The North Carolina Mason

and Grand Lodge. The Regulations introduced a new framework to Masonic governance, creating a federal structure and advancing democratic ideas: "all matters are to be determined … by a majority of votes." Article 10, for example, states that a "majority of every particular Lodge, when congregated, shall have the privilege of giving instructions to their Master and Wardens … because the Master and Wardens are their representatives." Remarkably, the principles set out in the Regulations were adopted not just by Freemasons but by virtually every club and society that followed, nationally and internationally, and created what has been described as a school for government. The ideas set out in the Charges and Regulations were radical at the time. Indeed, they remain progressive ideas today. Modern Freemasonry started with the 1723 Constitutions. Its ideas were adopted by Grand Lodges across Europe and in America, where in 1734 Benjamin Franklin reprinted the Constitutions verbatim and distributed them, not just in Philadelphia but from Boston to Charleston. The ideas the Constitutions advocated and endorsed propelled and sustained the growth of Freemasonry across the world, and their underlying principles continue to challenge and inspire Freemasons today. The book was translated into French, Dutch and German. It was the model for the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, as well as the foundation for Ahiman Rezon and, following independence, the constitutions of America's State Grand Lodges. In this way the 1723 Constitutions helped lay the foundations that shaped local, state, and national governance in America. Indeed, its Enlightenment principles are recognisable in the United States' founding documents, most clearly in The Declaration of Independence. This is not a coincidence. The transformation of Britain's American colonies into the United States of America was a tangible expression of Enlightenment philosophical ideas: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 | 21

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