It is not a dreadfully
wicked thing, like the causeless taking of human life, and may be
justifiable much oftener and for less weighty reasons. Still habitual
secrecy, or secrecy, except at particular times and for special
reasons, is, according to the common judgment of men, suspicious and
unjustifiable. Now, with secret societies secrecy is the general rule.
They practice constant concealment. At all times and on all occasions
must the members keep their proceedings secret. If an individual would
thus studiously endeavor to conceal his actions; were he to throw the
veil of secrecy over his business operations, refusing to speak to any
of his fellow-men concerning them, he would justly expose himself to
suspicion. His fellow-men would lose all confidence in his integrity.
If habitual secrecy on the part of an individual, in regard to
business matters, is confessedly suspicious and wrong, it must be so,
also, on the part of associations of men. There is less excuse,
indeed, for concealment on the part of a number of men banded together
than on the part of an individual. An individual working in the dark
may do much mischief, but an association thus working can do much
more. All those considerations which forbid individuals to shroud
their actions in secrecy and darkness, and require them to be open,
frank, and straightforward in their course, apply with equal or
greater force to associations.
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