Masonry and censorship

Definition: Semisecret fraternal organization

Significance: Masons have applied self-censorship to protect their secret rituals, and have been the target of efforts to restrain their activities and political influence

Masonry is an international fraternal organization engaged in a broad range of charitable causes; it also serves as a mutual assistance network for its members. Not a religion, masonry is not formally associated with any single denomination, although it places emphasis on Christian values and precepts. Masons operate through local lodges, and use secret signs and ceremonies that draw loosely upon Oriental mysticism. Upon initiation, Masons pledge to preserve the secrecy of the order and to maintain loyalty to their brethren. This pledge of secrecy might be construed as a form of self-censorship. In addition, the combination of secrecy and a reputation for political influence has periodically made Masons a target for political opponents and a source of public vituperation.

Censorship by Masons

Maintaining Masonry’s secrets is a basic requirement for membership. When disaffected members have sought to reveal those secrets, the organization has taken efforts to suppress them. The most celebrated case in this regard concerns the kidnapping of William Morgan in 1826. Morgan had written a manuscript, published in 1826 as Illustrations of Masonry, By One of the Fraternity Who Has Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject. The book’s title aside, it has never been conclusively established that Morgan was formally initiated as a Blue Lodge Mason—the primary order among the amorphous collection of organizations associated with Masonry. He did, however, possess knowledge of the secrets of Blue Lodge Masonry, as the accuracy of his manuscript’s descriptions has generally been affirmed.

Morgan, a former stonemason, had taken up residence in the village of Batavia in New York. There he developed a reputation for drinking and fighting, and was constantly burdened by debt. After being denied membership in a Masonic lodge being formed in Batavia and, perhaps more important, sensing the potential to make money, Morgan undertook to write his book. In March, 1826, he formed a partnership with three other individuals to publish the book. One of these, David C. Miller, was a newspaper publisher and a Mason who had taken the first of three Blue Lodge degrees. When word of the manuscript’s impending publication got out, Masons from the northern region of New York made various attempts to suppress it. Morgan was enjoined to abort his effort. All four of the partners were harassed and received personal threats. Miller’s print shop was set on fire on two occasions. Finally, a prominent Mason from Ontario obtained a warrant for Morgan’s arrest, charging that he had stolen clothes from a tavern. Morgan was arrested on September 11, 1826, but released for lack of evidence. He was immediately rearrested on new charges, however, this time that he had failed to pay a $2.69 debt. Morgan admitted to this charge and was jailed.

The next day Morgan was removed from jail by several Masons who paid his debt. Morgan gave several shouts of “murder!” as he was taken away. He was never seen again. Subsequent trials and investigations failed to prove that a murder had indeed occurred, but Morgan’s Masonic abductors admitted to charges of conspiracy to kidnap. In the end, some fifty-four Masons were indicted in connection with the alleged conspiracy.

The Morgan case is among the most famous cases of Masonic efforts to protect their secrets, but there are numerous others. Stories range from the relatively friendly admonitions to mind one’s words, to dramatic theories of conspiracy.

Efforts to Censor Masons

Because of the mystery surrounding their meetings and the extent of their political influence, Masons have periodically come under attack by outside groups, including religious organizations and governments. The Roman Catholic church, for example, historically opposed Masonry as an institution promoting atheism and revolution. Masonry was specifically denounced by Pope Clement XII in 1738 for imposing upon its members obligations that could not be revealed at confessional. Subsequent popes continued the denunciation of Masonry into the nineteenth century. As an organization, Masonry was outlawed by the fascist regimes of Italy, Germany, and Spain. Masons as a group (as well as various other noncommunist organizations) were persecuted virtually to the point of extermination in the Soviet Union. After World War II, the practice of Masonry was forbidden in most communist countries.

Masonry has come under attack in the United States as well. In the late eighteenth century Protestant groups charged the Masons with being under the secret control variously of Catholics, antireligious groups, and the French. Efforts were initiated to disband Masonic lodges and to ban their publications. It was the Morgan affair, however, that began one of the most focused attacks against Masonry: the so-called Anti-Masonic movement.

The Anti-Masonic movement responded to the perception that Masonry had acquired undue power in American society. It was not so much Morgan’s abduction that drove the movement (although this was a rallying point) but rather the perception that a Masonic conspiracy, involving well-placed Masons throughout the government and judiciary, managed to prevent the official determination that Morgan had been murdered. In addition, Morgan’s confessed kidnappers were perceived to have received unduly light sentences. Out of these events grew a widespread movement that sought not only to reduce the political influence of Masons but also to expose the alleged immoral, irreligious, and even evil aspects of Masonry. The movement was characterized by anti-elitism and moralism, as well as bigotry and opportunism. Books, newspaper accounts, gossip, and other tools were employed against suspected Masons and Masonry in general. More than one hundred specifically anti-Masonic newspapers were established. Political weapons were also employed, particularly elections.

Before long, the Anti-Masonic movement developed into the Anti-Masonic Party, the United States’ first national third political party, which held its first national convention in 1830. The Anti-Masonic Party nominated a candidate, William Wirt, to run against Andrew Jackson (the Democratic candidate) and Henry Clay (the National Republican candidate), both of whom were Masons. Jackson won handily. The Anti-Masonic Party was disbanded after its candidate for president in 1836, William Henry Harrison, was also defeated.

The Anti-Masonic movement illustrates the potential for American anxiety about secrecy to manifest itself in illiberal intolerance. The ideals of American pluralism and freedom of association and privacy were put aside, and elements of the Anti-Masonic movement sought to deny Masons these rights.

Bibliography

For a general discussion of Masonry, see Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh’s The Temple and the Lodge (1989). On the Morgan affair and the Anti-Masonic movement, see William Preston Vaughn’s The Antimasonic Party in the United States, 1826-1843 (1983); Lorman Ratner’s Antimasonry: The Crusade and the Party (1969); and Ronald P. Formisano and Kathleen Smith Kutolowski’s “Antimasonry and Masonry: The Genesis of Protest, 1826-1827,” in American Quarterly 29 (1977). A fictional account of one of Sherlock Holmes’s cases, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear (1915) provides a good example of the dark side of Masonry as it might have been conceived by the Anti-Masonic movement.