mare, la mu A 544810
SECRET SOCIETIES
ANCIENT AND MODUAN.
AN OLE NE OF
bir kıze. Progr. s* Chararti
ITH RESPEOT TUTI:
CHIIJSTIAN RELIGION
A TO
E-3LIOAN COVERNA
I W. PHELI
ding agains, that form which may otherwise prodac, a sudden s
i tion some very different one. It is no secret to buy atractive
spalonate obsexver of the political situation of the United States,
I the danger ta republican liber y has truk in that mea
RAMI STADION
MAN A
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
EZRA A. (OOK, PIBLISHER.
1896.
NOS

WUNURUNUNUALE
KA
ARTES
SCIENTIA
TINDIHMITIMINI
LIBRARY VERITAS OF THE
INIVEL
EIDIUS IIII|||||||IIHII
ENMHHUnimum
SITY OF MICHIGAN
.
MINTIINinnum
LI
WIMM ITM
V3.0
TCEROR
11
.
.!!
!
>
.
.
Nilille'
CIRCUMSPICE
..
-
UTORITATII CUTIT
.
.
.
.
.
1
.
..
n nMARTISO1UUNNITHINIHINTtlttisuntiu
.
.
.."
.
.
2
.
.
.
I
Gilli
LILINIBIDIN
M
ITIMINGIIII
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
.
.
.
.
.
-
.
-
-
ammunutmumuntamu TITATTU311
TIMTIMA
A
A

NUMENT DEL
M
UNDO ||
UTILIPUUNTIJU
-
THE GIFT OF
Miss Marie Rominger
Mrs. Mark Covill
ITTING
GullHuutuudimo
TMIITTUITIT
G
P54
161
SH

SECRET SOCIETIES,
ANCIENT AND MODERN.
AN OUTLINE OF
Their Risę, Progress, and Character
WITH RESPECT TO THE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION
AND
REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT,
EDITED BY
GEN’L. J. W. PHELPS.
By correcting the infirmities of popular Government, it will pre-
vent the disgust against that form which may otherwise produce a
sudden transition to some very different ono. It is no secret to any
attentive and dispassionate observer of the political situation of the
United States, that the real danger to republican liberty has lurked
in that cause.
JAMES MADISON.
Be a man and not a minion.
ECHICAGO, ILLINOIS. BY
EZRA A. COOK & CO., Publishersion
221 W. Mawson st, Orvicago,
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873.
BY GEN'L J. W. PHELPS,
In the office fo the Librarian of Congress at Washington. D. C.
HS
191
::P54
GIFT OF
MISS MARIE ROMINGER
men
AND
MRS. MARK COVILL
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
:0:-
PAGE.
1. The Antiquity of Secret Societies. -------
II. The Life of Julian. ---------
III. The Eleusinian Mysteries. ----
V. Was Washington a Mason? -
VI. Filmore's and Webster's deference to
.: Masonry. -------
....... 125
VII. A brief outline of the progress of
Masonry in the United States. ----------- 131
VIII. The Tammany Ring.
IX. The Crèdit Mobilièr Ring.---
X. Masonic Benevolence. ----
205
XI. The uses of Masonry. --
219
XII. An Illustration. -----
229
XIII. The Conclusion..--..
-
--
-
-
-
-
-
-
---
-
-
--
-
-
-
-
--
235
PREFACE
an
The following sketch of the life and char-
acter of the Emperor Julian is taken from
Gibbon, and to a large extent in his own
words. It is a collation rather than an orig-
inal treatise, the office of the writer consisting
chiefly in so arranging the facts of the his-
torian as to show the tendencies of Secret
Societies towards a sure apostacy from the
Christian religion.
· For this purpose more, perhaps, of the his-
tory of Julian has been given than may seem
necessary to some; but in bringing up char-
acters and incidents from the remote past, in
order to throw illustrative light upon the af-
fairs of the present day, extended detail often
becomes inevitable, and particularly where
those characters and incidents are not well
known. They have to be translated, as it
were, from an old, dead state of things to a
new one, which is like rendering a dead lan-
VI
guage into one that is living. The sketch,
however, it is believed, will prove entertain-
ing and instructive to many readers, as a
mere biographical notice alone, irrespective
of the especial application which is made
of it.
THE ANTIQUITY
OF
SECRET SOCIETIES.
Our records inform us, that the
usages and customs of Masons. have
ever corresponded with those of the
Egyptian philosophers, to which
they bear a near affinity. * * *
Masonry, however, is not only the
most ancient, but the most moral
institution that ever subsisted.
W.EBB'S FREEMASON'S MONITOR.
The most ignorant peasant under
the Christian dispensation, possesses
more real knowledge than the wisest
of the ancient philosophers
TERTULLIAN.
TTF
It is customary of late years to hear the
terms “ancient and honorable” applied, with
particular emphasis,to a secret society called
Masonry; and the idea is repeated and in-
culcated by thousands who know little of
what they speak, or of the influences which
VIII.
they are thus made to serve. That Masonry,
however, is ancient, is very certain; for Plu-
tarch, in speaking of the pirates who infested
the seas of the Roman empire in the time of
Pompey the Great, not inaptly describes the
spirit of secret association, whether ancient or
modern, when he says that these pirates "cele-
brated certain secret mysteries, among which
those of Mithra continue to this day, being
originally instituted by them.”
“But the most contemptuous circumstance
of all was," continues Plutarch, "when they
had taken a prisoner, and he cried out that
he was a Roman citizen, and told them his
name, they pretended to be struck with ter-
ror, smote their thighs, and fell upon their
knees to ask his pardon. The poor manthus
seeing them humble themselves before him,
thought them in earnest, and said he would
forgive them; for some were so officious as
to put on his shoes, and others to help him on
with his gown, that his quality as a Roman
citizen might no more be mistaken. When
they had carried on this farce, and enjoyed
it for some time, they let a ladder down into
IX
the sea, and bade him go in peace; and if he
refused to do it, they pushed him off the deck
and drowned him.”
A modern French writer on the beauties
of secret societies, Henri Delaage, while
speaking of the mysteries of Mithra, claims
that the wise men of the East, who came to
worship the infant Saviour, were members of
that "order;" but it would seem more proba-
ble, from the foregoing account of Plutarch,
that the Roman soldiers whomocked the
Saviour in his sufferings, belonged to it. "The
initiation into the mysteries of Mithra," says
Delaage,"is worthy of the study and admira-
tion of the most elevated minds of the present
age; for assuredly,” he exclaims, "the hand
of God is in those mysteries." And so all
members of secret societies seem to think of
their own orders—That the hand of God is
in them; but the reader will be left to judge
for himself on that point.
It may be remarked, however, that there
is not much evidence that secret orders ex-
isted in the heroic age of any nation or peo.
ple; for organized secrecy, more genial to
X
priest-craft and other arts of low cunning,
than to the higher and nobler qualities of
man, is destructive to true heroism. Yet
that these secret orders had possession of
(the kingdoms of the earth” before the com.
ing of our Saviour, and that they were as
much opposed to his doctrines as they were
to native heroism of all kinds, is only too ev-
ident. During the spread of Christian light
over the Roman Empire, secret societies, to-
gether with pagan oracles, slowly receding
like the shades of night before the rising sun,
must have lost much of their credit and
power. The genius of Christianity was hos-
tile to them. There are but faint traces of
their operations throughout the middle ages.
We read of the formidable, rather than pow-
erful, secret order of the assassins, whose
detestable practices were doubtless adopted
to some extent, by the Crusaders, and thus
brought into Christian Europe; but not un-
til the revival of letters and the arts, did the
spirit and power of secret associations be-
come restored in their full force. It was then
that the society of Jesus, or Jesuitism, was es-
XI
tablished, originating in Paris in 1534. Un-
der the pretence of aiding and sustaining the
Christian religion, it sought to defend the
heathen practices and habits that had grad-
ually grown up and become incorporated with
the church; and it declared an implacable
warfare against the Reformation which
sought to purge the Christian faith from these
ancient habits and practices.
The next modern form after Jesuitism
which secret association has assumed is
known by the name of Masonry. It origin-
ated in London, in the last century; and it
would seem to have sprung from two objects,
one to check and limit the spread of Puritan
doctrines, and the other to oppose and de-
feat Jesuitism by its own weapons, viz., by
trickery, guile and deceit. It has all the de-
moralizing faults and vices of the latter, with
few, if any, of the nobler and better traits of
the former. *
From Masonry, amidst the rapid and
heedless rush of opinion in the United States,
a great variety of forms of secret organiza-
* Masonry is, in brief, English Jesuitism.
XII
2
tions has sprung; and their names and desig.
nations, including temporary secret rings
which readily flow from Masonic principles
and teachings, are exceedingly numerous. $
All of them claim to be actuated by the high-
est possible motives, and assume the loftiest
titles or pretensions; but the practices of all
are more or less demoralizing to society, and
tend to destroy its capacities for free Repub-
lican government. Their agency in that di-
rection might be proved by an examination
into their organization, as exhibited in their
manuals and rituals; but it is thought that a
clearer idea mnight be derived from the ca-
reer of one of their most illustrious champi.
ons, the Emperor Julian, to which the careful
attention of the reader is now invited.
† Among these new ramifications of Jesuitism is the “Grange," 80
called, which seems to be a device got up by, or near, the “Masonic
Hall Association” of the District of Columbia, in order to sophisticate
and corrupt the agricultural class of the community, that class whose
virtues lie at the very foundation of our republican government. The
Grange may possibly be designed as the nucleus of a new democratic
party; and if the country should thus become divided into two hostile
camps, one republican and the other democratic, both waging a secret,
'underhanded warfare, which is as unscrupulous and irresponsible as it
is secret, the noble and more vital qualities of republican government
and Christian society must soon become utterl, destroyed, They will
fall & prey to Jesuitism pure and simple.
THE LIFE OF JULIAN
OR
THE UNCHRISTIAN TENDENCIES
OF
SECRET SOCIETIES EXEMPLIFIED.
We cannot determine to keep
anything secret without risking at
the same time to commit a hun-
dred artifices, quibbles, equivoca-
tions and falsehoods. ·
GODWIN'S POLITICAL JUSTICE.
Julian the Apostate, nephew of the first
Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine the
Great, and a devout member of secret socie-
ties, was born in Constantinople in the year
of our Lord 331. He was six years of age
at the death of his uncle, which occurred on
the 22nd of May 337. His earliest experi.
ence of life thus began at a period when the .
world was still agitated by the exciting relig.
-14
ious questions which had just called together
the Council of Nice, and when the State
found itself amidst the throes of a new re-
ligious birth, by which every passion and in-
terest of humanity were stirred to their low-
est depths.
The first act of Constantius, the son and
successor of the deceased emperor, on com-
ing to the throne, was to bind himself by an
oath, to sacredly regard the lives and safety of
his kinsmen; and it may readily be conceived
into what a lamentable condition society must
have fallen, where such an oath was consid-
ered necessary, and where it was broken al-
most as soon as given. The long intercourse
of the Romans with the corrupt and servile
nations of the East, had at last thoroughly
poisoned the Roman heart; the Christian re-
ligion had not yet transformed the minds of
rulers, and the sway of the Roman Emperor,
no longer restrained by the forgotten virtues
of the Republic, was like that of the Oriental
despot. It was said that the Bishop of Ni-
comedia of Bythinia, placed in the hands of
Constantius a scroll, attested by the will of
a
-15%
the late Emperor, expressing his (the Empe-
ror's) suspicions of having been poisoned by
his brothers, and urging his sons to revenge his
death. As a consequence of this machination,
originating probably with Constantius himself,
and so subsequently believed by Julian, an en-
raged soldiery, devoted to the memory of their
old leader and setting aside all the forms of law
and justice, massacred ten or eleven persons
of the lateral branches of the imperial family.
Julian and his elder brother Gallus were the
only members of those branches who escaped
with their lives, the first at the age of six
years, and the other at twelve. They owed
this fortune, in part, to the interposition of
Mark, Bishop of Aretheusa, in Syria, and to
the sanctuary of a Christian church. Spared
by the policy of Constantius, rather than by
his clemency, these young princes were at
first sent into Bythinia, a province of Asia
Minor immediately south of Constantinople,
as a convenient place to serve the double pur-
pose of exile and education; but as their
growing years began to excite the jealousy
of their cousin, he thought it prudent to re-
16-
move them still farther from court, and they
were accordingly assigned a residence in the
strong castle of Macellum, near Caesarea of
Cappadocia, some 300 or 400 miles south
east from the capital of the Empire, near the
frontier of Persia. There they pursued their
studies and exercises during six years, under
the most skillful masters; but though their
household was large and not unsuited to
the dignity of their birth, yet their lives
were darkened by a feeling of imprisonment,
being deprived of freedom and genial so-
ciety, and living under the control of a sus-
picious tyrant, between whom and them-
selves there could be no possible confidence
or sympathy.
As time passed on, the elder brother, Gal-
lus, attained the age of twenty-five years, and
was appointed to a share in the government
of the empire. With the title of Caesar, and
from Antioch as his capital, he entered upon
the administration of the five great provinces
of the East. His reign, however, was of
short duration. He was soon called to Mi-
lan, Italy, by the Emperor, to give an account
--17--
of his charge, and was put to death, under a
show of legal procedure.
Julian was next called from his retirement,
and conveyed, under a strong guard, to the
imperial court at Milan, where he was
doomed for seven months to a constant ap-
prehension of suffering the same ignominious
death which he saw daily inflicted on the
friends and adherents of his persecuted family.
His looks, his gestures, and even his silence
were scrutinized with malignant curiosity,
and he was perpetually assaulted by enemies.
whom he had never offended, and by arts to
which he was a stranger. He ascribed his
miraculous deliverance to the protection of
the gods, who had exempted his innocence
from the sentence of destruction pronounced
by their justice against the impious house of
Constantine. Julian, in fact, was greatly in-
debted for his safety to the favor of the Em-
press Eusebia, who, as a relative, had con-
ceived a tender and abiding interest in his
welfare. It was through her influence, prob-
ably, that, as a mitigation of his fate, he was
exiled to Athens. There, amidst the peace-
--18
ful groves of the Academy, and the genial
speculations of philosophy, his relief from the
persecutions of the court must have been as
delightful as his sufferings had been great.
It was there, doubtless, that he became con-
firmed in his detestation of Christianity, of
which he had seen little but the base and cor-
rupting passions excited by its fierce contest
with paganism, aggravated by the arts and
intrigues of servile eunuchs and courtiers, and
he resolved to return to the ancient religion
of Rome under whose influence he had, for
the first time, relished the purer and calmer
enjoyments of life. To his appreciation the
fermentation of the Christian leaven worked
nothing but strife and hate, while the Platonic
philosophy was as peaceful as the olive groves
amidst which it was taught. The blind er-
rors, the stumbling inconsistencies and the
atrocious crimes inevitably attending a revo-
lutionary transition from the pagan to the
Christian form of belief, and the cruel tyranny
of Constantius, had doubtless fixed themselves
in the mind of Julian as the intrinsic faults of
Christianity itself; and it can hardly be won-
C
--19-
dered at, that considering the circumstances
of the times, a noble mind should conceive
the idea of sweeping away these faults at one
blow by the exercise of absolute power, and
of re-establishing the virtues of the ancient
republic in their stead. As little, however,
could Julian understand the vast depths and
extent of human interests involved in the rev..
olution by which he suffered, as can the mar-
iner know of the full force and duration of
the storm in which he is tossed, and by which
he is threatened with destruction. Although
the Christian court of Milan was made dark
and oppressive with the foulest of crimes, and
the philosophic groves of Athens on the other
hand seemed as pure and soothing as the
murmuring Cephissus whose crystal waters
they overshadowed, it did not therefore fol-
low that Christianity was wrong, and pagan-
ism right, and that the latter was the better
fitted of the two for the elevation of the Ro-
man empire and mankind at large. The
hateful guise in which Christianity appeared
might have been due to those very pagan arts
--20mm
which Julian was preparing to restore; but
by which it was corrupted and debased.
· The affairs of so extensive an empire must
have weighed heavily upon Constantius, and
disposed him to desire the services of a col-
league. At the age of twenty-five Julian was
called from Athens, invested with the title of
Cæsar, and sent to the government of theprov-
inces beyond the Alps. On being torn away
from that pagan city which had so sneeringly
rejected St. Paul, to return to a Christian court,
he trembled for his life, his fame, and even
for his virtue; and his sole confidence was
derived from the persuasion that Minerva in-
spired all his actions, and that he was pro-
for that purpose, the goddess had borrowed
from the Sun and Moon. And well may the
Christian reader of the present day ask him-
self whether the corruptions, the interested
worldly motives, the pagan observances that
are ever creeping into his religion, with no
corresponding efforts on his part at reforma-
tion, will not tend to drive men from the bosom
of the church, as Julian was driven, to seek
-21-
solace and happiness from the worship of na
ture, and to prefer a vague admiration for
the material works of God, such as the sun
and moon, and stars and groves, to 4 rever-
ence for the precepts of Christ?
While Julian, as Cæsar, was administering
the affairs of Gaul, the Emperor Constantius
turned his own attention to those of the East, to
wards. Persia, with which the Roman power
had been at war, with various alternations of
success and defeat, for upwards of four hundred
years. The government of Julian became
marked for extraordinary ability, both military
and civil; and he prided himself that while the
first Cæsar had but twice borne the arms of
Rome across the Rhine, he, himself, had
crossed that river in three successful expe-
ditions. In the course of his operations he
established his residence at Paris, the city at
that time being confined to a small island in
the Seine, which communicated with either
bank by means of a wooden bridge. For his
Gaulish soldiers he conceived a strong at-
tachment, admiring their many manly vir-
tues which had not yet felt the taint from the
----22-
luxurious vices that were indulged by the
older populations of the East where he had
been reared.
The character of Julian appears to have
been adorned by every virtue that usually
distinguishes the mere philosopher. Chaste,
temperate, frugal in his habits, industrious,
devoted to justice, he might favorably com-
pare with the most distinguished heroes of
Rome in her best days. He possessed all
the qualities necessary to attach soldiers to
his person, and render them strong adherents
of his fortunes. His numerous successes
against the Franks and Alemanni, won the
confidence of his own troops, but at the same
time awakened the fears and suspicions of the
court of Constantinople. While still in his
winter quarters in Paris, he received peremp-
tory orders from the Emperor, which gave a
severe blow to his pride, as they were well cal-
culated to weaken or wholly destroy his power.
These orders were to send four legions of
Celts, Petulants, Heruli, and Batavians, to:
gether with three hundred of the bravest
youths from each of the remaining bands of
-23-
i
-
his command, for service against the Persians,
-orders alike distasteful to Julian and his
soldiers, and which led to an insurrection,
finally resulting in open, declared civil
war. Julian was forced by his troops, in spite
of all his opposition, affected or real, to ac-
cept the title of Augustus, and nothing re-
mained for him to do but to assume the re-
sponsibilities of the position, and enter upon
the hazards of a war with Constantius for the
Empire. But he solemnly declared, in the
presence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of
Minerva and of all the other deities, that, till
the close of the evening preceding his eleva-
tion, he was utterly ignorant of the designs
of the soldiers. During the slumbers of that
night he said that he had seen in a dream the
genius of the Empire waiting with some im-
patience at his door, pressing for admittance
and reproaching his want of ambition and
spirit. Astonished and perplexed, he ad-
dressed his prayers to the great Jupiter;who
immediately signified, by a clear and mani-
fest omen, that he should submit to the will
.:..
:
)
---24
ven
army
COme
of heaven and the army and become the
leader of a revolt.
Previous to an irrevocable rupture, at-
tempts were made at negotiation, in which
Julian showed himself willing to retain only
such power as he was already possessed of
beyond the Alps; but the only end of all was
a written declaration in which he at last ex-
pressed in strains of the most vehement elo-
quence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred
and of resentment, which had been sup.
pressed and embittered by the dissimulation.
of twenty years. After this message, which
rendered the breach irreparable, Julian, who,
some weeks before, had celebrated the Chris-
tian festiva? of the Epiphany, made a public
declaration that he cornmitted the care of his
safety to the immortal gods, and thus pub-
licly renounced the religion as well as the
friendship of Constantius. This appears to
have been the first open act of Julian against
the Christian religion, in which he had been
baptised and educated.
The same soldiers who rebelled against
Constantius because of his commands for their
--25-
transference from the West to the remote
· East of the Empire, were now ready to fol.
low Julian to the ends of the earth. His meas-
ures were taken with alacrity. Dispatching
columns of his army by various routes, he se-
lected three thousand brave and active vol-
unteers, plunged with them into the recesses
of the Black Forest, which nurse the head
waters of the Danube; embarked at a nayi.
gable point on that river, and, pursuing the
same course that was followed some seven
hundred years afterwards by the first cru-
sade, and after a rapid voyage, arrived in the
vicinity of Constantinople almost before the
enemy could receive any certain intelligence
that he had left the banks of the Rhine. At
this time the retreat of Sapor, King of Per-
sia, had given Constantius an opportunity of
directing his attention to the enemy in his
rear. The army of the East was put in mo-
tion from Hieropolis in Syria, to marchi back
for the suppression of the civil war; but in
the midst of the movement, Constantius was
taken sick of a fever, and died near Tarsus,
in Cilicia, the birthplace of St. Paul. . Pre-
--26_-
vious to his death he is said to have nomi-
nated Julian for his successor, who soon
thereafter entered Constantinople amidst the
acclamations of the people, and assumed the
entire control of the Empire..
The first care of Julian was to make prep-
arations for continuing the war against the
Persians, but while thus engaged, he at the
same time adopted the most strenuous meas:
ures for the restoration of the ancient wor-
ship of the gods. Before referring to these
religious measures, we will first give a brief
account of his military operations. Suflice it
to say, that these were of a character fully to
sustain the great reputation as commander
which he had already won. With an army of
sixty-five thousand veteran troops, he pursued
a successful march of fifteen hundred miles,
overcoming all obstacles presented by walled
towns or armies in the field, until he arrived
under the walls of Ctesiphon, the capital of
Persia, which stood twenty miles south of
Bagdad. But there his good fortune forsook
him. He was forced to begin a disastrous
retreat, chased back from the Tigris as Mark
27-
IN
.
.
.
Anthony and other Roman leaders had been
before him, by the arrows of the Parthian
cavalry. It was his custom, whatever emer-
gencies pressed upon him, to spend some of
the silent hours of night in study and contem-
plation. To a mind agitated with painful
anxiety as his must have been, it is not sur..
prising that during short and interrupted
slumbers, in the midst of a close, harrowing
pursuit by the enemy, the genius of the Em-
pire should once more appear to him, but
covering, this time, with a veil his head and
horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from
the imperial tent. . Starting from his couch,
and stepping forth to refresh his wearied
spirits with the coolness of the midnight air,
he beheld a fiery meteor, which shot athwart
the sky and suddenly vanished. Julian was
convinced that he had seen the menacing
front of the god of war; and the council of
Tuscan Haruspices which he summoned,
unanimously pronounced that he should ab-
stain from action. But military necessity
could receive no law even from the gods of
Rome, and Julian, while bravely conducting
O
.
---28
an attack against the pursuing enemy, fell by.
a wound from an arrow, which penetrated
between the ribs and pierced his liver, from :
which he soon afterward expired, in the
thirty-second year of his age. His remains
were slowly borne to Tarsus, and there en-
tombed in a stately sepulcher, on the banks
of the beautiful Cydnus.
The troops by a tumultuous acclamation
saluted Jovian, a Christian, as his successor,
who, after a disgraceful peace, involving a
loss of territory greater than the Roman Em.
pire had ever before suffered, led back the
remnants of the once proud and victorious
army, to Antioch. The banners of this
army, while the march was still forward to
victory and conquest, bore the insigna of pa-
gan Rome; but during the retreat, the Laba-
rum, or banner of the Cross, was once more
displayed at the head of the legions.
We now return to the measures of Julian
for the suppression of the Christian religion,
an examination of which is the main object
of this article. As soon as he had ascended
the throne at Constantinople, he dedicated a
--29-
TY
domestic chapel to his tutelar deity the Sun;
filled his gardens with the statues and altars
of the gods, and each department of the pal-
ace displayed the appearance of a magnificent
temple. Every morning he saluted the pa-
rent of light with a sacrifice, the blood of
another victim was shed at the moment
when the sun sunk below the horizon; and
the moon, the stars, and the genii of the
night received their respective and seasonable
honors from his indéfatigable devotion. On
solemn festivals, he regularly visited the tem-
ple of the god or goddess to whom the day
was peculiarly consecrated, and endeavored
to excite the religion of the magistrates and
people by the example of his own zeal. In-
stead of maintaining the lofty state of a mon-
arch, distinguished by the splendor of his
purple, and encompassed by the golden
shields of his guards, Julian solicited, with
respectful eagerness, the meanest offices which.
contributed to the worship of the gods.
Amidst the sacred but licentious crowd of
priests, of inferior ministers, and of female
dancers, who were dedicated to the service
---30-
of the temple, it was the business of the Em-
peror to bring the wood, to blow the fire, to
handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and,
thrusting his bloody hands into the bowels of
the expiring animal, to draw forth the heart
and liver, and to read with the consummate
skill of an haruspex,* the imaginary signs of
future events. The wisest of the pagans cen-
sured this extravagant superstition, which af-
fected to despise the restraints of prudence
and decency.
Under the reign of a prince, who prac-
ticed the rigid maxims of economy, the ex-
pense of religious worship consumed a very
large portion of the revenue; a constant sup-
ply of the rarest and most beautiful birdst
was transported from distant climates to
bleed on the altars of the gods; a hundred
oxen were frequently sacrificed by Julian on
one and the same day; and it soon became a
popular jest, that if he should return with
*The Haruspex used at times to have the form of a wreath upon the
palm of his right hand, which, by clutching the liver firmly, he im.
pressed upon it, and then interpreted it as a sign of victory.
tBird sacrifice, probably an Eastern custom.
--3-
conquest from the Persian war, the breed of
horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished.
Yet this expense may appear inconsiderable,
when it is compared with the splendid pres-
ents which were offered either by the hand,
or by order of the Emperor, to all the cele-
brated places of devotion in the Roman
world; or with the sums allotted to repair
and decorate ancient temples, which had suf-
ferred the silent decay of time, or the recent
injuries of Christian rapine and destruction.
Encouraged by the example, the exhorta-
tions, the liberality of their pious sovereign, the
cities and families of the pagans resumed the
practice of their neglected ceremonies. Every
part of the world, exclaims Libanius, the de-
vout friend and mentor of the Emperor, dis-
played the triumphs of religion and the grate-
ful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding vic-
tims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn
train of priests and prophets, without fear
and without danger. · The sound of prayer
and of music was heard on the tops of the
highest mountains; and the same ox afforded
--32-
a sacrifice for the gods, and a supper for
their joyous votaries.*
The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to
embrace the friends of Jupiter as his personal
friends and brethren, and he admired and re-
warded the perseverance of those pagans who
had preferred the favor of the gods to that of
the Emperor Constantius. His genius and
power were unremitting in impossible efforts
to restore a religion no longer suited to the
age, which was destitute of moral precepts,
of theological principles, and ecclesiastical
discipline; which was rapidly hastening to de-
cay and dissolution, and was not susceptible of
any solid or consistent reformation. He strove
to commend his religious ideas by good works,
inculcating the duties of benevolence and hos-
pitality; exhorting the inferior clergy to rec-
ommend the universal practice of those vir-
tues; promising to assist their efforts from
the public treasury, and declaring his resolu-
tion of establishing hospitals in every city,
where the poor should be received without
any invidious distinction of religion or coun-
1
*A good feast is one of the peculiar traits of the religion of Masonry.
-33
E
try. He beheld with envy the wise and lu-
mane regulations of the church; and very
frankly confessed his intention of depriving
the Christians of the applause and the ad-
vantage which they had acquired by the ex-
clusive practice of charity and beneficence.*
. In the religion which he had adopted, piety
and learning were almost synonymous; and a
crowd of poets, of rhetoricians, and of phi:
losophers hastened to the court to supply the
places of Christian priests and bishops. He
esteemed the ties of common initiation as far
more sacred even than those of consanguinity;
he chose his favorites among the sages, who
were deeply skilled in the occult sciences of
magic and divination; and every impostor
who pretended to reveal the secrets of futurity,
*Julian ascribed the success of the Christians in the spread of their
faith, to three causes; to the charitable or hospitable philanthropy of
its professors; to their provident care respecting the sepulture of the
dead, and to their parade and affectation of a holy life, and he enjoins
his fellow pagans to follow thcir examplo in thigʻrespect, that is, as a
means of success, and pot from a spirit of obedience to Christ. It would •
require some nicety, perhaps, to decide how far the lodge may be gov-
erned by the epirit of this recommendation of Julian in ascribing the
honor of its good works to Masonry.
"It is shameful to us," said Julian, "that no beggar should be found
among the Jews, and that the impious Galileans should support not
only their own poor, but ours also; while these last appear destitute
of all assistance from ourselves."
mom 34--
was assured of enjoying the present hour in
honor and affluence. The philosophers and
sophists who thronged to his court and
basked in his favor, hurried their material-
istic, immoral and unspiritual doctrines into
immediate logical execution; and the liberal
gifts in houses, lands, and money bestowed
upon them by the Emperor, were insufficient
to satiate their pride of ostentation and their
rapacious avarice. Though the people grum-
bled at the newly acquired wealth of these
favorites, yet Julian declared that if he could
render each individual richer than Midas, and
every city greater than Babylon, he should
not esteem himself the benefactor of mankind
unless at the same time he could reclaim his
subjects from their infamous revolt against .
the immortal gods. The retroversion of
a Christian to the pagan worship, was, in his
eyes, an eligible qualification for office, or a
good cause of exemption from the penalties
of crime. He applied himself diligently to
corrupt the religion of his troops; and the .
natural temper of soldiers, whose duty it is to
obey, rendered this conquest as easy as it was
-35-
important. The rude and martial legions of
Gaul, readily adapted themselves to the re.
ligious notions as well as to the fortunes of
their victorious leader; and even before the
death of Constantius, he had the satisfaction
of announcing to his friends, that these legions
assisted with fervent devotion and voracious
appetite, at the sacrifice which he repeatedly
offered in camp of whole hecatombs of fat
oxen.
