New Book by Chris Ruli: 'Brother Lafayette' Available for Presale

by Christopher Hodapp

It's Bastille Day today, so I think it's appropriate to post this story. Macoy Publishing has announced the pre-sale of Brother Christopher Ruli's newest book, Brother Lafayette: the Marquis de Lafayette's Masonic Travels in America 1824-25 (Macoy, 2024, $24.95) now through September 24th, when it's expected to begin shipping. 

UPDATE 7/23/2024: Chris is also offering to personalize and autograph copies of Brother Lafayette for $27. CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOURS. NOTE: please include signature instructions, with preferred name, in the "add a note to seller" box while at checkout.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Major General Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette’s triumphant goodwill tour of America between 1824-25. Fewer and fewer Americans these days have been taught about Major General Lafayette and his role in the American Revolution, and even fewer know of just how dedicated he was to the cause of liberty, before he arrived in America, and long after he returned home to France where he was swept up in its own revolution. But in addition to his long career as a military figure, statesman, revolutionary, protector, political prisoner, and so much more, he was also a Freemason.

In 1824, Lafayette visited America at the invitation of President James Monroe, and began traveling the country. The American Revolution’s 50th anniversary was approaching, and Lafayette was the last of George Washington's major generals who was still alive. During his whirlwind goodwill tour, he spoke in many places, including several Masonic lodges. He was treated with much the same sort of awe and adoration that had been reserved for George Washington himself, which never ceased to astonish him. Everywhere Lafayette went, adoring crowds followed him through the streets. Balls, dinners, tours, concerts, parades, and public honors of every kind were arranged to honor him, and what started out to be a three-month trip lasted over a year. It was during that visit that the park north of the White House was renamed to honor him. Literally hundreds of other parks, towns, cities, and counties throughout the United States are named after him. And there were more than a few Masonic lodges chartered in his name.

Lafayette's famed American tour took him to all 24 of the United States at that time – 6,000 miles in all – and in the decades following his visit, it seemed as though every Masonic lodge in the country wanted to claim their members had some kind of meaningful contact with the legendary general and Freemason.

Ironically, despite the high-profile visitations and associations with Freemasons while he was here, just a year later, William Morgan would disappear in Western New York, allegedly murdered by Brother Masons, and the most vehement period of American anti-Masonic persecution would erupt throughout the country.

Now, author and Washington DC Mason Christopher Ruli has done a deep dive into the itineraries, letters, diaries, minute books, and press reports of the time to create a full and definitive account of Brother Lafayette’s Masonic contacts and travels throughout his famed trip. The result is Brother Lafayette: the Marquis de Lafayette's Masonic Travels in America 1824-25, a detailed, fascinating, and eminently absorbing travelogue with a uniquely Masonic focus. 

Similar in nature to Chris' previous Masonic history of the Presidential Mansion in Washington, DC, (The White House & the Freemasons, Macoy, 2023, $29.95-39.95) Chris has meticulously tracked down every known instance of Lafayette visiting Masonic lodges, grand lodges, and individual Freemasons. Through diaries, newspaper accounts, even lodge minute books, he has provided the best documented evidence of Lafayette's interactions with Masons all along the route. And they were considerable in number!

You'll find letters, transcripts of speeches, tributes, toasts, diplomas, songs written for the occasion, descriptions of medals and other gifts given to Lafayette. He was granted honorary memberships in lodges and grand lodges. When the weather turned cold in November 1824, he wintered at Alexandria, Virginia's famed Gadsby's Tavern. In January of 1925, halfway through the trip, he wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson, "I contemplate to set out for the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, New Orleans, and the western states, upwards of 5,000 miles to be performed in 99 days with only 13 days rest...and 300 miles through a sort of wilderness. We will do the best we can." 

He was 69 years old, and the trip would have been grueling for men half his age.

(Typically for my own state of Indiana, which had only been granted statehood less than 10 years before, our legislature, our governor, and our grand lodge made no effort to issue Lafayette an invitation, and the only reason he set shore here was when his steamboat ran aground—the 19th century version of only stopping at an Indiana truck stop on the way someplace else.)

Macoy's is offering the book for pre-sale now for $24.94, and delivery is expected in September. CLICK HERE TO ORDER.

