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and with a degree of reflection and meditation far greater, than I ever spoke to them before. Let them unite with us; and let the people be all awakened to a sense of the necessity of exertions for the removal of an evil, hitherto little suspected, but which may in the end become an engine of destruction.

It is vain and idle to expect, that an institution which has spread itself abroad into many lands, whose ramifications have reached the heart of almost every country, is to be extinguished without many efforts. They who calcu late that it will fall of itself and crumble to decay, reckon not upon the interest which is enlisted in its support. It will yet withstand many shocks; but if the people are true to themselves, and to the best interests of their country, and of their posterity who are to inherit it, they will unite in the common cause, and move forward "through good report and through evil report," till the great end of the extinction of Speculative Freemasonry is fully, finally, and happily accomplished.

Since the publication of the foregoing letter, there has appeared in the 66 Free Press," an interesting correspondence, on the nature of the Royal Arch obligation, between the author and Mr. OLIVER, a member of the Massachusetts Anti-Masonic Convention, from Lynn. The letter having been read by Mr. Oliver, to a friend of his, who was a Royal Arch mason, objection was made only to that part of it which had reference to the Royal Arch obligation. [See page 92.] On the reading of that passage, he unhesitatingly declared the statement therein contained a lie, and that the author, on writing it, knew it to be so. A letter was accordingly addressed to the author, with a "view of ascertaining whether the literal meaning of the Royal Arch obligation, was capable of a construction that could justify such a declaration, or whether it was of such doubtful import as to be liable to ambiguous signification."

The following is Mr. MERRICK'S Reply :

Worcester, January 8, 1830. DEAR SIR,-Your letter of the 2d inst. was duly received; and I have availed myself of the earliest time I could command to reply to its contents.

You inform

"" that a me,

Freemason of sound judgment

and good understanding," declared to you, that that part of my letter of the 17th Dec. to the Worcester Committee, relating to the Royal Arch obligation, was "a lie;" and that if I was a Royal Arch Mason, I knew it was "a lie."

I have certainly been a Royal Arch Mason; and I as certainly know that my statement relative to the oaths taken by masons of that degree are true. In reply to your inquiry, if there be any "ambiguity" in the terms. of that oath, I cannot place the subject in a better light before you, than to extract from the obligation the several parts of it, in the very words in which it is administered. The whole oath is quite long; but its several parts are distinct passages and complete sentences of themselves; and the sense of each of its clauses is in no way affected by being separated from the rest of the obligation. The extracts are as follows.

1. "I furthermore promise and swear, that I will support the constitution of the General Grand Royal Arch "Chapter of the United States of America, and also the constitution of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the State under which this Chapter is held, and conform to all the by-laws, rules and regulations of this, or any other Chapter of which I may hereafter become a member."

2. "I furthermore promise and swear, that I will aid and assist a companion Royal Arch Mason, when engaged in any difficulty, and espouse his cause, so far as to extricate him from the same, if in my power, whether he be right or wrong."

3. "I furthermore promise and swear, that a companion Royal Arch Mason's secrets, given to me in charge as such, and I knowing them to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his own, murder and treason not excepted."

To my mind, nothing can be more explicit, than the several clauses of the Royal Arch Mason's oath, which I have here extracted. I cannot perceive the least ambiguity; nor how they can be " capable of a construction that could possibly justify the declaration," that my statement to the Worcester Convention was

66

a lie."

The obligation is positive, "to conform to the bylaws, rules and regulations of the chapter;" and no men

tion of the laws of the land. And for aught I can see, if it shall ever so happen, that the laws of the State and the by-laws of the chapter shall conflict with each other, a Royal Arch mason is bound by the terms of the obligation to disregard and disobey the laws of the government, in order that he may "conform to the by-laws, rules and regulations of the chapter."

The obligation of a Royal Arch mason is in its language perfectly explicit; and the express provision, "murder and treason not excepted," evinces too clearly, to admit of misconstruction, the nature and character of those secrets, which are to remain in the bosom of him to whom they are communicated, as inviolable as they are in his own. It necessarily comprehends his crimes, whatever they may be.

