Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1851-01-27

l
employ would be discharged if he held Q
purchased any stock in this Store! D
you ask who this was? He is a man tba
many an American la aborer looks up to wit
respect; man high in political life, an,
now represents the lords of the cotton plan,
ations of the South and the cotton mills o
/ the North in the court Of St. James! Such
American laborers, are your representative
abroad-such the men you are called upor
to support. There is, however, a remedy
for this An association has lately been re-
vived, which is, in its principles, as broad
as the race of laboring mau; which affords
all the facilities for combination of labor
and the laborers means; while it guards
him whom the tyrant throws out of en- ploy.
ment, and who is the victim OF unjust Cd.
preston from the commercial, legalized pi-
4 rates Of our times-from starvation and
want, and looks upon him as a brother
who has fallen among thieves. been stripped
of his raiment and left half dead! They
seek to estab blish an equality, by making la
bor honorable and honored above the drones
Of society who feed upon the fruits OF others
labor. The Brotherhood of the Union
seeks to protect the laborer and redress his
wrongs, to elevate him beyond the power
Of land jobbers, or the degrading influences
/ Of competition with the chattel slave labor
of the South. They regard the public
Land Of the United States as belonging to
the laborers Of the country, and will oppose
its concentration into the ha nds of the spec
ulator, seeking to enrich himself out of the
Dor of the toiling masses around him.
The great symbol Of the Order is circle,
typifying the word Union the union of
righ ht and justice against wrong and op-
preston = the union oi men who work to el-
evate themselves beyond the expressions Of
capital The watchword Of the Order is
not that of a cramped-up creed or party in
politics, but simply the comprehensive word
Brotherhood. The titles OF its officers are
not merely high sounding and vain glori-
Gus names, but the names of martyrs in
the great cause OF liberty and humanity.
A few thousand laberers combined in
such an order can do moro for the redemp.
ton and elevation of the worker than
million working in disjoin.ed aud isolated
etf3rts Then let US combine in this great
band OF Brotherhood, and resolve that the
man who labors shall Jet possess ths fruits
of lis labor, which are Life, Liberty,
Land and lone. Already are its arms
extended from Maine to Georgia, and from
the dark waters OF our own Erie, 10 the
white capped foams os the Gulph OF NJ exlco.
Already have the laborers OF Calilornia
and Oregon reached forth their hands 10
join US in the sacred hands of brotherhood
1t is needless al this time to 60 into a de.
tailed history Of this Order. Our Order
alone has preserved ispurity through the
long nlgIh Of ages. Forty centuries ago
the II. L. shone into the hearts of men,
on this continent and in the Old World.
Now, when the Old World has become q
wilderness of crimes, and the memorials of
the grea, people who dwelt in the New,
have been blolted out. in the darkness OF
the centuries, the Fl. F. still lives and
glows over tho American Continent. Its
mysterious symbols are written alike in
The Pyramids of Egypt, and in the monu
men,s of Mexico. The Druids who, be.
meath the shadows Of the Oak, reyerenced
the Il. F. were Brothers Of our Order
| The Rnsicuecians, who in the middle ages
revealed The knowledge of God, the destiny
of man, in their shrouded councils, derived
their knowledge and their symbols from
the H. F The Illuminati, who gave the
first impulse to the purer principles of the
French Revolution in which LaFayatte
and Washington firmly believed, only
called INTO action the Mysteries Of the Fl i.
n Il
rec,sd, and achieved by this brotherhood,
who, encomposing lamp and Council, Altar
and Home, with their magic circle, kept
their name, their very existence, a solemn
secret from the world wthou, the Order.
When the Order was known at all, by
any name it was simply called the Broth
erhood Of the Continental: Unlon Under
a name somewhat similar, we now reveal
the Oroer to the world, reserviDg for The
silence of our circle the holier name which
we can only announce to- those without by
the letters, II. F. We have done more.
We have shrouded the honorable and ven.
cradle degrees Of the Order, under names,
titles, rites and ceremonies, altogether pc
cuIiar to this continent, and thoroughly
AWeTlCdUs w nave MSoSboo Jul "y 0e0,
ries with two fold glory. One shines
into the far distant past, and reveals the
ancient grandeur Of the H. F.-,he other
glows upon the deeds, the men, of tire
Revolution, and perpetuates them by i'm
pressivs rites forever. We have added to
the original vow Of the Il. F. that tender
and sacred invocation Of Brotherhood-an.
other vow, which obliges every Brother
TO maintain at all hazards the sanctity of
The American Onion. AS it stands now,
our Order not only enforces Brotherhood
cares for the sick, protects the widow,
cherishes the orphan, follows every BROTH
er to the grave, with its truth, Hope and
Love, bat it dignlfies labor in all It's cers-
monies, appeals to the men who Toll with
its impressive rites, seizes the intellect oI
the land with its sympathy for suffering
genius, but taking its stand upon the graves
Of our Fathers, it ut.ers this solemn atfir'
ma.ion:-the American Union--reafed in
the blood and tears OF the martyrs-is the
last altar Of human freedom on the globe
"a holy shrine, sacred forever 10 the
brotherhood Of Man. We will maintain