Masonic Hit Squads Part II: The 1826 Morgan/Miller Affair (377)

Summary

QAA Podcast Episode 377 Summary

Title: Masonic Hit Squads Part II: The 1826 Morgan/Miller Affair
Date: June 18, 2026
Hosts: Julian Feeld, Travis View, Jake Rockatansky, Brad Abrahams

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Overview

This episode of the QAA Podcast delves into the infamous 1826 disappearance of William Morgan in Western New York, a pivotal event that sparked America's first nationwide conspiracy panic, launched the Anti-Masonic Party, and exposed the intersection of secret societies, early American politics, and media sensationalism. Through a blend of historical research, onsite reporting, comedic asides, and critical analysis (with a healthy dose of bodily-function humor), the hosts unravel the tangled fate of Morgan and his publisher David C. Miller—shining a light on how this "true crime" episode reverberated through American culture, law, and conspiracy lore.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Setting and the Roots of Scandal

• Travis' Onsite Reporting: Travis visits Batavia, NY, to stand at the site of Daniel’s Tavern (00:50–03:18), retracing Morgan’s steps 199 years to the day after his abduction, to “get the vibe” of the place.
• William Morgan's Threat: Morgan, a dubious Freemason, angered local lodges by threatening to publish their secret rituals. This provoked a campaign of legal harassment, culminating in his kidnapping and disappearance.
• The Anti-Masonic Party: The public outrage led to widespread investigation and the birth of America's first third party (the Anti-Masonic Party), eventually absorbed by the Whigs (04:15).

2. Masons, Media, and American Politics

• Perks of Freemasonry: In the early 19th century, being a Mason meant access to a network granting mutual aid, business ties, and status—far beyond today's perception of Masonic lodges as quirky social clubs (05:29, 28:44).
• The Role of Local Media: Morgan’s partner/publisher, David C. Miller, became a focus of Masonic hostility for agreeing to publish the exposé (39:07). Both sides used media (like the “Masonic Intelligencer” and “The Morgan Investigator”) to shape the public narrative (62:17).

3. Outrage and Race

• Selective Scandal: The hosts highlight the hypocrisy of white outrage over Morgan’s kidnapping, when Black people in the North were routinely kidnapped into slavery (12:11).
  • Quote: “Oh, but one white dude gets kidnapped and it’s a national scandal.” — Jake (12:46)
  • Historical Letter Read Aloud (13:07): “There is, especially in the Southern states, a band...who...kidnap defenseless free negroes and sell them into bondage.”

4. Propaganda and Myth-making

• Confusion & Propaganda: The Morgan case is exceptionally confusing (“a jigsaw puzzle with many of the major parts missing” — Bizak, 17:29) due to a massive cast, propaganda, and conflicting motives among both Masons and anti-Masons.
  • Quote: “Grappling with these conflicting accounts...has been successfully achieved by very few writers.” — Travis quoting Bizak (17:29)
• Morgan’s Character: The myth of the noble whistleblower is deconstructed. Morgan was bluffing his way through Masonic ranks and motivated primarily by financial desperation, not altruism (24:47, 38:03).

5. Culture of the Era: Alcohol & Social Life

• Heavily Drunk America: The hosts describe an era of extreme alcohol consumption and poor hygiene, woven with ribald jokes.
  • Quote: “Americans during the Jacksonian period drank more than Americans ever have or ever will.” — Travis (18:09)
  • British Navy Officer (22:06): “If you meet, you drink. If you part, you drink...They commence it early in life, and they continue it until they soon drop into the grave.”
• Statue Satire: Morgan’s monument in Batavia—a 37-foot granite spire—becomes a springboard for jokes about reverence, bodily stains, and mythologizing losers (08:24).

6. The Masonic Plot Unfolds

• Legal Harassment & Kidnapping: Masons exploit debts, manufacture charges, and deploy corrupt constables to systematically harass and ultimately kidnap both Morgan and Miller (41:14, 52:03).
• International Conspiracy: Canadian Masons and a so-called “Masonic spy,” Daniel Johns, get directly involved, infiltrating Miller’s operation under false pretenses (49:59, 51:22).
• Failed Arson and Mob Justice: Attempts to destroy Miller’s press escalate to arson, foiled by luck (teamsters with water barrels), and a comical but real mobilization of dozens of cudgel-wielding Masons (61:36–79:10).

7. The Bumbling Kidnappings

• Miller’s Ordeal: Miller is “arrested” multiple times on bogus warrants, shuffled from tavern to lodge, and threatened by a confused, inebriated mob. His lawyer, Talbot, ultimately helps Miller escape the Masonic dragnet (83:08–91:22).
• Morgan’s Fate: Morgan is jailed for petty debts, released via a bribe by Masons, forcibly abducted, and shuttled 120 miles to Old Fort Niagara (92:35). There, the bumbling conspirators dither, fail to hand him off to Canadian Masons, and ultimately—almost certainly—murder him (98:49–104:54).
  • Quote: “The evidence is consistent with the idea that William Morgan was murdered, but wasn’t the victim of a vast murder plot. It was a vast kidnapping plot.” — Travis (107:19, 109:01)
  • Dispute: Brad and other hosts push back, pointing out the organization and scale; Travis maintains only a small number likely knew about the murder plan (109:01–110:17).

8. Aftermath and Legacy

• Morgan's Myth: No body is ever found; wild legends abound, placing Morgan everywhere from the Ottoman Empire (“turned Turk,” 105:44) to pirate king to “celebrated Indian chief” (106:10–107:09).
• Lucinda Morgan: In a wild postscript, Morgan’s widow Lucinda eventually becomes one of Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s plural wives (111:32).
• Impact: The Morgan Affair discredits American Freemasonry for a generation, spawns a national reform movement, shapes party politics, and becomes the archetype for American conspiracy panics (113:16).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On historical memory:
  “Most of the people involved…were dead, and the handful of witnesses who were still alive…spoke to a massive crowd who were still outraged about what had happened to him.” — Travis (11:59)

• Comedy & Satire:

  • “He looks like he’s standing on top of a stone giant penis.” — Jake (08:29)
  • Repeated riffs on bodily hygiene and “dump stains” of the period (09:31, 09:43, 19:15).

• On American alcoholism:
  “If someone in 1830 drank exclusively 100 proof whiskey... they would need to drink 70 bottles of whiskey over the course of the year to be drinking a little less than average.” — Travis (20:04)

• On mob incompetence:
  “Such admirable confusion, confusion, folly, running mad. Was a scene worth all that it cost me.” — Miller, as quoted by Travis (85:06)

• On the mechanics of conspiracy:
  “It is this sort of like really exposes just the ways in which a vast conspiracy can fall apart at multiple points.” — Travis (110:38)

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Important Timestamps by Segment

• 00:50–03:18 – Travis’s field research: visiting Batavia & the scene of the kidnapping
• 03:18–06:59 – History recap: William Morgan, the taverns, Freemasons’ social networks
• 08:07–09:59 – Monument, mythologizing Morgan, and satirical commentary
• 18:09–24:07 – Alcohol culture & contemporary attitudes
• 39:07–44:33 – Publishing conspiracy, Miller’s involvement, & anti-Masonic propaganda
• 49:59–51:38 – Daniel Johns, international Masonic espionage
• 61:36–62:15 – Arson attempt on Miller’s press
• 79:10–87:02 – Miller’s farcical kidnapping, resistance & rescue
• 92:35–104:54 – Morgan’s forced march, incarceration, and ultimate fate
• 104:54–115:32 – Aftermath: rumors, politics, the fate of Lucinda Morgan, bigger historical lessons

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Episode Tone and Takeaways

• Tone: The hosts mix scholarly rigor with absurdist humor, frequently juxtaposing graphic historical detail with sarcastic “dirtbag” banter. Jake’s comedic relief includes running jokes about personal hygiene in the era.
• Historical Insight: The episode strips away both anti-Masonic paranoia and Masonic apologetics, revealing a chaotic, highly public, and ultimately tragic episode shaped by imperfect men, media narratives, and the blurry line between conspiracy and farce.
• Contemporary Resonance: The story is positioned as a blueprint for later American conspiracy panics: secretive power, self-serving press, “mob justice,” and the creation of enduring political myths.

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Select Quotes with Timestamps

• “Many citizens felt that the Freemasons got away with killing a man.” — Travis (04:15)
• “One white dude gets kidnapped and it’s a national scandal.” — Jake (12:46)
• “I love a good Masonic kidnapping vibe.” — Jake (03:47)
• “Grappling with these conflicting accounts while trying to piece together an objective version of events has been successfully achieved by very few writers…” — Bizak, via Travis (17:29)
• “If you meet, you drink. If you part, you drink…” — Frederick Marryat, via Jake (22:06)
• “His eye set and glassy.” — Describing Morgan’s fear at the moment of abduction (71:41)
• “I think the evidence is consistent with the idea that William Morgan was murdered, but wasn’t the victim of a vast murder plot.” — Travis (107:19)

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Conclusion

This episode offers a rich, irreverent, and meticulously researched plunge into the 1826 Morgan/Miller Affair, unearthing how an old feud and petty score-settling triggered a conspiracy panic, radicalized American politics, and shaped the ethos of secret societies for centuries. Both hilarious and sobering, the episode exemplifies QAA’s unique approach: merging historical sleuthing with “dirtbag left” podcast energy, and connecting past and present forms of panic, propaganda, and political myth-making.

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For further reading/listening, look for Travis' upcoming book on the Morgan Affair and keep an eye out for future QAA episodes and side projects as discussed in the outro.

Transcript

[Jake Rockatansky]

Sam, if you're hearing this, well done. You found a way to connect to the Internet. Welcome to the qaa podcast. Episode 377 Sonic Hit Squads Part 2 the 1826 Morgan Miller Affair as always, we are your hosts, Jake Rockatansky, Julian

[Travis]

Field, Brad Abrahams and Travis View in the dark Pre dawn of September 11, 2025, I stood at the corner of center and Main street and the in the town of Batavia, New York. I loitered there for hours until about 9am staring across the four lane road as the sun rose, taking photographs, chatting with my wife who accompanied me on my trip, and occasionally checking emails and social media. There's not a whole lot to see where I was looking at. There's two banks in brick and stone buildings behind some shrubs and a tree planted along the sidewalk.

[Julian Field]

Beautiful bank of America building as the only building in sight in your photo.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, this looks like it could be the corner of every street of any town in America.

[Travis]

Pretty mundane.

[Julian Field]

Where is this like geographically in New York?

[Travis]

It's Western New York State. Yeah, okay. But I spent that morning there, 3,000 miles from home because of a lesser known anniversary of September 11, two centuries earlier. That was the location of a tavern owned by a man named David Danolds. Back then, Daniels Tavern was one of five taverns that provided food, drink, lodging and a meeting place to visitors to Batavia. And it's roughly 1400 residents, the largest being the three story Eagle Tavern built in 1823. But despite the competition back then, Danl's Tavern was a busy hub of activity, partly because David Danls was a Freemason and the Masons who lived and passed through the area preferred doing business with a fellow brother. That was one of the perks of being initiated into the order. People would help you and you'd always find people you wanted to help. Daniels Tavern is where in the year 1826, 199 years before I visited its former location. To the day and to the hour, William Morgan was detained, loaded into a stagecoach and driven away to an ultimately unknown fate. Now, we've talked about William Morgan a few times on the podcast before. So the condensed version of the story is that after William Morgan threatened to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry, a network of Freemasons in western New York State weaponized the legal system to harass him and imprison him. Then they snatched him away from his wife and two young children. He was never seen again. The public was outraged at the scandal and demanded justice. Five years of legal investigation and prosecution on the matter resulted in 20 grand juries and 15 trials. Of the 54 Freemasons indicted by a grand jury for their involvement in the kidnapping, only 39 came to trial and only 10 convicted. None were convicted of murder. And the kidnapping charge wasn't very serious because at the time, kidnapping was just a misdemeanor.

[Brad Abrahams]

Credible?

[Travis]

Yeah. The New York legislature made kidnapping a felony in 1827 directly in response to the Morgan affairs.

[Julian Field]

Wow. But did you, did you, like, I'm assuming you coordinated to be there on this day, Right?

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was part of a longer trip, but it's like I was just really curious what, you know, what the temperature was like, what the air smelled like, what the color of the sky was at the moment that happened. I was just, you know, just wanted to get the vibe.

[Julian Field]

Uh huh.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I love a good Masonic kidnapping vibe.

[Julian Field]

Especially when it's just a misdemeanor. Yeah, especially.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, especially when I know I'm not going to get in that much trouble, Travis.

[Brad Abrahams]

Just standing there yearning for the past. Like, man can't even kidnap no more.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Just like playing like the Patriot Games, music in his head, like imagining like Morgan being thrown into the stagecoach. Like duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh.

[Travis]

Many citizens felt that the Freemasons got away with killing a man. Freemasons. And their defenders insisted that Morgan was not murdered. He was simply a drunken, troublemaking drifter who was run out of town. Some dismissively called the whole brouhaha the Morgan excitement dues of Morgan's kidnapping by Masons gave birth to the Anti Masonic party, the very first third party in the United States. Anti Masonic politicians went on to become members of Congress and governors, and one presidential candidate who won Vermont's electoral votes before the party was essentially dissolved and absorbed into the Whig party in the late 1830s.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Crazy. You could just be like run out of town back then.

[Travis]

Yeah, it was like, you know, like I said, it was probably like early, early form of like frontier justice where it's like all the. The head of the legal system was like kind of loose. So, you know, just like, if you were just a prominent member of the town, you could sort of institute your own particular version of justice.

[Brad Abrahams]

Shit, I'd. I'd love to just be run out of my apartment so I can get out there a little more and stop fucking bedrotting.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah. You know, like if you were somebody back then, if you were a group of people, in fact, that had Long, pointy objects like you could effectively like run somebo right out of town just by kind of walking towards them slowly.

[Travis]

My visit to the former site of Daniel's Tavern was part of a 10 day trip around New York State in order to gather research materials for a book that's been rattling around in my head for years. I'm not just interested in the Morgan Affair. I'm more interested in the bigger story of the origin of how American politics is practiced. The political operatives who strategize messaging behind the scenes and enforce party discipline. The sensational media that keeps voters engaged year round. The constant scandal and conspiracy mob mongering. These concepts had to be invented by someone in some place. And that someplace is west of the Finger Lakes. The trip took me to libraries and some of the major urban centers like Rochester and Manhattan. I also made stops to some of the lesser known towns like Stafford, Leroy and Batavia. I think Batavia is a neat town, but it is not a tourist destination. One security guard and an establishment there, after noticing my California driver's license, asked if I was in town to see family. The subtext being that there would be no possible reason that someone would travel across the entire country to visit Batavia. He was visibly confused after I told him no.

[Brad Abrahams]

He's like, poor, poor bastard.

[Julian Field]

Did you tell him you were there to investigate a murder for your podcast?

