The Builder Magazine

December 1922 - Volume VIII - Number 12

 

Albert Gallatin Mackey

BY BRO. ROBERT I. CLEGG.  OHIO

BORN AT Charleston, South Carolina, on March 12, 1807, this scholarly brother lived to the age of 74 years, dying at the Hygeia Hotel at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, June 21, 1881.  He was buried by his bereaved family and sorrowing brethren at Washington, D.C., on Sunday, June 26, with all the solemnity of the several ceremonies of the Masonic Rites wherein he had so long been active in leadership.

 

Graduating with honours at the Charleston Medical College in 1834, Dr. Mackey entered immediately the busy practice of his profession which chiefly occupied his time until 1854 when his literary and Masonic labours engrossed his efforts.  During the Civil War Dr. Mackey was a Union adherent, and President Johnson appointed him Collector of the Port.  Some active interest was taken by him in polities and in a contest for senatorial honours he was defeated by Senator Sawyer in the canvass. Following this experience Dr. Mackey removed to Washington, D. C., in 1870.

 

In St. Andrews lodge, No. 10, at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1841, Dr. Mackey was initiated, passed and raised. Soon thereafter he affiliated with Solomon's Lodge No. 1, of the same city, becoming Worshipful Master in December, 1842.  He became Grand Secretary that year and held this office until 1867, for many years preparing the reports of the Foreign Correspondence Committee of the Grand Lodge.  He was one of the founder members in the formation of Landmark Lodge, No. 76, in the year 1851.

 

Advanced and exalted in Capitular Freemasonry during the winter of 1841-1842, he was elected High Priest in December, 1844; was also elected Deputy Grand High Priest in 1848 and successively re-elected in that position until 1855.  In this year and every year thereafter to 1867 he was elected as Grand High Priest of his State.  Elected General Grand High Priest in 1859, he continued in that office until 1868.

 

Dubbed and created a Knight Templar in South Carolina Commandery No. 1, in 1842, he was elected Eminent Commander in 1844, later being honoured as a Past Grand Warden of the Grand Encampment of the United States.

 

Crowned a Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Thirty-third and last Degree in 1844, he was for many years Secretary-General of the Supreme Council, Southern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

 

Editorially he conducted for many years the Southern and Western Masonic Miscellany.  For two years he was editor-in-chief of the Masonic Quarterly Review.  In 1859 Dr. Mackey became editor of the Department of Masonic Miscellany in the American Freemason, and for three years, beginning in 1872, he published Mackey's National Freemason.

 

Becoming a contributor to the Voice of Masonry in 1875, Dr. Mackey continued actively his writings in that publication until 1878 when his failing health completely checked his further labourist for that periodical.

 

Prolific as an author his books included the History of Freemasonry in seven volumes, the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry in two volumes, Symbolism of Freemasonry, Masonic Jurisprudence, Manual of the Lodge, Book of the Chapter, Principles of Masonic Law, Lexicon of Freemasonry and the Mystic Tie.

 

After Dr. Mackey, located at Washington D.C., he affiliated with Lafayette Lodge, No. 19, Lafayette Chapter, No. 5, and Washington Commandery, No. 1.

 

The funeral services in Washington on Sunday, June 26, 1881, were begun at All Souls Church, Unitarian, of which Dr. Mackey was a member, and were conducted by the pastor.  Then followed the ceremonies of a Lodge of Sorrow, Rose Croix Chapter, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Masonic Jurisdiction, and were in charge of the venerable General Albert Pike and his associate officers.

 

The long white flowing hair of the patriarchal Sovereign Grand Commander endowed him with a crowned glory as he from the pulpit uttered the solemn words over the dead body of his old friend.  Their intimate fraternal relations quickened in the speaker a multitude of memories and he was deeply affected.  Brother Pike's stern lips trembled with emotion many times, especially when he descended from the pulpit, took the flaming torch in his hand, waved it, and repeatedly summoned with his loud resounding words "Brother, we mourn for thee; we call upon thee to answer us.  Dost thou hear the call?"

 

Just as Brother Pike said these words, a ray of sunshine from the window at the west streamed in splendour across the church.  His hoary head was thereby aflame with a glowing halo of light like unto the vision of some sturdy stately saint of old.  The tang of sorrow in his tones as he continued sadly with the words of the ritual - "Our Brother answers not our call" - heightened with the tinge of assurance the striking illusion.

 

The remains were interred in Glenwood Cemetery with the rites of the Symbolic Lodge in charge of Most Worshipful Noble D. Larner, Grand Master of the District of Columbia.

 

Dr. Mackey as a lecturer had nationally a deservedly high reputation.  He was always most interesting and instructive.  Possessing a very pleasing address, he could deeply impress the favourable attention he invariably awakened in an audience.  As an after-dinner speaker he was declared to be second to none in the United States, his keen wit, lively repartee, and remarkable anecdotal powers causing his society to be sought and solicited on every possible occasion.

 

Of stalwart and commanding presence and richly cultured discourse Dr. Mackey was in close personal charm at once gentle and dignified, acute in his warm practical sympathies for all suffering humanity, and deeply dowered with a strong faculty for friendship firm as the hills everlasting.

 

The intense esteem his friends held of Dr. Mackey is well shown by the official letter sent out at his death by the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.  General Albert Pike wrote this appreciative message:

 

"Sickness and old age have brought the ending of his days to the Dean of the Supreme Council, its Secretary-General, Brother Albert Gallatin Mackey.  Born at Charleston, in South Carolina, on the 12th of March, 1807, made a Mason there, it is said, in the year 1841; he became a member of the Supreme Council and Secretary General in 1844, and continued to be both until his death at Fortress Monroe, in Virginia, on the 20th of June, 1881.

 

"Brother Mackey had lived all his life among gentlemen, and had the manners and habits of a gentleman.  Tall, erect, of spare but vigorous frame, his somewhat harsh but striking features were replete with intelligence and amiability; he conversed well, and was liked as a genial and companionable man, of a cheerful, tolerant and kindly nature, who, if he had quarrels with individuals, had none with the world.  Idolized by his wife and children, he loved them devotedly, and suffered intensely when, one after another, his two intelligent and amiable daughters died.  He had many friends, and made enemies, as men of strong will and positive convictions will always surely do.  He plotted no harm against any one, and sought no revenge, even when he did not forgive, not being of a forgiving race for he was a McGregor, having kinship with Rob Roy.

 

"Masonry will not soon lose as great a man, and she may well put dust upon her head and wear sackcloth in her lodges, where, in Masonry, his heart always was.

 

"Of course, as he grew old, he had his crosses and troubles, and fortune was not kind to him.  Adversity may be profitable; but the world goes too hardly with too many of us; and Sallust truly says:

 

"'In grief and sorrows, death is a rest from troubles and not a misfortune.'

 

"A great man hath fallen in Israel; and, in the words of Pushmataha, the Chahta Chief, it is like the falling of a huge oak in the woods.  The fall will be heard afar off, and the sound be re-echoed from many and far-off lands.

 

"Upon the reading of this letter in the Bodies of our Obedience, the altars and working tools will be draped in black and the brethren will wear the proper badge of mourning during the space of sixty days.  And may our Father which is in Heaven have you always in his holy keeping."

 

At a Special Communication of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, the following Memorial was presented by a Committee headed by Brother Charles F. Stansbury:

 

"Our illustrious Brother, Albert Gallatin Mackey, is no more! He died at Fortress Monroe, Va., on the 20th day of June, 1881, at the venerable age of 74, and was buried at Washington on Sunday, June 26th, 1881, with the highest honours of the Craft, all Rites and Orders of Masonry uniting in the last sad services over his remains.

 

"The announcement of his death has carried a genuine sentiment of sorrow wherever Freemasonry is known. His ripe scholarship, his profound knowledge of Masonic law and usage, his broad views of Masonic philosophy, his ceaseless and invaluable literary labourist in the service of the Order, his noble ideal of its character and mission, as well as his genial personal qualities and his lofty character, had united to make him personally known and widely respected and beloved by the Masonic world.

 

"While this Grand Lodge shares in the common sorrow of the Craft everywhere at this irreparable loss, she can properly lay claim to a more intimate and peculiar sense of bereavement, inasmuch as our illustrious brother had been for many years an active member of this body, Chairman of the Committee on Jurisprudence, and an advisor ever ready to assist our deliberations with his knowledge and counsel.

 

"In testimony of our affectionate respect for his memory the Grand Lodge jewels, and insignia will be appropriately draped, and its members wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.  A memorial page of our proceedings will also be dedicated to the honour of his name.

