susan l. davis on pike

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S. L. D.


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AUTHENTIC HISTORYKU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877

BYSUSAN LAWRENCE DAVIS

1924

SUSAN LAWRENCE DAVISPublisher488 Seventh AvenueNew York, N. Y.


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Copyright, 1924, bySUSAN LAWRENCE DAVIS

Monox Picture, Foreign, and AixOther Rights Reserved

Printed in U.S. A.


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XVIII.ARKANSAS.

The facts of Reconstruction in Arkansas werestated by W. M. Fishback as follows"To obtain a clear appreciation of the state of

things in Arkansas during reconstruction it will benecessary to show how the 'carpet-bag' governmentwas put upon our people by Congress ; also the sort ofgovernment it was. It is well known that the South-ern people had returned from the Civil War utterlyimpoverished. Nothing was left for the support ofthemselves and their families except their own cour-age and manhood. The people trusting implicitlyupon the good faith of Congress pursued their laborsfeeling assured that nothing damaging to their in-terests would be consummated without their consent.The constitutional convention met and formulated

a constitution which was so unrepublican in its sched-ule that the people did not dream Congress wouldapprove it and accordingly not half of them votedupon its ratification. This constitution gave to threemen, James L. Hodges, Joseph Brooks and ThomasM. Bowen, such absolute control of the election ofstate and county officials under it that they couldelect or defeat whom they wished.

269


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270 AUTHENTIC HISTORYThey were given power to select such judges and

clerks of election as they saw fit. They were givenpower to reject or count all votes which seemed tothem legal or illegal, fraudulent or rightful. Sectioneleven of this constitution gave these election judgesthe right to allow any vote with which they might besatisfiedThe "carpet-bag" politicians elected under this

constitution knew there was likely to be trouble assoon as the people should find out how they had beenbetrayed and how wantonly they were to be plun-dered of every sacred right of the citizen.Although General C. H. Smith, U. S. A., com-

manding the District of Arkansas, wrote his superiorofficer that there was no state of facts existing inArkansas to warrant such a step, the governor uponthe flimsiest pretext declared martial law in many ofthe counties in the state. Negro militia marched andmaurauded and murdered at will through thesecounties.The legislature passed at this time an amnesty actforbidding the punishment of any of the murders oroutrages committed by this negro militia. It pro-tected a multitude of wanton crimes.

In the face of these outrages what was there thenabout the republican party as our people know it tocommend it to self-respecting, patriotic men of theSouth? Surely, after reading these facts it will notbe hard for our fair-thinking fellow citizens of theNorth to account for the solidity of the south and the


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KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 271organization of the Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas, whichwas led by

GENERAL ALBERT PIKE.General Albert Pike was born in Boston, Massa-

chusetts, December 29, 1809. When he was four yearsold his parents removed to Newburyport in the sameState, where young Pike grew to manhood, gettingthe usual education of the times in the common schools,supplemented by a few terms at a private school inthe same town and at the academy in Framingham.He began to teach school at the age of fifteen andwhen sixteen passed an examination for and enteredthe freshman class at Harvard. Owing to straitenedcircumstances he paid for his board and tuition byteaching during the fall and winter at Gloucester.He fitted himself while teaching to enter the Juniorclass in the fall of 1826 and passed the necessaryexamination, but owing to a misunderstanding withthe faculty regarding his tuition fees he returnedhome and educated himself, going through the pre-scribed course of studies for the junior and senioryears while teaching. He taught in Fairhaven andafterward as assistant and principal in the grammarschool at Newburyport and then for several years ina private school in the latter town, until March, 1831.In the spring of 1831 he started for the West,walking much of the way, and for the next few yearstraveled, explored, traded and lived among the In-


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272 AUTHENTIC HISTORYdians, learning their language and customs, and byhis honest and straight-forward association withthem, gained a confidence which thirty years after-wards, during the great Civil War, made him souseful and powerful among them in the cause of theConfederacy which he espoused, and later in theprosecution of claims against the U. S. Governmentin their behalf. General Pike commanded a regimentand afterward a brigade of Indian troops, C. S. A.He settled in Little Rock in 1833 and it was therethat he became editor of the Arkansas Gazette, studiedlaw and wrote for some of the magazines. His seriesof poems entitled "Hymns to the Gods," which werewritten earlier, some of them while surrounded bypupils in the classroom, he sent to the editor ofBlackwood's Magazine, Edinburgh, Scotland, JohnWilson, who published them about 1838, pronounc-ing him "The coming poet of America" and remark-ing that "These fine hymns entitle their author totake his place in the highest order of his country'spoets" and that "His massive genius marks him to bethe poet of the Titans," but his poem "Every Year"is called his masterpiece.

General Pike was a Captain of Cavalry in the Mexi-can War where he served with distinction, participat-ing in the battle of Buena Vista and afterwards ridinga distance of five hundred miles, from Saltillo to Chia-huahua, through a country swarming with the fugi-tive soldiers from Santa Anna's defeated armies.,with only forty-one men of his command, receivingthe surrender of the city of Mapini on the way.


