Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
ereign and absolute, over them, to any other Body what- 
 soever: that is to say, to the Grand Orient of Peru. 
 Neither has it ever admitted or permitted the authority 
 of the Grand Orient of Peru over itself or any of the 
 Degrees of the A.-, and A.-. S.'. Rite in the Eepublic." 
 
 So that, stating the two questions with more precision, 
 and as they apply to the special case, they are thus one, 
 as stated to me: 
 
 "Whether the Supreme Council of Peru can divest 
 itself of all its authority and prerogatives, /oreuer, over 
 Symbolic Lodges and the Symbolic Degrees, without 
 infringing the Grand Constitutions of 1786, and can 
 absolve the members from their allegiance, fealty and 
 obedience, so that their Masters, Wardens and Past Mas- 
 ters may assemble lawfully and constitute themselves 
 into a regular Grand Lodge?" 
 
 As the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction 
 of the United States has declined to become one of the 
 Confederated Councils under the treaty of Lausanne, and 
 the revision there made of the Grand Constitutions has 
 for it no effect, I have to consider these questions as if 
 they arose under the original and unaltered Constitutions 
 of 1786. 
 
 In 1786, Free-Masonry had extended from England 
 into most of the countries of Europe, and throughout 
 the United States of America; the Powers created under 
 the English system everywhere being Grand Lodges and 
 Provincial Grand Lodges of Symbolic Masonry, working 
 only the first three Degrees, and governing Symbolic 
 Lodges only. 
 
 There were, in that year and before, Grand Lodges of 
 Denmark, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, and most 
 of the United States. All the former were established 
 before 1762 ; and the Grand Lodge Royale-York de I'Am- 
 itie at Berlin was established in that year, the Grand 
 Lodge of the Three Globes having been established in 
 1740. In France there were three Powers — the Grand 
 
Lodge, the Grand Orient and the Mere Loge du Eite 
 Ecossaise Philosophique. It was in this year that the 
 Grand Orient, until then a Power of the Symbolic Mas- 
 sonry only, added to its scale four Degrees of the Rite of 
 Perfection, and so established the Eit Moderne or Eit 
 Frangais in seven Degrees. 
 
 The Symbolic Degrees had long before become the 
 common property of all the Eites, being, in some form or 
 other, the first three Degrees of all; and in 1770, Zinnen- 
 dorf had created at Berlin a Grand Lodge of his Eite, 
 which, in 1774, became the National Grand Lodge of 
 Germany, by patent from the Grand Lodge of England. 
 Also, there were Provincial Grand Lodges in several 
 places in Germany. 
 
 In 1787, there were, as published by a German gazette, 
 in all parts of the world, 3,237 Lodges. 
 
 Consequently, to create a new Eite and make the Sym- 
 bolic Degrees the first three of its scale, was but to set up 
 a rival Power, with equal right to those Degrees, as to 
 almost every country where Masonry existed, and into 
 which it might go. 
 
 But there is no record of any action, or of the constitu- 
 tion of any Lodge, or other body whatever, or, in fact, of 
 anything done, by the Supreme Council, (if one was form- 
 ally organized,) created in Berlin in 1786 ; and the Grand 
 Constitutions remained a dead letter until 1801, when 
 the first Supreme Council known to have been organized 
 under the Grand Constitutions was established at Charles- 
 ton, at which date the Symbolic Masonry was, in almost 
 all the countries of the Globe, under the government of 
 Grand and Provincial Grand Lodges, and the higher 
 Degrees had almost totally disappeared everywhere. It 
 might be properly said that only then did the Grand Con- 
 stitutions become a living law ; for a law is simply nought 
 until there is some one to obey it— until there are persons 
 to accept it as the law — at least, where no one is bound 
 to obey it until he consents to do so. 
 
G 
 
 The authority given to Etienne Morin in 1761 was 
 given jointly by the Grand Lodge of Symbolic Masonry 
 of France and the Grand Council of the Sublime Degrees, 
 then united with it ; and if he established Symbolic Lodges 
 anywhere, it could be fairly claimed that his power to do 
 that came from the Symbolic Grand Lodge alone. 
 
