"For many years there have been three distinct claims urged for jurisdiction over these degrees in America-first by the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree; next by some of the Grand Chapters; and lastly by the Grand Councils composed of the Subordinate Councils of each State.

"Connected with this question of jurisdiction is another in reference to the historical origin of the Degrees, and as to the person or persons by whom they were first introduced into America. The Masons of Maryland and Virginia contend that the Royal and Select Degrees were introduced by Philip P. Eckel, of Baltimore, one of the most distinguished and enlightened Masons of his day, who, in 1817, communicated them to Jeremy L. Cross, and gave him authority to confer them in every Royal Arch Chapter which he might visit in his official character."

The following extracts are quoted from the history of Brother Robert B. Folger, of New York:

"The Masons of that day (1816) were divided in opinion concerning the proper place to which these degrees (Royal and Select) belonged. One party preferred that they should be kept separate and left where they were a separate system. At the meeting of the General Grand Chapter in 1816, the whole matter then came up for discussion, Mr. Eckel, of Maryland, taking a very prominent part in advocating the union of these two degrees with the services of the Royal Arch Chapter. The discussion became warm and lasted the better part of two days, when the motion to unite them with the Chapter Degrees was rejected. Whereupon, immediately after the adjournment, the State Grand Council of Royal Masters was formed, and the different Councils then came under that governing power, and continued so up to 1828. It was this move on the part of the General Grand Chapter, in refusing a recognition of those degrees, that determined Mr. Cross in his future course.

"Mr. Eckel, the Baltimore delegate, then went home; and when Cross, who at that Session of the General Grand Chapter had been appointed and confirmed as General Grand Lecturer, started on his lecturing tour, he stopped at Baltimore and purchased and received the privilege from Eckel and Niles to erect and establish Councils of Royal and Select Masters throughout the Southern and Western States. This privilege he carried out pretty effectually, beginning with New Jersey; and all the Councils in existence in those States mentioned in his narrative were established by himself, also the Eastern States, except Rhode Island.”

Bro. Schultz, speaking of Maryland, says:

"From 1824 to 1852, the Select alone was worked in the Chapter. After 1852, both degrees were worked in Councils specially convened for the purpose, after the Most Excellent and just before the conferring of the Royal Arch degree. At one period, however, they were, as stated by Brother Dove, conferred before the Most Excellent. Such was the practice and teachings regarding the Council degrees in this jurisdiction, until the year 1872, when, for the purpose of being in unison' with the majority of the States who had regular Grand Council organizations, the Grand Chapter of Maryland, in 1872, passed the following resolution :

6

66 6

Resolved, That all the Subordinate Chapters in this jurisdiction are prohibited from conferring any other degrees than those of Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master and Royal Arch.'

Although the Council degrees were not, properly speaking, conferred by the Chapters, but in Councils separate from the Chapters, yet the resolution of the Grand Chapter was regarded as prohibitory of such a course, and the degrees ceased to be given by the Chapters. Councils were subsequently formed, and on May 12th, 1874, the representatives from five Councils organized in the City of Baltimore, the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of the State of Maryland." Brother Schultz, after quoting the extracts given says that: "The general belief seemed to be that the control of the Royal and Select Degrees was vested in Eckel and Niles,"

but he adds:

"We think Brothers Dove, Mackey, Folger, and others, make a great mistake in coupling the Royal Master's degree with the Select, in connection with the names of Eckel and Niles; for there is no evidence whatever to show that these brethren ever exercised or claimed control of the Royal Master's Degree, or that they were even in possession of that degree, at the periods named by them."

The Warrants issued prior to 1819, by Cross, authorized the Companions "to form themselves into a regular Council of Select Masters," but after the date named, "the High Powers in him vested by the Grand Council at Baltimore," were enlarged to include the Royal Master's Degree.

Brother Schultz holds that in view of the action taken by the brethren of Baltimore, there is every reason to believe that the "enlarged powers" under which Cross claimed to act, were not granted or authorized by Eckel and Niles.

Cross, it is claimed, was expelled from the Grand Chapter of Maryland for, as the circular states, forming Councils independent of the Chapter, and abusing the authority delegated, or meant to be delegated to him. Brother Schultz asserts, however, that there is nothing in the records which shows that Cross was struck from the rolls. Cross established a large number of Councils in the United States and gave similar powers to others, who also issued warrants for Councils. The modest sum of one hundred dollars each was asked from some of those who applied for warrants, others received them for sums varying from twenty to forty dollars.

Brother William R. Singleton, of Washington, has a photographe fac-simile of the original dispensation or commission purporting to be granted to Cross by Eckel and Niles, in which the Select Degree alone is mentioned. (A copy of this document is given in a subsequent chapter.)

Companion Josiah H. Drummond, of Maine, says that Bro. Folger's statement above quoted :

"Is exceedingly erroneous and utterly unreliable. In 1816 these degrees were known to but very few, and their proper place had not been discussed. At that date the degrees were not, and never had been, conferred as a system. They were first united by Jeremy L. Cross, in 1818. The proceedings of the General Grand Chapter for 1816 show that the subject was not before it at all. There was no two days' discussion, for the body was in session only two days and a short time in the morning of the third, and the record shows the continuous transaction of business, except that the last half of the second day was chiefly devoted to an address by the General Grand Chaplain. Nor was the State Grand Council of Royal Masters formed immediately after adjournment, for it was not formed till January, 1823, over six years afterward.

