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THE

BROKEN SEAL;

OB,

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES

MORGAN ABDUCTION AND MURDER.

SAMUEL D. GREEN.

EZRA A. COOK &, CO.,

CHRISTIAN CYNOSURE OFFICE,
CHICAGO, ILL., 1873.

Entered, according to Act of Confess, in the year 1870, by

SAMULL l;. GREENE,

iD tne Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED AT THE

BOSTON STKRFOTTPE FOUNDRY,

19 Spring Lane.

\V O

CONTENTS.

f/

CHAPTER I.

PAGB
IKTHODUCTORT. 5

CHAPTER II.

dOW I BECAME A MaSON. ...... 15

CHAPTER III.

Captain William Morgan and Colonel David C.

Miller. 31

CHAPTER IV,
Thb Storm gathering. ....... 47

CHAPTER V.
Abddction of Morgan. ..... 71

CHAPTER VI.
Attempted ABDL'CTif)N of Mii.i.ku and his Rescijk. . 99

CHAPTKK VII.

What became or Morgan 117

(8)

1401113

4 CONTENTS;

CHAPTER VIII.
What Morgan actually revealed. . i , , 146

CHAPTER IX.
Mt subsequent Experiences with Masonrt. . . 159

APPENDIX.

The Way in which a Man was enticed into Ma-
sonry. 18-"

How old is Masonry? 188

Mr. Miller's Testimony be'-'^re a Genesee Court. 107

Antijiasonic Poetry. ....... 205

Masonry inconsistent witit a Republican Govern-
ment 211

Persecutions of S. T>. Greene, in a Series of Let-
ters to Southwick's National Observer. . . 215

"Abortive Attempt'' to punish the Morgan Abduc-
tors - .... 232

Extracts from the Proceedings of the New Hamp-
shire Antimasonic State Convention. . . . 287

Confession of the Murderer of William Morgan. 296

Allegations against Freemasonry. .... 300

/i

THE BROKEJs^ SEAL.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Sensible that 1 am drawing near the close of
life, I feel it my duty to leave on record certain
facts connected with my personal history, which
may be of use to those who shall come after me.
My life has been a long and eventful one ; but I
have no intention of writing an autobiography,
except in relation to one feature of my history.
Many years ago, I was brought, in the providence
of God, into strange and intimate association with
a series of events which deeply affected my own
mind, and, for a long time, powerfully agitated
society. I refer to the abduction and murder of
Captain William Morgan, for unfolding what he
deemed to be the pernicious secrets of the mason-
ic order. I was a member of the same lodge with

6 THE BROKEN SEAL.

bim, was intimately acquainted with the man,
and was an eye-witness of much that went on con-
cerning him. I am prepared, therefore, to bear
testimony on this subject, such as few other living
men probably can give. To the rising generation
the story is, in some good degree, a new one ; but
forty years ago, the whole land was moved with
excitement in consequence of it.

Believing, as I most sincerely do, that the insti-
tution of Freemasonry, in its natural working, is
injurious alike to individual and public morality,
that it is secretly hostile to good and wholesome
government, and still more hostile to the Christian
church, I feel it my duty, before leaving the world,
to tell what I have personally known of these
things, and bear my testimony in this regard.

In doing this I trust I am not moved by a sense
of private wrongs, or by any personal animosities.
Almost all of those who were in active life with
me at the time the events above referred to took
place, are now sleeping in the gi'ave. This is no
time for personal griefs and resentments. I have
passed beyond that period when the honors and
emoluments of this world can greatly affect me.
The generation with which I have acted my part
on the stage is gone, or fast disappearing. It is

INTRODUCTORY. 7

because I believe that what I have to relate has
an intrinsic interest and a valuable lesson for
others, that I am moved to tell it.

After this long lapse of years, I am .aware that
in little things mj memory at times may be at
fault. But all the substantial points of this nar-
rative were matters of record at the time, and
they were, moreover, events of such deep inter-
est, taking such strong hold of the thoughts and
feelings, as not to be easily effaced from the recol-
lection. In small and unimportant details there
may be an occasional mistake ; but in the great
things of the narrative — the larger outlines — I
am not likely to be mistaken. At my period of
life the memory is far more alive and fresh with
reference to matters forty years ago, than to
events of more recent occurrence. The only
value which such a personal history as this can
have, is its honest and reliable truth. My aim
will be to maj^e this narrative strictly truthful,
whatever other elements it may lack. It shall be
a straightforward story of what I myself passed
through.

In respect to such items of the narrative as did
not actually fall under my own personal inspec-
tion, but were yet connected with the same gen

8 THE BROKEN SEAL.

eral series of events, I have constantly referred
to contemporary history, and have consulted espe-
cially Rev. David Bernard's " Light on Masonry."
At the time of the Morgan abduction and murder,
Mr. Bernard was a member of the masonic lodge
at Covington, in Wyoming County, only about
twenty miles distant from Batavia. He had been
for some years a Mason — had been led into it
under the general representation that it was *' an
institution from Heaven ; moral, benevolent, of
great antiquity, the twin sister of Christianity,
possessing the patronage of the wise, the great
and good, and highly important to the ministers
of Jesus Christ." Under this general impression
he was taken, as I was, through the first three
degrees, only to awaken in him the same disgust
which I myself experienced after passing over the
same road. " My disappointment," he tells us,
" none can know but those who have, in similar
circumstances, been led in the same path of folly
and sin. I silently retired from the institution, and
for three years was hardly known as a Mason."
Still, by the representations of others, he was
made to believe that there was some great good
in the higher masonic degrees, and he started
again and travelled on his way until he entered

INTRODUCTORY. . 9

the Lodge of Perfection, and took the ineffable
degrees.

After all the experience he had, his opinion of
the institution is summed up in the following
plain, and unmistakable language : he " found it
wholly corrupt ; its morality, a shadow ; its benevo-
lence, selfishness ; its religion, infidelity ; and that,
as a system, it was an engine of Satan, calculated
to enslave the children of men, and pour contempt
upon the Most High.''

At the time of the Morgan abduction, Mr. Ber-
nard was absent from home. He returned on the
16th of September, only five days after the ab-
duction, to learn that Morgan was taken off and
probably murdered. He says, " I conversed with
Masons on the subject, and they justified both his
abduction and murder.^^ From that moment he
broke with the institution; came out boldly and
denounced it ; was, in fact, the first Mason that
openly took this stand. For so doing he was
threatened on every hand, and subjected to a long
course of dangerous and most annoying persecu-
tion. But he held his ground, and three years
after, in 1829, he published his volume of six hun-
dred pages, in which are carefully gathered up all
the chief records of those exciting times. This

10 • THE BROKEN SEAL.

book has been at hand while preparing this little
volume, that I might refresh my memory upon any
point about which I was in doubt.

I am not unmindful of the fact that Freemason-
ry is again popular and wide-spread in the land.
In the opposition which arose after the Morgan
murder, the institution throughout the country
was greatly weakened and depressed. For twen-
ty years little was heard of Masonry. Many of the
lodges, in all directions, returned their charters
and wound up their affairs. But in the coming on
of the anti-slavery agitation, public attention was
gradually called away from Masonry and its evils,
and the institution, being left alone in the dark,
with its few bigoted devotees, began to revive,
until again it assumes a bold front, and stalks
abroad with large pretensions. It is for this rea-
son especially that I am induced to tell the story
ot the past. Most men, in connecting themselves
with Masonry, take little thought of the conse-
quences. By the peculiar and strange fascination
which it has for many people, they are drawn
within its embraces, and they do not reason care-
fully enough upon the subject to comprehend
what effects are wrought by it upon themselves
personally, or upon society at large. I do not

INTRODUCTORY. 11

charge upon members of the masonic order gen-
erally, that they have any direct and conscious
intentions against their neighbors, or the peace
and welfare of community. They do not set out
with the idea of being enemies either of God or
man. But they belong to an institution which
has its own laws and its own methods of working,
and by it they are shaped and controlled in ways
that they know not of. Working under cover of
secrecy and darkness, it fortifies itself little by
little, and in a thousand ways attempts to secure
for its own members advantages over others in
the privileges and honors of life.

In a recent public debate on Freemasonry, an
officer in our late army, who was taken prisoner,
and who spent weeks and months in Southern
prisons, boldly undertook to defend the institution
by showing the good which came to him person-
ally from officers in the Southern army, when he
was known and recognized as a Mason. This is a
very easy and short argument if one will only con-
sent to stop at the proper point. But in strict
truth and honor, what right had others to give, or
he to secure for himself in this way, kind offices,
harshly denied to his fellow-prisoners ? A soul
truly manly would spurn benefits which must

12 THE BROKEN SEAL.

come in through such by and forbidden channels,
and would choose to suffer what others were called
to suffer. How far is this secret giving and secret
snatching after good from that broad Christian
rule, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them " !

But the important point, in all such arguments
as this, is, that it opens up a vista far beyond what
the speaker intends. If Southern officers would
show these partialities, and be false to their trusts,
under such circumstances, so would Northern offi-
cers ; and you have a traitorous element in both
camps, taking and giving without regard to gen-
eral orders, or the general good. A man who will
confess that he would accept such advantages in
the dark, does thereby confess that he would give
such advantages in the dark — that a Freemason's
grip would have power and influence beyond the
general claims of the nation and of humanity.
Take this principle and carry it out into all the
details of life, and it is a most enormous crime
against society. And undoubtedly, if we could
get at the facts, we should find that many things,
in the progress of the late Avar, which seemed
strange and inexplicable at the time, and which
Btill seem so, would be easily explained by this

INTRODUCTORY, 13

principle of individual favoritism woi'king boldly
against tlie general good.-

In war or in peace this can never be any other
than a most mischievous and dangerous element
in society. In the course of my life, and from my
special means of knowledge and observation, I
have seen the working out of this principle in so
many ways, that I cannot but regard it as one of
the most gigantic crimes against government and
our common humanity. Masonry sometimes pa-
rades before the world its good and charitable
deeds ; its kindness shown between man and man ;
its care for the widow and orphan ; and on the
score of benevolence, dares to make comparison
between itself and the church of Christ, forgetting
that even its benevolence, so called, is founded
upon selfishness. It is not, it does not even
claim to be, tliat broad Christian benevolence
which looks upon every man as a brother, and
which makes the Samaritan neighbor to the Jew,

* In the third degree the Mason swears to lielp his brethren
and seek their deliverance under all conditions of calamity,
^•murder and treason only exceptul." In the liigher degrees
this provision drops out, and he promises the like assistance,
" murder and treason not e.xceptod." Wiierever, then, in all the
world, the Mason gives tlie "grand hailing sign of distress," by
his two uplifted hands, all true Masons are expected to govern
themselves accordingly, and rush to his relief.

14 THE BROKEN SEAL.

in spite of long ages of prejudice and hate. Ma-
sonry is something very different indeed from all
this. It gives only in expectation of receiving as
much again. And although this is the common
way of the world, the rule most largely followed
in individual action, yet men ordinar'' do not try
to incorporate it into institutions, a .■ make it look
noble by large combinations. V retains its old
nature in spite of organization It is intrinsically
selfish, and -not benevolent, and the more odious
just in proportion as the attempt is made to lift it
into prominence.

I will not, however, attempt, in this abstract
way, to set forth the evils and wrongs of Masonry.
1 have an actual story to tell, — a deeply interest-
ing story, — which will show the real workings of
the institution in a far more graphic way than I
could otherwise exhibit them ; and to this personal
iiarrative we will at once turn.

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 15

CHAPTER II.

HOW I BECAME A MASON.

I WAS born in the town of Leicester, Mass., on
the 7th day of February, 1788. My great grand-
father, Thomas Greene, was the first Baptist min-
ister in that town, and through his agency the first
Baptist meeting-house was built there. In my
childhood, the country was just emerging from the
fatigue and burdens of the long war of the Revo-
lution. It was the day of small things. Society
was in a rude and simple condition, as compared
with the present. The means and opportunities
of education were very inferior to those now en-
joyed in New England. My education, during
the early years of my life, in consequence of this
fact, as also because of the frequent interruptions
of sickness, went on irregularly. But at the age of
fourteen I was set upon the study of Latin, at
Leicester Academy, and was so far advanced in
general education, that at the age of seventeen I

16 THE BROKEN SEAL.

was employed to teach a district school in the
neighboring town of Oakham, I was examined
by the parish minister, Rev. Daniel Tomlinson. I
was certainly not very well fitted for my new
vocation by reason of the irregularities of my
education ; but some references which I made to
Latin, and Latin rules of grammar, rather im-
pressed the minister with my youthful learning,
and I found no difficulty in obtaining my certifi-
cate.

This Mr. Tomlinson was a quaint and original
man, and some pleasant stories are told of him. He
was a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale
College, and was settled in Oakham in 1786, where
he remained for fifty years. If I mistake not, he
is the man about whom the famous church story
of Oakham centres. Li the time of a long and
obstinate quarrel, wlien tlie members in church
meeting assembled were accusing each other vari-
ously, the minister finally rose and said, —

" Brethren, this must be stopped. If the Lord
will have a churcli in Oakham, he must have it out
of such materials as we have here,''' He is the
same man also to wliom a church member once
went complaining, and wanting a letter of dismis-
sion to the church in a neighboring town. Said

HOW I BECAME A MASON. l7

the church member, '' There are so many Achans
in the camp here, that I want to get away to
another church." ''0," said the minister, "I guess
I Wouldn't go. We can take care of the Achans
here as well as they can anywhere."

The folloAving winter I taught school in Thomp-
son, Ct., and was examined and approved by Rev.
Daniel Dow, the minister of the Congregational
church at Thompson from 1796 to 1849. He also'
was remarkable for his quaintness and keen wit^
and was a man of much repute in the ecclesiasti-
cal affairs of his state.

In the intervals of my teaching I was attending
school at Leicester Academy, and in 1807, at the
age of nineteen, I entered the Sophomore class in
Brown University. Here I remained for more
than two years, when I was employed aS assistant
teacher in the principal school of Providence, and
took my dismission from college at the close of the
first term of my senior year. And here, on the
29th of March, 1810, I was married to my first
wife, Miss Susan Gibbs.

I need not stop to detail the varied experiences
of my life for the first few years after my mar-
riage. In 1812 began the war with Great Britain.
The country was in a very depressed and uneasy
2

18 THE BROKEN SEAL.

condition. New England, especially, sufifered dur-
ing all that season. Dependent so largely as she
then was upon her commercial enterprises, those
three years of war were with her years of sore
discouragement and calamity.

In the year 1816 I prepared to remove, with my
family, to Western New York. I had just before
made a journey thither myself, and had concluded
to cast in my fortunes with the new and chaotic
society then forming in that portion of the coun-
try. The only place of much importance in West-
ern New York had been Buffalo. That was
burned in the war of 1812, and was now slowly
rising again. The region far around was in a
wild or half-broken state. Accordingly, in 1816,
I bought a horse, additional to the one I before
owned, had *a pole put into my wagon instead of the
pair of thills, before used, covered the wagon with
a piece of sheeting, put in such things as were most
necessary, took my wife and two little children,
and started for the west. It was a long and toilsome
journey, of about five hundred miles, over «. rough
country. Twenty hours would now suffice to
make the journey along our great railroad tracks f
but at that time it was a laborious enterprise,
requiring weeks for its execution.

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 19

Our first residence was at Pembroke, about
twenty-eight miles this side of Buffalo, where, for
a time, I kept a public house, and engaged in
various occupations, such as are natural in a new,
rough, and sparsely-settled country. Previous to
the war of 1812, and subsequently until the Erie
Canal was built, the merchandise and produce of
the country were transported to and fro between
Albany and Buffalo, a distance of between three
hundred and four hundred miles, in large covered
wagons, with wheels of broad tire, drawn by teams
of from four to eight horses. A number of these
teams would be owned by one m;in, who usually
accompanied them as a general superintendent of
the journey. He would travel with a single horse
in a light buggy, to give direction and assistance,
in times of difficulty, to go forward and arrange
stopping-places for the night, to see that hay and
grain were in readiness for the horses, and provis-
ions for the men on their arrival. In such a coun-
try the tavern was a great institution. My house,
called the Brick Tavern, at Pembroke, was a con-
venient and natural stoppingrplace for these teams;
and not unfrequently it would happen that from
fifty to a hundred horses must be provided for at
my barns for the night, and the teamsters taken

20 THE BROKEN SEAL.

care of in the house. The life these men lived
was a rough, hard, and adventurous one, and
brought out the strong and sharp qualities of char-
acter, rather than the refined and graceful. This
Was before the days of the temperance reforma-
tion, and no small part of the business of the
tavern-keeper was to provide suitable liquors for
travellers, and for the dwellers around.

Many unique stories might be told of what
transpired at my house during those years, illus-
trating the character of my guests, and also illus-
trating the state of society around me. One night
there arrived at my house some eighty horses,
with a due proportion of teamsters. In company
with them came a foot traveller, with his knap-
sack, in which he carried the necessaries of life,
victuals and drink. He had overtaken the teams
a little way back, and inquired of the men where
they were intending to stop for the night. " At
the Brick Tavern, Mr. Greene's," was the reply.
" Well," says the footman, *' I will stop there too."
These teamsters were good and generous custom-
ers. Tiieir habits of life lifted them above all
small and stingy ways. They had supper, lodg-
ing, and breakfast, 'iquor and cigars, for them-
selves, and feed for their horses, all bought and

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 21

paid for at the hotel. They did not attempt to
carry any of these things along with them, though
they might easily have done so.

On the other hand, all that this foot-traveller
wanted was a good nice lire to sit by, and a bed
to sleep in. He carried liis food and liquor in his
knapsack, and ate his supper from this in my bar-
room. I had at that time an energetic man who
served in the double capacity of barber and boot-
black. In the course of the night this man gave
a splendid shine to all the boots, the footman's
included, as he had left them out for the purpose.

In the morning he rose and ate his breakfast in
the bar-room, from his own knapsack, just as he
had done his supper. At length the hour for
starting arrived, and the teamsters gathered at
the bar to settle their bills. As the custom then
was, I set out my decanters of different liquors,
that they might take a parting drink at their pleas-
ure. After they had finished, up came the foot-
traveller and inquired for his bill. " What have
you had?" said I. " 0, lodging," said he (the boot-
black standing by and giving a most significant
glance at his shining boots). " Your bill is six
cents, then," said I, that being the customary
charge at that time for a bed, in tnat part of the

22 THE BROKEN SEAL.

country. He paid the sixpence, and then, looking
at me, said, " Landlord, can't you afford to treat? "
" To be sure," said I ; " what will you have ? "
" I'll take a little brandy." I turned out a half-
pint tumbler nearly full (the teamsters all looking
on). He took it and drank nearly half of it. Then
stopping, said he, " In fact, I can't drink it all."
" Haven't you a little flask you can put it into ? "
said I. He took out his flask, and I emptied the
remainder of the brandy into it. " Well," said he,
turning to the teamsters, I don't wonder you stop
here. It is the b,est tavern I ever saw. I shall
always stop here, landlord, when I travel this
way." " Do," said I, " by all means." After they
left my house the teamsters run him hard upon his
meanness. They told the story all the way from
Buffalo to Albany, and so advertised my house
thoroughly, and gave me a fine run of custom.

In 1822 we removed from Pembroke to Batavia,
eleven miles farther east, and near the centre of
Genesee County. This was the county seat. Soon
after going there I opened the County House, as
it was called, opposite the Court House. In about
a year I admitted into the house a private female
school. The Presbyterian minister of the place
wa° Rev. Calvin Colton, since well known by his

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 23

writings. His wife, a woman of very superior
education and character, had charge of the school
that was kept in my house. My wife and I con-
nected ourselves with Rev. Mr. Colton's church,
and our children were baptized by him. In 1823
and 1824 Mr. Colton's parish was engaged in erect,
ing a meeting-house ; and when it is stated that
this was the first real meeting-house built in
Genesee County, it will help reveal the new and
rude condition of society in Western New York
at that time. This house was a good one, and was
furnished with a steeple and a bell. Batavia at
that time had, perhaps, two thousand inhabitants,
and was a place of great importance, as the land
office was there.

In Batavia was a Freemason's lodge, known as
Lodge No. 4.33. Some of the principal citizens
of Batavia were connected with it. The oldest
deacon of our church was a strong and enthusias-
tic Mason, and Avas wont to say that he should as
soon think of speaking against the God of heaven
as against the institution of Masonry. Dr. Dibble,
the physician in my family, was one of our church
session. He was also an earnest Mason.

After accommodating the above-named school
in my liouse for a time, I found that it interfered

24 THE BROKEN SEAL.

with my proper business of hotel-keepi ig ; and so
the school was removed. My house was known
now as the Park Tavern, or County HoteL The
building stood opposite the new park.

About this time an effort was made, in Batavia,
to increase the interest in Masonry, and to gather
new members into the lodge. Significant hints
and invitations were given me from time to time,
and I was at length prevailed upon to allow my-
self to be a candidate for admission into the order.
Mr. Ebenezer Mix, the then surrogate of Genesee
County, resident at Batavia, proposed me as a
member, and I was admitted to Lodge No. 433 in
the month of December, 1825, taking the first, or
entered apprentice's degree, and in a week more
I took the second and third degrees the same
night.

Everything is so contrived in Masonry, that
there shall be no going back when one is fairly
launched upon the stream. There are many de-
grees in Masonry; but the mischief is concen-
trated in the entered apprentice's oath. At the
very outset, and before this oath is taken, the can-
didate is so drawn in and entangled with promises
of one kind and another, that he sees no possibili-
ty of turning back. He is put through a course

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 25

of preliminary nonsense, offensive to his moral
sense, and degrading to his manhood ; but he sees
no chance of breaking away without raising about
him a scene which he has not at the time the cour-
age to encounter.

Before the oath is taken, the candidate is di-
vested of all his apparel, — shirt excepted, — and
furnished with a pair of drawers, kept in the lodge
for the use of candidates ; the candidate is then
blindfolded, his left foot bare, his right in a slip-
per, his left breast and arm naked,* and a rope
called a cable-tow round his neck and left arm, in
which condition he is conducted to the door, where
he gives, or his conductor gives for him, three dis-
tinct knocks, which are answered by three knocks
from within, and a voice calls out three times,
" Who comes there ? " The poor fool on the out^

* The masonic language, describing the general condition of
the candidate about this time is as follows : —

Q. "How was you prepared? "

A. " By being divested of all metals, neither naked nor clothed,
barefoot nor shod, hoodwinked, with a cable-tow about my neck,
in which situation I was conducted to the door of the lodge."

The reason given in general for putting the candidate in this
condition, is that Masonry is something of extreme antiquity —
that it oriffinated in a rougli and primitive age, when the man-
ners of men were rude, and tliey wish to preserve strictly the
"old landmarks."

26 THE BROKEN SEAL.

side is then made to say, or his condnctor says
for him, in answer to this momentous question,
" A poor blind candidate, who has long been desir-
ous of receiving and having a part of the rights
and benefits of this worshipful lodge, dedicated to
God, and held forth to the holy order of St. John,
as all true fellows and brothers have done, who
have gone this way before him." After a deal
more of idle ceremony, including prayers and
forms semi-religious, the candidate is at last
brought in a kneeling posture, with his left hand
under the Bible, square and compass, and his
right hand upon them, and in this attitude, blind-
fold and half naked, and with the assurance that
what he is doing shall not affect his politics or
religion, he takes the entered apprentice's oath, as
follows : —

" I, A B, of my own free will and accord, in
presence of Almighty God, and this worshipful
lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, dedicated to
God, and held forth to the holy order of St. John,
do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely
promise and swear, that I will always hail, ever
conceal, and never reveal, any part or parts, art or
arts, point or points, of tlie secrets, arts, and mys-
teries of ancient Freemasonry, which I have re-

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 27

ceived, am about to receive, or may hereafter be
instructed in, to any person or persons in the
known world, except it be a true and lawful
brother Mason, or within the body of a just and
lawfully constituted lodge of such, and not unto
him or unto them whom I shall hear so to be, but
unto him and unto them whom I shall find so to be
after strict trial and due examination, or lawful
information. Furthermore, do I promise and
swear, that I will not write, print, stamp, stain,
hew, cut, carve, indent, or engrave it on anything,
movable or immovable, under the whole canopy
of heaven, whereby, or whereon, the least figure,
character, mark, stain, shadow, or resemblance of
the same may become legible and intelligible to
myself or any other person in the known world,
whereby the secrets of Masonry may be unlawful-
ly obtained through my unworthiness. To all
which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise
and swear, without the least equivocation, mental
reservation, or self-evasion of mind in me what-
ever ; binding myself under no less penalty than
to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out
by the roots, and my body buried in the rough
sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hourn. So

28 THE BROKEN SEAL.

help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due
performance of the same."

In December, 1825, I took this oath, going
through all the attendant nonsense. Until the
oath was imposed upon me, I had no adequate con-
ception of its nature. Many a man, on going
through these first ceremonies, has been utterly
shocked and horrified at what he has done, and at
the frightful obligations he has taken upon him-
self. His first disposition is to draw back, and
have no more to do with an institution which uses
such awful sanctions to cover and conceal what is
of no real consequence to mankind.* His whole
moral nature is shocked at such profane and enor-
mous trifling. Many who take this oath, as soon
as may be, withdraw from all active participation
in the affairs of the lodge, finding that they have
been deceived, and have embarked upon a course
which their moral sense cannot approve. But it
is difficult to do this at once, and abruptly. Many
men, however, who have no keen moral sense,
who are, in fact, only boys of a larger growth,
seem to find great delight in the foolery of this
institution. The big words and sentences, which

* Appendix A.

HOW I BECAME A MASON. 29

have to be mouthed over so often, exactly suit
their taste. The endless forms and ceremonies,
to be gone through with night after night, con-
tinue, to their undiscerning eyes, to wear the sem-
blance of a majestic greatness. As children find
a certain delight in playing with edged tools, so
they handle these awful sanctions, these oaths and
penalties, with a strange fascination. There is
about the whole institution a certain barbaric
glitter and pomp exactly fitted to please swelling
and half-developed men; and these will stay fast
by the lodge, and make it the great glory of their
lives to manage its affairs, and mouth over its
illustrious names and titles.

Of the thousands and tens of thousands, who,
by one influence and another, are enticed within
its folds, not many are at once launched upon such
a wild scene of excitement and terror as it was
my lot to encounter. Little did I dream, when I
took upon myself the entered apprentice's oath,
what was so speedily to follow ; that then and
there, in Lodge 433, was to take place that which
would fill the whole land with intense excitement,
moral and political, and would bring the institu-
tion itself of Masonry almost to the verge of
destruction. By the act of that night in Decern-

30 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ber, 1825, I bad brought myself into the midst
of a conflict of thoughts and feelings hard to be
described, and where, at times, it was exceeding-
ly difficult to know what to do, or whither to
turn.

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 31

CHAPTER III.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM MORGAN AND COLONEL DAVID
C. MILLER.

At the time I joined the Masons, Captain Wil
liam Morgan was my neighbor, and I was in free
and daily intercourse with him. He was a man
of fine personal appearance, about fifty years of
age, of remarkable conversational powers, so that
he was everywhere known as a good talker. He
was a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, and
was, by trade, a bricklayer; but for several years
before coming to Batavia, he had been otherwise
employed. He was a soldier in the war of 1812,
and brought his title of Captain from the army
during that war. He had served under General
Jackson, at New Orleans, and was a man of fine
soldierly bearing. He was gentlemanly and agree-
able in his manners. In later years the Masons
charged him with being a drunkard, but, in my
judgment, without reason. He was doubtless a

32 THE BROKEN SEAL.

convivial man, and at times would drink freely,
according to the fashions of the day. I myself
have seen him when he had been drinking more
than was good for him ; but he was not what, in
the general acceptation of the word at that time,
or at any time, would be called a drunkard. It
was the period of hard and general drinking, and
certainly it ill becomes Freemasons to charge men
on this score, for no body of men among us have
done more, from generation to generation, to pro-
mote drinking habits than they.

After the close of the war, Mr. Morgan remained
in Virginia iTntil 1821, when he went to Canada,
and was engaged in the brewing business, near
York, in Upper Canada. Here he was successful,
and was in a prosperous condition ; when sudden-
ly his establishment was destroyed by fire, and he
was reduced from a state of ease and comfort to
complete poverty, and was forced to return to his
old trade of bricklaying. For this purpose he
came to Western New York, settling first at Roch-
ester, and then at Batavia, where he was living as
before mentioned. During a part of the time at
Batavia, while he was superintending the build-
ing of a brick house, he, with his men, boarded
with me.

CAPTAm MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 33

His wife was much younger than himself. They
were married in 1819, when she was not more
than sixteen years old. She was the daughter of
a Methodist minister in Virginia — Rev. Joseph
Pendleton. In the deposition which she was
called to make in September, 1826, she describes
herself as " Lucinda Morgan, aged twenty-three,
the wife of William Morgan, of Batavia." She
had at the time of this deposition two children,
one two years old and one about two months old.

Captain Morgan was a prominent member of
Lodge 433, in Batavia, and was what is called leo
turer. He was much at my house at the time I
joined the Masons, and it was but natural that I
should be in frequent communication with him
touchmg matters pertaining to the institution. In
fact, he lectured me, as it is called ; i. e., he went
over with me, at the dead of night, the long farra^
go of nonsense necessary to be gone through with
in order to advance in masonic knowledge. I was
committing these forms of words to memory to
be used at the lodge in taking the second and
third degrees, and he was acting as my guide and
teacher. My Avifc, overhearing the talk between
us, and having her curiosity excited by the
strange ' accents, rose in her night clothes, and
3

34 THE BROKEN SEAL.

stood in tlie dark to listen. After all was over,
and I retired to bed, she said to me, " Husband,
husband, how can you be so great a fool as to
repeat such stuff as that ? "

During the winter following my initiation, I was
a regular attendant upon the lodge ; but in the
spring 1 began to tire of such performances, and
to feel somewhat disgusted with the whole busi-
ness. In fact, in the month of May, 1826, I with-
drew quietly, and did not find it convenient to
attend the meetings. And so I should have con-
tinued to do, except for the remarkable events
which soon followed. In the latter part of July, af-
ter I had absented myself from the lodge some two
months, I received a special notice and invitation
to attend, and was told that business of a very
important character was to come before the body.
I went to the meeting. Mr. Ebenezer Mix, sur-
rogate of the county, who had proposed my name
for membership in the lodge, read a letter in which
it was charged that Captain Morgain was writing
out the secrets of Masonry, and that Colonel Da-
vid C. Miller, editor and publisher of the Batavia
Advocate, was about to publish the book which
Morgan was preparing, and that David E. Evans,
a rich man, had been applied to for money. The

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER, 35

matter was regarded as one of the most momen-
tous interest. I never saw men so excited in
my life. They seemed to be laboring under the
strongest passions and emotions. Committees
were appointed to do this and that, and every
thing went forward with a kind of frenzy. 1
could not but be amazed at the fierce passions
displayed ; but for the present I saw that safety
for myself, no less than the power to be of ser-
vice to my neighbors, depended upon my dis-
guising my feelings, and seeming to act cordially
with the rest. I thus entered upon a policy which
some, I know, will consider doubtful, and which, at
times, was exceedingly difficult to be carried out.
But I believed then, and believe now, that I was
necessarily driven to this by the circumstances
in which I was placed. Whether justly or unjust-
ly, however, that was the course I adopted.

As I have already said, I had silently withdrawn
from the lodge in the month of May, having be-
come fully satisfied of its iniquities by my own

knowledge, and should probably never have vis-

t
ited the place again, had I not been regularly sum-
moned in this way. But when told that business
of the utmost importance was to be transacted, 1
could not well absent myself without exciting

36 THE BROKEN SEAL. :'

suspicion. At this meeting, and after the special
business had been brought forward, I sdav enough
to induce me to believe that it was my duty
further to attend the lodge, to learn the wicked
plans concocted there against my neighbors and
friends, and, if possible, hinder their execution.

At this meeting there was a great amount of
violent talk in a roundabout and half-enigmatical
way. Morgan was declared to be a wicked and
perjured Avretch, who ought to receive upon him-
self the penalties of the oaths w^hich he had taken
and broken ; and it was said that " all honest Ma-
sons would see that they were executed." Al-
though no one in particular said he would do it
himself, yet one rich man did say that he would
find whips and cords as long as others tvould use
them. But the most curious talk that went on
there was of a broken kind, one man uttering
part of a sentence, and another taking it up and
carrying it on, and then another, as though, by
dividing up the sentence in this way, no one was
specially responsible for it. An Episcopal minis-
ter, member of the lodge, for example, would take
up his parable and begin as follows : " Should
one of your neighbors kill another, and be proved
guilty of murder in the first degree," (then another

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 37

person takes up the sentence) " And should he be
sentenced by the judge " (another) "To be hung by
the neck till he is. dead, dead, dead J'' (another) "Do
you think the country would lay it to heart?"
(another) "Xo ; would not men rather rejoice that
the country was rid of the murderer ? " Then
the minister would begin again. " Z\lorgan has
violated the laws of the most moral, benevolent,
and I had almost said Christian institution/' (anoth-
er) "And should he be taken away," .(another) "And
executed, would Masons lay it to heart?" (another)
"No; v%-ould the}^ not rather rejoice tliat there could
be found no track or trace of so vile a wretch as
I e?" Then some other train of thought would be
started, as follows. The lodge was directly oppo-
site the oflSce of Mr. Miller's paper, the Batavia
Advocate, and some one looking out of the window
would begin. "The Advocate ;" (another) " Can the
secrets of Masonry be published there?" (another)
" That which has defied the world, and been kept
from time immemorial?" (another) " It would not
be surprising if you should see the flames of it
ascend to heaven."

These are given simply as specimens of the kind
of talk which went on at that meeting. Then,
again, the utterances of tJie meeting would take

38 THE BEOKEN SEAL.

another turn. At that time De Witt Clinton was
governor of the State of New York, and was a
Freemason of the highest order, standing at the
head of the institution in the United States. From
this circumstance, the Masons counted upon doing
what they pleased with impunity. And so, at this
lodge meeting, they would say, '' Who is your gov-
ernor? Who are your military officers? Who arc
your sheriffs ? Who are your judges, and youi
jurors, and your county clerks ? Who arc youi
constables and justices of the peace? What can
a mouse (meaning the government of the people)
do with a lion?" They made great account of their
means of communicating information swiftly and
secretly. They talked much of the vast advan-
tage they had over people who were not intrusted
with their secrets.

Then, again, the Master of the lodge lectured
the Masons of the lower orders, especially the
Entered Apprentices. ''Think," said he, " oi your
power. What cannot you do when guarded by
our secrets ? " This shows the mode in which
Masons of the higher orders operate upon those
of the lower degrees, by referring to their oaths.
Much was done at this meeting with the direct
intent of waking a spirit of murder and destruc-

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 39

tion in the hearts of all present. The aim was
unmistakable. The lodge, after a wild and excit-
ing session, adjourned to meet again on the 15th
of August.

Soon after this meeting on the 25th of July,
Morgan was taken in custody by the sheriff of
Genesee County, on the suit of one Nathan Follett,
a Mason. He obtained bail, and so was allowed
liberty within the jail limits. At this time he was
boarding at a Mr. Stewart's, in the centre of the
village of Batavia ; but for the purpose of securi-
ty, and to avoid interruption, he spent his time
mainly in an upper room of a Mr. Davids, on the
other side of Tonawanda Creek, and out of the
noise of the village.

As one of the ways of acting on the public mind,
and getting things in readiness for that which was
to come, the following advertisement appeared on
the 9th of August, in a paper printed in Canan-
daigua : —

"NOTICE AND CAUTION.

" If a man, calling himself William Morgan,
should intrude himself on the community, they
should be on their guard, particularly the MA-
SONIC FRATERNITY. Morgan was in this vil-
lage in May last, and his conduct, while here and

40 THE BROKEN SEAL.

elsewhere, calls forth this notice. Any informa-
tion in relation to ^lorgan can be obtained by
calling at the MASONIC HALL, in this village.
Brethren and companions are particularly request-
ed to observe, markj and govern themselves accord-
ingly.

'SX^ " Morgan is considered a swindler and a
dangerous man.

^^' " There are people in this village who
would be happy to see this Captain Morgan.

" Canandaigua, August 9, 1826."

From the meeting of the lodge in July, violence
was so manifestly intended against the persons
and property of Morgan and Miller, my friends
and neighbors, that I resolved to remain in the
lodge, and attend the meetings for the sole benefit
of those who were in danger. The language
of the above notice, read by a Mason, could
mean nothing else than violence. The call upon
" brethren and companions " to " observe, mark,
and govern themselves accordingly," was a dis-
tinct summons to acts of violence, and to spread
the intelligence far and wide, which I, with m}'
inside knowledge, could not fail to comprehend.
At length I formed the determination, when the
right time came, to make known the doings of the

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 41

lodge to some one without, in whom I could
confide, and who would take measures to thwart
the wicked designs of the Masons. I was some
time in coming to this conclusion. I attended two
or three adjourned meetings of the lodge in the
month of August. The committees which had
been appointed at the earlier meetings would
make their reports, not in a clear and detailed
way, but in a blind and confusing style. But so
thoroughly was I convinced that the action of the
body meant murder and destruction, that, after one
of these meetings, I went home to my chamber,
and, kneeling down, asked God what I should do.
1 had been brought into a place of great difficulty.
I certainly would do nothing to promote the
wicked plans concocted at the lodge. On the
other hand, if I should absent myself from these
meetings, and take my stand openly in opposition
to these proceedings, I should not only expose my-
self to great personal danger, but should lose the
power of helping those who were already in im-
minent peril.

A significant event transpired in Batavia on the
10th of August, 1826. Governor De Witt Clinton
came to the village, and called upon the grand
commander of the encampment, — a political eue-

42 THE BROKEN SEAL.

my, — and, after a short stay. left abruptly. Mor-
gan was now on his bail, living in the village after
the manner before described. It began to be cur-
rently reported among the people that he was
secretly writing out, and that Miller was about to
publish, the upper degrees of Masonry to the Roy-
al Arch. Some of the Master Masons were quite
pleased at this, for they thought they should get
the upper degrees cheap. But the Ro3'al Arch
Masons were greatly ofiended, and said that Mor-
gan and Miller would never live to accomplish
their purpose.

As time went on, Morgan himself did not longer
seek to conceal his purposes. He had been deeply
impressed with the danger likely to befall the
co'jntry through this institution. Twice, at least,
he said, in substance, in my presence, that Ma-
sonry had been kept a secret quite long enough ;
that it had become an alarming evil, and it was
due to the world that it should be exposed; that
if permitted to exist, and go on its way unchecked,
it would undermine the Christian religion, and
overthrow the government. Morgan was, in the-
ory, at least, a Christian man. He was deeply
impressed with the idea, that only through gen-
eral intelligence, and through Christian influence,

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 43

could our free government be maintained. Many
times I have heard him say, in substance, " Take
down your pulpits, destroy your Bible and your
Sabbath, let men feel no sense of accountability,
and your republican government is at an end."

He used to say, that, as a Mason, he was well
aware his life w^as in peril, but if he knew that
the Masons would take his life, he should go for-
ward, and, if possible, expose their pernicious se-
crets. " My life," he would say, " is the property
of my country, and my countrymen have a claim
upon my utmost faculties and powers for the pres-
i ervation of all that is dear to intelligent freemen.
! The bane of our civil institutions is to be found in
i Masonry, already powerful, and daily becoming
i more so. If my life must be forfeited, I owe to
my country an exposure of its dangers. Not that
there are not good men in the order, but there are
many evil ones."

He had been especially impressed with the ac-
tion of a masonic council that had recently been
convened in Charleston, S. C, in which the pur-
pose of establishing a kind of oligarchy — an im-
perium in imperio, had been openly broached
among them. He deeply felt that ho had a sol-
emn duty to discharge. He was no vain trifler,

4A THE BROKEN SEAL.

who had resolved to do what he was doing be-
cause of some flmcied wrong or personal slight.
It was because the land, in his opinion, ,vas in
danger from the workings of a corrupt and secret
institution.

As a man born at the south, and having held a mil-
itary office in the then late war, he thought he knew
what was passing in the southern mind, and he
fully believed that a plot was concocting for the
overthrow of our liberties, and that this scheme
was secretly fomented under the covering wing
of Masonry. It was not very long after this, it
will be remembered, when South Carolina under-
took to nullify the acts of the general government,
and if we had had a James Buchanan or an An-
drew Johnson in the presidential chair, at that
time, instead of an Andrew Jackson, no one can
tell what might have happened.

At any rate, Morgan w^as so impressed with the
dangers threatening the country through this in-
stitution (whether his impressions were right or
wrong), that he resolved, at all hazards, to let in
the free light of heaven upon the masonic lodges.
He had formed his plans, and had associated Avith
himself Colonel Miller as his publisher ; and when
his purpose was discovered, he did not deny it. orl t

CAPTAIN MORGAN AND COLONEL MILLER. 45

attempt to conceal himself, but boldly remained at
his post, resolved to take the consequences.

The Masons on the other hand were resolved
that the revelation should not be made — that the
book should not be published, if it was in their
power, even by the most extreme measures, to pre-
vent it. Soon after the notice, as above given,
was published in the Canandaigua paper, it was
caught up and published in all the masonic papers
east and west. A thrill of excitement had run
through the whole masonic fraternity. They talked
about a traitor in the camp, and this language, to a
masonic understanding, meant one who had re-
vealed the secrets. They called upon all Masons
everywhere to " observe, mark, and govern them-
selves accordingly," which was no other than a
summons to violent and extreme measures.

Mr. David C. Miller (or Colonel Miller, as he was
familiarly called) was living at Batavia at the time
I became a resident there, and was pursuing his
business as proprietor and i)ul>lishcr of the Re-
publican Advocate. He ha<l ta!:en one degree in
Masonry, in the city of Albany, some twenty years
I before. The circumstances under which he took
1 that degree were these. He lived at Saratoga,
r and was known to be publishing a new edition of

46 THE BROKEN SEAL.

" Jachin and Boaz," an old book, first published
in 1762, and designed to reveal the secrets of
Masonry. The Masons thought if he could be got
into their order it would stop his work on that
book. He was accordingly beset with solicitations
to become a Mason, to which at length he yielded.
He went to Albany and took the first degree. As
soon as he had taken it, he saw that it was the
very same that he was already publishing. He
was disgusted, rather than pleased, with the whole
business. Captain Morgan, therefore, when- he
wished to publish abroad the secrets of Masonry,
found in Colonel Mill 3r a man ready V cooperate
with him.

THE STORM GATHERING. 47

CHAPTER IV.

THE STORM GATHERING.

So matters stood in the village of Batavia, in
ine middle of August, 1826. Captain Morgan was
boarding with his young wife and two little chil-
dren at a Mr. Stewart's, in the centre of the vil-
lage, but kept himself during the day, for the
most part, at a Mr. Davids's, on the opposite side
of Tonawanda Creek, about a mile out of the noise
and stir of the village. It had now become gener-
ally understood that he was writing out the secrets
of Masonry, and it was evident that a storm of
wrath was gathering to burst upon his devoted
head.

