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Can such things be? Will such a departure from the "Ancient Landmarks" of that august body be tolerated? "Oh, no; it ne'er can be," Sir Rockwell; stand up and hear sentence passed upon you.

Sir A. Pratt Adams, as Grand Orator, delivered an admirable address before the Grand Commandery. We wish that we had the space to lay it entire before our reading Sir Knights.

We hope for a report on correspondence next year, as an able committee were appointed for that purpose.

Sir William Samuel Rockwell of Savannah, was elected R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir Charles Rudd Armstrong of Macon, was re-elected E. Grand Recorder.

Sir Samuel P. Hamilton of Savannah, E. Grand Recorder pro tem., to whom communications are to be addressed as per request.

ILLINOIS.

The Twenty-fifth Annual Conclave was held at the Asylum of Apollo Commandery No. 1, in the city of Chicago, commencing on Tuesday, October 25, A.D. 1881, A.O. 763. Sir John Corson Smith, R. E. Grand Commander. Sir Gilbert Woodsworth Barnard, E. Grand Recorder.

Fifty subordinate Commanderies were represented. Twelve Past Grand Commanders were present.

The volume of these Proceedings now before us is deserving of more that a passing notice. It is gotten up in a style unequaled by any which it has been our fortune to review. Sir Barnard, come to the front and receive the honors and awards that await the Prince of Grand Recorders. Illinois is under obligations to you for your efforts in this direction.

The address of Grand Commander Smith is a model of excellence, and shows him fully up to the work. He opens his address by referring to the early days of this Grand Body, twenty-five years ago, and says that but thirteen Sir Knights were present at that time (its organization) and there were only three chartered Commanderies; while at this Conclave, over two hundred Representatives are present, representing fifty chartered Commanderies, and two under dispensation. He says:

Brief is the time since the organization of this Grand Body, yet no other period in the world's history has witnessed such rapid and wonderful changes. In the arts and science, in mechanics, and all that contributes to the material wealth of communities, no one century has ever been so productive. Revolutions have taken place, in the old world, resulting in changes of government and the division of empires. From the former our own favored country has not been exempt.

War! A horrible and destructive war has swept across a portion of our fair land. A war in which brother and Sir Knight crossed blades amid the roll of deadly musketry, and the deafening roar of artillery. All this seems but a dream; a vision of the past; a page of history yet so recent that there are many present who participated in that deadly strife. Thank God it is of the past; it has become a page of history; and peace, sweet peace and prosperity once more spreads over our purified and reunited country, never more, we trust, to be broken.

This Grand Jurisdiction was honored during its Grand Conclave, with the presence of many distinguished Sir Knights from abroad, including Sir Hugh McCurdy of Michigan; Theodore Sutton Parvin of Iowa; F. G. Collins, John W. Woodhull, Melvin Long and J. P. C. Cottrell of Wisconsin, all of whom were introduced and received with Knightly honors. Sir Hugh McCurdy (our Hugh), Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Encampment of the United States, and Representative of the M. E. Grand Master, responded to the welcome of the R. E. Grand Commander, as follows;

When Minerva, the beautiful goddess of wisdom, poetry and oratory, would give pleasure to her well-loved Prometheus she brought a brimming bowl of nectar from the golden realms of the gods as a blessing to his creatures, and to pour into their hearts impulses for the arts ennobling. To honor and give pleasure to the Most Eminent Grand Master, whom I at this time represent, you to-day bring from the hands of this goddess the pure nectar of wisdom, poetry and oratory; and with

true Promethean skill and devotion to the good of human kind, you inspire the visitor within your gates with impulses for the sublime and beautiful, and all the graces which in our Order adorn and embelish life.

In the presence of these impulses and ennobling thoughts, how quickly the cares that infest one's busy life fold their tents, and like the Arabs at the coming of the dawn, silently steal away.

Under the benign influence of a welcome tendered with such eloquence and grace, one forgets that he is a guest, and with pleasure remembers only that he is a friend among friends, a Frater among Fraters - one of a common household.

Your silvery eloquence and golden grace of oratory have I none; "but such as I have give I unto thee." I cannot hope to vie with you in the graces of oratory, but I acknowledge no rival in the eloquent fervor and the graceful character of that friendly greeting, and those words of congratulation and good cheer which, in response to the Grand Master's wish, I this day bring to you a greeting freighted with good will, and dictated by the glorious bonds of a common brotherhood.

Thus coming, on behalf of the Most Eminent Grand Master, in whose name I speak, and to whose noble qualities of head and heart I must consider this welcome a fitting tribute, I fraternally reciprocate the Knightly greeting you so cordially vouchsafe to me, and accept the same on behalf of the Grand Encampment of the United States, of which this Grand Body forms a conspicuous and an honored part.

To be assigned the duty of making this Grand Commandery an official visit, composed as it is of fifty subordinate Commanderies, embracing a membership of five thousand Fraters of the cross and crown; Fraters noted for their culture and rare and intellectual attainments-to be assigned to such a duty, while it is an honor that far transcends my merit, yet it is one which I fully appreciate, — of which I am justly proud. And I assure you that the appointment by which I come to you, together with its every incident, including as the finest of the wine, the crowning glory of your welcome, will ever be esteemed by me a memorial of a more than metallic nature, to be laid away in the archives of my memory as the most cherished souvenir of my Templar experience.

