Secret Societies and the Political Context of Joseph Smith's Rewritten Scripture

The rise of anti-Masonry was a significant historical and political occurrence in the United States in the late 1820s while Joseph Smith, Jr. worked on the Book of Mormon in 1829.1 Scholars often invoke anti-Masonry as crucial early nineteenth-century context for understanding the composition of Smith's early scriptural projects, and even early believers in Smith's claims saw and understood these connections.2 For instance, Martin Harris, one of Smith's associates, stated that the Book of Mormon was an “anti-Masonick Bible” soon after the book's publication.3 Outsiders also understood that the book engaged in these broader political and social issues. One newspaper, reprinting a short article from the Geauga Gazette, noted that, “The Mormon Bible is Antimasonic, and it is a singular truth that every one of its followers, so far as we are able to ascertain, are antimasons.”4 These observations raise the question of the connection of the rhetoric of anti-Masonry with the broader discourse about secret societies during the period from the founding of the United States to the 1820s.I will argue that anti-Masonry is not the only important context to consider when analyzing the composition of both the Book of Mormon and Smith's additions to Genesis 1–6 in the Book of Moses. The broader movement against secret societies in the wake of the French Revolution and the literature that accompanied it in the transatlantic world of early America provides that crucial context, when anti-Jacobinism played such a major role in the formation of early American national identity. Born out of the French Revolution, Jacobinism was viewed by many Americans as the archenemy of order and good government.5 Purely anarchistic in nature, Jacobin history was believed to have brought the downfall of civilizations since the Miltonic War in Heaven prior to the creation of the world.6 The political and social turmoil caused by the transatlantic revolutions inspired new applications of the Eden narrative in America that would inform how Smith and his contemporaries used and interpreted the story themselves. For Smith this would mean that the Eden of the Book of Mormon would reflect some of these social and political shifts. Smith would rewrite the story of Adam and Eve as well as the Cain and Abel story so that Genesis 1–6 would address the role secret societies play in the world.The biblical Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel were important figures in long eighteenth-century political theorizing about good government. Many authors in the transatlantic world found these myths to be a place to trace the genealogy of different forms of government, both good and bad. Between the years 1797 and 1799 and while in exile in Britain, the French cleric Abbé Barruel published his four-volume Memoirs, Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, which purported to expose the history and crimes of the Jacobins.7 Before Americans collectively understood the phrase “secret combinations” as an allusion to Freemasonry, conservative American patriots had been fighting against a mostly imaginary enemy that in reality had been an open and public social and political club in France in the wake of the French Revolution.8 A series of myths were built up around the Jacobins that centered on all of the very worst of the acts of revolutionaries like Robespierre and his associates in the National Convention. Fear of a populist uprising that could destroy the hard-earned unity of the early republic fueled the development of early American political action against secret societies.9 By the late 1820s conservative Americans were well equipped to organize into a new movement against their perceived enemies, Freemasons, and to rapidly create a strong anti-Masonic movement.10The Jacobins were a political debate club that grew out of the French Revolution to eventually include chapters in several nations, including France, Germany, Britain, the United States, and elsewhere in the 1790s.11 Conservative commentators had already begun to blame the French Revolution on the Illuminati, a similar club founded in Bavaria a couple of decades prior that had been shut down by the elector of Bavaria, Karl Theodor. According to Michael Lienesch, “As early as 1793 pamphlets were being printed that purported to expose the [Illuminati] Order, which was described as alive and more active than ever, secretly recruiting Freemasons, reformers, and writers to the revolutionary cause.”12 This larger theorized plot to destroy European governments and rid the countries of conservatism was then tied to the Jacobins, and, as Lienesch goes on to describe, all of the pseudohistories and conspiracies regarding the Illuminati, Freemasons, and the Jacobins were synthesized into one grand “history” by the Abbé Barruel in his Memoirs. Lienesch explains how “for Barruel . . . the Jacobins were only the last in a long line of villains, and the Revolution was but the present phase of a much more deeply laid and larger plan, a campaign whose aim was the destruction of religion, monarchy, and society itself.”13 For Barruel, the threat this campaign offered did not just apply to religion, government, and society in Europe. Instead, he explicitly warned the new republic in America that the Jacobins (and Illuminati and Freemasons) were preparing to overthrow the United States as well. This was a long battle that all societies would have to face, and at its heart it was satanic.Many of Barruel's first readers connected the historical chronology he claimed to reconstruct with their own readings of biblical history, some going