The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-25

Morgan was an impoverished Nirginian who removed to New York, settled at Batavia, and began the writing of a book in which he proposed to 'eXpose" Freemasonry He said that he had been Freemason for thirty years and his announcement attracted no little atten- ton, but as he had little standing 1t was generally supposed that he had mere ly thought out a scheme by which to make money He was the defendant in number of suits filed by creditors and had once been arrested for theft He was seized one night and never heard Of again. The incident naturally caused intense excitement and high feeling against the Masons, who were believed by many to have been responsible for his disappearance. Vigilants traced the man, in charge of captors, to Fort Niagara, near the mouth of Niagara river and there all searchers found themselves at a loss. Whether he was killed and the body sunk in Lake Ontario was never known.
 Much interest was taken in Morgan s well advertised book. which came out soon after his mysterious disappearance. If the book exposed anything 1t was chiefly the routine of ritualism. Chapters were devoted to minute descriptions or how lodge meetings were conducted. There were, however, a few statements which, if they could be believed, would put the order in bad light. Morgan said, for instance, that the members of the fra- ternity bound themselves by oath to pro- tect one another and 10 let their oath of loyalty to the order stand before "ny oath in court. Another statement ias that all Masons were bound by terrible oaths to wreak vengeance upon any man who betrayed their secrets, and many rargops ha1faxyad that tl1is statement was borne out by his death.
 The enti-Masonic party that sprang up as a result of the Morgan episode was a peculiar feature of American politics. The national republican party dared not nominate Masons In 1928, and the anti Masons called state convention and nominated Solomon Southwick for gov ernor Among the candidates for the nomination were William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed and Willard Fillmore. MT. Weed was quoted afterward as saying that T body found in a river near Ft. Michigan was "a good enough Morgan till after the election.n The anti-Masons boiled increasing strength for several years and gradually absorbed the natlonai republican party in New York, becoming the chief opposition of the democrats. The movement took a national aspect when the antl-Masons held a national convention to force Henry Clay out ot the field and nominated William Wirt or Maryland for President. Wirt got only the electoral vote of Vermont, and the party was soon absorbed by the whigs. Masonry has long since ceased to affect or be affected by politics, and the order is now as popular as any fraternal so- eiety in existence.
 Even now 1t is frequently stated that no Mason was ever hanged, and that members of the order always fare well in courts of law. The idea is wholly erroneous. Few Masons are tried in crim- inal courts because few of them are crim- inals. but 1t should be remembered that George III himself was a Mason, de- clined to pardon a minister of the Church or England who was sentenced to death under the old English law for forgery Upon one occasion when prominent Mason was upon the bench in Cincinnati the discovery that a defendant was a Freemason caused him to say that a man who violated the law should be punished, but a Mason who violated 1t should be punished both for his offense against the state and the offense to Free masonry.
 Tomorrow: "The Independent Order of Odd Fellows"