Editing Albert Pike (section)

==Career==
[[File:AlbertPikeYounger.jpeg|thumb|right|Pike, about 1850]]
Settling in Arkansas in 1833, Pike taught in a school and wrote a series of articles for the [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] ''Arkansas Advocate'' under the pen name of [[Publius Servilius Casca|"Casca."]]<ref name=EncycArkansas>{{Cite web |last1=Moneyhon |first1=Carl H. |title=Albert Pike (1809–1891) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/albert-pike-1737/ |access-date=January 17, 2021|website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture (EOA|publisher=Central Arkansas Library System )}}</ref> The articles were sufficiently well received for him to be asked to join the newspaper's staff. Under Pike's administration, the ''Advocate'' promoted the viewpoint of the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas in December 1832.<ref name=EncycArkansas/> After marrying Mary Ann Hamilton in 1834, he purchased the newspaper.<ref name="ipw">{{cite web| url = http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=PI006| title = Westmoreland, Ingrid P., "Pike, Albert", Oklahoma Historical Society}}</ref>

He was the first reporter for the [[Arkansas Supreme Court]]. He wrote a book (published anonymously), titled ''The Arkansas Form Book'', which was a guidebook for lawyers.<ref name=EncycArkansas/> Pike began to study law and was admitted to the [[bar (law)|bar]] in 1837, selling the ''Advocate'' the same year. (At least one source indicates that Pike read Kent and Blackstone and was admitted to the bar in 1834 by Superior Court judge [[Thomas J. Lacy]], after a perfunctory examination.)<ref>Walter Lee Brown, ''A Life of Albert Pike'', p. 57 (1997).</ref> 

He proved to be a highly effective lawyer, representing clients in courts at every level. This continued after he received permission in 1849 to practice before the [[United States Supreme Court]].<ref name=EncycArkansas/>

He also made several contacts among the Native American tribes in the area. He specialized in claims on behalf of Native Americans against the federal government.<ref name=smithassoc/> In 1852, he represented the [[Muscogee|Creek Nation]] before the Supreme Court in a claim regarding ceded tribal land. In 1854 he advocated for the [[Choctaw]] and [[Chickasaw]], although compensation later awarded to the tribes in 1856 and 1857 was insufficient.<ref name=ipw/> These relationships were to influence the course of his Civil War service.

Pike also began a campaign of newspaper essays urging support for the construction of a [[transcontinental railroad]] to extend from [[New Orleans]] to the Pacific coast. He moved to New Orleans in 1853 and prepared to pass the state bar in furtherance of his campaign. He ultimately secured a charter from the [[Louisiana State Legislature]] for a project, following which he returned to Little Rock in 1857.<ref name=EncycArkansas/>

He joined the anti-Catholic [[Know Nothing]] Party at its founding;<ref name=EncycArkansas/> in the summer of 1854, he helped introduce the party in Arkansas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Harold T. |title=The Know-Nothings in Arkansas |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |date=Winter 1975 |volume=34 |issue=5 |pages=291–303 |doi=10.2307/40022446 |jstor=40022446 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40022446}}</ref> He attended the national convention in 1856, but walked out when it failed to adopt a pro-slavery platform.<ref name=EncycArkansas/>  

Additionally, Pike wrote on several legal subjects. He also continued writing 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 privately published posthumously by his daughter. In 1859, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard.<ref>"The Phoenix," Manly P. Hall</ref>