I also come with congratulations to the citizens of this great State, the very heart of the Mississippi Valley, upon its vast natural resources and its extensive commercial relations. Like ancient Venice, the Queen of the Adriatic, so sits this State, the veritable Queen of the Father of Waters and the Great Lakes. The people of Illinois are proud of her vast railway system, her soil rivaling in fertility the soil of the Euphrates and Tigris Valleys, her boundless fields of coal and lead, proud of her broad and liberal school system, second to none in the Union. They are especially proud of this great city, to-day the metropolis of the west, and destined to be the metropolis of America.

It was the exultant boast of Augustus Cæsar that he found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble. The citizens of this commonwealth in which we are assembled have cause for a prouder boast than that of the Roman Emperor. But

a few short years ago they found their city in ashes, and from its ruins, with more than Cyclopean vigor they have built a city of marvelous beauty, a city of splendid avenues, luxurious homes, and imposing public structures -a city which to-day stands without a rival as a perfect monumental column; in its completeness a memorial of your well directed zeal and classic taste; a city which to-day challenges the admiration of the world, and the peculiar genius of whose citizens it is to transfigure and glorify whatever they touch.

These are their triumphs in the realms of commerce and architecture, in which they stand unrivaled. But what shall I say of the social triumphs of their brilliant past? What of the gathering of the tens of thousands of Fraters here a year ago, outshining in splendor even their commercial and architectural glories? Historians and men of letters will not fail to perpetuate the renown which this State and city have so fairly won and so fully enjoyed. But this Grand Commandery, with its brilliant coterie of names, redolent of antiquity and suggestive of chivalry and classic lore, is this State's chief glory still. In the broad field of Templarism, their spirit of energy and devotion to progress have found fullest scope; and side. by side with the architectural beauty and increasing commercial greatness of this city and State have grown the strength and beauty of the institution which we represent, and to whose advancement you have not hesitated to contribute freely of your vast resources, your highest ambitions, and your best energies.

As a result of your unparalleled genius and enterprise, you have a State rapidly increasing in wealth and power, a city in culture, intellect, and industry inferior to none. As a result of your untiring zeal and increasing devotion to the highest principles of Knighthood, we find here the best type of manhood and the finest flower of chivalry.

Architectural beauty, wealth and commercial strength will decay, but in the realms of Templarism you have completed a monument more lasting than marble - a monument which neither the consuming fire, the wasting shower, nor the flight of seasons shall be able to destroy.

Sir Woodhull spoke as follows:

This is the first time I have had the honor of meeting with your Grand Commandery. I intended to meet with you as a spectator and not as a guest, but inasmuch as you have seen fit to receive me in so courteous a manner I can but return thanks for your kind and courteous reception, trusting that you will bear in mind that I do not, by any means, accept this courtesy on my own behalf, but as an expression of good will toward the Sir Knights of Wisconsin. The many courtesies

which have been extend to us by the Sir Knights of Illinois are most highly appreciated by us, and if time endures long enough we shall endeavor to at least reciprocate some of them.

As I view it we are a band of men all working for the accomplishment of the same object, viz: The elevation of mankind to a high standard of Christian virtue, and thus moving onward and upward to a status which will meet the approbation of our fellow-men and the approval of our Heavenly Father. With this grand object in view we should never allow discord or contention to enter our ranks. Our love for each other should be of that character that we can forget and forgive wrongs whether intentional or otherwise. That spirit of love should exist which sees no intentional wrong in a brother until positive evidence is brought forward to prove the charge.

Now, R. E. Sir, I am liable to be wrong myself; I doubt not I am often wrong, but I am just as willing to be forgiven as any person you ever saw. At the same time I claim the right and I think my life will demonstrate the fact that no Sir Knight can forgive any oftener or with better grace than I can.

Illinois and Wisconsin are joined, not only by being neighboring States, but by the bonds of love which spring up among those who labor for the same end. Our objects are good, our faith founded upon the rock of ages, and our hopes of the ultimate success of our labors next to Divine.

I again return my sincere thanks for your very kind and courteous reception to this Twenty-fifth Grand Conclave of the Grand Commandery of Illinois.

The Grand Commander thus feelingly alludes to the death of our old comrade in arms and respected Sir Knight Garfield:

Twice in the quarter of a century referred to has this nation been called to mourn the assassination of its chief magistrate, each of whom was, in the fullest sense, the President of the people.

Sir Knight James A. Garfield, the twentieth President of the United States, was the last victim of a cowardly assassin. Mortally wounded on the second day of July, 1881, he bore with Knightly fortitude the pains of death until September 19,

1881.

Of our illustrious Frater it may well be said that amid all the temptations which surrounded him, he never forgot that he was a "soldier of the cross." No better example of a well spent life can be cited the rising generation than that of James A. Garfield. Whether in the "Vale of obscurity," or when by the votes of millions of freemen he was "elevated to the highest pinnacle of worldly grandeur," he was the same modest, upright man.

His earthly pilgrimage ended, he rests in the arms of the blessed Emmanuel.

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