Beschreibung:

Title: Oration of Colonel E.D. Baker Over the Dead Body of Broderick Author: Baker, E[dward] D. Place: [San Francisco] Publisher: Date: [1859] Description: 4 pp. Folded sheet. Unbound. First Edition. A eulogy by Oregon's Senator Baker, Lincoln's close friend. Baker was a talented orator; David Broderick, his subject, was one of the most interesting public figures of the 1850's. A Democratic Senator from California, Broderick was an ally of Stephen Douglas in the Party's internecine battle over Kansas. After Broderick, like Douglas, denounced the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution as a fraud, Buchanan Democrats shunned him and marked him for death. Baker says, "Never in the history of political warfare has any public man been so pursued." At the 1859 Democratic State Convention, California Supreme Court Justice David Terry called Broderick a follower, not of Stephen Douglas, but of Frederick Douglass. Broderick replied, "He had heretofore spoken of Judge Terry as an honest man, but that he now took it back." Terry, a violent man and crack shot, challenged Broderick to a duel, resigned his seat on the Court, and killed him. Broderick, the first sitting Senator to be killed in a duel, became a martyr to the anti-slavery cause. Years later Terry was killed when he assaulted Justice Stephen Field of the U.S. Supreme Court. Baker was lionized in the North for his Eulogy. A man of courage and integrity, he had little military skill and was killed early in the War. Lincoln is said to have wept when he heard the news. In today's San Francisco Baker and Broderick are neighboring streets. Lot Amendments Condition: Light edge wear, a few ink corrections; very good. Item number: 242089