PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL COMMUNICATION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ALABAMA, HELD IN THE CITY OF MONTGOMERY, COMMENCING DECEMBER 3d, 1860

Montgomery, 1861.. 64,[4],xcvi pp. Original printed wrappers. Front wrap detached, slightly chipped. Moderate foxing and tanning. Good. A Confederate imprint. This booklet reports on the annual meeting of this lodge of Masons, with an appendix printing correspondence from other lodges all around the country. Most of the content is quite insular to the Masonic order and dates from 1859 and 1860, and Northern lodges are not differentiated from Southern lodges in any meaningful way in the proceedings. That said, there are certainly allusions to the larger political situation in the country. For example, the South Carolina grand lodge suggests the creation of a "Southern Congress," bringing together the Grand Masters of only the Southern states to make their own decisions, and the Grand Master of the Alabama grand lodge suggests that they "consent to the admission of no person into our mystic brotherhood, however intelligent he might be, however good his intentions, however irreproachable as to his moral character, if the opinions entertained by him, whether political or otherwise, were such as to prevent a cordial fraternal intercourse." PARRISH & WILLINGHAM 8578.