National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-03-06

Or. Blanchard's Address to the Bethel
Literary Society on the Evils of
Secret Organizations.

Secret Organizations.
Rev. j. Blanchard, ex-presldent OF
Wheaton Ill.) College, addressed the
Bethel Literary Society last week, in the
lecture room OF the Metropolitan A. NJ. e.
Church, ION the Influence Of the Secret
Lodge System on the Destiny Of the Ameri-
can Colored Race, and Through Them on
the United States"
lie quoted from the memoirs Of Gen.
Grant: "All secret POLITICAL oath-bound
parties are dangerous TO any nation,n and
''if sect sets up its laws as finding above
the state laws, this claim must be sup
pressed at whatever cost;n also from the
national platform OF the Democratic party
In 1855, when 1t wished TO strike at know
nothingism 1--WE have defined opposi-
ton to all secret societies. by whatsoever
name called.n
The fact that many good men belong TO
Masonic lodges is accounted for by the fact
that not more than one-hfth OF them attend
the meetings or know what is going on.
Then there is q secrecy In lodges which
binds the minds even OF good men. The
present craze among colored people for
lodges, he believed, was because their mas
tiers were all Free Masons and they wished
TO initiate them. The rebellion was born
of the lodge. Jefferson Davis and Gen.
Lee were carried into the rebellion, though
Union men, because they were overcome by
their states. and the states were carried by
nightly discussions in the lodges. 1t Is
heather in its origin, heather In its nature,
and heather in its effects. II came from
Egypt, where a secret priesthood plum
dered the people. 1t Is hostile to
the principles on which American
society rests. II substitutes for God
its "Grand Architect" or "God of this
World.n By excluding Christ It destroys
Gah H.. -
human equality by its constitution, which,
as its greatest writer (Mackey), says, "ls
completely despoticw Alexander II. Ste
phens, the vice president of the confeder-
aoy, said ats mission was to found an en-
pire whose cornerstone was slavery" And
by swearing or pledging It's members to
obey, before they know what or whom, IL
makes them, In the words Of Prof. Robson,
Of Edinburgh, "sworn underlings to un-
known superiors p' And 1t is equally hos
tile to marriage, by swearing every hu sbaud
to lifelong concealment from his wife.
"The number Of colored people In this
district" he continued, "embarked In these
secret societies are as follows: Fishermen
OF Galilee (estimated) 5000; Good Samar-
itans, 1900; knights of Labor, 10000;
Chaldeans, 5000; Love and Charity, 1000;
Free Masons, 500; Odd Fellows, 5000;
Knights Of Jerusalem, 800; Ancient Order
OF Moses, $500; Sons and Daughters Of
Liberty, 1900; The Tents, 600; True Re-
formers, 500; Good Templars, $50. There
are other popular orders In the SOUTH and
extending into northern cities, as "The I'm
maculates," "Wise Men," "The Temple"
&c, &c, who do not appear in this District.
There is one church in Chicago which has
three secret orders In 1t, one for small chill
dren, another for youth, and another for
adults, each having secret initiation fee and
monthly tax. This District may be taken,
aH fofr AtN1 AhAvv
figures give in the District OF Columbia
6S,S50 members. There are some $1,000
colored people In the District, and the same
person Will belong 20 and pay dues In from
one to four, five, and six secret orders; so
that the figures given above are doubtless
below the actual number OF members, and,
IL limitations, dues, degree fees, death taxes,
regalia, and rents cost an average to each
member OF but $40 a year, these societies cost
the colorec people here, In cash, $3.50, 500
year, and they cost the colored population
in the United States sixty or seventy mill
ions year
"When these lodge dues are all paid there
is often not penny left for pastor, church,
wife, or children. They are disintegrating
the churches and drowning the families In
poverty. Thousands Of wives take 10 wash
ing to feed husbands whose wages 90 to the
lodges. In jackson, Miss, man whose
whole visible estate would not have sold
for $25, had managed to raise S35 for re-
gala, 81 for cap and plume, S. for gaunt-
lets and gloves, and came to his pastor, Rev.
Mr. Harris, to help him to SIT for sword.
man in this city selling perch, which he
caught in the Potomac, at 10 cents string,
had paid sos for two limitations, and was
paying monthly dues. Ten BARRIERS who
have shaved me in my present southern
tour have paid tax Of about $1,000 for
having their moral sense debased and thoir
iptallppta hafOOupd u tha false xynrohips
and lying legends Of the lodges.
"These lodges are Joined by the lure Of
secrecy and hopes Of advantage. But the
hopes are false. Your shrewdest, wisest,
most sagacious men, as Douglass, Lynch,
and Scott, never join them. They only profit
the men who make these orders their trade.
When Chicago was burned Masons raised,
by their own report, 500, 900, and paid only
$4,000 for relief. A swindle 60 tremendous
would sink anything on earth but secret
false religion. For quarter or half dollar
one can buy the secrets Of any OF these
societies, They sell secrets which are not
secrets, thus obtaining money by false pre-
lenses, which Is sin and crime.
"But the grand controlling objection to
secret orders is that no one ever followed
Christ into secret society, and we are COM
manded to follow HIM. No one, there
fore, can be initiated without trampling on
the example and teaching Of the Son Of GOD.
''And II this ruin, financial and moral, is
not arrested. the United States, from land
flowing with milk and honey and waving
with haryests, viii become like PALESTINE
where mnttering monks and cringing
natives, pilgrim beggars, and wandering
Arabs look out on bleak and barren hills,
and owls and jackals come back to boot and
scream over them at night"
The pulpit, press, and platform should
condemn the evil. Colored men should not
shrink from nnnOginp 1OIuna He
tinued: "In three prolonged visits to-
Washington l have often been asked for
aims In the street, but the beggars have all
been white; no colored person has asked
me for penny. You have seven million
people and more than million votes. Cast
these votes for God and goodness, against
the lodge and liquor, and the key OF yonder
white house will soon be in colored hands.
The white. minority party will join you and
give you the casting vote.
"'But, you ask, do you really think these
lodges, like slavery, will.be done away p
] know that they will. They are not of
Gods planting, and Christ, whose, words
be rooted up The men who took the
country through the war, Lincoln, Sumner,
Chase, Seward, Stanton, Stevens, and Love-
joy, with Charles Francis Adams and
Thurlow Weed in England, to keep off the
British lion-these were all anti Masons,
and the race Of patriots is not dead yet,
and, II II was, God could raise up more.
"'But,' once more, you may ask DO
you really believe hatred and ostracism on
account Of color will cease, and that what
we now see in colleges and In the street
cars Of Washington VIII be seen In schools,
societies, and the churches OF GodY'
And why should we not9 The great
majority OF mankind are colored people,
not white, and the telephone is bringing
them together shoulder TO shoulder. Be-
sides, crushed races always rise, and pro-
scribed people always, in the long run,
outstrip the prosecutors, and In these days
long runs are getting short. An African of
Cyrene bore the cross after Christ, and
Afrina hoe furniaha1 fha ornaa haa rara ~