these appointments respectively of Francken and Hayes gave them authority to appoint others. Whether the action of Morin took place in the United States or not, cannot be ascertained. Some writers assert that he was never in that country. It is not at all unlikely; indeed I think it very probable that having crossed the Atlantic and visited the West Indies he would naturally, in his meanderings, find his way to the United States. Be that as it may, Francken, by virtue of the authority in him vested, in like manner endowed one Moses Cohen with the same powers. Hayes appointed Isaac Da Costa Deputy Inspector-General for South Carolina. On the death of Da Costa, Joseph Myers succeeded him. Francken, having Morin's authority, opened, on 20th December, 1767, a Lodge of Perfection at Albany, N. Y. On the 25th October, 1762, the Grand Masonic Constitutions were revised and ratified in Berlin, Prussia, and proclaimed throughout the world for the government of all Lodges, Councils, Chapters, Colleges and Consistories of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Europe and America; and official copies were transmitted to Stephen Morin, who acknowledged and accepted them. The A. and A. Scottish Rite had no actual existence by that name till 1801; before that it was the Rite of Perfection, etc. The Supreme Council, founded at Charleston in 1801, was the first Body of the Rite, by that name, that ever existed. This divergence from the history of the Cryptic Rite proper, and the references to the A. and A. Rite, are necessary as showing the genuineness of the Royal and Select Degrees, and the claims they have as being bona fide "side" degrees of the Rite of Perfection. Cohen, who was of a roving disposition, journeyed to Jamaica, where he remained for some time, and established a Consistory, one of its members being Abram Jacobs, who was already possessed of a portion of the degrees, having received them in a Lodge of Perfection at Charleston, S. C. One of these degrees was known as the "Select Masons of Twenty-Seven," and of his having received this degree Cohen gave proof in a diploma or certificate dated 9th November, 1790, which stated that he had conferred the above degrees on Jacobs. Bro. Drummond asserts that this is the first document known which contains a reference to the degrees.

Jacobs was in Savannah, Georgia, in 1792. He came from Jamaica, in the West Indies, and while there had taken a very active part in Masonic matters, especially relating to the Rite of Perfection. He was applied to by Masons to establish a

Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection, and he conferred degrees on all who wanted and could pay for them. The first applicant was Bro. G Zimmerman, who, by letter, on 27th May, 1792, applied to Jacobs requesting him to come to Augusta and confer the degrees. Jacobs left Augusta in 1792, and did not return till 1800. He was at Savannah on 17th April, 1796, and his diary shows that he conferred the degree of "Select Masons of Twenty-Seven," on a brother, James Clarck; also on December 12th, the same degree on Brothers Carter, Easley, Smith, Cox, Griffin, and Hay," at the town of Washington, in Georgia. In November of 1802 Emanuel de la Motta, from Charleston, a friend of Jacobs, arrived at Savannah, and he conferred on him the degree of "Select Masons of Twenty-Seven."

As will be noticed further on, a committee of the Royal Arch Chapter of South Carolina claimed that these degrees were conferred in the Grand Lodge of Perfection in 1783, in Charleston, S. C., and a certificate signed by one M. C. Levy in 1827 is authentic evidence of the truth of the statement. Moses Clava Levy was of Hebrew extraction, a native of the kingdom of Poland, born in Cracow. He was a man of honesty, integrity and industry, and was much respected. He is buried in the old Jewish burial place in Charleston, and the tomb bears this epitaph in classical Hebrew: Sacred to the memory of Moses Clava Levy, who died on the 5th of Nissan, 5599, nearly 90 years old, a native of Poland, and for 54 years an inhabitant of this city. He was a kind husband, a fond parent, a firm friend, an indulgent master, incorruptible in integrity, sincere in piety, unostentatious in charity. This stone is placed by his only son and child." Levy was a member of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, organised in 1801-May 31st at Charleston, South Carolina. We find that Abram Jacobs came back to the United States and re-settled in the State of Georgia, and there is proof that he conferred the Select degree in the year 1796, and also that several in New York received it in 1808. Hayes, of Massachusetts, however, had not been idle, and had made good use of the powers granted him, by making Joseph M. Myers an InspectorGeneral for Maryland, and he organized in 1788 a Council of the Princes of Jerusalem at Charleston, S. C. A manuscript copy of the ritual of the Select Degree was deposited by him in the archives of that Council. This MS. is beyond doubt authentic, and it is not unlikely that he was in

possession of the work of the other degrees, as records show that about that period a number of Masons, residents of Charleston, received them. The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, whose work is the same as that followed by the A. and A. S. Rite, at the present time, in Canada, did not in 1802 include all the degrees we claim as belonging to the Cryptic Rite. A circular containing their list stated that in addition to the regular degrees, there were side degrees known among them as the "Select Masons of Twenty Seven." It is claimed that in 1803 a copy of this ritual was made by J. Billeaud, and that it is a verbatim copy of the Myers ritual which, in 1788, was deposited by Myers in the archives of the Council at Charleston. An interesting work, "The History of Masonry in Maryland," written by Bro. Edward T. Schultz, refers to the Rite and its early history. These documents show that Henry Wilmans, a Pole, who resided in Baltimore about 1790, organized a Lodge of Perfection. Of this Lodge Philip P. Eckel was a member. Wilmans died 1795, but had previously conferred the Select Degree, and perhaps others, on Eckel and Hezekiah Niles.

