John Hay, Lincoln's private secretary and principal biographer, said of him:
Baker was little known in the East when he came as a Senator from Oregon, but from the moment he began to appear in public, his fluent and impassioned oratory, his graceful and delightful bearing, a certain youthful energy and fire which contrasted pleasantly with his silver gray hair, made him extremely popular with all classes.
He was one of Lincoln's dearest friends.
He was especially liked in the Senate.
He was one of the most desirable and effective speakers at mass meetings.
A cry of passionate anger went up from every part of the country over the precious blood wasted.
Of his speech in the Senate in reply to Breckenridge, James G. Blaine said, "In the history of the Senate no more thrilling speech was ever delivered." Charles Sumner said of the same speech, "That speech at once passed into the permanent literature of the country, while it gave to its author an assured position in that body."
While Baker was in the lower house as a member from Illinois, the question of national importance claiming attention was the boundary of what was then called the Oregon Country. In reply to the charge that the controversy was caused by the rest less spirit of the western men pressing into the new country, he said
Sir: It is to the spirit which prompts these settlers that we indebted for the settlement of the western states.
The men who are going to beat down roads and level mountains—to brave and overcome the terrors of the wilderness, they are our brethren and our kinsmen. It is a bold and free spirit; it has in it the elements of grandeur. But they will go with free steps; they will bear with them all the arts of civilization, and they will found a Western Empire.
Today you and I as citizens of Oregon are witnesses to the truth of this prophecy.
