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George Washington - Freemason |
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Written by Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh
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Saturday, 01 March 2008 |
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Masonic origins of the United States. Excerpts from "The Temple and the Lodge" by Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh.
The Masonic Leadership of Washington
On 17 September 1787. the draft Constitution was accepted. approved and signed by thirty-nine of the forty two
delegates present. Between 7 December and 25 June of the following year. each of the states individually ratified it. Maryland ceded ten square miles of its territory to Congress, as specified by the Constitution. and this land - the District of Columbia - became the site of the new federal capital.
On 4 February 1789, Washington was elected first president of the United States and John Adams his vice president. The inauguration was on 30 April. The oath was administered by Robert Livingston, Grand Master of New York's Grand Lodge and father-in-law of the dead General Richard Montgomery.
The marshal of the day was another Freemason, General Jacob Morton. Yet another Freemason, General Morgan Lewis, was Washington's escort. The Bible used lor the oath was that of St. John's Lodge No. 1 of New York. Washington himself at the time was Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22, Virginia.
Thirteen days before the inauguration. Franklin had died, half of Philadelphia turning out for his funeral. Five days after the inauguration, the French Estates-General met at Versailles and on 17 June formed a National Assembly, declaring themselves not the king, the true representatives of the French people.
On 14 July. a Parisian revolutionary mob stormed the Bastille. On 14 December Alexander Hamilton submitted proposals for
establishing a National Bank. Jefferson opposed them but Washington signed them through. On the American dollar
bill was printed the 'Great Seal' of the United States. It is unmistakably Freemasonic - an all-seeing eye in.a triangle
above a thirteen-stepped, four-sided pyramid, beneath which a scroll proclaims the advent of a 'new secular order', one of Freemasonry's long-standing dreams.
On 18 September 1793, tile cornerstone ofthe Capitol was officially laid. Grand Lodge of Maryland presided over the ceremony and Washington was asked to serve as Master. The affiliated lodges under Maryland's jurisdiction were in attendance-, as was Washington's own lodge from Alexandria, Virginia. There was a great procession, which included a company of artillery. Then came a band followed by Washington himself, attended by all officers and members of the lodges in full regalia.
When he reached the trench in which the 'south-east cornetstone was laid, Washington was presented with a silver plate commemorating the event and inscribed with the designations of the lodges in attendance. The .artillery fired a volley. Washington then descended into the trench and placed the plate on the stone. Around it, he placed containers of com, wine and oil - standard symbolic accoutrements of.Freemasonic ritual. All present joined in prayer and M.asonic chanting, and the artillery fired another volley.
Washington and his entourage then moved to the east of, the cornerstone, where the president, standing on a traditionally
Masonic three-stepped.rostrum, delivered an oration. More Masonic chanting followed, and a final volley from the aniIlery.
The gavel, the silver trowel, the square and the level used by Washington for the ceremony are today held by Potomac Lodge No. 5 of the District of Columbia,. The apron and the sash he wore are held by his own lodge, Alexandria No. 22.
Subsequently, the Capitol and the White House were each to become focal points of an elaborate geometry governing the layout of the nation's capital city. This geometry originally devised by an architect named Pierre l'Enfant, was subsequendy modified by Washington and Jefferson so as to produce specifically octagonal patterns incorporating the particular cross used as a device by Masonic Templars.
Six years and three months later, in December 1799, Washington died. He was buried at his home at Mount Vernon with full Masonic honours, by Alexandria Lodge No. 22, whose members were his pallbearers. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 March 2008 )
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