" (Moore's Constitutions, Art. 2.) A Mason may be
engaged in a wicked rebellion, and may stain his soul and hands with
innocent blood, and still he must be recognized as "a brother" and
must continue to enjoy all the boasted rights and advantages of the
order; but the patriot soldier who has been disabled for life in
defense of his country and liberty is excluded. The widows and orphans
of rebel Masons slain in battle, or righteously executed on the
scaffold, must receive "the benefits;" but the widows and orphans of
patriot soldiers who did not choose to join the Masons, or were
excluded by some bodily imperfection, or by wounds received in battle,
are left to the charities of "the ignorant and prejudiced." The Jew,
the Turk, the Hindoo, the American savage, and the infidel (provided
they are not atheists), are eligible to the boasted honors and
advantages of Masonry. (Moore's Constitutions, pp. 119, 123.) But if a
man have every intellectual gift and every moral virtue, and have some
bodily imperfection, he is excluded. A man may be as gifted and as
learned as Milton, as incorruptible and patriotic as Washington, and
as benevolent as Howard, but if he is physically imperfect he is
excluded from this association, which claims to be no respecter of
persons, but to be the patron of merit, and which professes to act on
the principle of the universal brotherhood of men.
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