Report on the Order of American Knights (long)

[Jefferson Guards]

O.R.--SERIES II--VOLUME VII [S# 120]

UNION & CONFED. CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM APRIL 1, 1864, TO DECEMBER 31, 1864.--#38

WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF MILITARY JUSTICE,

Washington, D. C., October 8, 1864.

Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

SIR: Having been instructed by you to prepare a detailed report upon the mass of testimony furnished me from different sources in regard to the secret associations and conspiracies against the Government formed principally in the Western States by traitors and disloyal persons, I have now the honor to submit as follows:

During more than a year past it has been generally known to our military authorities that a secret treasonable organization, affiliated with the Southern rebellion, and chiefly military in its character, has been rapidly extending itself throughout the West. A variety of agencies, which will be specified herein, have been employed, and success fully, to ascertain its nature and extent, as well as its aims and results; and as this investigation has led to the arrest in several States of a number of its prominent members as dangerous public enemies, it has been deemed proper to set forth in full the acts and purposes of this organization, and thus to make known to the country at large its intensely treasonable and revolutionary spirit. The subject will be presented under the following heads:

I. The origin, history, names, &c., of the order.

II. Its organization and officers.

III. Its extent and numbers.

IV. Its armed force.

V. Its ritual, oaths, and interior forms.

VI. Its written principles.

VII. Its specific purposes and operations.

VIII. The witnesses and their testimony.

I.-THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, NAMES, ETC., OF THE ORDER.

This secret association first developed itself in the West in the year 1862, about the period of the first conscription of troops, which it aimed to obstruct and resist. Originally known in certain localities as the Mutual Protection Society, the Circle of Honor, or the Circle or Knights of the Mighty Host, but more widely as the Knights of the Golden Circle, it was simply an inspiration of the rebellion, being little other than an extension among the disloyal and disaffected at the North of the association of the latter name, which had existed for some years at the South, and from which it derived all the chief features of its organization.

During the summer and fall of 1863 the order, both at the North and South, underwent some modifications, as well as a change of name. In consequence of a partial exposure which had been made of the signs and ritual of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Sterling Price had instituted as its successor in Missouri a secret political association, which he called the Corps de Belgique, or Southern League, his principal coadjutor being Charles L. Hunt, of Saint Louis, then Belgian consul at that city, but whose exequatur was subsequently revoked by the President on account of his disloyal practices. The special object of the Corps de Belgique appears to have been to unite the rebel sympathizers of Missouri, with a view to their taking up arms and joining Price upon his proposed grand invasion of that State, and to their recruiting for his army in the interim. Meanwhile, also, there had been instituted at the North, in the autumn of 1863, by sundry disloyal persons--prominent among whom were Vallandigham and P.C.Wright, of New York--a secret order intended to be general throughout the country, and aiming at an extended influence and power and at more positive results than its predecessor, and which was termed and has since been widely known as the O. A. K., or Order of American Knights.

The opinion is expressed by Colonel Sanderson, provost-marshal-general of the Department of the Missouri, in his official report upon the progress of the order, that it was founded by Vallandigham during his banishment and upon consultation at Richmond with Davis and other prominent traitors. It is, indeed, the boast of the order in Indiana and elsewhere that its ritual came direct from Davis himself, and Mary Ann Pitman, formerly attached to the command of the rebel Forrest, and a most intelligent witness, whose testimony will be hereafter referred to, states positively that Davis is a member of the order.

Upon the institution of the principal organization it is represented that the Corps de Belgique was modified by Price, and became a Southern section of the O. A. K., and that the new name was generally adopted for the order, both at the North and South. The secret signs and character of the order having become known to our military authorities further modifications in the ritual and forms were introduced, and its name was finally changed to that of the O. S. L., or Order of the Sons of Liberty, or the Knights of the Order of the Sons of Liberty. These later changes are represented to have been first instituted and the new ritual compiled in the State of Indiana in May last, but the new name was at once generally adopted throughout the West, though in some localities the association is still better known as the Order of American Knights. Meanwhile, also, the order has received certain local designations. In parts of Illinois it has been called at times the Peace Organization, in Kentucky the Star Organization, and in Missouri the American Organization; these, however, being apparently names used outside of the lodges of the order. Its members have also been familiarly designated as butternuts by the country people of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and its separate lodges have also frequently received titles intended for the public ear, that in Chicago, for instance, being termed by its members the Democratic Invincible Club, that in Louisville the Democratic Reading Room, &c. It is to be added that in the State of New York and other parts of the North the secret political association known as the McClellan Minute Guard would seem to be a branch of the O. A. K., having substantially the same objects, to be accomplished, however, by means expressly suited to the localities in which it is established; for, as the chief secretary of this association, Dr. R. F. Stevens, stated in June last to a reliable witness whose testimony has been furnished: "Those who represent the McClellan interest are compelled to preach a vigorous prosecution of the war in order to secure the popular sentiment and allure voters."

II.--ITS ORGANIZATION AND OFFICERS.

From printed copies, heretofore seized by the Government, of the constitutions of the supreme council, grand council, and county parent temples, respectively, of the Order of Sons of Liberty, in connection with other and abundant testimony, the organization of the order in its latest form is ascertained to be as follows:

1. The government of the order throughout the United States is vested in a supreme council, of which the officers are a supreme commander, secretary of state, and treasurer. These officers are elected for one year at the annual meeting of the supreme council, which is made up of the grand commanders of the several States ex officio and two delegates elected from each State in which the order is established.

2. The government of the order in a State is vested in a grand council, the officers of which are a grand commander, deputy grand commander, grand secretary, grand treasurer, and a certain number of major-generals, or one for each military district. These officers also are elected annually by representatives from the county temples, each temple being entitled to two representatives and one additional for each thousand members. This body of representatives is also invested with certain legislative functions.

3. The parent temple is the organization of the order for a county, each temple being formally instituted by authority of the supreme council or of the grand council or grand commander of the State. By the same authority, or by that of the officers of the parent temple, branch or subordinate temples may be established for townships in the county.

But the strength and significance of this organization lie in its military organization. The secret constitution of the supreme council provides that the supreme commander "shall be commander in chief of all military forces belonging to the order in the various States when called into actual service;" and further, that the grand commanders "shall be commanders-in-chief of the military forces of their respective States." Subordinate to the grand commander in the State are the "major-generals," each of whom commands his separate district and army. In Indiana the major-generals are four in number. In Illinois, where the organization is considered most perfect, the members in each Congressional district compose a "brigade," which is commanded by a "brigadier-general;" the members of each county constitute a "regiment," with a "colonel" in command, and those of each township form a "company." A somewhat similar system prevails in Indiana, where also each company is divided into "squads," each with its chief--an arrangement intended to facilitate the guerrilla mode of warfare in case of a general outbreak or local disorder.

