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Excerpt from "The Church and Her Enemies" by Michael Muller C.SS.R. 1877.

I found this bit of history from our part of the country in upstate NY. Very interesting what the Freemasons have gotten away with. After reading this it all makes sense why things are the way they are. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. It is a bit long and I am not sure my ocr got it all right, but I think it is well worth the read.

"The year 1826, however, introduced a new era in the history of Masonry and of our country. From that year to the present time enough has transpired to show, in a broad and fearful light, the danger of secret institutions. The citizen who will close his eyes to this light is criminally negligent to his own rights, and the safety of this government. The order has been bold enough to assume to itself powers which belong only to the government of the land; and in the exercise of these assumed powers has violated the liberty of one citizen, and taken the life of another, for an alleged breach of obligations which our laws do not recognize.

"In September, 1826, Capt. William Morgan, a citizen of this State, was seized under feigned process of the law, in the daytime, in the village of Batavia, and forcibly carried to Canandaigua, in another county. Captain Morgan was engaged in the publication of a book which purported to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry. This contemplated publication excited the alarm of the fraternity, and numbers of its members were heard to say that it should be suppressed at all events. It is known that meetings of delegates from the different lodges in the western counties were held to devise means for most effectually preventing the publication. It is known that the matter was a subject of anxious discussion in many and distant lodges. It is known that the zealous members of the fraternity were angry, excited, and alarmed, and occasionally individuals threw out dark and desperate threats. It is known that an incendiary attempt was made to fire the office of Col. Miller, the publisher of the book; that this attempt was plotted by Masons, and attempted to be carried into execution by Masons. The gang who seized Morgan at Batavia were Masons. They took him to Canandaigua; after a mock trial he was discharged, but was immediately arrested, and committed to prison on a stale or fictitious demand. The next night, in the absence of the jailer, he was released from prison by the pretended friendship of a false and hollow-hearted brother Mason. Upon leaving the prison door, he was again seized in the streets of Canandaigua, and, notwithstanding his cries of murder, he was thrust with ruffian violence into a carriage prepared for that purpose. At Batavia he had been torn from his home — from his amiable wife and infant children. At Canandaigua he had been falsely beguiled from the safe custody of the law, and was forcibly carried by relays of horses, through a thickly populated country, in the space of little more than twenty-four hours, to the distance of one hundred and fifteen miles, and secured as a prisoner in the magazine of Fort Niagara. This outrage necessarily required many agents; and, to the shame of our country, (though Masons were found, and of these, too, many who were bound by her official oaths to protect the liberty of the citizen, and prevent the violation of the laws, who readily lent their personal assistance, and the aid of their carriages and horses, in the transportation of this hapless man to the place of his confinement and subsequent death.

"This was not their only outrage. About the same time Col. David C. Miller was also seized in Batavia, under like color of legal process, and taken to Le Roy. He was also seized by Masons, and accompanied to Le Roy by a ferocious band of Masons, armed with clubs. He was discharged from the process under which he was arrested, and with lawless violence they attempted to seize him again; but, to the praise of the citizens of^. Le Roy, and to some who were members of the Masonic fraternity, too, be it spoken, he was rescued, and suffered to return to Batavia. The avowed intention of Col. Miller's seizure was to take him Where Morgan was; and where that was may be best gathered from the impious declaration of one of the conspirators, James Ganson, for several years a member of our legislature, that 'he was put where he would stay put until God should call him.’

"These acts of outrage and violence at length became the subject of inquiry, and excited the honest indignation of a community always alive to the rights of the citizen, and the violation of the laws. Committees of investigation were appointed in the different counties which were the scenes of this violence, with instructions to do everything in their poorer to ferret out this crime, and trace it to the perpetrators. It was, however, perpetrated under the cover of so much secrecy, that it was long before even the course which had been taken with Morgan could be traced. Certainly the committees did not commence their investigations under, the impressions that they should find the fraternity implicated in the transaction. They were slow to believe, as the public have generally and very properly been slow to believe, that a society which embraces among its members many worthy and pious men, could have ever connived at so foul a crime. It was considered as a blot upon the escutcheon of Masonry, and Masons were publicly called upon to assist in the investigation of this transaction, for the honor of the order, and to wipe out the stain. The committees soon discovered, with no little surprise, that they could expect no assistance from members of the fraternity. On the contrary, every obstacle and impediment was thrown in the way. They found the fraternity in a hostile attitude. They found that they were made the objects of ridicule, threats, and detraction; that their motives were impugned, and their characters vilified. Defeat, disgrace, and ruin, were con­fidently predicted to them; and certainly no means were spared to give to these predictions the character of prophecy. These acts of violence were made a jest of — the excited feeling of the public was ridiculed — their honest indignation was defied. The courts have been appealed to for justice; but in very few instances has justice been visited upon the heads of the offenders. The Masonic oath was soon found to be a shackle upon the officers and ministers of the law; the lips of witnesses were sealed by a mysterious and invisible influence, or opened only in the utterance of falsehoods. Jurors were influenced in their verdicts by an obligation more powerful than their oaths as jurors. Many of the chief offenders fled the country; and the crime yet remains, in a great measure, unpunished, and the violated laws unavenged. When it was found that the laws were too weak to vindicate their offended majesty, the committees appealed to the legislature of this State to institute an inquiry into these outrages. Here, it was found that the obligations which bound members to the fraternity were stronger than their oaths to support the constitution and the laws; and here, too, they were baffled, and left to, seek such redress as a few men could obtain against the united influence, wealth, and the determined and persevering hostility of a powerful combination.

