The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society founded in 1854 by American George W. L. Bickley. Its objective was initially to expand the United States into Latin America, adding slave states and ensuring the permanent continuance of slavery. This later became a plan for the southern states to secede and then add Latin American territory. The "golden circle" referred to a circle of 16 degrees radius (about 2400 miles) centered on Havana, and covering territories whose climate was suitable for large-scale plantation agriculture. It would have consisted of the Southern United States, Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Caribbean South America and most other islands in the Caribbean,Campbell, Rudolph B. Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas. Archived from the original. Retrieved January 11, 2021. resulting, according to Bickley, in 25 new slave states.McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. pp.80-81. New York: McGraw Hill.
The KGC's proposal grew out of previously unsuccessful proposals to annex Cuba (the Ostend Manifesto), parts of Central America (the Filibuster War), and all of Mexico (the All of Mexico Movement). In Cuba, the issue was complicated by the desire of many in the colony for independence from Spain. Mexico and Central America had no interest in being part of the United States. Initially, the KGC advocated that the United States should annex the new territories to increase the number of slavery states vastly, and thus the power of slaveholders.
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 other areas of the Golden Circle. The proposed new country's northern border would roughly coincide with the Mason–Dixon line, and within it were included such cities as Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Mexico City, and Panama City. In either case, the goal was to increase slavers' political and economic power irreversibly.Woodward, Colin. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. New York: Penguin, 2017, p. 207.
During the American Civil War, some Southern sympathizers in Old Northwest states such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Iowa, proposed the creation of a "Northwest Confederacy" which would make peace with the South and recreate the Union without the New England states. The KGC formed new chapters in the Midwest to encourage this.McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. pp.296. New York: McGraw Hill.
The KGC was later renamed first the Order of American Knights, and then, in a deliberate reference to the Sons of Liberty of the American Revolution, the Order of the Sons of Liberty.
The KGC has been called a "model" for the Ku Klux Klan. Although nominally secret societies, the actual existence of the Knights of the Golden Circle and the Order of the Sons of Liberty were never considered a secret.
Background European colonialism and dependence on slavery had declined more rapidly in some countries than in others. The Spanish possessions of Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Empire of Brazil continued to depend on slavery, as did the Southern United States. In the years before the American Civil War, the rise of support for the abolition of slavery was one of several divisive issues in the United States. The slave population there had continued to grow due to natural increase even after the ban on international trade. It was concentrated in the Deep South on large plantations devoted to cotton and sugar cane commodity crops. Still, it was the basis of agricultural and other labor throughout the southern states.
Prior to the formal foundation of the KGC, as early as 1834, there were numerous unaffiliated so-called "Southern Rights Clubs" throughout the South. These clubs created programs for the development of the South, advocated for the reopening of the slave trade – one went so far as to man and equip a slaver ship – and pushed for the extension of slavery into the organized territories of the United States. The clubs, which met regularly, had secret signs by which members could recognize each other.Franklin, John Hope (2002) The Militant South 1800-1861 pp.124-128 Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
Early history George Washington Lafayette Bickley, a doctor, newspaper editor, adventurer, and "somewhat itinerant promoter"Potter, David M. (1976) The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861. New York: Harper & Row. pp.197, 466-467 who was born in Virginia and lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded the association, organizing the first castle, or local branch, in Cincinnati in 1854. However, 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". Hounded by creditors, Bickley left Cincinnati in the late 1850s and traveled through the eastern and southern United States, promoting an armed expedition to Mexico.
The KGC's original goal was to colonize the northern part of Mexico and add it to the U.S. as multiple states, either by negotiation with Mexican President Benito Juarez, or by force; part of the West Indies would also be annexed. This would expand the power of the slavery states, which was felt to be jeopardized by the growing population and power of the northern states. Potentially 25 new slave states could be added to the U.S. If the northern states refused to acquiesce to these annexations, the new territory could be added to the Southern states, creating a tropical empire, a "golden circle".
The membership of the KGC, scattered from New York to California and into Latin America, was never large. Bickley received little encouragement on this journey, except in Texas, since attention in the South was focused on the 1860 United States presidential election and the possible election of a slave-owning Democrat, John C. Breckinridge.
