MassachusettsHamiltonHistoryCh11
CHAPTER 11: RECONSTRUCTION
Webb and Warren and Revere and their colleagues faced a hard task of reconstruction and faced it with courage, devotion, and perseverance. The conditions of the time were difficult in the extreme. As we read our histories our hearts glow with pride as we think of the successful issues of our long war for independence. We are liable to forget the frightful condition in which the war left the country. Massachusetts was not, indeed, in the actual theatre of war after the British troops sailed to Halifax. They left a ruined city. Much physical damage had been done. Many leading and wealthy citizens had either left the town or/ suffered heavy losses. The business of the town had been practically destroyed and recovery was hard and slow. Massachusetts had not then become a manufacturing state.. Her industries were commerce and agriculture. Her commerce had suffered frightfully. The farmers could indeed raise their crops, but there was great difficulty in selling them. With a debased currency, crushing burdens od debts which they could not pay, and heavy taxes, the farmers lot was not a happy one.
The very limited amount of specie in circulation was at a high premium. Both the State and the Continental governments had resorted to borrowing, represented by issues of paper, to pay their bills. By the end of the war the state scrip was worth but little and the Continental practically nothing at all.
The Continental government under the very inadequate Articles of Confederation had managed to hold together after a fashion under the pressure of the war. When that pressure was removed almost immediate and total collapse followed. The States, small units exhausted by-war and burdened by debt, were too weak to stand alone. The Continental government was a government in name only. It had neither authority nor power, neither money nor credit. It needed the Constitution of 1787, the financial genius of Alexander Hamilton, and the steady, wise administration of George Washington to make even a beginning of reconstruction. In 1784 these were yet in the invisible future.
The first half dozen years were a constant struggle on the part of the Grand Lodge to secure co-operation and support. The Lodges were not represented at Grand Lodge communications and some of them did not even choose Proxies. Indeed some of them were not even meeting regularly. Many of them did not pay their quarterages to Grand Lodge, and probably had no money with which to pay. This does not indicate that Masonry had lost its appeal. Eleven new Lodges were Chartered between January 30, 1784 and December 8, 1790. It is an interesting aspect of the general condition which existed in the community.
The devoted group who made up the working force of the Grand Lodge labored diligently and persistently. They issued entreaties and threats. They lifted Charters in some cases and so brought matters to a head. They made any reasonable compromise in the matter of arrearages in quarterages. Gradually the confusion was cleared up, the lifted Charters were restored and by the beginning of 1792 order had been fairly well restored.
One of the unfortunate occurrences arising out of the current, conditions was the spurt of revolts in western Massachusetts known as Shays's Rebellion. The debt ridden farmers in that section, being unable to obtain any redress of their grievances, gathered and prevented the sitting of the court of common pleas on August 29, 1786, intending merely to prevent the rendering of judgment in debt cases until grievances were redressed. Fearing that indictments might be brought against the leaders, they determined to prevent the sitting of the Supreme Court at Springfield on September 26. Some 800 of the insurgents surrounded the court, which was defended by about the same number of militia. A compromise was arranged and both parties dispersed without violence. The leader of the insurgents was one Daniel Shays. Shays had a creditable record as a soldier in the Revolutionary Army and had risen to the rank of Captain.
After the Springfield affair the Legislature took no effective measure for the removal of grievances and made matters worse by suspending the habeas corpus act. Other outbreaks occurred, rioting became armed insurrection, and General Benjamin Lincoln, a member of St. Andrew's Lodge, was put in command of the militia with orders to suppress the revolt. Shays and Luke Day, who commanded another force of insurgents, planned a combined attack on the arsenal at Springfield. The leaders, however, failed to synchronize their attacks and were beaten in detail. Shays retreated from place to place with such men as he could gather and finally was beaten in a last fight. His men were dispersed and he himself escaped to Vermont. He never returned to Massachusetts, dying in western New York at an advanced age in 1825.
On September 7, 1787, the Grand Lodge received a vote from Hampshire Lodge "that the names of Daniel Shays, Luke Day, and Elijah Day, who are members of that Lodge, to be transmitted to the Grand Lodge, to be recorded with infamy in consequence of their conduct in the late rebellion." Grand Lodge instructed the Grand Secretary to write to the respective Lodges under this jurisdiction informing them of the vote.
On June 6, 1788, Moses Michael Hays was elected Grand Master. The members desired John Warren to serve longer, but he pleaded pressure of his private affairs and asked to be permitted to retire.
Hays was a Portuguese Jew, born in Lisbon in 1739. In his early manhood he went to Jamaica and the West Indies and thence to Newport, R. I. where he established himself in 1768. While in Jamaica Hays was very active in Masonry and received from Henry Andrew Francken a Commission as Deputy Inspector-General for North America for the Rite of Perfection.
