Sitting high atop Shuter’s Hill in Alexandria, Virginia, once
considered as the site for the U.S. Capitol, the Alexandria-Washington
Freemason Lodge No. 22 dominates the local skyline, as well it might, being the
Lodge of none other than Worshipful Brother George Washington.In Masonic terms, George Washington was,
"a just and upright Mason", a "living stone" who became the
cornerstone of American civilization.Washington presided over the cornerstone ceremony for
the U.S. Capitol in 1793, laying the cornerstone of the United States Capitol
in Masonic garb, as chronicled by the Alexandria
Gazette of September 25, 1793.A family cemetery was located to the right of the George
Washington National Masonic Shrine (seen here under construction). In early
America small family cemeteries were common.An English visitor to colonial Alexandria, noted, “It is the custom of
this place to bury their relatives in their gardens.”
Freemasonry became very popular in
colonial America.
The earliest of American lodges were the First Lodge
of Boston, established in 1733, and one in Philadelphia, established about the same
time. Benjamin Franklin served as
the head of the fraternity in Pennsylvania,
as did Paul Revere and Joseph Warren in Massachusetts.
Other well-known Masons involved with the founding of America included
John Hancock, John Sullivan, Lafayette, Baron Fredrick von Steuben, Nathaniel
Greene, and John Paul Jones.
George Washington joined the
Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg,
Virginia at the age of 20 in
1752. His Masonic membership, like the others public titles and duties he
performed, was expected from a young man of his social status in colonial Virginia. Not much is known of Washington’s Masonic life during the quarter
century following his induction into the fraternity. Tradition puts him in various military lodges
during the time, but because of their traveling nature, there remains no record
of his attendance.
Washington
returned to Mount Vernon
in 1783 after the Revolutionary War. He
was invited to joint Lodge No. 39 and later became the first Worshipful Master
of the newly established Grand Lodge of Virginia (Lodge No. 22). He served some twenty months in this
post. During his tenure as Worshipful
Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, Washington
was inaugurated President of the United States, becoming the first
and only Mason to be President of the United States and Master of his
lodge at the same time.
President
Washington took his oath of office on a Bible from St. John's Lodge in New York, at his first inauguration in 1791. During his two Presidential terms, he visited
Masons in North and South Carolina
and presided over the cornerstone ceremony for the U.S. Capitol in 1793, laying
the cornerstone of the United States Capitol in Masonic garb, as chronicled by
the Alexandria Gazette of September 25, 1793. In retirement, Washington sat for a portrait in his Masonic
regalia, and in death, was buried with Masonic honors.
Neither Martha Washington
nor the women of the South’s leading families were marble statues, they had the
same strengths and weaknesses, passions and problems, joys and sorrows, as the
women of any age. So just how did they
live?
These are the often overlooked stories of early
America. Stories such as the roots of racism in America, famous murders that
rocked the colonies, the scandalous doings of some of the most famous of the
Founding Fathers, the first Emancipation Proclamation that got revoked, and
stories of several notorious generals who have been swept under history’s rug.
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