Clement Vallandigham: Difference between revisions

▲Lincoln, who considered Vallandigham a "wily agitator", was wary of making him a martyr to the Copperhead cause and on May 19, 1863, ordered him sent through the enemy lines to the Confederacy.<ref name=nps/>{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=34}} When he was within Confederate lines, Vallandigham said: "I am a citizen of Ohio, and of the United States. I am here within your lines by force, and against my will. I therefore surrender myself to you as a prisoner of war."{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=300}}

▲On May 30, 1863, a meeting was held at Military Park in [[Newark, New Jersey]], where a letter was read from New Jersey Governor [[Joel Parker (politician)|Joel Parker]]. Parker's letter condemned the arrest, trial and deportation of Vallandigham, saying they "were arbitrary and illegal acts. The whole proceeding was wrong in principle and dangerous in its tendency." However, the meeting was sparsely attended.<ref>"Vallandigham Meeting in Newark." ''[[The New York Times]]''. May 31, 1863.</ref> The ''[[New York World]]'' reported on the meeting in Albany. Burnside suppressed publication of the ''World''.{{sfn|Porter|1911|p=167}} On June 1, 1863, another protest meeting was held in [[Philadelphia]].{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|pp=293–295}}

▲On June 2, 1863, Vallandigham was sent to [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], by [[Jefferson Davis|President Davis]] and was briefly put under guard as an "alien enemy".<ref>Long, E. B., and Long, Barbara. ''The Civil War Day by Day'' (New York: [[Da Capo Press]], Inc., 1971)</ref>

▲President Lincoln wrote the "[[Birchard Letter]]" of June 29, 1863, to several Ohio congressmen, offering to revoke Vallandigham's deportation order if they would agree to support certain policies of the Administration.

▲Vallandigham travelled to [[Richmond, Virginia]], where he met with [[Robert Ould]], a former classmate. He advised Ould that the Confederate army should not invade [[Pennsylvania]], since it would unite the North against the Copperheads in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1864|1864 presidential election]].<ref>Jones, John Beauchamp, ''A Rebel War Clerks Diary at the Confederate States Capital'', Volume I, pp. 357–358.</ref> However, a letter to the editor of ''[[The New York Times]]'' gave a different version, saying that Vallandigham encouraged the invasion.<ref>Reinish, Henery. "Vallandigham and the Invasion of Lee". ''The New York Times'', September 4, 1863.</ref>

▲Vallandigham then left the Confederacy on a [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade runner]] to [[Bermuda]], and from there went to Canada.<ref>[http://www.rareamericana.com/vallandigham-american-civil-war-broadside/ "Citizens, Patriots, and Soldiers Look Here!"], Rare Americana.</ref> He then declared himself a candidate for [[Governor of Ohio]], and actually won the Democratic nomination ''in absentia''. (Outraged at his treatment by Lincoln, Ohio Democrats by a vote of 411–11 nominated Vallandigham for governor<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url= http://www.civilwarhome.com/vallandighambio.htm |title=Clement Laird Vallandigham Biography Page |encyclopedia=Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War |year=2010 |access-date=June 4, 2012}}</ref> at their June 11 convention.) He managed his campaign from a hotel in [[Windsor, Ontario]], where he received a steady stream of visitors and supporters.<ref>Buescher, John. "[http://www.teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23441 Civil War Peace Offers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202091900/http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23441 |date=2010-12-02 }}." Teachinghistory.org, accessed September 2, 2011.</ref>

▲Vallandigham asked the question in his address or letter of July 15, 1863, "To the Democracy of Ohio": "Shall there be free speech, a free press, peaceable assemblages of the people, and a free ballot any longer in Ohio?"{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=319}}

▲Vallandigham lost the 1863 Ohio gubernatorial election in a landslide to pro-Union [[War Democrat]] [[John Brough]] by a vote of 288,374 to 187,492.{{sfn|Kirkland|1927|p=39}}

▲In 1871, Vallandigham won the Ohio Democrats over to the "New Departure" policy that would essentially neglect to mention the Civil War, "thus burying out of sight all that is of the dead past, namely, the right of secession, slavery, inequality before the law, and political inequality; and further, now that reconstruction is complete, and representation within the Union restored", but also affirmed "the Democratic party pledges itself to the full, faithful, and absolute execution and enforcement of the Constitution as it now is, so as to secure equal rights to all persons under it, without distinction of race, color, or condition." It also called for civil service reform and a [[progressive income tax]] (Items 10 & 12). It was against the "[[Enforcement Act of 1871 (third act)|Ku-Klux Bill]]" (Item 17).{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|pp=438–444}} "New Departure" was endorsed by [[Salmon P. Chase]], a former Lincoln cabinet member and [[Chief Justice of the United States]].{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=446}}

▲==Death==

▲Vallandigham died in 1871 in [[Lebanon, Ohio]], at the age of 50, after [[Accidental death|accidentally shooting himself]] in the abdomen with a pistol. He was representing a defendant, Thomas McGehean,{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=516}} in a murder case for killing a man in a barroom brawl in [[Hamilton, Ohio]]. Vallandigham attempted to prove the victim, Tom Myers, had in fact accidentally shot himself while drawing his pistol from a pocket while rising from a kneeling position. As Vallandigham conferred with fellow defense attorneys in his hotel room at the Lebanon House, later the [[Golden Lamb Inn]], he showed them how he would demonstrate this to the jury. Selecting a pistol he believed to be unloaded, he put it in his pocket and enacted the events as they might have happened, snagging the loaded gun on his clothing and unintentionally causing it to discharge into his stomach. Although he was fatally wounded, Vallandigham's demonstration proved his point, and the defendant, Thomas McGehean, was acquitted and released from custody (only to be shot to death four years later in his saloon).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Biographical and historical sketches: a narrative of Hamilton and its residents from 1792 ...|last=Cone|first=Stephen Decatur|publisher=Republican Publishing Company|year=1901|location=Hamilton, Ohio|page=144}}</ref> Surgeons probed for the pistol ball, thought to have lodged in the vicinity of Vallandigham's [[bladder]], but were unable to locate it, and Vallandigham died the next day of [[peritonitis]]. His last words expressed his faith in "that good old [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] doctrine of [[predestination]]".{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=529}} Survived by his wife, Louisa Anna (McMahon) Vallandigham, and his son Charles Vallandigham, he was buried in [[Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum|Woodland Cemetery]] in Dayton, Ohio.