Craft Masonry in Ontario, Seneca and Yates Counties, New York

John C. Spencer, Special Attorney, and Bowen Whiting, District Attorney.

"For The Defendants—Gen. Vincent Mathews, Ebenezer Griffin, Dudley Marvin and M. H. Sibley, Esquires.

"John Whitney, present.

"James L. Gillis, absent.

"Mr. Spencer declared his intention of trying the defendants together. Mr. Griffin desired that Whitney might be tried alone, but Mr. Spencer insisted that there was a connection between the two, and persisted in trying them together.

"Mr. Sibley objected to the trial of Gillis in his absence, and appealed to the Court to have his trial postponed, in tho consideration of the peculiar circumstances of the case; that Gillis had attended three or four times, ready to be tried, from another State; that the notice of trial which had been sent to him had not reached him.

"A long discussion ^followed between Mr. Spencer and Mr. Sibley, and the Court declined putting off Gillis' trial.

"The Court intimated an opinion that the defendants should be tried separately, but would not direct. The Special Attorney remarked that the reason for trying them together, was the convenience of the witnesses and the little remaining time in the present term.

"Mr. Sibley then read an affidavit that John C. Cooper was a material witness for Gillis, and had been subpoenaed, but has not attended; and applied to put off the trial of Gillis in consequence". '

"The Court again overruled the motion to postpone the trial of Gillis.

"Trial postponed till afternoon.

"Afternoon.—Mr. Sibley wished to be considered as not assenting to the trial of Gillis in his absence."

The trial then proceeded, and a mass of testimony was taken. The evidence showed pretty plainly that Whitney accompanied the Morgan carriage from Canandaigua to some point on the Ridge Road west of Rochester, but the only possible proof that Mr. Gillis had an3' connection with the affair was that he was in Canandaigua the same day and returned to Victor the same evening the carriage did. A Mrs. Colier, living at Victor, said she saw the carriage go into the yard of Enos Gillis, the defendant's brother, but afterwards admitted that it might have been the carriage of Samuel Gillis, which often went there, and it might have been some other evening she saw it—so long a time had transpired she could not remember. Two other witnesses, Aldrich and Cone, gave some testimony of seeing the defendant Gillis with the Morgan party while it stopped at Victor, but their stories were so contradictory and so completely rebutted by other and more respectable witnesses, that there was no doubt of their impeachment.

The trial resulted in the jury bringing in a verdict of guilty as to Whitney, but were unable to agree upon a verdict as to Gillis.

Whitney was then sentenced by Judge Howell to be confined in the Ontario county jail for the term of one year and four months, and the sentence immediately carried into execution. In June, 1830, he was taken out of jail and conveyed to Lockport by the prosecution as a witness to testify in the case of Ezekiel Jewett, but when placed upon the stand refused to be sworn, saying "that he was not in the enjoyment of any of the rights and privileges of a citizen, and as his body was kept in confinement, he preferred confining his mind also." The Court ordered him to be imprisoned 30 days in the Canandaigua jail, and to pay a fine of $250, for contempt. It does not appear that the order for contempt was ever executed, and was either remitted by the Judge subsequently, or by a pardon obtained from the executive of the State.

His term of imprisonment expired in September, 1830, when he was released. He returned to Rochester, but after a few years he emigrated to the West, first to Michigan, from thence to Illinois, and lived to a ripe old age a highly respected and useful citizen. He died in the city of Chicago, in 1870, aged over 80 years.

Immediately after the joint trial of Whitney and Gillis, and the jury failing to agree as to the latter, a sheriff was sent to Pennsylvania to re-arrest Mr. Gillis and bring him to Canandaigua, which being done he was required to renew his bail, and his second trial postponed to some future term. After several journeys back and forth again Mr. Gillis' case was brought on for trial at the November term 1S30, and was one of the last, if not the last, of the trials ever had in relation to the Morgan affair.

Judge Howell again presided, but John C. Spencer was no longer the public prosecutor. He was succeeded by Victory Birdsye, who was assisted by Bowen Whiting, the District Attorney. Mr. Gillis was defended by Messrs. Barnard, Griffin and Sibley, attorneys and counselors. Neither Mr. Gillis nor his' counsel made any objection to the panel of jurors, and the prosecution exhibited none of that reviling and bitter spirit which had been exhibited under the administration of the former public prosecutor. In fact, it was remarked that the trial was a fair and manly investigation, and was long remembered as distinguished from the former trials, as honorable to the cause of justice, to the bar, the bench and the jury box.