 

"We extend to his family [a widow and three sons survived Dr. Mackey] the assurance of our sincere and respectful sympathy, and direct that an attested copy of this minute be transmitted to them."

 

----o----

 

TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF AMERICAN MASONIC FEDERATION LEADERS

 

BY BRO. CHARLES C. HUNT, DEPUTY GRAND SECRETARY, IOWA

 

The present article concludes Brother Hunt's account of the false claims, the indictment, trial and conviction of The American Masonic Federation, with headquarters at Salt Lake City, of which Mathew McBlain Thomson was president. Brother Hunt's four articles, the first of which appeared in THE BUILDER for September, comprise a complete record of all the important points in the case.

 

I HAVE already described the false claims made by the American Masonic Federation to Scottish Rite and other Masonic prerogatives in preceding accounts of the trial and conviction of Mathew McBlain Thomson, president of that organization of spurious "Masonry." The reader is requested to consult THE BUILDER for September, October, and November.  In the present instance I shall give an account of the trial held at Salt Lake City, Utah, early in May of this year.

 

Three distinguished Scotch Masons agreed to accept a subpoena and testify for the Government: they were Brothers David Reid, Joseph Inglis, and John A. Forrest.  David Reid is Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.  Joseph Inglis is Provincial Grand Master of Kincardineshire; also Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge; Past Master of both the Rose Croix Chapter and Consistory; and Past Grand Prior of the Knights Templar, and a Thirty-Second degree Mason.  John A. Forrest is Grand Secretary of the Royal Order of Scotland; Past "Provincial Grand Master of Midlothian; Past Master of his Rose Croix Chapter and Consistory, and a Thirty-Second degree Mason.

 

These brothers testified that Mother Kilwinning Lodge never granted a charter to work any except the Craft degrees, and that none of the so-called higher degrees originated in Scotland.  David Reid testified that he was a member of Mother Kilwinning Lodge, and that she had never granted to any of her daughter lodges power to charter other lodges, and in fact Kilwinning was the only Scotch lodge that ever had chartering power.  Brothers Inglis and Reid both testified that Mother Kilwinning Lodge kept a copy of every charter issued by her and that she had never granted one to a lodge in France, as Thomson claimed she had done.

 

Thomson was asked to show "a history, any place" which supplies the link of granting a charter from Mother Kilwinning Lodge to the Mother Lodge of St. John, of Marseilles, France, but he could not do so.

 

Brothers Reid and Inglis also testified that the Grand Council of Rites was a very small body with no reputation, Masonically, in Scotland.  Brother Inglis first heard of it in 1880 and Brother Reid in 1911.  In 1912 it was practically declared clandestine by the Grand lodge of Scotland, and her members forbidden to affiliate with it.  Thereupon, Peter Spence, who had signed Thomson's Patent, withdrew from it.

 

In 1914 Thomson and Robert Jamieson were expelled from Masonry by the Grand Lodge of Scotland on the charge of conferring clandestine Masonic degrees.

 

On cross-examination Thomson was asked to name a Scotch history that anywhere mentioned the Grand Council of Rites, and he could not do so.  He was also compelled to acknowledge that the leading Scotch historian, D. Murray Lyon, did not mention this so-called Grand Council.

 

Thomson claimed to have been made a Mason in a lodge which had been chartered by Melrese St. Johns Lodge, but David Reid testified that this lodge never chartered daughter lodges, and that the lodge from which Thomson claimed a charter, if it ever existed, was clandestine; that Thomson did not become a Mason until after he was healed in 1889, in St. James Lodge No. 125.

 

In this connection the following extracts from the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland are interesting:

 

From Proceedings of meeting of April 29, 1880:

 

"Memorial anent the clandestine introduction of Mathew Thomson into Lodge operative, Ayr, No. 138, and the issuing of a diploma in his favour.

 

"The Committee having considered the whole case, Find that Mathew Thomson is not a Freemason, and that he could not therefore be affiliated to the Lodge Operative, Ayr: Find that certain of the Office-Bearers of that lodge knew that Mr. Thomson was not a member of the Order when they pretended to affiliate him: Find that the return made by the lodge to Grand Lodge under date June 12, 1876, certifying that Mr. Thomson was Entered, Passed and Raised in that lodge, was false and fraudulent: Find that lodge has produced no regular books, and that such as have been produced are in many places written in pencil and grossly irregular, and contain no evidence of Mr. Thomson's pretended affiliation: Therefore recommend Grand Lodge to instruct the name of the said Mathew Thomson to be deleted from the Register of Intrants, and ordain him to deliver up the Diploma of Membership issued on 12th June 1876; and further recommend that Grand Lodge suspend the Lodge Operative, Ayr, No. 138, and debar it from meeting for Masonic purposes until it is the pleasure of the Grand Lodge to withdraw its suspension.  Further, instruct the Grand Secretary to call for delivery of the charter and minute and other books of the lodge, if any such exist, and retain the same in his possession."

 

 

From Proceedings of Meeting of June 24, 1880:

 

"Grand Secretary produced the diploma which had been issued to Mr. Mathew Thomson, under a false return in name of the Lodge Operative, Ayr, No. 138, in June 1876, and tabled a letter from the Lodge St. James, Ayr, No. 125, anent the admission of the said Mathew Thomson by affiliation or otherwise, as Grand Committee may direct.  Remitted to the Petitions and Complaints Committee to consider and report."

 

From Proceedings of Meeting of July 29, 1880:

 

"On the recommendation of the Sub-Committee on Petitions and Complaints, Grand Secretary was instructed to direct the Lodge St. James, Newton-on-Ayr, No. 125, as to the admission of Mr. Mathew Thomson referred to in the minute of Grand Committee of date 24th June last, - and on being satisfied that the conditions on which the applicant's admission is authorized have been complied with, to issue a new diploma to the said Mathew Thomson."

 

Thus it is seen that this is not the first time that Thomson has been concerned with clandestine Masonry.

 

In March 1911 Thomson published the following account of a visit paid by him to David Reid, Grand Secretary of Scotland:

 

"From London we went to Edinburgh, where, we visited the Grand Secretary in the temporary offices of the Grand Lodge in Charlotte Square, the Grand Lodge Hall being closed for repairs and enlargement.  We sent in our card as President of the A.M.F. and were received as such and had a long and pleasant talk with him, in the course of which we informed him of conditions here, conditions which made necessary the formation of the A.M.F., explained to him the source from which we derived our authority, showed him our charters and explained to him our aims and objects; showed him from our publications that we made no claim whatever to have authority from or connection with the Grand Lodge of Scotland; that we did claim Scottish ancestry, but from a source more ancient than the Grand Lodge, namely from the Mother Lodge Kilwinning, through her son, the Chevalier Ramsay, through whom the degrees went to the Scottish Mother Lodge of Marseilles, from thence through the Lodge Polar Star, established in New Orleans in 1794, to the Supreme Council of Louisiana; from it to the Grand Lodge Inter-Montana, which is the foundation of the A.M.F.

 

"Brother Reid informed us (as we had been informed before) that the only object that the Grand Lodge of Scotland had in the matter was representation made to her that an officer of Grand Lodge (Brother Peter Spence) was granting Blue Lodge charters to parties in America; and that the A.M.F. claimed to work by authority from the Grand Lodge of Scotland; the first charge had been disproved by Brother Spence, and what I said now had disposed of the latter."

 

SCORED AS A FALSEHOOD

 

Brother Reid testified that the only true part of this account was the fact of the call.  The interview was very short, about two minutes only.  He had remained standing throughout.  The only other person present was Brother Joseph Inglis.  Thomson had not shown any charters or made any explanation of his aims or objects, neither had he shown any publications or made any explanations of his claims.  Brother Inglis testified that the conversation was very formal; that Mr. Reid never sat down and practically bowed him out.  He was asked if the meeting was a courteous or discourteous one.  He replied: "lt was cold, but courteous."

 

On cross-examination Thomson was asked in regard to this interview, and admitted that the conversation lasted about ten minutes, that he had shown no charters, but had shown his authority, by handing Mr. Reid a copy of his magazine, which explained his authority, but he could not tell which copy it was or what article he referred to as giving the authority.  On being recalled, Brothers Reid and Inglis testified that Thomson had left no magazine or documents of any kind whatever.

