HE election of 1825 was a strong step towards union, and additional strength was given to the movement in the resolution which, after directing the Grand Secretary to notify the Grand Master-Elect, provided that in case of his acceptance "M.. W... De Witt Clinton Past Grand Master, be, and he is hereby, authorized and requested to install him in the city of Albany or elsewhere, as may be most convenient and for that purpose to summon such brethren as he may think proper." A vote of thanks was given to the retiring Grand Secretary for his services, but the disappearance of Joseph Enos from power was not marked by any such pleasing compliment. His appropriation of certain of the moneys belonging to the Grand Lodge was brought out clearly, and even, to a certain extent, acknowledged in a communication he sent to the meeting, in which he promised to make a settlement in the future.

Some really useful and practical legislation was enacted at this communication of 1825. A "fit and discreet brother was appointed in each county in the State where the Grand Lodge held sway or claimed authority. These men were to be virtually Grand Visitors and were to examine the warrants of the Lodges, ascertain their indebtedness for dues and collect arrears. The brethren so appointed were as follows:

Isaac Trempour, for New York.
Epenetus Wallace, for Westchester.

Walker Todd, for Putnam.
Elijah P. Benjamin, for Dutchess.
W. B. Stebbins, for Columbia.
Nathan Howard, for Rensselaer.
Asa Fitch, for Washington.
James White, for Warren.
Timothy F. Cook, for Essex.

Samuel Emery, for Clinton and Franklin.
Sylvester Gilbert, for St. Lawrence.
Peleg Burchard, for Jefferson.
Master of Jefferson Lodge, No. 164, for
Lewis.

Ezra S. Cozier, for Oneida.
Horace Morse, for Herkimer.
Joseph Cuyler, for Montgomery.
Elias W. Sax, for Saratoga.
Richard McMichael, for Schenectady.
Archibald Croswell, for Schoharie.
John O. Cole, for Albany.
Platt Adams, for Greene.
Samuel Elmore, for Ulster.
Joseph Chattels, for Orange.
Randal S. Street, for Sullivan.
Martin Keeler, for Delaware.
Daniel E. Brown, for Tioga and Broome,
Lewis Biles, for Steuben.

Samuel King, for Alleghany.

Eliel T. Foote, for Cattaraugus and Chautauqua.

Bela H. Colgrove, for Erie.

Daniel Washburn, for Niagara.

Horace D. Chipman, for Genesee and Or

leans.

William Brewster, for Monroe.
William Oliver, for Yates.

Leonard Westcott, for Wayne.
Harris Seymour, for Livingston.
Nicholas Cheesborough, for Ontario.
Luther F. Stevens, for Seneca.
Ebenezer Mack, for Tompkins.
Benjamin Enos, for Cortlandt.
Jacob Loop, for Cayuga.

David S. Van Rensselaer, for Onondaga.
John Bullen, for Oswego.

Nathan B. Wilbur, for Madison.
John Noyes, for Chenango.
William Nichols, for Otsego.

It was resolved that no Lodge should convene for the transaction of any business on the Sabbath except for funerals, a resolution which, we fear, was for many years more honored in its breach than in its observancenot, possibly, let us charitably hope, on account of any disregard for the Sabbath, but from a lack of definition as to which day in the week was implied when the word was used. Had "Sunday" been used the intention of the Grand Lodge might not have been evaded so easily.

A committee which had been appointed to arrange the regulations of the Grand Lodge for publication reported that they had completed the work, and, among other matters, submitted the following rules, which were adopted:

Every Grand Lodge has an inherent power and authority to make local ordinances and new regulations as well as to amend and explain the old ones for their own particular benefit, provided, always, that the ancient landmarks be carefully preserved, and that such regulations be first duly proposed, in writing, for the consideration of the members, and be at last duly enacted with the consent of the majority. This has never been disputed; for the members of every Grand Lodge are the true representatives of all the Fraternity in communication and are an absolute and independent body, with legislative authority, provided (as aforesaid), that the Grand Masonic constitution be never violated, nor any of the old landmarks removed.

