Masonry Among The Negroes.

MASONRY AMONG THE NEGROES .

THE mere fact that more than 30 , 000 of our fellow-citizens , unknown to us as members of the Fraternity , claim to be affiliated Masons in good standing , regularly study our mysteries in 1 , 300 Lodges which we never visit , is alone sufficient to justify a brief reference to Masonry among the coloured men of America . The fact that the Grand Lodge of Florida has recently accepted

from the State a charter which expressly limits her authority to Masonry among " men of the white race , " as well as some other circumstances , alluded to in earlier parts of this report , tend to call attention to what have been termed " the minor Grand Lodges , " and to raise the question of the legitimacy .

Bent upon avoiding unnecessary controversy , we propose to express no opinion upon the latter subject , but confine ourselves to a brief statement of their history and statistics . On 6 th March 1775 an Army Lodge , warranted by the Grand Lodge of England , and attached to one of the regiments

stationed , under General Gage , in Boston , initiated Prince Hall and fourteen other coloured men of Boston into the mysteries of Freemasonry , From that beginning , with small additions from foreign countries , sprang the Masonry among the negroes of America . These fifteen Brethren were properly authorised by

the Lodge which made them—according to the custom of the day-r-to assemble as a Lodge . At least they did so , but it does not appear that they did " work " until after they were regularly warranted . They applied to the Grand Lodge of England for a warrant 2 nd March 1784 . It was issued to them as African Lodge , No . 459 , with Prince Hall as Master , 29 th September

1784 , but not received until 2 nd May 1787 . The Lodge was organised under the warrant four days later . It remained upon the English register—occasionally contributing to the Grand Charity Fund—until , upon the amalgamation of the rival Grand Lodges of the " Moderns " and the " Ancients " into the present United Grand Lodge of England , in 1813 , it and the other English Lodges in the United States were erased .

Bro . Prince Hall , a man of exceptional ability and energy , worked zealously in the cause of Masonry , and from 1792 until his death in 1807 , exercised all the functions of a Provincial Grand Master . In 1797 he issued a license to thirteen black men , who had been made Masons in England , to " assemble

and work" as a Lodge in Philadelphia . Another Lodge was organised b y his authority , in Providence , R . I . In 1808 these three Lodges joined in forming the " African Grand Lodge " of Boston—now the" Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts ; " and Masonry gradually spread over the land .

In 1847 the negro Masons made a mistake (?) , which their white Brethren narrowly avoided at times , of forming a National Grand Lodge . This body , when at its zenith in 1867 , had twenty Grand Lodges under it , Pennsylvania , New York ,

New Jersey , Delaware and Maryland , we understand , remaining independent ; but it fell into decay ; its constituent Grand Lodges one by one withdrew , so that now , we are informed , its existence is but nominal . Captain W . D . Matthews , of Leayensworth , Kansas , has , we understand , been its head for

many years . The legitimacy of the Masonry among these negroes is acknowledged by the leading Masonic historians , but has been vigorously and bitterly attacked by many eminent writers , some of whom have , in their zeal , even gone to the

extent of mis-quoting documentary evidence . A candid review of the controversy would seem to disclose that the motives which inspired the attack were , named in the order of their influence : race feeling ; a desire to bolster the dogma of " exclusive territorial jurisdiction " ; Scottish Rite quarrels ; real doubt of their legitimacy ; and fear of discord among white

Masons . Of the arguments put forth against the Masonry of the coloured men , probably the only ones which would receive any consideration at this day were : ( 1 ) That Prince Hall was only a Master , not a Provincial Grand Master , and consequently could not warrant Lodges ; ( 2 ) that negro Masons read " free" where we read " free-born ; " and ( 3 ) that their existence violates the " American doctrine of ' exclusive territoral jurisdiction . '"

To the first of these objections , the coloured men remind us that the usages of the nineteenth century are not those of the eighteenth ; that all over Europe Lodges were formed by men with no higher authority than Prince Hall ' s , assuming that he was not a Provincial Grand Master . They point to numerous

examples , from that of Kilwinning Mother Lodge to the Lodge in which Washington was made a Mason , to show that the approval of any known Masonic authority was then generally considered a sufficient credential to justify Masons in working as a Lodge . They quote the statement of Bro . Albert Pike in 1875 that :

" Prince Hall Lodge * * » had a perfect right ( as other Lodges in Europe did ) to establish other Lodges , making itself a Mother Lodge . That ' s the way the Berlin Lodges—Three Globes and Royal York—became Grand Lodges . " And the opinion of Brother Theodore S . Parvin , a little later

Masonry Among The Negroes.

