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KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 869 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KNIGHTS OF THE See also:

GOLDEN CIRCLE , a semi-military See also:secret society in the See also:United States in the See also:Middle See also:West, 1861-1864, the purpose of which was to bring the See also:Civil See also:War to a See also:close and restore the " See also:Union as it was." There is some See also:evidence that before the Civil War there was a Democratic secret organization of the same name, with its See also:principal membership in the See also:Southern States. After the outbreak of the Civil War many of the Democrats of the Middle West, who were opposed to the war policy of the Republicans, organized the Knights of the Golden Circle, pledging themselves to exert their See also:influence to bring about See also:peace. In 1863, owing to the disclosure of some of its secrets, the organization took the name of See also:Order of See also:American Knights, and in 1864 this became the Sons of See also:Liberty. The See also:total membership of this order probably reached 250,000 to 300,000, principally in See also:Ohio, See also:Indiana, See also:Illinois, See also:Iowa, See also:Wisconsin, See also:Kentucky and See also:south-western See also:Pennsylvania. Fernando See also:Wood of New See also:York seems to have been the See also:chief officer and in 1864 See also:Clement L. See also:Vallandigham became the second in command. The See also:great importance of the Knights of the Golden Circle and its successors was due to its opposition to the war policy of the Republican See also:administration. The See also:plan was to overthrow the See also:Lincoln See also:government in the elections and give to the Democrats the See also:control of the See also:state and Federal governments, which would then make peace and invite the Southern States to come back into the Union on the old footing. In order to obstruct and embarrass the Republican administration the members of the order held peace meetings to influence public See also:opinion against the continuance of the war; See also:purchased arms to be used in uprisings, which were to See also:place the peace party in control of the Federal government, or failing in that to establish a See also:north-western confederacy; and took See also:measures to set See also:free the Confederate prisoners in the north and bring the war to a forced close. All these plans failed at the See also:critical moment, and the most effective See also:work done by the order was in encouraging See also:desertion from the Federal armies, preventing enlistments, and resisting the draft. Wholesale arrests of leaders and numerous seizures of arms by the United States authorities resulted in a See also:general collapse of the order See also:lace in 1864. Three of the leaders were sentenced to See also:death by military commissions, but See also:sentence was suspended until 1866, when they were released under the decision of the United States Supreme See also:Court in the famous See also:case Ex parte See also:Milligan.

(W. L.

End of Article: KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

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