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(page 175 thru 194)
The evidence, and authentic documents, which have been exhibited,
it is conceived are such, as can leave no doubt
of the existence and active operation of Illuminism
from 1776, until these works of darkness were brought to light,
and their promoters compelled to change their mode of procedure.
Most of the late European writers, where propriety would permit,
allude to it as an indubitable fact.
It is not, indeed, denied even by those
who seem most disposed to quiet our apprehensions on this subject:
their efforts are directed to prove,
either that its operation is now at an end,
or that it never was designed to produce,
nor was indeed capable of producing,
the evils ascribed to it.
Whether the subversion of superstition and despotism
was the whole aim of these plotting geniuses,
their writings and conduct will enable us to judge.
The statements and observations in this chapter
are principally designed to shew,
that the contagious poison is still spreading and infecting society,
threatening the destruction of every thing important to mankind,
and therefore, that the history of this sect
is a subject highly interesting.
Admitting that the order of the Illuminees is now extinct,
their systems and doctrines remain;
the books by which they communicated their poison are in circulation;
the arts by which they inveigled and corrupted the minds of men
are not forgotten,
and the former members of this society
still possess the skill, the wicked subtlety,
to which the care of Weishaupt formed his adepts.
To prove that such destructive arts have existed,
is virtually to prove that they still exist;
that is, that the care and caution of the wise and good ought to be the same,
as if they were assured of their present existence and actual operation.
Can it be a doubt whether wicked men will use
the most effectual weapons in their power?
Whether they will adopt those means
which they judge best calculated to promote their purposes?
It belongs to the art of fortification
to provide against every possible mode of attack.
The invention of artillery pointed out
the necessity of new means of defence,
and it became the engineer to construct works,
which would repel their destructive violence.
The legislator, the instructor of youth,
the moralist, the defender of Christianity,
have new arts to encounter,
new modes of attack and instruments of mischief to guard against;
how necessary, then, that they should become acquainted
with the weapons of their enemies,
and of their new modes of attack?
Although the dissolution of this combination
has been confidently asserted,
the evidence of the fact does not appear.
The interruption it has received from detection,
would naturally produce an increase of caution;
but can it be supposed to effect any change
in the wishes or designs of the conspirators?
Is the thing in itself probable?
The proof adduced is merely of the negative kind,
and much of this is contradicted by plain facts.
In 1794, it was announced to the public, that from 1790,
"every concern of the Illuminees had ceased."
But in addition to what has been already related of a contrary aspect,
many circumstances contradict this assertion.
In 1791, a spark of Illuminism caught in Ireland,
and spread with astonishing rapidity,
threatening a universal conflagration.
The conspirators there assumed the denomination of United Irishmen. *
*
See the report of the Committee of Secrecy, presented to the Irish House of Commons, July, 1797,
with the papers and testimonies upon which said report was founded: 2d. edit. London, 1798, for John Stockdale;
and the Speech of the Lord Chancellor, Feb. 19, 1798, reprinted for J. Stockdale.
What is here introduced in relation to Ireland, is not designed to intimate
that the people of that country did not need a redress of grievances.
It is noticed merely as an evidence of the existence of Illuminism.
It originated from foreign influence.
The system adopted was perfectly in the style of the new order.
The passions of the people were inflamed,
and their judgments blinded by misrepresentations.
They were deceived as to the real object of their leaders.
By the same means insurrections may be excited
under any government where the people are in a similar state of vice and ignorance.
This extensive combination was concealed
under forms very similar to those of Masonry,
and the whole was methodized upon the graduated scale of Illuminism.
The subordinate societies consisted of thirty members,
and were under the direction of a Baronial committee,
composed of a delegate from each society within the Barony.
The Baronial committees in each county, in like manner
elected delegates, who formed a county committee.
Delegates from each county committee, formed, in like manner,
a provincial committee for the government and direction
of the several county committees, in each of the four provinces;
and these provincial directories appointed the general executive,
whose residence was in the metropolis.
The secretaries of each of these committees,
were to be taken from an higher committee,
and by them the whole correspondence was maintained,
and the orders of the executive transmitted through the different degrees.
These orders, for the greater security, were, if possible,
to be communicated verbally, or otherwise, to be immediately destroyed.
One object of the union specified in the constitution was,
that of communicating with similar societies in other parts,
and particularly with the Jacobin club at Paris.
In addition to the usual oaths of secrecy, submission, &c.
every member was solemnly sworn
never to give evidence against a brother, in any court of justice,
whatever might be his crime.
Another requisite oath was fidelity to the French republic. *
* Chancellor's Speech, p. 32. Irish report, Appendix, No.4.
