Happy Independence Day!

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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: Joseph Hewes (January 23, 1730 – November 10, 1779)

Dear Sir: -
. . . . On Monday the great question of independency and total separation from all political intercourse with Great Britain will come on. It will be carried, I expect, by a great majority, and then, I suppose we shall take upon us a new name. . . . .
Joseph Hewes (January 23, 1730 – November 10, 1779). in a letter to James Iredell Philadelphia, June 28th, 1776.

Joseph Hewes (January 23, 1730 – November 10, 1779) was a native of Princeton, New Jersey, where he was born in 1730. Hewes’s parents were members of the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers. Immediately after their marriage, they moved to New Jersey, which became Joseph Hewes’s home state. Hewes attended Princeton but there isn't any evidence that he actually graduated. What is known is that he became an apprentice of a merchant and in fact became a very successful merchant. After finishing his apprenticeship he earned himself a good name and a strong reputation, which would serve him well in becoming one of the most famous signers of the Declaration of Independence for North Carolina, along with William Hooper and John Penn. Hewes moved to Edenton, North Carolina at the age of 30 and won over the people of the colony with his charm and honorable businesslike character. Hewes was elected to the North Carolina legislature in 1763, only three years after he moved to the colony. After being re-elected numerous times in the legislature, Hewes was now focused on a new and more ambitious job as a continental congressman.


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



(Lodge unknown, but was recorded as a Masonic visitor to Unanimity Lodge No. 7, Edenton, North Carolina, in December 1776, and was also buried with Masonic honors)

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)

Anarchy is for Lovers

Great Freemasons: William Ellery (December 2, 1727- February 15, 1820)

”… the door is shut … We have been driven into a Declaration of Independency & must forget our former love of our British brethren. The Sword must determine our quarrel.”
William Ellery (December 2, 1727- February 15, 1820)

William Ellery (1727-1820) was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Rhode Island.

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


(St. John's Lodge/First Lodge of Boston, Boston, MA, 1748)

The World is a Magical Place....

Great Freemasons: Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732 – June 19, 1794)

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.
That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.
~Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732 – June 19, 1794), known as the Lee Resolution, or the Resolution of Independence, voted and agreed upon by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Resolution

Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732 – June 19, 1794) was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States Declaration of Independence, which Lee signed. He also served a one-year term as the President of the Continental Congress, and was a United States Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, serving during part of that time as one of the first Presidents pro tempore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Henry_Lee

(It is not definite he was a Freemason, but it is likely. Hiram Lodge No. 59, Westmoreland County, Virginia)

Happy Canada Day!

"I read in a newspaper that I was to be received with all the honors customarily rendered to a foreign ruler. I am grateful for the honors; but something within me rebelled at that word 'foreign'. I say this because when I have been in Canada, I have never heard a Canadian refer to an American as a 'foreigner'. He is just an 'American'. And, in the same way, in the United States, Canadians are not 'foreigners', they are 'Canadians'. That simple little distinction illustrates to me better than anything else the relationship between our two countries."
"On both sides of the line, we are so accustomed to an undefended boundary three thousand miles long that we are inclined perhaps to minimize its vast importance, not only to our own continuing relations but also to the example which it sets to the other nations of the world."
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Visit to Quebec, July 31, 1936


(Photo President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1936 Pierce Arrow Convertible, in Quebec, Canada, August, 1936)

Great Freemasons: James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868)

I feel that my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly, performed, and, whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country.
James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868)

James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States (1857–1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Buchanan


(Initiated: December 1l, 1816, Lodge No. 43, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Brother Buchanan became Worshipful Master of Lodge No. 43 1822-1823; and in 1824 was appointed District Deputy Grand Master for the Counties of Lancaster, Lebanon and York.)