"The Masons were largely descendants of the ruling group in the state, which constituted the aristocrats in a sense. Chittenden and the Allens and their crowd were all Masons, and for all the democratic talk, Vermont was founded as a republic with a high concentration of power in the hands of a few."
-Cora Cheney, from her book Profiles From The Past.
The founding fathers of the United States of America were, almost to a man, Freemasons and so it should come as little suprise that the founders of Vermont were also from the exact same fraternal order.
Slowly but surely, the influence of secret societies on the development of America is coming into full public view, albeit mostly through sensationalized fictional versions by authors such as Dan Brown.
These versions give a whitewashed account, portraying freeemasons as struggling to bring liberalism to an overly-religious and superstitious people, and are little more than freemasonic promotional material.
Ira Allen
Ethan and Ira Allen, along with the first governor of Vermont, Thomas Chittenden, were all Freemasons. In the book Ancient Craft Masonry in Vermont, by Lee S. Tillotson, the author goes into some detail:
"Dr. Jonas Fay, who recieved his second degree in Vermont Lodge on June 26,1782, the same night that Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden were initiated, also became amember of the North Star Lodge..."
"on November10,1781, a charter was issued by St.Andrews Grand Lodge of Massechusetts to Jim Barret and others for a masonic lodge at Springfield, Vermont, under the name "Vermont Lodge". The number of this lodge in the Massechusetts register was 17."
"The petition for the charter was dated at Cornish, Vermont, May 11, 1781"
"The original charter...It bears among others the signiature of Paul Revere, then Grand Senior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Massechusetts"
"Ira Allenand Thomas Chittenden were both intiated in Vermont Lodge on the same night, June 26,1782. The records relative to the bringing to masonic light of those two noted men are as follows:
June 24, 1782.'Br. Barrett proposes for initiation Ira Allen. The lodge having paricular Aquaintance of the foregoing proposal, proceeded to Ballot-Ballotted in Ira Allen.'
June 26, 1782.'Br. Fay proposes for initiation Thos. Chittenden Esqr. The Lodge having particular aquaintance of his Excellency Thos. Chittenden Esqr.(He was governor of Vermont at the time) proceeded to ballot for him. Ballotted in Thos. Chittenden.
Made Masons: Ira Allen: THos. Chittenden."
Thomas Chittenden
"Thomas Chittenden received his second and third degrees in North Star Lodge at Manchester, and afterwards became a charter member and the first master of Dorchester Lodge at Vergennes."
ANTI-MASONRY IN VERMONT
Soon after the apparent murder of William Morgan (an upstate New York lodge member who wrote a pamphlet exposing the initiation blood oaths of each of the degrees of Freemasonry) in 1826 by freemasons, people began to speak out against the brotherhood as never before.
The backlash in Vermont was particularly strong, at least publicly, and most lodges became dormant by 1835.
It seems that Freemasonry does not mind being exposed as long as it could control and direct the outcome.
The leaders of the national Anti-Masonic movement were all Masons. Both Henry Clay and William Wirt were unapologetic Masons, although Clay officially "demitted' from Lexington Lodge No.1 in Kentucky on November 18,1824.
An article from the Boston Courier (quoted in the Vermont Republican Journal of Oct.8,1831) contained an account of the National Anti-Masonic convention, in which a delegate who had opposed Wirt in the convention is quoted as saying:
"Have you not placed us in the most awkward predicament that men were ever placed? The Anti-Masonic Party supporting an avowed Mason for the Presidency!"
Pages 144-146 of Ancient Craft Masonry in Vermont states:
"In 1836, Nathan B. Haswell was right when he said : 'From this period I date the overthrow of anti-masonry'
and
"We have already seen how the Masonic organization was kept alive in this state. In June,1835, the Editor of theMiddlebury Free Press said ' Very much has been said of late of the fallen state of Masonry...Has a single Grand Lodge or Chapter or Encampment formally dissolved its organization? Not one. Every Grand Lodge, we believe, still continues its meetings. Such is the case in this state.'
And as such..continued to be 'the case in this state' although for many years no publicity was given to the fact."
Ani-Masonry basically withered and died on the vine due to the usurpation of top positions in the party. Focus turned gradually to Anti-Slavery and other affairs and then came the Civil War by which time the Anti-Masonic movement was a thing of the past.
