Preface

I VINDICATION

)

OF

GENERAL, WASHINGTON

FROM THE STIGMA OF ADHERENCE TO
SECRET SOCIETIES.

BY

JOSEPH RITJVER,

GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA,
COMMUNICATED

BY

REQUEST OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, TO THAT BODYj
on the 8th OF MARCH, 1837 ',

WITH

THE PROCEEDINGS WHICH TOOK PLACE
ON ITS RECEPTION.

HARRISBURG :

PRINTED BY THEO. rENN.
1837.

LATE (

UNIVERSITY

OF PITTSBURGH

LIBRARY

Dar.Rnu
E312.17
R611

THIS BOOK PRESENTED BY

Buhl Foundation

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It was
County,
of the U
ject of .

which follows, accompanying it, in his letter to the applicant,
with these very appropriate remarks.

October 21st, 1840.
Dear Sir,

Annexed is a copy of Judge Marshall's letter to Mr. Edward
Everett, while, if my memory serves me, Governor of this
Commonwealth, the date of it, however, will show. The
judge, although pointedly averse to having his letter appear or
even to be alluded to in the papers, yet he indirectly counsels
Mr. Everett as a public man, to an expression of his opinion in

OPINIONS OF THE

LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES,

CONCERNING

FREEMASONRY.

It was accidentally discovered that a gentleman in Norfolk
County, Mass., had a copy of a letter from the late Chief Justice
of the United States to the Hon. Edward Everett, on the sub-
ject of Freemasonry. Being requested he furnished the one
which follows, accompanying it, in his letter to the applicant,
with these very appropriate remarks.

October 2\st, 1840.
Dear Sir,

Annexed is a copy of Judge Marshall's letter to Mr. Edward

Everett, while, if my memory serves me, Governor of this

Commonwealth, the date of it, however, will show. The

judge, although pointedly averse to having his letter appear or

even to be alluded to in the papers, yet he indirectly counsels

Mr. Everett as a public man, to an expression of his opinion in

a decent, manly, frank and firm manner ; from which the judge
seems fully apprized of the malignant character of the insti-
tution towards its backsliding members. Judge Marshall
urges his advanced age and his wish for repose, as reasons
why he would not engage in "any tempestuous sea ;" but his
age and also his respectability seem to be substantial reasons,
why they should be made use of to destroy an institution preg-
aant with so much evil as to commit murder, and so much
strength as to conceal and protect the murderer! But the
Judge has now obtained the repose of the grave, and though
dead, may his letter speak, may it be printed, and speak to gen-
erations yet unborn, should hereafter an effort be made to re-
vive the base, the murderous and detestable institution.

Yours, &c.

THE LETTER.

Richmond, July 22d, 1833.
My Dear Sir,

I have received your favor of the 16th, enclosing a printed
copy of your letter respecting Masonry to Mr. At well, accom
panied by printed copies of letters from Gen. Washington and
Mr. Madison on the same subject.

Soon after entering the army, I was made a Mason. In ad-
dition to the motives, which usually actuate young men, I was
induced to become a candidate for admission into the society,
by the assurance that the brotherly love, which pervaded it
and the duties imposed on its members, might be of great
service to me in the vicissitudes of fortune to which a soldier
was exposed. After the army was disbanded, I found the or-
der in high estimation, and every gentleman I saw in this part
of Virginia was a member. I followed the crowd for a time

without attaching any importance to its object, or giving my-
self the trouble to inquire why others did. It soon lost its at-
traction, and though there are several Lodges in the city of
Richmond, I have not been in one of them for more than forty
years, except once, on an invitation to accompany General La
Fayette, nor have I been a member of one of them for more
than thirty. It was impossible not to perceive the useless pag-
eantry of the whole exhibition. My friend, Mr. Story, has
communicated my opinions to you truly. I thought it, how-
ever, a harmless plaything, which would live its hour and pass
away, until the murder or abstraction of Morgan was brought
before the public ; — that atrocious crime, and I had almost said,
the still more atrocious suppression of the testimony concern-
ing it, demonstrated the abuse, of which the oaths prescribed
by the order were susceptible, and convinced me that the1 in-
stitution ought to be abandoned, as one capable of producing
much evil, and incapable of producing any good, which might
not be effected by safe and open means. I give you my senti-
ments without reserve, but in confidence. I have attained an
age when repose becomes a primary wish. I am unwilling to
emrjark on 'any tempestuous sea or to engage as a volunteer in
any controversy, which may tend to excite the angry passions.
I am unwilling to appear in the papers on any question, espec-
ially if it may produce excitement.

