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Edward Dickinson Baker

Edward Dickinson Baker was born in London, England, February 24, 1811. Five years later his father's family settled in Philadelphia, where Edward at an early age was apprenticed to a weaver. In 1825 the family moved to Indiana, and the following year to Illinois. Young Baker drove a dray in St. Louis for a season, but returned to Illinois, where he was admitted to the bar. In 1831 he seriously thought of entering the ministry in the Reformed or Christian Church. He obtained a Major's commission in the Black Hawk War; was twice elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature, then one term to the upper branch; was elected to Congress in 1844; then, commissioned Colonel in the Mexican War; and returned to Congress in 1849. In 1852 he located in San Francisco, but in 1860 moved to Oregon, where he was chosen United States Senator. His greatness as a soldier, statesman, orator and patriot was of that character which made him inevitable in any state or national disturbance; so that while Oregon of all the states honored him the most, the Nation in the onset of a threatening calamity laid first claim upon his highest energies. Attired in the full uniform of a Colonel he appeared before his fellow Senators in a stirring defense of the Union, August 2, 1861; and four days later he was confirmed Brigadier General. He fell in the battle of Ball's Bluff, October 21, 1861. In recognition of his services, a commission as Major General of Volunteers was afterwards issued in his name.

As an orator Colonel Baker seeing clearly beheld things as they were; hence treated each subject in a style of its own. Therefore he was enabled to give to us a typical plea in the "Defense of Cora," the repartee in his "Reply to Benjamin," the ready fire of Patrick Henry in the "Baker Mass-Meeting Address," fraternal sympathy in the Broderick oration, the ornate in the

oration on the Atlantic Cable, and poetry and music in the "Ode to a Wave." On all occasions the flight of the "Old Gray Eagle" was lofty, attracting the eyes upward and uplifting the minds of men above sordid thoughts and groveling themes.

THE ATLANTIC CABLE ADDRESS.

Amid the general joy that thrills throughout the civilized world, we are here to bear our part. The great enterprise of the age has been accomplished. Thought has bridged the Atlantic, and cleaves its unfettered path across the sea, winged by the lightning and guarded by the billow. Though remote from the shores that first witnessed the deed, we feel the impulse and swell the paean; for, as in the frame of man, the nervous sensibility is greatest at the extremity of the body, so we, distant dwellers on the Pacific Coast, feel yet more keenly than the communities at the centers of civilization, the greatness of the present success, and the splendor of the advancing future.

The transmission of intelligence by electric forces is perhaps the most striking of all the manifestations of human power in compelling the elements to the service of man. The history of the discovery is a monument to the sagacity, the practical observation, the inductive power of the men whose names are now immortal. The application to the uses of mankind is scarcely less wonderful, and the late extension across a vast ocean ranks its projectors and accomplishers with the benefactors of their race. We repeat here today the names of Franklin, and Morse, and Field. We echo the sentiments of generous pride, most felt in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the associated glory of her sons. But we know that this renown will spread wherever their deeds shall bless their kind; that, like their works, it will extend beyond ocean and deserts, and remain to latest generations.

THE MARCH OF SCIENCE.

The history of the Atlantic Telegraph is fortunately

familiar to most of this auditory. For more than a hundred years it has been known that the velocity of electricity was nearly instantaneous. It was found that the electricity of the clouds was identical with that produced by electric excitation; next followed the means for its creation, and the mechanism of transmission. Its concentration was found in the corrosion of metals in acids, and the use of the voltaic pile; its transmission was completed by Morse in 1843, and it was reserved to Field to guide it across the Atlantic. Here, as in all other scientific results, you find the wonder-working power of observation and induction; and nowhere in the history of man is the power of Art-action directed by Science-knowledge systematized-signally and beautifully obvious. I leave to the gifted friend who will follow me, in his peculiar department, the appropriate description of the wonders of the deep seaway; of the silent shores beneath; of sunless caverns and submarine plains. It is for others to describe the solitudes of the nether deep. Yet who is there whose imagination does not kindle at the idea that every thought which springs along the wires vibrates in those palaces of the ocean where the light fails to penetrate and the billows never roll?

From those dark, unfathomed caves the pearl that heaves upon the breast of beauty is dragged to the glare of day. There the unburied dead lie waiting for the resurrection morning, while above them the winds wail their perpetual requiem; there the lost treasures of India and Peru are forever hid; there the wrecks of the Armada and Trafalgar are forever whelmed.

What flags and what trophies are floating free
In the shadowy depths of the silent sea?

But amid these scattered relics of the buried past, over shell-formed shores and wave-worn crags, the gleaming thought darts its way. Amid the monsters of the deep, amid the sporting myriads and countless armies of the sea, the single link that unites two worlds conveys the mandate of a king or the message of a lover. Of old, the Greek loved to believe that Neptune ruled the

ocean and stretched his trident over the remotest surge. The fiction has become reality; but man is the monarch of the wave, and his trident is a single wire!

The scene in which we each bear a part today is one peculiar, it is true, to the event which we celebrate; but it is also very remarkable in many and varied aspects.

JOY VISITS THE PACIFIC COAST.

Never before has there been on the Pacific Coast such an expression of popular delight. We celebrate the birthday of our Nation with signal rejoicing; but vast numbers who are here today can find no place in its processions, and perhaps wonder at its enthusiasm; we celebrate great victories which give new names to our history and new stars to our banner-these are but national triumphs; but today the joy is universal; the procession represents the world-all creeds, all races, all languages are here; every vocation of civilized life mingles in the shout and welcomes the deep. The minister of religion sees the Bow of Promise reflected under the sea, which speaks of universal peace; the statesman perceives another lengthening avenue for the march of free principles; the magistrate here can see new guards to the rights of society and property, and wide field for the sway of international law; the poet kindles at the dream of a great republic of letters tending toward a universal language; and the seer of science finds a pledge that individual enterprise may yet embody his discoveries in beneficent and world-wide action.

The mechanic walks with a freer step and more conscious port, for it is his skill which has overcome the raging sea and stormy shore; and labor-toil-stained and sun-browned labor-claims the triumph as his own in twofold right. First, because without patient, enduring toil, there could be neither discovery, invention, application or extension; and again, because whatever spreads the blessings of peace and knowledge comes home to his hearth and heart.

Surrounded then, as I am, by the representatives of all civilized nations, let me express some of the thoughts that are struggling for utterance upon your lips as you

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