THE BUILDER JULY 1916

THE EARLY DAYS -- HISTORY VS. TRADITION

BY BRO. MELVIN M. JOHNSON, G. M., MASSACHUSETTS

The article by Brother Mazyck of South Carolina in the March
Builder calls for reply mainly because of the prominence which The
Builder gave it. He avers that there is naught but tradition to
rely upon that there was any Grand Lodge in Massachusetts prior to
1750 when our contemporaneous records begin. He asserts
"unhesitatingly * * * that Solomon's Lodge No. 1, of Charleston,
S.C., is the oldest Masonic body in the Western Hemisphere, the
Record of whose establishment is absolutely unassailable." He rests
this invulnerability on an article in the South Carolina Gazette,
Number 144, published October 30, 1736, containing an account of a
Lodge meeting the night before.

I do not intend to weary your readers with an argument as to the
position of Massachusetts. Those who are interested will kindly
examine the printed Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts
for 1914, pages 243 to 288 inclusive, where may be found citations
of authority for every statement made in my series of articles last
year in The Builder upon The Establishment and Early Days of
Masonry in America.

Now to demolish Bro. Mazyck's "unassailable" position with one
shot. For the present purpose let us grant (though it is not the
case) that a newspaper article is the best evidence; better than
official records, original documents, contemporaneous letters, or
inscriptions upon ancient tombstones. If Bro. Mazyck wants a
newspaper article here it is for him.

The Boston Gazette, No. 743, published April 1, 1734, (copies of
which may be found in the Boston Public Library, and in the
Congressional Library), contains the following item, viz:

"On Friday evening last at Mr, Lutwytche's long Room in King street
was held a Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free
and Accepted Masons, where His Excellency Governor Belcher and a
Considerable Number of the Fraternity were present." This is two
years and nearly six months earlier than the article quoted from
the South Carolina Gazette. Bro. Mazyck's reply will be awaited
with interest.

Having given publicity to certain gross charges by innuendo, you
can not in fairness fail to allow a brief further comment. To the
insinuations in Bro. Mazyck's article that the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts has "faked" the tombstone of Henry Price, now in the
Boston Temple, we respectfully reply that opposite page 285 in the
Proceedings of our Grand Lodge for 1871, will be found a photograph
of that tombstone as it formerly stood on the Price lot in the
cemetery in Townsend, Mass. On page 53 of our Proceedings for 1857,
you will find the statement of the then Grand Master M. W. John T.
Heard, that on September 29, 1857, he visited the graveyard, saw
the gravestone with its familiar epitaph, and consequently
recommended that a monument be erected to take its place. A full
account of this visit, including a copy of the inscription upon the
gravestone, will be found in volume XVII of Moore's Freemason's
Magazine, page 11, published in 1857. Then by turning to the
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for June 21, 1888,
(pages 82 to 101), will be found an account of the dedication of
the new monument. In those Proceedings and in the Commemorative
Service of June 26, 1888, (pages 102 to 179 inclusive), will be
found all the details covering the removal of the old gravestone to
the Temple in Boston. Then will be seen, to use our Brother's own
language, "just why or when it was removed from the cemetery."

To the innuendoes that Grand Secretary Pelham forged the copy of
the Henry Price Commission of 1733 which opens the volume of our
Grand Lodge records; that Provincial Grand Master Price
deliberately falsified when he made, over his own signature, the
statement that he had been appointed Provincial Grand Master in
1733 and had founded his Grand Lodge on July 30th of that year;
that the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, Grand Secretary, and
Master, Senior Warden, and Junior Warden of the First Lodge in
Boston, also told what was deliberately false when on September 1,
1736, they wrote the Lodge Glasgow Kilwinning that the First Lodge
in Boston had been Constituted by Right Worshipful Brother Henry
Price, Provincial Grand Master, in 1733; and that all other similar
things are vague, uncertain, guesswork, and tradition, we beg to
reply that if Bro. Mazyck will kindly come to the Grand Master's
office in the Temple in Boston, we will show him a copy of Henry
Price's Commission, made in the handwriting of Francis Beteilhe who
was Secretary of the First Lodge in Boston at least as early as
1736, and who was the business partner of Henry Price. We shall be
glad also to show him, in the handwriting of Bro. Beteilhe,
hitherto unpublished memoranda, among them being a record of the
"By-Laws or Regulations," dated "O'ber 24th, 1733," and amendments
thereto dated March 12, 1734, et seq. These came into the
possession of the Grand Lodge on March 8, 1916.