Colonel Miller was still pursuing his work of
publishing the Batavia Advocate ; but he under-
stood that his person and property were, in danger,
and he was living in apprehension of what might
befall himself and his family.

About this time I attended an adjourned meet-

48 THE BROKEN SEAL,

ing of the Master Masons' lodge. Some of the com-
mittees asked leave to report. The Episcopal
minister, before referred to, objected to any de-
tailed report. He said this was not the place to
report. They must open these matters in the
Chapter ; but he would assure the lodge that the
committees had done their duty — that the book
should be supj^ressed, and their plans carried out^
even though Morgan and Miller sliould he lost to so-
ciety. It was sought to be impressed upon all Ma-
sons that they should take a decided stand in this
crisis, that it was an awful crime not to do so, and
that the judgment of Heaven would surely overtake
all who did not use their utmost efforts to prevent
the publication of the book. A letter was introduced
into the lodge, purporting to be a copy of a letter
which Governor De Witt Clinton had written, say-
ing, in substance, " You must suppress the secrets
of Masonry at tlie expense of blood and treasure ;
be careful to observe secrecy, but if you are de-
tected you shall be protected. If you are convicted
you shall be pardoned, for I have the pardoning
power."

This Episcopa. minister, named above, was a
great man in the lodge — a kind of oracle, from his
rank and station, among the Masons. He was a

THE STORJr GATHERING. 49'

man, however, extremely fond (to use the techni-
cal language of the Masons) of '^ passing from labor
to refreshment." He was addicted to the glass,
and was often assisted home from the lodge, being
unable to make his way by himself.

It was evidently the intention of the Masons of
the higher degrees not to have matters too much
talked of in the lodge, for they felt there might
be spies in the camp. They did not then know
what was passing in my own mind, though it was
observed that I was not so loud in my demonstra-
tions as were most of the members of the lodge.
There were suspicions and anxieties lest some
should not prove true to their masonic oaths, and
so, as Masons met together in the street, it was a
common form of question among them, " Do you
think Freemasonry can be published in Batavia ? "
If the answer was, " No ! Batavia would rock to
her centre first," or some other answer in a similar
spirit, all was regarded as right. I never could
make quite the right answer to suit them ; but a
certain Mr. Wood took it upon himself to vouch
for me that I was true.

About the middle of August there came to Bata-
via, from Canada, a man l^y the name of Daniel
Johns. He professed to have heard what Mo'^gan
4

50 THE BROKEN SEAL.

and Miller were about, and to be deeply interested
in the enterprise. He wished to associate himself
in business with Mr. Miller, and offered to advance
all the needed money for the purpose. He so won
upon their confidence by his flattering manner, that
he was taken into partnership. This man, as it
afterwards appeared, was a Mason of one of the
higher orders, — a Knight Templar, — and he took
this method to discover the secrets of Morgan and
Miller, and interrupt their designs, so that on both
sides there were wheels within wheels, and mat-
ters were becoming quite complicated.

It was on the 19th day of August, 1826, on a
Saturday, that three men, residents of Batavia, and
Masons, in company with Daniel H. Dana, a consta-
ble from the neigliboring town of Pembroke, ap
peared suddenly at the house of Mr. Davids, where
Morgan had his room. There were two families
occupying the house, the one already named, and
the other of the name of Towsley. When the four
men came to the house, they first inquired for Mr.
Davids and for Mr. Towsley; and learning they
were not at home, they, without further inquiry or
remark, rushed up stairs into the room where Mr.
Morgan was writing. Here the constable pre-
sented a warrant for his arrest. It was upon some

THE STORM GATHERING. 61

claim that a Mr. Thomas McCully held, or professed
to hold, against Morgan, that this warrant was
served. It was well understood, however, that
the case was one got up for the occasion, to give
vent to the masonic rage against Morgan. The
sheriff was suspected of being a party in the trans-
action. He was seen in company of the men, as
they were going to Mr. Davids's house, though he
staid back, and did not actually enter the house
with them.

Mr. Morgan was in his chamber, writing, with
various papers about him. He was seized with
the papers, and without delay was hurried off to
the county jail. The story of his arrest spread
quickly over the village, and some of his friends
started at once to find the officers of the laAv, and
secure his release on bail. But it was evident
that the officers of the law were out of the way by
intention. The sheriff, who was visible just be-
fore the arrest, and wlio was not known to have
any business calling him from the place, was
sought for in vain. Men hastened hither and
thither — to his house, and to all his usual places
of resort ; but he was nowhere to be found. The
jailer also strangely disappeared immediately after
Mr. Morgan was lodged in jail. The motive for

52 THE BROKEN SEAL.

all this was apparent. It was Saturday. If the
officers could keep themselves out of sight until
twelve o'clock Saturday night, Mr. Morgan would
have to lie in jail, at least, till Monday morning.
In this they succeeded. The friends and neigh-
bors of Morgan were eager to give bail for him,
but nobody could be found to transact the busi-
ness. On the same day, at evening, the men who
had arrested him went to the house of Mr. Stew-
art, in the village where Mr. Morgan boarded with
his family, and where Mrs. Morgan then was.
They professed to be in search of property on
which to levy for debt. They asked questions at
random of Mrs. Morgan ; but their chief business
evidently was to ransack among Mr. Morgan's
household effects, in hopes of finding papers.
They searched trunks, boxes, drawers, &c., exam-
ined the contents of letters, and took off with them
a small trunk of papers, saying, if these papers
were useful to Mr. Morgan, they would return
them. The reason of this, as it afterwards clearly
appeared, was, that they had not found at Mr. Da-
vids's house the papers they hoped to find ; and it
was surmised that these might be found at Mr.
Stewart's, where he boarded. They did find a
part, but not all that they were after.

THE STORM GATHERING. 53

Mr. Morgan remained in jail until Monday morn-
ing, August 21, when he was released on bail.
During the Sabbath, many persons visited him.
There was much sympathy felt for him by those
who were not Masons, and by some who were. I
myself went to the jail, and talked with him
through the grate, telling him that he was in dan-
ger. I had become well aware, from what tran-
spired in word and act at the lodge meetings, that
both Morgan and Miller were in peril, and through
the grated window I communicated this idea to
Morgan on that 20th of August. He did not be-
lieve that he was really in any serious personal
danger. He knew, of course, from what was then
passing, that there was a disposition on the part of
the Masons to vex and annoy him. But he did
not think matters would go beyond this. He ex-
pressed the belief that the laws of their country
would, in the final resort, have more influence ovei
members of the lodge tlian their masonic oaths. I
told him that I had formerly thought so too, but
that it was now my belief that violence was in-
tended, and that ho should be strictly on his guard
in reference to the movements going on about
him.

54 THE BROKEN SEAL.

As I have already said, I had been long in com-
ing to this opinion. At first I could not think that
my neighbors, some of whom were high officers in
the church and state, would, in obedience to their
masonic oaths, be guilty of actual violence towards
a fellow-man. I thought they meant, if possible,
to frighten Morgan, and make him desist from
what he was doing. But that they could be so
blinded and infatuated as to harbor murder in
their hearts, out of their devotion to Masonry, I
could not for a long time believe. But as I had
attended the various meetings of the lodge, and
seen the signs and nods, and heard the signifi-
cant words uttered, and, more than all, as I had,
little by little, become aware of the awful hate
which was cherished against Morgan and Miller, I
saw how easy and natural it was that violence
should spring out of it. I saw that the con-
sciences of men were warped, and in the conflict
between masonic duty and public law, the former
actually had the supremacy in their thoughts.
Moreover, under cover of the darkness of a se-
cret institution, they somehow deemed it safe and
right to do what they never would have thought
of doing in the open day.

THE STOEM GATHERING. 55

It was here, and under these circumstances, that
I had the best opportunity of studying Masonry
in its internal tendencies and laws. I had con-
nected myself with the institution only a few
months before, under a misrepresentation. I had
been told that it should not militate against my
politics or my religion ; but I found it at war with
both. I soon discovered that I was in a strange
bondage to a power that I could not respect, and
that imposed upon me services that I could not
honestly render. I soon began to go to the lodge
unwillingly, and to return from it with a kind of
moral disgust. At the best, it was pompous non-
sense and false pretension. At the worst it was
deeply corrupting and immoral. It used the
names and forms of religion only to dishonor and
belittle them. It employed the Bible and prayer,
and semi-religious ordinances ; it made use of the
name of God in a way to make the most holy
things and the most sacred words only as the play-
things of an idle liour. It put forth its claims to
a vast antiquity,* and brought into its records
venerable personages of the remote past, without
the slightest regard to truth. It paraded itself

* Appendix B

56 THE BROKEN SEAL.

before the ignorant and unlearned as if the chief
care of God over this world had been to foster
and keep alive this institution from generation to
generation, as though it were something far more
ancient than the Christian church, and not second
in importance.

As soon as I was fairly within the enclosures of
ihe lodge, I discovered, contrary to all my expec-
tations, that I was in a place where half-educated,
swelling, and unscrupulous men had an ample field
for the exercise of their powers. Such men stood
in the fore-front in the goings on of the masonic
order. Men who delight to be dressed up in a
little brief authority, on however small a scale ;
men who bustle about in aprons, and feathers, and
all sorts of glittering geAvgaws ; men who have no
scruples in letting fiction pass for truth, and pre-
tence for reality, — these are the men who find Ma-
sonry something altogether to their mind. They
hurry hither and thither to do its bidding ; they
bustle about, on St. John the Baptist's and other
days, under the singular delusion that they are
important persons — that caps, and sashes, and
bands can make men great. A masonic lodge is
a mutual admiration society of the most intense

THE STORM GATHERING. 57

order. It lives, moves, and has its being upon a
system of the most enormous self-complacency.
Tried by the touchstone of sober truth and reality,
it withers in a moment. Its benevolence, on which
it so prides itself, can never pass as genuine in the
higher courts. It is benevolence for a considera-
tion. The law of kindness which Christ lays down
for us is something far above the utmost range
and reach of Masonry. '' When thou makest a
dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy
brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neigh-
bors, lest they also bid thee again, and a rec-
ompense be made thee. But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the
blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot
recompense thee ; for thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just." When men band
themselves together to gain and keep for them-
selves such earthly advantages as they could not
otherwise enjoy, it is often the most concentrated
form of selfishness. It is a kind of secret conspir-
acy against the rest of mankind in behalf of their
own set. It is no new thing for men of the worst
character to be bound together as mutual helpers :
and within a certain range they must exhibit what
'8 called kindness, and show all the tokens of good

58 THE BROKEN SEAL.

fellowship, else the confederacy formed for selfish
and wicked ends will fall to pieces *

♦ The following document, which was published in the Chris-
tian Herald, of Boston, April 14, 1830, will illustrate the benevo-
lence of Masonry, about which there is always so much talk • —

The last refuge of Masonry attacked and overthrown.

The Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts, in his late address, states, page 4, "That the
essential and legitimate objects of Freemasonry are exceedingly
simple, and may be stated in a moment. They consist in the
establishment of funds for the relief of distressed Masons and
their families, certain secrets to protect those funds, and secure
them to their appropriate use, and a code of morals enforced by
Solemn Obligations, designed to make all its members upright,
honorable, and useful in life;" and page 13, "Freemasonry is
not, strictly and properly, a Secret Society. Tlie appropriate
appellation of a society is derived from its essential and promi-
nent designs and features. What are these ? They are, in a word,
ihe reWcioi the distressed and the inculcation of moral principles."

From these declarations we understand Charity or Benevolence
is the last stronghold of Masonry. here, then, we meet them
on their own ground, and present to the public the following au-
thentic statement of the receipts and expenditures of a regular
and highly respectable Lodge, now in operation in Boston, Mass.

The books have been examined by those who had a legal right
80 to do. We shall not say when, where, how, or by whom.
But from a careful inspection of these masonic records for a
period of eighteen years, the following is found to be the result : —

Lodge in Boston J)r.

For moneys received at lodge nights for " making
membership, visitors' fees, and quarterage," during eigh-
teen years, ..... $1926.91

Due to the Secretary at the close of eighteen years, 65.50

Gross amount of receipts for eighteen years, . 1992.41

THE STORM GATHERING. 59

In the winter of 1825-6 I had become ful-
ly satisfied that Masonry was no institution foi

Contra Cr.

By amount of several items paid on the different lodge
nights, during the eighteen years, for refreshments,
WINE, LIQUORS, &c. .... $984.93

For aprons, gloves, some small fees to the Grand Lodge,
printing blank notifications, advertising. Secretary's fees,
and wax candles, &c., &c. . . . 804.73

For "Tyler's" fees, crafting, &e., &c. . 166.75

For Charity ! thirty-five dollars ! Yes ! The gross
amount of aZZ the donations out of the treasury of the
Lodge during eighteen years, is the enormous sum of 35.00

$1992.41

In justice to the members of this worshipful and Charitable
Institution, it ought to be stated, that voluntary contributions,
" not as a lodge," as stated in the records, were made at four
different times, and four only (sixteen members on an average
being present), amounting, in the whole, to forty dollars and
thirty-one cents, for the relief of six individuals, who had peti-
tioned for relief, and all of whom were m.en !

It also appears from the records, that during the whole of these
eighteen years, only one petition from " a poor widow," apply-
ing for relief, was presented, and that was referred to the next
lodge night, and there is no evidence on the records for ten
months after, and as far as they have yet been examined, that
the "poor widow's petition" wa.s ever acted on, or even no-
ticed.

For the truth of the above, we pledge ourselves to the public.
Now, we only ask Masons, who, no doubt, are great proficients in
the mathematics, to consider that it cost nineteen hundred and
forty-six dollars and forty-one cents to distribute thirty-
five dollars in Charity! Is not this like the barien fig-tree?
And if 80, why cumbereth it the ground ?

CO THE BROKEN SEAL.

me. I bad, as before stated, gradually ceased to
attend tlic lodge meetings, just as tliousands and
tens of thousands of others have done, through a
certain inward weariness and disgust. But I did
not wish to signalize my non-attendance by making
talk about tlie matter, or by any outward demon-
strations. I wanted everything to pass in silence
and quietness. And if nothing of an unusual
character had arisen, I should probably have taken
practical leave of Masonry in the spring of 1826,
never more to mingle in its councils. But as soon
as the high excitement about Morgan and Miller
arose, I could not absent myself without exciting
suspicion, and after a little I did not wish to with-
draw, but preferred to remain and study the atro-
cious plans which were forming. It was a deli-
cate part, no doubt, that I was playing, and was
attended with no little difficulty and hazard ; but
1 seemed to be called, by a kind of providence, to
stand in that lot, and incur the incidental risks.
I was studying Masonry now under new and pecu-
liar conditions. I was learning what it was, and
what it would do, when violent passions are kin-
dled and a vindictive hate aroused.

For a long time I kept my own counjiel. I had
abundant food for reflection, but I had not divulged

THE STORM GATHERING. 61

to any person or persons outside what was going
on in the lodge. I had occasionally ventured, in the
lodge, and in my conversations with Masons, to try
and give things a milder turn. But after a few
attempts of this kind, which only turned attention
towards me to no purpose, I preferred to hold my
peace, to think my OAvn thoughts, and make my
own plans.

As has been already stated, Morgan was re-
leased on bail, after his confinement in jail over
the Sabbath, and matters went on much as before.
In the search which was made for papers on the
day of Morgan's first arrest, August 19, some were
found, and among the manuscripts taken was the
Royal Arch Degree, which Morgan was writing
out. This is the seventh masonic degree in order.
This was brought up into the lodge room, and
those Masons who had taken this degree were
permitted to examine the manuscript. I had only
taken three degrees, and did not share in this
privilege. This degree was afterwards sent by
Charles C. Church to Canandaigua, and from
thence it was forwarded to New York city by
express, to the Grand Chapter, which was then
in session.

So matters went on until the morning of Friday,

62 THE BROKEN SEAL.

September 8, 1826, which was an eventful day
in my history ; and many things in my subsequent
life date from that day. A messenger of the lodge
came to notify me that about three hundred Masons
were in and about the village of Batavia, gathered
from all directions, met for the express purpose of
burning and destroying Mr. Miller's printing office,
and by open violence preventing the publication
of Mr. Morgan's book. The cant phrase was again
employed, that this book must be suppressed, if
Morgan and Miller were lost to society. I had
learned to know what that language meant. The
notice was given us in the field, as I have stated,
and we were expected to govern ourselves ac-
cordingly. For my own part, I saw that the time
for action had come. The recollection of all that
had transpired at the lodge for weeks before now
came back upon me, and I realized that what I
had feared was really about to take place. Peace-
ful and persuasive measures were no longer to be
used ; but violence, even unto death, if need be,
was intended by the present movement. Up to
that time I had managed to keep my feelings, in a
great measure, secret from the other members of
the lodge ; and though they had, at times, thought
me wanting in masonic zeal and energy, they had

THE STORM GATHERING. . 63

not apparently suspected me of faithlessness to my
masonic oaths, or dreamed that I would, in the last
resort, seek to protect*" Morgan and Miller from
masonic rage.

That morning I was in trouble. I saw that it
needed only some slight act, on my part, to reveal
my secret, and put me in the same category with
Morgan and Miller. Madness was abroad upon the
wind. The wild elements were let loose. An in-
furiated crowd swarmed about Batavia, and the
storm might burst at any moment. To add to my
care and responsibility, I was at the time one of
the trustees, or guardians of the village. This
was one of the methods of civil government and
protection adopted by the young villages of West-
ern New York. A board of trustees was chosen
to guard the village against dangers of whatever
kind, external or internal, and also to promote its
general welfare. I held the oflSce of trustee at
this time, and my associates had chosen me super-
intendent of the village. Holding this office, and
knowing also what had been secretly contrived
against the place in masonic lodges, I was brought
into peculiar straits. I called upon the sheriff,
whose duty it was to aid in preserving the peace.
He was a Mason in regular standing, and full of

64 THE BROKEN SEAL.

masonic zeal. I cautiously said a few words, indi-
cating in some measure my feelings in this crisis,
when he warned me into secrecy, and reminded
me of the binding character of my masonic oaths.
This man was a member with me of the Presby-
terian church. I called on another Mason, who
was an elder in our church, and tried to open my
heart to him ; but before I had fairly committed
myself he warned me to take care, and reminded
me also of my oaths. I turned from men to God, and
made my appeal unto him. He knew all that was
passing in my thoughts. I remembered his promise,
" For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in
his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he
hide me ; he shall set me upon a rock." I gathered
comfort from this assurance. I committed my way
unto God, and resolved within myself that Mr.
Miller should know of the dangers threatening
him, so that he might be upon his guard, and that
I would assist him to escape out of the hand of
the enemy.

There was in the village of Batavia a man whom
I knew well, and highly esteemed — Mr. George
W. Harris. He was by trade a silversmith, and had
a shop in the central part of the village. In him
I thought I could confide. Accordingly I went to

THE STORM GATHERING. 65

my desk, and on a piece of paper wrote out briefly
the information I had that morning received. I
made the request that Harris should transcribe
my note, burn the original, and communicate at
once to Mr. Miller the message I had communi-
cated to him. I stated also upon the paper, that
as a trustee of the village, I was under obligation
to see that the persons and property of the inhab-
itants were protected. I wished to have a guard
set; but for the present I wished my own name
kept a profound secret from Mr. Miller and from
every one else.

Compressing this paper into a shapeless wad, so
small that it might be crowded into a thimble, I
called at Mr. Harris's door, and said to him, " I
have important intelligence to communicate to
you, and in doing so I shall throw myself upon
your mercy. If my intelligence is not improper,
will you do what I request you ? " He Iiesitated
a moment, and I repeated the question. He an-
swered in the affirmative. I threw the roll upon
his counter, and left him suddenly. I left him
thus without any further observations, in order to
show him that I had put implicit confidence in him.
He opened the note and read it, and proceeded at
once to carry out its suggestions. He acted in

(36 THE BROKEN SEAL.

good faith with me, not revealing in any way the
source from which he obtained his information.
The guard was set and measures for safety and
protection adopted. It was soon noised abroad
what was going forward. The village was astir
with excitement. Men gathered in the streets to
talk over these exciting topics. Masons were about,
here and there, trying to quiet the alarm, but
more busy in seeking to discover how the infor-
mation got out. No one could tell ; only Mr. Miller
had received the information through the post
office. The guards were set, and no violence was
attempted that day or night. The next day Mr.
Harris called on me secretly to inquire what this
quiet meant, and whether the Masons had dis-
persed. I told him they had not, but had been
reenforced, and he must strengthen the guard. He
did so, and this day and night all was still. This
brings jis along to Sunday, September 10. By
this time it began to be thought that a false alarm
had been given, and that there was really no dan-
ger of an attack. The guards were no longer set.
Mr. Miller also changed his mind. On Saturday
he had armed himself thoroughly for defence, hav-
ing placed a swivel so as to command the entrance
to his printing office, and he had armed men with

THE STORM GATHERING. 67

him ill the office ; but he began to think he had
been needlessly alarmed. He resolved, therefore,
to pass Sunday night in his office without any
guard. When I knew that this was the determi-
nation, and that he was to pass the night at his
office, I sent word to him through Mr. Harris,
cautioning him not to attempt to leave the office
during the night, however much he might be
alarmed. I knew that nothing would be more
in harmony with the wishes and plans of the Ma-
sons than to catch him in the open street by
night.

What we have called Mr. Miller's printing office,
was, in reality, two offices, or rooms, one on each
side of a narrow passage-way, called Printer^s
Alley. In one of these was printed the RepubK-
can Advocate, and in the other the work on Mr.
Morgan's book was going forward. These rooms
were in the most thickly-settled portion of the
village. They were in the second story of the
buildings, and stairways led up to them from the
outside. Underneath one of these rooms a large
family was living, consisting of a man and wife
and eight children. I was sorry that more credit
was not given to ray information, so that the guard
should be kept set, as on the two previous nights.

gg THE BROKEN SEAL.

But as these Lad passed in such comparative quiet,
it began to be thought, even by Mr. Harris, that
I might be misinformed, or that fear had unduly
magnified the affair to my apprehension. And
so the night of Sunday, the 10th of September,
was passed without any extraordinary precau-
tions.

That night the attempt was made to set both of
the buildings, in which these offices were, on fire.
Combustible materials were placed underneath
the outside stairways, turpentine was freely used
about the wood-work, and the buildings were fired
at the dead of night, notwithstanding that the
family of ten persons were asleep in one of them.
This fire was instantly discovered and extin-
guished in a way that the incendiaries had not
counted upon. Late at night there had come into
the village several teamsters, with their teams, to
load with flour early in the morning, and start for
the canal. The hotels being all closed, they had
lain down to sleep in their wagons. These
wagons were standing on the other side of the
street, directly opposite Mr. Miller's ofiices. No
sooner were the fires set than these teamsters
discovered them, sounded the alarm, aroused
the neighbors, and had the flames extinguished

THE STORM GATHERING. 69

before they had gained any considerable head-
way. So close were they upon the work of
the incendiaries, that they saw the villains run-
ning away. They gave chase, and compelled the
runaways to drop their torches and the dark lan-
tern they had used ; but they did not succeed in
capturing them.

The events of this night satisfied Mr. Harris
that my information, secretly conveyed to him,
was correct, and that the quiet of the two pre-
vious nights was due solely to the precautions
taken. The Masons, who were banded together
for violence, understood well that if they attacked
Mr. Miller's office on Friday or Saturday night,
they would be likely, some of them, to come to
grief. But as soon as it went abroad that there
was no danger, and care was relaxed, instantly
the conspirators returned to their work.

It was on Saturday, September 9, that Daniel
Johns, before spoken of, who had come from Cana-
da as a spy, and by his arts had worked his way
into Mr. Miller's confidence, and been taken in as
a partner in his business, — it was on Saturday
that he suddenly took himself ofi', carrying with
him one of the manuscripts of Morgan — Mark

70 THE BROKEN SEATi.

Master's Degree, which was in Mr. Miller's hands
to be printed.

So matters stood on the night of Sunday, Sep-
tember 10, 1826, in the village of Batavia. The
i5res which had been set had been providentially-
extinguished ; but worse things were immediately
to follow.

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 71

CHAPTER V.

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN.

The events of Sunday night, September 10,
had demonstrated that Batavia was full of the
elements of mischief; that the conspirators had
not dispersed, but were on hand, watching their
opportunities. In the early morning of Monday,
September 11, while everybody was busy talk-
ing over the exciting events of the night before,
the rumor ran abroad that Captain Morgan had
been seized and taken off. He went out of his
boarding-house, a little before sunrise, into the
street, and not returning, as usual, to breakfast,
inquiry was made for him, when it appeared that
he had been taken about seven o'clock, had been
roughly forced into a stage, and carried off in the
direction of Canandaigua. A man by the name of
Nicholas G. Chesebro, of Canandaigua, who was
Master of the masonic lodge in that place, had
obtained from the justice of the peace there a

72 THE BROKEN SEAL.

warrant for the arrest of Mr. Morgan on a charge
of theft. It was alleged that Mr. Morgan, while
boarding at Canandaigua some time previous, had
stolen a shirt and cravat from one Kingsley, an
innkeeper. This Kingsley afterwards made depo-
sition that he had of himself no thought or inten-
tion of publicly making any such charge, but
was moved to do it on some slight grounds of
suspicion by Chesebro and his associates. They
wished to find some possible ground for his arrest,
and this case was worked up out of some old sur-
mises to meet the exigency.

Canandaigua was the shire town of Ontario
County, and was distant from Batavia about fifty
miles to the east. Ever since the " Notice and
Caution," published in a Canandaigua paper of
August 9 (referred to in Chapter III.), it had
grown to be a kind of cant phrase among the
Masons, that Morgan "might be seen travelling
east ; " and it was intimated that Brant, the Indian
Chief of the Mohawk tribe in Canada, would attend
to his case, and put him out of the way. Many
people, doubtless, regarded this as the mere talk
of an idle hour ; but others saw serious intentions
lurking under the cover of this style of language.
Id those days of staging, and in a country, as yet,

ABDUCTION OF MORGAK 73

comparatively new, the journey to Canandaigua
was an affair of considerable labor and time.

As soon as I heard that Morgan had been taken in
this way, my worst fears were aroused for his safety.
Captain Davids, the man at whose house Morgan
had been writing, came over very soon to see me.
He wished to borrow my saddle. I tried to per-
suade him to take my horses and saddles, and
start out twenty men on Morgan's track, and
never lose sight of him. Unless* this was done,
it was my opinion that we should never see him
again.

But here the masonic agency and influence came
into full play, to silence suspicion and lull the peo-
ple to sleep. It was at once the talk over all the
village, that Mr. Morgan had'been taken to Canan-
daigua on a charge of theft. The impression was
sought to be made that this was something to be
regretted, indeed, but could not be helped. This
requisition had come, and he was obliged by law
to yield to it, and all others must yield. No intima-
tion was given that this was a trumped-up case ;
but the general idea conveyed was, that it was a
matter which had come about in the regular and
ordinary course of law. Great stress was laid
upon the high respectability of the men who were

74 THE BROKEN SEAL.

prominent in the transaction, and who had gone
off with Mr. Morgan. The pretence was, that they
were his friends, and that they had come out to
see that he had fair play. Would such men, per-
sons of such high standing in church and state,
stoop to do a wrong or mean act? 0, certainly
not. The idea was preposterous. This was the
kind of talk that went on all that day in the
streets of Batavia, and in consequence of it the
first excitement and alarm were allayed, and no
pursuit of the abductors was made.

And here is a circumstance worth noting. Mor-
gan's abductors were respectable men, in the com-
mon acceptation of that term. Judas-like, they
did pretend to be his friends. They lent him their
company under the garb of protection. It is a
significant fact, as showing the corrupting nature
of Masonry, and its power to work mischief in the
dark, that these men, who were the leaders in this
plot against Morgan and Miller, were men of stand-
ing and character. They were at the time holding
the most important offices in church and state.
They were judges and justices, sheriffs and con-
stables, military officers of high standing, ex-mem-
bers of the legislature, ministers of the gospel and
deacons, members of churches, &c., &c. It was

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 75

perfectly apparent to me, who knew the inside
working of things, that what was then going on in
Batavia was no mad freak of low and drunken
fellows. Everything had been considered and
determined upon by the very highest authorities
in the masonic councils. The orders were issued
from the chief places of the fraternity, and men
of all classes connected with the lodges, with here
and there an exception, lent themselves to do the
bidding of these upper circles. It was one of the
cant excuses of the masonic order afterwards,
that these acts of violence against Morgan and
Miller were the work of a few worthless men, who
acted contrary to the true principles of the insti-
tution. But can any man be credulous enough
■to believe that a few worthless men, acting not
only against the general laws of society, but also
against the rules and wishes of the Masons them- '
selves, could manage to baffle the whole State of
New York, cheat justice, and escape the punish-
ment due to such atrocious crimes ? No ; a few
worthless men have no such wide-spread influence
as this. The course of events, for a long time
after the abduction, showed plainly that there was
a secret power at work against justice, vast and
wide-spread in its range, with which it was almost

76 TUB BEOKEN SEAL.

useless to contend. It was evident that the ma-
sonic fraternity, taken as a whole, justified these
acts of violence, and were determined, at all haz-
ards, to save from punishment the men who had
committed them. Whichever way you might turn,
and whatever course you might pursue, to bring
the guilty authors of these wrongs to justice, you
were mot by a power in the dark, — a power seem-
ingly omniscient and omnipresent, — tireless, and
never sleeping. Judges upon the bench were
corrupted ; jurymen failed to see the truth ; wit-
nesses upon the stand would swear falsely; and
however just might be one's cause, he was soon
ready to cry out, "Vain is the help of riian."
Whatever crimes were committed against Morgan
and Miller in Batavia in the year 1826, are not'
to be regarded so much as the crimes of indi-
vidual men as of the whole masonic order, as then
and now existing.

But let us go back and trace minutely the course
of events after Mr. Morgan's arrest, on the morning
of September 1 1. Immediately after his seizure, he
was taken to a tavern kept in the east part of the
village of Batavia by a Mr. Danolds, where the
party made a short pause. While there, Mr. Mil-
ler came to the house to insist that Mr. Morgan

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 77

should not be taken away from Batavia, as he was
there on the jail limits, as has been before stated,
and he (Mr. Miller) was one who had given bail
that he should' remain within the limits. But
Miller was violently thrust aside by Danolds, the
tavern-keeper, while Morgan was taken into the
stage, and the party pushed off towards the east.
The company who took Mr. Morgan away was com-
posed of about thirty persons. When they started
from Mr. Danolds's tavern, a part of them, with
Mr. Morgan, were in a stage, which had been char-
tered for the purpose. Mr. Chesebro, who had
brought the warrant from Canandaigua, was on
the seat with the driver. The rest of the com-
pany started to go on foot out as far as the ponds,
as they were called, a mile or more from the vil-
lage, where some carriages were in waiting for
them. The stage had not gone more than eighty
rods from Mr. Danolds's tavern, when the driver,
becoming sensible that he was mixed up with a
great amount of violence of some kind, and not
knowing very well what it all meant, became
alarmed, and refused to go on with his team.
Chesebro, fearful of all delay, on the other hand,
was urging the driver to make haste and get
out of the county. The driver was at length

78 THE BROKEN SEAL.

*- .

prevailed upon to go on as far as Ganson's tav-
ern, wliich was six miles from Batavia.

This tavern of Ganson was a grand rallying-
point for the conspirators, who had gathered in
from all directions. It was in the town of Stafford.
On Friday before, September 8, Ganson received
orders from one Nathan Follett, an active Mason
of the Batavia lodge, to have supper prepared for
between forty and fifty men, who, it was said,
would be at his house that night. They did sup
there, and at a late hour started for Batavia, on
their wild errand of burning and destroying Mil-
ler's offices, but were deterred from their purpose
by the setting of guards, as has been already ex-
plained. So, on Sunday night, when this party
came on from Canandaigua for the arrest of Mor-
gan, their grand rallying-point, before going to Ba-
tavia, was this Ganson's tavern at Stafford. And
here, in the forenoon of Monday, they gathered
back again, with their prisoner in their keeping.

On reaching the tavern, Ganson, M^ho knew the
stage-driver, had a talk with him, and gave him
such assurances of safety that he was induced to
go on. So the party went forward. On reaching
Le Roy, several miles farther on, one of the border
towns, but within the hmits of Genesee County,

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 79

Hayward, the constable who had served the war-
rant, offered to take Morgan before the justice of
the peace, who had indorsed the warrant, and
allow him to give bail, if he chose. The war-
rant, as we have already stated, was made out at
Canandaigua by a justice of the peace of Ontario
County ; but as the party had come on to Batavia,
they had stopped at Le Roy, and had had the war-
rant indorsed by a justice of the peace for Genesee
County,

One of the noticable things about all these pro-
ceedings of the Masons at this time, was their care
to keep within the semblances and forms of law,
while they were breaking through all law, and
that, too, on the largest scale. But they must have
their warrant properly made and vouched, though
founded on a mere pretence, before they could go
forward and arrest Morgan. And now here, on
the borders of Genesee County, they proposed to
admit him to bail, which they refused to do at
Batavia, because they knew that there he had
friends Avho would instantly come forward and
give bail for him, while here he was a stranger,
and the offer of bail was only a solemn mockery
and farce. As Morgan knew that his effort to pro-
cure bail here would almost certainly prove uunr

80 THE BROKEN SEAL.

vailing, he declined to make the attempt, stating
that he preferred, on the whole, to go on to Canan-
daigua, and that when there, he was confident that
he could convince Mr. Kingsley that no theft on
his part was intended, and that if the missing
articles had been taken by him, it was purely by
accident. Mr. Morgan himself had not yet had
his eyes open to know the full meaning of what
was passing. He still innocently supposed that
this charge from Canandaigua was made in some-
thing like good faith, and that if he could con-
vince the prosecutor that he was not guilty of
the charge, he should go free. But those who
had him in keeping had no thought of letting him
slip out of their hands in any such easy way as this.
They had him on a criminal charge, and if this
failed when the crisis came, as it doubtless would,
and as they were very willing it should, they
had other plans in store for continuing their grasp
upon him.

The party, after a hard and wearisome day's
journey, reached Canandaigua at nightfall. Here
Morgan was at once taken before the magistrate,
to see if there was evidence enough against him
to bind him over for trial. There was not, nor
did the men who had brought him all the way

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 81

from Batavia suppose there was. Thej would
have been very sorry to have had him committed
on a criminal charge, because his person would,
in that case, have been taken out of their hands.
The magistrate ordered his discharge. But as
soon as he was set free, Chesebro produced a
claim against him of two dollars, due to one Aaron
Ackley, who kept a hotel in Canandaigua, and
stated that the said Ackley had empowered him
to collect this money. When this new claim wa8
brought in so suddenly, Mr. Morgan apparently
had a glimpse of what all this business meant.
He chose to admit the claim, and pulling off his
coat, desired the constable to levy on that as se-
curity for the debt. Hayward, the constable,
however, refused to do this, and at about ten
o'clock that night, after all the strange events of
the day, Morgan was committed to jail in Canan-
daigua.

Let us turn back now to Batavia, and see what
was transpiring there during this same day, from
another point of view. The deposition of Mrs.
Morgan is in itself so clear and touching a docu-
ment, and so well calculated to throw light upon
these transactions, that we give it entire.
6

82 THE BROKEN SEAL.

" Genesee County, ss. Lucinda Morgan, aged
twenty-three, the wife of William Morgan, of
Batavia, in said county, being duly sworn, de-
poseth and saith, 'That on Monday last, about,
or a short time before, sunrise, her said husband
left his house, and went into the street of the
village. That, finding he did not come home to
breakfast as usual, she made inquiries for him,
and was told that he had been forcibly taken
away by six men, and put in a carriage and taken
to Canandaigua. That during the whole of Mon-
day she remained in ignorance of what way he
had been taken, or who had taken him, except by
loose information that an oflBcer from Canandaigua
had taken him. That on Tuesday morning, soon
after breakfast, she sent for William R. Thompson,
the sheriff, and requested to know of him if he
knew on what pretext her husband had been taken
away. Said Thompson told her he understood he
had been taken under a charge of having stolen a
shirt and cravat, and that he presumed it was
merely a pretext to get him away, or carry him
away. That thereupon this deponent asked him
if he thought Mr. Morgan could be got back, or
brought back, if she gave up to the Masons the
papers she had in possession. Said Thompson

/I

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 83

answered that he thought it was very likely that
Mr. Morgan would be brought back if she would
give them up ; but he would not obligate himself
or undertake to say that he should be brought
back. That thereupon said Thompson proposed
that this deponent should go to Canandaigua, and
take the papers, and give them to Morgan, or
to them, or give them up ; and deponent agreed
to go and take the papers accordingly. Thompson
then asked this deponent if there was any person
or friend whom she would like to have go with
her. She mentioned Mr. Gibbs (meaning Horace
Gibbs), and asked if it would do for him to go.
Said Thomson said it would not do for him to go,
as he was not a Mason, and added, it would not
do for any person to carry her there but a Mason.
She asked him twice if Mr. Gibbs was not a
Mason, and he said he was not, and then asked
deponent if she was acquainted with Mr. Follett.
Deponent said she was not. Thompson said he
was a nice man, and a gentleman with whom she
could safely trust herself. Said Thompson de-
parted, and soon returned, and told deponcni that
Mr. Follett was not willing to go, unless she would
let him (Follett) and Mr. Ketchum see the papers :
he did not want to go on a Tom fool's errand. This

84 THE BROKEN SEAL.

deponent then objected to these papers being seen
by them. Thompson then said it was useless ; he
should do no more, and he could not send her out
there unless they could see the papers. Deponent
then, with great reluctance, finally consented to
let them see the papers, if they would take her to
see her husband. This second visit lasted about
twenty minutes, during which time Thompson
urged deponent to let the papers be seen. De-
ponent told him she was afraid they would
take the papers away from her, if she let them
see them. Thompson said they would not. She
offered to let Mr. Thompson see the papers. He
said that would not answer ; they would not take
his word. Thompson then told her he would go
to Humphrey's and stay until she had got the
papers, and she must then make a sign to him
when she was ready. Accordingly, a short time
afterwards, she made a sign to Mr, Thompson,
then standing on Humphrey's stoop, and immedi-
ately after, he, with Mr. Follett and Mr. Ketchum,
came to her apartment, when Thompson introduced
Follett and Ketchum, and said they had come to
see the papers, which this deponent then handed
to them. They all looked at them a short time ;
and Thompson then asked hei if she was ready

ABDUfTION OF MOEGAN. 85

to go, saying Mr. Follett was ready to take her.
FoUett then said he would go home with the
papers and look them over, and told Ketchum to
stop for him at his gate. Accordingly, about four
o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, deponent
started with said Follett and Ketchum, in a small
wagon, and proceeded to Stafford, where they
stopped at a house, where she was conducted into
a back room, into which Follett and Ketchum
came, and were joined by one Daniel Johns, and
by James Ganson ; all of whom immediately pro-
ceeded to examine the papers with much earnest-
ness, and held much low conversation with them-
selves in under voices. Ganson appeared to speak
the most. One of them asked Johns if those were
the papers that were in the office when he was
there. Johns answered that there was one de-
gree back, and then took a piece of paper, and
folded it up, and said the papers that were back
were folded so. They then held considerable more
conversation in voices too low to be heard. Fol-
lett then turned to deponent and said, he did not
see that he could go with her ; that Mr. Ketchum
was going to Rochester, and would be willing to
take her to Canandaigua to see Mr. Morgan ; said
he was not much acquainted with him (Ketchum),

gg THE BROKEN SEAL.

but took bim to be a gentleman ; and Ketchum
then said he called himself a gentleman, and she
need not be afraid to trust herself with him.
Ketchum then took the papers and tied them up
in his pocket handkerchief, and took them with
him into the wagon in which they rode. Johns
then got into the wagon and rode to Le Roy, where
he got out, and bade Ketchum good by, saying, ' I
hope I shall see you day after to-morrow.' They
then proceeded to Avon, and staid all night. The
next day they again started for Canandaigua,
where Ketchum put the papers into this depo-
nent's trunk. They arrived at Canandaigua about
twelve at noon, and stopped at a tavern at the
corner of the main street. After being there
some time, this deponent asked Ketchum if he
had heard of Mr. Morgan. Ketchum said he had
not ; that the Masons would not talk to him ; he
could not see them ; they seemed jealous of him ;
thought him a friend of Mr. Morgan, and were
afraid he had come to get him away from that
place. Then he asked her where the papers were;
he took them, and said he would go and make fur-
ther inquiries for Mr. Morgan ; and if he could
find him, or Avhere he was, or where they had
taken him, he would let her know all he could find

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 87

out. This was about dinner time. He returned
again a short time before night, and told her he
had heard Mr. Morgan had been there ; had been
tried for steaHng a shirt, and cleared, and had
been put in jail for a debt of two dollars ; and that
Tuesday night a man had come from Pennsylvania,
who said he had a warrant against him for a debt
he owed there ; that he, the man, had paid the two
dollars, and taken him away in a private carriage
on Tuesday night, and that he had no doubt he
was gone ; and asked this deponent when she
would go home again. The deponent then ex-
pressed her anxiety to return speedily, on account
of having left her child of two years old, and
having with her a baby of two months old.
Ketchum then went out, as he said, to take a pas-
sage in the stage, and returned after candle-light.
This deponent was then walking the room in great
distress, and in tears. She asked him if he could
hear nothing of Mr. Morgan. He then seemed to
pity deponent, and told her not to be uneasy, and
after looking at her a short time, told her to come
and sit down by him, and asked her if she would
feel any better if he told her what he knew. Be-
ing answered yes, he then said that Mr. Morgan
would not be killed ; that he would be kept con-

88 THE BROKEN SEAL.

cealed until they could get the rest of the pa-
pers. She asked him what papers were back. He
said there were some sheets of the Mark Master's
Degree back ; and they wanted also to see the
printed sheets that Miller had printed on the three
degrees. He then said he wanted to take the
papers which*he had received from this deponent
to Rochester, and he thought through the means
of them he could find where Mr. Morgan was ; it
was a secret where he was. Said he had paid her
passage, and gave her two dollars to bear her
expenses home. He then wrote his name with a
pencil on a scrap of paper, hereto annexed, as fol-
lows : ' George Ketchum, Rochester,' and prom-
ised to write to her if he could hear of Mr.
Morgan. He then told her if she would, by any
means, get hold of the papers that Miller had, or
find out where they were deposited, so that he
could get hold of them, he would give her twenty-
five dollars out of his own pocket, and he had no
doubt the lodge would give her one hundred if
she could get what Miller had now. Deponent
told him she would not try to get the papers that
Miller had. and would take no money, and would
not let him have the papers she had delivered
to him, but on condition he would try and find

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 89

Gilt where Mr. Morgan was, and let her see him.
He then repeated his promise to try and find out,
and said he wo aid write to her as soon as he got
to Rochester, and urged her to write to him im-
mediately on her return, and let him know about
the papers, and what the people were doing gen-
erally, at Batavia, and whether they were making
a great rumpus about Mr. Morgan. Deponent
then expressed her fears that if she did give him
any information about the papers, he would not
keep his promise about letting her see him, but
would keep him concealed until they had got all
the papers, and finally kill him. Ketchum then
said, ' I promise before my God that I will not
deceive you, but will do all I can to find out where
he is, and let you see him. I have no doubt when
I get back to Rochester, I can find out more, and
I think I can find out where he is.' He then
again urged her to find out where the papers
were and let him know. In the course of his
conversation, he said, ' that if Mr. Morgan had
managed rightly, he could have made a million of
dollars if the work had been published.' Ketchum
then departed for Rochester, leaving this deponent
at the tavern ; she, the same day, started for Bata-
via. The papers taken away by the said Ketchum

90 THE BROKEN SEAL.

were numerous, and formed a very large bundle ;
they were written in the handwriting of her hus-
band, excepting a few, which were written by a
person who sometimes assisted her husband by
copying, or taking down as he dictated to him.
The deponent further says she has no knowledge of
the place where her husband now is, or what is his
situation, and feels the most anxious fears for his
hfe ; that she was born in Virginia, and is a
stranger without intimate friends or relations in
this county, and is left with two infant children
without any money, except what is left of that
given to her by said Ketchum, and has no prop-
erty, or any means of supporting herself and chil-
dren, her constitution being very feeble, and her
health being bad most of the time.