The testimony was substantially the same as on the former trial. The trial only lasted three days. Mr. 15arnard, one of Gillis' counsel, closed his address to the jury with the following eloquent peroration in summing up his argument:

What is the case of Gillis? For four long years has he been charged with crime, when to charge was to convict. He has suffered and borne without murmuring, the taunts of a pitiless world—of the wicked, and honest, but deceived —and now comes to throw himself upon you for protection. Eight times, including the present, has he been here for trial—once been tried in his absence when twelve men couldn't bring him in as guilty—he walked over the burning ploughshare bare but unblistered. We all know that the public ear was filled with rumors of his absconding, yet you saw him come here after his indictment, and confront his accusers, and you will remember the public ceremony of serving a warrant upon him as he arrived in the stage.

Not satisfied, and without notifying him for a second trial, a formal requisition is made' upon the Governor of Pennsylvania, a Sheriff sent for him and his extensive business once more interrupted—more expense must be added to the enormous amount he had already been compelled to payout; and hardly had he arrived on the confines of this State, before the press groans' again with his criminality, and again the selfish, the cold, the wicked and the vulgar, unite in heaping infamy on his name! Gentlemen, he is now yours. His home, with its infant circle and its. new ties, waits for the joyful return of the husband and fattier or to receive tidings' of its desolation—'the burial of its peace .and its hopes'! God avert from' him and his house, such a calamity! Gentlemen, he is innocent—He Is Innocent; and even now methinks I hear the echo of your righteous verdict, "he is! He Is!"

The jury without hesitation brought in a verdict, of "not guilty." and .Mr. Gillis was then released from further expense or trouble from this harassing and expensive affair. The excitement soon after was consigned to its grave and the old Court House in Canandaigua, and the whole community enjoyed a more healthy calm.

Judge Gillis, now having vindicated his character from Anti-masonic aspersion, returned to Pennsylvania, and pursued his avocations without further interference. To show the inveterate animosity of the Anti-masonic leaders towards every one who might be suspected of being concerned in the abduction, it will only be necessary to refer to an incident in connection with Mr. Gillis, and the determination of some of them to ruin financially, if they could not prove any crime against them. The Courts of General Session were composed of a presiding judge and two associate judges, which were generally denominated "Side Judges." These latter were generally picked up out of some country justices of the peace and selected by the partisan managers to help the ticket, with but little regard to their fitness or capacity. The office was a mere sinecure, and the presiding judges, who were appointed by the Governor, and selected generally for their competency as jurists, paid but little attention to their associates, who frequently were devoid of all knowledge of the devious ways of the law, and were content to enjoy the honors of their stations and the pay they received, scarcely ever interfering with the presiding judge's ruling. At the time of the joint trial of Whitney and Gillis Judge Howell had for one of his associates on the bench a brawling Anti-masonic politician by the name of Rawson. After the verdict of the jury was received in which it disagreed as to Gillis, this Rawson remarked to some of his Anti-masonic friends, on the verandah of the principal hotel, that "if they could not got Gillis convicted, they could at least ruin him—they could keep him trotting back and forth from Pennsylvania to Canandaigua till he became a bankrupt, and then his money gone it would be an easy matter to get a jury to bring in a verdict of guilty," Some one overhearing this threat reported it to Mr. Gillis. It was said that it was the only time that Mr. Gillis had ever lost his patience or manifested any passion towards his persecutors, but on this occasion he exhibited some considerable excitement. lie immediately sought Rawson, and finding him near the entrance to the Hotel, surrounded by a large crowd of people, who were from all parts of the country attending the term of court, Mr. Gillis demanded of him to know if he had been correctly informed in regard to what he had been told he (Rawson) had said. It is supposed that Gillis' appearance, under the excited state of his feelings was rather belligerent and Rawson slunk back and maintained a strict silence .until the demand had been repeated, when in a trembling voice he replied: "Perhaps I did make such remark." Gillis then said: "Judge Rawson, I am here a prisoner, not a free man, hut I warn you, it you ever step your foot on Pennsylvania soil, or if I hear of your being away from this county, I will travel three hundred miles if necessary to meet you, and will then inflict, such a castigation upon your carcass that only the grave shall hide your shame!" The crowd although composed mainly of Anti masons, applauded Mr. Gillis, and Rawson felt the rebuke so keenly that he resigned his position, and never again sat'. as he was called, a "basswood" Judge afterwards. He was appointed as one of the delegates to the Anti-masonic National Convention at Baltimore in September, 1830, but declined to go. it is said for the reason that he feared Gillis would meet him somewhere on the route, or at Baltimore. and it was supposed would support the Liberal Republican Domination. But the coolness that had existed between him and Greeley since 1834, permitted him to make some exertions to defeat his old friend and co-worker in Whig days, but when he was no more of earth, he wept the true tears of sympathy over his grave, and no one was more sincere in lamenting the death of the great journalist. Mr. Weed long ago retired from active journalistic life, and resides in a "brown stone front" in opulence, on Fifth Avenue, New York, hale and hearty at an advanced age. He retired from the Albany Evening Journal, soon after the election of Mr. Lincoln, in 1861, and removed to New York. He was employed by Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward during the war on a secret mission to Europe. He was also selected administration in various other confidential missions by the of a delicate nature during that critical period of the country's history. After the war he could not remain inactive, but, in the spring of 1807, purchased the "Commercial Advertiser," a New York evening paper, and commenced his editorial life anew, but ill-health caused him to abandon the newspaper business forever; Some years now he has been contributing to the Magazine literature of the day, and his articles are read with great interest by the public. In his salutatory, on assuming the editorship of the Commercial Advertiser, in 1807, he mentions many personal reminiscences of his early life, but omits-all allusion to the subject of Morgan'' and political Anti-masonry. From this, it may be inferred that he would desire his biographer, when the time comes to write his .life, to blot out of his history all reference to the Abduction Of William Morgan And The Anti-masonic Excitement Of 1826-30.

