plunged into the life of a community where nothing was as yet fixed,
where everything was in the making, where the most serious questions of
duty and destiny were stirring the hearts and consciences of men, - is
made clear to us by the testimony of contemporaries whose sole desire
must have been to render honor where honor was due.

The latest and most complete history of California based upon the most
trustworthy evidence extant gives cautious tribute to the Starr King of
this period as follows:

"The Republicans had lost their most effective orator since the campaign
of the preceding year, Colonel Baker, but his loss was in some degree
compensated for by the appearence of an unheralded but equally eloquent
speaker, Thomas Starr King, who arrived in April, 1860, and later toured
the state, giving lectures on patriotic subjects but always declared for
the Union and the Republican candidates as the surest guaranty of its
preservation.

Tuthill, in his history of the time writes with more warmth, and
probably more truth:

"There was a charm in King's delivery that few could resist. He was
received with applause where Republican orators, saying things no more
radical, could not be heard without hisses. Delicately feeling his way,
and never arousing the prejudices of his hearers, he adroitly educated
his audiences to a lofty style of patriotism. The effect was obvious in
San Francisco where audiences were accustomed to every style of address;
it was far more noticeable in the interior.

The celebrated critic and writer, Edwin Percey Whipple, made a careful