Brother Lafayette entered the Grand Lodge Above on May 20, 1834. 
 Many Lodges in 1934 will dedicate meetings to a memory only less  
 immortal than that of his friend and brother George Washington. To  
 aid n such undertakings, this Bulletin sets forth the principal  
 contradictory testimonies about this Masonic making. 
 Julius S. Sachse, Grand Librarian if the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania,  
 learned student and scholar. wrote (Brochure. 1916): 
 "No original documentary evidence is known to be in existence which  
 records the initiation of General Lafayette in the Masonic  
 Fraternity, nor in what Lodge or when it took place. It has always  
 been a tradition in Masonic circles that General Lafayette was made a  
 Mason in one of the Military Lodges at Morristown, New Jersey, where  
 a Festal Lodge was held December 27, 1797, for which occasion the  
 jewels and furniture and clothing of St. John’s Lodge No.1 of Newark,  
 New Jersey, was borrowed. The meeting proved a great success, sixty- 
 eight brethren being present, one of whom was George Washington. 
 "There is another tradition that General Lafayette was made a Mason  
 in a Military Lodge which met at Valley Forge during the winter of  
 1777-78, but no official records of such action have thus far been  
 discovered." 
 Dr. Fredrick W. Hamilton, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of  
 Massachusetts, eminent and learned Masonic scholar, write (The  
 Builder, March 1921): 
 "Where and when La Fayette was made a Mason is not known. There are  
 at least two quite different traditions, but neither rests on any  
 very substantial basis or historic fact. Not improbably it was on  
 the eve of his momentous diplomatic mission to France when he was  
 just twenty-two; almost certainly it was in the Army Lodge; very  
 probably it was at the insistence and in the presence of Washington.  
 What is more likely than that Washington should have desires to weave  
 the bond of Masonic brotherhood around the young man who was to play  
 so delicate and important a part in the relations between the great  
 Mason who commanded the American Army and the other great Mason,  
 America’s greatest diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, who was American  
 Ambassador to the French King.? 
 "When La Fayette made his last visit to the United States the Grand  
 Lodge of Pennsylvania received him with distinguished honors, but  
 before doing so appointed a committee to investigate and report upon  
 his Masonic regularity. The committee reported that they had made  
 careful investigation and were fully satisfied, but unfortunately  
 their report gave no information whatever as to the evidence upon  
 which this conclusion was based. 
 "Gould, in the "Library of Freemasonry.’ named the place of ceremony  
 as Morristown, N.J., saying, "According to the late C.W. Moore, all  
 the American Generals of the Revolution, with the exception of  
 Benedict Arnold, were Freemasons. The Marquis de Lafayette was among  
 the number, and it is believed that he was initiated in American  
 Union Lodge at Morristown, N.J., the jewels and furniture used on the  
 occasion being sent by St. John’s Lodge at Newark, N.J." 
 Under the full page portrait of Lafayette which embellishes this  
 article, appears this caption: "The Marquis Lafayette was admitted  
 into Freemasonry in American Union Lodge which was held in a room  
 over the old Freeman’s Tavern, on the north side of the green,  
 Morristown, New Jersey, during the winter of 1777, at which time  
 Brother George Washington presided in person." 
 As Benedict Arnold "was" a Mason, his name was expunged from the  
 rolls after he was proved a traitor; the reader must decide for  
 himself how much weight can be given the testimony of "the late C.W.  
 Moore." 
 Past Grand Master Harry J. Guthrie, Delaware, Contributed a scholarly  
 paper on Lafayette to "The Builder", in March, 1925. From it the  
 following is abstracted: 
 "General Lafayette arrived in this country on June 14, 1777; received  
 a commission (honorary in effect) as a Major General from the  
 congress and was later assigned to Washington’s staff July 31, 1777;  
 led part of the troops in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11,  
 1777, where he was wounded in the leg and remained incapacitated at  
 Bethlehem, Pa., until the later part of October. He volunteered for  
 duty when scarcely able to place a boot on his foot, was assigned to  
 the command of General Green and assisted in a reconnoiter with a  
 view of giving battle to Lord Cornwallis, strongly entranced at  
 Gloucester Point, N.J. The fact that the whole country between New  
 York and Philadelphia was held in British grip precludes the  
 probability of a gathering of general officers of the American Army  
 attending a Masonic function at Morristown, N.J. between the first  
 of November and the fifteenth of December 1777, on which date  
 Washington went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pa., where  
 Lafayette was quartered until after Dec. 30, 1777, after which time  
 he went to Albany, N.Y. 
