Difference between revisions of "GMLAbbott"

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'''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1917 1917] [http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1918 1918] [http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1919 1919]'''
 
'''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1917 1917] [http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1918 1918] [http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1919 1919]'''
 +
 +
=== SPEECHES ===
 +
 +
==== AT WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE, SOUTH BOSTON, FEBRUARY 1919 ====
 +
 +
''From Proceedings, Page 1919-3; at Phillips Congregational Church, South Boston, MA, 02/16/1919:''
 +
 +
The opportunity and privilege of coming here at this time, to this house of God and in this presence, to share in tribute to the memory of one who has affectionately been known and called the "Father of his Country," is an honor and a pleasure that is deeply appreciated. As the representative of the Grand Lodge and of the eighty thousand members of the Masonic Fraternity in Massachusetts, I bear and bring grateful acknowledgment for the courtesy and kindness of the Brethren of the Masonic Lodges meeting in this locality as well as for that of the Pastor of this church, himself an honored and much beloved member of our Order.
 +
 +
It is my purpose to detain you for only a few brief moments and perhaps to leave with you just a few random thoughts. Far be it from me to trespass upon the time or the domain of the Grand Chaplain of our Grand Lodge who comes here tonight to give the address of the evening — whose words are always an inspiration and whose very presence is a benediction.
 +
 +
I believe that all thinking men and women account it as fortunate indeed that in this Country we are following up the custom of regularly honoring upon the anniversaries of their birth the lives and memories of many of our great men. It is coming to be more and more generally recognized that constant contemplation of the lives and the achievements of those who have done much to make our Country great and prosperous and happy helps to bring our own thoughts up to a higher and better level, and enables us to contribute more generously to that end for others, not only for our day and generation, but for those that shall come after. "Whatever helps to bring out the best there is in us helps us to bring out the best there is in other men." And it has also been truly said that "but for great men we common folk could scarcely keep our souls alive."
 +
 +
Within the week the whole Country, on a day deservedly set apart by presidential proclamation, has been offering its tribute of gratitude and love for the life and service of a great American patriot, in the minds of many the greatest American patriot of our day, Theodore Roosevelt. It is a matter of pride to you and to me, Brethren, that in the very heyday of his prominence and public influence he should of his own will and initiative seek and secure admission to our historic and time-honored fellowship.
 +
 +
In the present calendar month, and through the anniversaries of their birth, the curtain of years is drawn aside and we live again with three of the greatest characters in American history, James Russell Lowell, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington* Is there a man so fugitive to a love of God and country and righteousness that he does not breathe a silent prayer of gratitude that — albeit through the vista of years — he comes today within the hallowed influence of the consecrated lives of such men 1 If it is with you as it is with me that many important events in the history of our famous men have in the lapse of time faded somewhat from memory, perhaps you will permit me to recall just a few incidents in Washington's career of particular interest to us as Masons and which at some time have undoubtedly been familiar to you all.
 +
 +
So closely is the biography of Washington interwoven and related to the early history of our Country that it almost defies a separation. It was he more than any other man who established the nation and created a government — the first to rise above the provincial or colonial spirit and to reach a broad concept of national life and character.
 +
 +
He was born one hundred and eighty-seven years ago and died one hundred and twenty years ago. He was elected to receive the degrees in Freemasonry when he was but twenty years of age, as was permitted under Masonic authority at that time. He, therefore, had the benefit of Masonic teaching and inspiration during all of his mature years. The influence of his sturdy and constant devotion to high standards and Masonic ideals was not confined to the limits of his earthly presence, but has spanned and shed its fragrance over nearly a century and a quarter since he passed away and is today a vitalizing and uplifting force in the hearts and souls of men. His concept of our Institution was given in a letter in which he wrote as follows:
 +
<blockquote>
 +
"Being persuaded that a just application of the principles on which the Masonic Fraternity is founded must be promotive of virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the Society, and be considered by them a deserving Brother."
 +
</blockquote>
 +
 +
It affords me supreme delight to he able to claim Washington as really a Massachusetts Mason because of the fact that the Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in which he received the degrees, was then acting and existing under a Dispensation granted by [http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMOxnard Thomas Oxnard], Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This seems not to be generally known even by our own Brethren.
 +
 +
Those with whom Washington was associated and surrounded in the formation and foundation of our Government were very generally Masons. A majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and nearly all of the staff officers of General Washington were members of our Institution. All through the Constitution of the United States can be seen the reassertion of Masonic principles as long laid down and established by eminent and accepted Masonic authority.
 +
 +
During the time that Washington was in command of the army, and in the years following, he was made an honorary member of several Masonic Lodges and was a constant attendant at the Lodge meetings held by the army or traveling Lodges as they were called at that time. His presence at these meetings has been amply authenticated. Washington was the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge, No. 22, of Alexandria, Virginia (in 1788). At the next annual meeting he was reelected Master.
 +
 +
It was in April, 1789, that he was inaugurated the first President of the United States, and it is to us a very interesting fact that at that time he was still Worshipful Master of his Lodge, and also that he took his oath of office as President upon the Bible of Saint John's Lodge, of New York, and that the oath was administered by Grand Master Livingstone of New York.
 +
 +
During Washington's second term of office as President the corner-stone of the Capitol at Washington was laid by him in full Masonic regalia and ceremonial.
 +
 +
Soon after he retired from the Presidential chair the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts sent him a fraternal address.
 +
 +
News of Washington's death in December, 1799, did not reach Boston until two weeks after it occurred. This seems almost unbelievable in the light of present day accomplishment in the transmission of uncensored news. Dr. Dick who was his family and attending physician during his last illness was the Master of Alexandria Lodge at the time.
 +
 +
