Editing Anti-Masonic Party (section)

=== Conventions and elections ===
A national Anti-Masonic organization was planned as early as 1827, when the New York leaders attempted unsuccessfully to persuade [[Henry Clay]] to renounce his Masonic membership and head the movement.<ref name="EB1911"/>

By 1830, the Anti-Masonic movement's effort to broaden its appeal enabled it to spread to neighboring states, becoming especially strong in [[Pennsylvania]] and [[Vermont]].<ref name="EB1911"/>  In 1831, [[William A. Palmer]] was elected [[governor of Vermont]] on an Anti-Masonic ticket, an office he held until 1835.<ref name="Wells 1902 340">{{cite book |last= Wells |first= Frederic Palmer |date= 1902 |title=History of Newbury, Vermont |url= https://archive.org/details/historynewburyv00wellgoog |quote= william a palmer governor vermont anti-masonic. |publisher= The Caledonian Company |page= [https://archive.org/details/historynewburyv00wellgoog/page/n439 340] |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref> Palmer's brother-in-law [[Augustine Clarke]] was an Anti-Masonic presidential elector in 1832, served as [[Vermont State Treasurer|Vermont state treasurer]] from 1833 to 1837 and was appointed to the Anti-Masonic National Committee in 1837.<ref>{{cite book |last= Bouton |first= Nathaniel |author-link=Nathaniel Bouton |date= 1856 |title= The History of Concord, Vermont |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=23owAQAAMAAJ&q=%22augustine+clark%22+%22william+a+palmer%22&pg=PA697 |publisher= McFarland & Jenks |page= 697 |isbn= 978-0608438405 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first= William Ogden |last= Niles |title= National Antimasonic Convention |work= Niles' National Register |volume=53 |page= 68 |date= September 30, 1837 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6PAaAAAAYAAJ&q=%22augustine+clark%22+anti-masonic+committee&pg=PA68}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Hemenway|first= Abby Maria |date= 1882 |title= The History of the Town of Montpelier, Including that of the Town of East Montpelier |url= https://archive.org/details/historytownmont00waltgoog |quote= augustine clark treasurer.|publisher= A. M. Hemenway |page= [https://archive.org/details/historytownmont00waltgoog/page/n41 273] |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref> Other Vermont Anti-Masonic electors in 1832 included former governor [[Ezra Butler]] and former [[United States Representative|United States representative]] [[William Strong (Vermont politician)|William Strong]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Vermont Secretary of State|date= 1902 |title= Vermont Legislative Directory |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wCY0AQAAMAAJ&q=vermont+electors+1832+clarke+butler+strong&pg=PA199 |publisher= Vermont Watchman Co. |page= 199 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref>

The highest elected office held by a member of the Anti-Masonic Party was governor. Besides Palmer in Vermont, [[Joseph Ritner]] was the [[governor of Pennsylvania]] from 1835 to 1839.<ref>{{cite book |last= Pennsylvania Bureau of Statistics |date= 1875 |title= Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Pennsylvania, Volume 2|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CnYpAAAAYAAJ&q=%22joseph+ritner%22+governor+anti-mason+1835+1839&pg=PA17 |publisher= B. F. Meyers, State Printer |page= 17 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref>

