William Morgan became a Mason in Rochester in 1823, but found himself excluded from the Batavia chapter . . . he wrote the Illustrations of Masonry . . . the unfortunate author suffered a series of mysterious persecutions. First the authorities held him briefly on a debt claim, so that his lodgings could be searched for the manuscript. On September 8, 1826, parties of strangers, . . . began appearing in town. Their attempt at arson on the print shop failed. . . . he was kidnapped on the evening of September 12. . . . He may after a time have been released across the Canadian border. More probably he was tied in a weighted cable, rowed to the center of the Niagara River . . . and dropped overboard. In any case, it cannot be proved that he was ever seen again. . . . The event implicated Masons all the way from the Finger Lakes to the Niagara Frontier . . . Thus by 1827 village committees from Rochester westward had begun to organize politically against the accused society. . . . The major issue seemed to be one of morality: Masonry was believed to have committed a crime. Its members had put their fraternal obligations ahead of their duty to state and society, sanctioning both a lawless violation of personal security and a corrupt plot to frustrate the normal constitutional guarantees of justice . . . Its titles and rituals smacked of monarchy as well as infidelity. The secrecy which required such reckless guarding suggested ignoble and dangerous designs. Whence, for instance, came the skulls, reputed to be used for drinking vessels in the ceremony of the Royal Arch degree? Curiosity, fancy, and rumor thus multiplied the apparent threats of Masonry to the peace, order, and spirituality of society. Such reactions grew as expert propagandists played upon the fears and wonderment of the multitude. . . . the Antimasonic excitement . . . may well have been the most comprehensive single force to strike the “infected district” during an entire generation. Charles Finney latter estimated that two thousand lodges and forty-five thousand members in the United States suspended fraternal activity. Most of the groups in western New York must have done so.