THE 
 
 IFE STORY 
 
 ' : * . : ' ' ' 
 
Copyright, 1920, by 
 
 FRED W. ALLSOPP 
 
 Little Rock, Ark. 
 
 From the Press of 
 
 PARKE-HARPER, AUDIGIER & PRICE 
 
 Little Rock, Ark. 
 
ALBERT PIKE 
 
LII 
 
 The 
 
 ff 
 
 By FRED W. ALLSOPP 
 
 But the truer life draws nigher, 
 
 Every year; 
 And its morning star climbs higher, 
 
 Every year; 
 
 Earth's hold on us grows slighter, 
 And the heavy burden lighter, 
 And the Dawn Immortal brighter, 
 
 Every year. 
 
 Published by 
 
 PARKE-HARPER NEWS SERVICE 
 
 Little Rock, Ark. 
 1920. 
 
,/U 
 
icroft Li i 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Chapter I Pike's Struggle for an Education and 
 Desire for a Freer Life. 
 
 Chapter II His First Adventure in the West. 
 
 Chapter III Entering the Staked Plains. 
 
 Chapter IV Following the Old Santa Fe Trail. 
 
 Chapter V Arrival at Fort Smith. 
 
 Chapter VI Removal to Little Rock. 
 
 Chapter VII His Marriage. 
 
 Chapter VIII Engages in the Practice of Law. 
 
 Chapter IX His Oratorical Ability His Public 
 Services. 
 
 Chapter X Takes Up Arms in the War With Mexico. 
 
 Chapter XI Duel With John Selden Roane. 
 
 Chapter XII Service in the Confederate Army. 
 
 Chapter XIII His Work as an Author. 
 
 Chapter XIV Activities of His Later Years His Ma- 
 sonic Career Takes Up Residence in 
 Washington City. 
 
 Chapter XV The Wake of "The Fine Arkansas Gen- 
 tleman." 
 
 Chapter XVI The Close of an Eventful Life. 
 
CHARLES E. ROSENBAUM, 33 
 
 LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS 
 LIEUTENANT GRAND COMMANDER 
 
 SUPREME COUNCIL 
 ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY 
 
 SOUTHERN JURISDICTION 
 
 SOVEREIGN GRAND INSPECTOR GENERAL 
 
 IN ARKANSAS 
 
 Mr. Clio Harper, Esq. 
 
 Little Rock, Arkansas. 
 My Dear Brother Harper: 
 
 You have kindly placed before me the proof sheets of "The 
 Life Story of Albert Pike," written by Mr. Fred Allsopp, and 
 you have both insistently requested that I should add a preface 
 that in some manner might be helpful. 
 
 I have said to you that I very much prefer not to comply with 
 this request, but because both yourself and Mr. Allsopp are so 
 deeply interested in this subject, and because you are both friends 
 of mine, I very reluctantly yield. 
 
 After all, what is there to be said in a brief space, of this truly 
 Great Man, great in so many ways, after the very readable and 
 very attractive story contained in this volume? 
 
 Surely there is little I might add, beyond expressing my sincere 
 appreciation of the work itself, and that Mr. Allsopp and yourself 
 will give many, very many Masons, throughout the United States, 
 an opportunity of reading much of the history of the Man and 
 Mason so well loved in life, and whose memory is so sincerely 
 and affectionately cherished. 
 
 There might be volumes written of the works of General Pike, 
 and then the half would not be told. But it seems to me this 
 "Life Story" well covers incidents and characteristics of his life, 
 many of which never before have been touched on, that will prove 
 of great interest to all. 
 
 General Pike was a very industrious writer, and everything he 
 
wrote was in his own handwriting, which was small, even and 
 very beautiful. He never, so far as my information goes, used 
 anything except quill pens, and these he made and kept sharpened 
 himself. 
 
 In addition to the Honorary Life memberships bestowed on 
 General Pike, as noted in the story, there were many others of a 
 Masonic and Civic nature, and in the Pike section of our great 
 Library in the beautiful House of the Temple in Washington, 
 there are many elaborately engrossed parchments from almost 
 all parts of the world, giving evidence of the great esteem in 
 which he was held by his Masonic Brethren. 
 
 The Library itself was created largely by General Pike, and 
 after he built it up to what is said to be the most valuable private 
 library we know, he gave it to the Supreme Council, and it is now 
 conducted, with some additions by our Supreme Council, for the 
 use of the public as well as members of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 The portrait in the State Capitol referred to in the life story 
 was painted from a photograph I loaned the artist who painted 
 the portrait. It calls to my memory the circumstances under 
 which the photograph came to me. A little party from this State 
 visited the General, and he had two photographs on the mantel, 
 which had just been taken and delivered to him. Before we left, 
 one of these photographs was given to the late Maj. James A. 
 Henry of this city, and the other, much to my great delight, came 
 to me, and is now hanging on the wall in my home. 
 
 We cherish this photograph because of its peculiar associations. 
 The visit itself was a memorable one to us, surrounded as we 
 were by a myriad of birds singing in their cages, cherished tokens 
 from many friends in evidence everywhere. In this setting was 
 the General, in the best of spirits, telling one story after another 
 of old friends in this State, and asking after relatives of those 
 who were then present. 
 
 The photograph I have, I believe, was the last that General 
 Pike had taken. 
 
 CHARLES E. ROSENBAUM. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 One of the giants of the early days in the Southwest 
 was General Albert Pike, who resided in Arkansas from 
 1832, intermittently, up to the close of the Civil War. 
 
 He left a lasting impression on the times, because he 
 was a man who played a distinguished part in the world, 
 or, rather, for the reason that he distinguished himself 
 by acting many parts well. As one writer observes, "he 
 touched all the elements of romance and adventure that 
 existed in the Southwest, from the wild Indian tribes, 
 into one of which he had been adopted, and of which 
 he is said to have been a chief, to the composition of 
 verses which had found recognition and appreciation so 
 far away and from such high authority as Blackwood's 
 (Edinburgh) Magazine." 
 
 Indeed, his adventurous life reads like wild romance, 
 and the events in which he participated furnish an in- 
 teresting contrast between the men and movements of 
 those pioneer times and those of today under the more 
 favorable conditions which exist. 
 
 Whether or not it is due in any degree to the halo 
 that tradition gradually brings to the memory of great 
 men, it would seem that those who dominated the South- 
 western country fifty to seventy-five years ago were 
 bigger and brainier than the average man of today. In 
 any event, it was not the faint-hearted who conquered 
 the wilds, but strong men, like Albert Pike. 
 
 Two characters that will ever live in Arkansas song 
 and story are Sandy Faulkner's "Arkansaw Traveler" 
 and Albert Pike. The imaginary character has often 
 brought derision to the state; the real life of the other 
 has added to its lustre. 
 
THa LaiF Sftory IF ASlb5ft Pike 
 
 & 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR AN EDUCATION, AND THE DESIRE FOR 
 A FREER LIFE. 
 
 First came Ambition, with his discous eye, 
 
 And tiger-spring, and hot and eager speed, 
 
 Flushed cheek, imperious glance, demeanor high; 
 He in the portal striding his black steed, 
 
 Stained fetlock-deep with red blood not yet dry, 
 And flecked with foam, did wild cohort lead 
 
 Down the rough mountain, heedless of the crowd 
 
 Of slaves that round the altar-steps yet bowed. 
 
 In August, 1825, a tall, eager, well-formed lad of 
 sixteen left his home at Newburyport, Mass., and went 
 to Boston, his birth place. Hurrying over to Cam- 
 bridge, he sprinted up the steps to Harvard's main build- 
 ing and into the office of the registrar. The unknown 
 youth stood smiling, with glinting eyes, looking like a 
 modern Mercury, full of nerve, ambition and active 
 optimism. After a little patient waiting, cap in hand, 
 his worn clothes not at all impressing the authorities 
 to quick action, the clerk turned toward him, with an 
 inquiring look. 
 
 "My name's Pike Albert Pike; Pve qualified for 
 
10 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 the Junior class and want to get registered for the term." 
 
 "Qualified?" asked the man, not unkindly. 
 
 "Yes, I've been studying privately to make the exams 
 and have passed. Taught school to make it a go. Now 
 I've enough to go through." And he grinned happily. 
 
 "All right, young man, if you can pass the entrance 
 examinations and will make the necessary advance pay- 
 ments for the Freshman and Sophomore terms, I suppose 
 we can fix you up." 
 
 "You want payment for two terms?" he inquired, 
 with impatient surprise. 
 
 "I am sorry that that is the requirement, my boy." 
 
 If Albert Pike had been hit squarely between the 
 eyes with a sledge hammer, he would not have been 
 more surprised and disappointed, for he had saved up 
 just enough money to pay his expenses through a single 
 term. 
 
 "I cannot pay in advance for two terms, and indeed 
 I shall not do so." 
 
 A few additional words were exchanged, but they 
 were fruitless. 
 
 Maddened and saddened, he moved slowly out of the 
 office. There was that in him, however, which then and 
 there gave substance to a resolution that he would some 
 day be considered worthy by the college which now re- 
 fused to help him to receive its honors. And his colorful 
 life will presently reveal how far right he was. 
 
 Wilted Pike was, after leaving the registrar's office, 
 wilted and a little embittered, but not overcome. True 
 to the blood in his veins which faced the hardships of a 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 11 
 
 raw country in 1635, the young man would not be denied 
 what was his due. He had inherited the stubborn and 
 stalwart characteristics of his ancestors, who were de- 
 scended from an old Devonshire, England, family. He 
 was of the same staunch stock as Nicholas Pike, author 
 of the first arithmetic published in America and the 
 friend of George Washington; as Zebulon Pike, who ex- 
 plored the Rocky Mountains, and other eminent Amer- 
 icans. 
 
 It is not surprising then that he set to work, with grim 
 determination, to educate himself, first as assistant, and 
 then as principal, of the village academy at Newbury- 
 port. When he began teaching, by day he faced his 
 classes, and by night his books, that he might qualify 
 for the bigger job of principal. He spent some time on 
 linguistic studies, and the pursuit of Spanish, which was 
 one of them, came in to good advantage later on. 
 
 His home town, thirty-five miles northeast of Boston, 
 was at times gay, with its prim parties, bees, sociables and 
 picnics; the shipbuilding activities of the port also in- 
 terested the youth, but young Pike had a resenting wrath, 
 as well as a powerful ambition, within him, that de- 
 veloped his will power to the extent of refusing allure- 
 ments and festivities. 
 
 He proved his mettle and gave evidence of future 
 accomplishments. But the young man appeared to live 
 in an atmosphere of restraint. A reaction had set in 
 within him, due to environment and heart-yearnings. 
 He attended less and less to academic studies, and found 
 himself pondering more and more on tales of the new 
 
12 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 western land, which he read in the newspapers and heard 
 discussed among his friends. Confined in a small town, 
 and thrown with rigid Puritans, he longed to lead a freer 
 life. There was no big opportunity at home. Therefore 
 he decided as soon as possible to leave and strike out 
 for himself. All his efforts now tended to make money 
 enough to take him to the West. 
 
 Many other ambitious young men had left their 
 homes for the newer countries. Sargent Prentiss had 
 settled in Mississippi; Stephen A. Douglass went from 
 Vermont to Illinois; John Slidell moved from New 
 York to Louisiana; James H. Hammond left his home 
 in Massachusetts to go to South Carolina, and Robert J. 
 Walker of Pennsylvania took up his residence in Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 There was a rush of enterprising and adventurous 
 people to the Province of New Mexico, which was be- 
 lieved to be a kind of Utopia, where gold and silver, 
 as well as beaver, were to be found in abundance. It 
 was in that direction that Pike turned his eyes. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS FIRST ADVENTURE IN THE WEST. 
 
 Farewell to thee, New England! 
 
 Farewell to thee and thine! 
 Good-bye to leafy Newbury, 
 
 And Rowley's hills of pine! 
 
 Whether I am on ocean tossed, 
 Or hunt where the wild deer run, 
 
 Still shall it be my proudest boast 
 That I'm New England's son. 
 
 Pike's first great draught of adventure was taken 
 when he left his Eastern home for the West, in 1831, 
 and joined a hunting and trapping party. 
 
 He walked 500 miles of the distance from Massa- 
 chusetts to St. Louis, covered the remainder of the jour- 
 ney by ho at and stage coach, and was more than two 
 months on the way. Traveling in those days was slow 
 and tedious. 
 
 The verses he wrote in farewell to New England 
 reveal a strong love for the section of his birth and for 
 his ancestry. He was still, one may say, of tender years 
 and considerable tenderness of heart, at twenty-three. 
 So, though aspiration pulled him far from the spots of 
 his childhood, the verses show his state of heart. He was 
 not only adventurous but a thinker and a poet, large- 
 
14 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 
 
 minded, chivalrous, with a steadfast determination to do 
 something in the world. 
 
 After spending a little time at St. Louis, for rest, and 
 to get his bearings, he started for Santa Fe, New Mexico, 
 which was then the depot of supplies for the Southwest- 
 ern country. This was in the month of August. 
 
 Pike was very much surprised to find that the Gov- 
 ernor's palace at Santa Fe was merely a mud building, 
 fifteen feet high, with walls four feet thick, and a mud 
 portico, supported by rough pine timbers. The gardens 
 and fountains and grand staircases, which he had read 
 about, were wanting. "The Governor may raise some 
 red pepper in his garden," he said, "but he gets his water 
 from the public spring." 
 
 In a day or two Pike heard that a Missourian, named 
 John Harris, was collecting a party at Taos to go on a 
 hunting expedition to the Comanche country, upon the 
 heads of Red River and Fausse Washita. He returned 
 to Taos to join that party. Taos was an adobe village of 
 less than a thousand inhabitants, 75 miles south of Santa 
 Fe. The valley surrounding it was occupied by Mexican 
 farmers, and it was an important trading point for north- 
 ern New Mexico. 
 
 A man named Campbell was going into the same 
 country, and, before leaving Santa Fe, Pike bought from 
 him an outfit, consisting of one horse, one mule, six traps 
 and a supply of powder, lead and tobacco. Pike, Camp- 
 bell, a Frenchman, and several Mexicans whom they had 
 picked up, set out together to seek Harris at Taos. 
 
 Camp on the first night out, when the men, fully dress- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 15 
 
 ed, lay down to rest, with their guns by their sides, only 
 to be awakened many times by the howling of wild ani- 
 mals, was a novel experience for the erstwhile tenderfoot 
 from New England. 
 
 The next episode was to get lost in the Pecuris, thirty 
 miles away, which resulted from Pike and Campbell be- 
 coming separated from the other men as they rode along. 
 Having no guide, they took the wrong direction. They 
 traveled until nearly night, and then retraced their steps 
 for about four miles, to a place where they saw the re- 
 mains of an Indian fire. Here they kindled a large fire, 
 tied their horses and slept. In the morning they mount- 
 ed and again proceeded towards Taos. After an ex- 
 asperating delay, they finally overtook the other mem- 
 bers of their party, who had in the meantime joined Har- 
 ris, near Taos. 
 
 The combined party numbered 70 or 80 men, of 
 whom 30 were Americans, one was a Eutaw, one an 
 Apache, another a Frenchman, and the others New Mex- 
 icans. Each man was mounted and armed with a gun, 
 besides having a pistol or two in his belt. 
 
 "Trappers," wrote Pike in his diary, "are like sailors 
 when you come to describe them; the portrait of one an- 
 swers for the whole genus." But he singled out a few 
 of the party for special mention: 
 
 Aaron Lewis, who afterwards became a distinguished 
 soldier, came from Ft. Towson, near the Arkansas border, 
 and Pike got acquainted with him when he first reached 
 Taos. He was a magnificent specimen of manhood, over 
 six feet in height and weighing 200 pounds, with clear 
 
16 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 blue eyes and a ruddy complexion, of undaunted courage, 
 coolness and self-possession, an excellent shot, a genial 
 companion, whose sense of good humor was proverbial, 
 and he and Pike became fast friends. 
 
 Bill Williams, who was once a preacher, and later 
 an interpreter to the Osage Indians, gaunt, red-headed, 
 with hard weather-beaten features, marked deeply with 
 smallpox, all muscle and sinew, "the most indefatigable 
 hunter in the world," said Pike, "with an ambition to 
 kill more deer and catch more beaver than any man 
 about, and having no glory except in the woods." 
 
 Tom Burke, who Pike said, was a "Virginian with 
 an Irish tongue;" and "various others who were better 
 at boasting than at fighting, with a few who might be 
 depended upon in case of an emergency." 
 
 An old Comanche was procured for a guide. Then 
 the party left the Valley of the Pecuris, and camped that 
 night at Mora plaza. The sole inhabitants of this old 
 village at that time were rattlesnakes, of which about 
 three dozen were killed in and around the old mud 
 houses. 
 
 They proceeded up the Pecos river through the valley 
 for twelve miles. Contrary to their hopes, little game 
 was killed, except a few antelopes. 
 
 No incident worth mentioning occurred until the 
 ninth day, when a dispute arose between Harris and 
 Campbell, over a trivial matter, which resulted in a sep- 
 aration. Harris insisted on going to the Little Red river 
 through a dry prairie. The balance of the men follow- 
 ed the guide along the Pecos river, in a southeasterly di- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 17 
 
 rection, to the Bosque Grande, or Bosque Redonda, as 
 Pike called it, where entrance would be made to the great 
 prairie. They were six days more in reaching this point, 
 which was about forty miles north of the present site of 
 Roswell, New Mexico. 
 
 Skulls greeted the men here and there as they passed 
 on, and these grim reminders of the fate of former trav- 
 elers in those parts had a depressing effect. 
 
 Just before reaching the camp at the Bosque, some of 
 the Mexicans were met by a party of their countrymen, 
 who had just returned from the Canon del Resgate, in the 
 Staked Plains. They went there to trade bread, blankets, 
 punche and beads to the Indians for buffalo robes, bear 
 skins and horses; but they were overpowered by the In- 
 dians, robbed of all their goods, and warned to return to 
 their own country. They stated that these same Indians 
 had shortly before routed a train of American wagons, 
 and captured 1500 mules, as well as scalped some of the 
 white men. 
 
 Two of the Mexicans had already deserted. Pike, 
 who spoke Spanish, was called upon to attend a council 
 of the Mexicans, who were alarmed at the prospect of 
 entering the Staked Plains after receiving the news re- 
 ferred to. It was represented that the Indians were on 
 the warpath against all Americans, and were determined 
 that none of them should trap in their country. To make 
 matters worse, Manuel, the Indian guide, pretended that 
 if he entered the Comanche country as a guide, the In- 
 dians would sacrifice him, as well as the party. The 
 Comanche declared that he would not go into the Staked 
 
18 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 Plains if one American remained in the party, and the 
 Mexicans had made up their minds to the same effect. 
 Finding that they would leave the balance of the party 
 to the mercy of the Comanches, or perhaps actually 
 deliver them into the hands of the Indians, it was deter- 
 mined to leave the refractory ones. 
 
 The action of the Indian and the Mexicans caused a 
 realignment the next morning. The natives of the party 
 returned to their homes, it is supposed, while Campbell 
 went back to Santa Fe. Pike and the others struck out 
 and rejoined the Harris party, from which they had sep- 
 arated on the ninth day, on account of the disagreement 
 between Harris and Campbell. While Harris had never 
 camped with the Pike party after the separation, he was 
 proceeding to the same destination, and was never far 
 away. 
 
 The day following they saw thousands of wild 
 horses, some of which were very beautiful. Although 
 the men were tired and suffered for water, it was with 
 high spirits that they entered the Staked Plains, which 
 were then to the Comanche Indians what the desert of Sa- 
 hara was to the Bedouins. The prairie lay before their 
 eyes like a boundless ocean. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that, although but 23 years of 
 age, Pike was chosen Captain of the expedition. The 
 selection was not accidental. He was a young man 
 whose commanding presence, sincerity, courage and com- 
 panionable disposition made him at once a leader among 
 his fellows. Besides, he was a valuable counsellor on 
 account of his superior intelligence, and the knowledge 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 19 
 
 which he had gained through his studies of the line fol- 
 lowed by the Spanish adventurers who planted, over three 
 hundred years before, at intervals on the plains, the bois 
 d' arc poles those mute sentinels of the past. 
 
 In discussing with his companions the origin of the 
 name of the Staked Plains, Pike said: 
 
 "A Spanish expedition, about the middle of the fif- 
 teenth century, had pushed westward from Florida across 
 the Mississippi and through Arkansas to its western 
 border. They cut bois d' arc poles from the trees which 
 grew on the banks of the Red river, not far from where 
 Ft. Towson was afterwards established, in the Choctaw 
 Nation of the old Indian Territory. Taking several 
 wagon loads of the poles, the bold adventurers started 
 across these plains, following as near as possible the 35th 
 parallel. As they proceeded, an occasional pole was 
 planted, in order that they might not lose their way on 
 returning. The country traversed was afterwards known 
 as the Staked Plain." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ENTERING THE STAKED PLAINS HIS EXCITING EXPERIENCES 
 AND THE HARDSHIPS SUFFERED. 
 
