Eastern star order of the golden circle4/15/2024 “During his sojourn across the South, George was somehow able to convince the leaders of a preexisting southern society called the “Order of the Lone Star” (OLS) to merge with his Knights. The Knights of the Golden Circle became a mass membership organization by merging with the Order of the Lone Star: An observer of a Lone Star encampment at Richmond, Virginia, similarly described the initiation ceremony as a “magnificent spectacle” that pantomimed with López expedition.” The final step was a dramatic conclusion that Ford said ended with something the initiate would never forget. …įord described the OLS’s secret initiation ceremony as highly ritualistic, with candidates passing through a succession of increasingly solemn steps incorporating cabalistic passwords. A supreme council governed the group’s overall policy. political candidates who would advance the society’s filibustering and proslavery objectives. At the apex was the political degree, with the goal of supporting U.S. The OLS, like its KGC successor, was organized in a hierarchical fashion with three degrees, including the military degree at the bottom and a fund-raising benevolent degree above that. senator from Louisiana, served as its president. ![]() senator, formulated the OLS ritual, and Pierre Soulé, another U.S. John Henderson, a Mississippi cotton planter and U.S. ![]() “To continue the mission of freeing Cuba from Spanish rule and eventually annexing it to the United States as a slaveholding territory, Cuban ex-patriots and southern adventurers formed the Order of the Lone Star in 1851 at the offices of the pro-expansionist Lafayette (La.) True Delta newspaper. The Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society that sought to annex territory in Mexico and the Caribbean to the United States and later to an independent Southern Confederacy, grew out of an older established group based in Texas called the Order of the Lone Star: The most successful filibuster was a man named William Walker who conquered Nicaragua and briefly ruled as its president. Northern Mexico and Cuba were the most popular targets. “We have the invitation of four State Governors to come and shall receive their cooperation if only we take care of the people of those States.”įor those who are unfamiliar with antebellum filibusters, they were essentially like you and a group of your bros departing from the United States to conquer new territory in the Caribbean and Latin America. Manuel Doblado, second in command of the Liberal army and governor of Guanajuato Province, also had reportedly reached an understanding with the KGC’s emissaries. ![]() Northern Mexican stongman Santiago Vidaurri was a committed KGC supporter and actively cooperated with its leaders. In Crabb’s unfortunate case, the Mexican army captured and systematically executed him and his company of one thousand men.īickley and the KGC sought to use the shaky position of the Liberals to advance their goal of expansion southward. ![]() Participants in each risked the outcome of the 1857 expedition into Sonora led by California state senator Henry Crabb. This was nipped in the bud by Mexico’s central army, but between 18, five separate U.S.-based filibuster expeditions had been launched to try to wrest portions of Mexico’s northern provinces. In 1840, Texans had backed an attempt by Mexican Federalist Party leaders, including northern strongman Vidaurri, to declare independence from Mexico’s central government and create an independent “Republic of the Rio Grande” to include the four provinces. These provinces were barren and sparsely populated, but Sonora, as well as Guanajuato Province to the immediate south, were rich in silver, gold, and other minerals. filibusters had long been lusting after Mexico’s four northern-tier provinces – Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora. Keehn’s book Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil Warand sheds light on the KGC and their activities in Northern Mexico: The following excerpt comes from David C. Editor’s Note: I’m sure it is frustrating to some of our readers that this series has been so focused on the eastern South due to it being so much older, but eventually we are going to take story out west and even further down south into the Caribbean and Latin America.
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