The Masons in the early 19th Century United States

The Masons, or Order of Freemasons, served in the 19th as now, as a social networking organization for striving men like Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, both members.

But many people were suspicious of the order, partly because of its closely guarded secrecy. It was also perhaps seen as an elitist organization at a time of anti-elitism.

This feeling broke out into a frenzy starting in 1826, when William Morgan who had broken with the Masons and published some of their secrets, disappeared or was murdered.

For several years after this, there was an active Anti-Masonic party, complicating American electoral politics.