One of the most precious possessions of our Grand Lodge — so precious that each Grand Master is held responsible for its safe keeping — is a lock of Washington's hair sent to our Grand Lodge by his widow soon after his death. This memento is preserved in a little urn made for the purpose by [http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMRevere Paul Revere], with his own hands, himself a Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. Commemorative funeral services were held by our Grand Lodge in February after his death, and sixteen hundred Masons were in the line of the procession through the streets of Boston, each wearing a medal bearing the legend, "He is in glory, the world in tears."
 +
 +
Washington was possessed of extraordinary personal courage, self-control, and self-reliance, and he brought into every relation in life a mind of rich and rare endowment, a heart full of compassion, a nature as modest, tender, and gentle as that of a child.
 +
 +
He was the embodiment of National and Masonic ideals and his name has become the enshrinement of the principles and rugged virtues he upheld.
 +
In these present days at the close of a great war when the safety and sanctity of our Nation and of its free institutions are still being threatened from within and without by sinister and destructive influences, we sorely need the benevolent heart, the tolerant and kindly spirit, the broad and clear vision, the firm courage, and the unselfish purpose of a Washington to point and to lead the way to that El Dorado of human hope where all shall join in the glad refrain "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
 +
 +
But the dreamer, the socialist, the Bolshevist, the anarchist, and too often the intellectualist, tell us that the times have changed and the world has progressed since the days of Washington; that new diseases in national, civil, political, industrial, and individual life have appeared and that new remedies and nostrums must be employed and applied. We hear the specious cry of liberty, freedom, and democracy from the masked faces of ignorance, vice, and selfishness. License, not liberty, is their motive, purpose, aim, and desire, a license that would destroy the very foundations of civil government, that would substitute the rule of the mob for that of law and order, already recently attempted; a license that would paralyze the very energies of right and plunge the world into the darkness and chaos of crime, confusion, and unparalleled tyranny and despotism.
 +
 +
Has this great Order of ours, formed and established to combat the very evils that menace and are so manifest on every side today, no leading part to play in the deliverance from these unhappy conditions 1 With every sacred tradition of Masonry, with every exaction of conscience, of duty, and of honor, with every demand of loyalty and fidelity to such service and sacrifice as we memorialize tonight, there comes to every member of the Craft a clarion call to duty. Two millions strong of liberty-loving, God-acknowledging men enlisted in this country under the banner of Freemasonry are beginning to awake from the lethargy of ease, inaction, and of simple profession ready to give a larger, a vitalizing, pulsing, palpitating, and living expression to the fundamental teachings and tenets of our Institution. Today is one of supreme test. The advance of civilization, the progress of the world, the happiness of mankind are in a large measure in our keeping.
 +
 +
Rich is our heritage, glorious our opportunity, sacred our trust.
 +
 +
If this memorial observance and these exercises of tonight but symbolize the rededication of our lives to the service of God and humanity, if the ties of love that bind us together find some larger place in the hearts of men, then indeed have we paid fitting and true Masonic tribute to him who lives again ' in thoughts that pierce the night like stars, and by their mild persistence lead men's minds to vaster issues.''
 +
 +
==== FEAST OF ST. JOHN, DECEMBER 1928 ====
 +
 +
''From Proceedings, Page 1928-483:''
 +
 +
''Most Worshipful Grand Master and Brethren:''
 +
 +
I stand before you at this time as Exhibit C of the Grand Master's wax works, model 1916-1919. It was very cleverly conceived, on the part of the Grand Master, in view of his donning the royal robes today, in view of his basking here in the glad acclaim of his Brethren, in the presence of his official family, and in the presence of those who hope to feed at the official crib, to make more prominent if you please his own glory and high estate by dragging out from the dusty archives those who have been relegated to oblivion, or at least to a state of innocuous desuetude.
 +
 +
Possessed of a certain amount of modesty, I did not feel that I could speak of any "high lights" in my own administration, and so I went to Most Worshipful Brother [http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMMJohnson Johnson] and I said to him, "Tell me what in your judgment was the one outstanding event during the three years of my administration of the affairs of the Grand Lodge," and he very promptly replied, "Your appointment of me as your representative to go on a trip to Panama and the Canal Zone  at the expense of the Grand Lodge." ''(Laughter.)''
 +
 +
I then turned to Most Worshipful Brother [http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMPrince Prince], and I said, "What in my administration, in your judgment, was the high light, the most prominent and the outstanding and most important event of all?" He promptly replied, "Your appointment of me as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts."  ''(Laughter.)''
 +
 +
You can see, under such circumstances, what a painful possession is my own modesty.
 +
 +
I am not going to take my allotted time, because Brother Prince has asked me to give him some of it because he says, speaking of "high lights," that there were many events during his term of office that were "lit up."  ''(Laughter.)''
 +
 +
You remember that he went in as Grand Master as the "friend of the farmer," posing himself as a farmer, pretending that be was going to secure for them higher prices for their vegetables and farm products. He does not know the difference between a pumpkin and a squash. Finally President Coolidge heard of his claims as a farmer. Knowing somewhat of earlier Past Grand Masters of Massachusetts and their remarkable ability, he asked him to write a farm relief bill which he might present to Congress. This called for immediate show-down. Most Worshipful Brother Prince found a very ready excuse to hie himself to China. You have noted the sad condition of that country ever since he visited there.
 +
 +
But it would be immodest, and it seems to me almost inappropriate to attempt to tell you of any of the results, or to try to portray in words any of the experiences of those years from 1916 to 1919, which covered, as the Grand Master has said, the period of the Great War, when 80,000 members of the craft in Massachusetts, (5,000 of them in the naval and military service of their country), were called upon to translate into living expression the tenets and the principles and the teachings of our institution. "By their fruits ye shall know them."
 +
 +
Those were days when the Brethren of Massachusetts did not spend in words that which should be spent in action. "Men came closer to their true selves under the chastening shadows of sorrow and loss." Out of the service, the sacrifice, the sorrows, and the losses of those days, I am sure i here has come a finer, truer expression, and a greater emphasis has been given to the true principles of our Institution. Out of the treasured memories of those crucial days, rejoicing in the prosperity of today, happy in the comradeship and companionship of this hour, may I express, Most Worshipful Grand Master, the earnest and sincere hope that your administration may be happier and more fruitful than any of those that have gone before.
  
