Secret Societies And Presidential Ties

Now, the fact that a lot of people start to think about secret societies and think they are hiding something still holds today. You have very popular television shows that are talking about these societies all the time. This is going to make it easier for people to see that some of these doubts may have some founding. However, one thing that does hold and is shocking is the fact that the United States has managed to elect 20 presidents out of the 45 that are members or were members of a secret society at one point in their life or another.

George Washington

The first president was a Freemason, and while a lot of people did not think about his election and the tie to a secret society. Instead, all that the people thought about at the time was the fact that he was the leading general for the country at its infancy and helped to guide the country to the winding path that it needed to gain independence from the harsh rule of the British government at the time.

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Now, Washington would not enter the Masons right away as he would be 20 years old before he came into the lodges. However, one thing that Washington did was keep his ties to the Masons close and even used a Bible from the Masonic Lodge No.1 in New York to be sworn in on. This was also an interesting aspect as he would use a viral Biblical passage talking about borders for the country of Israel at the time for the verse that the Bible was opened to. If you are so inclined, it is possible to see a George Washington Masonic National Memorial as it was completed in 1970 after being started and dedicated in 1932.

Thomas Jefferson

This president is one that was able to come into the office as a member of the F.H.C. Society from the College of William and Mary. That does not mean that he was a member of the group as some people have denied his inclusion in the group, but even if he was not an official member, the group did make an impression on how he handled himself in his daily life.

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Jefferson would mention that it was a group of only six students, and when asked about it, he said he did not even know if it was still in existence. The group is now known as the Flat Hat Club and is back at the college now, but it is still a place that has a challenge. The motto of William & Mary newspaper is one group that carried on the logo of the original group. The unique group would have issues as the Revolutionary War would disrupt the learning at the college and even dissolved some of the groups.

James Monroe

As with a lot of the presidents of the time, Monroe was a president that was a member of the Freemasons. This group is one that has exerted a lot of power over the people. Monroe was attending William & Mary’s college when the group started to have a lot of talk about getting rid of the crown. Monroe was one of those who was in charge of the subversiveness against the crown.

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During the Revolutionary War, though, what is interesting is Monroe would drop out of the school. When he did this, he would become a soldier in the Army and would fight for the Americans and would then go on to return to school after almost being killed in the war. Monroe would return to the school after the war and finish his law degree. Monroe would then go on to be the 5^th president of the United States of America.

Andrew Jackson

Jackson was one of the first presidents to have a lot of issues of being a Freemason. Jackson would be one of those who would become one of the reasons that would allow the first 3^rd major political party to form in the backlash against what many believe to be one of the Freemasons trying to run the country how they wanted to have them moved.

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The reason for the formation of the party against the Masons was the fact that a lot of people started to feel that the still unsolved kidnapping of a man from New York was tied to the Masons for the man threatening to reveal their secret rites. However, the fight against Jackson seemed to be natural for the move for the party going against Jackson as he was not only a Mason but a very high ranking one in his home lodge and even in the state of Tennessee.

James K Polk

James Polk was not that impressive of a president and was one that a lot of people have forgotten about as being a president. However, with the low key performance, it helped to get him kept out of the first figure and even in understanding the fact that the United States was a very low key country at the time. It also means that the country at the time was in a peaceful state and was not going to have any issues.

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Now, as for president Polk was a president that was also a Freemason, and he would be one that would be recognized for this as well. Granted, Polk was not nearly as active as what a lot of people would have imagined as not much is noted other than being on the roster of the lodge, but Polk was a Freemason.

James Buchanan

He is often viewed as one of the worst presidents in the United States. However, he is also one that belonged to a secret society as well as he was a Freemason as well. The downsides are he did not make much in the way of changes on anything that he was doing, and often when changes, they were often viewed as being negative, which helps to explain some of the reasons why he had such a negative amount of energy around his presidency.

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Buchanan is often found in the roster for Lodge No. 43, which is located in Lancaster, PA. Even as a Freemason, not much was mentioned about what he did or also about the changes that he made in the lodge or what he did in the process of how he was working.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson is one president that a lot of people tend to overlook. However, Johnson is one president that a lot of people need to recall that did quite a bit in the country to help out as well. Johnson is one president that has been noted to be one that was extremely proud of his Freemason heritage and the role that it played in his life.

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One important thing to note is that while Johnson was a Freemason during life, the Freemasons also played an important role during his funeral. The masons would be part of the group that helped to determine how the funeral would go and exactly what steps it would be taking to have the former president buried.