 

Bergers, one of the defendants, testified that in 1913 he went to Europe to investigate for himself to find out what he could about the organization, and how it was regarded there.  He visited the Grand Council of Rites, the meeting of which was postponed one month so that he could be there.  At this meeting there were twenty-eight persons present, and the meeting lasted about three or four hours in the afternoon.

 

He went to Ayr and visited St. James Lodge there.  The members of the lodge had not been informed of his coming but the Master called a meeting after his arrival. In answer to the question: "How did he call the members together?" Bergera replied:

 

"They were called by telephone, where I saw several other brothers, and they gave me an introduction.  They told me it was the Master of St. James 125, and they said - I said, I desire to visit the lodge, and they said 'very well' they were going to have their regular meeting that night and also they were working the Craft degrees on one of the candidates."

 

However, the meeting was held in the afternoon, instead of at night, to accommodate some visitors who wished to return home that night.

 

Bergera was in Scotland ten days and visited two lodges. The second lodge was the lodge in Kilmarnock, which met in a building with the name "Kilmarnock Lodge" over the door. Brothers Reid and Inglis testified that there were four lodges in Kilmarnock, but none of them with that name; that there was no building there with the name  "Kilmarnock Lodge" above the door, and that the building in which the lodges met had simply the inscription "Masonic Hall."

 

Bergera testified that he had not visited, nor attempted to visit, the Grand Lodge of Scotland. He spent five days in London, and visited one lodge there, but he did not visit nor attempt to visit the Grand Lodge of England. He spent nine or ten days in Paris and visited one lodge, but had not visited nor attempted to visit the Grand Orient or Grand Lodge of France. Thus, although he testified that his sole purpose in going to Europe was to investigate the standing of his organization, and he spent several days in each place, he visited only two lodges in Scotland, one in London and one in Paris, and did not attempt to go anywhere where authoritative information could be had.

 

Thomson gave considerable space in his magazine to the Proceedings of the National Masonic Congress, in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1920, supposed to be composed of the representatives of the Masonic powers of the world, and of which he was elected President. On cross-examination he could name but eight people who were present at that Congress, and Joseph Inglis testified that none of the powers there represented was considered regular by the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

 

THOMSON MADE A FORTUNE

 

Mention has been made that considerable money was collected by this organization, and that Thomson could not, or would not, tell what had become of it. According to the testimony, the following fees were charged:

 

Grand Lodge Charter

 Election ----------------- $50.00

 Confirmation -------------  25.00

Lodge Charter -------------  25.00

Master Mason's Diploma ----   5.00

Mark Master's Diploma -----   4.00

Affiliation Diploma -------   2.50

Duplicate Diploma ---------   2.00

Past Master's Diploma -----   2.50

Dispensations -------------   5.00

Catechisms, each degree ---    .15

 

Minimum fee for Craft Degrees, $35.00; of which the lodge received $5.00.

Minimum fee for higher degrees, Fourth to Thirty-Third, $135.00, of which $25.00 was for paraphernalia.

 

The thirty-three degrees were sometimes given in an hour's time; frequently all of them were conferred in one evening.

 

There were many other facts brought out in the trial but I have here mentioned only the leading ones.  From this it will be seen that the Government clearly proved that Thomson obtained his members by misrepresenting the facts, both as to his authority and regularity, also as to the recognition that his members would receive from Masons abroad, and that in the promotion of his scheme the United States mails were used.

 

The jury brought in a verdict of guilty against each of the defendants on every count charged in the indictment.  In this connection it is well to remember that neither the Judge nor any member of the jury were members of the Masonic fraternity. The regular Judge of the Utah District of the United States District Court is a Mason; to avoid any charge of prejudice an outside judge, Judge Wade of Iowa, was assigned to try the case.  In giving his instructions to the jury, among other things, he said:

 

"Therefore, gentlemen, as I said in the beginning, this involves no case here before this jury as to which of the branches of the Masonic order is legitimate, except in so far as that question inheres in the simple questions in this case, which is not a question of determining which of these great branches, or minor branches, is right or wrong, but the question here is, did these men on trial conspire to commit a fraud on their neighbours or on their fellow men? That I will go into more fully.  Keep that in mind.

 

"It is a historic matter of common knowledge that there is an organization known as Free Masons or Free and Accepted Masons, or Masons, known for many generations. Whether that organization is right or wrong, whether it had conducted its business in the right way, whether its spirit is right or wrong, speaking generally, we have nothing to do with it. . . ."

 

"Sometime back, the people of this country, acting through their agents, enacted a statute through Congress which said that a man who should conceive and organize a conspiracy with others to defraud somebody, and then use the mails to carry out that scheme, that man should be punished.  Now that is all the Grand Jury in this Court did when last year it brought in this indictment.  And bear in mind, gentlemen, as I tried to impress upon you before, that the action of the Grand Jury must not in any manner enter into your consideration in determining the question of guilt. . . ."

 

"So this indictment was brought in charging these three defendants with having done three specific things; combined, organized or maintained a conspiracy, with the intent to defraud, and used the mails for carrying out that fraud.  That is all.  The Grand Jury didn't indict anybody here for competing with some other organization of Masonry, had nothing to do with those organizations, whatsoever, neither do we.

 

"They charged that they conceived a plan to defraud and used the mails to carry it out, and that they did that by conspiring together, making an arrangement to carry it out."

 

A CASE OF FRAUD

 

He then quoted from the indictment, and said:

 

"You will observe now from this recital, or these recitals, that this is not a mere case of a dispute of title. That is involved in it, but that is not all that is involved in it. It is not a mere case of the question as to whether or not they got power under this endorsement on this charter from Louisiana Council.  Nor is it solely the question as to the standing or authority of the Council of Rites of Scotland.  These questions are involved, but there are many other questions involved.

 

"Of course now, any change in this indictment, which is not proven by the evidence must not be considered.  I am reading it to try to get to your minds what we are trying to settle in this matter.  The Government charges in this indictment that these things were in the minds and hearts of these people; that they were false, all of them were false, though of course it is not essential for the Government to prove that all of them were false in order to convict; it is only necessary that they shall prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the fraud which they claim they had in mind consisted of some one or more of the things which they had conceived, sufficient to constitute a fraud.

 

"To illustrate, if somebody sold you a piece of land - or to make it more practical, if someone sold you a certain horse, representing to you that he was an expert in the genealogy of this horse and that his breeding was of a certain strain on back two or three generations, which made it a valuable horse, and he also represented to you that the horse had a record upon a lawful track of 2:05 as a trotter, and the man who was buying him relied upon these statements, and had no opportunity of testing them out to see whether they were true, and later he found that he did have this family tree which was valuable, but he also found out that he never made that record at all, that was a lie, that would be a fraud by which he induced him to part with his money, although only the question of his record was involved in the fraud, the other representation being true.

 

"So that, even if it were established in a given case where the question of the family tree, so to speak, of some society, the Odd Fellows, Masons, Knights of Columbus, Elks, whatever it might be, was a certain thing, if that was the only thing alleged, and it was not proven that was false, of course there would be no fraud, but if in connection with that representation were made other representations with relation to the quality of the organization, or character of the organization, the benefits of the organization, the thing the man was getting for his money, aside from the question of the family tree; if false representations were made which induced him to part with his money, that is to say, representations which were wilfully false, then of course there would be fraud and the plan to represent these things which were wilfully and intentionally false, would constitute the ground for a conviction, if they were within the things charged in the indictment . . . . "

 

"A false representation may be by word of mouth, it may be by acts, it may be silence; it may be by all combined.  We consider what effect the particular thing, the particular act would naturally have on the mind of the other fellow.  To determine what the natural effect would be upon the mind of the other fellow we have got to sort of look at it from the other fellow's standpoint, and consider the question with relation, for instance, to membership in this organization.  What did the other fellow want the membership for? What did he think he was getting? What did he in fact get? Did he get what he bought? If not, was his failure to get what he bought and paid for the result of misrepresentations either by word or conduct or act, in writing or orally, by the defendants or any of them or any of their authorized agents, authorized to do the things that they did? That is this case.

 

"As I recall there was evidence here of representation made to parties, witnesses upon the stand here, that membership in these organizations opened the doors of the lodge rooms of Europe, and all countries, generally speaking, or words to that effect, to the member that was sought to join.  I am not stating words exactly, and I am only using this as illustrating the principles involved. You are the final judges of what the acts are.  But if a man were induced to enter an organization of any kind upon a representation that membership in that organization would grant him affiliation and brotherhood relations with some great established, organized, permanent organization in South America or Canada or any other country, if that were not true, and the man that made the representation knew it was not true, and he made the representation with the intention of getting his money, that would be a fraud, even though the organization had the right genealogical tree.