 The Constitutions of 1762, of the Rite of Perfection, 
 claim that the Sublime and last Degree, the 25th, " governs 
 and commands all the others," (the first three included,) 
 " without exception;" and in one or two places. Symbolic 
 Lodges are spoken of as under the government of the 
 authorities of the Rite; but there are no dispositions for 
 their creation, organization, government, economy or dis- 
 cipline ; and the mention made of them is little more than 
 the assertion of a right of government, a right of visita- 
 tion and a right of precedence, vague and indefinite, with 
 no legislation for the exercise or enforcement of either. 
 
 When the Grand Constitutions were made, it does not 
 appear that in France or Germany there were any Sym- 
 bolic Lodges under the government of authorities of the 
 Rite of Perfection; and there were certainly none in 1801, 
 anywhere in the world. All the French Lodges established 
 in the United States, though those forming them had the 
 High Degrees, were established by Grand Lodges. 
 
 And when, in 1801, vitality and operation were given 
 to the Grand Constitutions by the organization of the 
 Supreme Council at Charleston, jurisdiction over the Sym- 
 bolic Degrees was expressly waived in favor of the Grand 
 Lodges, but was not entirely ceded or relinquished ; and 
 we have always held our right to administer them to be 
 undiminished, and that, if necessity should require, it 
 could be re-assumed. 
 
 If any Supreme Council of later creation had created 
 Symbolic Lodges, and these became discontented with 
 their government, they could not lawfully throw off their 
 allegiance, and elect to obey or unite in forming a differ- 
 ent Supreme Power without the consent of their Supreme 
 
Council. But it was always in their power, with or with- 
 out cause, to dissolve and cease to be, and of their mem- 
 bers then to form a new Lodge, and place it under the 
 obedience of another Power, or unite in forming a Grand 
 Lodge; and if the Supreme Council could not prevent 
 the exercise of this right, it certainly had the power to 
 permit each Body to do what it could not prevent its doing. 
 
 The doctrine of exclusive Grand Lodge Jurisdiction has 
 grown up in the United States, and been accepted here as 
 politic and wise in the interest of harmony and unity. 
 It does not prevail in Europe, and is not a part of organic 
 Masonic law ; and its zealots here have not been content to 
 stop when they had pushed it to the verge of absurdity. 
 
 No Supreme Council ever had, or ever can have, a just 
 claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the Symbolic Degrees 
 in the country where it exists. Ahy one or any half- dozen 
 Grand Lodges may establish Lodges there, and these may, 
 when they please, establish Grand Lodges for their own 
 government; and the Supreme Council would be wholly 
 in the wrong to refuse to recognize either as legal. 
 
 And of course the Supreme Council may tacitly refrain 
 from establishing Lodges at all, for or without sufficient 
 reasons ; and if it can do that, it can agree to do it, and 
 the agreement will be one of good faith, and must be 
 kept. 
 
 Article VI of the Grand Constitutions provides that 
 the Supreme Council need not always directly exercise its 
 authority over the Degrees below the 17th ; but, according 
 as it may be convenient, (prout conveniet,) and as locality 
 may require, it may, even tacitly, delegate (demandare) 
 that authority. That is, it may entrust to other hands the 
 power of exercising that authority, for it, in its name. 
 That is the meaning of demandare. The act of the man- 
 datary is always in law the act of the mandant. 
 
 So that, thus far, this article has nothing to do with 
 relinquishment, abandonment or cession of jurisdiction. 
 
 But it is added, "Sed suum jus imprescriptible est;" 
 
8 
 
 but its right is imprescriptible, cannot be lost by usurpa- 
 tion, by length of possession or exercise of it, by a man- 
 datary; because the article is not speaking of adverse 
 possession or usurpation, but of delegation. If there 
 were an express mandate, of course prescription could not 
 run ; and the force of the disposition is as to cases of tadt 
 mandate, of the exercise of the jurisdiction without au- 
 thority given, but also without objection. In South Car- 
 olina at the time, there was a body governing the Lodges 
 of Perfection of the Rite of Perfection, and it would not 
 submit to the Supreme Council unless that power of gov- 
 ernment were continued. 
 