In addition to Palmer and Ritner, [[Silas H. Jennison]], an Anti-Mason, was elected [[Lieutenant Governor of Vermont]] with [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] support in 1835. No candidate, including Palmer, received a majority of votes for governor as required by the Vermont Constitution. The contest then moved to the [[Vermont General Assembly]], which could not choose a winner. The General Assembly then opted to allow Jennison to act as governor until the next election. He won election as governor in his own right as a Whig in 1836 and served from 1836 to 1841.<ref name="Wells 1902 340"/><ref>{{cite book |last= Duffy |first= John J. |date= 2003 |title= The Vermont Encyclopedia |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uTBCXqOou0YC&q=%22silas+h.+jennison%22&pg=PA171 |publisher= University of Vermont Press |page= 171 |access-date= September 19, 2014|display-authors=etal|isbn= 978-1584650867 }}</ref>
[[File:William Wirt by Henry Inman (frameless).jpg|left|thumb|221x221px|Former [[Freemasonry|Mason]] [[William Wirt (Attorney General)|William Wirt]] won [[Vermont]]'s [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]] votes in the [[1832 United States presidential election|1832 presidential election]] for the Anti-Masonic Party]]
Though the Anti-Masonic Party elected no [[United States Senate|senators]] and controlled no houses of a state legislature, Anti-Masons in state legislatures sometimes formed coalitions to elect senators and organize their chambers. Examples include: [[William Wilkins (U.S. politician)|William Wilkins]], elected to the Senate in 1830 by a coalition of Democrats and Anti-Masons in the [[Pennsylvania General Assembly]];<ref>{{cite book |author= Polk, James K. |editor= Cutler, Wayne |date= 1996 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wxmLh0gDfSoC&q=%22william+wilkins%22+%22anti-mason%22+senator+1830&pg=PA39 |title= Correspondence of James K. Polk: Volume IX, January–June 1845 |publisher= University of Tennessee Press |page= 39 |access-date= September 21, 2014|isbn= 978-0870499470 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date= 1956 |title= A History of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7Jq11dtTA2oC&q=%22william+wilkins%22+%22anti-mason%22+senator&pg=PA508 |publisher= U.S. Government Printing Office |page= 508 |access-date= September 21, 2014|isbn= 978-0160845789 }}</ref> and [[William Sprague III|William Sprague]], elected speaker of the [[Rhode Island House of Representatives]] in 1831 by a coalition of Democrats and Anti-Masons.<ref>{{cite book |last= American Historical Association |date= 1903 |title= Annual Report, Volume I |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=C_hGAQAAIAAJ&q=%22william+sprague%22+%22rhode+island%22+speaker+%22anti-masonic%22&pg=PA551 |publisher= U.S. Government Printing Office |page= 551 |access-date= September 21, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Amos Ellmaker.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Amos Ellmaker]], 1832 Anti-Masonic candidate for [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]]]]
The Anti-Masonic Party conducted the first [[United States presidential nominating convention|presidential nominating convention]] in the United States history for the [[1832 United States presidential election|1832 elections]], nominating [[William Wirt (Attorney General)|William Wirt]] (a former Mason) for [[President of the United States|president]] and [[Amos Ellmaker]] for [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] in Baltimore. Wirt won 7.8 percent of the popular vote and the seven electoral votes of Vermont.<ref>{{cite book |last= Haynes |first= Stan M. |date= 2012 |title= The First American Political Conventions: Transforming Presidential Nominations, 1832–1872 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSud-fdhUnkC&q=wirt+ellmaker+anti-masonic+1832+vermont&pg=PA27 |publisher= McFarland & Company, Inc. |page= 27 |access-date= September 19, 2014|isbn= 978-0786490301 }}</ref> Soon the Democrats and Whigs recognized the convention's value in managing parties and campaigns and began to hold their own.<ref name="Goldwag 2012 172">{{cite book |last= Goldwag |first= Arthur |date= 2012 |title= The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VlMuXEWD8hoC&q=%22Anti-Masonic%22+innovations+conventions+newspapers&pg=PA172 |page= 172 |publisher= Knopf Doubleday Publishing |access-date= September 19, 2014|isbn= 978-0307742513 }}</ref>

