Yet for all his philosophy, Albert himself was driven by a passionate energy, as were most of the Bakers, and this lends some poignancy to a letter he wrote early in 1840 to Mary and Martha. In it he told them that he was to give an address before the Bay State Association in Boston—“I shall give them Radicalism in all its horrors. No doubt I shall be abused for it, but no matter”—and that he was to go to Baltimore the first of May as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention; but of chief interest is one passage:
If you knew how much satisfaction I take in reading your letters, you would write oftener—though I never wrote. If there is a brother in this world, who is happy in the love of his sisters, it is I. Indeed, it is to me the oasis in the desert of life—the only spot upon which I rest with entire safety. I know there is honesty & sincerity in a sister’s love. But my joy was saddened, upon reading in your postscript, that Mary’s health is again in danger.106
The day before Christmas in that same year he wrote Mary a letter which showed that he was being fairly consumed by his own energies:
I think I have never answered your good and kind letter written while at Concord, in which were those lines acknowledging far more than I ever deserved. But it speaks the goodness of your heart, and was worth more to me than money. . . . I think they excel any thing I have seen of yours. . . . I set out for Boston this morning. I am almost worn out. I have scarcely slept two hours for the last two days.107
Before ten months were over he had died.108 All over the state, as might be expected, eulogies appeared. The one in the Patriot, having ● ● ●
106 Albert Baker to Mary Baker/Martha Smith Baker, 29 January 1840, 1919.001.0033, LMC. The Boston Morning Post described the February 3 speech before the Bay State Association as “one of the most sound and eloquent political discourses—distinguished alike for the elegance of its style and its logical correctness.” [“The Lecture before the Bay State Association,” Boston Morning Post, 5 February 1840, p. 2.] Franklin Pierce wrote Baker congratulating him on the praise his speech had evoked.
107 [Albert Baker to Mary Baker, 24 December 1840, 1919.001.0034, LMC.]
108 He was sick for about three months with a kidney infection. Died October 17, 1841. [Publisher’s note: The first edition states that Milmine claimed Albert died of cancer, but this cannot be found in the published record.]