Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1833-08-07


written in answer to inquiries proposed
by the Anti-Masonc Committee of Mid
dlesex county, Mass. through their Secre-
tary, Herman Atwell, Esq. and is inter-
terpreted on all hands as identifying the
political interest of the writer with the
cause Of Anti-masonry.
CHARLESTON, June 29th, 1888.
My Dear Sir:-I have your favor oil
the 9 tn inst. addressed to me on behalf
of the Anti Masonic committee of the
county of MlddIcsex, in which you re-
quest an expression of my views and opin-
ions, relative to the Institution of Free
masonry and the tendency of secret So
cieties generally.
My public engagements, as you are
probably aware. are of such nature, as
to make it impossible for me to attempt a
detailed exposition of my views on this
subject during the present week. Nor is
this perhaps necessary. | notice in your
letter that you quote one or two scnten-
ces from the letter of Mr.. Writ, of the
28th Sept. 1881, as containing the princi-
Piles of the ''large and respectable portion
of my fellow citizens and constituents"
on whose behalf you address me. In the
correctness of those principles fully con-
cur. "The Supremacy of the Laws is
the fundamental pricipIe of civil society.
--"The allegiance due to the country is
the highest human obligation" Of all men,
who enter into civil society; and con-
ceive the Institution of Freemasonry to
be at wa. with both these principles.
With respect to this institution, came
to the conclusion and expressed it repeat
eddy in public, several years before the
present controversy arose, that its preten
sions to antiquity we're unfounded. 1t is
probably the growth of the last century
and a half. 1t has frequently been ad-
mitted to RE by respectable members of
the society, that it is useless; and that as
such it had better be abolished. Its only
avowed o5jects--charity and knowledge
Can be much better promoted by pub
lie associations. If it be useless, it must
be worse than useless, because it occa-
sions a waste of all the time, attention and
money, necessary to keep up Its organiza-
ton. The titular and ceremonial parts
of it, as displayed before the public, ap-
pear to me strangely at variance with
good taste, particularly in republican
community.
But the great objections to the lnstitu-
ton lie much deeper. All secret socie-
ties are dangerous, in proportion to the
extent Of their organization and number
Of their members. A secret society, so
widely ditfused and connected as this,
puts vast power, capable of the most
dangerous abuse, into hands irresponsi-
BILE to the public. The secret ceremonies
and rites as they have been disclosed, APP
pear to me on many grounds, highly OBJ
jectionable; and the oaths & obligations
are open to the most weighty exceptions,on
the score of religion, morals and good
sense. | am aware that some of these
oaths must have been taken, by many
great and good men.-That does not al
ter their character. And as | cannot be-
leve, that they could have stood a day
before the face of public sentiment had
they been openly administered and re-
ceived, it is not the least objection to the
Institution, that as secret society, whose
rites and ceremonies must be substantial
ly unknown before hand, great and good
men have been surprised into giving it
seeming sanction.
The force of these objections is i'm
measurabIy increased by the fact, that
within few years, the Institution has
been actually made the instrument of the
greatest (the greatest because irrepara-
able) evil, which Can be inflicted on soci-
ETY., the destruction of the life of a citi-
zen; followed up by systematic and sue
cessful attempts to screen the murderers,
in defiance of the most rigorous efforts,
on the part of the tribunals TO bring them
to justice.
1t is unnecessary to say, that | speak Of
the tendency Of the Institution, as evinced
in cases that have occurred, and conse-
quently may occur again, and not of a
necessary effect in all cases. When |
reflect that Warren and Washington, a
mong the dead, and Marshall, among the
living, and numbers Of pious, virtuous,
and honorable men, in the community a.
round US, (some Of whom have the hap
piness to count among my personal
friends) are members of the Institution, !
cordially adopt the sentiment of Mr..
Writ, in reference to the same point, that
"both justice and prudence demand dis
elimination - and that II uould he tan