 
=== MEMORIAL ===
 
=== MEMORIAL ===
Line 100: Line 174:
 
[http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMHDean Herbert W. Dean]<br>
 
[http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMHDean Herbert W. Dean]<br>
 
''Committee''
 
''Committee''
 
=== SPEECHES ===
 
 
==== AT WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE, SOUTH BOSTON, FEBRUARY 1919 ====
 
 
''From Proceedings, Page 1919-3; at Phillips Congregational Church, South Boston, MA, 02/16/1919:''
 
 
The opportunity and privilege of coming here at this time, to this house of God and in this presence, to share in tribute to the memory of one who has affectionately been known and called the "Father of his Country," is an honor and a pleasure that is deeply appreciated. As the representative of the Grand Lodge and of the eighty thousand members of the Masonic Fraternity in Massachusetts, I bear and bring grateful acknowledgment for the courtesy and kindness of the Brethren of the Masonic Lodges meeting in this locality as well as for that of the Pastor of this church, himself an honored and much beloved member of our Order.
 
 
It is my purpose to detain you for only a few brief moments and perhaps to leave with you just a few random thoughts. Far be it from me to trespass upon the time or the domain of the Grand Chaplain of our Grand Lodge who comes here tonight to give the address of the evening — whose words are always an inspiration and whose very presence is a benediction.
 
 
I believe that all thinking men and women account it as fortunate indeed that in this Country we are following up the custom of regularly honoring upon the anniversaries of their birth the lives and memories of many of our great men. It is coming to be more and more generally recognized that constant contemplation of the lives and the achievements of those who have done much to make our Country great and prosperous and happy helps to bring our own thoughts up to a higher and better level, and enables us to contribute more generously to that end for others, not only for our day and generation, but for those that shall come after. "Whatever helps to bring out the best there is in us helps us to bring out the best there is in other men." And it has also been truly said that "but for great men we common folk could scarcely keep our souls alive."
 
 
Within the week the whole Country, on a day deservedly set apart by presidential proclamation, has been offering its tribute of gratitude and love for the life and service of a great American patriot, in the minds of many the greatest American patriot of our day, Theodore Roosevelt. It is a matter of pride to you and to me, Brethren, that in the very heyday of his prominence and public influence he should of his own will and initiative seek and secure admission to our historic and time-honored fellowship.
 
 
In the present calendar month, and through the anniversaries of their birth, the curtain of years is drawn aside and we live again with three of the greatest characters in American history, James Russell Lowell, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington* Is there a man so fugitive to a love of God and country and righteousness that he does not breathe a silent prayer of gratitude that — albeit through the vista of years — he comes today within the hallowed influence of the consecrated lives of such men 1 If it is with you as it is with me that many important events in the history of our famous men have in the lapse of time faded somewhat from memory, perhaps you will permit me to recall just a few incidents in Washington's career of particular interest to us as Masons and which at some time have undoubtedly been familiar to you all.
 
 
So closely is the biography of Washington interwoven and related to the early history of our Country that it almost defies a separation. It was he more than any other man who established the nation and created a government — the first to rise above the provincial or colonial spirit and to reach a broad concept of national life and character.
 
