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Women Considered for Admission

 

(MASONRY). (VERMONT). Masonic Orations (Two Unpublished Speeches). Woodstock, [Vt.?] 1820 (57 pp.) and 1823 (45 pp.). 6.5 x 7.5 inches. Hand tied, no cover. Previous fold, pages browned. Legible ink. $1,250.00

 

     Early speeches given by a Freemason, likely in Woodstock, Vermont. The 1820 oration delivered at the Woodstock Lodge commemorates the anniversary of the birth of John the Baptist. The writer, obviously well educated, goes on to describe the history and principal divisions of Free Masonry and states that it is a ?��progressive science?�� with origins ranging from Pythagoras to a secondary order of chivalry during the crusades to the Jesuits. The order is characterized, according to the writer, with standard principles of faith, hope, and charity, as well as love and friendship. Objections to Masonry are also discussed and even the pros and cons of admitting women.

     The 1823 oration appears to be in the same hand. References are made to nine degrees of Masonry and its guiding principles. ?��Royal Arch masonry took its rise from building the 2nd temple...[which] was erected by Zerubabbel after the return of the jews from a long captivity of 70 years in Babylon.?�� The author exhorts his fellow lodge brothers to practice various virtues, including temperance, and brotherly love.

     Titus Hutchinson (1771-1857), Princeton graduate, jurist, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, delivered a similar oration at Woodstock, Vermont, in 1809, which was published. We have been unable to establish an author for these later orations, but it is possible it was Hutchinson.

     The book Ancient Craft Masonry in Vermont, by Lee Stephen Tillotson (published in 1920) states that there are few records of Masonic speeches for this early period.