Excerpt from The Contest for California in 1861: How Colonel E. D. Baker Saved the Pacific States to the Union A Professor in one of our leading universities, said a New York paper I received one day at my hotel in London, - I quote from memory, certain that I do not quote literally, - visiting Washington, in one of the interesting rooms of the Capitol came upon a marble statue inscribed "Baker." Whereupon - so the story ran - this learned professor - young, I dare say, probably familiar with the names of the heroes of the Peloponnesian War - asked, "Who was Baker? What did he do to get in here?" These questions prompted me to write this book. But, years before our learned professor asked his questions I had reflected that those of us who knew General Baker, who came under the spell of his incomparable charm, and who retain recollections of his power and influence and achievements, are becoming few; and if one of us is to enlighten the professor - and others no better informed - it must be done soon. I wish some one better qualified than I had undertaken the task. To write the history of an important episode is - being a plain business man I will venture to use a business man's expression and say, "out of my line." However, I feel that what I have done, though poorly, would better be done poorly than not at all. 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.