Chapter 9 No.9

Correspondence with Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, January 3, 1792.

During the Presidential term of Brother Washington, the President, when in Philadelphia, lived in a large double three-story brick mansion, on the south side of Market Street, sixty feet east of Sixth Street, the site of which is now occupied by three stores, viz.: Nos. 526, 528, 530.

The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania then held its meetings in the upper floor of the Meeting house of the Free Quakers, still standing, at the southwest corner of Arch and Fifth Streets; this was but a short distance from the presidential mansion. Brother Washington was undoubtedly personally acquainted with many of its members, especially such as had been officers during the Revolution, and were fellow members of the Cincinnati.

On St. John's Day, December 27, 1791, a Grand Lodge was opened in ample form,[49] and the Minutes of the last Grand Communication were read, as far as concerns the election of Grand Officers.

The Grand Officers upon this occasion were:

Brother Jonathan Bayard Smith, R. W. Grand Master.

Brother Joseph Few, Deputy Grand Master.

Brother Thomas Procter, Senior Grand Warden.

Brother Gavin Hamilton, Junior Grand Warden.

Brother Peter Le Barbier Duplessis, Grand Secretary.

Brother Benjamin Mason, Grand Treasurer.

The Rev. Brother Dr. William Smith then addressed the Brethren in an oration suitable to the Grand Day, and the thanks of the Lodge were given to said Brother William Smith for the same.

After which, on motion and seconded, the Rev. Brother Dr. Smith and the Right Worshipful Grand Officers were appointed a Committee to prepare an address to our Illustrious Brother George Washington, President of the United States; and this Lodge was adjourned to the second day of January next to receive the report of said Committee.

"Philadelphia, January 2d, 1792.

"Grand Lodge, By Adjournment,[50]

"A Grand Lodge was opened in ample form, and the Minutes of St. John's Day being read as far as relates to the appointment of a Committee to prepare an Address to our illustrious Brother George Washington, The Revd. Bro. Dr. Wm. Smith, one of the said Committee, presented the Draft of one which was read, Whereupon, on Motion and Seconded, the same was unanimously approved of, and Resolved, That the Rt. Wt. Grand Master, Depy. G. Master, and Grand Officers, with the Revd Bro. Smith, be a Committee to present the said Address in behalf of this Rt. Wt. Grand Lodge, signed by the Right Worshipful Grand Master, and Countersigned by the Grand Secretary.

"Lodge closed at half past 9 o'clock in Harmony."

Following is the address presented to Brother Washington. Both the original draft in the handwriting of Brother William Smith, showing minor alterations, as well as a fair copy, are in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.[51]

"To His Excellency George Washington, President of the United States.

"Sir and Brother:

"The Ancient York Masons of the Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, for the first time assembled in General Communication to celebrate the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, since your Election to the Chair of Government in the United States, beg leave to approach you with Congratulations from the East, and in the pride of Fraternal affection to hail you as the Great Master Builder (under the Supreme Architect) by whose labours the Temple of Liberty hath been reared in the West, exhibiting to the Nations of the Earth a Model of Beauty, Order and Harmony worthy of their Imitation and Praise.

"Your Knowledge of the Origin and Objects of our Institution; its Tendency to promote the Social Affections and harmonize the Heart, give us a sure pledge that this tribute of our Veneration, this Effusion of our Love will not be ungrateful to you; nor will Heaven reject our Prayer that you may be long continued to adorn the bright list of Master workmen which our Fraternity in the terrestrial Lodge; and that you may be late removed to that Celestial Lodge where love and Harmony reign transcendent and Divine; where the great Architect more immediately presides, and where Cherubim and Seraphim, wafting our Congratulations from Earth to Heaven, shall hail you Brother.

(Seal) "By order and in behalf of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in general Communication assembled in ample form.

(Signed) G.M.

"Attest: Gd. Secry.

FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL ADDRESS READ BEFORE PRESIDENT WASHINGTON BY REV. BRO. WILLIAM SMITH, D.D., JANUARY 3, 1792.

ORIGINAL IN ARCHIVES OF GRAND LODGE OF PENNSYLVANIA. MSS.-VOLUME A.-FOLIO.-21.

On January 3, 1792, Jonathan Bayard Smith, the Right Worshipful Grand Master, together with the Grand Officers and Rev. Brother William Smith called on the President and delivered the above address.

The deputation was received in the dining room of the presidential mansion. This was a room about thirty feet long, and where Washington was accustomed to receive delegations.

At the Quarterly Communication held March 5, 1792, the Right Worshipful Grand Master Jonathan B. Smith informed the Brethren that, in conformity to the resolve of this Grand Lodge, he had, in company with the Grand Officers and the Rev. Brother Dr. Smith, presented the address to our illustrious Brother George Washington and had received an answer, which was read.

"To the ancient YORK MASONS of the

"Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania.

"Gentlemen and Brothers,

"I receive your kind Congratulations

"with the purest sensations of fraternal affection:-and

"from a heart deeply impressed with your generous

"wishes for my present and future happiness, I beg

"you to accept my thanks.

"At the same time I request you will

"be assured of my best wishes and earnest prayers

"for your happiness while you remain in this terres-

"tial Mansion, and that we may thereafter meet

"as brethren in the Eternal Temple of the

"Supreme Architect.

Fac-simile of Washington's Reply to Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, January, 1792. Original in Archives of the Grand Lodge.

WASHINGTON'S MASONIC APRON.

