HEARTS OF GOLD

APPENDIX B

278 APPENDIX B Jones’s speech to the British Grand United Order of Odd Fellows 1897 Annual Conference was published in pamphlet form by Tillotson and Son of Bolton. The text below is drawn from the copy in the Library of Congress’s Daniel A. P. Murray Collection and bears the notation “Extract from The Bolton Journal of Saturday , June 12th , 1897.” British spelling has been retained, although paragraphing has been added for readability. The speech appears on pages five through eight of the eight-page pamphlet, and page three bears a striking image of Jones in full evening dress. Bro. Major [Richard] Hill-Male, who had seen something of the working of the Order in America,1 had undertaken to introduce Bro. [J. McHenry] Jones. Major Hill-Male thereupon retired, and in a few minutes reappeared with Bro. Jones on his arm, their entry into the hall being the signal for loud applause, which was renewed with redoubled vigour when they appeared upon the platform. Bro. Major RR. Hill-Male then introduced Bro. McHenry Jones to the G[rand]. M[aster]., and through him to the Order. He congratulated Bro. Jones upon his safe arrival amongst them. At an informal meeting the previous evening Bro. Jones told them that in his explanation to some of their brethren in America as to his visit to England that he thought his presence amongst them would add colour to their meeting. (Laughter.) He assured Bro. Jones that the Order welcomed him as representing the great American branch of the small tree in the United Kingdom. (Applause.) Referring to his own visit to America as Grand Master he [Hill-Male] acknowledged his splendid and fraternal reception, and he was sure nothing could happen between the two nations but goodwill, brotherly love, relief, and truth. They could not give Bro. Jones the same reception that he had in America, but he could assure him of equal feelings of friend- 279 appendices ship which were felt towards him in this country. He hoped that meeting would be the means of cementing and binding together with iron links that friendship which had subsisted for so many years, and be the means of laying the foundation of such a Grand United Order that might face the Opposition of the Whole World.2 The Grand Master [William Elliff] also added a welcome, remarking with satisfaction that it was the proud boast of their Order that it fixed no distinctions narrower than those fixed by the Great Father of all. (Hear, hear.) On rising to respond Bro. Jones had a cordial reception, the delegates rising and cheering lustily. He said: Brethren, your brothers from beyond the deep and rolling ocean, plighting their vows at the same sacred altar, drinking from the same perennial stream at the fountain of Friendship, warmed by the influences emanating from the glowing coals on the altar of Loved, and worshipping at the Shrine of Truth, with increasing affection send fraternal greetings and goodwill to the mother Grand Lodge in England. (Hear, hear.) Having for years attempted to make known through correspondence, the love and gratitude Order in America cherishes toward you, I have been sent to emphasize and in measure give voice to the enduring nature of those sentiments. It is now more than a half-century since a few noble men of my race despised, outlawed, and virtually expatriated, turned their discouraged faces toward this God-blessed land. It was with feelings of mingled hope and fear that these determined, righteous men made their appeal to the Grand United Order of Oddfellows. Repulsed at home, their petition treated with contempt, their aspirations , ridiculed[,] their right to brotherhood peremptorily refused, is it strange that day by day, awaiting the return of their chosen messenger, their hope in the final triumph of their cause grew dimmer, and their faith in the justice of the world was on the eve of going out for ever? Lashed by misfortune, strangers in the land of their nativity, without political standing and under the ban of social ostracism, waifs upon Time’s heartless ocean, they longed for a resting place among the brotherhood. Keenly sensitive to the isolation of their condition, they sought through Peter Ogden, a member of Victoria Lodge, admission into the temple of Fra- 280 appendices ternity, and rising above the littleness of caste, too great to be mean, the Grand United Order of...