"With esteem and respect,
"I am, dear sir,
"Your most Ob't serv't
"Wm. Herbert, Esquire."
PLACE OF MEETING OF ALEXANDRIA LODGE, No. 39, ON PENNSYLVANIA REGISTER, ALEXANDRIA VIRGINIA, WHERE GENERAL WASHINGTON ACCEPTED HONORARY MEMBERSHIP, JUNE 24, 1784.
No copy of this invitation nor acceptance, has thus far been found among the Washington papers.
The original of this letter is also said to be among the relics of Alexandria-Washington Lodge, No. 22. As no fac-simile copy was obtainable, an engrossed copy for same was substituted in the collection of Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
This banquet was held at Wise's tavern[25] and was participated in by Washington, who upon this festive occasion was elected an honorary Member of Lodge No. 39, upon the Pennsylvania register, and thus became a Pennsylvania Freemason, and his name is duly recorded as such upon the minutes of Lodge No. 39.
This fact further contradicts the Anti-Masonic arguments based upon the Snyder letter so extensively used during the years 1826-1833, that Washington never belonged to any Masonic Lodge, after his initiation in the Fredericksburg Lodge in 1752.