MasonsAtSight
MAKING MASONS AT SIGHT
The following commentaries were published in the New England Craftsman in 1909, and may be instructive regarding this subject. There is no information regarding any ruling or edict in Massachusetts Jurisdiction on this subject.
From New England Craftsman, Vol. IV, No. 6, March 1909, Page 201:
The following article on "Making a Mason at Sight" is from the "Masonic Standard" of Xew York. It says about all that is needed to show that there is ever a reason for exercising this right. Of all reasons that have been presented that of Grand Master Holmes is the most unique, when he said he exercised it to show that he had a right to do so.
The recent announcement in the press that M. W. Charles S. Moskinson, the Grand Master of Masons in Ohio, would make President-elett Taft a Mason at sight on Feb. 18, has caused considerable comment in the newspapers, and is a subject of discussion wherever Masons meet. Naturally there is some criticism, as there have always been by those who dispute the "prerogative" of a Grand Master to make a Mason at sight. According to the press dispatches, certain Lodges in Texas have gone so far as to pass resolutions condemning the proposed action of the Grand Master of Ohio. This is obviously improper and un-masonic. Texas Lodges have no riRht to interfere in such a matter, nor to criticize officially the Grand Master of Ohio for exercising a prerogative which is not disputed in his own jurisdiction.
It is pointed out that there is a recent precedent in Ohio for the making of a Mason at sight, such a course having been pursued in 1892 in the case of the late Governor Asa S. Bushnell, when Grand Master Levi C. Goodale conferred the three degrees upon him in one day. Precedents in other States are not wanting. About ten years ago John Wanamaker was made a Mason at pght by Grand Master Wagner of Pennsylvania The making of Admiral Schley bv Grand Master Small of the District of Columbia, in 1899, caused widespread discussion. It was reported that all of the three degrees were conferred in full form on Admiral Schley, and a similar course was pursued a few years later when Governor Foster M. Voorhees was made a Mason in the Opera House at Elizabeth, before an assemblage of a thousand Masons, by the Grand Master of Xew Jersey. Still more recently Vice President Fairbanks was similarly honored by the Grand Master of Masons in Indiana.
It thus appears that the honor to be conferred upon the President-elect, though unusual, is by no means unique. In this connection it is interesting to quote from the annual address of M. W. George D. Copeland, the immediate predecessor of Grand Master Hoskinson, at the annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, in October last:
There have been the usual number of requests for permission to hurry the degrees, generally for some one who was about to go upon a long journey in different parts of the world where it might not be convenient to take the degrees and sometimes because the regulations of foreign jurisdictions permit such haste, but I have uniformly refused such requests for two reasons. * * * When such haste is made it is impossible for the candidate to commit to memory the instructive and useful lectures pertaining to the several degrees, and I have never known a brother who has slighted the lectures to be an active and useful member of the order, and it almost universally happens that a brother who thoroughly understands the lectures of the degrees becomes an interested and active, useful and whole-hearted Mason.
In our opinion, the chief objection to such action as is contentplated in the case of Mr. Taft is that it violates the spirit of equality which is a fundamental principle of Freemasonry. If any man has earned exemption from the usual preliminaries. perhaps Mr. Taft has. Nevertheless, we believe that he would derive far more benefit from Masonry if he received the degrees in the usual way. Vice President Fairbanks said, at a dinner given by King Solomon's Royal Arch Chapter at Louisville in 1907: "I went through Masonry with great speed. The thirty-three degrees of Masonry I made in eleven months, and at the end ot that time 1 regretted that 1 couldn't make them again." Regret is the natural result of the speed made by Bro. Fairbanks.
When Bro, Roosevelt was Vice President he received the three degrees of Masonry in the usual way, with the constitutional interval between the degrees. He was thoroughly instructed, and is what we call a "well-posted" Mason, lie was not "hurried through" the so-called "higher degrees," but remains a plain Master Mason.
We of New York live under a constitutional government, and we doubt if any Grand Master in this jurisdiction will ever assume a prerogative that is not granted by the Constitution and the accepted landmarks. The Constitution of the Grand Lodge of New York adopted in 1785, and in force for many years thereafter, contained the following provision:
It is the prerogative of the (irand Lodge, ami the Right Worshipful Grand Master has full power and authority (when the (irand Lodge is duly assembled), to make or cause to be made in his Worship's presence, Free and Accepted Masons at sight, and such making is good; but they cannot be made out of his Worship's presence, without his written dispensation for thai purpose.
This regulation appeared in the "Ahiman Rezon" of 1772, and was reaffirmed in the Constitution published in 1884, but in the Revised Regulations of 1832 it was omitted and the following substituted: "He (the (irand Master) may make Masons at sight, and for this purpose may summon such brethren as he may deem necessary to assist him." The Grand Lodge of England, since 1717, has never recogized any other authority for making Masons at sight than the Grand Lodge duly assembled.
There are a number of cases o making a Mason at sight in the records of the Grand Lodge of New York, but the power was not frequently exercised. The last time was by Grand Master Robert D. Holmes, who reported to the Grand Lodge in 1861 that he had made Hon. James T. Brady a Mason at sight, on account of his great per sonal merit, and for the following reasons:
The tendency of modern Grand Lodge legislation, here and elsewhere in these States, has been toward abridging the powers of the Grand Master as the sole and absolute head of the craft; and, among other things, the right of thai official to make a Mason "at sight" has been criticized, if not doubted. I desired to bring to the surface a power and prerogative that has been gradually sinking out of view, and to exercise them, to the end that the present generation may know that they have an existence and recognize them also. This I have done, and the records of our proceedings of this session will show to the Masonic world that one, at least, of the prerogatives of a Grand Master has been rescued from desuetude in this jurisdiction.
The Grand Lodge indorsed his action, as the exercise of a constitutional prerogative. The present Constitution of the Grand Lodge o New York does not confer the power to make a Mason at sight.
From New England Craftsman, Vol. IV, No. 7, April 1909, Page 239:
Grand Secretary Frederic Speed of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi is quite apt to have an opinion about things Masonic and when he does he has the courage to express it. He has something to say about making President Taft a Mason at sight. We quote him as follows:
The Grand Master and his invited guests assembled in the spacious auditorium (Scottish Rite Cathedral, Cincinnati) between 4 and 5 o'clock p. m.
It was just past 5:05 o'clock when the distinguished candidate appeared at the cathedral. He entered arm in arm with Colonel William Cromwell Melish, Grand Master of Ceremonies. The two came unheralded and amidst perfect silence walked down the center aisle of the hall to the proper position, where Mr. Taft was greeted by Charles H. Hoskinson, "The Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Ohio," who made the simple announcement that he had exercised the prerogative of his office in calling an occasional lodge. After he had called the brethren to order Prof. John Yoakley played upon the organ Mendelssohn's Lift Thine Eyes. The Scottish Rite double quartet, composed of Mr. William A. Beck, Charles Bartlett, John N. Roberts. David E. Griffith. W. A. Evans, F. Wm. Haas, Henry L. Korb and John C. Hersh accompanying. As the last notes died away Grand Master Hoskinson called upon Grand Chaplain Ralph R. Hickock to invoke the divine blessing. After which, without any other Ceremony, the obligations of the three degrees were administered. Berween each of them there were musical numbers, the program consisting of Charity by Xembach; Father, In Thy Mysterious Presence, by Gerrish ; The Lord is My Strength, by Blodgett, and America, which was sung last and in which Judge Taft joined and then he was Brother William Howard Taft.
There were a good many eminent Masons present to witness the farce, some of whom must have had a queer feeling run down their spines, as they heard the words "in a just and regular lodge," repeated.
It's all right, of course that Mr. Taft should be a Mason, his high character and the eminent position, which he is soon to occupy settles this beyond cavil, but we would have greatly preferred to have seen him come in in the regular way and in our judgment there ought not to have been any difference between his initiation and that of the boy who comes from between the plow handles or the forge. In the Lodge every one stands upon an exact equality and the President of the United Stales, although the highest and most exalted personage upon earth, is no better than the humblest, who knocks at our doors and it was a violation of every fundamental principle upon which Masonry is built to have made an exception in his favor.
