I DID not personally know William Morgan, who was for more than two months writing his book in a house adjoining my residence, at Rochester. When applied to by Mr. Dyer, my next door neighbor, to print the book purporting to disclose the secrets of Masonry I declined to do so, believing that a man who had taken an oath to keep a secret, had no right to disclose it. Although not a Freemason, I had entertained favorable opinions of an institution to which Washington, Franklin and Lafayette belonged. On my refusal to print his book, Morgan removed to Batavia, where he made the acquaintance of David C. Miller, editor of the Advocate, also a Mason, who became his publisher.
I pass briefly over a series of facts which were judicially established, embracing the arrest of Morgan, his conveyance to and confinement in the County Jail at Canandaigua, from which he was released and conveyed by night, in close carriages, through Rochester, Clarkson, and along the Ridge Road to Fort Niagara, in the magazine of which he was confined. While thus confined a Knight Templar encampment was installed at Lewiston. When at supper the zeal and enthusiasm of the Templars having been aroused by speeches and wine, Colonel William King, of Lockport, invited four men, (Whitney, Howard, Chubbuck and Garside) from their seats at the banqueting table into an adjoining apartment, where he informed them that he had an order from the Grand Master (De Witt Clinton), the execution of which required their assistance. This party was then driven to Saratoga, reaching the fort a little before 12 o'clock.
Upon entering the magazine, Colonel King informed Morgan that his friends had completed their arrangements for his removal to and residence upon a farm in Canada. Morgan walked with them to the wharf, where a boat was held in readiness for them by Elisha Adams, an invalid soldier, into which the party passed and rowed away, Adams remaining to warn the boat off by signal, if, on its return, any alarm had been given. It was nearly 2 o'clock in the morning when the boat came back, having, as Adams expressed it, lost one man, only five of the six being on board when the boat returned. When the boat reached a point where the Niagara river empties into Lake Ontario, a rope being wound around Morgan's body, to either end of which a sinker was attached, he was thrown overboard. It is due to the memory of Governor Clinton to say that Colonel King had no such order, and no authority to make use of his name. It is proper, also, to add that none of these men survive. John Whitney, of Rochester, whom I knew well, related all the circumstances connected with the last act in that tragedy to me at Albany, in 1831, in the presence of Simeon B. Jewett, of Clarkson, and Samuel Barton, of Lewiston.