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PREFACE.
This book is the very cream of years of gleaning and research; a
vast mine of valuable information; a great store-house of over-
whelming evidences; a regular arsenal of astounding facts; a mag-
azine of unanswerable testimony; a wonderful symposium of pub-
lic opinion; a tidal wave of expression of surprising magnitude; a
whirlwind of independent thought; a perfect cyclone of radical
criticisih; a complete documentary compilation, powerful and con-
vincing; an all-round exposition of an organized, aggressive and
widespread movement; every item a text, and every chapter the out-
line for a powerful sermon, speech or lecture. The compiler sur-
rounds himself with public opinion as with a wall 'of adamant.
Cumulative proofs show up the blackest and foulest conspiracy ever
in America, to startle the nation like a thunderbolt from a clear
sky. It embraces the opinion of more than 100 papers, as found
before the public, and men and women high in cdiurch and state are
thrown on the witness stand. The attitude and expression alone of
Kuch an array of powerful newspapers, eminent statesmen, learned
divines and noted reformers as are introduced to the reader, would
herald any publication and insure a wide hearing on any national
theme. Ministers, editors, teachers, lecturers, writers, and students
of the American system are not posted until they have studied thor-
oughly this remarkable book; they will read its startling chapters
again and again. It is especially by the encouragement and co-op-
eration of that public spirited patriot and Christian, Elder Rufus
Smith, of Wheaton, 111., that this timely volume is sent on its mis-
sion of enlightenment. Influential journals, whole churches, and
strong organizations are interested in its successful career and ex-
tended circulation. Any chapter is worth many times the price of
the book and every citizen should have a copy for constant use and
ready reference. Over 200 pages of close print — more matter than
many works of twice or thrice the size with larger type, pictures
and broad margins. Every book sold will call for a dozen for
friends and neighbors; will sell ten to one over any costly dollar
print. Live agents wanted in every congregation, public school,
college, town and neighborhood. Enquire for the book of your
local news dealer, at the book stores, of any train boy, or to receive
a copy, paper cover, postpaid, remit forty cents to
Manlovb N. Butler, Avalon, Mo.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by
M. N. BUTLER,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
~M677
CHAPTER i.
THE BIBLE AND SECRETISM.
" And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto
me writer Rev, xiv, ij.
Judgment must begin at the house of God, but it
don't end there. The Church will carry a fearful re-
sponsibility to the final judgment. The Christian citi-
zen and praying voter will give a strict account of his
stewardship, and answer alike for sins of omission and
commission. For the benefit of religious people and
the edification of the professed followers of Christ we
have arranged some Scripture that will bear reading
and re-reading.
Central Thought: "Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ."
Competent Testimony: "Search the scriptures;
for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are
they which testify of me. All scripture is given by in-
spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re-
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur-
nished unto all good works. Knowing this first, that
no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpre-
tation. If any man speak let him speak as the oracles
of God."
Secrecy Condemned : "The secret things belong
unto the Lord our God : but those things which are re-
3 ^84bVy
4 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
vealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that
we may do all the words of this law. This then is
the message which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in hnn is no darkness
at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and
walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. Jesus
answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever
taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the
Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For every one that docth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made mani-
fest, that they are v/rought in God. But if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Wherefore if they
shall say unto you. Behold, he is in the desert; go not
forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it
not. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame
even to speak of those things which are done of them
in secret. Neither do men light a candle, and put it un-
der a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to
all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. Therefore seeing we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint
not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully; but by manifestations of the truth commend-
THE BIBLE AND SECRETISM. 5
ing ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of
God. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be re-
vealed; neither hid, that shall not be knowno Therefore
w^hatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard
in the light; and that w^hich ye have spoken in the ear
in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops.
O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their
assembh% mine honour, be not thou united."
All Worldly Brotherhood Forbidden: "He
that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his command-
ments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Enter not
into the path of the wricked, and go not into
the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from
it and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have
done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they
cause some to fall. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unright-
eousness? and what communion hath light with dark-
ness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what
part hath he that believ^eth with an infidel? Ye cannot
drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils;
ye cannot be partaker of the Lord's table and the table
of devils. Wherefore come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the
Lord Almighty. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither
be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure. Ab-
6 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
stain from all appearance of evil. If there come any
unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not
into your house, neither bid him God speed : for he that
biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds."
Lodge Oaths: " But above all things, my breth-
ren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth,
neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and
your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. Again,
ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old
time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself , but shalt perform
unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, swear
not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor
by the earth ; for it is his footstool : neither by Jerusalem ;
for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one
hair white or black. But let your communication be
Yea, Yea; Nay, Nay: for whatsoever is more than these
Cometh of evil. And ye shall not swear by my name
falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God :
I am the Lord. And if a soul sin, and hear the voice
of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or
known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his
iniquity. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips
to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man
shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him ;
when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of
these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one
of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned
in that thing."
Worshipful Master: "No man can serve two
masters: for he will hate the one, and love the other;
THE BIBLE AND SECRETISM. *J
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Be ye not called
Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye
are brethren. Neither be ye called masters: for one is
your Master, even Christ. My brethren, be not many
masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater con-
demnation."
True and False Service: "God's Word pro-
hibits the believer from forming alliances with the un-
godly in society. Whenever the Christian surrenders
himself to the society of the unbelieving world, his
heart will be led away from God. This is especially
true of thousands of Christian men who have deliberate-
ly yoked themselves up with unbelievers in all manner
of secret societies. This course of false alliance is doing
more mischief to individual Christian men by turning
their heart away from God and his service, and to the
church by depleting and robbing her of her male mem-
bership, than any other one enemy of Christ, There
never was a time when the cry, 'Come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord,' was more
needed than now." — From Dr. George Pentecosfs Bi-
ble Studies^ 788p, f, j8p.
"As to the question of the attitude of Christians to-
ward the secret orders, two or three things seem to me
very plain. One of them is this: that the whole move-
ment of things on the line of secrecy is thoroughly an-
tagonistic to the movement on the line of Scripture and
Christianity." — Rev. E. P. Goodwin^ D, Z>., pastor
First Congregational Churchy Chicago^ III,
Relevant Scriptures: " This know also, that
8 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
in the last clays perilous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, trucebreakers,false accusers, in-
continent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors,
heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers
of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the
powder thereof; from such turn away. Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; hav-
ing their conscience seared with a hot iron. For among
my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he
that setteth snares: they set a trap, they catch men. A
naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward
mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his
feet, heteacheth with his fingers. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears; and they shall turn away their cars tyom the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and
being deceived. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits whether they are of God: because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby
know ye the Spirit of God; Every spirit that confess-
eth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and
every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of an-
tichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already is it in the world. For many de-
THE BIBLE AND SECRETlSM. g
ceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver
and an antichrist. For there are certain men crept in
unawares, who were before of old ordained to this con-
demnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God in-
to lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and
our Lord Jesus Christ. They profess that they know
God but in works they deny him, being abominable,
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far
from me."
"But if the watchman see the sword come, and
blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if
the sword come, and take any person from among them,
he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I re-
quire at the watchman's hand. Woe be unto the pastors
that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith
the Lord."
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trum-
pet, and show my people their transgressions, and the
house of Jacob their sins. A wonderful and horrible
thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests bear rule by their- means; and
my people love to have it so, and what will ye do in the
end thereof? Because ye have said. We have made a
covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement:
when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it
shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. And more-
to THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
over I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that
wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness,
that iniquity was there. And judgment is turned away
backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fal-
len in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth
faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself
a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that
there w^as no judgment. Be not deceived; God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he al-
so reap. Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth
in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall griev-
ously upon the head of the wicked. Therefore hell
hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without
measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their
pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And
mean men shall be brought down, and the mighty man
shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be
humbled. Stand now with thine enchantments, and
with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast la-
boured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to
profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied
in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrolo-
gers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand
up, and save thee from these things that shall come up-
on thee. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God;
surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all
thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations,
therefore will I diminish thee; neither shall mine eyes
spare, neither will I have any pity. Judgment also
will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet:
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and
THE BIBLE AND SECRETISM. II
the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your
covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agree-
ment with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden
down by it. And I heard another voice from heaven,
saying, Come out of her my peojole, that ye be not par-
takers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God
bath remembered her iniquities. Her priests have vio-
lated my law, and have profaned mine holy things:
they have put no difference between the holy and the
profane, neither have they shewed difference between
the clean and the unclean, and have hid their eyes from
my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. But
thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their al-
tars, and break down their images, and cut down their
groves, and burn their graven images with fire. At
that day shall a man look to his maker, and his eyes
shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he
shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands,
neither shall he respect that which his fingers have made,
either the groves or the images. Neither shall they
defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with
their detestable things, nor with any of their transgress-
ions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places,
wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so
shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
CHAPTER II.
MASONIC RELIGION.
Ill view of the increasing discussion of secret socie-
ties and especially of Freemasonry it might be interest-
ing to enter into a candid, careful examination of this
mfluential order. And in the beginning we hasten to
assure the reader that we do not propose bring for-
ward the testimony of non- Masons or of anti-Masonic
publications. We do not propose to beg the question
in any way, manner or shape, and if the reader should
have ever been made a Freemason, we ask and hope
that for the time being he will forget that fact, and hav-
ing divested his mind, if possible of prejudice, will look
at the subject from a common-sense standpoint, neither
accepting nor rejecting a point or proposition until all
the bearings are duly weighed. You are not responsi-
ble for the present form,character, religion, and govern-
ment of Freemasonry, neither is the writer, because we
had nothing whatever to do in originating, molding or
shapi-ng the system. However, we do have a right to
look at the facts in the case, intelligently draw our con-
clusions therefrom, and then to "mark and govern our-
selves accordingly," no man or set of men daring to
lawfully molest us or make us afraid.
Now it is plain to every one that if anybody really
knows what Freemasonry is. Freemasons themselves
certainly must know; and if any Masons know, it is not
necessarily the embryo, three-degree, pinfeather. Blue
Lodge Masons, who perhaps do not know enough to
visit a strange lodge without a brother along to vouch
12
MASONIC RELIGION. 13
for them, but it is self-evident that if any Masons know
what the principles, doctrines and practice of the order
are, it is the men who have gone from the "ground-floor"
clear through the "pictures," who have made Free-
masonry a life study, who are even now occupying the
highest positions of honor and power in the craft, and^
who have been put forward by the institution to write
its great standard publications, including its rituals, its
monitors, its manuals, its lexicons, its dictionaries, its
digests of Masonic law, together with its works on Ma-
sonic jurisprudence, its histories, its guides, its trestle-
boards, and many other valuable works issued for the sole
benefit of the "Worshipful Fraternity." . The great Ma-
sonic works and documents herein quoted were written
by the learned rulers and teachers of Masonry and are
protected by the seal of the United States in copyright.
They were written by high Masons, copyrighted by
Masons, published by Masons, sold by Masons, sold to
Masons, and openly endorsed and used by the Masonic
Fraternity all over the land. Not only endorsed and
used by well-posted individual Masons, but subordinate
and Grand Lodges have officially fathered and are using
them. With this understanding, reader, we will meet
upon the "level" and part upon the "square." Is there
not some legitimate method of arriving at a correct
knowledge without trespassing on forbidden territory?
Let us see.
"It is a duty incumbent on every Master of a Lodge,
before the ceremony of initiation takes place, to inform
the candidate of the purpose and design of the institu-
tion;" etc. — See Webb's Freemason's Monitor, p. 19.
14 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Thomas Smith Webb was the first standard Masonic
author in this couiitr\': he is the father of American
Masonry. Very well, we will see what this assurance is.
"It is the duty of the IVfaster of tiie Lodge, as one
of the precautionary measures of initiation, to explain
to the candidate the nature and desii^nof the institution;
and while he informs him that it is founded on the pur-
est principles of virtue, that it possesses great and inval-
uable privileges; and that, in order (o secure tho>c priv-
ileges to worthy men, and worthy men aK>ne, voluntary
pledges of fidelity are required; he will at the same
time assure him that nothing will be expectetlof Wnn
incompatible with his civil, moral or religious duties."
— Sickels' Freemason's Monitor, p. 31.
Dan Sickels is the great Masonic publisher of New
York City and a Secretary General of the Supreme
Council.
"Masonry includes withm its circle almost every
branch of polite learning. Under tiie veil of its mvs-
teries is comprehended a regular system < f science.
Many of its illustrations, to the confined genius, may
appear unimportant; but the man of more enlarged
faculties will perceive them to be, in the highest degree,
useful and interesting. To please the accomplished
scholar and ingenius artist. Masonry is wisely planned;
and, ill the investigation of its latent doctrines, the phi-
losopher and the mathematician may experience equal
delight and satisfaction." — See Ibid, p. 62. Ahiman
Rezon, p. 1 16.
MASONIC RELIGION. l5
Would it not be difficult to frame a stronger in-
vitation to join any order than the above? But the
question naturally uppermost in the mind of every
Christian student would be, Does Freemasonary teach
religion and morality, or is it an immoral, irreligious
organization?
"No Lodge can be regularly opened or closed
without religious services of some sort." — Webb's Mon-
itor, by Morris, p. 1 3.
Perhaps they simply sing, or chant, or take up a
collection.
"No Lodge or Masonic assembly can be regular-
ly opened or closed without prayer." — Webb's Mon-
itor, p. 284.
Then it must be prayer. Why do Masons pray?
"All the ceremonies of our order are prefaced and
terminated with prayer, because Masonry is a religious
institution, and because we thereby show our depend-
ence on, and our faith and trust in God." — Mackey's
Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 369.
That is just the reason every one should pray if
they are consistent in the prayer. Albert G. Mackey
is the Past General Grand High Priest of the General
Grand Chapter of the Masons of the United States.
Agam we read:
"But the order of Freemasonry goes further than
did the Ancient Mysteries; while it embodies all that is
valuable in the institutions of the past, it embraces
within its circle all that is good and true of the present,
and thus becomes a conservator as well as a depository
of religion, science and art." — Pierson's Traditions of
Freemasonry, p. 14.
l6 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
A. T. C. Pierson is Grand Captain General of the
Grand Encampment of the Masons of the United
States.
"And, finally, we shall discover that our Rites
embrace all the possible circumstances of man— moral,
spiritual, and social — and have a meaning high as the
heavens, broad as the universe, and profound as eterni-
ty." — Sickels' Ahiman Rezon or Freemason's Guide,
P- 57-
This Masonic religion, it seems, is grand and
comprehensive. There are many kinds of religion in
this world, one true, and many false.
"The truth is, that Masonry is undoubtedly a re-
ligious institution — its religion being of that universal
kind in which all men agree," etc, — See Mackey's
Jurisprudence of Freemasonry, p. 95.
Do all men agree in the Christian, the Moham-
medan, or the Mormon religion? What are the doc-
trines of this religion in which all men agree?
"The religious tenets of Masonry are few and
simple but fundamental. The candidate must profess
a belief in Deity before initiation," — Webb's Monitor,
p, 284,
"The creed of a Mason is brief, unentangled with
scholastic subtleties, or with theological difficulties. It
is a creed which demands and receives the universal
consent of all men, which admits of no doubt, and de-
fies schism," — Mackey's Lexicon, p. loo.
"A BELIEF IN GOD. This constitutes the sole
creed of a Mason — at least, the only creed that he is re-
quired to profess." — Mackey's Masonic Ritualist, p.
44.
MASONIC RELIGION. 17
"Ye believe in God ye do well; the devils also be-
lieve and tremble." Is the Mason obliged to subscribe
to this lodge religion ?
"Though in ancient times, Masons were charged
in every country to be of the religion of that country
or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more
expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which
all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to
themselves." — Mackey's Jurisprudence, p. 94.
Is there no other test ever required.?
"In our opinion, any further religious test is not
necessary; and to require that a candidate profess a be-
lief in the 'divine authenticity of the Bible,' or a 'state
of future rewards and punishments,' is a serious innova-
tion into the very body of Masonry "
"It is anti-masonic to require any religious test,
other than the candidate should believe in a God, the
Creator and Governor of the universe."— Chase's Di-
gest of Masonic Law, p. 206.
Every Grand Lodge in America is represented in
this great book of decisions. But why this peculiar
creed ?
"Under the shelter of this wise provision, the
Christian and the Jew, the Mohammedan and the
Brahmin, are permitted to unite around our common '
altar, and Masonry becomes, in practice as well as in
theory, universal." — Mackey's Jurisprudence, p. 95.
This religion is practical and not mere theory.
"So broad is the religion of Masonry, and so
carefully are all sectarian tenets excluded from the
system, that the Christian, the Jew, and the Moham-
l8 THE AMERICAN HANO-BOOK.
medan, in all their numberless sects and divisions, may
and do harmoniously combine in its moral and intel-
lectual work with the Buddhist, the Parsee, the
Confucian, and the worshiper of Deity under every
form."— Webb's Monitor, p. 2S5.
We read in the Bible of a wide gate and a broad
way. What do Masons mean by morality?
"Every Mason," say the old Charges of 1722,
"is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law."
Now, this moral law is not to be considered as confined
to the decalogue of Moses, within which narrow limits
the ecclesiastical writers technically restrain it, but
rather as alluding to what is called the/^;<r naturce^ or the
law of nature."
"This is the 'moral law,' to which the old Charge
already cited refers, and which it declares to be the law
of Masonry. And this was wisely done, for it is evi-
dent that no law less universal could have been appro-
priately selected for the government of an institution
whose prominent characteristic is its universality. The
precepts of Jesus could not have been made obligatory
on a Jew; a Christian would have denied the sanctions
of the Koran; a Mohammedan must have rejected the
law of Moses; and a disciple of Zoroaster would have
turned from all to the teachings of his Zeud Avesta.
The universal law of nature, which the authors of the
old Charges have properly called the moral law, because it
is, as Conybeare remarks, 'a perfect collection of all those
moral doctrines and precepts which have a foundation
in the nature and reason of things,' is therefore the
only law suited 'in every respect' to be adopted as the
MASONIC RELIGION.
19
Masonic code." — Mackey's Masonic Jurisprudence, p.
503 and 503.
But hold on, says some one. Masonry is founded
on the Bible. Is it? Revealed religion is not natural
religion.
"The Jews, the Chinese, the Turks, each reject
either the New Testament or the Old, or both, and
yet we see no good reason why they should not be
made Masons. In fact, Blue Lodge Masonry has
nothing whatever to do with the Bible. It is not
founded on the Bible; if it was, it would not be Ma-
sonry, it would be something else." — Chase's Digest of
Masonic Law, p. 207 and 208.
There is nothing obscure or ambiguous about
thato Now what is this strange religion? Past Gen-
eral Grand High Priest Mackey will tell us.
"The religion, then, of Masonry, is pure theism,
on which its different members engraft their own pecu-
liar opinions; but they are not permitted to introduce
them into the lodge, or to connect their truth or false-
hood with the truth of Masonry," — Mackey's Lexicon,
p. 402.
Of course it is not founded on the Bible. It would
be hard to find a better name for natural religion.
Does Freemasonry propose to set natural religion up
against Christianity? Is it a saving religion?
"Masons are called moral builders. In their rituals
they declare, emphatically, that a more noble and glo-
rious purpose than squaring stones and hewing timbers
is theirs — fitting immortal nature for that spiritual
20 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
building not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens." — Sickels' Ahiman Rezon or Freemason's
Guide, p. 71.
"In the investigation of the true meaning of every
Masonic symbol and allegory, we must be governed
by the single principle that the whole design of Free-
masonry as a speculative science is the investigation of
divine truth. To this great object everything is sub-
sidiary. The Mason is, from the moment of his initi-
ation as an Entered Apprentice, to the time at which he
receives the full fruition of Masonic light, an investi-
gator — a laborer in the quarry and the Temple — whose
reward is to be Truth, and all the ceremonies and traditions
of the Order tend to this ultimate design." — Mackey's
Manual of the Lodge, p. 88.
Is not that about the mission of Christianity and
the Church? Does Masonry teach regeneration from
sin?
"There he stands without our portals, on the
threshold of this new Masonic life, in darkness, help-
lessness, and ignorance. Having been wandering amid
the errors, and covered over with the pollutions of the
outer and profane world, he comes inquiringly to our
doors, seeking the new birth, and asking a withdrawal
of the vail which conceals divine truth from his uniniti-
ated sight."
"Tlie world is left behind — the chains of error and
ignorance which had previously restrained the candi-
date in moral and intellectual captivity are to be broken
— the portal of the Temple has been thrown widely
open, and Masonry stands before the neophyte in all
MASONIC RELIGION. 21
the glory of its form and beauty, to be fully revealed
to him, however, only w^hen the new bh'th has been
completely accomplished."
"The shock of entrance is, then, the symbol of the
disruption of the candidate from the ties of the Vi^orld,
and his introduction into the life of Masonry, It is the
symbol of the agonies of the first death and of the
throes of the new birth."-^Mackey's Masonic Ritual-
ist, pp. 22, 23 and 24.
How does Masonry, natural religion or pure
theism propose to do all this? Is it by and through
the atonement?
"The common gavel is an instrument made use of
by operative masons to break off the corners of rough
stones, the better to fit them for the builder's use; but
we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make
use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of di-
vesting our hearts and consciences of all the vices and
superfluities of life; thereby fitting our minds, as living
stones, for that spiritual building — that house not made
with hands — eternal in the heavens." — Sickels' General
Ahiman Rezon or Freemason's Guide, p. ^o.
Simply obey the behests and teachings of Mason-
ry and all is well.
"But in the Third Degree, the veil is removed ; we
are admitted to the Holy of Holies; we view the
Cherubim in all their brightness; and are blessed with
a foretaste of heaven, through the resurrection of the
dead."^-01iver's Signs and Symbols of Freemasonry,
p. 41.
Pretty thorough work to get a foretaste of heaven.
22 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
•'We now find man complete in morality and
intelligence, with the stay of religion added to ensure
him of the protection of the Deity, and guard him against
ever going astray. These three degrees thus form a
perfect and harmonious whole; nor can we conceive
that anythmg can be suggested more, which the soul
of man requires." — Sickels' Freemason's Monitor, pp.
97 and 98.
Once in Masonic grace always there. Complete
Salvation.
"Master Mason. — The third degree in all the dif-
ferent rites. In this, which is the perfection of sym-
bolic or ancient craft Masonry, the purest of truths are
unveiled amid the most awful ceremonies. None but
he who has visited the holy of holies, and traveled
the road of peril, can have any conception of the mys-
teries unfolded in this degree. Its solemn observances
diffuse a sacred awe, and inculcate a lesson of religious
truth — and it is not until the neophyte has reached this
summit of our ritual, that he can exclaim with joyful
accents, in the language of the sage of old, 'Eureka, Eu-
reka,' I have found at last the long sought treasure.
In the language of the learned and zealous Hutchinson,
somewhat enlarged in its allusion, 'the Master Mason
represents a man under the doctrine of love, saved
from the grave of iniquity^ and raised to the faith of
salvation.'" — Mackey's Lexicon, p. 295.
Wonder if Freemasonry don't teach sanctification?
"Acacian. — A term derived from akakia, 'inno-
cence,' and signifying a Mason, who, by living in strict
obedience to the obligations and precepts of the frater-
nity, is free from sin." — Mackey's Lexicon, p. 16.
MASONIC .RELIGION. 23
Beat that if you can. Here is the strangest part
of all.
"It is one of the most beautiful, but at the same
time most abstruse, doctrines of the science of Masonic
symbolism, that the Mason is ever to be in search of truth,
but is never to find it." — Macke)''s Manual, p. 93;
Ritualist, p. 106; Sickels' General Ahiman Rezon, p.
169.
"Ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth." 2 Tim. iii. 7.
Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Commander of the
Supreme Council of the Sovereign Grand Inspectors-
General thirty-third degree Scottish Rite, says in his
b6ok, "Morals and Dogma," page 819: " The Blue de-
grees are but the outer court of the Temple, Part oj
the symbols are displayed there to the initiate^ but he
is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is
not intended that he shall understand them^ but it is
intended that he shall imagine that he does under-
stand them. Their true explanation is reserved for
the princes of Masonry, ^'^
We come now to the most important fact. Christ
REJECTED. The words bracketed in the following
quotations are entirely omitted in the Masonic Prints.
See 2 Thess, iii. 6 and 12.
"Now we command you, brethren, [in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ,] that ye withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not
after the tradition which he received of us."
"Now them that are such, we command and exhort,
[by our Lord Jesus Christ,] that with quietness they
24 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
work, and eat their own bread." — Webb's Monitor, p.
120: Macoy's Monitor, p. 157; Sickels' Monitor, part
2nd, p. 51; Mackey's Ritualist, p. 348. See i Peter
ii. 5 and 6.
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God [by Jesus Christ].
"Wherefore, also it is contained in the Scriptures,
Behold, I lay in Zion, [Sion a chief corner stone, elect,
precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded] for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious
corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall
not make haste to pass it over." — Webb's Monitor, p.
73; Macoy's Monitor, p. S6; Sickels' Monitor, paiit
2nd, p. 5; Mackey's Ritualist, p. 271. See Rev. xxii.
18, i9;Deut. iv. 2,alsoxii. 32.
Thus briefly have we step by step reviewed the
religion of Freemasonry. These learned men do not
make Masonry, they simply state what it is. We put
no construction on the language. It is plnin, positive
and authoritative. We simply comment on it as it
stands. Masonry cuts the Bible in two to please the
Jew, and rejects it altogether to please the Buddhist,
Parsee, Turk and Confucian. It being pure theism
destroys the trinity. Every section of this book will
be a startling chapter in modern history for future
generations. This especially should open the eyes and
quicken the conscience of all church people to the
awful system of false worship operating throughout
the length and breadth of our land. The discussion of
this lodge false worship strikes bed-rock on this the
MASONIC RELIGION. 25
greatest question of the hour. Other phases may inter-
est the patriot and ordinary student, but this chapter
should set every sincere Cinistian on fire with enthusi-
asm and holy zeal for the salvation of American citizens
from lodge thralldom. It proves beyond all cavil that
Freemasonry is a religion, that it claims to save men,
save them completely and keep them saved. Freema-
sonry has its odes, chants, prayers and funeral dirges;
its stewards, deacons, worshipful masters, priests and
most excellent grand high priests; in the higher de-
grees, lodges of sorrow are held for the xlead, and in-
fant baptism is practiced. It is an nwful state of af-
fairs when a religious organization in this boasted age
of civilization and gospel light, rejects the Bible, mu-
tilates Scripture quotations by turning the Lord Jesus
Christ out of his own blessed volume, ignores the Medi-
ator entirely, and deliberately desecrates and appropri-
ates every sacred rite of Christianity and the Church to
false worship, with over one-half million zealous dev-
otees bowing to its Worshipful Masters and Most
Worshipful Grand Masters. Papal Rome has never
denied that Christ has come in the flesh; but this Ma-
sonic religion ignores Christ and utterly fails to con-
fess that there is or ever was the Christ; and this is
plainly the antichrist so clearly described in Holy
Writ. Sins ot omission are as black and damning in
the citizen and churchman, as are sins of commission.
Failing to own Christ as the only Saviour is to stamp
the religious pretender as an idolater. For he that
climbeth up any other way, the same is a "thief and
robber." To give aid and comfort to rebels against
2G THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
God and righteous government is as much an act of
treason and disloyalty as to openly march under the
rebel flag. To all true men and women, the religious
or political "copper-head" is more loathed and despised
than the regular enemy. Some reformers style the
simple Mason as the open enemy, and the Masonic
church members as religious copper-heads, because, as
the professed followers of Christ, the latter are actually
bowing to avowed antichrist. They are the Judases
that cry, "Hail, Master," and kiss, only to betray him.
And these Masonic church communicants, as a rule,
are harder to reach and redeem than the non-professor.
But let the reader now study '-Masonic Sun Worship"
if he would know the practical nature of this abomina-
tion that is making Zion desolate.
CHAPTER lit.
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP.
In the last chapter it was seen that Freemasonry
ispure theism. It possibly might be of further inter-
est to look a little into this natural religion and learn its
general character and make-up.
"One important question, which appears to have
been almost wholly neglected by Masonic writers, is:
Whether Freemasonry be a servile imitation of certain
ceremonies in the ancient idolatrous mysteries, as is as-
serted by some writers; or whether it be the great
original from which the mysteries themselves were de-
rived." — Oliver's Signs and Svmbols of Freemasonry,
p. 2.
Dr. Oliver is the greatest English authority on
Masonry.
"The fact is, that the philosophic system of Free-
masonry is exceedingly comprehensive in its character,
and bears a close connection with the general literature
of all preceding ages. The history of the origin of
the institution, and of its rites and ceremonies, will
bring the student into a profound investigation of the
manners and customs, and the astronomy, the theology,
and the mythology of antiquity. The ancient mys-
teries present a fertile field for inquiry, and without a
very intimate acquaintance with their history and char-
acter, it is impossible profitably to value the legendary
instructions of Freemasonry." — Mackey's Mystic Tie
of Freemasonry, p. 43.
Very well. If the Past Grand High Priest, and
2?
28 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
these other learned men will lead out, we will be very
glad to follow.
"It is an extraordinary fact, that there is scarcely
a single ceremony in Freemasonry, but we find its cor-
responding rite in one or other of the idolatrous
mysteries; and the coincidence can only be accounted
for by supposing that these mysteries were derive <1
from Masonry." — Oliver's Signs and Symbols of
Freemasonry, p. 76.
So then Masonry is the mother of these ancient
heathen mysteries.
"Learned Masons have been, therefore, always dis-
posed to go beyond the mere technicalities and sterotyped
phrases of the lectures, and to look in the history and
the philosophy of the ancient religions, and the organi-
zation of the ancient mysteries, for a true exphmation of
most of the symbols of Masonry, and there they have
always been enabled to find this true interpretation." —
Mackey's Masonic Rituahst, pp. 41 and 42. See Mack-
ey's Manual of the Lodge, p. 37.
All right, gentleman, we are at your feet ready to
learn. Lead on.
"Accepting the symbol, have we lost its sense? Our
Rites will be of little value to us if this be the case. It
is our duty, then, to make Freemasonry the object of a
profound study. We must consult the past. We must
stand by the sarcophagus of the murdered, but restored
Osiris, in Egypt, enter the caverns of Phrygia, and hold
communion with the Cabiri; penetrate the 'Collegia
Fabrorum' of ancient Rome, and work in the mystic
circles of Sidon." — Sickels' General Ahiman Rezon, 01
Freemason's Guide, p. 56,
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP. 29
Right back to the palmiest days of ancient Idolatry.
"The identity of the Masonic institution with the
Ancient Mysteries is obvious from the striking coinci-
dences found to exist between them." — Pierson's Tra-
ditions of Freemasonry, pp. 13 and 14.
"These Mysteries were all religious institutions;
but they were Masonic also. Their members were
initiated by a solemn ceremonial ; they had various
progressive degrees, in which the light and truth were
gradually diffused; and the recipients were in posses-
sion of certain modes of recognition, known only to
themselves." — Mackey's Mystic Tie, p. 99.
"Hours of work. — In this selection of the hours
of night and darkness for initiation, the usual coinci-
dence will be found between the ceremonies of Free-
masonry and those of the Ancient Mysteries, showing
their evident derivation from a common origin."
"The reason given by the ancients for this selection
of night as the time for initiation, is equally applicable
to the system of Freemasonry."
"Death and the resurrection were the doctrines
taught in the ancient m}/steries; and night and darkness
were necessary to add to the sacred awe and reverence
which these doctrines ought always to inspire in the
rational and contemplative mind. The same doctrines
form the very ground-work of Freemasonry, and as
the Master Mason, to use the language of. Hutchinson,
'represents a man saved from the grave of in-
iquity and raised to the faith of salvation,' darkness and
night are the appropriate accompaniments to the solemn
ceremonies which demonstrate this profession." — Mack-
ey's Lexicon of Freemasonry, pp. 204 and 205.
30 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
*'And hence, again, darkness, like death, is the
synibol of initiation. It was for this reason that all the
ancient initiations were performed at night. The cele-
bration of the Mysteries was always nocturnal. The
same custom prevails in Freemasonry, and the explana-
tion is the same. Death and the resurrection were
taught in the mysteries as they are in Freemasonry.
The initiation was the lesson of death. The full frui-
tion, or autopsy, the reception of light, was the lesson
of regeneration or resurrection." — Mackey's Symbolism
of Freemasonry, pp. 157 and 158.
Why meet upstairs?— "Lodge meetings, at the
present day, are usually held in ujjpcr chambers — prob-
ably for the better security which such places afford." —
Sickels' Freemason's Monitor, p. 40.
"The reason assigned in the lecture for this assem-
bling on high places is the modern, but not the true
one. The fact is, that mountains and other high places
were almost always considered as holy," etc. — See Mack-
ey's Manual of the Lodge, p. 44.
"Hills and mountains were always considered the
peculiar abode of Deity; and hence the Masonic tra-
dition, that our ancient brethren held their Lodges most
frequently on the highest of hills. The veneration for
hills or secret caverns induced the construction of tem-
ples for divine worship in such situations." — Sickels'
Ahiman Rezon, p. 75.
Why East and West? — "The orientation of
Lodges, or their position due east and west, is derived
from the universal custom of antiquity. *The heathen
temples,' says Dudley, 'were so constructed that their
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP. 3 1
length was directed toward the east, and the entrance
was by a portico at the western front where the altar
stood, so that the votaries, approaching for the perform-
ance of religious rites, directed their faces toward the
east as the quarter of sunrise.' The primitive reason of
this custom undoubtedly is to be found in the early
prevalence of sun worship, and hence the spot where
that luminary first made his appearance in the heavens
was consecrated, in the minds of his worshipers, as a
place entitled to peculiar reverence." — Mackey's Ritu-
alist, p. 60.
Say some, the Temple at Jerusalem was so situated.
Well hardly.
"On the contrary, the very situation of a lodge is the
exact reverse of that of the Temple. The entrance of
the former is at the west, that of the latter was at the
east. The most holy place in a lodge is its eastern
end, and that of the Temple was its western ex-
tremity." — Mackey's Manual, p. 26.
Is Freemasonry sun-worship? — "The number
twelve was celebrated as a mystical number in the an-
cient systems of sun-worship, of which it has already
been said that Masonry is a philosophical develops
ment." — Mackey's Manual, p. 100.
Not something like sun-worship but a development
of sun-worship.
The same as described in the viii. of Ezekiel,
verses 5 to 18 inclusive. Read it.
"It is evident that the sun, either as an object of
worship or of symbolization, has always formed an
important part of both the mysteries and the systeni of
32 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Freemasonry." — Pierson's Traditions of Freemasonry,
p. 87.
"The Worshipful Master himself is a represent-
ative of the Sun." — Morris' Dictionary of Freemason-
ry, p. 296.
Robert Morris, Past Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of Kentucky, a Grand Inspectors General and
the poet Laureate of the Masonic Order.
"The master and wardens are symbols of the sun
— the Lodge, of the Universe or the World; the point
also is the symbol of the same sun, and the surrounding
circle of the universe, while the two parallel lines
really point, not to two saints, but to the two northern
and southern limits of the sun's course." — Mackey's
Ritualist, p. 63.
"In the ancient mysteries these three pillars repre-
sented the great emblematical Triad of Deity ^ as with
us they refer to the three principal officers of the
lodge." — Pierson's Traditions, p. 55.
"The three liglits, like the three principal officers,
and the three principal supports, refer undoubtedly to the
three stations of the sun — its rising in the east, its
meridian in the south, and its setting in the west — and
thus the symbolism of the Locfge, as typical of the
world, continues to be preserved." — Mackey's Manual,
P- 5^-
The cabletow. — "In the mysteries of India, the
aspirant was invested with a consecrated sash or girdle,
which he was directed to wear next his skin. It was
manufactured with many mysterious ceremonies, and
said to possess the power of preserving the wearer from
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP. 33
personal dange7\ It consisted of a cord composed of
three times three threads twisted together and fastened
at the end with a knot, and was called zennar. Hence
comes our Cabletow." — Pierson's Traditions, p. 29.
Hoodwink. — "He maintanied the same character in
tlie ancient mysteries. Emphatically a profane^ en^
veloped in darkness^ poor and destitute of spiritual
knowledge, and emblematically naked. The material
darkness which is 2^roduced by the (hoodwink) is an
emblem of the darkness of his soul." -r- Pierson's
Traditions, p. 39.
The apron. — "All the ancient statues of the
heathen gods which have been discovered in Egypt,
Greece, Persia, Hindoostan or America are uniformally
decorated with aprons. Hence is deduced the antiquity
of this article of apparel." — Pierson's Traditions, p. 46.
Why KNEfcL THE candidate toward the east?
— "An oath taken with the face toward the east was
deemed more solemn and binding than when taken
with the face toward any other cardinal point. Oaths
were variously confirmed: by lifting up the hands to
heaven, by placing them on the altar, or on a stone,
or in the hands of the person administering the oath,
etc.; and a most solemn method of confirming an oath
was by placing a drawn sword across the throat of the
person to whom it was administered, and invoking
heaven, earth and sea to witness the ratification." —
Pierson's Traditions, pp. 34-5.
The illumination. — "The Rite of Illumination
is a very ancient ceremony and constituted an im-
portant feature in all the mysteries of the early ages.
34 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
In the Egyptian, Cabirian, Sidonian, Elusinian, Scandi-
navian, and Druidical Rituals, it held a prominent
place, and in them all represented the same ideas. It
marked the termination of the mystic pilgrimage
through gloom and night, and was emblematical of
that moral and intellectual light which pours its divine
radiance on the mind after it has conquered prejudice,
and passion, and ignorance, with which it has so long
been struggling."
"Yet this Rite does not commemorate that event
simply as an historical, material fact, but rather because
it symbolizes the release of the soul from darkness, and
ignorance, and sin — from the chaos and confusion of a
sensual and selfish life — and its establishment in the
light and glory of virtue and knowledge." — Sickels'
Ahiman Rezon, p. 64.
The blazing star. — "The Blazing Star is said
by Webb to be commemorative of the star which ap-
peared to guide the wise men of the East to the place
of our Saviour's nativity. This, which is one of the
ancient interpretations of the symbol, being considered
as too sectarian in its character, and unsuitable to the
universal religion of Masonry, has been omitted since
the meeting of the Gj and Lecturers in Baltimore, in
1842." — Mackey's Manual, p. 50.
Thus was eliminated the last remote reference to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Freemasonry is asChristless as the
tomb of Joseph after the resurrection, or the Mecca of
Mohammedism. So bitterly anti-Christian is Masonry
that it must needs insult our Christian civilization by
doubly dating its official records and lodge documents
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP. 35
from the Christian Era, A. D., to A. L., or the "Year
of Light." But we hasten to examine two more points.
Hiram Abif. — "A very hmited know^ledge of
the history of primitive worships and mysteries is neces-
sary to enable any person to recognize in the Master
Mason Hiram, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras
of the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks, the Atys
of the Phrygians, of which these people celebrated the
passion, death and resurrection, as Christians celebrate
to-day that of Jesus Christ." — General History of Free-
masonry, by Emmanuel Rebold, Past Deputy of the
Masonic Grand Orient of France, p. 393.
"One thing, at least, is incapable of refutation ; and
that is, that we are indebted to the Tyrian Masons for
the introduction of the symbol of Hiram Abif. The
idea of the symbol, although modified by the Jewish
Masons, is not Jewish in its inception. It was evidently
])orrowed from the pagan mysteries, where Bacchus,
Adonis, Proserpine, and a host of other apotheosized
beings play the same role that Hiram does in the
Masonic mysteries."— Mackey's Masonic Symbolism,
p. 20.
"The legend of the third degree has been con-
sidered of so much importance that it has been preserved
in the symbolism of every Masonic rite. No matter
what modification or alterations the general system may
have undergone — no matter how much the ingenuity or
the imagination of the founders of rites may have per-
verted or corrupted other symbols, abolishing the old,
and substituting new ones, the legend of the Temple
Builder has ever been left untouched, to present itself
36 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
m all the integrity of its ancient mythical form. The
idea of the legend was undoubtedly borrowed from the
Ancient Mysteries, where the lesson was the same as
that now conveyed in the third degree of Masonry." —
Mackey's Manual, p. 99.
"The ceremonial of the Degree of Master Mason is
unquestionably the most important, impressive, and
instructive portion of the Ritual of Ancient Freema-
sonry."
"That portion of the Rite which is connected with
the legend of the Tyrian Artist, is well worthy the deep
and earnest study of thoughtful men."
"Against the notion that it is the representation of
a scene that actually occurred in the Temple, it may
well be urged that, outside of Masonic tradition, there
is no proof that an event, such as is related in connection
with the Temple-Builder, ever transpired; and, besides,
the ceremony is older^ by more than a thousand years,
than the age of Solomon. There are characters im-
pressed upon it which cannot be mistaken. It is thor-
oughly Egyptian, and is closely allied to the supreme rite
of Isianic Mysteries." — Sickels' General Ahiman Re-
zon, p. 195.
The rite of circumambulation. — "The cir-
cumambulation among the Pagan nations was referred
to the great doctrine of Sabaism, or sun-worship. Free-
masonry alone has preserved the primitive meaning,
which was a symbolic allusion to the sun as the source
of physical light, and the most wonderful work of the
Grand Architect of the Universe. The reason assigned
for the ceremony in the modern lectures of Webb and
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP. 3/
Cross is absolutely beneath criticism. The Lodge rep-
resents the world; the three principal officers repre-
sent the sun in his three principal positions — at rising,
at meridian, and at setting. The circumambulation,
therefore, alludes to the apparent course of the solar orb,
through those points, around the world." — Mackey's
Manual of the Lodge, p. 24.
General Summary. — This chapter demonstrates
that the "pure theism" or "natural religion" of Free-
masonry is practical deism, i. e., — devilism." See 1 Cor.
X. 30. What could be more conclusive. Volumes
might be given showing that ^^^r^M^/^'/;^ is unadulterated
sun-worship. And such it will go down to all history.
A temple of idolatry within the shadow of almost
every church and cathedral; temples of paganism in
nightly session, and men bowing in adoration and wor-
ship of the Sun, Moon and Stars; incense rising from
thousands of altars to Osiris, not amid the twilight of
antiquity in Samaria, or Ancient Egypt, but in the
United States and in the Nineteenth century, amid the
full blaze of Gospel light, and wonderful popular evan-
gelization.
The Young Men's Christian Association, the Chau-
tauqua Movement and the Society of Christian Endeav-
or are doing all in their power to popularize religion
and Bible study, but how long at the present rate, with
their vast multitudes of workers, will it take to convert
America from idolatry, or overthrow any of the giant
evils of the day? And where are the great religious
journah, the popular churches and learned doctors of
divinity, amid all this revived heathenism? It will be a
38 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
standing astonishment to all future generations that
such false worship should flourish so long in a nation
that is raising vast sums to send missionaries to evangel-
ize idolaters in foreign lands.
Tlie church, ministry and laity, will carry an awful
responsibility to the judgment for their criminal silence
and comparative inactivity, at this late hour, amid this
mad carnival of pagan idolatry and lodge heathenism.
You need not go to India, Africa, or China, or
some far away isle of the sea to find heathen to mission-
ate among. What America most needs to-day is one
grand "Home Missionary Society" to purify our own
nation and country of the filthy, obscene worship of old
Osiris and Isis, and all the gods of benighted paganism.
The man or woman has little moral heroism who must
be driven by sheer force of public opinion to espouse
and 2)ush forward a grand cause. What could be more
degrading and demoralizing to true religion and real
piety than this Sun-worship? All Christendom should
stand as one man against these God-defying, Christ-re-
jecting, man-degrading and soul-destroying orders.
Washing-ton (Z>. C.) Star: "While we are send-
ing missionaries to convert the heathen on the other
side of the globe, would it not be well to look after the
heathen nearer home?"
When you have read this chapter wfith its terrible
indictment of the Masonic order, please remember that
this is only the beginning of the end, and that the half
has not been told.
For years these facts and damaging evidences have
been accumulating and are now ready for the public.
MASONIC SUN WORSHIP.
39
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children
tell their children, and their children another genera-
tion."
And now a few plain thoughts, and we turn to
other most important phases of this question. Many
believe with Elder Rufus Smith, that a house divided
against itself, not against the outside world, cannot
stand. That the church of Christ should be one in
fact, as well as in theory. That sectarianism, schisms,
and divisions should and doubtless will dissolve before
a riper Christianity. That the "orthodox churches"
should lay aside their denominational differences, and
come together on common Bible grounds. Then, with
more Christ, and less creed, the gospel will become a
mighty, irresistible power for the salvation of the world.
All of one spirit and of one mind, heart to heart and
shoulder to shoulder, unity of purpose, harmony of
action, led by the word, and filled with the Holy Ghost,
what a splendid army all true believers will form. Not
one for Paul, another for Apollos, but all for Jesus.
No condoning of evil, no fellowshiping with errOr, no
mere ritualistic formalism. A gospel that will separate,
and cleanse, and purify. A living faith, a working
devotion, a burning zeal — a Christianity that means
something — a religion that can be recognized, seen and
felt. Not in long prayers, broad phylacteries, great
religious feasts, and gaudy temples like that over which
Christ wept. But like that which led Jesus to trial
before the high priests, and to a death on the cross;
that led Stephen, Peter, Paul, and the early martyrs;
that led Luther, Calvin and Wesley; that is now lead-
40 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
ing reformers as grand as the world ever saw. Reform-
ers like Elijah, Josiah, and Hezekiah, who are to destroy
the false worship, altars, images, abominations and
detestable things in these United States. Great multi-
tudes in all the denominations are ready to echo back
these sentiments; they have not in their hearts bowed
the knee to Baal, or adored idols, and their constant
prayer is that the gospel may cover the earth as the
waters do the great deep.
CHAPTER IV.
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY.
A little common sense is not a bad thing to have
around in a discussion like this, and a very little of the
article goes a great way in investigating Masonry. We
will go at this just like we would at any other business
matter, and see how we shall come out. Did we wish
to know the religious tenets of the Methodist, Baptist,
Presbyteria-n, Roman Catholic, or any other church,
would we be likely to pass around and interrogate this
brother, that sister, the pious deacon, the learned
preacher, or even the aged bishop, who has grown grey
expounding the theology of his faith? You, as an
intelligent person, answer emphatically: " No! because
they each and all disagree as to many of the definitions
of their doctrinal points; therefore, the most reliable
mode of procedure is to secure the authorized discipline
or catechism of the particular church, read it together,
and then we will know for ourselves the doctrine and
creed as authoritatively interpreted by the church itself."
Correct. And now suppose we wish to learn what the
federal and tlie state laws are, shall we question the
justice of the peace who has just been inaugurated into
his important office, or shall we interview those old
attorneys who have been quibbling over the interpreta-
tion of law since youth? Shall we necessarily appeal
to the veteran jurist who has been for lo! these many
years on the bench, rendering wise and just decisions?
Not a bit of it! That noted judge simply renders his
rulings by the statutes, and we as honest, sensible men
41
42 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
can read the general or local statutes, and know defin-
itely what are the laws of the land. When a man says
that he is a Mormon, Mohammedan, or a Christian, we
as intelligent men simply test the matter by placing the
person along side the Mormon bible, the Koran, or the
Christian Scriptures, as the case may be, and if he meas-
ure up, well and good ; if not, he is pronounced a hypo-
ci'ite. A man who questions the correctness of his own
creed is really its worst enemy, because he is practically
playing the hypocrite. So, too, in politics, the man
who harps loud and long about liberty, democracy and
republicanism, while doing homage to despotism and
imperialism, is a worse enemy to the American repub-
Hc than the foreign invader, landing on our shores with
musket and cannon. Any anti-American institution,
that tends to the destruction of public morals and
American principles, must be suppressed, or eventually
bring about public discord, anarchy and ruin. Free-
masonry must stand or fall by its own testimony, prac-
tices and utterances. It has made that record, and we
shall proceed with this investigation without fear or
favor:
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FRATERNITY.
"The mode of government observed by the Fra-
ternity will best explain the importance, and give the
truest idea of the nature and design of the Masonic
system."— Webb's Freemason's Monitor, p. 3.
" The mode of government observed by the frater-
nity will give the best idea of the nature and design of
the Masonic institution," — Sickels' Freemasons' Moni-
tor, p. 10.
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 43
Very well; it is the best explanation that we are
after, so we will examine into Masonic government.
Synopsis of Masonic Law. — "The system of
Masonic law has little of the republican or democratic
spirit about it." — Rob Morris, in Webb's Freemasons'
Monitor, revised edition, p. 195.
Well, that is not very encouraging to patriotic men,
but perhaps all will be satisfactorily explained as we
progress.
" We may not call in question the propriety of this
organization; if we would be Masons we must yield
private judgment, ' To the law and to the testimony
— if any man walk not by this rule it is because there
is no light in him.' " — Pierson's Traditions of Freema-
sonry, p. 30.
That certainly is not republicanism or democracy,
because they are inclined to give a man increased lib-
erty and privileges instead of calling for the surrender
thereof. But let us see how far this surrender of per-
sonal liberty is demanded of the Mason.
"That this surrender of free-v/ill to Masonic author-
ity is absolute^ (within the scope of the landmarks of
the order,) and ferpetuaL^ may be inferred from an
examination of the emblem (the shoe or sandal) which
is used to enforce this lesson of resignation. The eso-
tery of the Masonic rituals gives the fullest assurance
of this; 'once a Mason always a Mason,' is an apho-
rism in our literature conveying an undeniable truth.^'
Morris^ Dictionary, p. 29.
Then the surrender of personal, private judgment
and free-will to Freemasonry is complete and binding
44 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
for all time. Well said, indeed; for surely that is any-
thing except Americanism, as either republicanism
or democracy.
"A Mason should know how to obey those who are
set over him, however inferior they may be in worldly
rank or condition." — Macoy's Masonic ^Monitor, p, 14.
What is this authority set over the Freemason to
which he has bound himself, and what will be the result
of disobedience?
"Disobedience and want of respect to Masonic supe-
riors is an offense for which the transgressor bubjccts
himself to punishment," — Mackey's Masonic Jurispru-
dence, p. 511.
Superiors and inferiors — queer government that —
Americans are all equals. How severely will an
offender be punished?
Disobedience. — "Under the head of Discipline is
given a catalogue of fifteen prime classes of un-Ma-
sonic acts, of which this is one. It is so subversive of
the groundwork of Masonry, in which obedience is
most strongly inculcated, that the Mason who disobeys
a due summons subjects himself to severe penalties." —
Morris' Dictionary of Freemasonry, pp. 91, 92.
This no doubt was the punishment meted out to Wil-
liam Morgan and many others for their disobedience.
Who is the representative of Freemasonry, wielding
such extraordinary authority?
"As a presiding officer, the Master is possessed of
extraordinary powers, which belong to the presiding
officer of no other association." — Mackey's Masonic
Jurisprudence, p. 344.
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 45
Indeed! His Majesty must be quite a privileged
character, having such wonderful powers that are
possessed by no other presiding officer.
"The powers and privileges of the Master of a
lodge are by no means limited in extent." — Chase's
Digest of Masonic Law, p. 380.
Not limited means unlimited, and that is just about
as much as an ordinary mortal can comprehend.
"The power of a Master in his lodge is absolute."
— Mackey's Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 296.
There it is, a system of absolute masters; and an
absolute master cannot exist without abject slavery;
one is necessary to the other, so who are the miserable
Masonic slaves? Let the reader answer that all-im-
portant question.
"Hence, we find that the Master's authority in the
lodge is despotic as the Sun in the firmament, which
was placed there by the Creator, never to deviate from
its accustomed course, till the declaration is promulgat-
ed that time shall be no more." — Oliver's Signs and
Symbols of Freemasonry, p. 142.
Where, in all the annals of history, ancient or
modern, describing all the monarchies, despotisms and
tyrannies from the dawn of creation down to the pres-
ent time, will you find a better description of an irre-
sponsible, absolute despot, than the above synopsis of
the power of the Master of a subordinate Masonic
lodge? To whom, or to what, is this Masonic nabob
beholden?
"The Master is responsible for his official acts not
to his lodge, but to the Grand Lodge, or (which is
46 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
the same thing) to the Grand Master for the time be-
ing." — Webb's Freemasons' Monitor, p. 271.
Wh^t is the nature and power of the Grand
Lodge? is the next question staring us in the face for
adjustment.
Grand lodges — jurisdiction of: "A Grand
Lodge is invested with power and authority over all
the craft within its jurisdiction. It is the Supreme
Court of Appeal in all Masonic cases, and to its de-
crees unlimited obedience must be paid, by every lodge
and every Mason situated within its control. The
government of Grand Lodges is, therefore, completely
despotic. While a Grand Lodge exists, its edicts must
be respected and obeyed without examination by its
subordinate lodges." — Mackey's Lexicon of Freema-
^>sonry, p. 1S3.
\/' A Masonic case is one in which either a Mason or
'Masonry is interested. The Grand Lodge being com-
pletely despotic, therefore the Worshipful Master
of a subordinate lodge is as much a slave to it as are
the poor deceived and deluded victims over whom he
lords it with such pomposity.
''It is true that the rule of the Grand Master is
\despotic, and that the Grand Mastership is a despot-
ism. It is true that no despot that ever swayed the
sceptre of his authority could be more despotic than
the Grand Master, but there are circumstances that
ameliorate the despotism of the Masonic Grand Mas-
ter."
"The Grand Master is despotic in the power he
possesses. He has no peer, — there is none that has the
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 47
right to question his rule. Once in his seat, there is no
power that can displace him, — there is no tongue that
can ask him. What doest thou? There is n.o arm that
can reach him that has the prerogative of doing him
harm. And the propriety of this aosolute rule of
the despot is clear."
"The Grand Master looks upon the members of
his jurisdiction as a father looks upon his children.
Over them he exercises unlimited control. The right
is not reserved in the Masonic compact to question his
authority, nor to dispute his will."
"Never was there an act contemplated that had
in it more of the power of the despot, or the affection
of the fondest father. It was an act that plunged the
knife of the father into the heart of the child."
"Such a patriarchate as that of the family of Abra-
ham, is the brotherhood of Masonry." — Masonic Grand
Lodge Report of Iowa.
But suppose, as is often the case, that some con-
scientious man who has been inveigled into the order
should object and rebel against some mandate or edict
of the Grand Lodge that he is fully convinced and per-
suaded is not right and proper; will he be coerced into
a compliance therewith?
"The first duty of the reader of this Synopsis, is to
obey the edicts of his Grand Lodge. Right or wrong,
his very existence as a Mason hangs upon obedience to
the powers immediately set above him. Failure in
this must infallibly bring down exfiilsion^ which, as a
Masonic death, ends all. The one unpardonable crime
in a Mason is contumacy^ or disobedience." — Webb's
Freemasons' Monitor, p. 196.
4b' THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
What is the one unpardonable crime in a Freema-
son? Is it lying, stealing, murder, or a violation of
civil law? Nay, verily, but it is simply to disobey Ma-
sonic law. That law must be obeyed, right or
WRONG. Does this low-down slaver}^ run through
every department of Freemasonry, or only in the
"Blue Lodge" and not m the higher grades?
"The principle of submission and obedience runs
through the whole system and constitutes one of the
greatest safeguards of our institution. The Mason is
obedient to the Master, the Master and Lodge to the
Grand Lodge, and this in its turn to the old landmarks
and ancient regulations of the order. Thus is a due
degree of subordination kept up, and the institution
preserved in its primitive purity." — Pierson's Traditions
of Freemasorry, p. 30.
This is a most galling system of human slavery, a
hundred-fold more degrading than ever was African
bondage, in that both soul and body are the property of
Freemasonry, leaving the individual member a mere
machine in the hands of Masonic superiors. Do Masons,
deep down in their souls, endorse and revere such a vile
system as Freemasonry? The Masonic lodge is held
together by obligations. Without the horrible oaths,
backed by the awful penalties of death, the authority of
the order would be only a rope of sand. Destroy the
obligation and you free the Masonic slave. The man
who does not consider his lodge oath sacred is not a
Mason. " Where were you first prepared to be
made a Mason ? " " In my heart."
Preparation — Blue Lodge Masonry. — <* If an
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONY.
49
applicant is not first prepared in his heart, he will never
make a Mason, no matter what dramatic exercises he
may be put through, or what discipline exerted upon
him. — Morris^ Dictio7iary of Freemasonry^ fp, 24jy
244,
What is it that binds a man to this "Invisible Em-
pire " or to this secret despotism ? We go to the above
named Masonic dictionary for " more light."
Covenant [blue lodge masonry]. — "The obliga-
tions of Masonry are, in the sense of the defiiiition, cov-
enants, and so are the Constitution and By-Laws." —
Ibid, p. y6.
The complete covenant, then, is the oath that binds the
novitiate to the constitution and by-laws, and the consti-
tution and by-laws to which he is bound, *' What is it
makes you a Mason ? " " My obligation."
"It is ' the obligation which makes the Mason,' and
the difference between one Mason and another consists
simply in the fact that one keeps his obligations better
than another ^"^ — Morris"* Dictionary of Freemasonry^
p. 21S.
Every patriotic American is interested to know what
is the nature and form of the Masonic obligation. Is it
simply a promise or affirmation, or is it construed to be
an oath with all the binding force of the same ? Turn-
ing again to our friendly dictionary we learn this :
" An affirmation is not esteemed equivalent to an oath
in Masonry, however it may be in common law, and
is not legitimate in the workings of the lodge." — M'or-
ris^ Dictionary of Freemasonry ^ p. ij,
" Upon the question as to whether a candidate who
50 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
entertains conscientious scruples about swearing, but is
willing to affirm, is thereby stopped from taking the de-
grees of Masonry; your committee are of opinion tha^
so far as the legal asj^ect of the matter is concerned, that
an affirmation ma.de under the same solemn forms in
which an oath is administered, is just as binding on the
conscience as an oath, but the decision of the Most
Worshipful Grand Master is based upon the ground that
our ritual does not permit the substitution of the word
*affirm' for the word ' swear.' " — Texas Masonic Grand
Lodge Report for iSyg, Also Alissouri Report^ 1880.
Now, does Freemasonry consider and teach its devo-
tees to consider the so-called Masonic oath equal or su-
perior in binding force to the civil oath .?
Covenants, [see also discipline; obligation.]
— " The Covenant is irrevocable. Even though a Ma-
son may be suspended or expelled , though he may
withdraw from the Lodge, journey into countries where
Masons cannot be found, or become a subject of despotic
governments that persecute, or a communicant of big-
oted churches that denounce Masonry, he cannot cast off
or nullify his Masonic covenant. No law of the land
can affect it — no anathema of the church weaken it. It
i> irrevocable." — WchlPs Freemasons'* ^lonitor^p, 240,
This accounts for many strange and mysterious pro-
ceedings in our would-be court^ of justice and in the
churches, NO law of the land (that is, civil law,) can
even affect this lodge oath or covenant. No anathema
of the church (that is, divine law,) can so much as
weaken it. Is it any wonder that criminals go scot-
free when the sheriff that empanels the jury, enough of
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 51
the jurors impaneled to bring in a divided verdict,
enough witnesses drummed up to make the evidence
appear contradictory, the attorneys of the prosecution
and of the defense, and the judge on the bench, ar^
irrevocably bound to the prisoner at the bar as sworn
brethren, by an obligation considered paramount to all
others, civil or divine?
In the Philadelphia Press of Sept. 4, 1891, appears a
despatch, the story of ex-letter carrier O. A. Gardner,
who was recently on trial at Minneapolis, Minn., for
abstracting money from mail- matter entrusted to him,
again attests the truth of Anti-masonic statements made
over and over again and confirmed too frequently by the
records of the courts. The evidence of Gardner's guilt
seems to have been well established before the trial be-
gan, for although he had been acquitted on one charge,,
he stood indicted on a second one. The defense, by F.
F. Davis, Gardner's attorney, charged that he had been
persuaded to confess his guilt by Inspector- General
Gould, of Chicago, on the promise that Gould, as a fel"
low Mason, would see that he should be acquitted.
Gardner himself, the reporter continues, was then put
on the stand, and told the story in detail. Gould, he
said, had made known to him the fact that both were
Freemasons, and urged hnn to confess on the promise
that his acquittal was assured. Gould, he said, w^ent
further, and declared that had he known Gardner was a
Mason before his arrest, he (Gould)would have warned
him. This testimony, continues the report, *' made a
big sensation," as Davis (Gardner's attorney) is himself
a Freemason. '' In fact," says the same authorit}/, <'the
52 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
judge, the lawyers on both sides, and most of the jury
on the first trial, were Masons." The Los Angeles
(Cal.) Times savs: "The skilled practitioner, wlio has
a client to defend before a jury, will always ascertain
whether the accused is a member of any secret organi-
' zation. An effort is then made to secure one or more
jur3^men who are members of the order, after which
care is taken that the accused prominently displays a
badge of the order on his person, where the jury can
see it. There are lawyers who boast that they can al-
ways save a man from conviction under such circum-
stances, whatever his crime."
We call attention to the proper swearing of lodge
men in our courts to make it legally binding on them*
Revised Statutes of Missouri, Vol. second. Chap. 119,
Sec. 71 15, page 1662, reads: "Officers shall adopt most
binding on conscience when: Whenever the court or
officer by whom any person is about to be sworn, shall
be satisfied that such person has any pecular mode of
swearing connected with or in addition to the usual
form of administering oaths, which is to him of more
solemn and binding obligation, the court or officer shall
adopt that mode which shall appear to be most binding
on the conscience of the person sworn."
Thus, according to law, no lodge man is legally
sworn unless " duly and truly prepared " and sworn in
the peculiar form adopted by the lodge. That is, to
swear a Masonic preacher, he should be stripped as a
Master Mason, kneeled on his naked knees, and pre-
pared just as when taking the Master's oath, the officer
administering about three words at a time, and no Ma-
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 53
son IS legally sworn unless in that way. The top of
our ambition is to become a justice of the peace. Then
we want to swear a Masonic preacher according to that
statute. We will deputize constables enough to divest
him of his coat, vest, boots and pants; both drawer-legs
will go up above tlie knees, both sleeves above the el-
bow, both breasts be made bare, a rope put three times
around his body, and a hoodwink over his eyes, then one
Freemason will be sworn according to law. And
friends in other states will find this statute allows lodge
men to slip out of telling the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, and they do it legally. Look it up. Is
there no escape from Masonic thralldom ? is the now all-
important question.
"No method is provided for in the Masonic jurispru-
dence of modern times by which a member can with-
draw himself from the authority of the society. He
may resign his membership in the lodge, deny its gov-
ernment, even repudiate the ties by which he is bound
to the institution, yet that authority remains unbroken
A * due summons' from the lodge or Grand Lodge is
obligatory upon him; should he refuse obedience he
will be disgracefully expelled from the society with pub-
lic marks of ignominy that can never be erased." — Mor-
ris* Dictionary of Preemasonry^ p, 2g,
What arrogant system is this, that proposes to take a
man's manhood from him by imposing upon him an ob-
ligation that defies both the civil as well as the divine
law? It even declares vengeance on all who dare to
think and act as free men without first consulting the
Masonic covenant. No wonder seceded Masons and
54 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
out-s])oken non- Masons are abused, vilified, slandered
and hounded down by Masonic minions. '' Public
marks of ignominy that can never be erased." The
American people will provide a way. Joseph Cook, in
his lecture, goes straight to the core of the whole busi-
ness. vSee it in Our Day ^ Boston, Mass., for August,
1891. These obligations are illegal, unlawful, treason-
able, and the remedy is to punish all who impose or in-
voke them. Nothing short of this will protect society
and government.
" The expulsion of a Mason, while it deprives him of
every privilege with which his Masonic attachment
endowed him, leaves him bound by every part and point
of his Masonic covenant. Of this no act of his own or
of the lodge can ever divest him. The tie of Afasonry
is perpetual." — Wehh'^s Freemason* s Monitor^ f, 2^7.
That certainly IS a queer government if there ever
was one. The mystery of the whole business is to dis-
cover how under the sun a man can be a loyal citizen
of any civil government on earth and at the same time
uphold this system of secret despotism that boldly and
openly defies all governments,
" There is no charge more frequently made against
Freemasonry than that of its tendency to revolution and
conspiracy, and to political organizations which may
affect the peace of society, or interfere with the rights
of government." — Mackcy^s Mystic Tie of Frecfnason^
Well does this great Masonic ruler and law -giver
speak the truth in the above, for time and again differ-
ent governments have been compelled to suppress Free-
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 55
masonry because of its incompatibility with the peace of
society and with the lav/s of the land in that it harbored
criminals and perverted the equitable administration of
civil law.
*^ There is no duty more forcibly enjoined in Masonry
than that of warning a brother of danger impending to
his person or interests. To neglect this is a positive
violation of obligation, and destroys any person's claim
to be entitled a Mason." — Morris* Dictionary of Free-
masonry^ f. J2^,
Are Masons obliged to give this warning to affiliates
only, or must they always warn and aid one another in-
discriminately.? ■
"We are to give aid in imminent peril when Masonic-
ally called upon, not lest injustice may be done if we
pause to inquire into the question of affiliation, but be-
cause the obligation to give this aid, which is reciprocal
among all Masons, never has been, and never can be,
canceled." — Mackey^s Masonic J urisfrudence^ p. 270.
Shall the Mason pause to inquire as to anything
when Masonlcally appealed to for aid.?
" If a person appeals to us as a Mason in imminent
peril, or such pressing need that we have not time to in-
quire into his worthiness, then, lest we might refuse to
relieve and aid a worthy brother, we must not stop to
inquire as to anything." — Albert Pike^ in Masonic
Grand Lodge Report of Arkansas : also Mackey^s
Masonic Jurisprudence^ p, 2J0.
