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Article THE ALBERT PIKE QUESTION. Page 1 of 2 Article THE ALBERT PIKE QUESTION. Page 1 of 2 →
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The Albert Pike Question.
THE ALBERT PIKE QUESTION .
BY BRO . JACOB NORION . IN undertaking to investigate controversies between the various factions of hig h degreers , I am apt to encounter either of the following obstacles : —first , unmixed
lies ; second , lies more or less mixed with truth ; and third , half-told truth ; the lasfc is the most mischievously misleading .
As a case in point , I sent you not long since a paragraph from the Detroit Freemason , which originally appeared in a Washington paper , viz ., the Capitol , in which ifc was stated that Claud Samory , the Lieutenant Grand Commander of
the Foulhouze Council at New Orleans , which was originally established in 1813 by Cerneau , had conferred the thirty-third degree on Albert Pike , 25 th April 1857 , and in a previous communication ( FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE ,
13 th December 1884 ) I sent you , I quoted from Pike ' s own writings that he did not know when he was elected a member , or when Commander . So putting this and that together , I said if the Detroit paragraph is true—that is , if
Pike received his thirty-thirdship from a Cerneauite—then he must be regarded as a bogus , and the Grand " Mother Supreme Council of the world " over which he presides is of course tainted by the connection , ancl hence all her
children aud grandchildren Councils the world over will lose their character for purity . Of course , according to my own belief , the whole of our eig ht American sovereigns of the A . and A . Riters , including our two African
sovereigns , are alike legal . But what is the use of reasoning with them ? Thus , if you question six out of the eight you will find that each is very positive that he alone is the real " Simon Pure , " and the others are bogus ; while the
sovereigns of our northern and southern jurisdictions are equally positive that they and their legitimate offspring are legal , and all the rest are impostors . Hence , if Bro . Pike
had received his thirty-three degree from an impure source , I could not see what rig ht he had to denounce the Cerneauites as clandestines .
Bro . Pike ' s forgetfulness as to when he became a member , & c , was still more surprising when I recalled to mind that he referred to a session at New Orleans in 1857 , of which he seemingly entertained no very hi g h opinion , for he said , in 1878 : —
' There is not in the Secretariat , so far as I can find , any minute of any session from May 1801 to the session of 1860 , except what is called a session at New Orleans in 1857 . "
The expression in the above quotation which I italicise , indicates a feeling of contempt for the 1857 session , and yet he is said to have received there the thirty-third degree . In short , I was puzzled . But as business called me
to New York I took the opportunity of calling on Bro . R . B . Folger , the well known historian of the A . ancl A . Rite in America . I shewed Brother Folger the Detroit Freemason , and asked whether the paragraph in
question was true ? Bro . Folger answered in the affirmative , to prove which he showed me an extract he copied from the New Orleans Scotch Rite Proceedings of 1857 , showing that Samory conferred on Pike the thirty-third
degree . Brother Folger further informed me that the said Proceedings of 1857 are very scarce , that there was but one copy , to the best of his belief , in New York , for which the owner would not take one hundred dollars , and
that from the said copy he extracted the paragraph I then asked Bro . Folger to publish the said paragraph in the next issue of his Masonic Chronicle , which he kindly promised to do .
Bro . Folger , in the course of conversation further informed me , that there had been a split in the Foulhouze Conncil at New Orleans about or before 1857 . This splitting business , you must know , is a chronic disease among
Scotch Riters . Well , Samory was the leader of the splitters , and he , with a few others , went over to the Charleston concern . Albert G . Mackey , who was then the chief cook and bottle washer of the said concern , went to New Orleans
in February 1857 , when he called together Samory and his squad of deserters , and gave each one a slap on his back , when , presto ! one and all were at once transformed from
Cerneauites into pure Southern Jurisdiction thirt y-t ' iirdlings . Albert Pike was to have received the 33 rd decree at that meeting , but a letter was received from him that he was detained at Washington , and that he would be in New
The Albert Pike Question.
