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Freemasonry I the Evolution of Democracy in Canada
By: Wallace McLeod, FPS
Wallace E. McLeod is Professor Emeritus of Classics at Victoria College in the
University of Toronto in Canada. He earned his PhD at Harvard. His writings are
numerous, specializing in the Old Charges of Freemasonry. His books include The
Grand Design. He is a Past Master of Mizpah Lodge, Ontario; Past Master of
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, England; Past Grand Senior Warden; a Past President and
Fellow of The Philalethes Society.
(This STB was extracted from the book Freemasonry & Democracy: Its Evolution in
North America. )
There is a vast field of research called "Constitutional History," which, among
other things, lets us trace the steps leading to democracy in the
English-speaking world. These include such items as the Great Charter (1215),
which asserted the supremacy of the law, even over the chief of state; the
Petition of Right (1628), which prohibited taxation without Parliament's
consent; the Habeas Corpus Act (1679), which prevented imprisonment without due
cause; the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience (1687), which gave freedom to
all religious denominations; and the Bill of Rights (1689), which made it
illegal to make or suspend any law without the consent of Parliament. These all
antedate the formation of modern Freemasonry, but in one form or another, they
were all brought to North America by British settlers even though the power of
such laws may have been diluted by the fact that the people were no longer in
the homeland.
It is possible that the Freemasons may have had some effect on the growth of
democracy. In the first book of The Constitutions of the Free-Masons, published
in 1723, James Anderson gives "The Charges of a Freemason, extracted from The
ancient Records of Lodges," and there we read that "all Masons are as Brethren
upon the same level' (page 55). This has sometimes been interpreted as
expressing the idea that all men are created equal. A few pages later, Anderson
also quotes the General Regulations, as Grand Lodge approved them in 1721. One
rule runs as follows. "All Matters are to be determined in the Grand Lodge by a
Majority of Votes, each Member having one Vote, and the Grand Master having two
Votes" (page 61).
This regulation explicitly specifies equal votes for all members (except the
presiding officer), and to that extent it embodies the principle of equality.
And being promulgated in the Freemasons' law-code of 1721, it long antedated any
notion of universal suffrage in the politics of the "profane" world. One might
well imagine that, over the course of time, those who belonged to Masonic
organizations with rules like this would assimilate, and perhaps generalize,
such an ideal. This might affect their attitude to authoritarian actions on the
part of government. But we know that, from time to time, particularly in the
colonies, the British Parliament seems to have imposed certain measures that
were not supported by the people. In the circumstances, it might be tempting to
conclude that the Freemasons would be leaders in the struggle for democracy.
In fact, we have seen their role in the Constitutional Conference that was held
in Philadelphia in 1787. But further north, in Canada, over the course of time
they were also associated with similar changes, even though there was never any
such constitutional conference. (One must remember that the area now called
Canada consisted of a number of separate British colonies until 1867).
On March 13, 1738, Major Erasmus James Philips was warranted from Boston as the
first Provincial Grand Master of Nova Scotia; he was the nephew of the Governor
of the colony, Colonel Richard Philips. The first lodge in what is now Canada
was instituted at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, in June 1738, under the
authority of the Provincial Grand Master.
Quebec became British with the Battle on the Plains of Abraham on September 13,
1759, when an army under the command of General James Wolfe defeated the French;
and, as W. R. Denslow notes, "it is claimed that Wolfe was a member of Minden
Military Lodge." A scant ten weeks after the battle, on November 28, six
military lodges in Wolfe's army formed the Provincial Grand Lodge of Quebec. It
eventually began to institute civilian lodges in the area under its
jurisdiction. This Provincial Grand Lodge and its successors were the chief
agents that helped Masonry to expand to the west.
Of course in the American War of Independence there were Masons on both sides.
The earliest Masonic record in what is now Ontario is the certificate, dated
February 11, 1780, of Henry Nelles, a New Yorker, who was initiated in the lodge
in the 8th or King's Own Regiment of Foot, No 5 on the Provincial Register of
Quebec. After the Revolution many of those on the losing side migrated north to
Canada. More than 30,000 moved to the Atlantic colonies, 2000 settled in Quebec,
and 7500 came to what is now Ontario.
