USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 21
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The examination in open court was waived, Mr. Chief Jus- tice Slidell saying : "The court is well advised in regard to the legal examination of Mr. Pike, and knows it to be unnecessary to examine him," and so I was sworn and admitted.
I have had but three compliments paid me that I valued more. One was in 1844, when going to the pavilion at Louisville to listen to whig speeches that were to be made there, not think- ing of being known by any one. Ben. P. Gaines of Chicot began calling for me and I had to speak, and the ladies sent me a scarf and ring : One at Charleston (in 1855) at the com- mercial convention, when I carried, against strong opponents the resolutions that I offered in regard to a Pacific railroad : And the third was in Washington about 1856 when Major John F. Lee, judge-advocate-general, [whom some in Little Rock may recollect as in 1840 and before and after in charge of the arsenal there,] introduced me to General Scott, who said : "Captain Pike ! Oh, we don't consider him as being any better than one of ourselves." Permit me to add, that as long ago forgotten, that I was the first proposer of a Pacific railroad convention.
At my suggestion, the legislature of Arkansas invited the southern States to send delegates to Memphis, to form such a convention, and it was held accordingly. I could not attend it, 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 was held there which I attended, and then followed others at Charleston, New Orleans and Savannah, at which I was present, representing Louisiana, at Savannah,
جود
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where I opposed a resolution offered in favor of a renewal of the slave trade, and afterward declined to attend the one at Knox- ville, because that subject had been agitated and the resolution was likely to be offered again. After that, at Charleston, I went to Baton Rouge, was invited to address the legislature and did 60, and obtained the passage of a charter for a Pacific railroad, with termini on the Pacific at SanFrancisco and Guaymas. We can go by rail to the latter place now, but I have not yet done so, though I did, in 1883, go by the Southern Pacific to Los Angeles, and could and ought to have gone to Guaymas.
I was engaged in the practice in New Orleans three seasons ; but then abandoned it, because Indian claims which I was prosecuting compelled me to be in Washington the whole of the winter of 1855 and 1856, and prevented my attending the courts in New Orleans during the larger part of each season. I, therefore, resumed my practice in Arkansas in 1857.
ALBERT PIKE.
General Pike was a whig. Whilst teaching school in Ar- kansas he wrote a series of articles on the political topics of the day, under the nom-de-plume of Casca, which were pub- lished in the Advocate, the organ of the Crittenden party. The ability manifested in these articles attracted much atten- tion, and excited great curiosity in the public to know the author. For a time the authorship was attributed to that pol- ished scholar, James Woodson Bates, "the Chesterfield of the west;" but he publicly disclaimed the paternity, at the same time acknowledging the great ability of Casca. The Hon. Jesse Turner informs the author that these articles were copied as editorials by Horace Greeley in the Tribune - liter- ary larceny of the worst character. The high standing of Judge Turner imparts verity to all he says, and the author adopts the statement as a fact.
Robert Crittenden, after much delay and inquiry, ascer- tained the name and residence of the brilliant young whig, and at once, in company with his whig friend, Judge Jesse Turner, went to see him, with the view of adding him to the editorial staff of the Advocate, in connection with Charles P. Bertrand. They found the schoolmaster in a small, primitive
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log cabin, on Little Piney river, in September, 1833. He boarded in a similar structure with Abraham Smith, to which the trio repaired for much converse. Pike was then twenty- three, Turner twenty-eight, and Crittenden thirty-seven years old. This trio of brilliant men conversed nearly all night in the wilderness; and Crittenden said to Judge Turner, as they rode off next day : "Pike is a very brilliant young man." Crittenden accomplished his mission ; he returned to Little Rock, and the next post-boy through the wilds of Arkansas carried a letter from Bertrand, the owner of the Advocate, to Pike, inviting him to a seat on the editorial tripod.
His capacity for brain-work surpasses that of any man known to our literature, and for forty years it equaled that of Bonaparte, when engaged in his celebrated campaigns. These studions habits were stimulated by an insatiable desire for knowledge from every field of science, and were supported by an amazing memory, and one of the finest brains and physical constitutions ever given to man. It will be readily seen that this exceedingly rare combination of faculties lead to the highest degrees of attainment. They have made him the Homer of America, the Zoroaster of modern Asia, a profound philosopher, a great jurist, a great philologist, a profound eth- nologist, and a great statesman, perfectly freed from the arts of the demagogue, and all the debasing factors which stimu- late ambition to pander to the frailties of man. The world produces but few such men.
In the estimation of the author he is, without doubt or rival, the greatest of American poets; but with no desire to forestall or anticipate the opinion of the best judges and crit- ies, we give liberal extracts and copy two lyric poems from his pen entire, that the reader may judge for himself. But we present first the judgment of the high Scottish Savant, Chris- topher North, as to the merits of that youthful production, " Hymns to the Gods," written in his twentieth year. We copy from a recent periodical furnished the author by Colonel E. C. Boudinot :
"Nearly half a century ago Albert Pike contributed to Blackwood's Magazine a poem of more than six hundred lines, called ' Hymns to the Gods.' A letter from the poet to the famous editor of the great Edinburgh periodical, tendering his poem
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for publication, ' with many misgivings,' is printed at the end of the verses in the June, 1889, 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, August 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 the accompanying trifles in verse from this remote corner of the Union - beyond the Mississippi. 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 welcomed as it deserves. Should you judge them worthy of publication, accept them as a testimonial of respect offered by one resident in south-western forests, to him whose brilliant talents have endeared him, not only to every English, but to multitudes of American bosoms, equally dear as Christo- pher North and Professor Wilson,
Most respectfully, sir, Your obedient servant,
ALBERT PIKE.
To which the great editor of Blackwood & Magazine replied in a foot-note to "Hymns to the Gods," published in that periodical, as follows .
These fine hymns, which entitle their author to take his place in the highest or- der 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 composition could have lain unhonored in our repositories from autumn to spring: His packet was accompanied by a letter - not less grati- fying - from Mr. Isaac C. P'ray, dated New York, April 20, 1839, and we hope that before many weeks have elapsed the friends, though perhaps 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.
The following lyric poem is one of the sweetest gems we have ever read. It was written in 1870.
SONG. BY GENERAL ALBERT PIKE. "AFTER THE MIDNIGHT COMETH MORN." [For Señorita Carolina Cassard. ] . The Years come and the Years go, And the leaves of life keep falling, Carrie ! falling; And across the sunless rivers flow, With accents soft and whispers low, The friends long lost are calling, Carrie ! calling;
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While Autumn his red glory wears, And clouds oppress the sky, like cares :- But the old griefs die, and nebo jons are born, And after the Midnight cometh. Morn.
The Years wake, and the Years sleep, And the Past is full of sorrow, Carrie ! sorrow; The thoughtless laughs and the thoughtful weeps, And each the fruit of his follies reaps, For To-day is the Fate of To-morrow, Carrie ! to-morrow; But new loves tempt us to forget
The old, and old friends love us yet :- So the old griefs die, and neto joys are born, And after the ftlidnight cometh Morn.
The Years laugh, and the Years sigh, But the flowers for you are blowing, Carrie ! blowing; As Girlhood's days go dancing by, And Womanhood's blithe May is nigh, With hopes and fancies glowing, Carrie ! glowing; While love his net for you prepares, And lurks to catch you unawares :- And the old griefs die, and nebo jons are born, And after the Midnight cometh Morn.
The Years live, and the Years die, And all they touch they sadden, Carrie ! sadden; But still the heart can time defy, Hope still with purple flush our sky, And sober friendship gladden, Carrie ! gladden;
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And well as we have loved before, In Autumn we can love once more :- for the old griefs die, and new joys are born, And after the Midnight cometh Morn.
1870.
After making this and other selections from the poetic cre- ations of General Pike, to indicate the great perfection and versatility of his rare genius in so many fields, I addressed him a letter craving permission to publish them, and received the following reply, not having read "Every Year," before its re- ceipt :
WASHINGTON, 20th Sept., 1886.