The Anlimnsonic controversy has not crossed the Potomac.
With you it has become a party question, which a public man
cannot escape, and on which a decent, manly opinion must be
firmly and frankly expressed. But I am not a public man;
and if I were, many and extravagant are the tests by which
we try the fitness of agents for the service of our country.
This has not as yet become one of them. Several of my per-
sonal friends are Masons ; some few of them more zealous

4

than myself. You will therefore pardon the unwillingness I
express, that any allusion to this letter should be made in the
papers. Receive the assurances of the great and respectful
esteem, with wrhich I remain,

Your obedient,

J. MARSHALL.

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— — , —

VINDICATION

or

GENERAL. WASHINGTON.

Extract from the Journal of the House of Represen-
tatives— vol. I, page 276,

January, 20, 1837.

44 The Speaker laid before the House a memorial from sundry
M citizens of Union county, complaining of certain inferences in
44 relation to the masonic and other secret societies, drawn by the
♦4 Governor in his annual message to the Legislature, from the
H writings of Washington, and praying for the appointment of a
44 committee to wait upon the Governor, for the purpose of ascer-
** taining and reporting how far General Washington's Farewell
44 address, and other writings, sustained the said inferences."
Which was read, as follows :

To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives in
General Assembly ruet, we, the undersigned, citizens of Penn-
sylvania, beg leave most respeclfully to represent : —
That the Governor of Pennsylvania, in his annual message to
both branches of the Legislature, hath been wont to say on the
subject of Freemasonry, "it was a spirit of lawless combination,
unknown \o our open and equal institutions and opposed to the
genius iv? republicanism, against which the Father of his country
sentfjrth his last and most solemn warning. The Governor here
has. reference to General Washington's Farewell Address, when
ae is made to say, 44 Beware of Secret Societies ." The foregoing
inference is slandering the ashes of the patriotic and forever be-
loved dead — it is defamatory to the lips of that chaste and holy
man, whose whole life, with a single eye, was devoted to his coun-
try's good. Well may we say, he was a compound of righteous-
ness, fitted by God as the special organ of liberty, and patron of
virtue, and his name now fills the whole space in the hearts of
American gratitude, and bound axe we by every tie of honor to
preserve unsullied the name of fyat apostle of Liberty. His Fare-
well Address to the American people, contains not a single word
from which even an inference of the kind can be drawn, nor, can
from any of his political writings. In his letter to W. Jay, he
speaks against the democratic societies then forming in our coun-
try, in behalf of the Revolutionists of Frances, in which Washing-
ton refused to take a part, until they had. established their indu~

pendence. He expressly says, M democratic societies then form-
ing, which have for their object the control of government." Who
will now presume to say that Freemasonry then was known by the
nume of democratic societies, and they were the object of Wash-
ington's last and solemn warning. It is well remembered by thou-
sands yet alive, in Pennsylvania, that Liberty Poles were raised
in almost every village in our state, with the motto of Liberty
floating high in the air, under which was incribed, " France aided
us with money and her bravest men — we will stand by her — Jay's
treaty with England shall not be ratified — Washington is in error —
down with the excise and stamp acts." These are the societies to
which Washington had reference, and of which he expressed hi*
fears.

Whereas, General Washington's acts, to this day, are regarded
as authority, both in religion and politics, and aught calculated to
detract from the just merits of this great and good man, should
not be permitted to. remain in doubt, by friends to our republic ;
more especially so, as his opinions have always had a moral in-
fluence over our elections, consequently, should alone be founded
in what he actually said, word tor word. As the Governor has
again brought this question before the Legislature, and its import-
ance can be by none doubted, we pray the Legislature to ap-
point a committee to wait on His Excellency the Governor of Penn-
sylvania, and solicit from him the source of information from
which he derived his auihority, as quoted in his late message to
this House, as to the Father of our Country's last and solemn warn-
ing against that "spirit of lawless combination unknown in our
open and equal institutions, and opposed to the genius of republi
canism," and report the same, with such leferences to General
Washington's Farewell Address, and other wr.itings, as may place
his words or allusions to Freemasonry beyond the reach of doubt
or cavil; and your petitioners will, as in duty bound, pray.