Low Twelve

THE ABDUCTION OF WILLIAM MORGAN

In 1821 William Morgan was a brewer, living in York, Upper Canada. Unsuccessful in that business, he removed to Rochester, N. Y., and wrought at his trade of stonemason. He was a ne'er-d-well, addicted to tippling, spent most of his time in saloons, and was a man whose word few would accept. Two years later he changed his home to Batavia, Genesee County, in the same State.

It is doubtful whether Morgan was ever made a Free Mason, though he may have received the degrees in Canada. He succeeded, however in convincing a number of the brethren that he had passed through the "Blue Lodge," and was allowed to enter the one at Batavia. He made oath that he had been regularly entered, passed and raised, and he was made a Royal Arch Mason at LeRoy, N.Y., on the last day of May, 1823. A movement was set on foot to establish a Royal Arch Chapter at Batavia, and Morgan signed the petition for that purpose, in 1826. His character was so well known that most of the other signers objected to the appearance of his name on the petition and a new one was substituted, from which it was omitted. This curt snub not only angered Morgan, but implanted in his sodden brain the resolve to expose the secrets of the order, by which he was confident that he and his associates would gain a great fortune.

He secured an ally in David C. Miller, editor of the Republican Advocate, a weekly paper published at Batavia. It is said that this man had received the first degree in Masonry, but being found unworthy, was never advanced further. He was involved in debt, and, like Morgan, believed that the treachery would make all concerned independently rich. The editor did not shrink from publicly announcing his purpose.

It was right here that the Masons made a blunder which, in the language of the French, was worse than a crime. They should have paid no attention to the treachery, and the publication, whatever it might have been, would have fallen flat and attracted little or no notice. Strong arguments were made to Morgan to abandon his scheme, and he said he was willing to do so, but Miller pushed the publication as fast as he could. Several hot-headed Masons determined to get the manuscript. Miller's office was set on fire in September, but the flames were extinguished before much damage was done. A reward of $100 was offered for the arrest and conviction of the incendiary, but the secret was well guarded. There were not wanting those who believed that Miller had set fire to the building as a shrewd means of advertising.

Morgan owed a sum of money to a hotel keeper at Canandaigua, and he was arrested for the debt and taken thither. He was acquitted, but arrested again on a similar charge, confessed judgment and was lodged in jail. Miller was also arrested, but he eluded the officer and fled to his home. The wife' of Morgan hurried to Canandaigua to the aid of her husband, but learning that the debt had been paid, returned, having been told that her husband would speedily join her.

When several days passed without his appearance, she became alarmed and sent a friend to learn what it meant. He came back with word that the debt had been settled and Morgan released, but he had hardly left jail when he was seized by Loton Lawson and another person and hustled down the street. He resisted violently and shouted "Murder!" Nicholas G. Chesebro and Edward Sawyer, who with Lawson were members of the posse that had brought Morgan from home, were spectators who refused to help the prisoner. They followed the others, and were in turn followed by a carriage, which soon came back and was driven toward Rochester. It was empty when it went away, but contained several persons on its return. The messenger of Mrs. Morgan reported that the carriage reached Rochester at daybreak and was driven three miles beyond. At that point the party left it, and the vehicle returned. The driver swore that all the men were strangers to him and that he saw no violence.

Here another point is reached upon which the truth will never be clearly known. Many have contended that no personal harm was intended, but that the purpose of the abductors was to compel Morgan to abandon his scheme and to leave the country, the promise being made to him that he would be provided with a liberal sum of money. It is said further that he agreed to do as proposed, that he received the money and buried himself out of sight of all his former acquaintances. Reports came from time to time that he had been recognized in South America, in Turkey, in the wilds of Canada, and in other parts of the world, but all these reports were baseless. The miserable fellow had disappeared as utterly as if the ground had opened and swallowed him from human sight.

The high-handed outrage started a wave of excitement which swept over the entire country. The abduction of Morgan was without palliation, even if no personal harm was meditated against him. The guilty parties should have been punished with the utmost rigor of the law. Among the thousands who hotly condemned the crime were leading Free Masons, who gave their help to running down the criminals.

