Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

108

IMEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

their victim. Failing in the attempt to bring the criminals
to justice, the people in that part of the State, conceiving a
horror of Freemasonry, determined to obtain, through the
ballot, some reparation for the murder of Morgan. They accordingly resolved that no man belonging to the Order of
Masons ought to hold any public office; and they made this
the issue wherever called upon to vote.
The movement had, at the outset, no reference to the political question of the hour. It showed itself first in the local
elections of the autumn of 1826, as a personal matter exclusively-no Mason of any party was to be voted for or allowed
to hold office. It was the result of a feeling, partly of terror,
and partly of indignation against a secret society, which appeared to be able to spirit men out of this world with impunity, and defended the acts of its members to any extent
to which they might go. As time passed on the excitement
increased; the Antimasons, as they were called, enraged at
the failure of each successive attempt to detect the authors of
the crime. and stimulated by fresh disclosures of the incidents
of that fatal summer's night, kept growing in number, until
they began to carry county after county, and assumed proportions which astonished the leaders of the old parties, and
made them doubtful what course to pursue. Political Antimasonry had as yet no existence; but it became daily more
evident that the movement must ultimately take that direction.
Thus matters stood when the administration of Mr. Adams
drew toward its end, and the question of the succession came
up. The people of this State, other than those engaged in
the Antimasonic movement, divided, part desiring the reelection of the President, and part favoring a change. It began to be believed that Governor Clinton and Mr. Van Buren,
who at that time was still in the United States Senate, would
unite in supporting General Jackson'for the Presidency. But
General Jackson was not only a Mason, but very high in the
Order. Governor Clinton also belonged to it. The friends of