Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from San Francisco's Laurel Hill
Edward Dickinson Baker was born in England February 2, 1811. When he was five years old his parents came to Phila delphia to make their home; they belonged to the Society of Friends. At seventeen Baker went to Illinois. At twenty-one he had fought in the Black Hawk War and obtained a Major's commission. Of himself he said: My real forte is my power to command, to rule and lead men. I feel that I could lead men anywhere. But Baker's friends thought his special talent lay in his gift of oratory.
In the political field Baker speedily came into prominence in Illinois as a leader of the Whigs. The proposed construction of a transcontinental railway was a project very dear to his heart. While he was in the United States Congress, representing the Springfield, Illinois, district, war with Mexico was declared. Without resigning his seat in Congress, he hastened back to Illinois, obtained a Colonel's commission, and raised a regiment which was accepted by President Polk and sent to the front. In the fighting near Mexico City, at the head of the 4th Illinois Regiment, he won distinction, and at the close of the war the State of Illinois presented him with a sword.
In 1852 Baker came to California. Here he soon became known for his charm of speech as well as for his ability as a lawyer. One of his most famous addresses was that delivered on the completion of the Atlantic cable, September 27, 1858. Thought has bridged the Atlantic, he said, and cleaves its unfettered path across the sea.
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