Light On Masonry : David Bernard [ Freemasonry, Anti-Masonry , William Morgan ]
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Scarce early edition of Light on Masonry , David Bernard ‘s Anti-Masonic expose inspired by the ” murder ” of William Morgan
Bernard, Elder David. Light on Masonry : A Collection of All The Most Important Documents… William Williams, Genesee Street : Utica. 1829. Third edition.
Written and published in upstate New York in the wake of the disappearance of William Morgan , Bernard ‘s Light on Masonry sought to exceed and expand on Morgan’s possibly fatal efforts to illuminate Freemasonry to outsiders.
In 1826, Morgan — a purported Freemason — announced his intention to publish Illustrations of Masonry, an expose of Masonic rituals, ceremonies, codes, and organizational structure. Following an apparent attempted arson carried out against his printer, Morgan was arrested on spurious charges and abducted from jail. After leaving in a carriage with a group of men, one witness claimed to have seen Morgan near Niagara Falls, before his trail went cold. When a body washed ashore, locals were quick to claim it as Morgan, believing he had been drowned by his fellow Freemasons. However, a Canadian woman managed to match the clothing to her own missing husband, resulting in an exhumation and a mystery that was never solved. It is speculated that if Morgan wasn’t murdered, he may have instead been made to disappear, crossing the border into Canada and living the rest of his life under an alias.
In the aftermath of these events anti – Freemasonry sentiment blossomed in New York state leading to the formation of the Anti-Masonic Party as a rival to the then dominant Jacksonian Democratic Republicans who were more likely to be masons.
Called the “Bible of antimasonry”, Bernard ‘s Light on Masonry became an oft-quoted and plagiarized source book for Masonic literature and later treatments of the Morgan case, selling through multiple editions in its first year and remaining in print until 1860. In addition to covering the degrees and rituals of various knightly orders within Freemasonry, the text also includes information on ciphers, secret handshakes, and symbolism.
A reverend and former Freemason who left the group over religious objections, Bernard is an exhaustive resource on the origins of antimasonic conspiracy theories in the United States and includes accounts of the Le Roy Convention of 1828 and subsequent Declaration of Independence from Masonry as well as an attractive frontispiece portrait of William Morgan paired on the opposing page with an image of ritual murder from Masonic lore.
4919, Bibliotheca Americana. McCarthy, p. 556
12mo, 570 pp ([ i- 4] vi – x, + 2 + [13] + 14 – 505 + 1 – 55 appendix), brown leather boards. Some rubbing to board edges. Reading wear to spine. Pastedowns, endpapers, and pages toned with moisture stain effecting lower forecorners ahead of titlepage. Contemporary pen signature on third free endpaper. Some spotting. Illustrated with two full plate frontispieces as well as some in line diagrams and drawings. Very good condition.
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