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Amboy Anti-Mason
Committee. Oswego (NY) Free Press, Wednesday 17 October 1832 (vol. 3, no.
30), page 2, columns 1 and 2. Surnames include COAN, RICE, ABELL, MCINTYRE,
EDWARDS, and MOWRY.
At a meeting
of the town committee of the county of Oswego, held at the Inn of E. Mowry
in the town of Amboy, on the 9th of October, 1832, agreeably to adjournment,
present, the towns of Hannibal, Scriba, Mexico, Amboy and Parish, Sylvanus
Coan of Amboy, was chosen Chairman, and Arvin Rice of Hannibal, appointed
Secretary. Mr. Cochran of Scriba, addressed the meeting in an able and
eloquent speech of an hour, and presented the following resolutions, which
were unanimously adopted:
Resolved, That
the melancholy situation of our common country, her interests neglected,
her national faith broken, and her ability shamefully jeoparded, loudly
demands the united simultaneous and determined efforts of her children,
in breaking the tables of the money changers, in purifying the temple of
their liberties, and expelling the rubbish therefrom.
Resolved, That
among the other traits disgracing the character and conduct of the present
incumbent, we recognize his attachment to secret institutions, his approval
of their injurious existence, and his indubitable association in the mysteries
of the Lodge Room; that the acts of his corrupt adminstration savour strongly
of its oppressive influence, and that the voice of a nation, though now
reminding a tyrant "that Caesar had his Brutus, and Charles the First his
Cromwell," will yet teach King Andrew the First the necessity of "profiting
by their example."
Resolved, That
when reviewing the alarming facts, stamping "reckless impiety" on the very
front of our present Chief Magistrate, our petitions slighted, our remonstrances
producing additional violence and insult, our supplications disregarded
and ourselves spurned with contempt from the fool of the throne, we are
reduced to the painful conviction that there is no longer any room for
hope, and that if we wish to be free -- if we mean "to preserve inviolate
those privileges secured by the blood of the revolution, and transmitted
for our enjoyment," we must act. An appeal to principle and the patriotism
of our fellow-citizens is all that is left us.
Resolved, That
as a distinct political body, being called on to avow and maintain our
principles, we as anti-masons, declare our faith to be unalterable, immutable
and fixed, our conduct to be determined, unswerving and consistent, and
until the last "small light" from the lodge room shall have expired, our
course to be uniform, accelerated, and onward.
Resolved, That
the approaching election demands action! action! action: that our candidates
are already in the field: that their cause is invincible by any force their
enemies can send against them: and thatwith anti-masons, peace is not so
sweet and life so dear, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery.
Resolved, That
we regard the reiterated and far bruited rumours of amalgamation and coalition,
as the signa cries for spoil, attack, and subjugation, the last arguments
to which Kings resort; that deeming the contest inevitable, we conceive
there to be no retreat but in submission and slavery; and that we as patriots
will approach the November ballot boxes under the prescient assurance of
VICTORY, the banner of our country's freedom outspread to the breeze, and
ourselves actuated by the motto inscribed thereon, "Spread all over in
characters of; living light, blazing on its ample folds, as they float
over the sea and the land, and in every wind under the whole heaven, and
dear to every American heart, LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND
INSEPARABLE."
Resolved, That
we recognize in the proceedings of the late Anti-masonick County Convention
convened at Mexico on the first of the current month, an open expression
of truth supported by a just statement of facts, and that essential spirit
of moral consistency which always has and still continues to mark the progress
of "correct principle;" and that in the spontaneous expression of its voice
in favor of our candidates for office, we hail a feeling of unanimity and
concert, which while unknown to conventions of packed delegation, hurls
the gauntlet of defiance in the very teeth of those who would foully asperse
the character of our nominations made and concurred in at Utica on the
21st of June last, by the faint and feeble cry of coalition! coalition!
Resolved, That
the following gentlemen constitute the Committee for the town of Amboy:
Anson Abell, Sylvanus Coan, Nathaniel McIntyre, John Edwards and Paris
Mowry.
Resolved, That
the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the Chairman and Secretary,
and published in the Free Press.
SYLVANUS COAN,
Ch'n.
Arvin Rice,
Secretary.