The McClellan Minute Guard, as appears from a circular issued by the chief secretary in New York in March last, is organized upon a military basis similar to that of the order proper. It is composed of companies, one for each election district, ten of which constitute a "brigade," with a "brigadier-general" at its head. The whole is placed under the authority of a "commander-in-chief." A strict obedience on the part of members to the orders of their superiors is enjoined. The first supreme commander of the order was P. C. Wright, of New York, editor of the New York News, who was in May last placed in arrest and confined in Fort Lafayette. His successor in office was Vallandigham, who was elected at the annual meeting of the supreme council in February last. Robert Holloway, of Illinois, is represented to have acted as lieutenant-general, or deputy supreme commander, during the absence of Vallandigham from the country. The secretary of state chosen at the last election was Doctor Massey, of Ohio. In Missouri the principal officers were Charles L. Hunt, grand commander; Charles E. Dunn, deputy grand commander, and Green B. Smith, grand secretary. Since the arrest of these three persons (all of whom have made confessions which will be presently alluded to) James A. Barrett has, as it is understood, officiated as grand commander. He is stated to occupy also the position of chief of staff to the supreme commander. The general commander in Indiana, H. H. Dodd, is now on trial at Indianapolis by a military commission for "conspiracy against the Government," "violation of the laws of war," and other charges. The deputy grand commander in that State is Horace Heffren, and the grand secretary, W. M. Harrison. The major-generals are W. A. Bowles, John C,. Walker, L. P. Milligan, and Andrew Humphreys. Among the other leading members of the order in that State are Doctor Athon, state secretary, and Joseph Ristine, state auditor. The grand commander in Illinois is ---- Judd, of Lewistown; and B. B. Piper, of Springfield, who is entitled grand missionary of the State, and designated also as a member of Vallandigham's staff, is one of the most active members, having been busily engaged throughout the summer in establishing temples and initiating members. In Kentucky, Judge Bullitt, of the court of appeals, is grand commander, and, with Dr. U. F. Kalfus and W. R. Thomas, jailer in Louisville, two other of the most prominent members, has been arrested and confined by the military authorities. In New York, Dr. R. F. Stevens, the chief secretary of the McClellan Minute Guard, is the most active ostensible representative of the order. The greater part of the chief and subordinate officers of the order and its branches, as well as the principal members thereof, are known to the Government, and, where not already arrested, may regard themselves as under a constant military surveillance. So complete has been the exposure of this secret league that, however frequently the conspirators may change its names, forms, passwords, and signals, its true purposes and operations cannot longer be concealed from the military authorities. It is to be remarked that the supreme council of the order, which annually meets on February 22, convened this year at New York City, and a special meeting was then appointed to be held at Chicago on July 1, or just prior to the day then fixed for the convention of the Democratic party. This convention having been postponed to August 29, the special meeting of the supreme council was also postponed to August 27, at the same place, and was duly convened accordingly. It will be remembered that a leading member of the convention, in the course of a speech made before that body, alluded approvingly to the session of the Sons of Liberty at Chicago at the same time, as that of an organization in harmony with the sentiments and projects of the convention. It may be observed, in conclusion, that one not fully acquainted with the true character and intentions of the order might well suppose that, in designating its officers by high military titles, and in imitating in its organization that established in our armies, it was designed merely to render itself more popular and attractive with the masses and to invest its chiefs with a certain sham dignity; but when it is understood that the order comprises within itself a large army of well-armed men, constantly drilled and exercised as soldiers, and that this army is held ready at any time for such forcible resistance to our military authorities and such active co-operation with the public enemy as it may be called upon to engage in by its commanders, it will be perceived that the titles of the latter are not assumed for a mere purpose of display, but that they are the chief of an actual and formidable force of conspirators against the life of the Government, and that their military system is, as it has been remarked by Colonel Sanderson, "the grand lever used by the rebel Government for its army operations."

III.--ITS EXTENT AND NUMBERS.

The temples or lodges of the order are numerously scattered through the States of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and Kentucky. They are also officially reported as established, to a less extent, in Michigan and the other Western States, as well as in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Tennessee. Dodd, the grand commander of Indiana, in an address to the members in that State of February last, claims that at the next annual meeting of the supreme council (in February, 1865) every State in the Union will be represented, and adds: "This is the first and only true national organization the democratic and conservative men of the country have ever attempted." A provision made in the constitution of the council for a representation from the Territories shows, indeed, that the widest extension of the order is contemplated. In the States first mentioned the order is most strongly centered at the following places, where are situated its principal temples: In Indiana, at Indianapolis and Vincennes; in Illinois, at Chicago, Springfield, and Quincy (a large proportion of the lodges in and about the latter place having been founded by the notorious guerrilla chief Jackman); in Ohio, at Cincinnati, Dayton, and in Hamilton County (which is proudly termed by members "the South Carolina of the North"); in Missouri, at Saint Louis; in Kentucky, at Louisville; and in Michigan, at Detroit (whence communication was freely had by the leaders of the order with Vallandigham during his banishment, either by letters addressed to him through two prominent citizens and members of the order, or by personal interviews at Windsor, Canada West). It is to be added that the regular places of meeting, as also the principal rendezvous and haunts of the members in these and less important places, are generally well known to the Government. The actual numbers of the order have, it is believed, never been officially reported, and cannot therefore be accurately ascertained. Various estimates have been made by leading members, some of which are no doubt considerably exaggerated. It has been asserted by delegates to the supreme council of February last that the number was then represented to be from 800,000 to 1,000,000; but Vallandigham, in his speech last summer at Dayton, Ohio, placed it at 500,000, which is probably much nearer the true total. The number of its members in the several States has been differently estimated in the reports and statements of its officers. Thus the force of the order in Indiana is stated to be from 75,000 to 125,000; in Illinois, from 100,000 to 140,000; in Ohio, from 80,000 to 108,000; in Kentucky, from 40,000 to 70,000; in Missouri, from 20,000 to 40,000, and in Michigan and New York, about 20,000 each. Its representation in the other States above mentioned does not specifically appear from the testimony, but, allowing for every exaggeration in the figures reported, they may be deemed to present a tolerably faithful view of what, at least, is regarded by the order as its true force in the States designated. It is to be noted that the order, or its counterpart, is probably much more widely extended at the South even than at the North, and that a large proportion of the officers of the rebel army are represented by credible witnesses to be members. In Kentucky and Missouri the order has not hesitated to admit as members, not only officers of that army, but also a considerable number of guerillas, a class who might be supposed to appreciate most readily its spirit and purposes. It is fully shown that as lately as in July last several of these ruffians were initiated into the first degree by Doctor Kalfus in Kentucky.

IV.--ITS ARMED FORCE.

A review of the testimony in regard to the armed force of the order will materially aid in determining its real strength and numbers. Although the order has from the outset partaken of the military character, it was not till the summer or fall of 1863 that it began to be generally organized as an armed body. Since that date its officers and leaders have been busily engaged in placing it upon a military basis and in preparing it for a revolutionary movement. A general system of drilling has been instituted and secretly carried out. Members have been instructed to be constantly provided with weapons, and in some localities it has been absolutely required that each member should keep at his residence at all times certain arms and a specified quantity of ammunition. In March last the entire armed force of the order capable of being mobilized for effective service was represented to be 340,000 men. As the details upon which this statement was based are imperfectly set forth in the testimony it is not known how far this number may be exaggerated. It is abundantly shown, however, that the order, by means of a tax levied upon its members, has accumulated considerable funds for the purchase of arms and ammunition, and that these have been procured in large quantities for its use. The witness Clayton, on the trial of Dodd, estimated that two.thirds of the order are furnished with arms. Green B. Smith, grand secretary of the order in Missouri, states in his confession of July last: "I know that arms, mostly revolvers, and ammunition have been purchased by members in Saint Louis to send to members in the country where they could not be had," and he subsequently adds that he himself alone clandestinely purchased and forwarded, between April 15 and 19 last, about 200 revolvers, with 5,000 percussion caps and other ammunition. A muster-roll of one of the country lodges of that State is exhibited, in which, opposite the name of each member, are noted certain numbers, under the heads of Missouri Republican, Saint Louis Union, Anzeiger, Miscellaneous Periodicals, Books, Speeches, and Reports; titles which, when interpreted, severally signify single-barreled guns, double-barreled guns, revolvers, private ammunition, private lead, company powder, company lead, the roll thus actually setting forth the amount of arms and ammunition in the possession of the lodge and its members.

In the States of Ohio and Illinois the order is claimed by its members to be unusually well armed with revolvers, carbines, &c.; but it is in regard to the arming of the order in Indiana that the principal statistics have been presented, and these may serve to illustrate the system which has probably been pursued in most of the States. One intelligent witness, who has been a member, estimates that in March last there were in possession of the order in that State 6,000 muskets and 60,000 revolvers, besides private arms. Another member testifies that at a single lodge meeting of 252 persons, which he attended early in the present year, the sum of $4,000 was subscribed for arms. Other members present statements in reference to the number of arms in their respective counties, and all agree in representing that these have been constantly forwarded from Indianapolis into the interior. Beck & Bros. are designated as the firm in that city to which most of the arms were consigned. These were shipped principally from the East; some packages, however, were sent from Cincinnati, and some from Kentucky, and the boxes were generally marked pickaxes, hardware, nails, household goods, &c.