Ex-Confederate General Albert Pike, who led a
brigade of Indian Savages against the flag of his coun-
try at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, where the
56 THE AMERICAN HAXD-BOOK.
dead and "svounded boys in blue were scalped and toma-
hawked, and even mutilated in a manner too barbarous
and obscene for description, by his followers, and whose
rebel hands are dyed crimson by the blood of loyal
American citizens, is now the most honored man in
Freemasonry. He has since been very appropriately
placed at the pinnacle of the system, where he sits su-
preme ruler; and to him every Freemason, knowingly
or unknowingly, yet nevertheless truly, does honor and
homage when he throws a due-guard or sign at a Blue
Lodge Master; for ^' the principle of submission and
obedience runs through the whole system," while in
giving the sign he acknowledges himself to be under
death-penalty to obey this Masonic superior. Such is
Freemasonry, a hot-bed of disloyalty and treason, ac-
cording to our deductions thus fan
" Treason and rebellion also, because they are alto-
gether political offenses, cannot be inquired into by a
lodge; and although a Mason may be convicted of either
of these acts in the courts of his country, he cannot be
Masonically punished; and notwithstanding his treason
or rebellion, his relation to the lodge, to use the language
of the old Charges, remains indefeasible." — Mackey's
Masonic Jurisprudence, p. 510.
This makes plain why perhaps the blackest-hearted
rebel in the land is very appropriately placed at the head
of treasonable Masonry in this country. Thus a saint
in Freemasonry may be the worst citizen in this gov-
ernment.
" The Mason who is at home and the Mason who
comes from abroad are considered on an equal footing
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY.
:)/
as to all Masonic rights; and hence the brother made in
Europe is as much a Mason when he comes to America,
and is as fully qualified to discharge \n America all
Masonic functions, without an}^ form of naturalization,
as though he had been made in this country. The con-
verse is equally true." — Mackey's Masonic Jurisprudence,
p. 200.
What a remarkable array of Masonic testimony ! and
yet the half has not been told, as we might go on almost
indefinitely showing the foul, treasonable and anti-
. republican nature, as legibly portrayed under the sys-
tematically arranged headings of the great copyrighted
standard Masonic publications. The above Masonic
quotations are complete sentences and not garbled. The
language is so concise and plain that a child can easily
analyze each sentence. The quotations are authoritative ;
Masonic superiors never argue Masonry with subor-
dinates. And now we proceed to nail the above syn-
opsis of Masonic law and government by home testimony.
We will let every affiliated Freemason in the Missouri
Masonic Grand Lodge jurisdiction testify through their
Grand Lodge Reports, three copies of which must be
filed away year by year in every subordinate lodge
throughout the jurisdiction. The members of all sub-
ordinate lodges are fully represented in Grand Lodge
by the superior officers of the several lodges, as they are
delegates thereto, and no document emanates from any
Masonic Grand Lodge without its endorsement and
approval. We will call our neighbors, and see how
cheerfully they accept or reject the testimony of the
brightest men in the order:
58 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
(Part of a report on foreign correspondence rendered
by a full committee consisting of Brothers J. P. Little,
Jno. Dove, Wm. B. Isaacs, Wm. L. Maule and T. P.
August:)
" The conclusion of the report breathes such a pure
air of Masonic truths that we incorporate it herewith.
It says: 'Once a Mason, always a Mason — once a Mason,
everywhere a Mason. However independent either as in-
dividuals or as lodges, whether Grand or subordinate —
and we are each and all truly free and uncontrolled by
anything save our ancient laws and constitution — yet no
Mason can be a foreigner to another Mason. We are all
equal citizens of one common government, having equal
rights, equal privileges and equal duties; and in which
government, thank God, the majority does not govern.
For our order in its very constitution, strikes at the root
of that which is the very basis of popular government. It
proclaims and practices, not that the will of the masses is
v/ise and good, and as such to be obeyed, — not that the ma-
jority shall govern — but that the law [i. e., above men-
tioned "ancient law"] shall govern. Our tenet is not
only that no single man, but that no body of men (how-
ever wise oi- numerous) can change in any degree one
single landmark of our ancient institution. Our law is
strictly organic; it cannot be changed without being
destroyed. You may take a man to pieces, and you
may take a watch to pieces, but you can not alter his
organs and put hnn together again as you do the time-
keeper. Masonry i& the living man, and all other forms
of government mere convenient machines, made by
clever mechanics, for regulating the affairs of state.
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 59
Not only do we know no North, no South, no East
and no West, but we know no government save our
own. To every government save that of Masonry,
and to each and all alike, we are foreigners; and this
form of government is neither pontifical, autocratic,
monarchial, republican, democratic nor despotic; it is
a government fer se^ and that government is Masonic.
We have nothing to do with forms of government,
forms of religion or forms of social life. We are
nation of men only, bound to each other by Masonic
ties as citizens of the world, and that world the world of
Masonry — brethren to each other all the world over,
foreigners to all the world beside.'
" Tlie above is a Masonic address in a nutshell — it is
the compressed essence of Masonic life." — Grand Lodge
Report for 1867.
7' How does that sound to a loyal American? Free-
.masons therein positively affirm that they are not con-
^v :^^ trolled by" ANYTHING "save Masonic law; they thank
>. i^ God" that in their government the "majority does
y^ NOT govern;" that Freemasonry "strikes at the very
base" of free government; that it "proclaims and
PRACTICES that the will of the masses should not be
obeyed;" that the United States is a " mere conveni-
ent machine" only: together with many other treas-
onable doctrines that the Missouri Masonic Grand
Lodge emphatically declares are the "compressed essence
of Masonic life." Later reports all breathe the spirit of
double-dyed treason. We would gladly prolong this
discussion, but we will briefly consult anotlier Grand
Lodge Report or two and rest the case.
^3 :/
60 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
" For ourselves, we deny as Masons that any civil
government on earth has the right to divide or curtail
Masonic jurisdiction when once established. It can
only be done by competent Masonic authority and in
accordance with Masonic usage." — Grand Lodge
Report.
Rebold's History of Freemasonry, p. 63, says: " The
Freemason receives not the law, he gives it;" and a
late Grand Lodge Report puts on the cap-sheaf by
adding: "In all this we must not forget that ' Masonry
Is a law unto itself.' Its perpetuity is dependent upon
the force of its own influences. It never demands affili-
ation with any other humanizing agencies." — Grand
Lodge Report of 1880.
The above is gleaned from copyrighted standard Ma-
sonic publications now in our pos«^ession. The higli
Masonic standing and character of the officers here
mentioned is fully sustained by Grand Lodge docu-
ments reposing on the table before us as we indite
these lines. And at this moment there is a grave con-
spiracy against civil liberty and popular government in
the United States. It is a powerful organization of
able bodied men, near five hundred thousand strong,
banded together by horrible oaths and awful death pen-
alties for the perversion, destruction and eventual over-
throw of American principles, doctrines and institutions.
Every member of this great conspiracy is bound and
pledged to life itself to royalty, imperialism and despot-
ism. It is an organized government in our Republic.
The Constitution of the United States positively pro-
hibits titles of nobility, but this darnig conspiracy con-
GOVERNMENT OF FREEMASONRY. 6l
fers almost every title known to the baser monarchies of
the Old World The fundamental law of our land for-
bids "cruel- and unusual penalties;" this organized
usurper of governmental prerogatives imposes the most
appalling and terrifying death penalties. The Federal
Constitution declares that the rights of "free speech and
free press shall not be abridged ;" this conspiracy puts a
padlock on the . mouth and a shackle on the hand of
every man who has crossed its corporate threshold, ob-
ligating him to perpetual silence as to its diabolical
workings and recreant plottings. The right of trial
by impartial jury is made almost an impossibility, be-
cause of the unauthorized and unlawful oaths adminis-
tered by the officiary of this self-constituted absolute
despotism. To show the gravity of the situation, it is
only necessary to refer to the vast standing army in our
midst, armed, officered and equipped, drilling at the
dead hour of night, under its Eminent Commanders,
Captain Generals, Generalissimos, and Most Puissant
Sovereign Grand Commander, the latter being the no
torious rebel general, Albert Pike, who volunteered to
Iciid yelling Indians against his race and color, as well
as the flag of his country at the battle of Pea Ridge,
Arkansas. Every soldier in this foreign army, on Amer-
ican soil, has pledged and svvorn his life, character and
honor, that he will draw his sword at the call and in
defense of this foreign government, with its Most Wor-
shi^Dful Grand Masters, Sublime Princes, Kings, and
Grand Kings. These conspirators are neither fools nor
children, but men of mature age, who, in their secret
councils, call God and their companions in conspiracy to
62 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK. '
witness their sincerity and willingness to forward the
base work in which they are so zealously engaged.
Men high in church and state are secret supporters and
abettors. Sworn emissaries are in every state. The
treasonable teachings, disloyal character and criminal
make-up, as herein stated, is fully substantiated by the
civil affidavits and testimony of a multitude of patriotic cit-
izens who have gained a complete and correct knowledge
of it all, and "know whereof they speak." Where is the
man who has one drop of patriotic blood coursing through
his veins that does not abhor, loathe and hate Freema-
sonry as the arch enemy of free government? And
is he not ready, if he be a slave to this system of despot-
ism, to declare his independence, and maintain his rights
through the pulpit, the press and the polls? Let all
true Americans rally to the American movement that is
so rapidly coming up, the object of which is to wrest
church and state from the usurpation of oath-bound for-
eigners who are openly endorsing and upholding a sys-
tem that is treason to the government. Let us, as Amer-
icans, stand for civil and religious liberty before the
bristling bayonet or the cannon's mouth ere we bow the
knee to any despot or hail any man as MASTER.
God save our country from the further encroachments
of secret despotism !
CHAPTER V.
UNWRITTEN HISTORY.
ANTIMASONRY SAVED THE REPUBLIC.
At one time this nation was startled by the astound-
ing inteUigence that a citizen of the United States had
been abducted and murdered by a secret society. The
Morgan tragedy, of 1826, shook this government from
center to circumference. PubHc indignation meetings
were held ; legislative enactments were passed, outlaw-
ing Freemasonry; governors and other state officers
were elected by what is known in history as the Great
Anti-Masonic Party. John Quincy Adams, President
of the United States, at that time, after observing that
dastardly affair from beginning to end, declared: '^'I am
prepared to complete the demonstration before God and
man, that the Masonic oaths, obligations and penalties
cannot by any possibility be reconciled to the laws of
morality, of Christianity, or of the land." President
Fillmore, J. C. Spencer and others, affirmed: "The Ma-
sonic fraternity tramples upon our rights, defeats the
administration of justice, and bids defiance to every gov-
ernment which it cannot control." Daniel Webster,
Secretary of State in the cabinets of Harrison, Tyler
and Fillmore, avowed: "All secret associations, the
members of which take upon themselves extraordinary
obligations to one another, and are bound together by
secret oaths, are naturally sources of jealousy and just
alarm to others; are especially unfavorable to harmony
and mutual confidence among men living together un-
63
64 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOIT,
der popular institutions, and aje dangerous to the gen-
eral cause of civil liberty and just government. Under
the influence of this conviction it is my opinion that the
future administration of all such oaths and the forma-
tion of all such obligations should be prohibited by law."
The lodge went down before free discussion in the
north. An Iowa Masonic Grand Lodge report chroni-
cles the fact that forty-five thousand out of fifty thousand
Freemasons in the United States left the lodge never to re-
turn, and that fifteen hundred lodges threw up their char-
ters and ceased to exist. Nearly all the old Abolitionists
were bitter Antimasons. John Brown left the lodge, ex-
posed its secrets, and Masons threatened his life, so that he
armed himself against them. Lewis Tappan, private
journal, 1814: — "Dr. Dixwell gave me lectures on Ma-
sonry at his house." "In September left the lodge."
Letter, January 21, 1S29: — "I am free to say that I
henceforth renounce Freemasonry, considering it a
useless and profane institution." Myron Holley, of
New York: — "Such a rebellion Freemasonry has
raised. It has violated the dearest rights of nature, and
the most sacred enactments of our laws, and this in
a spirit manifestly treasonable, for it has done this in
pursuance of solemn, deliberate and voluntary obliga-
tions to a foreign government, — I mean its own — a gov-
ernment far' more alien to that which claims our alle-
giance than any which has ever afflicted mankind."
Gerritt Smith in an address, 1870: — "Masonry murdered
Morgan. If it could not conceal his murderers, it nev-
ertheless protected them. It overrode the laws of the
land and ruled the courts and the ballot-boxes. More-
UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 65
over, it is capable of repeating the crimes. Why then
should we not dread secret societies, and do what we can
to bring them to an end?" James G. Birney, Horace
Greeley, the great Republican editor, and many might
be cited as avowed Antimasons. Greeley said i "Many
persons were brought to trial on account of the murder
of Morgan, but no one was judicially found guilty of
murder. It was established by seceding Masons that
the oaths,* at least in some of the highest degrees — that
were administered, and taken by those admitted to Ma-
sonic lodges, disqualified them from serving as jurors in
any case where a brother Mason of like degree was a
party, and his antagonist was not." Harfer'^s Maga
zine says: "As the larger portion of the Whig party
was merged in the Republican, the dominant party of
to-day has a lineal descent from the feeling aroused by
the abduction of Morgan from the jail at Canandaigua."
Hon. S. C. Pomeroy, for many years a popular Repub-
lican Senator, speaking of the border troubles, writes:
"Then the Blue Lodges sent out their circulars. I copy
from one: —
'We have been heavily taxed in both money and time
in fighting the battles of the South in Kansas. Lafay-
ette county alone has expended one hundred thousand
dollars in maintaining the rights of the South. Come
before the cause is lost.'
This started Col. Buford with his regiment from
South Carolina, and many others. All entered Kansas
in the spring of 1856."
Freemasonry went south where free sjDcech was
largely forbidden, became a southern institution and the
66 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
sworn ally of negro slavery. In its very nature^ with
its Worshipful Masters, Kings and Grand Kings, its
lodge rooms became the council chambers of treason,
and Jefferson Davis, a reputed Royal Arch Mason, led
the armies of rebellion, his late declaration tothecontrary
notw^ithstanding. Thurlow^ Weed, the president maker,
and for fifty years the Warv/ick of American politics,
was perhaps the strongest Antimason in America. In
i860 he went to the Chicago Convention to secure if
possible, the nomination of Seward. Contrary to his
expectation Abraham Lincoln was nominated. One
delegate afterwards explained their going back on Sew-
ard by saying that they did not know till they got to
Chicago that this was the "Antimason Bill Seward."
The evening before the convention Mr. Philo Carpen-
ter heard two Freemasons talking on the sidewalk.
"Well," said one, "I suppose we are to have that Anti-
mason Seward as our Republican candidate to-morrow
morning." "Not a bit of it," replied the other. "The
lodge has seen to that. Seward will have a large com-
plimentary vote, to satisfy his friends; but he will not
receive the nomination and never will be president."
The Masons of Cincinnati threatened not to vote for
Lincoln because he would not join the lodge. Rumor
says that Lincoln had at one time sent in his petition
for membership in a Masonic lodge, but before the
night for initiation came, he changed his mind (sup-
posed to have been from reading a copy of Morgan's
expose, loaned him by a neighbor, who heard of his
purpose,) and he was ever afterward the bitter and
avowed enemy of Overseers, Worshipful Masters, and
UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 67
Most Worshipful Grand Masters. Hence he placed at
the head of his Cabinet that uncompromising foe of
lodgery, William H. Seward, who said, "Before I
would place my hand between the hands of other men
in a secret lodge, order, class or council, and bending on
my knee before them, enter into combination with them
for any object, personal or political, good or bad, I
would pray to God that that hand and that knee might
be paralyzed, and that I might become an object of pity
and even the mockery of my fellow men." Charles
Francis Adams was United States minister to England
under President Lincoln, and at a time when a true
patriot was needed there. He declared: ''Every man
who takes a Masonic oath forbids himself from divulg-
ing any criminal act, unless it might be murder or trea-
son, that may be communicated to him under the seal
of fraternal bond, even though such concealment were
to prove a burden upon his conscience and a violation
of his bounden duty to society and to his God." Bitter
opposers of Masonry were directing the legislation of
the nation during those perilous years. That eminent
American statesman, Charles Sumner, in 1854, penned
these words: " I find two powers here in Washington
in harmony, and both are antagonistical to our free in-
stitutions, arid tend to centralization and anarchy —
Freemasonry and Slavery; and they must both be de-
stroyed if our country is to be the home of the free as
our ancestors designed it." Thaddeus Stevens, the
Great American Commoner, held: " By Freemasonry
trial by jury is transformed into an engine of despotism
and Masonic fraud." Henry Wilson, another outspoken
68 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Antimason, was Chairman of the War Committee, and
introduced bills abolishing Slavery in the District of
Columbia, for abolishing the black code, and for enroll-
ing colored militia. There, too, was Samuel C. Pome-
roy, the Old Abolition Senator from Kansas, the man
that Freemasonry has tried so hard to smirch and malign.
He was at one time a student under William H. Sew-
ard, and hence his antipathy to the lodge. He was the
first man who had the grit to stand up in Congress and
call the late war " The Slaveholders' Rebellion". He
moved the first pension and land bounty bill. He moved
and carried a bill for a disabled soldiers' home, and pro-
cured the passage of a soldiers' relief bill. Although
he is under a cloud, mayhap the scapegoat of Colonel
York and other Royal Arch Masons, yet he is dealing
telling blows at lodge despotism. Wendell Phillips,
the silver-tongued orator of Emancipation, wrote to one
of our popular American lecturers: *' I wish you suc-
cess most heartily in your efforts to arouse the commu-
nity to the danger of Secret societies. They are a great
evil; entirely out of place in a republic, and no patriot
should join or uphold them. Considering the great
forces which threaten the welfare of our nation in the
next thirty years, and how readily and efficiently they
can use any secret organizations, such should not be
allowed to exist." J. G. Whittier, the Quaker poet,
wrote the songs of freedom, and who but one brought
up an Antimason could have conceived such soul stirr-
ing measures. He says; "As regards secret societies,
I have always kept aloof from them," And again: " I
suppose thee knows that the society of Friends do not
UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 69
allow any of their members to join secret societies or
take any oaths. I wish other sects would take the same
ground." George W. Clark, the sweet liberty singer,
whose anti-slavery songs so fired the northern heart, has
compiled an Antimasonic song book and is going
through the land singing against lodge slavery. Gen-
eral Grant, the victorious leader of the Union forces to
the close of the war, it is said, belonged to no secret
society. In his autobiography he says: "All secret,
oath-bound political parties are dangerous to any nation,
no matter how pure or how patriotic the motives or
principles which first bring them together."
General Eli H. Murray, private secretary of the late
Gen. W. T. Sherman, was asked, "Do you not rank
frankness as chief among his virtues?" Gen. Murray
said: " Yes, he never had a secret in his life. When
any one wanted to make Sherman a confidant, he would
exclaim, ' Don't tell me a secret; I'll give it away to
the first person I meet. I don't war^t any secrets.
Devilment begins with secrets.' The General's life was
an open book."
Andrew Johnson was a Royal Arch Mason, sworn
to the very life to espouse the cause of a companion
so far as to extricate him from all difficulty whether
right or wrong. How essential then that Lincoln
should be removed prior to the trial of Jeff Davis. The
intention was to remove Seward, Stanton, and others
obnoxious to the treasonable fraternity. The attack on
Johnson was only a blind. E. E. Flagg, Wellessly,
Mass., speaking of the supposed antagonism of Roman
Catholicism and Freemasonry, says: " The papal ori-
^O THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK,
gin of the higher degrees, the use made of them in the
last century by Jesuit priests, the fact that John Wilkes
Booth, who shot Abraham Lincoln was both a Mason
and a Catholic, besides a host of other facts that could
be adduced; show how false is the claim." Sergeant
Boston Corbett, the patriot soldier who shot John
Wilkes Booth, the lodge emissary, is an outspoken
Antimason, residing near Concordia, Kansas. Hon.
Fred. Douglass, the Gladstone of his race, said: "I
never would join a secret society ; not even that military
concern." "I am opposed to secret societies." And
such were the men who stood for liberty and republican
government when mad treason was plotting ruin on
every hand and loyal blood was flowing in rivulets.
The Chicago Daily Tiincs avers: "One statement
which has been made in praise of Freemasonry is
really ar argument against it — namely that the late war
of the rebellion did not interrupt for a moment the
cordial relation which existed between northern and
southern Masons, either as a body or as individuals. If
the ties of Freemasonry are stronger than love for
country, and lead men to forgive the crime of rebellion
while the rebel still has arms in his hands which he is
using to attack the state. Freemasonry is clearly per-
nicious and opposed to public policy."
Benedict Arnold, the first traitor to our government,
learned his patriotism in Hiram Masonic Lodge, No. i,
New Haven, Conn. Aaron Burr was a high Mason
and plotted his treason in Royal Arch cipher. Gen.
Robert Toombs, of Ga., to the day of his death was a
zealous afiiliate to the Supreme Council of Scottish
UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 7 1
Rite Masonry, and the lodge journals and Masonic
bodies are sounding the Masonic virtues of this rebel
leader and unrepentant traitor from the rivers to the
ends of the earth. The Masonic order officially laid
the corner-stone to a monument in honor of that brilliant
rebel, Gen. R. E. Lee, at Richmond, Va., in the pres-
ence of fifteen thousand ex-confederate soldiers. The
very air v^as heavy with Masonry and the old rebel
war spirit while doing homage to the leader of the
rebel forces. Stephen A. Douglass, " Brick " Pomeroy,
Gen. Joseph E. Johnson, and their ilk were Masons.
FROM THE CHRISTIAN CYNOSURE AND ITS EDITOR:
Tom Corwm in the United States Senate said: " Put
one slave-holder with forty-nine non-slave holders, and
the one will find means to control the forty-nine in
nine cases out of ten." So one Freemason will hang a
jury or corrupt a church.
A member of the Masonic lodge, formerly a reputable
citizen of Oak Park, 111., and a government official in
this city, is our authority for the statement that a Free-
mason, formerly from Naperville, 111. , was engaged in
forming Masonic lodges in both the Union and rebel
armies. He had passes which took him within the lines
of both, and passed back and forth freely in his nefari-
ous business.
If Lincoln, Chase and Seward in the Cabinet, and
Stevens in Congress, C. F. Adams and Thurlow Weed
in England, and Grant in the army had not been Anti-
masons, slavery would not have fallen, and the Union
y2 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
would have fatally sunk. Putting our war government
in anti-lodge hands was a marvelous act of God.
When sick once I spent a day in a pleasant home be-
tween Galesburg and Knoxville. On the stand near
my head lay Rob Morris' Voice of Masonry, I
opened ^ number and read an editorial denunciation of
our Union soldiers, then fighting to save popular gov-
ernment, because they obeyed their officers and dis-
obeyed the signs of rebel Masons who were fighting to
destroy it. The Voice of Masonry which thus gave
"aid and comfort" to treason, is still, in other hands,
published in Chicago. I have since conversed with the
Secretary of Federal Lodge No. i, D. C. He told me
he left the lodge at the opening of the >var because "the
lodges all went for secession."
The Blue Lodges of Missouri did not even change
their names or vary their ritual, but as simple Masons,
CO nomine raised, enlisted, and armed the bloody raids
on Kansas, and informed Senator Pomeroy that if he
would join the Masons they would protect him, but if
not, "if he attempted to go up the Kaw river he would
be killed."
Pike initiated fifty leaders of the Indians in Federal
lodge No. I, in Washington and swore and frightened
them into obedience before they would fight against
the Union, and by such means the lodges of the South
became the drill-camps of the rebellion.
, Mr. Ferguson who was secretary of Federal lodge
No. I , and aided to initiate Pike's Indians, informed the
writer that the ten lodg^es of the District all went for
UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 73
secession, and Lincoln's assassination was one of the
Masonic exploits of that District,
Gen. Howard informed the writer that even the
butcherly night-riding Ku-klux kept their disguises in
the Masonic halls.
Brother Butler some time since- sent to the ex-rebel
Jeff Davis a circular which mentioned the name of the
latter as a Mason. Davis takes the pains to deny the
allegation through some Grand Lodge official.
The denial of his Masonry by the ex-confederate
leader published last week has refreshed the memory of
Deacon O. M. Brown, one of the oldest citizens of
Oberlin, and among the most reliable of men, who met
just at the close of the war, a wealthy slave-holder,
Master of Oglethorp lodge near Andersonville prison
pen, Georgia, who told him in good faith that Jeff Da-
vis was a Freemason, and that he had met him f re-
quentl)'^ in the lodge, and at Masonic gatherings.
We remember how Mr. Davis has repeatedly and
emphatically denied the well-proven incident of his cap-
ture. If he never was a Mason any more than he was
a rebel, as his own letter indicates, his denial goes for
nothing, so that the public may reasonably still believe
that he was a Freemason with Toombs and others of
the Southern leaders. His own and the denials of the
lodge aside, the evidence is in favor of such a conclu-
sion. Of course the lodge denies any association with
him as they always do with Arnold.
In an interview at Richview, 111., W. E. Toomis, for-
merly of Vicksburg, Miss., said: "I was personally
J74 "THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
acquainted with Jeff Davis, and know him to be a Ma-
son. I was standing within six feet of him when he
sr.id :
'Fellow Citizens, the North is so hostile that we, in
order to sustain our institution (slavery), will in the
near future (God hasten the time) have to plunge the
dagger up to the hilt in blood.'
This was in 1850, the crowd took off their caps and
cheered."
READ THIS.
The mission of the American movement is a higher,
nobler, grander one than the Republican ever had. The
negro had a Master, but the poor white Masonic
slaves have a "Most Worshipful Grand Master." No
negro in the darkest days of slavery ever addressed his
owner as "Worshipful Massal" To rid our Republic
of this deeper, darker, deadlier system is well worthy
the persistent, united effort of the Christian, the patriot
and the philanthropist. Col, George R. Clark, foun-
der of the Pacific Mission, and a Masonic Sublime
Prince of the Royal Secret, in a late public address said:
"I was a 32-degree Mason in Chicago before the fire;
I also belonged to the Blue Lodg^e and other interven-
ing orders." In his speech he declared : "The third
point that addressed itself to me was the unlawful oaths
that I was required to take. I saw that these oaths of them-
selves W'cre blasphemous. These oaths, some of them,
bound people to do unlawfnl acts; unlawful so far as the
laws of the country are. concerned, and unlawful so far
as the laws of God are concerned. I saw that these
UNWRITTEN HISTORY. y^
organizations were harmful. They placed these oaths
above the laws. These oaths bind people to unlawful
acts without regard to the laws of the country."
Edmond Ronayne, a late Chicago Royal Arch Ma-
son, in a recently published letter thus boldly challenges
and arraigns the Voice of Maso?iry^ and Freemasons
of that city, to-wit: "Dare the Voice answer these
simple questions? Dare the Rev. Dr. Thomas, or ex-
Mayor Cregier, or Henry G. Perry, answer them?
How is it, gentlemen? are you, in this evening of the
nineteenth century, in these United States, and in the
verv face of our grand civilization — are you sworn, and
do you swear others when conferring your Masonic de-
crees, under such horrible butchery of the body as
might justly bring the blush of shame to the cheek of a
savage? Have you got these death penalties in the
oaths of your lodges? I say you have, and that I have
administered them myself in Keystone Lodge, No. 639,
in Cashman Lodge, in D. C. Cregier Lodge, and in
other lodges in this city, and you dare not deny that
you are bound under the most terrible and inhuman
death-penalties which it is possible to express in lan-
guage. Furthermore, the public are coming to know
this; and were it not for the miserable hypocrisy of the
preachers you have got among you, your lying legends
and pagan humbuggery would to-day be a by-word
and a stench in the mouth and nostrils of this American
people. But the day of Freemasonry is certainly
doomed, notwithstanding its present apparent popular-
ity ; and the time will come when every one who passes
76 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
by shall laugh in patriotic derision at your empty pa-
rades and your twenty-story monstrosity."
The National View^ Washington, D. C, says*.
"Reform will come. It may be slow; nevertheless,
sooner or later, it will be sure to do its perfect work.
More still, it will come in a voice that there will be no
mistaking in the aroused conscience of an awakened
people ; in the unequivocal manifestation of the public
will; in the alarmed sense of public security; in the
stern conviction of the outraged moral sentiment of the
nation; in the spirit of that sense of justice and patriot-
ism which always inspires the American mind, and
dominates in the genius and spirit of our free institu-
tions. We may have to wait a little, but order will
Lome out of confusion. The ideals for which we con-
tend will take form, and shape public opinion into
coherent, intelligent, demonstrative, successful action.
Bear in mind that the age is rife with originalitv, curi-
osity, and investigation. The range of ideas and plans
of amelioration o'erleaps all ordinary barriers, and men
strike out in every direction to fathom the intricate an I
the abstruse. The press furnishes immense facilities for
their easy communication with the great public, and
through it the world is nvarching on to freedom and the
general illumination of the human mind. Let it come,"
CHAPTER VI.
GRAND LODGE MASONRY !
EVERY AFFILIATE TESTIFIES.
We shall deal almost exclusively v^ith the official
reports of the Grand Lodge of Missouri, emanating
directly from that body and fully endorsed by it. Not
only is the w^hole business backed by every adhering,
affiliated member in Missouri, but all regular sister
Grand Lodges endorse the Missouri Grand Lodge
through their Grand Lodge representatives. These
reports contain none of the so-called secrets although
got up for the sole use and benefit of the craft, and it
should be borne in mind that non-masons have nothing
whatever to do in making these statements and declara-
tions, and that they are amenable to the law for any-
thing that would injure the order or the individual
members of the same by falsification or slander.
We challenge any adhering Mason from the Most
Worshipful Grand Master down to the youngest En-
tered Apprentice to show a single quotation that is
incorrectly given. The individual members of the
order, as well as many of the teachers of its would-be
mysteries, are most deplorably ignorant of its nature
and principles.
Read and study the law: "The great trouble,
however, is to get the Craft to read and study the law.
In the language of one of my distinguished predeces-
sors, ' If the Brethren would read more, and ask less
questions, all would be well.' " — Missouri Masonic
Grand Lodge Report, 1878.
77
78 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
"Another large share of correspondence is about
matters upon which every Worshipful Master of a
Lodge should be posted — that is, about things that are
plainly written. It is wonderful how many questions
are asked about matters that have not only been settled
for years, but have been affirmed^ and reaffirmed."
—Ibid. 1S81.
We always rather excuse affiliates on the score of
gross ignorance than dishonesty when they extol the
virtuous make-up of Freemasonry. A tree is known
by its fruits. Let Freemasonry stand or fall by its
own record. Certainly if it is tried by its own volun-
tary testimony no member can challenge the fairness
or correctness.
Practical masonry: "The Social Mission of
Masonry, however, is not for the individual only: in
the community and in the State, the Craft has work to
do." — Grand Lodge Report, 1878.
In reading the Address, we struck a mine of thought,
richer in practical suggestions, and fruit-bearing truths
than anything found in print for years. That this rich
deposit of rare gems may rot escape, notice, or be over-
looked by our readers, we give it a large heading,
PRACTICAL MASONRY. Hear Grand Master Browne,
and then reflect and inwardly digest: 'In my adminis-
tration it has been aimed to bring your attention to
pfactical Masonry — every-day, actual Masonry — that
which is feasibte — rather than to please your senses in
reciting the beauties and grandeur of theoretical Ma-
sonry; for experience has determined that there is a
great interval between written theory and real practice,
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 79
and that much of the possible in theory is impossible
in practice. Let us ask this question: Of wiiat use is
Masonry unless it be made practical ? Why expend time,
labor, and money in perpetuating the impracticable?
Practical Masonry is the application of its knowledge
to the experiences of life, to our surroundings, to our
social, business, and civic relations.'" — Ibid. 1880. Also
see California- Report, 1879.
"Have you not noticed the prominence of Masons
in deliberative bodies, in business enterprises, in social
and religious affairs? Is not this prominence largely
the result of the discipline and training of the Lodge?
The qualities which fit men to become leaders in all
tiiese enterprises are developed here in a marked de-
gree. What higher tribute could be paid our organ-
.izing and conserving power than the fact that all secret
organizations of high and low degree have borrowed
from us. I was struck with this fact even before I
was made a Mason." — Missouri Report, 1881.
Let us look into this practical business a little. First
we will examine its boasted benevolence and charity.
"Landmark eighteenth." "Certain qualifications
of candidates for initiation are derived from a Land-
mark of the order. These are that he shall be a man —
shall be unmutilated, free born, and of mature age.
That is to say, a woman, a cripple, or a slave, or one
born in slavery, is disqualified for initiation into the
rites of Masonry." — Mackey's Masonic Jurisprudence,
Great Law Book of Masonry.^ pages 31 and 32.
"Whenever Freemasonry gets so far down that it
resolves its lodges into hospitals for the halt, deaf and
8o THE AMERICAN HAND-BOd^ .
blind, and starts out as a humanitarian institution, to
throw its mantle of relief over the profane world
and bring in beggars and cripples with a drag-net,
then it is time for it to throw aside Its standard as a
Royal Art and bury its landmarks out of sight." — Mis-
souri Masonic Grand Lodge Report for 1867.
"Are we, as Masons, what we profess to be? We
opine the unknown thousands of money expended every
year in displays, hilarities, and convivial indulgences,
would do more to dry the tears of the sorrowing and
hush the cries of distress, than the hollow profession
of charity, 'Be ye warmed and be ye fed'" — Missouri
Report, 1878.
"The Masonic institution is not a hospital for the
reception of persons however excellent their character,
who are not hale and sound at the time of the making,
and I know of no authority, not even that of a Grand
Lodge, which should induce any Grand Master to vio-
late one of the most ancient and most settled of all our
Landmarks." — Missouri Report, 1878. Also New
Jersey Grand Lodge Report, 1S78.