 
He was born one hundred and eighty-seven years ago and died one hundred and twenty years ago. He was elected to receive the degrees in Freemasonry when he was but twenty years of age, as was permitted under Masonic authority at that time. He, therefore, had the benefit of Masonic teaching and inspiration during all of his mature years. The influence of his sturdy and constant devotion to high standards and Masonic ideals was not confined to the limits of his earthly presence, but has spanned and shed its fragrance over nearly a century and a quarter since he passed away and is today a vitalizing and uplifting force in the hearts and souls of men. His concept of our Institution was given in a letter in which he wrote as follows:
 
<blockquote>
 
"Being persuaded that a just application of the principles on which the Masonic Fraternity is founded must be promotive of virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the Society, and be considered by them a deserving Brother."
 
</blockquote>
 
 
It affords me supreme delight to he able to claim Washington as really a Massachusetts Mason because of the fact that the Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in which he received the degrees, was then acting and existing under a Dispensation granted by [http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMOxnard Thomas Oxnard], Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This seems not to be generally known even by our own Brethren.
 
 
Those with whom Washington was associated and surrounded in the formation and foundation of our Government were very generally Masons. A majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and nearly all of the staff officers of General Washington were members of our Institution. All through the Constitution of the United States can be seen the reassertion of Masonic principles as long laid down and established by eminent and accepted Masonic authority.
 
 
During the time that Washington was in command of the army, and in the years following, he was made an honorary member of several Masonic Lodges and was a constant attendant at the Lodge meetings held by the army or traveling Lodges as they were called at that time. His presence at these meetings has been amply authenticated. Washington was the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge, No. 22, of Alexandria, Virginia (in 1788). At the next annual meeting he was reelected Master.
 
 
It was in April, 1789, that he was inaugurated the first President of the United States, and it is to us a very interesting fact that at that time he was still Worshipful Master of his Lodge, and also that he took his oath of office as President upon the Bible of Saint John's Lodge, of New York, and that the oath was administered by Grand Master Livingstone of New York.
 
 
During Washington's second term of office as President the corner-stone of the Capitol at Washington was laid by him in full Masonic regalia and ceremonial.
 
 
Soon after he retired from the Presidential chair the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts sent him a fraternal address.
 
 
News of Washington's death in December, 1799, did not reach Boston until two weeks after it occurred. This seems almost unbelievable in the light of present day accomplishment in the transmission of uncensored news. Dr. Dick who was his family and attending physician during his last illness was the Master of Alexandria Lodge at the time.
 
 
One of the most precious possessions of our Grand Lodge — so precious that each Grand Master is held responsible for its safe keeping — is a lock of Washington's hair sent to our Grand Lodge by his widow soon after his death. This memento is preserved in a little urn made for the purpose by [http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=GMRevere Paul Revere], with his own hands, himself a Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. Commemorative funeral services were held by our Grand Lodge in February after his death, and sixteen hundred Masons were in the line of the procession through the streets of Boston, each wearing a medal bearing the legend, "He is in glory, the world in tears."
 
 
Washington was possessed of extraordinary personal courage, self-control, and self-reliance, and he brought into every relation in life a mind of rich and rare endowment, a heart full of compassion, a nature as modest, tender, and gentle as that of a child.
 
 
He was the embodiment of National and Masonic ideals and his name has become the enshrinement of the principles and rugged virtues he upheld.
 
In these present days at the close of a great war when the safety and sanctity of our Nation and of its free institutions are still being threatened from within and without by sinister and destructive influences, we sorely need the benevolent heart, the tolerant and kindly spirit, the broad and clear vision, the firm courage, and the unselfish purpose of a Washington to point and to lead the way to that El Dorado of human hope where all shall join in the glad refrain "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
 
 
But the dreamer, the socialist, the Bolshevist, the anarchist, and too often the intellectualist, tell us that the times have changed and the world has progressed since the days of Washington; that new diseases in national, civil, political, industrial, and individual life have appeared and that new remedies and nostrums must be employed and applied. We hear the specious cry of liberty, freedom, and democracy from the masked faces of ignorance, vice, and selfishness. License, not liberty, is their motive, purpose, aim, and desire, a license that would destroy the very foundations of civil government, that would substitute the rule of the mob for that of law and order, already recently attempted; a license that would paralyze the very energies of right and plunge the world into the darkness and chaos of crime, confusion, and unparalleled tyranny and despotism.
 
 
Has this great Order of ours, formed and established to combat the very evils that menace and are so manifest on every side today, no leading part to play in the deliverance from these unhappy conditions 1 With every sacred tradition of Masonry, with every exaction of conscience, of duty, and of honor, with every demand of loyalty and fidelity to such service and sacrifice as we memorialize tonight, there comes to every member of the Craft a clarion call to duty. Two millions strong of liberty-loving, God-acknowledging men enlisted in this country under the banner of Freemasonry are beginning to awake from the lethargy of ease, inaction, and of simple profession ready to give a larger, a vitalizing, pulsing, palpitating, and living expression to the fundamental teachings and tenets of our Institution. Today is one of supreme test. The advance of civilization, the progress of the world, the happiness of mankind are in a large measure in our keeping.
 
