Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

292 GENERAL
GENERAL
necticut, Vermont, and New York . The Constitution
was again revised . The title was for
the first time assumed of "The General Grand
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons for the United
States of America," and jurisdiction was extended
over the whole country . This year
may, therefore, be considered as the true date
of the establishment of the General Grand
Chapter .
In 1826 the septennial meetings were abolished,
and the General Grand Chapter has
ever since met triennially.
The General Grand Chapter consists of the
present and past Grand High Priests, Deputy
Grand High Priests, Grand Kings and Scribes
of the State Grand Chapters, and the Past
General Grand Officers .
The officers are a General Grand High
Priest, Deputy General Grand High Priest,
General Grand King, General Grand Scribe,
General Grand Treasurer, General Grand Secretary,
General Grand Chaplain, General
Grand Captain of the Host, and General Grand
Royal Arch Captain .
It originally possessed large prerogatives,
extending even to the suspension of Grand
Chapters ; but by its present Constitution it
has "no power ofdiscipline, admonition, censure,
or instruction over the Grand Chapters,
nor any legislative powers whatever not specially
granted" by its Constitution . It may,
indeed, be considered as scarcely more than 'a
great Masonic Congress meeting triennially
for consultation . But even with these restricted
powers, it is capable of doing much
good.
General Grand High Priest. The presiding
officer of the General Grand Chapter of
the United States of America . He is elected
every third year by the General Grand Chapter.
The title was first assumed in 1799, although
the General Grand Chapter did not at
that time extend its jurisdiction beyond six of
the Northern States .
General Grand Lodge . Ever since the
Grand Lodges of this country began, at the
commencement of the Revolutionary War to
abandontheir dependence on the Grand Lodges
of England and Scotland-that is to say, as
soon as they emerged from the subordinate
position of Provincial Grand Lodges, and were
compelled to assume a sovereign and independent
character-attempts have, from time to
time, been made by members of the Craft to
destroy this sovereignty of the State Grand
Lodges, and to institute in its place a superintendmg
ower, to be constituted either as a
Grand Master of North America or as a General
Grand Lodge of the United States . Led,
perhaps, by the analogy of the united Colonies
under one federal head, or, in the very
commencement of the Revolutionary struggle,
controlled by long habits of dependence on the
mother Grand Lodges of Europe, the contest
had no sooner begun, and a disseverance
of political relations between England and
America taken place, than the attempt was
made to institute the office of Grand Master
of the United States, the, 9bject being-of
which there can hardly be a doubt-to invest
Washington with the distinguished dignity .
The effort emanated, it appears, with the
military Lodges in the army . For a full account
of it we are indebted to the industrious
researches of Bro . E . G . Storer, who published
the entire Minutes of the "American Union
Lodge," attached to the Connecticut line, in
his work on The Early Records of Freemasonry
in the State of Connecticut .
On the 27th of December, 1779, the Lodge
met to celebrate the day at Morristown, in
New Jersey, which, it will be remembered, was
then the winter-quarters of the army. At that
communication-at which, it may be remarked,
by the way, "Bro . Washington" is
recorded among the visitors-a petition was
read, representing the present state of Freemasonry
to the several Deputy Grand Masters
in the United States of America, desiring them
to adopt some measures for appointing a
Grand Master over said States.
The petition purports to emanate from
"Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in the
several lines of the army" ; and on its being
read, it was resolved that a committee be appointed
from the different Lodges in the army,
and from the staff, to meet in convention at
Morristown on the 7th of February next . Accordingly,
on the 7th of Februaryy, 1780, a
convention, called in the records ` a committee,"
met at Morristown . This convention
adopted an address to the "Grand Masters
of the several Lodges in the respective
United States ." The recommendations of this
address were that the said Grand Masters
should adopt and pursue the most necessary
measures for establishing one Grand Lodge in
America, to preside over and govern all other
Lodges of whatsoever degree or denomination,
licensed or to be licensed, upon the continent ;
that they should nominate, as Grand Master
of said Lodge, a brother whose merit and capacity
may be adequate to a station so important
and elevated ; and that his name
should be transmitted "to our Grand Mother
Lodge in Europe" for approbation and confirmation.
This convention contained delegates from
the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and Maryland . Between the time of its
conception, on the 27th of December, 1779,
and that of its meeting on the 7th of February,
1780, that is to say in January, 1780 the
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania had hQ an
emergent meeting, and in some measure anticipated
the proposed action of the convention
by electing General Washington Grand Master
of the United States .
From the contemporaneous character of
these events, it would seem probable that
there was some concert of action between the
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the Masons
of Morristown . Perhaps, the initiative having
been taken by the latter in December, the
former determined to give its influence, in January,
to the final recommendations which
were to be made in the following February .