Constitution defines its powers in clear and unmistakable language:

"In it alone is vested the right, which it cannot delegate, to superintend and govern all Encampments of Knights Templars, and the appendant Orders within this jurisdiction.

"It has exclusive power to grant Dispensations and Warrants for forming and opening Encampments of the above Orders, and to extend or revoke the

same.

"It enacts statutes, and issues edicts, and amends and repeals the same. "It censures, suspends, and erases Councils and Encampments, and any of their members, for violation or neglect of its statutes and edicts.

"It has supreme authority, throughout its jurisdiction, in all matters pertaining to Templar Masonry, subject only to the Ancient Landmarks of the Order."— Art. I., Sect. 2.

Its government to-day is the same as in 1823, when its Constitution was amended to conform to that of the General Grand Encampment. It has a direct personal claim upon each of its members, and each of its subordinates, who derive their chartered existence from it. It is nearer to us than the Grand Encampment of the United States, and stands between us and it. Its sovereign power impresses itself upon us, so long as we remain within its jurisdiction. The traditions of our fathers in this Grand Body handed down to us teach that our first and paramount duty is here. Substantially this I believe to be the opinion of the Most Eminent Grand Master, Sir B. B. French, as gathered from reading with care his address before Boston Encampment, above alluded to.

Let me briefly state in what this Grand Encampment differs from the constitutional requirements of the Grand Encampment of the United States.

I. The style of this Grand Body, with us, is the "Grand Encampment," instead of "Grand Commandery."

II. The style of our subordinates is "Encampments," instead of "Commanderies."

III. We give the title of "Most Eminent Grand Master" to the presiding officer of this Grand Encampment, instead of "Right Eminent Grand Commander;" to the Deputy, "Right Eminent," instead of "Very Eminent;" and "Right Eminent" to the other

Grand Officers, instead of "Eminent." To the Commander of a subordinate, we give the old title of "Most Eminent Grand Commander."

IV. We confer the Order of Malta as one of the appendant Orders of the Temple. The Constitution of the Grand Encampment of the United States in terms forbids this.

I am not aware that any argument has been adduced against the change in official titles, unless this, that it is a matter entirely within the control of this Grand Body; and also that it is of no practical consequence whether we change the titles or not; that it is no violation of the spirit of the Constitution of the Grand Encampment of the United States to refuse to conform to this provision, inasmuch as it affects none of the essentials of Templar Masonry; that, at most, it is but a matter of taste, which the State Grand Bodies can treat as they please.

The change from Encampment to Commandery meets with an entirely different opposition. The subordinate Encampments contend that this change would deprive them of their Charters, Seals, and even of their Banners, under which the older Bodies, in the dark days of our Order, have fought, and triumphed over their enemies. Independent of the great expense attending the change, they argue that it compels them to part with those things which are most dear to them; that their Charters and Seals and Banners, bearing the name of Encampment, possess, to them, charms which are not fully realized by the recently established Bodies; and that they are sacredly preserved as the heirlooms of an inheritance which have been intrusted to their keeping by their fathers who are gone.

I can scarcely refrain from mentioning, in this connection, Boston Encampment, the largest body of Knighthood in the United States, whose loyalty and devotion to the Order, and whose zealous care for the Masonic fraternity during the days of persecution, have made its name historic. From the day of its Charter, in 1806, to the day of this Assembly, its name has been answered at every roll-call of the Encampments in this Grand Body; and, for years, it was the only subordinate in attendance. The idea that this Encampment, and St. John at Providence, - which was the first, and for a time the only subordinate of this Grand Encampment, are disloyal and hostile to the Grand Encampment of the

United States, because their old members, bowed down with age, refuse to give up the names and titles with which they won the victory, and decline to take down the cross under which they conquered, is too absurd for me to argue to the intelligence present here.

For these reasons, and others which it would be needless to mention, this Grand Encampment has twice refused, in the most solemn and decisive manner, to conform to the Constitutional provisions of the Grand Encampment of the United States, in this respect.

In relation to the change in the Order of Malta, I am not aware that the question has ever been mooted even in this Grand Body. Certain it is, that this departure from the ancient landmarks of the Order would meet with no encouragement, and no acquiescence, in this Grand Encampment.

The State Grand Bodies of Ohio and Connecticut also retain the old names and titles. The attention of the State Grand Commanderies has, from time to time, been called to these three Grand Encampments; and our adolescent sisters, with a rashness peculiar to youth, have been inconsiderate and unkind in their remarks concerning us.