back to the earliest history in the Book of Genesis. The same year that Barruel's last volume was published, an anonymous American book review sought to praise Barruel's work on the origins of Jacobinism and also extend his history in a lengthy review titled “Barruel Amended.” The reviewer described what were, from their perspective, the true biblical origins of Jacobinism.14 According to this anonymous author, Jacobinism did not begin in France in 1789 but instead in the War in Heaven they believed was depicted in Jude 1:6, Revelation 12, and Isaiah 14. These themes are best described in Milton's Paradise Lost, since, as the author states, “Milton's Paradise Lost, is the finest satire upon Jacobinism, in the English language.”15 According to this reviewer, the real origins of Jacobinism go back to when Satan or Lucifer led one-third of the host of heaven away from the righteous government of God. This was the crucial first step, but Satan had to introduce Jacobinism into the newly created world after the War in Heaven as well.There were other points that linked the Jacobins’ rebellion against good government to their Satanic origins. The author describes when Satan deceived Eve in Eden to get Adam and Eve to rebel against God and be expelled from the garden. Satan is “that arch Jacobin,” the one that “raised an insurrection in Heaven.”16 The serpent was either Satan himself or a pupil or emissary. In any case, the motive behind the deception seems clear to the reviewer: “It is true that in many instances, the Jacobin who attacks the possessor of wealth and office, does it because he wishes and expects to obtain the same but the history of Jacobinism of who plot and to the of when they have of in of it themselves. is they for the of Jacobinism, is and with the or that have but they not have of the that late and early nineteenth-century political the Jacobins was that they believed Jacobins had an of In this of their Satan is the arch just like a Jacobin when he the role of a in Adam and Eve as he only to to be at According to Barruel's reviewer, it was also a Jacobin for Satan to go after Eve, by his This was not only about The reviewer believed that and were of by Jacobins just the same as Eve so to this perspective, of the were not being by Jacobins in France of the but were instead being of because of their of and The author believed that to and were and in out wealth and was as a for the true of the Jacobins, which were to either of the destruction of the government or to the like they the War in Heaven and the this review biblical genealogy of the origins of the In order to get what they Jacobins and This of the Jacobin is to the reviewer, in the story of Cain and Satan is a against the and A Jacobinism then worked Cain to to secretly plot against his Abel because Abel had the of of the that Cain did not Cain Abel in the because of and the that he was after God his According to Barruel's reviewer, Jacobins of the period were just like Cain and were of this reviewer, it was that Jacobinism had at its all of the worst of and Jacobinism, and for and were and their origins were one as like a Jacobin in the early this of reality had for the development of national identity. According to the reviewer, the new United States had to be as about Jacobins as they had been the host of heaven who had been to or they had been Eve and were by the serpent to from the or they had been Abel and were of the by only were American at in the early the of the could be in Jacobins or fighting for were to be in or to work in secret to during this period used the “secret to the of the Jacobin A on the political in the in is The author of the claims that he had at one not found the that were secret societies in the very but his According to the author, are up secret all the to with the of a of these Jacobin a in this a short . . . from and a of one of . . . were present at this political on These have into a to that, which they not in the open of the of the of secret societies are in this of Jacobins, in secret after on the were being up to destroy government, religion, and early Americans would these secret and their and on society and government during the out in the and in that early Americans to their new of the that secret societies to their In from to the of that was published in the a of the Genesis the is in the of a the goes a of biblical for According to the author, “The would to how and and all their followers, in to overthrow and how the of his could by his the of his to that as to overthrow his how could his that he in his for more of the like we could how the Jacobins in France the so as to their for their This larger conservative movement against secret societies was not but instead a of and to the political and historical that these early American authors found but these different readings of Jacobinism into the biblical much of what we in Smith's of the Eden and of Genesis. the that Joseph Smith with the of Genesis in his of the Bible the larger of literature to the broader and political that Smith was it to that for the reviewer of Barruel's four-volume and for Smith, the of and was at secret societies like the Jacobins were to destroy and was far from the story of the Book of history of a that from to the the into and after the of the of the a who led his and the of a away from their The the and of the are other the in the of the Smith Jr. the of the Book of Mormon during the late of and into the of the Book of Mormon the to reflect on themes of and to the of points the narrative of the Book of Smith brought Isaiah Revelation 12, and Genesis in order to the of the serpent that This serpent Eve to not only the but also Adam to