The following is the proposal for the paper entitled “No other brains could have produced so exotick a plant”: The Reverend John J. Zubly’s Calvinist-Humanist Critique of the American Revolution.

The Reverend John Joachim Zubly, one of Georgia’s representatives to the Second Continental Congress, had been known for his vigorous defense of the cause of the colonies in their conflicts with Britain. However, when he and those whom he had previously led, arrived at the turning point of the American Revolution, Zubly turned one way and opposed independence, while his followers turned in the opposite direction and supported independence. Thus, on July 1, 1776, the Council of Safety of Georgia ordered the arrest of this former defender of the colonialist cause.

In 1780, Zubly wrote a series of essays that appeared in the Royal Georgia Gazette. In these essays, known as the Helvetius essays, Zubly explained to the American patriots why they should end their rebellion. This paper will examine Zubly’s Helvetius essays. This examination will make, and provide a defense for, the following points:

1. Zubly’s Helvetius essays present an argument that may be best understood by considering it in light of the Puritan concepts of federal theology, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

2. In the Helvetius essays Zubly used the writings of Enlightenment philosophers on moral virtue, justice, and the law to demonstrate that the American Revolution was both immoral and illegal.

3. Zubly’s goal in writing the Helvetius essays was to stop what he saw as the annihilation of religion in the colonies.

4. For years, Zubly had warned of the danger of the teachings of the Calvinist clergymen of the New Divinity. Zubly’s essays, therefore, provide us with an opportunity to measure just how radical a turn American Calvinism made during that eighteenth century turning point, the American Revolution.

5. There were nine Helvetius essays. Six of those were thought to have survived to the present day. One essay was thought to be lost. The other two survived but were undiscovered until the the research for this paper.  This paper will present evidence that the lost essay has been found and will identify the last two of the Helvetius essays..