General Carrington estimates that in February and March last nearly 30,000 guns and revolvers entered the State, and this estimate is based upon an actual inspection of invoices. The true number introduced was therefore probably considerably greater. That officer adds that on the day in which the sale of arms was stopped by his order in Indianapolis nearly 1,000 additional revolvers had been contracted for, and that the trade could not supply the demand. He further reports that after the introduction of arms into the Department of the North had been prohibited in general orders of March last a seizure was made by the Government of a large quantity of revolvers and 135,000 rounds of ammunition, which had been shipped to the firm in Indianapolis, of which H. H. Dodd, grand commander, was a member; that other arms about to be shipped to the same destination were seized in New York City, and that all these were claimed as the private property of John C. Walker, one of the major-generals of the order in Indiana, and were represented to have been "purchased for a few friends." It should also be stated that at the office of Hon. D. W. Voorhees, Member of Congress, at Terre Haute, were discovered letters which disclosed a correspondence between him and ex-Senator Wall, of New Jersey, in regard to the purchase of 20,000 Garibaldi rifles, to be forwarded to the West.

It appears in the course of the testimony that a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition were brought into the State of Illinois from Burlington, Iowa, and that ammunition was sent from New Albany, Ind., into Kentucky. It is also represented that had Vallandigham been arrested on his return to Ohio it was contemplated furnishing the order with arms from a point in Canada, near Windsor, where they were stored and ready for use. There remains further to be noticed in this connection the testimony of Clayton upon the trial of Dodd, to the effect that arms were to be furnished the order from Nassau, New Providence, by way of Canada; that to defray the expense of these arms or their transportation a formal assessment was levied upon the ledges, but that the transportation into Canada was actually to be furnished by the Confederate authorities. A statement was made by Hunt, grand commander of Missouri, before his arrest to a fellow-member that shells and all kinds of munitions of war, as well as infernal machines, were manufactured for the order at Indianapolis; and the late discovery in Cincinnati of samples of hand-grenades, conical shells, and rockets, of which 1,000 were about to be manufactured, under a special contract, for the Order of the Sons of Liberty, goes directly to verify such a statement. These details will convey some idea of the attempts which have been made to place the order upon a war footing and prepare it for aggressive movements. But notwithstanding all the efforts that have been put forth, and with considerable success, to arm and equip its members as fighting men, the leaders have felt themselves still very deficient in their armament, and numerous schemes for increasing their armed strength have been devised. Thus, at the time of the issuing of the general order in Missouri requiring the enrollment of all citizens, it was proposed in the lodges of the Order of American Knights at Saint Louis that certain members should raise companies in the militia in their respective wards, and thus get command of as many Government arms and equipments as possible for the future use of the order. Again, it was proposed that all the members should enroll themselves in the militia instead of paying commutation, in this way obtaining possession of U.S. arms and having the advantage of the drill and military instruction. In the councils of the order in Kentucky in June last a scheme was devised for disarming all the negro troops, which it was thought could be done without much difficulty, and appropriating their arms for military purposes. The despicable treachery of these proposed plans, as evincing the animus of the conspiracy, need not be commented upon. It is to be observed that the order in the State of Missouri has counted greatly upon support from the enrolled militia, in case of an invasion by Price, as containing many members and friends of the Order of American Knights; and that the Paw Paw Militia, a military organization of Buchanan County, as well as the militia of Platte and Clay Counties, known as Flat Foots, have been relied upon almost to a man to join the revolutionary movement.

V.--ITS RITUAL, OATHS, AND INTERIOR FORMS.

The ritual of the order, as well as its secret signs, passwords, &c., has been fully made known to the military authorities. In August last 112 copies of the ritual of the Order of American Knights were seized in the office of Hon. D. W. Voorhees, Member of Congress, at Terre Haute, and a large number of rituals of the Order of the Sons of Liberty, together with copies of the constitutions of the councils, &c., already referred to, were found in the building at Indianapolis occupied by Dodd, the grand commander of Indiana, as had been indicated by the Government witness and detective, Stidger. Copies were likewise discovered at Louisville, at the residence of Doctor Kalfus, concealed within the mattress of his bed, where Stidger had ascertained that they were kept. The ritual of the Order of American Knights has also been furnished by the authorities at Saint Louis. From this ritual, that of the Order of the Sons of Liberty does not materially differ. Both are termed "progressive," in that they provide for five separate degrees of membership, and contemplate the admission of a member of a lower degree into a higher one only upon certain vouchers and proofs of fitness, which, with each ascending degree, are required to be stronger and more imposing. Each degree has its commander or head, the fourth or grand is the highest in a State; the fifth or supreme the highest in the United States; but to the first or lower degree only do the great majority of members attain. A large proportion of these enter the order, supposing it to be a Democratic and political association merely; and the history of the order furnishes a most striking illustration of the gross and criminal deception which may be practiced upon the ignorant masses by unscrupulous and unprincipled leaders. The members of the lower degree are often for a considerable period kept quite unaware of the true purposes of their chiefs; but to the latter they are bound, in the language of their obligation, "to yield prompt and implicit obedience to the utmost of their ability, without remonstrance, hesitation, or delay," and meanwhile their minds, under the discipline and teachings to which they are subjected, become educated and accustomed to contemplate with comparative unconcern the treason for which they are preparing. The oaths, invocations, charges, &c., of the ritual, expressed as they are in bombastic and extravagant phraseology, would excite in the mind of an educated person only ridicule or contempt, but upon the illiterate they are calculated to make a deep impression, the effect and importance of which were doubtless fully studied by the framers of the instrument.

The oath which is administered upon the introduction of a member into any degree is especially imposing in its language; it prescribes as a penalty for a violation of the obligation assumed "a shameful death," and further, that the body of the person guilty of such violation shall be divided into four parts and cast out at the four "gates" of the temple. Not only, as has been said, does it enjoin a blind obedience to the commands of the superiors of the order, but it is required to be held of paramount obligation to any oath which may be administered to a member in a court of justice or elsewhere. Thus, in cases where members have been sworn by officers empowered to administer oaths to speak the whole truth in answer to questions that may be put to them, and have then been examined in reference to the order, and their connection therewith, they have not only refused to give any information in regard to its character, but have denied that they were members, or even that they knew of its existence. A conspicuous instance of this is presented in the cases of Hunt, Dunn, and Smith, the chief officers of the order in Missouri, who, upon their first examination under oath, after their arrest, denied all connection with the order, but confessed, also under oath, at a subsequent period that this denial was wholly false, although in accordance with their obligations as members. Indeed, a deliberate system of deception in regard to the details of the conspiracy is inculcated upon the members and studiously pursued; and it may be mentioned, as a similarly despicable feature of the organization, that it is held bound to injure the Administration and officers of the Government, in every possible manner, by misrepresentation and falsehood. Members are also instructed that their oath of membership is to be held paramount to an oath of allegiance, or any other oath which may impose obligations inconsistent with those which are assumed upon entering the order. Thus, if a member, when in danger or for the purpose of facilitating some traitorous design, has taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, he is held at liberty to violate it on the first occasion, his obligation to the order being deemed superior to any consideration of duty or loyalty prompted by such oath. It is to be added that where members are threatened with the penalties of perjury, in case of their answering falsely to questions propounded to them in regard to the order before a court or grand jury, they are instructed to refuse to answer such questions, alleging, as a ground for their refusal, that their answers may criminate themselves. The testimony shows that this course has habitually been pursued by members, especially in Indiana, when placed in such a situation. Besides the oaths and other forms and ceremonies which have been alluded to, the ritual contains what are termed "declarations of principles." These declarations, which are most important as exhibiting the creed and character of the order, as inspired by the principles of the rebellion, will be fully presented under the next branch of the subject.

