Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/50

 38

\-IRGIXlA BIOGRAI'IIV

which compelled him to return home, and before his recovery he was elected to the lirst regular congress under the Confederate constitution, and was re-elected to the sec- ond congress. After the war he was one oi the moving spirits in the state in trying to bring about peace and order, and was influential in the meeting called for that pur- pose in Staunton, on Alay 8, 1865. He was elected a member of the legislature of 1865, and was speaker of that body. Here he won a reputation as an able presiding officer, and the rules under which the present general assembly of \'irginia is conducted are known as Baldwin's Rules. In 1868 he was a member and president of the convention of the Conservative party which met to nominate state ofificers. In that body he was urged to accept the nomination for the gov- ernorship, but stoutly refused to _ do so, though he received fifty votes for the nomi- nation against fifty-two for Col. R. E. Withers, who was a nominee of the con- vention. In 1868 he was a member of the committee of nine which went to Washing- ton and securc<l the permission of the gov- ernment to have the disfranchising clauses of the Underwood Constitution submitted separately to the people of Virginia. He was also the chairman of the Virginia dele- gation which met in New York in the con- vention that nominated Seymour and Blair. In any body of men. Col. Baldwin was na- turally a leadei. Ilis great bodily form, his hearty honest manners and genial kindly disposition to all, especially to children, made him a unique figure in the life of his people. At the bar he was regarded as a power, and to him people flocked for advice from all over the commonwealth. Perhaps the most notable feature of his life's work

was in connection with the extension of the railroad now known as the Chesapeake & Ohio, from its narrow limitations within the state of \'irginia, to the Ohio river. At the time of his death, September 30, 1873, ^^^^ ixsolutions adopted by the various bodies 01' which he was a member attested the es- teem in which he was held. On September 20, 1842, he married. Miss Susan Madison Peyton, eldest daughter of John Howe Pey- ton, Esq., one of the leaders of the Staunton bar.

Bocock, Thomas Stanley, born in Buck- ingham (now Appomattox) county, \'ir- ginia, May 18, 1815. He graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1838, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was county attorney, 1845-46; and for several years a member of the Virginia house of delegates. He was elected as a Democrat to the thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-second, tb-irty-third. thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth congresses (March 4, 1847- March 3, 1861). He was elected representa- tive to the Confederate congress in 1862, and February 14, of that year, was chosen speaker of the house and was re-elected to the second congress. He vi'as a member of the state legislature, 1869-70; and a delegate in the Democratic national conventions of 1S68, 1876 and 1880. He died in Appomat- tox county, \'irginia, August 5. 189 1.

Boteler, Alexander Robinson, born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, May 16, 1815. He was graduated from Princeton College in 1835. He served in the state assembly ; in 1S52 was a Whig presidential elector, and in 1856 an American presidential elector, lie was elected as a National American to tlic thirty-sixth congress, in 1859, his term