AN AUTHENTIC EXPOSITION
OF THE
Origin, Objects and Secret work of the Organization known as the
KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.
__________
(Published by the U.
S. National U. C., February 1862.)
The loyal people of the United States have long been aware
of the existence in this country and especially in the Southern States, of
various secret organizations having for their object the “Americanization” of
some of our weaker neighbors beyond the Southern limits of our domain, and the
aggrandizement of their leaders and members through the forcible acquisition of
the territory, and subversion of the Governments of the Central American States
and Mexico. Of this character was the
order of the Lone Star, under whose auspices men and means were raised for the
Lopez raids upon the Island of Cuba, in the year 1850, and 1851, and for the
subsequent forays into the Central American States under the leadership of the
"grey-eyed man of destiny," William Walker. These Hostile designs upon the territory of
our Southern neighbors having failed, the order fell into disrepute, and its
secrets were exposed and burlesqued by the “Sons of Malta.”
This order of the Lone Star, was a branch of that now known
as the K. G. C., if indeed it was not identical with it. Probably thousands of our fellows citizens,
North and South, who were once familiar with the secret work of the order of
the Lone Star, will be able to discern the old landmarks throughout the
exposition contained in these pages. We
are assured by an intelligent gentleman, once a member of this organization,
that in its early history, it had no designs hostile to our Government and
people but that its sole object was the acquisition of foreign territory by the
force of arms, the introduction of immigrants from the Southern States, who
should seize upon and possess the soil, and reduce the natives to the condition
of slaves, or expel them from the country at the point of the bayonet.
These grand schemes failed for the time, and the surviving
members of this band of land pirates soon found work at home.
Of the K. G. C., a writer in the Continental Monthly, for
January, 1862, says:
“This organization which was instituted by John C. Calhoun,
William L. Porcher, and others, as far back as 1835, had for its sole object
the dissolution of the Union, and the establishment of a Southern Empire. –
Empire is the word, not Confederacy or Republic – it was solely by means of its
secret, but powerful machinery, that the Southern States were plunged into
revolution, in defiance of the will of a majority of their voting
population. Nearly every man of
influence at the South, (and many a pretended Union man at the North,) is a
member of this organization, and sworn, under the penalty of assassination, to
labor “in season and out of season, by fair means and by foul, at all times and
on all occasions,” for the accomplishment of its object.”
Upon what evidence the above statement in regard to the
agency of Messrs. Calhoun and Porcher in the foundation of this organization is
made, we know not; but there can be no reasonable doubt that these men, and
their associates, did resort to secret and powerful means for the spread of
their views, and for the instruction of the public mind of the South in those
doctrines of disunion and treason which they originated. Through these means, and especially by the
agency of the K. G. C., “the Southern mind has been educated and the Southern
heart fired,” persistently and thoroughly, for a long series of years, until
the hopes of the arch traitors were in part realized by the inauguration of
civil war, on the 12th of April 1861, by that fatal shot for the South, the
firing of the first gun at Fort Sumter!
Since the commencement of the internal dissensions in the
United States, which culminated in the great rebellion of 1861-2, this
treasonable organization has acquired new strength, and become widely
disseminated throughout the length and breadth of our land, embracing within
its circle many thousands of disloyal men, who are secretly conspiring against
the rights and liberties of our people.
Men of all grades in society, from the lordly banker and merchant, the
eloquent statesman and the ambitious politician, down to the lowest ruffian and
assassin who infests the purlieus of our cities, are believed to be connected
with this organization; their object being the advancement of their own ends,
whatever they may be, even at the sacrifice of our government, our rights, our
liberties and even our existence as a great and powerful nation. Indeed, the cardinal object of the conspiracy
seems to be the utter destruction of the Great Republic, and the establishment upon
its ruins of a military despotism, or of an oligarchy, wherein the rich may
lord it over the poor, making the laws which shall govern the “mudsills of
society,” and dictating the terms upon which the great mass of the people of
this broad land shall be permitted to exist.
