which was but a reflection of the secession views of those braver Southerners who were already in armed rebellion. Colonel Baker grew restive under the words of Breckinridge, his face glowed with passionate excitement, and he sprang to the floor when the senator from Kentucky took his seat and then and there without previous preparation delivered that wonderful philippic, abounding in denunciation and invective which alone would make a niche for him in the world's temple of fame.
Passionately he asked "What would have been thought, if in another capitol, in a yet more martial age, a senator with the Roman purple flowing from his shoulders, had risen in his place, surrounded by all the illustrations of Roman glory, and declared that advancing Hannibal was just and that Carthage should be dealt with in terms of peace? What would have been thought, if after the battle of Cannæ, a senator had denounced every levy of the Roman people, every expenditure of its treasure, every appeal to the old recollections and the old glories?" Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, who sat near, responded in an undertone, "He would have been hurled from the Tarpeian rock;" and in tones of thunder Baker flashed forth the suggested fate and continued "Are not the speeches of the senator from Kentucky intended for disorganization? Are they not intended to destroy our zeal? Are they not intended to animate our enemies? Sir, are they not words of brilliant polished treason even in the very capitol of the Republic?" And then replying to a taunt of Breckinridge about the loyalty of the Pacific coast, he went on "When the senator from Kentucky speaks of the Pacific I see another distinguished friend from Illinois, now worthily representing the State of California, who will bear witness that I know that State, too, and well. I take the liberty, I know that I but utter his sentiments, to say that that State will be true to the Union to the last
