ing. 1 Such principles and measures appeared as so many deadly thrusts at the Christian faith. It was difficult, if not impossible, for the most sympathetic admirers of France to find a way to explain this ominous cast of events. 2
How thoroughly the fear of " French infidelity " had gripped the imaginations of men in New England will appear more clearly if the following considerations are weighed. The presumption that the intimate relations which Americans had been having with the people of France had produced a serious blight of morals and religion among the former, seemed to find its justification in the currents of skepticism and irreverence which, by common consent, had set in among the youth of the land. This phase of the situation as reflected in conditions within the colleges was held to be particularly deplorable. It was the settled conviction of President Dwight of Yale that " the infidelity of Voltaire and his coadjutors " had a special attractiveness for youth, for reasons which do not impress one as being highly charitable, to say the least:
Youths particularly, who had been liberally educated, and who with strong passions, and feeble principles, were votaries of sensuality and ambition, delighted with the prospect of unrestrained gratification, and panting to be enrolled with men of fashion and splendour, became enamored of these new doctrines. The tenour of opinion, and even of conversation, was to a considerable extent changed at once. Striplings, scarcely fledged, suddenly found that the world had been involved in a general darkness, through the long succession of the preceding
- 1 The conservative press of America saw to it that this information did not escape the attention of its readers. Cf. Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution, pp. 267 et seq. Cf. Morse. The Federalist Party in Massachusetts, pp. 80-87, 98 et seq.
- 2 Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution, pp. 269 et seq.