Moreover, there is not the slightest evidence of the existence, at that time, of a single organized body of Select Masters in the world, but abundant evidence to the contrary. There was then in New York only one Council of Royal Masters in active life-Columbian Council in New York City-organized as a voluntary body in 1810, without charter or warrant from any source. From correspondence of John Harris, of New Hampshire, in 1815, it seems that there had been a Council of Royal Masters at Albany, but was then dormant; there was also a Council of Royal Masters at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, formed by four Royal Masters in 1815, of their own motion, and without any warrant. At the session of the General Grand Chapter in 1816, these were the only organized bodies of the Rite in the North; and in the South the select degree was then conferred only in temporary Councils. In fact I agree with Bro. Schultz, that up to that time the Select Degree only had been cultivated in the South, and the Royal Degree only in the North, except so far as the former had then been conferred by Abram Jacobs, and those receiving the degree from him. With this exception it was first brought North by Jeremy L. Cross.

"Cross was not appointed Grand Lecturer by the General Grand Chapter, but by some of its officers; as his correspondence shows, he did go to Baltimore, and undoubtedly there received the Select Degree from Eckel, and authority to confer the degree on Royal Arch Masons, but that he purchased the authority there is not the least evidence, and I do not believe. He then received no authority to establish Councils, and that idea was never broached by him until after his return from his Southern trip in the summer of 1817, and he had visited Baltimore and returned home and found there was then an organized Council (of Royal Masters) in New York City. Then he issued charters and sent them to the places where he had conferred the degrees, dating them back; but very few, if any, bodies were organized under those dated-back charters.

"These facts relating to Cross I derive from documents written at the time and in his hand-writing, which I have personally examined, and of which I have copies.

Companion Drummond also states, on apparently good authority, that Eckel did not receive the Royal Master's Degree until 1819; that, in that year, he and Bro. Benjamin Edes, of Baltimore, received it from Ebenezer Wadsworth, of New York. Wadsworth's statement was that he "assisted in conferring the degree" on them. Schultz says:

"This is probably true, for there is no mention of that degree being worked in this jurisdiction in any document, or upon the records of the Grand Chapter or of its subordinates earlier than 1850. Bro. Cole, in 1817, speaks of it incidentally, but not as among the degrees conferred. The Select Degree is recognized by the Constitution of the Grand Chapter adopted in 1824, but there is no mention of the Royal Master's Degree.'

Companion Drummond says further:

"At the session of the Grand Chapter of Maryland in 1817, Hezekiah Niles, then Deputy Grand High Priest, sent in a communication in relation to the Select Degree; it was referred to a committee, and they reported the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolved, That all Royal Arch Chapters under the jurisdiction of this Grand Royal Arch Chapter, shall have power to open and hold Chapters of Select Masters and confer the Degree of Select Master Mason on such as they may deem worthy of the same."

The same year Cole's "Ahiman Rezon" (printed by Benjamin Edes) was published, in which a full account of the Select Degree and of the manner of working it, is given, written by Niles (though I have heretofore assumed it was written by Eckel); and a very brief account of the degrees of Royal Master and Ark Master or Noachite is given, he saying, "these are given as merely preparatory and are usually conferred immediately before the solemn ceremonies of exaltation," and according to his statement after the Most Excellent, which was preceded by the Select, thus showing that at that time there was no connection between the Royal and Select Degrees. It may be mentioned in passing that in the second edition, published in 1826, and edited by Benjamin Edes, the same observations are made, although the work of these degrees is enlarged.

It would seem that this publication of Cole's created some confusion, for at the session of the Grand Chapter of Maryland in January, 1820, the following preamble and resolution were adopted

'Whereas several Chapters, working under the jurisdiction of this Grand Chapter, do consider it obligatory to confer two degrees, to wit, Royal Masters and Noah's Ark, previous to exalting to the degree of Royal Arch. And whereas the two degrees above alluded to are very imperfectly understood, therefore, Resolved, That the Chapters working under the jurisdiction of this Grand Chapter may, at their discretion, omit conferring the two said degrees previous to exalting to the degree of Royal Arch."

From this it is evident that both the degrees were worked in Maryland before 1824, under the authority or acquiescence of the Grand Chapter, when the Select was made a constitutional degree; but were not worked together.

CHAPTER III.

CALENDAR OF THE RITE-WHO ORIGINALLY CONFERRED THE DEGRES THEIR INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE GRAND CHAPTER OF MARYLAND AS ΤΟ ORIGIN OF THE RITE.

N the Masonic calendar the Royal and Select Masters date from the year in which the Temple of Solomon was completed., Anno Depositionis (A... Deps...) or "in the year of the deposit." To get this date add 1000 to the common time. Thus 1886 and 1000 = 2886.

Half a century ago there were three distinct authorities which claimed the right by antiquity of conferring the degrees of Royal and Select Master. First, by the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; secondly, by the Grand Councils of the Rite in various States of the American Union; and thirdly, by certain Grand Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, which claimed then, as many claim to-day, that the Cryptic Degrees should be given within the bosom of a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. Nearly sixty years ago there was a discussion in relation to the origin of these degrees, or of one of them. It commenced in the following manner:

In 1827, at the Annual Session of the Grand Chapter of Maryland, the Grand High Priest, J. K. Stapleton, submitted "documents upon the subject of the institution of the Select Degree independent of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter," which were referred to a committee, which recommended that a circular be sent to the several Grand Chapters regarding the matter. This was adopted, and a copy of this circular is here inserted:

M. E. G. Sir and Companions:

I am instructed by the Grand Chapter over which I have the honour to preside, to address you, and through you your Grand Chapter, upon the unsettled state of the Degree of Select Mason; a subject deemed by us of sufficient importance to claim the particular attention of your Grand Chapter.