Two of our founding fathers, John Adams our second president, and Thomas Jefferson, the third, both died on July 4, 1826. That year was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson had been sick for a year with a urinary tract infection. He woke in a stupor on July 3rd and asked if it was the fourth yet. When he was told that it was not July 4th yet he lingered unit the next day before passing. Adams died five hours later at the age of 90. As he lingered on his deathbed the country celebrated Independence Day. His last words brought him comfort when he said, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Unbeknownst to Adams Jefferson died five hours earlier at Monticello at the age of 83.
George Washington, our nation’s first president caught a cold and died in 1799. On December 12, 1799 he came back from riding his horse along his estate. The next day he woke with a sore throat and his doctor was called because his condition worsened. The physician prescribed bloodletting where Washington was drained of his blood twice. The procedure occurred twice once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Washington had 32 ounces of blood drained from his body. With each treatment he grew weaker leading to his death. When he realized he wasn’t going to make it he said of his inevitable death, “the debt which we all must pay.”
Legacy of the Founding Fathers
This nation’s founding fathers were all Masons. Masonry began in England 1717 and in Scotland in 1770. During this era, the Old World authority regulated the exchange of religious ideas. Wanting to break from the past, Masons sought ecumenism and religious tolerance. They didn’t agree with the sectarian divisions that have caused dissension among many organized faiths. To become members, all have to claim allegiance to something bigger than man himself.
Many people believe that Masonry symbolism is represented on the back of the dollar bill. The design for the Great Seal of the United States, which features an eye and a pyramid, was introduced by Benjamin Franklin, who was a Mason. On July 4, 1776, the seal was created by an order of the continental Congress under the direction of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. The seal was used as a government stamp for official business until 1935. During the Great Depression, at the behest of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry A. Wallace, both Masons, the Great Seal appeared on the back of the dollar bill. The Latin sentence surrounding the unfinished pyramid states, Annuit Coeptis (Providence Has Favored Our Undertakings) and Novus Ordo Seclorium, (A New Order of the Ages). That symbolism correlated with Masonry ideals; the pyramid is a worldly achievement that’s incomplete without the blessing of Providence. During the Renaissance, occultists viewed ancient Egypt as the source of primal, ageless wisdom transcending nations and dogma. The eye and the pyramid sought to achieve that ideal.