Masonry was introduced into the United States by grant of warrant to Henry Price, Esq. of Boston, on the 30th of July 1733, as Right Worshipful Grand Master of North America, "with full power and authority to appoint his Deputy," by the Right and Honorable and Most Worshipful Anthony Lord Viscount Montague "Grand master of Masons of England." (Cole's Lib, p. 332).
I do not conceive it necessary to prosecute the history of Masonry farther in this country; but let it suffice to say, that hostilities which commenced between Great Britain and American in 1775, absolved all Masonic ties between the two countries, and left American Masons free to act according to the suggestions of the peculiar circumstances in which they were then placed. With the independence of the country, commenced the independence of Masonic jurisdiction in the United States.
(It is said, that at that early period of its existence in this country, entertaining a kind of supersitious idea of its sacredness, the Masonic warrant was kept closely in in some secret places, prohibited from the view of all but Masons; consequently when General Warren, who was Grand Master of Massachusetts, fell in the Revolutionary struggle, the warrant was lost and with it, Masonry in Massachusetts.
All Masons are familiar with the fact that Grand Master Warren was raised from his grave and a search made, doubtless, supposing that the warrant might have been found concealed about his person.)
The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was formed in 1769; Maine, New Hampshire, 1789; Rhode Island, 1791; Vermont, 1794; New York, 1787; (another being established in 1826, which has recently been denounced by England and all other legal Masonic jurisdictions thought the world); New Jersey, 1786; Pennsylvania, 1734, under England, to which she remained attached until September, 1786; Virginia, 1788; North Carolina, 1787; South Carolina, 1787; Georgia, 1786, Ohio 1808; Kentucky, 1800; Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the data not being given. (Cole's Lib 363-375). This gives a fair history of the introduction of Masonry into the United States of America.
In the year 178? (ED. NOTE. This date is incomplete in the original), a number of colored men in Boston, Massachusetts, applied to the proper source for a grant of Masonic privileges, and this being denied them, by force of necessity they went to England, which at that time not recognizing the Masonic fraternity of America, the then acting Grand master,(recorded on the warrant as the Right Honorable, Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland) granted a warrant to the colored men to make Masons and establish Lodges, subjects, of course, to the Grand Lodge of England. In coursd of time, their ties became absolved; not before it was proceeded by the establishment of an independent Grand Lodge in Philadelphia, Pa. by colored men, and subsequently, a general Grand Lodge, known as the First Independent African Grand Lodge of North America.
In the year, 1832, another Grand Lodge was established by a party of dissatisfied colored Masons in the city of Philadelphia, known as the "Hiram Grand Lodge of the State of Pennsylvania."
(The Grand Lodge dissolved in 1847, after an existence of fifteen years, becoming convinced that they had no just or legal foundation for an independent existence; and none contributed more to the accomplishment of so desirable an end, than the then acting Grand Master of the Hiram Grand lodge, Mr Samuel Van Brakle, an upright, intelligent and excellent man.)
There was, also, for many years, a small faction who rather opposed the F.L.A.G.L. still adhering to what they conceived to be the most legitimate source, the old African Lodge of Boston, among whom was the colored Lodge of Boston, and a very respectable body in New York City, known as the "Boyer Lodge."
In December, 1847, by a grand communication of a representative body of all the colored lodges in the United States, held in the city of New York, the differences and wounds which long existed were all settled and healed, a complete unionformed, and a National Grand Lodge, established, by the choice and election, in due Masonic form, of Past Master Master, John T. Hilton, of Boston, Mass. Most Worshipful Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge, and William E. Ambush, M.W.N.G. Secretary.
This, perhaps, was the most important period in the history of colored Masons in the United States; and had I the power to do so, I would raise my voice in tones of thunder, but with the pathetic affections of a brother; and thrill the cord of every true masonic heart throughout the country and the world, especially of colored men, in exhortations to stability and to Union.
Without it, satisfied am I that all our efforts, whether as men or Masons, must fail, utterly fail. "A house divided against itself, cannot stand," the weak divided among themselves in the midst of the mighty are thriced vanquished, conquered without a blow from the strong; the sturdy hand of the ruthless may shatter in pieces our column guidance, and leave the Virgin of Sympathy to weep through coming time.
