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Article: Anti-Masonic Movements
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ANTI-MASONIC MOVEMENTS
ANTI-MASONIC MOVEMENTS.
Widespread anti-Masonry first developed in the 1790s with unsubstantiated charges that Masonic lodges in the United States imported and encouraged radical European revolutionary ideas. Nonetheless, after 1800 Freemasonry
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a fraternal order originally brought to the colonies from Britain
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flourished and included such distinguished members as George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay. Freemasonic lodges, offering mutual support and fellowship primarily to mobile, middle-class men who had time to participate and could afford to pay substantial dues, multiplied North and South. Masons uniformly swore oaths never to reveal ...