senator, formulated the OLS ritual, and Pierre Soule, another U.S. John Henderson, a Mississippi cotton planter and U.S. “To continue the mission of freeing Cuba from Spanish rule and eventually annexing it to the United States as a slaveholding territory, Cuban ex-patriots and southern adventurers formed the Order of the Lone Star in 1851 at the offices of the pro-expansionist Lafayette (La.) True Delta newspaper. The Knights of the Golden Circle grew out of an older established group based in Texas called the Order of the Lone Star: “We have the invitation of four State Governors to come and shall receive their cooperation if only we take care of the people of those States.” Manuel Doblado, second in command of the Liberal army and governor of Guanajuato Province, also had reportedly reached an understanding with the KGC’s emissaries. Northern Mexican stongman Santiago Vidaurri was a committed KGC supporter and actively cooperated with its leaders. In Crabb’s unfortunate case, the Mexican army captured and systematically executed him and his company of one thousand men.īickley and the KGC sought to use the shaky position of the Liberals to advance their goal of expansion southward. Participants in each risked the outcome of the 1857 expedition into Sonora led by California state senator Henry Crabb. This was nipped in the bud by Mexico’s central army, but between 18, five separate U.S.-based filibuster expeditions had been launched to try to wrest portions of Mexico’s northern provinces. In 1840, Texans had backed an attempt by Mexican Federalist Party leaders, including northern strongman Vidaurri, to declare independence from Mexico’s central government and create an independent “Republic of the Rio Grande” to include the four provinces. These provinces were barren and sparsely populated, but Sonora, as well as Guanajuato Province to the immediate south, were rich in silver, gold, and other minerals. filibusters had long been lusting after Mexico’s four northern-tier provinces – Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora. Keehn’s new book Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil Warthat sheds light on the KGC and their activities in Northern Mexico:
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