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.