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CHAPTER IX.

WASHINGTON-LIVINGSTON.

N the time when Freemasonry was passing through its life or death struggle in the United States it used to be commonly asserted by its enemies that the great and good men who adorned its ranks in the earlier stages of its American history were merely figureheads, and took no real interest in the order. It was said that if-which they doubted-George Washington was a Mason he entered the order in early life and in his later years gave its affairs no further concern, forgetting that in 1793 he marched, clothed as a Mason, in the procession which preceded the laying of the corner stone of the nation's Capitol, and as a Freemason took part in the ceremonies, and forgetting also that when his body was committed to the tomb it was with the solemn rites of the fraternity.

So too with Chancellor Livingston. It was argued that he really took no active part in the work of the order, that he only attended a few of its meetings and simply permitted himself to be elected term after term, because no one else wanted the honor, or because it was, to a certain extent, a political advertisement. But no one can have studied the history of Livingston's connection with Freemasonry without. seeing that he was from the first an enthusiast in the craft, and that but for his election to the Grand Mastership and the influences which his lofty position and commanding talents threw around the office, the Grand body founded by Walter would have fallen to pieces and the history of the New York Grand Lodge

would have dated a quarter of a century later than it does now. We see evidences of his influence in the formation of Lodges all over the State, in the closing up of the ranks, in the repression of the feeling of jealousy between the city and the country Lodges, and we can trace in the surmounting of many difficulties his practical advice and his calm, temperate and judicial consideration of every point involving room for controversy and doubt. He found the Grand Lodge an undisciplined, disheartened handful of men, he left it a thor oughly trained army, with abundant munitions of war, well defined aims and purposes, and with high moral ideals, ideals which were destined in the future to reach still higher.

It has been said that he was returned, without evident desire on his part, for so many years to the head of the craft because no one dared to openly oppose him. But it was, rather, we take it, as a direct compliment for what he had done, and to his high social and legislative position. He was surrounded in the Grand Lodge staff of officials by many ambitious men who would at any time during these seventeen years of his reign have aspired to the Grand Mastership as one of the highest honors in their grasp were they not restrained by a feeling of personal loyalty to the Grand Master who had brought order out of chaos, and who, by his very tenure of the office, had invested it with both dignity and importance. Of his associates, Jacob Morton, De Witt Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins and Martin Hoffman, did, in turn, become Grand Masters, were indeed

ambitious for the office from the time they entered the Grand Lodge, as were many others, equally fitted, to whom the highest honor in the fraternity, for one reason or another, did not fall. But the fact that these men loyally acceded year after year in the election of the Chancellor ought rather to be considered. as redounding to the credit of the fraternity than otherwise.

Grand Master Livingston first attended a gathering of the Grand Lodge, as Grand Master, on March 3, 1784, when he was installed. During 1785 he presided over four meetings, and in 1787, 1789 and 1792 over one meeting in each year. From April 6, 1792, until the

OLD FEDERAL HALL.

end of his tenure he did not attend any communication, although we have abundant evidence that he exerted the most unceasingly watchful care over the interests of the craft.

Then, too, it must be remembered that Livingston was a busy man, that the meetings of the Grand Lodge were not as now only of yearly occurrence, while they were much less important. Attendance upon them was not exacted in the same spirit as at present, and, indeed, we have, Dec. 1, 1784, a record of there being no meeting held, although one was called for that date, on account of no quorum being in attendance, and even as late as August 28, 1794, a stated meeting of the Grand

Stewards' Lodge had to be passed over for the same reason. Then the Chancellor had the utmost confidence in the loyalty and ability of his chosen officers and was in constant direct and personal communication with many of them, either in New York or Albany. He was, even in point of attendance, a great improvement upon some of the Modern and Ancient Grand Masters in England, where it was never deemed necessary that a Grand Master should humble himself by attending meetings or considering details; like a king, he was supposed to dwell apart.

At the same time it is evident that Grand Master Livingston was peculiarly zealous in

upholding the prerogatives of his office. In his addresses and communications to the Grand Lodge he was ever watchful of observing the stately courtesy of his time, but even with that artificial gloss we can see that he spoke as the Master to his subordinates in Masonic rank. It was undoubtedly only after consultation. with him that Brother R. J. Vandenbroeck brought up in Grand Lodge the question of the right of Grand Lodge officers to make Masons at sight, then one of the landmarks pertaining to the office of Grand Master. The minutes say that on Sept. 23, 1795, Brother Vandenbroeck "notified this Grand Lodge that some Masons were made at sight in private Lodges under the auspices of officers of this Grand Lodge, and whereas the Constitution points out that it is the prerogative of the Grand Lodge and that the Grand Master has full power and authority when the Grand Lodge is duly assembled to cause to be made, in his presence, Free and Accepted Masons at sight, but that it cannot be done out of his presence without his written dispensation; and whereas, the Grand Lodge was not assembled for that purpose, neither was the Grand Master present, nor a dispensation produced." In

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PAGE OF BIBLE ON WHICH WASHINGTON TOOK THE OATH ON INAUGURATION DAY, 1789, FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE POSSESSION OF ST. JOHN'S LODGE, NO. 1, NEW YORK.

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PAGE OF BIBLE ON WHICH WASHINGTON TOOK THE OATH ON INAUGURATION DAY, 1789,

FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE POSSESSION OF ST. JOHN'S LODGE, NO. 1, NEW YORK.

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