The signs, signals, passwords, &c., of the order are set forth at length in the testimony, but need only be briefly alluded to. It is a significant fact, as showing the intimate relations between the Northern and Southern sections of the secret conspiracy, that a member from a Northern State is enabled to pass without risk through the South by the use of the signs of recognition which have been established throughout the order, and by means of which members from distant points, though meeting as strangers, are at once made known to each other as "brothers." Mary Ann Pitman expressly states in her testimony that whenever important dispatches are required to be sent by rebel generals beyond their lines members of the order are always selected to convey them. Certain passwords are also used in common in both sections, and of these none appears to be more familiar than the word Nu-oh-lac, or the name Calhoun spelt backward, and which is employed upon entering a temple of the first degree of the Order of American Knights--certainly a fitting password to such dens of treason. Beside the signs of recognition there are signs of warning and danger, for use at night as well as by day, as, for instance, signs to warn members of the approach of U.S. officials seeking to make arrests. The order has also established what are called battle signals, by means of which, as it is asserted, a member serving in the army may communicate with the enemy in the field and thus escape personal harm in case of attack or capture. The most recent of these signals represented to have been adopted is a five-pointed copper star, worn under the coat, which is to be disclosed upon meeting an enemy, who will thus recognize in the wearer a sympathizer and an ally. A similar star of German silver, hung in a frame, is said to be numerously displayed by members or their families in private houses in Indiana, for the purpose of insuring protection to their property in case of a raid or other attack; and it is stated that in many dwellings in that State a portrait of John Morgan is exhibited for a similar purpose. Other signs are used by members, and especially the officers, of the order in their correspondence. Their letters, when of an official character, are generally conveyed by special messengers, but when transmitted through the mail are usually in cipher. When written in the ordinary manner a character at the foot of the letter, consisting of a circle with a line drawn across the center, signified to the member who received it that the statements as written are to be understood in a sense directly the opposite to that which would ordinarily be conveyed. It is to be added that the meetings of the order, especially in the country, are generally held at night and in secluded places, and that the approach to them is carefully guarded by a line of sentinels, who are passed only by means of a special countersign, which is termed the "picket."

VI.--ITS WRITTEN PRINCIPLES.

The "declaration of principles" which is set forth in the ritual of the order has already been alluded to. This declaration, which is specially framed for the instruction of the great mass of members, commences with the following proposition:

All men are endowed by the Creator with certain rights, equal as far as there is equality in the capacity for the appreciation, enjoyment, and exercise of those rights.

And subsequently there is added:

In the divine economy no individual of the human race must be permitted to encumber the earth, to mar its aspects of transcendent beauty, nor to impede the progress of the physical or intellectual man, neither in himself nor in the race to which he belongs. Hence, a people, upon whatever plane they may be found in the ascending scale of humanity, whom neither the divinity within them nor the inspirations of divine and beautiful nature around them can impel to virtuous action and progress onward and upward, should be subjected to a just and humane servitude and tutelage to the superior race until they shall be able to appreciate the benefits and advantages of civilization.

Here, expressed in studied terms of hypocrisy, is the whole theory of human bondage--the right of the strong, because they are strong, to despoil and enslave the weak, because they are weak! The languages of earth can add nothing to the cowardly and loathsome baseness of the doctrine as thus announced. It is the robber's creed, sought to be nationalized, and would push back the hand on the dial plate of our civilization to the darkest periods of human history. It must be admitted, however, that it furnishes a fitting corner stone for the government of a rebellion, every fiber of whose body and every throb of whose soul is born of the traitorous ambition and slave-pen inspirations of the South. To these detestable tenets is added that other pernicious political theory of State sovereignty, with its necessary fruit, the monstrous doctrine of secession--a doctrine which, in asserting that in our federative system a part is greater than the whole, would compel the General Government, like a Japanese slave, to commit hari-kari whenever a faithless or insolent State should command it to do so. Thus, the ritual, after reciting that the States of the Union are "free, independent, and sovereign," proceeds as follows:

The Government designated "The United States of America" has no sovereignty, because that is an attribute with which the people, in their several and distinct political organizations, are endowed, and is inalienable. It was constituted by the terms of the compact, by all the States, through the express will of the people thereof respectively--a common agent, to use and exercise certain named, specified, defined, and limited powers which are inherent of the sovereignties within those States. It is permitted, so far as regards its status and relations as common agent in the exercise of the powers carefully and jealously delegated to it, to call itself "supreme," but not "sovereign." In accordance with the principles upon which is founded the American theory, government can exercise only delegated power. Hence, if those who shall have been chosen to administer the government shall assume to exercise powers not delegated they should be regarded and treated as usurpers. The reference to "inherent power," "war power," or "military necessity," on the part of the functionary for the sanction of an arbitrary exercise of power by him we will not accept in palliation or excuse.

To this is added, as a corollary, "it is incompatible with the history and nature of our system of government that Federal authority should coerce by arms a sovereign State." The declaration of principles, however, does not stop here, but proceeds one step further, as follows:

Whenever the chosen officers or delegates shall fail or refuse to administer the Government in strict accordance with the letter of the accepted Constitution, it is the inherent right and the solemn and imperative duty of the people to resist the functionaries, and, if need be, to expel them by force of arms! Such resistance is not revolution, but is solely the assertion of right; the exercise of all the noble attributes which impart honor and dignity to manhood.

To the same effect, though in a milder tone, is the platform of the order in Indiana, put forth by the grand council at their meeting in February last, which declares that "the right to alter or abolish their government, whenever it fails to secure the blessings of liberty, is one of the inalienable rights of the people that can never be surrendered." Such, then, are the principles which the new member swears to observe and abide by in his obligation, set forth in the ritual, where he says:

I do solemnly promise that I will ever cherish in my heart of hearts the sublime creed of the Excellent Knights, and will, so far as in me lies, illustrate the same in my intercourse with men, and will defend the principles thereof, if need be, with my life, whensoever assailed, in my own country first of all. I do further solemnly declare that I will never take up arms in behalf of any government which does not acknowledge the sole authority or power to be the will of the governed.

The following extracts from the ritual may also be quoted as illustrating the principle of the right of revolution and resistance to constituted authority insisted upon by the order:

Our swords shall be unsheathed whenever the great principles which we aim to inculcate and have sworn to maintain and defend are assailed.

Again:

I do solemnly promise that whensoever the principles which our order inculcates shall be assailed in my own State or country I will defend these principles with my sword and my life, in whatsoever capacity may be assigned me by the competent authority of our order.

And further:

I do promise that I will at all times, if need be, take up arms in the cause of the oppressed, in my own country first of all, against any power or government usurped which may be found in arms and waging war against a people or peoples who are endeavoring to establish, or have inaugurated, a government for themselves of their own free choice.

Moreover, it is to be noted that all the addresses and speeches of its leaders breathe the same principle of the right of forcible resistance to the Government as one of the tenets of the order.

Thus P.C. Wright, supreme commander, in his general address of December, 1863, after urging that "the spirit of the fathers may animate the free minds, the brave hearts, and still unshackled limbs of the true democracy" (meaning the members of the order), adds as follows:

To be prepared for the crisis now approaching we must catch from afar the earliest and faintest breathings of the spirit of the storm; to be successful when the storm comes we must be watchful, patient, brave, confident, organized, armed.

Thus, too, Dodd, grand commander of the order in Indiana, quoting, in his address of February last, the views of his chief, Vallandigham, and adopting them as his own, says:

He (Vallandigham) judges that the Washington power will not yield up its power until it is taken from them by an indignant people by force of arms.

Such, then, are the written principles of the order in which the neophyte is instructed, and which he is sworn to cherish and observe as his rule of action, when, with arms placed in his hands, he is called upon to engage in the overthrow of his Government. This declaration, first, of the absolute right of slavery; second, of State sovereignty and the right of secession; third, of the right of armed resistance to constituted authority on the part of the disaffected and the disloyal, whenever their ambition may prompt them to revolution, is but an assertion of that abominable theory which, from its first enunciation, served as a pretext for conspiracy after conspiracy against the Government on the part of Southern traitors, until their detestable plotting culminated in open rebellion and bloody civil war. What more appropriate password, therefore, to be communicated to the new member upon his first admission to the secrets of the order could have been conceived than that which was actually adopted, Calhoun! a man who, baffled in his lust for power, with gnashing teeth turned upon the Government that had lifted him to its highest honors, and upon the country that had borne him, and down to the very close of his fevered lite labored incessantly to scatter far and wide the seeds of that poison of death now upon our lips. The thorns which now pierce and tear us are of the tree he planted.

VII.--ITS SPECIFIC PURPOSES AND OPERATIONS.

From the principles of the order, as thus set forth, its general purpose of co-operating with the rebellion may readily be inferred, and, in fact, those principles could logically lead to no other result. This general purpose, indeed, is distinctly set forth in the personal statements and confessions of its members, and particularly of its prominent officers, who have been induced to make disclosures to the Government. Among the most significant of these confessions are those already alluded to, of Hunt, Dunn, and Smith, the heads of the order in Missouri. The latter, whose statement is full and explicit, says:

At the time I joined the order I understood that its object was to aid and assist the Confederate Government and endeavor to restore the Union as it was prior to this rebellion.