"Thousands of our Brethren have but little to leave
the loved ones when called hence. Leaving them to
the care of the lodges, in the great majority of cases,
is to lean upon *a broken reed,' for many of these
Lodges never have enough money to bury a Brother.
When a widow needs clothes, or orphans cry for bread,
all these Lodges can do is to <go down into their pock-
ets.' We have seen this *go down,' business that never
'brought up' or out anything." — Missouri Report, 1881.
"A grand Hall enterprise was inaugurated. To
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 8l
carry it forward, money was borrowed and a mortgage
given on the property. A second loan was secured
and a second mortgage given. Failing to pay the first
mortgage, the property was sold, and the second mort-
gagee was left out in the cold to the amount of four
thousand dollars. The worst feature of the case was,
the second mortgagee was a woman and the widow of
a Master Mason. Five members of the Lodge subse-
quently became the owners of said property, which is
worth $25,000 and yields an annual rental of $1,800.
Still the widow was not paid. There seems to be a
disposition on the part of some in said Lodge, to evade
payment, on the ground that the widow, since making
the loan, has married a man not a Mason." — Ibid. 1878.
Also see Indiana Grand Lodge Report, 1S77.
Masonic gambling: "From what I have been ena-
bled to learn as regards existing evils in matters of
games of chance indulged in by members of our order,
I am decidedly of the opinion that this appeal comes
to you, my brethren, freighted with human sorrows,
mingled with the widow's wail and the orphan's cry, call-
ing aloud for such relief at your hands as may be nec-
essary to arrest the flood-tide of evil by which, it is to
be feared, that some even of our own number, are
going down into the depths of hopeless despair and
utter ruin. We endeavor by precept at least, to make
the impression that one of the leading objects we have
in view is to inculcate sound morality, as founded upon
the great moral principles set forth in the sacred vol-
ume, ever found upon our altar, which we receive ae
the rule and guide of our faith and practice, and with-
82 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
out which no lodge can have a legal existence. We
publish abroad and proclaim to earth's remotest bounds,
and call upon all men to witness our sincerity in the
professions we make, that our mission in the world is
nothing less than the inculcation of a better, purer,
higher life among men. But after all, my brethren,
profession alone, by whatever high-sounding title dig-
nified, may be nothing more than sounding brass or a
tinkling cymbal, for the truth still remains that the
uninitiated will judge of the institution by the conduct
of its individual members." — Florida Masonic Grand
Lodge Report, 1881. Also Missouri Report, 1881.
Freemasonry itself is a game of chance, and buying
it is like buying a pig in a poke. Behind its tyled
doors gamblers and confidence men find fraternity and
congenial fellowship. The thinking, observing consci-
entious men, roped into the order, are astounded and
stand aghast at the widespread gambling, immorality
and dissipation fostered and practiced in lodge circles
and associations. We often hear of immense schemes.
"A fraud was perpetrated in the name of Masonry.
The circulars and tickets issued contained the emblems
of the Craft and a seal bearing the inscription of the
'Masonic Temple Association,' by which members of
the Fraternity and the public were deceived, many of
the former supposing they were supporting a worthy
enterprise, the latter accepting the symbols of our
ancient and honorable Order as a guarantee of good
faith in the management of the scheme." — Ibid., 1S79.
Also Indiana Grand Lodge Report, 1S79.
So much for the Fort Wayne lottery fraud, and as it
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 83
is only one of the many, the public should be warned,
mark and govern acordingly. Freemasonry gets
caught frequently at low-down political sculduggery
and POLITICAL bribery: "Through the public papers
we learned, that in a recent investigation before a com-
mittee of our State Legislature, the fair name of Free-
masonry was dragged through the dirty, slimy pool of
political bribery and corruption." — Missouri Repoit,
1880. Also Pennsylvania Report, 1879.
The "strict business principles" enunciated below
plainly advise roping in outsiders to pay for legitimate
Masokic rascality: "lam of the opinion that the
practice of insisting upon bonds from our financial
agents should be discontinued. They are valueless,
because never enforced. If you think otherwise, I
would advise that sureties should not be of the Craft.
Have these matters conducted upon strict business prin-
ciples, and then if we meet with disaster we shall have
.the consolation remaining to us, that we have not acted
like children." — Missouri Report, 1880. Also Illinois
Report, 1879.
Civil affidavits and testimony that hangs Chicago
anarchists, Ku-Klux and Bald Knobbers proves Free-
masonry to be an aw^ful system of criminalty with its
horrible blasphemous oaths and barbarous mutilating
death penalties. It is also a school of organized swind-
ling. A young man takes three degrees in Masonrj-,
and some one places a sworn exposition under his nose
and will sell him for forty cents all the information the
lodge sold him for thirty dollars, word for word, as
near as the human mind can remember, thereby in its
84 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
organized capacity swindling him out of twenty-nine
dollars and sixty cents on a square deal, and swearing
him to keep secrets when the Masonic order has no
secrets to keep. See "Freemasonry Illustrated," Na-
tional Christian Association, 221 West Madison Street,
Chicago, Illinois. No Freemason can make a lodge
dueguard or sign, or see one given, without bringing
to his remembrances a blasphemous obligation, or a
murderous death-penalty. Can any man living con-
stantly familiarize his mind with murder and blasphemy
and oranized swindling, and not come to look upon
crime with complacency? Wm. M. Tweed, of New
York City, one of the greatest rascals of modern times,
learned his honesty in Perfect Ashler Masonic Lodge
of that city. MaGarigle, the notorious Chicago Bood-
ler and the sheriff that let him go were both high Free-
masons sworn to each other to the very life. The
leading Star-Routers were Masonic graduates, and
hence their acquittal.
Evading the Law: "I have lately given this sub-
ject some examination, and the conclusion to which I
have arrived is, that the incorporation of Masonic
bodies is subversive of the true principles of Masonic
government, and inimical to the prosperity and perpe-
tuity of our Institution. It sweeps away the appellate
jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge and Grand Master,
and subordinates the Masonic to the civil authorities
upon questions strictly Masonic." — Missouri Report,
1879. ^^so Kentucky Report, 1878.
The lodge is pre-eminently the National Sabbath-
breaker. We have written W. F. Crafts concerninS
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 85
lodge Sunday picnics, parades, excursions, funerals,
lodges of instruction and other wholesale lodge Sab-
bath-breaking from one end of the land to the other.
From Maine to California the press teems with the
continuous Sabbath desecrations of these secret orders.
Until they are outlawed the hallowed day of Christian
Sabbath is an utter impossibility. To them Sunday
is an indispensable holiday for gala display. These
pagan societies have as little use for the true Sabbath,
as they have for the blessed Christ himself. How a
professed minister of the gospel can cross the continent
five times, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the inter-
est of the Sabbath, amid this mad carnival of lodgery,
and not thunder a protest against these high-handed
Sabbath breakers is a conundrum in moral philosophy
past finding out. Col. Elliott F. Shepard, Hon. G. P.
Lord, Rev. J. H. Knowles, and their co-workers are
not ignorant of the wide-spread lodge Sabbath-break-
ing. Men who read the Cynosure^ Free Press ^ and
other literature in this line betimes know these things.
Why don't they cut a clean swath for the Christian
Sabbath?
Mormon Masonry: Utah Mormonism is Free-
masonry gone to seed. Joseph Smith was a Free-
mason, and died giving the sign of distress, "O Lord,
my God, is there no help for the Widow's son?" Brig-
ham Young was a high Mason, and used the Masonic
Hall in Nauvoo as a rendezvous. Fifteen hundred of
his followers were initiated, passed and raised in the
Masonic lodges of Illinois, and were Masons in good
and regular standing in that jurisdiction, Brigham
86 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Young simply took his fifteen hundred Illinois Free-
masons to Utah, and set up a Grand Lodge jurisdiction
of his own. The second year of Lincoln's administra-
tion, when Antimasons were at the helm of legislation,
a Republican Congress decreed the destruction of Utah
Mormonism. The change of administration from
Antimasonry to Masonry through Andy Johnson [gave
Mormonism a lease of life. The continued existence
of Mormonism under twenty years of Republican
supremacy, will go down to history as a black spot on
the grand old party of moral ideas. Antimasonry is
again after this scion of the lodge, and Mormon Free-
masonry trembles, not at oath-bound legislators, but at
the rising public sentiment no longer to be diverted or
kept down by lodge ledgerdemain,
Washington a Seceded Mason; George Wash-
ington once joined the Masonic Order, but attended the
lodge only once or twice during the last thirty years
of his life. His Farewell Address warns the American
people against all such associations and combinations in
language explicit and pointed. He sayss "The very
idea of the power and right of the people to establish
government presupposes the duty of every individual
to obey the established government. All obstructions
to the execution of the laws, all combinations and asso-
ciations, under whatever plausible character, with the
real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the
regular deliberation and action of the constituted author-
ities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and
of fatal tendency." Did Freemasonry steal Washing-
ton's coffin in repay for his speech?
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 87
Masonic Grave Robbers. "Rev. and W., Henry
W. Rugg, on behalf of Brother R. H. Tilley, of New-
port, R. I., presents to the Grand Lodge a gavel made
of hard wood and ornamented with wood from the
coffin of Gen. George Washington. This gavel was
made more than a quarter of a century ago by Brother
Stewart, and given to the Grand Lodge, and passed
from the hands of Past Grand Master Gray to Brother
Tilly, in i860, and he, after due enquiry, found it
belonged to the Grand Lodge, to whose care he has
returned it." — Missouri Masonic Grand Lodge Report,
1880. Also Rhode Island Report, 1879.
Well may the blood of the loyal American boil with
righteous wrath and holy indignation against this
un-American Order which completes the cup of treason
unsurpassed in thus stretching forth its crime-stained
hands and daring to pillage and rob — not the grave of
that good Freemason Benedict Arnold, the traitor, but
the grave of our beloved General George Washington
has been ransacked, and Masonic Grand Lodges appro-
priated the wood stolen from the coffin holding the
sacred dust of the Father of our country to use for or-
namenting little wooden malletSo"
Wholesale MASONifc Perjury: " But for those
lodges that will not make Annual Reports, justice and
Judgment ought to be invoked. No one thing in all
the business of Grand Secretary is so provoking as this
sublime indifference to making out and forwarding the
Annual Returns. We do not prize the moral worth of
such lodges, as thus commit perjury, in violating the
law of the Grand Lodge, which they have promised to
88 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
support and maintain." Missouri Grand Lodge
Report, 1880.
Bogus Masonry: "It is known to many of you
that for something Hke twenty-five years this Grand
Lpdge has been engaged in an effort to discover and
establish a correct standard of work of the several
degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry under its charge, and
to promulgate the same to all the lodges in its jurisdic-
tion." — New York Masonic Grand Lodge Report, 1880.
Also see Missouri Report, 1S80.
Thus since the revival of Masonry just before the
war New York Masons have been selling bogus
Masonry, Morgan knocked their ritual into smithe-
reens.
"Brother Lewis sa3's: 'We remember a case in
point. An individual was initiated, passed and raised,
not many years ago, in a lodge within a jurisdiction
where we were acquainted. Scarcely had he assumed
the perpendicular when he was discovered to be the
brightest Mason among them, which was possible in
that lodge without his learning producing disease of the
brain. Inquiries were set on foot as to where he had
gathered his remarkable lore. The general supposition
was that he had consumed the midnight oil over the
literary labors of the renowned Morgan, or had held
ghostly communion with the shade of that individual."
— Missouri Grand Lodge Report, 1868, page m2.
Female Masonry: "Masonic Lodges, as such,
should neither encourage nor discourage the organiza-
tion of Chapters of the Order of the Eastern Star.
They are doubtless useful to the families of Masons,
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 89
and the Order is a benevolent one, but it is no part of
Masonry, and should not be regarded as such. Masons,
as individuals, may encourage them by becoming
members and active workers therein, as they may in
any other secret benevolent order." — Missouri Masonic
Grand Lodge Report 1879.
" The ruling that Masonic Lodges, as such, should
have nothing whatever to do with the Organization of
Chapters of the ' Eastern Star,' on the ground that the
Order of the Eastern Star is no part of Masonry, is
approved by this Grand Lodge." — Ibid, 1879.
"By the immutable laws of our institution, no woman
can be made a Freemason. It follows, therefore, as a
matter of course, that lodges which admit females to
membership, can never legally exist in the order." —
Mackey's Lexicon of Freemasonry, Article "Adoptive
Masonry," by Albert G. Mackey, Past General Grand
High Priest of the General Grand Chapter of the
Masons of the United States of America.
" The only Masonic privilege denied to you is that of
visiting the Lodge, and this would be of no advantage
to you, even if it were possible to grant it, but it would
awaken the voice of scandal against you from a censo-
rious world, and thus produce far more pain to your
kind and amiable hearts than it could possibly afford
you pleasure. Females cannot be made Masons. This
is a rule that has been handed down with the other
rules of Masonry for a thousand of years." — Manual o^
the Eastern Star, page 16, by Robert Macoy, National
Grand Secretary.
The Morgan Affair; "Fifteen hundred lodges
90 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK,
went down in the strife! The ranks of the craftsmen
were reduced in numbers from rising fifty thousand to
less than five thousand. The songs of the temple
builders ceased. Grass grew in the quarries." — Iowa
Masonic Grand Lodge Report, 1S58.
, FREEMASONRY IS DOOMED:
" Who shall predict the moment when this terrible
crisis shall come upon us. The darkness of the atmos-
phere, the low murmuring of distant thunder, and the
oppression with which all nations seem troubled, are so
many indications of a coming storm which the wise
man will not disregard. ' The crumbling of the walls
predict a speedy end to the edifice and the wise man
hastens to vacate it. The gaining leak, and the settling
of the keel into deep water threatens a speedy submer-
sion of the gallant ship and the mariners hasten to their
boats and pull for life, for dear life. But we, althoutj:h
we may see the impending danger cannot fly from it.
As Masons we are the edifice — we are the ship and we
cannot flyo The distant signals are visible. Mark
them, my intelligent brethren. To the critical eye they
are manifest in the withdrawal, by demission of
thousands of Masons, embracing much of the intelli-
gence and moral worth of the order; in the carelessness
with which the institution is regarded by many of its
votaries; in the lengthy catalogues of suspensions and
expulsions, annouticed year by year by all our Grand
Lodges; and in the springing up of fungus societies all
around us, in which shame to say, many Masons are
found, to the proportionate neglect of their proper
.calling. These signs point to the crisis which has been
GRAND LODGE MASNNRY. 9I
predicted. They are unerring indicia of a day and an
hour when the craft will be rent to pieces as with the
* whirlwind of God's wrath, unless measures speedy and
effectual are adopted to cement the institution together."
— Iowa Masonic Grand Lodge Report, 1858.
The Rebellion was the measure planned and carried
out to divert attention from Masonry and replenish its
diminishing ranks. It succeeded at fearful cost of blood
and treasury, but under God and antimasonic leaders
the destruction of the Republic was averted. Although
foiled the lodge is still plotting conspiracy and treason.
But the American people are again on track of the
lodge, and the men who are nov/ leading the discussion
of the system will follow it to the ends of the earth.
The Masonic Trowel^ a zealous lodge journal com-
paring the present organized, wide-spread opposition to
the Morgan excitement says: "It is a sign of weak-
ness to manifest alarm; it is a worse sign to disregard
the monitions around us. Other journals have sneered
at the manifestations; some have joked, and some have
put on an air of defiance and our pugnacious brother at
St. Louis intends to fight them. We saw enough of
that in our boyhood dayso We remember distinctly the
entire antimasonic fight. Honest, hard-working
mechanics were turned out of employment; suspicion
dogged the steps of every Mason; adhering Masons
were swept from places of public trust; the foulest,
blackest, and most repulsive charges were brought
against Masons collectively and individually; the boys
were taught to hoot at them as they passed their dwel-
lings; they were debarred from juries, and criticised in
92 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOKo
the witness box; insulted from the bench; arrayed
before legislative committees, and by sheer force and
abuse were driven from the polls. Wives left their
husbands, children denounced their fathers, fathers dis-
inherited their sons, and the silence of a Mason in the
midst of such awful frenzy, was denounced as obedience
to the great dragon of Masonr3\ Ministers were
hurled from their pulpits, members of ciiurches were
expelled." **Many zealous Masons attempted to breast
the storm and allay the tempest. They might have as
well attempted to stay the eruption of Vesuvius or the
simoon of the desert."
Such was the merited disgrace that settled down upoti
the criminal brotherhood, but it is nothing to what is in
store for the throat-cutting and tongue-pulling, breast-
tearing and heart-plucking, body-severing and bowel-
burning fraternity with its accumulating years of treason,
conspiracy, rebellion and crime. A storm of public
opinion will soon burst, that will clear our land of this
pestilential brood. The Montana and Missouri Masonic
Grand Lodges in their reports for 1S79 and iSSo, declare
"Greater dangers threaten Masonry to-day than ever
before. We occasionally hear the alarm sounded by
some faithful 'watchman upon the tower' who descries
with clearer vision the coming storm, and warns us to
be prepared for its approach."
Yes, thank God, the storm gathers thick and fast.
The God of Liberty, Justice and Judgment is marshal-
ing His army against the Anti-American and Antichris-
tian oath-bound Lodgery. The sword of Jehovah's
justice is unsheathed and hanging poised above this vast
GRAND LODGE MASONRY. 93
System of infidelity and secret despotism. The agita-
tion is telling heavily on the lodge of late years. The
Voice of Masonry af^vm^: "From all jurisdictions
comes the cry of non-affiliation, lack of interest, apathy,
and neglect of Masonic duty. Why? The craft are
not edified. .They go to lodge, or chapter, or council,
or commandery, only to see and to hear a formal open-
ing, a formal attention to business, a formal working of
a degree and a formal closing. Not a word of actual
information is gained, nothing interesting or edifying
transpires, and disappointed and unfreshed they depart
No wonder is it then, that quorums are hard to get and
non-affiliation increases."
The fear and intimidation that has held men so long
in the loathsome coils of lodgery is dissolving before
increasing agitation and discussion. The better class of
men who have been drawn into these dark dens of
iniquity are coming out by the multiplied thousands.
The criminal elements are drawn the closer together,
and the courts, the militia and all good people will have
their hands full, to remove the criminal, midnight com-
binations so long schooled in outlawry, assassination and
despotism.
When we "read and study the law" of Freemasonry
so " plainly written," we learn to a certainty that "prac-
tical Masonry" does affect the good Freemason in
"social, business, and civic relations," and that it does
g\\Q Freemasons prominence "in deliberative bodies,
in business enterprises, in social and religious affairs."
Every outsider can see plain exemplifications of this
legitimate Masonic discrimination at all political deliber-
94 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
ations and many church conferences. Practical Free-
masonry causes enormous expenditure of "unknown
thousands of money," worse than squandered while
"orphans cry for bread." Nay, more! it cheats the
widows of dead Master Masons after robbing the
husband of hard earnings prior to his decease. What
boasted and unsurpassed "benevolence and charity!"
A school of gambling, bribery, perjury and grave-
robbery. And altogether perhaps no other institution
on this sin-cursed earth has ever made so diabolical and
damning a record as this little volume proves for Free-
masonry and oath-bound lodgery. Yet the unwritten
criminality of the foul craft in thousands of counties
would darken every page of this book. The record in;^
angel alone has an enumeration of it all, (»nly to he
revealed in the judgment-day, when lost souls will call
for rocks and" mountains to fall on them. When all the
Herods, Neroes, Judas Iscariots, Benedict Arnolds,
Aaron Burrs, Jeff Davises, rebels, assassins and traitors
to God and humanity will stand unmasked in their
naked deformity, condemned, despised and abhorred by
all that is manly, noble and true ; then Freemasonry,
and the Beast, and the false prophets, and all the
children of darkness, will be turned into hell with the
nations that forget God,
CHAPTER VII.
PUBLIC OPINION AND SIGNS OF THE TIMES,
This chapter shows conclusively that the agitation
against the heathen, monarchy-aping secret orders, is
already national and hourly becoming more extended.
Able men in every state, county and neighborhood, are
searching as with lighted candles for the hidden forces
of intrigue and conspiracy. The newspapers even to
the great dailies are beginning to pulsate the movement
in earnest. The tide is fully setting in, "and the hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will
overflow the hiding places,"
THE AMERICAN PRESS ON SECRET SOCIETIES.
North American Review: — "Incorporation is a privi-
lege granted associations on the ground of public utility.
It follows logically that it is an abuse and a fiction to
incorporate a Secret Society of any kind." Washutg-
ton\D. C.) Post: — "Secrecy is neither in accord with
the spirit of the Constitution, the genius of our institu-
tions, nor the methods of our political system,*' Rochester
(iV. Y,) Herald: — "A Secret society in this land of
freedom should be shunned as treasonable to American
institutions and principles." New Torh Century: —
"The Constitutions of Secret Societies are generally
valuable only as illustrations of human cupidity."
Pittsburg United Presbyterian : — " Secret Societies
are not suited to American society, nor indeed to any
society." Nashville Christian Advocate: — " Secret
political societies in a really free republic are both
absurd and dangerous." Religious Herald: — "We
95
96 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
are always suspicious of any interest, be it moral, religious,
political or personal, that seeks by a secret association
rather than by an open advocacy of its aims to secure its
ends." New Orleans Times Democrat : — "Darkness
and secrecy are the fit companions of fraud, bribery and
corruption." ^^ Brick'''' Pomeroy^s (iV. 2^.) Advance
Thought: — "Secret societies have for ages been used
to advance the niterests of a very few at the expense of
the very many." St. Louis Times: — "The history of
all Secret Societies is written in the last page in blood.
Somehow or other their action and proceedings sooner
or later culminate in crime," New York Catholic
Review: — "It is becoming apparent that Secret Oath-
Bound Societies are, in principle, un-American; are
contrary to the whole spirit and meaning of our insti-
tutions, and are therefore dangerous to the Republic."
Western Catholic News : — "Secret societies are danger-
ous to the common- wealth. We are surprised to see an
article over a column long quoted from \\\q,G lobe- Demo-
crat in the Catholic Knights of America News portray-
ing the benefits of secret societies. The writer of that
article says those societies 'do not plot against the peace
and welfare of the community.' What is the necessity
for a secret, then? Let the community ^^be the judge
whether they plot against it, or any portion of it, or not^
We have the positive evidence that some, at least, if not
all of these star-chamber concerns do plot against the
comm unity .'■' Philadelphia Public Ledger: — » The
danger arising from such conspiracies is not imaginary
but real. If the truth were known we are suftering
from nothing so much as from ^d^ix^ eviA. Ajad ihe worts
PUBLIC OPINION. 97
of all is that good men who have gone into the various
secret lodges are being used for ends of which they little
dream.^' North Chili (iV 7.^) Earnest Christian :^^
"Secret Societies. These are becoming so dangerous
to civil institutions that some nations of Europe suppress
them by law. In this country their influence is fast be-
coming all-controlling in both Church and State.^'
Lutheran Standard: — "Secret Societies of all sorts are
multiplying so rapidly that their name is legion. They
are getting mto poHtics and into the management of
industrial-concerns, and the newspapers of the day are
beginning to see some of the evils, and are speaking out
against some of the evil although as yet quite timidly.
These societies are getting to be public nuisances to
such a degree that they are attracting the attention of
thoughtful men,'* Christian Instructor: — "Verily the
signs o:^ the times are similar to those, that preceded the
French Revolution, when secret factions met and blood
flowed like water as a resalto' Dayton ( O.) Religious
Telescope: — ^'The volcano upon which the nation and
the church are sleeping to-day is oath-bound secrecy,
which is in every case both atheistic and revolutionary.'^'
Chicago Daily Times : — "Secret Societies are danger-
ous because young men and others who are not for the
moment fully mindful of their public duties may be led
by persuasion under the influence of the peculiar so-
lemnity and impressiveness of an initiation, which un-
seats their judgment, to take oaths which are inconsistent
with their duties toward the State and society, and
which they may regret, in moments of reflection, that
they have taken." Toledo Blade: — "No man has a
98 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
right to place himself where he has no moral control of
his own actions; yet this is what he does when he joins
a Secret Society and binds himself to blindly obey all
orders from headquarters without hesitation or thought
of whether they are right or wrong. Indeed he dares
not question the mandates of these persons whom he
does not know. He must simply do as he is bidden,
even though it makes him a partner in the most atro-
cious crimes, when he has no intention of committing a
moral wrong. The lesson these disclosures teach is to
become a member of no society whose purposes are not
openly declared, to take no oaths to obey persons whose
names are unknown." Chicago Free Methodist: —
"The supremacy of secret oaths and obligations, of se-
cret laws and orders over all other obligations and
allegiance, is a prmciple which permeates and pervades
the multiplied and multiplying orders of secretism which
fill every nook and corner of our land. Secret law is
but secret treason agamst all other law, which may
develop into open rebellion whenever a secret com-
bination or combinations deeiii themselves strong enough
to ignore the laws of the land in the assertion of the
supremacy of their own secretly devised and oath-sworn
codes. Until such a time comes, the principle of treason
against all law in the recognized supremacy on the part
of the clan of secret oaths and enactments, works under
cover of night to subvert law in carrying out, to as per-
fect a degree as possible., the higher law of secret trai-
tonsm.'' Syracuse (A'. 2^ ) H^esleyan Methodist : —
"Secret Societies are the natural hot-bed of 'murder and
treason not excepted.' No matter how pious their pre-
PUBLIC OPINION.
99
tensions, keep clear of the whole tyled and curtained
clan." Brighton (^Mich,) Wesley an Advocate: —
"When will the people arise and condemn to the silence
and oblivion of past ages all Secret Societies as the mask-
visaged foes of society and good government." Har-
per^s Weekly : — "In this country, however, secret po-
litical associations are unnecessary and suspicious. What
cannot be done openly in such matters should not be
done at all, and the man who proposes secrecy pre-
sumptively means mischief." Utica (iV. 2".) Daily
Herald: — "The excitement produced by the interfer-
ence of Masons with politics is a matter of history."
yoiirnal^ Indianapolis^ 1880: — "The Democrats are
attempting to carry this State by secret societies. They
hope to overcome a popular uprising by midnight meet-
ings, and by grips and pass-words." Hastings {^Neb,^
Weekly Gazette Journal: — "The day for cliques and
rings has gone by. Open and frank methods in politics
are the only kind that will win. Fair dealing and hon-
est action will go further than craft, cunning, and under-
handed scheming. Democrats, republicans, and anti-
monopolists will do well to learn the fact. Combinations
and cabals are resorted to only by those who have not
the public confidence necessary to successfully land them
in official positions." Chicago Tribune: — "A ring is
synonymous with theft. If partisan purposes were hon-
est there would be no occasion for a ring. Any clique
or organization in politics of which the people are not
members, and of whose operations they are not cogni-
zant is dangerous to the community, and doubly danger-
ous when it has the saloon interest and criminal classes
TOO THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
at its back." Kansas City (Mo.) journal : — "We
believe that the recognition of the right or power of
any organization outside of the law to regulate the af
fairs of this country by a secret and despotic agency
would sound the death-knell of this Republic, and pave
the way for anarchy and then despotism." PhiladeU
fhia Press % — "The influence of Secret Societies upon
the politics of this country has in every case gone to
support the judgment of President Washington, who
in notable terms warned the people against them."
N^w Tork Witness: — "Men love to be in bondage, pro-
vided it be of their own seeking. They submit volun-
tarily to the bondage of trade unions, Masonic societies,
or political parties. To leave the first is to become a
scab; to leave the second is to be deserving of death;
to leave the third is to be a traitor. These are most
extraordinary doctrines, which practically deny the
right of private judgment or even submission to the
law of God." New Tork Mail and Express: —
"After the courts and juries have done their work there
should be a general uprising and expression of Ameri-
can sentiment against oath-bound organizations like the
Clan-na-Gael. It should be made a criminal offense to
belong to them. In their origin, purposes and methods^
they are hostile to Aiiierican ideas and institutions, and
they should be held up to American scorn and contempt
and righteous wrath that no like organization shall ever
again be able to acquire any considerable power.''
Christian Conservator ^Dayton^ Ohio: — "So of secrecy.
It is not the outbreaks in strikes, the throwing of
bombs at the haymarket, the murders, the protection of
PUBLIC OPINION. lOI
criminals, but the prime cause is back of all this in
what makes these possible, which is organized secrecy,
Thaddeus Stevens penetrated the covering and laid bare
the evil to the bone. He said that organized secrecy in
a voluntary society is the evidence of iniquity. Long
before it is applied to anything good or bad, the simple
method is an eVil." Pittsburg {Pa^) Evangelical Re-
pository: — "The same thing may be said of all Secret
Oath-bound Societies. Their oath-bound secrecy itself
puts them out of harmony with our American institu-
tions, and also brings them under the condemnation of
the law of God." From the Boston Traveler: — "The
New York Mail and Express urges that laws should
be enacted making it a penal offense to make any oath,
promise or pled^^e of obedience, loyalty, submission or
co-operation to or with any officer or authority, not rec-
ognized and instituted by law, or any party claiming to
be such officer or authority, whether of any voluntary
society, corporation or association. The amendment
should also abolish every such secret oath, promise or
pledge heretofore made, and render it null, void, and of
no effect." "It should also render it a penal offense for
any such office, party or association, or any person
whatever, to ask for, receive, permit or suffer any per-
son or party to make or take such oaths, promise or
pledge; and the receiving, permitting, suffering or
making of any such oaths, promise or pledge, should be
evidence of conspiracy on the part of both of those
making and those receiving the same." "The majesty
of our institutions and the allegiance which every citi-
zen owes to our country and her laws are being trodden
I02 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
under foot by the freedom and impunity with which
designing misleaders of classes of men have heretofore
been permitted to bind their followers and dupes to the
bhndest obedience to their dictates, with most hcMW
and outrageous penalties for disobedience." "All such
oaths, both on the part of the officers to whom they are
made and of those making them, are treason; and the
c >untry should wake up and look after its liberties by
passing the necessary laws for the protection of the
body politic." Atchison (^Kan,) Champion : — "No
good cause, no true principle, no just system, no honest
purpose needs secret machinery and oath-bound mid-
night organizations to maintain it. Righteous causes
and correct principles grow best and prosper most in
the full glare of the sunlight of publicity. TheAmer-
can citizen who does not know this to be true, has a very
weak and improjxr idea of the American S3'stem and
institutions. The fact that any cause seeks darkness
and secrecy for org. ni/ation is the best possible evi-
dence that it is a bad cause." Omaha (^Ncb,) Midland:
— "There are mdlionsof people in this country who pay
taxes to build court houses, custom houses and all sorts
of public buildings, as well as the Washington Monu-
ment, who are conscientiously opposed to Masonry on
the grounds of its anti-Christian character." Catholic
Examiner: — "There docs not exist, and there never
has existed, any reason why this organization, w ith its
ridiculous trappings, its bc-aproned members, and ab-
surd ceremonies should be singled out to take charge of
the dedication of buildings which are the property of
the general public." Chicago Interior', — "A vast
PUBLIC OPINION. 103
number will not inquire into, nor care about the sig-
nificance of those 'mystic rites' but a vast number do
care, when they are made parties to them ; ask them
what they understand by the scattering of corn and
pouring libations upon the ground, and they will
promptly answer^— 'Devil worship.'" Knoxville ( Tenn,')
College^ Aurora: — ••'But our objections to the lodge are
serious. It makes men false, blind, blasphemous, it
turns them aside from the worship of God to the wor-
ship of devils. What more wicked system can be
conceived than that which dresses under the same badge
of 'brotherhood' the common church member, the skep-
tic, the preacher and the blackguard? It is no surprise
to us that even in God's sanctuary such a company
should have in its number those whose breaths are hot
with liquor." Saint Louis Vanguard: — "Masonry is a
stupendous sham. The wonder is such a despicable farce
could find support." Primitive Christian: — '*The in-
fluence of secretism, once in the church, will be hard to
eradicate. Brethren, beware of the baneful influence
of secretism." Chicago Evening Post — "The esteemed ^
Congregationalist is deeply, not to say mournfully,
concerned with the increasing influence of the 'lodge,'
or secret society, as a competitor with the church for
the time, attention and money of men." "How far
reaching this secular agency has become may be guessed
from 'recent figures, carefully compiled, which show
that Boston has 243 churches to 599 lodges; Brooklyn,
355 churches to 695 lodges; Washington, 181 churches
to 316 lodges; Chicago, 384 churches to 1,088 lodges^
and the same proportion obtain in other cities.' " New
I04 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
York Christian', — "A church in one of the eastern
cities is gradually decaying while the minister seems to
be quite popular with the general public. On inquiry
we find that he is a member of the order of Masons, of
the order of Odd -fellows, of the order of United Work-
men, of the order of Grangers, and of the Grand Army
of the Republic, attends the meetings of all of them,
and is active among them. No wonder his church
decays. He has a split-up-mind, and probably it was
not big enough for the Christian ministry, to begin with*
Still there is a colored minister of our church in one of
the Southern States who belongs to seven secret socie-
ties." Boston Transcript*. — "Winsted, Conn., has
among its citizens a man who belongs to twenty-four
secret societies." Boston Herald', — ''In communities
not divided up by any secular or social fraternities, the
Christian church as one great, permanent, omnipresent
organization will have a much stronger hold on every
class than any other attraction. But when Masonry and
Odd-fellowship and the Club and the numberless other
associations make their ndvent, the church loses its grip,
and no wonder, on considerable numbers of every
class." CincinnatiChristian World', — ''There is no use
in denying that the leading secret societies are in their
practical workings, essentially deistic." Sfringjicld
(^Mass.) Republican: — "There is not a moral, political
or social purpose which secrecy can aid more than •
openness." Cleveland {^O,^ Universe, — "When Ma-
sonry enters public American life, we have the right to
question its origin, aims, and affiliations; its record in
the past and present, and its outlook in the future."
