(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Edw; D. Baker, U. S. Senator ...)
Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Edw; D. Baker, U. S. Senator From Oregon: Delivered at a Republican Mass Meeting, Held at the American Theatre, in the City of San Francisco, on Friday Evening, October 26th, 1860 At 8 o'clock, B. W. Hathaway, Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, under whose auspices the meeting was held, came for ward to the footlights and said: AS Chairman of the State Central Committee, it devolves upon me to call this meeting to order. Ladies and Gentlemen: We have met here tonight to listen to the first Republican who has ever been elected to a distinguished position on the Pacific coast, but unless the signs of the times do not deceive us, he will not be the last. (great applause.) Our guest is one of the great champi ons of Freedom, the orator of the Pacific coast. I perceive that you are extremely anxious to have the meeting proceed, and I propose the hon. E. L. Sullivan as your Chairman. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Born in London on February 24, 1811, to schoolteacher Edward Baker and Lucy Dickinson Baker, poor but educated Quakers, the boy Edward Baker and his family left England and emigrated to the United States in 1816, arriving in Philadelphia, where Baker's father established a school.
As a boy Edward gave evidence of promising intellectual gifts and was an avid reader, but had little systematic education. Studying law in the office of Judge Caverly of Carrollton, he was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen.
He was a private soldier in the brief Black Hawk War. In 1835 he moved to Springfield for the serious practise of his profession, becoming one of a brilliant circle who won fame both in the law and in politics, among them Lincoln, Douglas, Browning, Yates, and Trumbull. Already he was acquiring reputation as an orator, and this naturally took him into politics. From 1837 to 1840 he represented Sangamon County in the General Assembly, and was state senator from 1840 to 1844. Lincoln and Baker were rival Whig candidates for congressional nomination, but Baker won and was elected, the only Whig chosen in Illinois for the Twenty-ninth Congress. Although out of harmony with his party, he supported the policy of President Polk on the Oregon question. When the Mexican War began he promptly went to Illinois, raised a regiment of volunteers, and led them to join General Taylor.
In December 1846 he was back in Washington as bearer of dispatches. Being still a member of the House and speaking in uniform, he advocated with telling effect better measures for the equipment of the soldiers. Then he resigned his seat, went to the front, and served with distinction at Cerro Gordo. The command of a brigade devolved upon him when Gen. Shields was wounded. Soon thereafter, his regiment not reënlisting, he resigned his commission and returned to the practise of law. In 1848 he moved into the Galena district, announced himself an Independent Whig candidate for Congress, and won a personal triumph in that Democratic district--this after a residence of only three weeks. He was also one of the unsuccessful Taylor presidential electors. Lincoln and other Whigs in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin urged his appointment to a cabinet position, and Baker was grievously disappointed in not being chosen. There was little save for certain displays of oratorical eloquence to distinguish his service in the Thirty-first Congress. In 1851 he carried out a contract to grade a section of the Panama railway, but was obliged to return home to recover from fever. In 1852 he was attracted to California, where he at once became prominent as a lawyer and public speaker. California was Democratic, but he was active as a Whig and then as a Republican in the face of discouragements. Public disfavor fell upon him when he followed his sense of duty in defending the notorious Cora, opposing the Vigilance Committee of 1856. Yet he was in demand as an orator, his most notable speech being the funeral oration on Senator Broderick, on September 18, 1859. Shortly thereafter the Republican organization of Oregon sent a committee to invite him to go to that state to give popular leadership, with the understanding that he would be the preferred candidate of the party for United States senator. He embraced the opportunity to realize a life-long ambition, moved to Oregon in February 1860, and was elected senator in October by a combination of Republicans and Douglas Democrats. This was a famous victory over the regular Democrats led by the redoubtable Joseph Lane, and contributed materially to the choice of Lincoln electors. Starting promptly for Washington, Baker was given a reception in San Francisco which was utilized for the national campaign with great and perhaps decisive effect in the close contest to win California for Lincoln. Baker entered on his duties December 5, 1860, the only Republican from the Pacific Coast sent to support the new administration. This circumstance, coupled with his reputation as an orator and his known intimacy with Lincoln, gave him immediate prominence. Lincoln invited him to Springfield for a personal conference, which was held in the latter part of December, and continued to rely greatly on his advice about checkmating secession movements in the Pacific states. The first of two remarkable replies to Senator Judah P. Benjamin was delivered on January 2, 1861. Of this effort Sumner said: "That speech passed at once into the permanent literature of the country, while it gave to its author an assured position in this body".
In New York on Apr. 19 Baker was one of the speakers at an enormous mass meeting in Union Square, delivering an oration of great popular effect. His famous reply to Senator Breckinridge was delivered in the Senate on August 1, 1861, when he came in uniform directly from training the troops he was commanding. On the 21th of April he had accepted an invitation to help raise and to be the colonel of a "California regiment" to be enlisted in New York and Pennsylvania. The effort was so successful that Baker was given charge of a brigade. He declined successive offers of appointments as brigadier-general and major-general, because acceptance would require resignation as senator from Oregon. He was killed in action at the unfortunate affair of Ball's Bluff on October 22, 1861.
(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Edw; D. Baker, U. S. Senator ...)
On April 27, 1831, he was married to Mary A. Lee, a widow with two children.
