The declining Anti-Masonic party had held a…
December 1838 CE
The declining Anti-Masonic party had held a conference in September 1837 to discuss its situation; former President John Quincy Adams had been among the delegates.
Led in the Philadelphia state legislature by the fiercely abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) and supported by a few Whigs, the party tries to organize the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, without allowing in the Democratic members from Philadelphia.
An angry mob from Philadelphia marches to Harrisburg and threatens violence.
The Pennsylvania governor, after having being told that he cannot use federal troops, calls out the militia and orders them to load their guns with buckshot for riot control.
The Democrats are admitted in to the house, and order is restored.
The incident will comes to be called the Buckshot War.