Note 900 — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

An Address, delivered in Essex Lodge, Massachusetts, Dec. 27, 5798 (1798), on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, at the induction of officers. By William Bentley. Essex Lodge was located at Salem, Bentley’s home. The address may be found in the Freemason’s Magazine, February, 1812, pp. 333 et seq. Bentley’s further reflections upon President Adams’s unsatisfactory response to the Vermont Grand Lodge led him to make even more pointed observations. Under date of Feb. 4, 1799, he wrote in his diary: “My address to Essex Lodge out of press. Pres. A. talks like a boy about the danger of the institution. Men of sense who ridicule or oppose the Institution are surprised at his simplicity. If he affects to be afraid, he loosens by the pretence because indifferent persons consider it as a weakness & his judgment suffers, so that he gets neither aid nor confidence.” (Diary, vol. ii, p. 296.)