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Article THE CANADIAN MOVEMENT. ← Page 9 of 11 →
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The Canadian Movement.
Chapel , and the other also had passed away from eartli . An assumed elective supremacy * in the one case , and a silently assumed rigid to act in the other , were all that were thought necessary in those c good days of old . * Nor was more thought needful when the Massachusetts and St . John ' s Grand Lodges united in 1792 , and formed the present Grand Lodge of Massachusetts .
: " . If all this action was not secession , by what name is it to be described ? Whoever heard , among it all , that the ' consent' of the ' .- ¦' Grand Body' was asked , and who so ignorant as not ^^ inaugurated a * new body , with an independent existence , and independent powers . ' This being true , the committee of Massachusetts must either disavow themselves , oradmit that independent action is to be enjoyed by them only in common with others .
"I quote another paragraph from the report of the Massachusetts Committee . ' Each Grand Lodge in the United States rules and governs without interference from any other , all Lodges within the civil jurisdiction of the State in which she is situated— -holding the Territories as common ground , wherein each Grand Lodge is free to charter Lodges at pleasure , until each Territory , by being regularly admitted to the Union as a State , acquiresthe right to form a Grand Lodge , for itself . Your Committee are aware that this has sometimes been done before
admission as a State ; but although it may be alleged in excuse that Territories are States in process of formation , we still think the practice illegal , and not to be justified '> in any erne , the only safe rule , in our opinion , being that laid down . ' ' ' ¦¦ The first portion of this opinion admits of no controversy : —no one denies its truth and correctness . The second portion has no truth to sustain it , and , if Massachusetts holds to it , she stands alone . I would be highly thankful to know ,
when , where 9 and by whom any such rule , as to the Grand Lodges of the Territories , was established , and -what Grand Lodge has either assented to or acquiesced in it . For myself , I know of none . If such Grand Lodges are of doubtful validity , I cannot withold the question , whether my own native and loved State is not now in full Masonic communion with Minnesota , Oregon , and Kansas ?—and if she is not , why she does not inform her sister Grand Lodges that her Masonic compasses do not embrace them in this circle of Masonic Brotherhood .
" The Committee of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts find no difficulty in deciding , that all the reasons given by the formers of the Grand Lodge of Canada make out only a case of ' simple inconvenience ; ' hold the action they have taken to be rebellion ; assert that 'in Masonry there can be no long-continued oppression , ' that 'there can be no temptation to tyranny , for nothing is to he gained by it , ' and that ' within certain " bounds the will of the majority is absolute . ' They then most fraternally call the Grand Lodge of England ' our venerable Mother , ' protest against the newly formed Grand Lodge of Canada by resolution , and forbid all Masonic communication with it or with any Lodge or individual
having any connection therewith . " It is doubtless always 'inconvenient' for Masonry to be governed by a power three thousand miles off and across an ocean . The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts itself found it so at the close of the revolutionary war , and remedied the ' inconvenience' by its own act . Canada , even more inconveniently situated than Massachusetts , has simply done an act of the same kind . Is it possible , in the world's or in Heaven ' s high chancery , to hold one to be loyal and the other treasonable 1
That ' side of the majority' which ' within certain bounds is absolute / and Avhich the Massachusetts Committee see clearly to he a protection against ' oppression and tyranny , ' has been prostrated upon the floor of the Grand Lodge of England by the despotic will of the present Grand Master , and has at this moment , as every well-informed Mason knows , only a mythical existence , at least within that Grand Lodge of ' our venerable Mother . '
• S f T I 1 /» 11 P 1 1 . _ _ . ^ -. - » . . . 1 .. / sn ^ vltlti A * - * - » -X *« . r . . 'I A / I I -VWW 4- l ^ i- " \ £ * -M * ^ m ^ > -l T « * - I ^ . * > - » ^ A '"In the full meaning of the second resolution passed by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , at the recommendation of its committee , a very large range is taken . Carried out to its results , as it obviously reads , some seven or eight State Grand Lodges , all their subordinates ,, and all the members of each , are literally excommunicated from association with that Grand body , —inasmuch as that number of Grand Lodges have agreed that they will have ' connection' with this same
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Canadian Movement.
