LETTERS OF THE REPUBLIC
Roots of
Subversion
by William H. McIlhany
Memoirs Illustrating the
History of Jacobinism, by Abbe Augustin
Barruel
The years 1796 to 1798 saw the
publication of two important presentations of evidence
concerning an international conspiracy, then only decades old,
which had devastated France and was threatening the entire
civilized world. That conspiracy had coalesced into a
continuing organizational structure with the founding of the
Order of the Illuminati by Adam Weishaupt on May 1, 1776 in
Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
The conspirators in the Order
came from the top levels of society, and their ultimate goal
was the destruction of all existing religious and political
institutions, all forms of traditional religious faith, and
all governments. They were committed to a campaign of
worldwide revolution to destroy the existing order. They hoped
that the continuing organizational structure they established
would eventually succeed in imposing on the world a
"solution" to the chaos they had caused: a
totalitarian world government -- a "new world
order."
Evil Exposed
In 1785 the Elector of Bavaria,
Carl Theodore, discovered the secret papers of the Illuminati,
which revealed the evil plan. He published and distributed the
papers to all endangered heads of state. The two important
studies published from 1796-98 were substantially based on
this primary source documentation.
One of those works, Proofs
of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of
Europe, published in Dublin, Ireland in 1797, was
written by John Robison, a prominent scientist and professor
at the University of Edinburgh. His work, which was originally
circulated in Great Britain and THE NEW AMERICAN Republic, was
reprinted in 1967 by Western Islands, the publishing arm of
the John Birch Society, under the shortened title Proofs
of a Conspiracy. It is still available in paperback
(contact American Opinion Book Services at the above address).
The second work, much lengthier
and more detailed, is Abbe Barruel's Memoirs
Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, the subject of
this review. Born in France in 1741, Abbe Barruel was educated
by the Jesuits and entered the Society of Jesus. During
suppression of the Jesuits in France, he resided for some
years in Moravia and Bohemia and traveled in Italy as a tutor
for a young nobleman. In addition to Memoirs, he
wrote several other books prior to his death in 1820,
including his History of the Clergy During the French
Revolution.
Originally in separate volumes,
Memoirs consists of four parts. The first two
volumes, originally published in French in 1796, concern the
anti-Christian and anti-monarchical conspiracy of 1796 and
expose certain French and European philosophers of the early
to mid-18th century, particularly members of the French
Academy in Paris.
To illustrate the vicious
philosophical campaign against Christianity, Barruel focuses
on the works of Voltaire. As for the anti-monarchical
campaign, he examines the works of Montesquieu and Rousseau.
Modern-day advocates of a limited constitutional republic who
may wonder what is wrong with opposition to monarchy should
keep in mind that the conspiracy which Barruel traced -- from
philosophers whom he called the "sophisters of
impiety" to the Illuminati -- targeted all religious
and political institutions and forms of government, including
the infant American Republic, and sought as the ultimate goal
an international totalitarianism.
Rise of the Order
One of the principal weapons
used by the sophisters of impiety, particularly Diderot, was
the publication of the Encyclop餩e
beginning in 1751, and its eventual Supplement.
The conspirators hoped that this work would become the
standard reference for all learned and literate persons on
virtually all subject matter. Barruel demonstrates at length
that it was used as a comprehensive, subtle carrier of
propaganda and indoctrination favorable to subversive
strategy.
The third part of Memoirs
concerns the Illuminati. Therein Barruel presents in
greater detail than Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy the
primary source documents captured from the Order. The rapidly
growing influence of the Order in, and outside of, Bavaria is
carefully traced both before and after the French Revolution.
Barruel recounts the European
freemasonic conference at Wilhelmsbad in the summer of 1782,
at which Weishaupt's representatives recruited the leadership
of French, German, and other European Grand Orient freemasonry
into the Illuminati, thus bringing those bodies under the
Order's control. Much evidence in Barruel's and other
contemporary sources testifies to this fact. The leaders of
the Illuminist French Grand Orient ran the Jacobin clubs and
were responsible for planning and orchestrating all the major
events of the French Revolution.
In the final part of Memoirs,
Barruel reviews the tragic success of the Illuminati's first
experiment in subversive destruction, the French Revolution of
1789, from which France has never fully recovered. Barruel's
review of this episode, along with historian Nesta Webster's
outstanding 1919 work The French Revolution: A Study in
Democracy, provide a fairly complete history of the
Conspiracy's first attempt at organized subversion.