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KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 273About 1851 he transferred the practice of law

from Little Rock to New Orleans, practicing also be-fore the Supreme Court of the United States, return-ing in 1857 to Little Rock where he remained untilthe outbreak of the Civil War, when he served ascommissioner for negotiating treaties with the In-dians and as Brigadier General in the ConfederateStates Army.After the War between the States he resided inMemphis, Tennessee, for several years, moving to

Washington about 1869, where he resided for the re-mainder of his life. His death occurred on April 2,1891, in the eighty-second year of his age.He joined Free Masonry in 1850 and in less thannine years became the highest ranking officer in thisinstitution, becoming Grand Commander of the Su-preme Council of the 33rd Degree for the SouthernJurisdiction of the United States, which is the"Mother Supreme Council of the World" and wasfounded at Charleston, South Carolina, May 31,1801, and which office he occupied from 1859 until hisdeath in 1891. General Pike became universallyknown throughout the masonic world by reason ofhis activities in promoting the growth of this branchof Free Masonry and it was his genius that evolvedthe modern rituals of this masonic rite out of the olderrituals in use in earlier times.As a lawyer he was one of the foremost jurists of

his day. As a scholar, philosopher, poet and masterof languages he ranked with the most eminent, andas a soldier and statesman his ability was unques-


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274 AUTHENTIC HISTORYtioned. He has been called the "Homer of America"and "The Zoroaster of modern Asia." It was whenhe was sixty-five years old that he began the studyof the Sanscrit language and after mastering thisancient and now obsolete tongue was fourteen yearstranslating the Vedas and other sacred books of theEast. Besides poetry and his numerous masonicwritings, he wrote on law, politics, philosophy, mili-tary science and general literature. His manuscriptwritings total in round numbers 36,000 pages and hisprinted writings total about 25,000 pages. Practi-cally all of his works are to be found in the Libraryof the Supreme Council at Washington.

It is an interesting fact and significant of the manthat he never published any book for sale. With theexception of his legal briefs, whatever he had printedwas done at his own expense for private circulationor was donated to the Supreme Council of the 33rdDegree over which he presided for so many years.His versatile mind, genius, and tremendous energyare best illustrated by a perusal of the bibliographyof his writings which is in print.On his death-bed he took up an old-fashioned pen-cil and calling for a slip of paper wrote this nowfamous thought:

"Shalom!Peacethat comes with blessing tocare-fretted weary men, when Death's dreamlesssleep ends all suffering and sorrow."James D. Richardson, 33rd Degree (Tennessee)

said in his address at the dedication of the Memorialto General Pike, the magnificent Temple of the


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KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 275Supreme Council on 16th Street, Washington, D. C."When he closed his eyes in death the greatest lightthat ever shone in Free Masonry, in any land, wentout. Scottish Masons everywhere, no matter whatlanguage they spoke, knew him and bore testimonyto their reverence and admiration for him. TheGrand Bodies of the Rite in many other lands de-lighted to honor him; in addition to the high honorsbestowed upon him by the Mother Supreme Councilof the World he was Honorary Grand Commanderof the Supreme Councils of Brazil (United), Egyptand Tunis ; Honorary Member of the Supreme Coun-cils for the Northern Jurisdiction of the UnitedStates, France, Belgium, Italy at Torino, Spain,England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Greece,Hungary, Nueva Granada, Canada, Colon, Peru,Mexico and Uruguay."For the foregoing biography of General Pike, Iam greatly indebted to Wm. L. Boyden, 33rd De-

gree, Librarian of The Temple of the SupremeCouncil of the 33rd and Last Degree of the Ancientand Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry of theSouthern Jurisdiction of the United States of Amer-ica, Washington, D. C.

Part of a set of chess men was taken from themountain home of Albert Pike when it was raidedby a detachment of the Second Kansas, U. S. A.Cavalry, who were camped near Little Rock, Ark.,in the summer of 1863. When they returned tocamp they distributed their booty and these chessmen fell to the lot of Capt. E. S. Stover of Co. B.


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276 AUTHENTIC HISTORYSoon after the war he moved to New Mexico andbecame Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scot-tish Rite Masons there.In 1915, after so many years, and when he was thenover 80 years of age (though now dead) he returnedthem to be placed among the relics of General Pikein the Library of the SUPREME COUNCIL.

These old-fashioned chess men were like the onesin my home with which General Forrest played a"make believe" game with me when I was a little girl.

General Albert Pike had a most remarkablememory, and one of his greatest feats in this linewas reproducing entirely from memory the ScottishRite Ritual, all copies of it having been destroyedby fire in Charleston, S. C, when it was burned bythe Federals during the Civil War.

General Pike organized the Ku Klux Klan inArkansas after General Forrest appointed him GrandDragon of that Realm at the convention at Nashville,Tenn. He was also appointed at that time ChiefJudicial Officer of The Invisible Empire. He advisedin this capacity that the Ku Klux Klan memorize theirRitual and to never make it public.

I have made diligent effort to obtain a writtenRitual and have requested hundreds of the originalKlan to recite this for me and they have always saidthat this one secret would never be revealed.General Pike appointed Mr. Henry Fielding andMr. Eppie Fielding of Fayetteville, Arkansas, toassist him in organizing Dens in that state. Theywere members of the Athens, Ala., Klan from its be-


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THE WALLACEHOUSE Organized November28, 1876which redeemed South Carolina from "Carpet Bag" and "NegroRule." Speaker Wallace in Center.

(See page 215 for other names(Contributed by Mrs. Margaret Wallace Gage,daughter of General Wallace, Birmingham, Ala.)


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KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 277ginning and went to Arkansas, to live in 1867. Theywere Confederate soldiers, and gave me much in-formation about the powerful influence General Pikehad over the people of Arkansas during the darkdays of reconstruction.In 1872 Arkansas had two governments operating

at one time and civil war was threatened and greatexcitement prevailed against the Washington Gov-ernment. General Pike called a mass meeting atLittle Rock, Ark., in the Capitol building and ap-pealed to the people to be patient until better timeswould come and assured them that he would go toWashington and intercede for them, which he didmany times.At this meeting General Pike unfurled the Stars

and Stripes and in a most beautiful manner, askedthe people to follow it, which thousands of them did,promising him to be patient until the Ku Klux Klancould redeem the state.

susan l. davis on pike

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