Chapel , and the other also had passed away from eartli . An assumed elective supremacy * in the one case , and a silently assumed rigid to act in the other , were all that were thought necessary in those c good days of old . * Nor was more thought needful when the Massachusetts and St . John ' s Grand Lodges united in 1792 , and formed the present Grand Lodge of Massachusetts .
: " . If all this action was not secession , by what name is it to be described ? Whoever heard , among it all , that the ' consent' of the ' .- ¦' Grand Body' was asked , and who so ignorant as not ^^ inaugurated a * new body , with an independent existence , and independent powers . ' This being true , the committee of Massachusetts must either disavow themselves , oradmit that independent action is to be enjoyed by them only in common with others .
"I quote another paragraph from the report of the Massachusetts Committee . ' Each Grand Lodge in the United States rules and governs without interference from any other , all Lodges within the civil jurisdiction of the State in which she is situated— -holding the Territories as common ground , wherein each Grand Lodge is free to charter Lodges at pleasure , until each Territory , by being regularly admitted to the Union as a State , acquiresthe right to form a Grand Lodge , for itself . Your Committee are aware that this has sometimes been done before
admission as a State ; but although it may be alleged in excuse that Territories are States in process of formation , we still think the practice illegal , and not to be justified '> in any erne , the only safe rule , in our opinion , being that laid down . ' ' ' ¦¦ The first portion of this opinion admits of no controversy : —no one denies its truth and correctness . The second portion has no truth to sustain it , and , if Massachusetts holds to it , she stands alone . I would be highly thankful to know ,
when , where 9 and by whom any such rule , as to the Grand Lodges of the Territories , was established , and -what Grand Lodge has either assented to or acquiesced in it . For myself , I know of none . If such Grand Lodges are of doubtful validity , I cannot withold the question , whether my own native and loved State is not now in full Masonic communion with Minnesota , Oregon , and Kansas ?—and if she is not , why she does not inform her sister Grand Lodges that her Masonic compasses do not embrace them in this circle of Masonic Brotherhood .
" The Committee of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts find no difficulty in deciding , that all the reasons given by the formers of the Grand Lodge of Canada make out only a case of ' simple inconvenience ; ' hold the action they have taken to be rebellion ; assert that 'in Masonry there can be no long-continued oppression , ' that 'there can be no temptation to tyranny , for nothing is to he gained by it , ' and that ' within certain " bounds the will of the majority is absolute . ' They then most fraternally call the Grand Lodge of England ' our venerable Mother , ' protest against the newly formed Grand Lodge of Canada by resolution , and forbid all Masonic communication with it or with any Lodge or individual
having any connection therewith . " It is doubtless always 'inconvenient' for Masonry to be governed by a power three thousand miles off and across an ocean . The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts itself found it so at the close of the revolutionary war , and remedied the ' inconvenience' by its own act . Canada , even more inconveniently situated than Massachusetts , has simply done an act of the same kind . Is it possible , in the world's or in Heaven ' s high chancery , to hold one to be loyal and the other treasonable 1
That ' side of the majority' which ' within certain bounds is absolute / and Avhich the Massachusetts Committee see clearly to he a protection against ' oppression and tyranny , ' has been prostrated upon the floor of the Grand Lodge of England by the despotic will of the present Grand Master , and has at this moment , as every well-informed Mason knows , only a mythical existence , at least within that Grand Lodge of ' our venerable Mother . '
• S f T I 1 /» 11 P 1 1 . _ _ . ^ -. - » . . . 1 .. / sn ^ vltlti A * - * - » -X *« . r . . 'I A / I I -VWW 4- l ^ i- " \ £ * -M * ^ m ^ > -l T « * - I ^ . * > - » ^ A '"In the full meaning of the second resolution passed by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , at the recommendation of its committee , a very large range is taken . Carried out to its results , as it obviously reads , some seven or eight State Grand Lodges , all their subordinates ,, and all the members of each , are literally excommunicated from association with that Grand body , —inasmuch as that number of Grand Lodges have agreed that they will have ' connection' with this same