I am beginning a series extrapolating notes on third party candidates throughout history for a larger piece I am putting together. I felt these notes would make interesting blog articles as well: <P> William Wirt (1772-1834) was a poet and a lawyer who served for 12 years (1817-1829) as the US Attorney General, under presidents Monroe and John Quincy Adamd. He was the prosecutor in the 1807 conspiracy trial of Aaron Burr in 1807, and argued over 170 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.</P><P> But perhaps Wirt's most compelling contribution to history came in 1832, when the Anti-Masonic Party, which formed in 1831 after the mysterious disappearance of William Morgan, a Freemason who was publishing an expose on the secret rites of the masons, nominated William Wirt and Amos Ellmacker for the presidential and vice presidential candidates for the presidency. The Anti-Masonic Party thus became the first national "third party", and Wirt and Ellmacker's candidacy drew 7.78% of the popular vote, 7 electoral votes, and pulled support away from Henry Clay, giving Andrew Jackson the presidency by a wide margin. By the 1836 election, the AntiMasonic Party began to dissolve, and eventually its adherents were incorporated into the new Whig Party, and Wirt was relegated to the role of historical footnote.</P><P> Respectfully submitted,</P><P> Gideon MacLeish </P>