Orleans later on . On the 25 th of April following Brother Pike was in New Orleans , and Samory held a session , and made Pike a thirty-thirder . The reader will now see how the "half-told truth , " which I found iu tho Detroit
Freemason , which originally appeared in The Capitol , led me to the erroneous belief that Bro . Pike received his thirty-third degree from Samory the Cerneauite , while in reality he received it from Samory after he was whitewashed from
Cerneauitism . This is " a horse of quite another colour . On ray return to Boston I told the above news to our Grand Secretary Bro . Nickerson ; and , briefly , Bro . Nickerson found a copy of the 1875 New Orleans Proceedings ,
from which I shall give some additional information . I must , however , premise that the Charleston high degreers in the last century pretended that , by virtue of their high degrees , they acquired the right to rule the Grand Lodge ,
Moreover , be it remembered that each of the said high degreers swore at his initiation , and when he took office in his Lodge , and in the Grand Lodge ( for they were P . G . Officers ) , to obey the regulations of the Grand Lodge ; how
then they were absolved from the said repeated oaths remains a mystery to this day . The Grand Lodge of South Carolina very naturally questioned them as to whence
they derived their pretended right ; to which they returned an evasive answer , viz ., that they had the right , but for peace sake they would waive their right .
I am very sorry that the Grand Lodge had not courage enough to expel these pretenders for their impertinence , but , on the other hand , we must remember that the history of Masonry was then a great mystery ; that the mass of
Masons , who were always credulous , were already persuaded that there were higher degrees than the Grand Lodge knew of ; hence it was not difficult for a Masonic charlatan , who possessed a smattering of learning to make them believe he
had dived into the very centre of the " Masonic arcanum , and that he was in possession of secrets derived from the antediluvian " Masonic arcanum , " that there were older Masonic landmarks in existence than the Grand Lodge
knew of . The big sounding words arcanum and archives were alone sufficient to drive the simple members of the Graud Lodge out of their wits , and by some such means they were bluffed into silence , and accepted the compromise , viz ., " to waive . "
Again , Avhen in 1848 , Messrs . Gourgas , Moore and Co ., organised the so-called " Northern Jurisdiction " for the Scotch Rite , they again repeated and printed the dogma of having a right to rule Grand Lodges , but kindly
consented to waive their right , and , to the best of my belief , no American Grand Lodge took notice thereof . When , therefore , we see that the high degree quacks of the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions publicly claimed a
ri g ht to rule Grand Lodges , it is no wonder , therefore , that the Foulhouze Council of New Orleans , wbich was composed of the French-speaking residents of the said town , who , as Frenchmen , doubtless regarded themselves
as superior to the descendants of the English in every respect , and more especially in hip ^ h degree Masonry . Of course , the Foulhouzers also believed in their right to rule the Grand Lodjje of Louisiana ; and in 1850 the Foulhouze
Council assumed its right , and began to charter symbolic Lodges of its own . This state of things lasted for five years without any seeming disturbance . But in 1855 Bro . Samory and a few others were all at once struck with
a fit of conscience about the sins they committed to the Grand Lodge , and , therefore , in behalf of themselves ancl the Foulhouze Council , they made a concordat with what was then left of the Charleston Council .
I must here further explain that the high degreers have peculiar notions and a phraseology oftheir own—they date their meeting with the Hebrew month , and that is not all . Bishop Usher has settled to the satisfaction of the English
Church the exact age of the world . But Jewish scholars differ about it , and claim their reckoning to be right . Onr high degree philosophers have adopted the Jewish chronology , as I shall show hereafter . Again , the town
where they hold their meetings is called " the valley ; " a document containing a request is with them "a balustre , " and an agreement between Councils they call , Papal
style , " a concordat . " The exact conditions of Samory ' s concordat with the Charlestonians I know not , as it was not printed . Aud now for the New Orleans Proceedings : —¦
" Saturdav , 20 th < Sebat' A . M . 5617 . 14 th February 1857 . " The Council consisted of Albert G . Mackey , Samory ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Albert Pike Question.