As is invariably the case, the innocent had to suffer for the guilty. Public meetings were held in Batavia and elsewhere, in which the fraternity was denounced in the fiercest terms. Only those who lived in the border States at the outbreak of the Civil War can form any idea of the irrestrainable rage that was stirred to its depths. Although Governor Dc Witt Clinton was a prominent Mason, he issued a proclamation, October 7, 1826, calling upon all officers and ministers of justice to use the most efficient measures to arrest the offenders and to bring them to justice. Shortly after he followed with a second proclamation, offering a reward for the arrest and conviction of the guilty persons. In the following March, a third proclamation promised $1000 to any one who, "as accomplice or co-operator, shall make a full discovery of the offender or offenders."

The investigations thus set on foot showed that when the men left the carriage beyond Rochester on the fateful morning, they entered another vehicle and went westward by the way, of Clarkson, Gaines, Lewiston and thus to Fort Niagara, where they arrived the following morning. On a portion of the journey, Sheriff Bruce of the county was with them. At Fort Niagara the four men dismissed the carriage and made their way to the fort, which was near at hand. Beyond this it was impossible to trace the parties farther. With them disappeared William Morgan.

In arriving at a clear judgment of the truth concerning this lamentable affair, it must be borne in mind that naturally both parties to the controversy were biased. The accusers of the fraternity were impulsive, hot headed, intemperate and unjust, inasmuch as they laid the blame at the door of the order, when in truth the vast majority condemned the crime as warmly as their opponents. On the other hand; the Free Masons labored to make the case as favorable as they could. By that is meant that they insisted that no personal harm was intended or ever perpetrated against the man, who willingly agreed to guide himself in accordance with the wishes of his abductors.

The father of the writer was a neighbor of Morgan, knew the persons accused and gave it as his belief, expressed many years after, that Morgan was placed in a boat or flung overboard and sent over Niagara Falls.

The direct outcome of the disappearance of Morgan was the formation of the anti-Masonic party, whose leaders were William H. Seward, Millard Fillmore, William Wirt (attorney-general tinder Monroe), John Quincy Adams and that adroit politician, Thurlow Weed. During the four years ending in 1831, some one or other connected with the abduction was in jail, and suits were prosecuted for a long time. Sheriff Bruce was removed from office by Governor Clinton. He also suffered imprisonment for a year and a half. The sheriff always contended that Morgan voluntarily accompanied the parties who had him in charge. Loton Lawson was sentenced for a term of two years, Nicholas G. Chesebro for one year and Edward Sawyer for one month. The natural question that presents itself at this point is that if Morgan was alive, why was he not traced - as he certainly could have been - and restored to his friends? In truth, he was and had been dead for a good while.

The resentment against Free Masonry flamed into a fire that threatened to sweep everything before it. In many places, clergymen were not allowed to preach unless they repudiated and denounced Masonry, and Masonic meetings were prevented by force of arms. In several of the States the Grand Lodges felt it advisable to suspend their meetings for years. In Vermont every lodge stopped work. It is the pride of my own lodge (Trenton, No.5) that it did not miss a single communication throughout all those tempestuous years, being the only one in New Jersey that thus braved the storm. The old lodge room was on the bank of the Delaware, and in order to reach it the members stole through alleys and along the shore till it was safe to dodge to the door where the trembling tyler admitted them. Many of those who were warmly attached to the order, after passing temperate resolutions, counseled a yielding for the time to the persecution, a closing of their work and the surrender of their charters. This was extensively done. As evidence of the staggering blow to Masonry, it may be stated that although the Grand Lodge of Maine met annually from 1834 to 1843, it once had not a single representative from any lodge, and only twice during that period did it have representatives from more than four lodges. The lodges in New Jersey were reduced from thirty-three to six in number.

The cruelest charge was that Governor Clinton committed suicide in 1828 because of his remorse for sanctioning the death of Morgan. Only a few months before his death he had declared that Free Masonry was no more responsible for the acts of unworthy members, than any other institution or association.

No occurrence, however tragic, is safe from misuse by the politicians. More than a hundred anti-Masonic newspapers sprang into existence, whose venomous opposition was beyond description. Chief among these was the Albany Evening Journal, under the control of Thurlow Weed, a representative of Monroe County in the Legislature. No language was too inflammatory for this and the other papers.

