The Camden Daily Journal

Degeneracy of Northern Masons—The Masonic fraternity have hitherto been of the opinion that the acts of vandalism practiced by the Federal soldiers in the various Masonic Lodges of Mississippi, were not the acts of Masons, but of hired soldiers, incited by a desire of booty: but the Mobile Register blushes to record an instance which shows that they have been mistaken. During the last visit of the enemy to Port Gibson, they visited the Lodge room, stole the regalia and jewels, and tore up and destroyed the records and papers of Washington Lodge No. 3, and Clinton Chapter No. . They also destroyed the charter of said Chapter, issued by the Grand Chapter of the United States, September 18, 1826, and signed by DeWitt Clinton. And, as if to guarantee, one of the party left on the altar a card on which was inscribed, "THOMAS H. PRICE, W. M. of Peoria Lodge, No. 15, Peoria, Illinois." Within the Revolutionary war, when the charter of Lodge and its records had fallen into British hands, they were promptly returned by a British Prince, under a guard of honor. How different the conduct of W. M. Price, who by his actions, seems to have gloried in destroying the records and papers of an institution devoted to benevolence!