 And in consequence of Article VI, Article VII did not 
 secure to Masons under the 16th Degree the right of appeal 
 direct to the Supreme Council. 
 
 Article XIII, Sec. II, gives to Deputy Inspectors-Gen- 
 eral the power to establish, regulate, and superintend Lodges 
 and Councils, but only from the 4th Degree to the 29th 
 inclusive ; for if there might be a doubt upon the phrase, 
 "Latomias, et Concilia gradu d, IV," there can be none as 
 to the subsequent phrase, "Sublimis grad4s Latomise vel 
 Concilia." 
 
 Article XII also provides that when the King, Fred- 
 eric, should die, every Supreme Council would, pleno 
 jure, become legitimately endowed vnth all Masonic au- 
 thority whereof the King was then possessed, which it would 
 use, dim opusfuerit, whenever it might be necessary, and 
 everywhere ; and it is certain that Frederic never exer- 
 cised any Masonic power over Symbolic Authorities, and 
 could, if he had it, refrain from its exercise, and relin- 
 quish it. 
 
 The Constitutions include the Blue Degrees in the 
 scale, and place them under the government of the Su- 
 preme Council ; but they do no more. They nowhere 
 else speak of them. In fact, it is the Preamble only that 
 speaks of them at all. We find only " the Sublime Ma- 
 sonry," and the Sublime Degrees mentioned in the 
 
9 
 
 Articles; in Article XIV, ceremonies and processions of 
 the Sublime Degrees only; elsewhere, only "Lodges of 
 the Sublime Degrees." 
 
 Thus, there not only is not anything in the Grand 
 Constitutions that expressly disables a Supreme Council 
 to relinquish absolutely its jurisdiction over the Symbolic 
 Degrees ; but by expression of a power to authorize the 
 establishing of Lodges of the Degrees from fow to 29, 
 there is exclusion of power to cause the creation of Sym- 
 bolic Lodges. There is a total absence of any disposi- 
 tions for conferring the Blue Degrees, or for their admin- 
 istration and government. 
 
 The Grand Constitutions legislate for the Sublime Ma- 
 sonry alone. Though their object is, in the Preamble, 
 declared to be to unite under one regimen the degrees of 
 all the Rites, in a scale of 33, naming, among those Rites, 
 " the Ancient," it could not have been imagined that the 
 Powers of the Ancient Masonry, (the English,) even in 
 Prussia, would abdicate and cause their Lodges to pass 
 under the jurisdiction of Supreme Councils. That would 
 have been the idea of a lunatic. 
 
 The Symbolic Degrees covld be made integral parts of 
 a new Rite, and they had been often made so, by substan- 
 tial changes in the work, such as Schroder, Pernetti and 
 scores of others made, by which the Degrees became 
 vehicles of theories, doctrines and vagaries of all sorts, 
 philosophical, mystical and nonsensical. A Degree so 
 specialized, for example the Apprenti Coen, became an 
 essential and indispensable part of the Rite, without 
 which it was but imperfect and a fragment. 
 
 But if the Symbolic Degrees became part of the An- 
 cient and Accepted Scottish Rite, they became so what- 
 ever they were, and those of one Rite as much as those of 
 the other. And it was never imagined that the Supreme 
 Council would supplant the Powers regularly established 
 of the Symbolic Degrees, or could gain any exclusive 
 right or title to these Degrees, or give to them any spe- 
 
10 
 
 cial form or purposes by which a special proprietorship 
 to them in that particular shape should be acquired. 
 There is, in fact, not only no power given to the Supreme 
 Councils to establish and govern Symbolic Lodges, but, 
 as we have seen, by providing only for Bodies from the 
 4th to the 29th Degree, the power to create Symbolic 
 Lodges is by implication excluded. To say that the Su- 
 preme Councils might commission persons to create 
 Bodies of the Degrees from 4 to 29 was almost to say 
 expressly that they should make no others; and if they 
 could not appoint persons to create Symbolic Lodges, 
 they could not make them at all ; for surely if they could 
 be commissioned to make the higher ones, there was no 
 reason why the power to make the lower ones could not 
 be delegated to them. They could not make those of 
 Degrees above 29, because these were reserved for the 
 action of the Supreme Councils; but there is no reserva- 
 tion as to the three lowest Degrees. 
 
