The Freemasons were very different back then. Had you been to one of their meetings back then they'd sound a lot like libertarians. As with most good things however, it couldn't survive modernity and was co-opted by the wicked for evil ends.

You should read up more about him, he is very impressive.

In his time Freemasonry, especially in US, was sold purely as a social and networking club for tradesmen and similar. jews had very careful optics about it and used it to covertly monopolize trade and commerce. There was no open degeneracy and demonic rituals like now.

Nowdays entities like Rotary Club and Lions Club are used for such purposes and have "good optics". Most members have no idea these clubs were made by Freemason and think they are just members of networking and charity clubs and have no idea about the real evil that hides underneath. This is what Freemasonry was like in Franklin's time.

Could America truly be rotten to the core?

It's more likely than you think.

So were most of the important men in those days