[808] Cf. supra, [pp. 281] et seq.
[809] The ship Ocean was a vessel of the United States concerning which, in the spring of 1799, the statement got into circulation that it had been captured by the French and every soul on board foully murdered. No such massacre actually took place. Morse, however, heard the story, believed it, and made reference to it in his fast sermon of April 25, 1799. Later, and not unnaturally, he became disturbed over the part he had played in giving publicity to the story. His integrity, he believed, was involved; likewise the faith of the public in other pronouncements he had made, e. g. with regard to the Illuminati. See Wolcott Papers, vol. viii, 27. And this was the view of the case that his enemies took. Cf. for instance, the Aurora, June 6, 1799.