The armies of the East, which had been
trained under the standard of the Cross,
and of Constantius, required a more artful
and expensive mode of persuasion. On the
days of solemn and public festivals, the Em-
peror received the homage, and rewarded the
merit of the troops. His throne of state was
encircled with the military ensigns of Rome
and the Republic; the holy name of Christ
was erased from the Labarum; and the sym-
bols of war, of majesty, and of Pagan super.
stition, were so dexterously blended, that the
faithful subject incurred the guilt of idolatry,
when he respectfully saluted the person or
image of his sovereign. The soldiers passed
-36
II
successively in review; and each of them, be.
fore he received a liberal donative from the
hand of Julian, proportioned to his rank and
services, was required to cast a few grains of
incense into the flame which burned upon the
altar. Some Christian professors might re-
sist; and others might repent; but the far
greater number allured by the prospect of
gold, and awed by the presence of the Em.
peror, contracted the criminal engagement;
and their future perseverance in the worship
of the gods was enforced by every considera-
tion of duty and of interest. By the frequent
repetition of these arts, and at the expense of
sums which would have purchased the ser-
vice of half the nations of Scythia, Julian
gradually acquired for his troops the imag-
inary protection of the gods, and for himself
the firm and effectual support of the Roman
legions. It is indeed more than probable,
that the restoration and encouragement of
paganism revealed a multitude of pretended
Christians, who, from motives of temporal
advantage, had acquiesced in the religion of
the former reign; and who afterward re-
37-
VV
turned, with the same flexibility of conscience,
to the faith which was professed by the suc-
ceeding Emperors.
While the devout monarch incessantly la-
bored to restore and propagate the religion
of his ancestors, he embraced the extraordi
nary design of rebuilding the temple of Je.
rusalem. In a public epistle to the nation or
community of Jews dispersed through the
provinces, he pities their misfortunes, con-
demns their oppressors, praises their con-
stancy, declares himself their gracious pro-
tector; and expresses a pious hope, that after
his return from the Persian war, he may be
permitted to pay his grateful vows to the
Almighty in His holy city of Jerusalem. The
blind superstition and abject slavery of these
unfortunate exiles, must excite the contempt
of a philosophic Emperor; but they deserved
the friendship of Julian by their implacable
hatred to the Christian name. The restora-
tion of the Jewish temple was secretly con-
nected with the ruin of the Christian church.
At the call of their great deliverer, the Jews
from all the provinces of the empire, assem-
-38-
1
bled on the holy mountains of their fathers;
and their insolent triumph alarmed and ex.
asperated the Christian inhabitants of Jerusa-
lem. The desire of rebuilding the temple
has, in every age, been the ruling passion of
the children of Israel. In this propitious mo-
ment the men forgot their avarice, and the
women their delicacy; spades and pick axes
of silver were provided by the vanity of the
rich, and the rubbish was transported in man-
tles of silk and purple. Every purse was
opened in liberal contributions, every man
claimed a share in the pious labor; and the
commands of a great monarch were executed
by the enthusiasm of a whole people. But
the Christians entertained a natural and pious
expectation that, in the memorable contest,
the honor of religion would be vindicated by
some signal miracle; and indeed, an earth.
quake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption,
which overturned and scattered the new
foundations of the temple, are attested by co-
temporary and respectable evidence. While
the work was being urged forward with
vigor and diligence, horrible balls of fire
-39-
breaking out near the foundations, with fre-
quent and reiterated attacks, rendered the
place inaccessible from time to time to the
scorched and blasted workmen; and the vic-
torious 'element continuing in this manner,
drove them to a distance, and the undertak-
ing was abandoned.
Though heading in person a religious sect,
a pagan one, against the light of the Christian
doctrine, yet the Emperor still pretended, as
all liberalists do, a great regard for religious
toleration. To the Christians he gave the
contemptuous name of Galileans; sought to
render their priests despicable; prohibited
Christians from teaching grammar and rhet-
oric, and declared that the Galileans, whom
he described as a sect of fanatics contempti.
ble to men and odious to the gods, had
brought the empire to the brink of destruc-
tion; and he insinuated in a public edict that
a frantic patient might sometimes be cured
by salutary violence. Such was the tolera-
tion of a pagan religion toward the religion of
Christ!
The zealous Emperor sought to confine the
---40
mo
ver
education of youth to the teachings of pagans,
and to deprive the Christians of the advan-
tages of wealth, knowledge and power. His
policy operated to excluding them from
offices of trust and profit; and a great part of
the Christians already in office were gradu-
ally removed from their employment in the
state, and the provinces, leaving the powers of
the government in the hands of pagans.* To
the subordinate agents of the state the wishes
of the Emperor served as a law, and through
their management, authority operated in many
cases with all the severity of a deliberate per-
secution. The most effectual instrument of
oppression with which they were armed, was
the law that obliged the Christians to make
full and ample satisfaction for the pagan tem-
ples which they had destroyed under the pre-
ceding reign. As an illustration of the mar.
ner in which this law was made to operate,
the magistrates required the full value of a
temple which had been destroyed by the zeal
*The Lodge is accused of being at work at a similar policy at the
present time in the United States, securing the chief places of profit to
its members, its followers, and the acquiescent. The reader may easily
decide on the truth of the accusation from his own observation.
-41-
SCO
of Mark, Bishop of Arethusa; but as they
were satisfied of his poverty, they desired only
to bend his inflexible spirit to the promise of
the slightest compensation. They appre-
hended the aged prelate, they inhumanly
scourged him, they tore his beard; and, his nak-
ed body, annointed with honey, was suspended
in a net, between heaven and earth, and ex-
posed to the stings of insects, and the rays of
a Syrian sun. From this lofty position Mark
still persisted to glory in his crime, and to in-
sult the impotent rage of his persecutors. He
was at length rescued from their hands, and
dismissed to enjoy the honors of his divine
triumph. The Arians celebrated the virtue
of their pious confessor; the Catholics am-
bitiously claimed his alliance; and the pagans,
who might be susceptible of shame and re-
morse, were deterred from the repetition of
such unavailing cruelty. Julian spared his
life; but if the Bishop of Arethusa had saved
the infancy of Julian, posterity will condemn
the ingratitude, instead of praising the clem-
ency of the Emperor.
In the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Cæsarea,
IT
-42-
Heliopolis, etc., the pagans abused, without
prudence or remorse, the moment of their
prosperity. The unhappy objects of their
cruelty were released from torture only by
death; their mangled bodies were drawn
through the streets and were pierced (such
was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks,
and the distaffs of enraged women; and the
entrails of christian priests and virgins, after
they had been tasted by those bloody fanatics,
were mixed with barley, and contemptuously
thrown to the unclean animals of the city.
In Egypt, the great champion of trinitari-
anism, Athanasius, Arch Bishop of Alexan-
dria, excited the especial hatred of the Em-
peror. Writing to the governor of Egypt
Julian said; “Though you neglect to write me
on any other subject, at least it is your duty
to inform me of your conduct towards Athan-
asius, the enemy of the gods. My intentions
have long since been communicated to you,
I swear by the great Serapis, that unless,
on the calender of December, Athanasius
has departed from Alexandria, nay, from
Egypt, the officers of your government shall
-43
C
pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold.
You know my temper. I am slow to con-
demn, but I am still slower to forgive.”.
This epistle was enforced by a short post-
script, written by the Emperor's own hand:
“The contempt that is shown for all the gods
fills me with grief and indignation. There is
nothing that I should see, nothing that I should
hear, with more pleasure, than the expulsion
of Athanasius from all Egypt. The abomina-
ble wretch! Under my reign the baptism of
several Grecian ladies of the highest rank has
been the effect of his persecution.” The
death of Athanasius was not expressly com-
manded; but the governor of Egypt under-
stood that it was safer for him to exceed than
to neglect the orders of an irritated master.
The Archbishop prudently retired to the
monasteries of the desert; eluded, with his
usual dexterity, the snares of the enemy; and
lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince,
who, in words of formidable import, had de-
clared his wish that the whole venom of the
Galilean school was contained in the single
person of Athanasius.
We liave thus given evidence enough to
44-
show the artful system by which Julian, un-
der the pretence of toleration sought to ob-
tain the effects, without incurring the guilt,
or reproach of persecution. And is it to be
wondered at that it finally came to be be-
lieved by the Christians, that if he should re-
turn victorious from the Persian war, the am-
phitheatres would stream with the blood of
hermits and bishops, and that they who still
persevered in the profession of the faith, would
be deprived of the common benefits of nature
and society; or, as those worshipers of mys-
ticism of the present day, the Freemasons ex-
press it—they would be left severely alone,
under the excommunication of the lodge?
From this view of the practical manner in
which the apostacy of Julian exhibited itself,
we naturally turn to a more critical examina-
tion of the causes from which that apostacy
sprung; and these we may naturally expect
to find in the earlier incidents of his life. We
discover that until the age of twenty, his ed.
ucation was rather that of a Christian saint
than of a pagan hero. He was not only bap-
tised, but he prayed, fasted, distributed alms
-45-
to the poor, made religion a study, and pub-
licly read the Holy Scriptures in the church
of Nicomedia. But on the other hand, the
education of his infancy, during the earliest
and most impressible moments of his life, was
entrusted to Eusebius, a distant relative, who
was a follower of Arius, and whose religious
creed, therefore, would naturally lead, as the
first step, toward denying the divinity of
Christ. The term of Galilean, which Julian
came to bestow in contempt upon the Saviour
of mankind, may be traced as a logical, and
perhaps inevitable, deduction from the teach-
ings of an Arian bishop. But this, though a
potent cause of apostacy from the Christian
faith, was still farther strengthened and con-
firmed by another event in the life of Julian,
which of itself, was sufficient to occasion the
strange aberrations from Christianity and
from human reason which his extraordinary
career disclosed. This event was the initia-
tion of Julian into the secret societies, the
principle Masonic lodges of the day.
The devout and fearless curiosity of the
young prince, rendered him an easy prey to
--46
the designing manipulators of the mystic
arts; and Julian, at the age of twenty years,
was solemnly initiated by them into the se-
cret mysteries of Ephesus,* and subsequently
into those of Eleusis during his philosophical
studies at Athens. A corrupt and unnatural
alliance of philosophy and superstition thus
became established in the mind of Julian as
the leading trait of his character. So ardent,
was the zeal of the initiated that he afterwards
invited the High Priest of Eleusis to the
court of Gaul, for the sole purpose of con.
summating by mystic rites and sacrifices the
great work of his sanctification.
These ceremonies were performed in the
depths of caves, in the silence of the night;
and the mysteries were preserved by the ini-
tiated as an inviolable secret, deeply im-
*It is doubtless to these mysteries that St. Paul refers in his epistle
to the Ephesians chap. V., verses 11 and 12, wherein he cautions Cbris-
tians to have no feilowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things
which are done of them in secret." This whole chapter seems to be in-
spired with a spirit of opposition to the teachings of the lodge, which
admits idolaters and rejects Christian women,
The Dictator, Sylla, was initiated into the greater mysteries of Eph-
esus, and the epitaph upon his monument, written by his own hand,
expresses the spirit of secret association. It read as follows: "No
friend ever did me so much good, or enemy so much harm, but I repaid
him with interest."
-47-
om-
pressed upon the mind by the artful effect of
sudden transitions from horrid sights and
sounds, terrifying to the senses and the im-
agination of the aspirant, to visions of com-
fort, peace and knowledge, streaming upon
him in a blaze of celestial light. In the
caverns of Ephesus and Eleusis, the mind of
Julian was penetrated with sincere, deep, and
unalterable enthusiasm; though he might
sometimes exhibit the vicissitudes of pious
fraud and hypocrisy. .
From that moment he consecrated his life
to the service of the gods; and whatever
duties of state night press upon him, a
stated portion of the hours of the night was
invariably reserved for the exercise of private
devotion. The temperance which adorned
the severe manners of the soldier and philos-
opher, was connected with some strict and
frivolous rules of religious abstinence; and it
or Isis, that Julian, on particular days de-
nied hiniself the use of some particular food
which might have been offensive to his tu-
telar deities. By these voluntary fasts he
-48%
prepared his senses and his understanding for
the frequent and familiar visits with which
he was honored by the celestial powers.
Notwithstanding the modest silence of
Julian himself, we may learn from his faithful
friend, the orator Libanius, that he lived in a
perpetual intercourse with the gods and god-
desses; that they descended upon earth to
enjoy the conversation of their favorite hero;
that they gently interrupted his slumbers, by
touching his hand or hair,; that they warned
him of every impending danger, and con-
ducted him, by their infallible wisdom, in
every action of his life; and that he had ac-
quired such an intimate knowledge of his
heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish the
voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and
the form of Apollo from the figure of Heru-'
.cles.
The important secret of the apostacy of
Julian was entrusted to the fidelity of the in-
itiated, with whom he was united by the sa-
cred ties of friendship and religion. The
pleasing rumor was cautiously circulated
among the adherents of the ancient worship;
1
1
--49
and his future greatness became the object of
the hopes and prayers, and the predictions of
the pagans, in every province of the Empire.
From the zeal and virtues of their royal
proselyte, they fondly expected the cure of
every evil, and the restoration of every bless
ing; and instead of disapproving of the ar-
dor of their pious wishes, Julian ingenuously
confessed, that he was ambitious to attain a
situation, in which he might be useful to his
country, and to his religion. But so long as
Constantius lived, the arts of magic and div-
ination were strictly prohibited, which com-
pelled Julian to the observance of some cau-
tion in the indulgence of his zeal for the pagan
rites. His dissimulation lasted above ten years,
from his secret initiation at Ephesus, to the
beginning of the civil war; when he declared
himself at once the implacable enemy of
Christ and Constantius. The beginning, there-
fore, of his membership with secret societies,
may be regarded as the end of his career as
a Christian, and the commencement of that
of apostate, conspirator and rebel against the
--50-
state, his constant aim during all, being mili-
tary glory and absolute power.
Not long after the death of Julian, renewed
efforts were made, by the Emperor Valen-
tinian, to suppress the profession of secret
arts. That Christian sovereign, while toler-
ating all creeds, expressly prohibited those
mystic and criminal practices which abused
the name of religion for the dark purposes of
vice and disorder.. But such was the state of
society, containing still so much of the pagan
element, that the Emperor found himself
forced to admit a compromise in favor of the
works of darkness; for though the arts of
magic were forbidden by the laws, and
cruelly punished, yet he yielded to the peti-
tion of one of his proconsuls, who represented
that the life of the Greeks would become
dreary and comfortless, if they were deprived
of the invaluable blessing of the Eleusinian
mysteries.
On passing now from ancient days to the
affairs of our own modern times, the candid
observer who may have given his attention
to the practice of those secret mysteries
51-
aino
re
1
among us which are called by the generic
name of Masonry, can hardly fail to perceive
the same tendency in them towards apostacy
from Christ, that marked the career of the
apostate Julian. Follow up the measures of
Julian to suppress Christianity, step by step,
and it will be seen that these measures have
their exact counterpart in the proceedings of
the Lodge. His great yet perfidious profes-
sions of a wise liberality towards all men, com-
passionately embracing and tolerating all
their beliefs, while studiously persecuting
Christians; his artful mingling of rewards
to his soldiers with the incense offered by
them to the insigna of pagan Rome; his be-
stowal of office and impunity for crime
upon converts from Christ to paganism; his
great admiration for Judaism and the temple
of Solomon; his attempts to re-establish a re-
ligion of empty show, form, ceremonial and
symbolism instead of accepting one of moral
and spiritual precept which can alone elevate
and dignify men; his pretentious efforts at
justice, virtue and truth by the sole aid of
imaginary gods and goddesses; his spiritual-
Omn
istic communication with these gods and god.
desses; his heartless ingratitude towards the
Bishop of Arethusa; his partiality shown to
wards the members of secret societies over
other men; his especial hatred of such shin-
ing Christian characters as Athanasius; his
offering the refreshment of fat oxen instead
of the sacrament of the Lord's supper as an
incentive to religious devotion; his long dis-
simulation, plotting all the time the overthrow
of the church and the state—in these, and in
other respects, his hostility to Christianity
bears a striking resemblance to the traits and
tendencies which are exhibited by the princi-
pal secret mystic associations of the present
day.
It behooves us therefore, the members of a
free state, upon whom devolves the respon-
sibility of maintaining our religious and civil
rights, to inquire into this unchristian power
which is in such active operation among us,
and try to discover what remedies may be
adopted to prevent the calamities with which
it threatens us; for of all the calamities that
may befall a state, there is none greater than
-53-
that of having its Christian faith insidiously
undermined, and the purity of that religion
corrupted and debased. Where ministers of
the gospel themselves have been deluded by
favors and specious pretexts into the practice
of Masonic arts, and the trivial, delusive mys.
ticism of the lodge is permitted to mingle as
a homogeneous element in the solemn, serious,
all-important worship of Christ, our religion
cannot possibly escape corruption of the most
insidious and dangerous kind.
At the very best Masonry is but a compro,
mise between paganism and Christianity; it
is a futile attempt to reconcile the two, if not
indeed a studied device to destroy the latter;
to confound moral sentiment, and subvert
alike the faith and conscience of the people
and the freedom of the state. The altars of
Masonry and those of Christianity are antag.
onistic, and one or the other must be de-
stroyed; for a free nation cannot so design-
edly blend the fruits of good and evil as to
offer its oblations upon both altars and still
live.
The care manifested by Julian to transfer
-54-
CL
the education of youth from Christian to pa-
gan teachers, is virtually practiced by the
lodge; for, whoever may be the teachers of
our boys, Masons or Christians, the idea is
inculcated, even at our colleges, that the
subtle, covert and ungodly arts of secret as-
sociation are moral and honorable; and with
only too many of our young men the per-
verting, demoralizing sophistries of Masonry
are permitted to give the finishing touch to
whatever salutary work may have been be-
gun by our district and Sabbath schools. It
is in vain that we pay taxes for the support
of Christian education, so long as our youth
at the age of twenty-one, actuated by mo-
tives of success in business or politics, are in-
duced to seek graduation from the lodge.
The simple sanctions and the sterling virtues
of Christianity can never be relished by those
who are taught to admire the costly temples,
the lofty priesthood, the pretentious altars,
the elocutionary prayers, the convivial hymns,
the impressive funeral ceremonies, the solemn
cavernous initiations into sublime and ineffa.
-55-
MTD
i
ble degrees of perfection,* the liturgies, the
dedications, the libations, the blazing insigna,
the pompous ceremonial, the seductive sym-
bolism, allegory and mystery, which embody
the rites, conceal the craft, and give power
to the religion of Masonry; and so long as
this religion exists and prospers, it will ever
offer incentives to some ambitious, imperial
Julian to make it the prevailing religion of the
army and of the land, with motives of per-
sonal power and aggrandizement to the detri-
ment of the state.
It will have been observed that, in the
dealing of the Emperor Valentinian with the
worshipers of black arts, he found that some
of the Greeks, great lovers of sophistry and
I
*In the Masonic degree or Lodge of Perfection, so called, as given by
Webb, an imitation of the Lord's supper occurs which au ardent fol-
lower of Christ might regard as a cold, studied blasphemy. It reads
88 follows: "The Most Perfect then presents the candidate with the
bread and wine saying, 'Eat of this bread with me and drink of the
same cup, that we may learn thereby to succor each other in time of
need by a mutual love, and participation of what we possess.' He
then presents to him a gold ring, saying, 'Receive this ring, and let it
tracted with virtue and the virtuous.'"
Think of the virtuous characters with which the candidate for Ma-
sonic bonors allies himself in the lod gel
In some of the earlier Masonic proceedings in New England this Mr.
Webb's name occurs as follows; “Most excellent Thomas E. Webb,
Esq., of Bostou, (Mass. ) GENERAL GRAND KING."
--56%
dvd-
vague paralogism, had become so addicted to
secret mysteries that they could not dispense
with them, and pleaded for their preserva-
tion as a necessity to their comfort. And this
same question now presents itself to the
American people. Have we become so habit-
uated to the practice of secret, mystic arts,
so accustomed to the indirections and double
dealings of the lodge, that we cannot dispense
with them? Have we already become so
paganized, such dwellers in darkness, that
our deeds will not bear Christian light?
Have we, pretended Christians, remained so
long, like the poor, pagan Greeks, in the cav-
ernous shades of Ephesus and Eleusis, that
we have lost the use of our eyes, and fancy
that the Christian world have also lost theirs?
Whom are we to deceive and gain ad-
vantage over by the practice of Masonic
subtleties, unless it is over our fellow citizens,
who, politically, and in a Christian sense, we
admit to be free and equal with ourselves?
If it is pretended that Masonry is not prac-
ticed as a means of gaining advantage over
our fellow men, of obtaining something which
-57
is not held in common, but simply as a relig.
ious help to raise oneself through self-sacrifice
to Heaven, the pretention is as vain as was
the devotion of Julian to the pagan altars of
the immortal gods; for, as an ethical princi-
ple, serving to lead to a moral and spiritual
life, Masonry, like the paganism of Rome, is
below even our contempt. All the good will
to men, all the works of beneficence to which
it can lay claim, are but artful mockeries,
base copies, at best, for a selfish purpose, of
the virtues inculcated by the higher and
nobler teachings of our Saviour and His
Church.
From the crucifixion of our Lord by Phar-
isaical hands, down to the day of the Em-
peror Julian, a period of some three centuries,
there was, on an average, a persecution
against the Church every thirty years. Pa-
gan emperors sought to suppress the Chris-
tian religion by force, and the horrid cruel-
ties inflicted by them upon Christian martyrs,
are, perhaps, without a parallel in barbarous
nations. But by the time that Julian came
to the throne, the Church had grown so
I
-58-
strong that, in order to contend against it,
he found himself obliged to resort to the
crafty manipulations which are practiced by
secret societies. The serpent had crawled
around the nuptial bed of Paradise; it had
sought, through the cunning of Herod to
strangle Christianity in its cradle; it strove
through Jesuitism to crush within its folds the
Reformation; through the institution of Ma-
sonry, established in London in 1717, it in-
sidiously suppressed the Cromwellian spirit
of Puritanism by sophisticating and demoral.
ising that class of youth which had formed
the Ironsides, and in 1733 it slyly followed
the Puritan church into the forests of the
new world. And what shall we, Christian
and Republican Americans, descendants of
the Puritans, now do? Shall we adopt the
principles of the wily Jesuit, Lafiteau, who
declared that “The initiation into mysteries
is a school of prophecy which contains within
itself the entire spiritual essence of religion,
of which those who are not initiated are only
the exterior”? Shall we abandon the ways
that the fathers trod, and return to snake-
-59-
worship? Shall we turn again to symbols,
and signs, and mystic subtleties, and double
meanings-in a word, to priest-craft, and
make of religion a policy, a stratagem, a mere
device by which the honest and confiding are
misled by the crafty and unscrupulous?
In our historical progress in New England
the path before us still remains plain; it has
been made straight in the wilderness by our
Puritanical fathers, and we must decide
whether we shall still follow it or not. The
new path that is now opened up to us by Ma-
sonry, is the bright, silvery, yet slimy trail
of the serpent that leads off into those very
mazes of human cunning which our fathers
abhorred, and which they braved every power
of Nature rather than endure, preferring to
suffer at the hands of a severe God rather
than fall a prey to the merciless craft and
subtlety of man.
But perhaps the eyes of some of us have
already become so fascinated and blinded by
snake-worship that we can no longer discern
the true path--like Pilate, we may not know
what the truth is. Let us then suppose a
-60-
case: it is this:-If the doors of all our Chris-
tian churches were to be barred and closed
forever, and our young men shut out, never
to enter them again, well might we fear that
the consequences to society would be of the
most deplorable kind. Of this fact, few would
doubt, even among the learned of the pagan
Japanese themselves, our ambitious imitators.
But on the other hand, if the doors of the se-
cret lodge were to be shut up, to be entered
by our youth nevermore, leaving the land as
it was during the first hundred years of Puri.
tanism in America, no harm could possibly
follow, and the world would experience as
little inconvenience from the loss, as it did
from the sudden stop to the career of Julian
the apostate. The great current of human
interests would flow on at a higher level, and
the lodge, sunk in oblivion, would remain un-
regretted as well as forgotten. Masonry,
the prolific mother of many secret rings, the
Credit Mobilier Ring among the rest, would
go out of vogue, and its tricks and subtleties,
though very ancient, would cease to be hon-
61
orable, or to command the respect even of
the most servile press.
Once during the course of our republican
existence—some forty years ago-have the
first born of our republican sires turned
against the artful approaches of Masonry
with a just and manly indignation. They
. sought to destroy a Jesuitical institution of
foreign origin so inimical to their religion, to
sound morals and to free government. They
drove this “empire within an empire," from the
free states; but when its retreating forces
reached the Potomac, or the line separating
slavery from liberty, there the reformation
movement stopped. Slavery had need of
Masonry to resist the growing power of free-
dom; and there, in the slave states, Masonry
found shelter and support. The slave could
partake of the Lord's supper with or after
his master, but never could he lay his hand
upon the horns of the benevolent(?) altars of
Masonry!—for Masonry was a standing con-
spiracy, the secrets of which the slave was
never to learn lest he should turn the lesson
-62-
against his oppressors! Thus Masonry be-
came an ally of the slave power.
It was by and through the means of Ma-
sonry that the rebellion was got up. Slavery
was the cause, and Masonry the means. The
forces of slavery, it is true, have been over-
thrown and destroyed, but those of its ally
still stand, in an unbroken phalanx, stronger
and more formidable than ever; and not until
that phalanx is defeated is the rebellion en-
tirely suppressed. The war has been con-
ducted in accordance with its principles, and
the war, therefore, has added to its strength.
An organized body of men ever on the
watch, unsuspected by their fellow citizens,
to make even war or whatever other calamity
subservient to their interests, and operating
in secret, with the pretended purpose only of
furthering the objects of benevolence and
morality, are a formidable instrument for
stealing the power from the many and trans-
ferring it to the few, a danger against which
republics ought most carefully to guard.
It will have been observed that one of the
measures of the Emperor Julian for returning
.
-63-
his subjects to the reign of paganism, was the
expedient of filling the offices of the empire
with his own pagan adherents. The policy
of the lodge is similar. Already are the
offices of the country largely at its disposal.
It has succeeded to the patronage of the slave-
power, which, in the name of democracy, but
with the aims of absolutism, was enabled to
hold possession of the government for many
years after slave measures had become odious
to the mass of the people. Few can have
office at the present day without being either
secret society men, or showing a deference to
the lodge, which is incompatible with their free-
dom, manliness, or duty to their constitu-
ents.* The press, the bar, the bench, and
even the pulpit are all largely brought under
the baleful influence of the lodge; and while
the press often makes merry at the expense of
religion, it seldom ventures to treat the
glaring impostures of Masonry otherwise
than with evidences of grave and serious re:
spect.
1
*A country in which the offices of honor and profit are at the disposal
of the Masonic lodge, cannot fail to be the residence of servility and
doceit.
Τ Η
Ε
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES.
Our records inform us, that the
usages and customs of Masons have
ever corresponded with those of the
Egyptian philosophers, to which
they bear a near affinity. Unwilling
to expose their mysteries to the vul.
gar eyes, they concealed their par-
ticular tenets and principles of polity
under hieroglyphical figures and
expressed their notions of govern-
ment by signs and symbols, which
they communicated to their Magi
alone, who were bound by oath not
to reveal them.* * * Masonry, how-
ever, is not only the most ancient,
but the most moral institution that
ever subsisted.
WEBB'S FREEMASON'S MONITOR.
The city of Eleusis, from which the principal
mysteries of ancient times took their name,
was doubtless older than Athens itself, and
probably the first place in Greece where the
art of agriculture was practiced. It was sit-
---66-
uated some ten or twelve miles to the North-
west of Athens, towards the isthmus of Cor-
inth, and not far from the city of that name.
It stood upon a beautiful site, overlooking the
Bay of Salamis, in the midst of the fer-
tile plains of Thria, which from early times
were put to the cultivation of barley.
Ancient fable relates that Proserpine,
daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, while gathering
flowers, was carried away by Pluto to the
infernal regions; that her mother, in seeking
for her, came to Eleusis, and that at length
Jupiter sent Mercury to the world below to
bring the lost child back. The mother re-
ceived her child with unbounded joy; but
could not have her with her always, inasmuch
as during her absence in Hades, she had par-
taken of food, and was therefore compelled
to pass a third of the year (some say half a
year) with Pluto, god of the infernal abodes.*
i
*Jove, some amends for Ceres' 1088 to make,
Yet unwilling Pluto should the joy partake,
Gives them of Proserpine an equal share,
Who, claimed by both, with both divides the year;
The goddess now in either empire sways,
Six moons in hell, and six with Cerce stays.
MAYNWARING'S OVID.
--67-
The plain meaning of this simple myth
would seem to be that the Proserpine who is
carried off to the lower world, is the seed
corn, daughter of the sun and the earth, which
remains concealed in the ground during a
part of the year; and the Proserpine who is
returned to her mother by the aid of Jove, is
the corn that rises from the ground and
nourishes men and animals. Ale
Later writers referred the disappearance
and return of Proserpine to the burial of the
body of man and its ultimate resurrection;
and it is thought that the original mysteries
themselves dimly shadowed out that idea;
but this, however, may well be doubted,
since St. Paul was laughed at by the Athen
ians for announcing the resurrection of the
body.* .
It is simply a fact, that the process of veg.
etation, the decay of the old seed and the
evolution therefrom of the new, is a mystery
which we all readily perceive, but which none
.
*It is more probable that the worshipers of the Eleusinian mysterios
gradually took the idea of the resurrection from the early Christians
and Jews, rather than from the original institution of the mysteries; for
such is the practice of Masonry at the present day; it is to adapt the
Scriptures to the lodge, rather than the lodge to the Scriptures.
