{"id":84086,"date":"2020-11-05T02:35:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T07:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/?p=84086"},"modified":"2020-10-09T00:56:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T05:56:17","slug":"the-k-g-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/the-k-g-c\/","title":{"rendered":"The K.G.C."},"content":{"rendered":"

Alamo Express <\/em>\u00a0[San Antonio, TX], November 5, 1860<\/p>\n

Below we give from the Austin “Southern Intelligencer” an account of the speech of Gen. \u00a0Bickley which meets the necessity of the case so well that we transfer it to our columns instead \u00a0of going into a review of the speech as reported in the Herald.<\/p>\n

[“] The following placard was displayed in our city on last Wednesday:<\/p>\n

K. G. C.<\/p>\n

Gen. Geo. Bickley, President of the American Legion of K. G. C. will address the \u00a0citizens of Austin on the character and aim of the Knights of the Golden Circle, at the Hall over \u00a0Darden and Maynard’s, this (Wednesday) evening at 7\u00bd o’clock. The public is respectfully \u00a0invited to attend.<\/p>\n

As our people are not much given to running after sights [except the circus,] and would \u00a0not be humbugged even by the Biological, Odological Dr. Hale, the notice of itself would have \u00a0excited but little attention in these speaking days, but for the circulation of a pamphlet by the \u00a0orator, who is understood to be the President of the “K. G. C.”<\/p>\n

This pamphlet produced some excitement among a number of our citizens, who \u00a0otherwise would not have attended the meeting. Among the passages which look to the political \u00a0aspect of the thing, we copy the following:<\/p>\n

“The Knights of the Golden Circle constitute a powerful military organizations , as a \u00a0nuceleus\u00a0 around which to hang such political considerations as will, if well managed, lead \u00a0to the disenthrallment of the cotton States from the oppressive majority of the manufacturing and \u00a0commercial interests of the North.”<\/p>\n

“The great West was being rapidly settled by Europeans who arrived in our country with \u00a0deep rooted pejudices against slavery, until the anti-slavery party was no longer confined to \u00a0the manufacturing districts of New England, but like some fatal epidemic, it has spread over the\u00a0 whole North and West.”<\/p>\n

“The Republican or Northern party is abolitionized\u2014the Southern party is gong rapidly \u00a0to secession. All parties in the North are free-soil; all parties in the South are constitutionalists, \u00a0and when the provisions of that instrument are violated, then our people are secessionists. It is \u00a0quite true that there are many pro-slavery men in the North\u2014men who have stood by us \u00a0[illegible] there are men in the south who are in favor of the Union [illegible]\u2014men who to \u00a0preserve the Union, would give up the slave institutions of the Southern States, and re-enact the \u00a0farce and folly of Jamaican Emancipation.”<\/p>\n

“It is then clear that the acquisition of Southern territory by the Federal Government is a \u00a0dangerous experiment, and not to be countenanced for one moment.”<\/p>\n

“Northern men have been called to edit our papers and Northern women to educate and \u00a0train our daughters. The one propagates abolitionism by insidious clippings of abolition \u00a0arguments, and weak comments thereof; the other, while their conduct is, so far as we have \u00a0observed in the main, irreproachable, by constantly reminding the child of our duty to be kind \u00a0and affable, and that we are all the work of the Creator, and of one race, so impress the child’s \u00a0mind that by the time it arrives at maturity it is already abolitionized.”<\/p>\n

“The third division or degree is also divided into two classes, the “Foreign and Home \u00a0Councils.” This is the political or governing division. The “Home Council” is one of pure \u00a0advisement, and takes no active steps. It is unknown to the public or the first division of the K. G. C., and intended to guard us against infractions of the law. Like other “Home” classes it \u00a0enjoys advantages known only to the order. The Foreign Council is divided into ten \u00a0departments, representing respectively the interests of agriculture, education, manufacture, \u00a0finance, police, war, navigation, law and foreign relations. Also from the “Foreign Council” \u00a0there is selected three classes as a high court of appeals and entrusted with the making laws for \u00a0the government of the K. G. C. These classes represent respectively the interests of capital, \u00a0manufacturing and mining interests, and the interests of commerce and agriculture.<\/p>\n