The KGC remained fairly obscure until 1858, when it began to be heavily promoted. An organizational meeting was held in White Sulphur Springs, Virginia in August 1859, and the group began to grow quickly afterwards, so that by October 1860 it had spread throughout the South and claimed a membership of 65,000, including some members of President James Buchanan's cabinet and all except three of the slave state governors.
Other meetings were held in Raleigh, North Carolina in May 1860, at which time rumors that Bickley was a fraud and an imposter were put to rest. Another meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, also in 1860, generated much enthusiasm for the KGC. Bickley, styling himself "President General of the American Legion, K.G.C.", continued to tour the South making speeches, holding meetings, and proselytizing for the group.
Since it was a secret society, its actual numbers cannot be known with any accuracy. In November 1860, Bickley claimed 115,000 members for the group, but historians believe this number is exaggerated. Bickley also claimed that it contained most of the important men and leading citizens of the South, and some former members support this claim, with John C. Breckenridge, Robert Toombs, and John B. Floyd being touted as members. At least one historian, Ollinger Crenshaw, has debunked the claim that the membership was prominent, and another former member described the membership as "broken down hacks, gamblers, and drunkards." William L. Yancey, however, is known to have joined around the time of the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina.
Sympathy for the goals of the KGC was widespread in the South, even by people who were not necessarily members of the group. A few days after Lincoln's election, Robert Barnwell Rhett, who has been called "the father of secession", said:
In August 1861, The New York Times described the order as a successor to the Order of the Lone Star, which had been organized to conquer Cuba and Nicaragua, succeeding in the latter cause in 1856 under William Walker before being driven out by a coalition of neighboring states. At that time, the order's prime objective was said to be to raise an army of 16,000 men to conquer and "Southernize" Mexico, which meant making slavery, not legal in Mexico, again legal while supporting the "Knights of the Columbian Star"—those in the KGC's highest level of membership—for public office.
In the North, the KGC was cited by a Senator from Wisconsin as an exemplar of "Southern fanaticism", an exposé of the organization was published in Indiana in 1861, and its secret rituals were publicized in Boston in that year as well. Some members active in northern states, such as Illinois, were accused of anti-Union activities after the Civil War began in 1861.
Historian David M. Potter commented that the KGC played no role in either forming or supporting the Confederate States of America.
Name The name "Knights of the Golden Circle" was based on the concept of a "Golden Circle", with its center at Havana and a radius of 16 degrees, which would contain the source of much of the world's cotton, tobacco, and sugar, and some of the best coffee and rice. This "golden" land of precious commodities was conceived to be the center of slavery in the world as well, as the slaves were needed to produce these riches.
Organization The KGC was organized in three overall degrees, as well as into local "castles". At the top was the political degree, the Knights of the Colombian Star, the ruling leaders of the group. Below them was the financial degree, the True Faith, those responsible for funding the organization. Entry-level members were part of the Knights of the Iron Hand, the military degree. These men would be the troops that would fight for the KGC in the insurrections and invasions they intended to mount, and provide defense when necessary. The South would be divided into military districts headed by a Colonel, who was responsible for raising a quota of men to make up the 4,200 planned for the invasion of Mexico. Each local "castle" was required to perform military drills in preparation.
Membership requirements The initiation ritual of the KGC began: "the first field of our operations is in Mexico; but we hold it to be our duty to offer our services to any Southern State to repel a Northern army ... The Southern States must foster any scheme having for its object the Americanization and Southernization of Mexico. ..." Numbers were used to represent important places and phrases.
It was specified that candidates must have been born in a Slave State, or if born in a Free State must live in the South and be a whole-hearted supporter of the Constitutional rights of the Southern slaveholders. The candidate must be a citizen, and a Protestant. A candidate who was born in a Slave State need not be a Slaveholder "provided he can give Evidence of character as a Southern man." Initiates had to swear that "should my State or any other Southern State be invaded by Abolitionists I will muster the largest force I can, and go to the scene of the danger."
Plot to replace Lincoln with Breckinridge Several members of President James Buchanan's administration were members of the order, as well as Virginia's secessionist Senator James M. Mason. The Secretary of War, John Floyd and of Treasury, Howell Cobb, were members of the circle, in addition to Vice President John Breckinridge.