THE GRANGE
The Grange was formed following the Civil War in 1866. It was designed to promote the upcoming industrial agricultural revolution, reign in post-war discontent, and serve as a safe and low-level entry point into freemasonry. The Grange allowed both men and women to join, but true advancement can only be made by then joining the Masons, which only men are allowed to do.
In Cora Cheney's Profiles From the Past, founder O.H. Kelley
"...thought it would be a good idea to apply this farm rehabilitation program to bind the wounds of the entire country, stressing that since farmers were all brothers, a secret society or brotherhood encompassing North and South could be the solution for many bitter problems.
Apparently the anti-secret society sentiment that had enraged Vermonters during the anti-Mason fight of a few decades before did not extend to the secret proceedings of the Grange, probably because the new group was not an elite establishment but rather was meant for all farmers."
She goes on...
"Monopolistic town general stores suffered when the Grange "stores" began cutting into their business. Alarmed merchants even tried, sometimes with success, to join the group and learn the Grange secrets to see if there were some way to stop this heady group of farmers from putting them out of business. The cornucopia symbol seemed to enrage a certain segment of the public who beleived that the horn of plenty was not for the tiller."
Here are some reasons why the tiller i.e., an honest citizen, might have some objection to the Horn of Plenty:
"In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk. When her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together, which changed Amalthea into a unicorn with 17 whiskers, the god in remorse gave her back her horn with the power to give to the person in possession of it whatever he or she wished for. This gave rise to the legend of the cornucopia. The original depictions were of the goat's horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, would be depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman's fertility."
-frm http://www.theoi.com/Ther/AixAmaltheia.html
"...the goat horn is a hollow phallic symbol, represented even today as the cup of plenty or cornucopia which we see represented in the Lodge.
...the shape of the horn (phallic outside and hollow inside) endows it with complex symbolism (including that of the lingam or symbol of generation) it is easy to understand its allegorical use as the horn of abundance.
...The androgenous symbolism of the horn of plenty is typical of the symbolism of the goat in general."
-Liber Capricornus,The Symbolism of the Goat by Eugene W. Plawiuk, Master Mason
Presented to Norwood Lodge No.90 A.F.& A.M. G.R.A. September 3 1991 C.E.
ETYMOLOGY OF THE GRANGE
The word cornucopia comes from the Latin for horn. Then the name of the Grange, which implies grain and comes from the Latin granica. But then corn comes from the Old English word for grain, a seed or small particle. Granite also derives from this same Latin root.
The cornerstone is the first stone ritually laid in any building constructed by the Masons, invoking dieties with wine, oil and grains.
Corner (an angle, or point where two intersecting lines meet) comes from the same root as corn. Geometry is central to Masonry. G.A.O.T.U. or Great Architect Of the Universe (but by this they do not mean God the ultimate supreme being) is also an anagram for goat.
And on a final note, here is what Nathanial Colver, a leading member of the Anti-Masonic Party in Vermont, had to say about Freemasonry:
"I believe it is a moral evil in that its specious ceremonies are a combination of Christianity, Judaism, and heathenism. Its oaths are licentious and profane; and so far as there is weight in them, they rob its votaries of the inalienable rights of man. In its titles and degrees it is highly profane and blasphemous.
I believe that it is a political evil, in that like the silent leech it sucks the very life and blood of civil justice, and palsies the executive arm of lawful authority, but in many instances carrying a secret though successful influence into the bar, upon the bench, and into the jury room. Or if it chooses to thunder vengeance from the bar, upon the bench, or the jury, it can yet stay execution, or facilitate the escape of the guilty; while it erects a tribunal of its own, unsanctified by the laws of God or man, from which it extends a secret, multifarious, and dreadful arm, before which thousands of consciences have fallen prey.
I believe that Masonry is an imposition on the world, She boasts of light, and conscience, and knowledge. But these she only posesses in name. When brought forth to the light, and to the scrutiny of untrammelled investigation, what is she? Even her most enthusiastic patrons and votaries are ashamed of her-traiterously denying her personage and their allegiance, til they can drag her back into the dark, where phosphorous-like alone she shines, and where alone they can stupidly bow at her shrine as a mighty goddess."
