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During the persecutions of the Ereemasons , it was also said against them , that they were suspected on account of their union with the coloured people ; and the slave-holders and the southern states were
hereby easily excited against the Masons . On the 4 th of May , 1829 , the daily * paper announced that the black Lodges in New York surpassed all others in splendour ; the Boston Free Press says , on the 16 th of October , 1829 : " A short time ago a negro was interred with Masonic honours in Baltimore , and the Ethiopian gentlemen who followed his body were decorated with the emblems of the Order . " It was said at the United States Anti-masonic Convention held in
Philadelphia , on the 11 th September , 1830 , that in Boston there existed a Lodge , a Chapter , and an encampment of coloured people . The President of the second national anti-masonic convention of Baltimore , 1831 , expresses great anxiety in the address to the people of the United States , on account of the existence of the African Lodge
and her branches . The Free Press communicates , on the 14 fch of March , 1832 , that a black Lodge in Providence Road , Ireland , under the Grand Lodge in Boston , was flourishing , and proclaims that Walker , the publisher of the well-known revolutionary pamphlet , which made such a commotion in the south , was a member of the
African Lodge ; and that General Nat , the leader of the massacre in Southampton , was a black Mason . Likewise , the Pitsburgh Gazette mentions a coloured Lodge in Baltimore , 10 th March , 1843 , and says that the grand jury of Baltimore designates the coloured Lodges as " dangerous , " and recommends a law to suppress them . Agreeably to this a law was carried in Maryland , even at present in force , which provides as follows : — ¦
1 . Each free negro or mulatto member of a secret society , be it m or out of the states , is guilty of a misdemeanor , and shall pay a fine of fifty dollars ; or in default , be sold for such time until the sum be paid ; and on repetition of the crime he shall be sold out of the state for life . A slave guilty of it shall be sold out of the state , or receive nine lashes .
2 . Every one who founds such a society of coloured or white people , or makes the attempt to pursuade a negro or mulatto to join it , is guilty of a misdemeanor ; and , if a white man , shall suffer from five to ten years' imprisonment ; if a free negro or mulatto , he shall be punished as under law No . 1 .
< Masoney has no principle but what might still more ornament the purest mind ; nor any appendage but what might give additional lustre to the brightest character . By the exercise of the duties of Masonry , the rich may add abundantly to the fund of their external inheritance . The wise may increase their knowledge of the nature of God , in all his best perfections , and thereby daily grow still wiser . The pure may be always advancing in the divine likeness , and they who walk in the path of the just , with zeal and activity , will find it as the shining light , which shineth more and more unto the perfect day . " —In wood . —From Oliver on Masonry , p . 368 .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
During the persecutions of the Ereemasons , it was also said against them , that they were suspected on account of their union with the coloured people ; and the slave-holders and the southern states were
hereby easily excited against the Masons . On the 4 th of May , 1829 , the daily * paper announced that the black Lodges in New York surpassed all others in splendour ; the Boston Free Press says , on the 16 th of October , 1829 : " A short time ago a negro was interred with Masonic honours in Baltimore , and the Ethiopian gentlemen who followed his body were decorated with the emblems of the Order . " It was said at the United States Anti-masonic Convention held in
Philadelphia , on the 11 th September , 1830 , that in Boston there existed a Lodge , a Chapter , and an encampment of coloured people . The President of the second national anti-masonic convention of Baltimore , 1831 , expresses great anxiety in the address to the people of the United States , on account of the existence of the African Lodge
and her branches . The Free Press communicates , on the 14 fch of March , 1832 , that a black Lodge in Providence Road , Ireland , under the Grand Lodge in Boston , was flourishing , and proclaims that Walker , the publisher of the well-known revolutionary pamphlet , which made such a commotion in the south , was a member of the
African Lodge ; and that General Nat , the leader of the massacre in Southampton , was a black Mason . Likewise , the Pitsburgh Gazette mentions a coloured Lodge in Baltimore , 10 th March , 1843 , and says that the grand jury of Baltimore designates the coloured Lodges as " dangerous , " and recommends a law to suppress them . Agreeably to this a law was carried in Maryland , even at present in force , which provides as follows : — ¦
1 . Each free negro or mulatto member of a secret society , be it m or out of the states , is guilty of a misdemeanor , and shall pay a fine of fifty dollars ; or in default , be sold for such time until the sum be paid ; and on repetition of the crime he shall be sold out of the state for life . A slave guilty of it shall be sold out of the state , or receive nine lashes .
2 . Every one who founds such a society of coloured or white people , or makes the attempt to pursuade a negro or mulatto to join it , is guilty of a misdemeanor ; and , if a white man , shall suffer from five to ten years' imprisonment ; if a free negro or mulatto , he shall be punished as under law No . 1 .
< Masoney has no principle but what might still more ornament the purest mind ; nor any appendage but what might give additional lustre to the brightest character . By the exercise of the duties of Masonry , the rich may add abundantly to the fund of their external inheritance . The wise may increase their knowledge of the nature of God , in all his best perfections , and thereby daily grow still wiser . The pure may be always advancing in the divine likeness , and they who walk in the path of the just , with zeal and activity , will find it as the shining light , which shineth more and more unto the perfect day . " —In wood . —From Oliver on Masonry , p . 368 .