Mission Of Early American Masons

Gordon S. Wood, Professor Emeritus, Brown University and Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Radicalization on the American Revolution, continues to be one of America's most distinguished historians. Not a Freemason, he has recognized the significant role Freemasonry played in the founding of the development of the United States. In his most recent book Empire of Liberty he said about Freemasons:

“Everywhere institutions and organizations are burdened with the responsibility of imparting virtue and knowledge to the citizenry. Freemasonry, for example, came to see itself principally as an educational instrument for promoting morality. “Every character, figure, and emblem, depicted in the Lodge," declared a Masonic handbook, "has a moral tendency to, and inculcates the practice of virtue." But Masonry was not content with educating only its members; it sought to reach out and affect the whole society. Masonic brothers were involved in a multitude of public ceremonies and dedications--anointing bridges, canals, universities, monuments, and buildings. In 1793 President Washington himself, wearing a Masonic apron and sash, laid the cornerstone of the new United States Capitol in the planned the Federal City. Masons, many of whom were artisans, architects, and painters, placed the Fraternity's emblems and signs and symbols in a wide variety of objects, including ceramics, pitchers, handkerchiefs, liquor flasks, and wallpaper--with didactic hope of teaching virtues through the simple and expressive visual language of Masonry."