The Rite Times: 2/9/2024

February 9, 2024

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From the Archives: Caldwell Jewels

In December of 1867, Edward Holland Caldwell (1844-1872) of Mobile, Alabama, received the fourteenth degree at the newly established Mobile Lodge of Perfection No. 1. The following year he received the eighteenth degree, and later, the thirty-second degree. Caldwell’s jewels for the eighteenth and thirty-second degrees survive and were recently added to the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library. A special thanks goes to the staff at the library, as always, for their hard work on the article, as well as Michelle Lambert of the Grand Lodge of Alabama, Katy Osborne, Special Collections at Spring Hill College, and Larissa Watkins of the Southern Jurisdiction’s library for preserving and adding these jewels to the collection.

Valentine’s Day

Don’t forget to bring something special to your loved ones next week, as Wednesday is Valentine’s Day!

The holiday is named after the Christian Saint, Valentine. Common tellings of St. Valentine’s story are set when marriage was banned in the Roman Empire by Emperor Claudius II. St. Valentine continued wedding young lovers despite the law and was punished with a beheading, which is said to have happened on February 14.

John Quincy Adams Elected President

While our politics seems as contentious as ever, with a Presidential election on the horizon, 199 years ago today saw a dramatic close to the 1824 election as John Quincy Adams was elected president.

After the War of 1812, the Federalist Party collapsed into irrelevance and the Democratic-Republic Party dominated American politics. During the so-called “Era of Good Feelings,” the country faced a stable period of economic and political stability. There were a few warning signs of things to come such as the Panic of 1819 saw the collapse of an interest bubble when the Second Bank of the United States tightened credit…