-68-
of us can comprehend; and it was upon this
mystery, which under Christian light has but
very minor significance, that the most stu-
pendous system of pagan rites and cere-
monies of antiquity was established. In
the exceedingly fertile imagination of the
Greeks, aided by the arts of interested dema-
gogues, this mystery took root and grew;
and the exuberance of its growth is hardly
less mysterous than is the magnificence of any
plant when compared with the smallness of
the seed from which it springs.
When the time for initiation into the Eleu.
sinian mysteries arrived, the candidates were
brought into the temple; and in order that
the greater reverence and terror might be
inspired, the ceremony was performed in the
night. Wonderful things took place upon
this occasion. Visions were seen and voices
heard of an extraordinary kind. A sudden
splendor dispelled the darkness of the place,
and disappearing immediately, added new
horror to the gloom. Apparations, claps of
thunder, earthquakes, blows from unseen
hands, heightened the terror and amazement;
-60
whilst the person to be admitted, over-
whelmed with dread, and sweating through
fear, heard trembling, the mysterious volumes
read to him, if in such a condition he was
capable of hearing at all. These nocturnal
rites gave rise to many disorders, which the
severe laws of silence imposed upon the ini-
tiated, prevented from coming to the light,
as St. Gregory Nazianzen observes.
The chief priest or mystagogue was a
member of a pretended sacred family which
flourished at Athens, and derived its descent
from Eumolpus, a shepherd, and favorite of
Ceres. The grand requisites of this priest
were a full and sonorus voice, solemnity of de-
portment, magnificence and striet decorum.*
He was enjoined to observe celibacy, and he
wore a stole, or long garment, and on his
head a wreath of myrtle.
The secrecy in which the mysteries were
enveloped served to enhance the idea of their
importance, and to increase the desire of par-
T
*Traits of Masonry are here distinguished, which is noted for its ex-
ceeding sauctimoniousness, round mouthed elocution, mysterions
gravity of deportment, etc, The solemnity of the Masonic funeral seems
to be greatly indebted to more elocutionary effect.
-70%
W
ticipation. It was so strict that no person
was allowed even to name the mystagogue
by whom he had been initiated, whilst public
abhorrence and detestation awaited the bab-
bler, and the law decreed that he should die.
It is known that during the initiation the
scene suddenly changed from deep gloom to
one of brilliant and agreeable character. The
vestibules of the temple were opened, the cur-
tains withdrawn, and the hidden things dis-
played. They were introduced by the mys-
tagogue or chief priest and his assistants,
who revealed the mysteries. The splendor
of illumination, the glory of the temple and
of the images, and the singing and dancing
which accontpanied the exhibition, all con-
tributed to soothe the mind after its recent
agitation, and to render the wondering de-
votee tranquil and satisfied.
The festival of Ceres and Proserpine, the
most celebrated of profane antiquity, was of
nine days continuance; both sexes and all
ages seem to have participated; and a new
and distinct act was performed on each day.*
ned.
"On the night of the fifth day, people ran about with torches. The fos-
---]Ime
A procession consisting of thirty thousand
persons, or more, passed from Athens along
the sacred way to Eleusis. The whole way
resounded with the sound of trumpets,
clarions, and other musical instruments, min-
gled with the beating of kettles, and cries of
Hail Ceres ! from the moving throng. Hymns
were sung in honor of the goddesses Ceres
and Proserpine, accompanied with dancing
and other extraordinary marks of rejoicing.
The temple of Eleusis where this procession
ended was large enough to contain the whole
multitude. If any of the women of the pro-
cession rode upon chariots, they were obliged
to pay a fine of six thousand drachmas each.*
These mysteries were held in little repute
by some of the more distinguished Greeks;
tival of Ceres and Proserpine was celebrated at Rome during the month
of April, and continued eight days. According to Tacitus, when Nero
caused Christians to be burnt to serve as nocturnal lights, he celebrated
a Circensian game, in which he appeared as charioteer. Whether this
was one of the Circensian games in honor of Ceres, which a servile sen-
ate subsequently decreed should be solemnized by an additional puma
ber of chariot races, we are left to conjecture. By the same decree of
the senate the month of April was called Neronius.
*Brigham Young, the chief mystagogue of the Mormon mysteries, at
one period compelled the women who crossed the prairies in order to
join his church, to drag cach a hand-cart, the whole distance, twelve
hundred miles. Christianity bumbles its followers, but it never des :
grades them.
-72-
though the initiations were claimed to be an
engagement to lead a more regular and vir-
tuous life; and the initiated were respected in
the infernal regions, and had precedence in the
assemblies of the blessed, whilst the unhallowed
were left in utter darkness, wallowing in mire,
filling leaky vessels, &c. Diogenes derided
these mysteries. Socrates would not be ini-
tiated into them, and was persecuted to the
death.* The disgrace of Alcibiades proceeded
from the same cause; Diagoras the Melian was
proscribed and had a reward set upon his
head; it nearly cost Æschylus his life for
speaking too freely of them in one of his
tragedies; and even Pausanius himself, from
whom some of the facts here given are orig.
inally derived, stops short, and declares that
he cannot proceed, because of having been
forbidden by a dream or vision.
Such is but a faint general outline of a sys-
tem of pagan worship which during the first
en
*The reader here will recognize one of the most prominent features
and characteristic traits of Masonry, viz., the persecution of those who
oppose its power, or who presume to pursue a course independent of
its oracles or its influence. In this respect the modern revival of the
ancient mysteries bas omitted nothing of their ancient venom. A grov-
eling superstition is not capable of a generous sentiment.
-73-
four centuries after Christ, became the rally-
ing point of the pagan forces against the
spread of the Christian religion. During the
first two centuries it was the fashion among
the upper classes of Rome to repair to Athens
for the study of philosophy and initiation into
the mysteries of Eleusis.* The city became
very populous; and while its religion was the
chief support of paganism in its decline, it
was also the sole bond of nationality among
the Greeks. But at length the extinction of
paganism under the greater light of Chris-
tianity, the disastrous irruption of the Goths
in 396, and the extinction of maritime com-
merce which followed, completed the ruin of
the city once deemed so holy, and nothing
remains of it now but a small village of a
hundred families, called Lepsina, which is
built partly upon the foundations of the an-
*This was during the corruptest period of Roman society. A governor
of one of our New England states recently became initiated into the
third degree of the mysteries of Masonry, while a candidate for re-elec-
tion. He thus doubtiess prepared bimself “to express his notions of
government by signs and symbols,"aud to conceal from “vulgar eyes"
his,'principles of polity under hieroglyphical figures." A republican
government which charters a "Masonic Hall Association" at the capital
of the country, could do no less than reward such distinguished
"services,” which it has lately done by elevating the governor to a high
foreign mission
–74-
cient temple. The fertile plain is still there,
and also the noble bay, and the commercial
advantage of being on the route from Athens
to the isthmus of Corinth, over which at one
period passed the rich trade of the Orient
from Antioch to the West; but the inhabi-
tants of the village, which of late years is en-
deavoring to resume the name of Eleusis,
only cultivate the surrounding plains with
wheat, and export some little tar and pine
lumber from the neighboring mountains. Nu-
merous wars have been waged, and many
battles fought, and may still be fought, for
the possession of the Holy Sepulcher, and for
Bethlehem, the House of Bread, but the very
places occupied by the temples of Ceres at
Eleusis, and of Diana of the Ephesians, are
almost forgotten, even' by that remaining
trace of their former worship, the secret mys-
tic associations of the present day.
For farther information with regard to the
mystery-worship of Eleusis, which is so evi-
dently imitated by modern Masonry in many
particulars, we refer the reader to the two
epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians; ana
-75–
especially to the following passages, viz: the
fourth chapter of the second epistle, and the
last five verses of the sixth chapter of that
epistle; also the fifteenth chapter of the
first epistle. While Masons freely fra-
ternize in the celebration of their mysteries
with all kinds of characters, idolaters, forni-
cators, drunkards etc., the 11th verse of the
5th chapter of first Corinthians prohibits Chris-
tians from even eating with such, as Chris-
tians.*
So long as the worshipers of ancient mys-
teries confined their hostility to Christ to
open and direct opposition, little danger was
to be feared from their powers of corruption;
but when, during the revival of letters, these
mysteries were resorted to under the Jesuit-
ical pretext of being aids to the Christian re-
ligion--as being something much more moral
and beneficent than Christianity itself, an
improvement upon it, from that moment
they have become fraught with the greatest
*Christianity must needs be exclusive in its spirit, else the mysteries
of the Holy Sepulcher would be of no higher order than those of Eleu.
bis. If it were to place itself on a level with paganism, it would cease
to be Christianity.
---76—
1
danger to society. They cannot be admitted
into the holy precincts of the Christian church
without corrupting and debasing it.
It would hardly seem possible that a peo-
ple like those of the United States who have
once been placed, each on the platform of his
own personal responsibility to God through
the Bible, should be willing to fall back into
ancient darkness, enter into collusive combi-
nations with cliques of their fellow men, and
pledge themselves to be controlled in their
action by a system of mystic frauds, of which
they usually know little or nothing until they
have once been initiated. By so doing they
virtually abdicate that individual sovereignty
with which their own institutions have in-
vested them, and render themselves subordi-
nate to a hidden power which they can
neither control nor resist; an organized
power having life and laws of its own, which
· may operate in spite of the individual opin-
ions of its members.
ORIGIN OF MASONRY.
He that is accustomed to utter
what he knows to be false, or to sup.
press what he knows to be true, is
in a perpetual state of degradation.
GODWIN'S POLITICAL JUSTICE.
It is a delusion to suppose that all
manner of frivolity may be united
with zeal for sound doctrine; with-
out a holy sense of divine things men
can have no understanding of them;
sacred matters must be treated in a
sacred way.
GREGORY.
The following exposition of Masonry which
was made by a committee of American Anti-
masons some forty-two years ago, is now a
paper possessed of historical value in itself, as
well as in its subject. It serves to mark an
unfortunate change in the tone and sentiment
of our republican society, showing that under
the reign of Masonic influence in the United
States, an evident decadence has taken place
in that spirit of freedom, independence, and
manliness which once characterized the
—78%
American people. The attentive reader will
observe in this report the unfeigned scorn
which Americans of that day could manifest
for the false pretension and sham which are
fostered, to the injury of character, by Ma-
sonic arts and practices.
ORIGIN OF MASONRY.
A REPORT BEFORE THE UNITED STATES ANTIMASONIC
CONVENTION, PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER 11, 1830.
The Committee appointed to inquire When, where and
for what purpose Freemasonry was first instituted ?
What has been its progress? Where it has flourished
most? And what is now the probable number of the
fraternity ?-respectfully report.
WHEN AND WHERE FREEMASONRY ORIGINATED.
The origin of an earthly thing does not always deter-
mine its character; but when the pride of birth, and the
boast of an illustrious ancestry are assumed by a found-
ling, the assumption affects the character of the bantling,
and proves it to be destitute both of virtue and truth.
Freemasonry originated in England.
Elias Ashmole, the last of the Rosicrucians and Alchy-
mists, was admitted to the freedom of the operative ma-
son's company in London, A. D. 1646, and died 1692 (a).
Robert Plot, L. L. D., Ashmole's librarian, speaks in bis
Natural History of Staffordshire, of a custom of admit-
ting men into the society of Freemasons;" also “of a
a-Biog. Brit.
-79-
parchment volume containing the history and rules of the
craft of Masonry;" and also of their secrets that none
knew but themselves, which I have reason to suspect,” he
says, "are perhaps as bad as this mystery of the craft
itself, than which there is nothing I ever met with more
false and incoherent." (b)
Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire, written and
published between 1666 and 1696, we have not been
able to obtain; but should the above extracts from a Ma-
sonic book prove to be correct, it contains the earliest
printed mention of Masonic secrets within our knowledge.
Neither Shakespeare nor Butler make any allusion to
Freemasonry; the writers neither of Romance nor of song
name it in any work of the seventeenth century with
which we are acquainted, nor Milton, nor Dryden, nor
Addison.
Freemasonry left its embryo state in the Apple-tree
Tavern, Charles street, Covent Garden, London, and there
assumed a regular form, on the 24th day of June, A. D.,
1717, when the brethren of “the only four lodges in the
south of England” elected Mr. Anthony Sayer, by a ma-
jority of hands, first Grand Master of Masons. (c) This
Grand Lodge claims the acknowledgement of its suprem-
acy by the whole body of the fraternity throughout the
earth. (d) To this same Grand Lodge, and to those which
have sprung up at York, Kilwinning and Edinburgh, in
imitation of it, we are able, by the help of Masonic writers
b--Freemason's Pocket Companion. p. 192.
C Anderson's Constitution, 2d Ed., p. 109. Preston, Richard's Ed., p.
167. Smith, Lawrie, Scott and others.
d-See Latin inscription on the plate pot beneath the corner-stone of
Freemason's Hall, London, A. D., 1775, as recorded by Preston, P 810,
Smith, p. 83.
-80- .
to trace every particle of Freemasonry now scattered over
the four quarters of the earth. (e)
The name, Franche-maçonerie, on the continent of
Europe, preserves the idiom of the English language at
the expense of a gross violation of propriety in French. (f)
And finally, the Grand Lodge of England by treaty with
the Grand Lodge of Germany, dated Berlin, Oct. 20th,
and London, Nov. 30th, 1773. confirmed to the several
Grand Masters of different German states the rights al-
ready granted, and bestowed all the remaining states upon
the aforesaid Grand Lodge of Germany in consideration
of twenty-five pounds sterling, to be paid annually. (g)
TIL
FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS FREEMASONRY INSTITUTED.
Freemasonry was instituted to dupe the simple for the
benefit of the crafty. This object it has steadily pursued,
until its members have attained to mitres and crowns of
Masonry; and also to a political influence corresponding
with their claims to imperial power.
WHAT HAS BEEN ITS PROGRESS ?
John Montague, duke of Montague, was chosen first
noble Grand Master of Masons, A. D. 1721. (h) Ander-
son's “Constitutions of Masonry," the first printed docu-
ment of the fraternity appeared A. N. 1723. (h) Thus
nearly 300 years elapsed from the discovery of the art of
printing, before this self-styled most ancient and honora-
ble fraternity added one work to the literature of the
6-Anderson, Scott, Smith, Preston, Robinson and others.
f-Essais sur la Franche-masonerie, Par J. H. Laurens.
g-See the treaty in Smith's octavo of Masonry, p. 188.
h-Anderson's Constitutions of Masonry,
.
-81-
world. About this time both Pope (i) and Swift (j) name
Freemasonry in terms of unqualified contempt. In 1726,
provincial Grand Masters were first appointed, by whom
Freemasonry was carried to the different counties of
England, to North and South Wales, and to Gibralter;
and so around the globe. (k) October 13th, 1730, it was
disclosed, published, and sworn to, by Samuel Prichard(1)
an irreproachable citizen of London. (m) It was first
planted in America at Boston, A. D., 1733; at Charleston
S. C. and at Cape Coast in Africa, and in the Grand
Lodge of Scotland, A. D, 1736. (n) It was proscribed in
1735, by the republic of Holland (0) where it had been:
introduced by the Earl of Chesterfield, (p) in 1728. It
was proscribed in France 1737; In Italy, and by the
Pope, 1738; and in the republic of Switzerland, in
1745. (9)
The Masons of Lyons, in France, partizans of Andrew
Michael Ramsey, invented the order of Kadosch Templar
(r) A. D. 1743; hence sprung the elect of nine, of fifteen,
perfect Masons, et cetera. In 1747, Charles Edward
Stuart, son of the Pretender, received many favors of the
Masons at Arras, in France, and in return, gave them a
2.Pope'Letters. Vol. II.
j-A letter from the grand mistress of Female Freemasons to Geo.
Faulkner, printer. Swift's works, vol. XII., p. 331.
k--Scott, Preston and Anderson.
k-Masonry dissected. By Samuel Prichard.
m-Anderson's Constitutions, 2d Ed.
na Anderson, Scott, Smith and Preston.
0--Smith, p, 193.
P-Anderson's constitutions, p. 112 and 129, connected with Lord Ches-
terjeld's embassy to Hague, and the Current History of Masonry.
Q-Smith, Scott and Lawrie.
o-Robinson. York Ed., p. 44, Precis Historique, vol, 1, p. 32.
-82
warrant for holding a chapter, and called it the Scotch Ja-
cobite. (s) This chapter was afterwards removed to Paris,
with the name of chapitre d'Arras, and is the germ of
Royal Arch Masonry which now modestly dates from the
t'me of Zerubbabel.
Freemasonry of three degrees, was thus disseminated
over the civilized world; and the degrees of perfection
were commenced previous to the middle of the last cen-
tury. To trace the progress of the mystery in all coun-
tries, and in all its different rites, is needless.
The origin of the Scotch Lodge, of France, is found in
La mere loge de St. Jean d'Ecosse, instituted at Marseilles,
A. D. 1751. Hence sprang the Scotch Masonry of Mex-
ico, and of the world. In 1754, the Chevalier de Bonne-
ville instituted a chapter of the high degrees, from which
the German Baron, Hund, took the rite called “strict ob-
servance.” Martinez Pascalis invented the order of elect
priests, from which sprang the Mattinists of the French
Revolution. In 1756, "the Grand Lodge of France” first
took its name, having previously styled itself, “the Grand
English Lodge of France.” Precis Hist., vol. 1, p. 37.
In 1758, at Paris, was established the first council of
Emperors of the East and West, Sovereign Princes, Free-
masons! Among the founders of this dynasty we find
the names of Lacorne, la maitre de danse, and Pirlet, le
tailleur d'habits; in plain English, a dancing master and
a tailor.
The sovereigns, by their warrant, dated August 27th,
1761, sent sublime and perfect Masonry to the new world,
by the hand of Stephen Morin, a Jew; Morin planted it in
3-Procis Historique, and Esprit du Dogma, p. 182.
-83-
the West Indies; and a council at Kingston, in Jamaica,
gave it to Henry Andrew Franken. Franken, by a patent,
dated 6th Dec., 1778, gave it to Moses Michael Hayes, a
Jew, afterwards Grand Master of Massachusetts; Hayes
gave it to Spitzer, of Charleston, S. C., and there the
heirs of Lacorne and Pirlet now sway the sceptre of Free-
masonry, “under the celestial canopy of the zenith,” over
"both hemispheres." (t)
WHERE FREEMASONRY HAS FLOURISHED MOST.
Russia, Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Rome, make
Freemasonry a capital offense. There is no crime
in the mummery to die for under the gallows; the
offense lies in the political use made of Freemasoury,
dangerous to all governments. The sovereigns of France
England, Prussia, Netherlands, Sweden, and Brazil, take
the fraternity under the royal guardianship. This is not
because their majesties love the farce of the lodge-room,
but they fear its political tendency.
Great Britian has pursued both the restrictive and the
protective course at the same time. While the late king
was heir apparent to the throne, he was made Grand Mas-
ter of Masons; and the parliament forbade the increase of
the number of lodges in the three kingdoms; and also
forbade the adoption of any degrees, except only the first
three in Masonry. The statute bears date 39th year of
George III., and is now in force.
The only countries in which Freemasonry flourishes,
neither forbidden nor restrained, are the republics of
North America. Here the growth is without a parallel;
t-Precis H28. Dalcho's orations and others. For Franken’s com-
mission to Hayes, see the Providence Free Press, vol 1, no. 2.
-84-
.
(except-in France, during the last years of Louis XVI,)
a growth honorable to the freedom, but dangerous to the
stability of our public institutions.
CONCLUSION.
--"Out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a temple."
Milton's description of Pandemonium.
The corner stone was laid at London, on mechanics'
holiday, A. D. 1717; thirty to forty stories have since
been raised to the fearful height of ninety, and even one
hundred and twenty degrees; the walls are living men of
all christendom, to the number of a million. 100,000 of
whom are in this country, bound together by ties upon
their fame, their life, and the future salvation of their
souls. It has a ritual, an altar, a priesthood, and wor-
shipers It is an unhallowed temple, whose votaries are
admitted in attire for a gallows. It has a government,
and laws, an empire, and crowned heads, and a book of
constitutions and a sword It is the temple of tyranny,
where young men swear fealty to an unknown prince.
It is a refuge of lies; neither truth, nor righteousness, nor
patriotism will suffer it longer to defile the earth.
We may add to the foregoing account that
the first attempts to give Masonry a general or-
ganization and controling power in the affairs
of the United States, was made in New Eng-
land, under the lead of Massachusetts men,
about the year 1797. Among the reasons
-85-
assigned for this measure (and which still
prevail it is thought by many) were the fol
lowing:—“If unworthy characters, who for
want of due caution, have gained admission,
should attempt to open new chapters, for their
own emolument, or for purposes of convivi.
ality or intemperance, who is to restrain
them? If the established regulations, and
ancient land-marks should be violated, or
broken down, where was there power suffi.
cient to remedy the evil?»*
This singular mode of reasoning in favor
of keeping alive English Jesuitry after the
Revolution, led to a convention of committees
from several chapters in the northern states,
which assembled in Mason's Hall, in Boston
on the 24th of October, 1797. These com
mittees were appointed (as expressed in their
credentials) “to meet with any, or every
chapter of Royal Arch Masons, within the
*The question might still be asked, Who is to prevent"unworthy
characters" from making Masonry a means of personal emolument
conviviality and intemperance? This is a question that pone but the
people can answer. The people must decide what "sufficient power"
it is, that has prevented Masonry from being broken down in the United
States
-86-
77
states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and
New York; or with any committee or com-
mittees, duly appointed and authorized, by
any or all of said chapters, and to deliberate
upon the propriety and expediency of forming
and establishing a Grand Chapter of Royal
Arch Masons, for the government and regu-
lation of the several chapters within the said
states."
Mr. T. S. Webb, whose account we follow,
took a leading part, and seems to have been
a ruling spirit in this movement.
A similar convention of chapters of the
state of Pennsylvania, was held in Philadel.
phia the same year; and was doubtless a part
of the general plan.*
These measures seem to have been taken
in imitation of previous instances of concerted
action in these northern states, on several oc-
*It thus appears that the first efforts made to preserve Masonry in the
United States, and fasten it upon the country as a national institution,
originated in Pennsylvania and New England, where the education of
the people-Quakers and Puritans-had been, from the beginning, di-
ametrically opposed to the teachings of the Lodge. The men who were
engaged in this movement were very differeut characters from those
who had taken the lead in the Revolution.
-87-
casions, on questions of pressing moment to
their common interests in religion or politics.
Thus early did Masonry begin to follow, ag-
gressively, on the track of the church, and
the state in the United States, and insinuate
itself into power in both.
In consequence of the preliminary action
at this convention, delegates from the chap-
ters of the several states first mentioned, as-
sembled at Hartford, Connecticut, on the
fourth Wednesday of January 1798, and,
after due deliberation, finally adopted a con-
stitution for the government of the Royal
Arch Chapters, and lodges of Mark-masters,
Past-masters, and Most Excellent Masters
throughout the said states; and having elected
their grand officers, the grand chapter be-
came completely organized.
And now, says Webb with great satisfac-
tion, “the long desired and necessary author-
ity for correcting abuses, and iegulating the
concerns of Royal Arch Masonry, in the
northern states, having been thus happily es-
tablished, the sublime degrees became flour-
ishing and respectable. Royal Arch Masons
-88-
in the southern states (where there were no
grand chapters) observed with pleasure and
satisfaction the establishment of grand chap.
ters in the northern states, under the author:
ity of a general constitution, and became de.
sirous of uniting with them, under the same
authority."
“Applications were accordingly made for
the privilege of opening new chapters in the
southern states; but there being no provision
made in the constitution for extending its au.
thority beyond the limits first contemplated,
the state grand chapters took the subject into
consideration, and passed a decree vesting
power and authority in the three first gen-
eral grand officers, or any two of them con.
jointly, to grant and issue letters of dispensa.
tion for the institution of lodges of Mark Mas.
ters, Past Masters, Most Excellent Masters,
and chapters of Royal Arch Masons, within
any state by which there was not a grand
chapter established.”
"By virtue of this authority, the first day
of December 1804, the general grand officers
granted a letter of dispensation for forming
a
-894
and holding a chapter of Royal Arch Masons
in the city of Savannah, in the state of Geor-
gia, by the name of Georgia Chapter; and
on the first day of March 1805, they granted
a letter of dispensation for forming and open-
ing a new Royal Arch Chapter in the town
of Beaufort, in the state of South Carolina,
by the name of Unity Chapter."
"On the ninth day of January 1799, the
grand chapter of the northern states met, by
adjournment, at Providence, in the state of
Rhode Island, and revised their constitution.
And finally, “the General Grand Royal Arch
Constitution for the United States of Amer-
ica,” as altered, amended and ratified, was
completed at a meeting of the General Grand
Chapter begun and holden at Middletown, in
the state of Connecticut, on the ninth day of
January, 1806."
The first article of the Constitution thus
adopted, has the following bombastic, unre.
publican phraseology; the first section reads-
“There shall be a General Grand Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons for the United States
of America; which shall be holden as herein-
-90
after directed, and shall consist of a General
Grand High Priest, General Grand King,
General Grand Scribe, Secretary, Treasurer,
Chaplain and Marshal, and likewise of the
several Grand and Deputy Grand High
Priests, Kings and Scribes for the time being,
of the several Grand Chapters hereinafter
erumerated, and of the Past General Grand
High Priests, Kings and Scribes of the said
General Grand Chapter and the said enu.
merated officers, or their Proxies, shall be
the only voters in the said General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter.”
Throughout these entire proceedings we can.
perceive the mere management of a few man
ipulators instead of the general action of the
people. Such management was entirely su-
perogatory, uncalled for, and showed a lin.
gering of aristocratic habits acquired under
the government of ante-revolutionary times,
rather than a proper appreciation and respect
for republican institutions. These men were
over busy to see that the ark of the new re-
publican government did not fall in the first
steps of its progress. And hence they had
-91-
recourse, wholly unnecessarily, to the low
mysterious motives of a base superstition.
when the higher and nobler sentiments of re-
ligion and patriotism, of faith in the school-
house and Bible, would have been infinitely
better. The officious intermeddling of Ma-
sonry in our institutions, to which it is en-
tirely antagonistic, has served but to excite
distrust, hasten civil war, and embitter the
spirit of opposition to the government which
it pretends to allay.
The people of the northern states did not
confirm, or approve of the action of their
Masonic wire-workers; for they rose up in
manly. indignation against Masonry about a
quarter of a century afterwards, when its real
character began to be developed; and had it
not been for the slave question, which grew
to demand all their attention, the lodge,
which had now become the ally of the slave-
power, would have become utterly extin-
guished. That is a work which still remains
to be done. The lodge must be eliminated
from our institutions, or they will cease to be
republican. It teaches the doctrine of attain.
1
-92-
ing good ends through foul, tricky, under
handed means, which is moral confusion.
The foul means are much more likely to be
served than the good ends.
WAS WASHINGTON A MASON?
-
Shall the miracles of Sinai have
no more virtue than the mysteries of
Eleusis, and Jehovah languish away
and vanish in the routine of sacer-
dotal ceremonies, or in philosoph-
ical skepticism? GUIzot.
With steady hand he draws the
disguising veil from the intrigues of
foreign enemies, and the plots of
domestic foes.
DANIEL WEBSTER.
that Washington was a member of their fra.
ternity; and by the stress which they lay up-
on this fact, they endeavor to make it appear
that he was no mere common member, but a
very distinguished one. They treat the pub-
lic to pictures of the Father of the Country,
rigged out in Masonic regalia, standing upon
a mosaic or tesselated pavement, amidst Ma-
sonic symbols, and having a very solemn ex-
pression of countenance, as if he were seri-
ously ill; or as if Masonry were something
-94-
unutterably sacred and solemn, absorbing
his entire thought and feeling in its awful
contemplation.
Previous to the war of the Rebellion, south-
ern members of the “mystic craft” seemed
interested to make as much out of Washing-
ton's Masonry in favor of slavery as possible;
and through political sympathy this tendency
became slowly but surely communicated to
the lodges of the North. We may readily
conceive that where Washington was termed
an "Illustrous southerner," an "Illustrous
slave-holder," etc., it would become very nat-
ural to add the additional title of Illustrous
Mason. It is well known that Masonry ad-
mitted no slaves into its lodges, although
these lodges are claimed to be institutions of
great benevolence and brotherly love; and it
is well known too, that Masonry is conspir-
atorial and collusive in its character, of ex-
treme latitudinarianism in moral views; and
hence, to be a Mason must have appeared to
the southern demagogue as a very great
virtue. It was sufficient for the northern
-95-
Mason to understand that Washington was a
great patriot.
One of the various uses to which we have
seen the Masonic pictures of Washington
put, besides that of favoring Masonry gener-
ally, was to grace an illicit bar-room, where
liquors were clandestinely sold in violation of
the laws of the state. This curious service
rendered to disreputable traffic by the patriotic
prestige of our first and noblest President, re-
minds us of the use which, it is said, is some-
times made of images of the virgin Mary in
Romanist countries, which is to preside over
and sanctify the chambers of certain associa-
tions of females whose hidden practices,
though secret, like those of Masonry, the
reader may easily comprehend.
Among the evidences brought forward to
show that Washington was a Mason, is the
assumed fact that he laid the corner-stone of
the Capitol at the seat of our federal govern-
ment in accord with Masonic ceremonies, in
full regalia, and in his character as a Mason.
It is this assumption, enlarged and dwelt on
by the Masons of the present times, which
-96-
has probably led General Grant recently to
follow so illustrious an example, and, in the
absence of any other more distinguished edi-
fice, to lay the corner-stone of the Boston
Post-office in Masonic fashion. As the country
was taken somewhat by surprise by this ex-
traordinary proceeding, in which both a Pres-
ident and Vice-president of the greatest Chris-
tian Republic of the age were seen to put a
solemn face upon rites and ceremonies that,
paganish and trivial in their character, are
alike strangers both to Christianity and Re-
publicanism, we have thought it well to give
the matter a more than momentary examina-
tion. We ask the reader's attention while
we proceed to make a few observations.