L. Morgan."

" Sworn the twenty-second day of September,
1826, before me.

Daniel H. Chandler, J. P."

It needs but slight help from the imagination,
while reading this affidavit, to find in it a pitiful
story of sorrow and distress — of labor, weariness,
and anxiety, all to no purpose. How utterly false
and cruel this treatment was, will appear when

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 91

we remember that Mr. Morgan had been in jail in
Canandaigua, and this Ketchum, without doubt,
knew where he had gone. The story of the man
from Pennsylvania, who paid the two dollar claim,
and took Mr. Morgan away to parts unknown on
another claim, was a piece of fiction, based on cer-
tain facts, and worked up to serve the purposes
of the moment.

On her sad journey home, with her infant child,
when she reached Le Roy, James Ganson, before
mentioned, who kept the tavern at Stafford, got
into the stage with her, and told her that he was
on the way to Batavia, '' to make arrangeinents for
her support." He went on to give her the infor-
mation, that her husband was still alive, but that
she need not be surprised if she did not see him
again for a year; and, in fact, if she never saw him
again, she should be well taken care of, and her
children should be sent to school as soon as they
were old enough. When she reached Batavia,
and had been home only a few hours, she was
called upon by Thomas McCully, the man on
whose claim Mr. Morgan was arrested in August,
and made to pass the Sabbath in jail. He came
also to assure her that he had been appointed by
the lodge to look after her support, and provide

92 THE BROKEN SEAL.

accommodations for herself and children. He pro-
posed to board them at the tavern of Mr. Danolds,
in tlie east part of the village, where her husband
had been taken immediately after his arrest the
Monday before. Who shall say that Masonry is
not a kind and benevolent institution after this?
Mrs. Morgan, however, promptly answered that
she should accept no aid from the Masons, for
she regarded them as the guilty authors of all
her troubles, and she should not consent to take
the bread of charity from their hands.

Iler case, however, was one that appealed most
strongly to her old neighbors and friends. She was,
in the truest sense, an object of pity. As far as
possible, her wants were supplied, and everything
done that could be, to sooth and comfort her. An
agent was despatched on her behalf, to go to
Canandaigua, and try to discover the facts about
Mr. Morgan. He did discover facts, portentous
facts, and such as aroused the unmasonic part of
the population of Batavia, and the region about,
to a most unwonted pitch of excitement. Up to
that time people had been inclined to believe the
masonic talk. They thought that Morgan, in the
hands of men of such high standing, could cer-
tainly receive no wrong. They trusted in the

ABDUCTION OP MORGAN. 93

idea that these men had gone along with him to
see that he was treated fairly at Canandaigua, and
that no harm should be done.

But what was actually passing at Canandaigua,
just before Mrs. Morgan was there, waiting for
Mr. Ketchum to try and find her husband, is made
thrillingly clear by the following affidavit of Mrs.
Mary W. Hall, wife of the jailer at Canandaigua.
The testimony is long, and we need not give the
whole of it. It goes on to recite that on Tuesday,
the 12th day of September, she and her husband
returned to their home, — which was in the jail, —
after a short absence ; that at evening of that
day her husband went out from the jail, and soon
after a man, calling himself Mr. Lawson, called
and inquired for Mr. Hall, the jailer, and finding
that he was not at home, requested permission to
speak with Mr. Morgan, then confined in the jail.
She told him this was against the rules of the
prison, and that he could say nothing to Mr. M.
except what she should be permitted to hear.
Mr. Lawson talked through the grate of the door,
and represented himself as a friend who had come
to settle the claim against him and take him out
from jail. Mr. Morgan apparently believed the
story, and was willing to go. Mr. Hall, however,

94 THE BROKEN SEAL.

the jailer, could not be found, and Mrs. Hall was
not willing to take the money and discharge the
prisoner. Lawson then inquired if she would do
so in case Colonel Sawyer, of Canandaigua, should
say it was right and proper. She refused. Law-
son then went away, and soon after returned
with Colonel Sawyer. They were quite indignant
that she would not let Mr. Morgan go free, when
they were willing to settle the claim against him ;
they said this claim had been assigned to one
Chesebro, and they proposed to go and find Chese-
bro. After a little time they came back with
Chesebro, and he also urged the liberation of
Morgan, all on the ground of friendship for him.
There had also been at the prison during the
evening, along with these men, a man by the name
of Foster. The rest of the story we will give in
the words of Mrs. Hall, deposed before Jeffrey
Chipman, Justice of the Peace of Ontario County.
They had finally prevailed upon Mrs. Hall to re-
ceive the money and let the prisoner go free,
although she had been over-persuaded to this
course, and felt that it was an irregular proceed-
ing. "This deponent took the keys, and was going
to liberate Morgan; that Lawson spoke to this
deponent, and said, ' Wait and I will go with you ; '

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 95

that Lawson then stepped to the door and whis-
tled, and then followed this deponent ; that when
they came to the outer door of the prison, Law-
son said to this deponent, '■ You need not fasten
this door after us ; ' but this deponent said she
should, for there were other prisoners in the
room; that this deponent and Lawson went into
the hall adjoining the room where Morgan was,
and Lawson spoke in a low voice to Morgan
through the grates, ' Get yourself ready to go
with me — dress yourself quick ; ' that Morgan
was soon ready, and this deponent let him out,
and Lawson took Morgan by the arm, and went
out of the prison to the outer door ; that while
this deponent was fastening the prison door, she
heard at, or near the outer door of the jail, a most
distressing cry of murder ; that this deponent ran
to the door, and saw Lawson and the man that he
called Foster, one on each side of Morgan, having
hold of Morgan's arms ; that Morgan continued to
scream or cry in a most distressing manner, at
the same time struggling with all his strength,
apparently, to get loose from Lawson and Foster ;
that the cry of Morgan continued until his voice
appeared to be suppressed by something put over
his mouth ; that during the time that Morgan was

96 THE BROKEN SEAL.

struggling, and crying murder, the said Colonel
Sawyer and the said tlhesebro were standing a
short distance from the jail door, near the well,
and in full view and hearing of all that passed,
but offered no assistance to Morgan, nor did they
attempt to release him from Lawson and Foster ;
but one of them struck with a stick a violent blow
upon the well-curb or a tub standing near ; that
soon after this deponent saw a carriage pass the
jail in the direction that Lawson and Foster took
Morgan ; that the evening was quite light in con-
sequence of its being about the full of the moon ;
that she, this deponent, could distinguish from the
jail door the horses in the carriage which passed
to be gray ; that the deponent supposed the strik-
ing upon the well-curb or tub by Chesebro or
Colonel Sawyer was a signal for the carriage to
come, as it came immediately after ; that when the
carriage passed, Lawson and Foster could not have
got but a few rods with Morgan ; that immediately
after the striking upon the well-curb or tub Colo-
nel Sawyer, and as this deponent thinks, Chesebro
also, passed the jail door in the direction that Law-
son and Foster took Morgan, but not apparently to
render Morgan any assistance towards being re-
leased from Lawson and Foster ; but Colonel Saw-

ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 97

yer, however, picked up Morgan's hat, which had
fallen off in the struggle ; that when Morgan was
taken from the jail it was about nine o'clock in the
evening, or a little past ; that this deponent has
since been informed that Lawson lives about two
or three miles from the jail ; that this deponent
has never seen Morgan since he was taken from
the jail as aforesaid, and knows nothing about
where he was taken to, or where he now is."

This testimony was sworn to by Mrs. Hall
before the Justice of the Peace, on the twenty
J bird day of September, eleven days after the
transactions took place. This was the kind of
news which the messenger despatched from
Batavia brought back to Mrs. Morgan and her
friends.

It will be observed, by noticing the correspon-
dences of time, that Mrs. Morgan reached Canan-
daigua the day after her husband was taken out
of jail in the manner just described. She had
been made to believe that Mr. Morgan had been
taken to parts unknown. She had been in the
keeping of Masons, who told her what stories
they pleased. A woman with a young child, she
could not well go out into the streets of the vil-
lage and gather information for herself, nor did
7

98 THE BROKEN SEAL.

the people, who were not Masons, know what was
going on.

We leave now the events that followed the
abduction of Morgan, while we go back again to
Batavia, to take a new starting-point, and follow
out another series of events which transpired close
alongside of those narrated in this chapter.

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. 99

CHAPTER VI.

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER AND HIS RESCUE.

In the afternoon of Monday, September 11, the
same day on which Mr. Morgan had been forced
away from Batavia, I suddenly received a sum-
mons from the lodge to go to Le Roy, a village
distant some ten miles from Batavia. It was stated
that there was to be held there an important ma-
sonic meeting, several lodges coming together, to
see what further steps should be taken to suppress
the publication of the book, and to consider what
should be done with Morgan and Miller. I refused
to obey this summons. Then the use of my horses
and carriages were asked to convey thither the
Masons wlio desired to attend. This also I refused.
I did not intend that my own hands or my proper-
ty should have anything to do in furthering tlie
wicked designs then on foot.

The meeting was held, however, at Le Roy,
many of the Masons going from our village. The

100 THE BROKEN SEAL.

next morning notice was sent to me that I must
appear at the east end of the village, under the
brow of the hill, precisely at twelve o'clock ; that
the Masons were to rally there in a body ; march
in their strength at one o'clock, and in open day
destroy Miller's printing offices, scatter his type,
secure his person, and the manuscripts and printed
sheets to be found in his office. It was said, for
my encouragement, that strangers from abroad
would take the fore front in the attack and de-
struction of property — men who could not be
easily identified, if any stir should be made about
the matter. The man who came to notify me, re-
quested me to be particular to have the bell rung
at twelve o'clock that day (the key of the church
being kept at my house), so that those lying in am-
bush or lurking about the village, might have the
signal for gathering at the rallying-place. I was
requested to see the bell-ringer that morning by
nine o'clock, so as to be sure and have this matter
attended to. They wanted to gather at twelve
o'clock, so that they might organize and be ready
to march into the village promptly at one.

The plan was, as I was informed, that Miller,
■when taken, should be carried at once to Stafford,
to the lodge-room, kept there till night, then taken

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OP MILLER. 101

down to the *' ridge road," as it was called, running
from Canandaigua west towards Buffalo, passing
some miles north of Batavia, and there be kept
ready to join Morgan as he should be conveyed
away from Canandaigua towards Canada.

The information which I thus received I com-
municated at once to Mr. Harris, and he forthwith
apprised Mr. Miller of what was going forward,
and of the imminent dangers awaiting him. He
at once went into his office and prepared a hand-
bill, containing these general facts, which he threw
out of the window as soon as they were struck off,
to arouse the people of the village. He purposed
also to send them out into the country to call in his
friends, and gain their assistance in this crisis.
But the people of Batavia who were not Masons,
would not believe the story ; said it was prepos-
terous to suppose that a band of men should come
in there in open daylight, to do such work as this.
They thought Mr. Miller was in a state of need-
less panic, and they dissuaded him from distribut-
ing his handbill. About this time I went up the
street to hear what was said about the situation.
No one suspected me as being the author of all
this excitement, and the people told me that tlie

102 THE BROKEN SEAL.

man who circulated such stories was a fool ; that
they were not for a moment to be credited.

This was only one day, it will be remembered,
after Morgan had been arrested and taken out of
the place ; but, as has been already said, the peo-
ple did not, at that time, understand the real trans-
action concerning Morgan. They thought he had
been taken on an honest warrant, and carried
away for examination. They did not know that
it was wholly a plan and plot of the Masons to
take him. Their minds, therefore, were not pre-
pared to trust this story which Harris had com-
municated to Mr. Miller, and he to the people,
which came from me. When this outside excite-
ment died away, Miller felt that he was in the
greater danger, as he really was. In passing
along the street, I saw that Miller did not dare
to come out of his office. Harris also was fright-
ened at the turn things were taking, and he too
had gone into his office, and locked himself in.

My own situation, too, was becoming very criti-
cal, and I felt it to be so. If by the public com-
motion which had been made the Masons should
again conclude to retire, and not make the attack
at that time, nothing would be more natural than
that Mr. Harris should think I was making false

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. 103

and exciting reports. As a reaction from his
fear, and through the chagrin of seeming to give
unreal information, he might seek to exonerate
himself and lay the burden upon me, in which case
the masonic rage would turn against me more vio-
lently, if possible, than against Morgan and Miller.
Things were coming to such close quarters, that
I concluded to go home at once and make a confi-
dant of my wife. Up to this time she had known
nothing of what I was doing. I went to my house,
asked my wife to step to a chamber window which
looked out on Miller's office. Then I related to
her what I supposed was about to take place, and
told her my whole position and agency in the mat-
ter. I told her frankly that 1 had disregarded my
masonic oaths, and that my relations to the Masons
were, consequently, very curious and delicate, and
if in any way they should discover what I had done,
my life would be in danger. Little as she liked
Masonry, and much as she had ridiculed its non-
sensical forms a few months before, she now
thought I had done wrong in breaking my ma-
sonic oaths, that my conscience was troubled
because of this, and that I was half beside myself.
She asked me, with a look of incredulity, if I sup-
posed Masons would come into the village of

104 THE BROKEN SEAL.

Batavia in open daylight, and destroy property?
I told her I did believe it, just that, and if she
would stay where she was, she would probably
soon see the thing done. I told her, moreover, as
she valued my life, to make no mention of my
name in connection with these things ; but if I
should be missing, and could not be accounted for,
then that she should publish to the world what I
had said to her.

Hardly had I told her this, when I saw a Mason
coming to my door — a Mr. Merrill. He called
upon me, and said, " Greene, you must be ready
to turn out, the Masons are coming down. If you
know anything you must know nothing. You can
swear one way as well as another. (This was a
principle agreed upon and sanctioned by act of the
lodge.) They are coming, you must be ready to
help." He then started to go; but when a few
steps from the door he turned back, and said,
" There is some traitor in the camp, and we will
find him out yet. He shall have his house burnt
over his head, and his throat cut from ear to ear."

He then left me, and ran towards Mr, Miller's
oflfice. Immediately the crowd of Masons began
to gather, armed with hoop-poles. They had taken
a parcel of these poles and sawed them in two,

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. 105

making convenient clubs. The men rushed up
stairs, burst open the door of Miller's office, seized
him and Captain Davids also, on warrants, dragged
them down stairs and out into the street, their
hats flying one way and their heads twitched the
other. I heard Miller cry out, " Treat me fair !
treat me fair ! and I will go with you."

The warrant on which Miller was arrested was
made out at Le Roy, on the oath of Daniel Johns,
the spy before spoken of, by Justice Barton, a
Mason

My wife stood at the window spell-bound, look-
ing upon these operations, until she saw Miller
dragged into the street, when she grew frightened,
and came to look after me. She had come to the
conclusion that I was not so much beside myself
as she supposed, and that there was real cause for
alarm.

It was well understood that about three hun-
dred Masons were in and about Batavia, banded
together for this business. But after the informa-
tion got out, only about one hundred and fifty of
these men made their appearance in the village
at the time of the onset, and of these, only about
forty actually came up to make the attack on Mil-
ler's office.

106 THE BROKEN SEAL.

As soon as Miller was taken he was liunied oflF
with all despatch to Danolds's tavern, the same
place where Morgan was taken, and as soon as
the necessary preparations could be made he was
started off in a wagon towards Stafford, with a
motley assemblage accompanying, some in wagons,
some on horseback, and some on foot. I at once
requested Mr. Harris to employ Mr. Talbot, a law-
yer, to make use of all possible forms of law for
his recover}'. He consented, and undertook the
case, preparing to follow the fugitives who were
bearing away the prisoner. I was surprised that
others of the villagers did not volunteer to go
along with him and assist him. I sought an op-
portunity, therefore, to have an interview again
with Harris. 1 passed his office, and snipped a
piece of paper into it, which said, " Follow me." I
then passed around some buildings, and went into
an avenue between my house and a brick store,
where I stepped into my kitchen, and threw up a
window looking into this passage way, Mr. Harris
came into the avenue, out of sight of the street,
and •underneath the window. I told him that
something must be done immediately ; that the
whole community seemed to be paralyzed ; that the
Masons, by their talk, had so raised the prejudices

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OP MILLER. 107

of people against Morgan and Miller, that they
could do almost anything with them with impunity.
I told him I thought it was our duty to do all in our
power to rescue Miller, and that the community
must, in some way, be aroused. I advised him to
go and tell Mrs. Miller to sound the alarm — to go
up Genesee Street, and doAvn Park Street, and cry,
" Murder ! " and when she was questioned as to
her reason for so doing, she should declare that
Morgan was taken off yesterday, and her husband
to-day, and unless they were pursued and rescued,
they would certainly be murdered. I did not
consider this a false alarm by any means, and
I advised Harris to make Mrs. Miller believe
that it was really true, so that she should cry in
earnest.

Mrs. Miller caught the spirit of the occasion,
and throwing a shawl over her head, she ran out
into the street on her errand. The first man she
mot was a Mr. Cochrane. He questioned her
about the matter, and she imparted to him her own
fears, and roused in him a thorough excitement.
Ho told her to go back into tlie house and he would
do the business. Mr. Cochrane ran immediately
and hired stages and wagons, all the while scat-
tering the information abroad, and soon about one

108 THE BROKEN SEAL.

hundred men were gathered together, ready to
start upon the pursuit.

They overtook the company having Miller in
charge at Stafford, six miles from Batavia. They
had made a pause there, and he had been placed
for safe keeping in the lodge-room, and was guard-
ed by what is called, in masonic parlance, the
Tyler's Sword. Mr. Talbot, the lawyer, demanded
entrance, on the ground that Miller was his client,
and the law allowed him to have intercourse with
his client. This privilege was refused by the
Tyler ; but Mr. Talbot entered, and was followed by
some of his neighbors and friends who had come
on from Batavia. They found Mr. Daniel Johns,
/jhe spy, the pompous champion of Masonry, cut-
ting a high figure. He was brandishing a sword
over Mr. Miller's head, and telling him that he
was not to be tried by any, earthly tribunal, but
was going where Morgan was. Seeing the state
of things, Mr. Talbot stepped up to Miller, and said
to him, " This is no court of justice ; you must
go on to Le Hoy, where the warrant was issued."
Then taking him by the arm, Mr. Talbot led the
way, and, followed by his friends, went down into
the street, to go on to Le Roy. Here the Masons
rallied and took Miller out of the hands of Talbot,

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. 109

and put him on board a wagon, and started again
as if for Le Roy.

It was manifest that the Masons desired to con-
sume the time until night in the vicinity of Staf-
ford. They really had no intention of going on to
Le Roy with their prisoner at all. Though the
warrant was issued there, and Justice Barton was
resident there, it was obvious that they were re-
sorting to all sorts of shifts and evasions to use
up the afternoon, and not go to Le Roy. But the
cue of Mr. Talbot and his party was, that Mr.
Miller must go at once to Le Boy. And under
this pressure, which could not very well be re-
sisted, both because of its reasonableness and
because of the numbers supporting it, the noisy
assemblage moved on in a somewhat miscellane-
ous way towards Le Roy, Mr. Miller sometimes
seeming to be in the keeping of the one party,
and sometimes of the other.

They reached Le Roy about nightfall, and after
a long time spent in the same evasive policy, Mr.
Talbot and his friends finally succeeded in getting
Miller into the presence of Justice Barton. It
was evident that there had been no expectation
of any such proceeding. The constable and war-
rant were called for, but no constable, or warrant,

110 THE BROKER SEAL.

or plaintiff made their appearance ; so that the
justice was compelled to tell Mr. Miller he was
discharged, and was at liberty to go where he
pleased.

It may be remembered that Captain Davids was
arrested at the same time with Mr. Miller. The
warrant for the arrest of both was issued on the
oath and at the request of this Daniel Johns, the
spy, who had left Miller's office only the Saturday
before, taking with him a manuscript belonging
to the office. The person serving this warrant
was Jesse French, one of the constables of the
county. He arrested both Miller and Davids, as
has been stated. But Davids happened to be on
the jail limits of Batavia, and the sheriff of the
county informed the crowd who had the two men
in charge that Davids was in his custody, and
could not be taken out of the place.

As soon as Miller was discharged, he, followed
by his friends, was making his way towards a
public house, when the constable French appeared
again, and attempted to re-arrest him on the same
warrant. Johns was present, and the two, French
and Johns, called lustily on the bystanders to
come forward and help arrest the prisoner, who
had been taken out of their hands, A rush wa3

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. Ill

made, and Miller was again re-taken, and in the
midst of a large crowd of Masons, was borne into
tavern. His pursuers then began to think the
times serious. It had come to be a question,
no longer of law, but of which party was strong-
est. Cochrane and his men then brought a stage
up to the door of the tavern, with the driver upon
the seat and the stage-door wide open, and then
rushing into the tavern-hall, they opened to the
right and left, to keep the passage-way clear, while
others suddenly took Miller out of the hands of
his enemies, and bore him towards the stage. His
friends instantly closed up behind, and in a mo-
ment he was in the stage, and on his way home.
At a late hour of the night he was brought back
to Batavia, to the great relief of his wife.

Since the company, througli my secret agency,
had been started in pursuit, soon after midday, I
had not rested for a moment. I was in the street,
joining in all the exciting conversation of the day
— meeting with every little knot of Masons who
might happen to be together, that I might in-
stantly learn of any change of plan, if such
change were made. If I had heard of any new
policy — any different metliod of abducting Mil-
ler, or getting him out of the way of his friends

112 THE BROKEN SEAL.

who were pursuing after him, it was my purpose
to start out another posse from Batavia that night.
But a little after eleven o'clock Mr. Miller reached
Batavia, to my great relief. The stage-driver who
brought him back was instructed to make all
speed, and the ten miles from Le Roy to Bata-
via were passed at a rate much more rapid than
usual.^

There was a comic side to this day's work as
well as tragic. " The Knights of the Hoop-poles "
became a new order of Masons, in the common
language of the people. Some poet thought the
occasion a suitable one to be commemorated in
song. He wrote, accordingly, " The Hoop-pole
Band," which was afterwards published in a small
pamphlet. We cannot give the whole of it, but
we will give enough to show the spirit of the pro-
duction.

* " Some poets sing in epic strains.

Of warriors and their fates,
And some that rise and some that fall,

Of kingdoms and of states ;
But hark ! tlie while in loftier song,

And more sublimely grand,
I sing to all the listening world

The brave Masonic Band.

• Appendix C * Appendix D.

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. 113

"The world was still, and wonders lare.

Save now and then a dream
Of railroads, and of side canals,

And guns that go by steam ;
When Morgan swore a mighty oath.

In spite of friends or foes,
That he, for cash or conscience' sake,

Would Masonry disclose.

*' And Miller swore to print the tale,

And spread it far and near.
That all the blind on earth might see,

And all the deaf might hear ;
That from the greatest to the least.

By Scripture rule, forsooth,
That all should come to knowledge of

The hidden light of truth.

" Then hell broke loose, and all the host

Of Masons circled round.
To kidnap both, destroy the book,

Or burn Batavia down ;
And fury seized on many a brain.

And vengeance seemed to start.
In room of Love and Charity,

From many a Mason's heart.

"And then the General Iloop-pole Knight,
Renowned for chivalry,
Began to feel that feather grow,
Called popularity ;

8

114 THE BROKEN SEAL.

And how if he succeeded well

By prowess in the fight,
That he should be a Senator,

As well as leading Knight :

•' And cried, ' Arise my friends, arise !

With pistols, swords, and dirks,
Hoop-poles and knives, and cudgels strong,

Prepared for bloody works ;
Without regard to powers that be.

Or laws that men devise,
On Miller seize, and seize the book —

Succeed, or sacrifice.'

" On, on, then rushed the lawless band.

Determined, rough, and rare;
Precisely such as Milton sung.

Arose from heaven's despair,
And bound their trembling bludgeons on,

And waved their hoop-poles round,
As token that the villain should

Be tumbled to the ground.

" Upright, above the rest, the Knight,

AH pale and waving stood.
Just like a crah tree shrub amidst

The hoop-poles of the wood ;
While in the rear, on dapple gray,

His Sancho seemed to flee.
With lofty pride, from making comhfj

To deeds of cliivalry.

ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION OF MILLER. 115

"But still the band of Hoop-pole Knights,

With awful wrath in store,
Rushed in upon Batavia,

And made the village roar;
Hoop-poles, and dirks, and pistols clashed,

And waved around, till all
The dogs and hogs their tushes gnashed.

And cats began to squall.

"For such another motley band

Ne'er rose on earth to view
Since Satan's winged and fiery host

From Pandemonium flew ;
Then dreadful wooden weapons waved

In battle's dread array.
While Sancho seized on Miller's throat,

As tigers seize their prey.

" On foot, on horse, in wagons stored,

They marched ten miles or more,
To guard their victim of revenge,

And triumph in his gore ;
The while the people rose in strength,

With blood at boiling heat.
And sent him back to printing bookd.

And made the band retreat.

'Nay, since the days of Don Quixote,
When windmills were his foe,

110 THE BROKEN SEAL.

There has not been a scene like this

Unless in shades below;
And even Don would laugh, and shake

His sides till in distress,
Had he but seen the Yankee Knights

Attack a Printing Press. '^

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 117

CHAPTER VII.

WHAT BECAME OP MORGAN.

The sudden disappearance of Morgan, under cir-
cumstances such as have been detailed, was the
universal topic of conversation in all that region
of country. His wife and more immediate friends
and acquaintances were thrown into a state of
painful suspense. The public mind was full of
wonder and curiosit3\ Hardly anything else was
talked about. Day after day passed away, and
nothing could, with any certainty, be ascertained
respecting his fate. Rumors would come in from
one quarter and annther, some of no account, and
others with a measure of truth. Snatches of in-
telligence were all that, for a long time, came to
hand.

The agent who was despatched from Batavia to
Canandaigua came back, bringing such depositions
is that of Mrs. Hall, wife of the jailer, of which
ve have given a portion These showed clearly

118 THE BROKEN SEAL.

enough what had been done at Canandaigua, and
the facts were sufficiently alarming. On the 4th
of October a committee of ten of the citizens
of Batavia issued the following address to the
public : —

"On the 11th day of September, William Mor-
gan, a native of Virginia, who had for about three
years past resided in this village, was, under pre-
text of a justice's warrant, hurried from his home
and family, and carried to Canandaigua. The
same night he was examined on the charge of
petit larceny, and discharged by the justice. One
of the persons who took him away immediately
obtained a warrant against him in a civil suit, for
m alleged debt of two dollars, on which he was
iommitted to the jail of Ontario County. On the
night of the 12th of September he was released
by a person pretending to be his friend ; but di-
rectly in front of the jail, notwithstanding his
cries of murder, he was gagged and secured, and
put into a carriage, and, after travelling all night,
he was left (as the driver of the carriage says) at
Hanford's Landing, about sunrise on the 13th, since
which he has not been heard of. His distressed
wife and two infant children are left dependent on
charity for their sustenance. The circumstances
of the transaction have given rise to the most vio-
lent fears that he has been murdered. Tt is, how

WHAT BECAME OP MORGAN. 119

ever, hoped by his wife and friends ti^dt he may
be kept concealed and imprisoned in Canada. All
persons who are Avilling to serve the cause of
humanity, and assist to remove the distressing
apprehensions of his unfortunate wife, are earnest-
ly requested to communicate to one of the com-
mittee named below, directed to this place, any
facts or circumstances which have come to their
knowledge, and are calculated to lead to the dis-
covery of his present situation, or the particulars
of his fate, if he has been murdered .
" Batavia, October 4, 1826."

[Here follow the names of the committee of ten.]

" N. B. It is hoped that printers throughout the
State, Canada, and elsewhere, will give the above
a few insertions, and thus serve the cause of jus-
tice and humanity."

It should be said in passing, that very few print-
ers had the moral courage to print the above
notice, so completely were they in bondage to
Masonry.

A call like this, issued from the village of Bata-
via, three weeks after Morgan's disappearance,
shows how painlul must have been the suspense
to those most nearly concerned, and how carefully
the abductors had taken pains to leave no clear

120 THE BROKEN SEAL.

aud definite traces behind them. For many weeks,
indeed, everything was obscure and indefinite.
Hopes were entertained that he would appear
again — that he was kept somewhere in prison
until his book could be eflfectually suppressed,
aud then he would be set at large. But after a
time, and little by little, the remarks which were
dropped by leading men among the Masons dissi-
pated all hopes that he would ever be seen alive.
It became more and more apparent that this thing
had not been done in a corner ; that a very large
number of persons, far and wide, had been cogni-
zant of the transactions ; and their manner of talk
about them was often of the most shameful char-
acter. It was a great subject of coarse joking
among the Masons in their common conversation
in the street, but especially in their lodge meet
ings. The eiForts that were made, the measures
that were taken to discover where he was, began
to be a matter for ridicule and laughter, and even
the distress and anxiety of his wife were joked
about in public places.

I was still a Mason, be it remembered, in form,
and kept up my connection with the lodge meet-
ings. I felt confident that by the information I
had communicated to Harris, and by the agency I

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 121

had put forth, I had saved the life of Miller, and
the same, in my opinion, would have been true of
Morgan, if my testimony had been more implicitly
believed and acted upon. I tried to persuade
Captain Davids to do for Morgan what Mr. Coch-
rane and his neighbors had done for Miller, and if
those most nearly concerned had not been incred-
ulous and remiss, they would have roused the vil-
lage of Batavia, and obtained a band of men to
follow on and see that no harm was done to Mor-
gan. But notwithstanding the part I had played
in these transactions, I was still a Mason, in good
and regular standing. Some might suspect me
not to be true to my oaths ; but my secret was not
yet out. I still attended the lodge meetings, for I
could not very well do otherwise, just now. There
I heard enough, after a little time, to convince me
that Morgan was no longer in the land of the liv-
ing. It was just as well understood by the mem-
bers of our lodge that Morgan was dead, as it is
when our families attend the funeral of any person
and return to tell the news, only the Masons did
not make the announcement in the same way.
They had a great deal of rough joking over the
subject, implying that he was drowned somewhere
in the direction of Canada. They would say of

122 THE BROKEN SEAL.

the men who had him in charge, " They caught a
bass the other night ; " or, '' Morgan was taken out
in a boat, a stone was fastened to him, and the wind
blew, and the unfortunate wretch was blown over-
board and sunk;" or they would diversify the nar-
rative by other fancy sketches of the same general
cliaracter. It was perfectly apparent that the lead-
ing men among the Masons, all abroad through the
region, understood well that Morgan had been put
out of the way. If I never had had any other evi-
dence that Morgan was murdered except what I
had then and there from the mouths of Masons,
it would have been enough.

The facts of the case, as they afterwards gradu-
ally came to light, and formed themselves into a
continuous story, were these. Morgan was taken
out of the jail at Canandaigua, on the night of the
12th of September (Tuesday), in the manner al-
ready described. He was bound and gagged to
prevent his outcries, and then conveyed one hun-
dred and twenty miles by stage, through the towns
and villages of Western New York, along a much-
travelled road, to the United States fort at Niag-
ara. He reached this place in the early morning
of Thursday, September 14, having been continu-
ously on the road, with such short interruptions

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 123

as are incidental to a journey of this kind (chan-
ging horses, drivers, &c.), from Tuesday evening
till this time. It had been a part of the general plan
in the disposition to be made of Morgan, that he
should be handed over to Brant, the Mohawk chief,
and the Canadian Masons, and that they should
despatch him. Accordingly, on the 14th of Sep-
tember, as soon as possible after reaching the fort,
he was taken out and carried across the river, to
be given up to the Canadians. But they would
not receive him. They were shy of staining their
hands with this bloody business. When the thing
was looked at afar off, their masonic zeal doubt-
less prompted them to say Yes to the proposi-
tion, but when the time for execution came their
courage failed them.

That Morgan was taken to the fort, then carried
across the river and brought back, was told me as
a positive fact by a minister (a Mason), who was
personally cognizant of it. He said that he went
directly from the installation of the lodge at Lew-
iston (only a few wiles off) to the fort, and saw
Morgan taken out and carried across the river.
Though a minister, this man was such a thorough-
going Mason, that when he told me this (he was
talking to a Mason), he contended that, under the

124 THE BROKEN SEAL.

circumstances, it was right and proper to take
Morgan's life. I also received this information
from a deacon, who told me that he visited Mor-
gan while in the dark hole (he was placed in the
magazine of the fort), and there heard him asked
what death he would prefer to die. He answered,
" That he should prefer to die like a soldier ; that
he had fought for his country, and as a soldier he
would die for his country." This same deacon told
me that Morgan asked for a light and for a Bible,
that he might prepare his mind for his departr
ure. But this request was refused, and the dea-
con said he thought if any man ought to be
denied the Bible in such circumstances, Morgan
was the man.

1 am sensible that there are heavy accusations
to be made against men who held these high offices
in the Christian church. But they were not by
any means tlie only ministers, deacons, and pro-
fessing Cliristians who were actually concerned
in the condemnation and death of Morgan. A
large number of church members actually parti-
cipated in the proceedings leading to his death,
or openly justified these proceedings. This is one
of the most appalling facts respecting Masonry as
an institution, — that it should have power to warp

WHAT BECAifE OF MORGAN. 125

and pervert men, otherwise amiable, kind, and
good, turning them into secret assassins. It was
the boast of Masonry, at that time, that there were
ministers and deacons enough ready to do this
whole business.

When the men who had Morgan on their hands
could not hand him over for execution to the Ca-
aadians, he was brought back to the American side
of the river, and lodged in the magazine of the
fort. This was on the morning of the 14th of Sep-
tember. There is reliable testimony that Morgan
was there on Sunday, the 17th of September.
There is reliable evidence that on Thursday, the
21st of September, he was not there, and has
never since been seen alive b}^ his friends. Some-
where between September 17 and 21, it is gen-
erally understood, he was taken out in a boat into
the Niagara River, a stone was tied to him, and
he was pushed from the boat into the river.

The story of Morgan, from the time he was seized
at Batavia, September 12, to his death, about a
week afterwards, is one of strange and peculiar
interest. It has all the elements of wild romance.
We have no means of knowing what Avas the cur-
rent of his thoughts through those eventful days ;
but it seems pretty evident that he did not, at

126 THE BROKEN SEAL.

first, apprehend the terrible dangers encircling
him. He was naturally a man of a generous and
confiding nature, and at the time of his seizure,
and through his journey to Canandaigua, and trial
there, he apparently believed, to a good extent,
the words of those about him. They professed
to be his friends, who were going along with him
to see that he had a fair trial, and that justice was
done him. Even when he was waited upon at
evening, at the jail, he was deceived. He thought
Lawson, Foster, and the rest to be his friends. It
was not until he went out from the walls of the
jail, and was seized to be thrust into the carriage,
that the scales fell from his eyes, and the horrible
suspicion of what all this business meant burst
upon him.

In the investigations which were afterwards set
on foot in regard to this whole affair, when once
the people were aroused, an effort was made to
trace out this strange journey from Canandaigua
to Niagara, step by step. It was found impossible
to do this ; but such glimpses of it were gained
th]»ough the witnesses, willing or unwilling, who
came forward to testify, that virtually we have
the whole story. And yet the flashes of light by
which we gain these glimpses are brief and lurid.

WHAT BECAME OP MORGAN. 127

The first sight we got of the expedition, after it
left Canandaigua, is late at night, at the town
of Victor, some ten miles or more away towards
Rochester. A carriage is driven into the shed be-
longing to a tavern, kept by one Dr. Tliomas Beach;
but soon, lest there should be too much publici-
ty in this, or because some information that was
waited for had been gained, it is backed out and
driven round into the yard of one Enoch Gillis,
out of sight of the road, and about forty rods off
from the public house. James Gillis, who was at
the time living in Pennsylvania, — the brother of
Enoch Gillis, — was active in the affairs of that
night. He took his brother's horse and went off
on the road towards Rochester. He also helped
to procure another horse for Lawson. Gillis was
seen the next day on horseback in the vicinity of
Victor, after which he disappeared, and when he
was wanted in the subsequent proceedings of the
courts he was not to be found.

It may be remembered that Mr. Ketchum, who
went from Batavia to Canandaigua with Mrs. Mor-
gan, told her that Mr. Morgan had gone off with a
man from Pennsylvania, who had taken him for
debt. A shadowy foundation for this story may be
found in the fact, that this Mr. Gillis, then resident

128 THE BROKEN SEAL,.

in Pennsylvania, was about, actually participating
in this abduction.

The next we see of the party is in the vicinity
of Rochester, twenty-eight miles off from Canan-
daigua. This is in the early morning of Wednes-
day, September 13. A little after daylight the
expedition reaches Hanford's tavern, about three
miles out from Rochester. But before its arrival
(as it came out in evidence) another carriage
belonging to a livery-stable in Rochester, owned
by a Mason of one of the higher orders, was sent
out to wait the arrival of the Canandaigua car-
riage. Somewhere in the vicinity of Hanford's
tavern the party was changed out of the one car-
riage into the other.

The next point at which the expedition was
recognized and traced was at Clarkson, some fif-
teen miles off from Rochester, towards Niagara.
This was about nine o'clock in the morning ; and
what especially attracted the attention of obser-
vers was, that though a hot day, the curtains of
the carriage were closed tightly. The carriage
made a short stop at Clarkson, in the middle of
the street, in the front of Baldwin's tavern. The
driver ran into the tavern a moment, and then
came out and went directly on. About two mile?

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 129

beyond Clarkson new horses were procured from
one Allen. The tired horses were taken off, and
these fresh ones put on ; but the men in the in-
side did not get out during the transaction, and
the curtains were all the time kept tightly drawn.
In the subsequent stir of the people, when the men
who had been concerned in these transactions be-
gan to be looked up, the drivers from Hanford's
on to Clarkson and beyond disappeared, and could
not be found.

About twelve o'clock on Wednesday, Septem-
ber 13, a closed carriage drove into the village of
Gaines, passed through without stopping, but
about a mile west of the village made a halt in
the road, at quite a distance from any house.
Here a pair of fresh horses, belonging to James
Mather, was brought up by his brother, Elihu
Mather, who, after they were fastened to the car-
riage, mounted the driver's box and drove the
team on some ten or fifteen miles, into the vicinity
of Ridgeway. There was a strangeness about
the whole transaction, not only in the closed car-
riage, but in the fact that Mr.. Mather should drive
it, as he was a man of property and standing, and
not accustomed to such business. On his way
9

130 THE BROKEN SEAL.

back, he jokingly said to some one, " I think 1
make a good stage-driver — do I not ? "

At Eidgeway, a man by the name of Jeremiah
Brown, one of the chief men of the town, lately a
member of the legislature, brought up a pair of
horses from the field where they were working, and
after giving them time to feed, they were hitched to
this same closely-covered carriage, and as Mr. Math-
er had done, so Mr. Brown mounted the box, and
turned stage-driver himself. This was along well
in the afternoon. Just at nightfall the expedition
reached Wright's tavern, a little north of Lockport.
Here a halt was made, the carriage, instead of being
driven up to the door, having been taken into the
barn. There was considerable delay at Wright's
tavern. There was quite a company of men gath-
ered here. A woman connected with the hotel
said that supper had been ordered for a com-
pany of Masons. There was to be the installation
of a masonic lodge next day at Lewiston, some
twenty miles away ; but precisely what was indi-
cated by the stir about Wright's tavern that night
is not clear.

Just a little west of this tavern was the turn
pike gate, kept by a man named Maxwell. About
eleven o'clock that night a mysterious-looking

WHAT BECAME OP MORGAN. 131

carriage came up very quietly, the gate was open,
and Maxwell was in the house. He heard the
carriage approach, and thought at first the inten-
tion was to steal through without pa3'ing fare.
The whole scene was so peculiar and unique,
that we may as well give the deposition of Mr.
Maxwell.

"David Maxwell, being sworn, saith, that in
the night of the 13th of September last he was
at home attending to the keeping of the turnpike
gate on the Ridge road, so called, about nineteen
miles distant from Lewiston. About eleven o'clock,
P. M., he was sitting in the toll-house, and heard a
carriage pass through the gate very slowly; and
upon opening the door he saw Jeremiah Brown,
of Ridgeway, standing directly in front of the
door, and saw the carriage standing in the road,
about three rods west of the house. He, Brown,
had a shilling in his hand, which he handed to him,
being the exact amount of the toll on the carriage.
Deponent said, * How do you do. Captain Brown ? '
He made no answer, and turned away quickly, and
went towards the carriage. Deponent called to
him quite loudly, and said, ' What is the matter ? '
Brown answered, ' Nothing.' Deponent took do-

132 THE BROKEN SEAL.

tice of the carriage, because he had never known
Brown to have anything to do with a coach before,
and it struck him as a thing out of the usual course.
He thinks the curtains were closed. Brown joined
the carriage, but whether he got into it, or got on
the driver's seat, deponent cannot say. The car-
riage drove off quickly, when deponent entered
the house : himself and his wife had a conversa-
tion, and expressed to each other their wonder as
to the cause which should take Captain Brown
west with a coach so late at night; he. Brown,
is a farmer in good circumstances, residing about
thirteen miles east of the gate, and well known
to deponent and wife, and passing the gate fre-
quently, and never to the knowledge and recol-
lection of deponent with any other carriage than
a common two-horse farm wagon. They event-
ually concluded that he perhaps had gone to
Lewiston to an installation. The next morning,
before breakfast, and not far from sunrise, the
same carriage, as he thinks, arrived at the gate,
driven by a person he did not then know (Mr.
Mathei, previously named). The middle curtains
were then up, and deponent distinctly saw the
said Jeremiah Brown sitting on the back seat of
the carriage, appearing to be asleep, and leaning

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 133

back: he saw no other person in the carriage.
Deponent said to the driver, ' How far did you go
out? Did you go to Lewiston?' He hesitated a
little, and said, ' No, we did not go to Lewiston.'
The deponent and his wife then observed to each
other that they had not gone to the installation.
Deponent took notice that the coach was a choco-
late color ; it appeared to be a hack carriage that
had been much used."