[Brad Abrahams]

No. I like the idea that everyone's trying to run people into town now. Nobody comes here anymore.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Hey, hey you with the ponytail. Got no sharp sticks here. Come on in. The sticks are away. The sticks are. We've shaved them into pool cues. Come on in, play around.

[Travis]

The Morgan Affair was the first nationwide true crime media sensation in the United States. That interest has not carried over into the 21st century. In Batavia, I asked some locals at coffee shops and bars about the Morgan Affair and they were either not aware of the story at all or vaguely aware of it. In fact, I remember, I remember telling my wife asking, it's like, I wonder if like anyone else is going to like be at that location on September 11th. Because I was reading about it. I was also reading about like how people used to be so obsessed with it. And of course I was. I was the only person with my wife there in that corner on that morning. I'm comfortable in being alone in my special interests, but I still think it was reasonable to assume that some other people would be this obsessed with the Morgan Affair. Americans throughout the 19th century were absolutely fixated on it. Even long after the anti Masonic party died In September of 1882, 56 years after Morgan was abducted, an organization called the National Christian association unveiled a monument to William Morgan in the Batavia cemetery. It is a 37 foot 9 inch tall granite spire topped with a large, larger than life statue of Morgan. And yeah, as a picture here it's like, is just massive.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Do want to note that like the statue doesn't actually represent what Morgan looked like. They never had like a portrait of him taking while he was alive. It's actually based on a painting that was produced shortly during the excitement after Morgan disappeared. It was designed to make him like kind of like scholarly and kind of like copy paintings of Benjamin Franklin.

[Julian Field]

It's very strange having him 37ft up in the air like that because you just can't see it.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, he looks from this angle. He looks like he's standing on top of like a stone giant penis.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, it's actually a statue of what he wished he had back then to be out of reach.

[Jake Rockatansky]

But he does he very Ben Franklin esque. I was gonna say I have some

[Travis]

close up photos and he's like holding a scroll and he's looked like he has his hand in his coat like Napoleon. He's stepping forward, very grand. And the statue is over 7ft tall. And I'm told one account says that the actual William Morgan was 5 6.

[Julian Field]

Well I mean that was pretty tall for the time, right?

[Travis]

Ye, yeah, it's pretty standard.

[Jake Rockatansky]

But they were like Yes, a pristine young man as opposed to like tobacco stained. Like drunk. Like probably so drunk. Like just, you know, little poop in the pants. Like people did not smell good back then.

[Julian Field]

Wait, why poop in the pants, Jake?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Well, just because wiping, you know, wiping like techniques hadn't evolved.

[Brad Abrahams]

That's what I'm always thinking about too. Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Just saying he probably had more. I'm shying the. I'm probably the average 1800s guy probably had more dump stains than your, you know, normal, you know, your person living today.

[Brad Abrahams]

Dump stains.

[Julian Field]

You.

[Brad Abrahams]

You are horrifying. I would love to put.

[Jake Rockatansky]

This is an idealized version.

[Julian Field]

That's what I'm saying.

[Brad Abrahams]

You need to be restrained.

[Julian Field]

Idealized version for the statue.

[Jake Rockatansky]

They're gonna go with the idealized version.

[Brad Abrahams]

Jake sees every statue. He just goes to the back of it. He's like, not enough poop stains. Not realistic. He's peeking up the butt of the statue of David. I don't see anything not realistic. We've killed Jake. He's losing it.

[Julian Field]

Yeah, he's fallen off screen.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, he's fully shaking and laughing. Oh, my God. We've cornered him, folks. All it takes is a little bit of examination of why he thinks the way he thinks.

[Travis]

I can't help it.

[Brad Abrahams]

We know, we know. It's a beautiful thing.

[Travis]

The Morgan Monument's construction was made possible because of the donations of thousands of people in the United States and Canada who raised about $2,500, or roughly $85,000 today, and arguably more, depending on how you calculate it. Now, when I visited the Morgan Monument, I was flabbergasted by how much it towers over every bit of stone in the cemetery, and he even buried there. We don't know where Morgan's fate is, but it's just this massive. This towers over everything. A more modest headstone there reads, addie. Created free by God, enslaved by humans, 1807-1857. The convention in which the Morgan Monument was unveiled was attended by about a thousand people. The hotel rooms in Batavia were so overbooked that some had to sleep in the local opera house. The base of the monument reads this

[Brad Abrahams]

Sacred to the memory of William Morgan, a native of Virginia, a captain in The War of 1812, a respectable citizen of Batavia, and a martyr to the freedom of writing, printing, and speaking the truth. He was abducted from near this spot in the year 1826 by Freemasons and murdered for revealing the secrets of their order.

[Travis]

Again, this was 56 years after Morgan disappeared. Most of the people involved in the incident were dead, and the handful of witnesses who were still alive at the time spoke to a massive crowd who were still outraged about what had happened to him.

[Brad Abrahams]

Oh, my God. We can't even remember what happened, like, three weeks ago. This must have been the only exciting thing that happened in their entire lifetimes.

[Travis]

Now, students of history may scoff that this particular kidnapping caused such a huge reaction. After all, 1826 was before the Civil War. Slavery was an entrenched institution in the Southern states. And even in the supposedly free Northern states like New York, black people were frequently kidnapped so that they could be sold into slavery. This practice was most famously portrayed in Solomon Northup's memoir, 12 Years a Slave. Oh, but one white dude gets kidnapped and it's a national scandal.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Of course, they're like, build a statue as high as we can make it. You suffered the misdemeanor of kidnapping.

[Travis]

Some people at the time made a similar observation. One anonymous letter to the editor published in a newspaper after Morgan's kidnapping said this. Julian, could you take this one?

[Brad Abrahams]

Oh, okay.

[Travis]

Because it reminds me of you a little bit.

[Brad Abrahams]

The kidnapping Is not an extraordinary case. For there is, especially in the Southern states, a band of desperados who live and sometimes die, and very justly too, by kidnapping defenseless free negroes and selling them into bondage.

[Travis]

So you had to include that aside about like how awesome it happened when slave catchers died in the practice of what they are doing.

[Brad Abrahams]

Correct?

[Travis]

Reminded me. Correct. Yes, absolutely correct. But it reminded me there are Julians in every generation for those who eyes to see.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, that's right.

[Travis]

But the letter writer argued that William Morgan's kidnapping was still outrageous because they believed it suggested that the Masons considered their own oaths more important than democratically drafted laws. And further, every citizen is at risk of being killed for violating the law of the Masons.

[Brad Abrahams]

There is among us a mysterious order of individuals who are bound by laws of their own making, which laws they consider paramount to the laws of the land, to the Constitution, which we have been so long taught to consider as the bulwarks of freedom. We have not only to be careful how we violate the known laws of our country, but to take care that we do not by any means disregard or disobey certain unknown and mysterious laws to which we may subject ourselves and which go so far beyond and civilized criminal code we have ever heard of as to punish with death in its most terrific forms a mere breach of confidence, a simple disclosure of a toothless secret. Sounds less like Julian.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's a little less, yeah. The scandal was sparked by many issues that remain red hot today, like free speech and the ways in which the law can be used to enforce the interests of a certain class of people rather than enforce justice. Despite that, there are a couple reasons why I suspect interest has waned over the generations. First of all, serious historians who are more interested in broader historical effects usually don't care to get into the nitty gritty of the Morgan affairs. This is why I've discovered that the most deeply researched accounts of the Morgan fair through the past two centuries have been written by Masons. 21st century Masonic scholars have warmed to the idea that Morgan was murdered. But even in earlier accounts that were clearly done by Masonic apologists in order to try and like absolve the order. They actually do in original interviews and they dig into the case and they reason and, you know, they unpack a lot of the facts. Even if they try to steer the logic towards the conclusion that he wasn't murdered. The first monograph on the anti Masonic party published in 1901 contains this line about Morgan's to the student of political

[Jake Rockatansky]

anti Masonry who strives to relate the political effects of the incident. And not to delve into the question itself, the Morgan episode is merely incidental.

[Travis]

In the most famous essay on conspiracism that's of the paranoid style in American politics from 1964, the Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter, after summarizing the Morgan affair, hand waves in the way with this

[Brad Abrahams]

line, the details of the case need not detain us.

[Travis]

So this is again, generations of historians were like, all right, this particular instance, just not that really that important. I think it's fascinating. This is again what historians were told.

[Julian Field]

You're the only one.

[Jake Rockatansky]

They're like, what do we know? What do we know? They were like a group of Masons kidnapped him, took him away, never to be seen again. The details of the who can know? Who can know?

[Travis]

Modern people aren't interested in the Morgan affair because it's just confusing. It's confusing because, as we'll soon see, the cast of characters involved is massive. It's confusing because the culture of the Jacksonian era is so alien to our own. On top of that, the story was the subject of massive propaganda campaigns. The stakes of what happened to Morgan and what should be done about it were huge. Because Andrew Jackson was a Freemason, the rise of anti Masonic sentiment was a serious threat to the power of the ascendant Democratic party. It took some brilliant political maneuvers from Martin Van Buren to prevent the scandal from destroying the organization he had spent years building. Massive efforts were made to slander Morgan and make anti Masons seem like a bunch of loons and on the flip side, to demonize Freemasonry and hold up William Morgan as a martyred saint. This muddled the historical record to the point that even basic facts about Morgan's life, like his birth year, is a matter of which source you choose to trust. And this propaganda often infects modern accounts. John W. Bizak, a Masonic scholar who has done a lot of excellent research on the Morgan affair, wrote this just last year.

[Julian Field]

The multitude of conflicting statements about the life of William Morgan, his abduction by the Masons in 1826 and subsequent disappearance blurs the boundaries between fact and Myth. The first 100 years of writing about the 1826 Morgan affair can aptly be characterized as a jigsaw puzzle with many of the major parts missing. Grappling with these conflicting accounts while trying to piece together an objective version of events has been successfully achieved by very few writers in the 20th and 20 centuries so far.

[Travis]

So for today's Episode. I'm going to try to take my place among those very few writers that give my understanding of what happened in the counties of Genesee, Ontario, and Niagara in 1826.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Let's go.

[Travis]

Before I really get into it, I need to unpack the typical propaganda that finds its way into the narratives around Morgan. For example, Masonic apologists point out that he loved to drink a lot and was often found at the Tap Tavern, which is true. And Masons at the time were able to get Morgan in legal trouble because he skipped out on a bar tab. But it's misleading because Morgan's drinking was not a distinguishing feature for someone in this period of American history. Just about everyone drank heavily. Americans during the Jacksonian period drank more than Americans ever have or ever will. The most popular drinks were whiskey and rum. But what they drank was not like. It was not like. Like Maker's Mark and Sailor's Jerry's. It was not like, there's not like a modern equivalent. So modern liquor is normally 80 proof or about 40% alcohol. What they drank in the 1820s and 30s was usually a hundred proof or sometimes even 120 proof. If they got their hands on some, like, powerful Jamaican rum liquor that was consumed in that period that was as strong as modern liquor was then called underproof or weak whiskey.

[Brad Abrahams]

Dear God. Everyone must have wreaked.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, this is what I'm trying to say.

[Brad Abrahams]

No, no, no.

[Travis]

Oh, no.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yes. I just had a drink and I didn't shit my pants. This is wick stuff.

[Jake Rockatansky]

You really think you rip their extra care. Extra care into that wipe?

[Brad Abrahams]

I don't.

[Jake Rockatansky]

When they're three times as drunk as we've ever been.

[Brad Abrahams]

What is wrong with you?

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'm obsessed with poo particles. That's the problem.

[Julian Field]

I think it's more likely with the diet. Back then, they probably weren't going to the bathroom like. Like once a week, max.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, that's it. They're so constipated.

[Julian Field]

And when did. It was probably just like a. Like, hard as a rock. Yeah.

[Brad Abrahams]

You had to spend, like, three, three hours on the toilet. Then it was clean.

[Jake Rockatansky]

No wipe. Like giving birth to, like, a dinosaur egg or something.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah.

[Travis]

The average American in the year 1830, age 15 or older, consumed 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol within all the booze that they drink. To give you an idea of how much that is, if someone in 1830 drank exclusively 100 proof whiskey, and assuming that their bottles were the size of today's standard size of 750ml, they would need to drink 70 bottles of whiskey over the course of the year to be drinking a little less than average. And if someone limited themselves to just a bottle a week, then they were a model of moderation.

[Brad Abrahams]

Wow.

[Travis]

There was no real tea drinking culture. There was no real coffee drinking culture. And then on top of that, the farmers discovered that often that it was a lot more profitable to just distill their grains rather than sell it on the open market. And that drove down the cost of it. So people drank in the morning, they drank at work, and they drank at night.

[Julian Field]

And life expectancy was 40 to 45.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, you were like an old. You were an old man at our age.

[Julian Field]

On my deathbed. Yeah.

[Brad Abrahams]

Busy finishing out your life by drinking yourself to death.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'm sure there was, like, one guy in the village who made a decent cup of joe, you know, Ezekiel. Everybody knew you could go to him after a night out at the pub, that he had this other stuff that made you feel better after a night of drinking. It was dark. Doc, brew Ezekiel's brew. You gotta go up the hill and into the woods.

[Brad Abrahams]

But the coffee plantations were very far, and I'm sure that transportation and cultivation were not better. There's no way coffee wasn't also disgusting, Rog.

[Jake Rockatansky]

It also. It works like a video. Collect the seeds somewhere, put them in the ground.

[Travis]

Now, just to drive this point home, one of my favorite descriptions of American drinking comes from a British Royal Navy officer named Frederick Maryatt. The Royal Navy was a hard drinking culture. In fact, they even gave out a daily rum ration to all their sailors. But even Maryatt was astounded by how much Americans love to drink.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I always did consider that the English and the Swiss were the two nations who most indulged in potations. But on my arrival in the United States, I found that our descendants in this point most assuredly surpassed us altogether. I am sure the Americans can fix nothing without a drink. If you meet, you drink. If you part, you drink. If you make acquaintance, you drink. If you close a bargain, you drink. They quarrel in their drink and they make it up with a drink. They drink because it's hot, they drink because it is cold. If successful in elections, they drink and rejoice. If not, they drink and swear. They begin to drink early in the morning. They leave off late at night. They commence it early in life, and they continue it until they soon drop into the grave. Wow.

[Brad Abrahams]

For a British person to be like, you guys drink too much is absolutely wild.

[Travis]

Not just that. A British sailor. This guy's around sailors all the time he's like, whoa, you guys are just too much.

[Brad Abrahams]

That's all you fucking do.

[Jake Rockatansky]

It's good to know that we were always the laughingstock.

[Travis]

So William Morgan could have been drinking every single day and even be drunk every day and still be less indulgent than the average American of the time.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, man, it sounds kind of tight. It sounds kind of tight. I'm not gonna lie.