We shall also be glad to show an entry in the handwriting of
Brother Berteilhe, Grand Secretary, following his account of the
Celebration of the Festival of St. John the Evangelist, Dec. 27th,
1735, reading as follows:--"About this time sundry Brethren going
to South Carolina met with some Masons in Charlestown who thereupon
went to work, from which sprung Masonry in those parts." This may,
to say the least, explain how it was that there happened to be a
Lodge in Charleston, S.C., to form a public procession in the Fall
of 1736.

It is about time that slanderous and scandalous statements by way
of insinuation and innuendo should cease, particularly in a Masonic
discussion. No one should complain of fair and square arguments
straight from the shoulder, whether given or taken. Any member of
the Fraternity should be ready to acknowledge error. No Masonic
historian should make use of unfounded insinuations or innuendoes.


In my articles in The Builder, the statement was made that on Saint
John the Baptist's Day in 1737, in Boston, occurred the first
public procession of the Fraternity in America, Governor Belcher
being in the line. That statement was made upon authority of the
Boston Gazette, No. 911, published June 27, 1737. The entire
article reads as follows:

"Friday last being the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the annual
Meeting of the Free and Accepted Masons, they accordingly met. The
right worshipful Mr. Robert Thomlinson, G. M., nominated and
appointed his grand Officers for the Year ensuing, viz: Mr. Hugh
Daniel, D.G.M., Mr. Thomas Moffatt (Doctor of Medicines) S.G.W.,
Mr. John Osborne, J.G.W., Mr. Benjamin Hallowell, G.T., Mr. Francis
Beteillie, G.S., after which the Society attended the G.M. in
Procession to his Excellency Governor Belcher, & from thence the
Governor was attended by the G.M. and the Brotherhood to the Royal
Exchange Tavern in King-Street, where they had an elegant
Entertainment. It being the first Procession in America, they
appeared in the proper Badges of their Order, some Gold, the rest
Silver. The Procession was closed by the Grand Wardens."

Practically the same statement was made by the Saint James Evening
Post, published in London, August 20, 1737.

Bro. Mazyck quotes a paragraph from the South Carolina Gazette
published May 28, 1737, to the effect that on the Thursday night
preceding, the Fraternity "came to the Play House about 7 o'clock,
in the usual Manner, and made a very decent and solemn Appearance."

This was a month earlier than the procession in Boston. I have no
doubt that his quotation is correct and is true. I gladly admit
that there was a procession of Masons (though not of a Lodge or
Grand Lodge, as such) in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier than
any other known procession of Masons in America, the Saint James
Evening Post and the Boston Gazette to the contrary
notwithstanding. It, however, is by no means clear that the Masons
in South Carolina went to the theatre clothed in aprons or badges
or other regalia. There is nothing in the South Carolina Gazette
from which we are authorized definitely to conclude, or even
justifiably to infer, that regalia was worn. Had it been worn, the
regalia would, particularly at that day, have caused comment as it
did in the Boston and London papers. Moreover, it is natural that
the Fraternity should appear in full regalia when the Grand Lodge
turned out to escort their Brother, the Governor, to the
celebration of the Festival of St. John the Baptist. It is not
expected, nowadays at least, to see the Fraternity march through
the public streets in full regalia to attend the theatre. It would
rather seem that "the usual manner" meant no more than in
procession, perhaps left in front, as many of our Lodges attend
divine service, in order but not in regalia. While, therefore we
may gladly accord the earliest known American procession of Masons
to South Carolina, it is open to us still to suggest that they went
to a theatre merely as members, in a procession, and not officially
as an open Lodge. That being true, the Boston Gazette and the
London Post of 1737 may have recorded the first procession in
America of Masons congregated as a Lodge.

Brother Mazyck, before giving us his newspaper quotations, says
that I "thresh the old straw with great energy." Unfortunately that
has to be done for the sake of truth, when Brethren now and then
"unhesitatingly" present such "absolutely unimpeachable,"
"incontestable," "unassailable" arguments "far removed from any
possibility of doubt and utterly beyond any contradiction."

