Oregon: Her history, her great men, her literature/Edwin D. Baker
SENATOR EDWIN D. BAKER
Edward Dickinson Baker was born in London, England, February 24, 1811. Five years later his father's family located in Philadelphia where Edward was apprenticed at an early age to a weaver. Later young Baker drove a dray in St. Louis. He was admitted to the bar in Illinois, obtained a Major's commission in the Black Hawk War, was commissioned colonel in the Mexican War; became a member of congress from Illinois in 1849; located in California; moved to Oregon, and in 1860 was elected United States Senator. His was a dramatic career while in the senate. 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 was confirmed Brigadier General. He fell in battle at Ball's Bluff, October 21, 1861.
As an orator and poet, Senator Baker treated each subject in its appropriate individual style. He was enabled to give a typical plea in the "Defense of Cora;" tart repartee in his "Reply to Benjamin;" the fiery animus of Patrick Henry in the "Baker Mass-Meeting Address;" human sympathy in the "Broderick Oration;" ornate style 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 minds of men from sordid thoughts and groveling themes.
FREEDOM.
In the presence of God—I say it reverently—freedom is the rule, and slavery is the exception. It is a marked, guarded, perfected exception. There it stands! If public opinion must not touch its dusky cheek too roughly, be it so; but we will go no further than the terms of the compact. We are a city set on a hill. Our light cannot be hid. As for me, I dare not, I will not be false to freedom! Where in youth my feet were planted, there my manhood and my age shall march. I will walk beneath her banner. I will glory in her strength. I have seen her, in history, struck down on a hundred chosen fields of battle. I have seen her friends fly from her, I have seen her foes gather around her; I have seen them bind her to the stake; I have seen them give her ashes to the winds, regathering them that they might scatter them yet more widely. But when they turned to exult, I have seen her again meet them face to face, clad in complete steel, and brandishing in her strong right hand a flaming sword red with insufferable light! And I take courage. The Genius of America will at last lead her sons to freedom.
TO A WAVE
Dost thou seek a star, with thy swelling crest,
Oh! wave that leavest thy mother's breast?
Dost thou leap from the prisoned depths below
In scorn of their calm and constant flow?
Or art thou seeking some distant land,
To die in murmurs upon the strand?
Has! thou tales to tell of the pearl-lit deep,
Where the wave-whelmed mariner rocks in sleep?
Canst thou speak of navies that sunk in pride,
Ere the roll of their thunder in echo died?
What trophies, what banners, are floating free
In the shadowy depths of that silent sea?
It were vain to ask, as thou rollest afar,
Of banner, or mariner, ship or star;
It were vain to seek in thy stormy face
Some tale of the sorrowful past to trace.
Thou art swelling high, thou art flashing free,
How vain are the questions we ask of thee!
I, too, am a wave on a stormy sea:
I, too, am a wanderer, driven like thee;
I, too, am seeking a distant land
To be lost and gone ere I reach the strand
For the land I seek is a waveless shore,
And they who once reach it shall wander no more.