STB-96-07
HOUSE REUNITED
By: Allen E. Roberts
Bro. Roberts is a member and Past Master
of Babcock Lodge #322 of Highland
Springs, VA. He is a Noted Masonic writer
and historian. Bro. Roberts has several
books to his credit including House
Undivided, Brother Truman, and Free
Masonry in American History.
His writings have earned him the title
"fellow" in five Research Lodges.
This STB is an excerpt from his new book
by the same title. House Reunited. Please
see page 8 for ordering instructions.
Editor
The merciful role Freemasonry was to
play during the bitter years of reconstruction
started on the day Confederate General
Robert E. Lee was; forced to evacuate the
trenches in front of Petersburg, Virginia.
Union General Godfrey Weitzel, a
Freemason, marched his troops into
Richmond. Virginia, the Confederate capital,
and immediately eased the minds of the
inhabitants.
The General ordered his troops to fight the
fires which had been set by the fleeing
Confederates; Federal soldiers were used to
subdue the rioting and looting mobs; the
homes of women whose husbands were
fighting with Southern troops had guards
placed about them. Most important of all,
Weitzel, on his own initiative, ordered food
rushed to the starving city.
Major A.H. Stevens, General Weitzel's
provost marshal, a member of Putnam
Lodge in Massachusetts, placed Union soldiers
about Masons; Hall, the home of the
Grand Lodge of Virginia, (today, the oldest
Masonic building in the country) to save it
from looting and destruction by the unruly
mobs. He went even further and used his
men to protect the homes of many
Richmond Freemasons.
The charitable acts of the Freemasons
who captured the capital city of the
Confederacy were talked about throughout
the South. They helped soothe the pangs of
surrender and undoubtedly caused many
Southerners to cease fighting earlier than
would have been the case if the inhabitants
of Richmond had been treated brutally.
The Army of Northern Virginia, under the
command of General Robert E. Lee, surrendered
on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox
Court House. On the 10th, Lee bid his
command a sorrowful farewell and left for his
home in Richmond. Ulysses S. Grant, the
Union commander, left for Washington,
leaving behind the Freemasons from Maine,
General Joshua L. Chamberlain, to accept
the surrender of the Confederate forces.
Chamberlain turned what could have been
humiliation for the Southerners into something they could recall with pride. As the
Confederate soldiers marched to stack their
weapons, the general ordered his men to
give the conquered soldiers a full military
salute!
Chamberlain's brotherly act, a Masonic
trait, was remembered and talked about
wherever the former soldiers of Lee's army
traveled. The South learned there were men
who were not vindictive, but were ready to
lend a helping hand whenever possible.
Unfortunately, there were men who could
not and would not forgive the citizens of
the states that had seceded from the union
of states. There were many who believed
the states of the former Confederacy should
be punished. A War had been fought on the
principle that no state had the lawful right
to withdraw from the Union. But when the
war ended, many of those who had pro-
claimed that principle refused to let the
seceding states return to their former status.
Abraham Lincoln, before his cowardly
murder, made it clear that he believed the
best course for the Federal Government to
Prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1861
Andrew Johnson (now president) sought to
prevent a "civil" war.
In spite of the efforts of Johnson and many
other Freemasons, in and out of Congress,
some of the Southern states seceded. The
way was paved for the outbreak of civil
war. And throughout the Civil War,
Freemasonry did its best to ease the pangs
of hatred and misery. When the war ended
it was Masonry and individual Freemasons
who appeared to work the hardest to reunite
the un-united states; to make the period of
readjustment one of restoration rather than
the "reconstruction" it turned out to be.
While the politicians, most of the newspapers
in the country, and many clergymen
were laying the groundwork that would
give the country a decade of anti-masonic
bitterness, Grand Lodges and Grand
Chapters throughout the United States were
asking for a cessation of all hostilities. The
words of William F. Jefferys of the Grand
Chapter of New Jersey are typical:
"Freemasonry has now to perform its great
mission in this country which is to 'spread
the cement of Brotherly Love and Union.'
We believe there is a Divine Providence in
the fact that our Order is at this time so
powerful and numerous, for its influence in
the present crisis must prove most salutary."
Albert G. Mackey, General Grand High
Priest, told his companions, Freemasonry
had done "more than any other organization
of men towards ameliorating the horrors
and inhumanity of war." He went on to
add "But although there is no longer a battle
of arms, dissensions still exist. Bitter
feeling is not altogether allayed./ Some men
will remember the past with revengeful or
unforgiving thought." He called upon
Freemasonry to beseech men to "lay aside
all bitter animosity, to remember that they
have a common language... It is our duty
when hatred lingers in the land to seek to
overcome that hatred with love.
The Grand Master of Masons in Georgia,
John Harris, called upon his members to
"meliorate the condition of our fellow-men,
to relieve the distressed and needy, to wipe
away the widow's tears support the orphan
and relieve the distressed from want and
destitution."
It was a large order Harris was asking his
members to undertake. the Grand Lodge of
Georgia was almost bankrupt, as were
all the Masonic bodies in the former
Confederate States. Their bonds were
worthless; many of their farms and homes
had been destroyed; money was practically
non-existent, and there were few ways to
earn a living. The majority of the Grand
and Subordinate Lodges reported
zero balances in their bank accounts.
But Freemasonry proved its universality.
The more prosperous Northern and Western
Lodges sent money and supplies to the
Freemasons of the South; and they were
happy to help. C W Nash, Grand Master in
Minnesota, reported the dire need of
Freemasons in the south. He asked his
members to aid them and concluded with;
"in the spirit of Masonry, forgive the errors
of the past, remembering that to forget is
noble, to forgive is divine; that indiscretion in
them should not destroy humanity in us."
Those present contributed $2,292.65
Such acts of kindness did more than will
ever he known to eventually cement the
country together again. The thanks
expressed by the Grand Master of
Alabama, Wilson Williams typical of
what the South had to say. He reminded his;
members that when the war had ended they
were powerless to aid the needy, but "the
voice of cheer" from Northern Masons
brightened their lives. "They bid us welcome
to their hearts and give of their substance
to relieve our necessities....By it the
gulf of strife is bridged over, and we enter
a land of peace and harmony."
Masonic acts were helping to ease the bitter
pangs of war, but political acts were
keeping the sections apart. The shooting
war had ended; a new war, a war of words,
had taken its place. Referring to those who
did not want the Southern States returned to
the Union, President Johnson stated:
"Before our brave men have scarcely
returned to their homes to renew the ties of
affection and love, we find ourselves
almost in the midst of another rebellion."
Freemasonry was to have an uphill battle
during the decade of reconstruction. Could
it win by patiently practicing its tenets and
teachings'?
We have reason to be thankful that
our lives and health have been spared
amid the chances and changes of these of the
stormy period it has been our lot to witness, and for the generally increasing
harmony and prosperity which seem to
prevail throughout the nation. And
here I feel again justified in referring to
our beloved institution, by saying that
to Freemasonry the people of the Counttry are indebted for many mitigations
of the sufferings caused by the direful
passions of war.
Gen. John W. Geary
Governor of Pennsylvania
House Reunited
by Allen Roberts
is available through
The Masonic Service Association
8120 Fenton St
Silver Spring MD 20910-4785
Cost: $3.50 each (PPD)
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