The San Francisco call., 1896-10-25

through the sky, the march OF a heave n
messenger along his appointed way and around
his predestined orbit. For 800 years he has
travelled amid the regions of infinite space.
''Lone wandering, but not lost" he has left
behind him shining suns, blazing stars and
cleaning cons relations, now nearer to the
eternal throne. and again on the confines OF
the universe. He returns, with visions radiant
and benign; he returns, with unimpeded
march and unobstructed way; he returns, the
ma jestic, swift electric telegraph of the
Almighty, bearing upon his flaming front the
tidings that, throughout the universe, there is
still peace and order-that, amid the i'm
measurable dominions of the Great King, his
rule is still perfect-that suns and stars and
systems tread their endless circle and obey
the eternal law.
A year afterward Baker pronounced his
most pathetic utterance, his funeral ora
ton over David G. Broderick. the great
leader of the Free Soil Democracy, who
had fallen in a duel with Judge Terry.
Broderick's last words were ~ am dying
protect my honor" In his Grafton
Baker said:
''The code of honor is delusion and
snare. 1t palters the hope of true cour-
age and binds it at the feet OF crafty and
cruel skill. It surrounds its victim with
the pomp and grace of the procession. but
leaves him bleeding on the altar. 1t offers
up to personal vindtctiveness life due
only to country, family and to God.
1t substitutes cold and deliberate prepara-
ton for courage and manly impulse, and
arms the one to disarm the other. 1t is
equal in all the form, unjust in all the
substance. It's boasted equality is lie. y
He closed his speech with (the writer
stood less than thirty feet from him) the
following glowing peroration:
But the last word must be spoken, the i'm
perious mandate of death fulfilled. Good
friend. unselfsh patient, modest hero, hail
aud FAREWELL Thus, o brave heart, we bear
thee to thy rest. Thus, surrounded by tens of
thousands. we leave thee to the ever equal
grave. AS in life no other voice among us SO
rang its trumpet tones upon the ears of free
men, so III death its echoes will reverberate
amid our valleys and our mountains till
valor and truth shall cease to appeal to the
human heart.
Beyond question Bakers speech at
Forest Hill in 1885, few weeks before the
fatal duel which sent Broderlck to his
grave, was the greatest Republican speech
ever made up to that time.
The scene was fitting one for an in
spired orator. The lofty mountains with
their minarets of tapering pines piercin
the tranquil summer sky, the roaring
American River, only few miles away,
singing its lullaby to the twinkling stars
of the warm summer night and the thou
sand brawny giants with torches in their
hands, gathered about 1.-The old man elo-
quent"-all went to make up picture that
was original in its composition. No won
der, then, that he began with that grace
full exordium:
I am speaking here in the mountains, al
ways free, and in every age and cline favor
able to the great idea OF real liberty, always an
inspiration to its defenders ana a fortress to
Its warriors.
Or that be should have closed it with that
ringing peroration which stirred mems
souls so that not q man in the assembIage
was seated when he finished it:
NV voice will soon be silent, but your
thoughts will remain. They will go forward
and conquer. They are even now gathering
into a stream that shall spread into rushing,
boiling and bounding river. They are con-
trolling mems minds and maturing their
lives They are kindling mems words and
freeing mems souls. And as surely as the
great procession OF heavens host above moves
each in its appointed place and orbit, so shall
the proud principles OF human right and free
dom prevail over tyranny and usurpation.
The patriot sleeps within fifty feet of
Broderick, his sIumbers lulled by the
breakers at his very feet that typify his
grand and stormy life. When that beau
tlful cemetery was first opened for sepuI-
ture of the, pioneers it was the most deso-
late sand dune between Mexico and