In 1862 the Grand Commandery of Pennsylvania, which became loyal to the Grand Encampment of the United States in 1854, and then was first mentioned in its registry, says, "How these State Grand Commanderies, owing allegiance to the Grand Encampment of the United States, can still use these titles, abrogated and annulled by the parent Body, with the vow of office, as required by the parent Body, is a mystery which your Committee cannot unravel."

In 1860 the Grand Commandery of New Jersey, which was instituted the same year (1860), thus discourses: "Templar Masonry differs from all the other branches of Masonry in being a military Order, in addition to its other characteristics; and, as such, it requires a head and supreme power to control, regulate, and govern all its subordinate branches. All the Grand Commanderies of the United States have been created by the Grand Encampment, all owe allegiance to that august Body, and all should yield obedience to it."

The Grand Commandery of Wisconsin, established in 1860, thus speaks in 1860: "In becoming Knights Templars, we performed a voluntary act on our part, and assumed to place ourselves under the authority of that Order, with its powers as they then existed; and we have since acquired no right to question that authority, or the powers, utility, or usefulness of the Grand Encampment. A disposition to do so on the part of any can only make us think of words called in the army insubordination and rebellion; in the navy, mutiny; and in civil government, treason." Our sister Grand Commandery of the State of Maine is more considerate in its language and style.

In 1859 it says: "We are, however, free to confess, that, however willing to support the lawful authority of the Grand Encampment, there are provisions in the amended Constitution which we deem unwise; and the changes of names we deem entirely uncalled for. We are, therefore, of the opinion, that there are changes in the Constitution which might be made, which would remove all reasonable objection to the Grand Encampment."

In 1862 Maine dwells upon the same subject: "The change of names made by the Constitution of 1856 has been very unpalatable to some Grand Commanderies. Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Connecticut and Ohio, have thus far refused to obey the Constitution; still styling themselves Grand Encampments, their presiding officers Grand Masters, and their subordinates Encampments. We are free to express our belief, that the change was, at the time it was made, injudicious; yet names do not constitute Masonry or chivalry, while the duty of obedience to the constituted authority is of the very essence of both were we to refuse obedience, we should abandon the substance for the merest shadow. . . . We do not believe a return to the old names would now be judicious, for most of the reasons which can be urged against the original change."

The Most Eminent Grand Master, Sir Benjamin B. French, in his address before the Grand Encampment of Knights Templars, at New York, in September, 1862, remarks: "During my entire term of office, there has been a difficulty in at least two of our most respectable Grand Commanderies, relative to some of the changes made in our Grand Constitution at Hartford.

I have sought earnestly to reconcile these difficulties. The address I delivered before the Boston Encampment, already alluded to, was chiefly intended to effect that object; but they still exist, and they are of so grave a character, that, although with exceeding reluctance, I recommend that some action be taken, during this session, upon the subject."

This portion of the Address was referred to a Committee, whose report, unanimously adopted by the Grand Encampment, contains the following: "In regard to the difference in titles of officers and Grand Bodies of Knights Templars that prevails in some States of our Union, we consider that it is inexpedient to recommend any action thereupon at this time. Your Committee hope and believe that these difficulties will ere long be removed, and that the nomenclature of officers and Grand Bodies will be uniform throughout our country."

It is not straining the matter, when I say that the Grand Encampment of the United States, since 1856, has been ingenious in devising means by which it could exercise power and authority over the State Grand Bodies. At the meeting of 1859, it ransacked the history and relics of the barbarous and middle ages, for fantastic dresses, in which the Knights of the United States were ordered to array themselves. At the next session, in 1862, this order was rescinded; and the most modern decorations of a Republican army were adopted as the models of Templar uniform. A burialservice of the Orders of Masonic Knighthood has been an apple of discord, which that Grand Body has thrown into the Masonic fraternity. There have been other matters of grievance, of which the different State Grand Commanderies have complained, and which it is useless to refer to.

This Grand Encampment desires, if possible, I am well assured, to preserve the ancient landmarks of the Order, and to be loyal to the Grand Encampment of the United States, which our illustrious predecessors established in the infancy and days of weakness of Templar Masonry in this country. Under the present mania for legislation and Constitutional amendments, which, since 1856, has seized upon the Grand Encampment of the United States, no hope can be indulged that that Grand Body will be effective for good. Old organizations must necessarily be affected by the