Abram Baldwin Olin

Abram Baldwin Olin (September 21, 1808 – July 7, 1879) was a United States Representative from New York and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He was born on September 21, 1808, in Shaftsbury, Bennington County, Vermont, a younger son of Gideon Olin, a United States Representative from Vermont, and his second wife, Lydia Myres Pope Olin. He was part of a politically prominent New England family and was a cousin of Henry Olin, also a United States Representative from Vermont. Raised in this environment of public service, Olin’s early life was shaped by the traditions of civic engagement and law that would later define his own career.

Olin attended the common schools in Vermont before pursuing higher education. He enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he completed his studies and graduated in 1835. After college, he turned to the study of law, reading law in the traditional manner and completing his legal preparation in 1838. That same year he was admitted to the bar, marking the formal beginning of a long professional life in the law and public service.

Following his admission to the bar, Olin established a private law practice in Troy, New York, where he practiced from 1838 to 1856. During this period he became a well-known figure in the local legal community and also entered municipal public service. From 1844 to 1852 he served as city recorder of Troy, a position that combined judicial and administrative responsibilities and gave him practical experience in applying the law and managing civic affairs. His work in Troy laid the foundation for his later political career and helped build the reputation that would carry him to national office.

As a member of the Republican Party representing New York, Abram Baldwin Olin contributed to the legislative process during three terms in office. He was elected as a Republican from New York’s 13th congressional district to the United States House of Representatives for the 35th, 36th, and 37th Congresses, serving from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1863. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, encompassing the turbulent years leading up to and including the early phase of the Civil War. During these three terms, Olin participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents in New York while also engaging with the great national questions of union, slavery, and war that confronted the country in that era.

At the height of the Civil War, Olin transitioned from legislative to judicial service. He was nominated by President Abraham Lincoln on March 10, 1863, to serve on the newly organized Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (now the United States District Court for the District of Columbia), to a new Associate Justice seat authorized by 12 Stat. 762. The United States Senate confirmed his nomination on March 11, 1863, and he received his commission the same day. As an Associate Justice, Olin played a role in administering justice in the nation’s capital during and after the Civil War, a period marked by complex legal issues arising from wartime measures, Reconstruction, and the evolving relationship between federal authority and individual rights.

Olin remained on the bench of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia for nearly sixteen years. His judicial service terminated on January 13, 1879, due to his retirement, and he was succeeded on the court by Alexander Burton Hagner. His long tenure reflected both the confidence placed in him by the Lincoln administration at the time of his appointment and the continuity he provided to the federal judiciary in Washington, D.C., through a period of profound national change.

After retiring from the bench, Olin lived quietly in Maryland. Following an illness of several weeks, he died on July 7, 1879, at his residence near Sligo in Montgomery County, Maryland, an area that is now part of Silver Spring. He was interred in the Danforth family lot adjacent to West Lawn Cemetery in Williamstown, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, returning in death to the region where he had been educated and where his professional life had first taken shape.