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SPEECHES OF CHARLES LEVI WOODBURY

Deputy Grand Master, 1869-1871

AT GRAND LODGE, SEPTEMBER 1875

From New England Freemason, Vol. II, No. 9, September 1875, Page 427:

The Antiquity of Masonry.

An Address Delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, at the Quarterly Communication, Sept. 8, 1875, by R. W. Charles Levi Woodbury, Past Deputy Grand Master.

A little more than a century and a half ago, Freemasonry, except for mystic purposes, suspended handicraft labors and devoted itself to the speculative part of the art. Before that time both kinds were carried on together, surely as far back as the oldest (A.D. 1599) Lodge record which has survived to our day. How much earlier Masonry included speculative subjects is a question where opinions have varied, and men have been inclined to dogmatize variously. Masonry is the oldest art whose works are extant. To the Freemason it would be interesting to know if it had, as our traditions say, always a speculative side, and also whether it has had a continuous existence as an art, or has at times been lost and again invented or rediscovered. These are the questions I propose to examine to-night. If the art of Masonry was speculative as well as practical in ancient times, and yet was lost afterwards, our claim to antiquity could not mount higher than the period of its rediscovery; but if there has been a constant succession, all evidence of speculative opinions is of historical value.

Without troubling you with my opinions, I shall lay before you some evidence gathered on the descent and the early organization of Masonry, not claiming that these facts are conclusive, but asking whether they do not justify further research into this interesting subject.

It will be admitted that if we find fragments of usages, designs, as well as tools and methods of work of the ancient Masons in use in the same Craft in modern times, an inference of a continuous channel of descent is presumptively established. It will not be disputed that the ancestors of modern Masons, like other men, lived in those days; that then commerce existed, people migrated, barbarians became civilized by contact with enlightened people, arts were transmitted through castes, counting a descent thus for thousands of years in some countries, and elsewhere by initiation and instruction, from generation to generation. Thus Masonic organization, supported by successive initiation of apprentices, may have existed from the early times. Let us inquire whether Masonry has not always been a spiritual man of brains and brawny armR, uniting the best culture, learning, intellect and taste of its time with practical, hard-working art. In the remains of the most ancient religions which have been handed down to us are found exoteric and esoteric doctrines, together with particular initiations through which the select few were gradually raised to the knowledge of the mysteries and higher thoughts included in their rituals and dogmas.

The earth is strewn with the wrecks of ancient temples, whose relics attest that all religions had recourse to the Masonic art to express their highest acts of devotion and oblation. The adepts who constructed them must have held intimate relations with the hierarchies of those creeds whose symbols and mysteries are entwined in the temples of their faith. The antiquarian draws with confidence from the forms and symbols of these ruins testimony to supplement the meagre remains handed down through literary channels, and we also may find something there of the organization and lore of those early Freemasons that will be instructive to compare with things of to-day. There are strong reasons for thinking that the art of Masonry was not an original discovery in each of the various ancient centres of civilization. It is probable that it was invented, cultivated and developed in some centre, and from thence was carried by its professors to other and growing countries, at the invitation of religious or political rulers, to give enduring expression to the feelings of reverence of the people, and to the exposition of dogmas, by embodying in holy and public buildings symbols and configurations designed to recall to the mind important doctrines oft heir theology. Such, indeed, is one of the objects of Masonry at this day.

The travelling propensities of the great master workmen of antiquity are verified by the records. We find Greeks of celebrity working in Asia Minor; and even working in Egypt under the Macedonian dynasty. Thus, Cleomanes planned the city of Alexandria; and Dinocratus not only rebuilt the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, in Asia Minor, but was long engaged in important works at Alexandria; and Sostratus, of Gnidus, built the Pharos at Alexandria. We find also Hermodorus, of Salamis, and Samus and Batrachus, of Laconia, and Appolodorus, of Damascus, erecting important temples at Rome.

Four masters worked on the foundations of the Temple of Jove at Athens. Ictinius, with the aid of Calicrates and perhaps other masters, built the Parthenon. We also read in Chronicles that King David gathered and set the strangers—Masons—to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. In Kings we find that Masons were sent from Tyre to King Solomon, and that Hiram's Masons and stone-squarers, and Solomon's Masons and stone-squarers did hew the great and costly stones to lay the foundation of the Temple: In those ages it thus appears that art was not translated to another country, any more than true art now can be, by imitation, but that practical skilled workmen themselves travelled to the place, and established the style sought for by making the moulds and plans of the details, instructing, overseeing the construction, and governing the workmen.

The Master Mason's talent is manifested in every curve and joint, and even in the very setting of the work. Plato says in the Eleatic Stranger, "The master workman does not work himself, but is the ruler of the workmen." – "He contributes knowledge, but not manual labor, and may therefore be justly said to share in theoretical science. But he ought not, when he has formed a judgment, to regard his function at an end, like the calculator ; he must assign to the individual workmen their appropriate task, until they have completed the work."

Plutarch says of Phidias, the celebrated sculptor who was the chief superintendent of all the works of Pericles : "He directed all and was chief overseer of all for Pericles." Able writers on architecture, commenting on these and other evidences, affirm that in the Greek, Egyptian and Mediaeval Architecture, the architect was always a master workman personally skilled in the manual part of the art, to whom the beauty, solidity and invention in their structures are due, and are now calling for a return to that relation, declaiming that their late separation into distinct branches is deteriorating to art itself.

The organization thus shadowed out has three degrees: the tyro or apprentice, the trained and educated craftsman, and the Master Mason, who combined the skill of all the others with the high theoretic science and skill as a manager and overseer in architectural matters. It was his genius that gave form and style to the venerated Temple from its foundation to its last coping-stone, and compelled the warm sandstone and the cold marble to become a symbolic witness of the esoteric as well as the exoteric faith of the employers. It was he who, as the progress of kindred sciences afforded new knowledge, applied it to his art, whether in the line of strength, grace, beauty, or economy.

The ancient Master Mason, as a result of the reliance of ancient religions on monumental symbology, necessarily had intimate relations with the religious chiefs of the country where he practised his art, had perfect knowledge of their esoteric symbology, planned and executed the forms in which they were established on the monuments ; his successors also were their pertinacious conservators ; thus grew the conventional in religious Masonry.

One historian of Egypt (Sharp) affirms that even from the earliest times these sculptors and designers of the temples were of the priestly caste or order of society ; and another celebrated investigator of Egyptian antiquities, Wilkinson, also includes "the sacred sculptors, draftsmen and Masons" in the priestly grade. They were the only Egyptian craft, except land surveyors, elevated to this social rank.

The priestly caste had, we know, those mystic initiations which spread from ancient Egypt over the world, and of which so much has been written. Whether the Masons were initiated in all or only a part of these mysteries can only be inferred, but we may infer that higher initiations were conferred as the candidate advanced in his art.

Vitruvius defined Masonry, near 2,000 years ago, as "A science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning." Plato, as we have seen, four centuries earlier, spoke of it as a science. Solomon and Hiram of Tyre, we have seen, considered the loan of Master Masons as worthy to be repaid by the concession of twenty cities; and the description of his varied talents in King Hiram's letter accords with the requisite talents elsewhere demanded for the grade. Those who conceive the Mason as a mere wall-builder have need to enlarge their understanding.

An able reviewer of Fergusson's History of Architecture, in the London Quarterly, says, "To those but little educated in the ways of art the master workman is a mystery, his influence and existence are half doubted, half denied, or wholly misconceived." In the true antique spirit do our old Constitutions inculcate the study of the seven liberal arts. It was through these that the Fraternity advanced their art from rude beginnings until there arose a creative intellect from among them, who could embody all extant, mystical, cosmic science into one Temple, symbolical and monumental of the speculative science shut within the breasts of Master Masons, open to those who held the key, but sealed to the uninitiated and profane. Such a monument, signed astronomically with the date of its construction, was the pyramid of Gizeh; contrived by its initiated and learned builders not only to embody their religious mystery, but to be capable of yielding to the analysis of the future antiquarian and physicist the key to the knowledge of the state of Astronomy, Geodesy, and kindred arts at the era of its construction. Such, also, were probably the builders of the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh, whose hidden stores of knowledge are now being revealed to us. In like organization, and possibly of like caste, were the devoted bands of more creeds than one, who, united with brotherly love, raised the first temple at Jerusalem, and those, too, who, fresh from the Chaldean plains, labored with Nehemiah or Zerubbabel, their swords girded to their sides, to rebuild and restore the despoiled dwelling-place of the God of Israel. Was there no initiation in things sacred among these Syrian builders also? Was there no hidden wisdom, no speculation on ineffable things in their Craft ? What mystery the inspired psalmist hangs about the corner-stone! How grandly the author of Job puts, in the words of the Almighty, the Masonic character of his work of creation: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest? or who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of Elohim shouted for joy?" How, also, the prophet Amos describes the Lord standing on a true wall with the implements of the Masonic Craft, a plumb line or a trowel in his hand, declaring he will set a plumb line in Israel. Was not the Masonic artisan favored of Heaven? Did not Aholi'ab and Bazaleel work on plans communicated through Moses, "with every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord had put wisdom and understanding?" Had Huram and his craftsmen no aid from inspired kings and prophets in those works whose forms, ornaments, and structure typified occult mysteries? Have the three great creeds of this day, the Christian, the Jewish or the Mahomedan, ceased to revere, in that long perished Temple, the symbol of holy aspiration? There is no need to multiply illustrations of the speculative science of the early Masonic Craft. Let us consider the traces of a succession in the Craft of Masonry.

In the old Masonic MSS. of Constitutions, printed in facsimile from manuscript No. 23,198, edited by Matthew Cook, and written probably in the 15th century, Nimrod charges (fol. 380) the Masons, whom he sends to his Cousin Assur, to build a city, that they serve Assur faithfully, but that "ye govern you against your lord" (Assur) "and among yourselves."

This Masonic tradition of the Eastern life of their Craft is curious when we reflect that to this day strangers in the East are governed by the laws and consul of their own country, rather than of the nation they sojourn among. Such a system applied to sojourning Masons of one country, protected by their own country, working together in another, would naturally produce the organization of Freemasonry. In this light we find the Latin vulgate carefully distinguishes Hiram's Masons from Solomon's Masons (Kings v. caementarii Huram.) Early as this MS. bears date, it must be admitted that some of the organization of speculative Masonry is shown in this extract. The free spirit of self-government sheds a ray of light here of great significance.

The Brother who believes there is something in Freemasonry deeper than its admirable morality and generosity, something that underlies and gives expression to its universality, something behind its symbols that has brought from antique times a flavor like the odor of Shittim wood of the tabernacle, may boldly enter on the investigation ; and if his industry never slackens, his faith never tires, and he has access to the means of investigation, light from the East will break on the mysteries of that strange gem bearing the seals of the royal Solomon, and his right royal Phoenician brother which is before him.

Andrea, in A. D. 1610, in his confession of R. & C, wrote, "He who can see the great letters and characters that God wrote on the edifice of heaven and earth, and can use them to his profit, is already prepared for us, though himself unaware of it."

It is my purpose here not to enter the hidden wisdom of this ro3-al and reverential art, nor to discourse of those mysteries of that Craft of which the same author says, "God has surrounded us with his cloud, that to us, his servants, no force can be applied or directed, so that, had he the eye of an eagle, no one could see or recognize us."

Architectural Links

By the aid of antiquaries and archaeologists, facts may be established, from which the inductions of transmission of the Masonic art necessarily follow.

Reading the stone records from the vantage ground of antiquarian investigators, you will find yet extant many bonds uniting the past with the present.

Masons' Marks are the marks the various craftsmen put upon then- work to indicate to the overseer who has done the job, in order that, the quality being inspected, it may be measured and paid for. The industry which unlocked the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the cuneiform of the Chaldees, which has given access to the Vedas and the Zend Avesta, will aid the Masonic student in this undertaking also.

They are still in use in operative Masonry, and were particularly and memorably known in speculative Masonry long before attention was directed to the subject in connection with oriental antiquities. These marks, many of them identical, have been traced on the stones in great religious works, in all ages of which remains exist. The Gothic Cathedral and the Roman Basilica show them. Sir Gore Ousely, sixty years ago, thought he had found the relics of an extinct and novel language on the stones at the ruined city of Persepolis; what he copied turned out, on subsequent investigation, to be Masons' marks.

The investigations of Col. Warren, under the auspices of the Topographical Engineers of England, lately made on the site of the Temple of King Solomon, at Jerusalem, have been fruitful in this particular. In the lower courses of the wall which sustains the platform whereon the Temple stood, the courses now covered fifty to ninety feet deep with broken work and other debris, he found abundance of these Masons' marks on the stones lying in the courses, and also in the vaults and tunnels under the platform. There for near three thousand years they have remained hidden from human sight. Scholars recognize many of these marks as Phoenician characters, thereby giving another confirmation to the declaration of Kings and Chronicles that the craftsmen and art of Masonry were imported into Jerusalem from Phoenicia.

Still other researches in Palestine, since attention has been drawn to these witnesses on the state of the art, have discovered them, at the ruins of Palmyra in the desert, upon some mosques of early date, also in Hebron and many other places in Syria; and one authority says that on Egyptian temples far earlier in date than the Temple of Solomon, the like marks are found still fresh, after thirty- five centuries. Some of these marks of Masons have another purpose, viz., to connect the stone with the plan of the building, and indicate the course in which it is to be laid and its position. Simple as this link in the chain of evidence may appear, it not only connects the antique with the modern Masonic art, but is a source of other important deductions.

In India, also, these Mason marks are found in the stones of ancient temples, and, what is remarkable, often in conjunction with several symbols of Masonic Lodges of to-day. The scholars and philologists who have gone so far in collecting evidence of Aryan origin and migration have considered all these marks with that purpose in their minds; and many are struck with the number of them which resemble or are identical with the ancient caste marks of India.

I regret I cannot reproduce here the drawings of these marks; some are to be found in Lyon's history of Masonry in Scotland, others in King's remains of Gnostic art; and others in Jennings' recondite work on a branch of our Craft; others are found in the Orient, unveiled, and in the recovery of Jerusalem; others doubtless exist in works to which my attention has not been called. Some I have seen in the Nabethian alphabet. In due time archaeological students will collect and discourse on the teachings of the whole; forming, as they do, a chain of evidence of the progress and succession of the Masonic art, through many peoples and many ages, we must regard the further prosecution of their labors on these simple relics with the deepest interest. It is argued by learned architects, and I believe now conceded, that the arch can be traced from the era of the Pyramid to the present time ; and Wilkinson says even the pointed Gothic and Saracenic arches are deducible from the earliest Egyptian. Various columns and styles of architecture of ancient ages retaining their conventional proportions and capitals, sometimes with a few modifications, but oftener in purity, are accepted and in use to:day.

Thus also of the decorations known as the egg and tongue mouldings. The tools of the ancient Egyptian artisans have been found, and resemble in shape those in use at this day. The mallet and the wedge were found in the Pyramids, and Burton also found one in a tomb, with a basket of drills, chisels, bows, etc., that had lain there perhaps twenty centuries before Cambyses invaded Egypt.

The working dress of the Egyptian Mason of the old times consisted of the apron, similar to what it now is; judging from the paintings yet extant, this, with a pair of sandals, constituted his entire working dress in hot weather.

My knowledge of Egyptian lore does not enable me to affirm with confidence the inference which may strike some of my readers; but it is singular that several of the numerous Egyptian kings, whose statues have been preserved, wear the apron without their royal robes. In the list of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, published by Sharpe, No. 61 is the statue of the King Pthamen Miothph, son of Ramises 2d, whose date is about 1120 B. C, whose only clothing is a short apron; this figure is given, ch. 2, sect. 46, in the history of Egypt by the same author. A cast from his tomb also shows him wearing a similar apron. No. 26, of the same list, is the statue of King Oimenepthah, 2d, wearing no clothing but sandals and the apron. A cast from his tomb, also in the museum, shows the apron under a transparent gauze robe. Elsewhere I have seen drawings of two royal figures at the portal of some temple or tomb wearing the apron alone; but I do not recall the place where they are found. As everything of this sort was symbolic in Egypt, we may speculate whether the apron so worn without the nsual royal robes, by a king, the head of the priestly caste, did not indicate an initiation, undcscribed by antiquarians, into the arcana of the sacred sculptors, draughtsmen and Masons who pertained to this caste. (The royal apron, described by Wilkinson as being part of the royal dross, bears a striking similarity to the style of apron worn by Grand Masters. From his description it was worn as the Grand Master wears his.)

The method of work has remained much the same; the Egyptian broached work was as perfect as it is now. The chisel draft on the Cyclopean stones in the Temple foundations at Jerusalem is just as on a dressed stone of to-day.

Another class of proofs of descent are found in the mystic designs of the old masters, carved on their slabs or constructed in their edifices, which are still in use. Layard, the explorer of the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, was astonished to find the figure known as the Greek honeysuckle perfectly designed and used there ; thence it passed into the architecture of ancient Greece, thence into Western Europe, and through modern church architecture to the present. It is of common us,e now, in its identical original form, both in Protestant and Catholic churches. What a proof of the tenacity with

which the conventional clings in the Craft, where Zoroastrian, Chaldee, Pagan and Christian temples, in a succession of twenty-six hundred years, inherit and transmit the same mystic symbols alike to innovators and successors! Students also have traced and written

many learned works, showing how certain mystic emblems of a faith, so early as almost to be prehistorical in its origin, have been transmitted, such as dome, pinnacle, and spire, through all successive eras to the present age ; and, although their symbolic meaning has occulted from the general public, not merely retaining but gaining favor as new appliances render the art more capable of executing such designs with brilliancy. What traveller has not paused to gaze on the spires of Cologne and Strasburg, or to admire the domes of St Peter, St. Sophia, St. Isaac, St. Paul, the latter the glorious work of our modern accepted Grand Master Wren. The round towers of Ireland and the needle of Cleopatra bear witness like these to the continuity of the conventional in the Masonic art. The mystic lesson derived from the form of the church, mosque, or temple in all ages, and held esoteric, is another link.

Another curious instance of the conventional perversion of a symbol is in the brazen pillars which stood before the door of the Temple of Solomon. They are reproduced by the later Phoenicians in the pillars of Hercules, which stood at the port of the Mediterranean ; but at this day, in Phoenician-settled Spain, they are borne on the reverse of the silver dollar. Thus that which was once a symbol of life, the mystic basis of religion, has, among the profane, sunk to represent a mere dollar's worth of earth. Truly, Solomon's successors are wiser than kings.

Considering the vast and varied knowledge on antique remains gathered by modern discoverers, we are justified to anticipate that ere long it will be demonstrated that conventional Masonic art was so allied with theology in ancient times that every part of a temple taught a special lesson of its own ; that form and symbol gave every stone a signification as perfect as a hieroglyphic character; and an initiate could read intelligibly the ideas embodied by the architect Mason in the building of Egyptian and Semitic temples as if they were written in the common language of the country. In those days there were sermons in stone, and the Champnllion of art bearing the key is not many generations distant. Much of symbology, in the course of its long descent and many migrations, has become so conventional a part of art that the original meaning has grown very obscure. Where the religion of a country has fundamentally changed, the forms and decorations of the temples, because they are symbolic, sometimes become modified to suit the change ; but still, as Masonry is one art, they largely retain the impress of the past. Of this, did time allow, I could give many illustrations. So, also, inventions in the beanty of design have occasionally modified, but 1 think never obliterated, the conventional aspect of religious symbology. Egypt, Greece and Rome still are three radiant lights of the Masonic studio. For the burnt and buried Babylon, for the desolate Jerusalem, for the moulded Semitic architecture of Tyre, of the plains, and of the mountains, we hold our Lodge of sorrow, and cheer our longing souls with the faintest relics of their golden glory. In putting forth my propositions, 1 feel that some will be appalled at the length of time included in the subject, and will hardly realize that many other parts of our civilization can be traced clearly, descending from prototypes as distant as Greek Masonry from our era.

Modern scholars and divines readily admit that the metaphysics of Aristotle, of Plato, and of that branch of Platonism that mingled with the Chaldean and Zoroastian metaphysics in the school of Alexandria, are at the root of all present divisions and diversities in schools of theology. Modern science has reasoned its way from observation and proof, until now it declares the doctrines taught by Democritus, three centuries before our era, include the highest known expression of the cosmic theory of matter. Pythagoras, who brought into Europe from Egypt the helio centric theory of the universe, after a long obscurity, has his merits again recognized, and Euclid is of equal authority now as when he prepared his geometry. Three of the four book religions of the world are more than seventeen centuries old. In literature, the drama and oratory, we look to the classic ages for models. In the practical arts, those which yet depend on hand-skill, rather than on machinery, had then the habitudes they now have, joined to even greater skill. The goldsmith, the metal worker, the gem engraver, the sculptor and stone cutter, the shipwright, the harness-maker and the hand-loom weaver, plied their trades and their art, descended generation by generation through their apprentices, moving from one centre of trade and wealth to another, in accordance with the laws of prosperity which govern civilization. Figure weaving and the India shawl are older than the days of Abraham, and the .hand-loom in its pristine form is still used to weave the latter. The potter's wheel is still unimproved. The ship of to-day bears on her stern the carved lares aud symbols which her prototypes bore in the days of Pagan Rome. The fashionable jewelry of to-day is copied from Etruscan and Egyptian models. The fine arts revel in the goddesses, nymphs and cupids of Greek design. Some of the mummies of Egypt reveal teeth plugged with gold as well as if an American dentist had tried his torturing tools on them. My limits forbid more illustrations of the conventional ruts other artisans have lived and died in for more than sixty generations.

The present sum of human knowledge has been longer in accumulating than the records of history bear witness. Even the few arts which are of modern origin, with rare exceptions, lean for support on more ancient arts. What reason is there to withhold from the Craft of Masonry the same inferences of a descent from the ancient Craft which is so readily accorded to other arts? Research into architecture would furnish further illustrations of the descent of this art, important in my view because the conventional images in art are the highest evidence of its continuous transmission. We must deal with the past from such materials as time, war and fanaticism have spared to come down to us. Masonry is replete with the actual relics of its ancient work. These attest for themselves. In the vulgar sense, except a few papyri snatched from Egyptian tombs, there are now extant no written records of those days which are original. There is no Jewish or Christian MS. extant earlier than the fourth, perhaps than the seventh, century in the date of its writing.

The conjecture as to the accuracy of a copy is sadly complicated if it is the copy of copies many times removed from the original; but if copies of various known dates agree in the text, it is held proof of an authentic line of descent, although the entire chain of copies back to the original is not produced or accounted for. The rocks last longer than parchment or paper ; and chisel marks endure better than ink. The memory of man spans little over seventy years; beyond that, written records or stone records alike rest on reasonable conjecture for proof of authenticity. The dead generations cannot be gathered from the valley of dry bones and paraded as witnesses ; you must interrogate the relics of their works and abide the reasonable inferences deduced from them. Eastern art did not fall with Egypt, Babylon or Rome. The light of earlier times had not faded away when the energy of the Arab followers of Mahomet revived its flickering beams for nine centuries more. Upon these sources Europe drew for knowledge and skill in art, science and philosophy—certainly till the close of the fifteenth century. Oriental philosophy again interwove its metaphysics into European theology. Even the Crusaders, poor soldiers of the cross, learned not only war and art from their adversaries, but were charged with returning with their creeds imbued with more than one emanation from Eastern mysticism. Anderson, a hundred and fifty years ago, claimed they also brought Freemasonry from the East. Masonry, which had decayed in Europe with the eclipse of Roman civilization, became illumined by association with Saracenic skill, invented and perfected the Gothic art, and gradually, through Fraternities of trained Maeons, spread it over Europe.

In the practical hands of the Master Masons it grew in grace and beauty, until it entirely superseded the debased Roman styles, and became the devotional art of mediaeval times, symbolizing the mystic ideas of the dominant religion in those sublime cathedrals, still the objects of religious art. The organization of the Craft resembled that of the Egyptian and Greek of yore. The Masters were practical as well as scientific in architecture ; the fellow-craft had the same manual skill, but inferior attainments, in the higher parts of the profession; the apprentice was glorious as usual over his modest progress. Their initiations and signs bound them into a close fraternity of grades. At York Minster, A. D. 1370, their contracts with the Chapter provided none should work on the chapel without the common consent of the Master and keepers of the work (Wardens?) and Master Masons. Their Mason marks are yet extant. The secrets of their art and Craft were kept by oral tradition, and protected by sacred obligations ; and yet they were so free and liberal as often to admit high dignitaries of church and state, whose taste in art they were desirous of cultivating, into the mysteries of their Fraternity, which in truth was the only school for art in Europe. Like the Masons of Hiram of yore, these were travelling bodies, moving from one scene of labor to another, and, as they chose to contract, being in the direct employ of church or state, they were enabled to secure rare and valuable privileges indicated to the thoughtful by the name of Freemasons.

I cannot, indeed, claim for them, as for their Egyptian predecessors, that they were of priestly caste, yet they held like relations to church and state; for kings and bishops then rejoiced to be of the Masonic Craft, and still seek their Lodges with flattering alacrity.

Let me cite some mediaeval illustrations, drawn from the reviewer in the London Quarterly, before referred to :—

"Benedict Abbot, of Warmouth, in A. D. 676, crossed the ocean to Gaul, and brought back with him stone masons to make a church after the Roman fashion."

"In A. D. 1174, by the just but occult judgment of God, the church of Christ at Canterbury was consumed by fire." The monks took counsel with the English and French Masons, and finally committed the work to William of Sens, "a man active and ready, and, as a workman, skilful both in wood and stone," who "went on preparing all things needful for the work, either of himself or by the agency of others."

Thus also in the reign of Henry III., Bishop Grosstete describes the duty of the master : "In all kinds of workmanship the master of the works and workmen has the full power, as indeed it is his duty, to investigate, and examine," etc. ; "and this he should do, not only through others, but when it is needful with his own hands." Hope says, "Many ecclesiastics of the highest rank conferred additional weight on the order of Freemasons by becoming its members."

"In 1442 King Henry VI. became a Mason. Afterwards, in conjunction with Thirske, Master Mason of the chapel of King Henry V., the king laid out the plan of his own sepulchre."

Investigations have cumulated instances of gentlemen of quality that were crafted members of Masonic Lodges in Great Britain elsewhere than at York, during more than a century prior to the London organization of 1717. Gov. Belcher, of Massachusetts, states he was admitted in 1704; Elias Ashmole, in his diary, says he and Col. Mainwaring were so made in 1646 in England; and the records in Scotland, cited by Lyon and by Hughan, among many others, show Boswell, of Auchinleck, was present as a member in 1600, and made his Masonic mark on the record of Edinburgh Lodge. The records of Kilwinning and of the Lodge at Aberdeen show numerous earls, lords, ministers, lawyers, merchants, etc., were members in that century. (The Statute 84 Ed. III. ch. 9, A. D. 1360, and of 3 Hy. VI., A.D. 1428, clearly enough indicate there were three progressive degrees among the Masons; that they were oath-bound, and held congregations, chapters and general assemblies, and also that the chief masters often took works by contract in gross.)

I forbear further citations, nor shall I attempt to tell you when or how these Masons absorbed the speculative parts of their royal art, which we, their successors, yet practise under the landmarks of their Ancient Constitutions. There was something elevated in the esoteric doctrines of these travelling Lodges, that drew to them not merely the learned and generous among the great, but also the few believers in human progress, and the scattered but earnest seekers after the deep truths occulted in nature's laboratory, long before Freemasonry ceased to be a manual art.

With the Renaissance, came in vogue the separation of the duties of an architect from those of a Master Mason; but we have copies of Constitutions, written earlier than this, which show that modern Freemasonry descended from the cathedral-building craft, whose Master Masons were men of science as well as of manual skill.