For some years Hays seems to have led a very busy life. While nominally a resident of Newport we hear of him also in New York and in Boston. In 1769 George Harrison, Provincial Grand Master for New York issued a Warrant authorizing him to organize King David's Lodge in New York City and appointing him Master. He later moved the Lodge to Newport and was its Master there until 1780. About that time he settled in Boston and joined The Massachusetts Lodge in 1782, becoming its Master in 1783, 1784, and 1785. He was chosen Junior Grand Warden of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge June 24, 1785. He gave very little attention to Grand Lodge matters. He is only reported present in Grand Lodge on two occasions before his election as Grand Master. After assuming that office, however, he gave diligent and efficient attention to its duties. He died May 9, 1805, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Newport.
Hays was all his life faithful to the religion into which he was born. For two years, while living in Newport, he was President of a Jewish congregation. His was said to be the only Jewish family in Boston in his time, and, therefore, he was debarred from active participation in the public worship of his people, but maintained in his household the fastings and prayers of his religion. Samuel Joseph May gives an interesting picture of the Hays family life in his Memoirs. His father and Hays were intimate friends and the boy used often to visit there. He says that on these visits he was always present at the family religious exercises, but that every night at bedtime he was required to repeat his Christian prayer and hymns either to Mr. or Mrs. Hays or to a Christian servant. Hays was very hospitable and very charitable, not only giving freely to individual poorer neighbors but giving largely to Harvard College and to charitable organizations.
Hays amassed a large fortune in the insurance business and was one of the leading and most highly esteemed business men of Boston. In the years following the Revolution the Boston merchants felt acutely the need of a bank. There was no bank nearer than Philadelphia, and the old, primitive methods of finance were utterly inadequate to the needs of the time. Hays was a leader in the movement to establish a bank, and on February 17, 1784, the Massachusetts Bank (now the First National Bank of Boston) received its Charter. Of the seven men who signed the call for subscriptions Hays and three others, Isaac Smith, Thomas Russell, and John Lowell were Masons. Hays made the first deposit of $14,500. large for those days.
One curious incident Hay's administration shows that the still unsettled state of Masonic law and practice. It will be remembered that Hays held a Commission as Deputy Inspector General for North America for the Rite of Perfection. Acting under this authority Hays, while Grand Master of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, issued a Rite of Perfection Warrant for King Solomon Lodge of Perfection at Holmes' Hole (now Vineyard Haven). This Lodge of Perfection conferred the three symbolic degrees as well as the purely Perfection degrees. It did not occur to Hays or to anybody else that this act was an invasion of the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge. When that Grand Lodge proclaimed its independence and sovereignty it claimed authority over Ancient Masons, only. The Modern Lodges were free from its control and a Rite of Perfection Lodge fell into the same category, In 1797 the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts issued a new Charter to this body, with a slight change of name, thus recognizing the symbolic degrees conferred under the old Warrant as being entirely regular.
Holmes' Hole was one of the ports of call of the important trade between the West Indies and New England..The nucleus of the Lodge of Perfection was doubtless a group of seafaring men who, like Hays himself, had received Rite of Perfection Masonry in the West Indies. They were not familiar with the American type of Masonry and Hays was quite willing to give them an opportunity to practice the only type they knew. The experiment was not entirely successful.The King Solomon Warrant was the only one issued and after six years the Lodge of Perfection was ready to give up its "high degrees" and become absorbed in the body of Massachusetts Masonry.
One other, even less successful, attempt to start a Lodge under conditions peculiar to itself was made at the same time. On December 8, 1790, Grand Lodge received the report of a Committee which had been appointed to inquire into the state of certain persons, foreigners, who were calling themselves Masons and holding what they considered a Lodge. The names mentioned here and later in connection with this group would indicate that the "foreigners" were mainly British, with a few Germans. Very probably they were prisoners of war, considerable numbers of whom did not return home on being released. In accordance with the report the Grand Lodge voted that they be granted a "Charter of Dispensation" for three years provided that no candidates be received unless their names, residences, and occupations were first submitted to the Grand Master and his approbation received. The members of the group were to be healed in the presence of a Grand Lodge Committee by taking anew their obligations of the three degrees. At the end of the probationary period if their conduct warranted it they were to receive a "Charter at large."
