Trying to obtain accurate information about the Secret Combination known as the Illuminati and its influence upon Europe, the French Revolution, and early America during the late eighteenth century, and its continued influence upon the world down to the present day, is much like trying to solve a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Much disinformation exists. One can easily get sidetracked and lose focus. But here is help in the form of three books to guide the reader through this vast minefield of half-truths, lies, and distortion to more clearly ascertain the truth regarding this particular conspiracy or Secret Combination.
As documented by the books:
Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe Carried on in the Secret Meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, by John Robison
Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, by Abbe Barruel
Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith, by James. H. Billington
the French Revolution and its horrors were primarily the result of the machinations of agents of the Illuminati who were seeking to overthrow Christianity, the governments of the world, societal and cultural norms, all in a quest for what they called, “cosmo-politism,” or world government.
Regarding book 1: Written in 1798, Robison’s book details the origin, rise, and influence of the secret society known as the Illuminati (later Frederich Engels credits two Secret Societies, the “Society of the Seasons” and the “League of the Just,” as being the immediate forerunner of what Marx and Engels called, “Communism.” Both the “Society of the Seasons” and the “League of the Just” were direct descendants of the Illuminati as documented by Billington in his work, Fire in the Minds of Men. But I’m getting ahead of myself.) Proofs of a Conspiracy is an important work to get to know and understand for anyone seeking to understand modern day Revolutionary Movements, including Communism. This book was also read by and greatly influenced George Washington, Timothy Dwight, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams.
Even Jefferson read the book, including Barruel’s book. Although it appears that as great a man as he was, he never understood the influence the threat that the Illuminati was in early America. Here is what Jefferson wrote:
“Barruel’s own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings of a Bedlamite” and “As Weishaupt lived under the tyranny of a despot and priests, he knew that caution was necessary even in spreading information, and the principles of pure morality. This has given an air of mystery to his views, was the foundation of his banishment . . . If Weishaupt had written here, where no secrecy is necessary in our endeavors to render men wise and virtuous, he would not have thought of any secret machinery for that purpose.”
While Washington wrote that the subversive Jacobin clubs introduced by Citizen Genet into America if allowed to continue unimpeded “would shake the government to its foundations.”
John Quincy Adams also said, in referring to these so-called “democratic” clubs that they were
“so perfectly affiliated with the Parisian Jacobins that their origin from a common parent cannot possibly be mistaken.”
John Adams wrote Jefferson years later and remarked, in a letter dated June 30, 1813,
“You certainly never felt the terrorism excited by Genet, in 1793 . . . when ten thousand people in the streets of Philadelphia, day after day threatened to drag Washington out of his house, and effect a revolution . . . nothing but (a miracle) . . . could have saved the United States from a fatal revolution of government.”
Timothy Dwight was the President of Yale University and after reading the book used his influence to oppose certain elements of the illuminati that had been working within the United States seeking its overthrow. Dwight gave a sermon entitled, “The Duty of Americans at the Present Crisis,” which detailed his concerns regarding Jacobin influence in the early United States.
Washington and Dwight used the understanding of the conspiracy gained by reading this book in helping them oppose elements of the conspiracy that had come to the new world seeking to overthrow the newly born Republic. The so-called “Citizen Genet affair” and the “Alien and Sedition Acts” came about as a result of efforts to oppose these subversive elements in the newly born Republic.
This influence of the Jacobins on the early United States is probably one of the most neglected areas in all of U.S. history.
Regarding book 2, Memoirs Illustrating The History Of Jacobinism, Abbe Barruel was a Catholic Jesuit priest who saw the influence of the secret combination known as the Jacobin’s on the French Revolution. Barruel and Robison were contemporaries who each wrote books detailing the rise of a secret combination which sought, and is still seeking today, to overthrow all the governments and religions of the world and supplanting them with a world government of their own making. Although Barruel and Robison were different in their methodology and viewpoint, both works support and buttress each other and both should be read, along with the more modern work, Fire in the Minds of Men, to grasp an understanding of a vast world-wide conspiracy which exists today that seeks to undermine our Judeo-Christian heritage, including the vital institutions of marriage and the family, and to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations and countries.