 I think it is very doubtful whether the Constitutions 
 intended that the Supreme Councils should govern Sym- 
 bolic Lodges, or have anything to do with the Symbolic 
 Degrees. It was probably intended that they should 7iot 
 interfere with the Grand Lodges. And it is probably 
 the spurious Secret Constitutions that have served as war- 
 rant for the claim of power over the Symbolic Degrees. 
 
 The Rite was rather founded on the Symbolic- Degrees 
 than in part composed of them. The Inspectors-General 
 were " the Chiefs of the Sublime Masonry." It was at least 
 not essential that the Supreme Council should establish 
 and govern Symbolic Lodges. The Sublime Masonry 
 was builded on the Symbolic Masonry; but it was not 
 necessary that its government should be the government 
 of Symbolic Degrees, and it is very doubtful whether it 
 was meant to be. 
 
 There is, therefore, nothing in the Grand Constitutions 
 which incapacitates a Supreme Council to surrender to 
 other Powers the administration and government of the 
 
11 
 
 Symbolic Degrees. If the incapacity exists, it must be 
 inherent in the nature of the Body itself It is difficult 
 to see how, if it can temporarily disable itself to govern 
 certain Degrees and Bodies, it cannot do so permanently. 
 By one, it is supposed, it does not denude itself of any 
 portion of its sovereignty ; while by the other it diminishes 
 and lessens that sovereignty forever. But is it not of the 
 very essence of sovereignty to be able to part with its 
 supremacy, to permit bounds to be set to it? 
 
 A Supreme Council is sovereign, in the sense, simply, 
 that as a governing Power of the Bodies it governs, it has 
 no superior. If it has any sovereignty over ■ Degrees, it 
 has it only over those which belong to its own Rite. If 
 another Power of another Rite also governs the same 
 Degrees, neither is sovereign over them, and if one re- 
 linquishes them to the other, it parts with no portion of 
 its sovereignty. If a Power administering a number of 
 Degrees strikes some of them off, and leaves them to be 
 taken by others, it continues as sovereign as before over 
 Bodies of other Degrees. The Symbolic Degrees are not 
 the peculiar property of any Rite. They belong to all. 
 
 Undoubtedly, if there had been a Supreme Council in 
 Prussia in 1786, it would have permitted Master Masons, 
 made such under the Grand Lodge, to receive the Sublime 
 Degrees; for, of course, having no Symbolic Lodges, it 
 must have taken such Master Masons, or have had no 
 Neophytes at all. No doubt a Prussian Scottish Masonry 
 now would confine itself entirely to the Sublime Degrees, 
 beginning with the 4th. In Ireland the Supreme Coun- 
 cil has no control over the 18th, and creates no Lodges of 
 Perfection. 
 
 I think that it is entirely competent for a Supreme 
 Council to confine its government and administration 
 entirely to the Sublime Degrees; that it may relinquish all 
 control over the Symbolic Degrees for all time, and may 
 authorize the Symbolic Lodges of its obedience to form a 
 Grand Lodge; and that it may do this upon the express 
 
12 
 
 condition that the Grand Lodge shall always remain 
 strictly such, never intermeddling with the .higher De- 
 grees, or becoming part of a Grand Orient, a Body born 
 always with the elements of discord in its bosom, and an 
 infinite capacity for doing mischief. I think, also, that 
 no Body of Masons can have the least Masonic right to 
 exercise the powers, or any of the powers, of government 
 or legislation over the Bodies of any Degrees, if even one 
 Mason not invested with these Degrees is a member of 
 such governing Body ; and that a Supreme Council ought 
 to reclaim its rights over the Symbolic Degrees, if either 
 of the conditions is violated. 
 
