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:

"That although WASHINGTON was _extremely scrupulous_ in preserving
his correspondence with all public or private bodies, there is not
a line of his _relating to Freemasonry_, to be found among all his
papers, except the correspondence with Mr. Snyder![4] It is also a
fact, tha