President of the Lodge Renaissance
[Translation.]
The allocution delivered by M. Massol, president of the Loge Renaissance.
MM * * F. F. * *: I propose to you a manifestation of regret for the late Mr. Lincoln. I have nothing to say about his death; it is well known to you all, as well as his life. Let it suffice for me to remind you that it was after having gone through all the graduations of labor that he attained to the most eminent post to which a man can aspire, that of president of a great nation of free men.
Lincoln will be hereafter a great type of humanity, of honor, of courage, and loyalty. He is one of the purest and most faithful expressions of democracy. History, indeed will tell with what good sense, what firmness, what moderation he has known how to direct the affairs of the Union under the most difficult circumstances, without exceptional laws, without having recourse to dictatorial power, preserving the preponderance of the civil power, aided in so doing, it must be said, by the republican virtue of such generals as Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan.
Lincoln is the veritable emulation of Washington, if he has not surpassed him. However that may be, they are two names inseparable in the memory not only of Americans, but of men in all countries.
If Washington founded the Union, Lincoln firmly maintained it.
If Washington assured the liberty of his fellow-citizens, Lincoln has endowed a portion of the human family with that liberty. He has forever closed the hideous sore of slavery.
If Washington laid the foundations of the true form of democracy, Lincoln has made it possible throughout the world. He made the ideal for all.
To Washington and Lincoln—one sprung from the ranks of the aristocracy, the other of the humblest extraction—is owing the firm settlement of that universal confederation of which free masonry has long been the model according to philosophical views.
All the virtues possessed by Lincoln are masonic virtues, symbolized in our degrees of initiation.
When an apprentice, he purged his mind of all the subversive passions, which was an indispensable preparation for the good conduct of life.
As a companion, he had learned to live orderly by labor, and a scrupulous observance of right and justice, a course which was marked out by rule, square, and compasses.
Finally, like Hiram, he succumbed to the blows of an outrageous pride for having remained inflexible in the discharge of his duty. He is the moral man par excellence.
Is that all? No, M * * F* *; that sample of honesty, above all temptation; that loyalty, courage, moderation, sense of justice; that inflexibility of persistence in the right road—all these qualities were enhanced in him by an admirable simplicity and goodness, and that was his characteristic trait.
Indeed, his public life was terminated by an appeal to fraternity, concord, and peace, addressed to the conquered rebels, and in proclaiming the political rights of the men of color whom he had freed. This is, in my view, his highest honor. A working man himself, he showed what the government ought to do for men of that class: abolish all servitude, and modify the institutions after the requirements of justice, while liberty never failed to be respected.
And now, M * * F * *, however painful may be this death, it will alter nothing in the destinies of the United States. The people who have the happiness to govern themselves are not at the mercy of events like these, even though the most distinguished and useful among them fall. They experience no humiliating fears. Moreover, if the slave owners were already conquered, the blow of the 14th April ruined them forever in public opinion, and in the conscience of the people.
[Page 81]Confidence, then, and hope. Only let the memory of Lincoln, of that citizen of the world, remain in each of us as an incentive to emulation, as a model and a guide. This grandeur in simplicity must not die. Let it always therefore be present to our minds, and may it become fruitful.