|
(page 140 thru 154)
If the tendency of those principles
which we have seen originating in France,
and communicated from thence to the German lodges,
is not already apparent, we have a fair experiment before us,
which fully discovers their nature.
We have the fruits, to enable us to judge
of the qualities of the tree.
It has been observed, that the French lodges,
already the nurseries of every infidel and licentious sentiment,
had communicated to their German brethren those doctrines,
which the wicked ingenuity of Weishaupt
had wrought up into that systematical process of corruption,
comprised in Illuminism.
While these things were transacting in Germany,
the same principles were spreading, gaining strength,
and tending to an explosion in France.
The French lodges had become schools,
not for promoting revolutionary opinions merely,
but for training men to that hardiness in iniquity,
that familiarity with blood and slaughter,
that erasement of every natural affection, and sentiment of tenderness,
which prepare men to plunge the poignard
into a brother's breast.
How well these masonic schools were adapted
to prepare men for such scenes as have been exhibited in France,
may be perceived from the following ceremony
used in the Grand Orient.
"A candidate for reception
into one of the highest orders,
after having heard many threatenings
denounced against all who should betray the secrets of the order,
was conducted to a place where he saw the dead bodies
of several who were said to have suffered for their treachery.
He then saw his own brother tied hand and foot,
begging his mercy and intercession.
He was informed that this person was about to suffer
the punishment due for this offence,
and that it was reserved for him (the candidate)
to be the instrument of this just vengeance,
and that this gave him an opportunity
of manifesting that he was completely devoted to the order.
It being observed that his countenance
gave signs of inward horror
(the person in bonds imploring his mercy all the while)
he was told, that in order to spare his feelings,
a bandage should be put over his eyes.
A dagger was then put into his right hand,
and being hoodwinked,
his left hand was laid on the palpitating heart of the criminal,
and he was then ordered to strike.
He instantly obeyed;
and when the bandage was taken from his eyes,
he saw that it was a lamb he had stabbed." *
* Robison's Proofs, p. 299
Many of the French lodges
needed not to be instructed in Weishaupt's theories,
to qualify them for the highest degrees of Illuminism.
The instructions of Voltaire had sufficiently dispossessd them
of what, in the language of modern philosophy,
is called prejudice and superstition,
i.e. every sentiment of religious or moral obligation;
but a system, and a regular subordination and correspondence,
were wanting to give these principles their full force.
In this state of things, Mirabeau returned from Germany,
highly illuminated;
and, at his request, two of the German Areopagites, viz.
Bode, and Baron de Busche,
met him in France, in 1788,
to form the French lodges into a duly organized body.
Their business was easily transacted.
Before the end of March, 1789,
the whole of the Grand Orient,
consisting of 266 lodges,
had the secrets of Illumination communicated to them. *
* Robison's Proofs, p. 287, 303-307.
Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. IV. p. 210-213.
By the means of secret committees
every part of this extensive body
was in a state of close connection and correspondence;
and it was in the power of the prime movers of this machine
to direct the force of the whole to any point. *
* Ibid. p. 307; and Vol. II. p. 239.
It is not, however, to be understood
that every member of this body
entered into the views of the profound Illuminees.
The Duke of Orleans himself,
the Grand Master of these lodges,
deceived by the conspirators
with the vain hope of ascending the throne of France,
was but the tool of their designs.
Under the direction of the German deputies,
a club was formed at Versailles,
composed of the most profound adepts,
called the Breton Club.
This society, by means of its committees
in all the illuminated lodges,
obtained a most powerful influence
in the affairs of the nation.
The members of this club,
composed the leaders of a club,
which afterwards met at the Convent of Jacobins in Paris,
and from that circumstance,
was denominated the Jacobin Club.
The proceedings of the National Convention were entirely subject
to the influence of this usurping confederacy;
and by their secret agents, and committees
they inflamed the minds of the populace,
and directed their blind rage at pleasure.
It was the atrocious measures of these banditti
which gave to the French revolution
its peculiarly horrid features,
and has attached perpetual infamy to the term Jacobin. *
*
It is really a cause of pain to the author,
that he finds himself necessitated to introduce a term in a very odious sense,
which is used to distinguish the particular political opinions
of some of his countrymen, whom, whatever names they may bear,
he regards as friends to religion, to order, and good government;
and he now gives notice that the term Jacobin, as here used,
is to be considered as applied,
not to those who are innocently misled,
but to those only who neither fear God, nor regard man.
Robison's Proof, p. 311, 376.
Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. IV. Chap. 11 and 12
As a great variety of circumstances,
too many to be introduced into this work,
and which cannot be abridged without weakening their force,
are adduced by Barruel,
in proof of the influence of this illuminated society
in directing the revolution;
I beg leave to adduce some evidence of this fact
from another quarter.
