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A Fresh Look At William Morgan And The Anti-masonic Party

by Robert C. Barrlard, MPS

The name of William Morgan is known
to historians primarily because his disap-
pearance led to the formation of the
briefly-active Antimasonic Party. Many
Masons have also heard of Morgan, but
probably are not familiar with specific
incidents; and what they heard of him
will vary widely depending on whether
their information came from sources
friendly or inimical to Masonry. Since
the Morgan mystery is an interesting
facet in our nation's history and in the
past of our fraternity, it is worth unrav-
eling the tangled web of statement and
conjecture for a clearer picture.

William Morgan was born on August
7, 1774, probably in Culpeper County,
Virginia. As a youngster, he served an
apprenticeship as a stone-mason in
Madison County, Virginia. In maturity,
he moved to Lexington, Kentucky to
practice his trade, and then to Richmond
Virginia. In January 1815, at the age of
41, he claimed (falsely) to have gone to
New Orleans with Andrew Jackson and
fought the British at the famous battle.
Some writers think he made up this story
to gain fame for himself.

Although much has been written about
Morgan, reliable facts are scarce. Infor-
mation claimed as true by one source is
denied by others in the long-extended
controversy over the circumstances of his
disappearance.

It is agreed that in 1819, when he was
45, he married Lucinda Pendleton. They
seem to have moved immediately to York
in Upper Canada, where he became a
brewer for about two years. They moved
to Rochester, New York in 1823 and by
1826 were living in Batavia, New York,
where Morgan once more practiced the
trade of brick-and stone-mason.

Accounts vary enormously as to
Morgan's respectability and prosperity
during these years. Friendly writers as-
sert that he was a respectable though not
distinguished member of the commu-
nity. The hostile view most strongly pre-
sented is that he was a drunken knave,
neither able or interested in making a
decent living by hard work; and moving
from place to place to escape his creditors
and to avoid being arrested for debt or
worse. Finding the truth is more difficult
because both sides are certain that their
view is the right one.

No source has claimed that they have
facts that Morgan was ever regularly
initiated into Freemasonry. The best that
his friends could say is that he had joined
the fraternity at some point during his
early manhood. An equally probable
supposition is that he claimed to be a
Mason and began to visit lodges as a
member.

By the time he arrived in Batavia, Mor-
gan seems to have been accepted by some
Masons as a brother. This allowed him
to receive the Royal Arch Degree in
LeRoy, New York on May 3 1, 1825 .
However, the lodge in Batavia became
suspicious. When Morgan could not
prove any Masonic connection other
than his newly-acquired Royal Arch
membership, they denied him admis-
sion.

Morgan then signed a petition being
circulated among Masons to start a
Royal Arch Chapter in Batavia. Since
the Masons doubted now that he was a
regularly initiated brother, they began a
new petition, omitting Morgan's name.
This seemingly angered him to the ex-
tent that he vowed revenge against all
masons. He announced that he was writ-
ing a book to be published by David C.
Miller, editor of the local Republican Ad-
vocale newspaper, which would fully ex-
pose the secret ritual of the Masonic
Order. Editor and publisher Miller had
taken the Entered Apprentice Degree of
Masonry in Albany, New York, but for
some reason never advanced further.

This Masonic expose was titled
Illustrations of Freernasonry by One of fhe Fra-
ternity Who Had Devoted Thirty Years to the
Subject, Thus Morgan, who was born in
1774, claimed to have joined the Masons
when he was 22 years old. It is singular
that he never cited a certain lodge where
he was initiated. Had he been able to do
so, he surely would have been freely ac-
cepted by his brothers.

Writing his book seemingly interfered
with making a living. He became deeply
in debt and was jailed several times for
not paying his bills or for petty larceny.

Morgan copyrighted his book on Au-
gust 14, 1826. The first edition was to
appear in October, and did so. But Mor-
gan had disappeared from view perma-
nently before this date. He was arrested
on a charge of petty theft on September
11 and taken by the sheriff to Can-
andaigua for trial.

At this point accounts vary most dra-
matically. The opponents of Masonry
maintain that he was forcibly drowned in
the Niagara River (see illustration).
Friends of Masonry said he was paid
$500 to leave Batavia, was taken to Can-
ada, released, and never come back.

Excitement and outrage grew when on
October 7, 1827, a badly decayed body
was found on the beach 40 miles from
Fort Niagara. Enemies of Masonry
claimed that the body was final proof of
Masonic murder of Morgan and vowed
to destroy the fraternity. However, a
Mrs. Monroe claimed that the body was
her husband, Timothy, who had been
drowned several weeks previously. This
was proven to be correct.