 "This should satisfy the mind as to the utter improbability of his  
 having taken any degrees at Morristown, N.J. in 1777. But I am  
 inclined to think the printed date of 1777 an error and that it  
 should read 1779 in accordance with the tradition. History and  
 government records inform us that on October 21, 1778, Lafayette, as  
 a Major General, was granted a leave of absence to go to France to  
 return at his convenience. (Probably on a secret mission) Lafayette  
 left Boston Harbor Fe. 11, 1779 for France; and the fact that he was  
 presented with the Congressional sword at Havre on Aug. 24, 1779,  
 comes pretty near proving that he arrived in France. On the return  
 trip he sailed aboard the French frigate Herman from Rochelle March  
 19, 1780, and landed at Boston April 28, 1780, and on May 13, 1780,  
 the Continental Congress considered his return to America to resume  
 his command as a fresh proof of zeal, etc., etc. So it was not  
 possible for him to have received the degrees of Freemasonry at  
 Morristown, N.J. in December 1779, and that is the reason a reference  
 was not made to him and that his name was not included in the Lodge  
 register which contained the names of Washington and the other sixty- 
 seven distinguished visitors." 
 Gould, in his "Military Lodges," says: 
 "In December, 1777, the Army retired to Valley Forge, and it was  
 there - according to evidence which seems to be of a trustworthy  
 character - that General Lafayette was initiated. The French  
 Officer, though he had been received very warmly and kindly by  
 General Washington, experience much uneasiness from the circumstance  
 that he had never been entrusted with a "separate command." During  
 the winter he learned there was a Lodge working in the camp. Time  
 hanging heavily on his hands, and the routine of duty being  
 monotonous, he conceived the idea that he would like to be made a  
 Mason. His wish, on being made know to the Lodge, was soon  
 gratified, the Commander-in-Chief being present and in the chair at  
 the time of his initiation. 
 "After I was made a Mason,’ said Lafayette, "General Washington  
 seemed to have received a new light. I never had from that moment  
 any cause to doubt his entire confidence. It was not long before I  
 had a ‘separate command’ of great importance.’" 
 Moore in his "Masonic Biography" states: "He had already become a  
 member of the Masonic Fraternity." (This was prior to his coming to  
 America.) 
 Findel, in his "History of Freemasonry," states that Lafayette  
 attended a Masonic meeting December 25, 1775, for the purpose of  
 consecrating a lodge named Da La Candeur. Particular mention was  
 made of Lafayette being present. 
 Brother W.P. Strickland, D.D., stated in his late sixties that  
 Lafayette was a member of the Fraternity when he came to America. 
 Earl B. Dellzell, in the "Grand Lodge Bulletin," Iowa, November,  
 1930, states" 
 "In the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee of 1825, pages  
 133 and 135, the minutes of the Grand Lodge of Wednesday, May 4,  
 1825, state: "Our illustrious brother General Lafayette was  
 unanimously elected an honorary member of this Grand Lodge.’ Later  
 we find: ‘Our illustrious brother General Lafayette was introduced  
 by Bros. Andrew Jackson and G.W. Campbell, received with Grand  
 Honors, and seated on the right of the W.W. Grand Master.’ 
 "’At the conclusion of the Grand Master’s address of welcome,  
 Lafayette made a feeling and appropriate reply, in substance as  
 follows:’ 
 "’He felt himself highly gratified at being so kindly welcomed by the  
 Grand Lodge of Tennessee, and at being made an honorary member of  
 that Lodge, in which he had been introduced by the distinguished  
 brother Mason who had erected the lines of New Orleans, and, in  
 technical language of the Craft, had made them "well-formed, true and  
 trusty." He had, he said, been long a member of the Order, having  
 been initiated, young as he was, even before he entered the service  
 of our country in the Revolutionary War. He had never for a moment  
 ceased to love and venerate the institution, and was, therefore,  
 peculiarly delighted to see that it had spread its genial influence  
 thus far to the west, and that his brethren here were not only  
 comfortable, but brilliantly accommodated. He considered the Order  
 as peculiarly valuable in this country where it not only fostered the  
 principles of civil and religious liberty, but was eminently  
 calculated to link the extremities of this wide republic together,  
 and to perpetuate, by its fraternizing influence, the union of the  
 States.’" 
 Contrast this with the statements made by Dr. George W. Chaytor,  
 addressing Lafayette Lodge No. 14, A.F. & A.M., Wilmington, Delaware,  
 January 18, 1875, on the fiftieth anniversary of its constitution.  
