MEMORIAL. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN GENERAL COURT ASSEMBLED. THE UNDERSIGNED, CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF [blank] RESPECTFULLY REPRESENT- THAT AT THE TWO FORMER SESSIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE, MEMORIALS, SIGNED BY MANY THOUSANDS OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COMMONWEALTH, WERE PRESENTED, PRAYING FOR A REPEAL OF THE CHARTER OF THE GRAND LODGE..

[Boston?, 1830. Broadside, 7 3/4 x 13". Some old folds, lightly foxed upper and lower margins, Very Good.

A rare broadside illustrating the anti-Masonic fervor of the times. Many prominent Americans opposed organizations whose secret rituals and oaths suggested fealty to a higher authority than the United States.
Fueled by the alleged Morgan murder, the movement took on a special vitality in Massachusetts with efforts to make Freemasonry a central political issue. John Quincy Adams was one of several heavyweights who assisted the fledgling Anti-Masonic Party. Here, arguing "that the administration of Masonic oaths should be suppressed," the Memorial urges legislators "to investigate Freemasonry" and prohibit its secret rituals. An Act of the Legislature ought to require "a registry of the names and meetings of the members of such societies, and the names of the persons, and nature of the obligations assumed by those that may be hereafter admitted into such secret societies."
Not located on OCLC, or the AAS and Scottish Rite Masonic Library online sites as of December 2022.