sition, which would soon be abolished. Such were the impressions, which this man received from the society in that capital of a middle state. The fullest confidence may be placed in the correctness of the above account. Alas, shall strangers devour a people, and they know it not! Shall bands of secret enemies prey upon the heartstrings of our republic, and be unheeded? These secret machinations have proved deadly to other nations. Have we nothing to fear from them? Behold Sampson asleep in the lap of the fascinating harlot, till his locks are shorn, and he is undone! Behold him mocked for his credulity, and falling a prey to the insulting lords of the Philistines! To have "armies of principles prevail, where armies of soldiers could not be admitted;" to be "bound with invisible hands," and deprived of every right, sacred and civil, must sting the enslaved with scorpions of torture, when it is too late! To subvert religion and even civil order, has been the object of the scheme, which is proved to have been in full operation in the Christian world, not excepting these United States.

Girtanner, in his Memoirs on the French revolution,* has the following remarks; "The active members of the club of Propagandists were (in 1791) fifty thousand. And their general fund, for the promotion of their object, was thirty millions of livres, (six millions of dollars.) The Propagandists are extended over the face of the world; having for their object the promotion of revolutions, and the doctrines of Atheism. And it is a maxim in their code, that it is better to defer their attempts for fifty years, than to fail of success through too much precipitancy." Let the friends of Zion, and of order, pause at this, and consider! Fifty thousand, eighteen years ago, of the most sagacious adepts in the wiles of Illuminism, that master-piece of Infidelity, and of infernal artifice, spread over the Christian world, in impious concert, to undermine religion, and every virtuous institution! Would so fair a field as a America be shunned, or overlooked by these agents of darkness?

*Barruel, vol. ii, p. 245.

Would not a large portion of their attention be turned to this western hemisphere, which has been the envy of the old nations? None can doubt it. Recollect their object! "the promotion of revolutions, and the doctrines of Atheism." Their means are powerful; "bundles of lies," as a chief of their own order described them:* subtilty, and all the craft, which party interest, and local circumstances can suggest; or which the infernal dragon can devise; together with a fund of six millions of dollars nineteen years ago, (and doubtless a sufficiency of millions since added) to bribe and to corrupt! If one sinner can "destroy much good," as inspiration asserts, what may not these united legions effect? Behold their caution, and their perseverance: creeping in disguise; urging on, or withdrawing, as circumstances may direct; and this for fifty years, rather than fail of success through too much precipitancy. Need we wonder that Infidelity and other evils have unitedly increased? The effects of these agents of wickedness and of disorganization have been very visible: and they have placed in jeopardy our dearest interests.

No doubt since the exposure of the object and wiles of the Voltaire system of Infidelity, the exertions of its agents for concealment have been redoubled. But can we suppose their societies in our nation to have been annihilated? We have no reason thus to believe. It is far more probable that their numbers are greatly increased; that their exertions have been stimulated by their successes; and that their expectations are sanguine.

Antecedently to the developement of the system of Illuminism, and while its agents were less on their guard, how evident and disgusting were the interferences of French agents in the affairs of our nation? We have not forgotten the conduct of Genet, their agent at Philadelphia, who appealed from our venerable Washington, then in the chair of the nation, to the people; representing him in a hateful light, as intriguing to deprive the people of their liberties. So impudent was his attempt to alienate the Americans from their own

*See Robison's Proofs, p. 135,

government, even from the first political father of the nation himself! Genet had previously at Geneva pursued the same detestable policy; which proved fatal to that incautious people. Robespierre, in his rivalship with the Brissotine faction, exposed the real object of Genet's commission to America, in the following charge; "Genet, their minister at Philadelphia, made himself chief of a club there, and never ceased to make and to excite commotions, equally injurious to the govern

ment."

For this conduct of Genet, his recall was procured by the firm patriotism of Washington. But this French Illuminee took up his residence in America. And we must naturally conjecture that his subsequent exertions were abundant, though conducted with greater caution.

