BAIED, KOBEKT. 



Northern Europe. Possessing a fine personal 

 appearance, a kindly face, an amiable dispo- 

 sition, and rare affability of manner, and being 

 an accomplished linguist and a man of exten- 

 sive general information, he enjoyed extraor- 

 dinary opportunities of mingling in the best 

 circles of European society, and was on terms 

 of personal and friendly intercourse with many 

 of the crowned heads of Europe. He was also 

 the valued and intimate friend of the most 

 eminent scholars and evangelical clergymen of 

 Great Britain and the Continent ; and, from 

 his abundant labors on both sides of the Atlan- 

 tic, received the name of the " International 

 Preacher." Upon the formation of the For- 

 eign Evangelical Society, since merged in the 

 American and Foreign Christian Union, he be- 

 came its agent and corresponding secretary. 

 In 1842 he published, in Scotland, "A View 

 of Religion in America," a work which ex- 

 cited much attention in Europe, as being the 

 most complete account of the religious con- 

 dition of the United States which had been 

 published up to that time. It was translated 

 into some of the continental languages. In 

 1843 he returned home and remained for three 

 years engaged in active labors for the promo- 

 tion of the work of aiding the spread of Prot- 

 estantism in Europe, both by personal and 

 written appeals. In 1846 he again visited Eu- 

 rope to attend the "World's Temperance Con- 

 vention in Stockholm, and the meeting of the 

 Evangelical Alliance in London, and spent 

 about a year and a half abroad, visiting Russia, 

 where he was very cordially welcomed by the 

 Czar, and also the German States. On his re- 

 turn he delivered, in connection with his labors 

 as Secretary of the Christian Union, a series of 

 lectures on the Continent of Europe, in most 

 of the principal cities of the country. He sub- 

 sequently crossed the Atlantic several times, 

 but his visits there were less protracted than 

 those already mentioned. He took a great in- 

 terest in the "Waldenses, and rendered efficient 

 service in bringing their churches and institu- 

 tions into Turin and its vicinity. His last visit 

 to Europe was made in 1862, and he vindi- 

 cated, in London, before public assemblies, the 

 cause of the Union against secession with great 

 energy and eloquence, though many of his for- 

 mer friends were at that time hostle to the 

 United States. Dr. Baird had been, through life, 

 a man of most indomitable industry, and found 

 time, amid his other arduous labors, to prepare 

 many volumes for tlie press. Among them are 

 the following: " View of the Valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi," 1832; "History of the Temperance 

 Societies" (translated into five languages), 

 1836 ; " View of Religion in America " (al- 

 ready mentioned), Glasgow, 1842 (this was 

 translated into seven or eight languages) ; 

 " Protestantism in Italy," Boston, 1845 ; " The 

 Christian Retrospect and Register," New 

 York, 1851 ; " History of the Albigenses, Wal- 

 denses, and Vaudois ; " " Visit to Northern Eu- 

 rope," 1857 ; besides many small volumes, pam- 



BALDWIN, ROGER 8. 



159 



phlets, etc., etc. His death was quite sudden, 

 and was caused by a severe hemorrhage from 

 the lungs, which occurred on the llth of 

 March. 



BALDWIN, ROGER SHERMAN, LL.D., an 

 American jurist and statesman, born in New 

 Haven, Conn., January 4th, 1793 ; died in 

 the same city February 19th, 1863. He was 

 of Puritan stock on both the father's and 

 mother's side, his father, the Hon. Simeon 

 Baldwin, being a descendant of one of the Pu- 

 ritan emigrants who settled at New Haven 

 with the Rev. John Davenport ; whilst his mo- 

 ther was the daughter of Roger Sherman, one 

 of the most eminent of the signers of the Dec- 

 laration of Independence, himself descended 

 from the early Puritan settlers of western Con- 

 necticut. The Hon. Simeon Baldwin, or Judge 

 Baldwin, as he was usually called, had repre- 

 sented his district in Congress for some years, 

 and was subsequently, until he reached the 

 limit of age assigned by the State Constitution, 

 Judge of the Superior Court and the Supreme 

 Court of Errors of the State. 



His son, the subject of this notice, entered 

 Yale College at the age of fourteen, and grad- 

 uated in .1811, with high honors. On the 

 completion of his collegiate course, he com- 

 menced the study of law, first in his father's 

 office, and afterward in the then .famous law 

 school of Judges Reeve and Gould, at Litchfield, 

 Conn. Here his intense application, and his 

 rapid acquisition of the science of law gained 

 him a high encomium from Judge Gould. He 

 was admitted to the bar in 1814, and by his in- 

 dustrious and thorough study of the principles 

 of law, his careful preparation of his cases, his 

 remarkable command of pure and elegant lan- 

 guage, and the precision, definiteness, and logi- 

 cal character of his pleas, soon attained a very 

 high rank in his profession. His preference 

 was for the classes of cases which involved the 

 great principles of jurisprudence rather than 

 those where success depended upon appeals to 

 the sympathies or prejudices of a jury ; still he 

 was rarely unsuccessful in jury cases, and his 

 dignified and lofty eloquence, enforced as it 

 was by the conviction that he would not en- 

 gage in a cause which he believed to be unjust 

 or dishonest, gave him. great weight with a 

 jury. One of the most celebrated cases in 

 which he was engaged, and one in which his 

 great qualities as a lawyer were finely displayed, 

 was that of the Africans of the Amistad, in 

 1841. He managed their case against the 

 Spanish authorities, who claimed them as the 

 slaves of parties in Cuba, in the district court 

 of Connecticut; and when the decision there 

 was in favor of the Africans, and the execu- 

 tive authorities at "Washington had appealed the 

 case to the Supreme Court of the United States, 

 he was associated with the venerable John 

 Quincy Adams in defending their right to free- 

 dom. His plea on that occasion was pro- 

 nounced by his learned and eloquent colleague, 

 and by Chancellor Kent, one of the ablest fo- 



