HISTORICAL ADDRESS - I SAW A ...

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"I SAW A FOOTPRINT IN THE SAND"
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
By
W.'.BRO. GEORGE L. BUCK
GRAND HISTO RIAN
of the
M.'.W.'. Grand Lodge, F. & A. M. of Washington
As in other climes where different religious faiths prevail, the maimed approach the sepulchers
of the sanctified dead in the hope that the Divine spirit may relieve their sufferings; so we turn to
the past in no less reverent and hopeful mood, to derive from the intellectual and spiritual
nobility of earlier days the inspiration to guide the present and design the future.
Matthew Arnold in "The Future" paints our background. "Who can see the green earth any more
As she was by the sources of Time? Who imagines her fields as they lay In the sunshine, unworn
by the plow? Who thinks as they thought, The tribes who then roamed on her breast. Her
vigorous, primi tive sons?"
If we could have visited the thirteen Colonies in the early 1700's, we would have seen surprising
differences-how young our forefathers were, for instance; a man of forty was "old." And where
among these young men, where were the great consolidating institutions of today, the home, the
church, the school, the state? Except for the home, there was little trace of the great unifying
influences in our present social order.
Schools? Almost none existed. There were tutors for the sons of the well-to-do, but there was
lit tle edu cat ion for oth ers . A l ong , lo ng wa y fro m th e fr ee p ubl ic e duc ati on o f to day.
There were none of the professional and business associations of the present, no chambers of
commerce.
The state? People saw little of it. The only time the majority realized it even existed was in
ext rem e cr isi s, w hen , fo r ex amp le, a mi lit ary e xpe dit ion lik e Br add ock 's pa sse d th eir way.
The church? Many families could not even read the Bible, and never went to church. The
European Christian tradition was all but gone, under the exigencies of frontier life; it had been
left at home. Among those who adhered to churches there was little respect for faiths that
differed, and most of the Colonies differed. Virginia, for example, was settled by members of
the Chuich of Englan d, their Church a t home flushed with vic tory over other faiths. These
churchmen made Virginia's laws, with taxation of all for their State Church; and the parishes
rich in tobacco were the ones sought by the clergy. When Washington was born, heresy was
punishable, at the common law, by burning. One who denied the tenets of the Church of England
could hold no office, could be no guardian, not even of his own children, who were taken away
and put into "orthodox" hands. From mother England Quakers fled from persecution. But a ship
captain who brought one to Virginia went to prison. So did the Quaker, who was liable to
execution. Only in the Providence Plantations of Roger Williams and in Catholic Maryland was
there religious freedom. It was a far cry to the Statute of Religious Freedom in Virginia in 1789,-
one of the three lines on the tomb of its author, Thomas Jefferson,-and to the Bill of Rights of
the Constitution in 1791. Under such conditions of intolerance there could be no possible unity
among thirteen Colonies arising from a common religious impulse.
Yet Thomas Paine, in "Common Sense", written in 1776 to keep up the spirit of an army that had
known little but defeat, referred in striking manner to a new government that might come after
the victory he forecast. Wrote he, "We have every opportunity and every encouragement before
us, to form the noblest, purest constitution on the face of the earth. A situation, similar to the
presen t, hat h not ha ppene d since the da ys of Noah u ntil no w!"
What ground had he for such prophetic optimism? What forces were to unify these scattered
Colonies? If neither education, nor business, nor the state, nor the church provided the
fou nda tio ns o f un ity, whe re c oul d me n li ke P ain e lo ok f or t he s eed s of nat ion ali ty?
We can discern at least one unseen influence that went to the making of the nation. No man can
tell accurately the manner in which it was transmitted to the Colonies; its traces are meagre;
there is no formal record book before 1750. Men who study this influence sometimes differ in
what they find. Even the light of the present day does not reveal much that is new, and in such an
inquiry, finality can have no place. Yet, looking back today, we can see a footprint in the sand.
Let us study it a while.
Melvin Johnson is authority for the statement that Freemasonry has exercised a greater influence
upon the establishment and development of American civilization and the fundamentals of our
Government than any other single institution. This has never been realized since the days of the
first constitutional conventions, in which the landmarks of Masonry with its freedoms and its
equality of men, became the landmarks of our liberty. The
Masonic label was submerged, as the ideals of Masonry became the ideals undergirding the
supreme law of the land. ,
Whence came Freemasonry to America, and how? The tale is familiar. Masonry came overseas
from the British Isles. The Scottish Grand Lodge, first formed in 1736, proceeded to charter new
lodges in Boston and Virginia. Prior to this time there was no thought that its unchartered lodges
were i n the leas t irre gular ; but ther eaft er, na tura lly, a c hart er or w arra nt fro m thi s Grand Lodge
was necessary to establish the legality of a new lodge. A similar course was followed earlier in
Ireland, with its Grand Lodge in 1727, which chartered in New York. But the greatest influence
came from the Grand Lodge of London of 1717. This Grand Lodge published in 1723 the great
"Freemason's Book", Anderson's "Constitutions", the "book of the law." Prepared by order of the
Grand Master, it was official; and being read to new members at every initiation, it soon became
venerable as a landmark. This was the book that bound all lodges to the Grand Lodge.
Membership became fashionable; to the lodges flocked noblemen, ambassadors, merchants of
wealth, high officers of the British Army and Navy. In all parts of the world Englishmen vied in
erecting lodges, military and civilian. England's soldiers were on every continent; her fleets in
the, seven seas. Her Masonry extended from Gibraltar to Bengal, from Russia to Geneva.
And so to the Colonies came this legal and fashionable Masonry, from Scotland, Ireland and
especially England. Not with the Pilgrims or Puritans or Cavaliers, but with every favorable
wind that filled the sails of army transport or naval ship-of-the-line; every lapping wave that
lifted a merchantman onward, carried Masonry to our shores. It kept pace with the tides of
imm igr ati on. The Col oni es w ant ed t he s ame cus tom s an d in sti tut ion s as the old cou ntr y.
Colonists visiting "home" often joined there so popular and enticing a society. Civil officers of
the Crown arriving in America were found to be Mason s.
In the "pre-historic" period from the arrival in 1705 of the first Mason, Gov. Andrew Belcher of
Massachusetts, to 1730, doubtless Masons gathered and initiated members, acting by
"prescriptive right", under the "ancient privilege", according to "immemorial usage." Their
informality was the natural result of the itinerant character of operative Masons,-men who
chanced to be present. As at home, lodges met in taverns, for early Masonry was more social,
with less work, than ours. How like old London to read of Lodges meeting in the Grey Hound
Tavern, the George, the Green Dragon, the King's Arms, the Tun Tavern. Thus Masons
preserved their home recollectio ns and renewed the ir fraternal ple asures.
How did Colonial Masonry spread? Well, how does a cell divide? Whenever Masons from
various lodges found themselves in a new locality, they simply assembled. If there was a fair
chance of continuance, a lodge was formed. No one thought of this natural propagation as
irregular. A charter,
a mere parchment of authority, on which we gaze with reverence, then did not mean much.
There were also radical differences between the degree system then and now. Lodges seem to
have worked but two degrees. Probably our First and Second were condensed into their First, and
our Third into their Second. All business was done on the First, and few Masons advanced
beyond it. Only in 1749 was an initiate "passed" as a Fellowcraft.
As deputations for Provincial Grand Lodges arrived from home, these primitive lodges took out
warrants, which regularized them. The work of the informal lodges was done; they had planted
the seed. In 1721 the Grand Lodge of London adopted the regulation forbidding the formation of
a lodge without a warrant from the Grand Master. But news took a long time to travel, and it was
1738 before the regulation was firmly established everywhere. Now it was Masonry, regular and
duly constituted, which grew into a mighty influence for good in the New World.
First it was Daniel Coxe, "made" in London, now in the Colonies as justice of the Supreme Court
of New Jersey, with his deputation as Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania in 1730, for a two year period. He left no records at all. Then Henry Price in
Boston, P. G. M. of New England in 1733, and later Thomas Oxnard, in whose jurisdiction was
all North America. Forty-two lodges were warranted by Price and his successors, 1734 to 1772,
from Canada and Nova Scotia to the West Indies. There was nothing of our present doctrine of
exclusive territorial jurisdiction; that came only after the Revolution.
Read in Herve y Allen's "Be dford Villa ge" of th e com ing of a quie t man to orga nize a Blue Lod ge
in Western Pennsylvania. Into the chaos and hostility of the frontier, with him, came a sense of
order, of the superiority of the mental and moral in man over the physical-that pressing and
dangerous physical world amid which the pioneer spent all his days. Masonry was the church
spire of his spiritual building. Only the good men joined, not many, but the best-men who had a
stake in the town, who were peaceful and decent citizens, who encouraged each other to do the
right thing, and acted together to check the rough and irresponsible element. Solid, thinking men
found their hard-won property safer, and the community tended to prosper. All but the wild and
the wastrels, and Masonry was never for them. Small wonder the Mason who came to build and
install the new lodge deserved the name of "Worshipful." And it is amazing that in such a wide
territory as the Colonie s, with communica tions so rare, with ac cess to so few printed a uthorities,
American Masonry should have kept the Ancient Landmarks as faithfully as it did.
The documents of the time are scanty, but the men who joined the ranks of Masonry were
leaders; and it may be possible to trace the Masonic influe nce by a study of their careers. Of
them let us choose two. A greater contrast in inheritance, abilities and deeds could not be found.
Geo rge Was hin gto n wa s fr om t he S out h, B enj ami n Fra nkl in t he N ort h. O ne w as a cou ntr y boy,
the other always of the c ity. One a man of battle s, the other of dipl omacy and peace. T he greatest
achievements of these two were separated by thousands of miles of ocean. One was supreme in
the Colonies; he never left America except for a short, boyhood trip to the Barbadoes. The other
helped guide our destiny on two continents and in three nations, and was the greatest diplomat of
his age. Yet they were one in spirit, worked for the same great cause, and had taken the same
obl iga tio ns b efo re t he a lta r of Mas onr y.
Washington's Masonic history, as we know, is brief. On 4 November 1752 he was made an
Entered Apprentice in Fredericksburg Lodge in His Majesty's most loyal Colony of Virginia, and
raised the following August. This probably was. an informal lodge, for the first record of a
charter is 21 July 1758, from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Here he held active membership
until death. Like many Virginians, he held dual membership; he was also a member of
Alexandria Lodge No. 22, of which he was designated the first Master. He served his term and
was reelected, 1788-9: For twenty-five years his Masonic life is all but lost. We know he visited
some lodges of the line during the Revolution. He was held in such great esteem that in 1780
came a movement to create him Grand Master for the United States, but this was never pushed
to completion. In 1788, when he was inau gurated our first Presiden t in New
York, the
Grand
Master of the State, Chancellor Livingston, administered the oath on a Masonic Bible taken from
St. John's Lodge. As President, besides being Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 for two terms,
he laid the cornerstone of, the new capitol in Washington with Masonic ceremonies. When he
came to the end, it was with Masonic ceremonies, following the Episcopal service, that his ashes
were committe d. The last words spoke n over his bier were by the bret hren of his Lodge, "So
mote it be. Amen."
Brief, for a record? Yes, indeed. But let us not overlook the collateral evidence of Masonic
influence. We need no more than mention the constant use of Masonic expressions in
Washington's letters and speeches. The more important fact is the long list of great Masonic
names in all the Colonies who were his associates, the members of the Committees of Safety and
of Correspondence, the majority of the Major-Generals and of the Signers of the Declaration,
individuals like Paul Revere; well, let us stop the inexhaustible list. Where all other means of
testing failed, it was in Masonic lodges men found acquaintance that ripened into friendship and
trust, a nd fina lly into s elect ed lea dershi p, thro ughout t he len gth of th e land !
Frank lin 's Mas oni c ca ree r wa s muc h mo re i n th e pu bli c eye . Ini tia ted in 1 731 in S t. J ohn 's
Lodge, Philadelphia, which was unchartered at the time, he soon became Provincial Grand
Master in 1784; and then turned to the publishing of the first Masonic book in America, a reprint
of Ande rson's "Co nstit utio ns" of 17 23. T hat f rom it s wide sale must h ave be en a l ucra tive
undertaking. Again in 1749 he was Provincial Grand Master, and as such visited the Grand
Lodge of England' in 1760. Later in France he became Master in 1782 of the Lodge of the Nine
Sisters, honorary member in 1785 of the Lodge of Good Friends at Rouen, and Master of the
Royal Lodge of the Commanders of the Temple for the Orient of Carcasonne.
Strangely enough, a Masonic Lodge in Paris, which Washington never even visited, did most for
him and for the cause he espoused. This Lodge was not even constituted until 1776, when our
Revolution was already a year old. But the ten men who founded it were unconsciously
preparing the way for the work in France of Washington's greatest associate.
Can we picture Franklin in Paris? They exclaim over him that he is white! People thought
everyone in the Colonies was an Indian. And they call him the "Bostonian", for the ships from
Boston were known in every port. He dresses so plainly in his Quaker garb, acts so simply, looks
so cleans contrast to the nobles that surround the King, with their laces and ruffles, their powder
and perfumery. This last might puzzle us of the present day for a time, until we remember that,
after all, Franklin's period was before the days of open plumbing. France of the 1700's belonged
still to the soapless centuries. And to his great delight, this Past Provincial Grand Master finds
the King and most of the Ministers are Masons; with them he is doubly accredited, and so he
works among them from the top downward.
Then to the countryside among the people, where this printer, who always kept his feet on the
ground, finds himself at home with the small town editors. They too are Masons, taking their cue
from the Crown. Here, Franklin works from the bottom upward, and for the first time in history
America begins to get a good pre ss.
But the Masonic Lodge he joined in Paris; that was magnific ent) Never was a Lodge whose
membership was so limited. The by-laws said every candidate had to be "endowed with some
talent in art or science, and give public and satisfactory proof of such talent." Its very name was
suggestive, "Lodge of the Nine Sisters"-and who were they but the Muses? Here belonged all the
savants of the Ancien Regime, the greatest artists and scientists and statesmen. When Virginia
desired a statue of Washington done from life , they searched the world over for the greatest
living sculptor and found him among the members of this Lodge, Jean Antoine Houdon. There
entered this Lodge as a candidate, leaning on the arm of Franklin, the father of the French
Revolution himself, the great philosopher Voltaire! And there came a distinguished Masonic
visitor to its doors, a member of St. Bernard Lodge No. 122, Kilwinning, Kirkcudbright,
Scotland, one John Paul Jonesl Out of these associations came Franklin's triumph. These were
the men Franklin wanted to meet. They acclaimed him and sought to help his cause. To
influence French opinion in favor of America they drew cartoons for his press articles, coined
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

chiara76.opx.pl