[Brad Abrahams]

Drinking all the time.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Well, because you're just like. Then it's like, where am I going? And it's like, dirt road to the general store. Dirt road to the bar.

[Brad Abrahams]

Spoken as someone who's never experienced alcoholism,

[Jake Rockatansky]

I think, yeah, very true.

[Brad Abrahams]

I wake up, I shake and I take my first drink.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah. No, no, it was bad. It was bad. We've. We have a horrible foundation that this country was built on in so many ways. Shaky. Very shaky.

[Brad Abrahams]

Rotten. Just pus and blood and cum and fucking 80, 120 proof. Oh my Lord, what a slurry.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Termites just eaten through the rafters.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yes, Cormac McCarthy is entirely correct in his assessment.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Support beams are gone.

[Brad Abrahams]

Everything is just a mud that can be hardly distinguished from blood.

[Travis]

Anti Masonic propaganda also infects modern accounts. You often see Morgan characterized as a one time Freemason who retaliated against the order for spurning him and because he wanted to reveal Freemasonry's dark secrets. Even scholarly accounts do this. In 2024, Oxford University Press published a generally great biography of Martin Van Buren. But I was thrown off by two sentences about William Morgan. The author said that Morgan was an active Freemason and sought membership in the Batavia Order. And that after Morgan was denied because of snobbery of the Masons, Morgan threatened to publish a book revealing the first three degrees of the Mason's secret rituals.

[Brad Abrahams]

He was going to reveal that it was all drinking.

[Travis]

It's technically true that William Morgan was active in the Masonic lodges. But what's left out of this description is the fact that he bluffed his way into the Masonic lodges. Normally, a budding Freemason is initiated through three ritual stages of ceremony and instruction called degrees. These so called Blue Lodge degrees are the entered apprentice, fellow, craft and Master Mason. There's no evidence Morgan went through this process. The only degree that Morgan received was an advanced degree called the Royal Arch.

[Julian Field]

Do you know if that one's before or after the Scottish Rite? The 33.

[Travis]

Oh, so this is, this is distinct. So this is part of. Not the Scottish Rite, it's part of the York Rite. It's different rite okay, that kind of parallel.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I think I got the royal arch from McDonald's a couple weeks ago. It was not very cool.

[Julian Field]

Great Facebook humor, Jake.

[Brad Abrahams]

I could see the rolling, like rolling laughing emojis.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I didn't realize. I don't even know how bad these jokes are getting.

[Travis]

Now the description in the Van Buren book also glosses over the fact that Morgan's primary motivation for writing the book wasn't to like, you know, cast light on dark secrets or just strike back on the Masons who snubbed him. It was clearly much. He was broke and middle aged and he had a family to care for and he hoped that publishing the book would earn him a fortune. Now that doesn't justify kidnapping, but the idea that Morgan had some sort of like more noble calling is obviously anti Masonic spin.

[Brad Abrahams]

Man, it's so perfect. I would have just written like a whole book and then at the end just like kidnap a guy and then publish the book and it's about the kidnapping of the guy. It's perfect. Make your own topic.

[Travis]

And on top of that, just, just as a factual matter, Morgan didn't threaten to reveal the first 3 degrees. By this point in history, there were already published books explaining rights of the degrees of what they call Craft Masonry. The Masons were peeved at Morgan because one, again, he claimed to be a Freemason despite not going through the normal route. Number two, he threatened to publish the fourth through seventh degrees of York Rite Masonry, which are known as the capitular degrees, in addition to the first three degrees. You know, the very fact that this whole incident is called the Morgan Affair and all the focus is placed on what happened to Morgan is itself the product of propaganda in the media of the day. Morgan's partner, David C. Miller was just as necessary to the publishing of the book, arguably more necessary. It was also kidnapped by Masons the day after Morgan was.

[Julian Field]

Yeah, but that's a misdemeanor.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, he. Yeah, he returned.

[Travis]

That's. That's the big problem. Yeah, like David C. Miller, he. He managed to escape and that wound up not making him very useful to either the people attacking or defending Freemasonry. The 2012 dissertation, Jacksonian Volcano, Anti Secretism and Secretism in 19th Century American culture makes this observation.

[Brad Abrahams]

Miller has traditionally been largely omitted from the histories of Morgan's murder as his story is inconvenient for both sides. As a living witness to Masonic directed mob violence against anti Masons in the city, Miller's story did not serve the needs of Masonic historians. As a failed businessman who saw no more personal success after Morgan's death than before. He was a much less useful hero and martyr than the dead Morgan for anti Masonic writers and political leaders elsewhere. Elsewhere.

[Travis]

So the worst thing that Miller did for his notoriety and reputation was fail to disappear as Morgan did. So I'm going to try and like restore Miller's place in anti Masonic history through telling little known facts about his run in with the Masons of New York.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Excellent.

[Travis]

Another thing that makes it difficult for modern audiences to understand Morgan is that Freemasonry had a much different place in culture during the early Republic. Nowadays, assuming you're not a conspiracist, you may think of Freemasons as a afterwork club for dudes who talk about self development, do local charity work and happened to perform esoteric initiation ceremonies while wearing regalia. It's not for me, but who am I to discourage men from joining a fraternal organization in the midst of this male loneliness epidemic?

[Brad Abrahams]

So true. You'd be on Discord now though.

[Travis]

But yeah, but Freemasonry was a much bigger deal from the 1790s to the 1820s. Even offering material benefits, it provided networking opportunities. You could be a humble laborer, but if you joined a Masonic Lodge, you were rubbing elbows with lawyers and merchants every week. It was a mutual aid network. If you fell on hard times, you could count your brothers to give you a hand while he got back on your feet. And allow the early male citizens of the United States to join an organization with structure, ritual and a sense of deep history without all the baggage of aristocracy and royalty. There's this great book called Revolutionary Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order which goes into more detail about how Masonry helped shape American culture.

[Julian Field]

Yeah, I popped in the Discord after the last episode on the Athenor Affair and a lot of people were talking about their family members who had joined lodges and were active at the lodges. And it was almost always they joined because of like doing charity, you know, or the social club aspect. Like, and they, they really like downplayed the any kind of like secret society aspect of it. And that the Athnor affair in modern times is like, is such an aberration.

[Brad Abrahams]

Uh huh, sure.

[Julian Field]

And then someone commented that's exactly what a Mason would say.

[Brad Abrahams]

Exactly.

[Travis]

With all that background in mind, who exactly was this William Mo Morgan? The Life of William Morgan William Morgan was born sometime between 1774 and 1776 and raised in Culpepper County, Virginia. As a young man, he left his home to Apprentice for his cousin as a stonemason in Madison County. He was what we call an operative Mason, as in someone who actually does Masonry work, as opposed to the. What they call the speculative Masonry of Freemasonry. In 1790. In 1995, when he was about 19 or 20, he worked for a few years in Lexington, Kentucky, before returning to Virginia. There are some questions about whether or not Morgan served in the Army. I think it's reasonable to think that after the War of 1812 broke out, he served and never rose above the rank of private. Though later in life, Morgan exaggerated the extent of his service, telling his fellow tavern patrons that he achieved the rank of captain and even served under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. New Orleans.

[Jake Rockatansky]

No evidence for this, though.

[Travis]

No, no, no. This. Yeah, this. There'd be much better documentation if he became an officer and, like, served in the Battle of New Orleans. So this is. This is him just being a bit of a braggart. You just. Just tavern tales, you know? On October 7, 1819, when William Morgan was in his mid-40s, he married his wife, Lucinda Pendleton, the eldest daughter of a Baptist minister. This is what most might euphemistically be called a problematic age gap relationship.

[Julian Field]

Euphemistically?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Lucinda was just 16 years old at the time. But one reliable Masonic source is that Lucinda's parents didn't approve of her marriage. And in fact, it caused an estrangement that lasted their entire lives, which suggests that Lucinda wasn't forced into the marriage, or at the very least, that the prospect of marrying Morgan sounded more appealing than continuing to live at home for some reason.

[Julian Field]

Reason not saying much.

[Brad Abrahams]

No.

[Jake Rockatansky]

This is crazy, though, because if Morgan was, like, in his mid-40s, he was basically, like, one foot in the grave in this point. Yeah, one last wife before I go.

[Julian Field]

But he was a. He was a moderate drinker. He was only drinking 70 bottles of whiskey.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Well, well, folks, I've begun the back. He's like, I'm playing the last hole. Time to get myself a teenage bride. As they did as one did back then, then.

[Brad Abrahams]

Have you not smelled your future husband's poopy? He smells awful.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Lucinda, how could you? He came over here the other day reeking of poop articles. All right, all right. Enough. That's enough. It's been. It's been tooken too far.

[Brad Abrahams]

Took in too far.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'm sorry, you guys. My AC has been out all weekend, and we're having, like, a heat wave in Los Angeles. I bet he smells like dookie. I'm Just talking about myself. I keep going into the bathroom to try to clean myself, but there's always more. It's just.

[Julian Field]

You're not even sweating though. Jake.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'm. Well, because I don't sweat.

[Julian Field]

Oh. Oh. More. Jake.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'm like one of those horrible people where the sweat just stays inside. I have no way to get cool.

[Julian Field]

Stays inside.

[Brad Abrahams]

He's a dog. He's a dog. He has to stick out his tongue.

[Travis]

Morgan lived in Canada around 1820 and 1821, bouncing around from Toronto to York before settling into a job on a large farm. After this, he worked at a brewery. Several sources claimed that he owned a brewery that burned down, but there exists no record of such ownership or of any brewery burning down during this time. He returned to the United States in 1822, and the following year he moved to Rochester to continue his work as a stonemason. There, William and Lucinda Morgan had their first child, a daughter named Harriet, who tragically died two years later. Also in 1822, Morgan worked for a man named Mr. Warren, who happened to be a freemason. Morgan claimed to Warren that he was a Freemason too, but he was initiated in Canada where the ceremony was different.

[Brad Abrahams]

You wouldn't know it.

[Julian Field]

You wouldn't know it.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's a classic Canadian girlfriend story.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yes, it truly is.

[Travis]

200 year old trick. Morgan's employer vouched for him at the local lodge, and that was good enough for him to start becoming a regular visitor at many lodges in the area. Now, back then, membership at a lodge was about $0.50 per year, plus an additional $0.25 per meeting to cover food and drink expenses. But these expenses could be informally waived for a visiting Mason, which would essentially allow Morgan to eat and drink for free. Soon after, he ingratiated himself with the Rochester Masons. He convinced a Mason named Dr. Blanchard Powers to educate him on the Masonic rights. From this he was able to travel around to several lodges in the reason where he got along well with Masons because he helped out. He was a good singer and he was initially very charming. This is from a description by Rob Morris, who wrote books defending Freemasonry and attacking William Morgan.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Morgan became a regular visitor and soon picked up a superficial acquaintance with the ceremonies of the order. Traveling from place to place in his vocations as journeyman bricklayer, he timed his stay at each place to cover the regular and called meetings of the lodges. The lodges soon found use for a brother whose voice was loud and sonorous, who displayed an easy manner as one who had mixed Much with mankind, who could sit up all night if need to be, finish the work in hand. And who at the festive board could sing his strange song with the best, offer his toast and alas, drink his glass with the merriest. Like most Canadian people, he's like fun to hang out with. He's like, easy to get along with. And he could sing.

[Julian Field]

Yeah. Like a lot of con artists, they're fun at first.

[Poet/Narrator]

Fun.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah. Enjoyable life of the party.

[Travis]

Yeah. He even got so knowledgeable about Freemasonry, he helped instruct some up and coming Masons, which allowed him to like, earn some money as like a tutor. This is part of what, like, pissed off the Mason. It's not just a bullshit. He like claimed to be like really deep knowledge and like helping other ma Masons. It felt like he was corrupting. He was what they, what they called at the time, a bright Mason, which is like just a name they gave to a guy who seemed to really know all the kind of like Masonic lore. In 1824, the Morgans had a daughter named after her mother, little Lucinda Wesley Morgan. The one Masonic degree that Morgan did acquire he received in Leroy, New York on May 31, 1825, for which Morgan paid 12. This is the Royal Arch degree degree. He was able to get this degree despite the fact that he didn't have any of the prerequisite degrees because he was vouched for by a prominent Freemason in the area named James Ganson. James Ganson was a former state legislator, former sheriff of Genesee county, and a tavern owner. He would also go on to become one of the key conspirators in William Morgan's kidnapping. In fact, several Freemasons eventually gathered at Ganson's tavern in order to discuss and strategize about what to do about William Morgan. Morgan THE Gathering Storm against William Morgan the final rupture between the Masons and William Morgan happened in early 1826. The Royal Archmasons of Batavia thought that they were numerous enough to apply to the Grand Chapter of New York to establish their own chapter in that village. The petition for this proposed Batavia Royal Arch chapter was distributed and found its way to Morgan, who added his signature to the list of names.

[Julian Field]

Names.

[Travis]

But there were some royal archmasons who were getting sick of Morgan and they didn't want his name on the petition because if his name was there, he would automatically be made a regular member of the chapter after it formed. So they destroyed his petition and circulated a new one, which they submitted without his signature. From this, Royal Archmasons of Batavia received a charter and Morgan was reportedly mortified to discover that his name was not included as a founding member. So they're just, just excluded, you know, the sting of, you know, being an outside. They're like all week, I can't, I don't want to go to this lodge if William Morgan is going to be there.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Now it's presumed that this insult motivated Morgan to write his book exposing Freemasonry. Now that might have been a part of it, but I have to imagine a bigger motivation was related to the fact that his wife Lucinda was again pregnant and due in July of that year. Year. He was about 50, getting too old for strenuous stonemason work. The money he got from Masons was drying up and he needed to find a way to provide for his wife, his toddler daughter, in his soon to be infant son. And so he figured reasonably that his best shot at doing right for his growing family was by cashing in on his Masonic knowledge by writing a book.

[Julian Field]

Were people like making a ton of money from books back then though?

[Travis]

No, no, this is, yeah. I mean, it's like, you know, book writing has always been a rough business business, but like even then where the literacy rate was growing, but it wasn't great, right?

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

This is the kind of guy though that was, that would be like, after his like buddies like kicked him out, he'd be like, you know what, I'm gonna make a movie about this and I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be rich and famous. Like that is kind of, it seems like sort of in line with his, his, his vibes.

