Note 713 — Chapter IV

Morse’s Anniversary Thanksgiving Sermon, pp. 22 et seq. The sermon of Lathrop referred to bears the following title: A Sermon, on the Dangers of the Times, from Infidelity and Immorality; and especially from a lately discovered Conspiracy against Religion and Government, delivered at West-Springfield and afterward at Springfield. By Joseph Lathrop, D. D., Springfield, September, 1798. The statement that Morse quotes appears on page 14 of Lathrop’s sermon. Cf. Cunningham, Abner, Practical Infidelity Portrayed and the Judgments of God Made Manifest, (3rd. edition), New York, 1836, pp. 42–46, where a somewhat similar situation in Orange County, New York, is referred to, and with suggestions of secret revolutionary designs not unlike those made by Lathrop. The situation referred to by Cunningham is also dealt with by F. M. Ruttenber, in his History of the County of Orange, with a History of the Town and City of Newburgh …. Newburgh, N. Y., 1875, pp. 164 et seq. Woodbridge Riley’s article on Early Free-Thinking Societies in America (Harvard Theological Review, July, 1918, pp. 247–284) came to the attention of the author of this study when the entire dissertation was in page proof.