" My opinion is , that the negroes can make as good a show for the legality of their Grand Lodges as the whites can . " Answering the second objection , they contend that "freeborn " is not a land-mark , but a Grand Lodge regulation ; and that " free" not " free-born "—is the reading of the Grand Lodge of England . The third objection takes two forms : First , " that

more than one Grand Lodge cannot exist in the same territory ; " second , " that more that one ought not to exist . " To the whole objection they reply that the dogma is no part of the Masonic Institution , but is simply and admittedly an " American doctrine . " In addition , that , in its first form , it is contradicted by all Masonic history in nearly every country on the globe . Against

it in its second form some of them do not strenously object , but plead " necessity , " and the fact that no real conflict has been occasioned by their existence in practically an unoccupied field ( among coloured men ) , and that the spirit of the regulation has not been violated . Of course , this brief summary does not do

justice to the arguments on either side . One of the striking things about the controversy is the amount of ability shown by some of the coloured men . For instance , we do not recall , in all Masonic literature , an abler paper than that entitled " The Negro Mason in Equity , " by M . W . Samuel W . Clark Grand Master of the Coloured Masons in Ohio , 1886 .

In 1875 or 1876 a committee of the ( white ) Grand Lodge of Ohio , consisting of Bros . L . V . Bierce , E . T . Carson , F . Willmer , C . A . Woodward , and L . H . Pike , reported that they were satisfied , " beyond all question , " that coloured Freemasonry had a legitimate beginning , and that it had been transmitted to the coloured Lodges of Ohio . Also , that they had " most satisfactory and conclusive evidence " that the coloured Masons

have our rites , ceremonies , and esotery . The committee also recommended that the Coloured Grand Lodge of Ohio be recognised as " a legitimate and independent Grand Lodge , " on the sole condition that it change its name to " The African Grand Lodge of F . & A . Masons of the State of Ohio . " This recom-. mendation was defeated in the white Grand Lodge by a vote of only 390 to 332 .

Upon the question whether they exercise care in guarding the Fraternity from the admission of unworthy persons , it is to their credit that , while among the whites of the United States one in every eighty-five is an affiliated Mason , the affiliated negroes are but one in each 273 of their race .

The Masonic Library of Walla Walla possesses a nearly complete set of the " Transactions of the M . W . Grand Lodge of the M . A . and Honourable Fraternity of F . & A . Masons for the State of Ohio and its Jurisdiction , " of which body M . W . J . A . Brown , of Columbus , is ( or was in 1893 ) Grand Master , and M . W . William T . Boyd P . G . M ., of Cleveland , an able and remarkably well-informed Masonic , scholar , Chairman of the Committee oh Correspondence .

The statistics of the Ohio body for 1893 were : Lodges , 50 ; initiated , 93 ; passed , 70 ; raised , 76 ; admitted , 9 ; re-instated , 60 ; died , 17 ; dimitted , 18 ; suspended , 126 ; expelled , 3 ; members , 1 , 195 . From the Transactions for 1893 we compile the following table , showing the present status of African Masonry to date ;

State . Lodges . Members . Alabama ----- 54 1125 Arkansas ----- 114 1913 California ... 14 138 Colorado - - - 8 125 ¦ Delaware - - - - 14 297

District of Columbia ... 10 381 Florida - - - - - 102 1954 Georgia ----- 86 2326 Illinois ----- 44 1156 Indiana ----- 23 392 Iowa - - - - - 17 322

Kansas - - - . - 28 646 Kentucky .... 32 775 Louisana- - - - - 19 483 Maryland 22 556 Massachusetts - - - - 10 360 Mississippi .... 153 1718

Michigan - - - - 14 268 Missouri --- -- 93 2864 New Jersey - - - - 29 410 New York - - - - 17 433 Ohio 50 1193 Pennsylvania - - - - 54 1500 Rhode Island .... 8 400

South Carolina - - - - 18 960 Tennessee .... 88 1311 Texas ..... 42 903 Virginia - - - - - 56 1338 West Virginia - - - - 17 281 Foreign Liberia ... 6 600 Ontario - - - 6 165

They have bodies of all the " high degrees , " including the A . & A . S . Rite , and are enjoying—what no Masonic body would be complete without , in these days—a first-rate Scottish Rite controversy . It is known to a certainty that they possess our secrets and practice our rites . It is , therefore , not for the purpose of showing