The next distinct glimpse that we get of this
strange and mysterious carriage, still travelling on
towards Niagara, with its carefully-guarded load,
is at Cambria, six miles west, at what is called
Mollineux's tavern. The party reached this place
about midnight, September 13. Mr. Bruce, the
high sheriff of Niagara County, came to the tav-
ern first, and called up the elder Mr. Mollineux,
desiring him to furnish a pair of horses for taking
on a carriage to Lewiston. The request was com-
plied with, and a pair of horses furnished that
were young and spirited. Mr. Mollineux's son,
having a pride in the horses, and knowing that
they were mettlesome and free, requested the
privilege of driving them to Lewiston himself.
To this Mr. Bruce decidedly objected, and said

134 THE BROKEN SEAL.

that he had a trusty driver in the person of Mr.
Jeremiah Brown, the same man who had charge
of the team when it passed through the turnpike
gate. Young Mollineux knew Mr. Brown. While
the carriage was at Cambria, and this change of |
horses was taking place, the curtains were kept
carefully closed, and everything indicated great
secrecy. The unusual circumstance of a man call-
ing at the hotel at that late hour of tlie night for
a pair of horses, the importance which Mr. Bruce
seemed to give to the whole affair, the haste with
which he desired the expedition to set off, — all
conspired to make a strange impression upon
every person not in the secret. A servant girl,
belonging to the hotel, asked Mr. Bruce what the
matter was. He answered, " You cannot know at
present."

The distance from Cambria to Lewiston is thir-
teen miles. Mr. Brown mounted his box, and
started at about midnight, as before stated, and
before daylight the next morning returned to
Mollineux's tavern, having driven the twenty-six
miles in about five hours. The horses came back
jaded and worn, and young Mollineux was in a
state of high indjgnation. Here the horses, which
had been taken off from the carriage the night

WHAT BECAME OP MORGAN. 136

before, were replaced, and with Mr. Brown on the
inside, seemingly asleep, and with a Mr. Mather
on the box for driver, the carriage returned
through the turnpike gate after the manner al-
ready described.

But we catch also a clear but momentary view
of things at Lewiston, some time during the small
hours of morning, September 14. This same ^\r.
Bruce, high sheriff of Niagara County, who had
been so helpful at Cambria, called at Mr. Samuel
Barton's, of Lewiston, one of the stage proprietors,
and together they went to the stage office, to find
what drivers, if any, Avere in. They found only
Mr. Fox (Corydon Fox), who was asleep in an
adjoining room. He was desired to get up a car-
riage immediately, to take a party to Youngstown,
six miles distant. Paul Mosher was connected
with this office, his special business being to
regulate the arrival and departure of the stages.
The account given of this affair, under oath, is as
follows, Mr. Mosher making the deposition, and
including in his statement what Fox had told
him.

" Fox also stated that Eli Bruce, sheriff of Ni-
agara County (or, as he called him, Bruce), camo

136 THE BROKEN SEAL.

with Mr. Barton, when he was called up. That,
after the getting the carriage ready, Bruce told
him (Fox) to drive round to a back street. He
did so, and found a carriage in the street with-
out horses. That there was something curious
about it ; he thought there was a man in the
carriage who was gagged and bound. That there
were two persons who came out of the carriage
standing in the street, and both, with Bruce, got
into the one he was driving. Bruce told him to
go, or drive, on : he was directed to stop at the
residence of Colonel King. He halted, according-
ly, in front of the door, or house, at Youngstown.
Bruce got out and called up King. Bruce and
King both got into the carriage. That he heard
a man in the carriage call for water, and Bruce
said he should have some ; he also thought he
heard King say, ' Morgan, are you here ? ' That
he (Pox) was directed to drive on, and when about
half way from Youngstown to the fort, Bruce told
him to stop. He did so, and they all got out, and
he returned to Lewiston."

In all this journey, the aim was to have only
Masons employed, in whatever capacity. But in
the haste with which things were done at Lewis-

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 137

ton, Fox was called into service, though he was not
a Mason. He had seen and heard strange things
that night, unsuited to any save masonic ears and
eyes. It was felt that a blunder had been com-
mitted. An eifort was accordingly made at once
to bring Fox into a masonic lodge. Money was
offered him to pay the initiatory fees, and in about
tliree weeks after this night's adventures, he was
persuaded into the lodge at Lewiston.

There is evidence, too, of a sudden commotion
after Morgan reached the fort. As has been stated,
he was immediately taken over to the Canada side,
and it was expected that Brant, chief of the Mo-
hawks, would receive him and dispose of him. But
he would not perform the disagreeable service,
and so Morgan was brought back and lodged in
the magazine of the fort.

Paul Mosher, of Lewiston, from whose deposi-
tion we have just quoted, testifies also, that in
the afternoon of the 14th of September (Morgan
reached the fort in the early morning of that day),
" Barton came to the deponent, and directed him
to borrow a saddle and bridle, and put them on a
horse as soon as possible, and hitch it by anoth-
er horse standing under the shed, pointing that
way, and which horse appeared as if he had been

138 THE BROKEN SEAL.

rode fast : he added, that he had heard from tJie
fort, and must send a man down, for he feared there
would he trouble yet. He (Mosher) did as directed,
and the two horses were rode off soon after ; the
one put there by this deponent, by a Mason resi-
dent in Lewiston, the other by a person not known
to this deponent. Next morning the deponent
asked said Barton if there was any trouble at
the fort; to, which he replied,*! guess it is still
enough.' "

We have one more of these glimpses, or " night
visions," in the deposition of Mr. Josiah Tryon.
On the night of the 14th of September, he at-
tended a ball at Lewiston, on the occasion of the
installation of a lodge — a fact already referred to.
He had a friend there who wished to go to Canada
next morning, and for this he must be in Youngs-
town to take the boat early in the morning. In
order to induce his friend to stay and attend the
ball, he had agreed to take him to Youngstown,
with a team. Accordingly, in the small hours of
the morning of September 15, they started out
from Lewiston towards Youngstown. The night
was clear, and the moon was shining brightly, so
that it was easy to discern surrounding objects, or
recognize faces. About two miles out from Lew-

WHAT BECAME OP MORGAN. 139

iston he met five men walking towards Lewiston,
three of whom he knew AvelL Surprised at seeing
this company on the road, at such an unusual hour
(it was then between three and four o'clock in the
morning), he reined up his horse, and said to one
of them, whom he knew, '' WJiat are you here this
time of night for ? " The answer was, '•' We have
had a set down (council or consultation) at Youngs-
town."

The fort was at this time unoccupied, except by
the keeper and his wife. Troops had been sta-
tioned there until the previous May, when they
left. From that time until August, it had been
under the general superintendence and care of a
Mr. Giddins, who lived near, and who kept a house
of public entertainment. In August he had passed
the care of the fort over to a Colonel Jewett, and
his wife, who lived in it. Mr. Giddins, in his
deposition, thus describes the magazine where
Morgan was confined.

" This building stands on the southerly side of
the fort, is built of stone, about the height of a
common two-story building, and measures about
fifty by thirty feet on the ground; is arched over:
tlie side and end walls are about four feet thick; the

140 THE BEOKEN SEAL.

wall over the top is about eight feet thick, and is
considered bomb-proof; covered with shingle roof.
There is but one door, around which there is a
small entry, to which there is a door also. There
are no windows or apertures in the walls, except
a small ventilator for the admission of air, and one
small window in each end, about ten feet from the
ground. They are usually kept closed, and locked
on the outside with a padlock."

This is surely a formidable prison-house, and
when one enters it as a prisoner, he may well give
heed to Dante counsel, and " leave all hope be-
hind." When it Avas found that Brant and the
Canadian Masons would have nothing to do with
Morgan, he was thrust in here.

The place had been agreed upon and arranged
for beforehand ; because there was evidently
a doubt whether Morgan could be disposed of
through the Canadians. But the plan had not
gone so far as to be definite, in case he could not
be left on the Canadian side. The place of his
confinement had been fixed ; but what precisely
to do with him had not apparently been deter-
mined. Hence, with this new turn of affairs, a

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 141

council had to be called, as has been already inti-
mated.

It is in evidence that, on the night of the 14th
of September (the evening after the return from
the Canadian shore), nine men ordered supper at
Mr. Giddins's house, and left his house about
eleven o'clock. Some of these were the same
men that Mr. Tryon saw on the road near Lewis-
ton, between three and four the next morning.
During the evening of September 14. there was
quite a gathering of men about the fort, some
twenty or thirty coming hither in the steamboat.
Most of these staid but a short time, and then dis-
appeared. Ten or eleven of them remained a
longer time before they scattered. The next even-
ing, September 15-, a smaller number was gathered.
There was much earnest talk, but apparently a
divided state of opinion.

As has been already stated, it is in proof that
Morgan was still at the fort, locked up in the mag-
azine, on the 17th of September (Sunday) ; but
before Thursday, the 21st, he had disappeared, and
was never more seen alive. The manner of his
death has already been related.

We have gone over the events connected with
this memorable journey, in this minute way, be-

142 THE BROKEN SEAL.

cause it serves to show that a very large number
of people were informed of what was going for-
ward, and to some extent participated in these
transactions. Intelligence had been conveyed
through secret channels ; and men rise up and
play their parts by day and by night, just when
and where they are wanted. There is a well-com-
pacted movement going on over large reaches of
territory, of which the outside world catches occa-
sional glimpses, but knows not their meaning. It is
only when the subsequent investigation brings out
the facts more fully, that these broken fragments
of a plan can be put together and made clear to
the common mind.

Here this part of our narrative would naturally
stop. But by a strange turn of providence, it
came to pass that more than a year after the
events just recorded, — on the 7th of October,
1827, — the body of a man, not far gone with decay,
was picked up on the shore of Lake Ontario, at a
place called Oak Orchard Creek. It was found by
a company of men who were out hunting. A jury
was called, and after a hasty examination, the
body was buried. As soon, however, as the find-
ing of this body became publicly known, strange

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. • 143

stories were told about it, and curious attempts
were made to identify it as the body of this per-
son, or that, who had latefy disappeared in all that
part of the country. The body was taken up
again for further examination, and soon the rea-
sons began to appear for believing that this was
no other than the body of Captain William Morgan.

Men from Batavia and the region round about
went to see these remains, and were satisfied. Mrs.
Morgan herself, Mr. Miller, Mr. Harris, and others,
who had known Mr. Morgan most intimately in his
lifetime, saw and believed. A new jury was em-
panelled, and after a more rigid examination, the
conclusion was reached, that these were the re-
mains of Morgan, and his body was accordingly
taken back to Batavia and buried.

The proofs of his identity could no longer be
found, of course, in the fleshly appearances, but
must be looked for in the more permanent and
abiding parts of the frame. And here the coinci-
dences were most singular and striking. It was
little that the height and general structure were
the same ; these might be found in many men;
but there were other things not to be overlooked.
Mrs. Morgan had told beforehand what proofs of
identitv mii>:ht be looked for.

144 • THE BROKEN SEAL.

Captain Morgan had a habit of whittling at the
nails on his fingers. It was his fancy to wear them
unusually long, and to trim them to a point. In
ordinary conversation, often, when he was not
aware what he was doing, he was thus scraping
and cutting his nails. It was something altogeth-
er unusual for one to wear his nails shaped in the
precise form which Captain Morgan gave his. But
the body found on the shore of Lake Ontario
showed this shaping of the nails. I myself saw
these nails on the dead body after it was brought
back to Batavia, and the sight of them, after his
death, was to me the most impressive proof of his
identity.

Then, again, Mr. Morgan had a singular charac-
teristic about his teeth. Even his front teeth
approached the molar or double-toothed forma-
tion. So it was in this case. Besides, he had lost
one of his double teeth, and it so happened that
this very tooth, drawn by a physician in Batavia,
not long before, from some peculiarity pertaining
to it, had been preserved. When brought out, it
had every appearance of fitting the cavity exactly.

Then, to make the case still more convincing,
he had received a deep wound over one of the
eyes, and had struck an axe into his foot, cutting

WHAT BECAME OF MORGAN. 145

asunder one of his great toes. All these marks
were found upon the body.

The Niagara River had been dragged to find the
body of Morgan. It was believed, at the time,
that the body was started from its fastenings by
this operation, and Avas raised to the surface. One
of the men employed supposed that he caught
sight of the body, but it sank again, and he lost
it. The theory was, that it had been swept along,
by the strong current of the Niagara River, into
Oak Orchard Creek, and had been tossed about by
winds and waves, until it washed ashore at the
place where it was found. I myself saw the body
after it was brought back to Batavia, and have no
doubt whatever that it was the body of Morgan.

Let it be understood, however, that the proof
of his death by violence does not rest upon this
identification of the body. The fact of his death
was established on evidence entirely independent
of this. That was as thoroughly believed among
the people of Western New York before the dis-
covery of the body as afterwards. The finding
of the body was only a strange and unexpected
sequel. It serves to make an ending for the story
but its beginning and middle had already passed
into history, when this denouement came.
10

146 THE BROKEN SEAL.

CHAPTER YIII.

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED.

It might seem strange, at first thought, that the
attempt of Captain Morgan to publish the secrets
of Masonry should have roused such an intense
and wide-spread excitement among the Masons;
for this excitement was intense, as has been
made abundantly clear by the preceding narra-
tive. While this process was going on at Batavia
in the summer of 1826, in all the masonic circles
of Western New York, and more or less through-
out the land, there were passions aroused that
amounted almost to a blind frenzy. Men acted
as though the heavens were about to fall, or the
earth to be destroyed. Never were greater emo-
tions awakened from so small and unimportant a
cause.

But there was, nevertheless, a philosophy under-
lyiug thts excitement. It must be remembered
that Masonry is too sacred and important a thing

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED. 147

to be committed to books. The theory is, that it
must be transmitted from generation to genera-
tion through the air — that the Avhole communi-
cation of these tremendous secrets must be purely
oral, passing from mouth to mouth, as the illus-
trious order lives along the ages. At the very
outset, in the entered apprentice's oath, the candi-
date, under the most fearful penalties, is made to
say, " I will not write, print, stamp, stain, hew, cut,
carve, indent, paint, or engrave it on anything,
movable or immovable, under the whole canopy
of heaven, whereby or whereon the least letter,
figure, character, mark, stain, shadow, or resem-
blance of the same may become legible, or intelli-
gible, to myself or any other person in the known
world, whereby the secrets of Masonry may be un-
lawfully obtained through my unworthiness."

If this language is not strong or comprehensive
enough, each reader can make it so at his leisure.
The idea, therefore, of actually writing out these
secrets, would naturally fill the minds of those
who were foolish enough to become enthusiastic
Masons with a holy horror.

This was not the first time that the secrets of
Masonry had been divulged, nor was Morgan the
0T)'y one that has suffered death for making the

148 THE BROKEN SEAL.

attempt. In 1762 was published, in England, the
book called " Jachin and Boaz." These two ancient
words are the names or designations of the grips
used for the two first masonic degrees, the en-
tered apprentice's, and the fellow-craft's. Soon
after the publication of Jachin and Boaz, its author
was found murdered in the streets of London, his
throat having been cut from ear to ear. It was
this book which Miller undertook to republish in
Saratoga. After he joined the Masons, and took
the first degree, as has been already related, he
made a discovery. He found that the grip Jachin,
which used to belong to the entered apprentice's
degree, had been transferred to the second degree
of fellow-crafts, and that the grip Boaz had been
taken for the first degree ; so that what used to
read (in ancient times, before the first pubHcation
of this book) as " Jachin and Boaz," should now
read " Boaz and Jachin." This was done so that
it might be said that Masonry in modern times
was not what it was before 1762, and that no one
could tell what it was by reading the book " Ja-
chin and Boaz." This, however, was only a catch,
to deceive, as, with the exception of the merely
jiominal change just mentioned, all things re-
mained just as they were before. The entered

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED. 149

apprentice's degree was the same, being, as of
old, the first degree. But the grip for this degree
was Boaz, instead of Jachin.

These words are brought from afer, even from
the ancient temple of Solomon. In the First Book
of Kings, in the long and minute description of the
magnificent temple reared by Solomon, we are
told, " And he set up the pillars in the porch of the
temple ; and he set up the right pillar, and called
the name thereof Jachin ; and he set up the left
pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz." In the
Second Book of Chronicles we have an account of
the same thing, though in language someAvhat dif-
ferent. '' And he reared up the pillars before the
temple, one on the right hand and the other on the
left, and called the name of that on the right hand
Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz."

Masonry, in its idle and swelling claims to an-
tiquity, owns all Solomon's temple, and most of
what is valuable and grand from the creation
down. It is an old adage, that " one may as well
die for an old sheep as a lamb." And when Ma-
sonry undertook to get up a history for herself,
and to choose her own grandfathers and grand-
mothers, there was nothing to hinder her from
appropriating to herself what she pleased. The

150 THE BROKEN SEAL.

" world was all before " her, and it was just as
easy to have her first organization take place in
the garden of Eden as anywhere else. Adam
might as well be the first Mason as the first man.
And so down through the ages, wherever anything
great and venerable is to be found, let Masonry
lay hold of it, for " possession is nine points of the
law." Accordingly, we find masonic literature
loaded down with names, real names (besides
many imaginary ones), that never had anything
more to do with speculative Freemasonry than
Julius Ca3sar had to do in digging the Erie Canal.
To connect Solomon and his temple with Masonry
is like the prattle of little children who make pies
out of mud, and get up a school out of sticks of
wood. And yet, so constantly are these claims put
forth, and so grandly are they mouthed over from
generation to generation, that the more simple-
minded among the Masons doubtless believe that
they belong to an institution which is as old as
Solomon, at least, if it be not as old as the world.
Jachin and Boaz, therefore, are the two first pass-
words of Masonry. Through this august gateway
the novitiate enters the wonderful temple.

There have also been other attempts to divulge
the secrets of Masonry, besides this of " Jachin

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED. 151

and Boaz." But we will not dwell upon these
items of old history.

What Morgan undertook to do was, to reveal
the seven first degrees. . He actually wrote out
these degrees in full. By his knowledge as a
masonic lecturer, he was able to do this. It was
the intention that these seven degrees should be
published together. This was the book which
Colonel Miller promised to give to the world. It
was in the hope and expectation of doing this
that the book was so long delayed.

On the other hand, it was the intention of the
Masons, when they began to combine together in
the summer of 1826, to suppress the book alto-
gether— to prevent the publication of any part
of it. Morgan and Miller, knowing the dangers
to which the book would be exposed while it was
in course of publication, meant always that there
should be in existence duplicate copies of each
degree, so that if one were seized and destroyed,
the other might survive. The commotions among
the Masons during the summer of 1826 had refer-
ence to the suppression of the book, as also to the
punishment of Morgan and Miller for having
proved faithless to their masonic oaths.

At the time when Morgan was arrested, on Sat-

152 THE BROKEN SEAL.

urdaj, August 19, and lodged in jail, and kept
there over the Sabbath, the primary object of the
movement, apparently, was to make a raid upon
Morgan's papers. The plans for his abduction
were not then ripe. Papers were seized at that
time, and doubtless the men chiefly concerned
thought they had accomplished more than they
had. They did not understand the arrangement
about duplicate copies. They did, however, find
abundant proof that Morgan was engaged in re-
vealing the secrets of Masonry.

But the man who really made the break in the
process of publication was Daniel Johns, the spy,
and the story may best be told by Colonel Miller
himself. We copy from an account afterwards
furnished by him for the paper called '•' The Mor-
gan Investigator."

" To present occurrences in a connected order
I must go back to a period of time anterior to that
when an attempt was made to burn my printing
ofiBces. About the middle of August last, by par-
ticular request of the author, I applied to the clerk
of the northern district of this state, at Utica,
for a copyright of a work entitled ' Illustrations
of Masoniy,' &c. I had ascertained that every
movement of mine was closely watched. To elude

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED, 153

pursuit various means were resorted to. On my
return, which was by way of the canal, I left the
boat at Fullam's Basin, eight miles east of Roch-
ester. The boat had passed but a few miles after
I had left it, when the captain was hailed from the
banks of the canal, by a well-dressed individual, who
inquired, ' Has not Mr. Miller been on board that
boat ? ' and on being answered in the affirmative,
demanded my baggage, by authority, as he alleged,
of a written order from me ; but being unable to
designate what my baggage was, he was foiled in
the attempt to become possessed of certain prop-
erty that was then supposed to be in my charge.

" On the arrival of the boat at Rochester, which
was between the hours of eleven and twelve at
night, the strongest visible evidence was pre-
sented to me that the watch-dogs were on the
alert ; but on assuring themselves that there was
no bone worthy of contention, I was left to the
enjoyment of my own reflections.

" A few days after these occurrences, a man of
good appearance, about twenty-eight or tliirty
years of age, well equipped, with thousands of
money at command, was introduced to me at Bata-
via, by the name of Daniel Johns, a Canadian,
who was anxious to embark, through ' weal or

154 THE BROKEN SEAL.

woe/ in the crusade against Masonry. His story
being plain, plausible, and connected, he was
unhesitatingly permitted to become a participator.
He aided all he could, apparently, in the printing
and folding of masonic books, and became an ac-
tive, and, as was supposed, efficient guard against
* cowans and eavesdroppers,' as well as more
prominent enemies. He slept in the printing-room
with me, with pistols at the head of his bed, and
often expressed his astonishment that I did not
sleep. I now can see the villain, with his snaky
head raised from the pillow, inquiring what posi-
tion I lay in. He uniformly found me perusing
a book or a newspaper. I used to apologize for
disturbing his slumbers by a burning candle,
assuring him that there was no danger to be
apprehended from it. I had become wakeful and
watchful, but not from suspicion of him.

" Thus time passed smoothly on for about twelve
or fourteen days, enlivened now and then by some
remarks at the expense of our enemies, and now
and then forming the ' living arch,' and repeating
the distich, 'We three did agree,' &c. During all
this time, however, Johns was extremely anxious
of perusing the manuscript in the upper degrees
of Masonry. This desire was not communicated

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED. 155

to me by him, but through another person. He
was accordingly presented with the Mark Master's
(or fourth) degree. This was on the evening of the
8th of September. The next day, at noon, he was
missing. He was seen last to go into the post
office of this, village, and although immediately
sought for and inquired after, was nowhere to be
found ; most conclusively demonstrating that Ma-
sons knew how to secrete as well as to keep a
secret. On this occurrence Captain Morgan for
the first time became alarmed for his personal
safety, assigning as a reason, that the Masons had
become, as they supposed, now possessed of all his
manuscripts on the ui)per degrees, three of them
having been previously taken from him a short
time before, under the color of a civil process.
Most of the day of the 10th 1 spent with him in
arranging papers and in devising means for his
seclusion and safety."

By this statement of Colonel Miller, it appears
that the 5th, 6th, and 7th degrees, as written out
by Captain Morgan, or, in other words, the Past
Master's, the Most Excellent Master's, and the
Royal Arch, were seized by the Masons at the
time of his arrest, on the 19th of August. He had
then just finished writing out the Royal Arch

156 THE BROKEN SEAL.

degree, and there was no duplicate of this manu-
script. This degree, as we have already stated,
was sent at once to Canandaigua, and thence by
express to the Grand Chapter at New York city.

In consequence of these breaks and hinderances,
the publication of the Avork was .put oK And,
finally, when it was found that the original idea
could not be carried out, it was decided to publish
the three first degrees only. The volume contain-
ing these was issued, in spite of all opposition, a
few months after Captain Morgan's death.

But the publication of masonic secrets was
bound not to stop at this point. In the excitement
which arose immediately after the abduction and
murder of Mr. Morgan, members of the lodges of
a conscientious turn of mind could no longer stand
the moral pressure brought to bear upon them.
Masons of every degree, even from the ineffable
heights, bearing titles pompous enough to satisfy
the most august and glittering * Oriental monarcli
(a Sennacherib or an Ahasuerus could not have
desired anything more empty and swelling), began
to bow before the indignant protest of public sen-
timent. One after another, men came forward and

* Appendix E.

WHAT MORGAN ACTUALLY REVEALED. 157

gave up their impious and high-sounding secrets.
The lower degrees, in a moral point of view, are
modest, compared with the upper. In the six
lower degrees one is bound to help a brother
Mason in all cases, " murder and treason only ex-
cepted." But, as we have already said, when one
reaches the seventh, or Royal Arch degree, the
form of language changes, and one binds himself
to help his brother, right or wrong, murder and
treason not excepted. And generally in these up-
per degrees there is a defiant and Heaven-daring
tone, as if Masonry were sufficient to make laws
for itself, without regard to God or man.

The work, therefore, of exposing these pernicious
secrets went on very rapidly after Captain Morgan's
death. A convention of seceding Masons was held
the following February at Le Roy, and they re-
solved to make a full revelation of masonic myster-
ies. The fourth, fifth, and sixth degrees, as written
out by Captain Morgan, were afterwards obtained
from Mrs. Morgan ; and when Rev. David Ber-
na'd, in 1829, published his work entitled " Light
on Masonry," the six degrees, as written out by
Mr. Morgan, were brought together. In the same
work will be found almost all the higher degrees,
many of them, however, not written out with the

158 THE BROKEN SEAL.

fiilness and minuteness of those revealed by Mr.
Morgan. The author, speaking of his book, says,
" While preparing it for the press, I obtained from
the highest authority thirty-three of the sublime
and ineffable degrees, all of which I know to bb
CORRECT, and I give them to the world verbatim
et literatim."

In answer, then, to the query suggested in the
title to this chapter, it may be said that Morgan
wrote out fully and carefully the seven first de-
grees of Masonry ; that three of these were pub-
lished soon after his death, in the work issued by
Colonel Miller that the three next were afterwards
published in the '' Light on Masonry," and that
indirectly, and growing out of what he did and
suffered, the secrets of Masonry were soon very
generally exposed to the public gaze.

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 159

CHAPTER IX.

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES WITH MASONRY.

The course I had pursued during the exciting
scenes of the Morgan abduction was such as would
naturally bring the Masons into bitter hostility to
me. It is not too much to say that they hated me
with a perfect hatred. Taking human nature at
what it is, I cannot much wonder at it. I was the
first to reveal their plans to the world, and to take
measures to thwart their infamous designs. To
say that this made me enemies which have never
forgiven me, but have pursued me with the bitter-
est feelings, would be to say what every candid
man must see would be the result of my relations
to the Masons of Batavia. Masonry was a great
power in the State of New York, and in the land
generally, at the time of the Morgan abduction.
It was only by reason of its great strength that
it dared defy public opinion, and do what it then
did. It had got possession of the places of power

160 THE BROKEN SEAL.

throughout the state. It had a mighty sway in
matters civil and ecclesiastical, tt could ruin the
business interests of any ordinary person against
whom it chose to set itself in array. It did speedi-
ly ruin my business in Batavia.*

In the latter part of the summer of 1829, having
some business to transact in connection with a
mortgage on a farm in the western part of Con-
necticut, I came back to New England, bringing
with me my oldest daughter, and taking her for a
visit to her grandmother's in Providence. "While
staying a few days in Providence, I was invited
by a Mason to ga with him over to Pawtucket to
attend an anti-masonic meeting that was to be
held there. I consented. He did not then
know of my history, but supposed that I was a
Mason still in regular standing ; nor did I, on my
journey over, reveal the state of things. The
meeting was a large one. The speakers, in the
course of the proceedings, unfolded the secrets
of Masonry. When the meeting was nearly over,
and the people were going out freely, some one on
the stand called out and wished to know if there
was any Mason present who would confinn or.

* Appendix F.

VY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 161

deny what had been said. I rose and said in a
full, strong voice, that the ceremonies and opera-
tions, as they had been described, accorded very
accurately with those in the lodge with which the
late Captain William Morgan was connected; that
I was a member of the same lodge with him, and
was well acquainted with the method of doing
things there.

No sooner were these words spoken than the
most enthusiastic greeting was given me by the
assembly. Men about the doors called after those
who had gone out, " There is a man here who
knew Morgan, and was in the same lodge with
him. Come back ! Qome back ! " Soon the house
was packed full again, galleries and all, and I told
the story of Morgan to most eager and attentive
listeners, and three Masons renounced Masonry
on the spot.

Immediately after this meeting, . leaving my
daughter at Providence, I started for Goshen, in
Litchfield County, Ct., to attend to the business
pertaining to the mortgage. But the report of the
meeting at Pawtucket had been noised abroad
through the papers, and a messenger was sent
ifter me with letters to persuade me to visit Bos-
ton and deliver a lecture. The messenger who
U

162 THE BROKEN SEAL.

came was Frederick A. Sumner, and he brought
a letter to me from Dr. Abner Phelps. The mes-
senger came first to Providence, and, finding I had
gone to Western Connecticut, folloAved me all
the way thither, to invite me, in behalf of a most
respectable committee, to give an anti-masonic
lecture in Boston. I accordingly consented, and
arrangements were made that I should speak in
Fanueil Hall on the evening of September 8.
Handbills had been posted all over the city for
days, giving notice of the meeting, I reached
the city in due time, and stopped at a hotel m Milk
street. I found Boston full of excitement with
reference to the approaching meeting. The Ma-
sons were numerous and strong in the city, and
they threatened to break up the meeting. The
anti-masonic party also was full of spirit, and was
determined to resist this attempt. Clubs and bil-
lets of wood were freely carried into the building,
to be used in case the exigency should arise call- 1
ing for them.

When I reached the hall in the evening, I found |
it packed. Such was the excitement then pre-;
vailing about the Morgan afiair, that there was the|
most intense desire to see any one who had beec
mixed up with that business. When I reached

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 163

the door, so great was the press, that I was liter-
ally lifted from the floor and borne all the way to
the stage without once touching my feet.

But it was evident that the Masons were there
in great force. I went through the preliminary part
of my lecture very well ; but when 1 came to the
story of Morgan and his abduction and murder,
the uproar began. The room resounded with
cries, " Pitch him out of the window ! *' " Kill
him ! " " Break his neck ! " &c., &c. I would
wait a little for the tumult to subside, and then
attempt to begin again, when the same noise and
confusion would set in in full force. I finished my
lecture in the best way I could under tlie circum-
stances. Dr. Thompson, of Charlestown, was the
presiding officer, and he did all he could to quiet
the storm by appealing to their pride as a Boston
audience, and in various other ways, but his efforts
were unavailing.

Then it became evident that we were in some
measure besieged by the Masons. They had
banded together to block the doors, and prevent
all egress of the crowd from tlic building. They
were waiting apparently for an attempt to be
made to get the lecturer and the leaders of the
meeting out, and this would be the signfll for vio-

164 THE BROKEN SEAL.

lence. It was near eleven o'clock when a carriage
was brought quietly to the back door of the hall,
and I was taken out by the stairway behind the
stage, and conveyed to my hotel.

At three o'clock the next morning I took the
stage to return to Connecticut.

So full of rage were the Masons, that after I left
the city, they printed and posted up all over the
city, in connection with my name, some verses from
one of the imprecatory Psalms — the 109th psalm.

" Let his days be few, and let another take his
oflSce.

" Let his children be fatherless and his wife a
widow.

" Let his children be continually vagabonds and
beg; let them seek their bread also out of their
desolate places.

" Let the extortioner catch all that he hath ; and
let strangers spoil his labor.

" Let there be none to extend mercy unto him ;
neither let there be any to favor his fatherless
children.

" Let his posterity be cut off; and in the gen-
eration following let their name be blotted out."

On my return again to Boston some little time
after this, I saw some of these handbills which

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 165

had spoken in so complimentary a manner of me.
They had been preserved by my friends as memo-
rials of the anti-masonic meeting in Fane nil Hall,
on the night of September 8, 1829.

This was my first introduction to a Boston au-
dience, and there was nothing, certainly, in the
events of that night to convince me that it was
better behaved than other audiences.

It was not until the January following the Mor-
gan murder, that I really broke with the Masons,
and renounced the order. I kept my secret until
that time, though not without falling under con-
siderable suspicion. But in January I publicly
seceded, and took my stand openly in opposition.
I was afterwards summoned to attend the lodge ;
but giving no heed to the call, the Masons took
their revenge by expelling me, which was just as
well. Between them and myself I was by that
time pretty completely out of the order.

From the fall of 182G on to 1830, I was com-
pelled, with thousands of others, to be witness
of the abortive attempt to bring guilty men to
justice. Month after month, and year after
year, the prosecutions started against the Mor-
gan abductors dragged tlieir slow length along.
Everything would seem to bo in train for a

166 THE BEOKEN SEAL.

speedy result ; but the hope was always a vain
one. Secret hands, out of the darkness, were all
the while working against truth and righteous-
ness. If the prophet Isaiah had written some
of the verses of the fifty-ninth chapter of his book
expressly to describe what was going on in West-
ern New York during those years, he could not
have hit the case more exactly.

" Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice
doth not overtake us : we wait for light, but be-
hold obscurity ; for brightness, but we walk in
darkness.

" We grope for the wall like the blind, and we
grope as if we had no eyes. . . .

" And judgment is turned away backward, and
justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the
street, and equity cannot enter.

" Yea, truth faileth ; and he that departeth from
evil maketh himself a prey."

We will not undertake to tell the weary story
of those four or five years. But in the Appendix
we give the story as it was told, while yet the
subject was fresh and new, by Mr. John C. Spen-
cer, of New York, in the very able and carefully-
prepared report which he presented to the Anti-
Masonic Convention in Baltimore, in 1831, having

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 167

been previously appointed for that duty. The
story is a long one, but we prefer to give it
unbroken, that it may be understood by the peo-
ple of this generation what a pernicious power
Masonry is, when it is once fairly intrenched in
society.*

My OAvn experiences in the courts taught me
how useless it was, in those times, to look for jus-
tice by an appeal to law. When the Masons, on
every hand, set upon me to ruin my character and
my business, I attempted to gain the help of law,
but found, by a bitter experience, that no adequate
protection was to be looked for from that quarter.
I was compelled to leave it to time to vindicate
my character and motives in doing what I had
done.

The great anti-masonic movement was now well
under way, and from my experiences I seemed
to be called naturally into the field as a lecturer.
From 1829 on to 1834, I was largely employed in
this way, speaking in a great number of places in
various New England states. Everywhere I went,
I had to encounter a strong masonic hate. 1 could
not but be sensible that hostile eyes were upon
me, watching every movement. Sometimes this

* Appendix G.

168 THE BROKEN SEAL.

hatred would break out into open abuse and vio-
lence, and sometimes it kept a more decorous and
smothered form, but was none the less real. It
was not pleasant to live in such an atmosphere,
surcharged all the while as it was with the ele-
ments of violence. I knew, by a most vivid ex-
perience, what had been, and I knew that what
had been might be again. The institution of
Masonry, though scotched, was not killed. It was
still bold and defiant, all the more bitter, perhaps,
because its power and influence were now be-
ginning to wane. Many stories might be told,
many incidents and illustrations given, showing
what kind of a life a man had to live, who was a
public anti-masonic lecturer, between the years
1829 and 1834. But I will content myself with
a single incident additional, and will take one that
had more of detail in it than was ordinarily the
case, and one that is well fitted to illustrate the
whole subject.

I was lecturing in Connecticut, — had been at
Woodstock, and from there to Norwich. I had an
appointment at New London, but meanwhile had
turned back to lecture at Hebron, before going to
New London. This was in the early fall of 1829.
I spent the night at Hebron, staying at the public

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 169

house. After I had retired to rest for the night,
about eleven o'clock, my room was suddenly in-
vaded by some ten or twelve men, under the lead
of one Taintor, who had come, as he said, to serve
a writ upon me for debt. His manner, and the
manner of the men with him, was very peremptory
and rough. There was a most needless and inde-
cent haste in all their proceedings. They would
not give me time to dress properly, but hurried
me down half dressed into the bar-room. They
said I was to go with them that night to jail in
Tolland. The town of Tolland was some fif-
teen miles away. The road leading thither was
through a lonely and hilly region, with scattered
farm-houses here and there. The way was rough
and rocky.

It was late in the evening. The people of He-
bron had retired to rest, and I seemed to be at
the mercy of these men, who had seized me under
the forms of law, but, as I knew in a moment, on
a case artificially got up for the purpose, and with-
out a shadow of justice in it. This, however, was
to be shown in the future. Meanwiiile they had
me in their clutches, and, for the time being, I
seemed to be helpless. There was sitting in tlie
bar-room, at that late hour, a man who was troubled

170 THE BROKEN SEAL.

with asthma, or phthisic. He was sitting up to
rest, because he could not well lie down. Seeing
him there, and noticing that he appeared to be a
man of character and respectability, I made my
appeal to him. I said, in substance, "These men
have arrested me on pretence of debt, and propose
to hurry me away at once to Tolland jail. The
claim on which they arrest me is an old affair,
and is all settled. I have a receipt for it among
my papers at home. But that cannot avail me
here. It is not that for which they have arrested
me. I understand well their motives. My name
is Samuel D. Greene. I am an anti-mason. I
am lecturing on that subject. I was a mem-
ber of the same lodge with Morgan, and knew
all the arts and devices by which they took him
away and murdered him. These men have ar-
rested me because they are Masons, and I am
exposing Masonry. If they take me away to-night,
I have reason to fear that they mean violence. I
therefore make my appeal to 3'ou. If you suffer
me to be taken away without giving any alarm,
and if violence comes to me in consequence, my
blood will be required at your hands."

The man f^poke up, and said, " My name is Hazel
Gott, and I suppose I am worth thirty thousand

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 171

dollars. Mr. Taintor, this is a bailable offence —
is it not ? "

" Yes," said Mr. T., " but you would not give
bail for such a miserable wretch as he is — would
you^ He is about disturbing society, and stirring
up strife continually."

" Yes, I will give bail for him," said Mr. Gott.
" How much is the bail ? "

The bail was fixed at three hundred dollars. Mr.
Gott promptly recognized for me to that amount,
and when he had done so, generously said to me, —

" Now, Mr. Greene, go your way, and keep on
with your work. You need not trouble yourself,
or give a second thought to that three hundred
dollars." *

I thanked him for his great kindness, but intimat-
ed that I should not cause the bail to be forfeited,
but should appear in due time at tlie court in Tol-
land, and answer to the charge. By the terms of
the bail 1 was called to appear in December fol-
lowing ; but afterwards, in consideration of the
fact that my residence was out of the state, the

♦ I ought to add here as the sequel of this story, that Mr.
Gott, though an utter stranger to niu until tliat night, was after-
wards one of my truest friends. lie sent Die, by letter, twenty
dollars, to help me on in my defence.

172 THE BROKEN SEAL.

time was extended, as was required by law, until
March, 1830.

When the time came for the session of the court
in March, I appeared at Tolland, and gave myself
up to the proper authorities, and was locked up^ in
jail to await the coming on of the case. Dur-
ing the first night I was in jail, the wife of the
jailer came into the prison, and spoke to me in a
low voice, through the grate, asking if my name
was Greene, and then telling me that they were
plotting to take me out of prison and carry me off.
When this intelligence reached me, it was so much
like Western New York, four 3'ears before, that I
could not fail to understand the meaning of the
transaction. Through her I had intelligence at
once conveyed to Elisha Stearns, Esq., my lawyer,
living in Tolland, to come and take me out of jail
on a writ of habeas corpus. Accordingly, he
came, and in the early morning I was taken out
of jail.

I was prepared to make a legal defence against
the claim brought against me on the writ by which
I was first arrested ; but so decidedly illegal and
disorderly had the whole proceeding been, and so
evident was it that the atfair was merely a masonic
persecution, that my counsel thought best to put

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 173

in a plea of abatement. The forms and documents
used against me vv-ere vitally deficient.

To show how this had come about, it is neces-
sary to go back a little and explain. This suit
was begun by Benjamin Salsbury, of Stafford, Ct.
A note, which I had given many years before, in
1816, in Pembroke, N. Y., had come into the hands
of Salsbury through his wife. The note was for
thirty-eight dollars, and had been settled. I had
the receipt for it ; but somehow the note had been
overlooked, and had not been given up or de-
stroyed. Salsbury expected to find me at New
London, where he knew I had an appointment to
speak. Accordingly, he went to New London,
and had the writ drawn there, and directed to the
sheriff of New London County. Then he heard
that I had turned ofit' to Hebron, and was not com-
ing to New London directly from Norwich, as he
had supposed. Not wisliing to lose time, and
being eagerly bent on working out his masonic
hatred, ho came up to overtake mc at Hebron.
The town of Hebron is in Tolland County, and tlie
sheriff of New London could not execute the writ.
So Mr. Salsbury stops at Colchester, the neighbor-
ing town to Hebron, and gets A. D, Scovil, Esq. to
empower Newell Taintor to make the arrest.

174 THE BROKEN SEAL.

Here was the fatal defect in the writ. In this
transfer of authority none of the rules had been
observed which were required, in such cases, by
the laws of Connecticut. We need not attempt
to specify all the points wherein the papers were
deficient. But they were openly and obviously
so to every legal mind. They had been prepared
not with legal calmness, but in the hurry of ma-
sonic hatred, which could not Avait to comply with
little forms. My counsel, therefore, moved a plea
of abatement. Something like this result was a
kind of legal necessitj^ from the premises. Yet,
notwithstanding these fatal defects, so strong was
the masonic zeal animating the lawyers on the
other side, the judges, &c., that there was still a
manifest disposition to press on with the case.
My lawyer, seeing the tendencies, thought the
safest way, therefore, was to move that the case be
erased from the docket ; for, in truth, there was
no case. The writ had not been served (in the'
technical sense).

Even in this state of things, one of the lawyers
on the other side had the audacity to move that I
should be called, and should be defaulted. When
my lawyer saw what Masonry would dare to atr
tempt to do in a court of justice, — for he had never

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 175

before so clearly discovered its character, — he rose
and said with earnestness, " What ! oblige us to
answer or be defaulted, and have judgment ren-
dered against us without any precept (or writ),
and when we have a just legal defence, too ! Ren-
der judgment upon your peril."