“Our people must present an unbroken front\u2014no division should now be tolerated. The \u00a0old party issues should be forgotten, and we should have but one Electoral Ticket in the South, \u00a0and that should be for a representative man. We now need men who will step boldly out and \u00a0declare themselves either for or against us. The disposition to “shirk” the question and issue is \u00a0ill-adapted to the dangers which now threaten us. Let us know our friends and our enemies.”<\/p>\n

“There is a mercantile objection, [illegible] that the K. G. C. will not “pay.” To this \u00a0objection we refer to the history of the Hudson’s Bay and East India Companies.\u2014The K. G. C. \u00a0is precisely such an association as those, and as they won empires for Great Britain, so may the \u00a0K. G. C. for a Southern Confederacy.”<\/p>\n

“It would make the South strong in or powerful out of the Union.”<\/p>\n

“Let the people go to work in earnest and the South will soon be mistress of her own \u00a0interests and destiny. Put off this crisis another term and we are lost. The border States are \u00a0slipping from our grasp, and unless the people are aroused to a full sense of their danger, the \u00a0Southern Confederacy will embrace only the cotton States.” [“]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have made our quotations this extensive because it saves the necessity of a full report \u00a0of the speech, which was in sentiment to all extents and purposes the same.<\/p>\n

It is true the speaker began by denying all political objects and purposes; and he \u00a0patriotically advised the election of Breckinridge, Douglas or Bell, if either could defeat \u00a0Lincoln.\u2014He disavowed disunion objects\u2014and yet he insisted that there are but two parties\u2014a \u00a0Northern and Southern party; and he sought to teach that there should be but these sectional \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0parties and to doubt the patriotism of all who thought differently. He regarded it as a foregone \u00a0conclusion, that if Lincoln was elected, resistance would surely follow, and the “K. G. C.” would \u00a0become the rallying army for the Southern disunionist.<\/p>\n

He read the first and second degrees of the order, but not the third. As the first degree \u00a0swears “allegiance to the order, &c., and the speaker invited any one not satisfied to ask \u00a0questions, Judge Paschal, [Union elector] rose and said: “I am not satisfied with the oath, and I \u00a0wish to inquire, whether the “Allegiance” which you swear rises above or in subordination to the \u00a0Constitution and the laws of the United States and of the respective States, where the members of \u00a0the order may be?” The speaker said “yes” and to prove it he read from the first degree which \u00a0says:<\/p>\n

“You do each swear to obey the laws of the United States provided the same are \u00a0consistent with the spirit and letter of the Constitution of the United States and the States in \u00a0which you live; that you will do no act of which an American citizen should be ashamed?”<\/p>\n

Judge Paschal said:<\/p>\n

“Do the members of the order assume to themselves to determine the constitutionality of \u00a0the laws of Congress and to resist them, or do they refer that question to the lawful tribunals of \u00a0the land?” Gen. Bickley said: “As citizens we do judge of the constitutionality of laws, and act \u00a0accordingly.” At this answer, most theatrically expressed, the leading Breckinridge State officers \u00a0present, applauded vociferously, as indeed they did at every sentiment of a revolutionary \u00a0character.<\/p>\n

The speaker then proceeded to give the Mexican view of the subject which he denied was \u00a0filibusterism; but only a decent way of getting hold of the country, by some kind of conquest, \u00a0and the bringing it into the United States, or else adding it to the Southern Confederacy. The \u00a0plan was certainly more ornamental than practical. And the denial of Filibusterism was as little \u00a0convincing as the denial that the thing is being used as a political engine.<\/p>\n

But upon this part of the speech we have no criticism at present.<\/p>\n

In the course of the remarks, frequent reference was made to the order being a “police \u00a0regulation.” When through, Judge Paschal took the stand and read the last paragraph in the \u00a0pamphlet, in these words:<\/p>\n

“The people must begin to examine the state of the nation, and determine on a line of \u00a0policy united to the exigencies of the times. If the K. G. C. shall succeed we shall hear no more \u00a0of the disunion, and, if so, it will be a secession of the North\u2014not the South. We shall stand by \u00a0the Constitution and the Government that will see that every provision thereof is religiously \u00a0obeyed. Outside of all other considerations, the South ought to support and extend the K. G. C. \u00a0organization and Domestic Police system\u2014and [illegible] nucleus for her military system. That \u00a0we [much of rest of column illegible] \u00a0ican People.”<\/p>\n

Judge Paschal then said: “I have understood that it has been said that the order acts as \u00a0spies upon travelers, and even marks baggage, and that baggage has come marked to this city as \u00a0suspicious. Is this so?”<\/p>\n

Gen. Bickley\u2014”It is.”<\/p>\n

Judge Paschal\u2014”I wish to know if the Mexico which you may find in the District of \u00a0Columbia, points to the contingency of the Presidential election, and if the order stands ready to \u00a0obey Southern Governors and to raise the standard of rebellion, if they are not satisfied with the \u00a0“Presidential election?” Gen. Bickley made quite a flourish of trumpets, and was understood to \u00a0answer in the affirmative.<\/p>\n

Gen. Bickley then said he wished to ask Judge P. a question. But instead thereof, he went \u00a0into some declamation about the duty of citizens to obey their Governors; stated that Gov. Pettus \u00a0of Mississippi and other Southern Governors were members of the order, and would act if \u00a0Lincoln should be elected. He said that should he (B.) be in Texas, and Gov. Houston call for his \u00a0services, his “tried sword” would be drawn, to march to the District of Columbia, or wherever \u00a0else the Gov. Might command. Or should he be in Virginia, as little as he liked Gov. Letcher, he \u00a0would march at his command. And he knew that Virginia would not submit, &c.<\/p>\n

As to the “baggage searching,” the spotting of men,” &c., he said there ought to have \u00a0been such an order thirty years ago; that people were welcome to search Bickley’s baggage, and \u00a0no sound man should object to it. It was intended for the nutmeg men, the Yankee pedlers, \u00a0and such suspicious characters. His question was: “Did any one object to these sentiments, \u00a0objects and practices.”<\/p>\n

Judge Paschall said: “This is not the place to express my full sentiments in regard to all I \u00a0have heard to-night. It is the meeting of a man, who says he has expended six years and \u00a0thousands of dollars in the cause. Great as I think his errors, I would speak of him with respect \u00a0and courtesy.<\/p>\n

But to the avowal that the order is a secret police; accustomed to denounce individuals; \u00a0working by secret means, (as dangerous to the innocent as the guilty) that it marks baggage, and \u00a0sends forward its suspicions with the unsuspecting traveler, that it is a secret order which \u00a0undertakes to pass upon the soundness of Southern citizens, having a common interest in the \u00a0subject of slavery\u2014I say that it is the institution of the order or Robespiere, which will plunge us \u00a0into a sea of revolution worse than the bloodiest days of France. It cannot, it will not be \u00a0tolerated.” He then briefly pointed out some of the consequences.<\/p>\n

And he continued: “You all know that I never belonged to any secret order, and therefore \u00a0I may overrate the dangers of secret higher law and political orders. I denounced the know-nothing order, because I saw in it a government and degrees, which taught an habitual disregard \u00a0of the constitution in favor of the freedom of religion and the eligibility of all free white citizens \u00a0of the United States to office. But here is an order which goes many steps further. It is “military, \u00a0financial and political;” and its purposes by secret means, to attain its ends. It arrays itself with \u00a0the misguided partizans who threaten to overthrow the government, should they not elect \u00a0their candidate! And it proposes, by secret means, to proscribe all who will not fall into their \u00a0revolutionary purposes. It is then a secret political agency, and one which establishes a police \u00a0above the laws, which are sufficient for every emergency.<\/p>\n

As to the sentiment that it is the duty to obey the governor, even should he raise the \u00a0standard of rebellion. I have no language strong enough for it. Revolutions must be the work of \u00a0the people. We elect governors to see that the laws are executed; not to inaugurate revolution. \u00a0When the public voice is to be tested on such a subject, the question must be submitted to ever\u00a0 voter; because each of them has an interest as high as the governor himself. Much as I love the \u00a0Governor of Texas; highly as I honor his judgment and patriotism, yet I declare, that should he \u00a0usurp the power of calling for soldiers to resist the constitution, laws and lawful authority of the \u00a0United States, I would denounce him as a traitor to his oath. But I fear no such consequences.\u2014 Houston will never lead a rebellion; nor do I believe that any governor will take any such \u00a0responsibility. Evils exist, dangers threaten, but to the people belong the questions of life, \u00a0liberty, property and honor. All appeals to their judgments and passions, should be open and \u00a0public. All plottings and cabals will be met by counter plots, until if continued you will have \u00a0civil war at home and in our very streets. Improvident men are now [most of rest of column illegible]<\/p>\n

lowered by the temper of the crowd.\u2014There were however, some repetitions of the necessity of \u00a0purely “northern and southern parties,” and of fight and fury, whereat a few of the intense \u00a0Yanceyites applauded with diminished enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

We give this brief report to the public. We trust that Gen. Bickley will publish the entire \u00a0speeches. We would hold no political party responsible for this secret order; but trust that all \u00a0parties will disavow it as a secret political engine. In its secrecy, in its police espionage and its \u00a0avowed southern confederacy disunionism, we see nothing but mischief. We trust its strength \u00a0and the character of those who compose it are not fairly represented by its advocates. Secrecy in \u00a0political movements, is not to be tolerated among a people who rely upon an enlightened public \u00a0opinion.<\/p>\n

Gen. Bickley said, that he could not speak for Austin, he could for Texas. We call upon \u00a0every Texas editor and Texas speaker and candidate to speak for themselves. Judge Paschal has \u00a0spoken the sentiments of this community, with a few uninfluential exceptions. He stands by the \u00a0constitution and the laws against all mobs, higher lawism and secret espionage. And our citizens \u00a0should be proud, that they had a man bold enough to speak in the right time, the right tone and \u00a0temper towards men, who, however pure their motives might be, are certainly upon a most \u00a0dangerous road. Let us have no political secret conclaves\u2014no reign of terror\u2014but let all \u00a0political subjects be openly and boldly discussed.<\/p>\n

We are glad to learn that the expose of the mysterious K. G. C., was not pleasing to some of the \u00a0more moderate followers of the bolters, (the extremists had hoped to make a good thing of it.) \u00a0Yesterday morning a large showbill was posted, giving notice that M. R. Reagan, Esq., would \u00a0address the unterrified at the same place last night. It was whispered around, that Morris would \u00a0“show up” the new secret political order, and prove it to be “a Bell and Everett trick.” The editor \u00a0attended, and found Gen. Bickley there, with his aids Col. Groiner and Maj. Bickley. Our friend \u00a0Morris spoke to the great satisfaction of the organizers, and really got off some patriotic \u00a0sentiments, such as a willingness to die for the country, and the declaration that “to spot a man in \u00a0this country is to hang him to the first black oak.” But there was so much of the warp and woof \u00a0of “the fire the southern heart, and precipitate the Cotton States into a revolution\u2014campaign \u00a0orators, that Gen. Bickley mistook him for “one of ’em,” and gave the sign, and after the speech, \u00a0claimed him, and commenced reading the degrees. It was a rich meeting, and we heard a wag \u00a0say, that if the Breckinridge orator came there to “show up” the K. G. C.’s he did it after the \u00a0fashion of Archie [illegible] a story of the Belle who went to the Kentucky quarter-race, to see \u00a0Bob Easly’s new importation of the animal of the tribe which the queer cursing old Balaam road.<\/p>\n

The secrecy is too good a thing for the Yanceyites to shake off with such delicate jerks. They \u00a0must put on the power which old Doddy Biggs employed upon the opossum, which would not let \u00a0go when every foothold was broken. The K. G. C. will stick to them by the tail unless there is a \u00a0hard shake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alamo Express \u00a0[San Antonio, TX], November 5, 1860 Below we give from the Austin “Southern Intelligencer” an account of the speech of Gen. \u00a0Bickley which meets the necessity of the case so well that we transfer it to our columns instead \u00a0of going into a review of the speech as reported in the Herald. [“] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":84027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-84086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-of-the-day"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-newspaper-thumbnail.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}