BetaLetters May 18, 1840
Mr. Henry Snow,
Enclosed I send you the Resolution of our association authorizing the Committee to establish the Chapter in Cincinnati; together with the proceedings of the meeting upon the organization of it, which it will be necessary I presume to place in the commencement of your minutes, to show by whom and by what authority the Chapter was established. You must pardon our negligence in not attending to the matter sooner, as there was no pressing need of it and I thought there would have been other matters to communicate to you it has been delayed till now.
Our friends here were much pleased to hear our report of the proceedings in the city. I received a letter last week from Friend Beard in which he gave me an account of your first meeting and all things that occurred thereat. You may rest assured that the perusal of it did me good; for you seem to have entered into the spirit of the thing so warmly that I wish myself possessed of ubiquity that I might be with you and take part in your pleasures. Let me just say one thing to you, and that is to enjoin and impress upon your associates the great necessity of preserving the utmost secrecy of the whole affair not but it is their firm determination so to do but you know they do not feel the pressing and imperative necessity of it, as we do here and by some thoughtless act or expression may excite curiosity or suspicion which it would be well not to be. Should the existence of it be known here, it would completely excite and make outcasts of us all, and in a great degree break the thing up. I have written to Beard and given him some more particular information on matters and things. Friend Smith wishes to be remembered to you and please emember us all to your friends. I should be much pleased to hear from you shortly. Yours in ___kai___, Alex Paddack, Miami ’40
Selected and Edited by William Rainmond Baird
A.J.G. PRIEST