The obligation to aid and assist a companion Royal Arch mason is in the broadest terms. That aid and assistance is to be afforded to a companion when he is in "ANY" difficulty; and his cause, whether " RIGHT OR WRONG," is to be espoused, so far as that he may be extricated from that difficulty. If this obligation does not, in its own terms, require that in every difficulty a Royal Arch mason shall be aided and assisted until he is effectually extricated, I confess I know of no language which could express that intention.

In fine, I see nothing in the terms of the Royal Arch mason's oath which is "of such doubtful import as to be liable to ambiguous interpretation."

To the accuracy of the extracts which I have made, as well as to the disclosures generally of the secrets of Freemasonry, my character for veracity is pledged. How far that evidence is sufficient, I leave to others to determinenot presuming myself to estimate its weight. But whether my testimony is of any avail or not, there is a mass of evidence before the public, which is full and conclusive; and I hesitate not to affirm, that if any fact was ever satisfactorily proved by human testimony, the truth of the disclosures of the oaths and obligations of Freemasonry is completely established by evidence already in possession of the public.

I cannot therefore but feel great surprise, when I learn that any man, sustaining a reputable character in the

community, denies that the oaths and obligations quoted by me, in my letter of the 17th ult. from the work of Mr. Bernard, entitled "Light on Masonry," are administered in lodges and chapters of Freemasons. What those oaths are, it is possible and probable, that many, who have been initiated, never fully understood, or have wholly or partially forgotten. But how, when they are quoted, such men can deny their truth, I cannot pretend to explain, nor am I able to perceive. It may be also that, in some instances, the more obnoxious parts of these oaths may have been omitted by the presiding officer in admitting a candidate; and if so, such a person, if he has ever otherwise been instructed, may fairly and honestly make such a denial. Whether instances like these have occurred or not, I am unable to determine; I can only say, that wherever I have been, I believe that no such omissions have occurred.

Without being influenced by animosity against any member of the Fraternity, I feel at liberty to observe, that while any man continues to be attached to the institution of Freemasonry, and is influenced by the obligations of secrecy which it confessedly imposes, he is not, and cannot be, upon the subject of its oaths, a disinterested or impartial witness; for if, in a discussion upon that point upon which he voluntarily enters, he does not deny the truth of the disclosures of seceding masons, his very silence is, to some extent, an acknowledgement of their correctness. What else then, in such a situation, can he do, who has bound himself by obligations, which he still deeins binding and sacred, “forever to conceal and never to reveal" the secrets of Freemasonry, but to hazard a positive denial that those secrets are disclosed?

There is a topic, not adverted to in your letter, and perhaps not altogether connected with it, to which I wish briefly to advert, before I close. You have undoubtedly observed, that the great stress of denial, when a denial of the truth of the oaths required of initiates into the masonic institution, as disclosed by seceding masons, is asserted, rests mainly upon the obligation alleged to be taken by Royal Arch masons. I have never yet heard any one intimate a denial of that, which has been published as the oath taken by a master mason upon his admission to

One of the clauses of that oath is in

the third degree.
the following words, to wit:-

"I furthermore promise and swear, that a master mason's secrets, given me in charge as such, and I knowing them to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his own, when communicated to me, murder and treason only excepted, and they left to my own election."

The addition to the words "murder and treason only excepted" point out, too clearly to admit of any mistake, the nature of the secrets which a master mason is to keep inviolable. They must be his crimes as well as his other concerns of a confidential character. This seems to me to be the obvious, and necessary, and only reasonable construction. And may not this construction be held to be certain, from the very nature of the penalty-the penalty of death-which he who takes this obligation imprecates upon himself in the event of the violation of his oath ?-For my own part, I see but a shade of difference, and that scarcely worthy of notice in a moral point of view, whether a mason swears with him of the third degree to keep all his secrets inviolable, "murder and treason only excepted, and those left to his own election," or with him of the seventh, to keep all those secrets "murder and treason not excepted."

I am most respectfully,

With assurances of my esteem,
Yours, &c.

STEPHEN Oliver.

9*

PLINY MERRICK.

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