 It is also asked whether three Lodges can form a Grand 
 Lodge for the exclusive government of themselves? 
 
 Undoubtedly ; if the Power of whose obedience they 
 are consents that they may. Without that consent they 
 cannot, because a Grand Lodge can only be formed by 
 Lodges holding valid Letters of Constitution ; and a Lodge 
 would be in a state of rebellion, and forfeit its Letters- 
 Patent, by uniting to form a Grand Lodge without such 
 consent. The act of rebellion would be equivalent to a 
 surrender of its Letters-Patent, because it would not, in 
 forming a Grand Lodge, act under these, but in defiance 
 of them. By throwing off its allegiance it would cease 
 to exist as a Lodge, and the action of its members would 
 be that of so many individual Masons, and not that of a 
 Lodge. 
 
 (Signed) ALBERT PIKE, 33°, 
 
 Sov:. Gr:. Commander. 
 
13 
 
 [-fVom the Official BuUetin of the Supreme Council for the Southern 
 Jurisdiction, Vol. Ill, jpp. 638, ff.'] 
 
 LETTER 
 
 OF 
 
 The Geand Commandeb of the Supreme Council foe the South- 
 ern Jurisdiction, U. S. A., to the GeAnd Commander 
 of the Supreme Council of Mexico. 
 
 Or.', op Washington, 
 
 1st day of Adar, A:. M:. 5638, 
 
 4th February, 1878. 
 To the M:. P:. and III:. Bro:. Alfredo Chavero, 33°, 
 
 8ov:. Gr:. Commander of the Sup.'. Council of Mexico. 
 M:. P.". III.', and Very Dear Brother : 
 
 I hear with deep regret of the rebellious disturbances 
 which have occurred in your Jurisdiction, where peace, 
 harmony, and prosperity seemed to be the fruits of the 
 wise government of your Supreme Council. We believed 
 that, from the diffusion by your efforts of the beautiful 
 and sublime teachings of the Ancient and Accepted Scot- 
 tish Rite, the greatest benefits would accrue to the Mexi- 
 can Republic; and we hoped that no feuds would arise to 
 diminish your good influences and make Masonry power- 
 less, because disunited. 
 
 But that which has now occurred among you has again 
 and again occurred elsewhere. The Supreme Council of 
 Peru has had the same ill-fortune. In that of Central 
 America the same differences have arisen. In the juris- 
 diction of Colon there has been bitter strife between the 
 Supreme Council and the Blue Lodges. In the Argen- 
 tine Republic all is turmoil and dissension. In Belgium 
 
14 
 
 the Supreme Council has found it necessary to consent to 
 the independence of the Blue Lodges. 
 
 The same causes will produce the like results every- 
 where. The BB.-. who compose the Symbolic Lodges 
 know that in England, Scotland, Ireland, the United 
 States, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, such Lodges are 
 governed by Grand Lodges, composed of their delegates. 
 They become restive and discontented under a different 
 form of government, denounce it as an aristocracy and 
 oligarchy, a self-constituted despotism, and at length 
 break out into open revolt. I think that this is absolutely 
 unavoidable. Sooner or later. Masons become discon- 
 tented with an absolute, self-perpetuating Power, com- 
 posed of but few persons, and these not bound to render 
 to any one account of their action. A sufficiently long 
 experience proves this. 
 
 Also, it proves that, when such revolt has occurred, the 
 resort to measures of force does not suppress the revolt, 
 remedy the mischief, or restore harmony. Power must 
 always, at last, yield to opinion. 
 
 We have, therefore, in like cases, heretofore advised Su- 
 preme Councils in alliance with us to frankly offer the 
 option, to all Symbolic Lodges of their obedience, of 
 continuing so, or of withdrawing from that obedience and 
 creating an independent Symbolic Grand Lodge for the 
 State, Kingdom, Empire, or Republic, between which and 
 the Supreme Council relations of amity should exist, each 
 recognizing the Lodges under the other as legitimate, and 
 the members of all entitled to mutual right of visiting. 
 
