ly demand of you to shun, as you would the Bohon Upas, or the Simoom of the Arabian deserts, the alluring steps that lead into a Masonic Lodge Room; for they are emphatically the steps which "lead down to the gates of hell!"

I shall now proceed to give you my reasons why you ought not to enter into the Masonic Association: And as Free Masonry boasts of her FIVE POINTS OF FELLOWSHIP, I will exhibit, as beacons to warn you from her dark and infernal paths, at least FIVE POINTS OF HER FOLLY

AND WICKEDNESS.

You cannot, then, become Free Masons, with

out

1. Risking your life, if after obtaining the wicked, as well as the frivolous secrets of the Order, you should, on calm reflection, think it your duty to God, and your country, to reveal them.

of 2. Sacrificing your personal dignity, or selfo respect, in a manner too humiliating for young men of honor and sensibility to stoop to.

3. Running the risk, and a very imminent one it is, of learning to tipple, and thereby losing the respect and esteem of society, and becoming vagrants.

4. Betraying the rights and liberties of your country.

5. Incurring the displeasure of Heaven, if the Bible be not a forgery, and Christianity a fable of man's invention.

That you will run the risk of your lives as above stated, by becoming Free Masons, you may learn from the following letter, which I had recently occasion to write, to say nothing of the mass of evidence collected at three different

trials of persons, charged with the conspiracy to kidnap William Morgan and David C. Miller, in the counties of Ontario and Genesee, N. Yand the still further evidence afforded by a late Executive Proclamation.*

[From the National Intelligenser.]

MESSRS. GALES & SEATON—

Gentlemen-As, in giving place to my advertisement or rather prospectus, you have expressed an opinion, founded on an article which you have copied from the United States Gazette; and as I know that article to be utterly destitute of truth, I will not say intentionally so, from beginning to end, will you permit me through your columns to make a counter statement, which I know to be strictly true?

The Gazette article asserts, that the excitement in relation to the abduction of Morgan and Miller, was got up for electioneering purposes. But let us look at the facts.

On Sunday morning, the 10th September, 1826, William Morgan was arrested in Batavia, on a criminal process, and carried off to Canandaigua. There the criminal charge was abandoned, which those who had arrested him on it, knew would be the issue, as it was, from the beginning, a mere trick to get him off the limits at Batavia, where he was confined for debt. Immediately on his being discharged by Justice Chipman, on the criminal process, a debt was trumped up, which had no real foundation, by the same party who had brought him from Batavia, on which, being poor and friendless, he was put into the jail at Canandaigua. The

* Sec Appendix, Note 2.

next night after this event, one Loton Lawson, (since convicted of kidnapping Morgan, and now in prison for the deed) came forward under the mask of friendship, and persuaded Morgan to permit him to pay the debt, inducing Morgan to believe that it was out of pure friendship, and that he would take him to his house. Poor Morgan was too credulous-he agreed to Lawson's proposal-but the moment the latter got him out of jail, he was seized violently by Lawson and one or two other persons, and notwithstanding his cries of murder, was forced into a carriage, and drove off, Jehu like; since which he has not returned; nor have any tidings been had of him, excepting, that it has been clearly proved, at the last Ontario Sessions, that he was taken to, and confined in, the magazine of Fort Niagara. So far we accompany the unfortunate Morgan. I shall barely remark here, that the reason why the criminal charge was abandoned was, that, if they had put him into jail on that charge, they could not have got him out again, and their intention, from the beginning, to make way with him, would have been defeated.

Now for a few words as to David C. Miller, the Editor of the Republican Advocate, at Batavia. He was engaged in printing a book-Illustrations of Masonry-of which Morgan was the author; and for which the latter had. been kidnapped.

The night after Morgan was carried from Batavia, Miller's printing office was set fire to, and came near being consumed.

The govt day in the morning, being the same

ed out of the jail at Canandaigua, from sixty eighty men, all Freemasons, entered the village of Batavia, armed with hickory clubs, seized David C. Miller, likewise under pretence of a criminal process, and carried him off by force, as far as the village of Le Roy, where he was given to understand that he was to join with, and share the fate of Morgan. But, fortunately for Miller, the people had become alarmed, and turned out to pursue his captors; and he was rescued at Le Roy, and escorted safely back to Batavia; the process on which he had been taken turning out to be a sham, like that which had unfortunately succeeded in the case of Morgan. But I cannot take leave of Miller here, without paying a merited compliment to JOHN HASCALL, Esq. of Le Roy, a Royal Arch Mason, to whose intrepidity Miller was greatly indebted for his release from the ruffians who had seized him. Mr. Hascall has since openly sece ded from the Masonic Fraternity, on account of those unlawful proceedings.

Were not these unparalleled outrages, gentlemen, sufficient to excite the people, without the aid of electioneering artifice, or selfish views, on the part of any one? They certainly were. They did, of course, cause an excitement, of which I will now state briefly some of the results.

Town and county meetings were immediately held in the counties of Ontario, Genesee, Monroe, Livingston and Niagara, by which delegates were appointed, (all of respectability), upon whom it was enjoined, as a duty, to investigate thoroughly, as far as they possibly could do, the facts attending the abduction, and supposed subsequent murder of Morgan, as well

s the outrages committed on the property and erson of Miller. This delegation, consisting of some of the first men in the Western District, assembled at Lewiston, and hence have been styled the Lewiston Convention.* They entered fearlessly and honestly upon the duty assigned them, and have ever since pursued their object steadily. Through their exertions principally, FOUR of the conspirators, those who took Morgan from the jail at Canandaigua, were in-dicted, put on trial and convicted on a plea of guilty, in Ontario county; and three have since been convicted of kidnapping Miller, after pleading not guilty in Genesee connty. A considerable number stand indicted, who have not yet been tried, on account of both Morgan and Miller. It is true that sixteen or seventeen were tried at the last Court of Sessions in Ontario county, and were acquitted; but whoever will peruse attentively the testimony as reported, will find abundant proof in it of the abduction, if not the murder of Morgan; and will perceive, at the same time, such a mass of non mi recordo statements as was never before exhibited in any court of justice. The Judge, however, one of the ablest in the state, [I mean Judge Howell] in charging the jury, declared that "the proof "to establish both the conspiracy and its con"summation, was full and conclusive: that "Morgan had been unlawfully kidnapped and "carried off, was abundantly certain; and that "he had been subsequently unlawfully put to “death, there was too much reason to believe." He stated at the close of his charge, after sum-, ming up the evidence, and explaining the law, hat the testimony, though abundant to prove

See Appendix, Note 3.