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history of their first beginning that such was the case, so that their recognition can no longer with any show of reason be withheld. Br. Barthelmess says1: "At the beginning of the war, the English endeavoured, and not wholly unsuccessfully, to win over the Indians and negroes. We find in the lists of regiments many names with 'Black' or 'Negro' marked after them. The damage inflicted by the Indians on the American soldiery is well known. The prospect of obtaining their freedom induced many slaves, especially in the South, to join the British standard in great numbers during the war or at its close, to enable them to withdraw from the land of slavery and to emigrate to such parts as remained under England's jurisdiction — Nova Scotia, New-Brunswick, Canada, &c. Neither must it be forgotten that the Americans themselves made use of the coloured population for their own purposes. In almost every New-England State, whole battalions of freed coloured men fought against the English and the German hired troops with great bravery and steadiness. A black regiment from Rhode-Island, composed of 400 men, behaved themselves in a most laudable manner against 1500 Hessians at Red Bank.

"Many reports agree on this one point, that the African Lodge was established in 1775. It is very probable that the regiments then garrisoned in Boston admitted coloured persons into their Lodges from political motives, and that those brethren, in combination with such as had been made in England, originated these Lodges. It is also possible that the African Lodge, which had before the year 1784 carried on her work separate from the whites, had become possessed of a dispensation through some military Lodge or other, as was the case in the regiment Anspach - Bayreuth, composed of English and Germans which formed a Lodge called "Seybothen" in New York,

1 "Die Logen Farbiger in den Vereinigten Staaten." Bauhütte 1861. p. 2, &c,

who afterwards assisted in setting up a Provincial-Lodge In that town in 1781.

An article in No. 4, Vol. 14th, of the "Masonic Journal" mentions that in 1775 the African Lodge was formed by English troops, and draws a very favourable picture both of it and its president.1

In a speech delivered June 24, 1828, by Br. J. T. Hilton, Grand Master of the African Grand Lodge in Boston, and in another in 1853 by Br. Delany, in Pittsburg, it is expressly remarked that the Coloured Lodge of Boston had applied to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for a constitution, but had met with a refusal. Consequently, as they wished to carry on the Lodge according to the rules and regulations laid down by the Craft, they must, have found themselves compelled to tender their request to some foreign Lodge (for from any American Lodge they had nothing better to expect than from Massachusetts). This they did at a period when two Grand Lodges existed in the State, and the Grand Lodge of England was ignorant of any declarations of independence on the part of the American Provincial Lodges, and when the recognition of what was termed the "right of Jurisdiction" had never been heard of. The Grand Lodge in London (Modern Masons), "the source of light", as Prince Hall calls her in his first letter (1784), of which I had an authenticated copy before me, did not for a moment hesitate to comply with the wishes of the petitioners, and on Sept. 29, 1784, granted them a charter, No. 459, which was signed by the Grand Master R. Holt, and the Grand Secretary William White. At the end of this document may be found the acknowledgment of the Grand Secretary of the payment of the legal fees, bearing the date Feb. 29, 1787.2

1 See Amerik. Deutsche Jahrb. für Freimaurer, 1859–60. p. 98. 2 This charter is printed verbatim in the "Mirror and Keystone. Philadelphia vol. VIII. No. 37. p. 439”; “Freemasons' Monthly Magazine

All the doubts which were started on several sides, and even entertained by the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Br. Ch. W. Moore, touching the genuineness of this charter, all the subterfuges to which the Foreign Correspondence Committee in the Grand Lodge of New York had recourse to prove that the assertions of the African Lodge were incorrect, fall to the ground before this correspondence of Br. Prince Hall written at the time and upon this very subject, as well as the writings of other brethren both American and English."

The whole of Hall's letters, even those registered in his Journal, which Br. Barthelmess produced, are published in the "Bauhütte" (1861. P. 4, &c.). They not only show the fallacy of the opinion that the Grand Lodge of England very shortly after granting the charter withdrew it, but also go far to prove that if any slackening of the intercourse between the two were perceptible, it originated on the part of the Grand Lodge of England.

Pennsylvania. The first Lodge in this State was, as has been before said, founded by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in Philadelphia (1734), and its first Master was Benjamin Franklin, who was born at Boston, Jan. 17, 1706, and therefore was at that time just starting upon his brilliant career, in the course of which he rose by his own merit and genius, industry and energy, from a simple printer's boy, to be a renowned scholar, a distinguished statesman, and the ideal of a true patriot. Of his deeds as a Freemason we unfortunately know but little. Thus much, however, is certain, that he was completely devoted heart and soul to the Fraternity and its pure unadulterated teachings, and that during his sojourn in Paris he visited the Lodges there. His whole glorious life, so worthy

ed. by Ch. W. Moore, Boston, Vol. XIX. 4. p. 122"; and in Röhr's Jahrbücher, Vol. IV. p. 96, &c.

of imitation, was a constant, practical application of the principles of Freemasonry.

June 20, 1764, the Ancient Masons of England constituted a Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and Br. William Ball was nominated Provincial Grand Master. This Provincial Grand Lodge is said to have been in active operation until the breaking out of the War of Independence, but reliable and exact information is wanting. In the year 1779, the bethren, Br. General Washington being present, celebrated the winter festival of St. John's Day in Philadelphia, on which occasion Br. William Smith was made Grand Secretary. At his summons, the Brethren assembled on Dec. 20, and elected Grand Officers -Bro Ball, Grand Master. The Grand Secretary was at the same time commissioned to make a collection of laws for the regulation of the Grand Lodge. He submitted these on Nov. 22, 1781, to the approval of the Grand Lodge, which accepted them. They were an abridgment and adaptation of Dermott's "Ahiman Rezon". In 1780 an idea was started, probably with the intention of making the American Fraternity perfectly independent of foreign countries - an object the realization of which future generations will strive to accomplish. This was the establishment of a General American Grand Lodge, to which the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania gave the first encouragement, by proposing General Washington as first General Grand Master, and inviting the Grand Lodges of Massachusetts and Virginia (this latter was formed Oct. 30, 1778.) to co-coperate in the work. The project was very coldly received, and was soon abandoned.

Virginia. We are not able to find evidence of the precise time when organized Lodges in Virginia were instituted. The oldest authentic record is drawn from the Archives of Mother Kilwinning by Bro. D. Murray Lyon, proving that some Masons in Essex county in 1758 received a charter from the same, and that another was in working order

in Fredericksburg, holding from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Some members of this Lodge, inhabitants of the town of Falmouth, presented to the Lodge of Fredericksburg1 a petition, bearing date the 30th January, 1768, setting forth as follows: "Know ye, that whereas your petitioning brethren have by long experience found it greatly inconvenient, and sometimes impossible, to attend. constantly at this our Lodge, by which they, and many others on the north of the Rappahanock, are deprived of the society, fellowship, and instruction that they sincerely wish for from a regular and well-constituted Lodge; and whereas we are well assured that many worthy persons (not Masons) are desirous of becoming such, but for the above-mentioned inconveniences decline, and deprive themselves from receiving the benefits of Masonry; therefore we, the subscribers, having the good of Masonry entirely at heart, and from no other motive, have ventured to address the Right Worshipful Lodge, praying them for their consent, approbation, and assistance, to erect and found a Lodge in the town of Falmouth. (Signed: John Neilson, Alex. Wooddrow, &c.) This approbation was given without hesitation; but in 1774 the same Lodge addressed a petition for a charter to Mother Kilwinning, which was granted. All the Lodges in Virginia, under different authorities, it seems worked peaceably for a long time, till they felt the necessity of forming a Grand Lodge. For this purpose the Delegates of Norfolk Lodge (Matthew Phripp), of Kilwinning, Port Royal Cross Lodge (J. Kemp), of Blandford Lodge (Duncan Rose), of Williamsburg and of Cabin Point Royal Arch Lodge -- met in the city of Williamsburg on Tuesday May 6, 1777, and resolved that a Committee be appointed for drawing up reasons why a Grand Master should be chosen, and that this Convention be adjourned. Oct. 13, 1778, Bro John Blair,

1 Bro D. Murray Lyon, 1. c. P. 445.

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