"With fervent zeal for your happiness, we pray that a life so dear to the bosom of this society, and to society in general, may be long, very long preserved; and when you leave the temporal symbolic lodges of this world, may you be received into the celestial lodge of light and perfection, where the Grand Master Architect of the Universe presides. "Done in behalf of the Grand Lodge. "M. GIST, G. M."[44] "Charleston, 2d May, 1791." To this address WASHINGTON returned the following reply.[45] "_Gentlemen_:--I am much obliged by the respect which you are so good as to declare for my public and private character. I recognize with pleasure my relation to the brethren of your Society, and I accept with gratitude your congratulations on my arrival in South Carolina. "Your sentiments, on the establishment and exercise of our equal government, are worthy of an association, whose principles lead to purity of morals, and are beneficial of action. "The fabric of our freedom is placed on the enduring basis of public virtue, and will, I fondly hope, long continue to protect the prosperity of the architects who raised it. I shall be happy, on every occasion, to evince my regard for the Fraternity. For your prosperity individually, I offer my best wishes." "Go. Washington" This letter was probably destroyed with other Grand Lodge property when Columbia, South Carolina, was burned by Sherman's Army during the war between the States.[46] Fortunately, the original draft of WASHINGTON's reply, was found among the Washington papers now in the Library of Congress. This is written upon two pages of a letter sheet: the first page shows a paragraph which was suppressed and did not appear upon the clear copy sent to the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons of South Carolina. A photostat of this draft is in the collection of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, viz.: "TO THE GRAND LODGE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH "CAROLINA ANCIENT YORK MASONS. "_Gentlemen_, "I am much obliged by the respect "which you are so good as to declare for my "public and private character. I recognise "with pleasure my relation to the Brethren "of your Society--and I accept with gratitude "your congratulations on my arrival in "South Carolina.