How Degrees Were Planted And Took Root In America.

tho mysteries of Masonry . And , whereas , we , the subscribers to theso presents , are by regular succession possessors of all the rights , privileges and immunities and powers vested in any way whatsover in the said Grand Council of Select Masons , considering the great advantages

that would accrue to tho Craft iu an extension of the knowledge of the Royal Secret as introductory to , and necessary for , the better understanding of the Superior Decrees . "

This is followed by a form of a warrant " to open and to hold a Chapter of Select Masons in the city of Baltimore . " Blank spaces are left to be filled in with the names of the Officers , and next , there are five bye-laws , with blank spaces

before " Dollars , " ancl it winds up thus : — " In testimony whereof we have signed our / * " N names and affixed the Seal of the Grand ( g , \ Council , this—[ I suppose " THIS "—was to I ' ' / be followed with a date ] . "

V y PHIL . P . ECKEL . ^ ~* H . NILES . We see now , thafc Messrs . Eckel and Niles did not receive a warrant from Wilmans to establish Councils , but merely claimed a right to do so by virtue of succession , or , in other words , by inheritance : they claimed that Wilmans

established a Council , and they succeeded to all his powers at his death or retirement , and this claim seems to have been doubted by Bro . Stapleton . According to information I received from Bro . Schultz it is evident that the above

document was written some years before Eckel and Niles signed it . Bro . Schultz says , tbat " It was written in good clear handwriting , although the ink is somewhat faded ; but , ' in testimony whereof' as well as the two

signatures , the ink is blacker . " He has , however , no doubt that the signatures are genuine . But when it was written and by whom , and when Messrs . Eckel and Niles signed it , ancl why they signed it , I was nnable to learn . Bro . Schultz further says :

" By virtue of the powers claimed to have been received from Eckel and Niles , Cross established some thirty-three Councils in various parts of the United States , he also

delegated his powers to others , who in a like manner issued Warrants for Councils of Royal and Select Masters . It is said that as hio * h a sum as one hundred dollars was

demanded for a Warrant . " The fact is with Cross Masonry was a money-making business , and he accumulated enough money to live upon his income some time before he died . Bufc what of that ?

Dr . Wilson , Judge Burt , Rob Morris , ancl even Albert Pike , are now doing precisely what Cross did then . And as long as Masonic noodles hunger for more degrees , there will' always be in our midst degree manufacturers and warrant sellers .

. But where did the " distinguished chief of Maryland " obtain his supposed high powers ? This question Bro . Schultz cannot answer , and he says : — " The name of Wilmans does not appear upon any

register or document in the archives of the Supreme Council of the Southern jurisdiction , or upon any other known document or record containing the names of the early Inspectors . From the fact that in both the

documents he is styled ' Grand Inspector General , ' while those deriving their powers from Morin are styled ' Deputy Inspectors , ' led to the supposition that he might have

derived his powers from Europe . . . Letters were addressed to the Grand Lodges of Berlin and Bremen . [ but ] nothing in regard to his Masonic character could be learned . "

This much , however , has been learned about Wilmans , viz ., he was a native of Bremen , ancl settled in Baltimore as early at least as 1790 . In 1793 he was Master of a new

Lodge , the same year he was elected D . G . M ., the next year G . M ., and he died in 1795 . I will add , that Eckel was a member in 1793 of the new Lodge of which Wilmans was the firsfc Master .

Bro . Holbrook , of South Carolina , claims the honour of •motherhood of the Royal ancl Select degrees for Charleston , in his State . Thus , in a MS . book written by Holbrook in 1829 , he stated thafc Joseph Myers , Deputy Inspector

General , deposited in 1788 in the archives of the Grancl Council of the Princes of Jerusalem at Charleston , a certified copy of the Royal and Select degrees received from Berlin .