The conditions were gladly accepted.The probation was successfully passed, the "Charter at large" was granted, and the Lodge was duly-constituted as Harmonic Lodge on February 5, 1794. Unfortunately the Lodge did not make good use of its new power. On June 8, 1795, Grand Lodge received a complaint from one Crossman regarding his treatment by the Lodge. Of the grounds of his complaint and what Grand Lodge did about it we are not informed. On December 8, 1795 a special Committee was appointed to look into the conduct of Harmonic Lodge. On report of this Committee, one week later, the Charter was arrested. On June 13 following the same Committee, having been continued in charge of the affair, recommended that in their opinion the Lodge had suffered enough and in view of their promises of future good behavior the Charter should be restored. This was done, on condition that no candidate should be received for one year without the approval of the Grand Master.
Harmonic Lodge proved quite incorrigible. On June 26, 1796, the Grand Master, Paul Severe, called a special Communication of Grand Lodge and preferred serious charges against the Lodge. They were: (1) That on June 13 the Lodge had called special meeting to initiate a number of candidates whose names had not been submitted to the Grand Master; (2) that on June 16 they had initiated four candidates whom the Grand Master had refused to approve; (3) that on several occasions they had conferred all three degrees on the same candidates at one meeting. The Master and Wardens were heard in defense and after a full hearing the Charter of the Lodge was vacated. Some faint-hearted efforts were afterward made to get the Charter restored, but they were ineffectual.
In 1789 Grand Master Hays, who had been making official visitations to Lodges in Boston and vicinity, sent a special Warrant to Elisha Porter, of Hadley, directing him to visit the Lodges in his vicinity, vesting in him "full power and authority to examine their records and Charter, and make a report, at the next quarterly Communication in June of the state of the Lodges, remarking their progress in the Masonick art, and pressing a punctual discharge of their duties."
Bro. Porter's report does not appear in the records, but the incident is interesting as the first emergence of the idea from which, a few years later, the District Deputy Grand Master system was developed.
During Hays' administration an unfortunate scandal arose which subjected the Grand Lodge for a time to very disagreeable publicity. The most unfortunate part of it was that the scandal was ventilated in The Herald of Freedom, a local newspaper, before the Grand Lodge knew of it. Baury de Bellerive, a member of The Massachusetts Lodge, charged John Juteau, a very prominent member of the Grand Lodge, with bigamy, claiming that he had married a very respectable woman in the West Indies some fifteen years previously, had deserted her when he came to Boston, and had since married a Boston woman. The Grand Lodge on hearing of the matter, decided at once that steps must be taken to vindicate Juteau, if innocent, or to deal with him if guilty.
Juteau was one of the group of French petitioners for Friendship Lodge and remained with the majority who were rechartered as Perfect Union Lodge when the Charter of Friendship was vacated. He had been Master of his Lodge , Junior Grand Warden in 1784 and 1785, and Senior Grand Warden in 1786 and 1790, and a very active member of the Grand Lodge from his first entrance into it. The Grand Lodge called a special Communication for a date a month after the matter was first presented and summoned both De Bellerive and Juteau to appear thereat. De Bellerive presented himself promptly, but Juteau sent a letter, refusing to attend. The Grand Lodge appointed a Committee to go to Juteau's house and demand his attendance. The Committee came back reporting that they had gone to Juteau's house and been told that he was not at home. De Bellerive then repeated his charges, saying that he was personally present at Juteau's first marriage and had personal knowledge of the second bigamous one. He presented a Masonic witness named Olive who corroborated his evidence and further stated that when he (Olive) was in the West Indies Juteau had written to him enclosing a paper which he was to get Mrs. Juteau to sign. If she did so Olive was to give her ten Johannes (about $90.00) , Mrs. Juteau had refused to sign, although she said she was very poor. Olive heard afterward that the paper was an application for a divorce. After hearing the evidence the Grand Lodge by unanimous vote found Juteau guilty of bigamy, expelled him from Freemasonry and ordered that notice of its action be served on all the Lodges in the jurisdiction.
On September 30, 1782, the Committee which had been chosen to draw up the formal declaration of independence already discussed was charged with the further duty of revising the "Book of Constitutions." Nothing appears to have been done under this vote, as the Grand Lodge in September, 1786, appointed a Committee to "draft a book of Constitutions for the Massachusetts Grand Lodge." This Committee reported at a Special Communication on November 3, and it was voted to refer their report to a new Committee who were to revise the draft presented and report especially upon any provisions which departed from previous law and usage. On December 1 the Committee reported. The report was ordered filed and consideration deferred to a future quarterly Communication. The matter remained in abeyance for two years. In December 1788, the Committee was called on to report and return the papers which had been put in their hands. The Committee reported at an adjourned Communication January 7, 1789, and the report was tabled. At the March quarterly the report was taken up and discussed at some length. Several alterations were offered and accepted and a fair copy was ordered, to be presented at the Grand Feast, June 24. At that meeting the amendments were accepted and a Committee was appointed to have charge of the printing. The matter still halted and on December 4 the Grand Master was requested to call the Committee together "so that the object of the Grand Lodge may be perfected." On March 2, 1791, Grand Lodge requested the Committee to write the Lodges asking for subscriptions. The Grand Lodge has been for some time troubled by the question of raising money to defray the expense of publication. On December 5, Bro. Thaddeus Mason Harris was added to the Committee.
