Henry Baldwin

BALDWIN, HENRY

Henry Baldwin was a prominent Pennsylvania
attorney and politician who later became an
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,
where he served for fourteen years.
Descended from an aristocratic British fam-
ily dating back to the seventeenth century, Bald-
win was born January 14, 1780, in New Haven,
Connecticut. He grew up on a farm near New
Haven and later moved to the city to attend Yale
College. After graduating with honors in 1797,
he studied law in Philadelphia with ALEXANDER
J. DALLAS, a noted attorney. Admitted to the bar
a short time later, Baldwin originally planned to
establish a practice in Ohio, but instead settled
in Pittsburgh. He then established a successful
law firm with two other young attorneys. By his
mid-twenties, Baldwin had established a reputa-
tion as a legal scholar, in part because of his
thorough and well-researched law briefs.He had
also developed an extensive personal law library,
which contained a large collection of valuable
English case reports and was among the finest
and largest in the Northeast. Furthermore, Bald-
win and his law partners were known for their
political and civic leadership. The three pub-
lished a newspaper, the Tree of Liberty, which
supported the DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY
of western Pennsylvania. In addition to his polit-
ical activities and his law practice, Baldwin
found time for business, acting as part-owner of
several mills in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
After the death of his first wife, Baldwin
married Sally Ellicott, and they established a res-
idence in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. In
1816, Baldwin was elected representative to the
U.S. Congress for that area. As a congressman,
Baldwin was active in trade issues and was a
strong advocate of tariff protection. He was also
involved in mediating boundary disputes
between northern and southern states and their
representatives. He was twice reelected to the
House. In 1822, he was forced to resign his seat
because of illness. He returned home to Penn-
sylvania, where he once again practiced law and
was active in local political affairs.
Baldwin soon became an avid supporter of
ANDREW JACKSON and was a trusted adviser to
Jackson concerning Pennsylvania politics. After
Jackson was elected president in 1828, Baldwin
hoped to become secretary of the treasury, but the appointment instead went to Samuel D. Ingham. The following year, after the death of
Justice BUSHROD WASHINGTON, Jackson nominated
Baldwin to the U.S. Supreme Court,
against the wishes of his vice president, JOHN C.
CALHOUN, who preferred another candidate.
Though Baldwin’s protectionist views created
some controversy, he was confirmed by the Senate
with only two dissenting votes from southern
senators who opposed his policies on tariffs.
On the bench, Baldwin was at first a strong
supporter of the liberal views of Chief Justice
JOHN MARSHALL but gradually moved toward a
more moderate interpretation of the Constitution,
favoring neither state sovereignty nor federal
supremacy. In 1837, he published a
pamphlet, A General View of the Origin and
Nature of the Constitution and Government of the
United States, in which he set forth what he
termed his “peculiar views of the Constitution.”
In this work, he emphasized his position as a
moderate on the Court, stating that he tended to
take the Constitution “as it is, and to expound it
by the accepted rules of interpretation.” Baldwin
also believed that the Court must be politically
sensitive when determining which powers
belonged to the federal government and which
remained with the states.
One of Baldwin’s most influential majority
opinions was United States v. Arredondo, 31 U.S.
691, 6 Pet. 691, 8 L. Ed. 547 (1832), in which the
Court held that public policy prevented the government
from violating federal land treaties.
With respect to the issue of SLAVERY, however,
Baldwin’s views were considered to be much
more radical than those held by other members
of the Court. In Groves v. Slaughter, 40 U.S. 449,
15 Pet. 449, 10 L. Ed. 800 (1841), the Court considered
the constitutionality of a Mississippi
provision that prevented the importation of
slaves into the state. The Court ultimately struck
down the statute on technical reasons, but Baldwin,
in a separate opinion, argued that slaves
were property as well as persons and viewed the
prohibition as an obstruction of interstate commerce.
He was the sole dissenter in United States
v. The Schooner Armistead, 40 U.S. 518, 15 Pet.
518, 10 L. Ed. 826 (1841), in which the Court
held that slaves who had mutinied and taken
over the slave ship transporting them from
Africa should be set free. Though he did not
write an opinion, Baldwin had earlier maintained
that the slaves should be returned to the
custody of the slave traders.
As was the practice in the Court at the time,
Baldwin traveled the circuit he represented,
which included Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to
hear cases. He heard important cases involving
the construction of a will that made a bequest
for charitable purposes and also presided over
the trial of John F. Braddel, who in 1840 was
accused of robbing the mails.
In his later years, Baldwin was plagued by
financial and personal difficulties.He never fully
recovered from losing a great deal of money
during the depression of 1820. He also suffered
from the failure of several speculative businesses,
and he had to support some of his adult
children when they got into financial trouble.
He was eventually forced to sell his renowned
personal law library to the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
to raise money. He also published and
sold volumes of the opinions he decided while
traveling the circuit.
At the same time, Baldwin’s behavior
became erratic and he was widely reported to be
suffering from mental illness. While on the
bench, he was often restless, inattentive, and
abusive to litigants and his fellow justices.While on the circuit, he also exhibited bizarre behavior
at times, often having coffee and cakes brought
to him while he heard cases. Chief Justice ROGER
B. TANEY was reported to be so concerned about
Baldwin’s unpredictable behavior that he
advised President Jackson not to take action
against the BANK OF THE UNITED STATES
because Baldwin, as presiding judge over the
case in Philadelphia, would be unreliable.
Baldwin’s tenure on the Court ended on
April 21, 1844, when he died of paralysis at the
age of sixty-four. He was deeply in debt at the
time of his death, and friends and family took
up a collection to pay for his funeral expenses.
FURTHER READINGS
Congressional Quarterly. 1989. Guide to the U.S. Supreme
Court. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.
Elliott, Stephen P., ed. 1986. A Reference Guide to the United
States Supreme Court. New York: Facts on File.
Swisher, Carl B. 1974. The Taney Period, 1836–1864. Vol. 5 of
History of the Supreme Court of the United States. New
York: Macmillan.