PUBLIC OPINION. 105
Buffalo (iV. 2". ) Telegram: — "Is Freemasonry the
established religion of the United States? Or are the
secrets of it the real esoteric and mysterious abracada-
bra of American politics? Who or what do they rep-
resent? Certainly not the whole people, for a majority
of the people are not Masons, and millions of people,
whose rights and opinions are as sacrejd as those- of
their fellow citizens, look upon their organization with
disfavor." New Tork Baptist Weekly: — "There is no
union which men can form, making an inner circle of
self-interest and tyrannically dictating to those without
it, which is not the grossest violation of every true
principle of human brotherhood." The Armory: —
"Surely the presence of a multitude of secret lodges
bodes little good to the church of Christ." The Amer^
lean Missionary : ''^y^Q^ unite with the Congrega- i
tionalist and other influential journals in deprecating j
the increase and dominating influence of secret socie-^
ties." Brooklyn (N, Y.) National Monitor: — "Let
your light shine said Jesus; but how can a man let his
light shine when he is so terribly oath-bound that he
dare not, under certain circumstances, testify to the
truth? Jesus did nothing in secret and to all his disci-
ples he says, follow me." Our Record^ Utica^ N, T. : —
"We are confident that the great objects of equality,
fraternity and morality may be attained without resort-
ing to the vail of secrecy." Cincinnati Christian
Standard: — "We know of no good work for God 01
humanity to the success of which secrecy is essential;
and we see danger m secret associations which every
Christian should avoid." Chicago Evening Journal:
I06 tup: AMERICAN hand-book.
— "Assemble a party of young men together anywhere
' with all restraint removed and perfect secrecy enjoined,
and the result will be pernicious." Christian Cyno-
sure: — "The average American press which has so
long been sealed to articles against secretism is opening.
The Ohio State J our rial ^ihc Memphis ^//£?a/, and the
Washington National Republican^ all large, influential
dailies in political centers, have published the strongest
possible utterances and articles against these national
pests. Joseph Cook has repeatedly condemned the
secret system in his world-read lectures."
Other strong words: "The Morning News is
opposed to oath-bound societies in politics." "The old
vigilance committee of the West has been superseded,
in turn by the Klu-Klux, the Molly Maguires and lat-
terly by the White-Caps. If these so-called 'regula-
tors' have stopped short of murder in many of their
outrages, it is because there has still been a remnant of
fear of the law of the land. The outrages upon per-
son and property which isuch outlaws have perpetrated
during the last quarter of a century, form one of the
greatest blots upon American civilization." "There is
no room upon American soil for any other form of
'regulators' than the tribunals of justice sanctioned by
the law. All other societies, 'committees,' etc., are un-
American and should be stamped out without mercy.
The State or municipality that allows such organiza-
tions of outlavvr3 to flourish, does not truly represent
American institutions, and should mend its ways without
delay." — The Chicago Daily N'ezvs. "One good result
will surely follow the Cronin murder: Irishmen of
PUBLIC OPINION.
107
good sense will see that secret societies are out of place
in America, and are apt to affect men injuriously even
in a worldly way." — The Boston Pilot,
"The fact that so many thousands of men should band
together in this country in secret societies which are
similar to this one, is a menace to our republican insti-
tutions." — Sign"^ of the Times, "All secret orders
where the members are bound together by extra-judi-
cial oaths are un- republican and despotic in their very
nature, and should be prohibited by law* No interest
of government, humanity or religion requires their
services." — Christian Nation, "That infamous opin-
ion which justifies the most dastardly crimes against
society, at the behest of a secret, partisan, and irre-
sponsible tribunal, will never be tolerated by Ameri-
cans, and if executions of men high in places of influ-
ence are necessary to stop such crimes the sooner they
come the better." — New York Tribune, "The right
of the State to look into such things can scarcely be
questioned; or rather the right of a set of men to or
ganize in such a way and for such a purpose that the
State cannot know its principles and aims, is most seri-
ously questioned." — Christian Advocate,
Colored Lodger y: Daily Appeal^ Memphis,
Tenn: — "The secret society business has become a
craze with the colored people, and one by which they
often become the victim of designing knaves." Sandy
Lake News : — "We heard a minister remark the other
day that the colored people of the South had spent
since the war no less than one hundred thousand dollars
in secret societies." Chicago Advance', — <'The Inde-
Io8 THG AMERICAN HAND BOOK,
fendent mourns over the fact that the secret societies
are on the increase among the negroes of the South.
But if secret societies are a good thing, why should it
be a calamity that the negroes join them? But per-
haps the Independent will not allow that they are
good." "It is stated on good authority that one of the
greatest hinderances of missionary work among the
colored people is the prevalence of secret societies.
The way in which Ihat race turns to anything mysteri-
ous, and is impressed with this foolishness of secrecy,
is astonishing and discouraging. A colored niinister of
this city informs us that there is scarcely a negro family
in Chicago that is not connected with from one to four
or five secret societies. Into these societies go their
money and their time. It is deplorable to have white
people tricked out of their time and money by such
devices, but their influence on this ignorant, emotional
race is yet more pernicious." Chrlsti'afi Weekly^ Mo-
bile, Ala.: — "Too much money has left the South and
flowed Into the pockets of colored men in the North
and West. Our wives, daughters, sisters and mothers
have toiled over the wash-tub, burned over the ironing-
table and cook-stove to keep in ease and luxury the
wives and daughters of Northern bishops and big
Northern B. Y. High Cockalorums of societies until
we are tired of it. And 'Aunt Hagar's children' have
got curious and won't drive any more worth a cent!
The Ktiights of Wise Men swindle scooped thousands
out of our people, and they justly owe one thousand
dollars to a widow of one of our foremost men and
will not pay her a cent." Christian Voice: — "The
PUBLIC OPINION. 109
colored people have gone into organizations to an extra-
ordinary extent. One of our colored ministers in Texas
informed a General Conference officer that he belonged
to seven different secret societies. They have not been
content with imitating those formed by their Caucasian
fellow citizens, but have instituted a large number of
their own. Not long ago a case was tried in Baltimore
which is recorded on the docket as follows: William
H. Perkins, Worthy Ruler of St. Thomas Lodge, vs.
Augustus Thomas, Grand Royal King of the United
and Consolidated Order of Brothers and Sisters and
Sons and Daughters of the Knights of Four Men, and
the members of the Supreme Grand Royal House!
The suit in this case rose because the Grand Royal
Knight became disgusted with the workings of St
Thomas Lodge, placed it under the ban of excommu-
nication, and said he would not take back one word of
that decree, not even if President Cleveland, or even
General Grant would come out of his grave to appeal
to Him. St. Thomas Lodge brought suit to make the
Grand Royal Knight take it back. Ludicrous as this
may appear, it is not much more so than the proceed-
ings and titles of many societies that are now formed
mong the Caucasian race."
The fight is on: It is said that the American
Tract Society never issued a tract against negro sla-
very. Northern churches censured their minister, for
praying at Abolition meetings. Thousands of men in
the Federal army never waked to the business in hand
until the war was all over, but they have been fightiui;-
desperately ever since. These hundred days men,
no THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
camp sutlers and general-hanci^ers-on are always harping
loudest and longest of how they fought and bled, and
died for their glorious country. They load themselves
down with badges, put all their spare change into uni-
forms and brass buttons, visit all the reunions and try,
oh! so hard to get big pensions and post offices. To
the old veteran all this is vanity, a travesty on war
valor and patriotism. Christian patriot, which record
are you making in the great moral battle? Better win
your glory in the front ranks. Edmond Ronayne's
able arraignment of lodgery some time since in the
Chicago Interior^ D. C. Trumbull's telling articles in
the Burlington (la.) Haivk Eye^ The "Congress of
Churches" in the First M. E. Church of Chicago, and
Rev. Joseph Cook's strong lecture there against Ma-
sonry and all oath-bound lodgery; Pres. C. A. Blanch-
ard's "Age of Lodges" in Our Day^ Boston's great
paper, of which Joseph Cook, the noted lecturer, and
Frances E. Willlard are editors, and his scathing article
on Masonic treason and disloyalty in the influential
Chicago Inter Ocean\ the entering wedge of this
lod;^e discussion at the National Educational Cpnven-
tion in St. Paul (department of higher education) ; and
the simultaneous opening of the columns of the Boston
Cougrcgationalist^ Chicago Advance and San Fran-
cisco Pacijic to lodge discussion, show the rapid growth
of American sentiment. That such papers will admit
column after column of the most radical articles against
oath-bound lodgery, is only a reflection of an awaken-
ing public opinion and an index to what is now going
on the land over, are increasing monitions that the lodge
PUBLIC OPINION. Ill
must go. It is almost impossible to estimate the power
and influence of a faithful, fearless newspaper. The
people must, have line upon line and precept upon pre-
cept, here a little and there a little. This is essentially
true in all reformatory effort. The work begins in
this world and reaches to eternity. The press may be
thrown into the river, a Lovejoy shot down, the paper
suspended, but the seed sown in weakness is raised in
power. The editor, all on fire with patriotism, breathes
his very soul into his writings and sends his loftier ideas
and better thoughts throughout the length and breadth
of the land. His paper is read in the cottage and the
mansion. The minister, merchant, banker, teacher and
day laborer, ever on the alert for information, read,
think and ponder. Heart speaks to heart, and ere the
week goes by thousands, mayhap tens of thousands,
are influenced to higher, nobler, grander lives. The
writer of ability and tact, governed by principle and
honor, by perseverance can and will win a hearing.
How men of integrity and brain are drawn to such a
writer. The invisible acquaintance thus happily begun
ripens into good fellowship. The reader finds himself
looking for the name. His friend is speaking and he
listens. Confidence is established and with all the clev-
erness of the experienced writer, he gives bent to a
thousand lives, molding the thoughts, emotions, opin-
ions and principles over to his own. Don't try to tell
the limit of that one's power. God and eternity alone
will tell. With such papers and such writers no lover
of political, religious or social reform need hesitate.
Do they voice your sentiments and principles, then
112 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
back them up. Is your time occupied with business or
professional duties, back them up. Perhaps you can-
not go out and meet these great questions face to face,
but that does not lessen your bounden duty to your
God, your country and your fellowmen. With such
papers you can send truth and light to hundreds and
thousands of influential people. The papers and
.writers are doing all they can — God will hold you
responsible for their success or failure. Able men,
willing men, are giving their time, their energy, their
very life force to the reforms for which you pray and
in which you claim to believe. The liberal man de-
viseth liberal things. We are told that the Lord
loveth a cheerful giver. Jesus said, "It is more blessed
to give than to receive. Freely ye have received,
freely give. The silver is mine, and the gold is
mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Unto whomsoever much
is given of him shall be much required. Every man
according as he proposeth in his heart, so let him
give, not grudgingly or of necessity. Provide your-
selves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the
heavens which faileth not, where no thief approacheth,
neither moth corrupteth. Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where* neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through !ior stL\il. Bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord
of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
PUBLIC OPINION. 113
enough to receive it. Honour the Lord with thy sub-
stance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase:
So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses
shall burst out with new wine." You are face to face
with the responsibility and the recording angel is
making the minute of the result. Shall it be, "Well
done, thou good and. faithful servant. He that knoweth
his master's will and doeth it not shall be beaten with
many stripes."
Push ahead: This chapter carries the question to
the conservative classes — educators, editors, professional
and business men, who should be informed as to the
magnitude of the present active organized widespread
agitation. It shows to some extent the mammoth pro-
portions of this movement and the mighty uprising
against organized secret knavery, proving that the
system is on trial and will be sifted to the very dregs.
The man who imagines that all the antisecrecy in the
country is in his own neighborhood, if he don't mind
kicking a contemptible ignoramus, should kick himself
up and down a flight of stairs, stand on his head in the
flour barrel, and when he stands behind the door and
sucks his thumbs should only suck one at a time.
Lodge men are not so numerous as many suppose.
Count the membership of the Masonic lodge and you
have counted a very large part of all the other orders.
Masonry makes it a rule to amalgamate with and con-
trol every other secret society. When it is remem-
bered that many lodge men belong to from three to six
of these neighborhood rings it wiU diminish lodge
membership at an astonishing rate. Powerful agencies
] 14 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
are moving in solid columns against the secret empire
of conspiracy and despotism.
Regular headquarters of antilodge agita-
tion: Aside from our headquarters and work we take
pleasure in mentioning some of our many co-workers
who are conducting successful and aggressive war on
lodgery at their several centers of operations: The
National Christian Association with headquarters in
Chicago, is directing and conducting a strong war on
Freemasonry and other kindred evils. It has some sev-
enteen State auxiliaries, and its official organ the Chris-
tian Cynosure^ a large 1 6-page weekly, js ably edited,
and sustained by Antisecretists of all religious persua-
sions. The association owns substantial buildings in
Chicago and Washington, D. C. The American Anti-
secrecy League at 221 West Madison Street, Chicago,
is warming up the political candidates on the lod<4C
question. It publishes the views and secret society
relations of all aspirants for office, as far as possible,
and how some of the sons of Hiram do squirm. Go
in, Brother Phillips, with your sleeves rolled up, and
may the American movement give us candidates worthy
the votes of all true patriots. Elder H. H. Hinman
and S. F. Porter are doing a grand work for Chris-
tianity and good government in the Southern States.
They are successfully enlisting the southern schools
and churches in the great crusade for the overthrow^ of
oath-bound lodgery. The sunny south may yet lead
in the emancipation of white slaves from Masonic
''Worshipful Masters," and ''Most Worshipful Grand
Masters." The blackman was an unwilhng slave. But
PUBLIC OPINION. 115
Masonry has so subdued these poor white galleys
that they voluntarily and willingly submit to mastery
and despotism, more degrading than the Jeff Davis
system. One half million white Masonic slaves, not
so many as Lincoln liberated, but enough to touch
every drop of loyal blood in the nation. W. B. Stod-
dard, in the Admiral Rowan Building within three
blocks of the National Capitol, and now the property
of the movement, Washington, D. C; Rev. J. P.
Stoddard, New England headquarters and office of the
Ho77ie Guard^ the womens' antisecrecy paper, Bos
ton, Mass.; Pacific Agency, M. H. Nichols, San-
Francisco, Cal.; Wm. Fenton and his Liberator^ St.
Paul, Minn.; Students' Antisecrecy Bureau, Pres.
C. S. Bullock, Evanston, III; Sec. G. A. Conrad, Chi
cago, 111.; Treas. E. A, Lovett, Normal Park, IlL
Workers and speakers not elsewhere given — E. J..
C half ant, York, Pa.; I. Bancroft, Everly, Iowa; J. A.
Conant, Willimantic, Conn.; George W. Needels, for
ten years editor and publisher of the American Free-
man^ Albany, Mo.; C. F. Hawley, Wheaton, 111.;
El wood Hanson, Minneapolis, Minn.; S. C. Kimball,
New Market, N. H.; J. T. McMichael, Philadelphia,
Pa.; G. M. Elliott, Selma, Ala.; J. K. Glasford, Car-
thage. Mo.; D. A. Richards, Brigliton, Mich.; H. H.
Hinman, Oberlin,|Ohio; N. Callender, Montdale, Pa.
Floating. Chapel and superb stereoptician lodge scenes
and initiation views, I. R. B. Arnold and family.
OTHER ANTI LODGE ELEMENTS.
The following denominations are committed by vote
Il6 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
of their legislative assemblies or by constitution to a
separation from secret lodge worship:
Adventists ( Seventh-day ) ; Baptists — Primitive, Sev-
enth-day^ and Scandinavian; Brethren (Dunkers or
German Baptists); Christian Reformed Church;
Church of God (Northern Indiana Eldership); Con-
gregational — The State Associations of Illinois and
Iowa have adopted resolutions against the lodge; Dis-
ciples (in part); Friends; Lutherans, Norwegian, Dan-
ish, Swedish and Sy nodical Conferences; Mennonites;
Methodists — Free and Wesleyan; Methodist Protest-
ant (Minnesota Conference); Moravians^ Plymouth
Brethren; Presbyterian Associate, Reformed and
United; Reformed Church (Holland Branch); United
Brethren in Christ. Individual churches in some of
these denominations should be excepted, in part of them
even a considerable portion. The following local
churches have, as a pledge to disfellowship and oppose
lodge worship, given their names to the following list
as THE ASSOCIATED CHURCHES OF CHRIST: NcW Ru-
hama Congregational, Hamilton, Miss.; Pleasant Ridge
Congregational, Sanford County, Ala.; New Hope
Methodist, Lowndes County, Miss.; Congregational,
College Springs, Iowa; College Church of Christ,
Wheaton, 111.; First Congregational, Leland, Mich.;
Sugar Grove Church, Green County, Pa.; Military
Chapel, M. E., Lowndes county. Miss.; Hopewell Mis-
sionary Baptist, Lowndes County, Miss.; Cedar Grove,
Miss. Baptist, Lowndes County, Miss.; Simon's
Chapel, M. E., Lowndes County, Miss.; Pleasant
Ridge, Miss. Baptist, Lowndes County, Miss.; Brown-
PUBLIC OPINION. 117
lee Church, Caledonia, Miss.; Salem Church, Lowndes
County, Miss.; West Preston Baptist Church, Wayne
County, Pa. Local churches adopting the same prin-
ciples are — Baptist churches: N. Abington, Pa.; Men-
omonee, Modovi, Wanbeck and Spring Prame, Wis.;
Wheaton, 111.; Perry N. Y.; Spring Creek, near Bur-
lington, lovya; Lima, Ind; Constableville, N. Y. The
'Good Will Association" of Mobile, Ala., comprising
^ome twenty-five colored Baptist churches; Bridge-
water Baptist Association, Pa. ; Old Tebo Baptist, near
Leesville, Henry Co., Mo.; Hoopeston, 111.; Esmen,
111., Strykersville, N. Y. Congregational churches: ist.
of Oberlin, O.; Tonica, Crystal Lake, Union and Big
Woods, 111-.; Solsbury, Ind.; Congregational Meth-
odist, Maplewood, Mass. Independent churches in Low-
ell, Countryman school-house near Linden, Marengo
and Streator, 111.; Berea and Camp Nelson, Ky.; Us-
tick. 111.; Clarksburg, Kansas; State Association of
Ministers and Churches of Christ in Kentucky. Then
vast multitudes of patriots in the Presbyterian, Congre-
gational, Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, and other pow-
erful denominations, are personally and actively opposed
to these powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness
in high places.
Eminent Witnesses: A. M. Sullivan, Irish
Leader: "I had not studied in vain the history of secret,
oath-bound associations. I regard them with horror."
Charles Francis Adams: "A more perfect agent for
the devising and execution of conspiracies against
church and state could scarcely have been conceived."
Disraeli, British Premier: "Secret societies are hurrying
Il8 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
the civil governments of the world to the brink of a
precipice over which law and order will ultimately fall
and perish together." Wendell Phillips: "History
shows them perverting justice, stopping at no crime to
protect and conceal their mummeries; controlling poli-
tics for selfish and personal ends, and interfering with
great danger in national emergencies. Every good
citizen should make war on all secret societies, and give
himself no rest until they are forbidden by law and
rooted out of existence." Charles P. Sumner, father
of the Senator, and a renouncing Mason: "Masonic
engagements, whether they are called oaths, obliga
tions, or promises, ought never to be made. They arc
not sanctioned b}^ law and are not obligatory. Thc\
make it a Masonic crime to divulge that which the good
of the community requires should not be concealed."
Gov. John A.Martin, of Kansas: "Popular govern-
ment is doomed wherever secret political societies con-
trol our political system. It does not matter what ob-
ject such societies have in view, nor what principles
they advocate — they are wholly and irredeemably ob-
noxious to the genius of American institutions and dan-
gerous to a government of the people and by the peo-
ple." Mayor Abram S. Hewitt, of New York City, to
the Democratic Club of Brooklyn: "Unless the Dem-
ocratic party shall now and at once absolutely disown
and condemn all organizations which seek to place the
individual under any other control than that of the
laws and deprive the citizen of his rights of free action,
it will perish as it ought to; and I desire on this occa-
sion to emphasize the issue as one to which you and
PUBLIC OPINION.
^9
your fellow members will direct your attention in the
hope that the next State convention and the next na-
tional convention will condemn, as Washington con-
demned, all secret organizations which undertake to
usurp the functions of the law and destroy the free
agency of the citizen." Henry Dana Ward says:
"The Masonic fables are told to cover the meanness of
Freemasonry's origin; for it too sprung from a con-
federacy of lawless plunderers; and it mortifies the
pride of the High priests, it taps the vanity of the
Grand Masters, and makes the puissant sovereis^ns of
Freemasonry tremble for the security of their thrones,
to be told that their boasted order sprung from the
mire of the Rosicrusians, and spread over the face of
the earth upon the licentious cupidity of its-speculative
fathers — that it originated in the i8th century among
men capable of the most atrocious falsehoods, and base
enough to sell their reputation for money, and to bar-
ter a good conscience for the delusion of a lodge-room."
Antimasonry in Canada: — Hon. Edward Blake,
leader in Canadian Parliament, March, 1884: "I am
not in favor of State recognition of any secret societies.
I have never joined one, though many of my best
friends are members of secret societies. But I believe
the tendency of secrecy itself to be injurious. I be-
lieve that it brings with it the possibility of evil. I be-
lieve that it involves a certain amount of sacrifice of
individuality and independence, and gives very great
facilities for the misleading of members by designing
leaders — very great and mischievous facilities for that
purpose." "I believe that a great deal of the trouble
I20 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
social and political, that has occurred in those countries
[Europe and America] is due to secret societies."
The above is strong for a leading politician. There
is a radical movement in the Dominion against oath-
bound secretism. That popular paper the Toronto
World says: "An opinion is becoming widely preva-
lent that the Secret Society business is considerably
overdone, and there are well informed persons in this
city who do not hesitate to say that the influence of
these societies is becoming decidedly pernicious, if not
absolutely dangerous to the public weal. Such remarks
as these are made, not by cranks, or by those claiming
to be suffering from chronic grievances, but by liberal-
minded persons of the highest intelligence, who are
not given to talking at random or making extraordinary
charges without having facts to support them."
Noted Churchmen: William Otterbein, founder
of the church of the United Brethren in Christ: — "A
Freemason cannot be a Christian." Peter Cartwright:
— "Masonry originated with the devil and will end
with the devil." Howard Crosby, Chancellor, Uni-
versity of New York, 1870: — "We have no hesitation
in writing secret societies among the quackeries of the
earth." Richard S. Storrs, D. D., pastor of the
Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn: — "My judgment
and feeling are both strongly opposed to the secret
lodge system. I heartily agree with what Dr. Howard
Crosby has so forcibly said about it." Dr. Thomas
Scott, the great commentator: — "Rash oaths are above
all things to be avoided; but if men are entangled by
them, they ought rather to infringe the sinful oaths
PUBLIC OPINION. 121
than to add sin to sin and ruin to their own souls.'
Rev. B. T. Roberts, General Superintendent of the
Free Methodist Church: — "For us to keep silent re-
specting Masonry, and thus tacitly endorse the idea that
a man can both accept Christ and deny him — that is,
be a good Mason and a good Christian at the same
time, would be treason to Christ." Rev. Dr. James B.
Walker, author of "Philosophy of the plan of Salva-
tion": — "There is probably not one in a thousand who
enter the lodge, who know, when blindfolded they
take the terrible oaths, that Masonry is an anti-Christ
and one of the most powerful enemies of Christ that
exists. But this is put beyond the possibility of a doubt
by the highest Masonic authorities." L. L. Hamline,
Bishop M.E. church, in his diary, 1848: — "North Ohio
Conference h^s progressed very rapidly till this time,
but Masonry and Odd-fellowship have arrested us."
At another time: "I have enjoyed and suffered much
during its session. Masonry and Odd-fellowship, is a
bane in the midst of us, have done us much evil." —
Life, pp. 323, 4. Bishop Simpson just before his death
wrote: — "I have never belonged to a secret society, not
even a division of the Sons of Temperance." Rev.
J. E. Roy, D. D., Secretary American Missionary Asso-
ciation: — "A man is not fit to be a juryman who has
taken these Masonic oaths and holds to them. Such a
man is not competent to be a constable or a justice of
the peace. He has disqualified himself practically and
really, for he has by these oaths perjured himself for
the one side or the other, and so is unable to do justly
in his official relation between man and man." John
122 THE AMERICAN HAND feOOK.
Wesley, June 179S: — "I went to Ballymena and read a
strange tract that professes to 'discover the inmost re-
cesses of Freemasonry,' said to be 'translated from the
French original lately published at Berlin'. I incline to
think it is a genuine account. Only if it be, I wonder
the author is suffered to live. If it be, what an amaz-
ing banter upon all mankind is Freemasonry." — JV. T.
Christian Advocate^ February, 1884. Alexander
Campbell: — "I know no Temperance, Odd-fellow or
Freemason fraternity that does not recognize a broth-
erhood with the world. 'They are of the world, they
speak of the world and the world heareth them'. Chris-
tians, though in the world are not of it. Any union,
then, for moral purposes with the world that brings us
^ to commune religiously with it, by the laws and usages
of the institution itself, is opposed to the'law and king-
dom of Jesus Christ." George F. Pentecost, D. D.,
/ pastor of Tompkins Avenue Congregational church,
I Brooklyn, editor of " Words and Weapons'*'' : — "I would
(fo almost anything in my power to help on the work
of rescuing Christian men from the 'grip' of Masonry
and all other secret and unchristian societies. I believe
that Masonry is an incalculable evil and essentially anti-
Christ in its principles and influence." Dwight L.
Moody: — "Give them the truth anyway, and if they
would rather leave their churches than their lodges the
sooner they get out of the churches the better. I
would rather have ten members who were separated
from the world than a thousand such members. Come
out from the lodge. Better one with God than a thou-
sand without him. We must walk with God and if
PUBLIC OPINION. 123
only one or two go with us it is all right. Do not let
down the standard to suit men who love their secret
lodges or have some darling sin they will not give up."
David R. Kerr, D. D., editor of the United Presbyte-
rian: — "How can any man in good conscience swear
to keep secret what, for anything he knows, ought to
be exposed? How can any man in good conscience
swear to obey a code of laws yet unknown to him, and
what for anythivig he knows, may be in conflict with
the law of God ? Such oaths are in their very nature
essentially immoral." Rev. George T. Dissette, him-
self a seceded Master Mason, writes of this agitation:
"The reform harp is pitched to the symphony of
heaven; struck with a strong hand, it will make sinners
quake on earth, devils tremble in the pit, and all the
golden streets of the new Jerusalem resound with the
glory of our Christ and the song of the redeemed. If
a believer has been sanctified or a sinner converted any-
where, at any time under any other than reformatory
preaching, we should be glad to hear of it." The pop-
ular churchology and placid evangelization that does
not save men from their lodgery and denounce its pa-
gan heathenism is a failure. "For they have healed
the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying
peace, peace, when there is no peace." This is truly
the gospel harvest age. The tares and the wheat have
been growing together but the separation is going on.
The lodges are binding into bundles all whose names
are not written in the Lamb's book of life. The more
advanced Bible students agree that oath-bound lodgery
is the Image of the Beast so vividly portrayed in the
124 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
thirteenth of Revelation. See Horton's "Image of
the Beast," Wesleyan Publishing House, Syracuse, N.
Y. Let all who are of the light see to it that they
worship not the Beast, or his image, neither receive his
mark nor the number of his name.
CHAPTER VIII.
LODGE AND SALOON.
SIAMESE TWINS AND AFFILIATED EVILS.
Many were disappointed in the Prohibition vote and
at the remarkable triumph of the Republican party.
Before the election the Chicago News affirmed: "It
has already ceased to be a case of Prohibition tail at-
tempting to wag the Republican dog. It is now a
question of whether the Prohibition party will accept
the Republicans or affiliate with them as an organiza-
tion under any circumstances. Nothing now remains
for the Republican organization but unconditional sur-
render." Another Chicago paper, the Herald^ added:
"All that has been heretofore said concerning the straits
of the Republican party, the fears of such leaders as
Senator Palmer, of Michigan, and the constant growth
of the prohibition contingent gain force with events
and become almost doctrinal with reiteration. Where
St. John polled 151,000 votes in 1884, Fisk will count
on twice as many in 1888. His party has swallowed
the Republican organization in Kansas, Iowa and other
Western States; it has 41.000 votes in the pivotal state
of New York, where the national contest of 1884 was
settled by a plurality of only 1,047. Whosoever would
court such a power must come like the Greeks, loaded
with gifts'" The New York ^(?ra/^ declared : **You
had better be on the lookout for those Prohibitionists.
They are snow ball fellows of American politics — that
is, they double in size every time they roll over, and
they roll over every year. They have the millennium
"5
126 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
by the coat collar and purpose to make it impossible
for a citizen of this Republic to moisten his vocal
chords with rock and rye and sl^ep in the gutter."
One week after the Republican nominating convention
the Union Signal ^'a\<\\ "Thursday June 21st, 1S8S
the Republican party committed suicide by adopting a
platform utterly ignoring the most living issue of the
day."
And such was the tenor of the press during the on-
coming campaign of 1888. Prohibitionists claim that
the burning of St. John in effigy, the twenty years
backset, the tardy enforcement of State and county
prohibition, the high license policy, the ''Phnnctl
Knight's" perpetual tax on whisky, and tobacco as a
necessity — all paved the way out of the dilemma.
The Republican party would go over soul and body to
the rum power. That the surrender was absolute iind
unconditional. That a whisky platform with a liquor-
ite at the head of the National Republican committee
and plenty of liquor campaign literature elected Harri-
son. The Christian Advocate^ publisiied in Pittsburg, of
affairs in the White Hou&eat Washington, says: "We
confess to very great disappointment in the religious
features of President Harrison's administration. He is a
Christian man, an officer and for years a Sabbath-
school teacher in the Presbyterian church. Much was
expected of him in the way of proper example in his
high office, and of respect for the Christian principles
and sentiment of the country. Hut in some respects
we have not seen them. Intoxicating liquors have been
served on his table on state occasions, and lately a 'ger-
LODGE AND SALOON.
127
man,' one of the most offensive and disgusting of all
public dances, was given in the White House. It was
a full dress (rather undress) affair, such as few thought-
ful persons would suffer their daughters to attend!"
The Indiana Bugle declares: "It is high time for the
sober part of American citizens to call a speedy halt,
when the occupant of the second highest office in the
gift of the people opens a hell hole in the capital city,
and the first ofiicer of the nation allows such work;
and then again, the party that controls the largest num-
ber of votes selects such men to rule and ruin us, we
are made to cry out, Hov/ long, O Lord, how long wilt
Thou suffer these things to be so?" M. M. Estee, a
Masonic Grand Orator, and a leading wine grower of
California, presided over the National Republican Nom-
inating convention. Horace Waters, of New York
city, issued over a million of a tract prior to the elec-
tion in which he stated that the Republican party was
dead and that in ''^^ the Prohibition party would nearly
sweep the land. He counted on over a million, three
hundred thousand votes, only fell short a little over
a million. So much for a party which promised so
fair and yet so signally failed. What is the matter?
It begins to look as if the supreme moment for a na-
tional reform party was fast approaching. That pow-
erful magazine, the Century^ of New York declares:
"The political need of this country at the present time
would seem to be a party of progress, a party that
would pursue a policy of reform from love of reform
itself, and not merely in obedience to popular clamor.
Reforms of various kinds are now urgently needed, and
128 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
they can be properly dealt with only by a party earn-
estly devoted to the work."
However, the cause of prohibition has advanced in
-spite of opposition and duplicity, and it is with heartfelt
gratitude to Almighty God that we have year by year
beheld the rapid growth of public sentiment on the
great temperance question. The prosperity of the
cause has been most sanguinary, and the growing de-
mand for county and State enactment proves that abso-
lute national prohibition will eventually prevail. Al-
ready in many places the open saloon is a thing of the
the past, and may the day speedily dawn when liquor-
selling and drunkenness will be outlawed, and the
strong arm of the law protect the community morally,
socially and financially from the blighting curse of
rum. It is a grand thing to enact a righteous and ben-
eficial law: it is a costly experiment to sustain and en-
force it without an officiary in heart sympathy with its
objects and purposes. Especially should all officials be
absolutely free from any affiliation with the evil tabe
t>uppressed. And this brings us to the question, can
the Prohibition party, as now brganized, grapple with
the giant evil and give us real prohibition? Mary B.
Willard, sister-in-law to F. E., and the first editor of
the Union Si^-na I said to Dr. Blanchard: "When my
husband joined the Masonic lodge I thought I should
die." The C/nton Signal oi Dec. 22, 1SS7, defend]jPg
the W. C. T. U. from the charge of friendship for
secret societies, says: "We refer our brother [Rev.