 
Rich is our heritage, glorious our opportunity, sacred our trust.
 
 
If this memorial observance and these exercises of tonight but symbolize the rededication of our lives to the service of God and humanity, if the ties of love that bind us together find some larger place in the hearts of men, then indeed have we paid fitting and true Masonic tribute to him who lives again ' in thoughts that pierce the night like stars, and by their mild persistence lead men's minds to vaster issues.''
 
 
=== NOTES ===
 
 
  
 
=== CHARTERS GRANTED ===
 
=== CHARTERS GRANTED ===

Revision as of 18:30, 8 July 2014

LEON MARTIN ABBOTT 1867-1932

LeonMAbbott1917.jpg

Senior Grand Warden, 1913
Grand Master, 1917-1919


TERM

1917 1918 1919

SPEECHES

AT WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE, SOUTH BOSTON, FEBRUARY 1919

From Proceedings, Page 1919-3; at Phillips Congregational Church, South Boston, MA, 02/16/1919:

The opportunity and privilege of coming here at this time, to this house of God and in this presence, to share in tribute to the memory of one who has affectionately been known and called the "Father of his Country," is an honor and a pleasure that is deeply appreciated. As the representative of the Grand Lodge and of the eighty thousand members of the Masonic Fraternity in Massachusetts, I bear and bring grateful acknowledgment for the courtesy and kindness of the Brethren of the Masonic Lodges meeting in this locality as well as for that of the Pastor of this church, himself an honored and much beloved member of our Order.

It is my purpose to detain you for only a few brief moments and perhaps to leave with you just a few random thoughts. Far be it from me to trespass upon the time or the domain of the Grand Chaplain of our Grand Lodge who comes here tonight to give the address of the evening — whose words are always an inspiration and whose very presence is a benediction.

I believe that all thinking men and women account it as fortunate indeed that in this Country we are following up the custom of regularly honoring upon the anniversaries of their birth the lives and memories of many of our great men. It is coming to be more and more generally recognized that constant contemplation of the lives and the achievements of those who have done much to make our Country great and prosperous and happy helps to bring our own thoughts up to a higher and better level, and enables us to contribute more generously to that end for others, not only for our day and generation, but for those that shall come after. "Whatever helps to bring out the best there is in us helps us to bring out the best there is in other men." And it has also been truly said that "but for great men we common folk could scarcely keep our souls alive."

Within the week the whole Country, on a day deservedly set apart by presidential proclamation, has been offering its tribute of gratitude and love for the life and service of a great American patriot, in the minds of many the greatest American patriot of our day, Theodore Roosevelt. It is a matter of pride to you and to me, Brethren, that in the very heyday of his prominence and public influence he should of his own will and initiative seek and secure admission to our historic and time-honored fellowship.

In the present calendar month, and through the anniversaries of their birth, the curtain of years is drawn aside and we live again with three of the greatest characters in American history, James Russell Lowell, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington* Is there a man so fugitive to a love of God and country and righteousness that he does not breathe a silent prayer of gratitude that — albeit through the vista of years — he comes today within the hallowed influence of the consecrated lives of such men 1 If it is with you as it is with me that many important events in the history of our famous men have in the lapse of time faded somewhat from memory, perhaps you will permit me to recall just a few incidents in Washington's career of particular interest to us as Masons and which at some time have undoubtedly been familiar to you all.

So closely is the biography of Washington interwoven and related to the early history of our Country that it almost defies a separation. It was he more than any other man who established the nation and created a government — the first to rise above the provincial or colonial spirit and to reach a broad concept of national life and character.

He was born one hundred and eighty-seven years ago and died one hundred and twenty years ago. He was elected to receive the degrees in Freemasonry when he was but twenty years of age, as was permitted under Masonic authority at that time. He, therefore, had the benefit of Masonic teaching and inspiration during all of his mature years. The influence of his sturdy and constant devotion to high standards and Masonic ideals was not confined to the limits of his earthly presence, but has spanned and shed its fragrance over nearly a century and a quarter since he passed away and is today a vitalizing and uplifting force in the hearts and souls of men. His concept of our Institution was given in a letter in which he wrote as follows:

"Being persuaded that a just application of the principles on which the Masonic Fraternity is founded must be promotive of virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the Society, and be considered by them a deserving Brother."

It affords me supreme delight to he able to claim Washington as really a Massachusetts Mason because of the fact that the Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in which he received the degrees, was then acting and existing under a Dispensation granted by Thomas Oxnard, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This seems not to be generally known even by our own Brethren.

Those with whom Washington was associated and surrounded in the formation and foundation of our Government were very generally Masons. A majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and nearly all of the staff officers of General Washington were members of our Institution. All through the Constitution of the United States can be seen the reassertion of Masonic principles as long laid down and established by eminent and accepted Masonic authority.

During the time that Washington was in command of the army, and in the years following, he was made an honorary member of several Masonic Lodges and was a constant attendant at the Lodge meetings held by the army or traveling Lodges as they were called at that time. His presence at these meetings has been amply authenticated. Washington was the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge, No. 22, of Alexandria, Virginia (in 1788). At the next annual meeting he was reelected Master.

