The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details | Page 8

government property, and the
houses and property of leading loyal citizens of the North, known to be
strong advocates of the suppression of the rebellion. But this
organization in name and cardinal purpose was short-lived, its career
having subserved but a meagre benefit to the South, in a practical point
of view. The damage it did was principally confined to the burning of
United States transports on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and the
moulding of the crude opinions of its members, which served as a solid
foundation for the establishment of the Order of American Knights,
which immediately succeeded its dissolution.
Like all institutions of iniquity, the sun of the Order of Knights of the
Golden Circle went down in blood, but was the signal for the advent of
an Order better calculated to meet the ends of its design.
It had been seen upon experiment that the Golden Circle had been
successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of its instigators, and
as the necessity of Northern revolution to insure the certain success of
the Confederacy daily became more apparent to the rebels, both North
and South, the Order of the American Knights was inaugurated--the
executioner of that fell purpose. Its sun arose to its meridian with the
suddenness of a meteor, doomed to flash across the canopy and burst in
scattering atoms.
The Order of American Knights was erected upon the dissolved
fragments of the Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, which
Order, in name, was abandoned for the additional reason that the
suspicions of the Government had begun to be aroused as to the
character of its movements. At the time of the extinction of the Golden
Circle, its members were at once inducted into the Order of American
Knights, so that this Order obtained much primary advantage, in point
of numerical strength, over its predecessor, for the Golden Circle had
already insidiously crept into the very hearts of several Northern cities
and states. The American Knights being composed in the outset wholly

of men who from experience had discovered whatever defectiveness
may have been chargeable upon the Golden Circle, it was sought in the
new Order to remedy the evils of the old Order.
With this in view, looking over the former and later phases of the
Golden Circle as it had existed in the North and South, respectively, it
was agreed to give the new Order still another capacity, and what was
called the military branch or department was added, the incendiary
capacity of the old Order being merged into this new military
department.
We have seen that there had been in the North an Order mainly of
educational capacity, contemplating revolution so soon as the public
mind could be put in readiness for such an event, but now for the first
time we find an Order prepared in its organic structure, to speedily
collect together the elements of revolution and set them in motion.
Such a concern was the Order of American Knights. True, the rise of
the Order created a momentary excitement in political circles, as yet
unaccustomed to dealing with the stern problems of Northern
revolution by resort to arms. But, by the admirable adjustment of the
administrative powers of the Order, into degrees, sub-degrees and
departments of degrees and sub-degrees, the leaders were enabled to
give to each adventurer in quest of the hidden mysteries of the so-called
impartial maxims of genuine Democracy--that Democracy which
boasts of having permeated through every fibre and artery of our
political, commercial and social systems, a comfortable and genial
sphere in which he was left to operate upon his good behavior.
Upon this ingenious plan the vast body and mass of the Order simply
held the relation of probationary membership, until they were rendered
competent through the educational capacity of the society, to advance
into full fellowship with its diabolical design. A glance at this
organization will suffice to show the shrewdness of the transient and
local agents of the Confederacy, in their formation of an Order, having
for its mission the attainment of so many incidental objects, without in
the meantime subjecting themselves to the dangers of collision in their
machinery. Accordingly, the Order was composed of three general

degrees, viz.: First, the Temple Degree, second, the Grand Council
Degree, and third, the Supreme Council Degree.
The first or Temple Degree, resembled the county organization of a
State, and held the same relation to the second or Grand Council
Degree (which was the state organization of the Order,) that our county
government holds to our State government, and it was always sought to
establish this first or Temple Degree at each county seat in a State, as
expeditiously as possible, that the second or Grand Council Degree
could the sooner be fully represented, and