Say "Anti-Masonry" to the average American Mason and he will
think you speak only of the Morgan affair of 1826. So many books have been
written on this, so many speeches made about it, so many study clubs have
discussed it, that it is pretty much in the class with political oratory -
interesting once, but as bore when much repeated!
Anti-Masonry neither began nor ended with the Morgan affair. The
Fraternity has always had its enemies and, unless the world reforms
spiritually, doubtless always will. BUT WHY?
Doubtless there are many answers. Many roads may wind around a mounta=
in -
they must meet at the top. No matter how many separate causes for the hatre=
d,
dislike, enmity which men have conceived - and some still do - for the Gent=
le
Craft, all these mistaken ideas may be referred to one cause.
Examine just a few of the exhibitions of anti-Masonry, other than the
Morgan affair - which was a sporadic explosion, not a deep - rooted and
poisonous plant.
Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Stalin could not permit the existence of a
society which is predicated upon the brotherhood of man; they were, and are,
too much committed to a society predicated upon a police power which knows =
no
mercy and has but one object; the destruction of people, ideas, and
organizations which do not believe that man is nothing, the State (and its
ruler or rulers) everything.
Mussolini's anti-Masonic feeling was expressed in his doctrine of
conflict, which does not even mention the Craft:
"Humanity is still and always an abstraction o=
f time
and space; men are still not brothers, do not want to be and evidently cann=
ot
be. Peace is hence absurd, or rather it is a pause in war. There is somethi=
ng
that binds man to his destiny of struggling, against either his fellows or =
himself.
The motives for the struggle may change indefinitely, they may be economic,
religious, political, sentimental, But the legend of Cain and Abel seems to=
be
the inescapable reality, while brotherhood is a fable men listen to during =
the
bivouac and the truce."
General Erich Ludendorff wrote a booklet against Freemasonry of which
more than a hundred thousand copies were sold. Too long to quote here, the
reader may get an idea of its contents from some of his words.
"Masonry brings its members into conscious
subjection to the Jews...... it trains them to become venal Jews.... German
Masonry is a branch of organized international Masonry, the headquarters of
which are in
Ludendorff blamed Freemasons for bringing America into World War I,
helped by the Jesuits, B'nai B'rith and the Grand Lodge of
Not all anti-Masonry has had causes so fundamental, which lie so deep;
small jealousies and little rascals have started anti - Masonic movements;
several religions have fought and, indeed, now fight the Craft, as sinful a=
nd
ungodlike. The opposition of the Catholic church, based on the Papal Bull of
1738, many times renewed, expanded, explained and emphasized, is well known.
The Lutheran church as a whole has been unfriendly to the Craft and certain
Synods rabid against it. The Mormon church has been anti-Masonic ever since
hundreds of Mormons were expelled from Masonry by the Grand Lodge of
When organized religion has disputed with Freemasonry, it is largely
because of the thought that Masonic teaching of "that natural religion=
in
which all men agree" might take the place of that which it espoused;
knowing that the Fraternity operated by means of a secret ritual, obligatio=
ns,
religious beliefs and the doctrine that all men of whatever faith might wor=
ship
a Great Architect of the Universe around a common Altar, Freemasonry became=
a
rival! Just as science disputes with no religion, so Freemasonry does not n=
ow
and never has questioned any man's faith. There has never been an anti-cler=
ical
party composed only of Masons; there have been anti-Masonic parties in many
clerical circles. As late as 1896 an anti-Masonic party convened at
The first anti-Masonic campaign - if it an be called that - in the
American Colonies occurred in 1737. According to an account published in the
Pennsylvania Gazette (Benjamin Franklin's paper) an apothecary duped a young
man (Daniel Reese) who had expressed a desire to be a Freemason, into a fal=
se
and ridiculous ceremony, ending in a scene in which the devil was supposed =
to
appear. When the young man refused to be frightened, the "devil"
became angry and threw a pan of flaming spirits on the candidate, who died =
of burns
three days later.
Freemasons, though innocent, were blamed and the incident (if death c=
an
be called and incident!) spread far and wide to the serious but not too len=
gthy
embarrassment of Masons of the City of Brotherly Love.
There were a few sporadic attacks in the Colonial press against
Freemasonry, including one in Boston in 1751, but no real opposition of any
moment in this nation until the Morgan affair of 1826. (See Short Talk Bull=
etin
of March 1933 and February 1946.)
But the Colonies were not to escape prejudice, even if unorganized, f=
or
Pritchard's Masonry Dissected (1730) and Jachin and Boaz (1762) both had wi=
de
circulation, the latter pamphlet being reprinted here more than a dozen tim=
es;
one edition was printed in Spanish in Philadelphia as late as 1822.