On October 7, 1827, the body of a drowned man was found on the beach of Lake Ontario, forty miles from Niagara. It was so decomposed that recognition was impossible, and the coroner's jury, having rendered a verdict of accidental death, the remains were buried. The golden opportunity was not lost by Weed. He and several men, including David C. Miller, had the grave reopened. At the second inquest, Mrs. Morgan and other witnesses identified the body of her husband. The fact that the clothing was such as Morgan had never been known to wear, and that he had been missing for more than a year, and that no perceptible physical resemblance could be noted, did not prevent the official declaration that the remains were those of William Morgan. It was on this occasion that Thurlow Weed is said to have replied to the absurdity of the whole business by the grim declaration, "It's a good enough Morgan till after election."

The evidence that the remains were not those of the Morgan became so clear that a third inquest was held in the latter part of 1827. It was then established beyond question that the body was that of Timothy Monro, whose boat had been upset while crossing the river some weeks previous.

Thurlow Weed, in a letter published September 9, 1882, said that John Whitney, while at his house in 1831, confessed that he and four others, whom he named, told Morgan, who was confined in a magazine at Fort Niagara, that arrangements had been made for sending him to Canada, where his family would soon follow him; that Morgan consented and walked with the party to a boat, which was rowed to the mouth of the river, where a rope was wound around Morgan's body, to each end of which a sinker was attached, and he was then thrown overboard.

Weed said he could not in honor reveal a secret thus imparted to him. Twenty-nine years later, when Weed was attending a National Republican Convention in Chicago, where John Whitney lived, the latter called upon him with the request that he would write out what he had told him in 1831, have it witnessed, sealed up and published after his death. Weed promised to do so, but in the hurry and excitement of the convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, he overlooked the matter. In 1861, Weed while in London wrote to Whitney, asking him to get Alexander B. Williams of Chicago to perform the duty which Weed had so unpardonably neglected. Whitney died just before the letter reached Chicago.

Such was Weed's statement, but the fact remains that Whitney did not die until eight years after the date given by Weed, and witnesses came forward who declared that they heard Whitney angrily protest to Weed against his persistent falsehoods about him.

To return, the anti-Masonic party grew rapidly in numbers. At first it was confined to western New York, where, in 1828, its candidate; or Governor received 33,345 votes, not enough, however, to elect him. In the following year, in the State election, the anti-Masons carried fifteen counties and polled 67,000 votes. In 1830 and 1832, Francis Granger, the nominee of the anti-Masonic party, received a large vote, but not sufficient in either case to bring him success.

In the State of New York, the vote of 33,345 in 1828 rose to 156,672 in 1832. In the last-named year the anti-Masonic party entered the Presidential field, nominating William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania respectively for President and Vice-President. This ticket received all the electoral votes of Vermont. It should be noted, too, that in 1836 Francis Granger was nominated on the ticket with General William Henry Harrison. After that the opposition to Free Masonry died out almost as rapidly as it had arisen, and the order was never more flourishing than it is today.

Those who recall the devious ways of Thurlow Weed will hardly believe the statement he made about John Whitney, in view of the inaccuracy that his London letter of 1861 did not reach Chicago until after the death of Whitney, who lived until 1869. Whitney did leave a statement, which was not to be published until after his death, and not then unless a new attack should be made upon Free Masonry.

Whitney declared that the plan from inception to completion had in view nothing more than a deportation of Morgan, by friendly agreement between the parties, either to Canada or some other country. Ample means were provided for the support of Morgan's family, and for giving him a fair start in life. Morgan agreed to everything proposed. He was to destroy all MSS., gradually cease drinking, refuse to meet his former partners, and to go to Canada, if necessary, on an hour's notice. When he reached his appointed place, he was to be paid $500 upon his written pledge not to return to the States. His family were to be sent to him with as little delay as possible.

It will be recalled that Morgan was released from jail upon the payment of his debt. This was part of the prearranged plan, and Morgan understood it all. Unfortunately he had obtained liquor, which always made him violent, and he fiercely resisted, till he realized his mistake, when he yielded and got into the carriage as quietly as did the other members of the party. Whitney accompanied the coach from Canandaigua. The sheriff joined the party at Wright's Corners and they drove to Youngstown, where they called upon Colonel William King, an officer of the War of 1812.

