"I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another."
~Thomas Jefferson
The question of whether or not Thomas Jefferson was a Mason has been argued for two hundred years. Most Masonic scholars take the position that he was not a Mason because there is no contemporary evidence that he ever belonged to a lodge of Freemasons. Most of the claims of his membership are based on his close associations with so many other Masons: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, James Monroe, Lewis Meriwether, William Clark, and Voltaire.
However, there is some evidence that indicates he may have been a Mason and that he attended Masonic meetings. Dr. Joseph Guillotin reported that he attended meetings at the prestigious Lodge of Nine Muses in Paris, France—the same lodge attended by Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, and John Paul Jones. He marched in a Masonic procession with Widow’s Son Lodge No. 60 and Charlottesville Lodge No. 90 on October 6, 1817, and participated in laying the cornerstone for Central College (now known as the University of Virginia.) In 1801, twenty-five years prior to his death, a lodge was chartered in Surry Court House, Virginia—it was named Jefferson Lodge No. 65. And most notably, upon his death on July 4, 1826, both the Grand Lodge of South Carolina and the Grand Lodge of Louisiana held Masonic funeral rites and processions for him. I've had the opportunity over the last few years to ask a few well-respected Masonic scholars about Thomas Jefferson, and every time, they fall back on that same line "there is no contemporary evidence that Thomas Jefferson was a Mason." But at least one I spoke to, when I asked him what he thought, admitted he believed Thomas Jefferson was a Mason.
I caught some flack for it, and I knew I would, but I decided to include him in my second book Famous American Freemasons: Volume II because my books are not just about famous Freemasons; they are also about the larger story of American history. And no story of America would be complete without including the contributions of Thomas Jefferson. If he wasn’t a Mason, he clearly possessed all the prerequisites for membership, and his beliefs, his philosophies, and his great skill in architecture were certainly indicative of Masonic affiliation. But he took the answer to that question to his grave--a big obelisk he designed himself. Odd, huh?
Was he a Mason, or not? I’ll leave the question for you to decide.
~TEC
I have a very old and very large Masonic Bible I had purchased at a used book store in Des Moines IA and in it it listed all the U.S Presidents that were Masons and Jefferson was listed as one.
ReplyDeleteAs I state in the article, as far as I'm concerned, I believe he may have been (and I'm not alone in that belief--however, the evidence is lacking. Until there is a little more factual evidence to support it, we can't very well call him a Freemason at this point.
ReplyDeleteI think that Jefferson was a genius in that he clearly saw the oppression of the Crown and Private Central Banks would enslave us, he feared the unrestricted growth of centralized Federal power in the government and executive branch at the expense of states and individuals rights, he feared the bourgeois and aristocratic snobbery that erupted after Independence would bear poisoned fruit in all of the aforementioned - and wether or not he admired some free masons or felt their views would lead to more democratic revolutions and the overthrow of tyranny and corrupt stagnat monarchically oppressive regiemes - which he clearly favored- or not- he definitely was greatly opposed to any secret societies and the corrupting influence that many of these brought from foreign powers and funds subverting the Republic and spoiling the fruits of the Revolution. It is an incontrivertible fact - although not reported on the monopolistic monosyllabic Zionist controlled major news networks whose involvement was essentially critical and central -(an all too perfect example of Jeffersons fears of unrestricted corporate powers run amok and politicized by foreign control with their market control and complete alignment against the Constitution and citizenry)- that 9/11 was a Mossad operation carried out with the support of treasonous scum in our government and military and Intel who were 1 dual citizen Israeli/US project for new Americans 2 neo cons 3 Freemasons of a particular international flavor deeply in bed with their so called brothers in the CIA FBI NSA MOSSAD M15 and other Intel groups of our so called "allies". That the Mossad and M15 and CIA and FBI have been involved in false flags on 9/11 and continuing to today is no surprise as their alliefence is to their brothers and their fraternal international goals above any alliegence to the Constitition and Republic of the United States. In the eye witness bs accounts on 9/11 and during the inane false flag San Bernadino attack there was an eye witness wearing a Masonic shirt and ball cap with a compass on it respectively
ReplyDeleteYou need help.
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ReplyDeleteThis is not to say by any means that all Mason's are treasonous scum - my father was a Mason in his youth and is a patriot just as not all of our Intel community has been infiltrated by this psychotic cabal doing the bidding they believe of some new world order utopia in their naivety when in fact they are working for the .01% richest who in 2016 even the corporate networks admitted will own 99% of the worlds wealth and resources, whilst the rest of us billions and billions of the 99% of the population ALL SPLIT THE REMAINING 1% of wealth they haven't yet figured out how to steal via theft murder genocide and war from us unwashed masses whom they consider their slaves. And that definitely includes these deluded Freemasons in the worlds Intel services who've been duped into carrying out false flag attacks on even their own and "allies" countries - in order to carry out their Hegelian Dialectic of Divide and Conquer- via the old tried and true formula of creating the problems and anticipating the solutions and having two alternative ones available so the dumb Pavlovian trained masses think they're making their own choices or are free when in fact they're their own best and only real jailers. For example Soros who is a mason- had his hacked emails reveal he is funding democrats and republicans- black lives matter, Neo Nazi alt right - legalize marijuana, tea parties, and funding and schooling South Americans in all South American countries to hate America and believe they must overthrow our government and then to bus them to the border with instructions on crossing illegally and organizing to overthrow the government once in illegally. These people should all be arrested like Soros and all of our recent presidents who've been part of the same cabal of intentional terrorists claiming to fight international terrorism in Al Queda and ISIS which it has been incontrivertibly proven were and are CIA MOSSAD black ops. So Thomas Jefferson while he may have respected many of his peers and friends who were Mason's - he knew freemasonry was a threat and like the private central bank this has been only borne out with history repeating itself cuz people are unable to do their own research and fact checking online while they still can...