After his acquittal, Mr. Gillis entered upon a large and extensive business of farming and the manufacture of lumber. He resided there for forty years, and was honored by several successive elections to both Houses of the State Legislature, and several local and judicial offices of his county. In 1856 he was elected a member of Congress from the 24th district of Pennsylvania. This district was composed of the counties of Venango, Warren, Elk, McKean, Clarion, Jefferson and Clearfield—the largest Congressional District, at that time, in the State. After serving his term in Congress he was appointed by President Buchanan, Indian Agent for the Pawnee Reservation in Nebraska, which office he held till 1862. In that year he took up his residence in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he still resides at the age of 82 years, a hale and hearty old man, revered and esteemed by all who know him.

Thus we close our short history of these trials, and the parties charged with the abduction of Morgan.

Appendix III

Chesebro'>Nicholas G. Chesebro and others

http://books.google.com/books?id=CYFJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA10-IA3&dq=%22Nicholas+G.+Chesebro%22+%22canandaigua%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Nicholas%20G.%20Chesebro%22%20%22canandaigua%22&f=false page 10.

On Sunday morning, September 10th [1826], Nicholas G. Chesebro, of Canandaigua, master of the lodge at that place, applied to Jeffrey Chipman, a magistrate at Canaudaigua, for a warrant. Chesebro came to the office with Ebenezer C. Kingsley, who made a complaint against William Morgan, for having taken away a shirt and cravat, which he had borrowed of Kingsley. The magistrate issued the warrant upon the oath of Kingsley, which was directed to Chesebro, as one of the coroners of Ontario county, and handed to him. Chesebro, together with Halloway Hay ward a constable, Henry Howard, Harris Seymour, Moses Roberts, and Joseph Scofield, all freemasons, of Canandaigua, left that place for Batavia, at about ten o'clock the same morning, in an extra stage hired by Chesebro.

The party were joined by four other individuals, all freemasons, at different places before they reached Batavia. They stopped to take supper at James Ganson's house, in Stafford, six miles east of Batavia. Doctor Samuel S. Butler of Stafford, was then introduced to some of the party, and informed that they had a warrant for Morgan. Doctor Butler went to Batavia the same evening, and was requested to inform Nathan Follett, and William Seaver, then master of the Batavia lodge, that the party were coming. He did so, and on his return met the Canandaigua party about two miles from Batavia, and informed Ganson that Follett had sent to them not to come. The stage turned about; the party that originally started from Canandaigua went into Batavia on foot, and the remainder returned. The next morning early, Morgan was arrested, and taken to the public house where the party had slept: an extra stage coach was procured, and the party left Batavia for Canandaigua, with Morgan in their custody. Miller attempted to procure the release of Morgan just as the carriage was starting, but he was pushed aside and the coach was driven off very fast, Chesebro being on the outside with the driver, and urging him to drive fast, until they should get out of the county. The driver appeared to feel uneasy about the proceedings, but was pacified by Ganson's assurance, that ha would save him harmless from all responsibility. Chesebro repeatedly looked back, and said they should not take Morgan alive. They arrived at Canandaigua with Morgan the same day, and in the evening took him before the magistrate, who issued the warrant, by whom he was examined and discharged, Loton Lawson appearing as a witness on behalf of Morgan. Chesebro then immediately applied to the same magistrate for a warrant against Morgan, for a debt of about two dollars, claimed to be due from him to Aaron Ackley, a tavern keeper, which debt Chesebro alleged, was assigned to him. Judgment was entered against Morgan for two dollars and sixty-nine cents, debt and costs, and an execution immediately issued, which was put into the hands of Halloway Hayward, then present. Morgan took off his coat, and offered it to the constable to levy upon, for the debt. The constable declined receiving it, and arrested Morgan and committed him to the jail of Canandaigua the same evening, on the execution. He remained in custody in Canandaigua jail, until the evening of the next day.

Immediately after Morgan was committed to jail, Loton Lawson, a farmer residing near Canandaigua, procured a horse and went to Rochester the same night, a distance of twenty-eight miles, and returned the next morning a little after breakfast. He went to bed soon after his return, and informed the innkeeper where he slept, that some gentlemen from Rochester would call for him in the course of the day. On the 12th of September, Burrage Smith and John Whitney, of Rochester, took the stage from that place in the morning, for Canaudaigua. They were joined by James Gillis, at Victor, ten miles distant from Canandaigua, and all three arrived at the latter place early in the afternoon of the same day. Smith and Whitney called upon Loton Lawson, in the evening of the same day, September 12, Loton Lawson called at the jail a little after dark, and asked for William Morgan. The jailer was absent, and Lawson informed the jailer's .wife, that he wished to pay the debt for which Morgan was confined, and take him away. Mrs. Hall, (the jailer's wife,) declined accepting the amount of the execution, on the ground that she did not know the amount, and also refused to permit Lawson to have any private conversation with Morgan. Lawson asked Morgan, however, in the presence of Mrs. Hall, if he would go home with him if he would pay the debt and take him out? To which Morgan answered, that he would; Lawson then expressed great anxiety to get Morgan out that night, and pressed Mrs. Hall to receive the amount of the debt which she still declined.

Lawson went out and returned soon with another person, whom Mrs. Hall cannot identify, and insisted on her receiving the amount of the execution. Mrs. Hall peremptorily refused. He went away and returned again, reiterating his request with the same effect. He went away again, and soon returned with Edward Sawyer, who advised Mrs. Hall to receive the amount of the debt, and let Morgan go. She still refused. She subsequently consented to discharge Morgan, at the request of Nicholas G. Chesebro, who was the real plaintiff in the execution, and took the keys of the prison for the purpose of opening Morgan's cell. Before she opened the cell, Lawson gave a single whistle at the front door, which brought a man to the jail steps. Morgan's cell was unlocked; he came out, and Lawson took him by his arm, and went towards the door of the prison hall, which was unlocked by a person on the outside, and they went out. Before they left the jail steps, Morgan was seized with violence by Lawson, and the person who was called there by his whistle. Morgan struggled, and cried "Murder," once or twice, resisting as much as possible, and in the struggle his hat fell off. Edward Sawyer and Nicholas G. Chesebro were waiting near the jail steps, and when the struggle commenced, they followed Morgan and the two men who were with him, and who were going eastwardly from the jail. Chesebro came up with them, and stopped Morgan's outcry by thrusting a handkerchief, or something similar, into his mouth. Sawyer gave a distinct rap upon the curb of a well, at which signal, Hiram Hubbard drove up with a two horse carriage, which had been harnessed, and was in waiting for the purpose. He overtook the party, having Morgan in their possession, a few rods east of the jail, when two of them thrust Morgan into the carriage, and then got in themselves. The carriage immediately turned around, and drove through Canandaigua, Main street, northerly. This was about nine o'clock in the evening, and it was a bright moonlight night. Loton Lawson, Burrage Smith, John Whitney, James Gillis, and probably one or two other persons, whose names are not known, either rode in, or accompanied, the carriage containing Morgan. It would seem, that this carriage was accompanied most of the distance by out riders, either on horse back, or in some separate conveyance. A sulkey with a man in it, started from Canandaigua just after the carriage drove through the street, for which it appeared to have been waiting some time; it drove past the carriage about three miles from Canandaigua, and stopped at Victor over night. At Victor, the carriage containing Morgan and the party with him, drove into Enos Gillis' yard, back of his barn, and out of sight from the road; and the party remained there about an hour, and took some refreshment. James Gillis here took a horse from his brother's stable, and it would also seem, that one other of the party accompanied or preceded the carriage on horse back, when it left Victor. On the morning of the 13th September, between 4 and 5 o'clock, Ezra Platt, a livery stable keeper in Rochester, and a royal arch mason, was called upon for a carriage to go to Lewiston, and requested it to be sent to Ensworth's tavern in the village. Platt has sworn that he did not know who it was that called, or who wanted the carriage. He called up Orson Parkhurst, one of his drivers, who is also a mason, and directed him to prepare the carriage. Platt charged the hire of the carriage, as he has sworn, to "The Grand Chapter, pro tern." He has not yet received his pay for such a singular charge.