JOHN HALLUM, Esq. :
I am quite willing that you should publish any thing of mine that you wish to publish. I send you with this "Every Year" which pleases me as much as any lines I ever wrote; but I do not mean by sending it to interfere with your selection and choice. I will find time by and by to write down what I re- member about Robert Crittenden, Ben Desha and some others. Very truly yours, ALBERT PIKE.
The wandering minstrels of Greece, never tuned the lyre to a more touching Idyl, than " Every Year."
EVERY YEAR.
BY ALBERT PIKE.
Life is a count of losses, Every year;
For the weak are heavier crosses, Every year; Lost Springs with sobs replying Unto weary Autumns' sighing, While those we love are dying,
Every year.
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There come new cares and sorrows, Every year; Dark days and darker morrows, Every year; The ghosts of dead loves haunt us, The ghosts of changed friends taunt us, And disappointments daunt us, Every year.
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To the Past go more dead faces, Every year;
As the loved leave vacant places, Every year; Everywhere the sad eyes meet us, In the evening's dusk they greet us, And to come to them entreat us, Every year.
"You are growing old," they tell us, "Every year; "You are more alone," they tell us, "Every year; " You can win no new affection, "You have only recollection, "Deeper sorrow and dejection, "Every year."
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Too true ! - Life's shores are shifting, Every year; And we are seaward drifting, Every year; Old places, changing, fret us, The living more forget us, There are fewer to regret us, Every year.
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 burthen lighter, And the Dawn Immortal brighter, Every year.
For sublimity of thought, grasp of poetic conception, and beauty of expression, " Ariel" stands unsurpassed in our own, or any other age or tongue. It is a poem of forty-eight stanzas, three hundred and eighty-four lines, from which the following extracts are taken :
I.
I had a dream : Methought Ariel came, And bade me follow him ; and I arose : Lighter my body seemed than subtle flame, Or than the invisible wind that always blows Above the clouds. So upward I did aim, With quick flight, as the sky-lark sunward goes,- Led by the splendor of Ariel's wing, Whose snowy light before fled, glittering.
II.
So, floating upward through the roseate air, And through the wide interstices of cloud, We climbed the mist-hills, till we halted, where The frowning peaks beneath the azure glowed; Then gazed I all around ;- no sun blazed there, But crimson light through the pure ether flowed, And dimmed the moon's eye and the stars' white cones, Till they were scarce seen on their golden thrones.
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III.
Awhile we trod along the quivering peaks Of foaming cloud ; over entangled rifts Of purple light ; through crimson-misted breaks ; And saw blue lightning crouching in white drifts, Restless and quivering, while the broad, deep lakes Of vapor tremble as he stirs and shifts,
Waked by the diapason of the thunder,
That swells upon the wild wind rushing under.
IV.
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* *
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Deep in a rift in a vast glacier torn : - We stepped on board, - we loosed her from the bank ; Our thirsty sail, spread wide, the breezes drank.
V.
And swiftly then our winged bark flew on, While I sat looking downward from the prow ; * * * * * * *
Over smooth lakes, sea-green, with golden glow, * * * * *
VII.
And then we issued to the open vast Of cloudless air above ; and while the sail Its silver shade upon my forehead cast, - Like lightning or swift thought, before the gale Fled our bright barque. Strange wonders there we passed, Currents of astral light, cold, thin and pale, Strange, voiceless birds that never sink to earth, And troops of fairies, dancing in mad mirth.
* VIII. *
IX.
Then, bending from the helm, Ariel gazed With keen eyes downward through the mighty vast, And waved his hand. * * *
His poetic works embrace a volume, privately printed, and distributed to a few friends only. His talent as lawyer and jurist, assured him constant and great professional employment. His connection with the old Real Estate Bank opened up a large field of important litigation. The Choctaw award by the senate of the United States, to which he alludes in his autobi-
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ography, was one of the many great cases argued by him. He was attorney for the Choctaw Indians, for a great number of years, to press their just claims against the United States, for compensation for more than ten millions of acres of land in Mississippi, ceded by them to the government. These treaties embrace a period, extending from 1786, to 1855. The history of this claim, illustrates the struggles of the weak with the strong, in all ages. After many years of vexatious delay, the senate of the United States, was constituted an umpire, between the Choctaws and the government, and on the 9th of March, 1859, awarded the Choctaws $2,981,247.30. Many committees, of both senate and house, have urged the justice of this claim ; but it yet remains unpaid, to our national shame.