They will just fly over one day and spray us all like a bunch of insects. The sky over my home in N. Texas is criss crossed with chemtrails today.
DeleteDon't believe me? The Thomas Jefferson Montecitto website itself says of Jefferson and secret societies the following- including quotes from his own correspondence on these matters to Washington etc: Jefferson’s general feelings towards fraternal organizations are fairly clear in comments he made to George Washington in a letter dated April 16, 1784 in reference to the Society of the Cincinnati. The Society of the Cincinnati was formed on May 13, 1783 by a gathering of officers from the Continental Army. They called their constitution the “Institution,” and this document dictated that membership would pass to the eldest male descendents of founders and allowed for the admission of honorary members. Branches of the organization were established in all thirteen original colonies and France. The stated intention of the society was “perpetuating wartime friendships, aiding the unfortunate and preserving ‘union and national honor’ among the states". Public criticism was strong immediately following the foundation of the society. Many citizens were concerned about the hereditary and honorary membership aspects. They believed that the society was established to lift its members to the position of nobility in a supposedly democratic society and to ensure the financial obligations of Congress towards veterans of the Revolutionary War. George Washington wrote to Thomas Jefferson requesting his opinion of the Society of Cincinnati, because they had recently chosen him for President pro tem. 8 Jefferson responded to Washington’s letter, listing the concerns of many citizens about the society. He also expressed his own concern that one of the stated purposes of the society – which was to maintain the sense of brotherhood between old comrades in war – would not be fulfilled, because providing a forum for debate between the old comrades would only foster arguments and ruin friendships. Jefferson advised that Washington propose some serious alterations to the society’s constitution (which he admitted would bring the society close to annihilation).These changes included parting “with it’s inheritability, it’s organization and it’s assemblies."9 Washington obviously took Jefferson’s advice into consideration, as he did submit several suggested changes to the Society’s constitution. These changes included abolishing the hereditary function of the society, striking out any clause with a political tendency, rejecting donations from foreign sources, and restricting the business of the meetings to the election of officers and the disposal of charitable funds. These proposed changes were published in several newspapers. This turned out to be enough to allay the public’s fears about the society, but in reality the changes were not ratified by all of the branches. Whether or not it was earned, public opinion shifted more positively towards the Society in the late 1780s and 1790s and after 1800, the Society became much less active. In fact, most branches had ceased to function by the first quarter of the century. 10
ReplyDelete“If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck”
ReplyDeleteThomas Jefferson was not a freemason. People keep raising the point about how there is no contemporary evidence to support his membership, but there IS evidence to support he was not a freemason. On the one end, if you read his letters, even to his daughter, he words them in a way that denotes he is not a member of the fraternity. Off the top of my head, for example, he'll refer to "their fraternity" rather than "our fraternity", "my fraternity" or even the ambiguous "the fraternity". The truth is that Jefferson cohorted with a mixed crowd. He contributed money to many different organizations such as various churches of different denominations and was a friend to anyone who was deserving. He believed that even political differences were not reason enough to prevent friendship, and that's why he was friends with many people we would not expect him to otherwise be friendly with given his politics. Jefferson's fraternization with Freemasonry was merely a matter of respect in my opinion, and I think it is dubious to include him in any list because evidence exists that he was not a member, even if lists of membership or personal letters are not forthcoming which state definitively one way or another (such as an admission). I have read nearly every letter written by Thomas Jefferson available to the public (many of them more than once), and Jefferson was a man who painstakingly avoided being under the influence of anyone or anything. He did not want to be beholden to individuals or organizations other than the American people. Yes, he belonged to certain organizations, but these were not the sort of commitments that go along with freemasonry. Jefferson was committed to the fidelity of his own thoughts & opinions and no one else's. The closest he came to almost coming under undue influence is his borderline fanatical admiration for the three men he felt were the greatest men that ever lived—his holy trinity: Bacon, Locke, and Newton. Anyone who knows Jefferson as well as I do likely feels the same way. He hates secrecy. Valuing his privacy he encrypted many of his letters out of necessity, but he admonished the founders at the Philadelphia Convention, for example, because they all swore oaths of silence while the proceedings were taking place. Not only did make his feelings known, but in just a few years while serving as Secretary of State he discovered he was right about how the cure for armchair quarterbacks (secrecy) was not nearly as bad as the secrecy itself...
ReplyDeleteNarcoleptic Dogstar was exactly right five years ago. I've read those same correspondences more than once and Jefferson had very strong opinions against The Society of the Cincinnati which is still a hereditary organization even today. I know (knew) one of Alexander Hamilton's great grandsons, and he scoffed at my interest (at the time) for SAR membership and told me the Society of the Cincinnati was much more prestigious organization that he still belonged to. "They" even still invited him to ring the bell on Wall Street.
ReplyDeleteJohn F. Kennedy leaves another clue. He was a huge Jefferson fan, and in no small way, it was likely why he died in my opinion (too much to go into here). I believe JFK was sharing Jefferson's opinion when he publically made the point that "[t]he very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society" and how "we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings”. Jack was a devout student of Thomas Jefferson as so many of us are.
this was such an interesting rabbit hole to go down. you really seem like you know your shit brian, this was a good read
DeleteThomas Jefferson was a Past family member. It was well know within the Family that he was a FreeMason. /G\
ReplyDeleteOh, I'd love to hear the evidence supporting your relationship to him and him being a Mason. Please, dare to share.
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