Fraternal Revolutionaries: Masonic Founding Fathers and their Influence on the United States Constitution

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the extent of how influential Freemasonry was, as a social order, in the drafting of the documents pertaining to the Supreme Laws of the Land. Since Freemasonry was the first established fraternal order in Colonial America, I would like to see how, and if, Freemasonry influenced characteristics and actions of those involved in the drafting of the Albany Plan, the Articles of Confederation, and finally, the United States Constitution of 1787. In preparation for this thesis, I will first introduce Freemasonry as a practice and as a set of moral and philosophical principles. My research included the analysis of British Masonic manuscripts from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance period, and how these documents influenced British Parliamentary law. Moreover, I’ve laid a potential chronological timeline of how the Bill of Rights may have traveled through the means of British Freemasonry to Colonial Freemasonry. Where necessary, I have indicated whether these manuscripts were a primary source, or were gathered as information through the means of a secondary source. Moreover, the main research method employed here is the chronological comparison of ancient Masonic charges, to the constitutions of British guilds, and to later the first formation of an official Constitution of the Freemasons. Since Colonial Americans and British citizens traveled back and forth during the development of colonial America, I hypothesize that Masonic principles were also brought over through Anderson’s Masonic Constitution of 1723 by Benjamin Franklin. I found, through my research, that the development of ancient Masonic constitutions did indeed influence British culture and law, which in turn influenced Colonial American law. In some documents, such as the Albany Plan, that were directly drafted by Freemasons, it is clear that Masonic influences do exist. For those documents, such as the Articles of Confederation, that were drafted by several Founding Fathers, the evidence of Masonic principles becomes less clear, but still present. I was able to conclude that the influence of Masonic principles, both through as a Fraternal organization and with its living constitution and edicts, did influence the development of colonial documents of the mid to late colonial period. Although a vast majority of those involved with drafting these documents were not Freemasons, colonial Freemasonry was no doubt heavily involved in influencing the cultural development of the era.