Conscious that I have merely begun to collect the available materials to illustrate my subject, I should apologize for presenting an unfinished labor to your attention, were my object other than to arrest hasty conclusions, by showing that candor requires this broad field for exploration should be fairly exhausted before the annalist or the Craft are entitled to sit in judgment on the question of the origin of the royal art, or to demand that this, which now rests in tradition, an open question, shall be relegated into the field of established truth. Late historians, elucidating early records, have wrought confusion on many disparagers of the early history of our organization, and I trust to be pardoned for thinking that even traditions are capable of receiving much light, when their credibility is examined with a catholic spirit by appropriate tests. The accumulated evidence of descent of many designs, symbols, decorations, tools and usages now in use, their conventional character, the similarity of organization of the Craft, the liberal knowledge possessed by its Masters, the broad scope of the science of Masonry from the first, and the mystic flavor it seems always to have drawn from its exterior connections, have deeply impressed my mind. The Masonic student alone can collate evidence from these sources with success. The darkness comprehended not the light, and I may conclude by quoting the language of one who seems to have known the light in the sixteenth century : —

"And though our structure should be seen by a hundred thousand men, it will ever remain untouched, uninjured, unseen, and even hidden in all eternity to the Godless world, Sub umbra alarum tuam Jehovah, until that millennial epoch when that which is now known to few, and portrayed secretly in pictures and symbols, shall fill the whole earth, and be loudly and freely announced."

AT GRAND LODGE, MARCH 1877

Delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, at the Quarterly Communication, March 8, 1877, commemorating the centenary of the formation of the Massachusetts Independent Grand Lodge.

Most Worshipful Grand Master and Brethren of the Grand Lodge: — The noble deeds of the worthies of the past find their moat permanent monuments in the hearts of their descendants. The eloquence of orators for a century has been exhausted In describing the patriotic services of our countrymen a hundred years since in the cause of civil liberty. The press groans with the well-merited records of their worthiness. Stately monuments to their memory vex the winds of heaven in their courses. Their names, wherever the iron, heel of oppression spurns the just claim of humanity to liberty and equality, have become talismans, inspiring the one to confidence and energy, intimidating the other as the handwriting on the wall.

Humble, unaspiring, social and benevolent as is our Society, it existed here long before those days. In that time of the overthrow and reorganization of political institutions it had its own work of self-reorganization to accomplish, and its future course to shape.

Many of the noble men we, in common with our fellow-citizens, honor as the lights of liberty a century ago, have on our hearts a finder bond of sympathy, in this that they were of our Craft, and in our Lodges had received lessons of liberty, equality, order and humanity, which strengthened their virtues and aided to give form and point to their self-reliant characters.

So far as these gentlemen are connected with the role and direction of our Society In those days, I shall not hesitate to use their illustrious names in the exposition of my subject, leaving in the veiled recesses of out records the history of the Masonry of others of those generous patriots.

Embodiment of the two Grand Lodges which existed here at the beginning of the Revolution by means of a perfected union subsequently made, this Grand Lodge has assembled today with their honored guests the representatives of her sister Grand Lodges of other States, to perform solemn Centennial rites in honor of those of oar Brethren, who, a century ago, then forming the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, rose to the full measure of the spirit of the times, threw off all dependence on foreign Masonry, and assumed, and maintained their Independence and self-government.

This subject is intimately connected with the outbreak of the Revolution In Massachusetts. Striking analogies exist between the political Revolution of 1776 and this event, both In the principles asserted, and in the men interested. As its success was ours, so also was it the origin of our movement.

The caused that induced the political revolution were wrongs and outrages perpetrated on the colonies by the Parliament and King of Great Britain. The American people endured with a lingering hope of redress from the king, and claimed equality, representation and protection in lieu of subjection and inferiority. When the light was kindled, there came with the assertion of liberty and independence the confidence born of experience, that man was capable of self-government, and must struggle to attain it if he would enjoy it.

In Masonry we had no wrongs to endure from the Grand Lodges of Great Britain; no oppressions, no burning quarrels on Masonic jurisprudence. The Grand Lodges had given us Provincial Grand Masters of worth, ability and popularity here; the individual Lodges had enjoyed every Masonic privilege consistent with a provincial character. No breath of outrage. A son of nineteen could not have been better treated by a fond hut judicious father. The bonds of Fraternity were preserved in the Masonic heart. The form of government of Masonic society was not disliked; its landmarks were then and ever have been inexpressibly dear to us. Had the British parliament or the British king treated these colonics with half the kindness and brotherhood shown by the Masonic authorities, it would not have been Otis, Hancock, Warren and Revere, nor men of their generation, that would have fired the American heart with indignation, and Led the way to this republic.

There is a time when the son grows, to be a man; when the father yields the sceptre without impeachment of love; when tutelage is act aside, and independence and self-reliance take their place. This is true in the family circle, in the relation of colonies to a mother-country. In the business of life a partnership is dissolved after achieved success, and the funds. divided among the particulars without diminution of love and. friendship in the concern. This event may happen in a great social institution existing in two countries, with divers members, political relations and duties, without a breach of friendship or of right.

Such was the case with the freemasonry of Massachusetts. It was capable of self-government, accustomed substantially to its privileged, and felt no fear of failure in its struggle for existence.

Had not the British government irritated our people into a resort to arms to protect their liberties] this might not have taken place,— certainly, not then. Masonry is not a political institution. It proclaims the principles of universal Brotherhood and religious toleration; it claims the right to exist everywhere; and, because of this universalism of its creed, it disclaims political bias, or affinities, and recognises the right of the Brethren of every nationality to form their organization entirely separate and independent from that of any other nation. Thus, while they remain social, they avoid any danger of becoming need as a diplomatique machine by foreign influences to contend against the government where it exists.

This political independence of foreign, obligations or powers enables the loyal Mason of every country to give bis heart and band fully and freely to the service of his own country. He has no other flag, no other political obligation but Its laws and constitutions.

Let me be understood carefully. We of Massachusetts and the colonies had no Masonic grievances to complain of. As citizens we had political grievances in common with all our patriots. The fiery eloquence of Our Brothers, James Otis and Joseph Warren, had told them often, and long before the outburst of the pent volcano. The Continental Congress formed ill 1775, whose Declaration of Independence in 1776 severed the political bonds that bound them to Great Britain, made our separation from the Grand Lodge of Scotland and our distinct organization a matter of political duty in the hearts of most patriots of our Provincial Grand Lodge and its subordinates; and on this day one century ago, the Massachusetts Grand Lodge set up definitely and forever for herself, and began the construction of that theory of Territorial Grand Lodge Jurisdiction now acknowledged in America, and even in England, as embodying the true line of reason and Masonic right on the subject,

The history of this event deserves to be written by an able student. Our Past Grand Matter, Judge Gardner, amid the labors of hie profession, has found time to sketch its leading features; I would he could find the leisure to write it in full, as he is peculiarly competent to do.

To him and to Past Grand Master Nickerson, and the Grand Secretary Titus, and to Brother Willie, of St. Andrew's Lodge, I bid indebted for much assistance in my researches.

ln 1733 the Grand Lodge of England had established a provincial Grand Lodge in Massachusetts, and commissioned Henry Price as the Provincial Grand Master. This was the Saint John's Grand Lodge.

In 1756 the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Lord Aberdour, Grand Master, chartered the St. Andrew's Lodge, Boston.

The tentative formation of a Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons followed, which petitioned the Grand Lodge of Scotland, the Earl of Dalhousie, Grand Master, and in 1769, May 30th, Joseph Warren, M.D., was commissioned to be the Grand Master of Masons, under the Scotch Jurisdiction, for Boston and a hundred miles around. On the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, Dee. 27, 1760, he was installed, and this Grand Lodge constituted.

In 1772, March 3d, the Earl of Dumfries, Grand Master of Scotland, granted a commission to Joseph Warren, Esq. as Grand Master of Masons for the Continent of America, — which was read at the Quarterly Communication, Dec. 27, 1773. The following year the events we propose to trace began to assume shape and form. The officers installed on Dec, 27, 1774, were —

• R. W. Ezra Collins, Senior Grand Warden.
• R. W. Samuel Barrett, Junior Grand Warden.
• John Lowell, Grand Treasurer.
• William Hoskins, Grand Secretary.

Warren being still the Provincial Grand Master.

Let me state the condition of these colonies according to the recognized Masonic Code of that time in Great Britain. They were not within the exclusive jurisdiction of either of the Grand Lodges of that empire; but, being political dependencies, each of these Grand lodges had the right to propagate and protect its own Masonry there by chartering Lodges, and by the appointment of a Provincial Grand Master, with authority in his Warrant to organize its adherents into a Provincial Grand Lodge, and to grant other Charters, etc. It was what we now sometimes call missionary ground, because there is no exclusive local authority.

Thus two Provincial Grand Lodges held their Orient at Boston; R. W. John Rowe being Provincial Grand Master of the St, John's Grand Lodge, holding of the "Modern" Grand Lodge of England; R. W. Joseph Warren, being the Provincial Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, holding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and practising the "Ancient" or "Old York" Masonry. Massachusetts" was added to its title in 1782 as parcel of the disclaimer of jurisdiction beyond State Lines hereinafter related. No Grand representative of either the "Irish" or "Ancient" Grand Lodges resided in New England.

Political disturbances between the colonies and the mother-country were at kindling heat. Boston was garrisoned by a British army. Threats of war were on every breeze. On the eleventh of December, 1774, our brother, Paul Revere, at the request of the Committee of Vigilance, of whom Grand Master Warren and James Otis were members, had ridden to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to warn the patriots there, who gathered quickly, attacked and Captured the British Fort William and Mary at the mouth of the harbor, and conveyed its arms and munitions of war to the patriots in the interior.

They were led by John Langdon and our Brother John Sullivan, a member of the Holy Lodge of St. John, of Portsmouth, who afterwards was Major General in the Revolutionary army, and, subsequently. Grand Master of New Hampshire.

The Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts met usually at the Green Dragon Tavern, owned by the St. Andrew's Lodge, one of their jurisdiction, and which Mr. Webster called the Headquarters of the Revolution.

It is recorded in this respectable Lodge, that on the night of the famed destruction of the tea in Boston harbor they did not hold their regular meeting, in consequence of "having business with the consignees of the foreign tea." Here "the Chiefs" sat (when the Lodge was not in session) in private council, and here the famed "North End Caucuses " rallied for conference with them.

The songs of "the Liberty boys" preserved the name of the Green Dragon as their rallying-place. In fact, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was full of men burning with the revolutionary spirit of resistance to British oppression. Its compeer, the St. John's Grand Lodge, held many notable, vigorous patriots and devoted adherents of liberty. Its Provincial Grand Master, John Rowe, was himself a member of the "Committee of Safety".

The Worshipful Grand Master Warren was a close attendant on his duties, but the last time he appeared in Grand Lodge was March 3d, 1775. Four absences only In his term from regular meetings, and these "caused by public business." Alas, how soon the pressure and exigency of that public business translated his generous spirit to that Grand Lodge en high, where humanity confronts the Supreme Architect, in the hope that its craftsman's work in life may entitle it to receive Master's pay above!

Salem Bridge, Concord, and Lexington, crowded portentously along. The continental spirit was up. The armed yeoman of the Bay State, the mountaineers of New Hampshire, the fishermen of "long-shore" gathered with their fellow-patriots from Connecticut and Rhode Island to make head and blockade the army of King George in the peninsula of Boston.

Occupied by an army of invaders, Boston was not the place where the proscribed leaders of revolutionary ideas could,- "in the public interest," prudently attend Lodge meetings, although politics were rigorously excluded from them. British officers, even when craftsmen, were obtuse on the necessity of passing rebel Brethren into their camp to attend such meetings; this disorganized Lodge meetings extremely.

It happened, in connection with these reasons, that much good Masonic society was found at Cambridge among the organized patriots from this and the adjacent States, whose names cannot be found on the records of visitors to the Boston Lodges during 1775 and '76.

Oa the 16th of June began the movement to occupy Bunker Hill which brought on the battle of June 17, 1775, with the British Army under Gen. Gage. This battle has been described so often that any repetition would be useless. The investigations of Gen. Devens and his centennial eloquence are fresh in your recollection, still I can refer here to a certain characteristic of this fight, interesting to you, but which his good taste properly excluded there. Our Brethren were there! The Deputy Grand Master of St John's Grand Lodge, Col. http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GLStJRGridley Richard Gridley], was the engineer who planned the works that Prescott defended, and was himself wounded in the fight. The Grand Master of Massachusetts Grand Lodge, Joseph Warren, laid his life on the altar of his country, leaving a hero's fame, a memory shrined with the romance of a pure purpose, a generous heart and a lofty ambition for the good of his fellow-men. The acacia and the myrtle around his tomb are as fresh to-day as when Brother Perez Morton delivered his funeral Oration, April 8th, 1776.

They were not alone.

The Lodge of the Holy St. John, at Portsmouth, which was a member of St, John's Grand Lodge here, mourned her member; Maj. Andrew McClary, of Stark's New Hampshire regiment, laid his life upon the altar of liberty. His comrades and Brethren, Col. John Stark and Capt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Dearborn Henry Dearborn] (the last of the same Lodge), sent the sorrowful news back to the mountains of Hillsboro and the green vales of Rockingham, where his memory is still fresh and green, foremost of the long list of the men of the Grant to State who cemented, with their blood, the cornerstone of the future liberties of America.

I will not attempt a list of all our Brethren who were there on the side of liberty.

Like the Knights of the Temple and of St. John in their generous rivalry in the Crusades, so these Grand Masters shod their blood for their faith in liberty; and with then in generous equality and fraternity many a large-hearted apprentice and faithful craftsman watered that field with his life's current, unheeding whether fame should bear his name to posterity so that he did his utmost for liberty.

