Some of the drug's effects in the body include: 1  Reducing anxiety. 2  Causing sleepiness. 3  Relaxing muscles. 4  Stopping seizures. 5  Impairing short-term memory.
As a result, they began to take in non-masons as patrons. This led, in the 17th century, to large numbers of. speculativeor non-working-masons entering the masonic âlodges.â By the end of that century, Masonic lodges. were almost wholly speculative, made up of Masons who never touched chisel to stone. Freemasons kept the old traditions.
William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed of New York and Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania were among the Anti-Masons who migrated to the Whig Party. Another group was the Democratic Conservatives, who opposed their party's financial policies after 1836.