 

"So, gentlemen, we have an organization here now, composed of a number of individuals with organizers employed and sent out, and memberships taken and memberships paid for.  In any big organization you will find some organizer or some agent who at times will not do the right thing.  But a wrongful act upon the part of an agent or organizer, except insofar as the same was induced or authorized or approved by the defendants in this particular case - if it was outside of his regular and authorized work, of course it would not be binding upon these defendants, - but insofar as you can find from the evidence the scope and power given by these defendants knowingly and intentionally to organizers, of course the acts of such organizers would be the same as the acts of the defendants.

 

"So, gentlemen, you see it is a question as to whether or not the Government has proven - they have got to prove that these things were false, the defendants do not have to prove that they are true, the burden is on the Government all the way through.  Has the Government proven any of these charges of intended misrepresentation or fraud which they set out in this indictment? If so, was that of such a nature or character that it would have carried out - constituted a fraud on the person who was induced to join as a member? Now, what the evidence is and what these specific things are, you are to determine.

 

"I have repeatedly said that a fraud is not a mistake.  The law is practical common sense.  No man was ever convicted of a fraud when he was acting in good faith.  A man might sue to recover money or land on the ground of mutual mistake but as to a criminal offense, a man to be convicted of a fraud must have knowledge, must have the wrongful intent and purpose."

 

Thomson and his partners in crime were found guilty.  In passing sentence Judge Wade scored them after the following manner:

 

"Nobody can hear this evidence in this case without being convinced, absolutely convinced, that this thing has been a fraudulent scheme from the beginning.  I can see where an ignorant person might find some possible excuse for the methods employed in this case.  For intelligent people and experienced people to try to convince the Court that this organization and this plan and this work that had been going on is on the square - it can't be done.

 

"Of course now we are living in a time when some of the brightest minds in the country are devoting themselves to securing money by short cuts, by taking advantage of the gullible for their enterprises. In fact that is one of the dominant crimes of the present time. I know of one state in which in the last two years, within two, there has been sold over twenty-nine million dollars worth of stock in packing houses which were never built, and practically every dollar of the money lost, just by shrewd practices, by trying to get the other fellow's money in some way without working for it.

 

AMERICAN MASONIC FEDERATION A FRAUD

 

"Now, of course, after all that was stated in this case from the beginning and all through I confess that I was astounded when I heard Mr. Thomson testify that there was no pretence, that there was no record anywhere of a charter to Marseilles Lodge, on the existence of which lay the right and practically the foundation of all claims of legitimacy on that branch of the case and to have him admit that such a lodge existed only in tradition (I realize that some things can be proven by tradition, but tradition cannot exist with one man, tradition must have, before it has any force as proof - such general recognition among men in that particular occupation or relation that it forces itself upon the mind as a truth the record of which has been lost) and it was conceded on the witness stand that so far as this particular thing was concerned there was no record anywhere and no one who was skilled in the history of Masonry had ever met any such a tradition so far as the record in this case is concerned, in any history or book or pamphlet or anything else outside of this organization.

 

"So was I surprised when I found that the Council of Rites of Scotland which had been one of the chief points urged by these gentlemen, had no record behind it but a few years and it was represented - entirely aside from the question of the origin and history of this organization and those that preceded it - it was represented time and time again without dispute to these poor devils that were led largely by these attractions to an ancient organization and to the rites and rituals of the organization, it was represented to them specifically and it has not been denied that by virtue of their association with this organization the doors of Masonry the world over were open to them outside of the United States, which is of course an absurd claim under the evidence in this case.

 

"Then the trip that Bergera made to Europe on the investigation, in view of what transpired according to his own testimony, has all the appearance of being a scheme or plan that he might come back here and state to those whose membership was sought his capacity to enter the lodges of Europe to support their claim, that the members immediately on getting across the water would have the doors wide open to them.

 

"And then after making a trip and going to one or two lodges or three under peculiar circumstances, in fact never going to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and that was included in the representation made, that is to say, all Europe was included, never going to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, the Grand Lodge of England and never going to the Grand Lodge of France, whatever it is called, and coming back here no doubt to back up the representation that membership in this organization was opening the doors of all Masonic Orders, all of the regular Masonic Orders in Europe - it was a pretence, gentlemen, you can't come to any other conclusion. If Bergera went over there for the purpose of confirming what these organizers were representing and which is not denied here, he certainly would have gone to the Grand Lodge of Scotland or England or France or Germany or somewhere to find out whether the doors would be open to these fellows that were joining their ranks.

 

"But it is not necessary to recite the details.  One cannot listen to this evidence without being forced to the conclusion that so far as the representation as to the standing and the brotherhood and the association of people with which they would become immediately affiliated was concerned, that aside entirely from the genealogy of the lodge, nobody can claim that there was any truth in what was said except insofar as they had access to certain lodges with which Mr. Thomson through his relation had some affiliation.

 

"The spectacle of Mr. Thomson going to Switzerland to this great conference, and parading afterwards through the journal a conference where eight men from the entire world were present - that in itself is sufficient to condemn the whole thing and the manner in which this business had been done is sufficient in itself.  No pretence here on the part of the defendants that this money was kept in any businesslike way for the benefit of this organization.  What became of it I don't know but there was more than a million dollars taken in here, of that there can be no question in view of the prices charged for little printed sheets of paper in the form of diplomas and certificates and things of that kind, entirely aside from the membership fee.  What became of that money is not indicated here.  The head of this organization testified before the Court that he didn't know and in fact had some difficulty in recalling whether there was ever an account of the organization in a bank anywhere in the world.

 

"As far as the Secretary is concerned, there is no suggestion of a report indicating that this business was conducted as an honest organization, not a word.

 

"So that, gentlemen, there is only one thing for the Court to do. If it were not for the age of Mr. Thomson at this time there would be a long prison sentence, because I think he is the chief actor. I think he is more responsible than anyone else.  As far as Bergera is concerned, of course, I cannot understand at all how a man would presume to parade himself as the Treasurer-General of the organization of ten thousand members which had received from them in the neighbourhood of a million or more dollars and never handle a cent of the money.  I cannot understand it at all, that is all, that any honest man would allow his name to be used in that connection under such condition and the concealment of the methods of doing business and where this money went even up to the present time.  I cannot comprehend the whole thing.

 

"There is only one thing that saves these men a long prison term. I don't feel justified in sending any of these men to prison any longer than I do Mr. Thomson.  As I say, when it comes to this point in a trial of the case, the charity of the law asserts itself.  Old age and sickness, of course, have a strong appeal to the Court, when it comes to the question of a prison term and I think that the District Attorney has been very generous in his suggestion.  This Court hasn't really any power to impose a penalty here which would be adequate punishment for this thing that has been going on when we stop to think of the honest fellows who parted with their fifty or seventy-five or a hundred and fifty dollars for membership in this organization.  So far as the evidence in this case is concerned, not one dollar of it was ever used for any of the business of the society except to carry on this work of getting members.  Not a word of charity or charitable fund or anything of that kind before this Court.

 

"I am very much inclined to be lenient in all things.  I am inclined to look in a charitable way upon the mistakes of men, but this thing has in it that deliberateness and continuous conduct which sort of overcomes my tendency.

 

"Stand up, gentlemen.

 

"The judgment of this Court is that each one of you serve a period of two years in Fort Leavenworth Prison and each one of you pay a fine of five thousand dollars and costs."

 

THE POINT OF THE TRIAL

 

Before this case went to trial it was not known just what matters the Court would require the Government to prove.  Thomson's claim as to the regularity of the established Masonic institutions before mentioned in the first part of this paper, the Government was prepared to disprove, had the Court so ruled.  However, the ruling of the Court was that the regularity of the established Masonic lodges did not enter into this case, and the following named witnesses who had been summoned by the Government were not called upon to testify, although they were instructed to be on hand in case they were needed, and especially to listen to the testimony offered by the defendants' witnesses: Frederick W. Hamilton, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts; William L. Boyden, Librarian of the Supreme Council, Washington, D.C.; Charles A. Conover, General Grand Secretary, General Grand Chapter, R.A.M. of the United States; Robert A. Shirrefs, Grand Secretary General, Northern Supreme Council; Ossian Lang, Historian, Grand Lodge of New York, and Charles C. Hunt, Deputy Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Iowa.

