Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 43/Edward Dickinson Baker: Alien Senator

by William C. Boyd

EDWARD DICKINSON BAKER

ALIEN SENATOR

WILLIAM C. BOYD

THE NAME BAKER is a highly honorable name. It is the name that a city and a county of Oregon proudly bear.

Since my school boy days I have read nearly everything con cerning Abraham Lincoln that I could place my hands on. In reading the full account of the story of Lincoln, I found much about one of his dearest friends, Colonel Edward Dickinson Baker. I knew something of Baker, the man, before I knew any thing of Baker, the city.

Edward Dickinson Baker was born in London, February 24, 1811, and was a son of a school teacher. His father's family emigrated from England, settling in Philadelphia when Edward was five years old.

In 1825 the family moved to New Harmony, Indiana. One year later they moved to Bellville, St. Clair County, Illinois. Ed ward preceded the family on foot, walking the entire distance. Shortly after coming to Bellville he went to St. Louis in search of employment. There he secured a job driving a dray which he performed for one season.

Returning to Illinois, he entered the office of Judge Caverly of Carrollton, Greene County, to study law in the old-fashioned way. He was admitted to the bar when 19 years of age.

When 20 years of age he married Mary Lee, a widow, mother of two children. To this union were born four children, two sons and two daughters.

Baker had very little schooling, no systematic education. He was entirely self-educated, yet in many ways he was far more learned than the average college graduate of his day, or of the present time. His great powers were not the result of laborious years. They were not acquired attributes. They were gifts—God given.

In 1832 Baker enlisted as a private to serve in the Black Hawk War. This was a war to protect the homes of the settlers from the savage Indians. It was fought in northwestern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin. From this war Baker emerged a Major.

Colonel Baker moved to Springfield in the year 185 5. Living at Springfield at that time were Lincoln, Douglas, Trumbull and other men who in later years achieved national distinction.

His career began and ended in public service. He was elected representative of Sangamon County to the Illinois general assembly in 1837, served in the state senate from 1840 to 1844, and was nominated and elected representative to the National Congress as a Whig in 1844, defeating Abraham Lincoln for the nomination.

In Baker's willingness to serve his country, he resigned his office as congressman that he might raise a regiment in his state for service in the Mexican War. He was made Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. At the close of the war he moved to Galena, Illinois, and was nominated and elected to the Thirty-first Congress. He served his term, but declined re-election.

Baker went to the Isthmus of Panama in 1852, where he was to have a part in building a railroad across the isthmus. This road was made necessary by the heavy travel of gold seekers to California. Contracting a fever, he was compelled to return to the North. Instead of going to Illinois, he joined the gold rush to California, where he established himself in the practice of law. He soon had a reputation as an able lawyer and skilled debater. He was a candidate for Congress in 1859, but suffered defeat.

His defeat was partly brought about by his opposition to mob rule or the vigilance committee as a means of dispensing justice.

Shortly after his defeat for Congress, Baker removed to Oregon. In about eight months after coming to Oregon he was elected United States Senator. There were three political factions in the state at that time. One was led by Joseph Lane, the first Territorial Governor; another faction was led by J. W. Nesmith; and the third by Colonel Baker. The election of Nesmith for the long term and Baker for the short term was brought about by a fusion of the factions they led. Baker's election was not well received and caused much criticism, for which there was some foundation. He was not a resident, owned no property, and had scarcely any acquaintance in Oregon.

In going to Washington to take his place in the Senate, he went from Portland to San Francisco, then overland to Springfield, where he called on his old friend, Abraham Lincoln, who at that time was President-elect.

Baker went to Washington, took his office as Senator, made a few speeches which thrilled the country and gave him a national reputation. His service in the Senate was very brief, for he accepted a commission from President Lincoln as Colonel of the Seventy-first Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was killed while leading his men at the battle of Ball's Bluff on September 22, 1861. He was buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery in San Francisco, December 11.

On the same day, memorial services in memory of Senator Baker were held in the Senate chamber at Washington. Abraham Lincoln, some of his secretaries, many friends, and admirers at tended the services. Senators Nesmith of Oregon, Browning of Illinois, McDougal of California, Cowen of Pennsylvania, and Sumner of Massachusetts spoke in memory of their dead colleague.

Abraham Lincoln and Colonel Baker were life-long friends. Many were the causes of that warm friendship. I will name two acts by Lincoln which will show the high regard in which he held his dear friend: Lincoln named one of his sons Edward Baker Lincoln; Baker was selected by Lincoln to introduce him to the people witnessing his first inauguration.

