bers of the lower house to hold a meeting was also frustrated by the mob who pulled the temporary chairman from his seat and the scattered fragments of the house adjourned to a hotel.

The whole city now was in the hands of the rioters. Upon a rumor that Ritner had seized the arsenal a savage crowd assembled before it and began an attack upon it. They were calmed, however, by being assured that no arms would be distributed by the governor." The mob next organized a "provisional" government which ran things as it pleased." The Whig officers did not dare to appear upon the streets, and it was publicly asserted that if they should again try to organize a legislature, Harrisburg "would be smothered in blood."c

Meanwhile Governor Ritner issued a proclamation in which he described the existing disturbance and state of lawlessness, which he said was encouraged "in person by an officer of the General Government from Philadelphia," and he called upon all good citizens to help to suppress these conditions, and ordered the militia to be in readiness." The part of the proclamation calling on the citizens produced no impression, for the sheriff of the county, being a Democrat, insisted in a counter statement that there was no rioting. Accordingly Ritner made a special requisition on Major-General Patterson, commanding the first division of the Pennsylvania militia. He obtained a quantity of the ammunition then used by the Regular Army, consisting of buckshot cartridges, and proceeded

a Pennsylvania Telegraph, December 6, 1838.

b Stevens said: "They prefer provisional governments! Next will come the revolutionary tribunal' and the guillotine, and these leaders of the 'people' will shine forth the Dantons and Robespierres of the age!" Stevens's address, Pennsylvania Telegraph, January 17, 1839.

c Statement of Rudolph Kelker: Stevens describes the mob in the following language: "The most respectable of them, the 'Captains of Tens,' were keepers of disorderly houses in Kensington. Then came journeymen butchers, who were too worthless to find regular employment, next professional boxers, who practice their pugilisiic powers for hire; low gamblers, who infest the oyster cellars of the suburbs. A portion of them consisted of a class of men whose business you will hardly understand-dog keepers, who in Spring Garden and Southwark, raise and train a ferocious breed of dogs, whom they fight weekly for wages, and for the amusement of the indignant people." Their troop was flanked by a few professional thieves and discharged convicts. These men, gathered up from the holes and hovels, were refitted with such cast-off clothes as their employers could command, and hired at fifteen dollars the head and freighted to come to Harrisburg and instruct the legislature in its duties, and protect their rights. Stevens s address, Pennsylvania Telegraph, January 17, 1839.

d Pennsylvania Telegraph, December 10, 1838.

to the city with his troops." He arrived on December 9, and immediately quieted the opposing forces, although he wisely did nothing to decide the case. Many of the men from Philadelphia, however, were arrested and many more were compelled to leave the town. Ritner also applied for the United States regulars stationed at Carlisle, but was refused. Patterson's troops stayed but a few days and were superseded by a new detachment commanded by a Whig general.

Quiet having been restored and the houses again organized, the Whig majority in the senate was found to be unquestioned. The question now arose, which house would the senate recognize as legal. As was to be expected it refused to recognize the "Hopkins house" by a vote of 20 to 13, but three members of the "Stevens rump" went over to the Democrats, thus giving them the majority and breaking the deadlock. A resolution was therefore offered in the senate recognizing the Democratic house which passed by a vote of 17 to 16 on December 25.

Montelius, of Union County, a member of the lower house, stated his reason for changing, as follows:

In joining my party friends in organizing the house of representatives with the eight Philadelphia County members of the Whig party, I thought these had been elected by a majority of the votes of the county, and had been returned by a majority of the judges, but I soon found that this was not true, and that eight members of the opposition party from the county of Philadelphia had been elected by a majority of about five hundred in the whole county, and had been returned elected by a majority of the judges. I am sorry to say that the secretary of the State kept back these returns,

a From this and from the fact that a negro was caught who was carrying some of the ammunition made by the Whigs at their headquarters, comes the name "Buckshot War." A verse of a popular doggerel of the day, entitled “* Last days of Governor Ritner," contains an allusion to the incident:

"Come up and come down,

Come from country and town

And obey the fat Deutchlaender's writ, sir.

Come one and come all

With buckshot and ball

And take care of Governor Ritner."

From Pennsylvanian, quoted in Carlisle Volunteer, December 27, 1838.

Pennsylvania Telegraph, December 10, 1838.

This was made the subject of a very interesting debate in Congress. See Twenty-fifth Congress, third session, debate in the House of Representatives, Wednesday, December 19. These proceedings and accompanying documents are given fully in Niles Register LV, pp. 268, 294.

d Pennsylvania Telegraph, December 19. See also Ibid, December 13, 1838.

e Pennsylvania Telegraph, December 27, 28, 1838. January 14, 1839. Niles Register, LV, 273.

which I think was wrong. Under the circumstances I could not continue to act with men who had no right to their seats no more than my opponent had to mine."

Of the members who changed in the senate, Mr. Strohm explained his act by stating that he could only recognize the house when it was legally assembled, and that he had done so according to his oath, and because he wanted especially to end the matter and restore peace and order."

So ended the "Buckshot war," and so ended practically the Antimasonic party in Pennsylvania.