The acacia assumed its prerogative in both of our Grand Lodges. Hardly, I presume, was there a Lodge in the State which had not one or more martyred Brother to mourn. Connecticut also shared in Masonic sacrifices. Yet the woe of America was so mingled with exultation at the heroic energy of her militia in that straggle with the best regulars of Great Britain, that she forbore to chide at fortune, and pressed the holy war with increased energy. A grateful country has bestowed the name of Warren on a fortress in Boston harbor, and that of McClary on another in Portsmouth harbor.

Gridley survived, with Putnam, Stark, Dearborn and others, to perform further services for liberty and Masonry. Gen. Warren, as you know, had presided, the day before his death, at the Provincial Congress, and, although commissioned as a major general, fought as a volunteer.

Here let me interject the remark, that a much-neglected Masonic duty belongs to those ancient Lodges which existed In the days of our Revolution, I would that each of them should collate and report to their Grand Lodge the Masonic history of the worthies among their members who performed civil or military duties in that great struggle for liberty. Such lists would form an American Battle Abbey Roll, but of defenders, to descend with our Craft to distant ages, the undying witnesses of the natural alliance of good Masonry with ardent and devoted patriotism in every honest heart.

On the fifteenth of June, the Continental Congress had commissioned another Masonic Brother to take command of the army at Cambridge, — George Washington, of Virginia, — who, arriving, pressed the siege with vigor until March 17, 1775, when the British evacuated the city and the American troops entered Boston in triumph, welcomed by decimated and half-starved citizens. It was a day of rejoicing and reunion, of thanksgiving and of gladness. The officers of her Grand Lodges now, when public business admitted their presence, could assemble and take counsel for the good of the Craft, But the timed had changed, A year of fierce war, and pertinacious resolution on the part of the Imperial Parliament to reduce these colonies to abject civil slavery, had weaned the colonies from every lingering hope in King or Parliament. The stern counsels of the fiery patriots, that they must help themselves and God would help them, at length had carried conviction to every sensible patriot, and the cry for independence came from their inmost hearts. On the Fourth of July they buret the last swaddling-bind of dependence, and stood before the world on the platform of their Inalienable and natural right of self-government, "free, sovereign, and independent".

A GRAND LODGE

The American mind was already reasoning in the new channel our Brother Franklin had long been sounding and marking out for them. In Masonic matters the same urgency existed. The war had severed communications with the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland, and had rendered them inexpedient to each side, even wore they practical. Comities and kindness between the Masonic belligerents often existed where Masonic charity was required, and the proprieties, of war admitted their exercise. The aid of the mother Grand Lodges had ceased to he necessary for the support of Masonry in America.

These English colonies had been part of the British Empire, and no other European Grand Lodge, consistent with Masonic institutions, could rightfully interfere in their organizations. The question lay between the mother Grand Lodges and colonial Masonry. Their Provincial Grand Lodges had a frame of government and staff of officers, but were not responsible to the Craft under them for the due exercise of their powers. "The light" had been communicated under political restrictions, now extinct, and the Craft here had the right to the exclusive enjoyment of its benefits, and control of its organization in the independent colonies.

To become independent it was requisite that the lawful Lodges and Brethren here organized as a Grand Lodge should elect and install their Grand Master, by an act of their own will, in lieu of nominating to the Foreign Grand Lodge, and receiving therefrom the commission for a Deputy to be installed here by the Lodges. Or the Lodges in a State might constitute a Grand Lodge without any regard to Provincial organization or authority.

Would the change merely dispense with the vassalage to a foreign source? The General Constitutions of the Craft were not proposed to be touched. No question could be made on the Fraternity involved if the Revolution succeeded, and not much of a question if it failed. Our claim was equality in self-government. Masonry, more than any other institution, is conservative of its ancient habitudes and landmarks. The men who, pledging life, fortune, and sacred honor for political liberty, plunged unhesitatingly into a war of revolution without articles of confederation among themselves, who risked everything to obtain the political right of self-government, paused before they touched this government by Masonic love and fraternity, reflected with thoughtful care on the inconveniences it produced, and hesitated with the tenderness of a loving woman before they chipped with reforming chisel a useless cumbering stone Atom the Masonic edifice they loved for the endearing virtues and broad bonds of fellowship it enshrined.

Situated as this country was, any dependence on the Grand Lodges of those we were engaged in war with was not only irksome, but was a positive injury to the progress and even to the regular and orderly practice of Freemasonry here.

The circumstances which caused this were beyond our control, or, if not literally this, it was inconsistent with our liberty and independence to control them in any other political way than by impressing the British will by arms until they acquiesced in Our independence as a people. Masonically, also, they were equally responsible for the effects growing from their country's conduct toward us as we were for the rebellion it produced. Declare it in the laws of nations and of Masons!

There is no Masonic way that a man can shirk the duty he owes to his country and flag; and there is no Masonic light to charge the performance of such a duty against a man as a Masonic offence.

In those days Masonic historians had not entered far into the study of the rise of Grand Lodges in the various States of Europe. The search for precedents abroad, encumbered as our Masons were with the pressure of an absorbing war, was practically impossible. They were thrown on their own resources, with the Grand Constitutions for a guide, to reason out a solution of their troubles. At this early stags of the Revolution there was some difference of opinion as to what its results might be. It should also be borne in mind that articles of confederation had not yet been agreed between the independent colonies carrying; on the war, Politically and Masonically the period was one of uncertainty; the transitions not yet sufficiently advanced to indicate the future of either. Clearly, In the midst of such a war, neither the patriotic American Lodges nor the loyal British Grand Lodges would attempt to scan the political conduct of their government, or risk communications which, amid such excitement, were liable to misconception, to say the least. The Constitutions clearly relieved the colonial Masons of any necessity to owe a foreign Masonic allegiance after their State had declared its independence and become de facto government. On these points the Masons of 1777 seemed well settled in this Grand Lodge.

We have it from the lips not only of G. M. Webb, but of the not less sterling patriots, Dr. John Warren and Paul Revere a few years after, that the officers and members of the Grand Lodge were called together and considered the misfortunes of the position the death of G. M. Warren had placed them in, and weighed carefully the Masonic Constitutions and laws. They came to the conclusion, a Grand Lodge sprung only from the Masonic authority within the State, and that foreign bodies had no lawful participation in its creation; they then assumed the powers of a Grand Lodge for Massachusetts. Eight years after this event, they say, never have we seen occasion to recede from the principles of their separation then adopted, I append both of these documents. These honest and fearless sentiments deserve to be embalmed in your memories. They mart the mental courage and bold resolution, of our ancestors, and lay at the base of the American System of Freemasonry.

One of the most persistent troubles in the minds of many Masons in the colonies arose from tho question whether in their independent organizations the assent of their mother Grand Lodges ought to be procured, and a Charter be obtained from them for an independent Grand Lodge and Grand Master. These were novel questions, and troublesome to others than the Massachusetts Grand Lodge. In many of the States the Craft considered, contenting itself to do its Lodge-work, endure the evils of their position, and wait for peace before attempting their solution.

Virginia and Massachusetts were, more alive to the necessity of the emergency, and perhaps also more ready to grapple with and discuss abstract questions, as they were the leaders In the war of Independence, and their example was influential.

The Massachusetts Provincial Grand Lodge, which bad not met since the death of their Grand Master Warren, till after the evacuation of Boston, March 17, 1776, held informal meetings of such of its officers as could be reached, at various times in 1776, and their claim to precedence in burying Gen, Warren's remains with Masonic honors being allowed by the Congress of the State, find that duty being performed, held the Festival of St. John the Evangelist December 27, 1776, with a very numerous and distinguished company of Brethren. As a Provincial Grand Lodge, their Grand Master being dead, it was doubted whether the powers of his Deputy to grant Charters did not expire with him who conferred them, and, if so, was not the usefulness of the Provincial Grand Lodge in abeyance? The weight of opinion favored the proposition that the Deputy Grand Master did not succeed to the powers of the dead Grand Master, and the course adopted was Judiciously framed to provide whatever of Grand Lodge authority had expired.

THE INDEPENDENT GRAND LODGE OF MASSACHUSETTS

"1777, February 17th. This Grand Lodge was: again called together on business- The Deputy Grand Master, Joseph Webb, presiding. A petition of Seth Deane and others for a Charter to erect a Lodge in Stockbridge was presented and postponed; and it was voted that the Right Worshipful Deputy Grand Master was requested to summon the Masters and Wardens of all the Lodges within the jurisdiction to assemble at Boston, to take into consideration the state of the Grand Lodge, and act thereon as might be thought proper."

They were resolved that the work of Masonry should not cease, March 7th they met and continued over. "1777, March 8th. The Brethren assembled accordingly at the Green Dragon, and resolved to form a Grand Lodge, when the following officers were elected and invested: —

• "Most Worshipful Joseph Webb, Grand Master.
• "Right Worshipful Moses Deshon, Deputy Grand Master.
• "Right Worshipful Samuel Barrett, Senior Grand Warden.
• "Right Worshipful Paul Revere, Junior Grand Warden.
• "John Lowell, Grand Treasurer,
• "Nathaniel Pierce, Grand Secretary,"

And the first independent Grand Lodge in America was established in Ample Form; eight Masters and Past Masters being present with others.

It was no shivering infant, surrounded by foreign nurses, that came puling and screaming into the world. In the dread crater of a war of liberty, amid the throes of social reorganization, she saw the light, and piloted Its grand representatives; springing full grown and armed out of the loins of the Scotch Lodges of this Commonwealth, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, she stood upright, the emblem of the Palingenesis of Freemasonry in the new world of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Beneath the official Jewels of the Grand Officers just installed, might be seen traces of the military uniform of its Grand Master, then a Lieutenant-CoIonel in the Continental Artillery, and of its Junior Warden, Paul Revere, then also a Lieutenant-Colonel. Many of the stern and war-tried Masons who stood around as representatives of their Lodges, like Nehemiah of old, bore the sword and the trowel as they worked at the structure of the new temple.

Entick's Constitutions, varied only to make the Grand Officers elective, were adopted. A mother Grand Lodge was thus created. Her candlesticks "were lighted with the undying flame of Masonry, and her maternal duties began that selfsame evening Which saw her birth." The prayer of the petition of Seth Deane and others was heard and answered." A Charter was granted by her Grand Master to Berkshire Lodge, to be located at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and when the Grand Lodge closed on that night whose centennial we celebrate, she was not only a Grand Lodge, free, sovereign, and independent before her sister Grand Lodges of the world, but unto her a child was born; she stood among them a teeming mother Grand Lodge — a matron in Masonry.

Out of the depths of chaos had sprung forth order; Therefore we are here to-night.

THE PROGRESS OF INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION

When a provincial Grand Lodge, there had bean four Lodges under this Scotch Jurisdiction; three of them were represented on this night: St. Andrew's of Boston, Tyrian of Gloucester, and St. Peter's of Newburyport. The other, the Massachusetts Lodge, had closed Feb. 6, 1775, and had not yet been able to resume Masonic labors. When the exigencies of public service permitted the reunion of its scattered members, it held its next meeting, and opened Dec. 9, 1778, when it elected as Master, William Palfrey, then or soon after Paymaster-General of the army, and. other officers. The organisation completed, the Lodge voted the same night, "That the Worshipful Master be desired to wait on the Right Worshipful Grand Master, and inform him that the Massachusetts Lodge No. 2 have met, and made choice of their officers and that they are ready to attend the Grand Lodge whenever proper summons shall be issued for that purpose."

Thus all the Lodges who had known Warren as Grand Master were gathered within the folds of the Independent Grand Lodge,

The new Massachusetts Grand Lodge held the Feast of St. John the Baptist June 24, 1777, with a large and brilliant party of Masons, and on St. John the Evangelist's day a public oration was delivered before them by Hon. Perez Morton.

It is unnecessary to follow her successive meetings, except to note the fervency and zeal with which Grand Master Webb spread Old York Masonry within the States. Charter after Charter, at an unprecedented rate, was issued to petitioning Brothers here and in numerous other States. Army Lodges also were chartered, which will elsewhere he referred to. Some fourteen Lodges were chartered prior to 1784.

St. John's Grand Lodge also during the war granted a small number of Charters to local Lodges, and one to an army lodge in the camp at Roxbury during the siege of Boston; although no meetings of the Grand Lodge were held. The principles of Freemasonry appeared to gain ground, amid the struggle for political liberty, And the increase of the Brethren exceeded any thing previously known In the history of the Craft in America.

VIRGINIA

The first State who followed in the line of independence was Virginia. Her situation was peculiar. The Lodges in her boundaries had been chartered by five district mother Grand Lodges, one being a provincial. There also was a provincial Grand Master of England, Modern," who appears not to have organized a Grand Lodge in the old Dominion, nor, if I apprehend rightly, any lodge.

The isolation of her Lodges consequently was extreme. The Virginia records state that on May 6, 1777, a convention of five Lodges was held at Williamsburg to consider their condition, and which organized and voted that a Grand Master ought to be chosen, and adjourned to the 13th, when their committee, Brothers Rose and Waddill at their head, reported reasons: their want of unity of origin; that a foreign appointed Grand Master was of no benefit to Masonry; that abuses could not be rectified as they were then circumstanced; nor could new Lodges be chartered; and also that the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland were self-organ!«d by the craftsmen of those kingdoms by mutual consent, without foreign aid; and concluded, "We therefore conclude that we have, and ought to hold, the same rights and privileges that Masons in all time heretofore have confessedly enjoyed," and ask for a meeting On the 23d of June to elect a Grand Master for Virginia. On which day, some scruples as to regularity arising, they put off the election, and suggested that their mother Grand Lodges should have n year's time to make a Joint and several appointment of one worthy Mason here, with authority for him to return the power of election to the Lodges here in convention, so that they always hereafter could elect officers and organize a Grand Lodge.

They also recommended "His Excellency Gen. George Washington as a proper person to fill the office of Grand Master."

It Is presumed the foreign Grand Lodges either failed to receive or disregarded the request, for, on Oct. 13th, 1778, the convention again met, four Lodges represented, and resolved that the powers of Cornelius Harnet as Deputy Grand Master of America do not now exist, and the chartered Lodges of the State should be subject to the Grand Master of the State. They then elected and installed the Right Worshipful John Blair, Past Master of the Williamsburg Lodge, into the office of Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Virginia, who thereupon appointed and installed his officers, and on that day the second independent Grand Lodge In America was created and began its career of usefulness and renown.