Joel Martin] to Miss Willard's Annual Address for
surance that the W. C. T. U. has no intention of
LODGE AND SALOON. 1 29
affiliating with secret societies." Miss Mary Allen
West, editor of the Union Signal^ official organ of
the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
declares: "I was brought up to believe secret societies
wrong; graduated under Pres. J. Blanchard, and have
never swerved from his teachings and those of my
father, on this subject. I never belonged to any secret
society and never shall." Sandy Lake, Pa., News^ says:
"The evidence is cumulative that, so far from promot-
ing the cause of real, permanent temperance work,
secret temperance orders have done more to hinder than
to help the cause." And it rightly adds: "The sooner
the Prohibition party cuts loose from such secret orders,
and works entirely through open, daylight organiza-
tions, the sooner will its reformatory work be success-
ful." Los Angeles, Cal., Censor \ "James Russell
Lowell aptly says: 1
'Once to every man and nation j
Comes the moment to decide, (
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood /
For the good or evil side. \
Some great cause, God's New Messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
Puts the goats upon the left hand ^
And the sheep upon the right;
And the choice goes by forever
*Twixtthat darkness and that light.'
When the choice was presented to the W. C. T. U.
they chose the light and they live. The secret orders
have chosen the darkness. And if the choice has not
gone by for ever, it will soon, unless they obey forth-
with the law of progress." John B. Oough said: "I
was once persuaded to be initiated in a Good Templar's
130 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Lodge, put on its regalia, and ride in a procession.
While in that carriage I looked down on my horse col-
lar and toggery, and I stripped the stuff off in disgust
and rammed it under the carriage seat; and I have
never worn it from that day to this." Rev. Justin Ed-
wards, D. D., author and head of Andover Theological
Seminary, declared: "Whenever the cause of temper-
ance is veiled in darkness and secrecy, it must lose its
hold on public confidence and sympathy." General A.
W. Riley, the veteran temperance orator, second only
to Gough, has been a delegate to and addressed anti-
secrecy conventions. Hon. Neal Dow, in his speech
before the National W. C. T. U convention in N. Y.,
points out the failure and mere shams of the secret
Temperance Orders. Read his address. D.L.Moody,
in Altoona, Pa., said publicly: "The Saviour says, 'Li
secret have I said nothing.' I do not see how a Chris-
tian can join a secret society. The command is, *Be
not equally yoked with unbelievers.' If you join
hands with the enemies of Christ in S7ich associations,
they will outvote } ou and lead you into sin. Years
ago I thought of joining a secret temperance society
and about that time they decided on having a dance.
That was enough for me, 1 determined never to have
anything to do with such societies." Joseph Cook at
Chicago Conference, April 23, 1890: "Two millions
of the voters of the country belong to secret societies,
and they are brothers of the whisky rings and gam-
blers, who obtain help from the lodges whenever they
need it. Three-fourths of the public officials are mem-
bers of secret societies because it is essential for office-
LODGE AND SALOON. I3I
holders to have the support of these orders. The dan-
ger from these oath-bound organizations is great and
growing into frightful proportions." — Chicago Herald^
April 24, 1890. And Mr. Cook is surely correct:
«A clergyman in Bath, Me., was urging the prosecu-
tion of a notorious saloon. He applied to an attorney,
who said to him, 'Are you not a Mason?' The minis-
ter replied that he was. 'Well,' answered the attorney,
'that saloon keeper is a Mason and you had better let
him alone.' The case was dropped. The clergyman
was too good a lodge man to violate his 'obligation.'" —
Home Gua7'd. Rev. M. A. Gault writes: "Dr. John
A. Brooks says he has gone back on Masonry and
never expects' to go inside the lodge again." Ex-Gov.
J. P. St. John, in a published letter of April ist, 1885,
virtually secedes. He says: "I was once a Mason,
having passed to the R03 al Arch degree. I have not
been in a lodge for about sixteen years; have paid no
dues, and am in no manner connected with the order,
and, never shall be again. I have made this statement
to at least a bundled different persons and supposed my
position touching the matter was thoroughly under-
stood." Matilda J. Gage, a leader in the Woman's
movement, declared: "Masonry excludes women, not
for any great secrets it may have, but because of shame
for its indecent ceremonies."
The little secret orders are to the larger criminal
organizations what wine and champagne are to gin,
beer and forty-rod whisky. The professed anti-secret
people who fondle the minor cliques, rings and cabals
are just about as consistent as the temperance orators
132 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
who are "as good a temperance man as you are" — but
as Dr. Howard Crosbj^, would cure drunkenness with
the "milder harmless" drinks. A fair sample:
"The Sons of Veterans belong to the families, many
of them Christian, of the country, and have not been
exposed to the temptations, vices and looseness of sol-
dier life; and yet falling in company with less than a
dozen of them at Chapin, as they were returning to
their homes, we were pained, mortified, and disgusted
with the profanity and free talk of the lads as to Jack-
sonville harlots, etc. And when mildly suggesting the
discontinuance of the disgraceful talk, we were given
to understand by a fine-looking young man with shoul-
der straps and bars, that our meddling was not called
for. Alas for the progress of the world purity-ward!"
Banner of Hol/nesSy J acksony'iUey 111. We could write
a chapter on the baseness and depravity of these youth-
ful orders that would make every Christian mother
blush scarlet, and every honorable father hang his head
for very shame.
Frances E. Willard, President of the Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union of the United States, en-route
to the Minneapolis Convention, said: "I do not like
secret societies, and have no use for them." And in
her annual address at the National Convention in Nash-
ville, she declared: "I have always been opposed to
secret societies, and never more so than to-day." Then
she begins another article on the subject, with the pos-
itive statement: "My whole record is against secret-
ism." Yet the National Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Union, with its forty departments and such a
LODGE AND SALOON. I 33
leader, has not the courage to attack even the major
orders^ The college orders are no better, the declara-
tion of any apologist to the contrary notwithstanding.
True Americans and real patriots should keep their
sons and daughters out of lodge schools and lodge tem-
perance deception. It is entirely too late in the nine-
teenth century for posing as apologist for oath-bound
secret rings, large or small. The Lutheran Standard^
of Columbus, O. , commenting on the college secret
societies says: "Those who permit college secret socie-
ties to flourish aniong them, while they claim to be
opposed to other kinds of secret societies, are really
hatching and nursing the cuckoo that will eventually
throw the lawful brood out of the nest and master both
young and old. Nor does it matter much what name
the secret fraternities may bear, whether Greek, Latin,
Hebrew, German, French or English. We are op-
posed to the secrecy of such societies under whatever
name they may flourish. What is good and useful in
college work need not be kept secret, and should be
open for inspection to all concerned. By maintaining
their secrecy college fraternities are able to gain great
strength in undermining discipline, in obtaining unfair
advantages for unworthy students and in plotting mis-
chief against innocent parties in the form of hazing
and other barbarous practices." At a Board meeting
of the National Christian Association at Chicago, that
active aggressive organization representing the anti-
secrecy churches of America and thousands of temper-
ance voters, voiced the following: "In our judgment
the recent overwhelming reverses met by the prohibi-
134 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
tion cause in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are due to
its alliance with the secret lodges which are not true to
Christ and will fail every good cause in the day of trial."
Many people are ignorant of the widespread and in-
creasing opposition to oath-bound secretism. Let all
such read the words of that strong journal, The Inde-
pendent^ of New York City: "It will be a surprise to
many to learn that about half of all the Christian com-
municants in the United States, including the Roman
Catholics belong to denominations opposed to secret
societies." Thus the growing expression is against
secret societies. Especially are the temperance people
coming to believe that the Lodge and Saloon are affil-
iated evils. All true believers in the anti-secret churches
will welcome a party embodying their principles, as a
child of Providence, and will hail a discussion of oath-
bound lodgery as an answer to prayer.
Lodge and Rum — rule or ruin: — We ask the
careful and prayerful perusal of this chapter by all
praying temperance people. It is high time the real
nature of the lodge was made known to the general
public. The Prohibition party is hourly becoming
more and more sadly honey-combed and paralyzed by
lodgery. In fact, the lodge has determined to rule or
ruin its machineiy. The Voice Is yielding more and
more space to lodge mention and laudation. \V. Jen-
nings Demorest and other leading men in the move-
ment are said to be high Freemasons, and to attack
lodgery is to nip their liberal cash contributions. These
millionaire Masonic Prohibitionists know but too well
how to manipulate the temperance agitation for the
LODGE AND SALOON. I35
final benefit of the worshipful fraternities. Sonrie hun-
dreds of leading Prohibitionists and W. C. T. U. work-
ers have been receiving installments of American liter-
ature, and many are beginning to see more clearly.
But it is a pity that the splendid temperance movement
is to be palsied and hampered by the lodge barnacles.
The labor and sacrifice of real reformers against the
saloon must be neutralized and turned aside by the
sworn minions of oath-bound lodgery. The Syracuse
(N. Y.) Bible Standard*, "The outlook is not as
encouraging as we could wish, because the inlook re-
veals the stealthy hand of the lodge dropping poison
into the food of Prohibitionists. The New York
Voice has given vastly more space for two years to
lodge news and applause, than to church news and the
applause of Christ. Prohibitionists everywhere need
to arm themselves against all that is anti-Christ." The
Lodge and Rum powers are kindred evils. To combat
one is to antagonize the other, and the suppression of
one means the destruction of the other. The lodge
with its mixed society, questionable asssociations, low
twelve suppers, banquets, libations, late hours, and dissi-
pations generally, is a standing stepping-stone and act-
ive feeder for the saloon, gambling hell and brothel.
The open ball-room and theatre are not so corrupt and
demoralizing as these gregarious lodge orgies, dances
and debaucheries. Ministers, blackguards, class-leaders
and scoffers, temperance orators and whisky drinkers.
Good Templars and beer sellers, ladies and the demi-
monde^ what a spectacle for gods and men ! The riff-
raff of all humanity, the scum and wrecks of society
136 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
morally, socially and physically, militate to the encamp-
ments, conclaves and lodge assemblies, and the news-
papers publish, and every observing person knows that
tlie saloons, theatres, dance-houses, and other places of
questionable resort reap a rich harvest at these lodge
gatherings. All lodgery tends to vice and moral dissi-
pation, some in one direction, some in another, and not
a few in every possible direction of selfishness and pas-
sion. The Masonic order is a hot-bed of intemperance
and dissipation. Freemasonry was born in a grogshop,
Apple Tree Tavern, London, England, in 17 17.
"The 'fearful vice' of intemperance is in the Lodge."
Missouri Grand Lodge Report, 1880.
"That drunkenness and gross profanity are not un-
known among Masons cannot be denied; nay, we may
truthfully declare that one or the other of these vices is
quite common in some places." — Missouri Report, 1879.
"Brethren, there is another evil indulged in by some
of our members — the intemperate use of ardent spirits.
It causes the finger of reproach to be poin-ted at our
beloved Institution." — Ibid. 1881. (Also Indian Terri-
tory Report, 18S0.)
"The Grand Master characterized in strong terms
profanity and intemperance as the two great and hei-
. nous offenses commonly committed by Alasons." — Ibid.
1881.
Masonry is builded on oaths and blasphemy. It takes
in every moral off-scouring of creation and the very
existence of a lodge is moral contagion.
"Much ado is made about some slight physical de-
fect, while many are received into, and retained by
LODGE AND SALOON.
137
lodges who are burdened with moral enormities suf-
ficient to sink character into deeper damnation than
Dives, with all except those who are like them." — Ibid.
1881.
"Our Grand Lodge will not permit a man with one
eye to be made a Mason, while there are Masons by
thousands in Missouri, who are as morally impotent as
the man found at the pool Bethesda. The difference
being that our moral cripples seek not a cure, and go
nojt to the pool of renovation, but revel in weakness,
and glory in their own shame. A well dressed athlete
in vice, festering with corruption, deodorized by money,
can take many degrees, pay his dues, and go on a 'tri-
ennial' bum, while the poor Craftsmen, hard-handed
and toilworn, must be suspended for want of means to
maintain a precarious standing in the Lodge." — Ibid.
1881.
"No Mason will question the declaration that thou-
sands of the Craft in these lands are constantly violat-
ing the moral law. *A Mason is obliged by his tenure
to obey the moral law ; and if he rightly understand the
ART, he will never be a stupid atheist nor an irreligious
libertine.' To such an extent is the moral law disre-
garded that there are thousands of professed Masons
who are practical atheists. The only difference be-
tween them and the 'stupid atheist' of the 'Old Charges,'
is this: The 'stupid atheist' says 'there is no God.'
The profane Mason says 'there is a God,' and professes
to put his trust in Him; is obligated in his presence
and name, and goes from the 'place representing' the
dwelling of God, and acts as if there is no God. Often
138 THE AMKRICAN HAND BOOK.
he does not wait to leave the 'place representing the
Holy of Holies,' where he was made a Mason, before
belching out profanities that would make the devil
blush, or cause the cheek of darkness to turn pale. We
have heard such oft repeated." — Missouri Grand Lodge
Report, 1878.
"Since engaged on this Report we attended Lodgej
and witnessed the work of the Third Degree. The
Lodge closed, and the Brother who conferred the de-
gree — an old Master — swore most profanely in the pres-
ence of the newly made Brother, and within a few feet
of the holy altar. He then said, socially, 'let us go
round to the "Monkeys' ". We did not knowwhat the
'Monkeys' meant. Always giving ourselves the benefit
of a doubt, we thought home a better place than 'Mon-
keys' especially after a long, laborious Lodge session.
Taking the street car we went a little distance, think-
ing the while, Masonry leads men at a late hour to
see their ancestors, the 'Monkeys'. Soon all was ex-
plained. There, over a brilliantly lighted, gilded pal-
ace of death, was a sign, 'The Monkeys'. Within the
well-named place were those who resembled men, and
once had been men, ciiattering and evidencing all the
silly affinities possible to our supposed ancestry. The
saloon was making 'monkeys' out of human beings,
and reversing the development theory. To that 'mon-
key'-making shop our Brethren went, at a very late
hour, when wife and family were wondering why does
the 'Lodge hold so long.'"— Ibid. 187S.
"A lady whose husband stands suspended for unma-
sonic conduct, said to us: 'My husband never drank a
LODGE AND SALOON. I 39
drop of liquor until he' joined the Masons. They led
him astray by their conviviality, and he fell into deep
dissipation and ruin.' We know all the circumstances.
This is only one of thousands, especially about the
cities. Many Masons think the Order v^as intended just to
afford its members a 'good time,'and they go in for fun.
Numbers are led off by the influence and example of
older and more prominent brethren. Being less used
to such dissipation, and less stable in character, these
younger Brethren take a downw^ard course, and soon
fall into utter disgrace. Then some of those w^ho
w^rought this ruin, w^ill sit in judgment upon the fallen
one, belching w^hlsky fumes from a drunkard's stomach,
while they vote aye, for the condemnation of him
whose greatest fault was that he could not carry as
much steam as others." — Ibid. 1878.
"To those who never attended a Grand Lodge, and
never studied certain aspects of its make up, the above
extract will be strange and startling. But we have, for
twenty years, been observant of such conduct, and cog-
nizant of such conditions or. the part of Grand Lodge
Representatives as to bring reproach upon the Craft,
and the blush of shame to the cheeks of good men and
true. Some visit haunts of vice and dissipation during
the session, engaging in the low sensualities of brute
beasts, spending means and time that should be devoted
to the relief of distress, the service of God, or in re-
freshment and sleep. The next day finds them stupid
and dozing during business hours in the Grand Lodge*
Such Representatives are better patrons of saloons and
brothels than any other place, while misrepresenting
140
THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
Masoni'y during the sessions of Grand Lodge. We
have seen such, in their Representative character, so
full of w^hisky, that a good shake would cause a slosh
to be heard like a barrel. We have heard prominent
(?)men in Grand Lodge deliver grand homilies upon
morality and virtue. We have heard them indulge in
profanity before leaving the room, and heard them pro-
pose a visit to the houses of vice, in thirty minutes after
leaving the Lodge. We have seen them start to the
very places vv^here virtue and purity never dwell. We
have known of their return to the hotel at the most
unseasonable hours, and heard their licentious rehearsals
of brothel scenes. Yes, these Representative (?) Ma-
sons do some strange things during the sessions of our
Grand Lodge." — Ibid. 1878. An earnest Boston pas-
tor, Rev. J. M. Foster, says: "On pain of having
nheir throats cut from ear to ear,' they [Freemasons]
are sworn to 'conceal and never reveal' the secrets of
the lodge, good or bad. On this account the lodge
rooms, above a certain degree, are made drinking sa-
loons, in which men who move in the highest social
circles get beastly drunk. On this account they invade
widovi^s' houses, and virgins' too, and lead their victims
astray."
But let us now notice a very respectable and large
class of zealous Masons rightly termed in plain En-
glish
Masonic murderers: ''Bro. vStcdman thinks tlicre
is no room in Masonry for 'human vampires who f;ittcii
upon the life-blood of their fellow men.' We shDuld
say not, and yet we have plenty of 'human vampires,'
LODGE AND SALOON. 14I
called Masons, who fatten upon our Brethren, growing
rich by impoverishing Masons, their wives and chil-
dren. And after they have widowed and orphaned
helpless ones, these 'vampires' will vote for resolutions
of condolence and sympathy tendered the families of
those Masons whom they have robbed and murdered;
yes, and they will wear mourning for thirty days, turn
out in funeral procession and help bury those they have
destroyed." — Missouri Grand Lodge Report, 1880.
Only think of a pious classleader so full of whisky,
"that a good shake would cause a slosh to be heard like
a barrel." Imagine a pious old Bishop indulging in
"profanity before leaving" the conference room. Pict-
ure these learned divines going "to the very places
where virtue and purity never dwell," then hearken to
their "licentious rehearsals of brothel scenes." What
would be the moral status of such a church, and what
are honest, conscientious, decent, temperance men and
women to think of an immoral, anti-American institu-
tion whose "prominent representatives" have been in-
dulging in such things for "more than twenty years?"
How every pure wife, mother, sister, and daughter
should loathe, hate, and abhor the institution that will
put up drunkards, blasphemers, and libertines and dub
them "Worshipful Master" and Most Worshipful Mas-
ter," to lead and decoy true husbands, kind fathers, lov-
ing brothers and manly sons on to "deep dissipation
and ruin," Is it not the DEVIL'S own morahty that
such leaders do teach? Think of preachers stooping to
compare Freemasonry with the church of the living
God. Tiie Canada Craftsman declnrc^ ih.-it the Ma-
142 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
sonic square and compass is found in Canada "Over
not a few bar-room doors." The New York Voice^
organ of the Prohibition party, begins to see men as
trees walking. July 4th it declares: "First, a private
pledge means that somebody is to be cheated. If not,
why a private pledge. And it is the invariable experi-
ence as far as our observation goes that the somebody
cheated in such agreements is never the liquor men.
Our fights should all be open and above board."
A temperance compact made behind tyled doors and
blinded windows will betray- any effort to down the
liquor men and their business. To be sure it will. It
always does. The mother of Roderick Dhu Gambrell
assured Elder H. H. Hinman that she and her husband
were in hearty sympathy against the lodge evil. No
wonder tlie man, the lodge minion who murdered
their son went scot free. Rev. M. A. Gault, western
secretary of the National Reform Association visited
vSioux City, Iowa, and conversed with the widow of
Rev. George C. Haddock. He writes: "The mar-
tyred Haddock was a member of no secret society, and
had expressed his opposition to them. If he had been
a member he doubtless would have been living to-day.
The city is a stronghold of the lodge more than any
city of the State, and the saloons are intrenched in the
lodge." Arensdorff the man tried for this foul murder
was a zealous lodgeite and the whole lodge machinery
it seems was brought to bear to clear him and Hamil-
ton. Thousands of voters believe that the lodge rid-
den Prohibition party as now organized is not a safe
agency to supplant either old pnrty. Had the Repub-
LODGE AND SALOON. 1 43
licans been defeated there would have been a land slide
to the Prohibition ranks. As it is Republican temper-
ance men are intoxicated with victory and filled with
hope, and it w^ill require plenty of time to convince
them of their error. The liquor men were wiser in
their generation than the praying Republicans. Dem-
ocracy was already pickled in rum and beyond all re-
demption. It will be far more difficult now to get
temperance Republicans to bolt their party than when
the party was out of power with such odds against it.
Take up the cry for "American prohibition," and pass
it down the line. May God open the eyes of praying
men and women to see things as they are. The fol-
lowing from an influential paper will very appropri-
ately close this chapter.
[From the Worcester, Mass., Daily Telegram.]
"MIGHTY Lord, heavenly king."
MEN IN NIGHT SHIRTS AND SOBER, PERHAPS, THUS
HAIL HEWETT.
"Installation of George F. Hewett, 32nd degree, T. P. Gr.
Master.
* ' 'Mighty Lord ! Heavenly King. '—Choir. ' '
The above appeared in the order of ceremonies at
the installation of the recently-appointed officers of the
Masonic lodge of Perfection, which occurred Thurs-
day night.
It makes funny reading, doesn't it.? George F.
Hewett, "thrice potent, grand master," T.-. P.-. Gr.-.,
with three fly specks in pyramid form, hailed as
144 ^^^ AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
"Mighty Lord, Heavenly King." Of course, it's all
right. If the city contains a "Mighty Lord and Heav-
enly King," he cannot be hailed any too quickly. It is
probably safe to say that the majority of people, if it
was left to them to hail a "Mighty Lord and Heavenly
King," would not hail as above. A good many people
would demur if they imagined their "Mighty Lord and
Heavenly King" ran a wholesale liquor establishment
at the corner of Foster and Waldo streets. This is the
first instance, probably, in which a mighty Lord and
Heavenly King" has been in the rum business.
This "Mighty Lord" part of the title every one will
understand, for Mr. Hewett to-day is by far -the most
powerful of all rum lords in the city. The "Heavenly
King" is a trifle obscure. The two don't appear to dove-
tail together. There may be some potent influence in
three fly specks in pyramid form (T.-. P.'.Gr.'. Master)
between the letters following Mr. Hewett's name,
which harmonizes the "Mighty Lord and Heavenly
King."
In the way of remarkable things, probably nothing
has been quite so striking, since Morgan disappeared,
as that a gathering of gentlemen clothed in their right
minds should stand up in night shirts and hail George
F. Hewett as "Mighty Lord, Heavenly King." It is a
peculiar proceeding for such gentlemen to choose for
their thrice potent grand master" and "Mighty Lord
and Heavenly King," a man who through the rum
traffic is squeezing every cent he can out of the city,
and who climbs up the ladder of Masonry that he may
get a >tlll more potent grip for his business. When
LODGE AND SALOON.
H5
Mr. Hewett can go Rev. J. F. Lovering fourteen de-
grees better, and be hailed as "Mighty Lord and Heav-
enly King," it looks a little queer to people w^ho do
not understand the mysteries of Masonry, and if there
is any inference to be drawn from it, it is that Rev.
Mr. Lovering, if he vs^ishes to advance in the order,
should resign his pastorate to-day and start a wholesale
liquor store. Thu'ty-two degrees must, of course, indi-
cate greater perfection than eighteen degrees. Give
the Gospel a chance! The gentleman who preaches
peace is apparently of little account, relatively, while
the man who is the main stay of the unlicensed rum-
sellers, and who has reduced to a science the study of
how to get the last possible cent out of Worcester in
exchange for rum, is hailed by men in sober senses,
perhaps, by such salutations as "Mighty Lord ! Heav-
enly King!" If he could fix it so that he could rob
twice the number of families of comfortable food and
clothing, would these people who sang to him the other
night put a crown on him? Perhaps that is why nat-
ure or rum usually keeps his visage decorated with
most strangely mottled colors — royal purple, the bright-
est yellow and heavy green being often scattered about
his face in irregular spots. These, it seems, are kingly
emblems.
CHAPTER IX.
THE AMERICAN MOVEMENT.
REAL PROHIBITION.
Were lodgery a religious evil only its righting could
be left with the churches, but it is as despotic and anti-
republican as it is pagan and anti-Christian. Its teach-
ings, philosophy and practices are as destructive of real
patriotism as of true piety. Its royal technique, high
sounding titles of nobility and monarchy aping makeup
stamp it as thoroughly un-American, treasonable and
dangerous. Its mid-night plotting and clandestine pro-
ceedings are a standing menace to personal liberty and
popular government, A standing army, sworn to the
very life to kingcraft and priestcraft omens the down-
fall of our beloved Republic unless promptly met and
grappled with. Did all Christians and patriots realize
the plans now maturing in the higher lodge circles for
the overthrow of our free institutions there would be
such a popular uprising as would sweep the whole
lodge progeny back to the bottomless pit, from whence
it came. Already a mighty tide is rising, and the men
in the lead simply mean civil and religious liberty is
worth contending for. We know many of them and
they have the devotion and courage for the occasion.
In a temperance speech at Plattsburg, Mo., Rev. Sam-
uel Small said: "You Republicans need not build
yourselves up and say the Democratic party is the
whisky party. You had absolute control of the Gov-
ernment for twenty-four years, and when you left it
146
REAL PROHIBITION. I47
the country was drenched, and doomed and damned
with liquor from Maine to California."
The stealing of the Voice list for campaign purposes
and the exposure of that rascality has widened the
breach between the Republicans and the Prohibition-
ists. The triumphant Republicans will successfully
hoodwink the temperance men in that party. The
Prohibitionists can hope but little from disgruntled
Democrats in the next few years. Lodge- ridden pro-
hibition for the time being has been weighed in the
balance and found wanting. Perhaps the brainiest
man in the Republican party at this moment (1S91) Is
at the head of Harrison's cabinet. We do not by any
means say the best or most patriotic man, but the ablest
politician. He was "the power behind the throne" in
Garfield's administration, and the present one reflects
his presence. To Blaine, more than to any one else, is
the Republican party indebted for its recent triumph.
Especially was his tobacco and whisky policy the Hoc
Signo Vinces that led to glorious victory. It was the
real Shibboleth of the campaign. Under it the Na-
tional Republican Committee and the saloonatics
worked in harmony. Blaine, it seems is not a lodgeite.
He has his weaknesses, but has he as yet sworn away
his personal liberty and independence to any lodge
despotism? The lodge did not want the "plumed
knight" for president, and it had more to do with his
defeat than "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion. " But
he is once more nearest the chief executive and again
the cynosure of all eyes. We do not believe all this is
mere accident. Neither the lodgeites nor the Prohibi-
148 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
tionists are pleased at the re-ir statement of J. G. Blaine
at the head of civil affairs. And just now wild chaos is
visible in the political heavens. A storm is gathering
that will ere long burst with terrific fury. Everything
points to a day of reckoning that will call the rising
oppressor to account. Bible scholars are conjuring up
a most fearful war to which all former commotions are
as nothing. We are not looking up prophecy on the
matter, but from the signs of the times we are on the
eve of a great political commotion that will lay judg-
ment to the line and make millionaires and men in pal-
aces tremble with fear. Let the poor people organize
openly and above board for justice, law and order.
Listen to the words of the noted T. Dewitt Talmage
who, in an able sermon says: "The Republican
party was formed to kill slavery. Slavery is dead
and damned. The Republican party having achieved
what it started for had better pass out ot existence.
The Democratic party was formed by Thomas Jef-
ferson to oppose the adoption of laws primogeniture
by which the eldest son got all of the inheritance,
to drive out of the land all foreign titles, and to
give equal rights to all classes of people. Having ac-
complished that work, its mission seems ended. We
are now ready for a party organized for new, particu-
lar, supreme, God-given work." The influential Chi-
cago Times remarks: ''There is one party in the
country which has, or imagines it has a reason to be,
that is something different from that of getting posses-
sion of the offices and enjoying the spoik thereof.
This party with an object in life calls itself the Ameri-
REAT> PROHIBITION. I49
can party." The Sandy Lake (Pa.) News^ asserts:
"No other party takes such broad, comprehensive,
statesman -like position on the living issues of the times."
The J^ree Methodist^ organ of that denomination in
this country, volunteers: "We see in it substantially
the platform that must be adopted to save this nation
from moral ruin and miserable overthrow. It ought to
have the hearty support of the thinking, independent,
honest voters of this Republic." The Christian Worker^
Chicago, speaking for the Quaker (Friends) church of
America: "The party embraces some of the strongest,
purest and most courageous men in the nation, and in
the convention w^hich met here there vv^as exhibited
much ability, and great sincerity and earnestness."
The Evangelical Repository ^oi Pittsburgh, appeal-
ing to the Christian voter, says: "Have they not the
poveer if they will use it to bring forward a Christian
statesman and elect him — one who will give the whole
influence of the executive officer against Sabbath dese-
cration by the several departments of the government;
against Mormonism or rather Mormon polygamy;
against all those secret anti-republican organizations
which are now a potent factor in American politics; and
who would stand fairly on such a platform as has been
adopted by the American party ? If the Christian peo-
ple will demand such a platform as the above and back
their demand by the power they are capable of wield-
ing, this will be the platform of the grandest political
organization that has ever sought the control of the
government."
T he Christian Statesman^ Philadelphia: "It must
150 THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK,
not be forgotten that the American party which pro-
tests against the secret orders, and which in 1884 ^"'
dorsed the Prohibition candidates and voted for them,
has maintained for years the following declarations in
its platform: i. That ours is a Christian and not a
heathen nation, and that the God of the Christian
Scriptures is the author of civil government, 2. That
the Bible should be associated with books of science
and literature in all our educational institutions. 3.
That God requires and man needs a Sabbath."
Every Christian should ponder well the principles
of the American platform and especially opposition to
rings, cliques, clans and midnight cabals. Free Press^
Birmingham, la.: "In our opinion the grandest plat-
form ever brought forward for the approval of the
American people is that presented by the American
party. It endorses all those principles of righteousness
and truth which are the foundation of good govern-
ment." Washington Sword: "We congratulate the
Anti- Secrecy Reform movement in its acquisition of a
valuable and substantial edifice in this city, to be used
as the ^headquarters' of this branch of the work.
Thus a 'battery' is planted in the national capital,
which we trust will vigorously open and continue its
fire upon the *enemy' until an unconditional surrender
is forced upon them."
FROM THE CYNOSURE AND ITS EDITOR:
Why not postpone the grapple with the lodge till
the saloon is disposed of? Because the lodge shelters
the saloon.
REAL PROHIBITION. I51
But some excellent men tell us that the American
party is dead! They are mistaken. It cannot die, so
long as there are ten men who vote for its principles.
If the Prohibition party swallowed up the American,
it will come out of its stomach as Jonah did out of the
whale's belly, alive and kicking. We think in this
case Jonah is more likely to swallow the whale.
The Prohibition party must shake off its secret bar-
nacles or God will shake it off. A party made up in
part of secret temperance lodges, pledged or sworn to
conceal their proceedings from the open temperance
alliance is a monster, like a calf with two heads, one
black and the other white: and the black head will
suck all the milk and starve the other.
"The American party" was formed and its platform
adopted in 1S72. Prominent prohibitionists have dis-
liked the name of their party, and desired a change.
The name American is so national, so appropriate to a
national party, and our platform is so exactly a repro-
duction of the principles of the founders of the United
States, against priestism, aristocracy, monarchy, regalia,
and titles that everybody likes it, and two attempts have
been made to filch it from us.
The party has already accomplished much. Its plat-
form was declared by the late able, learned and popu-
lar Professor Sloane in the Philadelphia Christian
Statesman^ "Altogether the best platform ever put be-
fore the American people." The Prohibition party
paid us the compliment of adopting our first article
almost ^^ipsissimis verbis,'^'* We hold that God is the
Author of civil government, etc., which is a platform
152 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
in itself. And that "God requires and man needs a
Sabbath" is now pressing its way to the front.
The whole American platform is already proved to
be American by the sanction of the American people.
We have one great advantage over the Liberty party.
That was sectional. We are not. Our speakers can
now speak. Mr. Hinman has spoken all through the
South, where the first Liberty candidates would have
been lynched if they had attempted to address the
voters.
Will the. Prohibition party succeed? We answer
"No; but its principles will." For a national party the
name is narrow and unpopular. If a vote were to be
taken now, the name Prohibition would not be adopted.
The Voice and the Lever have received many letters,
desiring a change.
What now are we to do? We have Hon. Halleck
Floyd, who has been a State Senator and skillful poli-
tician with a fearless integrity and a pleasing and im-
pressive address. He is now holding conventions
against the lodge minions and their attempts to secret-
ize. He is a better speaker for a crowd than was Sen-
ator Chase. F. W. Capwell has in him the elements
of an able statesman, and if pushed to it can speak.
J. W. Wood, of Wisconsin, M. R. Britten, of the same
State, Wm. Pitt Norris, of Iowa, not to mention many
others whose names are familiar as laborers in our
cause, each of whom is lit to drill American voters and
enlist volunteers.
The American party meets lodge swindling in its
own families and households. The lodge ruin works
REAL PROHIBITION. I53
as silent as chloroform, and is as fatal both in church
and state.
The Morgan anti-Masons were ignorant of the na-
ture and power of the lodge. J. Q. Adams puzzled
over it as "a phenomenon." Webster censured it as
"wrong in the principle of its formation ;" Seward, in
magnificent sentences showed it "hostile to every gov-
ernment it cannot control;" and Stevens, though with
clearer understanding and bitter hatred, had none but
political opposition to give. So these great men let
the lodge hide behind the slave-pens of the South; and
Satan hid his worship under the smoke and blood of
the civil war till slavery fell; and is now ready to renew
the fight against God and man.
