Essay on The Architecture of American Freemasonry, by Bro. Justin Robinson

This great country was founded on a very simple principle. Yet, this simple principle addressed so many issues as to relate with a complicated resolution. This principle was--simply--let the states have the power. At the birth of this country it was decided by our Founding Fathers that the states would have the majority of power over the citizens, while the government would sit in the background and only address necessary national issues. This idea of State sovereignty is at the heart of how American Freemasonry was established.

When our Founding Fathers, many of whom were prominent masons, started drafting this countrie's organizational structure, they used their current knowledge of how Freemasonry was structured, to give them an idea of where to go with this country. Before the revolution, this country was 13 colonies; each colony had its own masonry, many with their own Grand Lodge established. Our founding fathers looked at this and figured if it can work for our masonry, it can work for our country.

As our country grew, this same mentality continued to be applied to both freemasonry and the states. Each state had the ability to determine its own laws, its own regulations, and its own rules of settlement, as long as it applied to the government's basic outlining of how a state should operate. Each Grand Lodge that was established also was given the right to govern its own jurisdiction by its own bylaws, rules, and regulations, as long as it adhered to the landmarks which its brother Grand Lodges adhered to. This also gave rise to enhanced understanding of regularity and recognition. As each Grand Lodge must have been established through a regular vote of the majority of masons in the state, this kept the bonds between the states strong.

It wasn't until after the Civil War that the government took control of a large portion of the rights that states had and in essence the states lost that freedom which was intended to always been had, by our Founders. This of course had no effect on the Grand Lodge system of today, as the Grand Lodges continued to not have a governing body over them.

Thus, one can see that today's Grand Lodge system was and is the ideals of our Forefathers, the ones who went this way before us, and it works as well as any establishment can. No single Grand Lodge should have say over the operations of any other Grand Lodge; nor should they interfere with the operations of any other Grand Lodge, as it is not their place nor right to do so.

Our Founding Father's dream lives on today, not through our government, but through our Freemasonry.