Prior to the date of this installation of Grand Master Blair in Virginia, the records of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge show that she had in this jurisdiction already, since her organization, chartered and established four new Lodges, additional to the constituent Bodies that came to her from the Provincial Grand Lodge.

Through the heat of the war these two independent Grand Lodges stood the lone pillars, resting on the new-born political liberty of the Confederate States.

It was not till 1783 that Maryland became the third independent Grand Lodge, and thus perfected a Masonic Triad of independents. The several provincial Grand Lodges who worked through the war did much faithful service, and the Masons of their jurisdictions were deeply imbued with zeal for the revolutionary cause. Their records show a galaxy of names whose fame and glory are part of the proudest possessions of the whole Masonic community. "One star differeth from another in glory." Massachusetts may fairly claim one differentiated point in the equality of their common glories, which is, that she is the elder of the sisterhood of independent Grand Lodges of the United States, and in unison with Virginia (although curious as it may seem to as there does not appear to have been any correspondence between them, and some doubt whether they knew of each other's proceedings), laid the plans, made the models and founded the school of art on which every Grand Lodge of America has since been constituted.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Brother Mackay, in his history of the South Carolina Grand Lodge, claims that, it some time in 1777, the Provincial Grand Master, Leigh, being in England, the Provincial Grand Lodge elected Hon. Barnard Elliott, and proclaimed him "Grand Master or Masons in the State." He died in the following year. No meetings of this Body were held in 1779 or '80.

No copy of the records accompanying Brother Mackay's claim, a doubt arises. Sabine says Leigh arrived from Charleston, in 1782, in England. Mackay states that in December, 1781, this same Provincial Grand Lodge, ignoring Elliott entirely, met on the death, of their Grand Master Leigh and elected John Deas, Esq., Provincial Grand Master, who thenceforward exercised the jurisdiction. Dalcho, the historian, in official publications of South Carolina Grand Lodge, gives 1786 as the year her Grand Lodge was formed. If Elliott's election was intended as a proclamation of State independence Masonically, the experiment failed, and was abandoned by the Craft, and did do Masonic work. The Provincial Grand Lodge was the only Grand Body alive, and it continued to assemble after the peace, possibly until 1786. Ardent patriots grew heart-sick as the pall of British military occupation, during long years, rested on their fair land, and Masonry languished in face of conditions it could not control, until after the British evacuation of that State.

The following list of the dates of the formation of the several independent State Grand Lodges has been furnished me as accurate: —-

1. Massachusetts, 1777.
2. Virginia, 1778, Oct. 15.
3. Maryland, 1783.
4. Pennsylvania, 1786.
5. Georgia, 1786.
6. New Jersey, 1786.
7. New York, 1787.
8. North Carolina, 1787.
9. South Carolina, 1787. see note 1 below.
10. Connecticut, 1789. see note 2 below.
11. New Hampshire, 1789.
12. Rhode Island, 1791.
13. Delaware, 1806.

• Note 1. It is quite possible that 1783 is a more correct date. Without access to scan records, I have no decisive opinion. See Morris' History of Freemasonry, p. 86; Mackay's History, South Carolina Grand Lodge.
• Note 2. Connecticut began conventions in 1783, looking to this end. She did not actually form a Grand Lodge until 1789.

MASSACHUSETTS

The growth and progress of Massachusetts Grand Lodge during the war was due to a remarkable class of civilians whom she gathered into her bosom. The meetings were regularly held. Much care was bestowed on her festivals. Futile orations, sermons, and Masonic charges by distinguished men were delivered to admiring general audiences and Craftsmen, printed and published. The arts and, sciences of the Craft were impressed by the most eloquent men of the day that the church, the medlcal art and the bar could produce. Statesmen of no mean rank swelled the list of her orators. In the few years between her organization and the union I find Perez Morton, who for several decades was Attorney-General of this State, and Gov. Christopher Gore, representing the bar and Congress. Dr. John Warren and Dr. Josiah Bartlett, eminent disciples of Galen, and the Reverend Simeon Howard and John Eliot representing the clergy of the orthodox and modern liberal schools.

Also, unpublished orations, sermons and charges were delivered before them by the Revs. Bentley, Parker, of Charlestown, and Brother Israel Keith. The dignity and brilliancy of the Grand Lodge during these troublous times need no eulogium from me. The ability in its counsels is conspicuous. The old "caucus" element, the substantial mechanics and traders of Boston, who "awoke the North wind to stir the troubled sea," furnished the larger quota of sagacious and leading officers to its organization.

Its Charters were sought by the Craft in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as in the army, with avidity. Among others, Washington Army Lodge was chartered, Gen. Patterson being made Master. When the war began, there were seventeen Lodges under the St. John's Grand Lodge, And from their representing a difference In work as well as origin from the Massachusetts, as well as from the rapid growth Of the latter, it naturally arose that the action of the smaller body should be severely questioned. Undoubtedly this took place; for, in 1782, a committee of Massachusetts Grand Lodge was directed to report a declaration of the reasons on which it justified the grounds it had occupied during the past five years.

The committee were, Perez Morton, Paul Revere, John Warren, James Avery, and John Juteau.

They reported September 30th, 1782. So terse, sound and broad Is this exposition, that I feel the whole should go before you as a monument of the work of the Craftsmen, and have appended it to this address.

In March, 1783, the newspapers spread the news that peace had boat] agreed upon after eight years of war. With peace was an accomplished independence of the thirteen States of the confederacy. The right of Masonic independence hung no longer on the uncertainties of a prostrating war. Those of the Craft who had lingered under provincial or European authority had need of light to guide them in the paths of progress. To the masses, Grand Lodge organization and roles of Jurisdiction were a mystery. Who was more able to give light than the pioneer? Or more willing to aid the Brethren in receiving it? The significance of this report will at once be seen, its theories of jurisdiction were accepted, and ten States took the line of march in rapid succession in the way it pointed out. The Lodges of each State organized their own Grand Lodge, and defined an exclusive jurisdiction co-terminal with their own State lines.

ARMY LODGES

Although it is slightly irrelevant to my subject-matter, yet at the risk of that criticism I desire to say a few words as to to Army Lodges id the Continental army. I find one, The American Union, chartered by the St. John's; another, Washington Lodge No. 10, by the Massachusetts Grand Lodges There were eight others, the oldest being St. John's, granted by New York, 1775. Masonry was pursued by them with zeal; clandestine Lodges were denounced and exposed; the local jurisdiction of Grand Masters was respected, and permission courteously applied for and obtained when, the movements of the armies brought them within their exclusive territories. This, indeed, is expressly required in the Charter granted by Provincial Grand Master Rowe, February 15, 1775, to the American Union Lodge, and also in Charters granted by the Pennsylvania Provincial Grand Lodge.

In looking over the records of the American Union Lodge preserved in the Connecticut archives, I was struck with tho number of the visitors, and character, and varied residence. At one time Gen. Putnam, at another, "Brother Washington," Bros. Hamilton, Schuyler and numerous others, more than sixty-four, distinguished in the ranks of the army, appear partakers of the generous hospitality of the Masons of the Connecticut line.

At their banquets the second regular sentiment was, "The memory of Warren, Wooster, and Montgomery," General Wooster, who was killed in battle in 1777, was Past Master of Hiram Lodge in Connecticut, chartered by St. John's Grand Lodge. A Lodge at Colchester, in Connecticut, originally, chartered in 1781 by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, was-named for him, and still exists.

Gen. Montgomery, who fell in 1776 in the Attack on Quebec, was of New York, He was or that Masonic society who gathered under Washington at Cambridge, in the beginning of the war. A Lodge at Salisbury, Connecticut, was chartered March 5th, 1783, by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, and named, in his honor, Montgomery Lodge.

There was an important limitation put upon Army Lodges by Massachusetts Grand Lodge prior to the Revolution (1778), which I believe the other Provincial Grand Lodges held in common with her, viz.: that on Army Lodge should not make a Mason of a civilian, without express authority and permission from the Grand Lodge within whose territory it was commorant at the time.

The diffusion of Freemasonry among the States was much promoted by these Lodges, and great benefits came from the free social intercourse they offered to those previously made In various jurisdictions. Even the stringency of the distinction between Ancients and Moderns lost much of its potency through their neutralizing influence. Masonry in the United States owes more than one debt of gratitude to these soldier Masons of the Revolution. General Putnam, afterwards first Grand Master of Ohio, was made in this Lodge.

Washington No. 10 has never had its records printed. The returns from this Lodge are in our archives, and as a curiosity I annex a part of them. I have failed to discover its records. The returns made In 1782 give a complete list of those who were members, or had been made during its existence; if my count is right two hundred and forty-five names are on the record. From this you may judge hew Masonry diffused itself in the Continental army. Gov. Brooks, then Lieut.-CoL, was a member of this Lodge, and delivered an oration, June 24, 1782, before it and the American Union. General Tupper, afterward first settler of Marietta, Ohio, was one of its Wardens. The grantees of this Charter were with the army when it was issued, and Grand Master Webb Of "Old York" Massachusetts, constituted W. M. Heart, of American Union, under "Modern" St, John's — his Special Deputy Grand Master to constitute the new Lodge.

A GENERAL GRAND LODGE

was discussed in 1779 and 1780, and for a long time afterwards. A convention of army Masons, under the auspices of American Union Lodge, then appear first to have promoted an appeal to the Grand Lodges of the several States to this end. Gen. M. Gist of the Maryland line was chairman of the convention. The avowed object was to place Gen. Washington in the position of Grand Master. The embarrassments under which Freemasonry labored at the time were not magnified by the petitioners; nor were their kind intentions for the good of the Craft in any wise defective. They appear to have labored under the delusive idea, often common with those not familiar with the law and character of Grand Masonic Bodies, that a Charter is needful to organize an Independent Grand Lodge, and therefore desired that one should be procured from "the mother Grand Lodge in England," forgetting, as shown in Virginia's case, that there were four in Great Britain of these matrons, whose co-operation, were the petitioners right In their law, must be secured. They wisely entreated that the distinctions between Ancients and Moderns should be obliterated; but forbore to show how the three Ancient and one Modern Grand Lodges of Great Britain, in the very ecstasy of their difference, should instruct their children here to this end.

The Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania also advocated this idea. The plan signally failed, and gave place to the more natural and simple one of Massachusetts, — for each independent State to form a Grand Lodge, to be and to hold of the Authority of the Masons of the lawfully existing Lodges of the State.

This was harmonious with the State sovereignty of the era, as nearly all the old thirteen States completed their independent Masonic organization before the Articles of Confederation of the United States were succeeded by the Constitution adopted in 173d. Massachusetts alone preceded the articles of Confederation.

When we reflect that it took a member of Congress three weeks to ride from Boston to Philadelphia, and consider the expense actual representation would cause to particular Lodges, we see another reason why the scheme failed. State Lodges have got on together for near a century very harmoniously by means of their common regard for the old Constitutions and landmarks, and their respect for the opinions of each other, in all questions affecting the equality of their rights.

In 1781, Jan. 9, the Massachusetts Grand Lodge voted to postpone the Grand Master General subject, "until a general peace shall happily take place." But agitation of the question continued for several years. From a mass of records I have selected some of the correspondence between Pennsylvania and this Grand Lodge to illustrate the then current lines of thought. G. M. Webb was convinced the Grand Lodges of the States never would consent to become provincial, or subordinate to any Central Grand Lodge. Nor was Pennsylvania restrained by love for provincial relations. In seeking independence she preferred a General Grand Lodge as Its means; otherwise her Brethren would have been in the forefront of its asserters through State organization.

The efforts of Pennsylvania and the Army Lodges for this object did the great good of rousing Freemasonry from lethargy by the impressive testimony they bore that the ancient regime of foreign dependence was melting away, and successors must be provided on this continent. Looking back now to the natural selection which irresistibly preferred State organizations to a general Grand Lodge for out social needs, we cannot fall to rejoice that all these plans were fairly submitted to our clearheaded ancestors for their selection.

There is a fascination to a class of minds in impracticable ideas; this suggestion of a General Grand Lodge was several times renewed prior to 1820 with considerable energy, but every time signally defeated. It was again brought forward in 1822, 1847, 1853, and 1859, bat with decreasing force.

We do not desire to delegate our dearly-bought independence in each State, and reduce our representative Grand Lodges into provincial vassalage, no matter how lofty the fame and virtues may be of those selected as the general functionaries.

STATE INDEPENDENCE AND EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION WlTHIN THE STATE

There was a minority hard to convince of the propriety of this new departure on the voyage of independent life. Not only In 1782, but again in 1785, did the Massachusetts Grand Lodge feel it expedient to put forth, through able committees, reports vindicating the Masonic regularity of its organization in 1777; and reiterating Its views that each Grand Lodge of Masons ought to exercise the sole and exclusive Masonic jurisdiction over all the Masons within the territory of its State. This last doctrine had vaguely entered Into Provincial Charters for Grand Lodges from the same mother authority, throwing a glimmering Indication of its future applicability in a broader sense. It was more positively infused into the Charters, for Army Lodges granted during the war. Indeed, in a wide sense the abjuring of foreign dominion by the Masons of a State, and the denunciation of any foreign invasion of its territory are substantially parts of the same thought, the essence of self-government and liberty.

Probably but for the fast that Masonic Lodges of two origins, the Ancients, And the Moderns, existed in most of the leading States, and claimed to be essentially different In their work and Constitutions, there woilld hare been an early, if not Immediate unqualified acceptance of the rule of exclusive jurisdiction in its widest sense.

This division had to he overcome by wisdom and a true sense of Masonic fraternity, When Massachusetts, by a generous and conciliating course, had healed the divisions in her territory, and formed the two pre-existing Grand Lodges into one Grand Lodge of all the Masons of the State, — except St. Andrew's Lodge, which had divided in 1773, a part adhering to her, which subsequently became the Rising States, — she again turned her attention to the strengthening of State Jurisdictions, and acted in 1792, December 10, by formally disclaiming any right on her part to charter Lodges or retain in her jurisdiction Lodges within the limits of any State having a Grand Lodge. She also endeavored to enlist her sister Grand Lodges in the absolute declaration of this principle.

