very few were the members who made more well considered and able speeches than he. The country at that period had begun to be agitated by a series of measures, designed for the extension and strengthening of slavery. It commenced with the annexation of Texas, was continued in the Mexican war, and the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and has ended in the present rebellion. The annexation of Texas was proposed and effected while Mr. Baldwin was Governor of Connecticut. Those who were opposed to that measure will agree that it will be difficult to find anywhere better condensed arguments against it than were given in his two gubernatorial Addresses. When he entered the Senate, in 1847, the Mexican war, growing out of the annexation of Texas, was in progress. He was intensely opposed to that war, because it was, in his judgment, a war of unjust aggression by a powerful nation on a weak neighbor, and was waged for the purpose of extending slavery, by a nation. which had published to the world its solemn declaration that liberty is the inalienable right of all men. He opposed that war, and the increase of territory by means of it, with all his power. And all measures for the extension of human bondage met in that body no opponent more vigilant, more firm, more persistent than he. When it was apparent that new territory would probably be added by conquest from Mexico, he introduced and advocated resolutions to exclude slavery from all territory thereafter added to our country, and to protect by treaty the Mexican people in the conquered or ceded territory from the restoration of the slavery which they had once banished.* It is worthy of remark, in this connection, that in his

*The resolutions are as follows:

po

Resolved, That if any territory shall be hereafter acquired by the United States, or annexed thereto, the act by which such territory is acquired or annexed, whatever such act may be, should contain an unalterable fundamental article or provision, whereby slavery or involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, shall be forever excluded from the territory acquired or annexed.

“Resolved, That in any cession of territory that may be acquired as the result of the war with Mexico, the desire of that Republic, expressed by her commissioners in their negotiations with Mr. Trist, to provide for the protection of the inhabitants of the ceded territory against the introduction of the system of human slavery therein, by a stipulation to that effect in any treaty that may be made,

sition at that time he had the support of the whole people of Connecticut, of all parties, and indeed of all the Free States except Illinois. And the Legislature of Connecticut sent to him, to be presented to the Senate, resolutions to that effect, passed by a strong vote, all parties concurring.*

Governor Baldwin's speeches in the Senate were on quite a variety of topics, but the most elaborate and extended were upon the great question of the time in various forms. Chief among these are his speeches on the Mexican war and slavery extension as connected with it, on the admission of California to the Union, on the Compromise bill of 1850, especially that part of it which contained a new Fugitive Slave Law, and on the insertion of an anti-slavery clause in the bill for the admission of Oregon. His most spirited speech, probably, in that body, was an impromptu one made in answer to Mr. Mason of Virginia, who had disparaged Connecticut, in comparison with Virginia, because, in ceding her western territory to the United States after the war of the revolution, she had retained three

cannot, consistently with the rights of those inhabitants, or with the principles of justice and liberty, which have been proclaimed to the world as the basis of our institutions, be disregarded or denied."

* The Legislatures of all the Free States except Illinois, passed resolutions approving the Wilmot proviso, excluding slavery from all territories of the United States. And as late as 1850, the Legislature of Connecticut, in which there was a Democratic majority, passed and sent to Congress the following rosolutions: "1. Resolved, That Congress has full constitutional power to prohibit slavery in the Territories of the United States by legislative enactments, and that it is the duty of Congress to pass, without unnecessary delay, such strict and positive laws as will effectually shut out slavery from every portion of these territories. "2. Resolved, That Congress has likewise full constitutional power to remove slavery and the slave-trade from the District of Columbia, and that this power should be at once exercised for the immediate prohibition of the slavery upon such terms of compensation to the slaveholders as may be just and reasonable.

"3. Resolved, That, in the name of the people of Connecticut, we do hereby solemnly reaffirm our unalterable attachment to the Federal Union, and our inflexible determination to adhere to our National Constitution, and abide by all its compromises to the letter, and in the spirit of the same, while with equally unalterable and inflexible purpose, deterred by no threat of disunion, we shall forever oppose any and every measure of compromise by which any portion of the territory now belonging to, or which may hereafter be acquired by the United States, shall be given up to or left unprotected against the encroachments of Slavery."

and a half millions of acres for private purposes. Governor Baldwin, with ready command of history, immediately evinced, in a most eloquent manner, that, while Virginia had reserved fourteen millions to bestow in bounties on her officers and soldiers, Connecticut had reserved but three and a half millions, and that for a school fund, her patriotic soldiers having volunteered without promise of bounty; and this, when Virginia, with three times the population, sent only two-thirds as many men as Connecticut to the war which gave us authority over that western domain.*

