BY VERNON STAUFFER, A. M. Dean and Professor of New Testament and Church History Hiram College SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE F ACULTY OF P OLITICAL S CIENCE C OLUMBIA U NIVERSITY NEW YORK 1918 C OPYRIGHT , 1918 BY VERNON STAUFFER To J. E., R. W., AND R. F. CONTENTS CHAPTER I T HE U NDERMINING OF P URITAN S TANDARDS AND I NSTITUTIONS CHAPTER II P OLITICAL E NTANGLEMENTS AND H YSTERIA CHAPTER III T HE E UROPEAN O RDER OF THE I LLU

The obligations incurred in the preparation of the following study are much too numerous and varied to admit of adequate notice. Special mention must, however, be made of my indebtedness to the staffs of the following libraries: The Boston Athenaeum, Congregational, Masonic (Boston), American Antiquarian Society, Connecticut Historical Society, New York Historical Society, Library of Congress, the public libraries of the cities of Boston and New York, the library of Hiram College, and the univer

Few if any periods in our national history have been marked by a greater variety of clashing interests than the closing decade of the eighteenth century. Owing in part to inexperience in grappling with the problems of government, in part to widely belligerent and irreconcilable elements among the people, in part to grave international complications and concerns, and in part, confessedly, to rumors and excitements for which, as events proved, no adequate grounds existed, the lives of the people o

Back of the War of Independence was the less absorbing but scarcely less harrowing contest of the French and Indian War. Thus for a period of fully thirty years the people of New England had been subjected to the rough and unsettling experiences of military life. This consideration, taken in connection with the fact that a growing declension from the standards of the Puritan fathers had been the occasion of increasing comment and concern from the middle of the seventeenth century on, [4] will ma

The general impression of a revolt against morality and religion in New England near the close of the eighteenth century was deepened by the bitterness of spirit which marked the last stages of the long struggle waged by dissenters to cut the bond between church and state. [47] The Congregational Church was one of the fundamental institutions of New England, and from the first the sword of the magistrate had been invoked to enforce conformity to its worship and polity. Strange enough seem the te

During the eighteenth century the progress of religious thought in New England in the direction of liberal positions was marked. Near the beginning of the century, in his Ratio Disciplinae , Cotton Mather was able to speak confidently of the solid and compact character of religious opinion in his generation, and felt free to dispose of the subject with a few general statements regarding the universal adherence of the churches of New England to the orthodox standards of the mother country. He mad

Party history in New England, as elsewhere throughout the Union, began with the inauguration of the new government in 1789. [224] Such differences of opinion concerning matters of public policy as had previously existed were confined to unorganized groups whose leaders depended chiefly on the devotion of their personal following to mould popular opinion. But the setting up of the Federal government and the fixing of national standards brought to light issues which challenged fundamental concepti

Very few of the events in our national affairs which link together the history of the last decade of the eighteenth century are significant for our purpose. Having sought to discover the chief occasions for the apprehension and distress which weighed upon the minds of the citizens of New England, we may now proceed to focus attention exclusively upon the last three years of the century, within which developed that special disturbance of the public mind with which we are primarily concerned. And

That great European movement in the direction of the secularization of thought to which the expressive term, the Aufklärung or Enlightenment, has been applied, and which reached its apogee in the latter half of the eighteenth century, encountered a stubborn opposition in southern Germany in the electorate of Bavaria. The pivot of Bavarian politics, particularly from the beginning of the sixteenth century, had been the alliance which had been effected between the clerical party and the civil powe

Although the Order of the Illuminati was dead, the world had yet to reckon with its specter. So intense and widespread was the fear which the order engendered, so clearly did the traditionalists of the age see in its clientele the welding together into a secret machine of war of the most mischievous and dangerous of those elements which were discontented with the prevailing establishments of religion and civil government, that it was impossible that its shadow should pass immediately. [445] The

The fast day proclamation of President John Adams, issued March 23, 1798, expressed unusual solemnity and concern. Therein the United States was represented as “at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive position.” [610] The necessity of sounding a loud call to repentance and reformation was declared to be imperative, and the people were fervently urged to implore Heaven’s mercy and benediction on the imperiled nation. On the day appointed, the 9th of May, among the multitude of pastors who

With the approach of the anniversary thanksgiving in Massachusetts, late in November, 1798, public discussion of the Illuminati broke out afresh. Once more the columns of the Massachusetts Mercury became the chief medium of communication. Stirred, it appears, by the announcement from abroad that the first three volumes of the Abbé Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism had been translated into English, a contributor to the Mercury took occasion to comment at length on the marvelous corroboratory eviden

The national skies had by no means cleared of threatening clouds when, in the early spring of 1799, the time arrived for President Adams to issue his annual fast day proclamation. In the view of the nations chief executive the questions of the hour were still of great urgency and it was a season of imminent danger. [763] Accordingly, in appointing Thursday, April 25, as the day for the people of the nation to perform acts of solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer, he justified in part the issuan

Freemasonry in New England, as throughout the United States in general, was very far from being in a favorable condition when the Illuminati controversy broke out. Like every other institution in the country, it had suffered greatly on account of the American Revolution. The membership of its lodges was depleted, and its affairs generally left in a chaotic condition. In the period of reconstruction which followed the Revolution, Masonry experienced the same difficulty in rebuilding its organizat

By 1798 and 1799 the alignment of political parties in New England had arrived at such a stage that the suspicion of political jockeying to obtain party advantage was well grounded in the minds of leaders in both camps. This self-conscious and determined party spirit had been greatly promoted by the employment of electioneering methods. [927] The general public had not yet become accustomed to the precise significance of the broadside, the political pamphlet, and the newspaper canard; and these

Ford Collection , New York Public Library. Pickering Papers , Massachusetts Historical Society Collection. Wolcott Papers , Connecticut Historical Society Collection. N EWSPAPERS American Mercury , Hartford. Aurora General Advertiser , Philadelphia. Columbian Centinel , Boston. Commercial Advertiser , New York. Connecticut Courant , Hartford. Connecticut Journal , New Haven. Constitutional Telegraph , Boston. Independent Chronicle , Boston. Massachusetts Mercury , Boston. Massachusetts Spy , Wor

The author was born near New London, Ohio, November 23, 1875. His early education was obtained in the public schools of New London and North Fairfield (O.), and in the preparatory department of Hiram College. Upon completing an undergraduate course in the latter institution in 1901, he received the degree of A.B. Ten years were thereupon devoted to the work of the Christian ministry, in pastorates at Cincinnati, Ohio, and Angola, Indiana. He was in residence at Columbia University and Union Theo