Anti-Masonic Almanac, 1832

Unknown artist

This <i>Anti-Masonic Almanac</i> for the year 1832 was published by William Williams of Utica, New York around 1831. The cover reads “The law is still paralyzed by a hidden agent that continues to prove stronger than the combined force of its machinery and its ministers: the Lodge of this agent has become its sepulcher. There it lies, a spectacle for freemen to look at. In our boasted Republic the blood of an American, who was taken from his home—bound—tortured—tortured—agonized—borne by the conspirators along the high roads with an impudent cavalcade or carriages and horsemen—cast into a fortress over which had floated the sovereign flag of the Union—and at last immolated—by harpies belonging to an organized and powerful institution, who conceal their crime under the horrible delusion of their mystic tie.” This is a reference to the disappearance of William Morgan from his home in Batavia, New York, after he threatened to reveal Freemasonry’s secrets. Believing that the Freemason’s secretly ran society and politics, the Anti-Masonic party was formed in New York in 1828 and ran candidates for public office until it disbanded in 1838.