This is the first appearance of a new man who was to be for the next fifty years one of the leaders in Massachusetts Freemasonry. Harris was born in 1768. In spite of great poverty he made his way through Harvard College and was graduated in 1787. He then taught school for a year in Worcester. He must have already given signs of unusual ability, as he was invited to be George Washington's Secretary. An attack of smallpox prevented his acceptance. He returned to Harvard to study theology and received his Master of Arts degree in 1790, being the valedictorian of his class. He was Librarian of Harvard from 1791 to 1793 and was then settled as pastor of the First Church in Dorchester, where he spent the remainder of his life. His literary output was considerable and included very valuable assistance to Jared Sparks in preparing his Life of Washington. He was an ideal parish minister and was greatly loved by his people to whom he ministered with untiring devotion. He was fiercely attacked by the enemies of Freemasonry during the Persecution, but he bore it all with unfailing patience and sweetness of temper. A stream of letters and papers of an insulting nature poured in upon him. He put them on a high shelf in his library and one day said to a friend: "All the pieces there contain something abusive of me; but I put them far out of the way. I never take them down."
Harris was initiated in King Solomon's Lodge November 9, 1790, but did not complete his degrees and take membership until May 10, 1791. When put on the Committee he had been initiated only thirteen months, but he was already a marked man. He had been asked to be Washington's secretary, and he was Librarian of Harvard College. His aid in putting the new Constitution into final shape and arranging for its printing and publication was of the utmost value to the Committee.
Harris was several times Grand Chaplain, was Junior Grand Warden in 1800, and Deputy Grand Master in 1812.
Probably one reason for the slow progress made on the Constitutions was the concurrent negotiations leading up to the consolidation of the two Grand Lodges. In March of 1792 we learn, as one of the features of the consolidation, that the Grand Constitutions prepared for the Massachusetts Grand Lodge were adopted by both the Grand Lodges.
This consolidation had long been under consideration. The ban on Masonic intercourse between the Ancients and Moderns had been lifted as early as 1773, and from that time on friendly relations prevailed. Masonic amenities were observed between the two Grand Lodges on the deaths of Rowe, February 17, 1787, and Webb, April 26, 1787.
The death of Howe left Richard Gridley, then seventy-six years of age and living at a considerable distance, in charge of the St. John's Grand Lodge. We have record of only one appearance by him in Grand Lodge after that time. The active administration of affairs was taken over by John Cutler, who was chosen Senior Grand Warden.
One of his first acts was to write to the Massachusetts Grand Lodge. The letter was read March 2, 1787. Its contents are not stated, but are easy to guess, for at the same meeting a vote was passed "that a Committee be appointed to confer with the other Grand Lodge in order if possible to obtain a Union among Masons, respecting the choice of a Grand Master." Webb had made his last appearance in Grand Lodge on the second of the preceding December. Although Webb was only fifty-three years old, his early death was expected. One Grand Lodge was without a Grand Master and the other soon would be. Why not unite? Union was in the air. The government of the Union under the old Articles of Confederation had manifestly collapsed. One attempt had already been made to hold a Constitutional Convention, but it failed because only five States responded.^ It had adjourned recommending that another Convention be called for May, 1787, and Congress had issued the call. The recognition that the thirteen states must form one State was general, though there was much disagreement as yet as to the exact form of organization to be adopted. Here in Massachusetts were two Grand Lodges and an independent Lodge holding under Scotland. Why was union not desirable in Masonic as well as in civic affairs?
The Massachusetts Grand Lodge was hospitable to the suggestion, as we have just seen, but was in no mind to be hurried about it. It had on its hands the task of setting its own house in order and the further task of preparing new Constitutions if and when union took place. It accordingly proceeded to elect Hays Grand Master and get on with the tasks before it. We hear nothing more about union for nearly five years. Undoubtedly, however, a good deal of work was being done behind the scenes, and when the time was judged to be ripe things moved with a swiftness which shows careful preparation. It must not be forgotten that Boston was still a small place. The leaders in both Grand Lodges were men of social and business standing and well acquainted with each other. Cutler and Rowe were both brass founders. Bartlett was a prominent physician and would have a wide acquaintance. Similar relations might be traced all along the line. One may well imagine that many a conference was held at which these old friends, churchwarden pipes in hand, discussed the details of the proposed union over bottles of Madeira and bowls of punch.