 

----o----

 

KIT CARSON - A MASON OF THE FRONTIER

 

BY BRO. F.T. CHEETHAM, NEW MEXICO

 

It has often been observed that 1809 was, of all the years of its century, most prodigal in giving to the world great men, for it was during that twelve-month that Lincoln, Darwin, Gladstone, Tennyson, Holmes, Poe, Edward Fitzgerald, etc., etc, were born.  After reading the following appreciations of Kit Carson ye editor believes that many readers will feel inclined to add to the list of illustrious men born in 1809 that of this pioneer who, despite the crudity of his environment and the roughness of his work, was a gentleman and a hero.  It is high time that Kit Carson was rescued from dime novels and schoolboy romances and delivered back to serious history and biography where mature men may learn what a towering man he was.  Brother Cheetham made his researches expressly at the request of THE BUILDER and thereby became deserving of our heartiest thanks, which are hereby rendered in full measure.

 

 

WHEN THE WRITER first set out to write a sketch of this worthy brother he was confronted by a dearth of reliable information as to Kit Carson's Masonic record that rendered the task discouraging.  When the question was asked of those few remaining brothers in the Craft who knew him they would invariably shrug their shoulders after the custom of the country and say, "I don't know." It was not until after a trip was made by the writer to Santa Fe and an extended search was made among the records of the old Montezuma Lodge which worked under a Missouri charter, now in the archives of Montezuma Lodge No. 1 of New Mexico, that any definite information was obtained as to the time and place of the initiation, passing, and raising of the late Brother Carson.  It is true that the Grand Lodge of New Mexico had erected a stone, the third of such memorials, over his grave in Taos, also an iron fence around the grave; and it was generally known and asserted that he was in fact a Freemason, but that does not satisfy the student of history.

 

Brother Carson was born in Madison County, Kentucky, December 24th, 1809.  While very young he migrated with his parents to Howard County, Missouri, where he obtained what little education he ever received, except in the school of the great out-of-doors.  When but sixteen he joined a party en route for Santa Fe and soon after his arrival at that place he proceeded to Fernando de Taos, or Taos as it is called for short, which thereafter became "home" to him during the remainder of his days.

 

From that time on he led a very active life, having been consecutively engaged in the occupations of trapper, hunter, trader, scout, guide, soldier and Indian agent.  The range of his activities extended from Chihuahua on the south to the Canadian frontier on the north; from the city of Washington, whither he went a number of times on official business, on the east, to the limpid waters of the Pacific, on the west.  In fact we have obtained a photograph of him, taken in Boston.  He made at least five trips, possibly seven, to California and when we consider that all his travels west of Westport were accomplished on horseback, we must admit that his was a life of activity. He was chief scout and guide of the first three of the Fremont expeditions all of which were successful; and while he did not accompany the General on the fourth ill-fated expedition, yet it fell his lot to shelter that great man from the storm.  The General in writing home to his wife about the disastrous expedition, from Taos, on January 27, 1849, said in part:-

 

"I write you from the house of our good friend Carson.  This morning a cup of chocolate was brought me, while yet in bed.  To an overworn, overworked, much fatigued and starving traveller, these little luxuries of the world offer an interest which in your comfortable home it is not possible for you to conceive.  While in the enjoyment of this luxury, then, I pleased myself in imagining how gratified you would be in picturing me here in Kit's care, whom you will fancy constantly occupied and constantly uneasy in endeavouring to make me comfortable.  How little could you have dreamed of this while he was enjoying the pleasant hospitality of your father's house! The furthest thing then from your mind was that he would ever repay me here." (1)

 

There can be no doubt that Brother Carson was prepared to become a Mason in his heart for some time before he presented himself for initiation.  His early associations with Governor Bent, Colonel St. Vrain, both of whom were Masons, and with General Fremont, who no doubt was also a member, predisposed him to a favourable opinion of the Fraternity.

 

We know that while he was with Fremont in California a movement headed by Eugerilo Macnamara, a Catholic priest, was set on foot to drive out or exterminate all Americans, the objects thereof being stated in a memorial addressed to the Mexican President, as follows:

 

"I propose, with the aid and approbation of your excellency, to place in Upper California a colony of Irish Catholics.  I have a triple object in making this proposition.  I wish, in the first place, to advance the cause of Catholicism. In the second, to contribute to the happiness of my countrymen.  Thirdly, I desire to put an obstacle in the way of further usurpations on the part of an irreligious and anti-Catholic nation." (2)

 

Carson knew of the prompt action of General Fremont in saving the American inhabitants of Upper or Northern California from massacre by prosecuting what was known locally as the "Bear Flag War"; and that by his promptness, energy and skill he reduced the northern half of the Territory, in all of which Carson was a participant.  He knew that when Admiral Sir George Seymore, with the priest Macnamara on board, arrived at Monterey to raise the British flag, the Stars and Stripes were already floating over the city, nailed to the masthead and there to stay.

 

As a testimonial to Kit's fame at that time, we have Lieutenant Walpole, an officer in the British Admiral's fleet, who in writing home to London said in part, in describing Fremont's army:

 

"He has one or two with him who enjoy a high reputation in the prairies.  Kit Carson is as well known there as a duke is in Europe."

 

When Brother Carson returned to New Mexico, he found that his brother-in-law, Charles Bent, who was the first American Civil Governor of New Mexico and a Freemason, together with others of his closest and most intimate friends, had been assassinated in a most cruel and inhuman manner; and that religious fanaticism had sought to accomplish by the firebrand and dagger what the soldier had not dared to attempt with the sword.

 

And so in our pilgrimage to Santa Fe we learned that Christopher Carson was duly initiated an Entered Apprentice March 29, 1854, was passed June 17 and raised December 26 of the same year.  He was living at the time at Rayado in what is now Colfax county. To attend lodge he was obliged to travel approximately 150 miles and in that day he probably made the trip on horseback.  But to a man who had time and again shown himself ever ready and willing to go on foot and out of his way to relieve any person in distress that was nothing.

 

That Brother Carson practised true Masonic charity is evidenced by the following story, which to my knowledge has never been published and which was obtained by the writer from his niece, who, after the assassination of her father, Governor Bent, was raised by Carson, and living in the household at the time of its happening.  It is in substance as follows:

 

Carson had learned that the Comanches had a slave, a white boy about twelve years of age.  He there-upon fitted out a pack outfit or train, hired a couple of natives and furnished them with trinkets and other articles to trade and barter with the Indians, with whom they were on friendly terms at the time.  They went out and located the Comanches and purchased the boy and brought him back.  When he was brought in he was hardly distinguishable from an Indian. Carson had him cleaned up and provided with new clothes.  He then tried to converse with him in English, Spanish and French, all to no avail.  He then called in a gentleman who spoke German.  When the lad heard his mother tongue, for he proved to be German, he began crying.  He was given to understand that he was among friends.  He then gave his name, his father's name and the place in Texas from whence he had been stolen.  Carson then fitted out another outfit and sent him home and restored him to his parents, bearing the whole expense himself, the boy's people having been in poor circumstances.

 

At another time, two women, who had been captured in Mexico by the Comanches and carried off as slaves, upon learning that Carson with a party was at the time in the neighbourhood of the tribe, made their escape to him and he sent them back to their people in Mexico, at his own expense.

 

Another incident, hitherto unpublished, and one that reveals his patriotism, was related to me by the late Captain Smith H. Simpson, who knew Carson for fifteen years prior to the latter's death.  The Captain said that in the Spring of 1868, just after Carson had returned from one of his official trips (he was Indian Agent at the time) they were walking up the west side of the plaza in Taos.  Carson said to Simpson, "Do you see that flag up there?" pointing to the American flag floating over the plaza.  Simpson replied, "Yes." Carson then said, "Well I have kept that up since 'Forty Seven.  I am not going to be here much longer.  I want you to see that flag stays up." He "passed over the great divide" about two months later, aged 58 years.

