Birney On Masonry

, The following.is a letter to R. C. Flecson, ! Egq, Editor of the Spirit of Liberty' in answer to one he liad writlen: Lowkr Saginaïv, Míen., } January ïiO, 1!4. Dear Sir: - Your letter of llio -Sil instant, requesting my views on the -subject of' Mapo.nrv, forthein- formation of yourself as we 11 ns your ffiendsj waa recaived yesterday.. no objection to coniply wil li the roqi.est, I shall proceed lo do so, by iïM a brief account of my connexion wilh the order. The exaniple and encourngement of a liighly estermed friend, somewhat older than myself, in addition to the motives thal ordinnri ly iiiiluence young men to becpme 'Masonj persuaded me, whilst .1 pHideiit of luw, W Philadelphia, in 18 IS, to unile wiih a Lodge. I gave especial attontion to the euhject of Masonry til! a ycar or.two after my inilialion, when, havingf in the mean time retnrned to Kentuck}', (of wiiich State I am a native,) nnd a Lodge havingf beei) eet on footin the villüge where I rcidod, I beca me a membtr of it, and not nn idle or.e; for between that time ad my removnl to Alabnma, in the winter of 1817-18, I hd delivered two anniversary oddresses, anil laken the degree of Roya] A re h Mason.The invesfcigations fo vvbich I was'naturnlly Jed preparntive to nddresscs, coin meed me ihat the claims oí' Ma son tv to atüiqmty were gTouudless; and the obUgatiom it ofsunied to mpose ( especia Uy n the bigiiest icrce I ijnd tnketi,) strikinrr, os I beüeved them to do, nt tbe. root of moraiity and civil order - and the unhappy influence thnt atteiding1 on the Lodges exerted on the liabits of muliitudes of the order - had wroilgiH in me, before my emigration from Keuiucky, y considerable iba.tement of the zeal I Jiad lor a short time feit in its behalf.Af! er my removal to Alubama, T had no Masoiiic communicalion of any kind, till 1822, when I was prevailed on to deüver an nddress at one of the anniveraaries. The next eummer, I uccompanied an b!d acquaintance- a stronger in that part of the country - to the Lodge of the village in which I dweil; remaining1 only long -enoogh to introduce him to scveraJ of the member?. These tu-o are the only instances in which I have been present, in a Lodge since 1818. And so rusty have 1 for a long linie been in Ihe mummèry of Masonry, that unless [ were allowed time tbr recollection, Í should not be able to make nvy way uto a Lorige of even the lowest degree. Ever since 1823. my separation from the Order has been complete - bul without eny formal and pubüc renunciation of it. From that period I have spoken of Masonry as f thought it deserved; - as unneecssary, to 6ay the least of il; as productivo of no good whirh could not be better attained in some olher way, for even its charitits are indiscriminating. and administered at great expense; as inviting to habits of diasipation, chiefly gambling and iniemperance; as giving to frandulent ond ditíhonest persons n passport to the cönndence of the generons and the unsuepecfing; as, in it$ secrecy, inimica] to whot ouglit to be the open and strail-forward course of a repuWican government; as ïnduciug weak and unstable men to regaid it as a suffic ent substifute for the Christianity which it profaned by its absurd and despicable imitationf, kc. &&C.Such, si-, lias been my course - such my views of Masonry. These views were adoptea from a considérate conviction of the mischievous influence of Masonry, and before tliere was auy embodied opposition to it as an inslitnlion. 1 have, as yet, seen no reason for' distrusting tlieir soundness, nor do I tliink it at all likely ihat Í sliall. 1 ara, very rcspccfully, Your obt eervanl,R. C. Fleeson, Etq., Editor "Spirit of Liberty," Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.