From this point we quote:

"King and Bruce got into the carriage together and had a long conversation with Morgan. The whole transaction was gone over and Morgan gave his assent and concurrence therewith.

"On arriving near the fort, the driver (not a Mason) was dismissed and the coach sent back. The ferryboat was ready and the party went immediately on board. It was rowed by Elisha Adams nearly opposite the fort and about a mile from the Canadian village of Niagara. Leaving Morgan in the boat, three of the party went to the village and met a committee of two Canadian Masons as agreed.

"No official inquiry has ever brought out the names of these, and I shall ever be silent concerning them. We came back to the boat, the Canadian brethren bringing a lantern. Bruce called Morgan up the bank, out of the boat, and the .party sat down together on 'the grass. Now Colonel King required of Morgan the most explicit consent to the movements that had brought him there. By the aid of questions from the whole party, Morgan admitted as follows:

" '(1) That he had contracted with Miller and others to write an exposition of Masonry, for which he was to receive a compensation.

" '(2) That he had never been made a Mason in any lodge, but had received the Royal Arch degree in a regular manner.

" '(3) That Miller and the other partners had utterly failed to fulfill the terms of the contract with him.

" '(4) That Whitney had paid him $50, as agreed, and he had agreed to destroy the written and printed work as far as possible and furnish no more, and that before leaving Batavia' he had done what he promised in that way.

" '(5) That it was impossible now for Miller to continue the "illustrations" as he [Morgan] had written them. If he published any book, it would have to be made from some other person's materials.

" '(6) That he had been treated by Chesebro, Whitney, Bruce, and all of them with perfect kindness on the journey.

" '(7) That he was willing and anxious to be separated from Miller and from all idea of a Masonic expose'; wished to go into the interior of Canada and settle down as a British citizen; wished to have his family sent to him as soon as possible; expected $500 when he reached the place, as agreed upon; expected more money from year to year, to help him, if necessary.

" '(8) Finally he expressed his sorrow for the uproar his proceedings had made, sorrow for the shame and mortification of his friends, and had "no idea that David C. Miller was such a d - scoundrel as he had turned out to be.' "

"We had ascertained at the village that the Canadian brethren would be ready to perform their part and remove Morgan westward by the latter part of that or the first of the succeeding 'week, but objected so strenuously to having him remain among them in the meantime, that it was agreed that he [Morgan] should be taken to the American side until the Canadians should notify us that they were ready.

"This was explained to Morgan, and he agreed to it. It was then understood that he was to remain in the magazine without attempting to get out until matters were arranged for his removal. The party then rowed back, and Morgan was left in the bomb proof of the magazine.

"The party then left, breakfasted at Youngstown, and went up to Lewiston on the Rochester boat that passed up, with passengers for the Royal Arch installation that occurred there that day. There was quite a company of us there, and the intelligence was freely communicated that Morgan was in Fort Niagara, and the greatest satisfaction was expressed at the news that the manuscripts and printed sheets had been destroyed, and that in a few days Morgan would be effectually separated from the company that had led to his ruin. During the day it was reported to us at Lewiston that 'Morgan had gone into theatricals,' and was shouting and alarming the people in the vicinity. Nothing would quiet him except rum, which was given him.

"Lawson, Whitney and a few others remained in the vicinity until Sunday night, when the two Canadian brethren came over, received Morgan, receipted to Whitney for the money [$500] and crossed to the west side of the river.

"They traveled on horseback-three horses in the party; Monday night they rode some thirty miles farther to a point near the present city of Hamilton, where the journey ended. Morgan signed a receipt for the $500. He also signed a declaration of the facts in the case.

"We supposed we could at any time trace him up. We felt that the craft would be the gainer by our labors. We were prepared to send his wife and children to him as agreed. We supposed that that was the end of it.

What a tremendous blunder we all made! It was scarcely a week until we saw that trouble was before us. It was not a fortnight until Colonel King sent a confidential messenger into Canada to see Morgan and prepare to bring him back.

"But alas! he who had sold his friends at Batavia had also sold us. He had gone. He had left the village within forty-eight hours after the departure of those who had taken him there. He was traced east to a point down the river not far from Port Hope, where he sold his horse and disappeared. He had doubtless got on board a vessel there and sailed out of the country. At any rate, that was the last we ever heard of him."