Following Ritner's election in 1835, a state convention was held in Harrisburg on December 14–17, 1835 to choose [[Electoral College (United States)|presidential electors]] for the [[1836 United States presidential election|1836 election]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=432554 |title=PA US President – AM Convention Race – Dec 14, 1835 |publisher=Our Campaigns |date=2008-03-27 |access-date=2014-02-21}}</ref> The convention nominated [[William Henry Harrison]] for president and [[Francis Granger]] for vice president.<ref>{{cite news |date=December 22, 1835 |title=Harrisburg Conventions |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98863712/harrisburg-comventions/ |work=[[Richmond Enquirer]] |location=Richmond, VA |page=2 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> The Vermont state Anti-Masonic convention followed suit on February 24, 1836.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=432869 |title=VT US President – AM Convention Race – Feb 24, 1836 |publisher=Our Campaigns |date=2008-03-27 |access-date=2014-02-21}}</ref> Anti-Masonic leaders were unable to obtain assurance from Harrison that he was not a Mason, so they called a national convention. The second national Anti-Masonic nominating convention was held in Philadelphia on May 4, 1836.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=157642 |title=US President – AM Convention Race – May 04, 1836 |publisher=Our Campaigns |date=2008-03-27 |access-date=2014-02-21}}</ref> The meeting was divisive, but a majority of the delegates officially stated that the party was not sponsoring a national ticket for the presidential election of 1836 and proposed a meeting in 1837 to discuss the future of the party.<ref>{{cite book |last= Trefousse |first= Hans Louis |date= 1997 |title= Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-century Egalitarian |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OKq8EaomNzkC&q=%22anti-masonic%22+philadelphia+1836+convention&pg=PA45 |publisher= University of North Carolina Press |page= 45 |access-date= September 19, 2014|isbn= 978-0807823354 }}</ref>

Although Harrison lost the election to Democratic candidate [[Martin Van Buren]] in 1836, his strength throughout the North was hailed by Anti-Masonic leaders because the Anti-Masonic Party was the first to officially place his name in contention.<ref>{{cite book |last= Mueller |first= Richard Mueller |date= 1922 |title= The Whig Party in Pennsylvania |url= https://archive.org/details/whigpartyinpenn00muelgoog |quote= anti-masonic harrison 1836. |publisher= Columbia University |page= [https://archive.org/details/whigpartyinpenn00muelgoog/page/n288 276] |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref> By the mid-1830s, other Anti-Jacksonians had coalesced into the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]], which had a broader issue base than the Anti-Masons. By the late 1830s, many of the Anti-Masonic movement's members were moving to the Whigs, regarding that party as a better alternative to the Jacksonians, by then called Democrats.<ref>{{cite book |last= Adams |first= Sean Patrick |date= 2013 |title= A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dPYFIb5hOHsC&q=%22anti-masons%22+join+whig+party&pg=PA343 |publisher= Blackwell Publishing |page= 343 |isbn= 978-1118290828 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref> The Anti-Masonic Party held a conference in September 1837 to discuss its situation—one delegate was former president John Quincy Adams.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Haywood |editor-first= H. L. |date= 1921 |title= The Builder: A Journal for the Masonic Student |volume=7 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dHA4AQAAMAAJ&q=%22anti-masonic+party%22+philadelphia+september+1837&pg=PA77 |publisher= National Masonic Research Society |page= 77 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref>

The Anti-Masonic Party held a third national nominating convention at [[Temperance halls|Temperance Hall]] in [[Philadelphia]] on November 13–14, 1838.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=432897 |title=US President – AM Convention Race – Nov 13, 1838 |publisher=Our Campaigns |date=2009-05-23 |access-date=2014-02-21}}</ref> By this time, the party had been almost entirely supplanted by the Whigs. The Anti-Masons unanimously endorsed William Henry Harrison for president and [[Daniel Webster]] for vice president in the [[1840 United States presidential election|1840 election]]. When the Whig National Convention nominated Harrison with [[John Tyler]] as his running mate, the Anti-Masonic Party did not make an alternate nomination and ceased to function, with most adherents being fully absorbed into the Whigs by 1840.<ref>{{cite book |last= Remini |first= Robert Vincent |date= 1991 |title= Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=f9Hb6i90_mAC&q=%22anti-masonic+party%22+1839+webster&pg=PA528 |publisher= W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. |page= 528 |isbn= 978-0393310887 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref><ref name="McLaughlin 1914 49">{{cite book |last= McLaughlin |first= Andrew Cunningham |date= 1914 |title= Cyclopedia of American Government, Volume 1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vvYUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Anti-Masonic%22+%22william+wirt%22+speech+defending+freemasons&pg=PA49 |publisher= D. Appleton and Company |page= 49 |access-date= September 19, 2014}}</ref>