Philadelphia pennsylvania july 4th 1776. the second continental congress issues the historic declaration of independence a bold decree that the 13 north american colonies are now independent states and no longer ruled by great britain over the course of the next seven bloody years during the revolutionary war the continental army led by general
George washington would secure the independence of the united states of america it was a new nation a new experiment in democratic self-rule and a new world order when you go back to the founding of the united states all of the founders were what we consider rational like they were pushing
For you know a republican form of government they were pushing against the monarchy against these dogmas this was a very revolutionary idea the motto of the united st unity freemasonry brings together people of diverse backgrounds freedom from ignorance freedom from superstition freedom from intolerance freedom from extremism those were dangerous ideas back then
Because absolutists monarchies and and the church wanted to control you but along with the glory of the brave men and women who tirelessly worked and fought to establish the united states of america there existed a curious connection to a secret society that had migrated to north america centuries earlier
The connection was apparent not only among its leaders but also its founding documents that secret society was the freemasons many of the founding fathers especially the influential ones people like george washington and benjamin franklin who are free masons if there is one place on the planet where the principles and the
Foundational teachings of freemasonry had the greatest impact that would be the united states of america there are even some people argue that the united states in its creation in its inception even in its constitutional order was a masonic republic freemasons account for two of the five committee members who drafted the
Declaration of independence forty percent of the generals during the revolutionary war and thirty percent of those who signed their names on the us constitution freemasonry and the ideals that went into the american constitution and the declaration of independence have an awful lot of overlap they had values of religious tolerance
And cosmopolitanism and rights and formal equality between all citizens one of the masons of the time was montesquiou a famous french political philosopher who had this radical idea of a separation of powers that you should have three branches of government a legislative executive and judicial that they should check and balance each other
To form a true republican government washington d.c 1791 george washington now the first president of the united states of america appoints french architect pierre charles lafone to design the nation’s capital while washington was a master mason la phong apparently never passed the level of entered apprentice however some believe that symbols associated
With freemasonry were embedded into the city’s design as an acknowledgement of the ties between the secret society and the founding of the country the basic layout of the city originally had these kind of odd diagonal streets so they had to have some reason to lay them
Out that way because the normal way you would lay out a city is by a grid pattern and dc did not follow a traditional grid pattern it’s a very cleverly worked grid shape so when seen from above you have a five-sided star you have a cascading star which is all
Part of the masonic thought there’s no doubt that washington dc was laid out according to masonic ideals and symbolism in 1793 president george washington presided over the laying of the cornerstone for the u.s capitol building a ceremony that not only initiated construction but was also highlighted by elaborate masonic rituals
There appears george washington and his masonic regalia to perform a masonic ceremony with grain and oil and masonic measuring instruments and so on you’ve got the leader of the republic many of its key officers in a public masonic ceremony and yet they’re doing this as a ceremony based around their secret society
But what was the true purpose of this new experiment in declared self-governance an idealistic new form of democracy Some suggest that the freemasons who were involved actually had a hidden agenda people became suspicious of the fraternity it kind of supported i believe the fears that freemasonry exerted some kind of power over the government or among society freemasonry was enormously successful in the early american republic but in 1826
A kind of disaster befell freemasonry by the name of the morgan affair in 1826 william morgan a prominent freemason in upstate new york signed a publishing contract promising to reveal secrets of the masonic initiations traditionally the masonic oath has been quite blood curdling they were supposed to swear absolutely
Solemnly in front of all their brethren that they would never tell the secrets outside of the lodge on pain of some quite hideous punishments such as having their tongue torn out and their throat cut when morgan announces he’s going to tell all the secrets of masonry
Some of the guys in town decide to take their masonic obligation much more seriously than they really should have and they essentially throw him in a carriage right off into the woods and morgan shouts out the window murder as they go off into the sunset and he’s never seen again
Morgan’s body was never found but an investigation was conducted and members of the local lodge were put on trial for his death there was a trial that was held of the masons who had abducted him the judge in the case was a mason the governor he was a mason i believe
The sheriff was a mason you had all these masons involved with prosecuting the crime and lo and behold nobody is convicted for the murder of william morgan that sets off this massive national wave of hysteria against the masons this resulted in an anti-masonic excitement that lasted from 1826 to 1842
And for that period it was very unpopular to be a freemason you
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