The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 545
728 p. : maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The KGC in Texas, z86o0-i86
a home and foreign department, and each required an initiation
fee and weekly dues. The first degree, Knights of the Iron Hand,
was military in nature. The second degree, Knights of the True
Faith, was financial. The third degree, Knights of the Columbian
Star, was ultra-secret and essentially political
While working for the alleged advancement of Southern in-
terests, the KGC passed through two major phases. At first-as
an antagonist of abolitionism-it was concerned with extending
Southern institutions into new territory; during the second phase,
the Knights-singly, and in spontaneous segments-were active
protagonists of secession.
As friendly military colonists, the Knights were, during the
first phase, to infiltrate Mexico lawfully; later they were to revolt
and set up a new government with Bickley and the third degree
Knights in charge. This new territory could then be annexed
to the United States as additional Southern states or it could
continue independently as an adjunct of the South. It was en-
visioned that such a nation, with Havana, Cuba, as the geograph-
ical center, would extend in a circle around the rich Gulf region.
This proposed country surrounding the Gulf of Mexico probably
suggested the term "golden circle." Bickley boasted that this
agricultural, "republican" empire, built upon slave labor, ". ..
shall vie in grandeur with the old Roman Empire."5
Of course, Bickley at one extreme and most abolitionists at the
other extreme were seemingly oblivious to the fact that geo-
graphical factors in parts of Texas and Mexico imposed a limit
to the immediate further territorial extension of the staple-slave
complex." Another obstacle was the German strip across South-
Central Texas where frugal and industrious German emigrants
'For details of the three KGC degrees, see J. W. Pomfrey, A True Disclosure and
Exposition of the Knights of the Golden Circle (Cincinnati, 1861), 6-44.
"Degree Book (n. p., n. d.), 6, Bickley Papers. Almost all basic KGC documents
carry references to the Roman Empire. A rare, post-secession ritual, K. G. C. First,
Or Military Degree (ca. 1861), 8-9, mentions in some detail the methods and
accomplishments of the Roman Empire.
'Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey Through Texas: A Saddle-Trip on the South-
western Frontier (New York, 1857), 440-457. The Olmsted thesis has been expanded
by Charles W. Ramsdell, "The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion," Mississippi
Valley Historical Review, XVI (September, 1929), 151-171; and Walter Prescott
Webb, "The Great Plains Block the Expansion of the South," Panhandle-Plains
Historical Review, II (1929), 3-21.545
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967, periodical, 1967; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101199/m1/575/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.