CWL --- Words From The Well Known: Edward D. Baker, April 20, 1861


Edward Dickson Baker, died at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, VA on October 21, 1861, Major General and Senator from Oregon, Illinois Congressman, close personal friend of Lincoln who named his second son Edward (d. 1850) after him.

In a speech on April 20, 1861 in New York City:

"The hour of reconciliation has passed, the gathering for battle is at hand, the country requires that every man shall do his duty. . . . . I am not here to speak timorous words of peace, but to kindle the spirit of manly, determined war. . . . . Civil War, for the best of reasons upon the one side and the worst upon the other, is always dangerous to liberty, always fearful, always bloody; but, fellow-citizens, there are yet worse things than fear, than doubt and dread, and danger and blood. Dishonor is worse. Perpetual anarchy is worse. States forever commingling and forever severing are worse. Traitors and secessionists are worse."

From The Oxford Dictionary of Civil War Quotations, John D. Wright, ed. 2006.
 
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