Albert Pike

Albert Pike (1807-1891). Photo circa 1865-1880. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Albert Pike
December 29, 1809(1809-Template:MONTHNUMBER-29) – April 2, 1891(1891-Template:MONTHNUMBER-02) (aged 81)
AlbertPikeYounger.jpeg Albert Pike
Place of birth	Boston, Massachusetts
Place of death	Washington, D.C.
Place of burial	Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Allegiance	Template:Country data Confederate States of America
Service/branch	U.S. Army Confederate States of America army
Years of service	1846 – 1847 (USA) 1861 – 1862 (CSA)
Rank	Captain(USA) Brigadier General (CSA)
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War

Albert Pike (December 29, 1809 - April 2, 1891) was an American poet who worked as teacher, attorney, soldier, and journalist.

Life

Overview

Pike, born at Boston, Massachusetts, was in his early days a teacher, and afterwards a successful lawyer. His now little-remembered poems were chiefly written under the inspiration of Coleridge and Keats. His chief work, "Hymns to the Gods," which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, closely imitates the latter. He also wrote prose sketches.

Family, youth, education

Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, son of Ben and Sarah (Andrews) Pike, and spent his childhood in Byfield, and Newburyport, Massachusetts. His colonial ancestors included John Pike (1613-1688/1689), the founder of Woodbridge, New Jersey.

Albert Pike attended school in Newburyport and Framingham until he was 15. In August 1825, he passed entrance exams at Harvard University, though when the college requested payment of tuition fees for the first 2 years which he had successfully challenged by examination, he chose not to attend.

He began a program of self-education, later becoming a schoolteacher in Gloucester, North Bedford, Fairhaven and Newburyport.

Early career

This Week in Arkansas History, Episode 56 "Albert Pike"

In 1831, Pike left Massachusetts to travel west, stopping in St. Louis, Missouri, and later moving on to Independence, Missouri. In Independence, he joined an expedition to Taos, New Mexico, hunting and trading. During the excursion his horse broke and ran, forcing Pike to walk the remaining 500 miles to Taos. After this he joined a trapping expedition to the Llano Estacado in New Mexico and Texas. Trapping was minimal and, after traveling about 1300 miles (650 on foot), he finally arrived at Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Settling in Arkansas in 1833, Pike taught school and wrote a series of articles for the Little Rock Arkansas Advocate under the pen name of "Casca." The articles were popular enough that he was asked to join the newspaper's staff. Later, after marrying Mary Ann Hamilton, he purchased part of the newspaper with the dowry.(Citation needed) By 1835, he was the Advocate's sole owner. Under Pike's administration the Advocate promoted the viewpoint of the Whig Party in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas.

Pike then began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1837, selling the Advocate the same year. He was the first reporter for the Arkansas supreme court and also wrote a book (published anonymously), titled The Arkansas Form Book, which was a guidebook for lawyers.(Citation needed) Additionally, Pike wrote on several legal subjects and continued producing poetry, a hobby he had begun in his youth in Massachusetts. His poems were highly regarded in his day, but are now mostly forgotten. Several volumes of his works were privately published posthumously by his daughter. In 1859, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard.

U.S. army career

File:Albert Pike statue, Washington (558221844).jpg

Statue at Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C.

When the Mexican-American War started, Pike joined the Regiment of Arkansas Mounted Volunteers (a cavalry regiment) and was commissioned as a troop commander with the rank of captain in June 1846. With his regiment, he fought in the Battle of Buena Vista. Pike was discharged in June 1847. He and his commander, Colonel John Selden Roane, had several differences of opinion. This situation led finally to an "inconclusive" duel between Pike and Roane on July 29, 1847 near Fort Smith, Arkansas. Although several shots were fired in the duel, nobody was injured, and the two were persuaded by their seconds to discontinue it.(Citation needed)

After the war, Pike returned to the practice of law, moving to New Orleans for a time beginning in 1853.(Citation needed) He wrote another book, Maxims of the Roman Law and some of the Ancient French Law, as Expounded and Applied in Doctrine and Jurisprudence.(Citation needed) Although unpublished, this book increased his reputation among his associates in law. He returned to Arkansas in 1857, gaining some amount of prominence in the legal field and becoming an advocate of slavery, although retaining his affiliation with the Whig Party.

In 1847 Pike became disillusioned when the Whig Party refused to take a stand on slavery. His anti-Catholicism stand led him to join the Know Nothing movement when it was organized in 1856, but was again disappointed when it refused to adopt a strong pro-slavery platform. He joined the other Southern delegates and walked out of the convention. His stand was that state's rights superseded national law and supported the idea of a Southern secession. This stand is made clear in his pamphlet of 1861, "State or Province, Bond or Free?"

Civil War

The World Wars Of Albert Pike

When the war started he took the side of the Confederacy. At the Southern Commercial Convention of 1854, Pike said the South should remain in the Union and seek equality with the North, but if the South "were forced into an inferior status, she would be better out of the Union than in it."

He also made several contacts among the Native American tribes in the area, at one time negotiating an $800,000 settlement between the Creeks and other tribes and the federal government. This relationship was to influence the course of his Civil War service. At the beginning of the war, Pike was appointed as Confederate envoy to the Native Americans. In this capacity he negotiated several treaties, one of the most important being with Cherokee chief John Ross, which was concluded in 1861.

