Excerpt from Oration of Colonel Edward D. Baker, Over the Dead Body of David C. Broderick, a Senator of the United States, 18th September, 1859

Citizens or california: A Senator lies dead in our midst. He is wrapped in a bloody shroud, and we to whom his toils and cares were given are about to bear him to the place appointed for all the living. It is not fit that such a man should pass to the tomb unheralded, it is not fit that such a life should steal unnoticed to its close, it is not fit that such a death should call forth no rebuke, or be surrounded by no public lamentation. It is this conviction which impels the gathering of this assemblage. We are here of every station, and pursuit, of every creed and character, each in his capacity of citizen, to swell the mournful tribute which the majesty of the people offers to the unreplying dead. He lies to-day surrounded by little of funeral pomp. No ban ners droop above the bier, no melancholy music ¿oats upon the reluctant air. The hopes of high-hearted friends droop like the fading ¿owers upon his breast, and the struggling sigh compels the tear in eyes that seldom weep. Around him are those who have known him best and loved him longest, who have shared the triumph and endured the defeat. Near him are the gravest and noblest of the State, possessed by a grief at once earnest and sincere, while beyond, the masses of the people, whom he loved and for whom his life was given, gather like a thunder-cloud of swelling andindignant grief. In such a presence, fellow-citizens, let us linger for a moment at the portals of the tomb, whose shadowy arches vibrate to the public heart, to Speak a few brief words of the man, of his life, and of his death.

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