by Jon E. Lewis
Indisputably, the Klan has been involved in numerous local terrorist conspiracies over the years. As for the MLK assassination, there is no evidence to tie the Klan as an organization to the crime, but it is not beyond possibility that Klan individuals were involved.
Further Reading
Wyn Wade, The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America, 1987
Worth H. Weller and Brad Thompson, Under the Hood: Unmasking the Modern Ku Klux Klan, 1998
www.snopes.com/business/alliance/sanders.asp
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
The Knights of Columbus society was founded by Father Michael McGivney, an Irish Catholic priest, in Connecticut in 1882. Catholics in America were excluded from many labour unions and fraternal benefit societies, and McGivney hoped his society would be a mutual help society based on the Church of Rome’s teachings. Like other clubs of the time, it adopted arcane rituals and promises, but ensured these not so onerous that they conflicted with the Papal ban on secret orders. Only Catholics were, and are, allowed.
The KoC is invariably and robustly right wing, and in the 1950s supported Joe McCarthy’s anti-Red witch-hunts. Nonetheless, it is lauded for its charitable works, funded through such exciting means as pasta nights. So popular has the KoC become, that it has spread throughout the USA and to Canada and Mexico. An Irish facsimile, the Knights of St Columbanus was founded in Eire in 1915, and remains active.
It may come as a surprise to the KoC members and their families attending the pasta night, but the KoC is actually nothing but a front for the Society of Jesus/the Bavarian Illuminati (take your pick) and is conspiring to overthrow the Protestant faith. Aside from swearing the Bloody Oath, which is the same one the Jesuits promise to obey (allegedly; see p. 492), members of the KoC, like the Jesuits, perform their initiation under the symbol INRI. According to www.biblebelievers.org.au, INRI stands for “Iustum, Necar, Reges, Impious”, meaning “It is just to exterminate or annihilate impious or heretical Kings, Governments, or Rulers”.
Er, actually INRI is the abbreviation for the Latin “Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm”. This means “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”.
Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy. Or indeed let logic be a bar. One internet site seeking to expose the Knights of Columbus reaches the exemplar in non sequiturs: “The capital of the United States is Washington D.C. which stands for ‘District of Columbia’. America was discovered by a man named Columbus. The Fraternal order Knights of Columbus have been exposed aided [sic] the drug trade in Colombia the country.”
KoC members have brought successful libel actions against parties proclaiming they uphold the Bloody Oath.
Further Reading
Christopher Kauffman, Faith and Fraternalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus, 1982
KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
Founded in 1854 by Dr George W. L. Bickley, the Knights were initially a ginger group for an expansion of the US southwards by which it would make a “Golden Circle” around the Gulf of Mexico. Bickley’s project had a particular lure for southerners, because the acquired lands were deemed wholly suitable for slave-worked plantations. And in this newly expanded US the South would dominate the abolitionist North.
When the geographical Golden Circle failed to materialize, the Knights turned to cheerleading for Southern independence. With the coming of the Civil War in 1861, the Knights thickened the plot by working behind enemy lines (i.e. in the North), where their castles (lodges) tried to sabotage the Union military effort. Especially active in the Midwest, the Knights opposed the draft, spread anti-war propaganda, organized politically to stymie the Republican party of Lincoln, ran contraband goods to Confederate capital Richmond, ran escaped Confederate POWs home, and assisted Confederate spies. Joseph Holt, United States Judge Advocate General, warned in a report to Congress that the KGC was involved in the “Northwest Conspiracy” to remove this part of the Union from Washington’s control.
But the KGC’s real claim to infamy came with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Northern politicians immediately rushed into ink to damn the Knights for their role in Lincoln’s murder. They had lots of suspicions, but little evidence. However, a century later, in 1966, the Northern accusation was retrospectively aided by the publication of a diary by John H. Surratt, one of those implicated in the plot to kill the president. A Confederate spy, Surratt was also a member of the KGC. Aside from an intoxicating account of the Masonic-like initiation ceremony of the KGC (see Document, p.308), Surratt drops tantalizing mentions of another KGC member throughout his diary – one John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s undisputed assassin. Although Surratt was quite happy to claim a role in a plot to kidnap Lincoln, he was at pains to proclaim his innocence in Lincoln’s murder most foul. Thus he writes:
November 8, 1864. – The election returns are in, at least enough to decide that McClellan is defeated. To save the South, Lincoln must be removed before the 4th of March. He shall never again be inaugurated. Booth wants his life, but I shall oppose anything like murder. It would serve our turn quite as well to capture the despot, and keep him for a while in Libby Prison. I reckon the South would then gain the day.
