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Inspired by this thread. A brief idea flitted across my mind when I (misread ) the title and I thought that I might share it with you all. Bear in mind that it was really more a flight-of-fancy thought than a developed or extensively thought out scenario. Here's the cross-post:
Perhaps if you had another, more severe Morgan affair-like scandal break out around election time, people like Thurlow Weed and Joseph Ritner and Amos Ellmaker may enjoy more successful political careers.
Even though the Anti-Masonic Party is often dismissed as a one-issue party, they did forge close links with John Quincey Adams and his National Republicans and incorporated opposition to Jacksonian Democracy, protective tariffs, and emphasis on infrastructure into its platform. They managed to get two of their members into gubernatorial seats in Vermont and Pennsylvania in 1831 and 1835, respectively, and even raked in 100,715 (7.8%) votes and 7 electoral votes in the 1832 elections.
If there's another catalyst (perhaps Andrew Jackson becomes associated with a nasty scandal with Masonic connections), we could see the Anti-Masonic Party begin building up a steady base, perhaps eventually adopting a less one-issue name. Perhaps the American People's Party or something like that. Or maybe they just become the dominant faction of a resurrected National Republican Party.
Anyways, I think there's a chance that, should they ever get in power or influence Congress significantly, we could see Thurlow Weed (a virulent anti-Mason and rather abusive individual) becoming an early 19th Century version of Joe McCarthy.
"Are you now or have you ever been an inducted Free Mason?"