In April, 1796, the outline of a treaty with France
was drawn up by the general committee of the union,
and transmitted to the French directory,
in consequence of which a French force made its appearance at Bantry Bay,
on the 24th of December,
but by a mistake between the parties,
with respect to the time agreed upon for the invasion,
the Insurgents were not prepared to co-operate, and the expedition failed.
The accounts detailed in the reports of the several committees,
represent the numbers of this association to be vastly numerous.
It is particularly stated, that 150,000
were organized and enrolled in the province of Ulster. *
* Appendix, No. 31.
Similar societies, in close union and correspondence with this,
were formed in England, and Scotland, under different names,
but pursuing the same object.
A statement, still more interesting to Americans,
is found in the report of a provincial meeting,
dated Randolstown, August 14, 1797,
from which it appears, that a number of societies
were formed in North America, from which,
in the last eight days, two hundred and eleven dollars had been received. *
* Appendix, No. 14.
The ostensible object of this union, was a parliamentary reform;
but the correspondence with the directory,
and the testimony of several witnesses,
afford abundant proof, that this was held up merely to blind the people,
and that the real object of the chiefs was, a revolution,
of which the French revolution was to be the model.
Barruel relates several instances in which the adepts
were found fomenting conspiracies against the government,
both in Austria and Prussia,
long after the cessation of all the operations of Illuminism
were announced to the public.
These attempts were truly formidable,
and were rendered abortive, only by those strange accidental occurrences,
by which a governing Providence disappoints the devices of the crafty.
One instance is worthy of notice, as a curiosity.
Mehalovich, formerly a capuchin,
was a principal in a conspiracy in Germany.
While he was out one day, a domestic,
playing with one of his fellow servants, for the sake of humor,
put on the capuchin habit,
which his master had preserved among his clothes,
when his master unexpectedly returned.
The servant, in order to prevent being discovered with the habit,
hid himself under the bed.
Mehalovich, with two other conspirators, entered the room;
and thinking themselves secure, they conversed, unreservedly,
upon the conspiracy, which was to break out in three days.
Mehalovich took five hundred thousand florins,
which were hidden in a harpsichord,
and gave them to one of the conspirators for the execution of the plan.
After they left the room, the servant went immediately
and discovered the whole plot to the ministers of state.
In the result, Mehalovich, with eight accomplices, was executed,
and many others were condemned to exile, or to perpetual imprisonment.
This conspiracy exhibits a remarkable instance
of the means by which modern revolutions have been effected.
The party, desirous of a new order of things,
through their influence at court,
found means of forming a garrison in Vienna,
of substantial and honest citizens, little accustomed to bear arms.
These new raised corps, they treated with the greatest severity,
under the pretence, that what they did was by the order of the emperor;
hoping by this to render the government obnoxious to them. *
* Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. IV. p. 311. 312.
Habitually viewing Europeans as deprived of the rights of men,
and groaning under oppression,
our attention has been naturally diverted from considering
the real character of modern revolutionists,
and the tendency of their measures and principles.
From the happy success of their own revolution, Americans, in particular,
have incautiously indulged the idea, that a revolution must meliorate society;
that nothing more is necessary to render men free, prosperous, and happy,
than to overturn ancient establishments.
Even under the administrations of Washington and Adams,
these children of change,
fancied a revolution necessary to preserve our liberties.
But what has been exhibited in Europe, may teach us
that it is time to pause, and consider consequences.
Would the deluded people of Ireland probably have
improved their situation by overturning their own government,
and throwing themselves into the arms of France?
What recompence has France herself found
for her slaughtered millions,
her exhausted treasuries,
and the scenes of indescribable distress
which have attended her revolution?
Can a people enjoy, or preserve the blessings of temperate liberty,
until they are enlightened and virtuous?
Will unprincipled, ambitious men exert the influence
they gain over mankind, to make them free or happy?
Have none but tyrants reason to dread this new, revolutionizing spirit?
Was not Swisserland free?
Were the magistrates of Geneva despots?
In fine (sine?), is that revolutionary power, which consists
in blinding its agents, and inflaming the bad passions of a nation
by false representations, desirable in any government?
If opposition to constituted authorities,
and a pretended zeal for the rights of men,
are proofs of patriotism and benevolence,
the present may well be called the golden age;
but we have been sufficiently entertained with vague declamations,
it is time to attend to facts and experience.
It is obvious that society cannot subsist,
unless those are governed who will not govern themselves.
Were all the members of a community
invariably disposed to practice righteousness,
to such a community, a government of restraint would be unnecessary.
On the contrary, a society composed of men of an opposite character,
need the strong hand of power to preserve the public tranquillity.
