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his mother was the daughter of Roger Sherman, a signer of the dechiration of independence, both families being from the eai'liest times identified with the cause of civil and religious liberty. Roger Sherman Baldwin entered Yale at the age of four- teen, and was graduated with high honors in 1811. Beginning his legal studies in his father's office, he finished them in the then famous law school of Judges Reeve and Gould, at Litchfield, Conn. By the time that he was ready for ad- mission to the bar, in 1814, he had developed a mastery of the principles of law that was consid- ered very remark- able in so young a man. His hab- its of concentra- tion, his com- mand of pure and elegant Eng- lish, the precis- ion and definite- ness of his meth- ods, soon brought him into promi- nence in his pro- fession, and at

a comparatively

early age he attained distinction at the bar. His preference was for cases involving the great principles of jurisprudence rather than those that depended upon appeals to the feelings of jurymen. Nevertheless, he commanded rare success as a jury lawyer, being gifted with a certain dignified and lofty eloquence that carried conviction and sustained tlie current belief that he would not undertake the defence of a cause of whose justice he was not personally convinced. One of the most famous cases in which he was engaged was that of the " Amistad captives " (1839), now well-nigh forgotten, but which assumed interna- tional importance at the time. A shipload of slaves, bound to Cuba, had gained possession of the vessel. They were encountered adrift on the high seas by an American vessel and brought into New York, where they were cared for. The Span- ish authorities claimed them as the property of Spanish subjects, and the anti-slavery party at the north, then becoming a formidable element in na- tional politics, interested itself in their behalf. The case was first tried in a Connecticut district court, decided against the Spanish claim, and car- ried to the supreme court of the United States. The venerable John Quincy Adams and Mr. Bald- win were associated as counsel, the latter practi- cally conducting the case. His plea on this occa- sion showed such a grasp of the legal technicalities involved, that such men as Chancellor Kent rated him with the leading jurists of the time. After serving his own state in assembly and senate (1837- '41), he was elected governor in 1844, and reelected for the following term. In 1847 he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Jabez W. Huntington as U. S. senator. He at once took a leading place among the statesmen of the period, was reelected for a second term, and always advocated the cause of equal rights for all during the heated controver- sies preceding the outbreak of the civil war. In 1860 he was one of the two electors " at large " for the choice of Mr. Lincoln, and in 1860 was ap- pointed by Gov. Buckingham a member of the " peace congress " of 1861, consisting of five dele- gates f]'om each state, who, it was hoped, would devise a basis of amicable settlement of the differ- ences between north and south. In his opening address, John Tyler, of Virginia, president of the congress, said : " Connecticut is here, and she comes, I doubt not, in the spirit of Roger Sher- man, whose name, with our very childi-en, has be- come a household word, and who was in life the embodiment of that sound, practical sense which befits the great law-giver and constructor of govern- meiits." The labors of the congress came to naught, owing mainly to the precipitancy with which some of the southern states passed ordinances of seces- sion. This was the last public service undertaken by Mr. Baldwin other than the personal assistance which every patriotic citizen lent to his country during the early years of civil war.

BALDWIN, Theron, clergyman, b. in Goshen, Conn., 21 July, 1801 ; d. in Orange, N. J., 10 April, 1870. After graduation at Yale in 1827, he studied for two years in the theological school of that college, and was ordained as a home missionary in 1829. He was settled for two years at Vandalia, Ill., as a Congregational minister, and became prominent in furthering the cause of education. Largely through his efforts the charter of Illinois college was procured. In 1831 he was appointed agent of the home missionary society for Illinois. He organized in 1838, and for five years conducted, the female seminary near Alton, Ill., at the same time serving as pastor of the Congregational church. The formation of the "society for the promotion of collegiate and theological education in the west," popularly known as the " western college society," was the result of his labors, and he became its corresponding secretary, performing the duties of the office until shortly before his death. To him chiefly are due the higher educational facilities attainable in every part of the west.

BALDWIN, Thomas, clergyman, b. in Bozrah, Conn., 23 Dec. 1753; d. in Waterville, Me., 29 Aug., 1825. He removed to Canaan, N. H., which town he represented in the legislature, united with the Baptist church in 1780. was ordained as an evangelist in June, 1783, and was a travelling minister among the scattered settlements of New Hampshire until November, 1790, when he was in- stalled pastor of the second Baptist church in Bos- ton. In 1803 he began the publication of the " Mas- sachusetts Baptist Slissionary Magazine," afterward the "American Baptist Missionary Magazine," which he edited until his death. He published " Open Communion Examined " (1789), and other writings on the subject of communion and bap- tism, the chief of which was a " Series of Friendly Letters in which the Distinguishing Sentiments of the Baptists are Explained and Vindicated " (Bos- ton, 1810), besides numerous sermons.

BALESTIER, Wolcott, author, b. in Rochester, N. Y., 13 Dec, 1861 ; d. in Dresden, Germany, 6 Dec, 1891. His school life was passed in various parts of the country, with one year at Cornell, and his first production was entitled " A Patent Phil- ter." published serially in the New York " Tribune " in 1884. "A Fair Device " and a " Life of James G. Blaine" (New York, 1884), "A Victorious De- feat " (1886), " A Common Story " (1891), with Rud- yard Kipling, " The Naulahka " (1892), and " Bene- fits Forgot " (1894).

BALFOUR, Nisbet, soldier, b. in Dunbog, county Fife, Scotland, in 1743; d. there in October, 1823. As one of Cornwallis's most trusted officers, he won high distinction in the British service during the revolution. He was the third son