With great respect, I am,—Revd. Sir, Your most Obdt. Servant, G^o. Washington.” The Rev^d. M^r. Morse _Washington Collection_, New York Public Library. Washington’s copy of Morse’s sermon may be found in the Athenaeum, Boston. [925] _The Fraternal Tribute of Respect Paid to the Masonic Character of Washington, in the Union League, in Dorchester, January 7th., A. L. 5800._ Charlestown, 1800, p. 11. (The address appeared anonymously.) [926] Charlestown Masons went so far as to hold out the olive branch of peace and good-will to Morse, in connection with the Masonic mourning which followed Washington’s death. It is recorded that the lodge in Charlestown presented to Morse the cloth which for a time hung under the portrait of its “beloved Brother, George Washington.” The gift was gratefully accepted by Morse and was made into a coat which he afterwards wore. _Cf._ _By-Laws of King Solomon’s Lodge, Charlestown, etc._ Boston, 1885, p. 83. 5. ATTEMPTS OF DEMOCRATS TO FIX THE COUNTERCHARGE OF ILLUMINISM UPON THE FEDERALISTS By 1798 and 1799 the alignment of political parties in New England had arrived at such a stage that the suspicion of political jockeying to obtain party advantage was well grounded in the minds of leaders in both camps. This self-conscious and determined party spirit had been greatly promoted by the employment of electioneering methods.[927] The general public had not yet become accustomed to the precise significance of the broadside, the political pamphlet, and the newspaper canard; and these all, in a copious stream, had begun to flow from the country’s presses. Party leaders, however, who knew the purposes of their own minds if not those of the opposition, were quick to scent anything that savored of political buncombe. Coincident with the breaking out of the controversy over the Illuminati, a number of tales of plots or conspiracies were foisted upon the public.[928] One of these concerned a band of conspirators who were alleged to be agents of the French Directory, and who, with their secret documents concealed in the false bottom of two tubs, had taken ship from Hamburg to work sedition in this country.[929] Another concerned the operations of a tailor in the city of Philadelphia, of whom the report spread that he was engaged in making immense quantities of uniforms for French soldiers; and if for French soldiers, for whom could they be intended but for some French army which must be planning an invasion of the United States? A third tale had to do with the massacre which, rumor had it, had taken place on the good American ship Ocean, involving the brutal butchery of her entire crew by the French.[930]