 

For contemporary comment on his life and character, we look to the first issue of The Pueblo Chieftain, which said:-

 

"DEATH OF KIT CARSON.  The melancholy intelligence reaches us that General Kit Carson is no more.  He died at his residence on the Las Animas on the 24th inst, of disease of the heart.  General Carson was a Kentuckian by birth, removed early in life to the State of Missouri, and while yet a mere boy became a wanderer on the vast plains of the then known regions of the West.  From about the age of seventeen years until fifty he lived the life of a hunter, trader and trapper.  He early explored and became familiar with the mountains and plains from the Missouri to the Pacific ocean.  During all these years of his wild life he was constantly exposed to every hardship and danger; sometimes making his home with some tribe of the Indians and assisting them in their wars against other tribes; sometimes employed as a trapper by some mountain trader; sometimes trading on his own account between New Mexico and California.  His home was always the wilderness, and danger was his constant companion. Unaided by the advantages of education or patronage, by the forces of indomitable, energy and will, by chivalrous courage, by tireless labour and self denial, he rose step by step, until his name had become as familiar to the American People as a household word.  He stood preeminent among the pathfinders and founders of empire in the Great West, and his long career, ennobled by hardship and danger, is unsullied by a record of littleness or meanness.  He was nature's model of a gentleman.  Kindly of heart, tolerant to all men, good in virtues of disposition, rather than great in qualities of mind, he has passed away - dying as through his life he had lived - in peace and charity with all men, and leaving behind him a name and memory to be cherished by his countrymen so long as modesty, valour, unobtrusive worth, charity and true chivalry survive among men.  Of his precise age we are not advised, but judge he was very near sixty years of age.  He leaves children of tender age to mourn his loss."

 

Kit Carson had many fights with the Indians while on hunting and trapping expeditions.  Of his many deeds of valour we mention but one or two.  One occurred while with Fremont, when Carson was leading a party of six scouts as an advanced guard in southern Oregon.  The Klamath Indians had been giving trouble, even to making a night attack and killing some of Fremont's men.  The latter decided to chastise the Indians.  He therefore sent Carson on ahead to locate them.  Carson and his men came suddenly upon a Klamath village.  Sending a runner back for the main party, his party and the Indians each attacked simultaneously.  When Fremont arrived on the scene the village was in flames and such Indians as survived were in full flight.

 

We might mention another instance.  When General Kearney was surrounded by the Mexican forces in Southern California, Carson and Lieutenant Beale of the Navy volunteered and made their way through the Mexican lines, reached the sea coast and secured men and munitions for the relief of Kearney.

 

Carson was chief scout and guide of the Saguache campaign against the Utes, under Colonels Fontleroy and St. Vrain, in which the Indians got a whipping that they never forgot.

 

About 1863 Carson was made Colonel of the First New Mexico Cavalry, and one of his first military operations was against the Kiowas and Comanches, culminating in a battle near the old adobe fort, formerly erected by Bent and St. Vrain on the Canadian River in Texas.  These Indians had made a great deal of trouble for years, but they were cured in the fight at the "Adobe Walls," as the fight was called.

 

But Carson's greatest military achievement was his Navaho campaign.  The writer has talked with men who were on the ground during that campaign; and in his humble opinion that achievement alone lifted General Carson to the front rank of American Indian fighters.  The Spaniards had waged a war aging the Navahos for two hundred years.  Mexico had continued that war, likewise the United States.  But the Navahos remained defiant and unsubdued.  When the troops would concentrate they would scatter, and when the troops scattered they would concentrate, and with their system of signals and knowledge of the country they were invincible.  Of that campaign we would prefer to stand aside and let a contemporary speak.  Colonel Jas. F. Meline in "Two Thousand Miles on Horseback," in writing of the declaration of war by General Carleton upon the Navahos, said:

 

"True to his promise, the war opened on the very day set by General Carleton, July 20, 1863.  A regiment of New Mexicans, with more than a century of accumulated wrong and oppression to avenge, were at once placed under the command of a man who understood his Indian well - Kit Carson.  These troops knew neither summer rest nor winter quarters but pursued the Indian foe relentlessly month after month, night and day, over mesas and deserts and rivers, under broiling suns and in rough winter snows, killing and capturing them in their most chosen retreats, until finally, broken and dispirited under a chastisement the like of which they never had dreamed of, small bands began to come in voluntarily, then larger ones, and finally groups of fifties and hundreds, nearly comprising the strength of the tribe.  The prisoners, as fast as received, were dispatched to the Bosque Redondo, and those who remained sent out white flags in vain.  Throughout 1864, 1865 and the present year, the war went on under these conditions, and the result is that some eight thousand Navahos, including a few Apaches, are now living peaceably at the Bosque, engaged in agriculture and manufactures, four hundred miles from their old homes, and ninety miles east of Rio Grande Settlement."

 

This cured the Navahos and they have been "good Indians" ever since. Throughout his career Carson never failed to teach the Indians not only to fear but to trust him.  He was their friend in their hour of need and he spoke five Indian languages besides Spanish and French.  His last official act, so far as the writer has been able to ascertain, was the making of a treaty with the Utes which was transmitted to Congress March 18, 1868. A fitting ending for a man, who by his conduct had set a plumb line in the wilderness, and set a level in the desert and applied the square to all his dealings with his fellow men, who had given his life to win the West for the country he loved.  He was beloved of all who knew him and in enclosing this sketch we wish again to quote from Colonel Meline:

 

"The pleasantest episode of my visit here has been the society of Kit Carson, with whom I passed three days, I need hardly say delightfully.  He is one of the few men I ever met who can talk long hours to you of what he has seen, and yet say very little about himself.  He has to be drawn out.  I had many questions to ask, and his answers were all marked by great distinctness of memory, simplicity, candour, and a desire to make some one else, rather than himself, the hero of his story."

 

Such was the manner of the man.

 

(1) Upham's "Life of Fremont," p. 279.

(2) Idem p. 230.

 

----o----

 

THE FAMOUS TESTIMONIAL TO ALBERT G. MACKEY

 

BY THE EDITOR

 

DURING the troublesome times of the Civil War Albert G. Mackey was confined to his home city of Charleston, S. C., where for four years he gave his time, his energies and his substance to the succour of his brethren, little heeding whether they belonged to North or to South, though he himself was a Union man.  Immediately after Charleston, the "cradle of the rebellion," had passed once again into Federal control, Dr. Mackey's brethren of New York City "moved by a common impulse of admiration for the man, of ardent sympathy for the unyielding patriot, of fraternal love for the zealous Mason, determined to invite him to visit them once more, and to receive at their hands a substantial evidence of their sympathy." (I am quoting from a very rare account of the Dr. Mackey Testimonial printed in 1865 by Macoy and Sickels.  This copy was signed by Mackey himself and inscribed to the then Grand Master of New York, Clinton F. Paige.)

 

A call was issued to the Masons of New York City.  They met on the evening of March 15, 1865 and at that time adopted, among others, this resolution, that,

 

"Whereas, it has further come to our knowledge that by the vicissitudes of war, our R.'. W.'. Brother has lost his property, and in his declining years been reduced to the sharp necessity of beginning again the battle of life; therefore,

 

"Resolved, That as an earnest of our good will we solicit his acceptance of the voluntary contributions of the brethren........."

 

A public "Welcome and Testimonial" was held in the Academy of Music on Saturday evening, May 20, 1865, M.'. W.'. Clinton F. Paige presiding. A number of "distinguished artists," along with "Grafulla's Seventh Regiment Full Band," made the occasion memorable.

 

The center of interest on the occasion was the gracious kindly gentleman from the South in whose honour so large a throng was assembled.  After the music had ceased, and the Grand Master had pronounced a beautiful welcoming address, Dr. Mackey delivered the speech, a part of which succeeds this brief narrative.

 

This speech, however impressive as it was then - and still is - did not so deeply stir the auditors as the incident that followed, the account of which I transcribe from the record.

 

"Just as Mme. Salvotti had breathed the last intonation of her song, and before the sounds of her voice had died away, R.'. W.'. Robert Macoy stepped forward and presented Brother Mackey with a beautiful gold snuffbox, of which the following history was given:

 

"It was stated that this box had before been presented to Brother Mackey by the Masonic fraternity, as a token of gratitude for the many years of faithful servitude he had rendered them.  Shortly after the commencement of the war, however, Brother Mackey was compelled to part with it in order to procure bread for his family.  The box then passed into the hands of a person who took it to Easton, Pa., and gave it to a jeweller to have the inscription erased.  This fact becoming known to Brother J. M. Porter, Jr., Past Master of Easton Lodge No. 152, he, with other members of the lodge, having by correspondence with New York become acquainted with its history, purchased it, and sent it to New York to Brother Macoy, with the request that it should in their name be returned to Brother Mackey, with a handsome little present enclosed.  The box has since been kept safely without the knowledge of Brother Mackey, until it was presented to him last evening.  In making the presentation, Brother Macoy briefly explained the above facts, and closed by saying that the box, though beautiful on the outside, had, also, a peculiar inside lining; he would not say exactly what it was, but it looked green (backs).