Such a government tends indeed to abuse,
and perhaps there may not be an instance,
where this rigorous exercise of authority is maintained,
with a perfect regard to justice and the rights of the subject.
It is to be regretted that men, invested with power, are so little disposed
to approve themselves the fathers and benefactors of their subjects.
But is it therefore desirable, in the present state of mankind,
that every government should be revolutionized into a republic?
Is the modern, fashionable oath, of "hatred to all kings,"
dictated by an enlightened and christian benevolence?
That man might as reasonably lay claim to benevolence,
who should loose the hands of a mad-man,
and set him at liberty to destroy his family and himself.
Until a people are enlightened and virtuous,
republican freedom will degenerate into licentiousness,
and afford an opportunity to the factious and ambitious,
by enflaming the passions of men,
to erect a tyranny more to be dreaded
than that of the most arbitrary despot on earth.
No nation in modern Europe has suffered more
from an unlimited monarchy than France;
but, separate from all the mischiefs which her mad politics
have produced to other parts of the world,
there certainly has been no equal period
under her most despotic kings,
productive of evils, to be compared with those
which have attended the late revolution;
and these evils must probably have continued,
if general Bonaparte had not fortunately
acquired such unlimited control over the nation,
as has restored order and peace.
It is futile to attempt to avoid the conclusion, which this fact affords,
by observing, that these evils are to be imputed, not to the people of France,
but to factious leaders,
who have made them the dupes of their ambitious views;
for it is the wretched ignorance, and depravity of a people
which make them dupes of such leaders.
How gross must be the ignorance of a people who can believe,
that such men as Danton, Marat, and Robespierre,
are friends to real liberty, and the rights of man?
A vitiated society will always have such leaders.
We may safely estimate the character of a people,
by that of the persons in whom they place confidence.
This consideration alone, proves, that virtue and information
are necessary to the support of a free government.
Where these are wanting, persons of the above description
will never fail, by the cry of tyranny,
and a pretended zeal for equal rights,
to increase the jealousy of a people against rulers of their own choice;
to withdraw from them the necessary confidence,
and to transfer that confidence, most improperly indeed,
to themselves.
To this evil, republican governments,
from the lenity and indulgence which enters into their constitution,
have always been peculiarly exposed;
but the danger is greatly augmented
since the arts of deception have been wrought into a system,
and the active Propaganda of Illuminism
has been laboring to undermine every government
within the reach of its influence.
From this cause, every considerable republic in Europe
has undergone a revolution;
and the preservation of governments of a more rigorous form,
is owing to their greater energy in repelling the invading enemy.
The American revolution took place under the happiest omens.
It did not originate from the blinding influence of designing men;
it was not excited by the ambitious desire
of rendering America mistress of the world;
but it owed its rise and progress to a just sense, in the Americans,
of the rights of men, of what was due to themselves,
and to posterity, and a wise, patriotic, and virtuous determination
to resist the first encroachments of arbitrary power.
Simplicity of manners, habits of economy, industry, and moderation,
together with ample means of information,
of moral and religious instruction,
every circumstance seemed to promise permanency to our government,
and a rich harvest of the blessings of freedom.
Never was the experiment of a republican government
made with fairer prospects of success.
Yet, even here has anarchy reared her horrid front,
and struck terror into the hearts of Americans.
The arts of intrigue have withdrawn public confidence
from approved worth, and tried merit,
and all the energies of government have been called into action
to suppress a spirit of insurrection,
and open opposition to constitutional measures.
There yet appears a large number of citizens,
we hope a great majority,
who seem sensible of the importance of electing men of principle,
and of supporting the moral, and religious institutions of our country;
and while such is our situation,
we are not to despair of the republic.
It is far from the design of these observations,
to prove, that a republican government is either undesirable, or impracticable;
they are intended merely to exhibit the absurdity of the idea,
which many have adopted,
that nothing more is necessary to make any people happy
than to reject their own government,
and receive a constitution from France.
Whatever may be the result of the experiment now making in America,
the events which have taken place here, as well as in Europe,
give weight to the opinion, that mankind
are not generally prepared for the enjoyment of republican blessings.
But it is not merely by exciting revolutions and conspiracies,
that Illuminism has discovered itself in Europe, since we were told,
"that all the concerns of the Illuminees has ceased."
So late as February, 1798, the magistrates of Jena
were compelled to punish a number of the students of that university,
who had formed an association, by the name of Amicists,
under the direction of some Illuminee.
They had been taught to consider the oath of their association
as superceding all others,
even the most sacred engagement that could be made.
The form of this society was masonic;
and by their secretary, they maintained
a regular correspondence with other lodges.
