Editing Anti-Masonic Party (section)

=== Political rise ===
In the [[United States House of Representatives elections, 1828|elections of 1828]], the new party proved unexpectedly strong.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Anti-Masonic Party|volume=2|page=127}}</ref> Though its [[New York gubernatorial election, 1828|candidate]] for [[governor of New York]], [[Solomon Southwick]], was defeated, the Anti-Masonic Party became the main opposition party to the Jacksonian Democrats in New York.<ref>Mark Stein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4dJXAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 ''American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why''], 2014, p. 45</ref> In 1829, it broadened its issues base when it became a champion of [[internal improvements]] and the protective [[tariff]].<ref>Edward S. Mihalkanin, editor, [https://books.google.com/books?id=c_ORomNygLcC&pg=PA451 ''American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell''], 2004, p. 451</ref>

Anti-Masonic Party members expanded the use of party-affiliated newspapers for political organizing by publishing over 100, including Southwick's ''National Observer'' and Weed's ''Anti-Masonic Enquirer''.<ref name="Bentley 1874"/>{{rp|34–35}} By 1829, Weed's ''Albany Journal'' had become the preeminent Anti-Masonic paper and it later became the leading [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] newspaper.<ref>Jeffrey D. Schultz, John G. West, Iain S. MacLean, editors, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dy1MNv8ou-0C&pg=PA18 ''Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics''], 1999, p. 18</ref><ref>Charles Elliott Fitch [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabio00fitcgoog/page/n564 <!-- pg=318 --> Encyclopedia of Biography of New York], Volume 1, 1916, p. 318</ref><ref>Benson John Lossing, [https://archive.org/details/empirestateacom01lossgoog/page/n471 <!-- pg=447 --> The Empire State: A Compendious History of the Commonwealth of New York], 1888, p. 447</ref> The newspapers of the time reveled in partisanship and one brief paragraph in an ''Albany Journal'' article opposing [[Martin Van Buren]] included the words "dangerous", "demagogue", "corrupt", "degrade", "pervert", "prostitute", "debauch" and "cursed".<ref>John G. Gasaway, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AjByAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Albany+Evening+Journal%22+%22martin+Van+Buren%22+corrupt ''Tippecanoe and the Party Press Too: Mass Communication, Politics, Culture, and the Fabled Presidential Election of 1840''], 1999, p. 228</ref>