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The original Masons were in fact stonemasons. They routinely laid the cornerstones of important government buildings and churches and participated prominently in parades and other public ceremonies (Tolson).
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When Lafayette made his return tour of the United States members of the free masons greeted their fellow Mason, they often invited him to stay at the local lodge. That tour further boosted Masonic membership, which had grown from 16,000 in 1800 to about 80,000 in 1822, or roughly 5 percent of America's eligible male population.
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Two years after Lafayette's triumphal tour, in the summer of 1826 in the upstate town of Batavia, a disgruntled ne'er-do-well claiming to be a Mason, William Morgan, declared his intent to publish a book revealing the secrets of one of the higher-degree Masonic societies, the Royal Arch.
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¨A statewide movement and then a national Anti-Masonic Party dedicated to driving the Masons out of existence. Pennsylvania and Vermont elected Anti-Masonic governors, and former U.S. Attorney General William Wirt ran for president on the party's ticket in 1832, winning Vermont's electoral votes and about 8 percent of the national popular vote¨ (Tolson).
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After the Civil War, and as the Gilded Age got going in the early 1870s, Masons again modified their role, becoming the model to more than 300 fraternal groups that appeared during the next 50 years.
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Between 1945 and 1960, membership soared from 2.8 million to a peak of 4 million.
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Tolson, Jay. “Inside the Masons.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 25 Aug. 2005, www.usnews.com/news/articles/2005/08/28/inside-the-masons.