Their code taught them to consider themselves
as a state within a state;
enjoined the most profound secrecy, and expressly required,
that, should several of them afterwards reside in the same town,
they should establish a lodge, and do all in their power to propagate the society. *
* See Minutes of the Judgment of Hamburg, No. 45. March 13.
On the authority of some private communications from Germany,
the historian further states, that the university at Halle,
was in a similar situation with that at Jena.
That public insults were offered by the students, to the ministers of religion,
while attending the duties of their office;
that dogs were set at them while preaching,
and that indecencies took place in the churches,
which would not be suffered in the streets. *
* Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. IV. p. 306-316.
The very respectable writer before quoted, of Upper Saxony, says,
"In the great universities of Germany, which I have seen,
or of which I have had any information,
the students have the appearance of a set of rude and insolent Jacobins.
In some universities, where the students
amount to about a thousand or twelve hundred,
they are all formed into private societies;
and that, in all the German universities,
the chief study is the new system of philosophy,
by which the mind is totally bewildered,
and at length deprived
of every solid principle of religion, morality, or sound politics."
"Unfortunately," he adds,
"the clergy, and many, even of those who serve the country parishes,
have had their minds bewildered
with the metaphysical jargon of the universities.
They have come to doubt, and some to deny,
the truths of Christianity itself;
and to assert, that it is a vulgar superstition, adapted only to the ignorant.
The Old Testament has very generally lost its authority;
and a country clergyman, lately in company with a friend of mine,
laughed heartily at the ignorance and confined notions
of the clergy of the church of England,
when he heard they still believe the Mosaic history of the fall of man." *
* Appendix to Anti-Jacobin Review, Vol. VI. p. 569.
A gentleman of great respectability in Europe,
in a letter to his correspondent in America,
dated September, 1800, says,
"I lament exceedingly, the too plain state of the public mind
on the great points of religion and morality.
Religion has been so freely dealt with now in Germany,
that it no longer makes the impression of former times,
always mixed with some tincture of veneration.
It is now entered upon with the same coolness and ease
as any other matter of scientific discussion.
"This of itself is a misfortune.
It was surely of advantage to us, that the mind
could not engage in any religious research,
without somewhat of the same reserve (call it superstition if you will)
that one feels when discussing a point of filial duty or relation.
Religion having thus lost all its use,
it has even ceased to occupy its former share
of room in the German Catalogues;
and the scribblers have fairly begun to treat the plain moral duties
with the same freedom."
"I received lately, a small performance,
by one Emmering, at Franckfort,
who, even under the tyranny of Custine, in 1792,
had the boldness to attack the profligate speeches
of Bohmer and Forster, in the Convention of Mentz.
He still preserves the same unsubdued spirit;
and though a layman, (a Wine merchant)
he nobly maintains the cause of religion and virtue."
"In this little performance
he mentions several most proflilgate publications,
in which the fidelity of the husband, to the marriage bed,
is systematically shewn to be a frivolous prudery;
and therefore, concubinage, or polygamy, perfectly proper,
under certain regulations, purely civil;
and, which is most lamentable, the proper courts,
before which this was brought by Emmering himself,
refused to take it up as a public offence.
This, at Franckfort, grieved me;
for, during the revolution at Mentz,
the inhabitants of Franckfort, behaved in a manner
that is not exceeded by any thing on record."
"I was the more affected by this, because I found
that Knigge and Weishaupt, after having formed
very high expectations from their operations in Edessa,
were disappointed;
and, in 1782, reprobate Edessa in the most rancorous terms.
Philo says,
"the inhabitants are too rich, too republican,
and will not be led about by the nose."
"Emmering mentions another publication by one Semler,
professedly written to weaken the parental tie,
laying it down as a principle,
that a man's children have only an artificial title to his fortune,
unless they have aided him in the acquisition of it.
But the state, by giving that protection
by which the fruits of his industry are secured to him,
has a preferable and natural claim."
"The aim of this unnatural principle is too barefaced, I think, to be dangerous.
But a companion to it by George Forster, is most atrocious.
The sons and daughters are made the judges
of their parent's character and conduct,
and if they find either incivic,
they are peculiarly bound to denounce them
as undutiful to them (their children) by giving them
pernicious principles and education.
I mention these things to shew how the profligate monsters
have attempted to revolutionize the mind of man.."
We have many unequivocal proofs
that this is a just representation
of the state of religion and literature in Germany.
To what views and motives shall we then attribute
the conduct of those gentlemen, who endeavor to compel us,
by illiberal reproaches,
to believe their unsupported declarations?
Do they not know that the mind naturally revolts
against such unreasonable violence,
such tyrannical attempts to hoodwink our understandings?
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