That judicious and accurate observer, John Moore, M.D.
was, at the period of which we are speaking,
occasionally in Paris,
and frequently attended at the national assembly,
and at the Jacobin club,
and though then ignorant of the systematical combination
which guided the revolution,
yet remarked, that
"most questions of great importance
are discussed in the Jacobin society of Paris,
before they are introduced into the national assembly;
and the success they are likely to have in the second,
may be generally known
by that which they have in the first.
Societies of the same name and nature
are established all over France,
which hold a regular correspondence
with the parent society at Paris,
and by mutually communicating information and advice,
act with wonderful efficacy on important occasions."
He also quotes, with approbation,
a letter from M. La Fayette, of June 16, 1792,
who then perceived that he had been kept ignorant
of the real views of some whom he had considered
as the friends of a just and equal liberty.
His expressions are,
"The Jacobin faction has produced all the disorders;
it is that society which I loudly accuse of it.
Organized like a separate empire,
and blindly governed by some ambitious men,
this society forms a distinct corporation
in the middle of the French nation,
whose power it usurps, and whose representatives it subdues."
This letter proved the ruin of the Marquis. *
* Moore's Jour. Vol. I. p. 67-70. Boston edi. 1794.
The American Revolution doubtless hastened
the final catastrophe of affairs in France.
The French officers and soldiers,
by the new ideas which they had acquired in America,
of liberty and the rights of man,
were prepared to espouse this cause in their own country.
It is obvious, however, that the aim of the leaders in France
was not to destroy the power which oppressed the nation,
but to transfer that power into their own hands.
Fayette and his companions
became tools of their ambitious designs; and,
when they had acted the parts assigned them,
were sacrificed.
Nothing was further from the views of the French nation,
at the beginning of the revolution,
than what has taken place.
The object held up to them was perpetually varying.
They were first illuminated,
literally blind-folded and wheedled,
till by bribes, by threatenings,
and by having their passions inflamed by false representations,
they were prepared to follow their leaders.
How different were the circumstances
attending the American revolution?
Here the object in view was clear and definite.
The public will was one,
and that will was faithfully executed.
Accordingly, those who first stood forth
the defenders of their country's rights,
acquired an influence, a reputation,
and an interest in the public confidence,
which surmounted all opposition,
and which remained, unimpaired,
during the whole revolution.
The cause of this dissimilarity, in the two revolutions, is evident.
In America, the struggle was the result
of a genuine spirit of freedom,
seeking the protection of its rights, in equal laws;
in France, it was the result of a faction,
sacrificing to its detestable views
the most sacred rights of man,
and crushing all who opposed its ambitious designs.
The friends of moderation, of justice, and a rational liberty,
when they ceased to second the views of the conspirators
were proscribed, and the illuminated chiefs,
by means of the masonic lodges,
governed the nation.
Dr. Robison, on the authority of Mr. Lefranc,
President of the seminary of the Eudists at Caen, in Normandy,
and of Mr. Latocnaye, an emigrant gentleman,
represents France as a vast masonic combination,
directed by secret influence.
In proof of this it is observed,
"that all the irreligious and seditious doctrines of the day,
and the enthusiastic principles
by which the public mind was, as it were, set on fire,
were the subjects of perpetual harangues in the Mason lodges;
that the distribution of France into departments,
districts, circles, cantons, &c. is perfectly similar,
and with the same denominations,
to a distribution which he had remarked
in the correspondence of the Grand Orient;
__ that the President's hat, in the national assembly,
is copied from that of a Grand Master;
__ that the scarf of a municipal officer is the same
with that of a brother apprentice;
__ that when the assembly celebrated the revolution in the cathedral,
they accepted of the highest honors of Masonry,
by passing under an arch of steel,
formed by the drawn swords of two ranks of brethren,
and that the national assembly
protected the meetings of Free Masons,
while it peremptorily prohibited every other private meeting." *
* Robison's Proofs, p. 294-298.
It was a discovery of the horrid designs
of these conductors of the French revolution,
and not, as some pretend, a dereliction of the principles of liberty,
which has alienated the virtuous part of our countrymen
from their attachment to the cause of France.
When it was announced in America,
that millions of Frenchmen were striving for freedom,
who did not bestow a benediction on their cause,
and fervently pray for its success?
The triumphs of France were celebrated here with real joy,
and her misfortunes were lamented as our own.
Long did we strive to palliate her crimes,
and long did we invent excuses for her enormities.
But when at length the mask fell off,
and we saw in the boasted friend of his country
the disgusting atheist, the factious leader,
the man who could smile at carnage,
and feast on havock and war, our feelings revolted;
we could no longer receive as brethren,
men who proved themselves the enemies
of religion, of order, of humanity.