There is good reason to believe that the chief seat of the
power of the K. G. C. has recently been transferred from the Southern States to
Canada, and that it has powerful allies among the mobility, bankers and
merchants of England. Having
accomplished its great design at the South, by arousing the people to the
fighting point, it leaves them in the hands of the military despots, who rule
them with a rod of iron, joins hands with our foreign foes, and seeks by the
foulest secret means, the overthrow of our liberties. Our foreign enemies are banded together in
this infamous league, by tens of thousands, and are vigorously at work, night
and day, “at all times and all seasons, by fair means and by foul,” to
accomplish the fulfillment of their long cherished hopes, and oft repeated
predictions of the downfall of our Republican form of Government, the
dismemberment of our Union, and the utter destruction of this last and greatest
home of freedom for the oppressed nations of the world.
Men of America! Who
love your country with all its glorious memories, and all its bright prospect
of future greatness, whose fathers freely shed their blood to secure to you and
to your children the blessings of civil and religious liberty, those are facts!
And you shall be convinced of them. Your
enemies are secretly at work in your very midst, and are in conspiracy with
foreign emissaries to deprive you of the blessings which you have ever enjoyed
under your paternal Government, and for the maintenance of which you may be
compelled yet again to peril your lives and your fortunes. Are you willing that this hellish conspiracy
shall be permitted to go on undisturbed until the wicked traitors who are
engaged in it shall have accomplished their designs, until you are bound hand
and foot, and chained to the car of despotism by fetters that cannot be broken;
or will you at once awake to a realization of the impending danger, and by a
united effort strangle the monster?
For the purpose of exposing to the world the secret means by
which this treasonable order has been so far successful in the accomplishment of
its great end, the dismemberment of our Republic, this publication is
made. We have no wish, or design, to
cause unnecessary alarm, or to arouse the passions; but our leading object is
to convince the loyal people of the United States that their liberties are at
this moment in greater danger from the secret enemies in their own midst, and
the foreign enemies of our institutions who are in league with them, than from
the armed hordes who are now in rebellion against the government.
The secrets of the K. G. C. are very carefully guarded, and
we are not yet able to reveal to the world all that we could wish; but the work
of investigation is in competent and faithful hands, and we hope that we shall
be able hereafter to make known all the secret means by which this vile
conspiracy is carried on.
The following exposition of the work of the K. G. C., was
first published in the columns of the Louisville Journal, in July, 1854. Of its authenticity there can be no
doubt. Geo. D. Prentice, Esq., the
editor of the Journal, give his “solemn assurance as an editor and as a man,”
that the documents from which he derived his information are authentic. He asserts moreover, that he received them
from a prominent Knight of the third degree.
The genuineness of these documents has never yet been denied by any man
whose word can be regarded as valid testimony in the case. Corroborative evidence was furnished in a
violent newspaper quarrel, which occurred soon after the first publication was
made, in which several “Knights of the 3d Degree” in the city of Louisville,
were participants, the question in dispute being as to the authorship of the
revelations made to Mr. Prentice. After
the warfare had subsided, he informed them that they were all mistaken, and
that each one of the parties implicated was equally guiltless.
That the work, in many of its details, has been essentially
changed since the first publication of this exposition, we are well aware. But enough remains to convince the loyal
people of the United States, that the objects and plans of the K. G. C., are
inimical to the best interests of the country, and that this diabolical organization
should be exposed in all its enormity, and crushed by the strong arm of
power. Since its introduction into the
Northwestern States and Canada, the order has adopted a modus operandi
materially differing from that herein revealed, and perhaps better suited to
its new field of operations. Its most
active members are among the noisiest of the pretended friends of the Union;
and there is reason to suspect that it has its emissaries in high and
confidential positions in civil and military departments of our Government. Its real designs are cloaked under a specious
garb of patriotism, and of intense solicitude for the preservation of the Union
and for the welfare of our people. The
revelations here made should convince the most incredulous that the true
objects of the members of this order are of the basest sort; and that they are
utterly unscrupulous as to the means by which their ends are to be
attained. They are banded together by
the most solemn obligations, to obey the orders of their commanders, whatever
they may be; and it is evident that human life is held to be of but little value,
should it offer an obstacle to the accomplishment of the object sought.
