Excerpt from Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Edward D. Baker: United States Senator Form Oregon, and Formerly Representative in Congress From Illinois, Who Died in Battle Near Leesburg, Va;, October 21, A. D. 1861 From tims immemorial, it has been a custom with the noble fraternity of authors, whenever they offered a new book to the reading public, to preface it with such remarks, explanatory and apologetic, as might be deemed best to secure the favorable attention of that public. In accordance with this time-honored usage, the writer of the present sketch, before introducing his hero directly to the reader, begs leave to offer a word of explanation. The principal portion of the following memoir, with others of eminent Illinoisans, was prepared, by the writer, about the close of our late civil war, with the view to a joint publication; but that idea having been temporarily abandoned, he now offers this little work to the public in a separate form. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.