C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874., Section Eighth: the war of the Rebellion., page 369

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[369] was conveyed to Washington, and carried through the same hospitable doorway of his friend Colonel Webb, from whose steps we had parted with him as he mounted his horse and gave us his warm, earnest hand only two mornings before! Oh, how radiant was his face! how athletic and symmetrical his form! how unsullied his ambition! how pure his devotion to God and country!

‘God spare his life, at least!’ we said, as we saw him disappear around the corner! This prayer Heaven could not grant.

The following day, when the last preparations for the tomb had been made, we went to gaze once more, and for the last time, on what of earth remained in the form which so lately enshrined the noble spirit.

Then mournfully the parting bugle bade
Its farewell o'er the grave.

California claimed her hero and statesman, and his ashes now repose on the calm shore of that ocean which washes the western base of the empire for whose glory he lived and died. His body lies in Lone Mountain Cemetery, near the city of San Francisco, and over it should have risen one of the most superb monuments which the genius of Art has erected to human greatness.¹

In the closing paragraph of the last speech of Colonel

1 On the 27th of March (1874), I wrote to Hon. A. A. Sargent, Senator from California, to learn the present condition of Col. Baker's grave; and in reply, I received the following interesting information from Mr. Robert J. Stevens, son-in-law of Col. Baker:

Washington, D. C., March 31st, 1874.

my Dear Sir,—I hasten to reply to your note of this morning, enclosing letter of Mr. C. Edwards Lester, inquiring about Baker monument. The plans for such monument, very magnificent, and studiously elaborated—the work of Horatio Stone—were sent by Rev. H. W. Bellows to Thos. Starr King at San Francisco (1862), and doubtless would have been in marble ere this, had it not been for his untimely death. They are now deposited with the Society of California Pioneers, in their new building, subject to my order.

The grave of Baker (at Lone Mountain) is principally marked by the towering monument of Broderick a few yards distant. It is in the midst of a considerable enclosure, walled with concrete handsomely coped with fine stone; it has above it a slab or tablet on columns of marble; this was done by myself, from the proceeds of his small estate. Capt. E. D. Baker—the younger son—is now engaged in carrying out the original idea of perfecting the enclosure by surmounting the low wall with a bronze railing of a military pattern, and it is his care that maintains the flower garden inside the wall.

Very truly your obedient servant,

Robt. J. Stevens. Hon. A. A. Sargent, U. S. Senate.

United States Publishing Company, 1874.

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C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874.

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