THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

In short, if wives should do what husbands do, would not husbands rebel, think
themselves abused, and insist upon such a course being entirely and forever
abandoned? Indeed they would! How can a man look his wife in the face after
joining a Masonic lodge? I have recently received several letters from the wives
of Masons complaining of this:--that their husbands had joined the lodge and paid
their money, and were spending their time, and concealing their doings and their
principles from their wives. This is utterly unjust. It is shameful; and no honorable
man can reflect upon it without feeling that he wrongs his wife.
Of late, partly to appease women, and partly to give the female relatives of
Masons certain signs and tokens by which they may make themselves known as
the wives or daughters, sisters or mothers, of Freemasons, they are conferring
certain side degrees upon women. Of this Freemasons themselves--that is the
more honorable among them--are complaining as an innovation, and as a thing
justly to be complained of by outsiders. And observe that they ask, what if these
daughters or sisters of Masons, who are taking these side degrees, should marry
men who are not Masons, and who are opposed to the institution,--what would be
the consequence of this? You administer, they say, the degrees for the sake of
preserving domestic peace; and here, on the other hand, it would produce
domestic discord.
But again, it should be considered that Masonry is an institution of vast
proportions, and of such a nature that it will not allow its principles to be
discussed.
It works in the dark. And instead of standing or falling according to its character
and tendencies, when brought to the light, when thoroughly discussed and
understood by the public, it closes the door against all discussion, shrouds itself in
midnight, and its argument is assassination. Now, what have we here in a
republican government? A set of men under oath to assist each other, and even to
conceal each other's crimes, embracing and acting upon principles that are not to
be discussed!
Immediately after the publication of the first number of my articles in the
Independent, on the subject of Masonry, I received a threatening letter from the
city of New York, virtually threatening me with assassination. I have since
received several letters of the most abusive character from Freemasons, simply
because I discuss and expose their principles. Now, if their principles can not bear
the light, they never should be tolerated. It is an insult to any community for a set
of men to band themselves together to keep each other's secrets, and to aid each
other in a great variety of ways, and refuse to have their principles known and
discussed, whilst their only argument is a dagger, a bullet, and a bowie knife,
instead of truth and reason. Indeed, it is well-known throughout the length and
breadth of the land that Masonry is so determined not to have its principles
discussed, that men are afraid to discuss them. They expect from the very nature
of Masonry, and from the revelations that it has made of itself, to be persecuted,
and perhaps murdered, if they attempt to discuss the principles and usages of that
institution. Now, is such a thing as this to be tolerated in a free government? Why
how infinitely dangerous and shocking is this!