He adds:

The order is hostile in every respect to the General Government and friendly to the so-called Confederate Government. It is exclusively made up of disloyal persons, of all Democrats who are desirous of securing the independence of the Confederate States with a view of restoring the Union as it was.

It would be idle to comment on such gibberish as the statement that "the independence of the Confederate States" was to be used as the means of restoring "the Union as it was;" and yet, under the manipulations of these traitorous jugglers doubtless the brains of many have been so far muddled as to accept this shameless declaration as true. But proceeding to the specific purposes of the order, which its leaders have had in view from the beginning, and which, as will be seen, it has been able in many cases to carry out with very considerable success, the following are found to be most pointedly presented by the testimony:

First. Aiding soldiers to desert and harboring and protecting deserters. Early in its history the order essayed to undermine such portions of the army as were exposed to its insidious approaches. Agents were sent by the Knights of the Golden Circle into the camps to introduce the order among the soldiers, and those who became members were instructed to induce as many of their comrades as possible to desert, and for this purpose the latter were furnished by the order with money and citizens' clothing. Soldiers who hesitated at desertion, but desired to leave the army, were introduced to lawyers who engaged to furnish them some quasi legal pretext for so doing, and a certain attorney of Indianapolis, named Walpole, who was particularly conspicuous in furnishing facilities of this character to soldiers who applied to him, has boasted that he has thus aided 500 enlisted men to escape from their contracts. Through the schemes of the order in Indiana whole companies were broken up (a large detachment of a battery company, for instance, deserting on one occasion to the enemy with two of its guns), and the camps were imbued with a spirit of discontent and dissatisfaction with the service. Some estimate of the success of these efforts may be derived from a report of the Adjutant General of Indiana, of January, in 1863, setting forth that the number of deserters and absentees returned to the army through the post of Indianapolis alone during the month of December, 1862, was nearly 2,600.

As soon as arrests of these deserters began to be generally made writs of habeas corpus were issued in their cases by disloyal judges, and a considerable number were discharged thereon. In one instance in Indiana, where an officer in charge of a deserter properly refused to obey the writ, after it had been suspended in such cases by the President, his attachment for contempt was ordered by the chief justice of the State, who declared that "the streets of Indianapolis might run with blood, but that he would enforce his authority against the President's order." On another occasion certain U.S. officers who had made the arrest of deserters in Illinois were themselves arrested for kidnaping, and held to trial by a disloyal judge, who at the same time discharged the deserters, though acknowledging them to be such. Soldiers, upon deserting, were assured of immunity from punishment and protection on the part of the order, and were instructed to bring away with them their arms, and, if mounted, their horses. Details sent to arrest them by the military authorities were in several eases forcibly resisted, and, where not unusually strong in numbers, were driven back by large bodies of men, subsequently generally ascertained to be members of the order. Where arrests were effected our troops were openly attacked and fired upon on their return. Instances of such attacks occurring in Morgan and Rush Counties, Ind., are especially noticed by General Carrington. In the case of the outbreak in Morgan County, J. J. Bingham, editor of the Indianapolis Sentinel, a member or friend of the order, sought to forward to the disloyal newspapers of the West false and inflammatory telegraphic dispatches in regard to the affair, to the effect that cavalry had been sent to arrest all the Democrats in the country, that they had committed gross outrages, and that several citizens had been shot, and adding, "10,000 soldiers cannot hold the men arrested this night. Civil war and bloodshed are inevitable." The assertions in this dispatch were entirely false, and may serve to illustrate the fact heretofore noted, that a studious misrepresentation of the acts of the Government and its officers is a part of the prescribed duty of members of the order. It is proper to mention that seven of the party in Morgan County who made the attack upon our troops were convicted of their offense by a State court. Upon their trial it was proved that the party was composed of members of the Knights of the Golden Circle. One of the most pointed instances of protection afforded to deserters occurred in a case in Indiana where seventeen intrenched themselves in a log cabin with a ditch and palisade, and were furnished with provisions and sustained in their defense against our military authorities for a considerable period by the order or its friends.

Second. Discouraging enlistments and resisting the draft. It is especially inculcated by the order to oppose the re enforcement of our armies, either by volunteers or drafted men. In 1862 the Knights of the Golden Circle organized generally to resist the draft in the Western States, and were strong enough in certain localities to greatly embarrass the Government. In this year and early in 1863 a number of enrolling officers were shot in Indiana and Illinois. In Blackford County, Ind., an attack was made upon the court-house, and the books connected with the draft were destroyed. In several counties of the State a considerable military force was required for the protection of the U. S. officials, and a large number of arrests were made, including that of one Reynolds, an ex-Senator of the Legislature, for publicly urging upon the populace to resist the conscription, an offense of the same character, in fact, as that upon which Vallandigham was apprehended in Ohio. These outbreaks were no doubt in most cases incited by the order and engaged in by its members. In Indiana nearly 200 persons were indicted for conspiracy against the Government, resisting the draft, &c., and about sixty of these were convicted. Where members of the order were forced into the army by the draft they were instructed, in case they were prevented from presently escaping, and were obliged to go to the field, to use their arms against their fellow-soldiers, rather than the enemy, or, if possible, to desert to the enemy, by whom, through the signs of the order, they would be recognized and received as friends. Whenever a member volunteered in the army he was at once expelled from the order.

Third. Circulation of disloyal and treasonable publications. The order, especially in Missouri, has secretly circulated throughout the country a great quantity of treasonable publications, as a means of extending its own power and influence, as well as of giving encouragement to the disloyal and inciting them to treason. Of these some of the principal are the following: Pollard's Southern History of the War, Official Reports of the Confederate Government, Life of Stonewall Jackson, pamphlets containing articles from the Metropolitan Record, Abraham Africanus, or Mysteries of the White House, The Lincoln Catechism, or a Guide to the Presidential Election of 1864, Indestructible Organics, by Triga. These publications have generally been procured by formal requisitions drawn upon the grand commander by leading members in the interior of the State. One of these requisitions, dated June 10 last, and drawn by a local secretary of the order at Gentryville, Mo., is exhibited in the testimony. It contains a column of the initials of subscribers, opposite whose names are entered the number of the disloyal publications to be furnished, the particular book or books, &c., required being indicated by fictitious titles.

Fourth. Communicating with and giving intelligence to the enemy. Smith, grand secretary of the order in Missouri, says in his confession: "Rebel spies, mail carriers, and emissaries have been carefully protected by this order ever since I have been a member." It is shown in the testimony to be customary in the rebel service to employ members of the order as spies, under the guise of soldiers furnished with furloughs to visit their homes within our lines. On coming within the territory occupied by our forces they are harbored and supplied with information by members of the order. Another class of spies claim to be deserters from the enemy and at once seek an opportunity to take the oath of allegiance, which, however, though voluntarily taken, they claim to be administered while they are under a species of duress, and therefore not to be binding. Upon swearing allegiance to the Government the pretended deserter engages, with the assistance of the order, in collecting contraband goods or procuring intelligence to be conveyed to the enemy, or in some other treasonable enterprise. In his official report of June 12 last Colonel Sanderson remarks: "This department is filled with rebel spies, all of whom belong to the order."

In Missouri regular mail communication was for a long period maintained through the agency of the order from Saint Louis to Price's army, by means of which private letters as well as official dispatches between him and the grand commander of Missouri were regularly transmitted. The mail carriers started from a point on the Pacific railroad, near Kirkwood Station, about fourteen miles from Saint Louis, and, traveling only by night, proceeded (to quote from Colonel Sanderson's report) to Mattox Mills, on the Meramec River, thence past Mineral Point to Webster, thence to a point fifteen miles below Van Buren, where they crossed the Black River, and thence to the rebel lines. It is, probably, also by this route that the secret correspondence, stated by the witness Pitman to have been constantly kept up between Price and Vallandigham, the heads of the order at the North and South, respectively, was successfully maintained.

