Pike In D.C.
The statue is back
According to media reports, the statue of Albert Pike that stood in our nation’s Capitol from 1901 until 2020 when it was torn down and vandalized by a mob has been restored and put back into place by the National Parks Service.1
This is not an isolated event, historical statues throughout the country that were vandalized in 2020 are being repaired and returned to the spaces they long stood. Not far from my home, down in Portland, Oregon, statues of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt are likewise being restored and returned. In this case by the city government.2
The Pike statue, and the man Albert Pike have been extremely controversial for a very long time. Both within Masonry, and without it.
He was, in my view, a supremely knowledgeable Mason, whom all of us Brothers of the Craft can still learn a great deal from today. He took the Scottish Rite from basically nothing and turned it into a tremendous force for good not only in the United States, but well beyond our national borders.
But, he was also a flawed man.
Aren’t we all?
I certainly am.
I will not defend his flaws, but I will assert that historical figures must be judged by the standards of the times in which they lived. To do otherwise is to deny that society improves over time, and can only be improved with time.
I will also assert that he has enough flaws of his own; that we don’t need to invent new ones to hang around his neck. I’ve heard Masons make completely baseless claims about him, and read non-Masons doing the same.
Lastly, I will assert that his flaws do not negate the good he did within our world. Any more than the mistakes I make in my life could somehow cancel out the things I get right.
Bottom line, I am extremely pleased to see Pike’s statue return to Washington, D.C.
But, I don’t know if it should stay where it is.
There has been debate, and proposals to remove it for many years. Indeed, many Freemasons would like to see it removed. I believe that conversation should happen, and that a rational decision should be made about the future of the statue after civil discussion.
That is how decisions should be made in a free society.
What a free society can’t allow is for violent mobs to make unreasoned decisions. To impose the will of the mob on everyone. To allow the strongest and most intimidating to decide.
So, I’m pleased to see Brother Pike returned to his rightful place in our nation’s Capitol. And I’m pleased to know that Lincoln and Roosevelt will be returning to Portland soon.
Then actual debate can take place, and rational decisions can be made.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/statue-honoring-confederate-general-albert-pike-restored-after-2020-racial-justice-protests
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/abraham-lincoln-theodore-roosevelt-statues-returning-to-downtown-portland-with-new-stories-to-tell.html
The man that said this can't be all bad:
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal".
When I first became interested in freemasonry it was Pike’s “Morals and Dogma” that drew me in, and so much so that I dedicated three years of weekends of my time, while also fighting cancer, to write a weekly study and opinion of “Morals and Dogma”.
Through that study and also reading of Pike’s post-war life that was dedicated to justice and using his law degree to represent the underserved against oppression from government over reach, I became astutely aware that his life, or any of our lives, should never be judged on one chapter.
I am hardly an apologist for his misdeeds, but it is a fact that Pike did serve time in jail and paid his dues for his confederacy participation.
Post-war Pike did a lot of good and changed a lot of lives.
Without “Morals and Dogma” and the self reflection those writings caused me to, I can state with clear conscience that I am one whose life was changed for the positive because Albert Pike lived.
I’m glad for the return of his statue to its proper place.