THE ALBERT PIKE QUESTION .
BY BRO . JACOB NORION . IN undertaking to investigate controversies between the various factions of hig h degreers , I am apt to encounter either of the following obstacles : —first , unmixed
lies ; second , lies more or less mixed with truth ; and third , half-told truth ; the lasfc is the most mischievously misleading .
As a case in point , I sent you not long since a paragraph from the Detroit Freemason , which originally appeared in a Washington paper , viz ., the Capitol , in which ifc was stated that Claud Samory , the Lieutenant Grand Commander of
the Foulhouze Council at New Orleans , which was originally established in 1813 by Cerneau , had conferred the thirty-third degree on Albert Pike , 25 th April 1857 , and in a previous communication ( FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE ,
13 th December 1884 ) I sent you , I quoted from Pike ' s own writings that he did not know when he was elected a member , or when Commander . So putting this and that together , I said if the Detroit paragraph is true—that is , if
Pike received his thirty-thirdship from a Cerneauite—then he must be regarded as a bogus , and the Grand " Mother Supreme Council of the world " over which he presides is of course tainted by the connection , ancl hence all her
children aud grandchildren Councils the world over will lose their character for purity . Of course , according to my own belief , the whole of our eig ht American sovereigns of the A . and A . Riters , including our two African
sovereigns , are alike legal . But what is the use of reasoning with them ? Thus , if you question six out of the eight you will find that each is very positive that he alone is the real " Simon Pure , " and the others are bogus ; while the
sovereigns of our northern and southern jurisdictions are equally positive that they and their legitimate offspring are legal , and all the rest are impostors . Hence , if Bro . Pike
had received his thirty-three degree from an impure source , I could not see what rig ht he had to denounce the Cerneauites as clandestines .
Bro . Pike ' s forgetfulness as to when he became a member , & c , was still more surprising when I recalled to mind that he referred to a session at New Orleans in 1857 , of which he seemingly entertained no very hi g h opinion , for he said , in 1878 : —
' There is not in the Secretariat , so far as I can find , any minute of any session from May 1801 to the session of 1860 , except what is called a session at New Orleans in 1857 . "
The expression in the above quotation which I italicise , indicates a feeling of contempt for the 1857 session , and yet he is said to have received there the thirty-third degree . In short , I was puzzled . But as business called me
to New York I took the opportunity of calling on Bro . R . B . Folger , the well known historian of the A . ancl A . Rite in America . I shewed Brother Folger the Detroit Freemason , and asked whether the paragraph in
question was true ? Bro . Folger answered in the affirmative , to prove which he showed me an extract he copied from the New Orleans Scotch Rite Proceedings of 1857 , showing that Samory conferred on Pike the thirty-third
degree . Brother Folger further informed me that the said Proceedings of 1857 are very scarce , that there was but one copy , to the best of his belief , in New York , for which the owner would not take one hundred dollars , and
that from the said copy he extracted the paragraph I then asked Bro . Folger to publish the said paragraph in the next issue of his Masonic Chronicle , which he kindly promised to do .
Bro . Folger , in the course of conversation further informed me , that there had been a split in the Foulhouze Conncil at New Orleans about or before 1857 . This splitting business , you must know , is a chronic disease among
Scotch Riters . Well , Samory was the leader of the splitters , and he , with a few others , went over to the Charleston concern . Albert G . Mackey , who was then the chief cook and bottle washer of the said concern , went to New Orleans
in February 1857 , when he called together Samory and his squad of deserters , and gave each one a slap on his back , when , presto ! one and all were at once transformed from
Cerneauites into pure Southern Jurisdiction thirt y-t ' iirdlings . Albert Pike was to have received the 33 rd decree at that meeting , but a letter was received from him that he was detained at Washington , and that he would be in New
The Albert Pike Question.
