[[Image:AlbertPikeYounger.jpeg|thumb|Albert Pike]]
'''Albert Pike''' ([[December 29]] [[1809]]–[[April 2]] [[1891]]) was an [[attorney-at-law|attorney]], soldier, writer, and [[freemasonry|Freemason]]. Pike is the only [[Confederate States Army|Confederate military]] officer or figure to be honored with a statue in [[Washington, D.C.]] The statue sits in [[Judiciary Square]].

==Biography==
{{Freemasonry2}}
Pike was born in [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], son of Ben and Sarah (Andrews) Pike, and spent his childhood in [[Byfield, Massachusetts|Byfield]] and [[Newburyport, Massachusetts]]. He attended school in Newburyport and [[Framingham, Massachusetts|Framingham]] until he was fifteen, at which point, having passed the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] entrance exam but unable to afford tuition, he began a program of self-education, later becoming a schoolteacher in [[Gloucester, Massachusetts|Gloucester]], [[Fairhaven, Massachusetts|Fairhaven]] and Newburyport.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

In 1831 Pike left Massachusetts to travel west, first stopping in [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] and later moving on to [[Independence, Missouri|Independence]], [[Missouri]]. In Independence, he joined an expedition to [[Taos, New Mexico]], hunting and trading. During the excursion his horse broke and ran, forcing Pike to walk the remaining 500 miles to Taos. After this he joined a trapping expedition to the [[Llano Estacado]] in New Mexico and [[Texas]]. Trapping was minimal, and after traveling about 1300 miles (650 on foot), he finally arrived at [[Fort Smith, Arkansas|Fort Smith]], [[Arkansas]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

Settling in Arkansas in 1833, he taught school and wrote a series of articles for the [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] ''Arkansas Advocate'' under the [[pen name]] of "Casca."{{Fact|date=July 2007}} The articles were popular enough that he was asked to join the staff of the newspaper. Later, after marrying Mary Ann Hamilton, he purchased part of the newspaper with the [[dowry]]. By 1835 he was the ''Advocate''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s sole owner. Under Pike's administration the ''Advocate'' promoted the viewpoint of the [[United States Whig Party|Whig party]] in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

He then began to study law, and was admitted to the [[bar (law)|bar]] in 1837, selling the ''Advocate'' the same year. He was the first reporter for the Arkansas supreme court, and also wrote a book (published anonymously), titled ''The Arkansas Form Book'', which was a guidebook for lawyers.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

==Military career==
When the [[Mexican-American War]] started, Pike joined the cavalry and was commissioned as a troop commander, serving in the [[Battle of Buena Vista]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}} He and his commander, [[John Selden Roane]], had several differences of opinion. This situation led finally to a [[duel]] between Pike and Roane. Although several shots were fired in the duel, nobody was injured, and the two were persuaded by their seconds to discontinue it.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

After the war, Pike returned to the practice of law, moving to [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] for a time beginning in 1853.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} He wrote another book, ''Maxims of the Roman Law and some of the Ancient French Law, as Expounded and Applied in Doctrine and Jurisprudence''.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Although unpublished, this book increased his reputation among his associates in law. He returned to Arkansas in 1857, gaining some amount of prominence in the legal field and becoming an advocate of [[slavery]], although retaining his affiliation with the Whig party. When that party dissolved, he became a member of the [[United States Know-Nothing Party|Know-Nothing]] party. Before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] he was firmly against [[secession]], but when the war started he nevertheless took the side of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

He also made several contacts among the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes in the area, at one point negotiating an $800,000 settlement between the [[Creek (people)|Creek]]s and other tribes and the federal government. This relationship was to influence the course of his Civil War service.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} At the beginning of the war, Pike was appointed as Confederate envoy to the Native Americans. In this capacity he negotiated several treaties, one of the most important being with [[Cherokee]] chief [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]], which was concluded in 1861.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

Pike was commissioned as a [[brigadier general]] on [[November 22]], [[1861]], and given a command in the [[Indian Territory]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}} With Gen. [[Benjamin McCulloch|Ben McCullough]], Pike trained three Confederate [[regiment]]s of [[Indian cavalry]], most of whom belonged to the "[[Five Civilized Tribes|civilized tribes]]", whose loyalty to the Confederacy was variable. Although victorious at the [[Battle of Pea Ridge]] (Elkhorn Tavern) in March, Pike's unit was defeated later in a counterattack, after falling into disarray.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Also, as in the previous war, Pike came into conflict with his superior officers, at one point drafting a letter to [[Jefferson Davis]] complaining about his direct superior.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

After Pea Ridge, Pike was faced with charges that his troops had [[scalping|scalped]] soldiers in the field. Maj. Gen. [[Thomas C. Hindman]] also charged Pike with mishandling of money and material, ordering his arrest.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Both these charges were later found to be considerably lacking in evidence; nevertheless Pike, facing arrest, escaped into the hills of Arkansas, sending his resignation from the Confederate Army on [[July 12]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}} He was at length arrested on [[November 3]] under charges of [[insubordination]] and [[treason]], and held briefly in [[Warren, Texas]], but his resignation was accepted on [[November 11]] and he was allowed to return to Arkansas.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

==In Freemasonry==
[[Image:Albert Pike - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|Pike in Masonic regalia.]]

