Preface

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A TEXT BOOK
MASONIC JURISPRUDENCE;
ILLUSTRATING THE
WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN LAWS
OF
FKEEMASONKY.
ALBERT G. MACKBT, M. D.,
AUTHOR OF A "LEXICON OF FREEMASONRY," "BOOK OF THE CHAPTER," ETC.
"I have applied myself, not to that which might seem most for the osten- tation of mine own wit or knowledge, but to that which may yield most use and profit to the student." — Lord Bacon
NEW YORK:
MACOY & SICKELS, PUBLISHERS,
430 BROOME STREET
18 65.
Entereo according to act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
ALBERT G. MACKEY,
In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of South Carolina,
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TO THE
HON. JOHN L. LEWIS, Jr.,
GRAND- MASTER OF MASONS OF NEW YORK;
| §n\mU ttt ma,
AS TO ONE
WHOSE LEGAL AND MASONIC ATTAINMENTS WILL ENABLE HE8 TO CRITICALLY JUDGE OF ITS MERITS,
WHOSE KINDNESS OF HEART WILL LEAD HIM TO GENEROUSLY PARDON ITS DEFECTS.
PREFACE
Four years ago I wrote, and soon after published, a treatise on the " Principles of Masonic Law," which was received by the Fraternity with a readiness that convinced me I had not miscalculated the necessity of such a work. In the composition of it I was entering upon a field of Masonic Literature which had, up to that time, been traversed by no other writer. There was, it is true, an abundance of authorities scattered over thousands of pages of Grand Lodge Proceedings, and contained in the obiter dicta of Grand Masters' Addresses, and the reports of Committees on Foreign Correspondence. But these authorities were often of a conflicting character, and as often were repugnant to my sense of justice, and to the views I had long entertained of the spirit of equity and reason which pervaded the Masonic Institution. Hence, while re- ceiving much information on various points of Masonic Law, from the writings of distinguished brethren, in different jurisdictions, I was repeatedly constrained to regret that there was no standard of authority by which I might be guided in doubtful cases, and that, with every disposition to stand upon the old ways — ■
Vlll PREFACE.
stare super vias antiquas — I was unable to discover any safe beacon to guide me in my search after these ancient ways. I was, therefore, compelled, in most cases, to depend upon my own judgment, and to draw my conclusions as to what was Masonic Law, not from precedent, or usage, or authoritative statutes, but from the deductions of common sense and the analogies of the municipal and civil law, and the customs of other institutions.
It is not, therefore, surprising that in this dearth of light — myself being the humble pioneer in the attempt to reduce the principles of Masonic Law to a sys- tematic science — with no books to guide — no prece- dents, in repeated instances, to direct me — I should, sometimes, have wandered from the true path, and erred in judgment. My errors were, it is true, con- scientiously committed. I gave all the talent, the experience and the legal skill that I had, to the inves- tigation of every question that lay before me — and my mistakes were those, in most cases, inseparable from the condition of the subject I was treating, and from the first attempt to give systematic form to a new science.
But subsequent years of enlarged experience and more extensive research, directed with all the energy I possessed, to the correction of errors, and the review of former opinions, have led me to offer to the Masonic World that result of my labors which is embodied in the following pages.
PREFACE. IS
If I had been consulted on the subject, another edi- tion of the " Principles of Masonic Law," which was first published in .1856, would never have been given to the world ; at least, it should not have been sent forth without a diligent correction of those opinions in it, which I now believe to be erroneous. As it now appears, it is not, in every part, a just representation of my views. But the control of the book is not in my hands, and all that I can now do— and I ask this as an act of justice to myself — is to request my breth- ren, when they shall hereafter honor me by citing my opinions on Masonic Lav/, to look for those amended views, in this, my latest work, in which I have not felt any shame in correcting the immature theories, in many points, of my earlier labor. There is no dis- honor in acknowledging a mistake — there is much, in obstinately persisting in it.
I do not suppose that I shall ever write another work on Masonic Law. Of all Masonic literature it is the most tedious in its details — in the task of composition, the most laborious ; and while I have sought, by the utmost care, to make the present treatise one worthy of the Fraternity, for whom I have written it, and to whom I am profoundly grateful for their uniform kind ness to me, I shall gladly turn, henceforward, to the more congenial employment of investigating the sym bols and the religious teachings of the Order.
ALBERT G. MACKEY, M. D.
Charleston . S. C, April, 1859. 1*