Mason Proclamation
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The Oaths, the Penalties, and the Secrets - whether all disclosed
with perfect accuracy or not; whether understood as they were by the
murderers of Morgan, or as explained by the defenders of Masonry - are
unreasonable, odious, and I believe unlawful. The Oaths of all Masons,
heretofor admitted, if they ever had any binding force, are dissolved by
the public disclosure of the secrets, which they had bound themselves to
keep. Their country calls on them to disclaim henceforth and forever all
secrets, and as incidental to the injunction of them, all oaths and
penalties. This reasonable and moderate call has not only been resisted
by the great body of Freemasons throughout the United States, but no
man, high or low, eminent or obscure, has dared to avow this opinion and
unite in this call without being assailed in his reputation, robbed of
his good name, insulted, abused and vilified openly and in secret, by
individual Masons and by organized Lodges, a body of at least two
hundred thousand men, scattered over the whole Union, - all active and
voting men, linked together by secret ties, for purposes of indefinite
extent; bound together by oaths and penalties operating with terrific
energy upon the human heart, and upon its fears; embracing within the
penalty within its laws the President of the United States and his
leading competitors; and winding itself around every great politcal
party for its support, like poisonous ivy round a sturdy oak, and round
every object of its aversion, like the boa-constrictor around its
victim. Such in faint and diluted colors is at this time the image of
the Masonic Institution in these United States. Commanding despotically
a large portion of the public presses - intimidating by its terrors
multitudes of others - and amid all its internal dissensions, uniting
with the whole mass of its power against every common adversary, one of
the most alarming and pernicious characters in which it now presents
itself, is that of its political dominion. You tell me that you are
Antimasonic in your opinion and feelings, but are perplexed by the
mixture of Politics with Antimasonry. But you place herein the effect
before the cause. The mixture of Politics is with Masonry. President John Quincy Adams Quincy, Massachusetts 23 September, 1831 |
Transcriber: ES
Created: 21 November 2006