Albert Pike (1809 - 1891)

Born 29 Dec 1809 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 2 Apr 1891 at age 81 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Robin Kabrich [send private message] and Eddie Pike [send private message]

Biography

This profile is part of the Pike Name Study.

Albert Pike is Notable.

Albert Pike was the son of Benjamin and Sarah (Andrews) Pike. He spent his chilhood in Byfield & Newburyport Massachusetts. Albert & Robert Edward Lee are the only 2 Generals that have outdoor statues in Washington D. C. No other Confederates have a statue in Washington D. C.

Albert was a direct descendant of John Pike, who immgrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with his family in 1635. Albert descends from the original immigrant through the following line of his ancestors: John Pike (1572–1654); John Pike (1613–1688/89) founder of Woodbridge, New Jersey; Joseph Pike (1638–1694); Thomas Pike (1682–1753/4); John Pike (1710–1755); Thomas Pike (1739–1816); Benjamin Pike (1780–?); Albert Pike (1809–1891).

Albert Pike was a philosopher, a 33rd Degree Freemason, attorney, journalist, writer, poet, & a soldier in that order. He supposedly was fluent in 16 Languages but all of these languages are not known except for Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French.

In August 1825, he passed entrance exams at Harvard University but the University wanted 2 years tuition up front. He later claimed to have a degree from Harvard. Albert Pike decided to educate himself, like Abraham Lincoln, and became a school teacher in Gloucester, North Bedford, Fairhaven, and Newburyport, Massachusetts. He left Massachusetts to travel west at the age of 22. He first stopped at St. Louis and later went to Independence, Missouri.

Albert didn't have a lot of luck with horses. He joined an expedition to Taos, New Mexico that left from Independence Missouri. They survived by hunting & trading. His horse escaped 500 miles from Taos and he supposedly had to walk the rest of the way. He went on a trapping expedition to the Llano Estacado in New Mexico and Texas. The trapping was poor on this 1300 mile trip and again he was forced to walk the last 650 miles to Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Pike settled in Arkansas in 1833 and taught school and wrote a series of articles for the Little Rock Advocate using the pen name of "Casca". ? His column was popular enough that he was asked to join the newspaper's staff. He married Mary Ann Hamilton and used her dowry to purchase the Advocate by 1835. His paper promoted his viewpoint of the Whig Party in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas. "Whig" meant opposing tyranny. His stance was pro slavery. By the 1856 presidential election, the Whig Party had become defunct. Harrison & Taylor were the only Whig Presidents.

At this time he represented American Indians filing lawsuits against the Federal Government. See the Wikipedia article Whig Party for more information.

Pike was not a Christian. He seems to be more pagan. A Pike quote: “Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish souls? Doubt it not!”

Pike was at least occasionally looking at Satan as a source of inspiration to unleash man’s own spirit, in the style of today’s LaVeyan Satanism. See Albert Pike and Lucifer for more information on Pike's beliefs about Satan.

Pike studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1837, while selling the paper in the same year. At this time the 6' tall Pike weighed about 300 pounds & had hair to his waist. He became involved in the secret Order of Freemasons & affiliated with the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). He was credited with the initiation, ceremonies, and guarded secrets of the Scottish Rite. The "Freemasons" are said to have it's traditions and roots from The Knights Templar. He was the first reporter for the Arkansas Supreme Court and wrote a guidebook for lawyers called The Arkansas Form Book. His poems were highly regarded in his day, but are now mostly forgotten. His daughter published many of his poems after his death.

Pike received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1859.

He was a captain in the Mexican-American War and attained the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate States of America (CSA) during the Civil War. Pike received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1859. He had no military training and didn't attend college.

Knights of the Golden Circle

The KGC was like a 5th column of the confederacy. In order to surpass the North's political power the KCG had a circle drawn around the Caribbean. This circle included southern Mexico, Central America & parts of Brazil. The capitol was Havanna. This movement didn't contemplate a Civil War happening. They raised milions of dollars, hoards of weapons and a vast spy ring from Mexico to Canada. Pike did make at least one K.G.C. meeting in Canada in the 1850's. The majority of the infantry was located around Brownsville Tx. This invasion was called off upon the election of Abraham Lincoln. The southern leaders didn't want to be fighting on 2 fronts. In case the Confederacy lost the war the confederacy would still have their Cache's of money & material to suposedly conquer this territory. The pro slavery Copperheads in the North were to join the southern movement if the Union were victors. The K.G. C. remained until the 20th century. Albert knew the locations of these caches.