"When it came to be ascertained that great numbers of the fraternity had been long engaged in devising means for suppressing Morgan's book; when it became known that the subject was a matter of discussion in many different and distant lodges; when it was also known that many individuals, all members of the fraternity, and some high in civil office, were implicated as accomplices in the actual outrages; when the course pursued by members of the fraternity generally, in relation to the investigation, was marked, all cool, thinking people begun to look farther for the origin of the crime, and felt fully justified in identifying the Masonic institution with these outrages, and holding that responsible for it.

"The matter began to assume a new complexion; the dangers of secret societies began to flash across the minds of the reflecting; here was a bloody text, which afforded matter for fearful comment. The conviction became general that the safety of government and religion, the rights of the citizen, and the impartial, administration of justice required that this institution should be banished from our soil. The freedom and boldness with which the principles and tendency of the institution began now to be discussed, encouraged many honest and conscientious members of the fraternity, who had heretofore been shackled by fear, to renounce their connection with the society, and to disclose the nature of their secret obligations which bound them together. Taking upon themselves those horrid obligations, as they do, ignorant of their nature and import, there rests no obligation upon them, either legal, moral, or honorable, to consider them of any binding force. On the contrary, the duty which they owe to society and their country as citizens, the duty which they owe to God and His Church, loudly call upon them to divulge the principles of an institution so hostile to government and religion. This class of men are entitled to the gratitude of the public for their disclosures, and have deserved, and should receive, the countenance and support of every patriotic citizen, to sustain them against every attempt to injure them, or define, their characters. These obligations have been published to the world, and furnished farther and weighty evidence of the dangers of the Masonic institution; with the substantial truth of these obligations, and that they are such as are actually taken, we have every reason to be satisfied; and it encourages us in the pledge which We have mutually given to each other, and to the world: that we will use our best endeavors to banish this relic of barbarism from our land. It is upon the subject of the dangers of the Masonic institution, fellow citizens, that we desire to address you; and we are anxious that you should give the subject that consideration which its importance demands. This is not an ordinary topic. It is not a question whether this or that man shall be, president or governor; it is not a question whether this or that line of measures shall be pursued, but it is a question of immeasurably greater importance, - a question whether the rights of the citizen shall be held sacred – whether the laws shall be impartially administered — whether religion shall be duly reverenced.

"It may be safely said that secret societies, in their best shape, are useless in a free government; calculated to excite jealousies and suspicions in the breasts of the uninitiated, which may lay the foundation of dissensions and ill will. If their objects are honest and praiseworthy, there is no need of secrecy: honesty needs no cloak, and deeds of charity seek not the cover of darkness. Secrecy and concealment ever afford grounds of suspicion. If, however, Masonry is only what it has ever been professed to be, perhaps it might be safely left to the amusement of full-grown children; perhaps they might be safely left to the enjoyment of their mock dignities, their muslin robes, pasteboard crowns, and their gilded mitres; but when the obligations which bind them to ‘vote for a brother before any other person of equal qualifications' - to always, support his ‘military fame and political preferment, in opposition to another '—to aid and assist a brother in difficulty, so far as to extricate from the same, ‘whether he be right or wrong'—to keep his secrets, in all cases, inviolably, ‘murder and treason not excepted,' and these under no less penalties than a torturing and ignominious death, — then it becomes a question of serious import whether such an institution can be tolerated in our free government. By the force of these obligations a member can claim the vote of a brother for any elective office, in derogation of that equality guaranteed to us by our constitution; and the brethren thus gradually obtaining the control of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the government, can and must, dispense their patronage, in strict consonance with the obligations of this mysterious fraternal tie, so that soon the government, in all its branches, must be controlled by the members of the order. What guarantee is there for the impartial discharge of official duties, when the officer is shackled by such obligations? What hold have we upon the conscience, the integrity, or justice, of such a man? Is it his oath to support the constitution of this State and the United States? Is it his oath to faithfully discharge the duties of the office which he fills? He has taken a previous oath, of more horrid import, and of paramount obligation, to which all other oaths, all other ties, all other duties must yield. He is not a free man. He stands shackled and bound by invisible and mysterious chains. He cannot do his duty to his country if he would - he has a duty to perform to the fraternity, under the severest penalties of Masonic vengeance. What guarantee have we for the impartial administration of justice? A felon communicates the mystic sign to a brother on the grand inquest — the juror’s oath to screen no man, from fear, favor, or affection, must yield to the obligation to extricate a brother, ‘whether he be right or wrong.’ If he escapes not here, there is the same facility of communication with the jurors who are to try him -- and strange would it be if some of the brethren who have found means to insinuate themselves into every station, should not be found upon the panel, and in a panel where one stout and persevering negative prevents his conviction -- or the judge who tries him may receive the ‘grand hailing’ and the purity of the ermine may be sullied by the contamination of Masonic iniquity. If all this is not sufficient, the mystic signal may avail with the executive, and the avenging sword of the law may be turned aside from the execution of justice. Where is the security for justice between man and man? Can a Masonic judge or Masonic jurors hold the scales even between adverse parties, when one can appeal for assistance through the medium of mysterious, signals? This is not all. Witnesses who solemnly appeal to God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing, but the truth, in what they shall be called upon to relate, may be, bound under obligations more awful, and under penalties more severe, not to disclose the secrets of a brother. No! though it extend to the murder of a fellow-being, or to treason to the State. Is there, then fellow citizen any safety in trusting those persons who have taken such obligations, and believe in their binding sanction, with any office in our government? Is there any safety in committing our lives, our liberty, our property, or our reputation, to them, as judges or jurors? Is any confidence to be placed in witnesses who have bound themselves under such awful obligation, to keep the secrets of a brother? These obligations strike at the very existence of our government — at the very foundation of our rights — and at the impartial administration of our laws.