North Carolina, New York and Connecticut accepted, and made like declarations at once. I find, in a subsequent controversy with Kentucky, in 1811, North Carolina, referring to her acceptance In 1796 of this Massachusetts conventional article as the evidence of her authority, and Kentucky, after due inquiry of Virginia, her origin, acceding to its general Masonic landmark character, as applicable to their controversy. New Jersey also, in subsequent years frequently appealed to and recognized its principle as settled doctrine. My leisure has not permitted me to truce its further progress by steps. The vote of Massachusetts in 1792, Dec. 10, was, "That all Lodges commissioned by proper authority, which are holden in any of the United States where no Grand Lodge is established, may retain their connection with this Grand Lodge, agreeably to Constitutions, section 1, article 5." In 1785, in her letter to the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge, the committee expressly say that already the Grand Lodge had been acting on this principle, and, in bar form of Charters to Lodges out of the State, had resorted to Dispensations to enable the Lodges more readily to prepare for and form State Grand Lodges, The ground thus prepared, the seed soon took root and grew to the goodly tree that now shelters and protects us from dissension*,

The rule referred to as part of the convention, pressed by Massachusetts, was this: "No Charter of erection or dispensation shall be granted to any number of Masons residing out of this State, except when the Grand Lodge of the State in which the petitioners reside shall acquiesce therein in writing." The next vote provided there should be no correspondence with Masons in this State who acknowledge the supremacy of any foreign Grand Lodge. This rule has proved so equitable that, practically, to-day our numerous Grand Lodges are on amicable relations. The Brethren in several European nations might take light from this with improved harmony In their limits. A second rule, offshoot of this, prevents the making of Masons out of the jurisdiction of their residence without home consent.

On the basis of these brief but ample principles, without the intervention of any Central Grand authority, the Grand Lodges of the United States have lived in fraternal anion, a spectacle of peace and happiness, the noblest monument of the statesmanship And equity of those long-departed and worthy Masons who adopted, as well as those who blocked them out from the venerable old Constitutions whose authors then lay beneath the dust of i incumbent centuries Infringements rarely have taken place, but the discussion on each occasion has ended in affirming the principle with a more abiding sense of Its merits.

ERECTION OF NEW GRAND LODGES

Directly the war was closed this Grand Lodge was put to the proof of the firmness of her adhesion and the generosity of her devotion to the doctrine of State jurisdiction. The local Lodges in every State of New England had been originated by Charters from one or the other of the Grand Lodges here, with the exception that a few in Connecticut were from New York, who also had scions in New Jersey.

The need of State Masonic Unity led these Lodges to form State Grand Lodges. The surrender of jurisdiction over the children of their loins was the self-abnegation imposed on these mothers in Israel, by their avowed principle. How they shared the feelings of a fond mother when she sees her daughter in bridal array passing out from the parental fireside to enter on a new path of duty may easily be imagined.

In 1783 Connecticut began proceedings to this end, which in 1789 culminated in the formation of a Grand Lodge. In New Hampshire, in 1789, a Grand Lodge was formed from Lodges chartered here. Rhode Island and Vermont followed a little later.

Brethren, behold in the seats of honor of this Grand Orient, Representative Grand Masters of these four sovereign Grand Lodges, bearing witness that the fraternity of our hearts has been neither effaced nor decayed by near a century of separate organization.

Pennsylvania, who with Massachusetts had surpassed the rest in the number of Charters spread beyond her State limits, also had the same.heart trials to endure as. the Masonry of other States, nearer to her, successively assumed their independence.

The benedictions of the mothers were poured out on the rising Grand Lodges, and they said, "While ye have light, believe! in the light, that ye may be children of light." Honor to all these ancient fountains of Masonry! They bore unflinchingly the test of the sincerity of their convictions that State jurisdictions were essential to the good of Masons and Masonry in the United States.

In after years, as Virginia and North Carolina and Georgia and South Carolina and Maryland saw the young States of the West that had been populated with their emigrants, and whose Masonic fires had been lighted at their altars, rise also and assume independence, they greeted them with words of Joy and peace, and sent them forth with a parent's blessing.

WHAT A GRAND LODGE IS TO THE MASONS OF ITS JURISDICTlON

Mr. Justice Wilson, in his Law Lectures, uses the word State in its broadest sense. "In free States," says he "the people form an artificial person or body politic, the highest and noblest that can be known. They form that moral person, which, in one of my former lectures, I described as a complete body of free, natural persons, united together for their common benefit; as having an understanding or a will; as deliberating and resolving and acting; as possessed of interests which it ought to manage ; as enjoying rights it ought to maintain, and as lying under the obligations it ought to perform, To this moral person ■we assign by way of eminence the dignified appellation of State."

Such a moral person the Freemasons here created in 1777, a century ago, and called it the Grand Lodge.

From the time the Brethren of St. Andrew's were busy preparing the tea with salt water, in company with cur respected Brother Col. Melville, afterwards the first United States Naval Officer for Boston, up to the day whose- anniversary we celebrate, the Brethren of that Provincial Grand Lodge were, If we can trust traditions, robust in action, and, can we Judge from the Success of their acts, they were of rare wisdom in their Executive Councils.

From the time of her repudiation of all entangling foreign alliance, the duties as well as the responsibility of the sovereignty she had assumed were performed with the rarest sagacity and temperate wisdom during the whole war, and through the transition times, until the inauguration of Gen. Washington, in 1789, set the seal of ratability on out union of States.

Ae the policy of State Grand Lodges became an assured success, the time ripened for her to prore that, beyond her combative and intellectual qualities, she had a liberal, self-sacrificing and bounteous heart for the good of Masons and Masonry In the Old Bay State. During eight years of war, Christ Unity and Masonry, the handmaids of civilization, had vindicated the practice of humanity amid the stern necessities of war. The State secure from foreign dominion, our bruised arms hung up for monuments, what reason existed that these tried and trusty Ancients and Moderns, who had shoulder to shoulder in field and council stood together, hearts beating In unison, should continue separated In the Lodge-rooms? They knew each other well; the Masonic virtues found an asylum in the hearts of each. The causes of the original division were not beyond a reasonable compromise. While concession for the sake of union and harmony had brought so glorious a fruit as the American Union, ought not Masonry in Massachusetts to follow this brilliant example, at which so many of our Brothers had Resisted, and form a United Grand Lodge, for their own good and for the example?

About an equal number of the Lodges of this State had Charters from each of the two Grand Lodges.

In 1787 St. John's Grand Lodge lost her Provincial Grand Master. John Rowe, Esq., a public-spirited, wealthy and patriotic gentleman, much esteemed in Boston, and often entrusted with its town business ("Rowe's Wharf" still bears his name), who had held that office since Not. 23, 1768. His Deputy Grand Master, Gen. Gridley, called that Grand Lodge together on the occasion, July 17. It was their first meeting since the war broke out. Usage in that Grand Lodge had sanctioned the power to meet and perform its appropriate functions after its Grand Master had died.

Saint John's Grand Lodge chose, on this evening, Richard Gridley Deputy Grand Master, John Cutler Senior Grand Warden, Samuel Parkman Grand Secretary.

On July 19th, 1790, Samuel Dunn, Junior Grand Warden, and Mungo Mackay, Grand Treasurer, were elected, and some business done regarding subordinate Lodges. In 1792, a Special Grand Lodge was called, to consider the vote of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Dec. 5, 1791, and hear its committee respecting "a complete Masonic union throughout this Commonwealth." This Grand Lodge (St. John's) "being perfectly satisfied, from examining the book of Constitutions, that we hare a right to agree to each Union, and, when united, to proceed to the choice of all the officers necessary to rule the Lodge," appointed a committee "to confer and promote the Union, provided it can be effected on true Masonic principles."

To this frank Masonic spirit of harmony it adhered. The committee reported favorably; a plan was agreed on. In March they met to carry it out, adjusted all necessary matters, adopted the Hew Joint Constitutions, appointed electors who, with those Of the other Grand Lodge, on that night elected the Grand Officers, and closed In Ample Form.

The Massachusetts Grand Lodge had long labored for this union.

The death of Grand Master Rowe had left but one Grand Master in the State, and therefore a favorable opportunity arose.
 March 3d, 1787, it was voted "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. The committee were Dr. Warren, Col. Revere, Dr.
 Bartlett, Mr. Edwards and Col. Scollay. These gentlemen 
agitated the matter both to the other Grand Lodge and to the
subordinate Lodges. On April 6th a new committee, Judge 
Lowell, Messrs. Edwards, Bartlett, Dexter, Scollay, Hayes and Whipple were appointed; and another committee in 1791,
 substantially the same, with addition of M. M. Hays, P. G. M.
 and Mr. Laughton; and the work went forward at the house of 
Samuel Parkman, who, with Messrs. Cutler, Mackay, Dunn, Wil
liams, Dennie and Shaw, were on the St, John's Committee of
 Conference, '

The conferences were successful, and the plans were adopted in this Grand Lodge on March 5th as in the other. The electors were selected, and Massachusetts, with the same generous warmth that had distinguished her in the cause of liberty, now waived off all her claims to the grandmastership of the new Grand Lodge, and unanimously and successfully sustained a gentleman from St, John's Grand Lodge for that high office. Her Grand Master, Moses M. Hayes, the most thorough and perfect Mason of his genoration, the embodiment of its royal art and craft, including its sublimest mysteries, retiring from his high rank, penetrated with the greatest personal pleasure at the accomplishment of the onion for which he for three years u Grand Master had pertinaciously labored.

In 1792, March 19th, the union of the Grand Lodge was amply effected by the installation of its Grand Officers, and henceforth there has been one only Grand Lodge of this State, "Grand Lodge of the most ancient and honorable society of Free and Accepted Masons for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

The provision as to the existing diversity of rites says simply, "All distinctions between Ancient and Modern Masons shall be abolished as far as practical;" and this Grand Lodge for more than twenty years showed the way to union to the two rivals In England, before they gathered impetus enough to follow in the path -explored and made straight before them.

Gen. Washington, In congratulating our now Grand Lodge, says, "It is not less pleasing to know that the wilder virtues of the heart are highly respected by a Society whose Liberal principles are founded In the immutable laws of truth and virtue."

The officers installed were

• M. W. John Cutler, Grand Master.
• R. W. John Lowell, Deputy Grand Master.
• R. W. Josiah Bartlett, Senior Warden.
• R. W. Mungo Mackay, Junior Warden.
• Samuel Parkman, Grand Treasurer.
• Thomas Farrington, Grand Secretary.
• William Little, William Donnison, Grand Deacons.
• John Brazer, Lewis Hayt, Grand Steward.
• Samuel Bradford, Grand Marshal.
• Benjamin Russell, Grand Sword-Bearer.

My hearers, in sketching the transitions of this Grand Lodge, I have unavoidably referred to her sister Grand Lodges, and may have made many omissions of notable points of their connection with that era. If either my means of investigation dot my time has allowed me more than an imperfect acquaintance with their revolutionary history. My errors have been sins of ignorance. Should 1 have excited their students to collate and place before the Masonic Fraternity their relations to those events, arid sketches of the sagacious and influential members who promoted them, I will have done a service to the Fraternity in this connection that lays neatest to my heart, one that ought to be a full and perfect atonement for my faults.

Brethren of the Grand Lodge, I have new briefly traced the proceedings by which Freemasonry in the United States threw off its dependence on foreign Grand Lodges for organisation, and denounced their interference in the Masonic affairs of a country made free and independent by the political action of its own people. I have sketched the line by which Masonic boundaries of Grand Lodges here were regulated by State lines. Had the limits of an address admitted it, I could have traced the growth of that comity by which each acknowledged the exclusive right of the other to Jurisdiction within its State lines, The wisdom of this doctrine of State rights applied to Masonry, as a restriction on the right of granting Charters, seems to have been conceded from the beginning of the State organizations. Indeed, I doubt whether any Grand Lodge in the United States ever attempted to oppose so just a principle of equality, harmony, and independence, for the support among the Craft, of that eminently Masonic principle, order.

I recall but one instance, the conflict of Mississippi and Louisiana, and that really rested on a different question.

When we consider the exquisite Masonic art with which the civilians of the Grand Lodge selected, bound, and cemented together, in laying their foundations, the principles which remain the corner-stones of the Craft government in the United States, we cannot avoid applying to them the language of St. Paul that "according to the grace of God given unto them, as a skilful master-builder they have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon,"

No new principle has been added to their work.

To the union of the Craft in the State they bent their energies with courteous measures, a generous spirit of concession for the sake of union, nothing relaxing until the Masonic fold of this Grand Lodge had received aJl the regular Lodges in the jurisdiction, including St. Andrew's, which, after a few years of eclf-iu flic ted Isolation, returned and resumed that eminent rank in the Grand Lodge due to Its Revolutionary services in its cause.

To those of us who are of the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge, these reminiscences have a natural Interest, and draw closer around ua the common tie which biQdB us in fraternal union and harmony. In honoring these past worthies, we apply fresh cement where the ravages of time have marked our edifice, revive her burled glories, feel in the depths of our souls that under the holy providence of the Supremo Architect of the Universe, there is one Masonry of fraternity, henevolence and love for US, the dead and the living. Tq you, the representatives of our sister Grand Lodges whom I see around me, there needs no apology for our efforts to manifest the works of onr long past and gone. Brethren, which have been tried by Ore, and have stood the test. If I have succeeded in showing you that in the transition from the old to th* new/, from colonial dependence to sovereignty, do landmark of Freemasonry has been marred or removed; that □either its Shekinuu nor its Oracle lias been lost, X have Vindicated tbo purity and the fidelity of out departed Brethren; and as you equally with us partake of the fro its of their good works, and enjoy the fraternal right to hail, them, as of your Graft and Fellowship, I may trust that the dew of your sympathy shall mingle with cure, to revive the withered acacia that droops over their tombs, and evoke the fragrance from its dead Leaves that shall hang around the altars of Freemasonry, like a cloud of incense, until the memory of Masons shall no more t» kDOTvn in the land.