[Travis]

After Morgan decided to write the book, he received help investment from his friend Russell Dyke, but they had to find a publisher. At first, Dyer went to the newspaper, the Rochester Telegraph, but got rejected because its co owner was a Mason. But they found a willing publisher shortly afterwards. Three days after being rejected, Dyer, Morgan and a third partner in the enterprise named John David entered into agreement with David C. Miller, the publisher of the newspaper the Batavia Republican Advocate. David C. Miller was a good fit to publish the book because he had his own beef with the Freemasons. Years earlier, while Miller lived in Saratoga, Miller had planned to republish the old Masonic expose Jacken and Bowie. The local masons heard about it and decided to invite Miller to join the order instead of publishing the book and became an entered apprentice. Miller never published a book, but he also never climbed higher than that entry level degree. Miller was also having money problems, partly because he was still financially recovering from a fire that burned his printing press and records in 1821. And because in 1825, a rival paper called the people's Press, which happened to be run by his former business partner and backed by masons, was stealing some of his advertising revenue. On March 13, Morgan made his three partners sign an oath of secrecy. Of course, news about the plans for the book immediately started circulating. This was at least partly Morgan's own fault. When he drank in taverns, he loved boasting about how he could give more information about Freemasonry for $1 than they could give for $15. Soon, Freemasons from all over Genesee county had heard about the book. An ex mason named Samuel Green later wrote that he attended a meeting of masons in July of 1826 in which the attendees passionately what to do about Morgan. He wrote that some of them suggested that Morgan should literally suffer the symbolic penalties that are part of the Masonic oaths. In Masonic initiation rituals, the candidate says that they will suffer some kind of, like, bodily harm if they violate the oaths. But these aren't actual enforced punishments. They're more in the vein of saying, like, and if I'm lying, may I be struck down with a bolt of lightning where I stand. No one thinks you're actually telling other people to electrocute you if you're lying. In the case of the royal archmason degree, the symbolic penalty for violating the

[Jake Rockatansky]

oath is have my skull smote off and my brains exposed to the scorching rays of the meridian sun.

[Julian Field]

Yeah, that's. That's even. Even more visceral than the opening quote from the last step.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, I think. I think they get more creative and gory the higher you get up. It's clearly hyperbolic, but according to Greene, some freemasons suggest that this penalty should literally be enforced.

[Julian Field]

At this meeting, there was a great amount of violent talk. In a roundabout and half enigmatical way, Morgan was declared to be a wicked and perjured wretch who ought to receive upon himself the penalties of the oaths which he had taken and broken. And it was said that all honest masons would see that they were executed, Although no one in particular said he would do it himself. Yet one rich man did say that he would find whips and cords as long as others would use them, of course.

[Brad Abrahams]

What's new? Rich people.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, the rich guy is like, I'll supply the weapons.

[Brad Abrahams]

You do. Do the crime.

[Jake Rockatansky]

You do the crime.

[Travis]

The first plan to deal with the Morgan problem was to take Advantage of his debts. Back then, unpaid debts for as little as 6 cents could land you in jail. In early July, he was sued in New York Supreme Court because he owed a man named Thomas McCully $43. But Morgan avoided jail because two Masons who were friends of his paid the bail. Now, perhaps these Masons didn't know the publishing of the book or they didn't care, but this would be the last bit of help he would receive from any Freemason. On July 25, Morgan was arrested by a sheriff because he owed money to a man named Nathan Follett. David C. Miller got Morgan released by offering what little money he had as a guarantee that Morgan would not leave Batavia until Follett was paid. On August 5, Morgan wanted some guarantee that he would actually be paid for his work on the book. So he and his partners drew up a bond for $500,000, which Morgan was to receive for the manual script. This was clearly delusional, like ludicrous. Like, half a million dollars in 1826 translates to roughly $15 million in consumer buying power today. No one in the early 19th century made that kind of money from writing a book.

[Jake Rockatansky]

He was. He was thinking big eyes towards the future.

[Travis]

But it also just does illustrate that Morgan, like, seemed to genuinely believe he would make a fortune from the book. A few days later, a newspaper in Canada published a notice warning all local citizens, especially Masons, about Morgan. It ended with these.

[Brad Abrahams]

Morgan is considered a swindler and a dangerous man. There are people in the village who would be happy to see this. Captain Morgan. I just realized this drunk was called Captain Morgan. If you believed his own fake stories about service.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Brad Abrahams]

Christ. This Jim B. Must repay me.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, it sounds like this was mostly the fault of a.1 William Morgan. And the kind of guy that he was.

[Brad Abrahams]

Was, yeah, a real pain in the ass and a liability is what he said.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah, he swindled his way to the Masonic lodge, took. Took advantage of their free food and.

[Poet/Narrator]

And.

[Jake Rockatansky]

And, you know, like, you know, pretend to be their friends. And then when, like, they were like, oh, this guy's so fucking annoying. He's always singing. And he's like, oh, he's pretend. He's so popular. When they kicked him out, he's like, I'm gonna write a book and expose all of them. I mean, It's a very 2026 kind of story. This is America.

[Travis]

Around this time, David C. Miller started to believe that the threats against him, Morgan and the publishing of the book were getting serious. So he decided to get armed. The total arsenal Miller assembled in his office included several pistols, 15 to 20 muskets, and two swivel guns.

[Julian Field]

Wait, what is a swivel gun? Oh, you're about to. You're about to explain that?

[Travis]

I'm glad you asked because. Yes, I was shocked by this, too. I dug into this. So swivel guns were these small rotating cannons that weighed 1 to 200 pounds.

[Brad Abrahams]

This man thought he was gonna, like, wage a land war in his office.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's like, I don't know if you've ever played was Assassin's Creed, Black Flag. You may be somewhat familiar with a swivel gun. You shoot one in that one. So they were typically mounted on ships and used as short range weapons that could, like, for example, blow the leg off of a raiding pirate or provide covering fire for landing parties. Now, Swivel's anti personnel ammunition were grapeshot or canister, which fired a cluster of small iron balls that spread after leaving the muzzle. Like a shotgun blast. Yeah, like these weapons, they're not normally used to protect the doorway of, like, a newspaper shop.

[Brad Abrahams]

That's so awesome. Just pointing two of those at the entrance from two angles.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, he was, like, ready to shred anybody who came in.

[Julian Field]

It was likely he would just destroy his own officer.

[Brad Abrahams]

They're boarding the print shop. They're boarding the print shop. Everybody to your stations.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, he would have likely blown out the entire front of his shop, you know, to defend it, which is admirable.

[Brad Abrahams]

All of this damage was done from the inside.

[Travis]

But as Miller himself soon discovered, this was a reasonable amount of firepower, given the size and aggressiveness of the Masons.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow.

[Travis]

The plot to eliminate more. On August 11, a chapter of the Royal Archmasons in the town of Lockport, New York, appointed what they called a Vigilance Committee. The duties of this committee included to

[Jake Rockatansky]

act in cases of emergency, to guard the institution from imposition, and to amend as far as possible any infraction of the laws of our institution.

[Travis]

The committee consisted of three men, two of which, Jared Darrow and Eli Bruce, were later indicted for the role in the conspiracy against William Morgan and David C. Miller. So we don't have any details of what exactly went down in Lockport, but it's pretty clear that this committee was primarily responsible for taking care of the William Morgan problem. We can also presume the rough nature of their plans based on what happened next. The plot was to seize all the manuscripts that Morgan and Miller were working on, destroy Miller's print shop, capture both Miller and Morgan and use horse drawn stagecoaches to transport them towards the northeast. Morgan was to be taken to the abandoned military base, Old Fort Niagara, where the New York masons were to transfer him over to some Canadian masons who would then transport him to a small farm outside the modern Canadian city of Hamilton. There Morgan would be given $500, told to never return. And then arrangements would be made to transport Morgan's wife and children to him so that they could join him in exile. Exile. What exactly they plan to do with Miller is less clear because Miller managed to escape after being abducted, but causing the whole plan to fall apart.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow, this is crazy.

[Travis]

This was seemingly their, their plot. They just wanted to run these two troublemakers out of town and destroy any evidence that they are working on the book. It was a very dumb plan. And instead of protect, instead they wanted to protect Freemasonry and like save themselves embarrassment. Instead of led to like criminal charges. And then it wound up essentially destroying Freemasonry. For about a generation after the Morgan affair and the rights to anti Masonry, the number of lodges in the United States sort of like plummeted.

[Jake Rockatansky]

The New York masons sounds like a really down and out kind of like ball team, you know, like a farm league or you know, just a team that really can't get it together.

[Travis]

On August 14, David C. Miller traveled to Utica in order to file for a copyright of the book. Miller got the sense that he was being followed, so he took measures to evade his pursuit. He was traveling via boat on the Erie Canal. But instead of disembarking on the boat's destination at Rochester, he got off on another stop eight miles east and arranged for other means of travel.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Classic.

[Julian Field]

Smart man.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah. He shook a tail.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Speaking of shaking a tail. Yeah, take him away.

[Travis]

Miller later wrote that a mysterious man tried to find him in this baggage on the boat. Shortly after afterwards the boat had passed

[Brad Abrahams]

but a few miles after I had left it, when the captain was hailed from the banks of the canal by a well dressed individual who inquired, has not Mr. Miller been on board that boat and on being answered in the affirmative demanded my baggage by authority, as he alleged of a written order from me. But being unable to designate what my baggage was, he was foiled in the attempt to become possessed of certain property that was then supposed to be in my charge.

[Travis]

Yeah, so like some Mason somehow knew that he was traveling on this, on this boat and like spoke to I guess the captain or someone on board and said like, hey, like David C. Miller told me that I Was supposed to take care of his back. Could you give them to me? And he's like, what, what, what? What were Miller's baggages look like? He said, I don't know. This is where this plan fell apart.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh man. He must have been foiled at the last second. Sir, can you describe the luggage to me please? He's like, ah, brown.

[Travis]

So, having been foiled on the taking of Miller's documents while he was traveling, the Freemasons escalated their tax tactics by calling on help from a fixer. That brings me to what I think is the most interesting conspirator in the plot and which some sources refer to as a Masonic spy. A man named Daniel Johns. Daniel Johns traveled from his home country of Canada and arrived in Batavia on August 15. When he checked into a hotel, he told the clerk that he was a fur trader in his home country. That was not exactly true. But what was true was that Daniel Johns was a member of a high ranking Freemasonic organization called the Knights 10 Templar, which is named after the medieval order. In fact, Johns was paid by the encampment of the Knights Templar in Rochester to come to America and stop the publication of the book. The involvement of Daniel Johns and actually a couple other Masons is what makes this a true international Masonic conspiracy. Daniel Johns strategy for infiltrating the printing operation of David C. Miller was simple. He would pose as someone who had heard about the book Miller was publishing and offer his money and labor to invest in the venture. Daniel Johns went to Miller's print office and offered him $40 cash on the spot and claimed that he could bring thousands of dollars more where that came from. Miller bought it, and Daniel Johns went to work helping with printing other books and supposedly protecting the print office. Miller later wrote this.

[Brad Abrahams]

His story being plain, plausible and connected, he was unhesitatingly permitted to become a participator. He aided all he could, apparently, in the printing and folding of Masonic books, and became an active guard against Cowans and eavesdroppers, as well as more prominent enemies.

[Travis]

Yeah, I thought. I thought this was a funny detail because he's already paranoid. He's like building up an arsenal in his office. He knows he's like being followed while he's traveling. But as soon as a guy comes up, I have money and want to invest in your venture, it's like, yeah, come on in, come on in. He was that hard up.

[Julian Field]

Yeah. Or Daniel Johns was just that good of a spy. Yeah, maybe he was charming as most Canadians are.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wrong.

[Travis]

Meanwhile, the Masons continued to use the legal system to harass William Morgan for his debts. During this time, Morgan was writing his manuscript in the upstairs room of the home of one of his investors, John Davids.

[Julian Field]

So there's John Davids and Daniel Johns.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, all first name. There's a lot of people. On August 19, one constable, Daniel H. Dana, traveled to where Morgan was working to arrest him yet again for an unpaid debt. Constable Dana was accompanied by three Freemasons named Johnson Goodwill, Kelsey Stone and John Wilson. Constable Dana knocked on the door and asked the person who answered if the house's owner was in. When the answer came back no, he knew that Morgan was alone. They rushed up into Morgan's temporary office and the constable placed Morgan into custody. The three Masons then gathered the papers he was working on as Morgan was marched off to jail. This was Saturday afternoon, which meant that if he couldn't be bailed out that day, then he would spend the Sabbath in jail because sheriffs don't work on the sabb. The earliest Morgan could be free was the following Monday. With Morgan safely locked away for the weekend, the Masons took an opportunity to look for more documents that might contain Masonic secrets. On the evening of the same Saturday that Morgan was arrested, Constable Dana, accompanied by Morgan's debt holder, Thomas McCauley, and the Masonic muscle Johnson Goodwill, arrived at the house that Morgan was renting with his wife. The posse asked Lucinda Morgan if they are in possession of anything that could satisfy the debt. She said they didn't have any. Anything. In truth, the Masons claim to be looking for valuables was just a pretext. In fact, Morgan's incarceration satisfy the debt in the eyes of the law, making this a very much illegal search, really. The crew was searching the property for even more documents from the manuscript that Morgan was working on.

[Julian Field]

Is there any documentation that the constable was also a Mason?

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah. This one the most. Most of the constables. This is the big thing that also outraged people is that the Masonic plot corrupted essentially police officers who were involved in in it, the journalist William Leet Stone, who was himself a Freemason but became a critic of Freemasonry after the Morgan affair, wrote about what happened next.

[Julian Field]

Goodwill, pretending not to be satisfied, commenced a general search, tumbling over trunks and boxes and examining whatever papers and letters came their way. Finding one small trunk containing a few papers they seized upon and carried it off, assuring Mrs. Morgan that should they find any papers therein of consequence to her husband, they would be remarkable returned.

[Travis]

Yeah. So this was obviously a lie again. They were just using these, the. The COVID of law to seize everything they could and execute their plot.

[Jake Rockatansky]

It was like those days equivalent of like taking the hard drive. You know, if you were in a room and you saw a sealed trunk, I mean, you know, that's where the good stuff probably was. That's where he's keeping the manuscript.

[Brad Abrahams]

Based on Assassin's Creed.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, based on, you know, media I've consumed about that era.

[Brad Abrahams]

Ah, the icon of the treasure chest has gone great. We found what we need.

[Travis]

William Morgan was bailed out of jail the following Monday by some unnamed friends. After Masons used the force of the law to get documents from Morgan, Daniel Jaws continued to deploy espionage on David C. Miller. Miller wrote about how Daniel Johns lived with them for weeks before the Knight Templar made off with part of his manuscript.

[Brad Abrahams]

He slept in the printing room with me with pistols at the head of his bed, and often expressed his astonishment that I did not sleep. I now can see the villain with his snaky head raised from the pillow, inquiring what position I lay in. He uniformly found me perusing a book or a newspaper. I used to apologize for disturbing his slumbers by a burning candle, assuring him that there was no danger to be apprehended from it. I had become wakeful and watchful, but not from suspicion of him. Thus time passed smoothly on for about 12 or 14 days. Days enlivened now and then by some remarks at the expense of our enemies. During all this time, however, Johns was extremely anxious of perusing the manuscript in the upper degrees of masonry. He was accordingly presented with the mark masters or fourth degree. This was on the evening of the 8th of September. The next day at noon, he was missing. He was seen last to go into the post office of this village, and although immediately sought for and inquired after, was nowhere to be found.

