The Olden Time!

Mr. Editor: In my paper of last week you published a challenge of Mr. Quincy to Judge Dexter, to a public discussion of maaonry. A number of your readers, and among them gome prominent masons, have reqnested the publication of the letter of the Judgs to Mr. Quincy. If you are disposed to grant theiequest the letter is at your service. D. We cheerfully comply -with the expresseddesireof our friends, and print the letter thia week. It takes the nía nf the regular paper of our correspondent on the "olden time."- [Editor. To Mr. Abr'm Howard Quincey of Boston. Sir- I see by the newspapers, that you have seen fit, to challenge me to controversy, upon the character and tendencr of reemasonry. With your standing in society, lam unacquainted, but am willing to beheve, that it is respectable. It had been well, if you had spoken of the persons, whom you challenge, with more courtesy than to say, that they still have some character to lose. It is indeed an easy and safe affair, to challenge a man, who isa thousand miles from you to appear at your door. As it is out of my power, to go to Boston, even for the pleasure of meeting Mr. Quincv we will, if you please, transfer this discussion to the Newspapers; It is convenient ground for both; If you decline, I sñall consider your challenge a mere bravado, which you never intended should oe acceptea. ,,You 8ay. "that ancient and modern Masonry, has been proteeted and maintained, by more patriota and benefactors of mankind, than any other institution among men." I do not doubt the power and eitent of thia institution; you have been able to entangle in your meshes, the high and low.the richand poor, good and bad; never was there a more promiscuoua society. Who do you reject, that m common decency you can receive? That it ia a social institution; there is no evidence, you are sworn immoiiRlv anü awrully, at the very threshold of your Society. Are the cable tow, the üood wmk, the red drawers, and other means of degradation, necessary to a social institution? Are your robes and titles, necessary? This, Sir, is a political conspiracy, and if you ask what political society has been more successful, I will point you to our own free and happy government, to every land where the .blessmgs of good government have prevailed in apite of that cáncer in their bosoms. the Masóme Fraternity. What goyernment has not much to fear from this dark combination. xou say, tnat it ongmated, from a poUtical Btate of society, where reason and I eau?1were 8ynonymous. I hare no aoubt that, that ïnstitution was always a combination, against every government, in whoBe bosom it existed. But are reason and treason synonymous in the United States? upon your om teatimonv the ïnstitution is here misplaced. It was made, say you, for what?- why agramst governments where reason and treason are synonymous; that it is a formidable engme against government, I do not doubt; but what a terrible government must that have been, where such a refuge was a relief. What must have been the situation of any people, where the darkness and guilt of masonry was a ianctuary! Was it neoessary that Masons to protect seives rrom injury, should swear to protect each other "right or wrong?" That to save themselves from sanguinary laws, they should seek refuge in an institution, where every degree was guarded by capital pumnhment, in its most abhorent forms? Was it to escape the vengeance of government, that they strove, to meet out vengeance to each other's enemies ? Was ït to live in peace and security, that they strove under certain circumstances, to traduce eaoh others characters, and point out eaoh other to the world as unworthy and vicious vagabonds? Was it to protect hfe and property, that they swore, to comnut murder and degrada each other's business? Was it for the rights of conscienca, that they swore to trample religión under their feet? Your assertion is absurd upon the face of it.No Sir, when persecuted men take refute from fhir persecutora. !!rLuem?elves no straners to misfortune, rhey learn to pity the distressed"! The lamb that fhes from the wolf, becomes not a butcher in his turn. Bloody and barbarous oaths are a protection, not against violence and vice, but against honesty and truth. Masonry, you say, han its origin in oountnes, where reason and treason were synonymous; and yet prevails most, wnere reason and treason are not synonymous; thatis, "where society is most tree, reflned and sentimental." Freedom, reflnement and sentiment, with the halter, the hood wink, and the drawers! Those words might have resounded in the ears of your victims, as they knelt, "duly and truly prepared," at the alter, but they found no angwering echo in their hearts. You speak of the great men who are masons. Did these men know yonr instituhon beforethey joined it? Theamount of your boasting is, that you succeeded in entrapping them, and placing them in a situation where retreat was almost impossible. It was a pit into which anv man might fall, but from which hardl.y any man could extricate himself. What would have been the nituation of Washington and Warren, had they condemned masonry, with no anti-masonic community to reoeive them? ïhey had their part to act in deh' vering their country from foreign dominion, it was enough; they left to future times to purge those institutions, which they had established It was necessary that there should be an example before the community, of the terrible reality of your masóme oaths. The blood of an American Citizen was to be shed, and the tears of the widow and orphan to fall, before the people could be awakened, to the tremendous character of masonry. The obligations were the text, and murder the commentary. Boast not that masonry has done what it could to sully the fair fame of these great men, we have no better proof of their integrity than that this institution did not corrupt them; but what right have you to hold up their names as the trophies of masonry; you received them blindfolded, and swore them not to di vuige when the bandage was removed. It ib impossible to show all the winding of a secret society; you may have admitted those men with less degradation than the rest; It is a masonic maxïm tq let no candidate tura his back upon the institution; and if either fear or shame or allurement will induce him to swear the whole, 'tis well; If not make him swear as muoh as you can. I believe Washington went no farther than the three first degrees, and shall not easily be persuaded that he submitted to the customary degradatiqn, even of these. But your constitutions are now hung up to view, every man can judge for himeelf, of the character of these obligations. Will you say, that it was right to swear to oonceal murder and commit it? Truth is forever the same, though denounced by the world; and all the great names of ancient and modern times, can take nothing from the aanctity of virtue, can give no dignity to vice. Upon the whole sir, it appean, that ours is the cause of equal nghts and humanity, yours that of a seoret and powerful institution, set apart from the world by bloody and infamous obligations, at war with those civil institutions, which are our proteotion here, and with those religious principies which will constitute our happiness hereafter.