But extremists on both sides, encouraged by agents of the European financiers, continually fanned the fires of discontent. The spearhead of this agitation came in the form of yet another secret society: the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC).
SECRET SOCIETY AGITATION The secretive Knights organization was the creation of surgeon and author Dr. George W. L, Bickley, who in 1854 founded his first knightly "castle" in Cincinnati, Ohio, drawing heavily from local Freemasons. This society "had dose ties with a secret society in France called The Seasons, which itself was a branch of the Illuminati," charged G. Edward Griffin. Patterned after Masonic lodges, the Knights had similar passwords, handshakes, "temples," and grand, lesser, and supreme councils. Initiates were sworn to secrecy with a live snake held over their head accompanied by this bloodcurdling oath: Whoever dares our cause repeat, Shall test the strength of Knightly steel; And when the torture proves too dull. We'll scrape the brains from out his skull And place a lamp within the shell To light his soul from here to hell. The name Knights of the Golden Circle was derived from Bickley's grandiose plan to create a huge slaveholding circular empire 2,400 miles in circumference with Cuba as the center point. This new nation was to include the southern United States, Mexico, part of Central America, and the West Indies in order to gain a dominance over the world's supply of tobacco, sugary rice, and coffee. While modem hisrorians either ignore or downplay the significance of the KGC, it is evident from contemporary writings and newspaper coverage that the organization was considered an extremely credible threat at the time. Bickley was certainly a mysterious individual, always claiming to be in need of money, yet constantly traveling and entertaining dignitaries.