[Julian Field]

So they were. They were both just like, sort of sleeping next to each other in the office?

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

This is incredible. Life used to be so awesome back then. Are you kidding?

[Brad Abrahams]

They were doing the lighthouse with each

[Julian Field]

other and neither of them sleeping.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, they got these two fucking, like, swivel pistols. Oh, my God. Incredible.

[Travis]

So, yeah, he just. He just lived with him for weeks, and then it's like, yeah, I can't believe he even didn't get suspicious and like, hey, hey, can I. So that you're that book. I see the document. You're the fourth degree. Huh? You think maybe I could, like, take a look? It's like, at that point, he didn't get suspicious, but, yeah, eventually he just disappeared with, with that manuscript and just was gone.

[Jake Rockatansky]

It's like the, you know, the person you're dating with, you know, all sorts of red flags. Like they finally just like walk off with your wallet one day and you, you know, you start seeing charges at the liquor shop. You go, oh well I deserved this. I knew it was coming.

[Julian Field]

That's why you never trust a firsty, firsty.

[Travis]

Now through these efforts, the Masons were able to successfully take off with the drafts explaining the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th degrees of York Rite Freemasonry. And so Miller eventually decided he couldn't actually publish the book as originally planned. This is an aspect of the story that is not touched on in most accounts. The Masonic plot, at least immediately, was mostly successful. Miller later decided to press on with publishing the information of the first 3 degrees, which was published a few months after Morgan's disappearance. But if you read the conclusion of Morgan's book book you would read this.

[Jake Rockatansky]

A more full explanation of the signs, grips, words, etc. Will be given at the conclusion of the second part of this work which will comprise of the following mark Master, present or past Master, most excellent Master, and the Royal Arch to which will also be added several of the degrees in the Order of Knighthood. End of part first.

[Julian Field]

Part first.

[Travis]

Part first. Yeah, since the author had disappeared, there wasn't a part second. In fact, the additional degrees weren't published until 1829 when Reverend David Bernard, a former Freemason, took Morgan's book and added more information about Masonic history, philosophy and symbolism. So yeah, I mean it's like their goal was to, you know, destroy the manuscripts and get rid of Morgan and prevent the publication of the book. And by those metrics it was successful for about two years. But even after the Masons successfully stole the manuscripts from Morgan and Miller, they weren't done. They wanted to make sure that they wouldn't have to deal with these two ever again. We can infer from what happened next that the Masonic leaders decided that the next part of the plan required manpower. They wanted to destroy Miller's print shop. And that required a mob of dozens of Men. On October 8th, a high ranking Mason named Colonel Edward Sawyer and somewhere between 40 and 50 Masons gathered for supper at the tavern of James Ganson, about six miles from Batavia. The Masons had come from all over, including from Buffalo, 60 miles away, and even more men from Canada. So this is a crazy part is like there was like there a call went out where they got the word that they were, they Were gonna deal with this Morgan Miller problem. And they traveled. It must have been a couple days of travel to go 60 miles in the 1826. And so they were like, they were just guys who just had nothing better to do than like join this gang thing after they ate late at night, Sawyer led the mob toward Batavia. After they got to town, but before they reached Miller's office, they were informed by a local that David C. Miller was well armed and prepared for an attack. Realizing that they were outgunned, the mob dispersed in the early hours of the morning. So this part, by kind of like assuming what happened here, this isn't said in the affidavits on the matter, but reading between the lines, I assume that these dozens of men had a lot to drink with their meal at Ganson's tent cavern.

[Jake Rockatansky]

The Gansons, of course. Yeah.

[Travis]

Yes. And full of drunken ager, they all set off to Batavia. However, they must have sobered up a little bit during the six mile hike towards Miller's office. And sobriety dampened their anger and bravery enough for them to realize that what they were doing was not a good idea.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Incredible.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Julian Field]

They just weren't as well armed.

[Travis]

No, they weren't. And you know, it's funny, it's like Miller never fired off his massive arsenal and protecting his office. But the fact that, that you just had it at least prevented like a couple attacks like this.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah. When you have like Willie at the front and they're, they're like, how many more, how many more miles? And he's like, I'm sure. Mile more fellas. Nothing more like. And then they're walking for like two hours, three hours.

[Travis]

Like.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

You start to kind of lose your. Lose your guster a little bit.

[Travis]

Matters continue to escalate. Sometime between 2 or 3 o' clock in the morning on September 10, 1826, while David C. Miller was working in his print office, he was apparently a bit of an insomniac. He was startled by someone shouting fire. He says he didn't notice the fire at first because his curtains were drawn and the inside of his office was illuminated by candlelight. As was later discovered, someone had soaked cotton balls with turpentine and attempted to set the outside stairs of the two story building on fire. Now, Miller's office was on the second floor, which means that if the flames consumed the stairs, the only hope for Miller and the 16 people sleeping in the printing office would be to risk injury by leaping to the ground. Ground. And that doesn't even consider the families that lived on the first floor of the building.

[Julian Field]

Yeah. I mean, kidnapping is a misdemeanor, but, yeah. Causing the deaths of, like, 20 people.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, this is a cowardly fire.

[Travis]

This was an insane escalation because, like, yeah, fire was like, obviously arson is no joke at any time, but, like, it could cause just massive. They didn't have the infrastructure to put out fires quickly like. Like we do now. However, that fire was put out quickly by sheer luck. A couple of Teamsters had arrived the evening before, and they arrived too late to get a hotel room. And so they parked their stagecoach in location close to the printing office and camped until morning. When the flames ignited, the Teamsters were started awake and had enough time to put out the small fire with some nearby water barrels.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow. Divine intervention.

[Travis]

Yeah. Lucky break. The topic of who was actually responsible for the fire was the subject of a media narrative war for months after afterwards. The following year, the Masons of Batavia started a newspaper called the Masonic Intelligencer that broadcast their own take on the Morgan affair. Now, I was blessedly able to see, like, fragile and yellow copies of this rare publication by visiting the Livingston Masonic Library of Grand Lodge in Manhattan. So this is a private library. As such, they have every right to not waste their time with me. But despite that, the librarian was very helpful in my research.

[Brad Abrahams]

Ah, yes, limited hangout. He was brought in and shown just the right documents.

[Travis]

One issue of a Masonic Intelligencer says that a day or two before the fire, quote, several barrels of water had been placed by Miller's men in a very convenient position to extinguish the fire, insinuating that the fire was set by Miller himself and the barrels were also there so that it could be put out. Miller was essentially being accused of orchestrating a false flag operation against his own office.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Okay, all right.

[Travis]

To counter the narratives of the Masonic Intelligence, sir, Miller started his own specialty publication called the Morgan Investigator.

[Julian Field]

Okay,

[Jake Rockatansky]

the competing. The competing YouTube channel.

[Travis]

Yeah. This is an even rarer publication. The Morgan Investigator ran for only 26 issues, and Livingston Library has three of them. Issues number four, 16. And the last issue number 26. But they didn't have issue number one. I had to see issue number one of the Morgan Investigator by visiting the New York State Archives in Albany. The remaining 22 issues of this are probably lost forever. A fact that will haunt me until I die.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Damn. That can be the book. Part two is you've grown your hair out even longer and your. And your beard is even scragglier and you're more obsessed and you go on like an archaeology. Sort of like a field trip to find the missing pages of the, of the magazine.

[Brad Abrahams]

You would only need about 70 bottles of liquor a year for that.

[Travis]

Yeah, I know. I sometimes think it's like, like, God, what if, like, what if, like there's like a complete collection, like rotting in some, some attic in rural western New York, you know?

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Folks, if you're listening and you do have a relative that is hoarding a, a box of, you know, mid-1800 zines, please do contact [e-mail] you can even

[Brad Abrahams]

write it yourself and then burn the edges like children do and kind of yellow the document, maybe put it in like a washing machine.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Please, please. Better yet, if you would like to forge these documents and make Travis research something, you know, make him read like 10 pages until, until you get to like your butt, you know, to let him know that it was all about big prank, feel free to do that as well.

[Brad Abrahams]

Like that one time I tricked Travis into thinking there was like a post about being haunted by homosexual urges. For Travis.

[Travis]

So the first issue of the Morgan Investigator contains a letter by a man named John Waldo who happened to be living with his family the first floor of the building of Miller's office.

[Brad Abrahams]

Where was he?

[Travis]

Yeah, he was living in the first floor of the building of Miller's print office.

[Brad Abrahams]

Are you sure that's where Waldo is?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Are you sure he was there? I think I might see him in the midst of that bundle of seals on the shore over there. Oh, no, no, no. Just his hat, folks.

[Brad Abrahams]

He fell for it immediately. There was not even hesitation.

[Travis]

And John Waldo pressed back against these false flag accusations by saying that the barrel in question was placed by him and not Miller. So it was a 25 gallon wine barrel that he was using to collect rain. Rainwater. I thought this was interesting because with a name like the Morgan Investigator, I thought it would be used to be promoting conspiratorial, anti Masonic narratives. And it did a bit, but was also used to debunk conspiratorial narratives that were being promoted by the Masons, which, you know, complicates the way that anti Masonry of the period has been portrayed as a kooky conspiratorial movement.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah. On top of that, there is a huge amount of reason behind, behind investigating the Masons and being a conspiracy. They're literally trying to like kill him, deport him, burn his place down.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of heads going in on this.

[Travis]

I mean. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, it's always Been kind of like difficult. The betrayal of the anti Masonic protesters and party as a group of paranoid kooks was the norm until the 1960s and 70s. The historians Ronald P. Formasano and Kathleen Smith Kudlowski re examined the movement and found that at least initially, the anti Masons were motivated by small are republican ideals. They weren't like the Know Nothing party from later in the 19th century which was motivated by xenophobia and conspiracy theories about the Catholics. The initial anti Masonic protests could be seen as reasonable given how insane and extensive this plot against Morgan and Miller was. The kidnapping of William Morgan on September 10, yet another warrant was issued for William Morgan's arrest. But by now they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel. The warrant secured by Nicholas Cheeseborough, Master of Ontario Master's Lodge in Canandwega.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Naturally.

[Travis]

Yeah, Cheeseborough. I know it's crazy name, I know,

[Jake Rockatansky]

but it's like that's kind of a common American last name. I feel like this isn't the first or last time I've heard Cheeseboro in the mix.

[Travis]

So Cheeseborough claimed that Morgan stole a shirt and cravat from a tavern keeper five months earlier. In truth, the evidence suggests that Morgan just, just borrow the cravat willingly. And then they used this pretext to arrest him. To execute this warrant they secured help from one constable Hayward, who was in this instance not a Mason and naively thought he was just doing his job. Constable Hayward, Cheesborough and the four other Masons made their way through Batavia and they made three stops to pick up three additional Masons. So the traveling part, so the constable

[Brad Abrahams]

would slowly realize that he was at the head of like a fucking Mason lynch mob. There's more and more of them. Strange. They keep picking up new homies at every stop.

[Travis]

So these nine Masons arrived at Ganson's Tavern for supper. And at Ganson's Tavern they recruited another Mason to ride ahead Batavia to deliver a message to William Seaver, the master of Batavia Lodge and let him know that the arrest party was coming. After William Seaver was told about the crew, Seaver told the messenger to turn around with a message communicating that it would be a bad idea to roll into town with a nine man posse to pick up 50 year old man. Seaver's exact warning was they should not

[Brad Abrahams]

bring such a large party as it would excite suspicion.

[Travis]

So the messenger intercepted the policy as they were already traveling and about two miles east of Batavia. So the original six man posse proceeded on foot while the other three men took the carriage Back to Stafford. I don't know. Six men, so I think still a lot. The six men arrived in Batavia in the evening, where they slept in rooms at Daniel's Tavern.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Nice.

[Travis]

The next morning, Morgan woke up early before 6 in the morning to browse the goods at a grocery store owned by one Jonas S. Billings. And it was there that the constable nabbed him. The constable took him over to Daniel's Tavern. Nicholas Cheeseborough hired stagecoach driver Francis Hopkins to transport Morgan to Canandwega. But after they had breakfast and walked out to load Morgan into the carriage, who should they find but David C. Miller, more short on sleep than usual after extinguishing the arson attempt on his print office the night before.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, my God. All this is just happening, like all at once in the same area is crazy.

[Travis]

Yeah. Miller tried telling the crew that they couldn't leave the county with Morgan because Morgan was out on bond, a bond that Miller secured with a little money that he had.

[Jake Rockatansky]

He's like, oh, God, it's gonna fuck my credit.

[Travis]

But that didn't convince the constable.

[Brad Abrahams]

He's like, looking back and forth. Six guys, one guy. We're gonna go with a big gang.

[Travis]

Here's how Nicholas Cheeseborough later recalled that encounter. As you can hear, he is not very fair in his recollections.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Breakfast being ended, David C. Miller entered and in the coarse, brutal manner of a man half drunk, forbade our taking Morgan off the jail limits, stating that he was one of Morgan's securities and would not suffer it. I had been told that this fellow was a shyster, negligent of business, embedded, embarrassed with debts dissipated and addicted to gambling. That James Ganson had assured me that Dave Miller had no more religion than a snake, was a regular infidel. And it was the wonder of the fraternity how the lodge at Albany ever gave him the first degree. Having myself unbounded contempt for that class of men, specimens of whom had wormed themselves into our lodges, I simply turned my back on him and left him to Constable I. Hayward. The officer made short work of his protest, declaring that he had Morgan and would have him, and defied Miller to interfere with the execution of the state warrant. Several other persons came in, but no man safe Miller took the least interest in the affair. As we got into the coach, Miller hung onto the steps and began to talk noisily as if to excite a crowd.

[Travis]

Miller later testified, when he looked at Morgan's face in the back of the carriage, it was was pale and ashy

[Brad Abrahams]

and his eye set and glassy.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, man, they were like, he's crying. Wow. Another example of them just wow. Things were so much more exciting back then. See, when you don't have the Internet and stuff and just, you know, an insane amount of booze, most people just end up sounding like what? Like big chickens clucking like what Empire Frodo mean. And it's just like, you know, just really clucking it up.

[Brad Abrahams]

I think that you failed to consider you'd be the guy in the back.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Who would I be at this time? I really don't know, Julian. Any ideas, kind of guy would I be back in 1839?

[Travis]

No. No. I, I don't know. You would be. I, I, I don't think they believe Jews existed in this era.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, I'd be that kind of guy. Or in jail.

[Julian Field]

Yeah. They definitely weren't allowed to be Masons, that's for sure. Yeah.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

But were Jews allowed in America around this time? Sure, certainly.

[Travis]

Well, maybe, but not western New York, 1800s.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Where should we then? I'm going to look it up. I'll get back to you.

