THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
august 1916
volume 2 - number 8
THE STORY OF "OLD GLORY" -- THE OLDEST FLAG
BY BRO. JNO. W. BARRY, IOWA
PART II
JUST what suggested to Washington either the Cambridge flag
or the
stars and stripes can never be known because he never
referred to
the matter in any way. Yet several theories are advanced,
each
claimed, to be the one. In No. 18-A, the flag of the
Philadelphia
Light Horse Troop is shown. Preble says:--(14)
"This is the first known instance of the use of stripes to
represent the colonies." Abraham Markoe was captain of the
Philadelphia Light Horse Troop. King Christian VII of
Denmark, of
which country Markoe was a citizen, forbade his subjects
taking
sides against England under pain of confiscation of all
their
property. Captain Markoe decided to resign and in doing so
presented this flag, which the .. Troop used June 23, 1775,
in
escorting both Washington and Philip Schuyler as far as New
York on
their way to take command of the army at Cambridge. Whether
this
flag suggested the stripes to either Washington or Schuyler
must be
forever unknown. But because it is thought to have done so,
the
flag is carefully preserved between glass plates--the
treasure of
this famous troop whose organization is still as young and
vigorous
as when founded in 1774. The Light Horse has participated
in nearly
every presidential inauguration from Washington to Wilson
and in
other national functions--often under the banner given them
by
their first captain.
Another theory assigns Washington's arms (Fig. 19, Color
Plate) as
the real origin of both the stars and stripes. However,
Washington
never in any connection referred to his arms as even
remotely
connected with the flag and did not use it until very late
in life,
and then for the most part only as a book mark. Still
another
theory is that the flag of Rhode Island was the real
inspiration.
However, this theory is seldom referred to because of other
suggestions of an earlier date.
Finally there is a theory that John Adams took the idea of
the
stars from the constellation Lyra, which in the hands of
Orpheus
meant harmony-- hence the wording of the resolution
"representing
a new constellation"-- but John Adams never said so--and
other
record, there is none.
Preble after citing the Philadelphia Light Horse flag as
suggesting
the stripes, says (15) that the first known suggestion of
stars
appeared in the Massachusetts Spy for March 10, 1774, and
was
written for the anniversary of the Boston Massacre.
"A ray of bright glory now beams from afar,
The American ensign now sparkles a star
Which shortly shall flame wide through the skies."
But here again theory alone is the only basis for belief.
Whether
the flag of the English East India Company was known to
Washington
is as much a theory as any of the others, the presumption
being in
its favor only because it was an old and well known flag
and almost
the exact counterpart of the one Washington did raise at
Cambridge
"to the joy of the British" at Boston. But why look beyond
Washington for eliminating the King's Colors and
substituting the
stars of an independent nation ? Washington raised the
Cambridge
flag--it was his idea, no matter from what source
suggested. Later,
in Philadelphia with independence in sight, he knew the
flag would
have to be changed and had his drawing of it. He asked
George Ross
who could do it, and was taken to the widow of his nephew,
John
Ross, a fellow patriot. The idea was Washington's as much
as were
the plans for the battle of Trenton or Princeton or
Yorktown.
It is a striking coincidence that Columbus discovered
America while
looking for India and then the flag of the United states
300 years
after should find its prototype in the flag of India.
PEACE--PEACE AND THERE WAS NO PEACE
Peace was declared in 1783, but there was no peace in
reality until
after the war of 1812. Not only were English troops
maintained on
American soil, but England refused to send a minister to
the U.S.
and John Adams, our minister to England, received unjust
snubs at
every turn as his only recognition and returned to the U.S.
in
utter disgust. Following England's lead, most of the
nations also
refused trade arrangements with us. Finally our condition
became so
bad that our surplus products rotted where they grew.
Conditions
became much worse than during the war, for owing to the
policies
pursued toward us by foreign countries, our manufacturers,
small as
they were, were utterly destroyed. The states not only
declined to
live up to the Confederation, but were at such enmity with
each
other as to actually resort to the use of arms, and
blood-shed was
but narrowly averted. A reign of anarchy worse than the
French
Revolution that followed, was everywhere predicted. Could
the
states be saved from themselves? Lord Sheffield, predicting
dire
anarchy, suggested that "in case of the renewal of
hostilities, a
few stout frigates cruising on the Coast would be all
sufficient--
that it would be wise to send a consul to EACH state. (16)
Josiah Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, wrote:--"As to the
grandeur of
America and its being a rising empire under one head,
whether
republican or monarchial, that is one of the idlest and
most
visionary thoughts ever conceived by writers of
romance--They are
a disunited people to the end of time, suspicious and
distrustful
of each other, they will be divided and subdivided into
commonwealths and principalities." (17)
That such foreign comment was more than justified may be
judged
from a letter Washington wrote from Mt. Vernon to Knox,
Dec. 26,
1786, thus:--"I feel my dear General Knox, infinitely more
than I
can express to you, for the disorders that have arisen in
these
states. "Good God! Who besides a Tory could have foreseen
or a
Briton predicted them ?" (18)
Before the so-called peace, every effort was made to show
how much
better the English soldiers fared, and after peace, the
English
parliament spent over $30,000,000 to reimburse American
Tories who
had left the United states and no opportunity was lost to
contrast
this munificence with the almost nothing Congress was able
to do
for the Revolutionary soldiers and sailors. Was the flag
they
carried to victory world renowned to go down in the strife
miscalled peace, as "Rebel Stripes" ? Truly the warfare of
peace
was more deadly than the cannon shot and shell. But the
wiser
council prevailed, and finally the Constitution was adopted
and the
stars and stripes came triumphant even through that strife
called
peace. Instead of the prophesied division, two new stars
and two
new stripes were added to the flag May 1, 1795, to
represent
Kentucky and Vermont.
FROM THE CIRCLE TO THE "OBLONG SQUARE"
The bill for the flag change originated in the Senate and
on Jan.
7, 1794, the House considered the bill in a long debate,
which
contrasts sharply with the adoption of the original thirty
word
flag resolution June 14, 1777. The most effective argument
in favor
of the change was the importance first of notifying the
world at
large by the STARS in the flag of the nation, that so far
from
division, there were new states ADDED, and second the great
importance of not offending the new states. In Fig. 20,
Color
Plate, the flag change is shown.--So the circle of 13 stars
became
the oblong square of 15 stars--a step in advance, to the
utter
discrediting of the pessimists.
This is truly a flag of "passing"--a coming of the nation
to the
vigor of young manhood--a passing from the small petty
jealousy of
strict construction to the broad national policy embodied
in the
Louisiana Purchase. It is the flag under which real peace
and union
were achieved through the war of 1812; the flag that
inspired Perry
to outdo Caesar's famous message, "I came, I saw, I
conquered,"
with his: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." But
while its
material achievements are great almost beyond compare, yet
its
chief claim to distinction must ever be regarded as that of
converting the minds of the people from the idea of a mere
loose
aggregation of sovereign and independent states to that of
one
great united and happy commonwealth.
