Russell County AlArchives Biographies.....Baker, A. C. 1847 - living in 1896 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2005, 9:46 pm Author: McFarland & Poole p. 452-453 CHIEF JUSTICE A. C. BAKER was born in Russell County, Alabama, about the year 1847, his father, Hon. Benjamin H. Baker, being one of the best known and most influential men in that State from 1847 to 1861. From 1847 to 1849 Benjamin H. Baker served as a member of the House of Representatives, and from 1851 to 1855 was a member of the State Senate. A lawyer of profound learning and marked ability he ranked among the best, and enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. The stormy times of 1861 coming on, and Mr. Baker being a decided Whig, he opposed the movement for secession, as he deemed it unwise. In the debates which took place in all the principal cities of Alabama just prior to the convention which passed the ordinance of secession, he was pitted against the eloquent and fiery champion of that measure, the Hon. William L. Yancy. Every old citizen of Alabama will remember these discussions. Despite the pronounced opposition of Mr. Baker to the proposed dissolution of the old Government, he was chosen as a member of the convention and upon the floor of that body renewed his opposition to the measure. He boldly proclaimed his convictions and declared that secession would be "the most stupendous act of folly the world ever saw." His speeches in that body now read as if he was endowed with the spirit of prophecy; but no human agency could turn that tide. The whole sentiment was for a dissolution of the Union. In that dread moment the only alternative left him and the comparatively small number entertaining similar views, was either to abandon the associations of a lifetime or to go down with them. He reluctantly voted for the ordinance, but in a speech delivered from the steps of the capitol building in Montgomery during the session declared: "I voted for the ordinance not because I favored secession per se, but when I saw from the conduct of ethers, that a dissolution of the old Government was inevitable, and that those who adhered to that view were greatly in the majority, I felt it to be my duty to rise above party considerations and to subvert my personal views to the will of the masses and so accept, as a last resort, the mode of redress presented by others. I have the consciousness that no act or speech of mine in the past has tended to bring about a resort to secession, but my people having firmly decided upon that course, their fate is my fate and their God is my God." He subsequently entered the Confederate service as lieutenant colonel of the Sixth Alabama Regiment, but being of a weakly and frail constitution, which unfitted him for the exposures and hardships of camp life, he soon sickened, and fell a victim to his devotion to the Southern cause. Chief Justice Baker also served in the war, enlisted as color-bearer in Waddell's Battalion of Artillery, Confederate Army, when yet scarcely sixteen years of age. After the war Judge A. C. Baker, then a very-young man, in fact a boy, believing that the prospects of future success in life were better in the North and Northwest, went to Missouri. Finally the golden shores of the Pacific coast allured him thither and he emigrated to Southern California where, for several years, he was engaged in the practice of law in San Diego and Los Angeles. In 1879 he came to Arizona and settled in Phoenix, then but a small frontier village. He rapidly forged ahead and soon became one of the best known lawyers in the Territory. Possessed of a ready and quick mind, he adapted himself to the conditions always found in a frontier country and became popular with the hardy frontiersmen. Being a staunch Democrat, he set about assisting to organize that party in the Territory, and was largely instrumental in causing the first Territorial Democratic Convention to be assembled in Phoenix in 1880, of which he was a member. In the fall of that year he was elected to the Eleventh Territorial Legislature from Maricopa County, and served as a member of the council in the session of 1880 and 1881, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. During the session of that Legislature he secured, among other important laws, the passage of the bill incorporating the present city of Phoenix. In 1882 he was elected to the office of district attorney for Maricopa County and discharged the duties of the office with great credit. His ability as a lawyer became well established during the term he filled this office. In the same year he was appointed assistant United States attorney for the Territory, continuing as such for two years; and from 1884 to 1888 he was city attorney for the City of Phoenix. He became a candidate for delegate to Congress before the Territorial Democratic Convention in 1886, but was defeated for the nomination by Hon. M. A. Smith. Judge Baker then devoted all of his energies to the practice of law, his chosen profession, and very soon built up one of the most extensive practices in the Territory, being employed in nearly every important trial in the Territory. It is well known that prior to the National Democratic Convention of 1892, held in Chicago, none of the Territories were allowed a greater representation than two members or seats. Arizona had been as it is now, striving for admission into the Union of States, and as it deemed that to gain an equal footing with the new states of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and the Dakotas in that convention would greatly aid Arizona's admission into the Union, Judge Baker was sent as one of six provisional delegates to the convention by the Democratic party and requested to press the claims of the Territory in that respect. He appeared before the Committee of Credentials, was accorded a respectful hearing and carried the point after a spirited debate in which the judge proved himself more than able to represent his constituents. In May, 1893, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory, by President Cleveland, which high office he now holds. In this position Judge Baker has won the highest praise. He took his seat upon the bench when the calendar of the court was crowded with cases of long standing. The delays of disposing of the business of the court, and the enormous expense accruing to litigants had grown to be intolerable. Judge Baker applied himself to remedying these evils and in an incredibly short space of time the docket of his court was cleared of all old cases and ever since the administration of justice in his jurisdiction has been speedy and comparatively inexpensive. The ability of Judge Baker as a lawyer is conceded by all. His opinions are short, concise and always to the exact point. His attachment to the right, as he apprehends it, is so true, and his consequent hatred of the wrong, so intense, that he is sometimes in danger of going too directly to his purpose and treating with too much contempt the mere forms of practice. He is leaving his impress upon the jurisprudence of the Territory in a clear, upright and forcible manner. Additional Comments: From: A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona Published by McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/russell/bios/gbs712baker.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 7.7 Kb