it as well. was for in the and to these to a War in in a that was with Miltonic biblical the Book of Mormon does not a in it does from this larger Milton's of it in Paradise the Book of Genesis. the of all and explains that he is by which have . . . that an of to that which is had from This from Revelation and, in the to as well. In order to that he Adam and Eve to the which in caused to be expelled from the a to the of the provides an of the of Eden and the In the the is the the of of good and is the to understanding the by like and work was the serpent Eve is the Jacobin The and the that Adam and Eve out of be a of the who have such Adam and from the with a against the of the Jacobins, the as that have been Adam and Eve, like their transatlantic would have the of more and like that which was published in The also to get these same to its own the Book of Mormon a different to understanding or not it would have been for Adam and Eve to in the for all that Adam and Eve had not and been expelled from Eden they would not have had and would have in the same which they were, after they were and they have and had . . . they would have had . . . they would have in a of for they for they In an in that had in the history of the Book of states, that and that they have The of have the government of one it in Jacobins, in France or to in a of and The Book of on the that Satan to in his the that Jacobins, were the same of the Eden narrative and from the in the Book of Mormon goes the story of Adam and as important to the major narrative of the Book of Mormon is the that since the of the of all been or like Cain to “secret in order to or to get or like the Book of Smith to the that “secret combinations” a threat to society and have been the downfall of many One of the of the Cain and Abel story in the Book of Mormon is the By the the of the Book of Mormon it to this of or already caused major for the In the Book of Satan plot with Cain, that he would his it not be the he did plot with Cain and his followers, from that is these that the the against the This is on early American of secret societies and political and social in the wake of the French Revolution on a of action of his the of the Book of Mormon on a of Eden that Cain with a major that readers for is in the history of Genesis to this Cain and is the author of to God as and the other are clear in the political literature of the early in the wake of the French Revolution and the of and Jacobinism, that important context to the about “secret combinations” the These a that would Smith's to the that civilizations an of the Book of of the of the Book of this of the Cain and Abel story is in a in the Book of is a to the of the Book of story a a in long eighteenth-century transatlantic a narrative the history of the the and the history and the story of the Book of this to the soon after the of at the of described in Genesis The narrative describes how a and his only in the book as the of the and the to the the civilizations that up fighting and other just like the and significant for the of this article is the in that “secret combinations” the downfall of with the of a different than the one in the Book of to the Cain and Abel story in about the of secret and the in did the which was by of who also sought which had been down even from Cain, who was a from the Smith's of the Bible to Book of Mormon like this one in when Smith the in his of Genesis to Cain, “It be in to that these was had for he the which was had from The found in an important in a narrative in the book that will to the destruction of the this a his and the in at his against and destroy his The is to the and is but he is the that the was from with a will for a who believed would after to to to This would to of . . . the in the that he had their of the Book of he not the which brought the is not an of that they by their secret did obtain and how to be and a to back by similar in an early of the Cain and Abel in the explains that these or secret had been down since Smith this of Cain and Abel into the Book of Mormon narrative at a around the when he believed a of have had some of the of like that in the Book of it he at the of Genesis into the of in the that had been from the since the of which Smith's contemporaries would have to in the The secret and that to create an society of and to for and the society that but the for to of the secret of the Book of also to the the that Cain, and who the secret with In this only chapters after the story about and his a of in the that after the of the new his in order to the and in the eventually not only its downfall but also the of the that is of their society by the the their are and of that have on These of on of the of in the transatlantic world of the early The are described this in order to on the perceived in the early United States of secret societies to The new American republic had to be of like the Jacobins or that to overthrow the government in the of or and the threat of a of a secret society in or out of the and the secret and Americans viewed both the Jacobins and the as the to all of the Many Americans believed the Jacobins had during the of and that had described the Book of Mormon upon the and the that secret and with Cain, similar and in the same in the biblical as Smith would and as he the Bible in only after the of the Book of the of the Book of Mormon in Smith a on the Bible in that would when Smith and his associates claimed at the to have the the of Smith to the of Eden found in the Book of Mormon into the of Genesis This would have it had been published in during the a of the Bible for readers of the Book of Mormon that the same story of Eden as they the of the