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER FLAG
The thought is crystalized in The Star Spangled Banner by
Francis
Scott Key. His brother-in-law, Chief Justice Taney, says
that the
scene described is no mere fancy but exactly what Key saw
and felt
while the battle was fought and when it was won by his
countrymen.
Key had gone out to the British fleet under a flag of truce
to get
his friend Dr. Barnes released, and was himself then held
as
prisoner until after the battle.
The picture here shown in No. 21 is from a photograph of
the actual
Star Spangled Banner flag in 1774. This was a large flag,
being 29
feet hoist and 40 feet fly before relic hunters shortened
it to 32.
It has 15 stripes each two feet wide and 15 stars each two
feet
from point to point. It can't be said the enemy "never
touched it,"
but you ought to have seen the flag of the English Admiral
Cochrane.
Strangely enough, the music to which the star Spangled
Banner is
sung, like the music of "America," is from an Old English
song
entitled "To Anacreon in Heaven."
ESTABLISHING "OLD GLORY"
In 1794 when the proposed addition of two stars and two
stripes was
under discussion, a few opposed it and asked what would be
done
when there would be twenty new states. This statement
though
ridiculed as the objection of a dreamer, yet by 1816 it was
near
fact, so that this time it was proposed to ESTABLISH the
United
states flag in some form that would represent all the
states all
the time. Congressman Peter Wendover of New York introduced
a
resolution in December, 1816, with this in view. After
pages of
discussion the matter was referred to Captain Samuel C.
Reid famous
as the commander of the General Armstrong during the great
sea
fight in the harbor of Fayal. Such was the man who was
asked to
design a flag to represent ALL the states ALL the time so
that
Congress might ESTABLISH the flag once and for all. He
designed the
present flag meeting the requirement as follows:
1. For the original 13 states, the original flag of 13
stars and 13
stripes.
2. For the new states already admitted, one additional star
for
each.
3. For future states, one star for each to be inserted July
4th
following its admission.
The sample flag was made by his wife, Mrs. Reid, and
presented to
Congress. 'Twas ever thus, enduring stars are made by
women. Betsy
Ross, the widow of a man killed in the services of his
country,
made the first starry flag and Mrs. Samuel C. Reid, the
wife of a
man who risked his life in one of the most daring battles
in naval
annals, made the last and they each used colors never known
to run.
So mote it ever be. Though the change did not become
effective
until July 4, 1818, yet Congress in compliment to Mrs. Reid
hoisted
the new flag over the Capitol April 13, 1818.
The flag Mrs. Reid made is shown in Fig. 22, (Color Plate)
exactly
as adopted. Though the wording of the new law provided for
increasing the stars above 13, yet Congress made no
provision then
or since for the arrangement of the stars. The twenty stars
in Mrs.
Reid's flag were formed into "one great star," says Preble,
"and
such was the arrangement for many years by the Military
Department
whereas the Navy Department adhered to arranging the stars
in
parallel lines." Finally the Navy arrangement by agreement
with the
Military Department, has come to be the only one in use,
and Old
Glory today is an "oblong square" of stars six deep and
eight wide.
THREE VARIANTS OF THE FLAG
In the great seal of the United states and in the great
seals of
many of the individual states a variant of the flag is
used. This
is also true in battle flags knows as "company colors."
THE FLAG IN THE SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES
The seal or arms of the United States is, on one side,
really a
form of the flag and is held equally sacred. It is the
emblem of
authority on all documents of state.
"As well might the Judas of treason endeavor
To write his black name on the disk of the sun
As try the bright star-wreath that binds us to sever,
And blot the fair legend of 'many in one.' "
July 4, 1776, Dr. Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
were
the first committee appointed to prepare a seal for the
United
states and finally after several other committees had
worked on it,
it was adopted June 20, 1782. Wm. Barton and Secretary
Charles
Thompson gave the designs the final touches and as a whole
the seal
is a composite--the work of many patriots. The all seeing
eye in
the triangle above the pyramid is from Dr. Franklin as also
the
words at the top meaning "God has favored the undertaking"
and at
the bottom "a new series of ages." Contrast the six years
and the
many pages of discussion to adopt this seal with the thirty
word
resolution of June 14, 1777, adopting the stars and
stripes.
In state seals our own Iowa is the best example--using "Old
Glory"
unchanged.
THE FLAG IN THE SEAL AND COVENANT OF IOWA
Old Glory celebrated on the 4th of July, 1847, by adding a
star of
the first magnitude, representing Iowa which on Dec. 20,
1846, had
become a state. In token of her sincerity in this solemn
engagement, Iowa took as her seal and covenant the
beautiful design
shown in Fig. 23-- an eagle guarding the flag as her sons
then did,
do now and promise always to do. In it you see the citizen
soldier,
his right supporting Old Glory, the liberty cap resting
thereon,
his left grasping his gun, which is to signify
That Old Glory will wave o'er the land of the free,
Just so long as it is the home of the brave.
Here in the "East" as a background is the Father of Waters
with the
good ship Iowa under way.
"Thus, too sail on O ship of State;
Sail on O Union strong and great,
Humanity with all its fears--
With all the hopes of future years
Is hanging breathless on thy fate."
Before referring to the third variant, it might be well to
give the
origin of the name "Old Glory."
"OLD GLORY"--WHENCE ORIGINATED THESE WORDS ?
Often have you heard the name "Old Glory" and it is
frequently
asked "Whence originated these words?" If you should go to
Essex
Institute, Salem, Mass., you would see there carefully
cared for
the particular flag to which the name "Old Glory" was
originally
applied. You would see also the portrait of a sea captain
with
which is framed a letter, acknowledging an unusual service.
The
letter and picture are endorsed as follows:--
"My Ship, My Country, and My Flag, Old Glory,"
Signed--"William
Driver." (21)
Until 1837, Captain Driver followed the sea, sailing out of
Salem,
Mass., where he was born. In 1831 while in command of the
ship
Charles Doggett he rendered an unusual service in the
Southern
Pacific, in recognition of which, he was given the
beautiful flag
which inspired the name "Old Glory." In 1837 he quit the
sea and
moved to Nashville, Tenn. On gala days "Old Glory" was
always to be
seen on his house. When the war begun in 1861, many efforts
were
made to capture this particular flag. In February, 1862,
the Union
troops under Gen. Nelson captured Nashville. Horace N.
Fisher aid
to General Nelson tells the story as a participant. (21) He
says:--
"Capt. Driver,--an honest-looking, blunt-speaking man,--was
evidently a character; he carried on his arm a
calico-covered
bedquilt; and, when satisfied that Gen. Nelson was the
officer in
command, he pulled out his jackknife and began to rip open
the
bedquilt without another word. We were puzzled to think
what his
conduct meant. At last the bedquilt was safely delivered of
a large
American flag, which he handed to Gen. Nelson, saying,
'This is the
flag I hope to see hoisted on that flagstaff in place of
the d--d
Confederate flag set there by that d--d rebel governor,
Isham G.
Harris. I have had hard work to save it; my house has been
searched
for it more than once; my wife devised a safe hiding place
for it
by quilting it into this old calico bedquilt.' He spoke
triumphantly-with tears in his eyes.