The court could not have the face to go farther
in this direction, and the case was quashed. Then
came the time for the other side to look after its
interests. TJiose concerned in the case wished
to come to a settlement with me. I had it in my
power to make them sutler ; that is, if justice could
be obtained through the courts, which was doubt-
ful. However, not being disposed to render evil
for evil, I made a settlement with the parties, and
the following is the receipt, word for word, which
I gave on that occasion : —

" Received of Benjamin Salsbury, Jr., Newell
Taintor, Amherst D. Scovil, Esq., and Ephraim
Hyde, by the hand of the said Benjamin .Salsbury,
Jr., sixty-nine dollars and lifty cents ; and in con-
sideration thereof, I do hereby release and dis-
charge them, and either of them, and all others
acting by or under the direction and authority of
them or any of them, from all manner of action or

17b THE BROKEN SEAL.

actions, cause or causes of action, claim or claims,
and demands, which I ever had or now have against
them or either of them, or against any other per-
son or persons acting for and in their behalf, or
under their authority, or either of them, for any
assault and battery and false imprisonment com-
mitted on me by them or either of them, or by any
other person or persons acting in their behalf or
under their direction or authority, or either of
them, up to this date. In witness whereof, I have
hereunto set my hand and seal, at Tolland, this
twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty.

Saml, D. Greene. (seaiJ

... , j Elisha Stearns,
Attest, < ^jjoLiAB Johnson."

I was employed in those years, not only as a
lecturer, but also as an editor and publisher. In
1827 I had charge of the Masonic Investigator,
published at Batavia, and which continued for
some years, until the masonic trials were ended.
In this paper was gathered up almost all the anti-
masonic literature of those early years.

In 1830 I took charge of the Anti-Masonic
Christian Herald, in the city of Boston. This

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 177

paper was designed to be a religious newspaper,
with a special guardianship and support of the
anti-masonic cause. I kept my connection with
this paper until 1835. One of my sons, M-ho was
very young then, but who served as a carrier to
deliver the papers to subscribers in one section of
the city limits, remembers to this day how full-
grown men used to send their provoking remarks
at him ; and some of them forbade their children to
play with him, because his father edited and de-
hvered an anti-masonic paper.

As already stated, many other facts might be
given illustrating the hostility which I everywhere
encountered among those who still held fast to the
masonic institution ; but I will not prolong the
narrative by their recital. A man in my position
during those years need not be surprised, when
he undertook to lecture against Masonry, to find
himself in the midst of a mob, and to receive a
salute of eggs, brickbats, and other convenient
missiles.

However, the work went on gloriously in spite
of all opposition.* There was a great satisfaction
in helping forward the movement. The anti-ma«

* Apj)en{]ix H.

12

178 THE BROKEN SEAL.

sonic cause gained ground with rapid strides.
There was an uprising of the people against the
haughty assumptions of Masonry, such as was no
longer to be trifled with. It was a question of
mighty import, whether a free people was to be
ruled by a set of Freemasons working in the dark,
— concocting their schemes in the seclusion of the
lodge-room, — whether "justice was to be turned
away backward " by the arts and contrivances of
a set of men who were bound together by secret
oaths of the most impious and shameful character.
The work went on, year after year, until Masonry
was an utterly dishonored institution in this free
land. The great body of those who had taken its
oaths had either publicly seceded, or had ceased to
attend upon its meetings. States came forward and
passed laws forbidding extrajudicial oaths. The
charters of the lodges, in a majority of cases, were
returned, and the lodges utterly broken up. Not
many years ago, in the State of Massachusetts,
only five masonic lodges remained out of some
five hundred. The institution was believed to
be dying, and as far as any outside influence was
concerned, was practically dead.

But of late years Masonry is growing again, and
that rapidly. During the fierce anti-slavery ex-

MT SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 179

citement through which the land has been passing,
the dishonored institution again saw its cliance to
rise and spread. The public mind had become
thoroughly absorbed with other interests. Mason-
ry embraced its opportunity. Little by little it
has been fortifying itself in the dark, gathering in
its numbers, until, now and then, it makes some
outward demonstration calculated to impress the
world with its great strength. A day like that
we had in Boston, a few years ago, when the new
Masonic Temple Avas finished and dedicated, and
when President Johnson was invited on from
Washington to grace (?) the occasion with his au-
gust presence, was fitted to make men thoughtful
with reference to the growing power of this in-
stitution. Masonry showed a great procession on
that day. The siglit was anything but pleasing to
one who remembers the past, and wlio knows the
miscliievous and corrupting power of the order.

But for all this. Masonry is not yet back again
wliere it was in 1826. As compared with her
presence and influence then, she is even now a dis-
honored institution. Tiie class of men who were
then prominent in her councils are no longer in
her councils at all, and cannot be drawn there at
present. They are shy of all approaches looking

180 THE BROKEN SEAL.

to such a connection. The history of Masonry, in
this respect; has been a little like the history of
intemperance. The drinking habits of society, as
they were forty years ago, have been dishonored
and abolished. There is plenty of hard drinking
now; perhaps it is on the increase. There are
multitudes of men in our cities and towns who
call themselves very respectable, and who use
wine and strong drink freely themselves, and offer
it to their guests. But the great body of truly
religious and strictly moral people, throughout the
land, do not do this, though they once did it. It
may be possible to prove that there is more spirit
used now than there was forty years ago ; but it
is not possible to prove that drinking is as repu-
table now as it was forty years ago, or that the
same classes of people give themselves up to it.

So with Masonry. The institution is not yet
reinstated. It does not hold its old place in the
public estimation. Formerly Masonry drew its
active supporters from the ministers, deacons, and
members of every denomination of Christians.
Now it is comparatively rare to find church mem-
bers, and especially ministers of certain of our
religious denominations, in its ranks. We do not
know precisely how the case stands in the Conr

MY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCES. 181

gregational churches, but of the more than three
thousand ministers of that order in the land, we
will venture the guess, that not so many as one in
a hundred is a Mason.

There is one large and growing denomination
of Christians in this country where we are sorry
to see a different tendency prevailing. We hear
it said that the ministers of this denomination, in
large numbers, have connected themselves with
masonic lodges within a few years. Their initia-
tory fees are paid by others, as an inducement
for them to come in. After all the light which
has been shed on Masonry in these latter days,
and when one considers how all sacred and divine
things are turned to sport in the masonic litera-
ture, how any minister of the gospel can think
himself in the way of duty by confabulating with
Masons is more than we can understand. We
believe the plea commonly urged is, that it will
give them greater facilities for usefulness. But
this is " going down into Egypt for help " with a
vengeance. We should as soon think of joining
some drinking club, in order to gain tlie means of
preaching the gospel more effectually, as to join
with the Masons. It is very certain that no de-
nomination of Christians can stand the moral influ-

182 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ence of sucn a connection a great while, without
the most serious inroads upon its piety.

Masonry is not back where it was in 1826, but
it is gaining strength in a way that is alarming.
The foundations of great public structures have
to be laid " with imposing masonic ceremonies,"
and in numerous ways it is manifest that the
institution is on the watch to extend itself on
every side.

I am an old man, and I shall soon be gone. But
I leave it as my last injunction to my countrymen,
that they watch this institution with a jealous
eye. It is an old enemy to their liberties. It has
no thought of the general good. It is not founded
and worked upon any such idea. It is built upon
the principle of tyranny in all ages, " the good of
the few at the expense of the manyP Whenever
and wherever Masonry is asserting her claims, and
pushing herself forward, one may be perfectly
sure that such are her secret purposes and aims.

APPENDIX.

The way in which a man was enticed into the
embraces of Masoniy, in old times, and before pub-
lic attention had been called to the moral character
of the institution, is very finely described by Ber-
nard in the introduction to his book, " Light on
Masonry." We have copied some sentences of it
before, but we here give the passage not only to
illustrate this point, but also as a most graphic
picture of what was going on in all the surround-
ing lodges at the time of the Morgan abduction.

" Soon after I commenced the service of Christ,
Freemasonry was commended to my attention as an
institution fiom heaven — moral, benevolent, of great
antiquity, the twin sister of Christianity, possessing
the patronage of the wise, the great, and the good, and
higlily important to tlie ministers of the Lord Jesus.
Wishing to avail myseff of every auxiliary in promot-

(183)

184 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ing the glory of God and the happiness of my fellow-
men, I readily received the three first degrees. My
disappointment none can know but those who have, in
similar circumstances, been led in the same path of
folly and sin. I silently retired from the institution,
and for three years was hardly known as a Mason. I
was not, however, without my reflections on the sub-
ject. I considered what I had taken as frivolous and
wicked, but was unwilling to believe that there ex-
isted no substantial good in the order; and this idea
was strengthened by the fact that many of my friends
of a higher grade in Masonry taught me, that what I
had received was not the 'magnum bonum ' of the in-
stitution, but that this was yet to be obtained. Not
being able to advocate its cause from the knowledge I
had derived of its principles, and supposing that the
obligations I had received were morally binding, I
could not say 'pro nor con' concerning it, without a
violation of my conscience. With these views I em-
braced an offer to advance into the higher orders of
mysticism, and reached forward to attain the desired
end. In the reception of the chapteral degrees my
embarrassment increased.

" When I came to the oath of a Royal Arch Mason,
which obligates to deliver a companion, ' right or
xorong^ I made a full stop, and objected to proceed-
ing. I was then assured, in the most positive terms,
that all would, in the end, be explained to my full
satisfoction. But no such explanation took place.
Thought I, is this Freemasonry ? Is this the ancient
and honorable institution patronized by thousands of
the great and good ? Upon my suggesting some que-
ries to a masonic friend, he gravely informed me that

APPENDIX. 185

the first seven degrees were founded on the Old Tes-
tament, and were but a shadow of good tilings to come ;
that if I wished to arrive at perfection^ I must pro-
ceed to the sublime and ineffable degrees. These
assurances, the awful oaths I had taken, with their
penalties, and the vengeance of this most powerful
institution, combined to deter me from renouncing it
as evil. After much delibei'ation, hoping to find some-
thing in the higher orders to redeem the character of
the institution in my estimation, I entered the lodge
of Perfection, and took the ineffable degrees.

"About this time I learned that Morgan was writ-
ing Masonry for publication. My informer was then
a Baptist minister, in high standing, and a Royal Arch
Mason. He remarked that Morgan's writing Masonry
was the greatest piece of depravity he ever knew ; that
some measures must be taken to stop it; that he would
be one of a number to put him out of the way ; that
God looked upon the institution vvith so much com-
placency, he would never bring the perpetrators to
light; that there had already been two meetings on
the subject ; and that he expected there would be
another on that day ; and finally attempted to justify
his murder from Masonry and the word of God.

"This conversation took place in Covington (where
I then lived), five weeks before Morgan was murdered;
and I should at this early period have informed him of
his danger, had I not understood that he was on his
guard, and prepared for a defence.

"The next week I left home for my health, and was
absent some weeks. I lettirned on the IGth of Sep-
tember, and soon learned that Morgan was kidnapped,
and probably murdered. I conversed with Masons on

186 THE BROKEN SEAL.

the subject, and they justified both his abduction and
murder! ... A meeting of the lodge in Coving-
ton was soon called, the object of which was to con-
cert measures for an agreement, among the fraternity,
in what they should say in relation to the outrages,
and to attend to members who were disaffected with
their proceedings. I attended for the purpose of free-
ing my mind. When the lodge was duly opened and
the subject introduced, I arose, and in the most deci-
sive manner disapproved the conduct of the fraternity
in their violation of civil and moral law. The meeting
was long and horribly interesting. The true spirit of
the institution was peculiarly manifest, especially to-
wards me. . . . The murder of Morgan was justi-
fied, and everything said that was calculated to harrow
up the feelings of a patriot or Christian. Elder A., a
Knight Templar, being present, boldly asserted that if
he should see any man writing Masonry, he should
consider it his duty to take measures to stop him;
that as cities and churches had their laws, with a right
to inflict their penalties, so Masons had their laws, with
the right to inflict the penalties to them ; and that the
lodge was the place to try a Mason ; that if Morgan
had been writing Masonry, and his throat was cut from
ear to ear, his tongue torn out by the roots, and his
body buried beneath the rough sands of the sea, at
low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice
in twenty-four hours, he could not complain in not
having justice done him. Amen, amen, amen, was the
audible response around the room.

"At the next meeting of the lodge, by request of
the Master, I attended. Here a scene passed which
/anguage cannot describe. Several hours were era-

APPENDIX. 187

ployed in abusing and making charges against me, the
principal of which were, I had spoken against the insti-
tution. Many questions wex-e asked and insults offered
me. I told them frankly I had spoken against the
principles of the order ; that the right of opinion, the
freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press, were
privileges given to me by God ; purchased by the blood
of my fathers; that I had inhaled them with my first
breath, and I would only lose them with my last ; that
if they could remove my objections to the institution,
which I then exhibited, well — if not, they could expel
mo; but if they proceeded to further abuses, they must
suffer the consequences. My objections were not re-
moved, and I requested permission to withdraw. Soon
after I left them, they expelled and immediately com-
menced a most wicked persecution against me. The
professed ministers of Christ, infidels, and drunkards,
from Buffalo to Albany, were united to destroy my
character. I was admonished by oral and epistolary
communications to be on my guard, to carry arms; and
so great was my personal danger, that my friends would
not suffer me to ride alone from one town to another.
In short, they ojtj)Osed my interest, deranged my busi-
ness, pointed me out as an unworthy and vicious vaga-
bond, an object of contempt, and transferred this char-
acter after me ; and it would seem that they intended
to do it during my natural life. The united efforts of
the fraternity to injure me have, however, proved
unavailing."

»'<».,

188 THE BROKEN SEAL.

B.

HOW OLD IS MASONRY?

We have made frequent reference in the body
of our narrative to the claims of Masonry to a vast
antiquity. John the Baptist, Solomon, and Hiram,
king of Tyre, and even Enoch, and the early patri-
archs of the world, are made to figure. In the
American Anti-masonic and Biblical Review (May,
1868), published in Newborn, N. C, Rev. J. C.
Bigham, in an article entitled Masonic Tradition,
goes over the ground of these mighty pretensions.
Some of the time he used Webb's Freemason
Monitor, which was first published in 1796, and
is still regarded as a standard work among Masons.
He first quotes from the Monitor as follows: —

"In the instruction given in the second degree, the
creation of the world is described, and many particu-
lars recited, all of which have been carefully presei'ved
among Masons, and transmited from one age to another
by oral tradition."

We copy also from his article the following
precious tidbit of history : —

"Masonry appears to have found great difficulty in
crossing; the flood. Noah and his sons were not initi-

APPENDIX. 189

ated, and the inefiable secrets could not be intrusted
to their care. To meet this emergency, says the Moni-
tor in tlie history of tlie ' ninth arch ' degree, Enoch
built a temple under ground, according to a pattern
given him from heaven, which was also the original
pattern of Solomon's temple, containing nine arches,
one above another. He then caused a triangular plate
of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit
long, enriched it with the most precious stones, and
engraved upon it the ineffable characters, including
the sacred name of God, which none but Masons knew,
and deposited it in the deejDest arch. He made a door

, of stone and put a ring of iron therein, by which it
might be raised, and placed it over the opening of the

' upper arch, that the matters enclosed therein might be
preserved from the impending destruction. He tb.en
built two great pillars, the one of brass, to withstand
water, and the other of marble to withstand fire, and
engraved on the marble pillar hieroglyphics, signifying
that there was a most precious treasure concealed in
the arches under ground, and on the pillar of brass the
principles of the liberal arts, particularly of Masonry.
. . . Here this precious piece of tradition closes in
the copy of the Monitor before me of the edition
of 18G4. Stearns, in his letters on Masonry, quotes the
remainder of the story from an edition of the same
work published in 1802. It is as follows : ' Fourteen
hundred years afterwards, when Solomon was about to

, build the temple, his workmen, in digging for a foun-
dation, discovered the ruins of an ancient edifice: he
therefore declined to build ui)on that spot. Some days

II 'after this, he sent three master arcliitects to make fur-

i. ther search among the ancient mines. One of them,

190 THE BROKEN SEAL.

in working in the rubbish with his pickaxe, found an
iron ring, fixed in a laige, square stone. With much
difficulty they raised the stone, when the mouth of a
deep and dismal cavern appeared. This j^roved to be
the first arch of Enoch's temple. One of the men de-
scended into the ninth arch, and there discovered the
triangular plate of gold, richly adorned with precious
stones, just as Enoch had left it. There was the sacred
ineffable name of God, which, during all that time had
been unknown, and even yet is known only to Masons.
This wonderful prize was taken up and presented to
Solomon, and Hiram, king of Tyre, who, on beholding
it, were struck with amazement. They afterwards ex-
amined the sacred characters with attention, and Solo
mon declared that 'God had bestowed upon them a
particular favor in having permitted them to discover
the most precious jewels of Masom-y.' With all haste,
Solomon proceeds to reorganize the long-suspended
institution."

Thus it will be seen that Masonry had rather a
tough passage from the antediluvian days on tc
the time of Solomon ; but when we reach the ag(j
of the building of the temple, according to masonj
ic literature, all is plain sailing. In the fifth chap
ter of the First Book of Kings, we are told tha
" Solomon had threescore and ten thousand tha
bare burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers ii
the mountains ; besides the chief of Solomon'
officers which were over the work, three thousami
and three hundred, which ruled over the peopl

APPENDIX, 191

that wrought in the work." All this force the
Monitor at once appropriates for Masonry, and
describes it as follows : —

"There were employed in building the temple three
grand masters, three thousand and three hundred mas-
ters, eighty thousand fellow-crafts, and seventy thou-
sand entered apprentices, or bearers of burdens."

Masonry revels in Solomon's temple. History
no farther back than that — only about three thou-
sand years ago — is quite modern to an institution
of such tremendous antiquity. Masonry is perfect-
ly at home here, even in the " most holy place."
Coarse and red-nosed fellows of this nineteenth
century talk about Solomon, and Hiram, king of
Tyre, as if they were old cronies of theirs, with
whom they used to go to school, and sit oq the
same bench.

Of course, an institution that sweeps over an-
cient times so easily, taking in the antediluvian
world, and the age of Solomon, need make slight
pause at John the Baptist, and all the ages of chiv-
alry. St. John the Baptist's day — the 24th of
June — is a great day with the Masons. What
precisely he did on that day, we do not clearly
understand, whether he ate '' locusts and wild
Loney " in larger measure than usual, or whether

192 THE BROKEN SEAL.

he had his head cut off to please Herodias. But
it is not to be doubted that he did something re-
markable on the 24th of June, old style, and that
the Masons are the people who own John the Bap-
tist, and have the right to celebrate the day called
after his name.

We have no idea, of course, that the better in-
formed among the Masons believe these great
swelling words. They repeat these legends just
as children tell over, from generation to genera-
tion, the wonders of Mother Goose, — how

" There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket,
Seventy times as liigh as the moon,"

with all the rest of the marvellous tales about
" Old Mother Hubbard," and " There was a man
in our town," &c., &c. But many of the weaker
brethren do actually believe these stories about
Solomon, Hiram, John the Baptist, and the like.
They are really carried away with the idea that
they belong to a community of the utmost re-
spectability, and of the most immemorial an-
tiquity.

Now, as a simple matter of fact. Freemasonry is
of quite modern origin, only reaching back into
the earlier part of the last century. Our own
Benjamin Franklin was born in the city of Boston,

APPENDIX. 193

several years before this institution had any exist-
ence in the world. Its history is easily traced^
The year and day of its origin are known. It
began in the city of London on the 24th of June,
1717.

For two or three centuries before this date,
there had existed in England societies represent-
ing different trades and professions. In all, there
were more than ninety of these unions, composed
of men of the various trades and handicrafts, the
stone masons among the rest. These men met
professedly to improve themselves in their employ-
ments, to secure themselves against frauds and
impositions, and to gratify their social natures.
Sometimes they were secretly at war with gov
ernment, and attempts were made to suppress
them. But none of these organizations had the
name or the marks of Freemasonry up to the date
given above — 1717.

In 1666, it will be remembered, occurred the
great fire of London, by which so large a part of
the city was burned to the ground. After this, as
was natural, the trades, and especially the masons,
grew to an unusual importance. Various compar
nies of these masons had been associated in rebuild-
ing the great structures of London. These coui-
13

194 THE BROKEN SEAL.

panies had their separate halls, or places of
meeting, their separate charity funds, &c. Time
passed on, and these societies had come into rather
a low condition morally. They were more conviv-
ial than useful. At length, in 1717, on the 24th
of June, four companies of these stone masons met
at the Appletree Tavern, in London, and agreed
to give up their separate organizations, to throw
by their working tools, and combine themselves
into a new order. This was the beginning of
speculative Freemasonry. The leading men in
this movement were worthless and abandoned.
They had sunk down into a kind of idle and cor-
rupt state, were reckless and dissatisfied, and
desired to organize themselves into some society
which should give exercise and play to their mor-
bid passions.

Three years after, in 1720, they burned all their
papers, so that the origin of the society might,
if possible, be shrouded in mystery. But the
whole affair lies so near our time, and within the
era of well-attested history, that this beginning
could not be concealed. In 1723 came out. what
is called the Book of the Constitutions of Masonry.
In this book we have the lofty claims and preten-
sions of Masonry, set forth in that bold and lying

APPENDIX. 195

spirit which has been current ever since. If his
Satanic majesty himself had undertaken to give
the history of Masonry in this world, he could not
possibly have mingled more falsehood with the
narrative than is found in all our masonic historical
literature. A society can hardly hope to impress
the world with its moral excellence when it is so
rotten and false in its very foundations. Nothing
which is intrinsically good could ever dare, even
in sport, to iterate and reiterate .such unfathoma-
ble lies about its own nativity. Mr. Henry Dana
Ward, in his brief History of Freemasonry, says, —

"From the time of its birth, the lying wonder began
to run to and fro in the earth wherever British com-
merce could convey it; and charters for holding ma-
sonic lodges were everywhere sold at a cash price, and
an annual stipend by the Grand Lodge of Loudon. To
that grand lodge the inhabitants of most parts of con-
tinental Europe, of the East and West Indies, of Afri-
ca, and of America, paid an annu:d tribute for the right
to confer the three degrees of Morgan^ s Masonry. .
A. D. 1729 Fret-ninsoury was first introduced into the
East Indies; 1730, the Grand Lodge of Ireland was
formed ; 1731, a patent was sent from England to erect
a lodge at the Hague; 1733, Freemasonry established
itself in North America, at Boston."

The more intelligent and sensible Masons are
now abandoning this claim to an immense antiqui-

196 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ty. Rev. Ml. Studley, in his address in 1867, at
the time of the great masonic gathering in Boston,
said, —

"It is not a pleasant task to disturb the complacency
of men who are determined to enroll Nimrod, and Mo-
ses, and Solomon, and the King of Tyre, and his name-
sake, the widow's son, among the actual past members
of our order; but I am constrained to believe that
those distinguished men were not Freemasons, except
in the Pickwickian intimations of our ritual."

While Mr. Studley might not agree with us in
reference to the exact year when speculative Ma-
sonry began, yet lie concedes all that we desire to
claim, viz., that speculative Freemasonry is some-
thing of comparatively modern origin.

APPENDIX. 197

c.

We have given the account of what took place
in Batavia on that memorable Tuesday, the 11th
of September, 1826, from our own stand-point of
knowledge and observation. But it may interest
the reader to go over the same ground again, rap-
idly, from the stand-point of Mr. Miller's experi-
ence and observation. The following is the testi-
mony which he gave before the Genesee Court
of Oyer and Terminer, some wrecks after, when
French, the constable, and some of his associates
were indicted for riot.

" David C. Miller sworn. Between the hours of
twelve and one o'clock of the 12th of September last,
witness heard a voice at liis door, demanding admit-
tance; the door was opened, when Jesse French seized
him, as he said, by virtue of criminal process, rouglily;
was ordered to speak to no person, and told no person
had a right to speak to him. Was taken into a back
room of Danolds's, put under a guard of two persons
armed with clubs, and detained one or two hours; re-
quested to see the prece[)t (or warrant) ; was told he
had no business to see it. Then asked what magistrate
issued it; was told it was none of his business. French
professes to be an officer. These requests repeated,

198 THE BROKEN SEAL.

but conduct of officer continued perverse, austere, and
threatening. Witness demanded what crime he was
seized for? answered, be would see. Was at length
ordered into a wagon with nine persons, of whom Wil-
cox was one. All bad clubs, as witness thinks. In
this manner proceeded to Stafford, six miles, towards
Le Roy. Some persons were before on horseback.
Stopped at Prindle's inn ; was ordered to go into an
upper room of a stone building, and taken there. Near
by witness requested to go into a room in the tavern ;
was denied. In the room in the stone house, the guard
was increased, armed as before ; thinks Ilurlburt was
one of the guard ; Wilcox was one. Was detained
there some time ; repeatedly urged to be taken to the
magistrate, having by this time incidentally learned that
he was at Le Roy ; was repulsed. At length orders were
given by French to take witness into the street. On
arriving at the street, was ordered into a wagon, one
guard being on each side of him, as was uniformly the
case when he went out. Wilcox and Hurlburt guard-
ed him principally at Stafford, with new hickory or oak
clubs, appeared to be cut from hoop-poles ; were from
three to three and a half feet long, and about an inch
and a half in diameter ; from forty to sixty were mostly
armed in this manner ; some might have left them.
Was not in fear; while in the lodge-room at Stafford,
was told by a stranger in the presence of Hurlburt,
Wilcox, and some others, 'You are not going to Le
Roy ; you are not to be tried at Le Roy ; you are not
to be tried by an ordinary tribunal ; you are going
where Morgan has gone.' Witness tlien asked, ' Where
is Morgan ?' the answer was, 'You will see.' Witness
first thought the object of bis arrest was to ransack h's

APPENDIX, 199

oflBce, but, from the transactions at Stafford, became
satistied that they intended to put him out of the way,
as a prisoner or otherwise. Remained a few minutes
in the wagon, say eight or ten ; was then ordered out
to return to tlie lodge-room ; witness peremptorily re-
fused. Wilcox then had him by the arm, and he
tliinks Hurlburt ; they insisted on his going back ;
some person, at all events, had hold of his arm on the
other side. Some of witness's friends had arrived by
this time; got into the wagon again with the usual
miard. Remained a few minutes, and was ordered out
again by French. Remained out a few minutes, and
ordered in again ; remained a few minutes, saw they
weie not going on, requested to get out, and was al-
hjwed to, guarded as before. Again went into the
wagon, at the instance of Mr, Talbot; after some min-
utes the wagon was ordered to pass over the bridge to
the next tavern ; tlien ordered to halt for supper. Dur-
ing all this time, however, Mr. Talbot, his counsel, was
urging French to go on and do his duty by taking wit-
ness to the magistrate.

"On the wagon going to the other tavern, and before
witness had got out, Talbot came up and told witness
to get out and go home, and let liim see who dared
ietain him, saying he was satisfied they did not intend
jO take witness to the magistrate. Expressed his sur-
prise, and remonstrated repeatedly. Witness accord-
ngly got out and moved towards home, got beyond
;he tavern where they first slopped, Wilcox and Ilurl-
■jurt by his side; after having passed the first tavern
I little, French pursued on, and there overtook and
•eBCued him ; was then re';urned to the crowd, and a
varm conversation ensued between French and Tal-

200 THE BROKEN SEAL.

bot ; several others made remarks. Talbot again de
manded the motive of the process (having repeatedly
requested it before). French said it was trespass on
the case. This was the first time he would consent to
give the character of the process. Bail was then offered ;
witness then said he would ride with his friends in their
carriage; that he, French, might have as many guards
as he chose. Had got into their carriage. French
attempted to get hira out; did not succeed. Heard
James Ganson say, 'Miller must not go or ride in that
carriage.' Witness's counsel then advised him to get
out and walk on towards Le Roy ; he did so, followed
by a numerous retinue, some in wagons, and some on
horseback, and Hurlburt and Wilcox at his side, as he
thinks, (hough his keepers were sometimes changed.
Passed about three quarters of a mile in this way, when
he was ordered to get into another carriage with a very
fleet span of horses. The whole cavalcade then moved
on at a rapid pace ; French sometimes in front, some-
times in rear. Seemed under the influence of strong
feelings and uncommon ones. Proceeded with con-
siderable noise to Le Roy. On arriving at Hall's
tavern, at Le Roy, all got out, and witness started ,
immediately for the magistrate; was seized by French,
and told he could not go; he must go in there. A
considerable collection of persons gathered about him,
a majority of whom witness took to be friendly.
French, after several attempts to get him into the
house, left him ; this was about sunset, as witness
thinks ; at length was taken by the arm by witness,
and told he was going to carry hira to the magistrate;
the crowd crowded them along towards his ofl^ice ; they
arrived there, when French again put witness under

APPENDIX. 201

the keeping of Hurlburt and Wilcox, and disappeared
himself. He was, after some time, called for, and sought
after, but could not be found. The magistrate, Mr.
Barton, was asked how long he would detain him ; re-
plied, 'Only a reasonable time.' After some little time
Barton remarked they did not seem intending to ap-
jienr, and he could tlien be discharged. Talbot replied,
'they did not wish to be hasty.' Witness was dis-
cljarged. On returning, and nearly opposite Hall's,
was seized again by French. Witness proposed pass-
ing Hall's and going to Walbridge's, a little distance
beyond. French seized witness violently behind, and
hallooed a rescue. Witness's friends parted him from
French. French seized him in this manner three times.
Witness was rescued. At Walbridge's French arrested

I him again on a new warrant, issued by Esquire Skinner.

'Witness's iriends saved him from arrest again, put him
into a carriage, and he came home. It was after dark
before he left Justice Barton's. Thinks it was as late
as eight or nine when he was arrested the last time by
French, at Walbridge's."

A few weeks later, Mr. Miller was requested to
furnish for publication a more detailed account of
what he passed througli during that memorable
week of the abduction of Morgan. From this
iccount we take some further extracts, beginning
with the attempt to burn his offices on Sunday
light, September 10.

"Between the hours of two and three o'clock on the
norning of the 10th, I was alarmed by the cry of

202 THE BROKEN SEAL.

'Fire!' My windows being closed, and a lighted cau-
dle in my room, prevented me from discovering its
nearness. I awoke Captain Davids, who was asleep
in an adjoining bed, and informed him of the alarm,
and immediately repaired to the west window of my
room, which overlooked the adjoining building, in
which was my newspaper office, distant about iifteeu
feet, the width of the alley, and saw that the fire was
communicated to that building, under the flight of
stairs which led to the upper room by an outward
passage. This discovery, and the dashing of water
upon the fire by a person who had been roused by
the alarm, were almost simultaneous. At this point of
time, my companion was in the act of unbarring the
outer door. I requested him to desist — the advice
that I had received within the preceding six or eight
hours, from a man of deep and thorough penetration,
not, in any event, ta unbar my door at the dead hour
of night, flashing across my recollection. 'No means.'
said he, ' will be left untried, and no trick unresorted
to, to gain access to your room and papers. Be pre-
pared for all sorts of alarms, and guard against the
most cunning stratagems."

He here refers to the advice which I myself
had sent him, through Harris, as detailed in the
body of the narrative.

" In the morning I found that the fire had been com
municated to the building I was in, as well as to the
one adjoining. The intention of the incendiary was,
to make thorough work, if we may judge of the com-

J

APPENDIX. 203

bustible materials used. Straw, spirits of turpentine,
cotton wicking wound round and impregnated with
pitch, was the fuel for the quickening flame. That
Providence 'which compasseth all things' is visible in
this transaction. Its shield was thrown over us. Two
strangers, residents in an adjoining county, whose busi-
ness brought them to this place at an hour when the
public houses were closed, gave the alarm, and hailed
the incendiary, who dropped his dark lantern, and
Ifled."

Then follows the general account of what took
place on the morning of the 11th, pertaining to
the abduction of Morgan. The narrative with
regard to himself then goes on.

"The 12th of September opens a scene in which I
was compelled to be somewhat conspicuous. At the
lour often in the forenoon, I received a note, couched,
IS nearly as can be recollected, in the following lan-
guage: 'Be on your guard! Between the hours of

welve and one o'clock, at the ringing of the bell, your
)ffices are to be destroyed. • The party will consolidate

heir forces under a hill east of the village, and will
ipproach in solid column.'"

Tills also was the message which I had sent
hrough Harris : —

"From the presumed source of this information 1
;ave full credit to its contents, and immediately cora-
lenced writing a handlMJl, warning the public of the
hreatened danger, and put the manuscript into tho

204 THE BROKEN SEAL.

hands of the compositor, to be printed and circulated ;
but I was dissuaded from this by some of our citizens
of the first respectabiUty, alleging, as they did, their
disbelief that so darins; an outrage could for a moment
be harbored in the bosoms of free American citizens,
and at the same time naming the effort that Masons
had made to impress the belief that I, or some of my
friends, had, the morning before, set lire."

APPENDIX. 205

D.

ANTI-MASONIC POETRY,

No great excitement can spread and prevail
among a free and educated people, which does not
Boon show itself in song. We have given a part
of the famous '' Hoop-pole Song," which was quite
popular in the time of it, and did its work among
the people. But our readers may like to see other
specimens which were called out by the prevailing
excitement.

To understand the following, and as an illustra-
tion of the kind of intellectual food upon which
Masons feed, it must be borne in mind that Jubela,
Jubelo, and Jubelum are the three atrocious villains
who murdered Hiram AbifF, Grand Master of the
lodge at Jerusalem, because he would not tell them
a wonderful word which was the Master Mason's
word. He, faithful fellow that he was, wouldn't
do any sucli thing, but preferred to die first.
Accordingly he did die, and with him, as was long
supposed, died that wonderful word which he
would not tell. But after four hundred and seven-

206 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ty years, by some wonderful interposition of Provi
dence, that marvellous word was re-discovered.
However, the word Mah-hah-bone had been, in the
mean time, substituted for it, and so it was thought
best to continue this latter word, as is done down
to the present ages.

But after the murder of Hiram Abiff, King Solo-
mon at once sent out twelve men, — three east,
three west, three north, and three south, — to hunt
up the murderers. They were found at last, by
the hearing of their voices issuing from a deep
cavern in the depths of the earth, each one wish-
ing that he had already received upon his person
the horrible punishments, in such cases made and
provided. This shows a very active state of con-
science on their part. Each one of them claimed
to be a great deal more guilty than the others, and
the messengers of Solomon gratified them by
taking them back to Jerusalem, and putting them
to death after the most approved masonic fashion.
And this was the tragic end of " Jubela, and Ju
belo, and also Jubelum."

i

APPENDIX. 207

"A MASONIC LAMENTUM.

To the tune of—

" One morning very early,
One morning iu tlio spring,
I heard a mHid in Bed lam," &c.

* One night, at a late hour, 'twas twelve o'clock or more,
I heard the Masons in a lodge most violently roar;
Their playthings round they rattled, and one thus sighing said,
' Our craft, it is in danger, I am very much afraid.*

Chorus.
" O, Jubela ! and Jubelo ! and also Jubelum !
We're in a peck of troubles now, the times are troublesome;
Half-naked we must wander, slipshod forever go.
Or each true Mason liang himself in his own cable-toto.

"Farewell to brother Boaz, farewell to Jachin, too,

Our grips and words are all exposed ; O, what shall Masons do?
Poor Tuhal-Cain and Shibholtth ! their duj's are almost done,
And, 0 ! the hardest cut of all, is loss of Mah-hah-bone !

O, Jubela, &c.

"E'en Chibbelum, the worthy! must vanish with the rest.
And the live points of fellowship become an idle jest;
No more we'll rai.se up Hiram, the widow's cunning son;
Alas, my loving brothers, our craft is near undone !

O, Jubela, &c.

*' O, strike your throats with gauges, and beat your liearts with
squares,
And with gavels thump your pates, till you drive out all your

cares ;
Our noble Master battered was, nor iiiysiiriis would unfold,
But we live on so abject when every secret's told.

0, Jubela, &.C.

20b THE BROKEN SEAL.

" Let each one give the sigmii of trouble and of pain,
For very milch 'tis doubted if here we meet again ;
We'll doff our sheepskin aprons, and fit them for our pates,
To turn us into plummets, lo ! Justice ready waits.

Chorus.
" O, Juhela ! and Juhelo ! and also Jubelum !

We're in a peck of troubles now, the times are troublesome ;

Half-7iaked we must wander, slipshod forever go.

Or each true Mason hang himself in his own cable-tow."

The following has less genius, perhaps, but i^
well suited to its purpose : —

" SONG.

Death and burial of the old offender, commonly called
Freemasonry.

TvsE. — Ftmeral Dirge.

" Mourn, mourn ye mystic sons of woe;
In sadness bow the head ;
Bend every back in sorrow low ;
Poor Masonry is dead !

" Clinton the great, stands snivelling by,
His dying eyes to close,
While Root and Bucklin heave the sigh,
And wipe each mournful nose.

" Alas, poor Jachin ! is it true
That Masonry is gone
To the dark shades, with all his crew,
Boaz and Mah-hah-bone —

" And signs and grips, and idle words.
And chisels, mauls, and gauges ;

APPENDIX. 209

With sheepskin aprons, wooden swords,
Which we have worn for ages ?

"O. must we go to that dread bourn.
With all his mystic pothering,
lJ"ron] whence, alas ! there*B no return,
Until the final gathering?

" Now, to the dark and silent tomb
With sorrow we resign him ;
And with the cypress covered o'er,
To infamy consign him.

" There let him lie beneath the load
Of his own imperfection ;
And, 0 ! we pray a gracious God,
Grant him no resurrection."

We will give one specimen more, which is a little
more stately in its flow.

"Promiscuously, through every state.
There is dispersed a certain sect.
Who call themselves tlie Sons of Light,

But darkened is their college ;
Tliey seldom meet by light of sun.
But wait until his beams are gone.
And shades of night are stretched along.

To hide their boasted knowledge.

"They vaunt, and say, 'Our craft begun
In reign of wise King Solomon,
■ When Hiram there, the widow's son.

First built tlie brazen altar.'

They pass between Jachin and Boaz,

Stripped off is every rag of clotlics,

Kor boot nor shoe to guard their toes,

Led by a hempen halter.

14

210 THE BROKEN SEAL.

" The imprecations they invoke
Would make an Algerine half choke,
No savage e'er such language spoke,

As they have packed together;
When brought to where they see the light.
They're furnished with a sheepskin white,
Which round their waist is belted tight,

A simple badge of leather.

"They use no post, or beam, or stud.
No stone, nor brick, nor loaded hod,
Nor yet a single ounce of mud

Is found in all their labor;
When all is said, or learned, or done.
No architect is yet begun.
They push about the bowl of rum

Till scarcely one is sober."

APPENDIX. 211

E.

Soon after the abduction of Morgan, a seceding
Mason, writing in the Le Roy Gazette, shows the
inconsistency of Masonry with a simple republi-
can government, in the following striking man-
ner: —

" I shall, in this number, show that the titles given
to the officers in our institution have a very bad effect
upon republican principles. Our ancestors, oppressed
by the aristocratical principles of Europe, having en-
dured for a long series of years the oppression of
kings, lords, and dukes, and no choice left them but
slavery or flight, resolutely chose the latter; and break-
ing asunder the bonds which bind friends together,
and suffering the hardships of a tempestuous passage,
sat themselves quietly down in the savage wilds of
North America. No lords or dukes, no grand high
priests nor grand kings were there to extort the hard
earnings of the laboring poor, bound together by mu-
tual wants, and asking no privilege from others which
they were unwilling to bestow, they here sowed the
first seeds of equal rights and privileges, which have
sprung up and yielded an abundant harvest; they
here taught their sons to prefer death to slavery. Af-

212 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ter the struggle of the Revolution, and no enemy near to
disturb their deliberations, a government was founded
on plain, simple, republican principles. No high-sound-
ing titles found a place in the government; no high
priests were exacting tithes ; no grand kings, with
their royal robes, were demanding the admiration of
the people. All were reduced to a common level, and
the man that held the highest and most enviable sta-
tion mortal ever held, was styled simply President of
the United States. Such was the government founded
by a Washington, a Franklin, a Jeiferson, and the
patriots of the Revolution.

" Now let us examine our institution, and clearly as-
certain whether it is founded upon as pure a basis as
that of our common country. If it is as pure and well
adapted to our circumstances, we had better ingraft
with it our political government; if not, and if it does
have a tendency to inculcate aristocratical principles,
then abandon Masonry, and adhere to the government
as founded by our ancestors, for it is true, in the vari-
ous requirements of life, we cannot fulfil our duty to
both at the same time. The government w^as founded
in open day, with all the light of heaven shining upon
it, its principles open and equal to all men. Masonry
is the child of darkness, and nothing but secrecy can
sustain it. Its principles are partial, and its ultimate
aim is the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
All its ceremonies are anti-social and anti-republican ;
the titles given to its officers I do not believe are very
republican. I will reheai'se them, that you may at a
single glance see the bearing they have on the pure
republican. In the Grand Lodge they have their

APPENDIX. 213

Grand Lecturer,

Grand Junior and Senior Deacons,

Grand Master of Ceremonies,

Grand Marshal,

Grand Secretary,

Grand Treasurer,

Grand Chaplain,

Worshipful Grand Junior and Senior Wardens,

Right Worshipful Deputy Grand Master,

Most Worshipful Grand Master.

And in the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter there
B an

Excellent General Grand Master,
Excellent General Grand Chaplain,
Excellent General Grand Treasurer,
Excellent General Grand Secretary,
Most Excellent General Grand Scribe,
Most Excellent General Grand King,
Most Excellent General Grand High Priest.

The titles in the Grand Encampment are

Worshipful Grand Sword Bearer,
Worshipful Grand Standard Bearer,
Worshipful Grand Marshal,
Worshipful Grand ]lecorder.
Worshipful Grand Treasurer,
Worshipful Grand Wardens,
Worshipful Grand Captain General,
Worshipful Grand Generalissimo,
Worshipful General Grand Master.

214

THE BEOKEN SEAL.

What titles the

Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn
Kn

ghts of Tutons,

ghts of Calatrava,

ghts of Alcantara,

ghts of Redemption,

ghts of Christ,

ghts of the Mother of Clirist,

ghts of Lazarus,

ghts of the Star,

ghts of the Band,

ghts of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary,

ghts of St. Michael,

ghts of St, Stephen, and

ghts of the Holy Ghost,

gave to their officers, I do not know ; but thus much I
do know, that every officer, in the long catalogue of
titles, had some emblem of royalty affixed to him.
This being the case, ray brethren, and it being equally
true, that the great end and aim of Masonry is to cre-
ate distinctions among mankind, and secure to the
few the rights of the many, will any of you blindly
adhere to Masonry when its comes in contact with the
least of those equal Iaw« which were secured to you
by the blood of your fAthers? If you wilL then I
.must bid farewell to you anJ M^j^ixvy,"

APPENDIX. 215

Many years ago, when this whole subject was
fresh upon my mind, I wrote out for Southwick's
National Observer the story of my persecutions in
a series of letters. I cannot do better than give
some extracts from that account, that the reader
may see exactly the course of events through
which I passed.