 

"It is needless to say that Brother Mackey was taken by surprise at the reappearance of his precious gift, the snuffbox.  He expressed himself much gratified at becoming again the possessor of it, and retired amid the applause of the audience."

 

It transpired that Dr. Mackey had literally bankrupted himself in order to give assistance to his brethren, even to the extent of his personal belongings.  A venerable brother who was present at the Academy of Music tells me that those who were in attendance left with the feeling that in this Testimonial it was already evident that Masons would take the lead in healing over the breach between the two sections, and that in his own attitude and spirit Dr. Mackey revealed that which so ennobled Abraham Lincoln, - "Malice toward none, charity for all."

 

 ----o----

 

Freemasonry is the science of life, taught in a society of men by signs, symbols and ceremonies, having as its basis a system of morality, and for its purposes and aim, the perfection and happiness of the individual and the race. - George F. Moore

 

----o----

 

FREEMASONRY IN THE CIVIL WAR

 

BY BROTHER DR. ALBERT G. MACKEY

 

As explained in the preceding article, a public Testimonial was given to Brother Mackey, author of Mackey's Encyclopedia, Mackey's History of Freemasonry, etc., on the night of May 20th, 1865.  Space does not permit the reproduction of the whole or the remarkable speech delivered by him at that time, but it is believed that many brethren will be delighted to read that part which contains his stirring account of Masonic relief during the soul-racking days of the Civil War.

 

 AS A MASON, holding a not altogether obscure position in the Order, I have, in the course of my life written and said much about its excellence and beauty.  I know that it teaches fraternal love.  I know that it inculcates kindness to the destitute, and sympathy for the sorrowing.  I know its pretensions to be a science of morality and a development in one direction of the religious sentiment.  But until this war came upon us, in all its horror of want and suffering, of demoniac hate and inhuman passion, I did not know how successfully theory and practice could be mingled in the teachings of the Order and the actions of the disciples.  I did not know how surely and steadfastly its rays of light could dispel the gloom of this dark night of our national history.

 

When the first struggles of the infant rebellion began to threaten the gigantic future of ruin and desolation, which it subsequently too successfully achieved, all the other social, moral and religious societies of the country preserved a deathlike silence.  No voice of warning, no voice of entreaty, no prayer or suggestion for forbearance came from any section of the land, already upheaving with the throes of a fratricidal conflict.  The Church where peace on earth and good will toward men should have been at all times, but then more especially, the constant theme, was dumb as the grave. The dark funeral pall of war was closing around the land, and there was none to raise its gathering clouds and let in one solitary ray of peace, or hope, or love.

 

Masonry alone, mindful of its divine mission on earth, spoke out with persuasive tongue of exhortation, that men and brethren should abstain from this cruel conflict.  That it thus spoke is a noble incident of its history.  And although its voice was then unheeded, none shall henceforth, forever, rob it of the glory of the attempt.

 

Scarcely sixty days had elapsed after the first shot had been fired at Fort Sumpter, when, from the National Capitol, the true-hearted Grand Master of the Templars of the United States issued a memorable address to the knights of his command, who were scattered over both sections of our discordant country, in which he "implored each one, after humbly seeking strength and aid from on High, to exert all means at his command to avert the dread calamity and prevent the shedding of fraternal blood."

 

Not a month had passed ere the officers of the Grand Lodge of Tenessee made a similar invocation for peace; and in the tones of entreaty that ought to have been heard, "as Masons, as members of a common brotherhood, as brethren bound together by fraternal ties not to be broken save by the hand of death," they appealed for a cessation of the unnatural strife.

 

And a few weeks later, the Grand Masters of Kentucky, of Ohio, and of Indiana, united in a similar work of attempted reconciliation; and crying out from the very depths of their hearts, "Is there no balm for the bleeding wounds of our nation? Is there no hand to hold out the olive branch? No saviour to still the troubled waters?" - they concluded their earnest appeal by inviting a Masonic convention, which should recommend some plan to heal the wounds of the country.  Had the acerbity of political strife, and the cunning of political corruption which were then overbearing the deluded people with their pressure, permitted the holding of such a convention, who can tell what blessed results might have been brought forth from the communion of men who had been taught the duty of mutual kindness and mutual forbearance at the same sacred altar and in the same mystic language?

 

And then came with like counsels the gentle voice of Cyril Pearl from his far-off home on the very borders of our land.  He lived to see the culmination of the war which he deprecated.  Before its decline he was called from his earthly labours of love.  Masonry can illy spare such noble-hearted men.

 

And when at last the clouds of war had not only gathered all over the land, but had burst forth in a storm of carnage; when there was no more hope of peace until the discordant passions of men should be diluted with the flow of blood, the Grand Master of South Carolina, whose heart, strongly beating with Union sympathies, has long since been quelled in death, addressed an encyclical letter to his brethren, in which he charged them in the name of our Supreme and Universal Master, "to suffer not the disputes and broils of men to impair the harmony which has existed and will exist throughout the fraternity." "Let us not," he said, in his own emphatic language, "let us not hear among us that there is war; that strife and dissension prevail.  As Masons, it concerns us not."

 

And I rejoice in my heart that these teachings were not unheeded.  If there was war without, there was always peace within our lodges.

 

Will you bear with me while I say of my native jurisdiction, where I think I have some Masonic influence, that in South Carolina, reproached as I fear she justly is, as birthplace, the benignant principles of Freemasonry were never for a moment forgotten.  In its capital city, the only place, I fear, on the whole continent where the same deed of love was enacted, prisoners of war, who were Masons, were relieved on their parole by the officer of their guard, himself a Mason, and carried from the prison to the lodge room, to relieve the weariness of their captivity by witnessing and participating in the secret services of the Order.

 

And I can solemnly aver that I never approached a Mason or lodge in Charleston, with a petition for the relief of a destitute, suffering prisoner of war, without receiving the kindest response and the most liberal donation.

 

Throughout the length and breadth of our land, at the North and the South, the East, and the West, wherever there was the sin of strife, there, too, was the atoning peace of Masonry.  It went into the prison, and gave comfort to the captive.  It went into the hospital, and gave balm to the wounded.  It went into the battlefield, and gave rescue of life to the conquered.

 

Let none henceforth speak of its unknown mysteries, or contempt for its pretended merits.  Let its adversaries be silent before the magnitude of its achievements; and when the history of this unnatural war is written, while all honour is bestowed upon the hero and the patriot, let it not be forgotten, but let it rather be inscribed in characters of living light, that when war was beginning to whet its beak - while other associations were indifferent and dumb - while the churches themselves gave no sign of Christian life, Masonry done sought to avert the impending evil; and when the full tide of conflict had rolled in upon our shores, and blood was soaked into the ground, Masonry again came forth, a ministering angel, to clothe in some measure the stain of our nation's fratricidal contest with a ray of cheering light, and to give to the black cloud of war a silver lining.

 

----o----

 

A ROMAN CATHOLIC EDITOR OPPOSES ROMAN CATHOLIC SECRET SOCIETIES

 

Why Roman Catholics should be so opposed to Freemasonry because it is a secret society while their own church fosters, and has in times past fostered, some of the most powerful secret societies that have ever existed has long been a standing puzzle to Masons who believe that what is sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander. But Masons are not the only ones to observe this curious inconsistency. Here is a letter from a Roman Catholic editor that was published in The Fortnightly Review, September 1st, 1922, page 327. It is sufficiently explicit and stands in no need of interpretation. The Fortnightly Review is a Roman Catholic journal, published on the 1st and 16th of every month, 5851 Etzel Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. It is edited by Arthur Preuss, author of a well known "book" on Freemasonry.

 

"I just finished reading your fine article 'Combating Secret Societies' (F.R., No. 16, p. 301 sq.). While reading it, and fully agreeing with Bishop Wehrle, I wondered what should be said about the secret societies within the Church or 'in the shadow of the Church.'

 

"Thirty years ago, as a printer, I became interested in secret societies, Every once in a while some mysterious stuff came along 'a printers handled the cuts of various emblems, turned out stationery, letters, etc., and began to study the material. This will explain why I am able today to tell at first glance to what lodge a man belongs if he wears an emblem. When I went into business for myself, I was told of the many advantages of secret orders, and I joined one. My interest grew, I became very active and was elected to various offices, excepting the 'paid' offices, but I have had my fill of 'honor.' Once I discussed the question of life insurance and fraternal orders with a Lutheran pastor, whom I respected for the stand he took against all the mummery, tomfoolery and rot. This pastor was well read on the subject and gave me a ritual of a certain secret society. Reading it I found that it was similar, yes, in some parts and respects identical with the ritual which 'we' used. After that I read various exposes, and I have reasons to believe that the latter are correct. Later I read your book on Freemasonry. My interest grew, and I obtained some 'real rituals.' I am in a position now to state that all secret societies are fashioned alike. 'We' met in an I.O.O.F. Hall at one time for a monster initiation, and let me assure you that it was not necessary to shift much scenery to adapt the hall for our 'ceremonies.' 'We' even left the altar where it stood, but called it the 'Center Pedestal.'