I have thus, as cursorily as possible, given you a faint history of the origin and objects of ancient Free Masonry; its introduction into this country among white and colored men; and he who rejects Masonry as an absurd and irreligious institution must object to the Scriptures of eternal truth, and spurn the Bible as a book of mummeries.
But there have been serious objections urged against the legitimacy of Ancient Freemasonry among colored men of African descent or affinity in the United States, emanating at various times from different directions, of high Masonis authority in the Republic, and consequentl, received and adopted with a readiness as surprising as it was unkind and unjust by almost all of the Subordinate, and many of the Grand Lodges throughout the country, especially in the non slaveholding States.
A fact worthy of remark is that there is no comparison between the feelings manifested toward colored, by Northern and Southern Masons. Northern Masons, notwithstanding Masonry knows no man by descent, origin, or color, seldom visit colored Masonic Lodges; and when they do, it is frequently done by stealth!
While, to the contrary, Southern Masons recognize and fellowship colored men, as such, whenever they meet them as Masons. The writer has more than once sat in Lodge in the city of C_ (ED NOTE, Name not given in the original, but could be Charleston, S.C. where MRD lived) with some of the first gentlemen of Kentucky, where there have been present Col. A., a distinguished lawyer, Esquire L. one of the first Alderman of the place, and Judge M. President of the Judge's bench. This is a matter of no unfrequent occurrence, and many of our members have done the same.
Among the earliest and, peradventure, the first of these intended fratracidal assaults, was that of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in the year 18??, a distinguished and talented ex editor and present member of Congress, and Col. P., an ex Post Master, if I mistake not being at the time among the Grand Officers, if not the Committee who visited and reported concerning the African Grand Lodge in the Eleventh Sreet, Philadelphia.
And I should not at this date refer to the doings of those distinguished personages in this connection, but for the purpose of, as it neve as yet has publicly been done, vindicating the above named First Independent African Grand Lodge of North America, against the aspersions of those multifarious outward forces which have so long been leveled against her Masonic ramparts. Lambparts would be a term far more appropriate; because our Masonic fathers have submitted really with the most lamb like passivensss to the terrible and disparaging ordeal.
In this wise, the circumstance referred to happened. The question had long been mooted among the white members of the fraternity, as to the legitimacy and reality of the colored Masons; and, consequently, a Committee from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (white) was appointed to visit the colored Grand Lodge then situated in Eleventh Street (Phila.), to apply the Masonic test, and prove or disprove their capacity as recipients of the anicent and honorable rituals of the mystic order.
A Grand Communication being congregated for the purpose, at he appointed time, the Committee went. A Committee of Examination being sent out, who, instead of, as they should have done, had there been in waiting St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, or St. Paul in his daring attitude, as the chief Christian on the Isle of Malta; examining them, on seeing the gentlemen, all men of the first standing in the city of Philadelphia, who had often been seen in Masonic processions, and so far, known, as they thought, to be Masons, an unwise conclusion to be sure, reported them to the Chair, when without a question, and entirely through deference, the Chair replied: "Admit them."
They entered, inspected, oversighted, and examined the work of the colored masons, applying the scrutiny of a suspicious eye, and the etests of plumb, level and square; all of this they pronounced to be good work, square, and just such work as was required to be done; but for this act of courtesy, and undue deference on their part, they were denounced by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, as being unworthy of the high privileges they possessed.
Had these gentlemen been half so generous as they were determined on being just, they could and would readily have excused the blunder made by the colored Masons, when considering the relative position in the community of the two parties who then met as Committees; the one subservient to the other, in all the relations of life.
In all the social relations in which they had formerly met, the one was domestic and the other superior, the one ignorant and the other intelligent; in a word, the one master and the other servant.
But I come not to plead in extenuation for the blunders, the palpable and reprehensible blunders of our colored Masonic brethren and fathers; may I not say that it served them right, and has done them good, since their too great deference for persons in certain relations of life in this country, has done as much injury in other respects than this.
But that time is not now, neither are we those brethren; and they who now stand at the head of our Masonic jurisdiction are competent and adequate to the task for which they have been selected; so that the same excuse no longer exists for the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Neither would I vindictively censure our fathers, as they did very well for their day and generation; and all that they did was done for the best; they meant well, and that is all, at least, that I require at their hands.