In assuming this power, the Grand Master of Ohio violated a fundamental principle, which has never been questioned: "That no Lodge shall ever make a Mason without due inquiry into his character," and subject him to the ordeal of the ballot. It is simply farcical to say. that the Grand Master could of his own volition without the assistance of a Lodge make this "inquiry."
We unhesitatingly assert that no such "prerogative" as "making a Mason at sight" is vested in the Grand Master and it is purely an assumption upon his part, for which there is no foundation in anv of the ancient laws of Masonry. It is strange that it is not mentioned in Anderson's Constitutions or the Ancient Charges or <Old Regulations, which were published in 1723, but that it was left to slumber until Lawrence Dermott, the Grand Secretary of the Schismatic Grand Lodge, April 16th, 1777, should have brought it to light sixty years after the reorganization took place and when every participant was dead. The record as Dermott made it was that after the Stewards Lodge, as the Committee on Charity was called "although Grand Master had full power and authority to make (in his presence or cause them to be made) Masons, when and where he pleased, yet he could not force any Lodge to admit a person (so made) as members, without the unanimous consent of such Lodge, and if the Grand Master made use of his privilege of making Masons, he ought to have a sufficient number of them to form a Lodge and grant them a warrant, by which means they would be entitled to registry or otherwise not." "This rule of the Stewards," says the great Masonic historian, Robert Freke Gould, "was afterwards inserted by Dermott, as a note to "Old Regulations xviii." in "Ahiman Rezon, 1778" and has served as the foundation of authority, upon which a false doctrine called "making Masons at sight" has been erected. Gould, page 163, Volume 4. To this only need be added, after a critical examination of the old regulation to which Dermot appended this note, it fails to disclose anything which serves as a foundation for the note itself, and it could be appended any where else in his compilation. And, it is upon this flimsy pretext that a few, Thank God, very few. Grand Masters have violated their obligations to support and maintain the "true principle of Ancient Craft Masonry."
Other incidents of the occasion are reported in the "Masonic Standard." The ceremony occupied nearly an hour. At its conclusion the new brother was called upon to make some remarks upon his experience and he said in part:
"My brethren, 1 have stood in many presences and have felt embarrassment at the lack of anything appropriate to saw but never have I stood in any presence with such fear of saying something inappropriate. The territory into which you have led me was until now a terra incognito and I lift my foot in hesitation as to where to plant it. There is one consideration, however, which gives me confidence — the consciousness that many years ago mv father stood in the same place and expressed his love and admiration for the order. I can only envy my brother in Masonry and in fact, that it was given to him to be received under the auspices of that good old man. I would feel strange among this assemblage but for the fact that numerous members are present with whom 1 have had close relations in daily life, which has robbed me of the terrors of initiation which otherwise it would have had for me. And 1 am grateful at the presence of three of my classmates from distant cities who came for the ceremonies, showing the attachment of the members for the order, and I am indeed grateful to them. I thank you and congratulate myself upon being one of you and am very grate ful for being received among you."
Following the close of the Occasional Lodge, the officers of tin Grand Lodge of Ohio were entertained by Bro. Charles P. Taft, at his home in Pike street. In the evening the Third Degree was conferred in full form in Kilwinning Lodge Xo. 356, with Judge Taft a an interested spectator.
There was an attendance of about 500, including the dignitaries who had bed present in the afternoon. Following the degree work, Kilwinning Lodge - through its Secretary, Bro. J. W. Williams, presented a Masonic apron to Bro. Taft.
He responded feelingly, stating that he had been permitted to enter into the order without performing the labor exacted of all candidates, which labor, he said, he would be glad to perform. In a happy reference to the generous length of his apron strings Bro. Taft called down the house.
He closed his remarks with the statement that it did him good to feel the thrill which comes From recognizing on all hands the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
Grand Master George B. Orlady of Pennsylvania delivered a masterly address on Masonry, and told how Pennsylvania Masons many years ago watched with fatherly care over the new Lodges of Masons which were instituted in Ohio.
