E. H. ADDINGTON

48 OUTLINE OB" THE RISE AND PROGRESS
At 1 first view it appears strange that, after a protracted discussion of
over three months, out of a membership of 57* there should have been only
15 present at the final vote on ai question of so great importance. But the
intrigues of the different factions, and the cabals that had been formed
for personal aggrandizement, had disgusted those members who had any
regard for their Masonic professions, and they seldom visited the Grand
Lodge. "Political strategy" had been introduced by the English-speaking
Masons in their attack upon the French Rite, and, their professed zeal for
the York Rite "pure and simple," had called into existence a power, which
was about to place the yoke upon their own neck, and the struggle that
ensued was intensified by the question of "race" which was again dividing
the citizens, t
At the meeting of the Grand Lodge, January 18, 1834, Seth W. Nye
introduced a resolution abolishing the Symbolic Chamber of the York Rite,
and remitting ail matters over which it exercised control to the Grand
Lodge, as its sessions were held in the York Rite. This resolution and a
proposed amendment to Article 71,$ of the General Regulations', offered
by Alexander Philips, were referred to the Symbolic Chambers, and rejected
by the York Chambers on the 20th, by the French on the 25th, and by the
Scotch on the 28th June, 1834. Alexander Philips resigned from the York
Rite Chamber,* immediately on its rejecting his proposed amendment;
expressly declared that it claimed no jurisdiction over the symbolic degrees, but that
"body became extinct, or, as its friends say "dormant" in 1S27. It was. re-oreranized. or
a new one started on its ruins, in February, 1832, and became known as the Blias Hicks
Council. It claimed jurisdiction over symbolic lodges, and entered into . correspondence
with the New Orleans Consistory, which then put forward the same claim in the socalled
concordat. The Marquis de Santangelo, one of tlie chiefs of the Elias Hicks
Council, was in New Orleans in September, 1832, and created J. H. Holland and F. J.
Verrier 33ds. And "by a .singular coincidence, an irregular body, which during an existence
of twenty -years foad had but few members, and no influence until its coalition with
Harmonv Lodge No. 26, became all at once the dominant power in Louisiana Masonry.
It is greatly to be regretted that the Anti-Masonic storm whicii was then raging at the
North, did not come as far south as New Orleans.
*The Tableau of 1833 gives the names and Masonic rank of 17 Grand Officers and 40
members—67; all of whom were York Kite Masons, and 24 had not received the degrees
of either of the other Rites: 12 were also members of the French Rite: 2, of the
Scotch Rite, and 19 -belonged to both the French and Scotch Rites. Although In the
minority, the Consistory party held the most important offices in the Grand Lodge.
fTMs was originally a mere matter of dollars and cents, and arose from the depreciation
in the value of property in the city proper by the building up of the Faubourg St. Mary,
•which is now the business centre of New Orleans. When Louisiana was ceded to the
United States in 1803, Hie population of New Orleans did not exceed 8056. The first street
was not paved until 1810. and then the population had increased to 24,552. From that
date both, the commerce and the population of the city increased, with wonderful rapidity.
In the 'business season of 1S22-3 the receipts of cotton amounted to 161,959 bales and the
exports to 171,872. m 1S32-3 the receipts were 467,984 and the exports 461,026 bales:
in 1842-3, receipts 1,089,642, exports 1,088,870 bales; and tie receipts and exports of
sugar, tobacco, flour and Western produce were in corresponding ratio.
Notwithstanding the frequent epidemics to which New Orleans was then subject, this
constantly increasing commerce gradually induced numbers who visited it during the business
season to make it their home. In 1825, the population was 45,336, and at that time
the city extended no further down than to Esplanade street; nor above further than Canal
street, with the exception of here and there a house occupying a square of ground. In 1823-4-
James H. Caldwell erected the American Theatre on Camp Street, and was laughed at
for his supposed folly; but tht American portion of the citizens soon followed his example;
stores and dwellings were erected, and bnsiness went with a current. In 1830 the population
of the city was 49,826; gas and water were introduced in 1834; Canal 'Street was
rapidly becoming the dividing line between the French and American portions of the
eity, and was in fact made so by the act of the Legislature, passed March 8, 1836,
dividing New Orleans into three Municipalities, a system of government which tended
to keep alive local jealousies and prejudice of race, until it was abolished in 1852.
The agitation of these questions in the community, exercised a baneful influence upon
the craft—separating them into "