"Gen. Nelson accepted the flag with manly emotion and
ordered it
run up on the State House flagstaff, when all heads were
uncovered
and the troops presented arms; he swore that that very flag
should
stay there, night and day, as long as he was in command at
Nashville."
During 1862 William Driver wrote a series of letters which
were
published in his old home paper, The Salem Register, (22)
referring
so often to the United States flag as "Old Glory" that he
himself
became known as "Old Glory Driver." (23) The name he gave
it fits
so well that our flag is now known everywhere as Old Glory,
the
greatest symbol known among nations.
NOT UNTIL 1912 WAS THE EXACT FORM OF OLD GLORY MADE
DEFINITE
Up to 1912, there was a wide variation in the United States
flags.
The record demonstrates that both use and uniformity as to
the flag
in the various departments have been of very slow growth.
The navy
alone acted promptly in the use of the early flag. After
Congress
adopted the stars and stripes June 14, 1777, there was a
long
correspondence between Washington and the "Board of War."
(24) It
was thought that our army "should carry a variant from the
marine
flag." (24) The correspondence shows that the flag finally
agreed
upon as army colors, was ready for distribution in the fall
of 1782
but does not show just what the "variant" was. But from
Washington's letter of Sept. 14, 1779, it probably was a
serpent
across the stripes of the flag adopted June 14, 1777. While
the
flags were never distributed, yet up to 1916 they have
never been
located. (25) So the flags used during the entire
Revolution might
be called "personal" in that they were not furnished by the
government. Regimental or company "colors" have usually
combined
features of the flag. As heretofore indicated no definite
specification had been made for the arrangement of either
the stars
or the stripes. This resulted in such a variety of designs
that in
1837 Holland asked its representative in this country to
advise
just what the United States flag really was. (26) Other
countries
made similar requests. Finally Gen. Schuyler Hamilton in
1851 was
directed to investigate. This resulted in the first careful
study
of our flag and was published in 1852 in the form of a
history of
the flag. Still the desired uniformity did not obtain and
all
through the Civil War there was a variety of flags and
colors. As
recent as 1912, investigation showed 66 different
proportions and
forms in use by the executive departments of the
government. (28)
Finally, Oct. 29, 1912, President Taft signed an
"Executive" order
(27) embodying the recommendations in the report which had
been
agreed upon by representatives of the various departments
of the
government. This order is very specific, defining minutely
all
details of the flag--but still sanctions the old custom in
the Navy
of using only 13 stars in the "small boat" flags. (29)
MASONRY'S PART IN THE GREAT SYMBOL--OLD GLORY
The natural desire to avoid hemp collars resulted in the
"Secret
Pact" in Congress and prevented a record of many things now
desirable to know. So it is in Masonic history of that
time, the
exclusive character of Masonry and the loss of most of the
scant
records made, bar out forever many things the craft would
now like
to know. Yet enough remains to show that Masonry was the
generator
and supplied the current for the varied activities both
civil and
military during the Revolution which gave the world the
great
symbol of that "new constellation," the United States.
IN THE BEGINNING
The most loyal subjects of the king--such were our brothers
in all
the years immediately preceding 1776. But there was a force
among
them generating those impulses which impel men to yield
their lives
rather than their honor, and to make the regularity of
their own
behavior the best example for the conduct of others less
informed.
At both their meeting and parting they were exhorted to
meet upon
the level and act upon the square. When therefore their
king began
that unwise policy of treating them as below the level of
Englishmen, and so far from acting on the square as to
actually
deny their rights under the English Constitution, they
petitioned,
they remonstrated, and being spurned, they rebelled.
Perhaps their
position has never been better stated than by Edmund Burke
right in
the English Parliament. He said:--
"The Americans will have no interest contrary to the
grandeur and
glory of England, when they are not oppressed by the weight
of it.
. . I confess I feel not the least alarm from the
discontents which
are to arise from putting people at their ease; nor do I
apprehend
the destruction of this empire from giving, by an act of
free grace
and indulgence, to two millions of my fellow-citizens, some
share
of those rights upon which I have always been taught to
value
myself. . . Let the colonies always keep the idea of their
civil
rights associated with your government,--they will cling
and
grapple to you and no force under heaven will be of power
to tear
them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood
that your
government may be one thing and their privileges another;
that
these two things may exist without any mutual relation, the
cement
is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and every thing hastens
to decay
and dissolution."
THAT OCEAN TEA PARTY AT BOSTON
Mistaking the attitude of the Americans, as well as that of
their
king, The English East India Company had offered to refund
the tax
by selling tea at a less price in America than in England.
The King
insisted on his claimed right to tax without consent. So
Burke's
resolution of conciliation was voted down in England
Parliament by
270 against 78. The issue was joined: England claimed the
right to
tax without consent; the Americans denied such claim.
England said:
"Land the tea"--A gathering Dec. 16, 1773, in "The Old
South-Meeting House" said "No." A messenger had been sent
to Milton
to urge Hutchinson, the King's representative, to order the
tea
back to England. Long after dark his refusal was delivered
by Rotch
the messenger. At once Adams announced: "The meeting can do
nothing
more to save the Country." (30) When the church doors
opened there
were 40 to 50 men disguised as Indians, "and" says Avery,
"in two
or three hours 342 chests of tea valued at about 1800
pounds
sterling were emptied into the sea." The smoothness of the
performance suggests a master playwright and many
rehearsals. When
the work had been completed the crowd quietly dispersed,
and before
daybreak Paul Revere was riding fast to Philadelphia with
the
glorious news that "Boston had at last thrown down the
gauntlet for
the king to pick up."
WHENCE CAME THESE INDIANS?
The "Sons of Liberty" met at the Green Dragon Tavern where
St.
Andrew's Lodge also met regularly. This was the lodge of
Paul
Revere and Joseph Warren. It was a "North-End Lodge" whose
secret
meetings alternated with the "High Sons of Liberty," who
controlled
ALL the early Revolutionary movements. The men WERE the
SAME in
BOTH. (31) The record of that lodge on Nov. 30, 1772,
showed only
seven members present and in the record is this statement:
"N. B.
Consignees of Tea took up the brethrens' time." On December
16, the
night of the Ocean Tea Party, the secretary after noting
that the
lodge closed until the next night, makes the T entry
thus:--"On
account of the few members in attendance" (32) and then
fills up
the page with the letter "T" made big. Gould says (33) this
record
is the only one of that now famous Ocean Tea Party at
Boston.
A DIGNIFIED MASONIC EVENT
That Ocean Tea Party was as dignified a Masonic event as
the laying
of a Corner stone--as indeed in very truth it was. Here is
what
that eminent authority John Fiske says of it:
"For the quiet sublimity of reasonable but dauntless moral
purpose,
the heroic annals of Greece and Rome can show no greater
scene than
that which the Old South-Meeting House witnessed on the day
(night)
when the tea was destroyed." (34)
Avery says: "An authoritative answer to the oft asked
question,
'Who emptied the tea'? has never yet been given. (35) But
Bro. Paul
Revere was well on his way to Philadelphia before morning."