Nothing is more awful than the stillness which pre-
cedes storms, unless it be the storm itself. For a time
before the volcanic upheaval of our slavery war, which
filled eighty-two Southern graveyards with Northern
dead, there was a season of tranquility underneath
which churches prospered, and politics were compara-
tively peaceful. But the moral atmosphere was grow-
ing heavy with the miasms which breed pestilence, to
be dispensed by social storms and earthquakes, as thun-
der storms clear and purify a murky atmosphere.
Death held high carnival. And Bull Run, the battle
of the Wilderness, Vicksburg and Gettysburg, looked
to the beholders as if wrath would end the United
States in ruin. But, all the while, amid the roar and
shrieks of battle, the herald angels' song was descend-
ing,
"On earth peace and good will to men."
154 '^^^^- AMERICAN HAND IJOOK.
The Bible gives no place for presumption or despair.
The Chief Justice of the United States sold his own
nephews and nieces, born of his brother's slave woman,
on the auction block with their mother, and with mules,
horses, hogs and cattle. A constable dragged a Metho-
dist preacher from his knees while praying for slaves,
and the Methodist General Conference voted to cen-
sure the same good man (George Storrs) for the same
act. Abolitionists were in personal diinger while silent
in stage coaches or walking the streets.
Yet, Presbyterian and Congregational ministers once
closed every pulpit door against Charles G. Finney from
Oberliu to Boston; and in 1836 the ^Methodist General
Conference met in Cincinnati, censured two of their
best men — George Storrs and Orange vScott — for pray-
ing at an anti-slavery meeting in that city. And in
1868, at Chicago, the same General Conference re-
scinded that censure "for the honor of the church,"
after Storrs and Scott were dead and slavery had fallen.
That wicked and merciless censure had stood on their
records thirty-two years. Popular opinion was now
changed, and that unpopular record was wiped out, but
no regrets expressed for their wicked treatment of two
Methodist preachers who were prophets of God and
goodness.
When slavery fell, almost all the devils which run
the slave system went into the secret lodge, and the
orthodox and evangelical clergy are repeating the blun-
der of their fathers.
Slavery lifted up its snake crest and rushed between
the lodge and its assailants. The lodge being false
REAL PROHIBITION.
'55
worship, is worth more to Satan's kindom than shivery.
The devil, therefore, threw slavery in as a breastwork
to defend the lodge from the dashing waves of~ public
opinion and popular discussion. It was swept away,
and we are now face to face with lodgeism, which pre-
sents the simple issue, worship Christ or worship Satan.
The lodge is therefore the last hope of the devil.
The lodge difficulty is identical with that of slavery.
Freemasonry is to-day unpopular with the great mass
of good men; and yet there are Masons in all the
prominent Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist,
Baptist, and especially Episcopalian, churches.
The need of educating the people to vote against the
lodge is, if possible, greater than was then the need of
instruction in anti- slavery voting.
And as ex-Senator Pomeroy says: "If there had
been no lodges, there had been no rebellion."
Slavery was local ; the lodge girdles the globe. And
the auction block, crying off hogs, horses, men, mothers
and children, to the highest bidder, was not so fatal to
American principles and free institutions as socialism,
which is the atheism of Masonry gone to seed.
In short the lodges are to-day everywhere unpopular
and growing more so. Let us
•*Pour in light on Pluto's drear abode,
Abhorred by men and dreadful e'en to gods."
Let us launch our ship and man it, with our platform
nailed to the mast, and the whole loathsome progeny of
darkness will speedily disappear with the cobble-chains,
hand-cuffs, fetters, whips and auction blocks of slavery.
The United States of America swears its president
156 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
on the Bible; and its courts swear by the God of the
Bible. All parties countenancing other oaths counten-
ance treason, and are un-American.
Now the American party proposes to withdraw these
lodge-charters, and prohibit their oaths by the votes of
the American people; and the Cynosure believes it can
and will be done. God is everywhere "raising up a
standard" against these dreary abodes of darkness and
moral death.
Prohibitionists who are such from conviction, ten
to one are opposed to secret societies. Mrs. Mary B.
VVillard, Mary Allen West, and almost every woman
speaker at the Washington Woman Suffrage Conven-
tion loathe the secret orders and make no secret of their
loathing. Why cannot steps be taken to form one
great American party under the American nam.e, and
speedily?
The devil himself, by his lodge-progeny, tiie secret
temperance lodges, has turned reformer and prohibi-
tionist! All know that Masons are sworn to have their
throats cut, or stand by and back their brother Masons
who are distillers, brewers and saloonists. What is the
matter with St. John? What with Frances E. Wil-
lard and others? Neither of these leaders have any
doubt that the lodge is an accursed thing, St. John
took enough Masonry in two or three years to make
him forsake and despise it for twenty. He knows that
secret societies, the litter of the lodge, sunk him some
fifty thousand votes, and defeated him as governor,
while his whole ticket was elected except himself.
Why then docs he not publicly thank us Americans for
REAL PROHIBITION.
157
our vote last fall? The reason is there are enough
devil worshipers among the Prohibitionists, as there
were among the Kansas Republicans, Prohibitionists
to single him out and wolf him down. We are not
censuring St. John. He is brave and good; and may
yet turn on the lodges as Lincoln did on slavery, though
he quailed before it for awhile. So Miss Willard and
her sister- were taught by godly parents that the lodge
spoiled such great and good men as DeWitt Clinton,
and was red with murder and black with treason. If
either Frances or Mary B. Willard were forced to the
oath they would swear their lives against the lodge.
The Voice editor is personally opposed to secret
societies, but does not put his opposition in the Voice,
The Western Good Templar^ published in this city,
[Chicago] has its eyes op.en at last to the harm of se-
crecy in the temperance work, and has been urging the
entire abolition of the "unwritten" or secret work, and
large changes in the ritual. Of course the old office-
holders and "moss-backs" in the order hotly object.
They have everything by way of perquisites, titles,
lodge dignities and juggleries to lose if the organiza-
tion is made open as the day, a place for Americans
and Christians to work together against the rum power.
But let the good work go on. "Orders" should be out
of date, secret obligations outlawed, and bombastic titles
made the ridicule of the street in this free country.
We would suggest now the plan of putting a ticket
in the field as soon as the pending election is past as a
means of creating public sentiment for 1892.
Let us emulate the zeal of the Prohibitionists, raise
158 TUG AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
money; form clubs; in short ^^push things.'^'* And
long before the next Federal election, we can form a
sort of "Lewis Tappan agency," which will show
every man's standing to his family and the world, and
then every man who skulks behind a tyled door, to
"brother" with whatever he finds behind it, will be
despised by the sensible, and pitied by the good. That
has been done once. And what has been done, can be
done again.
Rev Arthur Pierson, D. D., says: "The fulness of
the times has surely come for the last great crusade
against the powers of darkness. Everything is provi-
dentially ripe and ready." And he adds: "Ail arountl,
the signs are appearing which indicate to him who
watches, that a more momentous era is at hand than
historic pen ever chronicled or artistic pencil ever illus-
trated."
The Armageddon: It begins to look as though
the last great moral conflict of the mighty ages would
undoubtedly be fought in the valley of the Mississippi.
Are the combined evils of all other lands here deploy-
ing their sable forces for the final struggle of the great
day of God Almighty? Are the armies of tlie living
God, led by him whose name is called "The Word of
God," going up against Gog and Magog, and will fire
from heaven devour the children of Satan from off the
earth? Read and study those startling scenes unfolded
to mortal man in the book of Revelation, and let him
that readeth understand.
CHAPTER X,
THE POOR MAN'S BIBLE.
■' "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."
From Adam to the jDresentjfrom now to the judgment,
from the cradle to the grave, Hfe has been and will be
a battle for bread. Other questions may claim our at-
tention at times, but every father and mother, every
son and daughter of the Republic must fight this battle
daily, unless, perchance, some one else has fought and
won for them a competence. The man and woman
who inherits position and wealth are fortunate to be
sure, yet they deserve no particular credit therefor, and
often this luxury represents usurpation and misfortune
for others. There are many such in all countries.
There are times in all ages and in every land when the
struggle for bread is tremendous, and warring elements,
socially and politically, yea, and religiously, contend
for precedence and power. Upon the result human
weal or woe depends. America is drifting to such a
crisis. Never before in the history of our country have
all classes become so absorbed in adjusting this matter.
Statesmen, sages, politicians, demagogues, parties, leg-
islatures, newspapers and organizations are swallowed
up in the agitation. Labor and capital is the watch-
word everywhere. Good, b kI and indifferent move-
ments are busily engaged in pushing forward the labor
discussion. And if Christianity and the Bible are of
any use to humanity it is at such hours as this when
national upheaval is visible on every hand. It is at
such critical moments that the Church should raise a
l6o THE AMERICAN HAND BOOK.
standard and point to the source of all wisdom in de-
termining the true relation of man to his fellow-man.
This chapter is sent forth to Chrfstian citizens and
Bible believers, and especially to set our American re-
formers to reading and studying the issue as set forth
in God's revealed will to man. All other plans will
prove misleading, unsatisfactory and disastrous. To
the decalogue, the golden rule, and revelation, then, let
the nation turn for instruction and the knowledge which
cometh from God alone.
God's Plans and Methods.
BY RAY RAND, THE COUNTRY PHILOSOPHER.
The rich are certainly welcome to all the consolation
they can find in the Bible. Our Saviour was born in a
stable, cradled in a manger, and had not where to lay
his head. When a rich man came to Jesus, the com-
mand was. Go sell what thou hast and give it to the
poor. The rich man and Lazarus, together with the
passages in this reading, paint an awful looking for in
store for the capitalist and money-changer. A minis-
ter to-day would hardly dare read some of these Script-
ures to a wealthy congregation. The laboring man
has God, the Bible and the Christian religion on his
side, and this is of vast importance in a discussion like
this, if rightly brought to bear. This great labor ques-
tion has got to be settled, and, if not settled right,
America will pass through a conflict unparalleled in
all history. The professed Christian people of the
United States carry a weighty responsibility in this
matter. The gospel, the church, and the ministry, to
THE POOR man's BIBLE. l6l
deserve the confidence of the poor, should not hesitate
or falter in a struggle for the oppressed and down trod-
den. Is the church too narrow, or God's arm shortened,
that His church can not espouse the cause of the hum-
ble, or lead the struggles of the lowly? God help
every Bible believer to do his whole duty in these peril-
ous times. God's word is truth, the declaration of any
skeptic to contrary notwithstanding; stand by the truth
and the truth will make us free.
GOD'S TRUTH.
"The rich and the poor meet together: the Lord is
the maker of them all."
The fundamental doctrine of the American Common-
wealth is — We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And this brings us to the great fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man, and every good citizen prac-
tically recognizes this human.equality.
"The righteous considereth the cause of the poor:
but the wicked regardeth not to know it." How many
in our land ever think of this, much less act religiously
and politically in harmony therewith? "Blessed is he
that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him
in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and
keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth,
and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his ene-
mies.^' Not only is it a blessed privilege for the more
fortunate citizens to remember the less fortunate, but it
is their bounden duty as well. The command is — "De-
l62 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
fend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted
and needy. Deliver the poor and needy, rid them out
of the hand of the wicked." But says one, I am too
busy looking after other questions to take any hand in
this labor agitation. Are you? "Whoso stoppeth his
ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself
and shall not be heard." The Bible goes even still fur-
ther. "If there be a poor man of one of thy brethren
vs^ithin thy gates in the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee, thou slialt not harden thine heart, nor shut
thine hand from thy poor brother. But thou shalt
open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend
him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth.
For the poor shall never cease out of the land, there-
fore I command thee saying, Thou shalt open thine
hand wide unto thy brother and to thy poor, and to thy
needy in thy land." That of course refers to the
worthy poor, the unfortunate, the Lord's poor. "He
that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he
that despiseth the gain of oppression, that-shaketh his
hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears
from hearing of blood, that shutteth his eyes from see-
ing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense
shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given
him ; his waters shall be sure." Men who have given
their lives to the ministry, to teaching, to science, to the
promulgation of patriotism in the state, to the propa-
gation of righteous but unpopular principles; many such
have given their whole mind, might, and energy to some
ennobling, but unremunerative work for the honor of
God and the elevation of humanity, have battled with
poverty and died in penury.
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 163
"Better is the poor that walketh in his righteousness,
than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
A faithful man shall abound with blessings; but he
that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. But
they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare
and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men
in destruction and perdition." There is a mad rush
for wealth and everything is swallowed up in money-
making. All the finer instincts are being rapidly ab-
sorbed by the sordid grasp for property. 6ut consider,
and when you see a man begin to accumulate wealth
and become miserly and heartless in his dealings with
his fellow men, do not follow in his footsteps. "Envy
thou not the oppressor and choose none of his ways.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches and
he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want."
For a time the world may frown on the poor and
fawn at the rich. "The poor is hated even of his own
neighbors; but the rich hath many friends. The poor
useth intreaties, but the rich answcreth roughly." The
rich and powerful rejected the lowly Nazarine, and on
the day of crucifixion declared his life a failure; so
said Pope and jDriests when Luther was hidden in the
Wartburg; so said the persecutors of John Bunyan as
he lay chained in Bedford jail; and so said the proud
:;nd wealthy and the First Families of Virginia when
old John Brown swung between earth and sky at
Charleston. But, redeemed believer, was the work of
the despised Nazarine and the gospel he gave the world
a failure? The Word of God, the angels, and the
blood-washed throng that no man can number, answer:
164 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of
things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things
under the earth; and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father." Every protestant on his knees thanks God
for Luther and the great Reformation, while hundreds
of thousands have lived nobler, grander, better lives
for having read Pilgrim's Progress. The Church Ad-
vocate says: "John Brown at Harper's Ferry was the
prince of fanatics only to be canonized afterward.
William Lloyd Garrison, John G. Whittier and Wen-
dell Phillips, a half century ago, were the crazed and
erratic spokesmen of the dispensation of fool-hardiness,
and now their fanaticism is part of the national Consti-
tution. Time has shown that they were wise while the
public was crazy.** Governor Wise, of the Old Do-
minion, with all his pomp and power, has returned to
mother earth unhonored and unsung. But the soul of
poor John Brown is still marching on, and millions of
freedmen and multiplied millions of patriots cherish
the memory of that grand old man who was hanged as
a malefactor, an outcast and an outlaw. "Be thou not
afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his
house is increased, for when he dieth he shall carry
nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him."
Rothschild, f'anderbilt, and Jay Gould, with all their
ill-gotten gains, will soon be forgotten. They have
swayed courts and manipulated legislatures here, but in
the great hereafter,and sometimes in this life, the tables
are turned. The recording angel can be neither bought
nor bribed. "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 1 65
his Maker: but he that honoureth Him hath mercy on
the poor. The Lord executeth righteousness and judg-
ment for all that are oppressed. The Lord will be
refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save
the children of the needy and shall break in pieces the
oppressor. For he shall deliver the needy when he
crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. I
know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the
afflicted and the right of the poor. Rob not the poor
because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the
gate: for the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the
soul of those that spoil them. What mean ye that ye
beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the
poor? saitii the Lord of Hosts." Nothing in this,
struggle escapes the All-Seeing Eye. "If thou seest
the oppression of the poor and the violent perverting
of judgment and justice in a province marvel not at
the matter; for he that is higher than the highest re-
gardeth, and there be higher than they. There is a
generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw-
teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth
and the needy from among men." And then the spir't
of the prophet seems to have looked far down the vista
of time to our own day and generation. "So I re-
turned and considered all the oppressions that are done
under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were
oppressed, and they had no comforter, and on the side
of the oppressor there was power, but they had no com-
forter. Some remove the landmarks. They violently
take away flocks and feed thereof. They drive away
1 66 THE AMERICAN IIAXD-BOOK.
the ass of the fatherless, and take the widow's ox for a
pledge. They turn the needy out of the way. The
poor of the earth hide themselves together. They
cause the naked to lodge without clothing and they
take away the sheaf from the hungry. The people of
the land have used oppression and have exercised rob-
bery, and have vexed the poor and needy. Yea they
have oppressed the stranger wrongfully." This is
being literally fulfilled on every side at this hour. And
now let the professed Christian listen. Here is a com-
mand direct to the church. "O house of David, thus
saith the Lord, Execute judgment in the morning, and
deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the op-
pressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that
none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the
needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him
in safety from him that puffeth at him. For the needy
shall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the
poor shall not perish forever. For thou hast been a
strength for the poor, a strength for the needy in dis-
tress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
when the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against
the wall." What a grand leader! He that led Israel
out of Egyptian bondage. A leader who never lost a
battle. And the day of reckoning is coming. "Woe
unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness
and his chambers by wrong ; that useth his neighbor^
service without wages and giveth him not for his work,
that saith, I will build me a wide house and large cham-
bers, and cutteth him out windows, and it is ceiled with
THE POOR man's BIBLB. 1 67
cedar and painted with vermilion. Thou shalt not op-
press an hired servant that is poor and needy, vvrhether
he be of thy brethren or of the strangers that are in
thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire,
neither shall the sun go down upon it, lest he cry
against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."
Let the poor take courage. Their cause is in safe
keeping. And when the rich fall into the hands of
the Almighty they have indeed a hard road to travel.
Hearken! "But woe unto you that are rich! for ye
have received your consolation. Then said Jesus unto
his disciples. Verily I say unto you, That a rich man
shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And
again I say unto you. It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to en-
ter the kingdom of heaven." Who says this? Em-
manuel, the Shiloh, the Blessed Messiah, our Mighty
Counsellor, our Saviour and Redeemer, the Lion of
the Tribe of Judah, the Prince of the House of David,
Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords; he
who was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, the
son of the mechanic Joseph, and who, as a youth,
worked at the carpenter's trade with his father, and
who, as a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief,
footsore, hungry and weary, tramped the rocky roads
and heated sands of Palestine, only to die on the cross
between two thieves. What a wonderful career, and
what tremendous results! All history pointing for-
ward to his advent, all time commemorating his hum-
ble birth, the salvation of every soul between two
eternities depending on this sublime and august being.
l68 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Every human birth and death recorded, dating to the
Christian era. Every letter posted, every bank draft,
dolhir, dime, law enacted, legal account and document
acknow^ledging Him w^hose chosen companions w^ere
fishermen, tanners, tent makers and sewing women,
and the proof of whose ministry was that the poor
have the gospel preached unto them. Poets, sages and
bards have vied in doing him homage. His teachings
and precepts are in every civilized home in Christen-
dom. The ministry, the laity, the multitudes of Sab-
bath-school children, proclaim his divinity, call upon
him and sing his praises. All humanity, heaven, earth
and hell are at his command. *'For there is none other
name given under heaven or among men, whereby we
must be saved. He that climbeth up any other way,
the same is a thief and robber." He who drove the
buyers and sellers out of the Temple, and overthrew
the tables of the money changers, has little adoration
from the rich, and little chance, indeed , have they of
heaven. But what a grand friend and leader for the
poor, the needy and the oppressed ! Their help in ages
past, their hope in years to come. ''This country boy
of Nazareth, came forth to atone for the sins of the
world, and to correct the follies of the world, and to
stamp out the cruelties of the world, and to illumine
the darkness of the world, and to transfigure the hem-
ispheres," spake Dr. Talmage in a recent sermon. "So
it has been the mission of the country boys in all ages
to transform and inspire and rescue. They come into
our merchandise, and our court- rooms, and our healing
art, and our studios, and our theology. They lived in
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 169
Nazareth before they entered Jerusalem. And but for
that annual influx our cities would have enervated, and
sickened, and slain the race. Late hours, and hurtful
apparel, and overtaxed digestive organs, and crow^ded
environments of city life, would have halted the world,
but the valleys and mountains of Nazareth have given
a fresh supply of health and moral invigoration to Je-
rusalem, and the country saves the town. From the
hills of New Hampshire, and the hills of Virginia, and
the hills of Georgia, come into our national eloquence
the Websters and the Clays and the Henry W. Gradys.
From the plain homes of Massachusetts and Maryland
come our national charities, the George Peabodys, and
;he William Corcorans. From the cabins of the lonely
country regions come into our national destinies the
Andrew Jacksons and the Abraham Lincolns. From
the plowboy's furrow, and village counter, and black-
smith's forge, come most of our city giants."
The wealth, fashion, and folly militates to the towns
and cities. Bankers, speculators and capitalists gener-
ally reside in the commercial marts of a nation, and
concoct schemes for swindling the rural population.
Their plans are skillfully laid and heartlessly carried
out. Let him that readeth understand. "Trust ye in
the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. For he bringeth down them that dwell on
high. The lofty city, he layeth it low, even in the
dust. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of
the poor and the steps of the needy." Are we living in
the last days? The picture of Babylon in Revelation
is but a reflection of New York, New Orleans, Boston,
I70
THE AMERICAN HANB-BOOIC.
Chicago and San Francisco, and other commercial marts
of America, and her doom is theirs. Turn to and read.
"The merchants of these things, which were made
rich by her, shall stand afar off for fear of her torment,
weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great
city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and
scarlet and decked with gold, and precious stones, and
pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to
naught. And every shipmaster, and all the company
in ships, and sailors, and as many as traded by sea stood
afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her
torment, saying. What city is like unto this great city?
And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping
and wailing, saying: Alas, alas that great city wherein
\7ere made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason
of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles
and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
The wicked have drawn out the sword and bent their
bow, to cast down the poor and needy and shiy such as
be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter
their own heart and their bow shall be brokeji." He
that taketh the sword SHALL perish by the sword, is
the divine fiat. ''Forasmuch therefore as your treading
is upon the poor, and ye take from birr, burdens of
wheat; ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye
shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vine-
yards, but ye shall not drink wine of them." How
does that strike the nabobs in their palatial residences?
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your mis-
eries that shall come upon you. Your riches are cor-
THE POOR man's BIBLE. I^I
rupted, and your garments, are motheaten. Your gold
and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a
witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were
fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for the last
days. Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped
down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud,
crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are
entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have
lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton: ye
have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth
not resist you. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the
needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, say-
ing, when will the new moon be gone that we may
sell corn? and the Sabbath that we may set forth
wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great,
and falsifying the balances by deceit? that we may buy
the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes;
yea and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord hath
sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never
forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble
for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein?
and it shall come up wholly as a flood, even it shall be
cast out and drowned as by the flood of Egypt. And
it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God,
that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will
darken the earth in the clear day; and I will turn all
your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lam-
entations; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins and
baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the
mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bit-
172 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
ter day." What a terrible indictment. Here is medi-
cine for our Boards of Trade, with their banquets, the
Arbuckles and the Spreclvles, and the Congressmen,
who make the value of the dollar great and the pound
and the bushel small. Old Hutchinson, and Allerton
might profit by this. They have been squeezing but
they will get squeezed. "This is the portion of a
wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors,
which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his chil-
dren be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring
shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that remain
of him shall be buried in death; and his widow shall
not weep. Though he heap up silver as the dust and
prepare raiment as the clay, he may prepare it, but the
just shall put it on and the innocent shall divide the
silver." This is not the ravings of some socialist, an-
archist, professional labor agitator or walking delegate.
It is God's dealing with rich oppressors, and justice
will be dealt to the uttermost farthing. Every tear,
and sigh, and groan, and insult from oppression will be
amply atoned for. But let the haughty oppressor read
on; he must drink the bitter cup to the very dregs.
"Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand
at his right hand. When he shall be judged let him be
condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his
da3^s be few and let another take his office. Let his
children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his
children be continual vagabonds and beg: let them seek
their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the
extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the stranger
spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 1 73
unto him ; neither let there be any to favor his father-
less children. Let his posterity be cut off and in the
generation following let their names be blotted out.
Let the iniquities of his father be remembered with
the Lord: let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may
cut off the memory of them from the earth. Because
that he remembered not to show mercy but persecuted
the poor and needy man; that he might even slay the
broken hearted." If that is not total annihilation, then
what is it? Well may mortal-man stand in awe before
such tremendous judgments soon to be visited upon
those who are causing so much poverty, want and suf-
fering. Father, you who are on a rented farm, or whose
humble home is hopelessly mortgaged, who find it hard
to make ends meet, and whose wife and little ones even
in health must often go without proper food and suf-
ficient clothing, God is your book-keeper, and he
makes no mistakes. It will all be right by and by. It
is difficult for sober, industrious men in the country,
with health and fair property, to clothe and educate a
family and live comfortably; it is far worse in the cities
and towns for the mechanic and day laborer. And to
all human appearance matters are rapidly going from bad
to worse, the rich are becoming richer, the poor poorer.
The demagogues, disgruntled politicians and designing
agitators are in the labor ranks in full force. Every
good citizen should be ready for action. The church
should not be idle at a time like this. As an educator
it should take advanced ground and heartily espouse
the cause of the honest toiler, not shunning to declare
174 '^"^ AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
the whole gospel on this great issue. Let every pastor
instruct his congregation and point them to the Word
of God as the great standard and compass chart that is
to lead onward and upward. If the church stands by
the gospel, stand by it. Christ was a mechanic and
wielded the hammer, the saw and the plane. He was
poorer than the poorest, and possessed no earthly home.
His Apostles had neither script nor purse, while teach-
ing the doctrines of salvation and human equality.
They were not tramps, paupers or beggars. Are the
servants of to-day greater than the Master? He who
drove the money changers, buyers and sellers out of
the Temple will never leave nor forsake the worthy
poverty-stricken and down-trodden. And if His church
shall live up to its high privilege, it will come out of
this great battle fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and
terrible as an army with banners. Run out the script-
ural references, and make the most of them as this is
only a few of the many on this tremendous theme.
Above all let no one, whether church communicant or
not, think for a moment that he can ignore God, dis-
card the Bible, spurn Christ's example and teachings,
and yet hope to succeed.
Pith and point; "What is the use of preaching
the Gospel to men whose whole attention is concen-
trated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep them-
selves alive?" — General Booth. To harmonize our
social compact with the gospel means evolution, and
mayhap revolution. Let us get onto gospel ground as
fast as possible. The Arena says: "According to a
leading New York daily, there are 40,000 women and
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 1 75
girls in that city whose wages are so low that they
must embrace vice, accept charity or starve; while one
clergyman receives $35,000 a year and others receive
$20,000 a year for preaching the Gospel to the rich."
New York is no exception, and all of our larger
cities show a like lamentable state, so that we do not
need to turn to ''Darkest England" or even Stanley
and his Africa, but on our own shores is blackest Egyp-
tian night to dispel. An excerpt from a sermon by
Rev. Dr. Carlos Martyn of the First Reformed Church,
Newark, N. J., is to the point just here. He said: <'In
all our larger cities there is a class who esteem them-
selves too good for common folk. Having made money
by packing pork or brewing beer, they now ape the lilies,
and toil not, neither do they spin — save in the dance:
McAllister tells us how they occupy themselves. It
seems then, that they have reduced eating to a fine art.
Life is elegant gluttony. Dressing, too, is another em-
ployment of the 'Four Hundred.' The men suggest
Beau Brummel, who threw his whole soul into the tie
of his cravat. The women undress, and then by a
strange abuse of language call their nudity *full dress.'
Decollete is a foreign wa}' of spelling indecency. Hav-
ing dressed and dined, the 'Four Hundred' proceed to
dance. Their only events are learning a new waltz
step, or the changing fashion. Augustus Fltznoodle
and Florinda Ta-ta are not prolific in ideas. He sucks
the head of his cane for a living, and she does nothing
more useful than to ogle and flutter and cry, 'Oh, how
nice!' Such are the serious employments of beings
calling themselves rational and Christian. There is a
176 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
strife among them in ostentatious vulgarity. Accord-
ing to a recent critic such a society should have for its
coat of arms, a gilt shield, w^ith an empty champagne
bottle, couchant, a knife and fork, rampant, quartered
with a greenback and a fiddle, and bov^, w^ith the motto,
'Whose god is their belly.' This is the class who as-
sume to set the social pace, to give or withhold the so-
cial entree, and to decide who shall be in the 'swim.' "
The Twentieth Century delivers the following mono-
logue on "Society's Two Extremes," the very rich and
very poor: "When you read Ward McAllister's book
you have a picture of what our civilization has done for
the rich. If you will walk through the Mulberry
Street (New York), district, you will see what it has
done for the poor. Between the two extremes you
will find people of brains, of heart, of virtue. But
among the four hundred and in Mulberry Street you
will find two classes of people who are the counter-
parts of each other. With all their differences they
are marvelously alike. One is rich, the other is poor.
One class is respectable, the other is despised. One
class is pdlished, the other is boorish. One class is
clean, the other is filthy. But both are brainless, both
are heartless, both are sensual. One class eats fate de
foie gras^ the other garlic, but both live to eat. One
class drinks champagne, the other bad whisky, but
both live to drink. One class dances at Delmonico's,
the other in dives, but both live to dance. One class is
brutalized by poverty, Ihe other is sensualized by lux-
ury. The elegant Mr. McAllister, filled to the chin
with six kinds of wine, trying to get into his carriaj^c;
THE POOR man's BIBLE. I^y
and the filthy loafer soaked with stale beer, sleeping on
a lumber pile, are brothers. Both are idlers, both are
triflers, both are supported by the labor of others, both
are useless, both are barnacles. One has been lifted to
the top by our social system, the other has been kicked
to the bottom."
Despotism and dictation: The lodge is throt-
tling the labor forces as rapidly as possible. The tem-
perance element of the nation is largely in the rural
districts, and the lodge is swearing in the farmers and
working-men, and directing attention from the saloon
and prohibition into other channels. Men who are not
posted will doubt this, but our best informed anti-secret-
ists see but too plainly the trend of political affairs.
Powderly and his bodyguard of well-kept, well-fed
walking delegates, with their questionable methods and
dark lantern fraternity, are hourly sinking lower and
lower in the estimation of all independent American
workingmen. Free labor, not oathbound minions of
plotting conspiracy, are to receive the esteem and sym-
pathy of the American public. Business done in dark
garrets amid cobwebs and suspicious surroundings, in
the very nature of things, can be productive of noth-
ing but evil, and that continually. No honest cause
needs to sneak off in the dark to transact any respecta-
ble, legitimate business. Shame to any workman who
will kiss the hand of a heartless labor boss, and then
whine like a whipped cur because the public do not
sympathize with him in his degradation. The farmers
in some sections are to learn a lesson, and a costly one,
in this same line. The Chicago Inter Ocean says:
lyS THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
"On the other hand, the use of secret machinery by
any poHtical party to compel men to vote this way or
that is clearly illegal. It was tried in the case of the
old Know Nothings, and failed because it was out of
harmony with American independence of character.
Men sworn to obey blindly the direction of a commit-
tee, or to vote as a committee orders are little better than
slaves. If this is to be a feature of the new Labor
party it will be opposed by a good many men who are
classed as laborers."
The lodge idea is to absorb and destroy the individ-
uality of men. It invests the authority and manipula-
tion of government in the hands of a favored few.
Like Bellamy, it drifts into classes and concentration of
power. Personal ownership and merit is swallowed up
in one great corporation. "Corporations have no souls",
and the labor lodges are ready to destroy property and
life at a moment's notice.
Trade union tyranny: "The foreign nabobs
who propose to rule the country, are full of curses and
denunciations of the titled nobility of Europe, from
whose tyrannical exactions they have fled. But as
soon as they arrive here they set up a new style of
nobility, and with a bit of ribbon, a linen horse-collar,
a cocked hat with a feather in it, or some other sort of
*regalia', or royal dress ^ they pose as knights, command-
ers, princes, and what not; and when they have thus
pulled away at their boot-straps till they have elevated
themselves into knights, princes and noblemen, they
become as self-important, as impudent, and as tyran-
nical as any of the old European nobility which they
THE POOR MAN S BIBLE. 1 79
SO hate and denounce; and they would suffer an honest
workingman to starve rather than give him a helping
hand, and v^ould if possible prevent his getting work,
unless he was willing to swear allegiance to their gang,
pay tribute into their order, and join hands with them
in oppressing and tyrannizing over others." — The
Safeguard, "If there is a more arrogant, and, at the
same time a more un-American 'monopoly' than -this,
[Knights of Labor] we should like to discover it. In
the first place its designation implies a title of nobility,
and for these things we have no use in this country,
Workingmen especially would do well to beware of
them. They are monarchical and unrepublican. Our
revolutionary forefathers were jealous of all such imi-
tations of royal technique and hence they inserted in
the Constitution a clause prohibiting Congress from
conferring upon anybody any order of nobility. It is,
in addition to this a Secret Society, another circum-
stance which exposes it to suspicion." — New Tork
Commercial Bulletin,
Not satisfied with demanding and dictating right and
left, they must intimidate all free workmen. A "scab,"
in lodge parlance, is an independent American who
refuses to support a lot of jaw-smiths, walking dele-
gates and self-constituted bosses. Foreigners, saloon
loafers and shiftless roustabouts take to lodgery as a
duck does to water. All free labor must suffer because
of these dark, suspicious, conspiracies. What must be
the patriotism of the man who will bow the knee to
King Powderly, and own him as Grand Master? The
Farmer's and Laborer's Union is following in the same
l8o THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
wake, and the reaction will be even worse for honest
toil than has been that of artificial knighthood. The
late high-handed political lodge operation is arousing
the nation and turning all eyes toward lodgery. Dis-
cussion will follow, and the damnable system from
Masonry down to its youngest child will be sifted to
the dregs. "An exchange says that the Farmer's Alli-
ance, which is a secret order, has now at its head, the
ex-rebel Colonel Polk, who captured a Pennsylvania
company at the opening of the battle of Gettysburg.
