NORTH CAROLINA-During the vacation of the R. W. Grand Lodge of the United States, Odd Fellowship has nowhere progressed with greater strength than in the state of North Carolina. Dispensations have been issued for the opening of Cape Fear Lodge, No. 2, located at Wilming ton, North Carolina, and Washington Lodge, No. 3, at Murfreesborough, in the same state. These lodges have been formally instituted under the most flattering auspices, by D. D. G. Sire George M. Bain, to whom the Grand Lodge is under lasting obligations for his valuable services in promptly consenting at all times, whenever called upon, to promote the advancement of the Order in this particular. An application has been made and is herewith presented from the lodges in North Carolina for admission into the confederacy at your present session; an event which, in view of the recent introduction of the Order in that state, will be truly gratifying to the Representatives of the states.

SOUTH CAROLINA.-The correspondence with the Order in this state has been no less pleasurable to the undersigned, during the past year, than it was during the year 1841. Nor has the enthusiasm and energy which prevailed among the brotherhood in the latter year, abated one jot or tittle. The career of our beloved Order is still onward in this jurisdiction, and it seems destined to spread itself all over its fertile plains. The R. W. Grand Lodge has been duly instituted during the recess, by that ever to be commended laborer in the moral vineyard of Odd Fellowship, P. G. M. George M. Bain, and the administration of the affairs of the state have been committed to the hands of brethren who have, by their high individual worth and devotion to the principles of the Order, contributed largely to elevate its name and character in that community. All the lodges in that state have made their final report to this jurisdiction, and a dispensation has been issued to Palmetto Encampment, No. 1, at Charleston, which has been duly instituted, and is now in successful work. The first annual report of the Grand Lodge has been made to this office, exhibiting the gratifying fact that the Order now numbers nearly eight hundred contributing members in this state, and the amount of the joint revenue of the lodges during, the past year, exceeds nine thousand dollars. When it is recollected that but two years have elapsed since Odd Fellowship was first planted in South Carolina, these results speak volumes in commendation of the high moral influence of our beloved Order. Palmetto Encampment, No. 1, has also made a most brilliant report. The lodges in this state have contributed to the English mission.

GEORGIA. This state has been added to the jurisdiction of the R. W. Grand Lodge of the United States, during the recess. A dispensation was issued to Oglethorpe Lodge, No. 1, located at the city of Savannah, in the state of Georgia, which was instituted by P. G. Albert Case, of the city of Charleston, who was duly deputed for that purpose; his report of the prospects of Odd Fellowship in that jurisdiction is in the highest degree cheering. This lodge has made its report.

ALABAMA. The lodges in this state having made a formal application for a Grand Lodge, a dispensation was issued for that purpose, and D. D. G. Sire C. J. B. Fisher, and P. G. Page, of New York, were deputed to institute the same, who have duly reported to the Grand Sire the performance of the duty assigned to them. The subordinate lodges have made

their final reports to this jurisdiction, and their accounts have been closed. Mt. Ararat Encampment, No. 1, of this state, has also made its regular reports. In no part of our jurisdiction, has greater efforts been made to preserve the purity of the principles of Odd Fellowship, than in Alabama, and the highest degree of prosperity, I am happy to report, has been the reward of their efforts in the cause of the Order. This state has encouraged the English mission, and made its annual report in due season.

MISSISSIPPI-Wildey Encampment, No. 1, of this state has made its reports to this office, and the report of the Grand Lodge for 1841, too late for that session, has been since duly made. The undersigned regrets that in Mississippi he finds it difficult to maintain a regular official correspondence, and consequently is unable to present a just view of the condition of the Order in that state. He has the satisfaction to say, however, that the Order is improving in that jurisdiction. The lodges and Encampments of this state have promptly responded in aid of the English Mission, and remitted the amount to this office.

LOUISIANA. Since your last session, when the condition of the Order in Louisiana was reported in unfavorable circumstances, more gratifying accounts have been received of its re-animation and successful struggle for preservation. The difficulties in which it was involved with a sister institution were referred to the Grand Sire, with whom all correspondence on that subject has been had. To P. G. M. Mondelli, much credit is due for his great exertions to revive the Order in New Orleans. The Grand Lodge, its subordinates, and Louisiana Encampment, have each subscrib ed to the English mission fund. Herewith is submitted the annual report of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, and Wildey Encampment, No. 1, (revived during the past year,) accompanying which will be found an earnest appeal for the interposition of the R. W. Grand Lodge of the United States, to defend the Order in that state from the continued persecution of the Masonic Order; this subject the undersigned again presses upon your respectful consideration.

