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Article TWO WELL-KNOWN* MASONS; ← Page 3 of 8 →
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Two Well-Known* Masons;
of Brooklyn , N . T . On page 121 , under the head of " America , 1797 , " we find : u Converse : Likeness turned to the left , with the inscription : —
1 G . Washington , President . ' Under the likeness , ' 1797 . ' There is nothingMasonic visible on this side of the medal . " Heverse : A Masonic carpet ( tapis ) , with the following designs of symbolic caste , viz .: —Mosaic pavement , with Hiram , trowel , and volume ; a level and plumb ; three candlesticks , containing tapers ; square and compasses , conjoined ; brazen pillars , surmounted by
globes ; sun , moon , and stars ; letter G , and the All-seeing Eye looking down upon the whole . This inscription is ' Amor , Honor , et Justitia , & . W ., &^ Mersdorf , in his description , goes on to say : — "By the Lodges of Pennsvlvania , in commemoration of Washington ' s election as Grand
Master "—Tkory ' s jinn . ji pj ) . xxv ., plate 1 , No . 4 . But this is a serious inaccuracy . Washington was not a Grand Master ; and if he had been , the above inscription commemorates no such election —G-. G . M . expressing , not Grand Master , but General ( that is Supreme ) Grand Master , an office unknown to American Masonry . It is singular that we have no account of the purpose for which this
medal w as struck . It could not have been done to commemorate the laying the corner-stone of the Capitol at Washington , for this was four years earlier , viz ., in 1793 . Concerning this event , George Washington Park Custis , who was present , and witnessed the ceremony , writes ; - — " Washington , officiated as Grand Master of Masons
of the United States . " But there was no such officer . Its issue is not contemporaneous with the action of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , which , in January , 1780 , convened a Grand Lodge of Emergency , " to consider the propriety of appointing a General Grand Master of the United States ; and General George Washington
was unanimously chosen by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for that office ; " and we have , in brief , no published event with which to associate it . That the medal does commemorate an event of sufficient interest in the career of Washington to be worthy of perpetuation , we cannot doubt , and it is hoped the publication of this article mav draw it forth . Furthermore , if there is another copv of
the medal itself in existence , save that of Doctor Dove ' s , we should like to be informed of that fact . We now approach the Masonic history of Eranklin . From Klof ' s " History of Freemasonry in Eranc , " etc ., vol . L , pp . 250-252 , we have , through the politeness of Bro . Barthelmess , these translations : ' The Lodge des Netif Soeurs ( Nine Sisters , or Nine Muses ) , in
Paris , lebruary 7 th , 1778 , enjoyed the distinction of initiating the philosopher Voltaire . Eenjamin Eranklin had prevailed (?) upon him to request an initiation . The Chevalier de Cubieres , who survived the event forty-two years ( he died in 1820 ) , was an eye-witness of the solemn act , and became its historian . " The sponsor , or proposer of Voltaire , was the Abbe Cordier de
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Two Well-Known* Masons;
of Brooklyn , N . T . On page 121 , under the head of " America , 1797 , " we find : u Converse : Likeness turned to the left , with the inscription : —
1 G . Washington , President . ' Under the likeness , ' 1797 . ' There is nothingMasonic visible on this side of the medal . " Heverse : A Masonic carpet ( tapis ) , with the following designs of symbolic caste , viz .: —Mosaic pavement , with Hiram , trowel , and volume ; a level and plumb ; three candlesticks , containing tapers ; square and compasses , conjoined ; brazen pillars , surmounted by
globes ; sun , moon , and stars ; letter G , and the All-seeing Eye looking down upon the whole . This inscription is ' Amor , Honor , et Justitia , & . W ., &^ Mersdorf , in his description , goes on to say : — "By the Lodges of Pennsvlvania , in commemoration of Washington ' s election as Grand
Master "—Tkory ' s jinn . ji pj ) . xxv ., plate 1 , No . 4 . But this is a serious inaccuracy . Washington was not a Grand Master ; and if he had been , the above inscription commemorates no such election —G-. G . M . expressing , not Grand Master , but General ( that is Supreme ) Grand Master , an office unknown to American Masonry . It is singular that we have no account of the purpose for which this
medal w as struck . It could not have been done to commemorate the laying the corner-stone of the Capitol at Washington , for this was four years earlier , viz ., in 1793 . Concerning this event , George Washington Park Custis , who was present , and witnessed the ceremony , writes ; - — " Washington , officiated as Grand Master of Masons
of the United States . " But there was no such officer . Its issue is not contemporaneous with the action of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , which , in January , 1780 , convened a Grand Lodge of Emergency , " to consider the propriety of appointing a General Grand Master of the United States ; and General George Washington
was unanimously chosen by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for that office ; " and we have , in brief , no published event with which to associate it . That the medal does commemorate an event of sufficient interest in the career of Washington to be worthy of perpetuation , we cannot doubt , and it is hoped the publication of this article mav draw it forth . Furthermore , if there is another copv of
the medal itself in existence , save that of Doctor Dove ' s , we should like to be informed of that fact . We now approach the Masonic history of Eranklin . From Klof ' s " History of Freemasonry in Eranc , " etc ., vol . L , pp . 250-252 , we have , through the politeness of Bro . Barthelmess , these translations : ' The Lodge des Netif Soeurs ( Nine Sisters , or Nine Muses ) , in
Paris , lebruary 7 th , 1778 , enjoyed the distinction of initiating the philosopher Voltaire . Eenjamin Eranklin had prevailed (?) upon him to request an initiation . The Chevalier de Cubieres , who survived the event forty-two years ( he died in 1820 ) , was an eye-witness of the solemn act , and became its historian . " The sponsor , or proposer of Voltaire , was the Abbe Cordier de