Now , Holbrook was probably an infatuated high degreer , and his statements may not be reliable ; hence , I do not believe that Myers received the said degrees from Berlin . We

How Degrees Were Planted And Took Root In America.

know , however , that in those days Charleston was famous for manufacturing all kinds of Masonic degrees ; the Charleston luminaries even manufactured a warrant for 33 decrees , eterht of which were bran new ones , which

they pretended to have received from Frederick the Great of Berlin ; and there are foolish Masons living to-day , both hero and in England , who would swear to the genuineness

of the Frederic fche Great Charter . It is no wonder , therefore , that in 1829 Holbrook believed that the Royal and Select des-rees also came from Berlin . But a letter of

Dalcho , written in 1802 , shows that the Select degree at least was a Charleston invention , and may be the Royal was also . Dalcho says : " Besides those degrees , which are in regular succession ,

most of the Inspectors are in possession of a number of detached degrees given in different parts of the world , and which they generally communicate , free of expense , to those brethren who are high enough to understand them ,

such as Select Masons of 27 , and the Royal Arch , as given under the Constitution of Dublin . Six degrees of Maconnerie d'Adoption , Corapagnon Ecossois , De Maifcre Ecossois , and Grand Le Maitre Ecossois , & c , & c , making in the aggregate 52 degrees . "

We see now that while in 1762 the Charlestonians had but twenty-five degrees , in 1802 they bad fifty-two , among which was the " Select " df gree . Ifc is possible that the Royal degree may have also originated m Charleston ; but during the first two decades of this

century New York swarmed witb degree manufacturers , and as the Royal degree made its first public appearance in New York before 1810 , it is not impossible that the Royal degrees' origin was in New York . We have seen that up to 1819 Cross gave warrants for

the Select degree only . After 1819 he gave warrants for the Royal and Select degrees . Since then , however , a degree called " Super Excellent Master " was tacked on to the " Royal and Select . " For some years the following order was observed in conferring the said degrees . Select , 1 st ; Royal , 2 nd ; and Super Excellent , 3 rd . But

about six years ago it was discovered that the Royal should be conferred before the Select , ancl the routine has been changed accordingly . I must further add , thafc between the Master Mason and Royal Arch , three degrees

are here given , one of which is called " Mosfc Excellent Master . " I always supposed that " Most Excellent" and " Super Excellent " were much of a muchness . I have , however , been assured that the Super Excellent degree " is a horse of another colour . "

BOSTON , U . S ., 31 sfc July 1885 . P . S . —I have just received a letter from Bro . Schultz , in which he says :

" It is impossible to know defininifcely afc this day who is meant by the - distinguished chief' in the address of Stapleton . I have often puzzled over the matter , and my

conclusions are about ; the same as yours , that Wilmans is the person referred to . And yet Dove uses the same term , * distinguished chief ; ' and evidently , I think he there refers to Eckel . "

Undoubtedly , Dove referred to Eckel , otherwise he would not have said that , in 1824 , " when the G . Chapter of Maryland , with his consent took charge of the degrees . " Now

Wilmans died in 1805 , bufc Eckel lived until 1831 . If therefore it referred to either , it must have been Eckel . Mackey also supposed the " distinguished chief" referred to Eckel . It is evident , however , that neither Dove nor Mackey knew about Eckel ' s claim to have received the degree from

Wilmans , but Stapleton did know it , and did not behove it . Hence , his saying , " by the creation of an independent order never contemplated by them , " could not have referred to Eckel and Niles , because the warrant to Cross

proves that they did contemplate the creation of an independent order . Hence , the word " them" must have meant some other party , from whom Eckel ancl Niles received , the Select degree . J . N .

HOLLOW-AY ' S OtJfTiiExr AND PILLS arc the beal , tho cheapest , and the most popular remedies . At all seasons and under all circumstances they may ho used with safety and with the certainty of doing good . Eruptions , rashes , and all descriptions ' of skin diseases , sores , ulcerations , and burns , are presently benefited and ultimately cured by these healing , soothing , and purifying

medicaments . The Ointment ., rubbed upou the abdomen , checks all tendency to irritation of the bowels , and averts dysentery and other disorders of the intestines . Pimples , blotches , inflammations of the skin , muscular pnins , neuralgic affections , and enlarged glnnds can be effectively orereo'no by using Holloway ' s remedies according to the " instractkraa'' accompanying each packet .