ored to be representing Region VI (Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas) and hope that these new cabinet positions will be able to help improve communications and ideas throughout DeMolay. I am especially excited that Congress will be in Kansas City next year and that all of you have an opportunity to attend and see the DeMolay leadership in action. On a final note, I enjoyed talking about Walt Disney, Sr. DeMolay, while I visited Disneyland and the DeMolay history that I feel when I am visiting. I have a few pictures to share of the trip. If you would like more information on any upcoming events you can check out our state website at www.modemolay.org or contact me at justinw@modemolay.org. Justin A. Woods State Master Councilor, Jurisdiction of Missouri
Continued from back cover treason that he was arrested and brought to trial at Richmond in 1808.”6 Although found not guilty by Justice John Marshall, the trial and the killing of Alexander Hamilton in a duel ended his political career. General Benedict Arnold was one of Washington’s most dependable and intrepid commanders. He “marched from New Haven at the head of a company made up of volunteers from the Governor’s Foot Guard and the student body at Yale. On May 10 [1775], Ticonderoga fell to a group of irregulars organized and financed by a number of men at Hartford… Arnold arrived from Cambridge with a Massachusetts commission in time to accompany the assault party, being refused the command.”7 Colonel Arnold and General Richard Montgomery had led the unsuccessful Canadian expedition, which had been launched, with high hopes. As a volunteer Aaron Burr accompanied them. The two-pronged invasion had been wasted by sickness, bitter cold and rugged terrain until finally a mere handful remained to assail Quebec, the key to control of Canada. The assault was beaten back, Montgomery killed and Arnold badly wounded.8 McCullough describes Arnold as “one of the stormiest figures among the generals…hot-tempered and arrogant….but he was a fighting general and Adams cherished him.9 Then Arnold became America’s most notorious traitor. Washington had placed Arnold, as one of his best fighting generals, in command of the fort at West Point. In September 1780 General Benedict Arnold conspired to commit treason by turning West Point 110 Fall 2008
over to the British, with whom he had long been in traitorous communication. He was commissioned a brigadier general in the British army and was paid for his property losses. The next year he compounded his treason by raids upon his mother country, including an expedition into Virginia which burned Richmond and made an attack on New London, Connecticut, his native town.. Were these men Freemasons? King George III was not a Freemason, although the majority of the male members of his royal family were. Aaron Burr was often considered to be a Freemason, because of his frequent association with members of the fraternity. In the words of James Case, “There is not a shred of evidence that Aaron Burr was a Freemason.”10 Washington’s Masonic connections are well documented. The original Masonic records of Benedict Arnold are unknown, but it is well established that he affiliated with New Haven, Connecticut Lodge No. 1, on April 18, 1765. Dr. Benjamin Church, the first traitor, was not a Freemason. The Masonic record of General Nathanael Greene remains unclear, but in 1825 the Grand Lodge of Georgia united with the marquis de Lafayette in laying the cornerstone with Masonic ceremony. Among Lafayette’s Masonic honors was being elected an Honorary Member of the Grand Lodge of Missouri. Both John Marshall and John Hancock were well-known Freemasons. Viewing the 7-part HBO miniseries JOHN ADAM has started me on a roller-coaster ride of reading about our Founding Fathers. From David McCullough’s John Adams (2001), on
which TV series is based, and 1776 (2005), I learned infinitely more about him and his comrades. Then I read Joseph J. Ellis’s Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, followed by his American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (1996), then Stacy Schiff, A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of American (2005) and Joyce E. Chaplin’s The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius; Lewis C. Wes Cook, Colonial Freemasonry (1974), Page Smith’s John Adams in 2 volumes (1962), and Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton (2004) Oh, yes, all this brought me back to The Federalist: The Famous Papers on the Principles of American Government, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay (first published in 1788), the now classic edition by Benjamin Fletcher Wright (1961). Traditio is an important part of the history of our national and of Freemasonry. Both our nation and our fraternity acknowledge with embarrassment those events in which traditio had the pejorative connotation of treason. Both our nation and our fraternity are proud of the traditio that is our heritage, including the traditions of our Founding Fathers and more than two centuries of our history. 1
David McCullough, 1776, p. 10 Ibid., p. 136 3 Ibid, pp. 55-56. 4 Joseph J. Ellis, (1996), p. 207 5 Ibid., p. 284. 6 James R. Case, The Case Collection: Biographies of Masonic Notables (1986), Vol. II, p. 36. 7 Lewis C. Wes Cook, (1974), p. 29. 8 Page Smith, John Adams (1962), Vol. I, p. 239. 9 David McCullough, John Adams (2001),p. 315. 10 Case, op. cit., p. 36. 2
THE MISSOURI FREEMASON