Peale.] 286 IDecember. 



Committee of the Fund, one year ; on the Committee of Relief, four 

 years ; on the Committee of Admission, ten years, or to the end of 

 his days. 



The share which Mr. Baldwin exercised in the political movements 

 of the day, though limited in extent, were of much importance ; he 

 fulfilled the duties which they imposed upon him with his usual 

 zeal and independence. As a member of the Convention to amend 

 the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania in 1837, he took, in 

 that body, a decided stand, on points that have become vital princi- 

 ples in the general progress or advance of the human race, and al- 

 ways on the side of liberality and justice. 



Elected a member of the State Legislature, in 1853, he was dis- 

 tinguished, amid the mazes of diplomacy, during his term of service 

 in the winter of 1854, for his straightforward and consistent course 

 in that line of conscientiousness which had marked his life. 



As an Inspector of the County Prison, Mr. Baldwin may be cited 

 as an example of persevering benevolence in an ungrateful task, 

 marked by all the disagreeable and revolting feelings which accom- 

 pany contact with the vile, the miserable, and the degraded. In 

 this office his sense of justice, and hatred of intemperance and vice 

 in all its motley garb, must have been sorely tried, but mercy and 

 benevolence seem to have been the prevailing sentiments which 

 governed him in the treatment of the unfortunate and vicious, with 

 whom he came in contact in his inspection tours of duty. 



It will be observed in the record of his career, as thus traced, that 

 Mr. Baldwin was remarkable for the number and variety of the oc- 

 cupations and pursuits to which he devoted his working and his lei- 

 sure hours; to do full justice to his character would require much 

 more extended remarks (pleasant labor it is true), but not required 

 by the objects of this notice. 



His principal characteristic was the fervent religious bias of his 

 mind ; from early life it appears to have impressed him with its vital 

 importance, and to have influenced him, more or less, in all the trans- 

 actions of his career : it developed itself most forcibly, in the aid 

 which he gave to the formation of religious associations, and the 

 building and support of churches, for that particular denomination 

 to which he was attached ; becoming more marked as he advanced 

 in age, and as his means accumulated ; so that his own revenue, great 

 as it had become within the last few years of his business career, ap- 

 pears to have been almost absorbed in this direction. 



That he was fond of everything beautiful in nature, is demonstra- 



i 