" Since the lodge passed censure on me for not ad-
hering to the bloody laws, they called my conduct
unmasonic. The main object of all their procedures
seems to be, that justice may be hoodwinked, and lib-
erty bound in chains. Means are resorted to by every
cunning device, that the order may stand before the
world in a fair and flourishing appearance. They have
attempted to secure all the uninitiated who, in the
least had any knowledge of the outrages, in their ma-
sonic shackles, and in some instances have succeeded.
In the institution there are some ' leaky vessels,' and
from such sources I know that the fraternity are ad-
monished and enjcined to witlihold intercourse and
deal with all who have left tliein, to detect the inform-
ant, and to make no communications to tlie suspected
brethren ; evidently drawing a line between Ajiti-ma-
sons and themselves, emblematical of their supposed
lordly power. But under a free government, where

216 THE BROKEN SEAL.

we breathe (unbiassed by masonic oaths) no such air,
the honest are discovering the wickedness of the craft;
and when the opposers of law and religion secure one,
the dear and sacred principles of liberty and law en-
couraged others to pursue a different course. Many
of the chapters and lodges are in a tremendous quarrel,
and some have voted their charters back to the mother
fountain of iniquity. I say fountain of iniquity; for
reason, without the aid of religion, teaches me that
arson, kidnapping, and murder are crimes of the dark-
est dye, and the fountain which feeds them must be cor-
rupt at its source. The lodge and chapter in this and
other places acted in concert and under the direction
of the Grand Lodge of the State, and the said Grand
Lodge DID CAST LOTS xoho shoidd come out and
DLJSFATCITMORGA'M and MILLER if necessary
to suppress the development of masonic secrets. My au-
thority is from the best sources, and is unquestionable.
When the acts of the chapter and lodges were known,
they refused to act as bodies on the deed of death, but
frequently met in knots of eight or ten to contrive
mischief, and even then admitted to their confidence
none but those who had been actually engaged in the
conspiracy for aiding and abetting; but so black and
horrid were their plots, that among these few despera-
does several shuddered and revolted.

"I have thus far given a brief account of what actu-
ally passed at the commencement of the outrages com-
mited on Morgan and Miller in order to suppress the
publication of the secrets of Masonry. Also, the ma-
sonic punishment inflicted on me for objecting to such
procedures. Were I to give a full account of all the
facts in my possession relative to the case, and all

APPENDIX. 217

the abominable persecutions and hellish machinations

against me personally (yet by them truly masonic), it

would be devoting more time to the subject than I feel

willing, at present, to spare.

"S. D. Greene.
" Batavia, October 2, 1827."

From this eflFort I received momentary relief.
My business revived, and to appearance I was
about to receive the reward of a grateful public
for daring, in time of peril, to do my duty. But
on the 25tli of January, 1828, the Republican
Advocate, published at Batavia, and edited by
David C. Miller, inserted my letters, with these
remarks : —

"In this paper will be found the first number of Cap-
tain Greene's letters, addressed to the editor of the
National Observer, which will be continued from time
to time, until they are all published.

"In the development of the masonic outrages, no man
has been placed in a more delicate and difficult situa-
tion than Captain Greene, and but few would have met
aud overcome the toils and snares of his enemies with
greater facility than he has done. Surrounded by false
and foul brethren in tlie lodge and in the church, his
has been a state of the severest trials for the last fif-
teen months, but, single-handed, he has triumphed over
the wiles of closely-combined enemies determined on
his ruin. Naturally warm and ardent in his feelings,
and young in the knowledge of its mysteiies, he was,
UDasked and unsolicited, made the depository of ma-

il8 THE BROKEN SEAL.

sonic intentions and ra^sonxG power. If he shrunk from
the horrid picture of meditated violence, arranged in
the Grand Chapter of the State, commanding its sub-
ordinates, with fire, fagots, poison, and blood, to stop
the publication of the secrets of Masonry, he did no
more than any honest man should have done. But
when he dared to give warbling of danger to the vic-
tims of masonic wrath and power, he showed that he
not ox\\y felt but dared to act.

"In proportion to the value placed upon property and
life, the public are indebted to Captain Greene. But
for his timely caution our dwellings would have been
wrapped in flames, and our streets drenched with blood.
It was this that called upon his devoted head the
anathemas and continued curses of such men as Doc-
tor Dibble (sometimes called Deacon Dibble, and by
the very irreverent. Deacon Devil).* It was this dea-
con that took him to task, and put him through a
severe masonic drill, when he discovered that he re-
coiled from the view of arson and murder; it was this
deacon also, who told him that ' there are, belonging
to the masonic order, sufficient numbers of deacons of
the church and ministers of the gospel who stand
ready to tear Miller's piinting offices to the ground;'
thus endeavoring to inspire him with the strength and
terror of the order. It was this deacon, too, who re-
marked to liim in the same conversation, 'should you

* "Our readers will excuse us for indulging in epithets and
names, when they are made acquainted with the fact, that
several individuals of our village drive a considerable trade at
slandering certain characters, among whom stand preeminently
conspicuous, Deacon Dibble, Grand Commander Sir Henry
Brown, General Towner, and Ebenezer Mix."

APPENDIX. il^

see them [the Masons] tearing down Miller's buildings,
or even taking his life, lift not your hand or voice in op-
position.' And it was this deacon Avho told Mr. and
Mrs, Otto that the Grand Lodge of the State had sent
on orders to suppress Morgan's work, cost what it may,
even to the shedding of blood!

" Under the discipline of such a drill-master, with all
the terrors of the hell-engendered order spread before
him, few would have dared to have been just. It is
for this doing and daring that Captain Greene is vis-
ited, in character and property, with continued masonic
curses. To illustrate this, we need only name a recent
occurrence : the hero of the occurrence will be found
to be one of the most mischief-making, meddling bipeds
that ever stood upon two feet; one lor whom Masonry
was made, and he for it; we here scarcely need name
Ehenezer Mix. True to his sworn fealty to his lovely
Masonry, which enjoins upon him '•to make its enemies
his enemies^ in a late peregrination to Buffalo, Mix
look it into his head to stop the stage at almost every
public house between this village and that, not to pay
his devoirs at the bar, but to berate the character of
Captain Greene and his family, and advise the kindly
listening landlord to warn his travelling customers
against Greene's house, giving it a character of low-
ness and looseness. Discovering, by a word which fell
from some one, that one of his fellow-passengers was
Greene's bar-keeper. Mix, with an assuiance and
efironteiy for which he is unsurpassed, turned to liim,
and inquired, 'Have you a wife?' on being answered
in the affirmative, he continued, ' What ! and left her
at Greene's?' 'Yes.' 'Then I advise you to go
immediately back, if you regard your own honor; set-

220 THE BROKEN SEAL.

tie with him, leave him, and I will look you up some
respectable placei

"Such facts as the foregoing, in connection with hun-
dreds of other masonic efforts to destroy that might
be named, has called forth these remarks. And we
can assure the traveller, who has occasion to stop at
our village, that at Greene's he will find good accom-
modations, ready and willing attendants, an intelligent
landlord, surrounded by an interesting family."

These remarks seemed to give a new impulse to
the Masons generally, who were implicated in con-
sequence of fellowshiping the conspirators and
murderers, but more especially the conspirators
themselves, and new exertions were made, and not
a stone left unturned to bring me to utter ruin.
Colonel Miller took leave of the Advocate, as edi-
tor, and in bis address to his personal friends and
the public he observes, —

" To my Personal Friends and the Public.

" The witnesses are numerous and honorable that Ma-
sonry is worthless ; that it is a curse to a free, thinking,
moral people ; lodges are returning their charters, and
the best members of the fraternity raising their voices
and pens against it; embodying a multitude of faults,
without a single virtue to soften its vices, he must in-
deed be a visionary who can cherish a lingering hope
that the order can be sustained. With these views of
the subject, and when it is considered that the strug
gles I have been compelled to make havo been ardent

APPENDIX. 221

and intense, I think tlie public will agree with me, that
I may, with propriety, withdraw^ from the field, more
especially as I have never been anything further than
a simple instrument in originating this moral revolu-
tion. In this 1 have not claimed, neither do I claim,
any other merit than that of daring to do ray duty;
and even in this I owe all to the support and moral
firmness of a few dauntless individuals, whose nerves
were strung with an energy equal to the danger and
justice of the cause.

" In this great struggle, the names of George W.
Harris and Samuel D. Greene, of John Hascall, James
Ballard, Herbert A. Read, and Elder David Bernard,
stand conspicuous in the great moral daring. They
were Masons, and as such perilled all that is dear to
man to promote the great controversy. To some of
them the public are indebted for the exposure and
suppression of intended violence, by their untiling vigi-
lance and timely warnings, and to all for their various
independent and manly eflbrts in unveiling the hideous
deformities of a moral monster. I speak particularly of
these gentlemen, because they were in the field at a
time that called for more than ordinary daring. If to
any in this section much is due, it is to them."

After many more remarks of a general nature,
he closes as follows : —

" With these few remarks I take my leave of you,
and 1 hope forever, as the conductor of a public jour-
nal ; and as sincerely wishing you social and political
happiness, as I believe in the ultimate downfall of

^^^^^n- David C. Mulkk."

222 THE BROKEN SEAL.

Still determined to act only in defence for the
preservation of life, and that of mj family, I com-
menced diffusing more universal information on
the subject of Freemasonry, by establishing an
Anti-masonic reading-room, which the Batavia Ad-
vo \te, of December 5, 1828, notices thus: —

"We are pleased to observe that a number of Anti-
masonic editors have complied with Mr. Greene's re-
quest in sending papers to his Anti-masonic reading-;
room; and trust others will follow their example. Mr.
Greene derives no advantage from this, having only
established the room for the public accommodation."

This room was a place of much resort. Infor-
mation was obtained, confidence was restored, and
my business and custom increased ; and on the
14th December, 1828, I put the following adver-
tisement into the Republican Advocate : —

"BATAVIA HOTEL.

•' Having for a long time kept Public House, the subscriber has
the assurance to observe that he is competent and qualified for
the task. He has removed from the house called the County
Hotel, or Park Tavern, to the Old Stand, known as the Russell,
or Gibbs House, in the central part of the village. He has
good house, well fitted up, good atteiidants, and a plenty of gooi
victuals and drink, and (in the recent outrages upon Morgan and
Miller, for which the country is brougb*^ .o the blush), happeru
to be on the good side of the question Gentlemen, call and se«
the worst man in all the country — so say the Masons.

"S. D. Gbeeitk." ■«{

APPENDIX. 223

In consequence of my success, or the advertise-
ment, " vengeance " was visited upon me by be-
smearing or painting my house and windows on
the night of the last day of December, 1828, which
gave rise to the following letter to Frederick A.
Sumner, of Boston, and published in the Boston
Anti-Masonic Free Press :. —

" Batavia, January 20, 1829.

"Dear Sir: The guardian care with which you
observe every part of the Anti-masonic cause deserves
well of an enlightened community. No one with whom
the masonic party is at war but the editor of the Free
Press, like a faithful sentinel upon the watch-tower
of freedom, observes and defends him. TVith due re-
spect and grateful acknowledgements I tender you my
hearty thanks for the notice you have in this instance
taken of me. Sir, I left not the masonic ranks for
honor or profit, but to satisfy^ my conscience in regard
to that duty I owed to my God, myself, and country.
Such sentiments as are expressed in the "Free Pressi,"
not only revives the drooping, but animates them to
onward achievements in the noble cause of viitue.
Your notice of the reading-room is gratifying. I keep
it up for the public good : it is a master engine to throw
light abroad. It makes the Masons tremendously mad ;
:hey sometimes come in, whefi J am absent from home,
ind tear up the papers. They are sure to tear the
Boston Free Press and the Anti-Masonic Enquirer.
This looks like Masonry. New Year's morn was uah-
^•lited in to me rather unpleasantly. They had (agroea-

224 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ble to their usage), the night before, marked my house
with printer's ink in large letters and obscene words,
the whole length and one end (the end in which the
reading-room is), and the pillars in front they striped
round like barbers' poles, a cross on every pane of glass
in front of the house and the end of the reading-room.
My name on the sign was blotted out. The lilies and
the scrolls on the sign were tied about with tailor's
list, nearly two hundred yards, and fastened to my
pillars in front and door-knobs ; and in the act to
take down my bell from the top of the house,
they got alarmed and fled ; as yet they are not dis-
covered. Public feeling is aroused on the subject ;
the streets were crowded with masonic spectators,
jacks and doughfaces shrugging up their shoulders,
braying and grinning, while two hands and myself were
engaged in defacing, with spirits of turpentine, theii
vulgarity. With patience I bear the indignity, for 1
know that the destruction of the order is to advance
the cause of religion and liberty. Every insult they
can bestow on me is the t^st how much to love, or how
much to despise others in proportion as others defend
and remain quiet in relation to me. Every merited
contempt they bring on themselves, they turn and say,
' This would not have been so were it not for Greene;
he has brought us into this difficulty;' therefore partially
attributing to me what God has guided me in the way
of truth, and this annoys them in their diabolical plans.
I am not sorry, but glad.

"I am, dear sir, yours with due respect,

" Samuel D. Geeene,"

i

APPENDIX. 225

At the January term of the court, 1829, my
house was well filled with boarders and custom-
ers ; and the next resort of the craft was to hire
the butcher, Avho was a Freemason, to sell me no
meats for my table, which caused the following
notice to be given in the Republican Advocate ;
and after great exertions, I obtained a butcher,
who answered the advertisement, and furnished
me with meats,

" WANTED,

In the village of Batavia, a butcher, who will regularly supply
the market, daily, with fresh meat during the year. A good,
substantial man, destitute of the freaks incident to Masonry,
will find good encouragement."

Numerous other equally base efforts were made by
the Masons to destroy rae, and totally ruin my busi-
ness. Outrage followed outrage in quick succession,
which I forbear to notice here, lest I should make this
Appendix too long; but sUch were the bitter hostilities
pursued by the Freemasons against me, that a Sena-
torial convention tor District No. 8, convened at Bata-
via, N. Y., on the 2Sth of January, 1829, passed the
following resolution: —

{

'■^Resolved, That the cold-blooded and deliberate

malice exhibited by the masonic fraternity, and their

more contemptible associates, towards S:imuel 1).

Greene, a seceding Mason, and a nicmlxM- of the Pres-

15

226 THE BROKEN SEAL

byterian church, in Batavia, who, at an early day, em-
barked in the present glorious struggle for equal rights
and privileges, and against whom a series of outrages
have been continually directed, with a purpose steady
as time, and appetite keen as death ; and from which
it would seem nothing but his entire ruin and prostra-
tion, both in character and property, or the grave itself,
could rescue him, has excited the general sympathy
of this convention, and ought, and we have no doubi.
will, receive the most decided and marked disapproba-
tion of every honest man in the community."

My creatures were killed ; my dog was taken down
to the brook, his throat cut from ear to ear, and buried
at low-water mark; the windows of my house were
broken ; the furniture of my bar destroyed, and my
liquois spilled. Masons putting up at my house would
steal their own cloaks and blankets from their carriages,
then prosecute me for the value, from a distant part of
the county, putting me to great expense and trouble to
nonsuit them, and sometimes not till after they had,
by some means or other, obtained two or three adjourn-
ments, and caused me and nly witnesses to travel the
distance over as many times. This was done to bring
my tavern into disrepute; and the story was industri-
ously circulated that travellers' things were not safe at
my house. My furniture injured, and in my attempt
to save it from destruction, I have been choked in my
own house, till my family were alarmed lest my life
should be taken. All this done wicli the avowed inten-
tion of tempting me to commix assault and battery, or
seek redress by lawsuit, that they might avail them-

APPENDIX. 227

selves of the law to destroy rae eflfectually. My help
hired to leave me, others sent, who, after hired, would
get ill debt, and pi-ove unfaithful. Sham sales of stage-
horses made to nnj)rinci])led drivers, who would keep
their teanii^ at my house, on usual contracts, and when
a quarterly bill was presented against the ostensible
owner, it would be shoved off upon the driver, who
was irresponsible, and would abscond, or, if sued, pay
the debt upon the jail limits. Merchants with whom
I hud dealt would divide my accounts, and sue me on
every day's trade, causing me to pay unnecessary costs.
Thus I was annoytsd ; and one specimen more, out of
many endured, shall suffice at this time, lest I make
my Appendix too long. During the sitting of one of
the courts, and my house full of boarders, an evidence
in court brought a large iron-bound box to my house
containing twenty-five i-att!esnakes, which he had taken
in Michigan, for a man in the city of New York. Af-
ter speaking for his board and lodging at my house, he
obtained permission to store his box in my granary till
the close of the court, or the case, on which he was an
evidence, should be disposed of. Certain Freemasons
found out that there was such a box containing these
animpls in my possession, and they contrived to alarm
the peighborhood, and frighten the women and chil-
dren with the story, which was circulated in all parts
of the village at the same time, that the snakes had
escaped, and they were in danger of being bitten. The
windows flew up, the women called in their children,
while the Masons, followed by the boys and a rabble,
simultaneously, ruslied into my h.ouse and yards, sheds
and barns, bearing all kinds of weapons, to kill the

228 THE BROKEN SEAL.

snakes, tbickening the air with screeching and scream
ing, loading me and my house with curses and all man-
ner of epithets, because I had suffered the box to be
left, and the snakes to escape. TFAen, lo! the snakes
were all this time safe in the box. This was done tg
frighten away some of ray custom ; but finding this
plan had failed, they went immediately to the mothers
of my hired girls, and said to them, " Greene would
not part with your girls on any account." "Why,"
said the mother. "Because," said this Mason, "Greene
has got twenty-four rattlesnakes in his cellar wall, and
your girl is the only one who dares visit his cellar."
The mothers, half frightened to death, hastened to my
house to persuade their daughters to run no more risks,
but to leave my house immediately. This deranged
my business, and delayed my cooking, while my do-
mestics were engaged to allay the excitement; but
nothing would satisfy the mothers until their girls
would leave the house. By thus depriving me of help,
and spreading such a report, I had to incur great ex-
pense, and for it, unnecessary labor, to replace my help.
And when my house was full, in the recess of the court,
the Masons, headed by Johnson Goodwill, the per-
jured witness from Batavia, when partly drunk, would
ride up their horses within my piazza, and call tor rat-
tlesnake soup; and lighting from their horses, travel
through tny bar-room, pretending to knock the snakes
from tlieir heels.

Finding it impossible to pursue my business as a
public taverner in Batavia, I disposed of my establish-
ment in the spring of 1829; and for the purpose of
obtaining the avails of a small mortgage I had in Con-

APPENDIX, 229

necticut, I took a journey to that State, and during my
tiavels visited Boston, where I received some proposi-
tions wliich induced me, if I could settle my business
in Western New York, to embrace, and move to Bos-
ton. I returned to Batavia, and settled my affairs in
the best manner possible, and returned to Boston in
December, 1829. Believing it a duty to do all in my
power to destroy so great an enemy to religion and
law, and religiously believing that Freemasonry i': the
man of sin spoken of by the Apostle in tho second
chajjter of Second Thessalonians, I commenced travel-
ling and giving public lectures on Freemasonry, and
s])reading inform.ation by obtaining subscri])tions to
Anti-masonic newspapers, and had much success; while
I he Boston Masonic Mirror, the organ of the masonic
institution in Massachusetts, published by Moore &
Sevcy, and the New York Batavia Times, published
hy Frederick FoUett (a notorious witness, who came
tVom Batavia to Boston to swear against me), kept up
against me a constant routine of masonic slanders ; and
one of those articles published in the Times, and then
in the Mirror, I was induced to notice, and in behalf
of the Commonwealth, complained of Moore & Sevey
for a libel, of which, for w'ant of testimony that was
inipossilile to obtain rit the time, the defendants were
acquitted. Notwithstanding the determination of the
Masons to destroy me and my family, and bring dis-
giace upon religion and tlie church of Clirist, of which
I am, though unworthy, a member, I have made my
defence and jDublished this my Ajipendix.

Eight years have now passed away. Tiie murdcreis
f/f Morgan and their numerous accessories scattered over

230 THE BROKEN SEAL.

a great extent of country, still live. Murderous Free-
masonry throws over them its effective shield, and
protects them in its foul embrace, unscathed by the
faithful execution of the laws. And even in this city
of Boston, distinguished as its citizens justly are for
their intelligence, love of order, justice, and "the su-
premacy of the laws," so late as 1833, a known and self-
acknowleflged Morgan conspirator had the effrontery
to present himself before a Boston jury as an unim-
peachable witness, to swear down my character, and
attempt to affix such a stigma to it as suited him and
his brother conspirators to give me, in obedience to
their masonic oaths. Let no one hereafter say Masonry
has had no influence in the courts in Massachusetts.
And where is the security for life, liberty, property, or
character of its citizens, when masonic jurors and ma-
sonic witnesses are secretly arrayed against them ?
Masonry, whose object and aim is to exalt itself above
the laws of God and man, whose existence is a viola-
tion of every principle of the social compact, destruc-
tive to the fundamental principles of law, justice, and
equal rights, and is treason against any government
of law, still is able in the State of New York to set the
execution of the laws at defiance, and trample them
under foot. And it is only by the dissemination of the
truth respecting the nature, principles, and spirit of the
masonic institution among the citizens of the United
States, and the consequent political action at the bal-
lot-box, that we will ever be able to extirpate this foul
excrescence on the body politic, and save our repub-
lic from the most degrading despotism that ever it
pleased God, in his righteous displeasure, to afliict a
people. If by any humble exertions of mine this is

APPENDIX. 23 1

effected for our country, that it may remain the "home
of the brave, and the hxnd of the free," I shall feel con-
scious of doing my duty, and amply repaid for all my
exertions, sacrifices, and sufferings.

Samuel D. Greene.
Boston, September 23, 1834. *

232 THE BROKEN SEAL.

a.

In the body of our narrative we have spoken of
the effort made to bring the Morgan abductors to
punishment, as an " abortive attempt." We can-
not better justify the use of that language, than
by giving in full the report which follows : —

REPORT, &c.

The President of the Convention (Mr. John C. Spen-
cer), from the committee appointed on that subject,
remarked, that the convention had done him the honor,
by a special resolution, to place him at the head of the
committee, probably from the circumstance that his
official connection with the prosecutions in question
had given him ample opportunity to become acquainted
with the proceedings, respecting which the convention
had desired information ; and that a report had ac-
cordingly been prepared, which would now be sub-
mitted : —

"A history of the judicial proceedings had in the
State of New York, to discover and punish the offend-
ers concerned in the kidnapping and murder of Wil-
liam Morgan, seems at this time to be required, in order
to preserve, in an authentic shape, facts of the utmost
importance in the history of our country; and to pre-
sent in the most simple form that series of evidence
which establishes the agency and combination of mem-

APPENDIX. 233

bors of the masonic fraternity in impeding inquiry,
baffling investigation, and defeating the ordinary ad-
ministration of justice. It is a melancholy picture of
folly and crime; but the sooner and the more exten-
sively it is known, the speedier and more effectual will
be the remedy which the intelligence and public spirit
of a free people will apply. Those events are rapidly
receding from our minds, and giving place to others of
greater novelt}', but of inferior importance; and of
those which lemain, many become confused and indis-
tinct in our memories. Tiie very difficulty which has
been experienced in collecting the facts now presented,
is an admonition of the duty of {neserving them in
their original leatures, and before an opportunity is
afforded by the lapse of lime to deface or distort them.
"It is already too well known, that in September,
1826, William Morgan was forcibly carried from Can-
andaigua to Niagara Fort, a distance of one hundred
and twenty miies, through a well settled country, and
directly througli live populous villages; was confined
in that fort, and finally murdered. So well had the
plan been digested, and so faithfully was it executed,
that not a citizen along this extensive tract was alarmed
by any appearance of violence, and not a susj)icion
was awakened along the whole route. Five changes
of horses were made, and three different cairiages were
employed ; more than six persons, besides the ill-fated
Morgan, were to be provided with food and i-efresh-
ment; numerous diivers and agents to provide relays
of horses must have been employed ; and yet not a
suspicion of the dark deed which was transacting was
awakened along the whole route. This single fact
•peaks volumes respecting the capacity of au organized

234 THE BROKEN SEAL.

body, like that of the masonic fraternity, to carry into
effect any project, however iniquitous, ami even in the
heart of our country to immolate its victim without
interruption. It is a fearful fact, and furnishes a key
at the very threshold, to explain many otherwise in-
credible and mysterious circumstances. To accomplish
such a deed in such a manner must have required a
perfection of organization and of discipline, and a com-
mand of means, that may challange comparison with
any system ever disclosed to the world. When we
recollect that this occurred in a season of profound
peace and fancied security, and that it seems to have
required but the application of the ordinary means of
the society, we may look back with amazement at the
peril we have passed, and may look forward with some
apprehension whether that peril be indeed entirely
passed.

" The first intimation which the public received, that
a crime hitherto unheard of in our country — that of
stealing a free citizen — had been committed, came
from the publication of sundry affidavits, which had
been procured by an active and patriotic individual,
who had gone from Batavia to Canandaigua to make
inquiries for Morgan. These affidavits, which were
taken on the 23d of September, and published a few
days afterwards, aroused the public attention in that
quarter; meetings were held in different villages, and
committees of citizens appointed to inquire into the
fate of a citizen, who had been lawlessly torn from his
family and his country. Proclamations were issued by
the executive of New York, in the month of October,
enjoining upon all officers the duty of apprehending
the offenders, and offering rewai'ds for their conviction,

APPENDIX. 235

and for authentic information of the place to which
Morgan had been conveyed. But to all inquiries and
efforts difficulties and obstructions of every kind were
interposed. The press, so loud-mouthed and so hasty
on every similar occasion of public outrage, was either
silent, or sounded false notes with a view to mislead
investigation. It is not the purpose of this report to
dwell on this part of the subject, but it is conceived
that no opportunity should be neglected to bring to
recollection the shameful defection of the public press
from its most sacred and jjeculiar duty, and the num-
berless talsehooils, which the newspa])ers of every party
invented and circulated, to baffle and misdirect inquiry.
At one time, the victim of masonic vengeance was sell-
ing his Illustrations of Masonry in Boston, and reaping
a harvest .from the speculation ; at another, he was in
Vermont, employed in the same business; again, he
was at New Brunswick, in the British dominions, en-
gaged in the fisheries; again, he was at Smyrna, in the
costume of a Turk, where, notwithstanding his dress,
he had been discovered by an acquaintance, and he
had kindly sent messages to his anxious fiiends in this
countiy. This course of wilful misrepresentation and
of equally deceptive silence, when the press was bound
to speak, was produced either by masonic influences or
by a dread of masonic power. In either case, what
strong proof does it furnish of the tremendous power
of a society, which could thus subdue the whole pub
lie press of the country! These, and a thousand simi-
lar jiublications, did, for a time, serve to distract the
public mind ; but they never for a moment diverted
those high-spirited men who had undertaken the in-
quiry, from pursuing their object with limited and in-

236 THE BEOKEN SEAL.

sufficient means, but still steadfastly and vigorously.
A delegation from different committees met at Lewis-
ton, in the winter succeeding the murder, for the pur-
pose of making examinations on the spot. Abuse, and
every other species of intimidation, were employed, but
in vain. Tlie celebrated Lewiston committee, as that
delegation has been called, collected a great variety of
most important facts, and published them under the
sanction and responsibility of their names. This docu-
ment, in all respects worthy the notice and considera-
tion of a people jealous of their liberty, and anxious to
preserve the lives of their fellow-citizens, was never
copied, either in the whole or in substance, by a single
newspaper of any party, except some two or three in-
dependent presses in the immediate vicinity. But still
the report received some notice from the newspaper
press. It was calumniated as an ex parte statement
of political zealots; it was represented as a fabrica-
tion of its most important facts, and a distortion and
misrepresentation of others ; and its authors were lam-
pooned as a set of knights-errant engaged in an enter-
prise of folly. Will it be believed, that this character
was given, by the universal newspaper press, to a docu-
ment winch was at the time so much entitled to respect,
as well from the facts it exhibited, as from the calm,
dignified, and resj^ectful manner in which those facts
where ju'esented, and which has since been confirmed
by judicial evidence, in every, the most minute particu-
lars of its statements ? It is a circumstance reflecting
the highest honor on the authors of that report, that it
contains at this moment the best account whicli has
yet appeared of the leading facts in the kidnapping
and removal of Morgan, which were then known ; :ind

APPENDIX. 237

that if a history of that transaction should now be
compiled from judicial evidence, its most important
features could not be more tkitlifully or more accurate-
ly given than they have already been presented by the
Lewiston committee. For this reason, among others,
the history of the removal of Morgan from his thniily
by the abuse of legal process ; of his being betrayed
under the guise of friendship ; of his being stolen in
the night time, and forcibly transported to the banks
of the Niagara; of his crossing that ri\er and return-
ing, blindfolded and guarded ; of his removal to a cita-
del of the United States; of his confinement in a
dungeon over which floated that flag wliich is the
nation's pledge of protection to every one of its citi-
zens, and of his foul and cowardly assassination; —
the history of these events will not be given in the nar-
rative which is now piesented. It is cotitined to the
purpose, first, of detailing, with exactness, the ju<lici:il
proceedings which liave been had, and of the eftbrts
made to institute such proceedings, for the detection
and punishment of the oftenders; and, secondly, of
presenting, in one connected view, such facts as oc-
curred in those proceedings and eflorts which exhibit
the difliculties that were encountered, and expose to
the naked eye of all who look at tlicm (he radical
cause of those difliculties.

"The first grand jury that assembled in the comity
of Ontario, aficr the removal of Moigan fiom the jail
of that county, met in November, 18liG; and being
composed of citizens of the greatest resj)ectability,
earnestly and zealously engaged in the necessary in-
quiries into the atrocious crimes \\iiich had been com-
mitted. The Lewiston C(jmmittee had ikH yet assem-

238 THE BROKEN SEAL.

bled, and the only information in possession of the
public was derived from the publication of the affida-
vits before mentioned. The witnesses examined by
this grand jury were, therefore, those only who resided
in Canandaigua, and were knowing to the single fact
of Morgan's removal from the jail. The deliberations
of the jury resulted in their finding two bills of indict-
ment; one against Nicholas G. Chesebro, Edward Saw-
yer, Loton Lawson, and John Sheldon, for a conspiracy
to carry off and kidnap Morgan, and for actually carry-
ing him to parts unknown, and for false imprisonment;
the other was against Nicholas G. Cliesebro, Harris
Seymour, Henry Howard, Moses Roberts, and John
Scofield, for a conspiracy to charge and accuse Morgan
of stealing a linen shirt and a silk handkerchief, and
to subject him to punishment therefor; and in prosecu-
tion of such conspiracy, the obtaining a warrant from
a justice of the peace. The defendants, excepting Sco-
field, were arrested, and held to bail for their appear-
ance to answer. N. G. Chesebro was, at the time,
master of the lodge in Canandaigua. He was a re-
spectable mechanic, sustained a lair character, had a
family, a good business, and was generally esteemed.
Edward Sawyer was also a respectable mechanic, with
a family, of good character, heUl a commission as colo-
nel of militia, and was among the most respectable
inhabitants. Loton Lawson was a farmer, not of nmch
property, but of good character, particularly among his
masonic brethren, being, as is understood, quite high
in the masonic degrees, and having been a lecturer of
the lodges. John Sheldon was a poor and dissipated
man, at the time confined on the limits of the jail for
debt. Harris Seymour was a young man of great re-

APPENDIX. 239

speclability, and connected with the first families in
that vicinity; he had been a merchant, but had failed
in business. Henry Howard was a very respectable
merchant, lately emigrated from England. Moees
Roberts was a journeyman hatter, in the employ of
Chesebro ; as was John Scofield. This man, Scofield,
absconded soon after the transaction, and has never
been heard of since that time, at least not by the oflB-
cers of justice. The characters and occupations of
these men are given, in order to enable those to judge
for themselves, who have repeatedly inquired whether
the persons implicated in the outrages upon Morgan
were of the lowest classes in society, and of such a
description that they would have committed those
offences, without the stimulants of masonic oaths and
discipline. The materials, in the course of this narra-
tive, will be found abundant to afford a satisfactory
answer to these inquiries.

"In the month of December, 1826, a grand jury
assembled in Monroe County, the county adjoining
Ontario, in which the village of Rochester is situated,
and through which Morgan was carried. They were
particularly and strongly charged by the presiding
judge to inquire into the subject. They called all the
witnesses before them, who, in that state of informa-
tion, were known. Among others, Ezra Piatt was
examined by them. This man, it will be recollected,
furnished the caniage at Rochester, into which Morgan
was removed from that which brought him from Can-
andaigua. He testified that his carriage had been
engaged by some one for the Masons, and that he
charged the hire of it to the Royal Aich Chapter; but
he did not know who engaged it, or who went in it.

240 THE BROKEN SEAL.

Edward Doyle testified that he knew nothing about
the transaction to which he could testify without crim-
inating himself. The same answer was given by
another person, whose name it is not proper to men-
tion. The jury could not find any bills of indictment,
but they made a presentment, in which they state that
they had ascertained that Morgan had been carried
through their county, and add: 'From the great cau-
tion which seems to have been observed in keeping
both Morgan and the place of his destination from the
view and knowledge of all but such persons as may
have been confidentially intrusted with the design, and
who would decline giving evidence, upon the ground
that it might tend to criminate themselves, the grand
jury have found it impossible to establish, by compe-
tent testimony, the imlawful agency of any citizen in
this county, in that transaction.'

" This result only stimulated an enlightened and
patriotic people to greater exertion. A county meet-
ing was immediately called and held to devise meas-
ures to ferret out the hidden workers of iniquity. A
large number of Masons attended, among them Burrage
Smith and John Whitney. At this meeting a com-
mittee of investigation was appointed, upon which
were placed several Masons. The other members soon
ascertained that all their proceedings were divulged by
their masonic associates, notwithstanding an honorary
obligation to the contrary, entered into by them; and
those who did not belong to the fraternity, determined
to act without the knowledge or assistance of any
Masons. Up to this time, the outrages on Morgan had
been considered the work of a few misguided and un-
important individuals; but the couduct of Masons,

APPENDIX. 241

generally, find particularly of those who had been
placed on the committee, excited the suspicions of
the observing, that the masonic fraternity was in some
way connected v.'ith those outrages. It was long, and
with great difficulty, that this suspicion ripened into
belief. Men could not believe that their fellow-citizens,
with whom they were in habits of daily intercourse,
and whom they had. been accustomed to respect, be-
longed to an institution which made the concealment
of the most atrocious crimes one of the most solemn
obligations of the order. But day after day added new
proof to the suspicion. They beheld the very com-
mittee who had been appointed indiscriminately from
all parties, and by citizens of all parties, vilified and
traduced for a faithful discharge of their duties. Men
who had no possible motive but the ascertainment of
truth, and the detection of the guilty (for as yet no
party had been arrayed, and no political objects had
even been surmised), for discharging a public trust, of
the most solemn nature, with fidelity ; these men were
ridiculed, misrepresented, insulted, and traduced daily
by the members o^' the masonic fraternif '. J nat evi-
dence which can be deduced only from a .on,- course of
observation of minor facts and circurastaaoos, a-id which,
in its nature, cannot be communicated to others, was
furnished to an intelligcMit and observing people; and
the conclusion was soon produced, that the laws of the
country could not be enforced so long as Masonry held
its sway over the minds of men ; and that submission
to its secret and irresponsible power, or an open and
avowed war of extermination, were the oidy alterna-
tives. Although somewhat foreign from their present
purpose, your conuniltee cannot forbear from here
16

242 THE BROKEN SEAL.

pausing, and asking, whether to their distant fellow-
citizens, there is not furnished strong moral evidence
of the baneful nature of the masonic institution, in the
fact, that more than half a million of free, enlightened,
and intelligent inhabitants of that section of country
which has afforded the best opportunity for judging,
have, in language that cannot be mistaken, expressed
their deliberate convictions that. Freemasonry cannot
exist consistently with our institutions. Why are they
not witnesses in the same sense in which the reputa
tion of an individual in a community is proof of hia
moral worth ? And why is not their testimony equally
satisfactory ?

"In December, 1826, a meeting of the citizens of
Niagara was held at Lewiston, at which a committee
was appointed to inquire into the circumstances of
Morgan's abduction, and to endeavor to bring the
offenders to punishment. Having ascertained that
Morgan had been taken to Canada, one of the commit-
tee crossed the river early in January, 1827, at the time
a grand jury was in session. He went before the grand
juiy, and proposed to furnish them with the names of
witnesses residing in Canada, if the grand jury would
agree to investigate the matter. After consulting to-
gether, they resolved to do so ; and they were accord-
ingly furnished with the names of several Masons
residing in the town of Niagara, which is more com-
monly called Newark, who were believed to be impor-
tant witnesses. The jury adjourned soon after. The
next day the complainant was informed that after the
adjournment of the jury the witnesses who had been
designated had been conversed with ; that after the
assembling of the jury in the morning they had con-

APPENDIX. 243

suited the district judge, and, thereupon, had resolved
to do no more in the premises. The complainant as-
certained that the district judge was a Freemason, and
that the foreman and a portion of the jury were also
Masons. This relation is derived from the gentleman
who was the complainant. It needs no comment.

" On the 29th of December, 1826, Eli Bruce was
arrested and brought before a magistrate of Niagara
county, on a charge of falsely imprisoning Morgan,
and of secreting him, &c. There was no legal proof
before the magistrate that any one had been forcibly
brought from Canandaigua, and Bruce was discharged.
But, on the examination, one fact appeared which de-
serves to be noted. Bruce had requested Samuel Bar-
ton to furnish him a carriage, to proceed down to
Niagara from Lewiston. The next morning, Bruce,
having returned to Lewiston, was asked if he went to
Youngstown the night before. He said he did. He
was then asked if he took Morgan down. He said he
did ; and observed that ' Barton was very imprudent
in sending Fox (the driver of the carriage) ; that he
had told him his business, and he ought not to have
sent any but a Mason.' It was the gradual disclosure
of such facts as these that excited the suspicions, and
ultimately produced the belief, of the participation of
the masonic fraternity in the transaction ; and that
there was something in the nature of the institution
which justified its members in relying on each other
for assistance and secrecy in the commission of crime.

"The next event of importance in the history of
these judicial proceedings, was the sitting of the court
of Oyer and Terminer, lor the county of Ontario, iu
January, 1827. Nicholas G. Chesebro, Edward Saw-

244 THE BROKEN SEAL.

yer, and Loton Lawson, being called on to proceed to
the trial of the indictment against them, which is pre-
viously mentioned, pleaded guilty to that indictment,
and the two first named filed aindavits explanatory of
their agency in the transaction. These have been
extensively published, and are well known. Lawson
made no attempt to explain or extenuate his offence,
and was sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail
for two years. Chesebro was sentenced to a like im-
prisonment for one year, and Sawyer for one month.
Sheldon went to trial on the question of his identity,
expressly admitting the crimes alleged in the indict-
ment to have been committed ; thus excluding all
proof of the main facts, which the public had antici-
pated would be^ developed on these trials. He was,
however, found guilty, and sentenced to three months
imprisonment. In passing sentence upon the defend-
ants, the circuit judge, who is now governor of New
York, descanted, in terms of great severity, upon the
nature of tlie crimes they had committed ; and, at the
request of several citizens, furnished a copy of his
remarks for publication. They were published accord-
ingly, and have been extensively circulated in that part
of the country. Still, a few extracts, it is believed,
will not be unacceptable. The judge says, 'Our con-
stitution shows it, and the declaration of our indepen-
dence declares, that the unmolested enjoyment of lib-
erty, and the pursuit of happiness, are the unalienable
rights of man. So sacred do we hold personal liberty,
that even the impressment of a seaman from one of our
ships has been considered a sufficient cause for national
war. . . . Your conduct has created, in the people of this
section of the country, a strong feeling of virtuous

APPENDIX. 245

indignation. The court rejoices to witness it, — to be
made sure that a citizen's person cannot be invaded by
hiwless violence, without its being felt by every individ
nal in the coinnuinity. It is a blessed spirit, and we do
ho])e it will not subside; that it will be accompanied by
a ceaseless vigilance and untiring activity until every
actor in this jirofligate conspiracy is liunteil from his
hiding-place, and brought before the tribunals of the
countiy, to receive the punishment n^erited by his crime.
We think we see, in this pubhc sensation, the spirit
wiiich brought us into existence as a nation, and a
pledge that our lights and liberties are destined to en-
dure.' The point of these remarks will be better under-
stood from a knowledge of the fact, that the counsel of
Sheldon, in their addresses to the jury, had cautioned
them against being influenced by the excitement that
prevailed; had represented that excitement to have been
produced by ambitious demagogues, who hope to ' ride
the whirlwind and direct the storm;' and had depre-
cated the attempt to connect the masonic institution
with such foul acts as were charged. The remarks of
the judge were intended as a rebuke for this language;
and the praise which he lavished on 'the blessed spirit'
was thus intended and understood as an encomium on
Antimasonry. The truth and Ibrce of his observations
are not diminislied by the circumstance, that when he
ceased to be an independent and impartial ju<lge, and
became a political partisan, associated with Masons,
and dependent on them for success, he himself sought
to discredit this ' blessed spirit,' to check ' tlie cease-
less vigilance,' and to rebuke and paralyze ' the untiring
activity' which he had commended. Its only ell'cct is,
to establish most conclusively the contaminating inllu-

246 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ence of Freemasonry, and its vast power, which could
compel a public officer llius to proclaim his own incon-
sistency, and repudiate sentiments which found their
echo in the bosom of every American who was neither
'hoodwinked nor cable-towed.'

"In the month of February, 1827, a grand jury for
Ontario county again assembled at the Court of Gen-
eral Sessions of the Peace, and renewed the inquiries
for the detection of the offenders against Morgan.
They found a bill of indictment against seventeen per-
sons, for a conspiracy to kidnap and carry away that
person, and for falsely imprisoning and carrying him to
parts unknown. These persons were James Lakey, a
physician, Chauncy H. Coe, a stage proprietor, Hiram
Hubbard, the keeper of a livery stable, Jolm Butter-
field, whose occupation is unknown, James Ganson, an
innkeeper, and formerly a member of the state legisla-
ture, Asa Nowlen, an innkeeper, Plarris Seymour,
Henry Howard, Joseph Scofield, and Moses Roberts,
who have been before mentioned, Halloway Hayward,
a constable, James Gillis, a respectable farmer, John
Whitney, a respectable stone-cutter, Burrage Smith, a
grocer, Simeon B. Jewett, an attorney and counsellor at
law, and Willard Eddy, whose occupation is unknown.

" At the same court, the indictment against Harris
Seymour, Henry Howard, and Moses Roberts, for con-
spiring to charge Morgan with stealing, which had been
found, as before mentioned, was brought to trial. It
was in proof that these persons had gone with Chese-
bro from Canandaigua to Batavia, to arrest Morgan on
the warrant which had been fraudulently obtained
against him, issued by the justice, Chipman, for steal-
ing a shirt and handkerchief; that he had been taken

APPENDIX. 247

in Batavia, and hurried off with great severity and
rudeness, and without giving him an opportunity to
apprise his friends of his situation. But it was held
by the court, tliat the warrant was evidence of proba-
ble cause, and that the defendants could not be con-
victed. They were accordingly acquitted.

