Prewar politics

At age 24, he substituted for his Whig law partner Alexander H.H. Stuart during a debate before the 1844 election. During the next election, local Augusta County voters elected Baldwin to the Virginia House of Delegates (a part time position), and he served from 1845-1846, but was defeated by Whig Hugh W. Sheffey after one term, and resumed his law practice full time (although remaining politically active).

In 1859, Baldwin narrowly missed election to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, William J. Robertson of Charlottesville being elected instead by the legislators. During the Presidential Election of 1860, Baldwin canvassed for John Bell, the Constitutional Unionist candidate, who won in Virginia but drew far fewer electoral college votes than either Republican Abraham Lincoln or Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.

Augusta County voters elected Baldwin, his brother in law, law partner and fellow Unionist Alexander H.H. Stuart and Unionist Democrat George Baylor to the Virginia Secession Convention, which began on February 13, 1861. On March 21, Baldwin began a pro-Union speech which lasted three days. On April 4, 1861, Baldwin represented the Convention's Unionist leadership at a secret one-hour interview with President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. He went to Washington hopeful that an agreement might be reached that would preserve the peace and hold Virginia in the Union. However, he returned to Richmond empty-handed, after finding that he and Lincoln had talked past each other.^[4] President Lincoln also separately met with another Unionist, John Minor Botts, who later blamed Baldwin for failing to publicize Lincoln's peace offer.^[5] The Unionists had temporarily managed to avoid secession while Baldwin met with Lincoln, but their majority collapsed shortly after his return to Richmond.^[6]

Confederate service

When the Convention decided upon secession, Baldwin's loyalty remained with his home state. He initially served as a militia colonel and inspector general of Virginia State Troops, accepting a commission on April 23, 1861. Initially a colonel of the 52nd Virginia Infantry, Baldwin resigned on May 1, 1862, because of ill health, becoming instead colonel of the Augusta Reserves regiment.^[7]

By year's end, Baldwin was elected as a representative from Augusta County, to the First Confederate Congress. He was later elected to the Second Confederate Congress (defeating incumbent Governor John Letcher) and served until the conclusion of the Civil War. He became one of Confederate President Jefferson Davis's most vocal critics.^[8]

Postwar

Following the war, Baldwin returned home and resumed his legal practice. After giving his loyalty oath to the federal government, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates under the post-war military provost in 1865-1867. On February 10, 1866, Baldwin testified before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction that Virginians would limit political rights granted to African Americans, which helped prompt Congressional Reconstruction.^[9] After Virginia's readmission to the Union, Baldwin continued representing Augusta County in the General Assembly. Fellow delegates chose him as their Speaker, and he served as such from 1865-1869.^[10] In this capacity, he drafted the procedural rules still in use in Virginia, known as "Baldwin's Rules."^[11]

When the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868 proposed to restrict former Confederates from holding further offices, which went beyond the terms of surrender at Appomattox Court House and caused considerable controversy within the Commonwealth, Baldwin joined with his brother-in-law Alexander H. H. Stuart and the Committee of Nine and met with General Ulysses S. Grant. Newly elected President Grant also met with provisional governor Henry H. Wells and businessmen Gilbert C. Walker and Franklin Stearns, then gave General (Secretary of War) John M. Schofield (and his successor General Canby) orders to allow separate votes on those two controversial provisions (each of which lost) and the new state Constitution without them (that passed overwhelmingly).