Regarding book 3: Originally written in 1980, the book, Fire in the minds of Men was written by an historian with impeccable credentials. James H. Billington was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a stint before his death as historian for the Library of Congress. What makes his work even more important is that Billington verifies the works of Robison and Barruel as an admitted hard core left-wing liberal. Further, Billington notes in extensive detail the ideological and conspiratorial roots of modern-day Marxists and revolutionary movements. This is an important work to understand in order to comprehend what is behind our current social, political, and cultural activists seeking to undermine western cultural heritage.
I have heard (or read their words) many so-called “Constitutionalists” or “Patriots” or otherwise liberty-minded individuals strongly criticize and vehemently condemn former President John Adams as a dictator (or worse) for his role in the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. While I consider myself both a Constitutionalist and a Patriot (having been involved in the fight for almost fifty years), don’t count me in as one of John Adam’s accusers. While not necessarily agreeing with everything John Adams did, at least he got the Alien and Sedition Act right–at least in part. Let me explain.
In John Adam’s defense, the Alien and Sedition Acts actually consist of four separate acts:
- The Naturalization Act, which extended the residency requirements for aliens to become citizens from five years to fourteen. A power that resides clearly with Congress. Of the four separate parts, this is the only act that was later repealed by Jefferson, in spite of Jefferson’s harsh haranguing of Adams over passage of the four acts.
- The Alien Friends Act, which authorized the executive branch to deport aliens considered “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” I don’t see anything necessarily unconstitutional about this power. This act expired in 1800. Maybe we ought to bring it back.
- The Alien Enemies Act, which gave the President the power to deport aliens if their home country was at war with the United States. I don’t see anything necessarily unconstitutional here either. In fact, this one remains in force today. Known as 50 USC Sections 21-24.
- The Sedition Act, which made it a crime to publish “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the government or its officials. Of the four powers, this is the only one with questionable constitutionality. Maybe Constitutional. Maybe not. The freedom of speech is not absolute, and might not “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” be a proper subject of legislation? Especially if such writings were written and directed to foment national insurrection or revolution? Congress clearly has power to call up the militia to suppress insurrections and repeal invaders. I’m not sure that the founders foresaw a war of words. Might not a propaganda attack or cyber-attack be just as deadly as a physical invasion? At any rate, this act expired the day before Jefferson took office.
While not necessarily agreeing with the wisdom involved in passing these acts, they were understandable in light of the threat posed by Citizen Genet and the Jacobin or “Democratic Clubs.” Genet was the embodiment of the Bavarian Illuminati transplanted to the United States, and the actions of Genet and these “Democratic clubs” severely threatened the newly born United States. The Illuminati had been key players in fomenting the French Revolution and they appeared to be hard
at work to undermine the newly formed United States.
Washington also wrote in 1798 regarding this seditious influence that:
“It was not my intention to doubt that the doctrines of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the lodges of Freemasons in this country had, as societies, endeavored to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first, or pernicious principles of the latter. That individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder or instruments employed to have found the democratic societies in the United States may have had this object, and actually had a separation of the people from their government in view, is too evident to be questioned [in other words he didn’t believe the freemasons as a whole were involved but that individual members of the Illuminati and the Jacobins were].”
Several Churchmen and Pastors at the time became aware of the danger and so began a preaching campaign. One pastor, Jedediah Morse, warned in a Jeremiad preached in 1798:
“Practically all of the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of Europe have already been shaken to their foundations by this terrible organization; the French Revolution itself is doubtless to be traced to its machinations; the successes of the French armies are to be explained on the same ground. The Jacobins are nothing more nor less than the open manifestation of the hidden system of the Illuminati. The Order has its branches established and its emissaries at work in America. The affiliated Jacobin Societies in America have doubtless had as the object of their establishment the propagation of the principles of the illuminated mother club in France … I hold it a duty, my brethren, which I owe to God, to the cause of religion, to my country and to you, at this time, to declare to you, thus honestly and faithfully, these truths. My only aim is to awaken you and myself a due attention, at this alarming period, to our dearest interests. As a faithful watchman I would give you warning of your present danger.”
Other University Presidents besides Dwight from Yale also became involved. Joseph Willard, the President of Harvard, a while after Dwight, warned of the danger, writing that the Illuminati was “secretly striving to undermine all our ancient institutions, civil and sacred.”
No. Adams was not a dictator, he was just rightly concerned about protecting the freedom and liberty of our newly born Republic, and I think we need to cut him a little slack.
