MassachusettsEdicts MFM1856 1860
ADVICE FROM MOORE'S FREEMASONS' MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Prior to 1875, a considerable amount of Masonic jurisprudence was based on the advice and direction published in The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, published in Boston and edited by one of the foremost Masonic authorities of the time, Rt. Wor. Charles W. Moore. While not established as edicts or rulings by Grand Masters, they were consequential in the establishment of precedents and contributed to the decisions made in later years.
Comments and views in the publication were often lengthy, but were generally based on sound reasoning that the author provided in response to inquiries from many Grand Jurisdictions.
1858
Withholding of Degrees
From Vol. XVII, No. 5, March 1858, Page 145:
Is it legal to withhold the degree after a candidate hat been balloted for?
The Grand Master of Texas argues the question in this manner :
"One question has been so often submitted to me, during my term of office, in different forms and from different quarters, that I consider it proper to present it to the Grand Lodge, that it may be finally determined. It is this: If objection be made, after a candidate has been balloted for and elected, but before a degree has been conferred upon him, should he receive the degree, and, if not, is it, or not, the duty of the Worshipful Master to withhold its conferment? I have uniformly decided that, in such a case, it should not be conferred, and that it is the duty of the Worshipful Master to refuse it.
"I maintain that 'peace and harmony' lie at the foundation of all Masonic association and intercourse. Equally elementary is the rule that the 'consent' of a Lodge, to the 'making' of a Brother, must be unanimous. These principles will not be disputed; nor should they be evaded or overruled by quibbles or technicalities. The ballot is but the evidence of the consent of the Brethren. At the time when taken it is final, as it evidences the consent then given. But if time elapse before the candidate is actually inducted into the portals of our temple, some subsequent reason may induce the withdrawal of the consent. And, whenever the Master of a Lodge is made aware that the unanimity of the consent, first given, is broken, he is out of the line of his duty, if he suffer a degree to be conferred. The only limitation upon this rule, which our Grand Lodge has established, is this: That when a Brother, who was present and voted affirmatively, afterwards objects to the admission of the candidate, he should state his reasons for objecting, that the Lodge may judge of them. I doubt whether this is the old rule, strictly. It is, however, judicious, and its effects will, doubtless, be salutary. But if a Brother be absent when the ballot is taken, yet, before the conferment of the degree, signifies his objection, it is manifest, not only that the degree must be withheld, but that he cannot be called upon to disclose his ground of objection. The reasons for such a rule are numerous and satisfactory."
"The practice of conferring degrees against the wishes of members, (say the committee of correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Illinois) is a growing evil. The ear of the Master of a Lodge should ever be open to hear the objections of members, in confidence, and if the objection be either reasonable or tangible, the degree should be withheld. True it is, that many are rejected upon frivolous grounds, yet, where one is improperly rejected, five are improperly admitted, and those who never should have been made Masons, are the very ones to reject good men, and they often do it as a matter of retaliation."
