"He might have told them all he knew of Freemasonry, and all that he feared of its effects, without arming himself with ratsbane, pistol, rope, and dagger, to commence a war of extermination upon a whole class of men, (the editors,) who, as a professional body, are as free, as liberal, as independent, as those of any other profession, and, we hope we may add, without incurring the guilt of uttering a libel, no more obnoxious to charges of profligacy and corruption, than some gentlemen, who appear to be aiming at political promotion, at the expense of their friends. We have no wish to do an act of injustice to Mr. Rush. If he should receive no more than his fair deserts, our indignation might be appeased, and, perhaps, converted into compassion. He has been prompted to this act by political ambition. He expects, and not without reason, to be set up as a candidate for the Presidency, in opposition to his friend, Henry Clay; or, failing in that, to be used as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, with some other aspiring demagogue. This, we undertake to say, and we are well advised of the extent of what we are saying,— is the true secret of Mr. Rush's sudden conversion to Antimasonry; – or rather, if we admit his own declarations, his reluctant exposition of facts and opinions, long known and cherished, but which all the obligations of honor, religion, and patriotism were too weak to draw from him till now. What a glorious illustration of the permanency and sincerity of political friendships." A few days after the publication of these remarks, * an old and friendly acquaintance of the editor, who lived in Lynn, called and paid up his subscription to the paper, and ordered it to be discontinued. The gentleman voluntarily assigned, as his reason for stopping the paper, the remarks on Mr. Rush's letter, and added, “ All your subscribers in Lynn have come to a determination to follow my example." This occurrence, and the admonition that was coupled with it, were treated rather contemptuously, and I heard no more from my Lynn friend. His example was not followed by his fellow-townsmen. The list of subscribers remained entire for several years. THE NATIONAL FAST. In the summer of 1832 the Cholera made its appearance in several places in our country, and the expectation of its spreading caused general alarm. Some of the religious sects petitioned the President that he would appoint a day for general humiliation and prayer. On the first of July, Mr. Clay offered in the Senate a resolution, that a joint committee of the two houses of Congress should "wait on the President, and request that he recommend a day to be designated by him, of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity, and with fervent supplications to Almighty God, that he will be graciously pleased to continue his blessings upon our country, and that he will avert from it the Asiatic scourge which has reached our borders; or if, in the dispensa * It was a rule with me,—from which I never departed, never to ask a subscriber for the reason of his stopping the paper. tions of his Providence, we are not to be exempted from the calamity, that, through his bountiful mercy, its severity may be mitigated and its duration shortened." After some debate this resolution was adopted. The debate was published in the Courier, with the following remarks annexed: We have given above the whole debate on this resolution as reported in the Intelligencer, and we are constrained to confess that the reasons offered by the gentlemen who advo cated its passage do not strike us as very forcible, but, on th other hand, as injudicious and unsound, and involving doctrines entirely at variance with philosophy and all that is known of the physical laws of the universe. The whole argument, - so far as there is any argument displayed in the debate, seems to be founded on the belief that prayer and fasting can suspend the operations of the laws of nature; or, in other words, that the Supreme Ruler of the universe may be induced, by supplication, to change the IMMUTABLE laws, which he has ordained for the government of the physical elements, and by which the harmony of the universe is preserved. Now, we presume that neither Mr. Clay nor Mr. Frelinghuysen would admit that the prayers of the people, whatever efficacy they might have in a moral point of view, could be of any avail in averting the progress or changing the operation of a physical law. To suppose such an event, would be to suppose an absurdity which no philosopher, -no religious or moral philosopher, — could for a moment entertain. The Cholera is, literally, a pestilence that walketh in darkness. Its progress, Mr. Clay says, is marked by apparent caprice. Yet neither Mr. Clay nor any other man of common sense will pretend, in sober argument, that its progress is not guided and regulated by physical causes; — by laws, which are as immutable as any other decrees of the Deity. Those laws have not yet been discovered; but that they exist can be no more a matter of doubt than the laws of gravitation or of motion. The means of security against their operation must be altogether of a physical character, and their effects can no more be averted by moral means, than the laws of gravitation can be suspended by argument or supplication. If a cannonball were raised fifty feet high in the air, and all obstacles to motion be removed, it is not to be supposed that the prayers of all the saints in the universe would prevent its falling, or breaking the head of Saint Peter, if the head of that apostle should happen to be in a direct line between the earth and the point from whence it should be dropped. With all proper deference to the understanding and talent of Mr. Frelinghuysen, we think there is no analogy between the approach of the Cholera and the War of 1814. The Cholera is physical in its nature, progress, and operations; War is a moral pestilence, and its evils are to be averted solely by moral preventives. We have not time nor space at this moment to enter upon an elaborate argument in theology or metaphysics; but we presume that Mr. Frelinghuysen will acknowledge that the efficacy of prayer consists in its operation on those who pray, and not in a suspension of the laws, or a change in the purposes of the Deity. The progress of the moral pestilence is subject to laws and influences very different from those which regulate the elements of nature. Mr. Frelinghuysen has drawn a very vivid and eloquent picture of the "agent and minister of God, over which human power has no influence;" but we come to a conclusion directly opposite to his in regard to what ought to be done in consequence of its approach, and in regard to the propriety of meeting it with humiliation and prayer. The argument, we repeat, as far as we understand it, is based on the supposition that the laws of the universe will be suspended and the order of nature reversed by our asking. Instead of calling such a proceeding an act of humiliation, it appears to us it should more properly be named an exhibition of pride, arrogance, impiety, and presumption. All this dread order break for whom? for thee, What the President may do in consequence of the passage of the resolution, remains to be seen. It can hardly be expected, however, that he will comply with its requisition, after having declined to comply with a similar request from the clergy of New-York; though if he should send a message to the Senate in relation to the subject, we hope it will be more consistent in its argument than his reply to the reverend clergy. Both the President and Governor Throop acknowledge their full belief in the efficacy of prayer to avert the evils of the Cholera; at least, that is the obvious meaning of their language; yet both decline to recommend a day of humiliation and prayer. If they actually believe what they say they do, does not a most fearful responsibility rest upon them for refusing to recommend, -nay, even to order, a general use of these efficacious means? In how much absurdity do men get involved by their attempts to justify their conduct by the application of unnatural and unphilosophical principles ! There is an objection to the institution of a day of general humiliation and fasting, which does not seem to have entered into the views of any of those who propose the measure. Whatever may be the motives of those who urge it, and however good their intentions, such a day would be, as it has been heretofore, perverted to uses altogether at variance with, and would produce consequences directly the reverse of, those intended. A general suspension of business, especially in cities and large towns, is accompanied by scenes of amusement and dissipation. If any doubt that such would be the effect of a fast-day, let them look back to the fast-days ordered by the governors of New-England, for the last twenty years, and see if the practice has not become an evil that calls for a remedy. A fast-day has become a farce, and is so considered by a large portion of the people. It has been, for many years, an apology for irregularities, immoralities, and vices, which would not, otherwise, have occurred. Where they have been the means of redeeming a single soul from the power of sin, they have put in jeopardy ten others. . . . . . . We wish to interfere with no man's religious faith, nor to offend the pious feelings of the humblest individual. If any man is |