FREEMASONS vs ANTI-FREE MASONS c. 1831 Poster

From around 1831, an attack on the Antimasonic party, produced shortly after their September national convention in Baltimore. The apron symbolically contrasts the Masons with the Antimasons. On the right is a ROCK OF AGES on which stands a pyramid with steps labelled (from the bottom upwards): Free Masonry, Peace & Plenty, Equal Rights, Science, Sincerity, Fortitude, Charity, Patriotism, Honour, Fidelity, Virtue, Order, Law, and U.S. On the top sits an eagle with a streamer inscribed VICTORY and a staff with liberty cap and flag with the masonic device of a compass and right angle with the words JUST and TRUE. Around the liberty cap is an aureole of PERFECT LIGHT. On the left is a three-headed HYDRA of ANTI-MASONRY, and a pile of broken timbers resting on a sandy foundation. From two of the hydra's mouths issue BLACKNESS and DARKNESS and a list of evils, including Persecution, Intolerance, Hypocrisy, Slavery, Anarchy, Filth, etc. The timbers are marked: Baseless Fabric, Arnold, Bernard, Stramonium, and Judas. The whole design is enclosed in an apron-shaped border. The Anti-Masonic Party, also known as the Anti-Masonic Movement, was the first third party in the United States. It strongly opposed Freemasonry as a single-issue party and later aspired to become a major party by expanding its platform to take positions on other issues. After emerging as a political force in the late 1820s, most of the Anti-Masonic Party's members joined the Whig Party in the 1830s and the party disappeared after 1838.