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{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Clement Vallandigham
| image name = Clement Vallandigham - Brady-Handy.jpg
| caption = Vallandigham, photographed at some point during his Congressional career (1858-1863)
| birth_name = Clement Laird Vallandigham
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1820|07|29}}
| birth_place = [[Lisbon, Ohio|New Lisbon, Ohio]], U.S. (now Lisbon)
| death_date = {{death date and age|1871|6|17|1820|7|29}}
| death_place = [[Lebanon, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_cause
| state = [[Ohio]]
| district = [[Ohio's 3rd congressional district|3rd]]
| term_start = May 25, 1858
| term_end = March 3, 1863
| preceded = [[Lewis D. Campbell]]
| succeeded = [[Robert C. Schenck]]
| state_house2 = Ohio
| district2 = [[Columbiana County, Ohio|Columbiana County]]
| term_start2 = December 1, 1845
| term_end2 = December 5, 1847
| preceded2 = Robert Filson
| succeeded2 = James Patton<br>Joseph F. Williams
| alongside2 = [[Joseph F. Williams]]
| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]
| spouse = Louisa Anna Vallandigham
| religion =
| alma_mater = [[Washington & Jefferson College|Jefferson College]]
|
| signature = Vallandigham, Clement Laird, signature.jpg
}}
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In 1841, Vallandigham had a dispute with the college president at [[Washington & Jefferson College|Jefferson College]] in [[Canonsburg, Pennsylvania]]. He was honorably dismissed, but he never received a degree.{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|pp=24, 31}}
[[Edwin M. Stanton]], the future Secretary of War under President [[Abraham
==Political career==
===Ohio legislature===
Shortly after beginning to practice law in [[Dayton, Ohio]], Vallandigham entered politics. He was elected as a [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] to the Ohio legislature in 1845 and 1846, and served as editor of a weekly newspaper, the ''
While in the Ohio state legislature, Vallandigham voted against the repeal of the "[[Black Codes (United States)|Black Laws]]" (laws against the [[civil rights]] of African-Americans)
===House of Representatives===
Vallandigham ran for Congress in 1856, but he was narrowly defeated. He appealed to the Committee of Elections of the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]
In October 1859, a radical [[
|title=John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Insurrection
|newspaper=[[Republican Banner]] ([[Nashville, Tennessee]])
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|page=2
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73842087/vallandingham-and-brown/}}</ref> and joined a group of government officials who interrogated the captured Brown as to his aims, which Brown stated were an attempt to set off a rebellion of slaves to secure their freedom.<ref>Vallandigham, Clement Laird, ''Speeches, Arguments, Addresses and Letters of Clement L. Vallandigham'', pp. 201–205, New York: J. Walter and Co., 1864.</ref>
{{blockquote|Here was folly and madness. He believed and acted upon the faith which for twenty years has been so persistently taught in every form throughout the Free States, and which is but another mode of the statement of the doctrine of the 'irrepressible conflict'—that slavery and the three hundred and seventy thousand slaveholders of the South are only tolerated, and that the millions of slaves and non-slaveholding white men are ready and willing to rise against the '[[oligarchy]]', needing only a leader and deliverer. The conspiracy was the natural and necessary consequence or the doctrine proclaimed every day, year in and year out, by the apostles of Abolition. But Brown was sincere, earnest, practical; he proposed no mild works in his faith, reckless of murder, treason, and every other crime. This was his madness and folly. He perished justly and miserably—an insurgent and a felon; but guiltier than he, and with his blood upon their heads, are the false and cowardly prophets and teachers of Abolition.<ref name=Liberator>{{cite news
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He was re-elected to the House in 1860. During the 1860 presidential campaign, he supported [[Stephen A. Douglas]], although he disagreed with Douglas's position on "squatter sovereignty", which was used by detractors to describe [[popular sovereignty]].{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=137}}
On February 20, 1861, Vallandigham delivered a speech, titled "The Great American Revolution," to the House of Representatives. He accused the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] of being "belligerent" and advocated a "choice of peaceable disunion upon the one hand, or Union through adjustment and conciliation upon the other." Vallandigham supported the [[Crittenden Compromise]], which was a last
Vallandigham strongly opposed every military bill,
Vallandigham lost his bid for a third full term in 1862 by a relatively large vote, which meant that he would be out of office early in 1863. However, his loss was at least partially
As a [[lame duck (politics)|lame
==Post-congressional activities==
[[File:Vallandigham, Clement Laird, 1863.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Vallandigham in 1863]]
After General [[Ambrose E. Burnside]] issued [[General Order Number 38]], warning that the "habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy" would not be tolerated in the Military District of Ohio, Vallandigham gave a major speech on May 1, 1863. He charged that the war was no longer being fought to save the Union, but it had become an attempt to free the slaves by sacrificing the liberty of white Americans to "King Lincoln
The authority for Burnside's order came from a proclamation of September 24, 1862
===Arrest and military trial===
On May 5, 1863, Vallandigham was arrested as a violator of
The specifications of the charge against Vallandigham were:
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[[File:CLVallandigham-arrest.jpg|thumb|left|Vallandigham's arrest, 1863]]
The [[France and the American Civil War#Proposed armistice|peace proposal of France]] was true
Captain James Madison Cutts served as the judge advocate in the military trial
On May 11, 1863, an application for a writ of ''habeas corpus'' was filed in federal court for Vallandigham by former Ohio Senator [[George E. Pugh]].{{sfn|Vallandigham|1863a|p=40}} Judge [[Humphrey H. Leavitt]] of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio upheld Vallandigham's arrest and military trial as a valid exercise of the President's [[war powers]].{{sfn|Vallandigham|1863a|pp=259–272}} Congress had passed an act authorizing the president to suspend ''habeas corpus'' on March 3, 1863.<ref>Pittman, Benn, ''The Trials for Treason at Indianapolis, Disclosing the Plans for Establishing a North-Western Confederacy''. p. 253, Cincinnati, OH: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865.</ref>
On May 16, 1863, there was a meeting at [[Albany, New York]], to protest the arrest of Vallandigham. A letter from Governor [[Horatio Seymour]] of New York was read to the crowd. Seymour charged that "military despotism" had been established. Resolutions by
In February 1864, the Supreme Court ruled that it had no power to issue a writ of ''habeas corpus'' to a military commission (''[[Ex parte Vallandigham]]'', 1 Wallace, 243).
