‘A voluntary league for freedom and virtue’

    

(Not the source of the speech quoted below.)

It is Independence Day in the United States. In observance, let me share an excerpt from a speech delivered in 1848 during the celebration of the ninth anniversary of the founding of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. E.R. Roe, the Right Worshipful Grand Orator, observed:

Masonry is a voluntary league for the promotion of Freedom and Virtue. In examining this proposition, we do not ask you to follow us through the difficult mazes of ancient Masonic history. Go back only a single century, when Masonry was unquestionably what it is now. It was then practiced by our forefathers in England and America, and bore its present English name. It is therefore easy to trace it, step by step, to the present hour. And when we say that its progress has been so interwoven with the spread of Liberty among men that the history of Freedom is but an account of the influences of Masonry, we simply state a proposition susceptible of the most ample proof. Long before the cardinal principles set forth in the glorious charter of our liberties had become the acknowledged textbook of Freedom for the world, they were taught around the Masonic altar in our lodges. The official jewel of your Senior Warden...is to us but the familiar emblem of that equality proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal.” And no well-regulated lodge is ever closed without the reiteration of this principle from the Warden’s lips. That “all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” is another fundamental principle in Masonry. The will and the welfare of the many determine the choice of our officers; and the Master of a lodge, and you, Most Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge, feel that you but represent the will of the majority. Like the chief officer of our National and State Governments, Masters of Grand and Subordinate lodges are required, at their installation, to pledge themselves, in all their official acts, to abide by the Masonic constitutions.

But the resemblance between the character of our National government and the Masonic institution stops not here. Both are governed by a written constitution; both acknowledge the controlling voice of the majority; both admit no official superiors, but such as themselves have chosen; both limit the terms of office by the previously determined will of the electors. A general and a local government are common to both. The stranger from every kindred and every clime may be naturalized and fraternized in both. “Liberty-Equality-Fraternity” — words which have been linked together and proclaimed with such magic power by the people of France in their late successful revolution, and which now promise to become the watchword of Freedom to all Europe—these have for ages been familiar to the ear of every Mason. Many a listening ear had hung upon the lips of him who fell at Bunker Hill, and thus caught the first principle of Freedom from their beloved Grand Master, the lamented Warren! The leading spirits of Boston, in its revolutionary days, had assembled with him around the same Masonic altar, and together invoked the blessings of Jehovah for the freedom of the world. Long before the declaration of American independence, there were Grand Lodges in Massachusetts, in Virginia and South Carolina, and subordinate lodges were at work in most of the other colonies. In the army of the Revolution the practice of its solemn rites was not omitted; and we have authentic records of “Washington Lodge,” of which General Patterson was Master, and which was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts as a Traveling Lodge in the army. Montgomery was an active Mason; Gates was a Mason; Sullivan, Lincoln, Knox, Lee, Schuyler, De Kalb, Lafayette—these were names which adorned the Order then. Finally, that great and good man, whose example should weigh so much with every American—Washington—was an ardent and active Mason.

And now think you this glorious institution, the foundation of whose Temple was laid upon the level of equality, reared by the plumb of moral rectitude and squared by the square of virtue; whose lively stones were, by the Masonic trowel, cemented together with, brotherly love and affection; whose capstone was no less than “Him whom the builders rejected,” but who “has now become the head-stone of the corner;” whose boundaries were vast as from east to west, from north to south, and within whose solemn precincts were equally welcome the men of every clime, and upon whose sacred altar the Holy Bible lay always open, guiding them and urging them to that active virtue which manifests itself in brotherly love, relief and truth; think you that Masonry, who first taught her votaries the golden rules of freedom and equality among themselves, did not thereby aid in the awaking that longing for Political Liberty which first lighted the torch of Revolution at Lexington and Concord? Aye! Masonry was at Bunker Hill! She saw the life-blood flow when Warren fell, but faltered not. She accompanied the little army through the terrible struggle which succeeded, and whispered her immutable principles into the ear of Washington. She followed Franklin to the hall of Congress, and watched over the national council. The Declaration of Independence had made her principles the political creed of a nation; and when the storm of war was over, and triumphant Peace saw the assembled representatives of the nation consulting upon a future form of government, who shall say that she did not aid in tempering the rancor of sectional discord, and thus promote that Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice, which brought their deliberations to so happy an end!

And now let us reply to the oft-repeated charge, in times of persecution, that Masonry is a political institution. Truly it is even so! But that its influences are of a partisan character; that it ever sustains one party, composed of its members, and opposes another, which is not; that it ever plots for political power; that it ever kneels for political favor; that it ever swerves from political duty, or shrinks from its responsibility, is false! Within the halls of Masonry the din of political discord is never heard. Around her altars gather not only the men of every clime—Christian, Jew, Mahometan and heathen—all who are willing and worthy to join the league of Brotherly Love, but every sect and every party of each. And he who thinks that Masonry can harmonize all these, till they shall come together for a common government or common creed, would give her superhuman power. No, no. The follower of Mahomet leaves his turban and his crescent at the door; the Christian takes his Jewish brother by the hand, and leaving without the emblematic cross, which separates their faith, they approach the shrine of Masonry together, and bow before the altar of Jehovah, the common God of all.

But there is a mode in which Masonry exerts a political influence—by teaching to its votaries the principles of equality, the necessity of law, the duty of subordination, and the excellence of order in all things. The influence of Masonry is, then, of a general, not of a partisan nature. It prepares men for the reception of political freedom; but that freedom is based upon the most perfect submission to the authority which the majority have chosen to rule. And this is the true reason why tyrants in all countries have opposed its progress. The doctrine that “all men are created equal,” is incompatible with arbitrary power.

(Source: Jewels of Masonic Oratory, New York, 1900.)