FLORIDA. The quarterly reports of Florida Lodge, No. 1, located at Jacksonsville, East Florida, have been regularly made to this office-the lodge now numbers sixty contributing members, and is in the most prosperous circumstances. It has subscribed and remitted $10 towards the English mission. Herewith is submitted a resolution passed unanimously by the lodge, requiring your early consideration.

ARKANSAS-Far West Lodge, No. 1, the only one in this state, has made its regular reports during the past year, and it is a source of pleasure to report that it is in a much more improved condition than it was in 1841. It contains sixty contributing members at this time, and the work appears to be properly conducted in that jurisdiction.

MISSOURI. The undersigned has been advised of the election of the Grand Representative of this state, and of his arrival at the seat of your sessions, this event of itself will furnish the most abundant evidence of the devotion of our brethren of that distant jurisdiction, to the interests of Odd Fellowship. Much is due to P. G. M. Stewart, the distinguished Representative elect, for his continuous and valuable correspondence with this department, and for his unremitted exertions, in promoting the advancement of the Order in that state. All the lodges in Missouri have

sustained the English mission fund. The Order can boast no brighter link in the chain of our union than that of the Grand Lodge of Missouri. The annual report of the state has been made in due time.

ILLINOIS. The instructions given, by resolution of the last session, for the removal of the Grand Lodge of this state, have been complied with. Some difficulties have been encountered in carrying into effect your order on that subject, growing out of a refusal, on the part of the former officers, at Alton, to surrender the charter and books; a peremptory order was issued from this office, on that subject, when the charter, books and papers were surrendered, and the Grand Lodge was duly re-organized at Springfield. A list of the Grand Officers is herewith presented. Since its removal to Springfield, three new lodges have been created, and its prospects of revival and prosperity, in that state, are now beyond question. The correspondence on the whole subject of the removal of the Grand Lodge is herewith submitted. A dispensation has been issued to Lebanon Encampment, No. 2, at Springfield, Illinois. The annual report of the Grand Lodge has been made in due season, and is herewith presented.

INDIANA. The order of the last session, authorizing the removal of the Grand Lodge of Indiana, from New Albany to the city of Madison, has been executed, and the Grand Lodge now assembles at Madison. A practice has prevailed in this state of holding sessions of the Grand Lodge at other places than the one designated in their charter. Application has been made to this department as to the legality of the custom. The undersigned has informed the applicants of its impropriety and irregularity, unless simply for adjourned meetings. The correspondence upon this subject, and other equally interesting topics, are herewith submitted. No means are in the possession of the undersigned of furnishing information as to the real state of the Order in Indiana, or what influence the removal of the sessions of the Grand Lodge from New Albany to Madison has had upon its condition. The Annual Session of the Grand Lodge convened on the 15th August, and the annual report will doubtless be received.

OHIO. This continues to be among the most prosperous jurisdictions of the Order in the United States. It has ever been the pleasure of the Corresponding Secretary to maintain a regular epistolary correspondence with the Grand Officers and leading brothers of Ohio. The annual report has been made, and being among the very few instances in which the law requiring such documents to be in the possession of the undersigned at least one month previous to the Annual Session, he feels it to be his duty thus to distinguish it. From this instrument, it will appear that great pains are taken to furnish every information to this department, of the entire details of their operations during the year. If a similar course was adopted in all the states, the Corresponding Secretary would be enabled to spread before the Order annually, such an abstract of its general concerns as would be a true mirror of its real condition.

KENTUCKY-The annual report of this state Grand Lodge not being made during your last session, and no official correspondence having been had with the state during the year, induced fears at that time that Odd Fellowship was not in its former good circumstances in that jurisdiction. I am happy to report, that those fears were entirely groundless, and that our beloved Order is in the most properous condition in that enlightened state.

The annual report of the Grand Lodge was received immediately after your adjournment; the most satisfactory reason having been assigned for its delay. The Grand Secretary of that state has been among the most interesting correspondents of this office, from whom I learn that the Order is spreading throughout every part of Kentucky. The annual report for 1842, has been duly made.

