Editing Anti-Masonic Party (section)

=== Party foundation ===
[[File:Thurlow Weed - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thurlow Weed]], newspaper editor who helped form the Anti-Masonic Party]]

The Anti-Masonic Party was formed in [[Upstate New York]] in February 1828.<ref>William Preston Vaughn, ''The Antimasonic Party in the United States, 1826–1843'' (1983) pp. 21–34.</ref> Anti-Masons were opponents of Freemasonry, believing that it was a corrupt and elitist [[secret society]] which was ruling much of the country in defiance of [[Republicanism in the United States|republican principles]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Massachusetts Antimasonic Republican Convention |date=1834 |title=Antimasonic Republican Convention, for Massachusetts, Held at Boston, Sept. 10 and 11, 1834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJnOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA35 |location=Boston |publisher=Leonard W. Kimball |pages=34–35 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>  Many people regarded the Masonic organization and its adherents involved in government as corrupt.<ref name="Formisano 2008 126"/><ref name="Ronald P. Formisano 1827">Ronald P. Formisano, and Kathleen Smith Kutolowski, "Antimasonry and Masonry: The Genesis of Protest, 1826–1827." ''American Quarterly'' 29#2 (1977): 139–165</ref>

Opposition to Masonry was taken up by some evangelical Protestant churches as a religious cause, particularly in the [[Burned-over district]] of upstate New York.<ref>David G. Hackett, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1-CHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 ''That Religion in Which All Men Agree: Freemasonry in American Culture''], 2014, p. 118</ref> Many churches passed resolutions condemning ministers and lay leaders who were Masons and several denominations condemned Freemasonry, including the [[Presbyterian Church in the United States of America|Presbyterian]], [[Congregational church|Congregational]], [[United Methodist Church|Methodist]] and [[Baptists in the United States|Baptist]] churches.<ref>{{cite journal |last=McKinley |first=Erik |date=March 1, 1921 |title=The Anti-Masonic Party |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHA4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA72 |journal=The Builder: A Journal for the Masonic Student |volume=7 |location=Anamosa Iowa |publisher=National Masonic Research Society |page=72}}</ref>

[[File:Solomon Southwick.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Solomon Southwick]], newspaper publisher and 1828 Anti-Masonic candidate for Governor of New York]]

Anti-Masonry became a political issue in [[Western New York]], where early in 1827 many mass meetings resolved not to support Masons for public office.<ref>Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards, Adam Rothman, editors, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4hqpJEJp7cUC&pg=PA39 ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History''], Volume 1, 2010, p. 39</ref> In New York, the supporters of President [[John Quincy Adams]], called "Adams men", or Anti-Jacksonians, or [[National Republican Party|National Republicans]], were a feeble organization. Adams supporters used the strong anti-Masonic feeling to create a new party in opposition to the rising [[Jacksonian Democracy]] nationally and the [[Albany Regency]] political organization of [[Martin Van Buren]] in New York.<ref name="Anne-Marie Taylor 2001, page 40">Anne-Marie Taylor, [https://books.google.com/books?id=an2KtqVlwlsC&pg=PA40 ''Young Charles Sumner and the Legacy of the American Enlightenment, 1811–1851''], 2001, p. 40</ref> In this effort, they were aided by the fact that [[Andrew Jackson]] was a high-ranking Mason and frequently spoke in praise of the organization.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neeley |first=Philip P. |date=1846 |title=Masonic Tribute to the Late General Andrew Jackson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cPwqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA83 |journal=The Freemason's Monthly Magazine |volume=5 |location=Boston, MA |publisher=Tuttle & Dennett |page=83}}</ref> The alleged remark of Anti-Masonic organizer [[Thurlow Weed]] (which Weed denied), that an unidentified corpse found in the Niagara River was "a good enough Morgan" until after the 1828 elections, summarized the value of the Morgan disappearance for the opponents of Jackson.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Weed |first=Thurlow |date=1877 |title=A Good Enough Morgan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZE7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA51 |journal=Selections from the Newspaper Articles of Thurlow Weed |location=Albany, NY |publisher=Weed, Parsons and Company |pages=51–61}}</ref>