Baker was a man of fine appearance—five feet ten and one half inches in height, weighed 190 pounds, had silver gray hair, black piercing eyes, and a Roman nose.

He was a lawyer, a soldier, a statesman, and an orator. He was in all ways a strong man. In any conflict he was a fighter unafraid. He seemed born with a mastery of words, a rare gift of expression. His sincere thought was devotion to country.

His addresses prove he had the genius of a master in his ability to influence the minds and emotions of men.

John Hay, Lincoln's private secretary and principal biographer, said of him:

Baker was little known in the East when he came as a Senator from Oregon, but from the moment he began to appear in public, his fluent and impassioned oratory, his graceful and delightful bearing, a certain youthful energy and fire which contrasted pleasantly with his silver gray hair, made him extremely popular with all classes.

He was one of Lincoln's dearest friends.

He was especially liked in the Senate.

He was one of the most desirable and effective speakers at mass meetings.

A cry of passionate anger went up from every part of the country over the precious blood wasted.

Of his speech in the Senate in reply to Breckenridge, James G. Blaine said, "In the history of the Senate no more thrilling speech was ever delivered." Charles Sumner said of the same speech, "That speech at once passed into the permanent literature of the country, while it gave to its author an assured position in that body."

While Baker was in the lower house as a member from Illinois, the question of national importance claiming attention was the boundary of what was then called the Oregon Country. In reply to the charge that the controversy was caused by the rest less spirit of the western men pressing into the new country, he said

Sir: It is to the spirit which prompts these settlers that we indebted for the settlement of the western states.

The men who are going to beat down roads and level mountains—to brave and overcome the terrors of the wilderness, they are our brethren and our kinsmen. It is a bold and free spirit; it has in it the elements of grandeur. But they will go with free steps; they will bear with them all the arts of civilization, and they will found a Western Empire.

Today you and I as citizens of Oregon are witnesses to the truth of this prophecy.

No achievement in the history of this country so thrilled the people as the laying of the Atlantic cable. Baker delivered an address in commemoration of that event in San Francisco September 27, 1858. The concluding sentence of his address was:

Our pride is for humanity, our joy is for the world, and amid all the wonders of past achievements, and all the splendors of present success, we turn with swelling hearts to gaze into the boundless future with the earnest conviction that it will develop a universal brotherhood of man.

In the first days of the Civil War Baker addressed 20,000 people at a great mass meeting in Union Square, New York City, April 19, 1861 . It is said this speech brought more enlistments to the Union army than any other delivered at that time. In opening the address Baker said:

The majesty of the people is here today to sustain the majesty of the constitution, and I come a wanderer from the far Pacific to record my oath along with yours of the great Empire state. The hour of conciliation is past. The gathering for battle is at hand and the country requires that every man shall do his duty. The national banners leaning from ten thousand windows today proclaim your reverence and your affection for the Union.

He spoke for two hours, closing with these words:

And if from the far Pacific, a voice feebler than the feeblest murmur on its shore may be heard to give you hope and courage in the conflict, that voice is yours today.

And if a man whose hair is gray, who is well-nigh worn out in the battle and toil of life, may pledge himself on such an occasion and in such an audience, let me say as my last word that when, amid sheeted fire and flame I saw and led the hosts of New York as they charged in contest on a foreign soil for the honor of your flag, so again if Providence shall will it, this feeble hand shall draw a sword never yet dishonored,—not to fight for honor on a foreign field, but for country, for home, for law, for right, for justice, for humanity, and in the hope that the banner of my country may advance, and where-so-ever it waves, there glory may pursue, and freedom be established.

Now the curtain is run down, the scene is changed. The actor puts on a uniform of blue, takes a sword in hand, and plunges into the hell of battle. After a few brief engagements he falls while leading his men, and the flag is bathed in his manly blood.

What mean you by the name Baker? It means a Nation never to be scattered again, ten times more glorious, and a million times firmer than it was before.

What mean you by the name Baker? Look about you. Behold the vast domain known as Baker County. Gaze over our fair city. Let us lift our eyes up to the hills beholding the beautiful, rugged, enduring mountains, covered today with white and green, overhung with blue, from whence comes the cleansing, healing, life-giving water. Shall we say these mountains will be a memorial to Colonel Baker forever? No! but may they be a constant reminder of what he lived for, what he fought for, and what he died for.

History is teaching by example. Names and models constantly before the mind become character builders.