The co-operation of the Illuminees of other nations,
and their joint exertions to extend the revolution,
prove that it was the work of that order;
and that France was no less indebted to her secret agents
than to her martial prowess,
for the unexampled success of her arms.
At the commencement of the revolution, a manifesto was sent
from the grand national lodge of Free Masons, (so it is entitled) at Paris,
signed by the Duke of Orleans, as Grand Master,
addressed to the lodges in all the respectable cities of Europe,
exhorting them to unite for the support of the French revolution
and to kindle a spirit of revolution through all lands;
some of these were addressed to those,
of whose assistance they were assured,
and to such were given earnest exhortations to
establish, in every quarter,
secret schools of political education;
and schools for the education of children,
under the direction of well disciplined masters;
and offers of pecuniary assistance for this purpose,
and for the encouragement of writers
in favor of the revolution,
and for patriotic booksellers,
who suffer by their endeavors to suppress publications
which have an opposite tendency.
All this is genuine Illuminism,
and may help us to account for the mysterious scarcity
of Dr. Robison's work in Germany. *
* See page 138.
Among many other foreign lodges,
the grand national lodge at Paris,
had the particular direction of a club,
in the form of a masonic lodge, called Propaganda,
which met weekly,
and had its agents and emissaries in all parts of Europe.
These facts are collected from a Hamburg Journal, for 1790,
and from a publication of Professor Hoffman,
whom the Illuminees had long striven to gain to their interests,
and who was employed by the more respectable Masons,
to make public these machinations of the occult lodges.
The result of his inquiries was
"that the Propaganda works in every corner to this hour,
and its emissaries run about in all the four quarters of the globe,
and are to be found in numbers
in every city that is a seat of government." *
* Robison's Proofs, p. 315-319.
Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. IV. p. 283, 306.
These invisible agents were by no means idle or unsuccessful.
There is reason to believe that France was much indebted to them
for their progress in Germany, Holland, Italy, and other parts.
The proofs brought in support of these facts
are too much involved with circumstances
to find a place here.
One curious instance, however,
related in a book called Paragraphen;
in another performance, with the title of Cri de la Raison;
and in a third, called Les Masques arrachees, must not be omitted.
The instance referred to, is the following.
Custine was accused before the revolutionary tribunal
of treachery, by Zimmerman, for refusing the offer of Manheim,
when he himself engaged to deliver it into his hands.
Custine's anwer is remarkable.
"Hardly," said he, "had I set my foot in Germany,
when this man, and all the fools of his country, besieged me,
and would have delivered up to me their towns and villages.
What occasion had I to do any thing to Manheim,
when the prince was neutral?" *
* Robison's Proofs, p. 311-313.
Barruel's Memoirs, V. IV. Chap. 13.
These secret agents of Illuminism,
appear to have had another object attached to their mission, viz.
the removal of those who stood much in the way of the revolution.
When it was understood that Gustavus III, king of Sweden,
was to command the confederate armies,
Ankerstroem, by the expeditious process of assassination,
relieved the Jacobins from their fears,
and in recompence they honor him with a statue. *
* Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. I. p. 123.
(my note: Ankerstroem assassinated Gustavus)
When the expected union
of the emperor of Germany and the king of Prussia,
alarmed the Jacobins,
the following comfortable reflections
were annexed to the account in a Strasburgh Journal, No. 53.
"In those countries, where the fate of several millions of men,
hangs on a bit of paste, or on the rupture of a little vein,
one can calculate on nothing.
A single indigestion, or a drop of blood forced from its proper vessels,
will be sufficient to dissolve this brilliant union."
This comment on the expected union
was dated from Vienna, the 26th of February, 1792.
Leopold died (poisoned) on the 1st of March following. *
* Ibid. Vol. IV p. 308.
Travels of two Frenchmen in the North, Vol. V. Chap. 12
On the succeeding August, it was motioned in the national assembly,
"To levy a body of twelve hundred patriotic volunteers,
by a pension of two thousand livers yearly,
with a reversion to their children to the third generation;
whose business it should be to
assassinate the generals and princes
who commanded the armies which attacked France.
An apprehension of reprisals prevented the adoption of the proposal."
Mr. Moore in his account of this business, adds this circumstance,
"That though it did not pass in the assembly,
it was by them sent to the commission extraordinaire." *
* Moore's Journal, Boston edit. 1794. Vol. I. p. 128-131.
The fate of the emperor taught his young successor more caution.
His first care was to dismiss all the Italian cooks,
that he might not become a victim
to what was called the Naples broth. *
* Barruel's Memoirs, Vol. IV. p. 308.
Robison's Proofs, p. 311.
The Illuminee, who believes all means lawful
for the attainment of a good end,
can feel no remorse for such deeds of darkness;
but, for the honor of modern times,
it is desirable that our history
should not be stained with many similar facts.
|
|