But "Listen my brothers and you shall hear of another ride
of Bro.
Paul Revere." Grand Master Warren had sent Bro. Paul Revere
to
notify the Minute-Men at Lexington and Concord and to warn
Bros.
Hancock and Samuel Adams upon whose head the British had
set a
price. On that memorable April 19th, when the signals were
displayed in Old North Church, Paul Revere was arrested
just out of
Lexington but William Daws and Dr. Prescott, a "High Son of
Liberty," who had joined him, escaped and reached Concord
in time
to arouse the Minute Men and prevent the capture of the
military
stores there. Thus the members of St. Andrew's Lodge
otherwise
referred to as "High Sons of Liberty" or "North-End
Mechanics,"
under the leadership of Paul Revere, later Grand Master.
and Grand
Master Warren had defeated the first effort of the English
to
enslave them. They had passed the "south and west gates."
"THE EAST GATE"
Preparations for "Bunker Hill" were at once begun. Profane
history
describes Deputy Grand Master Richard Gridley as a skillful
engineer and artillerist" and he was chief engineer in
planning the
defenses on Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights. Here, what
England
proposed, she was about to perform. The caviling at the
"East Gate"
was heard and Grand Master Warren soon fell a martyr in the
cause
of human liberty. But his death was as the blood of a
martyr in
stimulating thousands of his brothers to yield their lives
rather
than their honor even as he had done. A monument was
erected by
Charlestown Masons in 1794 "to commemorate his labors, his
fidelity
and his untimely death." It was replaced by Bunker Hill
monument in
1857, inside of which a model of Warren's monument was
placed.
ARMY LODGES
If the action of St. Andrew's Lodge were not merely typical
of the
generative force actuating patriots everywhere, then it
would be
but small evidence upon which to base Masonic claims in
establishing Old Glory. But the fact is the leaders were
nearly all
Masons and so steps were at once taken to organize army
raveling
lodges. St. John's Regimental Lodge had already been
organized in
N.Y. but the first one in the Continental Army was American
Union
Lodge organized in the "Connecticut Line" but because
working in of
Massachusetts, its warrant was issued and signed by Richard
Gridley
D.G.M. Feb. 15, 1776. This is the same Gridley who was
chief
engineer of the army at the time. Of the ten or more
military
lodges, the only one whose record has been preserved in
anything
approximating entirety is American Union. In 1859, the
Grand Lodge
of Connecticut published the American Union record almost
in full
from Feb. 15, 1776, to April 23, 1783, (38) --its last
meeting as
a military lodge. These army lodges were primarily
officers'
lodges--if you please, Masters' lodges seeking to find the
right.
On page 16, is a list of the members to Oct. 11, 1779, of
American
Union Lodge. This list is an exception to every other list
of names
in the record in that the first name and title are given.
Almost
without exception they are all officers. So far then, here
are the
members of St. Andrew's Lodge and other Boston Masons
assisted by
Connecticut Masons, organizing an army lodge that together
they may
divide themselves in parties and go in quest of the Hessian
ruffians. So by the record, Masonry was in the struggle for
liberty
in the beginning.
FOR MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS THEY LABORED
The work of Masonry was sustained and dignified throughout
the
entire Revolutionary period. The army lodge was to the
officers a
confidential club and to the sick and wounded the "Red
Cross"
though under a different MARK. Scant as are the records of
American
Union Lodge, yet so many clues are suggested that to follow
out all
of them would far exceed the scope of this effort.
Therefore only
a few meetings will be noted here.
ST. JOHN'S DAY, JUNE 24, 1779
At Nelson's Point near West Point, N.Y., on June 24, 1779,
American
Union Lodge met to celebrate St. John The Baptist's Day.
(39) After
opening, the lodge marched to the "Red House," General
Patterson's
Headquarters, where says the record, "Lodge opened in ample
form."
Then followed a list of 99 members and visitors.
Continuing, "after
the usual ceremonies, the Lodge retired to a bower in front
of the
house, where being joined by his Excellency George
Washington and
family--an address was delivered by Bro. Hull." This kind
of
education bound the officers to UNION of effort --the cause
for
which they were risking their lives.
(14) Vide Preble p. 252.
(15) Vide page 251
(16) Vide Spencer and Lossing's Complete History of the
United
States Vol.
(17) Avery VI p. 386.
(18) Avery VI p. 397
(19) Vide Preble p. 721.
(20) Vide Preble p. 339
(21) Vide Essex Institute Historical Collections July 1901.
p. 261.
(22) Essex Institute Historical Collections January, 1911.
(23) Preble.
(24) Vide Gherardi Davis' Colors of U. S. Army 1785-1912.
(25) Vide address R. C. Ballard Thruston National Year
Book,
Society of The Sons of The Revolution for 1915, p. 260.
(26) Vide address R. C. Ballard Thruston National Year Book
Society
of The Sons of The Revolution for 1915, p. 264
(27) Executive Order Vol. 1637, Oct. 29, 1912, Wm. H. Taft.
(28) Vide No. 1637 Oct. 29, 1912, Wm. H. Taft.
(29) Vide address R. C. Ballard Thruston National Year Book
the
Sons of The Revolution 1915, p. 265.
(30) Vide Avery V 5, p. 166.
(31) Vide Centennial Memorial of St. Andrew's Lodge, p.
112.
(32) Vide Same, p. 113.
(33) Vide Gould's American Addenda, p. 347.
(34) The American Revolution, John Fisk.
(35) Vide Avery V 5, p. 167.
(36) Washington the Man and Mason.
(37) Vide Lossing.
(38) Vide Record of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Conn., V. 1.
(39) Vide Vol. 1 Conn. Grand Lodge, p. 30-1-2.
(To be Continued)
----o----
DEATH THE LEVELLER
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not. substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late
They stoop to fate
And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow;
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds:
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust.
--James Shirley.
----o----
CHARACTER
The reason why we feel one man's presence, and do not feel
another's, is as simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being: justice is the
application of it to affairs. All individual natures stand in a scale, according
to the purity of this element in them. Men of character are the conscience of
the society to which they belong.
--R. W. Emerson.
THE POLITICAL PSEUDOMASONRY OF SPANISH AMERICA BY BRO. F.
de P. RODRIGUEZ, CUBA
II. THE BLACK EAGLE CONSPIRACY
What the Lodge of Lautaro was for South America, the Black
Eagle Society purport to be for Cuba, but unhappily it failed. Not any General
History of Cuba has ever been written by a Mason; it is for that reason that no
one conversant with the underlying principles of our Institution, has purified
our local branch from the calumny of political conspiracy thrown on her by
pro-Spanish historians. During the colonial period, however, that task could not
be undertook, reasons: Masonry was forbidden; the Catholic priests, supported by
the Spanish government, were against us; and, better yet, we Cubans were not at
liberty to bring Spain to the pillory. After Cuba got her deserved freedom,
thanks to the American Eagle, the time arrived to defend ourselves and wipe out
from our faces so unbecoming spot.