We have to dispose of such claims one by one as they appear.

Up to date many have been heralded as equally infallible and all
have proven equally fallible. Under the light of examination they
have all lost their solidity like ice under the sun of a Spring
noon.

We have had to meet the Rhode Island "dilapidated document" of 1656
or 1658, which the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island refused to father
and which, in fact, never existed.

We have had to meet the "John Moore letter" of 1715 which,
likewise, never existed.

We have had to meet the Daniel Coxe claim of 1730; although it is
now universally admitted that he never exercised his deputation.

We have had to meet the apocryphal "Liber A" claim from
Pennsylvania; although if there ever was a "Liber A," no one
pretends it will if found prove anything which Massachusetts does
not admit (any more than does "Liber B.")

We have had to meet the "Henry Bell letter" claim of 1730; although
that claim was simply a fraud as Pennsylvania now admits. And now
we had to put a quietus upon a 1736 claim from South Carolina,
founded upon good evidence, but which, ostrich-like, buries its
head in its own newspaper that it may not see the Boston Gazette of
1734.

Next?

We are not infallible in Massachusetts. We prefer not to use
superlative adjectives in describing our claims. From some attic or
cellar or other depositary may come forth definite evidence,
hitherto unknown, to shed light for or against our present
position. But until it does, (if ever, and we believe never)
Massachusetts will remain secure in its position as the Premier 
Grand Lodge of the Western Hemisphere, and all the unbiased Masonic
world will continue to acclaim Henry Price to be, as he said
himself, the Founder of Duly Constituted Masonry in America.


THE VICTORS
(Chas. Hanson Towne.)

They have triumphed who have died; 
They have passed the porches wide, 
Leading from the Home of Night 
To the splendid lawns of Light. 
They have gone on that far road 
Leading to their new abode, 
And from the curtained casements we 
Watch their going wistfully. 
Ah ! that turn, that glimpse ! That last 
Wondering where their feet have passed ! 
They have read new meanings, they 
Who have found the open way.

Now they know that hill and glen 
Far beyond our mortal ken; 
And they know why winter turns 
To April; why Youth burns 
With all its dreams that go to rust; 
Why men falter, and yet trust; 
Why the Autumn grieves and sighs 
Underneath the brooding skies; 
Why the grass, with punctual feet, 
Comes in Spring our eyes to greet, 
And white dawn succeeds white dawn, 
And the moon shines on and on.

They have left our House of Night, 
Faring to the bournes of Light. 
Grieve not for them; rather say, 
"They are victors on the way; 
They have won, for they have read 
The bright secrets of the dead; 
And they gained the deep unknown, 
Hearing life's strange undertone. 
In the race across the days 
They are victors; their's the praise; 
Their's the glory and the pride; 
They have triumphed--having died."


LABORARE EST ORARE

Not solely on our Sabbath days
We render service fair;
For duties done go up like praise,
And kindly thought is prayer.
--Frederick Langbridge.


FORWARD !
By Alfred Noyes.

A thousand creeds and battle-cries,
A thousand warring social schemes,
A thousand new moralities,
And twenty thousand thousand dreams !

Each on his own anarchic way,
From the old order breaking free--
Our ruined world desires, you say,
License, once more, not Liberty.

But ah, beneath the struggling foam,
When storm and change are on the deep,
How quietly the tides come home,
And how the depths of sea-shine sleep;

And we who march toward a goal,
Destroying only to fulfil
The law, the law of that great soul
Which moves beneath your alien will;

We, that like foemen meet the past
Because we bring the future, know
We only fight to achieve at last
A great reunion with our foe;

Reunion in the truths that stand
When all our wars are rolled away;
Reunion of the heart and hand
And of the prayers wherewith we pray;

Reunion in the common needs,
The common strivings of mankind;
Reunion of our warring creeds
In the one God that dwells behind.

Forward !--what use in idle words?
Forward, O warriors of the soul !
There will be breaking up of swords
When the new morning makes us whole.

PERSONALITY

In radium there is said to be a virtue which enables it to affect
adjacent objects with its own properties, and to turn them, for a
time, and for certain purposes, into things of the same nature as
itself. Certain human personalities have a similar virtue.
Ordeal by Battle, F. S. Oliver.

