The Massachusetts Gazette, (Number 371)

Tuesday, October 2, 1787.

For the Massachusetts Gazette.

To Numa's long list of evils, which he says, in some of his productions, are prevalent in the commonwealth, he might have added, that when priests became Jesuits, the liberties of the people were in danger—in almost all countries, we shall find, that when sedition and discontent were brewing, Political Jesuits were often at the bottom of the affair.

Unhappily for Numa, the citizens of Massachusetts are not so blinded by ignorance, nor so devoted to prejudice and superstition, as the common people in those arbitrary and despotick governments, where clerical imposition reigns paramount almost to everything else; where the freedom of speech is suppressed, and the liberty of the people, with regard to examining for themselves, totally restrained.

It is, however, the case that, even in this country, the weak and ignorant are often led too implicitly to put their faith wholly upon what their spiritual teachers think proper to inform them, and precipitately imbibe sentiments from them, which, if their teacher is a designing knave, may prove detrimental to society. The Jesuit will, however, find it very difficult, notwithstanding many circumstances may seem to favor his views, to carry the point of altering a free government to one more arbitrary, in such a country as this.

The cloak of religion too often answers to promote plans detrimental [pg 009] to the peace and happiness of mankind. The priests, who accompanied the Spaniards when they first invaded the kingdoms of Mexico and Peru, urged on those blood-hounds to perpetrate scenes of cruelty and horror (at the bare recital of which human nature shudders), with assurances that it would tend to promote the cause of the Christian religion, if they effected the conquest of those unhappy people, and that any conduct was justifiable to bring infidels to a sense of their duty.

The teacher of the benign and peaceable doctrine of the Saviour of mankind, often thinks he can, with greater security, on account of his profession, disseminate the seeds of sedition and discontent, without being suspected. This thought no doubt occurred to Numa before he exhibited his designing productions to the publick. Sheltered under the sacred wing of religion, how many an impious wretch stalks secure from publick justice,

Numa indicates that he means to prepare the minds of the people for the reception of that government which the Federal Convention shall think most proper for them to adopt. In the name of common sense, what can that scribbler mean by this assertion? Is a scandalous abuse of our rulers—the propagation of sentiments which are calculated to set the publick mind in a ferment—if they are so far attended to as to have any influence among the people—a fit preparation for such a measure? Surely, by no means, and every thinking mind will discover that the productions of Numa are either intended to effect secret purposes, or that they are merely effusions of the fanatick brain of that Quixote of the day.

Instead of vile insinuations and falsehoods being spread among the people, in regard to their rulers, in order to prepare their minds for the reception of that form of government which the Federal Convention may propose, sentiments the very reverse ought to be propagated. The people ought to be inspired with the highest confidence in those who preside over the affairs of the state. It ought to be implanted in their minds, that their rulers are men fit to conduct every plan which might be proposed, to [pg 010] promote the general welfare of the people; and this with truth may be asserted. But Numa has no more intention of preparing the minds of the people for the government which the Federal Convention may propose, than Queen Catharine has of abdicating the throne of Russia.

The people of Massachusetts ought to be cautioned, above everything, to be on their guard with respect to the conduct of Political Jesuits. They have generally been the curse of almost every country that has cherished; they have often been the promoters of revolution and bloodshed. A set of infernal fiends, let loose from the dreary mansions of Beelzebub, cannot be more detrimental to the place and happiness of society, than a band of Political Jesuits.

Citizens of Massachusetts! those men who now preside over you are, and ever have been, the patrons of freedom and independence! men whose exertions have been unceasing to promote and secure to you the blessings of a free government; whose grand stimulus to act is the advancement of your welfare and happiness!—men whose conduct is not stinted by the narrow concerns of self, and who, “when their country calls, can yield their treasure up, and know no wish beyond the publick good.” Such are the men who now wield the affairs of state, and whose deeds will, when those of that vile clan of calumniators who exist in this state are rotting in the tomb of oblivion, conspicuously adorn the brightest pages of the American revolution.

Numa5 and his band, the calumniators of true worth, may bustle away for a while; but they will ere long be obliged to retire from the bright flashes of patriotism and merit; and, after finding their endeavours fruitless, to sully The Character of the Brightest Luminary that ever Adorned the Hemisphere of Massachusetts,6 and many other illustrious patriots, who compose the present administration, they will retire to gnash their teeth in anguish and disappointment, in the caverns of obscurity—a punishment their conduct most justly merits.

Cassius.