446 



LOYAL LEGION. 



LUTHERANS. 



manders, and Recorders, past and present, of 

 State Commanderies. It assembles once a year, 

 usually in October, at Philadelphia, Pa., the 

 Headquarters of the Order. There is also a 

 Congress of the Order, composed of the Com- 

 mander-in-chief, Recorder-in-chief, and three 

 representatives from each State Commandery, 

 which assembles once in four years, under the 

 auspices of some one of the State Commander- 

 ies. The quadrennial Congresses of the Order 

 have been held as follow : 



First, Philadelphia, April 9, 1869 ; second, 

 Philadelphia, April 15, 1873; second adjourned, 

 New York, December 10, 1873; third, Boston, 

 April 11, 1877; fourth, Philadelphia, April 13, 

 1881 ; fifth, Chicago, April 15, 1885. The sixth 

 congress is to be held in Cincinnati, April 10, 

 1889. 



This is a legislative body, having power to 

 revise the constitution and provide for the gov- 

 ernment of the Order. Members of the Order, 

 called Companions, are of three classes: 



First Class. Commissioned officers and hon- 

 orably discharged commissioned officers of the 

 United States army, navy, and marine corps, 

 regular or volunteer, including officers of as- 

 similated or corresponding rank by appoint- 

 ment of the Secretary of War or Secretary of 

 the Navy, who were actually engaged in the 

 suppression of the rebellion, whether so en- 

 gaged as commissioned officers, non-commis- 

 sioned officers, warrant officers, or enlisted 

 men. Also the eldest direct male lineal de- 

 scendants, or male heirs in collateral branches, 

 or of officers who died prior to the 31st day of 

 December, 1885, who at the time of death 

 would have been eligible. 



Second Class. The eldest sons, twenty-one 

 years of age, of living original Companions of 

 the First class. Upon the death of their pro- 

 genitors they become Companions of the First 

 class. 



Third Class. Civilians of eminence, who, 

 during the rebellion, were distinguished for 

 loyalty. 



All Companions are elected through Com- 

 manderies by ballot, after having been duly an- 

 nounced by printed circular, with their record, 

 and passed upon by a committee of investiga- 

 tion. The admission-fee is at least twenty-five 

 dollars, and the annual assessment at least five 

 dollars, which includes the use of the diploma 

 and insignia. The former is signed both by 

 the Commander and Recorder-in-chief. The 

 insignia is a cross of eight points, gold and 

 enamel, with rays forming a star, and pendant 

 from a silk ribbon of the national colors. In 

 the center, on the obverse side, is the motto, 

 "Lex Regit Arma Tuentur" ("Law rules, 

 arms defend"); on the reverse, "M. O. Loyal 

 Legion, U. S., MDCOCLXV." Both the diplo- 

 ma and insignia bear a number corresponding 

 to that of the registered number of the Com- 

 panion to whom they are issued. When a 

 Companion is not on duty, and as a medium for 

 recognition, a small tricolored silk rosette is 



worn on the lapel of the coat. There is no 

 uniform, but on occasions of ceremony Com- 

 panions may wear the uniform of the rank 

 they held while in service. 



The officers of State Commanderies, who are 

 elected annually in May, are : Commander, Sen- 

 ior Vice-Commander, Junior Vice-Command- 

 er, Recorder, Registrar, Treasurer, Chancellor, 

 Chaplain, and a Council of five, which officers 

 also constitute a board of officers. There are cor- 

 responding officers of the National Command- 

 ery, who are styled "in-chief," and are elected 

 every four years. The constitution of the Or- 

 der provides that State Commanderies shall as- 

 semble at least once a year for the election of 

 officers, and as often as prescribed by their re- 

 spective by-laws, in several monthly meetings, 

 and after the transaction of business either a 

 banquet or a lunch is served, enlivened by the 

 singing of army songs, the recounting of per- 

 sonal reminiscences of the war, and a military 

 paper is usually read. The present member- 

 ship of the order is 4,800. 



As to the matter of relief, some of the Com- 

 manderies have accumulated a considerable 

 fund for that purpose, although the personnel 

 is such that as yet there has been comparatively 

 little demand for pecuniary assistance. The 

 general Ile-idquarters of the Order are at No. 

 723 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa., and 

 many of the Commanderies notably Pennsyl- 

 vania, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, 

 and Wisconsin have permanent Headquarters 

 open daily, where may be found valuable mili- 

 tary libraries, war relics, and albums of photo- 

 graphs relating to the war, and portraits of 

 Companions. The Order is erroneously con- 

 sidered by some as exclusive ; but no worthy 

 and eligible candidate is ever refused admis- 

 sion, the chief object being to maintain a rep- 

 resentative body of the best element in the 

 generation that successfully fought the war for 

 the Union. (See colored plate, page 329.) 



LUTHERANS. The Evangelical Lutheran 

 Church in America has had an uninterrupted 

 history of more than two hundred and fifty 

 years, and is to-day one of the most rapidly- 

 increasing communions of Protestants in this 

 country. The statistics for 1887 show a larger 

 increase than for several previous years. Ac- 

 cording to the best authorities the net increase 

 for the year is 193 ministers, 332 congrega- 

 tions, and 47,261 communicant members, the 

 total communicant membership being now 

 nearly if not quite 1,000,000, and the baptized 

 membership not less than three times that 

 number. The rapid increase of the Church is 

 due to the vast immigration of Germans, 

 Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and Ice- 

 landers, a large majority of whom are Luther- 

 ans, as well as to the Church's increased-activi- 

 ty in the work of home missions. The Luther- 

 an Church in this country is divided into four 

 general bodies besides eleven independent 

 synods, a statistical summary of which is as 

 follows : 57 synods, 4,188 ministers, 7,478 con- 