 This is, virtually, what has been done with the happiest 
 results in Hungary, Belgium, and Switzerland. In Eng- 
 land, Scotland, Ireland, the United States, and Canada, 
 the Supreme Councils do not govern Symbolic Lodges, 
 and consequently no dissensions exist. In countries where 
 the Sup.'. Councils have created and governed such Lodges, 
 there will no longer be cause for dissension, if the Lodges 
 are invested with the right to adhere to the Sup.\ Councils, 
 or create Grand Lodges, at their option. 
 
15 
 
 Men are to be governed by wise use of the motives that 
 influence them. Men of intellect and force are more act- 
 uated by the desire for dignities and offices, rank, and 
 the possession of power, than by any love of independence 
 for others as well as themselves. If a barrier is raised 
 between them and the highest places, they will never rest 
 until they break it down. When an Order becomes great 
 and its members numerous, there will be many agitators 
 and declaimers against self-constituted Power, as contrary 
 to the genius of Masonry; and these soon concentrate an 
 opinion which no such Power can long resist. 
 
 Therefore, we would not, if we could, create and govern 
 Symbolic Lodges. We know that each would soon become 
 a centre of discontent; and that the end would be our 
 own surrender of sovereignty, and their independence. 
 
 You have asked my advice, and I give it frankly, hop- 
 ing that if your Supreme Council follows it, it will find 
 an ample field for its labors in the Degrees above the 
 third, and in governing such Lodges as shall elect to ad- 
 here to it. 
 
 [From the same Vol. of the Offldal Bulletin, pp. 646,/!] 
 
 EXTRACT 
 
 FROM 
 
 Comments of the Gkand Commandbe of the Supreme Council 
 
 FOB THE Southern Jurisdiction, TJ. S. A., on Letter of 
 
 Beo.'. Victory y Suarez, of Buenos-Aires, 
 
 OF DATE April 15, 1877. 
 
 It is undeniable that the government of Symbolic 
 Lodges by Supreme Councils has almost everywhere been 
 productive of discontents, schisms, and disasters. When 
 Masons of any Degrees, and Bodies composed of them, 
 become numerous, they will not long submit to be gov- 
 erned by a small body of men not elected by themselves. 
 
16 
 
 and whose title to govern is the possession of a higher 
 Degree. Nor will a large Masonic people long consent to 
 be governed by a body of men, small in number, who 
 hold their offices for life and fill vacancies in their own 
 number. 
 
 Nor, when the Masons of the Scottish Rite become nu- 
 merous in any country, will it be a thing to be regretted, 
 if they compel the Supreme Council to change the Consti- 
 tutions, abolish the life-tenure, and constitute the govern- 
 ing body of Representatives of the Subordinate Bodies 
 elected by them for short terms. Indeed, such a change, 
 at the proper time, would be indispensable to the welfare 
 of the Order. 
 
 The change, when it does come, will go further than 
 that. A Body composed of delegates of Bodies of different 
 Degrees could not legislate for the various Bodies. A 
 Master Mason cannot lawfully, or properly, or Masonically, 
 have anything at all to do with making laws for, or gov- 
 erning, Bodies, working in Degrees of which he knows 
 nothing ; and the consequence of a radical change would 
 be, at last, the creation of separate and independent Pow- 
 ers to administer the Degrees worked by the different 
 Bodies. 
 
 Invariably, when a Supreme Council has had a hand 
 in' making that anomalous and ridiculous organization, a 
 Grand Orient, and has become a fraction of it, it has still 
 insisted on being supreme over the Degrees above the 
 third, and exercising a controlling influence in the Grand 
 Orient. The Symbolic Grand Lodge has always striven 
 to lessen and restrict the powers of the Supreme Council, 
 encroaching upon them contrary to the Constitutions if 
 necessary ; and the end has always been wrangling and 
 dissension. 
 
 The whole scheme, in all its varieties and forms and 
 devices, for governing Bodies of different Degrees, some- 
 times even of different Rites, by a Body composed of 
 Representatives of such Bodies, or by a Grand Orient 
 
17 
 
 composed of the several Powers that govern them, is at 
 war with the fundamental principles of Masonry. 
 
 A Supreme Council is nothing if not supreme. A Grand 
 Orient is an incongruous monster. A Grand Lodge, sub- 
 ordinate to any other Body, is a Grand Lodge emasculated. 
 
 The Grand Constitutions make no provision for the gov- 
 ernment of Symbolic Lodges by the Supreme Councils. When 
 they were enacted there were Grand Lodges everywhere ; 
 and it certainly was not supposed that the Grand Lodges 
 of Prussia would surrender their powers of government 
 to a Supreme Coiincil. Until recently we believed that 
 the Supreme Councils had the right to create and govern 
 Symbolic Lodges from the beginning, and that where 
 they did not exercise it, they simply refrained for the sake 
 of harmony ; but being called upon carefully to consider 
 the question, we are of the clear opinion that, upon the 
 face of the Grand Constitutions, these give no such power. 
 
 [IVom the Official Bulletin of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdic- 
 tion, Vol. V,pp.310,ff.'] 
 
 IN DEO FIDUCIA NOSTRA. 
 
 Supreme Council, 33d, A.-, and A.'. S.'. Rite of Feee- 
 
 Masoney, foe the Southern Jurisdiction of 
 
 THE United States, 
 
 218 Third Street N. W., 
 Or.-, of Washington, D. C, 5th March, 1882. 
 
 Bros.-. J. Artueo Ego-Aguirre, 33d, 
 
 and Jose M. Vivanco, 32d. 
 
 Very Dear BB.-. : It would be very unwise in me to 
 offer you and other Brethren in whose behalf you write 
 any other advice in regard to the proposed establishment 
 of a Grand Lodge in Peru, than that which should simply 
 state what would be decided by our Grand Lodges. For, 
 as our Supreme Council does not administer the Blue De- 
 
18 
 
 grees, and I am without office or authority in the Sym- 
 bolic Masonry, what I might decide in respect to its law 
 can have no weight of authority ; and our Grand Lodges 
 of the United States would look with jealous disfavor 
 upon any interference on my part in matters that belong 
 to that Masonry alone. 
 
 ^ !fC ^ '{C 'f^ 
 
 I have myself the right to say that the existence of a 
 sovereign and wholly independent Grand Lodge of Ancient 
 Symbolic Free-Masonry, composed entirely of the Masters 
 and Wardens for the time being, of the Symbolic Lodges 
 constituting it, would be perfectly consistent with the 
 existence by its side of a Supreme Council, governing 
 Bodies of the Degrees from 4 to 32 ; that I have often ex- 
 pressed the opinion that the Supreme Councils of the 
 World ought to have nothing to do with the Blue Degrees, 
 and no powers of government or administration of Sym- 
 bolic Lodges ; and that it would be wise for them to abandon 
 the pernicious system of constituting and forming parts 
 of Grand Orients ; a system invented by the Grand Orient 
 of France, and which has been the fruitful source of in- 
 finite scandals and incalculable mischief. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Regretting the troubles and dissensions that disturb 
 and distract the Free-Masonry of Peru, and hoping to see 
 by and by in that unfortunate Republic a Supreme Coun- 
 cil claiming no right or authority over the Blue Degrees, 
 and an independent Grand Lodge of Symbolic Masonry 
 working by its side and in peace and harmony with it, 
 and the fact that there ever was a Grand Orient forgotten, 
 I am, very fraternally and truly yours, 
 
 ALBERT PIKE, 33°. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 HS774.A4 P63 
 
 Letterls) of the Gra 
 
 ter(! 
 
 li 
 
 nd Commander of the 
 
 3 1924 030 335 594 
 olin.anx