At about the same time that the city of
Chicago was being devastated by a conflagra-
tion that will long be remembered as one of
the most extraordinary calamities of the world,
an intimation was given to leading Masons of
Boston, Mass., by the President of the United
States, that he desired the corner-stone of the
half-built Sub-Treasury and Post-office of that
city to be laid according to Masonic ceremó-
TI
-97-
nies. Preparations were immediately made
for that purpose, and especially by that par-
ticular class of persons who call themselves
Knight's Templar.
The invitation being duly extended through
the Grand Master of Masons to the Grand
Commander of the Knights, namely, to Ben-
jamin Dean, and the request for an escort ap-
pearing to him, the said Dean, “a fit and
proper one to be granted,” he therefore or-
dered the commanders of his grand command
to report to the excellent Sir Charles Adams
Stott, Grand Captain General, who was to
have command of the lines. In the grand
processional display which followed, a careful
arrangement was made for the accommoda-
tion of a large number of school children, as
if Masonry (an institution got up in a tavern
in London in 1717, and made to serve the
purposes of an aristocratic government,) were
worthy of the particular respect of those upon
whom the hopes of the future republic are to
depend !
The advent of General Grant and Schuyler
Colfax, President and Vice-President of the
--98%
United States, at the corner-stone of the Post-
office, where the rites were to be exhibited,
was the signal for a loud burst of applause
from the assembled crowd. After the box
with its contents of documents, coins, etc.,
had been deposited in the stone, Grand Mas.
ter Gardiner spread the cement beneath it, the
President aiding, at his request, with the
trowel ; the band in the meantime played
“ Hail to the Chief," and the usual farce of
“ testing" the stone, as it is called, followed,
together with the heathen libation of "corn,
wine, and oil.”
The Grand Master of Massachusetts, Wil.
liam Sewell Gardiner, as he gave his name,
then delivered an address. In some very
stately remarks befitting the pccasion, he al.
luded to that handiwork of Masonry, the
Treaty of Washington, which, as a new ad-
vent of“ peace and good will to men on earth,”
was got up by the distinguished English Ma.
sons, Lords Ripon and Tenterden, and which
General Grant, while in search of another
term, was probably laying the corner-stone
of instead of the Post-office. The chief fea-
ПІe
-
-99
ture, however, of this address, was a pathetic,
sensational display over a lock of Washing-
ton's hair. The reference of the speaker to
that sacred relic of a distinguished Mason
must not be omitted. It reads as follows:
“We have a most notable precedent for serving the Na-
tional Government in this peculiar manner. The first
President, the immortal Washington, in 1793, in his Ma
sonic capacity, arrayed in the paraphernalia of the craft,
laid the corner-stone of the capitol at Washington. The
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts reverences the name and
cherishes the most grateful remembrance of Washington.
Its archives contain his letters, and annually since 1799 a
lock of Washington's hair, carefully preserved in a golden
urn, the cunning workmanship of the Mason and patriot,
Paul Revere, is entrusted to the safe custody of its Grand
Master at his installation. This sacred relic we cherish
with pious solicitude. Through vicissitudes of fortune
hard to endure, through conflagrations which have de-
voured our temples, this has been spared. We bear it in
our processions. It accompanies us to-day. Permit us,
Mr President, to place this sacred relic in your hands.”
Let the reader pause and contemplate for
: awhile all the intended sublimity of this scene
-President Grant, our lasť President, holding
in his two hands a gold-enshrined lock of our
first President's hair !-placed there by a
Grand Master of Massachusetts Masons !!
-100-
Think of a procession of American citizens
in this nineteenth century-intelligent Chris.
tians, Protestants, Republicans, bearing as a
“sacred relic” a lock of hair in a vase of gold !
And must not Masonry, which has in its keep-
ing that sacred relic, be very sacred too,
pious, patriotic, religious—the true inheritor
of Washington's glory ? The reader must
draw his own inferences.
It must be borne in mind that Masonry in
the United States claims to be very religious ;
and is thought by many of its followers to be
better than the church. It was founded, they
say, by King Solomon; and it has all the ex-
ternals, as well as all the pretensions, of reli-
gion. It has its temples, its altars, its priest-
hood, its prayers, its hymns, its funeral ser-
vices, its dedications, its libations, etc. in fine,
alļ that to the external senses go to make up
religion. Masons, therefore, must be very
true, pious, religious, patriotic men; though
one of their great Grád High Priests of the
United States, General Albert Pike, of Ar-
kansas, led Indians at the battle of Pea Ridge,
it is said, to scalp Union soldiers !
IOI-
By referring back to the address of Grand
Master Gardiner, it will be there seen that
the following positive statement is made, viz:
“ The first President, the immortal Washing-
ton, in 1793, in his Masonic capacity, arrayed
in the paraphernalia of the craft, laid the cor-
ner-stone of the capitol at Washington.”
This statement appeared so extraordinary
to a member of the National Christian Asso-
ciation Opposed to Secret Societies, that he
addressed Mr. William Sewell Gardiner a
note, requesting to be informed on what au-
thority that statement was made. To this
note Mr. Gardiner very politely replied, giv-
ing a lengthy argument in support of his po-
sition; all of which, however, was based upon
evidence already known, and which is proba-
bly the best and most authentic that can be
had. That evidence is derived from an ac.
count of the ceremony of laying the corner-
stone of the capitol at Washingion, given at
the time in a paper pubiished at Georgetown;
and in order that there may be no mistake in
the matter, we here give that account entire,
as follows :
-102—
GEORGETOWN, September 21, 1793.
On Wednesday one of the grandest Masonic processions
took place for the purpose of laying the corner-stone of
the capitol of the United States, which perhaps was ever
exhibited on the like important occasion. About 10 o'clock
Lodge No. 9 was visited by the congregation so graceful
to the craft, Lodge No. 22, of Virginia, with all their offi-
cers and regalia ; and directly afterwards appeared, on the
southern banks of the grand river Potomac, one of the
finest companies of volunteer artillery that hath been lately
seen, parading to receive the President of the United
States, who shortly came in sight with his suite, to whom
the artillery paid their military honors ; and his Excel-
lency and suite crossed the Potomac, and was received in
Maryland by the officers and brethren of No. 22 Virginia
and No. 9 Maryland, whom the President headed, and
preceded by a band of music, the rear brought up by the
Alexandria Volunteer Artillery, with grand solemnity of
march, proceeded to the President's square, in the city of
Washington, in all their elegant badges and clothing,
headed by Brother Joseph Clark, Rt. W. G. M. P. T.,
and conducted to a large lodge prepared for the purpose
of their reception. After a short space of time, by the
vigilance of Brother Clotworthy Stephenson, Grand Mar-
shal, P. T., the brotherhood and other bodies were dis-
posed in a second order of proces ion, which took place
amidst a brilliant crowd of spectators of both sexes, accord-
ing to the following arrangement, viz:
The Surveying Department of the City of Washington.
Virginia Artillery,
-103-
Commissioners of the City of Washington and their at-
tendants.
Stone Cutters.
Mechanics.
Two Sword Bearers.
Masons of the First Degree.
Bibles, etc., on Grand Cushions.
Deacons with Staffs of Office.
Masons of the Second Degree.
Stewards with Wands.
Masons of the Third Degree.
Wardens with Truncheons.
Secretaries with Tools of Office.
Pay Masters with their Regalia.
Band of Music.
:: Lodge No. 22, of Virginia, deposed in their order.
Corn, Wine, and Oil.
Grand Master, Pro Tem.
Brother George Washington, W. M.
No. 22, Virginia.
. Grand Sword Bearer.
The procession marched two abreast, in the greatest
solemn dignity, with music playing, drums beating, colors
flying, and spectators rejoicing, frm the President's square
to the capitol, in the city of Washington, where the Grand
Marshal ordered a halt, and directed each file in the pro-
cession to incline two steps, one to the right and one to
the left, and faced each other, which formed a hollow, ob-
long square, through which the Grand Sword Bearer led
the van, followed by the Grand Master, P. T, on the left,
the President of the United States in the center, and the
Worshipful Master of No. 22 Virginia on the right; all
the other orders that composed the procession advanced
--104-
in the reverse of their order of march from the President's
square to the south-east corner of the capitol, and the ar-
tillery filed off to a destined ground to display their ma-
nouvres and discharge their cannon ; the President of
the United States, the Grand Master, P.T., and Worshipful
Master No. 22, taking their stand to the east of a huge
stone, and all the craft forming a circle westward, stood a
short time in awful order.
The artillery discharged a volley.
The Grand Marshal delivered the Commissioners a large
silver plate with an inscription thereon, which the Com-
missioners ordered read, and was as follows:
“This south-east corner-stone of the capitol of the Uni-
ted States of America, in the city of Washingt n, was laid
on the 18th day of September, 1793, in the thirteenth
year of American independence, in the first year of the
second term of the Presidency of George Washington,
whose virtues in the civil administration of his country
have been as conspicuous and beneficial as his military
valor and prudence have been useful in establishing her
liberties, and in the year of Masonry 5793, by the Presi-
dent of the United States, in concert with the Grand Lodge
of Maryland, several Lodges under its jurisdiction, and
Lodge No. 22, from Alexandria, Virginia.
“ Thomas Johnson, David Stuart, and Daniel Carroll,
Commissioners ; Joseph Clark, R. W. G. M. P. T. ; James
Hoban and Stephen Hallate, Architects ; Collin William-
son, Master Mason.”
The artillery discharged a volley.
The plate was then delivered to the President, wbo, at-
tended by the Grand Master, P. T., and three Most Wor-
shipful Masters, descended to the cavazion trench and de-
TOT
—105—
posed the plate, and laid it on the corner-stone of the
capitol of the United States of America, on which was
depos: d corn, wine, and oil, when the whole congregation
joined in reverential prayer, which was succeeded by Ma-
sonic chanting honors, and a volley from the artillery.
The President of the United States and his attendant
brethren ascended from the cavazion to the east of the
corner-stone, and there the Grand Master, P. T., elevated
on a triple rostrum, delivered an oration fitting the occa-
sion, which was received with brotherly love and commen-
dation. At intervals, during the delivery of the oration,
several volleys were discharged by the artillery. The
ceremony ended in prayer, Masonic chanting honors, and
a fifteen volley from the artillery.
The whole company retired to an extensive booth, where
an ox of 500 lbs. weight was barbecued, of which the
company generally partook, with every abundance of other
recreation. The festival concluded with fifteen successive
volleys from the artillery, whose military discipline and
man@uvres merit every commendation.
Before dark the whole company departed with joyful
hopes of the production of their labor.
This account we have been obliged to take
second-hand, and a part of it, that pertaining
to the order of the procession, we may say,
we have taken third-hand, though perhaps
the whole may be relied upon as nearly true;
as much so, at least, as any other statements
which come to us through a Masonic medium.
TTT
-106
But where do we find in it that Washington
appeared in regalia, or took the part of Ma-
sonic Grand Master, or any other Masonic
office in the ceremonies ? What evidence is
there that he did anything more on the occa-
sion than to tolerate a foolish custom which
he could not for the moment conveniently re-
sist! We all know that to Washington be-
longed, in a peculiar manner, the founding of
the American Union, the responsibility of
which was the subject of his most earnest
thoughts and labors. He was particularly
anxious to establish the capitol of the nation
upon the north bank of the Potomac, and to
allay the great excitement and discord which
attended the question of its location. In this
state of things he would not be likely to re-
ject, or examine closely the motives of any
body of men, or any organization that would
offer its good will towards furthering the
main object in view.
But if Washington really did think, for one
moment, that such principles of brotherly love
and unity as are inculcated by Masonry were
fit principles whereon to found the corner-
-107-
stone of the great temple of liberty and chris-
tian virtue, he was very greatly mistaken, as
he himself must have soon afterward discov.
ered, and as is now well known. Because that
very Masonry, which has been so forward to
interfere with the foundation stones of the
capitol on two occasions, and which now ex-
hibits itself in the various forms of Mormon-
ism, Odd-Fellowship, Knights of the Golden
Circle, Ku-Kluxes, etc., has been made the
instrumentality of the slave power, it is be-
lieved, to try to upset that very same capitol
whose corner-stone it had laid in “awful or-
der," " with grand solemnity of march,” “in
the greatest solenin dignity,” and “in all their
elegant badges and clothing."
In remarking upon the foregoing account
of corner-stone laying, Mr. William Sewell
Gardiner, Grand Master of all the Masonic
Lodges of Massachusetts, says:
“From the above, especially the order of the Masonic
procession, it is Masonically evident that Washington must
have been in Masonic regalia to have occupied the position
in line which it appears that he did."
Now, we doubt not that it is “Masonically
--108-
evident” that Solomon established Masonry;
that John the Baptist and John the Evangelist
were Masons; that Generals Sickles, Butler,
Logan, Pike, Breckenridge, Jefferson Davis,
Andrew Johnson, Schuyler Colfax, Brigham
Young, etc., all distinguished secret society
men, we believe, have derived some peculiar
virtue from the holy putative progenitors of
the “ancient and honorable institution," which
“is the most moral institution that ever sub-
sisted,” etc., etc., but however evident these
assertions may appear to Masons, they would
require proof to be accepted by the outer,
open public-by those who do not understand
the mysterious way in which such characters
have come by their peculiar virtue. All these
men may possibly be very pious, holy, and fit
to lay all the corner-stones of the temple of
liberty in a free republic—all things are pos-
sible with God—but we should require some
other evidence to that end than Masonic evi-
dence. A thing may be “Masonically evi.
dent," and yet, at the same time, be historic-
ally, morally, and actually, very untrue.
By referring to the order of procession
-109
given above, we see that Washington was
placed between the Grand Master Pro Tem-
pore (there was no full Grand Master present)
and the Grand Sword Bearer. This is a post
of honor, and not of Masonic office ; for in the
real Masonic form of procession there is no
higher officer behind the Grand Master. The
prefix given to Washington is Brother, and
not his Masonic title. The letters and words
following his name are W. M. No. 22 Vir-
ginia. These letters, W. M., stand, we pre-
sume, for Worshipful Master; but this does
not imply an office higher than Grand Master,
and one which qualifies the incumbent to lay
corner-stones Masonically. Besides, we have
Washington's own statement, made five years
later, in 1798, that he presided over no lodge,
either of English Masonry or any other, and
that he had not been inside of a lodge more
than once or twice during the latter thirty
years of his life! That he was not the Wor-
shipful Master of Lodge No. 22 Virginia is
plain from the statement in the account that, .
while the procession was passing through the
open ranks to the corner-stone, “the Grand
.
..
IIO-
Sword Bearer led the van, followed by the
Grand Master P. T. (pro tempore) on the
left, the President of the United States in the
center, and the Worshipful Master of No. 22
Virginia on the right.”
Nor is there any evidence that Washington
officiated as a Mason in laying the corner-
stone ; but only as President of the United
States, just as Queen Victoria herself might
do on a similar occasion. We find no evi.
dence, whatever, worthy of credit, that
Washington either wore an apron on the
occasion, or that he consented to go through
the hollow mummery which President Grant
and Vice-President Colfax voluntarily offered
to exhibit to a wondering public over the
corner-stone of a post-office.
• We have given the gist of Mr. Gardiner's
proof that Washington officiated in full regalia
at the laying of the corner-stone of the national
capitol ; all of which is doubtless intended to
show to an unthinking public that Washington
was a great Mason; and that where Masonry
finds itself allied with such greatness of char.
acter as was his, Masonry too, itself, must be
СОЇ
-III-
great, if not, indeed, the cause of the greatness.
But we shall now proceed to bring forward
evidence on the other side of the question;
and shall rely principally upon Washington's
own words, as contained in the following let-
ters.. We may remark, by way of preface,
that these letters were written to a Rev. Mr.
Snyder, of Maryland, who called the attention
of the illustrious chief to the dangers to lib-
erty to be apprehended from Free Masonry;
and were published in a paper printed at
Woodstock, in Virginia, some forty years ago :
LETTER I.
MT. VERNON, Sept. 25, 1798.
SIR : Many apologies are due to you for my not ac-
knowledging the receipt of your obliging favor of the 22d
ult., and for not thanking you at an earlier period for the
book you had the goodness to send me. I have heard
much of the nefarious and dangerous plan and doctrines
of the Illuminati, but never saw the book until you were
pleased to send it to me. The same causes which have
prevented my acknowledging the receipt of your letter
have prevented my reading the book hitherto, namely,
the multiplicity of matters which pressed upon me before,
and the debilitated state in which I was left after a severe
fever had been removed ; and which allows me to add
little more now than thanks for your wishes and favorable
sentiments, except to correct an error you have run into
II2-
of my presiding over the English lodges in this country.
The fact is, I preside over none, nor have I been in one
more than once or twice within the last THIRTY YEARS.
I believe, notwithstanding, that none of the lodges in this
country are contaminated with the principles ascribed to
the society of the Illuminati.
With respect, I am, &c,
G. WASHINGTON.
LETTER II.
MT. VERNON, Oct. 10, 1798.
Sir : It is more than a fortnight since I acknowledged
the receipt of your first letter, on the subject of the Illu-
minati, and thanked you for Robinson's account of that
society. It went to the Post-office as usual, addressed to
the “Rev'd Mr. Snyder, at Frederick Town, Maryland.”
If it has not been received before this, some mishap must
have attended it, of which I pray you to advise me, as it
could not have been received at the date of your last, not
being mentioned. I am, &c.,
G. WASHINGTON,
LETTER III.
Mr. VERNON, Oct. 24, 1798.
Rev'd SIR : I have your favor of the 17th inst. before
me, and my only motive for t oubling you with the receipt
of this letter is, to explain and correct a mistake, which I
perceive the hurry in which I am obliged often to write
letters has led you into.
It was not my intention to doubt that the doctrines of the
Illuminati and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in
the United States. On the contrary, no one is more
fully satisfied of the fact than I am.
. 113
The idea that I meant to convey was that I did not be-
lieve that the lodges of Free Masons in this country had,
as societies, endeavored to propagate the diabolical tenets
of the former, or the pernicious principles of the latter, if
they are susceptible of separation. That individuals of
them may have done it, that the founder, or instrument *
employed to found the Democratic Societies in the United
States may have had these objects, and actually had a sep-
aration of the people from their government in view, is
too evident to be questioned.
My occupations are such, that little leisure is allowed
me to read newspapers or books of any kind. The read-
ing of letters and preparing answers absorbs much of my
time. With respect, &c.,
G. WASHINGTON.
The character of these letters will throw a
clear light upon the sentiments which, at about
the same period, were expressed by the Father
of the Country in his Farewell Address. We
allude more particularly to the following pas-
sages; which we give italicized as we find
them quoted :
“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all com-
binations and associations, under whatever plausible -
*This probably alludes to the Tammany Society, a modified form of
Secret Association. John Adams said that history ought to convince
all mankind, that committees of secret correspondence are dangerous
machines, that they are caustics, and incision knives, to which recourse
should never be had but in the last extremities of life, in the last ques.
tion between life and death "
-114
character, with the real design to direct, control, counter-
act, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the con-
stituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental
principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize
faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to
put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the
will of a party, often a small but enterprising minority of
the community ; and according to the alternate triumphs
of different parties, to make the public administration the
mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of fac-
tion, rather than the organs of consistent and wholesome
plans, digested by common councils, and modified by mu-
tual interests.
“However combinations or associations of the above
description may now and then answer popular ends, they
are likely, in the course of time and things, to become
potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprin-
cipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the
people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of govern-
ment."
The part played by the Masonic fraternity
at the funeral of Washington was small and
insignificant when compared with their preten-
sions at the present day. They generally
make their greatest and most impressive shows
at the funerals of their fellow Masons; and if
Washington was indeed such a great Mason
as they pretend he was, why did they not
make a great demonstration over his remains ?
-115
It is, probably, because Washington, since the
date of laying the corner-stone of the capitol,
had come to understand more clearly the true
character of Masonry, and had virtually re-
nounced it in his sentiments given above.
French and German Masonry had, in the
meantime, become known to the world as al-
lied with the most abominable ideas subversive
of all social order as well as all just govern-
ment. These ideas were spreading in the
United States, and were giving Washington,
at the period of his death, the greatest anxiety
and concern.
: Popular opinion was becoming aroused,
even at that early period, against secret soci.
eties; and hence the Masons at Washington's
funeral occupied but a very small space. In-
stead of thrusting their trivial rites and cere.
monies upon an occasion of such solemn im- :
port, they were content with a place in rear
of the mourners, which other speculative
trades unions might also have had if they
chose, yielding the precedence to the military
and the clergy, to whom it properly belonged.
In order that the reader may see, and judge
fere
rear
--116_
for himself, we give the following account of
the real position occupied by Masons at the
funeral of Washington, which also originally
appeared in a Georgetown paper. It reads
as follows:
ATTK
WASHINGTON ENTOMBED.
GEORGETOWN, Dec. 20.
On Wednesday last, the mortal part of WASHINGTON
the Great-the Father of his Country and the friend of
man, was consigned to the tomb, with solemn honors and
funeral pomp.
A multitude of persons assembled, from many miles
around, at Mount Vernon, the choice abode and last resi-
dence of the illustrious chief. There were the groves-
the spacious avenues, the beautiful and sublime scenes,
the noble mansion—but alas ! the august inhabitant was
now nu mere. That great soul was gone. His mortal
part was there indeed; but ah! how affecting ! how
awful the spectacle of such worth and greatness, thus, to
mortal eyes, fallen —Yes ! fallen ! fallen !
In the long and lofty portico, where oft the Hero walked
in all his glory, now lay the shrouded corpse. The coun-
tenance still composed and serene, seemed to depress the
dignity of the spirit which lately dwelt in that lifeless
form! There those who paid the last sad honors to the
benefactor of his country, took an impressive--a farewell
view.
On the ornament at the head of the coffin, was inscribed
-117-
SURGE AD JUDICIUM—about the iniddle of the coffin, GLORIA
DEO—and on the silver plate,
GENERAL
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
Departed this life on the 14th December, 1799, Æt. 68.
Between three and four o'clock, the sound of artillery
from a vessel in the river, firing minute guns, awoke afresh
our solemn sorrow the corpse was removed—a band of
music with mournful melody melted the soul into all the
tenderness of woe.
Sims,
ing order :
Cavalry, )
Infantry,
With arms reversed.
Guard,
Music
Clergy.
The General's horse with his saddle, holsters, and pistols
Cols.
Cols.
Gilpin,
Ramsay,
Marsteller, .
Payne.
Little.
Mourners,
Masonic Brethren,
Citizens.
When the procession had arrived at the bottom of the
elevated lawn, on the bank of the Potomac, where the
family vault is placed, the cavalry halted, the infantry
marched towards the Mount and formed their lines the
clergy, the Masonic Brothers, and the citizens, descended
· to the vault, and the funeral service of the church was
performed. The firing was repeated from the vessel in
Pall Bearers.
CORPSE
Pall Bearers.
118
the river, and the sounds echoed from the woods and
hills around.
Three general discharges by the infartry—the cavalry
and eleven pieces of artillery, which lined the banks of the
Potomac back of the vault, paid the last tribute to the en-
tombed Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United
States and to the departed Hero.
The sun was now setting. Alas! the son OF GLORY
was set forever. No—the name of WASHINGTON-the
American President and General—will triumph over
DEATH! The unclouded brightness of his glory will illu-
minate the future ages !
This was evidently no occasion for a farce,
and hence the Masons contented themselves
by merely putting in an appearance. There
is a solemnity, a pathos, a simplicity and
grandeur in these funeral honors to Washing-
ton that are utterly repellant to those gross,
artificial displays which are usually exhibited
at Masonic funerals,
It is one of the rules and landmarks of Ma-
sonry not to bury the dead with Masonic
honors unless they have expressed a wish to
that effect. As Washington was not buried
with such honors, it is fair to presume that
he made no request to be buried in that way;
and hence another reason why we may infer
als,
II
much bound up in the “mystic tie” as the
fraternity would fain make us believe.
After an attentive perusal of the views of
Washington, given in his latter days, with
respect to the character of Masonry, it is dif-
ficult to conceive how any fair or candid mind,
if liberally educated, could hold him up to the
admiration of young men as a distinguished
Mason. It is as if one should extol another
for being a great churchman when he had not
been in church but two or three times in thirty
years; or it is like the course of the southern
politician who used to refer to Abraham, of
sublime faith, as a distinguished slave-holder.
Masonry is a fraud and an imposition, as
any one may see by examining into its pre-
tensions, its books, and its operations; and
any one who makes use of it, may justly be
suspected of some fraud and imposition in his
object; or at least, in the instrumentality by
which he would effect his object, which, in a
moral point of view, amounts to about the
same thing. We may safely infer, in a chris-
tian, republican country, that whenever Ma-
120-
SO
ST
sonry is resorted to as an agency, there must
be something wrong somewhere ; and who.
soever, occupying the high position of Pres.
ident or Vice-President of the United States,
voluntarily has recourse to it, for a seem.
ingly trivial, or any other, purpose, as General
Grant and Schuyler Colfax have recently
done, such men are not worthy of the faith
and confidence of a free people. To say the
best possible of them, they are very mistaken
and misguided men.
What man worthy of the consideration of
a moral people (and no other kind of people
can be a free, self-governing people,) would
value the patriarch Abraham for his slave.
holding instead of for his faith, or would éxtol
and imitate the patriot Washington for the
least worthy of all his qualities, namely, for
having been, as a young man, like the Empe-
ror Julian, and thousands of other honest,
generous, unsuspecting young men, gulled
into a lodge of Masons, but which he never
afterwards frequented, and which was entirely.
unworthy of, as it was unsuited to, the distin.
guished excellence of his character !
I21-
Why is it that Andrew Johnson, who, as
President of the United States, dedicated the
Masonic Temple of Boston, and General Grant
and Schuyler Colfax* should imitate the very
lowest and worst of Washington's qualities,
viz: his Masonry, instead of aiming to follow
the example of his higher and nobler qualities?
These are questions that every one should
examine into who is interested in the perpetu-
ation of our free institutions.
From the facts which we have here given,
the reader will be enabled to form a decided
opinion as to what extent Washington was a
Mason, and also as to what purposes that fact
is being made to serve! Washington was
indeed a Mason, so far as the mere fact of in-
itiation into Masonic mysteries goes; that
must be admitted; but so also was he a slave-
holder, an Episcopalian, a Surveyor, a man
who occasionally played cards for money, and
who also often drank spirituous and intoxica-
ting liquors; but for which one of these qual-
ities alone, by itself, or all put together, should
* This article was written before Mr. Colfax's connection with the
Credit Mobilier had been made public.
I22
his great name be held up to the youth of the
rising generation and to the world, as worthy
of especial esteem and admiration? Shall we
teach our African fellow-citizens to esteem
Moses, the Law-giver, because he had an Ethi.
opian wife, or to revere the Saviour of man:
kind because an African helped to bear his
cross ? No; it is not Washington the Mason,
but Washington the Man, whose memory
should be held in reverence by the American
people.
Let it be hoped that we have seen the last
President of the United States that will ever
venture upon the charlatanry of laying corner.
stones of Post-offices, or any other edifice,
with what is called “Masonic rites and cere
monies.” We are all interested in preserving
the dignity of the chief office of the countrys
In conclusion, and in reply to the question
with which we opened the discussion of this
subject, viz: Was Washington a Mason? we
admit, simply, briefly, decisively, that he was
a Mason; but we claim that Masonry is not
a necessary or desirable qualification for the
Presidency. It is, on the contrary, a belittling
--123-
vern
derogation of that high and important office;
and one which should occasion the people of
the present day to think twice before electing
a Mason to fill it. The man who has tied his
tongue to a prostituted oath, or who teaches
men so, and considers it equally important
with religion, is not a suitable character to
govern freemen. He, himself, is not free
Masonry is not American, nor is it Republican,
nor Democratic. It is apparently a device of
the English aristocracy for keeping coarse
natures in subjection to aristocratic rule by
playing upon their ignorance, superstition, and
fondness of mystery. It is an imposition, a
pious fraud, which stultifies men by corrupt-
ing their religion. Though wholly foreign
to the genius of our institutions, it has become
all-powerful in politics, underlying our elec-
tions, shaping our domestic policy, and enter-
ing largely into our diplomacy. It is Jesuiti-
cal, pretending one thing and doing quite an.
other; even its works of charity, like those of
the Tammany Order, being prostituted to the
purposes of aggrandizement and power.
Aided by the political tendencies of a free
I24-
country, it threatens to become the chief edu
cational principle of our people, teaching men
to be double in their views, insincere, crooked,
indirect, Pharisaical, and dishonest. With
such traits as these, it is evident that no peo
ple can long retain the republican form of
government, or preserve a living faith in hu.
manity or the Christian religion.
Let it be remembered that General Grant
and Vice-President Colfax laid the corner
stone of the Boston Post-office in Masonic
fashion in order to please - the Masons of
America and England; that the Mason-made
treaty of Washington was doubtless long kept
in suspense and agitation in order to act favor.
ably upon General Grant's re-election to the
Presidency; and that, in fine, in the words of
the poet,
"One base deed of prolific power,
Like its accurs'd stock, engenders more.”
Masonry itself is one great imposture which
spreads and ramifies into thousands of others.
FILLMORE'S AND WEBSTER'S
DEFERENCE TO MASONRY.
1
How slow and dificult are the tri
umphs of reason over prescriptive
absurdities. WADDINGTON.
Do not think anything in this
world worth the obtaining by foul
and unjust means.
LORD CLARENDON.
1.
Having thus referred to the ceremony of
laying the corner-stone of the National Capi.
tol by President Washington, it will not be
deemed improper to give a short account of a
similar ceremony which was observed at the
laying of the corner-stone of the extension of
the capitol, which took place fifty-eight years
later. For this purpose we could not convey
clearer or more explicit ideas than by giving
the exact words of Daniel Webster, who de-
livered the address on the occasion. An ex.
tract from his address reads as follows:
M
-126-
. “The anniversary of National Independence appeared
to afford an auspicious occasion for laying the foundation-
stone of the additional building. That ceremony has now
been performed, by the President himself, in the presence
and view of this multitude. He has thought that the day
and the occasion made an united and imperative call for
some short address to the people here assembled ; and it
is at his request that I have appeared before you to per-
form that part of the duty which was deemed incumbent
on us.