Book of Smith worked on the that would the Book of from that argue that the Book of Genesis of creation at different by different authors after the of Smith and the of his in the United States, the creation in Genesis and as and by of Smith's of the Bible Smith, like other early nineteenth-century the Bible the Bible was the of it real they believed the printed in their Smith to the in the history of the Bible but also in a or of the that he to of the he would a that sought to get back to the earliest of the but he about his in the by to and the of early order to and the he believed had into the the other early American Smith the Bible by to the of the Bible The of these to the of the of more that would to be with one and the because the Book of Mormon interpreted of the Bible in that from readings of the or of of the Bible that were not in the the creation and were one the Book of Mormon did not with the of Genesis but his of these chapters does with many readings of Genesis offered in the broader transatlantic movement against secret societies in the and early In his of Smith the Book of on and the of from the of to the of Adam and Adam and Eve had been expelled from the they to the same as about their in Smith's For Adam the was a in this because his are and and that he this like Adam the to have into the of the and Eve are and are able to and the same Eve up on rhetoric at the Adam Eve about and then it not we had had good the of the and of from the of not they had in the to the that they could only have after being expelled from that had would have had the from in to first in The found in the Book of Mormon that and are the important of Adam and from the is not found in the of but after Smith Genesis this of Eden be found in his this of Eden and the from the were the Book of Smith the to the of Eden and the Cain and Abel story in the Book of Mormon into the biblical of Genesis Smith understood either or after the Book of Mormon had been published that readers of the book would in with a of Eden and of his Abel that was not in the biblical is in Genesis of Cain with Satan in a “secret to his but in Smith's of the story we this to the In after the of the Book of Smith would begin to the story of Eden in Genesis to the of Cain found in the Book of Mormon in his Bible this Satan Cain by his to into a with and to get his other of Adam and Eve to also to not the secret or they will Cain to then Satan to Abel into Cain after he Abel as he the of into Smith the of Genesis to include the Cain and Satan to in the book of in a that Smith Cain that he is after he an in the rhetoric against Jacobinism, and the French Cain is because his back from the of the he claims as his like the Jacobin of the anonymous author of “Barruel it is the that Abel had and the of the government that Cain to to and which led to his Book of also up on the of secret found in the Book of of Genesis. In the book of of the of the Cain and Satan was that would be from the In Smith's of Cain that his not from the Smith used similar to the by Cain in his of Smith the to that a of that secret which was Cain by Cain only about his from other and did not consider how God would about his with Satan to his This of the Cain and Abel story to a to any secret society that their would go even they away with God would be just as of what of the secret societies were as he was of Cain Smith or the of Eden as found in the Book of Mormon into the of Genesis is to The of this article been to that, or not Smith this into the Bible to the the the is that his additions and to the Bible the Eden narrative in both the and the Book of Mormon he was the of Genesis The of Adam and Eve in his of the Bible are with in the book of and the of the secret societies in and their into the of Genesis as was Cain and Satan Smith the biblical have a narrative was he the at the of not as well as how Cain and Satan up with a to get rid of Abel These additions upon historical in up to the This is not a of the Book of Mormon as its an of Genesis on the are the from the Book of Mormon as Smith was Genesis to its Instead, both the Book of Mormon and Smith's of Genesis upon the English of Genesis and the same in the that Joseph Smith connected the Book of Mormon of secret and with the American anti-Masonic movement of the late that context is in many of the in and the Book of Mormon and the Book of it does not other of these include the that the origins of secret societies go back to the Miltonic War in the of Adam and Eve, and to does not the at the heart of the Book of societies to the destruction of and the American to be of that the of the For this of the Book of Mormon and the Book of it is to from the to in the 1820s back in to American and transatlantic against the French Revolution in the and its is this larger transatlantic context that the to the anti-Masonic movement in its and and Smith grew up in the of this political fighting and was on his of the Book of Mormon in the of it is that he would up on the broader and of American against these in a narrative that he would The book would the destruction of a on the development and of a secret society inspired by Satan in the same that he inspired Cain to Abel and the of to get or This from the Book of Mormon against secret societies to of was a from Smith to his the same many and anti-Masonic authors were about the same not what to the American that the destruction of their by the of the to the United that was in the narrative context of the Book of its and its first several chapters of to this as well. Smith Smith's new of the Eden narrative in his Genesis could then the to the of Eden and Cain and Abel in the Book of Mormon because they the