Anti-Masonic Party

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The Anti-Masonic Party (also known as the Anti-Masonic Movement) was a 19th century minor political party in the United States. As its name suggests, it strongly opposed Freemasonry, but in fact was not a single-issue party, aspiring to become a major party. It was a part of the Second Party System and introduced important new techniques, such as the state convention to select candidates.

1 History
2 Candidates
3 See also
4 References
5 External link

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History

It was formed in New York City in 1828, and was the first third party in American national politics.

Its hate of Freemasonry seems strange to many historians in light of the fact that a number of founding fathers were Masons, including George Washington.

The party had its rise after the mysterious disappearance, in 1826, of William Morgan (c. 1776-c. 1826), a Freemason of Batavia, New York, who had become dissatisfied with his Order and had planned to publish its secrets. When his purpose became known to the Masons, Morgan was subjected to frequent annoyances, and finally in September 1826 he was seized and surreptitiously conveyed to Fort Niagara, from whence he disappeared. Though his ultimate fate was never known, it was generally believed at the time that he had been foully dealt with.

The event created great excitement, and led many to believe that Masonry and good citizenship were incompatible. Opposition to Masonry was taken up by the churches as a sort of religious crusade, and it also became a local political issue in western New York, where early in 1827 the citizens in many mass meetings resolved to support no Mason for public office. In New York at this time the National Republicans, or "Adams men," were a very feeble organization, and shrewd political leaders at once determined to utilize the strong anti-Masonic feeling in creating a new and vigorous party to oppose the rising Jacksonian Democracy. In this effort they were aided by the fact that Jackson was a high-ranking Mason and frequently spoke in praise of the Order.

In the elections of 1828 the new party proved unexpectedly strong, and after this year it practically superseded the National Republican party in New York. In 1829 the hand of its leaders was shown, when, in addition to its antagonism to the Masons, it became a champion of internal improvements and of the protective tariff. The party published 35 weekly newspapers in New York State. Soon one became preeminent, the Albany Journal edited by Thurlow Weed. The party invented the convention, a system whereby locally elected delegates would choose state condidates and pledge their loyalty. Soon the Democrats and Whigs recognized the value in building a party, and held their own conventions. The newspapers reveled in partisanship. One brief Albany Journal paragraph on Van Buren included the words "profligate," "dangerous," "demagogue," "corrupt," "degrade," "pervert," "prostitute," "debauch" and "cursed."

By 1832 the movement had lost its focus on Masonry, and had spread to neighboring states, becoming especially strong in Pennsylvania and Vermont. A national organization was planned as early as 1827, when the New York leaders attempted, unsuccessfully, to persuade Henry Clay, though a Mason, to renounce the Order and head the movement. In 1831, William A. Palmer was elected governor of Vermont on an Anti-Masonic ticket, an office he held until 1835.

The party conducted the first U.S. presidential nominating convention in the U.S. at Baltimore, in the 1832 elections, nominating William Wirt (a former Mason) for President and Amos Ellmaker for Vice President. Wirt won 7.78 percent of the popular vote, and the seven electoral votes from Vermont. The highest elected office ever held by a member of the party was that of Pennsylvania governor, held from 1835 to 1838 by Joseph Ritner.

This was the high tide of its prosperity; in New York in 1833 the organization was moribund, and its members gradually united with the National Republican Party and other opponents of Jacksonian Democracy in forming the Whig Party. In other states, the party survived somewhat longer, but by 1836 most of its members had united with the Whigs. Its last act in national politics was to nominate William Henry Harrison for president and John Tyler for vice-president at a convention in Philadelphia in November 1838.

The growth of the anti-Masonic movement was due more to the political and social conditions of the time than to the Morgan episode, which was merely the catalyst. Under the name of "Anti-Masons" able leaders united those who were discontented with existing political conditions, and the fact that William Wirt, their choice for the presidency in 1832, was not only a Mason but even defended the Order in a speech before the convention that nominated him, indicates that simple opposition to Masonry soon became a minor factor in holding together the various elements of which the party was composed.

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Candidates

William Wirt/Amos Ellmaker - 1832 (lost)

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References

J. D. Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York (2 vols., Albany, 1842).
Holt, Michael F. "The Antimasonic and Know Nothing Parties," in History of U.S. Political Parties, ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (4 vols., New York, 1973), I, 575-620.
A. G. Mackey and W. R. Singleton, The History of Freemasonry, vol. vi. (New York, 1898)
Charles McCarthy, The Antimasonic Party: A Study of Political Anti-Masonry in the United States, 1827-1840, in the Report of the American Historical Association for 1902 (Washington, 1903) online at JSTOR
Vaughn, William Preston (1983) The Antimasonic Party in the United States, 1826-1843. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813114748
Van Deusen, Glyndon G. Thurlow Weed, Wizard of the Lobby (1947)
This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.