A similar communication has been continuously held with the enemy from Louisville, Ky. A considerable number of women in that State, many of them of high position in rebel society, and some of them outwardly professing to be loyal, were discovered to have been actively engaged in receiving and forwarding mails, with the assistance of the order and its instruments. Two of the most notorious and successful of these, Miss Woods and Miss Cassel, have been apprehended and imprisoned. By means of this correspondence with the enemy the members of the order were promptly apprised of all raids to be made by the forces of the former, and were able to hold themselves prepared to render aid and comfort to the raiders. To show how efficient for this purpose was the system thus established, it is to be added that our military authorities have, in a number of cases, been informed, through members of the order employed in the interest of the Government, of impending raids and important army movements of the rebels, not only days, but sometimes weeks, sooner than the same intelligence could have reached them through the ordinary channels. On the other hand, the system of espionage kept up by the order for the purpose of obtaining information of the movements of our own forces, &c., to be imparted to the enemy, seems to have been as perfect as it was secret. The grand secretary of the order in Missouri states in his confession:

One of the especial objects of this order was to place members on steam-boats, ferryboats, in telegraph offices, express offices, department headquarters, provost-marshal's office, and, in fact, in every position where they co,rid do valuable service. «60 R R--SERIES II, VOL VII»

And he proceeds to specify certain members who at the date of his confession (August 2 last) were employed at the express and telegraph offices in Saint Louis.

Fifth. Aiding the enemy, by recruiting for them, or assisting them to recruit, within our lines. This has also been extensively carried on by members of the order, particularly in Kentucky and Missouri. It is estimated that 2,000 men were sent south from Louisville alone during a few weeks in April and May, 1864. The order and its friends at that city have a permanent fund, to which there are many subscribers, for the purpose of fitting out with pistols, clothing, money, &c., men desiring to join the Southern service; and in the lodges of the order in Saint Louis and Northern Missouri money has often been raised to purchase horses, arms, and equipments for soldiers about to be forwarded to the Southern Army. In the latter State parties empowered by Price, or by Grand Commander Hunt as his representative, to recruit for the rebel service, were nominally authorized to "locate lands," as it was expressed, and in their reports, which were formally made, the number of acres, &c., located represented the number of men recruited. At Louisville those desiring to join the Southern forces were kept hidden and supplied with food and lodging until a convenient occasion was presented for their transportation South. They were then collected and conducted at night to a safe rendezvous of the order, whence they were forwarded to their destination, in some cases stealing horses from the U. S. corrals on their way. While awaiting an occasion to be sent South the men, to avoid the suspicion which might be excited by their being seen together in any considerable number, were often employed on farms in the vicinity of Louisville, and the farm of one Grant in that neighborhood (at whose house, also, meetings of the order were held) is indicated in the testimony as one of the localities where such recruits were rendezvoused and employed. The same facilities which were afforded to recruits for the Southern Army were also furnished by the order to persons desiring to proceed beyond our lines for any illegal purpose. By these Louisville was generally preferred as a point of departure, and on the Mississippi River a particular steamer, the Graham, was selected as the safest conveyance.

Sixth. Furnishing the rebels with arms, ammunition, &c. In this, too, the order, and especially its female members and allies, has been sedulously engaged. The rebel women of Louisville and Kentucky are represented as having rendered the most valuable aid to the Southern Army by transporting large quantities of percussion caps, powder, &c., concealed upon their persons, to some convenient locality near the lines, whence they could be readily conveyed to those for whom they were intended. It is estimated that at Louisville, up to May 1 last, the sum of $17,000 had been invested by the order in ammunition and arms, to be forwarded, principally in this manner, to the rebels. In Saint Louis several firms, who are well known to the Government, the principal of which is Beauvais & Co., have been engaged in supplying arms and ammunition to members of the order, to be conveyed to their Southern allies. Mary Ann Pitman, a reliable witness and a member of the Order of American Knights, who will hereafter be specially alluded to, states in her testimony that she visited Beauvais & Co. three times, and procured from them on each occasion about $80 worth of caps, besides a number of pistols and cartridges, which she carried in person to Forrest's command, as well as a much larger quantity of similar articles which she caused to be forwarded by other agents. The guerrillas in Missouri also received arms from Saint Louis, and one Douglas, one of the most active conspirators of the Order of American Knights in Missouri, and a special emissary of Price, was arrested while in the act of transporting a box of forty revolvers by railroad to a guerrilla camp in the interior of the State. Medical stores in large quantities were likewise, by the aid of the order, furnished to the enemy, and a young doctor, named Moore, said to be now a medical inspector in the rebel army, is mentioned as having made $75,000 by smuggling medicines, principally from Louisville, through the lines of our army. Supplies were in some cases conveyed to the enemy through the medium of professed loyalists, who, having received permits for that purpose from the U.S. military authorities, would forward their goods, as if for ordinary purposes of trade, to a certain point near the rebel lines, where, by the connivance of the owners, the enemy would be enabled to seize them.

Seventh. Cooperating with the enemy in raids and invasions. While it is clear that the order has given aid, both directly and indirectly, to the forces of the rebels and to guerrilla bands, when engaged in making incursions into the border States, yet because, on the one hand, of the constant restraint upon its action exercised by our military authorities, and on the other of the general success of our armies in the field over those of the enemy, their allies at the North have never thus far been able to carry out their grand plan of a general armed rising of the order and its co-operation on an extended scale with the Southern forces. This plan has been twofold, and consisted, first, of a rising of the order in Missouri, aided by a strong detachment from Illinois and a co-operation with a rebel army under Price; second, of a similar rising in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and a co-operation with a force under Breckinridge, Buckner, Morgan, or some other rebel commander, who was to invade the latter State. In this case the order was first to cut the railroads and telegraph wires, so that intelligence of the movement might not be sent abroad and the transportation of Federal troops might be delayed, and then to seize upon the arsenals at Indianapolis, Columbus, Springfield, Louisville, and Frankfort, and, furnishing such of their number as were without arms, to kill or make prisoners of department, district, and post commanders, release the rebel prisoners at Rock Island and at Camps Morton, Douglas, and Chase, and thereupon join the Southern army at Louisville or some other point in Kentucky, which State was to be permanently occupied by the combined force. At the period of the movement it was also proposed that an attack should be made upon Chicago by means of steam-tugs mounted with cannon. A similar course was to be taken in Missouri, and was to result in the permanent occupation of that State. This scheme has long occupied the minds of members of the order and has been continually discussed by them in their lodges. A rising somewhat of the character described was intended to have taken place in the spring of this year, simultaneously with an expected advance of the army of Lee upon Washington; but the plans of the enemy having been anticipated by the movements of our generals, the rising of the conspirators was necessarily postponed. Again, a general movement of the Southern forces was expected to occur about July 4, and with this the order was to co-operate. A speech to be made by Vallandigham at the Chicago Convention was, it is said, to be the signal for the rising; but the postponement of the convention, as well as the failure of the rebel armies to engage in the anticipated movement, again operated to disturb the programme of the order. During the summer, however, the grand plan of action above set forth has been more than ever discussed throughout the order, and its success most confidently predicted, while at the same time an extensive organization and preparation for carrying the conspiracy into effect have been actively going on. But up to this time, notwithstanding the late raids of the enemy in Kentucky and the invasion of Missouri by Price, no such general action on the part of the order as was contemplated has taken place; a result, in great part, owing to the activity of our military authorities in strengthening the detachments at the prisons, arsenals, &c., and in causing the arrest of the leading conspirators in the several States, and especially in the seizure of large quantities of arms which had been shipped for the use of the order in their intended outbreak. It was doubtless on account of these precautions that the day last appointed for the rising of the order in Indiana and Kentucky (August 16) passed by with but slight disorder.

