Archive for the ‘On This Day’ Category

From the Library of Congress, which writes:

“On August 4, 1753, George Washington became a Master Mason, the highest rank in the Fraternity of Freemasonry, in his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The twenty-one-year-old young man would soon hold his first military commission.

“Derived from the practices and rituals of the medieval guild system, freemasonry gained popularity in the eighteenth century, particularly in Great Britain. British Masons organized the first North American Chapter in 1731. Masons aroused considerable suspicion in the early American republic with their mysterious rites and closely held secrets. These fears mushroomed in response to the suspicious death in 1826 of William Morgan, who was said to have been murdered on account of his threat to reveal the secrets of freemasonry.

“For George Washington, joining the Masons was a rite of passage and an expression of civic responsibility. Members were required to express their belief in a Supreme Being and in the immortality of the soul. Masons were also were expected to obey civil laws, hold a high moral standard, and practice acts of charity.”

On July 14, 1789, French citizens stormed the Bastille, a medieval Parisian fortress that had become a symbol of French royal control. Months later, one of the fortification’s keys would be given to George Washington, eventually making its way from Paris’s narrow, urban streets to the banks of the Potomac.

How might the General come across such a rare possession? His good friend and mentee, the Marquis de Lafayette, was named commander of the Paris National Guard one day after the storming of the Bastille placing him in charge of the prison and allowing him to come into possession of the key. Lafayette passed it to Thomas Paine (who was then in Paris), to send on to Washington. Paine moved to London and turned the key over to John Rutledge, Jr., who, upon arriving in New York, finally put it in the hands of then-President Washington on or before August 3, 1790.

The president would take it with him to Philadelphia and eventually Mount Vernon. Washington prominently displayed the key as a “token of victory by Liberty over Despotism” in a custom-made, carved and gilded case. It is one of only a handful of possessions to both remain at the estate and be sold to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association when it made its purchase. Washington kept the key to the Bastille in the Mansion’s central passage, where it remains today.

From the Library of Congress:

The Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army on June 19, 1775. Washington was selected over other candidates such as John Hancock based on his previous military experience and the hope that a leader from Virginia could help unite the colonies. Washington left for Massachusetts within days of receiving his commission and assumed command of the Continental Army in Cambridge on July 3, 1775. After eight years of war, Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief on December 23, 1783.

On April 22, 1793, George Washington issued a proclamation of neutrality, keeping America from any entanglement with a war raging between Britain and France, which had engulfed a number of European countries.

Within Washington’s cabinet Thomas Jefferson opposed neutrality while Alexander Hamilton championed it. Although Jefferson would not ultimately have his way on the issue, he did see to it that the word “neutrality” be taken out of the document and replaced with “impartial.’ The move had little effect on the proclamation, which proclaimed America’s role in world conflict as neutral and placed legal proceedings against any American who aided either of the warring sides. The Neutrality Act of 1794 would follow in the proclamation’s footsteps.