Joseph G. Baldwin Explained

Joseph Glover Baldwin
Office:Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
Term Start:October 2, 1858
Term End:January 2, 1862
Appointer:Direct election
Predecessor:Hugh Murray
Office1:State Representative in the Alabama House of Representatives
Term Start1:1843
Term End1:1849
Appointer1:Direct election
Birth Date:21 January 1815
Birth Place:Winchester, Virginia, U.S.
Death Place:San Francisco, California, U.S.
Children:Alexander W. Baldwin, son

Joseph Glover Baldwin (January 21, 1815 – September 29, 1864) was an American attorney and humor writer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from October 2, 1858, to January 2, 1864.

Biography

Born in Winchester, Virginia, Baldwin was educated in Stanton, Virginia.[1] He displayed precocious talents; while still a teenager he worked as a Deputy Court Clerk and a newspaper editor.[2] He read law in the office of his uncle, Judge Briscoe G. Baldwin, to become a lawyer and was admitted to the bar by age 19.[3] [4] [5] [6] In 1836, Joseph Baldwin moved to DeKalb County, Alabama, thereafter moving to Gainesville, Alabama in 1838.[1] There, he practiced law with his brother, Cornelius C. Baldwin, and with J. Bliss.[7] [8] [1] Another brother, Oliver P. Baldwin, was a lawyer, newspaper editor, and speaker in Cleveland and later Richmond, Virginia.[9] [10] [11] Gainesville was in Sumter County, which had a sizeable and growing population profiting from a booming economy and from enslaved labor farming the rich soil; the people Baldwin associated with were "men of the first rank in the legal profession, of high attainments in scholarship, of genuine literary taste and culture, and of fun-loving spirits and mirth-provoking propensities"—these were the "flush times" he would describe in his first book.[12]

In 1843, Baldwin was elected as a Whig to the Alabama House of Representatives.[13] In August 1849, he was defeated by Democrat Samuel Williams Inge in a bid for the United States Congress by only 400 votes.[14] [15] [16] In 1850, Baldwin moved to Livingston, Alabama, where he continued to practice and to write. He published a book of humorous stories, The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi: A Series of Sketches (1853), and a collection of sketches of US politicians, Party Leaders (1855).[12]

In 1853, Baldwin moved to Mobile,[12] and in 1854 to California, where he served as counsel on a number of important cases.[6] In 1858, following the death of Chief Justice Hugh Murray, Baldwin was nominated by the Democratic Party, as well as endorsed by the Lecompton Democrat convention, and elected by the people to serve out the remainder of Murray's term on the California Supreme Court from October 2, 1858, until January 2, 1862.[17] [18] [19] [20] Chief Justice Stephen Johnson Field praised Baldwin's opinion in Hart v. Burnett (1860),[21] concerning pueblo land grants, as a model of scholarly learning.[13] [22] In July 1861, he was put forward for nomination by the Breckenridge Democratic Party for another term on the court, but he declined the nomination.[23] Edward Norton was elected to fill Baldwin's seat.[24]

After stepping down from the bench, Baldwin resumed the practice of law in San Francisco. In April 1864, he signed the loyalty oath to the Union required of attorneys that fellow Southerners Solomon Heydenfeldt and James D. Thornton refused to sign.[25]

Baldwin died in San Francisco on September 29, 1864.[26] [27] [1]

Personal life

In 1839, he married Sidney Gaylard White and they had at least six children. Their son, Alexander W. Baldwin, became an attorney and was appointed as a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He died in November 1869 in a railway accident in Alameda County, California.[28] [29] In 1863, during the American Civil War, another son, Joseph G. Baldwin, Jr., was accused of plotting with a group of sympathizers with the Confederate States of America to capture military posts in California.[30] He died August 14, 1864, at 20 years of age, in Warm Springs, California.[31] Their daughter, Kate S. Baldwin, married John B. Felton, who was her father's law partner and later mayor of Oakland. She died December 13, 1888, in Oakland.[32] Of the three other children: two sons, Sidney died young and John died in 1868 at age 22; and a daughter, Cornelia Baldwin, resided with her mother.[33]

