En: Albert Pike: Freemasonry in the Civil War
Freemasonry in the Civil War
by Albert Pike
Source: Phoenixmasonry
Published in The Builder Magazine
May 1930 - Volume XVI - Number 5
At the Triennial Convention of the General Grand Chapter held in St. Louis, September, 1868, a banquet was held in the new Masonic Hall on Tuesday evening, the 15th with 320 guests present. During the program of speeches there were many loud calls for Albert Pike, who finally arose, amid a thunderous applause, and delivered an impassioned speech about the record of the Craft during the Civil War. His address was doubly significant; first, in view of the fact that he had himself been an officer in the Confederate Army, and secondly that his being called upon was a gesture of friendship as between the North and the South. Surely it is a matter for just pride that our Fraternity was the first in the field to heal over the wounds of that internecine strife.
Companions! Have you ever realized until now, as fully as you do now realize it, the true meaning of that word, Companion? We generally think that, while we call a Master Mason Brother, we only call a Royal Arch Mason Companion, which simply means one associated with us, perhaps for the day, in the day's work; from whom we separate at night without a care whether we shall see him on the next day or not, or into whatever paths fortune may take us on the next morning. Is that the meaning that Masonry attaches to the meaning of the word Companion? If that is the meaning, if that has been the meaning that you and I, and the rest of us, have heretofore given to the word Companion, it seems to me that tonight, in this glorious assemblage, the Royal Arch Masons from all the States and Territories of this great Union, must have learned that there is a different meaning to the word Companion from that which we have heretofore attached to it.
When she whom we love, when she whom we loved in our youth placed her little hand in ours, and at the altar, in the presence of the minister of God, pledged her faith to us that she would love, honor and obey us all our life, she became our companion through the thorny ways of life. When out in the great desert, through which now the steamhorse is carrying the blessings of civilization to the extreme West, thirty odd years ago, when I clasped hands with a bosom friend on that prairie, when my life was in his hand and his life in my hand, and we were there together, hand in hand and heart to heart, depending on one another, almost alone in the world, he was my companion, as Masons should be companions to one another in the dark days of trouble. Ah ! shame upon the Mason, shame upon the Mason who could go away from such an assemblage as this, and carry in his heart one single feeling of malice or ill will to any worthy and true Mason in the world. Shame upon the man who, after coming here and seeing these intelligent faces, these faces that will put to shame the Legislatures of two thirds of the States of the Union, the seeing these faces, that would put to shame two thirds of the Parliament of England and of the Congress of the United States; shame upon the man who recollects that here, in this hall, are assembled the representatives of the States of this great Union of States, that not long ago were disbanded by the convulsions of civil war, during which the bonds of the Masonic Fraternity were not weakened, thank God, and seeing us met here again as Brothers; not coldly welcomed, when we have clasped hands with you here, on your own soil, west of the Mississippi; not coldly received, as some of us feared, perhaps, that we might be; but when in every Northern face we meet a smile of glad welcome and rejoicing as we once more clasp hands together; shame on the man who can carry away from this assemblage one single unholy feeling that should not belong to a pure Masonic heart. God pity the man who will not here lay on the altar of Masonry every feeling of rivalry, every feeling of ambition, every feeling of ill-will in his heart toward his Brother Mason; no matter what rite you believe, at what altar of Freemasonry you worship, Freemasonry is one faith, one great religion, one great common altar, around which all men of all tongues and all languages can assemble; in which there can be no rivalry, except a noble emulation of rites, orders, and degrees, which can best work and best agree.
In the Name of All humanity!
My brethren, how can I return you my thanks? Shall I return them in my own name, because you have so highly honored me as to call upon me again and again to address you ? No. I know the compliment was not paid to me alone. I know it was but an expression of the Masonic love and regard and affection that you of the Northern States feel toward the brethren whom you think erred in the late civil war, but toward whom you maintained, through that war, those feelings of charity, Masonic kindness, love and affection, that become Masons to entertain toward one another in the convulsions of civil war. Shall I thank you in the name of my State ? Shall I thank you in the name of Tennessee ? Shall I thank you in the name of the whole South? No thanks that the South could return to you, if the South had authorized me to speak on behalf of the whole body of Masons in the South, with my single tongue, could adequately express the thanks you deserve for the kindness you have shown on this occasion. I return you the thanks of universal humanity. I return to you - and this nation ought to return to you - thanks for teaching them the great lesson, that brethren of a common country, with the same blood flowing in their veins, may fight a desperate and bloody war for years; may expose their lives breast to breast, in supporting that which they believed to be right - a portion supporting the rights of States as they understood them, and the other portion supporting the glorious old flag - the stars and stripes; that through it all, thank God, Masonry has furnished an example of charity and toleration, that shall teach the men of the South to respect the men of the North for fighting for what they believed to be right, and shall also teach the men of the North to respect the men of the South for fighting for what they believed to be right in regard to their States.
At any rate, whether they have that charity or not - whether they believe they were honest or not - they shall at least have charity to forgive their Brother, though he offend against them ninety and nine times. I thank God, my brethren, that the news of this great assemblage will go over the whole world; that it will not, as it ought not, be confined here in our own country, but that the cry shall go over the whole world, to the honor of Masonry, that after a long and bloody and devastating civil war - when, having come away fresh from our ruined homes and impoverished communities among a people who were triumphant over us, we have come here and trusted to your magnanimity, because it is the loser that can afford to be magnanimous more than the winner. And that we have been met with open arms, with no coldness or reservation, as Masons ought to meet; and if there was a latent, lurking, hidden ill-feeling, in the bosoms of any of us, that right here now we should all take the oath, and I propose to you to take it - that we swear that we will bury all feelings here under the altar of Masonry; that we here sacrifice upon the altar of Masonry all feelings of ill-will, jealousy, and rivalry, and ambition, within Masonry and without; and, moreover, that we will hereafter, by our lives, conversations, or teachings, make Masonry a great power in this world; that we will show mankind that we have intellect, learning, power and might, to make Masonry a great power for the benefit of the human race; and Masonry will never be true to her mission till we all join hands - heart to heart and hand to hand - around the altar of Masonry, with a determination that Masonry shall become, at some time, worthy of her pretensions; no longer a pretender to that which is good, but that she shall be an apostle of peace, good- will, and charity, and toleration.