Ulysses S. Grant

While the famous Union General is mainly remembered for his acceptance of the surrender of Robert E. Lee, he was also a president as well. While that may not seem that impressive, President Grant was one of the first that belonged to a secret society that did not have the mason ties. Grant would belong to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

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While this organization at the time of President Grant joining would be one that was more along the lines of being one that focused on charity, it was an offshoot of the English Odd Fellows Group. This is one that would be fairly young as well when President Grant would be a member as the American branch of the group would not be started until 1819.

What else is interesting is the fact that President Grant would not join until his wife was pregnant with their second child. At the same time, though, President Grant would accept the invitation to join the group in 1869. That was the time that the group was celebrating its 50^th anniversary of being in existence and decided that it was the perfect time to invite the former general to join them.

James Garfield

While Garfield had quite a bit of plan in the works for the United States, most of those would never see the light of day. Garfield would be cut down by an assassin’s bullet after just a few months. However, the time that Garfield would spend in the Freemasons was quite a bit more extensive. To the point that Garfield would be noted for quite a bit in the way of the work that he did.

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James Garfield would be admitted to the Masons in 1861 and would be raised in 1864 at the Magnolia Lodge in Columbus, Ohio. However, Garfield would not stop at the lower levels as he would go on to get the Capitular and Templar degrees, which are going to lead to him becoming a member of the Lodge of Perfection in the Scottish Rite.

Rutherford Hayes

Now, Hayes is another president that would surprise a lot of people with the fact that he did not go out and become a Freemason. In fact, like Grant, Hayes was a member of the Odd Fellows. He would frequently be one of those that would give speeches at the meetings, and in Ohio, he was one of the keynote speakers when it came time to hand over the control of the group to a new group of officers that would end up leading the group into the next era.

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What is interesting during the speech, which was in 1887, Hayes would mention that the societies were not that secret. He would often refer to the fact that a lot of times, they were considered a secret society so that no one would imitate what they were doing at any given time. This allowed more people to become part of the group and not feel that they were secludedly based off of their religious beliefs or other beliefs that they may have in place.

William McKinley

McKinley would follow after James Garfield in a couple of ways. One was that he was the next mason to be a president after Garfield.  However, Garfield also ended up being the leader for McKinley in the fact that an assassin would stop them both before they could do much to bring the country around to the platform they had been running on.

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Now, McKinley is one president that would become a mason during the War Between the States but also would be the president that would be fighting for the Union and would have to face an uphill battle in the work that he did. However, McKinley became a well known enough Mason that he was able to get the leadership roles that he desired, and his name knows the lodge that he belonged to now as that is what the lodge is now called.

While the Masons were the main society that McKinley belonged to, it is claimed that he was also an Odd Fellow as well. This has not been denied or proven yet, but it is one aspect of his life that a lot of people tend to overlook.

Theodore Roosevelt

As many people know him as Teddy and the president who started the National Park system, a lot of people do not realize that Roosevelt was also a Freemason and even belonged to the Concatenated Order of the Hoo-Hoo. Now,  quite a bit of the Masonic activities that Teddy was able to do is recorded in the various letters that have been converted to digital format by the Roosevelt Center.

In some of those letters, Teddy is mentioning how the talks that he was giving and how they were prepared. Roosevelt would also be one of those that would have issues on the society as well as he would often be seen as one of those chastising others because of their want of political gain by using the leverage they obtained by becoming a Mason.

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While a lot of people think about the Masons as being in only England or America, this is not true. In fact, in some of his letters, Roosevelt would mention his travels after leaving the presidency to lodges around the work, including Nairobi and in the Azores. Both of these provided a special treat for the former president who got to visit what at the time was considered to be very exotic lands.

Not only was he a Mason, but Roosevelt also belonged to the International Concatenated Order of the Hoo-Hoo. This is an organization that would be called more like a businessman type of fraternity and less like a secret society. Now, the society was meant for lumber workers, While Teddy did not go out in the woods and fell trees, he was noted for his work in conservation, which is how he ended up being a member of the group, which is one that claims Teddy Roosevelt to become their claim to fame.

William Taft

William Taft is one president that ended up going through quite a few nicknames before finally being hung on with the Big Lub nickname because of his size. Taft would be one of the first to attend Yale and belong to the Skull and Bones society. This group is one that is typically only found at Yale and has quite a history that a lot of people have argued over as to how much of it is an authentic experience and how much of it is experience that was just talked about.

