Charleston paper, intentionally omitted; and the first toast drank was evidently intended as a severe reflection upon the political character of Van Buren, although he was not named in it. Before, however, the party broke up, the following toast was drunk :

"Martin Van Buren- Ah that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, and with a virtuous visor hide deep vices.' Mr. Van Buren was shortly afterwards appointed by the president minister to London, and Mr. Eaton was also sent abroad on a foreign mission.

On the third of June the convention of national republicans, which was projected the preceding winter, assembled at Albany. It was highly respectable, both for numbers and the character of the members. Peter R. Livingston, the old senator from Dutchess county, was appointed president. Upon taking his seat he addressed the convention in a very felicitous manner. He spoke in the most laudatory terms of Mr. Clay. He condemed the measures of the administration, and alluded in a manner extremely sarcastic, to the disbanded "unit cabinet" of General Jackson. Something like a state organization was attempted, and Stephen Van Rensselaer and Ambrose Spencer, and thirty-six others, were chosen delegates to the national convention. Judge Spencer attended, upon special invitation, the state convention at Albany, and before they adjourned addressed that assembly at considerable length. Judge Spencer had formerly been inclined to support Gen. Jackson, and indeed had, during Mr. Adams's administration, expressed a most decided opinion against the appointment of Mr. Clay as secretary of state. He was now very ardent in his opposition to the former, and in his support of the latter.

The convention adopted a number of spirited resolutions, in one of which they recommended Henry Clay as a suitable person to be supported for president of the

United States. They also published an address to the people of the state, signed by Mr. Livingston as president, John D. Dickinson and Herman H. Bogart, vice-presidents, and Joseph Hoxie and Orrin Follet, secretaries.

In May, Henry Seymour resigned the office of canal commissioner, and the governor soon afterwards, in the recess of the legislature, appointed Jonas Earll of Onondaga in his place.

It is due to the memory of Mr. Seymour to say, that notwithstanding the immense amount of moneys which passed through his hands, and the many and vastly important contracts made by him on the part of the state, that not the least suspicion has ever been breathed against the purity of his character and conduct. He was in all respects a correct business man. Of his urbanity and courtesy I have already spoken.

James Monroe, late president of the United States, died on the 4th day of July. Thus, three out of the five deceased presidents died on the anniversary day of American Independence. May not the fact be, that those distinguished men were excited more than ordinary men on that day, and to a degree exceeding the strength of their enfeebled and worn out animal powers?

Very little excitement prevailed at the November annual election. The large anti-masonic majorities in the counties, composing what was called the infected district, rendered all efforts hopeless on the part of the Jackson party to overcome it, and of course no great efforts were made. The same remark is applicable to most of the interior counties, the counties bordering on Hudson's river, the city of New-York, and the Long Island counties. There all resistence to the Jackson party seemed vain, and indeed very little was made. In general, so far as there was any change, it was apparently against the anti-masons. In some counties, however, they gained from the last year or

two. In the county of Otsego for instance, where, in 1829, Mr. Beardsley obtained more than 1,200 majority over Mr. Mumford, the anti-masonic candidate; both the sheriff and clerk supported by the anti-masons were elected. But the success of the anti-masonic candidate for sheriff was owing to some local causes and personal difficulties, and the triumph of the candidate of that party (Horace Lathrop) for clerk, was undoubtedly produced by his great and deserved personal popularity.

The Jackson party succeeded in electing their senators in all the districts except the eighth.

The senators chosen were:

From the First District, Mr. Cropsy,

Mr. Halsey,

Eighth do., John Birdsall.

In the assembly there was a large Jackson majority.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

POLITICAL ANTI-MASONRY.

Nor having myself been personally acquainted with the political action of the party called anti-masons, I took the liberty of requesting a gentleman, eminent for his standing and talents, who, during the prevalence of the excitement on the subject of masonry, resided and still resides in one of our western cities, and who was himself a leading and efficient anti-mason, to furnish me with a statement which should present a sketch of the history of that singular political'association. He has been so obliging as to send me the following brief account, which I here insert precisely as written out by him:

In the year 1826 an event occurred, which in its consequences, became the foundation of a new political party, based upon principles before unknown in the political history of the state, but which, in its progress, had an important influence upon its political character. It will be at once perceived that the event alluded to is the abduction of William Morgan and the new political party denominated the anti-masonic party.

It seems necessary to advert briefly to the causes of the existence of this party, and to the facts which brought it into life. On the 11th of September, 1826, William Morgan was seized, at Batavia, upon a criminal charge, by a company of men who came from Canandaigua, and carried eastward to Canandaigua ás a prisoner for examination. He was acquitted of the criminal charge but was immediately arrested upon a civil process for a trifling debt. Judgment obtained, and execution issued, and Morgan imprisoned upon such execution in the jail at

Canandaigua. The next night he was discharged from this imprisonment by those who had procured him to be arrested, and taken from the prison after 9 o'clock in the evening.

Immediately after he left the prison doors, he was seized by those who had procured his discharge, gagged, bound and thrust into a carriage in waiting for the purpose, and carried westwardly towards Rochester. It is now known that he was carried by relays of horses, and through the agency of many different individuals, in bondage and secrecy, until he was securely deposited in the magazine of Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the Niagara river. This unprecedented outrage, though committed with such boldness, was at the same time guarded by so many precautions, that it was impossible, for a long time, to penetrate the veil of secrecy with which the conspirators had concealed their movements.

The outrage itself was preceded by circumstances which, by pointing out the probable motives, directed suspicion to its probable authors. Morgan was understood to be engaged in the publication of a book professing to reveal the secrets of some of the degrees of free masonry. This contemplated publication aroused the anger of the members of the fraternity, and they were, or at least large numbers of them in the vicinity, were infatuated enough to determine to suppress that publication at all events. Previous to the violent seizure above mentioned, several forcible attempts had been ineffectually made to suppress the obnoxious forthcoming work. The citizens in the vicinity of Batavia were aware of this feeling on the part of the masons in their neighborhood, and of the unwarrantable efforts made by them to suppress the publication, and they thus had a clue to the motive for the perpetration of this foul act of violence.