WILLIAM SHATNER: Washington, DC. October 13, 1792. Lower the stone.
WILLIAM SHATNER: A group of Freemasons perform a sacred ceremony in which they lay the first stone used in the construction of the White House. The large stone is intended to be the foundation of the southeast corner of the building and is referred to as the cornerstone. When the White House cornerstone was dedicated, there was corn, wine, and oil poured on top of it.
It's the corn of nourishment, the wine of refreshment, and the oil of joy. And that really expresses the hopes of the Masons involved for the success of not only that building, but what it represents, the system of government, and by extension, the nation. Wine, please.
WILLIAM SHATNER: It's believed that as part of the ceremony, the Freemasons placed objects of great importance in a time capsule that was put inside a compartment located within the cornerstone. For centuries, historians have wondered what the Founding Fathers may have hidden in the White House cornerstone. LANCE GEIGER: We know that the Freemasons put time capsules in other buildings and monuments.
And since this was the cornerstone of the president's house, that they might have put something very important in there. One of the things that has been speculated is that they would have had some alternate versions of founding documents of America, like a version of the Constitution that also included in it the Masons' vision of how the nation was supposed to proceed. WILLIAM SHATNER: An alternate version of the Constitution placed in the cornerstone of the White House?
But what reason is there to think that this document existed? Something that often gets lost in the shuffle in the whole history of the revolution is that the Constitution and the republic it created wasn't the first iteration. So what actually came out of the revolution were the Articles of Confederation, which, from 1781 to 1789, were actually what governed the new country.
But the Articles of Confederation didn't work, and so they came up with the Constitution. But it's plan B. The other thing you have to take into account is there were contentious factions among the Founding Fathers.
They did not all get along. There were bitter arguments between them. And so was there an alternative Constitution?
That's certainly quite possible. LANCE GEIGER: Legally, a different version of the Constitution wouldn't mean anything. The Constitution we have is the one that was ratified by the states.
Historically, it could be utterly fascinating. It could be earth-shattering in terms of our understanding about what the intent was for the nation. The thing is, we don't know.
So you can see why people want to find a cornerstone. It's because they want to know what's in there and what that would mean. WILLIAM SHATNER: But if there might have been an alternate version of the Constitution hidden in the White House cornerstone, then it naturally begs the question, why hasn't anyone checked to see if it's really there?
Well, as it turns out, people have tried to do just that. But curiously, the cornerstone of the White House has never been found. LANCE GEIGER: The cornerstone was supposed to be in the southeast corner of the White House in the ceremony it was reported on, and then that cornerstone has never been seen since.
It seems to have just kind of disappeared from history. So it leaves you the question, where is it? WILLIAM SHATNER: For more than 200 years, historians have speculated as to where the cornerstone of the White House is located.
In fact, when the White House was completely gutted for renovation work during the 1940s, President Harry Truman took the opportunity to order a thorough search for the elusive cornerstone. ARTURO DE HOYOS: When Truman had the White House rebuilt or refurbished in the 1950s, they found a lot of stones with Masonic emblems on them. And being an active Freemason, in fact, he was the Grand Master of Masons in Missouri, he had one of these stones sent to each of the grand lodges.
We have one at the House of the Temple in Washington, DC. It's a stone that has a Masonic mark on it. But for the cornerstone, who knows?
LANCE GEIGER: Truman very much searched for that cornerstone, and they've never found it. If the cornerstone is still there, it has never been discovered. But maybe it's hidden somewhere and could still be found.
