Freemasons

Master mason Jacques Laager explained that the ideals of freemasonry, which went back to the philosophy of the stoics and the Enlightenment, were based on the principles of humanity, brotherly love, tolerance and cosmopolitanism. “The ideas of humanity can only thrive in a democratic and open society,” he said.

In his [Washington's] letters and addresses to Masonic bodies, Washington professed his profound esteem for their principles. In 1797, two years before his death, he addressed the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts with these words: "My attachment to the Society of which we are all members will dispose me always to contribute my best endeavors to promote the honor and prosperity of the Craft." Later in the same speech, he said that the Masonic institution was one whose liberal principles are founded on the immutable laws of truth and justice and whose grand object is to promote the happiness of the human race.

Some Catholic writers who try to “redeem” Washington claim his beliefs and behavior were actually based on the Stoic philosophy because of his self-admitted admiration for the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. However, anyone who considers the pagan “virtues” promoted by Freemasonry – the quest for wisdom, peace, toleration, perseverance and self-control – will note the similarity with tenets of Stoicism.

According to the Stoic philosophy, what counts is a man’s behavior, not his ideas. Before any situation of life the wise man - the model for the Stoic - was always calm and tolerant, refusing to show any emotion, which would distort his judgment. This would be the perfect man who lives according to Nature. To this fundamental religious indifferentism and moral tolerance of Stoicism, Freemasonry added a Deist principle - the Great Architect of the Universe or Eternal Reason - that would give a vague religious sense to the pagan way of life.