I shall be prepared to meet all antagonists with
lance in rest, to do battle in every land, in defense of the
Constitution of the Country which I have sworn to support, to the last
extremity, against Disunionists, and all its Enemies, whether of the
South or North; to meet them everywhere, at all times, with speech or
hand, with word or blow, until thought and being shall be no longer
mine." And right nobly did he fulfil in all respects his promise; so
that at the end--as was afterward well said of him by Mr. Colfax--he had
mounted so high, that, "doubly crowned, as statesman, and as warrior--
'From the top of Fame's ladder he stepped to the Sky!'"
[This orator and hero was a naturalized Englishman, and commanded
an American regiment in the Mexican War.]
CHAPTER XV.
FREEDOM'S EARLY DAWN.
On the day following Baker's great reply to Breckinridge, another
notable speech was made, in the House of Representatives--notable,
especially, in that it foreshadowed Emancipation, and, coming so soon
after Bull Run, seemed to accentuate a new departure in political
thought as an outgrowth of that Military reverse.
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