1905 - 1976
Albert Pike was a great leader in
American Masonry and perhaps its greatest intellect. He was not, however, noted for charity to an
opponent. The Scottish Rite in both
Southern and Northern Jurisdictions got off to a slow start in the early years
of the 19th century. The
Southern Jurisdiction, which Pike headed (1859 – 1891), was torn asunder by the
Civil War and Pike himself was attainted as a former Confederate General. In addition, segments of the York Rite, which
were by then firmly entrenched, persisted in a policy of regarding Scottish
Rite Masons as a small body of Masonic elite, in which membership was
predicated on previous York Rite affiliation.
Born out of impatience with this situation, Pike displayed his temper
with this statement (Allocution 1876):
Our American Masons generally have heretofore seemed to imagine that there is no Masonry entitled to the name, in the world, outside the United States; and that there is but one legitimate Rite of Masonry, the “York” Rite. There neither is nor ever was a York Rite. The very name asserts a falsehood. There never was any grand lodge of York.