It was in April, 1789, that he was inaugurated the first President of the United States, and it is to us a very interesting fact that at that time he was still Worshipful Master of his Lodge, and also that he took his oath of office as President upon the Bible of Saint John's Lodge, of New York, and that the oath was administered by Grand Master Livingstone of New York.

During Washington's second term of office as President the corner-stone of the Capitol at Washington was laid by him in full Masonic regalia and ceremonial.

Soon after he retired from the Presidential chair the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts sent him a fraternal address.

News of Washington's death in December, 1799, did not reach Boston until two weeks after it occurred. This seems almost unbelievable in the light of present day accomplishment in the transmission of uncensored news. Dr. Dick who was his family and attending physician during his last illness was the Master of Alexandria Lodge at the time.

One of the most precious possessions of our Grand Lodge — so precious that each Grand Master is held responsible for its safe keeping — is a lock of Washington's hair sent to our Grand Lodge by his widow soon after his death. This memento is preserved in a little urn made for the purpose by Paul Revere, with his own hands, himself a Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. Commemorative funeral services were held by our Grand Lodge in February after his death, and sixteen hundred Masons were in the line of the procession through the streets of Boston, each wearing a medal bearing the legend, "He is in glory, the world in tears."

Washington was possessed of extraordinary personal courage, self-control, and self-reliance, and he brought into every relation in life a mind of rich and rare endowment, a heart full of compassion, a nature as modest, tender, and gentle as that of a child.

He was the embodiment of National and Masonic ideals and his name has become the enshrinement of the principles and rugged virtues he upheld. In these present days at the close of a great war when the safety and sanctity of our Nation and of its free institutions are still being threatened from within and without by sinister and destructive influences, we sorely need the benevolent heart, the tolerant and kindly spirit, the broad and clear vision, the firm courage, and the unselfish purpose of a Washington to point and to lead the way to that El Dorado of human hope where all shall join in the glad refrain "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

But the dreamer, the socialist, the Bolshevist, the anarchist, and too often the intellectualist, tell us that the times have changed and the world has progressed since the days of Washington; that new diseases in national, civil, political, industrial, and individual life have appeared and that new remedies and nostrums must be employed and applied. We hear the specious cry of liberty, freedom, and democracy from the masked faces of ignorance, vice, and selfishness. License, not liberty, is their motive, purpose, aim, and desire, a license that would destroy the very foundations of civil government, that would substitute the rule of the mob for that of law and order, already recently attempted; a license that would paralyze the very energies of right and plunge the world into the darkness and chaos of crime, confusion, and unparalleled tyranny and despotism.

Has this great Order of ours, formed and established to combat the very evils that menace and are so manifest on every side today, no leading part to play in the deliverance from these unhappy conditions 1 With every sacred tradition of Masonry, with every exaction of conscience, of duty, and of honor, with every demand of loyalty and fidelity to such service and sacrifice as we memorialize tonight, there comes to every member of the Craft a clarion call to duty. Two millions strong of liberty-loving, God-acknowledging men enlisted in this country under the banner of Freemasonry are beginning to awake from the lethargy of ease, inaction, and of simple profession ready to give a larger, a vitalizing, pulsing, palpitating, and living expression to the fundamental teachings and tenets of our Institution. Today is one of supreme test. The advance of civilization, the progress of the world, the happiness of mankind are in a large measure in our keeping.

Rich is our heritage, glorious our opportunity, sacred our trust.

If this memorial observance and these exercises of tonight but symbolize the rededication of our lives to the service of God and humanity, if the ties of love that bind us together find some larger place in the hearts of men, then indeed have we paid fitting and true Masonic tribute to him who lives again ' in thoughts that pierce the night like stars, and by their mild persistence lead men's minds to vaster issues.

FEAST OF ST. JOHN, DECEMBER 1928

From Proceedings, Page 1928-483:

Most Worshipful Grand Master and Brethren:

I stand before you at this time as Exhibit C of the Grand Master's wax works, model 1916-1919. It was very cleverly conceived, on the part of the Grand Master, in view of his donning the royal robes today, in view of his basking here in the glad acclaim of his Brethren, in the presence of his official family, and in the presence of those who hope to feed at the official crib, to make more prominent if you please his own glory and high estate by dragging out from the dusty archives those who have been relegated to oblivion, or at least to a state of innocuous desuetude.

Possessed of a certain amount of modesty, I did not feel that I could speak of any "high lights" in my own administration, and so I went to Most Worshipful Brother Johnson and I said to him, "Tell me what in your judgment was the one outstanding event during the three years of my administration of the affairs of the Grand Lodge," and he very promptly replied, "Your appointment of me as your representative to go on a trip to Panama and the Canal Zone at the expense of the Grand Lodge." (Laughter.)

I then turned to Most Worshipful Brother Prince, and I said, "What in my administration, in your judgment, was the high light, the most prominent and the outstanding and most important event of all?" He promptly replied, "Your appointment of me as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts." (Laughter.)

You can see, under such circumstances, what a painful possession is my own modesty.