Mexico and Cuba were during the XVIII century, and the
first quarter of the XIX, very tightly related, the island of Cuba was not then
self-supporting; our political metropoli was Mexico; from that vice-royalty came
to us periodically galleons filled with gold and silver to keep us alive. The
Cubans of yore were, therefore, used to refer to Mexico for all their needs,
rather than apply to the Mother Country so far situated. After Mexico got her
freedom Cuba longed for her's, and even our conspiracies came from there,
witness that Society denominated the Black Eagle, originally ascribed to the
Masons and which we shall describe presently.
Although Mexico was ahead from us in many undertakings, she
was not so in matters Masonic. Mexicans got their lodges in 1813 from Spain, and
in 1825, through the American Minister Poinsset, from the United states. We
Cubans began to be familiar with the Square and the Compass since 1762, when the
English took Havana, introducing into the city an Irish Army Lodge, which lasted
as long as the British remained with us, about nine months. Frenchmen expelled
from Haiti, brought their lodges with them to Santiago soon afterward, and ever
since 1804, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Louisiana chartered regular lodges
in Cuba, which in 1818 started the SPANISH GRAND LODGE OF THE YORK RITE, doomed
to an early death, as she was under bann by Captain General vives in 1824, and
totally disappeared in 1829; two lodges, nevertheless, meeting irregularly until
1859 when together with a new one chartered by South Carolina, founded the
actual Grand Lodge of Cuba.
The best History of Cuba is undoubtedly that of Pezuela,
(1) but even so good a writer, when he comes to describe the political situation
of Cuba in the first quarter of the XIX century, classifies Masonry as one of
the Secret Revolutionary Societies conspiring against the Government, but of
course, he could not prove it.
The historian Zavala emits the following opinion: (2)
"After the failure of the Soles Conspiracy (the first of Cuban Revolutionary
Clubs) several of its members and sympathizers emigrated to Mexico, constituting
there another Society named JUNTA PROMOTORA DE LA LIBERTAD CUBANA. The Society
was constituted on July 4th, 1825, and its object, as stated in the Proceedings,
was presented so: "The undersigned, at a meeting held on the extinguished
Convent of Balem . . . & have started a Junta under the name of Protectora de la
Libertad Cubana, the object of which will be to obtain from the Govelnment of
the Federation (Mexico), which we completely trust, that THE AZETECAN EAGLE WILL
HIGHLY AND MAGESTICALLY FLY OVER OLD CUBANACAN (Cuba)."
Calcagno, a Cuban contemporaneous writer, says: (3) "CHAVEZ
(Jose de) a native of Havana, friar of Belem, in 1810 constituted in Mexico the
Lodge of the Black Eagle." (4)
The late Dr. Vidal Morales, one of the best of Cuban
authors, states in his splendid work: (5) "At the end of General Vives period of
Government, J. J. Solis, informed the Authorities of the revolutionary plans of
the GRAN LEGION DEL AGUILA NEGRA, the name of a York Rite Lodge, the Chief
Officer of which in America was the President of Mexico, Gral. Guadalupe
victoria, and in Europe a physician of London. The members of the said Society
called each other Indian. The name of the lodge comes from the Eagle that
symbolizes the 32d of the Scottish Rite."
These words are almost verbatim those used in the
Proceedings of the Process to several members of the Society, as instructed by a
Spanish Military Committee. Whoever is acquainted with the manners of conducting
the investigations in matters political or religious in Spain, or in her
colonies of yore, has to be reminded how the depositions were obtained: by
torment or by the lash, in thorough medieval style. The Jesuitic proverb: "All
means are justified provided the end is attained," was closely adhered to and no
wonder how malicious the judges were in connecting Masonry and Politics.
Now, allow me to go deeper into the mentioned paragraph of
the Proceedings. To any Masonic Student it is plain that lodges are local groups
and nobody can be the Grand Master or Chief of any Lodge in any country but of a
collection of lodges named Grand Lodge or a similar name. Next, President
Victoria, of Mexico, although a convinced Cuban sympathizer, was never the Grand
Master of the Mexican Masonry in either of her branches (escoceses or yorkinos)
while he ruled the country; during the period from 1824 to 1828, the Grand
Masters of the two Mexican Grand Lodges of the time being were Generals Bravo
and Guerrero respectively.
The European physician, named as the Chief in the old
world, is another lie. The late R. F. Gould in an article upon the "Medical
Profession and Freemasonry" (6) mentions among all English Masons of the medical
profession, during the possible years 1797-1850, only Robert Thomas Crucefix,
who, every Masonic scholar knows, never presided over any Revolutionary Society.
He was a distinguished man, but even in the Grand Lodge of England, to which he
belonged, he only attained the Office of Grand Junior Deacon; not being blue
blooded he could not expect even a wardenship.
As to the Eagle which symbolized the Society, why choose
the 32d? It would have been the same the 30d, 31d or 32d, all are represented by
Eagles, but two-headed, not single-headed, as that used by the revolutionaries.
The Eagle adopted by them was that of Mexico, the one that the Aztec legend
mentions as appearing in Tenoxtitlan, posed upon a cactus, devouring a serpent,
the same that was adopted as the Mexican National Emblem.
Let us now examine some other statements found the
Proceedings of the Process, to which those poor eople were subjected; (7)-they
said: "J. J. Solis was a young man 26 years old, a native of New Orleans,
Louisiana, carpenter by trade, who was initiated into Masonry by Lucas Arcadio
Ugarte, Secretary of the Patriotic Society of Cuba (the principal Society of its
class in the country and of pro-Spanish proclivities). According to Solis
deposition, several days after his initiation, Ugarte told him that the Society
had changed its object, the Aguila Negra's only purpose was to gain members to
work on behalf of the independence of the country." This deposition, as can be
easily seen, is a mix-up of falsehoods, undoubtedly forged by the Spanish
soldier's Committee. Ugarte was an aristocrat of those times, Secretary to the
Board of Aldermen of the City, and a conspicuous Mason, and it does not seem
probable that he would try to deceive a humble carpenter in any fashion
whatever.
More yet about the deposition of Solis: "The members did
not offer any obligation, they only signed the By-Laws, their main purpose was
the independence of Cuba." Among the papers added to the Proceedings is printed
Instruction for the use of the Deputies of the Several states, signed by one
JICOTENCATL, of the Grand Orient of Mexico, (8) 1825. Searching in Mexican
Masonic History, I easily found out that the Mexican National Rite was the only
one that had a Grand Orient at that time, but as the Grand Lodge, which had to
be previously established, was not founded until 1826, how could there be a
Grand Orient in 1825 ?
Added to the Proceedings is also found a soi disant
Constitution, snatched from one Miguel Vazquez; see here the purpose of the
Society as mentioned in the said Constitution: "The Order had for her object the
affording to good patriots the means of obtaining the liberty of America,
wherever a member found himself, either in Mexico, Havana or London; of this
Lodge which could not be confounded with any other, all persons could be
members, provide they were not European; there were no degrees nor distinctions
of any kind, and they had no Temples or Halls to meet in." How can this apply to
the Cuban Masonry of the epoch that styled herself SPANISH GRAND LODGE OF THE
YORK RITE? How can be explained the presence among the members of hundreds of
Spaniards and of Cuban Noblemen, both occupying the principal offices of the
Grand Lodge? Is it not plain how the judges (sic) mixed up their pleasure
falsehoods to impeach Cubans ?
