[809] The ship Ocean was a vessel of the United States concerning which, in the spring of 1799, the statement got into circulation that it had been captured by the French and every soul on board foully murdered. No such massacre actually took place. Morse, however, heard the story, believed it, and made reference to it in his fast sermon of April 25, 1799. Later, and not unnaturally, he became disturbed over the part he had played in giving publicity to the story. His integrity, he believed, was involved; likewise the faith of the public in other pronouncements he had made, _e. g._ with regard to the Illuminati. See _Wolcott Papers_, vol. viii, 27. And this was the view of the case that his enemies took. _Cf._ for instance, the _Aurora_, June 6, 1799. [810] _American Mercury_, June 6, 1799. [811] Printed at Walpole, N. H. [812] _American Mercury_, Aug. 29, 1799. _Cf._ also _The Bee_ (New Haven), Aug. 21, 1799. [813] _Cf._ issue of May 7, 1799. [814] _Cf._ issue of May 10, 1799. [815] _Connecticut Courant_, May 27, 1799. [816] _An Oration delivered at Ridgefield on the Fourth of July, 1799, before a large concourse of people, assembled to commemorate their National Independence._ By David Edmond. Danbury ... MDCCXCIX, p. 10. [817] _An Oration, on the Apparent and the Real Political Situation of the United States, pronounced before the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, assembled at New-Haven ... July 4th, 1799._ By Zechariah Lewis, ... New-Haven, 1799, p. 16. [818] _An Oration spoken at Hartford ... on the Anniversary of American Independence, July 4th, A. D., 1799._ By William Brown. Hartford ... 1799, pp. 6 _et seqq._ [819] _An Oration, pronounced July 4th, 1799, at the request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, in Commemoration of the Anniversary of American Independence._ By John Lowell, Junior. Boston, 1799, p. 21. [820] _An Oration, delivered before the citizens of Portland ... on the Fourth of July, 1799_ ... By A. Stoddard. Portland, 1799, pp. 10, 11, 13, 29 _et seq._ [821] _An Oration delivered at Byfield, July 4, 1799._ By Rev. Elijah Parish, A. M. Newburyport (n. d.). [822] _An Oration, delivered at Roxbury, July 4, 1799. In Commemoration of American Independence._ By Thomas Beedé. Boston, 1799. [823] The _Connecticut Courant_ of June 10, 1799, carried to its readers the announcement that “the IIIrd volume of the History of Jacobinism” had just been received by Messrs. Hudson & Goodwin, the editors, and, along with volumes i and ii, was on sale.