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OCR Page 1 of 9SPEECH DELIVERED BY HONORABLE HARRY S.
TRUMAN, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, OCTOBER 4,
1937
Brethren:
I consider it a very great privilege to appear before you to-
day to talk of the Constitution and the part Freemasonry played in
its creation. Nearly every colony had Lodges of Freemasons previous
to the Revolution, and a number of the greatest leaders of Colonial
times were members and leaders in the Fraternity. Thirty two of the
fifty five members of the Constitutional Convention which assembled
in Philadelphia in May 1787 were Freemasons. Twenty one of the
thirty nine who signed the finished document on September 17, 1787
were Freemasons.
Washington who presided over the Convention was the first Master
of Alexandria Lodge, which now bears his name; and acted as Grand
Master of Maryland when he laid the corner stone of the Capitol.
Benjamin Franklin was Grand Master of Pennsylvania Gunning Bedford,
Jr., first Grand Master of Delaware; John Blair, first Grand Master
of Virginia; David Brearley, first Grand Master of New Jersey;
William Davie, Grand Master of North Carolina; Edmund Randolph,
Grand Master of Virginia. It was through the Fraternity that much
of the correspondence between leaders of the Revolutionary times
was carried on. They had a common ground on which to meet and we
know that thirty two members of the Constitutional Convention were
thoroughly grounded in the teachings of Freemasonry.
The very wording of the Constitution itself shows a masonic
influence. Read the Preamble: "We the People of "the United States
in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure
TRUMAN
by PATIONAL
ADMIN
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Subject
Freemasonry
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