I have examined at leisure the Proceedings in search of
things Masonic, commencing with the series of pass and sacred words, assured to
be those of the 33d degrees of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, which appear
carefully separated and with large characters of hand writing. From this
examination I draw the conclusion that either I have been deceived when I
obtained my degrees from a regular lodge, and from legally constituted
subordinate bodies of a most regular Supreme Council, as are those of Cuba, or
the soldierjudges tried to make dupes out of the whole population of Cuba, to
whom they assured that the ones found by them were true Masonic words. There is
not a single one among them that resembles ours; more yet, they are in plain
Spanish vernacular.
Now as to the principal Pass Word: Both members situate one
in front of the other, their right hands resting on the left shoulder of the
other, the following dialogue issuing:
1--You are a beautiful Indian. 2--Courageous, also.
1--Persevering, besides. Come ye students of Masonry and honestly tell to which
of our degrees the words belong.
But the most curious of all things is the Sacred or
Principal Word or Phrase, which I joyfully append:
"GENERAL BEHEADING TO ALL, LET NOT ANY EUROPEAN REMAIN
ALIVE, NOR ANY WHITE PERSON UNFRIENDLY TO US, LET NATURAL RELIGION BE THE ONLY
ONE ACCEPTED, LET US RIDICULIZE THE CLERGY, AS THEY DEMORALIZE THE PEOPLE,
EXTORTING FROM THEM ONE-TENTH OF THEIR INCOMES, LET US DESTROY CATHOLIC
HIERARCHY AND THE BUILDINGS BELONGING TO THE PRIESTS, THAT NO TRACE OF THEM
REMAIN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. LONG LIVE THE INDIANS."
Let any honest man come forward and say whether that was
Masonry. If the Conspiracy was started by white people, how could they be
enemies of their own race? I once more claim that the above mentioned
Proceedings were a malicious falsehood developed by dishonorable judges,
completely outside of Masonry.
Being convinced that Masonry had nothing to do with that
Conspiracy, I shall now, as a historical research, discuss the final result and
sentence of that famous Process, followed against several members of the Black
Eagle, who happened to be also Masons, by a most bigoted Spanish Court. I must,
nevertheless, call the attention of my readers to the fact that the Court
discriminated in their sentence between Masonry and Conspiracy; the succeeding
historians not regarding afterwards so important difference. Remember too that
the meeting of Masonic lodges was regarded as a crime by the Spanish laws of the
time. Be careful in the reading:
"WHEREAS: We are ordered to proffer charges as FREEMASONS,
against several persons already imprisoned, as members of the Conspiracy
denominated LA GRAN LEGION DEL AGUILA NEGRA, the only charge resulting against
them is to have affixed their signatures to various Masonic documents, during
the years 1825, 1826 and 1827, for which they were indicted . . . and although
other members were also accused, their prosecution was ordered to be conducted
separately as they are indicted only as conspirators."
One of the principal paragraphs of the Public Prosecutor in
his Report reads like this: "The subscribing Auditor having examined this
Proceeding followed to find out the crime of Masonry committed by several
persons, states that their presence in lodge meetings has not been proved, which
fact, if proved, will have brought to them the full penalties specified in the
last Royal Decree, (9) but as they continued in participating in Masonic
practices after the year 1824, as proved by their having signed documents as
these added to this Proceeding. . . ."
The final paragraph of the sentence says: "We condemn J. J.
Solis, Miguel Vazquez, J. Gonzalez Avila .... (and others) to the penalty of
ordinary death on the infamous garrote, their property to be confiscated for the
benefit of His Magesty the King, on account of being convicted of performing
Masonic acts. during the years 1826 and 1827, and of having been initiated into
the so-called GRAN LEGION DEL AGUILA NEGRA, the object of this last Association
being the freedom of the American Colonies." "Lucas Arcadio de Ugarte, convicted
of having signed and having procured the affixing of other signatures to a
Certificate or Diploma of the degree of Rose Croix (18d), extended in the year
1825, and of having kept under his care Masonic documents, seals and other
Masonic paraphernalia, is sentenced to eight years at hard labor in the Ceuta
Penitentiary (Africa)."
Happily the first of king Ferdinand VII's children
(afterwards queen Isabella II) was born in those days and, as customary on such
occasions, a general pardon or amnesty was granted for most crimes or offenses,
and the Masons fared out better than they expected: none were garroted and Bro.
Ugarte did not spend his forced vacation at Ceuta.
As the only practical result of so infamous a trial two
documents remain attached to the Proceedings, which I have carefully examined
and hope some day they may be donated for the Library and Museum of our Grand
Lodge. They are: one, the Certificate of M. M. granted to Miguel Vazquez. by his
Lodge! Hermanos Desenganados No. 53, and the Diploma of RoseCroix extended to J.
J. Solis by Sabiduria Chapter No. 1, on the 3d of December, 1825. It is
beautifully engrossed on parchment, colored, and, although nearly a full century
old, remains as fresh as when issued. That document, as customary then,
commenced so: "In the name of the Most Holy and Indivisible Trinity &," which is
no longer the style of the Rite.
My task is now ended--temporarily only--as my
investigations in old Cuban Masonic lore needs to be continued; but my
satisfaction is so far complete because I have been able to prove that Cuban
Masonry never conspired; the Masons individually, surely did so, but the
Fraternity never.
Can American Masons show on their shields, as we do, the
having been imprisoned and sentenced to death for being Masons? We Cubans, more
than once, became acquainted with damp dungeons, only to be more firm adherents
of our convictions; that is an honor and glory that nobody can snatch from us.
More yet, it is not far the date (1870) when we had a Grand Master shot without
trial, only for being the head of the Craft in Cuba !
If so has been our history and our sufferings, why disdain
us because we do not speak English? Oh, Lord, have mercy for our detractors !
NOTES
(1) Pezuela--Historia de la Isla de Cuba. Madrid. 4 Vols.
(2) Zavala--Ensayo Historico sobre las Revoluciones de
Mexico.
(3) Calcagno--Diccionario Biografico Cubano. Havana.
(4) The date is wrong.
(5) Dr. Vidal Morales--Iniciadores y Primeros Martires de
la Revolucion Cubana. Havana.
(6) Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. VII, page 145.
(7) I have examined the original Process in the Government
Archives in Havana
(8) Note the orthography, it is purely Spanish; no Mexican
ever spelt it so, but Xicotencatl.
(9) What could this full penalty be if they were already
sentenced to death?
----o----
FOR ETERNITY
As is water in a dish,
Be it square or round,
Shaped according to that form,
By that nature bound;
So is man by those with whom
Keeps he company
Shaped and moulded good or ill
For eternity.
- Imperial poem of Meiji Era
----o----
THE CITY INVINCIBLE
I dream'd in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the
attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth.
I dreamed that was the new city of Friends;
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust
love--it led the rest,
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that
city,
And in all their looks and words.
--Walt Whitman.