 Out to the Desert! from the mart 
 
 Of bloodless cheeks, and lightless eyes, 
 And broken hopes and shattered hearts 
 
 And miseries! 
 Farewell my land! Farewell my pen! 
 
 Farewell hard world thy harder life! 
 Now to the Desert once again! 
 
 The gun and knife! 
 
 After camping the night before near some lodges of 
 poles, which were the remains of an Indian village, on 
 the sixteenth day out, the Pike party entered the cele- 
 brated Llano Estacado, whose very name was a mystery 
 and a terror to the white man in those days. Entrance 
 was made by way of the Comanche trail, which was also 
 used by the Indian traders. 
 
 The illimitable expanse of prairie filled Pike with 
 wonder, and inspired him to write a striking poem. The 
 sublime beauty of the sun rising calmly from the breast 
 of the plain, like a sudden fire flashing in the sky, was 
 calculated to make more than ordinary appeal to his ro- 
 mantic nature. This was also true of the mirage which 
 later painted lakes and fires and groves on the grassy 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 21 
 
 ridges in the stillness of the afternoon, cheating the trav- 
 eler by its splendid deceptions. 
 
 Before them stood a bois d' arc pole. "Could that 
 silent sentinel speak," said Pike, "a story of more than 
 three centuries could be unfolded, and it would be more 
 tragic, perhaps, than any yet received of the great plains 
 of the west." 
 
 They were now in all the glory of prairie life, with 
 an abundance of good water and splendid weather, to 
 encourage them. At night they lay down with a feeling 
 of freedom and independence, if not of entire security. 
 On the second morning, before they had risen they had 
 heard the grunting of a band of buffaloes as they ap- 
 proached. Two were killed; the hump meat and the 
 tongues were cut out of the carcasses, and the other parts 
 were left by the way-side. 
 
 Then began a series of tough ups and downs, tough 
 old buffalo for several days, starvation rations, a brace 
 of wild turkeys to provide a feast, which was only equal- 
 led later by some wonderful stew combination bought 
 from an Indian encampment. When no game was forth- 
 coming for three days, Pike ordered that an old mare be 
 killed, but the mess refused to be partakers of the meat. 
 
 The prospect became dreary, and there were signs of 
 Indians, who might be hostile. A guard was appointed 
 to stand watch at night, and Pike said, "To stand guard 
 at night in the desert, while others sleep, with no com- 
 panion to commune with, while shooting stars bedeck 
 the heavens and howling wolves and coyotes surround 
 
22 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 the camp, is sufficient to try the nerves of the boldest 
 and bravest." 
 
 The days were exceedingly hot, and the men, often 
 being thirsty, were tantalized by seeing at a distance 
 what looked to be ponds of clear rippling water. The 
 deception continued until they were within a few yards 
 of the place, when, to their disappointment, it was found 
 to consist of merely a hollow, encrusted with salt. 
 
 After traveling for five days longer, tracks of buffalo 
 were found near a hole of water. Pike was wrought up 
 to fever heat by the prospect of his first hunt for the 
 animal. He and seventeen others warily approached to 
 within a hundred yards of five fat bulls that were lying 
 down. A rush was made for them. The buffaloes were 
 up and gone in a jiffy. The chase was exciting. 
 
 "Although the buffalo," said Pike, "appears, both 
 standing and running, to be the most unwieldy thing in 
 the world, he moves with considerable velocity; no matter 
 how old and lean he is, or how incapable of locomotion 
 he may seem, never more than one motion is observed; 
 he is up and running in an instant, and usually outdis- 
 tances the horseman." 
 
 Shot after shot, and shout after shout, told the zeal 
 of the hunters, and in a short time one buffalo fell, to 
 Pike's credit. In about two hours, another party, after 
 a mad chase, came in with one more. 
 
 But there was nothing to burn with which to cook the 
 meat, not even the dried ordure of horses, which had 
 hitherto never failed them. They could only make a 
 blaze of tall weeds and throw on the meat. Nothing 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 23 
 
 could be more disgusting. Lean, tough and dry, black- 
 ened with the brief blaze, impregnated with the strong, 
 filthy smoke from the weeds, and only half cooked, it re- 
 quired the utmost influence of that stern dictator, hun- 
 ger, to induce the men to eat the meat. 
 
 "The meat of the buffalo cow," said Pike, "is su- 
 perior to any other meat, but even horse flesh is better 
 than the meat of a lean bull." 
 
 They travelled for a week after leaving the Pecos 
 before they came in sight of trees, which were hailed 
 merrily as old friends by the men. The loneliness of 
 the prairie is accentuated by the lack of timber. Water 
 was also found here, near an Indian camp. 
 
 The Indians were supposed to be hostile, and Bill 
 Williams became obstreperous and wanted to kill a 
 squaw who was riding toward the camp, leading a pack 
 horse, loaded with wood. Pike, wiser and calmer, as a 
 leader must be, restrained his impulse. Bill said he 
 would sooner sleep three nights without water than go 
 to the waterhole near the Indian village, and the silence 
 of the others showed acquiescence in what he said, but 
 it was necessary to have water. 
 
 Some of the men began firing off and reloading 
 their guns, when the Comanches, mounted, came out in 
 some numbers toward them. Three of the Indians, in- 
 cluding an old chief, came forward, whereupon the in- 
 terpreter was directed by Pike to ask if they were friends. 
 
 "We have shaken hands with the Americans and are 
 friends," was the reply; but Bill Williams again became 
 war-like, and wanted to shoot the chief, until Pike threat- 
 
24 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 ened to have him killed if he attempted it. Pike would 
 not have sacrificed his friend for half a dozen Indians, 
 but the threat had the desired effect. 
 
 The Indians continued to arrive in force, armed with 
 spears and bows. Pike directed the chief to order them 
 to keep their distance if they did not want to be fired 
 upon. They were molested no further. 
 
 In the evening a young brave appeared and invited 
 Pike and two others to go and eat with him. Taking 
 their guns, they went accordingly. They found the old 
 chief and his family outside the lodge, seated around 
 a fire, over which a small brass kettle was smoking. 
 They were motioned, with true Indian gravity and some- 
 thing of respect, to take seats. The contents of the kettle 
 were emptied into a wooden bowl and placed before the 
 men. It was the boiled flesh of a fat buffalo, perfectly 
 fresh. It proved to be a most delicious meal to the half 
 famished men. Kettle after kettle was filled and emp- 
 tied, for a man never knows how much he can eat until 
 he has tried the prairie. Pike said that four pounds of 
 meat was no great allowance for the meal of a hungry 
 hunter. 
 
 ihe Indians were paid for the meal with tobacco 
 and a knife or two, and the hunters returned to their 
 camp not, however, without that indispensible Indian 
 ceremony, a general smoke. Pike's pipe went out once 
 or twice 'round the whole party of Indians, women and 
 all. Declining the chief's invitation to hunt with him, 
 still fearing treachery at his hands, the party left the 
 camp on the next day, going due east. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 25 
 
 "This band," said Pike, "was composed of a sorry 
 lot of Indians about a thousand in all, with few blan- 
 kets, shabbily dressed, without any of the gaudiness 
 which most Indians exhibit. Their only apparel was a 
 dirty, ragged dress of leather and a part of a blanket." 
 
 He spoke of one old woman in particular who he 
 imagined would be valuable as a model for a painter 
 who might be desirous of sketching his satanic majesty. 
 While looking at the miserable specimens, he shuddered 
 as he thought some of them, with fiendish look, might 
 soon be exercising the infernal ingenuity of their natures 
 on him. 
 
 Many piles of buffalo bones were seen along the 
 route. Pike observed that whenever the Comanches 
 killed a buffalo they made a pile of the bones, for the 
 purpose of appeasing the offended animals. They had 
 ceremonies performed over the bones by their medicine 
 men. No matter how poor a fire they had, or how wet 
 and cold they might be, the Indian would not burn a 
 bone, alleging that it made them unlucky in hunting. 
 
 To add to their discomfort, in places the ground was 
 covered with sand burrs, which pierced Pike's moccasins 
 and kept him continually busy picking them out of his 
 feet. 
 
 After traveling so far and seeing none, they had 
 almost despaired of finding the immense numbers of 
 beaver which they had anticipated. 
 
 In a day or two another Comanche village was 
 reached. Here were about 50 lodges, much handsomer 
 than those seen in the other village. There was also a 
 
26 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 medicine lodge, made of black skins. There were no 
 warriors. Several of the women had their legs cut and 
 mangled by knives, and uttered lamentations which were 
 horrible to listen to. They had lost their men, and it 
 was supposed that this had occurred in the fight between 
 the Americans and Indians which has been referred to. 
 Large numbers of wild horses were seen in this vicinity 
 probably as many as 5,000. Pike remarked that it was 
 astonishing that so many horses should have originated 
 from those lost, abandoned or left by Spanish adventur- 
 ers who had visited these parts centuries before. 
 
 The hunters were next marooned near the Canon del 
 Resgate by a great storm, which was worse than a tem- 
 pest at sea. Their animals suffered greatly from the 
 storm. Immense herds of buffalo were passed through, 
 but the men were unable to give them chase, because 
 their horses and mules were worn out, and the eyes of 
 the men were filled with wind-sand. 
 
 These were perilous days for the travelers. The 
 party had dwindled in numbers until there remained 
 only five Pike, Lewis, Irwin, Ish and Gillett their 
 money was nearly all gone, their clothes were dirty and 
 ragged. One of the men, named Irwin, had only half 
 a shirt. All had repeatedly suffered the distressing 
 pangs of hunger. Many times they had been compelled 
 to drink muddy water. Ish had received a kick a few 
 days before, and, in consequence, was lame in the leg. 
 This was a great inconvenience when it was found neces- 
 sary on one occasion to straddle a log or "coon it" in 
 crossing a creek. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 27 
 
 Pike was, in fact, decided to retrace his steps, after 
 concluding that he was not on the best road to fame 
 and fortune. As may be imagined, he was not in the 
 happiest frame of mind. He and his companions were 
 worn out and, for the nonce, ready to cry quits with 
 nature and seek again the conventional comforts of civili- 
 zation. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RETURNING NORTH, VIA THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL, PIKE HAS 
 TO TRAVEL AFOOT A GREAT DEAL OF THE WAY. 
 
 Oh, who with the sons of the plains can compete, 
 When from west, south and north, like the torrents they 
 
 meet? 
 
 And when doth the face of the white trader blanche, 
 Except when at moonrise he hears the Comanche? 
 
 After having spent about sixty days on the expedi- 
 tion from Taos, the Pike party turned to the north, headed 
 back toward civilization. For days in passing through 
 the Cross Timbers, which are a belt of timber extending 
 from the Canadian river, or a little farther north, to an 
 unknown distance south of Red river, there was little 
 variety to report. The adventurers were sometimes in 
 the open prairie, and again would be forced to proceed 
 for miles through a tangled wilderness of scruboak, wild 
 grapes and briers, which hardly allowed the mules to 
 make their way through. Pike's ankles were frequently 
 covered with blood, and nothing but strong pantaloons 
 saved his legs. Finally he was compelled to dismount 
 and drive his horse before him, carrying his blanket and 
 other articles on his back. Every variety of travel was 
 experienced except that which was pleasant and easy. 
 But the men would not have complained if they had not 
 been out of tobacco and meat. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 29 
 
 For three days they passed through the outskirts of 
 a prairie fire, but this did not worry Pike as much as 
 the loss of his last knife. He had left it behind some- 
 where, and therefore had a fair chance to discover the 
 tenderness of his fingers and the increased value of the 
 knife. 
 
 They were rejoiced one day to find running water, 
 and they hoped to find beaver. They found no beaver, 
 but retained an abundance of hope, if it were at times 
 mingled with disgust. 
 
 As the prairies disappeared, the travelers struck 
 barren hills and deep gullies. There was no trail. The 
 men separated in scouring for game, and Pike, Lewis 
 and Irwin strayed so far away as to become lost from 
 the party on the right of the Brazos river. Going into 
 the hills again, they met Bill Williams and seven or 
 eight others, all lost. This crowd camped together that 
 night, and, after traveling forty miles the next day and 
 repeatedly firing distress signals, they finally caught up 
 with the balance of the company. The reunion was a 
 happy one, as these unfortunate men, having almost 
 abandoned hope, had already begun to vision themselves 
 in the shape of skulls. Misery is said to love company. 
 
 One day Pike and Lewis found some large, purple, 
 prickly pears. How tempting the big juicy things looked 
 to the famished men! They ate heartily of them, with 
 the consequence that they suffered a terrible ague. 
 
 When they crossed Red river, they overtook an Osage 
 Indian, who led them to an Indian village of thirty 
 lodges. Here they were bestowed in various positions 
 
30 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 upon buffalo robes in the chief's tent. They enjoyed 
 much needed rest and were fed fifteen times in two days 
 by this generous tribe of noble-looking Indians. These 
 Osages were most friendly, in great contrast to the Co- 
 manches, Choctaws and Cherokees. 
 
 Pike now abandoned his horse, and soon after leaving 
 the Indians, a man named Gillette killed his own horse 
 for food and became Pike's companion on foot. 
 
 They soon reached the Red river bottom, where 
 plenty of turkey and deer were found, and the men 
 had enough to eat for several days. 
 
 They next passed through another barren region and 
 were forced to camp in a rain storm, without drinking 
 water or food. 
 
 The road which runs from Red river to Fort Smith 
 was finally reached, and, proceeding to the ferry on the 
 Poteau, they found the hut of a little Frenchman, who 
 they believed would entertain them. 
 
 "Well, friends," remarked Pike, "there is hope for a 
 warm meal at last. Frenchy will let us cook a meal." 
 And they all began to vision a full, happy stomach, while 
 Pike interviewed the Frenchman, to come out with a 
 long, serious face. 
 
 "What's the matter; will he not let us cook a meal?" 
 
 "Yes, the Frenchman is ready enough to allow any- 
 thing, but who has a kettle, a fire, some water and food?" 
 
 There was a big bunch of men, and the kettle of the 
 Frenchman was small, holding one pint of water, and 
 the food consisted of pounded corn. The breadline or 
 rather cornline formed eagerly. But as each man could 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 31 
 
 have but a teaspoonful from each kettleful of corn cook- 
 ed, the feeding process took half the night. One can 
 imagine the teaspoonful's effect on the appetite of a 
 lusty, hearty traveler, and his pangs while awaiting his 
 next small share. 
 
 On the last lap of the journey before reaching Fort 
 Smith, Arkansas, Pike found it necessary to sell his rifle 
 to a Choctaw for a few pounds of meat, and Ish dis- 
 posed of his gun in the same manner. 
 
 The next day, which was the 10th of December, Fort 
 Smith was reached. 
 
 From the crossing of the Blue creek to the first cross- 
 ing of Boggy, which are branches of Red river below 
 the Washita, they traveled fifty miles; thence to the 
 second crossing, 28 miles; thence to the road or trail, 
 27; and on the trail, 200 miles. In the whole trip they 
 traveled, from Taos, 1,400 miles, or about 1,300 miles 
 from San Miguel. Of this distance Pike walked about 
 650 miles. 
 
 The journey covered three months and four days. 
 
 Pike seems to have enjoyed the adventure. He found 
 time to compose verses, and among the big things he 
 wrote, the poem of "Ariel," written in the prairie, while 
 his horse was feeding at his side, stands out prominently. 
 It is a lengthy piece, which represents the poet as having 
 had a dream, in which the Spirit of the Air comes and 
 bids him follow him. ^With quick flight, as the sky- 
 lark sunward goes led by the splendor of Ariel's wing," 
 he makes a survey of the world and the unknown regions. 
 "As swiftly the winged bark flew on," while "looking 
 
32 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 downward from the prow," the homes of all the Passions, 
 Ambitions, Virtues and Vices of mankind are visited 
 and commented upon; making a very fanciful and im- 
 pressive study. 
 
 And his own words assure us of the zest with which 
 he recalled his experiences in spite of the hardships 
 which he suffered, for he wrote: 
 
 "I cannot wonder that men find enjoyment in this 
 kind of life. I can see nothing overdrawn or exaggerated 
 in the characters of Hawkeye and Bushfield. There s is 
 so much independence and self-dependence in the lonely 
 hunter's life; so much freedom from law and restraint, 
 form and ceremony, that one who commences the life 
 is almost certain to continue it. With but few wants, 
 and those easily supplied, a man feels none of the en- 
 thralments which surround him when connected with 
 society. His gun and his own industry supply him with 
 fire, food, water and clothing. He eats his simple meal, 
 and has no one to thank for it but his Maker. He travels 
 where he pleases and sleeps whenever he feels inclined. 
 If there is danger about, it comes from enemies, and not 
 from false friends. When he enters society, his former 
 life renders it doubly tedious to him. He has forgotten 
 the forms and ceremonies of the world. He has neglected 
 his person until neatness and scrupulous attention to 
 the minutia of appearance are wearisome to him, and he 
 has contracted habits unfit for polished and polite so- 
 ciety. Now he cannot sit cross-legged on a blanket, 
 and instead of his luxurious lounging position must sit 
 upright in a chair. His pipe must be laid aside and his 
 
SECTION OF LIBRARY, SUPREME COUNCIL BUILDING. 
 SCOTTISH RITE MASONS, USED BY GENERAL PIKE. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 33 
 
 simple dress changed for the cumbersome and confined 
 trappings of the gentleman. In short, he is lost, and he 
 betakes himself to the woods again. The first night that 
 he builds his fire, twists his meat around a stick and puts 
 it before the blazing logs to roast, and then, after sup- 
 plying his inner wants, lies down with only the blue sky 
 above him, and the cool, clear, healthy wind fanning his 
 cheek, is the beginning to him of a better and freer life." 
 
 The diary of the journey which is generally known 
 as "Pike's Diary," but which, it seems, was the joint work 
 of Pike and Lewis, is quite extensive and intensely inter- 
 esting. Years before the death of Pike, Colonel J. N. 
 Smithee of Arkansas called on him and, referring to his 
 adventures on the western plains when a young man, 
 asked him why he never elaborated and printed those 
 experiences in book form for general information. 
 
 "Washington Irving and other writers," replied Pike, 
 "have pretty thoroughly exhausted that field. Besides, 
 I have never had time to give the subject the attention 
 which it deserved. The narrative you refer to all of 
 which is strictly true would never have been written at 
 all but for Aaron Lewis. He wrote out and handed me 
 the history of his trip, which was certainly full of thrill- 
 ing experiences, and I added to it my own recollections. 
 Lewis was one of nature's noblemen. While not a cul- 
 tured man, as we understand that term, he was by no 
 means ignorant. * * * He is entitled to all the credit 
 for that publication. 
 
 "The population of Arkansas at that time was very 
 small, and the mail facilities were crude, meagre and 
 
34 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 untrustworthy. The subscribers to the Advocate did not 
 exceed one thousand, all told, and the readers of the 
 narrative were consequently confined to a limited num- 
 ber. 
 
 "At the time it appeared, Washington Irving had 
 given to the public his 'Tour in the Prairie,' and was 
 then engaged in editing and preparing for publication 
 the manuscript of Captain Bonneville's adventures in 
 the West. Consequently the narrative of Lewis and my- 
 self attracted very little attention. I would be glad to 
 see it polished up and given to the public in book form. 
 Suppose you undertake it. You have my full permission. 
 Use the blue pencil as you please." 
 
 "No man can form an idea of the prairie," says the 
 diary, "from anything which he sees to the east of the 
 Cross Timbers. Broad, level, gray and barren, the im- 
 mense desert which extends thence westward almost to 
 the shadow of the mountains, is too sublime to be 
 imagined by the narrow, contracted, undulating plains 
 seen nearer the bounds of civilization. 
 
 "Imagine yourself, kind reader, standing on a plain 
 to which your eye can see no bounds. Not a tree, not a 
 bush, not a shrub, not a tall weed lifts its head above 
 the barren grandeur of the desert; not a stone is to be 
 seen on its hard beaten surface; no indulation, no abrupt- 
 ness, no break to relieve the monotony; nothing save 
 here and there a deep, narrow track worn into the gard 1 
 plain by the constant hoof of the buffalo. Imagine then 
 countless herds of buffalo, showing their unwieldy, dark 
 
 1. Gravel, obs. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 35 
 
 shapes in every direction, as far as the eye can reach, 
 and approaching at times to within forty steps of you; 
 or see a herd of wild horses feeding in the distance, or 
 hurrying away from the hateful smell of man, with their 
 manes floating, and a tramping like thunder. Imagine 
 here and there a solitary antelope, or, perhaps a whole 
 herd, fleeting off in the distance, like the scattering of 
 white clouds. Imagine bands of white, snow-like wolves 
 prowling about, accompanied by little grey callotes, 2 or 
 prairie wolves, who are as rapacious and as noisy as 
 their big brethren. Imagine, also, here and there a 
 lonely tiger-cat, lying crouched in some little hollow, 
 or bounding off in triumph, bearing a luckless prairie 
 dog, which it has caught straggling about at a distance 
 from his hole. 
 
 "If to all this, you picture a band of Comanches, 
 mounted on noble, swift horses, with their long lances, 
 quivers at the back, their bows, perhaps, with guns, and 
 their shields ornamented gaudily with feathers and red 
 cloth. If you imagine them hovering about in the prairie, 
 chasing the buffalo, or attacking an enemy, you have 
 an image of the prairie such as no book ever described 
 adequately to me. 
 
 "I have seen the prairie," continued Pike, "under all 
 its diversities and in all its appearances, from those 
 which I have described to the uneven, bushy prairies 
 which lie south of Red River, and to the illimitable 
 Staked Prairies. 
 
 2. Coyotes. 
 
36 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 "I have seen the prairie and lived in it in summer 
 and in winter. I have seen it with the sun rising calmly 
 from its breast, like a sudden fire flushing in its sky, 
 with quiet and sublime beauty. There is less of the 
 gorgeous and grand character, however, belonging to 
 them, than that which accompanies the rise and set of 
 the sun upon the ocean or upon mountains; but there is 
 beauty and sublimity enough in them to attract the atten- 
 tion and interest the mind. * * * We may speak 
 of the incessant motion and tumult of the waves of the 
 sea, the unbounded greenness and dimness the lonely 
 music of the forests, and the high magnificence, the 
 precipitous grandeur and the summer snow of the glit- 
 tering cones of the mountains; but still, the prairie 
 has a stronger hold upon the soul, and a more powerful, 
 if not so vivid, an impression upon the feelings. Its 
 sublimity arises from its unbounded extent, its barren 
 monotony and desolation, its still, unmoved, calm, stern, 
 almost self-conscious grandeur, its strange power of 
 deception, its want of echo, and, in fine, its power of 
 throwing a man back upon himself, giving him a feeling 
 of lone helplessness, strangely mingled at the same time 
 with a feeling of liberty and freedom from restraint. It 
 is particularly sublime, as you draw nigh to the Rocky 
 Mountains, and see them shot up in the west, with their 
 lofty tops looking like white clouds resting upon their 
 summits. Nothing ever equalled the intense feeling of 
 delight with which I first saw the eternal mountains 
 marking the western edge of the desert." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HE REACHES FORT SMITH, WHERE HE BECOMES A SCHOOL 
 TEACHER AND WRITES POLITICAL ARTICLES. 
 
 Alight! I have a tale to tell 
 That will profit thee to hear 
 
 It will vibrate in thy memory 
 For many a long, long year. 
 
 We have followed Pike through a series of refresh- 
 ing and interesting adventures, and seen that, instead of 
 wealth and fame ending the expedition, he reaches Fort 
 Smith sick and almost penniless. "Falstaff's ragged regi- 
 ment was nothing to us," he aptly stated, when, in a 
 bedraggled condition, he arrived, with the straggling 
 companions who had remained with him to the end; "I 
 had on a pair of leather pantaloons, scorched and wrin- 
 kled by the fire, and full of grease; an old grimy jacket 
 and vest; a pair of huge moccasins, in the mending of 
 which I had expended all my skill during the space of 
 two months, and in so doing had disposed upon them 
 a whole shot pouch; a shirt made of what is commonly 
 called counterpane, which had not been washed since I 
 left Santa Fe; and, to crown all, my beard and mus- 
 tachios had never been trimmed during the whole trip." 
 
 Such a Pike hardly suggested collegiate honors, but 
 only because the force within is hidden too deeply from 
 
38 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 casual observers to give the lie to the shabbiness, and 
 to announce that here in this unkempt human is develop- 
 ing one of the biggest men of the day. 
 
 After the furs and other products of the expedition 
 had been disposed of, he chanced to make some acquaint- 
 ances who became warm and useful friends. He was 
 invited to become the guest of Captain John Rogers, of 
 the Seventh Regiment of United States Infantry, who 
 was stationed there and who owned most of the lands 
 on which the town was located. He remained with him 
 several weeks. He afterwards spent the remainder of 
 the winter with Captain Francis Al dredge, on the other 
 side of the river from Fort Smith. Then he visited for 
 a time Judge James Woodson Bates, a distinguished 
 character, who lived on a plantation on Little Piney 
 River. The good old judge cared for him while he suf- 
 fered from a fever, which resulted from the exposures 
 he had suffered, and became so much attached to him 
 that he offered him a home as long as he would stay. 
 
 His reception proved that he was recognized as a 
 young man of worth. But he must be doing something, 
 and he secured a position to teach school near Van Buren, 
 five miles north of Fort Smith, where he continued in 
 that occupation until the fall of 1832. 
 
 While at Fort Smith, Pike also met Major Elias Rec- 
 tor, an eccentric celebrity, whom he immortalized by 
 the composition of his song, "The Fine Arkansas Gentle- 
 man." This song describes Rector as being "a mighty 
 clever gentleman who lives extremely well in the Western 
 part of Arkansas, close to the Indian line, where he gets 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 39 
 
 drunk once a week on whiskey, and immediately sobers 
 himself completely on the very best of wine;" and the 
 fourth verse reads: 
 
 This fine Arkansas gentleman makes several hundred bales, 
 Unless from drought or worm, a bad stand, or some other damned 
 
 contingency, his crop is short or fails; 
 
 And when it's picked and ginned and baled, he puts it on a boat, 
 And gets aboard himself likewise, and charters the bar, and has 
 
 a devil of a spree, while down to New Orleans, 
 He and his cotton float; 
 
 This fine Arkansas gentleman, 
 Close to the Choctaw line. 
 
 Our hero was now hidden in an obscure place as an 
 humble school teacher gone back to his former occu- 
 pation. How flat an ending for one who seemed to 
 promise so much! But wait; real fire will not be easily 
 quenched. It happened that a memorable political cam- 
 paign was then in progress in Arkansas Territory, be- 
 tween Robert Crittenden, a Whig, and Ambrose H. Se- 
 vier, a Democrat, who were rival candidates for the 
 office of Delegate to Congress. 
 
 The school master must get excited over the political 
 aspect, and, unable to control his emotions in silence, 
 he takes to the pen, in the absence of any kindred spirits 
 to whom to explode. "Sometime, somewhere, mine own 
 shall come to me," may not have been in his mind ex- 
 actly, but it was a principle that showed itself before 
 long in answer to the lively work of the modest but bril- 
 liant school master. Nothing was more natural than 
 that the ardent Pike should become interested in this 
 political contest. While still conducting the school, he 
 
40 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 undertook to contribute to a newspaper called the "Ad- 
 vocate," published at Little Rock, a series of articles 
 styled "Intercepted Letters," under the nom de plume of 
 "Casca." These letters purported to have been written 
 by Mr. Sevier to W. E. Woodruff and Chester Ashley, 
 with their replies. The letters were typical of a period 
 when anonymous political cards were the fashion. They 
 are said to have been strikingly characteristic of the 
 persons named and to have fully portrayed the political 
 opinions and bias of the pretended authors, all of whom 
 were prominently before the public. They were writ- 
 ten in the interest of the brilliant Crittenden, whose 
 cause the author had espoused, along with his Whig 
 principles. 
 
 The letters created a big stir, so much so that one 
 unexpected night there knocked at Pike's door two ce- 
 lebrities. They had been impelled to dig out the un- 
 known and to make an effort to get acquainted with him. 
 Crittenden had ascertained the name and address of the 
 bright young Whig, and, in company with Judge Jesse 
 Turner, went to see him. They found the schoolmaster 
 in a log cabin, on the Arkansas river bank. He was 
 boarding with one Abraham Smith, who lived in a sim- 
 ilar structure. Here they repaired for converse. Turner 
 was 28, and Crittenden 37 years of age. The trio of 
 brilliant men conversed nearly all night by starlight in 
 the wilderness, and gave each other mutual sparks of 
 inspiration. Crittenden said to Turner, as they rode 
 off next day, "Pike is a very brilliant young man." 
 
 Crittenden accomplished his mission, and the next 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 41 
 
 day the mail carrier conveyed a letter from Bertrand, 
 the owner of the Advocate, to Pike, offering him a seat 
 on the editorial tripod. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HIS REMOVAL TO LITTLE ROCK, WHERE HE BECOMES SECRE- 
 TARY OF THE TERRITORIAL COUNCIL, ASSUMES EDI- 
 TORIAL DUTIES AND READS LAW. 
 
 Work then bravely, sternly, gravely 
 
 Life for this alone is given; 
 What is right, that boldly do, 
 
 Frankly speak out what is true, 
 Leaving the result to Heaven, 
 
 Or a atque labor a! 
 
 Pike eagerly accepted Bertrand's offer, which made 
 of the modest school teacher an editor, able to wield 
 influence over many, and to show the stuff that was in 
 him. He quickly repaired to Little Rock. Here he en- 
 gaged board and room at the famous Town Tavern, con- 
 ducted by Nicholas Peay, and owned by Chester Ashley, 
 afterwards United States Senator from Arkansas. 
 
 The Territorial Legislature was in session when he 
 arrived in Little Rock, and a few days afterward, through 
 the influence of his newly acquired friends, headed by 
 Bertrand, who was not only an editor but an astute poli- 
 tician, he was elected secretary of the Senate, or Council, 
 as the upper body was then called. He served in that 
 capacity until the close of the stormy session, during 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 43 
 
 which seven new counties were created and much con- 
 structive legislation accomplished. 
 
 He did, however, actively begin newspaper work at 
 the Advocate office immediately after his arrival, and 
 when the Legislature adjourned he gave more time to 
 those duties. He wrote editorials which soon won him 
 high rank as an editor and citizen; and, at the same time, 
 he learned to set type, while in spare moments he read 
 law. 
 
 His entry into stirring newspaper and political life 
 was accomplished in exciting times. Besides being a 
 busy legislative and political year, the state suffered 
 from disastrous overflows of its rivers. 
 
 The Advocate was more or less of a political organ. 
 It continued to uphold the political fortunes of Robert 
 Crittenden. Indeed, the paper had been established 
 largely in the interest of this ambitious man, which in a 
 measure accounted for Pike's easy entry into a fortunate 
 legislative connection. 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette, an older paper, was the organ 
 of the Democratic administration, or the "Ins," and the 
 Advocate represented the Whigs, who were the "Outs." 
 
 In December of the same year, a rupture occurred 
 between Governor Pope and the Gazette, occasioned by 
 the publication by Pike in the Advocate of articles de- 
 nunciatory of the governor, on account of the alleged 
 extravagant prices paid for public printing, the contract 
 for which was held by W. E. Woodruff, the publisher 
 of the Gazette. The paper was the beneficiary of the 
 contracts, but the governor had to take the blame and 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 the criticism in the matter. Pike used the deadly par- 
 allel column to show the prices charged by the Gazette 
 and also those at which the work could have been done 
 elsewhere and still leave a profit. The governor de- 
 manded that the Gazette defend him against Pike's 
 charges, and also that it lower its charges for printing. 
 It refused to do either, and the rupture resulted. The 
 public printing was then withdrawn from the Gazette, 
 and let to the lowest bidder, which turned out to be the 
 Advocate office. 
 
 Later on, Pike, through the Advocate, took a promi- 
 nent part in the fight for statehood for Arkansas and a 
 new constitution preparatory to its admission into the 
 Union. A convention was called, which adopted the 
 Constitution of 1836, and, in a spirited contest, Pike was 
 elected convention printer over his competitor, W. E. 
 Woodruff, the powerful editor of the Gazette. The Ga- 
 zette and the Advocate were both in favor of statehood, 
 while another paper, the Times, was bitterly opposing 
 the proposition, on the ground that the state was not 
 prepared to assume the obligations of statehood. 
 
 Governor Fulton, who had just succeeded Governor 
 Pope, had issued a statement to the effect that he was 
 opposed to the admission of Arkansas at that time, for 
 the reason that it had not obtained the proper authority 
 to form a state government, but that whenever Arkansas 
 presented to Congress a constitution made under the 
 sanction and authority of the people, so that it could 
 be admitted without the imposition of unjust or unrea- 
 sonable restrictions, he would favor it. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 45 
 
 The governor was answered by Pike, who affirmed 
 that Congress could authorize the Territory to form a 
 constitution, or the Territory could form one on its own 
 initiative. In either case, if the constitution was repub- 
 lican, and the Territory had the requisite number of 
 inhabitants and agreed to the proper restrictions, the 
 constitution of the United States entitled the Territory to 
 admission. He criticized the governor for disregarding 
 the will of the people in not calling a special session of 
 the Legislature to accomplish the desired purpose. His 
 position was sustained. 
 
 In commenting on the Arkansas Constitution of 1836, 
 Pike said: "On Tuesday last the Judiciary report came 
 up and Judge Lacy moved to amend it by changing the 
 term of office for supreme judges from six to twelve 
 years. He supported the amendment in a speech of great 
 ability, in which sound political doctrines were com- 
 bined with a bold and fervid eloquence of language." 
 
 This amendment was carried, but on a later day dele- 
 gate Grandison Royston secured the adoption of a re- 
 consideration and a reversal of the action, reducing the 
 tenure of. the judges from twelve to eight years. 
 
 Pike vigorously criticized the action thus: "The 
 judiciary report has been again amended, reducing the 
 terms of services of the judges of the supreme court to 
 eight years. We will never cease to lift our voice against 
 it. Our feeble efforts shall never be remitted to place 
 the judiciary on a basis not to be shaken by legislative 
 favoritism or revenge or by popular fickleness." 
 
46 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 He was equally as out-spoken in endorsing a section 
 of the Bill of Rights, saying, "Above all, infinitely above 
 all, we admire that clause in the bill of rights which 
 provides that the rights, privileges and capacities of no 
 man shall be enlarged or diminished on account of his 
 religion." 
 
 While the convention was in session, Pike charac- 
 terized the various reports as bearing the impress of high 
 talents and correct views of government. He further 
 predicted that the constitution would be inferior to none 
 in the Union. "We congratulate the country upon the 
 happy termination of the deliberations of the conven- 
 tion," he wrote, "for it has done honor to itself and to 
 Arkansas." 
 
 He has been criticised for upholding the slavery 
 provision of that constitution when he said, "It cannot 
 certainly be supposed that it is for the interests of Arkan- 
 sas to become a free state. Surrounded, as it would 
 be, by Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas 
 and the Indian tribes all of them slave countries our 
 state would become the land of refuge for runaways and 
 vagabonds." "Then," wrote the caustic Judge Jesse 
 Turner, "descending on easy wing into a distinctly heav- 
 ier atmosphere, this gifted son of Massachusetts (Pike), 
 on whose ambrosial locks the tang of the salt sea air of 
 her rock-bound coast still lingered, added : 'Besides this, 
 our revenue is to be raised from, and our rich lands 
 settled by, the slaveholders.' " 
 
 In those early days, when the state was in the mak- 
 ing, there were many momentous questions to settle, and 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 47 
 
 the files of the Advocate, under Pike's editorship, show 
 him to have been alive to every interest of the people 
 and an able champion of their causes. 
 
 Pike printed in the Advocate the Narrative of his 
 Journey in the Prairie, running through eight issues; 
 some of his poetry also first saw the light of day in its 
 columns. 
 
 Editor Pike soon acquired a half interest in the Ad- 
 vocate with Charles E. Rice. He subsequently pur- 
 chased the remaining interest and continued for some 
 time as sole editor and proprietor, Mr. Bertrand having 
 retired. He developed a capacity for brain work which 
 made him famous, and it is said that he never slept 
 more than five hours each night, which was his practice 
 for forty years. Judge John Hallum, a great friend of 
 Pike's, liked to assert that his capacity for intellectual 
 work surpassed that of any man known to our literature, 
 and for forty years equalled that of Bonaparte when 
 engaged in his celebrated campaigns. 
 
 The people of Little Rock appreciated Pike at his 
 true worth. His field of usefulness was constantly en- 
 larging. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HIS MARRIAGE. 
 
 I ken a charming little maid, 
 As sweet and winsome as a fairy; 
 
 I wadna ask wi wealth to wed, 
 If I could wed wi 9 thee, Mary! 
 
 I've wandered east, I've wandered west, 
 As wanton as the winds that vary; 
 
 But ne'er was I sae truly blest 
 As when I met wi 9 thee, Mary! 
 
 Under propitious southern skies, amid the most ro- 
 mantic surroundings, inhaling the perfume of the rose, 
 the honeysuckle and the magnolia, with the mocking- 
 bird singing to his youthful heart, Pike found in Little 
 Rock the atmosphere which appealed to his poetic nature, 
 and which developed his natural powers. 
 
 Let the reader stand before the striking oil painting 
 of him which adorns one of the walls of the Arkansas 
 History Commission at the State Capitol. He will be- 
 come impressed with the high-spirited countenance, the 
 finely arched eye-brows, the thin, intellectual nose, the 
 full mouth that found zest in life and lived to the full, 
 and the wonderfully worn hair, streaming in a fine, dark, 
 luxurious mass down to his neck, with a height and 
 breadth of stature which drew all eyes to him, no matter 
 
CJ 
 
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 PH 
 
 H 
 
 O 
 
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 PH 
 
 H 
 
 CQ 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 49 
 
 where he might walk. Is it any wonder that in a place 
 of only a thousand souls, where the atmosphere was more 
 like that of one big family than a town, Pike should be 
 a most important personage, though modest and uncon- 
 scious of it. 
 
 He was a scholar and a good story-teller. He com- 
 posed original songs which were set to music and used 
 for serenades. It is therefore not surprising that he was 
 a prime favorite with the fair sex, who never tired of 
 his stories of life in the far west. 
 
 In a few months after locating in Little Rock, he met 
 at the home of a friend, Mary Ann Hamilton, a hand- 
 some brunette, who caused him to forget all other women. 
 
 There was a passionate wooing then, which was kept 
 at white heat by the dark-eyed one. He was soon paying 
 devoted attention to her, and writing poems dedicated 
 to her, which he slipped into her hands on all occasions 
 while she was in Little Rock, and sent to her when she 
 returned to her home at Arkansas Post. Only one of 
 these poems has been preserved, and that consists of 
 simple verses, entitled "Mary." In these lines he com- 
 pares his sweetheart to a "little purple violet that hangs 
 its blushing head sae weary, with brow as white as is 
 the mist that sleeps on heaven's forehead starry, or moun- 
 tain snow by sunrise kissed, and with e'en like an eagle," 
 etc. It is possible, however, that others of his published 
 love songs and lyrics were addressed to this lady, and 
 that she was in his thoughts when he wrote the poem 
 entitled "Love:" 
 
50 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 I am the soul of the Universe, 
 
 In Nature's pulse I beat; 
 To Doom and Death I am a curse, 
 
 I trample them under my feet. 
 
 Creation's every voice is mine, 
 
 I breathe in its every tone; 
 I have in every heart a shrine, 
 
 A consecrated throne. 
 
 The whisper that sings in the summer leaves, 
 
 The hymn of the starlit brook, 
 The martin that nests in the ivied leaves, 
 
 The dove in his shaded nook. 
 
 The quivering heart of the blushing flower, 
 
 The thick Aeolian grass, 
 The harmonies of the summer shower, 
 
 The south wind's soft, sweet mass. 
 
 Mary Ann seems to have held back from the ardent 
 poet lover and to have pretended slight admiration for 
 his poetic love-making. But, true to the Pike tempera- 
 ment, the lover won his bride. After a persistent and 
 interesting courtship, the young people were married, 
 October 1, 1834, by Judge James H. Lucas. Even the 
 wedding merry-making was typical of the adventure- 
 loving, colorful temperament of Albert Pike. The set- 
 ting for the wedding at the old plantation home of the 
 bride's guardian, Colonel Terrence Farrelly, at Arkansas 
 Post, was ideal. 
 
 The country gentry for miles around attended the 
 wedding, and some negro attendants, dressed in their 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 51 
 
 Sunday clothes, were permitted to view the ceremony 
 and partake of their master's and guest's bounty. The 
 occasion was enlivened by a plantation orchestra, and an 
 old, white-haired negro leader, puffed up with the im- 
 portance of his connection with the event, and perhaps 
 enlivened by a taste of the groom's best, threw all his 
 energies into his elbows as he played on his fiddle some 
 of the old-time airs. 
 
 Captain and Mrs. Pike went at once to live at Little 
 Rock. The season was a gay one. The intense party 
 feeling of the Crittenden-Sevier campaign which had run 
 high during the preceding year had subsided. There 
 were many bright and charming people living at the 
 capital, and many were visiting from other states. 
 
 Soon afterward Pike erected a handsome residence, 
 covering a block of ground, near Seventh and Rock 
 streets, in Little Rock, in which he and his family lived 
 for a quarter of a century. The Pikes, with their fine 
 home, were in the centre of social activities. 
 
 The Pike home afterward became the property of 
 Colonel John G. Fletcher, a prominent banker of Little 
 Rock, and his son, John Gould Fletcher, the "imagist" 
 poet, has given a picture of this house, which was built 
 in the style of the old south and "fronts foursquare the 
 winds, with its six white columns," in his "Goblins and 
 Pagodas." It is to this day one of the finest old south- 
 ern homes to be found in the state. 
 
 Pike was now settled in a domestic way, but he had 
 an unsatisfied ambition. After many months' service 
 in the newspaper business, he desired to retire from it, 
 
52 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 to follow the profession of law. He had been reading 
 law and observing the practice of lawyers right along. 
 His aspiration in this line constantly increased, due to 
 the fact that his own mind and the judgment of his 
 friends encouraged him to believe that his talents lay in 
 that direction. His wife confirmed his judgment. He 
 saw that unusual opportunities in a legal way were open 
 to him, and he was quick to grasp the hand which beck- 
 oned him to follow on to fame and fortune. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HE ENTERS UPON THE PRACTICE OF LAW. 
 
 Do you wish in the courts of the Country to sue 
 For the right or estate that's another man's due? 
 Your lawyer will surely remember his cue, 
 When his palm you have crossed with a Dollar, or two, 
 For a lawyer's convinced with a Dollar, or two; 
 And a jury set right with a Dollar, or two; 
 
 And though justice is blind 
 
 Yet a way you may find 
 To open her eyes with a Dollar, or two. 
 
 Pike was ever connected with the unusual. In the 
 winter of 1836, he was licensed to practice law, while 
 still performing editorial duties. He had read only the 
 first volume of Blackstone's Commentaries, but Judge 
 Thomas J. Lacey, of the Territorial Supreme Court, who 
 granted the license, was a most broad-minded man with 
 a keen sense of humor. He remarked in explaining his 
 leniency, that it was not like issuing a medical diploma; 
 he could not kill anybody by practicing law on him. 
 
 Pike soon disposed of his newspaper, to devote his 
 entire energies to his new mistress. He characteristically 
 remarked, "I owned the Advocate, was editor and type- 
 setter, and generally useful in the office, for two years 
 and three months, and then sold it for $1,500. I tried 
 
54 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 for a year to collect the accounts due the office. Then 
 one day, weary of it all, put the books in the stove, where 
 they served for fuel. I had no further trouble with 
 the accounts." 
 
 He made good progress. The South has produced 
 many great lawyers and orators, and Pike, at 30 years 
 of age, had become one of the most prominent of the 
 early days. 
 
 His industriousness was proverbial. He was the first 
 Reporter of the Supreme Court of Arkansas, and later he 
 was elected to supervise the publication of the Revised 
 Statutes of the State. He reported the decisions of the 
 Supreme Court from 1836 to 1848, comprising five vol- 
 umes, numbered from 1 to 5, inclusive. 
 
 Early in his legal career, he augmented his income 
 by publishing the Arkansas Form Book, comprising ap- 
 proved forms for deeds, mortgages and other legal forms 
 for lawyers and the public. A second-hand copy of this 
 book recently brought a handsome price at a book auc- 
 tion. 
 
 Soon after being licensed, he was offered a partner- 
 ship by William Cummins, a prominent lawyer of those 
 days, who had political aspirations. The offer was ac- 
 cepted, and the partnership continued for a number of 
 years. 
 
 Pike says: "I was my own teacher in the law; soon 
 began to get together a law library, and, in 1839, I began 
 to purchase other books, and to read them, never sleeping 
 more than five hours at night." 
 
 Six years after his lawyer's license had been granted, 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 55 
 
 he was elected attorney, and later he was also made a 
 trustee of the Real Estate Bank of Arkansas, which in- 
 stitution had a very prominent part in the financial his- 
 tory of the state. He held the connection for twelve 
 years, and it opened up a large and lucrative practice 
 for him. The bank finally collapsed, but it was through 
 no fault of his. Its financial policy had been unsound 
 from the beginning. 
 
 He practiced before the district and state courts at 
 Little Rock, in Chicot county, at Helena, and in Con way, 
 Johnson, Pope and Crawford counties; and, later, in 
 Saline, Clark, Hempstead, Lafayette, Dallas, Ouachita 
 and Union counties, Arkansas. 
 
 No doubt the journeys required for this practice ap- 
 pealed thoroughly to his adventurous nature. There were 
 no railroads or stage coach lines in those days, and he 
 rode the circuit on horseback, and afterward traveled 
 in a buggy, twice a year, for ten years. His sorrel horse, 
 "Davy," was as well known on the circuit as himself. 
 He was a handsome figure on horseback, and many an 
 old-timer has been heard to speak of the picture which 
 he carried in his mind's eye of Pike riding by, on his 
 way to court. 
 
 In those primitive days, the lawyers were subjected 
 to many inconveniences, sometimes having to sleep under 
 a friendly tree, with their saddle bags or a law book for 
 a pillow. They had to carry their food with them, while 
 traveling over corduroy roads to and from distant court 
 houses. Courts were held in all kinds of buildings. At 
 one time Pike and eighteen other lawyers slept in one 
 
56 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 room in the court house building, while a faro game 
 was being operated under the court room every night. 
 
 Governor Yell once narrowly escaped drowning while 
 crossing the Arkansas on the ice, in company with Pike, 
 Judge Benjamin Johnson and Absolom Fowler, while on 
 their way to a session of court at Van Bur en. 
 
 On another occasion Pike and Grandison Royston and 
 others stripped to swim a stream in southwest Arkansas. 
 After dismounting each disciple of Blackstone removed 
 his clothes and strapped them across his shoulders to 
 keep them above water, so that they would remain dry. 
 
 The lawyers often rode in parties over the mountains 
 and through the valleys, and they enlivened their jour- 
 neys with stories and jokes. Many of Pike's stories have 
 been handed down. 
 
 "Speaking of courts," he said, "reminds me of some 
 of our specimens of forensic eloquence, pathetic in the 
 highest degree. A limb of the law once defended a client 
 for assault and battery before a justice. He opened his 
 case by saying: 'May it please your honor, I appear 
 before you this day, an humble advocate of the people's 
 rights, to redress the people's wrongs. Justice, may it 
 please your honor, justice is all we ask; and justice is 
 due, from the tallest and highest archangel that sits upon 
 the throne of heaven, to the meanest and most insignifi- 
 cant demon that broils upon the coals of hell. If my 
 client, may it please your honor, has been guilty of any 
 offense at all, he has been guilty of the littlest and most 
 insignificient offense which has ever been committed 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 57 
 
 from the time when the morning stars sung together 
 with joy, shout heavenly muse.' 
 
 "Another member of the bar who had made a fortune 
 by his practice, once in a murder case in which I was 
 engaged with him, the prisoner having committed the 
 act while he was intoxicated, said to the jury: 'Gentle- 
 men, it is a principle congenial with the creation of the 
 world, and handed down from prosperity, that drunken- 
 ness always goes in commiseration of damages' 
 
 "At another time this same lawyer told the jury that 
 a person indicted for assault and battery 'beat and bruised 
 the boy and amalgamated his head.' '' 
 
 "When I first began to practice law," Pike said, 
 "there was a little, dried-up old lawyer named Hall, who 
 knew nothing about Latin, but was particularly fond of 
 picking up and firing scraps of it at the jury. Once 
 when he was trying a case with another lawyer, named 
 Parrot, he fired off all the Latin phrases that he could 
 think of, and when Parrot replied he uttered about a 
 half dozen sentences in Choctaw. Hall objected to the 
 court that Parrot should not use language that no one 
 could understand. Parrott replied that the language 
 which he had used was Latin, and that it was not his 
 fault that Hall could not understand it. Hall resented 
 this, and proposed to leave it to the court. The judge 
 decided that to the best of his knowledge Parrott's Latin 
 was as good as Hall's." 
 
 Pike practiced in the Supreme Court of the State, and 
 the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, at 
 
58 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 Little Rock, and in 1846 was admitted to practice in the 
 United States Supreme Court. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that he claimed to have been 
 admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court 
 simultaneously with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal 
 Hamlin, and he is said to have been complimented by 
 Daniel Webster, who heard him argue a case. 
 
 He represented Henry M. Rector in his fight for the 
 ground which comprises the present site of the govern- 
 ment reservation at Hot Springs. To this he contended 
 Rector had a perfectly good title. 
 
 He represented the Choctaw Indians for years, in 
 pressing their claims against the United States for com- 
 pensation for more than ten million acres of land ceded 
 to them in Mississippi by the government. The United 
 States Senate was constituted an umpire between the 
 Choctaws and the government, and in March, 1859, 
 awarded the Indians $2,981,241.30, out of which Pike 
 was to receive a fee of $200,000; but, although many 
 committees of both the Senate and the House had urged 
 the payment of this claim, it was never settled in full, 
 although Congress allowed a compromise settlement after 
 Pike's death and paid his heirs a certain small sum of 
 money. 
 
 Assisted by U. M. Rose, he and his partner, Robert 
 W. Johnson, former United States and Confederate States 
 Senator, represented the State of Arkansas at Washing- 
 ton City during the Brooks-Baxter war in Arkansas, in 
 urging the president to recognize Baxter and oust Brooks 
 in which they were successful. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 59 
 
 The court records from 1836 to 1842 in all parts of 
 Arkansas evidence the great volume and high character 
 of his labors in the legal line. 
 
 In 1852 he transferred for a short time his practice 
 from Arkansas to Louisiana, forming a partnership with 
 Hogan Hunter in New Orleans. 
 
 In regard to his admission to the bar there, it was 
 required that an applicant be examined, first by a com- 
 mittee, and then in open court. The examination in re- 
 gard to the civil law consisted of one or two questions put 
 by a venerable old French jurist: "What works have 
 you read on the Roman law?" etc. He answered that 
 he had read the Pandects and made a translation into 
 English of the first book, which was satisfactory to the 
 examiner. He had also, he said, among other works, read 
 the 22 volumes of Durantor, several volumes of Pothier, 
 the five volumes of Marcade, which is considered higher 
 authority than all the courts of France. The examina- 
 tion in open court was waived, Mr. Chief Justice Slidell 
 saying : "The court is well advised in regard to the legal 
 qualifications of Mr. Pike, and he knows it to be un- 
 necessary to examine him;" and so he was sworn in. 
 
 "I have had but three compliments paid me that I 
 value more," says General Pike, "one was in 1844, when 
 at Louisville the ladies sent me a scarf and ring; one 
 at Charleston in 1855 at the Commercial Convention, 
 when I carried, against strong opposition, the resolutions 
 in regard to a Pacific railroad; and the third was at 
 Washington, about 1856, when Major John F. Lee, Judge- 
 Advocate-General, introduced me to General Scott, who 
 
60 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 said, "Captain Pike! Oh, we don't consider him as be- 
 ing any better than one of ourselves." 
 
 When Pike purchased the Pandects and the civil law 
 books in Latin and French and began to study them, he 
 had first to learn both languages over again, for in 
 twenty years disuse he had become unable to read either. 
 
 He stated that he had a fondness for the Roman law, 
 which he never lost, and that when he went to Washing- 
 ton, D. C., in 1868, to reside, he commenced and, with 
 the labor of several years, completed the work of trans- 
 lating all the Maxims of the Roman and French laws, 
 with the comments upon them of the French courts and 
 the text writers, and of the Pandects. This work, with 
 others, remains in manuscript form, in the Supreme 
 Court Library, at Washington City. 
 
 He remained in the practice of law at New Orleans 
 for three years, and left there because Indian claims 
 which he was prosecuting required him to be in Wash- 
 ington City the whole of the winter of 1855-56, after 
 which he resumed his practice in Arkansas, and contin- 
 ued to live there until the Civil War broke into his plans, 
 as was the case with many. 
 
 He relinquished the active practice of law about 1879, 
 and after that appeared in the courts only by his briefs 
 and pleadings in writing. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HE WAS A GREAT ORATOR, AND HIS UNOFFICIAL PUBLIC 
 
 SERVICES WERE NUMEROUS, BUT HE HAD A DISTASTE 
 
 FOR PUBLIC OFFICE. 
 
 OUT shallop, long with tempest tried, 
 
 Floats calmly down life's tranquil tide; 
 
 Blue skies are laughing overhead, 
 
 The river sparkles in its bed; 
 
 The sunbeams from the waters glancing, 
 
 On the small waves round our vessel dancing, 
 
 Melt and dissolve in silver foam, 
 
 And we, in our frail home, 
 To the charmed water-music listen. 
 
 With all his other accomplishments, Pike was a great 
 orator, who crossed swords with the most noted lawyers 
 and statesmen of his time. His unofficial public services 
 were considerable, and, having the courage of his con- 
 victions in an eminent degree, he exercised a potent 
 influence. 
 
 He was a member of the committee of seven dele- 
 gates, in 1836, to write an address to the people of 
 Arkansas in regard to the matter of the admission of 
 the Territory to statehood; and the address, of which 
 he is considered the author, is a striking document, con- 
 cluding with this withering thrust at those who argued 
 
62 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 against statehood on account of probable increased 
 taxes: 
 
 "Poor indeed is the plea of poverty, when liberty 
 and man's dearest rights are at stake. Craven-hearted 
 and unworthy American must be he who would be con- 
 tented to remain a bondman and a hewer of wood to 
 escape paying the paltry pittance of twice his present 
 tax." 
 
 He participated in a Whig convention at Louisville 
 in 1844, and made a speech which created a sensation. 
 
 In 1847 he threw out the suggestion of a Pacific rail- 
 road convention, to build a road which should be the 
 Southern Pacific. In regard to this, he said, in part: 
 "At my suggestion, the legislature of Arkansas invited 
 the Southern States to send delegates to Memphis, to 
 form a convention, and it was held accordingly. I could 
 not attend, and William M. McPherson of Chicot county 
 (afterward of St. Louis) was sent as a delegate, I and 
 others paying his expenses. The next year another meet- 
 ing was held there, which I attended, and then others 
 followed at Charleston, New Orleans and Savannah, 
 which I attended, representing Louisiana at Savannah. 
 At the latter meeting I opposed a resolution offered in 
 favor of the renewal of the slave trade, and afterward 
 declined to attend the meeting at Knoxville because that 
 subject had been agitated and the resolution was likely 
 to be offered again. After that I was invited to address 
 the legislature at Baton Rouge, and obtained there the 
 passage of a charter for a Pacific railroad, with termini 
 on the Pacific at San Francisco and Guaymas." 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 63 
 
 An extract from the lengthy speech which he de- 
 livered before the Louisiana legislature will be interest- 
 ing, not only on account of his eloquent language and 
 the logical reasons given for the building of the Southern 
 Pacific Railroad, but because his comments evidence 
 enthusiasm for the South, and feeling against the North 
 which is somewhat surprising: 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, for four thousand years the history 
 of nations has been, to a great extent, the history of a 
 struggle for the trade of the East of the Indies and of 
 China. It was that trade, carried by caravans over the 
 desert, that enriched Egypt, and enabled her to usurp 
 the title, belonging perhaps to Hindostan, of the cradle 
 of civilization, and to build up a magnificent empire on 
 the banks of the Nile. It was that trade which created 
 Tyre and Sidon, and made Carthage the rival of old 
 Rome. It made Venice, in her lagoons, the queen of 
 the world Portugal, with her narrow limits, one of the 
 foremost States of Europe; Amsterdam, the proudest and 
 wealthiest of cities. It was that trade which led Isabella 
 of Castile to become the protectress of the Genoese navi- 
 gator, and under her auspices led Christoval Colon to 
 the shores of Hispaniola, and succeeding navigators to 
 those of the Continent of America. They sought a new 
 way to the Indies and it is this, and not the mere desire 
 of adding new provinces, by conquest, to her mighty 
 dominions, that has carried the troops of England, step 
 by step, over India and Burmah, until her outposts are 
 face to face with those of Russia; and the inexorable 
 necessity to her commercial supremacy, and perhaps to 
 
64 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 her existence, of the monopoly of the Eastern trade, has 
 forced her into the great war which she and her old 
 hereditary enemy are desperately waging against the 
 Muscovite. 
 
 "Wherever the trade of the East flows, there will flow 
 wealth, prosperity, peace, political and commercial in- 
 dependence and supremacy. As it first built up Palmyra 
 and Baalbec, Venice and Amsterdam; so, if we choose, 
 it will build up great cities and powerful States in our 
 own South. 
 
 "Only a very few years ago, when at the first Con- 
 vention held at Memphis, Mr. Calhoun, as I was re- 
 minded today, said that in time the Atlantic would be 
 connected by railroad with the Mississippi, and the next 
 generation would see men assembled on the banks of the 
 great river to consult about building an iron road to 
 the Pacific. The next generation has not yet come; but 
 we are here tonight; here, where only a few days since, 
 and almost within the memory of some of us, the Indian 
 hunter made his camp and built his fire upon the spot 
 where the representatives of the people are now met to 
 legislate for a great, an honored and honorable State; 
 here we have met, to consult upon that which the wisest 
 statesmen of the South thought might be done in another 
 generation. 
 
 "The world's route to the Indies is through the ter- 
 ritory of the Southern States. The trade is ours, if we 
 choose to take it. A cargo shipped from any port in 
 Europe for India or China, landed in New York, and 
 

 
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The Life Story of Albert Pike 65 
 
 thence sent by railroad to San Francisco, must then 
 turn southward, and keep that course until it reaches 
 the Tropic of Cancer, in order that the trade winds may 
 carry it west to Canton. Then to reach the Indian ports, 
 it must again turn southward, and pass between the In- 
 dian Islands and the main land, until it reaches the 
 mouths of the Indus and the Ganges, and the great ports 
 of Hindostan. Thus, by any northern route, there must 
 be a vast divergence from a straight line; but let a cargo 
 come from Liverpool, Marseilles, Bordeaux or Lisbon 
 to Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans, and 
 thence by railroad running near El Paso to San Diego 
 or Guaymas, and it finds itself, on reaching the Pacific, 
 on the direct route to the Indies. 
 
 "Build a southern railroad on this route, 700 or 800 
 miles nearer by land and water, as it will make the dis- 
 tance to Canton or Calcutta, on a road built at far less 
 expense, and therefore, able to carry at lower freights, 
 south of those mighty snows that would bury an army of 
 cars and locomotives in a winter, and no Northern or 
 Central railroad could by any possibility compete with 
 it. What merchant, anxious to take advantage of the 
 market, having a cargo worth half a million on board 
 an India ship, would allow it, when in the latitude of 
 Guaymas or San Diego, to turn north and seek San Fran- 
 cisco, sailing three or four hundred miles directly out 
 of the way, in order to find a railroad conveyance at 
 least as many miles further across the continent than 
 ours, and to be in reaching New York as many more 
 miles out of the nearest and best track to Liverpool? 
 
66 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 "The struggle for the trade of the East is now being 
 transferred to this continent. On our north the friends 
 of the Central or St. Louis route are active and energetic, 
 led by a gentleman, to whom, whatever his follies, none 
 can deny the merit of vast energy and perseverance, ex- 
 tensive and varied information, great weight of charac- 
 ter, and a strange forwardness and singleness of pur- 
 pose, perhaps the most efficient and valuable of all the 
 qualifications of a statesman. He declares that he has 
 the Pacific Railroad in his pocket that capitalists are 
 ready to build it, and that they ask from the general gov- 
 ernment only the right of way. The friends of a still 
 more northern line are also in the field; and in the great 
 Northwest new States are rapidly growing up, soon to 
 have the power to devote the means of the general gov- 
 ernment to building a railroad to the Pacific, on North- 
 ern, or, as they choose to call it, on free soil, from Chi- 
 cago, Rock Island, Davenport, or some point still further 
 north. 
 
 "On our south a contract was, on the 23d of Novem- 
 ber last, executed with the President of Mexico, by an 
 American, giving a company the exclusive right of build- 
 ing a railroad from El Paso to the Pacific, with the most 
 extensive and valuable privileges. 
 
 "In this emergency, what is the South to do? Are 
 we to sit still and fold our arms, and see great channels 
 cut to the north and south of us, through which the trade 
 of the East shall flow past us, to impoverish and not to 
 enrich us? I do not think that the South ought to con- 
 sent that the general government shall ever build and 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 67 
 
 own any Pacific Railroad. There is centralization of 
 power, and increase of patronage enough, without that. 
 The legitimate powers of government are enough to be 
 possessed by Congress and the President. Nor do I think 
 that it ever ought to be allowed that this vast road should 
 be owned by any company of Northern or foreign capi- 
 talists, chartered by a Northern State. Southern energy 
 and Southern men should build the road. It ought, as I 
 think, to be built and owned by the Southern States, its 
 concerns managed by the Southern States, and its profits 
 enrich their treasuries. But that, I admit, is imprac- 
 ticable. The charter, therefore, proposes to incorporate 
 the Southern States with such cities, corporations and 
 individuals as may desire to subscribe for stock. Should 
 part, or even all of the States decline, as all will not, 
 should no cities unite in the plan, this will not interfere 
 with the operation of the charter. Provision is made 
 for that. 
 
 "I like the spirit of the resolutions adopted some- 
 where in Massachusetts: 'Resolved, first, That the road 
 can be built; Resolved, second, That it ought to be built; 
 Resolved, third, That it shall be built.' I would have 
 the South ask but one question: whether the road is 
 necessary. If it is, it can be built. 
 
 "It is not only necessary, but indispensable, for three 
 reasons. First, to give us the trade of the East; second, 
 to unite us with California, which, without it, will soon 
 ally itself indissolubly with the North, or frame an inde- 
 pendent government for itself; and third, it is a condi- 
 tion of the welfare, the peace, the prosperity, the se- 
 
68 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 curity and the very existence of the South. 
 
 "Upon the two first reasons I need not weary you 
 by enlarging. It is no longer necessary to argue in 
 regard to them. It is a foregone conclusion, to which 
 the whole people of the United States has arrived, that 
 a railroad to the Pacific must be built. 
 
 "But the third reason addresses itself more particu- 
 larly to every patriot and statesman of the South. We 
 cannot shut our eyes to the dangers that menace us; or 
 if we do, the lion will still be in our path, close our 
 eyes as we may. We are like Ishmael, in one respect 
 at least, that the hand of every other nation is against 
 us. Slavery is regarded everywhere else as a crime 
 against which all the world may wage war. We are like 
 an entrenched army in the enemy's country. Batteries, 
 masked if you please, are mounted with their full arma- 
 ment of guns, are thrown up against us on every side; 
 the artillerists are at their posts, and their matches are 
 lighted. If we would be safe and secure, we must de- 
 velop our resources, increase our power, and grasp the 
 commerce of the East. 
 
 "We cannot deceive ourselves, struggle to do so as we 
 may, in regard to the feeling against us in the Northern 
 States. That feeling is one of hostility to our political 
 and commercial advancement and prosperity. We are 
 not to be allowed to associate with ourselves any more 
 slave States; we are to have no road to the Pacific by 
 the aid of the general government. The area of slavery 
 is not to be extended. When the Gadsden treaty was 
 before the Senate of the United States, Northern Sena- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 69 
 
 tors broadly placed their opposition to it on the ground 
 that it was meant to give the Southern States a railroad 
 route to the Pacific. The treaty was at first rejected, 
 and for that reason; and that produced the resolutions 
 of the Charleston Convention, as I have read them to 
 you. 
 
 "Why, sir, what need to go about to seek for examples 
 of Northern feeling? It has lately happened that mis- 
 sionaries, commissioned, as they claimed, by the Divinity 
 himself, to preach the Christian Gospel among the 
 heathen, have thought it their duty to withdraw from 
 among the Choctaw Indians upon our frontier, and leave 
 them to relapse, if they choose, back into heathenism 
 again, because they insist upon holding slaves, and not 
 allowing them to be tampered with and misled by their 
 spiritual teachers. What could more strongly illustrate 
 the feeling of the North? 
 
 "There is a more laudable feeling also operating 
 against us. We all love our common country. We love 
 its Constitution, the Union and the flag of the United 
 States. But commercial communities and legislative 
 bodies are governed far more by considerations of sec- 
 tional and local interest, than of a broad and catholic 
 patriotism. We must not expect great commercial cities 
 to aid in bringing about measures that shall divert the 
 commerce of the world from them, by turning it into new 
 channels, and build up other cities at their expense. It 
 is not in human nature to do that which shall benefit 
 another and injure one's self. 
 
 "Accordingly, we see that we are not to have a South- 
 
70 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 ern Pacific Railroad by Northern votes in Congress. He 
 who expects it is almost a lunatic." 
 
 In a stirring speech delivered at Memphis, Tenn., in 
 November, 1849, in making an appeal for action by 
 the South, he said, among other things: 
 
 "Edmond Burke told the House of Commons, when 
 the thirteen colonies claimed that taxation and repre- 
 sentation should go together, that it was an undeniable 
 axiom that countries three thousand miles apart could 
 not exist under one government where the legislature 
 of one portion had to travel that distance to make laws, 
 and the fact that such laws had been passed could not 
 be known until three months after their passage. What 
 was true then is true now. It is only by bringing Cali- 
 fornia and Oregon within a few days' journey of Wash- 
 ington that we can retain them as a part of the Union; 
 and, unless this road is built, we will have expended 
 our blood and treasure for the suicidal purpose of creat- 
 ing a new and independent empire on the Pacific. It is 
 the first and highest duty of the government to stretch 
 an iron arm across the continent, which, with its fibres 
 radiating at the shoulder from different points on the 
 Atlantic, shall fasten a tenacious grasp on those great 
 western possessions, and grapple them to us, as with 
 hooks of steel. Such a road will be like a great artery, 
 through which the pulsation of the national heart will 
 send the life blood to the extremities of the Union." 
 
 A writer speaks of his taking part in the commercial 
 convention of the Southern and Western states which 
 was held at Charleston in 1854. Fifteen states were rep- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 71 
 
 resented, and there were such delegates as William Daw- 
 son, Matthew F. Maury, Clement C. Clay, James C. Jones 
 and John H. Reagan. Pike introduced a series of resolu- 
 tions, favoring a confederacy of the Southern states to 
 build the Southern Pacific railway, and made a power- 
 ful speech supporting them. 
 
 It was the custom of the principals of the Tulip 
 Female Seminary and the Arkansas Military Academy, 
 institutions chartered by the state, once a year, at the 
 close of their examinations, to invite one of the leading 
 men of the state jointly to address the pupils of these 
 institutions. On June 4, 1852, Albert Pike delivered 
 such an address, on the subject of education. On this 
 occasion he was greeted by a vast assemblage of beauty 
 and talent, including the students and cadets. His ad- 
 dress is remembered as having been a masterpiece. In 
 fervid words he encouraged the young man to strive to 
 become a well-educated gentleman "in the councils of 
 his country, a statesman; in war, an accomplished sol- 
 dier; at the law, not unworthy to have his name asso- 
 ciated with those of Story and Kent; as a writer, fit to be 
 read with pleasure and profit by men of learning and 
 ability; and as a speaker, to be heard with respect by 
 the intellectual and refined." And with great earnest- 
 ness he counselled that the maiden "be taught to bend 
 her bright eyes on her books, and pale her rosy cheeks 
 with study, that she may be entitled to wear the graceful 
 appellation of lady, which, if rudely ignorant, she can- 
 not do; to appear well in company, and to be able to 
 converse intelligently, to win the affection and esteem of 
 
72 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 r~ 
 
 an intellectual man, which all young ladiesj I hope, de- 
 sire to do ; to make her own future fireside and domestic 
 home cheerful and pleasant; or to win fame and dis- 
 tinction, as dear to them as to us of the ruder sex." 
 
 All through his writings and in all his speeches he 
 shows great deference for women. "It is the enviable 
 peculiarity of woman," he said, "that, seeing far ahead 
 the object to be attained, and judging by an unerring 
 instinct that it is good, proper and laudable, if indeed 
 it is so, she resolutely closes her eyes against all hin- 
 drances and obstacles, determines that the thing shall be 
 done, because it is right, and because what is right not 
 only can but must be done; and that all impediments 
 and barriers and barricades, whether built by this or 
 the other enemy, have nothing to do with the question; 
 and so she succeeds where man, in nine cases out of ten, 
 would fail." 
 
 Pike proved by his earnest efforts to obtain an edu- 
 cation how sincerely he appreciated learning. He was 
 always advocating the cause of education in Arkansas, 
 and he said, "No doubt ignorance succeeds better in our 
 state than elsewhere in the world. But," he continued, 
 "it will not always be so. I am aware that there is a 
 species of oratory, needing no study and as little knowl- 
 edge, which produces great effect on the popular mind, 
 and is potent in obtaining office and power; and this 
 bastard species will often, with the illiterate, prevail 
 against real knowledge and genuine oratory, and help 
 place the kite in the eagle's nest." 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 73 
 
 Before a railroad convention at Little Rock, on July 
 7, 1852, he warmly advocated that encouragement be 
 given to the building of a road which was under dis- 
 cussion, and, in a peroration, warned objectors that they 
 were as unreasonable as one "who stood in an open plain 
 where the clouds were marshalling their armies in the 
 sky above him, bared his head to the storm, challenged 
 the quick lightning to a contest of strength, and expected 
 to stand erect and unmoved upon his feet, after God's 
 thunderbolt had struck him full upon the naked fore- 
 head." 
 
 Arkansas' first railroad was yet to be built, and in 
 this speech he was advocating, with all the might of his 
 great brain, that encouragement be given through the 
 legislature to a proposed road from Memphis to Texar- 
 kana, which was to be called the Central Railroad. 
 Realizing the disadvantages under which the people 
 labored for want of cheap and speedy means of reaching 
 the markets, and the small value of the lands on account 
 of their inaccessibility, he said, "We of Arkansas must 
 adopt as our motto, "Emigration, starvation or rail- 
 roads." 
 
 It seems strange that there should have been opposi- 
 tion to the building of the first railroad into Arkansas, 
 but it is a fact that there was. What Pike complained 
 of mostly, however, was inertia. "Inertia," said he, "is 
 the most effective species of opposition. If your an- 
 tagonist will grow excited, enthusiastic, zealous, even 
 angry and vociferous, you have some hope. A slight 
 thing will change the direction of a body in rapid mo- 
 
74 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 tion. But how to set going in the right direction a pon- 
 derous mass that sits squatted there, inert, helpless, log- 
 like, needing a vast lever to set it in motion at all, in 
 any direction whatever!" 
 
 On the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of 
 the "Masonic and Odd Fellows' Hall of Little Rock," 
 he delivered a great oration to a large assemblage, from 
 which the following quotation is made: 
 
 "We rear no mausoleum to the imperial memory of 
 some pitiless conqueror to whose crouching subjects the 
 glory of the monarch was the sole compensation for 
 rivers of plebeian blood shed on the field of battle, for 
 thousands of homes made desolate, widows bereaved, and 
 children left fatherless and brotherless, to starve; no 
 obelisk to commemorate the conquest of Napoleon or 
 other remorseless butcher of the human race. We have 
 laid the cornerstone of no huge pyramid, to tell suc- 
 ceeding ages a melancholy tale of empty and vainglorious 
 pride, of the toil and lives of millions wasted, and the 
 treasures of an empire squandered, to gratify a selfish 
 despot ; no Sclovac tyrant has brought us hither and from 
 remote distances and humble homes, no more to be seen 
 forever, to build a rude empire's splendid capital amid 
 the marshes, and dispute dominion with the ocean. We 
 build no magnificient baronial castle, with tower and 
 massive battlements, whose shattered ruins frowning in 
 after ages from crag and cliff on happy valleys, like 
 those that startle the dreamy voyager who for the first 
 time follows up the lonely Rhine, shall recount in the 
 still moonlight sad stories of lawless power, rude license, 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 75 
 
 brutal rage and unprotected misery; and in whose gaping 
 dungeons shall flock, like ghosts, grim remembrances of 
 chains eating into limbs, of torture and starvation and 
 horrid deaths; no, nor pagan temple, sacred to supersti- 
 tion and her gods, rich with Corinthian columns, and all 
 the beauty of frieze and pediment and architrave; nor 
 gorgeous cathedral to be built with money wrung from 
 the hard hands of the toiling millions, and aggregated 
 slowly and painfully by diminishing the miserable pit- 
 tance of food earned by despairing poverty for the hun- 
 gry children. We do not prepare to contaminate this 
 genial atmosphere by the presence of a bastile, to be 
 created with the people's toil, its stones cemented with 
 the people's tears, to serve for ages as a prison, and a 
 place of torture for all who dare to dream of liberty 
 and free thought; and finally to be leveled with the 
 ground before the storm and lightning of the people's 
 fury and despair. We build for no prince, no potentate, 
 no tyrant. We rear no memento of wars or battles past; 
 no citadel for power or principality in wars to come. 
 
 "But, here in the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 on the free soil of a great republic, under propitious 
 skies, and by the voluntary contributions of two great 
 philanthropic orders, we have undertaken to build up 
 a Hall, devoted to the good purpose and worthy ends of 
 Masonry and Odd Fellowship, consecrated to the perpetual 
 inculcation of Friendship, Love and Truth, the diffusion 
 of the purposes of Benevolence and Charity, the pro- 
 tection of the widow and the fatherless, the relief of 
 
76 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 the worthy, distressed brothers, and the teaching of the 
 True, and the Beautiful and the Good." 
 
 Pike was frequently called upon to make literary 
 addresses and deliver orations on public occasions. His 
 audiences were always entranced with his persuasive 
 oratory and display of learning. The reading of some 
 of these speeches, which have been preserved in books 
 or newspaper files, show the bent of his mind and voice 
 some of his beliefs on the great questions that concern 
 mankind. 
 
 It is not recorded that he aligned himself with any 
 church, but he said that he believed in a God, a Creator 
 and Preserver of the Universe: "and if the Supreme 
 Power is not a mind, but something higher than a mind; 
 not a force, but something higher than a force; not a 
 being but something higher than a being; something 
 for which we have neither word nor idea; yet this su- 
 preme intelligence and power has implanted in the hu- 
 man mind the conviction, needing no argument to create 
 it or confirm it, that the intellectual self of man does 
 not cease to exist when the vital forces leave the body 
 cold and tenantless, and that we shall see again after 
 death, and as we saw them here, the loved ones who have 
 died; and because this conviction has been planted in 
 us, to be an incentive and restraint, to be our consolation 
 in the depths of sorrow when death shall desolate our 
 households, to exalt us in our esteem and make us capa- 
 ble of our great deeds, to repress our baser impulses, 
 to cause us to despise death and desire fame after death, 
 to make something besides the pleasures of sensuality 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 77 
 
 and the goods of this little life of value to us, therefore, 
 it is true, and not false, for the Supreme Intelligence 
 hath not been constrained to resort to a lie and fraud 
 to compass its ends." 
 
 It was within the lodge, or connected with its work 
 that Pike was best known, and exerted his greatest in- 
 fluence. He spoke in terms and tone that touched the 
 heart, and could lift the soul from the depths of gloom 
 to the heights of hope and joy. So sympathetic was his 
 heart, so eloquent his tongue, and so cultured his mind, 
 that he never failed to touch responsive chords with his 
 hearers. 
 
 The sayings of Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius are not 
 more wonderful than those of this sage. His writings, 
 conversations and speeches abound in wisdom and his 
 expressions were made beautiful by the imagery of his 
 poetic nature. 
 
 He once said: 
 
 "The soul grows as truly as the oak. As the tree 
 takes the carbon of the air, the dew, the rain, and the 
 light, and the food that the earth supplies to its roots, 
 and by its mysterious chemistry transmutes them into 
 sap and fibre, into wood and leaf, and flower and fruit, 
 and color and perfume, so the soul imbibes knowledge, 
 and by a divine alchemy changes what it learns into its 
 own substance and grows from within outwardly with 
 an inherent force and power like those that lie hidden in 
 the grain of wheat." 
 
 "We are not born for ourselves alone," said he, "and 
 our country claims her share, and our friends their share 
 
78 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 of us. As all that the earth produces is created for the 
 use of man, so men are created for the sake of men, that 
 they may mutually do good to one another." 
 
 I rather incline to think that Providence 
 has something to do with the fate and fortunes of this 
 great nation, and that its orderings in this matter, as in 
 all others, are wise and good." 
 
 "To my limited vision, as to yours, the system may 
 appear unjust, as do all the sorrow and distress and 
 calamity on earth. But we must become Atheists if we 
 do not believe that He is just and wise, and that in the 
 great phenomena of the universe He is working out a 
 vast and beneficient purpose. The history of the world 
 is full of evidence of this great truth." 
 
 To show his detestation of hypocrisy, he said: 
 
 "No lady or gentleman, no upright man or woman, 
 ever tells a lie. Their word should in any emergency 
 be as sacred as that of a Christian knight in the days of 
 chivalry, when by a just law for a falsehood the golden 
 spurs were hacked with a cleaver from the liars' heels." 
 
 He was not a politician, although possessing such a 
 charming personality, so many qualities of statesman- 
 ship, and the oratorical ability which would have made 
 him a popular idol before the masses. Although he 
 served as a Supreme Court Judge, by appointment, he 
 never appears to have been a candidate for an office. 
 He stated that he had an utter contempt for all public 
 office. The following quotation from one of his poems 
 expresses his feelings after he had stifled the call of the 
 siren who would lure him to offer for public preferment: 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 79 
 
 Cry on! full well I know thy voice, 
 
 For often it has called to me, 
 Stirring my passions with the noise, 
 
 As tempests stir the hungering sea. 
 
 Cry on, ambition; 'tis in vain! 
 
 Thine influence Tiath passed away, 
 And mighty though thou art, again 
 
 Thou canst not bend me to thy sway. 
 
 He was large-minded, chivalrous, munificient, and at 
 the same time sensitive and reserved toward strangers. 
 Being a true poet, such sensitiveness was to be expected. 
 A genuine poet simply could not be a successful poli- 
 tician. 
 
 As a matter of fact, his whig proclivities put him on 
 the wrong side of the political fence to get public office. 
 He said of himself: "As a Henry Clay whig of a pro- 
 nounced type, I detested what In my set was called Jef- 
 fersonian heresies, aggravated by Jacksonian degenera- 
 tion." As now in Arkansas, all the elective offices in 
 his day were filled by adherents of the Democratic party. 
 It is said that he could have held political Arkansas in 
 the hollow of his hand by changing over to the Dem- 
 ocratic party. 
 
 Here is a story which will illustrate the contempt in 
 which whigs were held by some people in those days : 
 
 Two rival candidates for a legislative office had 
 agreed to avoid personalities in their canvass for votes. 
 One of them disregarded his promise in the opinion of 
 the other; and the aggrieved one in taking his competit- 
 or to task for it recited some of the remarks which he had 
 
80 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 heard, and said: "Now, you know that these statements 
 are untrue, and if you don't retract them, I'll be dog- 
 goned if I don't denounce you as a whig." The dire 
 threat is supposed to have made the guilty party good. 
 
 When the whig party declined in 1852, and the Know- 
 Nothing party sprang up, Pike was accused by the Cath- 
 olics of being the chief organizer in Arkansas of its secret 
 meetings. This party elected a full legislative and state 
 ticket in 1854, and Pike wrote a great many articles for 
 the newspapers in furtherance of its objects, some of 
 which in relation to the Catholic church, were replied 
 to by Bishop Byrne, of that denomination. 
 
 This controversy evidenced the fact that Pike's hand 
 had not lost its cunning as a writer. But the trend of 
 events was to precipitate him into new adventures. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HE TAKES UP ARMS IN THE WAR WITH MEXICO. HIS PROSE 
 AND POETICAL REFLECTIONS ON WAR. 
 
 And thus on Buena Vista's heights a long day's work 
 
 was done, 
 
 And thus our brave old general another battle won. 
 Still, still our glorious banner waves, unstained by flight 
 
 or shame, 
 And the Mexicans among their hills still tremble at our 
 
 name. 
 So, honor unto those that stood! Disgrace to those that 
 
 fled! 
 And everlasting glory unto Buena Vista's dead! 
 
 A history of Pike's life could be compiled from his 
 poetry. His connection with the war with Mexico in- 
 spired him to write the poem "Buena Vista." 
 
 His adventuresome spirit seems to have interested 
 him in military affairs early in his career, for in 1839 
 or 1840, he organized and commanded at Little Rock a 
 volunteer company of artillery. The organization con- 
 tinued for several years, drilling usually as infantry, but 
 performing local artillery service, firing salutes on 
 National holidays, the inauguration of governors, and 
 the like, on important occasions. Some old iron guns 
 which had been in storage in the United States Arsenal 
 at Little Rock were used by permission. The military 
 laws of Arkansas authorized four volunteer company 
 
82 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 ~ ~~~ 
 
 organizations in each county, one each of cavalry, ar- 
 tillery, infantry and riflemen, and his was the first com- 
 pany formed in Pulaski county. 
 
 Early in 1845, the air became surcharged with ex- 
 citement on account of the threats made by the Republic 
 of Mexico looking to the recovery of Texas. At the out- 
 break of hostilities, Pike recruited a company of cavalry, 
 known as company "E" of Arkansas, which he com- 
 manded as captain, and in which he served in Mexico 
 with distinction. He participated in the celebrated bat- 
 tle of Buena Vista, on February 22-23, 1847, in the regi- 
 ment of Archibald Yell, and received special mention 
 for bravery from Generals Wool and Taylor. His com- 
 pany was one of three which on February 22 went to the 
 relief of the exhausted Americans who had been holding 
 the Mexican line after the battle which was precipitated 
 when Santa Anna demanded the surrender of the United 
 States troops, and which checked their advance. He met 
 there Major Robert E. Lee, of Virginia, then a military 
 engineer, two years his senior in age, who later became 
 commanding general of the Confederate Army, and with 
 whom he corresponded after the Mexican campaign. 
 
 It is a historical fact that the battle of Buena Vista 
 was won by the Americans over odds of four to one in 
 numbers, through the heroic conduct of volunteer sol- 
 diers like our hero. 
 
 Although not a West Pointer, but a citizen soldier, 
 he paid this tribute to the trained soldier: "Men more 
 accomplished in their profession, or in any profession, 
 than those who served in Mexico, are nowhere to be met 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 83 
 
 with. Amply and nobly did they vindicate the institu- 
 tion at West Point, until then the theme of vituperation 
 for every miserable demagogue; and since then, never 
 mentioned but with praise. Amply and nobly did they 
 vindicate the reputation of their several corps and of 
 our gallant little army. As to them, I need not add my 
 feeble praise; they wrote the vindication in letters of 
 blood on every battle field, and it gleams in letters of 
 light on every page of the Mexican war." 
 
 But he did not at all depreciate the citizen-soldier. 
 Speaking to a body of cadets in regard to the Mexican 
 War, he said: 
 
 "We had citizen soldiers there such as I hope you 
 may become; men called from private life, but who had 
 received military education. I do not know how many, 
 and I disparage no others by naming three, two who fell 
 at Buena Vista, and one who survives. I speak of M'Kee 
 and Clay of the Kentucky regiment, and Davis 1 of Missis- 
 sippi. I have the last before my eyes now, as he sat 
 on his horse for an hour or two among the bullets, after 
 a ball had shattered his ankle; his face pale but com- 
 posed, his voice calm, his eye bright, the very ideal of a 
 hero. These and many others were citizen-soldiers whom 
 you may be proud to imitate; the souls of honor, and 
 the mirrors of knighthood; gentle in their bearing, but 
 firm as the rocks; generous, liberal, warm-hearted, im- 
 petuous; brave as Du Guesclin, and chivalrous as Bay- 
 
 1. Jefferson Davis, afterward President of the Confederate States of America. 
 
84 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 ard; proud, but neither haughty nor vain, educated, 
 accomplished, ready for any duty or emergency." 
 
 "War," he said, "seems to be the natural state and 
 element of man, and the appetite for blood a stern neces- 
 sity of his nature. As in the vegetable kingdom, one 
 species thrives by the destruction and extermination of 
 another; as in the animal kingdom, life maintains life; 
 and the larger, by the law of their nature, pursue, capture 
 and devour the smaller. As man himself in this respect 
 ranks with the tiger and the eagle, and preys upon the 
 harmless fish, the graceful deer, and even the bright- 
 eyed singing bird, so until lately, it might almost have 
 seemed that by a like unerring law of nature man's life 
 maintained the life of man; that might made right, and 
 the strong were made and meant to prey upon the weak, 
 and secure their own fortune and luxury at the price of 
 the pain, the misery, the torture and the death of others, 
 whose virtue and feebleness were their only protection. 
 
 "Of the two first sons of Adam, eldest born upon our 
 planet, when one would have thought the world wide 
 enough, and causes of quarrel rare enough, for them, 
 at least, to have lived in peace; the tiller of the soil rose 
 up against his brother, the shepherd, and slew him; and 
 in the days of Noah crime, rapine, violence and murder 
 had beceome so rife upon the earth, that, saving only 
 that patriarch and his family, God swept away the whole 
 population of the world with the besom of deluge. 
 
 "Long before the days of Abraham, war had again 
 commenced; and from that time to the present there has 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 85 
 
 probably never been a single hour when it has not raged 
 on some portion of the earth's surface. 
 
 "Nor since they chained the mightiest of Captains to 
 a desert rock in the middle of the ocean, has the world 
 been at peace." 
 
 While himself a gallant and fearless soldier, and 
 recognizing the existing tendency to war, he deprecates 
 the necessity for war in these lines, which are very ap- 
 propriate at the present time: 
 
 When shall the nations all be free, 
 
 And force no longer reign; 
 None bend to brutal Power the knee, 
 
 None hug the golden chain? 
 No longer rule the ancient Wrong, 
 The weak be trampled by the strong? 
 How long, dear God in heaven! how long, 
 
 The people wail in vain? 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 DUEL WITH COLONEL JOHN SELDEN ROANE, IN WHICH PIKE 
 
 CALMLY ENJOYS A CIGAR UP TO THE MINUTE WHEN 
 
 THE COMMAND WAS GIVEN TO "FIRE." 
 
 Next came red Rashness, with his restless step, 
 
 In whose large eyes glowed the fierce fire that boiled 
 
 In his broad chest. Large gouts of blood did drip 
 From his drawn sword; the trembling slaves recoiled; 
 
 Scorn and fierce passion curled his writhing lip; 
 His dress was torn with furious haste, and soiled - 
 
 So springing on his reckless steed, he shook 
 
 The rein, and downward his swift journey took. 
 
 Pike came back from the Mexican War with much to 
 say. Not at that time owning a newspaper of his own, 
 he took the columns of the Gazette to say what was in 
 his mind, and to say it in the usual Pike way, which 
 was heartily and frankly. Pike was not satisfied with 
 the behavior of a part of the Arkansas regiment at the 
 battle of Buena Vista, and he told Little Rock all about 
 it. But the Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, John 
 Selden Roane, considered the criticisms as reflecting 
 on him personally. A challenge resulted, and was 
 promptly accepted. The meeting took place early in the 
 morning, on the sandbar opposite Fort Smith, in the old 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 87 
 
 Indian Territory. Pike's conduct showed unusual cool- 
 ness and heroism. 
 
 His seconds were Luther Chase and John Drennen, 
 and Dr. James A. Dibrell, Sr., was his surgeon, while 
 Pat Farrelly, William H. Cousin and Dr. T. Thruston 
 accompanied him as friends. Roane was accompanied 
 by Henry M. Rector and R. W. Johnson, as seconds, and 
 Dr. Philip Burton as surgeon. 
 
 There was a number of spectators, including some 
 Indians, but they were kept at a safe distance by the 
 seconds and surgeons. 
 
 Standing, unflinchingly, looking like a Grecian god, 
 his long-flowing locks being blown about by the breezes, 
 Pike enjoyed a cigar until the command was given to 
 "fire." 
 
 At call, both parties promptly stepped forward, dis- 
 tance ten paces, when duelling pistols were loaded and 
 placed in their hands. Pike stood up stream, Roane 
 down. Both were firm and determined, neither display- 
 ing the least agitation. At the word, both parties fired, 
 but neither was wounded. A second fire was had, with 
 the same result. Some say that Pike's beard was touched. 
 
 After the second fire, Pike and Dibrell were sitting 
 on a cottonwood log on the edge of the forest which 
 fringed the bar, when Dr. Burton approached with a 
 slow and dignified step, and, when within a few paces, 
 he beckoned Dr. Dibrell to meet him. Dibrell came for- 
 ward, and he remarked: "Dibrell, it's a d shame 
 
 that these men should stand here and shoot at each other 
 until one or the other is killed or wounded. They have 
 
88 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 
 
 shown themselves to be brave men and would fire all 
 day unless prevented. The seconds on neither side can 
 interfere, because it would be considered a great dis- 
 paragement for either to make a proposition for cessation 
 of hostilities. So, let us, as surgeons, assume the re- 
 sponsibility and say they shall not fire another time; 
 that unless they do as we desire, we will leave the field 
 to them, helpless, however cruel it may be." 
 
 Dibrell replied that he knew nothing about the code, 
 but would consult his principal. He then repeated to 
 Pike Dr. Burton's proposition, word for word as made 
 to him. Pike said: "I want one more shot at him and 
 will hit him in a vital part; I believe he has tried to 
 kill me; I have not tried to hit him." After reflection, 
 he added: "Do as you think proper about it, but do not 
 by anything compromise my honor." 
 
 The good offices of Doctors Dibrell and Burton in 
 the interest of peace and humanity were so effective that 
 the matter ended honorably to both parties. 
 
 Dr. Burton said, "I am happy to say that I am au- 
 thorized by Mr. Roane's second, Mr. Rector (afterwards 
 Governor Rector) to state that our principal, who was 
 the challenging party, has declared himself as having 
 received entire satisfaction." 
 
 "That being the case," said Dr. Dibrell, "as Mr. Pike's 
 surgeon, I suggest that these two brave and honorable 
 gentlemen shake hands." 
 
 Pike stood resolutely in his place until Roane ad- 
 vanced toward him with extended hand, when he met 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 89 
 
 him and accepted his hand, with all the grace and 
 dignity of a Chesterfield. 
 
 The bearing of neither of the principals could have 
 been more punctilious. But in a few minutes they were 
 conversing with the party and with each other as if 
 there had never been the slightest difference between 
 them. And in a short while after the reconciliation 
 had been effected all parties adjourned to a banquet at 
 Fort Smith. 
 
 Pike and Roane afterwards became close friends and 
 companions. 
 
 Roane was a good shot, who could kill a deer while 
 running or hit a turkey on the wing; Pike was equally as 
 good a marksman; so that all concerned had expected 
 a funeral, instead of a banquet. 
 
 This is said to have been the last duel between promi- 
 nent persons in Arkansas. 
 
 Pike returned to Little Rock, and repaired to his 
 law office. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HIS SERVICES IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY HE RECRUITS 
 AND COMMANDS A BRIGADE OF INDIANS. 
 
 / shuddered for a time, and looked again. 
 Watching the day of that eventful dawn; 
 
 Wild War had broken his adamantine chain, 
 Bestrid the steed of Anarchy, and drawn 
 
 His bloody scimitar; a fiery rain 
 
 Of blood poured on the land, and scorched the corn; 
 
 Wild shouts, mad cries, and frequent trumpets rang, 
 
 And iron hoofs thundered with constant clang. 
 
 For the next few years Pike was busy with an exten- 
 sive law practice, but occasionally we find him writing 
 poetry, and every now and then he is heard of as attend- 
 ing some important convention or representative body 
 in various parts of the Union. 
 
 His vacations were spent in the open, in hunting or 
 fishing. Colonel J. N. Smithee calls attention to his 
 great fondness for the prairie and the woods. For a 
 quarter of a century prior to 1860 he says Pike never 
 failed each year to take an outing with his gun in the 
 country west of Arkansas. There he would sometimes 
 join an Indian hunting party and spend weeks in search 
 of game, when his legal business would admit of his 
 absence. It was in this way that he formed lasting 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 91 
 
 friendships with the Indians, who afterwards employed 
 him as counsel to represent their interests at the National 
 capital. His legal work of this character assumed huge 
 proportions. He could talk to some of the tribes in their 
 own language, and it is stated on good authority that he 
 actually had been recognized as a chief of one tribe of 
 Indians, which is certainly a remarkable thing. Albert 
 Pike, the Indian chief! 
 
 Another war cloud has gathered. There is to be a 
 terrible conflict between the brothers of the North and 
 the South. Although born in the East, Pike had become 
 thoroughly identified with the South, her institutions and 
 interests. He espoused the southern cause in the conflict, 
 because he believed that her constitutional rights should 
 be upheld. He made an argument before the Secession 
 Convention of Arkansas, which is said to have been a 
 masterpiece. The convention accepted the tender of his 
 services, and appointed him commander of the Indian 
 Department, in the Indian Territory, with the rank of 
 brigadier-general. He was sent to treat with the five 
 civilized tribes on the western border, to attach them if 
 possible to the Southern cause. He made treaties with 
 the civilized tribes, and also with the Comanches, Apa- 
 ches, Kiowas, Kickapoos and other wild tribes. Where 
 he could not secure their cooperation, he did good ser- 
 vice in gaining their neutrality. He also recruited a 
 brigade of Cherokees. 
 
 In the beginning of the war, at an army camp at Ft. 
 McCulloch, on Bluff river, a few miles east of old Fort 
 Washita, there was gathered a large delegation of the 
 
92 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 wild and roving tribes of Kiowa, Comanche and Chero- 
 kee Indians. They had been summoned to council, as 
 allies, by General Pike. It was a wonderful sight to 
 see these Indians, as they sat in a semi-circle in front of 
 General Pike's large office tent all day long, gazing at 
 his striking and majestic person, as he sat writing, read- 
 ing or smoking. They seemed to reverence him like a 
 god, says W. E. Woodruff, Jr., in his "With the Light 
 Guns." 
 
 The Indian regiments were ordered from the Indian 
 Territory into Arkansas, and, under General Pike, took 
 part in some skirmishes and one battle. This was the 
 battle of Pea Ridge, which was usually known as the bat- 
 tle of Elkhorn, so called from the name of a tavern 
 near the battlefield. There were engaged in this battle 
 15,000 Confederates, under General Earl Van Dorn; and 
 20,000 Federals, commanded by General Samuel R. Cur- 
 tis. The Indians rendered valiant service for the Confed- 
 erates. The battle, however, was fought contrary to 
 Pike's judgment and against his advice, and it terminated 
 unsuccessfully to the Confederates, on account of the 
 Confederate withdrawal by Van Dorn's command, al- 
 though the Federals had been repulsed at every point. 
 
 In regard to their fighting qualities, Pike said that 
 no matter how brave he may be, the Red man cannot 
 stand up and face a discharge of cannon. At the first 
 shots from the Federal cannon which flew over the heads 
 of the Indians at the battle of Elkhorn, limbs of trees 
 were shattered, which fell into the midst of the Indians, 
 followed by bursted shells, which made more noise than 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 93 
 
 they did damage. The Indians broke and ran, and they 
 never stopped running until they reached their homes, 
 some of them hundreds of miles away. The Indian does 
 not fight in the open. He must have a log, a tree or a 
 rock behind which to hide. 
 
 Pike took part in many other activities of the war, 
 with credit to himself, but resigned from the Confederate 
 Army in 1864 to accept a place on the State Supreme 
 Court Bench. His daughter is authority for the state- 
 ment that his resignation was due to the fact that he be- 
 came tired of being commanded by men of inferior in- 
 tellect and of being treated with injustice. He could not 
 bear subordination. In a poem entitled, "Reflections," 
 he bares his heart in regard to War and declares his in- 
 tention to dedicate himself to other services: 
 
 Out on this wretched party-war! 
 
 Where the best weapons, trick, chicane, 
 
 And perjury and cunning are, 
 Its picked troops, scoundrelism's train 
 Where baser men outweigh the best, 
 
 Lies always over truth prevail, 
 Wisdom by numbers is oppressed, 
 
 Knavery at Virtue dares to rail, 
 
 Slanders the brightest name assail; 
 Victory in such a war humbles the victor's crest. 
 
 Henceforth, myself I dedicate 
 
 To other service. Let me read 
 Thy pages, Nature though so late 
 
 Thy voice of reprimand I heed. 
 From bud and leaf, from flower and bloom, 
 
94 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 From every fair created thing, 
 Thy teachings will my soul illume, 
 
 So long in darkness slumbering; 
 That when to Life's bright sunny Spring, 
 Autumn succeeds, it may not all my hopes entomb. 
 
 Pike's war song, "Dixie," shows how strong were his 
 feelings in regard to the Southern cause. There is all 
 the fire of his ardent emotions in this verse: 
 
 Southrons, hear your country call you! 
 Up! lest wojrse than death befall you! 
 
 To arms! to arms! to arms! in Dixie! 
 Lo! all the beacon fires are lighted, 
 Let all your hearts be now united! 
 
 To arms! to arms! to arms! in Dixie! 
 
 Halt not till our Federation 
 
 Secures among Earth's powers its station! 
 
 To arms! to arms! to arms! in Dixie! 
 Then at peace, and crowned with glory, 
 Hear your children tell the story! 
 
 To arms! to arms! to arms! in Dixie! 
 
 Near the close of the War, when the Federals were in 
 control of Little Rock, the seat of the Confederate state 
 government was established at Washington, Ark., and 
 Pike moved to that place. A short distance from that 
 town, there is pointed out to the visitor an old-fashioned 
 frame building of the southern type, with a big verandah 
 in front and a wide hall running through the centre of it. 
 It is in a sad state of decay. "That is where Albert Pike 
 lived for awhile at the close of the war," you will be told; 
 "he transferred his library from Little Rock to that 
 house, and it took two ox- wagons to bring the books 
 there." The big stack of books made a lasting impres- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 95 
 
 sion on the people of that simple neighborhood, where 
 he was a recluse for a short while, and recourse to his 
 books no doubt enabled him in a measure to forget the 
 turmoil of the times. 
 
 After the close of the War Between the States he 
 wrote "A Lament for Dixie," consisting of nine verses, 
 one of which reads, 
 
 Dear to us our conquered banners 
 Greeted once with loud hosannas; 
 
 Dear the tattered flag of Dixie; 
 Dear the field of Honor glorious, 
 Where defeated or victorious, 
 
 Sleep the immortal Dead of Dixie. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HIS WORK AS AN AUTHOR. 
 
 My children with their blameless looks, 
 My home with modest, humble cheer, 
 
 My old familiar, friendly books, 
 Companions faithful and sincere! 
 
 Although, as Hempstead's History of Arkansas re- 
 cords, Pike was Arkansas' first great writer and has never 
 lost his prestige as the state's greatest writer, his fame 
 does not rest on his literary work. He is better known 
 both as a lawyer and a Mason. And the reason that he 
 is little known as a writer, in the first place, is that his 
 newspaper work in Arkansas and Tennessee had small 
 circulation. Arkansas during the time that he edited the 
 Little Rock Advocate, in the 30's, was little better than 
 a Territorial wilderness. Then, as to his poetry and 
 miscellaneous prose writings, he was averse to allowing 
 them to be printed in book form and offered for sale. 
 Besides, he was not a mere dreamer, but a practical 
 lawyer and man of action. He apparently did .not as- 
 pire to become a professional author. To use his own 
 language, he read much of the writings of others, more 
 than he had well digested, and had added "some uncon- 
 sidered trifles of his own to the general stock of liter- 
 ature." Said he: "I have so long devoted myself 
 
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 also to that ancient and crabbed, but very respectable 
 mistress, the Law, that if I venture to renew my atten- 
 tions to the muses, those volatile young ladies only laugh 
 at my confused and awkward attempts at a declaration, 
 and commend me, with their distinguished consideration, 
 to the wrinkles of my venerable mistress, at whose jeal- 
 ousy they express an over-acted alarm." 
 
 His verse sprang spontaneously from a great poetic 
 soul, without any desire for publicity or expectation of 
 profit. He wrote that with him, "poetry has not been a 
 purpose, but a passion, and the passions should be held 
 in reverence; they must not they cannot at will be ex- 
 cited, with an eye to the paltry compensation, or the more 
 paltry commendation, of mankind." This was doubtless 
 true of him. At any rate, we have his word for it that 
 he received no compensation for any of his poetry; and 
 he would probably, in his high-mindedness, have scorned 
 to accept pay for any of his efforts in this line. 
 
 It is no wonder then that an author whose work was 
 done in Arkansas should have been so long neglected 
 that, while his best poems were composed in the thirties 
 and forties, it was not until the year 1900, and after his 
 death, that his fame received the recognition of having 
 an edition of his poems offered to the public. 
 
 His best known poetical pieces, after the "Hymns 
 to the Gods" and the "Ode to the Mocking Bird," are 
 "Lines Written on the Rocky Mountains," "To Spring" 
 and "To the Planet Jupiter." 
 
 The Hymns were published in Blackwood's Magazine 
 for June, 1839. The "Ode to the Mocking Bird," original- 
 
98 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 ly published in Philadelphia in about 1836, was reprint- 
 ed in Blackwood's for March 1840. "Ariel" appeared in 
 a short lived publication in Boston in 1824. About the 
 same time he published an "Indian Romance, Illustrative 
 of the habits of the Comanche and Navajo Indians and 
 of Mexican life at an early period of the Incursions by 
 the Spaniards." 
 
 He was author of numerous other productions, many 
 worthy pieces having been lost or forgotten, some having 
 appeared in various publications, principally of a local 
 character. 
 
 His "Nugae" was printed in 1854, supposedly at the 
 request of friends and admirers, and he brought out 150 
 copies, for private distribution. It contained a selection 
 of his poems, including lyrics, love songs and his "Hymns 
 to the Gods." The book, which was exquisitely gotten 
 up, contained the following modest preface: 
 
 "The trifles contained in this volume, so far as the 
 original warp and wool remain, have been written at dif- 
 ferent periods, during many years. I desired to put them 
 in such shape that they might be preserved for my chil- 
 dren and a few friends. I am too conscious of their 
 great defects not to know that they would be of no value 
 or interest to any other person in the world; and not to 
 be aware that if I were to publish them for sale, I should 
 justly incur the wrath of all critics and reviewers who 
 might think that they were worthy of any notice at all. 
 I am not rash enough to incur their just vengeance. 
 Having, therefore, first entirely rewritten them, I have 
 printed 150 copies for complimentary distribution." 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 99 
 
 An unbound autographed copy of this book was, upon 
 request, sent to the late Bishop H. N. Pierce, of Little 
 Rock, accompanied by a friendly letter, in which the 
 gifted author said: 
 
 "Washington, 20 February, 1883. 
 "My Dear Bishop: 
 
 "Regretting that I did not do it without waiting to 
 be asked for it, and yet fortunate to have, as part of my 
 delay, your own poem, which I place in my own volume 
 and shall preserve, I send you toda< r by express, a copy 
 of the Poems, printed by me to re given to personal 
 friende- alone. 
 
 "I should be better pleased if the volume could go to 
 you in becoming dress; but the expense of printing the 
 book and binding a few copies for ladies some loved 
 and others liked by me, has exhausted my slender re- 
 sources, and I am compelled to send you the naked sheets 
 to be clothed according to your own taste. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 "Albert Pike." 
 
 "He wrote," says his daughter, "but little poetry dur- 
 ing the last twenty years of his life; the griefs, the dis- 
 appointments, the carking cares and burdens under which 
 he labored, seemed like rank weeds, to choke out the 
 fine flowers of poesy." As might be expected, it was 
 during this period, however, that he wrote his most popu- 
 lar poem, "Every Year," which lines he is on record as 
 saying pleased him as much as any he had ever written. 
 The pathos and feeling of this poem evidence the exact 
 and sad condition of mind under which, his daughter 
 
100 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 states, the author was laboring at the time he wrote it; 
 and we have seen old people moved to tears as they 
 read 
 
 Life is a count of losses, 
 
 Every year; 
 For the weak are heavier crosses, 
 
 Every year; 
 
 Lost Springs with sobs replying 
 Unto weary Autumn's sighing, 
 While those we love are dying, 
 
 Every year. 
 
 The days have less of gladness, 
 
 Every year; 
 The nights more weight of sadness, 
 
 Every year; 
 
 Fair Springs no longer charm us, 
 The winds and weather harm us, 
 The threats of death alarm us, 
 
 Every year. 
 
 A beam of hope usually brightens the eye of a reader 
 as the closing stanza, which has often been quoted at 
 funerals to console the bereaved, is read: 
 
 But the truer life draws nigher, 
 
 Every year; 
 And its morning star climbs higher, 
 
 Every year; 
 
 Earth's hold on us grows slighter, 
 And the heavy burden lighter, 
 And the Dawn Immortal brighter, 
 
 Every year. 
 
 In regard to his "Hymns to the Gods," John Hallum's 
 Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas (1887) 
 contains the following: 
 
GENERAL ALBERT PIKE. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 101 
 
 "We copy from a recent periodical furnished the 
 author by Colonel E. W. Boudinot 
 
 "Nearly half a century ago Albert Pike contributed 
 to Blackwood's Magazine a poem of more than six hun- 
 dred lines, called 'Hymns to the Gods.' A letter from 
 the poet to the famous editor of the great Edinburgh 
 periodical, tendering his poem for publication, is printed 
 at the end of the verses in the June, 1839, number of the 
 magazine, a time-stained copy of which, bearing the 
 written address, 'Glasgow Coffee Rooms,' has strayed 
 into our hands, and following this letter are some genial 
 characteristic words of welcome and praise from Chris- 
 topher North. We reproduce the poet's letter and the 
 comments of 'C. N.' " 
 
 "Little Rock, State of Arkansas, Aug. 15, 1838. 
 
 "Sir It is with much doubt and many misgivings I 
 have been induced by the entreaties of some friends in 
 Boston to send you the accompanying trifles in verse 
 from this remote corner of the Union beyond the Mis- 
 sissippi. I would fain believe them worthy a place in 
 your estimable maga., which regularly reaches me here, 
 one thousand miles from New York, within six or seven 
 weeks of its publication in Edinburgh, and is duly wel- 
 comed as it deserves. Should you judge them worthy of 
 publication, accept them as a testimonial of respect of- 
 fered by one resident in southwestern forests, to him 
 whose brilliant talents have endeared him not only to 
 every English, but to multitudes of American bosoms, 
 
102 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 equally dear as Christopher North and Professor Wilson. 
 "Most respectfully, sir, 
 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "ALBERT PIKE." 
 
 To which the great editor of Blackwood's replied in 
 a footnote to the poem in his periodical as follows: 
 
 "These fine hymns, which entitle their author to 
 take his place in the highest order of his country's poets, 
 reached us only a week or two ago, though Mr. Pike's 
 most gratifying letter is dated so far back as August, 
 and we mention this that he may not suppose such com- 
 position could have remained unhonored in our reposi- 
 tories from autumn to spring. His packet was accom- 
 panied by a letter not less gratifying from Mr. Isaac 
 C. Pray, dated New York, April 20, 1839, and we hope 
 before many weeks have elapsed the friends, though per- 
 haps then almost as far distant from each other as from 
 us, may accept this, our brotherly salutation from our 
 side of the Atlantic. C. N." 
 
 "One of the most interesting incidents in the history 
 of literature," says one writer, "would be a true picture 
 of that master of the press, Kit North, when he opened 
 the mail package from that dim and unknown world of 
 Arkansas, and his eyes rested on the pages of Pike's 
 manuscript; * * * this great but merciless critic had 
 written Byron to death, and one can imagine his sur- 
 prise when he read the lines penned in the wilderness 
 by an unknown boy." 
 
 A literary man in New York recently made the as- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 103 
 
 sertion that Pike was not an original thinker, but a great 
 plagiarist. This critic was either unfair or not familiar 
 with his writings. One cannot read Pike's poetry or 
 prose without realizing that he had "a taste for elevated 
 joys," or without finding original gems that give evi- 
 dence of, not only talent, but versatile genius. He may 
 not have been one of the greatest masters in that fine 
 art of poetic literature, but his mind was certainly stored 
 with knowledge and fanciful rythmical pictures, which 
 he had the ability to portray. He created beautiful 
 thought-pictures and diffused a noble philosophy. A 
 man must have been accustomed to the "sweet ripplings 
 of the Pierian Springs" who could express himself in 
 such faultless lyrical verse as his "After the Midnight 
 Cometh Morn" 
 
 The years come, and the years go, 
 
 And the leaves of Life keep falling, 
 
 Carrie, falling; 
 And across the sunless river's flow, 
 
 With accents soft and whispers low, 
 
 The friends long lost are calling, 
 
 Carrie, calling; 
 
 While Autumn his red glory wears, 
 And clouds oppress the sky, like cares; 
 
 And the old griefs die, and new joys are born, 
 
 And always after midnight cometh morn. 
 
 Some years ago it was charged that Poe had mis- 
 taken "recollection for invention" in patterning the 
 "Raven" after Pike's "Isadore," which was first pub- 
 lished in the New York Evening Mirror, while Poe 
 was employed on that journal, and two years before 
 the publication of the "Raven." 
 
104 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 Poe is quoted as having pronounced Pike, who was 
 born in the same year as himself, and in the same city, 
 the most classic of American poets. A discussion of 
 the question, "Did Pike influence Poe?" by Prof. Wil- 
 liam F. O'Donnell, recently appeared in a little publica- 
 tion called "The Book News Monthly." 
 
 A STANZA FROM ISADORE. 
 
 The vines and flowers we planted, Love, I tend with anxious care, 
 And yet they droop and fade away, as though they wanted air; 
 They cannot live without thine eyes to feed them with their light; 
 Since thy hands ceased to trim them, Love, they cannot grow 
 
 aright ; 
 Thou art lost to them forever, Isadore! 
 
 Pike's prose writings are by some admired more than 
 his poetry. Judge Jeremiah Black said that he was one 
 of the great masters of the English language. 
 
 A list of his literary, legal and Masonic works would 
 make a large catalogue. 
 
 The reply by him for the Ancient and Accepted Scot- 
 tish Rite of Freemasonry to the letter "Humanum Genus" 
 of Pope Leo XIII, issued from Charleston, S. C., in 1884, 
 is one of the cherished historical papers of that order. 
 
 Without siding with either the Catholics or the 
 Masons, it is safe to say after a reading of this reply 
 to Pope Leo's Encyclical in denunciation of Freemasonry, 
 that no more scholarly presentation of a subject was 
 ever penned, or an abler argument ever made to support 
 the brief of a lawyer. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the Masonic Order will 
 not receive Roman Catholics into its membership, but 
 that is denied in this pamphlet. It is stated therein: 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 105 
 
 "Freemasonry makes no war upon the Roman Catho- 
 lic religion. To do this is impossible for it, because it 
 has never ceased to proclaim its cardinal tenets to be the 
 most perfect and absolute equality of right of free opin- 
 ion in matters of faith and creed. It denies the right of 
 one Faith to tolerate another. To tolerate is to permit; 
 and to permit is to refrain from prohibiting or prevent- 
 ing; and so a right to tolerate would imply a right to 
 forbid. If there be a right to tolerate, every Faith has 
 it alike. One is in no wise, in the eye of Masonry, su- 
 perior to the other; and of two opposing faiths each 
 cannot be superior to the other; nor can each tolerate the 
 other. 
 
 "Rome does claim the right to prohibit, precisely 
 now as she always did. She is never tolerant except 
 upon compulsion. And Masonry, having nothing to say 
 as to her religious tenets, denies her right to interfere 
 with the free exercise of opinion. 
 
 "It will be said that the English-speaking Freemason- 
 ry will not receive Catholics into its bosom. This is not 
 true. It will not receive Jesuits, because no oath that it 
 can administer would bind the conscience of a Jesuit; 
 and it refuses also to receive Atheists; not denying their 
 perfect right to be Atheists, but declining to accept them 
 for associates, because Masonry recognizes a Supreme 
 Will, Wisdom, Power, a God, who is a protecting Provi- 
 dence, and to whom it is not folly to pray." 
 
 While his life in Washington was devoted almost ex- 
 clusively to the work of the Scottish Rite branch of 
 Masonry, he had accumulated a magnificent library, and 
 
106 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 he here found time to do much reading. He spent his 
 leisure hours during many years in translating and com- 
 menting on the Rig- Veda, the Zend-Avesta and other works 
 of Aryan literature by Persian sages, in which studies he 
 was greatly interested. Not only was he also familiar 
 with Latin and Greek, but read with fluency French, 
 Hebrew and Sanscrit. 
 
 We now come to one of the triumphs of his life. It 
 will be remembered that when he was a boy, admission 
 to Harvard was denied him because of insufficient funds. 
 Allibone's Dictionary of Authors is authority for the 
 statement that the faculty of that university conferred 
 on him the degree of M. A. in 1859. The late Colonel 
 Frederick Webber, his old friend and associate in Scot- 
 tish Rite Masonry, stated to the writer in Little Rock 
 a few years ago that Harvard did offer to confer a degree 
 upon him, but that he politely declined the honor, saying 
 that when he needed education, and had no money, the 
 doors of the institution were closed to him, and that he 
 cared nothing for the degree then. 
 
 His mind harked back to the days of his youth when 
 he thirsted for an education. He had made good by his 
 own efforts, and he took satisfaction in the delayed recog- 
 nition which was accorded him, but he spurned the prof- 
 fered degree. 
 
 As to how Pike was regarded among the people who 
 knew him in Arkansas, Judge John Hallum, who paid 
 exalted tribute to his genius and worth, states in his 
 "Bench and Bar of Arkansas" : "Learning that there was 
 an old blind gentleman in the ancient village (Dan- 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 107 
 
 ville) who knew Pike when he first came to the Terri- 
 tory, I called on him. * * * He was delighted to 
 hold converse with the friend of Albert Pike, and spoke 
 of Pike's humble and unpretending advent into Arkansas, 
 dwelt on the 'Casca' papers, Crittenden's visit to the 
 young school teacher, * * * his admission to the bar 
 and rapid upward flight to a seat where giants dwell. 
 
 "Continuing, he said that Arkansas had big guns in 
 those days; more brains than any other given amount of 
 population on the continent. There was Absolom Fowler, 
 the knotty old Coke of the bar; Daniel Walker, who 
 pushed his way with sledge-hammer blows to the front 
 ranks of his profession; Sam Hempstead, who was no 
 orator but a deep thinker, who builded a monument out 
 of the statutes of descent and distribution now so deeply 
 rooted in our system; and then there were John Lenten, 
 Jesse Turner, Crittenden, and others. 'But,' and here the 
 old man's heart filled up, his voice grew mellow and 
 tremulous as he spanned the years, tears came out of 
 his rayless eyes, as he paused, and said, 'we all loved 
 Pike; he was one of the truly great men of this coun- 
 try.' " 
 
 "I would rather," said Hallum, "be baptised in the 
 civic fame which inspired that tear from its crystal fount 
 than to have won the fields of Austerlitz, such 
 
 homage to true worth and greatness is worth more than 
 the pyramids or shafts or marble or brass dedicated to 
 mortal fame." 
 
 And such regard meant more to Pike than the degree 
 of a university. 
 
108 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 After his removal therefrom, Pike was not permitted 
 by circumstances to be a frequent visitor to Arkansas, 
 but he is said to have never referred to Little Rock with- 
 out evidencing great emotion, and he retained a deep 
 affection for many of his old associates in the state. 
 
 He once made mention of a peculiar prejudice that 
 years ago existed and which, unfortunately, continues 
 to a more limited extent among the people of the state 
 outside of the city in regard to Little Rock. "I under- 
 stand very well the feeling prevailing in the country 
 against Little Rock," said he, "that not one man in fifty, 
 out of Little Rock, believes that there is a single honest 
 man in it, unless he belongs to his own side in politics 
 or religion. This jealousy of Little Rock, too common 
 even among those who ought to be wiser, is totally ab- 
 surd and unfounded." 
 
 A biography should be entirely truthful, and, with 
 a respectful consideration for the honored dead, it must 
 be stated that, while most of the old settlers who knew 
 him speak of Pike with the greatest veneration, there are 
 some who do not. A few are inclined to shake their 
 heads, and to suggest that maybe Pike in his younger 
 days did not always practice what he preached. None, 
 however, have been found who could cite definite in- 
 stances of remissness on his part. Every forceful man 
 makes some enemies, and everybody will not speak well 
 of anybody. None of his few detractors will gainsay 
 that Pike was intellectually an unusual man. 
 
ALBERT PIKE AND HIS MASONIC REGALIA. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ACTIVITIES OF HIS LATER YEARS, AND HIS MASONIC CAREER. 
 
 As the bees do not love or respect the drones, so 
 Masonry neither loves nor respects the idle and those 
 who live by their wits; and least of all those parasitic 
 acari that live upon themselves. For those who are in- 
 dolent are likely to become dissipated and vicious; and 
 perfect honesty, which ought to be the common qualifi- 
 cation of all, is more rare than diamonds. Albert Pike. 
 
 At the close of the Civil War and for several years 
 afterward, General Pike seemed filled with a great rest- 
 lessness. He attempted many lines of activity, but per- 
 sisted in few. The war broke up previous connections. 
 Some of his nearest and dearest had fled. One son was 
 drowned in the Arkansas river in 1859. Another was 
 killed during the war. His wife died in 1868, and his 
 eldest daughter in 1869. 
 
 His song, "Love Blooms But Once," sadly expresses 
 his feelings at this period: 
 
 When Autumn's chilly winds complain 
 
 And red leaves withered fall, 
 We know that Spring will laugh again 
 
 And leaf and flower recall. 
 
 But when Love's saddening Autumn wears 
 The hues that death presage, 
 
110 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 No Spring in Winter's lap prepares 
 A second Golden Age. 
 
 So when Life's Autumn sadly sighs, 
 
 Yet smiles its cold tears through, 
 No Spring, with warm and sunny skies, 
 
 The Soul's youth will renew. 
 
 Love blooms but once and dies for all 
 
 Life has no second Spring; 
 The frost must come, the snow must fall, 
 
 Loud as the lark may sing. 
 
 Love! Life! ye fade like flowers, 
 
 That droop and die in June; 
 The present, ah! too short is ours; 
 
 And Autumn comes too soon. 
 
 He tried a number of different spots, seeking peace 
 and happiness in vain. He spent a short time in Canada, 
 but his sojourn there seems to have been merely a period 
 of rest. Returning to the United States, he spent about 
 two years in Memphis, Tenn., where he practiced law 
 for a time, then edited the Memphis Appeal, which was 
 one of Tennessee's most influential newspapers, after- 
 ward absorbed by the present Commercial- Appeal. While 
 living in Memphis he had also served as president of 
 the Tennessee Bar Association. He is also traced there 
 through his poetry, among other pieces, having written 
 for Mrs. Washington Barrow the poem, "My Native 
 Land, My Tennessee." 
 
 His final move was to Washington, D. C., in 1868. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 111 
 
 There he continued to live about thirty-three years, 
 except for a brief residence in Alexandria, Va. The 
 learned Judge U. M. Rose, in his sketch of Chester Ashley, 
 in Volume 3 of the Publications of the Arkansas Histor- 
 ical Society, writes of a visit which he made to Pike at 
 that place, and, saying, "No one could be more interest- 
 ing in conversation," he quotes Pike's remarks about 
 the leaders and the events of the early days in Arkansas. 
 From 1868 to 1870, he was the editor of the Patriot, a 
 Democratic newspaper published in Washington City, 
 which paper contained some of his best editorial and 
 miscellaneous writings. 
 
 Among all the interesting adventures and varied ex- 
 periences of General Pike's remarkable life, the most 
 enviable held by him was probably the last. In the office 
 of the House of the Temple of the Supreme Council of 
 the 33rd Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, at 
 Washington City, he was virtually a monarch of all he 
 surveyed. 
 
 Although known to have suffered griefs, it cannot 
 be doubted that there was to him a satisfaction in this 
 congenial place. 
 
 With a commanding presence, flowing white hair 
 framing the face of a poet and philosopher, he made a 
 most interesting figure in this beautiful building, sur- 
 rounded by the books he loved, the emblems and cher- 
 ished mementoes of the great order which he reverenced 
 and to which he had devoted so many years. He was 
 visited and consulted by important persons from all over 
 the world. And, when not otherwise engaged, he sat and 
 
112 
 
 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 MONUMENT TO GEN. ALBERT PIKE 
 
 Erected by the Scottish Rite Masons in Washington, 
 
 D. C., in 1899. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 113 
 
 dreamed, and delved in ancient lore, as was his wont, 
 smoking his favorite long meerschaum pipe, and watching 
 his pet birds. 
 
 Pike was especially fond of birds. In his home in 
 Washington he is said to have had specimens of rare 
 birds from all over the world, many of which were pres- 
 ents from admiring friends who knew his love for them. 
 He wrote of birds: 
 
 I cannot love the man who doth not love, 
 As men love light, the songs of happy birds; 
 
 For the first visions that my boy heart wove, 
 To fill its sleep with, were that I did rove 
 
 Through the fresh woods, what time the snowy herds 
 Of morning clouds shrunk from the advancing sun, 
 
 Into the depths of Heaven's blue heart, as words 
 From the Poet's lips float gently, one by one, 
 And vanish in the human heart; and then 
 I revelled in such songs, and sorrowed, when, 
 
 With noon-heat, overwrought, the music-gush was gone. 
 
 He became an Oddfellow some time in the forties, and 
 he composed several anthems for that order. 
 
 He had attained the zenith of distinction in Free- 
 masonry. He was initiated in Western Star Lodge, Little 
 Rock, in 1850, received the degree of Worshipful Master 
 in the following July; was created a Knight Templar in 
 1853; served as Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter 
 of Arkansas in 1852-54; received the degrees of the An- 
 cient and Accepted Scottish Rite from the 4th to the 32nd 
 degree in 1858, and in January, 1859, was elected M. P. 
 Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council 
 
114 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. 
 
 Upon the instituting of the Provincial Grand Lodge 
 for the United States of America of the Royal Order of 
 Scotland, Sir and General Albert Pike was named in 
 the warrant from Edinburgh, Scotland, bearing date Oc- 
 tober 4, 1877, as the Provincial Grand Master ad vitam. 
 
 He was an honorary member of the Supreme Coun- 
 cils of the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States, 
 England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, 
 Italy, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Tunis, 
 Peru, Canada, Colon, Nueva Granada, and Honorary 
 Grand Master and Grand Commander of the Supreme 
 Councils of Brazil, Tunis and Egypt. 
 
 His daughter, Mrs. Lillian Pike Roome, states that 
 Sovereign Grand Commander John H. Honour, his pre- 
 decessor, resigned that office expressly that General Pike 
 might be elected as Sovereign Grand Commander. Gen- 
 eral Pike held that office from 1859 until his death, a 
 period of thirty-two years, which is a remarkable record. 
 
 He was the compiler of the "Statutes and Regulations, 
 Institutes, Laws and Grand Contributions of the Ancient 
 and Accepted Scottish Rite," in French and English; 
 also, of "Morals and Dogma," a scholarly compendium 
 of the philosophy and tenets of Freemasonry in all its 
 degrees. 
 
 His Masonic associates say that he became the most 
 eminent and best beloved Mason in the world, not merely 
 by virtue of the exalted official position which he held, 
 but because of his high character and lovable nature, 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 115 
 
 his scholarly attainments, his writings and treatises on 
 the law and symbolism of Masonry, and the extraordi- 
 nary fund of knowledge which he possessed on every 
 subject, in and out of the order. 
 
