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]
^"Election of Major General". Richmond Enquirer. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. March 17, 1836. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2017. Appointment of Briscoe G. Baldwin as Major General in the Virginia Militia.
^"The Staunton Convention". Richmond Enquirer. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 4, 1839. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2017. General Briscoe G. Baldwin of Staunton, Whig delegate from the State at large.
^"Law Notice, C. G. and J. G. Baldwin". Columbus Democrat (Columbus, MS). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. April 28, 1838. p. 4. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"The Steam Boat Czar". Southern Telegraph. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 10, 1838. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017. Letter signed by Oliver P. Baldwin, Cleveland, Ohio.
^"The Fourth of July". Richmond Enquirer. No. 2. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. July 3, 1846. Retrieved August 8, 2017. The Declaration of Independence will be read in the African Church, at ten o'clock, by Oliver P. Baldwin.
^"The Union Spirit in Virginia". Weekly National Intelligencer (Washington, DC). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 17, 1850. p. 8. Retrieved August 8, 2017. Oliver P. Baldwin, Esq., the talented editor of the Richmond Republican.
^"Election Returns, Fourth District". The Daily Crescent (New Orleans, LA). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 13, 1849. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"Alabama". The Examiner (Louisville, KY). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. August 25, 1849. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2017. S. W. Inge is elected over J. G. Baldwin in the Tuscaloosa district by about 400.
^"Answers to Queries, Law and N***". San Francisco Call. Vol. 111, no. 1. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 1 December 1911. p. 6. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"Commissioned". Los Angeles Star. No. 24. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 23 October 1858. p. 1. Retrieved August 8, 2017. The following officers have been commissioned: Joseph G. Baldwin, for the unexpired term of Hugh C. Murray, deceased.
^"Breckenridge Democratic State Convention, Speech of Judge Baldwin". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 21, no. 3223. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 27 July 1861. p. 1. Retrieved August 8, 2017. 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.
^"Taking the Oath of Allegiance". Daily Alta California. Vol. 16, no. 5171. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 29 April 1864. p. 1. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"Joseph G. Baldwin". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 28, no. 4223. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 3 October 1864. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"Death of Judge J. G. Baldwin". Daily Alta California. Vol. 16, no. 5325. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 1 October 1864. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"Death of A. W. Baldwin". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 38, no. 5814. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 15 November 1869. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"The Indictments for Treason". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 25, no. 3889. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 8 September 1863. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^"Died". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 27, no. 4183. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 17 August 1864. p. 2. Retrieved August 8, 2017.