[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FREEMASONRY'S LASTING TRIBUTE

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 16, 1998

  Mr. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and celebrate the Grand 
Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the District of Columbia, and the 
Freemasons of this nation who gather for the Sesquicentennial 
Celebration of the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington 
Monument.
  Mr. Speaker, this monument to our first President, himself a Mason, 
retains the distinction of being the tallest freestanding masonry 
structure in the world. It is my privilege to enter into the Record 
information from the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the 
District of Columbia.

       The Masons of the United States, having played a major role 
     in the funding and erection of the Washington Monument, also 
     have a major role in the current restoration effort. The 
     cornerstone of the structure honoring the Father of our 
     country was laid on July 4, 1848, by the Freemasons of 
     America, with our own Past Grand Master, Benjamin B. French 
     presiding. In these duties, he was assisted by the Grand 
     Masters of the Grand Lodges of Pennsylvania and Maryland. 
     Other Masons in attendance included representatives and 
     members of Grand Lodges of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
     Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, and 
     of the Grand Royal Arch Masons of Maryland.
       Records of the occasion inform us that the procession to 
     the site consisted of the President and Vice President of the 
     United States, and of the Heads of Departments, the Senate 
     and the House of Representatives; Foreign Ministers, 
     distinguished strangers, and of the civil and military 
     services. Also in the group were representatives of the 
     Independent Order of the Oddfellows, the Order of the Red 
     Men, Rechabites, and other Temperance and Benevolent 
     Societies. But it was a Masonic day, and it was the 
     Freemasons of the District of Columbia who were responsible 
     for seeing that the ceremonies were in accord with Masonic 
     custom and protocol.
       At the conclusion of the ceremony Grand Master French 
     presented the architect, Robert Mills (also a Mason), the 
     working tools of his profession with these words: ``I now 
     present you, my Brother, the square, level, and plumb, which 
     are the working tools you are to use in the erection of this 
     monument. You, as a Freemason, know to what they morally 
     allude: the plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly in our 
     several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by 
     the square of virtue, and remembering that we are traveling 
     upon the level of time to that undiscovered country from 
     whose bourne no traveler returns. Never forgetting this 
     sublime moral lesson, you are here to use them practically in 
     your profession. Look well to the erection of this national 
     monument; see that every stone is squared, and that it is 
     placed in its position both level and plumb, that the noble 
     offering of a nation to commemorate greatness, patriotism, 
     and virtue, may stand until the end of time.''

  Mr. Speaker, I invite the Members in this hallowed chamber to join me 
in remembering the Masonic stones at the monument and the ongoing 
support provided by Grand Lodges and Lodges of Freemasons across 
America.

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