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The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 are occasionally mentioned here at DU as an early forerunner of the Patriot Act. But I only just discovered that one of the major causes of those acts was fear of the Bavarian Illuminati. Not only is this interesting in itself -- as one more proof that history is far nutsier than the history books generally let on -- but it makes the parallels with today's al-Quaeda panic even stronger. http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6095/articles/froomkin-metaphor/partIVA.htmlNew England was soon gripped by a panic that the (mythical) Bavarian Illuminati, a secret, French-controlled, atheistic, antidemocratic cabal, was conspiring to undermine American liberty and religion. Despite the absence of any extant Bavarian Illuminati, many believed that the United States was in grave danger and "the vast majority of New England Federalists accepted the conspiracy charges as entirely plausible, if not completely proven." The evils of the Terror in post-Revolutionary France only served to confirm the awesome power of conspirators, for only a vast conspiracy could explain the otherwise bewildering series of events. The image of the Terror, and the Masonic or Jacobean conspirators behind it, was one of the themes sounded to justify the Alien and Sedition Acts.http://www.epwijnants-lectures.com/ct_robison_john.htmlRobison's book also warned that cells of the suppressed Illuminati had been set up in America. Along with Augustin de Barruel's four-volume expose of the dangerous reach of freemasonry (the first two voumes of which just beat Proofs of a Conspiracy to the press), Robison's book caused a stir in the fevered climate of the late 1790s in America. His claims were widely reported in the press, and influential figures such as Jedidiah Morse expanded on Robison's theory in sermons and speeches. The scare stories about the dangers of an underground Illuminati conspiracy plotting to undermine America's liberties fed into the Federalist agitation that resulted in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.http://post.queensu.ca/~smithgs/275nativism.htmlThe Quasi-War generated widespread fear within Federalist circles that French spies and their internal collaborators threatened national security. Congressman Harrison Grey Otis denounced "wild Irishmen" and "the turbulent and disorderly of all parts of the world" who came to the United States "with a view to disturb our own tranquility after having succeeded in the overthrow of their own governments." David Tappan, Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, warned graduating seniors against infidels and impending world revolution. Congregationalist minister Jedidiah Morse called attention to the machinations of the "Bavarian Illuminati," a cabal of radical atheists who already had infiltrated American churches and schools.
The Alien and Sedition Laws, as they became known, sought to root out such subversion, and in the process destroy the Democratic-Republican opposition, slow immigrant participation in political life, and compel support for Federalist measures. . . . The law, rooted in the seventeenth-century British concept of seditious libel, also reflected the Federalist view that government was the master, not servant, of the people. Any critique of government was dangerous because it subverted the dignity and authority of rulers. Politics was not a popular right; it belonged "to the few, the rich, and the well-born."
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As Jeffersonians resolutely opposed Adams's call for an accelerated defense program, they encountered the heavy hand of Federalist patriotism, which included indictment of Philadelphia Aurora editor William Duane and the incarcerations of Scots publicist James T. Callender, the Irish-born Vermont congressman Matthew Lyon, and Pennsylvania editor Thomas Cooper. . . . In the interim, as the "Black Cockade fever" raged and Federalists sought to extirpate Illuminati and other subversives, Jeffersonians mounted an effective counterattack, organizing politically and continuing to attack Adams. Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, respectively, condemning the administration's violation of individual and states' rights, and the malevolence felt by many immigrant groups toward the Federalist Party became implacable. In the election of 1800, Jefferson narrowly triumphed -- a victory in which Scots-Irish and Irish, Pennsylvania Germans, and New York French played a role. |
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