Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Supreme Grand Council Of The Thirty-Third Degree,
necessary for any honest or truthful purpose , and they who held such probably forgot , that according to our Masonic doctrine , there was an EYE which looked clown upon them and witnessed their unhallowed work . But rest assured , Brethren , that he who chiefly exults in the result of his schemes , will feel the eye of indignation frown upon him and the finger of scorn will point out the traitor to fraternal friendship . I will not dwell upon a subject so disgusting . This is neither the time nor lace to enter into a detail of intri and combinationsIt is to
p gues . me satisfaction enough to be able to compare and to contrast the condition of the Grand Lodge at two points of time—my entrance to office in 1829 , and my retirement in 1846 . From 1825 to 1829 tlle expenditure of the Grand Lodge had been no less than six thousand six hundred and fifty dollars over their receipts . From that time to this , by the faithful co-operation of the D . G . M . Onyers , the G . T . Van Berschoten , and those who succeeded them , I was enabled to check the destruction
of the permanent fund and to keep the expenditure of the Grand Loclge within its income , although , for several years , that income was continually decreasing . On my retirement I leave the Grand Lodge free from debt—money in the treasury—the permanent fund untouched—ancl an extra fund of three thousand dollars towards the erection of an asylum for our aged Brethren and the widows and orphans of the Fraternity . There is another point not unworthof notice bthose who will have
y y the future conduct of the affairs of our Grand Loclge . In 1829 , there were upon the register about five hundred Lodges nominally holding under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of this State . Of these , a large proportion had not made any returns , or paid any dues to the Grand Lod
ge , in three , ten , fifteen , and even twenty years . Nobody knew who were their officers—what they were about—or whether they were in existence . They appeared to have entirely forgotten that such a body as the Grand Lodge was in being . To ascertain the condition of these bodies I wrote some thousands of letters , and reported the result from time to time . Some treated the Grand Lodge with positive contempt , a few were brought into good standing , but much
the larger proportion did nothing from that time to this ; and their warrants were successively declared forfeited , until the whole number left amounted to only seventy-two . To obtain the property or even the old warrants of the erased Lodges was found to be impossible , even when properly authorized persons were sent to demand them , and , as a final disposition of the subject , the Grand Lodge , in June 1839 , after a patient labour of ten years , determined to give them the last opportunity of performing their duty , by resolving that all the forfeited warrants which should not be surrendered or revived I " with consent of the
Grand Lodge ) , previous to June , 1840 , were for ever annulled and incapable of being revived . By this act the Grand Lodge exhibited their determination to vindicate their own honour—sustain their own laws—and put an end to the vexation of labouring in vain to bring some fifteen thousand Masons to their duty . This last decision , like the appeals which had preceded it , was disregarded . Masonry no longer appeared in her golden irdle and clad in le ancl fine linenbut
g purp , faint and weary , and in distress , and , as they thought , near to her end . There were no sounds of joy in her halls—there was no honour in her offices—no profit in her associations . Surrounded by enemies without , and abandoned by pretending friends , the Grand Lodge was reduced to a very small assembly ; so small , that it was sometimes very doubtful
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Supreme Grand Council Of The Thirty-Third Degree,
necessary for any honest or truthful purpose , and they who held such probably forgot , that according to our Masonic doctrine , there was an EYE which looked clown upon them and witnessed their unhallowed work . But rest assured , Brethren , that he who chiefly exults in the result of his schemes , will feel the eye of indignation frown upon him and the finger of scorn will point out the traitor to fraternal friendship . I will not dwell upon a subject so disgusting . This is neither the time nor lace to enter into a detail of intri and combinationsIt is to
p gues . me satisfaction enough to be able to compare and to contrast the condition of the Grand Lodge at two points of time—my entrance to office in 1829 , and my retirement in 1846 . From 1825 to 1829 tlle expenditure of the Grand Lodge had been no less than six thousand six hundred and fifty dollars over their receipts . From that time to this , by the faithful co-operation of the D . G . M . Onyers , the G . T . Van Berschoten , and those who succeeded them , I was enabled to check the destruction
of the permanent fund and to keep the expenditure of the Grand Loclge within its income , although , for several years , that income was continually decreasing . On my retirement I leave the Grand Lodge free from debt—money in the treasury—the permanent fund untouched—ancl an extra fund of three thousand dollars towards the erection of an asylum for our aged Brethren and the widows and orphans of the Fraternity . There is another point not unworthof notice bthose who will have
y y the future conduct of the affairs of our Grand Loclge . In 1829 , there were upon the register about five hundred Lodges nominally holding under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of this State . Of these , a large proportion had not made any returns , or paid any dues to the Grand Lod
ge , in three , ten , fifteen , and even twenty years . Nobody knew who were their officers—what they were about—or whether they were in existence . They appeared to have entirely forgotten that such a body as the Grand Lodge was in being . To ascertain the condition of these bodies I wrote some thousands of letters , and reported the result from time to time . Some treated the Grand Lodge with positive contempt , a few were brought into good standing , but much
the larger proportion did nothing from that time to this ; and their warrants were successively declared forfeited , until the whole number left amounted to only seventy-two . To obtain the property or even the old warrants of the erased Lodges was found to be impossible , even when properly authorized persons were sent to demand them , and , as a final disposition of the subject , the Grand Lodge , in June 1839 , after a patient labour of ten years , determined to give them the last opportunity of performing their duty , by resolving that all the forfeited warrants which should not be surrendered or revived I " with consent of the
Grand Lodge ) , previous to June , 1840 , were for ever annulled and incapable of being revived . By this act the Grand Lodge exhibited their determination to vindicate their own honour—sustain their own laws—and put an end to the vexation of labouring in vain to bring some fifteen thousand Masons to their duty . This last decision , like the appeals which had preceded it , was disregarded . Masonry no longer appeared in her golden irdle and clad in le ancl fine linenbut
g purp , faint and weary , and in distress , and , as they thought , near to her end . There were no sounds of joy in her halls—there was no honour in her offices—no profit in her associations . Surrounded by enemies without , and abandoned by pretending friends , the Grand Lodge was reduced to a very small assembly ; so small , that it was sometimes very doubtful