Pike was commissioned as a brigadier general on November 22, 1861, and given a command in the Indian Territory. With Gen. Ben McCulloch, Pike trained three Confederate regiments of Indian cavalry, most of whom belonged to the "civilized tribes", whose loyalty to the Confederacy was variable. Although initially victorious at the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in March, Pike's unit was defeated later in a counterattack, after falling into disarray. Also, as in the previous war, Pike came into conflict with his superior officers, at one time drafting a letter to Jefferson Davis complaining about his direct superior.(Citation needed)

After Pea Ridge, Pike was faced with charges that his troops had scalped soldiers in the field. Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman also charged Pike with mishandling of money and material, ordering his arrest. Both these charges were later found to be considerably lacking in evidence; nevertheless Pike, facing arrest, escaped into the hills of Arkansas, sending his resignation from the Confederate Army on July 12. He was at length arrested on November 3 under charges of insubordination and treason, and held briefly in Warren, Texas, but his resignation was accepted on November 11 and he was allowed to return to Arkansas.

Freemasonry

33 Degree Freemason, General Albert Pike, History - FULL LENGTH

He first joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1840, then had in the interim joined a Masonic Lodge and became extremely active in the affairs of the organization, being elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction in 1859. He remained Sovereign Grand Commander for the remainder of his life (a total of thirty-two years), devoting a large amount of his time to developing the rituals of the order. Notably, he published a book called Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1871, of which there were several subsequent editions.

Pike is still regarded in America as an eminent and influential Freemason, primarily only in the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction.

Death and legacy

Pike died in Washington, D.C., aged 81, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. Burial was against his wishes; he had left instructions for his body to be cremated. In 1944, his remains were moved to the House of the Temple, headquarters of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite.

Writing

As a young man, Pike wrote poetry which he continued to do for the rest of his life. At 23, he published his 1st poem, “Hymns to the Gods.” Later work was printed in literary journals like Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine and local newspapers. His first collection of poetry, Prose Sketches and Poems Written in the Western Country, appeared in 1834. He later gathered many of his poems and republished them in Hymns to the Gods and Other Poems (1872). After his death these appeared again in Gen. Albert Pike’s Poems (1900) and Lyrics and Love Songs (1916).

Publications

Poetry

• Prose Sketches and Poems Written in the Western Country. Boston: Light & Horton, 1834; Albuquerque, NM: Calvin Horn, 1967;
  • (edited by David Weber). Texas A&M University Press, 1987
• Hymns to the Gods, and other poems. New Orleans, LA: 1870; privately published, 1872; Washington, DC, 1882; Little Rock, AR: Fred W. Allsopp, 1916.
• Gen. Albert Pike's Poems. Little Rock, AR: Fred. W. Allsopp, 1900.
• Lyrics and Love Songs. Little Rock, AR: Fred. W. Allsopp, 1916.

Non-fiction

• Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas, in Law and Equity. (5 volumes), Little Rock, AR: Printed by Budd & Colby, 1840, 1845. Little Rock, AR: Press Print., 1888, 1889) [vol.2 :: online text]
• Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Charleston: 1871; New York: Masonic Publishing, 1874. Ke[online text]
• The Proch and the Middle Chamber, the Book of the Lodge. 1872.
• Letter of Albert Pike to the Choctaw People. Washington: printed by Cunningham & McIntosh, 1872.
• Foulhouzeism and Cerneauism Scourged: Dissection of a manifesto. New York: Press of J.J. Little, 1884.
• The Point Within a Circle: A lecture .Lexington, KY: Lexington Class in Symbolism, 1911.
• Narrative of a Journey Across the Plains;;. Conway, AR: Arkansas Historical Association, Conway, 1917.
• What Masonry Is And Its Objects. New Orleans, LA: A.W. Hyatt Stationery, 1919.
• The Meaning of Masonry. Washington, DC: Masonic Service Association of the United States, 1924.
• Irano-Aryan faith and Doctrine: As contained in the Zend Avesta. Louisville, KY: Standard Printing, 1924.
• Indo-Aryan Deities and Worship as Contained in the Rig-Veda. Louisville, KY: Standard Printing, 1930; Kila, MT: Kessinger, 1997. 1-56459-183-2
• Lectures of the Arya. Louisville, KY: Standard Printing, 1930.
• Report of Albert Pike On Mission to the Indian Nations, Richmond, 1861. Washington, DC: Supreme Council, 1968.
• Pythagoras and Hermes. Edmonds, WA: Holmes, 1993.
• The Book of the Words. Kila, MT: Kessinger, 1996. ISBN 1-56459-161-1

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy West Virginia University.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

References

• Abel, Annie (2007). The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War. City: BiblioBazaar. ISBN 1-4264-6170-4. 
• Allsopp, Fred (1997). Albert Pike a Biography. City: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-56459-134-4. 
• Brown, Walter (1997). A Life of Albert Pike. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-469-5. 
• Cousin, John (2003). Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. City: Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0-7661-4348-1. 
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Morris, S. Brent (2006). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry. Alpha Books. ISBN 1-59257-490-4. 
• Smith, Dean E. "Pike, Albert" in Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War, edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. ISBN 978-0-06-273116-6.
• Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.

External links

Poems

• Pike's words for Dixie ("Everybody's Dixie", also known as "To Arms in Dixie")

Books

• Works by Albert Pike at Project Gutenberg
• Albert Pike at Internet Archive
• Albert Pike at Amazon.com

About

• Albert Pike (1809-1891) at Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and poetry
• Pike's Masonic philosophy
• Albert Pike: Hero or Scoundrel?
• About Pike's famous Luciferian quote

Etc.

• Albert Pike commemorative Masonic Lodge - Located in Denver CO
• Lafferty, R.A. (1991). Okla Hannali. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2349-4.