Surratt’s diary is not as damning as it seems; it was largely authored by its editor Dion Haco, who was not beyond exaggeration in the interests of a good sell. Which is not to say that the “Fifth Columnist” Knights of the Golden Circle did not aid John Wilkes Booth; it is merely to note that the “proof ” is not beyond reasonable doubt. The KGC certainly had the appetite for bumping off Lincoln. When Clement Vallandigham, the Knights’ titular head, ran a failed campaign for the governorship of Ohio, large numbers of despairing Knights departed for the Order of American Knights (OAK) – and they advocated the plain and simple armed overthrow of the North. Vallandigham himself took the office of Supreme Commander of the OAK.
Like numerous other political secret societies, the Knights went under a bewildering number of pseudonyms, all intended to put Fed agents off their trail. They were known as the Knights of the Mighty Host, the Circle of Honor, the Circle (not to be confused with Le Cercle), the Peace Organization, and the Mutual Protection Society. Northerners dismissively nicknamed them “Copperheads”, after the poisonous snake. Although the Knights – however named – ceased to be an active potent force after the surrender of the Confederate armies at Appomattox in 1865, they are reputed to have lingered on until 1916, by which time they were old or dead men, and the bitter torch of antiblack politics had passed to the Ku Klux Klan.
Further Reading
Dion Haco, The Private Journal and Diary of John H. Surratt, The Conspirator, 1966
Joseph Holt, Report of the Judge Advocate General on “The Order of American Knights”, alias “The Sons of Liberty”. A Western Conspiracy in aid of the Southern Rebellion, Washington, DC: Union Congressional Committee, 1864
DOCUMENT: INITIATION INTO THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE: JOHN H. SURRATT, c. 1860
It might have been an hour, or only twenty minutes, that I had waited alone in that room; but, as I took no account of the time, it seemed almost an age. Every feature of the apartment had been examined, and I could have described every color therein, from the paper on the walls, and the hangings of the windows to the uniforms of the revolutionary heroes, and the background of the portraits. Still no one came, and the solitude became painful.
“Can this have been a deception?” thought I; “and has the trip from Washington to this place been made only to play a trick upon me?”
Patience is a virtue, but still it may at times be overtested; and, certainly, on this occasion, it required a great deal of it to reconcile me to remain (alone so long.) Young and impetuous, I wished to know the secret; but, at the same, I had no desire to be kept there in that manner – especially, as it might after all only prove a trick, a practical joke of my friends playing. This thought first excited me, then vexed, and finally made me mad; and, in an instant, starting to my feet, I rushed to the door
by which I had entered the room. Useless – it was fastened.
“There is no help for it,” thought I; “therefore the best thing to do, is to wait and abide the result.”
The longer I had to wait, the more nervous I became; until at last my patience was entirely exhausted, and a nameless dread took its place. The salutations in the dark rushed to my memory; and the thought of facing fire and steel, to find out a secret that might in the end only prove worthless, was not entirely pleasant, even to me who never flinched from any known or open danger.
While in this state of mind I heard a voice, from some invisible form, say: “Arise, and follow, if you would be made acquainted with the secrets of the Knights of the Golden Circle.”
Without delay I sprang to my feet, but my guide was still not to be seen – at least, I had not yet observed him, although certain that the speaker must have been in the room when giving me the order to get up from my seat.
Suddenly the room grew dark, and I became aware of the fact that, by some unaccountable means, the heavy curtains had dropped before the windows, and had thus excluded the light. The next moment my hands were seized on either side, each by a strong and gauntleted grasp, and an unknown and unseen person next placed a bandage over my eyes. Then my clothing was torn from my breast, which was thus barer; and held and blinded, I was led from the room – whither, I knew not, and have not since divined. There seemed to be no end to the long path, if path it was; and the doors that were opened and closed were so numerous that all attempt at counting their numbers was soon given up by me.
At length we stopped before a door – at least, such I judged it to be, from the signal given upon it and returned from the other side – and the following question was asked in a military tone of voice: “Who comes here?”
“One who is true to our cause,” was the reply of one near me.
“How is he known to be true?” was the question next uttered by the first voice.
“By the recommendation of a tried knight,” replied my supposed guide, for the voice was strange to my ears, as indeed were they all.
“He can then be trusted?” were the next words uttered.
“Such is our belief,” was the reply.
“But should he fail, and betray us – what then?”
“He will learn the penalty soon enough.”
“Advance.”
We moved onward a few steps, when the same cold contact with steel, and the same sharp but slight puncture of the breast, was felt, as on a former occasion.
This time I did not flinch, although the sharp pain was as unexpected as before. Again I heard a solemn voice utter, in a slow and measured tone, the ominous words: “Those who would pass here must face both fire and steel.”
“Are you willing to do so?” asked another, addressing me.
Having, after a few moments’ consideration, answered in the affirmative, I was again told to advance, and commanded to kneel, on what seemed to be a cushion, as it yielded slightly to the pressure of my knee.
While in this position, an oath, terrible, horrible and appalling, was administered by the same solemn voice, and, while kneeling, I had to repeat the words after him in a slow and distinct tone, one hand resting on something cold as ice, the other on a book which appeared to be open.
