L. Valance made a dying confession which has

been quite generally believed, that he was one of three Masons, who took Morgan in a boat by night upon the river, tied him to several weights, and then pushed him with them over the side of the boat into the river. That he had been murdered by Masons was believed soon after his disappearance. This led to a tremen- dous national excitement. An anti-Masonic party was formed, which still exists, though very feebly, and of the fifty thousand Masons in the United States, forty-five thousand seceded from the order. The order is now, however, probably very large, as are some other secnet as- sociations.
There is also important testimony on relig- ious grounds.
The one hundred seceders of LeRoy also adopted the following resolution against Ma- sonry :
" It substitutes the self-righteousness and ceremonies of Masonry for real religion and the ordinances of the Gospel. "^
Rev. Chas. G. Finney, the great revival preacher, and president of Oberlin, who had been a Mason, says that after his conversion :
" I soon found that I was completely converted fro77t Freemasonry to Christ, and that I could have no fellowship with any of the proceedings of the lodge. Its oaths ap-
92 THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM.
peared to me to be monstrously profane and barbarous." ^ *' Its morality is unchristian. * Its oath-bound secrecy is unchristian. * * It is a virtual conspiracy against both Church and State."