Being pushed by the Union forces so that he could not
get away with the prisoners, he ordered them shot.
A special from Wichita, Kansas, states that he was
governor of the Salisbury prison during the war, and
tliat the old soldiers are vowing vengeance against him
for his many cruelties to the Union prisoners there con-
fined. The vice-president of the Alliance is B. F.
Clover, an old member of the Knights of the Golden
Circle, who was arrested in 1863, with Vallandigham.
Masonry is the mother of the Farmers' Alliance, and
what more natural than that it should bear her image
and superscription ?" — Boston Natiotial Home Guard.
All patriotic loyal citizens will detect the rank odor
of rebel secesh in the secret Alliance, The color line
in the order is a quarter of a century behind the age,
and is an ear mark of the Jeff Davis system. No po-
litical or religious reformatory movement that draws
the color line at this time deserves the indorsement or
support, but rather the contempt of true Americans.
What a sweet state of affairs for old soldiers and north-
ern people to tolerate.
THE POOR man's BIBLE. l8l
Kirivin i^Kan,) Chief: "Senator Harkness of Clay
county has been instructed by the Alliance to vote
against Senator Ingalls, and he replies as follows:
'When I surrender my citizenship and my manhood
and enter an oath-bound society which is to control my
every thought and acknowledge the right of any igno-
rant or bigoted supreme chief to dictate to me^ then,
perhaps I might pay some attention to such resolutions
as were adopted in Dickinson county. But not until
that unfortunate hour shall have arrived will I submit
to such a degradation. I am always willing to pay due
attention to the wishes of my constituency as expressed
as the wishes of American citizens, but cowls, hoods,
grips, signs and passwords do not enter into my con-
ception of the rights and duties of an American public
officer, nor will I give them the slightest attention.' "
"Labor may be unreasonable, brutal, even mad at
times, but it has ceased to be afraid. It has attained
the dignity of self-respect. Why does not capital see
the handwriting on the wall and meet labor in the
spirit of Christ? Why this church-going if it lead not
to the golden rule?" — KateField^s Washington. That
is true, Katie, but there is no "golden rule" or "dignity
and self-respect" in lodge labor. The great multitude
of workingmen, however, do not take kindly to
lodgery. The salvation of America is to withstand and
remove the saloon and the secret lodge.
"Ignorance may be enslaved, but one might as well
undertake to bind a whirlwind as to enslave a thinking,
intelligent people." — Weekly Arbor State, It is the
102 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
ignorant, vicious and designing that compose the vast
lodge army in this country. Men of independence,
thought and patriotism w^ill surrender their personal
liberty and individualism to no cabal or neighborhood
ring. Spread the light and truth. Intelligence and
serfdom are utterly incompatible. The life of one is
the death of the other.
Worse than the saloon: The multitude of
lodges w^ith their constant drain of fees and dues are
not only beggaring the w^orking people in the cities
and lodge-ridden towns, but the designers are roping in
the rural population, and the farmers are now^ to dance
to the ruinous music. An able writer says: "No
wonder that business cannot flourish in the vampire
clutches of the endowment orders, for so far as sucking
the life-blood out of legitimate trade is concerned they
are even worse than the saloon, for unlike that they
take the money of the sober and industrious instead of
the vicious and improvident classes." The Springfield
(Mass.) Republican^ of such orders, says: "The effect
on the town is very much what the effect would be of
a yearly investment of thousands of dollars by citizens
in the Louisiana lottery wheel at New Orleans."
And these lodges are a vast octopus absorbing the
hard earnings of thousands whose cash should go to
pay the merchant, miller, grocer, gardner, printer,
teacher and minister. Store bills unpaid, mortgages
over due, insufticient food and clothing are as nothing
that the head of the household may hold high carnival
once or a half dozen times a week, with questionable
associates and boon companions. Yet many so-called
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 183
reform papers are patting these humbugs on the back
and feeding them taffy. Dr. David C. Kelly, Prohi-
bition candidate for Governor of Tennessee, as reported
in the Chattanooga Times: "I am irreconcilably op-
posed to any oath-bound, secret, star-chamber organi-
zation, such as the Farmers' Alliance acknov^ledges
itself to be, coming into control of the affairs of this
state. Any organization that excludes from member-
ship, or from any knov^ledge of its internal affairs, a
large portion of the best citizens of this state, has no
right to demand that it be intrusted with the govern-
ment of those citizens. The affairs of government
and the motives and principles that are the mainspring
behind them, should be open and above board, free to
the inspection of every body."
Follow^ing close on the heels of the Rev. Mr. Carra-
dine's pow^erful sermon against Christless Masonry and
other oath-bound lodgery, before an immense audience
in the Centenary M. E. church of St. Louis, comes an
open letter from the Mayor of that great city hitting
political lodgery a heavy blow right between the eyes.
In it he says: ''I have an absolute contempt for polit-
ical secret societies and for the men that join them. I
think that the oaths that the pirates of old took to stand
by each other in the scuttling of ships, the pilfering of
property and the taking of lives were highly respected
compared with oaths taken for secret political pur-
poses." The letter in full as printed in the dailies is
one of the hardest shots at political lodgery that has
appeared lately, and it is fired at city lodgery, and not
at the unfortunate handicapped lodge Alliance. The
184 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
action of rural lodgery and its success has emboldened
the Masonic wire-workers in the cities, and the end is
not yet.
Lodge and labor: If there is any element in the
United States to-day more dangerous than another it is
oath-bound lodgery. The whole system is intensely
anti-Christian and anti-Republican. All such affilia-
tions are absolutely forbidden by the word of God, and
are antagonistic to every principle of freedom and pop-
ular government. Every Ipdgeman is out of harmony
with American doctrines and institutions, laws and reg-
ulations. The unlawful oaths and obligations of a
secret, dark-lantern fraternity destroys personal inde-
pendence and individual manhood. The latest and
most treacherous move originated and manipulated by
Masonry and Odd-fellowship, is hoodwinking and en-
slaving many farmers and workingmen. The Alli-
ance and the Farmers' and Laborers' Union, is only
the Masonic Odd-fellow cat's paw to rake the political
chestnuts out of the fire. At one bound the lodge
question outstrips all others and stands unmasked be-
fore the American people. Already the grip and sign
hold conventions, candidates, parties and legislatures
in obeyance. The farmers are only the tools, and we
must go into higher lodgery to find the plans and de-
signs, and see the end from the beginning. What do
Masons and Odd-fellows care how bad the innocent
farmer is singed, or for the dire reaction that must
inevitably fall on the head of the misguided producer
and toiler. If there ever was a time when every true
American should throw his very soul into the agitation
THE POOR man's BIBLE. 185
it is now. We are on the threshold of a campaign
that may well appall the stoutest heart. The lodge is
massing its forces for a gigantic struggle. Church ai)d
state were never in greater need of trusty level-headed
men and women than now. Thousands of citizens
would flee from oath-bound lodgery,as from the deadly
pestilence did they know the nature of the serpent they
are taking into their bosoms and warming into life.
Joseph Cook, the greatest lecturer perhaps of our
nation avers: "Secret societies in the field of politics
and labor, in a Republic like ours, are unnecessary and
perilous." *'I do abhor the selfish, clannish spirit of
secret societies."
CHAPTER XI.
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS.
NOT ONE EVIL BUT A COMBINATION. — AWAY WITH
THE COMBINATION. — PUT YOURSELF ON RECORD. —
FORWARD, march!
That "every man has his price," is a favorite lodge
axiom. A lodge obligation, grip and sign makes it
possible and safe to approach and bribe or intimidate
its members who are legislators, judges, sheriffs, jurors
and witnesses. In joining any lodge the novitiate be-
comes a damaged article. Piety, patriotism and per-
sonal independence are bartered for studied deception,
double dealing and unmanly associations. Once in the
lodge he will bear watching. Pity the outsider who
trusts him in friendship, in business or in politics. If
you do not want to defend your property titles years
hence, don't employ lodge men. If you don't want to
be fleeced in open court, don't trust lodge men. If you
don't want to be sold out politically at the last moment,
then don't follow lodge leadership. That every man
has his price, is a slander on the hundreds of thousands
of non-lodge men, honest, sincere, incorruptible men,
men of principle, and sterling integrity. Some non-
lodge men might, perchance, be bought and sold, but
every lodge man stands before the public in a compro-
mised position, and may well be suspected and con-
stantly watched. If there is a crime abhorred by all
civilized, christianized people, next to cold-blooded mur-
der, that crime is grave robbery. Where do the
Knights Templars, Freemasons, Odd-fellows, and other
lodges that use them, get their human skulls and skele-
186
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS. 187
tons? How many loved ones of families of non-lodge-
men have been torn from their graves to serve as
ghastly furniture for lodge buffoonery? To suppress
such inhuman ghoulishness is work for the strong arm
of the law. See the Chicago Legal News^ — "Some
societies even use the skeletons of the dead to terrify
the living. The skeleton of one of the sons of John
Brown, w^ho lost his life at Harper's Ferry, was used
by the Knights of Pythias in Indiana to bring candi-
dates to a realizing sense of their danger if they re-
vealed the secrets of the order. Several ribs of the
skeleton were broken in the ghastly encounters with
candidates. The skeleton was rescued from the gallant
Knights, and taken by Mrs. John Brown, and his
brother, and buried by the side of his father. — J. B. B."
If there are honorable men in lodgery, they are such
in spite of their training and surroundings, are untrue
to the lodge and should set themselves right before the
people by renouncing and denouncing it, and that
speedily. Every hour they remain nominal members
is damaging their reputation and endangering their
good character in the eyes of intelligent, reading peo-
ple. It will be little comfort to their families and
friends to see them driven from such dishonorable
affiliation by popular sentiment. It is eminently more
credible to leave now. By so doing and taking an
active stand, as many seceders are doing, they may, to
a large extent at least, redeem their personal responsi-
bility to their fellow men, their country and their God.
Neglect it and the opportunity will soon be gone for-
ever. For the growth of sentiment against the lodge
l8S THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
is phenomenal. The nation needs their services now.
And in seceding they place themselves where they can
do effective work for the great moral and social reforms
now pending. May God give them grit and grace for
the hour and occasion.
Wise, indeed, is the American who studies the trend
of public sentiment for better or worse, on the great
questions of the day. It tells the public spirited citi-
zen where to put his effort and influence to accomplish
most for the present and future good of our great free
commonwealth. The successful student must go be-
neath the surface and examine underlying principles
and unseen forces, often far-reaching and powerful*
The emotional and casual, or superficial observer, is
often misled. The demagogue sees only one question
and one side of the question at a time. The statesman
sees all sides of every question, and his comprehensive
knowledge and broad views enable him to determine
unerringly the real from the apparent issue. Small
minds cannot grasp and weigh great questions. Stu-
pendous themes and tremendous issues call out the
giant intellects and best talent of a nation. It was so
during the slavery struggle. The careless multitudes
failed to comprehend the height and depth, width and
breadth of that appalling evil. They saw only the
popular, superficial movements soon to be swallowed
up and lost in the one great problem. As in the slav-
ery agitation other questions were persistently pushed
to the front to postpone the inevitable, so in this. But
no power can stay the oncoming tide. A momentary
check onlv swells the volume of waters that override
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS. 189
all obstacles. God and the angels in heaven, Satan
and his sable minions, good men and bad men (the
whole moral universe), are intensely interested in this
last great battle between light and darkness, liberty
and slavery, right and wrong. And after years of
acquaintance and association with all kinds of reformers
it must be conceded that antisecretists, as a rule, are a
well-posted, thorough-going, broad-minded class of
people. They are constant readers, conscientious Bible
students, close observers, deep thinkers and intensely
patriotic. They are deeply interested in all moral,
economic and political themes. If you doubt it, glance
at the names through this book. What a grand array
of talent, ability and influence! — statesmen, jurists,
journalists, scholars, evangelists and theologians — first
and foremost in the nation. It is not one evil afflicting
this Republic, but a combination of evils, and the
American Movement is after the combination. None
of the great questions occupying the attention of the
country should be overlooked. Space will allow a
mention of only a few in this connection.
It is not less foreign protection that is needed, but
vastly more home protection. It is little protection to
plead tariff year in and year out while foreigners,
working at starvation wages, are crowding American
operatives from these long protected factories. The
money matter is an important one. The circulating
medium is the life-blood of trade and commerce. The
currency should be an pie and sound. Will the sub-
treasury scheme cure the national bank evil? Are we
to have a landed aristocracy in America? Should not
190 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
the public domain go to actual settlers rather than to
capitalists and corporations? Are the mechanics and
corporation employes to have eight hours, while the
farm hand and farmers must toil twelve to sixteen
hours a day? Should not United States Senators be
elected by a direct vote of the people? Is our grand
and beneficent public school system to be assailed and
destroyed by an arrogant, dictatorial hierarchy, whose
stock in trade in all ages has been ignorance and super-
stition? Should the confessed enemies of the public
school be allowed to preside over American children,
or draw public pay ? Will reformers gain power by
fighting one evil and affiHating another? Should they
go down into Egypt for help? Is it not better to take
the right side of all vital issues?
Equal suffrage is another question that is surely com-
ing to the front. No class of men fear this matter
more than the liquor venders. The great temperance
crusade that comes rolling higher and higher, sweeping
over the moral and political ocean, was originated and
is largely promulgated by the noble women of the
lantl. As it gains momentum time-serving politicians
quake and tremble. Curses loud and long go up from
the bar-rooms and grog shops, against the brave mothers
who would protect their noble sons from the curse of
rum. Whether female suffrage is exactly the proper
thing or not, may be agitating the minds of some old
time thinkers, but that the movement will finally pre-
vail is foreshadowed by many points of law and usages
of society that will eventually solve the problem and
bring it about. The times are changing: "Twenty
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS. I9I
years ago women could not vote anywhere. To-day
they have full suffrage in Washington and Wyo-
ming; municipal suffrage in Kansas; municipal suf-
frage (single women and widows) in England, Scot-
land, Ontario and Nova Scotia. In Croatia, Iceland,
Denmark, Tasmania, and Madras they also have suf-
rage. Women have school suffrage* in fourteen of
the United States — New Hampshire, Vermont, Mas-
sachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Colo-
rado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kentucky, Indiana, Mich-
igan, Oregon, and Wisconsin. In Kansas women
are eligible to any municipal office. Wha-tever our
opinion, it is well enough to keep informed as to facts."
The names of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert, Julia Ward Howe, and Mary A. Livermore,
will stand out on the pages of history only to grow
brighter as the years go by. Women are leading in
thought and action. They have ruled on thrones; they
will help shape Republics. The Civil Rights qnestion
is not yet settled in the South and an element that will
not count my vote will miscount yours, as it has done
in the North. Foreign pauperism and illiteracy is
flooding our shores. Can this element be civilized?
It is bringing with it socialism, anarchism and nihilism.
Can schools be multiplied sufficient to enlighten and
Americanize? Shall we continue to send missionaries
abroad while heathenism, superstition and idolatry are
taking our own land and country? Shall the govern-
ment take hold of and manipulate the telegraph and
railroads, giving us minimum rates as it has with the
postal department, thereby increasing travel and facili.
192 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
tating trade? But over and above all these looms up
dark and black the Secret Empire, as the all-pervading,
overshadow^ing question of the hour. Upon its proper
settlement depends the adjustment of the others. The
lodge makes the same heathen distinction against wom-
anhood as does Mohammedanism and Brigham Young-
ism. Freemas(5nry classes woman with idiots, cripples,
atheists and negroes, and confines the licentiousness of
the craft to the non-female relatives of Master Masons.
Here is a ripe field for the social purity workers. The
Wo7nan*s Voice^ Womari^s Tribune^ U?iion Signal^
Wo7nan*s yournal^ and other like papers should not
overlook this serious matter. Progressive thinkers
hesitate about government ownership of telegraph and
railroads until the Civil Service is purged of lodge
favoritism and discrimination. In fact vastly more cen-
ters in this lodge issue than could be epitomized in sev-
eral such volumes as this. In many places it has been
difficult to buy or sell without the "mark of the beast".
So thoroughly has this evil permeated the political and
commercial affairs, that intrigue and double-dealing
have been at a premium. The lodge that can cut the
Bible in two and replace it with the Koran, would burn
that blessed volume in bonfires, if for the good of the
order. An influence that will threaten my life, will
take yours, if you get in its way. An organization that
will lock churches, halls and courthouses against all
discussion of its nefarious principles and workings,
would not hesitate to Morganize its enemies, if it dared
to. A fraternity that ignores and denies a world's
Redeemer, in the end will write above its Christless
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS.
193
lodge, "There is no God," as has the Masonic Grand
Orient of France, The picture is not pleasant to look
upon. It is awful reality; enough to make cowards
trenible ; sufficient to turn men and women of princi-
ple into heroes and heroines, as the world never saw.
No wonder there is roll call, and marshaling of right-
eous forces against the combined hosts of evil. The
academies, colleges and universities unite with the pul-
pit in molding our civilization, and many of the lead-
ing educators are already on record, and active in this
great crusade. Powerful journals that are not prepared
to enter into specific discussion of the several secret
orders are nevertheless ready to push the sale and cir-
culation of so valuable a documentary publication for
the public good alone. For a dozen years, and in many
states, the compiler of this volume has fought the lodge
system, and much of the time almost single-handed
and unaided. He has learned that the people in the
humbler walks of life carry forward all great reforms.
They are the light of the world and the salt of the
earth. As a rule there is little sympathy for struggling
reforms, or pioneer reformers among the rich. Patri-
otism and Christianity are ever green in the hearts of
the toiling millions, and it is they who are to rid our
land of this worst evil. Some hundreds of the most
wealthy, influential and representative people in the
nation have been written, pressing upon their notice
the claims and vast importance of this discussion.
Many of them are patriots, and it is only a matter of
time when their efforts and influence will be for the
overthrow of oath-bound lodgery. However, the bur-
194 'THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
den of all reform devolves upon the humbler, obscure
citizens, until the cause is fought up to public favor,
then, and not till then, will any considerable help come
from popular and wealthy people. Men who are giv-
ing their thousands to carry the glad tidings to be-
nighted heathenism in some far off clime, shut their
eyes, and their ears, and their pocket-books to the per-
ishing human souls bowing to worshipful masters,
stocks, stones and idols all about and around them. So
it has been, and so it will be to the end of time. Men
love to have their charity popular.
The lodges are running full blast, night and day dis-
pensing their paganism and disloyalty. Men give their
time and money freely and lavishly to establish this
kingcraft and despotism in these United States. What
are you doing to save our holy Christianity and defend
our free government? The "American Hand-book"
has an individuality of its own. It is not a literary
dissertation or an elaborate opinion. The movement
already had an ample supply of that character of read-
ing. It is simply a collection and arrangement of facts
and important truths for the general public. Its com-
prehensiveness; its convenience; its vast value for ref-
erence; and the fact that the compiler has been a co-
laborer with so many anti-lodge speakers and writers,
will tend to make it useful for all anti-secretists, not
only to circulate on their various fields, but to mail
direct to influential people. Its cheapness, single copy
by mail or in quantities, meets a long-felt want. Lect-
ures, conferences and conventions, however desirable,
important and inuispensable, aie more costly and reach
ALI.-ROUND REFORMERS. I95
comparatively few at most, so that the great multitudes
must necessarily be reached by the cheapest and best
possible literature. And arranging this volume es-
pecially for his own headquarters and field work, the
writer will push its circulation, believing that thereby
he can enlighten more people than in any other way.
With it the farmer, the mechanic, the day laborer, the
business man, and even the patriotic washer-woman
can indoctrinate a community or change the views of a
county by reaching the pastors, nevrspapers, educators,
and leading citizens direct by fast mail at only a trivial
cost. And once more, could the thousands of patriots
and better citizens realize the schemes of plunder and
outlawry evolving behind tyled doors, there would be
no need of a second appeal in behalf of public safety.
If you are not a public speaker or a ready writer, you
can at least write your check to spread the gospel of
good government and patriotism in your State or
neighborhood; let the names and orders come, and let
them come. In your orders do not forget the young
people. The youth are the hope of the land.
"No reform can ever succeed if it does not appeal to
the interest and enthusiasm of the young. Push the
young men up to the front. Put them in places of
responsibility and trust. Young men with warm blood
in their veins, and with brains and hearts are plenty.
They have none of the doubt and hesitancy and mis-
givings of age. They are not afraid of the new.
They take naturally to innovations. It is time for 'the
boys' to be up and doing. We want to hear from
them". — Milton i^IlL) Beacon.
196 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, president of the Single Tax
League, Boston, and a son of the noted Abolitionist,
has fired a bombshell into Harvard College, against the
secret college fraternities, that echoes to all the educa-
tional centers in America, and precipitates the discus-
sion of the crymg evil. Pres. C. A. Blanchard, of
Wheaton (111.) College, who so ably discussed the evils
of secretism before the students of Northwestern Uni-
versity at Evanston, the leading M. E. school of the
country, on the unanimous invitation of the faculty of
Union Park Congregational Theological Seminary,
Chicago, addressed the students of that influential
institution on the lodge curse. The expulsion of twenty-
nine students of Heidelberg University for joining a
college secret order, and many current omens indicate
that higher American education is to be purged of this
unmanly un republican element.
It is very desirable to reach and interest young men
and women who have taken upon them the vows of ^
Christian life before the god of this world has blinded
their eyes, and the Christless lodge blunted their dis-
cernmtiit and religious sensibility. The lodge is ever
active in ensnaring and leading astray the sons and
daughters of Christian parents. The only safety is to
enlist the young people in active aggressive reform
work. Armed with the sword of the spirit and a thor-
ough knowledge of the Masonic system any true dis-
ciple of Christianity may conduct an intelligent and
effective campaign against the powers of darkness.
The true church does not recruit its ranks from the
saloon element, loafers and gamblers, but from that
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS.
197
better class of young men, whose time, money and
attention the lodges are trying so hard to absorb in lieu
of the older men who are dropping out by thousands.
Active affiliation with lodgery destroys all inclination
for church attendance, is incompatible with true piety,
and totally unfits men for patriotic citizenship. Here
is the enemy that is filling the church pews and prayer-
meetings with women and grey beards, and here the
great battle is to be fought between Christ and the
world. Rev. Wm. Davis, Chelsea, Mass., and H. L.
Hastings, 47 Cornhill, Boston, editor of the Christian^
are stalwart Am-ericans, who were jailed, not during
the days of Cotton Mather, but recently, for preaching
against priestism and secret iniquity on Boston Com-
mon. Mrs. H. L. Hastings reports: "A young man
came into our mission in Chelsea who w^as an Odd-fellow.
He neglected his lodge to attend our meetings. They
took him to task about it, using very severe language. Last
evening he told us he was convinced it was a sin; that
it was making the work 01: the chui'ches null and void."
Woman's Voice^ Boston, Mass.: — "The anti-secret
society meetings held Friday of each week at 218 Co-
lumbus avenue are proving of great interest and benefit
to all who are aiming to remove hindrances in the way
of the advancement of Christ's kingdom. Each week
a paper is read on some particular phase of the work."
Illinois State Congregational Association convened
in Farmington, Illinois: "Any organization which re-
quires an oath or pledge to conceal its proceedings as a
condition of membership, is thereby different from and
opposed to a church of Christ and a republican State."
igS THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
Some one has said: "The day is coming when the
friends and relatives of dead Masons, to protect the
departed from merited criticism and disgrace, will hire
the marble cutter to go through the city cemetery and
the country graveyard to remove the pagan emblems
of heathen idolatry from the tombstones and monu-
ments of those who while living bowed to vilest des-
potism and sun-worship. The cheeks of the children
and grandchildren of Freemasons will yet tingle with
shame and deepest regret that he who should have
been a patriot and Christian, should have lived a cring-
ing slave and died a pagan. How much more manly
to secede now and join the ranks of progress than to
leave that heritage of dishonor to the gaze of civiliza-
tion. The three links and other heathen emblems will
bear the same testimony of shame."
Reader, this is no time for glittering political gener-
alities or theologiv,«l hair-splitting. Even the timid
can beat up volunteers and send them forward. Push
the new recruits to the front and the "old guard" will
show them how to do battle for Christianity and popu-
lar government. There is power in co-operation.
There is something in human nature that demands
affiliation and association. Evil elements combine and
increase their power, and the good must unite or perish
one by one. When the Saviour sent out his disciples,
he sent them two by two. The Bible for it, "One
shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand
to flight." Every new soldier for God and righteous-
ness means that nine thousand of the enemy are to sound
retreat. There is no particular credit for able-bodied
ALL-ROUND REFORMERS. I99
men, at the rear, in a fight like this. And while we
despise and loathe the strut, fuss, feathers and gew-
gaws of rings, cabals and little narrow contracted
clans, yet we do believe in patriotic demonstration and
display. There must be no selfishness or local senti-
ment about it. It should appeal alone to the love of
God, of our glorious country, and that recognizes every
son and daughter of the republic. The man who goes
on the plan of "O Lord, bless me and my wife, my
son John and his wife, us four, and no more," may
wear a family badge or sport the regalia of a little
neighborhood ring and parade his miserable selfishness
before the world; but we, as Americans, should step
out on that broader platform that recognizes every
patriot man and woman, and that tolerates nothing in
the way of insignia the significance of which is not
broad as the nation. Let us speak to the world by
wearing a miniature United States flag. There is
nothing but Americanism represented in that emblem.
It is an ensign of liberty. Under the Stars and Stripes
Americans have fought, bled and died for civil free-
dom. It is necessary that every one show his colors
and every flag worn would show to the public, there is
an American. Let our trestle-board be the Holy Bible
and the American Constitution; our motto "In God we
trust;" our watch-word "fi" Plurihus Unum"^^ and our
insignia a miniature United States flag made of metal
and enameled red, white and blue, to be worn on the
lupel of a gentleman's coat or on a lady's shoulder.
Truth is the invincible power that goes forth to con-
quer or to die' Truth never dies; God is fighting the
200 THE AMERICAN HAND-BOOK.
battle and the tide of secret despotism hears the voice
that once thundered from Mount Sinai — the voice of
Him w^hom the winds, the waves, and the storms obey.
* 'Behold the sea brine leaping
High in the murky air;
List to the tempest sweeping
In chainless fury there.
What moves the mighty torrent,
And bids it flow abroad?
Or TURNS the rapid current?
What, but the voice of God."
THE END.
INDEX TO CHAPTERS.
i. Bible and Secretism , 1
II. Masonic Religion 12
III. Masonic Sun Worship 27
IV. Masonic Government 41
V. Unwritten History 6^
VI. Grand Lodge Masonry 77
VII. Public Opinion and Signs of the Times 95
VIII. Lodge and Saloon 125
IX. The American Movement, Real Prohibition 146
X. Poor Man 's Bible 1 59
XI. All-Round Reformers 186
THE NATIONAL UNION AND AMERICAN
FEDERATION OF VOLUNTEER
WORKERS
Will lead an army of willing workers^ men, women
and children. Any person assisting in spreading the
light and truth by contributions, or by ordering extra
literature, will be enrolled.
SUGGESTIVE AND ADVISORY.
Let us hold public assemblies, picnics and celebra-
tions; unfurl the United States flag, banners and mot-
toes; adopt an appropriate digest of principles and doc-
trine, expressing lofty sentiment and patriotism; ar-
range songs, speeches and orations, embodying the gist
of the Federal Constitution with an emphasis on vari-
ous sections, and weaving in the finest thoughts of
men first and foremost in American statesmanship and
jurisprudence. In a word, educate the people to a
higher, nobler, grander citizenship; every star, stripe
and streamer to express loyalty and equality; every
word, line and sentence to ring with freedom and lib-
erty; no caste, sectionalism or privileged classes: but
equal rights, privileges, duties and protection to all.
No organized cabals, neighborhood rings, oppressive
trusts or corporate monopolies. A working platform
broad as the American Constitution and Christianity
itself. Free thought, free speech and a free press.
Liberty under righteous laws. Thorough investiga-
tion, examination and discussion of all elements, organ-
izations and combinations operating socially, religiously
and politically; and especially all concerns that shun the
public gaze and conspire behind tyled doors and blinded
windows should be subjected to the most rigid exami-
nation and criticism. They breed jealousy, distrust and
disturbance ; they are the bulwark and support of the
giant evils of the day; their ripest fruits are boycotts,
riots, strikes and mobs; the legitimate outgrowth of
20I
202 NATIONAL UNION.
their despotic philosophy, vicious jurisprudence and
questionable makeup is Clan-na-Gaelism, Bald Knob-
ism, White Capism, Anarchism, and Mormonism.
They are un-American, dangerous and entirely out of
place in a Republic. Their charters should be revoked,
their clandestine gatherings forbidden, and their oaths
and obligations prohibited by law. Their kingcraft
and priestcraft, pagan ceremonies and practical work-
ings are a continual menace to Christianity and popu-
lar government: Therefore, our first, last and continu-
ous endeavor will be to withstand and remove these
dark conspiracies. To this end we cordially invite the
aid and co-operation of all true Americans and Bible
Christians.
The object of this department is to systematize and
plan work to accomplish the most in arousing public
opinion, searching out and listing friends, directing agi-
tation in new channels, and in every way possible push
forward the movement. It is altogether volunteer, and
is designed to bring all Americans, without regard to
age, sex, party, or church affiliations, closer together as
compatriots for the defense of our holy Christianity
and free government.
All can work together, but each in his or her partic-
ular way. Some are religious workers; others find it
to their liking to meet the lodge in politics. All can
find ample means and opportunity to grapple with this
most dangerous foe. Governed by circumstances and
local relations they can keep the question prominently
before the people. At the same time through the
Union they can keep in touch with the great company
of fellow-American laborers. The volunteer plan
covers every line of this reform, and will conduct an
all-round continual campaign. Much has been done
through this agency, and a ghince at the membership
list shows the names of the leading anti-secretists of
the land. This happy plan of every one working his
NATIONAL UNION. 203
or her own community, county and state, is proving
eminently satisfactory and effective. Knowing the
parties to be reached gives the most favorable hearing,
and makes your local efforts count. All patriots and
true Bible believers bid us a hearty God-speed, and
thousands w^ill count it a duty as well as pleasure to
give material aid to this undertaking, so auspiciously
inaugurated. Many can also contribute to the general
fund for literature for free distribution. No man in
America will print and mail it cheaper than the general
supermcendent. He has a roster of thousands of well
selected names of leading people everywhere who
should be reading. Means should be forthcoming, and
at once, to reach them. The amount sent out will de-
pend largely on the liberality and generosity of those
who are able and willing. Pledges and orders are
wanted, not to pay some one a big salary, but for lit-
erature to be mailed direct as ordered, no idle funds,
but every penny placed to the best possible advantage
by the contributor himself. It is thought best to sys-
tematize our effort, giving one, five, or ten dollars, as
circumstances will allow or ability permit. It is im-
portant that we have your order at once, though you
can send in the cash and names for literature as you
may desire. In every place are ministers and Chris-
tian workers who would gladly sell and circulate the
cheapest and best possible reading if they were stocked
up. Secure and superintend placing a supply. Every
man and woman should devote themselves to some
righteous and needed reform. If you are a patriot
ponder this matter, if you are a Christian pray over it,
and then commensurate with your patriotism and piety
pledge, and govern accordingly. This grand work
will go on, and you cannot afford, as a loyal American,
to lie idle. We can rely on the old guard, and there
are thousands of splendid new recruits who should
move to the front. If your name is not already en-
204 NATIONAL UNION.
rolled on our list as a volunteer worker with us, send in
an order and it will be. We very naturally turn first
to the ministry, and reform religious press for co-oper-
ation and leadership; then to the secular press and pub-
lic spirited citizens; appealing to their patriotism and
loyalty; not forgetting the meanwhile to keep a com-
plete register of all correspondence for reference a few
years hence when these vile orders shall have become a
hiss and by-word and a very stench in the nostrils of all
good citizens. If you have not done as much in this
grand cause as you should have done, act without de-
lay; or if aged and infirm, don't forget the great work
in your last will and testament. In the words of Hor-
ace Mann: "Be ashamed to die until you have won
some victory for humanity." Here is your golden oppor-
tunity. Any funds left in trust for this vokniteer work
will be faithfully applied as you may direct, and in
your own name.
Now is the time to identify yourself with the cause,
and we bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to our ranks.
Address all pledges and orders to the general superin-
tendent. Also write to us for any information desired,
in our line of investigation, as it always affords us sat-
isfaction to give all the light in our power to the earn-
est inquirer after knowledge. We want workers in
every school, lyceum, congregation, and company, to
the remotest hamlet, to conduct an active campaign.
And now we leave the subject with you trusting that
an allwise, overruling Providence will lead, guide and
direct you. Yours for right and light,
M. N. Butler, Gen'l Sup't, Avalon, Mo.
^ LOAN DEPT.
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