“Beneath the stone is deposited, among other things,
the following brief account of the proceedings of this day,
in my handwriting :
666 On the morning of the first day of the seventy-sixth
year of the Independence of the United States of America,
in the City of Washington, being the 4th day of July,
1851, this stone, designed as the corner-stone of the ex-
tension of the Capitol, according to a plan approved by
the President, in pursuance of an act of Congress, was
laid by
"MILLARD FILLMORE,
"PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
assisted by the Grand Master of the Masonic Lodges, in
the presence of many members of Congress, of officers of
the Executive and Judiciary Departments, National, State,
and District, of officers of the Army and Navy, the corpo-
rate authorities of this and neighboring cities, many asso-
ciations, civil, military, and Masonic, officers of the
Smithsonian Institution and National Institute, professors
of colleges and teachers of schools of the District, with
their students and pupils, and a vast concoarse of people
-127-
from places near and remote, including a few surviving
gentlemen who witnessed the laying of the corner-stone
of the Capitol by President Washington, on the eighteenth
day of September, seventeen hundred and ninety-three.
566If, therefore, it shall be hereafter the will of God that
this structure shall fall from its base, that its foundation
be upturned, and this deposit brought to the eyes of men,
be it then known, that, on this day, the Union of the Uni-
ted States of America stands firm, that their Constitution
still exists unimpaired, and with all its original usefulness
and glory ; growing every day stronger and stronger in
the affections of the great body of the American people,
and attracting more and more the admiration of the world;
and all here assembled, whether belonging to public life
or private life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty
God for the preservation of the liberty and happiness of
the country, unite in sincere and fervent prayers that this
deposit, and the walls and arches, the domes and towers,
- the columns and entablatures now to be erected over it,
may endure forever !
-666 GoD SAVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
666 DANIEL WEBSTER,
666 Secretary of State of the United States.'”
We may remark upon this ceremony that
neither President Fillmore nor Daniel Web-
ster was a Mason. In fact, the latter had
fully expressed the opinion that Masonry was
incompatible with free government. Not.
withstanding this, however, these distinguished
--128
men consented to give the fraternity a prom-
inent part to perform in the ceremonies. It
is true the head man of the Masons present,
and officiating on the occasion, is alluded to
rather vaguely as the “Grand Master of the
Masonic Lodges,'* yet of all the “many as-
sociations " present, why should the head of
a secret association be given the function
above all others of assisting the President to
lay the corner-stone ? Why should the
“Grand Master,” for instance, of this purely
English institution of Masonry, be elevated
into a position of national importance in the
United States, and be placed above the
officers of the Smithsonian Institute, or the
President of Georgetown College, or the Su-
perintendent of the Theological Seminary of
Alexandria, or the head of the Judiciary De.
partment, or of any of the many associations
of American origin and character then pres-
ent?
* Did the great statesman allude to the Lodges in this way from a con.
viction that they had become established as an irreversible corner-stone
of the republic; or was it from a mere effort at conciliation, thinking
that they might he the means of temporarily prolonging the lifc of the
republic, as do poisonous medicines the human system, beyond &
threatening peril of the moment?
-129-
The reason is obvious: the pretensions of
Masonry, preposterous as they are, had, by
being systematically maintained, at last ob-
tained for the institution the mastery of the
position over all other associations. It was
regarded as a mysterious yet benevolent power,
that operated in the affairs of men as a kind
of mediator, which secretly and quietly, yet
effectively, brought out matters to a better
ending than they seemed to promise. Men
bowed to it as a possible pacificator in the
slavery question, while in reality it was the
very instrument that the slave-power was
using to carry out its treasonable designs.
What, then, have Washington, and Fill-
more, and -Webster, gained to the cause of
our free institutions by surrendering to Ma.
sonry the importance of a national precedence
of position on solemn public occasions ? To
this question let a long war of rebellion against
those free institutions, threatening to upset
the Capitol from its foundations, be the an.
swer! It is very certain that Masonry, which
has exacted so much deference from our wisest
and best of rulers, can show nothing of value
.-130—
which it has given to the country in return.
Why should Free Masons be allowed to lay
IS
than any other set of men ? There is, indeed,
a great impropriety in permitting professors
of secret and mystic arts to have to do with
anything of a fundamental character in our
institutions. There is nothing secret or mys-
terious about republican government. Its
distinguishing traits are openness, fairness,
and equal rights and priviliges to all.
The Chaplain of the Senate would be a far
more suitable officer for assisting in laying
the foundation-stones of national edifices than
the “Grand Master” of a Lodge.
· A BRIEF OUTLINE
OF
THE PROGRESS OF MASONRY
IN THE
UNITED STATES.
If law, religion, and government,
be surrounded by mystery and
artifice, man will not know the
truth, and therefore cannot teach it.
OLD AUTHOR.
S
.
In all nations, a spurious, preten-
tious religion has been the avant-
courier of their destruction.
H. H. SPARKS.
The written constitution of a people may
differ very widely from their real, inherent
constitution. The written constitution of the
United States would not suit the Turks, for
instance, who might nevertheless be good
Masons; it was designed for a Christian peo-
ple, free, sincere, confiding, self-reliant, and
each governed primarily by his own inde-
pendent convictions of right. And such was
-132-
the real, inherent character of the American
people at the time their constitution was
framed.
IS
O
But under the tuition of the Lodge, which
is not designed particularly for a Christian
people, but for an idolatrous one as well, a
very different character has already become
impressed upon the community, and the aver-
age individual is no longer the free, sincere,
confiding, self-reliant, and independent man
that he once was; but he often exhibits qual-
ities right the reverse of these. His opinions
become double-visioned, dubious, artificial,
distrustful, fearful of the secret power of col-
lusion, and shaped by its direction. It must
be evident, therefore, that under circumstances
like these, the written constitution of the Uni-
ted States is no longer fully applicable to our
condition. * It is the constitution of the Lodge
* But little was done by the war-administration towards impressing
the constitution of the country upon the glowing enthusiasm that per-
vaded the people, to leave its print there for future time, when the glow
should have cooled down into a fixed, rational patriotism. The result
of that administration has been, it may well be feared, tu give “The
General Grand Royal Arch Constitution for the United States of Amer-
ica," the deeper and more abiding impression.
-133-
that prevails; and that is not republican, but
oligarchical, aristocratic, and monarchical.
The Lodge is rapidly taking the place of
the church and school-house among us; and
if our written constitution and the inherent
constitution of the people are ever brought
back into relation again, the Lodge must be
abolished. If this is not done, our constitu-
tion, before another century has passed, will
have become a dead letter. It will be like
the mere form of free institutions, which, un-
der the guise of territorial government, is ap-
plied to that Masonic and despotic organiza-
tion known by the name of Mormonism*
Slavery itself was not more hostile to repuli-
can government than is Masonry. By the
word Masonry is meant, of course, a generic
term which includes all kinds of secret asso-
ciations.
In order to trace briefly the progress of se-
* Much has been said of late years of the difficulty presented by the
question of Mormonism, The best, and perhaps the only way of getting
rid of that mystery-worship, is to begin by ridding the body politic of
all eecret societies in general. Mormonism is but the external symp-
tom of a disease that affects the wbole country. The mere removal of
the Grand Lodge of Great Salt Lake City would not reach the seat of the
disease. That exists nearer the source of public vitality.
134-
cret, collusive arts in the United States, and
to show how slowly yet surely these arts are
taking the place of that open, fair and impar-
tial dealing on which republican government
must rest, we may give the following general
outline.
Masonry was introduced into America from
London somewhere about the year 1733, and
was doubtless considered a valuable engine
for aiding the colonies in their insurrection
against the home government. It can be
used, however, to rebel against any one form
of civil government as well as another.
Washington, as well as some other Ameri-
can officers, including, I believe, Arnold and
Burr, joined the Lodge; but in 1798, on be-
ing questioned rather closely about it by the
Rev. Mr. Snyder, he virtually made an apol.
ogy for his membership, by saying that he
did not preside over any Lodge, as he was
said to do, and as the Masons doubtless
claimed, and that he had not been inside of a
Lodge more than once or twice in thirty years.
This fact may be found in Sparks Letters of
—135—
TI
Washington, extracts from which we have
given.
Yet it is customary in these modern days
for the fraternity to claim Washington as a
very great Mason !-from which their want
of candor or their ignorance of history may
be inferred.
Governor John Hancock declared himself
opposed to secret societies; as did also Pres-
idents Madison and John Quincy Adams.
In a letter of Daniel Webster, dated Bos-
ton, November 20th, 1831, occur the follow-
ing remarks on the subject of Masonry :
"I have no hesitation in saying that, however unobjec-
tionable may have been the original objects of the institu-
tion, or however pure may be the motives and purposes
of the individual members, and notwithstanding the many
great and good men who have from time to time belonged
to the order, yet, nevertheless, it is an institution which
in my judgment is essentially wrong in the principle of
its formation ; that from its very nature it is liable to great
abuses ; that among the obligations which are found to be
imposed on its members, there are such as are entirely
incompatible with the duty of good c tizens ; and that all
secret associations, the members of which take upon
themselves extraordinary obligations to one another, and
are bound together by secret oaths, are naturally sources
of jealousy and just alarm to others ; are especially unfa-
136
vorable to harmony and mutual confidence among men
living together under popular institutions, and are danger.
ous to the general cause of civil liberty and good govern-
ment. Under the influence of this conviction it is my
opinion that the future administration of all such oaths,
and the formation of all such obligations, should be pro-
hibited by law."
In the meantime the people of the free
States had risen against Masonry, and made
it a question of political action at the polls.
Unfortunately they did not pursue the matter
with that constancy and devotion which the
importance of the measure deserved, but al-
lowed themselves to be diverted from their
object into political channels where the slave-
power could act to greater advantage. The
great mass of their votes were cast, not for
the anti-Masonic candidates, but for Clay and
Jackson, both of whom were slave-holders and
high Masons. The people being thus diverted
from their pursuit of Masonry, have been too
much occupied since then, with slavery and
the war which it has occasioned, to continue
the pursuit.
Thus, during the early years of the devel-
opement of our free institutions under the con-
TY
-137–
stitution of 1789, though the progress of Ma-
sonry met with constant opposition from a
free people, yet it made continual advances
nevertheless ; and after the alliance with the
slave-power it became rapid and almost unre.
sisted. Odd Fellowship, another English
institution, invented in Manchester, came to
its support; and in 1844, nine years after
Webster had given utterance to the preceding
remarks, an attempt was made to secure a
legal recognition from Congress of both Ma-
sonry and Odd Fellowship. An idea of the
boldness of this movement may be formed
when it is reflected that Masons presume to
administer oaths, a function proper to govern-
ments alone, which oaths bind the members,
under certain circumstances, to take the life
of a citizen of the United States; and it was
for such an institution as this, unknown to our
religion and to our common law, that a char-
ter was demanded! Mr. Bower, from the
comınittee on the District of Columbia, intro-
duced two bills, on the 27th of March, 1844,
for chartering Grand Lodges. Bill No. 264
was for the Odd Fellows, and Bill No. 265 for
1
-138—
the Free Masons. Both bills were objected to
and voted to lie on the table by the decisive
vote of 133 to 29. Even many members.
from the slave States were not yet prepared
to vote for a measure so wholly subversive of
the original character of our government.
There was not a vote in favor of the measure
from the States of New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, North
Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Michigan,
and Illinois ; and only four in all New Eng-
land.
Another attempt was made in 1851 to get
a charter from Congress for the Odd Fellows;
and by this time the institution had apparently
rendered such services in giving countenance
to Masonry and slavery, and hence to the
cause of cheap labor, a low tariff, and free
trade, that it might expect better success.
But it failed again; and this at a time, let it
be remembered, when the Democracy was
still in the ascendant. (See National Intel-
ligencer, January 28th, 1851).
At a little later period a secret political
party was organized, the result of which was
-139— .
destined to inure to the further spread and
establishment of Masonry, and to nothing else.
It was called Know-nothingism. Whatever
may have been the object of this society, its
operations were watched, caught at, and di-
verted to its own uses by Masonry, which,
like Jesuitism, makes use of every movement
of the people, however worthy and noble, to
serve the low, selfish purpose of building up
and strengthening itself. It hesitates at no
undertaking in this direction, however bold
or arduous; and it sought even to make the
war of the rebellion serve its own interests
and designs, instead of those of the country.
At length, in April, 1864, a Masonic Hall
Association, of the District of Columbia, was
chartered by Congress, and thus a power be-
hind the throne has become established there,
which is able to influence perniciously, if not
to control, the interests of the whole country.
The vote by which this measure, so hostile to
the early republican maxims of the people,
was effected, cannot be ascertained; for it.
was done in a covert way, so that no one can
ever learn how any member voted without a
11
140-
*direct application to him in person. And
hence, a measure fraught with the most dan-
gerous consequences to free government, is
wholly void of all personal responsibility.
The action upon it has been secretive, sly,
irresponsible, like the operations of Masonry
itself. A letter of inquiry on the subject has
been addressed to the Speaker of the House,
Mr. Blaine ; but he is a distinguished Knight
Templar, it is said, and has not thus far .
deigned to make a reply. Nor was it to be
expected, perhaps, where the presiding officer
of the chief deliberative assembly of a repub-
lican country bears one of the proudest titles
of an aristocracy, in direct violation of the
constitution.
From making itself recognized as a legiti-
mate corporate power by a free government,
the next step taken by Masonry is to enter
upon international relations, and to have a
hand in a treaty of peace between two great
Christian nations. The treaty of Washing-
ton, by which the Alabama difficulties were
adjusted, would seem to have been got up and
ratified under the especial sanction of Ma-
14I-
sonry. The two principal English members of
the High Commission by which the treaty was
framed, Lords Ripon and Tenterden, were
distinguished Master Masons, presiding over
Grand Lodges, the former being the Grand
Master Mason of England. The Masonic
members of the Commission were called from
their “labor” to a magnificent "refreshment”
by the Grand Master of the Most Worshipful
Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, in
the form of a splendid banquet, at which some
thirty or forty of the Master Masons of both
houses of Congress were present. The occa-
sion was intended, to all appearances, to give
a Masonic character and sanction to the treaty;
to establish a sort of Masonic alliance, offen-
sive and defensive, between England and the
United States, an act which could not be done
by our constitution; and in furtherance there-
of, the first degree of English Free Masonry
was bestowed upon two ambitious Americans.
The most careful efforts were made to turn
the attention of the public to this treaty. It
was claimed to be a glorious beginning of the
substitution of arbitration in the place of war,
--142-
and to signalize the advent of a new era of
peace and good will to man. Yet this work
of such lofty pretensions, which one would
suppose ought to seek the crowning grace
and favor of that religion whose especial mis-
sion was to bring peace and good will to man,
was got up and executed under the auspices
and sanctions of Free Masonry, in which the
Christian forms of faith were not asked for
their prayers or for a blessing, no, not even
for a Te Deum! The inference is that
Christianity was not considered a religion of
sufficient breadth to give a proper, dignified
sanction to such a grand work as a treaty of
peace between two great nations, and that
Masonry was chosen in preference as a
“broader" and more comprehensive and hu-
manizing faith! This opinion seems to be
confirmed by the fact that a formal reception
which was given by the administration not
long afterwards to the Japanese Embassy,
was held in that Masonic Hall, the “associa-
tion" of which had, some eight years before,
been chartered by Congress. The following
1
AT 1
-143-
account of the banquet is taken from a news-
paper of the day :
EARL DE GREY AS A MASON.
A GRAND RECEPTION TENDERED TO THE ENGLISH GRAND MAS-
TER BY THE GRAND LODGE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
. -A GRAND OCCASION.
WASHINGTON, April 10th, 1871.
At a meeting of the M. W. Grand Lodge of the District
of Columbia, held on the 8th of March, a resolution was
unanimously adopted appointing a committee to take the
necessary measures to extend to the Earl De Grey and
Ripon, the Most Worshipful Grand Master of Free and
Accepted Masons in England, a suitable reception. · Ac-
cordingly, C. F. Stansbury, the Grand Master of Masons
in this District, addressed the Lord de Grey a note, in
which he said :
"In common with the Masonic fraternity throughout the
United States, the Masons of this jurisdiction have learned
with pleasure of your visit to this country, and are desir-
ous of extending to you such a welcome as shall manifest
not only their respect for you personally, but their honor
for your high Masonic office, and their fraternal regard for
their English brethren of the mystic tie.”
Mr. Stansbury said he should do hiinself the honor of
calling on his Lordship, in his official character, to tender a
friendly greeting at such time as he might be pleased to
appoint to receive him. Earl De Grey appointed a time,
and, in accordance with the invitation, Grand Master Stans-
bury called on Lord de Grey and Lord Tenterden the fol-
lowing day, and was very cordially received. After a
-144-
pleasant interchange of friendly and fraternal sentiments,
Mr Stansbury verbally invited Earl De Grey to a reception
and banquet at Masonic Hall on the 10th inst, which was
cordially accepted. Invitations were also extended to Lord
Tenterden, of the High Commission ; Mr. Slylemon Le
Stronge, Secretary of the British Legation ; Sir John Mc-
Donald and Mr. Northcote, son of Sir Stafford Northcote,
of the High Commission, which were duly accepted. The
Committee appointed by the Grand Lodge to arrange the
preliminaries of the banquet also extended invitations to
the Grand Masters of the Masons of all the States of the
Union to be present on the occasion, and these, together
with the distinguished English brethren, were the only
guests invited.
Letters of acceptance were received from the following
Grand Masters; John L. Holbrook, Pennsylvania, P. G.
M.; John T. Heard, Deputy for G. M William Sewell
Gardner, Massachusetts ; Asa Smith, Connecticut ; R. A.
Lamberton, Pennsylvania ; John C. McCabe, Delaware ;
John H. B. Latrobe, Maryland ; Alex. H. Newcomb,
Ohio; Samuel Lawrence, Georgia ; and Jackson Orr,
Deputy for John Scott, Iowa.
This evening the Masons assembled, about 170 in num-
ber, including eight Senators and thirty-four members of
the House, among them members of former Committees
on Foreign Affairs. When Earl de Grey was escorted
into the Grand Lodge-room he was invited to occupy the
Grand Master's chair, and after a few minutes had passed
Grand Master Stansbury delivered an address breathing
the warmest words of fraternal welcome. Earl de Grey,
in response, spoke as follows:
“Most WORSHIPFUL SIR AND BROTHERS : I trust you
-145-
will permit me to return to you and to the Grand Lodge
of the District of Columbia my most grateful thanks for
the very kind and fraternal welcome which you have given
me on this occasion. I assure you, Sir, that I esteem it
the greatest honor to have thus been received, and to have
had the opportunity of being presented by you to the
Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, an honor which
I am well aware I owe not to my personal worth, but to
the fact-and the most important and significant fact—that
I am the representative of the Grand Lodge of England,
holding the highest office that can be conferred upon a
Mason in England, that of Grand Master. And, Sir, I
esteem it a most fortunate occasion--fortunate for me as
an individual, and fortunate for Masonry in both countries,
that there should at length have taken place so close a
union between Masonry in America and Masonry in Eng-
land, and that you should now, for the first time, as you
tell me, receive within the walls of this important Grand
Lodge of Free Masons the Grand Master of England. We
all know that fraternity is the first principle of Masonry,
and therefore it is that all must rejoice at everything
which tends to bind more closely together the Masons'
different countries. I, Sir, esteem myself very fortunate
indeed to have had it in my power to attend here to-night.
I shall carry away from this Grand Lodge the most grate-
ful recollections of your kindness. I shall make it my first
duty to tell my brethren in England of the magnificent
reception which has been accorded to their Grand Master
to-night. and I am confident that I do not misinterpret the
feelings with which they will receive the information when
I see them. They will rejoice that the first step has been
taken which will tend to a closer and more intimate union
-146-
LI
between American and English masses -[great applause]
a union which, for my part, I have always believed ex-
isted; but which, I believe, will be closer and more inti-
mate in the future.”.
: The Earl was applauded as he resumed his seat. A
recess was taken to enable the brethren to be presented
to the Earl de Grey. Lord Tenterden was also the recip-
ient of attention. The latter is Grand Master of Harmony
Lodge, England. After these greetings were over, the
company proceeded to the Music Hall, which was appro-
priately decorated. The banner of the Grand Lodge was
displayed in the east end of the room, and to the right and
left were hung the portraits of George Washington and
Queen Victoria, while the walls were draped with Amer-
ican and British flags. The company sat down to the
banquet. At the removal of the cloth a table lodge was
opened, and the gavel of the Grand Lodge was supreme,
as in the Grand Lodge. The Grand Master, C. F. Stans-
bury, wore the apron and sash and used the gavel which
förmed part of the insignia of Washington. None but
Masons were admitted to any of the ceremonies. Even
the caterers, servants, and musicians, belong to the fra-
ternity.
Grand Master Stansbury called the brethren to order,
and extended to all a fraternal welcome. Several toasts
were given and responded to, when Earl de Grey was
brought to his feet by a complimentary allusion to him
and to his mission, and to his high position as a Mason.'
The Earl said :
6. Most Worshipful Sir and Brethren, I beg to return
you my most grateful thanks for the very kind reception
which you have been pleased to give me this evening. I
---147-
feel proud of this reception, because I know that it has
been accorded to me as the representative of the great
body of English Masons, [applause,] and, therefore, I
think I may venture to say, accorded to me as the repre-
sentative of my country. [Great applause. ] The leading
principle of our ancient craft is that of fraternity for all
who belong to it, whatever be the race or nation to which
he holds allegiance; and therefore it will not be wonderful
that Americans should be willing to greet with a fraternal
welcome any foreigner who might come among them.
But, Sir, I do not feel that here in the United States I
ought to call myself a foreigner. [Long-continued ap-
plause.] I am constantly forgetting that I am not at
home. While it is true that our fraternity extends beyond
the bounds of nationality, it is no less true that, upon
every Masonic principle, the ties which ought to bind
American and English Masons are of a peculiar class and
dear character; for, Sir, they would greatly err who
thought that the fraternity of Masonry was of an order
which made men forget their patriotism. I believe that
all true Masons are inspired by the warmest feelings of
patriotism. It was through the brethren of our ancient
fraternity in England, the Masons of the United States
obtained their first charter, and that added one more to
the many ties by which American and English Masons
are bound together. Sir, the remarks which you have
made this evening, the speeches to which we have just
listened, and particularly the remarks which you have
addressed to us in another place, in respect to those ties
which bind together the two countries, left very little for
me to say ; but I am reminded of an old English election
story which is connected with the name of Mr. Burke,
-148
who, going out to argue with an opponent, was so elo-
quent that his opponent refrained to essay a reply further
than to exclaim, 'I say ditto.' As it is, Sir, I have little
to say on that part of the subject, except that I say "ditto'
to the Most Worshipful Grand Master. I shall carry with
me recollections of the deepest gratitude. I shall take
back with me to my Grand Lodge an account of the occur-
rences here to-night, and I am confident, when I relate
them, they will be received with but one feeling in that
distant Masonic assembly ”
The festivities were kept up to a late hour, and the cus-
tomary toasts were responded to.
In order to a full understanding of the sig.
nificance of this banquet, it should be remem-
bered that the English aristocracy have need
of Masonry, and that Masonry has great need
of treaties of peace, and of whatever other
prominent incidents of life that may be made
to give it importance in the estimation of the
people. Masonry had great need of the treaty
of Washington as an advertisement of its own
grandeur and power; but the treaty had no
need of Masonry in any shape.*
* This extraordinary exhibition of sham, imposed upon an intelligent
Amerioan people, in quiet mockery of their republican institutions, and
through the connivance and acquiescence of members of Congress, was
done, let it be borne in mind, as the finale of the much-boasted course
of war-policy of Mr. Seward, an American Statesman who began his dis-
tinguished career as an ardent anti-Mason, and who continued, at a late
period of his life, to ilash out eloquential fire against Masonic shams
and corruptions !
149-
ern
When the members of the legislative branch
of a great and free government, in which the
majority rules, resort to those secret, covert
ways which are pursued by the weak, the ill-
designing, or the illegitimate few, it should
awaken the concern of every lover of free,
republican institutions. Secret, indirect de-
monstrations are always the means resorted
to by the few in order to govern the many ;
for where the majority rules, what is the use
of secrecy? It is treasonable under such a
government to conceal truth from the knowl:
edge of the people, or resort to indirection
for their management; for it implies that they
and their government are not capable of man,
aging affairs for themselves. It lowers that
scope of manhood which was contemplated
by our constitution, and tends to sink the peo-
ple to a lower level. The proclivities of the
Masonic organization are low. It is designed
perhaps, at best, as a kind of mediatorial
power between man and absolutism; but its
mediation operates downwards, and not up-
wards, like that of the Christian religion. Its
practices dwarf and belittle men in such a way,
-150—
that all its pompous titles, lofty pretensions,
and assumed sanctity, can ill serve to give it
a respectable elevation of character, even in
its own especial sphere of looking after wid-
ows and orphans, of which it would seem to
claim the almost exclusivé monopoly.
government be awakened when we discover
that not only has the secret power intrenched
itself in the bosom of Congress, but it has also
taken possession of the Executive. During the
when the government established by the con-
stitution was endeavoring to check his unre-
publican career by impeachment, he made a
vehement appeal to the powers of the “invis-
ible empire" for support. Among his other
demonstrations for their favor, he led up a
shining throng of seven thousand Masonic
Knights Templar to the silent tomb of a Dem.
ocratic notable, to renew again the memories
of the triple alliance between Democracy,
Slavery, and Masonry, and thus to resist the
republican movement of the people. Again
he headed ten thousand Masons in long pro-
-151-
cession, brilliant with insignia, signs, symbols,
emblems and allegories, through the streets
of the Puritan capital of New England, to
dedicate a Masonic temple, whose worship is
utterly inimical to that of the Puritans ! Still
again, he received a great Masonic ovation in
Baltimore; and at another time he reviewed
a mute, significative, and determined corps of
the Masonic army at the White House. And
during all these displays of the Masonic power
and influence with the Executive, it is remark-
able that the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward,
who had been particularly distinguished for
his opposition to Masonry all his life, stood
and looked on in silence, without raising a
warning voice. He seemed under a strange
sort of serpentine charm, or paralysis, and re-
mained passive, like thousands of other poli-
ticians who, though chosen to serve the State,
yet through motives of fear, policy, ambition,
or interest, let the aggression on free govern-
TA
::.
:.
-152-
1
Se
ment proceed, without showing the least sign
of disapprobation.*
The Masonic demonstration or triumph
exhibited by President Johnson in Boston, is
of a remarkable character in the progress of
secret association in the United States, and
merits a careful and attentive examination.
For this purpose extracts from the newspaper
accounts of it are given below. The cere-
mony took place in 1867, on the 24th of June,
called the day of St. John the Baptist, whom
the Masons claim as one of their order, but
with whom Nasons have no more to do than
ancient monks had with his head, which they
pretended to hold in possession at many dif-
ferent places at one and the same time. There
are in fact few persons whose characters are
more diametrically opposed to the demonstra-
are
* The period of most active aggression of Masonry in the United
States may be considered, perhaps, as extending from about the year
1850 to the present time ; and where men in prominent office during
that period have failed to give warning to their constituents of the
danger to liberty from the wily, insidious approaches of Secret Associa-
tion, they may justly be regarded as having failed in their duty to the
country. Much worse still does the case become when legislators,
pussing from a state of passive acquiescence, proceed to positive acts
of commission, and grant charters to Masonic Lodges ; for the Lodges
which they thus sanction, are as entirely unrepublican in structura as
they are in the character of their offices and titles.
1534
tional shams of Masonry than was that of
John the Baptist. He came to prepare the
way for a great reform, and not, like Masonry,
to occasion the need of one.'
On a par with this pretension of the mystic
fraternity in claiming John the Baptist as one
of their order, is the effort made to show that
this Boston demonstration had no political
significance, or bearing on the impeachment
question. The idea, however, seems to have
been entertained, that it did have a bearing
in that direction, as will be seen from the ac-
count; and it is very certain that the Presi.
dent was not impeached, though it is possible
that he might have been had the Lodge been
less powerful.
In the great procession the President's coach was drawn
by six chestnut-colored horses, and flanked by a guard of
honor of the Boston Encampment Knights Templar, num.
bering twenty-four, armed with gold-headed spears. All
along the route the President was cheered by the men,
while the ladies in the balconies and windows waved their
handkerchiefs. The President stood much of the time
bowing with hat in hand, in acknowledgment of these
compliments. Bouquets were occasionally thrown into the
carriage, and the fact that he caught in his hand a large
bunch of flowers thrown by a young lady from a window,
INC
-154
elicited renewed applause, and holding the bouquet toward
the fair donor, he made a low bow. There was much en-
thusiasm everywhere exhibited. Many words of compli.
ment to the President were loudly uttered, and the only
peachment.” The Somerset Club at their house cheered
lustily for Banks and the President. The coach halting
repeatedly, enabled mothers to present their little children
to the notice of the President. He gave them a kind
word, and more than once availed himself of the opportu-
nity of a kiss. Bostonians say that never before to-day
was there a time when politics were so successfully exclu-
and many are glad to have the President among them in
order that they may express their respect for him as the
Chief Magistrate and as a fellow-citizen, irrespective of the
Notwithstanding the Masons commenced assembling at
8 o'clock this morning, it was 5 o'clock when they com-
pleted their marching programme and reached the Boston
Music Hall, where, after the usual preliminaries before a
dense auditory, the oration was delivered by Rev. W. S.
Stadley, Past Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts. His theme was the origin, moral rank,
and offices of Free Masonry. I
.. The original ode was sung, and the ceremonies were
brought to a close with a prayer, the doxology and bene-
diction.
.
THE BANQUÉT AND SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT.
