Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-08-31


Under this caption Bro. Gouley, of the
st. Louis EFeentGSO7l, seems inclined to
have a tilt with his cOnfreres Of the
press, and to prove, whether they will or
no, that an Entered Apprentices Lodge
is not q Lodge. He relies principally
upon q version of the Ancient Charges,
which we have not had the good
fortune to see, and the local law of Mis-
souri,, by which other Grand Lodges will
not agree to be bound. The Grand
Lodge Of MISSOURI may, if so 1t please
the majority, declare that q Lodge is
perfect sphere, but people outside Of that
Jurisdiction are not bound to believe the
assertion, or TO be governed by it as
principle of law.
So far as we are able to understand
Bro. Gouley, he desires TO prove that NO
one can be a member Of q Lodge until
he has received the third or Masters
degree, and in this shape his proposition
will meet with no dissent in this COun-
try, though in much the largest part of
the Masonic world it is not true, because
in nearly every country but this Entered
Apprentices are members of Lodges and
assist in transscting their business. If
we deny that they are members Of
Lodges where, by custom, they enjoy
the rights Of such, then, by q parity of
reasoning, we must deny that there are
any Lodges out of this country or Eng
land, which, we venture to suppose, Bro.
Gouley is hardly prepared 70 do. Our
Masonry comes to us from England, and
our law is founded on the Ancient
Charges, first published in l72l, which
nowhere declare lat least that we can
find) that "NO brother, however,
skilled in the craft, shall be called q
F, hoe aTa Cd
to the chair of a Lodge" When these
charges were promulgated, Lodges had
no members 1T all, but were simply a
convenient number Of MasOns assembled
at some public house for the purpose of
making Masons, or, in other words, con-
ferring the Entered Apprentice degree.
After the institution Of the Grand Lodge
they were required to have q warrant,
but not to be Master MasOns, because the
Grand Lodge reserved the right of pass
ing Fellow Crafts and raising Master
Masons, and only required that the
Grand Master himself should be o
Fellow Craft. In France, Germany
and South America the body Of
the craft to-day are Entered Apprentices,
and they are members Of and transact
the business of their respective Lodges.
Such, too, has been the custom in this
country until very recent period. In
1850, when we were Grand Master, We
found on our official visitations that eur
German and French Lodges were trans
acting all their business in the first de-
gree, and their minutes show that such
had been their immemoTial custom.
Some Of these are among the oldest
Lodges in this country, but if Bro. Gou-
ley's law be correct, they have not been
Lodges for fifty or sixty years past, but
can only lawfully date their career from
the time when, by our eGict, they shut
out their apprentices, and began trans
acting their business in the third de
gree.
We assume that initiation makes a
Mason, and when a number Of MasOns
are duly assembled and organized they
are a Lodge, for otherwise they could
not confer the degree upon q profane.
If being opened on the first degree the
Lodge still remains 8 Masters Lodge,
then Entered Apprentices are admitted
at once to the highest degree, and the
routine of requiring them to make pro-
ficieney, TO pass through the ceremonies
of the two superior degrees and re-
fusing them meanwhile admission to a
Masters Lodge, when opened as such,
is slightly inconsistent. The fact is
that an Entered Apprentice is a Mason
and a member of the fraternity, and
that if now he is no longer a member of
the Lodge in which he is initiated, it is
because local Grand Lodge regulations
have so ordered it. But local regulations
cannot alter the groundwork Of Masonry
nor unmake in principle whatever they
may do in practice, and as In the begin
ming Entered Apprentice Lodges were
Lodges, so are they now. True, the reg
ulations of Grand Lodges have deprived
them of the rights and immunities they
formerly enjoyed, but they have not
ceased for that 70 be Lodges.-NatiO7laL
FFeeD1GSo1.