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

52 AMENDMENT
AMERICAN
and if then this question be lost, the whole
motion falls to the ground .
The principal Parliamentary rules in relation
to amendments which are applicable to
the business of a Masonic Lodge are the
following :
1. An amendment must be made in one of
three ways : by adding or inserting certain
words, by striking out certain words, or by
striking out certain words and inserting others .
2. Every amendment is susceptible of an
amendment of itself, but there can be no
amendment of the amendment of an amendment
; such a piling of questions one upon
another would tend to embarrass rather than
to facilitate business . " The object which is
proposed to be effected by such a proceeding
must be sought by rejecting the amendment
to the amendment, and then submitting the
proposition in the form of an amendment of
the first amendment in the form desired ."
Cushing (Elem. Law and Pract . Leg . Ass .,
§ 1306) illustrates this as follows : " If a proposition
consists of AB, and it is proposed to
amend by inserting CD, it may be moved to
amend the amendment by inserting EF ; but
it cannot be moved to amend this amendment,
as, for example, by inserting G . The only
mode by which this can be reached is to reject
the amendment in the form in which it is presented,
namely, to insert EF, and to move it
in the form in which it is desired to be
amended, namely, to insert EFG ."
3 . An amendment once rejected cannot be
again proposed .
4. An amendment to strike out certain
words having prevailed, a subsequent motion
to restore them is out of order .
5. An amendment may be proposed which
will entirely change the character and substance
of the original motion . The inconsistency
or incompatibility of a proposed
amendment with the proposition to be
amended, though an argument, perhaps, from
its rejection by the Lodge, is no reason for its
suppression by the presiding officer .
6 . An amendment, before it has been proposed
to the body for discussion, may be withdrawn
by the mover • but after it has once been
in possession of the Lodge, it can only be withdrawn
by leave of the Lodge. In the Congress
of the nited States, leave must be obtained
by unanimous consent ; but the usage in Masonic
bodies is to require only a majority vote .
7 . An amendment having been withdrawn
by the mover, may be again proposed by
another member.
8 . Several amendments may be proposed
to a motion or several amendments to an
amendment, and the question will be put on
them in the order of their presentation . But
as an amendment takes precedence of a
motion, so an amendment to an amendment
takes precedence of the original amendment .
9. An amendment does not require a
seconder, although an original motion always
does.
There are many other rules relative to
amendments which prevail in Parliamentary
bodies, but these appear to be the only ones
which regulate this subject in Masonic assemblies
.
Amenti . See Book of the Dead.
American Mysteries. Among the many
evidences of a former state of civilization among
the Aborigines of America which seem to
prove their origin from the races that inhabit
the Eastern hemisphere, not the least remarkable
is the existence of Fraternities bound
by mystic ties, and claiming, like the Freemasons,
to possess an esoteric knowledge,
which they carefully conceal from all but the
initiated . De Witt Clinton relates, on the
authority of a respectable native minister,
who had received the signs, the existence of
such a society among the Iroquois . The
number of the members was limited to fifteen,
of whom six were to be of the Seneca tribe,
five of the Oneidas, two of the Cayugas, and
two of the St. Regis . They claim that their
institution has existed from the era of the
creation . The times of their meeting they
keep secret, and throw much mystery over all
their proceedings .
Brinton tells us in his interesting and instructive
work on The Myths of the New World
(p . 285), that among the red race of America
" the priests formed societies of different
grades of illumination, only to be entered by
those willing to undergo trying ordeals, whose
secrets were not to be revealed under the
severest penalties. The Algonkins had three
such grades-the waubeno, the meda, and the
jossakeed, the last being the highest . To this
no white man was ever admitted . All tribes
appear to have been controlled by these secret
societies . Alexander von Humboldt mentions
one, called that of the Botuto, or Holy
Trumpet, among the Indians of the Orinoco,
whose members must vow celibacy, and submit
to severe scourgings and fasts . The
Collahuayas of Peru were a guild of itinerant
quacks and magicians, who never remained
permanently in one spot ."
American Rite. It has been proposed,
and I think with propriety, to give this name
to the series of degrees conferred in the
United States . The York Rite, which is the
name by which they are usually designated,
is certainly a misnomer, for the York Rite
properly consists of only the degrees of
Entered Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master
Mason, including in the last degree the Holy
Royal Arch . This was the Masonry that
existed in England at the time of the revival
of the Grand Lodge in 1717 . The abstraction
of the Royal Arch from the Master's Degree,
and its location as a separate degree, produced
that modification of the York Rite which now
exists in England, and which should properly
be called the Modern York Rite, to distinguish
it from the Ancient York Rite, which
consisted of only three degrees . But in the
United States still greater additions have been
made to the Rite, through the labors of Webb
and other lecturers, and the influence insensibly
exerted on the Order by the introduction
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite