The Contest for California in 1861

So close was Edward Dickinson Baker to Abraham Lincoln that Lincoln named one of his sons Edward Baker Lincoln. They met in the early days in Illinois and would remain friends until Baker's death in the American Civil War. Known as a great orator, Baker, like Lincoln, kept notes and ideas on scratch paper in his hat.

Most Americans think of the Confederacy as the deep south states and don't realize how precipitously the Pacific states were sliding towards joining the rebellion. Politicians w...