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===Expulsion===
[[File:1864 US election poster.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[National Union Party (United States)|Union Party]] poster for Pennsylvania warning of disaster if McClellan wins.]]
Lincoln, who considered Vallandigham a "wily agitator
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]]
▲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 June 2, 1863, Vallandigham was sent to [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], by Confederate President [[Jefferson
▲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}}
President Lincoln wrote the "[[Birchard Letter]]" of June 29, 1863
▲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>
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]]
▲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 then left the Confederacy on a [[
▲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 asked the question in his address or letter of July 15, 1863, "To the Democracy of Ohio
▲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 lost the 1863 Ohio gubernatorial election in a landslide to the pro-Union [[War Democrat]] [[John Brough]] by a vote of 288,374 to 187,492.{{sfn|Kirkland|1927|p=39}}▼
▲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}}
===The Northwestern Confederacy===
Vallandigham crossed back to the
The reception by the convention to Vallandigham was mixed. Vallandigham received "vehement applause
Vallandigham promoted the "peace plank" of the platform,
In late September 1864, the conspiracy trial of [[Harrison H. Dodd]], [[William A. Bowles]], [[Andrew Humphreys]], Horace Heffren, and [[Lambdin P. Milligan]], members of the [[Knights of the Golden Circle]], a paramilitary organization that had been founded in Cincinnati in 1854,
In April 1865, Vallandigham testified at the conspiracy trial of the American Knights in Cincinnati
===Post-war===
In 1867, Vallandigham continued his stance against African-American [[suffrage]] and equality.<ref>"Vallandigham on the Issues of the Hour – Negro Suffrage and Negro Equality – The National Finances". ''The New York Times''. August 14, 1867.</ref> However, his views later changed with the [[New Departure (Democrats)|New Departure]] policy.
Vallandigham returned to Ohio, lost his campaigns for the Senate against Judge [[Allen G. Thurman]]{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=422}} and the House of Representatives against [[Robert C. Schenck]]{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|p=430}} on an anti-[[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]] platform
In 1871, Vallandigham won the Ohio Democrats over to the "New Departure" policy,
==Death and burial ==▼
▲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}}
Vallandigham died in 1871 in [[Lebanon, Ohio]], at the age of 50, after he [[
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.
▲==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.
=== Legacy ===
Vallandigham was eulogized by [[James W. Wall]], a former senator from New Jersey, who mentioned recently meeting with him about "New Departure".{{sfn|Vallandigham|1872|pp=567–573}} Wall had been imprisoned during the Civil War by Union authorities.
[[John A. McMahon]], Vallandigham's nephew, was also a U.S.
==In popular culture==
Vallandigham's deportation to the Confederacy prompted [[Edward Everett Hale]] to write "[[The Man Without a Country]]
|url=https://www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-meaning-of-america/national-identity-and-why-it-matters
|title=What So Proudly We Hail. Making American citizens through literature
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|author-link2=Leon Kass
|first2=Leon
|last2=Kass}}</ref>
Vallandigham is a character in some [[alternate history]] novels. In [[Ward Moore]]'s ''[[Bring the Jubilee]]'' (1953) and [[William Gibson]] and [[Bruce Sterling]]'s ''[[The Difference Engine]]'' (
In [[CBBC (TV channel)|CBBC]]'s ''[[Horrible Histories (2009 TV series)|Horrible Histories]]'',
==See also==
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==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |first=Edward C. |last=Kirkland |title=The Peacemakers of 1864 |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3772602 |date=1927 |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=June 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605011133/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3772602 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Nicolay |first1=John |last2=Hay |first2=John |title=Abraham Lincoln: A History. Vallandigham |journal=The Century |volume=38 |date=May 1889 |pages=127–137 |url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABP2287-0038-20}}
* {{cite book |last=Pittman |first=Benn |title=The Trials for Treason at Indianapolis, Disclosing the Plans for Establishing a North-Western Confederacy |location=Cincinnati, OH |publisher=Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin |date=1865}}
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[[Category:1820 births]]
[[Category:1871 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American
[[Category:19th-century American newspaper editors]]
[[Category:American anti-war activists]]
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[[Category:People of Ohio in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Politicians from Dayton, Ohio]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Civilians who were court-martialed]]
[[Category:Washington & Jefferson College alumni]]
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[[Category:Deaths from peritonitis]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Ohio]]
[[Category:Knights of the Golden Circle members]]
[[Category:John Brown (abolitionist)]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio]]
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