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Short Talk Bulletin Vol 12 No 04
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XII April, 1934 No.4
WHERE WAS LAFAYETTE MADE A MASON?
by: Unknown
Brother Lafayette entered the Grand Lodge Above on May 20, 1834.
Many Lodges in 1934 will dedicate meetings to a memory only less
immortal than that of his friend and brother George Washington. To
aid n such undertakings, this Bulletin sets forth the principal
contradictory testimonies about this Masonic making.
Julius S. Sachse, Grand Librarian if the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania,
learned student and scholar. wrote (Brochure. 1916):
No original documentary evidence is known to be in existence which
records the initiation of General Lafayette in the Masonic
Fraternity, nor in what Lodge or when it took place. It has always
been a tradition in Masonic circles that General Lafayette was made a
Mason in one of the Military Lodges at Morristown, New Jersey, where
a Festal Lodge was held December 27, 1797, for which occasion the
jewels and furniture and clothing of St. Johns Lodge No.1 of Newark,
New Jersey, was borrowed. The meeting proved a great success, sixty-
eight brethren being present, one of whom was George Washington.
There is another tradition that General Lafayette was made a Mason
in a Military Lodge which met at Valley Forge during the winter of
1777-78, but no official records of such action have thus far been
discovered.
Dr. Fredrick W. Hamilton, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts, eminent and learned Masonic scholar, write (The
Builder, March 1921):
Where and when La Fayette was made a Mason is not known. There are
at least two quite different traditions, but neither rests on any
very substantial basis or historic fact. Not improbably it was on
the eve of his momentous diplomatic mission to France when he was
just twenty-two; almost certainly it was in the Army Lodge; very
probably it was at the insistence and in the presence of Washington.
What is more likely than that Washington should have desires to weave
the bond of Masonic brotherhood around the young man who was to play
so delicate and important a part in the relations between the great
Mason who commanded the American Army and the other great Mason,
Americas greatest diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, who was American
Ambassador to the French King.?
When La Fayette made his last visit to the United States the Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania received him with distinguished honors, but
before doing so appointed a committee to investigate and report upon
his Masonic regularity. The committee reported that they had made
careful investigation and were fully satisfied, but unfortunately
their report gave no information whatever as to the evidence upon
which this conclusion was based.
Gould, in the Library of Freemasonry. named the place of ceremony
as Morristown, N.J., saying, According to the late C.W. Moore, all
the American Generals of the Revolution, with the exception of
Benedict Arnold, were Freemasons. The Marquis de Lafayette was among
the number, and it is believed that he was initiated in American
Union Lodge at Morristown, N.J., the jewels and furniture used on the
occasion being sent by St. Johns Lodge at Newark, N.J.
Under the full page portrait of Lafayette which embellishes this
article, appears this caption: The Marquis Lafayette was admitted
into Freemasonry in American Union Lodge which was held in a room
over the old Freemans Tavern, on the north side of the green,
Morristown, New Jersey, during the winter of 1777, at which time
Brother George Washington presided in person.
As Benedict Arnold was a Mason, his name was expunged from the
rolls after he was proved a traitor; the reader must decide for
himself how much weight can be given the testimony of the late C.W.
Moore.
Past Grand Master Harry J. Guthrie, Delaware, Contributed a scholarly
paper on Lafayette to The Builder, in March, 1925. From it the
following is abstracted:
General Lafayette arrived in this country on June 14, 1777; received
a commission (honorary in effect) as a Major General from the
congress and was later assigned to Washingtons staff July 31, 1777;
led part of the troops in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11,
1777, where he was wounded in the leg and remained incapacitated at
Bethlehem, Pa., until the later part of October. He volunteered for
duty when scarcely able to place a boot on his foot, was assigned to
the command of General Green and assisted in a reconnoiter with a
view of giving battle to Lord Cornwallis, strongly entranced at
Gloucester Point, N.J. The fact that the whole country between New
York and Philadel-phia was held in British grip precludes the
probability of a gathering of general officers of the American Army
attending a Masonic function at Morristown, N.J. between the first
of November and the fifteenth of December 1777, on which date
Washington went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pa., where
Lafayette was quartered until after Dec. 30, 1777, after which time
he went to Albany, N.Y.
This should satisfy the mind as to the utter improbability of his
having taken any degrees at Morristown, N.J. in 1777. But I am
inclined to think the printed date of 1777 an error and that it
should read 1779 in accordance with the tradition. History and
government records inform us that on October 21, 1778, Lafayette, as
a Major General, was granted a leave of absence to go to France to
return at his convenience. (Probably on a secret mission) Lafayette
left Boston Harbor Fe. 11, 1779 for France; and the fact that he was
presented with the Congressional sword at Havre on Aug. 24, 1779,
comes pretty near proving that he arrived in France. On the return
trip he sailed aboard the French frigate Herman from Rochelle March
19, 1780, and landed at Boston April 28, 1780, and on May 13, 1780,
the Continental Congress considered his return to America to resume
his command as a fresh proof of zeal, etc., etc. So it was not
possible for him to have received the degrees of Freemasonry at
Morristown, N.J. in December 1779, and that is the reason a reference
was not made to him and that his name was not included in the Lodge
register which contained the names of Washington and the other sixty-
seven distinguished visitors.
Gould, in his Military Lodges, says:
In December, 1777, the Army retired to Valley Forge, and it was
there - according to evidence which seems to be of a trustworthy
character - that General Lafayette was initiated. The French
Officer, though he had been received very warmly and kindly by
General Washington, experience much uneasiness from the circumstance
that he had never been entrusted with a separate command. During
the winter he learned there was a Lodge working in the camp. Time
hanging heavily on his hands, and the routine of duty being
monotonous, he conceived the idea that he would like to be made a
Mason. His wish, on being made know to the Lodge, was soon
gratified, the Commander-in-Chief being present and in the chair at
the time of his initiation.
After I was made a Mason, said Lafayette, General Washington
seemed to have received a new light. I never had from that moment
any cause to doubt his entire confidence. It was not long before I
had a separate command of great importance.
Moore in his Masonic Biography states: He had already become a
member of the Masonic Fraternity. (This was prior to his coming to
America.)
Findel, in his History of Freemasonry, states that Lafayette
attended a Masonic meeting December 25, 1775, for the purpose of
consecrating a lodge named Da La Candeur. Particular mention was
made of Lafayette being present.
Brother W.P. Strickland, D.D., stated in his late sixties that
Lafayette was a member of the Fraternity when he came to America.
Earl B. Dellzell, in the Grand Lodge Bulletin, Iowa, November,
1930, states
In the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee of 1825, pages
133 and 135, the minutes of the Grand Lodge of Wednesday, May 4,
1825, state: Our illustrious brother General Lafayette was
unanimously elected an honorary member of this Grand Lodge. Later
we find: Our illustrious brother General Lafayette was introduced
by Bros. Andrew Jackson and G.W. Campbell, received with Grand
Honors, and seated on the right of the W.W. Grand Master.
At the conclusion of the Grand Masters address of welcome,
Lafayette made a feeling and appropriate reply, in substance as
follows:
He felt himself highly gratified at being so kindly welcomed by the
Grand Lodge of Tennessee, and at being made an honorary member of
that Lodge, in which he had been introduced by the distinguished
brother Mason who had erected the lines of New Orleans, and, in
technical language of the Craft, had made them well-formed, true and
trusty. He had, he said, been long a member of the Order, having
been initiated, young as he was, even before he entered the service
of our country in the Revolutionary War. He had never for a moment
ceased to love and venerate the institution, and was, therefore,
peculiarly delighted to see that it had spread its genial influence
thus far to the west, and that his brethren here were not only
comfortable, but brilliantly accommodated. He considered the Order
as peculiarly valuable in this country where it not only fostered the
principles of civil and religious liberty, but was eminently
calculated to link the extremities of this wide republic together,
and to perpetuate, by its fraternizing influence, the union of the
States.
Contrast this with the statements made by Dr. George W. Chaytor,
addressing Lafayette Lodge No. 14, A.F. & A.M., Wilmington, Delaware,
January 18, 1875, on the fiftieth anniversary of its constitution.