Selected publications

External links

See also

Notes and References

  1. Donna R. Causey, "Biography: Joseph Glover Baldwin born 1815", Alabama Pioneers (February 4, 2014).
  2. Book: Shuck. Oscar Tully. Representative and leading men of the Pacific . 1870 . Bacon and Company. 545.
  3. News: Election of Major General. August 8, 2017. Richmond Enquirer. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. March 17, 1836. 3. Appointment of Briscoe G. Baldwin as Major General in the Virginia Militia.
  4. News: The Staunton Convention. August 8, 2017. Richmond Enquirer. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 4, 1839. 3. General Briscoe G. Baldwin of Staunton, Whig delegate from the State at large.
  5. Mary Alice Kirkpatrick, "Joseph G. Baldwin (Joseph Glover), 1815-1864", Documenting the American South (2004).
  6. http://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CSCHS-Baldwin-Memorial.pdf Proceedings on the Death of the Hon. Joseph G. Baldwin
  7. News: Law Notice, C. G. and J. G. Baldwin. August 8, 2017. Columbus Democrat (Columbus, MS). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. April 28, 1838. 4.
  8. News: The State of Mississippi, Kemper County, Circuit Court Clerk's Office. August 8, 2017. Southern Argus. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. January 13, 1841. 3. Joseph G. Baldwin v. Wm. K. Allen.
  9. News: The Steam Boat Czar. August 8, 2017. Southern Telegraph. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 10, 1838. 2. Letter signed by Oliver P. Baldwin, Cleveland, Ohio.
  10. News: The Fourth of July. August 8, 2017. Richmond Enquirer. 2. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. July 3, 1846. The Declaration of Independence will be read in the African Church, at ten o'clock, by Oliver P. Baldwin..
  11. News: The Union Spirit in Virginia. August 8, 2017. Weekly National Intelligencer (Washington, DC). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 17, 1850. 8. Oliver P. Baldwin, Esq., the talented editor of the Richmond Republican..
  12. Joseph G. Baldwin and the 'Flush Times' . George Frederick . Mellen . . 1901 . 9 . 2 . 171–184 .
  13. Book: Shuck. Oscar Tully. History of the Bench and Bar of California: Being Biographies of Many Remarkable Men, a Store of Humorous and Pathetic Recollections, Accounts of Important Legislation and Extraordinary Cases, Comprehending the Judicial History of the State. 1901. Commercial Printing House. Los Angeles, CA. 445–446. July 31, 2017. Entry for Joseph G. Baldwin.
  14. News: August Elections, Congressional, Alabama Election, 6th August. August 8, 2017. The North-Carolina Standard. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 1, 1849. 3.
  15. News: Election Returns, Fourth District. August 8, 2017. The Daily Crescent (New Orleans, LA). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 13, 1849. 2.
  16. News: Alabama. August 8, 2017. The Examiner (Louisville, KY). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 25, 1849. 3. S. W. Inge is elected over J. G. Baldwin in the Tuscaloosa district by about 400..
  17. News: Democratic Nominations, For the Supreme Court, Joseph G. Baldwin. August 8, 2017. Los Angeles Star. 16. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 28 August 1858. 2.
  18. News: Lecompton Democratic Convention in Butte. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 5 October 1858. 1.
  19. News: Answers to Queries, Law and N***. August 8, 2017. San Francisco Call. 1. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 1 December 1911. 111. 6.
  20. News: Commissioned. August 8, 2017. Los Angeles Star. 24. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 23 October 1858. 1. The following officers have been commissioned: Joseph G. Baldwin, for the unexpired term of Hugh C. Murray, deceased..
  21. Hart v. Burnett (1860), 15 Cal. 530.
  22. Book: Donald Louis Stelluto, Jr.. The Fate of Pueblo Rights in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco: Hart v. Burnett and the Development of California's Public Trust Doctrine. Bakken. Gordon Morris. Law in the Western United States. 2000. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, OK. 0806132159. 317–325. August 9, 2017.
  23. News: Breckenridge Democratic State Convention, Speech of Judge Baldwin. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. 3223. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 27 July 1861. 21. 1. I regard Mr. Lincoln's policy as utterly suicidal and ruinous to the interests of the country, destroying all hope of the perpetuation of that Union of which I have been the ardent friend, and which I would desire now to preserve, as the dearest aspiration of my heart, if it could be made perpetual as our fathers framed it..
  24. Book: Johnson. J. Edward. History of the California Supreme Court: The Justices 1850-1900, vol 1. 1963. Bender Moss Co. San Francisco, CA. 73–80. August 14, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161227124913/http://library.courtinfo.ca.gov/included/docs/SCJC_Vol_1.pdf. December 27, 2016. dead.
  25. News: Taking the Oath of Allegiance. August 8, 2017. Daily Alta California. 5171. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 29 April 1864. 16. 1.
  26. News: Joseph G. Baldwin. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. 4223. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 3 October 1864. 28. 2.
  27. News: Death of Judge J. G. Baldwin. August 8, 2017. Daily Alta California. 5325. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 1 October 1864. 16. 2.
  28. News: Death of A. W. Baldwin. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. 5814. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 15 November 1869. 38. 2.
  29. News: A Tribute from the East, The Valley Virginian, published at Staunton, Virginia, makes the following reference to the death of A. W. Baldwin, in its issue of the 25th November. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 10 December 1869. 2.
  30. News: The Indictments for Treason. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. 3889. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 8 September 1863. 25. 2.
  31. News: Died. August 8, 2017. Sacramento Daily Union. 4183. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 17 August 1864. 27. 2.
  32. News: The Eastern Shore, News of Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland and Environs, Death of Mrs. John B. Felton. August 8, 2017. Daily Alta California. 14346. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 15 December 1888. 42. 8.
  33. News: Eastward Bound. August 8, 2017. Daily Alta California. 6808. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 November 1868. 20. 1.

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