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Taft would also earn the nickname in the group as the magog, which means he mostly had the most sexual experience between the group at that time. The group is typically very difficult to become a member in, but for Taft it was actually rather easy as his father was one of the cofounders of the group, and that pretty much helped to guarantee that William Taft would not be denied the entry into the group.

While Taft was part of that group, he would join another group as well, and only a month before his inauguration, he would join the Masons. Now, what is very interesting and often a confusing point since so many people figured that John F. Kennedy would follow the Catholic teachings for his work, is the fact that Taft would go out and use the principles of the Masons to be the glowing symbol that was needed. Taft would also be noted as trying to apply his Masonic principles to the way that he was handling the world affairs at the time.

Warren Harding

Harding is one that would be an exciting president in the number of societies that he belongs to. Harding would be the one that would be able to go out and complete his Master Mason almost right before he was elected to the office of president, and that would be nearly 19 years after he would first join the masons. A common theme for Harding was the fact that he was not elevated to the level at the time earlier because he was speaking out against the principle at the time of the way that the Masons refused to accept African Americans into their ranks.

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Warren Harding would also find himself as an odd fellow as well. He ended up having an easier time getting accepted into the group of Odd Fellows than what he had for the Masons, and that was something that Harding enjoyed. That is because he was not in any position that would be a problem for his mindset of helping out the African Americans.  To bring an end to his Triple Threat towards taking on the secret societies, he would also belong to the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo as well.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR is often known as the president who would lead America out of the great depression but also guided the country through the hectic times that were around during World War II. Roosevelt is also known as being a noted Freemason and would be very proud of that fact. During the presidency, Roosevelt would even reach the level of being a grand master of the lodge.

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The FDR Library is one that has managed to note a lot about the involvement that FDR had in the various secret societies and how they would make a change in his life. It even mentions how Roosevelt managed to pull a prank on the father of the future president Joseph Kennedy. FDR managed to pull the prank with the help of the Freemasons to complete the prank.

What is known to a lesser degree is the fact that FDR would be one that would participate in the Odd Fellows as well. Now, not as much is mentioned about FDR being an Odd Fellow, but it was noted that he was a member of the group, and with the amount of charity work the organization is noted for, it is easy to see why he would fit right in on the group.

Harry Truman

Harry Truman is one president that had a lot of workings with the masons and even to the point that he was the founding member of the lodge that he belonged to. After helping to found the lodge, Truman would go on to be elected the first master of the group and would be one that would look towards helping the Masons around the world.

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As a negative side to his involvement with the masons the lodge that he helped found would burn down when he was away serving in World War I. However, that did not stop Truman from continuing with the masons and seemed to have only helped to get his resolve hardened even more as Truman would go on to rise to the rank of grand master mason. During his presidency Truman would do something that no president had done and that was move up to the rank of 33^rd degree of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite.

Truman is also noted as being an Odd Fellow. However, not nearly as much is noted about his time as an Odd Fellow. With so little documentation, it is not known if this was a move to be in name only or if it was a move that would help to bolster the amount of charity work that Truman was completing at the time.

Richard Nixon

Tricky Dick as a lot of people would come to call him quickly became one that would be seen as a member of The Order of the Red Friars, which was a somewhat secret society that was not that much of a secret on the campus of Duke University.  The group was noted for the red robes and hoods that they would wear, but it did not help that the group would find the new members that they would tap into the group at the chapel.

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Unlike a lot of groups that would focus on helping others, this is one group that was focused on helping to get the life of those improved on campus. The group would not last the time, though, and only a year before Watergate would break the group would be disbanded and has not been heard from since.

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford would be the last president that is known to be a mason at the time. Ford is one that would go up to the level of being a master mason. Over time because of the amount of work that Ford did, he would be elevated to the level of master of the Order of DeMolay.

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The downside is Ford is one president that had a tough situation and is not remembered that well in the way that he would be able to handle the presidency.

George H.W. Bush

During his younger years, President Bush would be one that would be a member of the Skull and Bones group as well. This was well before Bush would become the man that a lot of people showed respect for.

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However, one thing that is noted is this is one group that helped to provide a basis for the belief that he had towards people and how they should be handled.

George W Bush

Like his father, George W Bush would be a member of the Skull and Bones group as well. The interesting point is that Bush would not join Skull and Bones until his senior year. It was during that period that he would join the group after almost being overlooked in the group.

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However, an interesting tidbit is that even while he was a member of the group, George W Bush still carries a certain level of disdain for the East Coast Elitism that has plagued that part of the country.