Order (principles it has none, as I shall clearly show) betrays more or less the rights and liberties of his country, is evident from many considerations, a few of which I shall briefly refer to. When we talk of our attachment to equal laws, if we are sincere in what we say, we mean laws not only equal in theory; but which in practice operate equally upon and for the benefit of all; which secure equal assessments in taxation; impartial justice in civil suits between man and man; and elective suffrage at the polls, unbiassed by any other considerations, than the relative or comparative virtues and talents of the candidates. To compass all these high and important objects, in a republican government, what is the duty of every citizen? Is it not to guard himself sedulously against all combinations, or associations, that shall in any respect curtail the free and unlimited exercise of his reason; that shall excite in his breast passions, and prejudices, and partialities, incompatible with the exercise of a sound discretion for the public good; that shall contract his views from embracing the welfare of the public at large, to that of a few, a sect, or a party; and those perhaps far from being the best portion of the community? The answer to this question is obvious. How then can those who enter into a secret conclave, and there pledge themselves to go all lengths, and on all occasions, to serve and promote each other's interests; who there profess their attachment to this SECRET INSTITUTION, or CONCLAVE, its laws and ordinances, and to its members collectively and individually, forming with them 1 a chain of artificial friendship, connected by oaths, the promises and the penalties of which are at war with all their obligations to God and their country; how can they, I ask you, who are thus trammelled, thus bound by the fetters of a secret combination, go forth as as sessors, as jurors, as ministers of justice, as electors, as law-givers, prepared to exercise those high and important trusts, those vital functions of a free government, faithfully and impartially, in the spirit of patriotism, equity and justice? History is full of proof, that whenever and wherever men have become firmly connected in sects or parties, either religious or political, that their attachment to their sect or party, has expelled from their breasts that divine spirit of universal charity and benevolence, which the Redeemer of mankind taught his disciples; and which every true Christian is bound to cherish. If then ordinary sects or parties, in pursuit of a common object, which is not concealed by any dark mantle, but well known to the public at large; and the members of which sects or parties are bound by nothing more than a mere esprit du corps; are so apt to lose sight of their obligations to their country and mankind, in their blind attachment to their sectarian or party views; how much more so must the members of an Order, who to the same esprit du corps, add the excitement, the attachment, the partialities, the prejudices in favour of each other, which grow out of their peculiar, secret and mysterious rites and ties, the force of oaths the most horrible, the mast grossly in sulting to the moral sense of mankind, as well as repugnant to the Divine and Civil Laws. Before I conclude, on this head, it is incumbent upon me to prove the incompatibility of the masonic obligations, with those which every citizen owes to the state. Whether the doctrine of expatriation be well founded or not, it is certain that every citizen owes faithful allegiance to the laws and constitutions of his country, so long as he enjoys their protection. How, then, can any citizen, who duly reflects upon his civic obligations, and means to preserve them inviolate, go into a masonic lodge, and there swear as follows: Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will support the constitution of the Grand Lodge of the United States, and of the Grand Lodge of this State, under which this Lodge. is held, and conform to all the bye-laws, rules and regulations of this or any other Lodge, of which I may at any time hereafter become a member. Can any thing be more irrational, more repugnant to the moral sense of an honest man and a good citizen, than this oath For it must be borne in mind that this is an oath of initiation, at the time of taking which, the deponent is totally ignorant of the prescriptions of those constitutions and laws, which he swearsto support: he has not read them; they have not been read to him, nor explained by way of lecture, or in any other shape whatsoever: And. yet does be rush, thus blindly, to the altar of darkness and delusion, and swear to support. them; and not only the constitutions and laws already made, but those which may be made thereafter: And these constitutions and laws, are those of a private, secret association; and yet "without any mental evasion, or equivocation," without any reservation of his moral or religious obligations, or the allegiance he owes to the paramount laws of his country, he swears roundly that he will support them, though they may, for aught that he knows, lead him to the commission of treason, murder, or any other felony! "Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," said Sterne's Toby; but with all their flippancy and proficiency in the art, freemasonry could have taught them a lesson they little dreamed of. The next obligation I shall quote, goes still further; for when the old Tempter gets his "cable-tow" about the neck of a subject, there is no knowing whither or to what he will lead him And I have not the smallest doubt, that this obligation is the prolific source of monstrous crimes and corruptions, among those members of the order, in particular, who are ignorant and vicious: this oath, indeed, is amply sufficient to make an ignorant man a vicious man, to render him the willing pander and instrument of wickedness. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that a master mason's secrets, given to me in charge as such, and I knowing him to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his own, murder and treason excepted, and they left to my own election. If the oath, before quoted, was shocking to the moral sense of an honest man and a patriot, how much more so is this? If that might be called a leap in the dark, into the regions of iniquity, this is an open and undisguised oath of fealty to crimes and criminals of the blackest hue-to forgers, counterfeiters, pick-pockets, sharpers, thieves and high-way-men; to all sorts of criminals, in fact, but murderers and traitors: and although the right to conceal or expose these is reserved by the deponent, there is not much reason to believe that a thorough-going devotee at the altars of JACHIN and Boaz would ever exercise it in the way of exposition; for the man who could conceal or harbor a thief, or a highway robber, because he was a master mason, would find but little if any difficulty in stretching his conscience to embrace the traitor and the murderer. I am, indeed, well aware that this embrace has been given, that this stretching of a masonic conscience has happened, because one of the murderers of Morgan, in his flight from justice, passed through the city of Albany, and would have been arrested in it, if he had not been warned of his danger, and aided to escape, by one or more Royal Arch Masons! But let. the wretched out-law go where he may, the ghost of his hapless victim will rise, ever and anon, to his view and continually agitated by the horrors of a guilty conscience, he may exclaim in the language of Milton: Me, miserable! which way shall I fly To return to the oath: Can any faithful citizen deliberately take such an unlawful and wicked oath, as I have here transcribed, and know to have been taken by every master mason!- |