The Administration of Governor Simeon E. Baldwin, 1911-1915

By David M. Roth

Simeon Eben Baldwin (1840-1927) of New Haven was a distinguished jurist, scholar and teacher; an energetic participant in civic, professional, and scholarly organizations; and the governor of Connecticut from 1911 to 1915, when Connecticut effected a number of progressive legislature enactments.

Baldwin was a native New Havener who resided in the city throughout his life and manifested an unending commitment to the political, legal, and intellectual life of his community. As a boy, Baldwin attended the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, and for the rest of his life he was one of the school's most consistent and generous supporters. For many years he was president of the school's Board of Trustees and shortly before his death he was the single most generous contributor to a fund needed to provide the school with a set of modern buildings. Baldwin's education was continued at Yale, where he was graduated in 1861. He subsequently read law at Yale, Harvard, and his father's law office, and in 1863 he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law.

Baldwin was an eminently successful lawyer who enjoyed a national reputation. He was a member of the faculty of the Yale Law School from 1869 until 1919 and was an influential figure in the successful evolution of new courses, the addition of faculty, and the financial well-being of the institution. Indeed, for a considerable period of time Baldwin personally carried much of the financial responsibility for the continuation of the Yale Law School.

A legal scholar and prominent historian of Connecticut, he was a prolific author of books, articles, and pamphlets. Included among his studies of Connecticut were "The Boundary Line Between Connecticut and New York," Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 3 (1882), 270-290; "The New Haven Convention of 1778," Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 3 (1882), 33-62; "The Three Constitutions of Connecticut," Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society (1894), 179-246; and "The Hartford Convention," Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 9(1918), 1-28.  Baldwin's distinguished legal publications included A Digest of All the Reported Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of Errors and the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut and the United States Courts for the District of Connecticut (2 vols.: Boston, 1871, 1882); Cases on Railroad Law (n.p., 1904); The American Judiciary (New York, 1905); and The Young Man and the Law (New York, 1919).

In addition to his practice of law, teaching, and scholarship, Baldwin had a remarkable record of achievement in rising to leadership positions in learned societies and professional organizations. He served as president of the American Social Science Association (1907), the International Law Association (1899), the American Historical Association (1905); the Political Science Association (1910), the American Society for the Judicial Settlement of International Disputes (1911), and the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (1914).

Given the range and distinction of Baldwin's activities it is not surprising that he had never been prominent, nor indeed had held political office, prior to his election as governor. What is surprising is that in 1910 when Baldwin, upon his retirement as chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, he was able to defeat his Republican opponent, Charles A. Goodwin.

Baldwin's victory was due in part, of course, to his distinguished reputation. Yet, the more crucial factor is that the Republicans themselves made possible Baldwin's electoral success. Connecticut Republicans had been riding high since the Democratic disaster of 1896, the so-called "Bryan Blight" which had so badly split Connecticut's Democrats. But in 1910 and again in 1912 it was the turn of Connecticut's Republicans to tumble into internecine conflict. In 1910 the Republicans divided bitterly in the process of selecting their candidate for governor, and in 1912 Connecticut Republican unity fell victim, as it did in so many states, to the Roosevelt-Taft warfare at the presidential level. Democrat Simeon Baldwin was the beneficiary of this Republican disharmony.

During the Baldwin years the Connecticut General Assembly strengthened the state's corrupt practices legislation (1911), enacted a public utilities act that called for regulations to insure that utilities functioned in the public interest (1911), passed a civil service law which placed most state employees on the merit system (1913), and enacted a workmen's compensation bill by which employers were to be liable for accidents in their establishments regardless of the cause (1913).

The legislation of the Baldwin years was important in Connecticut history in two respects. First of all, such legislation did effect important progressive innovations in vital aspects of the state's private and public sectors. Secondly, the Baldwin legislation would prove to be the most progressive legislation enacted in Connecticut until the Cross Administration of 1931 to 1939. The conservative Republicans who reigned in Connecticut from 1915 until 1931 were generally Yankee businessmen and farmers who too often ignored or fought calls for reform legislation. Such a political posture, coupled with the hard times of the Depression of the 1930s, would make Connecticut ripe for the "Cross Revolution" of 1931 to 1939.

For Further Reading

Goetsch, Charles C. Essays on Simeon Baldwin. Hartford, 1981.

Jackson, Frederick Herbert. Simeon Eben Baldwin: Lawyer, Social Scientist, Statesman. New York, 1955.

* Record under revision.