signed No binding
1833 · Washington, D.C.
by JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
Washington, D.C., 1833. No binding. Fine. Autograph Letter Signed as Congressman, to Stephen Bates. Washington, D.C., April 1, 1833. 3 pp. 8 x 9 3/4 in. ""To all members of the Masonic fraternity, who entered it before the murder of Morgan I would extend the most liberal Toleration. Most of them took the Oaths without reflecting upon what they imported....Now the case is otherwise. How they can now take or administer the cutthroat Oath to keep Secret, what all the world knows, I cannot comprehend.""In the wake of the murder of William Morgan, a prominent anti-Mason who had threatened to reveal the society's secrets, John Quincy Adams requested the return of an old letter. Considering the political climate, Adams thought the letter would reflect poorly on its now-deceased recipient, as well as expose Adams, a prominent opponent of Freemasonry, to public criticism for having supported a man he knew to be of good character who also happened to be a Mason. The former president, now in Congress, goes on to explain his political support for anti-Masonry, one of the first third-party political movements in the United States. Complete TranscriptStephen Bates Esq. Boston Washington 1 April 1833I thank you for your kindness and attention in procuring and transmitting to me the Letter which about this Time last year I wrote to my young and now deceased friend John B. Davis, little as I imagined when it was written how sad and by what a melancholy casualty it would return to me. He had written to me, requesting a Letter from me to Governor Lincoln recommending him as a Candidate for the appointment of public attorney for the County of Suffolk, then, or soon expected to be vacant. And knowing my opinions, adverse to the Masonic Institution, of which he was a member, he had mentioned the fact to me, as a circumstance which he deemed it proper Should be known to me, in coming to my determination upon his request. From the Confidence which I had in his personal integrity, and the friendship which I entertained for him, I did not hesitate to comply with his desire. I wrote to him the Letter which you have seen and on the same day recommended him by another to Governor Lincoln. It may perhaps have occurred to you that if it had fallen into hands, of persons on the search for matter of charge or censure upon me, they would have argued on inconsistency between the sentiments expressed in this Letter, and those avowed in another to Mr. Benjamin Cowell of Rhode Island of more recent date, and which has been published; but there is no inconsistency between them at all. In the Letter to Mr. Cowell I declared my approbation of the principle of those Anti-Masons, who believing the Masonic Institutions to be an enormous Nuisance in the Community; and that if the Oaths, Obligations and Penalties were not voluntarily relinquished, they ought to be prohibited by Penal Statutes enacted by the State Legislatures, voted exclusively for persons holding the same opinions, to be members of the State Legislatures. Thus far I cordially approved of Political Anti-Masonry - And hold it to be neither disfranchisement nor persecution of Masons - The Legislature of Rhode Island have gone further. They have made the Administration of extra judicial Oaths penal; and have interdicted it my disfranchisement for the second offense. This I approve also, because it looks to the future. It does not disfranchise men because they have taken or administered extra judicial Oaths heretofore. That was Mr. Davis's case. I should not hold it justifiable to exclude such persons from public offices. I might scrutinize somewhat more closely their principles. To all members of the Masonic fraternity, who entered it before the murder of Morgan I would extend the most liberal Toleration. Most of them took the Oaths without reflecting upon what they imported, or sheltering their consciences under the great names which had gone before them. They were always taken by surprize, Summoned to take the O... (See website for full description) (Inventory #: 23716)