Jacobs came to New York early in 1804, and conferred the degrees on many, amongst them Thomas Lownds. In 1808 the dispute between Gourgas and Joseph Cerneau commenced. Lownds sided with the latter, and went over to him, capturing, so Gourgas says, the Royal and Select Degrees. The credit of organizing the first Body of the Cryptic Rite must be given to Lownds. He formed, with others, of course, on September 2nd, 1810, the "Columbian Grand Council of Royal Master Masons." This body, on December 8th, 1821, received within its fold a Council of Select Masters. January 25th, 1823, " Columbian Grand Council" constituted themselves a Grand Council for the State, and issued warrants as late as 1827. In 1854 another Grand Council was formed in New York State, its members being principally adherents of what was known as the "St. John Grand Lodge." This Grand Council issued warrants to subordinate Councils, and in 1860 united with "The Columbian." The records of both these bodies are in existence, and have been re-published.

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Jeremy L. Cross, who was initiated into the Select Degree by Philip P. Eckel, visited Baltimore, made a tour of the Southern and Western States, lectured in all the grades of Masonry, and conferred the degree, no doubt doing a profitable trade, as many of our brethren do at the present time with their so-called high grades, which aim at the dismem

berment of those legitimate degrees which Masonry recognizes all the world over as alone bearing the impress of validity. Cross, not to be out-done in the warrant-granting line, conferred the degree on a number of Royal Arch Companions in Windsor, Vt., issued a warrant for them to open a Council, and then wrote to his mentor, Eckel, for his authority so to do. Eckel and his friend Hezekiah Niles evidently counselled with one another, for in the papers belonging to Cross, found after his death, was an authorization, dated 27th May, 1817, purporting to be signed by Eckel and Niles, giving power to confer the Select Degree and grant warrants for Councils. In New Hampshire in 1815, and in Boston, Mass., in 1817, there were Councils of Royal Masters formed, without warrants however, and evidently voluntary bodies. The members of these bodies received the Select Degree from Cross and amalgamated the two degrees; but it was years later that many of Cross' Select Councils adopted the Royal Degree as part of their system. Grand Councils were formed at various dates in the several States, and ultimately a National Convention of Royal and Select Masters was held in Buffalo, in 1877, at which M. Ill. Companions Daniel Spry and J. Ross Robertson were present on behalf of Canada, delegates from the Grand Council of that jurisdiction. M. II. Companion Josiah H. Drummond, of Maine, presided over the deliberations of the Convention. The state of the Rite was discussed, but no definite action was taken. In 1880 another convention of a similar character-representing nineteen Grand Councils-met in Detroit, Mich., and organized "The General Grand Council of the United States."

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CHAPTER II.

THE OPINION OF DIFFERENT CRYPTIC WRITERS AS TO THE ORIGIN AND STATUS OF THE DEGREES-CROSS' CLAIMS DISCUSSED AND CRITICISED.

RO. Schultz, in his History of Freemasonry in
Maryland, says that:

B

"Much obscurity has existed regarding the origin of the Degrees of Royal and Select Masters, and also as to the date when, and by whom, they were introduced into this country. It would appear that the Royal Master's Degree was first known and worked in the Eastern States, while the Select Degree was first known, and at a much earlier period, in the Southern and Middle States. Nearly all the early Masonic writers of the country concede that Philip P. Eckel and Hezekiah Niles of Baltimore had, at an early period, the control of, at least, the Select Degree, and that from them emanated the authority under which it was introduced into many of the other jurisdictions of the country."

In an article in Cole's Ahiman Rezon (1817), written by Brother Hezekiah Niles on the Select Degree, occurs the following:

"Though this beautiful Degree is known to some persons in many parts of the United States, we are not informed that it is worked in anywhere but Baltimore. We have been told that a regular Chapter of the Select Degree was held at Charleston, S. C., many years ago, but believe it has declined."

Bro. John Dove, of Virginia, speaking of the Select Degree, says:

"This beautiful Degree is comparatively of modern origin, having been with the Degree of Royal Master in the possession of a distinguished Chief in the State of Maryland as a purely honorary Degree, elucidatory of and appendant to Royal Arch Masonry, and by him conferred without fee; he delegated authority to others to use them in the same way, until the year 1824, when the Grand Chapter of Maryland, with his consent, took charge of the degrees and ordered them to be given before the Most Excellent Master, where all intelligent workers in the Royal Arch must at once perceive the propriety of their location."

Bro. Mackey, in his History of Freemasonry in South Carolina, under the head of Cryptic Masonry, says: