The Craftsman. Volume First [I/1] For 1829-'30 [1830]

Small folio, contemporary leather spine and corners, marbled boards. [iv]-186, 195-418 pp., comprising Volume I, Numbers 1-23 and 25-52. Altogether, 51 of 52 issues, bound under a general title with index leaf. Very scarce, comprising nearly half of the 104 issues of this weekly, the principal organ of Western New York Masonry after the Morgan affair. The pages present here contain a wealth of information on Masonic and Anti-Masonic activities in New York, especially the legal proceedings and political machinations that took place in the aftermath of Morgan's abduction and presumed murder. There is much material on the Whitney and Gillis trials. Special Prosecutor John C. Spencer is a frequent object of attack. The section of the index, 'On the Excitement' takes up two and a half columns and has over 200 entries. The 'Political' section of the index takes up 1/3 - 1/2 column. It can be difficult to extricate the political from the anti-Masonic coverage. Mark and Schwab* note that the resolutions of this organization indicate its spiritual affinity with the Working Men's Party of New York. The Friends of Liberal Principles and Equal Rights opposed ecclesiastical influence and the attempt to stop Sunday mails. It favored equality of education and the abolition of imprisonment for debt, and sympathized with the contemporaneous revolutions in Europe. The balance of the index, 'Miscellany' and 'Poetry,' constitutes 3 columns reflecting the roughly 50% of each issue that is given over to poetry and prose, some of it original, extracts from foreign journals, brief notices of local events, &c. WorldCat records holdings at 10 institutions but most of these are scattered and/or defective.