“This institution threatens not only danger to government and the cause of justice but strikes at the basis of all morality and religion. Thu obligation not to disclose the secrets of a brother, even in cases of murder and treason, has a tendency to invite the confidence of a brother Mason. Under the sanction of this oath a bold, bad man will not fear to disclose the history of his crimes to the ears of the virtuous, to the ears of even a minister of the holy gospel, and, secure against detection, make an impudent boast of his iniquities. This will make virtuous men familiar with the detail of crimes, and confidants in criminal secrets: and vice is of a character so contagious, that one cannot even listen to its history, or be familiar with its secrets, without some danger of contamination; and that nice, delicate, moral sense, which characterizes a virtuous man, must be gradually effaced, and his principles of virtue must be, in a great measure, rendered unsettled. Is Freemasonry the handmaid of religion, -- that institution in whose rites and ceremonies the       touching portions of that Holy Book, which holds out to us the promise of eternal life, are introduced in solemn mockery, and represented in the shape of a miserable theatrical, farce where a weak, sinful mortal undertakes to personify the Almighty God; where the name of our Blessed Saviour, and the Holy Trinity, are introduced, in a vain and irreverent manner; where the belief of the immortality of the soul is pledged in a libation from the skull of a Masonic traitor; where, the life eternal in the heavens is represented only as one great lodge, and the Almighty is blasphemously typified as Grand Master thereof? Is such an institution the handmaid of religion? We think we are safe in saying that the frequent use of profane oaths, the irreverent familiarity with religious forms and sacred things, the blasphemous mockery of the name of the Triune God, in the recesses, of the lodge-room, are more dangerous to the cause of the benign religion of Jesus than open and avowed infidelity. It is to be feared that many substitute and rely on the religion of Masonry, instead of the religion of Him who died to atone for our sins; or if not, they come to the belief that all religion is only the farce which their impious ceremonies represent it to be. It is time these delusions were dispelled. Masonry now stands before us in its naked deformity_, to stripped of its tinsel ornaments and solemn mummery. It behoves, us to take warning from the past, and receive instruction from the school of experience. We see in these disclosures the same principles which deluged France in blood, and were the cause of the dark crimes which stained that distracted country during the period of her sanguinary revolution. We see the same principles which governed Illuminism in the last century, and lighted her path in that foul plot which would have substituted anarchy for government and civil rule, and Atheism for the religion of the cross. It is from the bosom of Freemasonry that this dark conspiracy originated. To the bosom of Freemasonry every revolution and conspiracy which has agitated Europe for the last fifty years, may be distinctly traced, and the secret workings of this all-pervading order can be clearly seen. The governments of the world are beginning to be awake to the danger. Russia has suppressed the order in her own dominions; Spain has suppressed it and our sister republic of Mexico is exerting herself to crush one of its hydra heads. Shall we alone look tamely on, and use no endeavors to check the spread of its contaminating principles? You may ask how it is to be suppressed in this free government? The confidently boast that it is not in the power of man to suppress it — that even this government itself; with all its power, cannot do it. This may be true. But there is a power in this free land superior even to our government, and which guides controls, and directs it; and that power is public opinion. The laws we have found too weak. Government may be too weak; but there is a moral force in public opinion which must, in this free country, crush everything, however powerful, which is arrayed against it. This opinion speaks in our public meetings — it speaks from the sacred desk – it speaks through the organ of the press — it speaks through the ballot-boxes, when Masons appeal to you in this manner for support and countenance. This power, fellow citizens, you have under your control. It is the only legitimate and proper force that can be put in operation in this emergency, and in this country. This is a power for you to wield – and in its exercise remember the warning voice of the father of his country to ‘beware of secret societies.'"