New England and the Bavarian Illuminati

by Vernon Stauffer

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]