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Abraham Baldwin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abraham Baldwin (November 23, 1754—March 4, 1807) was an American politician, Patriot, and Founding Father from the U.S. state of Georgia. Baldwin was a Georgia representative in the Continental Congress and served in the United States House of Representatives and Senate after the adoption of the Constitution.
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Abraham was born at Guilford, Connecticut. He was the second son of a blacksmith who fathered 12 children by two wives. Besides Abraham, several of the family attained distinction in life. His sister Ruth Baldwin married the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow, and his half-brother Henry became an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Their ambitious father went heavily into debt to educate his children.
After attending a local village school, Abraham graduated from Yale University in nearby New Haven in 1772. Three years later, he became a minister and tutor at the college. He held that position until 1779, when he served as a chaplain in the Continental Army. Two years later, he declined an offer from Yale for a divinity professorship. Instead of resuming his ministerial or educational duties after the war, he turned to the study of law and in 1783 was admitted to the bar at Fairfield.
After Baldwin turned down a prestigious teaching position as professor of divinity at Yale, Georgia governor Lyman Hall persuaded him to accept the responsibility of creating an educational plan for both secondary and higher education in the state. Baldwin strongly believed that education was the key to developing frontier states like Georgia. Once elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in the state legislature, he developed a comprehensive educational plan that ultimately included land grants from the state to fund the establishment of the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. Through Baldwin's efforts, UGA became the first state-chartered school in the nation when UGA was incorporated on January 27, 1785. Baldwin served as the first president of the institution during its initial planning phase, from 1785 to 1801. In 1801, Franklin college, UGA's initial college, opened to students with Josiah Meigs succeeding Baldwin as president to oversee the inaugural class of students. The school was architecturally modeled on Baldwin's alma mater, Yale.
Within a year, Baldwin moved Georgia, won legislative approval to practice law, and obtained a land grant in Wilkes County. In 1785 he sat in the assembly and the Continental Congress. Two years later, his father died and Baldwin undertook to pay off his debts, out of his own pocket, and educated his half-brothers and half-sisters.
That same year, Baldwin attended the Constitutional Convention, from which he was absent for a few weeks. Although usually inconspicuous, he sat on the Committee on Postponed Matters and helped resolve the large-small state representation crisis. At first, he favored representation in the Senate based upon property holdings, but possibly because of his close relationship with the Connecticut delegation he later came to fear alienation of the small states and changed his mind to representation by state. Abraham Baldwin was pro-slavery.
According to some notes of Abraham Baldwin that were made public in 1987, George Washington told Baldwin privately that he did not expect the U.S. Constitution to last more than 20 years.
After the convention (1787 - 1789), Baldwin was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served for 18 years (House of Representatives, 1789 - 1799; Senate, 1799 - 1807). During these years, he became a bitter opponent of Hamiltonian policies and, unlike most other native New Englanders, an ally of Madison and Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. In the Senate, he presided .for a year as President Pro Tempore.
Baldwin died after a short illness during his 53rd year in 1807. Still serving in the Senate at the time, he was buried in Washington's Rock Creek Cemetery. Baldwin County, Alabama, Baldwin County, Georgia and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in southern Georgia are all namesakes.
- "Abraham Baldwin." U.S. Army Center of Military History. [1]
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- William DeGregorio, The Complete Book of US Presidents, 2001, page 7.
| Preceded by None |
At-large U.S. Representative from Georgia March 4, 1789 - March 3, 1799 |
Succeeded by James Jones |
| Preceded by Josiah Tattnall |
United States Senator (Class 2) from Georgia 1799–1807 Served alongside: James Gunn, James Jackson, John Mitchell |
Succeeded by George Jones |
| Preceded by James Hillhouse |
President pro tempore of the United States Senate December 7, 1801–December 13, 1802 |
Succeeded by Stephen R. Bradley |
| Preceded by none |
President of the University of Georgia 1785 - 1801 |
Succeeded by Josiah Meigs |
Categories: Continental Congressmen | Continental Army officers | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia | 1754 births | 1807 deaths | Signers of the United States Constitution | United States Senators from Georgia | Members of the Georgia House of Representatives | University of Georgia presidents | Yale University alumni | Baldwin County, Georgia | Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers | Defenders of slavery