id a truth. I could at any time substantiate it in a court of justice, by testimony of the highest respectability, but for two reasons. In the first place, I could not do it without bringing two valued friends into a dilemma, in which I do not wish to involve them. I entered voluntarily, from a regard to principle alone, into the editorial war against Morgan's kidnappers and murderers; and on further reflection, upon the same ground of principle, I declared war against the whole Order: I am, therefore, willing to bear the brunt alone, without involv ing any friend. In the second place, were the feelings and interests of my friends not in the way, I should still be very loth as an American citizen, and more especially as a public sentinel at the editorial desk, to acknowledge, by any act of my own, that I am to be put in bodily fear by any man, or set of men. As an editor I will write and publish fearlessly, nothing but what I seriously believe to be true, and to be my duty to my country and my patrous to publish. If convinced of error, I will honestly and honourably retract, without the least hesitation but in pursuit of truth and duty, I will perish before I desert either. I am tied to no party, and bound by no prejudice. Reason is my guide, and liberty alone is my object.

NOTE XXI.

How long, and how often, and when and where, the influence of Free Masonry has been brought to operate secretly upon our elections, I shall not pretend to say: but I shall here relate a circumstance, which I recollect as vividly as though it had happened within a few days-and yet I am my. self surprised, that I never thought of it in any serious or important point of view, till my mind became excited by the outrages at Batavia, Canandaigua and Fort Niagara. When the late worthy DANIEL D, TOMPKINS was first nominated for the office of Governor, I was standing, in the Legislative caucus, by the side of Elisha Jenkins, Esq. then Comptroller or Secretary of State. Mr. Tompkins was scarcely known as a politician-he had not then distinguished himself in public life. I well recollect struggling in all the conflicts of the republican party at least ten years before he was known at all in the ranks. I turned to Mr. JENKINS, and said, how will our candidate run? Is he sufficiently known? Who will support him? "I shall support him, for one, said Mr. Jenkins-and the less known he is, the better will he run; for our opponents can say nothing against him." I thought this a sensible remark; but still I felt alarmed for the success of our candidate, on account of his not being generally known, as I supposed. I turned away from Mr. Jenkins, and the first person I came in contact with was the venerable Judge Peck, of Otsego, now no more, but then one of the main props of our party. I put to him the same questions that I had done to Mr. Jenkins. His reply was, " it will go well-I understand the Free Masons will turn out to support

hin-he was up in our county among them, as Grand Visitor from the Grand Lodge." On referring to the list of officers of the Grand Lodge, I find, that Mr. Tompkins was chosen Grand Secretary in 1802-his nomination was, I believe, in 1807. God forbid, that I should disturb the ashes of the dead, and particularly those of Governor Tompkins; for although we had some serious differences, they were sincerely and amicably settled several years before he died; and I can cheerfully bear testimony to the goodness of his heart: but still, if his election was in the first place the result of masonic influence, it proves the early existence of that influence, in a political point of view. It is no answer to this, to say that Governor Tompkins was, indeed, all that is amiable and exalted, in humanity and benevolence of heart; or that he was one of the best of Chief Magistrates all this I cheerfully admit: but suppose, on the contrary, he had been a Nero, or a Caligula, should we have thanked the Free Masons for their secret management in bringing him up? I now sincerely believe, that he made his debut on the political stage, through their influence; although at the time the assertion of Judge Peck made but a momentary impression on my mind : bút now, when I look back, and reflect upon this anecdote, as well as many other events in our state politics, which appeared to me at the time inexplicable, I can easily account for them; I find no difficulty in tracing their origin to the dark and secret retreats of Free Masonry; and he more especially, considering that this secret masonic influence has, since the early day when Governor Tompkins entered the list as a politician, been steadily growing in every town and county, till it has become a GIGANTIC MONSTER.-By how many persons, and how often, since the excitement on Morgan's account has existed, have Free Masons, in every* part of the state, been heard to boast that they (meaning their Order) held all the important offices, and would continue to hold them, in spite of all opposition? I have myself heard this boast on more than one occasion.

Again-when I recollect the entry of Governor TOMPKINS into this city, after his first election, I am the more fortified in the opinion that there was an under-current, an artificial excitement in his case: for as I said before, he was a young man, and although he had received the appointment of Judge of the Supreme Court; yet he had not officiated at the circuits any where north and west of Albany; his entry, into this city, was on returning from the first circuit court he had ever held in any of the western counties. A great multitude however, turned out to meet him, at different stages of his

A

journey; and especially between this city and Schenectady, the road, for miles, was crowded with footmen, horsemen, and carriages of every description, well filled. Neither George Clinton nor John Jay, with all their age, wisdom, and wellearned revolutionary laurels, had ever received more homage, than did the young Governor Elect, on this occasion. Mr. Jay, I believe, never received any such homage, excepting on one occasion, which I witnessed in New-York, in 1791, or '92. I do not know of any occasion, when one of the wisest men we ever had at the helm-either in the state or federal government-I mean George Clinton-was ever honoured by such pageantry! Without, therefore, detracting in the smallest degree from the merits of Governor Tompkins, I am now perfectly satisfied that it was the secret, unseen, influence of the Craft, that produced this extraordinary excitement in his favour at that early stage of his political career: I may be in an error; but this is my honest conviction.

NOTE IV.-Page 17.

