Links in This Vast Chain Extending Round the Whole Globe

I might point to the fact that, although the meetings of our society are of necessity enshrouded with the veil of secresy, which circumstance, in seasons of excitement and peril, the designing and malicious would have converted into matter of accusation or suspicion, yet the highest authorities have ever patronised our assemblies; and in no case has their confidence been misplaced—there existing no recorded instance of a disloyal Freemason. I might produce a long catalogue of the benefits which individuals have derived, in periods of danger and distress, from having been made acquainted with this universal language, having become links in this vast chain extending round the whole globe.

The Freemasons’ Quarterly Review
September 30, 1841