I am not going to take my allotted time, because Brother Prince has asked me to give him some of it because he says, speaking of "high lights," that there were many events during his term of office that were "lit up." (Laughter.)

You remember that he went in as Grand Master as the "friend of the farmer," posing himself as a farmer, pretending that be was going to secure for them higher prices for their vegetables and farm products. He does not know the difference between a pumpkin and a squash. Finally President Coolidge heard of his claims as a farmer. Knowing somewhat of earlier Past Grand Masters of Massachusetts and their remarkable ability, he asked him to write a farm relief bill which he might present to Congress. This called for immediate show-down. Most Worshipful Brother Prince found a very ready excuse to hie himself to China. You have noted the sad condition of that country ever since he visited there.

But it would be immodest, and it seems to me almost inappropriate to attempt to tell you of any of the results, or to try to portray in words any of the experiences of those years from 1916 to 1919, which covered, as the Grand Master has said, the period of the Great War, when 80,000 members of the craft in Massachusetts, (5,000 of them in the naval and military service of their country), were called upon to translate into living expression the tenets and the principles and the teachings of our institution. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

Those were days when the Brethren of Massachusetts did not spend in words that which should be spent in action. "Men came closer to their true selves under the chastening shadows of sorrow and loss." Out of the service, the sacrifice, the sorrows, and the losses of those days, I am sure i here has come a finer, truer expression, and a greater emphasis has been given to the true principles of our Institution. Out of the treasured memories of those crucial days, rejoicing in the prosperity of today, happy in the comradeship and companionship of this hour, may I express, Most Worshipful Grand Master, the earnest and sincere hope that your administration may be happier and more fruitful than any of those that have gone before.

MEMORIAL

From Proceedings, Page 1932-203:

Brother Abbott was born in Richmond, N. H., August 28, 1867, and died at his home in Brookline, October 10, 1932.

He received his education at the Keene, N. H., High School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard College, and the Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1891 and continued the active practice of his profession until his death, with great success and distinction.

He became a member of Columbian Lodge in 1894 and. was its Master in 1906. He was District Deputy Grand Master for the First Masonic District in 1908 and 1909 by appointment of M. W. J. Albert Blake and M. W. Dana J. Flanders. He was Senior Grand Warden in 1913, and Grand Master in 1917, 1918, and 1919. As Grand Master during the years of our participation in the World War, he was faced by many difficulties and many unusual problems, all of which he met with unfailing energy, tact, and discretion.

He was a Charter member of Shawmut Lodge in 1913, West Roxbury Lodge in 1920, and Brookline Lodge in 1921, and affiliated with Beth-Horon Lodge in 1914. The high esteem in which he was held by the Fraternity is shown by the fact that he was an honorary member of twenty-three Lodges at the time of his death.

He was a Past High Priest of Saint Paul's Royal Arch Chapter, and Past Grand King of the Grand Chapter, and a member of Boston Council of Royal and Select Masters and of Boston Commandery of Knights Templar.

Brother Abbott took the Scottish Rite degrees in Boston in 1896 and was Thrice Potent Master of Boston-Lafayette Lodge of Perfection in 1904, 1905, and 1906. He became an Honorary Member of the Supreme Council, Thirty-third Degree, in 1906, and an Active Member in 1909. In 1911 he was elected Lieutenant Grand Commander and in 7921 was elected Sovereign Grand Commander, holding that office for the remainder of his life. As the head of the Northern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite he became a great international figure in Scottish Rite Masonry and acquired a tremendous influence in the Rite, an influence which was always exercised for the furtherance of sound and wise Masonry.

A great leader, a wise counsellor, a good friend has gone from our midst, and the whole Masonic world is the poorer for his going.

From Proceedings, Page 1932-290:

Born at Richmond, N. H., August 28, 1867 Died at Brookline, Mass., October 10, 1932

On the morning of the day of his death, Brother Abbott rose as usual but within a short time became sufficiently indisposed to induce him to defer his usual trip to his office; the physician who was called discovered no alarming symptoms and it was expected that his discomfort would disappear in a short time. A few hours later, without warning, "in the twinkling of an eye," Brother Abbott passed out of this life into the great unseen beyond. What a blow, what a shock this news was to his thousands of friends and associates, is testified by the number of messages received from all over the world, expressing the profound grief of all.

Funeral services were held at the Chapel of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, which proved all too limited to accommodate the friends who wished to pay their tribute to his memory. Floral tributes were in the greatest profusion. The service was conducted by Rt. Wor. Frederick W. Hamilton, long time friend and associate; the ceremonies were beautiful in their simplicity and the touchingly adequate words spoken by Brother Hamilton gave such comfort as was possible to those overwhelmed by sorrow. Burial was at Keene, New Hampshire, in the family lot, where as the late afternoon sun was sinking into the West, Brother Abbott was laid at rest beside his ancestors. Commitment prayers were offered by Rev. Brother John Matteson, Chaplain of Columbian Lodge, Brother Abbott's Mother Lodge. Distinguished men and Masons, from distant parts of the country were present in great numbers to express their love and respect for him who had passed on.