The following PROSPECTUS of the NATIONAL Observer, was issued agreeably to its date, and has been circulated as widely as circumstances would permit. It is inserted here, with the renewed assurance, that the OBSERVER will continue to be conducted, with zeal and inflexibility, on the principles therein stated. The editor can assure the reader, that he has on hand, and will steadily accumulate, important matter, on the subject of the dangerous tendency of Free Masonry, sufficient to give his columns an interesting aspect, for a long time to come: he is determined never to relax, so long as Divine Providence shall spare him for the duty, in his exer tions to convince his fellow-countrymen, that the purity and stability of their free constitutions,depend upon the extinction of Free Masonry, as well as all other secret combinations. He means to republish regularly, at least once in every s x months, the whole of the Report of the Western Committees, in the case of Morgan; so that the truth of that case may be known, in proportion as the circulation of the Observer shall be increased and extended.

Whoever sends $3 in advance, free of postage, shall be entitled to the Observer one year; and shall also have a copy of the Solemn Warning sent by mail, or otherwise, as ordered; and any party (not less than six) sending each $2.50 cents in advance, shall individually have the same

return.

THE NATIONAL OBSERVER.

The Editor and Publisher of the National Observer, are frequently called upon from various parts of the country, for information respecting the abduction of Capt. WILLIAM MORGAN, and other Masonic outrages, commit-ted in the Western District of the State of New-York, in the month of September, 1826.-To such inquirers the Observer is sent; but the undersigned have been informed, from sources on which they can place reliance, that there are numbers who would be glad to take the Observer, but know not where to apply for it. The undersigned, therefore, beg leave to call the attention of their fellow-citizens, throughout the Union, to the following Address :

TO THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.

FELLOW CITIZENS,

The National Observer is published once a week in the city of Albany. It is in its politics republican in the true seuse of the word, and devoted, with moderation but firmness, to the present National Administration. Its columns, however, are open to correspondents of all parties, who may think proper to forward their essays for publication, which will always find admittance, if they do not contain offensive person. al or libellous matter.

On the subject of those nefarious outrages, committed in September last, in the western district of this state, on the person and property of unoffending citizens, and which have so deeply interested, and still continue so deeply to interest. the feelings of all honest men; the Observer has uniformly taken decided ground against the Conspirators, and their open and secret aiders and abettors, who planned and carried into effect those daring attacks upon the rights of life, liberty and property. For taking this ground, which no honest and independent Editor could consistently or honourably refuse to take, the OBSERVER has been proscribed in every direction by masonic zealots,of whom it might well be exclaimed, as of old-"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Numerous subscriptions have been withdrawn-advertising patronage has been cut off-job-work, to no small amount, diverted, by direct or indirect management, from the Printer-and in short, every artifice, worthy of a dark, corrupt and rotten cause, has been resorted to for the purpose of destroying every source of its prosperity.

Under such a pressure of circumstances, the Editor and Publisher, confiding in the spirit of liberty and justice, which animates the people, have resolved-

Firstly, That they will at all hazards PERSIST in the course they have adopted in relation to the kidnappers and murderers of Morgan, and their aiders and abettors, until they shall be ferretted out, if possible, and the supremacy of the law, over private combinations, be effectually sustained.

Secondly, That being perfectly convinced, from the facts.

that have come out in this case-as well as from the conduct of the masonic fraternity_towards the National Observerthat FREE MASONRY and CIVIL LIBERTY, especially the liberty of the Press, cannot exist together-the Editor will, in future, devote no small portion of his editorial labors to a steady warfare with the Masonic Order-not with the Indi. viduals, but with the Order-as a dangerous Order-an Order imported from monarchial Europe, and inconsistent, in its secret orginization, its Aristocratic and Royal forms and appendages, with the republican constitutions, laws, habits, and manners, of a country, apparently, and we hope really, designed by the Creator as the conservator of human liberty, happiness, and prosperity. In this determination, independent of those recent events, which ought to open the eyes of all independent freemen, he is fortified by the warning voice of Washington against all self-created, secret associations.He, therefore, respectfully invites the aid of correspondents, who are able and willing to assist him in this warfare of liberty and law, against oppression and outrage; of light against darkness; of fair, open and undisguised policy, against foul, secret, and nocturnal intrigue and conspiracy.

He invites especially, the communication of all facts, tending to show that the Batavia and Canandaigua outrages have been approved by the Order; to this point, the declarations of members of the Order, made at various times and places, he wishes to have correctly reported, and by respectable authority.

The communication likewise, of all facts that are calculated to throw the least light upon the awful fate of the unhappy victim of masonic vengeance, who has paid the forfeit of his life-to the violated laws of New-York?-NO-of the United States?-NO- of God?-NO-but of the an cient and honourable fraternity of Free and Accepted Ma sons!-the Grand High Priests—the KNIGHTS TEMPLARS-the PRINCES OF JERUSALEM-and the GRAND KINGS-whose privileges, and titles, and claims to the exercise of sovereignty, within the jurisdiction of NewYork, and of the United States, have been imported from the ranks of the crusaders,and the dark caverns of the druids, of the old world! This is the imperium in imperio—the government within a government-whose GRAND CONGRESS was held at the town of Stafford, in the county of Genesee, on the 8th of September last, to devise means for enforcing and executing its bloody penal code in the case of William Morgan! And these measures were but tuo successfully planned, and too faithfully executed, for the rights of humanity, and the liber