Orleans later on . On the 25 th of April following Brother Pike was in New Orleans , and Samory held a session , and made Pike a thirty-thirder . The reader will now see how the "half-told truth , " which I found iu tho Detroit
Freemason , which originally appeared in The Capitol , led me to the erroneous belief that Bro . Pike received his thirty-third degree from Samory the Cerneauite , while in reality he received it from Samory after he was whitewashed from
Cerneauitism . This is " a horse of quite another colour . On ray return to Boston I told the above news to our Grand Secretary Bro . Nickerson ; and , briefly , Bro . Nickerson found a copy of the 1875 New Orleans Proceedings ,
from which I shall give some additional information . I must , however , premise that the Charleston high degreers in the last century pretended that , by virtue of their high degrees , they acquired the right to rule the Grand Lodge ,
Moreover , be it remembered that each of the said high degreers swore at his initiation , and when he took office in his Lodge , and in the Grand Lodge ( for they were P . G . Officers ) , to obey the regulations of the Grand Lodge ; how
then they were absolved from the said repeated oaths remains a mystery to this day . The Grand Lodge of South Carolina very naturally questioned them as to whence
they derived their pretended right ; to which they returned an evasive answer , viz ., that they had the right , but for peace sake they would waive their right .
I am very sorry that the Grand Lodge had not courage enough to expel these pretenders for their impertinence , but , on the other hand , we must remember that the history of Masonry was then a great mystery ; that the mass of
Masons , who were always credulous , were already persuaded that there were higher degrees than the Grand Lodge knew of ; hence it was not difficult for a Masonic charlatan , who possessed a smattering of learning to make them believe he
had dived into the very centre of the " Masonic arcanum , and that he was in possession of secrets derived from the antediluvian " Masonic arcanum , " that there were older Masonic landmarks in existence than the Grand Lodge
knew of . The big sounding words arcanum and archives were alone sufficient to drive the simple members of the Graud Lodge out of their wits , and by some such means they were bluffed into silence , and accepted the compromise , viz ., " to waive . "
Again , Avhen in 1848 , Messrs . Gourgas , Moore and Co ., organised the so-called " Northern Jurisdiction " for the Scotch Rite , they again repeated and printed the dogma of having a right to rule Grand Lodges , but kindly
consented to waive their right , and , to the best of my belief , no American Grand Lodge took notice thereof . When , therefore , we see that the high degree quacks of the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions publicly claimed a
ri g ht to rule Grand Lodges , it is no wonder , therefore , that the Foulhouze Council of New Orleans , wbich was composed of the French-speaking residents of the said town , who , as Frenchmen , doubtless regarded themselves
as superior to the descendants of the English in every respect , and more especially in hip ^ h degree Masonry . Of course , the Foulhouzers also believed in their right to rule the Grand Lodjje of Louisiana ; and in 1850 the Foulhouze
Council assumed its right , and began to charter symbolic Lodges of its own . This state of things lasted for five years without any seeming disturbance . But in 1855 Bro . Samory and a few others were all at once struck with
a fit of conscience about the sins they committed to the Grand Lodge , and , therefore , in behalf of themselves ancl the Foulhouze Council , they made a concordat with what was then left of the Charleston Council .
I must here further explain that the high degreers have peculiar notions and a phraseology oftheir own—they date their meeting with the Hebrew month , and that is not all . Bishop Usher has settled to the satisfaction of the English
Church the exact age of the world . But Jewish scholars differ about it , and claim their reckoning to be right . Onr high degree philosophers have adopted the Jewish chronology , as I shall show hereafter . Again , the town
where they hold their meetings is called " the valley ; " a document containing a request is with them "a balustre , " and an agreement between Councils they call , Papal
style , " a concordat . " The exact conditions of Samory ' s concordat with the Charlestonians I know not , as it was not printed . Aud now for the New Orleans Proceedings : —¦
" Saturdav , 20 th < Sebat' A . M . 5617 . 14 th February 1857 . " The Council consisted of Albert G . Mackey , Samory ,