It seems from all the evidence that the Democrats did elect their members, but the matter is hidden by conflicting statements and affidavits. Philadelphia County had been Democratic through the whole period, and it was probably so in 1838, although signs of change had been seen in the attitude of Reed, member of the house from that county in the previous legislature, and in the fact that in a special election held there the previous year a Whig had defeated a Democrat for Congress. There seems to be no doubt, however, of the culpability of the Democrats in causing the riot at Harrisburg and using illegal and extreme methods.

Stevens, fuming over the defeat of all his plans, stayed away from the house in protest until May, filling the papers meanwhile with his denunciations of the Democrats. The house. finally expelled him from his seat for using disrespectful language, declaring, too, that he had forfeited it by his long

a Carlisle Volunteer, December 27, 1838.

Pennsylvania Telegraph, January 22, 1839.

eJ. Q. Adams in his diary says of it: "The whole series of these events is a development of our condition of no good omen to the future of our political institutions.”— Adams's Diary, X, 65.

The Carlisle Volunteer (Democratic) of January 10, 1839, has the following amusing notice: "For Salt River! To sail on Tuesday, the 15th of January [inauguration day under the new charter]. The schooner Peg Beatty [a disreputable character whose name his opponents had connected with Porter's in the campaign], with a full cargo of wooden nutmegs and other notions, together with a considerable supply of live stock. The vessel will be commanded by Thaddeus Stevens, and is expected to navigate the headwaters of the aforesaid celebrated river. The following-named persons have also taken passage, viz, Joseph Ritner, Thomas H. Burrowes, Theophilus Fenn, Chas. B. Penrose. * * * The company will be select. No 'bullies' or people with ugly noses, ugly looks and no shirt collars' will be permitted to interrupt the delightful harmony of the voyage. An excellent band of music will be provided for the voyage, which will from time to time play the delightful and popular air called the 'Rogue's March.'" e Special election, Third district; Harrisburg Chronicle, July 5, 1837.

f They were charged, and it seems with much truth, of a design to blow up a train load of soldiers on the way to Harrisburg. Niles Register, LVII, 27.

absence." He, however, was triumphantly returned by his constituents."

The Antimasonic spirit did not immediately die out in the State, but continued to live in the western part, where it was connected with the temperance, antislavery, and anti-Catholic movements, certainly as late as 1855.

As compared with New York, we have noted many like conditions. The chief points of difference seem to be the following: (1) The party in New York was composed almost exclusively of National Republicans, while in Pennsylvania a large number were undoubtedly Democrats, as shown by the vote for Jackson. How, then, did the union come about? This question brings us to another great difference. (2) The Antimasonic policy in Pennsylvania was primarily an anti-Wolf policy and anti-improvement policy, in fact, just opposite to what it was in New York. Many Antimasons in the early days, especially among the eastern Germans, were practically Jacksonian Democrats, but in later days were turned by Stevens into anti-Jackson as well as anti-Wolf men. This was the

more easily accomplished because of the union of Wolf and Jackson. That this could be done leads us to the third fact. (3) Antimasonry in Pennsylvania was a far more honest and ̧ real movement than in New York, and was deeply rooted in the soil furnished by the various radical sects of the State. It was because of this fact that the eastern Germans could be led to unite with the Whigs upon so many questions. (4) The fourth difference lies in the fact that the New York Antimasons had from the start a galaxy of brilliant writers and able and ambitious politicians in their ranks, while Pennsylvania had few of these.. To Thaddeus Stevens must be given the credit of uniting the Whigs and Antimasons of Pennsylvania after the partial union of 1832 had proved a failure and when

a Pennsylvania Telegraph, June 12, 1839. Ibid, January 3, June 19, 1839. Niles Register, LVI, 228.

b Niles Register, LVI, pp. 216, 277.

c Gazette and Advertiser, February 22, 1846; Pennsylvania Reporter, October 22, 1841; Wilson's History of Pittsburg, 803. Stevens, in 1843, tried hard to revive it, but without success. (See McCall's Life of Stevens, 61.) The Scotch-Irish of the west had condemned Masonry, even before the Morgan incident. Wilson's History of Pittsburg, 793. This section contains to-day great numbers of the United Presbyterians, who do not allow their members to belong to secret organizations The "Christian" party, which has gathered a few votes in nearly every national election from 1866 till the present time, has had a strong following in this region. The pardoning of a man named Pluymart, a Mason who had robbed a bank, formed in the early days one of the strongest arguments against the Masons in this region.

the opposition was disorganized and declining. The Whigs were comparatively few in number, and by showing them that in cooperation with him in his crusade against Masonry lay their only chance for success he united these opposite interests. When the farmers of the east saw that they would have to pay taxes if the Bank was not rechartered, they were reconciled to a large extent to Whig doctrines. Of the other elements, the western people about Pittsburg were already in strong opposition to Jackson because of their manufacturing interests, and looked upon the Bank question as all manufacturing districts naturally would, while the people of the north

west saw the only realization of their plans for connecting the Lake with Philadelphia bound up with the Whig policy and the Bank. We have here, then, the elements of the strong Whig party which in 1840 carried the State of Pennsylvania for their candidate, General Harrison."

After all is said, the great fact in the history of Antimasonry in Pennsylvania is the personality of Thaddeus Stevens, a Yankee leader of Pennsylvania Quakers, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and German Sectarians.

a Pennsylvania Reporter, November 20, 1840. Harrison carried the State by a vote

of 445.