The San Francisco call., 1895-11-24
COLONEL ed. BAKER.

service had trained him thoroughly for
the wider forum and he began at once to
display his powers in brilliant speeches,
which, devoted as they were to great sub
jects, attracted the attention of the whole
country. He took advanced ground upon
the question of the Oregon boundary,
which was just then threatening compli
cations with Great Britain, and was known
as one of the Fifty ty-four-forty-or-f
Congressman. During his speech de-
livered upon that issue he took occasion to
pay a tribute to the power and greatness of
England, which is a masterpiece of die
ton. He said:
Mr.. Chairman: ! admit the power Of Eng
land. 1t is moral well as physical SUI
premacy. 1t is not merely her fleets and her
armies; it is not merely her colonies ana her
fortresses-it is more than these. There is a
power in her history which compels our ad-
miration and exclteS our wonder. 1t presents
10 US the field of Agincourt, the glory of Blen-
helm, the fortitude of Fatal Fontenoy" and
she ruled the empire OF the wave, from the de-
struction of the Armada to the glories OF Ira
falgar. Nor is her glory confined TO arms alone.
In arts, in science, in literature, in credit and
in commerce she sits superior. Hers are the
princes OF the mind. She gives laws TO learn
ing and limits to taste. The watch-fires of her
her enemies. Her dead heroes and statesmen
stand as sentinels upon immortal heights to
guard the glory OF the living.
1t was while Baker was thus engaged in
widening his reputation as an orator and
statesman, that the Mexican war came on; /;
and, as fourteen years earlier he has cast
aside the neckcloth of the exhorter for the
musket of volunteer, so also he threw off
the toga of a lawmaker for the uniform of
colonel of an Illinois regiment in the
Mexican war. In fact, he was one of the
few Northern Wings who favored war with
Mexico, and those of his biographers who
knew him most intimately say that he did
so because 1t tgds Wdr, and afforded him
the opportunity to slake the burning
thirst of his heart" After the battle of
Cerro Gordo, Baker returned home to prac-
tice law for brief season IN Illinois, and
by the people of which he was
soon again sent to Congress. There
the volcanic fires of disunion were already
seething upward toward their overflow
decade later, and no one realized this bet
ter than Baker. In powerful speeches he
inveighed against the whole thought and
theory OF secession. In one OF his ad
dresses of that period he uttered the fol-
lowing words, which seem so prophetic
OF his career and fate:
I have only TO say that, if the time should
come when disunion rules the hour and dis
cord reigns supreme, shall again be ready to
give the best blood of my veins to my coun-
try's cause. ! shall be prepared to meet all an
tagonists with lance in rest, 10 do battle in
every land in defense OF the constitution Of the
country which have sworn to support to the
last extremity against all its enemies, whether
North or South-to meet them everywhere, at
all times, with speech or hand, with word or
blow, until thought and being shall be mine
no longer.
In the year 1851 the restless, adventurous
nature of Baker seized upon an enterprise
which has been described as "wild as it
was engaging" This was nothing less
than the construction of railroad across
the lsthmus of Panama. He made con-
tract with the Panama Railroad Company
for the construction of the road, and with
about 400 laborers which he collected, he
sailed away for the isthmus. 1t was vain
guest for wealth and glory. Baker soon
fell sick from the fever which breeds its
contagion along the Shiny banks of the
Chagres River. and was brought home, it
was thought to die. The pure air of Hill
nois soon restored him to health, however,
and he turned his fancy toward Cali
fornia as proper field for his energies and
mbition.
In the year 1852 he arrived in San Fran
cisco with his family and resumed the
practice of the law. He came with an al
ready established reputation as lawyer
and orator, and very speedily rose to the
head of the profession. He seemed at last
to have found congenial atmosphere for
the expansion OF the wings OF his genius.
During the succeeding eight years he
reached the zenith of his powers and the
summit of his fame. His law practice ex-
tended over the entire State and involved
him in the trial of many of the greatest
causes of that epoch in California history.
Among these was the defense of Cora, who
killed United States Marshal Richardson
during the days of the Vigilance Committee
of 1856. When Cora retained Colonel Baker
to defend him. public opinion demanded
that he should leave his client to his fate,
and for a time he was socially ostracized
because be refused to do SO. His speech
in defense of his position and of the right
and duty of lawyer to defend client
charged with no matter how heinous
crime was declared by those who heard it
to be the most brilliant effort of his foren-
sic experience. He said:
The legal profession is, above all others,
fearless of public opinion, candid and sympa- |
,hetic. 1t has ever stood against the tyranny |
If monarchs on the one hand and the tyranny |
IF public opinion on the other. And II, as the |
lumblest among them, it becomes me to |
Instance myself, I may say it with a |
bold heart and / do say it with a |
,old heart that there is not in all |
his world q wretch so humble, so guilty, so
SO torn with avenging furies, SO
pursued with the vengeance of the law, SO
lunted TO cities of refuge, SO fearful of life,
% afraid of death-there is no wretch SO deeply
teeped in all the agonies of vice and misery |
nd crime that would not have the heart to lis.