Council of Select Masters informing this Council that they were willing to be united and come into the Council of Royal Masters. The question being taken it was unanimously agreed that we accept of the proposal.'

Thereupon the fee for conferring the Select Degree was fixed at two dollars, and a committee was appointed to revise the by-laws.

"Four other meetings were held during the month, and at the last (December 31, 1821) the degrees were conferred upon two candidates in the following order: 1. Royal Master; 2. Super-Excellent Master; 3. Select Master. This is the first time the Select Degree was conferred in Columbian Council.

The revised by-laws were adopted in April, 1822; in them the degrees are named in the same order; the fees were fixed at two dollars each for the Royal and Select, and one dollar for the Super Excellent Degree. But in January, 1823, the Royal and Select Degrees were conferred without mentioning the Super-Excellent; still the omission is probably an error of the Recorder, as the candidates paid for all three of the degrees.

"The origin of this Council of Select Masters has not been known with any degree of certainty. Bate, in his History, says 'the Council of Select Masters of New York, whose members were healed and came into the Council of Royal Masters, under one jurisdiction, owed its origin to Philip P. Eckel and Hezekiah Niles, of Baltimore, Maryland, who received their authority, primarily, from the representative or representatives of the Grand Consistory at Berlin, and was established at the city of New York in 1820.'

"But there is a fly-leaf attached to the records of Columbian Council, at the minutes of the meeting of December 2, 1821, purporting to be the minutes of the Select Masters' Council at a meeting held November 25, 1821. I am informed that these minutes are in the handwriting of Thomas Slade, the Recorder, for the two previous years, of the Council of Royal Masters. At this meeting Thomas Lownds presided, and 'opened the degree of Select Masters, or twenty-seven.' The names of those present are not given. The degree was conferred on ten well-known and old (nearly all of them) members of the Royal Masters' Council, among whom was Thomas Slade, the Recorder. Afterwards, in Columbian Council, the Select Degree was conferred on others of its old members. It is not probable that Thomas Lownds was 'healed' in the Council founded by himself, so that the 'healing' part of Companion Bate's statement must be erroneous.

"I have elsewhere seen it stated that the Select Council was formed by Cross; but, from the record already referred to, it is evident that it was a voluntary body, composed of members of Columbian Council, and formed with the very purpose of adding the Select Degree to those already conferred by it. Cross mentions no such Council in his published list. The record referred to is the only one of which, so far as I am informed, there is any knowledge. It shows upon its face that Lownds assembled ten of his Companions and conferred the degree upon them. The facts, also, that no other proceedings than the votes referred to, took place in order to unite the Councils, and that this record was pasted into the minute book of Columbian Council, and was made by the Recorder of that Council, shows that the Select Council was composed of the same members as the Royal, and was an ephemeral body.

"When the revised by-laws were adopted, it was voted that they be presented to each member for his signature, and that those declining to sign should no longer be considered members.'

"The blank pages in these records, as well as the records themselves, show that there was a failure to record the minutes of many meetings. This is a source of regret; but the value and authority of the minutes that were entered are in no degree diminished.

"On January 18, 1823, Columbian Council adopted a resolution, looking to the formation of a Grand Council for the State, and one was formed on the 25th of the same month. But Connecticut had founded one in 1819, Virginia in 1820, and North Carolina in 1822. So that while Columbian Council was pursuing the even tenor of her way,' the degrees were disseminated, Councils were formed, and Grand Councils organized under other authority."

This sketch would not be complete without the history of the organization of the other bodies.

Brother Drummond continues with a history of the proceedings of Jeremy L. Cross and those authorized by him; but the discovery of important documents led him to rewrite it, as given in the next chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW HE

CROSS' CLAIMS WHAT CRYPTIC MASONRY OWES TO HIM WENT ABOUT HIS WORK-WHAT HE DID AND THE AUTHORITY BY WHICH HE ACTED.

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HATEVER may have been the origin of these degrees, it is very certain that their general dissemination and the origin of the Grand Council system are due very largely to Jeremy L. Cross. Of him and his acts Brother Drummond says: He was made a Royal Arch Mason in Champlain Chapter, No. 2, at St. Albans, Vermont, July 11, 1815, while engaged in "lecturing the lodges" in that State. According to his statement, made at the time, he remained in Vermont until the next spring, and then went to Providence, R.I., arriving there May 20, 1816; he remained there to "perfect" himself "in the Royal Arch Degrees," and from there went to New York to attend the meeting of the General Grand Chapter; thence he went to Philadelphia with Companions Webb, Fowle and Snow, who went there to effect a union between the Grand Encampment of Pennsylvania and the one they had just formed. Cross was there June 22, but being refused permission to lecture the lodges, he went to New Jersey and Delaware, and finally arrived at Baltimore in the early part of August. In a letter from Philadelphia, he says he tried to impress upon the Grand Master the necessity of the Mark and Most Excellent Master's degrees, and that the Grand Master told him that he knew there was a void shown from the Master to the Arch, and to fill up the vacuum they had substituted the Royal Master.