[Travis]

The innkeeper, David Daniel, got involved, grabbing Miller and physically shoving him out of the way over Miller's loud protest. The stagecoach left Daniel's Tavern in Batavia around 9 9am but just two or three minutes later, after they traveled around a quarter mile, the stagecoach driver stopped. The driver became worried that he was getting wrapped up in some violent business. They then traveled the six miles to Ganson's Tavern where James Ganson, who happened to be a personal friend of the driver, convinced him to continue driving the stagecoach to Cananduega. And so they rode on, making the 50 mile journey by sundown.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I looked up what were Jews doing in the 1850s Eastern European Jews in, and it says predominantly located in the Russian Empire. Poland and Galicia were navigating intense pressures of state sponsored oppression, economic shifts and early modernization. So I guess, I don't know, I guess I wouldn't be really a part of this story.

[Travis]

No.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Travis]

The kidnapping of David Cade Miller. Immediately after the party transporting Morgan passed through Ganson's Tavern. Leroy, at about 10:00am on that day, a special meeting of the Le Roy Masons was called. No one will ever know what they discussed, but it's reasonable to infer based on what happened next, that the Masons were convinced that they had finally secured the manuscripts and were in the middle of the plan to whisk Morgan out of the country for good. So they discussed the plan to tie off the last loose end by taking care of David Cade Miller. On the morning of September 12, Masons in and near Batavia received a notice of exactly how, how they would do that. When the church bell rang at 12 noon, they would gather at the east end of the village. And when the church bell rang at one o', clock, they would march as one body to Miller's printing office, scatter his collection of movable type into the dirt road, secure any other manuscripts they see, and detain David C. Miller.

[Julian Field]

Were they not afraid of his arsenal anymore?

[Travis]

That's a good question. I don't know. I don't know why they continued to do this. I guess I'm pretty sure they were just wasted. Just. They were, they were, they were wasted before and now they're. They're not. They don't have to do a 2, 3 mile hike to, to his office so they, they don't get the chance to sober up.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Exactly. They're like, fellas, make sure to stamp on it once it's in the dirt road, you know?

[Travis]

Samuel D. Green, Mason at the time, helped tip off David C. Miller about the plan to destroy his office by sending him a note stating, be on

[Julian Field]

your guard between the hours of 12 and 1 o' clock at the ringing of the bell, your offices are to be destroyed. The party will consolidate their forces under a hill east of the village and approach in a solid column.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Damn, that's good intel.

[Travis]

Yeah. He actually also used an intermediary so the note could be traced to him. At the time, it was very good spycraft. Miller showed the note to a few of his associates and was about to start working on a handbill that he wanted to print immediately and warn the whole town about the plot. So this guy was a printer. He's in trouble.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I gotta print something he wanted to post.

[Travis]

I thought this was a funny thing because, like, the printing a handbill took about, like, if you were super fast, like one or two hours to set the type. So it's like, it's like, all right, yeah, yeah, just, just set it super fast then. Yeah. I don't know, you just like start spreading the message around. David C. Miller would have loved Twitter. The idea that you could write something and publish it immediately would blow his mind. But Miller's friends thought it was a little hard to believe that a gang of men would work as a mob to tear down a building in the middle of the the day. Now, the Masons, who were told to gather at noon, caught wind that Miller was expecting him. So they rallied at Dan's Tavern instead.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Damn.

[Julian Field]

Again, Daniel provided provided the Seed, he's, he's doing the. The best out of anyone financially here.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yes.

[Travis]

Yeah, right.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, that's right. The guy who's getting the armies drunk before they attack.

[Travis]

So that plan being forwarded, the Masons fell back on their tried and true tactic. Corrupting the just securing a bogus warrant and getting a compromise constable to execute it. This time the Warrant was for $40 that David C. Miller has supposedly stolen from Daniel Johns. Of course, the $40 wasn't stolen. It was presented by John's to Miller as an investment in Morgan's book.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Right.

[Travis]

So to execute this transparently nonsense warrant, the Masons secured Constable David French. French went to David C. Miller's office and told the printer that there's a criminal warrant for a third arrest. French then grabbed Miller by his collar or his neck, depending on which account you want to believe, and then pulled him violently down the stairs. So he's being manhandled a lot right

[Jake Rockatansky]

now, but all accounts say down the stairs, yeah.

[Travis]

Miller was taken over to Daniel's tavern. And as he was hustled over, Miller noted.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I need to see it probably doesn't exist. You probably would have gone on your trip if it had, right?

[Travis]

As he was hustled over, Miller noticed a group of strangers in the street, all staring at him and armed with clubs.

[Brad Abrahams]

The main street of this village was darkened by a cloud of menacing countenances, collected and collecting from every point of the compass. Some in carriage and some on horseback, each armed with a newly cut cudgel.

[Travis]

So they're just masons littering the street, staring him down. What's interesting is that Miller, very legitimate, understood he was in fact being gang stalked by Masons from all over the county. Now, those cudgels carried by masons were menacing Miller were cut from hoop poles used in barrel making. So back then they did have like metal hoops that could be used to wrap around barrels, but they were expensive. More often they used links of these straight green pieces of like hickory or white oak sapling. Farmers would cut green wood so that they were about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter and up to, to 8ft long. And they were hauled out to the barrel makers or coopers who would cut two to five hoops from a single pole to wrap tight around the barrels. But these masons, apparently needing a bunch of weapons, quickly took some of these raw hoop poles and cut them. So they are about three or three and a half feet long, which effectively gave them like an inch thick club. And because the wood Was green and full of moisture. It was a little springy, so you could bludgeon someone with it repeatedly without it becoming like brittle and breaking.

[Julian Field]

I appreciate the detail there.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah. Cudgel tech.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah. They needed something to threaten these people with quickly and their solution was to cut these hoop poles.

[Julian Field]

So old timey.

[Travis]

The fact that these masons were using cut hoop poles as weapons was the subject of a satirical 19th century song called the Hoop Pole Nights, which tells the story of Miller's kidnapping in verse four form. I commissioned Jake to record, as far as I know, the only extant recording of the song on earth.

[Brad Abrahams]

It's.

[Travis]

And. And so we're going to play that for the auto cue. Miller also wrote that he saw about 15 of his friends in the street. Alerted by the commotion, he called out to his friends, telling them to guard his office. He was sure that while he was detained, the masons would use the opportunity to loot his print shop. Miller was detained in the tavern, which was also full of armed masons, for about two hours in a bathroom room. When Miller asked the name of the justice who issued the warrant, he was told it was none of his business. He did know that he would have to get the matter resolved with a magistrate in Leroy because by a strange coincidence, every magistrate in Batavia had been called out of town to serve as witnesses in other cases. But he wasn't taken directly to Leroy. Instead, Miller was shoved into a carriage and taken to a three story stone building in Stafford. I visited that stone building on my trip and it still stands. It's used by the Stafford fire department.

[Brad Abrahams]

Wow. Yeah. This is a photo that we're being presented with of Travis in the wild looking up at this building.

[Julian Field]

Yeah. You look very thoughtful from behind there. Stroking your chin.

[Travis]

Well, yeah.

[Julian Field]

Or you're covering your mouth. Mid burp maybe. Maybe.

[Brad Abrahams]

Possibly.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Or choking back tears maybe.

[Brad Abrahams]

Completely warrantless. I love it.

[Travis]

Miller later testified that 40 to 60 of those Masons from Dark Daniels walked with the carriage as an escort, Some walking ahead and some following behind. Now, the third story of the stone building was used as a lodge room for the masons. And there he was detained and guarded by a few of them and their hoop pole clubs.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow. So up these kind of like iron stairs here. Basically on that third story of this.

[Travis]

That's a more recent addition, but yes, up to that third story.

[Brad Abrahams]

Pretty clearly not construction.

[Julian Field]

They took the elevator up and then.

[Travis]

Yeah, they use those two air conditioning units. See, they can.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Well, I just assumed. I assumed somebody stood over this and with a hammer and Upgraded it to metal. But at one point I imagined that this staircase was mostly stone. Yeah, that's all I was saying. Julian is looking up into the corner of his room like, all right, I'll stop making video game reference. I'll stop making specifically survival crafting video game references differences until the next episode.

[Travis]

In Stafford, one of the men guarding Miller told him he actually wasn't going to Leroy, you are not going there.

[Brad Abrahams]

You are not to be tried by an ordinary tribunal. You will not stop at Leroy. You are going where Morgan is gone.

[Travis]

When Miller asked, where is Morgan? The unknown man answered, you will see. By this point, Miller came to believe that the Masons weren't merely trying to temporarily detain him so that they could loot his office, they were trying to imprison him in death, definitely or worse. In the stone building, none other than Daniel Johns entered brandishing a drawn sword. Miller responded by attempting to sympathize and reason with him.

[Brad Abrahams]

Johns, I do not know that I can in my heart blame you for the deceptions practiced upon me. You came to accomplish what you did. You undoubtedly thought you were doing your duty. You deceived me and gained applause. But Johns, in the present undertaking, you are going to too far in this. You will not succeed.

[Julian Field]

I mean, come on. They were bunking together for weeks on the floor.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah.

[Travis]

To which Daniel Johns responded in a

[Julian Field]

faltering voice, Miller, I'm only doing what I am ordered to do.

[Travis]

Miller argued back, but Johns, you have

[Brad Abrahams]

undoubtedly been employed in consequence of your skill and adroitness. It is presumed by your employers that you will not overact by undertaking that which you must inevitably fail in corporate a accomplishing. Beware or you will lose all the credit that you have gained.

[Travis]

Daniel Johns made no reply and left the room. Miller was in a dire situation, but fortunately he had the support of some of the citizens of Batavia who followed him to Stafford and stood outside the building. And they also helped transport David C. Miller's lawyer, Theodore F. Talbot, to the stone building so that he could figure out what was going on. Talbot told Constable Jesse French that he was Miller's counsel and therefore he was entitled to Satan speak to him. Talbot asked Miller what he was arrested for, and Miller said he didn't know. That led to something approximating this dialogue between Miller's lawyer, T.F. talbot, and the gospel Jesse French, which I have recreated from Talbot's court testimony.

[Julian Field]

Show me your warrant.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'm not obliged to.

[Julian Field]

Will you read it to me?

[Jake Rockatansky]

I will not.

[Julian Field]

Who is it from?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Barto, Esq.

[Julian Field]

Well, all will be right. I know him. Why do you all have club with you?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Miller had pistols.

[Julian Field]

He has none. Here.

[Jake Rockatansky]

We have a right to carry these walking sticks.

[Travis]

At which point French smacked the floor with his club and said, this is my walking stick. No. At this point another conspirator named Wilcox smacked his club close to Talbot's toes and told him, this is my stick

[Brad Abrahams]

and you may take it away if you feel able to.

[Travis]

Talbot, not intimidated, took out his watch and showed French that it was 4 o' clock and that he had better travel to the magistrate Leroy if he wanted to arrive before dark.

[Julian Field]

When are you going on?

[Travis]

To which French replied in a manner very similar to Daniel John's, when we get orders. Where are these orders coming from?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, these guys are literally going like, yeah, yeah, you want some of it? They're like cartoon villains to the beating their sticks against the ground.

[Travis]

After some delay, Miller was told to leave the stone building and instead go to a wagon outside. He did go to the wagon, but rather than departing immediately, Miller reports that he watched as the Masonic conspirators squabbled about what to do next.

[Brad Abrahams]

Here I remain some time at full liberty to witness such confused counseling by squads, such tossing and throwing and changing of place position and groups, such admirable confusion, confusion, folly, running mad. Was a scene worth all that it cost me?

[Travis]

It's like watching these dip shits argue with each other and running around made it worth being falsely imprisoned. That made it all worth it and

[Brad Abrahams]

potentially like heading to death.

[Julian Field]

Yes.

[Brad Abrahams]

He's still such a cunt about it. I love it.

[Travis]

After a few minutes of this, Miller was told to exit the wagon and go back to the stone building. Miller told them if they wanted him to go back, they would have to carry him by by force. They compromised and he instead waited in a bar room in an enjoying building.

[Brad Abrahams]

It's like everyone, everyone sets everything at the bar because they're all like, well, we're all going to need drinks for what comes next.

[Travis]

Obviously I, I think sobriety started to come on, so I need to need my medicine.

[Julian Field]

If they're to, if they're to make the 70 bottle quota, they gotta work at it.

[Travis]

During this time, French and the Masonic conspirators proved that they had no idea what they are doing. As Miller writes of his experience, after

[Brad Abrahams]

a short period, I was again ordered into the wagon and again ordered out, and again ordered in, certain surrounded at all times by my faithful guard.

[Travis]

Finally, French ordered the wagon to move. But instead of directing them to drive directly to Leroy to see the magistrate and get this legal matter resolved. He told the driver to go to a tavern up the road for supper.

[Brad Abrahams]

Okay, well, we're hungry at this point.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's like by this point, Miller's lawyer, T.F. talbot, had fucking had it. As Miller wrote, my attentive counsel followed

[Brad Abrahams]

on foot and when the carriage stopped, advised me to get out and pass towards that he might see who dared thus illegally to detain me.

[Travis]

So, understandable advice, giving the context, but certainly unusual. Talbot basically said, well, as your lawyer, it's by stance that your arresting officer is full of shit and you should escape his custody and make a break for home so I could personally see if they try to stop you.

[Jake Rockatansky]

You know, given everything that I've heard just now, it's kind of hard to believe that any of these guys are capable of murdering William Morgan. I mean, unless. Unless by accident.

[Travis]

Well, I mean, we'll see. I mean, it doesn't take a very smart guy to murder. In fact, the murder may be a byproduct of their in that planning. So Miller got out, started walking towards home, inspiring French to chase after him again and again, seizing him by the collar. Talbot expressed outrage at French for abusing his official duties and demanded again to see the basis for the arrest. French still refused to show it, but did say that it was for what, what's called trespass on the case. This is what finally made Talbot snap. Because that is not an offense prosecuted by the state. Trespass on the case is a civil lawsuit by one private party against another. And the only way to justify an arrest in such a scenario is when the person being sued is being unresponsive. But not only was Miller being responsive, he was begging to go see the magistrate so he could respond to it. So the lawyer, T.F. talbot, shouted this.

[Julian Field]

Trespass on the case. Case. Trespass on the case. And you all this time treating my client as the worst of criminals, detaining him for hours and hours from the magistrate, contrary to his and my repeated solicitation.

[Travis]

So, after French admitted that Miller wasn't charged with a criminal offense, Miller told him that he was instead going to go see the magistrate himself by using a carriage chartered by his friends. Miller described what happened next.

[Brad Abrahams]

In as much as French had pronounced me no longer a criminal subject, I took the liberty of choosing my own conveyance to Leroy and invited him to get into the carriage with me if he felt any alarm for the safety of my person. This he refused and made several efforts to seize and drag me out

[Jake Rockatansky]

Several

[Travis]

efforts at this point, Talbon advised Miller to just get out and go on by foot. And after Miller walked about a mile, he finally got back in a wagon to travel the rest of the way, still followed by a convoy of both friends and enemies and carriages and on. On horseback. Some of the writers circled him as an intimidation tactic.