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MASONIC COLOR, BLUE
BY BRO. HENRY P. JONES, TENNESSEE
If we consider the importance that has been attached to
colors throughout the ages, and the herald-like duty they have ever performed,
we must inevitably reason that Masonry, the greatest and most universal of
ancient institutions, must also have been launched upon its lengthening career,
under a color, or colors, in harmonious keeping with its teaching. To ferret out
this color, however, and discover its original symbolism, is, we fear, a task
made impossible by the gloom of intervening centuries. And so, leaving the
beginning, veiled, as it should be, in darkness and mystery, we must even
acknowledge the decree of comparatively modern ruling and usage as authentic.
But here, too, we are left partially in dobt. A color has been handed down to
us, but the symbolism, if in truth there existed any, has gone so long unheeded,
that it is lost in the impenetrable folds of the past. Thus are we forced, as a
last resort, to apply the test of our own reason and imagination to our
knowledge of fundamental Masonry, and accept the result as a possible solution.
"At the revival of 1717," says our learned Brother, Dr.
Oliver, "it was directed that the symbolical clothing of a Master Mason was
'skull-cap and jacket yellow, and neither garments blue.' " The symbolism,
however, of this "symbolical clothing," was probably known to a few only, and
was never recorded. But the Doctor continues: "In 1730, it was regulated by
Grand Lodge that the Grand Officers should 'wear white leather aprons with blue
silk; and that the Masters and Wardens of particular Lodges may line their white
leather aprons with white silk, and may hang their jewels at white ribbons about
their necks.' " Of course we do not know how long Blue had been recognized as a
Masonic color, but here perhaps, we have the first definite step toward its
establishment as the ONE TRUE color; for, having been once permanently adopted
by Grand Lodge, it would as a natural sequence, creep gradually into subordinate
lodges, until it came to be looked on as the legitimate color of the Order.
Thus, in brief, may we account for it. But, having the color, we cannot so
easily determine its proper symbolism. And yet, methinks this should not be
difficult, if we go about it thoughtfully.
Certainly, it is commonly known that Blue has in all ages
been deemed an emblem of the abstract qualities, Truth, Secrecy, Sincerity, and
Fidelity; but to us it should mean something more. Let us see. Studying closely
the various figurative meanings that have been attached to the five fundamental,
or prismatic colors, in the past, we find that, as a general rule, they may be
reduced to these: green, the symbol of generative, or self-contained force, or
the germ of life; youth, freshness: yellow, the symbol of the result of
accumulation or long dulation; ripeness, or the full measure of resources,
activity, or years; age; decay: blue, the symbol of mild, unresisting virtue;
morality: purple, the symbol of royalty or sovereignty; the director or governor
of physical force; wisdom; knowledge: red, the symbol of physical force or
agressiveness. Taking these symbolisms of the five colors collectively, and
considering them as a wnole, they may be said to represent to us the five
primary essentials, necessary to the existence of a perfect human being, namely:
the germ of life, the germ of death, moral initiative, mental initiative, and
physical initiative. The five colors themselves, rightly blended into one,
produce perfect white for it is a well known scientific fact, that when pure, or
perfect white light is received into a proper body or a prism, the rays are
broken, disintegrated, and applied in such a manner that there emanates from the
prism in their stead, these five fundamental colors.
Let us pause a moment now, and collect the threads of our
explanation into one; an easy task if they are all plainly before us. As pure
light received into the proper body and correctly utilized, results in the
colors, or symbols of the five essentials to a perfect man, so the True Light or
Word of God, received into the heart and properly utilized, results in the
harmonious working essentials themselves; the germ of life developing in fulness
and perfectness, and bending gradually and fearlessly to the germ of death;
moral initiative, opening to view unspotted petals, tinted with celestial hue;
mental initiative, growing up in the midst of finite creation as a part of it,
and thus adding to its beauty a form and texture common to no other work of the
Supreme Architect; and physical initiative, developing naturally and unshackled
at every point--the mountain stream rushing joyfuily along, with crystal depths
unchoked by dams, unmurked by hand of man. Thus should Blue, our own suitable
color, and the symbol in our illustration, of moral initiative, represent to us
the perfect moral man--the result in truth, of a proper reception of the Great
Light in the true heart.
We should not confine ourselves, however, to the narrow
realms of pedantic Science, in our search for light.
"Blue: 'Tis the life of heaven,'"
Yea, the silent, spreading canopy that shelters all alike,
'neath mystic folds receding up through endless space; the end of all man's
hopes and dreams--unmeasured home of unheard strains of wheeling spheres. A fit
symbol indeed, of the universality of Masonry; of the mystic veil that curtains
off our lives from all past and future Time; and finally, of "that house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens," which we all hope at last to attain,
for
"The cloudcapt Towers, the gorgeous Palaces, The solemn
Temples, the great Globe itself, And all which it inherit, shall dissolve."
(If we venture to add a note to so excellent an article, it
is in the hope of provoking further study of this interesting subject. The use
and meaning of color in the Bible is a delightful theme, although, so far as we
now recall, the late Dr. Delitzsch, of Leipzig, seems to have been almost the
only one who treated colors in the Bible symbolically. In his "Iris,"
fortunately now in English dress, he treats the subject at some length. Also in
"Chapters on Symbolism," by W. F. Shaw, there is a suggestive discussion of "The
Symbolism of Color," (Part IV), from which we read:--"Blue is sometimes the
color of the sea, and always the color of the sky by day, when free from cloud.
As such it is symbolical of Heaven, and of the things of Heaven, Truth,
Knowledge, Faith. Thus the Tabernacle which was made after the pattern of things
in heaven, and was a figure of the true Tabernacle, the House not made with
Hands, eternal in the heavens, had its hangings of blue and purple, and scarlet,
and the loops of the curtains were blue. (Ex. 26:1, 4)" Blue had an important
place in the attire of the High Priest of the Tabernacle, on his breastplate and
ephod, the robe of which was blue, (Ex. 28:30- 39:22), reminding the wearer that
he was a priest of the God of Truth (Psa. 31:6) and the God of knowledge (1 Sam.
2:3) and that it behooved his lips to keep knowledge (Mal. 2:7). "When Moses and
Aaron and the elders went up into the Mount, it is said they saw the God of
Israel, and there was under His feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone
(Ex. 24:10). Now the sapphire is a stone of a blue color." To which the author
adds the words of Delitzsch: "Sapphire-blue is the color taken by that which is
most heavenly, as it comes down on the earth, the color of the covenant between
God and man. Blue passes almost universally as the color of fidelity. Even in
Middle High German bla is symbolically equivalent to staete (steadfast), and
staetekeit--steadfastness." (Iris, p. 28). So much by way of suggestion. Perhaps
Swedenborg has something to teach us here, as in so many things, if some Brother
will dig into that mine and reveal the ore.--The Editor.)
JOSE RIZAL AS A MASON*
BY BRO. AUSTIN CRAIG, MANILA, P.I.
