SalemProtest1831
Contents
SALEM PROTEST, NOVEMBER 7, 1831
In November 1831, a number of Masons on the North Shore issued the following Protest and affirmation, and attached their names to the document, as listed below. This document precedes the more well-known Declaration of the Masons of Boston and Vicinity by nearly two months.
From Masonic Mirror, New Series, Vol. III, No. 20, November 1831, Page 159:
PROTEST
The undersigned, members of the Masonic Associations in this vicinity, having, many of us, taken all the degrees of Masonry that are conferred in the Lodges and Chapters of New England, and some of us having been admitted into what are called the higher orders of Masonry, feel constrained, by what we deem our duty to the public and ourselves, in consequence of the excitements existing around us on the subject of Freemasonry, solemnly to declare –
That the sole object of all the obligations, pledges, rites and laws of the Masonic Institution, as we have taken, understood, practised, and enforced them, is the promotion of morality, virtue, and piety; the promotion of all these qualities of the head and heart, which constitute good men – good as citizens of their country and of the world; good in all the social relations and offices of life; – and that the statement of the anti-Masonic party to the contrary are unjust and untrue.
That the principles of the Masonic Institution have had their full beneficial effect on their own lives, the undersigned do not assert; neither do they say that they have never been perverted, but they do say that they believe them to be not more liable to perversion, and that they never have been perverted to the injury of the public, either in this or any other country, more frequently than the institutions of Religion itself; and that, on the whole, Freemasonry has been productive of much more good than evil to every community in which it has flourished.
Conscientiously entertaining these views of the subject, and having received the laws of the society, and its accumulated funds in sacred trust for charitable uses, they can neither renounce nor abandon it. And should the people of this country become so infatuated as to deprive Masons of their civil rights, in violation of their written constitutions, and the whole spirit of just laws and free governments, they trust a vast majority of the fraternity will still remain firm, confiding in God and the rectitude of their intentions for consolation, under the trials to which they may be exposed.
The undersigned claim no exclusive privilege, no exception from punishment when proved guilty of crimes, no immunity from the just reward which an injured community bestows on evil doers, when, by their own deeds, it can be shown that they are such, but they protest against being adjudged guilty of crimes committed by others, or crimes imagined to be the consequence of their Masonic principles.
Finally, we most solely affirm that we know of no obligation or principles in Masonry that required duties of its members incompatible with the laws of the land, or contrary to our moral or religious duty to man, our country, or our God.
SALEM
- John Page
- James Devereaux
- James Odell
- Ebenezer Dodge
- Thomas Cole
- Joseph G. Sprague
- Joseph Eveleth
- Benjamin F. Browne
- Caleb Foote
- Pickering Dodge, Jr.
- Larkin Thorndike
- Robert Brookhouse
- Malthus A. Ward
- John Howard, Jr.
- Samuel Simonds
- William W. Palfray
- David Mack
- John Norris
- Emory Johnson
- (Rev.) Lemuel Willis
- William Duncan
- William Micklefield
- John C. Very
- William Sutton, Jr.
- Moses Townsend
- Daniel Sage
- Nathaniel Garland
- John Stone
- Henry Whipple
- Francis Peabody
- John Saunders
- Jonathan Webb
- Samuel Tucker
- George Peabody
- Albert G. Brown
- George Choate
- Thomas Farless
- John Frost
- Peter E. Webster
- Jesse Smith, Jr.
- Putnam I. Farnham
- (Rev.) Jessel Fillmore
- Thomas C. Whittredge
- James Perkins
- Joseph Hodges
- Joseph Cloutman
- Hardy Phippen
- David Moore
- Nathaniel F. Safford
- Thomas Cloutman
- James Barr, Jr.
- Samuel B. Buttrick
- Frazier Carleton
- Daniel Caldwell
- Stephen B. Ives
- James P. Thorndike
- Abraham Kimball
- Nathan Millet
- Henry Buxton
- Jewett Maxfield
- Stephen Harraden
- Samuel Nichols
- Arad Pomrey
- William Gavett
- Erastus Ware
- Charles Baker
- William Whitaker
- Ebenezer Hathorne
- Amos F. Smith
- Caleb Sawyer
- William Cottle
- Hiram Southworth
- John Simon
- Nathan Blood
- Andrew Shuman
- Joel Browning
- Isaac R. Shepard
- Henry Luscomb
- Samuel Beckett
- William Lummus
- Mark Kimball
- Benjamin Pitman
- Charles Parker
- Elijah A. Hanson
- Theodore Morgan
- Joseph Edwards
- Thomas Bowditch
- Eleazer Pope
- William F. Nichols
- William Leavitt
- Asa Wiggin
- Isaiah Straw
- John N. Frye
- Nathaniel Pitman
- Winthrop Sargent
- John W. Pepper
- Aaron Perkins
- Adam Nesmith
- Cornelius Baker
- John Baker
- Nehemiah Andrews
- Benjamin Peters
- B. L. Rand
- Charles Dexter
- Gideon Wilkins
- David Magoon
- Benjamin Farless
- James S. Kimball
- Cornelius Briggs
- Jonathan Merrill
- Henry Hubon
- Charles F. Wilson
- Caleb Warner
DANVERS
- Andrew Nichols
- William P. Endicott
- Nathan Poor
- Lewis Allen
- Asa Wheeler
- David Shove
- John Preston
- Benjamin Jacobs
- John Morrison
- Dean Kimball
- David Roberts
- John R. Manning
- Nathan Lakeman
- Jonathan Shove
- Sylvester Proctor
- Joseph Shaw
- Oliver Saunders
- Levi Preston, Jr.
- Fitch Pool, Jr.
- John Upton
- Thomas Morland
- Frederick Clement
- Andrew Porter
- Augustus Hammond
- Thomas Stimpson
- John Wood
MARBLEHEAD
- (Rev.) John Bartlett
- John Traill
- Abel Gardner
- Samuel Bowden
- Michael Coombs
- Nathaniel Adams
- Isaac Collyer
- Asa Hooper
- Jonathan Wilson
- Samuel S. Trefry
- John Gilley
- Jason Chamberlain
- John Prince
- David Blaney
- Josiah P. Creesy
- James Gregory
- Samuel Bartoll
BEVERLY
- (Dr.) Joshua Fisher
- Amos Sheldon
- Abraham Edwards
- Stephens Baker
- Stephen B. Goodhue
- Samuel Lamson
- John P. Webber
- Elliot Woodberry
- Thomas Farris
- Jesse Sheldon
- Andrew Leach
- George Brown
- Benjamin Peirce
- Stephen Roundy, Jr.
- Francis Lamson
- Benjamin S. Lunt
- Wm. Thissell
To this, the Salem Gazette appends the following remarks:
"The Address or Manifesto of the Masons in this and one or two neighboring towns, was imperatively demanded by the circumstances of the times, and can hardly fail to have a favorable influence. The signatures comprise the names of our most respectable citizens, and present a weight of characters, derived from age, integrity, wealth, talent and purity of life, which is rarely surpassed in an equal number. There are men of all ranks and professions, of every sect in religion, and every party in politics. The hoary wisdom of fourscore and the youthful vigor of twenty-five are united in repelling charges which implicate their personal characters as injuriously as that of the institution to which they belong.
It is desirable that this movement should not be misunderstood as being intended to influence the approaching election. It would have been made long ago, had it not been considered a work of supererogation: and the moment it was supposed to be ascertained that erroneous impressions had been made upon the mind of a single respectable individual, now published was determined on. The principal part of the signatures were affixed yesterday forenoon; had time allowed, a much larger number might have been obtained."
