Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-11-29
rHURLOw WEEDS GREAT SECRET
Unfolding . Story Of the Alleged MIR.
der Of Morgan Who Exposed Masonry
An Extraordinary RevelatiOn.

NEW ORk. NOV 20.
The Sun prints . revelation reported TO
have been made BY Thurlow Weed, showing
that John Whitney in 1881 made . revelation
Of the murder of Morgan, who revealed the
secrets Of Free Masonry. The substance of
the statement is that, after the meeting of
chapter of Masons at Lewiston. n. Y. Will
liam King, an officer of our war of 1912. and
then = member of the assembly from Mag
ara county, called Whitney of Rochester,
Howard of Buffalo, Chubbuck of Lewiston,
and Garside of Canada, out of the room and
into . carriage furnished by Major Barton.
They we're driven to Fort Niagara, repaired
to the magazine, and informed Morgan, who
had been placed there previously that ar
rangements for sending him to Canada were
completed, and that his family would soon
follow him.
Morgan received the information cheer
fully and walked with the supposed friends
to the boat which was rowed to the mouth of
his body, to each end of which sinker was
attached. Morgan was then thrown over
board. He grasped the gunwale of the boat
convulsively. Garside, in forcing Morgan to
relinquish his hold, was severely bitten.
This statement ~as made to Mr.. Weed under
secrecy. and he kept it till his death.
Mr.. Weeds statement further is as fol-
lows: whitney in concluding his narrative,
said he was now relieved from \ heavy load;
that for four years he had not heard the
window rustic or any other noise at night
without thinking the sheriff was after him.
Col. Jewett. looking fxedly at Whitney,
said: Weed can hang you now But he
WON'T was Whitneys prompt reply. OF
course Q secret thus confded to me was in
violablv kept, and twenty nine years after
wards, while attending a national republi-
can convention At Chicago, John Whitney,
who then resided there, called to say that he
wanted me to write out what he once told
me about Morgans fate, to be signed by him
in the presence of witnesses, to be sealed up
and published after his death. promised to
do so before leaving Chicago. There was no
leisure, however, during the sitting of the
convention, and even before its final ad-
jOurnment, forgetting what had told Whit
ney, hurried to Iowa, returning by the way
of Springfield to visit Mr.. Lincoln. In the
excitement of the canvass which follow ed
and the secession of the Southern States up
on Mr.. Lincoln's election, neglected the
important duty Of securing the confession
Whitney was SO anxious to make. In 1861
went to Europe, and while in London wrote
a letter to Whitney asking him to get Alex.
b. Williams, then = resident of Chicago, to
DO what nau SO unpaf0Onably neglected.
That letter reached Chicago one week after
Whitney's death, closing the last and only
chance for the revelation of that important
event."
whitney was mason by trade, honest,
industrious, sober, but evcitabls. In all the
early stages of the Morgan affair he believed
he was doing his duty. The final crime was
committed under the circumstances l have
related, l now look back through an inter-
val of fifty six years with a conscious sense
of having been governed through the anti
masonic excitement by a sincere desire, first,
to vindicats the violated laws of my country,
and next, to arrest the great power and dang
| erous influence of secret societies. We
| labored under serious disadvantages. The
people were unwilling to believe that an in
| stitution 80 ancient, to which so many of our
best and most distinguished men belonged,
was capable of not only violating the laws but
Of sustaining and protecting offending men
Of the order. A vast majority of the Ameri-
can people believed that Morgan was con-
| cealed by our committee for political effect.
While we were iercely denounced as incend-
larry spirits, Judge Enos T. Troop, in charg.
ing the grand jury At Cananaigua. spoke Of
anti-masOnry az blessed spirit and q
spirit which he hoped would not rest until
every man implicated in the abduction of
Morgan was tried, convicted and punished