COPIES OF OLD DOCUMENTS APPENDED TO THE FORE-GOING ADDRESS

REPORT OF COMMITTEE, 1782

Report of Brothers Perez Morton, Paul Revere, John Warren, James Avery and John Juteau, appointed the committee.

December 6, 1782, in a full Grand Lodge, it was considered. This interesting report, omitting the formal introduction, is as follows: —

"The Commission from the Grand Lodge of Scotland granted to our late Grand Master, Joseph Warren, Esquire, having died with him, and of course his Deputy, whose appointment was derived from his nomination, being no longer in existence, they saw themselves without a head, and without a single Grand Officer, and of course it was evident that not only the Grand Lodge, but all the particular Lodges under its jurisdiction, must cease to assemble, the Brethren he dispersed, the penniless go unassisted, the Craft languish, and Ancient Masonry be extinct In this part of the world.

"That In consequence of a summons from the former Grand Wardens to the Masters and Wardens of all the regular constituted Lodges, a Grand Communication was held to consult and advise on some means to preserve the intercourse of the Brethren.

"That the Political Head of this country, having destroyed all connection and Correspondence Between the subjects of these States and the country from which the Grand Lodge originally derived its commissioned authority; and the principles of the Craft, inculcating an Its professors submission, to the commands of the civil authority of the country they reside in; the Brethren did assume an elective supremacy, and under it chose a Grand Master and Grand Officers, and erected a Grand Lodge with independent powers and prerogatives, to be exercised, however, on principles consistent with and subordinate to the regulations pointed out in the Constitutions of ancient Masonry.

"That the reputation and utility of the Craft, under their jurisdiction, has been most extensively diffused, by the flourishing state of fourteen Lodges constituted by their authority, within a shorter period than that in which three only received Dispensations under the former Grand Lodge.

"That in the history of our Craft we find that in England there are two Grand .Lodges, independent of each other, in Scotland the same, and in Ireland their Grand Lodge and Grand Master are independent either of England or Scotland, It is clear that the authority of some of their Grand Lodges originated in assumption; or otherwise they would acknowledge the head from, whence they derived.

"Your committee are therefore of opinion, that the doings of the present Grand Lodge were dictated by principle! of the clearest necessity, founded in the highest reason, and warranted by precedents of the most approved authority.

"And they beg leave to recommend the following resolutions to be adopted by the Grand Lodge, and engrafted into its Constitutions; —

1. "That the Brethren of the Grand Lodge, In assuming the powers and prerogatives of an independent Grand Lodge, acted from the most laudable motives, and consistently with principles which ought forever to govern Masons, viz.: the benefit of the Craft and the good of mankind, and are warranted in their proceedings by the practice of Ancient Masons in all parts of the world. (See Calent, page 107 - Masons' Pocket Companion, page 92, London edition.)
2. "That this Grand Lodge be hereafter known and called by the name of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons; and that it is free and independent in its government and official authority of any other Grand Lodge or Grand Master in the universe.
3. "That the power and authority of the said Grand Lodge be construed to extend throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and to any of the United States, where none other is erected, over such Lodges only as this Grand Lodge has constituted, or shall constitute.
4. "That the Grand Master.for the time being be desired to call In all Charters which were held under the jurisdiction of the late Grand Master Joseph Warren, Esquire, and return the same with an indorsement thereon, expressive of their recognition of the power and authority of this Grand Lodge.
5. "That no person or persons ought or or can, consistently with the rules of Ancient Masonry, use or exercise the powers or prerogatives of an Ancient Grand Master or Grand Lodge, to wit: to give power to erect Lodges of Ancient Masonry, make Masons, appoint superior or Grand Officers, receive dues, or do anything which belongs to the powers or prerogatives of an Ancient Grand Lodge, within any part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the rightful and appropriated limits to which the authority of this Grand Lodge forever hereafter extends."

This report was signed by Perez Morton Paul Revere, John Warren, and James Avery. It "was read paragraph by paragraph, and, after mature deliberation thereon, the same was accepted, and ordered to be recorded in the proceedings of the Grand Lodge," where it now appears, signed by Jos, Webb, Grand Master.

The above is taken from the address of R.W. Past Grand Master Gardner, 1870.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE, 1785

The committee report that in their opinion it will be expedient for this Grand Lodge to comply with the proposal made by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, for forming a general convention, and they beg leave to recommend that the following letter be written in answer thereto.

As men and as Masons, the Massachusetts Grand Lodge acknowledge themselves under groat obligations to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, for their kind attention to the interests of Masonry in genera], as well as their laudable disposition towards a friendly and fraternal intercourse with this Grand Lodge in particular.

Soon after the reception of their favor of date not given by the Most Worshipful Grand Master, Joseph Webb, Esq., an answer was returned acknowledging the same; but as matters of a serious nature respecting the principles therein contained were then in agitation, a committee was chosen to report and answer to the several propositions, as soon as final decision upon those matters should take place.

It will appear by the declaration of rights of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, a true copy of which is herein enclosed, that this Grand Lodge early adopted the sentiment of & secession from the Grind Lodge of Scotland.

In the year 1777 application for Charters of erection and constitution having been made by a number of Masons to the Ancient Grand Lodge, of which the late Joseph Warren, Esq,, bad been Grand Master, as many of the officers of that Grand Lodge as could be assembled met in form of a Grand Lodge, the Deputy Grand Master then in the Chair, and after carefully attending to the Constitutions and usages of Masons in all ages, and the principles upon which that Grand Lodge existed, they were unanimously of opinion that they could not legally grant Charters, because the late Grand Master, Joseph. Warren, held his authority by virtue of a commission given to him only as provincial Grand Master, and to be revoked at the pleasure of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Now, the principal being dead, the commission was of consequence vacated. (You will observe where the Bonk of Constitutions says that in the absence of the Grand Master, the Deputy shall fill the Chair, it speaks of a principal Grand Lodge, not of a Provincial Grand Lodge.)

They then assumed the powers of a Grand Lodge.

From the foregoing, the principles then adopted by this Grand Lodge, upon which they have practised, and from which they have never seen occasion to recede, may readily be collected.

What is said to be the prevailing opinion among our Brethren of Pennsylvania is therefore exactly coincident with the sentiments as above avowed. With respect to the second circumstance mentioned in the letter this Grand Lodge is an instance.

As to applications for Grand Warrants, it was originally the opinion of this Grand Lodge that the only proper authority for constituting Grand Lodges in these sovereign State was that which should be derived from the people, and that whenever a number of Lodges existed in a free, sovereign, and independent State, those Lodges hid a right of convening to erect a Grand Lodge; and it appears from the Book of Constitutions that when by reason of revolutions in the State, or the neglect of the Grand Master, the Grand Lodge Communications had been for some time discontinued, the officers of the respective Lodges assembled, formed a. Grand Lodge, and chose a Grand Master accordingly. Should the Grand Lodge of any one State delegate a power to Masons In another State to hold a Grand Lodge, it is clear that the Grand Lodge be constituted must be subjected to that from which the power was derived, a distinction which it was thought ought not to subsist between the Grand Lodges of these United States. The Massachusetts Grand Lodge professing this, when associations were forming in another State did not grant them a Charter in the usual style, but a Dispensation to hold a Lodge and make Masons till there should be a Grand Lodge in (hat State,—an event which It was thought would probably take place in each of the States of the Union. Out sentiments with respect to the first query contained in the letter are expressed above, and should each State adopt the plan above mentioned, It is probable the evil mentioned in the second query may be avoided; and as to the application of particular Lodges to foreign Grand Lodges, as they can only he commissioned as provincial Grand Lodges, it appears improbable that the measure will in any instance be adopted.

With respect to the fourth query, it lis the opinion of this Grand Lodge that the most eligible plan for the above purpose is to hold a Chapter,, or Convention of Deputies from the several Grand Lodges, at least once in three years, In some central State, where certain articles may be agreed upon for the regulation of all the Lodges in the different States, which will prevent the interference of one Grand Lodge with another. One of these articles may be that should any Lodge in the United States apply and obtain a Commission for holding a Grand Lodge from any foreign power, such Masons shall not have the benefit of visiting, or be received in any Lodge In the Union. One thing we heartily wish, which is that all the Modern Grand Lodges may be invited to come into the Union, and that there may be but one Grand Lodge In each State. There is a Modern Grand Lodge held in this town, whereof John Rowe, Esq,, is Grand Master. Should you agree with us in this sentiment, we wish, that a similar circular letter may be sent them be was sent ns. The written report agreed to by

John Warren, Paul Revere, John Juteau.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN "PENNSYLVANIA" AND "MASSACHUSETTS" GRAND LODGES

Philadelphia, August 19th, 1780.
Joseph Webb, Esqr., Boston.

Sir, — I do myself the honor to address You, by Order of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons, regularly constituted in the City of Philadelphia. This Grand Lodge has under its Jurisdiction, in Pennsylvania and the States adjacent, Thirty-one different regular Lodges, containing in the whole more than One thousand Brethren. Enclosed you have a printed Abstract of some of our late Proceedings, and by that of January 13th last, you w ill observe that we have, so far as depends on us, done that Honor, which we think due, to our illustrious Brother General Washington, viz.: the electing him Grand Master over all the Grand Lodges formed or to be formed in these United States; not doubting of the Concurrence of all other Grand Lodges in America to make this Election effectual.

We have been informed by Colonel Palfrey that there is a Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons in the State of Massachusetts and that you are Grand Master thereof. As such, I am therefore to request you will lay our Proceedings before your Grand Lodge, and request their concurrent voice in the appointment of General Washington, as set forth in the said Minute of January 13th which (as far as we have been able to learn) is a Measure highly approved of by all the Brethren, as being for the honor and advancement of our Royal Art. Your Answer, as aoon as convenient, is requested by

Sir,
Your affectionate Brother & most
 Obedt. humble servant,

For the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania,
William Smith, Grand Secy.

Δ

Boston, Sept. 4, 1780.
To The Rev. Dr. William Smith,
Grand Secretary to the Grand Lodge, Philadelphia.

Sir. Your Agreeable favor of the 19th Ult. I duly rec'd the 31st. covering a printed Abstract of some of the proceedings of your Grand Lodge. I had rec'd one before, near 3 months, from the Master of a travelling Lodge of the Connecticut line, but its not coming officially, did not lay it before the G, Lodge, but the Evening after I rec'd yours, it being Grand Lodge, I laid the Same before them, & had some debate on it. Whereupon it was agreed to adjourn the Lodge for 3 weeks, vizt. to 22 inst. — likewise to write to all the Lodges under this Jurisdiction, to Attend, themselves, if Convenient, by their Master & Wardens, if not, to give Instructions to Their Proxies here concerning Acquiesence in the proposal.

I am well assur'd that no One can have any Objection to so illustrious a person as General Washington, to preside as Grand Master of the United States, but at the same time it will be necessary to know from you, his prerogative as such — whether he is to appoint Grand or Provincial Grand Masters of Each State, if so, I am confident that the Grand Lodge of this State will never give up their right of Electing their Own Grand Master, & other Officers annually ; this Induces me to write you now, before the result of the Grand Lodge takes place, & must beg an answer from you, by the first Opportunity, that I may be enabled to Lay the same before them, I have not heard of any State, except yours & this State, {that} have proceeded as yet, since the Independence, to Elect their Officers, but hare been hoping that they would.

I do not remember of more Grand Masters being appointed, when we were under the British Government, than Sth. Carolina, No. Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, & Massachusetts. But now it may be necessary.

I have granted a Charter of Dispensation to Now Hampshire, till they shall Appoint a Master of their Own — which {I} suppose will not be very soon — as there is but one Lodge in their State, Inclosed I send you a List of the Officers of our Grand Lodge.

And Have the Honor to be
with Great Respect & Esteem,
Yr affectionate Brother,
& Hble Servt.

J. Webb.

Δ


Philadelphia, Oct. 11th, 1780. To the Right Worshipful Joseph Webb, Esqr.,
Grand Master of Masons, Massachusetts State.

Respected Sir, and Right Worshipfull Brother: — Your kind and interesting Letters of Septr. 4th & 19th by some delay in the Post Office, came both to my hands together; and that not before the 10th Instant. They were both read, and maturely consider'd, at a very full Grand Lodge last Evening, and I have it in charge to thank you, and all the worthy Members of the Grand Lodge of the Massachusetts State, for the Brotherly Notice you have been pleased to take of the Proposition, communicated to you, from the Grand Lodge of this State.

We are happy to find that you agree with u» in the Necessity of having One compleat Masonic Jurisdiction, under some One Grand Head, throughout all these United States. It has been a Measure long wished for among the Brethren, especially in the Army, and from them the Request came originally to us, that We might improve the Opportunity, which our central Situation gave us, of setting this Measure on Foot. From these Considerations, joined to an earnest Desire of advancing and doing honor to Masonry, and not from any Affectation of Superiority, or of dictating to any of our Brethren, We put in Nomination, for Grand Master, over all these States, and. elected (so far as depended on Us), One of the most illustrious of our Brethren, whose Character docs honor to our Whole Fraternity; and who, we were therefore persuaded, would lie wholly unexceptionable. When our Proposition and Nomination should be communicated to other Grand Lodges, and ratified by their Concurrence, then, and not before, it was proposed to define the powers of such a Grand Master General, and to fix Articles of Masonic Union among all the Grand Lodges, by means of a Convention of Committees from the different Grand Lodges, to be held at such a time and place, as might be agreed upon. Such Convention may also have power to notify the Grand Master General of his Election, present him with his Diploma, & Badges of Office; and install him with due form and Solemnity.