EMBROIDERED BY MADAM LAFAYETTE; PRESENTED AUGUST, 1784, BY BRO. GEN. LAFAYETTE TO BRO. GEN. WASHINGTON; PRESENTED OCTOBER 26, 1816, BY THE LEGATEES OF BRO. WASHINGTON TO THE WASHINGTON BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA; PRESENTED JULY 3, 1829, BY THE WASHINGTON BENEVOLENT SOCIETY TO THE R. W. GRAND LODGE, F. &. A. M. OF PENNSYLVANIA.

ORIGINAL APRON IN MUSEUM OF THE GRAND LODGE.

Whereupon, on motion and seconded, Resolved, unanimously, that the said address and the answer thereto, shall be entered on the minutes.

This answer, in possession of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, is in the handwriting of Tobias Lear, who was the private secretary of the President, and for years attended to the details of Washington's domestic affairs, and was liberally remembered by him in his will.

The letter was signed by Washington, who had both the address and answer copied verbatim in one of his letter books[52] by Bartholomew Dandridge, secretary to the President. A photostat copy of above, together with the original answer by Washington is in the Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.

This address was read by Rev. Brother William Smith, one of the most noted Episcopal preachers in Philadelphia, and the first Provost of the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. Brother William Smith, D.D., had been an active member of the Masonic Fraternity in Pennsylvania for forty years; he was the Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Moderns for almost a quarter of a century. In winter of 1778 he joined the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons, and for some time served as Grand Secretary.[53]

Jonathan Bayard Smith, the Grand Master of Pennsylvania, was one of Philadelphia's prominent citizens. During the Revolutionary period he was an ardent patriot; he was among the earliest of those who espoused the cause of independence. In 1775 he was chosen secretary of the Committee of Safety, and in February, 1777, he was elected by the assembly a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was a second time chosen to this post, serving in the congresses of 1777-8. From April 4, 1777, till Nov. 13, 1778, he was prothonotary of the court of Common Pleas.

On December 1, 1777, he presided at the public meeting, in Philadelphia, of "Real Whigs," by whom it was resolved "That it be recommended to the council of safety that in this great emergency ... every person between the age of sixteen and fifty years be ordered out under arms." During this year he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of "Associators."

B. FEB. 21, 1742; D. JUNE 16, 1812.

GRAND MASTER OF MASONS IN PENNSYLVANIA, 1789-1794.

In 1778 he was appointed a justice of the court of Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Court, which post he held for many years. He was appointed in 1781, one of the auditors of the accounts of Pennsylvania troops in the service of the United States. In 1792, and subsequently, he was chosen an alderman of the city, which was an office of great dignity in his day, and in 1794 he was elected auditor-general of Pennsylvania.

Brother Jonathan B. Smith was an active member of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. He was the Senior Grand Warden in 1786, at the time when the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania: "Resolved, that the Grand Lodge is, and ought to be perfectly independent and free of any such foreign jurisdiction."[54]

In the two following years he was appointed Deputy Grand Master by Right Worshipful Grand Master William Adcock; he was elected Right Worshipful Grand Master in 1789 and served in that capacity for six years (1789-1794). In the year 1798 he was again elected to that honorable office, serving five more consecutive years (1798 to 1802), when he declined re?lection. The following action was taken by the Grand Lodge:[55]

"On Motion made and Seconded the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania impressed with a grateful sense of the long assiduous and highly useful labours of their late R. W. Grand Master, Bror Jonathan Bayard Smith, Esqr, previous to and during his service in the high Station which he has left, Resolved Unanimously, That the most respectful Thanks of the said G. Lodge be presented to their said Brother Jonathan Bayard Smith for the eminent services he has rendered to the Craft generally and more especially for the able, diligent and impartial manner in which he has discharged the Duties of the Chair and while they deplore the necessity of his now retiring from the Official Station amongst them which he has so Honourably filled, they hope for a continuance of his Brotherly Love, Aid and information and finally that he be requested to receive the best wishes of the Grand Lodge for a prolongation of his useful life, a commensurate enjoyment of his Health and his final Happiness in the Mansion of Everlasting Rest."

Brother Joseph Few, Deputy Grand Master, was also a Revolutionary Soldier, having served as Regimental Quarter Master with the 4th Continental Artillery.

Brother Thomas Procter, Senior Grand Warden, formerly Colonel of the Pennsylvania Artillery, and Warrant Master of the Military Lodge, No. 19, upon the Roster of Pennsylvania was prominent in both civil and political affairs during Washington's administration. A full account of Brother Thomas Procter and this Military Lodge will be found in the History of the Old Masonic Lodges of Pennsylvania, published by the Grand Lodge in 1913.[56]

For a sketch of Brother Peter Le Barbier Duplessis, the reader is referred to the same volume.[57]

Washington's Past Master's Jewel.

Replica in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.

Footnotes:

[49] Reprint of Minutes of Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, p. 178.

[50] Ibid., p. 180.

[51] Mss. Volume A, folio 17, 19, 21.

[52] Letter Book II, pp. 104-105.

[53] Cf. "Old Masonic Lodges of Pennsylvania," Vol. I, p. 201.

[54] Cf. Reprint of Minutes of Grand Lodge, Vol. I, p. 96 et seq.

[55] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 68.

[56] Volume II, Chapter XXVI, pp. 1-36. Cf. also "Freemasonry in Pennsylvania," Vol. I and II, for various references to Col. Procter.

[57] Cf. "Old Lodges," Vol. II, pp. 256 et seq.

* * *