These "expose's" purporting to print the ritual, ceremonies=
and
"secrets" of Freemasonry (invaluable now as giving clues to pract=
ices
and words otherwise lost in the mist of the years) were then intended as bo=
dy
blows at the Ancient Craft. In early days all Freemasonry was kept secret;
place of meeting; men who belonged; candidates proposes, were all considere=
d to
be "esoteric". Hence there was a great curiosity on the part of t=
he
public and a large circulation of pamphlets designed to injure the Fraterni=
ty
by "exposing" its charter, ritual and secrets. Today, few would l=
ook
at and less would buy such a pamphlet on a newsstand - then, the public
demanded these in quantities.
Like all such, the motive of their publication--whether revenge for f=
ancied
slights or avarice - kept them from being too seriously considered by the
better educated and thinking class.
In England, Pritchard's "Masonry Dissected" raised a storm =
when
it was published, and was reflected even in the songs of the day. An actres=
s in
1765 offered the following, as coming from the anti - Masonic Scald Miserab=
le
Masons:
"Next for the s=
ecret of
their own wise making,
Hiram and Boaz and Grand Master Jachin;
Poker and tongs-the sign-the word-the stroke
'Tis all a nothing and 'tis all a joke!
Nonsense on nonsense! Let them storm and rail
Here's the whole history of the mop and pail*
For 'tis the sense of more than half the town
Their secret is-a bottle at the Crown!" *
* An allusion to the tiler's implements with which =
he
erased the designs drawn upon the lodge floor for he instruction of candida=
tes.
Although inspired by the Morgan affair, the letters of John Quincy Ad=
ams
had an anti-Masonic effect long after Morgan was forgotten. President Adams=
was
never a Freemason; we have his own words as proof of that. That he was an
implacable enemy of the institution is shown by his "Letters on the
Masonic Institution" published in book form in Boston in 1847. His enm=
ity
of the Fraternity sprang from his belief in the reality of the "murder=
"
of Morgan, the activities of the anti-Masonic party and his own great credu=
lity
and strong prejudice. His character as a man, his service to his county, his
exhaustless energy made serious his attacks on Freemasonry, even though he
displayed a woeful ignorance of the Order, its principles, practices, histo=
ry
and accomplishments.
John Quincy Adams is long gathered to his fathers. His
"letters" remain largely unread in libraries and in the minds of
historians. He did the fraternity harm once, but, judged by the perspective=
of
a century, it was without permanent effect.
These are but the slightest thumb-nail sketches of a few of the outbr=
eaks
against Freemasonry. In all countries since the organization of the Mother
Grand Lodge, there have been these ebullitions of passions and prejudice; in
some lands, tortures and burnings; destructions of Masonic property,
imprisonment of Masons, especially in World War II.
These persecutions have had a hundred underlying causes; avarice,
jealousy, desire for notoriety, disappointment, envy, the belief that he cl=
imbs
high who climbs ruthlessly, the need for a scrape-goat: the list is endless.
But all, in the last analysis, boil down to one cause. As the greater swall=
ows
the less, the large encompasses the little, the race includes all its blood
strains, so the reason for the enmity of Freemasons and Freemasonry,
encompassing all of many causes, is simple.
There is always a conflict between any two opposing beliefs, doctrine=
s,
dogmas, religions, philosophies, political systems. For hundreds of years
organized religion fought science; the doctrine of the divine right of kings
ran headlong into the doctrine of the equality of man; today we see democra=
cy
and Communism in a cold war to the death; less spectacular but none the less
real has been the split of Lincoln's famous words, resulting in the opposit=
ion
of those who believe in government by the people, to those who believe only=
in
government of the people, by the governor!
Freemasonry is a philosophy which cannot exist side by side with cert=
ain
ideologies. Either the latter must sink or Freemasonry must be banished.
Wherever men have believed that one man or some men are above the law which
applies to the many; wherever as government is by men and not by law,
Freemasonry is anathema, must be persecuted, thrown out, dispersed, done aw=
ay.
Freemasonry stands and has always stood for freedom of political thou=
ght;
for freedom of religious thought; for the dignity, importance and worth of =
the
individual. In Freemasonry there is neither high nor low-"We meet upon=
the
level". In Freemasonry is no compulsion; a man must come to it and be =
of
it "of his own free will and accord." In Freemasonry is no religi=
ous
sect: men of all religions or of no religion, join hands in kneeling about a
common Altar erected to the Great Architect of the Universe, by which name =
each
can worship the God he knows.
Such a plan, such a doctrine, such a brotherhood, cannot but be inimi=
cal
to the selfish, the crooked, the power-hungry, the dictator, the religion w=
hich
opposes any doctrine but its own, the self-seeking, the envious, the coward,
the prejudiced, the passionate and the dishonest.
The reason for all the attacks on Masonry, no matter how attempted or=
by
whom accomplished, can be expressed in a word...