Cummings’ notes on Morgan
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These quotes are taken from Bibliography of Anti-masonry by William Leon Cummings.[1] They are provided here as further information to that found on the related pages noted on the left. |
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1. William L. Stone says: “Morgan, by his own confession, was a private soldier in the army and nothing more.” [p. 19.] 2. All efforts have failed to determine in what lodge, if any, Morgan was made a Mason. Samuel D. Greene, in his book, The Broken Seal, [2] claims that Morgan was a member of Batavia Lodge, No. 433, but this is clearly false. [p. 23] 3. That he visited the lodge at LeRoy, Lockport and some other towns is clearly established. [p. 24.] 4. A mis-statement very frequently made by writers, who would have known it to be untrue if they had taken the trouble to look up the records, is that Morgan gained admission as a visitor to Wells Lodge, No. 282, at Batavia. Wells Lodge was warranted June 5, 1817, at Rochester, and surrendered its charter at the same time as the other Masonic bodies in Monroe County, in 1830. The returns made to the Grand Lodge during its thirteen years of existence show that its places of meeting (Rochester, Gates and Brighton) were all within the present city limits of the city of Rochester.
The origin of the statement, so frequently repeated, that Wells Lodge was located at Batavia, is evidently due to the fact that Morris in his book, William Morgan, or Political Anti-masonry, inadvertantly makes it on page 61. Although he later corrects this (page 81) nearly every writer since 1883 has repeated the incorrect statement. [p. 24.] 5. By some means or other Morgan succeeded in convincing the officers and members of Western Star chapter, No. 35, at LeRoy, N.Y. (Now at Batavia, N.Y.), that he was in possession of the required preliminary degrees and he was exalted to the degree of Royal Arch Mason in that chapter on May 31, 1825. [p. 24-25.] 6. David C. Miller, proprietor of the “Republican Advocate”, undertook the publication of Morgan’s manuscript. [p. 26.] 7. The establishment of a rival paper had diverted a considerable amount of business from the “Advocate” office, and Miller’s finances were at a low ebb. This is evidenced by the fact that Daniel Johns was permitted to buy into the “syndicate” with an investment of less than fifty dollars. [p. 26.] 8. Morgan’s Illustrations is not merely a copy of an earlier exposé as has been freguently asserted. It shows indications that the writer was fairly familiar with the actual working of Lodges at that period. [p. 27.] 9. Brother David McGregor, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of New Jersey, through an intensive study of the shipping news of the time, has proved beyond the possibility of doubt that the vessels on which it is reported that Morgan sailed, and the captains in charge of these vessels, were voyaging to entirely different parts of the world at the time Morgan is said to have taken passage. [p. 30.] 10. In this connection it should be remembered that Governor Clinton issued three proclamations dealing with the matter. The first dated October 4, 1826, mentions the law violations and outrages claimed to have been committed on the persons and citizens of Batavia, and urges all good citizens to co-operate with the authorities to maintain law and order; the second, dated October 26, 1826, states that the whereabouts of Morgan are still unknown, and offers a reward of $300.00 for the discovery of the offenders, or $100.00 for the discovery of each and every one of them, to be paid on conviction, and a further reward of $200.00 for authentic information of the place where Morgan had been conveyed. In the third proclamation, dated March 19, 1827, the amount of the reward was increased to $1000.00 for the discovery of William Morgan, if alive, and if murdered, the sum of $2000.00 for the discovery and conviction of the offenders.
At the instance [sic] of Governor Clinton, Sir P. Maitland, Governor of Uppper Canada, issued an offer of £ 50 reward for any information respecting William Morgan. This was dated January 31, 1827, and was published in the “Upper Canada Gazette” in February, 1827. [pp. 30-31.] 11. The first printed mention I have found of Miller’s being an Entered Apprentice Mason appears in the “Masonic Intelligencer”, of Batavia, N.Y., March 14, 1827. It is as follows: |