Jasper Banner, Volume 2, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1855 — Secret Societies---Masonry [ARTICLE]

Secret Societies---Masonry

-The following eloquent extract i« from one of the gallant assaults of* Henry A-Wlss, on Kaow-Nothing-fom. Ttoe speech from whieh wa quote whs delivered to an imiMCMM crowd ht AleSahdriaf r . ’ t “AU we ask iateleraliife.' jin we ask i», that if yen bate the Catholics because they have proscribed heretics, you won’t proscribe proscription. If yob hate the Catholics because they have nunaerie*and inonaateries, and Jesuitical secret orders, don’t out Jesuit the' Jesuit*, by going into dark-ranteri» secret chambers to apply test* oaths. 4f yon hate the Catholics because you say they encourage the Macliivalian expediency of telling lies sometimes, don’t swear yourselves not to tell the truth. (Cheers.] “Herex are the oaths—the oaths that bind you, under no circumstances to disclose who you are, what you arm and that bind you not only to political, but to social proscription, Here is your book—your Bible which requires you to stick up your notices between midnight and daybreak.— 1 don’t object to secrecy. lam a member of a secret or- ■ der, and 1 am proud to be a brother 1 Mason, [loud cheers;] and I am at liberty by my order to say, that as to its ends its purposes, its designs, Masonry ha* no - secrets.. (Renewed cheering.] Its end, its purposes, its aim is to make a brother-hood of charity among men. Its end i* the end of Christian law, of religion. 1 know not how any Mason can be a Know-Nothing. Masonry binds its members to respect and obey the laws of the lan J in which w<> live; and when the Constitution of thw Cnited States, declares that no religious test shall be made a qualification of office, Masonry dare not interpose by conspiring, in a secret aaTfgibus testa qualification tor office. — 11 —■ ——