Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-11-16
n-.nr MENPHIs. TENr..

Dear Sir and Bro: / confess to have
read your letter Of the 9Th Of August,
instant, with very great surprise, which
further reflection has rather increased
than diminished.
1t seems to me somewhat eKtrsOrdi-
nary that among all the eminent Masons
who have received the degrees OF the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
there should be no one, so far as l know,
except yourself, to whom It has occurred
that in comforting the degrees Of that
Rite, we are revealing TO Master Mssons
the secrets of Royal Arch Masonry and
the American Templsrism. ! am sure
that I have been quite unconscious OF the
commission Of so grave an offence, al
though am Templar, and have held
the Office Of Grand High Priest OF the
Grand Chapter OF Arkansas. OF our
Supreme Council, the Secretary General,
III. Bro. A. G. Msckey, has been Gen
eral Grand High Priest Of the United
| States and H. Bro. B. B. French,
Grand Master Of Templsrs. Ill., Bro.
Rockwell has been honored with all the
high digrities of Masonry, rs have
also Ill. Bros. Hillyer, Penn,
Barber, English, Pierson and Tucker,
OF Galveston, Ia 32d) and as ILL.,. Breth-
ren Charles Scott and Mellen had, who
are now deceased. l am sure that not
one Of sll these ever suspected that in
propagating the Scottish Rite he was en-
/ eroaehiDg upon the domain of either
Royal Arch Masonry or TemplaIism.
L have read and re-resd your letter,
with an earnest wish to find in it, If /
could, anythiDg that ought to persuade
Z u TO such 8 compromise as you insist
/ on aud these, after all, are my con-
clusions: "
lat. L cannot see, either that We, in
/ giving our degrees, reveal any Of the
| secrets Of any other Rite or degree, or
that the Royal Arch, Red Cross or Tenn
4 piar degree reveals any Of ours. If any Of
the signs, words and legends in both
Rites are identical, / never heard that
any one was told, when receiving them
in one degree or Rite, that they were
also the signs, words and legends OF
other degrees, in another Rite. Merely
to repeat in the ROyEl Arch degree the
| legend Of a degree of the Scottish Kite,
merely to give in the Templar degree y
sign or q word common to that degree
and TO a degree Of the Scottish Rite, is
not to reveal any secret of the latter.
Legends. words and signs, canDet II the
nature Of things, be the exclusive prop
erty Of any Rite or degree.
2nd. fit were otherwise, the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite gives no
secrets, communicates no signs and
words, and repeats no legends, except
such as are its own. So far as the
Royal Arch degree or that Of knight
| TemDlar have any of these in common
with il, il has borrowed them from our
Rite. For you cannot but be aware that
the degrees in which we work, up to
and including the 18th, contained, a
hundred years ago, the same signs, words
and Substantially legends, that they do
now. In the signs and words there has
been no change since 1852. The Rite Of
Perfection In Twenty-Five degrees had
been en- organized Rite even before that
year, and was worked In the West Indies
before 1770. To say that we reveal the
secrets Of degrees manufactured after
1900, as the Royal Arch, Red Cross and
American Templar all were, is simply to
invert the truth. The Red Cross degree
was made out Of our l5th and 10th, and
II there were any revealing of secrets in
the case, it would be the Scottish Rite
and not the American degrees, that
would have the right of reclamation.
With how little right the Royal Arch
could reclaim any thing is evident from
one little fact The " Ineffable Charao-
ters " (you know what they are, and
what obligation you took in respect to
theml were the eypher of the AppTen-
| tees degree, in the French work, before
the Royal Arch was heard Of.
II you, for example, were to be pleased
to take our 29th and 30th degrees and
make degree Of them, and call it by
some new name, you would have just the
same right, after year or two, 70 accuse
us OF revealing the secrets of gOltr degree
as you have now in regard TO the
Royal arch and Templsr degrees,
and could with the same prOpriety insist
/ thar we should not give the 18th TO any
/ one, unless he had first received your de-
gree. In other words, you wish Us to
| sgree, on your OtO1 theory, TO allow you
to give our secrets, before we shall be
allowed to give them ourselves.
Sd. do not see that the Royal Arch
! degree and the degree Of Perfection have
anything in common. 1t is not even
settled What your ineffable word is. We
] tried 10 settle that al Hartford in 1856,
/ but could not. Massachusetts had one
word composed Of three, and the South
| eru Chapters q single word J q. e. )
and neither would yield. There lie very
| little resemblance between the legends Of
the ROYAL Arch aud the Lodge Of Perfee.
ton. As to the Council degrees, or what
Is lately called Cryptic Masonry" they
were originally side degrees Of our Rite
which one could have or not ss he
pleased. Nor do see any secrets, except
3 word and sign, ia common between
the Webb Templar degree and the Rose
CroiE.
An. Nine-tenths Of the Scottish Rite
| Mssons In the world know nothing about
Roysl Arch and Templar Masonry. No
body recognizes them on the continent
4 of Europe, or in South America. Even
10 our own Jurisdiction. in Louisiana, moi
half our Scottish Rite Masons have eithel
OF them. We do not recognize them a
any part Of real Masonry any more than
the order Of High Priesthood, the Knight
of the Sepulchre, the Christian Mark, tbs
Mediterranean Pass, etc. We know vel
enough when they were made, and wh'
made them, and that they are the mos
modern Of the modern degrees. Conse
queBtly we do not require our member
70 possess them. The Templar degree
) preposterously succeeding Hebrew one
is q Csristidn degree, SD order OF Knight
hood, and no part Of Masonry. On
member Of our Supreme Council, III.
Bro.', Lsffon, is peitheT R. A. or TEN