[We omit the exposition published by the Journal, for want
of space. – EDS. GAZETTE.]
That the K. G. C. planned the assassination of Mr. LINCOLN,
either on his journey to the Capitol, or during the ceremonies of his inauguration,
scarcely admits of a doubt. The plot was
discovered and revealed to his friends long before his departure from his home
for the City of Washington, and was frustrated by the vigilance of his friends and
the military precaution of Gen. SCOTT.
Enough has been revealed in regard to this wicked and
treacherous organization to convince every man of sane mind that it is
dangerous in the extreme; that it seeks the overthrow of our government, the
disruption of the great American Union; the seizure, by fraud or by force, of
the territory of our southern neighbors, with whom we are at peace, and the
acquisition of an immense extent of territory in which slavery shall be made
the leading institution, from which the free white laboring man shall be excluded,
or in which he shall be reduced to the condition of a serf, and where a
Paradise may be established for the exclusive benefit of the effete and bloated
aristocracy of South Carolina, and the few despotic masters of the reckless
cut-throats and ruffians who compose the rank and file of the K. G. C.
But our task is not yet done. We propose now to give some evidence of the
existence and thorough organization of this order among our neighbors of
Canada, and among the nobility, aristocracy and moneyed classes in England.
From the first outbreak of the present rebellion the tone of
the British Press toward the Government and people of the loyal portion of the
United States, has been of the most hostile and ungracious character; and a
careful comparison of the articles which have appeared in a majority of the
leading British newspapers, with those published in the South, shows
unmistakable evidence of identity of origin.
All have been dictated in the same spirit, and probably to a great
extent by the same parties. In the discussions
arising out of the arrest of Slidell and Mason, the similarity of tone and
temper was too palpable to be overlooked.
The British Press teemed with unfounded slanders upon our Government and
people. The public mind of England was
inflamed by the publication of the most deliberate falsehoods, wholesale
vituperation, and the fullest calumnies, such as could originate nowhere else
than in the distempered brains of men who viewed everything from the Secession
standpoint, and who were determined to accomplish, so far as was in their
paper, the disruption of the Union by means of a foreign war, and the
establishment of two separate confederacies within its limits. That a large and powerful interest in England
was determined on war with the United States, was perfectly plain. Whence came these indisputable manifestations
of hostility towards the United States, in consequence of an affair which every
sensible man in England knew could and would be amicably arranged, and adjusted
without a resort to arms? Whence came
the palpable and wicked falsehoods which were used to inflame the public mind
against the only true friends that England ever had upon the face of the
globe? Whence came all the insult and
vituperation against us, which disgraced the British Press and the British
people in the eyes of the civilized world – whence but from the K. G. C. and
its allies abroad?
The following letter is from the pen of a gentleman who has
had ample opportunity to make himself acquainted with the facts whereof he
writes, and who had devoted much time to the investigation of the secret and
treacherous designs which he reveals.
His language shows him to be an intelligent man. The statement which he makes is corroborated
by proof which is within the reach of every man who is conversant with the tone
of the British and Southern Press, and who closely watches events as they
transpire. This statement should be
accepted as positive of the truth of the revelations made, unless disproved by
evidence of the most convincing character.
Neither the word nor the oath of any member or number of members of the
K. G. C. will suffice to refute this evidence of the treasonable character of
the conspiracy in which they are engaged:
DEAR SIR. Your note
has been received asking for such information as I may have of the objects and
working of the secret conclave of traitors in the Northern States, known as the
“Knights of the Golden Circle” (K. G. C.) I have devoted considerable time and
attention to this organization, and my opportunities have been very rare for
gaining information. And here let me say
it is the sworn duty of every K. G. C. who is true to his obligation, to deny
the existence of the organization, not generally by positive denials, but by
heaping ridicule on the idea of such an organization, which implies that all
Northern men are not loyal. There is,
however, ample and positive proof that the Order of K. G. C. is thoroughly
organized in every Northern State, as auxiliary to the Southern rebellion. It assumes various shapes and colors, yet all
working under the same system of operations, and all aiming at the same end. –
The designation of the “K. G. C.” having become unpopular on account of the
known treasonable designs of that Order, is protean in its character, and sails
under different cognomens to best effect its purpose – sometimes being the “Peace
Party,” the “Union Party,” the “Constitutional Party,” the “Democratic Society,”
“Club” or “Association,” the “Mutual Protection;” and, since the “Indiana leak,” as they call it, about the “M. P.’s,”
they have chosen “S. P.” or “Self Protection,” as a name. And since you ask for facts only, I may say
it is properly a secret political
treason party, as its members initiated
are all most strictly limited to the known members of one political party.
THE IMMEDIATE OBJECT, is the overthrow of the Government
established by our patriot sires, baptized in their life-blood, and handed down
to us, to be forever defended and protected, as the best form of government
ever given to man. THE ULTIMATE OBJECT, the spoils of Office and the control of the
Government, by the party which sustains the efforts of these “knights” of
treason. The great majority of the most
active leaders are those who have
heretofore emoluments of place in the Government, and which to be restored to
power. For this purpose they are willing
to tear down the old fabric and erect a new one upon its ruins. They have some definite plans of operation,
and forming a strong network of treason around the Union, well calculated to
draw in many true men, to be used by them unawares in carrying out their
plots. I will refer briefly to a few of
the means they use:
1. THEY WISH TO
PROLONG THE WAR hoping that something may turn up to get their Southern rebel
friends out of their position, without being made to acknowledge the supremacy
of the Constitution and the Union. They
hope and work for a foreign war, to make that a pretext for stopping the
domestic strife, and uniting against a common foe. They are for prolonging the war also, for the
purpose of tiring the patience of the country, while they can make a public
sentiment ready to “compromise” with armed rebellion – to do anything honorable
or dishonorable to stop the war. To do
this they appeal to the pockets of the people with exaggerated pictures of
enormous taxes, and virtually say,
that because it costs money to
maintain the Union, we ought to surrender at discretion to the demand of those
who have taken up arms in rebellion against it.
2. THEY WORK BY
TREACHERY. – Having first opposed the Government in asserting any authority to
enforce the laws and maintain the Union and the Constitution, and done what
they could to encourage the outbreak by tendering Northern sympathy and support
in advance, they are now seeking to assist their friends in the Southern army,
by getting themselves into positions to betray the Union cause for their
benefit. In the month of August last,
immediately after the disaster of Bull Run, they marked out a new programme,
and sent messengers through all the loyal States to give their friends – the K.
G. C., the CUE for putting their new plan into extensive operation. The treachery of their men at the head of a column
of the Federal army, who turned the tide of battle against us at Bull Run,
worked so well, that they determined at once, during the reorganization of our
army, to fill it with their own men for similar future operations. “Castles” were forthwith organized in all the
States. Those who had been vomiting
treason among their loyal neighbors, to the full extent that public sentiment
would tolerate, now very suddenly and mysteriously
became seemingly loyal and patriotic, and are anxious for places to draw their
swords in defense of the Union, and measure them with its rebellious foes. They wanted to be decorated with
epaulets. They would serve as captains
and from that up to Colonels of Regiments, Brigadier and Major Generals. They wound a network of influence around Congress
and the “powers that be,” to maintain men in the Departments, and to get others
in, especially in the War Department – who were shining lights in the “Castles”
of the K. G. C., for the avowed and express
purpose of aiding the enemy by treacherously watching, and conveying the
secrets of the Government to the rebel army. – Men were selected in the States,
and sent hundreds of miles to Washington, with strong influences to back them,
for this purpose. Better to carry out
their project, they adroitly raised the “No Party” cry, and by professing the
most exalted and devoted loyalty, claimed the best places in which to betray
the Union cause, for those who were trusted “Knights” – thus secretly plotting
reason against the very cause that was to feed and clothe them! Among the K. G. C. of the Third Degree they
freely calculate their prospects of success from the “treachery” of Federal
officers, and especially of officers in the Union army, who, if occasion
presents, are to disobey orders, and screen themselves behind flimsy excuses
for allowing the enemy to escape, when by acting in good faith, they might be
defeated. They point to the singular escape
of Floyd and his crew in Western Virginia, after Rosecrans had so decoyed them
into a position, that he was certain to bag the whole command, if orders had
been executed by his subordinates. At
the time of the Ball’s Bluff disaster they also gave knowing winks to indicate
that it was the fulfillment of a chapter in their programme to disgust and
dishearten the loyal North, discourage any advance movements, and encourage the
rebel army with the report of victory.
They claim a large number of officers of Companies, Regiments, and Brigades,
and Divisions, secretly to be in their interests, and even have the audacity to
whisper that Gen. McClellan understands their programme, and is not unfriendly
to working up to it. They claim, also, a goodly number of friends and brethren
in the officers of the Navy. They
deprecate the appointment of Stanton to the administration of the War
Department, and regret that he is not one of their mystical number. They fear that all the influences they can
throw around him will not induce him to bend his policy to favor their
projects; they are ever on the alert, and will make a concerted effort, by
pretended confidence and flattery, to weave an influence around him that will
partially capture him, and control his policy
They acknowledge their faint hopes, however, of being able either to
induce him to become a “Knight,” or to lure him into their plausible scheme for
the future control of the spoils of Government.
3. PEACE CONVENTION
AND NEW CONSTITUTION. – Another mode of arriving at their object, is a National
Peace or Compromise Convention, is to be held when all thing are prepared. The schedule is to call a convention of all
the States, North and South, to arrive at an understanding, and compromise the
difficulty upon a basis already fixed.
The basis is the Jeff. Davis Constitution of the Southern Confederacy –
conceding and adopting some of its features, and yielding some of the important
ones in our present instrument, as a “compromise.” The main features of the compromise will be a
constitutional recognition, guaranty, and protection of Slavery in the States
and Territories, without distinction. In
the meantime, the country being tired and sick of war and taxes, they expect to
manufacture a public opinion that will adopt their scheme. To give popular strength to this “convention,”
there is to be a most earnest and persistent effort to carry every local and
State election this year against the administration, or War and Union party –
so that it will appear that the country has changed, and is against the further
prosecution of the war for the supremacy of the old Union and the old Constitution
as it is; and that the party calling
the “National Peace Convention” are the majority or dominant party, and
represent the public will. Further to facilitate party success at the polls,
and cover up or draw attention from their own treasonable plotting against the
Government, they are to join in a united and harmonious howl of “ABOLITIONIST”
against all loyal men who sustain the Administration and the war to crush the
rebellion; for the purpose of trying to identify and stigmatize them with the
sins, and the long odious (in the North) doctrines and sentiments promulgated
by a band of fanatical disunionists headed by Garrison and Wendell Phillips –
claiming that all whom they chose to call “Abolitionists,” including the whole
party that elected the administration, and all who sustain it in the
prosecution of the war, are equally “traitors” with those who are in arms
against the Union; and if the life of a Southern man, caught in the overt act, is sacrificed, the life of an
“Abolitionist” should balance the account.
While none but Southern men are in arms to overthrow the Government, the
responsibility of the war is to be persistently charged upon the loyal North,
which should be the first to offer terms of “peace” and “compromise.” By throwing every obstacle in the way of the
Government, added to secret treason, they hope to give plausibility, among the
weak-minded, that whenever the control of the nation passes from their hands
the country will get into trouble, and that the only party capable of governing
the country is the one they lead – that peace and prosperity cannot return
until they are restored to
power. “Look at the country in a civil
war in less than three months after the change of rulers,” they say, with
exulting triumph. No means are to be
left untried to “divide and conquer” the war party at the polls. They have a systematic plan to discredit the
Government in the eyes of the people.
They cry aloud about frauds, while they are busily employed seeking
contracts for the very purpose of defrauding the Government, to give coloring
to their charges! If they cannot get
original contracts, they seek sub-contracts from the friends of the Union, that
the odium of their own dishonesty may fall on the shoulders of the War
party. They boast of having already used
these tactics to great effect. Doubting
the ability of the Government to pay its liabilities, with a view of
depreciating the public Securities and Treasury notes, the withdrawal of public
confidence, and cutting off the supplies to carry on the war, is another
favorite scheme. It is seriously
discussed in the “castle” meetings, whether they will not utterly refuse to pay the war tax, which they
think will not only embarrass the Government, but create a great public
excitement that may demand the discontinuance of further resistance to the
rebellion.
The demand for the exchange of prisoners, upon the terms
dictated by Jeff. Davis, was an effort for the recognition of the “Confederacy,”
and to save the necks of the ringleaders of the treason when they are
eventually caught (as they expect to be,) by claiming to be “prisoners of war” –
“belligerents” – instead of traitors to their Government. And when the war is over – whether the Union
is re-established on its old basis, or upon the projected Jeff. Davis
Compromise-Constitution – the K. G. C. party are to assume all the credit of
ending the conflict through their influence, and of having been the special
friends of the rebels during their rebellion, and thereby claim their political
affinities and support in a consolidated party for the future control of the
nation. They will divide and distract
the Union party by a hypocritical support and flattery of the President and his
policy, to create distrust in the minds of the real friends of the
Administration that it is not true to, and is about to abandon the party and
the principles upon which it was raised to power. In short, the schemes of the K. G. C. to
overthrow the government, embrace the whole catalogue of strategy known to
corrupt politicians.
4. FOREIGN INFLUENCE. – The K. G. C. are known to each other
by secret signs and words. They seldom
trust any documents to the mails, but keep messengers constantly in the field,
carrying information from one “Castle” (or “Club,” “Lodge,” Society,” &c.,)
to another. (The term “Castle” is the
proper designation of the place where “Knights” congregate to concoct treason.) There is the most perfect and uninterrupted
communication between the South and England through this order. Their principle avenue is through the
Canadas, where they have numerous “Castles” and co-workers, as well as in
Europe. There are numerous Southerners
located in Canada, as connecting links in the agency, and several of the
employees of the Provincial railroads connecting with the States are the active
agents and “messengers” of the secret treason against the Government. At both ends of the Grand Trunk, the Great
Western, the Buffalo & Lake Huron roads, these agents are busy, but mostly
so on the Grand Trunk and the connecting lines into Vermont. Several of the representatives of large
British capitalists residing in Canada are known to be most active operators
and sympathizers. The Donneganna and St.
Lawrence hotels at Montreal are the resorts of Southern rebels, where they are
met and treated with great kindness and cordiality; also, at Quebec, Toronto,
Hamilton, &c. The K. G. C. claim to
own, or have a controlling interest in nearly every leading newspaper in the
Canadas. In Canada, as in England, this organization,
and sympathy with the rebellion, is confined to the feudal, aristocratic, and
what they claim to be the ruling
classes, viz: these “born to rule by royal prerogative.” They dread the influence of Republican
America; they consider her a rival power, dangerous to the extension of their
own lease of monarchial rule, and are ready to seize upon the first favorable
opportunity to assist in her overthrow – and thus demonstrate to their own
subjects, already restless, if not
clamorous, for many “reforms” approximating to our young Government, that the “model
Republic” is a failure; that Democracy cannot constitute a permanent
government; that nothing short of monarchical, or strong central government,
can withstand the shock of ages. The
overthrow, or division and disruption of our government, would be pointed to as
a fulfillment of the long-heralded prophecies of monarchists. The active and adroit diplomacy of the rebel
States, through their ablest men, knew well where to secure a strong foothold
in Europe, and they struck with success.
They sought the association of aristocracy and capital, as the strong
point to be gained, and hence to a large extent, have secured the tone of the
aristocratic press without striking the responsive chord in the hearts of the
great mass of the European people – the working and tax-paying classes, whose
representatives are “reformers” – those who turn a listening ear to the musical
strains of liberty and equality which float to them from across the Atlantic,
and cause the inquiry why they cannot enjoy the same blessing without risking a
perilous voyage from their native land to the New World, where all are “sovereigns,”
and the rulers only the subjects and servants.
The K. G. C. never seem to lack money to send messengers on long journeys,
and keep them constantly in the field, or do anything else they deem
important. This gives color to their
claim that the European associated aristocracy are secretly furnishing large
sums of money to second the base objects of the Southern rebellion. I have no doubt of it.
5. THE LAST RESORT — CIVIL
WAR — ASSASSINATION! — But the most damnable and atrocious part of this dark
plot is yet to be told, and if it does not arouse the languid patriotic blood
now resting in security to stand united against the working of this foul
treason, then, indeed, our liberties are in danger. The K. G. C, through this
secret organization, have the blood-thirsty scheme of assassinating Northern
Union men, and creating anarchy and civil war in the North, as a means of ending
resistance to the rebellion! Believing
that other means will fail, they are already privately armed and arming for the
conflict.
I have before stated as a part of the programme, that all
Northern Union men who voted for Lincoln, or sustain the Government in a vigorous prosecution of the war to
crush out the rebellion, are to be branded “ABOLITIONISTS,” ergo “traitors,” equally guilty with
Jeff. Davis and his crew, because
Garrison and Wendell Phillips and other fanatical Abolitionists, have been
notorious and ignominious as disunionists. “Let the Northern Abolition traitors and
Southern Rebel leaders be hung up together, if at all,” is now the watchword. –
“Let them perish in equal numbers, as the authors
of the war.” – “The Abolitionists of the North must first be put down before the War can come to an
end.” The danger of a Northern uprising
against the Government, if the war is not speedily
brought to a close.”
“We are fighting our own brethren.” “We are willing to compromise, but the Abolitionist will not.” “The people will rise and fight before they
will pay taxes to keep our soldiers killing our brothers in the South.” “The Abolitionists are worse traitors, and
more to blame than the South.” – “The Abolitionists must be cleaned out, and
then we can have peace.” “The people
must rise and hang the Abolitionists at the same time the army put down the
rebellion South.”
“Blood must flow in the North, as well as the South, before
we get rid of the worst traitors to the Union.”
“Abolitionists must be put in Fort Warren as well as Southern men, if
you want peace.” These and numerous
other similar dark and blood-foreboding expressions that may be heard in
talking with high “Knights,” only go to fully corroborate the written evidence
now before me, of a blood-thirsty plot to assassinate Union men to “secure the
success of the South.” I have seen and
read the special dispatches of high “Knights,” sent from one castle to the high
officials of another in which the whole programme of operations and the means
to be used were elaborately laid down and commented upon, in which it is always
distinctly stated that the only way to success in the North, is to secure the success of the South by a concerted
action throughout the North, that the country must be tired and worried out
with taxes and the horrors of a war, until a pretense is given to warrant a
Northern civil war, and an uprising against the “Abolitionists,” as the cause
of the beginning and continuance of the conflict. Then the private arms are to be used. Each K. G. C. is pledged to arm himself with
a long knife and a revolving pistol.
They are also provided with a small dark pocket or police lamps. One dispatch to a high functionary, stated
that if secrecy and success attended the project – and he had no doubt on that
score – it would prove a second Sicilian Vesper, which has referenced also to
some of the test words of recognition. “Are
you going to Vespers?” – “Are you ready for Vespers?” is the sly way of asking
each other if they are “armed” and “ready;” and also of asking a stranger if he
is a K. G. C. – or if in a mixed crowd, any conversation in which the word “Vespers”
is used indicates membership which leads to further tests.
I have heard the more desperate openly state that if this
war is not closed in less than four months, “Abolition” blood would flow in
every Northern city. I am not permitted
to go more into detail at this time. I
have given you but a faint outline of the plot, and the means to be used to overthrow
the old Ship of State. When it
culminates into the assassination of Union men in the peaceful, loyal North, by
a band of secretly organized traitors – when the bell shall toll for another
Sicilian Vespers – when traitors shall shout their songs of rebellion as the
signal for the Grand Carnival of Treason to commence, with one side secretly
armed for the conflict – then the country will inquire with amazement, whether
the events of March 30, 1282 are yet to have their counterpart here, in the
year 1862, for no other crime than being loyal to the Government, and wishing
to put down the most wicked and causeless rebellion that ever existed! Then, perhaps, the Government will be aroused
to the importance of not harboring vipers in its bosom to sting its very
life-blood – then the loyal people will rise in their might and protect their own
liberties, and woe to be unto those who have their lot cast with the K. G. C.,
or have followed their leadership.
