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Smith, Wm.; His Constitutions

When the Modern (first) Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania dedicated its Lodge house (Americans first Masonic building), and called "The Freemasons' Lodge," the dedication sermon was preached by William Smith, D. D., a member of Lodge No. 2, famous for his learning throughout the Colony. In 1781, the year that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, the Grand Lodge decided to reissue its Shiman Rezon, or Book of Constitutions, and appointed Bro. Smith to revise and to abridge it. He was to become Grand Secretary in 1783.

In 1782 he was Provost of the College of Philadelphia--now the University of Pennsylvania. He had the revision ready in 1781, and on November 22 of that year it was approved by Grand Lodge. But the printing was delayed. In 1782 Smith wrote a dedication to George Washington; in 1783 the Book was published. Though its editor could not know of it at the time, it was a book destined to be carried far, because it was to become the sanction and guide for Lodges in Tennessee, Kentucky, the West Indies Louisiana, Mexico, etc., and to be a model for later editors in other and future Grand Lodges.

Since the volume is now listed as a rare book, collectors may find useful its full title page: "Ahiman Rezon Abridged and Digested; as a Help to all that are. or would be Free and Accepted Masons, to which is added a Sermon, Preached at Christ-Church, Philadelphia, at a General Communication, Celebrated, Agreeable to the Constitutions, Monday, December 28, 1778, at the Anniversary of St. John the Evangelist, Published by Order of The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, by William Smith, D. D., Philadelphia; Printed by Hall and Sellers, M,Dcc, LXXXIII."

The 1778 London Edition of the Ahiman Rezon which presumably Bro. Smith had before him, has as its title: "Ahiman Rezon: or a Help to all that are, or could be Free and Accepted Masons." It mas the Third Edition.

The first paragraph of Bro. Smith's Chapter I appears to have been of his om n composition, and may be guessed to have been a device for condensing into one sentence a series of exhortations which in the original version Laurence Dermott had spread over a number of pages. In this paragraph and in the chapter sub-head Bro. Smith uses a phrase which is peculiar, so peculiar that it is difficult to know why it has thus far escaped attention.

In the sub-head he says: "for the use of Operative Masons, in the American Lodges . . ."; in the first line of the paragraph he says: "Before we enter upon the duties of the operative Mason," ete. (Italics ours.) Why did he say "Operative" instead of Speculative? (Two or three other Books of Constitutions afterwards repeated these phrases, Massachusetts being one of them.) one can only surmise that he took "operative" to mean Masons who operate a Lodge, the officers, tiler, janitor, etc.; this surmise has a support in his describing the duties of the "Operative Mason," "in the various offices and stations to which he may be called in the Lodge...." In any event this misreading of the meaning of "Operative" supports a statement made elsewhere in this Supplement to the effect that the first American Masons were often themselves uninstructed on Craft practices, and in the dark about its customs and Landmarks.

Note. The Book of Constitutions prepared by Thaddeus Mason Harris for the new United Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. and which he printed in 1798, was a revision of an earlier Book; Harris also uses the phrase "for Operative Masons. '

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