America in the mid-nineteenth century was still a very young nation in the process of finding its own identity, its states not yet fully or harmoniously united. Differing ideas on what methods of production and government its inhabitants should employ were fomenting into a house divided and would lead to one of the bloodiest and devastating civil wars any country could experience. Leading up to America's Civil War, various factions were coalescing into numerous political parties and regional movements, with ideological lines drawn largely on the issue of slavery. The struggle for America's southern states' self-determination gave rise to a secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, whose members were determined to gain power, wealth and influence for their cause either within the Union, or if necessary as their own autonomous territory. The birth of the United States as a nation would indeed be a painful and traumatic experience, the pangs of which would be felt and remembered to this day, and the hopes for the rise of the South kept alive perhaps more than the average American knows.

Tonight's Quote:

“No matter what secrets may be given to me by a 57, if given as the secret of a 57 and because I am one, I will hold the same sacredly in my own knowledge, and never re-communicate it, even to a 57, unless authorized so to do by the brother whose secret it is.”

• KGC Initiation rites for their 3rd degree, within which membership was kept from all other members of the organization. (Published anonymously in 1861)

Show Links:

We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URL's, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URL's next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners!

Knights of the Golden Circle on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1NjC5aa Article on the KGC from the Texas State Historical Association http://bit.ly/1XjMJNt "An Authentic Exposition of the Knights of the Golden Circle" by a Member of the Order http://bit.ly/1OaGZ8m Report of the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army on the Order of American Knights, from 1864 http://bit.ly/1kP9A87 "Solving Lincoln's Assassination" - a blog posting by Steven Hager http://bit.ly/1ScpjbM Albert Pike, Freemasonry and the KGC http://bit.ly/21c7zTJ Albert Pike http://bit.ly/1QCVbIJ Clement Vallandigham http://bit.ly/1PIYQ7K Robert Rhett http://bit.ly/1I9xO1r John A. Quitman http://bit.ly/1jf5rIL Benjamin McCulloch http://bit.ly/1NKI81Y William Walker http://bit.ly/1PUzDFS Copperhead political faction http://bit.ly/1QZ59U9 The Young America political movement http://bit.ly/1HheKUa The Fire-Eaters political faction http://bit.ly/1P1GQW5

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Credits:

Episode 027 - "Knights of the Golden Circle" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle. Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.