Thread by @JoshJPhilipp

Thread:

Strange history time: Washington’s Warnings Against Partisanship Related to the ‘Illuminati’ and ‘Democratic Socities’

Column here: theepochtimes.com/washingtons-wa…

Among the stranger exchanges of George Washington was a series of letters on the Illuminati of Bavaria, its attempts to overthrow religion and government in Europe, and its manifestations in the United States under the “Democratic Societies." (1)

Washington’s sharp criticism of the Democratic and Republican Societies are often interpreted as attacks on political partisanship. (2)

The context of all this is important. The United States won its independence from the British empire during its war of 1776, and a revolution of a very different type soon followed with the French Revolution of 1789. (3) theepochtimes.com/the-dark-origi…

While the Americans system was rooted in divine faith and individual rights, the French Revolution led to the Reign of Terror, a system that sought to destroy religion in its “Dechristianization” movement and created laws to govern each person's most minute decisions. (4)

Behind the French Revolution were various revolutionary societies, from which there is a direct lineage to the creation of communism in the Cercle Social in 1790 and later to the Communist League where Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote the “Communist Manifesto.” (5)

Before the communist revolutions swept the world, however, rumors were spreading in the United States and in Europe of a new revolutionary conspiracy. (6)

It would be a revolution that sought to create tyranny over all citizens, and that aimed to destroy not just the traditional systems of government, but to also destroy traditional beliefs and morality. (7)

In 1798, this conspiracy was brought to the surface by John Robison, a Scottish scientist and professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (who was also, fittingly, the inventor of the siren). (8)

He published a book titled “Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions of Governments of Europe, Carried On In the Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, Collected From Good Authorities.” (9) gutenberg.org/ebooks/47605

The book included copies of letters Robinson received as a member of a Freemason lodge, and was sent out to warn the various governments of the planned revolutions. (10)

That same year, Augustin Barruel, a French publicist and Jesuit priest, published his “Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism,” which also warned of a revolutionary conspiracy against government and religion in Europe. (11) archive.org/details/Barrue…

Both books named a revolutionary society as being central to this conspiracy, formed in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, known as the Illuminati of Bavaria. (12)

The Illuminati allegedly played a key role in the French Revolution, and had teachings very similar to what would later be found in communism. (13) theepochtimes.com/the-dark-origi…

Their books followed the exposure of the Illuminati of Bavaria between 1786 and 1787, after the Duke of Bavaria, Charles Theodore, caught wind of the conspiracy. (14)

Theodore banned all secret societies, including the Illuminati, had the homes of conspirators raided, and had many of the captured Illuminati’s letters and literature exposed to the public. Adam Weishaupt went into exile in Gotha, where he continued writing. (15)

Amidst this upheaval, George Washington was mailed a copy of Robison’s “Proofs of Conspiracy” the same year it was published in 1798. According to the National Archives, the book was still in Washington’s library at the time of his death. (16) founders.archives.gov/documents/Wash…

The sender was G.W. Snyder, who wrote to Washington on Aug. 22, 1798, that the Illuminati was trying to “overturn all Government and all Religion, even natural; and who endeavor to eradicate every Idea of a Supreme Being, and distinguish Man from Beast by his Shape only.” (17)

Since the Illuminati in Europe was attempting to subvert the Freemason lodges, Snyder asked Washington, who was also a Mason, to beware of the organization’s attempts. (18)

(As a brief historical side note, by that time it seemed the Illuminati had infiltrated the Grand Orient and the Scottish Rite, but the English Lodges of the Masons, which included the US lodges, were not yet compromised). (19)

Washington told Snyder that the revolutionary societies had not infiltrated the Freemason lodges in the United States, yet said he was certain the doctrines of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism were already spreading through other means in America. (20)

Washington responded to Snyder on Sept. 25, stating “I have heard much of the nefarious, & dangerous plan, & doctrines of the Illuminati, but never saw the Book until you were pleased to send it to me.” (21)

Snyder responded again, noting that the revolutionary organizations were not just spreading under the Freemason lodges, but had also taken form in Germany under various groups such as the “German Union” and “Reading Societies” and in France under the “Jacobine-Club.” (22)

Snyder also warned Washington that in the United States, the organization appeared to take form in the “Meetings of the Democratic-Societies.”

After a further exchange of letters, Washington clarified his position on the Illuminati and Jacobins in the United States. (23)

Washington wrote on Oct. 24 “It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am.” (24)

Washington wrote that the tenets of the Illuminati and Jacobins could be seen in the “Democratic Societies” which were then spreading throughout the country. (25)

“... the Democratic Societies in the United States, may have had these objects—and actually had a separation of the People from their Government in view, is too evident to be questioned,” he wrote. (26)

Between 1793 and 1796, more than 40 radical “Democratic-Republican Societies” were established throughout the United States. These organizations often used the labels of either “democratic” or “republican” in their titles. (27)

This followed the creation of the Democratic-Republican Party in 1792 by figures including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and by individuals who opposed the new constitution. (28)

The Democratic-Republican Societies were known for their support of the violent French model of revolution, which aimed to reorganize all society through violent revolution, and to replace religious moral order with a new totalitarian state under the banner of “reason." (29)

These societies took various forms, including the The German Republican Society and the Democratic Society of Pennsylvania. (30)

They tied to similar societies that ran under the illuminist brand in Europe around the same time, in the Republican Carbonari and the Democrat Carbonari behind the Cercle Social. Leon Trotsky described these societies as being an origin of the communist revolution. (31)

Trotsky wrote, "In the eighteenth century, freemasonry became expressive of a militant policy of enlightenment, as in the case of the Illuminati, who were the forerunners of revolution; on its left, it culminated in the Carbonari.” (32)

In the United States, the Democratic Societies were regarded by many founding fathers as a fundamental threat to the new American idea. (33)

There were rumors that one of the clubs in Pennsylvania was behind the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, which Washington sent a 12,500-man militia to fight against and declared the “insurrection” was the “first ripe fruit of the Democratic Societies.” (34) founders.archives.gov/documents/Wash…

Washington added in the Sept. 25, 1794, letter regarding the societies and their rebellion that, “I did not, I must confess, expect it would come to maturity so soon.” (35)

He said the uprising was an attempt by the Democratic Societies to “spread their nefarious doctrines, with a view to poison & discontent the minds of the people against the government” ... (36)

... Washington added that their “wicked and abominable measures are practiced to sap the Constitution, and lay the foundation of future Slavery.” (37)

Washington’s harsh criticisms of the societies led to their downfall until after the War of 1812. He had continued to condemn the Democratic Societies even up until his 1796 farewell address. (38)

In his Farewell Address, Washington declared “The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.” (39) mountvernon.org/library/digita…

He declared that these societies would “become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.” (40)

Yet, by 1824, the societies had again gained influence, and ran four candidates under the Democratic-Republican banner. This culminated in the creation of the Democratic Party and of the National Republican Party. (41)

The creation of these parties stoked fears of what Washington had warned of, and of rumors of the revolutionary societies that were attempting to destroy moral order. (42)

Around this time, in 1826, Captain William Morgan, a disenchanted Freemason, was arrested after announcing he would publish a book exposing the secrets of the Freemasons in the United States. He then disappeared, and was believed to be assassinated. (43)

After the disappearance of Morgan, newspaper publisher David Cade Miller published the book exposing the Freemasons in 1826. (44) gutenberg.org/files/18136/18…

This led to the creation of the Anti-Masonic Party and the Anti-Masonic Movement in 1828 to oppose the perceived threat in the new Democratic Party. (45)

/End/