MAKING MASONS AT SIGHT
Making Masons at Sight Stewart Miner, PGM, Grand Historian
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n the 196-year history of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, only 16 men have become Masons at Sight. The minute size of this special group generates a number of questions. For example: How do Masons at Sight differ from other Masons in the jurisdiction? Who are the Masons that comprise this group? Was their unique entrance essential? Why? These questions underscore the necessity for understanding the process of making a Mason at Sight. It is one by which certain men, who do not personally seek entrance to the • ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY Craft, are invited to enter Masonry by a Grand Master, who in the absence of written authority, uses his “inherent powers” to solicit and make Masons, relying on other than constitutionally prescribed methods. In the process of making a Mason at Sight the Grand Master may use his “inherent” powers to modify the conferral of the degrees to suit situations at hand. On occasion the candidate may be treated exactly like any normal candidate for the degrees. At other times, however, the Grand Master may deem it expedient to condense, and in certain instances, to eliminate parts of the prescribed work. In consequence of his receiving the degrees by the volition of the Grand Master and not by the will of a lodge, the Mason at Sight is set apart from other Masons. When the ceremony is concluded he is, without question, a Mason in every sense of the word. But in contrast to those who take the degrees in the customary manner, he is unaffiliated and to become a lodge member he must, if that be his desire, apply to some lodge for membership. For most of the 19th century sentiment in opposition to making Masons at Sight prevailed in many of the Grand Lodges of the United States, a sentiment that was well expressed in 1891 by the Chairman of the
The Voice of Freemasonry
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Foreign Correspondence Committee in the Grand Lodge of D.C., Grand Secretary William R. Singleton. In his report to the Grand Lodge in that year he remarked that:
Very much has been written upon the subject of “Making Masons at Sight” in the United States, and a large number of distinguished writers, Grand Masters and chairmen of Committees on Correspondence, yet contend that Grand Masters have the prerogative (inherent) to make Masons at sight. We have always denied that there never was such an inherent right. The only right must be from the constitutional provision by each Grand Lodge allowing the Grand Master this privilege.
Nevertheless, the winds of change were in the air and on October 21st, 1899, Grand Master John H. Small made Admiral Winfield Scott Schley the first Mason at Sight in the Grand Lodge of D.C. Small said he did so because he understood that the Admiral was under orders to proceed to sea and take command of the South Atlantic Squadron. The membership records of the Grand Lodge suggest that the Admiral did not seek membership in the lodge that conferred • HONORABLE JESSE H. JONES the degrees on him (Benjamin B. French No. 15) or in any other lodge in the jurisdiction. Forty-two years were to elapse before the next conferral of the degrees at sight were to be conferred by Grand Master Ara Daniels, on December 16, 1941, in the auditorium of the Scottish Rite Temple at 2800 16th Street, N.W. The honorees, on this occasion, were the Honorable Jesse H. Jones, Secretary of Commerce and Federal Loan Agency Administrator, and General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. The former was raised by Past