There was no part of Governor Baldwin's public life, in which he gave more anxious, arduous, and exhausting labor to his country than during the brief period when he was a member of the Peace Congress; nor any, in the opinion of those who agree with him on matters of public policy, when he was more useful to his country. It was a time of great excitement and peril. The air seemed full of the elements of revolution and anarchy. Plots were formed and arrangements made, as he believed, to prevent the counting of the votes for President, and, if that failed, to prevent the inauguration of the President by assassination or force. Great pressure was brought to bear on the members of the Peace Congress to make concessions which, as he thought, involved the triumph of slavery over freedom, and were utterly hostile to the spirit and design of the Constitution and the Union. Against all such concessions, among the firmest and strongest, none was firmer and stronger than he. Those who demanded these concessions found that, however it might be with others, no persuasions, no intimidations, no combinations, no influences of any kind, could move him. At length, a committee was appointed of one from each State represented, to draw up a final result. He was the member of that committee from Connecticut. The majority of the committee were in favor of proposing amendments to the Constitution, making large concessions to slavery. The minority took the ground, that, for a body called and composed as that

*This speech has become a Connecticut classic. It is in part incorporated in Hollister's History of Connecticut, and also in Rev. Dr. Bushnell's "Tribute to Connecticut."

was, to initiate amendments to the Constitution in the manner proposed, would be unconstitutional and really revolutionary; and they favored the calling of a constitutional convention, in the way provided by the Constitution for its own amendment. The report of the minority, with the accompanying resolution, he prepared with great labor and care, and supported them in a strong speech. And though they were not adopted by the Convention, they neutralized and virtually defeated the opposite plan, and so stayed the tide; which was what was hoped and designed.*

Governor Baldwin's moral courage in obedience to convic

"The undersigned, comprising a part of the minority of the Committee of one from each State, to whom was referred the consideration of the resolutions of the State of Virginia and the other States represented, and all propositions for the adjustment of existing differences between the States, with authority to report what they deem right, necessary, and proper to restore harmony, and preserve the Union, entered upon the duties of the Committee with an anxious desire that they might be able to unite in the recommendation of some plan, which, on due deliberation, should seem best adapted to maintain the dignity and authority of the Government of the United States, and at the same time secure to the people of every section that perfect equality of right to which they are entitled.

'Convened, as we are, on the invitation of the Governor of Virginia, in pursuance of the resolutions of the General Assembly of that State, with an accompanying expression of the deliberate opinion of that body, that unless the unhappy controversy which now divides the States shall be satisfactorily adjusted, a permanent dissolution of the Union is inevitable; and being earnestly desirous of an adjustment thereof, in concurrence with Virginia, in the spirit in which the Constitution was originally formed, and consistent with its principles, so as to afford to the people of all the States adequate security for all their rights, the attention of the undersigned was necessarily led to the consideration of the extent and equality of our powers, and to the propriety and expediency, under existing circumstances, of a recommendation by this Conference Convention of any specific action by Congress, whether of ordinary legislation or in reference to constitutional amendments to be proposed by Congress on its own responsibility to the States.

"A portion of the members of this Convention are delegated by the Legislatures of their respective States, and are required to act under their supervision and control; while others are the representatives only of the Executives of their States, and, having no opportunity of consulting the immediate representatives of the people, can only act on their individual responsibility.

"Among the resolutions and propositions suggesting modes of adjustment appropriate to this occasion, which were brought to the notice of the Committee,

tions of duty, and his superiority and resistance to all selfish and personal considerations in public matters, were strikingly illustrated in many passages of his life, some instances of which should be given in this biographical sketch.

About the year 1830, there was a plan projected by some persons in New Haven specially interested in the welfare of colored people, prominent among whom was Rev. S. S. Jocelyn,

were the resolutions of the State of Kentucky, recommending to her sister States to unite with her in an application to Congress for the calling of a Convention in the mode prescribed by the Constitution for proposing amendments thereto.

"The undersigned, for the reasons set forth in the accompanying resolution, and others which have been herein indicated, is of opinion that the mode of adjustment by a general Convention, as proposed by Kentucky, is the one which af fords the best assurance of an adjustment acceptable to the people of every section, as it will afford to all the States who may desire amendments an opportunity of preparing them with care and deliberation, and in such form as they may deem it expedient to prescribe, to be submitted to the consideration and deliberate action of delegates duly chosen and invested with equal powers from all the States.

"The undersigned did not, therefore, deem it expedient that any of the measures of adjustment proposed by the majority of the Committee should be reported to this body to be discussed or acted upon by them; and he respectfully submits, as a substitute for the articles of amendment to the Constitution, reported by the majority of the Committee, the following preamble and resolution, and recommends the adoption thereof.

"ROGER S. BALDWIN."

"WHEREAS, unhappy differences exist, which have alienated from each other portions of the people of the United States, to such an extent as seriously to disturb the peace of the nation, and impair the regular and efficient action of the Government within the sphere of its constitutional powers and duties; and whereas the Legislature of the State of Kentucky has made application to Congress to call a Convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States; and whereas it is believed to be the opinion of the people of other States that amendments to the Constitution are, or may become, necessary to secure to the people of the United States, of every section, the full and equal enjoyment of their rights and liberties, so far as the same may depend for their security and protection on the powers granted to, or withheld from, the General Government, in pursuance of the national purposes for which it was ordained and established:

"This Convention does therefore recommend to the several States to unite with Kentucky in her application to Congress to call a Convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States, to be submitted to the Legisla tures of the several States, or to conventions therein, for ratification, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress, in accordance with the provision in the fifth article of the Constitution."