The French became sensible that greater caution was necessary in carrying on their schemes in America. But their object was not relinquished; as was evident from many things; particularly from Fauchet's intercepted letter in 1795. In this, that French minister, speaking on the insurrection in the western counties of Pennsylvania, says of those insurgents; "Republicans by principle, independent by character and situation, they could not but accede with enthusiam to the criminations, which we had sketched for them." Here we learn from the French minister himself, that the western insurrection, which under the Washington administration disturbed and endangered the peace of our states, and cost the nation two millions of dollars, originated in French agency; in the "criminations, which (says Fauchet) we had sketched for them." Will Americans forget this? Here is hinted the origin of our calamities. Could we at once see all, that the same agency, and the minions of their order, have sketched, for the same general design, it would no doubt give a striking view of the depravity of the human heart, and of the manner, in which Satan deceives the nations.

President Washington saw and lamented the preva lence of this hateful influence; as is evident from many things; particularly from the following extracts from his letters. In a letter of 1794, addressed to one of the

'first characters of our nation, he says; "As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would not be frank, candid, or friendly (in me) to conceal, that your conduct has been represented as derogating from that opinion, which I conceived you entertained of me; that to your particular friends-you have described (me) and they have denounced me, as a person under a dangerous influence; and that if I would listen more to some other opinions, all would be well.Until the last year or two, I had no conception, that parties would, or even could go the lengths I have been witness to. Nor did I believe, until lately, that it was within the bounds of probability, hardly within those of possibility, that, while I was using my utmost exertions to establish a national character of our own, independent, as far as our obligations and justice would permit, of every nation on earth, and wished by steering a steady course to preserve this country from the horrors of desolating war, I should be accused of being an enemy to one nation, and subject to the influence of another. And to prove it, that every act of my administration would be tortured, and the grossest and most insidious misrepresentations of them would be made, by giving one side only of a subject, and that too in such exaggerated and indecent terms, as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, to a notorious defaulter-or even to a common pickpocket. But enough of this. I have-gone further in the expression of my feelings, than I intended."

In a letter to the Hon. Charles Carrol, in 1798, he says; "Although I highly approve of the measures taken by government, to place this country in a posture of defence, and even wish they had been more energetic; and shall be ready to obey its call, whenever it is made, yet I am not without hope, mad and intoxicated as the French are, that they will pause, before they take the last step. That they have been deceived in their calculations on the division of the people, and the powerful support from their party, is reduced to a certainty; though it is somewhat equivocal still, whether that party, who have been the curse of this country!—

may not be able to continue their delusion." Alas, they have continued it!

Duane, (to whom Mr. Jefferson gave a colonel's commission) in his noted paper, the Aurora, published the following, on the retirement of President Washington from office; "Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," was the pious ejaculation of a man, who beheld a flood of happiness rushing in upon mankind. If ever there was a time, that would license the reiteration of the exclamation, that time is now arrived. For the man, who is the source of all the misfortunes of our country, is this day reduced to a level with his fellow-citizens is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the United States. If ever there was a period for rejoicing, this is the moment. Every heart in unison with the freedom and happiness of the people, ought to beat high with exultation, that the name of Washington from this day ceases to give currency to political iniquity, and to legalize corruption! A new era is now opening upon us; and an era, that promises much to the people. For public measures now stand upon their own merits; and nefarious projects can no longer be supported by a name. When a retrospect is taken of the Washington administration, for eight years, it is a subject of the greatest astonishment, that a single individual could have cankered' the principles of republicanism in an enlightened people, and should have carried his designs against the public liberty so far, as to have put in jeopardy its very existence. Such however are the facts. And with these staring us in the face, this day ought to be a jubilee in the United States."

The language of the French, when the envoys of President Adams were rejected in France, evinces how much they calculated on the success of their agents and influence in this nation. They insolently boasted, that they well knew their strength in America; and that let them do what they would, they could turn all the odium of it here upon those who favored not their designs. These things all accord with the arts of Illuminism. And