In each of these reports, the opinion is expressed, that the grossest injustice, was done to the Choctaws in the adjustment, and statement of the account. A committee of the house, in 1874, uses the following language in reference to this claim: "Your committee concur in these conclusions, and express the conviction that any person who now for the first time exam- ines this claim, will be amazed at the persistent and long-con- tinued injustice, with which we have treated them, and by which we have deprived them of that which is legally and justly due them. The story of the wrongs inflicted on these people, is too long to be fully embraced in a mere report." A fee of $300,000 is due General Pike in this case alone.
Governor Rector's claim to the Hot Springs, is another strong illustration, of the imposition the weak are often com- pelled to suffer at the hands of the strong.
In 1846, General Pike recruited a company of cavalry, for service in the Mexican war, which was incorporated in the regi- ment commanded by Governor Yell. After the battle of Buena Vista, in which Governor Yell fell, General Pike wrote some caustic criticisms on the conduct of the war, which were published extensively through the State. These articles caused much friction, and distress in some quarters, and resulted in a duel in . August, 1848, between General Pike, and Governor John S. Roane. My friend Governor Henry M. Rector, one of the seconds, has given me the following account of the duel :
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LITTLE ROCK, April 16, 1887.
MY DEAR HALLUM - As you have it, the duel between Pike and Roane, resulted from criticisms [as I recollect], of Roane's military career in Mexico by Pike - this is my recollection - that Pike was the assailant, but I am not sure of this even. At the time I resided in the country, came to town seldom, and paid but little attention to newspaper affairs. What I do know of the matter is as follows : While engaged on my farm in Saline county, I received by messenger, a note from my friend, Colonel Robert W. Johnson, informing me that our mutual friend Colonel John S. Roane, was in trouble with Albert Pike ; that a challenge had passed and was accepted, and that Roane desired him and myself to act as his seconds. We did so. Doctor Phillip Burton of Little Rock was Roane's surgeon; Luther Chase of Little Rock, and a gentleman from Van Buren, were Pike's seconds. Doctor Thruston, late of Van Buren, I know was there, and perhaps in the capacity of surgeon .* Roane, Johnson, Burton and myself, traveled to Fort Smith on horseback, where we accepted the hospitality of Major Elias Rector, who lived in the vicinity ; we tarried there two days for rest and recreation. The duel was fought on the sand-bar in the Indian territory op- posite Fort Smith. Roane was practiced while at Rector's and shot with great accuracy. Pike, it was said, was equally expert. The morning was bright and balmy. A few spectators were present, among them some Indians ; all observers, however, were kept at a distance. The ground was stepped off, and posi- tions chosen by lot ; Pike stood up stream, Roane down. The pistols were as elegant specimens as I ever saw. I was in the habit, at that period of my life, of killing deer running, with single ball rifle, and turkeys on the wing, and calculated on a funeral, instead of a banquet on this occasion. The distance was ten paces. Both gentlemen came to their positions as calm and cool as possible. Pike's indifference, and deliberation im- pressed me-he was smoking a cigar enjoyably, until the moment when the principals were called for the word, and both re- sponded, "ready." The first shots were exchanged without injury, and Roane, the challenging party, demanded another fire, which was accorded, and the second fire resulted like the
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* He was both second and surgeon to his life-long friend. - THE AUTHOR.
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first; but the ball passed in close proximity to Roane's ear. Roane demanded the third fire, which was accorded, Colonel Johnson concurring in the request for the third fire. To this, I dissented in the most positive terms, and some heated dis- cussion ensued between Colonel Johnson and myself, and he finally yielded to my views and the duel was stopped. A re- conciliation resulted, and all parties adjourned to a banquet in Fort Smith. Pike and Roane were afterward friends and com- panions.
Truly yours, H. M. RECTOR.
General Pike is not hot-headed and impulsive, but he has the courage of his convictions in an eminent degree. His cour- age, both moral and physical, is of the highest order. He has never been a place-hunter, his own great soul "with an upward victorious soar " has "conquered the summit of the rock," and reached a goal infinitely higher than the heraldry of office. Had he been willing to stoop for office, or compromise with principle, he had only to change from whig to democrat, to hold Arkansas in the palm of his hand.
In "AN EVENING CONVERSATION," one of his charming poems, he mirrors his own nature in the following lines :
" What service to his country can one do, In the wild warfare of the present age ? Who fights the gladiator without skill, Fights without arms. Why! he must lie, and cheat By false pretenses, double and turn at will ; Profess whatever doctrine suits the time, Juggle and trick with words, in every thing Be a base counterfeit, and fawn and crouch Upon the level of the baser sort."
This manly expression of thought, and individual pride, is. sanctioned in the practice of a long life. The lesson taught in his life, opens up a fount of inspiration to noble youth, where they may drink without exhaustion, as long as wisdom and all that is good and great is honored by man. Not only the youth, desiring to compass the boundaries of human attainment, but the sage who has toiled to the end of three score and ten, find each, alike, something new to learn and admire, in the tran-
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scendent genius of Albert Pike. If he has the ambition and the genius, to scale the dizzy heights of Parnassus, he may there learn from the greatest of American poets, to tune the lyre, and sweep the harp of immortal song. If to grasp a great and compre- hensive science, as the foundation of enlightened government, he will find him master of the jurisprudence of his own coun- try, and to possess a more extensive knowledge of Roman law, than any English scholar of this, or perhaps any other age.
Justinian, the great and enlightened Roman emperor, caused a compilation of fifty volumes, in the sixth century, of the de- cisions, writings and opinions, of the old Roman jurists, under the comprehensive title of "The Pandects of Justinian."
General Pike read this compilation in the Latin tongue, and translated a great part into English in writing, and has read all the works in the civil law by Latin and French authors of any celebrity. His work on the Maxims of Roman and French law, is within itself, a great achievement. The great scholar, has followed up Roman jurisprudence, through all of its mediaval roots and branches in central Europe, where it became, in the middle ages, the foster-mother of feudalism, which so long robbed man of his natural rights, and dwarfed him into vassal- age. The Saxon, Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon plants of Roman juris- prudence, in their roots and combinations, to-day, pervade the major part of the jurisprudence of the civilized world. It came into the British Isles, with the conquest and pro-consulate of Cæsar, and from thence, into all the English colonies of the world. It is the great original, on which the jurisprudence of France and her colonies are based. Spain and Portugal are . kindred Latin races, and they have planted the Roman sys- tem, wherever their arms and conquest have enabled them to plant colonies.
It is matter of profound interest, to lovers of philosophie literature, to trace the wisdom of the ancient Romans, as it to-day finds expression, in a great number and variety of our laws, modified to meet the requirements of man in this age, yet re- taining the vigorous impress of the grand originals.
This field, vast as it appears to the ordinary scholar, was soon compassed by General Pike, who, like Alexander the Great, sought the distant plains of Asia to quench his thirst,
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not for conquest over his fellow-man, but over one of the great- est fields, literature has reserved for modern times. Some idea of the vast scope of his designs, and magnitude of accomplishment, may be gathered from his herculean labors during the past decade, in translating and commenting on the Rig Veda and Zend Avesta, and other works of Aryan literature.
The Rig Veda is a compilation of the sacred literature of the Hindoos, as far back in the past, as letters and learning enable us to penetrate. The Zend Avesta is a compilation of the same character of sacred literature by Persian sages. This great work of General Pike's, has now attained to the dimensions of fifteen large manuscript volumes. A profound knowledge of ethnology and philology is involved, required and developed in this great work. The Aryan family of nations, is divided by ethnologists, into two grand divisions, each of which is subdivided into many subordinate or cognate divisions. Man originated with the Aryan race, and was rocked in its cradle on the plains of Asia in the beginning. From there, the race spread over the vast plains of central Asia, and, in the course of ages, over Europe; and this branch, including its roots, is known as the Indo-European division of the Aryan family.
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