 (Quoted from the Guthrie article in "The Builder," March, 1925): 
 "He was not a Mason when he landed in America, nor was he a Mason at  
 the Battle of Brandywine. The Army under Washington, in December,  
 1777, retired to Valley Forge, where they wintered. Connected with  
 the Army was a Lodge. It was at Valley Forge that he was made a  
 Mason. On this point there should be no second opinion - for surely  
 Lafayette knew best where he was made a Mason. We have this  
 statement from himself - made at the time he was the guest of the  
 Grand Lodge of Delaware, and to members of that Grand Body. The  
 statement he made was as follows: 
 "He had offered his services to this country from the purest motives,  
 and he knew that, in his heart he had no selfish impulses. He found  
 a people struggling for liberty against tyranny, and he put his whole soul in the cause. That Washington received him in the kindest and  
 warmest manner, and never in any direct way showed the he had not the  
 fullest confidence in his intentions and ability as a soldier, but  
 yet, he could not divest his mind of a suspicion (that at times gave  
 him great discomfort) that the General of the American Army was not  
 altogether free from doubt in his case. This suspicion was  
 engendered from the fact that he had never intrusted him with a  
 separate command. This fact, he said, weighed upon him and at times  
 made him very unhappy. With this exception, he had not the least  
 cause for discomfort. During the winter (1777-78), as the Army lay  
 at Valley Forge, he learned there was a Masonic Lodge working in  
 camp. Time hanging heavy, and the routine of duty being monotonous,  
 he conceived the idea that he would like to be made a Mason. He made  
 his wish known to a friend, who at once informed him that he himself  
 was a Mason, and would take pleasure in making his wish known to the  
 lodge. This was done, and he was there made a Mason. He also stated  
 that Washington was present and acted as Master of the Lodge at the  
 time of initiation.’ 
 "This statement was made to members of the Grand Lodge, from some of  
 whom it was received. I have no doubt that he said what I have here  
 given, for the parties making the statement were gentlemen as well as  
 Masons, and their public lives show the estimate their fellow  
 citizens placed upon their honor and characters. I know that much  
 doubt and contradiction had been bandied about the important point in Lafayette’s life. Various places have been stated as the point of  
 his initiation - but an Army Lodge was always the organization in  
 which he secured light. 
 "I have not yet finished his statement - the later part is evidence  
 of the former. In the beginning he stated he felt rather hurt that  
 Washington had not shown sufficient confidence to entrust him with a  
 separate command. Now listen to what he said later: 
 "After I was made a Mason, General Washington seemed to have received  
 a new light - I never had, from that moment, any cause to doubt his  
 entire confidence. It was not long before I had a separate command  
 of great importance.’" 
 Past Grand Master Guthrie says of this writer: 
 "Dr. George W. Chaytor, well and favorably known, was a notable  
 physician and enthusiastic Mason. He was born December 25, 1813,  
 initiated September 7, 1841, raised November 2, 1841, and died April  
 14, 1878; respected by all men. He served his lodge as Master and in  
 1845 became a permanent member of the Grand Lodge of Delaware and was  
 immediately elected Senior Grand Warden, Grand Secretary, 1849-59,  
 Chairman of Committee on Foreign correspondence in 1875, elected  
 Grand Master of Masons of Delaware in 1875." 
 Just how much Dr. Chaytor really knew, and how much he was influenced  
 by tradition is now only a matter of speculation. Even a reliable  
 and worth witness may easily be misled in reporting on history a  
 hundred years after the fact. It is interesting, at least, that  
 Chaytor and Gould report the same language as coming from the lips of  
 Lafayette as far as the "separate command" is concerned. 
 No attempt is here made to settle a question which has vexed the most  
 learned. That Lafayette was an enthusiastic, loyal and devoted Mason  
 no one can doubt; his reception on his final visit to this country  
 was one long Masonic Pilgrimage with Grand Lodges and Lodges vieing  
 with each other to do him honor. But just where he was "brought to  
 light" is so involved with contradictions, that only further  
 discoveries seem likely, finally to settle it to the satisfaction of  
 Masonic Historians. 
 "ADDENDUM" 
 In "The New Age" magazine for July 1941, Brother Ray Baker Harris,  
 Librarian of the Supreme Council, 33 deg., Southern Jurisdiction,  
 revealed the acquisition of a rare 18th century program of the  
 inauguration of Lodge St. Jean de la Candeur in Paris in December,  
 1775 
 The Lodge had invited to the inauguration ceremonies "the Honorary,  
 Regular and Subordinate Officers, and Deputies, of all Lodges  
 composing the Grand Orient of France, and all brethren who could be  
 recommended as regular Masons." Obviously the ceremonies were held  
 "In Lodge." 
 Attached to the program is a Tableau of 100 "Les Chers Freres  
 Visiteurs." The Marquis de Lafayette is listed among the visiting  
 Brethren. 
 While this seems to establish conclusively that Lafayette was a Mason  
 in 1775 before coming to America, it leaves unanswered the question  
 of when and where he was made a Mason.