TENNESSEE—The Grand Lodge of the United States has reason to congratulate itself upon the enviable condition which Odd Fellowship occupies in Tennessee, especially when its comparative infancy in that region is regarded. G. M. T. Kezer, of this state, has been unremitting in his efforts to disseminate the principles of Odd Fellowship in his jurisdiction. From the elaborate communication made by him, accompanying the annual report of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee, it will be seen that our Order is destined to as great a degree of popularity and regard in the west as it has ever enjoyed in the eastern states. An application in strict conformity to the Constitution and general laws, has been made for an Encampment charter, accompanied with the sum of $30. The usual dispensation was prepared, and ready to be transmitted to the applicants, when a protest or remonstrance against granting the same was received from the Grand Master of the state, upon the ground that the application had not met the approbation of the lodges of the state. Herewith is submitted the application and remonstrance. (Doc. D.) This state has sustained the English mission fund.

IOWA TERRITORY.-The report of Iowa Lodge, No. 1, of this territory, has been regularly made to this office. Herewith is submitted a petition from the lodge, praying a remission of dues for the past year, setting forth embarrassments growing out of the erection of a hall for their place of meeting as the sole cause of this necessity. This request is earnestly commended to your favorable notice by D. D. G. Sire John G. Potts, whose constant superintendence and devotion to the interests of our Order in his jurisdiction, entitles him to your fullest confidence and regard. The general condition of the lodge has improved. I also present a petition. from a number of brethren for a new lodge, to be located at Burlington, in this territory.

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.-The official return of the organization of the Grand Lodge of this republic has been received during the past year, from P. G. M. J. De Cordova, D. D. Grand Sire of that jurisdiction. Galveston Lodge has also reported finally, and represents its condition as entirely

prosperous.

The printed proceedings of the last session were distributed within the time, and in the quantities prescribed by law, throughout all the states. The undersigned is happy to say, that he has not received a single complaint of the failure of the same to reach their respective places of destination. The voluminous size of the journal, and the great increase of the same, in view of the vastly increased business of this department, requires an extension of the time allowed the Corresponding Secretary to prepare the same for the printer. It is respectfully recommended that the law in this particular be rescinded. Fifteen hundred copies of the journal of 1841, were printed, nine hundred of which were delivered to the agent of the Covenant.

The undersigned has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the quarterly proceedings of the Grand Lodges of Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia and Kentucky, and copies of the Constitutions of the Grand Lodges of Connecticut, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Grand Encampment of Patriarchs, of New York. Also, the By-Laws of Virginia Encampment, of Virginia, and St. Louis Lodge, of Missouri, all of which accompany this communication.

Dispensations, conformably to law, under the direction of the Grand Sire, have been issued from this office upon proper and constitutional plication for the same:

For Grand Lodge.-To the state of Alabama.

For Subordinate Encampments.

To the state of South Carolina-Palmetto, No. 1, Charleston.
To the state of Illinois-Lebanon, No. 3, Springfield.
To the state of Virginia-Damascus, No. 9, Smithfield.
To the state of Virginia-Salem, No. 10, Hampton.
For Subordinate Lodges.

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To the state of Georgia-Oglethorpe, No. 1, Savannah. To the state of North Carolina-Cape Fear, No. 2, Wilmington. To the state of North Carolina-Washington, No. 3, Murfreesborough. Charters have also been issued, as directed at your last session, to the Grand Lodges of Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Tennessee. To Florida Lodge, No. 1, of Florida; Marion Lodge, No. 2, of South Carolina, and Weldon Lodge, No. 1, of North Carolina. To Encampments No's 1 and 2, Connecticut, and No. 8, Lynchburg, Virginia. The various petitions and official reports of the deputations acting in the premises are herewith submitted, and it will be the duty of the Representatives to authorize charters to be issued in lieu of the dispensations under which the lodges and Encampments, created in the recess, are now working.

Agreeably to a request informally made of him by the Representatives at the last session, the undersigned prepared an Act of Incorporation for the Grand Lodge of the United States, and caused the same to be passed by the General Assembly of Maryland, a copy of which is herewith presented. (Doc. E.) The advantages attained by the Act of Incorporation, if accepted at your present session, will be to put the Grand Lodge in a position legally to enter into contracts, to enforce the performance of all contracts made with it, and generally to be a party in law; an object much to be desired, in view of the great responsibility of the trust committed to its Executive Officers, from none of whom it has hitherto been capable of receiving a legal bond.

In obedience to the resolution of 24th September, 1841, I herewith present (Doc. F.) a particular account of the sales of the stock of the R. W. Grand Lodge, during the past year, and of the balance remaining on hand.

In concluding his report, the undersigned cannot avoid felicitating the Grand Lodge upon the general prosperity which prevails throughout the Order. The further dissemination of Odd Fellowship, in the United States, continues from year to year, it will be a source of great pleasure to the Representatives to be apprized that but four out of the twenty-six