Background
He was born on January 4, 1793 in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Simeon Baldwin and Rebecca Sherman, daughter of Roger Sherman.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
https://www.amazon.com/Mexico-Speech-Baldwin-Connecticut-Thursday/dp/B003S9WXR8?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003S9WXR8
(Excerpt from Argument of Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, ...)
Excerpt from Argument of Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, Before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Case of the United States, Appellants, Vs: Cinque, and Others, Africans of the Amistad I do not allude to these improprieties from any apprehension of their influence here, but because I feel it to be a duty thus publicly to repro bate a course of proceeding, the obvious tendency of which is to excite jealousy and distrust, and thereby to impair the just confidence with which an unprejudiced community have ever regarded the judgments of this high tribunal. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Argument-Baldwin-Before-Supreme-Appellants/dp/0364186305?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0364186305
He was born on January 4, 1793 in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Simeon Baldwin and Rebecca Sherman, daughter of Roger Sherman.
He prepared for college first with a teacher in New Canaan, and later at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, under his cousin, Henry Sherman. Even as a boy he was scholarly and had read Virgil to a considerable extent before he was ten. He entered Yale when fourteen years of age and was graduated in 1811. He studied law in New Haven for a time, probably in his father's office, and then entered the Litchfield Law School.
He was admitted to the bar of Connecticut in 1814 and began practise by himself in New Haven. Politically he rose step by step, being successively member of the common council of New Haven, alderman of New Haven, member of the Connecticut Senate, member of the Connecticut General Assembly, and in 1844 and 1845 governor of Connecticut. In 1847 he was appointed by Gov. Bissell to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the death of Jabez W. Huntington. The following year he was elected by the General Assembly of Connecticut to complete Senator Huntington's unexpired term, which ended in 1851. In 1860 he was one of the electors of the president for the state at large when Lincoln was elected.
In spite of holding high political office, Baldwin's greatest fame was as a lawyer. His name was in every volume of the Connecticut Reports for forty-seven years. He was active in the movement for the abolition of slavery, making speeches on the subject at various times. One of his first cases was a writ of habeas corpus for the release of a Negro seized as a fugitive slave, who had escaped from the service of Henry Clay. Perhaps his most noted case was that of the captives of the Amistad. Some Negroes captured in Africa were sold to Cubans who started to take them by vessel to Guanaja. They were badly treated and on the second night killed the captain and the cook and attempted to force the Cubans to take them back to Africa. The Cubans managed to bring the boat to the north shore of Long Island, where a government vessel took possession. The Negroes were arrested on a charge of murder and piracy. The government vessel libelled the Amistad, her cargo and slaves to recover salvage. The Cubans demanded the return of the slaves. A group of persons interested in abolition took up the defense of the slaves. The case went to the United States Supreme Court. Seth P. Staples, Theodore Sedgwick, and John Quincy Adams were associated with Roger Sherman Baldwin for the defense, which was successful. The decision gave the Africans absolute freedom.
When he was in the United States Senate he desired reelection. In the General Assembly was a bare Whig majority, but two or three declined to vote for him because they believed his opinions did not exactly accord with certain party principles as they understood them. A written statement from him would have removed the opposition, but this he refused to give, because he did not wish to be in the position of an office-seeker and believed that members of the Senate should not be bound by pledges of any sort. He was not reelected. He was eminent in the Senate at a time when Webster, Clay, Benton, Calhoun, and Seward were members. One of his best speeches was on the compromise measures of 1850, especially the Fugitive Slave Law. Another spirited speech was a reply to the Senator from Virginia who compared the Revolutionary history of Connecticut and Virginia in an offensive manner. His last public service was as a delegate from Connecticut to the National Peace Conference at Washington in 1861. He was the state's representative on the Resolutions Committee, which was the most important of the committees. In his later life he resumed practise and had important and lucrative cases. He was frequently in the Federal courts and was often asked for written opinions on difficult questions. He has been considered, by many, the ablest lawyer that Connecticut ever produced.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
(Excerpt from Argument of Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, ...)
Baldwin was a Whig and helped to organize the Republican party, to which he was loyal but only in so far as he believed in its principles.
Tall and erect, at sixty-nine he still walked with a firm step. Until the last few years of his life he always wore a fulldress suit of black with the occasional substitution of a blue coat with gilt buttons and buff waistcoat.
He was married in 1820 to Emily Perkins, by whom he had six sons and three daughters.