He had in the interim joined a [[Masonic lodge]] and become extremely active in the affairs of the organization, being elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the [[Scottish Rite]]'s Southern Jurisdiction in 1859. {{Fact|date=July 2007}} He remained Sovereign Grand Commander for the remainder of his life (a total of thirty-two years), devoting a large amount of his time to developing the rituals of the order.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Notably, he published a book called ''[[Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry]]'' in 1871, of which there were several subsequent editions.

Pike is still sometimes regarded in America as an eminent<ref name=Pikeeminent> [http://www.freemason.org/cfo/mar_apr_2002/pike.htm ALBERT PIKE AND FREEMASONRY], March–April 2002 edition, California Freemason On-Line</ref> and influential<ref name="Pikeinfluence">[http://www.masonicinfo.com/pike.htm Albert Pike], masonicinfo.com</ref> Freemason. His anti-[[Roman Catholic]] pronouncements were seen as representative of American freemasonry by Catholic sources.<ref name="PikeItaly"> Albert Pike in the Official Bulletin, September, 1887, 173, quoted as footnote [172] in [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771a.htm Masonry (Freemasonry)] from the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]].</ref> However, in his published response to the [[Humanum Genus]] of [[Pope Leo XIII]], it is evident that he had no particular antipathy to Catholicism as a religion nor to membership of Roman Catholics in the lodge. His fight was against the desire of institutional Catholicism to suppress Freemasonry by force.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

==Other interests==
[[Image:Albert Pike.jpg|thumb|left|Pike in Masonic regalia]]
Additionally, Pike wrote on several legal subjects, and continued producing poetry, a hobby he had begun in his youth in Massachusetts. His poems were highly regarded in his day, but are now mostly forgotten. Several volumes of his works were self-published posthumously by his daughter.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

In 1859 he received an honorary [[Ph.D.]] from Harvard but declined it ("The Phoenix," Manly P. Hall).

Pike died in Washington, D.C., aged 81, and was buried at [[Oak Hill Cemetery]] (against his wishes—he had left instructions for his body to be cremated).

In [[1944]] his remains were moved to the [[House of the Temple]], headquarters of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite.

[[Image:Albert Pike statue, Washington (558221844).jpg|thumb|Statue at [[Judiciary Square]], [[Washington, D.C.]]]]

==Literature==
*Albert Pike: ''Morals and Dogma''. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/md/ Book]
*Albert Pike: ''Meaning of Masonry''. Kessinger Publishing, May 2004. ISBN 1-4179-1101-8
*Albert Pike: ''Reprints of Old Rituals''. Kessinger Publishing, March 1, 1997. ISBN 1-56459-983-3
*Albert Pike: ''Book of the Words''. Kessinger Publishing, March 1, 1997. ISBN 1-56459-161-1
*Albert Pike: ''Indo-Aryan Deities and Worship as Contained in the Rig-Veda''. Kessinger Publishing, March 1, 1997. ISBN 1-56459-183-2
*Albert Pike: ''The Point Within the Circle: Freemasonry Veiled in Allegory and Illustrated by Symbols''. Holmes Pub Grou Llc, November 1, 2001. ISBN 1-55818-305-1
*Albert Pike: ''Morals and Dogma of the First Three Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Freemasonry''. Kessinger Publishing, May 2004. ISBN 1-4179-1108-5

===Bibliography===
*Walter Lee Brown: ''A Life of Albert Pike''. University of Arkansas Press, September 1, 1997. ISBN 1-55728-469-5
*Fred W. Allsopp: ''Albert Pike a Biography''. Kessinger Publishing, March 1, 1997. ISBN 1-56459-134-4
*Annie Heloise Abel ''The American Indian as a Participant in the Civil War'', Smith College, 1919, Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12541/12541-8.txt

==Ancestry and family==
Albert's descent from his immigrant ancestor [[John Pike (settler)|John Pike]] is as follows:
*John Pike (1572–1654)
**John Pike (1613–1689/90)
***Joseph Pike (1638–1694)
****Thomas Pike (1682–1753/4)
*****John Pike (1710–1755)
******Thomas Pike (1739–1836)
*******Benjamin Pike (1780–?)
********'''Albert Pike (1809–1891)'''

== Notes ==
<references/>

== References ==

*{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}

==External links==
*[http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/PP/fpi18.html Handbook of Texas Online - Albert Pike]
*[http://www.masonicinfo.com/pikesphilosophy.htm Pike's Masonic philosophy]
*[http://civilwarstudies.org/features/pike.htm Albert Pike: Hero or Scoundrel?]
*[http://bessel.org/russo/m&d01.htm a modern analysis of his ''Morals and Dogma'']
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20060223081418/http://www.srmason-sj.org/web/temple-files/pillars.html About room where he is entombed]
*[http://www.threeworldwars.com/albert-pike.htm Albert Pike and World War Three] ([[conspiracy theory]]—but, regarding the supposed correspondence to [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] of 1871 Aug 15, it notes that "to date, no conclusive proof exists to show that this letter was ever written.")
*[http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/kkk.html His involvement with the KKK & KGC]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Pike, Albert}}

[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1891 deaths]]
[[Category:American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Confederate Army generals]]
[[Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Essex County, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Tennessee lawyers]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]

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