Brother Abbott was born in Richmond, N. H., August 28, 1867. He attended the public schools at Keene, N. H., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard College and Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1B91. His advance to eminence in his chosen profession was rapid and his success led to many offers of appointments to official position, all of which were declined. He was a member of the American, Massachusetts, and Boston Bar Associations; also a member of the following Clubs; Square and Compass, Algonquin, University, and Charles River Country Club. He was a Trustee of the Massachusetts Savings Bank and of many estates. He is survived by his widow, to whom he was married on April 19, 1894.

His Masonic record is long, varied and useful in every group with which he associated himself.

  • Raised in Columbian Lodge, of Boston, June 7th, 1894.
    • Worshipful Master in 1905-07.
  • Trustee, Life and Honorary Member at the time of his death. District Deputy Grand Master for the First District, 1908-09.
  • Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge in 1913.
  • Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts in 1917-18-19.
  • Director of the Grand Lodge from 1920 to 1923.
  • Trustee of the Masonic Education and Charity Trust since 1925.

His service as Grand Master was of an outstanding character; coming as it did during the years that our country was engaged in the Great War, it gave opportunity for the expression of his great and sympathetic heart. Due to his efforts, a recreation building was erected at Camp Devens for the use of all the soldiers encamped there.

Resisting the demands for Army Lodges abroad, he conceived the better service of appointing Special Deputies among the troops abroad and in the various camps in this country and by this means kept close contact with our members who were in service. By his suggestion and leadership, our Lodges kept intimate touch with those of the Brethren who were in service and particularly the wounded and prisoners. His sympathetic thought of those who might be bereft by the war and those who might suffer permanent injury, inspired his successful effort to establish the Relief Fund, which before it was closed contained the contributions of every Lodge in our jurisdiction to the total amount of about $170,000.00. His wisdom in this effort has been proved many times since then by the desperate needs which have been solaced by the proceeds of this Fund. He retired at the end of the traditional term of three years, with a reputation for Masonic service which has constantly grown with the passing years and with a love and esteem of the Craft which has seldom been equalled and never exceeded. His reputation is safe as one of the Great Ones among our long list of Past Grand Masters.

  • He was made a Royal Arch Mason in St. Paul's Chapter in 1894 and was its High Priest in 1907.
  • He was elected Grand King of the Grand Royal Chapter in 1921.
  • Received the Cryptic Degrees in Boston Council in 1896.
  • Knighted in Boston Commandery in 1895 and served as a Trustee for many years.
  • Received the Degrees of the A.A.S.R. in Boston Lafayette Lodge of Perfection, Giles F. Yates Council, Mt. Olivet Chapter, and Massachusetts Consistory, in 1896, presiding over the Lodge of Perfection in 1904-06.
  • He was crowned as Honorary Member of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree in 1906; was elected as Active Member in 1909. Was Deputy for Massachusetts from 1909 until he was elected Lieutenant Grand Commander in 1911. He was elected Grand Commander in 1921.
  • He served as Chairman of the delegation to the International Conference of Supreme Councils at Lausanne in 1922 and also at Paris in 1929, on both of these occasions he was instrusted with important duties which he accomplished to the admiration of all.
  • He was Honorary Member of innumerable Supreme Councils and subordinate bodies of the Rite.

Among his many accomplishments as Grand Commander, perhaps the outstanding ones were the erection of the Sojourners Club at the Government Hospital at Fort Bayard, N. M.; the establishment of the Supreme Council Educational Foundation and above all the splendid harmonious success of the Supreme Council under his leadership.

As Freemasons of every degree, we are grateful that such a man found in our Order the outlet for the expression of his kindly and sympathetic nature.

"Some must be great; Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordained to fill."
(Cowper)

Our Fraternity has been dealt a shocking blow in the passing of this great leader who found in Freemasonry his great opportunity for the practical expression pf his heart's desire; to be of service to his fellow creatures.

Seemingly in the enjoyment of vigorous health, he was struck down in an instant, justifying in an impressive way the common saying that "Death loves a shining mark" for that he was, standing in the public eye as one of the great leaders of a national group of earnest men and occupying in our hearts a position rarely attained by any man.

Entering the Fraternity in 1894, he at once found in it the avenue for the best practice of his lofty ideals. His devotion to Masonic principles led to his rapid advancement to positions of responsibility and leadership in all of the Masonic Branches and as each task was accomplished another and greater one fell to his lot. His stature grew to meet each succeeding burden and the measure of his efforts increased with each added responsibility until it seemed as if no more laurels could be added to his crown of exalted service.

It was said by a great Dutch painter that "the end of the day is the proof of the picture." One might exhaust language in testimony of his character, but is it not better for us to feel in our hearts what he has meant to us. His victories are on record but to each one who enjoyed his friendship there is something that belongs only to us. Let us keep and cherish that which is most dear in our memories of him, secure in the knowledge that the sum total of those memories gives a complete picture of a noble character and a useful life.

"Nothing can cover his high fame but Heaven,
No pyramids set of his memories
But the eternal substance of his greatness,
To which I leave him."

Arthur D. Prince
Dana J. Flanders
Herbert W. Dean
Committee

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