There were three different types of membership within the Golden Circle: military, financial, and governing. Both investigative teams came to the same startling conclusion Lincoln would almost certainly be murdered if he attempted to travel through Baltimore. This would extend pro-slavery interests. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) : The Confederate States of America, the Confederacy's defeat in the Second Great War, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. The Texas KGC supported President of the United States James Buchanan's policy of, and draft treaty for, protecting routes for U.S commerce across Mexico, which also failed to be approved by the U.S. Lincoln rerouted his troops, but they were delayed in reaching D.C., leaving that city open to attack. The K.G.C., which boasted some 3,000 members in Baltimore alone, was known to collect dues and initiation fees in the form of gold coinage. Ollinger Crenshaw, The Knights of the Golden Circle: The Career of George Bickley, American Historical Review 47 (October . All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. The Knights of the Golden Circle (K. G. C.) was a secret society founded by George W. L. Bickley on July 4, 1854. The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret military organization created in 1859 by George W. L. Bickley in Cincinnati, Ohio. In most areas only a minority of its membership was radical enough to discourage enlistments, resist the draft, and shield deserters. Bickley never did organize a successful raid and oftentimes, while he was off raising funds for the group, the Knights dissolved into anarchy. However, new evidence has recently surfaced which points directly to a secret Confederate society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle (K.G.C.) Hudson, Linda S. "The Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas, 18581861: An Analysis of the First (Military) Degree Knights", p. 53, in Howell, Kenneth W., ed. Warren Getler and Bob Brewer, Rebel Gold: One Mans Quest to Crack the Code Behind the Secret Treasure of the Confederacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004). Legends, Ghosts, Myths and Mysteries Main Page, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas Declaring Independence, Stanley, Ks Extinct but Still Here (LOK), Black Bob Reservation in Johnson County (LOK). In early 1862, Radical Republicans in the Senate, aided by Secretary of State William H. Seward, suggested that former president Franklin Pierce, who was greatly critical of the Lincoln administration's war policies, was an active member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. It was one of the 3 lodges that would become the Grand Lodge of Nebraska. Though the theory is murky and evidence is thin, there is also speculation that the Ku Klux Klan was borne out of the Knights of the Golden Circle. Library of Congress via Getty Images. The proposed territory of the Golden Circle included the Confederate States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern parts of South America. For this reason, it is best to acquire information on as many as possible, research them in advance, and pick the most likely ones out before going out into the field. Victory by the Union in the Civil War destroyed the cause for which the K.G.C. Although nominally a secret society, the existence of the Knights of the Golden Circle was not, in fact, a secret. Do Knights of the Golden Circle still exist? Booth, who had lived just four blocks from the treasure site, was already long dead. One historian even asserted that the KGC spawned the original KKK.. ), a secretive organization created in 1854, proposed to establish a slaveholding empire encompassing the southern United States, the West Indies, Mexico, and parts of Central America. Cassandra Morris Small letters, York County (PA) Heritage Trust files. Its stated aim was to sponsor and conduct military expeditions into the Caribbean region (the Golden Circle) for the purpose of bringing new slave territories into the Union. While we dont have too much detail on the Knights and their history is mired in rumor, we do know their ultimate goal: to create an empire that would stretch from the Caribbean to the Pacific built on tobacco, cotton, sugar, and the blood and sweat of slaves. Bickley of Ohio, a charlatan jack-of-all-trades with . Baltimores native son, George Herman Babe Ruth revolutionizes the game of baseball by launching 60 home runs in a season. Their early purposes included expanding southern imperial interests into the "golden circle" of Mexico, Central America . An Authentic Exposition of the "K.G.C.", "Knights of the Golden Circle": Or, A History of Secession from 1834 to 1861. decided to send undercover New York City detectives to Baltimore to root out the conspiracy. His case galvanized abolitionists in the North. Years after the war, when the hotel would be torn down to make way for a much larger hotel, a box containing 2,000 gold coins would be discovered hidden on the premises. Phillips and another party arrived on Saturday.. During the American Civil War, some Southern sympathizers in the Union or Northern states, such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, were accused of belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and in some cases, such as that of Lambdin P. Milligan, they were imprisoned for their activities. The team is. . Seal of the President of the Knights of the Golden Circle. By 1873 Kane had left the Jones Falls Commission to run successfully for Sheriff of Baltimore. In either case, the goal was to increase the power of the Southern slave-holding upper class to such a degree that it could never be dislodged.