To you, who are so well learned in the Masonic Art, and acquainted with its History, it need not be observed that one Grand Master General over many Grand Lodges, having each their Own Grand Master, &c., is no Novel Institution, even if the peculiar Circumstances of the Grand Lodges in America, now separated from the Jurisdiction from whence they first originated, did not render it necessary. We have also a very recent and magnificent Example of the same thing In Europe, which may serve, in respect to the Ceremonies of Installation, &c, as a Model for us. I will copy the paragraph as dated at Stockholm in Sweden, the 21" of March last, as you may not perhaps have seen It.

"The nineteenth of this Month (March, 1780), will always be a memorable day to the Freemasons established in this Kingdom, for on that day the Duke of Sundermania was installed Grand Master of all the Lodges throughout this Kingdom, as well as those of St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Brunswick, Hamburg, &c. The Lodge at St. Petersburg had sent a Deputy for this Purpose, and others had intrusted the Diploma of the Instalment, to the Baron Leyouhufrud, who had been lest year to Copenhagen, and in Germany on this Negotiation. This Instalment was attended with Great Pomp. The Assembly was composed of more than four hundred Members, and was honor'd with the Presence of the King, who was pleased to grant a Charter to the Lodge taking it under his Royal Protection, at the same lime in vesting the New Grand Master with an Ermin'd Cloak, after which he was placed on a throne, cloathed with the marks of his new Dignity, and there received the Compliments of all the Members, who according to their rank) were admitted to kiss the Hand, the Scepter, or the Cloke of the New Grand Master; and had delivered to them a Silver Medal, struck to perpetuate the Memory of this Solemnity, which passed in Exchange Hall. It is said the King will grant Revenues for the Commanderies, and that this Royal Lodge, acknowledged by others for the Mother Lodge, will receive of each, an Annual Tribute. This Solemnity hath raised the Order of Free Masons from a kind of Oblivion into which they were sunk,"

What the particular Authorities of the Grand Master of these United States were to be, we had not taken upon us to describe; but (as before hinted) had left them to be settled by a Convention of Grand Lodges, or their Committees. This, however, is certain that We never intended the different Provincial or State Grand Lodges should be deprived of the Election of their Own Grand Officers, or of any of their just Masonic Rights and Authorities over the different Lodges within the Bounds of their Jurisdiction.

But where new Lodges axe to be erected beyond the Bounds of any legal Grand Lodges now existing, such Lodges are to have their Warrant from the Grand Master General, and when Such Lodges become a Number Sufficient to be formed into one Grand Lodge, the Bounds of Koch Grand Lodge are to be described and the Warrant granted by the Grand Master aforesaid, who may also call and preside in, a Convention of Grand Lodges, when any matter of great and general Importance to the Whole United Fraternity in these States, may require it. What other powers may be given to the Grand Master General, and how Such Powers are. to be expressed find drawn up, will be the Business of the Convention proposed.

For want of Home general Masonic Authority over all these States, the Grand. Lodge of Pennsylvania, ex necessitate, has granted Warrants beyond its Bounds, to the Delaware and Maryland States; and you have found it expedient to do the same in New Hampshire; but We know that Necessity alone can be a plea for this.

By what is said above, yon will see that it is our idea to have a Grand Master General over all the United States, and each Grand Lodge under him to preserve its own Rights, Jurisdiction, etc., as formerly under the Grand Lodge in Britain, from whence our Grand Lodges in America had their Warrants; and to have this new Masonic Constitution, & the powers of the Grand Master General fixed by a convention of Committees as aforesaid.

Others, we are told, have proposed that there be one Grand Master over all the States, and that the other Masters of Grand Lodges, whether nominated by him, or chosen by their own Grand Lodges, should be considered as his deputies; but we have the same Objections to this which you have, and never had any Idea of establishing such a plan, as has been suggested before.

This Letter is now swelled to a great Length; we have therefore only to submit two things to your Deliberation ; —

• 1st. Either whether it be best to make your Election of a Grand Master General immediately, and then propose to us a time and place where a Committee from your Body could meet a Committee from Ours, to fix his Powers, and proceed to Instalment, etc., or,
• 2ndly. Whether you will first appoint such a place of Meeting and fix the powers of the Proposed Grand Master, then return home and proceed to the Election, and afterwards meet anew for Instalment?

This last mode would seem to require too much time, & would not be so agreeable to our worthy Brethren of the army, who are anxious to have the matter speedily compleated.

As you will probably chuse the first mode, could not the place of our meeting be at or near the Head-Quarters of the Army; and at or soon after St. John's Day next? At any Rate you will not fix a Place far northward, on account of some Brethren from Virginia who will attend; for we propose to advertise the Time And Place of Meeting and the Business In the public Papers; that any regular Grand Lodges, which We may not have heard of, may have an Opportunity of sending Representatives.

Your Answer as soon as possible is requested, under Cover to
 Peter Boynton, Esquire, Past Master in Philadelphia, with a 
Request to deliver it with his own Hand speedily.


I have the Honor to be,
With the utmost Affection and Esteem,

Your Dutiful Brother & Servant,

William Smith, Grand Sec'y.

By Order of the Grand Lodge of the State of Pennsylvania., &c.

Δ

To the Rev'd. Dr. Smith, Philadelphia.
Boston, Dec, 11, 1780.

Rev. Sr. & Respected Brother: —

Your agreeable Answer to my last I duely rec'd, & yr. 1st inst., being Grand Lodge & Quarterly Communication, I laid it before them, but as 6 or 7 of the Lodges were not represented, it was tho't best to adjourn to the 2d. Friday in Jan. next, & the Grand Secr. was order'd to write to all the Lodges under this Jurisdiction, informing them that they should then proceed on that business in particular. Those who were present were well satisfy'd by your Answer. Bat should they adopt the propos'd Election, the Season is so far advanc'd it will be difficult to send a Committee to the Convention by the time you propos'd. However, If Bror. Palfrey should continue with you, 'tis probable he will be one, & we may likewise authorize some others out of the Massachusetts line of the Army, as it will be Expensive sending so far. However, I should be glad of your Opinion on this Head.

My Respectfull Compliments to all your G. Lodge, & Accept the same yourself from

Yr. affect. Bror.
& H Servt.
"Webb."

Δ

The following letter, written by Grand Master Joseph Webb to the Grand Lodge of Georgia,, has recently come to light through the exertions of R. W. Bro. J. E, Blacksbear, M.D,, Grand Secretary of that State. It gives the Opinion of the principal actor in the meeting of March 8, 1777, in regard to what the Brethren not only accomplished, but intended to accomplish, at that Convention: —

Boston, March 2, 17B7.

To the Right Worshipful, the Grand Master, Dep. G.M., G. Wardens, and Brethren of the Grand Lodge of Savannah in Georgia, greeting: —

Gentlemen and Brethren, — Having lately seen from the Southern papers, that you had at last, assumed to your selves the undoubted right of Forming a Grand Lodge in your State, I congratulate you on no important an acquisition, and wish you all the success imaginable; we, in this Common Wealth, assumed the same as early as 1777, since w'ch I find Pennsylvania and N. York hare adopted; but how they have proceeded at Charlestown or Virginia I have not as yet heard. I held a correspondence with those 2 Lodges, and should be glad of the same from you, and all in the Union at least. Since our adopting, we have had 25 Lodges under the jurisdiction, (tho' some of there Charters of Dispensation, in Connecticut, Vermont, N. Hampshire) until they appoint a G. Lodge of their own. Inclosed, I have taken the freedom to send you, the Regulations of our G. Lodge, w'ch you'l please to accept as a small token, of my Respect. So, wishing the Grand Lodge in particular, and those under your jurisdiction in general, all that Universal Benevolence, Brotherly Lore, and Truth; Adieu! I remain with sincerity, your unknown tho' affectionate Brother and H'bl Serv.

Jos. Webb, G. M. Com. Wealth Massachusetts.
Received 27th April.
Taken from P. G. M. Gardner's address, 1870.

LETTER FROM WEBB TO THE GRAND LODGE OF SCOTLAND

Boston, May 19, 1783.

To the Hon. & Most Worshipful the G.M. Dep. G.M. Wardens & Brethren of the G. Lodge of Scotland In G. Lodge assembled at St. Mary's Chapel in the City of Edenburg.

Gent'n.: My last letter to you was in June, 1775, informing you of the Death of G. M. Warren. Since which the unhappy calamity of War has prevented an intercourse ; but am now happy (that a general peace has taken place) in informing you of our proceedings. In 1775, the Lodges under this Jurisdiction consisted of four only. In March, 1777, I, as Depy. G. Master, summons'd the former G. Officers to attend, when they were pleas'd to appoint me to the Chair as G. M., since which we have granted fifteen Charters of erections to Lodges, as for the inclosed list. I lookt upon it as my duty to inform you of the forgoing transactions; and am with Sentiments of Respect for all the Lodges in general under your Jurisdiction, & the G. Lodge in particr.

Gent. & Brethren,
Yr. Affect. Bror. & H. Servt.
J. Webb.

A REVOLUTIONARY EXTRACT

"Our unhappy Brother, while he persists in rebellions principles, will be disagreeable to the members of each Lodge."

GRAND LODGE, QUEBEC,
1st Sept., 1777.

EXTRACT FROM DR. BARTLETT'S ORATION, 1790

The political events of the year 5775 produced important changes in the state of Masonry. These were no other than the heroic death of the Grand Master, on the celebrated heights of Charlestown, and a temporary dispersion of the Grand Officers, who, soon after the evacuation of Boston by the British Army, on the following year, influenced by a pious regard to the merits and memory of their departed patron, were induced to make search for his body, which was rudely and indiscriminately buried on the field of slaughter. They accordingly repaired to the brow of the hill, and by the direction of a person who had been on the ground about the time of his burial, a spot was found, where the earth had been recently turned up, and was distinguished by a small cluster of sprigs. Having removed the turf and opened the grave, the remains were easily ascertained (by means of an artificial tooth), and being decently raised were conveyed to the State House in this metropolis, whence on the 8th of April, 5776, after every mark of respect, and the just tribute of patriotic and affectionate applause, they were committed to the silent tomb ; "but as the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men, his fame, his glorious actions are deposited in universal remembrance", and will be transmitted to the latest ages.

How to assemble the Grand Lodge with regularity, was now made a serious question, as the commission of the Grand Master had died with him, and the deputy had no power independent of his nomination and appointment. Communications for the consideration of this subject were held at different times until the 8th March, 5777, when, experiencing the necessity of preserving an intercourse of the Brethren, and the want of proper establishment, to soften the rigours of an active and distressing war, they proceeded to the formation of an independent Grand Lodge, with "powers and prerogatives to foe exercised on principle consistent with, and subordinate to, the regulations pointed out in the constitutions of Ancient Masonry," and our late worthy and Most Worshipful Brother, Joseph Webb, Esquire, whose amiable deportment and fidelity in the duties of his important office, now claim our grateful remembrance, was duly elected Grand Master and proceeded to install his officers, and organize the Grand Lodge. The flourishing state of the Craft will he readily acknowledged when we consider that no less than fifteen Lodges were erected from this time to the Festival of St, John the Baptist, 5783, when our Most Worshipful Brother John Warren, Esquire, whose brilliant qualifications are too well known, and too universally acknowledged, to need encomiums, was placed in the chair of Solomon.

It was about this period when the Grand Lodge, "warranted in their proceedings, by the practice of Ancient Masons in all ages of the world," after the most serious deliberation, proceeded to pass resolutions explanatory of its title, authority and jurisdiction, which, with its laws and regulations, were engrafted into the Constitutions and ordered to be transmitted to Other Grand Lodges, requesting such correspondence from time to time as would promote a friendly intercourse and advance the happiness of the Craft universal.

WASHINGTON ARMY LODGE NO. 10

New York State, West Point, Thursday the 11th of November, A. M., 5779.

At a Grand Lodge, held by Authority from Joseph Webb, Esqr, Grand Master of Masons for the Stats of Massachusetts Bay, delegated to Jon. Heart, Esqr., Master of the American Union Lodge, appointing him his Proxy for certain purposes.

Present.

• Jonathan Heart, Grand Master by proxy.
• Richard Sill, D. Grand Master.
• Simeon Belding, S. G. Warden.
• Samuel Richards, J. G. Warden.
• Dadiel Lunt, Grand Treasurer.
• John Peirce, Junr., Grand Secretary.
• Thomas Binn, Grand Tyler.

After usual Business, the Deputy informed the Lodge that Br. John Paterson, Benjamin Tupper, John Greaton, Esqr., Timothy Whiting, Joseph Foot, William Burley, Billy Porter, John Jones, Henry SewalJ, John Williams, Elisha Skinner, William Storey, and Richard Welsh, all Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, resident in the State of the Massachusetts Bay in N. E., having obtained a Charter from the Grand Lodge at Boston, granting them the privileges of Masonry, &c., were now waiting, and begged permission to present themselves to be duly formed & erected into a Regular Lodge; they were accordingly admitted, and conformable to ancient Custom, formed and erected into a just and regular Lodge. &c., &c., &c., by the name of Washington's Lodge No. 10. Our faithful & worthy Brother John Paterson was also presented to the Rt. Worshipful to be their Master, and agreeable to ancient usage was duly installed & invested with the powers: & honors, &c, &c., &c., belonging to the same. The Master-elect then entered upon his Office, — appointed Br. Benj. Tupper to be his Senior Warden, & Br. John Greaton to be his Junior Warden, — presented them to the Rt., Worshipl. for his approbation: — They were accordingly approved and continued to the same, &c, &c., &c., to each the proper Charges given, &c, &c., &c., with united Congratulations & earnest Requests for Health, Peace & Safety to all entitled to the Mason's Prayer.

Lodge closed
By order Grand Master,
Richd. Sill, D. G. Master.
Attest
Jno. Pierce, Junr.,
G. Secr'y.

LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF WASHINGTON LODGE NO. 10

H. Sewall, Secretary.
West Point, Dec., 8, 1779.

A LIST OF MEMBERS INITIATED IN WASHINGTON LODGE NO. 10

Total 104.

Sam'l Finley, Sec. P. T.

Charles Levi Woodbury