Edward Dickinson Baker. 11 right and justice of the cause. It must be remembered that this great reply to Benjamin occupied two days in its de- livery, and that he had been a member of the Senate only twenty-seven days at the time. Baker at that time was fifty years of age. He had been known on the hustings as "The Old Gray Eagle." He was of striking, military appearance; he was five feet ten and a half inches high, weighed one hundred and ninety pounds. On April 19, 1861, in Union Square, New York City, Baker addressed a great mass meeting. His first sentence in that great speech is: "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 for conciliation is past; the gathering for battle is at hand, and the country requires that every man shall do his duty." He concluded: "The national banners leaning from ten thousand win- dows today proclaim your reverence and affection for the Union. You will gather in battalions, and as you gather every omen of ultimate peace will surround you. Ministers of religion, priests of literature, the historians of the past, the illustrators of the present, capital, science, art, invention, discoveries, and works of genius; all those will attend us, and we will conquer; and if, from the far Pacific, a voice feebler than the feeblest murmur upon its shore may be heard to give you courage and hope in the contest, 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 him- self 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 the 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 Cov- ernment, for Constitution, for Right, for Freedom, for Hu- manity, and in the hope that the banner of my country may advance, and wheresoever that banner waves, there glory may pursue, and freedom be established."