On leaving Music Hall, the President, escorted by the
Grand Lodge, returned to the new Masonic Temple, where
—155—
a banquet had been prepared in the Egyptian Hall. After
the usual festivities, the Grand Master, in a few remarks,
alluded to the presence of their distinguished guest, and
proposed as the first toast one which he said was always
drank at all Masonic celebrations . The President of the
United States."
The President replied as follows :
: :
BROTHERS: In responding to the toast which you have
just drank, I can only tender you my sincere thanks for
the reception that I have received in coming here to-day,
Had I intended or felt inclined to make an address, I must
freely say language would have been inadequate to express
the emotions which have been awakened in me by so cor-
dial a welcome. But I must leave my intelligent brothers
to infer what I should have said or ought to have said.
If it were necessary to make any excuses for not address-
ing you on this occasion, I might put forward those that
have already been suggested by the Grand Master-first,
that I must absent myself from the remaining part of this
celebration, and next, the severe press that has been made
upon me since leaving Washington. To day, as you all
know, (such of you as have participated in its labors,) has
been one of work, not one of play. Gentlemen, I. regard
the demonstrations made to-day, and the manifestation of
feeling that has been exhibited on this occasion, as the
beginning of a new era in Masonry ; for it seems to me
the prejudice, and, I was going to say the incrustation,
which has rested upon Masonry for a long number of
years, seems, from the demonstration to-day, to have been
broken. As I.am before you, I cannot repress or restrain
myself from calling your attention to this fact. I have
witnessed many Masonic celebrations, and have participa-
-156-
ted in many, and I have heard the jeers and taunts cast
upon them as the brethren have turned out in their ap-
propriate attire, but on this occasion let me ask every man
and brother that has been here to-day if he did not feel
that he was a man, and that he was willing to wear and
exhibit and to put on Masonry and all its appendages.
One of the most remarkable things to-day has been, that,
notwithstanding things have been a little mixed through-
out this vast procession-this countless crowd—I have not
heard the first expression of acrimony. [Loud applause.]
Hence the remark I made, that we have commenced a new
era, and now when Masonry is being developed, and its
great principles being understood, it is pleasing for us to
know that its principles embrace the universe, and are co-
extensive with humanity. Having reached this great
end, all that is necessary is energy and progress, and the
consummation of the great objects of Masonry will be ac-
complished. I should not have visited Massachusetts, at
least on the present occasion, had it not been for the order
of Masonry. I came in good faith for the express purpose
of participating and witnessing the dedication of this tem-
ple to-day to Masonry, and as far as I could, let it be
much or little, to give my countenance and my sanction.
I have shown no restraint, for I have felt none, and in this,
as in most things in which I have participated, I have first
satisfied myself that I was right, and that being so, have
left consequences to take care of themselves. And now
this great termination being reached, we must rejoice in
the triumph of the living, the indestructible principles,
which have pervaded the fraternity from its advent till
the present time. I did not rise, my brothers, for the
purpose of making a speech, and I had not intended to
-157-
say as much as I have. I do this, however, by way of
episode. There are some, perhaps, who would not be
prepared to concede that I am not loquacious. I am not,
as a general thing, however, very garrulous or loquacious.
The little of talking I have done has been more a matter
of necessity than of choice ; but when compelled to speak,
I care not before what audience or tribunal it has been-
when truth, when principle, when my country, when the
great cause of the human family was at stake I have
spoken. I have done so in times gone by when the very
existence of my Government and my country was imper-
illed. I believe that the great principles of Masonry are
synonymous with the great principles of free government,
and if my brothers will examine my public career from
my advent in political life till the present time, I think
they will find that I have been true to both. Although
personally a stranger to Massachusetts, I am her intimate
friend and acquaintance, and politically it matters not
where we are, whether in the East'or the West, the North
or the South, when these great principles come up. Men
that understand them can act in concert and harmony.
I have never failed to defend the Order, though the Fra-
ternity have passed through many severe ordeals which
have tried and subjected its votaries to tests of the most
excruciating character. I care not whether it is religion
or politics, or both combined, in the pursuit and in support
of a correct principle I never hesitated to express my views.
I live for principle, I am devoted to principle, and I take
fresh courage from the demonstrations which have been
made by the people of the good city of Boston and of the
State of Massachusetts. I thank you for that demonstra-
tion-a manifestation of feeling, and an outburst, as it
-158
were, of popular sentiment which has rarely been equalled,
and I doubt whether one like it ever occurred in the Uni-
ted States or elsewhere. In conclusion, I have to say I
am here by your invitation, and I thank you for it.
Though I am pretty well advanced in life, I hope I may
be spared for some time longer; and I do assure you that
the remembrance of this occasion will be green and fresh
in my memory when I shall go down to the grave. I am
gratified, more than gratified, that I have had an opportu-
nity to participate in the ceremonies here to-day. Then,
in leaving the party here to-night, and in bidding you
good bye, let me leave with you the sincere thanks of a
heart that beats for the Order and a common country.
Fraternally and affectionately I bid you farewell, and
may God bestow upon you His choicest blessings.". [Ap-
plause. ]
REMARKS OF ĠEN. ROUSSEAU AND GEN. BANKS.
The next toast, “ Our Country,” which it was intended
should be responded to by Mr. Seward, was acknowledged
by Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, who spoke as follows :
“ GENTLEMEN : I am directed by Mr. Seward to tender
his thanks to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for the
honor of the invitation to dine with them. He requested
me to say that family affliction has prevented his accept-
ance of it. Since the loss of his daughter, some months
ago, he has not on any occasion attended a festival or any-
thing of that sort. He has also requested me to express
to you his kind reception of the invitation, and tender his
regret that he could not accept it."
· The President then withdrew from the platform, and
was immediately surrounded by his Mas :nic friends, who
--159—
cordially shook him by the hand, and congratulated him
on the happy events of the day. He was then, together
with Gen. Rousseau, conducted to the reception room and
thence to his hotel, accompanied by several prominent
members of the Order. On reaching the Tremont House
he was met by ex-President Pierce, who had just arrived
from New Hampshire especially to pay his respects to
him..
At the banquet, after the President retired, Gen. Banks
was loudly called for, and in responding, made a few brief
remarks. After alluding to the visit of the President and
the cordial welcome he had received, he said he was glad
he had given the warm-hearted people of New England
an opportunity to show how they felt toward a man who
had been honored with the suffrages of the people. He
was glad the President had given them opportunity to
show that the citizens of Massachusetts, aye, the citizens
of New England, without regard to personal or polit cal
opinions, in presence of the head of the Government, dis-
missed all prejudices and all partisan considerations, and
displayed that honor to the Government which it had a
just right to expect. Then passing on to the Masonic.
celebration, he said there was nothing wanting in this
country more than the fraternizing of the people. If the
people of the different sections of the country would cnly
fraternize with each other as they ought, now that the
facilities of travel and communication were so perfect,
many of the trials which had distressed us, and which had
threatened the destruction of the Government, would be
avoided, and in the festivities of the day he saw a bright
and cheering indication that there was one platform and
one association where, independent of all politics and
-160—
all religion, the people of the country could come together
upon the basis of social fellowship and fraternal feeling.
[Applause).
It will be noted from the above statements,
that little children were held up to greet the
Masonic President ; that Masons every where,
North and South, and perhaps all over the
world, always lead off in their banquets by a
toast to the “President of the United States ;'
that “it is pleasing for us to know that Ma-
sonic principles embrace the universe and are
co-extensive with humanity,” and that Ma-
sonry is a platform, above both religion and
politics, upon which the people of the country
can come together on the basis of social fel-
lowship and fraternal feeling.
The successor of Mr. Johnson, Gen. Grant,
though a military man, and one therefore who
should see the impossibility of maintaining
military discipline where Masonry prevails,
has been quite as demonstrational for Masonic
favor as any of his predecessors. As Presi-
dent of the United States, and candidate for
a second term of office, and accompanied by
the Vice-President, Schuyler Colfax, who may
161-
be regarded as the great head in America of
a secret ring of religious pretensions got up
in the great manufacturing city of Manches-
ter, England-the General sought and ob-
tained the favor of another Masonic corner-
stone laying in Boston. He and the Vice-
President, the two highest officers of a great,
free, and Christian people, kept serious faces
over the Masonic mawmetries of laying the
corner-stone of an already half-built post-office,
amidst a crowd of wondering if not admiring
Puritans ! *
It will be said, perhaps, in palliation of this
act, that Washington did pretty nearly the
same thing, though on a very much larger
scale, in assisting at the first corner-stone cer-
emonies of the capitol of the country; but
sonry of Washington gives no greater sanc-
tion, as a precedent, to the Masonry of the
United States of the present day, than did the
* The General had previously, June 3d, 1869, recognized the especial
claims of the fraternity to consideration from Republican government,
by ordering a forr days leave of absence to be granted to all the
“Knights Templar" employed in the Executive Departments, to attend
one of their peculiar demonstrations of glitter and pompous display in
the Quaker City of Philadelphia.
-162—
TS
slave-holding of the Patriarch Abraham to the
institution of African slavery, to sanction
which it used formerly to be advanced.
If, in addition to the Executive and Legis.
lative branches of the government, the Judi-
ciary should also become imbued with Ma.
sonry ;—if the Lodge becomes established as
a secret power behind our courts of justice,
corrupting their counsels and perverting their
decisions, then the people must come to lose
all faith in their laws, all confidence in their
institutions, which they have hitherto consid-
ered so blessed, and will be ready for a change
to some other form of government. The
work of transmutation will already have be-
come virtually accomplished.
· In order to show the character of the mod-
ern aggressions of Masonry upon the Christian
religion, seeking to rob it of its sacred rites,
as the apostate Julian did of its benevolent
institutions, the following extracts are given,
one from one of the current New York news-
papers of the day, and the other from the
Washington Star.
--163
MABONTO BAPTISMAL CEREMONY IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH. ***
Yesterday, being St. John the Baptist's day, and a Ma-
sonic festival, the Sisters of the Eastern Star selected it
as most appropriate for the baptism of one of their prote-
ges, the son of a Royal Arch Mason. The ceremony took
place in St. John's Church, Varick street, under the aus-
pices of Alpha Chapter No. 1, Order of the Eastern Star,
the boy being baptized by R. W. and Rev. D. Weston,
Past Grand Chaplain of this State and pastor of the church,
which has recently been very handsomely fitted up and
renovated. Among those present were delegates from
Esther Chapter No. 2, Delta Chapter No. 3, and Olive
Branch Chapter No. 7, Sisters of the Eastern Star, and
the following prominent Masons : M. W. Robert D.
Holmes, Past Grand Master; R. W. Robert Macoy, Past
Deputy Grand Master ; R. W. Fred. W. Herring, M. E.
Wm. T. Woodruff, R. W. John Boyd, W. Geo W. Dilks,
P. M. “Eureka.”. W. Geo. F. Alexander, Master of Eure-
ka, and members from various Chapters and Lodges, in-
cluding the Southern States and Cuba. The baptismal
name given to the child is George William “ Aster,'s
meaning “Star,” and applying to the Chapter under
whose auspices the ceremony took place. The sponsors
on the occasion were Mrs. George W. Dilks, Past Presi-
dent of Alpha Chapter; Mrs. W. A. Johnson, present
W. Matron of the Chapter ; W. Bro. Geo. W. Dilks, P.
M. of Eureka, and Comp. J. K. Larke, of California.
After the Episcopal service was ended, R. W. Robert
Macoy, as Grand Secretary of the Order of the Eastern
Star, advanced and placed around the child's neck a jewel,
consisting of a gold keystone, with the star in the place of
the mystic mark of H. A., attached to a handsome blue
—1644
.
ribbon, as a memento of the event then completed. On
the jewel was the name of the child, date of birth and
baptism, with the place and circumstances under which
the ceremony took place. It is almost needless to add.
that the attendance of brethren and sisters was large and
the services well attended. *
From the Washington Star, April 30, 1872.
MASONIC BAPTISM.
A REMARKABLE CEREMONY-CONSECRATION TO VIRTUE AND
TRUTH—THE WARDS OF THE LODGE.
The first public Masonic baptism of children which has
ever taken place in the District, was performed last night
in the chapter chamber, Masonic Temple, in the presence
of a large number of Masons, their wives and daughters.
The children were an infant son of Dr. Joseph W. Nairn,
32d degree, and a son of Mr. E.B. MacGrotty, 18th degree,
who were baptizedin Mithras Lodge of Perfection, Ancient
Scottish Rite, which is the Consistory of this Masonic Ju-
risdiction. The rite was performed by Thrice Illustrious
P. G. M. Albert Pike, assisted by Illustrious J. O. Sin-
clair, S. G. W.; Illustrious L. H. Pike, J. G. W.; C. W.
Bennett, Grand Orator ; W. M. Ireland, Master of Cere-
monies ; B. F. Hedrich, Senior Deacon ; C. T. Nutze,
Junior Deacon ; Rev. Mr. Harris, Chaplain ; H. J. Mar-
tin, Secretary ; and L. Stoddard, Tiler. The ceremony
This blending of Masonry and Episcopacy is the more remarkable
when it is considered that the former prescribes oaths which are virtu-
ally prohibited by the 39 Articles of Religion to the members of the
latter. A common Jew, Turk, or Buddhist, might administer a Masonic
oath ; but the Episcopalian, by the 39th Article, is to take oaths only
from the magistrate ; and those not the vain, merciless, truthless oaths,
without sense or judgment, which are prescribed by Masonry,
-165-
of Masonic baptism has always been celebrated in the An-
cient and Accepted Scottish Order. It has been censured by
many as an irreverent imitation of the Christian rite of
baptism ; but well-informed Masons know that purification
by washing was used in all the mysteries thousands of
years before our era. After the assembly had been seated,
Grand Master Pike gave a short history of the ceremony,
saying that it taught neither hatred, intolerance, nor re-
venge. After a voluntary on the organ by Bro. Servoss,
a rap was heard at the door, and information given that
two children, with their parents, desired admission, the
parents praying that their children might be baptized,
when the Master directed the Master of Ceremonies and
his aids to bring the children, their parents and sponsors
into the Lodge. Soon after, the Master of Ceremonies
returned, followed by one of his assistants, bearing a can-
dlestick with three lighted candles, one white, one black,
and one red, forming a triangle. Following, were two
assistants, one carrying the child of Dr. Nairn, Robert
Brice Nairn, upon a cushion covered with light blue silk,
the other leading the child of Mr. MacGrotty, Edwin Al-
bert MacGrotty ; and behind these came the parents of
the children and the sponsors. The sponsors for the son
of Dr. Nairn were Dr. J. B. Gibbs, 32d degree, and Car-
oline E. Davis ; for Master MacGrotty, Jerome C. Davis,
32d degree, and Mrs. M. Walker. After the third circuit
of the room, the procession halted, and the candlestick
was placed before the altar, and the children returned to
their mothers, who, with the sponsors, took their seats
in the center of the room. The Masonic choir then sang,
“My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord.” After an oration by
the Master, in which he explained the duties and respon-
166-
'
sibilities which the Lodge was about to assume in confer-
ring the rite. he then asked the fathers : “ Are you will-
ing that we should accept these duties ?" An affirmative
response being given, the Master called upon the Chaplain
to invoke the favor and assistance of God, which was done,
the brethren all kneeling. The choir then sang the ode,
“Rejoice, Rejoice, Fond Mothers." The sponsors then
took seats near the parents, when the Master addressed
them in relation to the duties they were taking upon
themselves. After an invocation to the Deity, and music,
the children, parents and sponsors were then conducted
forward to the altar, on which water, oil and salt were
placed. The Master then called the Lodge up, descended
from his throne, and, after a few words addressed to the
group, lighted the incense on the altar. After a chant by
the choir, the Master took the children severally in his
arms, dipped their left hands in a basin of perfumed water,
and said : “By this symbol I devote thee (in each case)
to the service of virtue and truth. May our Father who
is in Heaven keep thee innocent and pure of heart all the
days of thy life.” During this ceremony the choir sang
an appropriate ode. The Master then took the vessel of
perfumed oil, dipped the little finger of his right hand
therein, and marked with it a delta on the forehead of
each child, saying, “I set upon thy forehead the symbol
of wisdom, power, and love of God. May He protect and
guide thee in right courses all the days of thy life ;” the
choir singing, meanwhile, the chant, “ Blessed are the un-
defiled in the way.” The Master then replaced the vessel
on the altar, and stretching out his hands toward the
children, invoked a blessing upon them. The children
and those in charge of them were conducted to their seats,
-167-
and the choir sang an appropriate vde. The god-mothers
then placed them at the altar of obligation : the brethren
present formed in a circle around them, each with his left
hand on his heart and his right hand raised toward Heav-
en; all then kneeled and repeated, after the Master, the
solemn vow to protect the children from all danger and
temptation until their arrival at maturity. After rising,
the Master, taking the vessel of salt in his hand, repeated
the Arab vow which sanctifies the enemy with whom he
has tasted salt, and, placing a portion of the salt on his
tongue, said : “ With this salt I seal my vow." The ker-
sel was then passed to each brother, who in turn repeated
the vow. The children were then invested with lamb-
skin aprons, and each was presented with a Masonic jewel;
the Master saying: “In the name and under the auspices
of the Supreme Council, I do proclaim these children con-
secrated to the service of truth and virtue by Masonic
baptism and anointing, after the ancient custom of Masonry;
to be wards of the Mithras Lodge of Perfection.” This
was repeated in turn by the venerable Grand and Senior
Wardens. After more music, the orator delivered a brief
lecture, after which two young ladies, in conformity with
à law of the Scottish rite, passed among the assemblage
and received contributions from all who chose to give, the
same, so collected, to be given by the Grand Almoner to
the most needy person or persons known to him, the
source from which it comes, in pursuance of inviolable
custom, not to be made known. A closing chant concluded
the ceremonies.
Passing from religion to politics and war,
two other newspaper slips are here added,
-168-
which relate to French affairs of recent date,
and which will show the workings of Free
Masonry among the French people-a people
who usually hurry matters to their logical
consequences, and who furnish us with the
lofty idea of the so called “Internationals."
. THE COMMUNE.
17
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN PARIS AND VERSAILLES-MEDIATION
OF THE FREEMASON8.
“On the morning of April 29,” says the correspondent
of the London Telegraph, "in the neighborhood of the
Louvre were collected crowds, awaiting the Free Masons
M. Thiers' name was often mentioned, and as often cursed.
About 6,000 Masons, with the insignia of the order,
scarfs, &c., and sixty-five banners, met in the court-yard
of the Louvre. Nine members of the Commune accom-
panied them to the Hotel de Ville, with the Generals and
superior officers at their head. There was considerable
cheering among the crowd of Vive la Republique ! Vive
la Commune !' The banner-bearers entered the Hotel
de Ville, afterward proceeding to the scene of combat.
In the Champs Elysees, before reaching the Arc de Tri-
omphe, considerable numbers of the Free Masons left the
procession-but about 250 proceeded down the Avenue
de l'Imperatrice. They had scarcely gone fifty yards
when Porte Maillot fired on the Versaillists. Mont Vale-
rien replied immediately. At that moment a delegate of
the Commune, mounted on a temporary rostrum, was ad-
dressing the people near the Arch, who, excited by his

--169-
words, were shouting Vive la Commune !". The first
shell from Valérien struck the Arch, No one was hurt,
The people fled in confusion. Shells began to fall fast.
The Free Masons, undeterred, marched steadily on, and
planted their banners on the ramparts. From Porte Dau-
phine, in the Avenue de l'Impératrice, to Porte Asnières,
the firing ceased. At 3 P. M. a deputation of 50 Masons
was permitted to go to Rucil. One hundred and twenty
Lodges were represented in the procession. At 4 o'clock
the Avenue de la Grande Armée was crowded. A shell
came from the Point de Neuilly, by accident, it is supposed.
The people fled. In the neighborhood of the Arc de Tri-
omphe about twenty civilians were wounded. In the
afternoon a shell fell at No. 88 Champs Elysées—a gen-
tleman was cut in two."
Telegraphing on April 30, the correspondent of the
Daily News says: “The manifestation of the Freemasons
is not over yet. The delegates declare there is a possibil-
ity of bringing about a conciliation if certain concessions
are made, of which the principal are—that the Ministers
who were members of the Trochu government shall quit
the Thiers government; that Paris shall elect not only its
own Municipal Council, but also its Mayor; and that the
police of Paris shall be entirely under the control of the
Municipal Council. Several venerables among the Free-
masons protest against the action of the body. It is quite
right, they say, that it should strive for peace and good will,
but the Freemasons in joining a political party go out of
their sphere.” A later telegram through Mr. Reuter's
office states that two of the Masons were received by M.
Thiers, on April 29. They stated that they had no author-
ity from the Commune. M. Thiers made a reply similar
-170
to those he has already given on like occasions, saying
that no one desired more than he did the conclusion of
this civil war, but France could not yield to insurgents.
He added that they ought to address themselves to the
Commune, in order to restore peace, which had by it been
disturbed.
* .
DOINGS OF THE FREEMASONS.
The Freemasons have been cutting a sorry figure here.
With the rest of the French nation, the brotherhood ap-
pears to have taken clean leave of its senses. A Captain
of National Guards was seen by me yesterday in a high
state of ebulition, shaking hands with sergeants, corporals
and privates, to whom he announced the gratifying intel-
ligence that a truce of twenty one days had been agreed
upon in consequence of Marshal McMahon refusing to
carry on operations against Freemasons.* A number of
these lunatics planted banners on the bastions a few days
ago, convinced that no soldiers would dare to fire on the
sacred triangles. Such, however, was not the case, and
an indignation meeting was held at Dourlan’s. At the
conclusion of the sitting, Brother Sevacque, who had
planted a white flag bearing the inscription, “ Let us
love one another," near the Maillot Gate, laid on the table
two fragments of shell which had perforated that banner;
* It is for the people to decide whether they will listen to preachers
of the gospel who hind themselves in secret to the observance of idola-
trous practices ; but officers of the army and navy, and the clerks of
departments, as well as members of the national judiciary, should be
* prohibited from taking oaths which are not prescribed by the laws of
the country. Neither the narrowness of the superstition of Masopry,
por the binding force of its obligations, is suitable to the character of
• intelligent, patriotic servitors of a free peuple ; and especially where
snob servitors have been educated at the people's expense. .
171—
other flags had been pierced with bullets ard staffs broken.
The recital of these lamentable facts created, we are told,
a lively emotion in the bosom of the assembly, and amidst
cries of “ Vive la Republic!" it was decided that the frag-
ments of shell should be placed in the Grand Orient, which
is the headquarters of the Masons. There was another
gathering of the brotherhood the next day on the Place
de la Concorde, when the venerables and others amused
themselves by shouting Vive l’ Alsace !" in front of the
statue of Strasbourg. To me the whole nation, never
very sound of mind, appears to have gone utterly and
hopelessly mad.
As one of the last steps and latest develop-
ments in the progress of Masonry, our sketch
would hardly be complete without a refer-
ence to Ku-Kluxism. This branch of the
mystic brotherhood will serve to show the
real tendencies of Masonic arts when not
restrained and liinited by the elevating influ-
ences of a pure, uncorrupted, Christian relig.
ion. Everybody of the present day has
heard of the monstrous crimes which are
committed by the secret order” of Ku-Klux-
es, and therefore it is unnecessary for us to
repeat them. Suffice it to say that even Con-
gress, although containing among its mem-
bers many secret society men, has found...
..-172-
itself compelled, for the sake of humanity, to
enact the most stringent laws against them;
by which poor, ignorant, misguided men in
the South are tried, condemned, and dragged
from their homes to be incarcerated in the
prisons of the North.*
· The Hon. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland,
who went to Columbia, South Carolina, to
defend some of these Ku-Klux criminals as
their attorney and counsel, found their acts
of such an utterly abhorrent nature that he
was forced to raise his voice against them,
even at their trial. In his address to the Jury
he made the following remarks:
“ I have listened with horror to some of the testimony
which has been brought before you. The outrages proved
have been shocking to humanity; they admit neither of
justification nor excuse; they violate every obligation
which law and nature impose upon men. These men
appear to have been alike insensible to the obligations of
humanity and religion; but the day will come, however,
if it has not already arrived, when they will deeply lament
it. Even if justice should not overtake them, there is
* Nothing surely could be more unjust and tyrannical than for.legis.
lators to set, in their own persons, examples that would lead the igno-
rant to the violation of law, and then pass stringent laws for the pan.
ishment of the violators.
--173-
another tribunal from which there is no escape. It is
their own conscience, that tribunal which sits in the
breast of every living man, that still small voice that
thrills through the heart, and as it speaks gives hap-
piness or torture — the voice of conscience -- the voice
of God. And if it has not already spoken to them in
tones which have waked them up to the enormity of
their conduct, I trust in the mercy of heaven that a
voice will speak before they shall be called to the dread
tribunal to account for their transactions in this world.”
These remarks may be fitly closed by the
description given us by the historian Rol-
lin, of the Pharisees, an order of men who
bore the same relation to the Mosaic dispen-
sation that Freemasons do to the Christian re-
ligion. Indeed, the ancient Pharisee would
seem to be the original type of the modern
Mason. Rollin says:—“The Pharisees piqued
themselves upon an exact observance of law;
to which they added a great number of tra-
ditions, that they pretended to have received
from their ancestors, and to which they much
more strictly adhered than to the law itself,
though often contrary to what the latter en-
joined. They acknowledged the immortal-
ity of the soul, and, in consequence, another
life after this. They affected an outside of
--174-
virtue, régularity, and austerity, which gained
them great consideration with the people.
But under that imposing appearance they
concealed the greatest vices; sordid avarice;
insupportable pride; an insatiable thirst of
honors and distinctions; a violent desire of
ruling alone; an envy, that rose almost to
fury, against all merit but their own; an ir-
reconcilable hatred for all who presumed to
contradict them; a spirit of revenge, capa-
ble of the most horrid excesses, and what was
still more their distinguishing characteristic,
and outdid all the rest, a black hypocrisy,
which always wore the mask of religion.”?
As has been said before, at nearly the close
of the first century of our national existence,
the roadway of empire now branches before
us. On the one hand stands the church and
the school-house, and on the other the Ma-
sonic lodge. It remains for the people of the
United States to decide which road they will
follow. A thorough-going, legitimate policy
for the management of the late war, would
have served to sweep away both slavery and
its Masonic ally; the sacrifice of blood and
175
enc
DULCE
treasure was more than sufficient to have ac-
complished that purpose; such debt as was
inevitably contracted, might, through the
national store of public lands, have been con-
verted into a perpetual common-school fund;
and even then, there would have been evils
enough left to tax the resources and energies
of our Republican form of government. If
that government is to be preserved, the peo-
ple have a very serious work of reform to ac-
complish - one of many years labor, and
which will be rendered difficult in proportion
to the rapidly increasing numbers of our pop-
ulation, and the widely variant characters of
which it is made up.
THE TAMMANY RING.
The object of every virtuous man
is the general good,... and
nothing is so essential to true virtue,
as an utter disregard of individual
advantage.
GODWIN'S POLITICAL JUSTICE.
The New York ring of speculative poli-
ticians that has of late years sprung from the
Tammany Society, may, as well as other
such combinations, lay claims to an ancient ori.
gin; for that society was established as long
ago as 1789. It was virtually a secret socia
ety in many of its more prominent features,
and seems to have been imitated from Mason-
ry. It had a double face; pretended to be
benevolent and charitable, while in reality it
was very unscrupulously political; it enabled
a few insiders to control the rank and file
who made up the mass of its members; loved
the social glass; was ambitious of foreign
alliances; pretended to be useful in averting
war and preserving the fraternity of mankind,
-1784-
helping them through some hard straits where
(perhaps,) a mere Christian spirit would have
failed; and, like Masonry, it dated its origin
a great way back, as far as the discovery of
America by Columbus, who was claimed as
one of its members, and, in fact, as its veri-
table founder.
A society of these pretensions easily found
a.charter of corporation in the State of New
York, which, though one of her citizens has
been murdered by Masonic law, ſinds no dif-
ficulty in these days, in granting corporate
powers to Masonic lodges, and in 1805 the
newly instituted close corporation assumed
the name of the “ Tammany Society, or
Columbian Order.” It was designated in
the charter as a charitable institution; and
the facts are that it did for a time bestow
"some pecuniary relief upon destitute patriots
and their widows and orphans. When, how-
ever, the hat went round for this purpose, a
certain amount was pretty sure to be expend.
ed at the same time for libations of liquor to
the generous donor. Among its good and be-
nevolent works was the founding of a Museum,
--179
which was destined to be finished only by their
successor to its glories, the well-known show-
man, Mr. Barnum. The tabernacle of the So-
ciety during its early years, was humble, like
that of Masonry, being a grog-shop, or tav-
ern, of which the members were the best cus-
tomers.
The politics of Tammany were d'emocrat-
ic, although its character was thoroughly
oligarchical; and already, in the eariy days
of its existence, Washington raised his warn-
ing voice, in his farewell address, against such
“combinations and associations.” Not many
years afterwards the demonstrations of the so-
ciety in the army, whither it had penetrated,
were considered so demoralizing and corrupt-
ive that they were prohibited by the Secre-
tary of War, as an injury to the discipline of
the troops.
Of the long and powerful sway of this be-
nevolent and charitable Columbian Order as
a political engine, from the day of its origin
down to the present time, it is unnecessary to
speak, for it is too well known to require com-
ment; but with respect to its more recent
-180-
achievements as a speculative ring, in which
politics are made the means of defrauding the
public of immense sums of money, a few ob-
servations are not out of place.
The people of the city of New York were
at length compelled to rise against the Ring,
in order to put a limit to the inconceivable
audacity of its exactions. They appointed an
extraordinary committee of seventy citizens
of character and standing to investigate the
proceedings of the clique which had got con-
trol of the city and its resources, and to bring
1
1871, the committee made a report of its la-
bors and discoveries, from which the follow-
ing is an extract:
“ FRAUDS ALMOST INCREDIBLE.”