 

" 'We' have the 'stations,' the 'wicket,' the 'pass-word,' the 'grip,' the sign and salute, the 'gown and cap,' the 'mysteries,' all the awe-inspiring things and all the tommyrot of the lodge room with a few religious features to make it a little different.

 

"Of course, 'we' go to communion in a body to remain in good standing.

 

"As long as 'we' act thus and indulge in the mummery and humbug which is being condemned by our bishops here and there, results cannot be expected. What we need, and need badly, is a house-cleaning that begins right at home.

 

"I am not writing this for publication, and cannot permit my name to be printed in connection with it. I am simply stating facts which cannot be overlooked, or disputed for that matter. It has gone too far, and, I believe that it is beyond remedy. When it is borne in mind that the Wisconsin Staatsverband (D.R.K.C.V.) recently filled a long-felt want by adopting an 'Einfuhrungs-Modus' with a very strong leaning to secrecy, it becomes plain that the garden is full of weeds.

 

"Worst of all: If the Church tolerates secret societies within and 'in her shadow,' Catholics naturally must conclude that they are not so bad after all. Swimming against the stream, as both of us do, we have the sensation of being living fish, but it is folly to think that we are making any headway.

 

"I could give you a 'lot of dope,' but what's the use? Constant dripping may hollow a stone, but you and I will be dead and buried a long time before the stone will show any marks." A Catholic Fellow Editor.

 

----o----

 

GOTHIC CATHEDRALS USED AS CIVIC BUILDINGS

 

The Gothic cathedrals were almost as much civic buildings as they were churches, and in the sense that they embodied the pride, the ambition, and the rivalries of the cities, this was eminently the case. But they were also actually used for town meetings, for public festivals, and for theatrical exhibitions - the "miracle plays" and "passion plays," which have survived in one famous instance at Oberammergau. In the Middle Ages the church and the cathedral were always open, like the Roman Catholic churches of our own day. Here the poor man was the equal of the rich. The beggar and his lord met on terms of equality in the liberty of using the building and in the theory of its religious teachings. There were no pews for favored owners. The cathedral was the palace of the poor, and its entire space outside the sanctuary was open to their daily visits and sojourn at will, without disturbance.

 

The cathedral was the museum of art; a museum made, not to display the ostentation of the rich or the luxury of his life, but to teach by pictures and reliefs the history of the world as then known and comprehended by the traditions of the church, and the lessons of faith and of sacrifice. Here were, moreover, the actual memorials and relics of past ages; for here was the treasury not only of the art of the present but also of the art of the past. Finally, the cathedral was the sanctuary of the famous and illustrious dead. Their tombs were its decoration and its pride.

 

- W.H. Goodyear.

 

----o----

 

MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - GENERAL JOSEPH WARREN

 

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

JOSEPH WARREN was Grand Master of Massachusetts. There is a handsome memorial to him in Roxbury of that state, where he was buried.

 

General Warren was born in Roxbury in 1741, and he was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. Like so many of our early patriots he was a physician before he became a soldier. He was graduated from Harvard University and practiced medicine in Boston.

 

His courageous and fiery patriotism is revealed by the fact that when Mr. Samuel Adams declined to deliver the address on the second anniversary of the "Boston Massacre," March 5, 1772, Dr. Warren himself delivered it, though he knew the act was fraught with great danger to himself.

 

Dr. Warren was a delegate to the convention at Suffolk, which took measures to prevent Governor Gage from fortifying the south entrance to Boston. He was a delegate to the Massachusetts Congress in 1774, and was elected president of that body. It is said that "to his energy was in great measure due the successful result of the battle of Lexington." In 1775 he received his commission as Major General and took part shortly afterwards in the Battle of Bunker Hill, with which his name will ever be connected in the loving annals of this nation.

 

There is a story told of him to the effect that he was warned by Elbridge Gerry against hazard in exposing his person, to which General Warren exclaimed: "I know that I may fall, but where is the man who does not think it glorious and delightful to die for his country !" Another story relates that a British officer called to him by name to warn him of his risks and even ordered his men to cease firing. Dr. Warren was shot in the head and died instantly. If it be true that the British officer did call to him in this manner we should feel remiss were we to pass so gallant an act without praise.

 

General Warren devoted years to the Craft and occupies a conspicuous place in the history of the early Masonry of the United States. He was a Mason in deed as well as in word, and such men always become the idol of the brethren. Lodges have been named for General Warren in almost every state in the Union. The Grand Secretary of New York, Brother Kenworthy, has made the excellent suggestion that the Craft establish the custom of naming new lodges after these great patriots.

 

Perhaps I can do no more thorough justice to the story of the Masonic career of General Warren than by incorporating here an account of him published in the Grand Lodge Proceedings of Massachusetts, June 14, 1916, wherein we may read:

 

"Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Mass., June 11, 1741. He graduated at Harvard College in 1759. During 1760 he was employed as a teacher in a public school in Roxbury and in the following year commenced the study of medicine under Doctor Lloyd, an eminent physician of that day. He began practice in 1763 and is said to have distinguished himself at once. In 1764 the smallpox prevailed extensively in Boston and he was very successful in treating it. About this time he began to take an active part in political affairs, and his letters to public men and his newspaper essays soon attracted the attention even of the government. They were remarkable for clearness of thought, terseness of statement, and cogency of argument. In 1774 he was chosen to represent the town of Boston in the Provincial Congress and in the following year was elected President of that body. Here he manifested extraordinary powers of mind and a peculiar fitness for the guidance and government of men in times of difficulty and danger.

 

"The Congress was then sitting at Watertown and upon its daily adjournment he hastened to the military camp there to participate with the common soldiers in the exercise and drills and to encourage and animate them by exhortation and example. The Provincial Congress offered him the appointment of Surgeon General, but he declined it and accepted a Commission as Major General, dated only three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill.

 

"On the night of the 16th of June, 1775, he presided at the meeting of the Colonial Congress which continued in session a great part of the night in Watertown. Early in the morning of June 17th he visited a patient in Dedham and left her saying that he must go to Charlestown to get a shot at the British and would return to her in season for her confinement which was almost hourly expected. He arrived at Bunker Hill only a few moments before the first attack of the British troops. There he refused to take command when offered it by Putnam and Prescott, seized a musket, and fought as a private. His reluctance to obey the order to retreat resulted in his death as he was only a few rods from the redoubt when the British obtained full possession and he; was instantly killed by a bullet in the head. He was buried in a shallow grave on the field.

 

"Immediately after the evacuation of Boston his Masonic brethren determined to go in search of the body. They repaired to the spot indicated by an eye-witness of his death. It was at the brow of a hill, and near the head of the grave was an acacia tree. Upon the removal of the earth which appeared to have been recently disturbed they found the body of their Grand Master. This was on the 6th of April, 1776. They carefully conveyed the body to the State House in Boston, and on the 8th of the same month an oration was delivered over his remains by Perez Morton who was at the time Grand Marshal of the Grand Lodge. After the funeral ceremonies the remains were deposited in a tomb in the Granary Burying Ground where they remained for nearly fifty years. In 1825 his remains were found, identified, deposited in a box of hardwood, designated by a silver plate, and placed in the Warren Tomb under St. Paul's Church, Boston. A number of years later they were again removed and found their final resting place in Forest Hills Cemetery.

 

"King Solomon's Lodge (then of Charlestown, now of Somerville), in December, 1794, erected and dedicated a monument to his memory in the shape of a Tuscan pillar eighteen feet high, resting upon a platform eight feet in height, eight feet square, and fenced about to Protect it from injury. On the top of the pillar was placed a gilt urn with the initials and age of General Warren enclosed within the square and compasses. The dedicatory services and procession were elaborate. The lodge kept the monument in repair until March 8, 1825, when they voted to present the land and monument to the Bunker Hill Monument Association upon condition that there should be placed within the walls of the monument the Association was about to erect a suitable memorial of the ancient pillar in order to perpetuate