"In March, 1827, another grand jury assembled in
Monroe county, at the court of Oyei- and Terminer.
A majority of them were Freemasons. Very foint
efforts were made to obtain testimony, and no indict-
ments were found.

"In April, 1827, a grand jury assembled at the Oyer
and Terminer, in Niagara county, and a complaint was
made to them against Eli Bruce, then sheriff of that
county, by one of the county committee. It seems to
have been anticipated that this grand jury would enter
upon an investigation of the subject, and preparations
were made accordingly. It is stated by ITiram B.
Hopkins, a Royai Arch Mason, and at the time deputy
sheriff, that lie was instructed not to summon any grand
jurors but such as were particularly friendly to the
masonic institution. At that time grand jurors were
selected by the sheriff from the citizens at large. The
jury were accordingly packed, pursuant to these in-
structions,— twelve of them being Masons, and the
others friendly to the order. Mr. II()j»kins says, 'The
district attorney was a Royal Arch Mason, who knew
all about the Morgan affiir, in my o])inion ; and the
foreman of the jury was one of the warmest zealots of
the order in tlie county.' One of these grand jurors
has furnished a statement of the proceedings before
them, from which the following is taken: The fore-
man claimed the ri^fht to examine the witnesses hir

/

248 THE BROKEN SEAL.

self! Aftei' several had been examined by him in such
a way as to give no information, one of the jurors put
questions to a witness. When that witness had retired,
this juror was called aside by the foreman, and private-
ly solicited to refrain thereafter from asking questions,
and to leave it with the foreman. The juror, however,
persisted ; and, on one occasion, insisted that a witness
should answer what he knew of the matter. The wit-
ness objected, because, he said, he considered his testi-
mony irrelevant, and because he was a poor man, who
got his living by labor; and if he should testify, it
might prove a serious injury to himself and his family.
A large majority of the jury decided that the witness
need not answer ; but the pertinacious juror insisted on
his right, and finally obtained his point. The witness
was called back, and testified that Bruce had acknowl-
edged to the witness his agency in carrying Morgan to
Niagara. Witnesses were introduced and examined to
impeach the credibility of the last named witness.
Another witness testified that he had been informed,
by a respectable inhabitant, that Morgan had been
carried to Fort Niagara, thence to Canada shore, and
thence returned to Fort Niagara ; that he had been
subsequently put to death : that his body was in the
bottom of the Niagara River, and might be found if
searched for immediately, and he (the informant) could
tell the place where it would be found. The witness
stated that he derived this information from a man
who said he was a Mason, and insisted that his name
should be kept secret, for that if it were known his life
would pay the forfeit. The pertinacious juror required
the witness to give the name of his informant, with a
view to have him called as a witness, which he refused

APPENDIX. 249

to do; and nearly, if not quite all the other jurors,
sustained the witness in his refusal. During the pend-
ing of the inquiry before the jury, the foreman was
seen to leave the jury room, and retire to a private
room with Bruce, and there remain for a considerable
time. Among the witnesses examined before tills grand
jury was Corydon Fox, who has at all times, wlien
properly asked, testified to the fact of Bruce's riding
with him on the driver's seat of the carriage, which
Fox drove, and which contained Morgan while he was
conveyed from Lewiston to Niagara ; and it must have
required great ingenuity to prevent this witness from
stating that fact. Among other witnesses examined,
were Solomon C. Wright, Ezekiel Jewett, the keeper of
Fort Niagara, Elisha Adams, the ferrynaan at Youngs-
town, Edward Doyle, Parkhurst Whitney, Noah Beach,
and Samuel M. Chubbuck. These names are meniioned,
because they are familiar to those who have read tlie
trials, as the very individuals who must have known
all about the transaction. It does not appear that any
of them, on this occasion, refused to answer on the
ground that such answer might criminate themselves.
By what device they satisfied their own consciences,
and avoided disclosing the truth, may, perhaps, be ex-
plained by what Edward Giddius says, in his Almanac
for 1829, at p. 45 : 'During the winter,' he says, ' I h.ad
frequent conversations with Masoni* on the same sub-
ject, all of whom used the same argument, and con-
cluded by urging that they had agreed to testify, when
called on, that they knew nothing about the affair ;
that they thought themselves justified in doing so by
the nature of their masonic oaths, which they never
could think of breaking.' ' And,' he says, ' that in order

/

250 THE BROKEN SEAL.

to dispel his doubts he was particularly inferred to that
clause of the Royal Arch Mason's obligation, which
binds them to rescue a companion, whether right or
wrong.' The unsullied character of this man for truth
has lately been so thoroughly tested, and so trium-
phantly established, that nothing need be said to im-
press any one with the absolute verity of any relation
he deliberately makes.

" The conduct of this grand jury and of the wit-
nesses has been dwelt upon with some minuteness, as
furnishing evidence which no dispassionate mind can
resist, of the awful prostitution of the most sacred
offices of justice, and of the dreadful suppression of
truth, produced by masonic obligations. The cap-stone
of this edifice of guilt and infamy yet remains to be
exhibited. Seventeen of this grand jury made a for-
mal representation to the governor of the state, that,
after a long, laborious, and ' 2:)articular examination of all
the witnesses, it did not appear that Eli Bruce, or any
other person named, was guilty of, or accessory to, the
abduction of William Morgan;' and they make known
to tlie governor the result of theii' inquiries, 'that blame
may not rest on the innocent! ' It would scarcely be
believed that the Eli Bruce, here referred to, is the
same man who has been proved, over and over again,
by the same witnesses who were examined by that
grand jury, to have been the chief actor in conducting
Morgan through Niagara county, who hired horses
twice, and a carriage once, for the purpose, and who
has himself, in open court, sworn that he did so!

"The next grand jury that assembled in Niagara, in
May, 1827, consisted of nineteen persons, of whom
fourteen were well-known Masons. It was so palpably

APPENDIX. 251

useless to make any further efforts with such a grand
jury, that no coraphiint was made to them. A law,
however, was passed by the legislature this year, direct-
ing grand jurors to be selected by lot from lists to be
returned by town officers. As soon as this law went
into effect impartial grand jurors were obtained, and
in Niagara county complaints were made before them,
in the latter pait of the year, and indictmtJnts found
against William King, Ezekiel Jewett, Elisha Adams,
Solomon C. Wright, Jeremiah Brown, Parkhurst Whit-
ney, Noah Beach, Timothy Shaw, William Miller, and
Samuel M. Chubbuck. William King was esteemed
one of the most respectable citizens of the county,
having represented it but a short time before in the
state legislature. Ezekiel Jewett was very respectable,
and was employed by the government to take charge
of Fort Niagara : he and King weie both colonels.
Elisha Adams was the ferryman at Youngstown. Solo-
mon C. W^ right was a respectable innkeeper and a
postmaster. Jeremiah Brown was a respectable farmer,
in good standing. The others were all respectable
men, and regarded as peaceable and orderly citizens.

"In August, 1827, at the Ontario General Sessions,
Halloway ITowaid, James Ganson, Harris Seymour,
Ileniy Howard, and Moses Rol)erts were brought to
trial on the indictment against them for conspiracy and
the abduction of Morgan, and were acquitted. With
reganl to all of them but Ganson, the proof consisted
in their liaving gone with Cheseljro to Batavia to arrest
Morgan, and having brought him to Canandaigua; and
with respect to Ganson, the proof consisted in Ins hav-
ing aided them on the way. Chesebro was examined
as a witnesss, and testified that those persons were not

252 THE BROKEN SEAL.

infoimed by him, and did not know, to his knowledge,
of any ulterior design with respect to Morgan, after he
should be brought to Canandaigua. This testimony
produced their acquittal. Chauncy H. Coe, Hiram
Hubbard, and James Lakey were tried at the same
court, upon a similar indictment. With respect to
Coe, the chief testimony was, his having engaged the
carriage and horses of Hubbard, with which Moi'gan
was carried off; and Hubbard was implicated, from the
fact of having furnished, and himself drove the car-
riage. Lakey was implicated in consequence of his
interference in procuring the warrant for the arrest of
Morgan. The proofj however, did not establish that
previous knowledge of the purpose for which the car-
riage was wanted to justify a conviction, and they were
acquitted.

"At this time, Edward Sawyer, who had been sub-
poenaed as a witness, did not appear, and an attachment
was issued against him. Whether his appearance and
testimony would have varied the result in any of the
trials before mentioned, it is impossible to say ; al-
though, from his testimony on subsequent occasions, it
is presumed it would not.

"At the same term an indictment for conspiracy
and for kidnapping was found against Eli Bruce, David
Hague, Orsamus Turner, and Jedediah Darrow. Bruce,
as is well known, was sheriff of Niagara, and in high
standing in the community. Hague was a tailor at
Lockport, and died before he could be brouglit to trial.
Tuiner was the publisher of a newspaper at Lockport,
of respectable character. Darrow was also a respecta-
ble man, but his occupation is unknown. He was
afterwards appointed postmaster.

APPENDIX. 253

"At. the Ontario General Sessions, in February, 1828,
an attachraeiit was ordered against Jeremiah Brown,
who had neglected to appear as a witness, according
to a subpoena, and against Isaac Farewell, for the same
cause. It afterwards appeared that Farewell had at
this time been sent into Canada, where he was kept,
while his finniily remained in Niagara county. No
proceedings were had at this term upon the indict-
ments pending.

"In the winter of 1828, the acting governor of New
York called the attention of the legislature to the
alarmed state of the public mind in relation to the
fate of Morgan, and to the inefficiency of the ordinary
means to bring the offenders to justice ; and he rec-
ommended the appointment of a special attorney, to
take charge of the investigation. A law to that effect
was passed, notwithstanding a vigorous opposition ;
and Mr. Moseley was appointed the special attorney.
In August of that year, the indictment against Bruce,
Turner, and Darrow was brought to trial at the Ontario
General Sessions. In order to maintain the indictment
for a conspiracy in Ontario, or for the kidnap[»ing in
that county, as the defendants had not been personally
acting in the matter in that county, it became necessary
to prove a pre-concert to remove iVIorgan liom Canan-
daigua. With legard to Turner and Darrow, no such
proof existed ; what they did in relation to the trans-
action occurred after the an-ival of Morgan at Lewis-
ton, or while he was at Batavia. They were acquitted,
i!nd Bruce was convicted ; but sentence was suspended
to take the o])inion of the Supreme Court upon some
legal exceptions that had been made, in reference,
chiefly, to tbe point whether he had been guilty of any

254 THE BROKEN SEAL.

offence in Ontario. On this trial, Solomon C. "Wrighi
was examined as a witness, and testified in such a man-
ner that he was afterwards indicted for perjury. l!)d-
ward Doyle, who had entered into a recognizance to
appear as a witness, failed to do so, and forfeited his
recognizance, which was estreated at this term.

"In November, 1828, an indictment was found at
the court of Oyer and Terminer, of Orleans county,
against Elihu Mather, for the conspiracy and kidnap-
ping. Mather was one of the most respectable citizens
of that county, and was very generally esteemed.
Soon after this indictment he removed to Vermont,
where he was beyond the reach of process to compel
his appearance as a witness on the trial of other persons.
"In the same month new indictments were found
in Niagara against the same persons already mentioned
as having been indicted in that county, the former
bills having been found defective. In the succeeding
winter, Mr. Moseley, being appointed circuit judge,
resigned the office of special attorney, and in March,
1829, J. C. Spencer was appointed in his place, at the
solicitation, as is understood, of members of the legis-
lature from the western part of the State of New
York.

"In March, 1829, preparations were made to try the
indictment against Elihu Mather, in Orleans county,
at the court of Oyer and Terminer which was then
held. But it was removed by the defendant, by cer-
tiorari, into the Supreme Court, which operated as a
postponement of the trial for about six months.

"In the same month, a vigorous effort was made
before the grand jury, which assembled at Rochester,
in Monroe county, to penetrate the cloud of darkness

APPENDIX. 255

which rested on the transactions at that place, and to
detect the offenders there. A great number of witnesses
■^/ere closely examined, but very little in the shape of
legal testimony was elicited, while a clew to many im-
portant facts was obtained. Among these witnesses
was Isaac Allen, with respect to whom the grand jury
made a report to the court, that he had refused to an-
swer questions put to him, touching his knowledge of
the facts, whether a carriage had stopped at his house
on the 11th, 12th, or 13th of September, 1826 ; whether
any person had applied to him to furnish a pair of horses
to draw a carriage to the west about those days ; and
whether a certain person, who was named to him, was at
his house on either of those days, at a time when a car-
riage was going to the west. And the jury reported
that the reason assigned by Allen for his refusal was,
that the answers might lend to implicate himself. An
elaborate argument was made before the court by the
special attorney, and by the counsel for Allen, who was
the same counsel that has appeared in behalf of the
persons indicted on almost every occasion. The court
decided that the witness was bound to answer the
questions ; but he persisted in his refusal, and was com-
mitted to prison. The purpose of making an example
of a contumacious witness having been thus accom-
plished, he was discharged after a few days, with the
consent of the prosecuting officers. This grand jury
found an indictment against Simeon B. Jewett, an
attorney at law, and Burrage Smith, for the conspiracy
and kidnapping. They had been previously indicted
in Ontario, but the overt acts charged against them
having been committed in Monroe, as alleged, it be-
came expedient to indict them in that county. Bur-

256 THE BROKEN SEAL.

rage Smith had previously gone out of the state, with
John Whitney, to the South-western States. Messrs.
Phineas P. Bates and Joseph Garlinghouse — the one
of them then sheriff, and the other the former sheriff
of Ontario — went in pursuit of them, and of William
King, who had gone to Arkansas, leaving his family in
Niagara. They were clothed with authority from the
governor of New York to demand the fugitives and
bring them to that state. The history of their expedi-
tion has been published by those gentlemen under the
sanction of their names; and it discloses the fact that
the same cause operated to defeat their purpose, and
successfully baffled their enterprise, which has been
found invariably obstructing the march of justice
through all the proceedings connected with this whole
transaction. Twice did they pursue the fugitives into
the remotest corners of the Union, and in each instance
they failed. They have unreservedly given the facts
which justify the belief that their failure was owing to
the interference of Masons in communicating intelli-
gence to the persons for whom they were in search.
After penetrating to the western boundaries of Mis-
souri, and traversing the country to New Orleans, these
gentlemen returned, with a solemn conviction that, if
they had succeeded in arresting any of the fugitives,
they would have been utterly unable to return with
them to the State of New York ; and that their prison-
ers would have been taken from them, either by the
perversion and abuse of legal forms and process, or by
open violence. It should be remarked, that one of
these gentlemen was a Royal Arch Mason, and that
what he witnessed during these journeys, so entirely
satisfied him of the dangerous nature of the institution^

APPENDIX. 257

and its adaptation to the commission and concealment
of crime, that he has abjured all connection with it, and
has united ftis voice and his eiForts with the great mul-
titude of his fellow-citizens in that quarter, to exter-
minate it Irom the soil of America. Burrage Smith
died in New Orleans some time after the pursuit for
him. William King returned to his family in Niagara,
and published a blustering notice to Messrs. Bates and
Garlinghouse of his having come back to stand his
trial. Immediate measures were taken for his arrest,
and he was put under heavy bonds. The next day,
after hearing that Bruce had testified to the fact that
King accompanied him in the carriage which contained
Morgan, and had crossed the Niagara River with hira.
Colonel King suddenly died, as was said, in an apoplec-
tic fit. John Whitney also returned at his leisure, and
was afterwards tried.

"At the February Sessions of Ontario County, in
1829, an attachment was issued against Lyman Aldrich
for not appearing as a witness upon the indictment
against Gillis and Whitney, pursuant to a subpoena;
and his recognizance, entered into for that purpose,
was forfeited. He was arrested and committed to
prison, and by that means his attendance at the ensu-
ing court was secured. Attachments were also issued
against Nicholas G. Chesebro, Edward Sawyer, and
Thomas M. Boughton, who had been subpoenaed as
witnesses on the same indictment.

"In May, 1829, inquiries were renewed by the special
attorney before the grand jury of Niagara county. A
multitude of witnesses weie examined, and, although
many important collateral facts were elicited, yet the
great point — the murder of William Morgan — could
17

258 THE BROKEN SEAL.

not be legally established. At this time, an irregularity
was discoV'jred which might prove fatal to the indict-
ments Ibund in that county, and new bills were pre-
pared and found against the persons who had already
been indicted.

"Previous to this time efforts were made to procure
the attendance of Ezra Piatt as a witness. This was
the individual who had hired his carriage to a person
he did not know, which had been employed in the
transportation of Morgan, and for the hire of which he
bad charged a Royal Arch Chapter. He had removed
to the city of Albany, where he was publicly employed
in a stagU'oliice. His previous conduct had been such
that good cause existed to pr-ocure a warrant for his
ari'est, with a view to bind him over to appear as a wit-
ness. Appliiiation was made to Judge Duer, the then
circuit i lid <je of that district, who granted the warrant,
which Was ])ut into the hands of an officer. Piatt
suddenly and immediately disappeared. False and de-
lusive ififurtnation was given of the place of his con-
cealment, and search was there made for him in vain.
The fir.^t authentic account received of him was, that
he had gone to the State of New Jersey, where he
remained s<) long as his testimony as a witness was
required.

"Notwithstanding these difficulties at the Ontario
General Sessions in May, 1829, the indictment against
John Whitney and James Gillis was brought to trial.
Whitnf^/ h:\d returned, as before mentioned. Gillis
was in ''-.a ".•rtate of Pennsylvania. Whitney was con-
victed, l;r.i the jury could not agree as to Gillis, they
not ha '-i-fj^ lime to deliberate on the subject before the
expirai i-.Ji: if the term of the court. Whitney was

APPENDIX. 259

eeutenced to one year's imprisonment. Oh liiis trial,
Lyraan Aldrich, the witness wlio had beer: ttio cause
of much trouble and delay, was offered as a witness,
and was objected to, on the ground of his want of re-
ligious belief. The question w'as elaborately discussed,
and he was finally admitted. On this trial, Eli Bruce
was produced as a witness on the part of riie defend-
ants. He testified to the fact of Morgan's having
been transported to the Niagara River, blindfolded, of
his having been carried across that river, returned and
shut up in Fort Niagara, with the assistance of Bruce
himself At this term, the opinion of the Supreme
Court having been obtained upon the case of tlie same
Eli Bruce, he was sentenced to imprisonment in the
county jail for two years and four months. Previous
to his sentence, Hiram B. Hopkins was examined, and
testified that he was the deputy of Bruce, and kept the
jail of Niagara county; and that while ?»!(»rgan was
at Batavia, a plan was on foot to bring him across
the country to Lockport ; and that, in ol>edience to
Bruce's directions, he had prepared a cell in the jail in
which to confine Morgan while on his w^ay to mr^et his
doom. This shocking perversion of a building, con-
secrated to the ])urposes of justice, justly enhanced the
punishment of Bruce. During the whole term of his
imprisonment lie was visited by Freemasons from
every part of the United States, who repaired to his
cell as that of a martyr suffering i'ov the conscientious
discharge of some high and imperative iluty. Not-
withstanding the atrocity of his guilt, so <leaily estab-
lished by the testimony of liis deputy and liis own
evidence, yet crowds daily thronged around him, testi-
fying their sympathy and their respect. Every com-

260 THE BROKEN SEAL.

fort that the laws would allow was provided for him ;
and even ladies of character waited upon him in per-
son, with delicacies prepared by their owii hands. The
same jail has often contained Freemasons, imprisoned
for debt, who were never cheered by the visits, or
solaced by the sympathy of their brethren !

" At the same court, an attachment was issued against
James Mather for refusing to obey a subpoena to appear
as a witness on the trial of Whitney. Edward Sawyer
was fined twenty-five dollars for his contempt in not
appearing at a former court as a witness. John Yoor-
hia was indicted for dissuading Lyman Aldrich from
attending a former court as a witness, and for carrying
him off to prevent his appearance. These persons
were all members of the masonic fraternity.

"In June, 1829, a grand jury assembled at the Court
of General- Sessions, held for the county of Genesee,
at Batavia, and an effort was made to discover the per-
sons in that county who had been engaged in the
conspiracy against Morgan. Exertions had been made
at an early period in that county, before grand juries,
to develop, the transactions at Batavia. But all at-
tempts having been baflled, they were not renewed
until this time. Persons had been indicted, tried, and
convicted for a riot in the outrages upon David C. Mil-
ler and his printing ofiice, in which the Illustrations of
Morgan had been printed. But no bills had been found
against any persons for the offences against Morgan,
and of course there were none pending. One of the
standing counsel of the persons indicted in other coun-
ties, however, attended. The puipose must be left to
conjecture, except so far as it is explained by subse-
quent occurrences. Eli Bruce was brought, on a habeas

APPENDIX. 261

corpus, from the jail of Ontario, to testify befoie this
grand jury in Genesee. While on his way to the jury
room, and before he reached it, a letter -was put into
his hands from the counsel so attending. Upon Bruce's
being brought before the grand jury, he peremptorily
refused to be sworn as a witness. A great nundier of
Masons from distant parts had collected at Batavia;
and they, together with their brethren of the order
residing at that place, were much elated at this refusal
of Bruce, and complimented him highly for what they
were pleased to call his constancy and fidelity.

" Numerous witnesses were examined, and a new scene
in the drama was developed. Indictments were found
against William R. Thompson, Nathan Follett, Blanch-
ard Powers, and William Seaver, for a conspiracy to
kidnap William Morgan, and carry him from Batavia
to parts unknown. Thompson was the sheriff of that
county ; the others were all respectable citizens.

"In July, 1829, a court of Oyer and Terminer was
held in Niagara county, at which it was intended to
bring on the trial of the indictments that had been
previously found in that county. But they were all
removed, at the instance of the defendants, into the
Supreme Court, by certiorari. The examinations be-
fore the grand jury were resumed. Among others,
James Mather was examined, and gave such \insatis-
factory and equivocal answers, that the jury reported
him to the couit, by whom he was admonished ; but all
efforts failed to obtain fiom him su<rh answers as the
jury deemed satisfactory.

"Between this and the next courts tliat were lidd,
efforts were made to obtain some witnesses who had
kept secreted, and whose places of residence were now

262 THE BROKEN SEAL.

discovered. Upon satisfactory proof being made to
the first judge of Monroe county, a warrant was ob-
tained from him for the arrest of Prior Harris, in order
to hold him to bail for his appearance as a witness.
This man was the driver of the stage which had gone
to the west of Rochester on the same day that Morgan
was carried through that place. The warrant was ob-
tained with great secrecy, and put into the hands of a
confidential officer, who proceeded to the county of
Montgomery to execute it. While riding in the stage
through that county, he met and passed Harris, who
was driving another stage. The officer proceeded im-
mediately to the sheriff of the county, to obtain a
deputation which would authorize him to execute his
process there. On his return to the place where Har-
ris had stopped with his stage, the officer discovered
that he had suddenly fled, leaving his stage and horses.
All attempts to discover him were fruitless. The of-
ficer is of opinion that he was followed from Rochester,
or accompanied by some one who gave the alarm, or
the sign of distress, to Harris.

"Hannah Farnsworth, a relative of Solomon C.
Wright, who was believed to be an important witness,
had, for a long time, baffled all efforts to compel her
attendance at court. At length a warrant for her
arrest was obtained, and a vigilant officer succeeded in
taking her. On bringing her before a judge to give
bail for her appearance, she and her friends refused to
give bail, and she was committed to the custody of the
sheriff of Ontario.

"In August, 1829, at the Ontario General Sessions,
an attempt was made to bring on the trial of the in-
dictment against Solomon C. Wright, for perjury com-

APPENDIX. 263

milled on ihe liial of Bruce. But from ihe absence
of iraporlanl witnesses it was impossible. Hannah
Farnsworlh,llie witness who had been detained in order
to testify on the trial of Wriglit, was discharged by
the court, on her entering into a recognizance for her
appearance, and making a promise, in open court, that
she would appear. She never afterwards appeared, or
could be found.

"At the same court, Elijah J. Roberts, the editor of
a newspaper called the Craftsman, was indicted for a
libel on the jury who convicted John Whitney. This
paper had been established by contributions of JNIasons,
and was patronized almost exclusively by them, for the
purpose of vindicating their order. Its editor had
warndy espoused the cause of the indicted persons, and
represented them as innocent and persecuted men,
while his ])aper ovei-flowed with abuse of every public
officer and private citizen who had taken any part in
the exertions to bring to punishment the kidnappers of
Morgan. He was tried on this indictment in January,
1830, when the jury could not agree on their verdict.
It was afterwards ascertained that the disagreement
pi'ocecded from four Masons who were on the jury.
He was again tried in June, 1830, wlien he did not
even call a witness to jtrove the libels he had published,
and he was convicted without hesitation, and fined
fifty dollars. The liistory of this case is introduced in
consequence of its connection with the main trials, and
to exhibit one of the instances of the operation of
masonic feeling in the jury-box.

" In August, 1829, a court of Oyer and Terminer
was held for Monroe county ; and, as this was the last
court at which a grand jury would bo assembled in

264 THE BROKEN SEAL.

that county before the statute of limitations would
attach upon prosecutions for the conspiracy and kid-
napping, preparations were made for a more thorough
investigation than had yet been had. Orson Park-
hurst, the driver of Piatt's carriage, which conveyed
Morgan from Rochester, had absented himself from
the state immediately after that transaction. Plis place
of concealment had been changed from time to time,
but at length it was discovered. An agent was em-
ployed to go in pursuit of him, and to bring him to the
State of New York. The agent succeeded in finding
him in a sequestered part of the State of Vermont,
and brought him to within forty or fifty miles of Roch-
ester. He had been watched at Albany, on his return
through that place, and was followed on his way to the
west. At night a stranger came on board the canal
boat, in which the agent and Parkhurst were, and in
the course of the night Parkhurst disappeared, and no
tidings have since been heard of him. It is believed
that this man could have identified many persons at
Rochester as having been engaged in the carrying of
Morgan through that place.

"Inquiries, however, were pursued before the grand
jury ; much information was obtained ; and an indict-
ment for conspiracy and kidnapping was found against
the Rev. Francis H. Gumming, a settled clergyman at
Rochester, who had been regarded as among the most
respectable of his profession.

"At this court, the indictment against Simeon B.
Jewett was removed into the Supreme Court by the
defendant.

"In September, 1829, a further examination of wit-
nesses was had before a grand jury in Niagara county;

APPENDIX. 265

and bills of indictment were found against Henry Max-
well, Norman Shepard, and another, whose name is not
recollected, for a conspiracy to remove Morgan from
Batavia, and kidnap him. An attachment was issued
against John W. Beals, who had been duly subpoenaed
as a witness to attend this court, and had refused to
attend. He is a Mason of high grade, as is understood,
and a very respectable citizen. He was taken on the
attachment, and gave bail to appear and answer for his
contempt. He did not appear, and his bonds were
forfeited.

"In October, 1829, Simeon B. Jewett made a motion
to the Supreme Court to quash the indictment found
against him in Monroe county, on several grounds; —
that the town officers, in selecting grand jurors, had
evinced partinlity in not taking any Masons, and re-
turning many Antimasoiiis ; and that some of the grand
jurors had expressed opinions unfavorable to his inno-
cence. The motion was denied. The court held that
the discretion of selecting grand jurors was vested by
law exclusively in the supervisors; and the only power
the court had was to inquire whether any of those actual-
ly returned possessed the qualifications required by law ;
and as the contrary had not even been alleged, tliere
was no ground for the objection. With that latitude
of remark which judges are sometimes apt to indulge
upon matters; in respect to which they previously ad-
mitted that they had no power, some of the court
thought proper to express disapprobation of the super-
visors' excluding any set of men on the ground of their
belonging to any particular association or fraternity, —
although it had just been admitted that the discretion
rested wholly with the supervisors. This remark.

266 THE BROKEN SEAL.

which was entirely extrajudicial, is therefore as liable
to observation as if it had not been made on the bench.
Can any unprejudiced man seriously think that mem-
bers of a fraternity should be placed upon the inquiring
and accusing jury which had in charge an accusation
that vitally affected that fraternity? Apply the princi-
ple to any benevolent society, to a church, to a banking
company; would any one, in his senses, select the
members of such societies or companies to investigate
a charge, which, if true, ought to destroy the society ?
But the objection applied with tenfold force to the
selection of Masons to detect and prosecute the persons
engaged in the offences against Morgan. The facts
detailed in this report show how far they had made
common cause with the offenders, and how little they
were to be trusted. A thousand corroborative facts
and circumstances, which were daily passing before the
eyes of an intelligent people, evinced the close connec-
tion between the Masons and their general defence of
the outrages. Add to this, that the horrid obligations
of the fraternity to conceal each other's crimes, to fly
to the assistance of each other in every extremity, save
that of endangering life, and to espouse the cause of a
brother, whether right or wrong, had been revealed,
and repeatedly confirmed, by judicial evidence. Would
it not have been a dereliction of duty to. appoint men,
under such circumstances, Vo determine whether their
brethren should be punished for an offence committed
under the sanction of masonic obligations? The sub-
ject might be more amply discussed, but thus much
seemed due to a body of honest and independent citi-
zens, who have been traduced beyond measure for the
performance of a sacred and solemn duty, according to

APPENDIX. 267

the dictates of their consciences, and for giving a de-
cision similar to what has been had in the highest court
of tlie state, for the trial of issues of fact, and by one
of the judges of its Supreme Court.

" At the court of Oyer and Terminer, held for the
county of Orleans, in the month of November, 1829,
Elihu Mather was brought to trial, on the indictment
against him before mentioned, for conspiracy and kid-
napping. The then special counsel determined to test,
in the most solemn and formal manner, the question,
whether Freemasons were competent jurors on the trial
of issues in which a brother Mason was a party. The
first juror called, who v/as known to be a Mason, was
Robert Anderson. The special counsel challenged hira
peremptorily, on the ground that he belonged to the
same society and corporation with the defendant. It
was admitted that the Ruyai Arch Chapter was incor-
porated, that the juror and defendant were both mem-
bers of it: and the English authorities were adduced,
which declare that it is a sufficient ground for peremp-
tory challenge, that the juror belongs to the same
society or corporation with a party. Tiie circuit judge
overruled the challenge; and the juror was then chal-
lenged for favor, as it is called, on the ground that he
was not impartial; that he belonged to a secret society,
called Freemasons, of which the defendant also was a
member, and that they had taken oaths which bound
them to assist each other in every extremity. Triers
were appointed by the court ; witnesses were called to
prove the masonic oljligations, and among others the
juror himself was examined. Alter a long investiga-
tion and discussion by counsel the juror was rejected.
Another juror, by the name of John Dolly, was soon

268 THE BROKEN SEAL.

after called, and challenged for favor on the same
ground. A desperate effort was made by the counsel
for the prisoner to procure the admission of this juror.
The triers were agreed upon by the counsel on both
sides, and appointed by the court. The masonic oaths
and obligations, up to and including that of the Royal
Arch Companion, were proved by the most respectable
witnesses ; and they appeared to be precisely those
revealed by William Morgan, and the Le Roy conven-
tion of seceding Masons, and which are contained in
Bernard's Light on Masonry. In order to impair the
effect of this testimony, the counsel for the defendant
called William W. Ruggles, a master of a lodge, an
adhering Mason, and one of the counsel for the de-
fendant, and endeavored to show by him that lectures
were given in the lodges explanatory and qualifying
the obligations. This atteni])t was an entire failure ;
but the witness was compelled, in the course of his
testimony, to repeat the oaths; and he confirmed the
witnesses on the part of the prosecution, particularly
that the Master Mason's oath contained an obligation
to keep the secrets of a brother, with the exception of
murder and treason ; and that the oath of a Royal
Arch Companion contained a promise ' to espouse the
cause of a brother engaged in any quarrel or difficulty,
so far as to extricate him from the same, whether he was
right or wrong.' After a severe and obstinate contest,
this juror was also rejected by the triers. The trial
proceeded ; and the fact that Mather, the defendant, a
respectable farmer, had himself turned hack-driver, and
drove the carriage containing Morgan through the
county of Oileans, was abundantly proved. From the
difficulty of extracting the facts from the witnesses, the

APPENDIX. 269

point that Morgan was forcibly carried away witli the
knowledge of Mather, depended on the circumstances
of the case, which, although they were strong, and
would have been abundant in an ordinary cause, were
deemed not conclusive. In addition to this, tlie judge
charged the jury erroneously on a point of law, as
was afterwards determined by the Supreme Court, and
the defendant was acquitted. In the trial of the cause,
a witness, who was a Royal Arch Companion, and who
resided in a distant and remote part of the state, testi-
fied that after some of the prosecutions had been com-
menced, Mather applied to the chapter where the wit-
ness resided for funds to relieve and del'end Bruce and
his associates. The witness could not, or would not,
relate the result of the application. In the course of
this trial, William P. Daniels was examined as a wit-
ness. He was a Freemason, and came into court at-
tended by counsel, to whom he resorted, when a ques-
tion was asked him, to advise him whether to answer
it or not. He several times declined answering ques-
tions; and, on one occasion, persisted in his refusal,
until the order for liis commitment was nearly com-
pleted, when he relented. But he wsxS excused from
answering some important questions, on the ground
that by answering he would criminate himself. At one
time, he rel'erred to a written memorandum, and read
from it his answer to a question that had been j^ressed
upon him; upon inquiry, he stated that the memoran
dum had been prc])ared lor him by his counsel !

"At the ensuing term of the .Su])reme Court, ir
January, 1830, the exceptions which had been taken to
the charge of the judge in Mather's case were argued,
and in the ensuing May, that court decided that th*

270 THE BROKEN SEAL.

judg'.^ ha<l been in error ; but for some reason, which
it would be difficult to state, the court refused to direct
a new trial, and Mather has thus escaped. At the
same term of the Supreme Court, Simeon B. Jewett,
who had been indulged with that time ibr pleading to
his indictment, interposed a plea, thfat one of the grand
jurors who found the bill had not the requisite property
qualification. A motion was made to overrule this
plea as frivolous. The court expressed its impression
that the j)lea was bad, but refused the motion to over-
rule it, for the purpose of enabling the defendant to
place it upon the record. It was then demurred to ;
the demurrer was argued in the succeeding May term ;
and nine months afterwards, in Januaiy, 1831, the court
formally decided that the plea was bad. In that state
the indictment still remains.

"In April, 1830, preparations were made for trying
the indictments in the county of Niagara, but the judge
refused, fo try them.

"In May, 1830, J. C. Spencer resigned the office of
special counsel, alleging, in a letter which was pub-
lished, that his confidential communications to the
executive, under whose authority he acted, had been
disclosed, so as to reach the counsel for the accused,
and enable them to paralyze his exertions ; and that,
instead of leaving to the executive and the accounting
officer of the state, as the law had originally provided,
the adjustment of the compensation of the counsel,
according to the services actually rendered, a law had
been passed, fixing it at a sum so grossly inadequate as
to in}ply a reproach in the officer and a want of confi-
denfte in his exertions, or an oi)inion that the prosecu-
tions and their object were unimportant. During the

APPENDIX. 271

preceding winter, the senate of the stato, of whom a
large proportion, if not a majority, were Alae.ons, had
passed a resolution, calling on the comptroller for a
detailed account of all the expenses incurred by the
special counsel, with all the vouchers for the items.
The accounts and vouchers were accordingly furnished
and published, and thus disclosed to the world and the
accused the name of every witness who had been ex-
amined on the finding of the several indictments, and
who was relied upon to sustain them. Every facility
was thus given to the operation of the causes that had
so often prevented witnesses iiom being found when
they were wanted; and, when found, had ])revented
their attendance; or, if they attended, had produced
short and imperfect memories. The efiurts of an of-
ficer of the government were thus repudiated by the
government itself; something worse than indifference
was exhibited at the success of his exertions; and,
instead of being sustained by the counteriaJice of the
government, he was left to contend against the large
body of indicted individuals, and against the whole
machinery of masonic combination, including the libels
of the press, singly and unaided. That oilicer declared
that, under such circumstances, he could be of no
further use in conducting the prosecutions; and he
resigned his station, that it might be occu['ied by some
one possessing, in a higher degree, the confidence of
the executive. The usual and customary weapons of
the fraternity were resorted to and employed to pre-
vent the impression which such occurrences would
naturally make upon the public mind. The most
atrocious calumny was heaped upon the ofliccj- by the
masonic press. The executive added to the charge of

272 THE BROKEN SEAL.

violating official confidential communications, by pub-
lishing official letters of the most sacredly confidential
character, in which the special counsel had inquired
whether a proclamation of" a previous governor, offer-
ing a reward and pardon for the discovery of the mur-
derers of Morgan, was still in force ? and asking the
advice and direction of the executive whether a direct
application of the promises in that proclamation should
be made to a particular witness? The moral sensibili-
ties of the associates and defenders of man-stealers and
murderers were aroused, and they were shocked at such
attempts to bribe witnesses. The governor, who had
offered the reward, escaped all censure ; but the agent,
who proposed to obey the directions of his superior,
received the full measure of masonic indignation.
Perhaps a more stinging rebuke of such glaring liypoc-
risy could not be furnished than that which the same
governor, very shortly afterwards, himself exhibited, in
offering a reward and pardon for the discovery of the
persons who had set fire to a powder-mill ! Mr, V.
Birdseye was appointed special counsel, and entered on
the duties of the office.

" On the 15th of June, 1830, a special circuit was
held in Niagara county, by Mr. Marcy, then one of the
justices of the Supreme Court of New York. The
first indictment tried was that against Ezekiel Jewett.
Orsamus Turner was called as a witness ; but, before
answering any questions, desired to consult with his
counsel. This was refused, and the examination pro-
ceeded. He was presently asked whether the defend-
ant, Jewett, was one of the persons consulted with in
relation to separating Morgan from his friends in Bata-
via, as a means of suppressing the contemplated publi-

APPENDIX. 273

cation of a book containing the secrets of Freemasonry.
He declined answering it, on the ground that it would
implicate him in a prosecution for the murder of Mor-
gan. The court told him that he was bound to know
that he was guilty of the murder of Morgan, and that
his answer would afford a key by which his guilt would
be exposed, before he could refuse to answer on that
ground. The court overruled the claim of privilege,
and told the witness he must answer; to which he
answered, ' I will not answer.' He was then sentenced
to imprisonment for thirty days, and to a fine of two
hundred and fifty dollars. He was then asked whether
he knew that Jewett was applied to for a place in or
about Fort Niagara, for the purpose of confining Wil-
liam Morgan. This he refused to answer, and was
sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for thirty
days. He was then asked whether he was present
when the subject of preparing a place for the confine-
ment of Morgan was discussed, in the presence of the
defendant. Tliis, also, he refused to answer, and was
sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for thirty
days. During his confinement, this witness was sup-
plied by his masonic friends with every luxury that the
country could furnish, and that money cmild procure;
he was constantly visited by his masonic brethren, and
their wives and daughters; and, at the expiration of
his term of imprisonment, was conducted from the jail
to his residence in a coach and four, with attending
Masons, shouting at the triumph of crime over justice!
"But to return to the trial. Eli Bruce was called to
the stand, and refused to be sworn, saying, 'I was onoe
before sworn and examined, and no good came of it.'
He was sentenced to imprisonment in the jail of Onta-
18

274 THE BROKEN SEAL.

rip county for thirty days. John Whitney was next
called, and he also refused to be sworn. He was sen-
tenced to thirty days imprisonment, and to pay a fine
of two hundred and fifty dollars.

" Upon the same trial, William P. D.aniels was ex-
amined, and refused to answer whether he was at
Solomon C. Wright's house on the evening before the
installation of a chapter in Lewiston, and deliberately
swore, that the answer to the question ' would involve
bim in a crime more serious than a misdemeanor — an
indictment against him as an accessary, before the fact,
to the murder of Morgan.' He was warned that he
must know more of the fact that Morgan was mur-
dered than the public generally did before he could
make such an excuse, and he was cautioned as to the
consequences of his swearing falsely; but he persisted
in his refusal, and in the reason assigned for it, and of
course was excused from answering the main question.
He, too, was attended by counsel, whom he consulted
as questions were propounded to him.

"After such refusals, and a thousand prevarications
of other witnesses, the defendant was acquitted, al-
though not an individual who heard the trial had a
doubt of his guilt.

" The indictment against Jeremiah Brown was also
brought on to trial, and the same solemn farce was
gone through, which resulted in his acquittal.

"During these trials. Judge Marcy rejected one Ma-
son as a juror, on the ground that he had voluntarily
entered into obligations which were incompatible with
the impartial discharge of his duty. He admitted an-
other Mason as a juror, between whose case and that of
the former no difference could be perceived but this —

APPENDIX. 275

that the latter juror declared he did not himself think
his masonic obligations would sway him.

" Much had been expected from this court, from the
circumstance that one of the highest judicial officers
of the state had been taken from his appropriate duties
and sent to hold the circuit. It was supposed that his
learning, talents, and energy would have commanded
respect and deference, and would penetrate the thick
cloud that hung over the deeds of darkness respecting
Morgan. But masonic obligations were found superior
to the arm of the law, and Justice was vanquished in
her own temple. The court adjourned, after a session
of more- than three weeks, without accomplishing any-
thing.

"At the Ontario Sessions, in February, 1830, James
Mather was fined twenty-five dollars for his contempt
in not appearing as a witness at a former court.

"In November, 1830, at the Ontario Sessions, James
Gillis was tried on his indictment, and acquitted. The
then special counsel made no objections to Masons sit
ting as jurors.

"In March, 1831, another special circuit was held in
the county of Niagara, by Judge Nelson, then recent-
ly appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court. The
indictment against Elisha Adams was brought to trial,
and after a long examination of numerous witnesses,
which established in the minds of all whose minds
were susceptible of the impressions of truth the un-
doubted guilt of the defendant; yet one of the jurors,
by the name of William Willson, who was a Mason,
refused to concur with his eleven brethren, expressly
declaring that he would not believe witnesses who had
violated their masonic obligations. The jury were

276 THE BROKEN SEAL.

accordiugly discharged. The miserable Adams has
since been called to another bar, where no mystic ties
and no impious oaths will screen him from an All-
seeing eye.

" Parkhurst Whitney, Noah Beach, Samuel M. Chub-
buck, Timothy Shaw , and William Miller were also
brought to trial. Whitney, Beach, and Miller w'ere
acquitted; the jury could not agree as to Shaw and
Chubbuck, and they were discharged. Norman Shep-
ard and Henry Maxwell were also tried and acquitted,
the witnesses not remembering, on the trial, facts that
they acknowledged they had sworn to before the grand
jury, or remembering them in such a manner as ren-
dered them nugatory. Nothing Avorthy of special
notice occurred at these trials besides what has been
mentioned. After a session of some weeks. Judge
Nelson adjourned his court, leaving the investigation
very much where Judge Marcy had left it. It was im-
possible to oljtain convictions if Masons were on the
jury. In other cases witnesses absconded, or refused
to answer, or answered so equivocally that no reliance
could be placed on their testimony. One of them, by
the name of Murdock, purposely absented himself in a
neighboring county until the trials were over.