Sounding the Alarm
It would be hard to overstate
the influence Robison's and Barruel's works had on events in
America for several decades after their publication. In 1799,
George Washington read Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy,
which only reconfirmed his awareness of the danger to our
Republic from Illuminists who tried to bring revolutionary
Jacobinism to our shores. Five years earlier Illuminist agents
Genet and Fauchet had used front organizations
("democratic societies") to trigger the so-called
"Whiskey Rebellion" in Pennsylvania. Only
Washington's public exposure and opposition with armed troops
stopped this early campaign of sedition without bloodshed.
Regrettably, during
Washington's Presidency his Secretary of State Thomas
Jefferson was closely allied to the French agents behind the
Whiskey Rebellion. Perhaps simply deluded by his idealism at
this time, Jefferson unsuccessfully opposed Washington's
efforts to stop the conspirators. Jefferson defended Weishaupt
and referred to Barruel's Memoirs as the
"ravings of a Bedlamite."
Other prominent Americans did
their best to warn the public of the Conspiracy's attempts,
and they relied on Robison's and Barruel's works. They
included Jedidiah Morse, author of early history and geography
textbooks and the father of Samuel Morse; Yale University
president Timothy Dwight; and Seth Payson, author of Proofs
of the Real Existence and Dangerous Tendency of Illuminism (1802),
which summarized Robison's and Barruel's works and included
evidence from Morse of Illuminist efforts in America.
President Washington and
Jedidiah Morse were the outstanding American
"alarmists" of their time, and they were attacked by
their enemies just as members of the John Birch Society and
other "conspiratorialists" are attacked today.
Washington's and Morse's weapon was the truth, and Barruel's Memoirs
and Robison's Proofs provided them with
indispensable ammunition.
Interestingly, some historical
personalities very close to, and devoted to, the Illuminist
conspiracy valued and relied on the accuracy of Barruel's Memoirs.
Among them was the British poet Percy Shelley, who not only
"treasured" his copy but marveled at length over its
descriptions of the destructiveness he hoped to see occur.
French socialist leader Louis Blanc used Barruel's evidence as
the basis for linking the early communist movement to its
Illuminist origins. Barruel's Memoirs were
translated and published in all major languages.
Of course, both Robison and
Barruel were attacked by a few contemporary friends of the
French Revolution, and have been attacked by orthodox
historians ever since. Most of these criticisms are exercises
in clarity of hindsight and are based on mistakes in
translation or factual errors or omissions that always result
when history is written chronologically close to the events.
Anyone who has studied the major 19th and 20th century
historians of the Master Conspiracy, as well as the primary
source documents now available in reprint, can attest to the
substantial accuracy of Robison's and Barruel's works.
Some have noted a distinction
between Robison's thesis and Barruel's. Robison correctly
argued that the Illuminati invaded and captured continental
European (not British or American) Grand Orient free masonic
lodges in order to use them as tools for infiltration and
revolution. On the other hand, Barruel argued that the
Illuminati was a natural outgrowth of freemasonry in its
tracing of a pre-Illuminati philosophical plot against altar
and throne involving numerous French freemasons. Once again,
students of the Master Conspiracy today enjoy the benefit of
much more data and a much larger perspective.
Crucial Reading
The new one-volume reprint of Memoirs
includes Barruel's complete text, as well as a fine
introduction by Fr. Stanley L. Jaki. It does not include,
however, a postscript written by English translator Robert
Clifford, which was published at the end of volume four of the
1798 London edition. The postscript, entitled
"Application of Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism to the
Secret Societies of Ireland and Great Britain," provides
another 50 pages of evidence concerning the Illuminists'
efforts to organize sedition and rebellion.
This reviewer cannot recommend
too highly that any American who wishes to be well informed in
the fight for freedom carefully read Memoirs
Illustrating the History of Jacobinism. Barruel's
impressive presentation provides thoughtful and penetrating
insight not only into the events he reviews, but also into the
strategies and tactics that the same Master Conspiracy that
began as the Order of the Illuminati has employed ever since.
Reading Memoirs will also provide one with added
confirmation that the Master Conspiracy thesis advanced by
British historian Nesta Webster and John Birch Society founder
Robert Welch is overwhelmingly established by both logic and a
physical mountain of evidence.
But don't just take this
reviewer's word for it. Consider the words of British
statesman Edmund Burke, author of Reflections on the
Revolution in France, who said of Barruel's Memoirs:
"Certain we are, that no book has appeared since the
commencement of our labours, which was more necessary to be
read, and weighed attentively, by every person of any
property, whether hereditary or commercial; every person
holding any rank in society; and every person who has within
him a spark of zeal, either for the honour of God, or the
welfare of mankind."
Link to article: http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1996/vo12no20/vo12no20_roots.htm
Link to book: http://aobs-store.com/store/page3-ss9.html
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