(Quoted from the Guthrie article in The Builder, March, 1925):
He was not a Mason when he landed in America, nor was he a Mason at
the Battle of Brandywine. The Army under Washington, in December,
1777, retired to Valley Forge, where they wintered. Connected with
the Army was a Lodge. It was at Valley Forge that he was made a
Mason. On this point there should be no second opinion - for surely
Lafayette knew best where he was made a Mason. We have this
statement from himself - made at the time he was the guest of the
Grand Lodge of Delaware, and to members of that Grand Body. The
statement he made was as follows:
He had offered his services to this country from the purest motives,
and he knew that, in his heart he had no selfish impulses. He found
a people struggling for liberty against tyranny, and he put his whole
soul in the cause. That Washington received him in the kindest and
warmest manner, and never in any direct way showed the he had not the
fullest confidence in his intentions and ability as a soldier, but
yet, he could not divest his mind of a suspicion (that at times gave
him great discomfort) that the General of the American Army was not
altogether free from doubt in his case. This suspicion was
engendered from the fact that he had never intrusted him with a
separate command. This fact, he said, weighed upon him and at times
made him very unhappy. With this exception, he had not the least
cause for discomfort. During the winter (1777-78), as the Army lay
at Valley Forge, he learned there was a Masonic Lodge working in
camp. Time hanging heavy, and the routine of duty being monotonous,
he conceived the idea that he would like to be made a Mason. He made
his wish known to a friend, who at once informed him that he himself
was a Mason, and would take pleasure in making his wish known to the
lodge. This was done, and he was there made a Mason. He also stated
that Washington was present and acted as Master of the Lodge at the
time of initiation.
This statement was made to members of the Grand Lodge, from some of
whom it was received. I have no doubt that he said what I have here
given, for the parties making the statement were gentlemen as well as
Masons, and their public lives show the estimate their fellow
citizens placed upon their honor and characters. I know that much
doubt and contradiction had been bandied about the important point in
Lafayettes life. Various places have been stated as the point of
his initiation - but an Army Lodge was always the organization in
which he secured light.
I have not yet finished his statement - the later part is evidence
of the former. In the beginning he stated he felt rather hurt that
Washington had not shown sufficient confidence to entrust him with a
separate command. Now listen to what he said later:
After I was made a Mason, General Washington seemed to have received
a new light - I never had, from that moment, any cause to doubt his
entire confidence. It was not long before I had a separate command
of great importance.
Past Grand Master Guthrie says of this writer:
Dr. George W. Chaytor, well and favorably known, was a notable
physician and enthusiastic Mason. He was born December 25, 1813,
initiated September 7, 1841, raised November 2, 1841, and died April
14, 1878; respected by all men. He served his lodge as Master and in
1845 became a permanent member of the Grand Lodge of Delaware and was
immediately elected Senior Grand Warden, Grand Secretary, 1849-59,
Chairman of Committee on Foreign correspondence in 1875, elected
Grand Master of Masons of Delaware in 1875.
Just how much Dr. Chaytor really knew, and how much he was influenced
by tradition is now only a matter of speculation. Even a reliable
and worth witness may easily be misled in reporting on history a
hundred years after the fact. It is interesting, at least, that
Chaytor and Gould report the same language as coming from the lips of
Lafayette as far as the separate command is concerned.
No attempt is here made to settle a question which has vexed the most
learned. That Lafayette was an enthusiastic, loyal and devoted Mason
no one can doubt; his reception on his final visit to this country
was one long Masonic Pilgrimage with Grand Lodges and Lodges vieing
with each other to do him honor. But just where he was brought to
light is so involved with contradictions, that only further
discoveries seem likely, finally to settle it to the satisfaction of
Masonic Historians.
ADDENDUM
In The New Age magazine for July 1941, Brother Ray Baker Harris,
Librarian of the Supreme Council, 33 deg., Southern Jurisdiction,
revealed the acquisition of a rare 18th century program of the
inauguration of Lodge St. Jean de la Candeur in Paris in December,
1775
The Lodge had invited to the inauguration ceremonies the Honorary,
Regular and Subordinate Officers, and Deputies, of all Lodges
composing the Grand Orient of France, and all brethren who could be
recommended as regular Masons. Obviously the ceremonies were held
In Lodge.
Attached to the program is a Tableau of 100 Les Chers Freres
Visiteurs. The Marquis de Lafayette is listed among the visiting
Brethren.
While this seems to establish conclusively that Lafayette was a Mason
in 1775 before coming to America, it leaves unanswered the question
of when and where he was made a Mason.
