(no subject)
May. 30th, 2003 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stevenehrbar"Early on, the Masons disagreed as to whether the line of presidential sucession should be through the Vice President or Secretary of State. In 1796, the Vice-Presidentials had the balance of power, but their rivals managed to manipulate the Electoral College so that Jefferson, Washington's Secretary of State, was Vice-President.
"The ensuing chaos reordered the factions, especially when it became apparent that the choice of Secretary of State could be insulated from random fortune better than the Vice-Presidency. The Masons accordingly installed Jefferson as President at the first opportunity (1800), and then sucessively installed the Secretary of State of the previous President every eight years.
"This continued until John Quincy Adams was installed. As the first male-line heir to any President, a splinter faction of Masons in favor of a virtual royalty supported his selection. Additionally, the remaining core of Vice-Presidentials saw it as compensation for Adams's one-term Presidency. So, Q. Adams, with reluctance on the part of the other Masonic factions, was installed as Monroe's Secretary of State.
"However, internal struggles over the issue of Q. Adams's sucessor became especially heated during the Monroe Administration. Q. Adams himself violated neutrality and joined the Clay faction. The system broke down as Masonic infighting allowed a wholesale conversion of the country to choosing electors by popular vote without the emplacement of proper vote-directing safeguards.
"The result was a major blunder of an election in 1820, the assassination of William H. Crawford, and the overthrow of Adams by a secret palace coup in 1822 by Jackson. The result of the coup was ratified in the 1824 election by Jackson-manipulated popular vote. Organized Masonic control was not reasserted until the assassination of William Henry Harrison in 1840, by which time the Masons were fatally weakened. The reunited Masonic attempt to install Clay in 1844 failed."
"The ensuing chaos reordered the factions, especially when it became apparent that the choice of Secretary of State could be insulated from random fortune better than the Vice-Presidency. The Masons accordingly installed Jefferson as President at the first opportunity (1800), and then sucessively installed the Secretary of State of the previous President every eight years.
"This continued until John Quincy Adams was installed. As the first male-line heir to any President, a splinter faction of Masons in favor of a virtual royalty supported his selection. Additionally, the remaining core of Vice-Presidentials saw it as compensation for Adams's one-term Presidency. So, Q. Adams, with reluctance on the part of the other Masonic factions, was installed as Monroe's Secretary of State.
"However, internal struggles over the issue of Q. Adams's sucessor became especially heated during the Monroe Administration. Q. Adams himself violated neutrality and joined the Clay faction. The system broke down as Masonic infighting allowed a wholesale conversion of the country to choosing electors by popular vote without the emplacement of proper vote-directing safeguards.
"The result was a major blunder of an election in 1820, the assassination of William H. Crawford, and the overthrow of Adams by a secret palace coup in 1822 by Jackson. The result of the coup was ratified in the 1824 election by Jackson-manipulated popular vote. Organized Masonic control was not reasserted until the assassination of William Henry Harrison in 1840, by which time the Masons were fatally weakened. The reunited Masonic attempt to install Clay in 1844 failed."
