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]