Just as an added aside, the American Friends of Lafayette have been preparing for celebrating the bicentennial of Lafayette's farewell tour, erecting historical markers, arranging for events all along the 6,000-mile route of his original trip. Festivities will begin August 16, 2024 in New York City and wind up at Mount Vernon in September 2025. If you live or belong to a lodge in an area that Lafayette actually visited, you should consider erecting a permanent historical marker describing the visit. Or if your city or town is already doing so this year, be sure your lodge contacts the local group arranging for the marker and ask if your lodge or grand lodge can take part in the dedication and other festivities.

If you don't know much about Lafayette or can't fathom why he was so adored by Americans at the time, read the excerpt below adapted from my 2005 book, Solomon's Builders:

Kamel Oussayef's Book 'Saint Edoüard' Brings 1748 Paris Lodge To Life

In previous posts, I have mentioned two earlier books translated by Illustrious Brother Kamel Oussayef from French into beautiful English language editions for the Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction: The Book of Wisdom (2013) and The Spirit of Freemasonry (2017). Both were originally written in the early 1800s by Jean Frédérique Doszedardski, a Polish member of French lodges in Paris, and eventually, New Orleans. They are filled with early descriptions of hauts grades (higher degree) rituals, different customs, lodge practices, even table lodges. These books are unique in that they present photographic reproductions of the original French document on one page, and the parallel English translation with copious footnotes on facing pages.

As you plump up your Christmas gift list, don't neglect the new Masonic books that have come out in 2019. The third book in this series comes from an earlier original document. Saint Edoüard: A 1748 Masonic Scottish Lodge During the French Enlightenment. It was published back in February of this year, and it uses the same format as the previous volumes, although this one is somewhat shorter in length. Nevertheless, it is just as packed with fascinating details as its companions. I have been remiss in not mentioning it until now, but that's not for lack of enthusiasm over it. Quite the contrary. 

This isn't just a translation of creaky lodge minutes from 270 years ago. It also contains descriptions of the lodge's early members, their professions, and notes about their lives. All of a sudden, dull lists of forgotten names come alive, and you can see what a huge cross section of Paris society were members of the fraternity at that time - still 30 years before their first revolution. Kamel Oussayef's extensive notes help to place the lodge, the rituals, the practices and the lives of these brethren in their social and historical context. 

As you read these three books and their voluminous footnotes, you are witnessing the genesis in France of what eventually morphed into what we know as the Scottish Rite today. Saint Edoüard's foundational documents and minutes describe the genesis of a Eccosais (Scottish) Masonic lodge in Paris in 1748. The Jacobite supporters of the Stewart's in exile in France had just failed in yet another (and final) attempt to regain the English throne after invading Scotland in 1745. Saint Edoüard Lodge sat poised between the sputtering decline of the Jacobites and the beginnings of the French Revolution in 1789. Some members of the lodge would join the Revolution, some with the Royalists. Some went to the guillotine, and some fled the country into exile. The lodge was truly a microcosm of Paris in the mid-18th century.

All three of these endlessly fascinating works are the result of the painstaking translations and research of Illus. Brother Kamel Oussayef, 33°and the sponsorship of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite - Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. He has volunteered at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington since 2003. Thanks to his his detective work and dedication to bring these long-hidden manuscripts to light, the NMJ has become likewise dedicated to publishing these important early works that help us discover how and why the higher degrees developed in France 

during this period. Moreover, Kamel brings alive the Masons themselves who were members these lodges by unearthing their lives, occupations, lodgings, and habits. These are not dry histories, they are personal ones.

Kamel is a Past Master of William Parkman Lodge and Converse Lodge. He has been awarded the prestigious Henry Price and Joseph Warren medals for distinguished service to Freemasonry in Massachusetts. In the AASR, he is an Assistant Master of Ceremonies with the Massachusetts Consistory of the Valley of Boston.

Brother Oussayef was born in Sétif, Algeria and attended school in France, where he lived for many years. He holds an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an MS from the School of Public Communications at Boston University.

All of these books are available from the AASR-NMJ online shop along with the NMJ's tremendous edition of the Francken Manuscript. These books are loving examples of the book publishing arts, of the very highest quality, and well worth the investment.