It is, however, the inability of the public enemy, in the now declining days of the rebellion, to initiate the desired movements which has prevented the order from engaging in open warfare; and it has lately been seriously considered in their councils whether they should not proceed with their revolt, relying alone upon the guerrilla bands of Sypert, Jessee, and others for support and assistance. With these guerrillas the order has always most readily acted along the border, and in cases of capture by the Union forces of Northern members of the order engaged in co-operating with them, the guerrillas have frequently retaliated by seizing prominent Union citizens and holding them as hostages for the release of their allies. At other times our Government has been officially notified by the rebel authorities that if the members of the order captured were not treated by us as ordinary prisoners of war retaliation would be resorted to. An atrocious plan of concert between members of the order in Indiana and certain guerrilla bands of Kentucky, agreed upon last spring, may be here remarked upon. Some 2,500 or 3,000 guerrillas were to be thrown into the border counties, and were to assume the character of refugees seeking employment. Being armed, they were secretly to destroy Government property wherever practicable, and subsequently to control the elections by force, prevent enlistments, aid deserters, and stir up strife between the civil and military authorities. A singular feature of the raids of the enemy remains only to be adverted to, viz, that the officers conducting these raids are furnished by the rebel Government with quantities of U.S. Treasury notes for use within our lines, and that these are probably most frequently procured through the agency of members of the order. Mary Ann Pitman states that Forrest, of the rebel Army, at one time exhibited to her a letter to himself from a prominent rebel sympathizer and member of the order in Washington, D.C., in which it was set forth that the sum of $20,000 in greenbacks had actually been forwarded by him to the rebel Government at Richmond.

Eighth. Destruction of Government property. There is no doubt that large quantities of Government property have been burned or otherwise destroyed by the agency of the order in different localities. At Louisville, in the case of the steamer Taylor, and on the Mississippi River steamers belonging to the United States have been burned at the wharves, and generally when loaded with Government stores. Shortly before the arrest of Bowles, the senior of the major-generals of the order in Indiana,' he had been engaged in the preparation of "Greek fire," which it was supposed would be found serviceable in the destruction of public property. It was generally understood in the councils of the order in the State of Kentucky that they were to be compensated for such destruction by the rebel Government, by receiving a commission of 10 per cent. of the value of the property so destroyed, and that this value was to be derived from the estimate of the loss made in each case by Northern newspapers.

Ninth. Destruction of private property and persecution of loyal men. It is reported by General Carrington that the full development of the order in Indiana was followed by "a state of terrorism" among the Union residents of "portions of Brown, Morgan, Johnson, Rush, Clay, Sullivan, Bartholomew, Hendricks, and other counties" in that State; that from some localities individuals were driven away altogether; that in others their barns, hay, and wheatricks were burned, and that many persons, under the general insecurity of life and property, sold their effects at a sacrifice and removed to other places. At one time in Brown County the members of the order openly threatened the lives of all abolitionists who refused to sign a peace memorial which they had prepared and addressed to Congress. In Missouri, also, similar outrages committed upon the property of loyal citizens are attributable in a great degree to the secret order. Here the outbreak of the miners in the coal districts of Eastern Pennsylvania in the autumn of last year may be appropriately alluded to. It was fully shown in the testimony adduced upon the trial of these insurgents, who were guilty of the destruction of property and numerous acts of violence, as well as murder, that they were generally members of a secret treasonable association, similar in all respects to the Knights of the Golden Circle, at the meetings of which they had been incited to the commission of the crimes for which they were tried and convicted.

Tenth. Assassination and murder. After what has been disclosed in regard to this infamous league of traitors and ruffians it will not be a matter of surprise to learn that the cold blooded assassination of Union citizens and soldiers has been included in their devilish scheme of operations. Green B. Smith states in his confession that "the secret assassination of U.S. officers, soldiers, and Government employés has been discussed in the councils of the order and recommended." It is also shown in the course of the testimony that at a large meeting of the order in Saint Louis in May or June last it was proposed to form a secret police of members for the purpose of patrolling the streets of that city at night and killing every detective and soldier that could be readily disposed of; that this proposition was coolly considered, and finally rejected, not because of its fiendish character (no voice being raised against its criminality), but because only it was deemed premature. At Louisville in June last a similar scheme was discussed among the order for the waylaying and butchering of negro soldiers in the streets at night; and in the same month a party of its members in that city was actually organized for the purpose of throwing off the track of the Nashville railroad a train of colored troops and seizing the opportunity to take the lives of as many as possible. Again, in July the assassination of an obnoxious provost-marshal, by betraying him into the hands of guerrillas, was designed by members in the interior of Kentucky. Further, at a meeting of the grand council of Indiana at Indianapolis on June 14 last the murder of one Coffin, a Government detective, who, as it was supposed, had betrayed the order, was deliberately discussed and unanimously determined upon. This fact is stated by Stidger in his report to General Carrington of June 17 last, and is more fully set forth in his testimony upon the trial of Dodd. He deposes that at the meeting in question Dodd himself volunteered to go to Hamilton, Ohio, where Coffin was expected to be found, and there "dispose of the latter." He adds that prior to the meeting he himself conveyed from Judge Bullitt, at Louisville, to Bowles and Dodd, at Indianapolis, special instructions to have Coffin "put out of the way," "murdered"--"at all hazards." The opinion is expressed by Colonel Sanderson, under date of June 12 last, that "the recent numerous cold-blooded assassinations of military officers and unconditional Union men throughout the military district of North Missouri, especially along the western border," is to be ascribed to the agency of the order. The witness Pitman represents that it is a part of the obligation or understanding of the order "to kill officers and soldiers whenever it can be done by stealth," as well as loyal citizens when considered important or influential persons. And she adds that while at Memphis during the past summer she knew that men on picket were secretly killed by members of the order, approaching them in disguise.

In this connection may be recalled the wholesale assassination of Union soldiers by members of the order and their confederates at Charleston, Ill., in March last, in regard to which, as a startling episode of the rebellion, a fall report was addressed from this office to the President, under date of July 26 last. This concerted murderous assault upon a scattered body of men, mostly unarmed, apparently designed for the mere purpose of destroying as many lives of Union soldiers as possible, is a forcible illustration of the utter malignity and depravity which characterize the members of this order in their zeal to commend themselves as allies to their fellow-conspirators at the South.

Eleventh. Establishment of a Northwestern Confederacy. In concluding this review of some of the principal specific purposes of the order, it remains only to remark upon a further design of many of its leading members, the accomplishment of which they are represented as having deeply at heart. Hating New England, and jealous of her influence and resources, and claiming that the interests of the West and South, naturally connected as they are through the Mississippi Valley, are identical, and actuated further by an intensely revolutionary spirit as well as an unbridled and unprincipled ambition, these men have made the establishment of a Western or Northwestern Confederacy, in alliance with the South, the grand aim and end of all their plotting and conspiring. It is with this steadily in prospect that they are constantly seeking to produce discontent, disorganization, and civil disorder at the North. With this in view they gloat over every reverse of the armies of the Union, and desire that the rebellion shall be protracted until the resources of the Government shall be exhausted, its strength paralyzed, its currency hopelessly depreciated, and confidence everywhere destroyed. Then, from the anarchy which, under their scheme, is to ensue, the new confederacy is to arise, which is either to unite itself with that of the South, or to form therewith a close and permanent alliance. Futile and extravagant as this scheme may appear, it is yet the settled purpose of many leading spirits of the secret conspiracy, and is their favorite subject of thought and discussion. Not only is this scheme deliberated upon in the lodges of the order, but is openly proclaimed. Members of the Indiana Legislature, even, have publicly announced it, and avowed that they will take their own State out of the Union and recognize the independence of the South. A citizen captured by a guerrilla band in Kentucky last summer records the fact that the establishment of a new confederacy as the deliberate purpose of the Western people was boastfully asserted by these outlaws, who also assured their prisoner that in the event of such establishment there would be "a greater rebellion than ever!" Lastly, it is claimed that the new confederacy is already organized; that it has a "provisional government," officers, departments, bureaus, &c., in secret operation. No comment is necessary to be made upon this treason, not now contemplated for the first time in our history. Suggested by the present rebellion, it is the logical consequence of the ardent and utter sympathy therewith which is the life and inspiration of the secret order.

VIII.--THE WITNESSES AND THEIR TESTIMONY.

The facts detailed in the present report have been derived from a great variety of dissimilar sources, but all the witnesses, however different their situations, concur so pointedly in their testimony that the evidence which has thus been furnished must be accepted as of an entirely satisfactory character. The principal witnesses may be classified as follows:

First. Shrewd, intelligent men, employed as detectives, and with a peculiar talent for their calling, who have gradually gained the confidence of leading members of the order, and in some cases have been admitted to its temples and been initiated into one or more of the degrees. The most remarkable of these is Stidger, formerly a private soldier in our army, who, by the use of an uncommon address, though at great personal risk, succeeded in establishing such intimate relations with Bowled, Bullitt, Dodd, and other leaders of the order in Indiana and Kentucky as to be appointed grand secretary for the latter State, a position the most favorable for obtaining information of the plans of these traitors and warning the Government of their intentions. It is to the rare fidelity of this man, who has also been the principal witness upon the trial of Dodd, that the Government has been chiefly indebted for the exposure of the designs of the conspirators in the two States named.

