Abraham Baldwin

 

Abraham Baldwin was born on November 23, 1754 in Guilford Connecticut. He represented Georgia at the Constitutional Convention. Baldwin distinguished how public service clearly demonstrated academic achievement and how it could open opportunities in early American society. He served in the Continental Army during the climactic years of the Revolution. There, close contact with men of widely varying economic and social backgrounds broadened his outlook and experience. Baldwin also displayed a strong sense of nationalism. Experiences during the war as well as his subsequent work in public education convinced him that the future well-being of an older, more prosperous state like Connecticut was closely linked to developments in newer states such as Georgia, where political institutions were largely unformed and provisions for education remained primitive. His later political career was animated by the conviction that only a strong central government dedicated to promoting the welfare of the citizens of all the states could guarantee the fulfillment of the ideals and promises of the Revolution.