[Brad Abrahams]

Miller writes, such racing, wheeling, turning and menacing by the mounted part of that cavalcade, now in front, then along the side, now in the rear, was an unsurpassed exhibition of the savage and ludicrous.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow, this is like. This is like the OG Maga, like, cavalcade, or what do they call themselves?

[Julian Field]

The.

[Jake Rockatansky]

The convoy.

[Travis]

Yeah. I mean, it's just a crazy image of him like. Like riding in the back of the carriage, watching as a literal dozen gang of masons, dozens strong, rode around him, circling him.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Do you think they were wearing their Masonic hoods and robes? Because that would be scarier.

[Travis]

No, probably not, no, no.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Just wearing, like, regular vests, probably.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah. Just regular street clothes. Once they finally made it to Leroy, Miller started walking towards the magistrate's office. But Constable French tried grabbing him again, again to go to a local tavern. Again.

[Julian Field]

This is again so comical.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Incredible. Oh, my God.

[Julian Field]

We need to go to the tavern now. Miller.

[Travis]

Miller managed to shake French off and arrived at the magistrates. Now French left to try and find Daniel Johns, the other party in the lawsuit. But after waiting half an hour, the magistrate dismissed the case.

[Julian Field]

It's like.

[Travis]

Like there's no evidence. All right, you can go home. This is. This is done. David C. Miller and his friends started walking to a pub, no doubt to wash away the bizarre day with some whiskey, when Constable French and Daniel Johns appeared again and again tried to apprehend Miller. But with the assistance of Miller's friends, he shook them off one last time. Here's what Miller reported happened.

[Brad Abrahams]

On my way to a public house distant about 80 rods. In company with my friends, French suddenly made his appearance, vociferating a rescue, a rescue, rescue, and attempted to seize me several times. The Canadian Johns now took a prominent part and in the frenzy of his zeal inquired, is there not a man here that dare aid the officer? He was soon made to know that there were men there, men too, who would neither suffer him nor his Masonic tools to inflict further wounds and outrages. On our arrival at the inn, French made another attempt to seize me, alleging that he had a new warrant. But I was passed into a carriage and soon was safe in my own dwelling.

[Julian Field]

Wow.

[Poet/Narrator]

Damn.

[Jake Rockatansky]

That's crazy. What a Night I was seized, and

[Brad Abrahams]

then I was seized, and then I was seized, and I was put in and out and in and out, and then I walked, and then I fucking got back into the goddamn carriage. And by the time I arrived to the pub, I was mighty thirsty. I needed a good strip drink.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I imagine that the. The shoulder of Miller's jacket must have had, you know, like, fingerprints in it from how many times French tried to grab him by the collar. You know, I just imagine he's grasping at him, and each time he slips away into a carriage or, you know, into a crowd of people. Kind of like in Assassin's Creed when you sort of mix into the crowd and turn silver.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Turn silver into the carriage. And then I. Well, and it's. But, like, once he was home, he wasn't worried about people showing up at his house, like, kicking his door, and I guess not.

[Brad Abrahams]

I think, like, at this point, what's interesting is, like, at this time, something that seems so definite, like, they're definitely gonna get him. You know, they're gonna keep chasing until they, like. No, people just got tired after a long day of drinking and eating.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, it's kind of like. Kind of like a festival, you know, in its own. In its own way.

[Travis]

Meanwhile, while all this was going on, William Morgan was enduring his own ordeal. The final journey of William Morgan. Once in Canandwega, Morgan was brought before justice. Jeffrey Chipman on the shirt and cravat larceny charge.

[Julian Field]

The cravat,

[Jake Rockatansky]

they were like, the shirt's not enough. We better. Better hit him with a cravat charge as well.

[Travis]

Chipman acquitted him on lack of evidence, but Morgan was not released. Immediately after the larceny charge failed, Constable Cheeseborough initiated a second process, a civil debt claim for a $2 tavern.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, come on.

[Travis]

Supposedly owed to a man named Aaron Ackley. So Morgan offered his coat as a security, but Constable Hayward refused it, and Morgan was committed to the Ontario county jail.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Unbelievable. Over 2 billion bucks.

[Travis]

Morgan spent all of the next day in prison, which he reportedly used to pass the time because he was given a bottle of whiskey. It's very kind. And about seven in the evening on Tuesday, September 12, a mason named Loten Lawson came to the jail and asked for the jailer, Israel Hall. Now, Israel hall was out for the evening, but the jailer's wife, Mary hall, was in. That led to something approximating this dialogue adapted from Mary Hall's test.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I would like to go into the room where Morgan is.

[Brad Abrahams]

You cannot. That's against the rules. Of the prison.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I just wish to have a few moments of private conversation with Morgan.

[Brad Abrahams]

You can't say anything to a prisoner that you can't say in front of me.

[Travis]

Lawson then spoke to Morgan through the gates of the cell.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I want to speak to you privately, but this woman won't let me.

[Brad Abrahams]

Who are you? Do you live in the village?

[Travis]

Lawson made no reply. But Morgan, recognizing Lawson as a mason for Batavia, responded. Responded, he is a neighbor.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I've come to pay the debt for which you were committed. Would you go home with me, Morgan?

[Travis]

Yeah. He thought Lawson was actually interested in freeing him. Resulted in Morgan answering, yes, I'll take

[Jake Rockatansky]

care of it when Mr. Hall comes back in.

[Julian Field]

I can wait until morning.

[Jake Rockatansky]

No, I'd rather take you tonight. I've been running around all day for you, and I'm now so tired I can hardly stand on my feet.

[Travis]

No, this was a lie. Lawson did live in the village. He actually only lives about two or three miles from the the jail. Lawson then left to attempt to find Israel hall himself. Lawson left for about half an hour, Then returned exasperated, telling Mary Hall, I've

[Jake Rockatansky]

been to the hotel conference room and every other place Mr. Hall might be found.

[Poet/Narrator]

Here.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I'll give you the amount of the execution on which Morgan was committed so he could be discharged.

[Brad Abrahams]

I can't do that. I don't even know the amount.

[Jake Rockatansky]

It's a small sum. I'll leave $5, which is more than sufficient.

[Brad Abrahams]

It's my understanding that Morgan is. I would not like to liberate a rogue. I'm afraid if Morgan is discharged, my husband will be blamed.

[Jake Rockatansky]

No, he will not be blamed. Mr. Hall understands the situation perfectly. I'm even willing to pledge 50 or $100 on the proposition that your husband will not be blamed or injured in any way for the release of Morgan.

[Brad Abrahams]

I cannot. Public opinion is more valuable than money.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Would you discharge Morgan if colonel Sawyer vouched that you could safely do it?

[Brad Abrahams]

I don't know colonel Sawyer any better than I know. No, you. Colonel Sawyer is not the plaintiff in the execution upon which Morgan was committed. Colonel Sawyer has nothing to do with this matter.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Hold on. Allow me to get colonel Sawyer.

[Travis]

That was a funny. It's like not listening. Obviously not listening. That was a funny little detail. So Lawson left to get colonel Sawyer. And when Lawson and Sawyer arrived at jail, Mary hall explained the exact same things that she had explained to Lawson earlier. Now, Morgan's case was assigned to Kospell Cheeseboro. So they quickly got not him. Cheesemore confirmed that Lawson could pay for Morgan to be released. Mary Hall, a little wary but figuring everything was in order, unlocked Morgan's cell, Whereupon Lawson told Morgan, get yourself ready

[Jake Rockatansky]

to go with me. Dress yourself quick.

[Travis]

Lawson escorted Morgan out of the prison into the clear, moonlit night and down the street. But they were soon joined by another man named Foster, who grabbed Morgan's other arm. This is when Morgan realized, realized the Masons didn't have any real intention of letting him go free. Morgan screamed murder.

[Julian Field]

Murder.

[Travis]

Morgan struggled with all his strength and continued to scream until his shouts were silenced by a gag slipped over his mouth. Mary hall testified that she watched Sawyer and Cheeseborough standing passively and watching the whole scene unfold in front of them. One of the two men used a stick to hit the rim of a nearby water tub, which were typically placed along town streets for fire protection. That noise was a signal for the carriage driver, Hiram Hubbard, who had been waiting the entire time, to move into position. Hubbard snapped the reins of his gray horses, pulling his yellow carriage next to Morgan as he was being restrained by Lawson and Foster. They hustled him in, with Cheesborough and Sawyer following closely behind. The carriage took off. This would begin William Morgan's 120 mile journey from the Canandwega jail to Old Fort Niagara. This journey used seven relays of horses, three different carriages and five drivers.

[Julian Field]

And how many stops at the tavern?

[Travis]

A couple.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, they can, they can drink on the road. Yeah, yeah, if you, if you brought enough with you.

[Travis]

So Old Fort Niagara is an old abandoned French fort about 15 miles from Niagara Falls. It's very interesting how, how they, how they used it, kind of like, yeah, just guard this, this bit of, you know, the corner of the river and the lake, lake there. Once, near the fort, the conspirators didn't lock Morgan up immediately. So again, their first plan was to get him across the Niagara river into Canada, where Canadian masons were supposed to receive him and place him on, on a farm.

[Julian Field]

The whole plan is so ridiculous because what would stop him from coming back to America?

[Travis]

Leaving?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah.

[Travis]

The conspirators, including Eli Bruce, woke Edward Giddings, the ferryman and lighthouse at Fort Niagara. They loaded into a boat with Morgan across the Niagara river to the Canadian side at about 12:30am on Sept. 14. Giddings later testified that there was a handkerchief over Morgan's eyes and that his hands were tied behind him. While waiting on the Canadian side, Morgan complained that the bandage hurt him and pleaded that he was their prisoner and should be treated with magnanimity. A pistol was Allegedly pressed against him to silence him.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Whoa.

[Travis]

So that didn't work.

[Poet/Narrator]

The.

[Travis]

The Canadians were reportedly not ready to receive him. No one knows exactly why this part of the plan failed. Either the Canadians didn't show up, or they realized, no, we're not going to take responsibility for this man they kidnapped. We don't know. But the plan fell apart. After the failed Canadian handoff. Morgan was taken back to old Fort Niagara and locked in a stone building called the powder magazine. So this was a grim place to hold. Hold a man. It was designed to keep out all moisture. So there was like, there's only one small, tiny window. And it was also designed to be very, like, dark and dense. So if there was, like, an explosion or something, it would do limited damage. So I have a few pictures of me at the last place where William Morgan was. Was. Was seen.

[Julian Field]

I've never seen you happier.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Brad Abrahams]

These are the bizarre satisfactions that only Travis fugif.

[Jake Rockatansky]

So in this second picture, you're in, like, a barrel. It looks like a barrel room.

[Travis]

Yo. I'm inside. I'm inside what they call the powder magazine. It's a very small room, and again, it's supposed to be, you know, very tight and dark and so. So that it can be used to safely store explosive gunpowder.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow.

[Travis]

Later that morning, Giddings and John Jackson, a Lockport Mason, went to the magazine with food. They were armed. Morgan was understandably frightened and angry, and he used threatening language. Giddings and Jacksons were afraid to open the door. Jackson allegedly shouted something like, where is that pistol?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Is it loaded? I'll shoot the damn rascal.

[Travis]

Jackson then went to Lewiston, where a major Masonic gathering was underway. The installation of a new Royal Arch chapter. Many western New York Masons were present, including men already connected to the Morgan affair. Jackson found another conspirator named David Hay, who reportedly said that Morgan feared him as he fears the devil and that he was quiet him. But Hay could not quiet Morgan. Morgan apparently feared that Hay was a doctor who had come to bleed him to death.

[Brad Abrahams]

Christ.

[Travis]

Yeah. Haven returned to Lewson for more help. Loton Lawson, the man who had paid Morgan's debt and let him out of the Canandwega jail, came down to the fort. Lawson entered the magazine and quieted Morgan with rum. Morgan was apparently kept supplied with liquor. One of the conspirators said that if Morgan drank, drink himself to death, quote, so much the better.

[Jake Rockatansky]

They had to be giving him cigs, too, Right? Well, that's a fate worse than death. You've got all that booze and you're locked in that gunpowder room, but no siggies.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Brad Abrahams]

Have you thought of poisoning the booze? It would be so easy.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's like. I'm saying it sounds like they didn't really want to kill him. Really?

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, because they knew they could get in trouble for that. Whereas kidnapping continued to just be, like, a minor.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, they. I think they sort of. It seems like they sort of like, once the Canadians, like, got too drunk to show up or whatever or, like, missed their alarm, I think they just kind of like. They're like, oh, fuck. Well, what do we do with this guy? This is a really interesting part of our movie, Travis. Your book first and then my movie, Jake.

[Brad Abrahams]

What would their alarm sound like?

[Julian Field]

Hmm.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Back then?

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah.

[Julian Field]

Cuckoo.

[Poet/Narrator]

Cuckoo.

[Jake Rockatansky]

They had cuckoo clocks back then. You know what? I'll bet it said it's something like

[Brad Abrahams]

what?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Like, kind of just like a buzzing piece of wood and metal.

[Brad Abrahams]

Oh, yes. It's a jar that slowly loosens over the night and the bee gets released.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, it's just like. It's some kind of, like, device. Do you think they had, like, end tables and stuff back then? Like bedside tables? Probably.

[Brad Abrahams]

I regret asking the question, Travis.

[Travis]

Six men from the Lewis and Royal Arch Mason installation traveled to Old Fort Niagara to assess the situation. After visiting the magazine, the six men reportedly move out toward a graveyard to continue their consultation. In the moonlight, one of the men proposed that Morgan be taken to the river and sunk with a stone. Another suggested drawing lots to select three men to do the deed. The idea that Morgan had deserved death for betraying masonry was allegedly voiced, but not all were willing to proceed.

[Brad Abrahams]

There's such a bunch of cowards. Everyone wants to call for his death and no one wants to do it because they know they can get horribly arrested for the that and slug in jail. It's incredible. I was like, yeah, somebody should shoot him. Looking around the room, they returned to

[Travis]

the magazine and told Morgan that they would send east for instructions. Again, this is. Again, they have no clue what to do. It's like. It's like, what? It's like, what are you doing with me? Where am I going? When am I going to get out of here? We're going to go. We're going to send for instructions. We'll let you know.

[Jake Rockatansky]

We'll talk. Amongst the five families, in one of

[Travis]

the most theatrical details, Morgan was allegedly asked what kind of death he preferred, and the answered, the death of a soldier.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Shoot me.

