Abraham Baldwin

Abraham Baldwin was born in 1754 in Guildford in the Connecticut Colony into a large family, the son of Lucy (Dudley) and Michael Baldwin, a blacksmith, and descended from Elder John Strong.book The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass pages 229,230,757&760. {{ISBN|0342958860}}. His half-brother, Henry Baldwin, was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After attending Guildford Grammar School, Abraham Baldwin attended Yale College in nearby New Haven, Connecticut, where he was a member of the Linonian Society. He graduated in 1772.Marquis Who's Who, Inc. Who Was Who in American History, the Military. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975. P. 25 {{ISBN|0837932017}}. {{OCLC|657162692}}.

Three years later after theological study, he was licensed as a Congregationalist minister. He also served as a tutor at the college. He held that position until 1779. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a chaplain in the Connecticut Contingent of the Continental Army. He did not see combat while with the Continental troops.{{cite book|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/baldwin.htm|title=Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution|id=CMH Pub 71-25|chapter=Abraham Baldwin|lccn=87001353|oclc=15549460|year=1987|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=United States Army Center of Military History|first1=Robert K.|last1=Wright Jr.|first2=Morris J.|last2=MacGregor Jr.|access-date=June 8, 2010|archive-date=May 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513071820/https://history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/baldwin.htm|url-status=dead}} Two years later at the conclusion of the war, Baldwin declined an offer from Yale's new president, Ezra Stiles, to become Professor of Divinity. Instead, he turned to the study of law and in 1783 was admitted to the Connecticut bar.

Encouraged by his former commanding officer General Nathanael Greene, who had acquired the plantation at Mulberry Grove where Eli Whitney would later invent the cotton gin, Baldwin moved to Georgia. He was recruited by fellow Yale alumnus Governor Lyman Hall, another transplanted New Englander, to develop a state education plan. Baldwin was named the first president of the University of Georgia and became active in politics to build support for the university, which had not yet enrolled its first student. He was appointed as a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation and then to the Constitutional Convention; in September 1786 he was one of the state’s two signatories to the U.S. Constitution.

Baldwin remained president of the University of Georgia during its initial development phase until 1800. During this period, he also worked with the legislature on the college charter. In 1801, Franklin College, the University of Georgia's initial college, opened to students. Josiah Meigs was hired to succeed Baldwin as first acting president and oversee the inaugural class of students. The first buildings of the college were architecturally modeled on Baldwin's and Meigs's alma mater of Yale where they both had taught. (Later the university sports team adopted as its mascot the bulldog, also in tribute to Baldwin and Meigs, as it is the mascot of Yale.)

File:Abraham Baldwin's draft copy of the US Constitution.jpg, William Samuel Johnson, Rufus King, James Madison, and Gouverneur Morris. It is one of only a handful still in existence. [http://ghs.galileo.usg.edu/ghs/view?docId=ead/MS%201703-ead.xml View the Georgia Historical Society’s finding aid for this item].]]

Baldwin was elected to the Georgia Assembly, where he became very active, working to develop support for the college. He was able to mediate between the rougher frontiersmen, perhaps because of his childhood as the son of a blacksmith, and the aristocratic planter elite who dominated the coastal Lowcountry. He became one of the most prominent legislators, pushing significant measures such as the education bill{{Which|date=December 2023}} through the sometimes split Georgia Assembly.{{cite book|author=Rowe, H.J.|title=History of Athens & Clarke County|year=2000|publisher=Southern Historical Press}}

He was elected as representative to the U.S. Congress in 1788. The Georgia legislature elected him as U.S. Senator in 1799Congressional Biography (this was the practice until popular election in 1913). He served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate from December 1801 to December 1802. He was re-elected and served in office until his death.

On March 4, 1807, at age 52, Baldwin died while serving as a U.S. senator from Georgia. Later that month the Savannah Republican and Savannah Evening Ledger reprinted an obituary that had first been published in a Washington, D.C., newspaper: "He originated the plan of The University of Georgia, drew up the charter, and with infinite labor and patience, in vanquishing all sorts of prejudices and removing every obstruction, he persuaded the assembly to adopt it."[http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.com/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2710 "Abraham Baldwin (1754–1807)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318064622/http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.com/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2710 |date=March 18, 2012 }}, New Georgia Encyclopedia (January 6, 2009), Retrieved on July 21, 2013 His remains are interred at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC.{{cite web|url=https://georgiahistory.com/education-outreach/online-exhibits/featured-historical-figures/abraham-baldwin/brief-biography/|title=Brief Biography}}

• The United States Postal Service made a 7¢ Great Americans series postage stamp in his honor;{{cite news|author=Sine, Richard L.|title=Stamps; Great American Series|work=The New York Times|date=January 27, 1985|page=33}}
• Places and institutions were named for him, including:
• Baldwin County in Alabama and Georgia;{{cite book|title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins|publisher=Winship Press|author=Krakow, Kenneth K.|year=1975|location=Macon, GA|pages=13|isbn=0-915430-00-2}}
• Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia;
• Abraham Baldwin Middle School in Guilford, Connecticut;
• Baldwin streets in Madison, Wisconsin[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/odd/archives/002071.asp Odd Wisconsin Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194631/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/odd/archives/002071.asp |date=March 3, 2016 }}. Wisconsinhistory.org (March 29, 2006). Retrieved on July 21, 2013. and Athens, Georgia.
• The University of Georgia erected a statue of Baldwin on the historic North Campus quad in his honor as its founding father.{{cite web|title=UGA unveils statue of Abraham Baldwin|url=https://www.tiftongazette.com/archives/uga-unveils-statue-of-abraham-baldwin/article_1b74e022-dc8c-5161-8c5c-8939b7d7d262.html|author=Coley Ingram, Tracy|work=The Tifton Gazette|place=Tifton, Georgia|date=September 26, 2011|access-date=October 16, 2020}}

• {{cite book |last=White |first=Henry Clay |title=Abraham Baldwin: One of the Founders of the Republic, and Father of the University of Georgia, the First of American State Universities |year=1926 |publisher=McGregor Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4sBAAAAMAAJ |author-link=Henry Clay White }}

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• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)

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• {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Baldwin, Abraham |volume= 1 |page= 195 |short=}}

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Category:1754 births

Category:1807 deaths

Category:Founding Fathers of the United States

Category:People from Guilford, Connecticut

Category:Continental Congressmen from Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:People of Connecticut in the American Revolution

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Category:American people of English descent

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Category:Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery

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Category:Signers of the United States Constitution

Category:People from Fairfield, Connecticut

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Category:Baldwin County, Alabama

Category:Baldwin County, Georgia

Category:Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate

Category:Yale Divinity School alumni

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Category:Founders of American schools and colleges

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