"Fellow-citizens and Brothers,
"of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
"I have received your address
"with all the feelings of brotherly affection,
"mingled with those sentiments, for the
"Society, which it was calculated to excite.
"To have been, in any degree, an
"instrument in the hands of Providence,
"to promote order and union, and erect upon
"a solid foundation the true principles of
"government, is only to have shared with
"many others in a labour, the result of
"which let us hope, will prove through
"all ages, a sanctuary for brothers and
"a lodge for the virtues,—
"Permit me to reciprocate your
"prayers for my temporal happiness,
"and to supplicate that we may all
"meet thereafter in that eternal temple,
"whose builder is the great architect
"of the Universe.
Fac-simile of Washington's Reply to Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, December, 1796. Original in Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Brother William Moore Smith, Right Worshipful Grand Master of Pennsylvania, whose first official act as Grand Master was to head the committee to call on the President, was a son of the Rev. William Smith, D.D., born in Philadelphia, June 1, 1759. He was a lawyer by profession and served as Deputy Grand Master for the year 1795 under the Venerable William Ball, and as Right Worshipful Grand Master for the years 1796-1797. He was appointed by the President as agent for the settlement of claims that were provided for in the Sixth Article of John Jay's Treaty, and visited England in 1803 to close the commission. He died at the Smith Homestead at Falls of Schuylkill, March 12, 1821.
Both the address and reply were copied in Washington's Letter Book III, pp. 244-245, in the handwriting of one of his secretaries, G. W. Craik, a son of Dr. James Craik, Washington's "compatriot in arms, and old and intimate friend," who attended him during his last illness.
Photostat copies of above are in the Library of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, also the original draft of the address, presented to the President (Mss. Volume A, folio 23).
This autograph Masonic letter from Washington to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania has been reproduced in fac-simile, published and circulated (in most cases without the knowledge or consent of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania) more widely than any other known letter of Washington. Some of these copies are treasured by their owners under the impression that they have the original letter. Several cases of this kind have of late come under the notice of the writer. In one case where one of these reproductions was offered for sale, hundreds of dollars were asked for the reproduction, and it was with great difficulty that the owner could be convinced of its character.