He remained in Baltimore a week, and received the Select Degree from Philip P. Eckel and Hezekiah Niles, with authority to confer it. He then started out on a tour through Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana, and thence back to Baltimore, where he arrived May 16, 1817 (I have been able to trace his course minutely from the dates of his letters). He remained some

time in Kentucky, and (as he says) visited all the principa lodges in the State.

From Baltimore he went North; among his papers found after his death was one in his own handwriting, endorsed, Copy of a letter to P. P. Eckel, Baltimore, Md.:" this I examined personally, and had a copy of it made, which I compared with the original; it was dated Haverhill, N.H., July 17, 1817; it is so important that I give an extract from it verbatim:

"DEAR FRIEND AND COMPANION:

"After taking leave of your social society I repaired to New Castle, where I met with a warm reception, and deviated so far from my stipulation as to confer the Select degree on Comps. Hamblen, Reed and Craw. The inducement that led me to do it was, their noted respectability and influence they have in the Masonic institution might tend to the general good. They have not their constitutional No. to confer the degree, so they will have to apply to you for further information. I made but a short tarry at Wilmington and Philadelphia, and stopped a few days in New York. I found they had a Grand Council of Select Masons there, and that they granted warrants to others for conferring the degree.

"I made no further tarry till I arrived at Windsor, Vt., where I established a Council of Select Masons. They finding that the degree was full of information, and that it could not be given antecedent to that of the R. Arch, wished for a warrant to empower them to confer it, upon which I granted them one in the words following, viz.: "To all etc. By the High Power in me vested by the Thrice Illustrious and Grand Puissant in the Grand Council of Select at Baltimore, etc., till revoked by the Grand Puissant, etc., I wish you to write me at this place by the next mail respecting my granting warrants, and if approving grant me that power, signing your name as Thrice Illustrious and Puissant in the Grand Council at Baltimore, for I do not know why the Grand Council at Baltimore have not as good a right to grant warrants as the one at New York, which must be self-created.

"There are nine Chapters in Connecticut, as many in Vermont, and four in this State, besides those in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, at each of which places I could establish the degree were I permitted to grant them a warrant. There are so many of those little degrees that are given by any one and in any place which are of no consequence that they will have but little confidence in this, unless it has the appearance of some kind of sanction, and I think those who do receive it would not make sufficient application to perfect themselves in the history, work, and lectures, unless there was an inducement held out of an office in the Council. However, you and Companion Niles will best know what will be best for its general diffusion and utility, and inform me accordingly."

This statement that there was a Grand Council of Select Masons in New York is erroneous; there was then a Council of Royal Masters in that city, which called itself a Grand Council, and was approving, if not authorizing, the forma

tion of other Councils of the same character. However, the idea of granting warrants was suggested to Cross, and he at once urged Eckel and Niles to issue them, and grant authority to him to do so also.

What reply they made to his request, if any, is not known, but among the papers of Cross was found a document of which the following is a copy :

"To all Whom it may Concern.

"Imprest with a perfect conviction that the knowledge of the misteries of the degree of Royal Arch are eminently promoted by a knowledge of those revealed in the Council of Select Masons; and Whereas the said degree of Select is not so extensively known as its wants and the good of the Craft require—

"Therefore Know ye: That reposing especial confidence in my beloved and trusty Companion Jeremy L. Cross, I do hereby, by the high powers in me vested, authorize and empower him to confer the said degree, as follows, viz: In any place where a regular Chapter of Royal Arch Masons is established, the officers or members approving, he may confer said degree according to its rules and regulations, but only on Royal Arch Masons who have taken all the preceding degrees, as is required by the General Grand Chapter. When a competent number of Select Masons are thus made, he may grant them a Warrant to open a Council of Select, and confer the degree, and do all other business appertaining thereto.

"Given under my hand and seal at Baltimore the 27th day of May, A.D. 1817, and in the year of the Dis. 2817.

"PHILIP P. ECKEL.

"Thrice Illustrious and Grand Puissant in the Grand Council of Select at Baltimore, and approved as G. G. Scribe.

66 Approved and attested as Ill. in the G. Council.

"H. NILES."

I have no doubt that this was not genuine, for the following reasons:

1. I had the original, and submitted it to experts in handwriting, and every one of them pronounced the signatures to be simulated and not genuine.

2. I compared the names of Eckel and Niles with undoubted genuine signatures of theirs, made about the same time, and the contrast was very great; instead of the bold and firm business hand of the originals, the names to the documents were in that peculiar shaky or trembling style which indicates a laboured attempt to imitate a signature.

3. I had the document photographed, and sent it to numerous brethren, and, so far as I heard, all, with one exception (Bro. Singleton, of Washington), pronounced the signatures to be spurious

4. The body of the document was in the well-known handwriting of Cross, and in his style; neither Eckel nor

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