[Travis]

He was then told if he Kept quiet he would probably not be harmed and might eventually be placed on that farm in Canada. The conference broke up around 3am on September 15th without a final decision. By daylight the matter was still unresolved. Various schemes were discussed. Killing Morgan, releasing him or otherwise getting rid of him without leaving clues. GS letter claimed that he argued for releasing Morgan, even offered to open the matter magazine. This caused a quarrel. According to that count G surrendered the key to another conspirator. Colonel J.

[Brad Abrahams]

See guys like Jake were there.

[Julian Field]

Yeah. You said there were no Jews.

[Travis]

Oh well yeah.

[Julian Field]

Well yeah, we had an Israel and we have a Jewett.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah. Colonel J. Yeah, of course the two bad guys.

[Travis]

Giddings then left old Fort Niagara and he didn't return until the 21st. So everything that happened happened to Morgan after about the 15th is Berkey what is known is that Morgan was out of the powder magazine by the morning of September 20th. A man named Elisha Adams went to the magazine, called Morgan's name three times and received no answer. He went inside and found nothing but some loose items like straw that appeared to have been slept on by a man. An ammunition box, a silk handkerchief, a pitcher, a decanter and a broken and plank. And that is where the trail of evidence goes cold.

[Brad Abrahams]

It's so funny to be like well we are debating the different things that can happen to him and it's all like kidnapping, killing, like you know and then he just disappears and it's like we have no idea what happened next.

[Travis]

The fate of William Morgan

[Brad Abrahams]

no one

[Travis]

can say with certainty exactly what happened to William Morgan.

[Julian Field]

The Dr.

[Travis]

Prominent theory was that he was murdered, possibly by being wrapped with chains and tossed into the Niagara River. That part of the river was trawled after these events and attempt to prove that, but nothing was found. James Ganson later privately told someone that he knew Morgan's fate but wasn't dead.

[Jake Rockatansky]

If you could hang drawn corridor or gibbet the masons who had a hand in it, it would not fetch Morgan back. He is not dead but he is put where he will stay put until. Until God Almighty calls for him.

[Travis]

For many years afterwards, through all the chaos and the trials caused by Morgan's disappearance, there were rumors of Morgan sightings in many parts of the world. By the late 1820s reports circulated nationally that Morgan had turned Turk and was live in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire. Later Masonic retellings embellished this into the claim that he lived under the name Mastafa and became a Muslim.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh wow.

[Brad Abrahams]

Beautiful.

[Travis]

Several sea captains even Swore affidavits that they had spoken with Morgan there.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Wow. He's like the real Dread Pirate Roberts.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah.

[Travis]

In fact, there were also pirate Morgan stories, naturally. Yeah. Some versions had him fleeing to Cuba. Others said that he had become a pirate and was hanged to Havana or by Spanish authorities. One especially melodramatic version made him a pirate. Gilliam Gilmour, supposedly executed in 1850. Then there are also stories that Morgan had become an Indian chief, sometimes even described as a celebrated Indian chief in Arizona. Some later retellings placed him vaguely among Native Americans rather than a specific tribe or community. I mean, the. The point of these stories were to show, like, well, he left. He left proper Christian civilization and lived the life of a pirate.

[Jake Rockatansky]

He's embedded. He's embedded himself or lived with.

[Travis]

With a Muslim, Turk or these kinds of things, like, outside of, like, you know, like white American culture, they like

[Jake Rockatansky]

the ancient wonders of the East.

[Travis]

Yeah, A lot of Orientalism going on. So in my view, I think the evidence is consistent with the idea that William Morgan was murdered but wasn't the victim of a vast murder plot.

[Brad Abrahams]

What?

[Travis]

Well, what the hell are you on about?

[Brad Abrahams]

We just explored a vast plot.

[Travis]

It was. It was a vast. It was. It was a vast kidnapping plot.

[Brad Abrahams]

Okay, okay. All right.

[Julian Field]

Wow.

[Brad Abrahams]

You really are the dupe of these Masons, my friend.

[Travis]

I mean, again, this is. This is consistent. Like, why. Why would James Ganson, again, privately tell a friend and associate, all right, he's not dead, but I know where he is.

[Brad Abrahams]

So no one gets blamed of murder.

[Travis]

Well, but. But, no, but this is something he seemed to sincerely believe.

[Brad Abrahams]

Okay.

[Jake Rockatansky]

And they didn't find any body or chains or anything?

[Travis]

No, no, no. Never found this body.

[Brad Abrahams]

I am going to be a William Morgan truther, and it will require the least amount of effort.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, but Travis didn't, like, somebody wash up on the shore and, like, they thought that Morgan. It was Morgan for a little bit.

[Travis]

Yeah. They were so desperate to. To believe this. Yeah. That the body of a Canadian man named Timothy Monroe washed up on the shore, and they claimed it was Morgan. They even got Lucinda to claim that was Morgan, but obviously his body was too decomposed for her to actually recognize.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Covered in crabs.

[Travis]

And so he. This. This man was actually momentarily, briefly buried in Batavia because his thought was really Morgan. But after it was established, after Timothy Monroe's wife came and positively identified the clothes that he had died in, drowned in, they was. He was exhumed and returned to Canada. So, yeah, there was, like. That was. That was a whole thing I Mean,

[Brad Abrahams]

you're telling me that, like, they debated killing him at every turn openly. And then at the end, what happened wasn't just. No one wants to take responsibility. Someone from above tells one person to. From below. You alone. Get that key. Get him out of there. We're killing him.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Take him into the woods.

[Brad Abrahams]

That isn't the most likely. Like, this is, you know, Occam's razor.

[Travis]

And I think. No, I think the Occam's Razor. I think that the Masons at Old Fort Niagara had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill him. And that's what. I think that's what probably happened. Were all hundreds of Masons, even Masonic leaders, like, knowingly doing this? I don't. I mean, that seems. It seems like. I think in my thing. I mean, in my view, what probably happened is that they. They were like. They were in a stuck position. They were like, all. It's like, obviously, what are we gonna do if we return with Morgan? We're. And so, like, we just need to silence them. And so they came up with a solution. I mean, it was a smaller murder plot at the end of this.

[Julian Field]

Okay, so it wasn't a vast murder plot. It was a. It was a small.

[Brad Abrahams]

You mean it, like, fucking narrowed right at the end after everybody conspired to, like, get him to a place, thought about killing him over and over. Higher ups kept getting false to be like, hey, hey, bro, what are we doing with this guy?

[Travis]

What do we do?

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah, yeah, maybe they got him. Maybe they got him across the sea. You know, they got him into Canada, and then the Canadians killed him.

[Brad Abrahams]

I believe that this was. The Masons killed William Basin. And I will be making T shirts and protesting your book.

[Travis]

I believe that too. I believe the Masons killed William Morgan. But it's about, I guess, the degree of the conspiracy and the degree of the premature meditation is really our only dispute.

[Julian Field]

Yeah.

[Brad Abrahams]

Okay.

[Julian Field]

This is even more outlandish and ridiculous than the Athanor affair. You've outdone it.

[Brad Abrahams]

It is.

[Julian Field]

They're even more, like. More like, useless at their nefarious jobs than the Athanor squad.

[Travis]

A lot of bumbling. It is. It is this. Yes.

[Jake Rockatansky]

This is a lot of bumbling.

[Travis]

Yeah, this is definitely. Yeah. Some, like, 19th century burn after reading. Some, like, you know, some like, dipshits who, because they're part of this club, think they're super secret tough guys and, like, you know, joined a plot because they thought it'd be fun to, like, you know, with this guy that they hated and, like, you know, it's like. It's like. Also, I think this, this sort of like really exposes just the ways in which a vast conspiracy can fall apart at multiple points. Like, you know, just the people you have to recruit, they get nervous. And like many people testify. Giddings, testify, testified. Like Samuel Green, former Mason, testified. Lots of people involved with the plot said I was like, I wanted nothing to do with this. And then wound up telling everything they knew to the authorities.

[Jake Rockatansky]

What, what. What became of Lucinda, his wife? Did she spend the rest of her life trying to find him? You know, what happened to her? Basically, once they were like, he's gone, case closed. These guys are charged for the kidnapping. That's it.

[Travis]

Funny you should say that. So, no, listen to Morgan actually wound up being one of the brides of Joseph Smith.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Oh, wow.

[Brad Abrahams]

What?

[Julian Field]

That's such an insane ending.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is. Yeah, this is a little extra detail.

[Julian Field]

So insane.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Only on QAA is that like a footnote.

[Travis]

I know I did. Well, like, it was like, this episode is already too long. But it's like there's. It's like you, You. You happen to first be married to like William Organ, this band who is like, you know, kidnapped and became the F people in the 19. And then you go on to marry Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

[Brad Abrahams]

I just want to clarify really quickly. You do think that they killed Morgan, right?

[Julian Field]

Yes.

[Brad Abrahams]

We don't disagree about that at all.

[Travis]

I've said yes many times. I said he was murdered.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah, got it.

[Jake Rockatansky]

You just don't think he was murdered in that spot. You think he was murdered later on by a different couple guys.

[Brad Abrahams]

He was murdered non conspiratorially, Jake. Okay.

[Julian Field]

It was by mistake. They murdered him by mistake.

[Travis]

I was like. I'm thinking about. It was like the fourth 40 to 60 men who had gathered from all over at Ganson's Tavern to like intimidate Millard. Did they think that they were part of a plot to murder Morgan? I don't think. No, I don't think so. I don't think they are informed of that.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Morgan was in his 50s at this point, right?

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, he's about 50.

[Jake Rockatansky]

I mean, who knows? He could have keeled over at any minute. You know, there's. I mean, that's end of life. I mean, he was basically Canada putting him right in hospice.

[Travis]

You should. You should be a Masonic lawyer. That's a good one.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Yeah. Well, look, I. Well, I know I follow my instincts and it's to defend the Good guys. So.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's. Yeah, I know. It's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a crazy story. And when I first read about like the anti Masonic party or the anti Masonic movements, like okay, it's just, just kooks from the early 19th century. But then you read about this, I'm like, oh, all right. It's like maybe, maybe the plot didn't explain extend to every Mason. Like there are lots of accusations that the governor of New York, who happened to be a high ranking Mason, was involved in it. There's zero evidence of that. It did corrupt. Law enforcement did corrupt like these constables, but not the governor. I'm like, but if you lived in this time and you heard all of this, like, wouldn't it be like, oh yeah, there's something deeply wrong here that all of these people were involved in this plot. Including people who are supposed to protect the, the interests like sheriffs.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Well, yeah, there were people of power who were practicing Masons at the time. So it was a natural, you know, seems like an easy target.

[Travis]

Anyways, the whole thing just got muddled because it immediately became a political football where like again the like people, the anti Masons, they created dozens of these anti Masonic papers that sort of, that scandalmongered and sort of claimed any wild conspiracy theory that like even beyond what we have, even the facts as wild as they are, they started, started, started making up crazier thing.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah.

[Travis]

And then on top of that, I guess, I guess this is what they would call shitcoding nowadays. And then on top of that, the again the Democrats at the time, because Andrew Jackson was Mason, had much interest and they controlled a lot of papers in order to spread propaganda that there was nothing to see here.

[Brad Abrahams]

Yeah. And it's also very clear that Talbot saved Miller because he's the only difference in both of these men's tales. And one of them got put in a tiny building with a miniature window and the other guy somehow managed to, to escape.

[Travis]

Yeah, it seems as though Miller had a lot more friends. He must have been well connected as a publisher in the town.

[Julian Field]

Yeah, it didn't seem like anyone liked Morgan. Yeah, he was just a cunning.

[Jake Rockatansky]

The unspoken sadness of this tale is that like Morgan, these guys were so incompetent. I'm sure at many, many steps along the way, Morgan could have probably escaped or been saved and rescued. And he wasn't.

[Travis]

Yeah, if he was like backed up by a lawyer as good as Talbot, he might have escaped. He just didn't, just didn't know anyone that well who could have could have helped him like that.

[Jake Rockatansky]

In the end, the joker always gets justice. Thanks for listening to another episode of the QAA podcast. You can go to patreon.comqaa you can subscribe for $5 a month and get a whole second premium episode for for every regular episode. Plus access to our entire archive of premium episodes while you're on Patreon. If you really like qaa, especially like Julian, if you love Julian the most and you've been waiting Superstructure podcast and you've been waiting for Julian to break free and be a little less inhibited. That's a Show for you superstructurepodcast.com right?

[Brad Abrahams]

That's right. It's about. Yeah, the power power of revolutionary struggles, political propaganda and repression.

[Jake Rockatansky]

They got tons of apps out already folks. Go check it out if you're interested. And Brad, where can people find more of your stuff?

[Julian Field]

Oh yeah, just Instagram, Brad, WTF or Twitter Love and saucers.

[Jake Rockatansky]

And you've got a documentary that is premiering at festivals.

[Julian Field]

Yes, I can't, I can't yet say exactly which festival or which the exact date. Just that it's going to be in Austin.

[Jake Rockatansky]

Very, very exciting stuff. And folks, given, given also this, this, this episode you can see why Travis could make an entire book out of this. So keep an eye out for that in the not too distant future. And then my movie following it about I'm gonna be. I'm gonna make it like Lincoln. We've already discussed it for months I hounded Travis. I said you gotta watch Lincoln. You gotta watch Lincoln. Lincoln. Because that's what this reminds me of. And I low key love Lincoln. And anyway, so all that's coming in the near future from your faves listener until next week.

[Brad Abrahams]

May the deep dish high key bless you and keep you.

[Travis]

We have auto queued content based on your preferences.

[Poet/Narrator]

Some poets sing in epic strains of warriors and their fates Some that rise and some that fall of kingdoms and of states but hark the wild while in love your song and more sublimely grand I'll sing to all the listening world the brave sonic man the world was still and wonder rare Save now and then a dream of railroads and a sidekick canals and guns that go by steam When Morgan swore a mighty oath in spite of friends or foes that he for castle consensate would masonry disclose. And Miller swore to print a talent spread it far and near that all the blind on earth might see and all the deaf might hear. That from the greatest to the least by scripture rule forsooth that all should come to knowledge of the hidden light and truth. Then hell broke loose and all the host of masons circle round to kidnap both destroy the book, burn Octavia down Mother furious in room of love and charity from many of these men's heart and then the general who hold night renowned for chivalry

[Jake Rockatansky]

Began to feel that feather quote called popularity

[Poet/Narrator]

and how we feel he succeeded well by prowess in the fight Then he should be a senator as well this gleaning night and cried arise my friends arise with pistols, swords and darts hoop holes nice and cut prepare for bloody works without regard to powers that be or lost in men devise on Miller sees and sees the book succeed of sacrifice on foot, on horse, in wagons stored Destroyed they marched 10 miles or more to guard

[Jake Rockatansky]

their victim of revenge and triumph in

[Poet/Narrator]

his gore and while the people rose in strength with blood and boiling heat and sent him back to printing books and made the bad retreat they sense the days of don't wonder has not been unseen like this. That we would see night press.