Year: 1861

The following resolutions reported
during the last week, and unanimously
adopted by the Grand Lodge of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows Of
the State of Michigan, explain them.
selves


To the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of Michigan:


The Special Committee, to whom was
referred that portion of the Most Wor.
thy Grand Masters Report, in regard
to the present condition of the country,
respectfully report:


That your Committee feel that the
great prosperity of our country, its
present unexampled growth, the spread
of intellectual and moral, as well as
physical wealth, are, in great meas
ure. owing to the Constitution and
Union, which, by their effects, have ce-
mented the liberties of the whole coun-
try, and made us respected among the
nations of the world, and happy, peace
ful, and free at home. That we look
with distrust upon any effort in any
section of our country to stir up "the
bitter waters of sectional strife," and
that the principles of our Order, as
we'll as patriotism, and our duty as
American citizens, require us to sustain
by voice and vote those patriotic men
who, North and South, East and West,
are endeavoring to sustain and support
the Constitution and Union founded
in so much peril and by so great
sacrifices, and productive of so much
good to our country and to the world.


That we therefore recommend the
adoption of the following resolutions.
All of which is respectfully submitted.


BE 1t Resolved, By the r. w. Grand
Lodge of the /. o. o. F. of the State
of Michigan, that as members of this
Grand Lodge we pledge ourselves to
exert our influence to renew those fra
ternal feelings heretofore prevailing in
our country, so that in all our land it
may again be said, as has always been
the boast of our Order to be able to
say, that brethren from every section
of the Union, meeting for a common
purpose under common organization,
can carry out plans for the common
good without sectional strife, as breth-
rem and as American citizens.


Resolved, That this Grand Body
now, as ever, stands upon the platform
of 'Liberty and Union," s'the Consti-
tuition and the laws" That we ap-
peal to the people of the State of Mich
igan to stand to, abide by, and support
the Constitution and the laws of the
Union, ready at all times to defend and
protect the rights of every State as
carefully as we would our own, and as
prompt to strike down any violation of
the Supreme Laws by Michigan as by
South Carolina.


ResolUed, That we appeal to our
Sister Grand Bodies all over the Union,
by the memories Of common charities
and fraternal intercourse by the ties
of common blood and common anoes-
try; by the glorious recollection of our
revolutionary struggles; by the holy
remembrance of common dangers in
defence of the interests and the honor
of our country; by the glories of that
noble flag which we have all stood
ready to sustain and cherish by the
memory of the great and good men,
by whose tolls and sacrifices, and blood,
we acquired this glorious heritage to
aid as in restoring that harmony and
fraternal feeling, SO necessary to our
existence as a nation, and to pledge
Odd Fellows everywhere, that by our
Order sectional aggression shall never
be sustained, no unholy ambition ever
be encouraged.


Resolved, That the principles of our
Order forbid fraternal strife, and incul-
cate in the spirit of concilliation and
concession, that charity which suffered