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Citation: Journal of Social History Winter 1998, v.32, 2, 455(3)
Author: Weisberger, William R.
Title: Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the
Transformation of the American Social Order,
1730-1840.(Review) (book reviews) reviewed by William
R. Weisberger
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT 1998 Peter N. Stearns
By Steven C. Bullock (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for
the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., 1996.
xviii plus 421pp. $49.95).
This encompassing and stimulating study by Steven C. Bullock reveals much
about the prominent place of Freemasonry in America between 1730 and 1840.
Bullock's major aims are to examine the ideological features of Masonic
ritualism and to explain the institutional functions and operations of the
order's grand and local lodges. He advances convincing theses concerning the
ritualistic attractiveness of Enlightenment doctrines associated with deism
and Newtonianism, concerning the privacy and sociability of Masonry's local
lodges, and concerning the great appeal of the order to members of
middle-class elites in America. Bullock well demonstrates also that Masonry
was intimately involved in attempting to create an enlightened republic and a
mercantile society in America between 1790 and 1825 and that as a result of
the Antimasonic movement, the Craft was seriously discredited in many regions
of the North between 1826 and 1840. This work is both chronologically and
topically arranged and contains eleven chapters and four parts.
In the first part of the book, Bullock explains the origins and evolution of
Speculative Freemasonry in Augustan England and in colonial America. Unlike
most scholarly studies which deal with the rise of the modern Masonic
movement, Bullock's work does devote attention to occult legacies and to
operative masonry in its treatment of the formation of the Modern Grand Lodge.
However, Bullock, like Margaret C. Jacob and this reviewer, accentuates the
ideological and institutional connections between the Enlightenment and Modern
London Masonry. The author lucidly demonstrates that the first three Masonic
degrees, among other things, embodied doctrines of deism, Newtonianism, and
Palladianism; he also argues that these three degrees fused the teachings of
classical civilization with those of eighteenth century society and thus
revealed the importance of order and harmony within Nature. There also are
fine sections about the activities of the London Grand Lodge and its local
lodges; Bullock shows that this grand lodge, which was established in 1717,
operated according to Whiggish doctrines specified in a constitution. Local
lodges were involved with tavern and club life, helped to foster genteel
practices, and recruited their members from noble and middle-class elites and
from the Royal Society and other cultural institutions in the city.
Under the jurisdiction of the Modern London Grand Lodge, colonial
Freemasonry flourished. Bullock shows that local lodges, which were
responsible to provincial grand masters, quickly emerged during the 1730s in
Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston; he maintains that colonial
Masons constituted a "United Party of Virtue" and that the concepts of love,
honor, benevolence, gentility, and privacy explained why they wished to
associate with the order. The author presents a fine occupational analysis of
members of lodges in Boston and in Philadelphia; these lodges - and probably
others in the colonies during the 1750s and 1760s - consisted predominantly of
merchants, of some physicians, lawyers, and soldiers, and of a few artisans.
Many members of these lodges occupied leadership positions in other civic
institutions and consequently were boosters.
In the second part of the book, Bullock first discusses Ancient Masonry and
then the Craft's role in the American Revolution. There is a detailed chapter
concerning the emergence and the consolidation of Ancient Freemasonry in the
colonies. Bullock shows that this system, which came in the 1750s from England
to America, and which had slightly different rituals and practices from those
of Modern Masonry, especially appealed to members of artisanal groups in
Boston, in Philadelphia, and in other eastern colonial cities. Forcing the
decline of Modern Masonry, Ancient lodges by the 1760s became firmly
established in colonial settlements in both piedmont and backcountry regions.
The members of lodges in these two regions perceived Ancient Masonry as being
a source of cosmopolitanism and republicanism and looked to it for social
activities and contacts. Ancient lodges as well assimilated into a common
setting individuals of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds and recruited
to their ranks professionals, merchants, military men, and artisans. The book
contains a suggestive chapter about Masonry and the American Revolution.
Bullock persuasively argues that Masons who embraced the revolutionary cause
were inspired by the teachings of the order concerning republicanism and honor
and, in many instances, held membership in Ancient lodges. The author also
presents strong cases for Ancient military lodges, which consisted of officers
from George Washington's general staff, and for the unsuccessful efforts of
Masonic revolutionary leaders to establish a national Masonic Grand Lodge.
