Trevor Moore: Drunk Texts to Myself - "Founding Fathers" - Uncensored

Great Freemasons: Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814)

What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Now, it must be evident, that, under this provision, together with their other powers, Congress could take such measures with respect to a militia, as to make a standing army necessary. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814)

Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice President of the United States (1813–1814), serving under James Madison. He is known best for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power, although its initial "g" has softened to /dʒ/ from the hard /ɡ/ of his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbridge_Gerry

(It is believed that he was a member of Philanthropic Lodge of Marblehead, MA, but the records of this lodge are missing from the period 1760-78 when he logically would have been initiated.)

Great Freemasons: Masonic Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Masonic Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Confirmed Masonic Membership of the following:
William Ellery, RI
Benjamin Franklin, PA
John Hancock, MA
Joseph Hewes, NC
William Hooper, NC
Robert Treat Paine, MA
Richard Stockton, NJ
George Walton, GA
William Whipple, NH

Others whose membership is rumored or probable, but not proven by records:
Elbridge Gerry, MA
Thomas Jefferson, VA
Richard Henry Lee, VA
Thomas McKean, DE
Robert Morris, PA
Thomas Nelson, Jr., VA
John Penn, NC
Benjamin Rush, PA
Roger Sherman, CT
James Smith, PA
John Witherspoon, NJ

Great Freemasons: William Whipple (January 14, 1730 – November 28, 1785)

I am sorry to say that sometimes matters of very small importance waste a good deal of precious time, by the long and repeated speeches and chicanery of gentlemen who will not wholly throw off the lawyer even in Congress.
William Whipple (January 14, 1730 – November 28, 1785)

William Whipple, Jr. (January 14, 1730 – November 28, 1785) was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Hampshire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Whipple
(St. John's Lodge, Portsmouth NH)

Great Freemasons: George Walton (1749 – February 2, 1804)

George Walton (1749 – February 2, 1804) signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia and also served as the second Chief Executive of that state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Walton

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/george-walton.html

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/george-walton-ca-1749-1804


(Solomon's Lodge No. 1, in Savannah GA)

Great Freemasons: Richard Stockton (October 1, 1730 – February 28, 1781)

"The public is generally unthankful, and I never will become a Servant of it, till I am convinced that by neglecting my own affairs I am doing more acceptable Service to God and Man."
Richard Stockton (October 1, 1730 – February 28, 1781)

Richard Stockton (October 1, 1730 – February 28, 1781) was an American lawyer, jurist, legislator, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stockton_%28Continental_Congressman%29

(Charter Master of St. John's Lodge, Princeton, Massachusetts in 1765)

Great Freemasons: Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814)

ODE.

ADAMS AND LIBERTY.

Written for, and sung at the fourth Anniversary of the Massachusetts
Charitable Fire Society, 1798.

YE sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought,
For those rights, which unstained from your Sires had descended,
May you long taste the blessings your valour has brought,
And your sons reap the soil which their fathers defended.
'Mid the regin of mild Peace,
May your nation increase,
With the glory of Rome, and the wisdom of Greece;
And ne'er shall the sons of Colmbia be slaves,
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.

In a clime, whose rich vales feed the marts of the world,
Whose shores are unshaken by Europe's commotion,
The trident of Commerce should never be hurled,
To incense the legitimate powers of the ocean.
But should pirates invade,
Though in thunder arrayed,
Let your cannon declare the free charter of trade.
For ne'er shall the sons, &c.

The fame of our arms, of our laws the mild sway,
Had justly ennobled our nation in story,
'Till the dark clouds of faction obscured our young day,
And enveloped the sun of American glory.
But let traitors be told,
Who their country have sold,
And bartered their God for his image in gold,
That ne'er will the sons, &c.

While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in blood,
And Society's base threats with wide dissolution;
May Peace like the dove, who returned from the flood,
Find an ark of abode in our mild constitution
But though Peace is our aim,
Yet the boon we disclaim,
If bought by our Sov'reignty, Justice or Fame.
For ne'er shall the sons, &c.

'Tis the fire of the flint, each American warms;
Let Rome's haughty victors beware of collision,
Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms,
We're a world by ourselves, and disdain a division.
While with patriot pride,
To our laws we're allied,
No foe can subdue us, no faction divide.
For ne'er shall the sons, &c.

Our mountains are crowned with imperial oak;
Whose roots, like our liberties, ages have nourished;
But lone e'er our nation submits to the yoke,
Not a tree shall be left on the field where it flourished.
Should invasion impend,
Every grove would descend,
From the hill-tops, they shaded, our shores to defend.
For ne'er shall the sons, &c.

Let our patriots destroy Anarch's pestilent worm;
Lest our Liberty's growth should be checked by corrosion;
Then let clouds thicken round us; we heed not the storm;
Our realm fears no shock, but the earth's own explosion.
Foes assail us in vain,
Though their fleets bridge the main,
For our altars and laws with our lives we'll maintain.
For ne'er shall the sons, &c.

Should the Tempest of War overshadow our land,
Its bolts could ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder;
For, unmoved, at its portal, would Washington stand,
And repulse, with his Breast, the assaults of the thunder!
His sword, from the sleep
Of its scabbard would leap,
And conduct, with its point, ev'ry flash to the deep!
For ne'er shall the sons, &c.

Let Fame to the world sound America's voice;
No intrigues can her sons from their government sever;
Her pride is her Adams; Her laws are his choice,
And shall flourish, till Liberty slumbers for ever.
Then unite heart and hand,
Like Leonidas' band,
And swear to the God of the ocean and land;
That ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves,
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.
"Adams and Liberty," lyrics by Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814)


Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician, best known as a signer of the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. He served as the state's first attorney general, and served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Treat_Paine


(Lodge unknown, however there is a record of him attending the Massachusetts Grand Lodge in 1759)

Great Freemasons: William Hooper (June 28, 1742 – October 14, 1790)

“I am weary of politics. It is a study that corrupts the human heart, degrades the idea of human nature, and drives men to the expedients that morality must condemn."
William Hooper (June 28, 1742 – October 14, 1790)

William Hooper (June 28, 1742 – October 14, 1790) was an American lawyer, physician, politician, and a member of the Continental Congress representing North Carolina from 1774 through 1777. Hooper was also a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, along with fellow North Carolinians Joseph Hewes and John Penn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hooper


(Member of Hanover Lodge in Masonborough, N.C.)

Great Freemasons: John Hancock (January 23, 1737 – October 8, 1793)

"I conjure you, by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye pray, but that ye act."
John Hancock (January 23, 1737 – October 8, 1793)

John Hancock (January 23, 1737 [O.S. January 12, 1736] – October 8, 1793) was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term "John Hancock" became, in the United States, a synonym for signature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock


(Became a Mason in Merchants Lodge No. 277 in Quebec, affiliated with Saint Andrew's Lodge in Boston, 1762)

Samuel Adams (1722 - 1803)

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." Sam Adams

John Paul Jones (1747 - 1792)

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.
John Paul Jones

Too Late to Apologize