Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
America
campment appears i ^ pon record . A copy from the original minutes I herewith transcribe ' . :, . "At a convention holden at Mason ' s Hall ; in the city of New York , on the twentieth and twenty-first of June , a . d . 1816 , consisting of delegates , or Knights Companions , from eight Councils and Encampments of Knights Ternplar , and the appendant Orders , viz . : *— -Boston Encampment , Boston ; St . John ' s Encampment , Providence ; Ancient Encampment , 3 $ e w York ; Temple Ericampment , Albany ; Montgomery Eneampmentj Still water ; St . Paul ' s Encampmen t , Newb ury port ; Newport Enca-mpment , JSTewport ; Banus Encampment , Portland . ' *
When they - ibrnied > adopted and ratified " a constitution , which they in its first section , declared should be a General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar , and the appendant Orders , for the United States of America . This constitution is in print , and accessible to all , and has beeh handed down to us of the present day in full force and vigour revised and amended , from time to time , as the good of the institution required ; . .. The first article , and first section , states of whom the General Grand Encamps rhent shall be composed . 11 is made to eon sist of the G . G . Master , and the other
G * Gv Officers , all Past G . G . Masters , Deputy G . G . Masters , G . G-. Generalissimos and G . G . Captains General of the G . Grand Encampment ; the Grand Rasters , Deputy Grand Master ^ , Grand Generalissimos and Captains General of all such State Grand ^ and the said enumerated Officers , or their proxies , shall be the only mmnoers < md voters in the said G . Grand Encamprrient . Afterward , ih September , 1826 , by an amehdrnent made to the constitution > subordinates and chartered Encarhpttiehts ,
by their first four Officers , jointly with one vote , had the right secured ^ t ^ a representation in the General Grand Encampment . This constitution looked to the institutionand establishment of subordinates , both State and individual , in all the States and Territories of the United States . All authority necessary for the government and well-being of Templar Masonry in the United States , was vested in it , and flowed from it . And the supervisory power over all w as full and ample . It was made as similar to the system of government of our " ancient Knights Templar " as circumstances would permit . A head government , as the source of
power creating and supervising subordinates , both Grand and individual , answering to the places and jurisdictions of Priories , Preceptories , and Commanderies of old . Its jurisdiction over the whole , and over ail States and Territories in which new Encampments , or Commanderies , were to be established , w as ample and complete . Each individual Encampment , or Commandery , before existing , by the principles and usages of our Order , must have been subordinate and under fealty to its superior . That superior was to be found in Europe . But the independence of these United States in civil government , the love of liberty , and the love of that country where their liberty dwelt and was maintained , was shared in common
by our Masonic citizens , who indeed were foremost in the struggle for home-rule , and the establishment of our own federal government , by a constitution immortal for its wisdom , and destined , I trust , to be immortal in its perpetuity . Hence it is fair to rjresume , that the worthy Templars composing each of those individual Encampments , preferred that their chief head , and , chief government , should be in their own country ; and that its jurisdiction should be bounded only by the civil jurisdiction of such government . Like the Knights of old , when a grand Master was to be chosen , the officers assembled in convention , or chapter , elected their chief , and adopted siich statutes , or regulations as the good of the Order required .
There were great and good men in that convention , who founded our present chief government , many of them renowned for their learning , and distinguished as among the ablest men of the nation , and all illustrious as Masons of enlarged experience and undoubted love of the Order . I need but mention the names of the principal officers elected and serving under that new constitution , to awaken the most profound respect for the memories of those valiant and magnanimous Knights ,
There was the M . E . and Hon . Dewitt Clinton , of New York , G . G . Master ; Thomas Smith Webb , Esq ., of Boston , D . G . G . Master ; Henry Eowle , Esq ., of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
America
campment appears i ^ pon record . A copy from the original minutes I herewith transcribe ' . :, . "At a convention holden at Mason ' s Hall ; in the city of New York , on the twentieth and twenty-first of June , a . d . 1816 , consisting of delegates , or Knights Companions , from eight Councils and Encampments of Knights Ternplar , and the appendant Orders , viz . : *— -Boston Encampment , Boston ; St . John ' s Encampment , Providence ; Ancient Encampment , 3 $ e w York ; Temple Ericampment , Albany ; Montgomery Eneampmentj Still water ; St . Paul ' s Encampmen t , Newb ury port ; Newport Enca-mpment , JSTewport ; Banus Encampment , Portland . ' *
When they - ibrnied > adopted and ratified " a constitution , which they in its first section , declared should be a General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar , and the appendant Orders , for the United States of America . This constitution is in print , and accessible to all , and has beeh handed down to us of the present day in full force and vigour revised and amended , from time to time , as the good of the institution required ; . .. The first article , and first section , states of whom the General Grand Encamps rhent shall be composed . 11 is made to eon sist of the G . G . Master , and the other
G * Gv Officers , all Past G . G . Masters , Deputy G . G . Masters , G . G-. Generalissimos and G . G . Captains General of the G . Grand Encampment ; the Grand Rasters , Deputy Grand Master ^ , Grand Generalissimos and Captains General of all such State Grand ^ and the said enumerated Officers , or their proxies , shall be the only mmnoers < md voters in the said G . Grand Encamprrient . Afterward , ih September , 1826 , by an amehdrnent made to the constitution > subordinates and chartered Encarhpttiehts ,
by their first four Officers , jointly with one vote , had the right secured ^ t ^ a representation in the General Grand Encampment . This constitution looked to the institutionand establishment of subordinates , both State and individual , in all the States and Territories of the United States . All authority necessary for the government and well-being of Templar Masonry in the United States , was vested in it , and flowed from it . And the supervisory power over all w as full and ample . It was made as similar to the system of government of our " ancient Knights Templar " as circumstances would permit . A head government , as the source of
power creating and supervising subordinates , both Grand and individual , answering to the places and jurisdictions of Priories , Preceptories , and Commanderies of old . Its jurisdiction over the whole , and over ail States and Territories in which new Encampments , or Commanderies , were to be established , w as ample and complete . Each individual Encampment , or Commandery , before existing , by the principles and usages of our Order , must have been subordinate and under fealty to its superior . That superior was to be found in Europe . But the independence of these United States in civil government , the love of liberty , and the love of that country where their liberty dwelt and was maintained , was shared in common
by our Masonic citizens , who indeed were foremost in the struggle for home-rule , and the establishment of our own federal government , by a constitution immortal for its wisdom , and destined , I trust , to be immortal in its perpetuity . Hence it is fair to rjresume , that the worthy Templars composing each of those individual Encampments , preferred that their chief head , and , chief government , should be in their own country ; and that its jurisdiction should be bounded only by the civil jurisdiction of such government . Like the Knights of old , when a grand Master was to be chosen , the officers assembled in convention , or chapter , elected their chief , and adopted siich statutes , or regulations as the good of the Order required .
There were great and good men in that convention , who founded our present chief government , many of them renowned for their learning , and distinguished as among the ablest men of the nation , and all illustrious as Masons of enlarged experience and undoubted love of the Order . I need but mention the names of the principal officers elected and serving under that new constitution , to awaken the most profound respect for the memories of those valiant and magnanimous Knights ,
There was the M . E . and Hon . Dewitt Clinton , of New York , G . G . Master ; Thomas Smith Webb , Esq ., of Boston , D . G . G . Master ; Henry Eowle , Esq ., of