(INTRODUCTORY NOTE--I count it as one of my opportunities
for Masonic service to have been able to introduce to the Scottish Rite form of
Masonry Bro. Craig, the author of the following article. Past Master of a Lodge
in Oregon before coming to the Philippines, he was already interested in the
Craft when, about the time I was beginning to establish the Rite in Manila, I
first met him. He was among the first to receive at my hands the degrees above
the Third, and his continued interest in the Rite is shown by his activity in
securing Letters Temporary for the new Lodge of Perfection of which he is now
the Master. Combining a real devotion to Masonry with the historian's love of
accuracy, a rather remarkable capacity for collecting material and an attractive
literary style, Bro. Craig gives promise of becoming one of the foremost writers
of the Craft. He has handed me a copy of his article--not for publication but
for my own use; but I feel that it is too meritorious to be so kept, and that I
ought to make it accessible to as many ass possible of our brethren of the
homeland. CHARLES S. LOBINGIER.)
With all brevity and simplicity possible shall try to put
before you the few particulars which I possess about what unquestionably was the
greatest influence informing the character, so worthy of emulation, of that
upright man and true Mason who today is being honored throughout Magellan's
archipelago for having so well prepared the way for the new Philippines
dedicated to the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
From childhood Rizal's ambition was to travel in foreign
lands, probably because his mother's half brother, who had heen educated in
British India, was a great traveler, and to the same uncle perhaps he owed his
first idea of Masonry. There is a story that this Jose Alberto Alonso belonged
to a Pandacan lodge whose master was the British Vice-Consul, the more credible
that it would explain the repeated honors he received under the regency of
General Prim and during the reign of King Amadeo,--an epoch so Masonic, to
accept the contention of its critics, that even to a Bishop for Cebu all its
appointees were sons of the widow.
But whether there was such a family predisposition, or the
abusive attacks on Masonic principles current during his student days in books
like "Capitan Juan" had had an effect in his case different from what their
authors intended, or some other cause not yet come to light was responsible,
certain it is that the late Tomas G. del Rosario, president of the Rizal
Monument commission, used to tell how the martyr-hero was his companion in the
famous Lodge Acacia of the Gran Oriente de Espana at an earlier age than was
customary and at a time when as yet few Filipinos had been accepted into the
Craft.
Rizal's Berlin associates, or perhaps the word "patrons"
would give their relation better, were men as esteemed in Masonry as they were
eminent in the scientific world--Virchow, for example. And so imbued was he
himself with the Square men's principles that after his brief visit with Doctor
Blumentritt at Leitmeritz, the Austrian professor promptly wrote the Manila
Jesuite that their former pupil had "fallen into the snares of the abominable
Masonic sect."
It was a young man who made no secret of his interest in
the free, i.e., Masonic, countries of the world who came home to find a governor
general in the Philippines who, his enemies claimed, was utterly dominated by
the Masons that surrounded him. Perhaps had it been otherwise the author of "Noli
Me Tangere" would not have been given as a bodyguard a Spanish army officer,
Lieutenant Taveil de Andrade, who is said to have shared his views, nor have
received the timely notice which enabled him to make his escape out of the
country when an authority greater than the governor's threatened him.
Next he lived in London in daily association with a
distinguished countryman, eminent in the law, who had been deported from Manila
to Guam in 1872 and rescued thence by Hongkong brethren, but Doctor Regidor most
emphatically assured me that Rizal never visited, much less belonged to, any
London lodge.
*Address before Nilad Lodge, Manila, at its annual
observance of Rizal Day, Dec. 30, 1915.
In 1889 his home was Paris, and there, probably through the
influence of Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, who was a member, in company with a
prominent business man now in Manila, also a physician, he joined a French Lodge
whose hall was at Rue Cadet 23. Thereafter, and Hon. Mariano Ponce is my
authority, he joined the Filipino students' lodge, "La Solidaridad," of the Gran
Oriente Espanol which after years of rivalry had outlived the Gran Oriente de
Espana and, under the Professor of History in the Central University, was giving
special attention to Spain's backward colonies across the seas. Here he was
raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason, and became an enthusiastic worker.
The manuscript, in his own handwriting, of an address on "Masonry" before this
lodge is still preserved in Spain, by Eduardo Lete, of Saragosse.
In November of 1891 the Tyler's Register of Vistors to St.
John's Lodge, Scotch Constitution, of Hong-kong, received the signature "Jose
Rizal, Temple du honeur (lodge) de Les Amis de L'Honeur Francaise" as may still
be seen, and he visited several times. There were formed the friendships which
permitted him so promptly to become a practicing physician in the British colony
and which led, through the Hong-kong office, to the agricultural colony
concession in British North Borneo.
And when the arbitrary deportation to Dapitan came, it was
Frazier Smith, Pastmaster of St. John's Lodge and editor-in-chief of the daily
Hongkong Telegraph, who compelled the Spanish Consul to declare for his
government that the man whom the British Colony had so highly esteemed was not
being ill-treated in exile. Nor should he have been with Captain Ricardo
Carnicero, reputedly a member of the universal family, as his jailer.
His enemies have always attributed Masonic membership to
Governor General Blanco who permitted Rizal to start for Cuba as a volunteer
surgeon for the Spanish Army's yellow fever camps there, and it was his removal,
through a promotion usually supposed to have been purchased by those who were
not his friends but wanted a vacancy for a tool of theirs, that made possible
the tragedy of Bagumbayan Field. Of Rizal's fellow passengers on the Spanish
Mail steamer which took him to Barcelona, only Juan Utor y Fernandes,
Thirty-Third Degree and former Grand Secretary of the defunct Gran Oriente de
Espana, another brother and a Mason's son, showed even bare civility to the
famous "filibusterer" till his skill as a surgeon compelled recognition.
I shall pass over the opportunities to escape, rumored to
have been offered in Barcelona and again on arrival in Manila, but Rizal's
return voyage from Spain as a prisoner saw an effort at Singapore, by Antonio
Regidor and other brethren of London, Filipino, Spanish and English, to free him
through habeas corpus proceedings. These alleged that in the Philippines
Freemasons were treated as outlaws and that the prisoner was being held without
any judicial process, with no prospect of fair trial and for nothing that
civilization called a crime. But the mail steamer was loaded with Spanish troops
and under the royal flag had to be regarded as a government vessel over which
the British authorities could have no jurisdiction.
In the death cell of Fort Santiago, nineteen years and one
day ago, occurred a conversation which has been reported by those favorable to
one side; but the memory of the single man who made up the other side and died
so soon thereafter demands scrutiny for any possible inaccuracies in this biased
version. One mistake certainly was made in attributing to him the declaration
that his Masonic membership was in London, an error which would shake confidence
in the rest of the report without the added doubt created by having two
different versions of his reputed retraction of his errors, whose original has
never been seen by any disinterested person. However, had Rizal felt impelled to
renounce his Masonry to free his family from further persecution or to give
legal status to the woman whom those incredible times of tyranny would not
permit him to marry till he had renounced his political principles, still he
would have been but following the order's teaching which subordinates its claims
to the duties owed to God, one's family, one's neighbors and one's self. The
Mason and friend of Rizal, Pi y Margall, had vainly humbled himself to ask
pardon for the prisoner in his filst vislt to | 
