The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1831-06-15
WHOLE NO. 3O37.

winch have been so earnesty' solemnIv VET frpit-
iesSiy resorted to. Amidst the din of arms we are
.1lu, Ihoee9 mat the laws become silent but that
they should so totally lose their antbor;tv at NO.
rod OF profound peace and general ooo3 order ss
they nave done on this occasion nnnst arise from
some extraordinary and porentious cause Tho
victory oil crime IS the opprobrium of the law and
! to the cadse N
] 1t has been said that the human bosom ia NOT
strong enough to hold the secret of foul murder
30 heaVly does 1t press that the stoutest pives
way, seeking relief in the gush of its SIM Hithsr-
10 aso IN proportion as the knowledge of the fact
! oil murder has been shared by large numbers of
people, has been the case, the prolnptitude wa
may ado, the certainty of detection. But in Nor
gans case, we behold the frightful reverse II
STANDS IN this respect alone in the records of Grim.
inal Jurisprudence. The law books of ancient and
modern times, might safely be invoked for pre-
cedent. The difficulty of keeping the secret Of a
murder. operated as some safeguard over innocent
life. 1t served in some degree to deter the muir,
derer himself, by making him shrink from the fear
OF ms own thoughts afterwards, and to obstruct his
le plans from the like fear, keeping away accom-
plces. As by stripes, the flesh is made to CULVER.
SO the wraps and stings of remorse, lacerate tbs
heart. They are internal executioners from whose
torture the guilty cannot escape But here we be-
mold this safeguard of life put to scorn; seated
In the very conscience of man, and which nothing
but the most baleful potions, administered as if by
Intervals, could ever extirpate. Every sober-mind-
ed citizen will be anxious to arrive at the solution
OF this phenomenon. If train of evidence alto
gether irresistible in its direct circumstantial ap
Plcaton, force upon his mind the belief that its en-.
tire and complicated horror is clearly traceable to
the cenfederated and unholy contrivances of bad
men, who are masonS all his right feelings as q
citizen must be shocked He must stand con-
founded at seeing human life and liberty SO sport
ed with, by power the more tremendous in its
victory over the laws it rides in darkness. Good
men who are masons, will turn from such conduct
with adherence. Candid men of the society on
hearing the relation Of it, may be disposed to ask
themselves, whether all the benefits of masonry,
alleged or real be a counterpoise fer the per-
lis which may thus spring from it, through deluded
or deprayed zealots, who gain admittance to its
sanctuary and who effectually silence compunc-
ton under iniquity, by flying to the misunderstood
or perverted ties and obligations of the craft If
power shrouded from the day, has been found of eff
hcacy sufficient TO interpose fatal obstruction to
tile great course of public Justice where guilt has
been SO aggravated, we to suppose that the mis-
Chief ends here that it is single, an insulated
instance ! 1t is impossible He is weak and cred
ulous who believes it. In the vast and active char
acter and business of masonry in its close and d.
Versifed connections with society at large whose
paths 1t besets every where, whose movements from
behind Its own screen it can watch and follow up
at pleasure it must happen that the streams of JUS
tlce Will often be tainted, on occasions less con-
spieuous, by the same power. danger then ex-
ists under the highest moral and judicial de-
monstration, which ought to rivet deep attention.
and awaken general alarm. Not only has the Cow
eminent of the State of New York lent its efforts
IN aid of the ordinary process Of law for detecting
the culprlts in this audaciOus conspiracy. The
government of Upper Canada has stepped forward
IN cooperation for it is characteristic of the
conspiracy that there strong suspicious of its
embracing deprated members of the fraternity in
that foreign jurisdiction extensive wers believ-
ed, and on rational grounds, to have been the hide
GUS workings of its malignant sympathies. But all
has been in vain. Executive messages, executive
acts and procamatons with the offer of executive
rewards, like indictments and jury trials under spe-
cial courts and judges flor these two were addedJ
have all fallen to the ground. THE LAW is still
paralyzed by hidden agent, that continues prove
stronger than the combined force of its machinery
and its ministers the Lodge Of this agent has be-
come its sepulchre. There it lies, spectacle for
treemen to look at.
In the whole compass OF affairs TO which govern.
ment is subservent there is nothing, Of such trans
cendant importance, as the faithful and effective
administration of justice between man and man,
and by the body polite against public dslnquents.
1t is of daily, unceasing emergence. 1t blends it.
self with all the wants, duties and necessities; with
all the hopes and all the dangers that belong the
political and social condition of the world. Il
comes perpetuay home TO the immediate business
and bosom of mankind, the remark SO often repeat
ed from Bacon, but which on this subject has its
application IN exact truth. Hume describes it as
the sole end and aim Of all governments; and, GER
tanly, if such administration OF justice be want
ing, it is not going too far TO assert that the func
tons of government have stopped in point that is
vital. If we have laws without the power to give
them effect, we in the condition of a people
having none; which brings society to a pause
The levy of ship money among the causes that
produced tho decapitation of Charles !, and q
change in the English Dynasty. The tax of three
pence pound on tea, helped to bring on our own
revolution. How small such acts in themselves
yet, in union with quick and we'll understood
spirit of public liberty, how vast their consequences
throughout nations, and the posterty of nations,
fear not to say that neither of them were caculat-
ed to press so destructvely upon the great fabric
of society, the fact before us of secret cbnb.
nation in the heart of the republic being able to
keep the laws at bay in this Of the murderers
OF Morgan so long to trample upon, SO long to tri-
umph over them The apathy prevailing under the
batied efforts to probe and to fully punish great
enorAity, Is, to my mind, inc applicable, among a
people watchful of their rights and who would ever
be ready, it might have been supposed, to embody
the whole power of society, whenever any one Of
its members, however humble, was seen to be so
ruthlessly struck down. lnterpostion should have
been the more immediate and decided, as the blow
was bold and terrible as it was given amidst
concomitants so unusual and indicative Of so SUI
preme, SO insolent contempt for the laws. If ev4
er event arose in the annals of any people, that
| should have made the tphole body of the public
identical with the authority of the magistrate, by
THIS. No other feeling ever yet kept permanently
alive the spirit of public liberty, or upheld the SUI
premacy and grandeur of the laws, They both die
certainly under torpor as if crushed by open des
potism 1t is one of the ways IN which free States
begin to lose their liberties 1t is deadly opiate.
diifusng itself through the political SYSTEM against
the installations of which, the patriot heart should
be reused by every consideration that can animate
it to its highest duties. When the magistrates are
. seen with the ensigns of authority powerless IN
their hands, an appeal is made to the inextnguish,
able allegiance and generous devotion which shoald
bind every citizen to the common veal. Inc love
maintenance az individual rights. We are dcgen-
crate Republicans, we arc no Republicans, other.
! wise AIorgan's case is no common one. 1t is Of
great and inspiring magnitude Looked at by itself
: E NAV he called detached, o. little, by those who
ntIc -know how to think, are determined not
! to think. But properly weighed by its princi-
: ules as well as facts it is rnomentous and ap-
!, Railing. 1t is no case for County Courts. It il
=. a-.l.