On December 5, 1791, the Grand Lodge voted "That a Committee of seven be appointed agreeably to the spirit of a vote of the Grand Lodge passed at a former meeting (March 2, 1787) to Confer with the Officers of St. John's Grand Lodge upon the subject of a Compleat Union throughout this Commonwealth, and that said Committee report as soon as convenient." A very strong Committee was appointed, consisting of Moses Michael Hays, John Warren, Paul Revere, Josiah Bartlett, William Scollay, John Lowell , andJoseph Laughton. Hays, Warren, Revere, and Bartlett had been or were to be Grand Masters, while the other three were to be Deputy Grand Masters.
This action was duly communicated to the St. John's Grand Lodge and a special Communication was called for its consideration on January 18, 1792. It was voted "That a Committee of seven be chosen to confer with the above Committee from Massachusetts Grand Lodge and promote the proposed Union, provided it can be done on true masonic principles, and that John Cutler, Samuel Parkman, Mungo Mackey, Samuel Dunn, John Foster Williams, Thomas Dennie, and William Shaw be the Committee. Of this Committee John Cutler, as Senior Grand Warden, was in charge of the Grand Lodge. Samuel Parkman was Grand Secretary, Mungo Mackay was Grand Treasurer, Samuel Dunn was later to be Grand Master. Of John Foster Williams we know little except that he was a member of the Second Lodge and well known. He probably died shortly after this, as his name does not again appear. Thomas Dennie was later to be Grand Treasurer, William Shaw was a Warden of St. John's Lodge, the new name of the First Lodge after it had absorbed the Second Lodge and Rising Sun Lodge. The answer to the overture of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, as will be noted, was a somewhat cautiously worded acceptance.
The Committee met on February 10 and took action as follows:
"At a meeting of the Committee aforesaid at the house of Brother Samuel Parkman Feby 10, 1792, all the members being present, This Committee taking into Consideration the present deranged State of Masonry in this Commonwealth, Occasioned by the Death of many of the Grand Officers, and Neglecting for many Years to appoint others in their room, and also talcing into their Consideration the Proposal from the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, to confer with us, on the propriety of a perfect Union of the Two Lodges. The Committee haveing duly debated on the subject.
"Voted, That such a Union would be for the benefit of Masonry in General, and for the happiness of the Lodges in this Common Wealth in particular.
"Voted, To meet the aforesaid Committee from the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, as soon as convenient to Consult & Agree on the most Suitable Mode of Union, being perfectly Satisfied from Examining the Book of our Constitutions, that we have full Power & right to Agree to such Union, and when United, to proceed to the choice of all Officers, necessary to Rule the Lodge.
"At the Grand Lodge held at Bunch Grapes in Boston March 2, 5792.- R. W. John Cutler in the Chair."
On March 2, a meeting of the St. John's Grand Lodge was held and the Committee of seven reported:
"That having had several meetings on the subject [theyj have agreed that the proposed Union take place as soon as convenient, and when united to proceed to the choice of Grand Officers for the present year, and, that the choice may be made with that perfect harmony which has ever prevailed in the respective Lodges it is recommended to the respective Lodges to appoint Electors from each Lodge at a meeting which shall be had for that purpose and these electors shall appoint the first Grand Officers.
"The joint Committee have in pursuance of the trust reposed in them, proceeded to draft a number of fiules and Regulations for the government of the Lodge, which they recommend to the deliberation of the Lodge."
The report was accepted and it was voted to accept the report and call a special meeting for March 5 to carry the recommendations into effect.
The St. John's Grand Lodge met on March 5 at the Bunch of Grapes and chose their electors. Shortly thereafter a Committee from the Massachusetts was admitted and announced that their electors were ready to go into conference. Meanwhile the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, sitting at Concert Hall accepted the Constitutions, and chose their electors.
The electors from St. John's Grand Lodge went over to Concert Hall and the fourteen went into conference. The lists of nominations were read and the electors unanimously chose Officers for the Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons for,the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Evidently matters had been pretty well arranged beforehand, because the St. John's records say that their electors came back in "about half an hour" with their task completed.
The officers elected were as follows:
- John Cutler, Grand Master
- Josiah Bartlett, Senior Grand Warden
- Mungo Mackay, Junior Warden
- Samuel Parkman, Grand Treasurer
- Thomas Farrington, Grand Secretary.
So begins a new chapter in the history of Massachusetts Masonry.