"Every American will say: "It is incredible that this
has been done. But the history of the paradox is over
two years old. And it is a history of theft, robbery, and
forgery, which have stolen and divided twenty millions of
dollars; which have now run up the city debt from
$36,000,00.0 in 1869, to $97,000,000 in 1871, and which
will be $120,000,000 by August, 1872; which have paid
to these robbers millions of dollars for work never per-
formed and materials never furnished; which paid astound-
--181---
ingly exorbitant rents to them for offices and armories,
many of which were never occupied, and some of which
did not exist — which remitted their taxes, released their
indebtedness and remitted their rents, to the city due and
owing — which ran the machinery for widening; improv-
ing, and opening streets, parks, and boulevards, to enable
these men to speculate in assessed damages and greatly
enhanced values which created unnecessary offices with
large salaries and no duties, in order to maintain a force of
ruffianly supporters and manufacturers of votes, - which
used millions of dollars to bribe and corrupt newspapers,
the organs of public opinion, in violation of laws which
narrowly limited the public advertising — which camped
within the city a reserve army of voters by employing
thousands of laborers at large pay upon nominal work,
neither necessary nor useful - which bought legislatures
and purchased judgments from courts, both civil and crim-
inal."
"THE INFECTION OF VILLAINY."
“This Tammany Ring and its success are the marvel of
the world's politics. Without noise and without force,
almost without the public knowledge, they have accomp-
lished a revolution in the very heart of American Democ-
racy, and have established an oligarchy of robbers in the
place of a popular representative government. There is
reason to dread that, with electric infectiousness, the easy
and profitable villainy has spread from New York City to
the principal towns of the whole United States, till the Amer-
ican political system is menaced with a lingering typhoid
fever of scoundrelism that may burn virtue and maṇhood
all out of it. Certain it is that the spectacle of the legal
182-
possession of the municipality of New York City by an
organized band of thieves has alarmed and shocked all in
Europe who believed in Democracy in America. Certain
it is that popular government is now on trial there, and
that the verdict will take its color from what judgment we
shall render, and what judgment we shall execute against
the conspirators who have stolen our public liberties and
plundered our treasury.”
That a society of men, chartered by a State
Legislature, ostensibly for benevolent and
charitable purposes, yet notoriously managed
by the lowest and most tricky class of politi-
cians, should, in the course of about half a
century, result in such a ruinous abuse of pop-
ular confidence and popular government as re.
ported by the committee, may appear surpris-
ing and overwhelming to some; but it is not
more so, everything considered, than the fact
that there is hardly a newspaper in the coun-
- try which one takes up, that does not contain
some respectful notice of Masonry. The very
paper that contained the Committee's Report
might doubtless be found lauding, or at least
not bestowing adverse comment upon, some
Masonic demonstration published in its col.
umns, the inevitable tendency of which is to
-—183-
keep alive falsehood and sham under high-
sounding pretensions, and to shake the confi.
dence of thinking men in the sufficiency of our
free institutions. The press, which the free
citizen is taught to regard as the conservator
of his liberties, impresses upon the mind of
the public, day after day, a deep sense of the
importance of Masonic proceedings by giving
them favoring notices, and thus inculcating re-
spect for imposition and fraud the most pre-
posterous and gross.
No scholar can give a careful examination
into the books of Masonry without becoming
convinced that the organization is an impos-
ture, utterly destructive of equal rights, and
as far removed from the virtues that it pro-
fesses, as the Tammany Ring are from the
qualities necessary for republican citizenship.
The Committee are still pursuing their la
bors, and endeavoring to bring the members
of the Tammany Ring to justice. But it must
be remembered that they are doing the work
of the whole country, and at the sacrifice of
their own private business and personal inter-
ests. They cannot be looked to as a stand-
-1844
ing permanent power to prevent the aggres-
sions of secret societies on the rights of the
people. Some other course must be adopted
in order to insure the desired safety. The
Committee must be enlarged, until it embrac-
es all the honest men of the country; every
village must have a committee, and they must
make it the unvarying rule of their political
action, never to bestow their votes upon any
candidate whatever who in any way, actively
or passively, represents or sustains the inter-
ests or pretensions of secret societies.
The people are sovereign; they can bestow
offices of honor and profit upon whom they
please; and so long as they bestow them up-
on secret-society men, the least ill consequen-
ces that they may expect are these, and such
as these which have already been experienced
from the Tammany Society and the Credit
Mobilier Ring. Honest purpose needs no con-
cealment; moral and religious truths demand
no secret means for their propagation; and
sound political principle must stand the test of
public investigation.
Where an institution or popular movement
-185-
begins in fraud, it cannot possibly end in any
good; and if the people accept the practice of
secret, suspicious arts with favor and confi-
dence, moral ruin must follow as the conse-
quence. There is but one price for liberty;
and that is an eternal vigilance, which must
leave no secret, organized power or influence
unexposed to public view and scrutiny. If
the people would have free government, they
must have free men to administer it; and no
men are free who have become bound or
pledged to sustain the interests of secret soci-
eties, or who passively yield to their encroach-
ments.
So long as men, from their youth up, and
mothers, sisters, and wives, have it constantly
impressed upon their minds, and artfully insinu-
ated into their belief, that the tricks, devices,
and sophistries which constitute Masonry are
honorable, moral, and even “broader" in their
humanity than the religion of Christ, so long
will it be considered proper to become a mem-
ber of an inside Ring, or other secret combi-
nation, though that ring or combination can
be given only a parasitic existence at the ex-
186—
pense of the vitalities of republican govern-
ment upon which it feeds.
These facts will find additional confirmation
and strength in the reader's mind, by a peru.
sal of the following account of the Credit
Mobilier Ring.
THE CREDIT MOBILIER RING.
The name of CREDIT MOBILIER,
though perhaps not its morality, is
derived from France. It signifies
financial operations based on person.
al estate, or on personal credit, or
rather on the credit of great names
and high pretensions.
The seat of the Credit Mobilier
Ring was Boston, Massachusetts, as
it was also of the Masonic Constitu-
tion.
To judge by its traits, the Credit Mobilier
Ring is another of the numerous offspring
that may claim a Masonic paternity. The ped-
igree may not be very clearly traced, perhaps;
but it exhibits the same proclivities to shun
the light; to deal in covert subterfuges, sly
indirections, subtle distinctions, secret under-
standings, false assertions, bold impositions and
deceptive shams. It does not, as does Mason-
ry, pretend to be “the most moral institution
that ever subsisted,” broader than the Christ-
ian religion, especially devoted to the gentle,
--188--
loving work of looking after widows and or.
phans, etc.; but still, it claims to be exceed-
ingly patriotic, and, from the number of mem-
bers of Congress once belonging to it, might,
perhaps, be regarded as honorable. It does
not, however, appear to have bound its mem-
bers to secrecy by an oath, for if it had done
so, the public would never have known the few
secrets which a quarrel among themselves, aid-
ed by inquiries from a startled, tax-burdened
people, and the investigations of three Con-
gressional committees, have thus far been able
to bring out.
The origin of the Ring is not of ancient
date; it extends no further back than 1863,
when it received a charter from the Legisla-
ture of Pennsylvania. However honest and
beneficent it may have been in design and pur-
pose, it has been used for a double object; one
for constructing the Union Pacific Rail-road,
the company of which was organized in the
same year, and the other for making a great
speculation out of that road. In effect the
two companies became one and the same
-189-
thing, but enabled the operators to assume two
different characters.
The Union Pacific Railroad extends from
Omaha to Great Salt Lake in Utah, where it
formed a junction, on the roth day of May,
1869, with the Central Pacific Railroad, which
leads to San Francisco, the entire length of the
two roads being about 2000 miles. This dis-
tance is not much greater than that between
Havre, in France, and Moscow, in Russia,
throughout which continuous lines of rail-road
have been in operation for many years. These
American roads, however, had been long de-
layed, as a very great and stupendous national
undertaking, but still of pressing necessity to
the policy and interests of the country, and,
in consequence, the most liberal provisions
were made by Congress for their completion.
The Union Pacific Railroad Company re-
ceived a grant of land from Congress amount.
ing to twelve millions of acres, equal in extent
to the two states of Vermont and New Hamp-
shire, and worth probably more than four dol.
lars per acre. Besides this, the government
was bonded to the extent of $27,000,000 in
---I90-
favor of the company, and gave the company
a right to issue its mortgage bonds as a prior
lien upon the road. By a careful examination
into the capacities of this transaction for yield-
ing money to the magic touch of speculative
science, it will be seen that the operators might
possibly pocket:
All the Government Bonds, . . . $27,000,000
The Stock of the Road at par,.
- 37,000,000
For the Land, - - - - - - 50,000,000
Total,
.
-
-
-
-
.
$114,000,000
-leaving their own mortgage bonds upon the
road as a debt to be paid by its earnings, while
the government might contend with the hon-
est mortgagees and stockholders for its dues.
How far short the Ring fell of these figures
is best known to themselves.
In fact, here was a rare chance for making
large private profits out of a great public in-
terest. Cool, machinating, Ring-men could
readily perceive that such an occasion of gen-
eral enthusiasm, as a great war for liberty, or
a magnificent rail-road scheme, offered the
most favorable opportunity for making money;
--191-
for when the people become enthusiastic, they
are disposed to overlook what might be con-
sidered minor matters, if the chief end be at.
tained. The building of the road was consid.
ered a great feat. “ The praises of what was
being done,” said one of the Congressmen ac-
cused, “swelled on until they burst forth in
the ringing of bells and firing of cannons all
over the country.* Here was, indeed, a rare
chance for making money; but for this very
reason faithful, public agents should have been
more particularly on the alert to secure the
rights and interests of the country, and espe-
cially its moral rights.
Every individual citizen under a republican
government is especially bound to consider the
rights and interests of the country, and to ab-
And doubly bound is he who accepts the of
fice and duty of giving especial attention to
those interests. It virtually becomes a breach
of trust with such, if they prove recreant to
their duties. Nor can they plead ignorance
ecri
*It is precisely similar occasions that the pickpocket chooses for
plying his trade.
192-
in the case, any more than they can in a case
of law. Official rectitude must prevail, or
there can be no confidence in our laws or in our
institutions. The case is this:- The people of
the United States hold possession of a large
amount of wild lands, and they elect members
of Congress and have officers appointed who,
among their other duties, are to act as agents
to manage this estate; and it is simply crimi
nal in them to neglect the duties of the trust,
or, what is worse, to speculate upon it for their
own profit; to be granting lands for roads,
and while still legislating for the roads, to
be dealing in their stocks and bonds. It is a
case where even but a moderate sense of offi.
cial integrity should avoid even the appear.
ances of evil.
“No public man,” says Buzot, “can be jus-
tified in profiting from the information and
advantages derived from his position. It is his
duty to consecrate exclusively to the public
interests the knowledge which official position
furnishes him.”
“ The maintenance of the constitution," said
Daniel Webster, “relies on individual duty
and obligation.”.
-193-
And we read in Froude's History of Eng
land, that even in the times of Henry VIII.,
not officers alone, but “even tradesmen, who
took advantage of the fluctuations of the mar:
ket, were rebuked by parliament for their
greedy and covetous minds, as more regard:
ing their own singular lucre and profit than
the common weal of the Realmn." ..
The Credit Mobilier Ring, as managed,
proved to be a grand scheme for making im.
mense private gains out of the Union Pacific
Railroad, at the expense of the United States;
and the people began to understand thaťmem-
bers of Congress were extensively implicated
in it. During the political canvas of 1872,
therefore, some of the prominent stump speak-
ers were charged with corrupt dealings with
the Ring; and they boldly denied it, as it be-
came republican men to do. The New York
Tribune thus alludes to this new attitude as.
sumed by American statesmen, in putting an
innocent face upon a bad affair:
From published letters of one of the managers (Mr.
Oakes Ames) it was also apparent that he had placed the
shares among Senators and Representatives for the purpose
-194
of securing friends of the Union Pacific Railroad and the
Crédit Mobilier Association in the Senate and House of
Representatives. It chanced that these developments
were made during a heated political campaign. Many of
the persons implicated were then on the stump, conspicu-
ously counseling the people in public matters. With one
accord, each man, as soon as he found voice, denied with
more or less emphasis that he held, or ever held, any of
the doubtful and objectionable stock. Some few men es-
caped the sin of open lying by using other men's denials;
some evaded it by double meanings, and some prevaricated
feebly. But all meant that their answer to the charge
against them should be accepted as a full and conclusive
plea of “Not Guilty."
Soon after the asseinbling of Congress in
December, 1872, it became an imperative du-
ty that the charges of corruption against mem-
bers should be examined into; the body owed
it to itself to demand an investigation; and
three committees were ultimately appointed
for that purpose, two in the House, and one
in the Senate. Though strenuous efforts were
made by the first committee for a secret ex-
amination instead of an open fair one, and
though their proceedings have been marked
with great languor and want of moral tension,
evincing a palsied numbness of republican vi-
tality, yet the curtains were sufficiently opened
wer
--1954.
to give the spectator a sad prospect for the fu.
ture of our government. Two persons bear-
ing the rank of Vice-presidents,* several that
of Senator, one a member of the Cabinet, a
dozen, more or less, of Representatives, Di-
rectors of the road, Commissioners, etc., have
all been instrumental in aiding the swindling
operations of the Crédit Mobilier ring.
During the investigations of the Commit-
tees, which continued for several weeks, one
of the reporters summed up the testimony on
two different periods, as follows: . .. i
WASHINGTON, Jan’y 19.—The Wilson Committee exhibit
great dilligence and perspicuity in getting at the facts in
the Crédit Mobilier business. Their investigations have
already laid bare the real nature of the construction con-
tract by which the Union Pacific road was built. Stripped
of all circumlocution, the Crédit Mobilier contract was a
shrewd and unscrupulous scheme of the directors of the
Union Pacific road to make the nominal cost of its con-
struction and equipment double the actual cost, and to en-
T
*Ex-Vice.President Colfax doubtless thinks that he had nothing to do
with the Credit Mobilier fraud; but such is the strange, yet natural effect
of devotion to Secret Societies. A system which is so untrue in itself as
Masonry, must inevitably warp the minds of its devotees, and finally
leave them powerless to decide what the truth is. One who, like Mr.
Colfax, takes the lead in practicing and teaching a gross superstition,
readily conceives himself to be innocent of wrong-doing, whatever may
be the evidence against him. Where Masonic practices are deemed
"honorable," it would be hard to say what is dishonorable.
196
rich themselves by dividing the difference among them. :
selves, leaving the road burdened with an enormous debt.
The Crédit Mobilier company was the cunningly devised
machinery for accomplishing this fraud. The stockholders
in the railroad were not wronged, for they all consented to
the operation, and shared in the profits. There were but
few of them, and they paid only five per cent of their
subscriptions. The parties wronged were the Govern-
ment and the holders of the first mortgage bonds. The
directors of the road made the contract with Oakes Ames
to build the road, but before completing it had him
sign a transfer of it to the Crédit Mobilier, a corporation
composed exclusively of these same directors and rail-
road stockholders. The directors and stockholders, there.
fore, bargained with themselves to build the road at nearly
double the actual cost of the work. As directors of the
road they took its assets with one hand and transferred
them to the other, and then pocketed them in their capac-
ity of Crédit Mobilier contractors.
The profits on this corrupt transaction have not yet been
definitely ascertained, but they were probably not less than
$30,000,000, enough to have paid the Government for all
its loads to the Company.
In view of the developments already made, people begin
to inquire whether Congress would not be justified in pas-
sing an act authorizing the seizure and sale of the road by
the government for the benefit of itself and the holders of
the first mortgage bonds. The stockholders have no claim
to consideration. They got back the five per cent. which
they paid on their subscriptions with a profit of more
than 1,000 per cent. Another question is asked, Where
were the Government directors when this Crédit Mobilier
--1974
fraud was consummated? They were charged with the
duty of vigilantly watching the interest of the United States
in the road. Not one of them protested when these in-
terests were seriously jeoparded if not sacrificed. Were
they paid for their silence ?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-The Wilson Committee, in spite
of unwilling witnesses, has established for a certainty that
the Crédit Mobilier and the Union Pacific Railroad Com-
panies were substantially the same; that the latter were so
manipulated that millions of dollars reverted to the former;
that they monopolized the entire construction and equip-
ment of the road, and shut out competition; that several
millions of dollars have disappeared from the fund in a
very mysterious manner, and is still unaccounted for; that
the company is substantially bankrupt and cannot pay its
debts; that 200 or 300 miles of road, after being finished
and accepted by the government, was again placed under
contract at a rate so much higher that the Crédit Mobilier
made $3,000,000 of profit; that the contracts of Hoxie,
Davis and the others were mere pretense, those persons
being put in as dummies by Oakes Ames on the Crédit
Mobilier contract; that Government officers levied and
collected black-mail; that rival interests were bought off;
that conflicting roads had immense sums of money lav-
ished on them; that the books of the Union Pacific Rail-
road and Crédit Mobilier have been kept in such a manner
as to cover up and conceal the improper actions from the
public, and all this to the injury of the Government and
the honest stockholders.
A clearer idea of the immense profits de-
rived from the Crédit Mobilier operation may
—1984
be formed from the testimony of one of the
witnesses, who said that a son-in-law of an in-
fluential member of Congress, which member
was also a Director of the Union Pacific Rail-
road, and as such forbidden by law to have
any personal interest in it, received for the
sum of $15,000 paid out, the following return,
viz.:
150 Shares Crédit Mobilier Stock, at $200
1 per share, - - - - $30,000
822 Shares U. P. R. R. Stock, about - 50,000
20 First Mortgage Bonds, . - 20,000
Cash Dividends, - - - - 9,000
Total, - - - - - $109,000
--all in one year.
Another witness, Mr. Durant, a stock-hold-
er and director of the rail-road and stock-hold-
er, and president of the Credit Mobilier Ring,
testified as follows:-
As to his dealings with J. B. Stewart, he absolutely
knew nothing; yet he gave him, to be expended as Stew-
art pleased, nearly $1,000,000 without voucher or receipt.
" Stewart might have kept three-fourths of it, for ought
I know," said Durant. Durant was sick a good deal of
the time he was on the stand. He made, however, one
very important statement to the effect that he never paid
I99
for the influence of a member of Congress, although dur.
ing that time a member approached him, this being in
1861, and offered to sell his vote. He also said that at
one time four members came to him representing them-
selves as a committee controlling either 21 or 40 votes, and
wanted to negotiate them, but he refused to deal with
them. He added, grimly, that his memory was bad as to
names sometimes, but not at others. He made this state.
ment, yet not a single member of the Committee pressed
him for an answer.
The connection of the officers of the gov.
ernment with the ring was in a measure secret;
and they therefore doubtless felt safe in mak-
ing some pretty broad and emphatic denials.
Very few open, regular records of their trans-
actions were preserved; initials were used in-
stead of full names in some cases; receipts of
money for the stock were given, but no deliv-
ery of stock made; a large fund for secret
service was “put where it would do most
good ” in Washington; contributions were
made for the election of Senators and influenc-
ing the press; one Commissioner exacted
$25,000 for accepting a part of the road done;
wives and sons-in-law played serviceable parts
in the place of widows and orphans in soften-
ing the harsher aspects of some of the bar.
-200-
gains; and what seems more astonishing than
all the rest, is the fact that the Sergeant-at-
arms of the House, one of the officers of the
government, was made a kind of banker or
paymaster of the Ring for paying dividends,
the fruits of bribery, to members of Congress,
and not a disapproving comment of this glar-
ing impropriety is offered by any one, from
the reporter up to the Chairmen of the Commit-
tées, during the whole period of the investi-
gation! Even those members whose scruples
had led them to draw out of the speculation,
seemed to be actuated as much by a fear of
exposure from a threatened law-suit against
the Ring, as from a sense of its impropriety.
And amidst transactions that even they,
themselves, felt would not bear the light, great
pretensions were made to a high sense of hon-
or and respectability. Leading members of
the Ring were anxious to get men of char-
acter and standing to take stock, in order to
throw around the operation the sanction of a
great name, and hence went to members of
Congress for that purpose ; Vice-President
elect Wilson believed “that no greater wrong
--201—
CC-
· has ever been perpetrated in this country
than has been perpetrated on honorable gen-
tlemen in connection with these charges, whom
I have known for twenty or twenty-five years,
and whose integrity the Pacific Rail-road, and
all the rail-roads in the country could not buy
or swerve a hair;" and ex-Congressman J. F.
Wilson spoke, in his testimony, of “the rec-
ognized high character of most of the gen-
tlemen connected with the enterprise.” He
had realized $3,000 profit on his stock; was
a Governinent Director of the road; would
act again exactly as he did, under the same
state of facts,” etc.
The whole testimony thus far given in, evinc-
es a low, obtunded sense of moral right, such
that the people cannot respect their Congress
and at the same time respect themselves.
This testimony, much of which is from Sena-
tors and Representatives, is glaringly incon-
sistent and false, and is characterized by one
of the committees as “painfully conflicting."*
DY
* Where Masonic practices prevail, and men burden their consciences
with two oaths, one administered by the lodge and the other by officers
of the law, notions of truth and falsehood must necessarily become very
much mixed up and confused, and the task of separating the two be
correspondingly difficult. The evidence before the committees, how-
-202-
The report of the first house committee is re-
markably void of moral vigor and energy
One of the leading papers of the day, in speak-
ing of it, and the action of the House there.
upon, says:-“Congress has confessed its ina-
bility to grapple with the difficulty; the House
has in it too many men who are sick with the
disease which it vainly sought to cure. The
case is remanded to the people.”
That the Congress is “sick with the disease”
of bribery, corruption, greed and covetous-
ness, is only too evident, and the repulsive fact
was confirmed at the close of the session by
their voting themselves an increase of pay
which was to extend back over the two past
years! And even some of the members who
did not vote for the measure, instead of re-
turning the money to the Treasury where it
belonged, drew it out and made use of it in
a whimsical way, for purposes which, accord-
ing to their own fancies, seemed the most ben-
eficial or acceptable to the people.*
ever, leaves the impression on the minds of the uninitiated that the
testimony of some of the men implicate.l, though high officials, must
be very untrae, at least by every other standard except a Masonic che.
• The general idea pervading these conceits is the Masonic one that &
food and may be sanctified by bad means.
--203-
V
LI
The House instead of expelling its leprous
members, or rather those who had been prov-
ed as such, and drawing a distinct line be-
tween right and wrong, contented itself with
a moderate censure of only two of them; and
these men were so far lost to a sense of de-
cency as to appear almost unconscious of their
moral nudity, and of its utter vileness.
Such a state of sentiment is not brought
about in a nation in the course of a day; it is
the result of a long course of vicious educa-
tion. It was evident to many during the times
of the war, and is now growing more so every
day, that not a sufficiently high stand was tak-
en by the war-administration, either morally
or legally; covetousness, and selfish greed in
high places was not rebuked, and intimation,
demonstrational shams and popular arts were
encouraged in the place of sterling, sincere
service to the country and to principle. But
behind all this, and as the active cause of much
of it, lies the vicious schooling given to our
people through Masonry and other secret or-
ganizations. It is with these seminaries of
false ideas that the people have to deal if they
-.-204-
would affect a reform, and restore their re.
publican government to its former purity and
vigor.
Where the low cunning arts practiced by
Masonry are accepted by the people as moral,
virtuous, ancient and honorable, and even bet.
ter than the Christian religion, as they are con-
sidered by some, the sense of right and wrong
of that people must inevitably become per-
verted and unhinged, general demoralization
will ultimately prevail, and a total unfitness
for our form of republican government will
be the inevitable consequence.
To expect to rid the country of secret Rings,
and at the same time preserve a respect for
Masonry, is utterly impossible.
MASONIC BENEVOLENCE.
ini
True equality is the only public
generosity.
EDWARD RUTLEDGE.
The Jesuit was taught to regard
the interest of his order as the capi-
tal object, to which every considera-
tion was to be sacrificed.
ROBERTSON'S CHARLES V.
There are so many various channels in
which Christian benevolence regularly flows,
and Christian society furnishes such great fa-
cilities for rapid temporary organization for the
that there is no need of a standing secret associ..
ation for benevolent purposes. And least of
all is such an association needed when its pre-
tended benevolence may well be regarded as
spurious.
We have before us a list of upwards of eighty
benevolent associations in the United States,
and among them all neither Masonry nor any
other secret society is even once mentioned
-206—
This fact shows plainly that however much
the fraternity may extol themselves for their
charity, and good deeds, the public at large
has not yet come to regard them as its bene.
factors.
We give below the list as we find it in one
of our city daily papers. It contains the names
of the various societies and the sums of money
received by each during the period of one year.
Some of this money is doubtless received from
legacies; but who ever heard of a legacy or
devise being made to the Lodge, even from
ever much living men may frequent the Lodge
and base their hopes, temporal and eternal,
upon its teachings, few dying men ever show
sufficient faith in it to make it a bequest, or
leave it any portion of their estate.
BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.
..
FOR THE YEAR 1871-2.
Mr. Lewis E. Jackson, corresponding Secretary of the
City Mission, has made his usual annual statement of the
receipts of the various charitable societies and institutions
as follows:
--207-
THE NATIONAL SOCIETIE 8. I.
1. American Bible Society~
Sales.----------..$361,274 64
Donations. --------- 328,648 33—$689,922 97
2. American Tract Soc'ty~
Sales -------------$410,903 75
Donations --------- 129,833 64–8540,737 39
3. American Home Missionary Society ---- 294,566 86
4. American and Foreign Christian Union, 82,579 92
5. American Colonization Society --.-.--. 40,661 88
6. American Sunday School
Union-Sales.------$235,969 30
Donations.------- 93,376 02—$329,345 32
7. American Baptist Missionary Union... 214,199 10
8. American Baptist Home Mission Society 195,650 58
9. American Baptist Publication Society --- 336,367 95
10. American Bible Union ------------.53,684 45
11. American Female Guardian Society ---- 52,474 89
12. American Seamen’s Friend Society -- . 60,126 35
13. American Congregational Union. ---- 58,000 00
14. Presbyterian Board Foreign Missions. -- 457,212 35
15. Presbyterian Board Home Missions.--. 331,043 08
16. Presbyterian Board Publication ---- 313,167 19
17. Presbyterian Board Sustentation --- 41,073 52
18. Presbyterian Board Education...... -- 81,013 00
19. Presbyterian Board Church Erection -. 105,888 39
20. Presbyterian Board Freedmen.------ 59,195 13
21. Presbyterian Board Ministerial Relief.. 76,913 95
22. American Board Commissioners Foreign
Missions ----
432,847 97
23. Missionary Society Methodist Episcopal
Church -----
.-.--. 623,459 26
-208
24. American Missionary Association..---- 366,825 08
25. National Temperance Society --------- 49,348 79
26. American Church Missionary Society --$ 70,985 21
27. Evangelical Knowledge Society... .. 45,622 40
28. Evangelical Education Society ------- 48,287 71
29. Women's Union Missionary Society ---- 50,731 00
30. United Presbyterian Foreign Missions.. 48,344 65
31. United Presbyterian Home Missions... 28,793 67
32. United Presbyterian Freedmen.--.--- 12,271 58
33. United Presbyterian Publication ---- 27,500 31
34. United Presbyterian Church Extension. 15,624 33
35. United Presbyterian Education ----- 6,564 20
36. "Reformed Church Board Foreign Mis-
sions ------- ---------------- 69,323 52
38. Reformed Church Building Fund...- 6,229 68
39. Reformed Church Education ------- 24,634 50
40. Reformed Church Publication ------ 10,809 41
41. Protestant Episcopal Board Foreign Mis-
sions -------- -- ---- --------- 114,377 96
42. Protestant Episcopal Domestic Missions 151,135 53
43. Protestant Episcopal Colored People... 21,308 32
Grand total..
$6,724,410 72
1
THE LOCAL SOCIETIES. --II.
1. Widow's Society --------
---
2. Ladies' Union Aid Society ---
3. Half Orphan Asylum....---
4. Ladies' Christian Union.-.-
5. New-York Juvenile Asylum..
6. Children's Aid Society ------
$ 18,911 50
30,748 70
8.500 00
27,622 92
130,163 02
- 156,427 99
.--209-
-.
i.
.
.
7. Child's Nursery and Hospital........ 86,097 94
8. Roman Catholic Protectory ------ 295,704 25
9. New York Female Bible Society 11,119 34
10. New York Orphan Asylum.--
36,580 24
11. Midnight Mission -----
16,623 14
12. Women's Prison Association.
6,953 34
13. House of Industry ------...
44,833 93
14. Howard Mission ----
40,097 31
15. Magdalen Benevolent Society ------- 11,966 34
16. Society for prevention of Cruelty to An-
imals --
-.- 14,095 68
17. Association for Improving Condition of
Poor.....
51,915 06
18. New York Bible Society ..-
21,926 01
19. New York City Mission ....
50,556 86
20. Female City Mission
4,547 41
21. New York City Com. Protestant Epis-
copal Church.--------------- 3,000 00
22. Protestant Episcopal City Mission.... 17,940 31
23. City Extension Meth. Episcopal Church 67,506 37
24. Young Men's Christian Association ---- 29,386 58
25. Wilson Mission ----------------
10,907 82
26. New York Purt Society ------
17,274 71
27. New York Prison Association .... 10,428 79
28. Protestant Episcopal Orphan Home. 31,771 58
29. Home for Friendless Girls ---------- 10,770 91
30. New York Female As istance Society.. 22,609 00
31. Association for Aged Indigent Females 10,153 57
31. Colored Orphan Asylum.----- 64,235 48
33. Working Women's Protective Union... 3,933 44
34. The Shepherd's Fold.-------
8,377 42
35. Ladies' Board of Missions..---..
7,369 00
..-.--.---.
----
.-210
38. Hebrew Benevolent Society.
10,355 62
37. Institution for Aged Women -- : 46,168 92
38. House of Rest-----------
10,050 57
39. Military Post Library Association. -- 10,121 35
40. Society for Ruptured and Crippled.--. 161,944 02
41. Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. ----- 13,466 47
Add estimate for other City societies not
enumerated ---------
867,337 14
Grand Total.--- ----------$2,500,000 00
But however short Masonry may fall in its
pretensions as an institution of great moral
and religious value, its merits as a teacher of
learning or science are, if possible, still less.