"During all these trials, of which an account has
been given, beginning with that of Elihu Mather, the
same corps of counsel appeared for the defendants indis-
criminately. They were gentlemen of distinguished
professional character, who were not in the habit
of bestowing their services gratuitously. They spent
months in this service, absent from their families and
their business. The enormous expense wOiich must
have been incurred in their employment could not

APPENDIX. 277

have been defrayed by the •defendants in all cases, for
they are known to be utterly unable to do so. Specu-
lation, of course, has been afloat as to the source
whence their compensation was derived. After the
evidence which was given on one of the trials of ap-
plication being made to a distant chapter to contribute
to the defence of the persecuted Masons in the west
of New York, and after the developements which have
recently been made of apjirojn-iations by the Grand
Lodge of one hundred dollars to Eli Bruce, and by the
Grand Chapter of N'^w York of one thousand dollars
for an indefinite charity, which has never been ac-
counted for or explained ; it is not a very iirational
conclusion that the masonic body, as such, have fur-
nished the means of defending these criminals. It
should be known that the laws of New York make
ample provision for counsel for those prisoners who are
unable to employ them.

'"Immediately after the termination of the last trials
at Lockport, before mentioned, in April, 1831, the stat-
ute authorizing the appointment of a special counsel
expired by its own limitation, and the majority of the
committee of the Assembly of New York, to wliicli the
subject was referred, refused to recommend a renewal
of the law. There remain four or five indictments still
undetermined. With the insutlicient means of the
county attorneys, who are the ]>ublic prosecutors, to
contend against such obstacles as are constantly inter-
posed, and with the general impression that all at-
tempts to obtain a iiiir administration of justice in these
cases will be fruitless, it is presumed that no further
trials will be had. The sword of justice has fallen
pointless aud blunted at the feet of Freemasonry.

278 THE BEOKEN SEAL.

" In May, 1831, Solomon«C. Wright was brought to
trial on the indictment against him for perjury, at the
Ontario General Sessions. He had sworn that no sus-
picious carriage had arrived at his house in September,
1826, and had denied other circumstances calculated to
identify the persons and the carriage conveying Mor-
gan. On his trial it was abundantly shown that his
testimony in these respects was false ; but the court
held that the materiality of these facts, in the original
case, was not sufficiently shown, and he, too, was ac-
quitted. This is the last trial that has taken place,
growing out of the abduction of William Mors:an.

" It is not inappropriate to the subject of this report
to state, that the five persons who have been convicted,
either upon their own confessions, or upon the most
conclusive proofs, of a participation in the forcible ab-
duction of William Morgan, — to wit, Chesebro, Saw-
yer, Lawson, Bruce, and Whitney, — remain in full
standing and fellowship as members of the masonic'or-
der, and have not, in any vvay, been proceeded against by
the lodges or chapters. One of those under indictment,
Simeon B. Jewett, has been elevated to high and dis-
tinguished honors in the fraternity, and notice of the
fact has been publicly advertised in the newspapers of
New York. Probably such an impudent defiance of
the public authority has no parallel in our history.

"It is also proper to remark, in connection with this
subject, tliat in the winter of 1830 a petition was pre-
sented to the Assembly of New York, praying that an
inquiry might be instituted by that body into the con-
duct of the Royal Arch Chapter of that state, particu-
larly in appropriating money to assist the kidnappers
in escaping from justice, and that the act incorporating

APPENDIX. 279

the chapter might be repealed. This petition was
6hufl3ed oflj by a reference of it, on the order of the
House, to the attorney-general, who was himself a mem-
ber of the same Royal Arch Chapter.

"The duty imposed on this committee has now been
discharged. *It is regretted that so much of detail be-
came necessary in order to present the facts and inci-
dents required by the resolution of the convention.
Although many of these details are familiar to most of
the members, yet many of them are presumed to be
new. Their collection into one mass, and their arrange-
ment in the order of events in which they occurred, will
give to every one, however familiar with the general
history of the case, a more clear and distinct perception
of that body of evidence which, in the judgment of
your committee, establishes beyond the possibility of
contradiction, the systematic interference of the ma-
sonic fraternity to defeat the regular administration
of justice. It remains for an intelligent people to
weigh these facts, to compare them with the terms of
the masonic obligations, with the whole object and
spirit of the fraternity, and with the fundamental basis
of the compact between its members, and then deter-
mine whether the existence of such an order of men is
compatible with that equality of rights and jjrivileges
promised by our constitutions, or whether it can be tol-
erated consistent with a maintenance of the sifPUKM-

ACT OF THE LAW."

280 THE BROKEN SEAL.

In this connection we give also the letter of
Mr. Spencer, stating his reasons for resigning his
office of special counsel. This is a very instruc-
tive epistle.

Mr. Spencer's Resignation.

Messrs. Day and Morse : Having declined to act

as sijecial counsel under the act of the last session of the

legislature, I am desirous that my reasons for doing so

should be known to my fellow-citizens. I therefore

enclose a copy of the letter to Governor Throop on the

subject, for publication.

J. C. Spencer.
May, 4, 1830.

His Excellency Enos T. Throop, Acting Governor.

Sir : I have just received a copy of an act passed at
the last session of the legislature, entitled " An act di-
recting a special circuit to be held in the county of
Niagara, and for other purposes," the fifth section of
which declares that " the act to provide for the employ-
ment of counsel for the purposes therein mentioned,
passed April 15, 1828, shall be continued until the first
day of May, 1831 ; but that the compensation to be
allowed to the special counsel appointed pursuant to
said act shall not exceed one thousand dollars over and
above his necessary expenses."

As this act proposes a continuance or renewal of my
appointment, upon terms different from those contained
in the statute under which the appointment was made
and accepted, the question is necessarily presented to
my mind whether I will accept the new proposition ?

APPENDIX. 281

To determine this question, it is necessary to advert
to the nature of the employment, the relation in which
It places the incumbent to the government of the state,
and the circumstances under which the offer to renew
it is made.

The government, by a special law, took into its own
hands the investigation of the fate of William Mor-
gan, and all the incidents connected therewith ; it was
not content to leave that investigation to the ordinary
officers of justice, but directed the employment of a
special agent for that purpose by the executive, at
whose pleasure the appointment was to be held. The
government thus became the })rosecutor, and in that,
as in every other executive function, it was represented
by the governor. The special counsel was not to be a
private prosecutor, but the agent of the executive. As
such it is most evident he was entitled to the aid, ad-
vice, direction, and support of the executive and of the
other branchesof the government. In order to exhibit
the urgent necessity of such aid and support, it cannot
be necessary to refer to the nature of the investigation,
the large number of persons accused, their connection
with a powerful society, and their individual influence:
for your Excellency and the whole community but too
well know the magnitude and amount of the obstacles
to be encountered. Whether the whole constitutional
power of the government woulc' be sufficient to over-
come them, was problematical; that anything short of
that power would fail, was certain. Nothing but this
conviction could have justified the law directing the
employment of a special counsel. Under that convic-
tion, and with full and entire confidence, not only in
the formal concurrence of the executive, but in his sin-

282 THE BROKEN SEAL.

cere and hearty cooperation, I entered upon the duties
of the employment to which Governor Van Buren
invited me. The only inducements to this step were
the hope of allaying the fears and anxieties which pre-
vailed respecting the sufficiency of the laws to punish
the outrage which had been committed, and the belief
that a faithful and thorough investigation would satisfy
an alarmed community, whether it resiilted in the pun-
ishment of the guilty or not. Your Excellency suc-
ceeded to the executive chair, and I had no reason to
doubt but I should receive from you and from the legisla-
ture the same sincere support, the same official counte-
nance, which had been expected from your predecessor.
In this I have been disappointed. Positive aid, beyond
the performance of formal duties from which there was
no escape, has in no instance been rendered me. And
instead of receiving any countenance or support, I have
been suffered to stand alone, an isolated individual, car-
rying on the most laborious and difficult prosecutions,
as if they were private suits instituted by me, and with-
out any participation of the responsibility by the mem-
bers of that government which employed me. Indeed
their responsibility has been disclaimed by every means
which the circumstances would allow. Without dwell-
ing upon the omission to notice, in any way, the sug
gestions contained in my report to your Excellency, or
upon other evidences furnished during last winter by
the debates and other proceedings in the legislature of
unfavorable sentiments towards the prosecutions and
towards me, as their conductor, it is sufficient to refei
to the very act which proposes a renewal of my em-
ployment, as indicating anything but approbation, con-
currence, and support. Its terms are recited above;

APPENDIX. 283

the original act is continued, hut the comjiensation shall
not exceed so much. The original act provided that
the expense should be paid on the order of the gov-
ernor, after being audited by the comptroller. It can
scarcely be supposed that there was any want of con-
fidence in those officers entertained by the last legisla-
ture. In another case (the Astor controversy) there
was an unbounded discretion vested in the governor
alone, in respect as well as to the number of counsel to
be employed, as to the amount of their compensation.
That discretion has been left unrestricted. It is diffi-
cult to account for the difference between the two
cases, without ascribing it to a design to give offence,
or to a wish to evade the responsibility of sanctioning
my proceedings. In either view, it seems to be a mere
permission to continue, for a compensation no longer
to be fixed at a fair and just rate, depending upon the
circumstances, but for a stipulated sum by the job, as
it were; and the inadequacy of which sum marks the
estimate put upon the value of my services by those
who offer it. I owe it myself to say, that the amount
of the compensation would not deter me from continu-
ing in the employ of the government if the circum-
stances justified, and duty required that continuance.
It is not in tliat view that I regard the matter as wor-
thy of a moment's thought ; but it is, that the amount
proposed, the manner of the proposition, and the cir-
cumstances under which it was made (which are as
well known to me as the other citizens), fuiiiish to my
mind indisputable evidence of the unfavorable senti-
ment entertained respecting the prosecutions, or the
agent conducting them, or both. The act presents the
singular paradox of diiavowing, as far as possible, the

284 THE BROKEN SEAL.

agency it proposes to renew, and of inviting the agent
to proceed, in such rej)ulsive language, as to render his
acceptance incompatible with the least self-respect. If
I have not fulfilled the intentions of the government,
I should be displaced ; and if continued, I should be
supported and sustained by that government.

1 have to complain, also, that my official communica-
tions to your Excellency have been divulged, so as to
defeat my measures, and bring undeserved reproach
upon me. Those communications related to the means
of discovering evidence of the fact of William Mor-
gan's death ; they were not only in their nature strict-
ly confidential, but the success of the measures sug-
gested depended entirely upon their being unknown
to the parties and their friends. Yet they became
known to a counsel of the persons implicated in the
ofiences upon William Morgan. I cannot comment on
this fact in such a manner as to do justice to my feel-
ings, and at the same time preserve the respect which
is due to the chief magistrate of the state. It must
be left to the consideration of all impartial men, with
the single remark, that it imposes an insurmountable
obstacle to all further communications of a confidential
character with your Excellency. I should thus be
deprived, as special counsel, of an aid altogether in-
dispensable to further proceedings. That the re-
proach which the revelation of that correspondence
has brought upon me is undeserved, may at least be
presumed from the fact of your Excellency's having
continued my employment for more than a year after
those communications were made to you.

For the reasons which have now been given to your
Excellency, at such length, the hope of being any fur-

APPENDIX, 285

ther useful in conducting the prosecutions against the
persons implicated in the outrages upon William Mor-
gan has tailed. The conviction is forced upon my
mind, that if the laws are to be vindicated against the
offenders in that transaction, it must be done by some
one possessing more fully than myself the confidence
of those administering the government, and who will
be better sustained by them than I have been. Pub-
lic duty, therefore, does not require me to forfeit my
own self-respect and the esteem of others, by continu-
ing in a situation where I should be exposed to treat-
ment like that already received, and where I am practi-
cally disavowed and disowned by my employers.

Whatever inclinations I may have had to resign the
appointment of special counsel before the passage of
the act of the last session, they yielded to the belief
that it would be rendered unnecessary by the refusal
of the legislature to renew the original law. I think
it may be safely affirmed to have been a very general,
if not universal oj)inion, that it would not be renewed.
A resignation under such circumstances would hardly
have been deemed voluntary, and would have subjected
me to reproaclies to which I was unwilling to submit.
There were some cases- in hand whicii reipiireil the
attention of one who had been familiar with them, and
there were some matters connecteil with the prosecu-
tions which could not well be regulated by another.
Notwithstanding the unpleasantness of my situation,
in relation to the government, it seemed a duty to pro-
ceed as well as I could under the circinnstancis, until
I should be released by the refusal of the legislature
to renew the act, or until, by the passage of a new law,
the option should be presented ol" continuing or retir-

286 THE BROKEN SEAL.

ing. Everything has been done, therefore, within my
power, to accelerate the proceedings, and among others,
was the recommendation to a member of the judiciary
committe of the Senate to provide for a special circuit
in Niagara. This measure will tend much to expedite
the proceedings in that county. Issues are joined upon
all the indictments pending there, except as to one
defendant, who is out of the state, and everything
which could be prepared by counsel is in readiness for
that circuit.

In conclusion, I have only to say, that there are
numerous facts and voluminous papers in my posses-
sion relating to the pending prosecutions, which will
be cheerfully communicated to my successor, and every
other aid in my power, which he may desire, will be
rendered to him.

Your Excellency's fellow-citizen,

John C. Spencee.
Canandaigua, May 3, 1830.

APPENDIX. 287

H.

As an illustration of one of the pleasant things
connected with the business of lecturing in those
years, I give the following. The Royal Arch
Mason, who asked me the questions, was after-
wards governor of the State of New Hampshire ;
but what was more gratifying to me, he after-
wards came out and renounced Masonry : —

Extract fkom the Pkoceedings of thji; New
Hampshire Axtimasonic State Convention.

S. D. Greene! s Measons for seceding from Masonry.

The hour designated having arrived, Mr. Greene ad-
dressed the convention, notwithstanding tlie severity
of the storm. The room was well filled with an atten-
tive audience, when, at the close, a Royal Arch Mason
present arose, and asked if there was any seceding
Mason present; and if there was, lie wished to know
what reasons he would offer for having seceded. Mr.
Greene again took the desk, and gave his reasons in a
mild, but convincing, most powerful, and interesting
manner; that not only thrilled the whole audience,
and was satisfactory to every one present, and ac-
knowledged so even by the gentleman himself. With
i the following apology, Mr. Greene presents his fia-
Bons • —

288 THE BROKEN SEAL.

" Tlie members of the convention manifesting a de-
sire that my reasons for seceding, offered before them
and the Royal Arch gentleman^ should be written out
and published with their proceedings, I have consented,
and offer the following. Though undoubtedly falling
far short of the original, and it is not unlikely that
many have escaped my recollection, for, it will be re-
collected that they were given after an address to the
convention, and in the hearing of the gentleman, when
I had supposed that I had already offered reasons
enough why every Christian and honest republican
should not only (if they were Freemasons) secede, but
arise in their strength to abolish Freemasonry from
their embrace, and froin the earth forever. The fol-
lowing were offered, if not all. S. D. G."

"Mr. Pbesident : The gentleman has asked my
reasons for seceding from Freemasonry. With your
leave, sir, I will briefly state them.

"My tirst reason for seceding, is, because I could not
keep and obey the laws of God and my country withouo
abandoning the designs of my masonic oaths. Thes<,
were imposed upon me without my knowledge or con-
sent, for I could not know what they would require.
And at the time of taking the Entered Apprentice's
oath, and every other oath, the master assured me that
'the oath should not militate against my religion or
politics.' He then gave me the first oath, which was, ' to
hail, conceal, and never reveal, any part or parts, art or
arts, point or points, of the secrets of Freemasonry;'
and if called upon afterwards, in a court of justice, and
sworn to tell 'the truth, and the whole truth,' in rela-
tion to the truth of Morgan's disclosures, I could not

APPENDIX.

do it, and at the same time observe the words of
ray masonic oatli. Being under superior obligation to
God and my country, I was forced to renounce the
wicked design, wliich would oblige me, if I obeyed it,
to lie to the Holy Ghost, and perjure myself before my
country. Therefore I renounced the design, and kept
my oath. To be a seceder, then, is to scrupulously
observe your oath, as you understood it; that it should
be in accordance with your religion and politics, and
despise the cheat, for God requires it; man requires it,
and your country requires it. There is not one oath
of Freemasonry which can be observed, agreeable to
its letter, without violating every obligation I am under
to God and my country.

" My second reason is, because I could not know the
principles of Freemasonry when I was only acquainted
with what Freemasons said they were in their consti-
tutions, charts, and monitors, and with its initiatory lites
and forms. I could only learn them, as above, in tlie
fulfilment of its 'laws, usages, and customs.' These
'laws, usages, and customs' were, when known or put
into execution, diametrically opposed to every moral,
religious, and political principle ; consequently. Free-
masonry is opposed to a free goveiiiment, as it would
break down every moral restraint, and tend to estab-
lish infidelity and anarchy.

"Third, because, if I acted the part of a li'eo man,
and exposed that which was wrong, my life was in
danger. I must have my throat cut, my left breast
lorn open, my heart and vitals taken from thence, or
my body parted in tlie midst, to satisfy the demand of

[ these unlawful, and extrajudicial oalhs, at wliicli hiiv-

'■ 19

L

THE BROKEN SEAL.

ages would blush, if tendered to them understandingly,
and which cannibals knowingly would never take.

" Fourth, because it teaches another way to heaven
than that which is taught by the Holy Bible, and the
mallet is to do the office work of Christ and the Holy
Ghost. For Freemasonry teaches that the ' mallet is
used for knocking off the superfluities of the conscience,
and to fit the soul as a living and lively stone for that
spiritual building, that house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.' This is awful blasphemy, as
well as the levelling of the Holy Bible with the square
and compass.

"And also its initiatory rites are in direct opposi-
tion to the command of God, 'Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in vain ; ' yet this is prac-
tised in the farce of stamping the foot, clapping the
hands, and tearing the bandage from the candidate'^
eyes, to show him three burning candles, and God'f
Holy Book disgraced with the square and compass
The Worshipful Master at the same time making i
profane use of a greater figure than was ever used bj
man : 'God said, let there be light, and there was light.

"Fifth, because Freemasons perform 'lying mira
cles,' in that they pretend to raise the dead ; as in th<
case of Hiram Abi^ after he has been dead and buriei
two days under the rubbish of the temple, and twelv
days at the hill of Joppa, and is so putrid that thj
flesh cleaves from the bone, when in fact the candidatl
lies then, instead of being dead and rotten, laughing ij
a blanket. And also because the pretension of Fret
masons is false. And instead of Freemasonry beinj
old, it is young. That the history of Hiram's death
Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum, at the building of Sol^

APPENDIX.

mon's Temple, is. a lie, proved so by the word of God,
in the Scriptures, which asserts that Hiram was alive
after the temple was completed, and examined the
vessels thereotj which he had cast. The use of the Lat-
in terminations, Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum, proves
Freemasonry an impostor, and contradicts its pretended
antiquity, as well as the faint letter G, found upon the
naked, putrid^ rotten left breast of Hiram, when history
proves that the Roman letters were not known, nor the
Latin language spoken, till hundreds of years afterwards.

" Sixth, because, upon the ancients they have very
heavily laid their yoke. They have showed them no
mercy. They have taken their characters to build
up an institution fraught with all manner of iniquity.
They have injured the church, and brought a stain
upon the religion of Cl)rist, l>y claiming Adam, Nim-
rod, Noah, Elisha, Elijah, David, Solomon, Hirams and
Johns, and a host of others, who lived in former, as
well as later ages.

" Seventh, because they pretend to be above all that
is 'called God, or is worshipped,' for they not only de-
clare in their heart, '■ I arriy 'and none else beside me,'
' I AM THAT I AM,' but the master is called Most Won-
siiiPFUL. And also. Freemasonry is after the working
(it Satan, because it not only claims high antiquity, but
morality, benevolence, and charity, cardinal virtues
of religion, and lays its burden upon the good and
-vise of former and latter times, but it shrinks not
to adopt and organize into a system the ' mysteries
'<\' iniqt(.ltii^ practised by the wicked in the days of
1 ./ekiel4 for,Sn the Royal Arch they have a vault, and
with a crow-bar, pick-axe, and spade they dig in the
wall, and behold a door, into which they descend and

THE BROKEN SEAL.

bring up the things deposited there, — the Key Stone,
the Pot of Manna, Aaron's Rod, the Ark of the Gov
enant, Book of the Law, and Masonic Squares. Thej
do as the "wicked do, stamp with their feet, wink will
their eyes, and make r.igns with their fingers. The}
blush not to declare that the Eleusinian mysteries fora
component parts of their order, and their book of con
stitutions holds out as an inducement to become ;
Freemason, ' that it will introduce them to the fellow
ship of corsairs, pirates, and marauders, who will trea
them as a brother.' They also affirm that it is thi
handmaid of religion; and that prophets and apostles
kings and potentates of the earth, have never beei
ashamed to grace their assemblies.

"Eighth, because their ceremonies lessen the sane
tion of the important lessons intended to be enforcei
by the exhibition of miracles. Yet the most profligat
attempt to perform them in the resurrection of th
dead, in the preservation of manna, since it rained fror
heaven to the children of Isiael in the wilderness, a
they marched from Egypt to Canaan. They cast th
rod upon the ground, and j^retend it turns into a sei
pent; taking it by the tail, it becomes a rod in thei
hand. They thrust their hand into their bosom, an
take it out, and say, It is as leprous as snow ; put it ii
and take it out again, and it is restored whole as th
other.

"Ninth, because they pretend to be God. and stan<
ing in the place of God, showing themselves they a;
God, by taking a bush, and putting gum camphi
upon it, they ignite it, and while the gum burns, ai
the bush is not consumed, they stand behind the bus
the blind candidates are brought up before it, when tl

APPENDIX.

person behincl the bush cries out, and snys, 'Moses, Mo-
ses, Moses ! ! ! ' The conductor answers, ' Here, Lord,
am I.' The person behind the bush continues, and
says, 'Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes from off
thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground.' The candidates plucking off their shoes, kneel
down, while the Mason behind the bush declares, 'I
am the God of thy Fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' The con-
ductor raises the bandage from the candidate's eyes,
and puts it down again, saying, ' JMoses hid his face,
for he was afraid to look upon God.'

"Tenth, because it is a conspiracy against the moral
and civil law, an inroarl upon the unalienable riglits
guaranteed to us by our free institutions, in that it
grants indulgences not sanctioned by either. To swear
and keep an oath that is hid from liiin, for the Scrip-
tures say, ' If a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips
to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man
shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him,
when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one
of these.'

"And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of
these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned
in that thing.

"To obey all signs and sumrnonses handed, thrown,
or sent from a brother, to ap])ris(! hini of all approach-
ing danger, if in his power, giving him liicilities to
escape, though it might go to destroy the lawiul rights
secured to others. ' Not to violate the chastity of the
female rehitives of a Mason, knowing them to be such,
but enjoining no such restraint towards other females.'
\ To fly to the relief of a brother Mason, when he gives

THE BROKEN SEAL.

the grand hailing sign of distress, or hears the word
accompanying it, and rescue him from the same, if
there is a greater probability of saving his life than of
losing their own, though it might be to clear a culprit,
or weaken the arm of the law. To espouse the cause
of a brother, and extricate him from difficulty, whether
he be right or wrong. To keep his secrets, murder and
treason excepted or not excepted.

"Eleventh, because, in the Templar's degree they
take a human skull and a lighted candle, and personi-
fying the Saviour, use the words of his prayer, offered
in consequence of our sins, in the Garden of Geth-
semane, they drink wine from the human skull, and
invoke double damnation iipon their own souls. I

" Taking the skull, with a glass of wine in it, they
swear, 'This pure wine I now take in testimony of ray
belief in the mortality of the body and the immortality
of the soul; and may this libation appear as a witness
against me, both here and hereafter; and as the sins of
the world were laid upon the head of the Saviour, so
may all the sins committed by the person whose skull
this was, be heaped upon ray head in addition to my
own, should I ever knowingly or wilfully violate or
transgress any obligation that I have heretofore taken,
take at this time, or shall at any future period take, in
relation to any degree of Masonry, or order of Knight-
hood, so help me God ; ' after this, repairing to the tomt
of the Saviour, pretend he rises from the dead, by bring-
ing up a transparency, representing Christ rising from
the grave, and pointing to the image, they sin. The)
perform a mock ceremony of the Lord's Supper. Pass
ing into the council, they swear to trust their everlast
Lng salvation on the Cross and Mark of Masonry ; for

I

APPENDIX.

say they, ' I do now, by the honor and power of the
Mark of tlie Holy and Ilhistiious order of the Cross,
which I do now hold to Heaven in my right hand .as
the earnest of my faith, and in the dread presence of
the most Holy and Almighty God, solemnly swear and
declare, that I do hereby accept ot" and forever will
consider the Cross and Mark of this degree as my only
hope.'

"And they last remark, ' Should you ask me what are
the requisite qualities that a Freemason must possess
to come to the centre of truth, I answer, you must
crush the head of the seipent of Ignorance concerning
the reigning religion. Behold! my dear brother, what
you must fight against and destroy before you can come
to the knowledge of the true, good, and sovereign hap-
piness (of Freemasonry) : behold that monster which
you must conquer, tliat serpent which we detest as an
Idol, that is adored by the idiot and vulgar, under the
name of Religion.'

"Thus I have shown, from personal knowledge, and
satisfactory evidence, a few of the many reasons why
I should renounce Freemasonry. If they are not sat-
isfactory and sufficient, I will take the desk again and
offer you more. But with your permission, Mr. Presi-
dent, I will ask the gentleman if I have ofl'eied him
good reasons ; being permitted, he answered, ' Yes, good
reasons enough.'"

296 THE BROKEN SEAL.

In the work recently published by Rev. Dr. Fin-
ney, entitled, ''The Character, Claims, and Practical
Workings of Freemasonry," we find the following
confession, which is taken from a work we do not
happen to have at hand, " Stearns on Masonry."

CONFESSION.

The murder of William Morgan^ confessed by the man
who, with his oion hands, picshed him out of the boat
into the river.

"The following account of that tragical scene is
taken from a pamphlet, entitled, ' Confession of the
Murder of William Morgan,' as taken down by Dr.
John L. Emery, of Racine County, Wisconsin, in the
summer of 1848, and now (1849) first given to the
public.

" This confession was taken down as related by Hen-
ry L. Valance, who acknowledges himself to have been
one of the three who were selected to make a final
disposition of the ill-fated victim of masonic vengeance.
This confession, it seems, was made to his physicians,
and in view of his approaching dissolution, and pub-
lished after his decease.

" After committing that horrid deed, he was, as u)ight
well be expected, an unhappy man, day and night. He

APPENDIX. 29T

was much like Cain, ' a fugitive and vagabond.' To
use his own words, 'Go where I would, or do what I
would, it was impossible for me to throw off the con-
sciousness of crime. If the mark of Cain was not upon
me, the curse of the first murderer was, — the blood-
stain was upon my hands, and could not be washed
out.'

"He therefore commences his confession thus: 'My
last hour is approaching, and as the things of this world
fade from my mental sight, I feel the necessity of mak-
ing, as far as in my power lies, that atonement which
the violator of the great law of right owes to his fel-
low-men.' In this violation of law, he says, ' I allude
to the abduction and murder of the ill-fated William
Morgan.'

" He proceeds with an interesting narrative of the
proceedings of the fraternity in reference to Morgan,
while he was incarcerated in the magazine of Fort
Niagai-a. I have room for a few extracts only, showing
the final disposition of the alleged criminal. Many con-
sultations were held, many plans proposed, discussed,
and rejected. At length, being driven to the necessity
of doing something immediately for fear of being ex-
posed, it was resolved in a council of eight, that he
must die; must be consigned to a confinement from
which there is no possibility of escape — the grave.

"Three of their number were to be selected by ballot,
to execute the deed. Eight pieces of paper were pro-
cured, five of which were to remain blank, while the
letter D was written on the others. These pieces of
paper were placed in a large Vjox, from which each man
was to draw one at the same moment. After drawing,
we were all to separate, without looking at the paper

298 THE BROKEN SEAL.

which each held in his hand. So soon as we had ar-
rived at certain distances Iroin the phice of rendezvous,
the tickets were to be examined, and those who held
blanks, were to return immediately to their homes;
and those who should hold the marked tickets, were to
proceed to the fort at midnight, and there put Morgan
to death, in such a manner as should seem to them-
selves most fitting. Mr. Valance was one of the three
who drew the ballots on which was the signal letter.
He returned to the fort, where he was joined by his two
companions, who had drawn the death tickets. Ar-
rangements were made immediately for executing the
sentence passed upon their prisoner, which was to sink
him in the river with weights ; ' in hope,' says Mr. Val-
ance, 'that he and our crime would thus be buried
beneath the waves.' His part was to proceed to the
magazine where Morgan was confined, and announce
to him his fate ; theirs was to procure a boat, and
weights with which to sink him. Morgan, on being
informed of their proceedings against him, demanded
by what authority they had condemned him, and who
were his judges. He commenced wringing his hands,
and talking of his wife and children, the recollections
of whom, in that awful hour, terribly affected him.
His wife, he said, ' was young and inexperienced, and
his children were but infants;' what would become
of them were he cut off, and they even ignorant of his
fate? What husband and father would not be 'terri-
bly affected ' under such circumstances, to be cut off
fi:om the living in this inhuman manner?

"Mr. V.'s comrades returned, and informed him that
they had procured the boat and weiglits, and that all
things were in readiness on their part. Morgan was
told that all his remonstrances were idle; that die he
must, and that soon, even before the morning light.
The feelings of the husband and father were still
strong within him, and he continued to plead on be-
half of his family. They gave him one half iiour to
prepare for his 'inevitable fate.' They retired from
the magazine and left him. ' How Morgan passed that

APPENDIX. 299

time,' says Mr. Valance, 'I cannot tell, but everything
was quiet as the tomb within.' At the expiration of
the allotted time they entered the magazine, laid hold
of their victim, 'bound his hands behind him, and
placed a gag in his mouth.' They then led him forth
to execution. 'A short time,' says this nmrdeier,
'brought us to the boat, and we all entered it. Mor-
gan being placed in the bow, with myself along side
of liim. My comrades took the oars, and the boat was
rapidly forced out into the river. The night was pitch
dark, we could scarcely see a yard befoi'e us, and theie-
tbre was a time admirably adapted to our hellish pur-
pose.' Having reached a proper distance from the
shore, the oarsmen ceased their labors. The weights
were all secured together by a strong cord, and another
cord of equal strength, and of seveial yards in length,
proceeded from that. 'This cord,' says Mr. V., ' I took
in ray hand [did not that liand tremble?], and fistened
it around the body of Moigan, just above his hips,
using all my skill to make it tiist, so that it would hold.
Then, in a whisper, 1 bade the unhappy man to stand
up; and after a momentary liesitation he comj^lied with
my order. He stood close to the head ot the boat,
and there was just length of lOpe enough from his per-
son to the weights to prevent any stiain while he was
standing. I then requested one of my associates to
assist me in lifting the weights from the bottom to the
side of the boat, while the other steadied her from the
stern. This was done and as Morgan was standing
with his back towards me, I approached him, and gave
him a strong push with both my hamis, which were
placed on the mid<lle of his back. He tell forward,
carrying tlie weights with him, and tlie waters closed
above the mass. We rcTuained quiet tor two or three
minutes, when my companions, without saying a word,
resume* 1 their places, and rowed tlie boat to the place
from which they had taken it."

300 THE BEOKEN SEAL.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.

In the year 1831, a Declaration was put forth by twelve hundred
Freemasons in Massachusetts, denying the charges against their
order. The Antimasonic members of the Massachusetts legisla-
ture for 1832 appointed a committee to answer this paper. That
committee reported at the Antimasonic State Convention, held
in Worcester, September, 1832. The following is their report,
and we give it for its compact and convincing character : —

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST FREEMASONRY.

The Declaration, signed by about twelve hundred Freema-
sons " of Boston and vicinity," denies, unequivocally, all the
allegations against Freemasonry and Freemasons that have been
made during the last five years. Some of the most material of
these allegations, which the State Committee are prepared to
prove, are the following. We allege, —

1. That the kidnapping, and consequent murder of William
Morgan, was preconcerted in lodges and chapters, and carried
on with their knowledge and cooperation, and that none but Free-
masons were concerned in that outrage.

2. That the only motive for this crime, was the disclosure of
masonic secrets by Morgan.

3. That the penalty imposed for a violation of masonic oaths
is death, and death only.

4. That the masonic construction of masonic penalties is
death for a violation of masonic law ; and that no ceremony,
lecture, or injunction in Masonry, previous to 1827, explains
away this plain, literal construction, but that the whole tenor of
all such authorities enforce it in the strongest terms.

5. That the manner of the infliction of death imposed by tJiese
penalties, in eight of the degrees, beginning with the first, is
cutting the throat and tearing out the tongue ; tearing out the
heart; severing, quartering, and disembowelling the body, and
burning to ashes ; tearing the breast open, and throwing the
heart on a dunghill to rot; smiting the skull off", and exposing
the brains to the sun ; pulling down the house of the ofiender,
and hanging him on one of its timbers ; striking the head off,
and placing it on a lofty spire ; tearing out the eyes, chopping
off the hands, quartering the body, and throwing it among the
rubbish of the Temple.

6. That Freemasonry, by the legitimate operation of her prin-
ciples, and the literal construction of her oaths, has prevented
the detection, indicting, and conviction of kidnappers »nd mur-
derers.

APPENDIX. 301

7. That masonic jurors have refused to indict or to convict
masonic offenders, and that masonic witnesses have refused to
testify against them,

8. Thnt in tlie contest of five years, between the legal tribu-
n.als of New York and Freemasonry, but two verdicts and three
pleas of guilty have been obtained against the kidnappers and
murderers, though well known ; and the wliolc amount of punish-
ment that has been inllicted for tiiese outrages, committed by a
large body of men, has been five years and five months impris-
onment in county jails, distributed among five convicts!

9. That no " partial and infiammatory representation " of these
offences, committed by Masons, has been made, beyond what the
facts, as judicially established, fully warrant.

10. That these ofi'ences grew out of the legitimate construc-
tion and application of the oaths, principles, and engagements
of Freemasons.

11. That the five Masons sentenced for participation in the
crime, eighteen indicted, and man}' others implicated, have ever
remained in full fellowship with lodges and chapters, and that
some of them have been since advanced to high masonic honors.

12. That these convicts and kidnappers are held in full com-
munion by Masons in Massachusetts, because tlie principles of
Masonry require all lodges and chapters to receive and fellow-
ship Masons, so long as they retain membership in any lodge or
chapter.

13. That the perpetrators of the violence on Morgan were
not "a/ew misguided men" but were men comprising the most
active occupations and professions, as respectable in the com-
munities where they lived, as the twelve hundred signers of the
Declaration are in this conununity.

14. Tliat at least three huiulred and fifty Masons were acces-
sory to the outrage, or principals in the crime, and tliat it became
known masonically to at least five hundred more Masons in
New York, soon after it was committed, and as there is no doubt,
to acting masonic bodies generally, tlir(jughout the United States.

15. That lodges and chapters concealed the criminals, con-
tributed money to protect them from ju>tice, and to enable one
of the actual murderers to escape from the country.

16. That forty-three of tiie most active criminals, whom we
can name, were men of liigh respectability and stiinding, com-
prising officers of justice, and belonging to almost every occu-
pation and trade, and to three of tiie learned professions, and
that the murderers themselves were men of no mean considera-
tion.

17. That masonic principles, oaths, and engagements, are, in
every essential particular, the. same in Massachusetts as in New
York.

18. That a knowledge of tiie crimes of Masons in New York,
by Massachusetts Masons, soon after those offences were com-

302 THE BROKEN SEAL.

mitted, is fairly inferred from the introduction of a check-test
or oath liere from New York, established to exclude from the
lodges those who studied the disclosures made by Morgan.

19. That the Masons of Massachusetts, when called upon for-
mally, in 1830, by the State Antimasonic Convention, to disfel-
lowsliip the masonic bodies in New York, which cherished the
Morgan conspirators, declined to do so, or to deny, as a masonic
body, the truth of the disclosures against Freemasonry, or to
renounce the system, or to disapprove the murder.

20. That masonic newspapers, masonic officers, and Masons
of great respectability, embracing even ministers of the gospel
in this state and in Hliode Island, have justified the murder of
Morgan, and declared he had met his just deserts for a viola-
tion of liis masonic oatiis !

21. That in repeated instances masonic oaths Ifave proved to
be stronger and more binding on masonic consciences, than
civil oaths in trials and examinations before judicial and legisla-
tive tribunals.

22. That masonic oaths, as administered in New York and
Massachusetts, impose solemnly upon those who take them the fol-
lowing, among other obnoxious and criminal obligations, viz. : —

1. To conceal and never reveal, except to a brother Mason of
the same degree, any of the secrets of Freemasonry, under any
circumstances.

2. To obey all masonic signs and summonses, given by one
Mason to another, or by a masonic body.

3. To obey the grand hailing sign of distress, at the hazard of
life.

4. To keep a brother Mason's secrets of every description,
when communicated as such, murder and treason only excepted,
and tliey left to the election of the Mason receiving such secrets;
and that tliis specific exception of only two crimes which may be
disclosed, plainly enjoins the concealment of all other crimes.

5. Not to violate the chastity of the female relatives of a Ma-
son, kyiowing them to be such, but enjoining no such restniint
towards other females.

6. To keep all secrets communicated by a Royal Arch Mason,
— or all secrets without exception, — or murder and treason not
excepted.

7. To assist a Royal Arch Mason, espouse his cause, and ex-
tricate him from difficulty, whether he be rignt or wrong.

8. To travel forty miles barefoot, and on frozen ground, if
required, to relieve the necessities of a worthy Knight Templar.

y. The drinking of wine out of a human skull, and imprecat-
ing the sins of the person whose skull that once was, upon the
head of the candidate, as the Saviour bore the sins of tlie whole
world, sliould the person who takes this oath ever violate any of
his masonic oaths.

APPENDIX. 303

23. That the Master Mason's oath extends to the concealment
of all crimes but tu-o ; and. therefore, if an oath to conceal all
secrets, murder and treason not excepted, be indefensible, an
oath to conceal all other crimes but these two is not less so.

24. That if adhering Alasons can construe away their oaths
which enjoin the concealment of each other's secrets, except, or
including but two crimes (murder and treason), then, by the
same process, they can construe awaj- the injunction in the same
oaths, to conceal any of the secrets of Freemasonry ; and hence,
that if an adhering Mason discloses such secret of a brother Ma-
son, he is just as guilty of violating his oath as the seceding
Mason is who discloses all the secrets of the craft.

25. That these facts prove Freemasonry to be " at variance
with the fundamental principles of morality, and incompatible
with the duty of a good and faithful citizen."

26. That the Declaration of the twelve hundred Masons is
not only false in its denials, but false in its assertions, because, —

27. The candidate is not " made acquainted with the nature
of the obligations he is required to assume" previous to taking
his oaths, but he is required to promise to conform to the usages
and customs of Freemasonry, without knowing what tliey are ;
and, by the Massacimsetts book of constitutions, he is only per-
mitted, before taking the oath, to see the charter and by-laws
of the lodge and a list of its members, all of which contain no
reference whatever to the oaths and obligations he is required
to assume.

28. Because, the intimation from the Master, that the oaths
will not interfere with religion or politics, is a deception, and no
explanation of tlieir nature, because it is not a part of the oath;
and because the terms of the oaths, if they are to have any
meaning at all, do interfere directly with religion and politics,
and are nowhere explained, by any equally binding and concur-
rent authority, to mean anything different from their plain, lit-
eral import.

2!). Because, if under such circumstances. Masons who profess
to regard their oatiis as binding at all, can explain away tlie lit-
eral import of their masonic oaths, they may, by tiie same reason-
ing, explain away the literal import of their civil oatlis.

30. Because, obedience to tiie civil magistrate, and being true
to the civil government, and just to the country, are not requisite
to retain masonic fdlowsliip and mendK-rslnp of a lodge, inas-
much as the book of constitutions lays down the maxim, that
though a brother be a rebel against the state, yet " if convicted
of no other crime, they cannot expel him from the lodge, and his
relation to it remains indefeasible."

31. Hence, that by masonic law and practice, treason and
murder are not ofl'enccs which are di-enied of sufficient magni-
tude to autliorize expulsion from liie lodge.

32. That it is not true that freemasonry lecuret it memberi

304 THE BROKEN SEAL.

in the freedom of speech, because she fetters and hoodwinks
them, and makes them swear to have their throats cut, and their
tongues torn out, if they indulge in freedom of speech, touching
any of the mysteries taught them by this pretended patron of
freedom of speech; and because her books of constitution,
monitors, and orators enjoin silence and secrecy ; to be "cau-
tious in words," to manage a discourse, and to " be voluntarily
dumb," in order to avoid freedom of speech.

83. That these exclusive and selfish oaths, and the whole prin-
ciples and practices of Freemasonry, do necessarily interfere
with the dictates of conscience and the acts of Masons in matters
of religion and politics, and disqualify men, under their influence,
from conducting towards the rest of mankind with the same im-
partiality, in the capacity of jurors, judges, officers, or legislators,
as can be exercised by men who acknowledge no other than civil,
moral, and religious obligations.

34. That if Masonry does disdain the making of proselytes.
Masons, nevertheless, have repeatedly urged men to join the
lodge.

35. That so far from admitting only those whose characters
"are unspotted by immorality and vice," one of the inducements
held out in her books of highest authority, to become a Mason,
is, that it will introduce you to the fellowship of corsairs, pirates,
and marauders, who will treat you as a brother.

36. That she not only admits men of the vilest character into
her lodges, but retains in full fellowship the profligate, the
abandoned, the worthless, the intemperate, the profane, and does
not expel men guilty of kidnapping, murder, and treason.

37. That so far from being the handmaid of religion and vir-
tue, she is the offspring of scepticism and vice, excluding revela-
tion and the name of the Saviour from her seven first degrees ;
admitting the Bible of the Pagan and Mohammedan to a concur-
rent authority with the Bible of the Christian, as " holy writings,"
and practising secret rites and ceremonies, tending to bring the
resurrection and the miracles of revelation into contempt.

38. That the pretended "charitable uses "of her "accumu-
lated funds," received " in sacred trust," is deceptive ; because no
person likely to require charity, is, by her constitutions, per-
mitted to be initiated ; because her system of charity is merely
a scheme of mutual assurance, rareh', if ever, paying out in
charity what is received in fees, and appropriating to parades
and processions, idle ornaments and gorgeous temples, the very
funds pretended to have been received in sacred trust for char-
itable uses.

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