[10] For an exhaustive sketch of Brother Moses Michael Hays, see _The American Freemason_, Vol. V, p. 576.
[11] "Newport, ss. Newport, August 18th, A.D. 1832. I certify that the extracts taken from the records of King David's Lodge, Newport, contained in the above and three foregoing pages, have been by me compared with the minutes contained in two books purporting and appearing to be the original records of said Lodge, and found to be true and accurate copies of the same.
"Quid attestor, "GEO. C. MASON. _"Jus. Peace and Pub. Not'y."_
Cf. "Anti-masonic Republican Convention of Massachusetts held at Worcester, September 5-6, 1832," p. 23.
[12] For a full account of this episode, see "Freemasonry in Pennsylvania," Barratt and Sachse, Philadelphia, 1908, Vol. 1, Chapter XII; "WASHINGTON as General Grand Master," p. 393 _et seq._
CORRESPONDENCE WITH WATSON & CASSOUL, NANTES, FRANCE, AUGUST, 1782.
The earliest letter of General GEORGE WASHINGTON of Masonic Import known is the one written while in camp at Newburgh in New York, dated State of New York, August 10, 1782, to the firm of Watson and Cassoul in Nantes, France, in which his friend, Brother Elkanah Watson was the chief partner, thanking the firm for the Masonic Apron and ornaments sent him from Nantes, France.
This apron is now in the possession of the Alexandria-Washington Lodge, No. 22, at Alexandria, Virginia.
Elkanah Watson in his Memoirs states:[13]
"Wishing to pay some mark of respect to our beloved Washington, I employed, in conjunction with my friend M. Cossoul, nuns in one of the convents at Nantes to prepare some elegant Masonic ornaments, and gave them a plan for combining the American and French Flags on the apron designed for this use. They were executed in a superior and expensive style. We transmitted them to America, accompanied by an appropriate address."
By the above extract is shown beyond all doubt the error in the statement so repeatedly made, that the apron at Alexandria is the one made by the Marquise de Lafayette, and presented to WASHINGTON by General Lafayette, during his visit to Mount Vernon in 1784, and the one in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, that of Watson and Cassoul.[14]