The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baldwin, Roger Sherman

BALDWIN, Roger Sherman, statesman, was born at New Haven, Conn., Jan. 4, 1793, son of Simeon Baldwin, who was a direct descendant from one of the original New Haven settlers, and married a daughter of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the declaration of independence. Roger was graduated at Yale college with high honors in 1811, and after studying law in his father's office he took a course in the then famous law school conducted by Judges Reeve and Gould at Litchfield, Conn. After his admission to the bar in 1814, he commenced practice in New Haven and soon attracted attention by his brilliant successes. His wide knowledge of law and his thorough command of all the minutiæ of his cases were considered remarkable for so young a man. He was associated with John Quincy Adams before the United States supreme court in 1839 in the defence of the slaves rescued from the ship Amistad by an American vessel, after the slaves had overpowered the Spanish crew and were drifting on the high seas, claimed by Spain, and his masterly conduct of the case, which Adams left almost entirely to him, won many encomiums of praise from bench and bar, including such authorities as Chancellor Kent. In 1837 and 1838 he sat in the upper house of the Connecticut state legislature. In 1840 and 1841 he was a representative in the general assembly; in 1844 and 1845 was governor of the state, and from 1847 to 1851 was a United States senator appointed by the governor on the death of Senator J. W. Huntington, Nov. 1, 1847, and elected on the assembling of the state legislature, to fill the unexpired term ending March 4, 1851. He was a presidential elector-at-large in 1860, and voted for Abraham Lincoln for president and was appointed a delegate to the peace congress of 1861 by Governor Buckingham. He received the degree of LL. D. from Trinity college in 1844, and from Yale in 1845. He died at New Haven, Feb. 19, 1863.