Committees Of Foreign Correspondence.

COMMITTEES OF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE .

By BRO . JACOB NORTON . WITH the exception of Massachusetts , every Grand Lodge in the United States has a Committee of

Correspondence . The Committee usually consists of three brethren ; but in reality the Chairman of the Committee is the Committee . One would naturally suppose from its name or title that its function was to correspond with

Foreign Grand Lodges , thafc the reports of the said Committees are filled with translations into English of all the letters they sent or received ; but this is nofc the case , for they neither send nor receive any letters . In short thero is no

correspondence carried on between them and any one . Their title is a misnomer ; it ought to have been named THE ILLTJMINIZING COMMITTEE , for its function is to make known the doings of other Grand Lodges , both afc home

and abroad ; their information is collected from the printed Proceedings of said Grand Lodges ; these Proceedings are arranged by the Chairman in alphabetical order , he begins with a report of a Grand Lodge whose first

letter is A , for instance , Alabama , and so goes on to the end or near the end of the alphabet . After an American Grand Lodge is opened , and some necessary matters are disposed of , the Grand Master

delivers an oration : if he is very pious the oration will be peppered with piety , if he has a taste for history he will enlighten the Grand Lodge in that line . As during his one year office he receives numerous questions about all

kinds of Masonic laws , & c , some pages are filled with his answers or descriptions ; and if he is a Gourgasite , ho will endeavour to prove from history , jurisprudence , & c , & c , that the Cerneauites are bogus , spurious , illegitimate ,

and what not , and they therefore ought to be expelled from all rights and privileges of Masonry . As a rule , however , every Grand Master in hia oration is apt to stickle for " ancient landmarks . " Now in 1869 I heard a G . M . of New York deliver his oration—of course ho

believed in ancient landmarks—and among his jurisprudence decisions there was one derived from the laws of the old operative Masons about ; " sound limb . " But the New York Grand Master went even further than tho

requirement of the bricklayers and stonecutters of olden times , ho said : If a man has a speck in ono of his eyes ho is disqualified for Masonry . The G . M . was a lawyer , but he reasoned like a parson of the last century , viz .: because

Moses wrote in Leviticus that a " blind , broken , or maimed animal shall nofc be offered to the Lord , " therefore , said the G . M .., a defect in one eye disqualifies a man from being offiered to the Lord at the Masonic altar . Another Grand

Master has recently decided that if a man has lost one finger he cannofc be initiated into Masonry , and another G . M . went even so far as to disqualify a man for Masonry

( as I shall show hereafter ) who lost only a joint of one of his fingers . Of course , we now and then find here and there more sensible Grand Masters than those above

described , but I have met with very few who do not believe in somo kind of ancient landmarks . The same variety of sensible and foolish may be found among the Chairmen of Committees of Foreign

Correspondence , and of course a sensible Chairman of such a Committee will point out the faults of a foolish Grand Master , and a foolish , superstitious , or prejudiced Chairman will censure a sensible Grand Master . The majority ,

however , of the Chairmen of said Committees either lack courage to argue or feel themselves unable to do so , so they content themselves with merely giving extracts from the various Proceedings , and acknowledge some compliments

they received from some other Chairmen . Sometimes they try to show off some wit , and more than once a Chairman makes a " new departure , " viz ., in guessing historical events , as our Bro . Fellows , of New Orleans , has done .

Now , the Grand Lodge of Dakota appointed , in 1887 , Bro . F . J . Thompson for Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Correspondence , and his first Report appeared in

1888 . It has produced a commotion among the pious and Conservative Chairmen of said Committees . I will just give a few specimens from his Report . The Grand Master of Montana , in 1887 , began his address as follows : —

" Since our last meeting , another year has come and gone . " Bro . Thompson— " This is a very strange occurrence , and with peculiar force . The following is very remarkable . "

Committees Of Foreign Correspondence.

Q . M . of Montana— ' Again we are permitted to meet on in an annual convocation for purposes of the future . " Bro . Thompson— "Did this Grand Lodge ever meet in annual convocation for purposes of the past ?" G . M . of Montana— " The right of individual opinion and the grand principles of civil and religious liberty , in the

maintenance of which Past Grand Master Washington and his followers gained a crown of glory , are fundamental axioms among enlightened Masons . " Bro . Thompson— " A good many things have been laid to George Washington , bufc this is the first time we have ever heard him accused of having been a Grand Master . " * The Grand Lodge of Texas always was a model of piety , and it has during the last thirty-five years expelled from

Masonry a number of brethren for disbelieving in the ' inspiration of the Bible . Now this , if consistently carried ont , every Mason who disbelieves in witchcraft or driving out of devils , & c , & c , ought to be ignomimonsly expelled from Masonry . Bro . Thompson makes the following comments thereon : —

" The Grand Master [ of Texas ] declares that a belief in the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures is an indispensible pre-requisite to Masonic admission . I would recommend that in addition to the questions now required to be asked tho candidates , that the following be added : ' Bo yon believe in the divine authenticitv of the Scrintures ?'"

Bro . Thompson thus continues : — " The case of a brother who was charged with the heinous offence of asserting that he did not believe in the divine authenticity of the Bible , was brought on an- appeal before the said Grand Lodge , and because the Lodge had acauitted him . the committee , to whom the Question was

referred , said that a fair trial cannot be had in that Lodge [ ifc therefore ] reversed the decision of the Lodge , and ordered the D . G . M . to attend the new trial and to see—fas we read through the lines—that the brother was found guilty . " There is a specimen of Texas jurisprudence which I

referred to above , viz , : that " the loss of a joint of one finger is a physical disqualification . " Upon this Brother Thompson remarks : — , ( As to the physical qualification question , that is a mixed one , but our observation leads us to believe that the

more intelligent the members of a Grand Lodge are , the more liberal it is in its constructions of qualifications . " Bravo , Bro . Thompson ! there never was more trath given in as few words as the above paragraph , contains . You have indeed called things by their right name , viz .: if leading men of our Grand Lodges were sensible , they would not have such foolish laws . Our brother then goes

on to say : — " As to the requirement of belief in the divine authenticity of the Bible , we are led to but one conclusion , that such a regulation makes a farce of the word ' Ancient , ' as Maaonically understood , and aubstitutes either the word Jewish or Christian ; to either of which

I have no personal objection , if applied to the proper thing , bnfc for an Institntion which declares that it knows no creed ; either one of the above appellations would be out of place . Our understanding in this matter is that belief in a Supreme Intelligence is required only and we have thus far failed to see or hear from any legitimate source

anything connected with Masonry which requires a person to believe the Bible is of divine authenticity . If such a belief were to be required , then we could not as a logical sequence recognise a person

as a Mason who had taken for himself onr obligations with hia hand npon any other sacred writings except that of the Bible , and thus it would make our much vaunted claim to the universality of Masonry bnt an idle dream . "

Some two or more years since , I referred to a Grand Master who expelled a Mason for being an agnostic , and Bro . Wheeler Grand Secretary , and also Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge df Connecticut , approved of the doings of the Grand Master of Canada , while Bro . Thompson f deals with him even shorter than he did with the Grand Master of Texas . He

says : — If it be essential to believe in God , ia it necessary to believe in the God of Adam ? Thus , "He made man in hia , own image , " consequently is similar in form to man .

If it is necessary to believe the Old Testament to be , an inspired revelation from God P We mean , is a belief in these things necessary for the Masonio admission . If they be true , then God must be like a man in form , or else it is nntrue . Bro . Wheeler does not believe that Masonry came to us through