 His great qualities enabled him to build up the Scot- 
 tish Rite, and to make the Supreme Council for the South- 
 ern Jurisdiction the most influential body of the Rite, 
 and himself to be constituted the arbiter and judge in 
 all questions that concerned the Supreme Councils of 
 the world. 
 
 The Albert Pike Consistory at Little Rock, one of 
 the finest Scottish Rite cathedrals in the country, was 
 named in his honor. The Scottish Rite bodies have out- 
 grown this home, and have recently decided to erect 
 in Little Rock an Albert Pike Memorial Temple, to cost 
 a million dollars or more, and, if the proposed plans 
 are carried out, the Temple will be one of the most per- 
 fect Masonic structures in the world. 
 
 Mr. Charles E. Rosenbaum, 33, Sovereign Grand In- 
 spector General and President of the Board of Trustees 
 of the Scottish Rite Bodies of the Valley of Little Rock, 
 in a prospectus issued on August 1, 1920, thus spoke of 
 Albert Pike and his own dream in regard to the Memorial 
 Temple : 
 
 "To Every Mason in Arkansas and in the World 
 Where Masonry Is Known: Albert Pike was the ideal 
 of the very highest type of Masonic authority, learning 
 and ability, and his memory is revered, as it should be, 
 throughout all the Masonic world. 
 
116 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 " -^ 
 
 "Here, in the City of Little Rock, this distinguished 
 man and Mason took his first steps in Masonry. He 
 was initiated, passed and raised in Western Star Lodge, 
 No. 2. Later, after Magnolia Lodge, No. 60, was char- 
 tered, he became its Worshipful Master, and remained a 
 member thereof until his death. He was also exalted in 
 Union Chapter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, and served 
 as its High Priest. He also served as Grand High Priest 
 of the Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons of Arkansas 
 for two years. Hugh DePayens Commandery, Knights 
 Templar, has the proud distinction of claiming this dis- 
 tinguished brother as its first Eminent Commander. 
 For many years and until his death he was the only 
 honorary member of the Grand Commandery, Knights 
 Templar, of Arkansas. Occidental Council, Royal and 
 Select Masters, was, until the destruction of the Grand 
 Lodge Masonic Temple in Little Rock, a year ago, the 
 proud possessor of its Charter written entirely by Brother 
 Albert Pike in that beautiful handwriting so indicative 
 of the author. Unfortunately, this priceless document 
 is now beyond recall. 
 
 "It was Albert Pike who established the Scottish Rite 
 Bodies in Little Rock, and we owe to his memory the 
 very existence of Scottish Rite Masonry in Arkansas; in 
 fact, throughout the world; because his influence as Sov- 
 ereign Grand Commander for so long a period of time, 
 after leaving Little Rock, for a work commanding the 
 efforts of so great a genius, became world-wide. 
 
 "It is, therefore, fitting that here in Little Rock, his 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 117 
 
 original Masonic home, the city in which he spent so 
 many years of his fruitful life, the Scottish Rite Bodies 
 of the Valley of Little Rock should erect the proposed 
 beautiful structure almost within the shadow of the spa- 
 cious and imposing residence he built and, with his fam- 
 ily, occupied for many years, until called to fields of 
 larger endeavor." 
 
 Pike was the beloved apostle of the Scottish Rite, and 
 the fervid preacher of fraternal association and the broth- 
 erhood of man. In one of his addresses he beautifully 
 and truthfully said: 
 
 "Had mankind from the day of the flood, steadily 
 followed some of the lessons taught them by the indus- 
 trious bees, had they associated themselves together in 
 lodges, and taught and faithfully practiced Toleration, 
 Charity and Friendship; had even those of the human 
 race done so who have professed the Christian faith, to 
 what imaginable degrees of happiness and prosperity 
 would they not have attained! to what extreme and now 
 invisible heights of knowledge and wisdom would not 
 the human intellect have soared! Had they but prac- 
 ticed Toleration alone, what a Garden of Eden would 
 this earth be now! Blood enough has been spilled for 
 opinion's sake, to fill the basin of an inland sea! Treas- 
 ure enough has been expended and destroyed to have 
 made the world a garden, covered it with a network of 
 roads, canals and bridges, and made its every corner 
 glorious with palaces; and the descendants of those who 
 have been slain would have thickly peopled every con- 
 tinent and island of the globe. 
 
118 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 "The earliest of all lessons taught mankind was the 
 necessity of association; for it was taught him in un- 
 mistakable terms by his own feebleness and weakness. 
 He is an enigma to himself. Launched, blind and help- 
 less, upon the great current of Time and Circumstance, 
 he drifts, like a helpless vessel, onward to eternity, a 
 mere atom and mote of dust, clinging to infinity, and 
 whirled along with the revolutions of the Universe. He 
 knows nothing truly of himself and his fellows. His 
 utmost effort never enables him to get a distinct idea of 
 his own nature, or to understand in the least degree the 
 phenomena of his mind. Even his senses are miracles to 
 him. He remains feeble as a child. Between him and 
 the future is let down a curtain, dark, palpable, impene- 
 trable, like a thick cloud, through which he gropes his 
 way and staggers onward. At every step Destiny meets 
 him in some unexpected shape, foils his purpose, mocks 
 at his calculation, changes the course of his life, and 
 forces him into new paths, as one leads a blind man by 
 the hand; and he never knows at what unexpected mo- 
 ment the arm of Death will be thrust suddenly forth from 
 behind the curtain and strike him a sharp and unerring 
 blow. 
 
 "The sudden shifting of a wind, a few cold drops of 
 rain, an unseen stone lying in his path, the tooth of an 
 unregarded serpent, a little globe of lead, the waving of 
 a rag near to a shying horse, a spark of fire on a great 
 boat of a dark night, upon a wide, deep river; all are to 
 him Death's messengers, and overtake him with a peremp- 
 tory fate. Stumbling over some object at every step, he 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 119 
 
 needs constant sympathy and unremitting assistance. 
 Fortune smiles today and frowns tomorrow. Blindness 
 or palsy makes the strong man an infant; and misfor- 
 tune, disaster and sad reverses trick him like gaunt 
 hounds, lying in wait to seize him at a thousand turn- 
 ings. 
 
 "Unfortunately, the obvious truth that every man 
 either actually needs, or will at some time need, the char- 
 itable assistance, or, at least, the friendship, the sym- 
 pathy, the counsel, and the good will of others, like other 
 truths, produced but small effect upon the early human 
 mind. Pressed by the urgent necessities of the moment, 
 by which alone, ordinarily, men's actions are governed, 
 they did associate themselves with communities, and in- 
 stitute civil government, as often, perhaps, for purposes 
 of aggression as of defense or other associations. We 
 hear and know nothing for very many centuries, and 
 then, except where the light of Masonic tradition reaches, 
 dimly and obscurely only, as in the case of the Eleu- 
 sinean Mysteries; whose purpose we can merely guess 
 at from the faintest possible revelations, hardly able to 
 say more than that their forms and ceremonies bore a 
 faint resemblance to some used in our time-honored in- 
 stitution. It is highly probable that they had a philo- 
 sophical and religious, rather than a charitable object." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WAKE OF THE FINE ARKANSAS GENTLEMAN WHO DIED 
 BEFORE HIS TIME; WITH SOME PERSONAL GLIMPSES. 
 
 Let us drink together, fellows, as we did in days of yore. 
 And still enjoy the golden hours that Fortune has in 
 
 store; 
 The absent friends remembered be, in all that's sung or 
 
 said, 
 And Love immortal consecrate the memory of the dead. 
 
 It is said that the ancients coveted the felicity of 
 knowing what would be the eulogies and laments occa- 
 sioned by their departures from the world. Pike once 
 had the opportunity, rarely enjoyed by anyone, of hear- 
 ing read and spoken the various obituaries, resolutions 
 of respect and tributes which friends and associates had 
 prepared on account of his supposed death. 
 
 It is learned from Ben. Per ley Poore's Reminiscences 
 that in January, 1859, a report had been circulated in 
 Washington City that General Pike had died while on a 
 visit to some distant city. His family and friends were 
 greatly distressed thereby. 
 
 When John Coyle, an Irish character in Washing- 
 ton, who kept a place of some note where liquid refresh- 
 ments were served, heard the report of the death of his 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 121 
 
 friend, he made great preparations to give a regular 
 "wake" in his honor. 
 
 Alexander Dimitry, a Washington journalist, who was 
 also a warm friend of Pike's, had written a lengthy 
 obituary for the "Intelligencer," and the article was m 
 type ready for the press. 
 
 But, strange to say, at the last minute, while the life- 
 less body was expected, Pike, plus body and soul, ar- 
 rived on the scene, to the great delight of his friends. 
 There he was before them, with stalwart form and noble 
 features, as much in life and health as ever. 
 
 The mistake had grown out of the death of Colonel 
 Albert Pickett, whose name being similar, had been 
 confounded with that of Pike. 
 
 Coyle and kindred spirits, whose plans were so pleas- 
 antly disarranged, conceived the idea that it would be 
 great sport to go ahead with the wake as originally 
 planned, anyway; and it was accordingly carried out, 
 at Coyle's residence. 
 
 The event was well attended, wine flowed freely, and 
 Jack Savage sang a humorous song which Pike had 
 been induced to compose for the occasion, entitled, "The 
 Life Wake of the Fine Arkansas Gentleman Who Died 
 Before His Time." 
 
 After hearing the numerous eulogies which were 
 passed upon him, Pike arose and made a speech. His 
 remarks were touchingly eloquent, especially when, after 
 acknowledging the honor which had been accorded him, 
 he graciously expressed his delight at hearing the kind 
 words about himself which had been spoken by some 
 
122 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 who he had feared were his enemies. He expressed 
 the fond hope that all enmity that had existed between 
 himself and his fellow man might forever remain buried 
 in the silent tomb to which he was supposed to have been 
 consigned. 
 
 The party grew exceedingly merry as the fun pro- 
 gressed, and when the crowd broke up, in the small hours 
 of the morning, the men were still singing 
 
 A gentleman from Arkansas, not long ago, 'tis said, 
 Waked up one pleasant morning, and discovered he was dead; 
 He was on his way to Washington, not seeking for the spoils, 
 But rejoicing in the promise of a spree at Johnny Coyle's. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 One spree at Johnny Coyle's, one spree at Johnny Coyle's; 
 And who would not be glad to join a spree at Johnny Coyle's. 
 
 The song, 'though good, is too lengthy to quote in 
 full. It continues with a representation of the dead man 
 being ferried by Charon across the Styx, protesting all 
 the time that he doesn't want to go because he has a date 
 at Johnny Coyle's, and "alive or dead," he must be there 
 to meet some of the best and j oiliest companions to be 
 found anywhere. 
 
 He appeals to his majesty King Pluto for permis- 
 sion to have one more frolic at Coyle's, but Pluto will 
 not release him, saying, "if it's good company you want, 
 we've the best philosophers, poets, wits, statesmen, and 
 the rest; there's Homer here, and all the bards of ancient 
 Greece, and the chaps that sailed away so far to fetch 
 the Golden Fleece;" and "we've nectar and ambrosia 
 here, we do not starve the dead." The subject of the 
 wake replies that these distinguished personages cannot 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 123 
 
 compare with his friends at Johnny Coyle's like Walter 
 Knox, Byard, Ash White, Philip Key, Ben Tucker, Ben 
 Per ley Poore, George French, et al., etc.; but Pluto is 
 resolute and in detaining him says, "Enough, the law 
 must be enforced, 'tis plain if with these fellows once 
 you get, you'll ne'er return again." The shade appeals 
 to Proserpina, and the queen of Hades interceded for 
 him, hangs 'round Pluto's neck and kisses him in behalf 
 of the newcomer, saying, "Let him go, my love, he'll 
 surely come again." 
 
 There are many verses, ending 
 
 Said he, "I won't;" said she, "Dear lord, do let me have my way! 
 Let him be present at his wake! How can you say me nay? 
 I'm sure you do not love me; if you did you'd not refuse, 
 When I want to get the fashions, and you want to hear the news. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 And so at last the queen prevailed, as women always do, 
 And thus it comes that once again this gentleman's with you; 
 He's under promise to return, but that he means to break, 
 And many another spree to have besides the present wake. 
 
 The wake, as may be imagined, was an immense suc- 
 cess. It proved to be one of the most enjoyable fes- 
 tivals which ever took place at the national capital. 
 
 It is clearly seen that Pike was a versatile genius, that 
 he had adaptability, was a good mixer, and a man of 
 broad sympathies. It is noteworthy that, while essen- 
 tially a pioneer, fond of the prairie and of wild life, 
 an Indian chief by selection, he should hold his own 
 with the most sophisticated and prove an epicure among 
 bon vivants. 
 
 Quotation is made from an unpublished manuscrpit 
 written by the late Colonel J. N. Smithee: 
 
124 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 "In the hotels, old French restaurants and coffee 
 houses in New Orleans and Washington, it was the fash- 
 ion to duplicate the dishes of Captain Pike. There are 
 few people who know how to order a dinner, usually 
 being content with what the waiter chooses to set before 
 them. Pike was fond of a good dinner, good wine and 
 genial companions, and he knew how to select each. 
 Often he visited the national capital to appear as an at- 
 torney before the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 There Pike's dinners became famous and he drew around 
 him as jolly a set of companions and bon vivants as 
 ever graced the board of Lucullus. Among them were 
 the brightest, brainiest and wittiest men in the nation's 
 capital. They included editors, poets, authors and states- 
 men." 
 
 There is no doubt that Pike was a man who enjoyed 
 life. He was also generous to a fault. Although he had 
 an extensive law practice at one time and received enor- 
 mous fees, he accumulated no property. He was a greax 
 spender for the good things of life, as well as a liberal 
 dispenser of charity when in funds. The following two 
 verses from a ten-verse poem written by him, entitled, 
 "An Anciente Fytte, Pleasant and Full of Pastyme, of 
 a Dollar or Two," further evidences his love of fun and 
 keen sense of humor: 
 
 With circumspect steps we pick our way through 
 This intricate world, as all prudent folks do, 
 May we still on our journey, be able to view 
 The benevolent face of a Dollar, or two. 
 For an excellent thing is a Dollar, or two; 
 No friend is so staunch as a Dollar, or two; 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 125 
 
 In country or town, 
 As we stroll up and down, 
 We are cock of the walk, with a Dollar, or two. 
 
 Do you wish to emerge from the bachelor-crew? 
 And a charming young innocent female to woo? 
 You must always be ready the handsome to do, 
 Although it may cost you a Dollar, or two. 
 
 For love tips his darts with a Dollar, or two; 
 Young affections are gained by a Dollar, or two; 
 And beyond all dispute 
 The best card of your suit 
 Is the eloquent chink of a Dollar, or two. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CLOSE OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE. 
 
 Our afternoon of life has come. 
 Its darkening hours are here; 
 
 The evening shadows lengthen, 
 And the night is drawing near; 
 
 To some the sky is bright, to some 
 
 With clouds is overcast; 
 But still upon our Present smiles 
 
 The Light of Days long past. 
 
 It will be remembered with what fortitude Pike at- 
 tended the wake which was given at Washington on the 
 occasion of his reported death, when he realized that his 
 end could not be many years delayed. He smiled then, 
 and he may have smiled when the real obituaries were 
 almost due, perhaps glad that another, the greatest ad- 
 venture, was at hand. He was a philosopher. The time 
 had come when, to use his own words, he "stood upon 
 the shores of the great sea, beyond which, far out of 
 sight, lies a land mysterious and silent, all unknown." 
 
 He had tasted of all the sweets of life; he had suc- 
 ceeded in almost every line of human endeavor and am- 
 bition; like the rest of us, he had had his sorrows, but 
 he had reaped rich rewards. 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 127 
 
 He became ill and suffered for many months; he 
 wasted away to a mere shadow, but the golden gift of 
 memory made his last moments sweet. His daughter 
 Mrs. Lillian Pike Roome, stated that, "from moment to 
 moment, the change was so slight, the extinction of the 
 vital flame so gradual, that it was scarcely perceptible 
 when the last breath was drawn. His mind was clear to 
 the last, and busied with thoughts of relatives and 
 friends." He expired on the 2nd of April, 1891, at his 
 residence in the Holy House of the Scottish Rite Temple 
 at Washington, in his 82nd year. 
 
 He died steadfast in the belief of the immortality 
 of the soul. He said that, "although even the inspired 
 word gives us no definite information in regard to it, or 
 could do so in words that would reach our understanding, 
 it could not be that our intellect and individuality cease 
 to be when the vitality of the body ends." 
 
 A little more than a month prior to his death he 
 wrote these directions as to the disposition of his re- 
 mains : 
 
 "Orient of Washington, District of Columbia, 
 
 The 28th Day of February, 1891, C. E. 
 
 "These are my wishes and directions in regard to the 
 disposition of my body after death. 
 
 "I forbid any autopsy or dissection of my body to 
 gratify curiosity, or for the benefit of science, or for any 
 other reason. 
 
 "If I die in or near Washington, let my body be 
 placed in no casket, but in a plain coffin, covered with 
 
128 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 black cloth, and taken, in the evening of the day, to the 
 Cathedral-room of the Scottish Rite, or a church, without 
 any procession, parade or music. At midnight let the 
 funeral offices of the Kadosh be performed there over 
 my body and none other either then or afterwards; and, 
 on the next morning early, let it be taken by nine or 
 twelve brethren of the Scottish Rite to Baltimore or Phil- 
 adelphia, and cremated without any ceremony than the 
 word 'Good-bye!' Let my ashes be put around the roots 
 of the two acacia trees in front of the home of the Su- 
 preme Council. 
 
 "I desire that no Lodge of Sorrow be holden for me; 
 eulogies of the dead are too indiscriminate to be of great 
 value. If the works prepared by me for the Scottish Rite 
 shall be valued and used after I am dead, ad perpetuitem 
 ritus, I do not desire and shall not need any other eulogy ; 
 and if they shall not, I shall need no other. If I were to 
 be buried (of which and its 'worms and rottenness and 
 cold dishonor' I have a horror), I should desire to have 
 put upon my gravestone only my name, the dates of my 
 birth and death, and these words: 
 
 Laborum Ejus Superstites Sunt Fructus Vixit. 
 (Signed) ALBERT PIKE." 
 
 The shell of this king of adventurers was laid away 
 under the shade of a tree in a pretty spot in Oak Hill 
 Cemetery at Washington. There rest the remains of a 
 glorious man, who conquered almost everything except 
 death. 
 
 The body was not subjected to the heartless fires of 
 
The Life Story of Albert Pike 129 
 
 cremation, but, as he desired, the Kadosh funeral services 
 were held in the Congregational church in Washington. 
 For a number of years the grave was unmarked. 
 Only the rustling leaves and the sighing winds told of 
 the distinguished inhabitant of the graveyard. Many 
 Masonic pilgrims to the grave had experienced difficulty 
 in finding it. But in 1917, the surviving members of the 
 family, who had expressed the thought that the duty to 
 do so rested upon them, placed over the grave a suitable 
 stone of white marble, bearing the inscription which the 
 deceased had wished to be placed there if his body was 
 to be buried. 
 
 Of course, the Masons would provide a memorial 
 for him, although, many years before, he had said, 
 "When I am dead, I wish my monument to be builded in 
 the hearts and memories of my brethren of the Ancient 
 and Accepted Scottish Rite." A magnificent heroic 
 bronze statue, designed and erected by Trentanove, fh 
 noted Italian sculptor, was erected to his memory at 
 Washington by his brethren and associates of the Scot- 
 tish Rite. It was unveiled at the session of the order in 
 1901 and presented to the government of the United 
 States. 
 
 The monument represents General Pike in a character- 
 istic pose, with a book in his right hand, and the likeness 
 is said to be very striking. The pedestal is of granite, 
 and sitting at its base is a second figure, representing the 
 Goddess of Masonry, symbolical of all the virtues, and 
 bearing aloft the banner of the Scottish Rite. The un- 
 
130 The Life Story of Albert Pike 
 
 veiling ceremony was one of the most important Masonic 
 events that ever took place. Dignitaries of the order 
 were present from all over the country. Masons every- 
 where mourned his loss, and many glowing tributes to 
 his character and worth have been paid by the world at 
 large. 
 
 Lodges of Sorrow were held in New Orleans, Little 
 Rock and at Lyons, Iowa. 
 
 In a tribute to him, Colonel P. Dolan, of Fargo, S. 
 D., said, "Albert Pike, a king among men by the divine 
 right of merit; a giant in body, in brain, in heart and in 
 soul * * climbed Fame's glittering ladder to 
 
 its loftiest height, and stepped from its topmost round 
 into the skies." 
 
 "To the past go more dead faces 
 
 Every Year; 
 As the loved leave vacant places 
 
 Every Year."