These Loyalists included many Freemasons who had fought on the British side.
Thomas Merritt (1759-1842),"comet of cavalry" in the Queen's Rangers, and
eventually Sheriff of Lincoln County, was first Master of St George's, No 27, St
Catharines, in 1816. Colonel John Butler (1725-1796), who organized Butler's
Rangers during the Revolution, was Provincial Grand Senior Warden in 1795. Major
James Rogers (1726?-1792), of Rogers' Rangers, is on record as Master of St
James', No 14, at Cataraqui (Kingston) in 1781. Major Edward Jessup Jr
(1735-1816), commander of the Loyal Rangers or Jessup's Corps, was first Senior
Warden of Lodge No 13, Elizabethtown (near Brockville), in 1799. Major Peter Van
Alstine (17471811), of Cuyler's Corps, led the refugees who settled at
Adolphustown in 1784; he was Master of St James', No 7, Fredericksburg, in 1797.
Stephen Jarvis (1756-1840), a Loyalist from Connecticut who eventually became
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada,
was a charter member of St Andrew's, No I, York (Toronto) in 1822. (Perhaps we
should add here that Upper Canada is the old name for Ontario, and Lower Canada
corresponds to what is now the Province of Quebec.) Colonel Joseph Ryerson
(1761-1854), who fought in the Prince of Wales Regiment, was Master of Lodge No
22, Charlotteville (Long Point), when it was organized in 1803. Joseph Brant, or
Thayendanegea (1742-1807), Principal Chief of the Six Nations Indians, had been
initiated in Lodge No 417 on the English Register (Moderns), which met at "The
Falcon," Princes Street, Leicester Fields, London, in 1776, and served as the
first Master of Lodge No 11, Mohawk Village (near Brantford), in 1798. And these
are but a sample. About each of them, a lot more could obviously be said. People
such as these will have played a pivotal role in the continued evolution of
democracy.
Canada still honors a group of men known as the Fathers of Confederation. They
met several times in 1864, and carried out the negotiations that eventually led
to the British North America Act. By its terms, the Dominion of Canada came into
existence on July 1, 1867, as a self-governing country in the British
Commonwealth of Nations. (Strange to relate, its Constitution still remained in
Britain until 1982, even though the British government was not permitted to
amend it.) Only two of the original Fathers of Confederation have so far been
identified as Freemasons: Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-1891), the first Prime
Minister of Canada, and Sir Alexander Campbell ( 1822-1892), Commissioner of
Crown Lands, who eventually became Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. By a curious
coincidence, both of them had been initiated in St John's Lodge, No 5, Kingston,
in the same year, 1844. (In 1948 Newfoundland became a part of Canada. The man
responsible for this is sometimes called the last Father of Confederation. He
was Joseph R. Smallwood [19001991] , a member of Northcliffe Lodge, No 1086
under the Scottish Constitution, Grand Falls, Newfoundland.)
In 1870, during Bro. Macdonald's leadership, the great Northwest became a part
of Canada. In order to preserve order, a military force was sent from Ontario to
Winnipeg, and on November 21, 1870, nine of these soldiers received a
dispensation to form the oldest surviving lodge in Manitoba. As settlement
progressed westward across the prairies, Freemasonry reached Saskatchewan in
1879, and Alberta in 1882.
On February 15, 1965, after prolonged debate, a distinctively Canadian flag,
with the Maple Leaf, was adopted, to take the place of the so-called Red Ensign.
The prime mover in this discussion was the Honourable John Ross Matheson, who had
been initiated in Queen's Lodge, No 578, Kingston, in 1940.
From its very inception, modern Freemasonry has fostered an atmosphere of
freedom and equality. In short we find, as we have found elsewhere, that even
though the history of the evolution of democracy was quite different in Canada,
Freemasons did play a substantial part in that evolution.
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