This publication of Mr. Adams' Letters on Freemasonry

was undertaken because it was believed that so able and

valuable a work should again be put in print in a style suitable

for a place in libraries. Mr. Adams intensely hated all

that he conceived to be wrong, and it will be seen that in

these letters he, with all the fervor of his soul, labored to

show the wrongs, corruptions, and blasphemies of the lodge.

To the decadence of the order these letters greatly contributed

; and when, after many years, it began to show signs of

reviving Mr. Adams' letters as they appear were published

in a neat volume at Boston, with an eloquent introduction

by Charles Francis Adams, two pages of which were omitted,

as being deemed inappropriate to this publication.

As will be seen by the letter in review of Mr. Sheppard's

defense of Freemasonry, Mr Adams endured abuse and

misrepresentation long for his Antimasonic views before he

came out in public to declare and defend those views.

These letters are mainly a series addressed to Edward

Ingersoll, to William L. Stone, and to Edward Livingston.

Others not less able, nor scarcely less important, were written

to men of national distinction, as William H. Seward,

Richard Rush, and Levi Lincoln.

The letters to the committee of the Antimasonic state

convention of Vermont and that of the secretary of the

Antimasonic state convention of Pennsylvania partake

somewhat of the natujre of public addresses, to which is

to be added his lengthy and masterly address to the people

It is proper to state that the letters to Colonel William L.

Stone, of New York, were in reply to letters addressed to

him by Mr. Stone in apology, though not in justification, of

the Masonic institution. In these letters he shows most

clearly the absurdity of those apologies by one who, though

he had abandoned the lodge, still had not formally seceded

from the order.

The letters addressed to Hon. Edward Livingston, of

Louisiana, who had accepted the office of general grand

high-priest of the order stands out as a terrible arraignment

of the order, and as a most effective defense of Antimasons

from the imputations made against them.

A GREAT FIND

AND A FANTASTIC READ!

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