The obligations taken, I was then informed that it would be necessary to remember every word I had uttered – can I ever forget them? – and not to forget the penalty of a disclosure of what I should learn, or a betrayal of the names of any one with whom I should be brought into companionship, no matter when, where, or under what pain, peril or promise. I was also admonished never to allude, either publicly or privately, to what I might then or hereafter learn; always to be ready to assist a brother-knight, even unto death; to abide by and follow all the directions of the order with which I had become connected; to carry out the objects which should be subsequently communicated to me, if found worthy of confidence; to bear witness and even to swear falsely in order to save a brother’s life or liberty, if arrested for anything appertaining to the directions of the order; never to give a verdict against a brother, if on a jury to try him for any offense arising from directions emanating from the order, or any of its officers; and, in every way, to make the business of the new body, to which I had become allied, pre-eminent before religion, political feeling, parental or fraternal duty, or even before love of country. It was to be first and foremost in everything, at daylight or midnight, at home or abroad, before the law of the land or the affection for a wife, mother or child; to be all and everything.
“Are you willing to abide by this obligation?” asked the voice.
What could I do, or say? Refuse, I dare not; for I had felt the sharp point of the sword at my breast, and the words of that horrible oath still rang in my ears and vibrated through my aching brain. I was powerless to refuse, and therefore answered – faintly, it is true – in the affirmative.
“You remember the penalty?” asked the voice.
Could I have ever forgotten it? Remember it? Yes, indeed, did I remember it; perhaps, too vividly for the calm reflection of my mind at that moment. The very question, calling up, as it did, the remembrance, made me silent for the time, and I could not give a reply.
“Brother Knights!” exclaimed the voice, in a solemn tone. “Recall to the mind of him who now kneels here, the penalty of betrayal, either by sign, word or deed.”
A sound like thunder rang around me; the clanging of arms broke the former almost death-like silence, and a hundred or more voices murmured, hissed, whispered or groaned out, three times, the single word,
“Death! Death!! DEATH!!”
The first sound was horrible in its solemnity; the second utterance was terrible in its significance; the third and last was appalling in the repetition and the grave-like silence which followed it. My senses almost reeled under the influence of the fearful warning; my tongue appeared to swell until it filled my mouth and nearly choked me; I felt the hot blood rush over my brain and burn as it pursued its rapid course; it seemed as if the tortures of all the infernal regions had come upon me in a moment; I thought madness would be the result, unless the trial was soon to be ended, and yet I could not speak. And all this time my eyes were bandaged and my limbs bound. It was not the fear of death that caused within such terror – for I was willing to face any danger that could be seen; it was not the binding obligation I had taken – for I had firmly resolved to be true; but the nameless, unknown and unseen perils of that place and from those around me, appeared to call up to my imagination a thousand fears, indistinct and shadowy, yet plain enough to my mental vision. I had longed, craved for and earnestly desired to obtain a secret; but would, at that moment, have given up all I then possessed, or ever hoped to gain, could I have safely withdrawn from the “Circle” within which I found myself so inextricably enclosed. Shall I, can I ever forget that time, those few, long moments of agony?
Never; no not while life remains within this body, or until my senses become benumbed with the frosts of age or imbecility. Never!
How long the silence lasted, I know not; but the same solemn voice – it seemed miles away, and yet was plainly distinct – again addressed me in a slow manner, first repeating the awful word that had been repeated by so many voices, then admonishing me never to forget it, and finally inquiring whether I was ready to proceed with my initiation. I could return no verbal answer – my tongue refused its office – and I merely bowed my head, more mechanical than otherwise, for, to my present remembrance, it does not appear that I had any voluntary power left within my body.
“It is well,” said the voice. “Proceed!”
A movement of feet was next heard by me, followed by a low murmur of voices; the words uttered were drowned by the one single sound that burned through my brain, rang in my ears, appeared in letters of blood before my blinded eyes, and was present to me in every possible shape. That word was, “Death.”
The movements and sounds all ceased, a
nd the solemn silence again ensued, which after a short interval was broken by the voice I had before heard, saying, “Show him all.”
A chorus of voices repeated the words, and the next instant the bandage was quickly taken from my eyes.
For a few seconds my vision was blinded by the light, the dazzling light that fell upon me at that moment; and, before I could recover from the strain thus inflicted upon those organs of sight, I felt a number of sharp points pierce my breast, back and sides. My right hand had become almost frozen with the cold object upon which it rested, while the remainder of my body was in a perfect fever. I gave one glance around me, and, amid what appeared to be a cloud of fire, stood a number of armed men, clothed in coats of mail, their helmeted heads surmounted by red and white feathers, and their faces covered with barred vizors of metallic plates. Each had a sword in his hand, and every one of the points were directed at my almost paralyzed body, puncturing the flesh, and causing the smarts I had so recently felt.
