Editing Genesee County, New York (section)

===19th century politics: Origins of antimasonry===
Genesee County was included in the 19th century "[[burned-over district]]" — the Western region of New York consumed by religious revivals and characterized by "the evangelical desire to convert the entire American population to Christianity and to create a 'moral, homogeneous commonwealth.'" <ref>William Preston Vaughn, ''The Antimasonic Party in the United States, 1826-1843'' (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983), 21.</ref> This religious moral crusade provided the social atmosphere that allowed antimasonic sentiment to gain momentum as a significant church-oriented movement and, later, a grass-roots political party that became the nation's first third party.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

By the 1820s, Freemasonry was prevalent in Genesee County. From 1821 to 1827, half of all county officials were Freemasons.<ref>Ronald P. Formisano and Kathleen Smith Kutolowski, "Antimasonry and Masonry: The Genesis of Protest, 1826-1827," ''American Quarterly'' 29 (1977): 145.</ref> In September 1826, [[William Morgan (anti-Mason)|William Morgan]], a resident of Batavia, New York, disappeared after having been briefly imprisoned for failure to repay a debt. Morgan had been rejected from the Masonic lodge in Batavia, and, as a result, threatened to publish a book which exposed the secret rituals of Freemasonry. His disappearance and presumed murder ignited a campaign against Freemasonry. The investigation into Morgan's disappearance confronted major obstacles from government officials and the judiciary- positions that were largely occupied by Freemasons.<ref name="Kutolowski">{{cite journal |author=Kathleen Smith Kutolowski |year=1984 |title=Antimasonry reexamined: social bases of the grass-roots party |journal=[[Journal of American History]] |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=269–293 |jstor=1901756|doi=10.2307/1901756 }}</ref> The [[Morgan affair]] combined with existing suspicions and distrust of the secrecy of Freemasonry initiated mass meetings throughout the county to decide how the issue of Freemasonry should be handled. The Antimasonry crusade's original goal was to oust Masons from political offices. Through the political guidance of party organizers, such as [[Thurlow Weed]] and [[William H. Seward]], the crusade developed into a political party that enjoyed a political stronghold in Genesee County and the rest of the "burned-over district."

The Antimasonic Party found strong support within Genesee County from 1827 to 1833. The party averaged 69 percent of the vote and won every county office.<ref name="Kutolowski"/> After continuous domination of Masonic politicians, citizens saw Antimasonry as a solution and an opportunity to restore justice and republicanism. The Baptist and Presbyterian churches favored Antimasonry and encouraged their members to renounce ties with the fraternity. The party was originally associated with populist rhetoric, however, strong Antimasonic sentiment throughout the county correlated with positive economic developments and high population densities. Larger towns, such as [[Batavia, New York|Batavia]], the county seat and Le Roy, harbored the strongest support for the party.<ref>Darcy G. Richardson, ''Others: Third-Party Politics From the Nation's Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party'' (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2004), 51.</ref> The timing of the creation of the Antimasonic Party coincided with a time in New York politics that encouraged the expansion of political participation. The party leaders made the Antimasonic Party, and later the Whig Party, a great success in Genesee County and other neighboring counties.