K.G.C. An authentic exposition of the origin, objects, andsecret work of the organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle.

handby side.) The silent sign is c (left hand on back of head.) The answer is d
(right hand on forehead, then extended.) The night sign is e (two distinct claps
of hands, and repeat once.) The test sign isf (finger and thumb of left hand take
hold of lip.) The sacred word is g (Eloi.) The password is h (Andalusia), and 1to
this is added in parenthesis, " Notice instructions in use of words." The night
word given with e is i (high.) The grip is j (as given.) The pass grip is k (same
with left hand still holding by right.) The token or emblem is I (same as shown.)
The answer tof is m (right thumb and fore finger on pit of stomach.)
The following is the secret alphabet of the K. G. C. It is to be written on ruled
paper, the rule line forming the base, whence the various characters radiate:'A B O C D E F G H I J K L M N
\ / -'1'
PQRS T U VW X Y Z &.. \. 9 L.L V A S =
That's all we have at present to give, and, as we have said, it may be relied on
as authentic. It is a revelation of the mysteries of an Order which claims to be,
and no doubt is, powerful in our land. Its emissaries have lured into it thousands
of young men, by impressing them with utterly false ideas of its nature and designs. The members of the First and Second Degrees know nothing of the Third,
although they are unwittingly guided and controlled by it. Let them examine
the revolting character of the obligations of the Third Degree, and then make all
haste to repudiate an organization that deserves the scorn and abhorrence of all
just men.
The Roman Catholics and foreign-born citizens will find much in the Ritual of
the Third Degree deserving their attention. Irishmen, in particular, will meet
with something interesting to themselves.
The K. G. C.'s of the Third Degree, it -seems, look keenly to office. They require
that all of the members of their Degree shall have offices before any member of the
Sccond Degree can be accommodated, and that all the members of the Second Degree shall be provided with offices before a solitary individual of the First can be
accommodated. But then they say that they are going to have thousands of offices,
and they mean that the incumbents of officez shall hold on for life.
It is no wonder that the members of the Third Degree, Knights of the Columbian Star, as they call themselves, guard carefully in their Ritual against ever
being known as such, even to their brethren of the First and Second Degrees.
Let all bear steadily in mind that the Order of Knights of the Golden Circle is
now and has all along been the central sun of the Secession party of, Kentucky
In a subsequent issue of the Louisville Journal, the editor says:
We have every reason to believe that the blow which we dealt to the Order of the
Knights of the Golden Circle in publishing their rituals, signs, passwords, &c., was
a death-blow. The Order may linger.on for a time, but the remnant of its existence
is destined to be miserably sickly and very brief. Our exposition has been published everywhere, except in the South, the papers in that section not having the
virtue or the courage to aid in revealing the character of an Order devoted to Disunion, no matter how shameful and wicked its principles may be.
Three or four of the Secession newspapers, evidently grateful to the Knights of
the Golden Circle for their active and important political aid, have spoken of our
exposition as "bogus." None of them, audacious as they are, have ventured to
assert directly that our exposition was not genuine and strictly correct, for they
know that it was, and they furthermore know that they could not assert the contrary without causing themselves to be regarded by the universal public as unscrupulous falsifiers. If we deemed it at all necessary for the accomplishment of an.
important purpose to prove the genuineness and truth of what we published, we
could readily do so, but it is not necessary, for no one has or can have an honest
doubt upon the subject. How. we obtained the secrets of the Order we shall never
state; it is enough to say, that we received them in such a way that we had a right
to give them to the world.
The whole number of persons that have been admitted into the Order in this city
is nearly or quite three thousand, but by far the greater part of them were from
other places, and a good many have gone as adventurers to the Southern Confederacy. The number of members of the First and Second Degrees now in this city is
perhaps four or five hundred. Not a few of them are honest and well-meaning