Mr. Thomas Smith Webb, the author of
“ Freemason's Monitor,” says that “Masonry
includes within its circle almost every branch
of polite learning.” When the attention of
the reader is once carefully fixed upon this
statement, he will perceive that, like the oth-
er assumptions of Masonry in general, it is a
mere empty declaration, calculated to deceive
by its bold effrontry. It might be declared,
on the contrary, and with much more truth,
that Masonry teaches no single fact, in “po-
lité learning,” or in science, or in morality, or
in any thing else desirable to be known,
--2IIZ
which is not already in the possession of our
ordinary public schools.
That the Masonic Lodge has, unfortunate-
ly, become a seminary of learning with us, is
only too true; but it teaches nothing but what
is worse than useless in a Christian commun-
ity. No man ever became distinguished for
learning from any acquisitions to his lore made
under its tuition. In fact, if an individual were
to obtain money from the community on the
same grounds that Masonry obtains it, viz.,
for valuable secrets given in return, he would
render himself liable to be tried as a swindler.
We have no means of knowing the actual
amount of money which the Masonic insti-
tution, acting upon the superstition and cred-
ulity of its followers, annually draws from the
community; but it must be very considerable.
No sound principles of political economy
would sanction expenditures of treasure made
for such a purpose. To judge from the pub-
lic prints, which not unseldom contain notices
of the building of Masonic Temples and Odd-
fellow's Halls that are to cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars, sometimes half a million
;
.--212-
or even a million, the money extorted by the
appliances of secret association from citizens
of the United States, is probably greater than
the receipts of all the benevolent societies
whose names we have given combined. If
this money were devoted to establishing night-
schools for laborers and mechanics, or for pub-
lic libraries; or even for supporting aged cler-
gymen and their widows, its use would be
sanctified by a real benefit to society. But as
it is, it is only so much money drawn from the
resources of tax-payers, and operates to dimin-
ish the capacity of the community to bear
taxation, and support the Christian religion,
without any valuable consideration, but on the
contrary with an injury to the country and
government in return.
A closer view of some of the leading ideas
of Masonry will enable us to dissect its pre-
tensions to benevolence, and gain a clearer
conception of its character. According to
these ideas Masonry has existed from all time,
and is “diffused over the whole globe," so
that “the distant Chinese, the wild Arab, and
the American savage will embrace a brother
—213—
Briton, Franc, or German, and will know that,
besides the common tie of humanity, there is
a still stronger obligation to induce him to
kind and friendly offices. The spirit of the
fulminating priest will be tamed; and a moral
brother, though of a different persuasion, en-
gage his esteem.”
These words, which are taken from a stand-
ard Masonic work (Webb's Monitor ) ad-
vance three distinct propositions, viz.: first,
the universality of Masonry; second, its great-
er force as an obligation than the ties of hu.
manity, and third, the humbling, of the “ful-
minating priest,” who is brought down and
made to have a proper respect for the frater-
nity and their morality.
But though Masonry is so very ancient,
and so generally diffused over the whole
present shape until the days of King Solo-
mon. That wise sovereign, it is pretended,
while building a temple to be served by an
order of priesthood established by Moses,
got up quite a different order of priesthvod,
which was not to serve in the temple, and
-214-
which was neither Mosaic, gentile, nor Chris-
tian. That order of priesthood has exist-
ed from that time to this; and it is still in
active operation in the United States. It
claims a divine origin for its institution; which,
however, it does not sustain by miracles, but
simply by good works; and the chief of these
good works is the attention which the broth-
erhood gives to the wants and needs of poor
widows and orphans.
Now as according to these claims it is some
three thousand years since the Masonic organ-
ization was set in operation in Jerusalem, it is
not unreasonable to presume that in a coun-
try no farther off than was Hindostan, for in-
stance, a Grand Lodge must have become es-
tablished there, at a very early period, by a
regular charter from the Grand Lodge of Ju-
dea. We may presume that this occurred at
least from twenty to twenty-five hundred
years before the Christian nations of Europe
found their way around the cape of Good
Hope into the Indian Ocean; yet, although
Masonry has been diffused over Hindostan for
so long a time, the widows there, neverthe-
-215-
less, are treated in the most shameful manner,
being regarded as deserving of hardly any
more respect than dogs. Masonry has had the
ground there all to itself for two or three
thousand years, according to its own account;
but still, of the various classes of human be-
ings who come under the “tie of humanity,"
those favorite objects of Masonic charity-
the poor widows -- are treated the worst of
all! Such is one of the evidences of the great
benevolence, utility, and the great moral ex-
cellence of Masonry!!
The doctrines of Christianity are not yet
diffused throughout the whole world. The
growth of the spiritual world is by slow and
successive stages, as that of the material world
has been. Christian doctrine and worship
have not been an organized system so long as
the Masonic worship is claimed to have been,
by about a thousand or twelve hundred years,
but nowhere are the widows and orphans so
much respected and so kindly and consider-
ately treated as they are where Christianity,
even inclusive of “the fulminating priest,” has
the most prevailed. And this undoubtedly
-216-
imense sums
would be the case if Masonry had never had
an existence. In fact, Masonry is more dis-
tinguished for craftiness and cunning than for
its charity.
If all the immense sums of money which
the institution draws from the pockets of
young men were to be given to the poor, and
no considerable portion devoted to feasting
and show, Masonry might still be utterly void
of charity, or of any pious intention. An ap-
parent good deed may be done for the pur-
pose of covering a base design; and it is the
character of Masonry as it is of its Jesuitical
origin, to produce much of the poverty and
suffering which it pretends to relieve. Who
constituted Masonry the almoner of a Christ-
ian country? It is the baldest and most shal-
low of all the arts and devices of the impos-
tor to build up a popular reputation for good.
ness of heart by-
"Giving to God what he robs from mankind.”
This was one of the faults of slavery.
It is from amidst no barren deserts of self-
denial and self-sacrifice that Masonry gives
forth the loaves and fishes for which it de-
--217-
er.
mands our consideration and respect. It deals
out its corrupt favors from rich revenues de.
rived through subtlety and craft, by playing
upon the human love of the mysterious, and
seizing hold of and perverting religious aspir-
ations to the ends of self agrandisement and
power. One of the functions of the institu-
tion, we have seen, is to “tame the fulminat-
ing priest,” although having priests of its own
whose titles are of the loftiest kind.
An initiation that gives a spiritual signifi-
cance to a kit of brick, or stone-mason's tools
could not fail to tame the spirit, whether of
priest or layman. Unfortunately it is not
alone the priest, of whatever class or order,
that Masonry tames: it tames the spirit of ev-
ery one who becomes devoted to its practices;
destroys his independence of character; puts
the most paltry of good works in the place of
exalted faith in Christ, and suppresses that
spirit of moral heroism from which the high-
est order of true benevolence alone can em-
anate.
Are the Masons of the United States gen.
erous enough — benevolent enough, to cease
--218—
making an empty though novel and attract-
ive mockery of religion and morality; discard
their absurd superstitious observances and
high-sounding pretensions and titles, and, by
divesting themselves of all the unfair advan-
tages which they derive from the secret grips,
signs, and understandings of their “order,"
place themselves on the same level of equal
rights and privileges with the rest of the cit.
izens of the country? Until they are wil-
ling to do this, —-until they exhihit this confi-
dence and respect for their fellow-men, their
reverence for the Great Architect, and their
boasted benevolence are but empty names,
and their republicanism a meaningless party
designation, as void of real republican virtue
as slavery was of the democracy which it pre-
tended to serve.
THE USES OF MASONRY.
What is done for effect is seen to
be done for effect.
EMMERSON.
The bad consequences of a princi-
ple essentially wrong are infinite.
Mankind are not sufficiently aware
that words without meaning, or of
equivocal meaning, are the everlast-
ing engines of fraud and injustice.
HORNE TOOKE..
When men resort to the use of ambiguous
expressions, vague similies, parallels, signs,
symbols, grips, etc., it is reasonable to infer.
that they have some object in view that will
not bear the light. The borrowing of the
livery of the devil, to serve Heaven in, will ev-
er excite suspicion, and impair the confidence
of men in each other. Honest intentions
should receive honest modes of expression.
To be a man of suspicious temper is not consid-
ered creditable; but to excite and play upon
men's suspicions as Mason's do by their arti-
.
220_
fices, and then throw the discredit of being
suspicious upon those who exhibit suspicions,
is neither generous nor manly. It encourag-
es one of the basest and most truculent traits
of the human character, and gives villainy and
knavery the advantage and ascendency over
simple honesty.
One of the chief uses to which organized
secrecy may be put, is to rob rightful sover-
eigns, whether people or kings, of their legit-
imate powers and prerogatives. For this pur-
pose all the machinery of mystic signs and
symbols, initiations, key-words, collusive com-
binations, religious pretensions, great import-
ance attached to things wholly unworthy of
it, artful playing upon hopes and fears, and
wresting things from their natural uses, etc.,
etc., is brought in play.
As an illustration of the means made use
of by Jesuitry or Masonry to carry out its
ends, we may refer to a well known and high-
ly instructive incident in history, that of the
attempt made by Pope Innocent to extend his
power over England during the reign of King
John. According to the historian Hume, from
-221
whom we quote, Innocent, sensible that the
flagrant usurpation which he designed would
be highly resented by the court of England,
wrote John a mollifying letter; sent him four
golden rings set with precious stones; and en-
deavored to enhance the value of the present,
by informing him of the many mysteries im-
plied in it. He begged him to consider seri-
ously the form of the rings,* their number,
their matter, and their color. Their form, he
said, being round, shadowed out eternity,
which had neither beginning nor end; and he
ought hence to learn his duty of aspiring from
earthly objects to heavenly, from things tem-
poral to things eternal. The number four,
being square, denoted steadiness of mind, not
to be subverted either by adversity or pros-
perity, fixed forever on the firm basis of the
four cardinal virtues. Gold, which is the mat-
*Rings of magical virtue were common among ancient pagans, from
whom Innocent probably borrowed the idea. Aristotle speaks of the
riog of Battus, which inspired the wearer with gratitude and honor.
The Ring of Gyges, King of Lydia, would seem to have been somewhat
Masonic in character, since it enabled the wearer to do acts without be-
ing seen and detected, tho' the pagan Cicero, disapproved of its use,
Philostratus relates that Larca, a prince of India, gave Appolonius sev-
en rings, with the names and virtues of the seven planets, of which ev-
ery day he wore one by turns, and thus maintained his youth a bun-
dred and thirty years.
222
ter, being the most precious of metals, signi-
fied Wisdom, which is the most valuable of
all accomplishments, and justly preferred by
Solomon to riches, power, and all exterior at-
tainments. The blue color of the saphire
represented Faith; the verdure of the em-
erald, Hope; the redness of the ruby, Char-
ity; and the splendor of the topaz, Good
Works. By these conceits, Innocent endeav-
ored to repay John for one of the most im-
portant prerogatives of his crown, which he
had ravished from him; conceits probably
admired by Innocent himself: for it is easily
possible for a man, especially in a barbarous
age, to unite strong talents for business with
an absurd taste for literature and the arts.
Such is the account given by Hume of the
mystic cajolery practiced by Pope Innocent for
robbing the crown of England of one of its
brightest gems; and on reading it one might
almost fancy that he was perusing a Freema-
son's Monitor, which describes the mysterious
virtues of the plumb, the square, the level, the
pot of incense, the bee-hive, the hour-glass,
the scythe, the three steps, the sword pointing
m
:
US
--223
eve
Icera
to the naked heart, etc., etc. An organized
society, made powerful by its revenues, which
makes use of such things for conveying ideas,
may well be suspected of some design be-
yond looking after the interests of suffering
humanity. In attaching so much significance
to things of no importance in themselves, it
is bound to show that its intentions are fair
and honest, and not for robbing the people of
the brightest jewels of their sovereignty, their
good sense, their pure morality, their Christ.
ian religion, their fair, open, sincere dealing,
and their liberty.
It is true, there are thousands of members
of the Lodge who would ignore such designs,
and have not the least suspicion that they are
made to sustain them. They are satisfied
with the show, charmed with the mystery,
pleased with the corrupt, unequal favors, flat-
· tered with the religious promises and fancied
moral excellence of the institution; but they
have no conception of the fact that they have
become bound, like soldiers, to serve the pur-
poses of leaders, whatever those purposes may
be. As five hundred thousand slave-holders,
m
-224–
by playing upon the passions, prejudices, po
litical interests, pride of section of their follow-
ers, were enabled to get up and wage a four
years war against Republican government, so
an equal number of Masons may effect the
same thing, or something far more dangerous
to the liberties of the country.*
An organized body, as has already been
observed has life and laws of its own which
control the action of the individual members
who belong to it. If the uses of the organi-
zation be bad, mere individual excellence of
character cannot long hold it in check or re-
sist it. The good intentions of the individual
cannot control the evil operations of an or-
ganization which is essentially wrong. Men
when in Rome are apt to do as the Romans
do, however evil it may be; and the member
of a Lodge is not likely to remain for a long
time better than the Lodge itself.
* An oligarchy like that of Masonry, with credited pretenses to relig.
ious sanctity, has the power to dispose of the offices of the country.
Nor can its power be well overcome unless every voter exercises the
freeman's right of having a direct voice in the selection of candidates
for office. As it is now, the great mass of voters, hardly knowing tha
functions or even the names of most of the offices which their votes
are to fill, are easily made to serve the purposes of a small standing se-
--225-
1
It seems utterly impossible that men who
surrender their individual liberty of action to
a rigid, exacting, close corporation like that
of Masonry, are qualified for controling the
affairs of a great and free people like those of
the United States. In order to play a worthy
part as one of the free, sovereign people, a
man should not begin by abdicating his sov.
ereignty, as he does when he binds himself to
serve a slave state, or to observe the narrow,
selfish prescriptions and absurd dogmas and
land-marks of the Masonic Lodge.
We have seen that a large and respectable
body of American citizens have formerly char-
acterized the Masonic institution as a “refuge
of lies.” It is indeed a frightful source of
falsification, and especially in our political con-
tests. Its ingenuity in inventing falsehoods,
suppressing truth, and denaturalizing and per-
verting facts is infinite. Our second and ablest
president, John Adams, said that we, Ameri.
can people have no need of such aids as po-
litical lies. Our character for truth, sincerity,
cret caucus. Every freeman should originate ard write his own votes
for the nomination of officers.
:--226–
and candor, is more real strength than can
ever be derived from such impostures, howev-
er artfully performed. The influence this
practice has upon the world, in destroying con-
fidence, and in poisoning the morals of the
people, the pure and single source of which
is truth, ought to induce us to discontinue the
practice by all means. The liberty of the
press by no means includes a right of impos
ing upon mankind by such detestable forg-
eries.
The first departure from the simplicity of
positive truth proceeds towards evil; and an
organization, therefore, which teaches mysti-
fication, and thus fosters a low superstition
instead of an elevated faith, is out of accord
with the enlightened spirit of the age, and can-
not fail to be pernicious.
The use of mere conventional symbols in a
pure religion tends to deaden its faith and cor-
rupt its living, essential principles. Symbols
may indeed be used for the expression of re-
ligious sentiment; but they should ſlow spon-
taneously from the heat of the moment, like
bürning sparks from the forge, and not re-
--227-
-
ceive undue significance. Like manna, they
should not be preserved beyond the occasion
that has called them forth. If held in store
as means of conveying thought, they might,
in course of time, come to signify ideas dia-
metrically opposite to those they were origin-
ally designed to express. Conventional signs
may be made to mean one thing as well as
another.
An illustration of the wrong use to which
symbols may be put, is furnished by the his..
tory of the brazen serpent. This remarkable
symbol was designed by Moses to divert the
thoughts of his people from idolatrous Egypt,
and keep them unwaveringly fastened upon
the promises of the Holy Land. But in course
of time, several hundred years afterwards,
this same brazen serpent was worshiped in
Jerusalem for quite a different purpose. Its
worship would seem to have become political,
and people burnt incense to it as a mode of
expressing their sentiments in favor of the
power of Assyria, and the dragon-worship-
pers of the Euphrates. Be this, however, as
it may; the idolatrous respect paid to it by
--228--
the people was considered as a great corrup-
tion by the reforming King Hezekiah; and
he ordered it to be destroyed. The reforms
instituted by that monarch were nobly design-
ed to restore the purity of the Mosaic dispen-
sation; but they came too late to prevent the
whole Jewish nation from being carried away
into captivity, in the direction in which the
worship of the serpent led, to Babylon.
The tendency of the Masonic organization
is towards arbitrary power, anarchy, and des-
potism; and the use of its dead, unmeaning
symbols is to lead men marching in that di-
rection.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
The Saviour of mankind made a di-
rect issue with the practice of secret
arts. In secret he said nothing, and
charged his followers to swear not
at all; and whoever is not for him
on this living issue is against him.
ANONYMOUS.
-When thine eye is single, thy
whole body also is full of light .
St. Luke, Chap. xi., v. 34.
An illustration, not inapt, of Masonry is fur.
nished by the history of a character by the
name of Jonathan Wild. That history is not
found in many of our libraries of the present
day, and we do not know whether he was a
member of the Lodge or not; but from some of
the traits given of him, it is evident that he well
understood and practiced the arts of Masonry.
It is said that for a period of twenty years he
imposed himself upon the London police as
an honest man and a most zealous friend of
justice, pretended to assist the officers in their.
---230-
business and shared richly in their rewards;
but during all that time he was the adviser,
the guide, philosopher, and friend of the prin
cipal thieves of the city, and to them he con
stantly betrayed the measures taken by the
public authorities for the preservation of or-
der and law.”
In this character of a double-dealing man,
we find an apt illustration of a double deal-
ing institution, which enables a body of men
to wear two faces, with one of which it may
egg on men to commit disorders and viola-
tions of law, and with the other to take its !
stand among honest and religious men, pre-
tending to be a great friend of law and or-
der, and very moral and religious in its prin-
ciples. It is not necessary to prove that Ma
sonry does play this double part; all that we
desire to show is, that while it has two faces,
one, an open one for the public, and the other
a secret or masked one, for a chosen few, who
are bound by oath “never to reveal and al-
ways to conceal,” the institution has the pow-
er and capacity for playing a double part, and
for exciting the very disorders which it pre-
tends to suppress.
--231---
An organized body of men who can assume
two characters, one as simple individuals, with
great, sanctimonious pretentions of reverence
of the Bible, moving and conversing intimate-
ly among other citizens, learning their views
and feelings; and the other as a powerful se-
cret combination, in which they can oppose
the same measures which they have openly
advocated and excited, cannot fail to be as
dangerous and tyrannical as it is mean and
treacherous. It is more dangerous than a mil-
itary organization, since that is open and re-
sponsible, and wears a uniform that serves to
put citizens on their guard when tyrannized
over by it. But against the members of a se-
cret association there is no possibility of guard-
ing oneself: your doctor, your lawyer, your
clergyman, your school-teacher, your bosom
friend, may be the member of the Lodge, and
convey thither facts or lies which may equal-
ly be used for your hurt. Such is the capac-
ity of the institution for mischief; and any
one may judge for himself how far an igno-
rant set of inen in the possession of power will
come short of making use of that power.
-232-
It is a fearful power, since all secret, hidden
dangers are much more terrible than open
ones. It excites the fears and suspicions of
men, and tends to render them either servile
and submissive to organized villainy, or drives
them in despair to deeds of indiscriminate as-
sassination against their oppressors. To be
made the subject of secret arts, maddens no-
ble minded men, and, if long continued, com-
pels them to become degenerate. There is
nothing of the generous, confiding character
of Puritan principles in Masonry. It teaches
tanism does, and while looking to God alone,
to confide in his fellow man as doing the same
thing, instead of colluding together to gain
secret advantage by illegitimate combinations,
artifice, misrepresentation and fraud. If the
double face is ever worn by Puritanism, it is
not because of its being an essential part of
its doctrines; but because of an abuse of those
doctrines. But of Masonry, however, its
double face is its chief and most distinctive
feature. It teaches sentiments instead of mor-
al principles; and its sentiments are duplex,
-233
false and equivocal, depraving the tastes, and
confusing the thoughts of society and giving
to the body politic a cancerous tendency which
must inevitably destroy its life.
The innate duplicity of the Masonic insti-
tution may well be exemplified by the very
directions which Weishaupt, the great Ger-
man mystagogue, gave for its preservation
against the probable opposition of the people.
“ Conceal,” said he, “the very fact of our ex-
istence from the profane. If they discover
us, conceal our real objects by professions of
benevolence. If our real object is perceived,
pretend to disband and relinquish the whole
thing: but assume another name, and put for-
ward new agents."
It is not to the name that objections are
made: the true American citizen, charged
with the grave responsibilities of government,
looks beyond names to the essence of things;
and in his eyes, therefore, such advice, so truc-
ulent and wicked, must appear incompatible
with the existence of any kind of government
whatever. And wherever he perceives organ-
ized secrecy, he will see the same objection-
el
-234—
able thing, under whatever name it may be
called. It will appear to him only as that
doubleness of vision which is an evidence of
weakness and derangement, or of approaching
death and dissolution.
A love for mystery, superstition and double-
meaning is increased by the cultivation of
these debasing qualities.
CONCLUSION.
It is an ill lesson we read to man-
kind, when a proceeding, built upon
the broad basis of general justice, is
permitted to shrink from public scru-
tiny. .
GODWIN'S POLITICAL JUSTICE.
.
In conclusion, the reader - the impartial
reader - will doubtless infer with us, that it
is a singular result of American liberty that
the people should freely pick up one of the
worst institutions of the country from which
they fled, and make a religion of it. They
seem to attach less importance to the Magna
Charta, the English Constitution, or the jury,
than they do to this creation of a London grog.
shop, which, while it breathes the vengeful
spirit of the Star-chamber, the Inquisition, or
the Council of Ten, smacks also of the man-
ners peculiar to the place of its origin. It
seems almost incredible that in this enlight-
ened age a device, which so far as moral, sci-
IN
1
—236-
entific, or educational worth is concerned, may
be classed with Alchemy, Astrology, Mag-
ic, Sorcery, Fortune-telling, Witchcraft, Jug.
glery, etc., should come to be regarded as
something very sacred and pious, as some-
thing of one and the same substance with the
sublime mysteries of the Christian faith, and
that men should rest satisfied with commend-
ing their souls to immortal life through its ri-
diculous rites and ceremonies. Yet such is
the absolute fact.
And this fact alone ought to convince us
how prone a free people are to adopt errors
which may prove ruinous to their free institu-
tions, and how great the vigilance of every
freeman must be to preserve those institutions
against the excesses of liberty which threaten
them.
It is not unnatural that the Puritan, after a
cessation of persecution and opposition from
the old world, anda disappearance of the dan-
gers and hardships from the forests of the new,
and after reaping the fruits of his virtuous in-
dustry in this world's goods, should feel that the
restraints of his severe moral discipline are no
longer necessary, and that, like all other sov-
ereigns, he may now relax in severity towards
.
-237-
himself, allow himself some indulgence, and
make of his laws and moral precepts, once
rigid and exacting, a convenience instead of
an imperious duty. The high regard which
he once entertained for his ancient religion,
the austerities of which were so strengthening
to true manhood, naturally becomes cooled
down and estranged; and the danger is that
he may finally come to look upon it with feel.
ings of ill disguised aversion, as a tyrannical
interference with his rights and liberties. In
this state of mind church-going and the main-
tenance of the simple forms of Puritan wor-
ship appear to him burdensome and unneces-
sary, and he is disposed to vary their tiresome
sameness by the admission of novelties, or by
a return to old errors, or, in many cases, by
dispensing with public worship altogether.
This tendency is increased within the mass of
the people at large by an influx of foreign ra-
ces, such as no nation has ever before experi-
enced, whose political education inclines them
to throw off restraints, whether of law or re-
ligion, instead of assuming new ones, who
come to a new country not so much for the
sake of a pure religious worship as for the
purpose of seeking wealth and enjoyment;
1
-238-
and who, therefore, are not disposed to adopt
the habits of self-restraint and self-examina-
tion which the Puritan is only too ready to
throw off. The general tendency, therefore,
is towards ease and relaxation of law, man.
ners, and morals.
Under these circumstances an impure sys.
tem of religion or morals, like that offered by
Masonry, which practically reconciles world-
ly interests and pleasures with religious duty,
subtlety and guile with sincerity and truth, the
jocose and frivolous with the serious and grave,
which assumes the austere face of pious de.
votion while practicing tricks and follies hard-
ly permissible to honest upright men even in
their moments of extremest pleasantry, is
likely to meet with favor and a ready, unthink-
ing acceptance.
The impure and corrupt religion will be
embraced with an ardor proportioned to the
distaste which is felt for the pure and true.*
Men will become skeptical, and regard all re-
ligion as no better than priest-craft, or at least
no better than, nor so good perhaps, as the
religion of good works which is offered by
* Some writer has said that “to dress men up in outside religion, to
throw a mantle over the frightful forms of human depravity, is the
most that Masonry ever attempts, or ever accomplishes."
-239-
Masonry. And especially will this be the
case in a society which, accustomed to politi-
cal compromises, is prone to carry the com-
promising spirit into morals, where, of course,
it can only prove productive of degeneracy
and ruin. In this way we may partially ac-
count for the extraordinary readiness with
which Masonic arts and practices are adopted
and persevered in by a Puritanical people.
It must be admitted, however, that the an-
cient standard of puritanical excellence is not
too high, and that it would be retrograde and
dangerous to fall below it. The very essence
of the Puritan faith is the freedom and equal.
ity of all men, a state of society which can
never be attained under a faith less pure and
exalted than theirs. A faith that teaches that
there is something mysteriously important in
a leather apron, can never elevate men, nor
contribute to an equality of rights and privi-
leges among them. Aside from all questions
concerning forms of government, no greater
calamity could possibly befall a Christian na
tion than to have its religion corrupted, or its
standard of moral excellence lowered.
If we would preserve our republican form
of government, we have a great duty to per-
na-
--240-
form. We have not yet passed our first hun-
dredth year as a nation, and already we have
become the great entrepot of trade between
the hundreds of millions of Europe on the
one hand, and of those of Asia on the other.
Our wealth and population are to become
more vast than theirs.
The immense ruins of the great cities of
Asia Minor that once flourished on the routes
of trade between the East and West, can
give us but a faint idea of our future grandeur
as estimated by wealth and the industry of
toiling millions. The luxury, the vice, the
crime, the degeneracy that, in the natural
course of things, attend such vast wealth,
seem to be wholly adverse to the perpetuity
of our simple republican institutions for even.
another century. It must appear evident that,
if they are to be preserved by religion, it is
only the Christian religion in all its simple
purity that can do it. A device like that
of Masonry, so pretentious and yet so selfish
and mean spirited, could serve only to hasten
their decline; it could no more save and per-
petuate them than could the cavern-worship
of Ephesus save that proud city which has long
since disappeared from the face of the earth.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DATE DUE

APR
1990
APR 1 6 RECD
APR 15 1993
FILM) 1985 PRESEHVATION
UN
!
P!

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
€ 3 9015 01645 3964
JUN 9037
ND
UNIV. OF CHE
LIBRARY

CAGO:
3
S
A door
ON FREE...ASCR.
n ila sinated: Aliastrated Ritual th te 331 der, k i
a n Lustration of ses are Gungor,
Sadie, tapor
ustuated, Three Degrers, 375 pages, cloth
Sam. 1& t
5 mlitustratea, 8th ta Tegrees 341 pag scoth
bare paper
Det hy lapt. Wra: Morgan
lr stated. a full Ritual or Temale Masary
is. O ke Power of t a Secret Empire cloth
Sazne, prpei
sbs Post, Chis. G. Inney, cloth
Same. pupei
Stai cu Freemasonrs Developed by Sainl. 13. recue, cloth
Sane, oapei
truc on and Murder of Capt. wm Morgän
alt Root SS Degrees of Freemasoniy
Pex F reemasonry as Proved in New Berlin Tural
sonry a League with the Devil
3 ' e case bere the Grandgefill
at Jouincy Adams Afttere on Nature Manoniek
cane, cloan
suma dupa
S
bdge of the
S
dat: K
O CIETT FRITUALS
amen Rebrochasti
S
per
che non peper
NIP
794
SouTutite
SET
hrend Arny of the Re n Maslini
cismiti.
La atera ut
ieties pated. Witain
no,
n
o
Wichsen Sacities; E CU
last
Tulustwater ,
ut . Pull Uluslistad 2
the
luated. Full Ilustr teu Rita
B uste ted. Revised and Enlarged Edition. 0.717, at
Abridged olition
MISCELLANEOUS.
cient 2 odern, tren. Ihrps.220 pares.
redo Litertes R
TN
Same paper
vozten
ᏙᏗᎴᎲ , Ꮅ , ᎥᏂᎩᏌfᏓᏟᎲᎢ
ties b. Mar . Virusa and Baecher clock
Same paper
so Serap BOON--28 C osure Tracts, bound
22 Arzumuents, showing the conflict of Masonry with the LAWS
shington Opposed tu Kecret Societies, by Hon. Joser Rifrer
ret oteties. VH.
Deties HL kellogg
the National Christian Association
es On Morgali imes
S
ee the More Abducto
Nasuv biler WPM’Nary
0341S etc. hy Rey. Jaarver
GA ETTEV. Taniel Daw
V
i
tas. Williaras, a sevedia Master Mason
BAThou. Cross
u boitiater by Elder 3.1. Post
ALL
wwwh
h ou la yut be a Freemason
BISID
Societies
C
ristian Religion
the Church
.by Prest J. Blar ch.
Sony
Biancave
COMBINATION BOOKS- Al g in Cioth
qata r bo. of Secret Societies 1:1 d. pil of Honor
vämlu !
S on Indi istru
bo Ahduan na murier, this 13 Isgroes
MIX l'ara hint han terhar
ad 208 Sour furrmons and Addremme