The supposed murder of Morgan grew
to national proportions. Thurlow Weed,
a journalist and political leader, re-
marked that the body was " a good
enough Morgan until after the election. "

Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania,
who after the Civil War was to be the
dominant figure in the House of Repre-
sentatives favoring harsh treatment for
the South, was at this time perhaps the
strongest in his condemnation of Ma-
sonry. He said that the Masonic Grand
Lodge "reeked with blood" and that
Masons themselves were "a feeble band
of lowly reptiles who shunned the light
and retired to midnight dens to perpetu-
ate their blasphemies. "

On the side of the Masons, Governor
DeWitt Clinton of New York, a high
officer in the Masonic organization, of-
fered a reward of $1000 for the discovery
of Morgan alive and $2000 for the dis-
covery and conviction of his murderers if
he were dead. Committees were organ-
ized by each faction to provide evidence
in the matter, but nothing new was dis-
covered.

The book itself, luustrations of Freema-
sonry, became an immediate best-seller.
It was read by thousands of people who
ordinarily would have had no interest in
Masonry. It was not only a hit in the
United States; it was pirated and trans-
lated into several European languages
and sold widely on that continent.

Almost at once, the affair assumed a
political aspect. It furnished the occasion
for wide organization of objections to all
kinds of secret societies. An Antimasonic
political party sprang into existence on
the state and national levels. Eventually
the fate of William Morgan became only
a small factor in the greater effort to
destroy the Masons. In 1831 a national
Antimasonic convention was held in Bal-
timore and William Wirt, Attorney Gen-
eral of the United States, was nominated
for president, presumably with the idea
that the Attorney General could best take
legal action to wipe out all aspects of
Masonry.

A humorous side to the Wirt nomina-
tion may be seen in that he was a Mason
himself, having joined the order in his
youth. He was seemingly not at all con-
cerned about Morgan or the Masonic
question. He merely took the nomina-
tion hoping that he could gain popularity
and perhaps receive the Whig nomina-
tion, present a united front, and win the
Presidency from incumbent Andrew
Jackson. This was a vain hope, for the
Whigs stuck with Henry Clay. President
Jackson, a strong Mason, easily beat
them both.

At the nominating convention, Wirt
actually defended Masonry by saying
that he was a Mason and that he had no
suspicion that there was anything crimi-
nal in the Craft. He believed that most
Masons were good, patriotic citizens,
and that Masonry had nothing to do with
politics. Having made this statement,
Wirt accepted the Antimasonic nomina-
tion for President of the United States!
Certainly, the Antimasonic Party was
doomed from the first.

So much for the Antimasonic Party. It
appeared overnight, exploded like a gey-
ser, and disappeared just as quickly. But
the impact of the Morgan affair was pro-
found, if short-lived. Between 1828 and
1835, families, churches, and communi-
ties were split on only a slightly smaller
scale than at the time of the Civil War.
Thousands of Masons in every state
dropped their membership, but the loss
was greatest in New York and New En-
gland. Lodges and Grand Lodges tem-
porarily disappeared. In five years, New
York went from 500 lodges to 49. But
recovery was also swift. By 1860, New
York had 10,000 more Masons than they
had before the Morgan incident. Free-
masonry not only survived; it prospered.

Although Masons today may feel that
our fraternity struggles for survival, we
are fortunate that we are united in broth-
erly love and largely respected by our
communities. We do not face thousands
of hostile people bent on destruction of
the Craft, thank the Great Architect!
One Morgan affair was enough for all
time.     Bibliography

"Anti-Masonic Party, The. " American Heritage,
June, 1966. Baigel, Matthew. Thomas Hart Ben-
ton. New York: Abrams, 1974. Butterfield
Roger. The American Past. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1957. Case, James Royal. Thc Case Col-
lection of Biographics of Masonic Notables. Fulton
MO: Missouri Lodge of
Research and Ovid H. Bell Press, Inc. 1984.
"Clinton, DeWitt. " Dictionary of Amcrican Biogra-
phy. Denslow, William R. ''Wllliam Morgan."
10,000 Famous Freemasons, III, 230-31. Ibid.

"William Wirt." IV, 339. "How to Get
Elected." American Heritage August, 1964, 65.
" Morgan, William. " Dictionary of American Biog-
raphy. Remini, Robert V. Life of Andrlw Jackson.
New York: Harper,

1986. Schlesinger, Arthur. Age of Jackson. Boston:
Scribners,

1945. Todd, Lewis Paul and Merle Curti. Rise of
Our Free Nation. "Wirt, William." Dictionary of
Amcrican Biography "Wirt, William." New Funk
and Wagnalls Encyclopcdia, 1950. Editor's Note:
In addition to the sources listed above, the reader
desiring more detailed information should con-
sult the two sources listed below: McCarthy
Charles. "The Antimasonic Party: A study of
Political Antimasonry in the United States, 1827-
40. "

Annual Report of the American Historical Association for
the Year 1902. Washington: Government Printing
Of fice, 1903. Vaughn, William Preston. TheAnti-
masonic Party in thc United Statcs, I 326-/3~3. Lex-
ington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983.

The Philalethes, October 1992
