July 25, 1864---The Knights of The Golden Circle

JULY 25, 1864:         

 As the dark summer of 1864 continued, Lincoln’s popularity continued to plummet and the idea that he would occupy the White House after March 4^th next was nearing the inner bounds of outlandishness. Knowing that Lincoln’s defeat in November would mean the ascent of the Peace Democrats to power and likely Southern independence, the Confederate government was naturally motivated to create discord in the North on the scale of the New York City Draft Riots of the previous summer.

Jefferson Davis’ Cabinet devised a grandiose plan to infiltrate Confederate agents into northern cities, including Chicago and New York, and commit widespread acts of arson. Fifteen million dollars was set aside for this purpose. Confederate agents were instructed to ally themselves with, and help arm, Copperhead organizations like the Knights of The Golden Circle (K.G.C.), the Sons of Liberty, the Order of the Lone Star, and the Order of American Knights (O.A.K.), who would seize control of important buildings in major Union cities.

The history and membership of these groups is murky at best. Some sources hold that men as disparate as the actor John Wilkes Booth and former U.S. President Franklin Pierce belonged to these secret societies. The purpose of these groups was to overthrow the Lincoln Administration in a violent coup d’etat and restore slavery with the help of the South. With slavery restored, reunification would follow.

The signal for the advent of this staged “revolution” was to have been the arrest of the exiled Copperhead leader Clement Vallandigham, who had returned to the United States illegally in June 1864. However, the Lincoln Administration simply ignored Vallandigham’s return. Also, the pro-Southern secret societies in the North were far smaller and far more disorganized than the men in Richmond had imagined. Additionally, unlike the Copperheads (many of whom had been radicalized), the mainstream Peace Democrats were seeking peace, not additional armed rebellions. They not only refused to work with the Copperheads and their Southern agents provocateurs, but turned on them. Many ended up in Union jails. Lastly, most of the radical groups had been infiltrated by pro-Northern agents either working for the government or for pro-Union secret societies such as The Brotherhood of The Union.  

The most organized of the pro-Southern secret societies was the Knights of The Golden Circle. Founded in Ohio on July 4, 1854 as a group dedicated to the expansion of slavery into Latin America, K.G.C.s called “filibusters” led insurrectos in revolt in Nicaragua and in the Caribbean. Ultimately, the U.S. Federal Government disavowed the filibusters, most of whom were hanged. Regardless, the Knights of The Golden Circle endured, and after his return from exile, the Ohio-born Vallandigham was named Supreme Commander of the K.G.C. even though he publicly made a show of refusing the honor. After the war ended, the K.G.C. became a White Supremacist group that still exists today.

The "Golden Circle" of 1858 was centered on Havana. Cuba was considered prime territory ripe for annexation and slavery, though every place within the Circle and wherever its circumference lay was anticipated to be slave territory under U.S. control. No one asked the natives what they thought, much less the Africans expected to be forcibly settled there.

Regardless of the chaotic character of these secret societies, individual members (some thoroughly dedicated to their cause, others mentally unstable, and some both) did manage to organize and carry out smaller scale acts of terror, aided and abetted by the benign neglect of pro-Confederates in high places.

The original plot for New York City, as unlikely as it seems, was to occupy federal buildings, obtain weapons from arsenals, and arm a crowd of supporters. The insurgents would then raise a Confederate flag over City Hall and declare that New York City had left the Union and had aligned itself with the Confederate government in Richmond. This plan was said to be developed enough that Union agents heard about it and informed the pro-Southern Governor of New York State, Horatio Seymour, who refused to take any action.