[3]. In response to the increased anti-slavery agitation that followed the Dred Scott decision (1857) the Knights changed their position: the Southern United States should secede, forming their own confederation, and then invade and annex the area of the Golden Circle to vastly expand the power of the South. For their assistance, Maximilian rewarded the Knights of the Golden Circle $12.5 million in gold, and Jesse James $5 million. The Knights of the Golden Circle was reorganized in Lexington, Kentucky, on July 4, 1854, by five men, whose names have been lost to history, when Virginia-born Gen. George W. L. Bickley (1819 . Why did Lincoln jail opponents of the war? Kane was suspected of being the mastermind behind an aborted plot to free two thousand rebel prisoners from a Union military prison on Lake Eerie. This countrys situation in 1861 grew extremely volatile as the newly elected Abolitionist President prepared to take office. Like many other secretive societies, the K.G.C. In late 1863, the Knights of the Golden Circle were reorganized ( sans Bickley) as the Order of American Knights and again, early in 1864, as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with Clement Vallandigham, the most prominent of the Copperheads, as its supreme commander, dissolved in 1864 after being exposed and members arrested and tried for treason. KGC Meeting. Knights of the Golden Circle, a semi-military secret society that was active in the Midwestern states during the American Civil War. http://knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com/ Reactions:Wallyfish, damYankee, Deleted User CSand 18 others donna . Some sources even connect Abraham Lincolns assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and the infamous folk outlaw Jesse James, to the secret society. The overarching goal of Bickleys secret organization was simple, if not a little grandiose: to create a slavery-fueled empire known as the Golden Circle.. The senior Webb had passed away, leaving sons Charles, Jr. and James in charge. [9], In 1859, future Confederate States Army brigadier general Elkanah Greer established KGC castles in East Texas and Louisiana. Secret society in the mid-19th-century US, Plans to seize Lincoln and inaugurate Breckinridge as president. The group is said to have included men such as Albert Pike, John Wilkes Booth (assassin of President Abraham Lincoln . The latter was a leadership posting while the former were positions meant for the common member. What is the difference between endocervical and cervical? Corrections? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). However, it chose a pro-war presidential candidate, General George B. McClellan. The Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic. The Order of the Golden Circle is the womens auxiliary of the United Supreme Council, 33, Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Prince Hall Affiliation, Southern Jurisdiction, USA, Inc. Golden Circle is an alternative perspective to existing assumptions about why some leaders and organizations have achieved such a disproportionate degree of influence. accessed March 04, 2023, Is the Knights of the Golden Circle real? Saulsbury, only 46, died suddenly at his Eden Street home with his wife knowing nothing of the 5,000 gold coins buried in their basement. Jesse James was now a wealthy man, with enough power and influence to fake his own death-and, with the law hot on his trail, this was undoubtedly a wise move. We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. He was born and raised in Philadelphia and has worked as a teacher, newspaper reporter, newspaper editor, pizza shop proprietor, and technical writer. They are armed with an axe and a corn knife, but it is sufficient to uncover one of the greatest found treasures in American history. In 1854 a small group of pro-slavery sympathizers formed the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society whose goal it was to create a vast new empire for slaveryone that traced a "golden circle" from the deep South through Mexico, Central America, parts of South America, and the Caribbean. Keehn, David (2013). Knights of the Golden Circle impresses though its comprehensiveness. [5] Some Knights of the Golden Circle active in northern states, such as Illinois, were accused of anti-Union activities after the Civil War began in 1861. The banking panic of 1907 comes and goes. Knights of the Golden Circle, a semi-military secret society that was active in the Midwestern states during the American Civil War. By 1858 the Knights of the Golden Circle had bylaws, rituals, and a constitution. Records of the KGC convention held in 1860 state that the organization "originated at Lexington, Kentucky, on the fourth day of July 1854, by five gentlemen who came together on a call made by Gen. George Bickley". That C.E.O. while KGC members were still Cabinet officers and Senators". For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. He sued, unsuccessfully, for the freedom of himself and his family as they were living in the free state of Illinois. The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society founded in 1854, the objective of which was to create a new country, known as the Golden Circle (Spanish: Crculo Dorado), where slavery would be legal. Originally, the KGC advocated that the new territories should be annexed by the United States, in order to vastly increase the number of slave states and thus the power of the slave-holding Southern upper classes. Image Credit: "The origins of the Knights of the Golden Circle can be traced to Cincinnati con man George Bickley." Many of them were not willing to give it up, however, and dreamt of expanding the use of slaves such that it could never be extricated from them. About the Author: Jack Myers is the author of several books, including Row House Days, Row House Blues, and The Delco Files as well as his book Knights Gold. [4] Membership increased slowly until 1859 and reached its height in 1860. activity circulated for a few more years, but there is no dependable evidence that the organization survived the war in any meaningful way. The country would have been centered in Havana and would have consisted of the Southern United States and a "golden circle" of territories in Mexico (which was to be divided into 25 new slave states), Central America, northern parts of South America, and Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and most other islands in the Caribbean, about 2,400 miles (3,900km) in diameter.[1][2]. Time went on, the fortune in coins being forgotten. [10] In the spring of 1860, Elkanah Greer had become general and grand commander of 4,000 Military Knights in the KGC's Texas division of 21 castles. Its capital would be in Havana, Cuba and its influence would extend over southern North America into Mexico territory, Central America, much of the Caribbean, and parts of northern South America. An Authentic Exposition of the K.G.C. Knights of the Golden Circle, or, A History of Secession from 1834 to 1861, by A Member of the Order (Indianapolis, Indiana: C. O. Perrine, Publisher, 1861). Updates? [13] As volunteers continued to join McCulloch the following day, United States Army Brevet Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs surrendered the arsenal peacefully to the secessionists. members also sought to add new slaveholding territories through the peculiar 19th-century institution known as filibustering. When Texas was annexed from Mexico by slave-owning Americans and added to the Union as a newly minted slave state, other Southerners saw an entrepreneurial opportunity of immeasurable proportions. The Golden Circle advocates businesses starting with why they are in existence and then developing a product to suit - as opposed to the reverse. Armstrong would soon leave the running of the soap and candle enterprise to his trusted young executives Charles Webb, Jr., James Webb, Andrew Saulsbury, and nephew Thomas Armstrong. The board of directors of that insurance company included old man Armstrong himself, Charles Webb, Jr., James Webb, and retired ship captain John J. Mattison. Perrine, 1861 . Despite the hundreds of Knights of the Golden circle who had swarmed near the Mexican border, the invasion never happened. What are the 3 components of the Golden Circle in order? The Knights of the Golden Circle Treasure. James Armstrong had expanded his business in the 1840s by merging with the rival candle and soap firm known as Charles Webb and Sons. In 1859-60 he backed the like-minded George Brown for Mayor, and the fiery slave-owning, Lincoln hating George P. Kane for the position of police marshal. K.G.C. Bickley, who served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army before being arrested as a spy in Indiana in July 1863 and held until October 1865, died in August 1867. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. What is the ISBN number for Knights of the Golden Circle? Armstrong, Saulsbury, and the Webbs just werent fellow employees, they were blood brothers in unison for a cause, the Confederate States of America. Unfortunately, this bit of history as is true with most of the Knights history may remain just legend. The Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. In August 1861 The New York Times described the order as a successor to the Order of the Lone Star, which had been organized for the purpose of conquering Cuba and Nicaragua, succeeding in the latter cause in 1856 under William Walker before being driven out by a coalition of neighboring states. Some supported slavery and others were worried about the power of the federal government. They were all staunch supporters of slavery, and they could see that slavery was under attack. This enormous empire would have a diameter of 2,400 miles. . The Knights of the Golden Circle was a pro-slavery secret society founded in the decade before the American Civil War.
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