2. A letter to Paul Revere, Grand Master of Massachusetts and his Grand Officers.
3. An address from the Brethren of Prince George's Lodge, No. 16, Georgetown, South Carolina, presented to President Washington during his visit to South Carolina, April 30, 1791, also his reply to same.
4. An address from the Brethren of St. John's Lodge, No. 2, of Newbern, North Carolina, and the reply to same.
Photostat copies of the above have also been obtained which make the most complete collection of the Masonic Correspondence of Washington which has thus far been compiled.
A careful study of this correspondence so carefully cherished by Washington puts an entirely new phase upon Washington's connection with the Masonic Fraternity, and his esteem of Freemasonry.
These papers absolutely thrust aside all of the statements, arguments and libels, brought forth by our misguided enemies at the time of the Anti-Masonic craze during the last century, and in a small way kept alive even down to the present day by some people who are blinded by their ignorance or malice.
Referring to some of their published statements that Washington never belonged to the Masonic Fraternity, and that there were no authentic Masonic letters nor copies thereof among his records so frequently made during the political Anti-Masonic craze, which swept over New England and the Middle States about eighty-five years ago, the following quotations from the Masonic literature of the period will prove interesting examples.
One of the chief statements made by these people, and brought before all their conventions and heralded in the public prints was: "That though General Washington caused to be carefully copied in books kept for that purpose, all his letters on every subject, no trace whatever of any of the five letters under consideration,[2] nor any letters to any other Lodge or Masonic body whatever, are to be found among the records of his correspondence."[3]
The chief authority upon whom the leaders of the Anti-Masonic movement at that time depended in their defamation of Washington, was Jared Sparks of Boston, who at the time was engaged writing a life of Washington, and then had access to all the Washington letter-books and papers, and from his connection with the Washington correspondence, was supposed to be the best qualified to pass upon their authenticity.
Another of the charges made by the Anti-Masonic bigots whose chief object was to controvert facts was: