Published by order of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Printed in Philadelphia by Hall and Sellers, 1783.

Dedicated to Washington as "General and Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America." Text in English.

RARE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION of the important Masonic Book of Constitutions - Ahiman Rezon, or a Help to a Brother. This is also THE FIRST MASONIC BOOK TO BE PUBLISHED BY THE GRAND LODGE OF PENNSYLVANIA, notable both for the important text, the warm dedication to George Washington ("In Testimony, as well as of his exalted Services to his Country, as of that noble Philanthropy which distinguishes Him among Masons"), and the fine engraved frontispiece of two Masonic coats-of-arms by Robert Scot, the future chief engraver of the United States Mint.

This 1st American Edition, closely following the 3rd British Edition (London, 1778) of the Ahiman Rezon was prepared by the Grand Secretary, Rev. Brother William Smith, D.D., Provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

The volume also includes 30 pages of Masonic songs, and (as an Appendix) the 1778 Sermon by Smith, which has its own title page and a separate dedication to Washington, which includes a detailed description of the procession in which "our illustrious Brother George Washington" marched as guest of honor. The sermon itself contains a remarkably prescient characterization of Washington as an American Cincinnatus.

The “Ahiman Rezon; or, A Help to a Brother”, originally prepared in 1756 by Brother Laurence Dermott, Grand Secretary of the GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND ACCORDING TO THE OLD INSTITUTIONS, became THE CONSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATION OF THE ANCIENTS FREEMASONRY on both sides of the Atlantic, and the basis for the Constitutions of many American State Grand Lodges.

Although mainly adapted from Edward Spratt’s 1751 Irish Constitutions, a work itself based on the 1723 Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England, Ahiman Rezon contained a humorous introduction and a sometimes acerbic commentary that set it apart from the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England. Over the next five decades several successive editions of Ahiman Rezon would be published in Britain, Ireland, and America, thus increasing the work’s influence. Ahiman Rezon codified and publicised Antients Freemasonry, advancing an argument in favour of the Antients’ greater antiquity and superior ritual as compared to the not dissimilar form practiced by the Moderns. Dermott deployed the book effectively to emphasise the Antients’ claim to Masonic pre-eminence.

“When the … first Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania dedicated its Lodge house (Americans first Masonic building), … the dedication sermon was preached by William Smith, D. D., a member of Lodge No. 2, famous for his learning throughout the Colony. In 1781, the year that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, the Grand Lodge decided to reissue its Ahiman Rezon, or Book of Constitutions, and appointed Bro. Smith to revise and to abridge it. He was to become Grand Secretary in 1783.

In 1782 he was Provost of the College of Philadelphia - now the University of Pennsylvania. He had the revision ready in 1781, and on November 22 of that year it was approved by Grand Lodge. But the printing was delayed. In 1782 Smith wrote a dedication to George Washington; in 1783 the Book was published. Though its editor could not know of it at the time, it was a book destined to be carried far, because it was to become the sanction and guide for Lodges in Tennessee, Kentucky, the West Indies Louisiana, Mexico, etc., and to be a model for later editors in other and future Grand Lodges.” (The Masonic Encyclopedia)

The dedicatee of this 1783 Philadelphia edition, George Washington was undoubtedly the most celebrated American member of the Freemasons. He joined the Masonic lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1752, at the age of 20, and was raised to master Mason the ensuing year. Washington enjoyed the organization's confraternity throughout his Revolutionary War service and presidency, serving as charter master of the Alexandria, Virginia lodge. He is said to have visited the Yorktown, Virginia lodge with Lafayette following the surrender of Cornwallis in October of 1781. At his inauguration on April 30, 1789, Washington was sworn in as the nation's first President using a Bible from St. John's Lodge No. 1 in New York. On his death, he was buried with full Masonic rites.

Washington was the guest of honor when William Smith delivered the December 28, 1778 sermon included in this volume. Smith had personally requested the presence of "Brother Washington" at the celebration of the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist and the Commander-in-Chief agreed to take time out from his military duties to attend. That morning, he joined a procession of 300 fellow Masons to attend service at Philadelphia's Christ Church. There, Washington heard Smith extol him from the pulpit as an American Cincinnatus: “Such [...] was the Character of a Cincinnatus in ancient Times; rising ‘awful from the Plough’ to save his Country; and, his Country saved, returning to the Plough again, with increased Dignity and Lustre.” That title has come to characterize Washington as an exemplar of Democracy and integrity. It also provided the name for the Society of the Cincinnati, the organization of Revolutionary War officers founded at the close of the conflict.

Evans 17915; Sabin 84584.

Tall Octavo, textblock measures 19.5 cm x 11.5 cm. Bound in contemporary (late 18th-century) full brown calf.

Pagination: xvi, 166, [2 blank] pp.
COMPLETE (including the integral blank X₄ at rear).

With a copper-engraved frontispiece by Robert Scot depicting two Masonic coats-of-arms; a few typographic head-pieces and a decorative woodcut tail-piece on p.144.

Includes (on verso of the title-page) an Extract from the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (dated Nov. 22, 1781) containing the resolution to print this work. Further preliminaries include a Dedication by William Smith to George Washington as ‘General and the Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America’ (dated June 24, 1782); a Table of Contents, a Preface, and “A Letter of the celebrated Philosopher John Locke, Esq. … on the Antiquity of Free Masonry…”.

Included (at the end of Ahiman Rezon is ‘A Collection of Masons’ Songs’ (pp.115-144), which is followed by “A sermon preached in Christ-Church, Philadelphia, (for the benefit of the poor) by appointment of and before the general communication of Free and Accepted Masons of the state of Pennsylvania, on Monday December 28, 1778. Celebrated, agreeable to their constitution, as the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist.” By William Smith, with its own title-page (on p.[145]) and a separate dedication to G. Washington.

Good antiquarian condition. Complete! Binding with some wear and bumping to corners; spine worn and chipped at head; joints partially cracked, but holding (boards attached, binding tight). Occasional light browning. Some leaves (mostly at the beginning) with minor marginal damage to bottom fore-corner (possibly caused by a mouse?), but limited to blank margin only (text intact!). In all, a nice, solid, genuine and unrestored example of this rare early American masonic publication.