These are startling developments, and will be vigorously
hooted down by every K. G. C. who is true to his obligations. Let it be so for the present. There are some
among them who have yet an inkling of patriotism left, and cannot, and will not
be bound to this wicked conspiracy. It
is to this source that you are indebted for the facts above stated – facts,
which I will say to you, may be most implicitly relied upon, and the time will
arrive when what I have stated will be verified, and much of the same character
added to it. At some future time,
developments will be made that will satisfy you that I am no alarmist, and men high in the confidence
of the people will be so connected with this secret treason, that the country
will despise their memory. In the mean
time, let every loyal man, wherever he is, be watchful and vigilant for the
signs that I have indicated, to the identify and mark the sure enemies of the
Union, and in most cases the sure trade-marks of the K. G. C. Their emissaries are busy and on the
move. The organization is extensive,
penetrating the back woods and the plains.
In many cases, in remote places, one, two, or three trusted members, are
all who are entrusted with the secrets, but they
are busy in making and controlling opinion – in educating their partisans up to the proper point. The New York “Caucasian” newspaper, sustained
by a private fund of the order, is a special
organ of the “Castles.” The principal
headquarters in the North, are Philadelphia, New York City, and
Cincinnati. They have a large number of
small newspaper editors in their secrets, some of which have to be checked
occasionally for too plain talk. * *
I have extended this communication to a far greater length than
I had intended, but I could not well make it shorter and do the subject justice. I submit it for your consideration, believing
that you will discover many things in your State and vicinity to corroborate
what I have said. The Work of the K. G.
C., as used here, is revised and changed from that used six months ago in the
Southern States. – In the first degree but little of its real character is
divulged. It is simply represented as a “Society
to oppose Abolitionists.” Little by
little the candidate is let into the vortex of treason. I
earnestly warn all good men against taking the first step.
Yours very truly, for the whole Union.
***.
__________
Fellow Citizens – Loyal Union-loving men of the United
States! What think you of these things?
We have proved, upon testimony which you cannot reasonably doubt, the presence
in your very midst, of a deadly
conspiracy, which threatens your liberties, your rights as citizens, and
even the existence of that Union which you so highly prize. And yet the half has not been told. There are other secrets of the K. G. C. yet
to be revealed. Those secrets are in the
possession of those whose duty it is, and who have the power to punish the
traitors who compose the organization; and if they do not perform that duty, we
intend to make further disclosures. For
the present we must forbear.
That foul disease which traitors, thirty years ago, fastened
upon the body politic, has grown to the proportions of a cancer of the most
dangerous character. It must be eradicated, or you will yet
have occasion to mourn over the wreck of all your long cherish[ed] hopes of
your country’s greatness and glory.
Traitors at home, leagued with enemies abroad, even now present the
knife at the heart of your bleeding country. – Corruption, rank and poisonous,
faithlessness and treachery in high places, disregard of the most sacred
obligations of man to his fellow man and his God have born their legitimate fruits. Treason stalks unblushingly through the
land. Artful intriguing politicians and
unprincipled demagogues have brought your noble government to the verge of
destruction.
Your patriotic, fathers through much of personal suffering,
and untold sacrifices of blood and treasure, laid broad and deep, cemented in
blood and baptized in tears, the foundations of this glorious fabric of free
government, fondly cherishing the hope that it would stand to remotest ages, an
asylum for the oppressed of all nations, a beacon to the weary victims of
tyranny, and terror to the despotism of the Old World. This priceless legacy must be preserved. We cannot
believe that you will prove recreant to your country, to posterity and to
God. We believe that the blood and
treasure so freely expended in the suppression of the atrocious rebellion now
rapidly reeling to its final doom, will bear yet more fruit – that you are
ready yet again, if need be, to offer your lives and all that you possess, for
the preservation of your Government, and for its establishment upon a basis so
solid that it shall stand as a monument of human wisdom, and as the great bulwark
of Christianity, Civilization and true Liberty, until time shall be no more!
– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862, p. 2
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