All members of Lodges who are or shall be in arrears for dues for two years and upward shall be suspended by their respective Lodges from all Masonic communication, and if they do not discharge the same within one year from the date of their suspension they may be expelled.

Any subordinate Lodge may, in aggravated cases, publish in the newspapers the expulsion of a member, after the same shall have been confirmed by the Grand Lodge, provided all the members present of such Lodge shall be in favor of such publication.

No warrant shall be granted for the establishment of a Lodge except on the petition of at least seven Master Masons in good standing, which petition shall be recommended by the Lodge nearest to the place where such Lodge is intended to be established, signed by the Master and Wardens, with the seal of the Lodge affixed thereto and certified by the Secretary.

Each Lodge forfeiting its warrant, shall surrender to the Grand Lodge all its books, jewels, furniture, funds and property.

Refreshments with ardent spirits at the meetings of Lodges is of evil example, and may be productive of pernicious effects, and the same is hereby expressly forbidden under any pretense whatever.

No subordinate Lodge shall, at any time, initiate any candidate for Masonry who has been rejected in another Lodge, without the recommendation of the Master and Wardens of the Lodge rejecting such candidate.

The proxies of subordinate Lodges and of Past Masters under the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge shall be annually appointed.

All of this legislation must be deemed wise and much of it is still contained in one form or other in the legislation which governs the New York Grand Lodge at the present day. No one who is at all acquainted with the early history of New York Lodges-as, indeed, early Lodge history everywhere-must admit that the paragraph anent the use of ardent spirits at Lodge meetings was one that was absolutely necessary if the fair name of the craft was to be maintained. The prohibition, it must be confessed, was more or less ignored; such habits as were aimed at cannot be changed in a day or even stopped by legislation, but nevertheless the rule had a good effect, and the mere fact of its winning a place on the statute book of the Fraternity was an omen of future improvement. It was in some respects a progressive bit of legislation, rather in advance, if anything, of the popular sentiment of the times, but as at this communication the Grand Lodge authorized warrants for forty-six new Lodges it probably felt strong enough to lead the way in such matters.

Stephen Van Rensselaer accepted the office of Grand Master, and probably no better or

more politic choice could have been made at the time and under the circumstances. The son of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the "Seventh Patroon," and of Catherine Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, he occupied a high place in the social aristocracy of the State. He was born in New York in 1765, graduated at Harvard in 1782, and in the following year married Margaret, daughter of General Philip Schuyler. From that time he mainly resided on his manorial estate near Albany, and as the "Eighth Patroon" exerted a great amount of influence in local affairs. In 1789 he was elected to the Assembly; from 1791 to 1796 he served in the State Senate, was Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and afterward was elected several times a member of Assembly. He early interested himself in the project of a canal to connect the great chain of lakes with the Hudson, and, as a Commissioner appointed by the Assembly to investigate the subject, he presented the result of a tour of observation in a report submitted in 1811. In the militia service of the State he had risen, in 1801, to the rank of Major General, and when the war of 1812 broke out he was appointed commander of the forces on the northern frontier of the State. These forces were mainly raw troops, without experience or discipline, yet with them he undertook to occupy and hold Ontario. That enterprise ended disastrously to the American forces at Queenstown Heights Oct. 13 and 14, 1812, and popular sentiment ran so high against him that on the 24th of the same month he resigned and left the service.

But the public career of Stephen Van Rensselaer did not end here, and as the facts which led to his defeat at Queenstown Heights became known and understood he was reinstated in the public confidence and favor. As Canal Commissioner and as a member of the New York Assembly and of the United States Congress he did good service to the State and the nation and gradually acquired once more

his former well-earned popularity. In the cause of education his interest and abilities were specially directed. In 1819 he became. one of the Regents of the University of New York and was afterward elected its Chancellor, an office he held till his death, and he founded the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, defraying half its expenses for a long time out of his own private purse. As President of the State Agricultural Society he did much to benefit the farming community. In this connection he caused to be made at his

STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER.

own expense a geological survey of the line of the canal between Albany and Buffalo. A stanch patriot, an enlightened and publicspirited citizen and enjoying a reputation in the State and the nation for honesty of purpose and purity of motive in his long public career, it is no wonder that the craft in the State saw in his election to and acceptance of the high office of Grand Master not only an augury of renewed harmony and fraternal union, but the elevation again of its highest office to the position it once held.

Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid and Vitruvius were in all probability, not Freemasons; and the love of order, the cultivation of science, the embellishments of taste, and the sublime and beautiful works of art, have certainly existed in ancient, as they now do in modern times, without the agency of Freemasonry.

Our fraternity has thus suffered under the treatment of well-meaning friends, who have undesignedly inflicted more injuries upon it than its most virulent enemies. The absurd accounts of its origin and history, in most of the books that treat of it, have proceeded from enthusiasm operating on credulity and the love of the marvelous. An imbecile friend often does more injury than an avowed foe. The calumnies of Barruel and Robison, who labored to connect our society with the illuminati and to represent it as inimical to social order and good government, have been consigned to everlasting contempt, while exaggerated friendly accounts and representations continually stare us in the face, and mortify our intellectual discrimination, by ridiculous claims to unlimited antiquity. Nor ought it to be forgotten, that genuine Masonry is adulterated by sophistications and interpolations foreign from the simplicity and sublimity of its nature.

To this magnificent Temple of the Corinthian order, there have been added Gothic erections, which disfigure its beauty and derange its symmetry. The adoption in some cases of frivolous pageantry and fantastic mummery, equally revolting to good taste and genuine Masonry, has exposed us to much animadversion; but our institutions clothed with celestial virtue, and armed with the panoply of truth, has defied all the storms of open violence, and resisted all the attacks of insidious imposture; and it will equally triumph over the errors of misguided friendship, which, like the transit of a planet over the disk of the sun, may produce a momentary obscuration, but will instantly leave it in the full radiance of its glory.

Although the origin of our Fraternity is covered with darkness, and its history is to a great extent obscure, yet we can confidently say that it is the most ancient society in the world—and we are equally certain that its principles are based on pure morality that its ethics are the ethics of Christianity—its doctrines the doctrines of patriotism and brotherly love, and its sentiments the sentiments of exalted benevolence. Upon these points there can be no doubt. All that is good and kind and charitable it encourages; all that is vicious and cruel and oppressive it reprobates. That charity which is described in the most masterly manner by the eloquent apostle, composes its very essence, and enters into its vital principles; and every Freemason is ready to

unite with him in saying, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth; but where there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether they be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." How happens it then that our institution has created so much opposition, excited so much jealousy, encountered so much proscription, experienced so much persecution?

The mysteries which pertain to this Fraternity have been the source of much obloquy, and its entire exclusion of the female sex from its communion has been considered an unjust and rigorous rule. In former times the arts and sciences had their mysteries. The inventions of the former and the discoveries of the latter, were either applied by individuals to their own benefit, or thrown into a common stock for the emolument of select associations. In the early stages of Freemasonry, its votaries applied themselves with great ardor to architecture and geometry. This will account for the exclusion of woman. Such laborious pursuits were not adapted to their destination in life and their station in civilized society. A measure then that has been deemed a censure, was the highest eulogium that could be passed on the sex, and in evincing this distinguished respect, our ancient brethren exhibited that refinement and courtesy which are always accompanied with a just appreciation of female excellence and delicacy. The secrets of the arts and sciences which were elicited by the researches and employment of the fraternity were cherished for the common benefit; but the art of printing having thrown open the gates of knowledge to all mankind, and the rights of invention having been protected by government, the utility of secrecy, so far as it related to intellectual improvement and the enjoyment of its fruits, was in a great degree superseded. There are, however, secrets of importance to the brotherhood, which are entirely