One of the more unusual aspects of Thaddeus Stevens’s political career is his association with the Anti-Masonic Party. While he represented the Gettysburg area in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 1830s, Stevens was a major figure in the party, got an Anti-Masonic governor elected, and even held hearings about the Masons.
The Anti-Masonic party was the first successful third party in America and was created in reaction to an incident in upstate New York in the1820s where a man named William Morgan was presumably killed by the Masons for threatening to reveal the secrets of the ancient fraternal order. Community outrage was increased when the Masons seemingly used their judicial connections to cover up the crime. Coupled with that, many prominent politicians, such as George Washington and Andrew Jackson, were Masons, giving the impression that to get anywhere in politics, you had to be a Mason. One of the lasting legacies of the party was the tradition of selecting presidential candidates at conventions.
When Stevens became an Anti-Mason in the early 1830s, the dominant national party was the Democrats, which advocated for the slaveholders of the south. Stevens, who had been an outspoken abolitionist since the early 1820s would never join the Democratic party. Stevens would have also been attracted to the Anti-Mason’s position of being against elitism. He deeply believed that people should be judged on their merits, not on who they knew or what organization they belonged to.
Stevens was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1833 as an Anti-Mason and he turned out to be a very effective Anti-Mason. His efforts included shutting down the Mason lodge in Gettysburg and getting Joseph Ritner, the first and only Anti-Mason governor elected.
But he was willing to part with his fellow Anti-Masons when it came to issues he felt strongly about, like education. In 1834 he was able to get a state grant of $18,000 for the new college in Gettysburg, despite many of his fellow Anti-Masons being against it. In reaction to this criticism, Stevens wrote in a letter to the editor: “I have already resolved that the weight of my name shall never again burthen your ticket.” However, he remained with the Anti-Masons for many years.
Of course the Masons did not sit idly by as Stevens attacked them. Jacob Lefever, the editor of the Gettysburg Republican Compiler and a Mason published articles insinuating that Stevens was involved in the death of a woman in 1820s. Stevens brought two libel cases against Lefever and won them handily since the editor had no evidence to back up the allegations.
The Anti-Masons was a short-lived phenomenon in American history and had petered out by the early 1840s. When Stevens ran for Congress in 1848 after moving to Lancaster, he ran as a Whig. But his time as an Anti-Mason continued to serve as fodder for some accounts of his life. In her 1947 novel, I Speak For Thaddeus Stevens, Gettysburg writer Elsie Singmaster recounts a fictional incident where Stevens is hunting on horseback, and iron workers call out for him to stop. “Can’t!” he shouted back. “I’m hunting Masons.”
Ross Hetrick is president and founder of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. Hetrick was a business reporter for 18 years in Baltimore and owned Ross's Coffeehouse & Eatery in Gettysburg from 1996 to 2004.
I always get a chuckle out of the stories I’m reading about Thaddeus Stevens provided by Mr. Hetrick. I am grateful knowing that Ross’s humor and vast knowledge of this important character is a necessary part of how I approach this historical figure. My grandfather was a Mason but I never heard anything about that or Mr. Stevens. But I can hear one of my favorite cartoon characters voice in the “hunting” Masons quote! But that’s just me.