EDWARD DICKINSON BAKER.

BY HON EDWARD STANLY.*

DWARD DICKINSON BAKER was born in London, in 1811. His parents emigrated to the United States, and came to Philadelphia in 1816. They were highly respectable persons, of energy, good sense, and accomplished education. Upon the arrival of his parents in Philadelphia they taught school for a few years, successfully, at a time when that city was probably the most renowned of any in the Union for the excellence of its institutions of learning, and the ability of its distinguished citizens. His early lessons of religion were interwoven by his excellent parents with classical lore, and his taste bent to the purest models, and his precocious genius gratified in its thirst for books. His father had heard and read of our great government, founded by Washington and his compatriots, and regarded it as the noblest work of human wisdom and virtue, the most munificent spectacle of human happiness ever presented to the vision The old man had seen sparks of irrepressible genius in his darling boy, and sought a theatre, upon which, without resting ingloriously under the shadow of a titled name, without "the boast of heraldry," his son could make his mark upon the page of history. To the enduring honor of the old man, be it remembered, that notwithstanding his devotion to learning, he taught his children that labor was honorable; and for awhile our lamented hero worked at the trade of a cabinet-maker. But though to work as St. Paul did with his own hands. • For explanatory note, see Preface.

is honorable among all men, yet the Almighty has given men different gifts. Baker's genius could not be cramped by the persistent continuance of an occupation in which he could attain the highest excellence in a few years. To chain such a mind as he had to any such occupation, would be as idle as to attempt to persuade the bird of Jove to quit towering "in his pride of place," and soaring aloft above the clouds, and adopt the habits of our useful domestic fowls. It could not be. It was the "Divinity that stirred within him," and whispered that he was born to illustrate great principles by his mental efforts, and to die gloriously, as he did die, in the noblest struggle that ever animated the soul of a patriot-hero.

I can imagine that sensible father holding the hand of his hope and joy as he walked through the streets of the patriotic Quaker city. Here he showed him the house where Washington dwelt, and the church in which the august father of his country knelt in worship before the Lord of lords and King of kings. Here he visited Independence Hall. Here he took him to the grave of Franklin, and in answer to the inquiries of childish curiosity, he would say: "Washington, my son, was a great and good man, honored by the brave and good throughout the civilized world; he served his country faithfully through a long and bloody war, and founded here, amid unexampled difficulties, a great and glorious Union, whose laws insure protection to the honest foreigner and welcome him to an equal participation in its rewards and honors. He earned the title, nobler far than that of King or Emperor-the Father of his Country. Study his precepts and venerate his character. Benjamin Franklin was poor in early life, worked with his own hands, and by industry became one of the most distinguished men on earth. Roger Sherman was a shoemaker, but honest and industrious, and was honored by his fellow citizens and earned immortality. He, like Washington and Franklin, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. These illustrious men, with their patriotic brethren from the icebound region of the distant North, and the sunny clime of the South, pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred

honor to the achievement of Independence. Remember their example-be true to that country which they honored, which honored them, and may honor you, if you will. This immortal struggle was one in which patriots of all the States participated. At the battle of Germantown, Nash, from North Carolina, that State the first to declare her Independence, (then peopled by thousands, as now by tens of thousands, of good men and true,) here fell a martyr in the cause of Freedom. On the other side of this majestic river-the Delaware, which Washington crossed, disregarding the terrible inclemencies of a northern winter-on the other side, is the State of New Jersey, every foot of whose soil is a soldier's sepulchre. There Mercer of Virginia fell, another martyr to Freedom's cause. Be true to the memory of these men. You are not by birth, but by choice can be, a fellow-citizen of this heaven-blessed Union. The prayers and hopes of your father and mother are that you will prove true to this, now your country, to its institutions, to the cause of Freedom.

This early teaching made a deep and lasting impression on the heart and mind of the patriot-soldier. These early lessons seem ever to have been the pillar of fire that guided his course in his public career. When Col. Baker was still a boy, his father died in Philadelphia. In 1828 he left that city, and seeking a home in the great West, he went to Carrolton, Illinois, where he borrowed books and commenced the study of the law. May I say, without intruding in the holy precincts of family sorrow, he went attended by a mother's prayers and counsels. That mother still survives, at the advanced age of 82 years, (1861). She is as remarkable now for the sprightliness and vigor of her intellect, as she was in earlier life for her accomplishments and rare endowments. Venerable woman!

While you reverse our nature's kindlier doom,
Pour forth a mother's sorrow on his tomb.

Millions of patriot hearts sympathise in your sorrow. Look for comfort to Him who alone can give it—who

"doeth all things well." May this calamity, while it "loosens another one of the bonds that bind you to the earth, divest the common fate of one more of its terrors, and create through the hope of re-union another aspiration for a better life beyond the grave.

In 1832 he was a Major in what is known as the Black Hawk war.

By the diligent exertion of his extraordinary abilities, he soon attained a high rank in his profession-and this is no slight praise, for there were "giants in the land in those days. Hardin, Douglas, Lincoln and Logan were his rivals and friends, and acknowledged his prowess. For ten years consecutively he was a member of the Legislature of the State of Illinois. In December, 1845, he entered the House of Representative from the Springfield District in Illinois, a member of the 29th Congress. During this Congress, war existed with Mexico, and Baker left his place in the House, went to Illinois and raised the 4th Regiment organized in that State. He went with his regiment to the deadly banks of the Rio Grande, and entered the command of Gen. Taylor. In December, 1846, he returned from Mexico on urgent public business, and in the House of Representative, delivered a speech remarkable for its force and intense patriotic feeling, which subdued partizan opposition and produced the fruits he desired, of additional appropriation for the comfort of the soldiers in the field. After this visit to the seat of Government he resigned his seat in Congress and returned immediately to Mexico. His regiment was ordered to Vera Cruz, where he participated in the capture of the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa. Very soon afterwards he was at the battle of Cerro Gordo, where the gallant Gen. Shields was wounded severely, and Baker, having charge of the attacking column, took the command. History has told us the story of the good conduct of the Colonel who commanded the 4th Illinois Regiment, in that terrible but glorious day. After the war was ended, he returned to Illinois, and was honored by that State with a sword, in grateful recognition of his valuable services.