Second. Rebel officers and soldiers voluntarily or involuntarily making disclosures to our military authorities. The most valuable witnesses of this class are prisoners of war, who, actuated by laudable motives, have of their own accord furnished a large amount of information in regard to the order, especially as it exists in the South, and of the relations of its members with those of the Northern section. Among these, also, are soldiers at our prison camps, who, without designing it, have made known to our officials, by the use of the signs, &c., of the order, that they were members.

Third. Scouts employed to travel through the interior of the border States, and also within or in the neighborhood of the enemy's lines. The fact that some of these were left entirely ignorant of the existence of the order, upon being so employed, attaches an increased value to their discoveries in regard to its operations.

Fourth. Citizen prisoners, to whom, while in confinement, disclosures were made relative to the existence, extent, and character of the order by fellow-prisoners who were leading members, and who, in some instances, upon becoming intimate with the witness, initiated him into one of the degrees.

Fifth. Members of the order, who, upon a full acquaintance with its principles, have been appalled by its infamous designs, and have voluntarily abandoned it, freely making known their experience to our military authorities. In this class may be placed the female witness, Mary Ann Pitman, who, though in arrest at the period of her disclosures, was yet induced to make them for the reason that, as she says, "at the last meeting which I attended they passed an order which I consider as utterly atrocious and barbarous; so I told them I would have nothing more to do with them." This woman was attached to the command of the rebel Forrest, as an officer under the name of Lieutenant Rawley; but because her sex afforded her unusual facilities for crossing our lines she was often employed in the execution of important commissions within our territory, and, as a member of the order, was made extensively acquainted with other members, both of the Northern and Southern sections. Her testimony is thus peculiarly valuable, and being a person of unusual intelligence and force of character, her statements are succinct, pointed, and emphatic. They are also especially useful as fully corroborating those of other witnesses regarded as most trustworthy.

Sixth. Officers of the order of high rank, who have been prompted to present confessions, more or less detailed, in regard to the order and their connection with it. The principals of these are Hunt, Dunn, and Smith, grand commander, deputy grand commander, and grand secretary of the order in Missouri, to whose statements frequent reference has been made. These confessions, though in some degree guarded and disingenuous, have furnished to the Government much important information as to the operations of the order, especially in Missouri, the affiliation of its leaders with Price, &c. It is to be noted that Dunn makes the statement, in common with other witnesses, that in entering the order he was quite ignorant of its ultimate purposes. He says: "I -did not become a member understandingly; the initiatory step was taken in the dark, without reflection and without knowledge."

Seventh. Deserters from our army, who, upon being apprehended, confessed that they had been induced and assisted to desert by members of the order. It was, indeed, principally from these confessions that the existence of the secret treasonable organization of the Knights of the Golden Circle was first discovered in Indiana in the year 1862.

Eighth. Writers of anonymous communications, addressed to heads of departments or provost-marshals, disclosing facts corroborative of other more important statements.

Ninth. The witnesses before the grand jury at Indianapolis in 1863, when the order was formally presented as a treasonable organization, and those whose testimony has been recently introduced upon the trial of Dodd.

It need only be added that a most satisfactory test of the credibility and weight of much of the evidence which has been furnished is afforded by the printed testimony in regard to the character and intention of the order, which is found in its national and State constitutions and its ritual. Indeed, the statements of the various witnesses are but presentations of the logical and inevitable consequences and results of the principles therein set forth.

In concluding this review it remains only to state that a constant reference has been made to the elaborate official reports in regard to the order of Brigadier-General Carrington, commanding District of Indiana, and of Colonel Sanderson, provost-marshal-general of the Department of Missouri. The great mass of the testimony upon the subject of this conspiracy has been furnished by these officers, the latter acting under the orders of Major-General Rosecrans, and the former co-operating with Major-General Burbridge, commanding District of Kentucky, as well as with Governor Morton, of Indiana, who, though at one time greatly embarrassed by a Legislature strongly tainted with disloyalty, in his efforts to repress this domestic enemy has at last seen his State relieved from the danger of a civil war. But although the treason of the order has been thoroughly exposed, and although its capacity for fatal mischief has, by means of the arrest of its leaders, the seizure of its arms, and the other vigorous means which have been pursued, been seriously impaired, it is still busied with its plottings against the Government and with its perfidious designs in aid of the Southern rebellion. It is reported to have recently adopted new signs and passwords, and its members assert that foul means will be used to prevent the success of the Administration at the coming election, and threaten an extended revolt in the event of the re-election of President Lincoln.

In the presence of the rebellion and of this secret order, which is but its echo and faithful ally, we cannot but be amazed at the utter and widespread profligacy, personal and political, which these movements against the Government disclose. The guilty men engaged in them, after casting aside their allegiance, seem to have trodden under foot every sentiment of honor and every restraint of law, human and divine. Judea produced but one Judas Iscariot, and Rome, from the sinks of her demoralization, produced but one Catiline; and yet, as events prove, there has arisen in our land an entire brood of such traitors, all animated by the same parricidal spirit, and all struggling with the same relentless malignity for the dismemberment of our Union. Of this extraordinary phenomenon, not paralleled, it is believed, in the world's history, there can be but one explanation, and all these blackened and fetid streams of crime may well be traced to the same common fountain. So fiercely intolerant and imperious was the temper engendered by slavery, that when the Southern people, after having controlled the national councils for half a century, were beaten at an election, their leaders turned upon the Government with the insolent fury with which they would have drawn their revolvers on a rebellious slave in one of their negro quarters; and they have continued since to prosecute their warfare amid all the barbarisms and atrocities naturally and necessarily inspired by the infernal institution in whose interests they are sacrificing alike themselves and their country. Many of these conspirators, as is well known, were fed, clothed, and educated at the expense of the nation, and were loaded with its honors at the very moment they struck at its life with the horrible criminality of a son stabbing the bosom of his mother while impressing kisses on her cheeks. The leaders of the traitors in the loyal States, who so completely fraternize with these conspirators and whose machinations are now unmasked, it is as clearly the duty of the Administration to prosecute and punish as it is its duty to subjugate the rebels who are openly in arms against the Government. In the performance of this duty it is entitled to expect, and will doubtless receive, the zealous cooperation of true men everywhere, who, in crushing the truculent foe ambushed in the haunts of this secret order, should rival in courage and faithfulness the soldiers who are so nobly sustaining our flag on the battlefields of the South.

Respectfully submitted.

J. HOLT,

Judge-Advocate- General

[Andrew Fraize]

Re: Report on the Order of American Knights (long)

Interesting reading.

This the organization the KKK evolved into?

[markj]

Re: Report on the Order of American Knights (long)

I have a good academic friend who is currently putting together what promises to be the most comprehensive look at the activities of secret, pro-Southern organizations within Indiana borders. The traditional "last word" on this subject has been found in the writings of Frank Klement:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2004/is_1_46/ai_62794220

However, my friend has dug up a tremendous amount of new information at the National Archives over the past three years establishing that much of Klement's thesis, claiming that allegations of serious Copperhead plots against the Indiana state government were "wanton fabrications" by Oliver Morton, et. al., to justify internal repression, is nothing short of bulls***. Klement was either unaware of or ignored an incredible amount of documentation at both the state and federal levels that contradicted his assertions.

There WERE, in fact, plots against the Indiana state government and O. P. Morton and his right-hand military adviser, Henry Carrington, took them very seriously and dealt with them accordingly (their running of spy rings and infiltration of subversive groups would have made the CIA and FBI proud). My friend's article should be appearing in an academic journal in the near future so, if anyone is interested, I'll let them know when it comes out.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[KentuckyReb]

Re: Report on the Order of American Knights (long)

I'd definitely be interested in that article, Mark. I'll shoot you my Email for when it comes out. I've been interested in the events that took place in the Indiana Legislature in the summer of '63 for some time, toying with a book idea.