Bullock also comments on the ties between American Masonry and the Society of
the Cincinnati. He correctly explains that while consisting of some similar
military elites, Masonry and the Society of the Cincinnati greatly differed,
for the Craft, which didn't have a political agenda and wasn't sharply
renounced, emerged during the late 1780s as an encompassing and a respected
movement.
Part Three, which treats Republican Masonry between 1790 and 1825, contains
the five best chapters in the book. Bullock demonstrates that Masonry, in many
ways, was involved both privately and publicly in shaping American
institutions and society; in the privacy of its lodges, Masonry was to provide
its members with an understanding of doctrines relating to republicanism, to
natural liberties, and to civic virtues. The order consequently was looked
upon as being a "Temple of Virtue," engaging in social and charitable
activities, admitting many members of the new American gentry, and
significantly expanding its ranks during this twenty-five year period. There
also were public aspects of Masonry; the author explains that members of the
Craft encouraged the development of public schools and were involved with the
promotion of the fine arts and the natural sciences in the early republic. The
book doesn't particularly stress the connections of members of Masonic elites
to national politics during the early republic, but does contain fine sections
about Masons who held positions in state and local politics. Bullock, however,
is at his best in assessing the place of businessmen associated with the
order; he explains that the network of Masonic lodges contributed to the
advancement of merchant capitalism and led to the formation of an alliance
among businessmen, professionals, artisans, and farmers. In short, this
alliance revealed how members of Masonic elites could engage in distant
relationships and could consequently implement the doctrine of "preference"
for brothers in commercial and professional activities.
In the last part of the book, Bullock discusses how Antimasonry greatly
discredited the Craft in America between 1826 and 1840. He maintains that
after Masons in Batavia, New York, allegedly murdered William Morgan in 1826
for threatening to divulge the secrets of the order, the Antimasonic movement
rapidly evolved. The author, who frequently cites the studies of Paul Goodman
and William Vaughn about this movement, illustrates the connections of
Evangelicalism to Antimasonry and well evaluates the Antimasonic leadership
roles of Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Grandison Finney; these two leaders and
others attacked Masonry for its secret rituals and oaths, for its elitism, for
its control of state and local governments, and for its domination of the
judicial system. Bullock explains how Antimasons used newspapers to bolster
their cause, organized parties in most northern states, and often formed
coalitions with Democrats and Whigs for the election of state candidates to
office. The author as well breaks new ground in showing how several Masonic
leaders established journals to respond to their opponents' attacks. Bullock
ends this chapter, claiming that the significance of Antimasonry was its call
for the democratization of American political institutions and the eventual
attachment of some of its members to the temperance and abolitionist
movements. In the epilogue, the author argues that while being practically
destroyed in most northern states by the Antimasons, the Craft would be
revived and would greatly increase its ranks between 1845 and 1860. The author
also maintains that after the Civil War, this once dominant order would be
required to compete with other fraternal organizations for membership.
This carefully crafted work has much to recommend it. This study is lucidly
written and well organized. The book is based on extensive research of primary
sources in Masonic libraries and is closely footnoted. In a convincing way,
this work describes the sociable and private facets of Masonic lodges in
eighteenth and early nineteenth century America. Bullock is successful in
explaining how civic and moral tenets of the Enlightenment shaped the
development of an American middle-class mentality. The author also succeeds in
demonstrating how Masonry contributed to the republicanizing of America and in
illustrating how perceptions of the order changed through the years. Bullock
breaks new ground in showing the connections of Masonic business elites to the
development of capitalism in the early republic. However, the work falls short
in several realms. More attention might been devoted to the evolution of
Scottish Rite Freemasonry in America, to the place of Masonry in the diplomacy
of the American Revolution, and to the roles of Masons in the drafting of the
Federal Constitution. Nevertheless, Bullock's study is an impressive synthesis
about the place of Freemasonry in eighteenth and early nineteenth century
American society and assuredly will be recognized as a landmark in the field.
R. William Weisberger Butler County Community College, PA
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