Illuminati

Albert Pike became a prominent member of the secessionist movement. He was chosen by Mazzini to head the Illuminati operations in America and moved briefly to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1852. Illuminati is a one world government, population control under elitist rule.

Mazzini was not only the head of the Illuminati, he was the leading revolutionist in Europe. He was determined to establish a New World Order on the rubble of the old order and created a plan to accomplish his goal. He detailed his plan for world domination in a letter to Pike on January 22, 1870

Albert Pike's plan for the Illuminati was as simple as it has proved effective. He required that Communism, Nazism, Political Zionism, and other International movements be organized and used to foment the three global wars and three major revolutions which he predicted.

Mexica-American War

The war was highly controversial in the United States, with the Whig Party, anti-imperialists and anti-slavery elements strongly opposed the war. The war was fought from the spring of 1846 to the fall of 1847 There were many causes for the war. The trigger was from The Texans winning independence and other minor border squabbles. American territorial expansion to the Pacific coast had been the goal of U.S. President James K. Polk. (Manifest Destiny). Polk's Manifest Destiny was the main reason for the war. Mexico was unprepared for it and the U. S. didn't fair much better.

The U.S. initiated the conflict with the Centralist Republic of Mexico. Many American officers, including General Grant felt that it was an unjust War that was fought for a land grab of what is now the southwestern United States.

Pike was a captain in the Mexican-American War and attained the rank of Brigadier General in the C.S.A. during the Civil War. Most of the high ranking Generals in the Civil War were active participants in the Mexican American War.

The shift in the Mexico-U.S. border left many Mexican citizens separated from their national government. For the Indians who had never accepted American or Mexican rule, the change in border meant conflicts with a new outside power. For more information on the Mexican American War see Mexican-American War in Wikipedia.

Pike must have improved on his horsemanship by 1846 when he received a commission & joined a Regiment of Arkansas Mounted Volunteers. Albert would have been a company commander. Pike was a participant in the Battle of Buena Vista that started on February 23, 1847. The battle could not qualify as an American victory but more of a stalemate that stopped the American Army close to the present California boarder near Saltillo. No mention of Pike in that battle. Pike was discharged in June 1847 when he and his commander Colonel John Selden Roane had several differences of opinion. They had an indecisive duel near Fort Smith on July 29, 1847. They fired several shots in the duel but nobody was injured, and the two were persuaded by their seconds to discontinue it.

Pike continued his law practice and moved to New Orleans in 1853. His next book was 'Maxims of the Roman Law and some of the Ancient French Law, as Expounded and Applied in Doctrine and Jurisprudence.' He returned to Arkansas in 1857. His book helped him gain prominence in the legal field and becoming an advocate of slavery even though he remained a Whig. In 1847 Pike became disillusioned when the Whig Party when it refused to take a stand of slavery. His anti-Catholicism stand led him to join the Know Nothing movement when it was organized in 1856, He was disappointed in that party when it refused to adopt a strong pro-slavery platform. He joined the other Southern delegates and walked out of the Presidential Convention. His stand was that state's rights superseded national law and supported the idea of a Southern secession. This stand is made clear in his pamphlet of 1861, "State or Province, Bond or Free? At the Southern Commercial Convention of 1854, Pike said the South should remain in the Union and seek equality with the North, but if the South "were forced into an inferior status, she would be better out of the Union than in it."

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

The Civil War

The majority of the American Army was in the California area with the onset of the Civil War. Most were promoted very quickly and the officers that were still alive by 1862 were Col. or higher. President Lincoln didn't have a fit general in April 1861 except for Robert E. Lee. The only high ranking general was Winfield Scott from the Mexican American War but he was so old and fat he couldn't get on his horse. (Old Fuss & Feathers)

Pike was commissioned as a brigadier general on November 22, 1861, and given a command in the Indian Territory. At the beginning of the American Civil War, Albert Pike was appointed as Confederate envoy to Native Americans. In this capacity he negotiated several treaties, one of the most important being with Cherokee chief John Ross, which was concluded in 1861.

During the war he was made a brigadier general and placed in charge of raising an army of Indians. In March 1862, his brigade fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge, resulting in a Confederate rout after which his men were accused of desertion as well as scalping and defiling the bodies of Union dead. Pike's reign of terror was so despicable that foreign governments intervened to put an end to his savagery.

Some Choctaws identified with the Southern cause and a few owned slaves. In addition, they well remembered and resented the Indian removals from thirty years earlier and poor service they received from the federal government. The main reason the Choctaw Nation agreed to sign the treaty, however, was for protection from regional tribes.

With General Ben McCulloch, Pike trained three Confederate regiments of Indian cavalry, most of whom belonged to the "civilized tribes," whose loyalty to the Confederacy was variable. Although initially victorious at the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in March, Pike's unit was defeated later in a counterattack after falling into disarray. Also, as in the previous war, Pike came into conflict with his superior officers, at one time drafting a letter to Jefferson Davis complaining about his direct superior. After Pea Ridge, Pike was faced with charges that his troops had scalped soldiers in the field. Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman also charged Pike with mishandling of money and material and ordered his arrest. Both these charges were later found to be considerably lacking in evidence. Pike, facing arrest, escaped into the hills of Arkansas. He sent his resignation from the Confederate Army on July 12, 1862.

He was finally arrested on November 3, 1862 and faced charges of insubordination and treason. He was briefly held in Warren, Texas, but his resignation was accepted on November 11, 1863 and he was allowed to return to Arkansas. This was the end of Brigadier General Pike's less than glorious military career. He was arrested by the Union Army for treason but was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson.

The Ku Klux Klan

After the war he wrote the rituals of the Ku Klux Klan for The Grand Dragon Nathan Bedford Forest. Forest got out of the KKK later because he thought it had become too extreme.

Freemasonry

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

In 1868 he finally settled in Washington D.C. and fell for Vinnie Ream a girl of 19. Albert was a celebrated man 100 years ago but today has fallen into obscurity.

Pike is still regarded in America as an eminent and influential Freemason, primarily in the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction. He is best known for his work as a Freemason than any other endeavor.

There are stories that continue today that he knew the whereabouts of large caches of buried gold and silver that was stolen from the Federal Government during the war. This gold was to fund the Confederacy in it's expansion into Mexico and the Caribbean after the hostilities ended. The KGC network was named after an imaginary golden circle that encompassed eastern Mexico, eastern Central American and stretching into the Gulf that included Jamaica, and Cuba. Several caches of this treasure have been found over the years but the bulk of it supposedly remains.

Death

Pike died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 81. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery against his wishes. He 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 (Freemasons). This temple is the most elaborate in the world. It fits in with the Federalists structures in Washington D.C.

After the war he left his wife & settled here & there throughout the midwest.

Albert Pike seemed to have a dark ideological personality. His character & lack of military training made him a poor general.

1850 Census

Albert Pike, Husband, Male, White, Age 45, born Massachusetts

Mary Pike, Wife, Female, White, Age 34, born Louisiana

Luther H Pike, Son, Male, White, Age 12, born Arkansas

Walter E Pike, Son, Male, White, Age 10, born Arkansas

Isadore Pike, Dau, Female, White, Age 9, born Arkansas

Lilian Pike, Dau, Female, White, Age 7, born Arkansas

Albert Pike, Son, Male, White, Age 6, born Arkansas

Zion Pike, Son, Male, White, Age 1, born Arkansas

William Winter, unknown, Male, White, Age 32, born Germany

Pulaski County, Arkansas

Sources

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch Affiliate Name The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M676-3JQ : accessed 29 October 2015 Ed L Pike-2301), Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States; citing family 655, Affiliate Publication M432, House 647, Household ID 655, Affiliate Film 29, GS Film 2483, Digital Folder 4193069, Image 486, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). Pike-2301 17:56, 29 October 2015 (EDT)
• Wikipedia article on Albert Pike
• Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, retrieved November 14, 2009.
• Albert Pike a Biography. City: Kessinger Publishing.
• Lady Queensborough, Occult Theocracy, pp. 208-209.
• Who Was Albert Pike?
• Albert Pike and Lucifer]