History lesson from the US

This from From Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Unless you are a Mason, it's doubtful that you know much about William Morgan or the repercussions in Lancaster County and throughout the United States that followed his disappearance in 1826.
Morgan was a Freemason in Batavia, N.Y. He grew disenchanted with the organization and threatened to expose it. But before he could do anything he vanished.
Some observers said fellow Masons had taken Morgan to Canada, where he was paid never to return to the United States. But others said Morgan had been murdered so he would not spill the secrets of the fraternity.
Anti-Masonic hysteria quickly spread. All Masons were suspect. To preserve their reputations, thousands of Masons dropped out of lodges. Lodges all over the country closed.
Meetings of Lancaster's Lodge No. 43 F.&A.M. were disrupted from the late 1820s through the early 1830s, according to a history of the lodge written by George R. Welchans and published in 1936.
In the spring of 1830, remaining lodge members considered surrendering their charter, but persevered, with a handful of members sometimes meeting only once a year until reviving in the mid-'30s.
According to Welchans, prejudice against the Masons continued, "but it was no longer dangerous to life and limb to be known as a Mason, only still imprudent as a business policy.''
William Morgan's disappearance was the catalyst for the formation of the Anti-Masonic Party, which had some success nationwide and in Pennsylvania. Amos Ellmaker, the party's 1832 vice presidential candidate, lived in Lancaster County.
Philip S. Klein, a Lancaster native, explained in his "History of Pennsylvania'' that "the Pennsylvania Germans, and particularly the Plain Sects who opposed oaths, proved especially susceptible to the anti-Masonic fever.''
In 1828, Theophilus Fenn began publishing the Anti-Masonic Herald in New Holland. That paper stirred up anti-Masonic political interest throughout Pennsylvania.
Thaddeus Stevens, who later in life would become a leading Republican congressional representative and advocate of black equality, was first a Whig, but became a leading member of the Anti-Masonic Party in Pennsylvania.
As a member of the state House of Representatives in the 1830s, Stevens introduced bills attacking the Masons and, for good measure, the Odd Fellows.
In 1842, Stevens moved from Gettysburg to Lancaster, in part because it had been the birthplace of Pennsylvania's anti-Masonic movement, according to Stevens's latest biographer, Hans Trefousse.
Most people weren't worrying much about the Masons by then, but Stevens clung to his antipathy.
In June 1843, Stevens tried to revive the local Anti-Masonic Party, but Whigs ridiculed his efforts because the state no longer had an Anti-Masonic organization.
By then, the Masons had moved on, trying to obliterate the memory of the William Morgan affair that nearly wrecked their fraternity.
The Scribbler was unfamiliar with much of this history until he read February's issue of The Northern Light, a Masonic publication.
It contains an article about Morgan and a commentary from John Wm. McNaughton, the Masons' grand commander. McNaughton says Masons should "enjoy each other's company and put William Morgan finally to rest.''
Well, yes, but it remains interesting how cranked up Thaddeus Stevens and many others got after Morgan disappeared and how the anti-Masonic sentiment spread through America like swine-flu hysteria.