‘New Jersey’s Anti-Masonic Party’

    

From the Proceedings of the Fourth Massachusetts Convention of Antimasonic Republicans, Boston, September 1833.
Click to enlarge.

We’ve had better days at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education. I can’t write off yesterday’s meeting as a total loss—I mean, we held our nominations for elected office for the coming two-year term to make our December communication easier—but things could have been more encouraging.

First, attendance was slight. We don’t draw huge crowds to our activities (no research lodge does), but we typically are good for twenty guys, approximately. There were eight of us in lodge assembled at Freemasons Hall Saturday. Secondly, due to an absence, there was only a single presenter for the morning. A good speaker could carry a meeting, but that wasn’t to be. Worse, our speaker began by confessing he hadn’t completed his research, so that his presentation wouldn’t delve inside his main topic, but that instead, his introductory topic, for giving context to the keynote, would have to suffice.

Okay, that unprepared sorry speaker was myself. I didn’t budget enough time to tackle all the research I needed for this paper. The topic is the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey. That introductory topic was the alleged abduction and possible killing of William Morgan in Upstate New York, the event that precipitated the anti-Masonic movement in many states between 1827 and 1840. Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of those purported crimes, which is why I aimed for this meeting to present a history of this local political party, but time ran out.

In my professional editorial work, deadlines are no problem. Of course there’s remuneration at the end of those jobs, so maybe that’s why, but what frustrates me about this research project is I know where to find the troves of information I require, but making time to go has been difficult. For example, the New Jersey State Library, located in Trenton, keeps banker’s hours; it’s open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., like a church thrift shop or something.

So, I focused on William Morgan’s life and alleged demise, relying on sources from Canada, which seem to me to be objective and rational. Much has been written about the “Morgan Affair,”  but I find a lot gets emotional and defensive. I wish I had Dafoe’s book. I never got around to buying Morgan: The Scandal that Shook Freemasonry, and now it’s out of print and copies are expensive. And, Masonic libraries are stingy with hours too.

Anyway, it’s an interesting story because simultaneously the anti-Masonic political party never accomplished anything in the state, but Freemasonry in New Jersey almost disappeared nevertheless. By 1840, when the smoke mostly had dissipated, there were eight lodges still operational, down from more than fifty in ’27. The fraternity had returned to its size at the founding of Grand Lodge in 1786. Long before 1840, the party, in the words of one historian, had “dwindled into insignificance” itself.

From The Antimasonic Party by Charles McCarthy, 1903 (the author’s doctoral dissertation). Click to enlarge.

In the 1832 presidential contest between Tennessee Past Grand Master Andrew Jackson and Kentucky Past Grand Master Henry Clay, the New Jersey Anti-Masonic Party inadvertently delivered their state to Jackson by denying Clay just enough votes in the tightest election in Jersey history. Clay had demitted from his lodge in 1824—never denounced the Craft, but gave up his membership—so the antimasons helped send a Freemason to the White House. They were that kind of political voice.

My desired conclusion for the talk was to be a humorous note about corruption in government courtesy of this one-issue party, but I need to grab more details first. I mean it’s funny in a dark way. If you know New Jersey politics, you know things never change when it comes to our beloved grifters in government, no matter the political party. (I used to work in professional politics. The official I answered to ended up in a federal penitentiary. They’re all garbage.)

I’ll get my eyes on the obscure papers I need eventually.

From Anti-Masonic Review, a monthly magazine by ‘renouncing Mason’ Henry Dana Ward, 1828. Click to enlarge.

After such a confused performance, I wanted to just quietly resume my seat and tell myself no one will remember this ignominious episode by the next time we meet. So what does Worshipful Master Don do? Has me exit the room. In my absence, the brethren—all seven of ’em!—voted to confer the lodge’s Distinguished Laureate Meritus honor on me. I didn’t even know meritus was a word.

We have too many honors at LORE. If you present five papers, we may elect you to Laureate Membership. Present ten, and maybe you’ll become a Distinguished Laureate. Do the ten and serve the lodge in other ways, and you could become this DLM. When the lodge was launched twenty-five years ago, just one honor was created: the one for ten papers. That’s enough. Ten papers, approved by the Editorial and Review Committee, is a ton of work. Could take a decade or more. Two members have preceded me here: Ben Hoff and Howard Kanowitz, both of whom have dazzled and entertained the lodge with their historical findings and engaging styles. (Don’t tell no one, but I’ve never written a Masonic research paper! I write magazine article style. Same information, just in a different format.) But my thanks to the brethren of the lodge for choosing me for this distinction. I rang the bell on that ten-paper minimum long ago, but never inquired into the honors because… we have too many honors in Masonry and it has to stop. It gets more ridiculous as the fraternity shrinks like a rayon shirt in the wash.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, December 12 for our elections & installation of officers and the new Master’s inaugural paper.