American Revolution

American Revolution. Freemasonry, as an institution, had absolutely nothing to do with the American Revolution. It has had nothing to do with any revolution, war or insurrection. Writers, speakers and ”historians” have erroneously cast it in a war-like role, perhaps in an attempt to add ”glamour” to the Craft. Freemasonry does not interfere in politics nationally except in self defense.

It has been claimed that it was an invention of Oliver Cromwell to aid him against Charles I and also, quite inconsistently, as a means employed by the Jacobites to restore the Stuarts to the throne of England. Freemasons have been pointed out as one of the principal factors inciting the American Revolution and as coconspirators in that of France. The secrecy of the Society has furnished a plausible excuse for these distortions of fact.

The damage that such tales do is incalculable. Examples are found in the pogroms against Freemasons begun in Germany by General Ludendorff and his wife and continued by Hitler; and also those conducted by Mussolini in Italy and Franco in Spain, all treating Freemasons as active political revolutionary agents. Yet, they had both Masonic and non-Masonic authority for their allegations. Bernard Fay was a French writer, presumably that and nothing more, but for some reason he undertook to write and did write Revolution and Freemasonry in which he attempted to show that Freemasonry promoted both the American and French Revolutions. He found Masonic writers and speakers, prominent ones, not only stating that Freemasonry sponsored the American Revolution but boasting of it. When the Germans overran France in 1940, Fay turned out to be a Nazi collaborator and, following the liberation in 1945, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court.

Now, the truth is that, from the earliest Masonic precepts known, the Ancient Charges, through those of 1723, and down to and including Masonic Constitutions and regulations of the present day, the Fraternity has carefully, explicitly, and repeatedly disavowed all political interest and forbidden political discussions in the lodge. Antiquity MS. of 1686 directs: ”that yee shall be true Leige men to the king of England without treason or any Falsehood.”

The impression that Freemasonry dominated the American Revolution or that the Revolution dominated Freemasonry in the Colonies has grown out of a natural demand for patriotic articles and addresses and has been permitted by the fact that the Revolution is far enough in the past to allow latitude of expression without fear of contradiction. Though not stated in so many words, the impression is often given that the American Revolution was fought largely by Freemasons on one side and non-Masons on the other, and that the Colonial lodges were hotbeds of revolt.

The fact is that in all c*nflicts of the past two centuries, Freemasons, often prominent ones, have fought on both sides, some for and some against a king, some for and some against liberation. Fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, or Freemasons, have often fought under opposing standards and for opposing ideologies. Before and during the American Revolution, some Freemasons were loyal to their king or were Tories, while others were patriots or revolutionists. If the majority of Colonial Masons were for separation from Great Britain, they were so because most Freemasons, like most of the rest of the population, were not of the wealthy, patrician class.

At the outbreak of the Revolution, there were 7 Provincial Grand Masters in the Colonies. Of the 5 Modern Grand Masters, 4 were Tory. John Rowe at Boston was a merchant and shipper and was several times insulted on the streets of Boston, because of his coolness toward