THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

will it be contended that, on his leaving the lodge-room pursuant to
his
sentence, he leaves not to return to it on the succeeding
communication,
unless a vote should permit him? Certainly not. His punishment of
dismissal for one night had been executed; and on the succeeding night
he
reentered into the possession of all his rights. But if he can do so
after
a dismissal or suspension of one night, why not after one or three, six
or
twelve months? The time is extended, but the principle remains the
same.
But the doctrine, that after the expiration of the term of a definite
suspension, an action by the lodge is still necessary to a complete
restoration, is capable of producing much mischief and oppression. For,
if
the lodge not only has a right, but is under the necessity of taking up
the case anew, and deciding whether the person who had been suspended
for
three months, and whose period of suspension has expired, shall now be
restored, it follows, that the members of the lodge, in the course of
their inquiry, are permitted to come to such conclusion as they may
think
just and fit; for to say that they, after all their deliberations, are,
to
vote only in one way, would be too absurd to require any consideration.
They may, therefore, decide that A.B., having undergone the sentence of
the lodge, shall be restored, and then of course all would be well, and
no
more is to be said. But suppose that they decide otherwise, and say
that
A.B., having undergone the sentence of suspension of three months,
_shall
not_ be restored, but must remain suspended until further orders. Here,
then, a party would have been punished a second time for the same
offense,
and that, too, after having suffered what, at the time of his
conviction,
was supposed to be a competent punishment--and without a trial, and
without the necessary opportunities of defense, again found guilty, and
his comparatively light punishment of suspension for three months
changed
into a severer one, and of an indefinite period. The annals of the most
arbitrary government in the world--the history of the most despotic
tyrant
that ever lived--could not show an instance of more unprincipled
violation
of law and justice than this. And yet it may naturally be the result of
the doctrine, that in a sentence of definite suspension, the party can
be
restored only by a vote of the lodge at the expiration of his term of
suspension. If the lodge can restore him, it can as well refuse to
restore
him, and to refuse to restore him would be to inflict a new punishment
upon him for an old and atoned-for offense.