The Shasta courier., 1861-11-02
Death of Col. e. ID. Baker.

The first flash of electricity across the con-
tincnt, shocked the dwellers on the Pacific
from the Colorado to Puget Sound. 1t bror ght
no cheering intelligence of wrongs redressed,
of victor es won, or of triumph of right, but
it brought, instead, the saddening news that
another of our distinguished men had been
sacrificed by the Moloch, Treason. The toga
gives its place to the shroud, the warriors
sword falls from the relaxing grasp that bore
it in honor over many ruthless field In
the Senate of the United States of America
an honored seat is vacant. The most musi-
cal and eloquent tongue that ever awoke the
echoes of that august chamber is mute for
evermore.
Col. Baker was born, ffty-fve years ago,
in the city of London. He came to this
country, with his parents, at an early age.
The family were poor, and their circumstan-
ces were rendered still more deplorable by
the loss of the father, not long after their ar
rival in this country. When quite lad, the
subject of this imperfect sketch was appren-
ticed to weaver, which trade or profession
he mastered, and pursued for some time. At
this period of his life he was distinguished
for special ambition to excel in everything
he did, wherefore it would seem but natural
that he should seek some other avocation, in
which the opportunities for the indulgence
of this sentiment would not be so necessarily
limited By dint of prodigious exertions the
self-reliant boy grew to be well educated
man. Acquiring legal education, he re-
moved to the West and settled in Illinois,
then almost wilderness. He hal as his
associates there such men as Abraham Lin
coin, Stephen A. Douglas, James A. Nc
Dougall, Judge Logan, and others-young
men like himself, poor and friendless. His
history from that period is familiar to all,
and part of it is the history of the country
itself. As an orator, we believe that Colonel
Baker had no superior ON earth. He could
certainly say some of the happiest things
found ever on the lips of men, but those who
regarded him merely as an orator, word
maker, and an utterer of felicitous sayings,
did him great injustice. His rhetoric was
only the ornamentation wherewith he gar
landed the columns of his majestic and resist
less logic, the flowers that decked the banks
of the mighty stream of truth that flowed
from his earnest and impassioned heart. How
many who have heard him will recall the
wrapt intensity-the agony, if we may be
allowed the expression-with which they
have followed him in his magnificent flights
of oratory. Bold and selfreliant, he grap-
pied only with men and questions worthy of
I his powers. 1t was because he was an ear
nest man, who did unhinchingly the task al
lotted him, and because he was so gifted that
he drew to himself the cavils and sneers of the
Hpitiful whelps that dog always the steps of
brave and noble men. Intolerance and big
\ Hotry have been, from the foundations Of the
orld, the The cShem1es of all truth and sincerity
and bad men, through envy, will denounce
their superiors in intellect. To "Tray,
Rlanche and Sweetheart, and all the little
dogs" COL Baker gave neither kick or ca
ress; yet, when the occasion was fit, and the
antagonist worthy of him, he would over
throw him with one blow, or make him i'm
mortal by his relentless ridicule.
lie is dead, dying in the sublime attitude
Eof a Senator of the United States, trying to
Equell with his sword the danger that his
Ilcounsels could not avert. He has died as he
Ilwould have wished to die, and as such a man
should die.
7 The drum and trumpet till he spake were dumb,
| And now naught'sleft him but the mufiled drum