The farmer and mechanic., 1907-09-24

,r,rrea /. oxe was anti-sta&onTy. That
,xas in 1898. when John Quincy Adams
was President ard lie Wiz clinton
governor OF Kew York. in which state
fna thing nrxt broke out II seems
inat a fellow ~ the name OF Morgan
r,es-posca printing book that pHf :
ported TO be 81 revelation OF the seSs'N
ritual of the Masonic order soon
thereafter Morgan vanished from asa :
tayia. n here he lived. and Was
known that he VAS either Kidnapped
ey Majors or pretended 10 be kldnAp-
ped BY men who sough; 20 mako the
order odiouS. subsequently ocas
body was nShsd out OF the lake and
there arose a babel - dispute as to
whether it was Morgan. Ih1Fiow
Weed declared thar u wes good
enough Morgan tlli after tho election.
and In q short time the entire state
was in 4 blaze that extcnded in;o Ne"
England. down into Jersey aud Penn
sylyanis and out into Ohio and Mich
.gan. dividing nrd bringing fanatic
dizcord 10 every community. disrupt
ing politics. and distracting religion.
itself Friendships lifelong were
son and brother was opposed 70 broth
er.
There were numerous criminal
trials IN New York growing out OF the
abduction and the alleged murder. and
there were veroicts OF guilty on indict-
ments charging the former Millard
Fillmore arterwara President OF the
United states. William II seward. af
terward governor. United States Sep
ator, and Secretary or state. and John
w. Taylor. who had been Speaker or
Congress and. who worked assiduousiy
curing the quarrel over the admission
OF Missouri slave State 10 saw
the ara agon's teeth thai. forty-siN years
later. yielded the harvest OF one OF the
ploodiest wars OF history. were active
In the creation OF the anti-Masonic
sentiment Garrett Smith and Francis
Granger were also leaders In the
movement The new party was set
on foot and polled $4,000 votes at the
succeeding election. thus comprising
the election or Martin Van Buren,, the
anti-Adams candidate. for governor.
And so the new party was formed.
Stevens ~as leader OF IL In
Pennsylvania. where it became very
strong. Thurlow Weed believed that
Clay would have beaten Jackson for
President in 1882 If he had not antag-
onized the antl-Masons curious
thing about IL was that William Writ,
himself a Mason OF the fellowcraft de-
gree, was the anti Masonic candidate
for President in 1892, and got the sew
en- votes of Vermont in the college
OF that year.
Given popular panic. few delud-
ed men Of character and capacity; a
denbLgogues, and an ignorant and
following, and up springs
a political party. This anti Masonic
layout was as absurd as Lord George
Gordons riotous following. but IL kept
the public mind in "a fever for years
Washington. Franklin, and Lafayette
were all Masons. but thousands or pa
triotic men OF the succeeding genera
tion came TO believe that Masonry
was murder in secret conciave. plot
TING 10 f6ayf1 inn ion of nj M
of the brotherhood.
The next political frenzy was the
movement that swept
over the North in 1854. and found
lodgment as far South as Maryland
and Kentucky. Henry A. Wise met It
at the Potomac, and hurled II back |
Andy Johnson expelled 1t from Ten
nessee, and stephen "A. Douglas sue
cessfully held Illinois against It's in
vasion. 1t carried Kentucky against
John c. Breckenridge. Joseph Holt. |
Elijah Hise. and Beverly l.. Clark, but |
its victory was due to the butcheries |
and the arsons of Bloody Monday"
N Louisville. August 6. 1855. The |
following year the party died, when |
but one State-Mary1and- tie |
ala of the fierce and ruthless Plug |
C~lies.
The Know-Nothings made war on |
the Catholic church. and professed To
believe that the Pope OF Rome had
IF the American people More than
SIX centuries earlier a Catholic arch
bishop OF Canterbury had wrested
rom King John the liberties of Eng
and. and 1t was fruit of the tree
stephen Langton had planted at ST +
that afforded this very
party the right to ex-
st Nay, the very trst authentic came
rom the Catholic colony of Maryland.
bit fr~nzied politics is not only igno-
ant, but incapable of reason. The
,raze swept over state after State. and
protestant churches sent their thou
sands TO swell the membership of
lodges. Locksmiths
Leaped rich harvests, securing the
ioors of brave men against the Pope
II Rome, one of the kindliest and
most benignant old men then living.
Who wished no more harm to the con-
inent Of America than he did TO the
planet Mara.
The next section OF crazy-quit poll
les we had was the Granger move
nent of the earlier '40s. Its basic
'elief was that the men, women. and
hildren of the Atlantic slope, who
ubsisted on the food products of the
1lsslssippl valley, were In dark and
.odless conspiracy to make fruitless
he energies of the Western farmers.
Vno led tnem. AT that time the Treas
Try Department was busy paying off
ne foating debt, evidenced Dy green
'ack promises to pay. Demagogues
auSht the farmers that the ereenback
vas the people money" whereas II
vas the peoples debt-and the cost
lest and most ruinous debt this peo-
'ie ever had saddled on them Not
MY that. IT h2d been the instrument
i private reputation TO the amount
II hunGreds Of millions. and hld
wrecked the public credit until II was
esS than 40 per cent. OF par Con
,Tess had insulted the public inteIIi-
'ence, and deDauched the public con-
sclehfe ~ enactinG that an ire